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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:09 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:09 -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/11525-0.txt b/11525-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..759a1dd --- /dev/null +++ b/11525-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9174 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11525 *** + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--APRIL, 1859.--NO. XVIII. + + + +AGRARIANISM. + + +If we can believe an eminent authority, in which we are disposed to +place great trust, the oldest contest that has divided society is that +which has so long been waged between the House of HAVE and the House of +WANT. It began before the bramble was chosen king of the trees, and it +has outlasted the cedars of Lebanon. We find it going on when Herodotus +wrote his History, and the historians of the nineteenth century will +have to continue writing of the actions of the parties to it. There +seems never to have been a time when it was not old, or a race that +was not engaged in it, from the Tartars, who cook their meat by +making saddle-cloths of it, to the Sybarites, impatient of crumpled +rose-leaves. Spartan oligarchs and Athenian democrats, Roman patricians +and Roman plebeians, Venetian senators and Florentine _ciompi_, Norman +nobles and Saxon serfs, Russian boyars and Turkish spahis, Spanish +hidalgos and Aztec soldiers, Carolina slaveholders and New England +farmers,--these and a hundred other races or orders have all been +parties to the great, the universal struggle which has for its object +the acquisition of property, the providing of a shield against the +ever-threatening fiend which we call WANT. Property once obtained, the +possessor's next aim is to keep it. The very fact, that the mode of +acquisition may have been wrong, and subversive of property-rights, if +suffered to be imitated, naturally makes its possessor suspicious and +cruel. He fears that the measure he has meted to others may be meted to +him again. Hence severe laws, the monopoly of political power and of +political offices by property-holders, the domination of conquering +races, and the practice of attributing to all reformers designs against +property and its owners, though the changes they recommend may really be +of a nature calculated to make the tenure of property more secure than +ever. Even the charge of irreligion has not been found more effective +against the advocates of improvement or change than that of +Agrarianism,--by which is meant hostility to existing property +institutions, and a determination, if possible, to subvert them. Of the +two, the charge of Agrarianism is the more serious, as it implies the +other. A man may be irreligious, and yet a great stickler for property, +because a great owner of it,--or because he is by nature stanchly +conservative, and his infidelity merely a matter of logic. But if there +be any reason for charging a man with Agrarianism, though it be never so +unreasonable a reason, his infidelity is taken for granted, and it would +be labor lost to attempt to show the contrary. Nor is this conclusion so +altogether irrational as it appears at the first sight. Religion is +an ordinance of God, and so is property; and if a man be suspected of +hostility to the latter, why should he not be held positively guilty +towards the former? Every man is religious, though but few men govern +their lives according to religious precepts; but every man not only +loves property and desires to possess it, but allows considerations +growing out of its rights to have a weight on his mind far more grave, +far more productive of positive results, than religion has on the common +person. If there be such a thing as an Agrarian on earth, he would fight +bravely for his land, though it should be of no greater extent than +would suffice him for a grave, according to the strictest measurement +of the potter's field. Would every honest believer do as much for his +religion? + +But what is Agrarianism, and who are Agrarians? Though the words are +used as glibly as the luring party-terms of the passing year, it is no +very easy matter to define them. Indeed, it is by no means an easy thing +to affix a precise and definite meaning to any political terms, living +or dead. Let the reader endeavor to give a clear and intelligible +definition of Whig and Tory, Democrat and Republican, Guelph and +Ghibelline, Cordelier and Jacobin, and he will soon find that he has a +task before him calculated to test his powers very severely. How much +more difficult, then, must it be to give the meaning of words that are +never used save in a reproachful sense, which originated in political +battles that were fought nearly two thousand years ago, and in a state +of society having small resemblance to anything that has ever been known +to Christendom! With some few exceptions, party-names continue to have +their champions long after the parties they belonged to are as dead +as the Jacobites. Many Americans would not hesitate to defend the +Federalists, or to eulogize the Federal party, though Federalism long +ago ceased even to cast a shadow. The prostitution of the Democratic +name has lessened in but a slight degree the charm that has attached to +it ever since Jefferson's sweeping reëlection had the effect of coupling +withit the charming idea of success. But who can be expected to say a +word for Agrarian? One might as well look to find a sane man ready to +do battle for the Jacobin, which is all but a convertible term for +Agrarian, though in its proper sense the latter word is of exactly the +opposite meaning to the former. Under the term Agrarians is included, +in common usage, all that class of men who exhibit a desire to remove +social ills by a resort to means which are considered irregular and +dangerous by the great majority of mankind. Of late years we have heard +much of Socialists, Communists, Fourierites, and so forth; but the word +Agrarians comprehends all these, and is often made to include men who +have no more idea of engaging in social reforms than they have of +pilgrimizing to the Fountains of the Nile. It is a not uncommon thing +for our political parties to charge one another with Agrarianism; and if +they used the term in its proper sense, it would be found that they had +both been occasionally right, for Agrarian laws have been supported by +all American parties, and will continue to be so supported, we presume, +so long as we shall have a public domain; but in its reproachful +sense Agrarianism can never be charged against any one of the party +organizations which have been known in the United States. A quarter of +a century ago, one of the cleverest of those English tourists who then +used to contrive to go through--or, rather, over--the Republic, seeing +but little, and not understanding that little, proclaimed to his +countrymen, who had not then recovered from the agitation consequent on +the Reform contest, that there existed here a regular Agrarian party, +forming "the _extrême gauche_ of the Worky Parliament," and which +"boldly advocated the introduction of an AGRARIAN LAW, and a periodical +division of property." He represented these men as only following out +the principles of their less violent neighbors, and as eloquently +dilating "on the justice and propriety of every individual being equally +supplied with food and clothing,--on the monstrous iniquity of one man +riding in his carriage while another walks on foot, [there would have +been more reason in the complaint, had the gigless individual objected +to walking on his head,] and after his drive discussing a bottle of +Champagne, while many of his neighbors are shamefully compelled to be +content with the pure element. Only equalize property, they say, and +neither would drink Champagne or water, but both would have brandy, a +consummation worthy of centuries of struggle to attain." He had the +sense to declare that all this was nonsense, but added, that the +Agrarians, though not so numerous or so widely diffused as to create +immediate alarm, were numerous in New York, where their influence was +strongly felt in the civic elections. Elsewhere he predicted the coming +of a "panic" time, when workingmen would be thrown out of employment, +while possessed of the whole political power of the state, with no +military force to maintain civil order and protect property; "and to +what quarter," he mournfully asked, "I shall be glad to know, is the +rich man to look for security, either of person or fortune?" + +Twenty-five years have elapsed since Mr. Hamilton put forth this +alarming question, and some recent events have brought it to men's +minds, who had laughed at it in the year of grace 1833. We have seen +Agrarian movements in New York, demonstrations of "Workies," but nothing +was said by those engaged in them of that great leveller, brandy, though +its properties are probably better known to them than those of water. +They have been dignified with the name of "bread riots," and the great +English journal that exercises a sort of censorship over governments and +nations has gravely complimented us on the national progress we have +made, as evidenced in the existence here of a starving population! One +hardly knows whether to fret or to smile over so provoking a specimen of +congratulation. Certainly, if a nation cannot grow old without bringing +the producing classes to beggary, the best thing that could happen to +it would be to die young, like men loved of the gods, according to the +ancient idea. Whether such is the inevitable course of national life or +not, we are confident that what took place a few months ago in New York +had nothing to do with Agrarianism in reality,--using the word after +the manner of the alarmists. It belonged to the ordinary bald humbug of +American politics. It so happened that one of those "crises" which come +to pass occasionally in all business communities occurred at precisely +the time when a desperate political adventurer was making desperate +efforts to save himself from that destruction to which he had been +doomed by all good men in the city that he had misgoverned. What more +natural than that he should seek to avail himself of the distress of the +people? The trick is an old one,--as old as political contention itself. +Was it not Napoleon who attributed revolutions to the belly?--and he +knew something of the matter. The "bread riots" were neither more nor +less than "political demonstrations," got up for the purpose of aiding +Mr. Wood, and did not originate in any hostility to property on the part +of the people. It is not improbable that some of those who were engaged +in them were really anxious to obtain work,--were moved by fear of +starvation; but such was not the case with the leaders, who were +"well-dressed, gentlemanly men," according to an eye-witness, with +excellent cigars in their mouths to create a thirst that Champagne alone +could cure. The _juste milieu_ of brandy, so favored in 1832, if we can +believe Mr. Hamilton, was not thought of in 1857. A quarter of a +century had made a change in the popular taste. Perhaps the temperance +reformation had had something to do with it. The whole thing was as +complete a farce as ever was seen at an American or an English election, +and those who were engaged in it are now sincerely ashamed of their +failure. If foreigners will have it that it was an outbreak of +Agrarianism, the first in a series of outrages against property, so +be it. Let them live in the enjoyment of the delusion. Nations, like +individuals, seem to find pleasure in the belief that others are as +miserable as themselves. + +Of that feeling which is known as Agrarianism we believe there is far +less in the United States now than there was at the time when Mr. +Hamilton was here, and for a few years after that time. From about +the year 1829 to 1841, there was in our politics a large infusion of +Socialism. We then had parties, or factions, based on the distinctions +that exist in the social state, and those organizations had considerable +influence in our elections. The Workingmen's party was a powerful body +in several Northern States, and, to an observer who was not familiar +with our condition, it well might wear the appearance of an Agrarian +body. No intelligent American, however, fell into such an error. It +was evident to the native observer, that the Workingmen's party, while +aiming at certain reforms which it deemed necessary for the welfare of +the laboring classes, had no felonious purposes in view to the prejudice +of property,--and this for the plain reason, that most workingmen were +property-owners themselves. Few of them had much, but still fewer had +nothing, and the aggregate of their possessions was immense. They would +have been the greatest losers, had there been a social convulsion, for +they would have lost everything. Then they were intelligent men in the +ordinary affairs of life, and knew that the occurrence of any such +convulsion would, first of all, cut off, not only their means of +acquisition, but the very sources of their livelihood. Industry wilts +under revolutionary movement, as vegetation under the sirocco, and they +bring to the multitude anything but a realization of Utopian dreams. In +the long run, there has rarely been a revolution which has not worked +beneficially for the mass of mankind; but the earliest effects of every +revolution are to them bad, and eminently so. It is to this fact that we +must look for an explanation of the slowness with which the masses move +against any existing order of things, even when they are well aware +that it treats them with singular injustice. For nothing can be better +established than that no revolution was ever the work of the body of the +people,--of the majority. Revolutions are made by minorities, by orders, +by classes, by individuals, but never by the people. The people may be +dragged into them, but they never take the initiative even in those +movements which are called popular, and which are supposed to have only +popular ends in view. That very portion of mankind who are most feared +by timid men of property are those who are the last to act in any of the +great games which mark the onward course of the world. Complain they do, +and often bitterly, of the inequalities of society, but action is not +their strong point. + +The American observer of 1829-41 would have seen, too, in the +Workingmen's party, and in other similar organizations, only sections of +the Democratic party. They were the light troops of the grand army of +Democracy, the _velites_ who skirmished in front of the legions. They +never controlled the Democratic party; but it is undeniable that they +did color its policy, and give a certain tone to its sentiment, at a +very important period of American history. The success of President +Jackson, in that political contest which is known as "the Bank War," was +entirely owing to the support which he received from the workingmen of +some two or three States; and it is quite probable that the shrewd men +who then managed the Democratic party were induced to enter upon that +war by their knowledge of the exalted condition of political opinion in +those States. For their own purposes, they turned to account sentiments +that might have worked dangerously, if they had not been directed +against the Bank. One effect of this was, that the Democratic party was +compelled to make use of more popular language, which caused it to lose +some of its influential members, who were easily alarmed by words, +though they had borne philosophically with violent things. For five +years after the veto of the Bank Bill, in 1832, the Democratic party +was essentially radical in its tone, without doing much of a radical +character. In 1837, the monetary troubles came to a head, and then it +was seen how little reliance could be placed on men who were supposed to +be attached to extreme popular opinions. It was in the very States which +were thought to abound with radicals that the Democracy lost ground, and +the way was prepared for their entire overthrow in the memorable year +1840. That year saw American politics debauched, and from that time +we find no radical element in any of our parties. The contest was +so intense, that the two parties swallowed and digested all lesser +factions. Since then, a variety of causes have combined to prevent the +development of what is termed Agrarianism. The struggle of the Democracy +to regain power; the Mexican war, and the extension of our dominion, +consequent on that war, bringing up again, in full force, the slavery +question; and the discovery of gold in California, which led myriads +of energetic men to a remote quarter of the nation;--these are the +principal causes of the freedom of our later party-struggles from +radical theories. From radical practices we have always been free, and +it is improbable that our country will know them for generations. + +The origin of the word Agrarianism, as an obnoxious political term, is +somewhat curious. It is one of the items of our inheritance from the +Romans, to whom we owe so much, both of good and evil, in politics and +in law. + +The Agrarian contests of that people were among the most interesting +incidents in their wonderful career, and are full of instruction, +though, until recently, their true character was not understood; and +their explanation affords a capital warning against the effects of +partisan literature. The common belief was,--perhaps we should say +is,--that the supporters of the Agrarian laws were, to use a modern +term, _destructives_; that they aimed at formal divisions of all landed +property, if not of all property, among the whole body of the Roman +people. Nothing can be more unfounded than this view of the subject, +which is precisely the reverse of the truth. No Roman, whose name +is associated with Agrarian laws, ever thought of touching private +property, or of meddling with it, illegally, in any way. Neither Spurius +Cassius, nor Licinius Stolo, nor the Gracchi, nor any other Roman whose +name is identified with the Agrarian legislation of his country, was +a destructive, or leveller. Quite the contrary; they were all +conservatives,--using that word in its best sense,--and the friends of +property. The lands to which their laws applied, or were intended to +apply, were public lands, answering, in some sense, to those which are +owned by the United States. When Spurius Cassius, a quarter of a century +after that revolution which is known as the expulsion of the Tarquins, +proposed a division of a portion of the public land among the poor +commons, he did no more than had often been done by the Roman kings, +with good effect, and with strict legality. Much of the public land was +_occupied_ by wealthy men, as tenants of the state; and some of these +his law would have ousted from profitable spots, while the rest were to +be forced to pay their rents, which they had done very irregularly or +not at all. The operation of all Agrarian laws like that of Cassius was, +undoubtedly, a matter well to be considered; for, after a man has long +occupied a piece of land, he regards it as an act of injustice to be +peremptorily removed therefrom, and he ought to have, at least, the +privilege of buying it, if its possession be necessary to his support. +This feeling must have been the stronger in the bosom of the Roman +occupant in proportion to his poverty, but to legal possession he could +make no claim. The position he held was that of tenant at will to the +state, and he could be legally ejected at any moment. But it was not +from poor occupants of the public domain, whose number was necessarily +small, that opposition was experienced. It came from the rich, who had +all but monopolized the use of that domain; and, in the time of Spurius +Cassius, it was complicated with that quarrel of _caste_ which we +denominate the contest between the Patricians and the Plebeians. +Property and political power were both involved in the dispute. The +Patricians knew that the success of Cassius would make against them in +two ways:--it would strengthen the Plebeians, by lifting them out of the +degradation consequent on poverty, and so render them more dangerous +antagonists in political warfare; and it would render the Patricians +less able to contend with aspiring foes, by taking from them one of the +sources of their wealth. Cassius failed, and was executed, having been +tried and condemned by the Patricians, who then alone constituted the +Roman people. + +More than a century after the failure of Cassius, the Agrarian question +was again brought before the Roman nation, on a large scale. This was +the time when the famous Licinian rogations, by the adoption of which +a civil revolution was effected in Rome, were brought forward. They +provided for the passage of an Agrarian law, for an equitable settlement +of debts, and that thereafter one of the two Consuls should always be +a Plebeian. It is something to be especially noted, that C. Licinius +Stolo, the man from whom these laws take their name, was not a needy +political adventurer, but a very wealthy man, his possessions being +mainly in land; and that he belonged to a _gens_ (the Licinii) who were +noted in after days for their immense wealth, among them being that +Crassus whose avarice became proverbial, and whose surname was _Dives_, +or _the Rich_. The Licinian Agrarian law provided, that no one should +_possess_ more than five hundred jugers of the public land, (_ager +publicus_,) that the state should resume lands that had been illegally +seized by individuals, that a rent should be paid by the occupants of +the public domain, that only freemen should be employed on that domain, +and that every Plebeian should receive seven jugers of the public land +in absolute property, to be taken from those lands which the state was +to resume from Patricians who _possessed_ (that is to say, who occupied) +more than five hundred jugers. Such were the main provisions of the law, +which did not touch private property of any kind. The state was merely +to assert its undisputed legal right over the public domain, and the +Plebeians became landholders, which was the best thing that could happen +to the republic, and which was what was aimed at in every community of +antiquity. Even the partial observance of this law was the cause of the +supremacy of Rome being established over the finest portions of the +ancient world. Had Licinius failed, Rome would have gone down in her +contest with the Samnites, and the latter people would have become +masters of Italy. As it was, his success created the Roman people; and +from the time of that success must be dated the formation of the Roman +constitution as it was recognized and acted on during the best period of +the Republic. True, the Agrarian law was but one of three measures which +he carried through in the face of all the opposition the Patricians +could make; but the other laws were of a kindred character, and they all +worked together for good. It was the triumph of the Plebeians for the +benefit of all. The revolution then effected was strictly conservative +in its nature, and whatever of internal evil Rome afterwards experienced +was owing, not to the adoption of the Licinian law, but to the +departure by the state from the practice under it which it was intended +permanently to establish. + +The last great Agrarian contest which the Romans had was that which +takes its name from the Gracchi, and which began at the commencement of +the fourth generation before the birth of Christ. On the part of the +reformers, it was as strictly legal a movement as ever was known. Not +a single acre of private land was threatened by them; and whoever pays +attention to the details of their measures cannot fail to be struck with +the great concessions they were ready to make to their opponents,--the +men who had literally stolen the public property, and who pretended to +hold it as of right. Perhaps it was too late for any such reform as that +contemplated by the Gracchi to succeed, the condition of Rome then being +in no important respect like what it had been in the time of Licinius +Stolo; but one of the most interesting chapters in the history of things +which might have been is that which relates to the possible effect of +the Sempronian legislation. Had that legislation been fairly tried, +Roman history, and therefore human history, must have taken an entirely +different course, with an effect on the fortunes of every man born since +that time. Whether that effect would have been good or bad, who shall +say? But one thing is certain, and that is, that the Gracchi and their +supporters were not the enemies of property, and that their measures +were not intended to interfere with the private estate of any citizen of +the Roman Republic. + +Such was the Agrarianism, and such were the Agrarian laws and the +Agrarian contests of Rome, which were so long misunderstood; and through +that misunderstanding has the word Agrarian, so proper in itself, +been made to furnish one of the most reproachful terms that violent +politicians have ever used when seeking to bespatter their foes. It will +be seen that the word has been applied in "the clean contrary way" to +that in which it should have been applied, and that, strictly speaking, +an Agrarian is a conservative, a man who asks for justice,--not a +destructive, who, in his desire to advance his own selfish ends or those +of his class, would trample on law and order alike. It is only within +the last seventy years that the world has been made to comprehend that +it had for fifty generations been guilty of gross injustice to some of +the purest men of antiquity; and it is not more than thirty years since +the labors of Niebuhr made the truth generally known,--if it can, +indeed, be said to be so known even now. The Gracchi long passed for a +couple of demagogues, who were engaged in seditious practices, and who +were so very anxious to propitiate "the forum populace" that they were +employed in perfecting plans for the division of all landed property +amongst its members, when they were cut off by a display of vigor on the +part of the government. "The Sedition of the Gracchi" was for ages one +of the common titles for a chapter in the history of Republican Rome; +yet it did not escape the observation of one writer of no great +learning, who published before Heyne's attention was drawn to the +subject, that, if there were sedition in the affair, it was quite as +much the sedition of the Senate against the Gracchi as it was the +sedition of the Gracchi against the Senate.[A] + +[Footnote A: We have taken for granted the soundness of the views of +Niebuhr on the Roman Agrarian contests and laws, that eminent scholar +having followed in the track of Heyne with distinguished success; but +it must be allowed that in some respects his positions have been not +unsuccessfully assailed. Those who would follow up the subject are +recommended to study Ihne's _Researches into the History of the Roman +Constitution_, in which some of Niebuhr's views are energetically +combated. The main points, however, that the Agrarian laws were not +directed against private property, or aimed at placing all men on a +social equality, may be considered as established. Yet it must in candor +be admitted that the general subject is still involved in doubts, the +German commentators having thrown as much fog about some portions of the +Roman Constitution as they have thrown light upon other portions of it.] + +The feeling that was allowed to have such sway in Rome, and the triumph +of which was followed with such important consequences, has often +manifested itself in modern times, in the course of great political +struggles, and has proved a powerful disturbing cause on several +occasions. One of these occasions has fallen under the observation of +the existing generation, and some remarks on it may not be out of place. + +The French Revolution of 1848 was followed by an alarm on the part of +men of property, or of those whose profits depended on the integrity of +property being respected, which produced grave effects, the end whereof +is not yet. That revolution was the consequence of a movement as +purely political as the world ever saw. There was discontent with the +government of M. Guizot, which extended to the royal family, and in +which the _bourgeoisie_ largely shared, the very class upon the support +of which the House of Orleans was accustomed to rely. Had the government +yielded a little on some political points, and made some changes in the +administration, Louis Philippe might have been living at the Tuileries +at this very moment, or sleeping at St. Denis. But, insanely obstinate, +under dominion of the venerable delusion that obstinacy is firmness, the +King fell, and with him fell, not merely his own dynasty, but the whole +system of government which France had known for a generation, and +under which she was, painfully and slowly, yet with apparent sureness, +becoming a constitutional state. A warm political contest was converted +into a revolution scarcely less complete than that of 1789, and far more +sweeping than that of 1830. Perhaps there would have been little to +regret in this, had it not been, that, instead of devoting their +talents to the establishing of a stable republican government, several +distinguished Frenchmen, whom we never can think capable of believing +the nonsense they uttered, began to labor to bring about a sort of +social Arcadia, in which all men were to be made happy, and which was to +be based on contempt for political economy and defiance of common +sense. Property, with its usual sensitiveness, took the alarm, and the +Parisians soon had one another by the throat. How well founded was +this alarm, it would be difficult to say. Most likely it was grossly +exaggerated, and had no facts of importance to go upon. That among the +disciples of M. Louis Blanc there were gentlemen who had no respect for +other men's property, because they had no property of their own, it is +quite safe to believe; but that they had any fixed ideas about seizing +property, or of providing labor at high wages for workmen, it would be +impossible to believe, even if Albert, _ouvrier_, that most mythical +of revolutionists, were to make solemn affidavit of it on the works of +Aurora Dudevant. Some vague ideas about relieving the wants of the poor, +Louis Blanc and his associates had, just as all men have them who have +heads to see and hearts to feel the existence of social evils. Had they +obtained possession of the French government, immediately after Louis +Philippe, to use his own words, had played the part of Charles X., they +would have failed utterly, as Lamartine and his friends failed, and much +sooner too. Lamartine failed as a statesman,--he lacked that power +to govern which far less able men than he have exhibited under +circumstances even more trying than those into which he so unguardedly +plunged,--and Louis Blanc would have been no more successful than the +poet. The failure of the "Reds" would have been the more complete, +if they had had an opportunity to attempt the realization of the +Socialistic theories attributed to them, but which few of their number +could ever have entertained. They sought political power for the usual +purposes; but as they stood in the way of several other parties, those +parties united to crush them, which was done in "the Days of June." It +is easy to give a fallen enemy a bad name, and the conquered party on +that occasion were stigmatized as the enemies of everything that men +hold dear, particular emphasis being laid on their enmity to property, +which men hold dearer than all other things combined. The belief seems +to have been all but universal throughout Europe, and to have been +shared by many Americans, that the party which was conquered in the +streets of Paris by Cavaignac was really an organization against +property, which it meant to steal, and so afford a lively illustration +of the doctrine attributed to it, that property is theft. To this +belief, absurd as it was, must we look for the whole course of European +history during the last ten years. The restoration of the Napoleonic +dynasty in France, the restoration of the Papacy by French soldiers, the +reëstablishment of Austrian ascendency over Italy, and the invasion of +Hungary by the Russians,--these and other important events that have +happened under our eyes, and which have enabled us to see history in the +making on a large scale, all are directly traceable to the alarm which +property experienced immediately after the class of property-holders had +allowed the Revolution of February to take place, and to sweep away that +dynasty in which their principles stood incarnate. The French imperial +throne is in an especial manner the result of that alarm. When +General Cavaignac had succeeded in conquering the "Reds," a military +dictatorship followed his victory as a matter of course, and it remained +with him to settle the future of France. The principles of his family +led him to sympathize with the "oppressed nationalities" which were +then struggling in so many places for freedom; and had he interfered +decidedly in behalf of the Italians and Hungarians, he would have +changed the fate of Europe. He would have become the hero of the great +_political_ movement which his country had inaugurated, and his sword +would have outweighed the batons of Radetzky and Paskevitsch. Both +principle and selfishness pointed to such intervention, and there can be +no doubt that the Republican Dictator seriously thought of it. But the +peculiarities of his position forbade his following the path that was +pointed out to him. As the champion of property, as the chief of the +coalesced parties which had triumphed over "the enemies of property" in +the streets and lanes of "the capital of civilization," he was required +to concentrate his energies on domestic matters. Yet further: all men in +other countries who were contending with governments were looked upon by +the property party in France as the enemies of order, as Agrarians, who +were seeking the destruction of society, and therefore were not worthy +of either the assistance or the sympathy of France; so that the son of +the old Conventionist of '93 was forced, by the views of the men of whom +he so strangely found himself the chief, to become in effect the ally of +the Austrian Kaiser and the Russian Czar. The Italians, who were seeking +only to get rid of "barbarian" rule, and the Hungarians, who were +contending for the preservation of a polity as old as the English +Constitution against the destructives of the imperial court, were held +up to the world as men desirous in their zeal for revolution to overturn +all existing institutions! Aristocrats with pedigrees that shamed those +of the Bourbon and the Romanoff were spoken of in language that might +possibly have been applicable to the lazzaroni of Naples, that lazzaroni +being on the side of the "law and order" classes. As General Cavaignac +did nothing to win the affections of the French people, as he was the +mere agent of men rendered fierce by fear, it cannot be regarded as +strange, that, when the Presidential election took place, he found +himself nowhere in the race with Louis Napoleon. He was deserted even by +a large portion of the men whose work he had done so well, but who +saw in the new candidate for their favor one who could become a more +powerful protector of property than the African general,--one who had a +name of weight, not merely with the army, but with that multitudinous +peasant class from which the French army is mainly conscribed, and +which, containing numerous small property-holders, is fanatically +attached to the name of Napoleon. Thus the cry of "Property in danger" +ended, in 1851, in the restoration of open despotism, which every +sensible observer of French affairs expected after Louis Napoleon was +made President, his Presidency being looked upon only as a pinch-beck +imitation of the Consulate of 1799-1804. This is the ordinary course +of events in old countries: revolution, fears of Agrarianism, and +the rushing into the jaws of the lion in order to be saved from the +devouring designs of a ghost. + +Those who recollect the political literature of the years that passed +between the Revolution of February and the commencement of those +disputes which eventuated in the Russian War must blush for humanity. +Writers of every class set themselves about the work of exterminating +Agrarianism in France. Grave arguments, pathetic appeals, and lively +ridicule were all made use of to drive off enemies of whose coming upon +Europe there was no more danger than of a return of the Teutones and the +Cimbri. Had the arguments and adjurations of the clever men who waged +war on the Agrarians been addressed to the dust of the Teutones +whom Marius exterminated in Provence, they could not have been more +completely thrown away than they were. Some of these men, however, were +less distinguished for cleverness than for malignity, and shrieked for +blood and the display of brute force in terms that would have done +dishonor even to a St. Bartholomew assassin or anti-Albigensian +crusader. Monsieur Romieu held up _Le Spectre Rouge_ to the eyes of a +generation incapable, from fright, of distinguishing between a scarecrow +and the Apollo. The Red Spectre haunted him, and the people for whom he +wrote, as relentlessly as the Gray Spectre came upon the chiefs of Ivor. +He saw in the working classes--those men who asked then, as in modern +times they have only asked, "leave to toil"--millions of creatures +"regimented by hatred," and ready to throw themselves upon society. In +the past he saw nothing so much to be admired as the Feudal System, it +was so very summary and trenchant in its modes of dealing with masses +of men so unreasonable as to grumble when they were starving. In the +present, all that he could reverence was the cannonarchy of Russia, +which he invoked to restore to France that golden age in which Crécy and +Poictiers were fought, and when the Jacquerie illustrated the attachment +of the serf to the seigneur. How this invoker of Cossacks and cannon +from the Don and the Neva "to regulate the questions of our age" on the +Seine and the Marne would have stared, could the curtain that hides the +future have been drawn for a moment, to allow him to see a quarter of a +million of French, English, and Italian soldiers on the shores of the +Euxine, and eight hundred Western cannon raining that "hell-fire" upon +the august city of Catherine under which it became a heap of ruins! Yet +the man was undoubtedly sincere, as political fools almost invariably +are. He had faith in nothing but armies and forts, but his faith in +them was of the firmest. He despised the Bourbons and the _bourgeoisie_ +alike, and would be satisfied with nothing short of a national chief +as irresponsible as Tamerlane; and if he should be as truculent as +Tamerlane, it was not difficult to see that M. Romieu would like him all +the better for it. Your true fanatic loves blood, and is provokingly +ingenious in showing how necessary it is that you should submit calmly +to have your throat cut for the good of society. M. Marat was a logician +of this sort, and M. Romieu is, after all, only a pale imitator of the +cracked horse-leech; but as he wrote in the interest of "order," and for +the preservation of property, we rarely hear of his thirst for blood. +Had he been a disciple of Marat, his words would have been quoted +annually in every abode of civilized men from Sacramento to Astrachan, +as evidence of the desire of popular leaders to lap blood. + +What has become of M. Romieu, and how he took Louis Napoleon's energetic +measures for laying the Red Ghost in the blood of aristocrats as well as +of democrats, we know not. He ought to have been charmed with the _coup +d'état_; for the man who conceived and executed that measure for his +own benefit professed to act only for the benefit of society, the +maintenance of the rights of property being kept by him especially in +view. He, too, charged his enemies, or those whom he thought endowed +with the desire and the ability to resist him, with Agrarianism; and +such Agrarians as Thiers and Cavaignac were seized in their beds, and +imprisoned,--to prevent their running away with the Great Book of +France, one is at liberty to suppose. There was something shockingly +ludicrous in charging the hero and victor of the Days of June with +designs against property; but the charge may have led Cavaignac to have +doubts whether he had not himself been a little too ready to believe +the charge of Agrarianism when preferred against a large number of the +people of France, whom he had treated with grape-shot by way of teaching +them respect for the rights of property. There is nothing like bringing +injustice home to a man to open his eyes to its evil nature. Of all +public men of our generation who have signally failed, Cavaignac must +be held the most unfortunate; for his intentions were excellent, and he +died just as circumstances were about to afford him an opportunity to +retrieve his fame. His last days must have been the reverse of agreeable +in their retrospect; for it must constantly have been forced upon his +mind that he had been made the chief instrument in the work of fastening +upon the country he loved the most odious of the many despotic +governments it has known,--a government that confesses its inability to +stand against the "paper shot" of journalists, and which has shackled +the press after the fashion of Austrian and Russian dynasties; and all +this had taken place, as he must have seen in his retirement, as the +consequence of his having mistaken the voice of a party for the voice +of France. The lesson is one that ought to go home to the hearts of all +public men, and to those of American statesmen in particular, some +of the ablest of whom are now engaged in doing the behests of an +oligarchical faction in the name of the interests of property. + + * * * * * + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued] + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +A slow and weary walk had Mr. Lindsay from the station to his house. It +was after sunset, dark and cold, as he turned in at the gate. The house +was dimly lighted, and no one save the Newfoundland dog came to greet +him at the door. He did not hear his daughter singing as she was +accustomed at evening. There were no pleasant voices, no light and +cheerful steps in the rooms. All was silence. The ill news had preceded +him. His wife without a word fell on his bosom and wept. Clara kept her +seat, trying in vain, while her lip quivered and her eyes dimmed, to fix +her attention upon the magazine she had held rather than read. At length +Mr. Lindsay led his wife to the sofa and sat beside her, holding +her hand with a tenderness that was as soothing as it was uncommon. +Prosperity had not hardened his heart, but business had preoccupied it; +though his manner had been kind, his family had rarely seen in him any +evidence of feeling. + +Misfortune had now brought back the rule of his better nature, and the +routine life he had led was at an end. + +"My dear wife, what I have most dreaded in this crash is the pain, the +anxiety, and the possible discomfort it would bring to you and to Clara. +For myself I care nothing. It is a hard trial, but I shall conform to +our altered circumstances cheerfully." + +"And so shall we, father," said Clara. "We shall be happy with you +anywhere." + +"One thing, I am sure, you can never lose," said Mrs. Lindsay,--"and +that is an honorable name." + +"I have tried to do my duty. I gave up only when I found I must. But my +duty is not yet done." + +"Why, father?" + +"My creditors have claims which I regard as sacred, and which must be +paid, ultimately, at whatever sacrifice." + +"Won't the property at the store be enough when you can sell it?" asked +Mrs. Lindsay. "You have spoken of the quantity of goods you had on +hand." + +"I can't say, my dear. It depends upon how much time I have. If I could +have effected sales, I should have been safe." + +"If they have the goods, won't they be satisfied?" asked Clara. + +"You don't understand, my daughter, that all I have is at their command. +If the property does not liquidate the debts, then the house, the +carriage and horses, the furniture, the"---- + +The possible surrender of all that had made life pleasant to his family +was not to be considered without emotion, and Mr. Lindsay found himself +unable to finish the sentence. + +"Dear father!" exclaimed Clara, seizing and kissing his hand, as she sat +down at his feet,--"you are just and noble. We could not be selfish or +complaining when we think of you. Let everything go. I love the dear old +house, the garden that has been your pride, the books and pictures; but +we shall be nearer together--shan't we, papa?--in a cottage. If they do +sell my piano, I can still sing to you; nobody can take that pleasure +from us." + +"Bless you, my daughter! I feel relieved,--almost happy. Your cheerful +heart has given me new courage. Perhaps we shall not have to make the +sacrifices I dread. Whatever happens, my darling, your piano shall be +kept. I will sell my watch first. Your music will be twice as dear in +our days of adversity." + +"Yes, papa,--if we keep the piano, I can give lessons." + +"You give lessons? Nonsense! But get up, pussy; here, sit on my knee." + +He fondled her like a child, and they all smiled through their +tears,--heavenly smiles! blissful tears! full of a feeling of which the +heart in prosperous days has no conception! + +"One thing has happened to-day," said Mr. Lindsay, "that I shall never +forget,--an action so generous and self-forgetful that it makes one +think better of mankind. I remember hearing a preacher say that no +family knew all their capabilities of love until death had taken one of +their number,--not their love for the dead, but their deeper affection +for each other after the loss. I suppose every calamity brings its +compensations in developing noble traits of character; and it is almost +an offset to failure itself to have such an overflowing feeling as +this,--to know that there are so many sympathizing hearts. But what I +was going to speak of was the conduct of my clerk, Monroe. He is a fine +fellow,--rather more given to pictures and books and music than is good +for a business man; but with a clear head, a man's energy, and a woman's +heart. He has a widowed mother, whom he supports. I never knew he had +any property till to-day. It seems his father left ten thousand dollars. +He knew that my situation was desperate, and yet he offered me his all. +It would only have put off the day of failure; but I was selfish enough +to be willing to take it. He had deposited the securities for the amount +with Sandford, who first borrowed money in the street by pledging them, +and then failed to-day. Monroe has lost his all; but his intention was +as noble as if he had saved me. I shall never forget it; and as long as +I have a dollar he shall share it." + +"What a noble fellow!" said Mrs. Lindsay. "How pleasant to think that in +this terrible scramble for life there are some who have not lost their +humanity, nor trampled down their finer feelings!" + +"I couldn't but contrast this kindness on the part of a clerk, for whom +I have never done anything beyond paying him his well-earned salary, +with the conduct of Mr. Bullion. I gave him my indorsement repeatedly, +and assisted him in procuring loans, when he was not so rich as he is +now. I know he has resources, ready money,--money that he does not need +for any outstanding debts, but which he must keep for speculation. But +he refused to do anything. 'Couldn't,' he said, 'really; times were +hard; everybody wanted to borrow; couldn't lend to everybody; hadn't the +funds; much as he could do to stand up himself.' There was no sincerity +in his look. I saw his soul skulking away behind his subterfuges like a +spider in the depths of his flimsy web. He seems to thrive, however, in +the midst of general ruin. I've no doubt he lives like a vulture, on the +dead and dying." + +"Is Mr. Bullion that short man, father, with the cold eyes and gruff +voice, and the queer eyebrow which he seems to poke at people?" + +"Yes, my daughter, that is the man." + +"Well, I'm sure, he is coarse, disagreeable, hard-hearted. I'm glad you +are not under obligations to him." + +"My only regret is that I had the mortification of being refused. I wish +I had never asked him. I can't think of his look and tone without a pang +of shame, or wounded pride, if you choose to call it so, harder to +bear than a blow in the face. I had a claim upon his gratitude, but he +remembers a favor no more than a wolf does the mutton he ate a year +ago.--But enough of business. The bitterness has passed since we have +talked together. Let us be cheerful. Come, Clara, sing some of those +sweet old ballads!" + +From her infancy until now in her twentieth year, Clara had been +constantly with her father,--but she had never known him before. + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Early next morning the officer in charge of Mr. Sandford's house was +relieved by a brother constable. Number Two was a much more civil person +in speech and manner than Number One; in fact, he speedily made himself +so agreeable to the housemaid that she brought him a cup of coffee, and +looked admiringly while he swallowed it. By the time Mrs. Sandford and +Marcia came down to breakfast, he had established an intimacy with Biddy +that was quite charming to look upon. One would have thought he was an +old friend of the household,--a favored crony; such an easy, familiar +air he assumed. He accosted the ladies with great gallantry,--assured +them that they were looking finely,--hoped they had passed a pleasant +night, and that Number One had given them no unnecessary inconvenience. +Marcia met him with a haughty stare which nobody but a woman of fashion +can assume. Turning to Mrs. Sandford, she exclaimed,-- + +"Who is this fellow?" + +Number Two hastened to answer for himself:-- + +"My name, Ma'am, is Scarum, Harum Scarum some of the young lawyers call +me. Ha!" (_A single laugh, staccato_.) + +"Well, Mr. Scarum, you can keep your compliments for those who +appreciate them. Come, Lydia, let us go down to breakfast. The presuming +fool!" she exclaimed, as she passed through the hall,--"he's worse +than the other. One can put up with a coarse man, if he minds his own +business; but an impudent, self-satisfied fellow must be made to know +his place." + +"High-strung filly! ha!" (_Sforzando_.) + +"May have to speak to common folks, yet,--eh, Miss Bridget?" + +But farther conversation was interrupted for the time. Bridget was +summoned by the bell to the dining-room, and gallant Number Two was left +alone in the parlor. Meanwhile he surveyed the room as minutely as if +it had been a museum,--trying the rocking-chair, examining pictures, +snapping vases with his unpared nails, opening costly books, smelling of +scent-bottles, scanning the anti-Macassars and the Berlin-wool mats. At +last he opened the piano, and, in a lamentably halting style, played, +"Then you'll remember me," using only a forefinger in the performance. +He sang at the same time in a suppressed tone, while he cast agonizing +looks at an imaginary obdurate female, supposed to be on the sofa, +occasionally glancing with admiration in the mirror at the intensely +pathetic look his features wore. + +Marcia, meanwhile, had borne the noise as long as she could; so Biddy +was dispatched to ask the singer if he would not _please_ to do his +practising at some other time. + +"Practising, indeed!" exclaimed Number Two, indignantly, upon receiving +the message. "There are people who think I can sing. These women, +likely, a'n't cultivated enough to appreciate the 'way-up music. They're +about up to that hand-organ stuff of Sig-ner Róssyni, likely. They +can't understand Balfy; they a'n't up to it. What do _you_ think, Miss +Bridget? Nice figger, that of yours." (_Sotto voce_.) "None of the +tall, spindlin', wasp-waisted, race-horse style about you, like that" +(pointing down-stairs). "A good plump woman for me! and a woman with an +ear, too! Now _you_ know what good singin' is. I led the choir down to +Jorumville 'bove six months b'fore I come down here and went into the +law. But _she_ thinks I was practising! Ha!" (_Sempre staccato_.) + +"La! did ye?" said the admiring Biddy. + +Tinkle, tinkle, again. Biddy was now summoned to call Charles, and see +if he would breakfast. Number Two made another tour of the room, with +new discoveries. While absorbed in this pleasing employment, the two +women passed upstairs. Marcia could not restrain herself, as she saw him +with her favorite bird-of-paradise fan. + +"Don't spoil those feathers, you meddlesome creature!" + +"Beg your pardon, Ma'am" (with an elaborate bow). "Merely admirin' the +colors. Pretty sort of a thing, this 'ere! 'Most too light and fuzzy for +a duster, a'n't it? Feathers ben dyed, most likely? Willin' to 'bleege +the fair, however, especially one so handsome." (Rubbing it on his +coat-sleeve.) "Guess't a'n't got dirty any." + +Charles, meanwhile, had risen and dressed, and came out when Bridget +knocked; a spectacle, indeed,--a walking sermon on the perils that may +follow what are termed "good times." His face would have been pale, +except that his nose, which was as puffy as an _omelette soufflée_, and +his left eye with a drooping lid sustained by a livid crescent, gave it +a rubicund expression. His knees were shaky, his pulse feeble, his head +top-heavy. He declined assistance rather sulkily, and descended holding +by the stair-rail and stepping gingerly. Number Two, in spite of his +genial, unruffled temper, could not repress his surprise, as the +apparition passed the parlor-door. + +"A rum customer! Ha!" (_Con anima_.) + +Before the repentant owner of the puffy nose and purple eyelid had +finished his solitary breakfast, Mr. Sandford came home. He had obtained +bail and was at large. Looking hastily into the parlor, he saw +a stranger, with his hat jauntily on one side, seated in the +damask-covered chair, with his feet on an embroidered ottoman, turning +over a bound collection of sea-mosses, and Marcia's guitar lying across +his lap. He was dumb with astonishment. Polite Number Two did not leave +him to burst in ignorance. + +"All right. Mr. Sandford, I suppose. An 'tachment put on, and I'm +keeper. Sorry to disturb a family. But somebody has to. Can I do anything +to obleege you?" + +"Yes, by laying down that book which you are spoiling. And you may take +your greasy boots off that worsted-work, and put the stopper into that +Bohemian-glass bottle." + +"Beg your pardon, Sir. Didn't intend to make trouble. Boots has to be +greased, you know, else they crack all out, an' don't last no time; mine +do. This 'ere Cologne is nice, to be sure. I jest poured out a bit on my +pocket-handkercher." + +"Cologne! It's attar of roses; and you've spilled more than your neck is +worth,--taking yourself at your own valuation." + +"Why, you don't say this is high-cost? It does smell good, though, ha!" + +As he started to go up-stairs, Mr. Sandford saw the linen carpet-cover +spattered with frequent drops of blood. He called aloud to his sister,-- + +"Marcia! are you there? alive? What's the meaning of this blood? Who has +been murdered? Or is this turned into a butcher's shop?" + +Marcia and her sister-in-law descended, and hurriedly explained the +mystery. While they were standing at the head of the stairs, Charles +made his appearance, and received such congratulations from his brother +as might be expected. He vouchsafed no word of reply, but went into +the room where he had slept to get some article he had left. A sudden +thought struck Mr. Sandford. He followed Charles into the room, and in a +moment after returned,--but so changed! Imagine Captain Absolute at +the duelling-ground turned in a twinkling into Bob Acres, Lucy Bertram +putting on the frenzied look of Meg Merrilies, or the even-tempered +Gratiano metamorphosed into the horror-stricken, despairing Shylock +at the moment he hears his sentence, and you have some notion of the +expression which Sandford's face wore. His eyes were fixed like baleful +lights in a haggard, corpse-like countenance. His hair was disordered. +He clutched his cravat as though suffocating. His voice was gone; he +whispered feebly, like one of Ossian's ghosts,-- + +"Gone! gone! Who has it? Marcia! Lydia! Charles! Who's got it? Quick! +The money! Gone?" + +He rushed into the room again, deaf to any reply. He got upon his hands +and knees, looked under the bed, the wardrobe, the dressing-table, the +chairs, muttering all the while with a voice like a dying man's. He rose +up, staggering, and seized Marcia by the arm, who trembled with terror +at his ferocity. + +"The money! Give me the money! You've got it! You know you have! Give it +to me! Give"-- + +"Pray, be calm," said Mrs. Sandford; "you shall know all about it." + +"I don't want to know," he almost screamed; "I want the money, the +money!" + +Then dropping his voice to a lower key, and with a tone which was meant +to be wheedling, he turned to his sister-in-law:-- + +"You've got it, then? How you frightened me! Come, dear sister! don't +trifle with me. I'm poor, very poor, and the little sum seems large. +Give it to me. Let me see that it is safe. _Dear_ sister!" + +"I haven't it," said Mrs. Sandford, "But compose yourself. You shall +know about it." + +He cried audibly, like a sickly child. + +"It isn't gone? No, you play upon my fears. Where is the pocket-book?" + +"How are you ever going to know, if you won't hear?" asked Marcia. "I +wouldn't be so unmanly as to whine so even about a million." + +"No, you think money is as plenty as buttons. Wait till you +starve,--starve,--till you beg on a street-crossing." + +"Listen," said Mrs. Sandford. + +"Do, and stop your groaning like a madman," said Marcia, consolingly. +"When Charles met with his mishap and fell senseless, we asked the +officer to carry him up-stairs. Rather than go up another flight, we had +him taken into your chamber. Your dressing-case lay on the table, in +the middle of the room, away from its usual place by the mirror. The +officer at once seized and opened it. You had carelessly left your money +in it. He was evidently informed of the fact that you had money, and was +directed to attach it. He counted the package before me, and then put it +into his pocket." + +During this recital, Mr. Sandford's breath came quick and his eyes +opened wider. His muscles all at once seemed charged with electricity. +He dashed down-stairs, half-a-dozen steps at a time, and pounced upon +unlucky Number Two, who, with the captivated Biddy, was leaning at the +parlor-door, listening to the conversation above. Seizing the officer by +the throat, Sandford shouted huskily,-- + +"Robber! thief! Give up that money! How dare you? Give it up, I say!" + +Number Two could not answer, for his windpipe was mortally squeezed +under the iron grip of his adversary; therefore, as the only reply he +could make, he commenced the manual exercise right and left, and with +such effect, that Sandford loosened his hold and staggered back. + +"There! I guess you've got enough on't. What ye talkin' about money? I +a'n't got any of your money." + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Sandford, who had followed the infuriated man, though +necessarily at some distance, came and grasped his arm. + +"The man who seized the money is gone," she said. "This is the one who +takes his place." + +Sandford was speechless,--but not long. While hope remained, he had +whined, begged, cried, implored. Now that he was baffled, discomfited, +ruined, his rage broke out. The placid gentleman, whose glossy garb and +quiet air a day before made such a picture of content, would hardly +be recognized in this furious, gesticulating lunatic, whose oaths and +objurgations came belching forth like sulphurous flames. It was on his +gentle sister-in-law that the weight of his wrath fell. She tried to +pacify him, until she became actually alarmed for her safety, and turned +to fly. + +"Go!" he exclaimed. "You've done enough. You've ruined me. Pack off! +You've beggared me. Now look out for yourself! Don't let me see your +face again!" + +Trembling and tearful, Mrs. Sandford went to her room to gather +her wardrobe. She had not intended to remain a burden upon her +brother-in-law. Now she must go at once. Even if he were to repent of +his blind rage and ask her forgiveness, she felt that there was an +impassable gulf between them. + +During the confusion that followed, Number Two, feeling hungry, went +down with Biddy to lunch. + +"It's about the last ov it here, Sirr," said the girl, "an' we may as +well ate what is good and drink something betther than cold wather." + +So saying, the best the house afforded was set out;--wines of rare +vintages were uncorked, and glasses hob-a-nobbed. + +Mr. Sandford, exhausted with his delirium, went to his room, and there +languidly paced the floor back and forth, without cessation, like a +caged white bear in midsummer. Charles crawled up to his own bed. Marcia +remained in the parlor, her busy brain turning over the unusual events +of the day, and wondering what loop-hole of escape from their present +difficulties could be found. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The door-bell rang. Biddy, occupied with her pleasing duties as hostess, +and flushed with drinking crusty old Port and "Lafitte 1844," did not +hear. Some sudden impulse or vague prescience moved Marcia to open the +door herself. It was Greenleaf. Notwithstanding the untoward state of +affairs, she could not deny herself the pleasure of meeting him, and +ushered him into the parlor, then fortunately vacant. + +A cooler observer would have noticed something peculiar in his carriage +as he crossed the hall,--an unnatural pallor, a sharpness in the angles +of his mouth, a quicker respiration, and a look of mingled firmness and +sorrow in his eyes. A stranger might have thought him in a state of +chronic nervous irritability or mild insanity. And truly, a sensitive +man, perplexed between conflicting duties, spurred by conscience, yet +wanting in courage to do its bidding, presents a pitiable spectacle; it +is a position of sharp suspense which no mind can hold long;--relief +must come, in heartbreak or darkness, if in no other way. + +When Greenleaf parted from Marcia, the morning before, he intended to +wait a week at least before telling her of his changed feelings. He did +not know what a burden he had undertaken to carry; he staggered under +it, like the pilgrim in Bunyan's immortal story. Besides, after he had +once come to a determination, he was impatient to see Alice and implore +her forgiveness. Minutes were days while he waited. To pass a week in +this way was not to be thought of, unless by means of ether or mesmerism +he could fly from himself and find peace in oblivion. + +"My dear George," Marcia began, "it is so kind of you to come with your +sympathy! We are dreadfully cast down. What is to be done I don't know." + +"You surprise me! What has happened? I have scarcely been out of my +studio since I last saw you." + +"But it's in all the papers!" + +"I haven't seen a paper." + +"What I told you yesterday has come to pass. Henry has failed; so +has the Vortex,--and Mr. Fayerweather, the President,--and Mr. +Stearine,--and everybody else, I believe. We shall probably leave the +house and take lodgings." + +Every word was a pang to Greenleaf. Again his heart, full of sympathy +for the woman's distress, whispered, "Wait! don't wound the stricken +deer!" But he hugged his resolve and steeled himself against pity. + +"I am truly sorry to hear of your brother's misfortunes. But with his +talents and reputation, and with his troops of friends in business +circles as well as in the various charitable societies, it cannot be +that he will long be depressed. He will work his way back to his old +position, or even a higher one." + +Marcia shook her head doubtfully. She had not heard the rumors affecting +her brother's integrity, but she saw that his manly resolution was gone, +that he was vascillating, broken-spirited, and needed but little more +trouble to make him imbecile. + +"I was thinking of a case of conscience, as I came here," said +Greenleaf. "It was, How far a promise is binding, when it involves a +lasting and irretrievable wrong in its fulfilment." + +Marcia looked at him in dumb astonishment. He continued:-- + +"Suppose that you were to find, by-and-by, that your affections had +cooled towards me,--that you discovered incompatabilities of taste and +temper,--that you felt sure a true union of souls was impossible,--that +marriage would be only a mockery?" + +"Dear George, how you frighten me! Why do you ask such dreadful +questions in such a solemn way? You know I love you, heart and soul." + +"But consider the question as an abstract one. I ask you only to suppose +the case. Should you thrust conscience into the cellar, stifle its +outcries, and give your consent to a profanation of holy wedlock?" + +"I can't suppose the case. And I don't see the use of torturing one's +self with imaginary evils. The real troubles of life are quite enough to +bear." + +"I know such a case. I know a man who has to decide it. It is not a +light matter for any man, and his is a soul as sensitive as God ever +made. He was betrothed to a woman every way worthy; he loved her +sincerely. His chief fault, and a serious one it is, came from his +susceptibility to fresh impressions. The pleasure of the present had +more power over him than any recollections of the past. The influence of +the living woman at his side was greater, for the moment, than that of +any absent love. In an evil hour, he committed himself to another. She +was, doubtless, formed to inspire his passion and to return it. But he +was not free, and had no right to linger on forbidden ground. For weeks, +nay, months, he lived this false and wicked life, of a different mind +every day, and lacking the courage to meet the difficulty. At last he +became sure that his love belonged where his faith was due,--that, if he +would not live a wretched hypocrite, he must humble himself to confess +his criminal weakness, and return to his first engagement." + +He paused; he might well do so. Marcia, with some difficulty, was able +to say, through her chattering teeth,-- + +"You seem to take a deep interest in this weak-minded person." + +"I do,--the deepest. I am the man." + +She rose to her feet, and, looking scornfully down upon him, +exclaimed,-- + +"Then you acknowledge yourself a villain!--not from premeditation, which +would give your baseness some dignity, but a weakly fool, so tossed +about by Fate that he is made a villain without either desire or +resistance!" + +"You may overwhelm me with reproaches; I am prepared for them; I deserve +them. But God only knows through what a season of torture I have passed +to come to this determination." + +"A very ingenious story, Mr. Greenleaf! Do you suppose that the world +will believe it, the day after our losses? Do you expect me to believe +it, even?" + +"I told you that I had not heard of the failure. I am in the habit of +being believed." + +"For instance, when you vowed that you loved me, and me only!" + +"You may spare your taunts. But, to show you how mercenary I am, let me +assure you that the woman to whom my word is pledged, and to whom I must +return, is without any property or expectations." + +"Very well, Sir," said Marcia, rubbing her hands, in the endeavor to +conceal her agitation; "we need not waste words. After what you have +told me, I could only despise such a whiffler,--a scrap of refuse iron +at the mercy of any magnet,--a miller dashing into every fight. A lover +so helpless must needs have some new passional attraction--that is the +phrase, I believe--with every changing moon. The man I love should be +made of different stuff." She drew her figure up proudly, and her lips +curled like a beautiful fiend's. "He should bury the disgraceful secret, +if he had it, in his heart, and carry it to his grave. He would not cry +out like a boy with a cut finger." + +"Precisely, Miss Sandford. And for that reason you would be no mate for +me. My wife must have no skeletons in her closet." + +"Men generally claim the monopoly of those agreeable toys, I believe." + +"Love is impossible where there are concealments. A secret is like a +worm in the heart of an apple, and nothing but rottenness and corruption +follow." + +"Fortunately, you harbor none. You have turned your heart inside out, +like a peddler's pack,--and a gratifying display it made! I am more than +satisfied." + +"The tone you have adopted is a warning to me to stop. I wish to bandy +no epithets, or reproaches. I came sorrowfully to tell you what I have +told. I had no fault to impute to you. But I must confess that this +morning you have shown yourself capable of thoughts and feelings I never +suspected, and I shall leave you with a far lighter heart than I came." + +"You expected to see me at your feet, imploring your love and striving +to melt you by tears,--did you? It would have been a pleasing +triumph,--one that your sex prizes, I believe; but you have not been +gratified. I know what is due to myself, and I do not stoop. But there +may be ways to punish the betrayer of confidence," she said, with a +heaving bosom and distended nostrils. "I have a brother; and even if he +is forgetful, I shall not forget." + +"I am obliged to you for putting me on my guard. I wished to part +otherwise. Be it so, since you will." + +He turned to leave the room. Swift as lightning, she ran to the front +door and braced herself against it, at the same time calling loudly to +her brother. Mr. Sandford came to the top of the stairs and listened +with apparent apathy, while the maddened woman poured out her rage. He +stood a moment like one in a dream, and then slowly came down. + +"There is your cane," said Marcia, fiercely, pointing to the +umbrella-stand. + +"I give you fair warning," said Greenleaf, calmly, "that you will never +strike more than one blow. No man shall assault me but at the risk of +his life." + +"What is the need of this fury?" asked Mr. Sandford. "I don't want +to quarrel with a pauper. You are well rid of him. If you were to be +married, you'd only have the pleasure of going to Deer Island for your +bridal trip." + +"Then you will see me insulted without lifting a finger? Coward! Broken +down like a weed for the loss of a little money! I should be ashamed to +have a beard, if I had such a timid soul!" + +"I trust, Miss Sandford," said Greenleaf, "you do not wish to prolong +this scene. Let me pass." + +"Oh, yes,--you can go; can't he, brother?" + +She opened the door, looking scornfully from the one to the other. + +At that moment Mrs. Sandford came down, bringing a satchel, and asked +Greenleaf to walk with her until she could get a carriage. He cheerfully +promised his aid, and took the satchel. Her eyes were sadly beautiful, +and still humid from recent tears; and her face wore a touching look of +resignation. She did not speak to Mr. Sandford, who stood scowling at +her; but, taking Marcia's hand, she said,-- + +"Good bye, sister! I never thought to leave you in this way. I hope we +shall never see a darker hour. I shall send for my trunks presently. +Good bye!" + +"Good bye!" replied Marcia, mechanically. "You have a brave gallant! See +to it that he is not compelled by Destiny to make love to you on the +way!" + +Greenleaf, with his companion, descended the steps to the street, making +no reply to this amiable God-speed. + +Marcia shut the door, and with her brother returned to the parlor. At +the head of the stairs that led to the dining-room stood Number Two and +Biddy, who in stupid wonder had witnessed the scenes just described. + +"Bridget," exclaimed the enraged mistress, "what are you staring at? +Come here! Pah! you have been drinking! You, too, you creature!" + +Number Two bowed with maudlin politeness. + +"You-do-m'injustice, Ma'am. On'y a smallsup, a littlesup, +ponmyhonorasgen'l'man." + +"Bridget, do you pack up your baggage and be off! Rioting and feasting +in the time of our trouble! Ungrateful hussy!" + +"I'll do that same, Miss Marshy; but me waages, if ye plaze, Miss." + +"Get your wages, if you can. You've broken more crockery and glass, and +wasted more wines and preserves, than you ever earned." + +"That's always the way, Miss, I've noticed, when missuses was o' mind to +get claar of payin' the honest dues. But me brother"-- + +"Be off to your brother! But first go and cool your head under the +water-faucet." + +Muttering and whining, the disconsolate Biddy crept up to the attic for +her scanty wardrobe. + +"Here, fellow!" said Marcia to Number Two, whose foolish smiles at any +other time would have been ludicrous,--"go into the kitchen and get +sober." + +He obeyed like a spaniel. + +"Now, Henry," said Marcia, rather more composed, "let us do something at +once. It's plain that we can't live here for the house will be stripped; +and in our circumstances we would not stay, if we could. That fellow is +so far stupefied that we can save what we can carry away. If you have +any spirit left, help me pack our clothes and such things as can be put +into our trunks. Come! are you dreaming?" + +He started up and followed her like a child. With superhuman energy, +she ransacked the house and gathered the most valuable articles. Plate, +linen, dresses, Parian ware, books, furs, and jewelry were packed, +as securely as the time allowed. A carriage and a baggage-wagon were +ordered, and in an incredibly short period they were ready to start. + +"We have forgotten Charles," said Mr. Sandford. + +"True enough," said Marcia. "Go and call him; he is too handsome to be +spared from our party just now. Tell him to bring his clothes." + +The penitent came down, reluctantly; his nose was still puffy, and the +crescent under his eye rather more livid; muffled and cloaked, he +was led to the carriage. Mr. Sandford then remembered the cherished +parchment certificates and votes of thanks,--his title-deeds to +distinction. + +"Leave them," said his sister, contemptuously. "What are they good for? +A few commonplace autographs in tarnished gilt frames." + +Bridget, meanwhile, went off, threatening all sorts of reprisals on the +part of her brother, who "wouldn't see her imposed upon by the likes of +thim, not he!" From the kitchen, at intervals, came up doleful snatches +of "Then you'll remember me," interrupted by hiccoughs, and with +involuntary variations and cadenzas that would have driven "Balfy" mad. + +All was ready and they drove off. The house wherein had lived a +Benefactor of Mankind was deserted. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Greenleaf found a carriage for Mrs. Sandford, and accompanied her to a +private boarding-house, where she took lodgings; he then sent the driver +back for her trunks, and, having seen her comfortably provided for, +returned to his own rooms,--but not to remain there. He desired only to +leave a message on his door, explaining his absence. In less than an +hour he was in the railway-train, on his way to Innisfield. + +To the musing or drowsy traveller by rail how space and time are +annihilated! He is barely conscious of progress, only when the brakeman +with measured tone shouts the name of the station; he looks up from his +paper or rouses from his doze, looks out at the cheerless prospect, and +then settles himself for another thirty miles. Time passes as unobserved +as the meadows or bushy pastures that flit by the jarring window at +his ear. But with Greenleaf, the reader will believe, the case was far +different. He had never noticed before how slowly the locomotives really +moved. At each station where wood and water were to be taken, it seemed +to him the delay was interminable. His eager desire shot along the track +like electricity; and when at last he reached the place where he was to +leave the train, he had gone through a year of ordinary hopes and fears. +He mounted the stage-box and took his seat beside the buffalo-clad, +coarse-bearded, and grim driver. The road lay through a hilly country, +with many romantic views on either hand. It was late in the season to +see the full glories of autumn; but the trees were not yet bare, and in +many places the contrasts of color were exquisite. For once the driver +found his match; he had a passenger as taciturn as himself. For the +first few miles not a word was spoken, saving a few brief threats to the +horses; but at last Jehu could hold out no longer; his reputation was +in danger, if he allowed any one to be more silent than himself, and he +cautiously commenced a skirmish. + +"From Boston?" + +A nod was the only reply. + +"Belong about here?" + +"No," with a shake of the head. + +"Ben up here afore, though, I guess?" + +"Yes." + +"Thought I remembered. Year or so ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Had a great white cotton umbrill, a box like a shoe-kit, and suthin' +like a pair o' clo'es-frames?" + +Greenleaf could but smile at the description of his easel and artist's +outfit; still he contented himself with a brief assent. + +"Keeps tight as the bark to a white-oak," muttered Jehu to himself. +"Guess I'll try him on t'other side, seein' he's so offish." + +Then aloud,-- + +"Knowed Square Lee, I b'lieve?" + +"Yes," thundered Greenleaf, looking furiously at the questioner. + +The glance frightened Jehu's soul from the red-curtained windows, where +it had been peeping out, back to its hiding-place, wherever that might +be. + +"Well, yer needn't bite a feller's head off," muttered he, in the same +undertone as before. "And if ye want to keep to yerself, shet up yer +darned oyster-shell, and see how much you make by it. Not more'n four +and sixpence, I guess. Maybe you'll come back 'bout's wise as ye come." + +Thenceforward, Buffalo-coat was grim; his admonitions to the horses were +a trifle more emphatic; once he whistled a fragment of a minor stave, +but spoke not a word till the coach reached the tavern-door. + +"You can drive to Mr. Lee's house," said Greenleaf. + +"Want to go where he is?" replied Jehu, with a sardonic grin. "Wal, I'm +goin' past the meetin'us, and I'll set ye down at the graveyard." + +"What do you mean?" asked Greenleaf, between anger and terror, at this +brutal jest. + +"Why, he's dead, you know, and ben layin' up there on the side-hill a +fortnight." + +"Take me to the house, nevertheless." + +"Lee's house? 'Siah Stebbins, the lame shoemaker, he's jest moved +into't. Miss Stebbins, she can't 'commodate ye, most likely; got too +many children; a'n't over an' above neat, nuther." + +"Where is Miss Lee,--Alice,--his daughter?" + +"Wal, can't say;--gone off, I b'lieve." + +"She has relatives here, has she not?" + +"Guess not; never heerd of any." + +With a heavy heart, Greenleaf alighted at the tavern. Mr. Lee _dead_! +Alice left alone without friends, and now gone! The thought stunned, +overpowered him. While he had been treading the paths of dalliance, +forgetful of his obligations, the poor girl had passed through the great +trial of her life, the loss of her only parent and protector,--had met +the awful hour alone. Hardly conscious of what he did, he went to the +churchyard and sought for a new-made grave. The whole scene was pictured +to his imagination with startling vividness. He saw the fond father on +his death-bed, leaving the orphan to the kindness of strangers to his +blood,--the daughter weeping, disconsolate, the solitary mourner at the +funeral,--the desolate house,--the well-meant, but painful sympathy of +the villagers. He, meanwhile, who should have cheered and sustained her, +was afar off, neglectful, recreant to his vows. Could he ever forgive +himself? What would he not give for one word from the dumb lips, for one +look from the eyes now closed forever? + +But regrets were useless; his first duty was to the living; he must +hasten to find Alice. But how, where? It occurred to him that the +village lawyer was probably administrator of the estate, and could tell +him where Alice was. He went, therefore, to the lawyer's office. It was +shut, and a placard informed him that Mr. Blank was attending court +at the county-seat. The lawyer's housekeeper said that "Alice was to +Boston, with some relation or other,--a Mr. Monroe, she believed his +name was, but couldn't say for sartin. The Square could tell; but +he--wouldn't be back for three or four days." + +Leaving his card, with a request that Mr. Blank would communicate to him +Alice's address, Greenleaf hired a conveyance to the railway. He could +not remain in Innisfield an hour; it was a tomb, and the air stifled +him. On his way, he had ample opportunity to consider what a slender cue +he had to find the girl; for he thought of the long column of Monroes in +the "Directory"; and, besides, he did not feel sure that the housekeeper +had correctly remembered the name, even. + +We leave the repentant lover to follow on the track of Alice, assured +that he will receive sufficient punishment for his folly in the remorse +and anxiety he must feel. + +It is quite time that our neglected heroine should appear upon the +stage. Gentle Alice, orphaned, deserted, lonely; it is not from any +distrust as to her talents, her manners, or her figure, that she +has been made to wait so long for the callboy. The curtain rises. A +fair-haired girl of medium height, light of frame, with a face in whose +sad beauty is blended the least perceptible trace of womanly resolution. +She has borne the heaviest sorrow; for when she followed her father to +the grave she buried the last object of her love. The long, inexcusable +silence of Greenleaf had been explained to her; she now believed him +faithless, and had (not without a pang) striven to uproot his memory +from her heart. Courageous, but with more than the delicacy of her sex, +strong only in innocence and great-heartedness, mature in character and +feeling, but with fresh and tender sensibility, she appeals to all manly +and womanly sympathy. + +When the last ties that bound her to her native village were broken, she +accepted the hearty invitation of her cousin, Walter Monroe, and went +with him to Boston. The house at once became a home to her. Mrs. +Monroe received her as though she had been a daughter. Such a pretty, +motherless child,--so loving, so sincere! How could the kind woman +repress the impulse to fold her to her bosom? Not even her anxiety to +retain undivided possession of her son's heart restrained her. So Alice +lived, quiet, affectionate, but undemonstrative, as was natural after +the trials she had passed. Insensibly she became "the angel in the +house"; mother and son felt drawn to her by an irresistible attraction. +By every delicate kindness, by attention to every wish and whim, by +glances full of admiration and tenderness, both showed the power which +her beauty and goodness exerted. And, truly, she was worthy of the +homage. The younger men who saw her were set aflame at once, or sighed +afar in despair; while the elderly felt an unaccountable desire to pat +her golden head, pinch her softly-rounded cheek, and call her such +pet-names as their fatherly character and gray hair allowed. + +Fate had not yet done its worst; there were other troubles in store for +the orphan. She knew little of her kinsman's circumstances, but supposed +him to be at least beyond the reach of want. But not many days passed +before the failure of Sandford deprived him of his little patrimony, and +the suspension of Mr. Lindsay left him without employment. That evening, +when Walter came home, she unwillingly heard the conversation between +him and his mother in an adjoining room; and then she knew that her +kind friends were destitute. Her resolution was at once formed. With +as cheerful an air as she could assume, she took her place at the +tea-table, and in the conversation afterwards strove to hide her +desolate heart-sickness. On going to her room, she packed her simple +wardrobe, not without many tears, and then, with only indifferent +success, tried to compose her scattered senses in sleep. + +Next morning she strove to appear calm and cheerful, but a close +scrutiny might have detected the effort,--a deeper sorrow, perhaps, +about the heavy eyelids, and certainly a firmer pressure of the +sometimes tremulous lips. But Walter was too much occupied with the +conflict of his own feelings to observe her closely. While his mother +was engaged in her housewifely duties, he took Alice's hand, and for +the first time spoke of his losses, but expressed himself confident of +obtaining a new situation, and begged her to dismiss any apprehensions +from her mind. She turned her face that he might not see the springing +tears. He went on:-- + +"The sharpest pang I feel, Alice, is in the thought, that, with the loss +of my little fortune, and with my present gloomy prospects, I cannot say +to you what I would,--I cannot tell you what is nearest my heart. Since +you came here, our sombre house has grown bright. As I have looked at +you, I have dared to promise myself a happiness which before I had never +conceived possible." + +He hesitated. + +"Don't, dear Walter! I beg of you, don't venture upon that subject!" + +"Why? is it painful to you?" + +"Inexpressibly! You are generous and good. I love and honor you as my +cousin, my friend, my protector. Do not think of a nearer relationship." + +Walter stood irresolute. + +"Some other time, dear Alice," he faltered out. "I don't wish to pain +you, and I have no courage to-day." + +"Let me be frank, Cousin Walter. Under other circumstances, I would +not anticipate the words I saw trembling on your lips. But even if the +memory of my poor father were not so fresh, I could not hear you." +She hid her face as she went on. "I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover which never will heal. I could not repay your +love. I have no heart to give you." + +Thus far she had controlled her feelings, when, kissing his hand with +sudden fervor, she burst into tears, and hastily left the room. + +She waited till Walter went out; then she wrote a brief note and placed +it on the library-table at his favorite corner, and, after bidding Mrs. +Monroe good morning, went out as though for a walk. Frequently she +looked back with tearful eyes at the home she felt constrained to leave; +but gathering her strength, she turned away and plunged into the current +that set down Washington Street. + +Brave Heart! alone in a great city, whose people were too much engrossed +with their own distresses and apprehensions to give heed to the +sufferings of others! Alone among strangers, she must seek a home and +the means of support. Who would receive an unknown, friendless girl? Who, +in the terrible palsy of trade, would furnish her employment? + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +There was naturally great surprise when Walter Monroe returned home to +dinner and Alice was found to be missing. It was evident that it was +not an accidental detention, for her trunk had been sent for an hour +previous, and the messenger either could not or would not give any +information as to her whereabouts. Mrs. Monroe was excessively +agitated,--her faculties lost in a maze, like one beholding an accident +without power of thought or motion. To Walter it was a heavy blow; he +feared that his own advances had been the occasion of her leaving the +house, and he reproached himself bitterly for his headlong folly. Their +dinner was a sad and cheerless meal; the mother feeling all a woman's +solicitude for a friendless girl; the son filled with a tumult of +sorrow, remorse, love, and pity. + +"Poor Alice!" said Mrs. Monroe; "perhaps she has found no home." + +"Don't, mother! The thought of her in the streets, or among suspicious +strangers, or vulgar people, is dreadful. We must leave no means untried +to find her. Did she leave no word, no note?" + +"No,--none that I know of." + +"Have you looked?" + +She shook her head. Walter left his untasted food, and hastily looked in +the hall, then in the parlor, and at last in the library. There was the +note in her own delicate hand. + +"DEAR WALTER,-- + +"Don't be offended. I cannot eat the bread of idleness now that your +fortune is gone and your salary stopped. If I need your assistance, you +will hear from me. Comfort your mother, and believe that I shall be +happier earning my own living. We shall meet in better times. God bless +you both for your kindness to one who had no claim upon you! + +"ALICE." + +"The dear creature!" said Mrs. Monroe, taking the note and kissing it. + +"Why did you let her trunk go, mother? You might have detained the man +who came for it, and sent for me. I would have followed him to the ends +of the earth." + +"I don't know, my son. I was confused. I hardly knew what happened. I +shook so that I sat down, and Bridget must have got it." + +Tears ran down her cheeks, and her hands trembled so that her fork +dropped. + +"Never mind, dear mother. Pray, be calm. I did not wish to disturb you." + +There was a ring at the door. A gentleman wished to see Mr. Monroe. +Rising from the table, he went into the parlor. + +"Mr. Monroe," began the stranger, in an agitated manner, "do you know +anything of a young lady named Lee,--Alice Lee?" + +"Yes," replied Monroe, with equal excitement, "I know her well. What of +her? Where is she? Have you found her?" + +"Found her?" said the other, with surprise. "Is she not here?" + +"No,--she left this morning." + +"And left no word where she was going?" + +"None." + +"Let me beg of you not to trifle with me. Did she not hear my voice, my +step, and attempt to excuse herself through you?" + +"Sir!" exclaimed Walter. + +"I beg pardon. I have been in search of her for two days. I could not +believe she had eluded me just at the last. I do not wish to doubt your +word." + +"And who may you be, Sir, to take such an interest in the lady?" + +"I can satisfy you fully. My name is Greenleaf." + +"The painter?" + +"Yes. You must have heard her speak of me." + +"Never, to my recollection." + +"Have you known her long?" + +"She is my cousin. It is only recently that she came here, and her +acquaintances of a year ago might naturally have been passed over." + +"You seem surprised at her leaving you so abruptly. You will join me in +making search for her?" + +"I shall search for her, myself, as long as there is hope." + +"Let me confess," said Greenleaf, "that I have the strongest reasons for +my haste. She is betrothed to me." + +"Since you have honored me with your confidence, I will return it, so +far as to tell you what I heard from her this morning. I think I +can remember the precise words:--'I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover, which never will heal.' If you are the +person, I hope the information will be as agreeable to you as her +absence and ill-judging independence are to me. I wish you good +morning." + +"Then she has heard!" said Greenleaf, soliloquizing. "I am justly +punished." Then aloud. "I shall not take offence at your severity of +tone. I have but one thought now. Good morning!" + +He left the house, like one in a dream. Alice, homeless in the +streets this bitter day,--seeking for a home in poverty-stricken +boarding-houses,--asking for work from tailors or milliners,--exposed +to jeers, coarse compliments, and even to utter want!--the thought was +agony. The sorrows of a whole life were concentrated in this one hour. +He walked on, frantically, peering under every bonnet as he passed, +looking wistfully in at the shop-windows, expecting every moment to +encounter her sad, reproachful face. + +Walter had been somewhat ill for several days, and the accumulation of +misfortunes now pressed upon him heavily. He did not tell his mother +of the strange interview, but sat down moodily by the grate, in the +library. He was utterly perplexed where in the city to search for Alice; +and with his mental depression came a bodily infirmity and nervousness +that made him incapable of effort. An hour passed in gloomy +reverie,--drifting without aim upon a shoreless ocean, under a sullen +sky,--when he was roused by the entrance of Easelmann. + +"In the dumps? I declare, Monroe, I shouldn't have thought it of you." + +"I am really ill, my friend." + +"Pooh! Don't let your troubles make you believe that. Cheer up. You'll +find employment presently, and you'll be surprised to find how well you +are." + +"I hope I shall be able to make the experiment." + +"Well, suppose you walk out with me. There is a tailor I want you to +see." + +"A tailor? I can't sew or use shears, either." + +"No,--nor sit cross-legged; I know that. But this tailor is no common +Snip. He is a man of ideas and character. He has something to propose to +you." + +"Indeed! I am much obliged to you. To-morrow I will go with you; but, +really, I feel too feeble to-day," said Monroe, languidly. + +"Well, as you please; to-morrow it shall be. How is your mother?" + +"Quite well, I thank you." + +"And the pretty cousin, likewise, I hope?" + +"She was quite well this morning." + +"Isn't she at home?" + +"No,--she has gone out." + +"Confound you, Monroe! you have never let me have a glimpse of her. +Now I am not a dangerous person; quite harmless, in fact; received +trustfully by matrons with grown-up daughters. You needn't hide her." + +"I don't know. Some young ladies are quite apt to be fascinated by +elderly gentlemen who know the world and still take an interest in +society." + +"Yes,--a filial sort of interest, a grand-daughterly reverence and +respect. The sight of gray hair is a wonderful antidote to any tenderer +feeling." + +"I am very sorry not to oblige you; but the truth is, that Cousin Alice, +hearing of my losses, has left the house abruptly, to earn her own +living, and we do not know where she has gone." + +"The independent little minx! Now I rather like that. There's the proper +spirit. She'll take good care of herself; I haven't a doubt." + +"But it is a most mortifying step to us. It is a reflection upon our +hospitality. I would have worked my fingers off for her." + +"No doubt. But she will merely turn hers into nutmeg-graters, by +pricking them with her needle, and save you from making stumps of +your own. Oh, never fear,--we shall find her presently. I'll make +a description of her, and leave it with all the slop-shop fellows. +'Strayed or stolen: A young lady answering to the name of Alice; five +feet and no inches; dressed in black; pale, blue-eyed, smiles when +properly spoken to; of no use to any person but the owner. One thousand +dollars reward, and no questions asked.' Isn't that it? It won't be +necessary to add, that the disconsolate advertiser is breaking his heart +on account of her absence." + +"My dear Easelmann, I know your kindly heart; but I cannot be rallied +out of this depression. I have only the interest of a cousin, a +friend, a protector, in the girl; but her going away, after my other +misfortunes, has plunged me into an abyss. I can't be cheerful." + +"One word more, my dear fellow, and I go. You know I threatened to bore +you every day; but I sha'n't continue the terebrations long at a time. +You told me about the way your notes were disposed of. Now they are +yours, beyond question, and you can recover them from the holder; he has +no lien upon them whatever, for Sandford was not authorized to pledge +them. It's only a spoiling of the Egyptians to fleece a broker." + +"Perhaps the notes themselves are worthless, or will be. Nearly +everybody has failed; the rest will go shortly." + +"I see you are incurable; the melancholy fit must have its course, I +suppose. But don't hang yourself with your handkerchief, nor drown +yourself in your wash-basin. Good bye!" + +On his way down Washington Street, Easelmann met his friend Greenleaf, +whom he had not seen before for many days. + +"Whither, ancient mariner? That haggard face and glittering eye of yours +might hold the most resolute passer-by." + +"You, Easelmann! I am glad to see you. I am in trouble." + +"No doubt; enthusiastic people always are. You fretted your nurse +and your mother, your schoolmaster, your mistress, and, most of all, +yourself. A sharp sword cuts its own scabbard." + +"She is gone,--left me without a word." + +"Who, the Sandford woman? I always told you she would." + +"No,--I left her, though not so soon as I should." + +"A fine story! She jilted you." + +"No,--on my honor. I'll tell you about it some other time. But Alice, my +betrothed, I have lost her forever." + +"Melancholy Orpheus, how? Did you look over your shoulder, and did she +vanish into smoke?" + +"It is her father who has gone over the Styx. She is in life; but she +has heard of my flirtation"-- + +"And served you right by leaving you. Now you will quit capering in a +lady's chamber, and go to work, a sadder and a wiser man." + +"Not till I have found her. You may think me a trifler, Easelmann; but +every nerve I have is quivering with agony at the thought of the pain I +have caused her." + +"Whew-w-w." said Easelmann. "Found her? Then she's eloped too! I just +left a disconsolate lover mourning over a runaway mistress. It seems to +be epidemic. There is a stampede of unhappy females. We must compress +the feet of the next generation, after the wise custom of China, so that +they can't get away." + +"Whom have you seen?" + +"Mr. Monroe, an acquaintance of mine." + +"The same. The lady, it seems, is his cousin,--and is, or was, my +betrothed." + +"And you two brave men give up, foiled by a country-girl of twenty, or +thereabouts!" + +"How is one to find her?" + +"What is the advantage of brains to a man who doesn't use them? +Consider; she will look for employment. She won't try to teach, it would +be useless. She is not strong enough for hard labor. She is too modest +and reserved to take a place in a shop behind a counter, where she would +be sure to be discovered. She will, therefore, be found in the employ +of some milliner, tailor, or bookbinder. How easy to go through those +establishments!" + +"You give me new courage. I will get a trades-directory and begin at +once." + +"To-morrow, my friend. She hasn't got a place yet, probably." + +"So much the better. I shall save her the necessity." + +"Go, then," said Easelmann. "You'll be happier, I suppose, to be running +your legs off, if it is to no purpose. A lover with a new impulse is +like a rocket when the fuse is lighted; he must needs go off with a +rush, or ignobly fizz out." + +"Farewell, for to-day. I'll see you to-morrow," said Greenleaf, already +some paces off. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +PRAYER FOR LIFE. + + + Oh, let me not die young! + Full-hearted, yet without a tongue,-- + Thy green earth stretched before my feet, untrod,-- + Thy blue sky bending over, + As her most tender lover, + With infinite meaning in its starry eyes, + Full of thy silent majesty, O God! + And wild, weird whispers from the solemn deep + Of the Great Sea ascending, with the sweep + Of the Wind-angel's wings across the skies, + Burdened with hints of awful memories, + Whose half-guessed grandeur thrills us till we weep!-- + I love thy marvellous world too well-- + Its sunny nooks of hill and dell, + Its majesty of mountains, and the swell + Of volumed waters--for my heart to yearn + Away from the deep truth which veils its splendor + In beauty there less dazzling, but more tender. + With grave delight I turn + To all its glories, from the tiniest bloom + Whose hour-long life just sweetens its own tomb + As with funereal spices, + To the far stars which burn + And blossom in fire through their vast periods,-- + Borne in thy palm, + Like the pale lotus in the hand of Isis, + When throned white, and calm, + In solemn conclave of the mythic gods. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A brother unclaimed among + The countless millions of thy happy flock, + Whose deepest joy is to obey, + Whereby they feel the measured sway + Of thy life in them, their own living part, + Whether in centuried pulses of the rock + By slow disintegration + Ascending to its higher, + Or the quick fluttering of the Storm-god's heart,-- + An instant's palpitation + Through all its arteries of fire! + One common blood runs down life's myriad veins, + From Archangelic Hierarchs who float + Broad-winged in the God-glory, to the mote + That trembles with a braided dance + In the warm sunset's vivid glance; + And one great Heart that boundless flow sustains! + In all the creatures of thy hand divine + + Thy love-light is a living guest, + Whether a petal's palm confine + Its glitter to a lily's breast, + Or in unbounded space a starry line + Stretches, till flagging Thought must droop her wing to rest. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A powerless child among + The ancient grandeurs of thy awful world! + I catch some fragment of the mighty song + Which, ere to darkness hurled, + My elder brothers in the eternal throng + Have caught before,-- + Faint murmurs of the surge, + The deep, surrounding, everlasting roar + Of a life-ocean without port or shore,-- + Ere I depart, compelled to urge + My fragile bark with trembling from the verge + Of this Earth-island, into that Unknown, + Where worlds, like souls forlorn, go wandering alone! + + Oh, let me not die young, + With all that song unsung, + A swift and voiceless fugitive, + From darkness coming and in darkness lost, + Before thy solemn Pentecost, + Dawning within the soul, shall give + The burning utterance of its flaming tongue,-- + The boon whereby to other souls we live! + Thy worlds are flashing with immortal splendor, + For human speech on heights of human song + Faintly to render, + And pour back along + Its mountain grandeur, the accumulate rain + Of star-light, dream-light, thoughts of joy and pain, + Of love, hate, right and wrong, + In floods of utterance sublime and strong, + In dewy effluence beautiful and tender. + + The kindred darknesses + Of caverned earth and fathomless thought, + Of Life and Death, and their twin mysteries, + Before and After, on my spirit press + Tempting and awful, with high promise fraught, + And guardian terrors, whose out-flashing swords + Beleaguer Paradise and the holy Tree + Sciential. Step by step the way is fought + That leads from Darkness, through her miscreant hordes, + Back to the heavens of wise, and true, and free: + Minerva's Gorgon, Ammon's cyclic Asp, + And the fierce flame-sword of the Cherubim, + That flashed like hate across the pallid gasp + Of exiled Eve and Adam, flare, and glare, + And hiss venenate, round the steps of him + Who thirsts for heavenly Wisdom, if he dare + Climb to her bosom, or with artless grasp + Pluck the sweet fruits that hang around him, ripe and fair. + + Oh! glorious Youth + Is the true age of prophecy, when Truth + Stands bared in beauty, and the young blood boils + To hurl us in her arms, before the blur + Of time makes dim her rounded form, + Or the cold blood recoils + From the polluted swarm + Of armed Chimeras that environ her. + But worthy Age to ripened fruit shall bring + The glorious blooming of its hopeful spring, + And pile the garners of immortal Truth + With sheaves of golden grain, + To sow the world again, + And fill the eager wants of the New Age's youth. + + A thousand flashes of uncertain light + Cleave the thick darkness, driving far athwart + The up-piled glooms, as lightnings plough their bright + Fire-furrows through the barren cloud + They sow with thunders. Thought on burning thought + Shatters the doubts and terrors which have bowed + Weak hearts on weaker leaning in a crowd + Self-crushing and self-fettering; gleams are caught + From some far centre set by God to keep + His brave world spinning, or some drifting isle + Of swift wildfire shot out by the wide sweep + Of wings demoniac, + Far winnowing and black, + Our cheated souls to 'wilder and beguile. + Only the years, the imperturbable, + Impassionate years, can sheave the scattered rays + Into one sun, these mingled arrows tell + Each to its quiver, the divine and fell, + And life's lone meteors to their centre trace. + + O Father, let me not die young! + Earth's beauty asks a heart and tongue + To give true love and praises to her worth; + Her sins and judgment-sufferings call + For fearless martyrs to redeem thy Earth + From her disastrous fall. + For though her summer hills and vales might seem + The fair creation of a poet's dream,-- + Ay, of the Highest Poet, + Whose wordless rhythms are chanted by the gyres + Of constellate star-choirs, + + That with deep melody flow and overflow it,-- + The sweet Earth,--very sweet, despite + The rank grave-smell forever drifting in + Among the odors from her censers white + Of wave-swung lilies and of wind-swung roses,-- + The Earth sad-sweet is deeply attaint with sin! + The pure air, which incloses + Her and her starry kin, + Still shudders with the unspent palpitating + Of a great Curse, that to its utmost shore + Thrills with a deadly shiver + Which has not ceased to quiver + Down all the ages, nathless the strong beating + Of Angel-wings, and the defiant roar + Of Earth's Titanic thunders. + + Fair and sad, + In sin and beauty, our beloved Earth + Has need of all her sons to make her glad; + Has need of martyrs to re-fire the hearth + Of her quenched altars,--of heroic men + With Freedom's sword, or Truth's supernal pen, + To shape the worn-out mould of nobleness again. + And she has need of Poets who can string + Their harps with steel to catch the lightning's fire, + And pour her thunders from the clanging wire, + To cheer the hero, mingling with his cheer, + Arouse the laggard in the battle's rear, + Daunt the stern wicked, and from discord wring + Prevailing harmony, while the humblest soul + Who keeps the tune the warder angels sing + In golden choirs above, + And only wears, for crown and aureole, + The glow-worm light of lowliest human love, + Shall fill with low, sweet undertones the chasms + Of silence, 'twixt the booming thunder-spasms. + And Earth has need of Prophets fiery-lipped + And deep-souled, to announce the glorious dooms + Writ on the silent heavens in starry script, + And flashing fitfully from her shuddering tombs,-- + Commissioned Angels of the new-born Faith, + To teach the immortality of Good, + The soul's God-likeness, Sin's coeval death, + And Man's indissoluble Brotherhood. + + Yet never an age, when God has need of him, + Shall want its Man, predestined by that need, + To pour his life in fiery word or deed,-- + The strong Archangel of the Elohim! + Earth's hollow want is prophet of his coming: + In the low murmur of her famished cry, + And heavy sobs breathed up despairingly, + Ye hear the near invisible humming + Of his wide wings that fan the lurid sky + Into cool ripples of new life and hope, + While far in its dissolving ether ope + Deeps beyond deeps, of sapphire calm, to cheer + With Sabbath gleams the troubled Now and Here. + + Father! thy will be done, + Holy and righteous One! + Though the reluctant years + May never crown my throbbing brows with white, + Nor round my shoulders turn the golden light + Of my thick locks to wisdom's royal ermine: + Yet by the solitary tears, + Deeper than joy or sorrow,--by the thrill, + Higher than hope or terror, whose quick germen, + In those hot tears to sudden vigor sprung, + Sheds, even now, the fruits of graver age,-- + By the long wrestle in which inward ill + Fell like a trampled viper to the ground. + By all that lifts me o'er my outward peers + To that supernal stage + Where soul dissolves the bonds by Nature bound,-- + Fall when I may, by pale disease unstrung, + Or by the hand of fratricidal rage, + I cannot now die young! + + * * * * * + + +ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE OLD WORLD + + +My first visit to Turin dates as far back as 1831. We are so personal, +that our impressions of things depend less on their intrinsic worth +than on such or such extrinsic circumstance which may affect our mental +vision at the moment. I suppose mine was affected by the mist and rain +which graced the capital of Piedmont on the morning of my arrival there. +Another incident, microscopic, and almost too ludicrous to mention, +had no less its weight in the scale of prepossession. I was tired and +hungry, and, while the _diligence_ was being unloaded, I entered a +_caffé_ close by, and called for some buttered toast. My hair (I had +plenty at that time) stood on end at the answer I received. There was no +buttered toast to be had, the waiter said. "It was not the custom." I +confess I augured ill of a city from whose _caffés_, unlike all others +throughout Italy, such a staple of breakfast was banished. + +I am fond of buttered toast, I own. If it is a weakness, I candidly +plead guilty. My mother--bless her soul!--brought me up in the faith of +buttered toast. I had breakfasted upon it all my life. I could conceive +of no breakfast without it. Hence the shock I felt. "Not the custom!" +Why not, I wondered. A problem of no easy solution, I can tell you! It +has been haunting me for the last seven-and-twenty years. If I had a +thousand dollars,--a bold supposition for one of the brotherhood of the +pen,--I would even now found a prize, and adjudge that sum to the best +memoir on this question:--"Why is buttered toast excluded from the +_caffés_ of Turin?" It is not from lack of proper materials,--for heaps +of butter and mountains of rolls are to be seen on every side; it is not +from lack of taste,--for the people which has invented the _grisini_, +and delights in the white truffle, shows too keen a sense of what is +dainty not to exclude the charge of want of taste. + +"Pray, what are the _grisini?_ what is the white truffle?" asks the +inquisitive reader.--The _grisini_ are bread idealized, bread under the +form of walking-sticks a third of a little finger in diameter, and from +which every the least particle of crumb has been carefully eliminated. +It is light, easy of digestion, cracks without effort under your teeth, +and melts in your mouth. It is savory eaten alone, excellent with your +viands, capital sopped in wine. A good Turinese would rather have no +dinner at all than sit down to one without a good-sized bundle of these +torrified reeds on his right or left. Beware of the spurious imitations +of this inimitable mixture of flour, which you will light on in some +_passages_ in Paris! They possess nothing of the _grisini_ but the name. + +"I have it!" I fancy I hear some imaginative reader exclaim at this +place. "The passion for the _grisini_ accounts most naturally for the +want of buttered toast in Turin. Don't you see that it is replaced by +the _grisini?_" + +A mistake, a profound mistake. _Grisini_ are _never_ served with your +coffee or chocolate. Try again. + +The white truffle,--white, mark you, and not to be confounded with its +black, hard, knotty, poor cousin of Périgord,--well, the white truffle +is--the white truffle. There are things which admit of no definition. It +would only spoil them. Define the Sun, if you dare. "Look at it," would +be your answer to the indiscreet questioner. And so I say to you,--Taste +it, the white truffle. Not that you will relish it, on a first or second +trial. No. It requires a sort of initiation. Ambrosia, depend upon it, +would prove unpalatable, at first, to organs degraded by coarse mortal +food. It has,--the white truffle, I mean, not the ambrosia, which I have +never tasted,--it has a shadow of a shade of mitigated garlic flavor, +which demands time and a certain training of the gustatory apparatus, to +be fully appreciated. Try again, and it will grow upon you,--again +and again, and you will go crazy after the white truffle. I have seen +persons, who had once turned up their noses at it, declare themselves +capable of any crime to get at it. Nature gave it to Piedmont, "_e poi +ruppe la stampa_." Gold you may find in different places, and under +different latitudes;--the white truffle is an exclusive growth of +Piedmont. + +To return. If it is not the want of proper materials, or of taste to use +them, what can be the cause of the unjust ostracism against buttered +toast? + +A Genoese friend of mine accounts for it on the same principle on which +another friend of mine, a Polish refugee in London, accounted for the +difference, nay, in many points, the direct opposition, between English +and French habits of life,--that is to say, on the principle of national +antagonism. Why does the English Parliament hold its sittings at night? +my Polish friend would ask. The reason is obvious. _Because_, the French +Parliament sits in broad day, when it sits at all. Why is winter the +season of _villeggiatura_ in England? _Because_ in France it is summer +and autumn. Why are beards and moustaches tabooed in Great Britain? +_Because_ it is common to wear them in France. Why are new pipes +preferred in England for smoking? _Because_ in France the older and more +_culottée_ a pipe, the more welcome it is. And so on, _ad infinitum_. + +Arguing on the same principle, my Genoese friend avers that buttered +toast is proscribed at Turin _because_ it is so justly popular in Genoa. +The Genoese, in fact, excel in the preparation of that dainty article. +They have, for the purpose, delicious little rolls, which they cut in +two and suit to all tastes and whims. The upper or under crust, soft or +hard, deep brown or light brown, with much or little butter, with cold +or hot butter, with butter visible or invisible:--be as capricious in +your orders as you like, and never fear tiring the waiter. Proteus +himself never took so many shapes. + +There is some speciousness in my Genoese friend's argument. The +_Superba_, naturally enough, cannot forget that she was first and is +now second. Turin, on her side, does not intend to have her official +supremacy disputed. No wonder that the two noble cities should look at +each other rather surlily, and stick to their own individuality. "Hence +it is," concludes my friend, "that the comparatively easy Apennines have +proved to this day an impassable barrier to the buttered toast on one +side, and to the _grisini_ on the other." + +"But not so to the white truffle," I put in, triumphantly. "The Genoese +have adopted that; and honor to them for having done so! What do you say +to this, eh?" + +My friend scratched his head in quest of a new argument. We will leave +him to his embarrassment, and have done with this string of digressions. + +I was saying, that my first visit to Turin dated as far back as 1831. On +that journey I had a singular travelling-companion, a beautiful fish, +a John Dory, carefully wrapped up, and neatly laid in a wicker-basket, +like a babe in its cradle. The officers of the _octroi_, who examined my +basket, complimented me on my choice,--nay, grew so enthusiastic about +my John Dory, that, if I remember right, they let it pass duty-free. +The mistress of the house, at whose table it was served, paid it a +well-deserved tribute of admiration, but lamented the unskilfulness of +the hand which had cleaned it: "How stupid to cut it to the very throat! +See what a gap!" I laughed in my sleeve and held my tongue. It was a +frightful gap, to be sure,--but not bigger than was necessary to admit +of an oilskin-covered parcel, a pound at least in weight, a parcel full +to the brim of treasonable matter, revolutionary pamphlets, regulations +of secret societies, and what not. My John Dory was a horse of Troy in +miniature. But Turin stood this one better than Troy the other. + +Turin was, or seemed to me, gloomy and chilly at that time, though the +season was mild, and the sky had cleared up. Jesuits, carabineers, and +spies lorded it; distrust was the order of the day. People went about +their business, exchanged a hasty and well-timed _sciaô_, (_schiavo_,) +and gave up all genial intercourse. Far keener than the breath of +neighboring snow-capped Mount Cenis, the breath of despotism froze alike +tongues and souls. How could buttered toast, emblem of softness, thrive +in so hard a temperature? I left as soon as I could, and with a feeling +of relief akin to joy. + +I was in no haste to revisit Turin, nor, had I been, would circumstances +have permitted my doing so. The fish had a tail for me as well as for +many others, and a very long tail too. Most of the years intervening +between 1831 and 1848 I had to spend abroad,--out of Italy, I mean. Time +enough for reflection. Plenty of worry and anxiety, and difficulties of +many a kind. Rough handling from the powers that were, cold indifference +from the masses. A flow of gentle sympathy, now and then, from a kindred +heart or two,--God bless them!--a live spring in a desert. A hard +apprenticeship,--still, useful in many ways, to develop the sense +of realities, to teach one to do without a host of things deemed +indispensable before to keep the soul in tune. I declare, for my part, +I don't regret those long years of erratic life. I bless them, on the +contrary; for they opened my eyes to the worth of my country. The right +point of view to take in physical or moral beauty, in its fulness, is +only at a distance. + +The great convulsion of '48 flung wide the gates of Italy to the +wanderer, and I returned to Turin. I had left it at freezing-point, +and I found it at white-heat. Half Europe revolutionized,--France a +republic, Vienna in a blaze, Hungary in arms, Radetzky driven out of +Milan, a Piedmontese army in Lombardy,--there was more than enough to +turn the heads of the Seven Sages of Greece. No wonder ours were turned. +Serve a splendid banquet and pour out generous wine to a shipwrecked +crew who have long been starving, and ten to one they will overfeed +themselves and get drunk and quarrel. We did both, alas!--and those who +are drunk and quarrel are likely to be overpowered by those who keep +sober and united. We were divided about the sauce with which the hare +should be dressed, and, in the heat of argument, lost sight of this +little fact, that a hare, to be dressed at all, must first be caught. +The first reverses overtook us thus occupied. They did not sober us; +quite the contrary; we fell to doing what Manzoni's capons did. + +By-the-by, since that revered name comes under my pen, I may as well +state, what every one will be glad to hear, that the author of the +"Promessi Sposi" has perfectly recovered from his late illness. It +cannot be but that the wail of a nation has reached even across the +Atlantic, without the aid of an electric cable. He looks strong and +healthy, and likely to be long spared to the love and veneration of his +country. I have this on the authority of a witness _de visu et auditu_, +a friend of his and mine, who visited the great man, not a fortnight +ago, in his retreat of Brusuglio, near Milan. + +To leave the author for his book. Do you recollect Renzo tying four fat +capons by the legs, and carrying them, with their heads hanging down, to +Signor Azzeccagarbugli,--and the capons, in that awkward predicament, +finding no better occupation than to peck at each other? "As is too +often the case with companions in misfortune," observes the author, in +his quiet, humoristic way. We were just as wise. Instead of saying, _Mea +culpa_, we began to recriminate, and find fault with everything and +everybody. It was the fault of the Ministers, of the _Camarilla_, of the +army, of the big epaulets, of the King. Dynastic interest, of course, +was not forgotten in the indictment. + +Dynastic interest, forsooth! So long as it combines and makes but one +with the interest of the nation, I should like to know where is the +great harm of it. As if kings alone were defiled with that pitch! As +if we had not, each and all of us, low and high, rich and poor, our +dynastic interest, and were not eager enough in its pursuit! As if +anybody scrupled at or were found fault with for pushing on his sons, +enlarging his business, rounding his estate, in the view of transmitting +it, thus improved, to his kindred and heirs! + +But who thought of such things under the smart of defeat? I do not +intend, by this _post-facto_ grumbling, to give myself credit for having +been wiser than others. By no means. I played my part in the chorus of +fault-finders, and cried out as loud as anybody. The upshot was what +might have been expected. Independence went to the dogs--for a while. +Liberty, thank God, remained in this little corner, at least,--liberty, +the great lever for those who use it wisely. I know of nations, far more +experienced than we are in political matters, and whose programme in +1848 was far less complicated than ours, who cannot say as much for +themselves. + +The times were unpropitious to the buttered-toast question, and it +had quite slipped out of my mind. I have never traced the string of +associations which reminded me of it, on one certain morning. Once more +I made bold to ask if I could have buttered toast. "Impossible," said +the waiter, curtly. I was piqued. "How impossible?" said I. "Erase that +word from your Dictionary, if you are to drive the Austrians from Italy. +Take a roll, cut it in halves, have it toasted, and serve hot with +butter." Long was the manipulation, and the result but indifferent,--the +toast hard and cold, the butter far from fresh; but it was a step in +advance, and I chuckled over it. For a short time, alas! Mine was the +fate of all reformers. Routine stood in my way. The waiters fled at my +approach, and vied with each other as to who should _not_ serve me. I +gave up the attempt in disgust. Shortly after, I left Turin,--without +joy this time, but also without regret. + +Ten years have elapsed, and here I am again, on my third visit. The +journey from Genoa to Turin took, ten years ago, twenty-four hours by +_diligence_. Now it is accomplished in four by railway. To say that this +accelerated ratio of travelling represents but fairly the average of +progress realized in almost all directions, within this space of +time, is no mere form of speech. To whatever side I turn, my eyes are +agreeably surprised by material signs of improvement. From what but +yesterday was waste land, where linen was spread to dry, steam-engines +raise their shrill cry, and a double terminus sends forth and receives, +in its turn, merchandise, passengers, and ideas. At the gate of the +city, so to say, a gigantic work, the piercing of Mount Cenis, is +actually going on. Where I left, literally left, cows browsing in peace, +two new quarters have risen, as if by magic,--that of Portanuova, +aristocratic and rich, and that of San Salvario, less showy, but not +less comfortable. A third is in contemplation; nay, already begun,--to +be raised on the spot where once stood the citadel, (and prison for +political offenders,) of sinister memory, now levelled with the ground. +I take this last as a capital novelty. Another, more significant still, +is the Protestant Temple, which stares me in the face,--a poor work of +Art, if you will, but no less the embodiment of one of the most precious +conquests, religious freedom. I would fain not grow emphatic,--but when +I contrast the present with the past, when I recollect, for instance, +how the Jews were formerly treated, and see them now in Parliament, I +cannot help warming up a little. Monuments to Balbo, the stanch patriot +and nervous biographer of Dante,--to General Bava, the conqueror at +Goito,--to Pepe, the heroic defender of Venice, grace the public walks. +One to Gioberti, the eminent philosopher, is in course of preparation. +If these are not signs of radically changed times, and changed for the +better, I don't know what are. + +Nor is the moral less improved than the material physiognomy of the +city. I see a thriving, orderly community,--no trace of antagonism, but +a free, good-natured intercourse between all classes, and a general +look of ease and contentment. Of course, there are poor in Turin, as +everywhere else,--except Japan, if we may credit travellers; but nowhere +are my eyes saddened by the spectacle of that abject destitution which +blunts, nay, destroys, the sense of self-respect. The operatives, +especially,--what are here called the _braccianti_,--this salt of all +cities, this nursery of the army and navy, this inexhaustible source of +production and riches, impress me by their appearance of comfort and +good-humor. It gladdens one's heart to watch them, as they walk arm in +arm of an evening, singing in chorus, or fill the pits of the cheaper +theatres, or sit down at fashionable _caffés_ in their jackets, with a +self-confidence and freedom of manner pleasant to behold. The play of +free institutions is not counteracted here, thank God, by the despotism +of conventionalities. No shadow of frigid respectability hangs over +people's actions and freezes spontaneousness. + +But this is all on the surface; let us go deeper, if we can, and have a +peep at the workings beneath. I knock for information on this head at +the mind and heart of all sorts of people. I note down the answers of +the Minister and of the Deputy, as well as those of the waiter who +serves my coffee and of the man who blacks my shoes, and here is what +I find,--a growing sense of the benefits of liberty, a deep-rooted +attachment to the _Rè galantuomo_, (the King, honest man,) a juster +appreciation of the difficulties which beset the national enterprise, +(the freeing of Italy from Austria,) and an honest confidence of +overcoming them with God's help. This last feeling, I am glad to say, +is, as it ought to be, general in the army. This is what I find in the +bulk. There is no lack of dissenters, who regret the past, and take a +gloomy view of the future. I describe no Utopia. Unanimity is no flower +of this earth. + +This improved state of things and feelings, within so short a period of +time, reflects equal credit on the people which benefits by it and on +the men who have lately presided over its destinies. Among these last it +were invidious not to mention, with well-deserved praise, the active and +accomplished statesman who introduced free trade, caused Piedmont to +take its share in the Crimean War, and last, not least, by a bold and +skilful move, brought the Italian question before the Congress of Paris. + +During the summer of 1848, I rented a couple of rooms in the Via dell' +Arcivescovado. There often fell upon my ear, wafted across the court +from the windows opposite mine, a loud and regular declamation. I +fancied it was a preacher learning by heart his sermon, or an actor his +part. I was told one day that it was Count Cavour, the owner of the +house, who, as a prelude to his parliamentary career, was addressing an +imaginary assembly. The fact struck me the more, as the Count was not a +member of Parliament at the time. He was elected a Deputy and took his +seat not long after. I was present at his _début_. It was not brilliant. +Count Cavour was not born an orator; his delivery was far from fluent. +He had many things to say, and wanted to say them all at once. The sense +of the House was not favorable to the new member,--that of the public +galleries still less so. No man was less spoiled by popularity than he. +I have no other reason for mentioning these particulars than to put in +relief the strength of will and the perseverance which one so situated +must have brought to bear, in order to conquer his own deficiencies and +the popular prejudice, and attain, against wind and tide, the high place +he holds in the estimation of Parliament and of the country. That Count +Cavour has made himself, if not properly an orator, in the high sense of +the word, a nervous, fluent, and most agreeable speaker, is sufficiently +attested by the untiring attention with which his speeches, occupying +sometimes two whole sittings, are listened to in both Houses. He never +puts them in writing, and seldom, if ever, makes use of notes. + +Life is substantial in Turin, and on a broad, homely scale. By which you +are not to understand, either that the male portion of the inhabitants +feast on whole oxen, like Homer's heroes, or that, the fair sex are +draped in tunics of homespun wool, like the Roman matrons of old. They +are not so primitive as that. You may have at any restaurant a smaller +morsel than an ox or even an ox's shoulder; and as to ladies' finery, +there is no _article de Paris_, no indispensable inutility, no +crinoline, hoop, or cage, of impossible materials, shape, and +dimensions, which you may not find under the Portici, or in Vianuova, +a facility of which the Turinese beauties give themselves the benefit +rather freely. What I meant to say, when I spoke of life on a broad, +homely scale, was simply this:--that in Turin, generally speaking, the +great art of putting the appearance in the place of the substance, and +juggling the principal under the accessories, has yet to be learned. If +you ask for a room, a dinner, a bath, they take you in good earnest, +and supply you with the genuine article. When I put up at the _Hôtel de +Londres_, from which I am writing, I had to run no gantlet between a +double line of solemn-looking, white-cravated waiters; yet I have only +to ring my bell, to be attended to with promptitude, with zeal, nay, +_con amore_. My kind hostess, Signora Viarengo, does not wear a triple +or quadruple row of flounces, but looks after my wardrobe when I am out, +and, if anything wants mending, has it mended. The room which I occupy +is not furnished in a dashing style, nor has it a _parquet ciré_, but it +is on the first floor, and thrice as large and lofty and half as dear as +that I had at Meurice's on the _quatrième_; and a Titan might stretch +himself down at ease on the bed in which I sleep. The dining-room of the +hotel is not glittering with gilt stucco and chandeliers; but the dinner +served to me there (and served at any hour) is copious and first-rate,-- +four dishes of _entremets_, butter, _salame_, celery, radishes, to whet +the appetite,--a soup,--a first course of three dishes, two of meat, one +of vegetables,--a second of three dishes, one of them a roasted fowl, +--salad, a sweet dish,--a mountain of Parmesan, or Gorgonzola, with +peaches, pears, and grapes, for dessert. Gargantua would cry for mercy. +For all this, and a bottle of wine, I pay three francs. For the bath +establishment, close by, I lack the satisfaction, it is true, of seeing +my revered image reproduced _ad infinitum_, by a vista of mirrors; but I +have a bathing-tub like a lake, and linen enough to dry a hippopotamus. +If I go to the theatre, (there are five open at this season, November, +without reckoning three or four minor ones: Italian opera at the +Nazionale and the Carignano; Italian play at the Gerbino and the +Alfieri; French _vaudeville_ at the d'Angennes,)--if I go to the +theatre, the relative obscurity of the house, I own, allows me to enjoy +but imperfectly the display of fine toilets and ivory shoulders; but the +concentration of light on the stage enhances the scenic effect, and is +on the side of Art. At least, they think so here, and like it so. It is +the custom. + +This takes me back some twenty-seven years, to the waiter's answer, _à +propos_ of buttered toast, "It is not the custom," and recalls to me +that important question. Well, even that has not remained stationary in +the general movement. Not that buttered toast has received its great or +even small letters of naturalization. But you have only to ask for it, +and it will be served without demur. So far the neck of routine is +broken. What next? We shall find out on our fourth visit, if God grants +us life. Meanwhile I feel that Turin will be regretted this time. + + * * * * * + + +TWO SNIFFS. + + +From the lounge where Fred Shaw was lying, he could easily look out of +the low window into Senter Place, and at the usually "uninterrupted view +across the street." Just now it was interrupted so fully with a driving +snow-storm, that the houses opposite were scarcely visible. The wind +tossed the great flakes up and across and whirled them in circles, as if +loath to let them go at all to the ground. There was something lively +and merry in it, too, as if the flakes themselves were joyful and +dancing in the abundance of their life,--as if they and the wind had a +life of their own, as well as poor stupid mortals, that cowered under +cover, and shut themselves away from the broad, free air. How foolish +it is, to be sure! Here comes one now, turning into the place,--well +covered, a fur tippet about his face,--slapping his arms on his chest, +--a defiant smile on his brown face, and a look of expectancy in his +eyes. Yes! there they are at the window,--wife and children! The smile +melts into a broad laugh, as the snow-flakes dash madly at his eyes and +nose. There they are,--rosy, well, and warm! From the warmest corner of +his heart comes up a quick throb that takes away his breath;--he runs up +the steps,--the door opens,--one, two, three little faces,--it shuts. +The snow-flakes gallop on again, madly, joyfully. + +Behind the man who ran up the steps, a girl of eighteen walked swiftly +and firmly over the drifting heaps on the sidewalk. Her eyes glanced +upward at the sky. There are four immense clouds, of a very light gray, +with silver edges, trying to meet over a speck of blue. They tumble and +clamber, and press all for the same point; but whether the wind is too +variable for them to gather in one mass, or for whatever meteorological +reason, she does not guess, but she is attracted to the sky and gazes at +it as she walks rapidly on. + +Fred recognizes the blue eyes and glowing face, as they go past the +window. It is only Sister Minnie. Not coming here, after all! No. And +the clouds could not overcome and hide the blue sky. It shone out +serenely and hopefully, like Minnie's own encouraging spirit. She +breasts the storm gallantly. If she can only get round the corner into +C-- Street! But here all the tempest seems collected to battle with +her--She wraps herself a little closer, and holds her breath. A few +steps more,--she turns round,--places her back full at the driving +storm,--and draws a long breath. Now for it! The flakes stop suddenly, +as if awed by the quiet determination in the young face. They fall to +the ground, stilly. The blue sky looks out, the sun shimmers white for +five minutes. Minnie walks rapidly, runs up the steps,--rings, and takes +into the house with her a full, fresh life, that vibrates from cellar to +attic in harmonious energy. + +The afternoon wanes. Fred has dined. He takes his meerschaum from the +teapoy by his side and examines it critically. How for the color? Is it +just the right shade to stop? No. A very little darker. This is growing +quite beautiful. Almost like an agate. Which of those six is the +prettiest, after all? He thinks a seventh, which he remembers lying +on Little's mantel-piece, outdoes the whole. That of Little's was not +carved, nor silver-mounted even, and yet connoisseurs pronounced it +worth a hundred and fifty dollars. Not one of these is worth ten. He +smokes again, and looks at the cannel coal as it leaps into flame. The +room is very still; not a footfall can be heard in the house;--partly +because the doors are hung with a view to silence and the floors thickly +carpeted, and partly because there are only two servants in-doors, and +those men. The cook cannot speak English, and Fred's own man, a jewel in +his way, is taciturn to a fault. If Fred would be honest with himself, +he would acknowledge that the third-hand chatter of anybody's kitchen +would often be a delightful relief to his solitude. But then how could +he follow up his system of self-culture? That and society are quite +incompatible things. However, he yawns fearfully. + +But what then? Has the man no mind, no cultivation, no taste? Things do +not indicate any such want. The walls of the room in which he is +just now lounging have their crimson and gold almost covered with +pictures,--copies of rare Murillos and Raphaels, and an original head of +a boy, by Greuze, with the lips as fresh as they were a hundred years +ago. An exquisite "Dying Stork," in bronze, stands on a bracket below +Sassoferrato's sweetest Madonna, and Retzsch's "Hamlet" lies open on a +side-table. The three Canovian Graces stand in a corner opposite him, +and he glances at the pedestal which stands ready to receive "Eve at the +Fountain." The pedestal has been there two weeks already, waiting for +the "Oxford" to arrive with its many precious Art-burdens. It stands +near the window; it will be a good light for it. Fred wishes, for the +hundredth time, that it would come along. There are books, surely? Oh, +yes, one side of the room is a complete bookcase,--tasteful, inside and +out. + +The small room which opens into this luxurious sitting-room has a high +north window, and near it stands Fred's easel, with a half-finished head +on a canvas. Already it has changed its aspect twenty times. Sometimes +it is a Nymph, sometimes a Naiad, sometimes Undine. Once, he dashed all +the green of the wood-nymph's forest, with one stroke, into green water, +intending to put in Undine, with a boat. He has not fulfilled his +intention; but he works on, with the luxurious abandonment of genius to +its spell, be it what it may. He does not care what it ends in. One +of Fred's theories is, that the imagination, by constant and intense +exercise, may so project the image it conceives, as to make it the +subject of ocular contemplation and imitation. Why not? All objects of +sight are painted on a flat surface, and it is by experience, comparison, +nay, in some measure by the will, that we get our ideas of their shape +and distance. Poor Blake's insane painting of imaginary heads, which he +saw three or six feet from him, was the only true and rational method +of painting at all. Think of your thought,--intensify it,--create +it,--create it perfectly,--define it carefully,--group it gracefully, +--color it exquisitely,--project it, by an intense effort of the will, +into the space before you. There it stands. Now paint it. + +He is fond of dwelling on this theory; and as nobody takes the trouble +to contradict him, he has come to believe it truth, through hearing it +often repeated. He has explained it to Minnie more than twenty times, +and says he is almost ready to paint. Not quite. He must lie on the sofa +a year, perhaps two years longer, before he will be able to satisfy +himself. But then, what is a year, two, ten years, in an eternity of +fame? + +The conception being completely projected from the brain in a visible +form, what remains but the mechanical imitation of it? Anybody can do +that. The thing is the conception. In vain Minnie suggests the vulgar +notion of acquiring facility by drawing and copying things in general. + +"Entirely unnecessary, Minnie. What! is not genius before rules? Why +should I imitate Titian's tints, when I can copy my own fancies? When I +get my ideal perfected, you will soon see it real. I can copy it in +half an hour. If it is in me, it will come out of me, like Curran's +eloquence." + +"But," says Minnie, doubtfully, looking at the easel where the golden +curls and heavenly eyes of an angel are obscured by the russet-brown of +a beginning wood-nymph, "why don't you keep to one idea, Fred?" + +"Oh, because I choose to be fancy-free. I will not have my imagination +trammelled. Let it wander at its own sweet will. You will see, Minnie, +by-and-by. Now, here I have been getting up a head,--not painting it, +you know. Sometimes I can almost see the eyes. But they elude me,--I +haven't quite command of them yet. But I shall get it,--I shall get it +yet!" + +Minnie remembers the same things said to her ever since she was a child. +Fred used to tell it all over to her then. He was so much older than she +was,--fourteen years,--that she was quite flattered by being thought +worthy to listen to his theories of all sorts. However, since she had +come to think for herself, one by one all these theories had faded out +of her mind and seemed like last year's clouds. She had discovered that +it was useless to controvert them, and generally listened with some +pretence of patience. The last time she had said, at the first pause,-- + +"Now, Fred, I must go. But I want you to contribute a little, if you +will, to my poor's library, and if you will, a little, too, to poor +Sophia." + +"Little Sister Minnie," answered Fred, curtly, "don't annoy me. If you +enjoy digging out beggar-women, and adorning them with all sorts of +comforts and pleasures, do it. I don't ask you not to. Will you give me +the same privilege of following my own pleasure?" + +"But, Fred!" said Minnie, astonished, "only last week, what did you do +for poor Sophia? More than I could in a year,--two, three years! For +you know I have only my thirty dollars quarterly for everything, and +sometimes I have so little to give!" + +"Why do you give, then, dear Minnie?" said Fred, languidly smiling. + +"Oh, if you ask that, why did you give, last Monday? You gave--let me +see--fifty-four dollars; every cent you had in your purse. Oh, +the things I bought for her with it! Paid rent, bought medicine, +blankets,--oh, so many needed comforts! Now, why did _you_ give?" said +Minnie, with a triumphant smile,--"for now I have him," she thought. + +"To save myself pain,--that's all." + +Minnie looked puzzled. + +"Nothing else, I do assure you. No very great virtue in that. The fact +was, I was bored, and, to tell the truth, somewhat shocked, by your +'poor Sophia's' ailments, which I came upon so inopportunely,--and I +was glad to empty my pockets to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling." + +"Well, then, save yourself pain again, Fred,--for I assure you she +suffers constantly for want of simple alleviations, which a small sum of +money would afford her. Oh, she needs so many things, and everything is +so dear! And she has so many helpless children, and no husband, and so +bowed with rheumatism"-- + +"Minnie! excuse me for interrupting you; but can you find nothing but +rheumatism to talk about? It is of all subjects the least tasteful to +me." + +"My dear Fred!" And there Minnie stopped. She was both hurt and puzzled. + +Fred laughed. His good-humor returned at the sight of her mystified +face, and the opportunity of explaining some of his theories of morals. + +"In the first place, Minnie, what do we live for?" + +Minnie had not thought. She was only eighteen, and had acted. + +"Well, I dare say you have never considered the subject. I have, a great +deal. You see, Minnie, we are born to pursue happiness. You allow that." + +"Yes,--I suppose so," said Minnie. + +"Well, then, if I look at the wrong thing, and call it happiness, it is +my mistake, and I only shall pay for it. You find your happiness in an +active life and works of mercy. Very well, do so. You devote a certain +part of your income, small as it is, to that sort of pleasure. I devote +mine to my pleasures. They are different from yours. You might call them +selfish. What then? So are yours. I don't say you are not modest and +humble, and all that; but you do enjoy your old women, and your fussy +charity-schools. Very well. That is all I do with my drawing, my +lounging, my smoking, my reading. And I think, Minnie," added Fred, +laughing, "I have the added grace of humility; for I am far from making +a merit of my sort of life." + +"No,--it would be difficult to make a merit of it," said Minnie. + +That was clear enough. Fred loved to have her for an auditor. So long as +she could not see over him, he was as good as infinite to her. + +"In the first place, Minnie, you must allow, it is a duty to surround +ourselves with the beautiful in all things. It conduces to the highest +self-culture; and self-culture is our first duty." + +"Is it? Surely, it cannot be! Oh, you mean we ought rather to attend to +our own faults than those of others?" + +"I mean as I say. Self-culture is our first duty, both moral and +intellectual. I might add, also, that to take care of Number One is a +dictate of common prudence. You allow that? Well. First, then, the body +cared for, all right. Then the morals,--attend to your own, and let +other people's alone. Then, thirdly, your intellect. Now, then, it +becomes a positive duty, 'the duty that lies nearest to me,' to +cultivate that. And to do that, Minnie, I am obliged to draw on myself +to my very last dollar. To refine the taste by familiarity with the +highest objects of taste, to appreciate Art, to develop the intellect, +to bring one's self to conceive and grasp the Universal, the Beautiful, +to raise one's self in the scale of created things by creative fancies +imitating the Highest,--ah! in fact, Minnie, self-culture becomes a +duty,--indeed, our first duty." + +Something in Minnie's face--it was not a smile--made Fred turn the +subject a little. + +"Now, really, if every one would take care of one, and that one himself, +don't you see there would be no more want or suffering in this weary +world? no more need of blankets or dispensaries? Each is happy, +comfortable, and self-cultured in his proportion. A universal harmony +prevails. Like the planets, self-revolving, and moving, each in his +chosen orbit, they shout and sing for joy. How much better this than +to be eccentrically darting off in search of somebody's tears to wipe, +somebody's wounds to bandage,--who, indeed, would have neither wounds +nor grief, if they would follow my simple rule!" + +Minnie laughed a little at her brother's grave sophistry, but had no +wish to contest the point with him. + +"It is no merit in me, but, as you say, rather self-indulgence, to be +looking up and relieving destitute cases. But it would be merit in you, +if you don't like it; and you might have all that, and none of the +annoyances." + +Her bright face glowed; and Fred liked to look at her when she was +excited; the coloring beat Titian's, he thought. + +"You don't know how painful to me it is to hold out empty hands to so +many sufferers"-- + +But now Minnie's face looked so sorrowful that there was nothing +specially beautiful in the coloring, and Fred said, impatiently,-- + +"You bore me, Minnie. I am waiting to take my afternoon nap." + +And he turned positively over towards the wall. + +The sight of Minnie, swiftly walking through the driving storm to-day, +brought up to Fred's memory all the talk they had had in that very room, +he lying in the same place, a fortnight ago. Since that day he had not +seen Minnie, except casually; and, indeed, she seemed very busy and +very happy, if one might judge by her lighted face and her laden arm. +Something keener than philosophy, subtiler than Epicurus, pricked Fred, +as Minnie vanished into the cloud of snowflakes. + +"Pshaw!" + +He glanced around the apartment. It was still luxurious; but "custom had +staled the infinite variety" of its ornament and furnishing. Already he +was dissatisfied with this and that. Where to place a new bas-relief +that had struck him at Cotton's the day before, and which he had +purchased on the spot, without considering that there was no room for +it in the library? There it leaned against the wall,--not so big as the +Vicar's family-picture, but quite as much in the way. + +"The room looks loaded. I ought to have a gallery for these things. I +wonder if I couldn't buy Carter's house, and push a gallery through from +the top of my stairway." + +He touched the bell, and lay down again. + +Martin entered softly, let down the crimson curtains, so as to exclude +the vanishing light, and stirred the crimson cannel into a newer +radiance. + +"This weather frets my nerves, Martin. My face aches. Give me the bottle +of chloroform in my chamber." + +He inhaled the subtile fluid two or three times, and handed it back to +Martin. It made no difference, he said. He would try to sleep. So Martin +went out on tiptoe and closed the door. + +The chloroform probably did relieve him, for he thought no more of the +uneasiness in his face; but he was not only not at all sleepy, but +every sense seemed wide awake,--wide awake to its utmost capacity of +perception. It was as if a misty veil were suddenly removed from before +his eyes, and he saw, what indeed had always been there, but what in his +abstraction or inattention he had never before noticed. For instance, he +noticed at once that Martin had not quite closed the curtains, but had +left an inch or two open, and the window open besides. The air, however, +had grown soft, and the wind must have gone down, for it did not stir +the drapery. He looked again, to be certain he was right. Yes,--there +was an inch clear, where the wind might come in, if it liked. Martin was +growing blind or stupid. However, he did not so much think that. On the +whole, it was more likely that his own senses were sharpening. +That would be a good thing, though,--to be wiser and sharper and +clearer-sighted than all the rest of the world! He would like that +advantage. And why might he not have it? Already he perceived a marked +difference from his usual sensuous condition. It was unnatural, +preternatural,--and yet, a state which could be produced at will. It +was easily done. Just homoeopathy, in fact. A little sniff, a minute +dose, and he could see and hear with a miraculous clearness; but people +would take a dozen, and then they grew stupid. + +He looked again around the room. Was it fancy, now? Perhaps it was. It +was not likely the Madonna was winking in a heretic's parlor. Besides, +it was the same sort of no-motion he had watched many a time in the +twilight, when the door seemed to swing backward and forward in the +dusky air, following the dilation and contraction of his own eyes. He +tried it now on the Madonna. He opened his eyes as widely as possible, +and the drooping lids of the picture evidently half-raised themselves +from the dark, soft orbs. He nearly closed his own, and hers bent again +in serenest contemplation. + +He looked at the bronze figure of the "Dying Stork," which was placed +below the picture, and started to see that it moved also, and with a +strange, unnatural, galvanic sort of movement, like the "animated oat," +which moves when placed on the hand after being warmed a moment in the +mouth. The legs sprung against the reeds and flags, in the same way. + +Lastly, he looked at the bas-relief which stood near, leaning against +the wall. It was very, very strange. Had the old fable of Pygmalion a +truth in it, then? And could the same genius that created also give life +and warmth to its productions? Beneath the marble he could see the soft, +living pulse, distinctly; and the wind that blew over the mountains, +beyond the river, ruffled the waves about the tiny boat. Even the star +above the child's head sparkled in the depths of the sky. + +Fred was delighted. "It is enchantment!" he said. But no,--it was one +of those miracles that have not yet become commonplace. The poetic life +that his perceptions were now able to enjoy, in inanimate nature, would +be such a perpetual gratification to his taste,--such an incentive to +explorations and discoveries! He could not felicitate himself enough. + +"A thousand times better than the microscope," said he to himself +again. "Atoms are annoying and disgusting to look at, with their +incomprehensible and frightful minuteness, and their horrible celerity. +One does not like to think that everything is composed of myriads, be +they ever so beautiful,--which they are not, that ever I could see, but +chiefly all head or a wriggling tail. Bah! This is much better. Hark! I +can hear the waves dash,--the hope-song of the child,--and the breeze +moving against the delicate sails! + +"How delightful it will be to travel, with this new-found faculty! +Whenever I choose, I can have the talking bird, the singing tree, and +the laughing water! I always thought those peeps into irrational nature +the chief charm of the Arabian tales. How little did I dream of ever +being able to read with my own eyes the riddle of the world! By-the-way, +let me look at my Graces, and see if they, too, are conscious forms of +beauty." + +He turned to the group. Alas! even the Graces were not proof against the +ordeal of constant society. Perhaps, if he had reflected, he would +not have expected it. In truth, it was surprising to see how many +disagreeable sentiments they all three contrived to express, without +untwining their arms, or loosening their fond and graceful hold on each +other. A slight elevation of the eyebrow, a curve of the lovely mouth, +or a shrug from the Parian shoulders,--how expressive,--how surprising! +But Fred need not have been surprised; they never set up for Faith, +Hope, and Charity. What he most wondered at was that they still looked +so lovely, when they were clearly full of all pagan naughtiness. They +might as well have been women. + +Fred pondered on this for some time. Then, it seemed, everything had +a latent life in it. He had suspected as much. "There is always a +something," said he, "in what we make, not only beyond what we intend +to make, but different from it. We study a long time the powers of +position,--in chess, for example;--how much is produced by one move +that we did not anticipate, and perhaps cannot ascertain,--certainly not +prevent! How many times we are wittier than we meant to be,--striking +out, by our unconscious blow, thoughts related to the one we utter, but +far more brilliant,--and ourselves becoming conscious of the very good +thing we have said only by its effect on the company! So it is, I fancy, +with all our mental movements. The brain acts independently of the will +in sleep. Why not, in a great measure, when awake? Probably, as all +Nature has a movement of its own, so all Art may be made to have, by +the infusion and absorption of so much of the creative energy of the +artist,--hidden to the common eye, but palpitating to the instructed +touch, throbbing or sparkling to the instructed eye. Yes, it must be +so. The south-wind sighs a thousand times more mournfully through the +keyhole than Thalberg can make it do on the piano. What music there was +in those stones the man brought round, the other day, and played on with +a stick! And now, the sound here from the gas-tube, how wailing, how +sorrowful!--now, how triumphant!" + +Fred was so delighted with watching the gas-burner, and listening to the +wild music which floated through it, that he did not at first observe +that the wind had risen and was blowing almost a gale. Presently, in his +speculations as to the cause of such a sudden flood of melody, he hit on +the possibility of a current of air. + +"But, then, how comes the air to be so full of music? Never mind,--I'll +put the window down." + +However, just as he was putting it down, a snow-flake, one of a hundred, +all pressing for the same point, flew past him, and alighted on the +green velvet tabouret. + +It was nothing,--only a snow-flake,--and another time, Fred would have +thought nothing of it. But in the novel awakening of his faculties, even +a snow-flake had a new interest. With intense eagerness he watched the +movement of the little thing,--and yet, feeling that he might be on +forbidden ground, he had the presence of mind to seem not to see or +hear. If inanimate Nature were once to suspect his new insight, what a +bustle there would be! He almost closed his eyes, and lay still, where +he could watch and yet seem asleep. His prudence and caution were well +rewarded. + +The snow-flake was, as he suspected, as much alive as the wind; and that +was singing, shouting, dying away in ecstasies, at this very moment. + +He glanced at her. Lithe, sparkling, graceful, she gathered her soft +drapery about her, and stood poised delicately on one foot, while she +looked around the apartment in which she found herself. Fred could see +that she was moulded more beautifully than the Graces,--by so much more +as Nature is fairer than all Art,--and that she had an inward pure +coldness, beside which Diana's was only stone. Yet it was not +indifference, like that of the wild huntress,--not an incapacity to +feel, but only that her time had not come; when it should, she would +melt as well as another. Now she stood still and calm. She did not +once look at him. She had seen human beings before,--plenty of them. +Something else attracted her,--thrilled her, evidently; for the +faintest rose-color suffused her beautiful form; she changed her +attitude, and bent forward her graceful head. + +Something about "warming his hands by thinking on the frosty Caucasus" +passed through Fred's mind, and some law of association impelled him to +look at the fire. It was queer enough, that, as many times as he had +looked at that fire by the hour together, he had never before noticed +its shape or expression. Only last night, he had watched it, dancing and +flickering just as it did now, and never once suspected the truth! + +Mailed figures! Yes, plenty of them,--golden-helmeted and sworded like +the seraphim! A glorious band, gathering, twining, shooting past each +other,--jousting, tilting,--with blazing banners, and a field broader +than that of the "Cloth of Gold"; for this reached to and mingled with +the clouds--yea, tinted them with flame-color and roses,--and garlanded +the earth with crimson blossoms that nestled among her forests on the +far-off horizon. What a wide field, indeed! And how far might these +blazes and flames go, when once they set out? To the stars, perhaps. +Fred did not see what should stop them. The atmosphere might, possibly. +He must study that out. + +Meanwhile how strangely far he could see! What a power it was! What a +new interest it gave to Nature! Nature, he must confess, had always +seemed rather flat to him, on the whole. He had always liked +the imitations better than the original,--pictures better than +people,--busts better than philosophers. But now the case is altered. He +has got what his friend Norris calls "glorification-spectacles." Now he +can have perpetual amusement. Why, it is vastly better than Asmodeus +peeping in at the tops of houses. By the same token, snow-flakes are +more interesting than humanity. + +Speaking of snow-flakes, what does he see, but that she is evidently +yielding to the soft enchantment of the nearest flame-god,--drawn +thither by resistless affinity, and melting, in his burning arms, to +the most delicate vapor! Snow-flake no more, yet not absorbed nor lost! +Rather taking her true place, transported from the earth-tempests to a +warmer and higher sphere of action. + +That might be, but not yet. In their new vaporous condition, in which +both had lost some of their prominent qualities, they had acquired new +relations, perhaps new duties. At all events, they did not at once +ascend to their kindred ether,--but swam, glided, floated, above +and around, and finally separated. Watching them keenly, Fred could +distinctly see that the sometime snow-flake left her sphere and came +gradually towards himself. As the vaporous shape floated nearer, it also +grew larger, so that, although Fred could not have said certainly that +the size was human, it relieved him from the impression of any fairy +or elf or sprite. No, it was nothing of that sort. It was just the +gentlest, calmest, serenest face and form in the world,--with the same +look of pure sweetness he had noticed on her first entrance,--with a +peculiar surprised look in her wide-open eyes, that he had seen but in +one human face. As well tell the truth,--the face, expression, and all, +were as like Annie Peyton's, as her portrait, drawn in water-colors, +could possibly have been. + +The shape sat down by him,--her vaporous garment still folding softly +around her, and her clear, open eyes fixed on him. There was no need of +speech, for he read her face as if written by Heaven's own hand; and the +coarse and selfish philosophy which had sufficed partially to stun and +confuse Minnie fled at the presence of the spirit. Not a word still from +the calm, sweet face. It looked on him with pity and surprise. Then all +the ideas and convictions that throng on the mind warped, but not lost, +pressed on him. He hid his face in the sofa-cushions. + +His presence of mind returned as a new thought struck him. It was an +ocular delusion, surely. He sprang up, took three or four turns across +the room, rubbed his eyes smartly, and took his seat again. For a moment +he would not look towards the chair. When at last he did look, the airy, +soft form was still there, looking steadily into his eyes. + +"What an idea!" exclaimed he, impatiently. "I might put my hands through +it, like the flame of a candle. It is nothing but vapor. What is it made +of? Nothing but a snow-flake and the gas from cannel coal. I saw it, +myself, melting and falling together into this beautiful shape. But then +it is only a shape. It is not a body. Oh, but then it may be a soul! Who +knows what souls are made of? Snow-flakes and vapor, perhaps. Who knows +indeed?" + +He looked about the room. Everything was in its natural and usual place. +The fire burned merrily; the wind swept fitfully without, and all +was quiet within. A very uncomfortable feeling, of mingled awe and +curiosity, took possession of him. He did not quite like to look at the +shape. He thought,-- + +"Can this be the spiritual body that St. Paul says is to supersede the +natural one? If this is indeed, the soul of Annie Peyton,--why, she +knows, somehow, what is in mine. And, by Jove! I can see her soul now, +too, without any trouble! She can't hide her real feelings now from me, +any more than I can my character from her. There's some good in it, +anyhow!" + +With some effort, he raised his eyes,--very respectfully, indeed; +for though he was only about to look at a soul, he was full as much +overpowered as if it had been the body. His eyes fell. + +"If I dared to look! But she knows how I feel. I suppose she sees me +now,--shivering from head to foot like a----Somehow, I can't look her +in the eyes. However, this won't do!" And he looked quickly and timidly +into the now smiling face. + +He need not have been so timid. If a soul could discern evil, it could, +also, good; and this spirit was quick to see the last. Without a +word,--but when were words necessary to souls?--with only a glance, she +expressed so much love and pity for him, that Fred was ashamed to look +her in the face. "Oh! if she could really see him," he thought, "would +she look so?" Perhaps so. For the Intelligence that sees the evil +can clearest of all see the mitigations, the causes, and the sore +temptations; and the fruit of the widest knowledge is the widest love. + +Something like this passed from the soul that sat opposite Fred into his +awakening and sensitive consciousness:-- + +"You have never tasted the pleasures of useful activity," the sweet face +said. "Come with me, and we will look together, and see what good may +come, and also what enjoyment, from it." + +Now it was, for the first time, that Fred fully understood his position. +It came like a gleam of light on his puzzled intellect, and made that +quite clear which had before been so mystical and cloudy, that he had +been ready to rub his eyes, and to doubt, almost, the evidence of his +senses. He remembered his old and a thousand times repeated theory of +"projected images." Here it was. Instead of a fancy, a thought, here was +the whole of Annie Peyton's soul (which, to be sure, had often enough +occupied his mind) projected from his own, perhaps, so as to be a +subject of contemplation to his bodily eyes. Or, what was more likely, +the soul itself of Annie Peyton might have left her body for a time in +a dream. It was among the possibilities, though he had never before +believed it to be. But then, again, how could his soul go off on an +exploring tour with Annie's? His soul was safe in his body, and that, +namely, the body, lying on the sofa,--the room close, the window down. +Just then, he glanced toward the window, and remembered that he had not +fastened it at all. There was room enough for a soul to pass easily. But +then, again, how was his soul to pass,--to get out, in the first place, +of his body? Easily enough. The concentrated effort of will, which could +give shape to a fancy, and place it outside the eye, could, by sustained +action, separate all the perceptive powers from the senses,--in short, +the spirit from its envelope. + +"To know, to perceive, to suffer, to rejoice, do not require skin and +bones. The heart weeps while the eye is dry; the lips smile while the +heart is breaking. One might have a conventional soul,--to keep house, +as it were, and do all the honors of society, while the real one went +abroad to regions of truth and beauty, and bathed in living waters!" + +While Fred continued so to think and speculate, and also to separate, +and, as it were, classify his ideas, he was pleased to perceive, +that, without any very strong volition on his part, but only from the +analytical processes of his reason, that portion of his mind which +perceived and enjoyed the truth of things became condensed and separated +from the conventional, the factitious, and the merely sensual. The +qualities, or states, or whatever the metaphysician calls them, fell +off him, as garments do in a dream, and left himself, his very self, +separate, and a little distant, from his body. He perceived this rather +than saw it. He knew it, but could not assert it. The body, with its +bodily wants and limitations, leaned on the couch, half slumberously; +while the mind, himself, full of vague aspirations, keen intellectual +hunger, and overlaid with error, obstinacy, and the thick crust of +self-contemplation, which stifles all true progress,--these assimilated +qualities made himself, what he felt he was, not an attractive object to +himself more than to anybody else. All his perceptions pointed inward, +and cramped and narrowed his existence. He felt very, very small. + +"This is strange," he reasoned, "that I should have such a sense of +contraction! I crowd on myself, as it were. My thoughts hit me, press +me, instead of elevating me. I cannot see why; for the habit of looking +up to no goodness or intelligence but the Supreme must surely be a good +one, and self-education and development the noblest process for a human +being." + +He said this in a mechanical sort of way, as if it were a lesson he +remembered at school. But it made no impression on him, and did not +relieve his difficulty. He knew it, somehow, to be false, and felt +it falling off as he spoke, as if it were the last remnant of gauzy +sophistry. + +Fred had never been fond of church-going, nor was he much given to +reading the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, he rather affected the style of the +Latter-Day Saints, who look for a better and nobler Messiah than came in +the Son of Mary. But just now, fifty texts of Scripture, which he must +have learned long ago at his mother's knee, came crowding upon his +memory. + +"Though I have all gifts, and have not charity, I am nothing." + +"He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." + +"He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, +whom he hath not seen?" + +"Little children, love one another." + +"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." + +And so on,--interminably. In a helpless, vague way, he looked at the +shadow by his side. + +"You like pictures, and paint them," said she, speaking for the first +time;--and the voice was precisely the tone he had recognized in the +music of the wind; he had thought then it was like hers;--"look with me +at these two." + +They were, indeed, magnificent pictures. They reached from floor to +ceiling. Fred was artist enough to enjoy fully the wide sweep of sky and +land,--the mountains in the distance, and the firmament studded with +stars. A figure wandered up and down the space, sometimes to the tops +of the mountains, sometimes to the clefts of the rocks. When he saw the +stars, he calculated their distances;--when he saw the moon, he weighed +her, and guessed about the atmosphere on the other side;--when the gold +and diamonds shone in the clefts of the rocks, he gathered and analyzed +them. The Leviathan he studied and classed. He groped and reached +constantly, and, having gathered, looked at his gatherings, +dissatisfied. He was ever searching out knowledge. Meanwhile, a gnat put +him in a passion, and unleavened bread destroyed his peace. Though he +might sleep on rose-leaves, as he could not command the wind, they came +often to double under him, and annoy him with bad dreams. + +"When shall I be a disembodied spirit, and no longer subject to the +petty annoyances that belong to the flesh?" cried he, fretfully. "My +knowledge, too, is a moth,--only vexing me by a sense of the limitations +of my condition. If I could grasp Nature,--if I could handle the +stars,--if I could wake the thunder,--if I could summon the cloud! That +would be worth something,--to send the comets on their errands! But what +avails it, to know that they go?--how far from me when they start, and +how many millions of miles before they turn to come back? If I could +move only one of these subtile energies that mock me while I look them +in the face!" + +The philosopher dozed. A storm came on, and swept over all creation. +When he awoke, it was clearing away, and one side of the heavens was +heaped with gold-lined clouds, and the darkness of the other spanned +with the seven-hued bow. He looked admiringly at the clouds and +critically at the rainbow, and added to his memorandum-book. + +"What use?" said he, mournfully; "delicate dew, and refracted light!" + +He continued to ponder and murmur, to explore, to ascertain, to grumble. +He had rheumatic pains, for the elements had no mercy on him; he rubbed +himself as he was able, and added to his stores of knowledge. He was +very, very learned. When he reached a shelter, he lay down. If no human +love welcomed him, and no gentle lip soothed him, he had self-culture, +especially in the sciences. + +All this Fred knew as soon as he looked at him. + +"If he were wise, he would not stop at knowledge, which is, of course, +unsatisfactory,--but dive beyond, as I have done, into the essence of +things," said Fred to himself. "If he could pierce through the veil that +covers all things, he would find amusement enough to last a lifetime. In +vegetable life, the jealousies and passions of flowers,--in the quiet +eventfulness of the mineral kingdom, to see forms of living beauty in +crystals,--finally, in all the under-mechanism of creation, what a +fund of enjoyment and instruction! I think I should never cease to be +delighted and entertained." + +Fred glanced from the picture to the fireplace. The shovel and tongs +were just laughing at him; and though they composed their countenances +immediately, he had caught the expression, and was excessively annoyed. +Philosophy at length came to his aid, especially as the poker expressed +only profound deference, preserving a martial attitude and immovable +features. After all, why should he care for a pair of tongs? One must +cultivate phlegm, if one is a philosopher; and a shovel, after all, is +not so bad as a pretty woman. He heard the cool wind distinctly blowing +across the mountains in the picture, and saw the stars coming out again. +Then Fred knew he had been looking at a diorama, and that the exhibition +was over. + +He heard a hearty laugh at a little distance, and perceived that the +picture, which at first had seemed to spread out over the whole wall, +was really divided into two parts, something like an exhibition he +remembered of dissolving views. This was delightful. The first picture +faded out into gloom, and gave place to a bright, cheerful room in the +third story of a house in the city. There were only two rooms,--this, +and a small anteroom. The furniture was simple, even poor. Through the +window the snow was seen falling, and the blaze flickered, in cheerful +contrast, on the hearth. A woman, neither young nor pretty, stood with +an astonished expression, and an elderly man laughed loudly, and sat +down before the fire. + +"What in the world shall I do?" said the woman. + +"Do, my dear?--why, bring me my dressing-gown"; said he, laughing again +so cheerily, that it was contagious; and as she brought the coarse +wadded garment he asked for, she laughed too. + +"A pretty kettle of fish!" said she. + +"Yes! Now what shall we do? Not a dollar in our pockets!" + +"Nor a coat to your back!" broke in the woman. + +Then they both laughed again, loudly and heartily. + +Fred remembered now what they were laughing at. The man was a minister, +well known in Boston, and the woman was his wife. He had just come in, +running through the storm, and almost out of breath. + +"Wife! my coat! Don't you see I am in my shirt-sleeves? I've got a +snow-bank on my back!" + +"Why! where in the world--what have you done with your coat?" + +"Oh! that I am almost ashamed to tell you; it seems such a parading sort +o' thing to do in the streets! But you may depend, I didn't stand at the +corners long, to be seen of men, in this driving storm! Fact was, wife, +I just took it off of my back, and gave it to poor old M'Carty;--he'd +nothing on but rags, and was fairly shaking with the cold. I knew I'd +another to home,--and what does a man want of two coats? One's enough +for anybody. Besides, didn't our Lord particularly tell his disciples +not to have but one? Say, now, wife!" + +The wife looked blank and embarrassed. + +"Well, wife! what now?" + +"Only"----and she paused again. + +"Only what? Out with it! You think it was silly! But, wife, you'd 'a' +done the same thing;--you couldn't 'a' helped it, nohow. Providence +seemed to 'a' cast him in my way o' purpose. I tell you, wife, it was as +plain-spoken as it could be,--'Be ye warmed!' Why, you'd 'a' done the +same thing, wife!" + +"My goodness! I _have_ done it, husband! A man and his wife and three +little children came along, not half an hour ago, looking so miserable +and cold, that, as I thought, as you say, you had one coat, and that +was all you really needed, I just out with the other, and put it on the +man's back. The thankfullest creature you ever saw!" + +And here the man had broken into the hearty laugh Fred heard. + +When the man put on his dressing-gown, which was comfortable for the +fireside, the wife renewed her question. He answered with a bright +smile,-- + +"The Son of Man, my dear we know, had not where to lay his head; but +then he always trusted in God. God never fails his children. Thanks to +Him!" added he, reverently, and raising loving eyes to heaven, as if he +really spoke to somebody there,--"Thanks to Him! there's bountiful hands +and tender hearts, a plenty of 'em, in the city of Boston. I've only got +to strike, and the waters 'll flow out! yes,--rivers of water!" + +The wife looked down, and said, meditatively, "It makes me think what +our dear Saviour said to poor Peter,--'O thou of little faith, wherefore +didst thou doubt?'" + +The man answered in a clear, joyful tone, "Oh, you won't doubt more'n +half a minute to time, wife!--and I won't doubt at all!" + +With that, the two aged Christians struck up a sweet Wesleyan melody; +and that, too, was in the same soft minor key that Fred had heard +singing through the gas-burner. They finished the little hymn, and +the woman scraped some corn from a cob into the corn-popper. In a few +minutes, she had filled a large bowl with the parched corn. + +"I declare, they look like them hyacinths in the window,--don't they? +What a lovely white color!" + +"I think, wife," answered the man, as he took a handful of the kernels +and looked at them, "this corn is a good deal like human nature. When +we're all shut up in ourselves, we're poor creatures;--but touch us with +the live coals of the Holy Spirit, and we turn out something refreshing. +Fact is, wife, we're good for nothing, till we're turned inside out." + +The picture faded. It was a very homely one. + +Fred turned to the soul by his side, but she was no longer visible. + +"Escaped, somehow! I wonder, now, how?" + +But he had scarcely spoken, when he saw, by a slight movement of the +door, that she must have gone out that way. It was just closing. With a +tremendous effort of will, he tried to follow her, but in vain. He +had been so much in the habit of looking after himself only, that his +untrained faculties refused to obey him. As a last resource, he sank +passively towards the form which still lay prone on the couch. How he +was again to join soul and body he could not guess. But, apparently, +there was no difficulty. The spirit which had called him out of himself, +for a little while, had departed, and, with her, both the power and the +desire of separation. He joined his sensuous existence with ease and +pleasure, and with no perceptible lapse of consciousness. No sooner had +he obtained the use of his tongue, than he made an inarticulate noise. +The door, which had been all that time swinging, opened again, and the +velvet-footed Martin appeared. + +"Who went out, Martin?" + +"Out of here, Sir? No one, Sir." + +"Who opened the door, then?--What's that in your hand?" + +"The chloroform, Sir, you just handed me." + +"Just handed you?" + +"Yes, Sir;--you gave it back to me not a quarter of a minute ago." + +"Have I been asleep, Martin?" + +"I should judge not, Sir. You didn't take more than two sniffs at the +bottle. I just had time to go to the door when you spoke to me." + +"Martin,--is the window close?" + +"Perfectly close, Sir." + +"You may go." + + * * * * * + + +PALFREY'S AND ARNOLD'S HISTORIES.[A] + + +[Footnote A: _History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty._ By John +Gorham Palfrey. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1858. 8vo. pp. 638. + +_History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._ By +Samuel Greene Arnold & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 574.] + +The London "Times," in its comments upon a recent desponding utterance +of foreboding for our republic, by President Buchanan, in his Fort +Duquesne Letter, affirms that the horizon of England is clearing while +our own is darkening. Mr. Bright, true to the omen of his name, thinks +better of our country. He seizes upon all fit occasions, as in his late +speech at Manchester, to hold up to his countrymen the opposite view, +so far at least as concerns our republic. He loves to recommend to +his constituents American notions and institutions. Perhaps it may be +allowed,--though this is hardly to be affirmed, if any decisive argument +depends upon it,--that the peculiar institutions, political and social, +of the two nations, have been on trial long enough, side by side, +through the same race of men and in the pursuit of the same interests, +to enable a wise discerner to strike the balance between them, in +respect to their efficiency and their security as intrusted with the +welfare and destiny of millions. If we can learn to look at the +large experiment in that light, all that helps to put the real issue +intelligently before us will be of equal interest to us, from whichever +side of the water it may present itself. For ourselves, we believe that +the best security against despair for our country is a knowledge of its +history. If the study of our annals does not train up patriots among us, +we must consent to lose our heritage. We are glad to be assured that our +historians do not intend to allow the republic to decay before they have +written out in full the tale of its life. Their records, well digested, +may prove to be the pledges of its vigor and permanence. + +There are those in the land, who, for reasons suggested by President +Buchanan, and for others, of darker omen, to which he makes no +reference, do despair, or greatly fear. What with an honest hate of some +public iniquities among us,--the tolerance and strengthening of which +many of our politicians regard as the vital conditions of our national +existence,--and a dread of the excesses incident to our large liberty, +it is not strange that some of our own citizens should accord in +sentiment with the London "Times." Probably the same proportion of +persons may be now living among the native population of our national +soil, appeared at the era of the Revolution, preferring English +institutions to our own, and predicting that her government will outlast +our own. Discussions raised upon the present aspect of affairs in either +country will not settle the issue thus opened. A real knowledge of our +own institutions and a reasonable confidence in their permanence are +to be found only in an intelligent and very intimate acquaintance with +their growth and development. In our histories are to be found the +materials of our prophecies. + +We welcome, therefore, with infinite satisfaction, the two admirable +volumes whose titles we have set down. For reasons which will appear +before we conclude our remarks upon them, we find it convenient to unite +their titles and to write about them together; but for distinctness of +subject and marked individuality in the mode of treatment, no two books +can stand more widely apart. Abilities and culture and aptitudes of the +very highest order have been brought to the composition of each of +them. An exhaustive use of abundant materials, and a most conscientious +fidelity in digesting them into high-toned philosophical narrations, are +marked features of both the volumes, and we will not venture upon the +ungracious office of instituting comparisons, in these respects, between +their authors. We must make a slight report of the story of each of +them, and of the method and spirit in which it is told, and then +confront them for mutual cross-examination. + +Our historians have learned to write their books with full as much +reference to their being read abroad as at home. The problem with which +they first have to deal, therefore, is, how to make the men and the +incidents and the cardinal points of our annals look as large to +foreigners as they do to us. Many of our town-histories are written in +the tone and style of Mr. Poole's "Little Pedlington,"--the epithet +_Little_ being suppressed in the title, but obtruded on every page. The +intensity and emphasis of our historic strain appear to foreigners to be +disproportionate to the subject-matter of the story. Mr. Punch always +represents a Yankee as larger than his garments. His trousers never +cover his ankles; his cuffs stop far short of his wrists; his long neck +extends beyond the reach of even his capacious collar; and the bone in +him lacks amplitude of muscle. But Mr. Punch, with all his wisdom, does +not fully understand the composition of a Yankee, as the greatest common +multiple of a Teuton, Dane, Norman, Frank, Kelt, and Englishman. Dr. +Palfrey's volume will largely conciliate our cousins beyond the water +to our own conceit of our annals, because, more distinctly and cogently +than any previous record in pamphlet or folio, it identifies the springs +and purposes of our heroic age with an era and a type of men which +English historians now exalt on their own noblest pages. + +Dr. Palfrey has had precisely that natural endowment, training, +experience, mental discipline, and intercourse with the world in public +and private relations, to furnish him with the best qualifications for +the work to which he has devoted the autumn of an eminently useful and +honored life. The sinewy fibre of his theme is religion. And he is a +religious man of the highest pattern, deeply skilled in its scholarly +lore, erudite in its Scriptural and controversial elements, and +practised in the sagacity which it imparts for understanding and +interpreting human nature. Religion enters into the subject-matter of +his narrative, not so much in its philosophical bearings as in its +civico-ecclesiastical and institutional relations; where it becomes the +spine of the social fabric, traversed and perforated with the nervous +life-chords for all the members of the organism. His education has +been that of the highest ideal of New England,--through books and men, +through professional duties and public services, bringing him into +relations with youth, with men and women, and with the forms and the +routine work of civil and political administrations. He has at his +command the language of devotion, the rhetoric and logic of philosophy, +and the technicalities of jurisprudence. To his personal friends, and +they are very many in every walk of life, it is a matter of grateful +recognition that he escaped from a political arena whose conflicts were +not congenial with his delicacy of taste or of conscience, in season to +give the vigor of his best years to the composition of a work which will +spread his fame to other lands and identify it forever with what is of +most reverent and honored remembrance on his native soil. + +The historian's work, when done after the best pattern, involves a duty +to his readers and a privilege for himself. To them he is bound to +present all the essential facts, authenticated, illustrated, and +carefully disposed in their natural relations. For himself, having done +this, he is at liberty to construct his own theory, to follow his own +philosophy, and to pronounce judicial decisions. The highest exaction to +be made of an historian, and the loftiest function which he could claim +to exercise, are expressed in these two conditions. The noble privilege +and opportunity secured in the latter condition are the only adequate +reward for the drudgery of the labor required in the former. It would +be foolish to raise a question whether it be more essential for an +historian to be faithful in his narration or to be wise in his comments. +Only the statement we have made will serve to remind us how essential +the philosophy of human nature is to throw life into a record of old +annals. + +The two books in our hands, where their specific themes are identical, +substantially accord in their relation of facts,--allowing for a few +exceptional cases,--but they differ widely in their philosophy. Very +much of the fresh interest which both of them will create in their +respective subjects will be found in the collisions of their philosophy. + +Dr. Palfrey had a favorable opportunity for undertaking to write anew +the history of New England. Those who have yet to acquaint themselves +with that history say there was no occasion for this reiterated labor. +If such persons will merely read over his notes, without wasting any of +their precious time upon his text, they will discover their mistake. +There are in those notes matters new even to adepts. All the recent +materials which have been lavishly contributed from public and private +stores by public and private researches amount in sum and in importance +to an actual necessity for their digest and incorporation into a new +history. Dr. Palfrey has used these with a most patient fidelity, and +his references to them and his extracts from them convey to his readers +the results of an amount of labor which the most grateful of them will +not be likely to overestimate. While he speaks to us in his text, he +allows those whom we most wish to hear to speak to us in his rich and +well-chosen excerpts from a mountain-heap of authorities. + +The Dedication of the volume to Dr. Sparks has in it a rare felicity, +which is to be referred to two facts: first, that the writer had some +peculiarly touching and grateful things to say; and, second, that +he knew how to say them in language fitted to the sentiment. In his +Preface, he announces his purpose with its plan, refers us to his +authorities and sources, and recognizes his obligations to individual +friends. Some of the choicest matters in his Notes are the results of +his own personal research in England. + +The limit which he sets for himself will carry forward his History to +the time of the English Revolution, thus embracing our annals during the +vitality of our first Charter. That Charter, its origin, transfer, and +subsequent service as the basis of government, the reiterated efforts +to wrest it, and the persistent resolution to hold it, give to it a +symbolic significance which warrants the dating of an epoch by it. Dr. +Palfrey regards our local political existence as commencing from the +hour in which that document, with its official representatives, reached +these shores. We have seen criticisms disputing this position, but, as +we think, not even plausible, still less effective to discredit it. We +must have an incident, besides a _punctum temporis_, for our start in +government; and where could we find a better one than that on which the +whole subsequent course and character of the government depended? We +go, then, for the old Charter, and for the setting up of a jurisdiction +under it here. It was an admirable and every way convenient document; +good for securing rights, impotent as impairing liberties. It comforted +the "Magistrates" to have it to fall back upon, when its provisions +harmonized with their purposes; nor did they allow themselves to be +embarrassed by it, when it appeared that some of their purposes were +not fully provided for in it. That Charter got wonderfully aired and +invigorated on its ocean-passage. The salt water agreed with its +constitution. In a single instance, at least, it falsified the old +maxim,--_Coeium, nun animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt_. That was +a marvellous piece of parchment. So far as Massachusetts was concerned, +the Declaration of Independence was interlined upon it in sympathetic +ink. + +We hardly know of fifty octavo pages anywhere in which so much +investigation and labor condense their results so intelligibly into such +useful information as in each of the first two chapters of this volume. +The first is devoted to the Physical Geography of the Peninsula of +New England, its Natural History, and its Aborigines; the second is a +summary sketch of the Early Voyages and Explorations. In this we find +the most discriminating view which we have ever seen of the marvellous +adventures of John Smith,--so happily and suggestively described as the +"fugitive slave" who was "the founder of Virginia." The notes on the +credibility and authenticity of the narrations connected with his name +are admirable. In reading these two chapters, one must muse upon +the wilderness trampings and the ocean perils of the keen-set and +all-enduring men who furnished the material for these high-seasoned +pages. + +"Puritanism in England" is, of course, the author's starting-point. Here +he finds his men and their principles. A partial reformation is the most +mischievous influence that can work in society. It unsettles, but is not +willing to rebuild, even when it can learn how to do so. Reaction and +excess are the Scylla and Charybdis of its perils. Compromise is the +very essence of a partial reformation; and compromise in matters of +moral and religious concern, where it is not folly, is crime. Where any +party has been in earnest in a strife, there is no honest end at which +it can rest till it reaches the goal of righteousness. The active +element of Puritanism was the persistency of a religious party in +pursuing a purpose which was yielded up, at a point short of its full +attainment, by another branch of the party, which up to that point had +made common cause with them. To speak plainly, the English Puritans +regarded their former prelatical and conformist associates as traitors +to a holy cause. They had engaged together in good faith in the work of +reformation. They had suffered together. When the time came for triumph, +a schism divided them; and the more zealous smarted from wounds +inflicted by the lukewarm. It appeared that the Prelatists had been +looking to ends of state policy, while the Puritans kept religion in +view. The Conformists thought their ends were reached when Roman prelacy +was set aside, and certain local ecclesiastical changes had been +effected; but the real Puritans wanted to get and to establish the +essential Gospel. + +Dr. Palfrey tells this story concisely, but emphatically. He takes two +stages of the Puritan development in England, from which to deduce +respectively the emigration to Plymouth and to Massachusetts Bay. +Stopping at intervals to make intelligible the perplexities connected +with the patents and charters, his narrative is thenceforward +continuous, admitting new threads to be woven into it as the pattern +and the fabric both become richer. For the first time we have the full +connection presented in solid history between the Scrooby Church and +Plymouth Colony. And the tracing is beautifully done. An artist may find +his paintings in these pages. Our poets may here find themes which will +be the more tempting and rewarding, the more closely they are held +to severe historic verity. They will find, that, after all, the most +promising materials for the imagination to deal with are facts. The +residence of the exiles in Holland, their debates and arrangements with +respect to a more distant remove, the ocean passage, the first forlorn +experiences during two winters at Plymouth, are vividly presented. The +paragraph, on page 182, beginning, "A visitor to Plymouth," gives us +a picture better than that which hangs in the Pilgrim Hall. If the +sternest foe of the Pilgrims across the water could have looked upon +the exiles in their winter dreariness, hungry, wasted, dying, cowering +beneath the accumulation of their woes, he might have regarded the scene +as presenting but a reasonable retribution upon a stolid obstinacy in +the most direful and needless self-inflictions. "Why could they not have +been content to cling to the comforts of Old England, and to restrain +their wilfulness of spirit?" The question is answered now differently +from what it would have been then. We have used one wrong word about +those exiles, in speaking of them as _cowering_ under their woes. They +did not _cower_, but _breasted _them. + +After another most pregnant and exhaustive episode on Puritan politics +in England, Dr. Palfrey brings in that thread of his story on which is +strung the fortune of Massachusetts. It is here that Englishmen will +find explained some of our vaunting views of the importance of our +annals. Dr. Palfrey, in this and in other chapters, traces with skill +and exactness the course of public measures and events in England, +through kingly tyrannies and popular resistance, which ended by +harmonizing the institutions of the mother country for a little while +with those which had sprung up in this wilderness. He soon comes upon +ticklish matters, but his touch and hold are firm, because he feels sure +that he is dealing with men who understood themselves, and who were +at least resolute and honest, to whatever degree they may have erred. +Probably, like many of us who are aware that we could not possibly have +lived comfortably with our ancestors, he feels all the more bound on +that account to set their memory in the light of their noblest and least +selfish ends. He is stout and unflinching in his championship of those +ancestors: he sees in their experiment a lofty ideal; he vindicates +their policy in the measures for realizing it; nor does he withhold +apologetic or vindicatory words where "unmeet persons" among the whites +or Indians stood in the way of it. + +Henceforward Dr. Palfrey has to follow out each thread of his story +by itself, as by-and-by he will have to gather them into one cord. He +traces the developments of months and years in the original settlements, +and pursues them as they lead him to new territory in the Northeast +and the Southwest, into Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Another +episode on the opening of the Civil War at home, which invited a large +return of the exiles, and a record of the original confederacy of the +New England Colonies, bring us to the present close of his labors. May +they be speedily continued! and may we enjoy the reality, as we now do +the promise of them! + +We turn now to Mr. Arnold's book. The field which it traverses is +narrower as regards space, but its spirit is large and generous, and its +subject-matter is of the loftiest significance. If the writer does not +indulge us with many disquisitions, it is not from lack of ability. +Wherever, as in his moralizings upon King Philip's War, and in his +incidental comments upon the peculiarities and temper of his prominent +men, he allows us to meet his own mind, he is uniformly wise and +interesting. He stands by Rhode Island as does Dr. Palfrey by +Massachusetts; and seeing that for a far longer period than the two +books run on together the two Colonies were at strife, we are glad to +have before us both the ways in which the story may be told. There are +various sharp judgments on Massachusetts men and principles in the Rhode +Island book. The argument is in good hands on either side. + +Mr. Arnold begins with the first occupation of Rhode Island by white +men, and conducts his narrative to the close of the century. His +research has been faithful. His style is chaste, forcible, and often +picturesque. He has seen the world widely, and he knows human nature. +He understands very well what a place of honor and what a well-proved +assurance of safety distinctive Rhode Island principles have attained. +The issue, having been found so triumphant, has dignified to the +historian the early, humble, and bewildering steps and processes through +which it was reached. The narrative on his pages is the most distracting +one ever written in the annals of civilized men. Every conceivable +element of strife, discord, agitation, alarm, dissension, and bitterness +is to be found in it,--redeemed only by a prevailing integrity, +right-mindedness, and right-heartedness in all the leading spirits. Each +man in each of the towns composing the original elements of the Colony +was a whole "democratie" in himself, and generally a "fierce" one. +Disputed boundaries with both the other Colonies, and an especial and +continuous feud with Massachusetts,--unruly spirits, bent upon working +out all manner of impracticable theories,--the oddest and most original, +as well as the most obstinate and indomitable dreamers and enthusiasts, +furnished some daily nutriment to dissension with their neighbors or +among themselves. Men of mark, like Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, +Governor Arnold, and William Harris, appear equally competent for +fomenting strife of a sort to threaten every essential element of civil +society, and for averting all permanent harm while putting on trial the +most revolutionary theories. On page 337, Mr. Arnold has a note most +characteristic of a large portion of his whole theme, as covering both +his men and their measures. Many of the documents, of an official +character, written by citizens, towns, or rulers in Rhode Island, were +of such a sort in language and matter, that the town of Warwick did not +think them fit for the public records, and so enjoined that the clerk +should keep them in a file by themselves. This was known as "the +Impertinent File," and, more profanely, but not less appropriately, +as "the Damned File." A certain "perditious letter," written by Roger +Williams himself, serves as the nucleus of this deposit; and we read of +another of the documents as being as "full of uncivil language as if it +had been indited in hell." + +Mr. Arnold picks his way through all these dissensions, and finds a full +reward in the nobleness of the men and the principles with which he has +in the main to deal. His only abatement of praise to Roger Williams +is on account of his bitter feud with William Harris. He repels, +as slanderous, the imputations founded on alleged interpolations +restricting religious liberty in the code, and cast at Roger Williams +for undue severity to Quakers and for favoring Indian slavery. +Randolph's visit, Andros's administration, the suspension and resumption +of the Charter, bring him out into broader matters, which he treats with +frankness and skill. + +The more histories we have from the pens of competent writers, even +though they go over the same ground, the more lively and interesting +will the pages be. We need not fear that like fidelity and ability in +the use of the same materials by different writers will reduce our +modern histories to a dead level of uniform narration. None but those +well-skilled in our annals are aware what scope they afford, not only +for special pleas, but also for honest diversity of judgment, in viewing +and pronouncing upon many test-points vital to the theme. Indeed, when +the historic vein shall have been exhausted, it will be found that there +is more than a score of special and contested points, in each of our +first two centuries, admirably suited for monographs. We have but to +compare a few pages in each of the two excellent works now in our hands, +to see how men of the highest ability, of rigid candor, and scrupulous +fidelity in the use of the same materials, while spreading the same +facts before their readers, may tell different tales, varying to +the whole extent of the diversity in their respective judgments and +moralizings. We can easily illustrate this assertion from the pages +before us. Though Dr. Palfrey stops more than a half-century short of +the date to which Mr. Arnold carries us, the former indicates exactly +how and where he will be at issue with the latter, even to the end of +the story common to both of them. So strong and clear is Dr. Palfrey's +avowal of fealty to the honorable and unsullied fame of the founders of +Massachusetts, that he will not be likely, on any later page, to qualify +what he has already written. It happens, too, that the points in which +any two of our historians would be most disposed to part in judgment lie +within the space and the years common to both these writers. We can but +indicate, in a very brief way, some of the more salient divergences +between them, and we must preface the specification by acknowledging +again the high integrity of both. + +Dr. Palfrey writes, unmistakably, as a man proud of his Massachusetts +lineage. He honors the men whose enterprise, constancy, persistency, +and wise skill in laying foundations have, in his view, approved their +methods and justified them, even where they are most exposed to a severe +judgment. He wishes to tell their story as they would wish to have it +told. They stand by his side as he reads their records, and supply him +with a running comment as to meaning and intention. Thus he is helped to +put their own construction on their own deeds,--to set their acts in the +light of their motives, to give them credit for all the good that was in +their purposes, and to ascribe their mistakes and errors to a limitation +of their views, or to well-founded apprehensions of evil which they had +reason to dread. Under such pilotage, the passengers, at least, would +be safe, when their ship fell upon a place where two seas met. Now +Massachusetts and Rhode Island were in stiff hostility during the period +here chronicled. The founder of Rhode Island and nearly all of its +leading spirits had been "spewed out of the Bay Colony,"--and the +institutions which the Rhode Islanders set up, or rather, their seeming +purpose to do without any _institutions_, constituted a standing +grievance to the rigid disciplinarians of Massachusetts. Indeed, we have +to look to the relations of annoyance, jealousy, and open strife, which +arose between the two Colonies in the ten years following 1636, for +the real explanation of the severity visited upon the Quakers in +Massachusetts in the five years following 1656. These early Quakers, +when not the veritable persons, were the ghosts of the old troublers of +"the Lord's people in the Bay." Gorton, Randall Holden, Mrs. Dyer, and +other "exorbitant persons," who had been found "unmeet to abide in this +jurisdiction," could not be got rid of once for all. + +Mr. Arnold glories in the early reproach of Rhode Island. He finds its +title to honor above every other spot on earth in the phenomena which +made it so hateful to Massachusetts. In every issue raised between it +and the Bay Colony from the very first, and in every element of its +strife, he stands stoutly forth as its champion, and casts scornful +reflections, though not in a scornful spirit. Wherever our two +historians have the same point under treatment, we discern this +antagonism between them,--never in a single case manifesting itself in +an offensive or bitter way, but tending greatly to give a brisk and +quickening vigor to their pages. Arnold claims that a perfectly +democratical government and entire religious freedom are "exclusively +Rhode Island doctrines, and to her belongs the credit of them both." He +might afford to give Massachusetts the appreciable honor of having been +the indirect means of opening those large visions to the eyes of men +who certainly were a most uncomfortable set of citizens while under +pupilage. Mr. Bancroft had previously written thus:--"Had the territory +of Rhode Island corresponded to the importance and singularity of the +principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with +wonder at the phenomena of its history."[B] It was only because the +State was no larger that it was a safe field for the first trial of such +principles. And it has often proved, that, the larger the principle, +the more circumscribed must needs be the field within which it is first +tested. It was well that the first experiments on the capabilities of +steam were tried by the nose of a tea-kettle. Seeing that most of the +early settlers of Rhode Island had very little property, and scarce +anything of what Christendom had previously been in the habit of +regarding as religion, the territory was the most fitting place for the +trial of revolutionary principles. Mr. Arnold says, very curtly, but +very truly,--"No form of civil government then existing could tolerate +her democracy, and even Christian charity denied her faith." (p. 280.) +The wonder of the world, however, would have been more curiously engaged +in watching what legislation for religion could possibly have devised +for a community made up of all sorts of consciences. The little State +deserves the honor claimed for her. But had she any alternative course? + +[Footnote B: BANCROFT'S _History of the United States._ I. 380.] + +Mr. Arnold, we think, defines with more sharp and guarded accuracy +than does Dr. Palfrey the ruling aim and motive of the founders of +Massachusetts. An historian of Massachusetts, knowing beforehand through +what a course of unflinching and resolute consistency with their first +principles he is to follow her early legislators, has reason to limit +their aim and motive at the start, that he may not assume for them more +than he can make good. Especially if he intend to palliate, and, still +more, to justify, some of the severer and more oppressive elements of +their policy, he will find it wise to qualify their purpose within the +same limitations which they themselves set for it. Dr. Palfrey parts +with an advantage of which he afterwards has need to avail himself, when +he states the motive of the exiles too broadly, as a search for a place +in which to exercise liberty of conscience. He speaks of these exiles +as recognizing in "religious freedom a good of such vast worth as to be +protected by the possessor, not only for himself, but for the myriads +living and to be born, of whom he assumes to be the pioneer and the +champion." (p. 301.) This large and unqualified claim might be advanced +for the founders of Rhode Island, but it cannot be set up for the +founders of Massachusetts. Whoever asserts it for the latter commits +himself most unnecessarily to an awkward and ineffective defence of them +in a long series of restrictive and severe measures against "religious +freedom," beginning with the case of the Brownes at Salem, and including +acts of general legislation as well as of continuous ecclesiastical and +judicial proceeding. Winthrop tells us that the aim of his brotherhood +was "to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their purity here." The +General Court repeatedly signified its desire to have a draft of laws +prepared which might be "agreeable to the word of God." Now either +of these statements of the ruling purpose of the colonists, as then +universally understood and interpreted, was inconsistent with what we +now understand by "freedom in religion," or "liberty of conscience." +What were regarded as "the pure ordinances of Christ" could not have +been set up here, nor could such laws as were then considered as +"agreeable to the word of God" have been enacted here, without impairing +individual freedom in matters of religion. Indeed, it was the very +attempt to realize these objects which occasioned every interference +with perfect liberty of conscience. The fathers of Massachusetts avowed +their purpose to be, not the opening of an asylum for all kinds of +consciences, but the establishment of a Christian commonwealth. Their +consistency can be vindicated by following out their own idea, but not +by assigning to them a larger one. + +Mr. Arnold, as we have said, is more sharply guarded in his statement of +the aim of the founders of the Bay Colony in this respect; and it is +all the more remarkable that he does not give them the benefit of the +recognized limitation. He defines for them a restricted object, but he +judges them by a standard before which they never measured themselves, +and then condemns them for short-comings. He tells us distinctly that +the motives of the exiles "were certainly not those assigned them by +Charles I., 'the freedom of liberty of conscience'" (p. 10); that +"they looked for a home in the New World where they might erect an +establishment in accordance with their peculiar theological views. 'They +sought a faith's pure shrine,' based on what they held to be a purer +system of worship, and a discipline more in unison with their notions +of a church. Here they proceeded to organize a state, whose civil code +followed close on the track of the Mosaic Law, and whose ecclesiastical +polity, like that of the Jews, and of all those [Christian governments?] +then existing, was identified with the civil power. They thus secured, +what was denied them in England, the right to pursue their own form of +religion without molestation, and in this the object of their exile was +attained." (p. 11.) And again, Mr. Arnold says,--"They founded a colony +for their own faith, without any idea of tolerating others." (p. 44.) All +this is admirably said. It is precisely what the exiles would wish might +be said of them in all the histories of them; for it is what they said +of themselves, in defining their own object; it was, further, what they +felt in their hearts to be their object, more intensely than they could +give it utterance. But the object is at once seen to be limited within +the fearful license of religious freedom. The Scriptural and legislative +fetters on such liberty were too repressive not to amount to an +essential qualification of it. "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," Ward of +Ipswich, made a clean breast for himself and his contemporaries, when he +numbered among the "foure things which my heart hath naturally detested: +Tolerations of diverse Religions, or of one Religion in segregant +shapes. He that willingly assents to this, if he examines his heart by +daylight, his conscience will tell him he is either an Atheist, or +an Heretigal, or an Hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lust. +Poly-piety is the greatest impiety in the world." With such frank +avowals on the part of those who had borne so much in the attempt to +make themselves comfortable in their exile to these hard regions, that +they might here try to work out their harder problem, it is a great deal +too severe a standard for judging their acts which is set up for them in +the fancied principle of religious liberty. We wonder that Mr. Arnold +withholds from them the benefit of his and their own clear limitation of +the principle,--a limitation so severe, as, in fact, to constitute quite +another principle. Was it at all strange, then, that they should deal +resolutely with Roger Williams, on account of "the firmness with which, +upon every occasion, he maintained the doctrine, that the civil power +has no control over the religious opinions of men."? (p. 41.) It was for +no other purpose than to engage the civil power for a pure religion that +they were dwelling in poor huts on these ocean headlands, and sustaining +their lives upon muscles gathered on the shore after the receding of the +tide. + +Dr. Palfrey and Mr. Arnold hold and utter quite opposite judgments about +the treatment of Roger Williams by Massachusetts. The latter, having +stated more definitely than the former the limited aim of our colonists, +which was utterly inconsistent with toleration in religion and with +laxity in civil matters, nevertheless considers the men of Massachusetts +unjustifiable in their course toward the founder of Rhode Island. Dr. +Palfrey, on weaker grounds than those allowed by Mr. Arnold, thinks +their most stringent proceedings perfectly defensible. He regards Mr. +Williams as an intruder, whose opinions, behavior, and influence were +perilous alike to the civil and the religious peace of the colonists; +and he holds the colonists as not chargeable with any breach of the +laws of justice or of mercy in sending out of their jurisdiction, into +another patch of the same wilderness, a man all whose phenomena were of +the most uncomfortable and irritating character. We confess that our +reading and thinking identify our judgment on this matter with that +of our own historian. There can be no question but that Roger +Williams--whether he was thirty-two years old, as Mr. Arnold thinks, +or, as Dr. Palfrey judges, in his twenty-fifth year, when he landed +here--was, in what we must call his youth, seeing that he lived to an +advanced age, a heady and contentious theorizer. Our fathers could not +try more than one theory at a time; and the theory they were bent upon +testing naturally preceded, in the series of the world's progressive +experiments, the more generous, but, at the same time, more dangerous +one which he advanced; and their theory had a right to an earlier and +a full trial, as lying in the way of a safe advance towards his bolder +Utopianism. The mild Bradford and the yet milder Brewster were glad when +Plymouth was rid of him. His first manifestation of himself, on +his arrival here, requires to be invested with the halo of a later +admiration, before it can be made to consist with the heralding of +an apostle of the generous principles of toleration and charity in +religion. Winthrop had recorded for us his refusal "to join with the +congregation at Boston." This had been understood as referring to an +unwillingness on the part of Williams to enter into communion with the +church. But from a letter of his which has come to light within the +year, it seems that he had been invited, previously to the arrival +of Cotton, to become teacher of the church. And on account of what +constraint of soul-liberty did he decline the office? Because the +members of that church "would not make a public declaration of their +repentance for having communion with the churches of England, while they +lived there"! The good man lived to grow milder and more tolerant of the +whims and prejudices and convictions of his fellow-men, through a +free indulgence of his own. And, what is more remarkable, he found it +necessary to apply, in restraint of others, several of the measures +against which he had protested when brought to bear upon himself. He +came to discover that there was mischief in "such an infinite liberty of +conscience" as was claimed by his own followers. The erratic Gorton was +to him precisely what the legislators of Massachusetts had feared that +he himself would prove to be to them. He publicly declared himself in +favor of "a due and moderate restraint and punishing" of some of +the oddities of the Quakers. In less than ten years after he had so +frightened Massachusetts by questioning the validity of an English +charter to jurisdiction here, he went to England on a successful errand +to obtain just such a document for himself and his friends. + +Our two historians, with all the facts before them, honestly stated too, +but diversely interpreted, stand in open antagonism of judgment about +the proceedings of Massachusetts against the Antinomians. That bitter +strife--_Dux foemina facti_--was in continuation of the issue opened by +Roger Williams, though it turned upon new elements. Here, again, Mr. +Arnold stands stoutly for the partisans of Mrs. Hutchinson, who moved +towards the new home in the Narragensett country. He sees in the strife, +mainly, a contest of a purely theological character, leading on to a +development of democratical ideas, (p. 66.) Dr. Palfrey insists that +it would be unjust to allege that the Antinomians were dealt with for +holding "distasteful opinions on dark questions of theology," and +affirms that they were put down as wild and alarming agents of an +"immediate anarchy." (pp. 489, 491.) In this matter, also, our own +judgment goes with our own historian. And the very best confirmation +that it could have is found in the fact, that the prime movers in the +most threatening stage of that dire conflict afterwards made ample +confession of their heat, their folly, and their outrages,--approving +the stern proceedings under which they had suffered. Wheelwright, +especially, in whose advocacy the cause of his sister-in-law first +assumed so threatening an aspect, most humbly avowed his sin and +penitence. + +One more very curious illustration of the divergence of judgment in our +two new historians may be instanced. They have both written, as became +them, quite brilliantly and vigorously, about the aborigines of the +soil. But how marvellously they differ! Dr. Palfrey discredits the +romance of Indian character and life. His mind dwells upon the squalor +and wretchedness of their existence, the shiftlessness and incapacity +of their natural development, their improvidence, their beastliness and +forlorn debasement; and he is wholly skeptical about the savage virtues +of constancy, magnanimity, and wild-wood dignity. He sighs over them +another requiem, toned in the deep sympathy of a true Christian heart; +but he does not lament in their sad method of decay the loss of any +element of manhood or of the higher ingredients of humanity. But Mr. +Arnold pitches his requiem to a different strain. He reproduces and +refines the romance which Dr. Palfrey would dispel. He exalts the Indian +character; gathers comforts and joys and pleasing fashionings around +their life; enlarges the sphere of their being, and asserts in them +capacity to fill it. The wigwam of Massasoit is elegantly described by +Mr. Arnold as "his seat at Mount Hope," (p. 23,)--and pungently, by +Dr. Palfrey, as "his sty," in whose comfortless shelter, Winslow and +Hopkins, of Plymouth, on their visit to the chief, had "a distressing +experience of the poverty and filth of Indian hospitality." (pp. 183, +184.) Arnold tells us, the Indians "were ignorant of Revelation, yet +here was Plato's great problem of the Immortality of the Soul solved +in the American wilderness, and believed by all the aborigines of the +West." (p. 78.) But Palfrey, knowing nothing of what his contemporary +was writing, had already put into print this sentence:--"The New England +savage was not the person to have discovered what the vast reach of +thought of Plato and Cicero could not attain." (p. 49.) + +Here are strange variances of judgment. But how much more of interest +and activity lives in the mind, both of writers and readers, when +history is written with such divergent philosophies and comments! Nobly, +in both cases before us, have the writers done their work, and heartily +do we render our tribute to them. + + + + +DRIFTING. + + + My soul to-day + Is far away, + Sailing the Vesuvian Bay; + My wingèd boat, + A bird afloat, + Swims round the purple peaks remote:-- + + Round purple peaks + It sails, and seeks + Blue inlets and their crystal creeks, + Where high rocks throw, + Through deeps below, + A duplicated golden glow. + + Far, vague, and dim, + The mountains swim; + While on Vesuvius' misty brim, + With outstretched hands, + The gray smoke stands + O'erlooking the volcanic lands. + + Here Ischia smiles + O'er liquid miles; + And yonder, bluest of the isles, + Calm Capri waits, + Her sapphire gates + Beguiling to her bright estates. + + I heed not, if + My rippling skiff + Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;-- + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise. + + Under the walls + Where swells and falls + The Bay's deep breast at intervals, + At peace I lie, + Blown softly by, + A cloud upon this liquid sky. + + The day, so mild, + Is Heaven's own child, + With Earth and Ocean reconciled;-- + The airs I feel + Around me steal + Are murmuring to the murmuring keel. + + Over the rail + My hand I trail + Within the shadow of the sail, + A joy intense, + The cooling sense + Glides down my drowsy indolence. + + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Where Summer sings and never dies,-- + O'erveiled with vines, + She glows and shines + Among her future oil and wines. + + Her children, hid + The cliffs amid, + Are gambolling with the gambolling kid; + Or down the walls, + With tipsy calls, + Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls. + + The fisher's child, + With tresses wild, + Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled, + With glowing lips + Sings as she skips, + Or gazes at the far-off ships. + + Yon deep bark goes + Where Traffic blows, + From lands of sun to lands of snows;-- + This happier one, + Its course is run + From lands of snow to lands of sun. + + Oh, happy ship, + To rise and dip, + With the blue crystal at your lip! + Oh, happy crew, + My heart with you + Sails, and sails, and sings anew! + + No more, no more + The worldly shore + Upbraids me with its loud uproar! + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise! + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +ENTRANCE. + + +It was on the 6th of December, 1856, that I landed with my family at +Civita Vecchia, on my return for the third time to Rome. Before we could +make all our arrangements, it was too late to think of journeying that +day towards the dear old city; but the following morning we set forth in +a rumbling, yellow post-coach, with three horses, and a shabby, gaudy +postilion,--the wheels clattering, the bells on the horses' necks +jingling, the cock's-plumes on their heads nodding, and a half-dozen +sturdy beggar-brats running at our side and singing a dismal chorus of +"_Dateci qualche cosa_." Two or three half-baiocchi, however, bought +them off, and we had the road to ourselves. The day was charming, the +sky cloudless, the air tender and with that delicious odor of the South +which so soothingly intoxicates the senses. The sea, accompanying us for +half our way, gleamed and shook out its breaking surf along the shore; +and the rolling slopes of the Campagna, flattered by sunlight, stretched +all around us,--here desert and sparkling with tall skeleton grasses +and the dry canes' tufted feathers, and here covered with low, shrubby +trees, that, crowding darkly together, climbed the higher hills. On +tongues of land, jutting out into the sea, stood at intervals lonely +watch-towers, gray with age, and at their feet shallow and impotent +waves gnashed into foam around the black, jagged teeth of half-sunken +rocks along the shore. Here and there the broken arches of a Roman +bridge, nearly buried in the lush growth of weeds, shrubs, and flowers, +or the ruins of some old villa, the home of the owl, snake, and lizard, +showed where Ancient Rome journeyed and lived. At intervals, heavy +carts, drawn by the superb gray oxen of the Campagna, creaked slowly +by, the _contadino_ sitting athwart the tongue; or some light wine +_carrettino_ came ringing along, the driver fast asleep under its tall, +triangular cover, with his fierce little dog beside him, and his horse +adorned with bright rosettes and feathers. Sometimes long lines of mules +or horses, tied one to another's tail, plodded on in dusty procession, +laden with sacks;--sometimes droves of oxen, or _poledri_, conducted +by a sturdy driver in heavy leathern leggings, and armed with a +long, pointed pole, stopped our way for a moment. In the fields, the +_pecoraro_, in shaggy sheep-skin breeches, the very type of the mythic +Pan, leaned against his staff, half-asleep, and tended his woolly +flock,--or the _contadino_ drove through dark furrows the old plough of +Virgil's time, that figures in the vignettes to the "Georgics," dragged +tediously along by four white oxen, yoked abreast. There, too, were +herds of long-haired goats, rearing mid the bushes and showing their +beards over them, or following the shepherd to their fold, as the +shadows began to lengthen,--or rude and screaming wains, tugged by +uncouth buffaloes, with low heads and knotted knees, bred among the +malaria-stricken marshes. + +Half-way to Rome we changed horses at Palo,--a little grim settlement, +composed of a post-house, inn, stables, a line of straggling +fishermen's-huts, and a desolate old fortress, flanked by four towers. +This fortress, which once belonged to the Odescalchi family, but is now +the property of the Roman government, looks like the very spot for +a tragedy, as it stands there rotting in the pestilential air, and +garrisoned by a few stray old soldiers, whose dreary, broken-down +appearance is quite in keeping with the place. Palo itself is the site +of the city of Alsium, founded by the Pelasgi, in the dim gloom of +antiquity, long before the Etruscans landed on this shore. It was +subsequently occupied by the Etruscans, and afterwards became a favorite +resort of the Roman nobility, who built there the splendid villas of +Antoninus, Porcina, Pompeius, and others. Of the Pelasgic and Etruscan +town not a vestige remains; but the ruined foundations of Roman villas +are still to be seen along the shore. No longer are to be found there +the feasts described by Fronto,[A] of "fatted oysters, savory apples, +pastry, confectionery, and generous wines in faultless transparent +goblets,"--nor would it now be called "a voluptuous seaside retreat"; +but good lobsters are still abundant there, and one can get a greasy +beefsteak, black bread, an ill-cooked chicken, and sour wine, at only +about twice their market value. The situation is lovely, with the sea +washing in along the rounded rim of the coast, close up to the door of +the inn; and on a sunny day, when the white wings of feluccas may be +seen gleaming far off on the blue Mediterranean, and the fishermen are +drawing their nets close into shore, it seems as if it might really be +made "a voluptuous seaside retreat," but for the desolating malaria +which renders it dangerous to rest there for a single night. + +[Footnote A: _De Feriis Alsensibus_, Epist. III. See Dennis's _Etruscan +Antiquities_, Vol. I.] + +Here, of course, we stopped as short a time as possible; and then, +bidding adieu to the sea, struck inland over the Campagna to Rome. The +country now grows wild, desolate, and lonely; but it has a special charm +of its own, which they who are only hurrying on to Rome, and to whom it +is an obstruction and a tediousness, cannot, of course, perceive. It +is dreary, weird, ghostly,--the home of the winds; but its silence, +sadness, and solitude are both soothing and impressive. After miles and +miles up and down, at last, from the crest of a hill up which we slowly +toiled with our lumbering carriage and reeking horses, we saw the dome +of St. Peter's towering above the city, which as yet was buried out of +sight. It was but a glimpse, and was soon lost. The postilion covered +the worn-out lace of his shabby livery with a heavy cloak, which he +flung over his shoulder to keep out the dampening air, gave a series of +wild flourishes with his whip, broke into guttural explosions of voice +to urge along his horses, and on we went full-gallop. The road grew more +and more populated as we approached the city. Carriages were out for a +drive, or to meet friends on their way from Civita Vecchia; and on +foot was many a little company of Romans, laughing and talking. At the +_osterÃas_ were groups seated under _frasche_, or before the door, +drinking _fogliette_ of wine and watching the passers-by. At last, +toward sundown, we stopped at the Porta Cavalleggieri, where, thanks to +our _lascia passare_, we were detained but a minute,--and then we were +in Rome. Over us hung the great bulging dome of St. Peter's, golden +with the last rays of sunset. The pillars of the gigantic colonnade +of Bernini, as we jolted along, "seemed to be marching by," in broad +platoons. The fountains piled their flexile columns of spray and waved +them to and fro. The great bell clanged from the belfry. Groups wandered +forth in the great Piazza. The old Egyptian obelisk in the centre +pointed its lean finger to the sky. We were in Rome! This one moment of +surprised sensation is worth the journey from Civita Vecchia. Entered by +no other gate, is Rome so suddenly and completely possessed. Nowhere is +the contrast so instantaneous and vivid as here, between the silent, +desolate Campagna and the splendor of St. Peter's, between the burrows +of primitive Christianity and the gorgeousness of ecclesiastical Rome. + +After leaving the Piazza, we get a glimpse of Hadrian's Mole, and of the +rusty Tiber, as it hurries, "_retortis littore Etrusco violenter undis_" +as of old, under the statued bridge of St. Angelo,--and then we plunge +into long, damp, narrow, dirty streets. Yet--shall I confess it?--they +had a charm for me. Twilight was deepening into dark as we passed +through them. Confused cries and loud Italian voices sounded about me. +Children were screaming,--men howling their wares for sale. Bells were +ringing everywhere. Priests, soldiers, _contadini_, and beggars thronged +along. The _Trasteverini_ were going home, with their jackets hanging +over one shoulder. Women, in their rough woollen gowns, stood in the +doorways bare-headed, or looked out from windows and balconies, their +black hair shining under the lanterns. Lights were twinkling in the +little cavernous shops, and under the Madonna-shrines far within them. A +funeral procession, with its black banners, gilt with a death's-head +and cross-bones, was passing by, its wavering candles borne by the +_confraternità _, who marched carelessly along, shrouded from head to +foot in white, with only two holes for the eyes to glare through. + +It was dirty, but it was Rome; and to any one who has long lived in Rome +even its very dirt has a charm which the neatness of no other place ever +had. All depends, of course, on what we call dirt. No one would defend +the condition of some of the streets or some of the habits of the +people. But the soil and stain which many call dirt I call color, and +the cleanliness of Amsterdam would ruin Rome for the artist. Thrift and +exceeding cleanness are sadly at war with the picturesque. To whatever +the hand of man builds the hand of Time adds a grace, and nothing is +so prosaic as the rawly new. Fancy for a moment the difference for +the worse, if all the grim, browned, rotted walls of Rome, with their +peeling mortar, their thousand daubs of varying grays and yellows, their +jutting brickwork and patched stonework, from whose intervals the cement +has crumbled off, their waving weeds and grasses and flowers, now +sparsely fringing their top, now thickly protruding from their sides, or +clinging and making a home in the clefts and crevices of decay, were to +be smoothed to a complete level, and whitewashed over into one uniform +and monotonous tint. What a gain in cleanliness! what a loss in beauty! +One old wall like this I remember on the road from Grotta Ferrata to +Frascati, which was to my eyes a constant delight. One day the owner +took it into his head to whitewash it all over,--to clean it, as some +would say. I look upon that man as little better than a Vandal in +taste,--one from whom "knowledge at one entrance was quite shut out." +Take another modern instance: substitute for the tiled roofs of Rome, +now so gray, tumbled, and picturesque with their myriad lichens, the +cold, clean slate of New York, or the glittering zinc of Paris,--should +we gain or lose? The Rue de Rivoli is long, white, and uniform,--all new +and all clean; but there is no more harmony and melody in it than in the +"damnable iteration" of a single note; and even Time will be puzzled +to make it picturesque, or half as interesting as those old houses +displaced in the back streets for its building, which had sprouted up +here and there, according to the various whims of the various builders. +Those were taken down because they were dirty, narrow, unsightly. These +are thought elegant and clean. Clean they certainly are; and they have +one other merit,--that of being as monotonously regular as the military +despotism they represent. But I prefer individuality, freedom, and +variety, for my own part. The narrow, uneven, huddled Corso, with here +a noble palace, and there a quaint passage, or archway, or shop,--the +buildings now high, now low, but all barnacled over with balconies,--is +far more interesting than the unmeaning uniformity of the Rue de Rivoli. +So, too, there are those among us who have the bad taste to think it a +desecration in Louis Napoleon to have scraped the stained and venerable +old Nôtre Dame into cleanliness. The Romantic will not consort with the +Monotonous,--Nature is not neat,--Poetry is not formal,--and Rome is not +clean. + +These thoughts, or ghosts of thoughts, flitted through my mind, as the +carriage was passing along the narrow, dirty streets, and brought with +them after-trains of reflection. There may be, I thought, among the +thousands of travellers that annually winter at Rome, some to whom the +common out-door pictures of modern Roman life would have a charm as +special as the galleries and antiquities, and to whom a sketch of many +things, which wise and serious travellers have passed by as unworthy +their notice, might be interesting. Every ruin has had its score of +_immortelles_ hung upon it. The soil has been almost overworked by +antiquarians and scholars, to whom the modern flower was nothing, but +the antique brick a prize. Poets and sentimentalists have described to +death what the antiquaries have left;--some have done their work so +well that nothing remains to be done after them. Everybody has an +herbarium of dried flowers from all the celebrated sites, and a +table made from bits of marble collected in the ruined villas. Every +Englishman carries a Murray for information and a Byron for sentiment, +and finds out by them what he is to know and feel at every step. +Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description, until +everything is stereotyped, from the Dying Gladiator, with his "young +barbarians all at play," and all that, down to the Beatrice Cenci, the +Madame Tonson of the shops, that haunts one everywhere with her white +turban and red eyes. All the public and private life and history of the +ancient Romans, from Romulus to Constantine and Julian the Apostle, (as +he is sometimes called,) is properly well known. But the common life +of the modern Romans, the games, customs, habits of the people, +the everyday of To-day, has been only touched upon here and +there,--sometimes with spirit and accuracy, as by Charles McFarlane, +sometimes with great grace, as by Hans Christian Andersen, and sometimes +with great ignorance, as by Miss Waldie. This is the subject, however, +which has specially interested me, and a life of several years in Rome +has enabled me to observe many things which do not strike the hurried +traveller, and to correct many false notions in regard to the people +and place. To a stranger, a first impression is apt to be a false +impression; and it constantly happens to me to hear my own countrymen +work out the falsest conclusions from the slightest premises, and +settle the character and deserts of the Italians, all of whom they mass +together in a lump, after they have been just long enough on the soil to +travel from Civita Vecchia to Rome under the charge of a courier, when +they know just enough of the language to ask for a coachman when they +want a spoon, and when they have made the respectable acquaintance, +beside their courier, of a few porters, a few beggars, a few +shopkeepers, and the _padrone_ of the apartment they hire. + +No one lives long in Rome without loving it; and I must, in the +beginning, confess myself to be in the same category. Those who shall +read these slender papers, without agreeing to the kindly opinions +often expressed, must account for it by remembering that "Love lends a +precious seeing to the eye." My aim is far from ambitious. I shall not +be erudite, but I hope I shall not be dull. These little sketches may +remind some of happy days spent under the Roman sky, and, by directing +the attention of others to what they have overlooked, may open a door +to a new pleasure. _Chi sa?_ The plainest Ranz des Vaches may sometimes +please when the fifth symphony of Beethoven would be a bore. + + +CHAPTER II. + +STREET-MUSIC IN ROME. + + +Whoever has passed the month of December in Rome will remember to +have been awakened from his morning-dreams by the gay notes of the +_pifferari_ playing in the streets below, before the shrines of the +Madonna and Bambino,--and the strains of one set of performers will +scarcely have ceased, before the distant notes of another set of +pilgrims will be heard to continue the well-known _novena_. The +_pifferari_ are generally _contadini_ of the Abruzzi Mountains, who, at +the season of Advent, leave their home to make a pilgrimage to Rome,-- +stopping before all the wayside shrines, as they journey along, to pay +their glad music of welcome to the Virgin, and the coming Messiah. Their +song is called a _novena_, from its being sung for nine consecutive +days,--first, for nine days previous to the Festa of the Madonna, +which occurs on the 8th of December, and afterwards for the nine days +preceding Christmas. The same words and music serve, however, for both +celebrations. The _pifferari_ always go in couples, one playing on the +_zampogna_, or bagpipe, the bass and treble accompaniment, and the other +on the _piffero_, or pastoral pipe, which carries the air; and for the +month before Christmas the sound of their instruments resounds through +the streets of Rome, wherever there is a shrine,--whether at the corners +of the streets, in the depths of the shops, down little lanes, in the +centre of the Corso, in the interior courts of the palaces, or on the +stairways of private houses. + +Their costume is extremely picturesque. On their heads they wear conical +felt hats adorned with a frayed peacock's feather, or a faded band of +red cords and tassels,--their bodies are clad in red waistcoats, blue +jackets, and small-clothes of skin or yellowish homespun cloth,--skin +sandals are bound to their feet with cords that interlace each other up +the leg as far as the knee,--and over all is worn a long brown or blue +cloak with a short cape, buckled closely round the neck. Sometimes, but +rarely, this cloak is of a deep red with a scalloped cape. As they stand +before the pictures of the Madonna, their hats placed on the ground +before them, and their thick, black, dishevelled hair covering their +sunburnt brows, blowing away on their instruments or pausing to sing +their _novena_, they form a picture which every artist desires to paint. +Their dress is common to nearly all the peasantry of the Abruzzi, and, +worn and tattered as it often is, it has a richness and harmony of tint +which no new clothes could ever have, and for which the costumes of the +shops and regular models offer a poor substitute. It is the old story +again. The new and clean is not so paintable, not so picturesque, as the +tarnished and soiled. The worn blue of the cloak is softened by the dull +gray of the threads beneath,--patches of various colors are often let +into the jacket or breeches,--the hat is lustreless from age, and rusty +as an old wall,--and the first vivid red of the waistcoat is toned by +constant use to a purely pictorial hue. Besides, the true _pifferaro_ +wears his costume as if it belonged to him and had always been worn by +him,--so that it has none of that got-up look which spoils everything. +From the sandals and corded leggings, which, in the Neapolitan dialect, +are termed _cioce_, the _pifferari_ are often called _ciociari_. + +Their Christmas pilgrimages are by no means prompted by purely religious +motives, though, undoubtedly, such considerations have some weight with +them, the common peasantry being a religiously inclined people, and +often making pilgrimages simply from a sense of duty and propriety. But +in these wanderings to Rome, their principal object is to earn a little +money to support them during the winter months, when their "occupation +is gone." As they are hired in Rome by the owners of the various houses +adorned with a Madonna-shrine (of which there are over fifteen hundred +in the city) to play before them at the rate of a paul or so for each +full _novena_, and as they can easily play before thirty or forty a day, +they often return, if their luck is good, with a tolerable little sum +in their pockets. Besides this, they often stand as models, if they are +good-looking fellows, and thus add to their store; and then again, the +_forestieri_ (for, as the ancient Romans called strangers _barbari_, +so their descendants call them _foresters_, wood-men, wild-men) +occasionally drop _baiocchi_ and pauls into their hats, still further to +increase it. + +Sometimes it is a father and son who play together, but oftener two old +friends who make the pilgrimage in pairs. This morning, as I was +going out for a walk round the walls, two admirable specimens of the +_pifferari_ were performing the _novena_ before a shrine at the corner +of the street. The player of the _zampogna_ was an old man, with a sad, +but very amiable face, who droned out the bass and treble in a most +earnest and deprecatory manner. He looked as if he had stood still, +tending his sheep, nearly all his life, until the peace and quiet of +Nature had sunk into his being, or, if you will, until he had become +assimilated to the animals he tended. The other, who played the +_piffero_, was a man of middle age, stout, vigorous, with a forest of +tangled black hair, and dark quick eyes that were fixed steadily on the +Virgin, while he blew and vexed the little brown pipe with rapid runs +and nervous _fioriture_, until great drops of sweat dripped from its +round open mouth. Sometimes, when he could not play fast enough to +satisfy his eagerness, he ran his finger up and down the vents. +Then, suddenly lowering his instrument, he would scream, in a strong +peasant-voice, verse after verse of the _novena_, to the accompaniment +of the _zampogna_. One was like a slow old Italian _vettura_ all +lumbered with luggage and held back by its drag; the other panting and +nervous at his work as an American locomotive, and as constantly running +off the rails. Both, however, were very earnest at their occupation. As +they stood there playing, a little group gathered round. A scamp of a +boy left his sport to come and beat time with a stick on the stone step +before them; several children clustered near; and two or three women, +with rosy infants in their arms, also paused to listen and sympathize. +At last the playing ceased. The _pifferari_ took up their hats and +looked smilingly round at us. + +"Where do you come from?" I asked. + +"_Eh!_" said the _piffero_, showing all his teeth, and shrugging his +shoulders good-naturedly, while the other echoed the pantomime. + +"_Dal Regno_"--for so the Abruzzi peasants call the kingdom of Naples. + +"And do you come every year?" + +"_Sì, Signore. Lui_" (indicating his friend) "_ed io_" (pointing to +himself) "_siam' compagni per trenta tre anni. E siam' venut' a Roma per +far la noven' ogn' anno."[B] + +[Footnote B: "He and I have been companions for thirty-three years, and +every year we have come to Rome to play the _novena_."] + +To this the old _zampogna_ bent his head on one side, and said, +assentingly,--"_Eh! per trenta tre anni._"-- + +And, "_Ecco_," continued the _piffero_, bursting in before the +_zampogna_ could go on, and pointing to two stalwart youths of about +twenty-two or-three years of age, who at this moment came up the +street with their instruments,--"These are our two sons. He is +mine,"--indicating one with his reversed thumb; "and that other is +his,"--jerking his head towards his companion. "And they, too, are going +to play in company, as we do." + +"For thirty-three years more, let us hope," said I. + +"_Eh! speriamo_," (Let us hope so,) was the answer of the _piffero_, as +he showed all his teeth in the broadest of smiles. Then, with a motion +of his hand, he set both the young men going, he himself joining in, +straining out his cheeks, blowing all the breath of his body into the +little pipe, and running up and down the vents with a sliding finger, +until finally he brought up against a high, shrill note, to which he +gave the full force of his lungs, and, after holding it in loud blast +for a moment, startled us by breaking off, without gradation, into +a silence as sudden as if the music had snapped short off, like a +pipe-stem. + +On further conversation with my _ciociari_, I found that they came +yearly from Sora, a town in the Abruzzi, about one hundred miles from +Rome, making the journey on foot, and picking up by the way whatever +trifle of copper they could. In this manner they travelled the whole +distance in five days, living upon onions, lettuce, oil, and black +bread. They were now singing the second _novena_ for _Natale_, and, if +one could judge from their manner and conversation, were quite content +with what they had earned. I invited them up into my room, and there +in the pleasantest way they stunned us with the noise of both their +instruments, to the great delight of the children and the astonishment +of the servants, for whom these common things had worn out their charm +by constant repetition. At my request, they repeated the words of the +_novena_ they had been singing, and I took them down from their lips. +After eliminating the wonderful _m-ms_ of the Neapolitan dialect, in +which all the words lay imbedded like shells in the sand, and supplying +some of the curious elisions with which those Abruzzi Procrusteans +recklessly cut away the polysyllables, so as to bring them within the +rythmic compass, they ran thus:-- + + "Verginella figlia di Sant' Anna, + Nella ventre portasti il buon Gesù. + Si parturisti sotto la capanna, + E dov' mangiav'no lo bue e 1' asinello. + + "Quel Angelo gridava: 'Venite, Santi! + 'Chè andato Gesù dentro la capanna, + Ma guardate Vergine beata, + Che in ciel in terra sia nostr' avvocata! + + "San Giuseppe andava in compagnia, + Si trovò al partorir di Maria. + La notte di natale è notte santa-- + Lo Padre e 1' Figliolo e lo Spirito Santo. + 'Sta la ragione che abbiamo cantato; + Sia a Gesù bambino rappresentata." + +The sudden introduction of "_Quel Angelo_" in this song reminds us of a +similar felicity in the romantic ballad of "Lord Bateman," where we are +surprised to learn that "_this Turk_," to whom no allusion had been +previously made, "has one lovely daughter." + +The air to which this is sung is very simple and sweet, though +monotonous. Between the verses and at the close, a curious little +_ritornello_ is played. + +The wanderings of the _pifferari_ are by no means confined to the Roman +States. Sometimes they stray "as far away as Paris is," and, wandering +about in that gay capital, like children at a fair, play in the streets +for chance _sous_, or stand as models to artists, who, having once been +to Rome, hear with a longing Rome-sickness the old characteristic sounds +of the _piffero_ and _zampogna_. Two of them I remember to have heard +thus, as I was at work in my studio in Paris; and so vividly did they +recall the old Roman time, that I called them in for a chat. + +Wonderful was their speech. In the few months of their wandering, they +had put into their Neapolitan dough various plums of French words, +which, pronounced in their odd way, "suffered a change into something +peculiarly rich and strange." One of them told me that his wife had just +written to him by the hand of a _scrivano_, lamenting his absence, and +praying him to send her his portrait. He had accordingly sent her a +photograph in half-length. Some time afterwards she acknowledged the +receipt of it, but indignantly remonstrated with him for sending her a +picture "_che pareva guardando per la fenestra_" (which seemed to be +looking out of the window,) as she oddly characterized a half-length, +and praying to have his legs also in the next portrait. This same +fellow, with his dull, amiable face, played the role of a ferocious +wounded brigand dragged into concealment by his wife, in the studio of +a friend next door; but, despite the savagery and danger of his +counterfeited position, he was sure to be overpowered by sleep before he +had been in it more than five minutes,--and if the artist's eye left him +for a moment, he never failed to change his attitude for one more fitted +to his own somnolent propensities than for the picture. + +The _pifferari_ are by no means the only street-musicians in Rome, +though they take the city by storm at Christmas. Every day under my +window comes a band of four or five, who play airs and concerted pieces +from the operas,--and a precious work they make of it sometimes! Not +only do the instruments go very badly together, but the parts they play +are not arranged for them. A violone grunts out a low accompaniment to a +vinegar-sharp violin which saws out the air, while a trumpet blares in +at intervals to endeavor to unite the two, and a flute does what it +can, but not what it would. Sometimes, instead of a violone, a hoarse +trombone, with a violent cold in the head, snorts out the bass +impatiently, gets ludicrously uncontrollable and boastful at times, and +is always so choleric, that, instead of waiting for the _cadenzas_ to +finish, it bursts in, knocks them over as by a blow on the head, roars +away on false intervals, and overwhelms every other voice with its +own noisy vociferation. The harmonic arrangements are very odd. Each +instrument seems to consider itself ill-treated when reduced to an +accompaniment or bass, and is constantly endeavoring, however unfitted +for it, to get possession of the air,--the melody being, for all +Italians, the principal object. The violin, however, weak of voice as +it is, always carries the day, and the other instruments steal +discontentedly back to their secondary places, the snuffy old violone +keeping up a constant growl at its ill luck, and the trombone now and +then leaping out like a tiger on its prey. + +Far better and more characteristic are the ballad-singers, who generally +go in couples,--an old man, dim of sight, perhaps blind, who plays the +violin, and his wife or daughter, who has a guitar, tamborello, or at +times a mandolin. Sometimes a little girl accompanies them, sings +with them, and carries round a tin box, or the tamborello, to collect +_baiocchi_. They sing long ballads to popular melodies, some of +which are very pretty and gay, and for a _baiocco_ they sell a sheet +containing the printed words of the song. Sometimes it is in the form of +a dialogue,--either a love-making, a quarrel, a reconciliation, or a +leave-taking,--each singer taking an alternate verse. Sometimes it is a +story with a chorus, or a religious conversation-ballad, or a story of a +saint, or from the Bible. Those drawn from the Bible are generally +very curious paraphrases of the original simple text, turned into the +simplest and commonest idioms of the people;--one of them may be found +in the Appendix to Goethe's "Italienische Reise." These Roman ballads +and popular songs, so far as I am able to learn, have never been +collected. Many of them do not exist in print, and are only traditional +and caught from mouth to mouth. This is particularly the case with those +in the Romanesque dialect, which are replete with the peculiar wit +and spirit of the country. But the memory of man is too perilous a +repository for such interesting material; and it is greatly to be wished +that some clever Italian, who is fitted for the task, would interest +himself to collect them and give them a permanent place in the +literature of his language. + +But to return to our ballad-singers, whom we have left in the middle of +their song, and who are now finishing. A crowd has gathered round them, +as usual; out of the windows and from the balconies lean the occupants +of the houses near by, and the _baiocchi_ thrown by them ring on the +pavement below. With rather Stentorian voices they have been singing a +dialogue which is most elaborately entitled a "Canzonetta Nuova, sopra +un marinaro che da l' addio alla sua promessa sposa mentre egli deve +partire per la via di Levante. Sdegno, pace, e matrimonio dilli medesimi +con intercalare sull' aria moderna. Rime di Francesco Calzaroni." I give +my _baiocco_ and receive in return a smiling "Grazie" and a copy of the +song, which is adorned by a wood-cut of a ship in full sail. + +Here is another, of a moral character, containing the sad history of +Frederic the Gambler, who, to judge from the wood-cut accompanying the +Canzonetta, must have been a ferocious fellow. He stands with his legs +wide apart, in half-armor, a great sash tied over his shoulder and +swinging round his legs, an immense sword at his side, and a great +hat with two ostrich-feathers on his head, looking the very type of a +"swashing blade." + +The singers of longer ballads carry about with them sometimes a series +of rudely-executed illustrations of different incidents in the story, +painted in distemper and pasted on a large pasteboard frame, which is +hung against a wall or on a stand planted behind the singer in the +ground. These he pauses now and then in his song to explain to the +audience, and they are sure to draw a crowd. + +As summer comes on and the evenings grow warm, begin the street +serenades,--sometimes like that of Lindoro in the opening of the +"Barbiere di Sevilla," but generally with only one voice, accompanied by +a guitar and a mandolin. These serenades are, for the most part, given +by a lover or friend to his _innamorata_, and the words are expressive +of the tender passion; but there are also _serenate di gelosia_, or +satirical serenades, when the most impertinent and stinging verses are +sung. Long before arriving, the serenaders may be heard marching up the +street to the thrum of their instruments. They then place themselves +before the windows of the fair one, and, surrounded by a group of men +and boys, make proclamation of their love in loud and often violent +tones. It seems sometimes as if they considered the best method of +expressing the intensity of their passion was by the volume of their +voice. Certainly, in these cases, the light of love is not hidden under +a bushel. Among the Trasteverini, particularly, these serenades are +common. Some of them are very clever in their improvisations and +imitations of different dialects, particularly of the Neapolitan, in +which there are so many charming songs. Their skill in improvisation, +however, is not generally displayed in their serenades, but in the +_osterias_, during the evenings of the _festas_ in summer. There it is +that their quickness and epigrammatic turn of expression are best seen. +Two disputants will, when in good-humor and warmed with wine, string off +verse after verse at each other's expense, full of point and fun,--the +guitar burring along in the intervals, and a chorus of laughter saluting +every good hit. + +In many of the back streets and squares of the city, fountains jet out +of lions' heads into great oblong stone cisterns, often sufficiently +large to accommodate some thirty washerwomen at once. Here the common +people resort to wash their clothes, and with great laughter and +merriment amuse themselves while at their work by improvising verses, +sometimes with rhyme, sometimes without, at the expense of each other, +or perhaps of the passerby,--particularly if he happen to be a gaping +_forestiere_, to whom their language is unintelligible. They stand on +an elevated stone step, so as to bring the cistern about mid-height of +their body, and on the rough inclined level of its rim they slash and +roll the clothes, or, opening them, flaunt them into the water, or +gather them together, lifting their arms high above their heads, and +always treating them with a violence which nothing but the coarsest +material can resist. The air to which they chant their couplets is +almost always a Campagna melody. Sharp attacks are given and as sharp +_répliques_ received, in exceeding good-humor; and when there is little +wit, there is sure to be much laughter. The salt is oftentimes pretty +coarse, but it serves its purpose. + +A remarkable trait among the Italians is the good-nature with which +they take personal jokes, and their callousness to ridicule of personal +defects. Jests which would provoke a blow from an Anglo-Saxon, or wound +and rankle in the memory for life, are here taken in good part. A +cripple often joins in the laugh at his own deformity; and the rough +carelessness with which such personal misfortunes are alluded to is +amazing to us of a more sensitive organization. I well remember the +extreme difficulty I once had in breaking an Italian servant of the +habit of announcing an acquaintance, whose foreign name he could not +pronounce, and who had the misfortune to be humpbacked, as "_quel +gobbo_" (that hunchback). He could not understand why he should not call +him a _gobbo_, if he was a _gobbo_; and in spite of all I could do, he +would often open the door and say, "_Signore, quel gobbo desidera farle +una visita_," (that hunchback wishes to make you a visit,) when "_quel +gobbo_" was right on his heels. The Italians are also singularly free +from that intense self-consciousness which runs in our English +blood, and is the root of shyness, awkwardness, and affectation. +Unconsciousness is the secret of grace, freedom, and simplicity. We +never forget ourselves. The Italians always forget themselves. They are +sometimes proud, very seldom vain, and never affected. The converse +peculiarity follows, of course. Having no self-consciousness, they are +as little sensitive to their defects as vain of their charms. The models +who come to the studios, and who have been selected for their beauty, +despite the silent flattery incident to their very profession, and +the lavish praise they constantly hear expressed, are always simple, +natural, and unaffected. If you tell them they are very beautiful, they +say, _"Ma che?"_ deprecatorily, or perhaps admit the fact. But they are +better pleased to have their dress admired than their faces. Of the +former they are vain, of the latter they are not. For the most part, I +think they rather wonder what it is we admire in them and think worthy +of perpetuating in stone or color. The other day I was so much struck +with the ear of a model, from whom I was working, that I said to +her,--"You have, without exception, the most beautiful ear I ever saw." +She laughed somewhat derisively, and said, _"Ma che?"_--"It does not +seem to give you any pleasure," I continued, "to know that you have a +very handsome ear."--_"Che mi importa,"_ answered she, _"se sia bello o +brutto? È sempre lo stesso, brutto o bello, bello o brutto. Ecco!"_[C] +--"You don't care, then, whether you are handsome or ugly?"--_"Eh! cosa +a me m'importa,--se sono brutto o bello non so,--a me è lo stesso."_ +This was all I could get from her. + +[Footnote C: "What do I care whether it is handsome or ugly? It's all +the same to me,--ugly or handsome,--handsome or ugly. There!"] + +But to return to our washerwomen. In every country-town a large +washing-cistern is always provided by the authorities for public use, +and, at all hours of the day, the picturesque figures of the peasants +of every age, from the old hag, whose skin is like a brown and crumpled +palimpsest, (where Anacreontic verses are overwritten by a dull, monkish +sermon,) to the round, dark-eyed girl, with broad, straight back and +shining hair, may be seen gathered around it,--their heads protected +from the sun by their folded _tovaglia_, their skirts knotted up behind, +and their waists embraced by stiff, red _busti_. Their work is always +enlivened by song,--and when their clothes are all washed, the basket +is lifted to the head, and home they march, stalwart and majestic, like +Roman caryatides. The sharp Italian sun shining on their dark faces and +vivid costumes, or flashing into the fountain, and basking on the gray, +weed-covered walls, makes a picture which is often enchanting in its +color. At the Emissary by Albano, where the waters from the lake are +emptied into a huge cistern through the old conduit built by the ancient +Romans to sink the level of the lake, I have watched by the hour +together these strange pictorial groups, as they sang and thrashed +the clothes they were engaged in washing; while over them, in the +foreground, the great gray tower and granary, once a castle, lifted +itself in strong light and shade against the peerless blue sky, while +rolling hills beyond, covered with the pale green foliage of rounded +olives, formed the characteristic background. Sometimes a _contadino_, +mounted on the crupper of his donkey, would pause in the sun to chat +awhile with the women. The children, meanwhile, sprawled and played upon +the grass, and the song and chat at the fountain would not unfrequently +be interrupted by a shrill scream from one of the mothers, to stop a +quarrel, or to silence a cry which showed the stoutness of their little +lungs. + +The cobblers of Rome are also a gay and singing set. They do not +imprison themselves in a dark cage of a shop, but sit _"sub Jove"_ where +they may enjoy the life of the street and all the "skyey influences." +Their benches are generally placed near the _portone_ of some palace, so +that they may draw them under shelter when it rains. Here all day they +sit and draw their waxed-ends and sing,--a row of battered-looking boots +and shoes ranged along on the ground beside them, and waiting for their +turn, being their only stock in trade. + +They commonly have enough to do, and, as they pay nothing for shop-rent, +every _baiocco_ they get is nearly clear profit. They are generally as +poor as Job's cat; but they are far happier than the proprietor of that +interesting animal. Figaro is a high ideal of this class, and about as +much like them as Raffaello's angels are like Jeames Yellowplush. What +the cobblers and Figaro have in common is song and a love of scandal. +One admirable specimen of this class sits at the corner of the Via +Felice and Capo le Case, with his bench backed against the gray wall. He +is an oldish man, with a long, gray beard and a quizzical face,--a sort +of Hans Sachs, who turns all his life into verse and song. When he comes +out in the morning, he chants a domestic idyl, in which he narrates in +verse the events of his household, and the differences and agreements of +himself and his wife, whom I take to be a pure invention. This over, he +changes into song everything and every person that passes before him. +Nothing that is odd, fantastic, or absurd escapes him, or fails to be +chronicled and sarcastically commented on in his verse. So he sits all +day long, his mind like a kaleidoscope, changing all the odd bits of +character which chance may show him into rhythmic forms, and chirps and +sings as perpetually as the cricket. Friends he has without number, who +stop before his bench, from which he administers poetical justice to +all persons, to have a long chat, or sometimes to bring him a friendly +token; and from the dark interior of his drawer he often brings forth an +orange, or a bunch of grapes, or handful of chestnuts, supplied by them, +as a dessert for the thick cabbage-soup which he eats at _mezzo giorno_. + +In the busiest street of Rome, the pure Campagna song may often be heard +from the throat of some _contadino_, as he slowly rumbles along in his +loaded wine-cart,--the little dog at his side barking a sympathetic +chorus. This song is rude enough, and seems in measure founded upon the +Church chant. It is in the minor key, and consists ordinarily of two +phrases, ending in a screaming monotone, prolonged until the breath of +the singer fails, and often running down at the close into a blurred +chromatic. No sooner is one strain ended than it is suddenly taken up +again in the _prestissimo_ time and "slowed" down to the same dismal +conclusion. Heard near, it is deafening and disagreeable. But when +refined by distance, it has a sad and pleasant effect, and seems to +belong to the place,--the long wail at the close being the very type +of the melancholy stretches of the Campagna. In the same way I have +frequently thought that the _Jodeln_ of the Swiss was an imitation of +the echo of the mountains, each note repeated first in octave, or fifth, +and then in its third below. The Campagna song is to be heard not only +in the Campagna, but everywhere in the country,--in the vineyards, +in the grain-fields, in mountain and valley, from companies working +together, and from solitary _contadini_,--wherever the influence and +sentiment of the Roman Campagna is felt. The moment we get into Tuscany, +on the one side, or over into Naples, on the other, it begins to be +lost. It was only the other day, at nightfall, that I was sauntering +out on the desolate Campagna towards Civita Vecchia. The shadows were +deepening and the mists beginning to creep whitely along the deep +hollows. Everything was dreary and melancholy enough. As I paused to +listen to the solitude, I heard the grind of a distant invisible cart, +and the sound of a distant voice singing. Slowly the cart came up over +the crest of the hill, a dark spot against the twilight sky, and mounted +on the top of a load of brushwood sat a _contadino_, who was singing to +himself these words,--not very consolatory, perhaps, but so completely +in harmony with the scene and the time that they struck me forcibly:-- + + "E, bella, tu non piangera-a-a-i, + Sul giorno ch'io saro mor-or-or-to-o-o-o-o-o."[D] + +[Footnote D: + + "And, dearest, you will never weep for me-e-e-e, + The day when I shall be no mo-o-o-ore."] + +Whether this constant habit of song among the Southern people, while at +their work, indicates happiness and content, I will not undertake to +say; but it is pleasanter in effect than the sad silence in which we +Anglo-Saxons perform our tasks,--and it seems to show a less harassed +and anxious spirit. But I feel quite sure that these people are more +easily pleased, contented with less, less morose, and less envious of +the ranks above them, than we are. They give little thought to the +differences of caste, have little ambition to make fortunes or rise out +of their condition, and are satisfied with the commonest fare, if they +can get enough of it. The demon of dissatisfaction never harries them. +When you speak to them, they answer with a smile which is nowhere +else to be found. The nation is old, but the people are children +in disposition. Their character is like their climate, generally +sunny,--subject to violent occasional storms, but never growling life +away in an uncomfortable drizzle of discontent. They live upon Nature, +--sympathize with it and love it,--are susceptible to the least touch +of beauty,--are ardent, if not enduring, in their affectations,--and, +unless provoked and irritated, are very peaceful and amiable. The flaw +in their nature is jealousy, and it is a great flaw. Their want of truth +is the result of their education. We who are of the more active and busy +nations despise them for not having that irritated discontent which +urges us forward to change our condition; and we think our ambition +better than their supineness. But there is good in both. We do +more,--they enjoy more; we make violent efforts to be happy,--invent, +create, labor, to arrive at that quiet enjoyment which they own without +struggle, and which our anxious strife unfits us to enjoy when the means +for it are obtained. The general, popular idea, that an Italian is +quarrelsome, and ill-tempered, and that the best are only bandits in +disguise, is quite a mistake; and when studied as they exist out of the +track of travel, where they are often debased and denaturalized, they +will be found to be simple, kind-hearted, and generous. + + + + +A LETTER TO A DYSPEPTIC. + + +Yes, my dear Dolorosus, I commiserate you. I regard your case, perhaps, +with even sadder emotions than that excellent family-physician who has +been sounding its depths these four years with a golden plummet, and +has never yet touched bottom. From those generous confidences which, in +common with most of your personal acquaintances, I daily share, I +am satisfied that no description can do justice to your physical +disintegration, unless it be the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds +with which Mr. Addison winds up Cato's Soliloquy. So far as I can +ascertain, there is not an organ of your internal structure which is +in its right place, at present, or which could perform any particular +service, if it were there. In the extensive library of medical almanacs +and circulars which I find daily deposited by travelling agents at my +front door, among all the agonizing vignettes of diseases which adorn +their covers, and which Irish Bridget daily studies with inexperienced +enjoyment in the front entry, there is no case which seems to afford a +parallel to yours. I found it stated in one of these works, the other +day, that there is iron enough in the blood of twenty-four men to make +a broadsword; but I am satisfied that it would be impossible to extract +enough from the veins of yourself and your whole family to construct a +crochet-needle for your eldest daughter. And I am quite confident, +that, if all the four hundred muscles of your present body were twisted +together by a rope-maker, they would not furnish that patient young +laborer with a needleful of thread. + +You are undoubtedly, as you claim, a martyr to Dyspepsia; or if you +prefer any other technical name for your disease or diseases, I will +acquiesce in any, except, perhaps, the word "Neurology," which I must +regard as foreign to etymological science, if not to medical. Your case, +you think, is hard. I should think it would be. Yet I am impressed by +it, I must admit, as was our adopted fellow-citizen by the contemplation +of Niagara. He, you remember, when pressed to admire the eternal plunge +of the falling water, could only inquire, with serene acquiescence in +natural laws, "And what's to hinder?" I confess myself moved to similar +reflections by your disease and its history. My dear Dolorosus, can +you acquaint me with any reason, in the heavens above or on the earth +beneath, why you should _not_ have dyspepsia? + +My thoughts involuntarily wander back to that golden period, five years +ago, when I spent one night and day beneath your hospitable roof. I +arrived, I remember, late in the evening. The bed-room to which you +kindly conducted me, after a light but wholesome supper of doughnuts and +cheese, was pleasing in respect to furniture, but questionable in regard +to physiology. The house was not more than twenty years old, and the +chamber must therefore have been aired within that distance of time, but +not, I should have judged, more recently. Perhaps its close, oppressive +atmosphere could not have been analyzed into as many separate odors +as Coleridge distinguished in Cologne,--but I could easily identify +aromatic vinegar, damp straw, lemons, and dyed silk gowns. And, as each +of the windows was carefully nailed down, there were no obvious means of +obtaining fresh air, save that ventilator said to be used by an eminent +lady in railway-cars,--the human elbow. The lower bed was of straw, the +upper of feathers, whose extreme heat kept me awake for a portion of the +night, and whose abundant fluffy exhalations suggested incipient asthma +during another portion. On rising from these rather unrefreshing +slumbers, I performed my morning ablutions with the aid of some +three teacupsful of dusty water,--for the pitcher probably held that +quantity,--availing myself, also, of something which hung over an +elegant towel-horse, and which, though I at first took it for a child's +handkerchief, proved on inspection to be "Chamber Towel, No. 1." + +I remember, as I entered the breakfast-room, a vague steam as of frying +sausages, which, creeping in from the neighboring kitchen, obscured +in some degree the six white faces of your wife and children. The +breakfast-table was amply covered, for you were always what is termed +by judicious housewives "a good provider." I remember how the beefsteak +(for the sausages were especially destined for your two youngest +Dolorosi, who were just recovering from the measles, and needed +something light and palatable) vanished in large rectangular masses +within your throat, drawn downward in a maelstrom of coffee;--only +that the original whirlpool is, I believe, now proved to have been +imaginary;--"that cup was a fiction, but this is reality." The +resources of the house also afforded certain very hot biscuits or +breadcakes, in a high state of saleratus;--indeed, it must have been +from association with these, that certain yellow streaks in Mr. Ruskin's +drawing of the rock, at the Athenaeum, awakened in me such an immediate +sense of indigestion;--also fried potatoes, baked beans, mince-pie, and +pickles. The children partook of these dainties largely, but without +undue waste of time. They lingered at table precisely eight minutes, +before setting out for school; though we, absorbed in conversation, +remained at least ten;--after which we instantly hastened to your +counting-room, where you, without a moment's delay, absorbed yourself in +your ledger, while I flirted languidly with the "Daily Advertiser." + +You bent over your desk the whole morning, occasionally having +anxious consultations with certain sickly men whom I supposed to be +superannuated bookkeepers, in impoverished circumstances, and rather +pallid from the want of nutritious food. One of them, dressed in rusty +black, with a flabby white neckcloth, I took for an ex-clergyman; he was +absorbed in the last number of the "Independent," though I observed, at +length, that he was only studying the list of failures, a department to +which, as it struck me, he himself peculiarly appertained. All of these, +I afterwards ascertained from your office-boy, were eminent capitalists; +something had gone wrong in the market,--not in the meat-market, as I +should have supposed from their appearance, but in the money-market. I +believe that there was some sudden fall in the price of indigo. I know +you looked exceedingly blue as we walked home to dinner. + +Dinner was ready the instant we opened the front door. I expected as +much; I knew the pale, speechless woman who sat at the head of your +table would make sure of punctuality, if she died for it. We took our +seats without a word. The party was smaller than at breakfast. Two of +the children had staid at school, having their luncheon-baskets well +filled from the cold remains of breakfast. Your eldest girl, Angelina, +aged ten, one of those premature little grown women who have learned +from the cradle that man is born to eat pastry and woman to make it, +postponed her small repast till an indefinite future, and sat meekly +ready to attend upon our wants. Nathaniel, a thin boy of eight, +also partook but slightly, having impaired his appetite, his mother +suspected, by a copious luncheon of cold baked beans and vinegar, on +his return from school. The two youngest (twins) had relapsed to their +couches soon after breakfast, in consequence of excess of sausage. + +You were quite agreeable in conversation, I remember, after the first +onset of appetite was checked. You gave me your whole theory of the +indigo crisis, with minute details, statistical and geographical, of +the financial condition and supposed present location of your principal +absconding debtors. This served for what is called, at public dinners, +the intellectual feast; while the carnal appetite was satisfied with +fried pork, ditto roasted, strong coffee, turnips, potatoes, and a good +deal of gravy. For dessert, (at which point Nathaniel regained his +appetite,) we had mince-pie, apple-pie, and lemon-pie, the latter being +a structure of a two-story description, an additional staging of crust +being somehow inserted between upper and under. We lingered long at that +noon meal,--fifteen minutes, at the very least; for you hospitably said +that you did not have these little social festivals very often,--owing +to frequent illness in the family, and other causes,--and mast make the +most of it. + +I did not see much of you during that afternoon; it was a magnificent +day, and I said, that, being a visitor, I would look about and see the +new buildings. The truth was, I felt a sneaking desire to witness the +match-game on the Common, between the Union Base-Ball Club, No. 1, of +Ward Eleven, and the Excelsiors of Smithville. I remember that you +looked a little dissatisfied, when I came into the counting-room, and +rather shook your head over my narrative (perhaps too impassioned) of +the events of the game. "Those young fellows," said you, "may not _all_ +be shiftless, dissipated characters, _yet_,--but see what it comes +to! They a'n't content with wasting their time,--they kill it, Sir, +actually kill it!" When I thought of the manly figures and handsome, +eager faces of my friends of the "Union" and the "Excelsior,"--the +Excelsiors won by ten tallies, I should say, the return match to come +off at Smithville the next month,--and then looked at the meagre form +and wan countenance of their critic, I thought to myself, "Dolorosus, my +boy, you are killing something besides Time, if you only knew it." + +However, indigo had risen again, and your spirits also. As we walked +home, you gave me a precise exhibit of your income and expenditures for +the last five years, and a prospective sketch of the same for the next +ten; winding up with an incidental delineation of the importance, to a +man of business, of a good pew in some respectable place of worship. We +found Mrs. D., as usual, ready at the table; we partook of pound-cake +(or pound-and-a-half, I should say) and sundry hot cups of a very +Cisatlantic beverage, called by the Chinese epithet of tea,--and went, +immediately after, to a prayer-meeting. The church or chapel was much +crowded, and there was a certain something in the atmosphere which +seemed to disqualify my faculties from comprehending a single word that +was spoken. It certainly was not that the ventilators were closed, for +there were none. The minister occasionally requested that the windows +might be let down a little, and the deacons invariably closed them again +when he looked the other way. At intervals, females were carried out, in +a motionless condition,--not, as it appeared, from conviction of sin, +but from faintness. You sat, absorbed in thought, with your eyes closed, +and seemed not to observe them. I remember that you were very much +shocked when I suggested that the breath of an average sinner exhausted +atmospheric air at the rate of a hogshead an hour, and asked you +how much allowance the laws of the universe made for the lungs of +church-members? I do not recall your precise words, but I remember that +I finally found it expedient, as I was to leave for home in the early +train, to spend that night at the neighboring hotel, where I indulged, +on an excellent mattress, in a slumber so profound, that it seemed +next morning as if I ought, as Dick Swiveller suggested to the single +gentleman, to pay for a double-bedded room. + +Well, that is all over now. You have given up business, from ill health, +and exhibit a ripe old age, possibly a little over-ripe, at thirty-five. +Your dreams of the forthcoming ten years have not been exactly +fulfilled; you have not precisely retired on a competency, because the +competency retired from you. Indeed, the suddenness with which your +physician compelled you to close up your business left it closed rather +imperfectly, so that most of the profits are found to have leaked out. +You are economizing rather strictly, just now, in respect to everything +but doctors' bills. The maternal Dolorosa is boarding somewhere in the +country, where the children certainly will not have more indigestible +food than they had at home, and may get less of it in quantity,--to +say nothing of more air and exercise to aid digestion. They are not, +however, in perfect condition. The twins are just getting up from +scarlet fever; Nathaniel has been advised to leave school for a time; +and something is thought to be the matter with Angelina's back. +Meanwhile, you are haunting water-cures, experimenting on life-pills, +holding private conferences with medical electricians, and thinking of a +trip to the Bermudas. + +You are learning, through all this, the sagest maxims of resignation, +and trying to apply them. "Life is hard, but short," you say; +"Providence is inscrutable; we must submit to its mysterious decrees." +Would it not be better, my dear Dolorosus, to say instead, "Life is +noble and immortal; God is good; we must obey his plain laws, or accept +the beneficent penalties"? The rise and fall of health are no more +accidental than the rise and fall of indigo; and it is the duty of those +concerned in either commodity to keep their eyes open, and learn the +business intelligently. Of the three proverbial _desiderata_, it is as +easy to be healthy as to be wealthy, and much easier than to be wise, +except so far as health and wisdom mean the same thing. After health, +indeed, the other necessaries of life are very simple, and easily +obtained;--with moderate desires, regular employment, a loving home, +correct theology, the right politics, and a year's subscription to the +"Atlantic Monthly," I have no doubt that life, in this planet, may be as +happy as in any other of the solar system, not excepting Neptune and the +fifty-five asteroids. + +You are possibly aware, my dear Dolorosus,--for I remember that you +were destined by your parents for the physician of your native +seaside village, until you found a more congenial avocation in curing +mackerel,--that the ancient medals represented the goddess Hygeia with a +serpent three times as large as that carried by Aesculapius, to denote +the superiority of hygiene to medicine, prevention to cure. To seek +health as you are now seeking it, regarding every new physician as if he +were Pandora, and carried hope at the bottom of his medicine-chest, is +really rather unpromising. This perpetual self-inspection of yours, +registering your pulse thrice a day, as if it were a thermometer and +you an observer for the Smithsonian,--these long consultations with +the other patients in the dreary parlor of the infirmary, the morning +devoted to debates on the nervous system, the afternoon to meditations +on the stomach, and the evening to soliloquies on the spine,--will do +you no good. The more you know, under these circumstances, the worse +it will be for you. You will become like Boerhaave's hypochondriacal +student, who, after every lecture, believed himself to be the victim of +the particular disease just expounded. We may even think too much about +_health_,--and certainly too much about _illness_. I solemnly believe +that the very best thing that could be done for you at this moment, +you unfortunate individual, would be to buy you a saddle-horse and a +revolver, and start you tomorrow for the Rocky Mountains, with distinct +instructions to treat any man as a Border Ruffian who should venture to +allude to the subject of disease in your presence. + +But I cannot venture to hope that you will do anything so reasonable. +The fascinations of your present life are too overwhelming; when an +invalid once begins to enjoy the contemplation of his own woes, as you +appear to do, it is all over with him. Besides, you urge, and perhaps +justly, that your case has already gone too far, for so rough a tonic. +What, then, can I do for you? Medicine I cannot offer; for even your +respectable family-physician occasionally hints that you need something +different from that. I suspect that all rational advice for you may be +summed up in one prescription: Reverse instantly all the habits of your +previous physical existence, and there may be some chance for you. But, +perhaps, I had better enter more into detail. + +Do not think that I am going to recur to the painful themes of doughnuts +and diet. I fear my hints, already given, on those subjects, may wound +the sensitive nature of Mrs. D., who suffers now such utter martyrdom +from your condition that I cannot bring myself to heap further coals +of fire on her head, even though the coals be taken from her own very +ineffectual cooking-stove. Let me dwell rather on points where you +have exclusive jurisdiction, and can live wisely or foolishly, at your +pleasure. + +It does not depend on you, perhaps, whether you shall eat bread or +saleratus, meat or sole-leather; but it certainly does depend upon +yourself whether you shall wash yourself daily. I do not wish to be +personal, but I verily believe, O companion of my childhood! that, +until you began to dabble in Hydropathy, you had not bestowed a sincere +ablution upon your entire person since the epoch when, twenty years ago, +we took our last plunge together, off Titcomb's wharf, in our native +village. That in your well-furnished house there are no hydraulic +privileges beyond pint water-pitchers, I know from anxious personal +inspection. I know that you have spent an occasional week at the +sea-shore during the summer, and that many people prefer to do up their +cleanliness for the year during these excursions; indeed, you yourself +have mentioned to me, at such times, with some enthusiasm, your daily +sea-bath. But I have been privately assured, by the other boarders, that +the bath in question always consisted of putting on a neat bathing-dress +and sitting awhile on a rock among the sea-weed, like an insane merman, +with the highest waves submerging only your knees, while the younger +Dolorosi splashed and gambolled in safe shallows behind you. Even that +is better than nothing, but--Soul of Mohammed!--is that called bathing? +Verily, we are, as the Turks declare, a nation of "dirty Franks," if +this be the accepted definition. + +Can it be possible that you really hold with the once-celebrated Mr. +Walker, "The Original," as he was deservedly called, who maintained, +that, by a correct diet, the system became self-purifying, through an +active exhalation which repelled impurity,--so that, while walking on +dusty roads, his feet, and even his stockings, remained free from dust? +"By way of experiment, I did not wash my face for a week; nor did any +one see, nor I feel, the difference." My deluded friend, it is a fatal +error. Mr. Walker, the Original, may have been inwardly a saint and a +sage, but it is impossible that his familiar society could have been +desirable, even to fools or sinners. Rather recall, from your early +explorations in Lemprière's Dictionary, how Medea renewed the youth of +Pelias by simply cutting him to pieces and boiling him; whereon my Lord +Bacon justly remarks, that "there may be some boiling required in the +matter, but the cutting to pieces is not needful." If you find that the +water-cure agrees with your constitution, I rejoice in it; I should +think it would; but, I implore you, do not leave it all behind you when +you leave the institution. When you return to your family, use your very +first dollars for buying a sponge and a tin-hat, for each member of the +household; and bring up the five children to lead decent lives. + +Then, again, consider the fact that our lungs were created to consume +oxygen. I suppose that never in your life, Dolorosus, did those +breathing organs of yours inhale more than one half the quantity of air +that they were intended to take in,--to say nothing of its quality. Yet +one would think, that, in the present high prices of other food, you +would make the most of the only thing you can put into your mouth +gratis. Here is Nature constantly urging on us an unexceptionable +atmosphere forty miles high,--for if a pressure of fourteen pounds to +the square inch is not to be called urging, what is?--and yet we not +only neglect, but resist the favor. Our children commonly learn to spell +much better than they ever learn to breathe, because much more attention +is paid to the former department of culture. Indeed, the materials are +better provided; spelling-books are abundant; but we scarcely allow them +time, in the intervals of school, to seek fresh air out of doors, and +we sedulously exclude it from our houses and school-rooms. Is it +not possible to impress upon your mind the changes which "modern +improvements" are bringing upon us? In times past, if a gentleman +finished the evening with a quiet cigar in his parlor, (a practice I +deprecate, and introduce only for purposes of scientific illustration,) +not a trace of it ever lingered to annoy his wife at the +breakfast-table; showing that the draft up the open chimney had wholly +disposed of it, the entire atmosphere of the room being changed during +the night. Now, on the other hand, every whiff lingers persistently +beside the domestic altar, and betrays to the youngest child, next +day, the parental weakness. For the sake of family example, Dolorosus, +correct this state of things, and put in a ventilator. Our natures will +not adapt themselves to this abstinence from fresh air, until Providence +shall fit us up with new bodies, having no lungs in them. Did you ever +hear of Dr. Lyne, the eccentric Irish physician? Dr. Lyne held that no +house was wholesome, unless a dog could get in under every door and a +bird fly out at every window. He even went so far as to build his house +with the usual number of windows, and no glass in the sashes; he lived +in that house for fifty years, reared a large family there, and no death +ever occurred in it. He himself died away from home, of small-pox, at +eighty; his son immediately glazed all the windows of the house, and +several of the family died within the first year of the alteration. The +story sounds apocryphal, I own, though I did not get it from Sir Jonah +Barrington, but somewhere in the scarcely less amusing pages of Sir John +Sinclair. I will not advise you, my unfortunate sufferer, to break every +pane of glass in your domicile, though I have no doubt that Nathaniel +and his boy-companions would enter with enthusiasm into the process; I +am not fond of extremes; but you certainly might go so far as to take +the nails out of my bed-room windows, and yet keep a good deal this side +the Lyne. + +I hardly dare go on to speak of exercise, lest I should share the +reproach of that ancient rhetorician who,--as related by Plutarch, in +his Aphorisms,--after delivering an oration in praise of Hercules, was +startled by the satirical inquiry from his audience, whether any one +had ever dispraised Hercules. As with Hercules, so with the physical +activity he represents,--no one dispraises, if few practise it. Even +the disagreement of doctors has brought out but little skepticism on +this point. Cardan, it is true, in his treatise, "Plantae cur Animalibus +diuturniores," maintained that trees lived longer than men because +they never stirred from their places. Exercise, he held, increases +transpiration; transpiration shortens life; to live long, then, we need +only remain perfectly still. Lord Bacon fell in with this fancy, and +advised "oily unctions," to prevent perspiration. Maupertuis went +farther, and proposed to keep the body covered with pitch for this +purpose: conceive, Dolorosus, of spending threescore years and ten in +a garment of tar, without even the ornament of feathers, sitting +tranquilly in our chairs, waiting for longevity! In more recent times, +I can remember only Dr. Darwin as an advocate of sedentary living. He +attempted to show its advantages by the healthy longevity attained by +quiet old ladies in country-towns. But this is questioned by his critic, +Dr. Beddoes, who admits the longevity, but denies the healthiness; +he maintains that the old ladies are taking some new medicine every +day,--at least, if they have a physician who understands his business. + +Now I will not maintain, with Frederick the Great, that all our systems +of education are wrong, because they aim to make men students or clerks, +whereas the mere shape of the body shows (so thought King Frederick) +that we are primarily designed for postilions, and should spend most of +our lives on horseback. But it is very certain that all the physical +universe takes the side of health and activity, wooing us forth into +Nature, imploring us hourly, and in unsuspected ways, to receive her +blessed breath into body and soul, and share in her eternal youth. For +this are summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, given; for this do +violet and bloodroot come, and gentian and witch-hazel go; for this do +changing sunsets make yon path between the pines a gateway into heaven; +for this does day shut us down within the loneliness of its dome of +light, and night, lifting it, make us free of the vast fellowship of +stars; for this do pale meteors wander nightly, soft as wind-blown +blossoms, down the air; for this do silent snows transform the winter +woods to feathery things, that seem too light to linger, and yet too +vast to take their flight; for this does the eternal ocean follow its +queen with patient footsteps round earth's human shores; for this does +all the fair creation answer to every dream or mood of man, so that we +receive but what we give;--all is offered to us, to call us from our +books and our trade, and summon us into Nature's health and joy. To +study, with the artist, the least of her beauties,--to explore, with the +man of science, the smallest of her wonders,--or even simply to wander +among her exhaustless resources, like a child, needing no interest +unborrowed from the eye,--this feeds body and brain and heart and soul +together. + +But I see that your attention is wandering a little, Dolorosus, and +perhaps I ought not to be surprised. I think I hear you respond, +impatiently, in general terms, that you are not "sentimental." I admit +it; never within my memory did you err on that side. You also hint that +you never _did_ care much about weeds or bugs. The phrases are not +scientific, but the opinion is intelligible. Perhaps my ardor has +carried me too fast for my audience. While it would be a pleasure, no +doubt, to see you transformed into an artist or a _savant_, yet that is +scarcely to be expected, and, if attained, might not be quite enough. +The studies of the naturalist, exclusively pursued, may tend to make a +man too conscious and critical,--patronizing Nature, instead of enjoying +her. He may even grow morbidly sensitive, like Buffon, who became so +impressed with the delicacy and mystery of the human organization, that +he was afraid to stoop even to pick up his own pen, when dropped, but +called a servant to restore it. The artist, also, becomes often narrowed +and petty, and regards the universe as a sort of factory, arranged to +turn out "good bits of color" for him. Something is needed to make us +more free and unconscious, in our out-door lives, than these too wise +individuals; and that something is best to be found in athletic sports. +It was a genuine impulse which led Sir Humphrey Davy to care more for +fishing than even for chemistry, and made Byron prouder of his swimming +than of "Childe Harold," and induced Sir Robert Walpole always to open +his gamekeeper's letters first, and his diplomatic correspondence +afterwards. Athletic sports are "boyish," are they? Then they are +precisely what we want. We Americans certainly do not have much boyhood +under the age of twenty, and we must take it afterwards or not at all. + +Who can describe the unspeakable refreshment for an overworked brain, +of laying aside all cares, and surrendering one's self to simple bodily +activity? Laying them aside! I retract the expression; they slip off +unnoticed. You cannot embark care in your wherry; there is no room for +the odious freight. Care refuses to sit behind the horseman, despite the +Latin sentence; you leave it among your garments when you plunge into +the river, it rolls away from the rolling cricket-ball, the first whirl +in the gymnasium disposes of it, and you are left free, as boys and +birds are free. If athletic amusements did nothing for the body, they +would still be medicine for the soul. Nay, it is Plato who says +that exercise will almost cure a guilty conscience,--and can we be +indifferent to this, my fellow-sinner? + +Why will you persist in urging that you "cannot afford" these +indulgences, as you call them? They are not indulgences,--they are +necessaries. Charge them, in your private account-book, under the heads +of food and clothing, and as a substitute for your present enormous +items under the head of medicine. O mistaken economist! can you afford +the cessation of labor and the ceaseless drugging and douching of your +last few years? Did not all your large experience in the retail-business +teach you the comparative value of the ounce of prevention and the pound +of cure? Are not fresh air and cold water to be had cheap? and is not +good bread less costly than cake and pies? Is not the gymnasium a more +economical institution than the hospital? and is not a pair of skates a +good investment, if it aids you to elude the grasp of the apothecary? Is +the cow Pepsin, on the whole, a more frugal hobby to ride than a good +saddle-horse? Besides, if you insist upon pecuniary economy, do begin +by economizing on the exercise which you pay others for taking in your +stead,--on the corn and pears which you buy in the market, instead of +removing to a suburban house and raising them yourself,--and in the +reluctant silver you pay the Irishman who splits your wood. Or if, +suddenly reversing your line of argument, you plead that this would +impoverish the Irishman, you can at least treat him as you do the +organ-grinder, and pay him an extra fee to go on to your next neighbor. + +Dolorosus, there is something very noble, if you could but discover it, +in a perfect human body. In spite of all our bemoaning, the physical +structure of man displays its due power and beauty when we consent to +give it a fair chance. On the cheek of every healthy child that plays in +the street, though clouded by all the dirt that ever incrusted a young +O'Brien or M'Cafferty, there is a glory of color such as no artist ever +painted. I can take you to-morrow into a circus or a gymnasium, and show +you limbs and attitudes which are worth more study than the Apollo or +the Antinous, because they are life, not marble. How noble were Horatio +Greenough's meditations, in presence of the despised circus-rider! "I +worship, when I see this brittle form borne at full speed on the back +of a fiery horse, yet dancing as on the quiet ground, and smiling in +conscious safety." + +I admit that this view, like every other, may be carried to excess. +We can hardly expect to correct our past neglect of bodily training, +without falling into reactions and extremes, in the process. There is +our friend Jones, for instance, "the Englishman," as the boys on the +Common call him, from his cheery portliness of aspect. He is the man who +insisted on keeping the telegraph-office open until 2, A.M., to hear +whether Morrissey or the Benicia Boy won the prize-fight. I cannot say +much for his personal conformity to his own theories at present, for he +is growing rather too stout; but he likes vicarious exercise, and is +doing something for the next generation, even if he does make the club +laugh, sometimes, by advancing theories of training which the lower +circumference of his own waistcoat does not seem to justify. But +Charley, his eldest, can ride, shoot, and speak the truth, like an +ancient Persian; he is the best boxer in college, and is now known to +have gone to Canada _incog._, during the vacation, under the immediate +supervision of Morris, the teacher of sparring, to see that same fight. +It is true that the youth blushes, now, whenever that trip is alluded +to; and when he was cross-questioned by his pet sister Kate, (Kate +Coventry she delights to be called,) as to whether it wasn't "splendid," +he hastily told her that she didn't know what she was talking about, +(which was undoubtedly true,)--and that he wished he didn't, either. The +truth is, that Charley, with his honest, boyish face, must have been +singularly out of place among that brutal circle; and there is little +doubt that he retired from the company before the set-to was fairly +begun, and that respectable old Morris went with him. But, at any rate, +they are a noble-looking family, and well brought up. Charley, with all +his pugilism, stands fair for a part at Commencement, they say; and +if you could have seen little Kate teaching her big cousin to skate +backwards, at Jamaica Pond, last February, it would have reminded you +of the pretty scene of the little cadet attitudinising before the great +Formes, in "Figaro." The whole family incline in the same direction; +even Laura, the elder sister,--who is attending a course of lectures on +Hygiene, and just at present sits motionless for half an hour before +every meal for her stomach's sake, and again a whole hour afterwards for +her often (imaginary) infirmities,--even Laura is a perfect Hebe in +health and bloom, and saved herself and her little sister when the boat +upset, last summer, at Dove Harbor,--while the two young men who were +with them had much ado to secure their own elegant persons, without +rendering much aid to the girls. And when I think, Dolorosus, of this +splendid animal vigor of the race of Jones, and then call to mind the +melancholy countenances of your forlorn little offspring, I really think +that it would, on the whole, be unsafe to trust you with that revolver; +you might be tempted to damage yourself or somebody else with it, before +departing for the Rocky Mountains. + +Do not think me heartless for what I say, or assume, that, because I +happen to be healthy myself, I have no mercy for ill-health in others. +There are invalids who are objects of sympathy indeed, guiltless heirs +of ancestral disease, or victims of parental folly or sin,--those whose +lives are early blighted by maladies that seem as causeless as they are +cureless,--or those with whom the world has dealt so cruelly that all +their delicate nature is like sweet bells jangled,--or those whose +powers of life are all exhausted by unnoticed labors and unseen +cares,--or those prematurely old with duties and dangers, heroes of +thought and action, whose very names evoke the passion and the pride of +a hundred thousand hearts. There is a tottering feebleness of old age, +also, nobler than any prime of strength; we all know aged men who are +floating on, in stately serenity, towards their last harbor, like +Turner's Old Téméraire, with quiet tides around them, and the blessed +sunset bathing in loveliness all their dying day. Let human love do its +gracious work upon all these; let angelic hands of women wait upon +their lightest needs, and every voice of salutation be tuned to such a +sweetness as if it whispered beside a dying mother's bed. + +But you, Dolorosus,--you, to whom God gave youth and health, and who +might have kept them, the one long and the other perchance always, but +who never loved them, nor reverenced them, nor cherished them, only +coined them into money till they were all gone, and even the ill-gotten +treasure fell from your debilitated hands,--you, who shunned the +sunshine as if it were sin, and called all innocent recreation time +wasted,--you, who staid under ground in your goldmine, like the +sightless fishes of the Mammoth Cave, till you were as blind and +unjoyous as they,--what plea have you to make, what shelter to claim, +except that charity which suffereth long and is kind? We will strive +not to withhold it; while there is life, there is hope. At forty, it is +said, every man is a fool or a physician. We will wait and see which +vocation you select as your own, for the broken remnant of your days. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Continued.] + + +In the mean while Congress had assembled. The agitation on the subject +of Slavery, far from being suppressed, or even overshadowed, burned more +fiercely than ever before. The Pro-slavery faction in Kansas, stimulated +by the constant support of the National Administration, was engaged in a +final effort to maintain a supremacy over the affairs of that Territory +which the current of immigration from the Free States had been steadily +undermining. Against the will of nine-tenths of the population, it had +framed, with a show of technical legality, a Constitution intended to +perpetuate Slavery, which the Administration indorsed and presented to +Congress with an urgent recommendation for the admission under it +of Kansas as a State. In the commotion which these events excited +throughout the country, the transient gleam of importance which had +attached to the Mormon War was almost extinguished. The people of the +States no longer felt a much more vital interest in news from that +remote region than in tidings from the rebellion in India or of the wars +in China. Their attention, sympathies, and curiosity--were all fastened +upon the action of Congress with respect to Kansas,--for therein, it was +believed, were contained the germs of the political combinations for +the Presidential election of 1860. The same listlessness with regard to +affairs in Utah pervaded the Cabinet. All its _prestige_ was staked on +the result of the impending struggle in the House of Representatives +over the Lecompton Constitution, and its energies were abstracted from +every other subject, to be concentrated upon that alone. + +Just at this time, Mr. Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsylvania,--son of the late +Judge of the United States District Court for that State, and brother of +the late Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer,--solicited the Administration +for employment as a mediator between the Mormons and the Federal +Government. Mr. Kane was one of the few persons of education and social +standing who were well acquainted with Mormon history. He had visited +them at Winter Quarters, in Iowa, during their exodus from Nauvoo, in +the capacity of a commissioner to enlist the Mormon battalion which +served in the Mexican War. During an illness which attacked him there, +he was treated with an unremitting kindness, for which his gratitude +has been proportionate. Belonging to a family whose members have +been distinguished by strong traits of individuality, not to say +eccentricity, from that moment forward he displayed a practical interest +in the welfare of the sect. It is said that he became a convert to the +religious doctrines of Mormonism. Whether this be true at all, and, +if so, to what extent, it would he profitless at the present time to +inquire. For the purposes of this narrative, it is sufficient to assert +only, what is unchallenged, that he was a sincere admirer of the Mormons +as a people, and for a long series of years had defended them from +every reproach with a zeal which many of his friends thought inordinate. + +Its experience in Kansas had familiarized the Cabinet with the use of +secret agents; but, nevertheless, the proposition of Mr. Kane was coldly +received. After a brief correspondence, he started for California, in +no capacity a representative of the government, if he himself is to be +believed, but bearing letters from Mr. Buchanan indorsing his character +as a gentleman, and exhorting Federal officials to render him such +courtesies as were within their power. Having arrived at San Francisco, +he journeyed southward to the lately abandoned Mormon settlement of +San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, travelling under the assumed name of +Osborne, and proclaiming his business to be the collection of specimens +for an entomological society in Philadelphia. There his real name and +purpose were detected, but he succeeded in obtaining transportation to +Salt Lake City, where he arrived on the 25th of February, 1858, and was +greeted by Young and Kimball, and the rest of the Mormon magnates, as an +old and cherished friend. + +In the Annual Message of the President to Congress, his disposition to +make every other issue subordinate to that of admitting Kansas under the +Lecompton Constitution was manifest; and it influenced the tone of those +paragraphs which treated of affairs in Utah. Notwithstanding the fact +that the Mormons had committed every act of warfare against the United +States short of taking life, Mr. Buchanan qualified his language +concerning their conduct, stating, that, "unless Brigham Young should +retrace his steps, the Territory of Utah will be in a state of open +rebellion," but declining to accept the logical inference from his own +expression, that the rebellion was at the time open and manifest. He +recommended no further legislation concerning the matter than that four +regiments should be added to the army, to supply the place of those +which had been withdrawn from service in the East. + +It was evident that the purpose for which he had originally planned the +expedition had failed. Forced, after all, no less by inclination than by +circumstances, into such a revival of Slavery agitation as he had never +contemplated during the interval between his election and inauguration, +the Utah War only incumbered his administration, promoting neither its +policy nor its prosperity. However it might result, it would not in the +least advance his interests; and it became his opinion, that, the sooner +it was quieted, the better for the welfare of the Democratic party, +which would be held responsible by the country for all mistakes in its +management. "After us the deluge," seemed to be adopted as the motto of +the entire policy of the Administration. + +The only movement in Congress concerning Utah, before the New Year, was +the introduction into the House of Representatives, by Mr. Warren of +Arkansas, of a badly-worded resolution, prefaced by a worse-worded +preamble, looking to the expulsion from the floor of Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate from the Territory. A lively discussion ensued +concerning the question of privilege under which Mr. Warren claimed the +right to introduce the resolution,--and when it was ruled in order, much +hesitation was evinced about adopting it, some members fearing that it +would establish a dangerous precedent for emergencies that might arise +in the future history of the country. The tone of debate showed that +there was little difference of opinion in the House concerning Utah +affairs,--the unanimity, however, being due in great part to ignorance +and indifference. The issue of Slavery in Kansas was absorbing. Mr. +Warren's resolution was referred to the Committee on Territories, and +slumbered upon their table through the whole session. The only other +movement in Congress, which deserves mention in this connection, was +the introduction, towards the close of January, by Senator Wilson of +Massachusetts, of a joint resolution authorizing the appointment of +commissioners to examine into the Mormon difficulties, "with a view to +their adjustment." This was referred by the Senate to the Committee on +Military Affairs, and was never heard of again. + +The recommendation of the President for an increase of the army secured +favorable consideration from committees of both Houses, and the +discussion which ensued, upon the bills reported for that purpose, was +filled with allusions to the Utah question. Mr. Thompson of New York, +and Mr. Boyce of South Carolina, both made elaborate speeches on the +subject; but neither of them proposed any scheme for its solution. Such +a scheme, however, was suggested by Mr. Blair of Missouri, who advised +a reorganization of the Territorial government, in order to vest the +legislative power in the Governor and the Judges, for which a precedent +existed in the instance of the old Northwestern Territory; but no action +was had upon this suggestion. Through the entire debate, Mr. Bernhisel +remained silent. During the winter, the President conferred upon Colonel +Johnston the brevet rank of Brigadier-General, believing that the +uniform discretion he had manifested entitled him to promotion; and the +nomination was confirmed by the Senate. + +While such were the transactions in Congress, the Mormons, in December, +had organized a government like that under which they had hitherto +subsisted. Their legislature--the same which had been elected under the +Organic Act of the Territory--met at Salt Lake City on the second Monday +of that month, in the hall of the Council House, and organized by the +choice of Heber C. Kimball as President of the Council and John Taylor +as Speaker of the House. Brigham Young retained the title and authority +of Governor, and addressed to the legislature the customary annual +message, reviewing the condition of the Territory. This document +was prepared in reality by Taylor, and was worded with considerable +ingenuity. Not the slightest allusion was made to the declarations of +independence that had been reiterated throughout the summer and autumn, +but the relations of Utah to the United States were discussed as those +of a Territory to the Union. The President was himself charged with +treason in his action towards the Mormons, the Governor and Judges whom +he had appointed were reviled as depraved and abandoned men, and the +army was again proclaimed a mob,--while Utah was lauded as the "most +loyal Territory known since the days of the Revolution." The theory of +Squatter-Sovereignty was the basis of the argument, and Mr. Buchanan was +accused, and with some reason, of inconsistency in his application of +that doctrine. + +In response to this message, the legislature passed a series of +resolutions, pledging itself to sustain "His Excellency Governor Young" +in every act he might perform or dictate "for the protection of the +lives, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Territory,"--asserting +that the President had incurred the "contempt and decided opposition +of all good men," on account of the "act of usurped authority and +oppression" of which he was guilty, in "forcing profane, drunken, +and otherwise corrupt officials upon Utah at the point of the +bayonet,"--expressing a determination to "continue to resist any attempt +on the part of the Administration to bring the people into a state of +vassalage by appointing, contrary to the Constitution, officers whom the +people have neither voice nor vote in electing,"--avowing the purpose +not to suffer "any persons appointed to office for Utah by the +Administration either to qualify for, or assume, or discharge, within +the limits of the Territory, the functions of the offices to which they +have been appointed; so long as the Territory is menaced by an invading +army,"--and declaring that the people of Utah would have their voice in +the selection of their officers. These were sweet-scented blossoms to +blow so early on the tree of Squatter-Sovereignty, at that time scarcely +four years old! + +The only acts of the legislature were one disorganizing the County +of Green River, in which the army was encamped, and attaching it for +legislative and judicial purposes to Great Salt Lake County; another +divesting the Governor of power to license the manufacture of ardent +spirits, and conferring that authority upon the President of the Church +of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and several others in pursuance +of the system of granting away large tracts of public domain to private +persons, in direct contravention of a clause in the Organic Act of the +Territory, which provides that "no law shall be passed interfering with +the primary disposal of the soil." To these acts Brigham Young attached +his signature as Governor, and affixed the Territorial seal. + +A Memorial to Congress was adopted also, which was transmitted to +Washington, and received there and laid before the two Houses on the +16th of March. This document charged that the action of the National +Government towards Utah was based upon the statements of "lying +officials and anonymous letter-writers"; it rehearsed the history of the +Mormons,--their persecutions in Missouri and Illinois,--and declared +that the object of the Utah expedition was to inflict similar outrages. +"Give us our constitutional rights," it said; "they are all we ask; and +them we have a right to expect. For them we contend, and feel justified +in so doing. We claim that we should have the privilege, as we have the +constitutional right, to choose our own rulers and make our own laws +without let or hindrance." Although this Memorial was nothing more than +an infuriated tirade, it was honored in both Houses by reference to the +Committees on Territories, from which it received all the consideration +it deserved. + +Indifferent and inactive as this review shows Congress and the President +to have been concerning Utah, a similar apathy was impossible in the War +Department. Not only the welfare, but the lives even, of the troops at +Fort Bridger, depended on its action. Transactions of such magnitude +had not been incumbent on its bureaus since the Mexican War. The chief +anxiety of General Johnston was for the transmission of supplies from +the East as early as possible in the spring. The contractors for their +transportation during the year 1857 had wintered several trains at Fort +Laramie, together with oxen and teamsters. The General entertained a +fear that so great a proportion of their stock might perish during the +winter as to cripple their advance until fresh animals could be obtained +from the States. Combined with this fear was an apprehension for the +safety of Captain Marcy. A prisoner, whom the Mormons had captured in +October on Ham's Fork, escaped from Salt Lake City at the close of +December, and brought news to Camp Scott that they intended to fit out +an expedition to intercept the command and stampede the herds with which +that officer would move from New Mexico. The dispatches in which these +anxieties were communicated to General Scott, together with suggestions +for their relief, were intrusted in midwinter to a small party for +conveyance to the States. The journey taught them what must have been +the sufferings of the expedition which Captain Marcy led to Taos. +Reduced at one time to buffalo-tallow and coffee for sustenance, there +was not a day during the transit across the mountains when any stronger +barrier than the lives of a few half-starved mules interposed between +them and death by famine. All along the route lay memorials of the march +of the army, and especially of Colonel Cooke's battalion,--a trail of +skeletons a thousand miles in length, gnawed bare by the wolves and +bleaching in the snow, visible at every undulation in the drifts. + +But before the arrival of these dispatches at New York, the arrangements +of the War Department to forward supplies to Utah had been completed. +The representations of the contractors' agents with regard to the +condition of the cattle at Fort Laramie were received without question, +and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann, of the Sixth Infantry, was +dispatched to that post to superintend the advance of the trains. +Additional contracts, of an unprecedented character, were entered into +for furnishing and transporting all the supplies which would be needed +during the year 1858, both for the troops already in the Territory +and for the reinforcements which were ordered to concentrate at Fort +Leavenworth and march to Utah as soon as the roads should be passable. +These reinforcements were about three thousand strong, comprising +the First Cavalry, the Sixth and Seventh Infantry, and two +artillery-batteries. The trains necessary for so large a force, in +addition to that at Fort Bridger, it was estimated would comprise at +least forty-five hundred wagons, requiring more than fifty thousand +oxen, four thousand mules, and five thousand teamsters, wagon-masters, +and other _employés_. To the shame of the Administration, these gigantic +contracts, involving an amount of more than six million dollars, +were distributed with a view to influence votes in the House of +Representatives upon the Lecompton Bill. Some of the lesser ones, such +as those for furnishing mules, dragoon-horses, and forage, were granted +arbitrarily to relatives or friends of members who were wavering upon +that question. The principal contract, that for the transportation of +all the supplies, involving, for the year 1858, the amount of four +millions and a half, was granted, without advertisement or subdivision, +to a firm in Western Missouri, whose members had distinguished +themselves in the effort to make Kansas a Slave State, and now +contributed liberally to defray the election-expenses of the Democratic +party. + +It was said to have been contemplated, for a while, during the winter, +to operate against the Mormons from California, and to send General +Scott to San Francisco to direct arrangements for the purpose; but the +project, if ever seriously entertained, was soon abandoned, it being +evident that for the speedy subjugation of Utah the Missouri frontier +furnished the only practicable base-line of operations. + +At Camp Scott, the winter dragged along wearily. Between November and +March only two mails arrived there, and the great monetary crisis in the +United States was unknown till months after it had subsided. The Mormons +were constantly in possession of later intelligence from the States +than the army; for, by a strange inconsistency, their mails to and from +California were not interfered with. A brigade-guard was mounted daily +at the camp larger than that of the whole American army on the eve +of the battles before Mexico, and scouting parties were continually +dispatched to scour the country in a circuit of thirty miles around +Fort Bridger; for there was constant apprehension of an attempt by the +Mormons to stampede the herds on Henry's Fork, if not to attack the +regiment which guarded them. No tidings arrived from Captain Marcy, and +a most painful apprehension prevailed as to his fate. At the close of +January, Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, after consultation with General +Johnston, started from the camp, accompanied only by four Pah-Utahs, and +crossed the Uinta Mountains, through snow drifted twenty feet deep, to +the villages of the tribe of Uinta-Utahs, on the river of the same name. +It was his intention, in case of need, to employ these Indians to +warn Captain Marcy of danger and afford him relief. It proved to be +unnecessary to do so, and Dr. Hurt returned in April; but the hardships +he endured in the undertaking resulted in an illness which threatened +his life for weeks. On the 13th of March, an express had come in from +New Mexico, bringing news of the safe arrival of Captain Marcy at Taos +on the 22d of January. The sufferings of his whole party from cold and +hunger had been severe. Their provisions failed them, and they had +recourse to mule-meat. Many of the men were badly frost-bitten, but only +one perished on the journey. + +On the previous evening,--March 12th,--the monotony of the camp had been +unexpectedly disturbed by the arrival, from the direction of Salt Lake +City, of a horseman completely exhausted by fatigue and cold, who proved +to be no other than Mr. Kane, whose mission to the Mormons by way of +California was at that time totally unknown to the army. The next +morning he introduced himself to the Governor, was received as his +guest, and remained in conference with him throughout the day. What was +the character of their communication is unknown, except by inference +from its results. When presented to Judge Eckels, on the following day, +Mr. Kane exhibited to him the letters he bore from the President, and +other letters, also, from Brigham Young, accrediting him as a negotiator +in the existing difficulties. To General Johnston he showed nothing; nor +did the Governor, to the knowledge of the camp, acquaint either that +officer or any other person with the purport of his business. It was +evident to everybody, however, that the Mormon leaders, conscious of +their inability to resist the force by which they would be assailed so +soon as the snow should melt upon the mountains, were engaged in an +effort, of which Mr. Kane was the agent, to secure through the Governor, +if possible, indemnity for their past offences, in consideration of +acknowledgment of his authority. + +The domestic condition of the people of the Valley confirmed the belief +that this was the purpose of Mr. Kane's mission. Dependent as they had +always been, since their settlement in Utah, upon Eastern merchants +for an annual supply of groceries, dry goods, wearing-apparel of all +descriptions, and every article of luxury, their stock of some of even +the necessaries of life--such as coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, calicoes, +boots and shoes, stationery--was at this time nearly exhausted. Many of +the poorer families were actually half naked, and, to supply them with +covering, an ecclesiastical mandate had been issued, directing all +persons who had spare clothing of any description to deposit it at the +tithing-office in Salt Lake City, to be there exchanged for grain and +cattle with those who were in need. + +At the commencement of the rebellion, the Mormon settlements in Southern +California had been broken up, and all the missionaries of the Church +were summoned to return from foreign lands. The influx of population +from these sources, though slight, yet increased the destitution. Almost +all the people, too, had been withdrawn from productive employments +throughout the autumn and winter. Although the number of militia kept +under arms, after the formation of the camp at Fort Bridger, probably at +no time reached fifteen hundred, while in October and November it had +exceeded three thousand, still the fever of excitement which raged +through the community distracted its members from any hearty labor. +Great quantities of winter-wheat, to be sure, had been sown, and the +fields were prepared for cultivation during the coming summer; but no +public improvements were prosecuted, and everybody was prepared for such +an exodus as had been predicted to Captain Van Vliet. + +The complete subserviency of the people to the hierarchy was never more +strikingly manifest than in a financial scheme which Brigham Young +devised at this time. Among the Mormons there had always been a quantity +of gold coin in circulation, much exceeding, in proportion to their +number, the amount circulating in any other portion of America. This was +owing to the fact, that the Church had unconstitutionally arrogated to +itself the prerogative of coining and regulating the value of money. The +Mormon battalion which had been enlisted at Winter Quarters in Iowa was +disbanded in California at the close of the Mexican War, and most of its +members went to the gold-diggings. The treasures they there accumulated +were conveyed to Utah, where the Church established a mint and coined +gold pieces of $2.50, $5, $10, and $20. The device on the obverse was +two hands clasped in one of the grips of the Endowment; on the reverse, +a figure from the Book of Mormon, with the motto, "Holiness to the +Lord." The intrinsic value of these coins being more than ten per +cent less than their denominations, they were all retained within the +Territory. Young now prevailed upon his people to surrender whatever +gold and silver they possessed, amounting to several hundred thousand +dollars, and accept in return the notes of a banking association of +which he himself was president and one of his numerous sons-in-law +cashier. These notes were redeemable, in amounts of not less than one +hundred dollars, in live stock, the appraisement of the value of which +rested with the officers of the association. So absolute was the +degradation and ignorance of the population, that they submitted to this +extortion without a murmur. + +Mr. Kane had remained in Salt Lake City eight days before starting +towards Fort Bridger,--a period quite long enough for a trusted friend +of the Mormon leaders to ascertain the extremities to which the people +were reduced. To secure the safety of those leaders who were under +indictment for treason, there was no choice except between flight and +inducing the Federal authorities to temporize. Both he and they were +conscious that the advance of the army could not be successfully +resisted, when the snow should cease to bar its way. In case of the +flight of the leaders, or of a general exodus of the population, only +two courses lay open to them,--northward toward the British Possessions, +southward toward the provinces of Upper Mexico. + +The first two days of Mr. Kane's sojourn in camp satisfied him of the +cooperation of Governor Cumming in a plan for temporizing, as well as of +the impossibility of enlisting General Johnston or Judge Eckels in any +such scheme. An imaginary affront, to which he believed himself at this +time to have been subjected by the General, led him into a course of +action which, had it been followed out, might have terminated his +mission abruptly. Considering the fact that he was within the +guard-lines of a military encampment, in a country where a state of +warfare existed, it was perhaps too great forbearance on the part of the +General not to have required to be informed of his business, since +he himself volunteered no explanation. An invitation to dinner being +dispatched to him from head-quarters,--and such an invitation was no +slight compliment in a camp where the rations were so abridged,--the +orderly to whom it was intrusted for delivery, whether maliciously or +not it does not appear, pretended to have mistaken his directions, and +proceeded to place him under arrest. The mistake, when discovered, was +of course immediately rectified; but Mr. Kane became so excited in +consequence, that, with the assent of the Governor, he indited a +challenge to the General, and applied to a gentleman from Virginia to +act as his second. Having received a decided rebuff in that quarter, he +was induced to abandon the design by the interposition of Judge Eckels, +who became acquainted with what was passing, and informed the Governor +that he had ordered the United States Marshal to arrest all the parties +concerned, in case another step should be taken in the affair. It was +not till some time afterwards that these transactions came to the +knowledge of General Johnston. + +Mr. Kane remained with the Governor until April, absenting himself once, +however, for a day, in order to hold a secret interview with a party of +Mormons who had come into the vicinity of the camp. Notwithstanding his +presence, no precaution to protect the herds was neglected, nor was the +guard-duty at all relaxed. On the 18th of March, although a furious +snow-storm raged all day long, the encampment was moved down Black's +Fork to the immediate neighborhood of Fort Bridger,--a spot less +sheltered, but far more secure from attack. On the 3d of April, an event +occurred for which everybody was prepared. The Governor announced to +General Johnston his intention to proceed to Salt Lake City in company +with Mr. Kane; and on the 5th, they started upon the journey. + +The District Court commenced its spring term at Fort Bridger the same +day. In his charge to the grand jury, Judge Eckels was explicit on the +subject of polygamy, instructing them substantially as follows: That +among the Territorial statutes there was no act legalizing polygamy, nor +any act affixing a definite punishment to that practice as such; that, +consequently, whether the old Spanish law or the Common Law constituted +the basis of jurisprudence in the Territory, the definition of marriage +recognized by both was to be received there, which limited that +institution to the union of one man with one woman, and also the +definition of adultery common to both, by which that crime consisted in +the cohabitation of either the man or the woman with a third party; that +among the Territorial statutes there was an act affixing a definite +punishment to adultery, and accordingly that it was the duty of the +grand jury to inquire whether that act had been infringed by parties +liable to their inquisition.[A] No indictment, however, was returned for +the offence; neither were any proceedings had upon the indictments for +treason. The business of the court was restricted to such crimes as +larceny, and assault and battery, among the heterogeneous mass of +camp-followers. + +[Footnote A: As this charge has become of great importance in the +affairs of the Territory, we subjoin the precise language of that +portion of it which refers to polygamy:-- + +"It cannot be concealed, gentlemen, that certain domestic arrangements +exist in this Territory destructive of the peace, good order, and morals +of society,--arrangements at variance with those of all enlightened and +Christian communities in the world; and sapping as they do the very +foundation of all virtue, honesty, and morality, it is an imperative +duty falling upon you as grand jurors diligently to inquire into this +evil and make every effort to check its growth. It is well known that +all of the inhabited portion of this Territory was acquired by treaty +from Mexico. By the law of Mexico polygamy was prohibited in this +country, and the municipal law in this respect remained unaltered by its +cession to the United States. Has it been altered since we acquired it? +After a most diligent search and inquiry, I have not been able to find +that any such change has been made: and presuming that this law remains +unchanged by legislation, all marriages after the first are by this law +illegal and void. If you are then satisfied that such is the fact, your +next duty is to inquire by what law in force in this Territory are +such practices punishable. There is no law in this Territory punishing +polygamy, but there is one, however, for the punishment of adultery; +and all illegal intercourse between the sexes, if either party have a +husband or wife living at the time, is adulterous and punishable by +indictment. No consequences in which a large proportion of this people +may be involved in consequence of this criminal practice will deter you +from a fearless discharge of your duty. It is yours to find the facts +and to return indictments, without fear, favor, affection, reward, +or any hope thereof. The law was made to punish the lawless and +disobedient, and society is entitled to the salutary effects of its +execution."] + +At the distance of a few miles from Fort Bridger, the Governor and Mr. +Kane were received by a Mormon guard. At various points on their journey +squads of militia were encountered, and in Echo Cañon there was a +command of several hundred. The Big Mountain, which the road crosses +twenty miles from Salt Lake City, was covered so deep with snow, that +the party was obliged to follow the cañons of the Weber River into the +Valley. Upon arriving at the city, on the 12th of April, the Governor +was installed in the house of a Mr. Staines, one of the adopted sons +of Brigham Young, and was soon after waited upon by Young himself, in +company with numerous ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Territorial seal +was tendered to him, and he was recognized to his full satisfaction +in his official capacity. He remained more than three weeks. Except +fugitive statements in newspapers, the only connected account of +his proceedings is from his own pen, and consists of two official +letters,--one addressed to General Johnston, under date of April 15th, +the other to the Secretary of State at Washington, dated May 2d. The +former merely announces his arrival, reception, and recognition, +transmits charges against Dr. Hurt, of having excited the Uinta Indians +to acts of hostility against the Mormons, and suggests that he should +desire a detachment of the army to be dispatched to chastise that +tribe, but a requisition for that purpose was made neither then nor +subsequently. The letter to Secretary Cass states that his time was +devoted to examining the public property of the United States which was +in the city,--the records of the courts, the Territorial library, the +maps and minutes of the Surveyor General,--and exculpates the Mormons, in +great part, from the charge of having injured or embezzled it. + +During his stay, information was communicated to him, that there was a +number of persons who were desirous of leaving the Territory, but +unable to do so, considering themselves restrained of their liberty. +Accordingly, on the following Sunday, he caused notice to be given from +the platform in the Tabernacle, that he assumed the protection of all +such persons, and desired them to communicate to him their names +and residences. During the ensuing week, nearly two hundred persons +registered themselves in the manner he proposed, and a greater number +would undoubtedly have been glad to follow their example, but were +deterred by the surveillance to which they were subjected by certain +functionaries of the Church before being admitted to his presence. Those +who were registered were organized into trains, with the little movable +property they possessed, and dispatched towards Fort Bridger. They +arrived there in the course of May,--as motley, ragged, and destitute a +crowd as ever descended from the deck of an Irish emigrant-ship at New +York or Boston. The only garments which some possessed were made of the +canvas of their wagon-covers. + +Many were on foot. For provisions, they had nothing except flour and +some fresh meat. It is a fact creditable to humanity, that private +soldiers, by the score, shared their own abridged rations and scanty +stock of clothing with these poor wretches, and in less than a day after +their arrival they were provided with much to make them comfortable. + +On that same Sunday, the Governor made a speech to the congregation, +being introduced by Brigham Young. He reviewed the relations of the +Mormons to the Federal government; assumed that General Johnston and the +army were under his control; pledged his word that they should not +be stationed in immediate contact with the settlements; and gave +assurances, also, that no military _posse_ should be employed to arrest +a Mormon until every other means had been tried and had failed. At +the close, he invited any of their number to respond. Various persons +immediately addressed the audience in almost frantic speeches, +concerning the murder of Joseph and Hiram Smith at Carthage, the +persecution of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, the services +rendered by the Mormon Battalion to an ungrateful country during the +Mexican War, the toils and perils of the migration to Utah, and the +character of the Federal officers who had been sent to rule the +Territory. Personal insults were heaped upon the Governor, and a scene +of the wildest confusion was the result, which was quieted with great +difficulty by Young himself. It was manifest that the mass of the +people, overconfident of their capacity to resist the troops, were not +fully prepared for the capitulation the leaders were willing to make to +save their own necks from the halter; and, at a second meeting during +the afternoon, Young yielded somewhat to the popular clamor. + +All this while, a movement of a most extraordinary character was being +carried on, which had commenced before the Governor entered the Valley. +The people of the northern settlements, along the base of the Wahsatch +Mountains, including Salt Lake City, were deserting their homes, +abandoning houses, crops, and their heavier furniture, and migrating +southward. Long wagon-trains were sweeping through the city every day, +accompanied by hundreds of families, and droves of horses and cattle. +A fair estimate of the entire Mormon population of Utah is about +forty-five thousand. Of this number, ten thousand is the proportion of +the towns north of Salt Lake City, and upward of fifteen thousand that +of the city itself and the settlements in its immediate neighborhood. +Considerably more than half the people of the Territory, therefore, +shared in this emigration. What was its object and what its destination +are still mysteries; but it was probably directed toward the +mountain-ranges in the southwestern portion of the Great Basin, of the +topography of which region--hitherto unvisited by Federal explorers--the +Mormons undoubtedly possess accurate information. At any rate, it was +initiated and conducted under the direction of the Church, and Young and +Kimball were among the first to lead the way. Commencing late in March, +it continued until June, and before the beginning of May more than +thirty-five thousand people were concentrated on the western shore of +Lake Utah, chiefly in the neighborhood of Provo, fifty miles south of +Salt Lake City. Such a scene of squalid misery, such a spectacle of want +and distress, was never before witnessed in America. More than half +this multitude could not be accommodated in the towns, and lodged in +board-shanties, wigwams, mud-huts, log-cabins, bowers of willow-branches +covered with wagon-sheets, and even in holes dug into the hill-sides. +The most common quarters, however, were made by removing a wagon-body +from its wheels, placing it upon the ground, and erecting in front of +it a bower of cedars. It is needless to dwell on the exasperation which +animated all who submitted to these sacrifices. In the history of the +Albigenses hunted through Languedoc, or of the Jews writhing under the +Spanish Inquisition, a record of similar bitterness of feeling may be +found, but its parallel does not exist outside the annals of religious +persecution. + +Governor Cumming returned to Fort Bridger during the second week in +May, still accompanied by Mr. Kane, and also by a party of Mormons +who intended to escort the latter to Missouri. Upon his arrival, he +addressed a letter to General Johnston, stating, officially, that the +people of Utah had acknowledged his authority, and that the roads +between the camp and Salt Lake City were free for the transit of mails +and passengers, the Mormon forces having withdrawn from the cañons, and +none of the Territorial militia remaining under arms except with his +consent and approbation. A day or two later, Mr. Kane bade him farewell +and started toward the States, his mission having been completed. + +It may be well to pause here and estimate its precise results. It had +secured delay. The herds on Henry's Fork had thriven better than was +expected, and toward the close of April the number of mules in working +condition was sufficient to have dragged a train of two hundred wagons. +The dragoon-horses which survived could have been assigned to the +artillery-batteries, and the regiment have served as infantry. With this +equipment, slight though it may appear, a rapid movement upon the Valley +was possible; and whatever may have been the opinion during the previous +autumn, it was the universal opinion in the spring that the force at +Camp Scott could have routed any body of militia that might have opposed +its advance, although, perhaps, it was not sufficient to subjugate the +Territory, in case the Mormons should flee to the mountains. Provisions, +also, were running low in the camp. The ration of flour had been further +reduced. All the cattle had been slaughtered, and there was every +prospect of recourse to mule-meat before the first of June. Everything, +therefore, favored the plan of an early march toward the city; and it +is certain that it would have been commenced without awaiting +reinforcements from the States, had not the Governor's scheme for +pacification intervened. Distrustful of its expediency or propriety +though General Johnston might have been, he deemed it his duty to await +its result. Neither he nor the Governor being supreme in the direction +of affairs, it was the duty of each to defer so far as might be to the +action of the other. + +In the next place, Mr. Kane's interposition had produced an +irreconcilable difference of opinion between the civil and the military +authority. This is evident from what has already been stated, and there +is no need to confirm the fact by argument. The Governor returned to +Fort Bridger in May, believing the Mormons to be an injured people, +whose cause was in the main just. But his position was full of +difficulties. He had been recognized in his official character, it is +true; but he was conscious that every Mormon acknowledged a political +influence superior to his own, which was directing the emigration +southward, and leaving him Governor of empty villages and deserted +fields. The only hope he entertained of checking this exodus was by +quashing the indictments for treason which had been found against the +Mormon leaders, and by insuring them against contact with the troops. +The first he was powerless to effect; it was a matter beyond his +control,--solely within the cognizance of the courts. The second he +had assumed to be within his power, and had so assured the Mormons; but +there he was at variance with General Johnston, who denied his claim to +absolute authority over the movements of the army. + +Unknown, however, to the parties who were agitating these perplexing +questions, a superior power had already intervened and solved +the difficulty. On the 6th of April, the President had signed a +Proclamation, at Washington, rehearsing to the people of Utah Territory, +at considerable length, their past offences, and particularly those +which immediately preceded and followed the outbreak of the rebellion, +and declaring them traitors; but, "in order to save the effusion of +blood, and to avoid the indiscriminate punishment of a whole people +for crimes of which it is not probable that all are equally guilty," +offering "a free and full pardon to all who will submit themselves to +the authority of the Federal Government." This document was intrusted +to two Commissioners for conveyance to the Territory;--one of them, Mr. +L.W. Powell, lately Governor, and at the time Senator-elect, of the +State of Kentucky; the other, Major Ben M'Culloch, of Texas, who had +served with distinction in Mexico. In their appointment, Mr. Buchanan +imitated the example of President Washington, who designated a similar +commission to convey his proclamation to the whiskey-insurgents in +Pennsylvania. + +The reinforcements and supply-trains for the army were at this time +concentrating at Fort Leavenworth, Major-General Persifer F. Smith was +assigned to the command-in-chief, and it was intended that the whole +force, after concentration in Utah, should be divided into two brigades, +one to be commanded by General Harney, the other by General Johnston. +Leaving the columns preparing to advance over the Plains, the +Commissioners started from the Fort on the 25th of April. On the same +day, Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann advanced from Fort Laramie with several +companies of infantry and cavalry, escorting the supply-trains which +were parked there through the winter, and on the speedy arrival of which +at Camp Scott the subsistence of General Johnston's command depended, +unless it should force its way into the Valley. On the 1st of May, he +had reached La Bonté, a tributary of the North Platte, fifty miles from +the Fort. There he encountered the severest storm that had occurred in +that region for many years. The snow fell breast-deep, and was followed +by a pelting rain which killed his mules by scores. He was forced to +remain stationary more than a week, and when he renewed the march the +trains were clogged by mud foot-deep. + +The Commissioners reached Camp Scott on the 29th of May. The President's +Proclamation had been received the day before. With the exception of a +few persons who were prepared for such a document by reflection on Mr. +Kane's mission, everybody was astonished at its purport. It seemed +incredible that a lenity should have been extended to the Mormon rebels +which was refused to the Free-State men in Kansas, who were once +indicted for treason and sedition,--and equally incredible that all the +advantages for the solution of the Utah problem which had been gained by +the rising of the Mormons in arms should be thrown away. There was none +of the bloodthirsty excitement in the camp which was reported in the +States to have prevailed there, but there was a feeling of infinite +chagrin, a consciousness that the expedition was only a pawn on Mr. +Buchanan's political chess-board; and reproaches against his folly were +as frequent as they were vehement. Had he excepted from the amnesty the +Mormon leaders, who alone had been indicted, the Proclamation might have +been considered an act of judicious clemency; for that exception would +have accomplished every object that could be desired. As it was, it +annihilated all that had been gained by the enormous expenditures and +the toils and sufferings of the past year, and it sentenced the army to +an indefinite term of imprisonment in an American Siberia. For the sake +of ridding the Administration of immediate trouble, it turned the Church +leaders loose again upon the community, purged of all offence, and +postponed to a future day a terrible issue, the ultimate avoidance of +which is impossible. "After us the deluge," was still the motto of the +President and his Cabinet. + +At the camp the Commissioners remained only three days, which they +employed in obtaining accurate information concerning the transactions +of the last three months; for when they started from Missouri, no news +of the result of Mr. Kane's mission had reached the frontier. + +On the 2d of June, they started for the Valley, intending to summon the +leading Mormons to an interview, and receive their formal acceptance of +the terms of the Proclamation,--of which, of course, there could be no +doubt. They were accompanied by the postmaster of Salt Lake City, with +the mails for the Mormons, which had been detained at the camp since the +commencement of the rebellion. The Governor and the Superintendent of +Indian Affairs followed them the next day. The rest of the Federal +officers refused to join the party, or to make any movement based on a +supposed capitulation of the Mormons, until their submission should be +perfected. There were many circumstances attending the departure of +the Governor which showed that he was doubtful of the stability of the +positions he had been led by Mr. Kane to assume. He expressed himself +distrustful of the cooperation of the Commissioners in his plan for +pacifying the Territory; and he protested vehemently against allowing +persons to accompany the party in order to report for the press the +proceedings at the expected conferences. Every day made it more and more +evident that he had committed himself to the Mormons farther than he +cared to acknowledge. + +Before the Commissioners left the camp, they urged General Johnston not +to delay the advance of the army one moment beyond the time when he +should be ready and desire to march. On the 8th of June, Captain Marcy +arrived at the Fort with a herd of nearly fifteen hundred mules and +horses, and an escort of five companies of infantry and mounted +riflemen. He left the village of Rayado, on the Canadian River, in +New Mexico, on the 17th of March, and, instead of retracing the route +pursued on his winter journey, which had led him near the sources of +Grand River, one of the great forks of the Colorado, he returned along +the eastern base of the Rocky Mountain range past Long's and Pike's +Peaks. When he had reached Fontaine-qui-bouille Creek, an express +overtook him from General Garland, who commanded the Department of New +Mexico, enjoining him to halt and await reinforcements. There he camped +more than three weeks. Renewing his progress, he was overtaken, on +the 29th of April, by the same snowstorm which was so disastrous to +Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann on La Bonté. It was accompanied by a furious +wind, the force of which there was nothing to break. Snow fell to the +depth of three feet, and, at the very height of the storm, a part of the +mule herd stampeded and ran fifty miles before the wind, for shelter. +When the march was resumed, after an interval of several days, hundreds +of antelopes were found frozen and buried in the drifts,--a circumstance +almost unparalleled among the mountains. With this exception, nothing +occurred to obstruct the march. Captain Marcy brought with him specimens +of sand from many of the tributaries of the South Platte, which were +found, on analysis, to contain particles of gold; and within two months +after he gathered them, the same discovery, confirmed by others, +originated the emigration to that region, the progress of which now +promises the speedy birth of another Free State in the very heart of the +continent. On the 9th and 10th, Colonel Hoffmann reached the camp with +all his supply-trains; and on the following day, General Johnston issued +the welcome order to prepare for the march to Salt Lake City. A strong +detachment of infantry and artillery was detailed to garrison Fort +Bridger. + +On the 13th of June, the long camp was broken up, and the army moved +forward in three columns on the route through the cañons. Although the +season was so far advanced, snow had fallen at the Fort only three days +before. The streams were swollen and turbulent with spring floods, +and difficulty was anticipated in crossing the Bear and Weber Rivers. +Material for bridging had, therefore, been prepared, and accompanied the +first column. Southwest of the Fort, at the distance of four or five +miles, a singular _butte_, the top of which is as level as the floor of +a ball-room, rises to the height of eight hundred feet above the valley +of Black's Fork, and commands a view of the entire broad plateau between +the Wind River and the Uinta and Wahsatch Ranges. Little parties of +horsemen could be seen spurring up the gullies on its almost precipitous +sides, to witness from its summit the departure of the army. The scene +was in the highest degree picturesque. Almost at their feet lay the +camp, the few tents which remained unstruck glittering like bright dots +on the wing of an insect, the whitewashed wall of the Fort reflecting +the sunshine, while stacks of turf chimneys, lodge-poles, and rubbish +marked the spots where the encampment had been abandoned. The whole +valley was in commotion. Along the strips of road were winding clumsy +baggage-trains; the regiment of dragoons was trailing in advance; the +gleam of the musket-barrels of the infantry was visible on all sides; +and every puff of the breeze that blew over the bluff was freighted with +the rumble of artillery-carriages and caissons. Here and there were +groups of half-naked Indians galloping to and fro, with fluttering +blankets, gazing at the show with the curiosity and delight of children. + +The traveller who terminates his westward journey at Fort Bridger has +entered only the portal of the Rocky Mountains. Along the interval +between there and the Valley of the Great Lake, there is a panorama of +mountain-scenery that cannot be surpassed in the Tyrol. For miles and +miles in the gorges, at the season of the year when they were traversed +by the army, the road winds through thickets of alders and willows and +hawthorn-bushes, whose branches interlace and hang so low, under their +load of leaves and blossoms, as to sweep the backs of horsemen. Through +the interstices of the foliage, the sandstone cliffs that bound the +cañons are seen surrounded by flocks of twittering birds which build +their nests in the crevices of the rock. The ridges which the road +surmounts between cañon and cañon are covered with fields of luxuriant +grass and flowers, in the midst of which patches of snow still linger. +From them, in the clear noon sunshine, the broken line of the Wahsatch +and Uinta Ranges is visible along the horizon; but through the morning +and evening haze, only the tracery of their white crests can be +discerned. The valleys of the Bear and Weber Rivers are peculiarly +beautiful, the latter almost realizing the dream of the Valley of +Rasselas. Corrugated and snow-capped ridges slope backward from the +spectator, on whichever side he turns, until he wonders how and where +the swift river, rushing under its canopy of rustling cotton-woods, +finds a pathway through them. + +It was into scenery like this that the troops advanced, speculating, +along each day's march, upon what obstacles they would have encountered, +had they attempted to reach the Valley during the winter. On the 14th, +an express from the Commissioners arrived at the camp on Bear River, +announcing that no resistance would be made by the Mormons, who pledged +themselves to submit to Federal authority. It was suggested, at the same +time, to General Johnston, that they apprehended ill-treatment from the +army, which might feel an exasperation natural after the privations to +which it had been subjected during the winter. To reassure them, +the General immediately issued and forwarded to Salt Lake City a +proclamation, informing them that no one should be "molested in his +person or rights, or in the peaceful pursuit of his avocations." On +the same day, Governor Cumming issued a proclamation announcing the +"restoration of peace to the Territory." + +The Commissioners had reached the city on the 7th. They were received +there by the Mormon officers who commanded the few companies of militia +which constituted the garrison, and were conducted to a restaurant, +where meals were provided for them, but no lodgings; and accordingly +they slept in their ambulances. The place was deserted by everybody +except the garrison and a few individuals who were busily removing their +property. Besides these, the only beings visible in the streets were +here and there groups of half-naked Indian boys paddling in the gutters. +Almost the only sound audible was the gurgling of the City Creek. +Through the chinks of the heavy wooden portal of the Temple square, +workmen were to be seen engaged in demolishing the roofs of the +buildings within the inclosure. Over the windows of all the houses +boards were nailed; the doors were locked; the gates closed; and in many +of the gardens, crops of weeds were beginning to choke the flower-beds. +From some of the houses of the more enthusiastic Saints all the +wood-work was removed, leaving nothing standing except the bare _adobe_ +walls, while a few had been burned to the ground. In front of the +tithing-office, a train of wagons was loading with grain for removal to +Provo. + +The Governor arrived on the 8th, and was conducted at once to the +quarters he had occupied on his previous visit. The next day, he, +together with the Commissioners, held an interview with the two +messengers who had been sent up from Provo by Brigham Young. They +returned to Lake Utah that same night, and on the 10th, about noon, +Young, Kimball, and Wells, together with the Twelve Apostles, and twenty +or thirty Bishops, High Priests, and Elders, embracing almost all the +influential characters in the Church, rode into the city. Brigham's +mansion was thrown open and the party dined there. They called +afterwards in a body upon the Governor and the Commissioners, and made +arrangements for a conference on the following day. + +The President's pardon had reached the Mormon settlements along Lake +Utah on the 6th, and the manner in which it was received by the populace +showed that they were not satisfied with the position of their +leaders. It was read from the steps of the tithing-offices, and at the +street-corners, to crowds who denounced in the fiercest language the +recital of facts set forth in its preamble. The excitement, which had +been steadily fostered by Young and Kimball ever since the commencement +of the rebellion, had amounted to a frenzy which no authority less +potent than such a hierarchy as theirs could possibly have controlled. +Nevertheless, the morning Brigham rode into Salt Lake City, the +capitulation had been preordained. + +The conferences lasted through the 11th and 12th, the inflexibility of +the Commissioners securing decency of language from the Mormons, if not +decency of demeanor. All the participants, including Young himself, +expressed their sentiments in turn. The opening speech was made by one +of the Apostles, named Erastus Snow, who forgot for the moment that he +was not addressing a congregation of his brethren on a Sunday morning, +and indulged in a strain of obscene and profane remark which was checked +at once by Senator Powell. Some of the speakers broke into savage +tirades like those with which Governor Cumming was once greeted in the +Tabernacle; but these were checked by Young. There were two subjects on +which the Mormon leaders were particularly anxious, all fear of their +own trial for treason being removed. They dreaded that the army should +be quartered upon their settlements, and that the policy inaugurated +by Judge Eckels in his recent charge to the grand jury at Fort Bridger +should be pursued against polygamy. No assurances were given by the +Commissioners upon either of these subjects. They limited their action +to tendering the President's pardon, and exhorting the Mormons to accept +it. Outside the conferences, however, without the knowledge of the +Commissioners, assurances were given on both these subjects by the +Governor and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which proved +satisfactory to Brigham Young. The exact nature of their pledges will, +perhaps, never be disclosed; but from subsequent confessions volunteered +by the Superintendent, who appears to have acted as a tool of the +Governor through the whole affair, it seems probable that they promised +explicitly to exert their influence to quarter the army in Cache Valley, +nearly a hundred miles north of Salt Lake City, and also to procure the +removal of Judge Eckels. The news of the issue of the order for the +advance of the army reached the city on the 12th, and accelerated the +result of the conferences, which concluded that evening with a pledge on +the part of Young and his associates to submit unconditionally to +the Federal authority. During the next few days, the Commissioners, +accompanied by the Governor, travelled southward, and addressed large +audiences at Provo and Lehi, specially exhorting the people to return to +their homes in the northern settlements, assuring them that the troubles +were ended, and that they need fear no molestation of person or +property. + +Whether all these proceedings--which were legitimate results of Mr. +Buchanan's policy--were consistent with the honor of the country, the +public can judge for themselves. The Commissioners certainly conducted +themselves with dignity and credit; but it is doubtful whether they ever +would have accepted their appointment, had they anticipated the nature +of the duties they would be required to perform. + +The army moved slowly forward during the progress of these negotiations. +In Echo Cañon, it had an opportunity to inspect the bugbear of the +previous autumn,--the Mormon fortifications. As the cañon--which is more +than twenty miles long--approaches the Weber River, it dwindles in +width from five or six hundred yards to as many feet. Its northern side +becomes a perfect wall of rock, which rises perpendicularly to the +height of several hundred feet above the road. The southern side retains +the character of a steep mountain-slope covered with grass and stunted +bushes. Echo Creek, a narrow streamlet, with its dense fringe of +willows, fills the whole bottom between the road and the bluffs. The +first indication of approach to the fortifications was the sight of +piles of stones heaped into walls four or five feet high, pierced with +loopholes, and visible on every projecting point of the cliffs along the +northern side, from most of which a pebble could be snapped down upon +the road. Just beyond, after turning a bend in the cañon, all the +willows along the creek had been cut away, and through the cleared space +a ditch five or six feet wide and ten feet deep was dug across the +bottom. The dirt thrown from it was packed so as to form an embankment, +on which logs were so arranged that it would answer for a breastwork, +behind which riflemen could be posted under cover. At intervals of about +a hundred yards were two similar lines of ditch and breastwork, by the +first of which the road was forced to skirt the very base of a cliff +which had probably been mined. The other line was constructed just above +the mouths of two narrow gorges which enter the cañon, nearly opposite +one another, from the north and south. By the aid of these dams the +cañon might possibly have been overflowed for half a mile to the depth +of several feet, but the water would have accumulated slowly on account +of the insignificant size of the creek. Several dirt walls stretched +also across the gorges, commanding the whole of the fortifications +below. This whole system of defences possessed as little strength as +merit. It served only to confirm the impression, which by this time had +become general, that the capacity of the Mormons to resist the army had +been greatly overrated, and that a vigorous effort to penetrate to the +Valley early in the spring would inevitably have succeeded. + +For nearly a mile beyond the two gorges, a chain of low hills, over +which the road runs, extends below the loftier summits on the southern +side of the cañon. The northern side becomes, in consequence, a deep +glen, as the cliffs which form its wall rise abruptly from the level of +the creek. This glen is filled with bushes, and in it, thus protected +from the wind, the Mormon militia had their winter-quarters. The huts +they occupied had been constructed by digging circular holes in the +ground, over which were piled boughs in the same manner as the poles of +an Indian lodge. Around these boughs willow-twigs were plaited, and the +entire hut was finally thatched with straw, grass, or bark. Many of +them had chimneys built of sod and stones, like those which had been +improvised at Camp Scott. An open spot, a few hundred feet below the +beginning of the glen, was the site of the head-quarters of the command. +Here the huts were built around a square, in the centre of which was +planted a tall pine flag-pole. The scenery at this point is exceedingly +picturesque. Out of a tangle of willows, alders, hawthorn, and wild +cherry-trees spring the bold sandstone cliffs, in every crevice of which +cedars and fir-trees cling to the jagged points of rock. On the other +side of the cañon a sheet of rich verdure, all summer long, rolls up +the mountain to its very summit. Down the glen ripples the little creek +underneath an arch of fragrant shrubs twined with the slender tendrils +of wild hop-vines. The whole number of huts was about one hundred and +fifty, and they could accommodate, on an average, fifteen men apiece. + +The troops did not emerge from Emigration Cañon into the Salt Lake +Valley until the morning of the 26th. In the mean while, thirty or forty +civilians had reached the city from the camp, and were quartered, like +the Commissioners, in their own vehicles. The Mormons favored no one, +except the Governor and his intimate associates, with any species of +accommodation. Their demeanor was in every respect like that of a +conquered people toward foreign invaders. During the week preceding the +26th, two or three hundred of those on Lake Utah received permission +to go up to the city, and they alone, of the whole Mormon community, +witnessed the ingress of the army. + +It was one of the most extraordinary scenes that have occurred in +American history. All day long, from dawn till after sunset, the troops +and trains poured through the city, the utter silence of the streets +being broken only by the music of the military bands, the monotonous +tramp of the regiments, and the rattle of the baggage-wagons. Early in +the morning, the Mormon guard had forced all their fellow-religionists +into the houses, and ordered them not to make their appearance during +the day. The numerous flags, which had been flying from staffs on the +public buildings during the previous week, were all struck. The only +visible groups of spectators were on the corners near Brigham Young's +residence, and consisted almost entirely of Gentile civilians. The +stillness was so profound, that, during the intervals between the +passage of the columns, the monotonous gurgle of the city-creek struck +on every ear. The Commissioners rode with the General's staff. The +troops crossed the Jordan and encamped two miles from the city on a +dusty meadow by the river-bank. + +The orders under which General Johnston was acting directed him to +establish not more than three military posts within the Territory. One +of these was already fixed at Fort Bridger, and the question where the +others should be located was now no less important to the Mormons +than to the army. The secret of the success of Mormonism is its +exclusiveness, and of this fact the leaders of the sect are fully aware. +Accordingly, they now put forth most strenuous efforts to secure the +removal of the troops to as great a distance as possible from their +settlements. But, wholly without regard to any understanding which they +might have had with the Governor, General Johnston, after a careful +_reconnaissance_, selected Cedar Valley, on the western rim of Lake +Utah, separated from it only by a range of bluffs,--about equidistant +from Salt Lake City and Provo,--for his permanent camp. The army moved +southward from the city on the 29th, but so slowly that it did not reach +the Valley till the 6th of July. Not a field was encroached upon, not a +house molested, not a person harmed or insulted, by troops that had been +so harassed and vituperated by a people now entirely at their mercy. By +their strict subordination they entitled themselves to the respect of +the country as well as to the gratitude of the Mormons. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +OUR SKATER BELLE. + + + Along the frozen lake she comes + In linking crescents, light and fleet; + The ice-imprisoned Undine hums + A welcome to her little feet. + + I see the jaunty hat, the plume + Swerve bird-like in the joyous gale,-- + The cheeks lit up to burning bloom, + The young eyes sparkling through the veil. + + The quick breath parts her laughing lips, + The white neck shines through tossing curls; + Her vesture gently sways and dips, + As on she speeds in shell-like whorls. + + Men stop and smile to see her go; + They gaze, they smile in pleased surprise; + They ask her name; they long to show + Some silent friendship in their eyes. + + She glances not; she passes on; + Her steely footfall quicker rings; + She guesses not the benison + Which follows her on noiseless wings. + + Smooth be her ways, secure her tread + Along the devious lines of life, + From grace to grace successive led, + A noble maiden, nobler wife! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +I don't know whether our literary or professional people are more +amiable than they are in other places, but certainly quarrelling is out +of fashion among them. This could never be, if they were in the habit of +secret anonymous puffing of each other. That is the kind of underground +machinery, which manufactures false reputations and genuine hatreds. On +the other hand, I should like to know if we are not at liberty to have +a good time together, and say the pleasantest things we can think of to +each other, when any of us reaches his thirtieth or fortieth or fiftieth +or eightieth birthday. + +We don't have "scenes," I warrant you, on these occasions. No "surprise" +parties! You understand these, of course. In the rural districts, where +scenic tragedy and melodrama cannot be had, as in the city, at the +expense of a quarter and a white pocket-handkerchief, emotional +excitement has to be sought in the dramas of real life. Christenings, +weddings, and funerals, especially the latter, are the main dependence; +but babies, brides, and deceased citizens cannot be had at a day's +notice. Now, then, for a surprise-party! + +A bag of flour, a barrel of potatoes, some strings of onions, a basket +of apples, a big cake and many little cakes, a jug of lemonade, a purse +stuffed with bills of the more modest denominations, may, perhaps, +do well enough for the properties in one of these private theatrical +exhibitions. The minister of the parish, a tender-hearted, quiet, +hard-working man, living on a small salary, with many children, +sometimes pinched to feed and clothe them, praying fervently every day +to be blest in his "basket and store," but sometimes fearing he asks +amiss, to judge by the small returns, has the first _rôle_,--not, +however, by his own choice, but forced upon him. The minister's wife, a +sharp-eyed, unsentimental body, is first lady; the remaining parts by +the rest of the family. If they only had a play-bill, it would run +thus:-- + +ON TUESDAY NEXT + +WILL BE PRESENTED + +THE AFFECTING SCENE + +CALLED + +THE SURPRISE-PARTY, + +OR + +THE OVERCOME FAMILY; + +WITH THE FOLLOWING STRONG CAST OF CHARACTERS: + +_The Rev. Mr. Overcome_, by the Clergyman of this Parish. + +_Mrs. Overcome_, by his estimable lady. + +_Masters Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Overcome_. + +_Misses Dorcas, Tabitha, Rachel, and Hannah Overcome_, by their +interesting children. + +_Peggy_, by the female help. + +The poor man is really grateful;--it is a most welcome and unexpected +relief. He tries to express his thanks,--his voice falters,--he +chokes,--and bursts into tears. _That_ is the great effect of the +evening. The sharp-sighted lady cries a little with one eye, and counts +the strings of onions, and the rest of the things, with the other. The +children stand ready for a spring at the apples. The female help weeps +after the noisy fashion of untutored handmaids. + +Now this is all very well as charity, but do let the kind visitors +remember they get their money's worth. If you pay a quarter for _dry +crying_, done by a second-rate actor, how much ought you to pay for real +hot, wet tears, out of the honest eyes of a gentleman who is not acting, +but sobbing in earnest? + +All I meant to say, when I began, was, that this was _not_ a +surprise-party where I read these few lines that follow:-- + + We will not speak of years to-night; + For what have years to bring, + But larger floods of love and light + And sweeter songs to sing? + + We will not drown in wordy praise + The kindly thoughts that rise; + If friendship owns one tender phrase, + He reads it in our eyes. + + We need not waste our schoolboy art + To gild this notch of time; + Forgive me, if my wayward heart + Has throbbed in artless rhyme. + + Enough for him the silent grasp + That knits us hand in hand, + And he the bracelet's radiant clasp + That locks our circling band. + + Strength to his hours of manly toil! + Peace to his starlit dreams! + Who loves alike the furrowed soil, + The music-haunted streams! + + Sweet smiles to keep forever bright + The sunshine on his lips, + And faith, that sees the ring of light + Round Nature's last eclipse! + +----One of our boarders has been talking in such strong language that I +am almost afraid to report it. However, as he seems to be really honest +and is so very sincere in his local prejudices, I don't believe anybody +will be very angry with him. + +It is here, Sir! right here!--said the little deformed gentleman,--in +this old new city of Boston,--this remote provincial corner of a +provincial nation, that the Battle of the Standard is fighting, and was +fighting before we were born, and will be fighting when we are dead +and gone,--please God! The _battle_ goes on everywhere throughout +civilization; but here, here, here! is the broad white flag flying which +proclaims, first of all, peace and good-will to men, and, next to +that, the absolute, unconditional spiritual liberty of each individual +immortal soul! The three-hilled city against the seven-hilled-city! That +is it, Sir,--nothing less than that; and if you know what that means, I +don't think you'll ask for anything more. I swear to you, Sir, I believe +that these two centres of civilization are just exactly the two points +that close the circuit in the battery of our planetary intelligence! And +I believe there are spiritual eyes looking out from Uranus and unseen +Neptune,--ay, Sir, from the systems of Sirius and Arcturus and +Aldebaran, and as far as that faint stain of sprinkled worlds confluent +in the distance that we call the nebula of Orion,--looking on, Sir, with +what organs I know not, to see which are going to melt in that fiery +fusion, the accidents and hindrances of humanity or man himself, +Sir,--the stupendous abortion, the illustrious failure that he is, +if the three-hilled city does not ride down and trample out the +seven-hilled city! + +----Steam's up!--said the young man John, so called, in a low +tone.--Three hundred and sixty-five tons to the square inch. Let him +blow her off, or he'll bu'st his b'iler. + +The divinity-student took it calmly, only whispering that he thought +there was a little confusion of images between a galvanic battery and a +charge of cavalry. + +But the Koh-i-noor--the gentleman, you remember, with a very large +_diamond_ in his shirt-front--laughed his scornful laugh, and made as if +to speak. + +Sail in, Metropolis!--said that same young man John, by name. And then, +in a lower tone, not meaning to be heard,--Now, then, Ma'am Allen! + +But he _was_ heard,--and the Koh-i-noor's face turned so white with +rage, that his blue-black moustache and beard looked fearful, seen +against it. He grinned with wrath, and caught at a tumbler, as if +he would have thrown it or its contents at the speaker. The young +Marylander fixed his clear, steady eye upon him, and laid his hand on +his arm, carelessly almost, but the Jewel found it was held so that he +could not move it. It was of no use. The youth was his master in muscle, +and in that deadly Indian hug in which men wrestle with their eyes; +--over in five seconds, but breaks one of their two backs, and is good +for three-score years and ten;--one trial enough,--settles the whole +matter,--just as when two feathered songsters of the barnyard, game and +dunghill, come together,--after a jump or two at each other, and a few +sharp kicks, there is the end of it; and it is, _Après vous, Monsieur_, +in all the social relations with the beaten party for all the rest of +his days. + +I cannot philosophically account for the Koh-i-noor's wrath. For though +a cosmetic is sold, bearing the name of the lady to whom reference +was made by the young person John, yet, as it is publicly asserted in +respectable prints that this cosmetic is _not a dye_, I see no reason +why he should have felt offended by any suggestion that he was indebted +to it or its authoress. I have no doubt that there are certain +exceptional complexions to which the purple tinge, above alluded to, is +natural. Nature is fertile in variety. I saw an albiness in London once, +for six-pence, (including the inspection of a stuffed boa-constrictor,) +who looked as if she had been boiled in milk. A young Hottentot of my +acquaintance had his hair all in little pellets of the size of marrowfat +peas. One of my own classmates has undergone a singular change of late +years,--his hair losing its original tint, and getting a remarkable +discolored look; and another has ceased to cultivate any hair at all +over the vertex or crown of the head. So I am perfectly willing to +believe that the purple-black of the Koh-i-noor's moustache and whiskers +is constitutional and not pigmentary. But I can't think why he got so +angry. + +The intelligent reader will understand that all this pantomime of the +threatened onslaught and its suppression passed so quickly that it was +all over by the time the other end of the table found out there was a +disturbance; just as a man chopping wood half a mile off may be seen +resting on his axe at the instant you hear the last blow he struck. So +you will please to observe that the Little Gentleman was not interrupted +during the time implied by these _ex-post-facto_ remarks of mine, but +for some ten or fifteen seconds only. + +He did not seem to mind the interruption at all, for he started again. +The "Sir" of his harangue was no doubt addressed to myself more than +anybody else, but he often uses it in discourse as if he were talking +with some imaginary opponent. + +----America, Sir,--he exclaimed,--is the only place where man is +full-grown! + +He straightened himself up, as he spoke, standing on the top round of +his high chair, I suppose, and so presented the larger part of his +little figure to the view of the boarders. + +It was next to impossible to keep from laughing. The commentary was so +strange an illustration of the text! + +I thought it was time to put in a word; for I have lived in foreign +parts, and am more or less cosmopolitan. + +I doubt if we have more practical freedom in America than they have in +England,--I said.--An Englishman thinks as he likes in religion and +politics. Mr. Martineau speculates as freely as ever Dr. Channing did, +and Mr. Bright is as independent as Mr. Seward. + +Sir,--said he,--it isn't what a man thinks or says, but when and where +and to whom he thinks and says it. A man with a flint and steel striking +sparks over a wet blanket is one thing, and striking them over a +tinder-box is another. The free Englishman is born under protest; he +lives and dies under protest,--a tolerated, but not a welcome fact. Is +not _free-thinker_ a term of reproach in England? The same idea in +the soul of an Englishman who struggled up to it and still holds it +_antagonistically_, and in the soul of an American to whom it is +congenital and spontaneous, and often unrecognized, except as an element +blended with _all_ his thoughts, a natural movement, like the drawing of +his breath or the beating of his heart, is a very different thing. You +may teach a quadruped to walk on his hind legs, but he is always wanting +to be on all-fours. Nothing that can be taught a growing youth is like +the atmospheric knowledge he breathes from his infancy upwards. The +American baby sucks in freedom with the milk of the breast at which he +hangs. + +----That's a good joke,--said the young fellow John,--considerin' it +commonly belongs to a female Paddy. + +I thought--I will not be certain--that Little Boston winked, as if he +had been hit somewhere,--as I have no doubt Dr. Darwin did when the +_wooden-spoon_ suggestion upset his theory about why, etc. If he winked, +however, he did not dodge. + +A lively comment!--he said.--But Rome, in her great founder, sucked the +blood of empire out of the dugs of a brute, Sir! The Milesian wet-nurse +is only a convenient vessel through which the American infant gets the +life-blood of this virgin soil, Sir, that is making man over again, on +the sunset pattern! You don't think what we are doing and going to +do here. Why, Sir, while commentators are bothering themselves with +interpretation of prophecies, _we have got_ the new heavens and the new +earth over us and under us! Was there ever anything in Italy, I should +like to know, like a Boston sunset? + +----This time there was a laugh, and the little man himself almost +smiled. + +Yes,--Boston sunsets;--perhaps they're as good in some other places, +but I know 'em best here. Anyhow, the American skies are different from +anything they see in the Old World. Yes, and the rocks are different, +and the soil is different, and everything that comes out of the soil, +from grass up to Indians, is different. And now that the provisional +races are dying out---- + +----What do you mean by the _provisional_ races, Sir?--said the +divinity-student, interrupting him. + +Why, the aboriginal bipeds, to be sure,--he answered,--the red-crayon +sketch of humanity laid on the canvas before the colors for the real +manhood were ready. + +I hope they will come to something yet,--said the divinity-student. + +Irreclaimable, Sir,--irreclaimable!--said the little +gentleman.--Cheaper to breed white men than domesticate a nation of red +ones. When you can get the bitter out of the partridge's thigh, you +can make an enlightened commonwealth of Indians. A provisional race, +Sir,--nothing more. Exhaled carbonic acid for the use of vegetation, +kept down the bears and catamounts, enjoyed themselves in scalping and +being scalped, and then passed away or are passing away, according to +the programme. + +Well, Sir, these races dying out, the white man has to acclimate +himself. It takes him a good while; but he will come all right +by-and-by, Sir,--as sound as a woodchuck,--as sound as a musquash! + +A new nursery, Sir, with Lake Superior and Huron and all the rest of +'em for wash-basins! A new race, and a whole new world for the new-born +human soul to work in! And Boston is the brain of it, and has been any +time these hundred years! That's all I claim for Boston,--that it is the +thinking centre of the continent, and therefore of the planet. + +----And the grand emporium of modesty,--said the divinity-student, a +little mischievously. + +Oh, don't talk to me of modesty!--answered Little Boston,--I'm past +that! There isn't a thing that was ever said or done in Boston, from +pitching the tea overboard to the last ecclesiastical lie it tore into +tatters and flung into the dock, that wasn't thought very indelicate by +some fool or tyrant or bigot, and all the entrails of commercial +and spiritual conservatism are twisted into colics as often as this +revolutionary brain of ours has a fit of thinking come over it.--No, +Sir,--show me any other place that is, or was since the megalosaurus +has died out, where wealth and social influence are so fairly divided +between the stationary and the progressive classes! Show me any +other place where every other drawing-room is not a chamber of the +Inquisition, with papas and mammas for inquisitors,--and the cold +shoulder, instead of the "dry pan and the gradual fire," the punishment +of "heresy"! + +----We think Baltimore is a pretty civilized kind of a village,--said +the young Marylander, good-naturedly.--But I suppose you can't +forgive it for always keeping a little ahead of Boston in point of +numbers,--tell the truth now. Are we not the centre of something? + +Ah, indeed, to be sure you are. You are the gastronomic metropolis +of the Union. Why don't you put a canvas-back duck on the top of the +Washington column? Why don't you get that lady off from Battle Monument +and plant a terrapin in her place? Why will you ask for other glories +when you have soft crabs? No, Sir,--you live too well to think as hard +as we do in Boston. Logic comes to us with the salt-fish of Cape Ann; +rhetoric is born of the beans of Beverly; but _you_--if you open your +mouths to speak, Nature stops them with a fat oyster, or offers a slice +of the breast of your divine bird, and silences all your aspirations. + +And what of Philadelphia?--said the Marylander. + +Oh, Philadelphia?--Waterworks,--killed by the Croton and Cochituate;-- +Ben Franklin,--borrowed from Boston;--David Rittenhouse,--made an +orrery;--Benjamin Rush,--made a medical system:--both interesting to +antiquarians;--great Red-river raft of medical students,--spontaneous +generation of professors to match;--more widely known through the +Moyamensing hose-company, and the Wistar parties;--for geological +section of social strata, go to _The Club_.--Good place to live +in,--first-rate market,--tip-top peaches.--What do we know about +Philadelphia, except that the engine-companies are always shooting each +other? + +And what do you say to New York?--asked the Koh-i-noor? + +A great city, Sir,--replied Little Boston,--a very opulent, splendid +city. A point of transit of much that is remarkable, and of permanence +for much that is respectable. A great money-centre. San Francisco with +the mines above-ground,--and some of 'em under the sidewalks. I have +seen next to nothing _grandiose_, out of New York, in all our cities. It +makes 'em all look paltry and petty. Has many elements of civilization. +May stop where Venice did, though, for aught we know.--The order of its +development is just this:--Wealth; architecture; upholstery; painting; +sculpture. Printing, as a mechanical art,--just as Nicholas Jenson +and the Aldi, who were scholars too, made Venice renowned for it. +Journalism, which is the accident of business and crowded populations, +in great perfection. Venice got as far as Titian and Paul Veronese +and Tintoretto,--great colorists, mark you, magnificent on the +flesh-and-blood side of Art,--but look over to Florence and see who lie +in Santa Croce, and ask out of whose loins Dante sprung! + +Oh, yes, to be sure, Venice built her Ducal Palace, and her Church of +St. Mark, and her Casa d' Oro, and the rest of her golden houses; and +Venice had great pictures and good music; and Venice had a Golden Book, +in which all the large tax-payers had their names written;--but all +that did not make Venice the brain of Italy. + +I tell you what, Sir,--with all these magnificent appliances of +civilization, it is time we began to hear something from the _jeunesse +dorée_ whose names are on the Golden Book of our sumptuous, +splendid, marble-palaced Venice,--something in the higher walks of +literature,--something in the councils of the nation. Plenty of Art, I +grant you, Sir; now, then, for vast libraries, and for mighty scholars +and thinkers and statesmen,--five for every Boston one, as the +population is to ours,--_ten_ to one more properly, in virtue of +centralizing attraction as _the_ alleged metropolis,--and not call our +people provincials, and have to come begging to us to write the lives of +Hendrik Hudson and Gouverneur Morris! + +----The little gentleman was on his hobby, exalting his own city at the +expense of every other place. I don't suppose he had been in either of +the cities he had been talking about. I was just going to say something +to sober him down, if I could, when the young Marylander spoke up. + +Come, now,--he said,--what's the use of these comparisons? Didn't I +hear this gentleman saying, the other day, that every American owns all +America? If you have really got more brains in Boston than other folks, +as you seem to think, who hates you for it, except a pack of scribbling +fools? If I like Broadway better than Washington Street, what then? I +own them both, as much as anybody owns either. I am an American,--and +wherever I look up and see the stars and stripes overhead, that is home +to me! + +He spoke, and looked up as if he heard the emblazoned folds crackling +over him in the breeze. We all looked up involuntarily, as if we should +see the national flag by so doing. The sight of the dingy ceiling and +the gas-fixture depending therefrom dispelled the illusion. + +Bravo! bravo!--said the venerable gentleman on the other side of the +table.--Those are the sentiments of Washington's Farewell Address. +Nothing better than that since the last chapter in Revelations. +Five-and-forty years ago there used to be Washington societies, and +little boys used to walk in processions, each little boy having a copy +of the Address, bound in red, hung round his neck by a ribbon. Why don't +they now? Why don't they now? I saw enough of hating each other in the +old Federal times; now let's love each other, I say,--let's love each +other, and not try to make it out that there isn't any place fit to live +in except the one we happen to be born in. + +It dwarfs the mind, I think,--said I,--to feed it on any localism. The +full stature of manhood is shrivelled---- + +The color burst up into my cheeks. What was I saying,--I, who would not +for the world have pained our unfortunate little boarder by an allusion? + +I will go,--he said,--and made a movement with his left arm to let +himself down from his high chair. + +No,--no,--he doesn't mean it,--you must not go,--said a kind voice next +him; and a soft, white hand was laid upon his arm. + +Iris, my dear!--exclaimed another voice, as of a female, in accents that +might be considered a strong atmospheric solution of duty with very +little flavor of grace. + +She did not move for this address, and there was a _tableau_ that lasted +some seconds. For the young girl, in the glory of half-blown womanhood, +and the dwarf, the cripple, the misshapen little creature covered with +Nature's insults, looked straight into each other's eyes. + +Perhaps no handsome young woman had ever looked at him so in his life. +Certainly the young girl never had looked into eyes that reached +into her soul as these did. It was not that they were in themselves +supernaturally bright,--but there was the sad fire in them that flames +up from the soul of one who looks on the beauty of woman without hope, +but, alas! not without emotion. To him it seemed as if those amber gates +had been translucent as the brown water of a mountain-brook, and through +them he had seen dimly into a virgin wilderness, only waiting for the +sunrise of a great passion for all its buds to blow and all its bowers +to ring with melody. + +That is my image, of course,--not his. It was not a simile that was +in his mind, or is in anybody's at such a moment,--it was a pang of +wordless passion, and then a silent, inward moan. + +A lady's wish,--he said, with a certain gallantry of manner,--makes +slaves of us all.--And Nature, who is kind to all her children, and +never leaves the smallest and saddest of all her human failures without +one little comfit of self-love at the bottom of his poor ragged +pocket,--Nature suggested to him that he had turned his sentence well; +and he fell into a reverie, in which the old thoughts that were always +hovering just outside the doors guarded by Common Sense, and watching +for a chance to squeeze in, knowing perfectly well they would be +ignominiously kicked out again as soon as Common Sense saw them, flocked +in pellmell,--misty, fragmentary, vague, half-ashamed of themselves, but +still shouldering up against his inner consciousness till it warmed with +their contact:--John Wilkes's--the ugliest man's in England--saying, +that with half-an-hour's start he would cut out the handsomest man +in all the land in any woman's good graces; Cadenus--old and +savage--leading captive Stella and Vanessa; and then the stray line of +a ballad,--"And a winning tongue had he,"--as much as to say, it isn't +looks, after all, but cunning words, that win our Eves over,--just as +of old, when it was the worst-looking brute of the lot that got our +grandmother to listen to his stuff, and so did the mischief. + +Ah, dear me! We rehearse the part of Hercules with his club, subjugating +man and woman in our fancy, the first by the weight of it, and the +second by our handling of it,--we rehearse it, I say, by our own +hearth-stones, with the _cold_ poker as our club, and the exercise is +easy. But when we come to real life, the poker is _in the fire_, and, +ten to one, if we would grasp it, we find it too hot to hold;--lucky for +us, if it is not white-hot, and we do not have to leave the skin of our +hands sticking to it when we fling it down or drop it with a loud or +silent cry! + +--I am frightened when I find into what a labyrinth of human character +and feeling I am winding. I meant to tell my thoughts, and to throw in +a few studies of manner and costume as they pictured themselves for +me from day to day. Chance has thrown together at the table with me a +number of persons who are worth studying, and I mean not only to look +on them, but, if I can, through them. You can get any man's or woman's +secret, whose sphere is circumscribed by your own, if you will only look +patiently on them long enough. Nature is always applying her reagents +to character, if you will take the pains to watch her. Our studies +of character, to change the image, are very much like the surveyor's +triangulation of a geographical province. We get a base-line in +organization, always; then we get an angle by sighting some distant +object to which the passions or aspirations of the subject of our +observation are tending; then another:--and so we construct our first +triangle. Once fix a man's ideals, and for the most part the rest is +easy. _A_ wants to die worth half a million. Good. _B_ (female) wants to +catch him,--and outlive him. All right. Minor details at our leisure. + +What is it, of all your experiences, of all your thoughts, of all your +misdoings, that lies at the very bottom of the great heap of acts of +consciousness which make up your past life? What should you most dislike +to tell your nearest friend?--Be so good as to pause for a brief space, +and shut the pamphlet you hold with your fingers between the pages.--Oh, +that is it! + +What a confessional I have been sitting at, with the inward ear of my +soul open, as the multitudinous whisper of my involuntary confidants +came back to me like the reduplicated echo of a cry among the craggy +hills! + +At the house of a friend where I once passed the night was one of those +stately upright cabinet-desks and cases of drawers which were not rare +in prosperous families during the last century. It had held the clothes +and the books and the papers of generation after generation. The hands +that opened its drawers had grown withered, shrivelled, and at last been +folded in death. The children that played with the lower handles had got +tall enough to open the desk,--to reach the upper shelves behind the +folding-doors,--grown bent after a while,--and then followed those who +had gone before, and left the old cabinet to be ransacked by a new +generation. + +A boy of ten or twelve was looking at it a few years ago, and, being a +quick-witted fellow, saw that all the space was not accounted for by the +smaller drawers in the part beneath the lid of the desk. Prying about +with busy eyes and fingers, he at length came upon a spring, on pressing +which, a hidden drawer flew from its hiding-place. It had never been +opened but by the maker. The mahogany shavings and dust were lying in it +as when the artisan closed it,--and when I saw it, it was as fresh as if +that day finished. + +Is there not one little drawer in your soul, my sweet reader, which no +hand but yours has ever opened, and which none that have known you seem +to have suspected? What does it hold?--A sin?--I hope not. + +What a strange thing an old dead sin laid away in a secret drawer of the +soul is! Must it some time or other be moistened with tears, until it +comes to life again and begins to stir in our consciousness,--as the dry +wheel-animalcule, looking like a grain of dust, becomes alive, if it is +wet with a drop of water? + +Or is it a passion? There are plenty of withered men and women walking +about the streets who have the secret drawer in their hearts, which, +if it were opened, would show as fresh as it was when they were in the +flush of youth and its first trembling emotions. What it held will, +perhaps, never be known, until they are dead and gone, and some curious +eye lights on an old yellow letter with the fossil footprints of the +extinct passion trodden thick all over it. + +There is not a boarder at our table, I firmly believe, excepting the +young girl, who has not a story of the heart to tell, if one could only +get the secret drawer open. Even this arid female, whose armor of black +bombazine looks stronger against the shafts of love than any cuirass of +triple brass, has had her sentimental history, if I am not mistaken. I +will tell you my reason for suspecting it. + +Like many other old women, she shows a great nervousness and +restlessness whenever I venture to express any opinion upon a class of +subjects which can hardly be said to belong to any man or set of men +as their strictly private property,--not even to the clergy, or the +newspapers commonly called "religious." Now, although it would be a +great luxury to me to obtain my opinions by contract, ready-made, from a +professional man, and although I have a constitutional kindly feeling +to all sorts of good people which would make me happy to agree with all +their beliefs, if that were possible, still I must have an idea, now and +then, as to the meaning of life; and though the only condition of peace +in this world is to have no ideas, or, at least, not to express them, +with reference to such subjects, I can't afford to pay quite so much as +that even for peace. + +I find that there is a very prevalent opinion among the dwellers on the +shores of Sir Isaac Newton's Ocean of Truth, that _salt fish_, which +have been taken from it a good while ago, split open, cured and dried, +are the only proper and allowable food for reasonable people. I +maintain, on the other hand, that there are a number of live fish still +swimming in it, and that every one of us has a right to see if he cannot +catch some of them. Sometimes I please myself with the idea that I have +landed an actual living fish, small, perhaps, but with rosy gills and +silvery scales. Then I find the consumers of nothing but the salted and +dried article insist that it is poisonous, simply because it is alive, +and cry out to people not to touch it. I have not found, however, that +people mind them much. + +The poor boarder in bombazine is my dynamometer. I try every +questionable proposition on her. If she winces, I must be prepared for +an outcry from the other old women. I frightened her, the other day, by +saying that _faith, as an intellectual state, was self-reliance_, which, +if you have a metaphysical turn, you will find is not so much of a +paradox as it sounds at first. So she sent me a book to read which was +to cure me of that error. It was an old book, and looked as if it had +not been opened for a long time. What should drop out of it, one day, +but a small heart-shaped paper, containing a lock of that straight, +coarse, brown hair which sets off the sharp faces of so many +thin-flanked, large-handed bumpkins? I read upon the paper the name +"Hiram."--Love! love! love!--everywhere! everywhere!--under diamonds and +Attleboro' "jewelry,"--lifting the marrowy camel's-hair, and rustling +even the black bombazine!--No, no,--I think she never was pretty, but +she was young once, and wore bright ginghams, and, perhaps, gay merinos. +We shall find that the poor little crooked man has been in love, or is +in love, or will be in love before we have done with him, for aught that +I know! + +Romance! Was there ever a boarding-house in the world where the +seemingly prosaic table had not a living fresco for its background, +where you could see, if you had eyes, the smoke and fire of some +upheaving sentiment, or the dreary craters of smouldering or burnt-out +passions? You look on the black bombazine and high-necked decorum of +your neighbor, and no more think of the real life that underlies this +despoiled and dismantled womanhood than you think of a stone trilobite +as having once been full of the juices and the nervous thrills of +throbbing and self-conscious being. There is a wild creature under that +long yellow pin which serves as brooch for the bombazine cuirass,--a +wild creature, which I venture to say would leap in his cage, if +I should stir him, quiet as you think him. A heart which has been +domesticated by matrimony and maternity is as tranquil as a tame +bulfinch; but a wild heart which has never been fairly broken in +flutters fiercely long after you think time has tamed it down,--like +that purple finch I had the other day, which could not be approached +without such palpitations and frantic flings against the bars of his +cage, that I had to send him back and get a little orthodox canary +which had learned to be quiet and never mind the wires or his keeper's +handling. I will tell you my wicked, but involuntary experiment on the +wild heart under the faded bombazine. + +Was there ever a person in the room with you, marked by any special +weakness or peculiarity, with whom you could be two hours and not touch +the infirm spot? I confess the most frightful tendency to do just this +thing. If a man has a brogue, I am sure to catch myself imitating it. +If another is lame, I follow him, or, worse than that, go before him, +limping. I could never meet an Irish gentleman--if it had been the Duke +of Wellington himself--without stumbling upon the word "Paddy,"--which I +use rarely in my common talk. + +I have been worried to know whether this was owing to some innate +depravity of disposition on my part, some malignant torturing instinct, +which, under different circumstances, might have made a Fijian +anthropophagus of me, or to some law of thought for which I was not +answerable. It is, I am convinced, a kind of physical fact like +_endosmosis_, with which some of you are acquainted. A thin film of +politeness separates the unspoken and unspeakable current of thought +from the stream of conversation. After a time one begins to soak through +and mingle with the other. + +We were talking about names, one day. Was there ever anything,--I +said,--like the Yankee for inventing the most uncouth, pretentious, +detestable appellations,--inventing or finding them,--since the time of +Praise-God Barebones? I heard a country-boy once talking of another whom +he called _Elpit_, as I understood him. _Elbridge_ is common enough, but +this sounded oddly. It seems the boy was christened _Lord Pitt_,--and +called, for convenience, as above. I have heard a charming little girl, +belonging to an intelligent family in the country, called _Anges_ +invariably; doubtless intended for Agnes. Names are cheap. How can a +man name an innocent new-born child, that never did him any harm, +_Hiram_?--The poor relation, or whatever she is, in bombazine, turned +toward me, but I was stupid, and went on.--To think of a man going +through life saddled with such an abominable name as that!--The poor +relation grew very uneasy.--I continued; for I never thought of all this +till afterwards.--I knew one young fellow, a good many years ago, by the +name of Hiram-- + +--What's got into you, Cousin,--said our landlady,--to look so?--There! +you've upset your teacup! + +It suddenly occurred to me what I had been doing, and I saw the poor +woman had her hand at her throat; she was half-choking with the +"hysteric ball,"--a very odd symptom, as you know, which nervous women +often complain of. What business had I to be trying experiments on this +forlorn old soul? I had a great deal better be watching that young girl. + +Ah, the young girl! I am sure that she can hide nothing from me. Her +skin is so transparent that one can almost count her heart-beats by the +flushes they send into her cheeks. She does not seem to be shy, either. +I think she does not know enough of danger to be timid. She seems to +me like one of those birds that travellers tell of, found in remote, +uninhabited islands, who, having never received any wrong at the hand +of man, show no alarm at and hardly any particular consciousness of his +presence. + +The first thing will be to see how she and our little deformed gentleman +get along together; for, as I have told you, they sit side by side. The +next thing will be to keep an eye on the duenna,--the "Model" and +so forth, as the white-neckcloth called her. The intention of that +estimable lady is, I understand, to launch her and leave her. I suppose +there is no help for it, and I don't doubt this young lady knows how to +take care of herself, but I do not like to see young girls turned loose +in boarding-houses. Look here now! There is that jewel of his race, whom +I have called for convenience the Koh-i-noor, (you understand it +is quite out of the question for me to use the family names of our +boarders, unless I want to get into trouble,)--I say, the gentleman with +the _diamond_ is looking very often and very intently, it seems to me, +down toward the farther corner of the table, where sits our amber-eyed +blonde. The landlady's daughter does not look pleased, it seems to me, +at this, nor at those other attentions which the gentleman referred to +has, as I have learned, pressed upon the newly-arrived young person. The +landlady made a communication to me, within a few days after the arrival +of Miss Iris, which I will repeat to the best of my remembrance. + +He, (the person I have been speaking of,)--she said,--seemed to +be kinder hankerin' round after that young woman. It had hurt her +daughter's feelin's a good deal, that the gentleman she was a-keepin' +company with should be offerin' tickets and tryin' to send presents to +them that he'd never know'd till just a little spell ago,--and he as +good as merried, so far as solemn promises went, to as respectable a +young lady, if she did say so, as any there was round, whosomever they +might be. + +Tickets! presents!--said I.--What tickets, what presents has he had the +impertinence to be offering to that young lady? + +Tickets to the Museum,--said the landlady.--There is them that's glad +enough to go to the Museum, when tickets is given 'em; but some of 'em +ha'n't had a ticket sence Cenderilla was played,--and now he must be +offerin' 'em to this ridiculous young paintress, or whatever she is, +that's come to make more mischief than her board's worth. But it a'n't +her fault,--said the landlady, relenting;--and that aunt of hers, or +whatever she is, served him right enough. + +Why, what did she do? + +Do? Why, she took it up in the tongs and dropped it out o' window. + +Dropped? dropped what?--I said. + +Why, the _soap_,--said the landlady. + +It appeared that the Koh-i-noor, to ingratiate himself, had sent an +elegant package of perfumed soap, directed to Miss Iris, as a delicate +expression of a lively sentiment of admiration, and that, after having +met with the unfortunate treatment referred to, it was picked up by +Master Benjamin Franklin, who appropriated it, rejoicing, and indulged +in most unheard-of and inordinate ablutions in consequence, so that his +hands were a frequent subject of maternal congratulation, and he smelt +like a civet-cat for weeks after his great acquisition. + +After watching daily for a time, I think I can see clearly into the +relation which is growing up between the little gentleman and the young +lady. She shows a tenderness to him that I can't help being interested +in. If he was her crippled child, instead of being more than old enough +to be her father, she could not treat him more kindly. The landlady's +daughter said, the other day, she believed that girl was settin' her cap +for Little Boston. + +Some of them young folks is very artful,--said her mother,--and there is +them that would merry Lazarus, if he'd only picked up crumbs enough. +I don't think, though, this is one of that sort; she's kinder +child-like,--said the landlady,--and maybe never had any dolls to play +with; for they say her folks was poor before Ma'am undertook to see to +her teachin' and board her and clothe her. + +I could not help overhearing this conversation. "Board her and clothe +her!"--speaking of such a young creature! Oh, dear!--Yes,--she must +be fed,--just like Bridget, maid-of-all-work at this establishment. +Somebody must pay for it. Somebody has a right to watch her and see how +much it takes to "keep" her, and growl at her, if she has too good an +appetite. Somebody has a right to keep an eye on her and take care that +she does not dress too prettily. No mother to see her own youth over +again in those fresh features and rising reliefs of half-sculptured +womanhood, and, seeing its loveliness, forget her lessons of +neutral-tinted propriety, and open the cases that hold her own ornaments +to find her a necklace or a bracelet or a pair of earrings,--those +golden lamps that light up the deep, shadowy dimples on the cheeks of +young beauties,--swinging in a semi-barbaric splendor that carries the +wild fancy to Abyssinian queens and musky Odalisques! I don't believe +any woman has utterly given up the great firm of Mundus & Co., so long +as she wears earrings. + +I think Iris loves to hear the little gentleman talk. She smiles +sometimes at his vehement statements, but never laughs at him. When he +speaks to her, she keeps her eye always steadily upon him. This may be +only natural good-breeding, so to speak, but it is worth noticing. +I have often observed that vulgar persons, and public audiences of +inferior collective intelligence, have this in common: the least thing +draws off their minds, when you are speaking to them. I love this +young creature's rapt attention to her diminutive neighbor while he is +speaking. + +He is evidently pleased with it. For a day or two after she came, he was +silent and seemed nervous and excited. Now he is fond of getting the +talk into his own hands, and is obviously conscious that he has at least +one interested listener. Once or twice I have seen marks of special +attention to personal adornment,--a ruffled shirt-bosom, one day, and a +diamond pin in it,--not so _very_ large as the Koh-i-noor's, but more +lustrous. I mentioned the death's-head ring he wears on his right hand. +I was attracted by a very handsome red stone, a ruby or carbuncle or +something of the sort, to notice his left hand, the other day. It is a +handsome hand, and confirms my suspicion that the cast mentioned was +taken from his arm. After all, this is just what I should expect. It is +not very uncommon to see the upper limbs, or one of them, running away +with the whole strength, and, therefore, with the whole beauty, which we +should never have noticed, if it had been divided equally between all +four extremities. If it is so, of course he is proud of his one strong +and beautiful arm; that is human nature. But he does not make himself +ridiculous, at any rate, as people who have any one showy point are apt +to do,--especially dentists with handsome teeth, who always smile back +to their last molars. + +Sitting, as he does, next to the young girl, and next but one to the +calm lady who has her in charge, he cannot help seeing their relations +to each other. + +That is an admirable woman, Sir,--he said to me one day, as we sat alone +at the table after breakfast,--an admirable woman, Sir,--and I hate her. + +Of course, I begged an explanation. + +An admirable woman, Sir, because she does good things, and even kind +things,--takes care of this--this--young lady--we have here, talks like +a sensible person, and always looks as if she was doing her duty with +all her might. I hate her because her voice sounds as if it never +trembled, and her eyes look as if she never knew what it was to cry. +Besides, she looks at me, Sir, stares at me, as if she wanted to get +an image of me for some gallery in her brain,--and we don't love to be +looked at in this way, we that have--I hate her,--I hate her,--her eyes +kill me,--it is like being stabbed with icicles to be looked at so,--the +sooner she goes home, the better. I don't want a woman to weigh me in +a balance; there are men enough for that sort of work. The judicial +character isn't captivating in females, Sir. A woman fascinates a man +quite as often by what she overlooks as by what she sees. Love prefers +twilight to daylight; and a man doesn't think much of, nor care much +for, a woman outside of his household, unless he can couple the idea +of love, past, present, or future, with her. I don't believe the Devil +cares half so much for the services of a sinner as he does for those of +one of these folks that are always doing virtuous acts in a way to make +them unpleasing.--That young girl wants a tender nature to cherish her +and give her a chance to put out her leaves,--sunshine, and not east +winds. + +He was silent,--and sat looking at his handsome left hand with the red +stone ring upon it.--Is he going to fall in love with Iris? + +Here are some lines I read to the boarders the other day:-- + + THE CROOKED FOOTPATH. + + Ah, here it is! the sliding rail + That marks the old remembered spot,-- + The gap that struck our schoolboy trail,-- + The crooked path across the lot. + + It left the road by school and church, + A pencilled shadow, nothing more, + That parted from the silver birch + And ended at the farmhouse door. + + No line or compass traced its plan; + With frequent bends to left or right, + In aimless, wayward curves it ran, + But always kept the door in sight. + + The gabled porch, with woodbine green,-- + The broken millstone at the sill,-- + Though many a rood might stretch between, + The truant child could see them still. + + No rocks across the pathway lie,-- + No fallen trunk is o'er it thrown,-- + And yet it winds, we know not why, + And turns as if for tree or stone. + + Perhaps some lover trod the way + With shaking knees and leaping heart,-- + And so it often runs astray + With sinuous sweep or sudden start. + + Or one, perchance, with clouded brain + From some unholy banquet reeled,-- + And since, our devious steps maintain + His track across the trodden field. + + Nay, deem not thus,--no earth-born will + Could ever trace a faultless line; + Our truest steps are human still,-- + To walk unswerving were divine! + + Truants from love, we dream of wrath;-- + Oh, rather let us trust the more! + Through all the wanderings of the path, + We still can see our Father's door! + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE TEST OF THEOLOGY. + + +The Doctor went immediately to his study and put on his best coat and +his wig, and, surmounting them by his cocked hat, walked manfully out of +the house, with his gold-headed cane in his hand. + +"There he goes!" said Mrs. Scudder, looking regretfully after him. "He +is such a good man! but he has not the least idea how to get along in +the world. He never thinks of anything but what is true; he hasn't a +particle of management about him." + +"Seems to me," said Mary, "that is like an Apostle. You know, mother, +St. Paul says, 'In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly +wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the +world.'" + +"To be sure,--that is just the Doctor," said Mrs. Scudder; "that's +as like him as if it had been written for him. But that kind of way, +somehow, don't seem to do in our times; it won't answer with Simeon +Brown,----I know the man. I know just as well, now, how it will all seem +to him, and what will be the upshot of this talk, if the Doctor goes +there! It won't do any good; if it would, I would be willing. I feel as +much desire to have this horrid trade in slaves stopped as anybody; your +father, I'm sure, said enough about it in his time; but then I know it's +no use trying. Just as if Simeon Brown, when he is making his hundreds +of thousands in it, is going to be persuaded to give it up! He won't, +--he'll only turn against the Doctor, and won't pay his part of the +salary, and will use his influence to get up a party against him, and +our church will be broken up and the Doctor driven away,--that's all +that will come of it; and all the good that he is doing now to these +poor negroes will be overthrown,--and they never did have so good a +friend. If he would stay here and work gradually, and get his System of +Theology printed,--and Simeon Brown would help at that,--and only drop +words in season here and there, till people are brought along with him, +why, by-and-by something might be done; but now, it's just the most +imprudent thing a man could undertake." + +"But, mother, if it really is a sin to trade in slaves and hold them, I +don't see how he can help himself. I quite agree with him. I don't see +how he came to let it go so long as he has." + +"Well," said Mrs. Scudder, "if worst comes to worst, and he will do it, +I, for one, shall stand by him to the last." + +"And I, for another," said Mary. + +"I would like him to talk with Cousin Zebedee about it," said Mrs. +Scudder. "When we are up there this afternoon, we will introduce the +conversation. He is a good, sound man, and the Doctor thinks much of +him, and perhaps he may shed some light upon this matter." + +Meanwhile the Doctor was making the best of his way, in the strength of +his purpose to test the orthodoxy of Simeon Brown. + +Honest old granite boulder that he was, no sooner did he perceive a +truth than he rolled after it with all the massive gravitation of his +being, inconsiderate as to what might lie in his way;--from which it is +to be inferred, that, with all his intellect and goodness, he would have +been a very clumsy and troublesome inmate of the modern American Church. +How many societies, boards, colleges, and other good institutions, +have reason to congratulate themselves that he has long been among the +saints! + +With him logic was everything, and to perceive a truth and not act in +logical sequence from it a thing so incredible, that he had not yet +enlarged his capacity to take it in as a possibility. That a man should +refuse to hear truth, he could understand. In fact, he had good reason +to think the majority of his townsmen had no leisure to give to that +purpose. That men hearing truth should dispute it and argue stoutly +against it, he could also understand; but that a man could admit a truth +and not admit the plain practice resulting from it was to him a thing +incomprehensible. Therefore, spite of Mrs. Katy Scudder's discouraging +observations, our good Doctor walked stoutly and with a trusting heart. + +At the moment when the Doctor, with a silent uplifting of his soul to +his invisible Sovereign, passed out of his study, on this errand, where +was the disciple whom he went to seek? + +In a small, dirty room, down by the wharf, the windows veiled by cobwebs +and dingy with the accumulated dust of ages, he sat in a greasy, +leathern chair by a rickety office-table, on which was a great pewter +inkstand, an account-book, and divers papers tied with red tape. + +Opposite to him was seated a square-built individual,--a man of about +forty, whose round head, shaggy eyebrows, small, keen eyes, broad chest, +and heavy muscles showed a preponderance of the animal and brutal over +the intellectual and spiritual. This was Mr. Scroggs, the agent of a +rice-plantation, who had come on, bringing an order for a new relay of +negroes to supply the deficit occasioned by fever, dysentery, and other +causes, in their last year's stock. + +"The fact is," said Simeon, "this last ship-load wasn't as good a one as +usual; we lost more than a third of it, so we can't afford to put them a +penny lower." + +"Ay," said the other,--"but then there are so many women!" + +"Well," said Simeon, "women a'n't so strong, perhaps, to start +with,--but then they stan' it out, perhaps, in the long run, better. +They're more patient;--some of these men, the Mandingoes, particularly, +are pretty troublesome to manage. We lost a splendid fellow, coming +over, on this very voyage. Let 'em on deck for air, and this fellow +managed to get himself loose and fought like a dragon. He settled one +of our men with his fist, and another with a marlinespike that he +caught,--and, in fact, they had to shoot him down. You'll have his wife; +there's his son, too,--fine fellow, fifteen year old by his teeth." + +"What! that lame one?" + +"Oh, he a'n't lame!--it's nothing but the cramps from stowing. You know, +of course, they are more or less stiff. He's as sound as a nut." + +"Don't much like to buy relations, on account of their hatching up +mischief together," said Mr. Scroggs. + +"Oh, that's all humbug! You must keep 'em from coming together, anyway. +It's about as broad as 'tis long. There'll be wives and husbands and +children among 'em before long, start 'em as you will. And then this +woman will work better for having the boy; she's kinder set on him; she +jabbers lots of lingo to him, day and night." + +"Too much, I doubt," said the overseer, with a shrug. + +"Well, well--I'll tell you," said Simeon, rising. "I've got a few +errands up-town, and you just step over with Matlock and look over +the stock;--just set aside any that you want, and when I see 'em all +together, I'll tell you just what you shall have 'em for. I'll be back +in an hour or two." + +And so saying, Simeon Brown called an underling from an adjoining room, +and, committing his customer to his care, took his way up-town, in a +serene frame of mind, like a man who comes from the calm performance of +duty. + +Just as he came upon the street where was situated his own large and +somewhat pretentious mansion, the tall figure of the Doctor loomed in +sight, sailing majestically down upon him, making a signal to attract +his attention. + +"Good morning, Doctor," said Simeon. + +"Good morning, Mr. Brown," said the Doctor. "I was looking for you. I +did not quite finish the subject we were talking about at Mrs. Scudder's +table last night. I thought I should like to go on with it a little." + +"With all my heart, Doctor," said Simeon, not a little flattered. "Turn +right in. Mrs. Brown will be about her house-business, and we will have +the keeping-room all to ourselves. Come right in." + +The "keeping-room" of Mr. Simeon Brown's house was an intermediate +apartment between the ineffable glories of the front-parlor and that +court of the gentiles, the kitchen; for the presence of a large train +of negro servants made the latter apartment an altogether different +institution from the throne-room of Mrs. Katy Scudder. + +This keeping-room was a low-studded apartment, finished with the heavy +oaken beams of the wall left full in sight, boarded over and painted. +Two windows looked out on the street, and another into a sort of +court-yard, where three black wenches, each with a broom, pretended to +be sweeping, but were, in fact, chattering and laughing, like so many +crows. + +On one side of the room stood a heavy mahogany sideboard, covered with +decanters, labelled Gin, Brandy, Rum, etc.,--for Simeon was held to be +a provider of none but the best, in his housekeeping. Heavy mahogany +chairs, with crewel coverings, stood sentry about the room; and the +fireplace was flanked by two broad arm-chairs, covered with stamped +leather. + +On ushering the Doctor into this apartment, Simeon courteously led him +to the sideboard. + +"We mus'n't make our discussions too _dry_, Doctor," he said. "What will +you take?" + +"Thank you, Sir," said the Doctor, with a wave of his hand,--"nothing +this morning." + +And depositing his cocked hat in a chair, he settled himself into one of +the leathern easy-chairs, and, dropping his hands upon his knees, looked +fixedly before him, like a man who is studying how to enter upon an +inwardly absorbing subject. + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, seating himself opposite, sipping +comfortably at a glass of rum-and-water, "our views appear to be making +a noise in the world. Everything is preparing for your volumes; and +when they appear, the battle of New Divinity, I think, may fairly be +considered as won." + +Let us consider, that, though a woman may forget her first-born, yet a +man cannot forget his own system of theology,--because therein, if he be +a true man, is the very elixir and essence of all that is valuable and +hopeful to the universe; and considering this, let us appreciate the +settled purpose of our friend, whom even this tempting bait did not +swerve from the end which he had in view. + +"Mr. Brown," he said, "all our theology is as a drop in the ocean of +God's majesty, to whose glory we must be ready to make any and every +sacrifice." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Brown, not exactly comprehending the turn the +Doctor's thoughts were taking. + +"And the glory of God consisteth in the happiness of all his rational +universe, each in his proportion, according to his separate amount of +being; so that, when we devote ourselves to God's glory, it is the same +as saying that we devote ourselves to the highest happiness of his +created universe." + +"That's clear, Sir," said Simeon, rubbing his hands, and taking out his +watch to see the time. + +The Doctor hitherto had spoken in a laborious manner, like a man who is +slowly lifting a heavy bucket of thought out of an internal well. + +"I am glad to find your mind so clear on this all-important point, Mr. +Brown,--the more so as I feel that we must immediately proceed to apply +our principles, at whatever sacrifice of worldly goods; and I trust, +Sir, that you are one who at the call of your Master would not hesitate +even to lay down all your worldly possessions for the greater good of +the universe." + +"I trust so, Sir," said Simeon, rather uneasily, and without the most +distant idea what could be coming next in the mind of his reverend +friend. + +"Did it never occur to you, my friend," said the Doctor, "that the +enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law +which commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves,--and a dishonor +upon the Christian religion, more particularly in us Americans, whom the +Lord hath so marvellously protected, in our recent struggle for our own +liberty?" + +Simeon started at the first words of this address, much as if some one +had dashed a bucket of water on his head, and after that rose uneasily, +walking the room and playing with the seals of his watch. + +"I--I never regarded it in this light," he said. + +"Possibly not, my friend," said the Doctor,--"so much doth established +custom blind the minds of the best of men. But since I have given more +particular attention to the case of the poor negroes here in Newport, +the thought has more and more labored in my mind,--more especially as +our own struggles for liberty have turned my attention to the rights +which every human creature hath before God,--so that I find much in +my former blindness and the comparative dumbness I have heretofore +maintained on this subject wherewith to reproach myself; for, though I +have borne somewhat of a testimony, I have not given it that force which +so important a subject required. I am humbled before God for my neglect, +and resolved now, by His grace, to leave no stone unturned till this +iniquity be purged away from our Zion." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, "you are certainly touching on a very dark +and difficult subject, and one in which it is hard to find out the path +of duty. Perhaps it will be well to bear it in mind, and by looking at +it prayerfully some light may arise. There are such great obstacles in +the way, that I do not see at present what can be done; do you, Doctor?" + +"I intend to preach on the subject next Sunday, and hereafter devote +my best energies in the most public way to this great work," said the +Doctor. + +"You, Doctor?--and now, immediately? Why, it appears to me you cannot +do it. You are the most unfit man possible. Whosever duty it may be, it +does not seem to me to be yours. You already have more on your shoulders +than you can carry; you are hardly able to keep your ground now, with +all the odium of this new theology upon you. Such an effort would break +up your church,--destroy the chance you have to do good here,--prevent +the publication of your system." + +"If it's nobody's system but mine, the world won't lose much, if it +never be published; but if it be God's system, nothing can hinder its +appearing. Besides, Mr. Brown, I ought not to be one man alone. I count +on your help. I hold it as a special providence, Mr. Brown, that in our +own church an opportunity will be given to testify to the reality of +disinterested benevolence. How glorious the opportunity for a man to +come out and testify by sacrificing his worldly living and business! If +you, Mr. Brown, will at once, at whatever sacrifice, quit all connection +with this detestable and diabolical slave-trade, you will exhibit a +spectacle over which angels will rejoice, and which will strengthen and +encourage me to preach and write and testify." + +Mr. Simeon Brown's usual demeanor was that of the most leathery +imperturbability. In calm theological reasoning, he could demonstrate, +in the dryest tone, that, if the eternal torment of six bodies and +souls were absolutely the necessary means for preserving the eternal +blessedness of thirty-six, benevolence would require us to rejoice in +it, not in itself considered, but in view of greater good. And when he +spoke, not a nerve quivered; the great mysterious sorrow with which the +creation groaneth and travaileth, the sorrow from which angels veil +their faces, never had touched one vibrating chord either of body +or soul; and he laid down the obligations of man to unconditional +submission in a style which would have affected a person of delicate +sensibility much like being mentally sawn in sunder. Benevolence, +when Simeon Brown spoke of it, seemed the grimmest and unloveliest of +Gorgons; for his mind seemed to resemble those fountains which petrify +everything that falls into them. But the hardest-shelled animals have a +vital and sensitive part, though only so large as the point of a needle; +and the Doctor's innocent proposition to Simeon, to abandon his whole +worldly estate for his principles, touched this spot. + +When benevolence required but the acquiescence in certain possible +things which might be supposed to happen to his soul, which, after all, +he was comfortably certain never would happen, or the acquiescence in +certain supposititious sacrifices for the good of that most intangible +of all abstractions, Being in general, it was a dry, calm subject. But +when it concerned the immediate giving-up of his slave-ships and a +transfer of business, attended with all that confusion and loss which he +foresaw at a glance, then he _felt_, and felt too much to see clearly. +His swarthy face flushed, his little blue eye kindled, he walked up to +the Doctor and began speaking in the short, energetic sentences of a man +thoroughly awake to what he is talking about. + +"Doctor, you're too fast. You are not a practical man, Doctor. You are +good in your pulpit;--nobody better. Your theology is clear;--nobody can +argue better. But come to practical matters, why, business has its laws, +Doctor. Ministers are the most unfit men in the world to talk on such +subjects; it's departing from their sphere; they talk about what they +don't understand. Besides, you take too much for granted. I'm not sure +that this trade is an evil. I want to be convinced of it. I'm sure it's +a favor to these poor creatures to bring them to a Christian land. They +are a thousand times better off. Here they can hear the gospel and have +some chance of salvation." + +"If we want to get the gospel to the Africans," said the Doctor, +"why not send whole ship-loads of missionaries to them, and carry +civilization and the arts and Christianity to Africa, instead of +stirring up wars, tempting them to ravage each other's territories, that +we may get the booty? Think of the numbers killed in the wars,--of all +that die on the passage! Is there any need of killing ninety-nine men to +give the hundredth one the gospel, when we could give the gospel to them +all? Ah, Mr. Brown, what if all the money spent in fitting out ships to +bring the poor negroes here, so prejudiced against Christianity that +they regard it with fear and aversion, had been spent in sending it to +them, Africa would have been covered with towns and villages, rejoicing +in civilization and Christianity!" + +"Doctor, you are a dreamer," replied Simeon, "an unpractical man. Your +situation prevents your knowing anything of real life." + +"Amen! the Lord be praised therefor!" said the Doctor, with a slowly +increasing flush mounting to his cheek, showing the burning brand of a +smouldering fire of indignation. + +"Now let me just talk common-sense, Doctor,--which has its time and +place, just as much as theology;--and if you have the most theology, I +flatter myself I have the most common-sense; a business-man must have +it. Now just look at your situation,--how you stand. You've got a most +important work to do. In order to do it, you must keep your pulpit, you +must keep our church together. We are few and weak. We are a minority. +Now there's not an influential man in your society that don't either +hold slaves or engage in the trade; and if you open upon this subject as +you are going to do, you'll just divide and destroy the church. All men +are not like you;--men are men, and will be, till they are thoroughly +sanctified, which never happens in this life,--and there will be an +instant and most unfavorable agitation. Minds will be turned off from +the discussion of the great saving doctrines of the gospel to a side +issue. You will be turned out,--and you know, Doctor, you are not +appreciated as you ought to be, and it won't be easy for you to get a +new settlement; and then subscriptions will all drop off from your book, +and you won't be able to get that out; and all this good will be lost to +the world, just for want of common-sense." + +"There is a kind of wisdom in what you say, Mr. Brown," replied the +Doctor, naïvely; "but I fear much that it is the wisdom spoken in James, +iii. 15, which 'descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, +devilish.' You avoid the very point of the argument, which is, Is this a +sin against God? That it is, I am solemnly convinced; and shall I 'use +lightness? or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the +flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay?' No, Mr. +Brown, immediate repentance, unconditional submission, these are what I +must preach as long as God gives me a pulpit to stand in, whether men +will hear or whether they will forbear." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, shortly, "you can do as you like; but I +give you fair warning, that I, for one, shall stop my subscription, and +go to Dr. Stiles's church." + +"Mr. Brown," said the Doctor, solemnly, rising, and drawing his tall +figure to its full height, while a vivid light gleamed from his blue +eye, "as to that, you can do as you like; but I think it my duty, as +your pastor, to warn you that I have perceived, in my conversation +with you this morning, such a want of true spiritual illumination and +discernment as leads me to believe that you are yet in the flesh, +blinded by that 'carnal mind' which 'is not subject to the law of God, +neither indeed can be.' I much fear you have no part nor lot in this +matter, and that you have need, seriously, to set yourself to search +into the foundations of your hope; for you may be like him of whom it is +written, (Isaiah, xliv. 20,) 'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath +turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not +a lie in my right hand?'" + +The Doctor delivered this address to his man of influence with the +calmness of an ambassador charged with a message from a sovereign, +for which he is no otherwise responsible than to speak it in the most +intelligible manner; and then, taking up his hat and cane, he bade him +good morning, leaving Simeon Brown in a tumult of excitement which no +previous theological discussion had ever raised in him. + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PRACTICAL TEST. + + +The hens cackled drowsily in the barnyard of the white Marvyn-house; +in the blue June-afternoon sky sported great sailing islands of cloud, +whose white, glistening heads looked in and out through the green +apertures of maple and blossoming apple-boughs; the shadows of the trees +had already turned eastward, when the one-horse wagon of Mrs. Katy +Scudder appeared at the door, where Mrs. Marvyn stood, with a pleased, +quiet welcome in her soft, brown eyes. Mrs. Scudder herself drove, +sitting on a seat in front,--while the Doctor, apparelled in the +most faultless style, with white wrist-ruffles, plaited shirt-bosom, +immaculate wig, and well-brushed coat, sat by Mary's side, serenely +unconscious how many feminine cares had gone to his getting-up. He +did not know of the privy consultations, the sewings, stitchings, and +starchings, the ironings, the brushings, the foldings and unfoldings and +timely arrangements, that gave such dignity and respectability to his +outer man, any more than the serene moon rising tranquilly behind a +purple mountain-top troubles her calm head with treatises on astronomy; +it is enough for her to shine,--she thinks not how or why. + +There is a vast amount of latent gratitude to women lying undeveloped in +the hearts of men, which would come out plentifully, if they only knew +what they did for them. The Doctor was so used to being well dressed, +that he never asked why. That his wig always sat straight and even +around his ample forehead, not facetiously poked to one side, nor +assuming rakish airs, unsuited to clerical dignity, was entirely owing +to Mrs. Katy Scudder. That his best broadcloth coat was not illustrated +with shreds and patches, fluff and dust, and hanging in ungainly +folds, was owing to the same. That his long silk stockings never had a +treacherous stitch allowed to break out into a long running ladder was +due to her watchfulness; and that he wore spotless ruffles on his wrists +or at his bosom was her doing also. The Doctor little thought, while he, +in common with good ministers generally, gently traduced the Scriptural +Martha and insisted on the duty of heavenly abstractedness, how much of +his own leisure for spiritual contemplation was due to the Martha-like +talents of his hostess. But then, the good soul had it in him to be +grateful, and would have been unboundedly so, if he had known his +indebtedness,--as, we trust, most of our magnanimous masters would be. + +Mr. Zebedee Marvyn was quietly sitting in the front summer parlor, +listening to the story of two of his brother church-members, between +whom some difficulty had arisen in the settling of accounts: Jim +Bigelow, a small, dry, dapper little individual, known as general jobber +and factotum, and Abram Griswold, a stolid, wealthy, well-to-do farmer. +And the fragments of conversation we catch are not uninteresting, as +showing Mr. Zebedee's habits of thought and mode of treating those who +came to him for advice. + +"I could 'ave got along better, if he'd 'a' paid me regular every +night," said the squeaky voice of little Jim;--"but he was allers +puttin' me off till it come even change, he said." + +"Well, 'ta'n't always handy," replied the other; "one doesn't like to +break into a five-pound note for nothing; and I like to let it run till +it comes even change." + +"But, brother," said Mr. Zebedee, turning over the great Bible that lay +on the mahogany stand in the corner, "we must go to the law and to the +testimony,"--and, turning over the leaves, he read from Deuteronomy, +xxiv.:-- + +"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether +he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within +thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the +sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest +he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." + +"You see what the Bible has to say on the matter," he said. + +"Well, now, Deacon, I rather think you've got me in a tight place," said +Mr. Griswold, rising; and turning confusedly round, he saw the placid +figure of the Doctor, who had entered the room unobserved in the midst +of the conversation, and was staring with that look of calm, dreamy +abstraction which often led people to suppose that he heard and saw +nothing of what was going forward. + +All rose reverently; and while Mr. Zebedee was shaking hands with the +Doctor, and welcoming him to his house, the other two silently withdrew, +making respectful obeisance. + +Mrs. Marvyn had drawn Mary's hand gently under her arm and taken her to +her own sleeping-room, as it was her general habit to do, that she might +show her the last book she had been reading, and pour into her ear the +thoughts that had been kindled up by it. + +Mrs. Scudder, after carefully brushing every speck of dust from the +Doctor's coat and seeing him seated in an armchair by the open window, +took out a long stocking of blue-mixed yarn which she was knitting for +his winter wear, and, pinning her knitting-sheath on her side, was soon +trotting her needles contentedly in front of him. + +The ill-success of the Doctor's morning attempt at enforcing his +theology in practice rather depressed his spirits. There was a noble +innocence of nature in him which looked at hypocrisy with a puzzled and +incredulous astonishment. How a man _could_ do so and be so was to him +a problem at which his thoughts vainly labored. Not that he was in the +least discouraged or hesitating in regard to his own course. When he +had made up his mind to perform a duty, the question of success no more +entered his thoughts than those of the granite boulder to which we have +before compared him. When the time came for him to roll, he did roll +with the whole force of his being;--where he was to land was not his +concern. + +Mildly and placidly he sat with his hands resting on his knees, while +Mr. Zebedee and Mrs. Scudder compared notes respecting the relative +prospects of corn, flax, and buckwheat, and thence passed to the doings +of Congress and the last proclamation of General Washington, pausing +once in a while, if, peradventure, the Doctor might take up the +conversation. Still he sat dreamily eyeing the flies as they fizzed down +the panes of the half-open window. + +"I think," said Mr. Zebedee, "the prospects of the Federal party were +never brighter." + +The Doctor was a stanch Federalist, and generally warmed to this +allurement; but it did not serve this time. + +Suddenly drawing himself up, a light came into his blue eyes, and he +said to Mr. Marvyn,-- + +"I'm thinking, Deacon, if it is wrong to keep back the wages of a +servant till after the going down of the sun, what those are to do who +keep them back all their lives." + +There was a way the Doctor had of hearing and seeing when he looked +as if his soul were afar off, and bringing suddenly into present +conversation some fragment of the past on which he had been leisurely +hammering in the quiet chambers of his brain, which was sometimes quite +startling. + +This allusion to a passage of Scripture which Mr. Marvyn was reading +when he came in, and which nobody supposed he had attended to, startled +Mrs. Scudder, who thought, mentally, "Now for it!" and laid down her +knitting-work, and eyed her cousin anxiously. Mrs. Marvyn and Mary, who +had glided in and joined the circle, looked interested; and a slight +flush rose and overspread the thin cheeks of Mr. Marvyn, and his +blue eyes deepened a moment with a thoughtful shadow, as he looked +inquiringly at the Doctor, who proceeded:-- + +"My mind labors with this subject of the enslaving of the Africans, Mr. +Marvyn. We have just been declaring to the world that all men are born +with an inalienable right to liberty. We have fought for it, and the +Lord of Hosts has been with us; and can we stand before Him with our +foot upon our brother's neck?" + +A generous, upright nature is always more sensitive to blame than +another,--sensitive in proportion to the amount of its reverence +for good,--and Mr. Marvyn's face flushed, his eye kindled, and his +compressed respiration showed how deeply the subject moved him. Mrs. +Marvyn's eyes turned on him an anxious look of inquiry. He answered, +however, calmly:-- + +"Doctor, I have thought of the subject, myself. Mrs. Marvyn has lately +been reading a pamphlet of Mr. Thomas Clarkson's on the slave-trade, +and she was saying to me only last night, that she did not see but the +argument extended equally to holding slaves. One thing, I confess, +stumbles me:--Was there not an express permission given to Israel to buy +and hold slaves of old?" + +"Doubtless," said the Doctor; "but many permissions were given to them +which were local and temporary; for if we hold them to apply to the +human race, the Turks might quote the Bible for making slaves of us, +if they could,--and the Algerines have the Scripture all on their +side,--and our own blacks, at some future time, if they can get the +power, might justify themselves in making slaves of us." + +"I assure you, Sir," said Mr. Marvyn, "if I speak, it is not to excuse +myself. But I am quite sure my servants do not desire liberty, and would +not take it, if it were offered." + +"Call them in and try it," said the Doctor. "If they refuse, it is their +own matter." + +There was a gentle movement in the group at the directness of this +personal application; but Mr. Marvyn replied, calmly,-- + +"Cato is up at the eight-acre lot, but you may call in Candace. My dear, +call Candace, and let the Doctor put the question to her." + +Candace was at this moment sitting before the ample fireplace in the +kitchen, with two iron kettles before her, nestled each in its bed of +hickory coals, which gleamed out from their white ashes like sleepy, red +eyes, opening and shutting. In one was coffee, which she was burning, +stirring vigorously with a pudding-stick,--and in the other, puffy +dough-nuts, in shapes of rings, hearts, and marvellous twists, which +Candace had such a special proclivity for making, that Mrs. Marvyn's +table and closets never knew an intermission of their presence. + +"Candace, the Doctor wishes to see you," said Mrs. Marvyn. + +"Bress his heart!" said Candace, looking up, perplexed. "Wants to see +me, does he? Can't nobody hab me till dis yer coffee's done; a minnit's +a minnit in coffee;--but I'll be in dereckly," she added, in a +patronizing tone. "Missis, you jes' go 'long in, an' I'll be dar +dereckly." + +A few moments after, Candace joined the group in the sitting-room, +having hastily tied a clean, white apron over her blue linsey +working-dress, and donned the brilliant Madras which James had lately +given her, and which she had a barbaric fashion of arranging so as to +give to her head the air of a gigantic butterfly. She sunk a dutiful +curtsy, and stood twirling her thumbs, while the Doctor surveyed her +gravely. + +"Candace," said he, "do you think it right that the black race should be +slaves to the white?" + +The face and air of Candace presented a curious picture at this moment; +a sort of rude sense of delicacy embarrassed her, and she turned a +deprecating look, first on Mrs. Marvyn and then on her master. + +"Don't mind us, Candace," said Mrs. Marvyn; "tell the Doctor the exact +truth." + +Candace stood still a moment, and the spectators saw a deeper shadow +roll over her sable face, like a cloud over a dark pool of water, and +her immense person heaved with her labored breathing. + +"Ef I must speak, I must," she said. "No,--I neber did tink 'twas right. +When Gineral Washington was here, I hearn 'em read de Declaration ob +Independence and Bill o' Rights; an' I tole Cato den, says I, 'Ef dat +ar' true, you an' I are as free as anybody.' It stands to reason. Why, +look at me,--I a'n't a critter. I's neider huffs nor horns. I's a +reasonable bein',--a woman,--as much a woman as anybody," she said, +holding up her head with an air as majestic as a palm-tree;--"an' +Cato,--he's a man, born free an' equal, ef dar's any truth in what you +read,--dat's all." + +"But, Candace, you've always been contented and happy with us, have you +not?" said Mr. Marvyn. + +"Yes, Mass'r,--I ha'n't got nuffin to complain ob in dat matter. I +couldn't hab no better friends 'n you an' Missis." + +"Would you like your liberty, if you could get it, though?" said Mr. +Marvyn, "Answer me honestly." + +"Why, to be sure I should! Who wouldn't? Mind ye," she said, earnestly +raising her black, heavy hand, "'ta'n't dat I want to go off, or want to +shirk work; but I want to _feel free_. Dem dat isn't free has nuffin to +gib to nobody;--dey can't show what dey would do." + +"Well, Candace, from this day you are free," said Mr. Marvyn, solemnly. + +Candace covered her face with both her fat hands, and shook and +trembled, and, finally, throwing her apron over her head, made a +desperate rush for the door, and threw herself down in the kitchen in a +perfect tropical torrent of tears and sobs. + +"You see," said the Doctor, "what freedom is to every human creature. +The blessing of the Lord will be on this deed, Mr. Marvyn. 'The steps of +a just man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.'" + +At this moment, Candace reappeared at the door, her butterfly turban +somewhat deranged with the violence of her prostration, giving a +whimsical air to her portly person. + +"I want ye all to know," she said, with a clearing-up snuff, "dat it's +my will an' pleasure to go right on doin' my work jes' de same; an', +Missis, please, I'll allers put three eggs in de crullers, now; an' I +won't turn de wash-basin down in de sink, but hang it jam-up on de +nail; an' I won't pick up chips in a milkpan, ef I'm in ever so big a +hurry;--I'll do eberyting jes' as ye tells me. Now you try me an' see ef +I won't!" + +Candace here alluded to some of the little private wilfulnesses which +she had always obstinately cherished as reserved rights, in pursuing +domestic matters with her mistress. + +"I intend," said Mr. Marvyn, "to make the same offer to your husband, +when he returns from work to-night." + +"Laus, Mass'r,--why, Cato he'll do jes' as I do,--dere a'n't no kind o' +need o' askin' him. 'Course he will." + +A smile passed round the circle, because between Candace and her husband +there existed one of those whimsical contrasts which one sometimes sees +in married life. Cato was a small-built, thin, softly-spoken negro, +addicted to a gentle chronic cough; and, though a faithful and skilful +servant, seemed, in relation to his better half, much like a hill of +potatoes under a spreading apple-tree. Candace held to him with a +vehement and patronizing fondness, so devoid of conjugal reverence as to +excite the comments of her friends. + +"You must remember, Candace," said a good deacon to her one day, when +she was ordering him about at a catechizing, "you ought to give honor to +your husband; the wife is the weaker vessel." + +"_I_ de weaker vessel?" said Candace, looking down from the tower of her +ample corpulence on the small, quiet man whom she had been fledging with +the ample folds of a worsted comforter, out of which his little head +and shining bead-eyes looked, much like a blackbird in a nest,--"_I_ de +weaker vessel? Umph!" + +A whole-woman's-rights' convention could not have expressed more in a +day than was given in that single look and word. Candace considered +a husband as a thing to be taken care of,--a rather inconsequent and +somewhat troublesome species of pet, to be humored, nursed, fed, +clothed, and guided in the way that he was to go,--an animal that was +always losing off buttons, catching colds, wearing his best coat every +day, and getting on his Sunday hat in a surreptitious manner for +week-day occasions; but she often condescended to express it as her +opinion that he was a blessing, and that she didn't know what she should +do, if it wasn't for Cato. In fact, he seemed to supply her that which +we are told is the great want in woman's situation,--an object in +life. She sometimes was heard expressing herself very energetically in +disapprobation of the conduct of one of her sable friends, named Jinny +Stiles, who, after being presented with her own freedom, worked several +years to buy that of her husband, but became afterwards so disgusted +with her acquisition that she declared she would "neber buy anoder +nigger." + +"Now Jinny don't know what she's talkin' about," she would say. "S'pose +he does cough and keep her awake nights, and take a little too much +sometimes, a'n't he better'n no husband at all? A body wouldn't seem to +hab nuffin to lib for, ef dey hadn't an ole man to look arter. Men +is nate'lly foolish about some tings,--but dey's good deal better'n +nuffin." + +And Candace, after this condescending remark, would lift off with one +hand a brass kettle in which poor Cato might have been drowned, and fly +across the kitchen with it as if it were a feather. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Works of Francis Bacon_, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vols. +I.-VI. London: Longman & Co. 1858. + +"For my name and memory," said Bacon in his will, "I leave it to men's +charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next ages." +Scarcely was he dead when the first portion of this legacy received some +part of its fulfilment in the touching and often quoted words of Ben +Jonson:--"My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his +place or honors; but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that +was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, +one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been +in many ages. In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him +strength; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in +a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to +virtue, but rather help to make it manifest." But it may fairly be +doubted whether "the next ages" have done fitly by his memory, spite of +the honor that has been indiscriminately lavished upon his name as a +philosopher, and the mass of praise, for the most part ignorant, beneath +which his works have been buried. The world of readers has been content +to take Bacon's greatness upon trust, or to form such imperfect idea of +it as was to be got from acquaintance with his "Essays," the only one +of his works which has ever attained popularity. Even more thorough +students have, for the most part, satisfied themselves with a general +view of Bacon's philosophy, dwelling on disconnected passages of ample +thought or aphoristic wisdom, and rarely attempting to gain an insight +into the real character of his system. Indeed, "the system of Lord +Bacon" became a sort of cabalistic phrase. It meant anything and +everything. It was like the English Constitution, venerable in authority +and prescription, interpreted in contradictory methods, and never +precisely defined. Few men undertook to study it with a zeal like that +of Homer and his friend Lord Webb Seymour, when, in days of enthusiasm, +they read and re-read the "De Augmentis" and the "Novum Organum," and +Homer planned to do what Dr. Whewell seems to suppose he has done, bring +Bacon up to the present time, by writing a work upon the basis of his, +which should furnish a complete review of modern knowledge. Still, it +has been part of an English birthright to hold Bacon as the restorer of +the sciences, the inventor or at least the re-inventor of the inductive +method, and the father of all discovery since his time. These notions +have been held firmly, while more special ones concerning his system and +himself have been, for the most part, vague or unformed. + +In great part, this fact is the result of the condition in which Lord +Bacon left his works, the manner of their composition, and their +intrinsic defects. He did not publish them in any systematic order, +but printed one after another, as it was written, or as extraneous +circumstances might induce. Nor did he leave his system complete in any +one treatise. His mind discursive, his imagination easily fired, he +seized subject after subject and discussed each in a separate treatise, +all with more or less reference to a general plan, but not embodied in +any consecutive and harmonious development. The growth of his ideas, the +changes of his views, as his life advanced, are manifest in the want of +connection, as well as in the connection, of these various fragments. +Dr. Rawley, his chaplain, says,--and it is a marvellous illustration of +Bacon's diligence and desire for perfection,--"I myself have seen, at +the least, twelve copies of the 'Instauration,' revised year by year, +one after another, and every year altered and amended in the frame +thereof." + +Such, then, being the state of Bacon's works at his death, much was left +to the judgment of his editors, and, unfortunately, the labor of editing +his books has, up to the present time, fallen into hands wanting in +competence and discretion. It has consequently been a task of special +difficulty to get from the ill-arranged mass of Bacon's writings a +satisfactory view of the essential elements of his philosophy and a just +knowledge of his final opinions. + +But the reproach of non-fulfilment of the trust committed to them will +rest upon "the next ages" no longer; for the edition which is now in +course of publication amply redeems the faults of those that have +preceded it, and is such a one as Bacon himself might have approved. In +the second book of the "Advancement of Learning," in recounting "the +works or acts of merit toward learning," he includes among them "new +editions of authors, with more correct impressions, more faithful +translations, more profitable glosses, more diligent annotations, and +the like." In each of these respects the edition before us deserves the +highest praise. The editors have engaged in their task as in a labor of +love. It is the result of many years of study, and it exhibits the fruit +of unwearied care, great learning, and excellent judgment. So far as +it has advanced, it does the highest honor to English scholarship, and +takes its place as one of the most remarkable editions in existence of +any author whose works stand in need of editorial care. The plan upon +which it is arranged is as follows. Bacon's works are divided into three +broad classes:--first, the Philosophical; secondly, the Professional; +thirdly, the Literary and Occasional. Each of these classes was +undertaken by a separate editor. Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis engaged upon +the Philosophical Works, and had advanced far in his task when he was +suddenly compelled to relinquish it some years since by illness which +completely disabled him for labor. What he had already accomplished is +so well done as to excite sincere regret that he was unable to carry his +work forward. But this regret is diminished by the ability with which +Mr. James Spedding, who had taken charge of the Literary and Occasional +Works, has supplied Mr. Ellis's place in the completion of the editing +of the Philosophical. The burden of the edition has fallen upon his +shoulders, and the chief credit for its excellence is due to him. Up to +the present time, the publication of the Philosophical Works is complete +in five volumes, and the first volume of the Literary Works has just +appeared. The separate treatises contained in the completed portion are +distributed into three parts,--"whereby," says Mr. Spedding, "all those +writings which were either published or intended for publication by +Bacon himself as parts of the Great Instauration are (for the first +time, I believe) exhibited separately, and distinguished as well from +the independent and collateral pieces which did not form part of the +main scheme, as from those which, though originally designed for it, +were afterwards superseded and abandoned." Each piece is accompanied +with a preface, both critical and historical, and with notes. It is +in these prefaces that a great part of the value of the new edition +consists; for they are in themselves treatises of elucidation and +illustration of Bacon's opinions, and of investigation concerning the +changes they underwent from time to time. They are written with great +clearness and ability, and, taken together, present such a view of +Bacon's philosophy as is to be found nowhere else, and amply answers the +requirements of students, however exacting. + +Far too much credit has been attributed to Bacon, in popular estimation, +as the author of a system upon which the modern progress of science is +based.[A] Whatever his system may have been, it is certain that it has +had little direct influence upon the advance of knowledge. But, perhaps, +too little credit has been given to Bacon as a man whose breadth and +power of thought and amplitude of soul enabled a spirit that has at once +stimulated its progress and elevated its disciples. That Bacon believed +himself to have invented a system wholly new admits of no doubt; but it +is doubtful whether he ever definitely arranged this system in his own +mind. And it is a curious and interesting fact, and one illustrative, at +least, of the imperfection of Bacon's exposition of his own method, that +Mr. Ellis and Mr. Spedding, the two most conscientious investigators of +Bacon's thought, should have arrived at different conclusions in regard +to the distinctive peculiarities of the Baconian philosophy. Mr. +Spedding, in his very interesting preface to the "Parasceve," suggests, +since his own and Mr. Ellis's conclusions, though different, do not +appear irreconcilable, "whether there be not room for a third solution, +more complete than either, as including both." Both he and Mr. Ellis +set out from the position, that "the philosophy which Bacon meant to +announce was in some way essentially different, not only from any that +had been before, but from any that has been since,"--a position very +much opposed to the popular opinion. "The triumph of his [Bacon's] +principles of scientific investigation," said, not long since, a writer +in the "Quarterly Review," whose words may be taken as representative of +the common ideas on the matter, "has made it unnecessary to revert to +the reasoning by which they were established."[B] But the truth seems +to be, that the merits of Bacon belong, as Mr. Ellis well says, "to the +spirit rather than to the positive precepts of his philosophy." Nor does +it appear that Bacon himself, although he indulged the highest hopes and +felt the securest confidence in the results of his perfected system, +supposed that he had given to it that perfection which was required. In +the "De Augmentis Scientiarum," published in 1623, two years and a half +before his death, he says: "I am preparing and laboring with all my +might to make the mind of man, by help of art, a match for the nature +of things, (_ut mens per artem fiat rebus par_,) to discover an art of +Indication and Direction, whereby all other arts, with their axioms +and works, may be detected and brought to light. For I have, with good +reason, set this down as wanting." (Lib. v. c. 2.) Bacon regarded his +method, not only as one wholly new, but also of universal application, +and leading to absolute certainty. Doubt was to be excluded from its +results. By its means, all the knowledge of which men were capable was +to be attained surely and in a comparatively brief space of time. Such a +conviction, extravagant as it may seem, is expressed in many passages. +In the Preface to his "Parasceve," published in 1620, in the same volume +with the "Novum Organum," he says, that he is about to describe a +Natural and Experimental History, which, if it be once provided, (and +he assumes, that, "etiam vivis nobis," it may be provided,) "paucorum +annorum opus futuram esse inquitionem naturae et scientiarum omnium." +Again, in the Protemium of the "Novum Organum": "There was but one +course left, to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and +all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations." And in the +Dedication to the same work, he says, with characteristic confidence, +"Equidem Organum praebui,"--"I have provided the Instrument." + +[Footnote A: The tendency of scientific thought had been, for a +considerable period before the time of Bacon, turned in the direction +which he, perhaps, did more than any other single investigator to +follow out and confirm. Leonardo da Vinci, the completest and most +comprehensive genius of Modern Italy, had anticipated, by more than a +century, several of the prominent features of the Baconian system. Too +little of Leonardo's scientific writings has been published to furnish +material for a satisfactory determination of their importance in +promoting the advance of knowledge,--but the coincidence of thought, +in some passages of his writings, with that in some of Bacon's weighty +sentences, is remarkable. "I shall treat of this subject," he says, in +a passage published by Venturi, "but I shall first set forth certain +experiments; it being my principle to cite experience first, and then to +demonstrate why bodies are constrained to act in such or such a manner. +This is the method to be observed in investigating phenomena of Nature. +It is true that Nature begins with the reason and ends with experience; +but no matter; the opposite way is to be taken. We must, as I have said, +begin with experience, and by means of this discover the reason." + +Compare with this the two following passages from the "Novum +Organum,"--the first being taken from the Ninety-ninth Axiom of the +First Book. "Then only will there be good ground of hope for the further +advance of knowledge, when there shall be received and gathered together +into natural history a variety of experiments, which are of no use in +themselves, but to discover causes and axioms."--The next passage is +the Twenty-sixth Axiom of the same Book;--"The conclusions of human +reason, as ordinarily applied in matter of nature, I call, for the +sake of distinction, _Anticipations of Nature_ (as a thing rash or +premature). That reason which is elicited from facts by a just and +methodical process I call _Interpretation of Nature_." + +The first and famous axiom of the "Novum Organum" contains the phrase +which Bacon constantly repeats,--"man being the interpreter of Nature." +Leonardo uses the same expression,--"li omini inventori e interpreti +tra la natura e gli omini." In another admirable passage of rebuke of +the boastful and empty followers of old teachers, Leonardo says: "Though +I might not cite authors as well as they, I shall cite a much greater +and worthier thing, in citing experience, the teacher of their teachers" +(_Maestra di loro maestri_). "And as for the overmuch credit," says +Bacon, "that hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making them +dictators that their words should stand, and not counsellors to give +advice, the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby." + +Similar parallelisms of thought are to be found in some of Galileo's +sentences, when brought into comparison with Lord Bacon.] + +[Footnote B: Article on Whately's Edition of Bacon's Essays. September, +1856.] + +The cause of Bacon's error in this regard, an error in spite of which +his philosophical works still remain the crowded repositories of true +wisdom, seems to have arisen, in considerable part, from a defect of +imagination. Knowledge is to be viewed in two aspects: one, that of its +relation to the finite capacities of the human mind; the other, its +relation to the infinity of Nature, that is, to the infinity of the +subjects of knowledge. Bacon regarded it chiefly from the first point of +view,--and, so far as we are aware, there is nowhere in his works any +recognition of the fact, that each advance in knowledge only opens new +and previously unknown regions of what is yet to be known. He supposed +that by his process Nature could be simplified to her few primary +elements, and that from these all other knowledge was to be deduced. +But, although her laws and elementary forms may be few, their +mollifications, as affecting knowledge and consequently human power and +interests, are unlimited. Moreover, in supposing that the discovery of +Nature could be made certain, and that, by a proper collection of facts, +the intellects of men might be brought upon a level of capacity for +discovery,--that is, that the process of discovery could be reduced to +a simple process of correct reasoning upon established facts,--Bacon +omitted to take into account the essential part which the imagination +plays in all discovery. + +No discovery, properly so called, is the pure result of observation and +induction. Maury takes the accumulated observations of fifty years, +deduces from them the existence of certain prevailing winds and +currents, and states the fact. It is not properly a discovery, although +a collection of similar facts may lead to the knowledge of a general +law. Newton sees an apple fall; his imagination, with one of the vastest +leaps that human imagination ever made, connects its fall with the +motion of the planets, and makes an immortal discovery. James Watt said, +"Nature has her blind side." True, but it is only the instinct of the +imagination that discovers where the blind side lies. The tops of +kettles had been dancing ever since kettles were first hung over fires, +but no one caught the blind side of the fact till a Scotch boy saw it as +he sat dreaming at his aunt's fireside. + +But if Bacon's imagination was imperfect in some directions, it +possessed in others a vision of the largest scope. No man ever saw more +clearly or vindicated more nobly the dignity of knowledge, the capacity +of the human mind, and the glory of God in the works of His hand. The +impulse which he gave to thought is still gathering force, and many of +the recommendations earnestly pressed in his works upon the attention +of men are only now beginning to receive their recognition and +accomplishment. When he sent a copy of the "Novum Organum" to Sir Henry +Wotton, Wotton, in his letter of thanks, said, "Your Lordship hath done +a great and everlasting benefit to the children of Nature, and to Nature +herself in her utmost extent of latitude,"--and his eulogium had more +truth than is common in contemporary compliments. + +Great as a student of physical nature, Bacon was a master in the +knowledge of human nature. Pope only chose the epithet which all the +world had applied, when he wrote of the + + "Words that _wise_ Bacon or grave Raleigh spake." + +And nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in the book of his +"Essays." The sixth volume of the edition before us contains, beside +the "Essays," the "History of King Henry VII.," with other fragmentary +histories, and the "De Sapienda Veterum," with a translation, which, +like the translations of the principal philosophical works in previous +volumes, is executed with admirable spirit and appropriateness. + +All these works give the same evidence of editorial ability and skill +as those in the division of Philosophy. Mr. Spedding's Preface to the +"Henry VII." is not only an interesting essay in itself, but an able and +satisfactory vindication of Bacon's general historic accuracy. Bacon's +view of the true office of history is very different from the theory +which has lately prevailed to a considerable extent, and it would be +well, perhaps, were its wisdom more considered. "It is the true office +of history," he says, (_Advancement of Learning_, Book II.,) "to +represent the events themselves, together with the counsels; and to +leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and +faculty of every man's judgment." And to this he adds, with much pith, +in the "De Augmentis," II. 9,--"Licet enim Historia quaeque prudentior +politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata sit, tamen scriptor +ipse sibi obstetricari non debet." Bacon wrote history according to his +own rule, and proved its value by the practical exemplification which he +gave of it. There are few better pieces of historic narrative in English +than this "History of Henry VII." + +Special thanks are due to Mr. Spedding for having reprinted, in full, +the first three editions of the "Essays,"--the three that were published +by Bacon himself. The first appeared in 1597, and contained but ten +essays; the second in 1612, when Bacon was in the height of prosperity, +and contained thirty-eight; the third appeared in 1625, after his +downfall, less than a year before his death, and contained fifty-eight +essays. The three thus afford, as well by the successive additions of +new essays as by the alterations which are made in the earlier, a most +interesting exhibition of the direction of Bacon's thought at different +periods of his life, and the changes in his style. The comparison is one +of very great interest, but more space is required to develop it than +we have for the present at command. One fact only may be noted in +passing,--that the essay on Adversity, which contains that most +memorable and noble sentence, "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old +Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New," is one of those +added in the last edition, after Bacon himself had experienced all the +bitterness of adversity. + +Mr. Spedding proposes, in the forthcoming volumes of the Occasional +Works of Lord Bacon, to connect his speeches and letters with an +explanatory narrative,--thus presenting, he says, "a biography the most +copious, the most minute, and, by the very necessity of the case, the +fairest that I can produce." He promises "new matter which is neither +little nor unimportant; but," he adds, "more important than the new +matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) +will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth." +We await this part of Mr. Spedding's work with especial interest, for +in it will unquestionably be afforded, for the first time, the means of +forming a correct judgment of Bacon's character, and just conclusions +concerning those public actions of his which have hitherto stood in +perplexing contradiction to his avowed principles, to the nobility of +his views, to his religious professions, to the reverential love with +which he was regarded by those who knew him best. It is not to be hoped +that his life can be redeemed from stain; but it may be hoped that a +true presentation of the grounds and bearings of his actions may relieve +him from the name of "meanest of mankind," and may show that his faults +were rather those of his time than of his nature. We shall keep our +readers informed of the progress of this invaluable edition, which +should lead to the more faithful and general study of the works of him +whom "all that were great and good loved and honored." + + +_A New History of the Conquest of Mexico._ In which Las Casas' +Denunciations of the Popular Historians of that War are fully +vindicated. By ROBERT ANDERSON WILSON, Counsellor at Law; Author of +"Mexico and its Religion," etc. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son. +Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. + +Before touching on the subject-matter of this book, we have something to +say respecting the spirit in which it appears to have been written, the +style of its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced +to the world. As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken +up by Mr. Prescott in his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and to +destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led +into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the +theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained. +We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings +besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering +upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that, +in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his +views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made +no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with +the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest +self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors, +without anticipating the reward of a wide-spread fame; that he was +prompt to acknowledge every service, or offer of service, which had been +made to him, and communicated to the public not only his information, +but the sources from which it had been derived; that, where he rejected +the conclusions of other writers, he treated those from whom he differed +with the utmost courtesy and candor; and that, when his task was +completed, he left it to the free judgment of the world, without +soliciting approbation or courting any man's applause. + +This is not the course which Mr. Robert Anderson Wilson has thought fit +to take. An accidental visit to Mexico, for which he appears to +consider himself entitled to no slight commendation, led him into some +speculations on the origin and civilization of the Aztec race. Without +waiting to inform himself of the ideas entertained on these subjects +by other men, he hastened to put forth his own crude notions in a +work entitled "Mexico and its Religion," and twice reprinted by its +enterprising publishers, with titles varied to suit what was supposed to +be the popular taste. Still entertaining an aversion to laborious study, +(for which, indeed, his previous education, as well as precarious +health, appears to have disqualified him,) he announced his purpose +to write a History of the Conquest of Mexico "from the American +stand-point," and issued what he himself called "a clap-trap +advertisement," for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of a class +in whom hatred of Romanism preponderates over knowledge and judgment. He +had made some progress in his "History," when he found that the ideas +which he had supposed to be original in his own brain were old and +trite. Being thus precluded from claiming for himself the merits of a +discoverer, he has shown an eagerness, every way praiseworthy, to place +the laurel on the brow to which he supposes it rightfully belongs. +Accordingly, he presents to the world, as his master and pioneer, that +renowned authority on the antiquities of New Spain, the Hon. Lewis Cass, +who, it appears, had published an essay on the subject in the "North +American Review." While his work was passing through the press, Mr. +Wilson wrote what he styles a "Chapter Preliminary," but what we suppose +would have been styled by persons who affect the native idiom when +writing their own language, a "Preliminary Chapter." This "Chapter +Preliminary" he printed and circulated, in advance of the publication +of his book; and though it contains not a single fact in support of +his theory, nor even any clear statement of the theory itself, he was +rewarded, as he expected, with _puffs preliminary_ from a portion of the +press, prompt to recognize the merit of a gentleman who had something +to sell, and consequently something to be advertised. The "advance +notices,"--so he calls them,--thus obtained, are made part of his book, +and may there be read alike by discerning and undiscerning readers. With +equal ingenuity he has prefixed to it a title-page, the grammar of which +is questionable and the punctuation vile, but in which he has contrived +to represent his opinions as identical with those of Las Casas, the +great historian of the Spanish Conquests in America, although, in truth, +this identity of opinion is purely imaginary, being founded on his mere +conjectures in regard to the contents of a work of Las Casas, which, as +he bitterly complains, has been withheld from the world. Then, with his +two supporters, Las Casas on the one side, and Lewis Casas--we beg his +pardon, we mean Lewis Cass--on the other, Mr. Wilson comes before the +public, making first a bow "preliminary" to "Colonel and Mrs. Powell," +"my dear Uncle," and "my dear Aunt," in a Dedication that reminds us +of a certain form of invitations which our readers may sometimes have +received: "Miss Smith presents her compliments to Mr. Brown, and _I_ +hope _you_ will do me the favor to take tea with me to-morrow evening." + +But we have omitted to make mention of the letters "preliminary" which +he has printed with the "advance notices." He indulges in frequent +sneers at the "weight of authority" to which Mr. Prescott was accustomed +to attach some importance in the discussion of a doubtful point. +Nevertheless, in his extreme eagerness to obtain for his own opinions +the sanction of an authoritative name, he publishes, as "Mr. Prescott's +estimate of his researches," a letter which he had received from that +gentleman, and, quite incapable of appreciating its quiet irony, +evidently supposes that the historian of the Conquest of Mexico was +prepared to retire from the field of his triumphs at the first blast of +his assailant's trumpet. Next comes a letter from a gentleman whom Mr. +Wilson calls "_Rousseau_ St. Hilaire, author of 'The History of Spain,' +&c., and Professor _of the_ Faculty of Letters in the University of +Paris." This, we suppose, is the same gentleman who is elsewhere +mentioned in the book as Rousseau _de_ St. Hilaire, and as _Rosseau_ St. +Hilaire. Now we might take issue with Mr. Wilson as to the existence of +his correspondent. It would be easy to prove that no person bearing the +name is connected with the University of Paris. Adopting the same line +of argument by which our author endeavors to convert the old Spanish +chronicler, Bernal Diaz, into a myth, we might contend that the +Sorbonne--the college to which M. St. Hilaire is represented as +belonging--has been almost as famous for its efforts to suppress +truth and the free utterance of opinion as the Spanish Inquisition +itself,--that it would not hesitate at any little invention or disguise +for the furtherance of its objects,--and hence, that the professor in +question is in all probability a "myth," a mere "Rousseau's Dream," or +rather, a "Wilson's Dream of Rousseau." But we disdain to have recourse +to such evasions. We admit that there is in the University of Paris +a professor "agrégé à la faculté des lettres," who bears the name of +_Rosseeuw_ St. Hilaire; we admit Mr. Wilson's incapacity to decipher +foreign names or words, even when they stand before him in the clearest +print,--an incapacity of which his book affords numerous examples,--and +that this incapacity, and not any mental hallucination, has been the +cause of the blunder which we have corrected. But we must add that he +does evidently labor under an hallucination when he calls this letter +of M. St. Hilaire a "flattering notice." He has been misled by his +inability to comprehend the employment of courteous language between +persons who differ from each other in matters of opinion. With the +accustomed suavity of a Frenchman and a gentleman, M. St. Hilaire +declines entering into a discussion with Mr. Wilson, and leaves him to +"settle this difference with his learned fellow-citizen," Mr. Prescott, +mildly intimating at the same time that he will probably have "his hands +full." + +Something more remains to be said of the use which our author has made +of the learned professor of the Sorbonne. One page of his book Mr. +Wilson devotes to "Acknowledgments." These are few, but ponderous. +"Acknowledgments are made" to the Hon. Lewis Cass, for having +written--without any ulterior view, we imagine, to Mr. Wilson's +advantage--the before-mentioned article in the "North American Review"; +to the late Mr. Gallatin, for the publication--also, we suspect, without +any foresight of the tremendous uses to which it was to be turned--of a +paper on the Mexican dialects; to "Aaron Erickson, Esq., of Rochester, +N.Y., for the advantages he has afforded us in the prosecution of our +arduous investigations"; to "Major Robert Wilson, now at Fort Riley, +Kanzas," for no particular reason expressed; and to "M. _Rousseau +de_ St. Hilaire, both for the flattering notice he has taken of our +preliminary work" (why not, "work preliminary?") "on Mexico, and for the +advantages derived from his writings." In regard to the "advantages" +here mentioned, we are going to relieve Mr. Wilson's mind. His +obligations to M. St. Hilaire are really far lighter than he supposes. +It is true that he has picked most of the little information he +possesses in regard to Spanish history out of the professor's work, and +has strewed his pages with copious extracts from this recondite source. +But, in making his acknowledgments, he might have gone still farther +back. M. St. Hilaire is a laborious and enthusiastic scholar. + +He has found time, in the midst of his professional duties, to write +a really meritorious work on the history of Spain. But he had not the +time, perhaps not the opportunity, for making a thorough examination of +the original authorities. He was therefore obliged to take for his guide +a modern author, who had made this history the peculiar field of his +researches. The guide whom he selected, and he could have made no better +choice, was William Hickling Prescott. So necessary was it for his +purpose that the latter should precede him in a pathway so obscure, +that he postponed the composition of a portion of his work until the +publication of the first two volumes of the "History of Philip the +Second," then in preparation, should supply him with the requisite +light. His indebtedness to Mr. Prescott was frankly and fully +acknowledged both in public and in private. In letters which now lie +before us, he says, "I am working hard on 'Philip the Second,' and +blessing at the same time the learned pioneer who has traced for me so +easy a road through this confused and difficult period of history." "It +is a piece of good-fortune which I cannot too highly appreciate, that +your studies should have been directed to the most difficult portion of +Spanish history, from which you have thus removed for me all the thorns. +The conscientiousness and the thoroughness of your researches, the +perfect trustworthiness of your conclusions, and the lofty calmness of +your judgments, are the precious supports on which I lean; and I have +now, for the reign of Philip the Second, a guide whom I shall be ever +proud and happy to follow, _as I have before followed him through the +reigns of the Catholic Kings and the Conquests of Mexico and Peru_." +That these expressions are no exaggeration of the facts of the case +might be easily established by a comparison of the "Histoire d'Espagne" +with the writings of the American historian. The passages in the former +work cited by Mr. Wilson would form a portion of the proof; and thus, in +following M. St. Hilaire, he has in fact been indirectly and ignorantly +availing himself of labors which he affects to speak of with contempt. + +But directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed +himself of Mr. Prescott's labors to an extent which demanded the most +ample "acknowledgment." No such acknowledgment is made. But we beg to +ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he should have +spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, at least with +respect. He himself informs us that "the most kindly relations" +existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. Wilson opened +the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of Mr. Prescott's +collection of works relating to Mexican history, for the purpose of +enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's History of the +Conquest. That the replies which he received were courteous and kindly, +we need hardly say. He was informed, that, although the constant use +made of the collection by its possessor for the correction of his +own work must prevent a full compliance with this request, yet any +particular books which he might designate should be sent to him, and, if +he were disposed to make a visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities +should be granted him for the prosecution of his researches. This +invitation Mr. Wilson did not think fit to accept. Books which were got +in readiness for transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, +in the mean time, discovered that "the American stand-point" did not +require any examination of "authorities." We regret that it should also +have rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilized +society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished predecessor +is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it displays, sometimes +disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. He concedes Mr. Prescott's +good faith in the use of his materials. It was only his ignorance and +want of the proper qualifications that prevented him from using them +aright. "His non-acquaintance with Indian character is much to be +regretted." Mr. Wilson himself enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable +advantage of being the son of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. +Nay, "his ancestors, for several generations, dwelt near the Indian +agency at Cherry Valley, on Wilson's Patent, _though in Cooperstown +village was he born_." We perceive the author's fondness for the +inverted style in composition,--acquired, perhaps, in the course of his +long study of Aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without +his own assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we +think, to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common +among barbarous nations. + +But it is not merely through "his non-acquaintance with Indian +character" that Mr. Prescott was at fault. He was also, it appears, in a +hopeless state of ignorance in regard to the political institutions of +Spain. He knew nothing of the Spanish censorship, and its restrictions +upon the freedom of the press. "He showed his faith," writes Mr. Wilson, +"by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of his enterprise, +in the purchase of books and MSS. relating to 'America of the +Spaniards.'" This last phrase is marked as quoted, but we believe it to +be the author's own. "These were the materials out of which he framed +his _two_ histories of the _two_ aboriginal empires, Mexico and Peru. At +the time these works were written _he could not have had the remotest +idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish authorities had been +produced_, or of the external pressure that gave them their peculiar +form and character. _He could hardly understand_ that peculiar +organization of Spanish society through which one set of opinions might +be uniformly expressed in public, while the intellectual classes in +secret entertain entirely opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most +perfect good faith; and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities +have proved to be the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he +is not in fault." (p. 104.)--We, also, desire to deal in "perfect good +faith" with our readers, who will naturally inquire what new light has +been thrown on the "peculiar organization of Spanish society," and on +the conditions which limit the expression of opinions in Spain, since +Mr. Prescott made those subjects his especial study. We have looked +carefully through Mr. Wilson's book in the hope of being enabled to +answer this inquiry; but we have found nothing but partial and incorrect +statements of facts with which the public is already familiar,--nothing +that had escaped the notice of Prescott himself,--nothing that Mr. +Ticknor, in his "History of Spanish Literature," had omitted to state, +and that had not been fully discussed between these two distinguished +men during an intercourse that had originated not only in the warmest +personal friendship, but in the similarity of their studies and +pursuits. On this, as on every other topic of which he treats, Mr. +Wilson is reckless and arrogant in assertion; but on this, as on every +other topic, he makes no show of proofs. + +His compliment to Prescott's "good faith" seems, after all, to have +been premature. In other parts of his book we find remarks that seem in +conflict with this admission. He makes several severe strictures on Mr. +Prescott's omission to give due credit to General Cass for his valuable +contribution to Aztec history. "Mr. Prescott nowhere refers to the +subject, as we think he ought to have done." (p. 30.) "The ink was +hardly dry on the leaves of the North American Quarterly which contained +the exposure of these fictions, when another contributor to the same +periodical, Mr. Prescott, began his history, founded on authors already +_denounced as fabulous by so high an authority as the Hon. Lewis Cass_!" +Think of the unparalleled audacity of the author of the "History of +Ferdinand and Isabella" in actually exercising his own judgment with +regard to the credibility of the Spanish chroniclers, after so high an +authority had pronounced against them! However, we are not yet prepared +to abandon our own belief in Mr. Prescott's "good faith." We really +believe that he was guilty of no intentional disrespect towards the Hon. +Lewis Cass. It is possible that he may never have seen the article in +question. Contributors to periodicals are sometimes sadly neglectful of +the most brilliant performances of their _confrères_. We doubt whether +the "Autocrat" has ever read with proper attention any of our own +modest, but not, we hope, inelegant effusions. + +Mr. Wilson is not without a suspicion that the world may be slow to +surrender its confidence in the veracity and accuracy of a writer +whose works have already stood the test of many a severe and critical +examination. When this idea breaks upon his mind, he manages to lash +himself into a state of considerable excitement. He foresees the +difficulty of convincing "those who take an array of great names for +the foundation of their belief, and those who judge a work only by the +elegance with which its periods are strung together. And, besides these +two,"--meaning, we presume, not two men, but two classes of men,--"we +have to encounter also the opposition of _savans_--men who live and +judge the outside world through the medium of books alone. These hold as +of no account, all but Greece and Rome," [the proof-reader is requested +not to disturb Mr. Wilson's punctuation,] "and receive no idea of +antiquity that does not come through them. For any, then, too wise to +learn or too thoughtless to inquire, this chapter is not designed.... +Many there are," [how many, we wonder,] "who have dealt in Spanish +romances, supposing them to be history; and these are slow to abandon +their delusions. At enormous expense they have gathered volumes of +authorities; will they readily admit them to be cheats and counterfeits? +They grudge the time too they have spent in their perusal; and are loth, +as well they may be, to lose it. But individual loss and injury _is_" +[the proof-reader will please not to interfere with Mr. Wilson's +grammar] "perhaps inevitable in the search after truth. Men cannot +be held down to the theories of barbarism. These must give way to +knowledge, _or the intelligent, as in Roman Catholic countries, be +driven to infidelity."_ [The printer may venture to italicize the +closing prediction, as we wish to bring it under the particular notice +of school-committees and superintendents of education, who will see +the fearful responsibility they incur by placing copies of Prescott's +Histories, bound in sheep, in their school-libraries.] + +But we interrupt the flow of our author's bile by these irrelevant +remarks. Let him have a full hearing: "Before closing this chapter, the +status of our literature suggests an apology is necessary, for having +opened it in conformity with the, now neglected, rules of history--that +we should try and snatch something from the wreck of antiquity." [We +cheerfully offer a reward of one copy of the present number of the +"Atlantic" to any person who will parse the last sentence, explain the +punctuation of it, and interpret its meaning.] "In other countries, the +standard of history has been steadily rising for centuries; but with +us, it has been so lowered, as to sink every other qualification in the +single one of turning faultless periods; and a gentleman possessing +this, has been adjudged fully capable of purging the annals of Spain and +her quondam colonies, from the mass of modern fable and forgery which +now disfigure them. Incapable of submitting Cortez' statement to +the test, he assumes it to be true, even in those parts where it is +impossible. Unable to detect the counterfeit in Diaz--he pronounces him +the 'child of nature,' but does not on the testimony of this natural +child reject the still more monstrous falsifier, _Gomora_; but adopts +them both, according to the custom of novelists; and not the slightest +objection is raised. Then descending lower and still lower; disregarding +alike the warning of Lord Bacon 'a credulous man is a deceiver,' and +of Tacitus _fingunt simul creduntque_--he rakes up even a devotee, +Boturini, and makes him also an historic authority, without overtaxing +public credulity; though this wretch, as we have seen, out-Munchausens +Pietro himself, and as he may have surpassed every other man in Spain in +drawing the long bow, was justly selected for historiographer, at a time +when death was the penalty for possessing a book not licensed by the +Inquisition. Thus are discarded and disgusting impostures brought up +from the literary cesspools of Spain to form for us the history of +events that, transpired on this continent hardly more than three hundred +years ago!" (pp. 263, 264.) Instead of noticing the blunders and +absurdities with which this paragraph is filled, we shall simply call +attention to the remarkable good taste displayed in its allusions to +a person with whom the writer, as he boasts, had maintained "the most +kindly relations," from whom, as we have seen, he had received friendly +offers of aid, and to whom, but a short time before the occurrence of +that event which has so lately thrown the whole nation into mourning, he +had been indebted, by his own admission, for the warmest encouragement +in the prosecution of his inquiries. + +But, though Prescott is the principal object of Mr. Wilson's assaults, +he does not fall, for he has not stood, alone. With the single exception +of the Hon. Lewis Cass, every modern writer who has investigated the +history and former condition of Spanish America, either with the help of +books or of personal observation of the present state of that part +of our continent, shares the same fate. Robertson, Dupaix, Stephens, +Humboldt, are all objects of Mr. Wilson's vituperation or contempt. To +say that Alexander von Humboldt is probably the most learned man in +Europe, and that Robert A. Wilson is undoubtedly one of the most +ignorant men in America, would give but a slight notion of the +contrast between them. Humboldt is not merely a man of science and a +philosopher,--titles which the adopted Iroquois regards with natural +scorn,--he has been also a great traveller, and knows almost every +part of Spanish America from personal examination. Yet his claims to be +considered as an authority on questions which no other living man is +so competent to decide are disposed of by his shallow and conceited +opponent in a single brief paragraph, which ends with a statement that +"the only defect in his work is, that he started from false premises, +_and of course his conclusions amount to nothing_." + +Robertson, however, is the especial butt of Mr. Wilson's unwieldy +sarcasms. Robertson, he tells us, was the "principal of the University +High School of Edinburgh,"--an institution of which we do not +remember ever to have heard before. He is especially indignant that +"Robertson--_a Presbyterian minister!_" (the Italics and note of +admiration are Mr. Wilson's own) should have dared even to attempt to +write a history of America. As Roman Catholics are also forbidden to +venture on this ground, we should be glad to know the particular sect or +sects to whose use it is to be appropriated. A principal cause of our +author's spite against Dr. Robertson appears to have been a statement +made by the latter, that the Iroquois are cannibals. This allegation +evidently touches a sensitive point. It is indignantly denied by the +adopted member of the tribe. The Iroquois, he says, like other Indians, +never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. He turns the +tables (on which this ill-omened repast is spread) against the worthy +Doctor. He charges him (falsely, however) with having represented +Charles the Fifth as "a pattern of abstinence," when he was in fact one +of the greatest of royal _gourmands_. On this point he is willing for +once to accept even the authority of Mr. Prescott, who, he says, has +upset Robertson's reputation as an historian by means of "the _Samanca_ +papers." + +Mr. Wilson so often returns to these "Samanca" papers, and appears to +labor under so many delusions in regard to them, that, hopeless as the +attempt may seem, we cannot help trying to let a little daylight into +his mind. "Mr. Prescott," he writes, "having obtained copies of the most +important _Simanca_" [the reader must not be surprised at these little +variations of orthography] "papers of Ximenes' collection, supposes them +a new discovery, of great value. _Doubtless they are;_" [then there +could be no great harm in supposing it;] "his agents did not fail to +represent them to him in the most exalted terms, to enhance the value of +their services according to the Spanish custom." Now we can assure Mr. +Wilson that Mr. Prescott had not in his possession a copy of a single +document placed in the Archives of Simancas (for so an excusable +partiality for custom, and not any want of respect for our author, +obliges us to spell this name) by Cardinal Ximenes. He will also, we +trust, be glad to learn, that, for the documents relating to the Emperor +Charles the Fifth which Mr. Prescott did receive from Simancas, he paid +not a _real_ beyond the established charge of the official copyists,--a +charge which is the same in all cases, whatever may be the value of +the originals,--the task of examining the collection and selecting the +letters suitable for the purpose having been a labor of love on the part +of the distinguished scholar by whom it was undertaken. + +Mr. Wilson is animated by a fervent hatred against Cardinal Ximenes,--or +"Jimines," as he sometimes calls him. He terms him "a monster," and "a +wretch," and is especially indignant at his having "founded the Samanca +collection of papers." "Any one," he adds, "who will carefully examine +them will see that hardly a single paper has been put into this +collection that does not, in some way, reflect glory on the church, or +show the royal approval of the Inquisition." We cannot undertake to say +what discoveries might be made by a person who should carefully examine +the collection of papers at Simancas. A scholar on whom the antediluvian +length of life necessary for such a labor had been bestowed might also +be endowed with commensurate powers of intellect that might lead to the +most astonishing results. Our own knowledge of the collection is limited +to a very small portion of its contents,--a mere drop in the enormous +bucket. We have been under the impression that explorers who had spent +long periods of time in the examination,--Lembke or Gachard, for +example,--had sunk their shafts but a little way into that great mine. +At all events, we feel particularly certain that Mr. Wilson never in his +life saw a single manuscript, or a single copy of a manuscript, from the +Archives of Simancas. + +"The monk Strada," our author goes on to inform us, "must have consulted +them" [the "Samanca papers"] "in the composition of his history of the +Low Country Wars, though he does not call the papers by that name." +[We should hope not.] "The _Glanville_ papers are not alone his +authorities." With regard to the "Glanville papers," we cannot speak +positively, never having seen them, or even heard of them. If an +allusion is intended to the "State Papers of Cardinal _Granvelle_," we +admit that these were not Strada's _only_ authorities; in fact, they +were not his authorities at all; he never had the opportunity of +consulting them. "Robertson's convent life of Charles V.," Mr. Wilson +continues, "is almost literally taken from Strada." Now, if Strada +followed the "Samanca papers," and Robertson has followed Strada, how +is it that these same papers have been the groundwork for a complete +refutation of Robertson? Surely, when brought to light, they ought, +on the contrary, to have confirmed his statements. The truth is, that +Strada, who had access to no other manuscripts than those in possession +of the Farnese family, never saw the "Samanca papers"; and Robertson, +far from following Strada exclusively, relied much more on the authority +of Sandoval and other Spanish writers. + +But our readers will naturally inquire what these matters have to do +with the Aztec civilization and the Conquest of Mexico. So far as we +know, nothing at all. We have merely followed our Iroquois foe, and +kept perseveringly upon his track in the jungle to which he has taken. +Whatever course he may take, we are determined to follow him. He shall +not elude us. Through all the windings of his eccentric route, through +pathless forests, across rugged sierras, along the sides of nameless +streams, we shall pursue his trail. On the summit of the great +_teocalli_ of Mexico, dedicated to the fearful deity, _Huitzilopotchli_, +he shall be offered up as a sacrifice, according to the awful customs +in which he affects to disbelieve. We are compelled, indeed, by want of +space, to grant him a respite for a month. Our present notice must be +regarded only as a parboiling "preliminary." At the end of that time, +with all due form and ceremony, we promise that the solemn rite shall be +completed. + + +Bunsen's _Gott in der Geschichte_. (God in History.) Zweite Theil. +(Second Part.) Leipzig. 1858. + +There is, probably, no philosophical author at the present day in +Germany whose works are welcomed by so wide a circle of readers in +America as those of Chevalier Bunsen. Though often more theoretical than +exact in scholarship, and allowing his historical instincts to take the +place of scientific conclusions, he not unfrequently anticipates thus +the laborious efforts of scholars, while his peculiar _suggestiveness_ +of thought and his scope of view interest extremely the common student, +and lend a charm to his works such as no other writer in the same +field possesses. He has the art of making other men work for him, and, +perhaps, has thus been tempted to write too much for his own fame. + +The great service for which posterity will thank Chevalier Bunsen +is, that, in an age of bigotry and of skepticism, he has especially +represented the union of Philosophy and Christianity, and has shown that +the freest historical criticism and the most open recognition of the +moral principle through all faiths and races are harmonious with the +most devout belief in the divine manifestation of Christ. This book, +"God in History," is written from his most advanced and religious +stand-point, and seems to us the best fruit, thus far, of his studies. +It is compact, consistent, and not marred by his usual defect,--a +certain mysticism or indefiniteness of thought,--but is clear and +philosophical to the close. It is not to be looked upon as a complete +philosophical history, but rather as a suggestive and introductory +treatise on that grandest of all themes, the Progress of the Instinct of +God through Human History. His own definition of his subject is, that +it is a history of the "Consciousness of God in Mankind"; but, as he +unfolds his idea, it is evidently not always the consciousness, but the +unconscious instinct of God, whose progress he is describing. + +The first part of the present volume--the Third Book--is occupied with a +brief, but exceedingly instructive investigation of the development of +this instinct in the Aryans of Persia and of India; and in this inquiry +the two prominent historical figures are Zoroaster and Buddha, or, as +our author might have named them, the Moses and the Luther of the +early Aryan religions,--the one the Lawgiver and the Founder of a pure +monotheism in the place of a slavish belief in elementary powers, and +the other the great Reformer of a corrupted faith in behalf of an +oppressed people. + +The illustrations which Bunsen gives of these two wonderful expressions +of the instinct of God in the remote past, the religions of Zoroaster +and Buddha, are exceedingly fresh and original. They are contained +mostly in sacrificial and festal hymns and songs which have not hitherto +been much known, even to scholars. + +As an introduction to and historical preparation for these two great +forms of belief, he describes also the instinct of Deity as it had +developed itself among the Turanians, the Chinese, and the Egyptians. + +The period embraced in the Third Book is about 2500 years, from the +supposed epoch of Zoroaster (3000 B.C.) to that of Buddha (541 B.C.). + +The Fourth Book treats of the instinct of God among the Greeks and +Romans, "from the singer of the Iliad (900 B.C.) down to the Baruch of +the Roman world, the prophet of the downfall of the Aryan Ante-Christian +civilization,--Tacitus." This God-consciousness is found first in +the Grecian feeling of the Commonwealth,--the idea of a common good +surpassing a personal good; then in the conception of the Epic, which +assumes a political as well as a physical Kosmos, or order; then in the +grand moral ideas lying at the basis of the Mythology,--the myths, for +instance, of Prometheus, and the picture of Nemesis and the Fates. Next, +the deep sense of God speaks out in Grecian Tragedy and the great works +of Grecian Art; and in the highest degree, in the Philosophy which +culminated in Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. + +The Roman expression of these profound instincts is placed by Bunsen far +below the Grecian. It is manifested especially in their idea of Law, and +even in the doubts and despair of their leading thinkers in the time of +the Emperors. + +The closing portion of the volume terminates the history of the progress +of the idea of God before Christianity, among the Aryan races, by a +description of the religious instincts of the Teutonic tribes. In their +respect for woman and for marriage, in their political commonwealths, +in their worship of one God, and their belief in a moral Kosmos, Bunsen +beholds the expression of the Divine idea within them, preparing for the +more full development which is to come through the ideas and spirit +of Christianity. The book closes fitly with the grand prophecy of the +Völuspa in the Scandinavian Edda. + +We regret that want of space should prevent us from giving extracts from +this most eloquent and philosophic work. Its glory is, that, breaking +through the formulae of creeds and the external signs of religious +faith, it has the courage to listen to the voice of God all along the +devious course of human history,--hearing that mysterious tone, not +alone in the chants of the Hebrews or the confessions of the Christians, +but in every smallest utterance of _truth_, every syllable of unselfish +patriotism, every groan of offended conscience, every myth springing +from the moral sense, every song, every speech which would exalt the +True, the Beautiful, and the Good over the selfish and false and base. +In Bunsen's philosophy, these, even more than all outward confession and +ceremonial, are the true expression of the workings of the Divine Spirit +in Human History. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Episodes of French History during the Consulate and the First Empire. By +Miss Pardoe. New York. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 18, April, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 9, 2004 [EBook #11525] +[Date last updated: August 7, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 18 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--APRIL, 1859.--NO. XVIII. + + + +AGRARIANISM. + + +If we can believe an eminent authority, in which we are disposed to +place great trust, the oldest contest that has divided society is that +which has so long been waged between the House of HAVE and the House of +WANT. It began before the bramble was chosen king of the trees, and it +has outlasted the cedars of Lebanon. We find it going on when Herodotus +wrote his History, and the historians of the nineteenth century will +have to continue writing of the actions of the parties to it. There +seems never to have been a time when it was not old, or a race that +was not engaged in it, from the Tartars, who cook their meat by +making saddle-cloths of it, to the Sybarites, impatient of crumpled +rose-leaves. Spartan oligarchs and Athenian democrats, Roman patricians +and Roman plebeians, Venetian senators and Florentine _ciompi_, Norman +nobles and Saxon serfs, Russian boyars and Turkish spahis, Spanish +hidalgos and Aztec soldiers, Carolina slaveholders and New England +farmers,--these and a hundred other races or orders have all been +parties to the great, the universal struggle which has for its object +the acquisition of property, the providing of a shield against the +ever-threatening fiend which we call WANT. Property once obtained, the +possessor's next aim is to keep it. The very fact, that the mode of +acquisition may have been wrong, and subversive of property-rights, if +suffered to be imitated, naturally makes its possessor suspicious and +cruel. He fears that the measure he has meted to others may be meted to +him again. Hence severe laws, the monopoly of political power and of +political offices by property-holders, the domination of conquering +races, and the practice of attributing to all reformers designs against +property and its owners, though the changes they recommend may really be +of a nature calculated to make the tenure of property more secure than +ever. Even the charge of irreligion has not been found more effective +against the advocates of improvement or change than that of +Agrarianism,--by which is meant hostility to existing property +institutions, and a determination, if possible, to subvert them. Of the +two, the charge of Agrarianism is the more serious, as it implies the +other. A man may be irreligious, and yet a great stickler for property, +because a great owner of it,--or because he is by nature stanchly +conservative, and his infidelity merely a matter of logic. But if there +be any reason for charging a man with Agrarianism, though it be never so +unreasonable a reason, his infidelity is taken for granted, and it would +be labor lost to attempt to show the contrary. Nor is this conclusion so +altogether irrational as it appears at the first sight. Religion is +an ordinance of God, and so is property; and if a man be suspected of +hostility to the latter, why should he not be held positively guilty +towards the former? Every man is religious, though but few men govern +their lives according to religious precepts; but every man not only +loves property and desires to possess it, but allows considerations +growing out of its rights to have a weight on his mind far more grave, +far more productive of positive results, than religion has on the common +person. If there be such a thing as an Agrarian on earth, he would fight +bravely for his land, though it should be of no greater extent than +would suffice him for a grave, according to the strictest measurement +of the potter's field. Would every honest believer do as much for his +religion? + +But what is Agrarianism, and who are Agrarians? Though the words are +used as glibly as the luring party-terms of the passing year, it is no +very easy matter to define them. Indeed, it is by no means an easy thing +to affix a precise and definite meaning to any political terms, living +or dead. Let the reader endeavor to give a clear and intelligible +definition of Whig and Tory, Democrat and Republican, Guelph and +Ghibelline, Cordelier and Jacobin, and he will soon find that he has a +task before him calculated to test his powers very severely. How much +more difficult, then, must it be to give the meaning of words that are +never used save in a reproachful sense, which originated in political +battles that were fought nearly two thousand years ago, and in a state +of society having small resemblance to anything that has ever been known +to Christendom! With some few exceptions, party-names continue to have +their champions long after the parties they belonged to are as dead +as the Jacobites. Many Americans would not hesitate to defend the +Federalists, or to eulogize the Federal party, though Federalism long +ago ceased even to cast a shadow. The prostitution of the Democratic +name has lessened in but a slight degree the charm that has attached to +it ever since Jefferson's sweeping reëlection had the effect of coupling +withit the charming idea of success. But who can be expected to say a +word for Agrarian? One might as well look to find a sane man ready to +do battle for the Jacobin, which is all but a convertible term for +Agrarian, though in its proper sense the latter word is of exactly the +opposite meaning to the former. Under the term Agrarians is included, +in common usage, all that class of men who exhibit a desire to remove +social ills by a resort to means which are considered irregular and +dangerous by the great majority of mankind. Of late years we have heard +much of Socialists, Communists, Fourierites, and so forth; but the word +Agrarians comprehends all these, and is often made to include men who +have no more idea of engaging in social reforms than they have of +pilgrimizing to the Fountains of the Nile. It is a not uncommon thing +for our political parties to charge one another with Agrarianism; and if +they used the term in its proper sense, it would be found that they had +both been occasionally right, for Agrarian laws have been supported by +all American parties, and will continue to be so supported, we presume, +so long as we shall have a public domain; but in its reproachful +sense Agrarianism can never be charged against any one of the party +organizations which have been known in the United States. A quarter of +a century ago, one of the cleverest of those English tourists who then +used to contrive to go through--or, rather, over--the Republic, seeing +but little, and not understanding that little, proclaimed to his +countrymen, who had not then recovered from the agitation consequent on +the Reform contest, that there existed here a regular Agrarian party, +forming "the _extrême gauche_ of the Worky Parliament," and which +"boldly advocated the introduction of an AGRARIAN LAW, and a periodical +division of property." He represented these men as only following out +the principles of their less violent neighbors, and as eloquently +dilating "on the justice and propriety of every individual being equally +supplied with food and clothing,--on the monstrous iniquity of one man +riding in his carriage while another walks on foot, [there would have +been more reason in the complaint, had the gigless individual objected +to walking on his head,] and after his drive discussing a bottle of +Champagne, while many of his neighbors are shamefully compelled to be +content with the pure element. Only equalize property, they say, and +neither would drink Champagne or water, but both would have brandy, a +consummation worthy of centuries of struggle to attain." He had the +sense to declare that all this was nonsense, but added, that the +Agrarians, though not so numerous or so widely diffused as to create +immediate alarm, were numerous in New York, where their influence was +strongly felt in the civic elections. Elsewhere he predicted the coming +of a "panic" time, when workingmen would be thrown out of employment, +while possessed of the whole political power of the state, with no +military force to maintain civil order and protect property; "and to +what quarter," he mournfully asked, "I shall be glad to know, is the +rich man to look for security, either of person or fortune?" + +Twenty-five years have elapsed since Mr. Hamilton put forth this +alarming question, and some recent events have brought it to men's +minds, who had laughed at it in the year of grace 1833. We have seen +Agrarian movements in New York, demonstrations of "Workies," but nothing +was said by those engaged in them of that great leveller, brandy, though +its properties are probably better known to them than those of water. +They have been dignified with the name of "bread riots," and the great +English journal that exercises a sort of censorship over governments and +nations has gravely complimented us on the national progress we have +made, as evidenced in the existence here of a starving population! One +hardly knows whether to fret or to smile over so provoking a specimen of +congratulation. Certainly, if a nation cannot grow old without bringing +the producing classes to beggary, the best thing that could happen to +it would be to die young, like men loved of the gods, according to the +ancient idea. Whether such is the inevitable course of national life or +not, we are confident that what took place a few months ago in New York +had nothing to do with Agrarianism in reality,--using the word after +the manner of the alarmists. It belonged to the ordinary bald humbug of +American politics. It so happened that one of those "crises" which come +to pass occasionally in all business communities occurred at precisely +the time when a desperate political adventurer was making desperate +efforts to save himself from that destruction to which he had been +doomed by all good men in the city that he had misgoverned. What more +natural than that he should seek to avail himself of the distress of the +people? The trick is an old one,--as old as political contention itself. +Was it not Napoleon who attributed revolutions to the belly?--and he +knew something of the matter. The "bread riots" were neither more nor +less than "political demonstrations," got up for the purpose of aiding +Mr. Wood, and did not originate in any hostility to property on the part +of the people. It is not improbable that some of those who were engaged +in them were really anxious to obtain work,--were moved by fear of +starvation; but such was not the case with the leaders, who were +"well-dressed, gentlemanly men," according to an eye-witness, with +excellent cigars in their mouths to create a thirst that Champagne alone +could cure. The _juste milieu_ of brandy, so favored in 1832, if we can +believe Mr. Hamilton, was not thought of in 1857. A quarter of a +century had made a change in the popular taste. Perhaps the temperance +reformation had had something to do with it. The whole thing was as +complete a farce as ever was seen at an American or an English election, +and those who were engaged in it are now sincerely ashamed of their +failure. If foreigners will have it that it was an outbreak of +Agrarianism, the first in a series of outrages against property, so +be it. Let them live in the enjoyment of the delusion. Nations, like +individuals, seem to find pleasure in the belief that others are as +miserable as themselves. + +Of that feeling which is known as Agrarianism we believe there is far +less in the United States now than there was at the time when Mr. +Hamilton was here, and for a few years after that time. From about +the year 1829 to 1841, there was in our politics a large infusion of +Socialism. We then had parties, or factions, based on the distinctions +that exist in the social state, and those organizations had considerable +influence in our elections. The Workingmen's party was a powerful body +in several Northern States, and, to an observer who was not familiar +with our condition, it well might wear the appearance of an Agrarian +body. No intelligent American, however, fell into such an error. It +was evident to the native observer, that the Workingmen's party, while +aiming at certain reforms which it deemed necessary for the welfare of +the laboring classes, had no felonious purposes in view to the prejudice +of property,--and this for the plain reason, that most workingmen were +property-owners themselves. Few of them had much, but still fewer had +nothing, and the aggregate of their possessions was immense. They would +have been the greatest losers, had there been a social convulsion, for +they would have lost everything. Then they were intelligent men in the +ordinary affairs of life, and knew that the occurrence of any such +convulsion would, first of all, cut off, not only their means of +acquisition, but the very sources of their livelihood. Industry wilts +under revolutionary movement, as vegetation under the sirocco, and they +bring to the multitude anything but a realization of Utopian dreams. In +the long run, there has rarely been a revolution which has not worked +beneficially for the mass of mankind; but the earliest effects of every +revolution are to them bad, and eminently so. It is to this fact that we +must look for an explanation of the slowness with which the masses move +against any existing order of things, even when they are well aware +that it treats them with singular injustice. For nothing can be better +established than that no revolution was ever the work of the body of the +people,--of the majority. Revolutions are made by minorities, by orders, +by classes, by individuals, but never by the people. The people may be +dragged into them, but they never take the initiative even in those +movements which are called popular, and which are supposed to have only +popular ends in view. That very portion of mankind who are most feared +by timid men of property are those who are the last to act in any of the +great games which mark the onward course of the world. Complain they do, +and often bitterly, of the inequalities of society, but action is not +their strong point. + +The American observer of 1829-41 would have seen, too, in the +Workingmen's party, and in other similar organizations, only sections of +the Democratic party. They were the light troops of the grand army of +Democracy, the _velites_ who skirmished in front of the legions. They +never controlled the Democratic party; but it is undeniable that they +did color its policy, and give a certain tone to its sentiment, at a +very important period of American history. The success of President +Jackson, in that political contest which is known as "the Bank War," was +entirely owing to the support which he received from the workingmen of +some two or three States; and it is quite probable that the shrewd men +who then managed the Democratic party were induced to enter upon that +war by their knowledge of the exalted condition of political opinion in +those States. For their own purposes, they turned to account sentiments +that might have worked dangerously, if they had not been directed +against the Bank. One effect of this was, that the Democratic party was +compelled to make use of more popular language, which caused it to lose +some of its influential members, who were easily alarmed by words, +though they had borne philosophically with violent things. For five +years after the veto of the Bank Bill, in 1832, the Democratic party +was essentially radical in its tone, without doing much of a radical +character. In 1837, the monetary troubles came to a head, and then it +was seen how little reliance could be placed on men who were supposed to +be attached to extreme popular opinions. It was in the very States which +were thought to abound with radicals that the Democracy lost ground, and +the way was prepared for their entire overthrow in the memorable year +1840. That year saw American politics debauched, and from that time +we find no radical element in any of our parties. The contest was +so intense, that the two parties swallowed and digested all lesser +factions. Since then, a variety of causes have combined to prevent the +development of what is termed Agrarianism. The struggle of the Democracy +to regain power; the Mexican war, and the extension of our dominion, +consequent on that war, bringing up again, in full force, the slavery +question; and the discovery of gold in California, which led myriads +of energetic men to a remote quarter of the nation;--these are the +principal causes of the freedom of our later party-struggles from +radical theories. From radical practices we have always been free, and +it is improbable that our country will know them for generations. + +The origin of the word Agrarianism, as an obnoxious political term, is +somewhat curious. It is one of the items of our inheritance from the +Romans, to whom we owe so much, both of good and evil, in politics and +in law. + +The Agrarian contests of that people were among the most interesting +incidents in their wonderful career, and are full of instruction, +though, until recently, their true character was not understood; and +their explanation affords a capital warning against the effects of +partisan literature. The common belief was,--perhaps we should say +is,--that the supporters of the Agrarian laws were, to use a modern +term, _destructives_; that they aimed at formal divisions of all landed +property, if not of all property, among the whole body of the Roman +people. Nothing can be more unfounded than this view of the subject, +which is precisely the reverse of the truth. No Roman, whose name +is associated with Agrarian laws, ever thought of touching private +property, or of meddling with it, illegally, in any way. Neither Spurius +Cassius, nor Licinius Stolo, nor the Gracchi, nor any other Roman whose +name is identified with the Agrarian legislation of his country, was +a destructive, or leveller. Quite the contrary; they were all +conservatives,--using that word in its best sense,--and the friends of +property. The lands to which their laws applied, or were intended to +apply, were public lands, answering, in some sense, to those which are +owned by the United States. When Spurius Cassius, a quarter of a century +after that revolution which is known as the expulsion of the Tarquins, +proposed a division of a portion of the public land among the poor +commons, he did no more than had often been done by the Roman kings, +with good effect, and with strict legality. Much of the public land was +_occupied_ by wealthy men, as tenants of the state; and some of these +his law would have ousted from profitable spots, while the rest were to +be forced to pay their rents, which they had done very irregularly or +not at all. The operation of all Agrarian laws like that of Cassius was, +undoubtedly, a matter well to be considered; for, after a man has long +occupied a piece of land, he regards it as an act of injustice to be +peremptorily removed therefrom, and he ought to have, at least, the +privilege of buying it, if its possession be necessary to his support. +This feeling must have been the stronger in the bosom of the Roman +occupant in proportion to his poverty, but to legal possession he could +make no claim. The position he held was that of tenant at will to the +state, and he could be legally ejected at any moment. But it was not +from poor occupants of the public domain, whose number was necessarily +small, that opposition was experienced. It came from the rich, who had +all but monopolized the use of that domain; and, in the time of Spurius +Cassius, it was complicated with that quarrel of _caste_ which we +denominate the contest between the Patricians and the Plebeians. +Property and political power were both involved in the dispute. The +Patricians knew that the success of Cassius would make against them in +two ways:--it would strengthen the Plebeians, by lifting them out of the +degradation consequent on poverty, and so render them more dangerous +antagonists in political warfare; and it would render the Patricians +less able to contend with aspiring foes, by taking from them one of the +sources of their wealth. Cassius failed, and was executed, having been +tried and condemned by the Patricians, who then alone constituted the +Roman people. + +More than a century after the failure of Cassius, the Agrarian question +was again brought before the Roman nation, on a large scale. This was +the time when the famous Licinian rogations, by the adoption of which +a civil revolution was effected in Rome, were brought forward. They +provided for the passage of an Agrarian law, for an equitable settlement +of debts, and that thereafter one of the two Consuls should always be +a Plebeian. It is something to be especially noted, that C. Licinius +Stolo, the man from whom these laws take their name, was not a needy +political adventurer, but a very wealthy man, his possessions being +mainly in land; and that he belonged to a _gens_ (the Licinii) who were +noted in after days for their immense wealth, among them being that +Crassus whose avarice became proverbial, and whose surname was _Dives_, +or _the Rich_. The Licinian Agrarian law provided, that no one should +_possess_ more than five hundred jugers of the public land, (_ager +publicus_,) that the state should resume lands that had been illegally +seized by individuals, that a rent should be paid by the occupants of +the public domain, that only freemen should be employed on that domain, +and that every Plebeian should receive seven jugers of the public land +in absolute property, to be taken from those lands which the state was +to resume from Patricians who _possessed_ (that is to say, who occupied) +more than five hundred jugers. Such were the main provisions of the law, +which did not touch private property of any kind. The state was merely +to assert its undisputed legal right over the public domain, and the +Plebeians became landholders, which was the best thing that could happen +to the republic, and which was what was aimed at in every community of +antiquity. Even the partial observance of this law was the cause of the +supremacy of Rome being established over the finest portions of the +ancient world. Had Licinius failed, Rome would have gone down in her +contest with the Samnites, and the latter people would have become +masters of Italy. As it was, his success created the Roman people; and +from the time of that success must be dated the formation of the Roman +constitution as it was recognized and acted on during the best period of +the Republic. True, the Agrarian law was but one of three measures which +he carried through in the face of all the opposition the Patricians +could make; but the other laws were of a kindred character, and they all +worked together for good. It was the triumph of the Plebeians for the +benefit of all. The revolution then effected was strictly conservative +in its nature, and whatever of internal evil Rome afterwards experienced +was owing, not to the adoption of the Licinian law, but to the +departure by the state from the practice under it which it was intended +permanently to establish. + +The last great Agrarian contest which the Romans had was that which +takes its name from the Gracchi, and which began at the commencement of +the fourth generation before the birth of Christ. On the part of the +reformers, it was as strictly legal a movement as ever was known. Not +a single acre of private land was threatened by them; and whoever pays +attention to the details of their measures cannot fail to be struck with +the great concessions they were ready to make to their opponents,--the +men who had literally stolen the public property, and who pretended to +hold it as of right. Perhaps it was too late for any such reform as that +contemplated by the Gracchi to succeed, the condition of Rome then being +in no important respect like what it had been in the time of Licinius +Stolo; but one of the most interesting chapters in the history of things +which might have been is that which relates to the possible effect of +the Sempronian legislation. Had that legislation been fairly tried, +Roman history, and therefore human history, must have taken an entirely +different course, with an effect on the fortunes of every man born since +that time. Whether that effect would have been good or bad, who shall +say? But one thing is certain, and that is, that the Gracchi and their +supporters were not the enemies of property, and that their measures +were not intended to interfere with the private estate of any citizen of +the Roman Republic. + +Such was the Agrarianism, and such were the Agrarian laws and the +Agrarian contests of Rome, which were so long misunderstood; and through +that misunderstanding has the word Agrarian, so proper in itself, +been made to furnish one of the most reproachful terms that violent +politicians have ever used when seeking to bespatter their foes. It will +be seen that the word has been applied in "the clean contrary way" to +that in which it should have been applied, and that, strictly speaking, +an Agrarian is a conservative, a man who asks for justice,--not a +destructive, who, in his desire to advance his own selfish ends or those +of his class, would trample on law and order alike. It is only within +the last seventy years that the world has been made to comprehend that +it had for fifty generations been guilty of gross injustice to some of +the purest men of antiquity; and it is not more than thirty years since +the labors of Niebuhr made the truth generally known,--if it can, +indeed, be said to be so known even now. The Gracchi long passed for a +couple of demagogues, who were engaged in seditious practices, and who +were so very anxious to propitiate "the forum populace" that they were +employed in perfecting plans for the division of all landed property +amongst its members, when they were cut off by a display of vigor on the +part of the government. "The Sedition of the Gracchi" was for ages one +of the common titles for a chapter in the history of Republican Rome; +yet it did not escape the observation of one writer of no great +learning, who published before Heyne's attention was drawn to the +subject, that, if there were sedition in the affair, it was quite as +much the sedition of the Senate against the Gracchi as it was the +sedition of the Gracchi against the Senate.[A] + +[Footnote A: We have taken for granted the soundness of the views of +Niebuhr on the Roman Agrarian contests and laws, that eminent scholar +having followed in the track of Heyne with distinguished success; but +it must be allowed that in some respects his positions have been not +unsuccessfully assailed. Those who would follow up the subject are +recommended to study Ihne's _Researches into the History of the Roman +Constitution_, in which some of Niebuhr's views are energetically +combated. The main points, however, that the Agrarian laws were not +directed against private property, or aimed at placing all men on a +social equality, may be considered as established. Yet it must in candor +be admitted that the general subject is still involved in doubts, the +German commentators having thrown as much fog about some portions of the +Roman Constitution as they have thrown light upon other portions of it.] + +The feeling that was allowed to have such sway in Rome, and the triumph +of which was followed with such important consequences, has often +manifested itself in modern times, in the course of great political +struggles, and has proved a powerful disturbing cause on several +occasions. One of these occasions has fallen under the observation of +the existing generation, and some remarks on it may not be out of place. + +The French Revolution of 1848 was followed by an alarm on the part of +men of property, or of those whose profits depended on the integrity of +property being respected, which produced grave effects, the end whereof +is not yet. That revolution was the consequence of a movement as +purely political as the world ever saw. There was discontent with the +government of M. Guizot, which extended to the royal family, and in +which the _bourgeoisie_ largely shared, the very class upon the support +of which the House of Orleans was accustomed to rely. Had the government +yielded a little on some political points, and made some changes in the +administration, Louis Philippe might have been living at the Tuileries +at this very moment, or sleeping at St. Denis. But, insanely obstinate, +under dominion of the venerable delusion that obstinacy is firmness, the +King fell, and with him fell, not merely his own dynasty, but the whole +system of government which France had known for a generation, and +under which she was, painfully and slowly, yet with apparent sureness, +becoming a constitutional state. A warm political contest was converted +into a revolution scarcely less complete than that of 1789, and far more +sweeping than that of 1830. Perhaps there would have been little to +regret in this, had it not been, that, instead of devoting their +talents to the establishing of a stable republican government, several +distinguished Frenchmen, whom we never can think capable of believing +the nonsense they uttered, began to labor to bring about a sort of +social Arcadia, in which all men were to be made happy, and which was to +be based on contempt for political economy and defiance of common +sense. Property, with its usual sensitiveness, took the alarm, and the +Parisians soon had one another by the throat. How well founded was +this alarm, it would be difficult to say. Most likely it was grossly +exaggerated, and had no facts of importance to go upon. That among the +disciples of M. Louis Blanc there were gentlemen who had no respect for +other men's property, because they had no property of their own, it is +quite safe to believe; but that they had any fixed ideas about seizing +property, or of providing labor at high wages for workmen, it would be +impossible to believe, even if Albert, _ouvrier_, that most mythical +of revolutionists, were to make solemn affidavit of it on the works of +Aurora Dudevant. Some vague ideas about relieving the wants of the poor, +Louis Blanc and his associates had, just as all men have them who have +heads to see and hearts to feel the existence of social evils. Had they +obtained possession of the French government, immediately after Louis +Philippe, to use his own words, had played the part of Charles X., they +would have failed utterly, as Lamartine and his friends failed, and much +sooner too. Lamartine failed as a statesman,--he lacked that power +to govern which far less able men than he have exhibited under +circumstances even more trying than those into which he so unguardedly +plunged,--and Louis Blanc would have been no more successful than the +poet. The failure of the "Reds" would have been the more complete, +if they had had an opportunity to attempt the realization of the +Socialistic theories attributed to them, but which few of their number +could ever have entertained. They sought political power for the usual +purposes; but as they stood in the way of several other parties, those +parties united to crush them, which was done in "the Days of June." It +is easy to give a fallen enemy a bad name, and the conquered party on +that occasion were stigmatized as the enemies of everything that men +hold dear, particular emphasis being laid on their enmity to property, +which men hold dearer than all other things combined. The belief seems +to have been all but universal throughout Europe, and to have been +shared by many Americans, that the party which was conquered in the +streets of Paris by Cavaignac was really an organization against +property, which it meant to steal, and so afford a lively illustration +of the doctrine attributed to it, that property is theft. To this +belief, absurd as it was, must we look for the whole course of European +history during the last ten years. The restoration of the Napoleonic +dynasty in France, the restoration of the Papacy by French soldiers, the +reëstablishment of Austrian ascendency over Italy, and the invasion of +Hungary by the Russians,--these and other important events that have +happened under our eyes, and which have enabled us to see history in the +making on a large scale, all are directly traceable to the alarm which +property experienced immediately after the class of property-holders had +allowed the Revolution of February to take place, and to sweep away that +dynasty in which their principles stood incarnate. The French imperial +throne is in an especial manner the result of that alarm. When +General Cavaignac had succeeded in conquering the "Reds," a military +dictatorship followed his victory as a matter of course, and it remained +with him to settle the future of France. The principles of his family +led him to sympathize with the "oppressed nationalities" which were +then struggling in so many places for freedom; and had he interfered +decidedly in behalf of the Italians and Hungarians, he would have +changed the fate of Europe. He would have become the hero of the great +_political_ movement which his country had inaugurated, and his sword +would have outweighed the batons of Radetzky and Paskevitsch. Both +principle and selfishness pointed to such intervention, and there can be +no doubt that the Republican Dictator seriously thought of it. But the +peculiarities of his position forbade his following the path that was +pointed out to him. As the champion of property, as the chief of the +coalesced parties which had triumphed over "the enemies of property" in +the streets and lanes of "the capital of civilization," he was required +to concentrate his energies on domestic matters. Yet further: all men in +other countries who were contending with governments were looked upon by +the property party in France as the enemies of order, as Agrarians, who +were seeking the destruction of society, and therefore were not worthy +of either the assistance or the sympathy of France; so that the son of +the old Conventionist of '93 was forced, by the views of the men of whom +he so strangely found himself the chief, to become in effect the ally of +the Austrian Kaiser and the Russian Czar. The Italians, who were seeking +only to get rid of "barbarian" rule, and the Hungarians, who were +contending for the preservation of a polity as old as the English +Constitution against the destructives of the imperial court, were held +up to the world as men desirous in their zeal for revolution to overturn +all existing institutions! Aristocrats with pedigrees that shamed those +of the Bourbon and the Romanoff were spoken of in language that might +possibly have been applicable to the lazzaroni of Naples, that lazzaroni +being on the side of the "law and order" classes. As General Cavaignac +did nothing to win the affections of the French people, as he was the +mere agent of men rendered fierce by fear, it cannot be regarded as +strange, that, when the Presidential election took place, he found +himself nowhere in the race with Louis Napoleon. He was deserted even by +a large portion of the men whose work he had done so well, but who +saw in the new candidate for their favor one who could become a more +powerful protector of property than the African general,--one who had a +name of weight, not merely with the army, but with that multitudinous +peasant class from which the French army is mainly conscribed, and +which, containing numerous small property-holders, is fanatically +attached to the name of Napoleon. Thus the cry of "Property in danger" +ended, in 1851, in the restoration of open despotism, which every +sensible observer of French affairs expected after Louis Napoleon was +made President, his Presidency being looked upon only as a pinch-beck +imitation of the Consulate of 1799-1804. This is the ordinary course +of events in old countries: revolution, fears of Agrarianism, and +the rushing into the jaws of the lion in order to be saved from the +devouring designs of a ghost. + +Those who recollect the political literature of the years that passed +between the Revolution of February and the commencement of those +disputes which eventuated in the Russian War must blush for humanity. +Writers of every class set themselves about the work of exterminating +Agrarianism in France. Grave arguments, pathetic appeals, and lively +ridicule were all made use of to drive off enemies of whose coming upon +Europe there was no more danger than of a return of the Teutones and the +Cimbri. Had the arguments and adjurations of the clever men who waged +war on the Agrarians been addressed to the dust of the Teutones +whom Marius exterminated in Provence, they could not have been more +completely thrown away than they were. Some of these men, however, were +less distinguished for cleverness than for malignity, and shrieked for +blood and the display of brute force in terms that would have done +dishonor even to a St. Bartholomew assassin or anti-Albigensian +crusader. Monsieur Romieu held up _Le Spectre Rouge_ to the eyes of a +generation incapable, from fright, of distinguishing between a scarecrow +and the Apollo. The Red Spectre haunted him, and the people for whom he +wrote, as relentlessly as the Gray Spectre came upon the chiefs of Ivor. +He saw in the working classes--those men who asked then, as in modern +times they have only asked, "leave to toil"--millions of creatures +"regimented by hatred," and ready to throw themselves upon society. In +the past he saw nothing so much to be admired as the Feudal System, it +was so very summary and trenchant in its modes of dealing with masses +of men so unreasonable as to grumble when they were starving. In the +present, all that he could reverence was the cannonarchy of Russia, +which he invoked to restore to France that golden age in which Crécy and +Poictiers were fought, and when the Jacquerie illustrated the attachment +of the serf to the seigneur. How this invoker of Cossacks and cannon +from the Don and the Neva "to regulate the questions of our age" on the +Seine and the Marne would have stared, could the curtain that hides the +future have been drawn for a moment, to allow him to see a quarter of a +million of French, English, and Italian soldiers on the shores of the +Euxine, and eight hundred Western cannon raining that "hell-fire" upon +the august city of Catherine under which it became a heap of ruins! Yet +the man was undoubtedly sincere, as political fools almost invariably +are. He had faith in nothing but armies and forts, but his faith in +them was of the firmest. He despised the Bourbons and the _bourgeoisie_ +alike, and would be satisfied with nothing short of a national chief +as irresponsible as Tamerlane; and if he should be as truculent as +Tamerlane, it was not difficult to see that M. Romieu would like him all +the better for it. Your true fanatic loves blood, and is provokingly +ingenious in showing how necessary it is that you should submit calmly +to have your throat cut for the good of society. M. Marat was a logician +of this sort, and M. Romieu is, after all, only a pale imitator of the +cracked horse-leech; but as he wrote in the interest of "order," and for +the preservation of property, we rarely hear of his thirst for blood. +Had he been a disciple of Marat, his words would have been quoted +annually in every abode of civilized men from Sacramento to Astrachan, +as evidence of the desire of popular leaders to lap blood. + +What has become of M. Romieu, and how he took Louis Napoleon's energetic +measures for laying the Red Ghost in the blood of aristocrats as well as +of democrats, we know not. He ought to have been charmed with the _coup +d'état_; for the man who conceived and executed that measure for his +own benefit professed to act only for the benefit of society, the +maintenance of the rights of property being kept by him especially in +view. He, too, charged his enemies, or those whom he thought endowed +with the desire and the ability to resist him, with Agrarianism; and +such Agrarians as Thiers and Cavaignac were seized in their beds, and +imprisoned,--to prevent their running away with the Great Book of +France, one is at liberty to suppose. There was something shockingly +ludicrous in charging the hero and victor of the Days of June with +designs against property; but the charge may have led Cavaignac to have +doubts whether he had not himself been a little too ready to believe +the charge of Agrarianism when preferred against a large number of the +people of France, whom he had treated with grape-shot by way of teaching +them respect for the rights of property. There is nothing like bringing +injustice home to a man to open his eyes to its evil nature. Of all +public men of our generation who have signally failed, Cavaignac must +be held the most unfortunate; for his intentions were excellent, and he +died just as circumstances were about to afford him an opportunity to +retrieve his fame. His last days must have been the reverse of agreeable +in their retrospect; for it must constantly have been forced upon his +mind that he had been made the chief instrument in the work of fastening +upon the country he loved the most odious of the many despotic +governments it has known,--a government that confesses its inability to +stand against the "paper shot" of journalists, and which has shackled +the press after the fashion of Austrian and Russian dynasties; and all +this had taken place, as he must have seen in his retirement, as the +consequence of his having mistaken the voice of a party for the voice +of France. The lesson is one that ought to go home to the hearts of all +public men, and to those of American statesmen in particular, some +of the ablest of whom are now engaged in doing the behests of an +oligarchical faction in the name of the interests of property. + + * * * * * + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued] + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +A slow and weary walk had Mr. Lindsay from the station to his house. It +was after sunset, dark and cold, as he turned in at the gate. The house +was dimly lighted, and no one save the Newfoundland dog came to greet +him at the door. He did not hear his daughter singing as she was +accustomed at evening. There were no pleasant voices, no light and +cheerful steps in the rooms. All was silence. The ill news had preceded +him. His wife without a word fell on his bosom and wept. Clara kept her +seat, trying in vain, while her lip quivered and her eyes dimmed, to fix +her attention upon the magazine she had held rather than read. At length +Mr. Lindsay led his wife to the sofa and sat beside her, holding +her hand with a tenderness that was as soothing as it was uncommon. +Prosperity had not hardened his heart, but business had preoccupied it; +though his manner had been kind, his family had rarely seen in him any +evidence of feeling. + +Misfortune had now brought back the rule of his better nature, and the +routine life he had led was at an end. + +"My dear wife, what I have most dreaded in this crash is the pain, the +anxiety, and the possible discomfort it would bring to you and to Clara. +For myself I care nothing. It is a hard trial, but I shall conform to +our altered circumstances cheerfully." + +"And so shall we, father," said Clara. "We shall be happy with you +anywhere." + +"One thing, I am sure, you can never lose," said Mrs. Lindsay,--"and +that is an honorable name." + +"I have tried to do my duty. I gave up only when I found I must. But my +duty is not yet done." + +"Why, father?" + +"My creditors have claims which I regard as sacred, and which must be +paid, ultimately, at whatever sacrifice." + +"Won't the property at the store be enough when you can sell it?" asked +Mrs. Lindsay. "You have spoken of the quantity of goods you had on +hand." + +"I can't say, my dear. It depends upon how much time I have. If I could +have effected sales, I should have been safe." + +"If they have the goods, won't they be satisfied?" asked Clara. + +"You don't understand, my daughter, that all I have is at their command. +If the property does not liquidate the debts, then the house, the +carriage and horses, the furniture, the"---- + +The possible surrender of all that had made life pleasant to his family +was not to be considered without emotion, and Mr. Lindsay found himself +unable to finish the sentence. + +"Dear father!" exclaimed Clara, seizing and kissing his hand, as she sat +down at his feet,--"you are just and noble. We could not be selfish or +complaining when we think of you. Let everything go. I love the dear old +house, the garden that has been your pride, the books and pictures; but +we shall be nearer together--shan't we, papa?--in a cottage. If they do +sell my piano, I can still sing to you; nobody can take that pleasure +from us." + +"Bless you, my daughter! I feel relieved,--almost happy. Your cheerful +heart has given me new courage. Perhaps we shall not have to make the +sacrifices I dread. Whatever happens, my darling, your piano shall be +kept. I will sell my watch first. Your music will be twice as dear in +our days of adversity." + +"Yes, papa,--if we keep the piano, I can give lessons." + +"You give lessons? Nonsense! But get up, pussy; here, sit on my knee." + +He fondled her like a child, and they all smiled through their +tears,--heavenly smiles! blissful tears! full of a feeling of which the +heart in prosperous days has no conception! + +"One thing has happened to-day," said Mr. Lindsay, "that I shall never +forget,--an action so generous and self-forgetful that it makes one +think better of mankind. I remember hearing a preacher say that no +family knew all their capabilities of love until death had taken one of +their number,--not their love for the dead, but their deeper affection +for each other after the loss. I suppose every calamity brings its +compensations in developing noble traits of character; and it is almost +an offset to failure itself to have such an overflowing feeling as +this,--to know that there are so many sympathizing hearts. But what I +was going to speak of was the conduct of my clerk, Monroe. He is a fine +fellow,--rather more given to pictures and books and music than is good +for a business man; but with a clear head, a man's energy, and a woman's +heart. He has a widowed mother, whom he supports. I never knew he had +any property till to-day. It seems his father left ten thousand dollars. +He knew that my situation was desperate, and yet he offered me his all. +It would only have put off the day of failure; but I was selfish enough +to be willing to take it. He had deposited the securities for the amount +with Sandford, who first borrowed money in the street by pledging them, +and then failed to-day. Monroe has lost his all; but his intention was +as noble as if he had saved me. I shall never forget it; and as long as +I have a dollar he shall share it." + +"What a noble fellow!" said Mrs. Lindsay. "How pleasant to think that in +this terrible scramble for life there are some who have not lost their +humanity, nor trampled down their finer feelings!" + +"I couldn't but contrast this kindness on the part of a clerk, for whom +I have never done anything beyond paying him his well-earned salary, +with the conduct of Mr. Bullion. I gave him my indorsement repeatedly, +and assisted him in procuring loans, when he was not so rich as he is +now. I know he has resources, ready money,--money that he does not need +for any outstanding debts, but which he must keep for speculation. But +he refused to do anything. 'Couldn't,' he said, 'really; times were +hard; everybody wanted to borrow; couldn't lend to everybody; hadn't the +funds; much as he could do to stand up himself.' There was no sincerity +in his look. I saw his soul skulking away behind his subterfuges like a +spider in the depths of his flimsy web. He seems to thrive, however, in +the midst of general ruin. I've no doubt he lives like a vulture, on the +dead and dying." + +"Is Mr. Bullion that short man, father, with the cold eyes and gruff +voice, and the queer eyebrow which he seems to poke at people?" + +"Yes, my daughter, that is the man." + +"Well, I'm sure, he is coarse, disagreeable, hard-hearted. I'm glad you +are not under obligations to him." + +"My only regret is that I had the mortification of being refused. I wish +I had never asked him. I can't think of his look and tone without a pang +of shame, or wounded pride, if you choose to call it so, harder to +bear than a blow in the face. I had a claim upon his gratitude, but he +remembers a favor no more than a wolf does the mutton he ate a year +ago.--But enough of business. The bitterness has passed since we have +talked together. Let us be cheerful. Come, Clara, sing some of those +sweet old ballads!" + +From her infancy until now in her twentieth year, Clara had been +constantly with her father,--but she had never known him before. + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Early next morning the officer in charge of Mr. Sandford's house was +relieved by a brother constable. Number Two was a much more civil person +in speech and manner than Number One; in fact, he speedily made himself +so agreeable to the housemaid that she brought him a cup of coffee, and +looked admiringly while he swallowed it. By the time Mrs. Sandford and +Marcia came down to breakfast, he had established an intimacy with Biddy +that was quite charming to look upon. One would have thought he was an +old friend of the household,--a favored crony; such an easy, familiar +air he assumed. He accosted the ladies with great gallantry,--assured +them that they were looking finely,--hoped they had passed a pleasant +night, and that Number One had given them no unnecessary inconvenience. +Marcia met him with a haughty stare which nobody but a woman of fashion +can assume. Turning to Mrs. Sandford, she exclaimed,-- + +"Who is this fellow?" + +Number Two hastened to answer for himself:-- + +"My name, Ma'am, is Scarum, Harum Scarum some of the young lawyers call +me. Ha!" (_A single laugh, staccato_.) + +"Well, Mr. Scarum, you can keep your compliments for those who +appreciate them. Come, Lydia, let us go down to breakfast. The presuming +fool!" she exclaimed, as she passed through the hall,--"he's worse +than the other. One can put up with a coarse man, if he minds his own +business; but an impudent, self-satisfied fellow must be made to know +his place." + +"High-strung filly! ha!" (_Sforzando_.) + +"May have to speak to common folks, yet,--eh, Miss Bridget?" + +But farther conversation was interrupted for the time. Bridget was +summoned by the bell to the dining-room, and gallant Number Two was left +alone in the parlor. Meanwhile he surveyed the room as minutely as if +it had been a museum,--trying the rocking-chair, examining pictures, +snapping vases with his unpared nails, opening costly books, smelling of +scent-bottles, scanning the anti-Macassars and the Berlin-wool mats. At +last he opened the piano, and, in a lamentably halting style, played, +"Then you'll remember me," using only a forefinger in the performance. +He sang at the same time in a suppressed tone, while he cast agonizing +looks at an imaginary obdurate female, supposed to be on the sofa, +occasionally glancing with admiration in the mirror at the intensely +pathetic look his features wore. + +Marcia, meanwhile, had borne the noise as long as she could; so Biddy +was dispatched to ask the singer if he would not _please_ to do his +practising at some other time. + +"Practising, indeed!" exclaimed Number Two, indignantly, upon receiving +the message. "There are people who think I can sing. These women, +likely, a'n't cultivated enough to appreciate the 'way-up music. They're +about up to that hand-organ stuff of Sig-ner Róssyni, likely. They +can't understand Balfy; they a'n't up to it. What do _you_ think, Miss +Bridget? Nice figger, that of yours." (_Sotto voce_.) "None of the +tall, spindlin', wasp-waisted, race-horse style about you, like that" +(pointing down-stairs). "A good plump woman for me! and a woman with an +ear, too! Now _you_ know what good singin' is. I led the choir down to +Jorumville 'bove six months b'fore I come down here and went into the +law. But _she_ thinks I was practising! Ha!" (_Sempre staccato_.) + +"La! did ye?" said the admiring Biddy. + +Tinkle, tinkle, again. Biddy was now summoned to call Charles, and see +if he would breakfast. Number Two made another tour of the room, with +new discoveries. While absorbed in this pleasing employment, the two +women passed upstairs. Marcia could not restrain herself, as she saw him +with her favorite bird-of-paradise fan. + +"Don't spoil those feathers, you meddlesome creature!" + +"Beg your pardon, Ma'am" (with an elaborate bow). "Merely admirin' the +colors. Pretty sort of a thing, this 'ere! 'Most too light and fuzzy for +a duster, a'n't it? Feathers ben dyed, most likely? Willin' to 'bleege +the fair, however, especially one so handsome." (Rubbing it on his +coat-sleeve.) "Guess't a'n't got dirty any." + +Charles, meanwhile, had risen and dressed, and came out when Bridget +knocked; a spectacle, indeed,--a walking sermon on the perils that may +follow what are termed "good times." His face would have been pale, +except that his nose, which was as puffy as an _omelette soufflée_, and +his left eye with a drooping lid sustained by a livid crescent, gave it +a rubicund expression. His knees were shaky, his pulse feeble, his head +top-heavy. He declined assistance rather sulkily, and descended holding +by the stair-rail and stepping gingerly. Number Two, in spite of his +genial, unruffled temper, could not repress his surprise, as the +apparition passed the parlor-door. + +"A rum customer! Ha!" (_Con anima_.) + +Before the repentant owner of the puffy nose and purple eyelid had +finished his solitary breakfast, Mr. Sandford came home. He had obtained +bail and was at large. Looking hastily into the parlor, he saw +a stranger, with his hat jauntily on one side, seated in the +damask-covered chair, with his feet on an embroidered ottoman, turning +over a bound collection of sea-mosses, and Marcia's guitar lying across +his lap. He was dumb with astonishment. Polite Number Two did not leave +him to burst in ignorance. + +"All right. Mr. Sandford, I suppose. An 'tachment put on, and I'm +keeper. Sorry to disturb a family. But somebody has to. Can I do anything +to obleege you?" + +"Yes, by laying down that book which you are spoiling. And you may take +your greasy boots off that worsted-work, and put the stopper into that +Bohemian-glass bottle." + +"Beg your pardon, Sir. Didn't intend to make trouble. Boots has to be +greased, you know, else they crack all out, an' don't last no time; mine +do. This 'ere Cologne is nice, to be sure. I jest poured out a bit on my +pocket-handkercher." + +"Cologne! It's attar of roses; and you've spilled more than your neck is +worth,--taking yourself at your own valuation." + +"Why, you don't say this is high-cost? It does smell good, though, ha!" + +As he started to go up-stairs, Mr. Sandford saw the linen carpet-cover +spattered with frequent drops of blood. He called aloud to his sister,-- + +"Marcia! are you there? alive? What's the meaning of this blood? Who has +been murdered? Or is this turned into a butcher's shop?" + +Marcia and her sister-in-law descended, and hurriedly explained the +mystery. While they were standing at the head of the stairs, Charles +made his appearance, and received such congratulations from his brother +as might be expected. He vouchsafed no word of reply, but went into +the room where he had slept to get some article he had left. A sudden +thought struck Mr. Sandford. He followed Charles into the room, and in a +moment after returned,--but so changed! Imagine Captain Absolute at +the duelling-ground turned in a twinkling into Bob Acres, Lucy Bertram +putting on the frenzied look of Meg Merrilies, or the even-tempered +Gratiano metamorphosed into the horror-stricken, despairing Shylock +at the moment he hears his sentence, and you have some notion of the +expression which Sandford's face wore. His eyes were fixed like baleful +lights in a haggard, corpse-like countenance. His hair was disordered. +He clutched his cravat as though suffocating. His voice was gone; he +whispered feebly, like one of Ossian's ghosts,-- + +"Gone! gone! Who has it? Marcia! Lydia! Charles! Who's got it? Quick! +The money! Gone?" + +He rushed into the room again, deaf to any reply. He got upon his hands +and knees, looked under the bed, the wardrobe, the dressing-table, the +chairs, muttering all the while with a voice like a dying man's. He rose +up, staggering, and seized Marcia by the arm, who trembled with terror +at his ferocity. + +"The money! Give me the money! You've got it! You know you have! Give it +to me! Give"-- + +"Pray, be calm," said Mrs. Sandford; "you shall know all about it." + +"I don't want to know," he almost screamed; "I want the money, the +money!" + +Then dropping his voice to a lower key, and with a tone which was meant +to be wheedling, he turned to his sister-in-law:-- + +"You've got it, then? How you frightened me! Come, dear sister! don't +trifle with me. I'm poor, very poor, and the little sum seems large. +Give it to me. Let me see that it is safe. _Dear_ sister!" + +"I haven't it," said Mrs. Sandford, "But compose yourself. You shall +know about it." + +He cried audibly, like a sickly child. + +"It isn't gone? No, you play upon my fears. Where is the pocket-book?" + +"How are you ever going to know, if you won't hear?" asked Marcia. "I +wouldn't be so unmanly as to whine so even about a million." + +"No, you think money is as plenty as buttons. Wait till you +starve,--starve,--till you beg on a street-crossing." + +"Listen," said Mrs. Sandford. + +"Do, and stop your groaning like a madman," said Marcia, consolingly. +"When Charles met with his mishap and fell senseless, we asked the +officer to carry him up-stairs. Rather than go up another flight, we had +him taken into your chamber. Your dressing-case lay on the table, in +the middle of the room, away from its usual place by the mirror. The +officer at once seized and opened it. You had carelessly left your money +in it. He was evidently informed of the fact that you had money, and was +directed to attach it. He counted the package before me, and then put it +into his pocket." + +During this recital, Mr. Sandford's breath came quick and his eyes +opened wider. His muscles all at once seemed charged with electricity. +He dashed down-stairs, half-a-dozen steps at a time, and pounced upon +unlucky Number Two, who, with the captivated Biddy, was leaning at the +parlor-door, listening to the conversation above. Seizing the officer by +the throat, Sandford shouted huskily,-- + +"Robber! thief! Give up that money! How dare you? Give it up, I say!" + +Number Two could not answer, for his windpipe was mortally squeezed +under the iron grip of his adversary; therefore, as the only reply he +could make, he commenced the manual exercise right and left, and with +such effect, that Sandford loosened his hold and staggered back. + +"There! I guess you've got enough on't. What ye talkin' about money? I +a'n't got any of your money." + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Sandford, who had followed the infuriated man, though +necessarily at some distance, came and grasped his arm. + +"The man who seized the money is gone," she said. "This is the one who +takes his place." + +Sandford was speechless,--but not long. While hope remained, he had +whined, begged, cried, implored. Now that he was baffled, discomfited, +ruined, his rage broke out. The placid gentleman, whose glossy garb and +quiet air a day before made such a picture of content, would hardly +be recognized in this furious, gesticulating lunatic, whose oaths and +objurgations came belching forth like sulphurous flames. It was on his +gentle sister-in-law that the weight of his wrath fell. She tried to +pacify him, until she became actually alarmed for her safety, and turned +to fly. + +"Go!" he exclaimed. "You've done enough. You've ruined me. Pack off! +You've beggared me. Now look out for yourself! Don't let me see your +face again!" + +Trembling and tearful, Mrs. Sandford went to her room to gather +her wardrobe. She had not intended to remain a burden upon her +brother-in-law. Now she must go at once. Even if he were to repent of +his blind rage and ask her forgiveness, she felt that there was an +impassable gulf between them. + +During the confusion that followed, Number Two, feeling hungry, went +down with Biddy to lunch. + +"It's about the last ov it here, Sirr," said the girl, "an' we may as +well ate what is good and drink something betther than cold wather." + +So saying, the best the house afforded was set out;--wines of rare +vintages were uncorked, and glasses hob-a-nobbed. + +Mr. Sandford, exhausted with his delirium, went to his room, and there +languidly paced the floor back and forth, without cessation, like a +caged white bear in midsummer. Charles crawled up to his own bed. Marcia +remained in the parlor, her busy brain turning over the unusual events +of the day, and wondering what loop-hole of escape from their present +difficulties could be found. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The door-bell rang. Biddy, occupied with her pleasing duties as hostess, +and flushed with drinking crusty old Port and "Lafitte 1844," did not +hear. Some sudden impulse or vague prescience moved Marcia to open the +door herself. It was Greenleaf. Notwithstanding the untoward state of +affairs, she could not deny herself the pleasure of meeting him, and +ushered him into the parlor, then fortunately vacant. + +A cooler observer would have noticed something peculiar in his carriage +as he crossed the hall,--an unnatural pallor, a sharpness in the angles +of his mouth, a quicker respiration, and a look of mingled firmness and +sorrow in his eyes. A stranger might have thought him in a state of +chronic nervous irritability or mild insanity. And truly, a sensitive +man, perplexed between conflicting duties, spurred by conscience, yet +wanting in courage to do its bidding, presents a pitiable spectacle; it +is a position of sharp suspense which no mind can hold long;--relief +must come, in heartbreak or darkness, if in no other way. + +When Greenleaf parted from Marcia, the morning before, he intended to +wait a week at least before telling her of his changed feelings. He did +not know what a burden he had undertaken to carry; he staggered under +it, like the pilgrim in Bunyan's immortal story. Besides, after he had +once come to a determination, he was impatient to see Alice and implore +her forgiveness. Minutes were days while he waited. To pass a week in +this way was not to be thought of, unless by means of ether or mesmerism +he could fly from himself and find peace in oblivion. + +"My dear George," Marcia began, "it is so kind of you to come with your +sympathy! We are dreadfully cast down. What is to be done I don't know." + +"You surprise me! What has happened? I have scarcely been out of my +studio since I last saw you." + +"But it's in all the papers!" + +"I haven't seen a paper." + +"What I told you yesterday has come to pass. Henry has failed; so +has the Vortex,--and Mr. Fayerweather, the President,--and Mr. +Stearine,--and everybody else, I believe. We shall probably leave the +house and take lodgings." + +Every word was a pang to Greenleaf. Again his heart, full of sympathy +for the woman's distress, whispered, "Wait! don't wound the stricken +deer!" But he hugged his resolve and steeled himself against pity. + +"I am truly sorry to hear of your brother's misfortunes. But with his +talents and reputation, and with his troops of friends in business +circles as well as in the various charitable societies, it cannot be +that he will long be depressed. He will work his way back to his old +position, or even a higher one." + +Marcia shook her head doubtfully. She had not heard the rumors affecting +her brother's integrity, but she saw that his manly resolution was gone, +that he was vascillating, broken-spirited, and needed but little more +trouble to make him imbecile. + +"I was thinking of a case of conscience, as I came here," said +Greenleaf. "It was, How far a promise is binding, when it involves a +lasting and irretrievable wrong in its fulfilment." + +Marcia looked at him in dumb astonishment. He continued:-- + +"Suppose that you were to find, by-and-by, that your affections had +cooled towards me,--that you discovered incompatabilities of taste and +temper,--that you felt sure a true union of souls was impossible,--that +marriage would be only a mockery?" + +"Dear George, how you frighten me! Why do you ask such dreadful +questions in such a solemn way? You know I love you, heart and soul." + +"But consider the question as an abstract one. I ask you only to suppose +the case. Should you thrust conscience into the cellar, stifle its +outcries, and give your consent to a profanation of holy wedlock?" + +"I can't suppose the case. And I don't see the use of torturing one's +self with imaginary evils. The real troubles of life are quite enough to +bear." + +"I know such a case. I know a man who has to decide it. It is not a +light matter for any man, and his is a soul as sensitive as God ever +made. He was betrothed to a woman every way worthy; he loved her +sincerely. His chief fault, and a serious one it is, came from his +susceptibility to fresh impressions. The pleasure of the present had +more power over him than any recollections of the past. The influence of +the living woman at his side was greater, for the moment, than that of +any absent love. In an evil hour, he committed himself to another. She +was, doubtless, formed to inspire his passion and to return it. But he +was not free, and had no right to linger on forbidden ground. For weeks, +nay, months, he lived this false and wicked life, of a different mind +every day, and lacking the courage to meet the difficulty. At last he +became sure that his love belonged where his faith was due,--that, if he +would not live a wretched hypocrite, he must humble himself to confess +his criminal weakness, and return to his first engagement." + +He paused; he might well do so. Marcia, with some difficulty, was able +to say, through her chattering teeth,-- + +"You seem to take a deep interest in this weak-minded person." + +"I do,--the deepest. I am the man." + +She rose to her feet, and, looking scornfully down upon him, +exclaimed,-- + +"Then you acknowledge yourself a villain!--not from premeditation, which +would give your baseness some dignity, but a weakly fool, so tossed +about by Fate that he is made a villain without either desire or +resistance!" + +"You may overwhelm me with reproaches; I am prepared for them; I deserve +them. But God only knows through what a season of torture I have passed +to come to this determination." + +"A very ingenious story, Mr. Greenleaf! Do you suppose that the world +will believe it, the day after our losses? Do you expect me to believe +it, even?" + +"I told you that I had not heard of the failure. I am in the habit of +being believed." + +"For instance, when you vowed that you loved me, and me only!" + +"You may spare your taunts. But, to show you how mercenary I am, let me +assure you that the woman to whom my word is pledged, and to whom I must +return, is without any property or expectations." + +"Very well, Sir," said Marcia, rubbing her hands, in the endeavor to +conceal her agitation; "we need not waste words. After what you have +told me, I could only despise such a whiffler,--a scrap of refuse iron +at the mercy of any magnet,--a miller dashing into every fight. A lover +so helpless must needs have some new passional attraction--that is the +phrase, I believe--with every changing moon. The man I love should be +made of different stuff." She drew her figure up proudly, and her lips +curled like a beautiful fiend's. "He should bury the disgraceful secret, +if he had it, in his heart, and carry it to his grave. He would not cry +out like a boy with a cut finger." + +"Precisely, Miss Sandford. And for that reason you would be no mate for +me. My wife must have no skeletons in her closet." + +"Men generally claim the monopoly of those agreeable toys, I believe." + +"Love is impossible where there are concealments. A secret is like a +worm in the heart of an apple, and nothing but rottenness and corruption +follow." + +"Fortunately, you harbor none. You have turned your heart inside out, +like a peddler's pack,--and a gratifying display it made! I am more than +satisfied." + +"The tone you have adopted is a warning to me to stop. I wish to bandy +no epithets, or reproaches. I came sorrowfully to tell you what I have +told. I had no fault to impute to you. But I must confess that this +morning you have shown yourself capable of thoughts and feelings I never +suspected, and I shall leave you with a far lighter heart than I came." + +"You expected to see me at your feet, imploring your love and striving +to melt you by tears,--did you? It would have been a pleasing +triumph,--one that your sex prizes, I believe; but you have not been +gratified. I know what is due to myself, and I do not stoop. But there +may be ways to punish the betrayer of confidence," she said, with a +heaving bosom and distended nostrils. "I have a brother; and even if he +is forgetful, I shall not forget." + +"I am obliged to you for putting me on my guard. I wished to part +otherwise. Be it so, since you will." + +He turned to leave the room. Swift as lightning, she ran to the front +door and braced herself against it, at the same time calling loudly to +her brother. Mr. Sandford came to the top of the stairs and listened +with apparent apathy, while the maddened woman poured out her rage. He +stood a moment like one in a dream, and then slowly came down. + +"There is your cane," said Marcia, fiercely, pointing to the +umbrella-stand. + +"I give you fair warning," said Greenleaf, calmly, "that you will never +strike more than one blow. No man shall assault me but at the risk of +his life." + +"What is the need of this fury?" asked Mr. Sandford. "I don't want +to quarrel with a pauper. You are well rid of him. If you were to be +married, you'd only have the pleasure of going to Deer Island for your +bridal trip." + +"Then you will see me insulted without lifting a finger? Coward! Broken +down like a weed for the loss of a little money! I should be ashamed to +have a beard, if I had such a timid soul!" + +"I trust, Miss Sandford," said Greenleaf, "you do not wish to prolong +this scene. Let me pass." + +"Oh, yes,--you can go; can't he, brother?" + +She opened the door, looking scornfully from the one to the other. + +At that moment Mrs. Sandford came down, bringing a satchel, and asked +Greenleaf to walk with her until she could get a carriage. He cheerfully +promised his aid, and took the satchel. Her eyes were sadly beautiful, +and still humid from recent tears; and her face wore a touching look of +resignation. She did not speak to Mr. Sandford, who stood scowling at +her; but, taking Marcia's hand, she said,-- + +"Good bye, sister! I never thought to leave you in this way. I hope we +shall never see a darker hour. I shall send for my trunks presently. +Good bye!" + +"Good bye!" replied Marcia, mechanically. "You have a brave gallant! See +to it that he is not compelled by Destiny to make love to you on the +way!" + +Greenleaf, with his companion, descended the steps to the street, making +no reply to this amiable God-speed. + +Marcia shut the door, and with her brother returned to the parlor. At +the head of the stairs that led to the dining-room stood Number Two and +Biddy, who in stupid wonder had witnessed the scenes just described. + +"Bridget," exclaimed the enraged mistress, "what are you staring at? +Come here! Pah! you have been drinking! You, too, you creature!" + +Number Two bowed with maudlin politeness. + +"You-do-m'injustice, Ma'am. On'y a smallsup, a littlesup, +ponmyhonorasgen'l'man." + +"Bridget, do you pack up your baggage and be off! Rioting and feasting +in the time of our trouble! Ungrateful hussy!" + +"I'll do that same, Miss Marshy; but me waages, if ye plaze, Miss." + +"Get your wages, if you can. You've broken more crockery and glass, and +wasted more wines and preserves, than you ever earned." + +"That's always the way, Miss, I've noticed, when missuses was o' mind to +get claar of payin' the honest dues. But me brother"-- + +"Be off to your brother! But first go and cool your head under the +water-faucet." + +Muttering and whining, the disconsolate Biddy crept up to the attic for +her scanty wardrobe. + +"Here, fellow!" said Marcia to Number Two, whose foolish smiles at any +other time would have been ludicrous,--"go into the kitchen and get +sober." + +He obeyed like a spaniel. + +"Now, Henry," said Marcia, rather more composed, "let us do something at +once. It's plain that we can't live here for the house will be stripped; +and in our circumstances we would not stay, if we could. That fellow is +so far stupefied that we can save what we can carry away. If you have +any spirit left, help me pack our clothes and such things as can be put +into our trunks. Come! are you dreaming?" + +He started up and followed her like a child. With superhuman energy, +she ransacked the house and gathered the most valuable articles. Plate, +linen, dresses, Parian ware, books, furs, and jewelry were packed, +as securely as the time allowed. A carriage and a baggage-wagon were +ordered, and in an incredibly short period they were ready to start. + +"We have forgotten Charles," said Mr. Sandford. + +"True enough," said Marcia. "Go and call him; he is too handsome to be +spared from our party just now. Tell him to bring his clothes." + +The penitent came down, reluctantly; his nose was still puffy, and the +crescent under his eye rather more livid; muffled and cloaked, he +was led to the carriage. Mr. Sandford then remembered the cherished +parchment certificates and votes of thanks,--his title-deeds to +distinction. + +"Leave them," said his sister, contemptuously. "What are they good for? +A few commonplace autographs in tarnished gilt frames." + +Bridget, meanwhile, went off, threatening all sorts of reprisals on the +part of her brother, who "wouldn't see her imposed upon by the likes of +thim, not he!" From the kitchen, at intervals, came up doleful snatches +of "Then you'll remember me," interrupted by hiccoughs, and with +involuntary variations and cadenzas that would have driven "Balfy" mad. + +All was ready and they drove off. The house wherein had lived a +Benefactor of Mankind was deserted. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Greenleaf found a carriage for Mrs. Sandford, and accompanied her to a +private boarding-house, where she took lodgings; he then sent the driver +back for her trunks, and, having seen her comfortably provided for, +returned to his own rooms,--but not to remain there. He desired only to +leave a message on his door, explaining his absence. In less than an +hour he was in the railway-train, on his way to Innisfield. + +To the musing or drowsy traveller by rail how space and time are +annihilated! He is barely conscious of progress, only when the brakeman +with measured tone shouts the name of the station; he looks up from his +paper or rouses from his doze, looks out at the cheerless prospect, and +then settles himself for another thirty miles. Time passes as unobserved +as the meadows or bushy pastures that flit by the jarring window at +his ear. But with Greenleaf, the reader will believe, the case was far +different. He had never noticed before how slowly the locomotives really +moved. At each station where wood and water were to be taken, it seemed +to him the delay was interminable. His eager desire shot along the track +like electricity; and when at last he reached the place where he was to +leave the train, he had gone through a year of ordinary hopes and fears. +He mounted the stage-box and took his seat beside the buffalo-clad, +coarse-bearded, and grim driver. The road lay through a hilly country, +with many romantic views on either hand. It was late in the season to +see the full glories of autumn; but the trees were not yet bare, and in +many places the contrasts of color were exquisite. For once the driver +found his match; he had a passenger as taciturn as himself. For the +first few miles not a word was spoken, saving a few brief threats to the +horses; but at last Jehu could hold out no longer; his reputation was +in danger, if he allowed any one to be more silent than himself, and he +cautiously commenced a skirmish. + +"From Boston?" + +A nod was the only reply. + +"Belong about here?" + +"No," with a shake of the head. + +"Ben up here afore, though, I guess?" + +"Yes." + +"Thought I remembered. Year or so ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Had a great white cotton umbrill, a box like a shoe-kit, and suthin' +like a pair o' clo'es-frames?" + +Greenleaf could but smile at the description of his easel and artist's +outfit; still he contented himself with a brief assent. + +"Keeps tight as the bark to a white-oak," muttered Jehu to himself. +"Guess I'll try him on t'other side, seein' he's so offish." + +Then aloud,-- + +"Knowed Square Lee, I b'lieve?" + +"Yes," thundered Greenleaf, looking furiously at the questioner. + +The glance frightened Jehu's soul from the red-curtained windows, where +it had been peeping out, back to its hiding-place, wherever that might +be. + +"Well, yer needn't bite a feller's head off," muttered he, in the same +undertone as before. "And if ye want to keep to yerself, shet up yer +darned oyster-shell, and see how much you make by it. Not more'n four +and sixpence, I guess. Maybe you'll come back 'bout's wise as ye come." + +Thenceforward, Buffalo-coat was grim; his admonitions to the horses were +a trifle more emphatic; once he whistled a fragment of a minor stave, +but spoke not a word till the coach reached the tavern-door. + +"You can drive to Mr. Lee's house," said Greenleaf. + +"Want to go where he is?" replied Jehu, with a sardonic grin. "Wal, I'm +goin' past the meetin'us, and I'll set ye down at the graveyard." + +"What do you mean?" asked Greenleaf, between anger and terror, at this +brutal jest. + +"Why, he's dead, you know, and ben layin' up there on the side-hill a +fortnight." + +"Take me to the house, nevertheless." + +"Lee's house? 'Siah Stebbins, the lame shoemaker, he's jest moved +into't. Miss Stebbins, she can't 'commodate ye, most likely; got too +many children; a'n't over an' above neat, nuther." + +"Where is Miss Lee,--Alice,--his daughter?" + +"Wal, can't say;--gone off, I b'lieve." + +"She has relatives here, has she not?" + +"Guess not; never heerd of any." + +With a heavy heart, Greenleaf alighted at the tavern. Mr. Lee _dead_! +Alice left alone without friends, and now gone! The thought stunned, +overpowered him. While he had been treading the paths of dalliance, +forgetful of his obligations, the poor girl had passed through the great +trial of her life, the loss of her only parent and protector,--had met +the awful hour alone. Hardly conscious of what he did, he went to the +churchyard and sought for a new-made grave. The whole scene was pictured +to his imagination with startling vividness. He saw the fond father on +his death-bed, leaving the orphan to the kindness of strangers to his +blood,--the daughter weeping, disconsolate, the solitary mourner at the +funeral,--the desolate house,--the well-meant, but painful sympathy of +the villagers. He, meanwhile, who should have cheered and sustained her, +was afar off, neglectful, recreant to his vows. Could he ever forgive +himself? What would he not give for one word from the dumb lips, for one +look from the eyes now closed forever? + +But regrets were useless; his first duty was to the living; he must +hasten to find Alice. But how, where? It occurred to him that the +village lawyer was probably administrator of the estate, and could tell +him where Alice was. He went, therefore, to the lawyer's office. It was +shut, and a placard informed him that Mr. Blank was attending court +at the county-seat. The lawyer's housekeeper said that "Alice was to +Boston, with some relation or other,--a Mr. Monroe, she believed his +name was, but couldn't say for sartin. The Square could tell; but +he--wouldn't be back for three or four days." + +Leaving his card, with a request that Mr. Blank would communicate to him +Alice's address, Greenleaf hired a conveyance to the railway. He could +not remain in Innisfield an hour; it was a tomb, and the air stifled +him. On his way, he had ample opportunity to consider what a slender cue +he had to find the girl; for he thought of the long column of Monroes in +the "Directory"; and, besides, he did not feel sure that the housekeeper +had correctly remembered the name, even. + +We leave the repentant lover to follow on the track of Alice, assured +that he will receive sufficient punishment for his folly in the remorse +and anxiety he must feel. + +It is quite time that our neglected heroine should appear upon the +stage. Gentle Alice, orphaned, deserted, lonely; it is not from any +distrust as to her talents, her manners, or her figure, that she +has been made to wait so long for the callboy. The curtain rises. A +fair-haired girl of medium height, light of frame, with a face in whose +sad beauty is blended the least perceptible trace of womanly resolution. +She has borne the heaviest sorrow; for when she followed her father to +the grave she buried the last object of her love. The long, inexcusable +silence of Greenleaf had been explained to her; she now believed him +faithless, and had (not without a pang) striven to uproot his memory +from her heart. Courageous, but with more than the delicacy of her sex, +strong only in innocence and great-heartedness, mature in character and +feeling, but with fresh and tender sensibility, she appeals to all manly +and womanly sympathy. + +When the last ties that bound her to her native village were broken, she +accepted the hearty invitation of her cousin, Walter Monroe, and went +with him to Boston. The house at once became a home to her. Mrs. +Monroe received her as though she had been a daughter. Such a pretty, +motherless child,--so loving, so sincere! How could the kind woman +repress the impulse to fold her to her bosom? Not even her anxiety to +retain undivided possession of her son's heart restrained her. So Alice +lived, quiet, affectionate, but undemonstrative, as was natural after +the trials she had passed. Insensibly she became "the angel in the +house"; mother and son felt drawn to her by an irresistible attraction. +By every delicate kindness, by attention to every wish and whim, by +glances full of admiration and tenderness, both showed the power which +her beauty and goodness exerted. And, truly, she was worthy of the +homage. The younger men who saw her were set aflame at once, or sighed +afar in despair; while the elderly felt an unaccountable desire to pat +her golden head, pinch her softly-rounded cheek, and call her such +pet-names as their fatherly character and gray hair allowed. + +Fate had not yet done its worst; there were other troubles in store for +the orphan. She knew little of her kinsman's circumstances, but supposed +him to be at least beyond the reach of want. But not many days passed +before the failure of Sandford deprived him of his little patrimony, and +the suspension of Mr. Lindsay left him without employment. That evening, +when Walter came home, she unwillingly heard the conversation between +him and his mother in an adjoining room; and then she knew that her +kind friends were destitute. Her resolution was at once formed. With +as cheerful an air as she could assume, she took her place at the +tea-table, and in the conversation afterwards strove to hide her +desolate heart-sickness. On going to her room, she packed her simple +wardrobe, not without many tears, and then, with only indifferent +success, tried to compose her scattered senses in sleep. + +Next morning she strove to appear calm and cheerful, but a close +scrutiny might have detected the effort,--a deeper sorrow, perhaps, +about the heavy eyelids, and certainly a firmer pressure of the +sometimes tremulous lips. But Walter was too much occupied with the +conflict of his own feelings to observe her closely. While his mother +was engaged in her housewifely duties, he took Alice's hand, and for +the first time spoke of his losses, but expressed himself confident of +obtaining a new situation, and begged her to dismiss any apprehensions +from her mind. She turned her face that he might not see the springing +tears. He went on:-- + +"The sharpest pang I feel, Alice, is in the thought, that, with the loss +of my little fortune, and with my present gloomy prospects, I cannot say +to you what I would,--I cannot tell you what is nearest my heart. Since +you came here, our sombre house has grown bright. As I have looked at +you, I have dared to promise myself a happiness which before I had never +conceived possible." + +He hesitated. + +"Don't, dear Walter! I beg of you, don't venture upon that subject!" + +"Why? is it painful to you?" + +"Inexpressibly! You are generous and good. I love and honor you as my +cousin, my friend, my protector. Do not think of a nearer relationship." + +Walter stood irresolute. + +"Some other time, dear Alice," he faltered out. "I don't wish to pain +you, and I have no courage to-day." + +"Let me be frank, Cousin Walter. Under other circumstances, I would +not anticipate the words I saw trembling on your lips. But even if the +memory of my poor father were not so fresh, I could not hear you." +She hid her face as she went on. "I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover which never will heal. I could not repay your +love. I have no heart to give you." + +Thus far she had controlled her feelings, when, kissing his hand with +sudden fervor, she burst into tears, and hastily left the room. + +She waited till Walter went out; then she wrote a brief note and placed +it on the library-table at his favorite corner, and, after bidding Mrs. +Monroe good morning, went out as though for a walk. Frequently she +looked back with tearful eyes at the home she felt constrained to leave; +but gathering her strength, she turned away and plunged into the current +that set down Washington Street. + +Brave Heart! alone in a great city, whose people were too much engrossed +with their own distresses and apprehensions to give heed to the +sufferings of others! Alone among strangers, she must seek a home and +the means of support. Who would receive an unknown, friendless girl? Who, +in the terrible palsy of trade, would furnish her employment? + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +There was naturally great surprise when Walter Monroe returned home to +dinner and Alice was found to be missing. It was evident that it was +not an accidental detention, for her trunk had been sent for an hour +previous, and the messenger either could not or would not give any +information as to her whereabouts. Mrs. Monroe was excessively +agitated,--her faculties lost in a maze, like one beholding an accident +without power of thought or motion. To Walter it was a heavy blow; he +feared that his own advances had been the occasion of her leaving the +house, and he reproached himself bitterly for his headlong folly. Their +dinner was a sad and cheerless meal; the mother feeling all a woman's +solicitude for a friendless girl; the son filled with a tumult of +sorrow, remorse, love, and pity. + +"Poor Alice!" said Mrs. Monroe; "perhaps she has found no home." + +"Don't, mother! The thought of her in the streets, or among suspicious +strangers, or vulgar people, is dreadful. We must leave no means untried +to find her. Did she leave no word, no note?" + +"No,--none that I know of." + +"Have you looked?" + +She shook her head. Walter left his untasted food, and hastily looked in +the hall, then in the parlor, and at last in the library. There was the +note in her own delicate hand. + +"DEAR WALTER,-- + +"Don't be offended. I cannot eat the bread of idleness now that your +fortune is gone and your salary stopped. If I need your assistance, you +will hear from me. Comfort your mother, and believe that I shall be +happier earning my own living. We shall meet in better times. God bless +you both for your kindness to one who had no claim upon you! + +"ALICE." + +"The dear creature!" said Mrs. Monroe, taking the note and kissing it. + +"Why did you let her trunk go, mother? You might have detained the man +who came for it, and sent for me. I would have followed him to the ends +of the earth." + +"I don't know, my son. I was confused. I hardly knew what happened. I +shook so that I sat down, and Bridget must have got it." + +Tears ran down her cheeks, and her hands trembled so that her fork +dropped. + +"Never mind, dear mother. Pray, be calm. I did not wish to disturb you." + +There was a ring at the door. A gentleman wished to see Mr. Monroe. +Rising from the table, he went into the parlor. + +"Mr. Monroe," began the stranger, in an agitated manner, "do you know +anything of a young lady named Lee,--Alice Lee?" + +"Yes," replied Monroe, with equal excitement, "I know her well. What of +her? Where is she? Have you found her?" + +"Found her?" said the other, with surprise. "Is she not here?" + +"No,--she left this morning." + +"And left no word where she was going?" + +"None." + +"Let me beg of you not to trifle with me. Did she not hear my voice, my +step, and attempt to excuse herself through you?" + +"Sir!" exclaimed Walter. + +"I beg pardon. I have been in search of her for two days. I could not +believe she had eluded me just at the last. I do not wish to doubt your +word." + +"And who may you be, Sir, to take such an interest in the lady?" + +"I can satisfy you fully. My name is Greenleaf." + +"The painter?" + +"Yes. You must have heard her speak of me." + +"Never, to my recollection." + +"Have you known her long?" + +"She is my cousin. It is only recently that she came here, and her +acquaintances of a year ago might naturally have been passed over." + +"You seem surprised at her leaving you so abruptly. You will join me in +making search for her?" + +"I shall search for her, myself, as long as there is hope." + +"Let me confess," said Greenleaf, "that I have the strongest reasons for +my haste. She is betrothed to me." + +"Since you have honored me with your confidence, I will return it, so +far as to tell you what I heard from her this morning. I think I +can remember the precise words:--'I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover, which never will heal.' If you are the +person, I hope the information will be as agreeable to you as her +absence and ill-judging independence are to me. I wish you good +morning." + +"Then she has heard!" said Greenleaf, soliloquizing. "I am justly +punished." Then aloud. "I shall not take offence at your severity of +tone. I have but one thought now. Good morning!" + +He left the house, like one in a dream. Alice, homeless in the +streets this bitter day,--seeking for a home in poverty-stricken +boarding-houses,--asking for work from tailors or milliners,--exposed +to jeers, coarse compliments, and even to utter want!--the thought was +agony. The sorrows of a whole life were concentrated in this one hour. +He walked on, frantically, peering under every bonnet as he passed, +looking wistfully in at the shop-windows, expecting every moment to +encounter her sad, reproachful face. + +Walter had been somewhat ill for several days, and the accumulation of +misfortunes now pressed upon him heavily. He did not tell his mother +of the strange interview, but sat down moodily by the grate, in the +library. He was utterly perplexed where in the city to search for Alice; +and with his mental depression came a bodily infirmity and nervousness +that made him incapable of effort. An hour passed in gloomy +reverie,--drifting without aim upon a shoreless ocean, under a sullen +sky,--when he was roused by the entrance of Easelmann. + +"In the dumps? I declare, Monroe, I shouldn't have thought it of you." + +"I am really ill, my friend." + +"Pooh! Don't let your troubles make you believe that. Cheer up. You'll +find employment presently, and you'll be surprised to find how well you +are." + +"I hope I shall be able to make the experiment." + +"Well, suppose you walk out with me. There is a tailor I want you to +see." + +"A tailor? I can't sew or use shears, either." + +"No,--nor sit cross-legged; I know that. But this tailor is no common +Snip. He is a man of ideas and character. He has something to propose to +you." + +"Indeed! I am much obliged to you. To-morrow I will go with you; but, +really, I feel too feeble to-day," said Monroe, languidly. + +"Well, as you please; to-morrow it shall be. How is your mother?" + +"Quite well, I thank you." + +"And the pretty cousin, likewise, I hope?" + +"She was quite well this morning." + +"Isn't she at home?" + +"No,--she has gone out." + +"Confound you, Monroe! you have never let me have a glimpse of her. +Now I am not a dangerous person; quite harmless, in fact; received +trustfully by matrons with grown-up daughters. You needn't hide her." + +"I don't know. Some young ladies are quite apt to be fascinated by +elderly gentlemen who know the world and still take an interest in +society." + +"Yes,--a filial sort of interest, a grand-daughterly reverence and +respect. The sight of gray hair is a wonderful antidote to any tenderer +feeling." + +"I am very sorry not to oblige you; but the truth is, that Cousin Alice, +hearing of my losses, has left the house abruptly, to earn her own +living, and we do not know where she has gone." + +"The independent little minx! Now I rather like that. There's the proper +spirit. She'll take good care of herself; I haven't a doubt." + +"But it is a most mortifying step to us. It is a reflection upon our +hospitality. I would have worked my fingers off for her." + +"No doubt. But she will merely turn hers into nutmeg-graters, by +pricking them with her needle, and save you from making stumps of +your own. Oh, never fear,--we shall find her presently. I'll make +a description of her, and leave it with all the slop-shop fellows. +'Strayed or stolen: A young lady answering to the name of Alice; five +feet and no inches; dressed in black; pale, blue-eyed, smiles when +properly spoken to; of no use to any person but the owner. One thousand +dollars reward, and no questions asked.' Isn't that it? It won't be +necessary to add, that the disconsolate advertiser is breaking his heart +on account of her absence." + +"My dear Easelmann, I know your kindly heart; but I cannot be rallied +out of this depression. I have only the interest of a cousin, a +friend, a protector, in the girl; but her going away, after my other +misfortunes, has plunged me into an abyss. I can't be cheerful." + +"One word more, my dear fellow, and I go. You know I threatened to bore +you every day; but I sha'n't continue the terebrations long at a time. +You told me about the way your notes were disposed of. Now they are +yours, beyond question, and you can recover them from the holder; he has +no lien upon them whatever, for Sandford was not authorized to pledge +them. It's only a spoiling of the Egyptians to fleece a broker." + +"Perhaps the notes themselves are worthless, or will be. Nearly +everybody has failed; the rest will go shortly." + +"I see you are incurable; the melancholy fit must have its course, I +suppose. But don't hang yourself with your handkerchief, nor drown +yourself in your wash-basin. Good bye!" + +On his way down Washington Street, Easelmann met his friend Greenleaf, +whom he had not seen before for many days. + +"Whither, ancient mariner? That haggard face and glittering eye of yours +might hold the most resolute passer-by." + +"You, Easelmann! I am glad to see you. I am in trouble." + +"No doubt; enthusiastic people always are. You fretted your nurse +and your mother, your schoolmaster, your mistress, and, most of all, +yourself. A sharp sword cuts its own scabbard." + +"She is gone,--left me without a word." + +"Who, the Sandford woman? I always told you she would." + +"No,--I left her, though not so soon as I should." + +"A fine story! She jilted you." + +"No,--on my honor. I'll tell you about it some other time. But Alice, my +betrothed, I have lost her forever." + +"Melancholy Orpheus, how? Did you look over your shoulder, and did she +vanish into smoke?" + +"It is her father who has gone over the Styx. She is in life; but she +has heard of my flirtation"-- + +"And served you right by leaving you. Now you will quit capering in a +lady's chamber, and go to work, a sadder and a wiser man." + +"Not till I have found her. You may think me a trifler, Easelmann; but +every nerve I have is quivering with agony at the thought of the pain I +have caused her." + +"Whew-w-w." said Easelmann. "Found her? Then she's eloped too! I just +left a disconsolate lover mourning over a runaway mistress. It seems to +be epidemic. There is a stampede of unhappy females. We must compress +the feet of the next generation, after the wise custom of China, so that +they can't get away." + +"Whom have you seen?" + +"Mr. Monroe, an acquaintance of mine." + +"The same. The lady, it seems, is his cousin,--and is, or was, my +betrothed." + +"And you two brave men give up, foiled by a country-girl of twenty, or +thereabouts!" + +"How is one to find her?" + +"What is the advantage of brains to a man who doesn't use them? +Consider; she will look for employment. She won't try to teach, it would +be useless. She is not strong enough for hard labor. She is too modest +and reserved to take a place in a shop behind a counter, where she would +be sure to be discovered. She will, therefore, be found in the employ +of some milliner, tailor, or bookbinder. How easy to go through those +establishments!" + +"You give me new courage. I will get a trades-directory and begin at +once." + +"To-morrow, my friend. She hasn't got a place yet, probably." + +"So much the better. I shall save her the necessity." + +"Go, then," said Easelmann. "You'll be happier, I suppose, to be running +your legs off, if it is to no purpose. A lover with a new impulse is +like a rocket when the fuse is lighted; he must needs go off with a +rush, or ignobly fizz out." + +"Farewell, for to-day. I'll see you to-morrow," said Greenleaf, already +some paces off. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +PRAYER FOR LIFE. + + + Oh, let me not die young! + Full-hearted, yet without a tongue,-- + Thy green earth stretched before my feet, untrod,-- + Thy blue sky bending over, + As her most tender lover, + With infinite meaning in its starry eyes, + Full of thy silent majesty, O God! + And wild, weird whispers from the solemn deep + Of the Great Sea ascending, with the sweep + Of the Wind-angel's wings across the skies, + Burdened with hints of awful memories, + Whose half-guessed grandeur thrills us till we weep!-- + I love thy marvellous world too well-- + Its sunny nooks of hill and dell, + Its majesty of mountains, and the swell + Of volumed waters--for my heart to yearn + Away from the deep truth which veils its splendor + In beauty there less dazzling, but more tender. + With grave delight I turn + To all its glories, from the tiniest bloom + Whose hour-long life just sweetens its own tomb + As with funereal spices, + To the far stars which burn + And blossom in fire through their vast periods,-- + Borne in thy palm, + Like the pale lotus in the hand of Isis, + When throned white, and calm, + In solemn conclave of the mythic gods. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A brother unclaimed among + The countless millions of thy happy flock, + Whose deepest joy is to obey, + Whereby they feel the measured sway + Of thy life in them, their own living part, + Whether in centuried pulses of the rock + By slow disintegration + Ascending to its higher, + Or the quick fluttering of the Storm-god's heart,-- + An instant's palpitation + Through all its arteries of fire! + One common blood runs down life's myriad veins, + From Archangelic Hierarchs who float + Broad-winged in the God-glory, to the mote + That trembles with a braided dance + In the warm sunset's vivid glance; + And one great Heart that boundless flow sustains! + In all the creatures of thy hand divine + + Thy love-light is a living guest, + Whether a petal's palm confine + Its glitter to a lily's breast, + Or in unbounded space a starry line + Stretches, till flagging Thought must droop her wing to rest. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A powerless child among + The ancient grandeurs of thy awful world! + I catch some fragment of the mighty song + Which, ere to darkness hurled, + My elder brothers in the eternal throng + Have caught before,-- + Faint murmurs of the surge, + The deep, surrounding, everlasting roar + Of a life-ocean without port or shore,-- + Ere I depart, compelled to urge + My fragile bark with trembling from the verge + Of this Earth-island, into that Unknown, + Where worlds, like souls forlorn, go wandering alone! + + Oh, let me not die young, + With all that song unsung, + A swift and voiceless fugitive, + From darkness coming and in darkness lost, + Before thy solemn Pentecost, + Dawning within the soul, shall give + The burning utterance of its flaming tongue,-- + The boon whereby to other souls we live! + Thy worlds are flashing with immortal splendor, + For human speech on heights of human song + Faintly to render, + And pour back along + Its mountain grandeur, the accumulate rain + Of star-light, dream-light, thoughts of joy and pain, + Of love, hate, right and wrong, + In floods of utterance sublime and strong, + In dewy effluence beautiful and tender. + + The kindred darknesses + Of caverned earth and fathomless thought, + Of Life and Death, and their twin mysteries, + Before and After, on my spirit press + Tempting and awful, with high promise fraught, + And guardian terrors, whose out-flashing swords + Beleaguer Paradise and the holy Tree + Sciential. Step by step the way is fought + That leads from Darkness, through her miscreant hordes, + Back to the heavens of wise, and true, and free: + Minerva's Gorgon, Ammon's cyclic Asp, + And the fierce flame-sword of the Cherubim, + That flashed like hate across the pallid gasp + Of exiled Eve and Adam, flare, and glare, + And hiss venenate, round the steps of him + Who thirsts for heavenly Wisdom, if he dare + Climb to her bosom, or with artless grasp + Pluck the sweet fruits that hang around him, ripe and fair. + + Oh! glorious Youth + Is the true age of prophecy, when Truth + Stands bared in beauty, and the young blood boils + To hurl us in her arms, before the blur + Of time makes dim her rounded form, + Or the cold blood recoils + From the polluted swarm + Of armed Chimeras that environ her. + But worthy Age to ripened fruit shall bring + The glorious blooming of its hopeful spring, + And pile the garners of immortal Truth + With sheaves of golden grain, + To sow the world again, + And fill the eager wants of the New Age's youth. + + A thousand flashes of uncertain light + Cleave the thick darkness, driving far athwart + The up-piled glooms, as lightnings plough their bright + Fire-furrows through the barren cloud + They sow with thunders. Thought on burning thought + Shatters the doubts and terrors which have bowed + Weak hearts on weaker leaning in a crowd + Self-crushing and self-fettering; gleams are caught + From some far centre set by God to keep + His brave world spinning, or some drifting isle + Of swift wildfire shot out by the wide sweep + Of wings demoniac, + Far winnowing and black, + Our cheated souls to 'wilder and beguile. + Only the years, the imperturbable, + Impassionate years, can sheave the scattered rays + Into one sun, these mingled arrows tell + Each to its quiver, the divine and fell, + And life's lone meteors to their centre trace. + + O Father, let me not die young! + Earth's beauty asks a heart and tongue + To give true love and praises to her worth; + Her sins and judgment-sufferings call + For fearless martyrs to redeem thy Earth + From her disastrous fall. + For though her summer hills and vales might seem + The fair creation of a poet's dream,-- + Ay, of the Highest Poet, + Whose wordless rhythms are chanted by the gyres + Of constellate star-choirs, + + That with deep melody flow and overflow it,-- + The sweet Earth,--very sweet, despite + The rank grave-smell forever drifting in + Among the odors from her censers white + Of wave-swung lilies and of wind-swung roses,-- + The Earth sad-sweet is deeply attaint with sin! + The pure air, which incloses + Her and her starry kin, + Still shudders with the unspent palpitating + Of a great Curse, that to its utmost shore + Thrills with a deadly shiver + Which has not ceased to quiver + Down all the ages, nathless the strong beating + Of Angel-wings, and the defiant roar + Of Earth's Titanic thunders. + + Fair and sad, + In sin and beauty, our beloved Earth + Has need of all her sons to make her glad; + Has need of martyrs to re-fire the hearth + Of her quenched altars,--of heroic men + With Freedom's sword, or Truth's supernal pen, + To shape the worn-out mould of nobleness again. + And she has need of Poets who can string + Their harps with steel to catch the lightning's fire, + And pour her thunders from the clanging wire, + To cheer the hero, mingling with his cheer, + Arouse the laggard in the battle's rear, + Daunt the stern wicked, and from discord wring + Prevailing harmony, while the humblest soul + Who keeps the tune the warder angels sing + In golden choirs above, + And only wears, for crown and aureole, + The glow-worm light of lowliest human love, + Shall fill with low, sweet undertones the chasms + Of silence, 'twixt the booming thunder-spasms. + And Earth has need of Prophets fiery-lipped + And deep-souled, to announce the glorious dooms + Writ on the silent heavens in starry script, + And flashing fitfully from her shuddering tombs,-- + Commissioned Angels of the new-born Faith, + To teach the immortality of Good, + The soul's God-likeness, Sin's coeval death, + And Man's indissoluble Brotherhood. + + Yet never an age, when God has need of him, + Shall want its Man, predestined by that need, + To pour his life in fiery word or deed,-- + The strong Archangel of the Elohim! + Earth's hollow want is prophet of his coming: + In the low murmur of her famished cry, + And heavy sobs breathed up despairingly, + Ye hear the near invisible humming + Of his wide wings that fan the lurid sky + Into cool ripples of new life and hope, + While far in its dissolving ether ope + Deeps beyond deeps, of sapphire calm, to cheer + With Sabbath gleams the troubled Now and Here. + + Father! thy will be done, + Holy and righteous One! + Though the reluctant years + May never crown my throbbing brows with white, + Nor round my shoulders turn the golden light + Of my thick locks to wisdom's royal ermine: + Yet by the solitary tears, + Deeper than joy or sorrow,--by the thrill, + Higher than hope or terror, whose quick germen, + In those hot tears to sudden vigor sprung, + Sheds, even now, the fruits of graver age,-- + By the long wrestle in which inward ill + Fell like a trampled viper to the ground. + By all that lifts me o'er my outward peers + To that supernal stage + Where soul dissolves the bonds by Nature bound,-- + Fall when I may, by pale disease unstrung, + Or by the hand of fratricidal rage, + I cannot now die young! + + * * * * * + + +ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE OLD WORLD + + +My first visit to Turin dates as far back as 1831. We are so personal, +that our impressions of things depend less on their intrinsic worth +than on such or such extrinsic circumstance which may affect our mental +vision at the moment. I suppose mine was affected by the mist and rain +which graced the capital of Piedmont on the morning of my arrival there. +Another incident, microscopic, and almost too ludicrous to mention, +had no less its weight in the scale of prepossession. I was tired and +hungry, and, while the _diligence_ was being unloaded, I entered a +_caffé_ close by, and called for some buttered toast. My hair (I had +plenty at that time) stood on end at the answer I received. There was no +buttered toast to be had, the waiter said. "It was not the custom." I +confess I augured ill of a city from whose _caffés_, unlike all others +throughout Italy, such a staple of breakfast was banished. + +I am fond of buttered toast, I own. If it is a weakness, I candidly +plead guilty. My mother--bless her soul!--brought me up in the faith of +buttered toast. I had breakfasted upon it all my life. I could conceive +of no breakfast without it. Hence the shock I felt. "Not the custom!" +Why not, I wondered. A problem of no easy solution, I can tell you! It +has been haunting me for the last seven-and-twenty years. If I had a +thousand dollars,--a bold supposition for one of the brotherhood of the +pen,--I would even now found a prize, and adjudge that sum to the best +memoir on this question:--"Why is buttered toast excluded from the +_caffés_ of Turin?" It is not from lack of proper materials,--for heaps +of butter and mountains of rolls are to be seen on every side; it is not +from lack of taste,--for the people which has invented the _grisini_, +and delights in the white truffle, shows too keen a sense of what is +dainty not to exclude the charge of want of taste. + +"Pray, what are the _grisini?_ what is the white truffle?" asks the +inquisitive reader.--The _grisini_ are bread idealized, bread under the +form of walking-sticks a third of a little finger in diameter, and from +which every the least particle of crumb has been carefully eliminated. +It is light, easy of digestion, cracks without effort under your teeth, +and melts in your mouth. It is savory eaten alone, excellent with your +viands, capital sopped in wine. A good Turinese would rather have no +dinner at all than sit down to one without a good-sized bundle of these +torrified reeds on his right or left. Beware of the spurious imitations +of this inimitable mixture of flour, which you will light on in some +_passages_ in Paris! They possess nothing of the _grisini_ but the name. + +"I have it!" I fancy I hear some imaginative reader exclaim at this +place. "The passion for the _grisini_ accounts most naturally for the +want of buttered toast in Turin. Don't you see that it is replaced by +the _grisini?_" + +A mistake, a profound mistake. _Grisini_ are _never_ served with your +coffee or chocolate. Try again. + +The white truffle,--white, mark you, and not to be confounded with its +black, hard, knotty, poor cousin of Périgord,--well, the white truffle +is--the white truffle. There are things which admit of no definition. It +would only spoil them. Define the Sun, if you dare. "Look at it," would +be your answer to the indiscreet questioner. And so I say to you,--Taste +it, the white truffle. Not that you will relish it, on a first or second +trial. No. It requires a sort of initiation. Ambrosia, depend upon it, +would prove unpalatable, at first, to organs degraded by coarse mortal +food. It has,--the white truffle, I mean, not the ambrosia, which I have +never tasted,--it has a shadow of a shade of mitigated garlic flavor, +which demands time and a certain training of the gustatory apparatus, to +be fully appreciated. Try again, and it will grow upon you,--again +and again, and you will go crazy after the white truffle. I have seen +persons, who had once turned up their noses at it, declare themselves +capable of any crime to get at it. Nature gave it to Piedmont, "_e poi +ruppe la stampa_." Gold you may find in different places, and under +different latitudes;--the white truffle is an exclusive growth of +Piedmont. + +To return. If it is not the want of proper materials, or of taste to use +them, what can be the cause of the unjust ostracism against buttered +toast? + +A Genoese friend of mine accounts for it on the same principle on which +another friend of mine, a Polish refugee in London, accounted for the +difference, nay, in many points, the direct opposition, between English +and French habits of life,--that is to say, on the principle of national +antagonism. Why does the English Parliament hold its sittings at night? +my Polish friend would ask. The reason is obvious. _Because_, the French +Parliament sits in broad day, when it sits at all. Why is winter the +season of _villeggiatura_ in England? _Because_ in France it is summer +and autumn. Why are beards and moustaches tabooed in Great Britain? +_Because_ it is common to wear them in France. Why are new pipes +preferred in England for smoking? _Because_ in France the older and more +_culottée_ a pipe, the more welcome it is. And so on, _ad infinitum_. + +Arguing on the same principle, my Genoese friend avers that buttered +toast is proscribed at Turin _because_ it is so justly popular in Genoa. +The Genoese, in fact, excel in the preparation of that dainty article. +They have, for the purpose, delicious little rolls, which they cut in +two and suit to all tastes and whims. The upper or under crust, soft or +hard, deep brown or light brown, with much or little butter, with cold +or hot butter, with butter visible or invisible:--be as capricious in +your orders as you like, and never fear tiring the waiter. Proteus +himself never took so many shapes. + +There is some speciousness in my Genoese friend's argument. The +_Superba_, naturally enough, cannot forget that she was first and is +now second. Turin, on her side, does not intend to have her official +supremacy disputed. No wonder that the two noble cities should look at +each other rather surlily, and stick to their own individuality. "Hence +it is," concludes my friend, "that the comparatively easy Apennines have +proved to this day an impassable barrier to the buttered toast on one +side, and to the _grisini_ on the other." + +"But not so to the white truffle," I put in, triumphantly. "The Genoese +have adopted that; and honor to them for having done so! What do you say +to this, eh?" + +My friend scratched his head in quest of a new argument. We will leave +him to his embarrassment, and have done with this string of digressions. + +I was saying, that my first visit to Turin dated as far back as 1831. On +that journey I had a singular travelling-companion, a beautiful fish, +a John Dory, carefully wrapped up, and neatly laid in a wicker-basket, +like a babe in its cradle. The officers of the _octroi_, who examined my +basket, complimented me on my choice,--nay, grew so enthusiastic about +my John Dory, that, if I remember right, they let it pass duty-free. +The mistress of the house, at whose table it was served, paid it a +well-deserved tribute of admiration, but lamented the unskilfulness of +the hand which had cleaned it: "How stupid to cut it to the very throat! +See what a gap!" I laughed in my sleeve and held my tongue. It was a +frightful gap, to be sure,--but not bigger than was necessary to admit +of an oilskin-covered parcel, a pound at least in weight, a parcel full +to the brim of treasonable matter, revolutionary pamphlets, regulations +of secret societies, and what not. My John Dory was a horse of Troy in +miniature. But Turin stood this one better than Troy the other. + +Turin was, or seemed to me, gloomy and chilly at that time, though the +season was mild, and the sky had cleared up. Jesuits, carabineers, and +spies lorded it; distrust was the order of the day. People went about +their business, exchanged a hasty and well-timed _sciaô_, (_schiavo_,) +and gave up all genial intercourse. Far keener than the breath of +neighboring snow-capped Mount Cenis, the breath of despotism froze alike +tongues and souls. How could buttered toast, emblem of softness, thrive +in so hard a temperature? I left as soon as I could, and with a feeling +of relief akin to joy. + +I was in no haste to revisit Turin, nor, had I been, would circumstances +have permitted my doing so. The fish had a tail for me as well as for +many others, and a very long tail too. Most of the years intervening +between 1831 and 1848 I had to spend abroad,--out of Italy, I mean. Time +enough for reflection. Plenty of worry and anxiety, and difficulties of +many a kind. Rough handling from the powers that were, cold indifference +from the masses. A flow of gentle sympathy, now and then, from a kindred +heart or two,--God bless them!--a live spring in a desert. A hard +apprenticeship,--still, useful in many ways, to develop the sense +of realities, to teach one to do without a host of things deemed +indispensable before to keep the soul in tune. I declare, for my part, +I don't regret those long years of erratic life. I bless them, on the +contrary; for they opened my eyes to the worth of my country. The right +point of view to take in physical or moral beauty, in its fulness, is +only at a distance. + +The great convulsion of '48 flung wide the gates of Italy to the +wanderer, and I returned to Turin. I had left it at freezing-point, +and I found it at white-heat. Half Europe revolutionized,--France a +republic, Vienna in a blaze, Hungary in arms, Radetzky driven out of +Milan, a Piedmontese army in Lombardy,--there was more than enough to +turn the heads of the Seven Sages of Greece. No wonder ours were turned. +Serve a splendid banquet and pour out generous wine to a shipwrecked +crew who have long been starving, and ten to one they will overfeed +themselves and get drunk and quarrel. We did both, alas!--and those who +are drunk and quarrel are likely to be overpowered by those who keep +sober and united. We were divided about the sauce with which the hare +should be dressed, and, in the heat of argument, lost sight of this +little fact, that a hare, to be dressed at all, must first be caught. +The first reverses overtook us thus occupied. They did not sober us; +quite the contrary; we fell to doing what Manzoni's capons did. + +By-the-by, since that revered name comes under my pen, I may as well +state, what every one will be glad to hear, that the author of the +"Promessi Sposi" has perfectly recovered from his late illness. It +cannot be but that the wail of a nation has reached even across the +Atlantic, without the aid of an electric cable. He looks strong and +healthy, and likely to be long spared to the love and veneration of his +country. I have this on the authority of a witness _de visu et auditu_, +a friend of his and mine, who visited the great man, not a fortnight +ago, in his retreat of Brusuglio, near Milan. + +To leave the author for his book. Do you recollect Renzo tying four fat +capons by the legs, and carrying them, with their heads hanging down, to +Signor Azzeccagarbugli,--and the capons, in that awkward predicament, +finding no better occupation than to peck at each other? "As is too +often the case with companions in misfortune," observes the author, in +his quiet, humoristic way. We were just as wise. Instead of saying, _Mea +culpa_, we began to recriminate, and find fault with everything and +everybody. It was the fault of the Ministers, of the _Camarilla_, of the +army, of the big epaulets, of the King. Dynastic interest, of course, +was not forgotten in the indictment. + +Dynastic interest, forsooth! So long as it combines and makes but one +with the interest of the nation, I should like to know where is the +great harm of it. As if kings alone were defiled with that pitch! As +if we had not, each and all of us, low and high, rich and poor, our +dynastic interest, and were not eager enough in its pursuit! As if +anybody scrupled at or were found fault with for pushing on his sons, +enlarging his business, rounding his estate, in the view of transmitting +it, thus improved, to his kindred and heirs! + +But who thought of such things under the smart of defeat? I do not +intend, by this _post-facto_ grumbling, to give myself credit for having +been wiser than others. By no means. I played my part in the chorus of +fault-finders, and cried out as loud as anybody. The upshot was what +might have been expected. Independence went to the dogs--for a while. +Liberty, thank God, remained in this little corner, at least,--liberty, +the great lever for those who use it wisely. I know of nations, far more +experienced than we are in political matters, and whose programme in +1848 was far less complicated than ours, who cannot say as much for +themselves. + +The times were unpropitious to the buttered-toast question, and it +had quite slipped out of my mind. I have never traced the string of +associations which reminded me of it, on one certain morning. Once more +I made bold to ask if I could have buttered toast. "Impossible," said +the waiter, curtly. I was piqued. "How impossible?" said I. "Erase that +word from your Dictionary, if you are to drive the Austrians from Italy. +Take a roll, cut it in halves, have it toasted, and serve hot with +butter." Long was the manipulation, and the result but indifferent,--the +toast hard and cold, the butter far from fresh; but it was a step in +advance, and I chuckled over it. For a short time, alas! Mine was the +fate of all reformers. Routine stood in my way. The waiters fled at my +approach, and vied with each other as to who should _not_ serve me. I +gave up the attempt in disgust. Shortly after, I left Turin,--without +joy this time, but also without regret. + +Ten years have elapsed, and here I am again, on my third visit. The +journey from Genoa to Turin took, ten years ago, twenty-four hours by +_diligence_. Now it is accomplished in four by railway. To say that this +accelerated ratio of travelling represents but fairly the average of +progress realized in almost all directions, within this space of +time, is no mere form of speech. To whatever side I turn, my eyes are +agreeably surprised by material signs of improvement. From what but +yesterday was waste land, where linen was spread to dry, steam-engines +raise their shrill cry, and a double terminus sends forth and receives, +in its turn, merchandise, passengers, and ideas. At the gate of the +city, so to say, a gigantic work, the piercing of Mount Cenis, is +actually going on. Where I left, literally left, cows browsing in peace, +two new quarters have risen, as if by magic,--that of Portanuova, +aristocratic and rich, and that of San Salvario, less showy, but not +less comfortable. A third is in contemplation; nay, already begun,--to +be raised on the spot where once stood the citadel, (and prison for +political offenders,) of sinister memory, now levelled with the ground. +I take this last as a capital novelty. Another, more significant still, +is the Protestant Temple, which stares me in the face,--a poor work of +Art, if you will, but no less the embodiment of one of the most precious +conquests, religious freedom. I would fain not grow emphatic,--but when +I contrast the present with the past, when I recollect, for instance, +how the Jews were formerly treated, and see them now in Parliament, I +cannot help warming up a little. Monuments to Balbo, the stanch patriot +and nervous biographer of Dante,--to General Bava, the conqueror at +Goito,--to Pepe, the heroic defender of Venice, grace the public walks. +One to Gioberti, the eminent philosopher, is in course of preparation. +If these are not signs of radically changed times, and changed for the +better, I don't know what are. + +Nor is the moral less improved than the material physiognomy of the +city. I see a thriving, orderly community,--no trace of antagonism, but +a free, good-natured intercourse between all classes, and a general +look of ease and contentment. Of course, there are poor in Turin, as +everywhere else,--except Japan, if we may credit travellers; but nowhere +are my eyes saddened by the spectacle of that abject destitution which +blunts, nay, destroys, the sense of self-respect. The operatives, +especially,--what are here called the _braccianti_,--this salt of all +cities, this nursery of the army and navy, this inexhaustible source of +production and riches, impress me by their appearance of comfort and +good-humor. It gladdens one's heart to watch them, as they walk arm in +arm of an evening, singing in chorus, or fill the pits of the cheaper +theatres, or sit down at fashionable _caffés_ in their jackets, with a +self-confidence and freedom of manner pleasant to behold. The play of +free institutions is not counteracted here, thank God, by the despotism +of conventionalities. No shadow of frigid respectability hangs over +people's actions and freezes spontaneousness. + +But this is all on the surface; let us go deeper, if we can, and have a +peep at the workings beneath. I knock for information on this head at +the mind and heart of all sorts of people. I note down the answers of +the Minister and of the Deputy, as well as those of the waiter who +serves my coffee and of the man who blacks my shoes, and here is what +I find,--a growing sense of the benefits of liberty, a deep-rooted +attachment to the _Rè galantuomo_, (the King, honest man,) a juster +appreciation of the difficulties which beset the national enterprise, +(the freeing of Italy from Austria,) and an honest confidence of +overcoming them with God's help. This last feeling, I am glad to say, +is, as it ought to be, general in the army. This is what I find in the +bulk. There is no lack of dissenters, who regret the past, and take a +gloomy view of the future. I describe no Utopia. Unanimity is no flower +of this earth. + +This improved state of things and feelings, within so short a period of +time, reflects equal credit on the people which benefits by it and on +the men who have lately presided over its destinies. Among these last it +were invidious not to mention, with well-deserved praise, the active and +accomplished statesman who introduced free trade, caused Piedmont to +take its share in the Crimean War, and last, not least, by a bold and +skilful move, brought the Italian question before the Congress of Paris. + +During the summer of 1848, I rented a couple of rooms in the Via dell' +Arcivescovado. There often fell upon my ear, wafted across the court +from the windows opposite mine, a loud and regular declamation. I +fancied it was a preacher learning by heart his sermon, or an actor his +part. I was told one day that it was Count Cavour, the owner of the +house, who, as a prelude to his parliamentary career, was addressing an +imaginary assembly. The fact struck me the more, as the Count was not a +member of Parliament at the time. He was elected a Deputy and took his +seat not long after. I was present at his _début_. It was not brilliant. +Count Cavour was not born an orator; his delivery was far from fluent. +He had many things to say, and wanted to say them all at once. The sense +of the House was not favorable to the new member,--that of the public +galleries still less so. No man was less spoiled by popularity than he. +I have no other reason for mentioning these particulars than to put in +relief the strength of will and the perseverance which one so situated +must have brought to bear, in order to conquer his own deficiencies and +the popular prejudice, and attain, against wind and tide, the high place +he holds in the estimation of Parliament and of the country. That Count +Cavour has made himself, if not properly an orator, in the high sense of +the word, a nervous, fluent, and most agreeable speaker, is sufficiently +attested by the untiring attention with which his speeches, occupying +sometimes two whole sittings, are listened to in both Houses. He never +puts them in writing, and seldom, if ever, makes use of notes. + +Life is substantial in Turin, and on a broad, homely scale. By which you +are not to understand, either that the male portion of the inhabitants +feast on whole oxen, like Homer's heroes, or that, the fair sex are +draped in tunics of homespun wool, like the Roman matrons of old. They +are not so primitive as that. You may have at any restaurant a smaller +morsel than an ox or even an ox's shoulder; and as to ladies' finery, +there is no _article de Paris_, no indispensable inutility, no +crinoline, hoop, or cage, of impossible materials, shape, and +dimensions, which you may not find under the Portici, or in Vianuova, +a facility of which the Turinese beauties give themselves the benefit +rather freely. What I meant to say, when I spoke of life on a broad, +homely scale, was simply this:--that in Turin, generally speaking, the +great art of putting the appearance in the place of the substance, and +juggling the principal under the accessories, has yet to be learned. If +you ask for a room, a dinner, a bath, they take you in good earnest, +and supply you with the genuine article. When I put up at the _Hôtel de +Londres_, from which I am writing, I had to run no gantlet between a +double line of solemn-looking, white-cravated waiters; yet I have only +to ring my bell, to be attended to with promptitude, with zeal, nay, +_con amore_. My kind hostess, Signora Viarengo, does not wear a triple +or quadruple row of flounces, but looks after my wardrobe when I am out, +and, if anything wants mending, has it mended. The room which I occupy +is not furnished in a dashing style, nor has it a _parquet ciré_, but it +is on the first floor, and thrice as large and lofty and half as dear as +that I had at Meurice's on the _quatrième_; and a Titan might stretch +himself down at ease on the bed in which I sleep. The dining-room of the +hotel is not glittering with gilt stucco and chandeliers; but the dinner +served to me there (and served at any hour) is copious and first-rate,-- +four dishes of _entremets_, butter, _salame_, celery, radishes, to whet +the appetite,--a soup,--a first course of three dishes, two of meat, one +of vegetables,--a second of three dishes, one of them a roasted fowl, +--salad, a sweet dish,--a mountain of Parmesan, or Gorgonzola, with +peaches, pears, and grapes, for dessert. Gargantua would cry for mercy. +For all this, and a bottle of wine, I pay three francs. For the bath +establishment, close by, I lack the satisfaction, it is true, of seeing +my revered image reproduced _ad infinitum_, by a vista of mirrors; but I +have a bathing-tub like a lake, and linen enough to dry a hippopotamus. +If I go to the theatre, (there are five open at this season, November, +without reckoning three or four minor ones: Italian opera at the +Nazionale and the Carignano; Italian play at the Gerbino and the +Alfieri; French _vaudeville_ at the d'Angennes,)--if I go to the +theatre, the relative obscurity of the house, I own, allows me to enjoy +but imperfectly the display of fine toilets and ivory shoulders; but the +concentration of light on the stage enhances the scenic effect, and is +on the side of Art. At least, they think so here, and like it so. It is +the custom. + +This takes me back some twenty-seven years, to the waiter's answer, _à +propos_ of buttered toast, "It is not the custom," and recalls to me +that important question. Well, even that has not remained stationary in +the general movement. Not that buttered toast has received its great or +even small letters of naturalization. But you have only to ask for it, +and it will be served without demur. So far the neck of routine is +broken. What next? We shall find out on our fourth visit, if God grants +us life. Meanwhile I feel that Turin will be regretted this time. + + * * * * * + + +TWO SNIFFS. + + +From the lounge where Fred Shaw was lying, he could easily look out of +the low window into Senter Place, and at the usually "uninterrupted view +across the street." Just now it was interrupted so fully with a driving +snow-storm, that the houses opposite were scarcely visible. The wind +tossed the great flakes up and across and whirled them in circles, as if +loath to let them go at all to the ground. There was something lively +and merry in it, too, as if the flakes themselves were joyful and +dancing in the abundance of their life,--as if they and the wind had a +life of their own, as well as poor stupid mortals, that cowered under +cover, and shut themselves away from the broad, free air. How foolish +it is, to be sure! Here comes one now, turning into the place,--well +covered, a fur tippet about his face,--slapping his arms on his chest, +--a defiant smile on his brown face, and a look of expectancy in his +eyes. Yes! there they are at the window,--wife and children! The smile +melts into a broad laugh, as the snow-flakes dash madly at his eyes and +nose. There they are,--rosy, well, and warm! From the warmest corner of +his heart comes up a quick throb that takes away his breath;--he runs up +the steps,--the door opens,--one, two, three little faces,--it shuts. +The snow-flakes gallop on again, madly, joyfully. + +Behind the man who ran up the steps, a girl of eighteen walked swiftly +and firmly over the drifting heaps on the sidewalk. Her eyes glanced +upward at the sky. There are four immense clouds, of a very light gray, +with silver edges, trying to meet over a speck of blue. They tumble and +clamber, and press all for the same point; but whether the wind is too +variable for them to gather in one mass, or for whatever meteorological +reason, she does not guess, but she is attracted to the sky and gazes at +it as she walks rapidly on. + +Fred recognizes the blue eyes and glowing face, as they go past the +window. It is only Sister Minnie. Not coming here, after all! No. And +the clouds could not overcome and hide the blue sky. It shone out +serenely and hopefully, like Minnie's own encouraging spirit. She +breasts the storm gallantly. If she can only get round the corner into +C-- Street! But here all the tempest seems collected to battle with +her--She wraps herself a little closer, and holds her breath. A few +steps more,--she turns round,--places her back full at the driving +storm,--and draws a long breath. Now for it! The flakes stop suddenly, +as if awed by the quiet determination in the young face. They fall to +the ground, stilly. The blue sky looks out, the sun shimmers white for +five minutes. Minnie walks rapidly, runs up the steps,--rings, and takes +into the house with her a full, fresh life, that vibrates from cellar to +attic in harmonious energy. + +The afternoon wanes. Fred has dined. He takes his meerschaum from the +teapoy by his side and examines it critically. How for the color? Is it +just the right shade to stop? No. A very little darker. This is growing +quite beautiful. Almost like an agate. Which of those six is the +prettiest, after all? He thinks a seventh, which he remembers lying +on Little's mantel-piece, outdoes the whole. That of Little's was not +carved, nor silver-mounted even, and yet connoisseurs pronounced it +worth a hundred and fifty dollars. Not one of these is worth ten. He +smokes again, and looks at the cannel coal as it leaps into flame. The +room is very still; not a footfall can be heard in the house;--partly +because the doors are hung with a view to silence and the floors thickly +carpeted, and partly because there are only two servants in-doors, and +those men. The cook cannot speak English, and Fred's own man, a jewel in +his way, is taciturn to a fault. If Fred would be honest with himself, +he would acknowledge that the third-hand chatter of anybody's kitchen +would often be a delightful relief to his solitude. But then how could +he follow up his system of self-culture? That and society are quite +incompatible things. However, he yawns fearfully. + +But what then? Has the man no mind, no cultivation, no taste? Things do +not indicate any such want. The walls of the room in which he is +just now lounging have their crimson and gold almost covered with +pictures,--copies of rare Murillos and Raphaels, and an original head of +a boy, by Greuze, with the lips as fresh as they were a hundred years +ago. An exquisite "Dying Stork," in bronze, stands on a bracket below +Sassoferrato's sweetest Madonna, and Retzsch's "Hamlet" lies open on a +side-table. The three Canovian Graces stand in a corner opposite him, +and he glances at the pedestal which stands ready to receive "Eve at the +Fountain." The pedestal has been there two weeks already, waiting for +the "Oxford" to arrive with its many precious Art-burdens. It stands +near the window; it will be a good light for it. Fred wishes, for the +hundredth time, that it would come along. There are books, surely? Oh, +yes, one side of the room is a complete bookcase,--tasteful, inside and +out. + +The small room which opens into this luxurious sitting-room has a high +north window, and near it stands Fred's easel, with a half-finished head +on a canvas. Already it has changed its aspect twenty times. Sometimes +it is a Nymph, sometimes a Naiad, sometimes Undine. Once, he dashed all +the green of the wood-nymph's forest, with one stroke, into green water, +intending to put in Undine, with a boat. He has not fulfilled his +intention; but he works on, with the luxurious abandonment of genius to +its spell, be it what it may. He does not care what it ends in. One +of Fred's theories is, that the imagination, by constant and intense +exercise, may so project the image it conceives, as to make it the +subject of ocular contemplation and imitation. Why not? All objects of +sight are painted on a flat surface, and it is by experience, comparison, +nay, in some measure by the will, that we get our ideas of their shape +and distance. Poor Blake's insane painting of imaginary heads, which he +saw three or six feet from him, was the only true and rational method +of painting at all. Think of your thought,--intensify it,--create +it,--create it perfectly,--define it carefully,--group it gracefully, +--color it exquisitely,--project it, by an intense effort of the will, +into the space before you. There it stands. Now paint it. + +He is fond of dwelling on this theory; and as nobody takes the trouble +to contradict him, he has come to believe it truth, through hearing it +often repeated. He has explained it to Minnie more than twenty times, +and says he is almost ready to paint. Not quite. He must lie on the sofa +a year, perhaps two years longer, before he will be able to satisfy +himself. But then, what is a year, two, ten years, in an eternity of +fame? + +The conception being completely projected from the brain in a visible +form, what remains but the mechanical imitation of it? Anybody can do +that. The thing is the conception. In vain Minnie suggests the vulgar +notion of acquiring facility by drawing and copying things in general. + +"Entirely unnecessary, Minnie. What! is not genius before rules? Why +should I imitate Titian's tints, when I can copy my own fancies? When I +get my ideal perfected, you will soon see it real. I can copy it in +half an hour. If it is in me, it will come out of me, like Curran's +eloquence." + +"But," says Minnie, doubtfully, looking at the easel where the golden +curls and heavenly eyes of an angel are obscured by the russet-brown of +a beginning wood-nymph, "why don't you keep to one idea, Fred?" + +"Oh, because I choose to be fancy-free. I will not have my imagination +trammelled. Let it wander at its own sweet will. You will see, Minnie, +by-and-by. Now, here I have been getting up a head,--not painting it, +you know. Sometimes I can almost see the eyes. But they elude me,--I +haven't quite command of them yet. But I shall get it,--I shall get it +yet!" + +Minnie remembers the same things said to her ever since she was a child. +Fred used to tell it all over to her then. He was so much older than she +was,--fourteen years,--that she was quite flattered by being thought +worthy to listen to his theories of all sorts. However, since she had +come to think for herself, one by one all these theories had faded out +of her mind and seemed like last year's clouds. She had discovered that +it was useless to controvert them, and generally listened with some +pretence of patience. The last time she had said, at the first pause,-- + +"Now, Fred, I must go. But I want you to contribute a little, if you +will, to my poor's library, and if you will, a little, too, to poor +Sophia." + +"Little Sister Minnie," answered Fred, curtly, "don't annoy me. If you +enjoy digging out beggar-women, and adorning them with all sorts of +comforts and pleasures, do it. I don't ask you not to. Will you give me +the same privilege of following my own pleasure?" + +"But, Fred!" said Minnie, astonished, "only last week, what did you do +for poor Sophia? More than I could in a year,--two, three years! For +you know I have only my thirty dollars quarterly for everything, and +sometimes I have so little to give!" + +"Why do you give, then, dear Minnie?" said Fred, languidly smiling. + +"Oh, if you ask that, why did you give, last Monday? You gave--let me +see--fifty-four dollars; every cent you had in your purse. Oh, +the things I bought for her with it! Paid rent, bought medicine, +blankets,--oh, so many needed comforts! Now, why did _you_ give?" said +Minnie, with a triumphant smile,--"for now I have him," she thought. + +"To save myself pain,--that's all." + +Minnie looked puzzled. + +"Nothing else, I do assure you. No very great virtue in that. The fact +was, I was bored, and, to tell the truth, somewhat shocked, by your +'poor Sophia's' ailments, which I came upon so inopportunely,--and I +was glad to empty my pockets to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling." + +"Well, then, save yourself pain again, Fred,--for I assure you she +suffers constantly for want of simple alleviations, which a small sum of +money would afford her. Oh, she needs so many things, and everything is +so dear! And she has so many helpless children, and no husband, and so +bowed with rheumatism"-- + +"Minnie! excuse me for interrupting you; but can you find nothing but +rheumatism to talk about? It is of all subjects the least tasteful to +me." + +"My dear Fred!" And there Minnie stopped. She was both hurt and puzzled. + +Fred laughed. His good-humor returned at the sight of her mystified +face, and the opportunity of explaining some of his theories of morals. + +"In the first place, Minnie, what do we live for?" + +Minnie had not thought. She was only eighteen, and had acted. + +"Well, I dare say you have never considered the subject. I have, a great +deal. You see, Minnie, we are born to pursue happiness. You allow that." + +"Yes,--I suppose so," said Minnie. + +"Well, then, if I look at the wrong thing, and call it happiness, it is +my mistake, and I only shall pay for it. You find your happiness in an +active life and works of mercy. Very well, do so. You devote a certain +part of your income, small as it is, to that sort of pleasure. I devote +mine to my pleasures. They are different from yours. You might call them +selfish. What then? So are yours. I don't say you are not modest and +humble, and all that; but you do enjoy your old women, and your fussy +charity-schools. Very well. That is all I do with my drawing, my +lounging, my smoking, my reading. And I think, Minnie," added Fred, +laughing, "I have the added grace of humility; for I am far from making +a merit of my sort of life." + +"No,--it would be difficult to make a merit of it," said Minnie. + +That was clear enough. Fred loved to have her for an auditor. So long as +she could not see over him, he was as good as infinite to her. + +"In the first place, Minnie, you must allow, it is a duty to surround +ourselves with the beautiful in all things. It conduces to the highest +self-culture; and self-culture is our first duty." + +"Is it? Surely, it cannot be! Oh, you mean we ought rather to attend to +our own faults than those of others?" + +"I mean as I say. Self-culture is our first duty, both moral and +intellectual. I might add, also, that to take care of Number One is a +dictate of common prudence. You allow that? Well. First, then, the body +cared for, all right. Then the morals,--attend to your own, and let +other people's alone. Then, thirdly, your intellect. Now, then, it +becomes a positive duty, 'the duty that lies nearest to me,' to +cultivate that. And to do that, Minnie, I am obliged to draw on myself +to my very last dollar. To refine the taste by familiarity with the +highest objects of taste, to appreciate Art, to develop the intellect, +to bring one's self to conceive and grasp the Universal, the Beautiful, +to raise one's self in the scale of created things by creative fancies +imitating the Highest,--ah! in fact, Minnie, self-culture becomes a +duty,--indeed, our first duty." + +Something in Minnie's face--it was not a smile--made Fred turn the +subject a little. + +"Now, really, if every one would take care of one, and that one himself, +don't you see there would be no more want or suffering in this weary +world? no more need of blankets or dispensaries? Each is happy, +comfortable, and self-cultured in his proportion. A universal harmony +prevails. Like the planets, self-revolving, and moving, each in his +chosen orbit, they shout and sing for joy. How much better this than +to be eccentrically darting off in search of somebody's tears to wipe, +somebody's wounds to bandage,--who, indeed, would have neither wounds +nor grief, if they would follow my simple rule!" + +Minnie laughed a little at her brother's grave sophistry, but had no +wish to contest the point with him. + +"It is no merit in me, but, as you say, rather self-indulgence, to be +looking up and relieving destitute cases. But it would be merit in you, +if you don't like it; and you might have all that, and none of the +annoyances." + +Her bright face glowed; and Fred liked to look at her when she was +excited; the coloring beat Titian's, he thought. + +"You don't know how painful to me it is to hold out empty hands to so +many sufferers"-- + +But now Minnie's face looked so sorrowful that there was nothing +specially beautiful in the coloring, and Fred said, impatiently,-- + +"You bore me, Minnie. I am waiting to take my afternoon nap." + +And he turned positively over towards the wall. + +The sight of Minnie, swiftly walking through the driving storm to-day, +brought up to Fred's memory all the talk they had had in that very room, +he lying in the same place, a fortnight ago. Since that day he had not +seen Minnie, except casually; and, indeed, she seemed very busy and +very happy, if one might judge by her lighted face and her laden arm. +Something keener than philosophy, subtiler than Epicurus, pricked Fred, +as Minnie vanished into the cloud of snowflakes. + +"Pshaw!" + +He glanced around the apartment. It was still luxurious; but "custom had +staled the infinite variety" of its ornament and furnishing. Already he +was dissatisfied with this and that. Where to place a new bas-relief +that had struck him at Cotton's the day before, and which he had +purchased on the spot, without considering that there was no room for +it in the library? There it leaned against the wall,--not so big as the +Vicar's family-picture, but quite as much in the way. + +"The room looks loaded. I ought to have a gallery for these things. I +wonder if I couldn't buy Carter's house, and push a gallery through from +the top of my stairway." + +He touched the bell, and lay down again. + +Martin entered softly, let down the crimson curtains, so as to exclude +the vanishing light, and stirred the crimson cannel into a newer +radiance. + +"This weather frets my nerves, Martin. My face aches. Give me the bottle +of chloroform in my chamber." + +He inhaled the subtile fluid two or three times, and handed it back to +Martin. It made no difference, he said. He would try to sleep. So Martin +went out on tiptoe and closed the door. + +The chloroform probably did relieve him, for he thought no more of the +uneasiness in his face; but he was not only not at all sleepy, but +every sense seemed wide awake,--wide awake to its utmost capacity of +perception. It was as if a misty veil were suddenly removed from before +his eyes, and he saw, what indeed had always been there, but what in his +abstraction or inattention he had never before noticed. For instance, he +noticed at once that Martin had not quite closed the curtains, but had +left an inch or two open, and the window open besides. The air, however, +had grown soft, and the wind must have gone down, for it did not stir +the drapery. He looked again, to be certain he was right. Yes,--there +was an inch clear, where the wind might come in, if it liked. Martin was +growing blind or stupid. However, he did not so much think that. On the +whole, it was more likely that his own senses were sharpening. +That would be a good thing, though,--to be wiser and sharper and +clearer-sighted than all the rest of the world! He would like that +advantage. And why might he not have it? Already he perceived a marked +difference from his usual sensuous condition. It was unnatural, +preternatural,--and yet, a state which could be produced at will. It +was easily done. Just homoeopathy, in fact. A little sniff, a minute +dose, and he could see and hear with a miraculous clearness; but people +would take a dozen, and then they grew stupid. + +He looked again around the room. Was it fancy, now? Perhaps it was. It +was not likely the Madonna was winking in a heretic's parlor. Besides, +it was the same sort of no-motion he had watched many a time in the +twilight, when the door seemed to swing backward and forward in the +dusky air, following the dilation and contraction of his own eyes. He +tried it now on the Madonna. He opened his eyes as widely as possible, +and the drooping lids of the picture evidently half-raised themselves +from the dark, soft orbs. He nearly closed his own, and hers bent again +in serenest contemplation. + +He looked at the bronze figure of the "Dying Stork," which was placed +below the picture, and started to see that it moved also, and with a +strange, unnatural, galvanic sort of movement, like the "animated oat," +which moves when placed on the hand after being warmed a moment in the +mouth. The legs sprung against the reeds and flags, in the same way. + +Lastly, he looked at the bas-relief which stood near, leaning against +the wall. It was very, very strange. Had the old fable of Pygmalion a +truth in it, then? And could the same genius that created also give life +and warmth to its productions? Beneath the marble he could see the soft, +living pulse, distinctly; and the wind that blew over the mountains, +beyond the river, ruffled the waves about the tiny boat. Even the star +above the child's head sparkled in the depths of the sky. + +Fred was delighted. "It is enchantment!" he said. But no,--it was one +of those miracles that have not yet become commonplace. The poetic life +that his perceptions were now able to enjoy, in inanimate nature, would +be such a perpetual gratification to his taste,--such an incentive to +explorations and discoveries! He could not felicitate himself enough. + +"A thousand times better than the microscope," said he to himself +again. "Atoms are annoying and disgusting to look at, with their +incomprehensible and frightful minuteness, and their horrible celerity. +One does not like to think that everything is composed of myriads, be +they ever so beautiful,--which they are not, that ever I could see, but +chiefly all head or a wriggling tail. Bah! This is much better. Hark! I +can hear the waves dash,--the hope-song of the child,--and the breeze +moving against the delicate sails! + +"How delightful it will be to travel, with this new-found faculty! +Whenever I choose, I can have the talking bird, the singing tree, and +the laughing water! I always thought those peeps into irrational nature +the chief charm of the Arabian tales. How little did I dream of ever +being able to read with my own eyes the riddle of the world! By-the-way, +let me look at my Graces, and see if they, too, are conscious forms of +beauty." + +He turned to the group. Alas! even the Graces were not proof against the +ordeal of constant society. Perhaps, if he had reflected, he would +not have expected it. In truth, it was surprising to see how many +disagreeable sentiments they all three contrived to express, without +untwining their arms, or loosening their fond and graceful hold on each +other. A slight elevation of the eyebrow, a curve of the lovely mouth, +or a shrug from the Parian shoulders,--how expressive,--how surprising! +But Fred need not have been surprised; they never set up for Faith, +Hope, and Charity. What he most wondered at was that they still looked +so lovely, when they were clearly full of all pagan naughtiness. They +might as well have been women. + +Fred pondered on this for some time. Then, it seemed, everything had +a latent life in it. He had suspected as much. "There is always a +something," said he, "in what we make, not only beyond what we intend +to make, but different from it. We study a long time the powers of +position,--in chess, for example;--how much is produced by one move +that we did not anticipate, and perhaps cannot ascertain,--certainly not +prevent! How many times we are wittier than we meant to be,--striking +out, by our unconscious blow, thoughts related to the one we utter, but +far more brilliant,--and ourselves becoming conscious of the very good +thing we have said only by its effect on the company! So it is, I fancy, +with all our mental movements. The brain acts independently of the will +in sleep. Why not, in a great measure, when awake? Probably, as all +Nature has a movement of its own, so all Art may be made to have, by +the infusion and absorption of so much of the creative energy of the +artist,--hidden to the common eye, but palpitating to the instructed +touch, throbbing or sparkling to the instructed eye. Yes, it must be +so. The south-wind sighs a thousand times more mournfully through the +keyhole than Thalberg can make it do on the piano. What music there was +in those stones the man brought round, the other day, and played on with +a stick! And now, the sound here from the gas-tube, how wailing, how +sorrowful!--now, how triumphant!" + +Fred was so delighted with watching the gas-burner, and listening to the +wild music which floated through it, that he did not at first observe +that the wind had risen and was blowing almost a gale. Presently, in his +speculations as to the cause of such a sudden flood of melody, he hit on +the possibility of a current of air. + +"But, then, how comes the air to be so full of music? Never mind,--I'll +put the window down." + +However, just as he was putting it down, a snow-flake, one of a hundred, +all pressing for the same point, flew past him, and alighted on the +green velvet tabouret. + +It was nothing,--only a snow-flake,--and another time, Fred would have +thought nothing of it. But in the novel awakening of his faculties, even +a snow-flake had a new interest. With intense eagerness he watched the +movement of the little thing,--and yet, feeling that he might be on +forbidden ground, he had the presence of mind to seem not to see or +hear. If inanimate Nature were once to suspect his new insight, what a +bustle there would be! He almost closed his eyes, and lay still, where +he could watch and yet seem asleep. His prudence and caution were well +rewarded. + +The snow-flake was, as he suspected, as much alive as the wind; and that +was singing, shouting, dying away in ecstasies, at this very moment. + +He glanced at her. Lithe, sparkling, graceful, she gathered her soft +drapery about her, and stood poised delicately on one foot, while she +looked around the apartment in which she found herself. Fred could see +that she was moulded more beautifully than the Graces,--by so much more +as Nature is fairer than all Art,--and that she had an inward pure +coldness, beside which Diana's was only stone. Yet it was not +indifference, like that of the wild huntress,--not an incapacity to +feel, but only that her time had not come; when it should, she would +melt as well as another. Now she stood still and calm. She did not +once look at him. She had seen human beings before,--plenty of them. +Something else attracted her,--thrilled her, evidently; for the +faintest rose-color suffused her beautiful form; she changed her +attitude, and bent forward her graceful head. + +Something about "warming his hands by thinking on the frosty Caucasus" +passed through Fred's mind, and some law of association impelled him to +look at the fire. It was queer enough, that, as many times as he had +looked at that fire by the hour together, he had never before noticed +its shape or expression. Only last night, he had watched it, dancing and +flickering just as it did now, and never once suspected the truth! + +Mailed figures! Yes, plenty of them,--golden-helmeted and sworded like +the seraphim! A glorious band, gathering, twining, shooting past each +other,--jousting, tilting,--with blazing banners, and a field broader +than that of the "Cloth of Gold"; for this reached to and mingled with +the clouds--yea, tinted them with flame-color and roses,--and garlanded +the earth with crimson blossoms that nestled among her forests on the +far-off horizon. What a wide field, indeed! And how far might these +blazes and flames go, when once they set out? To the stars, perhaps. +Fred did not see what should stop them. The atmosphere might, possibly. +He must study that out. + +Meanwhile how strangely far he could see! What a power it was! What a +new interest it gave to Nature! Nature, he must confess, had always +seemed rather flat to him, on the whole. He had always liked +the imitations better than the original,--pictures better than +people,--busts better than philosophers. But now the case is altered. He +has got what his friend Norris calls "glorification-spectacles." Now he +can have perpetual amusement. Why, it is vastly better than Asmodeus +peeping in at the tops of houses. By the same token, snow-flakes are +more interesting than humanity. + +Speaking of snow-flakes, what does he see, but that she is evidently +yielding to the soft enchantment of the nearest flame-god,--drawn +thither by resistless affinity, and melting, in his burning arms, to +the most delicate vapor! Snow-flake no more, yet not absorbed nor lost! +Rather taking her true place, transported from the earth-tempests to a +warmer and higher sphere of action. + +That might be, but not yet. In their new vaporous condition, in which +both had lost some of their prominent qualities, they had acquired new +relations, perhaps new duties. At all events, they did not at once +ascend to their kindred ether,--but swam, glided, floated, above +and around, and finally separated. Watching them keenly, Fred could +distinctly see that the sometime snow-flake left her sphere and came +gradually towards himself. As the vaporous shape floated nearer, it also +grew larger, so that, although Fred could not have said certainly that +the size was human, it relieved him from the impression of any fairy +or elf or sprite. No, it was nothing of that sort. It was just the +gentlest, calmest, serenest face and form in the world,--with the same +look of pure sweetness he had noticed on her first entrance,--with a +peculiar surprised look in her wide-open eyes, that he had seen but in +one human face. As well tell the truth,--the face, expression, and all, +were as like Annie Peyton's, as her portrait, drawn in water-colors, +could possibly have been. + +The shape sat down by him,--her vaporous garment still folding softly +around her, and her clear, open eyes fixed on him. There was no need of +speech, for he read her face as if written by Heaven's own hand; and the +coarse and selfish philosophy which had sufficed partially to stun and +confuse Minnie fled at the presence of the spirit. Not a word still from +the calm, sweet face. It looked on him with pity and surprise. Then all +the ideas and convictions that throng on the mind warped, but not lost, +pressed on him. He hid his face in the sofa-cushions. + +His presence of mind returned as a new thought struck him. It was an +ocular delusion, surely. He sprang up, took three or four turns across +the room, rubbed his eyes smartly, and took his seat again. For a moment +he would not look towards the chair. When at last he did look, the airy, +soft form was still there, looking steadily into his eyes. + +"What an idea!" exclaimed he, impatiently. "I might put my hands through +it, like the flame of a candle. It is nothing but vapor. What is it made +of? Nothing but a snow-flake and the gas from cannel coal. I saw it, +myself, melting and falling together into this beautiful shape. But then +it is only a shape. It is not a body. Oh, but then it may be a soul! Who +knows what souls are made of? Snow-flakes and vapor, perhaps. Who knows +indeed?" + +He looked about the room. Everything was in its natural and usual place. +The fire burned merrily; the wind swept fitfully without, and all +was quiet within. A very uncomfortable feeling, of mingled awe and +curiosity, took possession of him. He did not quite like to look at the +shape. He thought,-- + +"Can this be the spiritual body that St. Paul says is to supersede the +natural one? If this is indeed, the soul of Annie Peyton,--why, she +knows, somehow, what is in mine. And, by Jove! I can see her soul now, +too, without any trouble! She can't hide her real feelings now from me, +any more than I can my character from her. There's some good in it, +anyhow!" + +With some effort, he raised his eyes,--very respectfully, indeed; +for though he was only about to look at a soul, he was full as much +overpowered as if it had been the body. His eyes fell. + +"If I dared to look! But she knows how I feel. I suppose she sees me +now,--shivering from head to foot like a----Somehow, I can't look her +in the eyes. However, this won't do!" And he looked quickly and timidly +into the now smiling face. + +He need not have been so timid. If a soul could discern evil, it could, +also, good; and this spirit was quick to see the last. Without a +word,--but when were words necessary to souls?--with only a glance, she +expressed so much love and pity for him, that Fred was ashamed to look +her in the face. "Oh! if she could really see him," he thought, "would +she look so?" Perhaps so. For the Intelligence that sees the evil +can clearest of all see the mitigations, the causes, and the sore +temptations; and the fruit of the widest knowledge is the widest love. + +Something like this passed from the soul that sat opposite Fred into his +awakening and sensitive consciousness:-- + +"You have never tasted the pleasures of useful activity," the sweet face +said. "Come with me, and we will look together, and see what good may +come, and also what enjoyment, from it." + +Now it was, for the first time, that Fred fully understood his position. +It came like a gleam of light on his puzzled intellect, and made that +quite clear which had before been so mystical and cloudy, that he had +been ready to rub his eyes, and to doubt, almost, the evidence of his +senses. He remembered his old and a thousand times repeated theory of +"projected images." Here it was. Instead of a fancy, a thought, here was +the whole of Annie Peyton's soul (which, to be sure, had often enough +occupied his mind) projected from his own, perhaps, so as to be a +subject of contemplation to his bodily eyes. Or, what was more likely, +the soul itself of Annie Peyton might have left her body for a time in +a dream. It was among the possibilities, though he had never before +believed it to be. But then, again, how could his soul go off on an +exploring tour with Annie's? His soul was safe in his body, and that, +namely, the body, lying on the sofa,--the room close, the window down. +Just then, he glanced toward the window, and remembered that he had not +fastened it at all. There was room enough for a soul to pass easily. But +then, again, how was his soul to pass,--to get out, in the first place, +of his body? Easily enough. The concentrated effort of will, which could +give shape to a fancy, and place it outside the eye, could, by sustained +action, separate all the perceptive powers from the senses,--in short, +the spirit from its envelope. + +"To know, to perceive, to suffer, to rejoice, do not require skin and +bones. The heart weeps while the eye is dry; the lips smile while the +heart is breaking. One might have a conventional soul,--to keep house, +as it were, and do all the honors of society, while the real one went +abroad to regions of truth and beauty, and bathed in living waters!" + +While Fred continued so to think and speculate, and also to separate, +and, as it were, classify his ideas, he was pleased to perceive, +that, without any very strong volition on his part, but only from the +analytical processes of his reason, that portion of his mind which +perceived and enjoyed the truth of things became condensed and separated +from the conventional, the factitious, and the merely sensual. The +qualities, or states, or whatever the metaphysician calls them, fell +off him, as garments do in a dream, and left himself, his very self, +separate, and a little distant, from his body. He perceived this rather +than saw it. He knew it, but could not assert it. The body, with its +bodily wants and limitations, leaned on the couch, half slumberously; +while the mind, himself, full of vague aspirations, keen intellectual +hunger, and overlaid with error, obstinacy, and the thick crust of +self-contemplation, which stifles all true progress,--these assimilated +qualities made himself, what he felt he was, not an attractive object to +himself more than to anybody else. All his perceptions pointed inward, +and cramped and narrowed his existence. He felt very, very small. + +"This is strange," he reasoned, "that I should have such a sense of +contraction! I crowd on myself, as it were. My thoughts hit me, press +me, instead of elevating me. I cannot see why; for the habit of looking +up to no goodness or intelligence but the Supreme must surely be a good +one, and self-education and development the noblest process for a human +being." + +He said this in a mechanical sort of way, as if it were a lesson he +remembered at school. But it made no impression on him, and did not +relieve his difficulty. He knew it, somehow, to be false, and felt +it falling off as he spoke, as if it were the last remnant of gauzy +sophistry. + +Fred had never been fond of church-going, nor was he much given to +reading the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, he rather affected the style of the +Latter-Day Saints, who look for a better and nobler Messiah than came in +the Son of Mary. But just now, fifty texts of Scripture, which he must +have learned long ago at his mother's knee, came crowding upon his +memory. + +"Though I have all gifts, and have not charity, I am nothing." + +"He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." + +"He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, +whom he hath not seen?" + +"Little children, love one another." + +"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." + +And so on,--interminably. In a helpless, vague way, he looked at the +shadow by his side. + +"You like pictures, and paint them," said she, speaking for the first +time;--and the voice was precisely the tone he had recognized in the +music of the wind; he had thought then it was like hers;--"look with me +at these two." + +They were, indeed, magnificent pictures. They reached from floor to +ceiling. Fred was artist enough to enjoy fully the wide sweep of sky and +land,--the mountains in the distance, and the firmament studded with +stars. A figure wandered up and down the space, sometimes to the tops +of the mountains, sometimes to the clefts of the rocks. When he saw the +stars, he calculated their distances;--when he saw the moon, he weighed +her, and guessed about the atmosphere on the other side;--when the gold +and diamonds shone in the clefts of the rocks, he gathered and analyzed +them. The Leviathan he studied and classed. He groped and reached +constantly, and, having gathered, looked at his gatherings, +dissatisfied. He was ever searching out knowledge. Meanwhile, a gnat put +him in a passion, and unleavened bread destroyed his peace. Though he +might sleep on rose-leaves, as he could not command the wind, they came +often to double under him, and annoy him with bad dreams. + +"When shall I be a disembodied spirit, and no longer subject to the +petty annoyances that belong to the flesh?" cried he, fretfully. "My +knowledge, too, is a moth,--only vexing me by a sense of the limitations +of my condition. If I could grasp Nature,--if I could handle the +stars,--if I could wake the thunder,--if I could summon the cloud! That +would be worth something,--to send the comets on their errands! But what +avails it, to know that they go?--how far from me when they start, and +how many millions of miles before they turn to come back? If I could +move only one of these subtile energies that mock me while I look them +in the face!" + +The philosopher dozed. A storm came on, and swept over all creation. +When he awoke, it was clearing away, and one side of the heavens was +heaped with gold-lined clouds, and the darkness of the other spanned +with the seven-hued bow. He looked admiringly at the clouds and +critically at the rainbow, and added to his memorandum-book. + +"What use?" said he, mournfully; "delicate dew, and refracted light!" + +He continued to ponder and murmur, to explore, to ascertain, to grumble. +He had rheumatic pains, for the elements had no mercy on him; he rubbed +himself as he was able, and added to his stores of knowledge. He was +very, very learned. When he reached a shelter, he lay down. If no human +love welcomed him, and no gentle lip soothed him, he had self-culture, +especially in the sciences. + +All this Fred knew as soon as he looked at him. + +"If he were wise, he would not stop at knowledge, which is, of course, +unsatisfactory,--but dive beyond, as I have done, into the essence of +things," said Fred to himself. "If he could pierce through the veil that +covers all things, he would find amusement enough to last a lifetime. In +vegetable life, the jealousies and passions of flowers,--in the quiet +eventfulness of the mineral kingdom, to see forms of living beauty in +crystals,--finally, in all the under-mechanism of creation, what a +fund of enjoyment and instruction! I think I should never cease to be +delighted and entertained." + +Fred glanced from the picture to the fireplace. The shovel and tongs +were just laughing at him; and though they composed their countenances +immediately, he had caught the expression, and was excessively annoyed. +Philosophy at length came to his aid, especially as the poker expressed +only profound deference, preserving a martial attitude and immovable +features. After all, why should he care for a pair of tongs? One must +cultivate phlegm, if one is a philosopher; and a shovel, after all, is +not so bad as a pretty woman. He heard the cool wind distinctly blowing +across the mountains in the picture, and saw the stars coming out again. +Then Fred knew he had been looking at a diorama, and that the exhibition +was over. + +He heard a hearty laugh at a little distance, and perceived that the +picture, which at first had seemed to spread out over the whole wall, +was really divided into two parts, something like an exhibition he +remembered of dissolving views. This was delightful. The first picture +faded out into gloom, and gave place to a bright, cheerful room in the +third story of a house in the city. There were only two rooms,--this, +and a small anteroom. The furniture was simple, even poor. Through the +window the snow was seen falling, and the blaze flickered, in cheerful +contrast, on the hearth. A woman, neither young nor pretty, stood with +an astonished expression, and an elderly man laughed loudly, and sat +down before the fire. + +"What in the world shall I do?" said the woman. + +"Do, my dear?--why, bring me my dressing-gown"; said he, laughing again +so cheerily, that it was contagious; and as she brought the coarse +wadded garment he asked for, she laughed too. + +"A pretty kettle of fish!" said she. + +"Yes! Now what shall we do? Not a dollar in our pockets!" + +"Nor a coat to your back!" broke in the woman. + +Then they both laughed again, loudly and heartily. + +Fred remembered now what they were laughing at. The man was a minister, +well known in Boston, and the woman was his wife. He had just come in, +running through the storm, and almost out of breath. + +"Wife! my coat! Don't you see I am in my shirt-sleeves? I've got a +snow-bank on my back!" + +"Why! where in the world--what have you done with your coat?" + +"Oh! that I am almost ashamed to tell you; it seems such a parading sort +o' thing to do in the streets! But you may depend, I didn't stand at the +corners long, to be seen of men, in this driving storm! Fact was, wife, +I just took it off of my back, and gave it to poor old M'Carty;--he'd +nothing on but rags, and was fairly shaking with the cold. I knew I'd +another to home,--and what does a man want of two coats? One's enough +for anybody. Besides, didn't our Lord particularly tell his disciples +not to have but one? Say, now, wife!" + +The wife looked blank and embarrassed. + +"Well, wife! what now?" + +"Only"----and she paused again. + +"Only what? Out with it! You think it was silly! But, wife, you'd 'a' +done the same thing;--you couldn't 'a' helped it, nohow. Providence +seemed to 'a' cast him in my way o' purpose. I tell you, wife, it was as +plain-spoken as it could be,--'Be ye warmed!' Why, you'd 'a' done the +same thing, wife!" + +"My goodness! I _have_ done it, husband! A man and his wife and three +little children came along, not half an hour ago, looking so miserable +and cold, that, as I thought, as you say, you had one coat, and that +was all you really needed, I just out with the other, and put it on the +man's back. The thankfullest creature you ever saw!" + +And here the man had broken into the hearty laugh Fred heard. + +When the man put on his dressing-gown, which was comfortable for the +fireside, the wife renewed her question. He answered with a bright +smile,-- + +"The Son of Man, my dear we know, had not where to lay his head; but +then he always trusted in God. God never fails his children. Thanks to +Him!" added he, reverently, and raising loving eyes to heaven, as if he +really spoke to somebody there,--"Thanks to Him! there's bountiful hands +and tender hearts, a plenty of 'em, in the city of Boston. I've only got +to strike, and the waters 'll flow out! yes,--rivers of water!" + +The wife looked down, and said, meditatively, "It makes me think what +our dear Saviour said to poor Peter,--'O thou of little faith, wherefore +didst thou doubt?'" + +The man answered in a clear, joyful tone, "Oh, you won't doubt more'n +half a minute to time, wife!--and I won't doubt at all!" + +With that, the two aged Christians struck up a sweet Wesleyan melody; +and that, too, was in the same soft minor key that Fred had heard +singing through the gas-burner. They finished the little hymn, and +the woman scraped some corn from a cob into the corn-popper. In a few +minutes, she had filled a large bowl with the parched corn. + +"I declare, they look like them hyacinths in the window,--don't they? +What a lovely white color!" + +"I think, wife," answered the man, as he took a handful of the kernels +and looked at them, "this corn is a good deal like human nature. When +we're all shut up in ourselves, we're poor creatures;--but touch us with +the live coals of the Holy Spirit, and we turn out something refreshing. +Fact is, wife, we're good for nothing, till we're turned inside out." + +The picture faded. It was a very homely one. + +Fred turned to the soul by his side, but she was no longer visible. + +"Escaped, somehow! I wonder, now, how?" + +But he had scarcely spoken, when he saw, by a slight movement of the +door, that she must have gone out that way. It was just closing. With a +tremendous effort of will, he tried to follow her, but in vain. He +had been so much in the habit of looking after himself only, that his +untrained faculties refused to obey him. As a last resource, he sank +passively towards the form which still lay prone on the couch. How he +was again to join soul and body he could not guess. But, apparently, +there was no difficulty. The spirit which had called him out of himself, +for a little while, had departed, and, with her, both the power and the +desire of separation. He joined his sensuous existence with ease and +pleasure, and with no perceptible lapse of consciousness. No sooner had +he obtained the use of his tongue, than he made an inarticulate noise. +The door, which had been all that time swinging, opened again, and the +velvet-footed Martin appeared. + +"Who went out, Martin?" + +"Out of here, Sir? No one, Sir." + +"Who opened the door, then?--What's that in your hand?" + +"The chloroform, Sir, you just handed me." + +"Just handed you?" + +"Yes, Sir;--you gave it back to me not a quarter of a minute ago." + +"Have I been asleep, Martin?" + +"I should judge not, Sir. You didn't take more than two sniffs at the +bottle. I just had time to go to the door when you spoke to me." + +"Martin,--is the window close?" + +"Perfectly close, Sir." + +"You may go." + + * * * * * + + +PALFREY'S AND ARNOLD'S HISTORIES.[A] + + +[Footnote A: _History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty._ By John +Gorham Palfrey. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1858. 8vo. pp. 638. + +_History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._ By +Samuel Greene Arnold & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 574.] + +The London "Times," in its comments upon a recent desponding utterance +of foreboding for our republic, by President Buchanan, in his Fort +Duquesne Letter, affirms that the horizon of England is clearing while +our own is darkening. Mr. Bright, true to the omen of his name, thinks +better of our country. He seizes upon all fit occasions, as in his late +speech at Manchester, to hold up to his countrymen the opposite view, +so far at least as concerns our republic. He loves to recommend to +his constituents American notions and institutions. Perhaps it may be +allowed,--though this is hardly to be affirmed, if any decisive argument +depends upon it,--that the peculiar institutions, political and social, +of the two nations, have been on trial long enough, side by side, +through the same race of men and in the pursuit of the same interests, +to enable a wise discerner to strike the balance between them, in +respect to their efficiency and their security as intrusted with the +welfare and destiny of millions. If we can learn to look at the +large experiment in that light, all that helps to put the real issue +intelligently before us will be of equal interest to us, from whichever +side of the water it may present itself. For ourselves, we believe that +the best security against despair for our country is a knowledge of its +history. If the study of our annals does not train up patriots among us, +we must consent to lose our heritage. We are glad to be assured that our +historians do not intend to allow the republic to decay before they have +written out in full the tale of its life. Their records, well digested, +may prove to be the pledges of its vigor and permanence. + +There are those in the land, who, for reasons suggested by President +Buchanan, and for others, of darker omen, to which he makes no +reference, do despair, or greatly fear. What with an honest hate of some +public iniquities among us,--the tolerance and strengthening of which +many of our politicians regard as the vital conditions of our national +existence,--and a dread of the excesses incident to our large liberty, +it is not strange that some of our own citizens should accord in +sentiment with the London "Times." Probably the same proportion of +persons may be now living among the native population of our national +soil, appeared at the era of the Revolution, preferring English +institutions to our own, and predicting that her government will outlast +our own. Discussions raised upon the present aspect of affairs in either +country will not settle the issue thus opened. A real knowledge of our +own institutions and a reasonable confidence in their permanence are +to be found only in an intelligent and very intimate acquaintance with +their growth and development. In our histories are to be found the +materials of our prophecies. + +We welcome, therefore, with infinite satisfaction, the two admirable +volumes whose titles we have set down. For reasons which will appear +before we conclude our remarks upon them, we find it convenient to unite +their titles and to write about them together; but for distinctness of +subject and marked individuality in the mode of treatment, no two books +can stand more widely apart. Abilities and culture and aptitudes of the +very highest order have been brought to the composition of each of +them. An exhaustive use of abundant materials, and a most conscientious +fidelity in digesting them into high-toned philosophical narrations, are +marked features of both the volumes, and we will not venture upon the +ungracious office of instituting comparisons, in these respects, between +their authors. We must make a slight report of the story of each of +them, and of the method and spirit in which it is told, and then +confront them for mutual cross-examination. + +Our historians have learned to write their books with full as much +reference to their being read abroad as at home. The problem with which +they first have to deal, therefore, is, how to make the men and the +incidents and the cardinal points of our annals look as large to +foreigners as they do to us. Many of our town-histories are written in +the tone and style of Mr. Poole's "Little Pedlington,"--the epithet +_Little_ being suppressed in the title, but obtruded on every page. The +intensity and emphasis of our historic strain appear to foreigners to be +disproportionate to the subject-matter of the story. Mr. Punch always +represents a Yankee as larger than his garments. His trousers never +cover his ankles; his cuffs stop far short of his wrists; his long neck +extends beyond the reach of even his capacious collar; and the bone in +him lacks amplitude of muscle. But Mr. Punch, with all his wisdom, does +not fully understand the composition of a Yankee, as the greatest common +multiple of a Teuton, Dane, Norman, Frank, Kelt, and Englishman. Dr. +Palfrey's volume will largely conciliate our cousins beyond the water +to our own conceit of our annals, because, more distinctly and cogently +than any previous record in pamphlet or folio, it identifies the springs +and purposes of our heroic age with an era and a type of men which +English historians now exalt on their own noblest pages. + +Dr. Palfrey has had precisely that natural endowment, training, +experience, mental discipline, and intercourse with the world in public +and private relations, to furnish him with the best qualifications for +the work to which he has devoted the autumn of an eminently useful and +honored life. The sinewy fibre of his theme is religion. And he is a +religious man of the highest pattern, deeply skilled in its scholarly +lore, erudite in its Scriptural and controversial elements, and +practised in the sagacity which it imparts for understanding and +interpreting human nature. Religion enters into the subject-matter of +his narrative, not so much in its philosophical bearings as in its +civico-ecclesiastical and institutional relations; where it becomes the +spine of the social fabric, traversed and perforated with the nervous +life-chords for all the members of the organism. His education has +been that of the highest ideal of New England,--through books and men, +through professional duties and public services, bringing him into +relations with youth, with men and women, and with the forms and the +routine work of civil and political administrations. He has at his +command the language of devotion, the rhetoric and logic of philosophy, +and the technicalities of jurisprudence. To his personal friends, and +they are very many in every walk of life, it is a matter of grateful +recognition that he escaped from a political arena whose conflicts were +not congenial with his delicacy of taste or of conscience, in season to +give the vigor of his best years to the composition of a work which will +spread his fame to other lands and identify it forever with what is of +most reverent and honored remembrance on his native soil. + +The historian's work, when done after the best pattern, involves a duty +to his readers and a privilege for himself. To them he is bound to +present all the essential facts, authenticated, illustrated, and +carefully disposed in their natural relations. For himself, having done +this, he is at liberty to construct his own theory, to follow his own +philosophy, and to pronounce judicial decisions. The highest exaction to +be made of an historian, and the loftiest function which he could claim +to exercise, are expressed in these two conditions. The noble privilege +and opportunity secured in the latter condition are the only adequate +reward for the drudgery of the labor required in the former. It would +be foolish to raise a question whether it be more essential for an +historian to be faithful in his narration or to be wise in his comments. +Only the statement we have made will serve to remind us how essential +the philosophy of human nature is to throw life into a record of old +annals. + +The two books in our hands, where their specific themes are identical, +substantially accord in their relation of facts,--allowing for a few +exceptional cases,--but they differ widely in their philosophy. Very +much of the fresh interest which both of them will create in their +respective subjects will be found in the collisions of their philosophy. + +Dr. Palfrey had a favorable opportunity for undertaking to write anew +the history of New England. Those who have yet to acquaint themselves +with that history say there was no occasion for this reiterated labor. +If such persons will merely read over his notes, without wasting any of +their precious time upon his text, they will discover their mistake. +There are in those notes matters new even to adepts. All the recent +materials which have been lavishly contributed from public and private +stores by public and private researches amount in sum and in importance +to an actual necessity for their digest and incorporation into a new +history. Dr. Palfrey has used these with a most patient fidelity, and +his references to them and his extracts from them convey to his readers +the results of an amount of labor which the most grateful of them will +not be likely to overestimate. While he speaks to us in his text, he +allows those whom we most wish to hear to speak to us in his rich and +well-chosen excerpts from a mountain-heap of authorities. + +The Dedication of the volume to Dr. Sparks has in it a rare felicity, +which is to be referred to two facts: first, that the writer had some +peculiarly touching and grateful things to say; and, second, that +he knew how to say them in language fitted to the sentiment. In his +Preface, he announces his purpose with its plan, refers us to his +authorities and sources, and recognizes his obligations to individual +friends. Some of the choicest matters in his Notes are the results of +his own personal research in England. + +The limit which he sets for himself will carry forward his History to +the time of the English Revolution, thus embracing our annals during the +vitality of our first Charter. That Charter, its origin, transfer, and +subsequent service as the basis of government, the reiterated efforts +to wrest it, and the persistent resolution to hold it, give to it a +symbolic significance which warrants the dating of an epoch by it. Dr. +Palfrey regards our local political existence as commencing from the +hour in which that document, with its official representatives, reached +these shores. We have seen criticisms disputing this position, but, as +we think, not even plausible, still less effective to discredit it. We +must have an incident, besides a _punctum temporis_, for our start in +government; and where could we find a better one than that on which the +whole subsequent course and character of the government depended? We +go, then, for the old Charter, and for the setting up of a jurisdiction +under it here. It was an admirable and every way convenient document; +good for securing rights, impotent as impairing liberties. It comforted +the "Magistrates" to have it to fall back upon, when its provisions +harmonized with their purposes; nor did they allow themselves to be +embarrassed by it, when it appeared that some of their purposes were +not fully provided for in it. That Charter got wonderfully aired and +invigorated on its ocean-passage. The salt water agreed with its +constitution. In a single instance, at least, it falsified the old +maxim,--_Coeium, nun animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt_. That was +a marvellous piece of parchment. So far as Massachusetts was concerned, +the Declaration of Independence was interlined upon it in sympathetic +ink. + +We hardly know of fifty octavo pages anywhere in which so much +investigation and labor condense their results so intelligibly into such +useful information as in each of the first two chapters of this volume. +The first is devoted to the Physical Geography of the Peninsula of +New England, its Natural History, and its Aborigines; the second is a +summary sketch of the Early Voyages and Explorations. In this we find +the most discriminating view which we have ever seen of the marvellous +adventures of John Smith,--so happily and suggestively described as the +"fugitive slave" who was "the founder of Virginia." The notes on the +credibility and authenticity of the narrations connected with his name +are admirable. In reading these two chapters, one must muse upon +the wilderness trampings and the ocean perils of the keen-set and +all-enduring men who furnished the material for these high-seasoned +pages. + +"Puritanism in England" is, of course, the author's starting-point. Here +he finds his men and their principles. A partial reformation is the most +mischievous influence that can work in society. It unsettles, but is not +willing to rebuild, even when it can learn how to do so. Reaction and +excess are the Scylla and Charybdis of its perils. Compromise is the +very essence of a partial reformation; and compromise in matters of +moral and religious concern, where it is not folly, is crime. Where any +party has been in earnest in a strife, there is no honest end at which +it can rest till it reaches the goal of righteousness. The active +element of Puritanism was the persistency of a religious party in +pursuing a purpose which was yielded up, at a point short of its full +attainment, by another branch of the party, which up to that point had +made common cause with them. To speak plainly, the English Puritans +regarded their former prelatical and conformist associates as traitors +to a holy cause. They had engaged together in good faith in the work of +reformation. They had suffered together. When the time came for triumph, +a schism divided them; and the more zealous smarted from wounds +inflicted by the lukewarm. It appeared that the Prelatists had been +looking to ends of state policy, while the Puritans kept religion in +view. The Conformists thought their ends were reached when Roman prelacy +was set aside, and certain local ecclesiastical changes had been +effected; but the real Puritans wanted to get and to establish the +essential Gospel. + +Dr. Palfrey tells this story concisely, but emphatically. He takes two +stages of the Puritan development in England, from which to deduce +respectively the emigration to Plymouth and to Massachusetts Bay. +Stopping at intervals to make intelligible the perplexities connected +with the patents and charters, his narrative is thenceforward +continuous, admitting new threads to be woven into it as the pattern +and the fabric both become richer. For the first time we have the full +connection presented in solid history between the Scrooby Church and +Plymouth Colony. And the tracing is beautifully done. An artist may find +his paintings in these pages. Our poets may here find themes which will +be the more tempting and rewarding, the more closely they are held +to severe historic verity. They will find, that, after all, the most +promising materials for the imagination to deal with are facts. The +residence of the exiles in Holland, their debates and arrangements with +respect to a more distant remove, the ocean passage, the first forlorn +experiences during two winters at Plymouth, are vividly presented. The +paragraph, on page 182, beginning, "A visitor to Plymouth," gives us +a picture better than that which hangs in the Pilgrim Hall. If the +sternest foe of the Pilgrims across the water could have looked upon +the exiles in their winter dreariness, hungry, wasted, dying, cowering +beneath the accumulation of their woes, he might have regarded the scene +as presenting but a reasonable retribution upon a stolid obstinacy in +the most direful and needless self-inflictions. "Why could they not have +been content to cling to the comforts of Old England, and to restrain +their wilfulness of spirit?" The question is answered now differently +from what it would have been then. We have used one wrong word about +those exiles, in speaking of them as _cowering_ under their woes. They +did not _cower_, but _breasted _them. + +After another most pregnant and exhaustive episode on Puritan politics +in England, Dr. Palfrey brings in that thread of his story on which is +strung the fortune of Massachusetts. It is here that Englishmen will +find explained some of our vaunting views of the importance of our +annals. Dr. Palfrey, in this and in other chapters, traces with skill +and exactness the course of public measures and events in England, +through kingly tyrannies and popular resistance, which ended by +harmonizing the institutions of the mother country for a little while +with those which had sprung up in this wilderness. He soon comes upon +ticklish matters, but his touch and hold are firm, because he feels sure +that he is dealing with men who understood themselves, and who were +at least resolute and honest, to whatever degree they may have erred. +Probably, like many of us who are aware that we could not possibly have +lived comfortably with our ancestors, he feels all the more bound on +that account to set their memory in the light of their noblest and least +selfish ends. He is stout and unflinching in his championship of those +ancestors: he sees in their experiment a lofty ideal; he vindicates +their policy in the measures for realizing it; nor does he withhold +apologetic or vindicatory words where "unmeet persons" among the whites +or Indians stood in the way of it. + +Henceforward Dr. Palfrey has to follow out each thread of his story +by itself, as by-and-by he will have to gather them into one cord. He +traces the developments of months and years in the original settlements, +and pursues them as they lead him to new territory in the Northeast +and the Southwest, into Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Another +episode on the opening of the Civil War at home, which invited a large +return of the exiles, and a record of the original confederacy of the +New England Colonies, bring us to the present close of his labors. May +they be speedily continued! and may we enjoy the reality, as we now do +the promise of them! + +We turn now to Mr. Arnold's book. The field which it traverses is +narrower as regards space, but its spirit is large and generous, and its +subject-matter is of the loftiest significance. If the writer does not +indulge us with many disquisitions, it is not from lack of ability. +Wherever, as in his moralizings upon King Philip's War, and in his +incidental comments upon the peculiarities and temper of his prominent +men, he allows us to meet his own mind, he is uniformly wise and +interesting. He stands by Rhode Island as does Dr. Palfrey by +Massachusetts; and seeing that for a far longer period than the two +books run on together the two Colonies were at strife, we are glad to +have before us both the ways in which the story may be told. There are +various sharp judgments on Massachusetts men and principles in the Rhode +Island book. The argument is in good hands on either side. + +Mr. Arnold begins with the first occupation of Rhode Island by white +men, and conducts his narrative to the close of the century. His +research has been faithful. His style is chaste, forcible, and often +picturesque. He has seen the world widely, and he knows human nature. +He understands very well what a place of honor and what a well-proved +assurance of safety distinctive Rhode Island principles have attained. +The issue, having been found so triumphant, has dignified to the +historian the early, humble, and bewildering steps and processes through +which it was reached. The narrative on his pages is the most distracting +one ever written in the annals of civilized men. Every conceivable +element of strife, discord, agitation, alarm, dissension, and bitterness +is to be found in it,--redeemed only by a prevailing integrity, +right-mindedness, and right-heartedness in all the leading spirits. Each +man in each of the towns composing the original elements of the Colony +was a whole "democratie" in himself, and generally a "fierce" one. +Disputed boundaries with both the other Colonies, and an especial and +continuous feud with Massachusetts,--unruly spirits, bent upon working +out all manner of impracticable theories,--the oddest and most original, +as well as the most obstinate and indomitable dreamers and enthusiasts, +furnished some daily nutriment to dissension with their neighbors or +among themselves. Men of mark, like Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, +Governor Arnold, and William Harris, appear equally competent for +fomenting strife of a sort to threaten every essential element of civil +society, and for averting all permanent harm while putting on trial the +most revolutionary theories. On page 337, Mr. Arnold has a note most +characteristic of a large portion of his whole theme, as covering both +his men and their measures. Many of the documents, of an official +character, written by citizens, towns, or rulers in Rhode Island, were +of such a sort in language and matter, that the town of Warwick did not +think them fit for the public records, and so enjoined that the clerk +should keep them in a file by themselves. This was known as "the +Impertinent File," and, more profanely, but not less appropriately, +as "the Damned File." A certain "perditious letter," written by Roger +Williams himself, serves as the nucleus of this deposit; and we read of +another of the documents as being as "full of uncivil language as if it +had been indited in hell." + +Mr. Arnold picks his way through all these dissensions, and finds a full +reward in the nobleness of the men and the principles with which he has +in the main to deal. His only abatement of praise to Roger Williams +is on account of his bitter feud with William Harris. He repels, +as slanderous, the imputations founded on alleged interpolations +restricting religious liberty in the code, and cast at Roger Williams +for undue severity to Quakers and for favoring Indian slavery. +Randolph's visit, Andros's administration, the suspension and resumption +of the Charter, bring him out into broader matters, which he treats with +frankness and skill. + +The more histories we have from the pens of competent writers, even +though they go over the same ground, the more lively and interesting +will the pages be. We need not fear that like fidelity and ability in +the use of the same materials by different writers will reduce our +modern histories to a dead level of uniform narration. None but those +well-skilled in our annals are aware what scope they afford, not only +for special pleas, but also for honest diversity of judgment, in viewing +and pronouncing upon many test-points vital to the theme. Indeed, when +the historic vein shall have been exhausted, it will be found that there +is more than a score of special and contested points, in each of our +first two centuries, admirably suited for monographs. We have but to +compare a few pages in each of the two excellent works now in our hands, +to see how men of the highest ability, of rigid candor, and scrupulous +fidelity in the use of the same materials, while spreading the same +facts before their readers, may tell different tales, varying to +the whole extent of the diversity in their respective judgments and +moralizings. We can easily illustrate this assertion from the pages +before us. Though Dr. Palfrey stops more than a half-century short of +the date to which Mr. Arnold carries us, the former indicates exactly +how and where he will be at issue with the latter, even to the end of +the story common to both of them. So strong and clear is Dr. Palfrey's +avowal of fealty to the honorable and unsullied fame of the founders of +Massachusetts, that he will not be likely, on any later page, to qualify +what he has already written. It happens, too, that the points in which +any two of our historians would be most disposed to part in judgment lie +within the space and the years common to both these writers. We can but +indicate, in a very brief way, some of the more salient divergences +between them, and we must preface the specification by acknowledging +again the high integrity of both. + +Dr. Palfrey writes, unmistakably, as a man proud of his Massachusetts +lineage. He honors the men whose enterprise, constancy, persistency, +and wise skill in laying foundations have, in his view, approved their +methods and justified them, even where they are most exposed to a severe +judgment. He wishes to tell their story as they would wish to have it +told. They stand by his side as he reads their records, and supply him +with a running comment as to meaning and intention. Thus he is helped to +put their own construction on their own deeds,--to set their acts in the +light of their motives, to give them credit for all the good that was in +their purposes, and to ascribe their mistakes and errors to a limitation +of their views, or to well-founded apprehensions of evil which they had +reason to dread. Under such pilotage, the passengers, at least, would +be safe, when their ship fell upon a place where two seas met. Now +Massachusetts and Rhode Island were in stiff hostility during the period +here chronicled. The founder of Rhode Island and nearly all of its +leading spirits had been "spewed out of the Bay Colony,"--and the +institutions which the Rhode Islanders set up, or rather, their seeming +purpose to do without any _institutions_, constituted a standing +grievance to the rigid disciplinarians of Massachusetts. Indeed, we have +to look to the relations of annoyance, jealousy, and open strife, which +arose between the two Colonies in the ten years following 1636, for +the real explanation of the severity visited upon the Quakers in +Massachusetts in the five years following 1656. These early Quakers, +when not the veritable persons, were the ghosts of the old troublers of +"the Lord's people in the Bay." Gorton, Randall Holden, Mrs. Dyer, and +other "exorbitant persons," who had been found "unmeet to abide in this +jurisdiction," could not be got rid of once for all. + +Mr. Arnold glories in the early reproach of Rhode Island. He finds its +title to honor above every other spot on earth in the phenomena which +made it so hateful to Massachusetts. In every issue raised between it +and the Bay Colony from the very first, and in every element of its +strife, he stands stoutly forth as its champion, and casts scornful +reflections, though not in a scornful spirit. Wherever our two +historians have the same point under treatment, we discern this +antagonism between them,--never in a single case manifesting itself in +an offensive or bitter way, but tending greatly to give a brisk and +quickening vigor to their pages. Arnold claims that a perfectly +democratical government and entire religious freedom are "exclusively +Rhode Island doctrines, and to her belongs the credit of them both." He +might afford to give Massachusetts the appreciable honor of having been +the indirect means of opening those large visions to the eyes of men +who certainly were a most uncomfortable set of citizens while under +pupilage. Mr. Bancroft had previously written thus:--"Had the territory +of Rhode Island corresponded to the importance and singularity of the +principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with +wonder at the phenomena of its history."[B] It was only because the +State was no larger that it was a safe field for the first trial of such +principles. And it has often proved, that, the larger the principle, +the more circumscribed must needs be the field within which it is first +tested. It was well that the first experiments on the capabilities of +steam were tried by the nose of a tea-kettle. Seeing that most of the +early settlers of Rhode Island had very little property, and scarce +anything of what Christendom had previously been in the habit of +regarding as religion, the territory was the most fitting place for the +trial of revolutionary principles. Mr. Arnold says, very curtly, but +very truly,--"No form of civil government then existing could tolerate +her democracy, and even Christian charity denied her faith." (p. 280.) +The wonder of the world, however, would have been more curiously engaged +in watching what legislation for religion could possibly have devised +for a community made up of all sorts of consciences. The little State +deserves the honor claimed for her. But had she any alternative course? + +[Footnote B: BANCROFT'S _History of the United States._ I. 380.] + +Mr. Arnold, we think, defines with more sharp and guarded accuracy +than does Dr. Palfrey the ruling aim and motive of the founders of +Massachusetts. An historian of Massachusetts, knowing beforehand through +what a course of unflinching and resolute consistency with their first +principles he is to follow her early legislators, has reason to limit +their aim and motive at the start, that he may not assume for them more +than he can make good. Especially if he intend to palliate, and, still +more, to justify, some of the severer and more oppressive elements of +their policy, he will find it wise to qualify their purpose within the +same limitations which they themselves set for it. Dr. Palfrey parts +with an advantage of which he afterwards has need to avail himself, when +he states the motive of the exiles too broadly, as a search for a place +in which to exercise liberty of conscience. He speaks of these exiles +as recognizing in "religious freedom a good of such vast worth as to be +protected by the possessor, not only for himself, but for the myriads +living and to be born, of whom he assumes to be the pioneer and the +champion." (p. 301.) This large and unqualified claim might be advanced +for the founders of Rhode Island, but it cannot be set up for the +founders of Massachusetts. Whoever asserts it for the latter commits +himself most unnecessarily to an awkward and ineffective defence of them +in a long series of restrictive and severe measures against "religious +freedom," beginning with the case of the Brownes at Salem, and including +acts of general legislation as well as of continuous ecclesiastical and +judicial proceeding. Winthrop tells us that the aim of his brotherhood +was "to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their purity here." The +General Court repeatedly signified its desire to have a draft of laws +prepared which might be "agreeable to the word of God." Now either +of these statements of the ruling purpose of the colonists, as then +universally understood and interpreted, was inconsistent with what we +now understand by "freedom in religion," or "liberty of conscience." +What were regarded as "the pure ordinances of Christ" could not have +been set up here, nor could such laws as were then considered as +"agreeable to the word of God" have been enacted here, without impairing +individual freedom in matters of religion. Indeed, it was the very +attempt to realize these objects which occasioned every interference +with perfect liberty of conscience. The fathers of Massachusetts avowed +their purpose to be, not the opening of an asylum for all kinds of +consciences, but the establishment of a Christian commonwealth. Their +consistency can be vindicated by following out their own idea, but not +by assigning to them a larger one. + +Mr. Arnold, as we have said, is more sharply guarded in his statement of +the aim of the founders of the Bay Colony in this respect; and it is +all the more remarkable that he does not give them the benefit of the +recognized limitation. He defines for them a restricted object, but he +judges them by a standard before which they never measured themselves, +and then condemns them for short-comings. He tells us distinctly that +the motives of the exiles "were certainly not those assigned them by +Charles I., 'the freedom of liberty of conscience'" (p. 10); that +"they looked for a home in the New World where they might erect an +establishment in accordance with their peculiar theological views. 'They +sought a faith's pure shrine,' based on what they held to be a purer +system of worship, and a discipline more in unison with their notions +of a church. Here they proceeded to organize a state, whose civil code +followed close on the track of the Mosaic Law, and whose ecclesiastical +polity, like that of the Jews, and of all those [Christian governments?] +then existing, was identified with the civil power. They thus secured, +what was denied them in England, the right to pursue their own form of +religion without molestation, and in this the object of their exile was +attained." (p. 11.) And again, Mr. Arnold says,--"They founded a colony +for their own faith, without any idea of tolerating others." (p. 44.) All +this is admirably said. It is precisely what the exiles would wish might +be said of them in all the histories of them; for it is what they said +of themselves, in defining their own object; it was, further, what they +felt in their hearts to be their object, more intensely than they could +give it utterance. But the object is at once seen to be limited within +the fearful license of religious freedom. The Scriptural and legislative +fetters on such liberty were too repressive not to amount to an +essential qualification of it. "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," Ward of +Ipswich, made a clean breast for himself and his contemporaries, when he +numbered among the "foure things which my heart hath naturally detested: +Tolerations of diverse Religions, or of one Religion in segregant +shapes. He that willingly assents to this, if he examines his heart by +daylight, his conscience will tell him he is either an Atheist, or +an Heretigal, or an Hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lust. +Poly-piety is the greatest impiety in the world." With such frank +avowals on the part of those who had borne so much in the attempt to +make themselves comfortable in their exile to these hard regions, that +they might here try to work out their harder problem, it is a great deal +too severe a standard for judging their acts which is set up for them in +the fancied principle of religious liberty. We wonder that Mr. Arnold +withholds from them the benefit of his and their own clear limitation of +the principle,--a limitation so severe, as, in fact, to constitute quite +another principle. Was it at all strange, then, that they should deal +resolutely with Roger Williams, on account of "the firmness with which, +upon every occasion, he maintained the doctrine, that the civil power +has no control over the religious opinions of men."? (p. 41.) It was for +no other purpose than to engage the civil power for a pure religion that +they were dwelling in poor huts on these ocean headlands, and sustaining +their lives upon muscles gathered on the shore after the receding of the +tide. + +Dr. Palfrey and Mr. Arnold hold and utter quite opposite judgments about +the treatment of Roger Williams by Massachusetts. The latter, having +stated more definitely than the former the limited aim of our colonists, +which was utterly inconsistent with toleration in religion and with +laxity in civil matters, nevertheless considers the men of Massachusetts +unjustifiable in their course toward the founder of Rhode Island. Dr. +Palfrey, on weaker grounds than those allowed by Mr. Arnold, thinks +their most stringent proceedings perfectly defensible. He regards Mr. +Williams as an intruder, whose opinions, behavior, and influence were +perilous alike to the civil and the religious peace of the colonists; +and he holds the colonists as not chargeable with any breach of the +laws of justice or of mercy in sending out of their jurisdiction, into +another patch of the same wilderness, a man all whose phenomena were of +the most uncomfortable and irritating character. We confess that our +reading and thinking identify our judgment on this matter with that +of our own historian. There can be no question but that Roger +Williams--whether he was thirty-two years old, as Mr. Arnold thinks, +or, as Dr. Palfrey judges, in his twenty-fifth year, when he landed +here--was, in what we must call his youth, seeing that he lived to an +advanced age, a heady and contentious theorizer. Our fathers could not +try more than one theory at a time; and the theory they were bent upon +testing naturally preceded, in the series of the world's progressive +experiments, the more generous, but, at the same time, more dangerous +one which he advanced; and their theory had a right to an earlier and +a full trial, as lying in the way of a safe advance towards his bolder +Utopianism. The mild Bradford and the yet milder Brewster were glad when +Plymouth was rid of him. His first manifestation of himself, on +his arrival here, requires to be invested with the halo of a later +admiration, before it can be made to consist with the heralding of +an apostle of the generous principles of toleration and charity in +religion. Winthrop had recorded for us his refusal "to join with the +congregation at Boston." This had been understood as referring to an +unwillingness on the part of Williams to enter into communion with the +church. But from a letter of his which has come to light within the +year, it seems that he had been invited, previously to the arrival +of Cotton, to become teacher of the church. And on account of what +constraint of soul-liberty did he decline the office? Because the +members of that church "would not make a public declaration of their +repentance for having communion with the churches of England, while they +lived there"! The good man lived to grow milder and more tolerant of the +whims and prejudices and convictions of his fellow-men, through a +free indulgence of his own. And, what is more remarkable, he found it +necessary to apply, in restraint of others, several of the measures +against which he had protested when brought to bear upon himself. He +came to discover that there was mischief in "such an infinite liberty of +conscience" as was claimed by his own followers. The erratic Gorton was +to him precisely what the legislators of Massachusetts had feared that +he himself would prove to be to them. He publicly declared himself in +favor of "a due and moderate restraint and punishing" of some of +the oddities of the Quakers. In less than ten years after he had so +frightened Massachusetts by questioning the validity of an English +charter to jurisdiction here, he went to England on a successful errand +to obtain just such a document for himself and his friends. + +Our two historians, with all the facts before them, honestly stated too, +but diversely interpreted, stand in open antagonism of judgment about +the proceedings of Massachusetts against the Antinomians. That bitter +strife--_Dux foemina facti_--was in continuation of the issue opened by +Roger Williams, though it turned upon new elements. Here, again, Mr. +Arnold stands stoutly for the partisans of Mrs. Hutchinson, who moved +towards the new home in the Narragensett country. He sees in the strife, +mainly, a contest of a purely theological character, leading on to a +development of democratical ideas, (p. 66.) Dr. Palfrey insists that +it would be unjust to allege that the Antinomians were dealt with for +holding "distasteful opinions on dark questions of theology," and +affirms that they were put down as wild and alarming agents of an +"immediate anarchy." (pp. 489, 491.) In this matter, also, our own +judgment goes with our own historian. And the very best confirmation +that it could have is found in the fact, that the prime movers in the +most threatening stage of that dire conflict afterwards made ample +confession of their heat, their folly, and their outrages,--approving +the stern proceedings under which they had suffered. Wheelwright, +especially, in whose advocacy the cause of his sister-in-law first +assumed so threatening an aspect, most humbly avowed his sin and +penitence. + +One more very curious illustration of the divergence of judgment in our +two new historians may be instanced. They have both written, as became +them, quite brilliantly and vigorously, about the aborigines of the +soil. But how marvellously they differ! Dr. Palfrey discredits the +romance of Indian character and life. His mind dwells upon the squalor +and wretchedness of their existence, the shiftlessness and incapacity +of their natural development, their improvidence, their beastliness and +forlorn debasement; and he is wholly skeptical about the savage virtues +of constancy, magnanimity, and wild-wood dignity. He sighs over them +another requiem, toned in the deep sympathy of a true Christian heart; +but he does not lament in their sad method of decay the loss of any +element of manhood or of the higher ingredients of humanity. But Mr. +Arnold pitches his requiem to a different strain. He reproduces and +refines the romance which Dr. Palfrey would dispel. He exalts the Indian +character; gathers comforts and joys and pleasing fashionings around +their life; enlarges the sphere of their being, and asserts in them +capacity to fill it. The wigwam of Massasoit is elegantly described by +Mr. Arnold as "his seat at Mount Hope," (p. 23,)--and pungently, by +Dr. Palfrey, as "his sty," in whose comfortless shelter, Winslow and +Hopkins, of Plymouth, on their visit to the chief, had "a distressing +experience of the poverty and filth of Indian hospitality." (pp. 183, +184.) Arnold tells us, the Indians "were ignorant of Revelation, yet +here was Plato's great problem of the Immortality of the Soul solved +in the American wilderness, and believed by all the aborigines of the +West." (p. 78.) But Palfrey, knowing nothing of what his contemporary +was writing, had already put into print this sentence:--"The New England +savage was not the person to have discovered what the vast reach of +thought of Plato and Cicero could not attain." (p. 49.) + +Here are strange variances of judgment. But how much more of interest +and activity lives in the mind, both of writers and readers, when +history is written with such divergent philosophies and comments! Nobly, +in both cases before us, have the writers done their work, and heartily +do we render our tribute to them. + + + + +DRIFTING. + + + My soul to-day + Is far away, + Sailing the Vesuvian Bay; + My wingèd boat, + A bird afloat, + Swims round the purple peaks remote:-- + + Round purple peaks + It sails, and seeks + Blue inlets and their crystal creeks, + Where high rocks throw, + Through deeps below, + A duplicated golden glow. + + Far, vague, and dim, + The mountains swim; + While on Vesuvius' misty brim, + With outstretched hands, + The gray smoke stands + O'erlooking the volcanic lands. + + Here Ischia smiles + O'er liquid miles; + And yonder, bluest of the isles, + Calm Capri waits, + Her sapphire gates + Beguiling to her bright estates. + + I heed not, if + My rippling skiff + Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;-- + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise. + + Under the walls + Where swells and falls + The Bay's deep breast at intervals, + At peace I lie, + Blown softly by, + A cloud upon this liquid sky. + + The day, so mild, + Is Heaven's own child, + With Earth and Ocean reconciled;-- + The airs I feel + Around me steal + Are murmuring to the murmuring keel. + + Over the rail + My hand I trail + Within the shadow of the sail, + A joy intense, + The cooling sense + Glides down my drowsy indolence. + + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Where Summer sings and never dies,-- + O'erveiled with vines, + She glows and shines + Among her future oil and wines. + + Her children, hid + The cliffs amid, + Are gambolling with the gambolling kid; + Or down the walls, + With tipsy calls, + Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls. + + The fisher's child, + With tresses wild, + Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled, + With glowing lips + Sings as she skips, + Or gazes at the far-off ships. + + Yon deep bark goes + Where Traffic blows, + From lands of sun to lands of snows;-- + This happier one, + Its course is run + From lands of snow to lands of sun. + + Oh, happy ship, + To rise and dip, + With the blue crystal at your lip! + Oh, happy crew, + My heart with you + Sails, and sails, and sings anew! + + No more, no more + The worldly shore + Upbraids me with its loud uproar! + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise! + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +ENTRANCE. + + +It was on the 6th of December, 1856, that I landed with my family at +Civita Vecchia, on my return for the third time to Rome. Before we could +make all our arrangements, it was too late to think of journeying that +day towards the dear old city; but the following morning we set forth in +a rumbling, yellow post-coach, with three horses, and a shabby, gaudy +postilion,--the wheels clattering, the bells on the horses' necks +jingling, the cock's-plumes on their heads nodding, and a half-dozen +sturdy beggar-brats running at our side and singing a dismal chorus of +"_Dateci qualche cosa_." Two or three half-baiocchi, however, bought +them off, and we had the road to ourselves. The day was charming, the +sky cloudless, the air tender and with that delicious odor of the South +which so soothingly intoxicates the senses. The sea, accompanying us for +half our way, gleamed and shook out its breaking surf along the shore; +and the rolling slopes of the Campagna, flattered by sunlight, stretched +all around us,--here desert and sparkling with tall skeleton grasses +and the dry canes' tufted feathers, and here covered with low, shrubby +trees, that, crowding darkly together, climbed the higher hills. On +tongues of land, jutting out into the sea, stood at intervals lonely +watch-towers, gray with age, and at their feet shallow and impotent +waves gnashed into foam around the black, jagged teeth of half-sunken +rocks along the shore. Here and there the broken arches of a Roman +bridge, nearly buried in the lush growth of weeds, shrubs, and flowers, +or the ruins of some old villa, the home of the owl, snake, and lizard, +showed where Ancient Rome journeyed and lived. At intervals, heavy +carts, drawn by the superb gray oxen of the Campagna, creaked slowly +by, the _contadino_ sitting athwart the tongue; or some light wine +_carrettino_ came ringing along, the driver fast asleep under its tall, +triangular cover, with his fierce little dog beside him, and his horse +adorned with bright rosettes and feathers. Sometimes long lines of mules +or horses, tied one to another's tail, plodded on in dusty procession, +laden with sacks;--sometimes droves of oxen, or _poledri_, conducted +by a sturdy driver in heavy leathern leggings, and armed with a +long, pointed pole, stopped our way for a moment. In the fields, the +_pecoraro_, in shaggy sheep-skin breeches, the very type of the mythic +Pan, leaned against his staff, half-asleep, and tended his woolly +flock,--or the _contadino_ drove through dark furrows the old plough of +Virgil's time, that figures in the vignettes to the "Georgics," dragged +tediously along by four white oxen, yoked abreast. There, too, were +herds of long-haired goats, rearing mid the bushes and showing their +beards over them, or following the shepherd to their fold, as the +shadows began to lengthen,--or rude and screaming wains, tugged by +uncouth buffaloes, with low heads and knotted knees, bred among the +malaria-stricken marshes. + +Half-way to Rome we changed horses at Palo,--a little grim settlement, +composed of a post-house, inn, stables, a line of straggling +fishermen's-huts, and a desolate old fortress, flanked by four towers. +This fortress, which once belonged to the Odescalchi family, but is now +the property of the Roman government, looks like the very spot for +a tragedy, as it stands there rotting in the pestilential air, and +garrisoned by a few stray old soldiers, whose dreary, broken-down +appearance is quite in keeping with the place. Palo itself is the site +of the city of Alsium, founded by the Pelasgi, in the dim gloom of +antiquity, long before the Etruscans landed on this shore. It was +subsequently occupied by the Etruscans, and afterwards became a favorite +resort of the Roman nobility, who built there the splendid villas of +Antoninus, Porcina, Pompeius, and others. Of the Pelasgic and Etruscan +town not a vestige remains; but the ruined foundations of Roman villas +are still to be seen along the shore. No longer are to be found there +the feasts described by Fronto,[A] of "fatted oysters, savory apples, +pastry, confectionery, and generous wines in faultless transparent +goblets,"--nor would it now be called "a voluptuous seaside retreat"; +but good lobsters are still abundant there, and one can get a greasy +beefsteak, black bread, an ill-cooked chicken, and sour wine, at only +about twice their market value. The situation is lovely, with the sea +washing in along the rounded rim of the coast, close up to the door of +the inn; and on a sunny day, when the white wings of feluccas may be +seen gleaming far off on the blue Mediterranean, and the fishermen are +drawing their nets close into shore, it seems as if it might really be +made "a voluptuous seaside retreat," but for the desolating malaria +which renders it dangerous to rest there for a single night. + +[Footnote A: _De Feriis Alsensibus_, Epist. III. See Dennis's _Etruscan +Antiquities_, Vol. I.] + +Here, of course, we stopped as short a time as possible; and then, +bidding adieu to the sea, struck inland over the Campagna to Rome. The +country now grows wild, desolate, and lonely; but it has a special charm +of its own, which they who are only hurrying on to Rome, and to whom it +is an obstruction and a tediousness, cannot, of course, perceive. It +is dreary, weird, ghostly,--the home of the winds; but its silence, +sadness, and solitude are both soothing and impressive. After miles and +miles up and down, at last, from the crest of a hill up which we slowly +toiled with our lumbering carriage and reeking horses, we saw the dome +of St. Peter's towering above the city, which as yet was buried out of +sight. It was but a glimpse, and was soon lost. The postilion covered +the worn-out lace of his shabby livery with a heavy cloak, which he +flung over his shoulder to keep out the dampening air, gave a series of +wild flourishes with his whip, broke into guttural explosions of voice +to urge along his horses, and on we went full-gallop. The road grew more +and more populated as we approached the city. Carriages were out for a +drive, or to meet friends on their way from Civita Vecchia; and on +foot was many a little company of Romans, laughing and talking. At the +_osterías_ were groups seated under _frasche_, or before the door, +drinking _fogliette_ of wine and watching the passers-by. At last, +toward sundown, we stopped at the Porta Cavalleggieri, where, thanks to +our _lascia passare_, we were detained but a minute,--and then we were +in Rome. Over us hung the great bulging dome of St. Peter's, golden +with the last rays of sunset. The pillars of the gigantic colonnade +of Bernini, as we jolted along, "seemed to be marching by," in broad +platoons. The fountains piled their flexile columns of spray and waved +them to and fro. The great bell clanged from the belfry. Groups wandered +forth in the great Piazza. The old Egyptian obelisk in the centre +pointed its lean finger to the sky. We were in Rome! This one moment of +surprised sensation is worth the journey from Civita Vecchia. Entered by +no other gate, is Rome so suddenly and completely possessed. Nowhere is +the contrast so instantaneous and vivid as here, between the silent, +desolate Campagna and the splendor of St. Peter's, between the burrows +of primitive Christianity and the gorgeousness of ecclesiastical Rome. + +After leaving the Piazza, we get a glimpse of Hadrian's Mole, and of the +rusty Tiber, as it hurries, "_retortis littore Etrusco violenter undis_" +as of old, under the statued bridge of St. Angelo,--and then we plunge +into long, damp, narrow, dirty streets. Yet--shall I confess it?--they +had a charm for me. Twilight was deepening into dark as we passed +through them. Confused cries and loud Italian voices sounded about me. +Children were screaming,--men howling their wares for sale. Bells were +ringing everywhere. Priests, soldiers, _contadini_, and beggars thronged +along. The _Trasteverini_ were going home, with their jackets hanging +over one shoulder. Women, in their rough woollen gowns, stood in the +doorways bare-headed, or looked out from windows and balconies, their +black hair shining under the lanterns. Lights were twinkling in the +little cavernous shops, and under the Madonna-shrines far within them. A +funeral procession, with its black banners, gilt with a death's-head +and cross-bones, was passing by, its wavering candles borne by the +_confraternità_, who marched carelessly along, shrouded from head to +foot in white, with only two holes for the eyes to glare through. + +It was dirty, but it was Rome; and to any one who has long lived in Rome +even its very dirt has a charm which the neatness of no other place ever +had. All depends, of course, on what we call dirt. No one would defend +the condition of some of the streets or some of the habits of the +people. But the soil and stain which many call dirt I call color, and +the cleanliness of Amsterdam would ruin Rome for the artist. Thrift and +exceeding cleanness are sadly at war with the picturesque. To whatever +the hand of man builds the hand of Time adds a grace, and nothing is +so prosaic as the rawly new. Fancy for a moment the difference for +the worse, if all the grim, browned, rotted walls of Rome, with their +peeling mortar, their thousand daubs of varying grays and yellows, their +jutting brickwork and patched stonework, from whose intervals the cement +has crumbled off, their waving weeds and grasses and flowers, now +sparsely fringing their top, now thickly protruding from their sides, or +clinging and making a home in the clefts and crevices of decay, were to +be smoothed to a complete level, and whitewashed over into one uniform +and monotonous tint. What a gain in cleanliness! what a loss in beauty! +One old wall like this I remember on the road from Grotta Ferrata to +Frascati, which was to my eyes a constant delight. One day the owner +took it into his head to whitewash it all over,--to clean it, as some +would say. I look upon that man as little better than a Vandal in +taste,--one from whom "knowledge at one entrance was quite shut out." +Take another modern instance: substitute for the tiled roofs of Rome, +now so gray, tumbled, and picturesque with their myriad lichens, the +cold, clean slate of New York, or the glittering zinc of Paris,--should +we gain or lose? The Rue de Rivoli is long, white, and uniform,--all new +and all clean; but there is no more harmony and melody in it than in the +"damnable iteration" of a single note; and even Time will be puzzled +to make it picturesque, or half as interesting as those old houses +displaced in the back streets for its building, which had sprouted up +here and there, according to the various whims of the various builders. +Those were taken down because they were dirty, narrow, unsightly. These +are thought elegant and clean. Clean they certainly are; and they have +one other merit,--that of being as monotonously regular as the military +despotism they represent. But I prefer individuality, freedom, and +variety, for my own part. The narrow, uneven, huddled Corso, with here +a noble palace, and there a quaint passage, or archway, or shop,--the +buildings now high, now low, but all barnacled over with balconies,--is +far more interesting than the unmeaning uniformity of the Rue de Rivoli. +So, too, there are those among us who have the bad taste to think it a +desecration in Louis Napoleon to have scraped the stained and venerable +old Nôtre Dame into cleanliness. The Romantic will not consort with the +Monotonous,--Nature is not neat,--Poetry is not formal,--and Rome is not +clean. + +These thoughts, or ghosts of thoughts, flitted through my mind, as the +carriage was passing along the narrow, dirty streets, and brought with +them after-trains of reflection. There may be, I thought, among the +thousands of travellers that annually winter at Rome, some to whom the +common out-door pictures of modern Roman life would have a charm as +special as the galleries and antiquities, and to whom a sketch of many +things, which wise and serious travellers have passed by as unworthy +their notice, might be interesting. Every ruin has had its score of +_immortelles_ hung upon it. The soil has been almost overworked by +antiquarians and scholars, to whom the modern flower was nothing, but +the antique brick a prize. Poets and sentimentalists have described to +death what the antiquaries have left;--some have done their work so +well that nothing remains to be done after them. Everybody has an +herbarium of dried flowers from all the celebrated sites, and a +table made from bits of marble collected in the ruined villas. Every +Englishman carries a Murray for information and a Byron for sentiment, +and finds out by them what he is to know and feel at every step. +Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description, until +everything is stereotyped, from the Dying Gladiator, with his "young +barbarians all at play," and all that, down to the Beatrice Cenci, the +Madame Tonson of the shops, that haunts one everywhere with her white +turban and red eyes. All the public and private life and history of the +ancient Romans, from Romulus to Constantine and Julian the Apostle, (as +he is sometimes called,) is properly well known. But the common life +of the modern Romans, the games, customs, habits of the people, +the everyday of To-day, has been only touched upon here and +there,--sometimes with spirit and accuracy, as by Charles McFarlane, +sometimes with great grace, as by Hans Christian Andersen, and sometimes +with great ignorance, as by Miss Waldie. This is the subject, however, +which has specially interested me, and a life of several years in Rome +has enabled me to observe many things which do not strike the hurried +traveller, and to correct many false notions in regard to the people +and place. To a stranger, a first impression is apt to be a false +impression; and it constantly happens to me to hear my own countrymen +work out the falsest conclusions from the slightest premises, and +settle the character and deserts of the Italians, all of whom they mass +together in a lump, after they have been just long enough on the soil to +travel from Civita Vecchia to Rome under the charge of a courier, when +they know just enough of the language to ask for a coachman when they +want a spoon, and when they have made the respectable acquaintance, +beside their courier, of a few porters, a few beggars, a few +shopkeepers, and the _padrone_ of the apartment they hire. + +No one lives long in Rome without loving it; and I must, in the +beginning, confess myself to be in the same category. Those who shall +read these slender papers, without agreeing to the kindly opinions +often expressed, must account for it by remembering that "Love lends a +precious seeing to the eye." My aim is far from ambitious. I shall not +be erudite, but I hope I shall not be dull. These little sketches may +remind some of happy days spent under the Roman sky, and, by directing +the attention of others to what they have overlooked, may open a door +to a new pleasure. _Chi sa?_ The plainest Ranz des Vaches may sometimes +please when the fifth symphony of Beethoven would be a bore. + + +CHAPTER II. + +STREET-MUSIC IN ROME. + + +Whoever has passed the month of December in Rome will remember to +have been awakened from his morning-dreams by the gay notes of the +_pifferari_ playing in the streets below, before the shrines of the +Madonna and Bambino,--and the strains of one set of performers will +scarcely have ceased, before the distant notes of another set of +pilgrims will be heard to continue the well-known _novena_. The +_pifferari_ are generally _contadini_ of the Abruzzi Mountains, who, at +the season of Advent, leave their home to make a pilgrimage to Rome,-- +stopping before all the wayside shrines, as they journey along, to pay +their glad music of welcome to the Virgin, and the coming Messiah. Their +song is called a _novena_, from its being sung for nine consecutive +days,--first, for nine days previous to the Festa of the Madonna, +which occurs on the 8th of December, and afterwards for the nine days +preceding Christmas. The same words and music serve, however, for both +celebrations. The _pifferari_ always go in couples, one playing on the +_zampogna_, or bagpipe, the bass and treble accompaniment, and the other +on the _piffero_, or pastoral pipe, which carries the air; and for the +month before Christmas the sound of their instruments resounds through +the streets of Rome, wherever there is a shrine,--whether at the corners +of the streets, in the depths of the shops, down little lanes, in the +centre of the Corso, in the interior courts of the palaces, or on the +stairways of private houses. + +Their costume is extremely picturesque. On their heads they wear conical +felt hats adorned with a frayed peacock's feather, or a faded band of +red cords and tassels,--their bodies are clad in red waistcoats, blue +jackets, and small-clothes of skin or yellowish homespun cloth,--skin +sandals are bound to their feet with cords that interlace each other up +the leg as far as the knee,--and over all is worn a long brown or blue +cloak with a short cape, buckled closely round the neck. Sometimes, but +rarely, this cloak is of a deep red with a scalloped cape. As they stand +before the pictures of the Madonna, their hats placed on the ground +before them, and their thick, black, dishevelled hair covering their +sunburnt brows, blowing away on their instruments or pausing to sing +their _novena_, they form a picture which every artist desires to paint. +Their dress is common to nearly all the peasantry of the Abruzzi, and, +worn and tattered as it often is, it has a richness and harmony of tint +which no new clothes could ever have, and for which the costumes of the +shops and regular models offer a poor substitute. It is the old story +again. The new and clean is not so paintable, not so picturesque, as the +tarnished and soiled. The worn blue of the cloak is softened by the dull +gray of the threads beneath,--patches of various colors are often let +into the jacket or breeches,--the hat is lustreless from age, and rusty +as an old wall,--and the first vivid red of the waistcoat is toned by +constant use to a purely pictorial hue. Besides, the true _pifferaro_ +wears his costume as if it belonged to him and had always been worn by +him,--so that it has none of that got-up look which spoils everything. +From the sandals and corded leggings, which, in the Neapolitan dialect, +are termed _cioce_, the _pifferari_ are often called _ciociari_. + +Their Christmas pilgrimages are by no means prompted by purely religious +motives, though, undoubtedly, such considerations have some weight with +them, the common peasantry being a religiously inclined people, and +often making pilgrimages simply from a sense of duty and propriety. But +in these wanderings to Rome, their principal object is to earn a little +money to support them during the winter months, when their "occupation +is gone." As they are hired in Rome by the owners of the various houses +adorned with a Madonna-shrine (of which there are over fifteen hundred +in the city) to play before them at the rate of a paul or so for each +full _novena_, and as they can easily play before thirty or forty a day, +they often return, if their luck is good, with a tolerable little sum +in their pockets. Besides this, they often stand as models, if they are +good-looking fellows, and thus add to their store; and then again, the +_forestieri_ (for, as the ancient Romans called strangers _barbari_, +so their descendants call them _foresters_, wood-men, wild-men) +occasionally drop _baiocchi_ and pauls into their hats, still further to +increase it. + +Sometimes it is a father and son who play together, but oftener two old +friends who make the pilgrimage in pairs. This morning, as I was +going out for a walk round the walls, two admirable specimens of the +_pifferari_ were performing the _novena_ before a shrine at the corner +of the street. The player of the _zampogna_ was an old man, with a sad, +but very amiable face, who droned out the bass and treble in a most +earnest and deprecatory manner. He looked as if he had stood still, +tending his sheep, nearly all his life, until the peace and quiet of +Nature had sunk into his being, or, if you will, until he had become +assimilated to the animals he tended. The other, who played the +_piffero_, was a man of middle age, stout, vigorous, with a forest of +tangled black hair, and dark quick eyes that were fixed steadily on the +Virgin, while he blew and vexed the little brown pipe with rapid runs +and nervous _fioriture_, until great drops of sweat dripped from its +round open mouth. Sometimes, when he could not play fast enough to +satisfy his eagerness, he ran his finger up and down the vents. +Then, suddenly lowering his instrument, he would scream, in a strong +peasant-voice, verse after verse of the _novena_, to the accompaniment +of the _zampogna_. One was like a slow old Italian _vettura_ all +lumbered with luggage and held back by its drag; the other panting and +nervous at his work as an American locomotive, and as constantly running +off the rails. Both, however, were very earnest at their occupation. As +they stood there playing, a little group gathered round. A scamp of a +boy left his sport to come and beat time with a stick on the stone step +before them; several children clustered near; and two or three women, +with rosy infants in their arms, also paused to listen and sympathize. +At last the playing ceased. The _pifferari_ took up their hats and +looked smilingly round at us. + +"Where do you come from?" I asked. + +"_Eh!_" said the _piffero_, showing all his teeth, and shrugging his +shoulders good-naturedly, while the other echoed the pantomime. + +"_Dal Regno_"--for so the Abruzzi peasants call the kingdom of Naples. + +"And do you come every year?" + +"_Sì, Signore. Lui_" (indicating his friend) "_ed io_" (pointing to +himself) "_siam' compagni per trenta tre anni. E siam' venut' a Roma per +far la noven' ogn' anno."[B] + +[Footnote B: "He and I have been companions for thirty-three years, and +every year we have come to Rome to play the _novena_."] + +To this the old _zampogna_ bent his head on one side, and said, +assentingly,--"_Eh! per trenta tre anni._"-- + +And, "_Ecco_," continued the _piffero_, bursting in before the +_zampogna_ could go on, and pointing to two stalwart youths of about +twenty-two or-three years of age, who at this moment came up the +street with their instruments,--"These are our two sons. He is +mine,"--indicating one with his reversed thumb; "and that other is +his,"--jerking his head towards his companion. "And they, too, are going +to play in company, as we do." + +"For thirty-three years more, let us hope," said I. + +"_Eh! speriamo_," (Let us hope so,) was the answer of the _piffero_, as +he showed all his teeth in the broadest of smiles. Then, with a motion +of his hand, he set both the young men going, he himself joining in, +straining out his cheeks, blowing all the breath of his body into the +little pipe, and running up and down the vents with a sliding finger, +until finally he brought up against a high, shrill note, to which he +gave the full force of his lungs, and, after holding it in loud blast +for a moment, startled us by breaking off, without gradation, into +a silence as sudden as if the music had snapped short off, like a +pipe-stem. + +On further conversation with my _ciociari_, I found that they came +yearly from Sora, a town in the Abruzzi, about one hundred miles from +Rome, making the journey on foot, and picking up by the way whatever +trifle of copper they could. In this manner they travelled the whole +distance in five days, living upon onions, lettuce, oil, and black +bread. They were now singing the second _novena_ for _Natale_, and, if +one could judge from their manner and conversation, were quite content +with what they had earned. I invited them up into my room, and there +in the pleasantest way they stunned us with the noise of both their +instruments, to the great delight of the children and the astonishment +of the servants, for whom these common things had worn out their charm +by constant repetition. At my request, they repeated the words of the +_novena_ they had been singing, and I took them down from their lips. +After eliminating the wonderful _m-ms_ of the Neapolitan dialect, in +which all the words lay imbedded like shells in the sand, and supplying +some of the curious elisions with which those Abruzzi Procrusteans +recklessly cut away the polysyllables, so as to bring them within the +rythmic compass, they ran thus:-- + + "Verginella figlia di Sant' Anna, + Nella ventre portasti il buon Gesù. + Si parturisti sotto la capanna, + E dov' mangiav'no lo bue e 1' asinello. + + "Quel Angelo gridava: 'Venite, Santi! + 'Chè andato Gesù dentro la capanna, + Ma guardate Vergine beata, + Che in ciel in terra sia nostr' avvocata! + + "San Giuseppe andava in compagnia, + Si trovò al partorir di Maria. + La notte di natale è notte santa-- + Lo Padre e 1' Figliolo e lo Spirito Santo. + 'Sta la ragione che abbiamo cantato; + Sia a Gesù bambino rappresentata." + +The sudden introduction of "_Quel Angelo_" in this song reminds us of a +similar felicity in the romantic ballad of "Lord Bateman," where we are +surprised to learn that "_this Turk_," to whom no allusion had been +previously made, "has one lovely daughter." + +The air to which this is sung is very simple and sweet, though +monotonous. Between the verses and at the close, a curious little +_ritornello_ is played. + +The wanderings of the _pifferari_ are by no means confined to the Roman +States. Sometimes they stray "as far away as Paris is," and, wandering +about in that gay capital, like children at a fair, play in the streets +for chance _sous_, or stand as models to artists, who, having once been +to Rome, hear with a longing Rome-sickness the old characteristic sounds +of the _piffero_ and _zampogna_. Two of them I remember to have heard +thus, as I was at work in my studio in Paris; and so vividly did they +recall the old Roman time, that I called them in for a chat. + +Wonderful was their speech. In the few months of their wandering, they +had put into their Neapolitan dough various plums of French words, +which, pronounced in their odd way, "suffered a change into something +peculiarly rich and strange." One of them told me that his wife had just +written to him by the hand of a _scrivano_, lamenting his absence, and +praying him to send her his portrait. He had accordingly sent her a +photograph in half-length. Some time afterwards she acknowledged the +receipt of it, but indignantly remonstrated with him for sending her a +picture "_che pareva guardando per la fenestra_" (which seemed to be +looking out of the window,) as she oddly characterized a half-length, +and praying to have his legs also in the next portrait. This same +fellow, with his dull, amiable face, played the role of a ferocious +wounded brigand dragged into concealment by his wife, in the studio of +a friend next door; but, despite the savagery and danger of his +counterfeited position, he was sure to be overpowered by sleep before he +had been in it more than five minutes,--and if the artist's eye left him +for a moment, he never failed to change his attitude for one more fitted +to his own somnolent propensities than for the picture. + +The _pifferari_ are by no means the only street-musicians in Rome, +though they take the city by storm at Christmas. Every day under my +window comes a band of four or five, who play airs and concerted pieces +from the operas,--and a precious work they make of it sometimes! Not +only do the instruments go very badly together, but the parts they play +are not arranged for them. A violone grunts out a low accompaniment to a +vinegar-sharp violin which saws out the air, while a trumpet blares in +at intervals to endeavor to unite the two, and a flute does what it +can, but not what it would. Sometimes, instead of a violone, a hoarse +trombone, with a violent cold in the head, snorts out the bass +impatiently, gets ludicrously uncontrollable and boastful at times, and +is always so choleric, that, instead of waiting for the _cadenzas_ to +finish, it bursts in, knocks them over as by a blow on the head, roars +away on false intervals, and overwhelms every other voice with its +own noisy vociferation. The harmonic arrangements are very odd. Each +instrument seems to consider itself ill-treated when reduced to an +accompaniment or bass, and is constantly endeavoring, however unfitted +for it, to get possession of the air,--the melody being, for all +Italians, the principal object. The violin, however, weak of voice as +it is, always carries the day, and the other instruments steal +discontentedly back to their secondary places, the snuffy old violone +keeping up a constant growl at its ill luck, and the trombone now and +then leaping out like a tiger on its prey. + +Far better and more characteristic are the ballad-singers, who generally +go in couples,--an old man, dim of sight, perhaps blind, who plays the +violin, and his wife or daughter, who has a guitar, tamborello, or at +times a mandolin. Sometimes a little girl accompanies them, sings +with them, and carries round a tin box, or the tamborello, to collect +_baiocchi_. They sing long ballads to popular melodies, some of +which are very pretty and gay, and for a _baiocco_ they sell a sheet +containing the printed words of the song. Sometimes it is in the form of +a dialogue,--either a love-making, a quarrel, a reconciliation, or a +leave-taking,--each singer taking an alternate verse. Sometimes it is a +story with a chorus, or a religious conversation-ballad, or a story of a +saint, or from the Bible. Those drawn from the Bible are generally +very curious paraphrases of the original simple text, turned into the +simplest and commonest idioms of the people;--one of them may be found +in the Appendix to Goethe's "Italienische Reise." These Roman ballads +and popular songs, so far as I am able to learn, have never been +collected. Many of them do not exist in print, and are only traditional +and caught from mouth to mouth. This is particularly the case with those +in the Romanesque dialect, which are replete with the peculiar wit +and spirit of the country. But the memory of man is too perilous a +repository for such interesting material; and it is greatly to be wished +that some clever Italian, who is fitted for the task, would interest +himself to collect them and give them a permanent place in the +literature of his language. + +But to return to our ballad-singers, whom we have left in the middle of +their song, and who are now finishing. A crowd has gathered round them, +as usual; out of the windows and from the balconies lean the occupants +of the houses near by, and the _baiocchi_ thrown by them ring on the +pavement below. With rather Stentorian voices they have been singing a +dialogue which is most elaborately entitled a "Canzonetta Nuova, sopra +un marinaro che da l' addio alla sua promessa sposa mentre egli deve +partire per la via di Levante. Sdegno, pace, e matrimonio dilli medesimi +con intercalare sull' aria moderna. Rime di Francesco Calzaroni." I give +my _baiocco_ and receive in return a smiling "Grazie" and a copy of the +song, which is adorned by a wood-cut of a ship in full sail. + +Here is another, of a moral character, containing the sad history of +Frederic the Gambler, who, to judge from the wood-cut accompanying the +Canzonetta, must have been a ferocious fellow. He stands with his legs +wide apart, in half-armor, a great sash tied over his shoulder and +swinging round his legs, an immense sword at his side, and a great +hat with two ostrich-feathers on his head, looking the very type of a +"swashing blade." + +The singers of longer ballads carry about with them sometimes a series +of rudely-executed illustrations of different incidents in the story, +painted in distemper and pasted on a large pasteboard frame, which is +hung against a wall or on a stand planted behind the singer in the +ground. These he pauses now and then in his song to explain to the +audience, and they are sure to draw a crowd. + +As summer comes on and the evenings grow warm, begin the street +serenades,--sometimes like that of Lindoro in the opening of the +"Barbiere di Sevilla," but generally with only one voice, accompanied by +a guitar and a mandolin. These serenades are, for the most part, given +by a lover or friend to his _innamorata_, and the words are expressive +of the tender passion; but there are also _serenate di gelosia_, or +satirical serenades, when the most impertinent and stinging verses are +sung. Long before arriving, the serenaders may be heard marching up the +street to the thrum of their instruments. They then place themselves +before the windows of the fair one, and, surrounded by a group of men +and boys, make proclamation of their love in loud and often violent +tones. It seems sometimes as if they considered the best method of +expressing the intensity of their passion was by the volume of their +voice. Certainly, in these cases, the light of love is not hidden under +a bushel. Among the Trasteverini, particularly, these serenades are +common. Some of them are very clever in their improvisations and +imitations of different dialects, particularly of the Neapolitan, in +which there are so many charming songs. Their skill in improvisation, +however, is not generally displayed in their serenades, but in the +_osterias_, during the evenings of the _festas_ in summer. There it is +that their quickness and epigrammatic turn of expression are best seen. +Two disputants will, when in good-humor and warmed with wine, string off +verse after verse at each other's expense, full of point and fun,--the +guitar burring along in the intervals, and a chorus of laughter saluting +every good hit. + +In many of the back streets and squares of the city, fountains jet out +of lions' heads into great oblong stone cisterns, often sufficiently +large to accommodate some thirty washerwomen at once. Here the common +people resort to wash their clothes, and with great laughter and +merriment amuse themselves while at their work by improvising verses, +sometimes with rhyme, sometimes without, at the expense of each other, +or perhaps of the passerby,--particularly if he happen to be a gaping +_forestiere_, to whom their language is unintelligible. They stand on +an elevated stone step, so as to bring the cistern about mid-height of +their body, and on the rough inclined level of its rim they slash and +roll the clothes, or, opening them, flaunt them into the water, or +gather them together, lifting their arms high above their heads, and +always treating them with a violence which nothing but the coarsest +material can resist. The air to which they chant their couplets is +almost always a Campagna melody. Sharp attacks are given and as sharp +_répliques_ received, in exceeding good-humor; and when there is little +wit, there is sure to be much laughter. The salt is oftentimes pretty +coarse, but it serves its purpose. + +A remarkable trait among the Italians is the good-nature with which +they take personal jokes, and their callousness to ridicule of personal +defects. Jests which would provoke a blow from an Anglo-Saxon, or wound +and rankle in the memory for life, are here taken in good part. A +cripple often joins in the laugh at his own deformity; and the rough +carelessness with which such personal misfortunes are alluded to is +amazing to us of a more sensitive organization. I well remember the +extreme difficulty I once had in breaking an Italian servant of the +habit of announcing an acquaintance, whose foreign name he could not +pronounce, and who had the misfortune to be humpbacked, as "_quel +gobbo_" (that hunchback). He could not understand why he should not call +him a _gobbo_, if he was a _gobbo_; and in spite of all I could do, he +would often open the door and say, "_Signore, quel gobbo desidera farle +una visita_," (that hunchback wishes to make you a visit,) when "_quel +gobbo_" was right on his heels. The Italians are also singularly free +from that intense self-consciousness which runs in our English +blood, and is the root of shyness, awkwardness, and affectation. +Unconsciousness is the secret of grace, freedom, and simplicity. We +never forget ourselves. The Italians always forget themselves. They are +sometimes proud, very seldom vain, and never affected. The converse +peculiarity follows, of course. Having no self-consciousness, they are +as little sensitive to their defects as vain of their charms. The models +who come to the studios, and who have been selected for their beauty, +despite the silent flattery incident to their very profession, and +the lavish praise they constantly hear expressed, are always simple, +natural, and unaffected. If you tell them they are very beautiful, they +say, _"Ma che?"_ deprecatorily, or perhaps admit the fact. But they are +better pleased to have their dress admired than their faces. Of the +former they are vain, of the latter they are not. For the most part, I +think they rather wonder what it is we admire in them and think worthy +of perpetuating in stone or color. The other day I was so much struck +with the ear of a model, from whom I was working, that I said to +her,--"You have, without exception, the most beautiful ear I ever saw." +She laughed somewhat derisively, and said, _"Ma che?"_--"It does not +seem to give you any pleasure," I continued, "to know that you have a +very handsome ear."--_"Che mi importa,"_ answered she, _"se sia bello o +brutto? È sempre lo stesso, brutto o bello, bello o brutto. Ecco!"_[C] +--"You don't care, then, whether you are handsome or ugly?"--_"Eh! cosa +a me m'importa,--se sono brutto o bello non so,--a me è lo stesso."_ +This was all I could get from her. + +[Footnote C: "What do I care whether it is handsome or ugly? It's all +the same to me,--ugly or handsome,--handsome or ugly. There!"] + +But to return to our washerwomen. In every country-town a large +washing-cistern is always provided by the authorities for public use, +and, at all hours of the day, the picturesque figures of the peasants +of every age, from the old hag, whose skin is like a brown and crumpled +palimpsest, (where Anacreontic verses are overwritten by a dull, monkish +sermon,) to the round, dark-eyed girl, with broad, straight back and +shining hair, may be seen gathered around it,--their heads protected +from the sun by their folded _tovaglia_, their skirts knotted up behind, +and their waists embraced by stiff, red _busti_. Their work is always +enlivened by song,--and when their clothes are all washed, the basket +is lifted to the head, and home they march, stalwart and majestic, like +Roman caryatides. The sharp Italian sun shining on their dark faces and +vivid costumes, or flashing into the fountain, and basking on the gray, +weed-covered walls, makes a picture which is often enchanting in its +color. At the Emissary by Albano, where the waters from the lake are +emptied into a huge cistern through the old conduit built by the ancient +Romans to sink the level of the lake, I have watched by the hour +together these strange pictorial groups, as they sang and thrashed +the clothes they were engaged in washing; while over them, in the +foreground, the great gray tower and granary, once a castle, lifted +itself in strong light and shade against the peerless blue sky, while +rolling hills beyond, covered with the pale green foliage of rounded +olives, formed the characteristic background. Sometimes a _contadino_, +mounted on the crupper of his donkey, would pause in the sun to chat +awhile with the women. The children, meanwhile, sprawled and played upon +the grass, and the song and chat at the fountain would not unfrequently +be interrupted by a shrill scream from one of the mothers, to stop a +quarrel, or to silence a cry which showed the stoutness of their little +lungs. + +The cobblers of Rome are also a gay and singing set. They do not +imprison themselves in a dark cage of a shop, but sit _"sub Jove"_ where +they may enjoy the life of the street and all the "skyey influences." +Their benches are generally placed near the _portone_ of some palace, so +that they may draw them under shelter when it rains. Here all day they +sit and draw their waxed-ends and sing,--a row of battered-looking boots +and shoes ranged along on the ground beside them, and waiting for their +turn, being their only stock in trade. + +They commonly have enough to do, and, as they pay nothing for shop-rent, +every _baiocco_ they get is nearly clear profit. They are generally as +poor as Job's cat; but they are far happier than the proprietor of that +interesting animal. Figaro is a high ideal of this class, and about as +much like them as Raffaello's angels are like Jeames Yellowplush. What +the cobblers and Figaro have in common is song and a love of scandal. +One admirable specimen of this class sits at the corner of the Via +Felice and Capo le Case, with his bench backed against the gray wall. He +is an oldish man, with a long, gray beard and a quizzical face,--a sort +of Hans Sachs, who turns all his life into verse and song. When he comes +out in the morning, he chants a domestic idyl, in which he narrates in +verse the events of his household, and the differences and agreements of +himself and his wife, whom I take to be a pure invention. This over, he +changes into song everything and every person that passes before him. +Nothing that is odd, fantastic, or absurd escapes him, or fails to be +chronicled and sarcastically commented on in his verse. So he sits all +day long, his mind like a kaleidoscope, changing all the odd bits of +character which chance may show him into rhythmic forms, and chirps and +sings as perpetually as the cricket. Friends he has without number, who +stop before his bench, from which he administers poetical justice to +all persons, to have a long chat, or sometimes to bring him a friendly +token; and from the dark interior of his drawer he often brings forth an +orange, or a bunch of grapes, or handful of chestnuts, supplied by them, +as a dessert for the thick cabbage-soup which he eats at _mezzo giorno_. + +In the busiest street of Rome, the pure Campagna song may often be heard +from the throat of some _contadino_, as he slowly rumbles along in his +loaded wine-cart,--the little dog at his side barking a sympathetic +chorus. This song is rude enough, and seems in measure founded upon the +Church chant. It is in the minor key, and consists ordinarily of two +phrases, ending in a screaming monotone, prolonged until the breath of +the singer fails, and often running down at the close into a blurred +chromatic. No sooner is one strain ended than it is suddenly taken up +again in the _prestissimo_ time and "slowed" down to the same dismal +conclusion. Heard near, it is deafening and disagreeable. But when +refined by distance, it has a sad and pleasant effect, and seems to +belong to the place,--the long wail at the close being the very type +of the melancholy stretches of the Campagna. In the same way I have +frequently thought that the _Jodeln_ of the Swiss was an imitation of +the echo of the mountains, each note repeated first in octave, or fifth, +and then in its third below. The Campagna song is to be heard not only +in the Campagna, but everywhere in the country,--in the vineyards, +in the grain-fields, in mountain and valley, from companies working +together, and from solitary _contadini_,--wherever the influence and +sentiment of the Roman Campagna is felt. The moment we get into Tuscany, +on the one side, or over into Naples, on the other, it begins to be +lost. It was only the other day, at nightfall, that I was sauntering +out on the desolate Campagna towards Civita Vecchia. The shadows were +deepening and the mists beginning to creep whitely along the deep +hollows. Everything was dreary and melancholy enough. As I paused to +listen to the solitude, I heard the grind of a distant invisible cart, +and the sound of a distant voice singing. Slowly the cart came up over +the crest of the hill, a dark spot against the twilight sky, and mounted +on the top of a load of brushwood sat a _contadino_, who was singing to +himself these words,--not very consolatory, perhaps, but so completely +in harmony with the scene and the time that they struck me forcibly:-- + + "E, bella, tu non piangera-a-a-i, + Sul giorno ch'io saro mor-or-or-to-o-o-o-o-o."[D] + +[Footnote D: + + "And, dearest, you will never weep for me-e-e-e, + The day when I shall be no mo-o-o-ore."] + +Whether this constant habit of song among the Southern people, while at +their work, indicates happiness and content, I will not undertake to +say; but it is pleasanter in effect than the sad silence in which we +Anglo-Saxons perform our tasks,--and it seems to show a less harassed +and anxious spirit. But I feel quite sure that these people are more +easily pleased, contented with less, less morose, and less envious of +the ranks above them, than we are. They give little thought to the +differences of caste, have little ambition to make fortunes or rise out +of their condition, and are satisfied with the commonest fare, if they +can get enough of it. The demon of dissatisfaction never harries them. +When you speak to them, they answer with a smile which is nowhere +else to be found. The nation is old, but the people are children +in disposition. Their character is like their climate, generally +sunny,--subject to violent occasional storms, but never growling life +away in an uncomfortable drizzle of discontent. They live upon Nature, +--sympathize with it and love it,--are susceptible to the least touch +of beauty,--are ardent, if not enduring, in their affectations,--and, +unless provoked and irritated, are very peaceful and amiable. The flaw +in their nature is jealousy, and it is a great flaw. Their want of truth +is the result of their education. We who are of the more active and busy +nations despise them for not having that irritated discontent which +urges us forward to change our condition; and we think our ambition +better than their supineness. But there is good in both. We do +more,--they enjoy more; we make violent efforts to be happy,--invent, +create, labor, to arrive at that quiet enjoyment which they own without +struggle, and which our anxious strife unfits us to enjoy when the means +for it are obtained. The general, popular idea, that an Italian is +quarrelsome, and ill-tempered, and that the best are only bandits in +disguise, is quite a mistake; and when studied as they exist out of the +track of travel, where they are often debased and denaturalized, they +will be found to be simple, kind-hearted, and generous. + + + + +A LETTER TO A DYSPEPTIC. + + +Yes, my dear Dolorosus, I commiserate you. I regard your case, perhaps, +with even sadder emotions than that excellent family-physician who has +been sounding its depths these four years with a golden plummet, and +has never yet touched bottom. From those generous confidences which, in +common with most of your personal acquaintances, I daily share, I +am satisfied that no description can do justice to your physical +disintegration, unless it be the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds +with which Mr. Addison winds up Cato's Soliloquy. So far as I can +ascertain, there is not an organ of your internal structure which is +in its right place, at present, or which could perform any particular +service, if it were there. In the extensive library of medical almanacs +and circulars which I find daily deposited by travelling agents at my +front door, among all the agonizing vignettes of diseases which adorn +their covers, and which Irish Bridget daily studies with inexperienced +enjoyment in the front entry, there is no case which seems to afford a +parallel to yours. I found it stated in one of these works, the other +day, that there is iron enough in the blood of twenty-four men to make +a broadsword; but I am satisfied that it would be impossible to extract +enough from the veins of yourself and your whole family to construct a +crochet-needle for your eldest daughter. And I am quite confident, +that, if all the four hundred muscles of your present body were twisted +together by a rope-maker, they would not furnish that patient young +laborer with a needleful of thread. + +You are undoubtedly, as you claim, a martyr to Dyspepsia; or if you +prefer any other technical name for your disease or diseases, I will +acquiesce in any, except, perhaps, the word "Neurology," which I must +regard as foreign to etymological science, if not to medical. Your case, +you think, is hard. I should think it would be. Yet I am impressed by +it, I must admit, as was our adopted fellow-citizen by the contemplation +of Niagara. He, you remember, when pressed to admire the eternal plunge +of the falling water, could only inquire, with serene acquiescence in +natural laws, "And what's to hinder?" I confess myself moved to similar +reflections by your disease and its history. My dear Dolorosus, can +you acquaint me with any reason, in the heavens above or on the earth +beneath, why you should _not_ have dyspepsia? + +My thoughts involuntarily wander back to that golden period, five years +ago, when I spent one night and day beneath your hospitable roof. I +arrived, I remember, late in the evening. The bed-room to which you +kindly conducted me, after a light but wholesome supper of doughnuts and +cheese, was pleasing in respect to furniture, but questionable in regard +to physiology. The house was not more than twenty years old, and the +chamber must therefore have been aired within that distance of time, but +not, I should have judged, more recently. Perhaps its close, oppressive +atmosphere could not have been analyzed into as many separate odors +as Coleridge distinguished in Cologne,--but I could easily identify +aromatic vinegar, damp straw, lemons, and dyed silk gowns. And, as each +of the windows was carefully nailed down, there were no obvious means of +obtaining fresh air, save that ventilator said to be used by an eminent +lady in railway-cars,--the human elbow. The lower bed was of straw, the +upper of feathers, whose extreme heat kept me awake for a portion of the +night, and whose abundant fluffy exhalations suggested incipient asthma +during another portion. On rising from these rather unrefreshing +slumbers, I performed my morning ablutions with the aid of some +three teacupsful of dusty water,--for the pitcher probably held that +quantity,--availing myself, also, of something which hung over an +elegant towel-horse, and which, though I at first took it for a child's +handkerchief, proved on inspection to be "Chamber Towel, No. 1." + +I remember, as I entered the breakfast-room, a vague steam as of frying +sausages, which, creeping in from the neighboring kitchen, obscured +in some degree the six white faces of your wife and children. The +breakfast-table was amply covered, for you were always what is termed +by judicious housewives "a good provider." I remember how the beefsteak +(for the sausages were especially destined for your two youngest +Dolorosi, who were just recovering from the measles, and needed +something light and palatable) vanished in large rectangular masses +within your throat, drawn downward in a maelstrom of coffee;--only +that the original whirlpool is, I believe, now proved to have been +imaginary;--"that cup was a fiction, but this is reality." The +resources of the house also afforded certain very hot biscuits or +breadcakes, in a high state of saleratus;--indeed, it must have been +from association with these, that certain yellow streaks in Mr. Ruskin's +drawing of the rock, at the Athenaeum, awakened in me such an immediate +sense of indigestion;--also fried potatoes, baked beans, mince-pie, and +pickles. The children partook of these dainties largely, but without +undue waste of time. They lingered at table precisely eight minutes, +before setting out for school; though we, absorbed in conversation, +remained at least ten;--after which we instantly hastened to your +counting-room, where you, without a moment's delay, absorbed yourself in +your ledger, while I flirted languidly with the "Daily Advertiser." + +You bent over your desk the whole morning, occasionally having +anxious consultations with certain sickly men whom I supposed to be +superannuated bookkeepers, in impoverished circumstances, and rather +pallid from the want of nutritious food. One of them, dressed in rusty +black, with a flabby white neckcloth, I took for an ex-clergyman; he was +absorbed in the last number of the "Independent," though I observed, at +length, that he was only studying the list of failures, a department to +which, as it struck me, he himself peculiarly appertained. All of these, +I afterwards ascertained from your office-boy, were eminent capitalists; +something had gone wrong in the market,--not in the meat-market, as I +should have supposed from their appearance, but in the money-market. I +believe that there was some sudden fall in the price of indigo. I know +you looked exceedingly blue as we walked home to dinner. + +Dinner was ready the instant we opened the front door. I expected as +much; I knew the pale, speechless woman who sat at the head of your +table would make sure of punctuality, if she died for it. We took our +seats without a word. The party was smaller than at breakfast. Two of +the children had staid at school, having their luncheon-baskets well +filled from the cold remains of breakfast. Your eldest girl, Angelina, +aged ten, one of those premature little grown women who have learned +from the cradle that man is born to eat pastry and woman to make it, +postponed her small repast till an indefinite future, and sat meekly +ready to attend upon our wants. Nathaniel, a thin boy of eight, +also partook but slightly, having impaired his appetite, his mother +suspected, by a copious luncheon of cold baked beans and vinegar, on +his return from school. The two youngest (twins) had relapsed to their +couches soon after breakfast, in consequence of excess of sausage. + +You were quite agreeable in conversation, I remember, after the first +onset of appetite was checked. You gave me your whole theory of the +indigo crisis, with minute details, statistical and geographical, of +the financial condition and supposed present location of your principal +absconding debtors. This served for what is called, at public dinners, +the intellectual feast; while the carnal appetite was satisfied with +fried pork, ditto roasted, strong coffee, turnips, potatoes, and a good +deal of gravy. For dessert, (at which point Nathaniel regained his +appetite,) we had mince-pie, apple-pie, and lemon-pie, the latter being +a structure of a two-story description, an additional staging of crust +being somehow inserted between upper and under. We lingered long at that +noon meal,--fifteen minutes, at the very least; for you hospitably said +that you did not have these little social festivals very often,--owing +to frequent illness in the family, and other causes,--and mast make the +most of it. + +I did not see much of you during that afternoon; it was a magnificent +day, and I said, that, being a visitor, I would look about and see the +new buildings. The truth was, I felt a sneaking desire to witness the +match-game on the Common, between the Union Base-Ball Club, No. 1, of +Ward Eleven, and the Excelsiors of Smithville. I remember that you +looked a little dissatisfied, when I came into the counting-room, and +rather shook your head over my narrative (perhaps too impassioned) of +the events of the game. "Those young fellows," said you, "may not _all_ +be shiftless, dissipated characters, _yet_,--but see what it comes +to! They a'n't content with wasting their time,--they kill it, Sir, +actually kill it!" When I thought of the manly figures and handsome, +eager faces of my friends of the "Union" and the "Excelsior,"--the +Excelsiors won by ten tallies, I should say, the return match to come +off at Smithville the next month,--and then looked at the meagre form +and wan countenance of their critic, I thought to myself, "Dolorosus, my +boy, you are killing something besides Time, if you only knew it." + +However, indigo had risen again, and your spirits also. As we walked +home, you gave me a precise exhibit of your income and expenditures for +the last five years, and a prospective sketch of the same for the next +ten; winding up with an incidental delineation of the importance, to a +man of business, of a good pew in some respectable place of worship. We +found Mrs. D., as usual, ready at the table; we partook of pound-cake +(or pound-and-a-half, I should say) and sundry hot cups of a very +Cisatlantic beverage, called by the Chinese epithet of tea,--and went, +immediately after, to a prayer-meeting. The church or chapel was much +crowded, and there was a certain something in the atmosphere which +seemed to disqualify my faculties from comprehending a single word that +was spoken. It certainly was not that the ventilators were closed, for +there were none. The minister occasionally requested that the windows +might be let down a little, and the deacons invariably closed them again +when he looked the other way. At intervals, females were carried out, in +a motionless condition,--not, as it appeared, from conviction of sin, +but from faintness. You sat, absorbed in thought, with your eyes closed, +and seemed not to observe them. I remember that you were very much +shocked when I suggested that the breath of an average sinner exhausted +atmospheric air at the rate of a hogshead an hour, and asked you +how much allowance the laws of the universe made for the lungs of +church-members? I do not recall your precise words, but I remember that +I finally found it expedient, as I was to leave for home in the early +train, to spend that night at the neighboring hotel, where I indulged, +on an excellent mattress, in a slumber so profound, that it seemed +next morning as if I ought, as Dick Swiveller suggested to the single +gentleman, to pay for a double-bedded room. + +Well, that is all over now. You have given up business, from ill health, +and exhibit a ripe old age, possibly a little over-ripe, at thirty-five. +Your dreams of the forthcoming ten years have not been exactly +fulfilled; you have not precisely retired on a competency, because the +competency retired from you. Indeed, the suddenness with which your +physician compelled you to close up your business left it closed rather +imperfectly, so that most of the profits are found to have leaked out. +You are economizing rather strictly, just now, in respect to everything +but doctors' bills. The maternal Dolorosa is boarding somewhere in the +country, where the children certainly will not have more indigestible +food than they had at home, and may get less of it in quantity,--to +say nothing of more air and exercise to aid digestion. They are not, +however, in perfect condition. The twins are just getting up from +scarlet fever; Nathaniel has been advised to leave school for a time; +and something is thought to be the matter with Angelina's back. +Meanwhile, you are haunting water-cures, experimenting on life-pills, +holding private conferences with medical electricians, and thinking of a +trip to the Bermudas. + +You are learning, through all this, the sagest maxims of resignation, +and trying to apply them. "Life is hard, but short," you say; +"Providence is inscrutable; we must submit to its mysterious decrees." +Would it not be better, my dear Dolorosus, to say instead, "Life is +noble and immortal; God is good; we must obey his plain laws, or accept +the beneficent penalties"? The rise and fall of health are no more +accidental than the rise and fall of indigo; and it is the duty of those +concerned in either commodity to keep their eyes open, and learn the +business intelligently. Of the three proverbial _desiderata_, it is as +easy to be healthy as to be wealthy, and much easier than to be wise, +except so far as health and wisdom mean the same thing. After health, +indeed, the other necessaries of life are very simple, and easily +obtained;--with moderate desires, regular employment, a loving home, +correct theology, the right politics, and a year's subscription to the +"Atlantic Monthly," I have no doubt that life, in this planet, may be as +happy as in any other of the solar system, not excepting Neptune and the +fifty-five asteroids. + +You are possibly aware, my dear Dolorosus,--for I remember that you +were destined by your parents for the physician of your native +seaside village, until you found a more congenial avocation in curing +mackerel,--that the ancient medals represented the goddess Hygeia with a +serpent three times as large as that carried by Aesculapius, to denote +the superiority of hygiene to medicine, prevention to cure. To seek +health as you are now seeking it, regarding every new physician as if he +were Pandora, and carried hope at the bottom of his medicine-chest, is +really rather unpromising. This perpetual self-inspection of yours, +registering your pulse thrice a day, as if it were a thermometer and +you an observer for the Smithsonian,--these long consultations with +the other patients in the dreary parlor of the infirmary, the morning +devoted to debates on the nervous system, the afternoon to meditations +on the stomach, and the evening to soliloquies on the spine,--will do +you no good. The more you know, under these circumstances, the worse +it will be for you. You will become like Boerhaave's hypochondriacal +student, who, after every lecture, believed himself to be the victim of +the particular disease just expounded. We may even think too much about +_health_,--and certainly too much about _illness_. I solemnly believe +that the very best thing that could be done for you at this moment, +you unfortunate individual, would be to buy you a saddle-horse and a +revolver, and start you tomorrow for the Rocky Mountains, with distinct +instructions to treat any man as a Border Ruffian who should venture to +allude to the subject of disease in your presence. + +But I cannot venture to hope that you will do anything so reasonable. +The fascinations of your present life are too overwhelming; when an +invalid once begins to enjoy the contemplation of his own woes, as you +appear to do, it is all over with him. Besides, you urge, and perhaps +justly, that your case has already gone too far, for so rough a tonic. +What, then, can I do for you? Medicine I cannot offer; for even your +respectable family-physician occasionally hints that you need something +different from that. I suspect that all rational advice for you may be +summed up in one prescription: Reverse instantly all the habits of your +previous physical existence, and there may be some chance for you. But, +perhaps, I had better enter more into detail. + +Do not think that I am going to recur to the painful themes of doughnuts +and diet. I fear my hints, already given, on those subjects, may wound +the sensitive nature of Mrs. D., who suffers now such utter martyrdom +from your condition that I cannot bring myself to heap further coals +of fire on her head, even though the coals be taken from her own very +ineffectual cooking-stove. Let me dwell rather on points where you +have exclusive jurisdiction, and can live wisely or foolishly, at your +pleasure. + +It does not depend on you, perhaps, whether you shall eat bread or +saleratus, meat or sole-leather; but it certainly does depend upon +yourself whether you shall wash yourself daily. I do not wish to be +personal, but I verily believe, O companion of my childhood! that, +until you began to dabble in Hydropathy, you had not bestowed a sincere +ablution upon your entire person since the epoch when, twenty years ago, +we took our last plunge together, off Titcomb's wharf, in our native +village. That in your well-furnished house there are no hydraulic +privileges beyond pint water-pitchers, I know from anxious personal +inspection. I know that you have spent an occasional week at the +sea-shore during the summer, and that many people prefer to do up their +cleanliness for the year during these excursions; indeed, you yourself +have mentioned to me, at such times, with some enthusiasm, your daily +sea-bath. But I have been privately assured, by the other boarders, that +the bath in question always consisted of putting on a neat bathing-dress +and sitting awhile on a rock among the sea-weed, like an insane merman, +with the highest waves submerging only your knees, while the younger +Dolorosi splashed and gambolled in safe shallows behind you. Even that +is better than nothing, but--Soul of Mohammed!--is that called bathing? +Verily, we are, as the Turks declare, a nation of "dirty Franks," if +this be the accepted definition. + +Can it be possible that you really hold with the once-celebrated Mr. +Walker, "The Original," as he was deservedly called, who maintained, +that, by a correct diet, the system became self-purifying, through an +active exhalation which repelled impurity,--so that, while walking on +dusty roads, his feet, and even his stockings, remained free from dust? +"By way of experiment, I did not wash my face for a week; nor did any +one see, nor I feel, the difference." My deluded friend, it is a fatal +error. Mr. Walker, the Original, may have been inwardly a saint and a +sage, but it is impossible that his familiar society could have been +desirable, even to fools or sinners. Rather recall, from your early +explorations in Lemprière's Dictionary, how Medea renewed the youth of +Pelias by simply cutting him to pieces and boiling him; whereon my Lord +Bacon justly remarks, that "there may be some boiling required in the +matter, but the cutting to pieces is not needful." If you find that the +water-cure agrees with your constitution, I rejoice in it; I should +think it would; but, I implore you, do not leave it all behind you when +you leave the institution. When you return to your family, use your very +first dollars for buying a sponge and a tin-hat, for each member of the +household; and bring up the five children to lead decent lives. + +Then, again, consider the fact that our lungs were created to consume +oxygen. I suppose that never in your life, Dolorosus, did those +breathing organs of yours inhale more than one half the quantity of air +that they were intended to take in,--to say nothing of its quality. Yet +one would think, that, in the present high prices of other food, you +would make the most of the only thing you can put into your mouth +gratis. Here is Nature constantly urging on us an unexceptionable +atmosphere forty miles high,--for if a pressure of fourteen pounds to +the square inch is not to be called urging, what is?--and yet we not +only neglect, but resist the favor. Our children commonly learn to spell +much better than they ever learn to breathe, because much more attention +is paid to the former department of culture. Indeed, the materials are +better provided; spelling-books are abundant; but we scarcely allow them +time, in the intervals of school, to seek fresh air out of doors, and +we sedulously exclude it from our houses and school-rooms. Is it +not possible to impress upon your mind the changes which "modern +improvements" are bringing upon us? In times past, if a gentleman +finished the evening with a quiet cigar in his parlor, (a practice I +deprecate, and introduce only for purposes of scientific illustration,) +not a trace of it ever lingered to annoy his wife at the +breakfast-table; showing that the draft up the open chimney had wholly +disposed of it, the entire atmosphere of the room being changed during +the night. Now, on the other hand, every whiff lingers persistently +beside the domestic altar, and betrays to the youngest child, next +day, the parental weakness. For the sake of family example, Dolorosus, +correct this state of things, and put in a ventilator. Our natures will +not adapt themselves to this abstinence from fresh air, until Providence +shall fit us up with new bodies, having no lungs in them. Did you ever +hear of Dr. Lyne, the eccentric Irish physician? Dr. Lyne held that no +house was wholesome, unless a dog could get in under every door and a +bird fly out at every window. He even went so far as to build his house +with the usual number of windows, and no glass in the sashes; he lived +in that house for fifty years, reared a large family there, and no death +ever occurred in it. He himself died away from home, of small-pox, at +eighty; his son immediately glazed all the windows of the house, and +several of the family died within the first year of the alteration. The +story sounds apocryphal, I own, though I did not get it from Sir Jonah +Barrington, but somewhere in the scarcely less amusing pages of Sir John +Sinclair. I will not advise you, my unfortunate sufferer, to break every +pane of glass in your domicile, though I have no doubt that Nathaniel +and his boy-companions would enter with enthusiasm into the process; I +am not fond of extremes; but you certainly might go so far as to take +the nails out of my bed-room windows, and yet keep a good deal this side +the Lyne. + +I hardly dare go on to speak of exercise, lest I should share the +reproach of that ancient rhetorician who,--as related by Plutarch, in +his Aphorisms,--after delivering an oration in praise of Hercules, was +startled by the satirical inquiry from his audience, whether any one +had ever dispraised Hercules. As with Hercules, so with the physical +activity he represents,--no one dispraises, if few practise it. Even +the disagreement of doctors has brought out but little skepticism on +this point. Cardan, it is true, in his treatise, "Plantae cur Animalibus +diuturniores," maintained that trees lived longer than men because +they never stirred from their places. Exercise, he held, increases +transpiration; transpiration shortens life; to live long, then, we need +only remain perfectly still. Lord Bacon fell in with this fancy, and +advised "oily unctions," to prevent perspiration. Maupertuis went +farther, and proposed to keep the body covered with pitch for this +purpose: conceive, Dolorosus, of spending threescore years and ten in +a garment of tar, without even the ornament of feathers, sitting +tranquilly in our chairs, waiting for longevity! In more recent times, +I can remember only Dr. Darwin as an advocate of sedentary living. He +attempted to show its advantages by the healthy longevity attained by +quiet old ladies in country-towns. But this is questioned by his critic, +Dr. Beddoes, who admits the longevity, but denies the healthiness; +he maintains that the old ladies are taking some new medicine every +day,--at least, if they have a physician who understands his business. + +Now I will not maintain, with Frederick the Great, that all our systems +of education are wrong, because they aim to make men students or clerks, +whereas the mere shape of the body shows (so thought King Frederick) +that we are primarily designed for postilions, and should spend most of +our lives on horseback. But it is very certain that all the physical +universe takes the side of health and activity, wooing us forth into +Nature, imploring us hourly, and in unsuspected ways, to receive her +blessed breath into body and soul, and share in her eternal youth. For +this are summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, given; for this do +violet and bloodroot come, and gentian and witch-hazel go; for this do +changing sunsets make yon path between the pines a gateway into heaven; +for this does day shut us down within the loneliness of its dome of +light, and night, lifting it, make us free of the vast fellowship of +stars; for this do pale meteors wander nightly, soft as wind-blown +blossoms, down the air; for this do silent snows transform the winter +woods to feathery things, that seem too light to linger, and yet too +vast to take their flight; for this does the eternal ocean follow its +queen with patient footsteps round earth's human shores; for this does +all the fair creation answer to every dream or mood of man, so that we +receive but what we give;--all is offered to us, to call us from our +books and our trade, and summon us into Nature's health and joy. To +study, with the artist, the least of her beauties,--to explore, with the +man of science, the smallest of her wonders,--or even simply to wander +among her exhaustless resources, like a child, needing no interest +unborrowed from the eye,--this feeds body and brain and heart and soul +together. + +But I see that your attention is wandering a little, Dolorosus, and +perhaps I ought not to be surprised. I think I hear you respond, +impatiently, in general terms, that you are not "sentimental." I admit +it; never within my memory did you err on that side. You also hint that +you never _did_ care much about weeds or bugs. The phrases are not +scientific, but the opinion is intelligible. Perhaps my ardor has +carried me too fast for my audience. While it would be a pleasure, no +doubt, to see you transformed into an artist or a _savant_, yet that is +scarcely to be expected, and, if attained, might not be quite enough. +The studies of the naturalist, exclusively pursued, may tend to make a +man too conscious and critical,--patronizing Nature, instead of enjoying +her. He may even grow morbidly sensitive, like Buffon, who became so +impressed with the delicacy and mystery of the human organization, that +he was afraid to stoop even to pick up his own pen, when dropped, but +called a servant to restore it. The artist, also, becomes often narrowed +and petty, and regards the universe as a sort of factory, arranged to +turn out "good bits of color" for him. Something is needed to make us +more free and unconscious, in our out-door lives, than these too wise +individuals; and that something is best to be found in athletic sports. +It was a genuine impulse which led Sir Humphrey Davy to care more for +fishing than even for chemistry, and made Byron prouder of his swimming +than of "Childe Harold," and induced Sir Robert Walpole always to open +his gamekeeper's letters first, and his diplomatic correspondence +afterwards. Athletic sports are "boyish," are they? Then they are +precisely what we want. We Americans certainly do not have much boyhood +under the age of twenty, and we must take it afterwards or not at all. + +Who can describe the unspeakable refreshment for an overworked brain, +of laying aside all cares, and surrendering one's self to simple bodily +activity? Laying them aside! I retract the expression; they slip off +unnoticed. You cannot embark care in your wherry; there is no room for +the odious freight. Care refuses to sit behind the horseman, despite the +Latin sentence; you leave it among your garments when you plunge into +the river, it rolls away from the rolling cricket-ball, the first whirl +in the gymnasium disposes of it, and you are left free, as boys and +birds are free. If athletic amusements did nothing for the body, they +would still be medicine for the soul. Nay, it is Plato who says +that exercise will almost cure a guilty conscience,--and can we be +indifferent to this, my fellow-sinner? + +Why will you persist in urging that you "cannot afford" these +indulgences, as you call them? They are not indulgences,--they are +necessaries. Charge them, in your private account-book, under the heads +of food and clothing, and as a substitute for your present enormous +items under the head of medicine. O mistaken economist! can you afford +the cessation of labor and the ceaseless drugging and douching of your +last few years? Did not all your large experience in the retail-business +teach you the comparative value of the ounce of prevention and the pound +of cure? Are not fresh air and cold water to be had cheap? and is not +good bread less costly than cake and pies? Is not the gymnasium a more +economical institution than the hospital? and is not a pair of skates a +good investment, if it aids you to elude the grasp of the apothecary? Is +the cow Pepsin, on the whole, a more frugal hobby to ride than a good +saddle-horse? Besides, if you insist upon pecuniary economy, do begin +by economizing on the exercise which you pay others for taking in your +stead,--on the corn and pears which you buy in the market, instead of +removing to a suburban house and raising them yourself,--and in the +reluctant silver you pay the Irishman who splits your wood. Or if, +suddenly reversing your line of argument, you plead that this would +impoverish the Irishman, you can at least treat him as you do the +organ-grinder, and pay him an extra fee to go on to your next neighbor. + +Dolorosus, there is something very noble, if you could but discover it, +in a perfect human body. In spite of all our bemoaning, the physical +structure of man displays its due power and beauty when we consent to +give it a fair chance. On the cheek of every healthy child that plays in +the street, though clouded by all the dirt that ever incrusted a young +O'Brien or M'Cafferty, there is a glory of color such as no artist ever +painted. I can take you to-morrow into a circus or a gymnasium, and show +you limbs and attitudes which are worth more study than the Apollo or +the Antinous, because they are life, not marble. How noble were Horatio +Greenough's meditations, in presence of the despised circus-rider! "I +worship, when I see this brittle form borne at full speed on the back +of a fiery horse, yet dancing as on the quiet ground, and smiling in +conscious safety." + +I admit that this view, like every other, may be carried to excess. +We can hardly expect to correct our past neglect of bodily training, +without falling into reactions and extremes, in the process. There is +our friend Jones, for instance, "the Englishman," as the boys on the +Common call him, from his cheery portliness of aspect. He is the man who +insisted on keeping the telegraph-office open until 2, A.M., to hear +whether Morrissey or the Benicia Boy won the prize-fight. I cannot say +much for his personal conformity to his own theories at present, for he +is growing rather too stout; but he likes vicarious exercise, and is +doing something for the next generation, even if he does make the club +laugh, sometimes, by advancing theories of training which the lower +circumference of his own waistcoat does not seem to justify. But +Charley, his eldest, can ride, shoot, and speak the truth, like an +ancient Persian; he is the best boxer in college, and is now known to +have gone to Canada _incog._, during the vacation, under the immediate +supervision of Morris, the teacher of sparring, to see that same fight. +It is true that the youth blushes, now, whenever that trip is alluded +to; and when he was cross-questioned by his pet sister Kate, (Kate +Coventry she delights to be called,) as to whether it wasn't "splendid," +he hastily told her that she didn't know what she was talking about, +(which was undoubtedly true,)--and that he wished he didn't, either. The +truth is, that Charley, with his honest, boyish face, must have been +singularly out of place among that brutal circle; and there is little +doubt that he retired from the company before the set-to was fairly +begun, and that respectable old Morris went with him. But, at any rate, +they are a noble-looking family, and well brought up. Charley, with all +his pugilism, stands fair for a part at Commencement, they say; and +if you could have seen little Kate teaching her big cousin to skate +backwards, at Jamaica Pond, last February, it would have reminded you +of the pretty scene of the little cadet attitudinising before the great +Formes, in "Figaro." The whole family incline in the same direction; +even Laura, the elder sister,--who is attending a course of lectures on +Hygiene, and just at present sits motionless for half an hour before +every meal for her stomach's sake, and again a whole hour afterwards for +her often (imaginary) infirmities,--even Laura is a perfect Hebe in +health and bloom, and saved herself and her little sister when the boat +upset, last summer, at Dove Harbor,--while the two young men who were +with them had much ado to secure their own elegant persons, without +rendering much aid to the girls. And when I think, Dolorosus, of this +splendid animal vigor of the race of Jones, and then call to mind the +melancholy countenances of your forlorn little offspring, I really think +that it would, on the whole, be unsafe to trust you with that revolver; +you might be tempted to damage yourself or somebody else with it, before +departing for the Rocky Mountains. + +Do not think me heartless for what I say, or assume, that, because I +happen to be healthy myself, I have no mercy for ill-health in others. +There are invalids who are objects of sympathy indeed, guiltless heirs +of ancestral disease, or victims of parental folly or sin,--those whose +lives are early blighted by maladies that seem as causeless as they are +cureless,--or those with whom the world has dealt so cruelly that all +their delicate nature is like sweet bells jangled,--or those whose +powers of life are all exhausted by unnoticed labors and unseen +cares,--or those prematurely old with duties and dangers, heroes of +thought and action, whose very names evoke the passion and the pride of +a hundred thousand hearts. There is a tottering feebleness of old age, +also, nobler than any prime of strength; we all know aged men who are +floating on, in stately serenity, towards their last harbor, like +Turner's Old Téméraire, with quiet tides around them, and the blessed +sunset bathing in loveliness all their dying day. Let human love do its +gracious work upon all these; let angelic hands of women wait upon +their lightest needs, and every voice of salutation be tuned to such a +sweetness as if it whispered beside a dying mother's bed. + +But you, Dolorosus,--you, to whom God gave youth and health, and who +might have kept them, the one long and the other perchance always, but +who never loved them, nor reverenced them, nor cherished them, only +coined them into money till they were all gone, and even the ill-gotten +treasure fell from your debilitated hands,--you, who shunned the +sunshine as if it were sin, and called all innocent recreation time +wasted,--you, who staid under ground in your goldmine, like the +sightless fishes of the Mammoth Cave, till you were as blind and +unjoyous as they,--what plea have you to make, what shelter to claim, +except that charity which suffereth long and is kind? We will strive +not to withhold it; while there is life, there is hope. At forty, it is +said, every man is a fool or a physician. We will wait and see which +vocation you select as your own, for the broken remnant of your days. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Continued.] + + +In the mean while Congress had assembled. The agitation on the subject +of Slavery, far from being suppressed, or even overshadowed, burned more +fiercely than ever before. The Pro-slavery faction in Kansas, stimulated +by the constant support of the National Administration, was engaged in a +final effort to maintain a supremacy over the affairs of that Territory +which the current of immigration from the Free States had been steadily +undermining. Against the will of nine-tenths of the population, it had +framed, with a show of technical legality, a Constitution intended to +perpetuate Slavery, which the Administration indorsed and presented to +Congress with an urgent recommendation for the admission under it +of Kansas as a State. In the commotion which these events excited +throughout the country, the transient gleam of importance which had +attached to the Mormon War was almost extinguished. The people of the +States no longer felt a much more vital interest in news from that +remote region than in tidings from the rebellion in India or of the wars +in China. Their attention, sympathies, and curiosity--were all fastened +upon the action of Congress with respect to Kansas,--for therein, it was +believed, were contained the germs of the political combinations for +the Presidential election of 1860. The same listlessness with regard to +affairs in Utah pervaded the Cabinet. All its _prestige_ was staked on +the result of the impending struggle in the House of Representatives +over the Lecompton Constitution, and its energies were abstracted from +every other subject, to be concentrated upon that alone. + +Just at this time, Mr. Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsylvania,--son of the late +Judge of the United States District Court for that State, and brother of +the late Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer,--solicited the Administration +for employment as a mediator between the Mormons and the Federal +Government. Mr. Kane was one of the few persons of education and social +standing who were well acquainted with Mormon history. He had visited +them at Winter Quarters, in Iowa, during their exodus from Nauvoo, in +the capacity of a commissioner to enlist the Mormon battalion which +served in the Mexican War. During an illness which attacked him there, +he was treated with an unremitting kindness, for which his gratitude +has been proportionate. Belonging to a family whose members have +been distinguished by strong traits of individuality, not to say +eccentricity, from that moment forward he displayed a practical interest +in the welfare of the sect. It is said that he became a convert to the +religious doctrines of Mormonism. Whether this be true at all, and, +if so, to what extent, it would he profitless at the present time to +inquire. For the purposes of this narrative, it is sufficient to assert +only, what is unchallenged, that he was a sincere admirer of the Mormons +as a people, and for a long series of years had defended them from +every reproach with a zeal which many of his friends thought inordinate. + +Its experience in Kansas had familiarized the Cabinet with the use of +secret agents; but, nevertheless, the proposition of Mr. Kane was coldly +received. After a brief correspondence, he started for California, in +no capacity a representative of the government, if he himself is to be +believed, but bearing letters from Mr. Buchanan indorsing his character +as a gentleman, and exhorting Federal officials to render him such +courtesies as were within their power. Having arrived at San Francisco, +he journeyed southward to the lately abandoned Mormon settlement of +San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, travelling under the assumed name of +Osborne, and proclaiming his business to be the collection of specimens +for an entomological society in Philadelphia. There his real name and +purpose were detected, but he succeeded in obtaining transportation to +Salt Lake City, where he arrived on the 25th of February, 1858, and was +greeted by Young and Kimball, and the rest of the Mormon magnates, as an +old and cherished friend. + +In the Annual Message of the President to Congress, his disposition to +make every other issue subordinate to that of admitting Kansas under the +Lecompton Constitution was manifest; and it influenced the tone of those +paragraphs which treated of affairs in Utah. Notwithstanding the fact +that the Mormons had committed every act of warfare against the United +States short of taking life, Mr. Buchanan qualified his language +concerning their conduct, stating, that, "unless Brigham Young should +retrace his steps, the Territory of Utah will be in a state of open +rebellion," but declining to accept the logical inference from his own +expression, that the rebellion was at the time open and manifest. He +recommended no further legislation concerning the matter than that four +regiments should be added to the army, to supply the place of those +which had been withdrawn from service in the East. + +It was evident that the purpose for which he had originally planned the +expedition had failed. Forced, after all, no less by inclination than by +circumstances, into such a revival of Slavery agitation as he had never +contemplated during the interval between his election and inauguration, +the Utah War only incumbered his administration, promoting neither its +policy nor its prosperity. However it might result, it would not in the +least advance his interests; and it became his opinion, that, the sooner +it was quieted, the better for the welfare of the Democratic party, +which would be held responsible by the country for all mistakes in its +management. "After us the deluge," seemed to be adopted as the motto of +the entire policy of the Administration. + +The only movement in Congress concerning Utah, before the New Year, was +the introduction into the House of Representatives, by Mr. Warren of +Arkansas, of a badly-worded resolution, prefaced by a worse-worded +preamble, looking to the expulsion from the floor of Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate from the Territory. A lively discussion ensued +concerning the question of privilege under which Mr. Warren claimed the +right to introduce the resolution,--and when it was ruled in order, much +hesitation was evinced about adopting it, some members fearing that it +would establish a dangerous precedent for emergencies that might arise +in the future history of the country. The tone of debate showed that +there was little difference of opinion in the House concerning Utah +affairs,--the unanimity, however, being due in great part to ignorance +and indifference. The issue of Slavery in Kansas was absorbing. Mr. +Warren's resolution was referred to the Committee on Territories, and +slumbered upon their table through the whole session. The only other +movement in Congress, which deserves mention in this connection, was +the introduction, towards the close of January, by Senator Wilson of +Massachusetts, of a joint resolution authorizing the appointment of +commissioners to examine into the Mormon difficulties, "with a view to +their adjustment." This was referred by the Senate to the Committee on +Military Affairs, and was never heard of again. + +The recommendation of the President for an increase of the army secured +favorable consideration from committees of both Houses, and the +discussion which ensued, upon the bills reported for that purpose, was +filled with allusions to the Utah question. Mr. Thompson of New York, +and Mr. Boyce of South Carolina, both made elaborate speeches on the +subject; but neither of them proposed any scheme for its solution. Such +a scheme, however, was suggested by Mr. Blair of Missouri, who advised +a reorganization of the Territorial government, in order to vest the +legislative power in the Governor and the Judges, for which a precedent +existed in the instance of the old Northwestern Territory; but no action +was had upon this suggestion. Through the entire debate, Mr. Bernhisel +remained silent. During the winter, the President conferred upon Colonel +Johnston the brevet rank of Brigadier-General, believing that the +uniform discretion he had manifested entitled him to promotion; and the +nomination was confirmed by the Senate. + +While such were the transactions in Congress, the Mormons, in December, +had organized a government like that under which they had hitherto +subsisted. Their legislature--the same which had been elected under the +Organic Act of the Territory--met at Salt Lake City on the second Monday +of that month, in the hall of the Council House, and organized by the +choice of Heber C. Kimball as President of the Council and John Taylor +as Speaker of the House. Brigham Young retained the title and authority +of Governor, and addressed to the legislature the customary annual +message, reviewing the condition of the Territory. This document +was prepared in reality by Taylor, and was worded with considerable +ingenuity. Not the slightest allusion was made to the declarations of +independence that had been reiterated throughout the summer and autumn, +but the relations of Utah to the United States were discussed as those +of a Territory to the Union. The President was himself charged with +treason in his action towards the Mormons, the Governor and Judges whom +he had appointed were reviled as depraved and abandoned men, and the +army was again proclaimed a mob,--while Utah was lauded as the "most +loyal Territory known since the days of the Revolution." The theory of +Squatter-Sovereignty was the basis of the argument, and Mr. Buchanan was +accused, and with some reason, of inconsistency in his application of +that doctrine. + +In response to this message, the legislature passed a series of +resolutions, pledging itself to sustain "His Excellency Governor Young" +in every act he might perform or dictate "for the protection of the +lives, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Territory,"--asserting +that the President had incurred the "contempt and decided opposition +of all good men," on account of the "act of usurped authority and +oppression" of which he was guilty, in "forcing profane, drunken, +and otherwise corrupt officials upon Utah at the point of the +bayonet,"--expressing a determination to "continue to resist any attempt +on the part of the Administration to bring the people into a state of +vassalage by appointing, contrary to the Constitution, officers whom the +people have neither voice nor vote in electing,"--avowing the purpose +not to suffer "any persons appointed to office for Utah by the +Administration either to qualify for, or assume, or discharge, within +the limits of the Territory, the functions of the offices to which they +have been appointed; so long as the Territory is menaced by an invading +army,"--and declaring that the people of Utah would have their voice in +the selection of their officers. These were sweet-scented blossoms to +blow so early on the tree of Squatter-Sovereignty, at that time scarcely +four years old! + +The only acts of the legislature were one disorganizing the County +of Green River, in which the army was encamped, and attaching it for +legislative and judicial purposes to Great Salt Lake County; another +divesting the Governor of power to license the manufacture of ardent +spirits, and conferring that authority upon the President of the Church +of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and several others in pursuance +of the system of granting away large tracts of public domain to private +persons, in direct contravention of a clause in the Organic Act of the +Territory, which provides that "no law shall be passed interfering with +the primary disposal of the soil." To these acts Brigham Young attached +his signature as Governor, and affixed the Territorial seal. + +A Memorial to Congress was adopted also, which was transmitted to +Washington, and received there and laid before the two Houses on the +16th of March. This document charged that the action of the National +Government towards Utah was based upon the statements of "lying +officials and anonymous letter-writers"; it rehearsed the history of the +Mormons,--their persecutions in Missouri and Illinois,--and declared +that the object of the Utah expedition was to inflict similar outrages. +"Give us our constitutional rights," it said; "they are all we ask; and +them we have a right to expect. For them we contend, and feel justified +in so doing. We claim that we should have the privilege, as we have the +constitutional right, to choose our own rulers and make our own laws +without let or hindrance." Although this Memorial was nothing more than +an infuriated tirade, it was honored in both Houses by reference to the +Committees on Territories, from which it received all the consideration +it deserved. + +Indifferent and inactive as this review shows Congress and the President +to have been concerning Utah, a similar apathy was impossible in the War +Department. Not only the welfare, but the lives even, of the troops at +Fort Bridger, depended on its action. Transactions of such magnitude +had not been incumbent on its bureaus since the Mexican War. The chief +anxiety of General Johnston was for the transmission of supplies from +the East as early as possible in the spring. The contractors for their +transportation during the year 1857 had wintered several trains at Fort +Laramie, together with oxen and teamsters. The General entertained a +fear that so great a proportion of their stock might perish during the +winter as to cripple their advance until fresh animals could be obtained +from the States. Combined with this fear was an apprehension for the +safety of Captain Marcy. A prisoner, whom the Mormons had captured in +October on Ham's Fork, escaped from Salt Lake City at the close of +December, and brought news to Camp Scott that they intended to fit out +an expedition to intercept the command and stampede the herds with which +that officer would move from New Mexico. The dispatches in which these +anxieties were communicated to General Scott, together with suggestions +for their relief, were intrusted in midwinter to a small party for +conveyance to the States. The journey taught them what must have been +the sufferings of the expedition which Captain Marcy led to Taos. +Reduced at one time to buffalo-tallow and coffee for sustenance, there +was not a day during the transit across the mountains when any stronger +barrier than the lives of a few half-starved mules interposed between +them and death by famine. All along the route lay memorials of the march +of the army, and especially of Colonel Cooke's battalion,--a trail of +skeletons a thousand miles in length, gnawed bare by the wolves and +bleaching in the snow, visible at every undulation in the drifts. + +But before the arrival of these dispatches at New York, the arrangements +of the War Department to forward supplies to Utah had been completed. +The representations of the contractors' agents with regard to the +condition of the cattle at Fort Laramie were received without question, +and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann, of the Sixth Infantry, was +dispatched to that post to superintend the advance of the trains. +Additional contracts, of an unprecedented character, were entered into +for furnishing and transporting all the supplies which would be needed +during the year 1858, both for the troops already in the Territory +and for the reinforcements which were ordered to concentrate at Fort +Leavenworth and march to Utah as soon as the roads should be passable. +These reinforcements were about three thousand strong, comprising +the First Cavalry, the Sixth and Seventh Infantry, and two +artillery-batteries. The trains necessary for so large a force, in +addition to that at Fort Bridger, it was estimated would comprise at +least forty-five hundred wagons, requiring more than fifty thousand +oxen, four thousand mules, and five thousand teamsters, wagon-masters, +and other _employés_. To the shame of the Administration, these gigantic +contracts, involving an amount of more than six million dollars, +were distributed with a view to influence votes in the House of +Representatives upon the Lecompton Bill. Some of the lesser ones, such +as those for furnishing mules, dragoon-horses, and forage, were granted +arbitrarily to relatives or friends of members who were wavering upon +that question. The principal contract, that for the transportation of +all the supplies, involving, for the year 1858, the amount of four +millions and a half, was granted, without advertisement or subdivision, +to a firm in Western Missouri, whose members had distinguished +themselves in the effort to make Kansas a Slave State, and now +contributed liberally to defray the election-expenses of the Democratic +party. + +It was said to have been contemplated, for a while, during the winter, +to operate against the Mormons from California, and to send General +Scott to San Francisco to direct arrangements for the purpose; but the +project, if ever seriously entertained, was soon abandoned, it being +evident that for the speedy subjugation of Utah the Missouri frontier +furnished the only practicable base-line of operations. + +At Camp Scott, the winter dragged along wearily. Between November and +March only two mails arrived there, and the great monetary crisis in the +United States was unknown till months after it had subsided. The Mormons +were constantly in possession of later intelligence from the States +than the army; for, by a strange inconsistency, their mails to and from +California were not interfered with. A brigade-guard was mounted daily +at the camp larger than that of the whole American army on the eve +of the battles before Mexico, and scouting parties were continually +dispatched to scour the country in a circuit of thirty miles around +Fort Bridger; for there was constant apprehension of an attempt by the +Mormons to stampede the herds on Henry's Fork, if not to attack the +regiment which guarded them. No tidings arrived from Captain Marcy, and +a most painful apprehension prevailed as to his fate. At the close of +January, Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, after consultation with General +Johnston, started from the camp, accompanied only by four Pah-Utahs, and +crossed the Uinta Mountains, through snow drifted twenty feet deep, to +the villages of the tribe of Uinta-Utahs, on the river of the same name. +It was his intention, in case of need, to employ these Indians to +warn Captain Marcy of danger and afford him relief. It proved to be +unnecessary to do so, and Dr. Hurt returned in April; but the hardships +he endured in the undertaking resulted in an illness which threatened +his life for weeks. On the 13th of March, an express had come in from +New Mexico, bringing news of the safe arrival of Captain Marcy at Taos +on the 22d of January. The sufferings of his whole party from cold and +hunger had been severe. Their provisions failed them, and they had +recourse to mule-meat. Many of the men were badly frost-bitten, but only +one perished on the journey. + +On the previous evening,--March 12th,--the monotony of the camp had been +unexpectedly disturbed by the arrival, from the direction of Salt Lake +City, of a horseman completely exhausted by fatigue and cold, who proved +to be no other than Mr. Kane, whose mission to the Mormons by way of +California was at that time totally unknown to the army. The next +morning he introduced himself to the Governor, was received as his +guest, and remained in conference with him throughout the day. What was +the character of their communication is unknown, except by inference +from its results. When presented to Judge Eckels, on the following day, +Mr. Kane exhibited to him the letters he bore from the President, and +other letters, also, from Brigham Young, accrediting him as a negotiator +in the existing difficulties. To General Johnston he showed nothing; nor +did the Governor, to the knowledge of the camp, acquaint either that +officer or any other person with the purport of his business. It was +evident to everybody, however, that the Mormon leaders, conscious of +their inability to resist the force by which they would be assailed so +soon as the snow should melt upon the mountains, were engaged in an +effort, of which Mr. Kane was the agent, to secure through the Governor, +if possible, indemnity for their past offences, in consideration of +acknowledgment of his authority. + +The domestic condition of the people of the Valley confirmed the belief +that this was the purpose of Mr. Kane's mission. Dependent as they had +always been, since their settlement in Utah, upon Eastern merchants +for an annual supply of groceries, dry goods, wearing-apparel of all +descriptions, and every article of luxury, their stock of some of even +the necessaries of life--such as coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, calicoes, +boots and shoes, stationery--was at this time nearly exhausted. Many of +the poorer families were actually half naked, and, to supply them with +covering, an ecclesiastical mandate had been issued, directing all +persons who had spare clothing of any description to deposit it at the +tithing-office in Salt Lake City, to be there exchanged for grain and +cattle with those who were in need. + +At the commencement of the rebellion, the Mormon settlements in Southern +California had been broken up, and all the missionaries of the Church +were summoned to return from foreign lands. The influx of population +from these sources, though slight, yet increased the destitution. Almost +all the people, too, had been withdrawn from productive employments +throughout the autumn and winter. Although the number of militia kept +under arms, after the formation of the camp at Fort Bridger, probably at +no time reached fifteen hundred, while in October and November it had +exceeded three thousand, still the fever of excitement which raged +through the community distracted its members from any hearty labor. +Great quantities of winter-wheat, to be sure, had been sown, and the +fields were prepared for cultivation during the coming summer; but no +public improvements were prosecuted, and everybody was prepared for such +an exodus as had been predicted to Captain Van Vliet. + +The complete subserviency of the people to the hierarchy was never more +strikingly manifest than in a financial scheme which Brigham Young +devised at this time. Among the Mormons there had always been a quantity +of gold coin in circulation, much exceeding, in proportion to their +number, the amount circulating in any other portion of America. This was +owing to the fact, that the Church had unconstitutionally arrogated to +itself the prerogative of coining and regulating the value of money. The +Mormon battalion which had been enlisted at Winter Quarters in Iowa was +disbanded in California at the close of the Mexican War, and most of its +members went to the gold-diggings. The treasures they there accumulated +were conveyed to Utah, where the Church established a mint and coined +gold pieces of $2.50, $5, $10, and $20. The device on the obverse was +two hands clasped in one of the grips of the Endowment; on the reverse, +a figure from the Book of Mormon, with the motto, "Holiness to the +Lord." The intrinsic value of these coins being more than ten per +cent less than their denominations, they were all retained within the +Territory. Young now prevailed upon his people to surrender whatever +gold and silver they possessed, amounting to several hundred thousand +dollars, and accept in return the notes of a banking association of +which he himself was president and one of his numerous sons-in-law +cashier. These notes were redeemable, in amounts of not less than one +hundred dollars, in live stock, the appraisement of the value of which +rested with the officers of the association. So absolute was the +degradation and ignorance of the population, that they submitted to this +extortion without a murmur. + +Mr. Kane had remained in Salt Lake City eight days before starting +towards Fort Bridger,--a period quite long enough for a trusted friend +of the Mormon leaders to ascertain the extremities to which the people +were reduced. To secure the safety of those leaders who were under +indictment for treason, there was no choice except between flight and +inducing the Federal authorities to temporize. Both he and they were +conscious that the advance of the army could not be successfully +resisted, when the snow should cease to bar its way. In case of the +flight of the leaders, or of a general exodus of the population, only +two courses lay open to them,--northward toward the British Possessions, +southward toward the provinces of Upper Mexico. + +The first two days of Mr. Kane's sojourn in camp satisfied him of the +cooperation of Governor Cumming in a plan for temporizing, as well as of +the impossibility of enlisting General Johnston or Judge Eckels in any +such scheme. An imaginary affront, to which he believed himself at this +time to have been subjected by the General, led him into a course of +action which, had it been followed out, might have terminated his +mission abruptly. Considering the fact that he was within the +guard-lines of a military encampment, in a country where a state of +warfare existed, it was perhaps too great forbearance on the part of the +General not to have required to be informed of his business, since +he himself volunteered no explanation. An invitation to dinner being +dispatched to him from head-quarters,--and such an invitation was no +slight compliment in a camp where the rations were so abridged,--the +orderly to whom it was intrusted for delivery, whether maliciously or +not it does not appear, pretended to have mistaken his directions, and +proceeded to place him under arrest. The mistake, when discovered, was +of course immediately rectified; but Mr. Kane became so excited in +consequence, that, with the assent of the Governor, he indited a +challenge to the General, and applied to a gentleman from Virginia to +act as his second. Having received a decided rebuff in that quarter, he +was induced to abandon the design by the interposition of Judge Eckels, +who became acquainted with what was passing, and informed the Governor +that he had ordered the United States Marshal to arrest all the parties +concerned, in case another step should be taken in the affair. It was +not till some time afterwards that these transactions came to the +knowledge of General Johnston. + +Mr. Kane remained with the Governor until April, absenting himself once, +however, for a day, in order to hold a secret interview with a party of +Mormons who had come into the vicinity of the camp. Notwithstanding his +presence, no precaution to protect the herds was neglected, nor was the +guard-duty at all relaxed. On the 18th of March, although a furious +snow-storm raged all day long, the encampment was moved down Black's +Fork to the immediate neighborhood of Fort Bridger,--a spot less +sheltered, but far more secure from attack. On the 3d of April, an event +occurred for which everybody was prepared. The Governor announced to +General Johnston his intention to proceed to Salt Lake City in company +with Mr. Kane; and on the 5th, they started upon the journey. + +The District Court commenced its spring term at Fort Bridger the same +day. In his charge to the grand jury, Judge Eckels was explicit on the +subject of polygamy, instructing them substantially as follows: That +among the Territorial statutes there was no act legalizing polygamy, nor +any act affixing a definite punishment to that practice as such; that, +consequently, whether the old Spanish law or the Common Law constituted +the basis of jurisprudence in the Territory, the definition of marriage +recognized by both was to be received there, which limited that +institution to the union of one man with one woman, and also the +definition of adultery common to both, by which that crime consisted in +the cohabitation of either the man or the woman with a third party; that +among the Territorial statutes there was an act affixing a definite +punishment to adultery, and accordingly that it was the duty of the +grand jury to inquire whether that act had been infringed by parties +liable to their inquisition.[A] No indictment, however, was returned for +the offence; neither were any proceedings had upon the indictments for +treason. The business of the court was restricted to such crimes as +larceny, and assault and battery, among the heterogeneous mass of +camp-followers. + +[Footnote A: As this charge has become of great importance in the +affairs of the Territory, we subjoin the precise language of that +portion of it which refers to polygamy:-- + +"It cannot be concealed, gentlemen, that certain domestic arrangements +exist in this Territory destructive of the peace, good order, and morals +of society,--arrangements at variance with those of all enlightened and +Christian communities in the world; and sapping as they do the very +foundation of all virtue, honesty, and morality, it is an imperative +duty falling upon you as grand jurors diligently to inquire into this +evil and make every effort to check its growth. It is well known that +all of the inhabited portion of this Territory was acquired by treaty +from Mexico. By the law of Mexico polygamy was prohibited in this +country, and the municipal law in this respect remained unaltered by its +cession to the United States. Has it been altered since we acquired it? +After a most diligent search and inquiry, I have not been able to find +that any such change has been made: and presuming that this law remains +unchanged by legislation, all marriages after the first are by this law +illegal and void. If you are then satisfied that such is the fact, your +next duty is to inquire by what law in force in this Territory are +such practices punishable. There is no law in this Territory punishing +polygamy, but there is one, however, for the punishment of adultery; +and all illegal intercourse between the sexes, if either party have a +husband or wife living at the time, is adulterous and punishable by +indictment. No consequences in which a large proportion of this people +may be involved in consequence of this criminal practice will deter you +from a fearless discharge of your duty. It is yours to find the facts +and to return indictments, without fear, favor, affection, reward, +or any hope thereof. The law was made to punish the lawless and +disobedient, and society is entitled to the salutary effects of its +execution."] + +At the distance of a few miles from Fort Bridger, the Governor and Mr. +Kane were received by a Mormon guard. At various points on their journey +squads of militia were encountered, and in Echo Cañon there was a +command of several hundred. The Big Mountain, which the road crosses +twenty miles from Salt Lake City, was covered so deep with snow, that +the party was obliged to follow the cañons of the Weber River into the +Valley. Upon arriving at the city, on the 12th of April, the Governor +was installed in the house of a Mr. Staines, one of the adopted sons +of Brigham Young, and was soon after waited upon by Young himself, in +company with numerous ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Territorial seal +was tendered to him, and he was recognized to his full satisfaction +in his official capacity. He remained more than three weeks. Except +fugitive statements in newspapers, the only connected account of +his proceedings is from his own pen, and consists of two official +letters,--one addressed to General Johnston, under date of April 15th, +the other to the Secretary of State at Washington, dated May 2d. The +former merely announces his arrival, reception, and recognition, +transmits charges against Dr. Hurt, of having excited the Uinta Indians +to acts of hostility against the Mormons, and suggests that he should +desire a detachment of the army to be dispatched to chastise that +tribe, but a requisition for that purpose was made neither then nor +subsequently. The letter to Secretary Cass states that his time was +devoted to examining the public property of the United States which was +in the city,--the records of the courts, the Territorial library, the +maps and minutes of the Surveyor General,--and exculpates the Mormons, in +great part, from the charge of having injured or embezzled it. + +During his stay, information was communicated to him, that there was a +number of persons who were desirous of leaving the Territory, but +unable to do so, considering themselves restrained of their liberty. +Accordingly, on the following Sunday, he caused notice to be given from +the platform in the Tabernacle, that he assumed the protection of all +such persons, and desired them to communicate to him their names +and residences. During the ensuing week, nearly two hundred persons +registered themselves in the manner he proposed, and a greater number +would undoubtedly have been glad to follow their example, but were +deterred by the surveillance to which they were subjected by certain +functionaries of the Church before being admitted to his presence. Those +who were registered were organized into trains, with the little movable +property they possessed, and dispatched towards Fort Bridger. They +arrived there in the course of May,--as motley, ragged, and destitute a +crowd as ever descended from the deck of an Irish emigrant-ship at New +York or Boston. The only garments which some possessed were made of the +canvas of their wagon-covers. + +Many were on foot. For provisions, they had nothing except flour and +some fresh meat. It is a fact creditable to humanity, that private +soldiers, by the score, shared their own abridged rations and scanty +stock of clothing with these poor wretches, and in less than a day after +their arrival they were provided with much to make them comfortable. + +On that same Sunday, the Governor made a speech to the congregation, +being introduced by Brigham Young. He reviewed the relations of the +Mormons to the Federal government; assumed that General Johnston and the +army were under his control; pledged his word that they should not +be stationed in immediate contact with the settlements; and gave +assurances, also, that no military _posse_ should be employed to arrest +a Mormon until every other means had been tried and had failed. At +the close, he invited any of their number to respond. Various persons +immediately addressed the audience in almost frantic speeches, +concerning the murder of Joseph and Hiram Smith at Carthage, the +persecution of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, the services +rendered by the Mormon Battalion to an ungrateful country during the +Mexican War, the toils and perils of the migration to Utah, and the +character of the Federal officers who had been sent to rule the +Territory. Personal insults were heaped upon the Governor, and a scene +of the wildest confusion was the result, which was quieted with great +difficulty by Young himself. It was manifest that the mass of the +people, overconfident of their capacity to resist the troops, were not +fully prepared for the capitulation the leaders were willing to make to +save their own necks from the halter; and, at a second meeting during +the afternoon, Young yielded somewhat to the popular clamor. + +All this while, a movement of a most extraordinary character was being +carried on, which had commenced before the Governor entered the Valley. +The people of the northern settlements, along the base of the Wahsatch +Mountains, including Salt Lake City, were deserting their homes, +abandoning houses, crops, and their heavier furniture, and migrating +southward. Long wagon-trains were sweeping through the city every day, +accompanied by hundreds of families, and droves of horses and cattle. +A fair estimate of the entire Mormon population of Utah is about +forty-five thousand. Of this number, ten thousand is the proportion of +the towns north of Salt Lake City, and upward of fifteen thousand that +of the city itself and the settlements in its immediate neighborhood. +Considerably more than half the people of the Territory, therefore, +shared in this emigration. What was its object and what its destination +are still mysteries; but it was probably directed toward the +mountain-ranges in the southwestern portion of the Great Basin, of the +topography of which region--hitherto unvisited by Federal explorers--the +Mormons undoubtedly possess accurate information. At any rate, it was +initiated and conducted under the direction of the Church, and Young and +Kimball were among the first to lead the way. Commencing late in March, +it continued until June, and before the beginning of May more than +thirty-five thousand people were concentrated on the western shore of +Lake Utah, chiefly in the neighborhood of Provo, fifty miles south of +Salt Lake City. Such a scene of squalid misery, such a spectacle of want +and distress, was never before witnessed in America. More than half +this multitude could not be accommodated in the towns, and lodged in +board-shanties, wigwams, mud-huts, log-cabins, bowers of willow-branches +covered with wagon-sheets, and even in holes dug into the hill-sides. +The most common quarters, however, were made by removing a wagon-body +from its wheels, placing it upon the ground, and erecting in front of +it a bower of cedars. It is needless to dwell on the exasperation which +animated all who submitted to these sacrifices. In the history of the +Albigenses hunted through Languedoc, or of the Jews writhing under the +Spanish Inquisition, a record of similar bitterness of feeling may be +found, but its parallel does not exist outside the annals of religious +persecution. + +Governor Cumming returned to Fort Bridger during the second week in +May, still accompanied by Mr. Kane, and also by a party of Mormons +who intended to escort the latter to Missouri. Upon his arrival, he +addressed a letter to General Johnston, stating, officially, that the +people of Utah had acknowledged his authority, and that the roads +between the camp and Salt Lake City were free for the transit of mails +and passengers, the Mormon forces having withdrawn from the cañons, and +none of the Territorial militia remaining under arms except with his +consent and approbation. A day or two later, Mr. Kane bade him farewell +and started toward the States, his mission having been completed. + +It may be well to pause here and estimate its precise results. It had +secured delay. The herds on Henry's Fork had thriven better than was +expected, and toward the close of April the number of mules in working +condition was sufficient to have dragged a train of two hundred wagons. +The dragoon-horses which survived could have been assigned to the +artillery-batteries, and the regiment have served as infantry. With this +equipment, slight though it may appear, a rapid movement upon the Valley +was possible; and whatever may have been the opinion during the previous +autumn, it was the universal opinion in the spring that the force at +Camp Scott could have routed any body of militia that might have opposed +its advance, although, perhaps, it was not sufficient to subjugate the +Territory, in case the Mormons should flee to the mountains. Provisions, +also, were running low in the camp. The ration of flour had been further +reduced. All the cattle had been slaughtered, and there was every +prospect of recourse to mule-meat before the first of June. Everything, +therefore, favored the plan of an early march toward the city; and it +is certain that it would have been commenced without awaiting +reinforcements from the States, had not the Governor's scheme for +pacification intervened. Distrustful of its expediency or propriety +though General Johnston might have been, he deemed it his duty to await +its result. Neither he nor the Governor being supreme in the direction +of affairs, it was the duty of each to defer so far as might be to the +action of the other. + +In the next place, Mr. Kane's interposition had produced an +irreconcilable difference of opinion between the civil and the military +authority. This is evident from what has already been stated, and there +is no need to confirm the fact by argument. The Governor returned to +Fort Bridger in May, believing the Mormons to be an injured people, +whose cause was in the main just. But his position was full of +difficulties. He had been recognized in his official character, it is +true; but he was conscious that every Mormon acknowledged a political +influence superior to his own, which was directing the emigration +southward, and leaving him Governor of empty villages and deserted +fields. The only hope he entertained of checking this exodus was by +quashing the indictments for treason which had been found against the +Mormon leaders, and by insuring them against contact with the troops. +The first he was powerless to effect; it was a matter beyond his +control,--solely within the cognizance of the courts. The second he +had assumed to be within his power, and had so assured the Mormons; but +there he was at variance with General Johnston, who denied his claim to +absolute authority over the movements of the army. + +Unknown, however, to the parties who were agitating these perplexing +questions, a superior power had already intervened and solved +the difficulty. On the 6th of April, the President had signed a +Proclamation, at Washington, rehearsing to the people of Utah Territory, +at considerable length, their past offences, and particularly those +which immediately preceded and followed the outbreak of the rebellion, +and declaring them traitors; but, "in order to save the effusion of +blood, and to avoid the indiscriminate punishment of a whole people +for crimes of which it is not probable that all are equally guilty," +offering "a free and full pardon to all who will submit themselves to +the authority of the Federal Government." This document was intrusted +to two Commissioners for conveyance to the Territory;--one of them, Mr. +L.W. Powell, lately Governor, and at the time Senator-elect, of the +State of Kentucky; the other, Major Ben M'Culloch, of Texas, who had +served with distinction in Mexico. In their appointment, Mr. Buchanan +imitated the example of President Washington, who designated a similar +commission to convey his proclamation to the whiskey-insurgents in +Pennsylvania. + +The reinforcements and supply-trains for the army were at this time +concentrating at Fort Leavenworth, Major-General Persifer F. Smith was +assigned to the command-in-chief, and it was intended that the whole +force, after concentration in Utah, should be divided into two brigades, +one to be commanded by General Harney, the other by General Johnston. +Leaving the columns preparing to advance over the Plains, the +Commissioners started from the Fort on the 25th of April. On the same +day, Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann advanced from Fort Laramie with several +companies of infantry and cavalry, escorting the supply-trains which +were parked there through the winter, and on the speedy arrival of which +at Camp Scott the subsistence of General Johnston's command depended, +unless it should force its way into the Valley. On the 1st of May, he +had reached La Bonté, a tributary of the North Platte, fifty miles from +the Fort. There he encountered the severest storm that had occurred in +that region for many years. The snow fell breast-deep, and was followed +by a pelting rain which killed his mules by scores. He was forced to +remain stationary more than a week, and when he renewed the march the +trains were clogged by mud foot-deep. + +The Commissioners reached Camp Scott on the 29th of May. The President's +Proclamation had been received the day before. With the exception of a +few persons who were prepared for such a document by reflection on Mr. +Kane's mission, everybody was astonished at its purport. It seemed +incredible that a lenity should have been extended to the Mormon rebels +which was refused to the Free-State men in Kansas, who were once +indicted for treason and sedition,--and equally incredible that all the +advantages for the solution of the Utah problem which had been gained by +the rising of the Mormons in arms should be thrown away. There was none +of the bloodthirsty excitement in the camp which was reported in the +States to have prevailed there, but there was a feeling of infinite +chagrin, a consciousness that the expedition was only a pawn on Mr. +Buchanan's political chess-board; and reproaches against his folly were +as frequent as they were vehement. Had he excepted from the amnesty the +Mormon leaders, who alone had been indicted, the Proclamation might have +been considered an act of judicious clemency; for that exception would +have accomplished every object that could be desired. As it was, it +annihilated all that had been gained by the enormous expenditures and +the toils and sufferings of the past year, and it sentenced the army to +an indefinite term of imprisonment in an American Siberia. For the sake +of ridding the Administration of immediate trouble, it turned the Church +leaders loose again upon the community, purged of all offence, and +postponed to a future day a terrible issue, the ultimate avoidance of +which is impossible. "After us the deluge," was still the motto of the +President and his Cabinet. + +At the camp the Commissioners remained only three days, which they +employed in obtaining accurate information concerning the transactions +of the last three months; for when they started from Missouri, no news +of the result of Mr. Kane's mission had reached the frontier. + +On the 2d of June, they started for the Valley, intending to summon the +leading Mormons to an interview, and receive their formal acceptance of +the terms of the Proclamation,--of which, of course, there could be no +doubt. They were accompanied by the postmaster of Salt Lake City, with +the mails for the Mormons, which had been detained at the camp since the +commencement of the rebellion. The Governor and the Superintendent of +Indian Affairs followed them the next day. The rest of the Federal +officers refused to join the party, or to make any movement based on a +supposed capitulation of the Mormons, until their submission should be +perfected. There were many circumstances attending the departure of +the Governor which showed that he was doubtful of the stability of the +positions he had been led by Mr. Kane to assume. He expressed himself +distrustful of the cooperation of the Commissioners in his plan for +pacifying the Territory; and he protested vehemently against allowing +persons to accompany the party in order to report for the press the +proceedings at the expected conferences. Every day made it more and more +evident that he had committed himself to the Mormons farther than he +cared to acknowledge. + +Before the Commissioners left the camp, they urged General Johnston not +to delay the advance of the army one moment beyond the time when he +should be ready and desire to march. On the 8th of June, Captain Marcy +arrived at the Fort with a herd of nearly fifteen hundred mules and +horses, and an escort of five companies of infantry and mounted +riflemen. He left the village of Rayado, on the Canadian River, in +New Mexico, on the 17th of March, and, instead of retracing the route +pursued on his winter journey, which had led him near the sources of +Grand River, one of the great forks of the Colorado, he returned along +the eastern base of the Rocky Mountain range past Long's and Pike's +Peaks. When he had reached Fontaine-qui-bouille Creek, an express +overtook him from General Garland, who commanded the Department of New +Mexico, enjoining him to halt and await reinforcements. There he camped +more than three weeks. Renewing his progress, he was overtaken, on +the 29th of April, by the same snowstorm which was so disastrous to +Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann on La Bonté. It was accompanied by a furious +wind, the force of which there was nothing to break. Snow fell to the +depth of three feet, and, at the very height of the storm, a part of the +mule herd stampeded and ran fifty miles before the wind, for shelter. +When the march was resumed, after an interval of several days, hundreds +of antelopes were found frozen and buried in the drifts,--a circumstance +almost unparalleled among the mountains. With this exception, nothing +occurred to obstruct the march. Captain Marcy brought with him specimens +of sand from many of the tributaries of the South Platte, which were +found, on analysis, to contain particles of gold; and within two months +after he gathered them, the same discovery, confirmed by others, +originated the emigration to that region, the progress of which now +promises the speedy birth of another Free State in the very heart of the +continent. On the 9th and 10th, Colonel Hoffmann reached the camp with +all his supply-trains; and on the following day, General Johnston issued +the welcome order to prepare for the march to Salt Lake City. A strong +detachment of infantry and artillery was detailed to garrison Fort +Bridger. + +On the 13th of June, the long camp was broken up, and the army moved +forward in three columns on the route through the cañons. Although the +season was so far advanced, snow had fallen at the Fort only three days +before. The streams were swollen and turbulent with spring floods, +and difficulty was anticipated in crossing the Bear and Weber Rivers. +Material for bridging had, therefore, been prepared, and accompanied the +first column. Southwest of the Fort, at the distance of four or five +miles, a singular _butte_, the top of which is as level as the floor of +a ball-room, rises to the height of eight hundred feet above the valley +of Black's Fork, and commands a view of the entire broad plateau between +the Wind River and the Uinta and Wahsatch Ranges. Little parties of +horsemen could be seen spurring up the gullies on its almost precipitous +sides, to witness from its summit the departure of the army. The scene +was in the highest degree picturesque. Almost at their feet lay the +camp, the few tents which remained unstruck glittering like bright dots +on the wing of an insect, the whitewashed wall of the Fort reflecting +the sunshine, while stacks of turf chimneys, lodge-poles, and rubbish +marked the spots where the encampment had been abandoned. The whole +valley was in commotion. Along the strips of road were winding clumsy +baggage-trains; the regiment of dragoons was trailing in advance; the +gleam of the musket-barrels of the infantry was visible on all sides; +and every puff of the breeze that blew over the bluff was freighted with +the rumble of artillery-carriages and caissons. Here and there were +groups of half-naked Indians galloping to and fro, with fluttering +blankets, gazing at the show with the curiosity and delight of children. + +The traveller who terminates his westward journey at Fort Bridger has +entered only the portal of the Rocky Mountains. Along the interval +between there and the Valley of the Great Lake, there is a panorama of +mountain-scenery that cannot be surpassed in the Tyrol. For miles and +miles in the gorges, at the season of the year when they were traversed +by the army, the road winds through thickets of alders and willows and +hawthorn-bushes, whose branches interlace and hang so low, under their +load of leaves and blossoms, as to sweep the backs of horsemen. Through +the interstices of the foliage, the sandstone cliffs that bound the +cañons are seen surrounded by flocks of twittering birds which build +their nests in the crevices of the rock. The ridges which the road +surmounts between cañon and cañon are covered with fields of luxuriant +grass and flowers, in the midst of which patches of snow still linger. +From them, in the clear noon sunshine, the broken line of the Wahsatch +and Uinta Ranges is visible along the horizon; but through the morning +and evening haze, only the tracery of their white crests can be +discerned. The valleys of the Bear and Weber Rivers are peculiarly +beautiful, the latter almost realizing the dream of the Valley of +Rasselas. Corrugated and snow-capped ridges slope backward from the +spectator, on whichever side he turns, until he wonders how and where +the swift river, rushing under its canopy of rustling cotton-woods, +finds a pathway through them. + +It was into scenery like this that the troops advanced, speculating, +along each day's march, upon what obstacles they would have encountered, +had they attempted to reach the Valley during the winter. On the 14th, +an express from the Commissioners arrived at the camp on Bear River, +announcing that no resistance would be made by the Mormons, who pledged +themselves to submit to Federal authority. It was suggested, at the same +time, to General Johnston, that they apprehended ill-treatment from the +army, which might feel an exasperation natural after the privations to +which it had been subjected during the winter. To reassure them, +the General immediately issued and forwarded to Salt Lake City a +proclamation, informing them that no one should be "molested in his +person or rights, or in the peaceful pursuit of his avocations." On +the same day, Governor Cumming issued a proclamation announcing the +"restoration of peace to the Territory." + +The Commissioners had reached the city on the 7th. They were received +there by the Mormon officers who commanded the few companies of militia +which constituted the garrison, and were conducted to a restaurant, +where meals were provided for them, but no lodgings; and accordingly +they slept in their ambulances. The place was deserted by everybody +except the garrison and a few individuals who were busily removing their +property. Besides these, the only beings visible in the streets were +here and there groups of half-naked Indian boys paddling in the gutters. +Almost the only sound audible was the gurgling of the City Creek. +Through the chinks of the heavy wooden portal of the Temple square, +workmen were to be seen engaged in demolishing the roofs of the +buildings within the inclosure. Over the windows of all the houses +boards were nailed; the doors were locked; the gates closed; and in many +of the gardens, crops of weeds were beginning to choke the flower-beds. +From some of the houses of the more enthusiastic Saints all the +wood-work was removed, leaving nothing standing except the bare _adobe_ +walls, while a few had been burned to the ground. In front of the +tithing-office, a train of wagons was loading with grain for removal to +Provo. + +The Governor arrived on the 8th, and was conducted at once to the +quarters he had occupied on his previous visit. The next day, he, +together with the Commissioners, held an interview with the two +messengers who had been sent up from Provo by Brigham Young. They +returned to Lake Utah that same night, and on the 10th, about noon, +Young, Kimball, and Wells, together with the Twelve Apostles, and twenty +or thirty Bishops, High Priests, and Elders, embracing almost all the +influential characters in the Church, rode into the city. Brigham's +mansion was thrown open and the party dined there. They called +afterwards in a body upon the Governor and the Commissioners, and made +arrangements for a conference on the following day. + +The President's pardon had reached the Mormon settlements along Lake +Utah on the 6th, and the manner in which it was received by the populace +showed that they were not satisfied with the position of their +leaders. It was read from the steps of the tithing-offices, and at the +street-corners, to crowds who denounced in the fiercest language the +recital of facts set forth in its preamble. The excitement, which had +been steadily fostered by Young and Kimball ever since the commencement +of the rebellion, had amounted to a frenzy which no authority less +potent than such a hierarchy as theirs could possibly have controlled. +Nevertheless, the morning Brigham rode into Salt Lake City, the +capitulation had been preordained. + +The conferences lasted through the 11th and 12th, the inflexibility of +the Commissioners securing decency of language from the Mormons, if not +decency of demeanor. All the participants, including Young himself, +expressed their sentiments in turn. The opening speech was made by one +of the Apostles, named Erastus Snow, who forgot for the moment that he +was not addressing a congregation of his brethren on a Sunday morning, +and indulged in a strain of obscene and profane remark which was checked +at once by Senator Powell. Some of the speakers broke into savage +tirades like those with which Governor Cumming was once greeted in the +Tabernacle; but these were checked by Young. There were two subjects on +which the Mormon leaders were particularly anxious, all fear of their +own trial for treason being removed. They dreaded that the army should +be quartered upon their settlements, and that the policy inaugurated +by Judge Eckels in his recent charge to the grand jury at Fort Bridger +should be pursued against polygamy. No assurances were given by the +Commissioners upon either of these subjects. They limited their action +to tendering the President's pardon, and exhorting the Mormons to accept +it. Outside the conferences, however, without the knowledge of the +Commissioners, assurances were given on both these subjects by the +Governor and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which proved +satisfactory to Brigham Young. The exact nature of their pledges will, +perhaps, never be disclosed; but from subsequent confessions volunteered +by the Superintendent, who appears to have acted as a tool of the +Governor through the whole affair, it seems probable that they promised +explicitly to exert their influence to quarter the army in Cache Valley, +nearly a hundred miles north of Salt Lake City, and also to procure the +removal of Judge Eckels. The news of the issue of the order for the +advance of the army reached the city on the 12th, and accelerated the +result of the conferences, which concluded that evening with a pledge on +the part of Young and his associates to submit unconditionally to +the Federal authority. During the next few days, the Commissioners, +accompanied by the Governor, travelled southward, and addressed large +audiences at Provo and Lehi, specially exhorting the people to return to +their homes in the northern settlements, assuring them that the troubles +were ended, and that they need fear no molestation of person or +property. + +Whether all these proceedings--which were legitimate results of Mr. +Buchanan's policy--were consistent with the honor of the country, the +public can judge for themselves. The Commissioners certainly conducted +themselves with dignity and credit; but it is doubtful whether they ever +would have accepted their appointment, had they anticipated the nature +of the duties they would be required to perform. + +The army moved slowly forward during the progress of these negotiations. +In Echo Cañon, it had an opportunity to inspect the bugbear of the +previous autumn,--the Mormon fortifications. As the cañon--which is more +than twenty miles long--approaches the Weber River, it dwindles in +width from five or six hundred yards to as many feet. Its northern side +becomes a perfect wall of rock, which rises perpendicularly to the +height of several hundred feet above the road. The southern side retains +the character of a steep mountain-slope covered with grass and stunted +bushes. Echo Creek, a narrow streamlet, with its dense fringe of +willows, fills the whole bottom between the road and the bluffs. The +first indication of approach to the fortifications was the sight of +piles of stones heaped into walls four or five feet high, pierced with +loopholes, and visible on every projecting point of the cliffs along the +northern side, from most of which a pebble could be snapped down upon +the road. Just beyond, after turning a bend in the cañon, all the +willows along the creek had been cut away, and through the cleared space +a ditch five or six feet wide and ten feet deep was dug across the +bottom. The dirt thrown from it was packed so as to form an embankment, +on which logs were so arranged that it would answer for a breastwork, +behind which riflemen could be posted under cover. At intervals of about +a hundred yards were two similar lines of ditch and breastwork, by the +first of which the road was forced to skirt the very base of a cliff +which had probably been mined. The other line was constructed just above +the mouths of two narrow gorges which enter the cañon, nearly opposite +one another, from the north and south. By the aid of these dams the +cañon might possibly have been overflowed for half a mile to the depth +of several feet, but the water would have accumulated slowly on account +of the insignificant size of the creek. Several dirt walls stretched +also across the gorges, commanding the whole of the fortifications +below. This whole system of defences possessed as little strength as +merit. It served only to confirm the impression, which by this time had +become general, that the capacity of the Mormons to resist the army had +been greatly overrated, and that a vigorous effort to penetrate to the +Valley early in the spring would inevitably have succeeded. + +For nearly a mile beyond the two gorges, a chain of low hills, over +which the road runs, extends below the loftier summits on the southern +side of the cañon. The northern side becomes, in consequence, a deep +glen, as the cliffs which form its wall rise abruptly from the level of +the creek. This glen is filled with bushes, and in it, thus protected +from the wind, the Mormon militia had their winter-quarters. The huts +they occupied had been constructed by digging circular holes in the +ground, over which were piled boughs in the same manner as the poles of +an Indian lodge. Around these boughs willow-twigs were plaited, and the +entire hut was finally thatched with straw, grass, or bark. Many of +them had chimneys built of sod and stones, like those which had been +improvised at Camp Scott. An open spot, a few hundred feet below the +beginning of the glen, was the site of the head-quarters of the command. +Here the huts were built around a square, in the centre of which was +planted a tall pine flag-pole. The scenery at this point is exceedingly +picturesque. Out of a tangle of willows, alders, hawthorn, and wild +cherry-trees spring the bold sandstone cliffs, in every crevice of which +cedars and fir-trees cling to the jagged points of rock. On the other +side of the cañon a sheet of rich verdure, all summer long, rolls up +the mountain to its very summit. Down the glen ripples the little creek +underneath an arch of fragrant shrubs twined with the slender tendrils +of wild hop-vines. The whole number of huts was about one hundred and +fifty, and they could accommodate, on an average, fifteen men apiece. + +The troops did not emerge from Emigration Cañon into the Salt Lake +Valley until the morning of the 26th. In the mean while, thirty or forty +civilians had reached the city from the camp, and were quartered, like +the Commissioners, in their own vehicles. The Mormons favored no one, +except the Governor and his intimate associates, with any species of +accommodation. Their demeanor was in every respect like that of a +conquered people toward foreign invaders. During the week preceding the +26th, two or three hundred of those on Lake Utah received permission +to go up to the city, and they alone, of the whole Mormon community, +witnessed the ingress of the army. + +It was one of the most extraordinary scenes that have occurred in +American history. All day long, from dawn till after sunset, the troops +and trains poured through the city, the utter silence of the streets +being broken only by the music of the military bands, the monotonous +tramp of the regiments, and the rattle of the baggage-wagons. Early in +the morning, the Mormon guard had forced all their fellow-religionists +into the houses, and ordered them not to make their appearance during +the day. The numerous flags, which had been flying from staffs on the +public buildings during the previous week, were all struck. The only +visible groups of spectators were on the corners near Brigham Young's +residence, and consisted almost entirely of Gentile civilians. The +stillness was so profound, that, during the intervals between the +passage of the columns, the monotonous gurgle of the city-creek struck +on every ear. The Commissioners rode with the General's staff. The +troops crossed the Jordan and encamped two miles from the city on a +dusty meadow by the river-bank. + +The orders under which General Johnston was acting directed him to +establish not more than three military posts within the Territory. One +of these was already fixed at Fort Bridger, and the question where the +others should be located was now no less important to the Mormons +than to the army. The secret of the success of Mormonism is its +exclusiveness, and of this fact the leaders of the sect are fully aware. +Accordingly, they now put forth most strenuous efforts to secure the +removal of the troops to as great a distance as possible from their +settlements. But, wholly without regard to any understanding which they +might have had with the Governor, General Johnston, after a careful +_reconnaissance_, selected Cedar Valley, on the western rim of Lake +Utah, separated from it only by a range of bluffs,--about equidistant +from Salt Lake City and Provo,--for his permanent camp. The army moved +southward from the city on the 29th, but so slowly that it did not reach +the Valley till the 6th of July. Not a field was encroached upon, not a +house molested, not a person harmed or insulted, by troops that had been +so harassed and vituperated by a people now entirely at their mercy. By +their strict subordination they entitled themselves to the respect of +the country as well as to the gratitude of the Mormons. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +OUR SKATER BELLE. + + + Along the frozen lake she comes + In linking crescents, light and fleet; + The ice-imprisoned Undine hums + A welcome to her little feet. + + I see the jaunty hat, the plume + Swerve bird-like in the joyous gale,-- + The cheeks lit up to burning bloom, + The young eyes sparkling through the veil. + + The quick breath parts her laughing lips, + The white neck shines through tossing curls; + Her vesture gently sways and dips, + As on she speeds in shell-like whorls. + + Men stop and smile to see her go; + They gaze, they smile in pleased surprise; + They ask her name; they long to show + Some silent friendship in their eyes. + + She glances not; she passes on; + Her steely footfall quicker rings; + She guesses not the benison + Which follows her on noiseless wings. + + Smooth be her ways, secure her tread + Along the devious lines of life, + From grace to grace successive led, + A noble maiden, nobler wife! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +I don't know whether our literary or professional people are more +amiable than they are in other places, but certainly quarrelling is out +of fashion among them. This could never be, if they were in the habit of +secret anonymous puffing of each other. That is the kind of underground +machinery, which manufactures false reputations and genuine hatreds. On +the other hand, I should like to know if we are not at liberty to have +a good time together, and say the pleasantest things we can think of to +each other, when any of us reaches his thirtieth or fortieth or fiftieth +or eightieth birthday. + +We don't have "scenes," I warrant you, on these occasions. No "surprise" +parties! You understand these, of course. In the rural districts, where +scenic tragedy and melodrama cannot be had, as in the city, at the +expense of a quarter and a white pocket-handkerchief, emotional +excitement has to be sought in the dramas of real life. Christenings, +weddings, and funerals, especially the latter, are the main dependence; +but babies, brides, and deceased citizens cannot be had at a day's +notice. Now, then, for a surprise-party! + +A bag of flour, a barrel of potatoes, some strings of onions, a basket +of apples, a big cake and many little cakes, a jug of lemonade, a purse +stuffed with bills of the more modest denominations, may, perhaps, +do well enough for the properties in one of these private theatrical +exhibitions. The minister of the parish, a tender-hearted, quiet, +hard-working man, living on a small salary, with many children, +sometimes pinched to feed and clothe them, praying fervently every day +to be blest in his "basket and store," but sometimes fearing he asks +amiss, to judge by the small returns, has the first _rôle_,--not, +however, by his own choice, but forced upon him. The minister's wife, a +sharp-eyed, unsentimental body, is first lady; the remaining parts by +the rest of the family. If they only had a play-bill, it would run +thus:-- + +ON TUESDAY NEXT + +WILL BE PRESENTED + +THE AFFECTING SCENE + +CALLED + +THE SURPRISE-PARTY, + +OR + +THE OVERCOME FAMILY; + +WITH THE FOLLOWING STRONG CAST OF CHARACTERS: + +_The Rev. Mr. Overcome_, by the Clergyman of this Parish. + +_Mrs. Overcome_, by his estimable lady. + +_Masters Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Overcome_. + +_Misses Dorcas, Tabitha, Rachel, and Hannah Overcome_, by their +interesting children. + +_Peggy_, by the female help. + +The poor man is really grateful;--it is a most welcome and unexpected +relief. He tries to express his thanks,--his voice falters,--he +chokes,--and bursts into tears. _That_ is the great effect of the +evening. The sharp-sighted lady cries a little with one eye, and counts +the strings of onions, and the rest of the things, with the other. The +children stand ready for a spring at the apples. The female help weeps +after the noisy fashion of untutored handmaids. + +Now this is all very well as charity, but do let the kind visitors +remember they get their money's worth. If you pay a quarter for _dry +crying_, done by a second-rate actor, how much ought you to pay for real +hot, wet tears, out of the honest eyes of a gentleman who is not acting, +but sobbing in earnest? + +All I meant to say, when I began, was, that this was _not_ a +surprise-party where I read these few lines that follow:-- + + We will not speak of years to-night; + For what have years to bring, + But larger floods of love and light + And sweeter songs to sing? + + We will not drown in wordy praise + The kindly thoughts that rise; + If friendship owns one tender phrase, + He reads it in our eyes. + + We need not waste our schoolboy art + To gild this notch of time; + Forgive me, if my wayward heart + Has throbbed in artless rhyme. + + Enough for him the silent grasp + That knits us hand in hand, + And he the bracelet's radiant clasp + That locks our circling band. + + Strength to his hours of manly toil! + Peace to his starlit dreams! + Who loves alike the furrowed soil, + The music-haunted streams! + + Sweet smiles to keep forever bright + The sunshine on his lips, + And faith, that sees the ring of light + Round Nature's last eclipse! + +----One of our boarders has been talking in such strong language that I +am almost afraid to report it. However, as he seems to be really honest +and is so very sincere in his local prejudices, I don't believe anybody +will be very angry with him. + +It is here, Sir! right here!--said the little deformed gentleman,--in +this old new city of Boston,--this remote provincial corner of a +provincial nation, that the Battle of the Standard is fighting, and was +fighting before we were born, and will be fighting when we are dead +and gone,--please God! The _battle_ goes on everywhere throughout +civilization; but here, here, here! is the broad white flag flying which +proclaims, first of all, peace and good-will to men, and, next to +that, the absolute, unconditional spiritual liberty of each individual +immortal soul! The three-hilled city against the seven-hilled-city! That +is it, Sir,--nothing less than that; and if you know what that means, I +don't think you'll ask for anything more. I swear to you, Sir, I believe +that these two centres of civilization are just exactly the two points +that close the circuit in the battery of our planetary intelligence! And +I believe there are spiritual eyes looking out from Uranus and unseen +Neptune,--ay, Sir, from the systems of Sirius and Arcturus and +Aldebaran, and as far as that faint stain of sprinkled worlds confluent +in the distance that we call the nebula of Orion,--looking on, Sir, with +what organs I know not, to see which are going to melt in that fiery +fusion, the accidents and hindrances of humanity or man himself, +Sir,--the stupendous abortion, the illustrious failure that he is, +if the three-hilled city does not ride down and trample out the +seven-hilled city! + +----Steam's up!--said the young man John, so called, in a low +tone.--Three hundred and sixty-five tons to the square inch. Let him +blow her off, or he'll bu'st his b'iler. + +The divinity-student took it calmly, only whispering that he thought +there was a little confusion of images between a galvanic battery and a +charge of cavalry. + +But the Koh-i-noor--the gentleman, you remember, with a very large +_diamond_ in his shirt-front--laughed his scornful laugh, and made as if +to speak. + +Sail in, Metropolis!--said that same young man John, by name. And then, +in a lower tone, not meaning to be heard,--Now, then, Ma'am Allen! + +But he _was_ heard,--and the Koh-i-noor's face turned so white with +rage, that his blue-black moustache and beard looked fearful, seen +against it. He grinned with wrath, and caught at a tumbler, as if +he would have thrown it or its contents at the speaker. The young +Marylander fixed his clear, steady eye upon him, and laid his hand on +his arm, carelessly almost, but the Jewel found it was held so that he +could not move it. It was of no use. The youth was his master in muscle, +and in that deadly Indian hug in which men wrestle with their eyes; +--over in five seconds, but breaks one of their two backs, and is good +for three-score years and ten;--one trial enough,--settles the whole +matter,--just as when two feathered songsters of the barnyard, game and +dunghill, come together,--after a jump or two at each other, and a few +sharp kicks, there is the end of it; and it is, _Après vous, Monsieur_, +in all the social relations with the beaten party for all the rest of +his days. + +I cannot philosophically account for the Koh-i-noor's wrath. For though +a cosmetic is sold, bearing the name of the lady to whom reference +was made by the young person John, yet, as it is publicly asserted in +respectable prints that this cosmetic is _not a dye_, I see no reason +why he should have felt offended by any suggestion that he was indebted +to it or its authoress. I have no doubt that there are certain +exceptional complexions to which the purple tinge, above alluded to, is +natural. Nature is fertile in variety. I saw an albiness in London once, +for six-pence, (including the inspection of a stuffed boa-constrictor,) +who looked as if she had been boiled in milk. A young Hottentot of my +acquaintance had his hair all in little pellets of the size of marrowfat +peas. One of my own classmates has undergone a singular change of late +years,--his hair losing its original tint, and getting a remarkable +discolored look; and another has ceased to cultivate any hair at all +over the vertex or crown of the head. So I am perfectly willing to +believe that the purple-black of the Koh-i-noor's moustache and whiskers +is constitutional and not pigmentary. But I can't think why he got so +angry. + +The intelligent reader will understand that all this pantomime of the +threatened onslaught and its suppression passed so quickly that it was +all over by the time the other end of the table found out there was a +disturbance; just as a man chopping wood half a mile off may be seen +resting on his axe at the instant you hear the last blow he struck. So +you will please to observe that the Little Gentleman was not interrupted +during the time implied by these _ex-post-facto_ remarks of mine, but +for some ten or fifteen seconds only. + +He did not seem to mind the interruption at all, for he started again. +The "Sir" of his harangue was no doubt addressed to myself more than +anybody else, but he often uses it in discourse as if he were talking +with some imaginary opponent. + +----America, Sir,--he exclaimed,--is the only place where man is +full-grown! + +He straightened himself up, as he spoke, standing on the top round of +his high chair, I suppose, and so presented the larger part of his +little figure to the view of the boarders. + +It was next to impossible to keep from laughing. The commentary was so +strange an illustration of the text! + +I thought it was time to put in a word; for I have lived in foreign +parts, and am more or less cosmopolitan. + +I doubt if we have more practical freedom in America than they have in +England,--I said.--An Englishman thinks as he likes in religion and +politics. Mr. Martineau speculates as freely as ever Dr. Channing did, +and Mr. Bright is as independent as Mr. Seward. + +Sir,--said he,--it isn't what a man thinks or says, but when and where +and to whom he thinks and says it. A man with a flint and steel striking +sparks over a wet blanket is one thing, and striking them over a +tinder-box is another. The free Englishman is born under protest; he +lives and dies under protest,--a tolerated, but not a welcome fact. Is +not _free-thinker_ a term of reproach in England? The same idea in +the soul of an Englishman who struggled up to it and still holds it +_antagonistically_, and in the soul of an American to whom it is +congenital and spontaneous, and often unrecognized, except as an element +blended with _all_ his thoughts, a natural movement, like the drawing of +his breath or the beating of his heart, is a very different thing. You +may teach a quadruped to walk on his hind legs, but he is always wanting +to be on all-fours. Nothing that can be taught a growing youth is like +the atmospheric knowledge he breathes from his infancy upwards. The +American baby sucks in freedom with the milk of the breast at which he +hangs. + +----That's a good joke,--said the young fellow John,--considerin' it +commonly belongs to a female Paddy. + +I thought--I will not be certain--that Little Boston winked, as if he +had been hit somewhere,--as I have no doubt Dr. Darwin did when the +_wooden-spoon_ suggestion upset his theory about why, etc. If he winked, +however, he did not dodge. + +A lively comment!--he said.--But Rome, in her great founder, sucked the +blood of empire out of the dugs of a brute, Sir! The Milesian wet-nurse +is only a convenient vessel through which the American infant gets the +life-blood of this virgin soil, Sir, that is making man over again, on +the sunset pattern! You don't think what we are doing and going to +do here. Why, Sir, while commentators are bothering themselves with +interpretation of prophecies, _we have got_ the new heavens and the new +earth over us and under us! Was there ever anything in Italy, I should +like to know, like a Boston sunset? + +----This time there was a laugh, and the little man himself almost +smiled. + +Yes,--Boston sunsets;--perhaps they're as good in some other places, +but I know 'em best here. Anyhow, the American skies are different from +anything they see in the Old World. Yes, and the rocks are different, +and the soil is different, and everything that comes out of the soil, +from grass up to Indians, is different. And now that the provisional +races are dying out---- + +----What do you mean by the _provisional_ races, Sir?--said the +divinity-student, interrupting him. + +Why, the aboriginal bipeds, to be sure,--he answered,--the red-crayon +sketch of humanity laid on the canvas before the colors for the real +manhood were ready. + +I hope they will come to something yet,--said the divinity-student. + +Irreclaimable, Sir,--irreclaimable!--said the little +gentleman.--Cheaper to breed white men than domesticate a nation of red +ones. When you can get the bitter out of the partridge's thigh, you +can make an enlightened commonwealth of Indians. A provisional race, +Sir,--nothing more. Exhaled carbonic acid for the use of vegetation, +kept down the bears and catamounts, enjoyed themselves in scalping and +being scalped, and then passed away or are passing away, according to +the programme. + +Well, Sir, these races dying out, the white man has to acclimate +himself. It takes him a good while; but he will come all right +by-and-by, Sir,--as sound as a woodchuck,--as sound as a musquash! + +A new nursery, Sir, with Lake Superior and Huron and all the rest of +'em for wash-basins! A new race, and a whole new world for the new-born +human soul to work in! And Boston is the brain of it, and has been any +time these hundred years! That's all I claim for Boston,--that it is the +thinking centre of the continent, and therefore of the planet. + +----And the grand emporium of modesty,--said the divinity-student, a +little mischievously. + +Oh, don't talk to me of modesty!--answered Little Boston,--I'm past +that! There isn't a thing that was ever said or done in Boston, from +pitching the tea overboard to the last ecclesiastical lie it tore into +tatters and flung into the dock, that wasn't thought very indelicate by +some fool or tyrant or bigot, and all the entrails of commercial +and spiritual conservatism are twisted into colics as often as this +revolutionary brain of ours has a fit of thinking come over it.--No, +Sir,--show me any other place that is, or was since the megalosaurus +has died out, where wealth and social influence are so fairly divided +between the stationary and the progressive classes! Show me any +other place where every other drawing-room is not a chamber of the +Inquisition, with papas and mammas for inquisitors,--and the cold +shoulder, instead of the "dry pan and the gradual fire," the punishment +of "heresy"! + +----We think Baltimore is a pretty civilized kind of a village,--said +the young Marylander, good-naturedly.--But I suppose you can't +forgive it for always keeping a little ahead of Boston in point of +numbers,--tell the truth now. Are we not the centre of something? + +Ah, indeed, to be sure you are. You are the gastronomic metropolis +of the Union. Why don't you put a canvas-back duck on the top of the +Washington column? Why don't you get that lady off from Battle Monument +and plant a terrapin in her place? Why will you ask for other glories +when you have soft crabs? No, Sir,--you live too well to think as hard +as we do in Boston. Logic comes to us with the salt-fish of Cape Ann; +rhetoric is born of the beans of Beverly; but _you_--if you open your +mouths to speak, Nature stops them with a fat oyster, or offers a slice +of the breast of your divine bird, and silences all your aspirations. + +And what of Philadelphia?--said the Marylander. + +Oh, Philadelphia?--Waterworks,--killed by the Croton and Cochituate;-- +Ben Franklin,--borrowed from Boston;--David Rittenhouse,--made an +orrery;--Benjamin Rush,--made a medical system:--both interesting to +antiquarians;--great Red-river raft of medical students,--spontaneous +generation of professors to match;--more widely known through the +Moyamensing hose-company, and the Wistar parties;--for geological +section of social strata, go to _The Club_.--Good place to live +in,--first-rate market,--tip-top peaches.--What do we know about +Philadelphia, except that the engine-companies are always shooting each +other? + +And what do you say to New York?--asked the Koh-i-noor? + +A great city, Sir,--replied Little Boston,--a very opulent, splendid +city. A point of transit of much that is remarkable, and of permanence +for much that is respectable. A great money-centre. San Francisco with +the mines above-ground,--and some of 'em under the sidewalks. I have +seen next to nothing _grandiose_, out of New York, in all our cities. It +makes 'em all look paltry and petty. Has many elements of civilization. +May stop where Venice did, though, for aught we know.--The order of its +development is just this:--Wealth; architecture; upholstery; painting; +sculpture. Printing, as a mechanical art,--just as Nicholas Jenson +and the Aldi, who were scholars too, made Venice renowned for it. +Journalism, which is the accident of business and crowded populations, +in great perfection. Venice got as far as Titian and Paul Veronese +and Tintoretto,--great colorists, mark you, magnificent on the +flesh-and-blood side of Art,--but look over to Florence and see who lie +in Santa Croce, and ask out of whose loins Dante sprung! + +Oh, yes, to be sure, Venice built her Ducal Palace, and her Church of +St. Mark, and her Casa d' Oro, and the rest of her golden houses; and +Venice had great pictures and good music; and Venice had a Golden Book, +in which all the large tax-payers had their names written;--but all +that did not make Venice the brain of Italy. + +I tell you what, Sir,--with all these magnificent appliances of +civilization, it is time we began to hear something from the _jeunesse +dorée_ whose names are on the Golden Book of our sumptuous, +splendid, marble-palaced Venice,--something in the higher walks of +literature,--something in the councils of the nation. Plenty of Art, I +grant you, Sir; now, then, for vast libraries, and for mighty scholars +and thinkers and statesmen,--five for every Boston one, as the +population is to ours,--_ten_ to one more properly, in virtue of +centralizing attraction as _the_ alleged metropolis,--and not call our +people provincials, and have to come begging to us to write the lives of +Hendrik Hudson and Gouverneur Morris! + +----The little gentleman was on his hobby, exalting his own city at the +expense of every other place. I don't suppose he had been in either of +the cities he had been talking about. I was just going to say something +to sober him down, if I could, when the young Marylander spoke up. + +Come, now,--he said,--what's the use of these comparisons? Didn't I +hear this gentleman saying, the other day, that every American owns all +America? If you have really got more brains in Boston than other folks, +as you seem to think, who hates you for it, except a pack of scribbling +fools? If I like Broadway better than Washington Street, what then? I +own them both, as much as anybody owns either. I am an American,--and +wherever I look up and see the stars and stripes overhead, that is home +to me! + +He spoke, and looked up as if he heard the emblazoned folds crackling +over him in the breeze. We all looked up involuntarily, as if we should +see the national flag by so doing. The sight of the dingy ceiling and +the gas-fixture depending therefrom dispelled the illusion. + +Bravo! bravo!--said the venerable gentleman on the other side of the +table.--Those are the sentiments of Washington's Farewell Address. +Nothing better than that since the last chapter in Revelations. +Five-and-forty years ago there used to be Washington societies, and +little boys used to walk in processions, each little boy having a copy +of the Address, bound in red, hung round his neck by a ribbon. Why don't +they now? Why don't they now? I saw enough of hating each other in the +old Federal times; now let's love each other, I say,--let's love each +other, and not try to make it out that there isn't any place fit to live +in except the one we happen to be born in. + +It dwarfs the mind, I think,--said I,--to feed it on any localism. The +full stature of manhood is shrivelled---- + +The color burst up into my cheeks. What was I saying,--I, who would not +for the world have pained our unfortunate little boarder by an allusion? + +I will go,--he said,--and made a movement with his left arm to let +himself down from his high chair. + +No,--no,--he doesn't mean it,--you must not go,--said a kind voice next +him; and a soft, white hand was laid upon his arm. + +Iris, my dear!--exclaimed another voice, as of a female, in accents that +might be considered a strong atmospheric solution of duty with very +little flavor of grace. + +She did not move for this address, and there was a _tableau_ that lasted +some seconds. For the young girl, in the glory of half-blown womanhood, +and the dwarf, the cripple, the misshapen little creature covered with +Nature's insults, looked straight into each other's eyes. + +Perhaps no handsome young woman had ever looked at him so in his life. +Certainly the young girl never had looked into eyes that reached +into her soul as these did. It was not that they were in themselves +supernaturally bright,--but there was the sad fire in them that flames +up from the soul of one who looks on the beauty of woman without hope, +but, alas! not without emotion. To him it seemed as if those amber gates +had been translucent as the brown water of a mountain-brook, and through +them he had seen dimly into a virgin wilderness, only waiting for the +sunrise of a great passion for all its buds to blow and all its bowers +to ring with melody. + +That is my image, of course,--not his. It was not a simile that was +in his mind, or is in anybody's at such a moment,--it was a pang of +wordless passion, and then a silent, inward moan. + +A lady's wish,--he said, with a certain gallantry of manner,--makes +slaves of us all.--And Nature, who is kind to all her children, and +never leaves the smallest and saddest of all her human failures without +one little comfit of self-love at the bottom of his poor ragged +pocket,--Nature suggested to him that he had turned his sentence well; +and he fell into a reverie, in which the old thoughts that were always +hovering just outside the doors guarded by Common Sense, and watching +for a chance to squeeze in, knowing perfectly well they would be +ignominiously kicked out again as soon as Common Sense saw them, flocked +in pellmell,--misty, fragmentary, vague, half-ashamed of themselves, but +still shouldering up against his inner consciousness till it warmed with +their contact:--John Wilkes's--the ugliest man's in England--saying, +that with half-an-hour's start he would cut out the handsomest man +in all the land in any woman's good graces; Cadenus--old and +savage--leading captive Stella and Vanessa; and then the stray line of +a ballad,--"And a winning tongue had he,"--as much as to say, it isn't +looks, after all, but cunning words, that win our Eves over,--just as +of old, when it was the worst-looking brute of the lot that got our +grandmother to listen to his stuff, and so did the mischief. + +Ah, dear me! We rehearse the part of Hercules with his club, subjugating +man and woman in our fancy, the first by the weight of it, and the +second by our handling of it,--we rehearse it, I say, by our own +hearth-stones, with the _cold_ poker as our club, and the exercise is +easy. But when we come to real life, the poker is _in the fire_, and, +ten to one, if we would grasp it, we find it too hot to hold;--lucky for +us, if it is not white-hot, and we do not have to leave the skin of our +hands sticking to it when we fling it down or drop it with a loud or +silent cry! + +--I am frightened when I find into what a labyrinth of human character +and feeling I am winding. I meant to tell my thoughts, and to throw in +a few studies of manner and costume as they pictured themselves for +me from day to day. Chance has thrown together at the table with me a +number of persons who are worth studying, and I mean not only to look +on them, but, if I can, through them. You can get any man's or woman's +secret, whose sphere is circumscribed by your own, if you will only look +patiently on them long enough. Nature is always applying her reagents +to character, if you will take the pains to watch her. Our studies +of character, to change the image, are very much like the surveyor's +triangulation of a geographical province. We get a base-line in +organization, always; then we get an angle by sighting some distant +object to which the passions or aspirations of the subject of our +observation are tending; then another:--and so we construct our first +triangle. Once fix a man's ideals, and for the most part the rest is +easy. _A_ wants to die worth half a million. Good. _B_ (female) wants to +catch him,--and outlive him. All right. Minor details at our leisure. + +What is it, of all your experiences, of all your thoughts, of all your +misdoings, that lies at the very bottom of the great heap of acts of +consciousness which make up your past life? What should you most dislike +to tell your nearest friend?--Be so good as to pause for a brief space, +and shut the pamphlet you hold with your fingers between the pages.--Oh, +that is it! + +What a confessional I have been sitting at, with the inward ear of my +soul open, as the multitudinous whisper of my involuntary confidants +came back to me like the reduplicated echo of a cry among the craggy +hills! + +At the house of a friend where I once passed the night was one of those +stately upright cabinet-desks and cases of drawers which were not rare +in prosperous families during the last century. It had held the clothes +and the books and the papers of generation after generation. The hands +that opened its drawers had grown withered, shrivelled, and at last been +folded in death. The children that played with the lower handles had got +tall enough to open the desk,--to reach the upper shelves behind the +folding-doors,--grown bent after a while,--and then followed those who +had gone before, and left the old cabinet to be ransacked by a new +generation. + +A boy of ten or twelve was looking at it a few years ago, and, being a +quick-witted fellow, saw that all the space was not accounted for by the +smaller drawers in the part beneath the lid of the desk. Prying about +with busy eyes and fingers, he at length came upon a spring, on pressing +which, a hidden drawer flew from its hiding-place. It had never been +opened but by the maker. The mahogany shavings and dust were lying in it +as when the artisan closed it,--and when I saw it, it was as fresh as if +that day finished. + +Is there not one little drawer in your soul, my sweet reader, which no +hand but yours has ever opened, and which none that have known you seem +to have suspected? What does it hold?--A sin?--I hope not. + +What a strange thing an old dead sin laid away in a secret drawer of the +soul is! Must it some time or other be moistened with tears, until it +comes to life again and begins to stir in our consciousness,--as the dry +wheel-animalcule, looking like a grain of dust, becomes alive, if it is +wet with a drop of water? + +Or is it a passion? There are plenty of withered men and women walking +about the streets who have the secret drawer in their hearts, which, +if it were opened, would show as fresh as it was when they were in the +flush of youth and its first trembling emotions. What it held will, +perhaps, never be known, until they are dead and gone, and some curious +eye lights on an old yellow letter with the fossil footprints of the +extinct passion trodden thick all over it. + +There is not a boarder at our table, I firmly believe, excepting the +young girl, who has not a story of the heart to tell, if one could only +get the secret drawer open. Even this arid female, whose armor of black +bombazine looks stronger against the shafts of love than any cuirass of +triple brass, has had her sentimental history, if I am not mistaken. I +will tell you my reason for suspecting it. + +Like many other old women, she shows a great nervousness and +restlessness whenever I venture to express any opinion upon a class of +subjects which can hardly be said to belong to any man or set of men +as their strictly private property,--not even to the clergy, or the +newspapers commonly called "religious." Now, although it would be a +great luxury to me to obtain my opinions by contract, ready-made, from a +professional man, and although I have a constitutional kindly feeling +to all sorts of good people which would make me happy to agree with all +their beliefs, if that were possible, still I must have an idea, now and +then, as to the meaning of life; and though the only condition of peace +in this world is to have no ideas, or, at least, not to express them, +with reference to such subjects, I can't afford to pay quite so much as +that even for peace. + +I find that there is a very prevalent opinion among the dwellers on the +shores of Sir Isaac Newton's Ocean of Truth, that _salt fish_, which +have been taken from it a good while ago, split open, cured and dried, +are the only proper and allowable food for reasonable people. I +maintain, on the other hand, that there are a number of live fish still +swimming in it, and that every one of us has a right to see if he cannot +catch some of them. Sometimes I please myself with the idea that I have +landed an actual living fish, small, perhaps, but with rosy gills and +silvery scales. Then I find the consumers of nothing but the salted and +dried article insist that it is poisonous, simply because it is alive, +and cry out to people not to touch it. I have not found, however, that +people mind them much. + +The poor boarder in bombazine is my dynamometer. I try every +questionable proposition on her. If she winces, I must be prepared for +an outcry from the other old women. I frightened her, the other day, by +saying that _faith, as an intellectual state, was self-reliance_, which, +if you have a metaphysical turn, you will find is not so much of a +paradox as it sounds at first. So she sent me a book to read which was +to cure me of that error. It was an old book, and looked as if it had +not been opened for a long time. What should drop out of it, one day, +but a small heart-shaped paper, containing a lock of that straight, +coarse, brown hair which sets off the sharp faces of so many +thin-flanked, large-handed bumpkins? I read upon the paper the name +"Hiram."--Love! love! love!--everywhere! everywhere!--under diamonds and +Attleboro' "jewelry,"--lifting the marrowy camel's-hair, and rustling +even the black bombazine!--No, no,--I think she never was pretty, but +she was young once, and wore bright ginghams, and, perhaps, gay merinos. +We shall find that the poor little crooked man has been in love, or is +in love, or will be in love before we have done with him, for aught that +I know! + +Romance! Was there ever a boarding-house in the world where the +seemingly prosaic table had not a living fresco for its background, +where you could see, if you had eyes, the smoke and fire of some +upheaving sentiment, or the dreary craters of smouldering or burnt-out +passions? You look on the black bombazine and high-necked decorum of +your neighbor, and no more think of the real life that underlies this +despoiled and dismantled womanhood than you think of a stone trilobite +as having once been full of the juices and the nervous thrills of +throbbing and self-conscious being. There is a wild creature under that +long yellow pin which serves as brooch for the bombazine cuirass,--a +wild creature, which I venture to say would leap in his cage, if +I should stir him, quiet as you think him. A heart which has been +domesticated by matrimony and maternity is as tranquil as a tame +bulfinch; but a wild heart which has never been fairly broken in +flutters fiercely long after you think time has tamed it down,--like +that purple finch I had the other day, which could not be approached +without such palpitations and frantic flings against the bars of his +cage, that I had to send him back and get a little orthodox canary +which had learned to be quiet and never mind the wires or his keeper's +handling. I will tell you my wicked, but involuntary experiment on the +wild heart under the faded bombazine. + +Was there ever a person in the room with you, marked by any special +weakness or peculiarity, with whom you could be two hours and not touch +the infirm spot? I confess the most frightful tendency to do just this +thing. If a man has a brogue, I am sure to catch myself imitating it. +If another is lame, I follow him, or, worse than that, go before him, +limping. I could never meet an Irish gentleman--if it had been the Duke +of Wellington himself--without stumbling upon the word "Paddy,"--which I +use rarely in my common talk. + +I have been worried to know whether this was owing to some innate +depravity of disposition on my part, some malignant torturing instinct, +which, under different circumstances, might have made a Fijian +anthropophagus of me, or to some law of thought for which I was not +answerable. It is, I am convinced, a kind of physical fact like +_endosmosis_, with which some of you are acquainted. A thin film of +politeness separates the unspoken and unspeakable current of thought +from the stream of conversation. After a time one begins to soak through +and mingle with the other. + +We were talking about names, one day. Was there ever anything,--I +said,--like the Yankee for inventing the most uncouth, pretentious, +detestable appellations,--inventing or finding them,--since the time of +Praise-God Barebones? I heard a country-boy once talking of another whom +he called _Elpit_, as I understood him. _Elbridge_ is common enough, but +this sounded oddly. It seems the boy was christened _Lord Pitt_,--and +called, for convenience, as above. I have heard a charming little girl, +belonging to an intelligent family in the country, called _Anges_ +invariably; doubtless intended for Agnes. Names are cheap. How can a +man name an innocent new-born child, that never did him any harm, +_Hiram_?--The poor relation, or whatever she is, in bombazine, turned +toward me, but I was stupid, and went on.--To think of a man going +through life saddled with such an abominable name as that!--The poor +relation grew very uneasy.--I continued; for I never thought of all this +till afterwards.--I knew one young fellow, a good many years ago, by the +name of Hiram-- + +--What's got into you, Cousin,--said our landlady,--to look so?--There! +you've upset your teacup! + +It suddenly occurred to me what I had been doing, and I saw the poor +woman had her hand at her throat; she was half-choking with the +"hysteric ball,"--a very odd symptom, as you know, which nervous women +often complain of. What business had I to be trying experiments on this +forlorn old soul? I had a great deal better be watching that young girl. + +Ah, the young girl! I am sure that she can hide nothing from me. Her +skin is so transparent that one can almost count her heart-beats by the +flushes they send into her cheeks. She does not seem to be shy, either. +I think she does not know enough of danger to be timid. She seems to +me like one of those birds that travellers tell of, found in remote, +uninhabited islands, who, having never received any wrong at the hand +of man, show no alarm at and hardly any particular consciousness of his +presence. + +The first thing will be to see how she and our little deformed gentleman +get along together; for, as I have told you, they sit side by side. The +next thing will be to keep an eye on the duenna,--the "Model" and +so forth, as the white-neckcloth called her. The intention of that +estimable lady is, I understand, to launch her and leave her. I suppose +there is no help for it, and I don't doubt this young lady knows how to +take care of herself, but I do not like to see young girls turned loose +in boarding-houses. Look here now! There is that jewel of his race, whom +I have called for convenience the Koh-i-noor, (you understand it +is quite out of the question for me to use the family names of our +boarders, unless I want to get into trouble,)--I say, the gentleman with +the _diamond_ is looking very often and very intently, it seems to me, +down toward the farther corner of the table, where sits our amber-eyed +blonde. The landlady's daughter does not look pleased, it seems to me, +at this, nor at those other attentions which the gentleman referred to +has, as I have learned, pressed upon the newly-arrived young person. The +landlady made a communication to me, within a few days after the arrival +of Miss Iris, which I will repeat to the best of my remembrance. + +He, (the person I have been speaking of,)--she said,--seemed to +be kinder hankerin' round after that young woman. It had hurt her +daughter's feelin's a good deal, that the gentleman she was a-keepin' +company with should be offerin' tickets and tryin' to send presents to +them that he'd never know'd till just a little spell ago,--and he as +good as merried, so far as solemn promises went, to as respectable a +young lady, if she did say so, as any there was round, whosomever they +might be. + +Tickets! presents!--said I.--What tickets, what presents has he had the +impertinence to be offering to that young lady? + +Tickets to the Museum,--said the landlady.--There is them that's glad +enough to go to the Museum, when tickets is given 'em; but some of 'em +ha'n't had a ticket sence Cenderilla was played,--and now he must be +offerin' 'em to this ridiculous young paintress, or whatever she is, +that's come to make more mischief than her board's worth. But it a'n't +her fault,--said the landlady, relenting;--and that aunt of hers, or +whatever she is, served him right enough. + +Why, what did she do? + +Do? Why, she took it up in the tongs and dropped it out o' window. + +Dropped? dropped what?--I said. + +Why, the _soap_,--said the landlady. + +It appeared that the Koh-i-noor, to ingratiate himself, had sent an +elegant package of perfumed soap, directed to Miss Iris, as a delicate +expression of a lively sentiment of admiration, and that, after having +met with the unfortunate treatment referred to, it was picked up by +Master Benjamin Franklin, who appropriated it, rejoicing, and indulged +in most unheard-of and inordinate ablutions in consequence, so that his +hands were a frequent subject of maternal congratulation, and he smelt +like a civet-cat for weeks after his great acquisition. + +After watching daily for a time, I think I can see clearly into the +relation which is growing up between the little gentleman and the young +lady. She shows a tenderness to him that I can't help being interested +in. If he was her crippled child, instead of being more than old enough +to be her father, she could not treat him more kindly. The landlady's +daughter said, the other day, she believed that girl was settin' her cap +for Little Boston. + +Some of them young folks is very artful,--said her mother,--and there is +them that would merry Lazarus, if he'd only picked up crumbs enough. +I don't think, though, this is one of that sort; she's kinder +child-like,--said the landlady,--and maybe never had any dolls to play +with; for they say her folks was poor before Ma'am undertook to see to +her teachin' and board her and clothe her. + +I could not help overhearing this conversation. "Board her and clothe +her!"--speaking of such a young creature! Oh, dear!--Yes,--she must +be fed,--just like Bridget, maid-of-all-work at this establishment. +Somebody must pay for it. Somebody has a right to watch her and see how +much it takes to "keep" her, and growl at her, if she has too good an +appetite. Somebody has a right to keep an eye on her and take care that +she does not dress too prettily. No mother to see her own youth over +again in those fresh features and rising reliefs of half-sculptured +womanhood, and, seeing its loveliness, forget her lessons of +neutral-tinted propriety, and open the cases that hold her own ornaments +to find her a necklace or a bracelet or a pair of earrings,--those +golden lamps that light up the deep, shadowy dimples on the cheeks of +young beauties,--swinging in a semi-barbaric splendor that carries the +wild fancy to Abyssinian queens and musky Odalisques! I don't believe +any woman has utterly given up the great firm of Mundus & Co., so long +as she wears earrings. + +I think Iris loves to hear the little gentleman talk. She smiles +sometimes at his vehement statements, but never laughs at him. When he +speaks to her, she keeps her eye always steadily upon him. This may be +only natural good-breeding, so to speak, but it is worth noticing. +I have often observed that vulgar persons, and public audiences of +inferior collective intelligence, have this in common: the least thing +draws off their minds, when you are speaking to them. I love this +young creature's rapt attention to her diminutive neighbor while he is +speaking. + +He is evidently pleased with it. For a day or two after she came, he was +silent and seemed nervous and excited. Now he is fond of getting the +talk into his own hands, and is obviously conscious that he has at least +one interested listener. Once or twice I have seen marks of special +attention to personal adornment,--a ruffled shirt-bosom, one day, and a +diamond pin in it,--not so _very_ large as the Koh-i-noor's, but more +lustrous. I mentioned the death's-head ring he wears on his right hand. +I was attracted by a very handsome red stone, a ruby or carbuncle or +something of the sort, to notice his left hand, the other day. It is a +handsome hand, and confirms my suspicion that the cast mentioned was +taken from his arm. After all, this is just what I should expect. It is +not very uncommon to see the upper limbs, or one of them, running away +with the whole strength, and, therefore, with the whole beauty, which we +should never have noticed, if it had been divided equally between all +four extremities. If it is so, of course he is proud of his one strong +and beautiful arm; that is human nature. But he does not make himself +ridiculous, at any rate, as people who have any one showy point are apt +to do,--especially dentists with handsome teeth, who always smile back +to their last molars. + +Sitting, as he does, next to the young girl, and next but one to the +calm lady who has her in charge, he cannot help seeing their relations +to each other. + +That is an admirable woman, Sir,--he said to me one day, as we sat alone +at the table after breakfast,--an admirable woman, Sir,--and I hate her. + +Of course, I begged an explanation. + +An admirable woman, Sir, because she does good things, and even kind +things,--takes care of this--this--young lady--we have here, talks like +a sensible person, and always looks as if she was doing her duty with +all her might. I hate her because her voice sounds as if it never +trembled, and her eyes look as if she never knew what it was to cry. +Besides, she looks at me, Sir, stares at me, as if she wanted to get +an image of me for some gallery in her brain,--and we don't love to be +looked at in this way, we that have--I hate her,--I hate her,--her eyes +kill me,--it is like being stabbed with icicles to be looked at so,--the +sooner she goes home, the better. I don't want a woman to weigh me in +a balance; there are men enough for that sort of work. The judicial +character isn't captivating in females, Sir. A woman fascinates a man +quite as often by what she overlooks as by what she sees. Love prefers +twilight to daylight; and a man doesn't think much of, nor care much +for, a woman outside of his household, unless he can couple the idea +of love, past, present, or future, with her. I don't believe the Devil +cares half so much for the services of a sinner as he does for those of +one of these folks that are always doing virtuous acts in a way to make +them unpleasing.--That young girl wants a tender nature to cherish her +and give her a chance to put out her leaves,--sunshine, and not east +winds. + +He was silent,--and sat looking at his handsome left hand with the red +stone ring upon it.--Is he going to fall in love with Iris? + +Here are some lines I read to the boarders the other day:-- + + THE CROOKED FOOTPATH. + + Ah, here it is! the sliding rail + That marks the old remembered spot,-- + The gap that struck our schoolboy trail,-- + The crooked path across the lot. + + It left the road by school and church, + A pencilled shadow, nothing more, + That parted from the silver birch + And ended at the farmhouse door. + + No line or compass traced its plan; + With frequent bends to left or right, + In aimless, wayward curves it ran, + But always kept the door in sight. + + The gabled porch, with woodbine green,-- + The broken millstone at the sill,-- + Though many a rood might stretch between, + The truant child could see them still. + + No rocks across the pathway lie,-- + No fallen trunk is o'er it thrown,-- + And yet it winds, we know not why, + And turns as if for tree or stone. + + Perhaps some lover trod the way + With shaking knees and leaping heart,-- + And so it often runs astray + With sinuous sweep or sudden start. + + Or one, perchance, with clouded brain + From some unholy banquet reeled,-- + And since, our devious steps maintain + His track across the trodden field. + + Nay, deem not thus,--no earth-born will + Could ever trace a faultless line; + Our truest steps are human still,-- + To walk unswerving were divine! + + Truants from love, we dream of wrath;-- + Oh, rather let us trust the more! + Through all the wanderings of the path, + We still can see our Father's door! + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE TEST OF THEOLOGY. + + +The Doctor went immediately to his study and put on his best coat and +his wig, and, surmounting them by his cocked hat, walked manfully out of +the house, with his gold-headed cane in his hand. + +"There he goes!" said Mrs. Scudder, looking regretfully after him. "He +is such a good man! but he has not the least idea how to get along in +the world. He never thinks of anything but what is true; he hasn't a +particle of management about him." + +"Seems to me," said Mary, "that is like an Apostle. You know, mother, +St. Paul says, 'In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly +wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the +world.'" + +"To be sure,--that is just the Doctor," said Mrs. Scudder; "that's +as like him as if it had been written for him. But that kind of way, +somehow, don't seem to do in our times; it won't answer with Simeon +Brown,----I know the man. I know just as well, now, how it will all seem +to him, and what will be the upshot of this talk, if the Doctor goes +there! It won't do any good; if it would, I would be willing. I feel as +much desire to have this horrid trade in slaves stopped as anybody; your +father, I'm sure, said enough about it in his time; but then I know it's +no use trying. Just as if Simeon Brown, when he is making his hundreds +of thousands in it, is going to be persuaded to give it up! He won't, +--he'll only turn against the Doctor, and won't pay his part of the +salary, and will use his influence to get up a party against him, and +our church will be broken up and the Doctor driven away,--that's all +that will come of it; and all the good that he is doing now to these +poor negroes will be overthrown,--and they never did have so good a +friend. If he would stay here and work gradually, and get his System of +Theology printed,--and Simeon Brown would help at that,--and only drop +words in season here and there, till people are brought along with him, +why, by-and-by something might be done; but now, it's just the most +imprudent thing a man could undertake." + +"But, mother, if it really is a sin to trade in slaves and hold them, I +don't see how he can help himself. I quite agree with him. I don't see +how he came to let it go so long as he has." + +"Well," said Mrs. Scudder, "if worst comes to worst, and he will do it, +I, for one, shall stand by him to the last." + +"And I, for another," said Mary. + +"I would like him to talk with Cousin Zebedee about it," said Mrs. +Scudder. "When we are up there this afternoon, we will introduce the +conversation. He is a good, sound man, and the Doctor thinks much of +him, and perhaps he may shed some light upon this matter." + +Meanwhile the Doctor was making the best of his way, in the strength of +his purpose to test the orthodoxy of Simeon Brown. + +Honest old granite boulder that he was, no sooner did he perceive a +truth than he rolled after it with all the massive gravitation of his +being, inconsiderate as to what might lie in his way;--from which it is +to be inferred, that, with all his intellect and goodness, he would have +been a very clumsy and troublesome inmate of the modern American Church. +How many societies, boards, colleges, and other good institutions, +have reason to congratulate themselves that he has long been among the +saints! + +With him logic was everything, and to perceive a truth and not act in +logical sequence from it a thing so incredible, that he had not yet +enlarged his capacity to take it in as a possibility. That a man should +refuse to hear truth, he could understand. In fact, he had good reason +to think the majority of his townsmen had no leisure to give to that +purpose. That men hearing truth should dispute it and argue stoutly +against it, he could also understand; but that a man could admit a truth +and not admit the plain practice resulting from it was to him a thing +incomprehensible. Therefore, spite of Mrs. Katy Scudder's discouraging +observations, our good Doctor walked stoutly and with a trusting heart. + +At the moment when the Doctor, with a silent uplifting of his soul to +his invisible Sovereign, passed out of his study, on this errand, where +was the disciple whom he went to seek? + +In a small, dirty room, down by the wharf, the windows veiled by cobwebs +and dingy with the accumulated dust of ages, he sat in a greasy, +leathern chair by a rickety office-table, on which was a great pewter +inkstand, an account-book, and divers papers tied with red tape. + +Opposite to him was seated a square-built individual,--a man of about +forty, whose round head, shaggy eyebrows, small, keen eyes, broad chest, +and heavy muscles showed a preponderance of the animal and brutal over +the intellectual and spiritual. This was Mr. Scroggs, the agent of a +rice-plantation, who had come on, bringing an order for a new relay of +negroes to supply the deficit occasioned by fever, dysentery, and other +causes, in their last year's stock. + +"The fact is," said Simeon, "this last ship-load wasn't as good a one as +usual; we lost more than a third of it, so we can't afford to put them a +penny lower." + +"Ay," said the other,--"but then there are so many women!" + +"Well," said Simeon, "women a'n't so strong, perhaps, to start +with,--but then they stan' it out, perhaps, in the long run, better. +They're more patient;--some of these men, the Mandingoes, particularly, +are pretty troublesome to manage. We lost a splendid fellow, coming +over, on this very voyage. Let 'em on deck for air, and this fellow +managed to get himself loose and fought like a dragon. He settled one +of our men with his fist, and another with a marlinespike that he +caught,--and, in fact, they had to shoot him down. You'll have his wife; +there's his son, too,--fine fellow, fifteen year old by his teeth." + +"What! that lame one?" + +"Oh, he a'n't lame!--it's nothing but the cramps from stowing. You know, +of course, they are more or less stiff. He's as sound as a nut." + +"Don't much like to buy relations, on account of their hatching up +mischief together," said Mr. Scroggs. + +"Oh, that's all humbug! You must keep 'em from coming together, anyway. +It's about as broad as 'tis long. There'll be wives and husbands and +children among 'em before long, start 'em as you will. And then this +woman will work better for having the boy; she's kinder set on him; she +jabbers lots of lingo to him, day and night." + +"Too much, I doubt," said the overseer, with a shrug. + +"Well, well--I'll tell you," said Simeon, rising. "I've got a few +errands up-town, and you just step over with Matlock and look over +the stock;--just set aside any that you want, and when I see 'em all +together, I'll tell you just what you shall have 'em for. I'll be back +in an hour or two." + +And so saying, Simeon Brown called an underling from an adjoining room, +and, committing his customer to his care, took his way up-town, in a +serene frame of mind, like a man who comes from the calm performance of +duty. + +Just as he came upon the street where was situated his own large and +somewhat pretentious mansion, the tall figure of the Doctor loomed in +sight, sailing majestically down upon him, making a signal to attract +his attention. + +"Good morning, Doctor," said Simeon. + +"Good morning, Mr. Brown," said the Doctor. "I was looking for you. I +did not quite finish the subject we were talking about at Mrs. Scudder's +table last night. I thought I should like to go on with it a little." + +"With all my heart, Doctor," said Simeon, not a little flattered. "Turn +right in. Mrs. Brown will be about her house-business, and we will have +the keeping-room all to ourselves. Come right in." + +The "keeping-room" of Mr. Simeon Brown's house was an intermediate +apartment between the ineffable glories of the front-parlor and that +court of the gentiles, the kitchen; for the presence of a large train +of negro servants made the latter apartment an altogether different +institution from the throne-room of Mrs. Katy Scudder. + +This keeping-room was a low-studded apartment, finished with the heavy +oaken beams of the wall left full in sight, boarded over and painted. +Two windows looked out on the street, and another into a sort of +court-yard, where three black wenches, each with a broom, pretended to +be sweeping, but were, in fact, chattering and laughing, like so many +crows. + +On one side of the room stood a heavy mahogany sideboard, covered with +decanters, labelled Gin, Brandy, Rum, etc.,--for Simeon was held to be +a provider of none but the best, in his housekeeping. Heavy mahogany +chairs, with crewel coverings, stood sentry about the room; and the +fireplace was flanked by two broad arm-chairs, covered with stamped +leather. + +On ushering the Doctor into this apartment, Simeon courteously led him +to the sideboard. + +"We mus'n't make our discussions too _dry_, Doctor," he said. "What will +you take?" + +"Thank you, Sir," said the Doctor, with a wave of his hand,--"nothing +this morning." + +And depositing his cocked hat in a chair, he settled himself into one of +the leathern easy-chairs, and, dropping his hands upon his knees, looked +fixedly before him, like a man who is studying how to enter upon an +inwardly absorbing subject. + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, seating himself opposite, sipping +comfortably at a glass of rum-and-water, "our views appear to be making +a noise in the world. Everything is preparing for your volumes; and +when they appear, the battle of New Divinity, I think, may fairly be +considered as won." + +Let us consider, that, though a woman may forget her first-born, yet a +man cannot forget his own system of theology,--because therein, if he be +a true man, is the very elixir and essence of all that is valuable and +hopeful to the universe; and considering this, let us appreciate the +settled purpose of our friend, whom even this tempting bait did not +swerve from the end which he had in view. + +"Mr. Brown," he said, "all our theology is as a drop in the ocean of +God's majesty, to whose glory we must be ready to make any and every +sacrifice." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Brown, not exactly comprehending the turn the +Doctor's thoughts were taking. + +"And the glory of God consisteth in the happiness of all his rational +universe, each in his proportion, according to his separate amount of +being; so that, when we devote ourselves to God's glory, it is the same +as saying that we devote ourselves to the highest happiness of his +created universe." + +"That's clear, Sir," said Simeon, rubbing his hands, and taking out his +watch to see the time. + +The Doctor hitherto had spoken in a laborious manner, like a man who is +slowly lifting a heavy bucket of thought out of an internal well. + +"I am glad to find your mind so clear on this all-important point, Mr. +Brown,--the more so as I feel that we must immediately proceed to apply +our principles, at whatever sacrifice of worldly goods; and I trust, +Sir, that you are one who at the call of your Master would not hesitate +even to lay down all your worldly possessions for the greater good of +the universe." + +"I trust so, Sir," said Simeon, rather uneasily, and without the most +distant idea what could be coming next in the mind of his reverend +friend. + +"Did it never occur to you, my friend," said the Doctor, "that the +enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law +which commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves,--and a dishonor +upon the Christian religion, more particularly in us Americans, whom the +Lord hath so marvellously protected, in our recent struggle for our own +liberty?" + +Simeon started at the first words of this address, much as if some one +had dashed a bucket of water on his head, and after that rose uneasily, +walking the room and playing with the seals of his watch. + +"I--I never regarded it in this light," he said. + +"Possibly not, my friend," said the Doctor,--"so much doth established +custom blind the minds of the best of men. But since I have given more +particular attention to the case of the poor negroes here in Newport, +the thought has more and more labored in my mind,--more especially as +our own struggles for liberty have turned my attention to the rights +which every human creature hath before God,--so that I find much in +my former blindness and the comparative dumbness I have heretofore +maintained on this subject wherewith to reproach myself; for, though I +have borne somewhat of a testimony, I have not given it that force which +so important a subject required. I am humbled before God for my neglect, +and resolved now, by His grace, to leave no stone unturned till this +iniquity be purged away from our Zion." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, "you are certainly touching on a very dark +and difficult subject, and one in which it is hard to find out the path +of duty. Perhaps it will be well to bear it in mind, and by looking at +it prayerfully some light may arise. There are such great obstacles in +the way, that I do not see at present what can be done; do you, Doctor?" + +"I intend to preach on the subject next Sunday, and hereafter devote +my best energies in the most public way to this great work," said the +Doctor. + +"You, Doctor?--and now, immediately? Why, it appears to me you cannot +do it. You are the most unfit man possible. Whosever duty it may be, it +does not seem to me to be yours. You already have more on your shoulders +than you can carry; you are hardly able to keep your ground now, with +all the odium of this new theology upon you. Such an effort would break +up your church,--destroy the chance you have to do good here,--prevent +the publication of your system." + +"If it's nobody's system but mine, the world won't lose much, if it +never be published; but if it be God's system, nothing can hinder its +appearing. Besides, Mr. Brown, I ought not to be one man alone. I count +on your help. I hold it as a special providence, Mr. Brown, that in our +own church an opportunity will be given to testify to the reality of +disinterested benevolence. How glorious the opportunity for a man to +come out and testify by sacrificing his worldly living and business! If +you, Mr. Brown, will at once, at whatever sacrifice, quit all connection +with this detestable and diabolical slave-trade, you will exhibit a +spectacle over which angels will rejoice, and which will strengthen and +encourage me to preach and write and testify." + +Mr. Simeon Brown's usual demeanor was that of the most leathery +imperturbability. In calm theological reasoning, he could demonstrate, +in the dryest tone, that, if the eternal torment of six bodies and +souls were absolutely the necessary means for preserving the eternal +blessedness of thirty-six, benevolence would require us to rejoice in +it, not in itself considered, but in view of greater good. And when he +spoke, not a nerve quivered; the great mysterious sorrow with which the +creation groaneth and travaileth, the sorrow from which angels veil +their faces, never had touched one vibrating chord either of body +or soul; and he laid down the obligations of man to unconditional +submission in a style which would have affected a person of delicate +sensibility much like being mentally sawn in sunder. Benevolence, +when Simeon Brown spoke of it, seemed the grimmest and unloveliest of +Gorgons; for his mind seemed to resemble those fountains which petrify +everything that falls into them. But the hardest-shelled animals have a +vital and sensitive part, though only so large as the point of a needle; +and the Doctor's innocent proposition to Simeon, to abandon his whole +worldly estate for his principles, touched this spot. + +When benevolence required but the acquiescence in certain possible +things which might be supposed to happen to his soul, which, after all, +he was comfortably certain never would happen, or the acquiescence in +certain supposititious sacrifices for the good of that most intangible +of all abstractions, Being in general, it was a dry, calm subject. But +when it concerned the immediate giving-up of his slave-ships and a +transfer of business, attended with all that confusion and loss which he +foresaw at a glance, then he _felt_, and felt too much to see clearly. +His swarthy face flushed, his little blue eye kindled, he walked up to +the Doctor and began speaking in the short, energetic sentences of a man +thoroughly awake to what he is talking about. + +"Doctor, you're too fast. You are not a practical man, Doctor. You are +good in your pulpit;--nobody better. Your theology is clear;--nobody can +argue better. But come to practical matters, why, business has its laws, +Doctor. Ministers are the most unfit men in the world to talk on such +subjects; it's departing from their sphere; they talk about what they +don't understand. Besides, you take too much for granted. I'm not sure +that this trade is an evil. I want to be convinced of it. I'm sure it's +a favor to these poor creatures to bring them to a Christian land. They +are a thousand times better off. Here they can hear the gospel and have +some chance of salvation." + +"If we want to get the gospel to the Africans," said the Doctor, +"why not send whole ship-loads of missionaries to them, and carry +civilization and the arts and Christianity to Africa, instead of +stirring up wars, tempting them to ravage each other's territories, that +we may get the booty? Think of the numbers killed in the wars,--of all +that die on the passage! Is there any need of killing ninety-nine men to +give the hundredth one the gospel, when we could give the gospel to them +all? Ah, Mr. Brown, what if all the money spent in fitting out ships to +bring the poor negroes here, so prejudiced against Christianity that +they regard it with fear and aversion, had been spent in sending it to +them, Africa would have been covered with towns and villages, rejoicing +in civilization and Christianity!" + +"Doctor, you are a dreamer," replied Simeon, "an unpractical man. Your +situation prevents your knowing anything of real life." + +"Amen! the Lord be praised therefor!" said the Doctor, with a slowly +increasing flush mounting to his cheek, showing the burning brand of a +smouldering fire of indignation. + +"Now let me just talk common-sense, Doctor,--which has its time and +place, just as much as theology;--and if you have the most theology, I +flatter myself I have the most common-sense; a business-man must have +it. Now just look at your situation,--how you stand. You've got a most +important work to do. In order to do it, you must keep your pulpit, you +must keep our church together. We are few and weak. We are a minority. +Now there's not an influential man in your society that don't either +hold slaves or engage in the trade; and if you open upon this subject as +you are going to do, you'll just divide and destroy the church. All men +are not like you;--men are men, and will be, till they are thoroughly +sanctified, which never happens in this life,--and there will be an +instant and most unfavorable agitation. Minds will be turned off from +the discussion of the great saving doctrines of the gospel to a side +issue. You will be turned out,--and you know, Doctor, you are not +appreciated as you ought to be, and it won't be easy for you to get a +new settlement; and then subscriptions will all drop off from your book, +and you won't be able to get that out; and all this good will be lost to +the world, just for want of common-sense." + +"There is a kind of wisdom in what you say, Mr. Brown," replied the +Doctor, naïvely; "but I fear much that it is the wisdom spoken in James, +iii. 15, which 'descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, +devilish.' You avoid the very point of the argument, which is, Is this a +sin against God? That it is, I am solemnly convinced; and shall I 'use +lightness? or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the +flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay?' No, Mr. +Brown, immediate repentance, unconditional submission, these are what I +must preach as long as God gives me a pulpit to stand in, whether men +will hear or whether they will forbear." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, shortly, "you can do as you like; but I +give you fair warning, that I, for one, shall stop my subscription, and +go to Dr. Stiles's church." + +"Mr. Brown," said the Doctor, solemnly, rising, and drawing his tall +figure to its full height, while a vivid light gleamed from his blue +eye, "as to that, you can do as you like; but I think it my duty, as +your pastor, to warn you that I have perceived, in my conversation +with you this morning, such a want of true spiritual illumination and +discernment as leads me to believe that you are yet in the flesh, +blinded by that 'carnal mind' which 'is not subject to the law of God, +neither indeed can be.' I much fear you have no part nor lot in this +matter, and that you have need, seriously, to set yourself to search +into the foundations of your hope; for you may be like him of whom it is +written, (Isaiah, xliv. 20,) 'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath +turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not +a lie in my right hand?'" + +The Doctor delivered this address to his man of influence with the +calmness of an ambassador charged with a message from a sovereign, +for which he is no otherwise responsible than to speak it in the most +intelligible manner; and then, taking up his hat and cane, he bade him +good morning, leaving Simeon Brown in a tumult of excitement which no +previous theological discussion had ever raised in him. + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PRACTICAL TEST. + + +The hens cackled drowsily in the barnyard of the white Marvyn-house; +in the blue June-afternoon sky sported great sailing islands of cloud, +whose white, glistening heads looked in and out through the green +apertures of maple and blossoming apple-boughs; the shadows of the trees +had already turned eastward, when the one-horse wagon of Mrs. Katy +Scudder appeared at the door, where Mrs. Marvyn stood, with a pleased, +quiet welcome in her soft, brown eyes. Mrs. Scudder herself drove, +sitting on a seat in front,--while the Doctor, apparelled in the +most faultless style, with white wrist-ruffles, plaited shirt-bosom, +immaculate wig, and well-brushed coat, sat by Mary's side, serenely +unconscious how many feminine cares had gone to his getting-up. He +did not know of the privy consultations, the sewings, stitchings, and +starchings, the ironings, the brushings, the foldings and unfoldings and +timely arrangements, that gave such dignity and respectability to his +outer man, any more than the serene moon rising tranquilly behind a +purple mountain-top troubles her calm head with treatises on astronomy; +it is enough for her to shine,--she thinks not how or why. + +There is a vast amount of latent gratitude to women lying undeveloped in +the hearts of men, which would come out plentifully, if they only knew +what they did for them. The Doctor was so used to being well dressed, +that he never asked why. That his wig always sat straight and even +around his ample forehead, not facetiously poked to one side, nor +assuming rakish airs, unsuited to clerical dignity, was entirely owing +to Mrs. Katy Scudder. That his best broadcloth coat was not illustrated +with shreds and patches, fluff and dust, and hanging in ungainly +folds, was owing to the same. That his long silk stockings never had a +treacherous stitch allowed to break out into a long running ladder was +due to her watchfulness; and that he wore spotless ruffles on his wrists +or at his bosom was her doing also. The Doctor little thought, while he, +in common with good ministers generally, gently traduced the Scriptural +Martha and insisted on the duty of heavenly abstractedness, how much of +his own leisure for spiritual contemplation was due to the Martha-like +talents of his hostess. But then, the good soul had it in him to be +grateful, and would have been unboundedly so, if he had known his +indebtedness,--as, we trust, most of our magnanimous masters would be. + +Mr. Zebedee Marvyn was quietly sitting in the front summer parlor, +listening to the story of two of his brother church-members, between +whom some difficulty had arisen in the settling of accounts: Jim +Bigelow, a small, dry, dapper little individual, known as general jobber +and factotum, and Abram Griswold, a stolid, wealthy, well-to-do farmer. +And the fragments of conversation we catch are not uninteresting, as +showing Mr. Zebedee's habits of thought and mode of treating those who +came to him for advice. + +"I could 'ave got along better, if he'd 'a' paid me regular every +night," said the squeaky voice of little Jim;--"but he was allers +puttin' me off till it come even change, he said." + +"Well, 'ta'n't always handy," replied the other; "one doesn't like to +break into a five-pound note for nothing; and I like to let it run till +it comes even change." + +"But, brother," said Mr. Zebedee, turning over the great Bible that lay +on the mahogany stand in the corner, "we must go to the law and to the +testimony,"--and, turning over the leaves, he read from Deuteronomy, +xxiv.:-- + +"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether +he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within +thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the +sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest +he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." + +"You see what the Bible has to say on the matter," he said. + +"Well, now, Deacon, I rather think you've got me in a tight place," said +Mr. Griswold, rising; and turning confusedly round, he saw the placid +figure of the Doctor, who had entered the room unobserved in the midst +of the conversation, and was staring with that look of calm, dreamy +abstraction which often led people to suppose that he heard and saw +nothing of what was going forward. + +All rose reverently; and while Mr. Zebedee was shaking hands with the +Doctor, and welcoming him to his house, the other two silently withdrew, +making respectful obeisance. + +Mrs. Marvyn had drawn Mary's hand gently under her arm and taken her to +her own sleeping-room, as it was her general habit to do, that she might +show her the last book she had been reading, and pour into her ear the +thoughts that had been kindled up by it. + +Mrs. Scudder, after carefully brushing every speck of dust from the +Doctor's coat and seeing him seated in an armchair by the open window, +took out a long stocking of blue-mixed yarn which she was knitting for +his winter wear, and, pinning her knitting-sheath on her side, was soon +trotting her needles contentedly in front of him. + +The ill-success of the Doctor's morning attempt at enforcing his +theology in practice rather depressed his spirits. There was a noble +innocence of nature in him which looked at hypocrisy with a puzzled and +incredulous astonishment. How a man _could_ do so and be so was to him +a problem at which his thoughts vainly labored. Not that he was in the +least discouraged or hesitating in regard to his own course. When he +had made up his mind to perform a duty, the question of success no more +entered his thoughts than those of the granite boulder to which we have +before compared him. When the time came for him to roll, he did roll +with the whole force of his being;--where he was to land was not his +concern. + +Mildly and placidly he sat with his hands resting on his knees, while +Mr. Zebedee and Mrs. Scudder compared notes respecting the relative +prospects of corn, flax, and buckwheat, and thence passed to the doings +of Congress and the last proclamation of General Washington, pausing +once in a while, if, peradventure, the Doctor might take up the +conversation. Still he sat dreamily eyeing the flies as they fizzed down +the panes of the half-open window. + +"I think," said Mr. Zebedee, "the prospects of the Federal party were +never brighter." + +The Doctor was a stanch Federalist, and generally warmed to this +allurement; but it did not serve this time. + +Suddenly drawing himself up, a light came into his blue eyes, and he +said to Mr. Marvyn,-- + +"I'm thinking, Deacon, if it is wrong to keep back the wages of a +servant till after the going down of the sun, what those are to do who +keep them back all their lives." + +There was a way the Doctor had of hearing and seeing when he looked +as if his soul were afar off, and bringing suddenly into present +conversation some fragment of the past on which he had been leisurely +hammering in the quiet chambers of his brain, which was sometimes quite +startling. + +This allusion to a passage of Scripture which Mr. Marvyn was reading +when he came in, and which nobody supposed he had attended to, startled +Mrs. Scudder, who thought, mentally, "Now for it!" and laid down her +knitting-work, and eyed her cousin anxiously. Mrs. Marvyn and Mary, who +had glided in and joined the circle, looked interested; and a slight +flush rose and overspread the thin cheeks of Mr. Marvyn, and his +blue eyes deepened a moment with a thoughtful shadow, as he looked +inquiringly at the Doctor, who proceeded:-- + +"My mind labors with this subject of the enslaving of the Africans, Mr. +Marvyn. We have just been declaring to the world that all men are born +with an inalienable right to liberty. We have fought for it, and the +Lord of Hosts has been with us; and can we stand before Him with our +foot upon our brother's neck?" + +A generous, upright nature is always more sensitive to blame than +another,--sensitive in proportion to the amount of its reverence +for good,--and Mr. Marvyn's face flushed, his eye kindled, and his +compressed respiration showed how deeply the subject moved him. Mrs. +Marvyn's eyes turned on him an anxious look of inquiry. He answered, +however, calmly:-- + +"Doctor, I have thought of the subject, myself. Mrs. Marvyn has lately +been reading a pamphlet of Mr. Thomas Clarkson's on the slave-trade, +and she was saying to me only last night, that she did not see but the +argument extended equally to holding slaves. One thing, I confess, +stumbles me:--Was there not an express permission given to Israel to buy +and hold slaves of old?" + +"Doubtless," said the Doctor; "but many permissions were given to them +which were local and temporary; for if we hold them to apply to the +human race, the Turks might quote the Bible for making slaves of us, +if they could,--and the Algerines have the Scripture all on their +side,--and our own blacks, at some future time, if they can get the +power, might justify themselves in making slaves of us." + +"I assure you, Sir," said Mr. Marvyn, "if I speak, it is not to excuse +myself. But I am quite sure my servants do not desire liberty, and would +not take it, if it were offered." + +"Call them in and try it," said the Doctor. "If they refuse, it is their +own matter." + +There was a gentle movement in the group at the directness of this +personal application; but Mr. Marvyn replied, calmly,-- + +"Cato is up at the eight-acre lot, but you may call in Candace. My dear, +call Candace, and let the Doctor put the question to her." + +Candace was at this moment sitting before the ample fireplace in the +kitchen, with two iron kettles before her, nestled each in its bed of +hickory coals, which gleamed out from their white ashes like sleepy, red +eyes, opening and shutting. In one was coffee, which she was burning, +stirring vigorously with a pudding-stick,--and in the other, puffy +dough-nuts, in shapes of rings, hearts, and marvellous twists, which +Candace had such a special proclivity for making, that Mrs. Marvyn's +table and closets never knew an intermission of their presence. + +"Candace, the Doctor wishes to see you," said Mrs. Marvyn. + +"Bress his heart!" said Candace, looking up, perplexed. "Wants to see +me, does he? Can't nobody hab me till dis yer coffee's done; a minnit's +a minnit in coffee;--but I'll be in dereckly," she added, in a +patronizing tone. "Missis, you jes' go 'long in, an' I'll be dar +dereckly." + +A few moments after, Candace joined the group in the sitting-room, +having hastily tied a clean, white apron over her blue linsey +working-dress, and donned the brilliant Madras which James had lately +given her, and which she had a barbaric fashion of arranging so as to +give to her head the air of a gigantic butterfly. She sunk a dutiful +curtsy, and stood twirling her thumbs, while the Doctor surveyed her +gravely. + +"Candace," said he, "do you think it right that the black race should be +slaves to the white?" + +The face and air of Candace presented a curious picture at this moment; +a sort of rude sense of delicacy embarrassed her, and she turned a +deprecating look, first on Mrs. Marvyn and then on her master. + +"Don't mind us, Candace," said Mrs. Marvyn; "tell the Doctor the exact +truth." + +Candace stood still a moment, and the spectators saw a deeper shadow +roll over her sable face, like a cloud over a dark pool of water, and +her immense person heaved with her labored breathing. + +"Ef I must speak, I must," she said. "No,--I neber did tink 'twas right. +When Gineral Washington was here, I hearn 'em read de Declaration ob +Independence and Bill o' Rights; an' I tole Cato den, says I, 'Ef dat +ar' true, you an' I are as free as anybody.' It stands to reason. Why, +look at me,--I a'n't a critter. I's neider huffs nor horns. I's a +reasonable bein',--a woman,--as much a woman as anybody," she said, +holding up her head with an air as majestic as a palm-tree;--"an' +Cato,--he's a man, born free an' equal, ef dar's any truth in what you +read,--dat's all." + +"But, Candace, you've always been contented and happy with us, have you +not?" said Mr. Marvyn. + +"Yes, Mass'r,--I ha'n't got nuffin to complain ob in dat matter. I +couldn't hab no better friends 'n you an' Missis." + +"Would you like your liberty, if you could get it, though?" said Mr. +Marvyn, "Answer me honestly." + +"Why, to be sure I should! Who wouldn't? Mind ye," she said, earnestly +raising her black, heavy hand, "'ta'n't dat I want to go off, or want to +shirk work; but I want to _feel free_. Dem dat isn't free has nuffin to +gib to nobody;--dey can't show what dey would do." + +"Well, Candace, from this day you are free," said Mr. Marvyn, solemnly. + +Candace covered her face with both her fat hands, and shook and +trembled, and, finally, throwing her apron over her head, made a +desperate rush for the door, and threw herself down in the kitchen in a +perfect tropical torrent of tears and sobs. + +"You see," said the Doctor, "what freedom is to every human creature. +The blessing of the Lord will be on this deed, Mr. Marvyn. 'The steps of +a just man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.'" + +At this moment, Candace reappeared at the door, her butterfly turban +somewhat deranged with the violence of her prostration, giving a +whimsical air to her portly person. + +"I want ye all to know," she said, with a clearing-up snuff, "dat it's +my will an' pleasure to go right on doin' my work jes' de same; an', +Missis, please, I'll allers put three eggs in de crullers, now; an' I +won't turn de wash-basin down in de sink, but hang it jam-up on de +nail; an' I won't pick up chips in a milkpan, ef I'm in ever so big a +hurry;--I'll do eberyting jes' as ye tells me. Now you try me an' see ef +I won't!" + +Candace here alluded to some of the little private wilfulnesses which +she had always obstinately cherished as reserved rights, in pursuing +domestic matters with her mistress. + +"I intend," said Mr. Marvyn, "to make the same offer to your husband, +when he returns from work to-night." + +"Laus, Mass'r,--why, Cato he'll do jes' as I do,--dere a'n't no kind o' +need o' askin' him. 'Course he will." + +A smile passed round the circle, because between Candace and her husband +there existed one of those whimsical contrasts which one sometimes sees +in married life. Cato was a small-built, thin, softly-spoken negro, +addicted to a gentle chronic cough; and, though a faithful and skilful +servant, seemed, in relation to his better half, much like a hill of +potatoes under a spreading apple-tree. Candace held to him with a +vehement and patronizing fondness, so devoid of conjugal reverence as to +excite the comments of her friends. + +"You must remember, Candace," said a good deacon to her one day, when +she was ordering him about at a catechizing, "you ought to give honor to +your husband; the wife is the weaker vessel." + +"_I_ de weaker vessel?" said Candace, looking down from the tower of her +ample corpulence on the small, quiet man whom she had been fledging with +the ample folds of a worsted comforter, out of which his little head +and shining bead-eyes looked, much like a blackbird in a nest,--"_I_ de +weaker vessel? Umph!" + +A whole-woman's-rights' convention could not have expressed more in a +day than was given in that single look and word. Candace considered +a husband as a thing to be taken care of,--a rather inconsequent and +somewhat troublesome species of pet, to be humored, nursed, fed, +clothed, and guided in the way that he was to go,--an animal that was +always losing off buttons, catching colds, wearing his best coat every +day, and getting on his Sunday hat in a surreptitious manner for +week-day occasions; but she often condescended to express it as her +opinion that he was a blessing, and that she didn't know what she should +do, if it wasn't for Cato. In fact, he seemed to supply her that which +we are told is the great want in woman's situation,--an object in +life. She sometimes was heard expressing herself very energetically in +disapprobation of the conduct of one of her sable friends, named Jinny +Stiles, who, after being presented with her own freedom, worked several +years to buy that of her husband, but became afterwards so disgusted +with her acquisition that she declared she would "neber buy anoder +nigger." + +"Now Jinny don't know what she's talkin' about," she would say. "S'pose +he does cough and keep her awake nights, and take a little too much +sometimes, a'n't he better'n no husband at all? A body wouldn't seem to +hab nuffin to lib for, ef dey hadn't an ole man to look arter. Men +is nate'lly foolish about some tings,--but dey's good deal better'n +nuffin." + +And Candace, after this condescending remark, would lift off with one +hand a brass kettle in which poor Cato might have been drowned, and fly +across the kitchen with it as if it were a feather. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Works of Francis Bacon_, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vols. +I.-VI. London: Longman & Co. 1858. + +"For my name and memory," said Bacon in his will, "I leave it to men's +charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next ages." +Scarcely was he dead when the first portion of this legacy received some +part of its fulfilment in the touching and often quoted words of Ben +Jonson:--"My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his +place or honors; but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that +was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, +one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been +in many ages. In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him +strength; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in +a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to +virtue, but rather help to make it manifest." But it may fairly be +doubted whether "the next ages" have done fitly by his memory, spite of +the honor that has been indiscriminately lavished upon his name as a +philosopher, and the mass of praise, for the most part ignorant, beneath +which his works have been buried. The world of readers has been content +to take Bacon's greatness upon trust, or to form such imperfect idea of +it as was to be got from acquaintance with his "Essays," the only one +of his works which has ever attained popularity. Even more thorough +students have, for the most part, satisfied themselves with a general +view of Bacon's philosophy, dwelling on disconnected passages of ample +thought or aphoristic wisdom, and rarely attempting to gain an insight +into the real character of his system. Indeed, "the system of Lord +Bacon" became a sort of cabalistic phrase. It meant anything and +everything. It was like the English Constitution, venerable in authority +and prescription, interpreted in contradictory methods, and never +precisely defined. Few men undertook to study it with a zeal like that +of Homer and his friend Lord Webb Seymour, when, in days of enthusiasm, +they read and re-read the "De Augmentis" and the "Novum Organum," and +Homer planned to do what Dr. Whewell seems to suppose he has done, bring +Bacon up to the present time, by writing a work upon the basis of his, +which should furnish a complete review of modern knowledge. Still, it +has been part of an English birthright to hold Bacon as the restorer of +the sciences, the inventor or at least the re-inventor of the inductive +method, and the father of all discovery since his time. These notions +have been held firmly, while more special ones concerning his system and +himself have been, for the most part, vague or unformed. + +In great part, this fact is the result of the condition in which Lord +Bacon left his works, the manner of their composition, and their +intrinsic defects. He did not publish them in any systematic order, +but printed one after another, as it was written, or as extraneous +circumstances might induce. Nor did he leave his system complete in any +one treatise. His mind discursive, his imagination easily fired, he +seized subject after subject and discussed each in a separate treatise, +all with more or less reference to a general plan, but not embodied in +any consecutive and harmonious development. The growth of his ideas, the +changes of his views, as his life advanced, are manifest in the want of +connection, as well as in the connection, of these various fragments. +Dr. Rawley, his chaplain, says,--and it is a marvellous illustration of +Bacon's diligence and desire for perfection,--"I myself have seen, at +the least, twelve copies of the 'Instauration,' revised year by year, +one after another, and every year altered and amended in the frame +thereof." + +Such, then, being the state of Bacon's works at his death, much was left +to the judgment of his editors, and, unfortunately, the labor of editing +his books has, up to the present time, fallen into hands wanting in +competence and discretion. It has consequently been a task of special +difficulty to get from the ill-arranged mass of Bacon's writings a +satisfactory view of the essential elements of his philosophy and a just +knowledge of his final opinions. + +But the reproach of non-fulfilment of the trust committed to them will +rest upon "the next ages" no longer; for the edition which is now in +course of publication amply redeems the faults of those that have +preceded it, and is such a one as Bacon himself might have approved. In +the second book of the "Advancement of Learning," in recounting "the +works or acts of merit toward learning," he includes among them "new +editions of authors, with more correct impressions, more faithful +translations, more profitable glosses, more diligent annotations, and +the like." In each of these respects the edition before us deserves the +highest praise. The editors have engaged in their task as in a labor of +love. It is the result of many years of study, and it exhibits the fruit +of unwearied care, great learning, and excellent judgment. So far as +it has advanced, it does the highest honor to English scholarship, and +takes its place as one of the most remarkable editions in existence of +any author whose works stand in need of editorial care. The plan upon +which it is arranged is as follows. Bacon's works are divided into three +broad classes:--first, the Philosophical; secondly, the Professional; +thirdly, the Literary and Occasional. Each of these classes was +undertaken by a separate editor. Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis engaged upon +the Philosophical Works, and had advanced far in his task when he was +suddenly compelled to relinquish it some years since by illness which +completely disabled him for labor. What he had already accomplished is +so well done as to excite sincere regret that he was unable to carry his +work forward. But this regret is diminished by the ability with which +Mr. James Spedding, who had taken charge of the Literary and Occasional +Works, has supplied Mr. Ellis's place in the completion of the editing +of the Philosophical. The burden of the edition has fallen upon his +shoulders, and the chief credit for its excellence is due to him. Up to +the present time, the publication of the Philosophical Works is complete +in five volumes, and the first volume of the Literary Works has just +appeared. The separate treatises contained in the completed portion are +distributed into three parts,--"whereby," says Mr. Spedding, "all those +writings which were either published or intended for publication by +Bacon himself as parts of the Great Instauration are (for the first +time, I believe) exhibited separately, and distinguished as well from +the independent and collateral pieces which did not form part of the +main scheme, as from those which, though originally designed for it, +were afterwards superseded and abandoned." Each piece is accompanied +with a preface, both critical and historical, and with notes. It is +in these prefaces that a great part of the value of the new edition +consists; for they are in themselves treatises of elucidation and +illustration of Bacon's opinions, and of investigation concerning the +changes they underwent from time to time. They are written with great +clearness and ability, and, taken together, present such a view of +Bacon's philosophy as is to be found nowhere else, and amply answers the +requirements of students, however exacting. + +Far too much credit has been attributed to Bacon, in popular estimation, +as the author of a system upon which the modern progress of science is +based.[A] Whatever his system may have been, it is certain that it has +had little direct influence upon the advance of knowledge. But, perhaps, +too little credit has been given to Bacon as a man whose breadth and +power of thought and amplitude of soul enabled a spirit that has at once +stimulated its progress and elevated its disciples. That Bacon believed +himself to have invented a system wholly new admits of no doubt; but it +is doubtful whether he ever definitely arranged this system in his own +mind. And it is a curious and interesting fact, and one illustrative, at +least, of the imperfection of Bacon's exposition of his own method, that +Mr. Ellis and Mr. Spedding, the two most conscientious investigators of +Bacon's thought, should have arrived at different conclusions in regard +to the distinctive peculiarities of the Baconian philosophy. Mr. +Spedding, in his very interesting preface to the "Parasceve," suggests, +since his own and Mr. Ellis's conclusions, though different, do not +appear irreconcilable, "whether there be not room for a third solution, +more complete than either, as including both." Both he and Mr. Ellis +set out from the position, that "the philosophy which Bacon meant to +announce was in some way essentially different, not only from any that +had been before, but from any that has been since,"--a position very +much opposed to the popular opinion. "The triumph of his [Bacon's] +principles of scientific investigation," said, not long since, a writer +in the "Quarterly Review," whose words may be taken as representative of +the common ideas on the matter, "has made it unnecessary to revert to +the reasoning by which they were established."[B] But the truth seems +to be, that the merits of Bacon belong, as Mr. Ellis well says, "to the +spirit rather than to the positive precepts of his philosophy." Nor does +it appear that Bacon himself, although he indulged the highest hopes and +felt the securest confidence in the results of his perfected system, +supposed that he had given to it that perfection which was required. In +the "De Augmentis Scientiarum," published in 1623, two years and a half +before his death, he says: "I am preparing and laboring with all my +might to make the mind of man, by help of art, a match for the nature +of things, (_ut mens per artem fiat rebus par_,) to discover an art of +Indication and Direction, whereby all other arts, with their axioms +and works, may be detected and brought to light. For I have, with good +reason, set this down as wanting." (Lib. v. c. 2.) Bacon regarded his +method, not only as one wholly new, but also of universal application, +and leading to absolute certainty. Doubt was to be excluded from its +results. By its means, all the knowledge of which men were capable was +to be attained surely and in a comparatively brief space of time. Such a +conviction, extravagant as it may seem, is expressed in many passages. +In the Preface to his "Parasceve," published in 1620, in the same volume +with the "Novum Organum," he says, that he is about to describe a +Natural and Experimental History, which, if it be once provided, (and +he assumes, that, "etiam vivis nobis," it may be provided,) "paucorum +annorum opus futuram esse inquitionem naturae et scientiarum omnium." +Again, in the Protemium of the "Novum Organum": "There was but one +course left, to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and +all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations." And in the +Dedication to the same work, he says, with characteristic confidence, +"Equidem Organum praebui,"--"I have provided the Instrument." + +[Footnote A: The tendency of scientific thought had been, for a +considerable period before the time of Bacon, turned in the direction +which he, perhaps, did more than any other single investigator to +follow out and confirm. Leonardo da Vinci, the completest and most +comprehensive genius of Modern Italy, had anticipated, by more than a +century, several of the prominent features of the Baconian system. Too +little of Leonardo's scientific writings has been published to furnish +material for a satisfactory determination of their importance in +promoting the advance of knowledge,--but the coincidence of thought, +in some passages of his writings, with that in some of Bacon's weighty +sentences, is remarkable. "I shall treat of this subject," he says, in +a passage published by Venturi, "but I shall first set forth certain +experiments; it being my principle to cite experience first, and then to +demonstrate why bodies are constrained to act in such or such a manner. +This is the method to be observed in investigating phenomena of Nature. +It is true that Nature begins with the reason and ends with experience; +but no matter; the opposite way is to be taken. We must, as I have said, +begin with experience, and by means of this discover the reason." + +Compare with this the two following passages from the "Novum +Organum,"--the first being taken from the Ninety-ninth Axiom of the +First Book. "Then only will there be good ground of hope for the further +advance of knowledge, when there shall be received and gathered together +into natural history a variety of experiments, which are of no use in +themselves, but to discover causes and axioms."--The next passage is +the Twenty-sixth Axiom of the same Book;--"The conclusions of human +reason, as ordinarily applied in matter of nature, I call, for the +sake of distinction, _Anticipations of Nature_ (as a thing rash or +premature). That reason which is elicited from facts by a just and +methodical process I call _Interpretation of Nature_." + +The first and famous axiom of the "Novum Organum" contains the phrase +which Bacon constantly repeats,--"man being the interpreter of Nature." +Leonardo uses the same expression,--"li omini inventori e interpreti +tra la natura e gli omini." In another admirable passage of rebuke of +the boastful and empty followers of old teachers, Leonardo says: "Though +I might not cite authors as well as they, I shall cite a much greater +and worthier thing, in citing experience, the teacher of their teachers" +(_Maestra di loro maestri_). "And as for the overmuch credit," says +Bacon, "that hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making them +dictators that their words should stand, and not counsellors to give +advice, the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby." + +Similar parallelisms of thought are to be found in some of Galileo's +sentences, when brought into comparison with Lord Bacon.] + +[Footnote B: Article on Whately's Edition of Bacon's Essays. September, +1856.] + +The cause of Bacon's error in this regard, an error in spite of which +his philosophical works still remain the crowded repositories of true +wisdom, seems to have arisen, in considerable part, from a defect of +imagination. Knowledge is to be viewed in two aspects: one, that of its +relation to the finite capacities of the human mind; the other, its +relation to the infinity of Nature, that is, to the infinity of the +subjects of knowledge. Bacon regarded it chiefly from the first point of +view,--and, so far as we are aware, there is nowhere in his works any +recognition of the fact, that each advance in knowledge only opens new +and previously unknown regions of what is yet to be known. He supposed +that by his process Nature could be simplified to her few primary +elements, and that from these all other knowledge was to be deduced. +But, although her laws and elementary forms may be few, their +mollifications, as affecting knowledge and consequently human power and +interests, are unlimited. Moreover, in supposing that the discovery of +Nature could be made certain, and that, by a proper collection of facts, +the intellects of men might be brought upon a level of capacity for +discovery,--that is, that the process of discovery could be reduced to +a simple process of correct reasoning upon established facts,--Bacon +omitted to take into account the essential part which the imagination +plays in all discovery. + +No discovery, properly so called, is the pure result of observation and +induction. Maury takes the accumulated observations of fifty years, +deduces from them the existence of certain prevailing winds and +currents, and states the fact. It is not properly a discovery, although +a collection of similar facts may lead to the knowledge of a general +law. Newton sees an apple fall; his imagination, with one of the vastest +leaps that human imagination ever made, connects its fall with the +motion of the planets, and makes an immortal discovery. James Watt said, +"Nature has her blind side." True, but it is only the instinct of the +imagination that discovers where the blind side lies. The tops of +kettles had been dancing ever since kettles were first hung over fires, +but no one caught the blind side of the fact till a Scotch boy saw it as +he sat dreaming at his aunt's fireside. + +But if Bacon's imagination was imperfect in some directions, it +possessed in others a vision of the largest scope. No man ever saw more +clearly or vindicated more nobly the dignity of knowledge, the capacity +of the human mind, and the glory of God in the works of His hand. The +impulse which he gave to thought is still gathering force, and many of +the recommendations earnestly pressed in his works upon the attention +of men are only now beginning to receive their recognition and +accomplishment. When he sent a copy of the "Novum Organum" to Sir Henry +Wotton, Wotton, in his letter of thanks, said, "Your Lordship hath done +a great and everlasting benefit to the children of Nature, and to Nature +herself in her utmost extent of latitude,"--and his eulogium had more +truth than is common in contemporary compliments. + +Great as a student of physical nature, Bacon was a master in the +knowledge of human nature. Pope only chose the epithet which all the +world had applied, when he wrote of the + + "Words that _wise_ Bacon or grave Raleigh spake." + +And nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in the book of his +"Essays." The sixth volume of the edition before us contains, beside +the "Essays," the "History of King Henry VII.," with other fragmentary +histories, and the "De Sapienda Veterum," with a translation, which, +like the translations of the principal philosophical works in previous +volumes, is executed with admirable spirit and appropriateness. + +All these works give the same evidence of editorial ability and skill +as those in the division of Philosophy. Mr. Spedding's Preface to the +"Henry VII." is not only an interesting essay in itself, but an able and +satisfactory vindication of Bacon's general historic accuracy. Bacon's +view of the true office of history is very different from the theory +which has lately prevailed to a considerable extent, and it would be +well, perhaps, were its wisdom more considered. "It is the true office +of history," he says, (_Advancement of Learning_, Book II.,) "to +represent the events themselves, together with the counsels; and to +leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and +faculty of every man's judgment." And to this he adds, with much pith, +in the "De Augmentis," II. 9,--"Licet enim Historia quaeque prudentior +politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata sit, tamen scriptor +ipse sibi obstetricari non debet." Bacon wrote history according to his +own rule, and proved its value by the practical exemplification which he +gave of it. There are few better pieces of historic narrative in English +than this "History of Henry VII." + +Special thanks are due to Mr. Spedding for having reprinted, in full, +the first three editions of the "Essays,"--the three that were published +by Bacon himself. The first appeared in 1597, and contained but ten +essays; the second in 1612, when Bacon was in the height of prosperity, +and contained thirty-eight; the third appeared in 1625, after his +downfall, less than a year before his death, and contained fifty-eight +essays. The three thus afford, as well by the successive additions of +new essays as by the alterations which are made in the earlier, a most +interesting exhibition of the direction of Bacon's thought at different +periods of his life, and the changes in his style. The comparison is one +of very great interest, but more space is required to develop it than +we have for the present at command. One fact only may be noted in +passing,--that the essay on Adversity, which contains that most +memorable and noble sentence, "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old +Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New," is one of those +added in the last edition, after Bacon himself had experienced all the +bitterness of adversity. + +Mr. Spedding proposes, in the forthcoming volumes of the Occasional +Works of Lord Bacon, to connect his speeches and letters with an +explanatory narrative,--thus presenting, he says, "a biography the most +copious, the most minute, and, by the very necessity of the case, the +fairest that I can produce." He promises "new matter which is neither +little nor unimportant; but," he adds, "more important than the new +matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) +will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth." +We await this part of Mr. Spedding's work with especial interest, for +in it will unquestionably be afforded, for the first time, the means of +forming a correct judgment of Bacon's character, and just conclusions +concerning those public actions of his which have hitherto stood in +perplexing contradiction to his avowed principles, to the nobility of +his views, to his religious professions, to the reverential love with +which he was regarded by those who knew him best. It is not to be hoped +that his life can be redeemed from stain; but it may be hoped that a +true presentation of the grounds and bearings of his actions may relieve +him from the name of "meanest of mankind," and may show that his faults +were rather those of his time than of his nature. We shall keep our +readers informed of the progress of this invaluable edition, which +should lead to the more faithful and general study of the works of him +whom "all that were great and good loved and honored." + + +_A New History of the Conquest of Mexico._ In which Las Casas' +Denunciations of the Popular Historians of that War are fully +vindicated. By ROBERT ANDERSON WILSON, Counsellor at Law; Author of +"Mexico and its Religion," etc. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son. +Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. + +Before touching on the subject-matter of this book, we have something to +say respecting the spirit in which it appears to have been written, the +style of its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced +to the world. As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken +up by Mr. Prescott in his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and to +destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led +into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the +theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained. +We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings +besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering +upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that, +in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his +views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made +no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with +the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest +self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors, +without anticipating the reward of a wide-spread fame; that he was +prompt to acknowledge every service, or offer of service, which had been +made to him, and communicated to the public not only his information, +but the sources from which it had been derived; that, where he rejected +the conclusions of other writers, he treated those from whom he differed +with the utmost courtesy and candor; and that, when his task was +completed, he left it to the free judgment of the world, without +soliciting approbation or courting any man's applause. + +This is not the course which Mr. Robert Anderson Wilson has thought fit +to take. An accidental visit to Mexico, for which he appears to +consider himself entitled to no slight commendation, led him into some +speculations on the origin and civilization of the Aztec race. Without +waiting to inform himself of the ideas entertained on these subjects +by other men, he hastened to put forth his own crude notions in a +work entitled "Mexico and its Religion," and twice reprinted by its +enterprising publishers, with titles varied to suit what was supposed to +be the popular taste. Still entertaining an aversion to laborious study, +(for which, indeed, his previous education, as well as precarious +health, appears to have disqualified him,) he announced his purpose +to write a History of the Conquest of Mexico "from the American +stand-point," and issued what he himself called "a clap-trap +advertisement," for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of a class +in whom hatred of Romanism preponderates over knowledge and judgment. He +had made some progress in his "History," when he found that the ideas +which he had supposed to be original in his own brain were old and +trite. Being thus precluded from claiming for himself the merits of a +discoverer, he has shown an eagerness, every way praiseworthy, to place +the laurel on the brow to which he supposes it rightfully belongs. +Accordingly, he presents to the world, as his master and pioneer, that +renowned authority on the antiquities of New Spain, the Hon. Lewis Cass, +who, it appears, had published an essay on the subject in the "North +American Review." While his work was passing through the press, Mr. +Wilson wrote what he styles a "Chapter Preliminary," but what we suppose +would have been styled by persons who affect the native idiom when +writing their own language, a "Preliminary Chapter." This "Chapter +Preliminary" he printed and circulated, in advance of the publication +of his book; and though it contains not a single fact in support of +his theory, nor even any clear statement of the theory itself, he was +rewarded, as he expected, with _puffs preliminary_ from a portion of the +press, prompt to recognize the merit of a gentleman who had something +to sell, and consequently something to be advertised. The "advance +notices,"--so he calls them,--thus obtained, are made part of his book, +and may there be read alike by discerning and undiscerning readers. With +equal ingenuity he has prefixed to it a title-page, the grammar of which +is questionable and the punctuation vile, but in which he has contrived +to represent his opinions as identical with those of Las Casas, the +great historian of the Spanish Conquests in America, although, in truth, +this identity of opinion is purely imaginary, being founded on his mere +conjectures in regard to the contents of a work of Las Casas, which, as +he bitterly complains, has been withheld from the world. Then, with his +two supporters, Las Casas on the one side, and Lewis Casas--we beg his +pardon, we mean Lewis Cass--on the other, Mr. Wilson comes before the +public, making first a bow "preliminary" to "Colonel and Mrs. Powell," +"my dear Uncle," and "my dear Aunt," in a Dedication that reminds us +of a certain form of invitations which our readers may sometimes have +received: "Miss Smith presents her compliments to Mr. Brown, and _I_ +hope _you_ will do me the favor to take tea with me to-morrow evening." + +But we have omitted to make mention of the letters "preliminary" which +he has printed with the "advance notices." He indulges in frequent +sneers at the "weight of authority" to which Mr. Prescott was accustomed +to attach some importance in the discussion of a doubtful point. +Nevertheless, in his extreme eagerness to obtain for his own opinions +the sanction of an authoritative name, he publishes, as "Mr. Prescott's +estimate of his researches," a letter which he had received from that +gentleman, and, quite incapable of appreciating its quiet irony, +evidently supposes that the historian of the Conquest of Mexico was +prepared to retire from the field of his triumphs at the first blast of +his assailant's trumpet. Next comes a letter from a gentleman whom Mr. +Wilson calls "_Rousseau_ St. Hilaire, author of 'The History of Spain,' +&c., and Professor _of the_ Faculty of Letters in the University of +Paris." This, we suppose, is the same gentleman who is elsewhere +mentioned in the book as Rousseau _de_ St. Hilaire, and as _Rosseau_ St. +Hilaire. Now we might take issue with Mr. Wilson as to the existence of +his correspondent. It would be easy to prove that no person bearing the +name is connected with the University of Paris. Adopting the same line +of argument by which our author endeavors to convert the old Spanish +chronicler, Bernal Diaz, into a myth, we might contend that the +Sorbonne--the college to which M. St. Hilaire is represented as +belonging--has been almost as famous for its efforts to suppress +truth and the free utterance of opinion as the Spanish Inquisition +itself,--that it would not hesitate at any little invention or disguise +for the furtherance of its objects,--and hence, that the professor in +question is in all probability a "myth," a mere "Rousseau's Dream," or +rather, a "Wilson's Dream of Rousseau." But we disdain to have recourse +to such evasions. We admit that there is in the University of Paris +a professor "agrégé à la faculté des lettres," who bears the name of +_Rosseeuw_ St. Hilaire; we admit Mr. Wilson's incapacity to decipher +foreign names or words, even when they stand before him in the clearest +print,--an incapacity of which his book affords numerous examples,--and +that this incapacity, and not any mental hallucination, has been the +cause of the blunder which we have corrected. But we must add that he +does evidently labor under an hallucination when he calls this letter +of M. St. Hilaire a "flattering notice." He has been misled by his +inability to comprehend the employment of courteous language between +persons who differ from each other in matters of opinion. With the +accustomed suavity of a Frenchman and a gentleman, M. St. Hilaire +declines entering into a discussion with Mr. Wilson, and leaves him to +"settle this difference with his learned fellow-citizen," Mr. Prescott, +mildly intimating at the same time that he will probably have "his hands +full." + +Something more remains to be said of the use which our author has made +of the learned professor of the Sorbonne. One page of his book Mr. +Wilson devotes to "Acknowledgments." These are few, but ponderous. +"Acknowledgments are made" to the Hon. Lewis Cass, for having +written--without any ulterior view, we imagine, to Mr. Wilson's +advantage--the before-mentioned article in the "North American Review"; +to the late Mr. Gallatin, for the publication--also, we suspect, without +any foresight of the tremendous uses to which it was to be turned--of a +paper on the Mexican dialects; to "Aaron Erickson, Esq., of Rochester, +N.Y., for the advantages he has afforded us in the prosecution of our +arduous investigations"; to "Major Robert Wilson, now at Fort Riley, +Kanzas," for no particular reason expressed; and to "M. _Rousseau +de_ St. Hilaire, both for the flattering notice he has taken of our +preliminary work" (why not, "work preliminary?") "on Mexico, and for the +advantages derived from his writings." In regard to the "advantages" +here mentioned, we are going to relieve Mr. Wilson's mind. His +obligations to M. St. Hilaire are really far lighter than he supposes. +It is true that he has picked most of the little information he +possesses in regard to Spanish history out of the professor's work, and +has strewed his pages with copious extracts from this recondite source. +But, in making his acknowledgments, he might have gone still farther +back. M. St. Hilaire is a laborious and enthusiastic scholar. + +He has found time, in the midst of his professional duties, to write +a really meritorious work on the history of Spain. But he had not the +time, perhaps not the opportunity, for making a thorough examination of +the original authorities. He was therefore obliged to take for his guide +a modern author, who had made this history the peculiar field of his +researches. The guide whom he selected, and he could have made no better +choice, was William Hickling Prescott. So necessary was it for his +purpose that the latter should precede him in a pathway so obscure, +that he postponed the composition of a portion of his work until the +publication of the first two volumes of the "History of Philip the +Second," then in preparation, should supply him with the requisite +light. His indebtedness to Mr. Prescott was frankly and fully +acknowledged both in public and in private. In letters which now lie +before us, he says, "I am working hard on 'Philip the Second,' and +blessing at the same time the learned pioneer who has traced for me so +easy a road through this confused and difficult period of history." "It +is a piece of good-fortune which I cannot too highly appreciate, that +your studies should have been directed to the most difficult portion of +Spanish history, from which you have thus removed for me all the thorns. +The conscientiousness and the thoroughness of your researches, the +perfect trustworthiness of your conclusions, and the lofty calmness of +your judgments, are the precious supports on which I lean; and I have +now, for the reign of Philip the Second, a guide whom I shall be ever +proud and happy to follow, _as I have before followed him through the +reigns of the Catholic Kings and the Conquests of Mexico and Peru_." +That these expressions are no exaggeration of the facts of the case +might be easily established by a comparison of the "Histoire d'Espagne" +with the writings of the American historian. The passages in the former +work cited by Mr. Wilson would form a portion of the proof; and thus, in +following M. St. Hilaire, he has in fact been indirectly and ignorantly +availing himself of labors which he affects to speak of with contempt. + +But directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed +himself of Mr. Prescott's labors to an extent which demanded the most +ample "acknowledgment." No such acknowledgment is made. But we beg to +ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he should have +spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, at least with +respect. He himself informs us that "the most kindly relations" +existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. Wilson opened +the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of Mr. Prescott's +collection of works relating to Mexican history, for the purpose of +enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's History of the +Conquest. That the replies which he received were courteous and kindly, +we need hardly say. He was informed, that, although the constant use +made of the collection by its possessor for the correction of his +own work must prevent a full compliance with this request, yet any +particular books which he might designate should be sent to him, and, if +he were disposed to make a visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities +should be granted him for the prosecution of his researches. This +invitation Mr. Wilson did not think fit to accept. Books which were got +in readiness for transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, +in the mean time, discovered that "the American stand-point" did not +require any examination of "authorities." We regret that it should also +have rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilized +society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished predecessor +is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it displays, sometimes +disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. He concedes Mr. Prescott's +good faith in the use of his materials. It was only his ignorance and +want of the proper qualifications that prevented him from using them +aright. "His non-acquaintance with Indian character is much to be +regretted." Mr. Wilson himself enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable +advantage of being the son of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. +Nay, "his ancestors, for several generations, dwelt near the Indian +agency at Cherry Valley, on Wilson's Patent, _though in Cooperstown +village was he born_." We perceive the author's fondness for the +inverted style in composition,--acquired, perhaps, in the course of his +long study of Aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without +his own assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we +think, to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common +among barbarous nations. + +But it is not merely through "his non-acquaintance with Indian +character" that Mr. Prescott was at fault. He was also, it appears, in a +hopeless state of ignorance in regard to the political institutions of +Spain. He knew nothing of the Spanish censorship, and its restrictions +upon the freedom of the press. "He showed his faith," writes Mr. Wilson, +"by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of his enterprise, +in the purchase of books and MSS. relating to 'America of the +Spaniards.'" This last phrase is marked as quoted, but we believe it to +be the author's own. "These were the materials out of which he framed +his _two_ histories of the _two_ aboriginal empires, Mexico and Peru. At +the time these works were written _he could not have had the remotest +idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish authorities had been +produced_, or of the external pressure that gave them their peculiar +form and character. _He could hardly understand_ that peculiar +organization of Spanish society through which one set of opinions might +be uniformly expressed in public, while the intellectual classes in +secret entertain entirely opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most +perfect good faith; and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities +have proved to be the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he +is not in fault." (p. 104.)--We, also, desire to deal in "perfect good +faith" with our readers, who will naturally inquire what new light has +been thrown on the "peculiar organization of Spanish society," and on +the conditions which limit the expression of opinions in Spain, since +Mr. Prescott made those subjects his especial study. We have looked +carefully through Mr. Wilson's book in the hope of being enabled to +answer this inquiry; but we have found nothing but partial and incorrect +statements of facts with which the public is already familiar,--nothing +that had escaped the notice of Prescott himself,--nothing that Mr. +Ticknor, in his "History of Spanish Literature," had omitted to state, +and that had not been fully discussed between these two distinguished +men during an intercourse that had originated not only in the warmest +personal friendship, but in the similarity of their studies and +pursuits. On this, as on every other topic of which he treats, Mr. +Wilson is reckless and arrogant in assertion; but on this, as on every +other topic, he makes no show of proofs. + +His compliment to Prescott's "good faith" seems, after all, to have +been premature. In other parts of his book we find remarks that seem in +conflict with this admission. He makes several severe strictures on Mr. +Prescott's omission to give due credit to General Cass for his valuable +contribution to Aztec history. "Mr. Prescott nowhere refers to the +subject, as we think he ought to have done." (p. 30.) "The ink was +hardly dry on the leaves of the North American Quarterly which contained +the exposure of these fictions, when another contributor to the same +periodical, Mr. Prescott, began his history, founded on authors already +_denounced as fabulous by so high an authority as the Hon. Lewis Cass_!" +Think of the unparalleled audacity of the author of the "History of +Ferdinand and Isabella" in actually exercising his own judgment with +regard to the credibility of the Spanish chroniclers, after so high an +authority had pronounced against them! However, we are not yet prepared +to abandon our own belief in Mr. Prescott's "good faith." We really +believe that he was guilty of no intentional disrespect towards the Hon. +Lewis Cass. It is possible that he may never have seen the article in +question. Contributors to periodicals are sometimes sadly neglectful of +the most brilliant performances of their _confrères_. We doubt whether +the "Autocrat" has ever read with proper attention any of our own +modest, but not, we hope, inelegant effusions. + +Mr. Wilson is not without a suspicion that the world may be slow to +surrender its confidence in the veracity and accuracy of a writer +whose works have already stood the test of many a severe and critical +examination. When this idea breaks upon his mind, he manages to lash +himself into a state of considerable excitement. He foresees the +difficulty of convincing "those who take an array of great names for +the foundation of their belief, and those who judge a work only by the +elegance with which its periods are strung together. And, besides these +two,"--meaning, we presume, not two men, but two classes of men,--"we +have to encounter also the opposition of _savans_--men who live and +judge the outside world through the medium of books alone. These hold as +of no account, all but Greece and Rome," [the proof-reader is requested +not to disturb Mr. Wilson's punctuation,] "and receive no idea of +antiquity that does not come through them. For any, then, too wise to +learn or too thoughtless to inquire, this chapter is not designed.... +Many there are," [how many, we wonder,] "who have dealt in Spanish +romances, supposing them to be history; and these are slow to abandon +their delusions. At enormous expense they have gathered volumes of +authorities; will they readily admit them to be cheats and counterfeits? +They grudge the time too they have spent in their perusal; and are loth, +as well they may be, to lose it. But individual loss and injury _is_" +[the proof-reader will please not to interfere with Mr. Wilson's +grammar] "perhaps inevitable in the search after truth. Men cannot +be held down to the theories of barbarism. These must give way to +knowledge, _or the intelligent, as in Roman Catholic countries, be +driven to infidelity."_ [The printer may venture to italicize the +closing prediction, as we wish to bring it under the particular notice +of school-committees and superintendents of education, who will see +the fearful responsibility they incur by placing copies of Prescott's +Histories, bound in sheep, in their school-libraries.] + +But we interrupt the flow of our author's bile by these irrelevant +remarks. Let him have a full hearing: "Before closing this chapter, the +status of our literature suggests an apology is necessary, for having +opened it in conformity with the, now neglected, rules of history--that +we should try and snatch something from the wreck of antiquity." [We +cheerfully offer a reward of one copy of the present number of the +"Atlantic" to any person who will parse the last sentence, explain the +punctuation of it, and interpret its meaning.] "In other countries, the +standard of history has been steadily rising for centuries; but with +us, it has been so lowered, as to sink every other qualification in the +single one of turning faultless periods; and a gentleman possessing +this, has been adjudged fully capable of purging the annals of Spain and +her quondam colonies, from the mass of modern fable and forgery which +now disfigure them. Incapable of submitting Cortez' statement to +the test, he assumes it to be true, even in those parts where it is +impossible. Unable to detect the counterfeit in Diaz--he pronounces him +the 'child of nature,' but does not on the testimony of this natural +child reject the still more monstrous falsifier, _Gomora_; but adopts +them both, according to the custom of novelists; and not the slightest +objection is raised. Then descending lower and still lower; disregarding +alike the warning of Lord Bacon 'a credulous man is a deceiver,' and +of Tacitus _fingunt simul creduntque_--he rakes up even a devotee, +Boturini, and makes him also an historic authority, without overtaxing +public credulity; though this wretch, as we have seen, out-Munchausens +Pietro himself, and as he may have surpassed every other man in Spain in +drawing the long bow, was justly selected for historiographer, at a time +when death was the penalty for possessing a book not licensed by the +Inquisition. Thus are discarded and disgusting impostures brought up +from the literary cesspools of Spain to form for us the history of +events that, transpired on this continent hardly more than three hundred +years ago!" (pp. 263, 264.) Instead of noticing the blunders and +absurdities with which this paragraph is filled, we shall simply call +attention to the remarkable good taste displayed in its allusions to +a person with whom the writer, as he boasts, had maintained "the most +kindly relations," from whom, as we have seen, he had received friendly +offers of aid, and to whom, but a short time before the occurrence of +that event which has so lately thrown the whole nation into mourning, he +had been indebted, by his own admission, for the warmest encouragement +in the prosecution of his inquiries. + +But, though Prescott is the principal object of Mr. Wilson's assaults, +he does not fall, for he has not stood, alone. With the single exception +of the Hon. Lewis Cass, every modern writer who has investigated the +history and former condition of Spanish America, either with the help of +books or of personal observation of the present state of that part +of our continent, shares the same fate. Robertson, Dupaix, Stephens, +Humboldt, are all objects of Mr. Wilson's vituperation or contempt. To +say that Alexander von Humboldt is probably the most learned man in +Europe, and that Robert A. Wilson is undoubtedly one of the most +ignorant men in America, would give but a slight notion of the +contrast between them. Humboldt is not merely a man of science and a +philosopher,--titles which the adopted Iroquois regards with natural +scorn,--he has been also a great traveller, and knows almost every +part of Spanish America from personal examination. Yet his claims to be +considered as an authority on questions which no other living man is +so competent to decide are disposed of by his shallow and conceited +opponent in a single brief paragraph, which ends with a statement that +"the only defect in his work is, that he started from false premises, +_and of course his conclusions amount to nothing_." + +Robertson, however, is the especial butt of Mr. Wilson's unwieldy +sarcasms. Robertson, he tells us, was the "principal of the University +High School of Edinburgh,"--an institution of which we do not +remember ever to have heard before. He is especially indignant that +"Robertson--_a Presbyterian minister!_" (the Italics and note of +admiration are Mr. Wilson's own) should have dared even to attempt to +write a history of America. As Roman Catholics are also forbidden to +venture on this ground, we should be glad to know the particular sect or +sects to whose use it is to be appropriated. A principal cause of our +author's spite against Dr. Robertson appears to have been a statement +made by the latter, that the Iroquois are cannibals. This allegation +evidently touches a sensitive point. It is indignantly denied by the +adopted member of the tribe. The Iroquois, he says, like other Indians, +never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. He turns the +tables (on which this ill-omened repast is spread) against the worthy +Doctor. He charges him (falsely, however) with having represented +Charles the Fifth as "a pattern of abstinence," when he was in fact one +of the greatest of royal _gourmands_. On this point he is willing for +once to accept even the authority of Mr. Prescott, who, he says, has +upset Robertson's reputation as an historian by means of "the _Samanca_ +papers." + +Mr. Wilson so often returns to these "Samanca" papers, and appears to +labor under so many delusions in regard to them, that, hopeless as the +attempt may seem, we cannot help trying to let a little daylight into +his mind. "Mr. Prescott," he writes, "having obtained copies of the most +important _Simanca_" [the reader must not be surprised at these little +variations of orthography] "papers of Ximenes' collection, supposes them +a new discovery, of great value. _Doubtless they are;_" [then there +could be no great harm in supposing it;] "his agents did not fail to +represent them to him in the most exalted terms, to enhance the value of +their services according to the Spanish custom." Now we can assure Mr. +Wilson that Mr. Prescott had not in his possession a copy of a single +document placed in the Archives of Simancas (for so an excusable +partiality for custom, and not any want of respect for our author, +obliges us to spell this name) by Cardinal Ximenes. He will also, we +trust, be glad to learn, that, for the documents relating to the Emperor +Charles the Fifth which Mr. Prescott did receive from Simancas, he paid +not a _real_ beyond the established charge of the official copyists,--a +charge which is the same in all cases, whatever may be the value of +the originals,--the task of examining the collection and selecting the +letters suitable for the purpose having been a labor of love on the part +of the distinguished scholar by whom it was undertaken. + +Mr. Wilson is animated by a fervent hatred against Cardinal Ximenes,--or +"Jimines," as he sometimes calls him. He terms him "a monster," and "a +wretch," and is especially indignant at his having "founded the Samanca +collection of papers." "Any one," he adds, "who will carefully examine +them will see that hardly a single paper has been put into this +collection that does not, in some way, reflect glory on the church, or +show the royal approval of the Inquisition." We cannot undertake to say +what discoveries might be made by a person who should carefully examine +the collection of papers at Simancas. A scholar on whom the antediluvian +length of life necessary for such a labor had been bestowed might also +be endowed with commensurate powers of intellect that might lead to the +most astonishing results. Our own knowledge of the collection is limited +to a very small portion of its contents,--a mere drop in the enormous +bucket. We have been under the impression that explorers who had spent +long periods of time in the examination,--Lembke or Gachard, for +example,--had sunk their shafts but a little way into that great mine. +At all events, we feel particularly certain that Mr. Wilson never in his +life saw a single manuscript, or a single copy of a manuscript, from the +Archives of Simancas. + +"The monk Strada," our author goes on to inform us, "must have consulted +them" [the "Samanca papers"] "in the composition of his history of the +Low Country Wars, though he does not call the papers by that name." +[We should hope not.] "The _Glanville_ papers are not alone his +authorities." With regard to the "Glanville papers," we cannot speak +positively, never having seen them, or even heard of them. If an +allusion is intended to the "State Papers of Cardinal _Granvelle_," we +admit that these were not Strada's _only_ authorities; in fact, they +were not his authorities at all; he never had the opportunity of +consulting them. "Robertson's convent life of Charles V.," Mr. Wilson +continues, "is almost literally taken from Strada." Now, if Strada +followed the "Samanca papers," and Robertson has followed Strada, how +is it that these same papers have been the groundwork for a complete +refutation of Robertson? Surely, when brought to light, they ought, +on the contrary, to have confirmed his statements. The truth is, that +Strada, who had access to no other manuscripts than those in possession +of the Farnese family, never saw the "Samanca papers"; and Robertson, +far from following Strada exclusively, relied much more on the authority +of Sandoval and other Spanish writers. + +But our readers will naturally inquire what these matters have to do +with the Aztec civilization and the Conquest of Mexico. So far as we +know, nothing at all. We have merely followed our Iroquois foe, and +kept perseveringly upon his track in the jungle to which he has taken. +Whatever course he may take, we are determined to follow him. He shall +not elude us. Through all the windings of his eccentric route, through +pathless forests, across rugged sierras, along the sides of nameless +streams, we shall pursue his trail. On the summit of the great +_teocalli_ of Mexico, dedicated to the fearful deity, _Huitzilopotchli_, +he shall be offered up as a sacrifice, according to the awful customs +in which he affects to disbelieve. We are compelled, indeed, by want of +space, to grant him a respite for a month. Our present notice must be +regarded only as a parboiling "preliminary." At the end of that time, +with all due form and ceremony, we promise that the solemn rite shall be +completed. + + +Bunsen's _Gott in der Geschichte_. (God in History.) Zweite Theil. +(Second Part.) Leipzig. 1858. + +There is, probably, no philosophical author at the present day in +Germany whose works are welcomed by so wide a circle of readers in +America as those of Chevalier Bunsen. Though often more theoretical than +exact in scholarship, and allowing his historical instincts to take the +place of scientific conclusions, he not unfrequently anticipates thus +the laborious efforts of scholars, while his peculiar _suggestiveness_ +of thought and his scope of view interest extremely the common student, +and lend a charm to his works such as no other writer in the same +field possesses. He has the art of making other men work for him, and, +perhaps, has thus been tempted to write too much for his own fame. + +The great service for which posterity will thank Chevalier Bunsen +is, that, in an age of bigotry and of skepticism, he has especially +represented the union of Philosophy and Christianity, and has shown that +the freest historical criticism and the most open recognition of the +moral principle through all faiths and races are harmonious with the +most devout belief in the divine manifestation of Christ. This book, +"God in History," is written from his most advanced and religious +stand-point, and seems to us the best fruit, thus far, of his studies. +It is compact, consistent, and not marred by his usual defect,--a +certain mysticism or indefiniteness of thought,--but is clear and +philosophical to the close. It is not to be looked upon as a complete +philosophical history, but rather as a suggestive and introductory +treatise on that grandest of all themes, the Progress of the Instinct of +God through Human History. His own definition of his subject is, that +it is a history of the "Consciousness of God in Mankind"; but, as he +unfolds his idea, it is evidently not always the consciousness, but the +unconscious instinct of God, whose progress he is describing. + +The first part of the present volume--the Third Book--is occupied with a +brief, but exceedingly instructive investigation of the development of +this instinct in the Aryans of Persia and of India; and in this inquiry +the two prominent historical figures are Zoroaster and Buddha, or, as +our author might have named them, the Moses and the Luther of the +early Aryan religions,--the one the Lawgiver and the Founder of a pure +monotheism in the place of a slavish belief in elementary powers, and +the other the great Reformer of a corrupted faith in behalf of an +oppressed people. + +The illustrations which Bunsen gives of these two wonderful expressions +of the instinct of God in the remote past, the religions of Zoroaster +and Buddha, are exceedingly fresh and original. They are contained +mostly in sacrificial and festal hymns and songs which have not hitherto +been much known, even to scholars. + +As an introduction to and historical preparation for these two great +forms of belief, he describes also the instinct of Deity as it had +developed itself among the Turanians, the Chinese, and the Egyptians. + +The period embraced in the Third Book is about 2500 years, from the +supposed epoch of Zoroaster (3000 B.C.) to that of Buddha (541 B.C.). + +The Fourth Book treats of the instinct of God among the Greeks and +Romans, "from the singer of the Iliad (900 B.C.) down to the Baruch of +the Roman world, the prophet of the downfall of the Aryan Ante-Christian +civilization,--Tacitus." This God-consciousness is found first in +the Grecian feeling of the Commonwealth,--the idea of a common good +surpassing a personal good; then in the conception of the Epic, which +assumes a political as well as a physical Kosmos, or order; then in the +grand moral ideas lying at the basis of the Mythology,--the myths, for +instance, of Prometheus, and the picture of Nemesis and the Fates. Next, +the deep sense of God speaks out in Grecian Tragedy and the great works +of Grecian Art; and in the highest degree, in the Philosophy which +culminated in Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. + +The Roman expression of these profound instincts is placed by Bunsen far +below the Grecian. It is manifested especially in their idea of Law, and +even in the doubts and despair of their leading thinkers in the time of +the Emperors. + +The closing portion of the volume terminates the history of the progress +of the idea of God before Christianity, among the Aryan races, by a +description of the religious instincts of the Teutonic tribes. In their +respect for woman and for marriage, in their political commonwealths, +in their worship of one God, and their belief in a moral Kosmos, Bunsen +beholds the expression of the Divine idea within them, preparing for the +more full development which is to come through the ideas and spirit +of Christianity. The book closes fitly with the grand prophecy of the +Völuspa in the Scandinavian Edda. + +We regret that want of space should prevent us from giving extracts from +this most eloquent and philosophic work. Its glory is, that, breaking +through the formulae of creeds and the external signs of religious +faith, it has the courage to listen to the voice of God all along the +devious course of human history,--hearing that mysterious tone, not +alone in the chants of the Hebrews or the confessions of the Christians, +but in every smallest utterance of _truth_, every syllable of unselfish +patriotism, every groan of offended conscience, every myth springing +from the moral sense, every song, every speech which would exalt the +True, the Beautiful, and the Good over the selfish and false and base. +In Bunsen's philosophy, these, even more than all outward confession and +ceremonial, are the true expression of the workings of the Divine Spirit +in Human History. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Episodes of French History during the Consulate and the First Empire. By +Miss Pardoe. New York. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 18, April, 1859 +[Date last updated: August 7, 2005] + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 9, 2004 [EBook #11525] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 18 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--APRIL, 1859.--NO. XVIII. + + + +AGRARIANISM. + + +If we can believe an eminent authority, in which we are disposed to +place great trust, the oldest contest that has divided society is that +which has so long been waged between the House of HAVE and the House of +WANT. It began before the bramble was chosen king of the trees, and it +has outlasted the cedars of Lebanon. We find it going on when Herodotus +wrote his History, and the historians of the nineteenth century will +have to continue writing of the actions of the parties to it. There +seems never to have been a time when it was not old, or a race that +was not engaged in it, from the Tartars, who cook their meat by +making saddle-cloths of it, to the Sybarites, impatient of crumpled +rose-leaves. Spartan oligarchs and Athenian democrats, Roman patricians +and Roman plebeians, Venetian senators and Florentine _ciompi_, Norman +nobles and Saxon serfs, Russian boyars and Turkish spahis, Spanish +hidalgos and Aztec soldiers, Carolina slaveholders and New England +farmers,--these and a hundred other races or orders have all been +parties to the great, the universal struggle which has for its object +the acquisition of property, the providing of a shield against the +ever-threatening fiend which we call WANT. Property once obtained, the +possessor's next aim is to keep it. The very fact, that the mode of +acquisition may have been wrong, and subversive of property-rights, if +suffered to be imitated, naturally makes its possessor suspicious and +cruel. He fears that the measure he has meted to others may be meted to +him again. Hence severe laws, the monopoly of political power and of +political offices by property-holders, the domination of conquering +races, and the practice of attributing to all reformers designs against +property and its owners, though the changes they recommend may really be +of a nature calculated to make the tenure of property more secure than +ever. Even the charge of irreligion has not been found more effective +against the advocates of improvement or change than that of +Agrarianism,--by which is meant hostility to existing property +institutions, and a determination, if possible, to subvert them. Of the +two, the charge of Agrarianism is the more serious, as it implies the +other. A man may be irreligious, and yet a great stickler for property, +because a great owner of it,--or because he is by nature stanchly +conservative, and his infidelity merely a matter of logic. But if there +be any reason for charging a man with Agrarianism, though it be never so +unreasonable a reason, his infidelity is taken for granted, and it would +be labor lost to attempt to show the contrary. Nor is this conclusion so +altogether irrational as it appears at the first sight. Religion is +an ordinance of God, and so is property; and if a man be suspected of +hostility to the latter, why should he not be held positively guilty +towards the former? Every man is religious, though but few men govern +their lives according to religious precepts; but every man not only +loves property and desires to possess it, but allows considerations +growing out of its rights to have a weight on his mind far more grave, +far more productive of positive results, than religion has on the common +person. If there be such a thing as an Agrarian on earth, he would fight +bravely for his land, though it should be of no greater extent than +would suffice him for a grave, according to the strictest measurement +of the potter's field. Would every honest believer do as much for his +religion? + +But what is Agrarianism, and who are Agrarians? Though the words are +used as glibly as the luring party-terms of the passing year, it is no +very easy matter to define them. Indeed, it is by no means an easy thing +to affix a precise and definite meaning to any political terms, living +or dead. Let the reader endeavor to give a clear and intelligible +definition of Whig and Tory, Democrat and Republican, Guelph and +Ghibelline, Cordelier and Jacobin, and he will soon find that he has a +task before him calculated to test his powers very severely. How much +more difficult, then, must it be to give the meaning of words that are +never used save in a reproachful sense, which originated in political +battles that were fought nearly two thousand years ago, and in a state +of society having small resemblance to anything that has ever been known +to Christendom! With some few exceptions, party-names continue to have +their champions long after the parties they belonged to are as dead +as the Jacobites. Many Americans would not hesitate to defend the +Federalists, or to eulogize the Federal party, though Federalism long +ago ceased even to cast a shadow. The prostitution of the Democratic +name has lessened in but a slight degree the charm that has attached to +it ever since Jefferson's sweeping reelection had the effect of coupling +with it the charming idea of success. But who can be expected to say a +word for Agrarian? One might as well look to find a sane man ready to +do battle for the Jacobin, which is all but a convertible term for +Agrarian, though in its proper sense the latter word is of exactly the +opposite meaning to the former. Under the term Agrarians is included, +in common usage, all that class of men who exhibit a desire to remove +social ills by a resort to means which are considered irregular and +dangerous by the great majority of mankind. Of late years we have heard +much of Socialists, Communists, Fourierites, and so forth; but the word +Agrarians comprehends all these, and is often made to include men who +have no more idea of engaging in social reforms than they have of +pilgrimizing to the Fountains of the Nile. It is a not uncommon thing +for our political parties to charge one another with Agrarianism; and if +they used the term in its proper sense, it would be found that they had +both been occasionally right, for Agrarian laws have been supported by +all American parties, and will continue to be so supported, we presume, +so long as we shall have a public domain; but in its reproachful +sense Agrarianism can never be charged against any one of the party +organizations which have been known in the United States. A quarter of +a century ago, one of the cleverest of those English tourists who then +used to contrive to go through--or, rather, over--the Republic, seeing +but little, and not understanding that little, proclaimed to his +countrymen, who had not then recovered from the agitation consequent on +the Reform contest, that there existed here a regular Agrarian party, +forming "the _extreme gauche_ of the Worky Parliament," and which +"boldly advocated the introduction of an AGRARIAN LAW, and a periodical +division of property." He represented these men as only following out +the principles of their less violent neighbors, and as eloquently +dilating "on the justice and propriety of every individual being equally +supplied with food and clothing,--on the monstrous iniquity of one man +riding in his carriage while another walks on foot, [there would have +been more reason in the complaint, had the gigless individual objected +to walking on his head,] and after his drive discussing a bottle of +Champagne, while many of his neighbors are shamefully compelled to be +content with the pure element. Only equalize property, they say, and +neither would drink Champagne or water, but both would have brandy, a +consummation worthy of centuries of struggle to attain." He had the +sense to declare that all this was nonsense, but added, that the +Agrarians, though not so numerous or so widely diffused as to create +immediate alarm, were numerous in New York, where their influence was +strongly felt in the civic elections. Elsewhere he predicted the coming +of a "panic" time, when workingmen would be thrown out of employment, +while possessed of the whole political power of the state, with no +military force to maintain civil order and protect property; "and to +what quarter," he mournfully asked, "I shall be glad to know, is the +rich man to look for security, either of person or fortune?" + +Twenty-five years have elapsed since Mr. Hamilton put forth this +alarming question, and some recent events have brought it to men's +minds, who had laughed at it in the year of grace 1833. We have seen +Agrarian movements in New York, demonstrations of "Workies," but nothing +was said by those engaged in them of that great leveller, brandy, though +its properties are probably better known to them than those of water. +They have been dignified with the name of "bread riots," and the great +English journal that exercises a sort of censorship over governments and +nations has gravely complimented us on the national progress we have +made, as evidenced in the existence here of a starving population! One +hardly knows whether to fret or to smile over so provoking a specimen of +congratulation. Certainly, if a nation cannot grow old without bringing +the producing classes to beggary, the best thing that could happen to +it would be to die young, like men loved of the gods, according to the +ancient idea. Whether such is the inevitable course of national life or +not, we are confident that what took place a few months ago in New York +had nothing to do with Agrarianism in reality,--using the word after +the manner of the alarmists. It belonged to the ordinary bald humbug of +American politics. It so happened that one of those "crises" which come +to pass occasionally in all business communities occurred at precisely +the time when a desperate political adventurer was making desperate +efforts to save himself from that destruction to which he had been +doomed by all good men in the city that he had misgoverned. What more +natural than that he should seek to avail himself of the distress of the +people? The trick is an old one,--as old as political contention itself. +Was it not Napoleon who attributed revolutions to the belly?--and he +knew something of the matter. The "bread riots" were neither more nor +less than "political demonstrations," got up for the purpose of aiding +Mr. Wood, and did not originate in any hostility to property on the part +of the people. It is not improbable that some of those who were engaged +in them were really anxious to obtain work,--were moved by fear of +starvation; but such was not the case with the leaders, who were +"well-dressed, gentlemanly men," according to an eye-witness, with +excellent cigars in their mouths to create a thirst that Champagne alone +could cure. The _juste milieu_ of brandy, so favored in 1832, if we can +believe Mr. Hamilton, was not thought of in 1857. A quarter of a +century had made a change in the popular taste. Perhaps the temperance +reformation had had something to do with it. The whole thing was as +complete a farce as ever was seen at an American or an English election, +and those who were engaged in it are now sincerely ashamed of their +failure. If foreigners will have it that it was an outbreak of +Agrarianism, the first in a series of outrages against property, so +be it. Let them live in the enjoyment of the delusion. Nations, like +individuals, seem to find pleasure in the belief that others are as +miserable as themselves. + +Of that feeling which is known as Agrarianism we believe there is far +less in the United States now than there was at the time when Mr. +Hamilton was here, and for a few years after that time. From about +the year 1829 to 1841, there was in our politics a large infusion of +Socialism. We then had parties, or factions, based on the distinctions +that exist in the social state, and those organizations had considerable +influence in our elections. The Workingmen's party was a powerful body +in several Northern States, and, to an observer who was not familiar +with our condition, it well might wear the appearance of an Agrarian +body. No intelligent American, however, fell into such an error. It +was evident to the native observer, that the Workingmen's party, while +aiming at certain reforms which it deemed necessary for the welfare of +the laboring classes, had no felonious purposes in view to the prejudice +of property,--and this for the plain reason, that most workingmen were +property-owners themselves. Few of them had much, but still fewer had +nothing, and the aggregate of their possessions was immense. They would +have been the greatest losers, had there been a social convulsion, for +they would have lost everything. Then they were intelligent men in the +ordinary affairs of life, and knew that the occurrence of any such +convulsion would, first of all, cut off, not only their means of +acquisition, but the very sources of their livelihood. Industry wilts +under revolutionary movement, as vegetation under the sirocco, and they +bring to the multitude anything but a realization of Utopian dreams. In +the long run, there has rarely been a revolution which has not worked +beneficially for the mass of mankind; but the earliest effects of every +revolution are to them bad, and eminently so. It is to this fact that we +must look for an explanation of the slowness with which the masses move +against any existing order of things, even when they are well aware +that it treats them with singular injustice. For nothing can be better +established than that no revolution was ever the work of the body of the +people,--of the majority. Revolutions are made by minorities, by orders, +by classes, by individuals, but never by the people. The people may be +dragged into them, but they never take the initiative even in those +movements which are called popular, and which are supposed to have only +popular ends in view. That very portion of mankind who are most feared +by timid men of property are those who are the last to act in any of the +great games which mark the onward course of the world. Complain they do, +and often bitterly, of the inequalities of society, but action is not +their strong point. + +The American observer of 1829-41 would have seen, too, in the +Workingmen's party, and in other similar organizations, only sections of +the Democratic party. They were the light troops of the grand army of +Democracy, the _velites_ who skirmished in front of the legions. They +never controlled the Democratic party; but it is undeniable that they +did color its policy, and give a certain tone to its sentiment, at a +very important period of American history. The success of President +Jackson, in that political contest which is known as "the Bank War," was +entirely owing to the support which he received from the workingmen of +some two or three States; and it is quite probable that the shrewd men +who then managed the Democratic party were induced to enter upon that +war by their knowledge of the exalted condition of political opinion in +those States. For their own purposes, they turned to account sentiments +that might have worked dangerously, if they had not been directed +against the Bank. One effect of this was, that the Democratic party was +compelled to make use of more popular language, which caused it to lose +some of its influential members, who were easily alarmed by words, +though they had borne philosophically with violent things. For five +years after the veto of the Bank Bill, in 1832, the Democratic party +was essentially radical in its tone, without doing much of a radical +character. In 1837, the monetary troubles came to a head, and then it +was seen how little reliance could be placed on men who were supposed to +be attached to extreme popular opinions. It was in the very States which +were thought to abound with radicals that the Democracy lost ground, and +the way was prepared for their entire overthrow in the memorable year +1840. That year saw American politics debauched, and from that time +we find no radical element in any of our parties. The contest was +so intense, that the two parties swallowed and digested all lesser +factions. Since then, a variety of causes have combined to prevent the +development of what is termed Agrarianism. The struggle of the Democracy +to regain power; the Mexican war, and the extension of our dominion, +consequent on that war, bringing up again, in full force, the slavery +question; and the discovery of gold in California, which led myriads +of energetic men to a remote quarter of the nation;--these are the +principal causes of the freedom of our later party-struggles from +radical theories. From radical practices we have always been free, and +it is improbable that our country will know them for generations. + +The origin of the word Agrarianism, as an obnoxious political term, is +somewhat curious. It is one of the items of our inheritance from the +Romans, to whom we owe so much, both of good and evil, in politics and +in law. + +The Agrarian contests of that people were among the most interesting +incidents in their wonderful career, and are full of instruction, +though, until recently, their true character was not understood; and +their explanation affords a capital warning against the effects of +partisan literature. The common belief was,--perhaps we should say +is,--that the supporters of the Agrarian laws were, to use a modern +term, _destructives_; that they aimed at formal divisions of all landed +property, if not of all property, among the whole body of the Roman +people. Nothing can be more unfounded than this view of the subject, +which is precisely the reverse of the truth. No Roman, whose name +is associated with Agrarian laws, ever thought of touching private +property, or of meddling with it, illegally, in any way. Neither Spurius +Cassius, nor Licinius Stolo, nor the Gracchi, nor any other Roman whose +name is identified with the Agrarian legislation of his country, was +a destructive, or leveller. Quite the contrary; they were all +conservatives,--using that word in its best sense,--and the friends of +property. The lands to which their laws applied, or were intended to +apply, were public lands, answering, in some sense, to those which are +owned by the United States. When Spurius Cassius, a quarter of a century +after that revolution which is known as the expulsion of the Tarquins, +proposed a division of a portion of the public land among the poor +commons, he did no more than had often been done by the Roman kings, +with good effect, and with strict legality. Much of the public land was +_occupied_ by wealthy men, as tenants of the state; and some of these +his law would have ousted from profitable spots, while the rest were to +be forced to pay their rents, which they had done very irregularly or +not at all. The operation of all Agrarian laws like that of Cassius was, +undoubtedly, a matter well to be considered; for, after a man has long +occupied a piece of land, he regards it as an act of injustice to be +peremptorily removed therefrom, and he ought to have, at least, the +privilege of buying it, if its possession be necessary to his support. +This feeling must have been the stronger in the bosom of the Roman +occupant in proportion to his poverty, but to legal possession he could +make no claim. The position he held was that of tenant at will to the +state, and he could be legally ejected at any moment. But it was not +from poor occupants of the public domain, whose number was necessarily +small, that opposition was experienced. It came from the rich, who had +all but monopolized the use of that domain; and, in the time of Spurius +Cassius, it was complicated with that quarrel of _caste_ which we +denominate the contest between the Patricians and the Plebeians. +Property and political power were both involved in the dispute. The +Patricians knew that the success of Cassius would make against them in +two ways:--it would strengthen the Plebeians, by lifting them out of the +degradation consequent on poverty, and so render them more dangerous +antagonists in political warfare; and it would render the Patricians +less able to contend with aspiring foes, by taking from them one of the +sources of their wealth. Cassius failed, and was executed, having been +tried and condemned by the Patricians, who then alone constituted the +Roman people. + +More than a century after the failure of Cassius, the Agrarian question +was again brought before the Roman nation, on a large scale. This was +the time when the famous Licinian rogations, by the adoption of which +a civil revolution was effected in Rome, were brought forward. They +provided for the passage of an Agrarian law, for an equitable settlement +of debts, and that thereafter one of the two Consuls should always be +a Plebeian. It is something to be especially noted, that C. Licinius +Stolo, the man from whom these laws take their name, was not a needy +political adventurer, but a very wealthy man, his possessions being +mainly in land; and that he belonged to a _gens_ (the Licinii) who were +noted in after days for their immense wealth, among them being that +Crassus whose avarice became proverbial, and whose surname was _Dives_, +or _the Rich_. The Licinian Agrarian law provided, that no one should +_possess_ more than five hundred jugers of the public land, (_ager +publicus_,) that the state should resume lands that had been illegally +seized by individuals, that a rent should be paid by the occupants of +the public domain, that only freemen should be employed on that domain, +and that every Plebeian should receive seven jugers of the public land +in absolute property, to be taken from those lands which the state was +to resume from Patricians who _possessed_ (that is to say, who occupied) +more than five hundred jugers. Such were the main provisions of the law, +which did not touch private property of any kind. The state was merely +to assert its undisputed legal right over the public domain, and the +Plebeians became landholders, which was the best thing that could happen +to the republic, and which was what was aimed at in every community of +antiquity. Even the partial observance of this law was the cause of the +supremacy of Rome being established over the finest portions of the +ancient world. Had Licinius failed, Rome would have gone down in her +contest with the Samnites, and the latter people would have become +masters of Italy. As it was, his success created the Roman people; and +from the time of that success must be dated the formation of the Roman +constitution as it was recognized and acted on during the best period of +the Republic. True, the Agrarian law was but one of three measures which +he carried through in the face of all the opposition the Patricians +could make; but the other laws were of a kindred character, and they all +worked together for good. It was the triumph of the Plebeians for the +benefit of all. The revolution then effected was strictly conservative +in its nature, and whatever of internal evil Rome afterwards experienced +was owing, not to the adoption of the Licinian law, but to the +departure by the state from the practice under it which it was intended +permanently to establish. + +The last great Agrarian contest which the Romans had was that which +takes its name from the Gracchi, and which began at the commencement of +the fourth generation before the birth of Christ. On the part of the +reformers, it was as strictly legal a movement as ever was known. Not +a single acre of private land was threatened by them; and whoever pays +attention to the details of their measures cannot fail to be struck with +the great concessions they were ready to make to their opponents,--the +men who had literally stolen the public property, and who pretended to +hold it as of right. Perhaps it was too late for any such reform as that +contemplated by the Gracchi to succeed, the condition of Rome then being +in no important respect like what it had been in the time of Licinius +Stolo; but one of the most interesting chapters in the history of things +which might have been is that which relates to the possible effect of +the Sempronian legislation. Had that legislation been fairly tried, +Roman history, and therefore human history, must have taken an entirely +different course, with an effect on the fortunes of every man born since +that time. Whether that effect would have been good or bad, who shall +say? But one thing is certain, and that is, that the Gracchi and their +supporters were not the enemies of property, and that their measures +were not intended to interfere with the private estate of any citizen of +the Roman Republic. + +Such was the Agrarianism, and such were the Agrarian laws and the +Agrarian contests of Rome, which were so long misunderstood; and through +that misunderstanding has the word Agrarian, so proper in itself, +been made to furnish one of the most reproachful terms that violent +politicians have ever used when seeking to bespatter their foes. It will +be seen that the word has been applied in "the clean contrary way" to +that in which it should have been applied, and that, strictly speaking, +an Agrarian is a conservative, a man who asks for justice,--not a +destructive, who, in his desire to advance his own selfish ends or those +of his class, would trample on law and order alike. It is only within +the last seventy years that the world has been made to comprehend that +it had for fifty generations been guilty of gross injustice to some of +the purest men of antiquity; and it is not more than thirty years since +the labors of Niebuhr made the truth generally known,--if it can, +indeed, be said to be so known even now. The Gracchi long passed for a +couple of demagogues, who were engaged in seditious practices, and who +were so very anxious to propitiate "the forum populace" that they were +employed in perfecting plans for the division of all landed property +amongst its members, when they were cut off by a display of vigor on the +part of the government. "The Sedition of the Gracchi" was for ages one +of the common titles for a chapter in the history of Republican Rome; +yet it did not escape the observation of one writer of no great +learning, who published before Heyne's attention was drawn to the +subject, that, if there were sedition in the affair, it was quite as +much the sedition of the Senate against the Gracchi as it was the +sedition of the Gracchi against the Senate.[A] + +[Footnote A: We have taken for granted the soundness of the views of +Niebuhr on the Roman Agrarian contests and laws, that eminent scholar +having followed in the track of Heyne with distinguished success; but +it must be allowed that in some respects his positions have been not +unsuccessfully assailed. Those who would follow up the subject are +recommended to study Ihne's _Researches into the History of the Roman +Constitution_, in which some of Niebuhr's views are energetically +combated. The main points, however, that the Agrarian laws were not +directed against private property, or aimed at placing all men on a +social equality, may be considered as established. Yet it must in candor +be admitted that the general subject is still involved in doubts, the +German commentators having thrown as much fog about some portions of the +Roman Constitution as they have thrown light upon other portions of it.] + +The feeling that was allowed to have such sway in Rome, and the triumph +of which was followed with such important consequences, has often +manifested itself in modern times, in the course of great political +struggles, and has proved a powerful disturbing cause on several +occasions. One of these occasions has fallen under the observation of +the existing generation, and some remarks on it may not be out of place. + +The French Revolution of 1848 was followed by an alarm on the part of +men of property, or of those whose profits depended on the integrity of +property being respected, which produced grave effects, the end whereof +is not yet. That revolution was the consequence of a movement as +purely political as the world ever saw. There was discontent with the +government of M. Guizot, which extended to the royal family, and in +which the _bourgeoisie_ largely shared, the very class upon the support +of which the House of Orleans was accustomed to rely. Had the government +yielded a little on some political points, and made some changes in the +administration, Louis Philippe might have been living at the Tuileries +at this very moment, or sleeping at St. Denis. But, insanely obstinate, +under dominion of the venerable delusion that obstinacy is firmness, the +King fell, and with him fell, not merely his own dynasty, but the whole +system of government which France had known for a generation, and +under which she was, painfully and slowly, yet with apparent sureness, +becoming a constitutional state. A warm political contest was converted +into a revolution scarcely less complete than that of 1789, and far more +sweeping than that of 1830. Perhaps there would have been little to +regret in this, had it not been, that, instead of devoting their +talents to the establishing of a stable republican government, several +distinguished Frenchmen, whom we never can think capable of believing +the nonsense they uttered, began to labor to bring about a sort of +social Arcadia, in which all men were to be made happy, and which was to +be based on contempt for political economy and defiance of common +sense. Property, with its usual sensitiveness, took the alarm, and the +Parisians soon had one another by the throat. How well founded was +this alarm, it would be difficult to say. Most likely it was grossly +exaggerated, and had no facts of importance to go upon. That among the +disciples of M. Louis Blanc there were gentlemen who had no respect for +other men's property, because they had no property of their own, it is +quite safe to believe; but that they had any fixed ideas about seizing +property, or of providing labor at high wages for workmen, it would be +impossible to believe, even if Albert, _ouvrier_, that most mythical +of revolutionists, were to make solemn affidavit of it on the works of +Aurora Dudevant. Some vague ideas about relieving the wants of the poor, +Louis Blanc and his associates had, just as all men have them who have +heads to see and hearts to feel the existence of social evils. Had they +obtained possession of the French government, immediately after Louis +Philippe, to use his own words, had played the part of Charles X., they +would have failed utterly, as Lamartine and his friends failed, and much +sooner too. Lamartine failed as a statesman,--he lacked that power +to govern which far less able men than he have exhibited under +circumstances even more trying than those into which he so unguardedly +plunged,--and Louis Blanc would have been no more successful than the +poet. The failure of the "Reds" would have been the more complete, +if they had had an opportunity to attempt the realization of the +Socialistic theories attributed to them, but which few of their number +could ever have entertained. They sought political power for the usual +purposes; but as they stood in the way of several other parties, those +parties united to crush them, which was done in "the Days of June." It +is easy to give a fallen enemy a bad name, and the conquered party on +that occasion were stigmatized as the enemies of everything that men +hold dear, particular emphasis being laid on their enmity to property, +which men hold dearer than all other things combined. The belief seems +to have been all but universal throughout Europe, and to have been +shared by many Americans, that the party which was conquered in the +streets of Paris by Cavaignac was really an organization against +property, which it meant to steal, and so afford a lively illustration +of the doctrine attributed to it, that property is theft. To this +belief, absurd as it was, must we look for the whole course of European +history during the last ten years. The restoration of the Napoleonic +dynasty in France, the restoration of the Papacy by French soldiers, the +reestablishment of Austrian ascendency over Italy, and the invasion of +Hungary by the Russians,--these and other important events that have +happened under our eyes, and which have enabled us to see history in the +making on a large scale, all are directly traceable to the alarm which +property experienced immediately after the class of property-holders had +allowed the Revolution of February to take place, and to sweep away that +dynasty in which their principles stood incarnate. The French imperial +throne is in an especial manner the result of that alarm. When +General Cavaignac had succeeded in conquering the "Reds," a military +dictatorship followed his victory as a matter of course, and it remained +with him to settle the future of France. The principles of his family +led him to sympathize with the "oppressed nationalities" which were +then struggling in so many places for freedom; and had he interfered +decidedly in behalf of the Italians and Hungarians, he would have +changed the fate of Europe. He would have become the hero of the great +_political_ movement which his country had inaugurated, and his sword +would have outweighed the batons of Radetzky and Paskevitsch. Both +principle and selfishness pointed to such intervention, and there can be +no doubt that the Republican Dictator seriously thought of it. But the +peculiarities of his position forbade his following the path that was +pointed out to him. As the champion of property, as the chief of the +coalesced parties which had triumphed over "the enemies of property" in +the streets and lanes of "the capital of civilization," he was required +to concentrate his energies on domestic matters. Yet further: all men in +other countries who were contending with governments were looked upon by +the property party in France as the enemies of order, as Agrarians, who +were seeking the destruction of society, and therefore were not worthy +of either the assistance or the sympathy of France; so that the son of +the old Conventionist of '93 was forced, by the views of the men of whom +he so strangely found himself the chief, to become in effect the ally of +the Austrian Kaiser and the Russian Czar. The Italians, who were seeking +only to get rid of "barbarian" rule, and the Hungarians, who were +contending for the preservation of a polity as old as the English +Constitution against the destructives of the imperial court, were held +up to the world as men desirous in their zeal for revolution to overturn +all existing institutions! Aristocrats with pedigrees that shamed those +of the Bourbon and the Romanoff were spoken of in language that might +possibly have been applicable to the lazzaroni of Naples, that lazzaroni +being on the side of the "law and order" classes. As General Cavaignac +did nothing to win the affections of the French people, as he was the +mere agent of men rendered fierce by fear, it cannot be regarded as +strange, that, when the Presidential election took place, he found +himself nowhere in the race with Louis Napoleon. He was deserted even by +a large portion of the men whose work he had done so well, but who +saw in the new candidate for their favor one who could become a more +powerful protector of property than the African general,--one who had a +name of weight, not merely with the army, but with that multitudinous +peasant class from which the French army is mainly conscribed, and +which, containing numerous small property-holders, is fanatically +attached to the name of Napoleon. Thus the cry of "Property in danger" +ended, in 1851, in the restoration of open despotism, which every +sensible observer of French affairs expected after Louis Napoleon was +made President, his Presidency being looked upon only as a pinch-beck +imitation of the Consulate of 1799-1804. This is the ordinary course +of events in old countries: revolution, fears of Agrarianism, and +the rushing into the jaws of the lion in order to be saved from the +devouring designs of a ghost. + +Those who recollect the political literature of the years that passed +between the Revolution of February and the commencement of those +disputes which eventuated in the Russian War must blush for humanity. +Writers of every class set themselves about the work of exterminating +Agrarianism in France. Grave arguments, pathetic appeals, and lively +ridicule were all made use of to drive off enemies of whose coming upon +Europe there was no more danger than of a return of the Teutones and the +Cimbri. Had the arguments and adjurations of the clever men who waged +war on the Agrarians been addressed to the dust of the Teutones +whom Marius exterminated in Provence, they could not have been more +completely thrown away than they were. Some of these men, however, were +less distinguished for cleverness than for malignity, and shrieked for +blood and the display of brute force in terms that would have done +dishonor even to a St. Bartholomew assassin or anti-Albigensian +crusader. Monsieur Romieu held up _Le Spectre Rouge_ to the eyes of a +generation incapable, from fright, of distinguishing between a scarecrow +and the Apollo. The Red Spectre haunted him, and the people for whom he +wrote, as relentlessly as the Gray Spectre came upon the chiefs of Ivor. +He saw in the working classes--those men who asked then, as in modern +times they have only asked, "leave to toil"--millions of creatures +"regimented by hatred," and ready to throw themselves upon society. In +the past he saw nothing so much to be admired as the Feudal System, it +was so very summary and trenchant in its modes of dealing with masses +of men so unreasonable as to grumble when they were starving. In the +present, all that he could reverence was the cannonarchy of Russia, +which he invoked to restore to France that golden age in which Crecy and +Poictiers were fought, and when the Jacquerie illustrated the attachment +of the serf to the seigneur. How this invoker of Cossacks and cannon +from the Don and the Neva "to regulate the questions of our age" on the +Seine and the Marne would have stared, could the curtain that hides the +future have been drawn for a moment, to allow him to see a quarter of a +million of French, English, and Italian soldiers on the shores of the +Euxine, and eight hundred Western cannon raining that "hell-fire" upon +the august city of Catherine under which it became a heap of ruins! Yet +the man was undoubtedly sincere, as political fools almost invariably +are. He had faith in nothing but armies and forts, but his faith in +them was of the firmest. He despised the Bourbons and the _bourgeoisie_ +alike, and would be satisfied with nothing short of a national chief +as irresponsible as Tamerlane; and if he should be as truculent as +Tamerlane, it was not difficult to see that M. Romieu would like him all +the better for it. Your true fanatic loves blood, and is provokingly +ingenious in showing how necessary it is that you should submit calmly +to have your throat cut for the good of society. M. Marat was a logician +of this sort, and M. Romieu is, after all, only a pale imitator of the +cracked horse-leech; but as he wrote in the interest of "order," and for +the preservation of property, we rarely hear of his thirst for blood. +Had he been a disciple of Marat, his words would have been quoted +annually in every abode of civilized men from Sacramento to Astrachan, +as evidence of the desire of popular leaders to lap blood. + +What has become of M. Romieu, and how he took Louis Napoleon's energetic +measures for laying the Red Ghost in the blood of aristocrats as well as +of democrats, we know not. He ought to have been charmed with the _coup +d'etat_; for the man who conceived and executed that measure for his +own benefit professed to act only for the benefit of society, the +maintenance of the rights of property being kept by him especially in +view. He, too, charged his enemies, or those whom he thought endowed +with the desire and the ability to resist him, with Agrarianism; and +such Agrarians as Thiers and Cavaignac were seized in their beds, and +imprisoned,--to prevent their running away with the Great Book of +France, one is at liberty to suppose. There was something shockingly +ludicrous in charging the hero and victor of the Days of June with +designs against property; but the charge may have led Cavaignac to have +doubts whether he had not himself been a little too ready to believe +the charge of Agrarianism when preferred against a large number of the +people of France, whom he had treated with grape-shot by way of teaching +them respect for the rights of property. There is nothing like bringing +injustice home to a man to open his eyes to its evil nature. Of all +public men of our generation who have signally failed, Cavaignac must +be held the most unfortunate; for his intentions were excellent, and he +died just as circumstances were about to afford him an opportunity to +retrieve his fame. His last days must have been the reverse of agreeable +in their retrospect; for it must constantly have been forced upon his +mind that he had been made the chief instrument in the work of fastening +upon the country he loved the most odious of the many despotic +governments it has known,--a government that confesses its inability to +stand against the "paper shot" of journalists, and which has shackled +the press after the fashion of Austrian and Russian dynasties; and all +this had taken place, as he must have seen in his retirement, as the +consequence of his having mistaken the voice of a party for the voice +of France. The lesson is one that ought to go home to the hearts of all +public men, and to those of American statesmen in particular, some +of the ablest of whom are now engaged in doing the behests of an +oligarchical faction in the name of the interests of property. + + * * * * * + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued] + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +A slow and weary walk had Mr. Lindsay from the station to his house. It +was after sunset, dark and cold, as he turned in at the gate. The house +was dimly lighted, and no one save the Newfoundland dog came to greet +him at the door. He did not hear his daughter singing as she was +accustomed at evening. There were no pleasant voices, no light and +cheerful steps in the rooms. All was silence. The ill news had preceded +him. His wife without a word fell on his bosom and wept. Clara kept her +seat, trying in vain, while her lip quivered and her eyes dimmed, to fix +her attention upon the magazine she had held rather than read. At length +Mr. Lindsay led his wife to the sofa and sat beside her, holding +her hand with a tenderness that was as soothing as it was uncommon. +Prosperity had not hardened his heart, but business had preoccupied it; +though his manner had been kind, his family had rarely seen in him any +evidence of feeling. + +Misfortune had now brought back the rule of his better nature, and the +routine life he had led was at an end. + +"My dear wife, what I have most dreaded in this crash is the pain, the +anxiety, and the possible discomfort it would bring to you and to Clara. +For myself I care nothing. It is a hard trial, but I shall conform to +our altered circumstances cheerfully." + +"And so shall we, father," said Clara. "We shall be happy with you +anywhere." + +"One thing, I am sure, you can never lose," said Mrs. Lindsay,--"and +that is an honorable name." + +"I have tried to do my duty. I gave up only when I found I must. But my +duty is not yet done." + +"Why, father?" + +"My creditors have claims which I regard as sacred, and which must be +paid, ultimately, at whatever sacrifice." + +"Won't the property at the store be enough when you can sell it?" asked +Mrs. Lindsay. "You have spoken of the quantity of goods you had on +hand." + +"I can't say, my dear. It depends upon how much time I have. If I could +have effected sales, I should have been safe." + +"If they have the goods, won't they be satisfied?" asked Clara. + +"You don't understand, my daughter, that all I have is at their command. +If the property does not liquidate the debts, then the house, the +carriage and horses, the furniture, the"---- + +The possible surrender of all that had made life pleasant to his family +was not to be considered without emotion, and Mr. Lindsay found himself +unable to finish the sentence. + +"Dear father!" exclaimed Clara, seizing and kissing his hand, as she sat +down at his feet,--"you are just and noble. We could not be selfish or +complaining when we think of you. Let everything go. I love the dear old +house, the garden that has been your pride, the books and pictures; but +we shall be nearer together--shan't we, papa?--in a cottage. If they do +sell my piano, I can still sing to you; nobody can take that pleasure +from us." + +"Bless you, my daughter! I feel relieved,--almost happy. Your cheerful +heart has given me new courage. Perhaps we shall not have to make the +sacrifices I dread. Whatever happens, my darling, your piano shall be +kept. I will sell my watch first. Your music will be twice as dear in +our days of adversity." + +"Yes, papa,--if we keep the piano, I can give lessons." + +"You give lessons? Nonsense! But get up, pussy; here, sit on my knee." + +He fondled her like a child, and they all smiled through their +tears,--heavenly smiles! blissful tears! full of a feeling of which the +heart in prosperous days has no conception! + +"One thing has happened to-day," said Mr. Lindsay, "that I shall never +forget,--an action so generous and self-forgetful that it makes one +think better of mankind. I remember hearing a preacher say that no +family knew all their capabilities of love until death had taken one of +their number,--not their love for the dead, but their deeper affection +for each other after the loss. I suppose every calamity brings its +compensations in developing noble traits of character; and it is almost +an offset to failure itself to have such an overflowing feeling as +this,--to know that there are so many sympathizing hearts. But what I +was going to speak of was the conduct of my clerk, Monroe. He is a fine +fellow,--rather more given to pictures and books and music than is good +for a business man; but with a clear head, a man's energy, and a woman's +heart. He has a widowed mother, whom he supports. I never knew he had +any property till to-day. It seems his father left ten thousand dollars. +He knew that my situation was desperate, and yet he offered me his all. +It would only have put off the day of failure; but I was selfish enough +to be willing to take it. He had deposited the securities for the amount +with Sandford, who first borrowed money in the street by pledging them, +and then failed to-day. Monroe has lost his all; but his intention was +as noble as if he had saved me. I shall never forget it; and as long as +I have a dollar he shall share it." + +"What a noble fellow!" said Mrs. Lindsay. "How pleasant to think that in +this terrible scramble for life there are some who have not lost their +humanity, nor trampled down their finer feelings!" + +"I couldn't but contrast this kindness on the part of a clerk, for whom +I have never done anything beyond paying him his well-earned salary, +with the conduct of Mr. Bullion. I gave him my indorsement repeatedly, +and assisted him in procuring loans, when he was not so rich as he is +now. I know he has resources, ready money,--money that he does not need +for any outstanding debts, but which he must keep for speculation. But +he refused to do anything. 'Couldn't,' he said, 'really; times were +hard; everybody wanted to borrow; couldn't lend to everybody; hadn't the +funds; much as he could do to stand up himself.' There was no sincerity +in his look. I saw his soul skulking away behind his subterfuges like a +spider in the depths of his flimsy web. He seems to thrive, however, in +the midst of general ruin. I've no doubt he lives like a vulture, on the +dead and dying." + +"Is Mr. Bullion that short man, father, with the cold eyes and gruff +voice, and the queer eyebrow which he seems to poke at people?" + +"Yes, my daughter, that is the man." + +"Well, I'm sure, he is coarse, disagreeable, hard-hearted. I'm glad you +are not under obligations to him." + +"My only regret is that I had the mortification of being refused. I wish +I had never asked him. I can't think of his look and tone without a pang +of shame, or wounded pride, if you choose to call it so, harder to +bear than a blow in the face. I had a claim upon his gratitude, but he +remembers a favor no more than a wolf does the mutton he ate a year +ago.--But enough of business. The bitterness has passed since we have +talked together. Let us be cheerful. Come, Clara, sing some of those +sweet old ballads!" + +From her infancy until now in her twentieth year, Clara had been +constantly with her father,--but she had never known him before. + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Early next morning the officer in charge of Mr. Sandford's house was +relieved by a brother constable. Number Two was a much more civil person +in speech and manner than Number One; in fact, he speedily made himself +so agreeable to the housemaid that she brought him a cup of coffee, and +looked admiringly while he swallowed it. By the time Mrs. Sandford and +Marcia came down to breakfast, he had established an intimacy with Biddy +that was quite charming to look upon. One would have thought he was an +old friend of the household,--a favored crony; such an easy, familiar +air he assumed. He accosted the ladies with great gallantry,--assured +them that they were looking finely,--hoped they had passed a pleasant +night, and that Number One had given them no unnecessary inconvenience. +Marcia met him with a haughty stare which nobody but a woman of fashion +can assume. Turning to Mrs. Sandford, she exclaimed,-- + +"Who is this fellow?" + +Number Two hastened to answer for himself:-- + +"My name, Ma'am, is Scarum, Harum Scarum some of the young lawyers call +me. Ha!" (_A single laugh, staccato_.) + +"Well, Mr. Scarum, you can keep your compliments for those who +appreciate them. Come, Lydia, let us go down to breakfast. The presuming +fool!" she exclaimed, as she passed through the hall,--"he's worse +than the other. One can put up with a coarse man, if he minds his own +business; but an impudent, self-satisfied fellow must be made to know +his place." + +"High-strung filly! ha!" (_Sforzando_.) + +"May have to speak to common folks, yet,--eh, Miss Bridget?" + +But farther conversation was interrupted for the time. Bridget was +summoned by the bell to the dining-room, and gallant Number Two was left +alone in the parlor. Meanwhile he surveyed the room as minutely as if +it had been a museum,--trying the rocking-chair, examining pictures, +snapping vases with his unpared nails, opening costly books, smelling of +scent-bottles, scanning the anti-Macassars and the Berlin-wool mats. At +last he opened the piano, and, in a lamentably halting style, played, +"Then you'll remember me," using only a forefinger in the performance. +He sang at the same time in a suppressed tone, while he cast agonizing +looks at an imaginary obdurate female, supposed to be on the sofa, +occasionally glancing with admiration in the mirror at the intensely +pathetic look his features wore. + +Marcia, meanwhile, had borne the noise as long as she could; so Biddy +was dispatched to ask the singer if he would not _please_ to do his +practising at some other time. + +"Practising, indeed!" exclaimed Number Two, indignantly, upon receiving +the message. "There are people who think I can sing. These women, +likely, a'n't cultivated enough to appreciate the 'way-up music. They're +about up to that hand-organ stuff of Sig-ner Rossyni, likely. They +can't understand Balfy; they a'n't up to it. What do _you_ think, Miss +Bridget? Nice figger, that of yours." (_Sotto voce_.) "None of the +tall, spindlin', wasp-waisted, race-horse style about you, like that" +(pointing down-stairs). "A good plump woman for me! and a woman with an +ear, too! Now _you_ know what good singin' is. I led the choir down to +Jorumville 'bove six months b'fore I come down here and went into the +law. But _she_ thinks I was practising! Ha!" (_Sempre staccato_.) + +"La! did ye?" said the admiring Biddy. + +Tinkle, tinkle, again. Biddy was now summoned to call Charles, and see +if he would breakfast. Number Two made another tour of the room, with +new discoveries. While absorbed in this pleasing employment, the two +women passed upstairs. Marcia could not restrain herself, as she saw him +with her favorite bird-of-paradise fan. + +"Don't spoil those feathers, you meddlesome creature!" + +"Beg your pardon, Ma'am" (with an elaborate bow). "Merely admirin' the +colors. Pretty sort of a thing, this 'ere! 'Most too light and fuzzy for +a duster, a'n't it? Feathers ben dyed, most likely? Willin' to 'bleege +the fair, however, especially one so handsome." (Rubbing it on his +coat-sleeve.) "Guess't a'n't got dirty any." + +Charles, meanwhile, had risen and dressed, and came out when Bridget +knocked; a spectacle, indeed,--a walking sermon on the perils that may +follow what are termed "good times." His face would have been pale, +except that his nose, which was as puffy as an _omelette soufflee_, and +his left eye with a drooping lid sustained by a livid crescent, gave it +a rubicund expression. His knees were shaky, his pulse feeble, his head +top-heavy. He declined assistance rather sulkily, and descended holding +by the stair-rail and stepping gingerly. Number Two, in spite of his +genial, unruffled temper, could not repress his surprise, as the +apparition passed the parlor-door. + +"A rum customer! Ha!" (_Con anima_.) + +Before the repentant owner of the puffy nose and purple eyelid had +finished his solitary breakfast, Mr. Sandford came home. He had obtained +bail and was at large. Looking hastily into the parlor, he saw +a stranger, with his hat jauntily on one side, seated in the +damask-covered chair, with his feet on an embroidered ottoman, turning +over a bound collection of sea-mosses, and Marcia's guitar lying across +his lap. He was dumb with astonishment. Polite Number Two did not leave +him to burst in ignorance. + +"All right. Mr. Sandford, I suppose. An 'tachment put on, and I'm +keeper. Sorry to disturb a family. But somebody has to. Can I do anything +to obleege you?" + +"Yes, by laying down that book which you are spoiling. And you may take +your greasy boots off that worsted-work, and put the stopper into that +Bohemian-glass bottle." + +"Beg your pardon, Sir. Didn't intend to make trouble. Boots has to be +greased, you know, else they crack all out, an' don't last no time; mine +do. This 'ere Cologne is nice, to be sure. I jest poured out a bit on my +pocket-handkercher." + +"Cologne! It's attar of roses; and you've spilled more than your neck is +worth,--taking yourself at your own valuation." + +"Why, you don't say this is high-cost? It does smell good, though, ha!" + +As he started to go up-stairs, Mr. Sandford saw the linen carpet-cover +spattered with frequent drops of blood. He called aloud to his sister,-- + +"Marcia! are you there? alive? What's the meaning of this blood? Who has +been murdered? Or is this turned into a butcher's shop?" + +Marcia and her sister-in-law descended, and hurriedly explained the +mystery. While they were standing at the head of the stairs, Charles +made his appearance, and received such congratulations from his brother +as might be expected. He vouchsafed no word of reply, but went into +the room where he had slept to get some article he had left. A sudden +thought struck Mr. Sandford. He followed Charles into the room, and in a +moment after returned,--but so changed! Imagine Captain Absolute at +the duelling-ground turned in a twinkling into Bob Acres, Lucy Bertram +putting on the frenzied look of Meg Merrilies, or the even-tempered +Gratiano metamorphosed into the horror-stricken, despairing Shylock +at the moment he hears his sentence, and you have some notion of the +expression which Sandford's face wore. His eyes were fixed like baleful +lights in a haggard, corpse-like countenance. His hair was disordered. +He clutched his cravat as though suffocating. His voice was gone; he +whispered feebly, like one of Ossian's ghosts,-- + +"Gone! gone! Who has it? Marcia! Lydia! Charles! Who's got it? Quick! +The money! Gone?" + +He rushed into the room again, deaf to any reply. He got upon his hands +and knees, looked under the bed, the wardrobe, the dressing-table, the +chairs, muttering all the while with a voice like a dying man's. He rose +up, staggering, and seized Marcia by the arm, who trembled with terror +at his ferocity. + +"The money! Give me the money! You've got it! You know you have! Give it +to me! Give"-- + +"Pray, be calm," said Mrs. Sandford; "you shall know all about it." + +"I don't want to know," he almost screamed; "I want the money, the +money!" + +Then dropping his voice to a lower key, and with a tone which was meant +to be wheedling, he turned to his sister-in-law:-- + +"You've got it, then? How you frightened me! Come, dear sister! don't +trifle with me. I'm poor, very poor, and the little sum seems large. +Give it to me. Let me see that it is safe. _Dear_ sister!" + +"I haven't it," said Mrs. Sandford, "But compose yourself. You shall +know about it." + +He cried audibly, like a sickly child. + +"It isn't gone? No, you play upon my fears. Where is the pocket-book?" + +"How are you ever going to know, if you won't hear?" asked Marcia. "I +wouldn't be so unmanly as to whine so even about a million." + +"No, you think money is as plenty as buttons. Wait till you +starve,--starve,--till you beg on a street-crossing." + +"Listen," said Mrs. Sandford. + +"Do, and stop your groaning like a madman," said Marcia, consolingly. +"When Charles met with his mishap and fell senseless, we asked the +officer to carry him up-stairs. Rather than go up another flight, we had +him taken into your chamber. Your dressing-case lay on the table, in +the middle of the room, away from its usual place by the mirror. The +officer at once seized and opened it. You had carelessly left your money +in it. He was evidently informed of the fact that you had money, and was +directed to attach it. He counted the package before me, and then put it +into his pocket." + +During this recital, Mr. Sandford's breath came quick and his eyes +opened wider. His muscles all at once seemed charged with electricity. +He dashed down-stairs, half-a-dozen steps at a time, and pounced upon +unlucky Number Two, who, with the captivated Biddy, was leaning at the +parlor-door, listening to the conversation above. Seizing the officer by +the throat, Sandford shouted huskily,-- + +"Robber! thief! Give up that money! How dare you? Give it up, I say!" + +Number Two could not answer, for his windpipe was mortally squeezed +under the iron grip of his adversary; therefore, as the only reply he +could make, he commenced the manual exercise right and left, and with +such effect, that Sandford loosened his hold and staggered back. + +"There! I guess you've got enough on't. What ye talkin' about money? I +a'n't got any of your money." + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Sandford, who had followed the infuriated man, though +necessarily at some distance, came and grasped his arm. + +"The man who seized the money is gone," she said. "This is the one who +takes his place." + +Sandford was speechless,--but not long. While hope remained, he had +whined, begged, cried, implored. Now that he was baffled, discomfited, +ruined, his rage broke out. The placid gentleman, whose glossy garb and +quiet air a day before made such a picture of content, would hardly +be recognized in this furious, gesticulating lunatic, whose oaths and +objurgations came belching forth like sulphurous flames. It was on his +gentle sister-in-law that the weight of his wrath fell. She tried to +pacify him, until she became actually alarmed for her safety, and turned +to fly. + +"Go!" he exclaimed. "You've done enough. You've ruined me. Pack off! +You've beggared me. Now look out for yourself! Don't let me see your +face again!" + +Trembling and tearful, Mrs. Sandford went to her room to gather +her wardrobe. She had not intended to remain a burden upon her +brother-in-law. Now she must go at once. Even if he were to repent of +his blind rage and ask her forgiveness, she felt that there was an +impassable gulf between them. + +During the confusion that followed, Number Two, feeling hungry, went +down with Biddy to lunch. + +"It's about the last ov it here, Sirr," said the girl, "an' we may as +well ate what is good and drink something betther than cold wather." + +So saying, the best the house afforded was set out;--wines of rare +vintages were uncorked, and glasses hob-a-nobbed. + +Mr. Sandford, exhausted with his delirium, went to his room, and there +languidly paced the floor back and forth, without cessation, like a +caged white bear in midsummer. Charles crawled up to his own bed. Marcia +remained in the parlor, her busy brain turning over the unusual events +of the day, and wondering what loop-hole of escape from their present +difficulties could be found. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The door-bell rang. Biddy, occupied with her pleasing duties as hostess, +and flushed with drinking crusty old Port and "Lafitte 1844," did not +hear. Some sudden impulse or vague prescience moved Marcia to open the +door herself. It was Greenleaf. Notwithstanding the untoward state of +affairs, she could not deny herself the pleasure of meeting him, and +ushered him into the parlor, then fortunately vacant. + +A cooler observer would have noticed something peculiar in his carriage +as he crossed the hall,--an unnatural pallor, a sharpness in the angles +of his mouth, a quicker respiration, and a look of mingled firmness and +sorrow in his eyes. A stranger might have thought him in a state of +chronic nervous irritability or mild insanity. And truly, a sensitive +man, perplexed between conflicting duties, spurred by conscience, yet +wanting in courage to do its bidding, presents a pitiable spectacle; it +is a position of sharp suspense which no mind can hold long;--relief +must come, in heartbreak or darkness, if in no other way. + +When Greenleaf parted from Marcia, the morning before, he intended to +wait a week at least before telling her of his changed feelings. He did +not know what a burden he had undertaken to carry; he staggered under +it, like the pilgrim in Bunyan's immortal story. Besides, after he had +once come to a determination, he was impatient to see Alice and implore +her forgiveness. Minutes were days while he waited. To pass a week in +this way was not to be thought of, unless by means of ether or mesmerism +he could fly from himself and find peace in oblivion. + +"My dear George," Marcia began, "it is so kind of you to come with your +sympathy! We are dreadfully cast down. What is to be done I don't know." + +"You surprise me! What has happened? I have scarcely been out of my +studio since I last saw you." + +"But it's in all the papers!" + +"I haven't seen a paper." + +"What I told you yesterday has come to pass. Henry has failed; so +has the Vortex,--and Mr. Fayerweather, the President,--and Mr. +Stearine,--and everybody else, I believe. We shall probably leave the +house and take lodgings." + +Every word was a pang to Greenleaf. Again his heart, full of sympathy +for the woman's distress, whispered, "Wait! don't wound the stricken +deer!" But he hugged his resolve and steeled himself against pity. + +"I am truly sorry to hear of your brother's misfortunes. But with his +talents and reputation, and with his troops of friends in business +circles as well as in the various charitable societies, it cannot be +that he will long be depressed. He will work his way back to his old +position, or even a higher one." + +Marcia shook her head doubtfully. She had not heard the rumors affecting +her brother's integrity, but she saw that his manly resolution was gone, +that he was vascillating, broken-spirited, and needed but little more +trouble to make him imbecile. + +"I was thinking of a case of conscience, as I came here," said +Greenleaf. "It was, How far a promise is binding, when it involves a +lasting and irretrievable wrong in its fulfilment." + +Marcia looked at him in dumb astonishment. He continued:-- + +"Suppose that you were to find, by-and-by, that your affections had +cooled towards me,--that you discovered incompatabilities of taste and +temper,--that you felt sure a true union of souls was impossible,--that +marriage would be only a mockery?" + +"Dear George, how you frighten me! Why do you ask such dreadful +questions in such a solemn way? You know I love you, heart and soul." + +"But consider the question as an abstract one. I ask you only to suppose +the case. Should you thrust conscience into the cellar, stifle its +outcries, and give your consent to a profanation of holy wedlock?" + +"I can't suppose the case. And I don't see the use of torturing one's +self with imaginary evils. The real troubles of life are quite enough to +bear." + +"I know such a case. I know a man who has to decide it. It is not a +light matter for any man, and his is a soul as sensitive as God ever +made. He was betrothed to a woman every way worthy; he loved her +sincerely. His chief fault, and a serious one it is, came from his +susceptibility to fresh impressions. The pleasure of the present had +more power over him than any recollections of the past. The influence of +the living woman at his side was greater, for the moment, than that of +any absent love. In an evil hour, he committed himself to another. She +was, doubtless, formed to inspire his passion and to return it. But he +was not free, and had no right to linger on forbidden ground. For weeks, +nay, months, he lived this false and wicked life, of a different mind +every day, and lacking the courage to meet the difficulty. At last he +became sure that his love belonged where his faith was due,--that, if he +would not live a wretched hypocrite, he must humble himself to confess +his criminal weakness, and return to his first engagement." + +He paused; he might well do so. Marcia, with some difficulty, was able +to say, through her chattering teeth,-- + +"You seem to take a deep interest in this weak-minded person." + +"I do,--the deepest. I am the man." + +She rose to her feet, and, looking scornfully down upon him, +exclaimed,-- + +"Then you acknowledge yourself a villain!--not from premeditation, which +would give your baseness some dignity, but a weakly fool, so tossed +about by Fate that he is made a villain without either desire or +resistance!" + +"You may overwhelm me with reproaches; I am prepared for them; I deserve +them. But God only knows through what a season of torture I have passed +to come to this determination." + +"A very ingenious story, Mr. Greenleaf! Do you suppose that the world +will believe it, the day after our losses? Do you expect me to believe +it, even?" + +"I told you that I had not heard of the failure. I am in the habit of +being believed." + +"For instance, when you vowed that you loved me, and me only!" + +"You may spare your taunts. But, to show you how mercenary I am, let me +assure you that the woman to whom my word is pledged, and to whom I must +return, is without any property or expectations." + +"Very well, Sir," said Marcia, rubbing her hands, in the endeavor to +conceal her agitation; "we need not waste words. After what you have +told me, I could only despise such a whiffler,--a scrap of refuse iron +at the mercy of any magnet,--a miller dashing into every fight. A lover +so helpless must needs have some new passional attraction--that is the +phrase, I believe--with every changing moon. The man I love should be +made of different stuff." She drew her figure up proudly, and her lips +curled like a beautiful fiend's. "He should bury the disgraceful secret, +if he had it, in his heart, and carry it to his grave. He would not cry +out like a boy with a cut finger." + +"Precisely, Miss Sandford. And for that reason you would be no mate for +me. My wife must have no skeletons in her closet." + +"Men generally claim the monopoly of those agreeable toys, I believe." + +"Love is impossible where there are concealments. A secret is like a +worm in the heart of an apple, and nothing but rottenness and corruption +follow." + +"Fortunately, you harbor none. You have turned your heart inside out, +like a peddler's pack,--and a gratifying display it made! I am more than +satisfied." + +"The tone you have adopted is a warning to me to stop. I wish to bandy +no epithets, or reproaches. I came sorrowfully to tell you what I have +told. I had no fault to impute to you. But I must confess that this +morning you have shown yourself capable of thoughts and feelings I never +suspected, and I shall leave you with a far lighter heart than I came." + +"You expected to see me at your feet, imploring your love and striving +to melt you by tears,--did you? It would have been a pleasing +triumph,--one that your sex prizes, I believe; but you have not been +gratified. I know what is due to myself, and I do not stoop. But there +may be ways to punish the betrayer of confidence," she said, with a +heaving bosom and distended nostrils. "I have a brother; and even if he +is forgetful, I shall not forget." + +"I am obliged to you for putting me on my guard. I wished to part +otherwise. Be it so, since you will." + +He turned to leave the room. Swift as lightning, she ran to the front +door and braced herself against it, at the same time calling loudly to +her brother. Mr. Sandford came to the top of the stairs and listened +with apparent apathy, while the maddened woman poured out her rage. He +stood a moment like one in a dream, and then slowly came down. + +"There is your cane," said Marcia, fiercely, pointing to the +umbrella-stand. + +"I give you fair warning," said Greenleaf, calmly, "that you will never +strike more than one blow. No man shall assault me but at the risk of +his life." + +"What is the need of this fury?" asked Mr. Sandford. "I don't want +to quarrel with a pauper. You are well rid of him. If you were to be +married, you'd only have the pleasure of going to Deer Island for your +bridal trip." + +"Then you will see me insulted without lifting a finger? Coward! Broken +down like a weed for the loss of a little money! I should be ashamed to +have a beard, if I had such a timid soul!" + +"I trust, Miss Sandford," said Greenleaf, "you do not wish to prolong +this scene. Let me pass." + +"Oh, yes,--you can go; can't he, brother?" + +She opened the door, looking scornfully from the one to the other. + +At that moment Mrs. Sandford came down, bringing a satchel, and asked +Greenleaf to walk with her until she could get a carriage. He cheerfully +promised his aid, and took the satchel. Her eyes were sadly beautiful, +and still humid from recent tears; and her face wore a touching look of +resignation. She did not speak to Mr. Sandford, who stood scowling at +her; but, taking Marcia's hand, she said,-- + +"Good bye, sister! I never thought to leave you in this way. I hope we +shall never see a darker hour. I shall send for my trunks presently. +Good bye!" + +"Good bye!" replied Marcia, mechanically. "You have a brave gallant! See +to it that he is not compelled by Destiny to make love to you on the +way!" + +Greenleaf, with his companion, descended the steps to the street, making +no reply to this amiable God-speed. + +Marcia shut the door, and with her brother returned to the parlor. At +the head of the stairs that led to the dining-room stood Number Two and +Biddy, who in stupid wonder had witnessed the scenes just described. + +"Bridget," exclaimed the enraged mistress, "what are you staring at? +Come here! Pah! you have been drinking! You, too, you creature!" + +Number Two bowed with maudlin politeness. + +"You-do-m'injustice, Ma'am. On'y a smallsup, a littlesup, +ponmyhonorasgen'l'man." + +"Bridget, do you pack up your baggage and be off! Rioting and feasting +in the time of our trouble! Ungrateful hussy!" + +"I'll do that same, Miss Marshy; but me waages, if ye plaze, Miss." + +"Get your wages, if you can. You've broken more crockery and glass, and +wasted more wines and preserves, than you ever earned." + +"That's always the way, Miss, I've noticed, when missuses was o' mind to +get claar of payin' the honest dues. But me brother"-- + +"Be off to your brother! But first go and cool your head under the +water-faucet." + +Muttering and whining, the disconsolate Biddy crept up to the attic for +her scanty wardrobe. + +"Here, fellow!" said Marcia to Number Two, whose foolish smiles at any +other time would have been ludicrous,--"go into the kitchen and get +sober." + +He obeyed like a spaniel. + +"Now, Henry," said Marcia, rather more composed, "let us do something at +once. It's plain that we can't live here for the house will be stripped; +and in our circumstances we would not stay, if we could. That fellow is +so far stupefied that we can save what we can carry away. If you have +any spirit left, help me pack our clothes and such things as can be put +into our trunks. Come! are you dreaming?" + +He started up and followed her like a child. With superhuman energy, +she ransacked the house and gathered the most valuable articles. Plate, +linen, dresses, Parian ware, books, furs, and jewelry were packed, +as securely as the time allowed. A carriage and a baggage-wagon were +ordered, and in an incredibly short period they were ready to start. + +"We have forgotten Charles," said Mr. Sandford. + +"True enough," said Marcia. "Go and call him; he is too handsome to be +spared from our party just now. Tell him to bring his clothes." + +The penitent came down, reluctantly; his nose was still puffy, and the +crescent under his eye rather more livid; muffled and cloaked, he +was led to the carriage. Mr. Sandford then remembered the cherished +parchment certificates and votes of thanks,--his title-deeds to +distinction. + +"Leave them," said his sister, contemptuously. "What are they good for? +A few commonplace autographs in tarnished gilt frames." + +Bridget, meanwhile, went off, threatening all sorts of reprisals on the +part of her brother, who "wouldn't see her imposed upon by the likes of +thim, not he!" From the kitchen, at intervals, came up doleful snatches +of "Then you'll remember me," interrupted by hiccoughs, and with +involuntary variations and cadenzas that would have driven "Balfy" mad. + +All was ready and they drove off. The house wherein had lived a +Benefactor of Mankind was deserted. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Greenleaf found a carriage for Mrs. Sandford, and accompanied her to a +private boarding-house, where she took lodgings; he then sent the driver +back for her trunks, and, having seen her comfortably provided for, +returned to his own rooms,--but not to remain there. He desired only to +leave a message on his door, explaining his absence. In less than an +hour he was in the railway-train, on his way to Innisfield. + +To the musing or drowsy traveller by rail how space and time are +annihilated! He is barely conscious of progress, only when the brakeman +with measured tone shouts the name of the station; he looks up from his +paper or rouses from his doze, looks out at the cheerless prospect, and +then settles himself for another thirty miles. Time passes as unobserved +as the meadows or bushy pastures that flit by the jarring window at +his ear. But with Greenleaf, the reader will believe, the case was far +different. He had never noticed before how slowly the locomotives really +moved. At each station where wood and water were to be taken, it seemed +to him the delay was interminable. His eager desire shot along the track +like electricity; and when at last he reached the place where he was to +leave the train, he had gone through a year of ordinary hopes and fears. +He mounted the stage-box and took his seat beside the buffalo-clad, +coarse-bearded, and grim driver. The road lay through a hilly country, +with many romantic views on either hand. It was late in the season to +see the full glories of autumn; but the trees were not yet bare, and in +many places the contrasts of color were exquisite. For once the driver +found his match; he had a passenger as taciturn as himself. For the +first few miles not a word was spoken, saving a few brief threats to the +horses; but at last Jehu could hold out no longer; his reputation was +in danger, if he allowed any one to be more silent than himself, and he +cautiously commenced a skirmish. + +"From Boston?" + +A nod was the only reply. + +"Belong about here?" + +"No," with a shake of the head. + +"Ben up here afore, though, I guess?" + +"Yes." + +"Thought I remembered. Year or so ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Had a great white cotton umbrill, a box like a shoe-kit, and suthin' +like a pair o' clo'es-frames?" + +Greenleaf could but smile at the description of his easel and artist's +outfit; still he contented himself with a brief assent. + +"Keeps tight as the bark to a white-oak," muttered Jehu to himself. +"Guess I'll try him on t'other side, seein' he's so offish." + +Then aloud,-- + +"Knowed Square Lee, I b'lieve?" + +"Yes," thundered Greenleaf, looking furiously at the questioner. + +The glance frightened Jehu's soul from the red-curtained windows, where +it had been peeping out, back to its hiding-place, wherever that might +be. + +"Well, yer needn't bite a feller's head off," muttered he, in the same +undertone as before. "And if ye want to keep to yerself, shet up yer +darned oyster-shell, and see how much you make by it. Not more'n four +and sixpence, I guess. Maybe you'll come back 'bout's wise as ye come." + +Thenceforward, Buffalo-coat was grim; his admonitions to the horses were +a trifle more emphatic; once he whistled a fragment of a minor stave, +but spoke not a word till the coach reached the tavern-door. + +"You can drive to Mr. Lee's house," said Greenleaf. + +"Want to go where he is?" replied Jehu, with a sardonic grin. "Wal, I'm +goin' past the meetin'us, and I'll set ye down at the graveyard." + +"What do you mean?" asked Greenleaf, between anger and terror, at this +brutal jest. + +"Why, he's dead, you know, and ben layin' up there on the side-hill a +fortnight." + +"Take me to the house, nevertheless." + +"Lee's house? 'Siah Stebbins, the lame shoemaker, he's jest moved +into't. Miss Stebbins, she can't 'commodate ye, most likely; got too +many children; a'n't over an' above neat, nuther." + +"Where is Miss Lee,--Alice,--his daughter?" + +"Wal, can't say;--gone off, I b'lieve." + +"She has relatives here, has she not?" + +"Guess not; never heerd of any." + +With a heavy heart, Greenleaf alighted at the tavern. Mr. Lee _dead_! +Alice left alone without friends, and now gone! The thought stunned, +overpowered him. While he had been treading the paths of dalliance, +forgetful of his obligations, the poor girl had passed through the great +trial of her life, the loss of her only parent and protector,--had met +the awful hour alone. Hardly conscious of what he did, he went to the +churchyard and sought for a new-made grave. The whole scene was pictured +to his imagination with startling vividness. He saw the fond father on +his death-bed, leaving the orphan to the kindness of strangers to his +blood,--the daughter weeping, disconsolate, the solitary mourner at the +funeral,--the desolate house,--the well-meant, but painful sympathy of +the villagers. He, meanwhile, who should have cheered and sustained her, +was afar off, neglectful, recreant to his vows. Could he ever forgive +himself? What would he not give for one word from the dumb lips, for one +look from the eyes now closed forever? + +But regrets were useless; his first duty was to the living; he must +hasten to find Alice. But how, where? It occurred to him that the +village lawyer was probably administrator of the estate, and could tell +him where Alice was. He went, therefore, to the lawyer's office. It was +shut, and a placard informed him that Mr. Blank was attending court +at the county-seat. The lawyer's housekeeper said that "Alice was to +Boston, with some relation or other,--a Mr. Monroe, she believed his +name was, but couldn't say for sartin. The Square could tell; but +he--wouldn't be back for three or four days." + +Leaving his card, with a request that Mr. Blank would communicate to him +Alice's address, Greenleaf hired a conveyance to the railway. He could +not remain in Innisfield an hour; it was a tomb, and the air stifled +him. On his way, he had ample opportunity to consider what a slender clue +he had to find the girl; for he thought of the long column of Monroes in +the "Directory"; and, besides, he did not feel sure that the housekeeper +had correctly remembered the name, even. + +We leave the repentant lover to follow on the track of Alice, assured +that he will receive sufficient punishment for his folly in the remorse +and anxiety he must feel. + +It is quite time that our neglected heroine should appear upon the +stage. Gentle Alice, orphaned, deserted, lonely; it is not from any +distrust as to her talents, her manners, or her figure, that she +has been made to wait so long for the callboy. The curtain rises. A +fair-haired girl of medium height, light of frame, with a face in whose +sad beauty is blended the least perceptible trace of womanly resolution. +She has borne the heaviest sorrow; for when she followed her father to +the grave she buried the last object of her love. The long, inexcusable +silence of Greenleaf had been explained to her; she now believed him +faithless, and had (not without a pang) striven to uproot his memory +from her heart. Courageous, but with more than the delicacy of her sex, +strong only in innocence and great-heartedness, mature in character and +feeling, but with fresh and tender sensibility, she appeals to all manly +and womanly sympathy. + +When the last ties that bound her to her native village were broken, she +accepted the hearty invitation of her cousin, Walter Monroe, and went +with him to Boston. The house at once became a home to her. Mrs. +Monroe received her as though she had been a daughter. Such a pretty, +motherless child,--so loving, so sincere! How could the kind woman +repress the impulse to fold her to her bosom? Not even her anxiety to +retain undivided possession of her son's heart restrained her. So Alice +lived, quiet, affectionate, but undemonstrative, as was natural after +the trials she had passed. Insensibly she became "the angel in the +house"; mother and son felt drawn to her by an irresistible attraction. +By every delicate kindness, by attention to every wish and whim, by +glances full of admiration and tenderness, both showed the power which +her beauty and goodness exerted. And, truly, she was worthy of the +homage. The younger men who saw her were set aflame at once, or sighed +afar in despair; while the elderly felt an unaccountable desire to pat +her golden head, pinch her softly-rounded cheek, and call her such +pet-names as their fatherly character and gray hair allowed. + +Fate had not yet done its worst; there were other troubles in store for +the orphan. She knew little of her kinsman's circumstances, but supposed +him to be at least beyond the reach of want. But not many days passed +before the failure of Sandford deprived him of his little patrimony, and +the suspension of Mr. Lindsay left him without employment. That evening, +when Walter came home, she unwillingly heard the conversation between +him and his mother in an adjoining room; and then she knew that her +kind friends were destitute. Her resolution was at once formed. With +as cheerful an air as she could assume, she took her place at the +tea-table, and in the conversation afterwards strove to hide her +desolate heart-sickness. On going to her room, she packed her simple +wardrobe, not without many tears, and then, with only indifferent +success, tried to compose her scattered senses in sleep. + +Next morning she strove to appear calm and cheerful, but a close +scrutiny might have detected the effort,--a deeper sorrow, perhaps, +about the heavy eyelids, and certainly a firmer pressure of the +sometimes tremulous lips. But Walter was too much occupied with the +conflict of his own feelings to observe her closely. While his mother +was engaged in her housewifely duties, he took Alice's hand, and for +the first time spoke of his losses, but expressed himself confident of +obtaining a new situation, and begged her to dismiss any apprehensions +from her mind. She turned her face that he might not see the springing +tears. He went on:-- + +"The sharpest pang I feel, Alice, is in the thought, that, with the loss +of my little fortune, and with my present gloomy prospects, I cannot say +to you what I would,--I cannot tell you what is nearest my heart. Since +you came here, our sombre house has grown bright. As I have looked at +you, I have dared to promise myself a happiness which before I had never +conceived possible." + +He hesitated. + +"Don't, dear Walter! I beg of you, don't venture upon that subject!" + +"Why? is it painful to you?" + +"Inexpressibly! You are generous and good. I love and honor you as my +cousin, my friend, my protector. Do not think of a nearer relationship." + +Walter stood irresolute. + +"Some other time, dear Alice," he faltered out. "I don't wish to pain +you, and I have no courage to-day." + +"Let me be frank, Cousin Walter. Under other circumstances, I would +not anticipate the words I saw trembling on your lips. But even if the +memory of my poor father were not so fresh, I could not hear you." +She hid her face as she went on. "I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover which never will heal. I could not repay your +love. I have no heart to give you." + +Thus far she had controlled her feelings, when, kissing his hand with +sudden fervor, she burst into tears, and hastily left the room. + +She waited till Walter went out; then she wrote a brief note and placed +it on the library-table at his favorite corner, and, after bidding Mrs. +Monroe good morning, went out as though for a walk. Frequently she +looked back with tearful eyes at the home she felt constrained to leave; +but gathering her strength, she turned away and plunged into the current +that set down Washington Street. + +Brave Heart! alone in a great city, whose people were too much engrossed +with their own distresses and apprehensions to give heed to the +sufferings of others! Alone among strangers, she must seek a home and +the means of support. Who would receive an unknown, friendless girl? Who, +in the terrible palsy of trade, would furnish her employment? + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +There was naturally great surprise when Walter Monroe returned home to +dinner and Alice was found to be missing. It was evident that it was +not an accidental detention, for her trunk had been sent for an hour +previous, and the messenger either could not or would not give any +information as to her whereabouts. Mrs. Monroe was excessively +agitated,--her faculties lost in a maze, like one beholding an accident +without power of thought or motion. To Walter it was a heavy blow; he +feared that his own advances had been the occasion of her leaving the +house, and he reproached himself bitterly for his headlong folly. Their +dinner was a sad and cheerless meal; the mother feeling all a woman's +solicitude for a friendless girl; the son filled with a tumult of +sorrow, remorse, love, and pity. + +"Poor Alice!" said Mrs. Monroe; "perhaps she has found no home." + +"Don't, mother! The thought of her in the streets, or among suspicious +strangers, or vulgar people, is dreadful. We must leave no means untried +to find her. Did she leave no word, no note?" + +"No,--none that I know of." + +"Have you looked?" + +She shook her head. Walter left his untasted food, and hastily looked in +the hall, then in the parlor, and at last in the library. There was the +note in her own delicate hand. + +"DEAR WALTER,-- + +"Don't be offended. I cannot eat the bread of idleness now that your +fortune is gone and your salary stopped. If I need your assistance, you +will hear from me. Comfort your mother, and believe that I shall be +happier earning my own living. We shall meet in better times. God bless +you both for your kindness to one who had no claim upon you! + +"ALICE." + +"The dear creature!" said Mrs. Monroe, taking the note and kissing it. + +"Why did you let her trunk go, mother? You might have detained the man +who came for it, and sent for me. I would have followed him to the ends +of the earth." + +"I don't know, my son. I was confused. I hardly knew what happened. I +shook so that I sat down, and Bridget must have got it." + +Tears ran down her cheeks, and her hands trembled so that her fork +dropped. + +"Never mind, dear mother. Pray, be calm. I did not wish to disturb you." + +There was a ring at the door. A gentleman wished to see Mr. Monroe. +Rising from the table, he went into the parlor. + +"Mr. Monroe," began the stranger, in an agitated manner, "do you know +anything of a young lady named Lee,--Alice Lee?" + +"Yes," replied Monroe, with equal excitement, "I know her well. What of +her? Where is she? Have you found her?" + +"Found her?" said the other, with surprise. "Is she not here?" + +"No,--she left this morning." + +"And left no word where she was going?" + +"None." + +"Let me beg of you not to trifle with me. Did she not hear my voice, my +step, and attempt to excuse herself through you?" + +"Sir!" exclaimed Walter. + +"I beg pardon. I have been in search of her for two days. I could not +believe she had eluded me just at the last. I do not wish to doubt your +word." + +"And who may you be, Sir, to take such an interest in the lady?" + +"I can satisfy you fully. My name is Greenleaf." + +"The painter?" + +"Yes. You must have heard her speak of me." + +"Never, to my recollection." + +"Have you known her long?" + +"She is my cousin. It is only recently that she came here, and her +acquaintances of a year ago might naturally have been passed over." + +"You seem surprised at her leaving you so abruptly. You will join me in +making search for her?" + +"I shall search for her, myself, as long as there is hope." + +"Let me confess," said Greenleaf, "that I have the strongest reasons for +my haste. She is betrothed to me." + +"Since you have honored me with your confidence, I will return it, so +far as to tell you what I heard from her this morning. I think I +can remember the precise words:--'I have received a wound from the +faithlessness of one lover, which never will heal.' If you are the +person, I hope the information will be as agreeable to you as her +absence and ill-judging independence are to me. I wish you good +morning." + +"Then she has heard!" said Greenleaf, soliloquizing. "I am justly +punished." Then aloud. "I shall not take offence at your severity of +tone. I have but one thought now. Good morning!" + +He left the house, like one in a dream. Alice, homeless in the +streets this bitter day,--seeking for a home in poverty-stricken +boarding-houses,--asking for work from tailors or milliners,--exposed +to jeers, coarse compliments, and even to utter want!--the thought was +agony. The sorrows of a whole life were concentrated in this one hour. +He walked on, frantically, peering under every bonnet as he passed, +looking wistfully in at the shop-windows, expecting every moment to +encounter her sad, reproachful face. + +Walter had been somewhat ill for several days, and the accumulation of +misfortunes now pressed upon him heavily. He did not tell his mother +of the strange interview, but sat down moodily by the grate, in the +library. He was utterly perplexed where in the city to search for Alice; +and with his mental depression came a bodily infirmity and nervousness +that made him incapable of effort. An hour passed in gloomy +reverie,--drifting without aim upon a shoreless ocean, under a sullen +sky,--when he was roused by the entrance of Easelmann. + +"In the dumps? I declare, Monroe, I shouldn't have thought it of you." + +"I am really ill, my friend." + +"Pooh! Don't let your troubles make you believe that. Cheer up. You'll +find employment presently, and you'll be surprised to find how well you +are." + +"I hope I shall be able to make the experiment." + +"Well, suppose you walk out with me. There is a tailor I want you to +see." + +"A tailor? I can't sew or use shears, either." + +"No,--nor sit cross-legged; I know that. But this tailor is no common +Snip. He is a man of ideas and character. He has something to propose to +you." + +"Indeed! I am much obliged to you. To-morrow I will go with you; but, +really, I feel too feeble to-day," said Monroe, languidly. + +"Well, as you please; to-morrow it shall be. How is your mother?" + +"Quite well, I thank you." + +"And the pretty cousin, likewise, I hope?" + +"She was quite well this morning." + +"Isn't she at home?" + +"No,--she has gone out." + +"Confound you, Monroe! you have never let me have a glimpse of her. +Now I am not a dangerous person; quite harmless, in fact; received +trustfully by matrons with grown-up daughters. You needn't hide her." + +"I don't know. Some young ladies are quite apt to be fascinated by +elderly gentlemen who know the world and still take an interest in +society." + +"Yes,--a filial sort of interest, a grand-daughterly reverence and +respect. The sight of gray hair is a wonderful antidote to any tenderer +feeling." + +"I am very sorry not to oblige you; but the truth is, that Cousin Alice, +hearing of my losses, has left the house abruptly, to earn her own +living, and we do not know where she has gone." + +"The independent little minx! Now I rather like that. There's the proper +spirit. She'll take good care of herself; I haven't a doubt." + +"But it is a most mortifying step to us. It is a reflection upon our +hospitality. I would have worked my fingers off for her." + +"No doubt. But she will merely turn hers into nutmeg-graters, by +pricking them with her needle, and save you from making stumps of +your own. Oh, never fear,--we shall find her presently. I'll make +a description of her, and leave it with all the slop-shop fellows. +'Strayed or stolen: A young lady answering to the name of Alice; five +feet and no inches; dressed in black; pale, blue-eyed, smiles when +properly spoken to; of no use to any person but the owner. One thousand +dollars reward, and no questions asked.' Isn't that it? It won't be +necessary to add, that the disconsolate advertiser is breaking his heart +on account of her absence." + +"My dear Easelmann, I know your kindly heart; but I cannot be rallied +out of this depression. I have only the interest of a cousin, a +friend, a protector, in the girl; but her going away, after my other +misfortunes, has plunged me into an abyss. I can't be cheerful." + +"One word more, my dear fellow, and I go. You know I threatened to bore +you every day; but I sha'n't continue the terebrations long at a time. +You told me about the way your notes were disposed of. Now they are +yours, beyond question, and you can recover them from the holder; he has +no lien upon them whatever, for Sandford was not authorized to pledge +them. It's only a spoiling of the Egyptians to fleece a broker." + +"Perhaps the notes themselves are worthless, or will be. Nearly +everybody has failed; the rest will go shortly." + +"I see you are incurable; the melancholy fit must have its course, I +suppose. But don't hang yourself with your handkerchief, nor drown +yourself in your wash-basin. Good bye!" + +On his way down Washington Street, Easelmann met his friend Greenleaf, +whom he had not seen before for many days. + +"Whither, ancient mariner? That haggard face and glittering eye of yours +might hold the most resolute passer-by." + +"You, Easelmann! I am glad to see you. I am in trouble." + +"No doubt; enthusiastic people always are. You fretted your nurse +and your mother, your schoolmaster, your mistress, and, most of all, +yourself. A sharp sword cuts its own scabbard." + +"She is gone,--left me without a word." + +"Who, the Sandford woman? I always told you she would." + +"No,--I left her, though not so soon as I should." + +"A fine story! She jilted you." + +"No,--on my honor. I'll tell you about it some other time. But Alice, my +betrothed, I have lost her forever." + +"Melancholy Orpheus, how? Did you look over your shoulder, and did she +vanish into smoke?" + +"It is her father who has gone over the Styx. She is in life; but she +has heard of my flirtation"-- + +"And served you right by leaving you. Now you will quit capering in a +lady's chamber, and go to work, a sadder and a wiser man." + +"Not till I have found her. You may think me a trifler, Easelmann; but +every nerve I have is quivering with agony at the thought of the pain I +have caused her." + +"Whew-w-w." said Easelmann. "Found her? Then she's eloped too! I just +left a disconsolate lover mourning over a runaway mistress. It seems to +be epidemic. There is a stampede of unhappy females. We must compress +the feet of the next generation, after the wise custom of China, so that +they can't get away." + +"Whom have you seen?" + +"Mr. Monroe, an acquaintance of mine." + +"The same. The lady, it seems, is his cousin,--and is, or was, my +betrothed." + +"And you two brave men give up, foiled by a country-girl of twenty, or +thereabouts!" + +"How is one to find her?" + +"What is the advantage of brains to a man who doesn't use them? +Consider; she will look for employment. She won't try to teach, it would +be useless. She is not strong enough for hard labor. She is too modest +and reserved to take a place in a shop behind a counter, where she would +be sure to be discovered. She will, therefore, be found in the employ +of some milliner, tailor, or bookbinder. How easy to go through those +establishments!" + +"You give me new courage. I will get a trades-directory and begin at +once." + +"To-morrow, my friend. She hasn't got a place yet, probably." + +"So much the better. I shall save her the necessity." + +"Go, then," said Easelmann. "You'll be happier, I suppose, to be running +your legs off, if it is to no purpose. A lover with a new impulse is +like a rocket when the fuse is lighted; he must needs go off with a +rush, or ignobly fizz out." + +"Farewell, for to-day. I'll see you to-morrow," said Greenleaf, already +some paces off. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +PRAYER FOR LIFE. + + + Oh, let me not die young! + Full-hearted, yet without a tongue,-- + Thy green earth stretched before my feet, untrod,-- + Thy blue sky bending over, + As her most tender lover, + With infinite meaning in its starry eyes, + Full of thy silent majesty, O God! + And wild, weird whispers from the solemn deep + Of the Great Sea ascending, with the sweep + Of the Wind-angel's wings across the skies, + Burdened with hints of awful memories, + Whose half-guessed grandeur thrills us till we weep!-- + I love thy marvellous world too well-- + Its sunny nooks of hill and dell, + Its majesty of mountains, and the swell + Of volumed waters--for my heart to yearn + Away from the deep truth which veils its splendor + In beauty there less dazzling, but more tender. + With grave delight I turn + To all its glories, from the tiniest bloom + Whose hour-long life just sweetens its own tomb + As with funereal spices, + To the far stars which burn + And blossom in fire through their vast periods,-- + Borne in thy palm, + Like the pale lotus in the hand of Isis, + When throned white, and calm, + In solemn conclave of the mythic gods. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A brother unclaimed among + The countless millions of thy happy flock, + Whose deepest joy is to obey, + Whereby they feel the measured sway + Of thy life in them, their own living part, + Whether in centuried pulses of the rock + By slow disintegration + Ascending to its higher, + Or the quick fluttering of the Storm-god's heart,-- + An instant's palpitation + Through all its arteries of fire! + One common blood runs down life's myriad veins, + From Archangelic Hierarchs who float + Broad-winged in the God-glory, to the mote + That trembles with a braided dance + In the warm sunset's vivid glance; + And one great Heart that boundless flow sustains! + In all the creatures of thy hand divine + + Thy love-light is a living guest, + Whether a petal's palm confine + Its glitter to a lily's breast, + Or in unbounded space a starry line + Stretches, till flagging Thought must droop her wing to rest. + + Oh, let me not die young, + A powerless child among + The ancient grandeurs of thy awful world! + I catch some fragment of the mighty song + Which, ere to darkness hurled, + My elder brothers in the eternal throng + Have caught before,-- + Faint murmurs of the surge, + The deep, surrounding, everlasting roar + Of a life-ocean without port or shore,-- + Ere I depart, compelled to urge + My fragile bark with trembling from the verge + Of this Earth-island, into that Unknown, + Where worlds, like souls forlorn, go wandering alone! + + Oh, let me not die young, + With all that song unsung, + A swift and voiceless fugitive, + From darkness coming and in darkness lost, + Before thy solemn Pentecost, + Dawning within the soul, shall give + The burning utterance of its flaming tongue,-- + The boon whereby to other souls we live! + Thy worlds are flashing with immortal splendor, + For human speech on heights of human song + Faintly to render, + And pour back along + Its mountain grandeur, the accumulate rain + Of star-light, dream-light, thoughts of joy and pain, + Of love, hate, right and wrong, + In floods of utterance sublime and strong, + In dewy effluence beautiful and tender. + + The kindred darknesses + Of caverned earth and fathomless thought, + Of Life and Death, and their twin mysteries, + Before and After, on my spirit press + Tempting and awful, with high promise fraught, + And guardian terrors, whose out-flashing swords + Beleaguer Paradise and the holy Tree + Sciential. Step by step the way is fought + That leads from Darkness, through her miscreant hordes, + Back to the heavens of wise, and true, and free: + Minerva's Gorgon, Ammon's cyclic Asp, + And the fierce flame-sword of the Cherubim, + That flashed like hate across the pallid gasp + Of exiled Eve and Adam, flare, and glare, + And hiss venenate, round the steps of him + Who thirsts for heavenly Wisdom, if he dare + Climb to her bosom, or with artless grasp + Pluck the sweet fruits that hang around him, ripe and fair. + + Oh! glorious Youth + Is the true age of prophecy, when Truth + Stands bared in beauty, and the young blood boils + To hurl us in her arms, before the blur + Of time makes dim her rounded form, + Or the cold blood recoils + From the polluted swarm + Of armed Chimeras that environ her. + But worthy Age to ripened fruit shall bring + The glorious blooming of its hopeful spring, + And pile the garners of immortal Truth + With sheaves of golden grain, + To sow the world again, + And fill the eager wants of the New Age's youth. + + A thousand flashes of uncertain light + Cleave the thick darkness, driving far athwart + The up-piled glooms, as lightnings plough their bright + Fire-furrows through the barren cloud + They sow with thunders. Thought on burning thought + Shatters the doubts and terrors which have bowed + Weak hearts on weaker leaning in a crowd + Self-crushing and self-fettering; gleams are caught + From some far centre set by God to keep + His brave world spinning, or some drifting isle + Of swift wildfire shot out by the wide sweep + Of wings demoniac, + Far winnowing and black, + Our cheated souls to 'wilder and beguile. + Only the years, the imperturbable, + Impassionate years, can sheave the scattered rays + Into one sun, these mingled arrows tell + Each to its quiver, the divine and fell, + And life's lone meteors to their centre trace. + + O Father, let me not die young! + Earth's beauty asks a heart and tongue + To give true love and praises to her worth; + Her sins and judgment-sufferings call + For fearless martyrs to redeem thy Earth + From her disastrous fall. + For though her summer hills and vales might seem + The fair creation of a poet's dream,-- + Ay, of the Highest Poet, + Whose wordless rhythms are chanted by the gyres + Of constellate star-choirs, + + That with deep melody flow and overflow it,-- + The sweet Earth,--very sweet, despite + The rank grave-smell forever drifting in + Among the odors from her censers white + Of wave-swung lilies and of wind-swung roses,-- + The Earth sad-sweet is deeply attaint with sin! + The pure air, which incloses + Her and her starry kin, + Still shudders with the unspent palpitating + Of a great Curse, that to its utmost shore + Thrills with a deadly shiver + Which has not ceased to quiver + Down all the ages, nathless the strong beating + Of Angel-wings, and the defiant roar + Of Earth's Titanic thunders. + + Fair and sad, + In sin and beauty, our beloved Earth + Has need of all her sons to make her glad; + Has need of martyrs to re-fire the hearth + Of her quenched altars,--of heroic men + With Freedom's sword, or Truth's supernal pen, + To shape the worn-out mould of nobleness again. + And she has need of Poets who can string + Their harps with steel to catch the lightning's fire, + And pour her thunders from the clanging wire, + To cheer the hero, mingling with his cheer, + Arouse the laggard in the battle's rear, + Daunt the stern wicked, and from discord wring + Prevailing harmony, while the humblest soul + Who keeps the tune the warder angels sing + In golden choirs above, + And only wears, for crown and aureole, + The glow-worm light of lowliest human love, + Shall fill with low, sweet undertones the chasms + Of silence, 'twixt the booming thunder-spasms. + And Earth has need of Prophets fiery-lipped + And deep-souled, to announce the glorious dooms + Writ on the silent heavens in starry script, + And flashing fitfully from her shuddering tombs,-- + Commissioned Angels of the new-born Faith, + To teach the immortality of Good, + The soul's God-likeness, Sin's coeval death, + And Man's indissoluble Brotherhood. + + Yet never an age, when God has need of him, + Shall want its Man, predestined by that need, + To pour his life in fiery word or deed,-- + The strong Archangel of the Elohim! + Earth's hollow want is prophet of his coming: + In the low murmur of her famished cry, + And heavy sobs breathed up despairingly, + Ye hear the near invisible humming + Of his wide wings that fan the lurid sky + Into cool ripples of new life and hope, + While far in its dissolving ether ope + Deeps beyond deeps, of sapphire calm, to cheer + With Sabbath gleams the troubled Now and Here. + + Father! thy will be done, + Holy and righteous One! + Though the reluctant years + May never crown my throbbing brows with white, + Nor round my shoulders turn the golden light + Of my thick locks to wisdom's royal ermine: + Yet by the solitary tears, + Deeper than joy or sorrow,--by the thrill, + Higher than hope or terror, whose quick germen, + In those hot tears to sudden vigor sprung, + Sheds, even now, the fruits of graver age,-- + By the long wrestle in which inward ill + Fell like a trampled viper to the ground. + By all that lifts me o'er my outward peers + To that supernal stage + Where soul dissolves the bonds by Nature bound,-- + Fall when I may, by pale disease unstrung, + Or by the hand of fratricidal rage, + I cannot now die young! + + * * * * * + + +ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE OLD WORLD + + +My first visit to Turin dates as far back as 1831. We are so personal, +that our impressions of things depend less on their intrinsic worth +than on such or such extrinsic circumstance which may affect our mental +vision at the moment. I suppose mine was affected by the mist and rain +which graced the capital of Piedmont on the morning of my arrival there. +Another incident, microscopic, and almost too ludicrous to mention, +had no less its weight in the scale of prepossession. I was tired and +hungry, and, while the _diligence_ was being unloaded, I entered a +_caffe_ close by, and called for some buttered toast. My hair (I had +plenty at that time) stood on end at the answer I received. There was no +buttered toast to be had, the waiter said. "It was not the custom." I +confess I augured ill of a city from whose _caffes_, unlike all others +throughout Italy, such a staple of breakfast was banished. + +I am fond of buttered toast, I own. If it is a weakness, I candidly +plead guilty. My mother--bless her soul!--brought me up in the faith of +buttered toast. I had breakfasted upon it all my life. I could conceive +of no breakfast without it. Hence the shock I felt. "Not the custom!" +Why not, I wondered. A problem of no easy solution, I can tell you! It +has been haunting me for the last seven-and-twenty years. If I had a +thousand dollars,--a bold supposition for one of the brotherhood of the +pen,--I would even now found a prize, and adjudge that sum to the best +memoir on this question:--"Why is buttered toast excluded from the +_caffes_ of Turin?" It is not from lack of proper materials,--for heaps +of butter and mountains of rolls are to be seen on every side; it is not +from lack of taste,--for the people which has invented the _grisini_, +and delights in the white truffle, shows too keen a sense of what is +dainty not to exclude the charge of want of taste. + +"Pray, what are the _grisini?_ what is the white truffle?" asks the +inquisitive reader.--The _grisini_ are bread idealized, bread under the +form of walking-sticks a third of a little finger in diameter, and from +which every the least particle of crumb has been carefully eliminated. +It is light, easy of digestion, cracks without effort under your teeth, +and melts in your mouth. It is savory eaten alone, excellent with your +viands, capital sopped in wine. A good Turinese would rather have no +dinner at all than sit down to one without a good-sized bundle of these +torrified reeds on his right or left. Beware of the spurious imitations +of this inimitable mixture of flour, which you will light on in some +_passages_ in Paris! They possess nothing of the _grisini_ but the name. + +"I have it!" I fancy I hear some imaginative reader exclaim at this +place. "The passion for the _grisini_ accounts most naturally for the +want of buttered toast in Turin. Don't you see that it is replaced by +the _grisini?_" + +A mistake, a profound mistake. _Grisini_ are _never_ served with your +coffee or chocolate. Try again. + +The white truffle,--white, mark you, and not to be confounded with its +black, hard, knotty, poor cousin of Perigord,--well, the white truffle +is--the white truffle. There are things which admit of no definition. It +would only spoil them. Define the Sun, if you dare. "Look at it," would +be your answer to the indiscreet questioner. And so I say to you,--Taste +it, the white truffle. Not that you will relish it, on a first or second +trial. No. It requires a sort of initiation. Ambrosia, depend upon it, +would prove unpalatable, at first, to organs degraded by coarse mortal +food. It has,--the white truffle, I mean, not the ambrosia, which I have +never tasted,--it has a shadow of a shade of mitigated garlic flavor, +which demands time and a certain training of the gustatory apparatus, to +be fully appreciated. Try again, and it will grow upon you,--again +and again, and you will go crazy after the white truffle. I have seen +persons, who had once turned up their noses at it, declare themselves +capable of any crime to get at it. Nature gave it to Piedmont, "_e poi +ruppe la stampa_." Gold you may find in different places, and under +different latitudes;--the white truffle is an exclusive growth of +Piedmont. + +To return. If it is not the want of proper materials, or of taste to use +them, what can be the cause of the unjust ostracism against buttered +toast? + +A Genoese friend of mine accounts for it on the same principle on which +another friend of mine, a Polish refugee in London, accounted for the +difference, nay, in many points, the direct opposition, between English +and French habits of life,--that is to say, on the principle of national +antagonism. Why does the English Parliament hold its sittings at night? +my Polish friend would ask. The reason is obvious. _Because_, the French +Parliament sits in broad day, when it sits at all. Why is winter the +season of _villeggiatura_ in England? _Because_ in France it is summer +and autumn. Why are beards and moustaches tabooed in Great Britain? +_Because_ it is common to wear them in France. Why are new pipes +preferred in England for smoking? _Because_ in France the older and more +_culottee_ a pipe, the more welcome it is. And so on, _ad infinitum_. + +Arguing on the same principle, my Genoese friend avers that buttered +toast is proscribed at Turin _because_ it is so justly popular in Genoa. +The Genoese, in fact, excel in the preparation of that dainty article. +They have, for the purpose, delicious little rolls, which they cut in +two and suit to all tastes and whims. The upper or under crust, soft or +hard, deep brown or light brown, with much or little butter, with cold +or hot butter, with butter visible or invisible:--be as capricious in +your orders as you like, and never fear tiring the waiter. Proteus +himself never took so many shapes. + +There is some speciousness in my Genoese friend's argument. The +_Superba_, naturally enough, cannot forget that she was first and is +now second. Turin, on her side, does not intend to have her official +supremacy disputed. No wonder that the two noble cities should look at +each other rather surlily, and stick to their own individuality. "Hence +it is," concludes my friend, "that the comparatively easy Apennines have +proved to this day an impassable barrier to the buttered toast on one +side, and to the _grisini_ on the other." + +"But not so to the white truffle," I put in, triumphantly. "The Genoese +have adopted that; and honor to them for having done so! What do you say +to this, eh?" + +My friend scratched his head in quest of a new argument. We will leave +him to his embarrassment, and have done with this string of digressions. + +I was saying, that my first visit to Turin dated as far back as 1831. On +that journey I had a singular travelling-companion, a beautiful fish, +a John Dory, carefully wrapped up, and neatly laid in a wicker-basket, +like a babe in its cradle. The officers of the _octroi_, who examined my +basket, complimented me on my choice,--nay, grew so enthusiastic about +my John Dory, that, if I remember right, they let it pass duty-free. +The mistress of the house, at whose table it was served, paid it a +well-deserved tribute of admiration, but lamented the unskilfulness of +the hand which had cleaned it: "How stupid to cut it to the very throat! +See what a gap!" I laughed in my sleeve and held my tongue. It was a +frightful gap, to be sure,--but not bigger than was necessary to admit +of an oilskin-covered parcel, a pound at least in weight, a parcel full +to the brim of treasonable matter, revolutionary pamphlets, regulations +of secret societies, and what not. My John Dory was a horse of Troy in +miniature. But Turin stood this one better than Troy the other. + +Turin was, or seemed to me, gloomy and chilly at that time, though the +season was mild, and the sky had cleared up. Jesuits, carabineers, and +spies lorded it; distrust was the order of the day. People went about +their business, exchanged a hasty and well-timed _sciao_, (_schiavo_,) +and gave up all genial intercourse. Far keener than the breath of +neighboring snow-capped Mount Cenis, the breath of despotism froze alike +tongues and souls. How could buttered toast, emblem of softness, thrive +in so hard a temperature? I left as soon as I could, and with a feeling +of relief akin to joy. + +I was in no haste to revisit Turin, nor, had I been, would circumstances +have permitted my doing so. The fish had a tail for me as well as for +many others, and a very long tail too. Most of the years intervening +between 1831 and 1848 I had to spend abroad,--out of Italy, I mean. Time +enough for reflection. Plenty of worry and anxiety, and difficulties of +many a kind. Rough handling from the powers that were, cold indifference +from the masses. A flow of gentle sympathy, now and then, from a kindred +heart or two,--God bless them!--a live spring in a desert. A hard +apprenticeship,--still, useful in many ways, to develop the sense +of realities, to teach one to do without a host of things deemed +indispensable before to keep the soul in tune. I declare, for my part, +I don't regret those long years of erratic life. I bless them, on the +contrary; for they opened my eyes to the worth of my country. The right +point of view to take in physical or moral beauty, in its fulness, is +only at a distance. + +The great convulsion of '48 flung wide the gates of Italy to the +wanderer, and I returned to Turin. I had left it at freezing-point, +and I found it at white-heat. Half Europe revolutionized,--France a +republic, Vienna in a blaze, Hungary in arms, Radetzky driven out of +Milan, a Piedmontese army in Lombardy,--there was more than enough to +turn the heads of the Seven Sages of Greece. No wonder ours were turned. +Serve a splendid banquet and pour out generous wine to a shipwrecked +crew who have long been starving, and ten to one they will overfeed +themselves and get drunk and quarrel. We did both, alas!--and those who +are drunk and quarrel are likely to be overpowered by those who keep +sober and united. We were divided about the sauce with which the hare +should be dressed, and, in the heat of argument, lost sight of this +little fact, that a hare, to be dressed at all, must first be caught. +The first reverses overtook us thus occupied. They did not sober us; +quite the contrary; we fell to doing what Manzoni's capons did. + +By-the-by, since that revered name comes under my pen, I may as well +state, what every one will be glad to hear, that the author of the +"Promessi Sposi" has perfectly recovered from his late illness. It +cannot be but that the wail of a nation has reached even across the +Atlantic, without the aid of an electric cable. He looks strong and +healthy, and likely to be long spared to the love and veneration of his +country. I have this on the authority of a witness _de visu et auditu_, +a friend of his and mine, who visited the great man, not a fortnight +ago, in his retreat of Brusuglio, near Milan. + +To leave the author for his book. Do you recollect Renzo tying four fat +capons by the legs, and carrying them, with their heads hanging down, to +Signor Azzeccagarbugli,--and the capons, in that awkward predicament, +finding no better occupation than to peck at each other? "As is too +often the case with companions in misfortune," observes the author, in +his quiet, humoristic way. We were just as wise. Instead of saying, _Mea +culpa_, we began to recriminate, and find fault with everything and +everybody. It was the fault of the Ministers, of the _Camarilla_, of the +army, of the big epaulets, of the King. Dynastic interest, of course, +was not forgotten in the indictment. + +Dynastic interest, forsooth! So long as it combines and makes but one +with the interest of the nation, I should like to know where is the +great harm of it. As if kings alone were defiled with that pitch! As +if we had not, each and all of us, low and high, rich and poor, our +dynastic interest, and were not eager enough in its pursuit! As if +anybody scrupled at or were found fault with for pushing on his sons, +enlarging his business, rounding his estate, in the view of transmitting +it, thus improved, to his kindred and heirs! + +But who thought of such things under the smart of defeat? I do not +intend, by this _post-facto_ grumbling, to give myself credit for having +been wiser than others. By no means. I played my part in the chorus of +fault-finders, and cried out as loud as anybody. The upshot was what +might have been expected. Independence went to the dogs--for a while. +Liberty, thank God, remained in this little corner, at least,--liberty, +the great lever for those who use it wisely. I know of nations, far more +experienced than we are in political matters, and whose programme in +1848 was far less complicated than ours, who cannot say as much for +themselves. + +The times were unpropitious to the buttered-toast question, and it +had quite slipped out of my mind. I have never traced the string of +associations which reminded me of it, on one certain morning. Once more +I made bold to ask if I could have buttered toast. "Impossible," said +the waiter, curtly. I was piqued. "How impossible?" said I. "Erase that +word from your Dictionary, if you are to drive the Austrians from Italy. +Take a roll, cut it in halves, have it toasted, and serve hot with +butter." Long was the manipulation, and the result but indifferent,--the +toast hard and cold, the butter far from fresh; but it was a step in +advance, and I chuckled over it. For a short time, alas! Mine was the +fate of all reformers. Routine stood in my way. The waiters fled at my +approach, and vied with each other as to who should _not_ serve me. I +gave up the attempt in disgust. Shortly after, I left Turin,--without +joy this time, but also without regret. + +Ten years have elapsed, and here I am again, on my third visit. The +journey from Genoa to Turin took, ten years ago, twenty-four hours by +_diligence_. Now it is accomplished in four by railway. To say that this +accelerated ratio of travelling represents but fairly the average of +progress realized in almost all directions, within this space of +time, is no mere form of speech. To whatever side I turn, my eyes are +agreeably surprised by material signs of improvement. From what but +yesterday was waste land, where linen was spread to dry, steam-engines +raise their shrill cry, and a double terminus sends forth and receives, +in its turn, merchandise, passengers, and ideas. At the gate of the +city, so to say, a gigantic work, the piercing of Mount Cenis, is +actually going on. Where I left, literally left, cows browsing in peace, +two new quarters have risen, as if by magic,--that of Portanuova, +aristocratic and rich, and that of San Salvario, less showy, but not +less comfortable. A third is in contemplation; nay, already begun,--to +be raised on the spot where once stood the citadel, (and prison for +political offenders,) of sinister memory, now levelled with the ground. +I take this last as a capital novelty. Another, more significant still, +is the Protestant Temple, which stares me in the face,--a poor work of +Art, if you will, but no less the embodiment of one of the most precious +conquests, religious freedom. I would fain not grow emphatic,--but when +I contrast the present with the past, when I recollect, for instance, +how the Jews were formerly treated, and see them now in Parliament, I +cannot help warming up a little. Monuments to Balbo, the stanch patriot +and nervous biographer of Dante,--to General Bava, the conqueror at +Goito,--to Pepe, the heroic defender of Venice, grace the public walks. +One to Gioberti, the eminent philosopher, is in course of preparation. +If these are not signs of radically changed times, and changed for the +better, I don't know what are. + +Nor is the moral less improved than the material physiognomy of the +city. I see a thriving, orderly community,--no trace of antagonism, but +a free, good-natured intercourse between all classes, and a general +look of ease and contentment. Of course, there are poor in Turin, as +everywhere else,--except Japan, if we may credit travellers; but nowhere +are my eyes saddened by the spectacle of that abject destitution which +blunts, nay, destroys, the sense of self-respect. The operatives, +especially,--what are here called the _braccianti_,--this salt of all +cities, this nursery of the army and navy, this inexhaustible source of +production and riches, impress me by their appearance of comfort and +good-humor. It gladdens one's heart to watch them, as they walk arm in +arm of an evening, singing in chorus, or fill the pits of the cheaper +theatres, or sit down at fashionable _caffes_ in their jackets, with a +self-confidence and freedom of manner pleasant to behold. The play of +free institutions is not counteracted here, thank God, by the despotism +of conventionalities. No shadow of frigid respectability hangs over +people's actions and freezes spontaneousness. + +But this is all on the surface; let us go deeper, if we can, and have a +peep at the workings beneath. I knock for information on this head at +the mind and heart of all sorts of people. I note down the answers of +the Minister and of the Deputy, as well as those of the waiter who +serves my coffee and of the man who blacks my shoes, and here is what +I find,--a growing sense of the benefits of liberty, a deep-rooted +attachment to the _Re galantuomo_, (the King, honest man,) a juster +appreciation of the difficulties which beset the national enterprise, +(the freeing of Italy from Austria,) and an honest confidence of +overcoming them with God's help. This last feeling, I am glad to say, +is, as it ought to be, general in the army. This is what I find in the +bulk. There is no lack of dissenters, who regret the past, and take a +gloomy view of the future. I describe no Utopia. Unanimity is no flower +of this earth. + +This improved state of things and feelings, within so short a period of +time, reflects equal credit on the people which benefits by it and on +the men who have lately presided over its destinies. Among these last it +were invidious not to mention, with well-deserved praise, the active and +accomplished statesman who introduced free trade, caused Piedmont to +take its share in the Crimean War, and last, not least, by a bold and +skilful move, brought the Italian question before the Congress of Paris. + +During the summer of 1848, I rented a couple of rooms in the Via dell' +Arcivescovado. There often fell upon my ear, wafted across the court +from the windows opposite mine, a loud and regular declamation. I +fancied it was a preacher learning by heart his sermon, or an actor his +part. I was told one day that it was Count Cavour, the owner of the +house, who, as a prelude to his parliamentary career, was addressing an +imaginary assembly. The fact struck me the more, as the Count was not a +member of Parliament at the time. He was elected a Deputy and took his +seat not long after. I was present at his _debut_. It was not brilliant. +Count Cavour was not born an orator; his delivery was far from fluent. +He had many things to say, and wanted to say them all at once. The sense +of the House was not favorable to the new member,--that of the public +galleries still less so. No man was less spoiled by popularity than he. +I have no other reason for mentioning these particulars than to put in +relief the strength of will and the perseverance which one so situated +must have brought to bear, in order to conquer his own deficiencies and +the popular prejudice, and attain, against wind and tide, the high place +he holds in the estimation of Parliament and of the country. That Count +Cavour has made himself, if not properly an orator, in the high sense of +the word, a nervous, fluent, and most agreeable speaker, is sufficiently +attested by the untiring attention with which his speeches, occupying +sometimes two whole sittings, are listened to in both Houses. He never +puts them in writing, and seldom, if ever, makes use of notes. + +Life is substantial in Turin, and on a broad, homely scale. By which you +are not to understand, either that the male portion of the inhabitants +feast on whole oxen, like Homer's heroes, or that, the fair sex are +draped in tunics of homespun wool, like the Roman matrons of old. They +are not so primitive as that. You may have at any restaurant a smaller +morsel than an ox or even an ox's shoulder; and as to ladies' finery, +there is no _article de Paris_, no indispensable inutility, no +crinoline, hoop, or cage, of impossible materials, shape, and +dimensions, which you may not find under the Portici, or in Vianuova, +a facility of which the Turinese beauties give themselves the benefit +rather freely. What I meant to say, when I spoke of life on a broad, +homely scale, was simply this:--that in Turin, generally speaking, the +great art of putting the appearance in the place of the substance, and +juggling the principal under the accessories, has yet to be learned. If +you ask for a room, a dinner, a bath, they take you in good earnest, +and supply you with the genuine article. When I put up at the _Hotel de +Londres_, from which I am writing, I had to run no gantlet between a +double line of solemn-looking, white-cravated waiters; yet I have only +to ring my bell, to be attended to with promptitude, with zeal, nay, +_con amore_. My kind hostess, Signora Viarengo, does not wear a triple +or quadruple row of flounces, but looks after my wardrobe when I am out, +and, if anything wants mending, has it mended. The room which I occupy +is not furnished in a dashing style, nor has it a _parquet cire_, but it +is on the first floor, and thrice as large and lofty and half as dear as +that I had at Meurice's on the _quatrieme_; and a Titan might stretch +himself down at ease on the bed in which I sleep. The dining-room of the +hotel is not glittering with gilt stucco and chandeliers; but the dinner +served to me there (and served at any hour) is copious and first-rate,-- +four dishes of _entremets_, butter, _salame_, celery, radishes, to whet +the appetite,--a soup,--a first course of three dishes, two of meat, one +of vegetables,--a second of three dishes, one of them a roasted fowl, +--salad, a sweet dish,--a mountain of Parmesan, or Gorgonzola, with +peaches, pears, and grapes, for dessert. Gargantua would cry for mercy. +For all this, and a bottle of wine, I pay three francs. For the bath +establishment, close by, I lack the satisfaction, it is true, of seeing +my revered image reproduced _ad infinitum_, by a vista of mirrors; but I +have a bathing-tub like a lake, and linen enough to dry a hippopotamus. +If I go to the theatre, (there are five open at this season, November, +without reckoning three or four minor ones: Italian opera at the +Nazionale and the Carignano; Italian play at the Gerbino and the +Alfieri; French _vaudeville_ at the d'Angennes,)--if I go to the +theatre, the relative obscurity of the house, I own, allows me to enjoy +but imperfectly the display of fine toilets and ivory shoulders; but the +concentration of light on the stage enhances the scenic effect, and is +on the side of Art. At least, they think so here, and like it so. It is +the custom. + +This takes me back some twenty-seven years, to the waiter's answer, _a +propos_ of buttered toast, "It is not the custom," and recalls to me +that important question. Well, even that has not remained stationary in +the general movement. Not that buttered toast has received its great or +even small letters of naturalization. But you have only to ask for it, +and it will be served without demur. So far the neck of routine is +broken. What next? We shall find out on our fourth visit, if God grants +us life. Meanwhile I feel that Turin will be regretted this time. + + * * * * * + + +TWO SNIFFS. + + +From the lounge where Fred Shaw was lying, he could easily look out of +the low window into Senter Place, and at the usually "uninterrupted view +across the street." Just now it was interrupted so fully with a driving +snow-storm, that the houses opposite were scarcely visible. The wind +tossed the great flakes up and across and whirled them in circles, as if +loath to let them go at all to the ground. There was something lively +and merry in it, too, as if the flakes themselves were joyful and +dancing in the abundance of their life,--as if they and the wind had a +life of their own, as well as poor stupid mortals, that cowered under +cover, and shut themselves away from the broad, free air. How foolish +it is, to be sure! Here comes one now, turning into the place,--well +covered, a fur tippet about his face,--slapping his arms on his chest, +--a defiant smile on his brown face, and a look of expectancy in his +eyes. Yes! there they are at the window,--wife and children! The smile +melts into a broad laugh, as the snow-flakes dash madly at his eyes and +nose. There they are,--rosy, well, and warm! From the warmest corner of +his heart comes up a quick throb that takes away his breath;--he runs up +the steps,--the door opens,--one, two, three little faces,--it shuts. +The snow-flakes gallop on again, madly, joyfully. + +Behind the man who ran up the steps, a girl of eighteen walked swiftly +and firmly over the drifting heaps on the sidewalk. Her eyes glanced +upward at the sky. There are four immense clouds, of a very light gray, +with silver edges, trying to meet over a speck of blue. They tumble and +clamber, and press all for the same point; but whether the wind is too +variable for them to gather in one mass, or for whatever meteorological +reason, she does not guess, but she is attracted to the sky and gazes at +it as she walks rapidly on. + +Fred recognizes the blue eyes and glowing face, as they go past the +window. It is only Sister Minnie. Not coming here, after all! No. And +the clouds could not overcome and hide the blue sky. It shone out +serenely and hopefully, like Minnie's own encouraging spirit. She +breasts the storm gallantly. If she can only get round the corner into +C-- Street! But here all the tempest seems collected to battle with +her--She wraps herself a little closer, and holds her breath. A few +steps more,--she turns round,--places her back full at the driving +storm,--and draws a long breath. Now for it! The flakes stop suddenly, +as if awed by the quiet determination in the young face. They fall to +the ground, stilly. The blue sky looks out, the sun shimmers white for +five minutes. Minnie walks rapidly, runs up the steps,--rings, and takes +into the house with her a full, fresh life, that vibrates from cellar to +attic in harmonious energy. + +The afternoon wanes. Fred has dined. He takes his meerschaum from the +teapoy by his side and examines it critically. How for the color? Is it +just the right shade to stop? No. A very little darker. This is growing +quite beautiful. Almost like an agate. Which of those six is the +prettiest, after all? He thinks a seventh, which he remembers lying +on Little's mantel-piece, outdoes the whole. That of Little's was not +carved, nor silver-mounted even, and yet connoisseurs pronounced it +worth a hundred and fifty dollars. Not one of these is worth ten. He +smokes again, and looks at the cannel coal as it leaps into flame. The +room is very still; not a footfall can be heard in the house;--partly +because the doors are hung with a view to silence and the floors thickly +carpeted, and partly because there are only two servants in-doors, and +those men. The cook cannot speak English, and Fred's own man, a jewel in +his way, is taciturn to a fault. If Fred would be honest with himself, +he would acknowledge that the third-hand chatter of anybody's kitchen +would often be a delightful relief to his solitude. But then how could +he follow up his system of self-culture? That and society are quite +incompatible things. However, he yawns fearfully. + +But what then? Has the man no mind, no cultivation, no taste? Things do +not indicate any such want. The walls of the room in which he is +just now lounging have their crimson and gold almost covered with +pictures,--copies of rare Murillos and Raphaels, and an original head of +a boy, by Greuze, with the lips as fresh as they were a hundred years +ago. An exquisite "Dying Stork," in bronze, stands on a bracket below +Sassoferrato's sweetest Madonna, and Retzsch's "Hamlet" lies open on a +side-table. The three Canovian Graces stand in a corner opposite him, +and he glances at the pedestal which stands ready to receive "Eve at the +Fountain." The pedestal has been there two weeks already, waiting for +the "Oxford" to arrive with its many precious Art-burdens. It stands +near the window; it will be a good light for it. Fred wishes, for the +hundredth time, that it would come along. There are books, surely? Oh, +yes, one side of the room is a complete bookcase,--tasteful, inside and +out. + +The small room which opens into this luxurious sitting-room has a high +north window, and near it stands Fred's easel, with a half-finished head +on a canvas. Already it has changed its aspect twenty times. Sometimes +it is a Nymph, sometimes a Naiad, sometimes Undine. Once, he dashed all +the green of the wood-nymph's forest, with one stroke, into green water, +intending to put in Undine, with a boat. He has not fulfilled his +intention; but he works on, with the luxurious abandonment of genius to +its spell, be it what it may. He does not care what it ends in. One +of Fred's theories is, that the imagination, by constant and intense +exercise, may so project the image it conceives, as to make it the +subject of ocular contemplation and imitation. Why not? All objects of +sight are painted on a flat surface, and it is by experience, comparison, +nay, in some measure by the will, that we get our ideas of their shape +and distance. Poor Blake's insane painting of imaginary heads, which he +saw three or six feet from him, was the only true and rational method +of painting at all. Think of your thought,--intensify it,--create +it,--create it perfectly,--define it carefully,--group it gracefully, +--color it exquisitely,--project it, by an intense effort of the will, +into the space before you. There it stands. Now paint it. + +He is fond of dwelling on this theory; and as nobody takes the trouble +to contradict him, he has come to believe it truth, through hearing it +often repeated. He has explained it to Minnie more than twenty times, +and says he is almost ready to paint. Not quite. He must lie on the sofa +a year, perhaps two years longer, before he will be able to satisfy +himself. But then, what is a year, two, ten years, in an eternity of +fame? + +The conception being completely projected from the brain in a visible +form, what remains but the mechanical imitation of it? Anybody can do +that. The thing is the conception. In vain Minnie suggests the vulgar +notion of acquiring facility by drawing and copying things in general. + +"Entirely unnecessary, Minnie. What! is not genius before rules? Why +should I imitate Titian's tints, when I can copy my own fancies? When I +get my ideal perfected, you will soon see it real. I can copy it in +half an hour. If it is in me, it will come out of me, like Curran's +eloquence." + +"But," says Minnie, doubtfully, looking at the easel where the golden +curls and heavenly eyes of an angel are obscured by the russet-brown of +a beginning wood-nymph, "why don't you keep to one idea, Fred?" + +"Oh, because I choose to be fancy-free. I will not have my imagination +trammelled. Let it wander at its own sweet will. You will see, Minnie, +by-and-by. Now, here I have been getting up a head,--not painting it, +you know. Sometimes I can almost see the eyes. But they elude me,--I +haven't quite command of them yet. But I shall get it,--I shall get it +yet!" + +Minnie remembers the same things said to her ever since she was a child. +Fred used to tell it all over to her then. He was so much older than she +was,--fourteen years,--that she was quite flattered by being thought +worthy to listen to his theories of all sorts. However, since she had +come to think for herself, one by one all these theories had faded out +of her mind and seemed like last year's clouds. She had discovered that +it was useless to controvert them, and generally listened with some +pretence of patience. The last time she had said, at the first pause,-- + +"Now, Fred, I must go. But I want you to contribute a little, if you +will, to my poor's library, and if you will, a little, too, to poor +Sophia." + +"Little Sister Minnie," answered Fred, curtly, "don't annoy me. If you +enjoy digging out beggar-women, and adorning them with all sorts of +comforts and pleasures, do it. I don't ask you not to. Will you give me +the same privilege of following my own pleasure?" + +"But, Fred!" said Minnie, astonished, "only last week, what did you do +for poor Sophia? More than I could in a year,--two, three years! For +you know I have only my thirty dollars quarterly for everything, and +sometimes I have so little to give!" + +"Why do you give, then, dear Minnie?" said Fred, languidly smiling. + +"Oh, if you ask that, why did you give, last Monday? You gave--let me +see--fifty-four dollars; every cent you had in your purse. Oh, +the things I bought for her with it! Paid rent, bought medicine, +blankets,--oh, so many needed comforts! Now, why did _you_ give?" said +Minnie, with a triumphant smile,--"for now I have him," she thought. + +"To save myself pain,--that's all." + +Minnie looked puzzled. + +"Nothing else, I do assure you. No very great virtue in that. The fact +was, I was bored, and, to tell the truth, somewhat shocked, by your +'poor Sophia's' ailments, which I came upon so inopportunely,--and I +was glad to empty my pockets to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling." + +"Well, then, save yourself pain again, Fred,--for I assure you she +suffers constantly for want of simple alleviations, which a small sum of +money would afford her. Oh, she needs so many things, and everything is +so dear! And she has so many helpless children, and no husband, and so +bowed with rheumatism"-- + +"Minnie! excuse me for interrupting you; but can you find nothing but +rheumatism to talk about? It is of all subjects the least tasteful to +me." + +"My dear Fred!" And there Minnie stopped. She was both hurt and puzzled. + +Fred laughed. His good-humor returned at the sight of her mystified +face, and the opportunity of explaining some of his theories of morals. + +"In the first place, Minnie, what do we live for?" + +Minnie had not thought. She was only eighteen, and had acted. + +"Well, I dare say you have never considered the subject. I have, a great +deal. You see, Minnie, we are born to pursue happiness. You allow that." + +"Yes,--I suppose so," said Minnie. + +"Well, then, if I look at the wrong thing, and call it happiness, it is +my mistake, and I only shall pay for it. You find your happiness in an +active life and works of mercy. Very well, do so. You devote a certain +part of your income, small as it is, to that sort of pleasure. I devote +mine to my pleasures. They are different from yours. You might call them +selfish. What then? So are yours. I don't say you are not modest and +humble, and all that; but you do enjoy your old women, and your fussy +charity-schools. Very well. That is all I do with my drawing, my +lounging, my smoking, my reading. And I think, Minnie," added Fred, +laughing, "I have the added grace of humility; for I am far from making +a merit of my sort of life." + +"No,--it would be difficult to make a merit of it," said Minnie. + +That was clear enough. Fred loved to have her for an auditor. So long as +she could not see over him, he was as good as infinite to her. + +"In the first place, Minnie, you must allow, it is a duty to surround +ourselves with the beautiful in all things. It conduces to the highest +self-culture; and self-culture is our first duty." + +"Is it? Surely, it cannot be! Oh, you mean we ought rather to attend to +our own faults than those of others?" + +"I mean as I say. Self-culture is our first duty, both moral and +intellectual. I might add, also, that to take care of Number One is a +dictate of common prudence. You allow that? Well. First, then, the body +cared for, all right. Then the morals,--attend to your own, and let +other people's alone. Then, thirdly, your intellect. Now, then, it +becomes a positive duty, 'the duty that lies nearest to me,' to +cultivate that. And to do that, Minnie, I am obliged to draw on myself +to my very last dollar. To refine the taste by familiarity with the +highest objects of taste, to appreciate Art, to develop the intellect, +to bring one's self to conceive and grasp the Universal, the Beautiful, +to raise one's self in the scale of created things by creative fancies +imitating the Highest,--ah! in fact, Minnie, self-culture becomes a +duty,--indeed, our first duty." + +Something in Minnie's face--it was not a smile--made Fred turn the +subject a little. + +"Now, really, if every one would take care of one, and that one himself, +don't you see there would be no more want or suffering in this weary +world? no more need of blankets or dispensaries? Each is happy, +comfortable, and self-cultured in his proportion. A universal harmony +prevails. Like the planets, self-revolving, and moving, each in his +chosen orbit, they shout and sing for joy. How much better this than +to be eccentrically darting off in search of somebody's tears to wipe, +somebody's wounds to bandage,--who, indeed, would have neither wounds +nor grief, if they would follow my simple rule!" + +Minnie laughed a little at her brother's grave sophistry, but had no +wish to contest the point with him. + +"It is no merit in me, but, as you say, rather self-indulgence, to be +looking up and relieving destitute cases. But it would be merit in you, +if you don't like it; and you might have all that, and none of the +annoyances." + +Her bright face glowed; and Fred liked to look at her when she was +excited; the coloring beat Titian's, he thought. + +"You don't know how painful to me it is to hold out empty hands to so +many sufferers"-- + +But now Minnie's face looked so sorrowful that there was nothing +specially beautiful in the coloring, and Fred said, impatiently,-- + +"You bore me, Minnie. I am waiting to take my afternoon nap." + +And he turned positively over towards the wall. + +The sight of Minnie, swiftly walking through the driving storm to-day, +brought up to Fred's memory all the talk they had had in that very room, +he lying in the same place, a fortnight ago. Since that day he had not +seen Minnie, except casually; and, indeed, she seemed very busy and +very happy, if one might judge by her lighted face and her laden arm. +Something keener than philosophy, subtiler than Epicurus, pricked Fred, +as Minnie vanished into the cloud of snowflakes. + +"Pshaw!" + +He glanced around the apartment. It was still luxurious; but "custom had +staled the infinite variety" of its ornament and furnishing. Already he +was dissatisfied with this and that. Where to place a new bas-relief +that had struck him at Cotton's the day before, and which he had +purchased on the spot, without considering that there was no room for +it in the library? There it leaned against the wall,--not so big as the +Vicar's family-picture, but quite as much in the way. + +"The room looks loaded. I ought to have a gallery for these things. I +wonder if I couldn't buy Carter's house, and push a gallery through from +the top of my stairway." + +He touched the bell, and lay down again. + +Martin entered softly, let down the crimson curtains, so as to exclude +the vanishing light, and stirred the crimson cannel into a newer +radiance. + +"This weather frets my nerves, Martin. My face aches. Give me the bottle +of chloroform in my chamber." + +He inhaled the subtile fluid two or three times, and handed it back to +Martin. It made no difference, he said. He would try to sleep. So Martin +went out on tiptoe and closed the door. + +The chloroform probably did relieve him, for he thought no more of the +uneasiness in his face; but he was not only not at all sleepy, but +every sense seemed wide awake,--wide awake to its utmost capacity of +perception. It was as if a misty veil were suddenly removed from before +his eyes, and he saw, what indeed had always been there, but what in his +abstraction or inattention he had never before noticed. For instance, he +noticed at once that Martin had not quite closed the curtains, but had +left an inch or two open, and the window open besides. The air, however, +had grown soft, and the wind must have gone down, for it did not stir +the drapery. He looked again, to be certain he was right. Yes,--there +was an inch clear, where the wind might come in, if it liked. Martin was +growing blind or stupid. However, he did not so much think that. On the +whole, it was more likely that his own senses were sharpening. +That would be a good thing, though,--to be wiser and sharper and +clearer-sighted than all the rest of the world! He would like that +advantage. And why might he not have it? Already he perceived a marked +difference from his usual sensuous condition. It was unnatural, +preternatural,--and yet, a state which could be produced at will. It +was easily done. Just homoeopathy, in fact. A little sniff, a minute +dose, and he could see and hear with a miraculous clearness; but people +would take a dozen, and then they grew stupid. + +He looked again around the room. Was it fancy, now? Perhaps it was. It +was not likely the Madonna was winking in a heretic's parlor. Besides, +it was the same sort of no-motion he had watched many a time in the +twilight, when the door seemed to swing backward and forward in the +dusky air, following the dilation and contraction of his own eyes. He +tried it now on the Madonna. He opened his eyes as widely as possible, +and the drooping lids of the picture evidently half-raised themselves +from the dark, soft orbs. He nearly closed his own, and hers bent again +in serenest contemplation. + +He looked at the bronze figure of the "Dying Stork," which was placed +below the picture, and started to see that it moved also, and with a +strange, unnatural, galvanic sort of movement, like the "animated oat," +which moves when placed on the hand after being warmed a moment in the +mouth. The legs sprung against the reeds and flags, in the same way. + +Lastly, he looked at the bas-relief which stood near, leaning against +the wall. It was very, very strange. Had the old fable of Pygmalion a +truth in it, then? And could the same genius that created also give life +and warmth to its productions? Beneath the marble he could see the soft, +living pulse, distinctly; and the wind that blew over the mountains, +beyond the river, ruffled the waves about the tiny boat. Even the star +above the child's head sparkled in the depths of the sky. + +Fred was delighted. "It is enchantment!" he said. But no,--it was one +of those miracles that have not yet become commonplace. The poetic life +that his perceptions were now able to enjoy, in inanimate nature, would +be such a perpetual gratification to his taste,--such an incentive to +explorations and discoveries! He could not felicitate himself enough. + +"A thousand times better than the microscope," said he to himself +again. "Atoms are annoying and disgusting to look at, with their +incomprehensible and frightful minuteness, and their horrible celerity. +One does not like to think that everything is composed of myriads, be +they ever so beautiful,--which they are not, that ever I could see, but +chiefly all head or a wriggling tail. Bah! This is much better. Hark! I +can hear the waves dash,--the hope-song of the child,--and the breeze +moving against the delicate sails! + +"How delightful it will be to travel, with this new-found faculty! +Whenever I choose, I can have the talking bird, the singing tree, and +the laughing water! I always thought those peeps into irrational nature +the chief charm of the Arabian tales. How little did I dream of ever +being able to read with my own eyes the riddle of the world! By-the-way, +let me look at my Graces, and see if they, too, are conscious forms of +beauty." + +He turned to the group. Alas! even the Graces were not proof against the +ordeal of constant society. Perhaps, if he had reflected, he would +not have expected it. In truth, it was surprising to see how many +disagreeable sentiments they all three contrived to express, without +untwining their arms, or loosening their fond and graceful hold on each +other. A slight elevation of the eyebrow, a curve of the lovely mouth, +or a shrug from the Parian shoulders,--how expressive,--how surprising! +But Fred need not have been surprised; they never set up for Faith, +Hope, and Charity. What he most wondered at was that they still looked +so lovely, when they were clearly full of all pagan naughtiness. They +might as well have been women. + +Fred pondered on this for some time. Then, it seemed, everything had +a latent life in it. He had suspected as much. "There is always a +something," said he, "in what we make, not only beyond what we intend +to make, but different from it. We study a long time the powers of +position,--in chess, for example;--how much is produced by one move +that we did not anticipate, and perhaps cannot ascertain,--certainly not +prevent! How many times we are wittier than we meant to be,--striking +out, by our unconscious blow, thoughts related to the one we utter, but +far more brilliant,--and ourselves becoming conscious of the very good +thing we have said only by its effect on the company! So it is, I fancy, +with all our mental movements. The brain acts independently of the will +in sleep. Why not, in a great measure, when awake? Probably, as all +Nature has a movement of its own, so all Art may be made to have, by +the infusion and absorption of so much of the creative energy of the +artist,--hidden to the common eye, but palpitating to the instructed +touch, throbbing or sparkling to the instructed eye. Yes, it must be +so. The south-wind sighs a thousand times more mournfully through the +keyhole than Thalberg can make it do on the piano. What music there was +in those stones the man brought round, the other day, and played on with +a stick! And now, the sound here from the gas-tube, how wailing, how +sorrowful!--now, how triumphant!" + +Fred was so delighted with watching the gas-burner, and listening to the +wild music which floated through it, that he did not at first observe +that the wind had risen and was blowing almost a gale. Presently, in his +speculations as to the cause of such a sudden flood of melody, he hit on +the possibility of a current of air. + +"But, then, how comes the air to be so full of music? Never mind,--I'll +put the window down." + +However, just as he was putting it down, a snow-flake, one of a hundred, +all pressing for the same point, flew past him, and alighted on the +green velvet tabouret. + +It was nothing,--only a snow-flake,--and another time, Fred would have +thought nothing of it. But in the novel awakening of his faculties, even +a snow-flake had a new interest. With intense eagerness he watched the +movement of the little thing,--and yet, feeling that he might be on +forbidden ground, he had the presence of mind to seem not to see or +hear. If inanimate Nature were once to suspect his new insight, what a +bustle there would be! He almost closed his eyes, and lay still, where +he could watch and yet seem asleep. His prudence and caution were well +rewarded. + +The snow-flake was, as he suspected, as much alive as the wind; and that +was singing, shouting, dying away in ecstasies, at this very moment. + +He glanced at her. Lithe, sparkling, graceful, she gathered her soft +drapery about her, and stood poised delicately on one foot, while she +looked around the apartment in which she found herself. Fred could see +that she was moulded more beautifully than the Graces,--by so much more +as Nature is fairer than all Art,--and that she had an inward pure +coldness, beside which Diana's was only stone. Yet it was not +indifference, like that of the wild huntress,--not an incapacity to +feel, but only that her time had not come; when it should, she would +melt as well as another. Now she stood still and calm. She did not +once look at him. She had seen human beings before,--plenty of them. +Something else attracted her,--thrilled her, evidently; for the +faintest rose-color suffused her beautiful form; she changed her +attitude, and bent forward her graceful head. + +Something about "warming his hands by thinking on the frosty Caucasus" +passed through Fred's mind, and some law of association impelled him to +look at the fire. It was queer enough, that, as many times as he had +looked at that fire by the hour together, he had never before noticed +its shape or expression. Only last night, he had watched it, dancing and +flickering just as it did now, and never once suspected the truth! + +Mailed figures! Yes, plenty of them,--golden-helmeted and sworded like +the seraphim! A glorious band, gathering, twining, shooting past each +other,--jousting, tilting,--with blazing banners, and a field broader +than that of the "Cloth of Gold"; for this reached to and mingled with +the clouds--yea, tinted them with flame-color and roses,--and garlanded +the earth with crimson blossoms that nestled among her forests on the +far-off horizon. What a wide field, indeed! And how far might these +blazes and flames go, when once they set out? To the stars, perhaps. +Fred did not see what should stop them. The atmosphere might, possibly. +He must study that out. + +Meanwhile how strangely far he could see! What a power it was! What a +new interest it gave to Nature! Nature, he must confess, had always +seemed rather flat to him, on the whole. He had always liked +the imitations better than the original,--pictures better than +people,--busts better than philosophers. But now the case is altered. He +has got what his friend Norris calls "glorification-spectacles." Now he +can have perpetual amusement. Why, it is vastly better than Asmodeus +peeping in at the tops of houses. By the same token, snow-flakes are +more interesting than humanity. + +Speaking of snow-flakes, what does he see, but that she is evidently +yielding to the soft enchantment of the nearest flame-god,--drawn +thither by resistless affinity, and melting, in his burning arms, to +the most delicate vapor! Snow-flake no more, yet not absorbed nor lost! +Rather taking her true place, transported from the earth-tempests to a +warmer and higher sphere of action. + +That might be, but not yet. In their new vaporous condition, in which +both had lost some of their prominent qualities, they had acquired new +relations, perhaps new duties. At all events, they did not at once +ascend to their kindred ether,--but swam, glided, floated, above +and around, and finally separated. Watching them keenly, Fred could +distinctly see that the sometime snow-flake left her sphere and came +gradually towards himself. As the vaporous shape floated nearer, it also +grew larger, so that, although Fred could not have said certainly that +the size was human, it relieved him from the impression of any fairy +or elf or sprite. No, it was nothing of that sort. It was just the +gentlest, calmest, serenest face and form in the world,--with the same +look of pure sweetness he had noticed on her first entrance,--with a +peculiar surprised look in her wide-open eyes, that he had seen but in +one human face. As well tell the truth,--the face, expression, and all, +were as like Annie Peyton's, as her portrait, drawn in water-colors, +could possibly have been. + +The shape sat down by him,--her vaporous garment still folding softly +around her, and her clear, open eyes fixed on him. There was no need of +speech, for he read her face as if written by Heaven's own hand; and the +coarse and selfish philosophy which had sufficed partially to stun and +confuse Minnie fled at the presence of the spirit. Not a word still from +the calm, sweet face. It looked on him with pity and surprise. Then all +the ideas and convictions that throng on the mind warped, but not lost, +pressed on him. He hid his face in the sofa-cushions. + +His presence of mind returned as a new thought struck him. It was an +ocular delusion, surely. He sprang up, took three or four turns across +the room, rubbed his eyes smartly, and took his seat again. For a moment +he would not look towards the chair. When at last he did look, the airy, +soft form was still there, looking steadily into his eyes. + +"What an idea!" exclaimed he, impatiently. "I might put my hands through +it, like the flame of a candle. It is nothing but vapor. What is it made +of? Nothing but a snow-flake and the gas from cannel coal. I saw it, +myself, melting and falling together into this beautiful shape. But then +it is only a shape. It is not a body. Oh, but then it may be a soul! Who +knows what souls are made of? Snow-flakes and vapor, perhaps. Who knows +indeed?" + +He looked about the room. Everything was in its natural and usual place. +The fire burned merrily; the wind swept fitfully without, and all +was quiet within. A very uncomfortable feeling, of mingled awe and +curiosity, took possession of him. He did not quite like to look at the +shape. He thought,-- + +"Can this be the spiritual body that St. Paul says is to supersede the +natural one? If this is indeed, the soul of Annie Peyton,--why, she +knows, somehow, what is in mine. And, by Jove! I can see her soul now, +too, without any trouble! She can't hide her real feelings now from me, +any more than I can my character from her. There's some good in it, +anyhow!" + +With some effort, he raised his eyes,--very respectfully, indeed; +for though he was only about to look at a soul, he was full as much +overpowered as if it had been the body. His eyes fell. + +"If I dared to look! But she knows how I feel. I suppose she sees me +now,--shivering from head to foot like a----Somehow, I can't look her +in the eyes. However, this won't do!" And he looked quickly and timidly +into the now smiling face. + +He need not have been so timid. If a soul could discern evil, it could, +also, good; and this spirit was quick to see the last. Without a +word,--but when were words necessary to souls?--with only a glance, she +expressed so much love and pity for him, that Fred was ashamed to look +her in the face. "Oh! if she could really see him," he thought, "would +she look so?" Perhaps so. For the Intelligence that sees the evil +can clearest of all see the mitigations, the causes, and the sore +temptations; and the fruit of the widest knowledge is the widest love. + +Something like this passed from the soul that sat opposite Fred into his +awakening and sensitive consciousness:-- + +"You have never tasted the pleasures of useful activity," the sweet face +said. "Come with me, and we will look together, and see what good may +come, and also what enjoyment, from it." + +Now it was, for the first time, that Fred fully understood his position. +It came like a gleam of light on his puzzled intellect, and made that +quite clear which had before been so mystical and cloudy, that he had +been ready to rub his eyes, and to doubt, almost, the evidence of his +senses. He remembered his old and a thousand times repeated theory of +"projected images." Here it was. Instead of a fancy, a thought, here was +the whole of Annie Peyton's soul (which, to be sure, had often enough +occupied his mind) projected from his own, perhaps, so as to be a +subject of contemplation to his bodily eyes. Or, what was more likely, +the soul itself of Annie Peyton might have left her body for a time in +a dream. It was among the possibilities, though he had never before +believed it to be. But then, again, how could his soul go off on an +exploring tour with Annie's? His soul was safe in his body, and that, +namely, the body, lying on the sofa,--the room close, the window down. +Just then, he glanced toward the window, and remembered that he had not +fastened it at all. There was room enough for a soul to pass easily. But +then, again, how was his soul to pass,--to get out, in the first place, +of his body? Easily enough. The concentrated effort of will, which could +give shape to a fancy, and place it outside the eye, could, by sustained +action, separate all the perceptive powers from the senses,--in short, +the spirit from its envelope. + +"To know, to perceive, to suffer, to rejoice, do not require skin and +bones. The heart weeps while the eye is dry; the lips smile while the +heart is breaking. One might have a conventional soul,--to keep house, +as it were, and do all the honors of society, while the real one went +abroad to regions of truth and beauty, and bathed in living waters!" + +While Fred continued so to think and speculate, and also to separate, +and, as it were, classify his ideas, he was pleased to perceive, +that, without any very strong volition on his part, but only from the +analytical processes of his reason, that portion of his mind which +perceived and enjoyed the truth of things became condensed and separated +from the conventional, the factitious, and the merely sensual. The +qualities, or states, or whatever the metaphysician calls them, fell +off him, as garments do in a dream, and left himself, his very self, +separate, and a little distant, from his body. He perceived this rather +than saw it. He knew it, but could not assert it. The body, with its +bodily wants and limitations, leaned on the couch, half slumberously; +while the mind, himself, full of vague aspirations, keen intellectual +hunger, and overlaid with error, obstinacy, and the thick crust of +self-contemplation, which stifles all true progress,--these assimilated +qualities made himself, what he felt he was, not an attractive object to +himself more than to anybody else. All his perceptions pointed inward, +and cramped and narrowed his existence. He felt very, very small. + +"This is strange," he reasoned, "that I should have such a sense of +contraction! I crowd on myself, as it were. My thoughts hit me, press +me, instead of elevating me. I cannot see why; for the habit of looking +up to no goodness or intelligence but the Supreme must surely be a good +one, and self-education and development the noblest process for a human +being." + +He said this in a mechanical sort of way, as if it were a lesson he +remembered at school. But it made no impression on him, and did not +relieve his difficulty. He knew it, somehow, to be false, and felt +it falling off as he spoke, as if it were the last remnant of gauzy +sophistry. + +Fred had never been fond of church-going, nor was he much given to +reading the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, he rather affected the style of the +Latter-Day Saints, who look for a better and nobler Messiah than came in +the Son of Mary. But just now, fifty texts of Scripture, which he must +have learned long ago at his mother's knee, came crowding upon his +memory. + +"Though I have all gifts, and have not charity, I am nothing." + +"He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." + +"He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, +whom he hath not seen?" + +"Little children, love one another." + +"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." + +And so on,--interminably. In a helpless, vague way, he looked at the +shadow by his side. + +"You like pictures, and paint them," said she, speaking for the first +time;--and the voice was precisely the tone he had recognized in the +music of the wind; he had thought then it was like hers;--"look with me +at these two." + +They were, indeed, magnificent pictures. They reached from floor to +ceiling. Fred was artist enough to enjoy fully the wide sweep of sky and +land,--the mountains in the distance, and the firmament studded with +stars. A figure wandered up and down the space, sometimes to the tops +of the mountains, sometimes to the clefts of the rocks. When he saw the +stars, he calculated their distances;--when he saw the moon, he weighed +her, and guessed about the atmosphere on the other side;--when the gold +and diamonds shone in the clefts of the rocks, he gathered and analyzed +them. The Leviathan he studied and classed. He groped and reached +constantly, and, having gathered, looked at his gatherings, +dissatisfied. He was ever searching out knowledge. Meanwhile, a gnat put +him in a passion, and unleavened bread destroyed his peace. Though he +might sleep on rose-leaves, as he could not command the wind, they came +often to double under him, and annoy him with bad dreams. + +"When shall I be a disembodied spirit, and no longer subject to the +petty annoyances that belong to the flesh?" cried he, fretfully. "My +knowledge, too, is a moth,--only vexing me by a sense of the limitations +of my condition. If I could grasp Nature,--if I could handle the +stars,--if I could wake the thunder,--if I could summon the cloud! That +would be worth something,--to send the comets on their errands! But what +avails it, to know that they go?--how far from me when they start, and +how many millions of miles before they turn to come back? If I could +move only one of these subtile energies that mock me while I look them +in the face!" + +The philosopher dozed. A storm came on, and swept over all creation. +When he awoke, it was clearing away, and one side of the heavens was +heaped with gold-lined clouds, and the darkness of the other spanned +with the seven-hued bow. He looked admiringly at the clouds and +critically at the rainbow, and added to his memorandum-book. + +"What use?" said he, mournfully; "delicate dew, and refracted light!" + +He continued to ponder and murmur, to explore, to ascertain, to grumble. +He had rheumatic pains, for the elements had no mercy on him; he rubbed +himself as he was able, and added to his stores of knowledge. He was +very, very learned. When he reached a shelter, he lay down. If no human +love welcomed him, and no gentle lip soothed him, he had self-culture, +especially in the sciences. + +All this Fred knew as soon as he looked at him. + +"If he were wise, he would not stop at knowledge, which is, of course, +unsatisfactory,--but dive beyond, as I have done, into the essence of +things," said Fred to himself. "If he could pierce through the veil that +covers all things, he would find amusement enough to last a lifetime. In +vegetable life, the jealousies and passions of flowers,--in the quiet +eventfulness of the mineral kingdom, to see forms of living beauty in +crystals,--finally, in all the under-mechanism of creation, what a +fund of enjoyment and instruction! I think I should never cease to be +delighted and entertained." + +Fred glanced from the picture to the fireplace. The shovel and tongs +were just laughing at him; and though they composed their countenances +immediately, he had caught the expression, and was excessively annoyed. +Philosophy at length came to his aid, especially as the poker expressed +only profound deference, preserving a martial attitude and immovable +features. After all, why should he care for a pair of tongs? One must +cultivate phlegm, if one is a philosopher; and a shovel, after all, is +not so bad as a pretty woman. He heard the cool wind distinctly blowing +across the mountains in the picture, and saw the stars coming out again. +Then Fred knew he had been looking at a diorama, and that the exhibition +was over. + +He heard a hearty laugh at a little distance, and perceived that the +picture, which at first had seemed to spread out over the whole wall, +was really divided into two parts, something like an exhibition he +remembered of dissolving views. This was delightful. The first picture +faded out into gloom, and gave place to a bright, cheerful room in the +third story of a house in the city. There were only two rooms,--this, +and a small anteroom. The furniture was simple, even poor. Through the +window the snow was seen falling, and the blaze flickered, in cheerful +contrast, on the hearth. A woman, neither young nor pretty, stood with +an astonished expression, and an elderly man laughed loudly, and sat +down before the fire. + +"What in the world shall I do?" said the woman. + +"Do, my dear?--why, bring me my dressing-gown"; said he, laughing again +so cheerily, that it was contagious; and as she brought the coarse +wadded garment he asked for, she laughed too. + +"A pretty kettle of fish!" said she. + +"Yes! Now what shall we do? Not a dollar in our pockets!" + +"Nor a coat to your back!" broke in the woman. + +Then they both laughed again, loudly and heartily. + +Fred remembered now what they were laughing at. The man was a minister, +well known in Boston, and the woman was his wife. He had just come in, +running through the storm, and almost out of breath. + +"Wife! my coat! Don't you see I am in my shirt-sleeves? I've got a +snow-bank on my back!" + +"Why! where in the world--what have you done with your coat?" + +"Oh! that I am almost ashamed to tell you; it seems such a parading sort +o' thing to do in the streets! But you may depend, I didn't stand at the +corners long, to be seen of men, in this driving storm! Fact was, wife, +I just took it off of my back, and gave it to poor old M'Carty;--he'd +nothing on but rags, and was fairly shaking with the cold. I knew I'd +another to home,--and what does a man want of two coats? One's enough +for anybody. Besides, didn't our Lord particularly tell his disciples +not to have but one? Say, now, wife!" + +The wife looked blank and embarrassed. + +"Well, wife! what now?" + +"Only"----and she paused again. + +"Only what? Out with it! You think it was silly! But, wife, you'd 'a' +done the same thing;--you couldn't 'a' helped it, nohow. Providence +seemed to 'a' cast him in my way o' purpose. I tell you, wife, it was as +plain-spoken as it could be,--'Be ye warmed!' Why, you'd 'a' done the +same thing, wife!" + +"My goodness! I _have_ done it, husband! A man and his wife and three +little children came along, not half an hour ago, looking so miserable +and cold, that, as I thought, as you say, you had one coat, and that +was all you really needed, I just out with the other, and put it on the +man's back. The thankfullest creature you ever saw!" + +And here the man had broken into the hearty laugh Fred heard. + +When the man put on his dressing-gown, which was comfortable for the +fireside, the wife renewed her question. He answered with a bright +smile,-- + +"The Son of Man, my dear we know, had not where to lay his head; but +then he always trusted in God. God never fails his children. Thanks to +Him!" added he, reverently, and raising loving eyes to heaven, as if he +really spoke to somebody there,--"Thanks to Him! there's bountiful hands +and tender hearts, a plenty of 'em, in the city of Boston. I've only got +to strike, and the waters 'll flow out! yes,--rivers of water!" + +The wife looked down, and said, meditatively, "It makes me think what +our dear Saviour said to poor Peter,--'O thou of little faith, wherefore +didst thou doubt?'" + +The man answered in a clear, joyful tone, "Oh, you won't doubt more'n +half a minute to time, wife!--and I won't doubt at all!" + +With that, the two aged Christians struck up a sweet Wesleyan melody; +and that, too, was in the same soft minor key that Fred had heard +singing through the gas-burner. They finished the little hymn, and +the woman scraped some corn from a cob into the corn-popper. In a few +minutes, she had filled a large bowl with the parched corn. + +"I declare, they look like them hyacinths in the window,--don't they? +What a lovely white color!" + +"I think, wife," answered the man, as he took a handful of the kernels +and looked at them, "this corn is a good deal like human nature. When +we're all shut up in ourselves, we're poor creatures;--but touch us with +the live coals of the Holy Spirit, and we turn out something refreshing. +Fact is, wife, we're good for nothing, till we're turned inside out." + +The picture faded. It was a very homely one. + +Fred turned to the soul by his side, but she was no longer visible. + +"Escaped, somehow! I wonder, now, how?" + +But he had scarcely spoken, when he saw, by a slight movement of the +door, that she must have gone out that way. It was just closing. With a +tremendous effort of will, he tried to follow her, but in vain. He +had been so much in the habit of looking after himself only, that his +untrained faculties refused to obey him. As a last resource, he sank +passively towards the form which still lay prone on the couch. How he +was again to join soul and body he could not guess. But, apparently, +there was no difficulty. The spirit which had called him out of himself, +for a little while, had departed, and, with her, both the power and the +desire of separation. He joined his sensuous existence with ease and +pleasure, and with no perceptible lapse of consciousness. No sooner had +he obtained the use of his tongue, than he made an inarticulate noise. +The door, which had been all that time swinging, opened again, and the +velvet-footed Martin appeared. + +"Who went out, Martin?" + +"Out of here, Sir? No one, Sir." + +"Who opened the door, then?--What's that in your hand?" + +"The chloroform, Sir, you just handed me." + +"Just handed you?" + +"Yes, Sir;--you gave it back to me not a quarter of a minute ago." + +"Have I been asleep, Martin?" + +"I should judge not, Sir. You didn't take more than two sniffs at the +bottle. I just had time to go to the door when you spoke to me." + +"Martin,--is the window close?" + +"Perfectly close, Sir." + +"You may go." + + * * * * * + + +PALFREY'S AND ARNOLD'S HISTORIES.[A] + + +[Footnote A: _History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty._ By John +Gorham Palfrey. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1858. 8vo. pp. 638. + +_History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._ By +Samuel Greene Arnold & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 574.] + +The London "Times," in its comments upon a recent desponding utterance +of foreboding for our republic, by President Buchanan, in his Fort +Duquesne Letter, affirms that the horizon of England is clearing while +our own is darkening. Mr. Bright, true to the omen of his name, thinks +better of our country. He seizes upon all fit occasions, as in his late +speech at Manchester, to hold up to his countrymen the opposite view, +so far at least as concerns our republic. He loves to recommend to +his constituents American notions and institutions. Perhaps it may be +allowed,--though this is hardly to be affirmed, if any decisive argument +depends upon it,--that the peculiar institutions, political and social, +of the two nations, have been on trial long enough, side by side, +through the same race of men and in the pursuit of the same interests, +to enable a wise discerner to strike the balance between them, in +respect to their efficiency and their security as intrusted with the +welfare and destiny of millions. If we can learn to look at the +large experiment in that light, all that helps to put the real issue +intelligently before us will be of equal interest to us, from whichever +side of the water it may present itself. For ourselves, we believe that +the best security against despair for our country is a knowledge of its +history. If the study of our annals does not train up patriots among us, +we must consent to lose our heritage. We are glad to be assured that our +historians do not intend to allow the republic to decay before they have +written out in full the tale of its life. Their records, well digested, +may prove to be the pledges of its vigor and permanence. + +There are those in the land, who, for reasons suggested by President +Buchanan, and for others, of darker omen, to which he makes no +reference, do despair, or greatly fear. What with an honest hate of some +public iniquities among us,--the tolerance and strengthening of which +many of our politicians regard as the vital conditions of our national +existence,--and a dread of the excesses incident to our large liberty, +it is not strange that some of our own citizens should accord in +sentiment with the London "Times." Probably the same proportion of +persons may be now living among the native population of our national +soil, appeared at the era of the Revolution, preferring English +institutions to our own, and predicting that her government will outlast +our own. Discussions raised upon the present aspect of affairs in either +country will not settle the issue thus opened. A real knowledge of our +own institutions and a reasonable confidence in their permanence are +to be found only in an intelligent and very intimate acquaintance with +their growth and development. In our histories are to be found the +materials of our prophecies. + +We welcome, therefore, with infinite satisfaction, the two admirable +volumes whose titles we have set down. For reasons which will appear +before we conclude our remarks upon them, we find it convenient to unite +their titles and to write about them together; but for distinctness of +subject and marked individuality in the mode of treatment, no two books +can stand more widely apart. Abilities and culture and aptitudes of the +very highest order have been brought to the composition of each of +them. An exhaustive use of abundant materials, and a most conscientious +fidelity in digesting them into high-toned philosophical narrations, are +marked features of both the volumes, and we will not venture upon the +ungracious office of instituting comparisons, in these respects, between +their authors. We must make a slight report of the story of each of +them, and of the method and spirit in which it is told, and then +confront them for mutual cross-examination. + +Our historians have learned to write their books with full as much +reference to their being read abroad as at home. The problem with which +they first have to deal, therefore, is, how to make the men and the +incidents and the cardinal points of our annals look as large to +foreigners as they do to us. Many of our town-histories are written in +the tone and style of Mr. Poole's "Little Pedlington,"--the epithet +_Little_ being suppressed in the title, but obtruded on every page. The +intensity and emphasis of our historic strain appear to foreigners to be +disproportionate to the subject-matter of the story. Mr. Punch always +represents a Yankee as larger than his garments. His trousers never +cover his ankles; his cuffs stop far short of his wrists; his long neck +extends beyond the reach of even his capacious collar; and the bone in +him lacks amplitude of muscle. But Mr. Punch, with all his wisdom, does +not fully understand the composition of a Yankee, as the greatest common +multiple of a Teuton, Dane, Norman, Frank, Kelt, and Englishman. Dr. +Palfrey's volume will largely conciliate our cousins beyond the water +to our own conceit of our annals, because, more distinctly and cogently +than any previous record in pamphlet or folio, it identifies the springs +and purposes of our heroic age with an era and a type of men which +English historians now exalt on their own noblest pages. + +Dr. Palfrey has had precisely that natural endowment, training, +experience, mental discipline, and intercourse with the world in public +and private relations, to furnish him with the best qualifications for +the work to which he has devoted the autumn of an eminently useful and +honored life. The sinewy fibre of his theme is religion. And he is a +religious man of the highest pattern, deeply skilled in its scholarly +lore, erudite in its Scriptural and controversial elements, and +practised in the sagacity which it imparts for understanding and +interpreting human nature. Religion enters into the subject-matter of +his narrative, not so much in its philosophical bearings as in its +civico-ecclesiastical and institutional relations; where it becomes the +spine of the social fabric, traversed and perforated with the nervous +life-chords for all the members of the organism. His education has +been that of the highest ideal of New England,--through books and men, +through professional duties and public services, bringing him into +relations with youth, with men and women, and with the forms and the +routine work of civil and political administrations. He has at his +command the language of devotion, the rhetoric and logic of philosophy, +and the technicalities of jurisprudence. To his personal friends, and +they are very many in every walk of life, it is a matter of grateful +recognition that he escaped from a political arena whose conflicts were +not congenial with his delicacy of taste or of conscience, in season to +give the vigor of his best years to the composition of a work which will +spread his fame to other lands and identify it forever with what is of +most reverent and honored remembrance on his native soil. + +The historian's work, when done after the best pattern, involves a duty +to his readers and a privilege for himself. To them he is bound to +present all the essential facts, authenticated, illustrated, and +carefully disposed in their natural relations. For himself, having done +this, he is at liberty to construct his own theory, to follow his own +philosophy, and to pronounce judicial decisions. The highest exaction to +be made of an historian, and the loftiest function which he could claim +to exercise, are expressed in these two conditions. The noble privilege +and opportunity secured in the latter condition are the only adequate +reward for the drudgery of the labor required in the former. It would +be foolish to raise a question whether it be more essential for an +historian to be faithful in his narration or to be wise in his comments. +Only the statement we have made will serve to remind us how essential +the philosophy of human nature is to throw life into a record of old +annals. + +The two books in our hands, where their specific themes are identical, +substantially accord in their relation of facts,--allowing for a few +exceptional cases,--but they differ widely in their philosophy. Very +much of the fresh interest which both of them will create in their +respective subjects will be found in the collisions of their philosophy. + +Dr. Palfrey had a favorable opportunity for undertaking to write anew +the history of New England. Those who have yet to acquaint themselves +with that history say there was no occasion for this reiterated labor. +If such persons will merely read over his notes, without wasting any of +their precious time upon his text, they will discover their mistake. +There are in those notes matters new even to adepts. All the recent +materials which have been lavishly contributed from public and private +stores by public and private researches amount in sum and in importance +to an actual necessity for their digest and incorporation into a new +history. Dr. Palfrey has used these with a most patient fidelity, and +his references to them and his extracts from them convey to his readers +the results of an amount of labor which the most grateful of them will +not be likely to overestimate. While he speaks to us in his text, he +allows those whom we most wish to hear to speak to us in his rich and +well-chosen excerpts from a mountain-heap of authorities. + +The Dedication of the volume to Dr. Sparks has in it a rare felicity, +which is to be referred to two facts: first, that the writer had some +peculiarly touching and grateful things to say; and, second, that +he knew how to say them in language fitted to the sentiment. In his +Preface, he announces his purpose with its plan, refers us to his +authorities and sources, and recognizes his obligations to individual +friends. Some of the choicest matters in his Notes are the results of +his own personal research in England. + +The limit which he sets for himself will carry forward his History to +the time of the English Revolution, thus embracing our annals during the +vitality of our first Charter. That Charter, its origin, transfer, and +subsequent service as the basis of government, the reiterated efforts +to wrest it, and the persistent resolution to hold it, give to it a +symbolic significance which warrants the dating of an epoch by it. Dr. +Palfrey regards our local political existence as commencing from the +hour in which that document, with its official representatives, reached +these shores. We have seen criticisms disputing this position, but, as +we think, not even plausible, still less effective to discredit it. We +must have an incident, besides a _punctum temporis_, for our start in +government; and where could we find a better one than that on which the +whole subsequent course and character of the government depended? We +go, then, for the old Charter, and for the setting up of a jurisdiction +under it here. It was an admirable and every way convenient document; +good for securing rights, impotent as impairing liberties. It comforted +the "Magistrates" to have it to fall back upon, when its provisions +harmonized with their purposes; nor did they allow themselves to be +embarrassed by it, when it appeared that some of their purposes were +not fully provided for in it. That Charter got wonderfully aired and +invigorated on its ocean-passage. The salt water agreed with its +constitution. In a single instance, at least, it falsified the old +maxim,--_Coeium, nun animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt_. That was +a marvellous piece of parchment. So far as Massachusetts was concerned, +the Declaration of Independence was interlined upon it in sympathetic +ink. + +We hardly know of fifty octavo pages anywhere in which so much +investigation and labor condense their results so intelligibly into such +useful information as in each of the first two chapters of this volume. +The first is devoted to the Physical Geography of the Peninsula of +New England, its Natural History, and its Aborigines; the second is a +summary sketch of the Early Voyages and Explorations. In this we find +the most discriminating view which we have ever seen of the marvellous +adventures of John Smith,--so happily and suggestively described as the +"fugitive slave" who was "the founder of Virginia." The notes on the +credibility and authenticity of the narrations connected with his name +are admirable. In reading these two chapters, one must muse upon +the wilderness trampings and the ocean perils of the keen-set and +all-enduring men who furnished the material for these high-seasoned +pages. + +"Puritanism in England" is, of course, the author's starting-point. Here +he finds his men and their principles. A partial reformation is the most +mischievous influence that can work in society. It unsettles, but is not +willing to rebuild, even when it can learn how to do so. Reaction and +excess are the Scylla and Charybdis of its perils. Compromise is the +very essence of a partial reformation; and compromise in matters of +moral and religious concern, where it is not folly, is crime. Where any +party has been in earnest in a strife, there is no honest end at which +it can rest till it reaches the goal of righteousness. The active +element of Puritanism was the persistency of a religious party in +pursuing a purpose which was yielded up, at a point short of its full +attainment, by another branch of the party, which up to that point had +made common cause with them. To speak plainly, the English Puritans +regarded their former prelatical and conformist associates as traitors +to a holy cause. They had engaged together in good faith in the work of +reformation. They had suffered together. When the time came for triumph, +a schism divided them; and the more zealous smarted from wounds +inflicted by the lukewarm. It appeared that the Prelatists had been +looking to ends of state policy, while the Puritans kept religion in +view. The Conformists thought their ends were reached when Roman prelacy +was set aside, and certain local ecclesiastical changes had been +effected; but the real Puritans wanted to get and to establish the +essential Gospel. + +Dr. Palfrey tells this story concisely, but emphatically. He takes two +stages of the Puritan development in England, from which to deduce +respectively the emigration to Plymouth and to Massachusetts Bay. +Stopping at intervals to make intelligible the perplexities connected +with the patents and charters, his narrative is thenceforward +continuous, admitting new threads to be woven into it as the pattern +and the fabric both become richer. For the first time we have the full +connection presented in solid history between the Scrooby Church and +Plymouth Colony. And the tracing is beautifully done. An artist may find +his paintings in these pages. Our poets may here find themes which will +be the more tempting and rewarding, the more closely they are held +to severe historic verity. They will find, that, after all, the most +promising materials for the imagination to deal with are facts. The +residence of the exiles in Holland, their debates and arrangements with +respect to a more distant remove, the ocean passage, the first forlorn +experiences during two winters at Plymouth, are vividly presented. The +paragraph, on page 182, beginning, "A visitor to Plymouth," gives us +a picture better than that which hangs in the Pilgrim Hall. If the +sternest foe of the Pilgrims across the water could have looked upon +the exiles in their winter dreariness, hungry, wasted, dying, cowering +beneath the accumulation of their woes, he might have regarded the scene +as presenting but a reasonable retribution upon a stolid obstinacy in +the most direful and needless self-inflictions. "Why could they not have +been content to cling to the comforts of Old England, and to restrain +their wilfulness of spirit?" The question is answered now differently +from what it would have been then. We have used one wrong word about +those exiles, in speaking of them as _cowering_ under their woes. They +did not _cower_, but _breasted _them. + +After another most pregnant and exhaustive episode on Puritan politics +in England, Dr. Palfrey brings in that thread of his story on which is +strung the fortune of Massachusetts. It is here that Englishmen will +find explained some of our vaunting views of the importance of our +annals. Dr. Palfrey, in this and in other chapters, traces with skill +and exactness the course of public measures and events in England, +through kingly tyrannies and popular resistance, which ended by +harmonizing the institutions of the mother country for a little while +with those which had sprung up in this wilderness. He soon comes upon +ticklish matters, but his touch and hold are firm, because he feels sure +that he is dealing with men who understood themselves, and who were +at least resolute and honest, to whatever degree they may have erred. +Probably, like many of us who are aware that we could not possibly have +lived comfortably with our ancestors, he feels all the more bound on +that account to set their memory in the light of their noblest and least +selfish ends. He is stout and unflinching in his championship of those +ancestors: he sees in their experiment a lofty ideal; he vindicates +their policy in the measures for realizing it; nor does he withhold +apologetic or vindicatory words where "unmeet persons" among the whites +or Indians stood in the way of it. + +Henceforward Dr. Palfrey has to follow out each thread of his story +by itself, as by-and-by he will have to gather them into one cord. He +traces the developments of months and years in the original settlements, +and pursues them as they lead him to new territory in the Northeast +and the Southwest, into Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Another +episode on the opening of the Civil War at home, which invited a large +return of the exiles, and a record of the original confederacy of the +New England Colonies, bring us to the present close of his labors. May +they be speedily continued! and may we enjoy the reality, as we now do +the promise of them! + +We turn now to Mr. Arnold's book. The field which it traverses is +narrower as regards space, but its spirit is large and generous, and its +subject-matter is of the loftiest significance. If the writer does not +indulge us with many disquisitions, it is not from lack of ability. +Wherever, as in his moralizings upon King Philip's War, and in his +incidental comments upon the peculiarities and temper of his prominent +men, he allows us to meet his own mind, he is uniformly wise and +interesting. He stands by Rhode Island as does Dr. Palfrey by +Massachusetts; and seeing that for a far longer period than the two +books run on together the two Colonies were at strife, we are glad to +have before us both the ways in which the story may be told. There are +various sharp judgments on Massachusetts men and principles in the Rhode +Island book. The argument is in good hands on either side. + +Mr. Arnold begins with the first occupation of Rhode Island by white +men, and conducts his narrative to the close of the century. His +research has been faithful. His style is chaste, forcible, and often +picturesque. He has seen the world widely, and he knows human nature. +He understands very well what a place of honor and what a well-proved +assurance of safety distinctive Rhode Island principles have attained. +The issue, having been found so triumphant, has dignified to the +historian the early, humble, and bewildering steps and processes through +which it was reached. The narrative on his pages is the most distracting +one ever written in the annals of civilized men. Every conceivable +element of strife, discord, agitation, alarm, dissension, and bitterness +is to be found in it,--redeemed only by a prevailing integrity, +right-mindedness, and right-heartedness in all the leading spirits. Each +man in each of the towns composing the original elements of the Colony +was a whole "democratie" in himself, and generally a "fierce" one. +Disputed boundaries with both the other Colonies, and an especial and +continuous feud with Massachusetts,--unruly spirits, bent upon working +out all manner of impracticable theories,--the oddest and most original, +as well as the most obstinate and indomitable dreamers and enthusiasts, +furnished some daily nutriment to dissension with their neighbors or +among themselves. Men of mark, like Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, +Governor Arnold, and William Harris, appear equally competent for +fomenting strife of a sort to threaten every essential element of civil +society, and for averting all permanent harm while putting on trial the +most revolutionary theories. On page 337, Mr. Arnold has a note most +characteristic of a large portion of his whole theme, as covering both +his men and their measures. Many of the documents, of an official +character, written by citizens, towns, or rulers in Rhode Island, were +of such a sort in language and matter, that the town of Warwick did not +think them fit for the public records, and so enjoined that the clerk +should keep them in a file by themselves. This was known as "the +Impertinent File," and, more profanely, but not less appropriately, +as "the Damned File." A certain "perditious letter," written by Roger +Williams himself, serves as the nucleus of this deposit; and we read of +another of the documents as being as "full of uncivil language as if it +had been indited in hell." + +Mr. Arnold picks his way through all these dissensions, and finds a full +reward in the nobleness of the men and the principles with which he has +in the main to deal. His only abatement of praise to Roger Williams +is on account of his bitter feud with William Harris. He repels, +as slanderous, the imputations founded on alleged interpolations +restricting religious liberty in the code, and cast at Roger Williams +for undue severity to Quakers and for favoring Indian slavery. +Randolph's visit, Andros's administration, the suspension and resumption +of the Charter, bring him out into broader matters, which he treats with +frankness and skill. + +The more histories we have from the pens of competent writers, even +though they go over the same ground, the more lively and interesting +will the pages be. We need not fear that like fidelity and ability in +the use of the same materials by different writers will reduce our +modern histories to a dead level of uniform narration. None but those +well-skilled in our annals are aware what scope they afford, not only +for special pleas, but also for honest diversity of judgment, in viewing +and pronouncing upon many test-points vital to the theme. Indeed, when +the historic vein shall have been exhausted, it will be found that there +is more than a score of special and contested points, in each of our +first two centuries, admirably suited for monographs. We have but to +compare a few pages in each of the two excellent works now in our hands, +to see how men of the highest ability, of rigid candor, and scrupulous +fidelity in the use of the same materials, while spreading the same +facts before their readers, may tell different tales, varying to +the whole extent of the diversity in their respective judgments and +moralizings. We can easily illustrate this assertion from the pages +before us. Though Dr. Palfrey stops more than a half-century short of +the date to which Mr. Arnold carries us, the former indicates exactly +how and where he will be at issue with the latter, even to the end of +the story common to both of them. So strong and clear is Dr. Palfrey's +avowal of fealty to the honorable and unsullied fame of the founders of +Massachusetts, that he will not be likely, on any later page, to qualify +what he has already written. It happens, too, that the points in which +any two of our historians would be most disposed to part in judgment lie +within the space and the years common to both these writers. We can but +indicate, in a very brief way, some of the more salient divergences +between them, and we must preface the specification by acknowledging +again the high integrity of both. + +Dr. Palfrey writes, unmistakably, as a man proud of his Massachusetts +lineage. He honors the men whose enterprise, constancy, persistency, +and wise skill in laying foundations have, in his view, approved their +methods and justified them, even where they are most exposed to a severe +judgment. He wishes to tell their story as they would wish to have it +told. They stand by his side as he reads their records, and supply him +with a running comment as to meaning and intention. Thus he is helped to +put their own construction on their own deeds,--to set their acts in the +light of their motives, to give them credit for all the good that was in +their purposes, and to ascribe their mistakes and errors to a limitation +of their views, or to well-founded apprehensions of evil which they had +reason to dread. Under such pilotage, the passengers, at least, would +be safe, when their ship fell upon a place where two seas met. Now +Massachusetts and Rhode Island were in stiff hostility during the period +here chronicled. The founder of Rhode Island and nearly all of its +leading spirits had been "spewed out of the Bay Colony,"--and the +institutions which the Rhode Islanders set up, or rather, their seeming +purpose to do without any _institutions_, constituted a standing +grievance to the rigid disciplinarians of Massachusetts. Indeed, we have +to look to the relations of annoyance, jealousy, and open strife, which +arose between the two Colonies in the ten years following 1636, for +the real explanation of the severity visited upon the Quakers in +Massachusetts in the five years following 1656. These early Quakers, +when not the veritable persons, were the ghosts of the old troublers of +"the Lord's people in the Bay." Gorton, Randall Holden, Mrs. Dyer, and +other "exorbitant persons," who had been found "unmeet to abide in this +jurisdiction," could not be got rid of once for all. + +Mr. Arnold glories in the early reproach of Rhode Island. He finds its +title to honor above every other spot on earth in the phenomena which +made it so hateful to Massachusetts. In every issue raised between it +and the Bay Colony from the very first, and in every element of its +strife, he stands stoutly forth as its champion, and casts scornful +reflections, though not in a scornful spirit. Wherever our two +historians have the same point under treatment, we discern this +antagonism between them,--never in a single case manifesting itself in +an offensive or bitter way, but tending greatly to give a brisk and +quickening vigor to their pages. Arnold claims that a perfectly +democratical government and entire religious freedom are "exclusively +Rhode Island doctrines, and to her belongs the credit of them both." He +might afford to give Massachusetts the appreciable honor of having been +the indirect means of opening those large visions to the eyes of men +who certainly were a most uncomfortable set of citizens while under +pupilage. Mr. Bancroft had previously written thus:--"Had the territory +of Rhode Island corresponded to the importance and singularity of the +principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with +wonder at the phenomena of its history."[B] It was only because the +State was no larger that it was a safe field for the first trial of such +principles. And it has often proved, that, the larger the principle, +the more circumscribed must needs be the field within which it is first +tested. It was well that the first experiments on the capabilities of +steam were tried by the nose of a tea-kettle. Seeing that most of the +early settlers of Rhode Island had very little property, and scarce +anything of what Christendom had previously been in the habit of +regarding as religion, the territory was the most fitting place for the +trial of revolutionary principles. Mr. Arnold says, very curtly, but +very truly,--"No form of civil government then existing could tolerate +her democracy, and even Christian charity denied her faith." (p. 280.) +The wonder of the world, however, would have been more curiously engaged +in watching what legislation for religion could possibly have devised +for a community made up of all sorts of consciences. The little State +deserves the honor claimed for her. But had she any alternative course? + +[Footnote B: BANCROFT'S _History of the United States._ I. 380.] + +Mr. Arnold, we think, defines with more sharp and guarded accuracy +than does Dr. Palfrey the ruling aim and motive of the founders of +Massachusetts. An historian of Massachusetts, knowing beforehand through +what a course of unflinching and resolute consistency with their first +principles he is to follow her early legislators, has reason to limit +their aim and motive at the start, that he may not assume for them more +than he can make good. Especially if he intend to palliate, and, still +more, to justify, some of the severer and more oppressive elements of +their policy, he will find it wise to qualify their purpose within the +same limitations which they themselves set for it. Dr. Palfrey parts +with an advantage of which he afterwards has need to avail himself, when +he states the motive of the exiles too broadly, as a search for a place +in which to exercise liberty of conscience. He speaks of these exiles +as recognizing in "religious freedom a good of such vast worth as to be +protected by the possessor, not only for himself, but for the myriads +living and to be born, of whom he assumes to be the pioneer and the +champion." (p. 301.) This large and unqualified claim might be advanced +for the founders of Rhode Island, but it cannot be set up for the +founders of Massachusetts. Whoever asserts it for the latter commits +himself most unnecessarily to an awkward and ineffective defence of them +in a long series of restrictive and severe measures against "religious +freedom," beginning with the case of the Brownes at Salem, and including +acts of general legislation as well as of continuous ecclesiastical and +judicial proceeding. Winthrop tells us that the aim of his brotherhood +was "to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their purity here." The +General Court repeatedly signified its desire to have a draft of laws +prepared which might be "agreeable to the word of God." Now either +of these statements of the ruling purpose of the colonists, as then +universally understood and interpreted, was inconsistent with what we +now understand by "freedom in religion," or "liberty of conscience." +What were regarded as "the pure ordinances of Christ" could not have +been set up here, nor could such laws as were then considered as +"agreeable to the word of God" have been enacted here, without impairing +individual freedom in matters of religion. Indeed, it was the very +attempt to realize these objects which occasioned every interference +with perfect liberty of conscience. The fathers of Massachusetts avowed +their purpose to be, not the opening of an asylum for all kinds of +consciences, but the establishment of a Christian commonwealth. Their +consistency can be vindicated by following out their own idea, but not +by assigning to them a larger one. + +Mr. Arnold, as we have said, is more sharply guarded in his statement of +the aim of the founders of the Bay Colony in this respect; and it is +all the more remarkable that he does not give them the benefit of the +recognized limitation. He defines for them a restricted object, but he +judges them by a standard before which they never measured themselves, +and then condemns them for short-comings. He tells us distinctly that +the motives of the exiles "were certainly not those assigned them by +Charles I., 'the freedom of liberty of conscience'" (p. 10); that +"they looked for a home in the New World where they might erect an +establishment in accordance with their peculiar theological views. 'They +sought a faith's pure shrine,' based on what they held to be a purer +system of worship, and a discipline more in unison with their notions +of a church. Here they proceeded to organize a state, whose civil code +followed close on the track of the Mosaic Law, and whose ecclesiastical +polity, like that of the Jews, and of all those [Christian governments?] +then existing, was identified with the civil power. They thus secured, +what was denied them in England, the right to pursue their own form of +religion without molestation, and in this the object of their exile was +attained." (p. 11.) And again, Mr. Arnold says,--"They founded a colony +for their own faith, without any idea of tolerating others." (p. 44.) All +this is admirably said. It is precisely what the exiles would wish might +be said of them in all the histories of them; for it is what they said +of themselves, in defining their own object; it was, further, what they +felt in their hearts to be their object, more intensely than they could +give it utterance. But the object is at once seen to be limited within +the fearful license of religious freedom. The Scriptural and legislative +fetters on such liberty were too repressive not to amount to an +essential qualification of it. "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," Ward of +Ipswich, made a clean breast for himself and his contemporaries, when he +numbered among the "foure things which my heart hath naturally detested: +Tolerations of diverse Religions, or of one Religion in segregant +shapes. He that willingly assents to this, if he examines his heart by +daylight, his conscience will tell him he is either an Atheist, or +an Heretigal, or an Hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lust. +Poly-piety is the greatest impiety in the world." With such frank +avowals on the part of those who had borne so much in the attempt to +make themselves comfortable in their exile to these hard regions, that +they might here try to work out their harder problem, it is a great deal +too severe a standard for judging their acts which is set up for them in +the fancied principle of religious liberty. We wonder that Mr. Arnold +withholds from them the benefit of his and their own clear limitation of +the principle,--a limitation so severe, as, in fact, to constitute quite +another principle. Was it at all strange, then, that they should deal +resolutely with Roger Williams, on account of "the firmness with which, +upon every occasion, he maintained the doctrine, that the civil power +has no control over the religious opinions of men."? (p. 41.) It was for +no other purpose than to engage the civil power for a pure religion that +they were dwelling in poor huts on these ocean headlands, and sustaining +their lives upon muscles gathered on the shore after the receding of the +tide. + +Dr. Palfrey and Mr. Arnold hold and utter quite opposite judgments about +the treatment of Roger Williams by Massachusetts. The latter, having +stated more definitely than the former the limited aim of our colonists, +which was utterly inconsistent with toleration in religion and with +laxity in civil matters, nevertheless considers the men of Massachusetts +unjustifiable in their course toward the founder of Rhode Island. Dr. +Palfrey, on weaker grounds than those allowed by Mr. Arnold, thinks +their most stringent proceedings perfectly defensible. He regards Mr. +Williams as an intruder, whose opinions, behavior, and influence were +perilous alike to the civil and the religious peace of the colonists; +and he holds the colonists as not chargeable with any breach of the +laws of justice or of mercy in sending out of their jurisdiction, into +another patch of the same wilderness, a man all whose phenomena were of +the most uncomfortable and irritating character. We confess that our +reading and thinking identify our judgment on this matter with that +of our own historian. There can be no question but that Roger +Williams--whether he was thirty-two years old, as Mr. Arnold thinks, +or, as Dr. Palfrey judges, in his twenty-fifth year, when he landed +here--was, in what we must call his youth, seeing that he lived to an +advanced age, a heady and contentious theorizer. Our fathers could not +try more than one theory at a time; and the theory they were bent upon +testing naturally preceded, in the series of the world's progressive +experiments, the more generous, but, at the same time, more dangerous +one which he advanced; and their theory had a right to an earlier and +a full trial, as lying in the way of a safe advance towards his bolder +Utopianism. The mild Bradford and the yet milder Brewster were glad when +Plymouth was rid of him. His first manifestation of himself, on +his arrival here, requires to be invested with the halo of a later +admiration, before it can be made to consist with the heralding of +an apostle of the generous principles of toleration and charity in +religion. Winthrop had recorded for us his refusal "to join with the +congregation at Boston." This had been understood as referring to an +unwillingness on the part of Williams to enter into communion with the +church. But from a letter of his which has come to light within the +year, it seems that he had been invited, previously to the arrival +of Cotton, to become teacher of the church. And on account of what +constraint of soul-liberty did he decline the office? Because the +members of that church "would not make a public declaration of their +repentance for having communion with the churches of England, while they +lived there"! The good man lived to grow milder and more tolerant of the +whims and prejudices and convictions of his fellow-men, through a +free indulgence of his own. And, what is more remarkable, he found it +necessary to apply, in restraint of others, several of the measures +against which he had protested when brought to bear upon himself. He +came to discover that there was mischief in "such an infinite liberty of +conscience" as was claimed by his own followers. The erratic Gorton was +to him precisely what the legislators of Massachusetts had feared that +he himself would prove to be to them. He publicly declared himself in +favor of "a due and moderate restraint and punishing" of some of +the oddities of the Quakers. In less than ten years after he had so +frightened Massachusetts by questioning the validity of an English +charter to jurisdiction here, he went to England on a successful errand +to obtain just such a document for himself and his friends. + +Our two historians, with all the facts before them, honestly stated too, +but diversely interpreted, stand in open antagonism of judgment about +the proceedings of Massachusetts against the Antinomians. That bitter +strife--_Dux foemina facti_--was in continuation of the issue opened by +Roger Williams, though it turned upon new elements. Here, again, Mr. +Arnold stands stoutly for the partisans of Mrs. Hutchinson, who moved +towards the new home in the Narragensett country. He sees in the strife, +mainly, a contest of a purely theological character, leading on to a +development of democratical ideas, (p. 66.) Dr. Palfrey insists that +it would be unjust to allege that the Antinomians were dealt with for +holding "distasteful opinions on dark questions of theology," and +affirms that they were put down as wild and alarming agents of an +"immediate anarchy." (pp. 489, 491.) In this matter, also, our own +judgment goes with our own historian. And the very best confirmation +that it could have is found in the fact, that the prime movers in the +most threatening stage of that dire conflict afterwards made ample +confession of their heat, their folly, and their outrages,--approving +the stern proceedings under which they had suffered. Wheelwright, +especially, in whose advocacy the cause of his sister-in-law first +assumed so threatening an aspect, most humbly avowed his sin and +penitence. + +One more very curious illustration of the divergence of judgment in our +two new historians may be instanced. They have both written, as became +them, quite brilliantly and vigorously, about the aborigines of the +soil. But how marvellously they differ! Dr. Palfrey discredits the +romance of Indian character and life. His mind dwells upon the squalor +and wretchedness of their existence, the shiftlessness and incapacity +of their natural development, their improvidence, their beastliness and +forlorn debasement; and he is wholly skeptical about the savage virtues +of constancy, magnanimity, and wild-wood dignity. He sighs over them +another requiem, toned in the deep sympathy of a true Christian heart; +but he does not lament in their sad method of decay the loss of any +element of manhood or of the higher ingredients of humanity. But Mr. +Arnold pitches his requiem to a different strain. He reproduces and +refines the romance which Dr. Palfrey would dispel. He exalts the Indian +character; gathers comforts and joys and pleasing fashionings around +their life; enlarges the sphere of their being, and asserts in them +capacity to fill it. The wigwam of Massasoit is elegantly described by +Mr. Arnold as "his seat at Mount Hope," (p. 23,)--and pungently, by +Dr. Palfrey, as "his sty," in whose comfortless shelter, Winslow and +Hopkins, of Plymouth, on their visit to the chief, had "a distressing +experience of the poverty and filth of Indian hospitality." (pp. 183, +184.) Arnold tells us, the Indians "were ignorant of Revelation, yet +here was Plato's great problem of the Immortality of the Soul solved +in the American wilderness, and believed by all the aborigines of the +West." (p. 78.) But Palfrey, knowing nothing of what his contemporary +was writing, had already put into print this sentence:--"The New England +savage was not the person to have discovered what the vast reach of +thought of Plato and Cicero could not attain." (p. 49.) + +Here are strange variances of judgment. But how much more of interest +and activity lives in the mind, both of writers and readers, when +history is written with such divergent philosophies and comments! Nobly, +in both cases before us, have the writers done their work, and heartily +do we render our tribute to them. + + + + +DRIFTING. + + + My soul to-day + Is far away, + Sailing the Vesuvian Bay; + My winged boat, + A bird afloat, + Swims round the purple peaks remote:-- + + Round purple peaks + It sails, and seeks + Blue inlets and their crystal creeks, + Where high rocks throw, + Through deeps below, + A duplicated golden glow. + + Far, vague, and dim, + The mountains swim; + While on Vesuvius' misty brim, + With outstretched hands, + The gray smoke stands + O'erlooking the volcanic lands. + + Here Ischia smiles + O'er liquid miles; + And yonder, bluest of the isles, + Calm Capri waits, + Her sapphire gates + Beguiling to her bright estates. + + I heed not, if + My rippling skiff + Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;-- + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise. + + Under the walls + Where swells and falls + The Bay's deep breast at intervals, + At peace I lie, + Blown softly by, + A cloud upon this liquid sky. + + The day, so mild, + Is Heaven's own child, + With Earth and Ocean reconciled;-- + The airs I feel + Around me steal + Are murmuring to the murmuring keel. + + Over the rail + My hand I trail + Within the shadow of the sail, + A joy intense, + The cooling sense + Glides down my drowsy indolence. + + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Where Summer sings and never dies,-- + O'erveiled with vines, + She glows and shines + Among her future oil and wines. + + Her children, hid + The cliffs amid, + Are gambolling with the gambolling kid; + Or down the walls, + With tipsy calls, + Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls. + + The fisher's child, + With tresses wild, + Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled, + With glowing lips + Sings as she skips, + Or gazes at the far-off ships. + + Yon deep bark goes + Where Traffic blows, + From lands of sun to lands of snows;-- + This happier one, + Its course is run + From lands of snow to lands of sun. + + Oh, happy ship, + To rise and dip, + With the blue crystal at your lip! + Oh, happy crew, + My heart with you + Sails, and sails, and sings anew! + + No more, no more + The worldly shore + Upbraids me with its loud uproar! + With dreamful eyes + My spirit lies + Under the walls of Paradise! + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + + +ENTRANCE. + + +It was on the 6th of December, 1856, that I landed with my family at +Civita Vecchia, on my return for the third time to Rome. Before we could +make all our arrangements, it was too late to think of journeying that +day towards the dear old city; but the following morning we set forth in +a rumbling, yellow post-coach, with three horses, and a shabby, gaudy +postilion,--the wheels clattering, the bells on the horses' necks +jingling, the cock's-plumes on their heads nodding, and a half-dozen +sturdy beggar-brats running at our side and singing a dismal chorus of +"_Dateci qualche cosa_." Two or three half-baiocchi, however, bought +them off, and we had the road to ourselves. The day was charming, the +sky cloudless, the air tender and with that delicious odor of the South +which so soothingly intoxicates the senses. The sea, accompanying us for +half our way, gleamed and shook out its breaking surf along the shore; +and the rolling slopes of the Campagna, flattered by sunlight, stretched +all around us,--here desert and sparkling with tall skeleton grasses +and the dry canes' tufted feathers, and here covered with low, shrubby +trees, that, crowding darkly together, climbed the higher hills. On +tongues of land, jutting out into the sea, stood at intervals lonely +watch-towers, gray with age, and at their feet shallow and impotent +waves gnashed into foam around the black, jagged teeth of half-sunken +rocks along the shore. Here and there the broken arches of a Roman +bridge, nearly buried in the lush growth of weeds, shrubs, and flowers, +or the ruins of some old villa, the home of the owl, snake, and lizard, +showed where Ancient Rome journeyed and lived. At intervals, heavy +carts, drawn by the superb gray oxen of the Campagna, creaked slowly +by, the _contadino_ sitting athwart the tongue; or some light wine +_carrettino_ came ringing along, the driver fast asleep under its tall, +triangular cover, with his fierce little dog beside him, and his horse +adorned with bright rosettes and feathers. Sometimes long lines of mules +or horses, tied one to another's tail, plodded on in dusty procession, +laden with sacks;--sometimes droves of oxen, or _poledri_, conducted +by a sturdy driver in heavy leathern leggings, and armed with a +long, pointed pole, stopped our way for a moment. In the fields, the +_pecoraro_, in shaggy sheep-skin breeches, the very type of the mythic +Pan, leaned against his staff, half-asleep, and tended his woolly +flock,--or the _contadino_ drove through dark furrows the old plough of +Virgil's time, that figures in the vignettes to the "Georgics," dragged +tediously along by four white oxen, yoked abreast. There, too, were +herds of long-haired goats, rearing mid the bushes and showing their +beards over them, or following the shepherd to their fold, as the +shadows began to lengthen,--or rude and screaming wains, tugged by +uncouth buffaloes, with low heads and knotted knees, bred among the +malaria-stricken marshes. + +Half-way to Rome we changed horses at Palo,--a little grim settlement, +composed of a post-house, inn, stables, a line of straggling +fishermen's-huts, and a desolate old fortress, flanked by four towers. +This fortress, which once belonged to the Odescalchi family, but is now +the property of the Roman government, looks like the very spot for +a tragedy, as it stands there rotting in the pestilential air, and +garrisoned by a few stray old soldiers, whose dreary, broken-down +appearance is quite in keeping with the place. Palo itself is the site +of the city of Alsium, founded by the Pelasgi, in the dim gloom of +antiquity, long before the Etruscans landed on this shore. It was +subsequently occupied by the Etruscans, and afterwards became a favorite +resort of the Roman nobility, who built there the splendid villas of +Antoninus, Porcina, Pompeius, and others. Of the Pelasgic and Etruscan +town not a vestige remains; but the ruined foundations of Roman villas +are still to be seen along the shore. No longer are to be found there +the feasts described by Fronto,[A] of "fatted oysters, savory apples, +pastry, confectionery, and generous wines in faultless transparent +goblets,"--nor would it now be called "a voluptuous seaside retreat"; +but good lobsters are still abundant there, and one can get a greasy +beefsteak, black bread, an ill-cooked chicken, and sour wine, at only +about twice their market value. The situation is lovely, with the sea +washing in along the rounded rim of the coast, close up to the door of +the inn; and on a sunny day, when the white wings of feluccas may be +seen gleaming far off on the blue Mediterranean, and the fishermen are +drawing their nets close into shore, it seems as if it might really be +made "a voluptuous seaside retreat," but for the desolating malaria +which renders it dangerous to rest there for a single night. + +[Footnote A: _De Feriis Alsensibus_, Epist. III. See Dennis's _Etruscan +Antiquities_, Vol. I.] + +Here, of course, we stopped as short a time as possible; and then, +bidding adieu to the sea, struck inland over the Campagna to Rome. The +country now grows wild, desolate, and lonely; but it has a special charm +of its own, which they who are only hurrying on to Rome, and to whom it +is an obstruction and a tediousness, cannot, of course, perceive. It +is dreary, weird, ghostly,--the home of the winds; but its silence, +sadness, and solitude are both soothing and impressive. After miles and +miles up and down, at last, from the crest of a hill up which we slowly +toiled with our lumbering carriage and reeking horses, we saw the dome +of St. Peter's towering above the city, which as yet was buried out of +sight. It was but a glimpse, and was soon lost. The postilion covered +the worn-out lace of his shabby livery with a heavy cloak, which he +flung over his shoulder to keep out the dampening air, gave a series of +wild flourishes with his whip, broke into guttural explosions of voice +to urge along his horses, and on we went full-gallop. The road grew more +and more populated as we approached the city. Carriages were out for a +drive, or to meet friends on their way from Civita Vecchia; and on +foot was many a little company of Romans, laughing and talking. At the +_osterias_ were groups seated under _frasche_, or before the door, +drinking _fogliette_ of wine and watching the passers-by. At last, +toward sundown, we stopped at the Porta Cavalleggieri, where, thanks to +our _lascia passare_, we were detained but a minute,--and then we were +in Rome. Over us hung the great bulging dome of St. Peter's, golden +with the last rays of sunset. The pillars of the gigantic colonnade +of Bernini, as we jolted along, "seemed to be marching by," in broad +platoons. The fountains piled their flexile columns of spray and waved +them to and fro. The great bell clanged from the belfry. Groups wandered +forth in the great Piazza. The old Egyptian obelisk in the centre +pointed its lean finger to the sky. We were in Rome! This one moment of +surprised sensation is worth the journey from Civita Vecchia. Entered by +no other gate, is Rome so suddenly and completely possessed. Nowhere is +the contrast so instantaneous and vivid as here, between the silent, +desolate Campagna and the splendor of St. Peter's, between the burrows +of primitive Christianity and the gorgeousness of ecclesiastical Rome. + +After leaving the Piazza, we get a glimpse of Hadrian's Mole, and of the +rusty Tiber, as it hurries, "_retortis littore Etrusco violenter undis_" +as of old, under the statued bridge of St. Angelo,--and then we plunge +into long, damp, narrow, dirty streets. Yet--shall I confess it?--they +had a charm for me. Twilight was deepening into dark as we passed +through them. Confused cries and loud Italian voices sounded about me. +Children were screaming,--men howling their wares for sale. Bells were +ringing everywhere. Priests, soldiers, _contadini_, and beggars thronged +along. The _Trasteverini_ were going home, with their jackets hanging +over one shoulder. Women, in their rough woollen gowns, stood in the +doorways bare-headed, or looked out from windows and balconies, their +black hair shining under the lanterns. Lights were twinkling in the +little cavernous shops, and under the Madonna-shrines far within them. A +funeral procession, with its black banners, gilt with a death's-head +and cross-bones, was passing by, its wavering candles borne by the +_confraternita_, who marched carelessly along, shrouded from head to +foot in white, with only two holes for the eyes to glare through. + +It was dirty, but it was Rome; and to any one who has long lived in Rome +even its very dirt has a charm which the neatness of no other place ever +had. All depends, of course, on what we call dirt. No one would defend +the condition of some of the streets or some of the habits of the +people. But the soil and stain which many call dirt I call color, and +the cleanliness of Amsterdam would ruin Rome for the artist. Thrift and +exceeding cleanness are sadly at war with the picturesque. To whatever +the hand of man builds the hand of Time adds a grace, and nothing is +so prosaic as the rawly new. Fancy for a moment the difference for +the worse, if all the grim, browned, rotted walls of Rome, with their +peeling mortar, their thousand daubs of varying grays and yellows, their +jutting brickwork and patched stonework, from whose intervals the cement +has crumbled off, their waving weeds and grasses and flowers, now +sparsely fringing their top, now thickly protruding from their sides, or +clinging and making a home in the clefts and crevices of decay, were to +be smoothed to a complete level, and whitewashed over into one uniform +and monotonous tint. What a gain in cleanliness! what a loss in beauty! +One old wall like this I remember on the road from Grotta Ferrata to +Frascati, which was to my eyes a constant delight. One day the owner +took it into his head to whitewash it all over,--to clean it, as some +would say. I look upon that man as little better than a Vandal in +taste,--one from whom "knowledge at one entrance was quite shut out." +Take another modern instance: substitute for the tiled roofs of Rome, +now so gray, tumbled, and picturesque with their myriad lichens, the +cold, clean slate of New York, or the glittering zinc of Paris,--should +we gain or lose? The Rue de Rivoli is long, white, and uniform,--all new +and all clean; but there is no more harmony and melody in it than in the +"damnable iteration" of a single note; and even Time will be puzzled +to make it picturesque, or half as interesting as those old houses +displaced in the back streets for its building, which had sprouted up +here and there, according to the various whims of the various builders. +Those were taken down because they were dirty, narrow, unsightly. These +are thought elegant and clean. Clean they certainly are; and they have +one other merit,--that of being as monotonously regular as the military +despotism they represent. But I prefer individuality, freedom, and +variety, for my own part. The narrow, uneven, huddled Corso, with here +a noble palace, and there a quaint passage, or archway, or shop,--the +buildings now high, now low, but all barnacled over with balconies,--is +far more interesting than the unmeaning uniformity of the Rue de Rivoli. +So, too, there are those among us who have the bad taste to think it a +desecration in Louis Napoleon to have scraped the stained and venerable +old Notre Dame into cleanliness. The Romantic will not consort with the +Monotonous,--Nature is not neat,--Poetry is not formal,--and Rome is not +clean. + +These thoughts, or ghosts of thoughts, flitted through my mind, as the +carriage was passing along the narrow, dirty streets, and brought with +them after-trains of reflection. There may be, I thought, among the +thousands of travellers that annually winter at Rome, some to whom the +common out-door pictures of modern Roman life would have a charm as +special as the galleries and antiquities, and to whom a sketch of many +things, which wise and serious travellers have passed by as unworthy +their notice, might be interesting. Every ruin has had its score of +_immortelles_ hung upon it. The soil has been almost overworked by +antiquarians and scholars, to whom the modern flower was nothing, but +the antique brick a prize. Poets and sentimentalists have described to +death what the antiquaries have left;--some have done their work so +well that nothing remains to be done after them. Everybody has an +herbarium of dried flowers from all the celebrated sites, and a +table made from bits of marble collected in the ruined villas. Every +Englishman carries a Murray for information and a Byron for sentiment, +and finds out by them what he is to know and feel at every step. +Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description, until +everything is stereotyped, from the Dying Gladiator, with his "young +barbarians all at play," and all that, down to the Beatrice Cenci, the +Madame Tonson of the shops, that haunts one everywhere with her white +turban and red eyes. All the public and private life and history of the +ancient Romans, from Romulus to Constantine and Julian the Apostle, (as +he is sometimes called,) is properly well known. But the common life +of the modern Romans, the games, customs, habits of the people, +the everyday of To-day, has been only touched upon here and +there,--sometimes with spirit and accuracy, as by Charles McFarlane, +sometimes with great grace, as by Hans Christian Andersen, and sometimes +with great ignorance, as by Miss Waldie. This is the subject, however, +which has specially interested me, and a life of several years in Rome +has enabled me to observe many things which do not strike the hurried +traveller, and to correct many false notions in regard to the people +and place. To a stranger, a first impression is apt to be a false +impression; and it constantly happens to me to hear my own countrymen +work out the falsest conclusions from the slightest premises, and +settle the character and deserts of the Italians, all of whom they mass +together in a lump, after they have been just long enough on the soil to +travel from Civita Vecchia to Rome under the charge of a courier, when +they know just enough of the language to ask for a coachman when they +want a spoon, and when they have made the respectable acquaintance, +beside their courier, of a few porters, a few beggars, a few +shopkeepers, and the _padrone_ of the apartment they hire. + +No one lives long in Rome without loving it; and I must, in the +beginning, confess myself to be in the same category. Those who shall +read these slender papers, without agreeing to the kindly opinions +often expressed, must account for it by remembering that "Love lends a +precious seeing to the eye." My aim is far from ambitious. I shall not +be erudite, but I hope I shall not be dull. These little sketches may +remind some of happy days spent under the Roman sky, and, by directing +the attention of others to what they have overlooked, may open a door +to a new pleasure. _Chi sa?_ The plainest Ranz des Vaches may sometimes +please when the fifth symphony of Beethoven would be a bore. + + +CHAPTER II. + +STREET-MUSIC IN ROME. + + +Whoever has passed the month of December in Rome will remember to +have been awakened from his morning-dreams by the gay notes of the +_pifferari_ playing in the streets below, before the shrines of the +Madonna and Bambino,--and the strains of one set of performers will +scarcely have ceased, before the distant notes of another set of +pilgrims will be heard to continue the well-known _novena_. The +_pifferari_ are generally _contadini_ of the Abruzzi Mountains, who, at +the season of Advent, leave their home to make a pilgrimage to Rome,-- +stopping before all the wayside shrines, as they journey along, to pay +their glad music of welcome to the Virgin, and the coming Messiah. Their +song is called a _novena_, from its being sung for nine consecutive +days,--first, for nine days previous to the Festa of the Madonna, +which occurs on the 8th of December, and afterwards for the nine days +preceding Christmas. The same words and music serve, however, for both +celebrations. The _pifferari_ always go in couples, one playing on the +_zampogna_, or bagpipe, the bass and treble accompaniment, and the other +on the _piffero_, or pastoral pipe, which carries the air; and for the +month before Christmas the sound of their instruments resounds through +the streets of Rome, wherever there is a shrine,--whether at the corners +of the streets, in the depths of the shops, down little lanes, in the +centre of the Corso, in the interior courts of the palaces, or on the +stairways of private houses. + +Their costume is extremely picturesque. On their heads they wear conical +felt hats adorned with a frayed peacock's feather, or a faded band of +red cords and tassels,--their bodies are clad in red waistcoats, blue +jackets, and small-clothes of skin or yellowish homespun cloth,--skin +sandals are bound to their feet with cords that interlace each other up +the leg as far as the knee,--and over all is worn a long brown or blue +cloak with a short cape, buckled closely round the neck. Sometimes, but +rarely, this cloak is of a deep red with a scalloped cape. As they stand +before the pictures of the Madonna, their hats placed on the ground +before them, and their thick, black, dishevelled hair covering their +sunburnt brows, blowing away on their instruments or pausing to sing +their _novena_, they form a picture which every artist desires to paint. +Their dress is common to nearly all the peasantry of the Abruzzi, and, +worn and tattered as it often is, it has a richness and harmony of tint +which no new clothes could ever have, and for which the costumes of the +shops and regular models offer a poor substitute. It is the old story +again. The new and clean is not so paintable, not so picturesque, as the +tarnished and soiled. The worn blue of the cloak is softened by the dull +gray of the threads beneath,--patches of various colors are often let +into the jacket or breeches,--the hat is lustreless from age, and rusty +as an old wall,--and the first vivid red of the waistcoat is toned by +constant use to a purely pictorial hue. Besides, the true _pifferaro_ +wears his costume as if it belonged to him and had always been worn by +him,--so that it has none of that got-up look which spoils everything. +From the sandals and corded leggings, which, in the Neapolitan dialect, +are termed _cioce_, the _pifferari_ are often called _ciociari_. + +Their Christmas pilgrimages are by no means prompted by purely religious +motives, though, undoubtedly, such considerations have some weight with +them, the common peasantry being a religiously inclined people, and +often making pilgrimages simply from a sense of duty and propriety. But +in these wanderings to Rome, their principal object is to earn a little +money to support them during the winter months, when their "occupation +is gone." As they are hired in Rome by the owners of the various houses +adorned with a Madonna-shrine (of which there are over fifteen hundred +in the city) to play before them at the rate of a paul or so for each +full _novena_, and as they can easily play before thirty or forty a day, +they often return, if their luck is good, with a tolerable little sum +in their pockets. Besides this, they often stand as models, if they are +good-looking fellows, and thus add to their store; and then again, the +_forestieri_ (for, as the ancient Romans called strangers _barbari_, +so their descendants call them _foresters_, wood-men, wild-men) +occasionally drop _baiocchi_ and pauls into their hats, still further to +increase it. + +Sometimes it is a father and son who play together, but oftener two old +friends who make the pilgrimage in pairs. This morning, as I was +going out for a walk round the walls, two admirable specimens of the +_pifferari_ were performing the _novena_ before a shrine at the corner +of the street. The player of the _zampogna_ was an old man, with a sad, +but very amiable face, who droned out the bass and treble in a most +earnest and deprecatory manner. He looked as if he had stood still, +tending his sheep, nearly all his life, until the peace and quiet of +Nature had sunk into his being, or, if you will, until he had become +assimilated to the animals he tended. The other, who played the +_piffero_, was a man of middle age, stout, vigorous, with a forest of +tangled black hair, and dark quick eyes that were fixed steadily on the +Virgin, while he blew and vexed the little brown pipe with rapid runs +and nervous _fioriture_, until great drops of sweat dripped from its +round open mouth. Sometimes, when he could not play fast enough to +satisfy his eagerness, he ran his finger up and down the vents. +Then, suddenly lowering his instrument, he would scream, in a strong +peasant-voice, verse after verse of the _novena_, to the accompaniment +of the _zampogna_. One was like a slow old Italian _vettura_ all +lumbered with luggage and held back by its drag; the other panting and +nervous at his work as an American locomotive, and as constantly running +off the rails. Both, however, were very earnest at their occupation. As +they stood there playing, a little group gathered round. A scamp of a +boy left his sport to come and beat time with a stick on the stone step +before them; several children clustered near; and two or three women, +with rosy infants in their arms, also paused to listen and sympathize. +At last the playing ceased. The _pifferari_ took up their hats and +looked smilingly round at us. + +"Where do you come from?" I asked. + +"_Eh!_" said the _piffero_, showing all his teeth, and shrugging his +shoulders good-naturedly, while the other echoed the pantomime. + +"_Dal Regno_"--for so the Abruzzi peasants call the kingdom of Naples. + +"And do you come every year?" + +"_Si, Signore. Lui_" (indicating his friend) "_ed io_" (pointing to +himself) "_siam' compagni per trenta tre anni. E siam' venut' a Roma per +far la noven' ogn' anno."[B] + +[Footnote B: "He and I have been companions for thirty-three years, and +every year we have come to Rome to play the _novena_."] + +To this the old _zampogna_ bent his head on one side, and said, +assentingly,--"_Eh! per trenta tre anni_."-- + +And, "_Ecco_," continued the _piffero_, bursting in before the +_zampogna_ could go on, and pointing to two stalwart youths of about +twenty-two or-three years of age, who at this moment came up the +street with their instruments,--"These are our two sons. He is +mine,"--indicating one with his reversed thumb; "and that other is +his,"--jerking his head towards his companion. "And they, too, are going +to play in company, as we do." + +"For thirty-three years more, let us hope," said I. + +"_Eh! speriamo_," (Let us hope so,) was the answer of the _piffero_, as +he showed all his teeth in the broadest of smiles. Then, with a motion +of his hand, he set both the young men going, he himself joining in, +straining out his cheeks, blowing all the breath of his body into the +little pipe, and running up and down the vents with a sliding finger, +until finally he brought up against a high, shrill note, to which he +gave the full force of his lungs, and, after holding it in loud blast +for a moment, startled us by breaking off, without gradation, into +a silence as sudden as if the music had snapped short off, like a +pipe-stem. + +On further conversation with my _ciociari_, I found that they came +yearly from Sora, a town in the Abruzzi, about one hundred miles from +Rome, making the journey on foot, and picking up by the way whatever +trifle of copper they could. In this manner they travelled the whole +distance in five days, living upon onions, lettuce, oil, and black +bread. They were now singing the second _novena_ for _Natale_, and, if +one could judge from their manner and conversation, were quite content +with what they had earned. I invited them up into my room, and there +in the pleasantest way they stunned us with the noise of both their +instruments, to the great delight of the children and the astonishment +of the servants, for whom these common things had worn out their charm +by constant repetition. At my request, they repeated the words of the +_novena_ they had been singing, and I took them down from their lips. +After eliminating the wonderful _m-ms_ of the Neapolitan dialect, in +which all the words lay imbedded like shells in the sand, and supplying +some of the curious elisions with which those Abruzzi Procrusteans +recklessly cut away the polysyllables, so as to bring them within the +rythmic compass, they ran thus:-- + + "Verginella figlia di Sant' Anna, + Nella ventre portasti il buon Gesu. + Si parturisti sotto la capanna, + E dov' mangiav'no lo bue e 1' asinello. + + "Quel Angelo gridava: 'Venite, Santi! + 'Che andato Gesu dentro la capanna, + Ma guardate Vergine beata, + Che in ciel in terra sia nostr' avvocata! + + "San Giuseppe andava in compagnia, + Si trovo al partorir di Maria. + La notte di natale e notte santa-- + Lo Padre e 1' Figliolo e lo Spirito Santo. + 'Sta la ragione che abbiamo cantato; + Sia a Gesu bambino rappresentata." + +The sudden introduction of "_Quel Angelo_" in this song reminds us of a +similar felicity in the romantic ballad of "Lord Bateman," where we are +surprised to learn that "_this Turk_," to whom no allusion had been +previously made, "has one lovely daughter." + +The air to which this is sung is very simple and sweet, though +monotonous. Between the verses and at the close, a curious little +_ritornello_ is played. + +The wanderings of the _pifferari_ are by no means confined to the Roman +States. Sometimes they stray "as far away as Paris is," and, wandering +about in that gay capital, like children at a fair, play in the streets +for chance _sous_, or stand as models to artists, who, having once been +to Rome, hear with a longing Rome-sickness the old characteristic sounds +of the _piffero_ and _zampogna_. Two of them I remember to have heard +thus, as I was at work in my studio in Paris; and so vividly did they +recall the old Roman time, that I called them in for a chat. + +Wonderful was their speech. In the few months of their wandering, they +had put into their Neapolitan dough various plums of French words, +which, pronounced in their odd way, "suffered a change into something +peculiarly rich and strange." One of them told me that his wife had just +written to him by the hand of a _scrivano_, lamenting his absence, and +praying him to send her his portrait. He had accordingly sent her a +photograph in half-length. Some time afterwards she acknowledged the +receipt of it, but indignantly remonstrated with him for sending her a +picture "_che pareva guardando per la fenestra_" (which seemed to be +looking out of the window,) as she oddly characterized a half-length, +and praying to have his legs also in the next portrait. This same +fellow, with his dull, amiable face, played the role of a ferocious +wounded brigand dragged into concealment by his wife, in the studio of +a friend next door; but, despite the savagery and danger of his +counterfeited position, he was sure to be overpowered by sleep before he +had been in it more than five minutes,--and if the artist's eye left him +for a moment, he never failed to change his attitude for one more fitted +to his own somnolent propensities than for the picture. + +The _pifferari_ are by no means the only street-musicians in Rome, +though they take the city by storm at Christmas. Every day under my +window comes a band of four or five, who play airs and concerted pieces +from the operas,--and a precious work they make of it sometimes! Not +only do the instruments go very badly together, but the parts they play +are not arranged for them. A violone grunts out a low accompaniment to a +vinegar-sharp violin which saws out the air, while a trumpet blares in +at intervals to endeavor to unite the two, and a flute does what it +can, but not what it would. Sometimes, instead of a violone, a hoarse +trombone, with a violent cold in the head, snorts out the bass +impatiently, gets ludicrously uncontrollable and boastful at times, and +is always so choleric, that, instead of waiting for the _cadenzas_ to +finish, it bursts in, knocks them over as by a blow on the head, roars +away on false intervals, and overwhelms every other voice with its +own noisy vociferation. The harmonic arrangements are very odd. Each +instrument seems to consider itself ill-treated when reduced to an +accompaniment or bass, and is constantly endeavoring, however unfitted +for it, to get possession of the air,--the melody being, for all +Italians, the principal object. The violin, however, weak of voice as +it is, always carries the day, and the other instruments steal +discontentedly back to their secondary places, the snuffy old violone +keeping up a constant growl at its ill luck, and the trombone now and +then leaping out like a tiger on its prey. + +Far better and more characteristic are the ballad-singers, who generally +go in couples,--an old man, dim of sight, perhaps blind, who plays the +violin, and his wife or daughter, who has a guitar, tamborello, or at +times a mandolin. Sometimes a little girl accompanies them, sings +with them, and carries round a tin box, or the tamborello, to collect +_baiocchi_. They sing long ballads to popular melodies, some of +which are very pretty and gay, and for a _baiocco_ they sell a sheet +containing the printed words of the song. Sometimes it is in the form of +a dialogue,--either a love-making, a quarrel, a reconciliation, or a +leave-taking,--each singer taking an alternate verse. Sometimes it is a +story with a chorus, or a religious conversation-ballad, or a story of a +saint, or from the Bible. Those drawn from the Bible are generally +very curious paraphrases of the original simple text, turned into the +simplest and commonest idioms of the people;--one of them may be found +in the Appendix to Goethe's "Italienische Reise." These Roman ballads +and popular songs, so far as I am able to learn, have never been +collected. Many of them do not exist in print, and are only traditional +and caught from mouth to mouth. This is particularly the case with those +in the Romanesque dialect, which are replete with the peculiar wit +and spirit of the country. But the memory of man is too perilous a +repository for such interesting material; and it is greatly to be wished +that some clever Italian, who is fitted for the task, would interest +himself to collect them and give them a permanent place in the +literature of his language. + +But to return to our ballad-singers, whom we have left in the middle of +their song, and who are now finishing. A crowd has gathered round them, +as usual; out of the windows and from the balconies lean the occupants +of the houses near by, and the _baiocchi_ thrown by them ring on the +pavement below. With rather Stentorian voices they have been singing a +dialogue which is most elaborately entitled a "Canzonetta Nuova, sopra +un marinaro che da l' addio alla sua promessa sposa mentre egli deve +partire per la via di Levante. Sdegno, pace, e matrimonio dilli medesimi +con intercalare sull' aria moderna. Rime di Francesco Calzaroni." I give +my _baiocco_ and receive in return a smiling "Grazie" and a copy of the +song, which is adorned by a wood-cut of a ship in full sail. + +Here is another, of a moral character, containing the sad history of +Frederic the Gambler, who, to judge from the wood-cut accompanying the +Canzonetta, must have been a ferocious fellow. He stands with his legs +wide apart, in half-armor, a great sash tied over his shoulder and +swinging round his legs, an immense sword at his side, and a great +hat with two ostrich-feathers on his head, looking the very type of a +"swashing blade." + +The singers of longer ballads carry about with them sometimes a series +of rudely-executed illustrations of different incidents in the story, +painted in distemper and pasted on a large pasteboard frame, which is +hung against a wall or on a stand planted behind the singer in the +ground. These he pauses now and then in his song to explain to the +audience, and they are sure to draw a crowd. + +As summer comes on and the evenings grow warm, begin the street +serenades,--sometimes like that of Lindoro in the opening of the +"Barbiere di Sevilla," but generally with only one voice, accompanied by +a guitar and a mandolin. These serenades are, for the most part, given +by a lover or friend to his _innamorata_, and the words are expressive +of the tender passion; but there are also _serenate di gelosia_, or +satirical serenades, when the most impertinent and stinging verses are +sung. Long before arriving, the serenaders may be heard marching up the +street to the thrum of their instruments. They then place themselves +before the windows of the fair one, and, surrounded by a group of men +and boys, make proclamation of their love in loud and often violent +tones. It seems sometimes as if they considered the best method of +expressing the intensity of their passion was by the volume of their +voice. Certainly, in these cases, the light of love is not hidden under +a bushel. Among the Trasteverini, particularly, these serenades are +common. Some of them are very clever in their improvisations and +imitations of different dialects, particularly of the Neapolitan, in +which there are so many charming songs. Their skill in improvisation, +however, is not generally displayed in their serenades, but in the +_osterias_, during the evenings of the _festas_ in summer. There it is +that their quickness and epigrammatic turn of expression are best seen. +Two disputants will, when in good-humor and warmed with wine, string off +verse after verse at each other's expense, full of point and fun,--the +guitar burring along in the intervals, and a chorus of laughter saluting +every good hit. + +In many of the back streets and squares of the city, fountains jet out +of lions' heads into great oblong stone cisterns, often sufficiently +large to accommodate some thirty washerwomen at once. Here the common +people resort to wash their clothes, and with great laughter and +merriment amuse themselves while at their work by improvising verses, +sometimes with rhyme, sometimes without, at the expense of each other, +or perhaps of the passerby,--particularly if he happen to be a gaping +_forestiere_, to whom their language is unintelligible. They stand on +an elevated stone step, so as to bring the cistern about mid-height of +their body, and on the rough inclined level of its rim they slash and +roll the clothes, or, opening them, flaunt them into the water, or +gather them together, lifting their arms high above their heads, and +always treating them with a violence which nothing but the coarsest +material can resist. The air to which they chant their couplets is +almost always a Campagna melody. Sharp attacks are given and as sharp +_repliques_ received, in exceeding good-humor; and when there is little +wit, there is sure to be much laughter. The salt is oftentimes pretty +coarse, but it serves its purpose. + +A remarkable trait among the Italians is the good-nature with which +they take personal jokes, and their callousness to ridicule of personal +defects. Jests which would provoke a blow from an Anglo-Saxon, or wound +and rankle in the memory for life, are here taken in good part. A +cripple often joins in the laugh at his own deformity; and the rough +carelessness with which such personal misfortunes are alluded to is +amazing to us of a more sensitive organization. I well remember the +extreme difficulty I once had in breaking an Italian servant of the +habit of announcing an acquaintance, whose foreign name he could not +pronounce, and who had the misfortune to be humpbacked, as "_quel +gobbo_" (that hunchback). He could not understand why he should not call +him a _gobbo_, if he was a _gobbo_; and in spite of all I could do, he +would often open the door and say, "_Signore, quel gobbo desidera farle +una visita_," (that hunchback wishes to make you a visit,) when "_quel +gobbo_" was right on his heels. The Italians are also singularly free +from that intense self-consciousness which runs in our English +blood, and is the root of shyness, awkwardness, and affectation. +Unconsciousness is the secret of grace, freedom, and simplicity. We +never forget ourselves. The Italians always forget themselves. They are +sometimes proud, very seldom vain, and never affected. The converse +peculiarity follows, of course. Having no self-consciousness, they are +as little sensitive to their defects as vain of their charms. The models +who come to the studios, and who have been selected for their beauty, +despite the silent flattery incident to their very profession, and +the lavish praise they constantly hear expressed, are always simple, +natural, and unaffected. If you tell them they are very beautiful, they +say, _"Ma che?"_ deprecatorily, or perhaps admit the fact. But they are +better pleased to have their dress admired than their faces. Of the +former they are vain, of the latter they are not. For the most part, I +think they rather wonder what it is we admire in them and think worthy +of perpetuating in stone or color. The other day I was so much struck +with the ear of a model, from whom I was working, that I said to +her,--"You have, without exception, the most beautiful ear I ever saw." +She laughed somewhat derisively, and said, _"Ma che?"_--"It does not +seem to give you any pleasure," I continued, "to know that you have a +very handsome ear."--_"Che mi importa,"_ answered she, _"se sia bello o +brutto? E sempre lo stesso, brutto o bello, bello o brutto. Ecco!"_[C] +--"You don't care, then, whether you are handsome or ugly?"--_"Eh! cosa +a me m'importa,--se sono brutto o bello non so,--a me e lo stesso."_ +This was all I could get from her. + +[Footnote C: "What do I care whether it is handsome or ugly? It's all +the same to me,--ugly or handsome,--handsome or ugly. There!"] + +But to return to our washerwomen. In every country-town a large +washing-cistern is always provided by the authorities for public use, +and, at all hours of the day, the picturesque figures of the peasants +of every age, from the old hag, whose skin is like a brown and crumpled +palimpsest, (where Anacreontic verses are overwritten by a dull, monkish +sermon,) to the round, dark-eyed girl, with broad, straight back and +shining hair, may be seen gathered around it,--their heads protected +from the sun by their folded _tovaglia_, their skirts knotted up behind, +and their waists embraced by stiff, red _busti_. Their work is always +enlivened by song,--and when their clothes are all washed, the basket +is lifted to the head, and home they march, stalwart and majestic, like +Roman caryatides. The sharp Italian sun shining on their dark faces and +vivid costumes, or flashing into the fountain, and basking on the gray, +weed-covered walls, makes a picture which is often enchanting in its +color. At the Emissary by Albano, where the waters from the lake are +emptied into a huge cistern through the old conduit built by the ancient +Romans to sink the level of the lake, I have watched by the hour +together these strange pictorial groups, as they sang and thrashed +the clothes they were engaged in washing; while over them, in the +foreground, the great gray tower and granary, once a castle, lifted +itself in strong light and shade against the peerless blue sky, while +rolling hills beyond, covered with the pale green foliage of rounded +olives, formed the characteristic background. Sometimes a _contadino_, +mounted on the crupper of his donkey, would pause in the sun to chat +awhile with the women. The children, meanwhile, sprawled and played upon +the grass, and the song and chat at the fountain would not unfrequently +be interrupted by a shrill scream from one of the mothers, to stop a +quarrel, or to silence a cry which showed the stoutness of their little +lungs. + +The cobblers of Rome are also a gay and singing set. They do not +imprison themselves in a dark cage of a shop, but sit _"sub Jove"_ where +they may enjoy the life of the street and all the "skyey influences." +Their benches are generally placed near the _portone_ of some palace, so +that they may draw them under shelter when it rains. Here all day they +sit and draw their waxed-ends and sing,--a row of battered-looking boots +and shoes ranged along on the ground beside them, and waiting for their +turn, being their only stock in trade. + +They commonly have enough to do, and, as they pay nothing for shop-rent, +every _baiocco_ they get is nearly clear profit. They are generally as +poor as Job's cat; but they are far happier than the proprietor of that +interesting animal. Figaro is a high ideal of this class, and about as +much like them as Raffaello's angels are like Jeames Yellowplush. What +the cobblers and Figaro have in common is song and a love of scandal. +One admirable specimen of this class sits at the corner of the Via +Felice and Capo le Case, with his bench backed against the gray wall. He +is an oldish man, with a long, gray beard and a quizzical face,--a sort +of Hans Sachs, who turns all his life into verse and song. When he comes +out in the morning, he chants a domestic idyl, in which he narrates in +verse the events of his household, and the differences and agreements of +himself and his wife, whom I take to be a pure invention. This over, he +changes into song everything and every person that passes before him. +Nothing that is odd, fantastic, or absurd escapes him, or fails to be +chronicled and sarcastically commented on in his verse. So he sits all +day long, his mind like a kaleidoscope, changing all the odd bits of +character which chance may show him into rhythmic forms, and chirps and +sings as perpetually as the cricket. Friends he has without number, who +stop before his bench, from which he administers poetical justice to +all persons, to have a long chat, or sometimes to bring him a friendly +token; and from the dark interior of his drawer he often brings forth an +orange, or a bunch of grapes, or handful of chestnuts, supplied by them, +as a dessert for the thick cabbage-soup which he eats at _mezzo giorno_. + +In the busiest street of Rome, the pure Campagna song may often be heard +from the throat of some _contadino_, as he slowly rumbles along in his +loaded wine-cart,--the little dog at his side barking a sympathetic +chorus. This song is rude enough, and seems in measure founded upon the +Church chant. It is in the minor key, and consists ordinarily of two +phrases, ending in a screaming monotone, prolonged until the breath of +the singer fails, and often running down at the close into a blurred +chromatic. No sooner is one strain ended than it is suddenly taken up +again in the _prestissimo_ time and "slowed" down to the same dismal +conclusion. Heard near, it is deafening and disagreeable. But when +refined by distance, it has a sad and pleasant effect, and seems to +belong to the place,--the long wail at the close being the very type +of the melancholy stretches of the Campagna. In the same way I have +frequently thought that the _Jodeln_ of the Swiss was an imitation of +the echo of the mountains, each note repeated first in octave, or fifth, +and then in its third below. The Campagna song is to be heard not only +in the Campagna, but everywhere in the country,--in the vineyards, +in the grain-fields, in mountain and valley, from companies working +together, and from solitary _contadini_,--wherever the influence and +sentiment of the Roman Campagna is felt. The moment we get into Tuscany, +on the one side, or over into Naples, on the other, it begins to be +lost. It was only the other day, at nightfall, that I was sauntering +out on the desolate Campagna towards Civita Vecchia. The shadows were +deepening and the mists beginning to creep whitely along the deep +hollows. Everything was dreary and melancholy enough. As I paused to +listen to the solitude, I heard the grind of a distant invisible cart, +and the sound of a distant voice singing. Slowly the cart came up over +the crest of the hill, a dark spot against the twilight sky, and mounted +on the top of a load of brushwood sat a _contadino_, who was singing to +himself these words,--not very consolatory, perhaps, but so completely +in harmony with the scene and the time that they struck me forcibly:-- + + "E, bella, tu non piangera-a-a-i, + Sul giorno ch'io saro mor-or-or-to-o-o-o-o-o."[D] + +[Footnote D: + + "And, dearest, you will never weep for me-e-e-e, + The day when I shall be no mo-o-o-ore."] + +Whether this constant habit of song among the Southern people, while at +their work, indicates happiness and content, I will not undertake to +say; but it is pleasanter in effect than the sad silence in which we +Anglo-Saxons perform our tasks,--and it seems to show a less harassed +and anxious spirit. But I feel quite sure that these people are more +easily pleased, contented with less, less morose, and less envious of +the ranks above them, than we are. They give little thought to the +differences of caste, have little ambition to make fortunes or rise out +of their condition, and are satisfied with the commonest fare, if they +can get enough of it. The demon of dissatisfaction never harries them. +When you speak to them, they answer with a smile which is nowhere +else to be found. The nation is old, but the people are children +in disposition. Their character is like their climate, generally +sunny,--subject to violent occasional storms, but never growling life +away in an uncomfortable drizzle of discontent. They live upon Nature, +--sympathize with it and love it,--are susceptible to the least touch +of beauty,--are ardent, if not enduring, in their affectations,--and, +unless provoked and irritated, are very peaceful and amiable. The flaw +in their nature is jealousy, and it is a great flaw. Their want of truth +is the result of their education. We who are of the more active and busy +nations despise them for not having that irritated discontent which +urges us forward to change our condition; and we think our ambition +better than their supineness. But there is good in both. We do +more,--they enjoy more; we make violent efforts to be happy,--invent, +create, labor, to arrive at that quiet enjoyment which they own without +struggle, and which our anxious strife unfits us to enjoy when the means +for it are obtained. The general, popular idea, that an Italian is +quarrelsome, and ill-tempered, and that the best are only bandits in +disguise, is quite a mistake; and when studied as they exist out of the +track of travel, where they are often debased and denaturalized, they +will be found to be simple, kind-hearted, and generous. + + + + +A LETTER TO A DYSPEPTIC. + + +Yes, my dear Dolorosus, I commiserate you. I regard your case, perhaps, +with even sadder emotions than that excellent family-physician who has +been sounding its depths these four years with a golden plummet, and +has never yet touched bottom. From those generous confidences which, in +common with most of your personal acquaintances, I daily share, I +am satisfied that no description can do justice to your physical +disintegration, unless it be the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds +with which Mr. Addison winds up Cato's Soliloquy. So far as I can +ascertain, there is not an organ of your internal structure which is +in its right place, at present, or which could perform any particular +service, if it were there. In the extensive library of medical almanacs +and circulars which I find daily deposited by travelling agents at my +front door, among all the agonizing vignettes of diseases which adorn +their covers, and which Irish Bridget daily studies with inexperienced +enjoyment in the front entry, there is no case which seems to afford a +parallel to yours. I found it stated in one of these works, the other +day, that there is iron enough in the blood of twenty-four men to make +a broadsword; but I am satisfied that it would be impossible to extract +enough from the veins of yourself and your whole family to construct a +crochet-needle for your eldest daughter. And I am quite confident, +that, if all the four hundred muscles of your present body were twisted +together by a rope-maker, they would not furnish that patient young +laborer with a needleful of thread. + +You are undoubtedly, as you claim, a martyr to Dyspepsia; or if you +prefer any other technical name for your disease or diseases, I will +acquiesce in any, except, perhaps, the word "Neurology," which I must +regard as foreign to etymological science, if not to medical. Your case, +you think, is hard. I should think it would be. Yet I am impressed by +it, I must admit, as was our adopted fellow-citizen by the contemplation +of Niagara. He, you remember, when pressed to admire the eternal plunge +of the falling water, could only inquire, with serene acquiescence in +natural laws, "And what's to hinder?" I confess myself moved to similar +reflections by your disease and its history. My dear Dolorosus, can +you acquaint me with any reason, in the heavens above or on the earth +beneath, why you should _not_ have dyspepsia? + +My thoughts involuntarily wander back to that golden period, five years +ago, when I spent one night and day beneath your hospitable roof. I +arrived, I remember, late in the evening. The bed-room to which you +kindly conducted me, after a light but wholesome supper of doughnuts and +cheese, was pleasing in respect to furniture, but questionable in regard +to physiology. The house was not more than twenty years old, and the +chamber must therefore have been aired within that distance of time, but +not, I should have judged, more recently. Perhaps its close, oppressive +atmosphere could not have been analyzed into as many separate odors +as Coleridge distinguished in Cologne,--but I could easily identify +aromatic vinegar, damp straw, lemons, and dyed silk gowns. And, as each +of the windows was carefully nailed down, there were no obvious means of +obtaining fresh air, save that ventilator said to be used by an eminent +lady in railway-cars,--the human elbow. The lower bed was of straw, the +upper of feathers, whose extreme heat kept me awake for a portion of the +night, and whose abundant fluffy exhalations suggested incipient asthma +during another portion. On rising from these rather unrefreshing +slumbers, I performed my morning ablutions with the aid of some +three teacupsful of dusty water,--for the pitcher probably held that +quantity,--availing myself, also, of something which hung over an +elegant towel-horse, and which, though I at first took it for a child's +handkerchief, proved on inspection to be "Chamber Towel, No. 1." + +I remember, as I entered the breakfast-room, a vague steam as of frying +sausages, which, creeping in from the neighboring kitchen, obscured +in some degree the six white faces of your wife and children. The +breakfast-table was amply covered, for you were always what is termed +by judicious housewives "a good provider." I remember how the beefsteak +(for the sausages were especially destined for your two youngest +Dolorosi, who were just recovering from the measles, and needed +something light and palatable) vanished in large rectangular masses +within your throat, drawn downward in a maelstrom of coffee;--only +that the original whirlpool is, I believe, now proved to have been +imaginary;--"that cup was a fiction, but this is reality." The +resources of the house also afforded certain very hot biscuits or +breadcakes, in a high state of saleratus;--indeed, it must have been +from association with these, that certain yellow streaks in Mr. Ruskin's +drawing of the rock, at the Athenaeum, awakened in me such an immediate +sense of indigestion;--also fried potatoes, baked beans, mince-pie, and +pickles. The children partook of these dainties largely, but without +undue waste of time. They lingered at table precisely eight minutes, +before setting out for school; though we, absorbed in conversation, +remained at least ten;--after which we instantly hastened to your +counting-room, where you, without a moment's delay, absorbed yourself in +your ledger, while I flirted languidly with the "Daily Advertiser." + +You bent over your desk the whole morning, occasionally having +anxious consultations with certain sickly men whom I supposed to be +superannuated bookkeepers, in impoverished circumstances, and rather +pallid from the want of nutritious food. One of them, dressed in rusty +black, with a flabby white neckcloth, I took for an ex-clergyman; he was +absorbed in the last number of the "Independent," though I observed, at +length, that he was only studying the list of failures, a department to +which, as it struck me, he himself peculiarly appertained. All of these, +I afterwards ascertained from your office-boy, were eminent capitalists; +something had gone wrong in the market,--not in the meat-market, as I +should have supposed from their appearance, but in the money-market. I +believe that there was some sudden fall in the price of indigo. I know +you looked exceedingly blue as we walked home to dinner. + +Dinner was ready the instant we opened the front door. I expected as +much; I knew the pale, speechless woman who sat at the head of your +table would make sure of punctuality, if she died for it. We took our +seats without a word. The party was smaller than at breakfast. Two of +the children had staid at school, having their luncheon-baskets well +filled from the cold remains of breakfast. Your eldest girl, Angelina, +aged ten, one of those premature little grown women who have learned +from the cradle that man is born to eat pastry and woman to make it, +postponed her small repast till an indefinite future, and sat meekly +ready to attend upon our wants. Nathaniel, a thin boy of eight, +also partook but slightly, having impaired his appetite, his mother +suspected, by a copious luncheon of cold baked beans and vinegar, on +his return from school. The two youngest (twins) had relapsed to their +couches soon after breakfast, in consequence of excess of sausage. + +You were quite agreeable in conversation, I remember, after the first +onset of appetite was checked. You gave me your whole theory of the +indigo crisis, with minute details, statistical and geographical, of +the financial condition and supposed present location of your principal +absconding debtors. This served for what is called, at public dinners, +the intellectual feast; while the carnal appetite was satisfied with +fried pork, ditto roasted, strong coffee, turnips, potatoes, and a good +deal of gravy. For dessert, (at which point Nathaniel regained his +appetite,) we had mince-pie, apple-pie, and lemon-pie, the latter being +a structure of a two-story description, an additional staging of crust +being somehow inserted between upper and under. We lingered long at that +noon meal,--fifteen minutes, at the very least; for you hospitably said +that you did not have these little social festivals very often,--owing +to frequent illness in the family, and other causes,--and mast make the +most of it. + +I did not see much of you during that afternoon; it was a magnificent +day, and I said, that, being a visitor, I would look about and see the +new buildings. The truth was, I felt a sneaking desire to witness the +match-game on the Common, between the Union Base-Ball Club, No. 1, of +Ward Eleven, and the Excelsiors of Smithville. I remember that you +looked a little dissatisfied, when I came into the counting-room, and +rather shook your head over my narrative (perhaps too impassioned) of +the events of the game. "Those young fellows," said you, "may not _all_ +be shiftless, dissipated characters, _yet_,--but see what it comes +to! They a'n't content with wasting their time,--they kill it, Sir, +actually kill it!" When I thought of the manly figures and handsome, +eager faces of my friends of the "Union" and the "Excelsior,"--the +Excelsiors won by ten tallies, I should say, the return match to come +off at Smithville the next month,--and then looked at the meagre form +and wan countenance of their critic, I thought to myself, "Dolorosus, my +boy, you are killing something besides Time, if you only knew it." + +However, indigo had risen again, and your spirits also. As we walked +home, you gave me a precise exhibit of your income and expenditures for +the last five years, and a prospective sketch of the same for the next +ten; winding up with an incidental delineation of the importance, to a +man of business, of a good pew in some respectable place of worship. We +found Mrs. D., as usual, ready at the table; we partook of pound-cake +(or pound-and-a-half, I should say) and sundry hot cups of a very +Cisatlantic beverage, called by the Chinese epithet of tea,--and went, +immediately after, to a prayer-meeting. The church or chapel was much +crowded, and there was a certain something in the atmosphere which +seemed to disqualify my faculties from comprehending a single word that +was spoken. It certainly was not that the ventilators were closed, for +there were none. The minister occasionally requested that the windows +might be let down a little, and the deacons invariably closed them again +when he looked the other way. At intervals, females were carried out, in +a motionless condition,--not, as it appeared, from conviction of sin, +but from faintness. You sat, absorbed in thought, with your eyes closed, +and seemed not to observe them. I remember that you were very much +shocked when I suggested that the breath of an average sinner exhausted +atmospheric air at the rate of a hogshead an hour, and asked you +how much allowance the laws of the universe made for the lungs of +church-members? I do not recall your precise words, but I remember that +I finally found it expedient, as I was to leave for home in the early +train, to spend that night at the neighboring hotel, where I indulged, +on an excellent mattress, in a slumber so profound, that it seemed +next morning as if I ought, as Dick Swiveller suggested to the single +gentleman, to pay for a double-bedded room. + +Well, that is all over now. You have given up business, from ill health, +and exhibit a ripe old age, possibly a little over-ripe, at thirty-five. +Your dreams of the forthcoming ten years have not been exactly +fulfilled; you have not precisely retired on a competency, because the +competency retired from you. Indeed, the suddenness with which your +physician compelled you to close up your business left it closed rather +imperfectly, so that most of the profits are found to have leaked out. +You are economizing rather strictly, just now, in respect to everything +but doctors' bills. The maternal Dolorosa is boarding somewhere in the +country, where the children certainly will not have more indigestible +food than they had at home, and may get less of it in quantity,--to +say nothing of more air and exercise to aid digestion. They are not, +however, in perfect condition. The twins are just getting up from +scarlet fever; Nathaniel has been advised to leave school for a time; +and something is thought to be the matter with Angelina's back. +Meanwhile, you are haunting water-cures, experimenting on life-pills, +holding private conferences with medical electricians, and thinking of a +trip to the Bermudas. + +You are learning, through all this, the sagest maxims of resignation, +and trying to apply them. "Life is hard, but short," you say; +"Providence is inscrutable; we must submit to its mysterious decrees." +Would it not be better, my dear Dolorosus, to say instead, "Life is +noble and immortal; God is good; we must obey his plain laws, or accept +the beneficent penalties"? The rise and fall of health are no more +accidental than the rise and fall of indigo; and it is the duty of those +concerned in either commodity to keep their eyes open, and learn the +business intelligently. Of the three proverbial _desiderata_, it is as +easy to be healthy as to be wealthy, and much easier than to be wise, +except so far as health and wisdom mean the same thing. After health, +indeed, the other necessaries of life are very simple, and easily +obtained;--with moderate desires, regular employment, a loving home, +correct theology, the right politics, and a year's subscription to the +"Atlantic Monthly," I have no doubt that life, in this planet, may be as +happy as in any other of the solar system, not excepting Neptune and the +fifty-five asteroids. + +You are possibly aware, my dear Dolorosus,--for I remember that you +were destined by your parents for the physician of your native +seaside village, until you found a more congenial avocation in curing +mackerel,--that the ancient medals represented the goddess Hygeia with a +serpent three times as large as that carried by Aesculapius, to denote +the superiority of hygiene to medicine, prevention to cure. To seek +health as you are now seeking it, regarding every new physician as if he +were Pandora, and carried hope at the bottom of his medicine-chest, is +really rather unpromising. This perpetual self-inspection of yours, +registering your pulse thrice a day, as if it were a thermometer and +you an observer for the Smithsonian,--these long consultations with +the other patients in the dreary parlor of the infirmary, the morning +devoted to debates on the nervous system, the afternoon to meditations +on the stomach, and the evening to soliloquies on the spine,--will do +you no good. The more you know, under these circumstances, the worse +it will be for you. You will become like Boerhaave's hypochondriacal +student, who, after every lecture, believed himself to be the victim of +the particular disease just expounded. We may even think too much about +_health_,--and certainly too much about _illness_. I solemnly believe +that the very best thing that could be done for you at this moment, +you unfortunate individual, would be to buy you a saddle-horse and a +revolver, and start you tomorrow for the Rocky Mountains, with distinct +instructions to treat any man as a Border Ruffian who should venture to +allude to the subject of disease in your presence. + +But I cannot venture to hope that you will do anything so reasonable. +The fascinations of your present life are too overwhelming; when an +invalid once begins to enjoy the contemplation of his own woes, as you +appear to do, it is all over with him. Besides, you urge, and perhaps +justly, that your case has already gone too far, for so rough a tonic. +What, then, can I do for you? Medicine I cannot offer; for even your +respectable family-physician occasionally hints that you need something +different from that. I suspect that all rational advice for you may be +summed up in one prescription: Reverse instantly all the habits of your +previous physical existence, and there may be some chance for you. But, +perhaps, I had better enter more into detail. + +Do not think that I am going to recur to the painful themes of doughnuts +and diet. I fear my hints, already given, on those subjects, may wound +the sensitive nature of Mrs. D., who suffers now such utter martyrdom +from your condition that I cannot bring myself to heap further coals +of fire on her head, even though the coals be taken from her own very +ineffectual cooking-stove. Let me dwell rather on points where you +have exclusive jurisdiction, and can live wisely or foolishly, at your +pleasure. + +It does not depend on you, perhaps, whether you shall eat bread or +saleratus, meat or sole-leather; but it certainly does depend upon +yourself whether you shall wash yourself daily. I do not wish to be +personal, but I verily believe, O companion of my childhood! that, +until you began to dabble in Hydropathy, you had not bestowed a sincere +ablution upon your entire person since the epoch when, twenty years ago, +we took our last plunge together, off Titcomb's wharf, in our native +village. That in your well-furnished house there are no hydraulic +privileges beyond pint water-pitchers, I know from anxious personal +inspection. I know that you have spent an occasional week at the +sea-shore during the summer, and that many people prefer to do up their +cleanliness for the year during these excursions; indeed, you yourself +have mentioned to me, at such times, with some enthusiasm, your daily +sea-bath. But I have been privately assured, by the other boarders, that +the bath in question always consisted of putting on a neat bathing-dress +and sitting awhile on a rock among the sea-weed, like an insane merman, +with the highest waves submerging only your knees, while the younger +Dolorosi splashed and gambolled in safe shallows behind you. Even that +is better than nothing, but--Soul of Mohammed!--is that called bathing? +Verily, we are, as the Turks declare, a nation of "dirty Franks," if +this be the accepted definition. + +Can it be possible that you really hold with the once-celebrated Mr. +Walker, "The Original," as he was deservedly called, who maintained, +that, by a correct diet, the system became self-purifying, through an +active exhalation which repelled impurity,--so that, while walking on +dusty roads, his feet, and even his stockings, remained free from dust? +"By way of experiment, I did not wash my face for a week; nor did any +one see, nor I feel, the difference." My deluded friend, it is a fatal +error. Mr. Walker, the Original, may have been inwardly a saint and a +sage, but it is impossible that his familiar society could have been +desirable, even to fools or sinners. Rather recall, from your early +explorations in Lempriere's Dictionary, how Medea renewed the youth of +Pelias by simply cutting him to pieces and boiling him; whereon my Lord +Bacon justly remarks, that "there may be some boiling required in the +matter, but the cutting to pieces is not needful." If you find that the +water-cure agrees with your constitution, I rejoice in it; I should +think it would; but, I implore you, do not leave it all behind you when +you leave the institution. When you return to your family, use your very +first dollars for buying a sponge and a tin-hat, for each member of the +household; and bring up the five children to lead decent lives. + +Then, again, consider the fact that our lungs were created to consume +oxygen. I suppose that never in your life, Dolorosus, did those +breathing organs of yours inhale more than one half the quantity of air +that they were intended to take in,--to say nothing of its quality. Yet +one would think, that, in the present high prices of other food, you +would make the most of the only thing you can put into your mouth +gratis. Here is Nature constantly urging on us an unexceptionable +atmosphere forty miles high,--for if a pressure of fourteen pounds to +the square inch is not to be called urging, what is?--and yet we not +only neglect, but resist the favor. Our children commonly learn to spell +much better than they ever learn to breathe, because much more attention +is paid to the former department of culture. Indeed, the materials are +better provided; spelling-books are abundant; but we scarcely allow them +time, in the intervals of school, to seek fresh air out of doors, and +we sedulously exclude it from our houses and school-rooms. Is it +not possible to impress upon your mind the changes which "modern +improvements" are bringing upon us? In times past, if a gentleman +finished the evening with a quiet cigar in his parlor, (a practice I +deprecate, and introduce only for purposes of scientific illustration,) +not a trace of it ever lingered to annoy his wife at the +breakfast-table; showing that the draft up the open chimney had wholly +disposed of it, the entire atmosphere of the room being changed during +the night. Now, on the other hand, every whiff lingers persistently +beside the domestic altar, and betrays to the youngest child, next +day, the parental weakness. For the sake of family example, Dolorosus, +correct this state of things, and put in a ventilator. Our natures will +not adapt themselves to this abstinence from fresh air, until Providence +shall fit us up with new bodies, having no lungs in them. Did you ever +hear of Dr. Lyne, the eccentric Irish physician? Dr. Lyne held that no +house was wholesome, unless a dog could get in under every door and a +bird fly out at every window. He even went so far as to build his house +with the usual number of windows, and no glass in the sashes; he lived +in that house for fifty years, reared a large family there, and no death +ever occurred in it. He himself died away from home, of small-pox, at +eighty; his son immediately glazed all the windows of the house, and +several of the family died within the first year of the alteration. The +story sounds apocryphal, I own, though I did not get it from Sir Jonah +Barrington, but somewhere in the scarcely less amusing pages of Sir John +Sinclair. I will not advise you, my unfortunate sufferer, to break every +pane of glass in your domicile, though I have no doubt that Nathaniel +and his boy-companions would enter with enthusiasm into the process; I +am not fond of extremes; but you certainly might go so far as to take +the nails out of my bed-room windows, and yet keep a good deal this side +the Lyne. + +I hardly dare go on to speak of exercise, lest I should share the +reproach of that ancient rhetorician who,--as related by Plutarch, in +his Aphorisms,--after delivering an oration in praise of Hercules, was +startled by the satirical inquiry from his audience, whether any one +had ever dispraised Hercules. As with Hercules, so with the physical +activity he represents,--no one dispraises, if few practise it. Even +the disagreement of doctors has brought out but little skepticism on +this point. Cardan, it is true, in his treatise, "Plantae cur Animalibus +diuturniores," maintained that trees lived longer than men because +they never stirred from their places. Exercise, he held, increases +transpiration; transpiration shortens life; to live long, then, we need +only remain perfectly still. Lord Bacon fell in with this fancy, and +advised "oily unctions," to prevent perspiration. Maupertuis went +farther, and proposed to keep the body covered with pitch for this +purpose: conceive, Dolorosus, of spending threescore years and ten in +a garment of tar, without even the ornament of feathers, sitting +tranquilly in our chairs, waiting for longevity! In more recent times, +I can remember only Dr. Darwin as an advocate of sedentary living. He +attempted to show its advantages by the healthy longevity attained by +quiet old ladies in country-towns. But this is questioned by his critic, +Dr. Beddoes, who admits the longevity, but denies the healthiness; +he maintains that the old ladies are taking some new medicine every +day,--at least, if they have a physician who understands his business. + +Now I will not maintain, with Frederick the Great, that all our systems +of education are wrong, because they aim to make men students or clerks, +whereas the mere shape of the body shows (so thought King Frederick) +that we are primarily designed for postilions, and should spend most of +our lives on horseback. But it is very certain that all the physical +universe takes the side of health and activity, wooing us forth into +Nature, imploring us hourly, and in unsuspected ways, to receive her +blessed breath into body and soul, and share in her eternal youth. For +this are summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, given; for this do +violet and bloodroot come, and gentian and witch-hazel go; for this do +changing sunsets make yon path between the pines a gateway into heaven; +for this does day shut us down within the loneliness of its dome of +light, and night, lifting it, make us free of the vast fellowship of +stars; for this do pale meteors wander nightly, soft as wind-blown +blossoms, down the air; for this do silent snows transform the winter +woods to feathery things, that seem too light to linger, and yet too +vast to take their flight; for this does the eternal ocean follow its +queen with patient footsteps round earth's human shores; for this does +all the fair creation answer to every dream or mood of man, so that we +receive but what we give;--all is offered to us, to call us from our +books and our trade, and summon us into Nature's health and joy. To +study, with the artist, the least of her beauties,--to explore, with the +man of science, the smallest of her wonders,--or even simply to wander +among her exhaustless resources, like a child, needing no interest +unborrowed from the eye,--this feeds body and brain and heart and soul +together. + +But I see that your attention is wandering a little, Dolorosus, and +perhaps I ought not to be surprised. I think I hear you respond, +impatiently, in general terms, that you are not "sentimental." I admit +it; never within my memory did you err on that side. You also hint that +you never _did_ care much about weeds or bugs. The phrases are not +scientific, but the opinion is intelligible. Perhaps my ardor has +carried me too fast for my audience. While it would be a pleasure, no +doubt, to see you transformed into an artist or a _savant_, yet that is +scarcely to be expected, and, if attained, might not be quite enough. +The studies of the naturalist, exclusively pursued, may tend to make a +man too conscious and critical,--patronizing Nature, instead of enjoying +her. He may even grow morbidly sensitive, like Buffon, who became so +impressed with the delicacy and mystery of the human organization, that +he was afraid to stoop even to pick up his own pen, when dropped, but +called a servant to restore it. The artist, also, becomes often narrowed +and petty, and regards the universe as a sort of factory, arranged to +turn out "good bits of color" for him. Something is needed to make us +more free and unconscious, in our out-door lives, than these too wise +individuals; and that something is best to be found in athletic sports. +It was a genuine impulse which led Sir Humphrey Davy to care more for +fishing than even for chemistry, and made Byron prouder of his swimming +than of "Childe Harold," and induced Sir Robert Walpole always to open +his gamekeeper's letters first, and his diplomatic correspondence +afterwards. Athletic sports are "boyish," are they? Then they are +precisely what we want. We Americans certainly do not have much boyhood +under the age of twenty, and we must take it afterwards or not at all. + +Who can describe the unspeakable refreshment for an overworked brain, +of laying aside all cares, and surrendering one's self to simple bodily +activity? Laying them aside! I retract the expression; they slip off +unnoticed. You cannot embark care in your wherry; there is no room for +the odious freight. Care refuses to sit behind the horseman, despite the +Latin sentence; you leave it among your garments when you plunge into +the river, it rolls away from the rolling cricket-ball, the first whirl +in the gymnasium disposes of it, and you are left free, as boys and +birds are free. If athletic amusements did nothing for the body, they +would still be medicine for the soul. Nay, it is Plato who says +that exercise will almost cure a guilty conscience,--and can we be +indifferent to this, my fellow-sinner? + +Why will you persist in urging that you "cannot afford" these +indulgences, as you call them? They are not indulgences,--they are +necessaries. Charge them, in your private account-book, under the heads +of food and clothing, and as a substitute for your present enormous +items under the head of medicine. O mistaken economist! can you afford +the cessation of labor and the ceaseless drugging and douching of your +last few years? Did not all your large experience in the retail-business +teach you the comparative value of the ounce of prevention and the pound +of cure? Are not fresh air and cold water to be had cheap? and is not +good bread less costly than cake and pies? Is not the gymnasium a more +economical institution than the hospital? and is not a pair of skates a +good investment, if it aids you to elude the grasp of the apothecary? Is +the cow Pepsin, on the whole, a more frugal hobby to ride than a good +saddle-horse? Besides, if you insist upon pecuniary economy, do begin +by economizing on the exercise which you pay others for taking in your +stead,--on the corn and pears which you buy in the market, instead of +removing to a suburban house and raising them yourself,--and in the +reluctant silver you pay the Irishman who splits your wood. Or if, +suddenly reversing your line of argument, you plead that this would +impoverish the Irishman, you can at least treat him as you do the +organ-grinder, and pay him an extra fee to go on to your next neighbor. + +Dolorosus, there is something very noble, if you could but discover it, +in a perfect human body. In spite of all our bemoaning, the physical +structure of man displays its due power and beauty when we consent to +give it a fair chance. On the cheek of every healthy child that plays in +the street, though clouded by all the dirt that ever incrusted a young +O'Brien or M'Cafferty, there is a glory of color such as no artist ever +painted. I can take you to-morrow into a circus or a gymnasium, and show +you limbs and attitudes which are worth more study than the Apollo or +the Antinous, because they are life, not marble. How noble were Horatio +Greenough's meditations, in presence of the despised circus-rider! "I +worship, when I see this brittle form borne at full speed on the back +of a fiery horse, yet dancing as on the quiet ground, and smiling in +conscious safety." + +I admit that this view, like every other, may be carried to excess. +We can hardly expect to correct our past neglect of bodily training, +without falling into reactions and extremes, in the process. There is +our friend Jones, for instance, "the Englishman," as the boys on the +Common call him, from his cheery portliness of aspect. He is the man who +insisted on keeping the telegraph-office open until 2, A.M., to hear +whether Morrissey or the Benicia Boy won the prize-fight. I cannot say +much for his personal conformity to his own theories at present, for he +is growing rather too stout; but he likes vicarious exercise, and is +doing something for the next generation, even if he does make the club +laugh, sometimes, by advancing theories of training which the lower +circumference of his own waistcoat does not seem to justify. But +Charley, his eldest, can ride, shoot, and speak the truth, like an +ancient Persian; he is the best boxer in college, and is now known to +have gone to Canada _incog._, during the vacation, under the immediate +supervision of Morris, the teacher of sparring, to see that same fight. +It is true that the youth blushes, now, whenever that trip is alluded +to; and when he was cross-questioned by his pet sister Kate, (Kate +Coventry she delights to be called,) as to whether it wasn't "splendid," +he hastily told her that she didn't know what she was talking about, +(which was undoubtedly true,)--and that he wished he didn't, either. The +truth is, that Charley, with his honest, boyish face, must have been +singularly out of place among that brutal circle; and there is little +doubt that he retired from the company before the set-to was fairly +begun, and that respectable old Morris went with him. But, at any rate, +they are a noble-looking family, and well brought up. Charley, with all +his pugilism, stands fair for a part at Commencement, they say; and +if you could have seen little Kate teaching her big cousin to skate +backwards, at Jamaica Pond, last February, it would have reminded you +of the pretty scene of the little cadet attitudinising before the great +Formes, in "Figaro." The whole family incline in the same direction; +even Laura, the elder sister,--who is attending a course of lectures on +Hygiene, and just at present sits motionless for half an hour before +every meal for her stomach's sake, and again a whole hour afterwards for +her often (imaginary) infirmities,--even Laura is a perfect Hebe in +health and bloom, and saved herself and her little sister when the boat +upset, last summer, at Dove Harbor,--while the two young men who were +with them had much ado to secure their own elegant persons, without +rendering much aid to the girls. And when I think, Dolorosus, of this +splendid animal vigor of the race of Jones, and then call to mind the +melancholy countenances of your forlorn little offspring, I really think +that it would, on the whole, be unsafe to trust you with that revolver; +you might be tempted to damage yourself or somebody else with it, before +departing for the Rocky Mountains. + +Do not think me heartless for what I say, or assume, that, because I +happen to be healthy myself, I have no mercy for ill-health in others. +There are invalids who are objects of sympathy indeed, guiltless heirs +of ancestral disease, or victims of parental folly or sin,--those whose +lives are early blighted by maladies that seem as causeless as they are +cureless,--or those with whom the world has dealt so cruelly that all +their delicate nature is like sweet bells jangled,--or those whose +powers of life are all exhausted by unnoticed labors and unseen +cares,--or those prematurely old with duties and dangers, heroes of +thought and action, whose very names evoke the passion and the pride of +a hundred thousand hearts. There is a tottering feebleness of old age, +also, nobler than any prime of strength; we all know aged men who are +floating on, in stately serenity, towards their last harbor, like +Turner's Old Temeraire, with quiet tides around them, and the blessed +sunset bathing in loveliness all their dying day. Let human love do its +gracious work upon all these; let angelic hands of women wait upon +their lightest needs, and every voice of salutation be tuned to such a +sweetness as if it whispered beside a dying mother's bed. + +But you, Dolorosus,--you, to whom God gave youth and health, and who +might have kept them, the one long and the other perchance always, but +who never loved them, nor reverenced them, nor cherished them, only +coined them into money till they were all gone, and even the ill-gotten +treasure fell from your debilitated hands,--you, who shunned the +sunshine as if it were sin, and called all innocent recreation time +wasted,--you, who staid under ground in your goldmine, like the +sightless fishes of the Mammoth Cave, till you were as blind and +unjoyous as they,--what plea have you to make, what shelter to claim, +except that charity which suffereth long and is kind? We will strive +not to withhold it; while there is life, there is hope. At forty, it is +said, every man is a fool or a physician. We will wait and see which +vocation you select as your own, for the broken remnant of your days. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Continued.] + + +In the mean while Congress had assembled. The agitation on the subject +of Slavery, far from being suppressed, or even overshadowed, burned more +fiercely than ever before. The Pro-slavery faction in Kansas, stimulated +by the constant support of the National Administration, was engaged in a +final effort to maintain a supremacy over the affairs of that Territory +which the current of immigration from the Free States had been steadily +undermining. Against the will of nine-tenths of the population, it had +framed, with a show of technical legality, a Constitution intended to +perpetuate Slavery, which the Administration indorsed and presented to +Congress with an urgent recommendation for the admission under it +of Kansas as a State. In the commotion which these events excited +throughout the country, the transient gleam of importance which had +attached to the Mormon War was almost extinguished. The people of the +States no longer felt a much more vital interest in news from that +remote region than in tidings from the rebellion in India or of the wars +in China. Their attention, sympathies, and curiosity--were all fastened +upon the action of Congress with respect to Kansas,--for therein, it was +believed, were contained the germs of the political combinations for +the Presidential election of 1860. The same listlessness with regard to +affairs in Utah pervaded the Cabinet. All its _prestige_ was staked on +the result of the impending struggle in the House of Representatives +over the Lecompton Constitution, and its energies were abstracted from +every other subject, to be concentrated upon that alone. + +Just at this time, Mr. Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsylvania,--son of the late +Judge of the United States District Court for that State, and brother of +the late Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer,--solicited the Administration +for employment as a mediator between the Mormons and the Federal +Government. Mr. Kane was one of the few persons of education and social +standing who were well acquainted with Mormon history. He had visited +them at Winter Quarters, in Iowa, during their exodus from Nauvoo, in +the capacity of a commissioner to enlist the Mormon battalion which +served in the Mexican War. During an illness which attacked him there, +he was treated with an unremitting kindness, for which his gratitude +has been proportionate. Belonging to a family whose members have +been distinguished by strong traits of individuality, not to say +eccentricity, from that moment forward he displayed a practical interest +in the welfare of the sect. It is said that he became a convert to the +religious doctrines of Mormonism. Whether this be true at all, and, +if so, to what extent, it would he profitless at the present time to +inquire. For the purposes of this narrative, it is sufficient to assert +only, what is unchallenged, that he was a sincere admirer of the Mormons +as a people, and for a long series of years had defended them from +every reproach with a zeal which many of his friends thought inordinate. + +Its experience in Kansas had familiarized the Cabinet with the use of +secret agents; but, nevertheless, the proposition of Mr. Kane was coldly +received. After a brief correspondence, he started for California, in +no capacity a representative of the government, if he himself is to be +believed, but bearing letters from Mr. Buchanan indorsing his character +as a gentleman, and exhorting Federal officials to render him such +courtesies as were within their power. Having arrived at San Francisco, +he journeyed southward to the lately abandoned Mormon settlement of +San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, travelling under the assumed name of +Osborne, and proclaiming his business to be the collection of specimens +for an entomological society in Philadelphia. There his real name and +purpose were detected, but he succeeded in obtaining transportation to +Salt Lake City, where he arrived on the 25th of February, 1858, and was +greeted by Young and Kimball, and the rest of the Mormon magnates, as an +old and cherished friend. + +In the Annual Message of the President to Congress, his disposition to +make every other issue subordinate to that of admitting Kansas under the +Lecompton Constitution was manifest; and it influenced the tone of those +paragraphs which treated of affairs in Utah. Notwithstanding the fact +that the Mormons had committed every act of warfare against the United +States short of taking life, Mr. Buchanan qualified his language +concerning their conduct, stating, that, "unless Brigham Young should +retrace his steps, the Territory of Utah will be in a state of open +rebellion," but declining to accept the logical inference from his own +expression, that the rebellion was at the time open and manifest. He +recommended no further legislation concerning the matter than that four +regiments should be added to the army, to supply the place of those +which had been withdrawn from service in the East. + +It was evident that the purpose for which he had originally planned the +expedition had failed. Forced, after all, no less by inclination than by +circumstances, into such a revival of Slavery agitation as he had never +contemplated during the interval between his election and inauguration, +the Utah War only incumbered his administration, promoting neither its +policy nor its prosperity. However it might result, it would not in the +least advance his interests; and it became his opinion, that, the sooner +it was quieted, the better for the welfare of the Democratic party, +which would be held responsible by the country for all mistakes in its +management. "After us the deluge," seemed to be adopted as the motto of +the entire policy of the Administration. + +The only movement in Congress concerning Utah, before the New Year, was +the introduction into the House of Representatives, by Mr. Warren of +Arkansas, of a badly-worded resolution, prefaced by a worse-worded +preamble, looking to the expulsion from the floor of Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate from the Territory. A lively discussion ensued +concerning the question of privilege under which Mr. Warren claimed the +right to introduce the resolution,--and when it was ruled in order, much +hesitation was evinced about adopting it, some members fearing that it +would establish a dangerous precedent for emergencies that might arise +in the future history of the country. The tone of debate showed that +there was little difference of opinion in the House concerning Utah +affairs,--the unanimity, however, being due in great part to ignorance +and indifference. The issue of Slavery in Kansas was absorbing. Mr. +Warren's resolution was referred to the Committee on Territories, and +slumbered upon their table through the whole session. The only other +movement in Congress, which deserves mention in this connection, was +the introduction, towards the close of January, by Senator Wilson of +Massachusetts, of a joint resolution authorizing the appointment of +commissioners to examine into the Mormon difficulties, "with a view to +their adjustment." This was referred by the Senate to the Committee on +Military Affairs, and was never heard of again. + +The recommendation of the President for an increase of the army secured +favorable consideration from committees of both Houses, and the +discussion which ensued, upon the bills reported for that purpose, was +filled with allusions to the Utah question. Mr. Thompson of New York, +and Mr. Boyce of South Carolina, both made elaborate speeches on the +subject; but neither of them proposed any scheme for its solution. Such +a scheme, however, was suggested by Mr. Blair of Missouri, who advised +a reorganization of the Territorial government, in order to vest the +legislative power in the Governor and the Judges, for which a precedent +existed in the instance of the old Northwestern Territory; but no action +was had upon this suggestion. Through the entire debate, Mr. Bernhisel +remained silent. During the winter, the President conferred upon Colonel +Johnston the brevet rank of Brigadier-General, believing that the +uniform discretion he had manifested entitled him to promotion; and the +nomination was confirmed by the Senate. + +While such were the transactions in Congress, the Mormons, in December, +had organized a government like that under which they had hitherto +subsisted. Their legislature--the same which had been elected under the +Organic Act of the Territory--met at Salt Lake City on the second Monday +of that month, in the hall of the Council House, and organized by the +choice of Heber C. Kimball as President of the Council and John Taylor +as Speaker of the House. Brigham Young retained the title and authority +of Governor, and addressed to the legislature the customary annual +message, reviewing the condition of the Territory. This document +was prepared in reality by Taylor, and was worded with considerable +ingenuity. Not the slightest allusion was made to the declarations of +independence that had been reiterated throughout the summer and autumn, +but the relations of Utah to the United States were discussed as those +of a Territory to the Union. The President was himself charged with +treason in his action towards the Mormons, the Governor and Judges whom +he had appointed were reviled as depraved and abandoned men, and the +army was again proclaimed a mob,--while Utah was lauded as the "most +loyal Territory known since the days of the Revolution." The theory of +Squatter-Sovereignty was the basis of the argument, and Mr. Buchanan was +accused, and with some reason, of inconsistency in his application of +that doctrine. + +In response to this message, the legislature passed a series of +resolutions, pledging itself to sustain "His Excellency Governor Young" +in every act he might perform or dictate "for the protection of the +lives, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Territory,"--asserting +that the President had incurred the "contempt and decided opposition +of all good men," on account of the "act of usurped authority and +oppression" of which he was guilty, in "forcing profane, drunken, +and otherwise corrupt officials upon Utah at the point of the +bayonet,"--expressing a determination to "continue to resist any attempt +on the part of the Administration to bring the people into a state of +vassalage by appointing, contrary to the Constitution, officers whom the +people have neither voice nor vote in electing,"--avowing the purpose +not to suffer "any persons appointed to office for Utah by the +Administration either to qualify for, or assume, or discharge, within +the limits of the Territory, the functions of the offices to which they +have been appointed; so long as the Territory is menaced by an invading +army,"--and declaring that the people of Utah would have their voice in +the selection of their officers. These were sweet-scented blossoms to +blow so early on the tree of Squatter-Sovereignty, at that time scarcely +four years old! + +The only acts of the legislature were one disorganizing the County +of Green River, in which the army was encamped, and attaching it for +legislative and judicial purposes to Great Salt Lake County; another +divesting the Governor of power to license the manufacture of ardent +spirits, and conferring that authority upon the President of the Church +of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and several others in pursuance +of the system of granting away large tracts of public domain to private +persons, in direct contravention of a clause in the Organic Act of the +Territory, which provides that "no law shall be passed interfering with +the primary disposal of the soil." To these acts Brigham Young attached +his signature as Governor, and affixed the Territorial seal. + +A Memorial to Congress was adopted also, which was transmitted to +Washington, and received there and laid before the two Houses on the +16th of March. This document charged that the action of the National +Government towards Utah was based upon the statements of "lying +officials and anonymous letter-writers"; it rehearsed the history of the +Mormons,--their persecutions in Missouri and Illinois,--and declared +that the object of the Utah expedition was to inflict similar outrages. +"Give us our constitutional rights," it said; "they are all we ask; and +them we have a right to expect. For them we contend, and feel justified +in so doing. We claim that we should have the privilege, as we have the +constitutional right, to choose our own rulers and make our own laws +without let or hindrance." Although this Memorial was nothing more than +an infuriated tirade, it was honored in both Houses by reference to the +Committees on Territories, from which it received all the consideration +it deserved. + +Indifferent and inactive as this review shows Congress and the President +to have been concerning Utah, a similar apathy was impossible in the War +Department. Not only the welfare, but the lives even, of the troops at +Fort Bridger, depended on its action. Transactions of such magnitude +had not been incumbent on its bureaus since the Mexican War. The chief +anxiety of General Johnston was for the transmission of supplies from +the East as early as possible in the spring. The contractors for their +transportation during the year 1857 had wintered several trains at Fort +Laramie, together with oxen and teamsters. The General entertained a +fear that so great a proportion of their stock might perish during the +winter as to cripple their advance until fresh animals could be obtained +from the States. Combined with this fear was an apprehension for the +safety of Captain Marcy. A prisoner, whom the Mormons had captured in +October on Ham's Fork, escaped from Salt Lake City at the close of +December, and brought news to Camp Scott that they intended to fit out +an expedition to intercept the command and stampede the herds with which +that officer would move from New Mexico. The dispatches in which these +anxieties were communicated to General Scott, together with suggestions +for their relief, were intrusted in midwinter to a small party for +conveyance to the States. The journey taught them what must have been +the sufferings of the expedition which Captain Marcy led to Taos. +Reduced at one time to buffalo-tallow and coffee for sustenance, there +was not a day during the transit across the mountains when any stronger +barrier than the lives of a few half-starved mules interposed between +them and death by famine. All along the route lay memorials of the march +of the army, and especially of Colonel Cooke's battalion,--a trail of +skeletons a thousand miles in length, gnawed bare by the wolves and +bleaching in the snow, visible at every undulation in the drifts. + +But before the arrival of these dispatches at New York, the arrangements +of the War Department to forward supplies to Utah had been completed. +The representations of the contractors' agents with regard to the +condition of the cattle at Fort Laramie were received without question, +and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann, of the Sixth Infantry, was +dispatched to that post to superintend the advance of the trains. +Additional contracts, of an unprecedented character, were entered into +for furnishing and transporting all the supplies which would be needed +during the year 1858, both for the troops already in the Territory +and for the reinforcements which were ordered to concentrate at Fort +Leavenworth and march to Utah as soon as the roads should be passable. +These reinforcements were about three thousand strong, comprising +the First Cavalry, the Sixth and Seventh Infantry, and two +artillery-batteries. The trains necessary for so large a force, in +addition to that at Fort Bridger, it was estimated would comprise at +least forty-five hundred wagons, requiring more than fifty thousand +oxen, four thousand mules, and five thousand teamsters, wagon-masters, +and other _employes_. To the shame of the Administration, these gigantic +contracts, involving an amount of more than six million dollars, +were distributed with a view to influence votes in the House of +Representatives upon the Lecompton Bill. Some of the lesser ones, such +as those for furnishing mules, dragoon-horses, and forage, were granted +arbitrarily to relatives or friends of members who were wavering upon +that question. The principal contract, that for the transportation of +all the supplies, involving, for the year 1858, the amount of four +millions and a half, was granted, without advertisement or subdivision, +to a firm in Western Missouri, whose members had distinguished +themselves in the effort to make Kansas a Slave State, and now +contributed liberally to defray the election-expenses of the Democratic +party. + +It was said to have been contemplated, for a while, during the winter, +to operate against the Mormons from California, and to send General +Scott to San Francisco to direct arrangements for the purpose; but the +project, if ever seriously entertained, was soon abandoned, it being +evident that for the speedy subjugation of Utah the Missouri frontier +furnished the only practicable base-line of operations. + +At Camp Scott, the winter dragged along wearily. Between November and +March only two mails arrived there, and the great monetary crisis in the +United States was unknown till months after it had subsided. The Mormons +were constantly in possession of later intelligence from the States +than the army; for, by a strange inconsistency, their mails to and from +California were not interfered with. A brigade-guard was mounted daily +at the camp larger than that of the whole American army on the eve +of the battles before Mexico, and scouting parties were continually +dispatched to scour the country in a circuit of thirty miles around +Fort Bridger; for there was constant apprehension of an attempt by the +Mormons to stampede the herds on Henry's Fork, if not to attack the +regiment which guarded them. No tidings arrived from Captain Marcy, and +a most painful apprehension prevailed as to his fate. At the close of +January, Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, after consultation with General +Johnston, started from the camp, accompanied only by four Pah-Utahs, and +crossed the Uinta Mountains, through snow drifted twenty feet deep, to +the villages of the tribe of Uinta-Utahs, on the river of the same name. +It was his intention, in case of need, to employ these Indians to +warn Captain Marcy of danger and afford him relief. It proved to be +unnecessary to do so, and Dr. Hurt returned in April; but the hardships +he endured in the undertaking resulted in an illness which threatened +his life for weeks. On the 13th of March, an express had come in from +New Mexico, bringing news of the safe arrival of Captain Marcy at Taos +on the 22d of January. The sufferings of his whole party from cold and +hunger had been severe. Their provisions failed them, and they had +recourse to mule-meat. Many of the men were badly frost-bitten, but only +one perished on the journey. + +On the previous evening,--March 12th,--the monotony of the camp had been +unexpectedly disturbed by the arrival, from the direction of Salt Lake +City, of a horseman completely exhausted by fatigue and cold, who proved +to be no other than Mr. Kane, whose mission to the Mormons by way of +California was at that time totally unknown to the army. The next +morning he introduced himself to the Governor, was received as his +guest, and remained in conference with him throughout the day. What was +the character of their communication is unknown, except by inference +from its results. When presented to Judge Eckels, on the following day, +Mr. Kane exhibited to him the letters he bore from the President, and +other letters, also, from Brigham Young, accrediting him as a negotiator +in the existing difficulties. To General Johnston he showed nothing; nor +did the Governor, to the knowledge of the camp, acquaint either that +officer or any other person with the purport of his business. It was +evident to everybody, however, that the Mormon leaders, conscious of +their inability to resist the force by which they would be assailed so +soon as the snow should melt upon the mountains, were engaged in an +effort, of which Mr. Kane was the agent, to secure through the Governor, +if possible, indemnity for their past offences, in consideration of +acknowledgment of his authority. + +The domestic condition of the people of the Valley confirmed the belief +that this was the purpose of Mr. Kane's mission. Dependent as they had +always been, since their settlement in Utah, upon Eastern merchants +for an annual supply of groceries, dry goods, wearing-apparel of all +descriptions, and every article of luxury, their stock of some of even +the necessaries of life--such as coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, calicoes, +boots and shoes, stationery--was at this time nearly exhausted. Many of +the poorer families were actually half naked, and, to supply them with +covering, an ecclesiastical mandate had been issued, directing all +persons who had spare clothing of any description to deposit it at the +tithing-office in Salt Lake City, to be there exchanged for grain and +cattle with those who were in need. + +At the commencement of the rebellion, the Mormon settlements in Southern +California had been broken up, and all the missionaries of the Church +were summoned to return from foreign lands. The influx of population +from these sources, though slight, yet increased the destitution. Almost +all the people, too, had been withdrawn from productive employments +throughout the autumn and winter. Although the number of militia kept +under arms, after the formation of the camp at Fort Bridger, probably at +no time reached fifteen hundred, while in October and November it had +exceeded three thousand, still the fever of excitement which raged +through the community distracted its members from any hearty labor. +Great quantities of winter-wheat, to be sure, had been sown, and the +fields were prepared for cultivation during the coming summer; but no +public improvements were prosecuted, and everybody was prepared for such +an exodus as had been predicted to Captain Van Vliet. + +The complete subserviency of the people to the hierarchy was never more +strikingly manifest than in a financial scheme which Brigham Young +devised at this time. Among the Mormons there had always been a quantity +of gold coin in circulation, much exceeding, in proportion to their +number, the amount circulating in any other portion of America. This was +owing to the fact, that the Church had unconstitutionally arrogated to +itself the prerogative of coining and regulating the value of money. The +Mormon battalion which had been enlisted at Winter Quarters in Iowa was +disbanded in California at the close of the Mexican War, and most of its +members went to the gold-diggings. The treasures they there accumulated +were conveyed to Utah, where the Church established a mint and coined +gold pieces of $2.50, $5, $10, and $20. The device on the obverse was +two hands clasped in one of the grips of the Endowment; on the reverse, +a figure from the Book of Mormon, with the motto, "Holiness to the +Lord." The intrinsic value of these coins being more than ten per +cent less than their denominations, they were all retained within the +Territory. Young now prevailed upon his people to surrender whatever +gold and silver they possessed, amounting to several hundred thousand +dollars, and accept in return the notes of a banking association of +which he himself was president and one of his numerous sons-in-law +cashier. These notes were redeemable, in amounts of not less than one +hundred dollars, in live stock, the appraisement of the value of which +rested with the officers of the association. So absolute was the +degradation and ignorance of the population, that they submitted to this +extortion without a murmur. + +Mr. Kane had remained in Salt Lake City eight days before starting +towards Fort Bridger,--a period quite long enough for a trusted friend +of the Mormon leaders to ascertain the extremities to which the people +were reduced. To secure the safety of those leaders who were under +indictment for treason, there was no choice except between flight and +inducing the Federal authorities to temporize. Both he and they were +conscious that the advance of the army could not be successfully +resisted, when the snow should cease to bar its way. In case of the +flight of the leaders, or of a general exodus of the population, only +two courses lay open to them,--northward toward the British Possessions, +southward toward the provinces of Upper Mexico. + +The first two days of Mr. Kane's sojourn in camp satisfied him of the +cooperation of Governor Cumming in a plan for temporizing, as well as of +the impossibility of enlisting General Johnston or Judge Eckels in any +such scheme. An imaginary affront, to which he believed himself at this +time to have been subjected by the General, led him into a course of +action which, had it been followed out, might have terminated his +mission abruptly. Considering the fact that he was within the +guard-lines of a military encampment, in a country where a state of +warfare existed, it was perhaps too great forbearance on the part of the +General not to have required to be informed of his business, since +he himself volunteered no explanation. An invitation to dinner being +dispatched to him from head-quarters,--and such an invitation was no +slight compliment in a camp where the rations were so abridged,--the +orderly to whom it was intrusted for delivery, whether maliciously or +not it does not appear, pretended to have mistaken his directions, and +proceeded to place him under arrest. The mistake, when discovered, was +of course immediately rectified; but Mr. Kane became so excited in +consequence, that, with the assent of the Governor, he indited a +challenge to the General, and applied to a gentleman from Virginia to +act as his second. Having received a decided rebuff in that quarter, he +was induced to abandon the design by the interposition of Judge Eckels, +who became acquainted with what was passing, and informed the Governor +that he had ordered the United States Marshal to arrest all the parties +concerned, in case another step should be taken in the affair. It was +not till some time afterwards that these transactions came to the +knowledge of General Johnston. + +Mr. Kane remained with the Governor until April, absenting himself once, +however, for a day, in order to hold a secret interview with a party of +Mormons who had come into the vicinity of the camp. Notwithstanding his +presence, no precaution to protect the herds was neglected, nor was the +guard-duty at all relaxed. On the 18th of March, although a furious +snow-storm raged all day long, the encampment was moved down Black's +Fork to the immediate neighborhood of Fort Bridger,--a spot less +sheltered, but far more secure from attack. On the 3d of April, an event +occurred for which everybody was prepared. The Governor announced to +General Johnston his intention to proceed to Salt Lake City in company +with Mr. Kane; and on the 5th, they started upon the journey. + +The District Court commenced its spring term at Fort Bridger the same +day. In his charge to the grand jury, Judge Eckels was explicit on the +subject of polygamy, instructing them substantially as follows: That +among the Territorial statutes there was no act legalizing polygamy, nor +any act affixing a definite punishment to that practice as such; that, +consequently, whether the old Spanish law or the Common Law constituted +the basis of jurisprudence in the Territory, the definition of marriage +recognized by both was to be received there, which limited that +institution to the union of one man with one woman, and also the +definition of adultery common to both, by which that crime consisted in +the cohabitation of either the man or the woman with a third party; that +among the Territorial statutes there was an act affixing a definite +punishment to adultery, and accordingly that it was the duty of the +grand jury to inquire whether that act had been infringed by parties +liable to their inquisition.[A] No indictment, however, was returned for +the offence; neither were any proceedings had upon the indictments for +treason. The business of the court was restricted to such crimes as +larceny, and assault and battery, among the heterogeneous mass of +camp-followers. + +[Footnote A: As this charge has become of great importance in the +affairs of the Territory, we subjoin the precise language of that +portion of it which refers to polygamy:-- + +"It cannot be concealed, gentlemen, that certain domestic arrangements +exist in this Territory destructive of the peace, good order, and morals +of society,--arrangements at variance with those of all enlightened and +Christian communities in the world; and sapping as they do the very +foundation of all virtue, honesty, and morality, it is an imperative +duty falling upon you as grand jurors diligently to inquire into this +evil and make every effort to check its growth. It is well known that +all of the inhabited portion of this Territory was acquired by treaty +from Mexico. By the law of Mexico polygamy was prohibited in this +country, and the municipal law in this respect remained unaltered by its +cession to the United States. Has it been altered since we acquired it? +After a most diligent search and inquiry, I have not been able to find +that any such change has been made: and presuming that this law remains +unchanged by legislation, all marriages after the first are by this law +illegal and void. If you are then satisfied that such is the fact, your +next duty is to inquire by what law in force in this Territory are +such practices punishable. There is no law in this Territory punishing +polygamy, but there is one, however, for the punishment of adultery; +and all illegal intercourse between the sexes, if either party have a +husband or wife living at the time, is adulterous and punishable by +indictment. No consequences in which a large proportion of this people +may be involved in consequence of this criminal practice will deter you +from a fearless discharge of your duty. It is yours to find the facts +and to return indictments, without fear, favor, affection, reward, +or any hope thereof. The law was made to punish the lawless and +disobedient, and society is entitled to the salutary effects of its +execution."] + +At the distance of a few miles from Fort Bridger, the Governor and Mr. +Kane were received by a Mormon guard. At various points on their journey +squads of militia were encountered, and in Echo Canon there was a +command of several hundred. The Big Mountain, which the road crosses +twenty miles from Salt Lake City, was covered so deep with snow, that +the party was obliged to follow the canons of the Weber River into the +Valley. Upon arriving at the city, on the 12th of April, the Governor +was installed in the house of a Mr. Staines, one of the adopted sons +of Brigham Young, and was soon after waited upon by Young himself, in +company with numerous ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Territorial seal +was tendered to him, and he was recognized to his full satisfaction +in his official capacity. He remained more than three weeks. Except +fugitive statements in newspapers, the only connected account of +his proceedings is from his own pen, and consists of two official +letters,--one addressed to General Johnston, under date of April 15th, +the other to the Secretary of State at Washington, dated May 2d. The +former merely announces his arrival, reception, and recognition, +transmits charges against Dr. Hurt, of having excited the Uinta Indians +to acts of hostility against the Mormons, and suggests that he should +desire a detachment of the army to be dispatched to chastise that +tribe, but a requisition for that purpose was made neither then nor +subsequently. The letter to Secretary Cass states that his time was +devoted to examining the public property of the United States which was +in the city,--the records of the courts, the Territorial library, the +maps and minutes of the Surveyor General,--and exculpates the Mormons, in +great part, from the charge of having injured or embezzled it. + +During his stay, information was communicated to him, that there was a +number of persons who were desirous of leaving the Territory, but +unable to do so, considering themselves restrained of their liberty. +Accordingly, on the following Sunday, he caused notice to be given from +the platform in the Tabernacle, that he assumed the protection of all +such persons, and desired them to communicate to him their names +and residences. During the ensuing week, nearly two hundred persons +registered themselves in the manner he proposed, and a greater number +would undoubtedly have been glad to follow their example, but were +deterred by the surveillance to which they were subjected by certain +functionaries of the Church before being admitted to his presence. Those +who were registered were organized into trains, with the little movable +property they possessed, and dispatched towards Fort Bridger. They +arrived there in the course of May,--as motley, ragged, and destitute a +crowd as ever descended from the deck of an Irish emigrant-ship at New +York or Boston. The only garments which some possessed were made of the +canvas of their wagon-covers. + +Many were on foot. For provisions, they had nothing except flour and +some fresh meat. It is a fact creditable to humanity, that private +soldiers, by the score, shared their own abridged rations and scanty +stock of clothing with these poor wretches, and in less than a day after +their arrival they were provided with much to make them comfortable. + +On that same Sunday, the Governor made a speech to the congregation, +being introduced by Brigham Young. He reviewed the relations of the +Mormons to the Federal government; assumed that General Johnston and the +army were under his control; pledged his word that they should not +be stationed in immediate contact with the settlements; and gave +assurances, also, that no military _posse_ should be employed to arrest +a Mormon until every other means had been tried and had failed. At +the close, he invited any of their number to respond. Various persons +immediately addressed the audience in almost frantic speeches, +concerning the murder of Joseph and Hiram Smith at Carthage, the +persecution of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, the services +rendered by the Mormon Battalion to an ungrateful country during the +Mexican War, the toils and perils of the migration to Utah, and the +character of the Federal officers who had been sent to rule the +Territory. Personal insults were heaped upon the Governor, and a scene +of the wildest confusion was the result, which was quieted with great +difficulty by Young himself. It was manifest that the mass of the +people, overconfident of their capacity to resist the troops, were not +fully prepared for the capitulation the leaders were willing to make to +save their own necks from the halter; and, at a second meeting during +the afternoon, Young yielded somewhat to the popular clamor. + +All this while, a movement of a most extraordinary character was being +carried on, which had commenced before the Governor entered the Valley. +The people of the northern settlements, along the base of the Wahsatch +Mountains, including Salt Lake City, were deserting their homes, +abandoning houses, crops, and their heavier furniture, and migrating +southward. Long wagon-trains were sweeping through the city every day, +accompanied by hundreds of families, and droves of horses and cattle. +A fair estimate of the entire Mormon population of Utah is about +forty-five thousand. Of this number, ten thousand is the proportion of +the towns north of Salt Lake City, and upward of fifteen thousand that +of the city itself and the settlements in its immediate neighborhood. +Considerably more than half the people of the Territory, therefore, +shared in this emigration. What was its object and what its destination +are still mysteries; but it was probably directed toward the +mountain-ranges in the southwestern portion of the Great Basin, of the +topography of which region--hitherto unvisited by Federal explorers--the +Mormons undoubtedly possess accurate information. At any rate, it was +initiated and conducted under the direction of the Church, and Young and +Kimball were among the first to lead the way. Commencing late in March, +it continued until June, and before the beginning of May more than +thirty-five thousand people were concentrated on the western shore of +Lake Utah, chiefly in the neighborhood of Provo, fifty miles south of +Salt Lake City. Such a scene of squalid misery, such a spectacle of want +and distress, was never before witnessed in America. More than half +this multitude could not be accommodated in the towns, and lodged in +board-shanties, wigwams, mud-huts, log-cabins, bowers of willow-branches +covered with wagon-sheets, and even in holes dug into the hill-sides. +The most common quarters, however, were made by removing a wagon-body +from its wheels, placing it upon the ground, and erecting in front of +it a bower of cedars. It is needless to dwell on the exasperation which +animated all who submitted to these sacrifices. In the history of the +Albigenses hunted through Languedoc, or of the Jews writhing under the +Spanish Inquisition, a record of similar bitterness of feeling may be +found, but its parallel does not exist outside the annals of religious +persecution. + +Governor Cumming returned to Fort Bridger during the second week in +May, still accompanied by Mr. Kane, and also by a party of Mormons +who intended to escort the latter to Missouri. Upon his arrival, he +addressed a letter to General Johnston, stating, officially, that the +people of Utah had acknowledged his authority, and that the roads +between the camp and Salt Lake City were free for the transit of mails +and passengers, the Mormon forces having withdrawn from the canons, and +none of the Territorial militia remaining under arms except with his +consent and approbation. A day or two later, Mr. Kane bade him farewell +and started toward the States, his mission having been completed. + +It may be well to pause here and estimate its precise results. It had +secured delay. The herds on Henry's Fork had thriven better than was +expected, and toward the close of April the number of mules in working +condition was sufficient to have dragged a train of two hundred wagons. +The dragoon-horses which survived could have been assigned to the +artillery-batteries, and the regiment have served as infantry. With this +equipment, slight though it may appear, a rapid movement upon the Valley +was possible; and whatever may have been the opinion during the previous +autumn, it was the universal opinion in the spring that the force at +Camp Scott could have routed any body of militia that might have opposed +its advance, although, perhaps, it was not sufficient to subjugate the +Territory, in case the Mormons should flee to the mountains. Provisions, +also, were running low in the camp. The ration of flour had been further +reduced. All the cattle had been slaughtered, and there was every +prospect of recourse to mule-meat before the first of June. Everything, +therefore, favored the plan of an early march toward the city; and it +is certain that it would have been commenced without awaiting +reinforcements from the States, had not the Governor's scheme for +pacification intervened. Distrustful of its expediency or propriety +though General Johnston might have been, he deemed it his duty to await +its result. Neither he nor the Governor being supreme in the direction +of affairs, it was the duty of each to defer so far as might be to the +action of the other. + +In the next place, Mr. Kane's interposition had produced an +irreconcilable difference of opinion between the civil and the military +authority. This is evident from what has already been stated, and there +is no need to confirm the fact by argument. The Governor returned to +Fort Bridger in May, believing the Mormons to be an injured people, +whose cause was in the main just. But his position was full of +difficulties. He had been recognized in his official character, it is +true; but he was conscious that every Mormon acknowledged a political +influence superior to his own, which was directing the emigration +southward, and leaving him Governor of empty villages and deserted +fields. The only hope he entertained of checking this exodus was by +quashing the indictments for treason which had been found against the +Mormon leaders, and by insuring them against contact with the troops. +The first he was powerless to effect; it was a matter beyond his +control,--solely within the cognizance of the courts. The second he +had assumed to be within his power, and had so assured the Mormons; but +there he was at variance with General Johnston, who denied his claim to +absolute authority over the movements of the army. + +Unknown, however, to the parties who were agitating these perplexing +questions, a superior power had already intervened and solved +the difficulty. On the 6th of April, the President had signed a +Proclamation, at Washington, rehearsing to the people of Utah Territory, +at considerable length, their past offences, and particularly those +which immediately preceded and followed the outbreak of the rebellion, +and declaring them traitors; but, "in order to save the effusion of +blood, and to avoid the indiscriminate punishment of a whole people +for crimes of which it is not probable that all are equally guilty," +offering "a free and full pardon to all who will submit themselves to +the authority of the Federal Government." This document was intrusted +to two Commissioners for conveyance to the Territory;--one of them, Mr. +L.W. Powell, lately Governor, and at the time Senator-elect, of the +State of Kentucky; the other, Major Ben M'Culloch, of Texas, who had +served with distinction in Mexico. In their appointment, Mr. Buchanan +imitated the example of President Washington, who designated a similar +commission to convey his proclamation to the whiskey-insurgents in +Pennsylvania. + +The reinforcements and supply-trains for the army were at this time +concentrating at Fort Leavenworth, Major-General Persifer F. Smith was +assigned to the command-in-chief, and it was intended that the whole +force, after concentration in Utah, should be divided into two brigades, +one to be commanded by General Harney, the other by General Johnston. +Leaving the columns preparing to advance over the Plains, the +Commissioners started from the Fort on the 25th of April. On the same +day, Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann advanced from Fort Laramie with several +companies of infantry and cavalry, escorting the supply-trains which +were parked there through the winter, and on the speedy arrival of which +at Camp Scott the subsistence of General Johnston's command depended, +unless it should force its way into the Valley. On the 1st of May, he +had reached La Bonte, a tributary of the North Platte, fifty miles from +the Fort. There he encountered the severest storm that had occurred in +that region for many years. The snow fell breast-deep, and was followed +by a pelting rain which killed his mules by scores. He was forced to +remain stationary more than a week, and when he renewed the march the +trains were clogged by mud foot-deep. + +The Commissioners reached Camp Scott on the 29th of May. The President's +Proclamation had been received the day before. With the exception of a +few persons who were prepared for such a document by reflection on Mr. +Kane's mission, everybody was astonished at its purport. It seemed +incredible that a lenity should have been extended to the Mormon rebels +which was refused to the Free-State men in Kansas, who were once +indicted for treason and sedition,--and equally incredible that all the +advantages for the solution of the Utah problem which had been gained by +the rising of the Mormons in arms should be thrown away. There was none +of the bloodthirsty excitement in the camp which was reported in the +States to have prevailed there, but there was a feeling of infinite +chagrin, a consciousness that the expedition was only a pawn on Mr. +Buchanan's political chess-board; and reproaches against his folly were +as frequent as they were vehement. Had he excepted from the amnesty the +Mormon leaders, who alone had been indicted, the Proclamation might have +been considered an act of judicious clemency; for that exception would +have accomplished every object that could be desired. As it was, it +annihilated all that had been gained by the enormous expenditures and +the toils and sufferings of the past year, and it sentenced the army to +an indefinite term of imprisonment in an American Siberia. For the sake +of ridding the Administration of immediate trouble, it turned the Church +leaders loose again upon the community, purged of all offence, and +postponed to a future day a terrible issue, the ultimate avoidance of +which is impossible. "After us the deluge," was still the motto of the +President and his Cabinet. + +At the camp the Commissioners remained only three days, which they +employed in obtaining accurate information concerning the transactions +of the last three months; for when they started from Missouri, no news +of the result of Mr. Kane's mission had reached the frontier. + +On the 2d of June, they started for the Valley, intending to summon the +leading Mormons to an interview, and receive their formal acceptance of +the terms of the Proclamation,--of which, of course, there could be no +doubt. They were accompanied by the postmaster of Salt Lake City, with +the mails for the Mormons, which had been detained at the camp since the +commencement of the rebellion. The Governor and the Superintendent of +Indian Affairs followed them the next day. The rest of the Federal +officers refused to join the party, or to make any movement based on a +supposed capitulation of the Mormons, until their submission should be +perfected. There were many circumstances attending the departure of +the Governor which showed that he was doubtful of the stability of the +positions he had been led by Mr. Kane to assume. He expressed himself +distrustful of the cooperation of the Commissioners in his plan for +pacifying the Territory; and he protested vehemently against allowing +persons to accompany the party in order to report for the press the +proceedings at the expected conferences. Every day made it more and more +evident that he had committed himself to the Mormons farther than he +cared to acknowledge. + +Before the Commissioners left the camp, they urged General Johnston not +to delay the advance of the army one moment beyond the time when he +should be ready and desire to march. On the 8th of June, Captain Marcy +arrived at the Fort with a herd of nearly fifteen hundred mules and +horses, and an escort of five companies of infantry and mounted +riflemen. He left the village of Rayado, on the Canadian River, in +New Mexico, on the 17th of March, and, instead of retracing the route +pursued on his winter journey, which had led him near the sources of +Grand River, one of the great forks of the Colorado, he returned along +the eastern base of the Rocky Mountain range past Long's and Pike's +Peaks. When he had reached Fontaine-qui-bouille Creek, an express +overtook him from General Garland, who commanded the Department of New +Mexico, enjoining him to halt and await reinforcements. There he camped +more than three weeks. Renewing his progress, he was overtaken, on +the 29th of April, by the same snowstorm which was so disastrous to +Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann on La Bonte. It was accompanied by a furious +wind, the force of which there was nothing to break. Snow fell to the +depth of three feet, and, at the very height of the storm, a part of the +mule herd stampeded and ran fifty miles before the wind, for shelter. +When the march was resumed, after an interval of several days, hundreds +of antelopes were found frozen and buried in the drifts,--a circumstance +almost unparalleled among the mountains. With this exception, nothing +occurred to obstruct the march. Captain Marcy brought with him specimens +of sand from many of the tributaries of the South Platte, which were +found, on analysis, to contain particles of gold; and within two months +after he gathered them, the same discovery, confirmed by others, +originated the emigration to that region, the progress of which now +promises the speedy birth of another Free State in the very heart of the +continent. On the 9th and 10th, Colonel Hoffmann reached the camp with +all his supply-trains; and on the following day, General Johnston issued +the welcome order to prepare for the march to Salt Lake City. A strong +detachment of infantry and artillery was detailed to garrison Fort +Bridger. + +On the 13th of June, the long camp was broken up, and the army moved +forward in three columns on the route through the canons. Although the +season was so far advanced, snow had fallen at the Fort only three days +before. The streams were swollen and turbulent with spring floods, +and difficulty was anticipated in crossing the Bear and Weber Rivers. +Material for bridging had, therefore, been prepared, and accompanied the +first column. Southwest of the Fort, at the distance of four or five +miles, a singular _butte_, the top of which is as level as the floor of +a ball-room, rises to the height of eight hundred feet above the valley +of Black's Fork, and commands a view of the entire broad plateau between +the Wind River and the Uinta and Wahsatch Ranges. Little parties of +horsemen could be seen spurring up the gullies on its almost precipitous +sides, to witness from its summit the departure of the army. The scene +was in the highest degree picturesque. Almost at their feet lay the +camp, the few tents which remained unstruck glittering like bright dots +on the wing of an insect, the whitewashed wall of the Fort reflecting +the sunshine, while stacks of turf chimneys, lodge-poles, and rubbish +marked the spots where the encampment had been abandoned. The whole +valley was in commotion. Along the strips of road were winding clumsy +baggage-trains; the regiment of dragoons was trailing in advance; the +gleam of the musket-barrels of the infantry was visible on all sides; +and every puff of the breeze that blew over the bluff was freighted with +the rumble of artillery-carriages and caissons. Here and there were +groups of half-naked Indians galloping to and fro, with fluttering +blankets, gazing at the show with the curiosity and delight of children. + +The traveller who terminates his westward journey at Fort Bridger has +entered only the portal of the Rocky Mountains. Along the interval +between there and the Valley of the Great Lake, there is a panorama of +mountain-scenery that cannot be surpassed in the Tyrol. For miles and +miles in the gorges, at the season of the year when they were traversed +by the army, the road winds through thickets of alders and willows and +hawthorn-bushes, whose branches interlace and hang so low, under their +load of leaves and blossoms, as to sweep the backs of horsemen. Through +the interstices of the foliage, the sandstone cliffs that bound the +canons are seen surrounded by flocks of twittering birds which build +their nests in the crevices of the rock. The ridges which the road +surmounts between canon and canon are covered with fields of luxuriant +grass and flowers, in the midst of which patches of snow still linger. +From them, in the clear noon sunshine, the broken line of the Wahsatch +and Uinta Ranges is visible along the horizon; but through the morning +and evening haze, only the tracery of their white crests can be +discerned. The valleys of the Bear and Weber Rivers are peculiarly +beautiful, the latter almost realizing the dream of the Valley of +Rasselas. Corrugated and snow-capped ridges slope backward from the +spectator, on whichever side he turns, until he wonders how and where +the swift river, rushing under its canopy of rustling cotton-woods, +finds a pathway through them. + +It was into scenery like this that the troops advanced, speculating, +along each day's march, upon what obstacles they would have encountered, +had they attempted to reach the Valley during the winter. On the 14th, +an express from the Commissioners arrived at the camp on Bear River, +announcing that no resistance would be made by the Mormons, who pledged +themselves to submit to Federal authority. It was suggested, at the same +time, to General Johnston, that they apprehended ill-treatment from the +army, which might feel an exasperation natural after the privations to +which it had been subjected during the winter. To reassure them, +the General immediately issued and forwarded to Salt Lake City a +proclamation, informing them that no one should be "molested in his +person or rights, or in the peaceful pursuit of his avocations." On +the same day, Governor Cumming issued a proclamation announcing the +"restoration of peace to the Territory." + +The Commissioners had reached the city on the 7th. They were received +there by the Mormon officers who commanded the few companies of militia +which constituted the garrison, and were conducted to a restaurant, +where meals were provided for them, but no lodgings; and accordingly +they slept in their ambulances. The place was deserted by everybody +except the garrison and a few individuals who were busily removing their +property. Besides these, the only beings visible in the streets were +here and there groups of half-naked Indian boys paddling in the gutters. +Almost the only sound audible was the gurgling of the City Creek. +Through the chinks of the heavy wooden portal of the Temple square, +workmen were to be seen engaged in demolishing the roofs of the +buildings within the inclosure. Over the windows of all the houses +boards were nailed; the doors were locked; the gates closed; and in many +of the gardens, crops of weeds were beginning to choke the flower-beds. +From some of the houses of the more enthusiastic Saints all the +wood-work was removed, leaving nothing standing except the bare _adobe_ +walls, while a few had been burned to the ground. In front of the +tithing-office, a train of wagons was loading with grain for removal to +Provo. + +The Governor arrived on the 8th, and was conducted at once to the +quarters he had occupied on his previous visit. The next day, he, +together with the Commissioners, held an interview with the two +messengers who had been sent up from Provo by Brigham Young. They +returned to Lake Utah that same night, and on the 10th, about noon, +Young, Kimball, and Wells, together with the Twelve Apostles, and twenty +or thirty Bishops, High Priests, and Elders, embracing almost all the +influential characters in the Church, rode into the city. Brigham's +mansion was thrown open and the party dined there. They called +afterwards in a body upon the Governor and the Commissioners, and made +arrangements for a conference on the following day. + +The President's pardon had reached the Mormon settlements along Lake +Utah on the 6th, and the manner in which it was received by the populace +showed that they were not satisfied with the position of their +leaders. It was read from the steps of the tithing-offices, and at the +street-corners, to crowds who denounced in the fiercest language the +recital of facts set forth in its preamble. The excitement, which had +been steadily fostered by Young and Kimball ever since the commencement +of the rebellion, had amounted to a frenzy which no authority less +potent than such a hierarchy as theirs could possibly have controlled. +Nevertheless, the morning Brigham rode into Salt Lake City, the +capitulation had been preordained. + +The conferences lasted through the 11th and 12th, the inflexibility of +the Commissioners securing decency of language from the Mormons, if not +decency of demeanor. All the participants, including Young himself, +expressed their sentiments in turn. The opening speech was made by one +of the Apostles, named Erastus Snow, who forgot for the moment that he +was not addressing a congregation of his brethren on a Sunday morning, +and indulged in a strain of obscene and profane remark which was checked +at once by Senator Powell. Some of the speakers broke into savage +tirades like those with which Governor Cumming was once greeted in the +Tabernacle; but these were checked by Young. There were two subjects on +which the Mormon leaders were particularly anxious, all fear of their +own trial for treason being removed. They dreaded that the army should +be quartered upon their settlements, and that the policy inaugurated +by Judge Eckels in his recent charge to the grand jury at Fort Bridger +should be pursued against polygamy. No assurances were given by the +Commissioners upon either of these subjects. They limited their action +to tendering the President's pardon, and exhorting the Mormons to accept +it. Outside the conferences, however, without the knowledge of the +Commissioners, assurances were given on both these subjects by the +Governor and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which proved +satisfactory to Brigham Young. The exact nature of their pledges will, +perhaps, never be disclosed; but from subsequent confessions volunteered +by the Superintendent, who appears to have acted as a tool of the +Governor through the whole affair, it seems probable that they promised +explicitly to exert their influence to quarter the army in Cache Valley, +nearly a hundred miles north of Salt Lake City, and also to procure the +removal of Judge Eckels. The news of the issue of the order for the +advance of the army reached the city on the 12th, and accelerated the +result of the conferences, which concluded that evening with a pledge on +the part of Young and his associates to submit unconditionally to +the Federal authority. During the next few days, the Commissioners, +accompanied by the Governor, travelled southward, and addressed large +audiences at Provo and Lehi, specially exhorting the people to return to +their homes in the northern settlements, assuring them that the troubles +were ended, and that they need fear no molestation of person or +property. + +Whether all these proceedings--which were legitimate results of Mr. +Buchanan's policy--were consistent with the honor of the country, the +public can judge for themselves. The Commissioners certainly conducted +themselves with dignity and credit; but it is doubtful whether they ever +would have accepted their appointment, had they anticipated the nature +of the duties they would be required to perform. + +The army moved slowly forward during the progress of these negotiations. +In Echo Canon, it had an opportunity to inspect the bugbear of the +previous autumn,--the Mormon fortifications. As the canon--which is more +than twenty miles long--approaches the Weber River, it dwindles in +width from five or six hundred yards to as many feet. Its northern side +becomes a perfect wall of rock, which rises perpendicularly to the +height of several hundred feet above the road. The southern side retains +the character of a steep mountain-slope covered with grass and stunted +bushes. Echo Creek, a narrow streamlet, with its dense fringe of +willows, fills the whole bottom between the road and the bluffs. The +first indication of approach to the fortifications was the sight of +piles of stones heaped into walls four or five feet high, pierced with +loopholes, and visible on every projecting point of the cliffs along the +northern side, from most of which a pebble could be snapped down upon +the road. Just beyond, after turning a bend in the canon, all the +willows along the creek had been cut away, and through the cleared space +a ditch five or six feet wide and ten feet deep was dug across the +bottom. The dirt thrown from it was packed so as to form an embankment, +on which logs were so arranged that it would answer for a breastwork, +behind which riflemen could be posted under cover. At intervals of about +a hundred yards were two similar lines of ditch and breastwork, by the +first of which the road was forced to skirt the very base of a cliff +which had probably been mined. The other line was constructed just above +the mouths of two narrow gorges which enter the canon, nearly opposite +one another, from the north and south. By the aid of these dams the +canon might possibly have been overflowed for half a mile to the depth +of several feet, but the water would have accumulated slowly on account +of the insignificant size of the creek. Several dirt walls stretched +also across the gorges, commanding the whole of the fortifications +below. This whole system of defences possessed as little strength as +merit. It served only to confirm the impression, which by this time had +become general, that the capacity of the Mormons to resist the army had +been greatly overrated, and that a vigorous effort to penetrate to the +Valley early in the spring would inevitably have succeeded. + +For nearly a mile beyond the two gorges, a chain of low hills, over +which the road runs, extends below the loftier summits on the southern +side of the canon. The northern side becomes, in consequence, a deep +glen, as the cliffs which form its wall rise abruptly from the level of +the creek. This glen is filled with bushes, and in it, thus protected +from the wind, the Mormon militia had their winter-quarters. The huts +they occupied had been constructed by digging circular holes in the +ground, over which were piled boughs in the same manner as the poles of +an Indian lodge. Around these boughs willow-twigs were plaited, and the +entire hut was finally thatched with straw, grass, or bark. Many of +them had chimneys built of sod and stones, like those which had been +improvised at Camp Scott. An open spot, a few hundred feet below the +beginning of the glen, was the site of the head-quarters of the command. +Here the huts were built around a square, in the centre of which was +planted a tall pine flag-pole. The scenery at this point is exceedingly +picturesque. Out of a tangle of willows, alders, hawthorn, and wild +cherry-trees spring the bold sandstone cliffs, in every crevice of which +cedars and fir-trees cling to the jagged points of rock. On the other +side of the canon a sheet of rich verdure, all summer long, rolls up +the mountain to its very summit. Down the glen ripples the little creek +underneath an arch of fragrant shrubs twined with the slender tendrils +of wild hop-vines. The whole number of huts was about one hundred and +fifty, and they could accommodate, on an average, fifteen men apiece. + +The troops did not emerge from Emigration Canon into the Salt Lake +Valley until the morning of the 26th. In the mean while, thirty or forty +civilians had reached the city from the camp, and were quartered, like +the Commissioners, in their own vehicles. The Mormons favored no one, +except the Governor and his intimate associates, with any species of +accommodation. Their demeanor was in every respect like that of a +conquered people toward foreign invaders. During the week preceding the +26th, two or three hundred of those on Lake Utah received permission +to go up to the city, and they alone, of the whole Mormon community, +witnessed the ingress of the army. + +It was one of the most extraordinary scenes that have occurred in +American history. All day long, from dawn till after sunset, the troops +and trains poured through the city, the utter silence of the streets +being broken only by the music of the military bands, the monotonous +tramp of the regiments, and the rattle of the baggage-wagons. Early in +the morning, the Mormon guard had forced all their fellow-religionists +into the houses, and ordered them not to make their appearance during +the day. The numerous flags, which had been flying from staffs on the +public buildings during the previous week, were all struck. The only +visible groups of spectators were on the corners near Brigham Young's +residence, and consisted almost entirely of Gentile civilians. The +stillness was so profound, that, during the intervals between the +passage of the columns, the monotonous gurgle of the city-creek struck +on every ear. The Commissioners rode with the General's staff. The +troops crossed the Jordan and encamped two miles from the city on a +dusty meadow by the river-bank. + +The orders under which General Johnston was acting directed him to +establish not more than three military posts within the Territory. One +of these was already fixed at Fort Bridger, and the question where the +others should be located was now no less important to the Mormons +than to the army. The secret of the success of Mormonism is its +exclusiveness, and of this fact the leaders of the sect are fully aware. +Accordingly, they now put forth most strenuous efforts to secure the +removal of the troops to as great a distance as possible from their +settlements. But, wholly without regard to any understanding which they +might have had with the Governor, General Johnston, after a careful +_reconnaissance_, selected Cedar Valley, on the western rim of Lake +Utah, separated from it only by a range of bluffs,--about equidistant +from Salt Lake City and Provo,--for his permanent camp. The army moved +southward from the city on the 29th, but so slowly that it did not reach +the Valley till the 6th of July. Not a field was encroached upon, not a +house molested, not a person harmed or insulted, by troops that had been +so harassed and vituperated by a people now entirely at their mercy. By +their strict subordination they entitled themselves to the respect of +the country as well as to the gratitude of the Mormons. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +OUR SKATER BELLE. + + + Along the frozen lake she comes + In linking crescents, light and fleet; + The ice-imprisoned Undine hums + A welcome to her little feet. + + I see the jaunty hat, the plume + Swerve bird-like in the joyous gale,-- + The cheeks lit up to burning bloom, + The young eyes sparkling through the veil. + + The quick breath parts her laughing lips, + The white neck shines through tossing curls; + Her vesture gently sways and dips, + As on she speeds in shell-like whorls. + + Men stop and smile to see her go; + They gaze, they smile in pleased surprise; + They ask her name; they long to show + Some silent friendship in their eyes. + + She glances not; she passes on; + Her steely footfall quicker rings; + She guesses not the benison + Which follows her on noiseless wings. + + Smooth be her ways, secure her tread + Along the devious lines of life, + From grace to grace successive led, + A noble maiden, nobler wife! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +I don't know whether our literary or professional people are more +amiable than they are in other places, but certainly quarrelling is out +of fashion among them. This could never be, if they were in the habit of +secret anonymous puffing of each other. That is the kind of underground +machinery, which manufactures false reputations and genuine hatreds. On +the other hand, I should like to know if we are not at liberty to have +a good time together, and say the pleasantest things we can think of to +each other, when any of us reaches his thirtieth or fortieth or fiftieth +or eightieth birthday. + +We don't have "scenes," I warrant you, on these occasions. No "surprise" +parties! You understand these, of course. In the rural districts, where +scenic tragedy and melodrama cannot be had, as in the city, at the +expense of a quarter and a white pocket-handkerchief, emotional +excitement has to be sought in the dramas of real life. Christenings, +weddings, and funerals, especially the latter, are the main dependence; +but babies, brides, and deceased citizens cannot be had at a day's +notice. Now, then, for a surprise-party! + +A bag of flour, a barrel of potatoes, some strings of onions, a basket +of apples, a big cake and many little cakes, a jug of lemonade, a purse +stuffed with bills of the more modest denominations, may, perhaps, +do well enough for the properties in one of these private theatrical +exhibitions. The minister of the parish, a tender-hearted, quiet, +hard-working man, living on a small salary, with many children, +sometimes pinched to feed and clothe them, praying fervently every day +to be blest in his "basket and store," but sometimes fearing he asks +amiss, to judge by the small returns, has the first _role_,--not, +however, by his own choice, but forced upon him. The minister's wife, a +sharp-eyed, unsentimental body, is first lady; the remaining parts by +the rest of the family. If they only had a play-bill, it would run +thus:-- + +ON TUESDAY NEXT + +WILL BE PRESENTED + +THE AFFECTING SCENE + +CALLED + +THE SURPRISE-PARTY, + +OR + +THE OVERCOME FAMILY; + +WITH THE FOLLOWING STRONG CAST OF CHARACTERS: + +_The Rev. Mr. Overcome_, by the Clergyman of this Parish. + +_Mrs. Overcome_, by his estimable lady. + +_Masters Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Overcome_. + +_Misses Dorcas, Tabitha, Rachel, and Hannah Overcome_, by their +interesting children. + +_Peggy_, by the female help. + +The poor man is really grateful;--it is a most welcome and unexpected +relief. He tries to express his thanks,--his voice falters,--he +chokes,--and bursts into tears. _That_ is the great effect of the +evening. The sharp-sighted lady cries a little with one eye, and counts +the strings of onions, and the rest of the things, with the other. The +children stand ready for a spring at the apples. The female help weeps +after the noisy fashion of untutored handmaids. + +Now this is all very well as charity, but do let the kind visitors +remember they get their money's worth. If you pay a quarter for _dry +crying_, done by a second-rate actor, how much ought you to pay for real +hot, wet tears, out of the honest eyes of a gentleman who is not acting, +but sobbing in earnest? + +All I meant to say, when I began, was, that this was _not_ a +surprise-party where I read these few lines that follow:-- + + We will not speak of years to-night; + For what have years to bring, + But larger floods of love and light + And sweeter songs to sing? + + We will not drown in wordy praise + The kindly thoughts that rise; + If friendship owns one tender phrase, + He reads it in our eyes. + + We need not waste our schoolboy art + To gild this notch of time; + Forgive me, if my wayward heart + Has throbbed in artless rhyme. + + Enough for him the silent grasp + That knits us hand in hand, + And he the bracelet's radiant clasp + That locks our circling band. + + Strength to his hours of manly toil! + Peace to his starlit dreams! + Who loves alike the furrowed soil, + The music-haunted streams! + + Sweet smiles to keep forever bright + The sunshine on his lips, + And faith, that sees the ring of light + Round Nature's last eclipse! + +----One of our boarders has been talking in such strong language that I +am almost afraid to report it. However, as he seems to be really honest +and is so very sincere in his local prejudices, I don't believe anybody +will be very angry with him. + +It is here, Sir! right here!--said the little deformed gentleman,--in +this old new city of Boston,--this remote provincial corner of a +provincial nation, that the Battle of the Standard is fighting, and was +fighting before we were born, and will be fighting when we are dead +and gone,--please God! The _battle_ goes on everywhere throughout +civilization; but here, here, here! is the broad white flag flying which +proclaims, first of all, peace and good-will to men, and, next to +that, the absolute, unconditional spiritual liberty of each individual +immortal soul! The three-hilled city against the seven-hilled-city! That +is it, Sir,--nothing less than that; and if you know what that means, I +don't think you'll ask for anything more. I swear to you, Sir, I believe +that these two centres of civilization are just exactly the two points +that close the circuit in the battery of our planetary intelligence! And +I believe there are spiritual eyes looking out from Uranus and unseen +Neptune,--ay, Sir, from the systems of Sirius and Arcturus and +Aldebaran, and as far as that faint stain of sprinkled worlds confluent +in the distance that we call the nebula of Orion,--looking on, Sir, with +what organs I know not, to see which are going to melt in that fiery +fusion, the accidents and hindrances of humanity or man himself, +Sir,--the stupendous abortion, the illustrious failure that he is, +if the three-hilled city does not ride down and trample out the +seven-hilled city! + +----Steam's up!--said the young man John, so called, in a low +tone.--Three hundred and sixty-five tons to the square inch. Let him +blow her off, or he'll bu'st his b'iler. + +The divinity-student took it calmly, only whispering that he thought +there was a little confusion of images between a galvanic battery and a +charge of cavalry. + +But the Koh-i-noor--the gentleman, you remember, with a very large +_diamond_ in his shirt-front--laughed his scornful laugh, and made as if +to speak. + +Sail in, Metropolis!--said that same young man John, by name. And then, +in a lower tone, not meaning to be heard,--Now, then, Ma'am Allen! + +But he _was_ heard,--and the Koh-i-noor's face turned so white with +rage, that his blue-black moustache and beard looked fearful, seen +against it. He grinned with wrath, and caught at a tumbler, as if +he would have thrown it or its contents at the speaker. The young +Marylander fixed his clear, steady eye upon him, and laid his hand on +his arm, carelessly almost, but the Jewel found it was held so that he +could not move it. It was of no use. The youth was his master in muscle, +and in that deadly Indian hug in which men wrestle with their eyes; +--over in five seconds, but breaks one of their two backs, and is good +for three-score years and ten;--one trial enough,--settles the whole +matter,--just as when two feathered songsters of the barnyard, game and +dunghill, come together,--after a jump or two at each other, and a few +sharp kicks, there is the end of it; and it is, _Apres vous, Monsieur_, +in all the social relations with the beaten party for all the rest of +his days. + +I cannot philosophically account for the Koh-i-noor's wrath. For though +a cosmetic is sold, bearing the name of the lady to whom reference +was made by the young person John, yet, as it is publicly asserted in +respectable prints that this cosmetic is _not a dye_, I see no reason +why he should have felt offended by any suggestion that he was indebted +to it or its authoress. I have no doubt that there are certain +exceptional complexions to which the purple tinge, above alluded to, is +natural. Nature is fertile in variety. I saw an albiness in London once, +for six-pence, (including the inspection of a stuffed boa-constrictor,) +who looked as if she had been boiled in milk. A young Hottentot of my +acquaintance had his hair all in little pellets of the size of marrowfat +peas. One of my own classmates has undergone a singular change of late +years,--his hair losing its original tint, and getting a remarkable +discolored look; and another has ceased to cultivate any hair at all +over the vertex or crown of the head. So I am perfectly willing to +believe that the purple-black of the Koh-i-noor's moustache and whiskers +is constitutional and not pigmentary. But I can't think why he got so +angry. + +The intelligent reader will understand that all this pantomime of the +threatened onslaught and its suppression passed so quickly that it was +all over by the time the other end of the table found out there was a +disturbance; just as a man chopping wood half a mile off may be seen +resting on his axe at the instant you hear the last blow he struck. So +you will please to observe that the Little Gentleman was not interrupted +during the time implied by these _ex-post-facto_ remarks of mine, but +for some ten or fifteen seconds only. + +He did not seem to mind the interruption at all, for he started again. +The "Sir" of his harangue was no doubt addressed to myself more than +anybody else, but he often uses it in discourse as if he were talking +with some imaginary opponent. + +----America, Sir,--he exclaimed,--is the only place where man is +full-grown! + +He straightened himself up, as he spoke, standing on the top round of +his high chair, I suppose, and so presented the larger part of his +little figure to the view of the boarders. + +It was next to impossible to keep from laughing. The commentary was so +strange an illustration of the text! + +I thought it was time to put in a word; for I have lived in foreign +parts, and am more or less cosmopolitan. + +I doubt if we have more practical freedom in America than they have in +England,--I said.--An Englishman thinks as he likes in religion and +politics. Mr. Martineau speculates as freely as ever Dr. Channing did, +and Mr. Bright is as independent as Mr. Seward. + +Sir,--said he,--it isn't what a man thinks or says, but when and where +and to whom he thinks and says it. A man with a flint and steel striking +sparks over a wet blanket is one thing, and striking them over a +tinder-box is another. The free Englishman is born under protest; he +lives and dies under protest,--a tolerated, but not a welcome fact. Is +not _free-thinker_ a term of reproach in England? The same idea in +the soul of an Englishman who struggled up to it and still holds it +_antagonistically_, and in the soul of an American to whom it is +congenital and spontaneous, and often unrecognized, except as an element +blended with _all_ his thoughts, a natural movement, like the drawing of +his breath or the beating of his heart, is a very different thing. You +may teach a quadruped to walk on his hind legs, but he is always wanting +to be on all-fours. Nothing that can be taught a growing youth is like +the atmospheric knowledge he breathes from his infancy upwards. The +American baby sucks in freedom with the milk of the breast at which he +hangs. + +----That's a good joke,--said the young fellow John,--considerin' it +commonly belongs to a female Paddy. + +I thought--I will not be certain--that Little Boston winked, as if he +had been hit somewhere,--as I have no doubt Dr. Darwin did when the +_wooden-spoon_ suggestion upset his theory about why, etc. If he winked, +however, he did not dodge. + +A lively comment!--he said.--But Rome, in her great founder, sucked the +blood of empire out of the dugs of a brute, Sir! The Milesian wet-nurse +is only a convenient vessel through which the American infant gets the +life-blood of this virgin soil, Sir, that is making man over again, on +the sunset pattern! You don't think what we are doing and going to +do here. Why, Sir, while commentators are bothering themselves with +interpretation of prophecies, _we have got_ the new heavens and the new +earth over us and under us! Was there ever anything in Italy, I should +like to know, like a Boston sunset? + +----This time there was a laugh, and the little man himself almost +smiled. + +Yes,--Boston sunsets;--perhaps they're as good in some other places, +but I know 'em best here. Anyhow, the American skies are different from +anything they see in the Old World. Yes, and the rocks are different, +and the soil is different, and everything that comes out of the soil, +from grass up to Indians, is different. And now that the provisional +races are dying out---- + +----What do you mean by the _provisional_ races, Sir?--said the +divinity-student, interrupting him. + +Why, the aboriginal bipeds, to be sure,--he answered,--the red-crayon +sketch of humanity laid on the canvas before the colors for the real +manhood were ready. + +I hope they will come to something yet,--said the divinity-student. + +Irreclaimable, Sir,--irreclaimable!--said the little +gentleman.--Cheaper to breed white men than domesticate a nation of red +ones. When you can get the bitter out of the partridge's thigh, you +can make an enlightened commonwealth of Indians. A provisional race, +Sir,--nothing more. Exhaled carbonic acid for the use of vegetation, +kept down the bears and catamounts, enjoyed themselves in scalping and +being scalped, and then passed away or are passing away, according to +the programme. + +Well, Sir, these races dying out, the white man has to acclimate +himself. It takes him a good while; but he will come all right +by-and-by, Sir,--as sound as a woodchuck,--as sound as a musquash! + +A new nursery, Sir, with Lake Superior and Huron and all the rest of +'em for wash-basins! A new race, and a whole new world for the new-born +human soul to work in! And Boston is the brain of it, and has been any +time these hundred years! That's all I claim for Boston,--that it is the +thinking centre of the continent, and therefore of the planet. + +----And the grand emporium of modesty,--said the divinity-student, a +little mischievously. + +Oh, don't talk to me of modesty!--answered Little Boston,--I'm past +that! There isn't a thing that was ever said or done in Boston, from +pitching the tea overboard to the last ecclesiastical lie it tore into +tatters and flung into the dock, that wasn't thought very indelicate by +some fool or tyrant or bigot, and all the entrails of commercial +and spiritual conservatism are twisted into colics as often as this +revolutionary brain of ours has a fit of thinking come over it.--No, +Sir,--show me any other place that is, or was since the megalosaurus +has died out, where wealth and social influence are so fairly divided +between the stationary and the progressive classes! Show me any +other place where every other drawing-room is not a chamber of the +Inquisition, with papas and mammas for inquisitors,--and the cold +shoulder, instead of the "dry pan and the gradual fire," the punishment +of "heresy"! + +----We think Baltimore is a pretty civilized kind of a village,--said +the young Marylander, good-naturedly.--But I suppose you can't +forgive it for always keeping a little ahead of Boston in point of +numbers,--tell the truth now. Are we not the centre of something? + +Ah, indeed, to be sure you are. You are the gastronomic metropolis +of the Union. Why don't you put a canvas-back duck on the top of the +Washington column? Why don't you get that lady off from Battle Monument +and plant a terrapin in her place? Why will you ask for other glories +when you have soft crabs? No, Sir,--you live too well to think as hard +as we do in Boston. Logic comes to us with the salt-fish of Cape Ann; +rhetoric is born of the beans of Beverly; but _you_--if you open your +mouths to speak, Nature stops them with a fat oyster, or offers a slice +of the breast of your divine bird, and silences all your aspirations. + +And what of Philadelphia?--said the Marylander. + +Oh, Philadelphia?--Waterworks,--killed by the Croton and Cochituate;-- +Ben Franklin,--borrowed from Boston;--David Rittenhouse,--made an +orrery;--Benjamin Rush,--made a medical system:--both interesting to +antiquarians;--great Red-river raft of medical students,--spontaneous +generation of professors to match;--more widely known through the +Moyamensing hose-company, and the Wistar parties;--for geological +section of social strata, go to _The Club_.--Good place to live +in,--first-rate market,--tip-top peaches.--What do we know about +Philadelphia, except that the engine-companies are always shooting each +other? + +And what do you say to New York?--asked the Koh-i-noor? + +A great city, Sir,--replied Little Boston,--a very opulent, splendid +city. A point of transit of much that is remarkable, and of permanence +for much that is respectable. A great money-centre. San Francisco with +the mines above-ground,--and some of 'em under the sidewalks. I have +seen next to nothing _grandiose_, out of New York, in all our cities. It +makes 'em all look paltry and petty. Has many elements of civilization. +May stop where Venice did, though, for aught we know.--The order of its +development is just this:--Wealth; architecture; upholstery; painting; +sculpture. Printing, as a mechanical art,--just as Nicholas Jenson +and the Aldi, who were scholars too, made Venice renowned for it. +Journalism, which is the accident of business and crowded populations, +in great perfection. Venice got as far as Titian and Paul Veronese +and Tintoretto,--great colorists, mark you, magnificent on the +flesh-and-blood side of Art,--but look over to Florence and see who lie +in Santa Croce, and ask out of whose loins Dante sprung! + +Oh, yes, to be sure, Venice built her Ducal Palace, and her Church of +St. Mark, and her Casa d' Oro, and the rest of her golden houses; and +Venice had great pictures and good music; and Venice had a Golden Book, +in which all the large tax-payers had their names written;--but all +that did not make Venice the brain of Italy. + +I tell you what, Sir,--with all these magnificent appliances of +civilization, it is time we began to hear something from the _jeunesse +doree_ whose names are on the Golden Book of our sumptuous, +splendid, marble-palaced Venice,--something in the higher walks of +literature,--something in the councils of the nation. Plenty of Art, I +grant you, Sir; now, then, for vast libraries, and for mighty scholars +and thinkers and statesmen,--five for every Boston one, as the +population is to ours,--_ten_ to one more properly, in virtue of +centralizing attraction as _the_ alleged metropolis,--and not call our +people provincials, and have to come begging to us to write the lives of +Hendrik Hudson and Gouverneur Morris! + +----The little gentleman was on his hobby, exalting his own city at the +expense of every other place. I don't suppose he had been in either of +the cities he had been talking about. I was just going to say something +to sober him down, if I could, when the young Marylander spoke up. + +Come, now,--he said,--what's the use of these comparisons? Didn't I +hear this gentleman saying, the other day, that every American owns all +America? If you have really got more brains in Boston than other folks, +as you seem to think, who hates you for it, except a pack of scribbling +fools? If I like Broadway better than Washington Street, what then? I +own them both, as much as anybody owns either. I am an American,--and +wherever I look up and see the stars and stripes overhead, that is home +to me! + +He spoke, and looked up as if he heard the emblazoned folds crackling +over him in the breeze. We all looked up involuntarily, as if we should +see the national flag by so doing. The sight of the dingy ceiling and +the gas-fixture depending therefrom dispelled the illusion. + +Bravo! bravo!--said the venerable gentleman on the other side of the +table.--Those are the sentiments of Washington's Farewell Address. +Nothing better than that since the last chapter in Revelations. +Five-and-forty years ago there used to be Washington societies, and +little boys used to walk in processions, each little boy having a copy +of the Address, bound in red, hung round his neck by a ribbon. Why don't +they now? Why don't they now? I saw enough of hating each other in the +old Federal times; now let's love each other, I say,--let's love each +other, and not try to make it out that there isn't any place fit to live +in except the one we happen to be born in. + +It dwarfs the mind, I think,--said I,--to feed it on any localism. The +full stature of manhood is shrivelled---- + +The color burst up into my cheeks. What was I saying,--I, who would not +for the world have pained our unfortunate little boarder by an allusion? + +I will go,--he said,--and made a movement with his left arm to let +himself down from his high chair. + +No,--no,--he doesn't mean it,--you must not go,--said a kind voice next +him; and a soft, white hand was laid upon his arm. + +Iris, my dear!--exclaimed another voice, as of a female, in accents that +might be considered a strong atmospheric solution of duty with very +little flavor of grace. + +She did not move for this address, and there was a _tableau_ that lasted +some seconds. For the young girl, in the glory of half-blown womanhood, +and the dwarf, the cripple, the misshapen little creature covered with +Nature's insults, looked straight into each other's eyes. + +Perhaps no handsome young woman had ever looked at him so in his life. +Certainly the young girl never had looked into eyes that reached +into her soul as these did. It was not that they were in themselves +supernaturally bright,--but there was the sad fire in them that flames +up from the soul of one who looks on the beauty of woman without hope, +but, alas! not without emotion. To him it seemed as if those amber gates +had been translucent as the brown water of a mountain-brook, and through +them he had seen dimly into a virgin wilderness, only waiting for the +sunrise of a great passion for all its buds to blow and all its bowers +to ring with melody. + +That is my image, of course,--not his. It was not a simile that was +in his mind, or is in anybody's at such a moment,--it was a pang of +wordless passion, and then a silent, inward moan. + +A lady's wish,--he said, with a certain gallantry of manner,--makes +slaves of us all.--And Nature, who is kind to all her children, and +never leaves the smallest and saddest of all her human failures without +one little comfit of self-love at the bottom of his poor ragged +pocket,--Nature suggested to him that he had turned his sentence well; +and he fell into a reverie, in which the old thoughts that were always +hovering just outside the doors guarded by Common Sense, and watching +for a chance to squeeze in, knowing perfectly well they would be +ignominiously kicked out again as soon as Common Sense saw them, flocked +in pellmell,--misty, fragmentary, vague, half-ashamed of themselves, but +still shouldering up against his inner consciousness till it warmed with +their contact:--John Wilkes's--the ugliest man's in England--saying, +that with half-an-hour's start he would cut out the handsomest man +in all the land in any woman's good graces; Cadenus--old and +savage--leading captive Stella and Vanessa; and then the stray line of +a ballad,--"And a winning tongue had he,"--as much as to say, it isn't +looks, after all, but cunning words, that win our Eves over,--just as +of old, when it was the worst-looking brute of the lot that got our +grandmother to listen to his stuff, and so did the mischief. + +Ah, dear me! We rehearse the part of Hercules with his club, subjugating +man and woman in our fancy, the first by the weight of it, and the +second by our handling of it,--we rehearse it, I say, by our own +hearth-stones, with the _cold_ poker as our club, and the exercise is +easy. But when we come to real life, the poker is _in the fire_, and, +ten to one, if we would grasp it, we find it too hot to hold;--lucky for +us, if it is not white-hot, and we do not have to leave the skin of our +hands sticking to it when we fling it down or drop it with a loud or +silent cry! + +--I am frightened when I find into what a labyrinth of human character +and feeling I am winding. I meant to tell my thoughts, and to throw in +a few studies of manner and costume as they pictured themselves for +me from day to day. Chance has thrown together at the table with me a +number of persons who are worth studying, and I mean not only to look +on them, but, if I can, through them. You can get any man's or woman's +secret, whose sphere is circumscribed by your own, if you will only look +patiently on them long enough. Nature is always applying her reagents +to character, if you will take the pains to watch her. Our studies +of character, to change the image, are very much like the surveyor's +triangulation of a geographical province. We get a base-line in +organization, always; then we get an angle by sighting some distant +object to which the passions or aspirations of the subject of our +observation are tending; then another:--and so we construct our first +triangle. Once fix a man's ideals, and for the most part the rest is +easy. _A_ wants to die worth half a million. Good. _B_ (female) wants to +catch him,--and outlive him. All right. Minor details at our leisure. + +What is it, of all your experiences, of all your thoughts, of all your +misdoings, that lies at the very bottom of the great heap of acts of +consciousness which make up your past life? What should you most dislike +to tell your nearest friend?--Be so good as to pause for a brief space, +and shut the pamphlet you hold with your fingers between the pages.--Oh, +that is it! + +What a confessional I have been sitting at, with the inward ear of my +soul open, as the multitudinous whisper of my involuntary confidants +came back to me like the reduplicated echo of a cry among the craggy +hills! + +At the house of a friend where I once passed the night was one of those +stately upright cabinet-desks and cases of drawers which were not rare +in prosperous families during the last century. It had held the clothes +and the books and the papers of generation after generation. The hands +that opened its drawers had grown withered, shrivelled, and at last been +folded in death. The children that played with the lower handles had got +tall enough to open the desk,--to reach the upper shelves behind the +folding-doors,--grown bent after a while,--and then followed those who +had gone before, and left the old cabinet to be ransacked by a new +generation. + +A boy of ten or twelve was looking at it a few years ago, and, being a +quick-witted fellow, saw that all the space was not accounted for by the +smaller drawers in the part beneath the lid of the desk. Prying about +with busy eyes and fingers, he at length came upon a spring, on pressing +which, a hidden drawer flew from its hiding-place. It had never been +opened but by the maker. The mahogany shavings and dust were lying in it +as when the artisan closed it,--and when I saw it, it was as fresh as if +that day finished. + +Is there not one little drawer in your soul, my sweet reader, which no +hand but yours has ever opened, and which none that have known you seem +to have suspected? What does it hold?--A sin?--I hope not. + +What a strange thing an old dead sin laid away in a secret drawer of the +soul is! Must it some time or other be moistened with tears, until it +comes to life again and begins to stir in our consciousness,--as the dry +wheel-animalcule, looking like a grain of dust, becomes alive, if it is +wet with a drop of water? + +Or is it a passion? There are plenty of withered men and women walking +about the streets who have the secret drawer in their hearts, which, +if it were opened, would show as fresh as it was when they were in the +flush of youth and its first trembling emotions. What it held will, +perhaps, never be known, until they are dead and gone, and some curious +eye lights on an old yellow letter with the fossil footprints of the +extinct passion trodden thick all over it. + +There is not a boarder at our table, I firmly believe, excepting the +young girl, who has not a story of the heart to tell, if one could only +get the secret drawer open. Even this arid female, whose armor of black +bombazine looks stronger against the shafts of love than any cuirass of +triple brass, has had her sentimental history, if I am not mistaken. I +will tell you my reason for suspecting it. + +Like many other old women, she shows a great nervousness and +restlessness whenever I venture to express any opinion upon a class of +subjects which can hardly be said to belong to any man or set of men +as their strictly private property,--not even to the clergy, or the +newspapers commonly called "religious." Now, although it would be a +great luxury to me to obtain my opinions by contract, ready-made, from a +professional man, and although I have a constitutional kindly feeling +to all sorts of good people which would make me happy to agree with all +their beliefs, if that were possible, still I must have an idea, now and +then, as to the meaning of life; and though the only condition of peace +in this world is to have no ideas, or, at least, not to express them, +with reference to such subjects, I can't afford to pay quite so much as +that even for peace. + +I find that there is a very prevalent opinion among the dwellers on the +shores of Sir Isaac Newton's Ocean of Truth, that _salt fish_, which +have been taken from it a good while ago, split open, cured and dried, +are the only proper and allowable food for reasonable people. I +maintain, on the other hand, that there are a number of live fish still +swimming in it, and that every one of us has a right to see if he cannot +catch some of them. Sometimes I please myself with the idea that I have +landed an actual living fish, small, perhaps, but with rosy gills and +silvery scales. Then I find the consumers of nothing but the salted and +dried article insist that it is poisonous, simply because it is alive, +and cry out to people not to touch it. I have not found, however, that +people mind them much. + +The poor boarder in bombazine is my dynamometer. I try every +questionable proposition on her. If she winces, I must be prepared for +an outcry from the other old women. I frightened her, the other day, by +saying that _faith, as an intellectual state, was self-reliance_, which, +if you have a metaphysical turn, you will find is not so much of a +paradox as it sounds at first. So she sent me a book to read which was +to cure me of that error. It was an old book, and looked as if it had +not been opened for a long time. What should drop out of it, one day, +but a small heart-shaped paper, containing a lock of that straight, +coarse, brown hair which sets off the sharp faces of so many +thin-flanked, large-handed bumpkins? I read upon the paper the name +"Hiram."--Love! love! love!--everywhere! everywhere!--under diamonds and +Attleboro' "jewelry,"--lifting the marrowy camel's-hair, and rustling +even the black bombazine!--No, no,--I think she never was pretty, but +she was young once, and wore bright ginghams, and, perhaps, gay merinos. +We shall find that the poor little crooked man has been in love, or is +in love, or will be in love before we have done with him, for aught that +I know! + +Romance! Was there ever a boarding-house in the world where the +seemingly prosaic table had not a living fresco for its background, +where you could see, if you had eyes, the smoke and fire of some +upheaving sentiment, or the dreary craters of smouldering or burnt-out +passions? You look on the black bombazine and high-necked decorum of +your neighbor, and no more think of the real life that underlies this +despoiled and dismantled womanhood than you think of a stone trilobite +as having once been full of the juices and the nervous thrills of +throbbing and self-conscious being. There is a wild creature under that +long yellow pin which serves as brooch for the bombazine cuirass,--a +wild creature, which I venture to say would leap in his cage, if +I should stir him, quiet as you think him. A heart which has been +domesticated by matrimony and maternity is as tranquil as a tame +bulfinch; but a wild heart which has never been fairly broken in +flutters fiercely long after you think time has tamed it down,--like +that purple finch I had the other day, which could not be approached +without such palpitations and frantic flings against the bars of his +cage, that I had to send him back and get a little orthodox canary +which had learned to be quiet and never mind the wires or his keeper's +handling. I will tell you my wicked, but involuntary experiment on the +wild heart under the faded bombazine. + +Was there ever a person in the room with you, marked by any special +weakness or peculiarity, with whom you could be two hours and not touch +the infirm spot? I confess the most frightful tendency to do just this +thing. If a man has a brogue, I am sure to catch myself imitating it. +If another is lame, I follow him, or, worse than that, go before him, +limping. I could never meet an Irish gentleman--if it had been the Duke +of Wellington himself--without stumbling upon the word "Paddy,"--which I +use rarely in my common talk. + +I have been worried to know whether this was owing to some innate +depravity of disposition on my part, some malignant torturing instinct, +which, under different circumstances, might have made a Fijian +anthropophagus of me, or to some law of thought for which I was not +answerable. It is, I am convinced, a kind of physical fact like +_endosmosis_, with which some of you are acquainted. A thin film of +politeness separates the unspoken and unspeakable current of thought +from the stream of conversation. After a time one begins to soak through +and mingle with the other. + +We were talking about names, one day. Was there ever anything,--I +said,--like the Yankee for inventing the most uncouth, pretentious, +detestable appellations,--inventing or finding them,--since the time of +Praise-God Barebones? I heard a country-boy once talking of another whom +he called _Elpit_, as I understood him. _Elbridge_ is common enough, but +this sounded oddly. It seems the boy was christened _Lord Pitt_,--and +called, for convenience, as above. I have heard a charming little girl, +belonging to an intelligent family in the country, called _Anges_ +invariably; doubtless intended for Agnes. Names are cheap. How can a +man name an innocent new-born child, that never did him any harm, +_Hiram_?--The poor relation, or whatever she is, in bombazine, turned +toward me, but I was stupid, and went on.--To think of a man going +through life saddled with such an abominable name as that!--The poor +relation grew very uneasy.--I continued; for I never thought of all this +till afterwards.--I knew one young fellow, a good many years ago, by the +name of Hiram-- + +--What's got into you, Cousin,--said our landlady,--to look so?--There! +you've upset your teacup! + +It suddenly occurred to me what I had been doing, and I saw the poor +woman had her hand at her throat; she was half-choking with the +"hysteric ball,"--a very odd symptom, as you know, which nervous women +often complain of. What business had I to be trying experiments on this +forlorn old soul? I had a great deal better be watching that young girl. + +Ah, the young girl! I am sure that she can hide nothing from me. Her +skin is so transparent that one can almost count her heart-beats by the +flushes they send into her cheeks. She does not seem to be shy, either. +I think she does not know enough of danger to be timid. She seems to +me like one of those birds that travellers tell of, found in remote, +uninhabited islands, who, having never received any wrong at the hand +of man, show no alarm at and hardly any particular consciousness of his +presence. + +The first thing will be to see how she and our little deformed gentleman +get along together; for, as I have told you, they sit side by side. The +next thing will be to keep an eye on the duenna,--the "Model" and +so forth, as the white-neckcloth called her. The intention of that +estimable lady is, I understand, to launch her and leave her. I suppose +there is no help for it, and I don't doubt this young lady knows how to +take care of herself, but I do not like to see young girls turned loose +in boarding-houses. Look here now! There is that jewel of his race, whom +I have called for convenience the Koh-i-noor, (you understand it +is quite out of the question for me to use the family names of our +boarders, unless I want to get into trouble,)--I say, the gentleman with +the _diamond_ is looking very often and very intently, it seems to me, +down toward the farther corner of the table, where sits our amber-eyed +blonde. The landlady's daughter does not look pleased, it seems to me, +at this, nor at those other attentions which the gentleman referred to +has, as I have learned, pressed upon the newly-arrived young person. The +landlady made a communication to me, within a few days after the arrival +of Miss Iris, which I will repeat to the best of my remembrance. + +He, (the person I have been speaking of,)--she said,--seemed to +be kinder hankerin' round after that young woman. It had hurt her +daughter's feelin's a good deal, that the gentleman she was a-keepin' +company with should be offerin' tickets and tryin' to send presents to +them that he'd never know'd till just a little spell ago,--and he as +good as merried, so far as solemn promises went, to as respectable a +young lady, if she did say so, as any there was round, whosomever they +might be. + +Tickets! presents!--said I.--What tickets, what presents has he had the +impertinence to be offering to that young lady? + +Tickets to the Museum,--said the landlady.--There is them that's glad +enough to go to the Museum, when tickets is given 'em; but some of 'em +ha'n't had a ticket sence Cenderilla was played,--and now he must be +offerin' 'em to this ridiculous young paintress, or whatever she is, +that's come to make more mischief than her board's worth. But it a'n't +her fault,--said the landlady, relenting;--and that aunt of hers, or +whatever she is, served him right enough. + +Why, what did she do? + +Do? Why, she took it up in the tongs and dropped it out o' window. + +Dropped? dropped what?--I said. + +Why, the _soap_,--said the landlady. + +It appeared that the Koh-i-noor, to ingratiate himself, had sent an +elegant package of perfumed soap, directed to Miss Iris, as a delicate +expression of a lively sentiment of admiration, and that, after having +met with the unfortunate treatment referred to, it was picked up by +Master Benjamin Franklin, who appropriated it, rejoicing, and indulged +in most unheard-of and inordinate ablutions in consequence, so that his +hands were a frequent subject of maternal congratulation, and he smelt +like a civet-cat for weeks after his great acquisition. + +After watching daily for a time, I think I can see clearly into the +relation which is growing up between the little gentleman and the young +lady. She shows a tenderness to him that I can't help being interested +in. If he was her crippled child, instead of being more than old enough +to be her father, she could not treat him more kindly. The landlady's +daughter said, the other day, she believed that girl was settin' her cap +for Little Boston. + +Some of them young folks is very artful,--said her mother,--and there is +them that would merry Lazarus, if he'd only picked up crumbs enough. +I don't think, though, this is one of that sort; she's kinder +child-like,--said the landlady,--and maybe never had any dolls to play +with; for they say her folks was poor before Ma'am undertook to see to +her teachin' and board her and clothe her. + +I could not help overhearing this conversation. "Board her and clothe +her!"--speaking of such a young creature! Oh, dear!--Yes,--she must +be fed,--just like Bridget, maid-of-all-work at this establishment. +Somebody must pay for it. Somebody has a right to watch her and see how +much it takes to "keep" her, and growl at her, if she has too good an +appetite. Somebody has a right to keep an eye on her and take care that +she does not dress too prettily. No mother to see her own youth over +again in those fresh features and rising reliefs of half-sculptured +womanhood, and, seeing its loveliness, forget her lessons of +neutral-tinted propriety, and open the cases that hold her own ornaments +to find her a necklace or a bracelet or a pair of earrings,--those +golden lamps that light up the deep, shadowy dimples on the cheeks of +young beauties,--swinging in a semi-barbaric splendor that carries the +wild fancy to Abyssinian queens and musky Odalisques! I don't believe +any woman has utterly given up the great firm of Mundus & Co., so long +as she wears earrings. + +I think Iris loves to hear the little gentleman talk. She smiles +sometimes at his vehement statements, but never laughs at him. When he +speaks to her, she keeps her eye always steadily upon him. This may be +only natural good-breeding, so to speak, but it is worth noticing. +I have often observed that vulgar persons, and public audiences of +inferior collective intelligence, have this in common: the least thing +draws off their minds, when you are speaking to them. I love this +young creature's rapt attention to her diminutive neighbor while he is +speaking. + +He is evidently pleased with it. For a day or two after she came, he was +silent and seemed nervous and excited. Now he is fond of getting the +talk into his own hands, and is obviously conscious that he has at least +one interested listener. Once or twice I have seen marks of special +attention to personal adornment,--a ruffled shirt-bosom, one day, and a +diamond pin in it,--not so _very_ large as the Koh-i-noor's, but more +lustrous. I mentioned the death's-head ring he wears on his right hand. +I was attracted by a very handsome red stone, a ruby or carbuncle or +something of the sort, to notice his left hand, the other day. It is a +handsome hand, and confirms my suspicion that the cast mentioned was +taken from his arm. After all, this is just what I should expect. It is +not very uncommon to see the upper limbs, or one of them, running away +with the whole strength, and, therefore, with the whole beauty, which we +should never have noticed, if it had been divided equally between all +four extremities. If it is so, of course he is proud of his one strong +and beautiful arm; that is human nature. But he does not make himself +ridiculous, at any rate, as people who have any one showy point are apt +to do,--especially dentists with handsome teeth, who always smile back +to their last molars. + +Sitting, as he does, next to the young girl, and next but one to the +calm lady who has her in charge, he cannot help seeing their relations +to each other. + +That is an admirable woman, Sir,--he said to me one day, as we sat alone +at the table after breakfast,--an admirable woman, Sir,--and I hate her. + +Of course, I begged an explanation. + +An admirable woman, Sir, because she does good things, and even kind +things,--takes care of this--this--young lady--we have here, talks like +a sensible person, and always looks as if she was doing her duty with +all her might. I hate her because her voice sounds as if it never +trembled, and her eyes look as if she never knew what it was to cry. +Besides, she looks at me, Sir, stares at me, as if she wanted to get +an image of me for some gallery in her brain,--and we don't love to be +looked at in this way, we that have--I hate her,--I hate her,--her eyes +kill me,--it is like being stabbed with icicles to be looked at so,--the +sooner she goes home, the better. I don't want a woman to weigh me in +a balance; there are men enough for that sort of work. The judicial +character isn't captivating in females, Sir. A woman fascinates a man +quite as often by what she overlooks as by what she sees. Love prefers +twilight to daylight; and a man doesn't think much of, nor care much +for, a woman outside of his household, unless he can couple the idea +of love, past, present, or future, with her. I don't believe the Devil +cares half so much for the services of a sinner as he does for those of +one of these folks that are always doing virtuous acts in a way to make +them unpleasing.--That young girl wants a tender nature to cherish her +and give her a chance to put out her leaves,--sunshine, and not east +winds. + +He was silent,--and sat looking at his handsome left hand with the red +stone ring upon it.--Is he going to fall in love with Iris? + +Here are some lines I read to the boarders the other day:-- + + THE CROOKED FOOTPATH. + + Ah, here it is! the sliding rail + That marks the old remembered spot,-- + The gap that struck our schoolboy trail,-- + The crooked path across the lot. + + It left the road by school and church, + A pencilled shadow, nothing more, + That parted from the silver birch + And ended at the farmhouse door. + + No line or compass traced its plan; + With frequent bends to left or right, + In aimless, wayward curves it ran, + But always kept the door in sight. + + The gabled porch, with woodbine green,-- + The broken millstone at the sill,-- + Though many a rood might stretch between, + The truant child could see them still. + + No rocks across the pathway lie,-- + No fallen trunk is o'er it thrown,-- + And yet it winds, we know not why, + And turns as if for tree or stone. + + Perhaps some lover trod the way + With shaking knees and leaping heart,-- + And so it often runs astray + With sinuous sweep or sudden start. + + Or one, perchance, with clouded brain + From some unholy banquet reeled,-- + And since, our devious steps maintain + His track across the trodden field. + + Nay, deem not thus,--no earth-born will + Could ever trace a faultless line; + Our truest steps are human still,-- + To walk unswerving were divine! + + Truants from love, we dream of wrath;-- + Oh, rather let us trust the more! + Through all the wanderings of the path, + We still can see our Father's door! + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE TEST OF THEOLOGY. + + +The Doctor went immediately to his study and put on his best coat and +his wig, and, surmounting them by his cocked hat, walked manfully out of +the house, with his gold-headed cane in his hand. + +"There he goes!" said Mrs. Scudder, looking regretfully after him. "He +is such a good man! but he has not the least idea how to get along in +the world. He never thinks of anything but what is true; he hasn't a +particle of management about him." + +"Seems to me," said Mary, "that is like an Apostle. You know, mother, +St. Paul says, 'In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly +wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the +world.'" + +"To be sure,--that is just the Doctor," said Mrs. Scudder; "that's +as like him as if it had been written for him. But that kind of way, +somehow, don't seem to do in our times; it won't answer with Simeon +Brown,----I know the man. I know just as well, now, how it will all seem +to him, and what will be the upshot of this talk, if the Doctor goes +there! It won't do any good; if it would, I would be willing. I feel as +much desire to have this horrid trade in slaves stopped as anybody; your +father, I'm sure, said enough about it in his time; but then I know it's +no use trying. Just as if Simeon Brown, when he is making his hundreds +of thousands in it, is going to be persuaded to give it up! He won't, +--he'll only turn against the Doctor, and won't pay his part of the +salary, and will use his influence to get up a party against him, and +our church will be broken up and the Doctor driven away,--that's all +that will come of it; and all the good that he is doing now to these +poor negroes will be overthrown,--and they never did have so good a +friend. If he would stay here and work gradually, and get his System of +Theology printed,--and Simeon Brown would help at that,--and only drop +words in season here and there, till people are brought along with him, +why, by-and-by something might be done; but now, it's just the most +imprudent thing a man could undertake." + +"But, mother, if it really is a sin to trade in slaves and hold them, I +don't see how he can help himself. I quite agree with him. I don't see +how he came to let it go so long as he has." + +"Well," said Mrs. Scudder, "if worst comes to worst, and he will do it, +I, for one, shall stand by him to the last." + +"And I, for another," said Mary. + +"I would like him to talk with Cousin Zebedee about it," said Mrs. +Scudder. "When we are up there this afternoon, we will introduce the +conversation. He is a good, sound man, and the Doctor thinks much of +him, and perhaps he may shed some light upon this matter." + +Meanwhile the Doctor was making the best of his way, in the strength of +his purpose to test the orthodoxy of Simeon Brown. + +Honest old granite boulder that he was, no sooner did he perceive a +truth than he rolled after it with all the massive gravitation of his +being, inconsiderate as to what might lie in his way;--from which it is +to be inferred, that, with all his intellect and goodness, he would have +been a very clumsy and troublesome inmate of the modern American Church. +How many societies, boards, colleges, and other good institutions, +have reason to congratulate themselves that he has long been among the +saints! + +With him logic was everything, and to perceive a truth and not act in +logical sequence from it a thing so incredible, that he had not yet +enlarged his capacity to take it in as a possibility. That a man should +refuse to hear truth, he could understand. In fact, he had good reason +to think the majority of his townsmen had no leisure to give to that +purpose. That men hearing truth should dispute it and argue stoutly +against it, he could also understand; but that a man could admit a truth +and not admit the plain practice resulting from it was to him a thing +incomprehensible. Therefore, spite of Mrs. Katy Scudder's discouraging +observations, our good Doctor walked stoutly and with a trusting heart. + +At the moment when the Doctor, with a silent uplifting of his soul to +his invisible Sovereign, passed out of his study, on this errand, where +was the disciple whom he went to seek? + +In a small, dirty room, down by the wharf, the windows veiled by cobwebs +and dingy with the accumulated dust of ages, he sat in a greasy, +leathern chair by a rickety office-table, on which was a great pewter +inkstand, an account-book, and divers papers tied with red tape. + +Opposite to him was seated a square-built individual,--a man of about +forty, whose round head, shaggy eyebrows, small, keen eyes, broad chest, +and heavy muscles showed a preponderance of the animal and brutal over +the intellectual and spiritual. This was Mr. Scroggs, the agent of a +rice-plantation, who had come on, bringing an order for a new relay of +negroes to supply the deficit occasioned by fever, dysentery, and other +causes, in their last year's stock. + +"The fact is," said Simeon, "this last ship-load wasn't as good a one as +usual; we lost more than a third of it, so we can't afford to put them a +penny lower." + +"Ay," said the other,--"but then there are so many women!" + +"Well," said Simeon, "women a'n't so strong, perhaps, to start +with,--but then they stan' it out, perhaps, in the long run, better. +They're more patient;--some of these men, the Mandingoes, particularly, +are pretty troublesome to manage. We lost a splendid fellow, coming +over, on this very voyage. Let 'em on deck for air, and this fellow +managed to get himself loose and fought like a dragon. He settled one +of our men with his fist, and another with a marlinespike that he +caught,--and, in fact, they had to shoot him down. You'll have his wife; +there's his son, too,--fine fellow, fifteen year old by his teeth." + +"What! that lame one?" + +"Oh, he a'n't lame!--it's nothing but the cramps from stowing. You know, +of course, they are more or less stiff. He's as sound as a nut." + +"Don't much like to buy relations, on account of their hatching up +mischief together," said Mr. Scroggs. + +"Oh, that's all humbug! You must keep 'em from coming together, anyway. +It's about as broad as 'tis long. There'll be wives and husbands and +children among 'em before long, start 'em as you will. And then this +woman will work better for having the boy; she's kinder set on him; she +jabbers lots of lingo to him, day and night." + +"Too much, I doubt," said the overseer, with a shrug. + +"Well, well--I'll tell you," said Simeon, rising. "I've got a few +errands up-town, and you just step over with Matlock and look over +the stock;--just set aside any that you want, and when I see 'em all +together, I'll tell you just what you shall have 'em for. I'll be back +in an hour or two." + +And so saying, Simeon Brown called an underling from an adjoining room, +and, committing his customer to his care, took his way up-town, in a +serene frame of mind, like a man who comes from the calm performance of +duty. + +Just as he came upon the street where was situated his own large and +somewhat pretentious mansion, the tall figure of the Doctor loomed in +sight, sailing majestically down upon him, making a signal to attract +his attention. + +"Good morning, Doctor," said Simeon. + +"Good morning, Mr. Brown," said the Doctor. "I was looking for you. I +did not quite finish the subject we were talking about at Mrs. Scudder's +table last night. I thought I should like to go on with it a little." + +"With all my heart, Doctor," said Simeon, not a little flattered. "Turn +right in. Mrs. Brown will be about her house-business, and we will have +the keeping-room all to ourselves. Come right in." + +The "keeping-room" of Mr. Simeon Brown's house was an intermediate +apartment between the ineffable glories of the front-parlor and that +court of the gentiles, the kitchen; for the presence of a large train +of negro servants made the latter apartment an altogether different +institution from the throne-room of Mrs. Katy Scudder. + +This keeping-room was a low-studded apartment, finished with the heavy +oaken beams of the wall left full in sight, boarded over and painted. +Two windows looked out on the street, and another into a sort of +court-yard, where three black wenches, each with a broom, pretended to +be sweeping, but were, in fact, chattering and laughing, like so many +crows. + +On one side of the room stood a heavy mahogany sideboard, covered with +decanters, labelled Gin, Brandy, Rum, etc.,--for Simeon was held to be +a provider of none but the best, in his housekeeping. Heavy mahogany +chairs, with crewel coverings, stood sentry about the room; and the +fireplace was flanked by two broad arm-chairs, covered with stamped +leather. + +On ushering the Doctor into this apartment, Simeon courteously led him +to the sideboard. + +"We mus'n't make our discussions too _dry_, Doctor," he said. "What will +you take?" + +"Thank you, Sir," said the Doctor, with a wave of his hand,--"nothing +this morning." + +And depositing his cocked hat in a chair, he settled himself into one of +the leathern easy-chairs, and, dropping his hands upon his knees, looked +fixedly before him, like a man who is studying how to enter upon an +inwardly absorbing subject. + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, seating himself opposite, sipping +comfortably at a glass of rum-and-water, "our views appear to be making +a noise in the world. Everything is preparing for your volumes; and +when they appear, the battle of New Divinity, I think, may fairly be +considered as won." + +Let us consider, that, though a woman may forget her first-born, yet a +man cannot forget his own system of theology,--because therein, if he be +a true man, is the very elixir and essence of all that is valuable and +hopeful to the universe; and considering this, let us appreciate the +settled purpose of our friend, whom even this tempting bait did not +swerve from the end which he had in view. + +"Mr. Brown," he said, "all our theology is as a drop in the ocean of +God's majesty, to whose glory we must be ready to make any and every +sacrifice." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Brown, not exactly comprehending the turn the +Doctor's thoughts were taking. + +"And the glory of God consisteth in the happiness of all his rational +universe, each in his proportion, according to his separate amount of +being; so that, when we devote ourselves to God's glory, it is the same +as saying that we devote ourselves to the highest happiness of his +created universe." + +"That's clear, Sir," said Simeon, rubbing his hands, and taking out his +watch to see the time. + +The Doctor hitherto had spoken in a laborious manner, like a man who is +slowly lifting a heavy bucket of thought out of an internal well. + +"I am glad to find your mind so clear on this all-important point, Mr. +Brown,--the more so as I feel that we must immediately proceed to apply +our principles, at whatever sacrifice of worldly goods; and I trust, +Sir, that you are one who at the call of your Master would not hesitate +even to lay down all your worldly possessions for the greater good of +the universe." + +"I trust so, Sir," said Simeon, rather uneasily, and without the most +distant idea what could be coming next in the mind of his reverend +friend. + +"Did it never occur to you, my friend," said the Doctor, "that the +enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law +which commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves,--and a dishonor +upon the Christian religion, more particularly in us Americans, whom the +Lord hath so marvellously protected, in our recent struggle for our own +liberty?" + +Simeon started at the first words of this address, much as if some one +had dashed a bucket of water on his head, and after that rose uneasily, +walking the room and playing with the seals of his watch. + +"I--I never regarded it in this light," he said. + +"Possibly not, my friend," said the Doctor,--"so much doth established +custom blind the minds of the best of men. But since I have given more +particular attention to the case of the poor negroes here in Newport, +the thought has more and more labored in my mind,--more especially as +our own struggles for liberty have turned my attention to the rights +which every human creature hath before God,--so that I find much in +my former blindness and the comparative dumbness I have heretofore +maintained on this subject wherewith to reproach myself; for, though I +have borne somewhat of a testimony, I have not given it that force which +so important a subject required. I am humbled before God for my neglect, +and resolved now, by His grace, to leave no stone unturned till this +iniquity be purged away from our Zion." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, "you are certainly touching on a very dark +and difficult subject, and one in which it is hard to find out the path +of duty. Perhaps it will be well to bear it in mind, and by looking at +it prayerfully some light may arise. There are such great obstacles in +the way, that I do not see at present what can be done; do you, Doctor?" + +"I intend to preach on the subject next Sunday, and hereafter devote +my best energies in the most public way to this great work," said the +Doctor. + +"You, Doctor?--and now, immediately? Why, it appears to me you cannot +do it. You are the most unfit man possible. Whosever duty it may be, it +does not seem to me to be yours. You already have more on your shoulders +than you can carry; you are hardly able to keep your ground now, with +all the odium of this new theology upon you. Such an effort would break +up your church,--destroy the chance you have to do good here,--prevent +the publication of your system." + +"If it's nobody's system but mine, the world won't lose much, if it +never be published; but if it be God's system, nothing can hinder its +appearing. Besides, Mr. Brown, I ought not to be one man alone. I count +on your help. I hold it as a special providence, Mr. Brown, that in our +own church an opportunity will be given to testify to the reality of +disinterested benevolence. How glorious the opportunity for a man to +come out and testify by sacrificing his worldly living and business! If +you, Mr. Brown, will at once, at whatever sacrifice, quit all connection +with this detestable and diabolical slave-trade, you will exhibit a +spectacle over which angels will rejoice, and which will strengthen and +encourage me to preach and write and testify." + +Mr. Simeon Brown's usual demeanor was that of the most leathery +imperturbability. In calm theological reasoning, he could demonstrate, +in the dryest tone, that, if the eternal torment of six bodies and +souls were absolutely the necessary means for preserving the eternal +blessedness of thirty-six, benevolence would require us to rejoice in +it, not in itself considered, but in view of greater good. And when he +spoke, not a nerve quivered; the great mysterious sorrow with which the +creation groaneth and travaileth, the sorrow from which angels veil +their faces, never had touched one vibrating chord either of body +or soul; and he laid down the obligations of man to unconditional +submission in a style which would have affected a person of delicate +sensibility much like being mentally sawn in sunder. Benevolence, +when Simeon Brown spoke of it, seemed the grimmest and unloveliest of +Gorgons; for his mind seemed to resemble those fountains which petrify +everything that falls into them. But the hardest-shelled animals have a +vital and sensitive part, though only so large as the point of a needle; +and the Doctor's innocent proposition to Simeon, to abandon his whole +worldly estate for his principles, touched this spot. + +When benevolence required but the acquiescence in certain possible +things which might be supposed to happen to his soul, which, after all, +he was comfortably certain never would happen, or the acquiescence in +certain supposititious sacrifices for the good of that most intangible +of all abstractions, Being in general, it was a dry, calm subject. But +when it concerned the immediate giving-up of his slave-ships and a +transfer of business, attended with all that confusion and loss which he +foresaw at a glance, then he _felt_, and felt too much to see clearly. +His swarthy face flushed, his little blue eye kindled, he walked up to +the Doctor and began speaking in the short, energetic sentences of a man +thoroughly awake to what he is talking about. + +"Doctor, you're too fast. You are not a practical man, Doctor. You are +good in your pulpit;--nobody better. Your theology is clear;--nobody can +argue better. But come to practical matters, why, business has its laws, +Doctor. Ministers are the most unfit men in the world to talk on such +subjects; it's departing from their sphere; they talk about what they +don't understand. Besides, you take too much for granted. I'm not sure +that this trade is an evil. I want to be convinced of it. I'm sure it's +a favor to these poor creatures to bring them to a Christian land. They +are a thousand times better off. Here they can hear the gospel and have +some chance of salvation." + +"If we want to get the gospel to the Africans," said the Doctor, +"why not send whole ship-loads of missionaries to them, and carry +civilization and the arts and Christianity to Africa, instead of +stirring up wars, tempting them to ravage each other's territories, that +we may get the booty? Think of the numbers killed in the wars,--of all +that die on the passage! Is there any need of killing ninety-nine men to +give the hundredth one the gospel, when we could give the gospel to them +all? Ah, Mr. Brown, what if all the money spent in fitting out ships to +bring the poor negroes here, so prejudiced against Christianity that +they regard it with fear and aversion, had been spent in sending it to +them, Africa would have been covered with towns and villages, rejoicing +in civilization and Christianity!" + +"Doctor, you are a dreamer," replied Simeon, "an unpractical man. Your +situation prevents your knowing anything of real life." + +"Amen! the Lord be praised therefor!" said the Doctor, with a slowly +increasing flush mounting to his cheek, showing the burning brand of a +smouldering fire of indignation. + +"Now let me just talk common-sense, Doctor,--which has its time and +place, just as much as theology;--and if you have the most theology, I +flatter myself I have the most common-sense; a business-man must have +it. Now just look at your situation,--how you stand. You've got a most +important work to do. In order to do it, you must keep your pulpit, you +must keep our church together. We are few and weak. We are a minority. +Now there's not an influential man in your society that don't either +hold slaves or engage in the trade; and if you open upon this subject as +you are going to do, you'll just divide and destroy the church. All men +are not like you;--men are men, and will be, till they are thoroughly +sanctified, which never happens in this life,--and there will be an +instant and most unfavorable agitation. Minds will be turned off from +the discussion of the great saving doctrines of the gospel to a side +issue. You will be turned out,--and you know, Doctor, you are not +appreciated as you ought to be, and it won't be easy for you to get a +new settlement; and then subscriptions will all drop off from your book, +and you won't be able to get that out; and all this good will be lost to +the world, just for want of common-sense." + +"There is a kind of wisdom in what you say, Mr. Brown," replied the +Doctor, naively; "but I fear much that it is the wisdom spoken in James, +iii. 15, which 'descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, +devilish.' You avoid the very point of the argument, which is, Is this a +sin against God? That it is, I am solemnly convinced; and shall I 'use +lightness? or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the +flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay?' No, Mr. +Brown, immediate repentance, unconditional submission, these are what I +must preach as long as God gives me a pulpit to stand in, whether men +will hear or whether they will forbear." + +"Well, Doctor," said Simeon, shortly, "you can do as you like; but I +give you fair warning, that I, for one, shall stop my subscription, and +go to Dr. Stiles's church." + +"Mr. Brown," said the Doctor, solemnly, rising, and drawing his tall +figure to its full height, while a vivid light gleamed from his blue +eye, "as to that, you can do as you like; but I think it my duty, as +your pastor, to warn you that I have perceived, in my conversation +with you this morning, such a want of true spiritual illumination and +discernment as leads me to believe that you are yet in the flesh, +blinded by that 'carnal mind' which 'is not subject to the law of God, +neither indeed can be.' I much fear you have no part nor lot in this +matter, and that you have need, seriously, to set yourself to search +into the foundations of your hope; for you may be like him of whom it is +written, (Isaiah, xliv. 20,) 'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath +turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not +a lie in my right hand?'" + +The Doctor delivered this address to his man of influence with the +calmness of an ambassador charged with a message from a sovereign, +for which he is no otherwise responsible than to speak it in the most +intelligible manner; and then, taking up his hat and cane, he bade him +good morning, leaving Simeon Brown in a tumult of excitement which no +previous theological discussion had ever raised in him. + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PRACTICAL TEST. + + +The hens cackled drowsily in the barnyard of the white Marvyn-house; +in the blue June-afternoon sky sported great sailing islands of cloud, +whose white, glistening heads looked in and out through the green +apertures of maple and blossoming apple-boughs; the shadows of the trees +had already turned eastward, when the one-horse wagon of Mrs. Katy +Scudder appeared at the door, where Mrs. Marvyn stood, with a pleased, +quiet welcome in her soft, brown eyes. Mrs. Scudder herself drove, +sitting on a seat in front,--while the Doctor, apparelled in the +most faultless style, with white wrist-ruffles, plaited shirt-bosom, +immaculate wig, and well-brushed coat, sat by Mary's side, serenely +unconscious how many feminine cares had gone to his getting-up. He +did not know of the privy consultations, the sewings, stitchings, and +starchings, the ironings, the brushings, the foldings and unfoldings and +timely arrangements, that gave such dignity and respectability to his +outer man, any more than the serene moon rising tranquilly behind a +purple mountain-top troubles her calm head with treatises on astronomy; +it is enough for her to shine,--she thinks not how or why. + +There is a vast amount of latent gratitude to women lying undeveloped in +the hearts of men, which would come out plentifully, if they only knew +what they did for them. The Doctor was so used to being well dressed, +that he never asked why. That his wig always sat straight and even +around his ample forehead, not facetiously poked to one side, nor +assuming rakish airs, unsuited to clerical dignity, was entirely owing +to Mrs. Katy Scudder. That his best broadcloth coat was not illustrated +with shreds and patches, fluff and dust, and hanging in ungainly +folds, was owing to the same. That his long silk stockings never had a +treacherous stitch allowed to break out into a long running ladder was +due to her watchfulness; and that he wore spotless ruffles on his wrists +or at his bosom was her doing also. The Doctor little thought, while he, +in common with good ministers generally, gently traduced the Scriptural +Martha and insisted on the duty of heavenly abstractedness, how much of +his own leisure for spiritual contemplation was due to the Martha-like +talents of his hostess. But then, the good soul had it in him to be +grateful, and would have been unboundedly so, if he had known his +indebtedness,--as, we trust, most of our magnanimous masters would be. + +Mr. Zebedee Marvyn was quietly sitting in the front summer parlor, +listening to the story of two of his brother church-members, between +whom some difficulty had arisen in the settling of accounts: Jim +Bigelow, a small, dry, dapper little individual, known as general jobber +and factotum, and Abram Griswold, a stolid, wealthy, well-to-do farmer. +And the fragments of conversation we catch are not uninteresting, as +showing Mr. Zebedee's habits of thought and mode of treating those who +came to him for advice. + +"I could 'ave got along better, if he'd 'a' paid me regular every +night," said the squeaky voice of little Jim;--"but he was allers +puttin' me off till it come even change, he said." + +"Well, 'ta'n't always handy," replied the other; "one doesn't like to +break into a five-pound note for nothing; and I like to let it run till +it comes even change." + +"But, brother," said Mr. Zebedee, turning over the great Bible that lay +on the mahogany stand in the corner, "we must go to the law and to the +testimony,"--and, turning over the leaves, he read from Deuteronomy, +xxiv.:-- + +"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether +he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within +thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the +sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest +he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." + +"You see what the Bible has to say on the matter," he said. + +"Well, now, Deacon, I rather think you've got me in a tight place," said +Mr. Griswold, rising; and turning confusedly round, he saw the placid +figure of the Doctor, who had entered the room unobserved in the midst +of the conversation, and was staring with that look of calm, dreamy +abstraction which often led people to suppose that he heard and saw +nothing of what was going forward. + +All rose reverently; and while Mr. Zebedee was shaking hands with the +Doctor, and welcoming him to his house, the other two silently withdrew, +making respectful obeisance. + +Mrs. Marvyn had drawn Mary's hand gently under her arm and taken her to +her own sleeping-room, as it was her general habit to do, that she might +show her the last book she had been reading, and pour into her ear the +thoughts that had been kindled up by it. + +Mrs. Scudder, after carefully brushing every speck of dust from the +Doctor's coat and seeing him seated in an armchair by the open window, +took out a long stocking of blue-mixed yarn which she was knitting for +his winter wear, and, pinning her knitting-sheath on her side, was soon +trotting her needles contentedly in front of him. + +The ill-success of the Doctor's morning attempt at enforcing his +theology in practice rather depressed his spirits. There was a noble +innocence of nature in him which looked at hypocrisy with a puzzled and +incredulous astonishment. How a man _could_ do so and be so was to him +a problem at which his thoughts vainly labored. Not that he was in the +least discouraged or hesitating in regard to his own course. When he +had made up his mind to perform a duty, the question of success no more +entered his thoughts than those of the granite boulder to which we have +before compared him. When the time came for him to roll, he did roll +with the whole force of his being;--where he was to land was not his +concern. + +Mildly and placidly he sat with his hands resting on his knees, while +Mr. Zebedee and Mrs. Scudder compared notes respecting the relative +prospects of corn, flax, and buckwheat, and thence passed to the doings +of Congress and the last proclamation of General Washington, pausing +once in a while, if, peradventure, the Doctor might take up the +conversation. Still he sat dreamily eyeing the flies as they fizzed down +the panes of the half-open window. + +"I think," said Mr. Zebedee, "the prospects of the Federal party were +never brighter." + +The Doctor was a stanch Federalist, and generally warmed to this +allurement; but it did not serve this time. + +Suddenly drawing himself up, a light came into his blue eyes, and he +said to Mr. Marvyn,-- + +"I'm thinking, Deacon, if it is wrong to keep back the wages of a +servant till after the going down of the sun, what those are to do who +keep them back all their lives." + +There was a way the Doctor had of hearing and seeing when he looked +as if his soul were afar off, and bringing suddenly into present +conversation some fragment of the past on which he had been leisurely +hammering in the quiet chambers of his brain, which was sometimes quite +startling. + +This allusion to a passage of Scripture which Mr. Marvyn was reading +when he came in, and which nobody supposed he had attended to, startled +Mrs. Scudder, who thought, mentally, "Now for it!" and laid down her +knitting-work, and eyed her cousin anxiously. Mrs. Marvyn and Mary, who +had glided in and joined the circle, looked interested; and a slight +flush rose and overspread the thin cheeks of Mr. Marvyn, and his +blue eyes deepened a moment with a thoughtful shadow, as he looked +inquiringly at the Doctor, who proceeded:-- + +"My mind labors with this subject of the enslaving of the Africans, Mr. +Marvyn. We have just been declaring to the world that all men are born +with an inalienable right to liberty. We have fought for it, and the +Lord of Hosts has been with us; and can we stand before Him with our +foot upon our brother's neck?" + +A generous, upright nature is always more sensitive to blame than +another,--sensitive in proportion to the amount of its reverence +for good,--and Mr. Marvyn's face flushed, his eye kindled, and his +compressed respiration showed how deeply the subject moved him. Mrs. +Marvyn's eyes turned on him an anxious look of inquiry. He answered, +however, calmly:-- + +"Doctor, I have thought of the subject, myself. Mrs. Marvyn has lately +been reading a pamphlet of Mr. Thomas Clarkson's on the slave-trade, +and she was saying to me only last night, that she did not see but the +argument extended equally to holding slaves. One thing, I confess, +stumbles me:--Was there not an express permission given to Israel to buy +and hold slaves of old?" + +"Doubtless," said the Doctor; "but many permissions were given to them +which were local and temporary; for if we hold them to apply to the +human race, the Turks might quote the Bible for making slaves of us, +if they could,--and the Algerines have the Scripture all on their +side,--and our own blacks, at some future time, if they can get the +power, might justify themselves in making slaves of us." + +"I assure you, Sir," said Mr. Marvyn, "if I speak, it is not to excuse +myself. But I am quite sure my servants do not desire liberty, and would +not take it, if it were offered." + +"Call them in and try it," said the Doctor. "If they refuse, it is their +own matter." + +There was a gentle movement in the group at the directness of this +personal application; but Mr. Marvyn replied, calmly,-- + +"Cato is up at the eight-acre lot, but you may call in Candace. My dear, +call Candace, and let the Doctor put the question to her." + +Candace was at this moment sitting before the ample fireplace in the +kitchen, with two iron kettles before her, nestled each in its bed of +hickory coals, which gleamed out from their white ashes like sleepy, red +eyes, opening and shutting. In one was coffee, which she was burning, +stirring vigorously with a pudding-stick,--and in the other, puffy +dough-nuts, in shapes of rings, hearts, and marvellous twists, which +Candace had such a special proclivity for making, that Mrs. Marvyn's +table and closets never knew an intermission of their presence. + +"Candace, the Doctor wishes to see you," said Mrs. Marvyn. + +"Bress his heart!" said Candace, looking up, perplexed. "Wants to see +me, does he? Can't nobody hab me till dis yer coffee's done; a minnit's +a minnit in coffee;--but I'll be in dereckly," she added, in a +patronizing tone. "Missis, you jes' go 'long in, an' I'll be dar +dereckly." + +A few moments after, Candace joined the group in the sitting-room, +having hastily tied a clean, white apron over her blue linsey +working-dress, and donned the brilliant Madras which James had lately +given her, and which she had a barbaric fashion of arranging so as to +give to her head the air of a gigantic butterfly. She sunk a dutiful +curtsy, and stood twirling her thumbs, while the Doctor surveyed her +gravely. + +"Candace," said he, "do you think it right that the black race should be +slaves to the white?" + +The face and air of Candace presented a curious picture at this moment; +a sort of rude sense of delicacy embarrassed her, and she turned a +deprecating look, first on Mrs. Marvyn and then on her master. + +"Don't mind us, Candace," said Mrs. Marvyn; "tell the Doctor the exact +truth." + +Candace stood still a moment, and the spectators saw a deeper shadow +roll over her sable face, like a cloud over a dark pool of water, and +her immense person heaved with her labored breathing. + +"Ef I must speak, I must," she said. "No,--I neber did tink 'twas right. +When Gineral Washington was here, I hearn 'em read de Declaration ob +Independence and Bill o' Rights; an' I tole Cato den, says I, 'Ef dat +ar' true, you an' I are as free as anybody.' It stands to reason. Why, +look at me,--I a'n't a critter. I's neider huffs nor horns. I's a +reasonable bein',--a woman,--as much a woman as anybody," she said, +holding up her head with an air as majestic as a palm-tree;--"an' +Cato,--he's a man, born free an' equal, ef dar's any truth in what you +read,--dat's all." + +"But, Candace, you've always been contented and happy with us, have you +not?" said Mr. Marvyn. + +"Yes, Mass'r,--I ha'n't got nuffin to complain ob in dat matter. I +couldn't hab no better friends 'n you an' Missis." + +"Would you like your liberty, if you could get it, though?" said Mr. +Marvyn, "Answer me honestly." + +"Why, to be sure I should! Who wouldn't? Mind ye," she said, earnestly +raising her black, heavy hand, "'ta'n't dat I want to go off, or want to +shirk work; but I want to _feel free_. Dem dat isn't free has nuffin to +gib to nobody;--dey can't show what dey would do." + +"Well, Candace, from this day you are free," said Mr. Marvyn, solemnly. + +Candace covered her face with both her fat hands, and shook and +trembled, and, finally, throwing her apron over her head, made a +desperate rush for the door, and threw herself down in the kitchen in a +perfect tropical torrent of tears and sobs. + +"You see," said the Doctor, "what freedom is to every human creature. +The blessing of the Lord will be on this deed, Mr. Marvyn. 'The steps of +a just man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.'" + +At this moment, Candace reappeared at the door, her butterfly turban +somewhat deranged with the violence of her prostration, giving a +whimsical air to her portly person. + +"I want ye all to know," she said, with a clearing-up snuff, "dat it's +my will an' pleasure to go right on doin' my work jes' de same; an', +Missis, please, I'll allers put three eggs in de crullers, now; an' I +won't turn de wash-basin down in de sink, but hang it jam-up on de +nail; an' I won't pick up chips in a milkpan, ef I'm in ever so big a +hurry;--I'll do eberyting jes' as ye tells me. Now you try me an' see ef +I won't!" + +Candace here alluded to some of the little private wilfulnesses which +she had always obstinately cherished as reserved rights, in pursuing +domestic matters with her mistress. + +"I intend," said Mr. Marvyn, "to make the same offer to your husband, +when he returns from work to-night." + +"Laus, Mass'r,--why, Cato he'll do jes' as I do,--dere a'n't no kind o' +need o' askin' him. 'Course he will." + +A smile passed round the circle, because between Candace and her husband +there existed one of those whimsical contrasts which one sometimes sees +in married life. Cato was a small-built, thin, softly-spoken negro, +addicted to a gentle chronic cough; and, though a faithful and skilful +servant, seemed, in relation to his better half, much like a hill of +potatoes under a spreading apple-tree. Candace held to him with a +vehement and patronizing fondness, so devoid of conjugal reverence as to +excite the comments of her friends. + +"You must remember, Candace," said a good deacon to her one day, when +she was ordering him about at a catechizing, "you ought to give honor to +your husband; the wife is the weaker vessel." + +"_I_ de weaker vessel?" said Candace, looking down from the tower of her +ample corpulence on the small, quiet man whom she had been fledging with +the ample folds of a worsted comforter, out of which his little head +and shining bead-eyes looked, much like a blackbird in a nest,--"_I_ de +weaker vessel? Umph!" + +A whole-woman's-rights' convention could not have expressed more in a +day than was given in that single look and word. Candace considered +a husband as a thing to be taken care of,--a rather inconsequent and +somewhat troublesome species of pet, to be humored, nursed, fed, +clothed, and guided in the way that he was to go,--an animal that was +always losing off buttons, catching colds, wearing his best coat every +day, and getting on his Sunday hat in a surreptitious manner for +week-day occasions; but she often condescended to express it as her +opinion that he was a blessing, and that she didn't know what she should +do, if it wasn't for Cato. In fact, he seemed to supply her that which +we are told is the great want in woman's situation,--an object in +life. She sometimes was heard expressing herself very energetically in +disapprobation of the conduct of one of her sable friends, named Jinny +Stiles, who, after being presented with her own freedom, worked several +years to buy that of her husband, but became afterwards so disgusted +with her acquisition that she declared she would "neber buy anoder +nigger." + +"Now Jinny don't know what she's talkin' about," she would say. "S'pose +he does cough and keep her awake nights, and take a little too much +sometimes, a'n't he better'n no husband at all? A body wouldn't seem to +hab nuffin to lib for, ef dey hadn't an ole man to look arter. Men +is nate'lly foolish about some tings,--but dey's good deal better'n +nuffin." + +And Candace, after this condescending remark, would lift off with one +hand a brass kettle in which poor Cato might have been drowned, and fly +across the kitchen with it as if it were a feather. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Works of Francis Bacon_, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vols. +I.-VI. London: Longman & Co. 1858. + +"For my name and memory," said Bacon in his will, "I leave it to men's +charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next ages." +Scarcely was he dead when the first portion of this legacy received some +part of its fulfilment in the touching and often quoted words of Ben +Jonson:--"My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his +place or honors; but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that +was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, +one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been +in many ages. In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him +strength; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in +a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to +virtue, but rather help to make it manifest." But it may fairly be +doubted whether "the next ages" have done fitly by his memory, spite of +the honor that has been indiscriminately lavished upon his name as a +philosopher, and the mass of praise, for the most part ignorant, beneath +which his works have been buried. The world of readers has been content +to take Bacon's greatness upon trust, or to form such imperfect idea of +it as was to be got from acquaintance with his "Essays," the only one +of his works which has ever attained popularity. Even more thorough +students have, for the most part, satisfied themselves with a general +view of Bacon's philosophy, dwelling on disconnected passages of ample +thought or aphoristic wisdom, and rarely attempting to gain an insight +into the real character of his system. Indeed, "the system of Lord +Bacon" became a sort of cabalistic phrase. It meant anything and +everything. It was like the English Constitution, venerable in authority +and prescription, interpreted in contradictory methods, and never +precisely defined. Few men undertook to study it with a zeal like that +of Homer and his friend Lord Webb Seymour, when, in days of enthusiasm, +they read and re-read the "De Augmentis" and the "Novum Organum," and +Homer planned to do what Dr. Whewell seems to suppose he has done, bring +Bacon up to the present time, by writing a work upon the basis of his, +which should furnish a complete review of modern knowledge. Still, it +has been part of an English birthright to hold Bacon as the restorer of +the sciences, the inventor or at least the re-inventor of the inductive +method, and the father of all discovery since his time. These notions +have been held firmly, while more special ones concerning his system and +himself have been, for the most part, vague or unformed. + +In great part, this fact is the result of the condition in which Lord +Bacon left his works, the manner of their composition, and their +intrinsic defects. He did not publish them in any systematic order, +but printed one after another, as it was written, or as extraneous +circumstances might induce. Nor did he leave his system complete in any +one treatise. His mind discursive, his imagination easily fired, he +seized subject after subject and discussed each in a separate treatise, +all with more or less reference to a general plan, but not embodied in +any consecutive and harmonious development. The growth of his ideas, the +changes of his views, as his life advanced, are manifest in the want of +connection, as well as in the connection, of these various fragments. +Dr. Rawley, his chaplain, says,--and it is a marvellous illustration of +Bacon's diligence and desire for perfection,--"I myself have seen, at +the least, twelve copies of the 'Instauration,' revised year by year, +one after another, and every year altered and amended in the frame +thereof." + +Such, then, being the state of Bacon's works at his death, much was left +to the judgment of his editors, and, unfortunately, the labor of editing +his books has, up to the present time, fallen into hands wanting in +competence and discretion. It has consequently been a task of special +difficulty to get from the ill-arranged mass of Bacon's writings a +satisfactory view of the essential elements of his philosophy and a just +knowledge of his final opinions. + +But the reproach of non-fulfilment of the trust committed to them will +rest upon "the next ages" no longer; for the edition which is now in +course of publication amply redeems the faults of those that have +preceded it, and is such a one as Bacon himself might have approved. In +the second book of the "Advancement of Learning," in recounting "the +works or acts of merit toward learning," he includes among them "new +editions of authors, with more correct impressions, more faithful +translations, more profitable glosses, more diligent annotations, and +the like." In each of these respects the edition before us deserves the +highest praise. The editors have engaged in their task as in a labor of +love. It is the result of many years of study, and it exhibits the fruit +of unwearied care, great learning, and excellent judgment. So far as +it has advanced, it does the highest honor to English scholarship, and +takes its place as one of the most remarkable editions in existence of +any author whose works stand in need of editorial care. The plan upon +which it is arranged is as follows. Bacon's works are divided into three +broad classes:--first, the Philosophical; secondly, the Professional; +thirdly, the Literary and Occasional. Each of these classes was +undertaken by a separate editor. Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis engaged upon +the Philosophical Works, and had advanced far in his task when he was +suddenly compelled to relinquish it some years since by illness which +completely disabled him for labor. What he had already accomplished is +so well done as to excite sincere regret that he was unable to carry his +work forward. But this regret is diminished by the ability with which +Mr. James Spedding, who had taken charge of the Literary and Occasional +Works, has supplied Mr. Ellis's place in the completion of the editing +of the Philosophical. The burden of the edition has fallen upon his +shoulders, and the chief credit for its excellence is due to him. Up to +the present time, the publication of the Philosophical Works is complete +in five volumes, and the first volume of the Literary Works has just +appeared. The separate treatises contained in the completed portion are +distributed into three parts,--"whereby," says Mr. Spedding, "all those +writings which were either published or intended for publication by +Bacon himself as parts of the Great Instauration are (for the first +time, I believe) exhibited separately, and distinguished as well from +the independent and collateral pieces which did not form part of the +main scheme, as from those which, though originally designed for it, +were afterwards superseded and abandoned." Each piece is accompanied +with a preface, both critical and historical, and with notes. It is +in these prefaces that a great part of the value of the new edition +consists; for they are in themselves treatises of elucidation and +illustration of Bacon's opinions, and of investigation concerning the +changes they underwent from time to time. They are written with great +clearness and ability, and, taken together, present such a view of +Bacon's philosophy as is to be found nowhere else, and amply answers the +requirements of students, however exacting. + +Far too much credit has been attributed to Bacon, in popular estimation, +as the author of a system upon which the modern progress of science is +based.[A] Whatever his system may have been, it is certain that it has +had little direct influence upon the advance of knowledge. But, perhaps, +too little credit has been given to Bacon as a man whose breadth and +power of thought and amplitude of soul enabled a spirit that has at once +stimulated its progress and elevated its disciples. That Bacon believed +himself to have invented a system wholly new admits of no doubt; but it +is doubtful whether he ever definitely arranged this system in his own +mind. And it is a curious and interesting fact, and one illustrative, at +least, of the imperfection of Bacon's exposition of his own method, that +Mr. Ellis and Mr. Spedding, the two most conscientious investigators of +Bacon's thought, should have arrived at different conclusions in regard +to the distinctive peculiarities of the Baconian philosophy. Mr. +Spedding, in his very interesting preface to the "Parasceve," suggests, +since his own and Mr. Ellis's conclusions, though different, do not +appear irreconcilable, "whether there be not room for a third solution, +more complete than either, as including both." Both he and Mr. Ellis +set out from the position, that "the philosophy which Bacon meant to +announce was in some way essentially different, not only from any that +had been before, but from any that has been since,"--a position very +much opposed to the popular opinion. "The triumph of his [Bacon's] +principles of scientific investigation," said, not long since, a writer +in the "Quarterly Review," whose words may be taken as representative of +the common ideas on the matter, "has made it unnecessary to revert to +the reasoning by which they were established."[B] But the truth seems +to be, that the merits of Bacon belong, as Mr. Ellis well says, "to the +spirit rather than to the positive precepts of his philosophy." Nor does +it appear that Bacon himself, although he indulged the highest hopes and +felt the securest confidence in the results of his perfected system, +supposed that he had given to it that perfection which was required. In +the "De Augmentis Scientiarum," published in 1623, two years and a half +before his death, he says: "I am preparing and laboring with all my +might to make the mind of man, by help of art, a match for the nature +of things, (_ut mens per artem fiat rebus par_,) to discover an art of +Indication and Direction, whereby all other arts, with their axioms +and works, may be detected and brought to light. For I have, with good +reason, set this down as wanting." (Lib. v. c. 2.) Bacon regarded his +method, not only as one wholly new, but also of universal application, +and leading to absolute certainty. Doubt was to be excluded from its +results. By its means, all the knowledge of which men were capable was +to be attained surely and in a comparatively brief space of time. Such a +conviction, extravagant as it may seem, is expressed in many passages. +In the Preface to his "Parasceve," published in 1620, in the same volume +with the "Novum Organum," he says, that he is about to describe a +Natural and Experimental History, which, if it be once provided, (and +he assumes, that, "etiam vivis nobis," it may be provided,) "paucorum +annorum opus futuram esse inquitionem naturae et scientiarum omnium." +Again, in the Protemium of the "Novum Organum": "There was but one +course left, to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and +all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations." And in the +Dedication to the same work, he says, with characteristic confidence, +"Equidem Organum praebui,"--"I have provided the Instrument." + +[Footnote A: The tendency of scientific thought had been, for a +considerable period before the time of Bacon, turned in the direction +which he, perhaps, did more than any other single investigator to +follow out and confirm. Leonardo da Vinci, the completest and most +comprehensive genius of Modern Italy, had anticipated, by more than a +century, several of the prominent features of the Baconian system. Too +little of Leonardo's scientific writings has been published to furnish +material for a satisfactory determination of their importance in +promoting the advance of knowledge,--but the coincidence of thought, +in some passages of his writings, with that in some of Bacon's weighty +sentences, is remarkable. "I shall treat of this subject," he says, in +a passage published by Venturi, "but I shall first set forth certain +experiments; it being my principle to cite experience first, and then to +demonstrate why bodies are constrained to act in such or such a manner. +This is the method to be observed in investigating phenomena of Nature. +It is true that Nature begins with the reason and ends with experience; +but no matter; the opposite way is to be taken. We must, as I have said, +begin with experience, and by means of this discover the reason." + +Compare with this the two following passages from the "Novum +Organum,"--the first being taken from the Ninety-ninth Axiom of the +First Book. "Then only will there be good ground of hope for the further +advance of knowledge, when there shall be received and gathered together +into natural history a variety of experiments, which are of no use in +themselves, but to discover causes and axioms."--The next passage is +the Twenty-sixth Axiom of the same Book;--"The conclusions of human +reason, as ordinarily applied in matter of nature, I call, for the +sake of distinction, _Anticipations of Nature_ (as a thing rash or +premature). That reason which is elicited from facts by a just and +methodical process I call _Interpretation of Nature_." + +The first and famous axiom of the "Novum Organum" contains the phrase +which Bacon constantly repeats,--"man being the interpreter of Nature." +Leonardo uses the same expression,--"li omini inventori e interpreti +tra la natura e gli omini." In another admirable passage of rebuke of +the boastful and empty followers of old teachers, Leonardo says: "Though +I might not cite authors as well as they, I shall cite a much greater +and worthier thing, in citing experience, the teacher of their teachers" +(_Maestra di loro maestri_). "And as for the overmuch credit," says +Bacon, "that hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making them +dictators that their words should stand, and not counsellors to give +advice, the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby." + +Similar parallelisms of thought are to be found in some of Galileo's +sentences, when brought into comparison with Lord Bacon.] + +[Footnote B: Article on Whately's Edition of Bacon's Essays. September, +1856.] + +The cause of Bacon's error in this regard, an error in spite of which +his philosophical works still remain the crowded repositories of true +wisdom, seems to have arisen, in considerable part, from a defect of +imagination. Knowledge is to be viewed in two aspects: one, that of its +relation to the finite capacities of the human mind; the other, its +relation to the infinity of Nature, that is, to the infinity of the +subjects of knowledge. Bacon regarded it chiefly from the first point of +view,--and, so far as we are aware, there is nowhere in his works any +recognition of the fact, that each advance in knowledge only opens new +and previously unknown regions of what is yet to be known. He supposed +that by his process Nature could be simplified to her few primary +elements, and that from these all other knowledge was to be deduced. +But, although her laws and elementary forms may be few, their +mollifications, as affecting knowledge and consequently human power and +interests, are unlimited. Moreover, in supposing that the discovery of +Nature could be made certain, and that, by a proper collection of facts, +the intellects of men might be brought upon a level of capacity for +discovery,--that is, that the process of discovery could be reduced to +a simple process of correct reasoning upon established facts,--Bacon +omitted to take into account the essential part which the imagination +plays in all discovery. + +No discovery, properly so called, is the pure result of observation and +induction. Maury takes the accumulated observations of fifty years, +deduces from them the existence of certain prevailing winds and +currents, and states the fact. It is not properly a discovery, although +a collection of similar facts may lead to the knowledge of a general +law. Newton sees an apple fall; his imagination, with one of the vastest +leaps that human imagination ever made, connects its fall with the +motion of the planets, and makes an immortal discovery. James Watt said, +"Nature has her blind side." True, but it is only the instinct of the +imagination that discovers where the blind side lies. The tops of +kettles had been dancing ever since kettles were first hung over fires, +but no one caught the blind side of the fact till a Scotch boy saw it as +he sat dreaming at his aunt's fireside. + +But if Bacon's imagination was imperfect in some directions, it +possessed in others a vision of the largest scope. No man ever saw more +clearly or vindicated more nobly the dignity of knowledge, the capacity +of the human mind, and the glory of God in the works of His hand. The +impulse which he gave to thought is still gathering force, and many of +the recommendations earnestly pressed in his works upon the attention +of men are only now beginning to receive their recognition and +accomplishment. When he sent a copy of the "Novum Organum" to Sir Henry +Wotton, Wotton, in his letter of thanks, said, "Your Lordship hath done +a great and everlasting benefit to the children of Nature, and to Nature +herself in her utmost extent of latitude,"--and his eulogium had more +truth than is common in contemporary compliments. + +Great as a student of physical nature, Bacon was a master in the +knowledge of human nature. Pope only chose the epithet which all the +world had applied, when he wrote of the + + "Words that _wise_ Bacon or grave Raleigh spake." + +And nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in the book of his +"Essays." The sixth volume of the edition before us contains, beside +the "Essays," the "History of King Henry VII.," with other fragmentary +histories, and the "De Sapienda Veterum," with a translation, which, +like the translations of the principal philosophical works in previous +volumes, is executed with admirable spirit and appropriateness. + +All these works give the same evidence of editorial ability and skill +as those in the division of Philosophy. Mr. Spedding's Preface to the +"Henry VII." is not only an interesting essay in itself, but an able and +satisfactory vindication of Bacon's general historic accuracy. Bacon's +view of the true office of history is very different from the theory +which has lately prevailed to a considerable extent, and it would be +well, perhaps, were its wisdom more considered. "It is the true office +of history," he says, (_Advancement of Learning_, Book II.,) "to +represent the events themselves, together with the counsels; and to +leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and +faculty of every man's judgment." And to this he adds, with much pith, +in the "De Augmentis," II. 9,--"Licet enim Historia quaeque prudentior +politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata sit, tamen scriptor +ipse sibi obstetricari non debet." Bacon wrote history according to his +own rule, and proved its value by the practical exemplification which he +gave of it. There are few better pieces of historic narrative in English +than this "History of Henry VII." + +Special thanks are due to Mr. Spedding for having reprinted, in full, +the first three editions of the "Essays,"--the three that were published +by Bacon himself. The first appeared in 1597, and contained but ten +essays; the second in 1612, when Bacon was in the height of prosperity, +and contained thirty-eight; the third appeared in 1625, after his +downfall, less than a year before his death, and contained fifty-eight +essays. The three thus afford, as well by the successive additions of +new essays as by the alterations which are made in the earlier, a most +interesting exhibition of the direction of Bacon's thought at different +periods of his life, and the changes in his style. The comparison is one +of very great interest, but more space is required to develop it than +we have for the present at command. One fact only may be noted in +passing,--that the essay on Adversity, which contains that most +memorable and noble sentence, "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old +Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New," is one of those +added in the last edition, after Bacon himself had experienced all the +bitterness of adversity. + +Mr. Spedding proposes, in the forthcoming volumes of the Occasional +Works of Lord Bacon, to connect his speeches and letters with an +explanatory narrative,--thus presenting, he says, "a biography the most +copious, the most minute, and, by the very necessity of the case, the +fairest that I can produce." He promises "new matter which is neither +little nor unimportant; but," he adds, "more important than the new +matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) +will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth." +We await this part of Mr. Spedding's work with especial interest, for +in it will unquestionably be afforded, for the first time, the means of +forming a correct judgment of Bacon's character, and just conclusions +concerning those public actions of his which have hitherto stood in +perplexing contradiction to his avowed principles, to the nobility of +his views, to his religious professions, to the reverential love with +which he was regarded by those who knew him best. It is not to be hoped +that his life can be redeemed from stain; but it may be hoped that a +true presentation of the grounds and bearings of his actions may relieve +him from the name of "meanest of mankind," and may show that his faults +were rather those of his time than of his nature. We shall keep our +readers informed of the progress of this invaluable edition, which +should lead to the more faithful and general study of the works of him +whom "all that were great and good loved and honored." + + +_A New History of the Conquest of Mexico._ In which Las Casas' +Denunciations of the Popular Historians of that War are fully +vindicated. By ROBERT ANDERSON WILSON, Counsellor at Law; Author of +"Mexico and its Religion," etc. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son. +Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. + +Before touching on the subject-matter of this book, we have something to +say respecting the spirit in which it appears to have been written, the +style of its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced +to the world. As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken +up by Mr. Prescott in his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and to +destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led +into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the +theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained. +We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings +besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering +upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that, +in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his +views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made +no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with +the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest +self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors, +without anticipating the reward of a wide-spread fame; that he was +prompt to acknowledge every service, or offer of service, which had been +made to him, and communicated to the public not only his information, +but the sources from which it had been derived; that, where he rejected +the conclusions of other writers, he treated those from whom he differed +with the utmost courtesy and candor; and that, when his task was +completed, he left it to the free judgment of the world, without +soliciting approbation or courting any man's applause. + +This is not the course which Mr. Robert Anderson Wilson has thought fit +to take. An accidental visit to Mexico, for which he appears to +consider himself entitled to no slight commendation, led him into some +speculations on the origin and civilization of the Aztec race. Without +waiting to inform himself of the ideas entertained on these subjects +by other men, he hastened to put forth his own crude notions in a +work entitled "Mexico and its Religion," and twice reprinted by its +enterprising publishers, with titles varied to suit what was supposed to +be the popular taste. Still entertaining an aversion to laborious study, +(for which, indeed, his previous education, as well as precarious +health, appears to have disqualified him,) he announced his purpose +to write a History of the Conquest of Mexico "from the American +stand-point," and issued what he himself called "a clap-trap +advertisement," for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of a class +in whom hatred of Romanism preponderates over knowledge and judgment. He +had made some progress in his "History," when he found that the ideas +which he had supposed to be original in his own brain were old and +trite. Being thus precluded from claiming for himself the merits of a +discoverer, he has shown an eagerness, every way praiseworthy, to place +the laurel on the brow to which he supposes it rightfully belongs. +Accordingly, he presents to the world, as his master and pioneer, that +renowned authority on the antiquities of New Spain, the Hon. Lewis Cass, +who, it appears, had published an essay on the subject in the "North +American Review." While his work was passing through the press, Mr. +Wilson wrote what he styles a "Chapter Preliminary," but what we suppose +would have been styled by persons who affect the native idiom when +writing their own language, a "Preliminary Chapter." This "Chapter +Preliminary" he printed and circulated, in advance of the publication +of his book; and though it contains not a single fact in support of +his theory, nor even any clear statement of the theory itself, he was +rewarded, as he expected, with _puffs preliminary_ from a portion of the +press, prompt to recognize the merit of a gentleman who had something +to sell, and consequently something to be advertised. The "advance +notices,"--so he calls them,--thus obtained, are made part of his book, +and may there be read alike by discerning and undiscerning readers. With +equal ingenuity he has prefixed to it a title-page, the grammar of which +is questionable and the punctuation vile, but in which he has contrived +to represent his opinions as identical with those of Las Casas, the +great historian of the Spanish Conquests in America, although, in truth, +this identity of opinion is purely imaginary, being founded on his mere +conjectures in regard to the contents of a work of Las Casas, which, as +he bitterly complains, has been withheld from the world. Then, with his +two supporters, Las Casas on the one side, and Lewis Casas--we beg his +pardon, we mean Lewis Cass--on the other, Mr. Wilson comes before the +public, making first a bow "preliminary" to "Colonel and Mrs. Powell," +"my dear Uncle," and "my dear Aunt," in a Dedication that reminds us +of a certain form of invitations which our readers may sometimes have +received: "Miss Smith presents her compliments to Mr. Brown, and _I_ +hope _you_ will do me the favor to take tea with me to-morrow evening." + +But we have omitted to make mention of the letters "preliminary" which +he has printed with the "advance notices." He indulges in frequent +sneers at the "weight of authority" to which Mr. Prescott was accustomed +to attach some importance in the discussion of a doubtful point. +Nevertheless, in his extreme eagerness to obtain for his own opinions +the sanction of an authoritative name, he publishes, as "Mr. Prescott's +estimate of his researches," a letter which he had received from that +gentleman, and, quite incapable of appreciating its quiet irony, +evidently supposes that the historian of the Conquest of Mexico was +prepared to retire from the field of his triumphs at the first blast of +his assailant's trumpet. Next comes a letter from a gentleman whom Mr. +Wilson calls "_Rousseau_ St. Hilaire, author of 'The History of Spain,' +&c., and Professor _of the_ Faculty of Letters in the University of +Paris." This, we suppose, is the same gentleman who is elsewhere +mentioned in the book as Rousseau _de_ St. Hilaire, and as _Rosseau_ St. +Hilaire. Now we might take issue with Mr. Wilson as to the existence of +his correspondent. It would be easy to prove that no person bearing the +name is connected with the University of Paris. Adopting the same line +of argument by which our author endeavors to convert the old Spanish +chronicler, Bernal Diaz, into a myth, we might contend that the +Sorbonne--the college to which M. St. Hilaire is represented as +belonging--has been almost as famous for its efforts to suppress +truth and the free utterance of opinion as the Spanish Inquisition +itself,--that it would not hesitate at any little invention or disguise +for the furtherance of its objects,--and hence, that the professor in +question is in all probability a "myth," a mere "Rousseau's Dream," or +rather, a "Wilson's Dream of Rousseau." But we disdain to have recourse +to such evasions. We admit that there is in the University of Paris +a professor "agrege a la faculte des lettres," who bears the name of +_Rosseeuw_ St. Hilaire; we admit Mr. Wilson's incapacity to decipher +foreign names or words, even when they stand before him in the clearest +print,--an incapacity of which his book affords numerous examples,--and +that this incapacity, and not any mental hallucination, has been the +cause of the blunder which we have corrected. But we must add that he +does evidently labor under an hallucination when he calls this letter +of M. St. Hilaire a "flattering notice." He has been misled by his +inability to comprehend the employment of courteous language between +persons who differ from each other in matters of opinion. With the +accustomed suavity of a Frenchman and a gentleman, M. St. Hilaire +declines entering into a discussion with Mr. Wilson, and leaves him to +"settle this difference with his learned fellow-citizen," Mr. Prescott, +mildly intimating at the same time that he will probably have "his hands +full." + +Something more remains to be said of the use which our author has made +of the learned professor of the Sorbonne. One page of his book Mr. +Wilson devotes to "Acknowledgments." These are few, but ponderous. +"Acknowledgments are made" to the Hon. Lewis Cass, for having +written--without any ulterior view, we imagine, to Mr. Wilson's +advantage--the before-mentioned article in the "North American Review"; +to the late Mr. Gallatin, for the publication--also, we suspect, without +any foresight of the tremendous uses to which it was to be turned--of a +paper on the Mexican dialects; to "Aaron Erickson, Esq., of Rochester, +N.Y., for the advantages he has afforded us in the prosecution of our +arduous investigations"; to "Major Robert Wilson, now at Fort Riley, +Kanzas," for no particular reason expressed; and to "M. _Rousseau +de_ St. Hilaire, both for the flattering notice he has taken of our +preliminary work" (why not, "work preliminary?") "on Mexico, and for the +advantages derived from his writings." In regard to the "advantages" +here mentioned, we are going to relieve Mr. Wilson's mind. His +obligations to M. St. Hilaire are really far lighter than he supposes. +It is true that he has picked most of the little information he +possesses in regard to Spanish history out of the professor's work, and +has strewed his pages with copious extracts from this recondite source. +But, in making his acknowledgments, he might have gone still farther +back. M. St. Hilaire is a laborious and enthusiastic scholar. + +He has found time, in the midst of his professional duties, to write +a really meritorious work on the history of Spain. But he had not the +time, perhaps not the opportunity, for making a thorough examination of +the original authorities. He was therefore obliged to take for his guide +a modern author, who had made this history the peculiar field of his +researches. The guide whom he selected, and he could have made no better +choice, was William Hickling Prescott. So necessary was it for his +purpose that the latter should precede him in a pathway so obscure, +that he postponed the composition of a portion of his work until the +publication of the first two volumes of the "History of Philip the +Second," then in preparation, should supply him with the requisite +light. His indebtedness to Mr. Prescott was frankly and fully +acknowledged both in public and in private. In letters which now lie +before us, he says, "I am working hard on 'Philip the Second,' and +blessing at the same time the learned pioneer who has traced for me so +easy a road through this confused and difficult period of history." "It +is a piece of good-fortune which I cannot too highly appreciate, that +your studies should have been directed to the most difficult portion of +Spanish history, from which you have thus removed for me all the thorns. +The conscientiousness and the thoroughness of your researches, the +perfect trustworthiness of your conclusions, and the lofty calmness of +your judgments, are the precious supports on which I lean; and I have +now, for the reign of Philip the Second, a guide whom I shall be ever +proud and happy to follow, _as I have before followed him through the +reigns of the Catholic Kings and the Conquests of Mexico and Peru_." +That these expressions are no exaggeration of the facts of the case +might be easily established by a comparison of the "Histoire d'Espagne" +with the writings of the American historian. The passages in the former +work cited by Mr. Wilson would form a portion of the proof; and thus, in +following M. St. Hilaire, he has in fact been indirectly and ignorantly +availing himself of labors which he affects to speak of with contempt. + +But directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed +himself of Mr. Prescott's labors to an extent which demanded the most +ample "acknowledgment." No such acknowledgment is made. But we beg to +ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he should have +spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, at least with +respect. He himself informs us that "the most kindly relations" +existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. Wilson opened +the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of Mr. Prescott's +collection of works relating to Mexican history, for the purpose of +enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's History of the +Conquest. That the replies which he received were courteous and kindly, +we need hardly say. He was informed, that, although the constant use +made of the collection by its possessor for the correction of his +own work must prevent a full compliance with this request, yet any +particular books which he might designate should be sent to him, and, if +he were disposed to make a visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities +should be granted him for the prosecution of his researches. This +invitation Mr. Wilson did not think fit to accept. Books which were got +in readiness for transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, +in the mean time, discovered that "the American stand-point" did not +require any examination of "authorities." We regret that it should also +have rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilized +society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished predecessor +is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it displays, sometimes +disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. He concedes Mr. Prescott's +good faith in the use of his materials. It was only his ignorance and +want of the proper qualifications that prevented him from using them +aright. "His non-acquaintance with Indian character is much to be +regretted." Mr. Wilson himself enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable +advantage of being the son of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. +Nay, "his ancestors, for several generations, dwelt near the Indian +agency at Cherry Valley, on Wilson's Patent, _though in Cooperstown +village was he born_." We perceive the author's fondness for the +inverted style in composition,--acquired, perhaps, in the course of his +long study of Aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without +his own assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we +think, to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common +among barbarous nations. + +But it is not merely through "his non-acquaintance with Indian +character" that Mr. Prescott was at fault. He was also, it appears, in a +hopeless state of ignorance in regard to the political institutions of +Spain. He knew nothing of the Spanish censorship, and its restrictions +upon the freedom of the press. "He showed his faith," writes Mr. Wilson, +"by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of his enterprise, +in the purchase of books and MSS. relating to 'America of the +Spaniards.'" This last phrase is marked as quoted, but we believe it to +be the author's own. "These were the materials out of which he framed +his _two_ histories of the _two_ aboriginal empires, Mexico and Peru. At +the time these works were written _he could not have had the remotest +idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish authorities had been +produced_, or of the external pressure that gave them their peculiar +form and character. _He could hardly understand_ that peculiar +organization of Spanish society through which one set of opinions might +be uniformly expressed in public, while the intellectual classes in +secret entertain entirely opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most +perfect good faith; and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities +have proved to be the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he +is not in fault." (p. 104.)--We, also, desire to deal in "perfect good +faith" with our readers, who will naturally inquire what new light has +been thrown on the "peculiar organization of Spanish society," and on +the conditions which limit the expression of opinions in Spain, since +Mr. Prescott made those subjects his especial study. We have looked +carefully through Mr. Wilson's book in the hope of being enabled to +answer this inquiry; but we have found nothing but partial and incorrect +statements of facts with which the public is already familiar,--nothing +that had escaped the notice of Prescott himself,--nothing that Mr. +Ticknor, in his "History of Spanish Literature," had omitted to state, +and that had not been fully discussed between these two distinguished +men during an intercourse that had originated not only in the warmest +personal friendship, but in the similarity of their studies and +pursuits. On this, as on every other topic of which he treats, Mr. +Wilson is reckless and arrogant in assertion; but on this, as on every +other topic, he makes no show of proofs. + +His compliment to Prescott's "good faith" seems, after all, to have +been premature. In other parts of his book we find remarks that seem in +conflict with this admission. He makes several severe strictures on Mr. +Prescott's omission to give due credit to General Cass for his valuable +contribution to Aztec history. "Mr. Prescott nowhere refers to the +subject, as we think he ought to have done." (p. 30.) "The ink was +hardly dry on the leaves of the North American Quarterly which contained +the exposure of these fictions, when another contributor to the same +periodical, Mr. Prescott, began his history, founded on authors already +_denounced as fabulous by so high an authority as the Hon. Lewis Cass_!" +Think of the unparalleled audacity of the author of the "History of +Ferdinand and Isabella" in actually exercising his own judgment with +regard to the credibility of the Spanish chroniclers, after so high an +authority had pronounced against them! However, we are not yet prepared +to abandon our own belief in Mr. Prescott's "good faith." We really +believe that he was guilty of no intentional disrespect towards the Hon. +Lewis Cass. It is possible that he may never have seen the article in +question. Contributors to periodicals are sometimes sadly neglectful of +the most brilliant performances of their _confreres_. We doubt whether +the "Autocrat" has ever read with proper attention any of our own +modest, but not, we hope, inelegant effusions. + +Mr. Wilson is not without a suspicion that the world may be slow to +surrender its confidence in the veracity and accuracy of a writer +whose works have already stood the test of many a severe and critical +examination. When this idea breaks upon his mind, he manages to lash +himself into a state of considerable excitement. He foresees the +difficulty of convincing "those who take an array of great names for +the foundation of their belief, and those who judge a work only by the +elegance with which its periods are strung together. And, besides these +two,"--meaning, we presume, not two men, but two classes of men,--"we +have to encounter also the opposition of _savans_--men who live and +judge the outside world through the medium of books alone. These hold as +of no account, all but Greece and Rome," [the proof-reader is requested +not to disturb Mr. Wilson's punctuation,] "and receive no idea of +antiquity that does not come through them. For any, then, too wise to +learn or too thoughtless to inquire, this chapter is not designed.... +Many there are," [how many, we wonder,] "who have dealt in Spanish +romances, supposing them to be history; and these are slow to abandon +their delusions. At enormous expense they have gathered volumes of +authorities; will they readily admit them to be cheats and counterfeits? +They grudge the time too they have spent in their perusal; and are loth, +as well they may be, to lose it. But individual loss and injury _is_" +[the proof-reader will please not to interfere with Mr. Wilson's +grammar] "perhaps inevitable in the search after truth. Men cannot +be held down to the theories of barbarism. These must give way to +knowledge, _or the intelligent, as in Roman Catholic countries, be +driven to infidelity."_ [The printer may venture to italicize the +closing prediction, as we wish to bring it under the particular notice +of school-committees and superintendents of education, who will see +the fearful responsibility they incur by placing copies of Prescott's +Histories, bound in sheep, in their school-libraries.] + +But we interrupt the flow of our author's bile by these irrelevant +remarks. Let him have a full hearing: "Before closing this chapter, the +status of our literature suggests an apology is necessary, for having +opened it in conformity with the, now neglected, rules of history--that +we should try and snatch something from the wreck of antiquity." [We +cheerfully offer a reward of one copy of the present number of the +"Atlantic" to any person who will parse the last sentence, explain the +punctuation of it, and interpret its meaning.] "In other countries, the +standard of history has been steadily rising for centuries; but with +us, it has been so lowered, as to sink every other qualification in the +single one of turning faultless periods; and a gentleman possessing +this, has been adjudged fully capable of purging the annals of Spain and +her quondam colonies, from the mass of modern fable and forgery which +now disfigure them. Incapable of submitting Cortez' statement to +the test, he assumes it to be true, even in those parts where it is +impossible. Unable to detect the counterfeit in Diaz--he pronounces him +the 'child of nature,' but does not on the testimony of this natural +child reject the still more monstrous falsifier, _Gomora_; but adopts +them both, according to the custom of novelists; and not the slightest +objection is raised. Then descending lower and still lower; disregarding +alike the warning of Lord Bacon 'a credulous man is a deceiver,' and +of Tacitus _fingunt simul creduntque_--he rakes up even a devotee, +Boturini, and makes him also an historic authority, without overtaxing +public credulity; though this wretch, as we have seen, out-Munchausens +Pietro himself, and as he may have surpassed every other man in Spain in +drawing the long bow, was justly selected for historiographer, at a time +when death was the penalty for possessing a book not licensed by the +Inquisition. Thus are discarded and disgusting impostures brought up +from the literary cesspools of Spain to form for us the history of +events that, transpired on this continent hardly more than three hundred +years ago!" (pp. 263, 264.) Instead of noticing the blunders and +absurdities with which this paragraph is filled, we shall simply call +attention to the remarkable good taste displayed in its allusions to +a person with whom the writer, as he boasts, had maintained "the most +kindly relations," from whom, as we have seen, he had received friendly +offers of aid, and to whom, but a short time before the occurrence of +that event which has so lately thrown the whole nation into mourning, he +had been indebted, by his own admission, for the warmest encouragement +in the prosecution of his inquiries. + +But, though Prescott is the principal object of Mr. Wilson's assaults, +he does not fall, for he has not stood, alone. With the single exception +of the Hon. Lewis Cass, every modern writer who has investigated the +history and former condition of Spanish America, either with the help of +books or of personal observation of the present state of that part +of our continent, shares the same fate. Robertson, Dupaix, Stephens, +Humboldt, are all objects of Mr. Wilson's vituperation or contempt. To +say that Alexander von Humboldt is probably the most learned man in +Europe, and that Robert A. Wilson is undoubtedly one of the most +ignorant men in America, would give but a slight notion of the +contrast between them. Humboldt is not merely a man of science and a +philosopher,--titles which the adopted Iroquois regards with natural +scorn,--he has been also a great traveller, and knows almost every +part of Spanish America from personal examination. Yet his claims to be +considered as an authority on questions which no other living man is +so competent to decide are disposed of by his shallow and conceited +opponent in a single brief paragraph, which ends with a statement that +"the only defect in his work is, that he started from false premises, +_and of course his conclusions amount to nothing_." + +Robertson, however, is the especial butt of Mr. Wilson's unwieldy +sarcasms. Robertson, he tells us, was the "principal of the University +High School of Edinburgh,"--an institution of which we do not +remember ever to have heard before. He is especially indignant that +"Robertson--_a Presbyterian minister!_" (the Italics and note of +admiration are Mr. Wilson's own) should have dared even to attempt to +write a history of America. As Roman Catholics are also forbidden to +venture on this ground, we should be glad to know the particular sect or +sects to whose use it is to be appropriated. A principal cause of our +author's spite against Dr. Robertson appears to have been a statement +made by the latter, that the Iroquois are cannibals. This allegation +evidently touches a sensitive point. It is indignantly denied by the +adopted member of the tribe. The Iroquois, he says, like other Indians, +never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. He turns the +tables (on which this ill-omened repast is spread) against the worthy +Doctor. He charges him (falsely, however) with having represented +Charles the Fifth as "a pattern of abstinence," when he was in fact one +of the greatest of royal _gourmands_. On this point he is willing for +once to accept even the authority of Mr. Prescott, who, he says, has +upset Robertson's reputation as an historian by means of "the _Samanca_ +papers." + +Mr. Wilson so often returns to these "Samanca" papers, and appears to +labor under so many delusions in regard to them, that, hopeless as the +attempt may seem, we cannot help trying to let a little daylight into +his mind. "Mr. Prescott," he writes, "having obtained copies of the most +important _Simanca_" [the reader must not be surprised at these little +variations of orthography] "papers of Ximenes' collection, supposes them +a new discovery, of great value. _Doubtless they are;_" [then there +could be no great harm in supposing it;] "his agents did not fail to +represent them to him in the most exalted terms, to enhance the value of +their services according to the Spanish custom." Now we can assure Mr. +Wilson that Mr. Prescott had not in his possession a copy of a single +document placed in the Archives of Simancas (for so an excusable +partiality for custom, and not any want of respect for our author, +obliges us to spell this name) by Cardinal Ximenes. He will also, we +trust, be glad to learn, that, for the documents relating to the Emperor +Charles the Fifth which Mr. Prescott did receive from Simancas, he paid +not a _real_ beyond the established charge of the official copyists,--a +charge which is the same in all cases, whatever may be the value of +the originals,--the task of examining the collection and selecting the +letters suitable for the purpose having been a labor of love on the part +of the distinguished scholar by whom it was undertaken. + +Mr. Wilson is animated by a fervent hatred against Cardinal Ximenes,--or +"Jimines," as he sometimes calls him. He terms him "a monster," and "a +wretch," and is especially indignant at his having "founded the Samanca +collection of papers." "Any one," he adds, "who will carefully examine +them will see that hardly a single paper has been put into this +collection that does not, in some way, reflect glory on the church, or +show the royal approval of the Inquisition." We cannot undertake to say +what discoveries might be made by a person who should carefully examine +the collection of papers at Simancas. A scholar on whom the antediluvian +length of life necessary for such a labor had been bestowed might also +be endowed with commensurate powers of intellect that might lead to the +most astonishing results. Our own knowledge of the collection is limited +to a very small portion of its contents,--a mere drop in the enormous +bucket. We have been under the impression that explorers who had spent +long periods of time in the examination,--Lembke or Gachard, for +example,--had sunk their shafts but a little way into that great mine. +At all events, we feel particularly certain that Mr. Wilson never in his +life saw a single manuscript, or a single copy of a manuscript, from the +Archives of Simancas. + +"The monk Strada," our author goes on to inform us, "must have consulted +them" [the "Samanca papers"] "in the composition of his history of the +Low Country Wars, though he does not call the papers by that name." +[We should hope not.] "The _Glanville_ papers are not alone his +authorities." With regard to the "Glanville papers," we cannot speak +positively, never having seen them, or even heard of them. If an +allusion is intended to the "State Papers of Cardinal _Granvelle_," we +admit that these were not Strada's _only_ authorities; in fact, they +were not his authorities at all; he never had the opportunity of +consulting them. "Robertson's convent life of Charles V.," Mr. Wilson +continues, "is almost literally taken from Strada." Now, if Strada +followed the "Samanca papers," and Robertson has followed Strada, how +is it that these same papers have been the groundwork for a complete +refutation of Robertson? Surely, when brought to light, they ought, +on the contrary, to have confirmed his statements. The truth is, that +Strada, who had access to no other manuscripts than those in possession +of the Farnese family, never saw the "Samanca papers"; and Robertson, +far from following Strada exclusively, relied much more on the authority +of Sandoval and other Spanish writers. + +But our readers will naturally inquire what these matters have to do +with the Aztec civilization and the Conquest of Mexico. So far as we +know, nothing at all. We have merely followed our Iroquois foe, and +kept perseveringly upon his track in the jungle to which he has taken. +Whatever course he may take, we are determined to follow him. He shall +not elude us. Through all the windings of his eccentric route, through +pathless forests, across rugged sierras, along the sides of nameless +streams, we shall pursue his trail. On the summit of the great +_teocalli_ of Mexico, dedicated to the fearful deity, _Huitzilopotchli_, +he shall be offered up as a sacrifice, according to the awful customs +in which he affects to disbelieve. We are compelled, indeed, by want of +space, to grant him a respite for a month. Our present notice must be +regarded only as a parboiling "preliminary." At the end of that time, +with all due form and ceremony, we promise that the solemn rite shall be +completed. + + +Bunsen's _Gott in der Geschichte_. (God in History.) Zweite Theil. +(Second Part.) Leipzig. 1858. + +There is, probably, no philosophical author at the present day in +Germany whose works are welcomed by so wide a circle of readers in +America as those of Chevalier Bunsen. Though often more theoretical than +exact in scholarship, and allowing his historical instincts to take the +place of scientific conclusions, he not unfrequently anticipates thus +the laborious efforts of scholars, while his peculiar _suggestiveness_ +of thought and his scope of view interest extremely the common student, +and lend a charm to his works such as no other writer in the same +field possesses. He has the art of making other men work for him, and, +perhaps, has thus been tempted to write too much for his own fame. + +The great service for which posterity will thank Chevalier Bunsen +is, that, in an age of bigotry and of skepticism, he has especially +represented the union of Philosophy and Christianity, and has shown that +the freest historical criticism and the most open recognition of the +moral principle through all faiths and races are harmonious with the +most devout belief in the divine manifestation of Christ. This book, +"God in History," is written from his most advanced and religious +stand-point, and seems to us the best fruit, thus far, of his studies. +It is compact, consistent, and not marred by his usual defect,--a +certain mysticism or indefiniteness of thought,--but is clear and +philosophical to the close. It is not to be looked upon as a complete +philosophical history, but rather as a suggestive and introductory +treatise on that grandest of all themes, the Progress of the Instinct of +God through Human History. His own definition of his subject is, that +it is a history of the "Consciousness of God in Mankind"; but, as he +unfolds his idea, it is evidently not always the consciousness, but the +unconscious instinct of God, whose progress he is describing. + +The first part of the present volume--the Third Book--is occupied with a +brief, but exceedingly instructive investigation of the development of +this instinct in the Aryans of Persia and of India; and in this inquiry +the two prominent historical figures are Zoroaster and Buddha, or, as +our author might have named them, the Moses and the Luther of the +early Aryan religions,--the one the Lawgiver and the Founder of a pure +monotheism in the place of a slavish belief in elementary powers, and +the other the great Reformer of a corrupted faith in behalf of an +oppressed people. + +The illustrations which Bunsen gives of these two wonderful expressions +of the instinct of God in the remote past, the religions of Zoroaster +and Buddha, are exceedingly fresh and original. They are contained +mostly in sacrificial and festal hymns and songs which have not hitherto +been much known, even to scholars. + +As an introduction to and historical preparation for these two great +forms of belief, he describes also the instinct of Deity as it had +developed itself among the Turanians, the Chinese, and the Egyptians. + +The period embraced in the Third Book is about 2500 years, from the +supposed epoch of Zoroaster (3000 B.C.) to that of Buddha (541 B.C.). + +The Fourth Book treats of the instinct of God among the Greeks and +Romans, "from the singer of the Iliad (900 B.C.) down to the Baruch of +the Roman world, the prophet of the downfall of the Aryan Ante-Christian +civilization,--Tacitus." This God-consciousness is found first in +the Grecian feeling of the Commonwealth,--the idea of a common good +surpassing a personal good; then in the conception of the Epic, which +assumes a political as well as a physical Kosmos, or order; then in the +grand moral ideas lying at the basis of the Mythology,--the myths, for +instance, of Prometheus, and the picture of Nemesis and the Fates. Next, +the deep sense of God speaks out in Grecian Tragedy and the great works +of Grecian Art; and in the highest degree, in the Philosophy which +culminated in Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. + +The Roman expression of these profound instincts is placed by Bunsen far +below the Grecian. It is manifested especially in their idea of Law, and +even in the doubts and despair of their leading thinkers in the time of +the Emperors. + +The closing portion of the volume terminates the history of the progress +of the idea of God before Christianity, among the Aryan races, by a +description of the religious instincts of the Teutonic tribes. In their +respect for woman and for marriage, in their political commonwealths, +in their worship of one God, and their belief in a moral Kosmos, Bunsen +beholds the expression of the Divine idea within them, preparing for the +more full development which is to come through the ideas and spirit +of Christianity. The book closes fitly with the grand prophecy of the +Voeluspa in the Scandinavian Edda. + +We regret that want of space should prevent us from giving extracts from +this most eloquent and philosophic work. Its glory is, that, breaking +through the formulae of creeds and the external signs of religious +faith, it has the courage to listen to the voice of God all along the +devious course of human history,--hearing that mysterious tone, not +alone in the chants of the Hebrews or the confessions of the Christians, +but in every smallest utterance of _truth_, every syllable of unselfish +patriotism, every groan of offended conscience, every myth springing +from the moral sense, every song, every speech which would exalt the +True, the Beautiful, and the Good over the selfish and false and base. +In Bunsen's philosophy, these, even more than all outward confession and +ceremonial, are the true expression of the workings of the Divine Spirit +in Human History. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Episodes of French History during the Consulate and the First Empire. By +Miss Pardoe. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 361. $1.00. + +La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay. Being a Narrative +of the Exploration of the Tributaries of the River La Plata and Adjacent +Countries during the Years 1853, '54, '55, '56, under the Orders of the +United States Government. By Thomas J. Page, U.S.N., Commander of the +Expedition. With Maps and Numerous Engravings. New York. Harper & +Brothers. 8vo. pp. 632. $3.00. + +Symbols of the Capital; or Civilization in New York. By A.D. Mayo. New +York. Thatcher & Hutchinson. 12mo. pp. 358. $1.00. + +Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men. By Francois Arago, Member +of the Institute. Translated by Admiral W.H. Smyth, D.C.L., F.R.S., +etc., the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S., and Robert Grant, M.A., +F.R.A.S. Second Series. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 486. $1.00. + +The Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold. By his Son, Blanchard Jerrold. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 450. $1.00. + +The Laird of Norlaw. 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