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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:40 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:40 -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/11727-0.txt b/11727-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fce1d55 --- /dev/null +++ b/11727-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8645 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11727 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MAY, 1859.--NO. XIX. + + + + + + + +THE GYMNASIUM. + + +Two distinct yet harmonious branches of study claimed the early +attention of the youth of ancient Greece. Education was comprised in +the two words, Music and Gymnastics. Plato includes it all under these +divisions:--"That having reference to the body is gymnastics, but to the +cultivation of the mind, music." + +Grammar was sometimes distinguished from the other branches classed +under the term, Music; and comprehended, besides a knowledge of +language, something of poetry, eloquence, and history. Music embraced +all the arts and sciences over which the Muses presided. + +Grammar, Music, and Gymnastics, then, comprised the whole _curriculum_ +of study which was prescribed to the Athenian boy. There were not +separate and distinct learned professions, or faculties, to so great +an extent as in modern times. The compass of knowledge was far less +defined, and the studies and attainments of the individual more +miscellaneous. Some of the arts rose to an unparalleled perfection. +Architecture and sculpture attained an excellence which no subsequent +civilization has reached. But the practical application of the sciences +to daily use was almost entirely neglected; and inventions and mechanics +languished until the far later uprising of the Saxon mind. + +Yet the whole system of education among the Greeks was peculiarly +calculated for the development of the powers of the mind and of the body +in common. And it is from this point of view that we wish to consider +it, and to show the nature and preeminence of gymnastics in their times +as compared with our own. + +Doubtless Grecian Art owed its superiority, in some degree, to the +gymnasium. Living models of manliness, grace, and beauty were daily +before the artist's eye. The _stadium_ furnished its fleet runners, +nimble as the wing-footed Mercury,--fit types for his light and airy +conceptions; while the arena of the athletes offered marvellous +opportunities for the study of muscle and posture, to show its results +in the burly limbs of Hercules or the starting sinews of Laocoön. Many +of the most lifelike groups of marble which remain to us from that time +are but copies of the living statues who wrestled or threw the quoit in +the public gymnasium. + +It is worthy of remark, in corroboration of this view, that the +department of the fine arts which depended on outline surpassed +that which derived its power from coloring and perspective. The +sculptors far excelled the painters. The statue was the natural result +of the imitative faculty surveying the nude human figure in every +posture of activity or repose. Pictures came later, from more educated +senses, and from minds which had first learned outward nature through +the medium of the simpler arts. + +The ancient gymnasium, apart from its baths and philosophic groves, +was far from being, as with us, a mere appendage of the school. Modern +instructors advertise, that, in addition to teachers of every tongue and +art, "a gymnasium is attached" to their educational institutions. In old +times, the gymnasium was the school,--the public games and festivals its +"annual exhibitions." + +The word _gymnasium_ has reference in its derivation to the nude or +semi-nude condition of those who exercised there. But in their proper +classical interpretation the public gymnasia were, to a great extent, +places set apart for physical education and training. Gymnastics, +indeed, in the broadest sense of the word, have been cultivated in all +ages. The spontaneous exercises and mimic contests of the boys of all +countries, the friendly emulation of robust youth in trials of speed and +strength, and the discipline and training of the military recruit have +in them much of the true gymnastic element. In Attica and Ionia they +were first adapted to their noblest ends. + +The hardy Spartans, who valued most the qualities of bravery, endurance, +and self-denial, used the gymnasia only as schools of training for the +more sanguinary contests of war. So, too, the martial Roman despised +those who practised gymnastics with any other object than as fitting +them to be better soldiers. Yet to so great a degree were these +exercises cultivated, even by the latter nation, that the Roman private +of the line did his fifteen or twenty miles' daily march under a weight +of camp-equipage and weapons which would have foundered some of the +best-drilled modern warriors, and concluded his day's labors by digging +the trenches of his camp at night. The ponderous _pilum_, and the heavy, +straight sword of the infantry were exchanged in the barrack-yard for +drill-weapons of twice their weight; and so perfectly were the detail +and regularity of actual service carried out in their daily discipline, +that, as an ancient writer has remarked, their sham-fights and reviews +differed only in bloodshed from real battles. The soldier of the early +Republic was hence taught gymnastics only as a means of increasing his +efficiency; the lax praetorian and the corrupt populace of the Empire +turned gladly from the gymnasium to the circus and the amphitheatre. + +In the same manner were these exercises regarded by the Dorians and the +people of some other of the Grecian States. The inhabitants of Attica +and of Ionia, on opposite shores of the Aegean, as more cultivated +races, viewed them in a more correct physiological light. But it was at +Athens that the gymnasium was held in highest repute. + +We read that Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, first established particular +regulations for its government. Attic legends, however, gratefully +refer the earliest rules of the gymnasium to Theseus, as to one of the +mightiest of the mythical heroes,--the emulator of Hercules, slayer of +the Minotaur, and conqueror of the Amazons. Hermes was the presiding +deity, which may appear strange to us, as he was as noted for an +unworthy cunning as for his dexterity. Generous emulation and +magnanimity were regarded as the noblest qualities called forth in +gymnastic exercises; and Mercury seems a fitter tutelar divinity of the +wary boxer and of the race-course than of the whole gymnasium. + +Probably no Greek town of any importance was destitute of one of +these schools of exercise. Athens boasted three public gymnasia,--the +Cynosarges, the Lyceum, and the Academy. These were the daily resort +of young and old alike, though certain penal laws forbade them from +exercising together at the same hour. + +The school-boy frequented them as part of his daily task; the young man +of leisure, as an agreeable lounging-place; the scholar, to listen +to the master in philosophy; the sedentary, for their customary +_constitutional_ on the foot-course; and the invalid and the aged, to +court the return of health, or to retain somewhat of the vigor of their +earlier years. The Athenians wisely held that there could be no health +of the mind, unless the body were cared for,--and viewed exercise also +as a powerful remedial agent in disease. Such a variety of useful +purposes were thus subserved by the gymnasia, that it will be proper +to look briefly at their internal arrangements. We shall follow the +description which has been left us by Vitruvius. + +The ancient gymnasium was generally situated in the suburbs, and was +often as large as a _stadium_ (six hundred and twenty-five feet) +square. Its principal entrance faced the east. A quadrangular inclosure +comprehended two principal courts, divided by a party-wall. The eastern +court was called the _peristylium,_ from the rows of columns which +surrounded it; the western also was bordered by porticos, but for it +we have no distinct name. The peristyle must have been from one to two +hundred feet square. It was sometimes termed the _palaestra_, though +this name was afterwards restricted to the training-school of the +athletes proper, who made gymnastics the business of their lives. It was +also styled the _sphaeristerium,_ or ball-ground, to which the nearest +approach in modern times is the tennis-court. The chief western +inclosure was planted with plane-trees in regular order, with walls +between them and seats of the so-called _signine_ work, and was about +one half larger than the peristyle. The space between the columns of the +latter and the outer walls allowed sufficient room for rows of chambers, +halls, and corridors, whose uses we will next designate. + +The first room on the right, as one entered the east gate, was the +_loutron_, or room for washing, distinct from the regular baths. Next, +in the northeast corner, was the _conisterium_, where sand was kept for +sprinkling the wrestlers after they had been anointed for the struggle. +West of this lay the _coryceum_, a hall for exercising with a sack of +sand suspended from the roof. It seems plausible to suppose that this +exercise corresponded with that more recently practised by Mr. Thomas +Hyer, previously to his fight with Yankee Sullivan. A bag of sand, equal +in weight to his adversary, was daily pommelled by the champion of +America until he could make it swing and recoil satisfactorily. + +Adjoining this room were two small apartments called the _ephebeum_ and +the _elaeothesium_ respectively. The former was devoted to preparatory +exercise, probably by way of warming up for severer efforts; the latter +was used for anointing, and was connected with the baths, which followed +next in order. These were the _frigidarium_, the _caldarium_, the +_sudatorium_, and the _tepidarium_, for the cold, the hot, the sweating +or vapor, and the warm baths. They did not possess the magnitude and +ornament of the Roman _thermae_. They were used in connection with and +after exercising, and were enough for all practical purposes. Bathing +was not then the business of hours every day, as it was later in the +Roman Empire, when the luxurious subjects of Caracalla indulged several +times in the twenty-four hours in such a variety of ablutions as would +have satisfied a Sandwich-Islander. + +We have now arrived at a point nearly opposite our entrance at the east, +and, continuing round the southwest, south, and southeast sides of the +peristyle, find a large number of consecutive chambers devoted mainly to +the philosophers, as lecture-rooms and auditories for their classes +and followers. On the north side of the peristyle is a double portico +containing the _exedrae_, or seats of the sophists, where each most +cunning rhetorician delivered his opinions _ex cathedrâ_, and lay in +wait for any passer whom he could insnare into an argument. The groves +of the great western court were probably used by the lounger, the +contemplative, and the studious, if we may judge by numerous seats and +benches, at convenient intervals. On the south side of these was again a +double portico; and on the north, outside the pillars, the _xystus_, +or covered porch, where the athletes exercised in winter and in bad +weather. The arena was twelve feet wide, and sunk a foot and a half +below a marginal path of ten feet, where spectators could walk. On the +north and south sides of the whole building were wings, of less width, +extending nearly its entire length. That on the north contained +the _stadium_, or foot-race course, which was, however, sometimes +disconnected from the gymnasium. The south wing was of like dimensions, +and adorned with plane-trees and walks, forming a more private retreat. + +It will be readily conceived that this vast area was not devoted +exclusively to physical exercises. Logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics +claimed their place in this common focus of the city's life, and were +the delight of the subtile Greeks. The Socratic reasoning and the +syllogisms of Aristotle met here on common ground. The Stoics, with +their stern fatalism, derived their name from the _stoae_, or porticos; +the Peripatetics imparted their ambulatory instructions under the +plane-trees of the Lyceum--and Plato reasoned in the Academy, which he +held with his school, and into which no ungeometrical mind was to enter. +And though some dog of a Cynic might despise the union of the ornamental +with the useful, and claim austerity as the rule of life, yet to the +great body of the social Greek people the gymnasium offered all those +attractions which _boulevards_, _cafés_, and _jardins-chantants_ do +now to the Gallic nation. There is more than one point of resemblance +between the two countries; but while the Athenian had the same mercurial +qualities, which fitted him for outdoor life, he had even a less +comfortable domestic establishment to retain him at home than the modern +Parisian. + +We must turn, however, rather to the physical view of the gymnasium. All +the sports of the gymnasia were either games, or special exercises for +the contests of the public festivals. And here a distinction must be +made between amateur and professional gymnasts. The former were +styled _agonistae_, and exercised in the public gymnasium; the latter +_athletae_, and were trained fighters, whose school was the _palaestra_. +At first frequenting the same, they afterwards became divided between +two institutions. Some of the harsher sports of the prize-fighters were +not thought genteel for well-nurtured youths to indulge in. Among the +simpler games were the ball, played in various ways, and the top, which +was as popular with juveniles then as now. The sport called _skaperda_ +can be seen in any gymnasium of to-day, and consisted in two boys +drawing each other up and down by the ends of a rope passing over a +pulley. Familiar still is also a game of dexterity played with five +stones thrown from the upper part of the hand and caught in the palm. +Various other gentle exercises might be mentioned. + +The training for the public games was comprised in the _pentathlon_, or +five exercises,--which were running, leaping, throwing the _discus_, +wrestling, boxing. The first four were practised also by amateurs, and +by most persons who frequented the gymnasium for health. + +The race, run upon the foot-race course, was between fixed boundaries, +about a _stadium_ apart. The distances run were from one to twenty +_stadia_, or from one-eighth of a mile to two and a half miles, and +sometimes more. This exercise was much followed. Horses were sometimes +introduced, but then the hippodrome was the course. They ran without +riders, as at the Roman carnival, or with chariots. Horse-racing was +most popular in the Roman circus, whose ruins still show its massiveness +and great size. + +Leaping was performed also within fixed limits,--generally with metallic +weights in the hands, but sometimes attached to the head or shoulders. + +The quoit, or _discus_, was made of stone or metal, of a circular form, +and thrown by means of a thong passing through the centre. It was three +inches thick and ten or twelve in diameter. He who threw farthest, won. +It is a modern game also, and is imitated in the Old-Country custom of +pitching the bar. + +Wrestling has been a favorite contest in all times. Milo of Crotona +was the prince of wrestlers. He who threw his adversary three times +conquered. The wrestlers were naked, anointed, and covered with sand, +that they might take firm hold. Striking was not allowed. Elegance was +studied in the attack, as well as force. There was a distinction between +upright and prostrate wrestling. In the former the one thrown was +allowed to get up; in the latter the struggle was continued on the +ground. The vanquished held up his finger when he acknowledged himself +beaten. + +Boxing was a severer sport, and not much followed except by gentlemen of +the "profession." It was practised with the clenched fists, either naked +or armed with the deadly _cestus_. The "science" of the game was to +parry the blows of the antagonist, as it is in the "noble and manly" art +of self-defence now. The exercise was violent and dangerous, and the +combatants often lost their lives, as they do at the present day. The +_cestus_, like our "brass-knuckle," was a thong of hide, loaded with +lead, and bound over the hand. At first used to add weight to the blow, +it was afterwards continued up the fore-arm, and formed also a weapon +of defence. Mr. Morrissey, or any other "shoulder-hitter," would hardly +need more than a few rounds to settle his opponent, if his sinewy arm +were garnished with the _cestus_. + +We read that the late contest for the "American belt," though short, was +unusually fierce, and afforded intense delight to the spectators,--in +proportion, probably, to its ferocity. By all means let the "profession" +take the _cestus_ from the hands of the highwayman and adopt it +themselves. It would be one step nearer the glorious days of the +gladiators, and would render their combats more bloody and more +exciting. Or, better still, let us revive the ancient mode of sparring +called the _klimax_, where both parties "faced the music" _without +warding_ blows at all. We scarcely think the ancients were up to +"countering," as it is understood now; but they fully appreciated the +facetious practice of falling backwards to avoid a blow, and letting the +adversary waste his strength on the air. The deceased Mr. Sullivan +would hardly recognize his favorite dodge under its classic name of +_hyptiasmos_, or be aware that it was in use by his very respectable +predecessor, Sostratus of Sicyon, who was noted for such tricks. + +The _pankration_, again, was a mode of battle which the modern +prize-ring is yet too magnanimous to adopt, and which excelled in +brutality the so-called "getting one's nob in chancery,"--the most +stirring episode of our pugilistic encounters. The Greek custom alluded +to was so named because it called all the powers of the fighter into +action. It was a union of boxing and wrestling. It began by trying to +get one's antagonist into the unfavorable position of facing the sun. +Then the sport commenced with either wrestling or sparring. As soon as +one party was thrown or knocked down, the other kept him so until he had +pommelled him into submission; and when he arose, at last, to receive +the plaudits of the assembly, it was often from the corpse of his +adversary. + +Beginning as the most promising pupils of the gymnasium, and becoming +victors in the public games, certain gymnasts gradually grew into +a distinct class of prize-runners, wrestlers, and fighters, called +Athletes. They then devoted their lives to attaining excellence in these +exercises, and withdrew to the _palaestra_, or training-school. Those who +quitted the profession became instructors in the public gymnasium. To +attain great bodily strength, they submitted to many rigid rules. By +frequent anointing, rubbing, and bathing, they rendered their bodies +very supple. The trainer, or teacher in the _palaestra_, was termed +_xystarch_. He was himself the Nestor of the "ring." The food of the +athlete was mainly beef and pork. The latter, we believe, is excluded +from the diet-list of the modern prize-fighter. Of their particular +rules of living and "getting into condition" we know but little. Before +being allowed to contend, they were subjected to a strict examination by +the judges. In so high estimation were the victors held, that they were +rewarded with a public proclamation of their names, the laudations +of the poet, statues, banquets, and other privileges. The immediate +material gain was not the winning of the stakes, but a simple crown or +garland of laurel, olive, pine, or parsley, according to the festival at +which they fought. Pindar has embalmed the names of many victors in his +Olympic, Pythian, and other odes. + +But let us leave the athletes for something more inviting. The +_lampadephoria_, or torch-race, must have been a singular spectacle. +There were five celebrations of this game at Athens, of which the most +noted was at the Panathenaea, where horsemen often contended. The text +describing it has been a puzzle to commentators;--the most rational +and accepted interpretation seems to be, that it was a contest between +opposite parties, and not between individuals. Lighted lamps, protected +by a shield, were passed from runner to runner along the lines of +players, to a certain goal. They who succeeded in carrying their lights +from boundary to boundary unextinguished were declared the victors. This +game will at once recall the _moccoletti_, which close the carnival at +Rome. + +Dancing to the sound of the _cithara_, flute, and pipe, was a favorite +amusement with all classes. The grizzly veterans and the younger +soldiers all joined in martial dances. The dance and the game of ball +were often connected. The Romaïc dance, peculiar to the modern Greeks, +is an inheritance from their ancestors. Dancing by youths and maidens +formed part of the entertainment of guests. Tumblers threw somersets +and leaped amid sharp knives, somewhat after the manner of the Chinese +jugglers. Music was also usually associated with either poetry or +dancing. + +Incitements to the various gymnastic exercises which have been mentioned +could be found only in public emulation, for which abundant opportunity +was offered in the national games or festivals. These were a part of +the religious customs of the Greeks, and were originally established +in honor of the gods. It was their effect to bring into nearer contact +people from the several parts of Greece, and to stimulate and publicly +reward talent, as well as bodily vigor. They afforded orators, poets, +and historians the best opportunities of rehearsing their productions. +Herodotus is said to have read his History, and Isocrates to have +recited his Panegyric at the Olympic games. The four sacred games were +the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean; and to these should be added +the Panathenaea, or festival of Minerva. The five exercises before +mentioned, together with music, in its classic sense, formed the +programme. In the lesser Panathenaea occurred, first, the torch-race; +next, the gymnastic exercises; thirdly, a musical contention, instituted +by Pericles; and lastly, a competition of the poets in four plays. +Numerous other observances, of a religious nature, were varied with the +different festivals. It may be doubted whether subsequent times have +seen any gatherings of equal magnitude for similar objects. + +So rigid was the discipline of the ancient gymnasium, and so important +was it considered that confidence should be undoubting there, that +thefts, exceeding ten _drachmae_ in amount, committed within its +precincts, were punished with death. + +The _Gymnasiarch_, or presiding magistrate, clothed in a purple cloak, +with white shoes, possessed almost unlimited authority. He had the +superintendence of the building, and could remove the teachers and +under-officers at his pleasure. The exercises practised were ordained +by law, subject to regulations and animated by the commendation of +the masters. Instructions were given by the _gymnastae_ and the +_paedotribae_, two classes of officers. The former gave practical +lessons, and were expected to know the physiological effect of the +different exercises, and to adapt them to the constitution and needs of +the youth. The latter possessed a knowledge of all the games, and taught +them in all their variety. Nor were the morals of the young less cared +for by the _sophronistae_, a set of officials appointed for that +purpose. + +The plan and scope of Grecian education were more adapted to the common +purposes of the community, and less to the individual aim of the pupil. +Beside the public teachings of philosophers and sophists, common schools +were established at Athens by Solon. Government provided for their +management, and strict discipline was enforced. Here the boy was +instructed in music and grammar. Until the age of sixteen, he pursued +these two branches in connection with gymnastics. Some authorities +assert, that, even at this period of his life, as much time was devoted +to the latter as to the other two together. At sixteen, he left the +school, and, until he was eighteen years of age, frequented the +gymnasium alone; probably devoting most of his time to physical +training, though enjoying opportunities of listening to the masters +in philosophy. The period of adolescence past, and his growing frame +expanded and well knit by exercise, he either continued to follow +athletic sports, or began a military or other career. If a young man +of leisure, he probably needed all the virtue imparted by his moral +teachers to restrain him from dice, quail-fights, and fine horses, and +all his physical vigor to resist the dissipations of Athens or Corinth, +and the potations of the _symposia_. + +So far the male rising generation was well cared for. What became of the +girls? + +In accordance with the freer manners, but not less virtuous habits of +Lacedemon, maidens were there admitted as spectators and sharers of the +gymnastic sports. Though clad only in the Spartan _chiton_, they took +vigorous part in dancing and probably wrestling. The Athenian maid could +not air even her modest garments in public with the consent of popular +opinion. The girls were educated and the women stayed at home. The +_gynaekeion_, or female apartment, was nearly as secluded as the +_seraglio_. The females were under direct, though not slavish submission +to the men. Modesty forbade their appearance in the gymnasium. Domestic +occupations, the rearing of children, spinning, light work, and +household cares filled up their time. We are told that an Athenian +mother once ventured in male attire to mingle among the spectators of +the Olympic games. Her cry of joy at the triumph of her son betrayed +her. Because she was the mother of many victors, she was spared from +infamy; and her services to the state, in rearing men, alone saved her +from the consequences of an act which maternal solicitude could not have +excused. + +Too much license in the intermingling of the sexes formed part of the +arguments of many distinguished Romans against the gymnasium. Habits of +idle lounging and waste of time, together with even graver vices, were +imputed to its influence. Some said it favored _polysarkia_, or obesity, +and unfitted for military or other active life. The Romans were too +utilitarian to see its higher aims. Though there was some justice, it +must be confessed, in these accusations, yet they applied with more +force to the _palaestra_ than to the gymnasium,--to the trained +fighters, who devoted their lives to exercise, than to the mass of the +Greeks, who cultivated it for nobler purposes. + +The ancients valued gymnastics highly as curative agents in disease. +Some of the gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, god of physicians. The +officers of these establishments passed for doctors, and were so called, +on account of the skill which long experience had given them. The +directors regulated the diet of the youth, the _gymnastae_ prescribed +for their diseases, and the inferiors dressed wounds and fractures. Not +only was the general idea entertained that bodily exercise is good for +the health, but different kinds of exertion were selected as adapted to +particular maladies. Upright wrestling was thought most beneficial to +the upper portion of the body, and the cure of dropsy was believed to be +peculiarly promoted by gymnastic sports. Hippocrates had some faith in +the "motor cure." In some cases he advises common wrestling; in others, +wrestling with the hands only. The practice with the _corycus_, or +hanging-bag of sand, and a regular motion of the upper limbs, resembling +the manual exercise of the soldier, were also esteemed by him. Galen +inveighs against the more violent exercises, but recommends moderate +ones as part of the physician's art. Asclepiades, in the time of Pompey +the Great, called exercises the common aids of physic, and got great +glory--and money, it is to be hoped--by various mechanical contrivances +for the sick. + +The ancients probably esteemed gymnastics too much, as the moderns do +too little, for medical or sanative purposes. The Greeks, with a very +limited knowledge of physiology and pathology, would be more apt to +treat symptoms than to trace the causes of disease; and no doubt they +sometimes prescribed exercises which were injudicious or positively +injurious. We still trust too much, perhaps, to medication, and do not +keep in view the great helps which Nature spreads around us. Truth lies +between the two extremes; and we are beginning to recognize the fact, +which experience daily teaches us, that light, air, and motion are more +potent than drugs,--and that iron will not redden the cheeks, nor bark +restring the nerves, so safely and so surely as moderate daily exercise +out of doors. + +In the flourishing days of Attica, the gymnasium was in its perfection. +It degenerated with the license of later times. It was absorbed and sunk +in the fashions and vices of imperial Rome. Though Nero built a +public gymnasium, and Roman gentlemen attached private ones to their +country-seats, it gradually fell into disuse, or existed only for +ignoble purposes. The gladiator succeeded naturally to the athlete, the +circus to the stadium, and the sanguinary scenes of the amphitheatre +brutalized the pure tastes of earlier years. Then came the barbarians, +and the rough, graceless strength of Goths and Vandals supplanted the +supple vigor of the gymnast. The rude, migratory life of the Dark Ages +needed not the gymnasium as a means of physical culture, and was too +changeable and evanescent to establish permanent institutions. Chivalry +afforded some exception. The profession of knighthood and the calling +of the men-at-arms gave ample scope to warlike exercises, reduced to +something like a science in armor, horses, and modes of combat. The +tournament recalled somewhat the generous emulation of the gymnasium; +but bodily exercise for physiological ends was lost sight of in the +midst of advancing civilization, until its culture was resumed in +Sweden, in the latter half of the last century. + +The reviver of gymnastics was PETER HENRY LING. Born of humble +parentage, and contending in his earlier years with the extremest +poverty, he completed a theological education, became a tutor, +volunteered in the Danish navy, travelled in France and England, and +began his career of gymnast as a fencing-master in Stockholm. He died +a professor, a knight, and a member of the Swedish Academy, and was +posthumously honored as a benefactor of his country. + +While fencing, he was struck with the wholesome effects which may +be produced on the body by a rational system of movements, and this +suggested the idea which he developed by practice and precept through +his entire life. It was, that "an harmonious organic development of the +body and of its powers and capabilities by exercises ought to constitute +an essential part in the general education of a people." Ling thought +not of merely imitating the gymnastics of the ancients, but he aimed at +their reformation and improvement. Wishing to put gymnastics in harmony +with Nature, he studied anatomy, physiology, and the natural sciences. +Of their value in directing rational exercise he says: "Anatomy, that +sacred genesis, which shows us the masterpiece of the Creator, and which +teaches us how little and how great man is, ought to form the constant +study of the gymnast. But we ought not to consider the organs of the +body as the lifeless forms of a mechanical mass, but as the living, +active instruments of the soul." And even this is not sufficient; "for +the gymnast, the ultimate aim of whose art is the _beau idéal_ of +humanity, must know what effects applied movements produce upon the +corporeal and psychical condition of man; a knowledge which can be +obtained only from the most careful and untiring examination." + +It has been asserted, that, in pursuance of this plan, Ling invented a +separate movement or exercise for every muscle in the body. This is not +strictly true, for it is practically impossible. Few muscles act alone, +and such as do are developed symmetrically, and are antagonized by those +of the opposite side. Most movements are performed by groups of muscles. +The cripple, swinging on his crutches, develops the broad sheet of +muscular fibres which enfolds the back and loins, and approaches in +form the simian tribe, the business of whose life is climbing. The +sledge-hammer brings out the _biceps_ of the blacksmith, and striking +out from the shoulder the _triceps_ of the pugilist. The calves of the +ballet-dancer are noted for the abrupt line which marks the transition +from muscle to tendon; and other instances might be cited. As a general +rule, however, numerous muscles act in concert. Trades stamp their +impress on special groups; and the power of co-ordination, which is +supposed to derive its impulse from the cerebellum, varies in different +persons, and marks them as clumsy or dexterous, sure-footed or the +reverse. Ling aimed only at the regulation of associated, or the equal +development of antagonistic groups. For, as the Supreme Medical Board of +Russia say in their report on his system, made to the Emperor in 1850, +"empirical gymnastics develop the muscular strength sometimes to a +wonderful degree, and teach the execution of movements combined with +an extraordinary effort of the muscles; by these means, instead of +fortifying the whole body equally and generally, they often contribute +to the development of the most dangerous diseases, since they do not +teach the evil which the injudicious use of movements may produce." It +was the harmonious and equable increase of all the voluntary and some of +the involuntary muscles which the Swedish system sought to attain. + +The authority just quoted, in continuation, says:--"Notwithstanding +bodily exercises under the name of _Turnen_ were generally known and +practised in Germany at the beginning of the present century, and many +of its enlightened professional writers tried to give to them a proper +direction by combining them with anatomy and physiology, Ling must be +considered as the founder of the rational system of movements." We have +all seen deformed gymnasts, with square shoulders and lank loins, or +with some particular group of muscles projecting in ugly prominences +from the violated outlines of nature. All this the followers of Ling +claim that he avoided or overcame. His gymnastics were introduced years +ago, not only into all the military academies of Sweden, but into all +town-schools, colleges, and universities, and even orphan-asylums and +country-schools. Three objects are asserted to be obtained by his +disciples: development of muscular fibre, increased arterialization, +and improved innervation. Increase of function promotes the growth and +capability of organic structures, and causes an augmented afflux of +arterial blood and nervous influence to the part. + +The ambitious reformer of the gymnasium did not pause here; but, +pursuing a still bolder course, undertook "to make gymnastics not only a +branch of education for healthy persons, but to demonstrate them to be +a remedy for disease." The new science was called _Kinesipathy_, or the +"motor-cure." The curative movements were first practised in 1813, +while Ling remained at Stockholm. A motor-hospital was established in +connection with the gymnasium; and to accommodate the invalid and the +feeble, new exercises, called "passive movements," were devised. These +were executed by an external agent upon the patient,--that agent being +usually the hand of the physician. The sick man, too weak for violent, +voluntary effort, was stretched and champooed, the muscles of his trunk +and limbs alternately flexed and extended by another person, until he +gradually acquired strength to use active movements. As he gained power, +he increased the voluntary resistance which he made to the operator, and +thus, at the same time, the amount of his own muscular exertion. It is +claimed that volition is thus called forth to neglected parts, and their +innervation and vascularity increased; and that so at length the normal +fulness of life and function is restored. This system confines itself +mostly to chronic diseases. In the paralysis of the young, in defective +volition from hysteria, in impaired local nutrition, in local +deformities dependent on muscular contraction, and in lateral curvature +of the spine, it unquestionably often produces the best results. Its +advocates claim for it much more. On its further benefits we are unable +to decide. Like all things else, it is susceptible of abuse. + +Russia and Prussia have adopted, to a limited extent, the Ling system +of corporeal training and the "motor-cure." In London there exists an +institution of this kind, and more recently one has been established +by the Doctors Taylor in New York. In a still less degree the Swedish +gymnastics are used in some educational institutions here. + +Ling died in 1839, in his seventy-third year. Even on his death-bed he +spoke till the last hour, and gave instructions in his favorite science. +His life is a remarkable instance of purity, energy, and devotion to a +single end. + +Meanwhile, what have modern nations done to atone for the neglect of the +ancient gymnasium? Germany, to some extent, has supplied its place with +the _Turnverein_. _Turnkunst_, or the gymnastic art, is cultivated by +a limited number of youth. As we see the public exhibitions of the +_Turners_ in this country, they are as noted for their libations to +Bacchus, and their sacrifices to the god of tobacco,--a deity still +wanting in the Pantheon,--as for their culture and superiority in +athletic sports. Still they exert a wide, and, for the most part, a good +influence. Other continental nations of Europe furnish a large portion +of their young men with the gymnastic element in the shape of military +discipline and drill. As affording the best examples of martial +training, Prussia and France are to be signalized,--the former for the +universality, the latter for the kind of its instructions. + +All young Prussians are liable to a call to actual service in the army +for three years. After this, if they do not continue members of the +regular standing army, they remain until a certain age in that portion +of the active force which is mustered and drilled every year. Past the +age referred to, they fall into the corps of reserve, a sort of National +Guard of veterans, summoned to the field only in emergencies. Young men +who have the means to purchase an immunity can obtain one for only two +years. One year they must serve, parade, drill, march, and mount guard, +though they are not required to live in the barracks. Occasional cases +of hardship or injustice occur. We know of a poor, but promising +pianist whose studies were cut short and his fingers stiffened by the +three-years' service. Leaving out of view exceptional facts, the system +works well. All the youth of the country acquire health, strength, an +upright carriage, and habits of punctuality and cleanliness. The clumsy +rustic is soon licked into shape, and leaves his barrack, to return to +the fields, a soldier and a more self-reliant man. Prussia, too, secures +the services of an army, in time of need, commensurate in numbers with +the adult male population. + +The French conscript, if he draws the unlucky number, can buy a +substitute. All are not enrolled as recruits; and all those so enrolled +are not obliged to serve. The only sons of widows, and some other +persons, are always exempt. Once in "the line," however, the young man +is engaged for five or seven years, and receives a training in matters +gymnastic and military which turns out the best soldiers in Europe. + +Little would one imagine, as he passes the groups of dainty and +scrupulously neat French officers upon the _boulevards_, looking the +laziest persons in the world, that these seeming carpet-knights are out +upon the _Champ de Mars_ at three o'clock in the morning, and +often drill until nine or ten in the forenoon,--or that the little +_toulourou_, as he is nicknamed, or private of the _ligne_, in his +brick-colored trowsers and clean gaiters, whose voice is the gayest and +whose legs are the nimblest in the barrier-ball, has done a day's work +of parade and gymnastics which equals the toil of an _ouvrier_. Running, +swimming, climbing, and fencing with the bayonet, are often but the +preludes of long marches on duty, or equally long walks to reach the +parade-ground, or to fetch the daily rations of the "mess." Then, too, +during several months of summer, camp-life is led on a grand scale. Vast +encampments, which for size, regularity, and order vie with the old +Roman _castra_, are formed at convenient spots. And here all the details +of actual service are imitated; cavalry and infantry are disciplined in +equally arduous labors; nor does the artillery escape the fatigue of +mock-sieges, sham-fights, and reviews. + +The _Chasseurs de Vincennes_, or rifle-corps, are the pride of the army. +Their training is still more severe. They are all athletic men, taught +to march almost upon the run, and to go through evolutions with the +rapidity of bush-fighters. There are few more stirring sights than a +French regiment upon the march. Advancing in loose order, and with a +long, swinging gait, their guns at an angle of forty-five degrees, +lightly carried upon the shoulder, they impart an idea of alertness and +efficiency which no other soldiers present to the same degree. + +Gymnasia are somewhat patronized by the civilians. The art of fencing is +a national accomplishment, and few gentlemen complete their education +without the instructions of the _maître d'escrime_. The _savate_ is a +rude exercise in vogue among rowdies, and consists in kicking with +the peasant's wooden shoe. The French are a tough, but not a large or +powerful race. The same amount of training dispensed among as large a +proportion of the youth of this country would show much greater results. + +The British soldier has long been considered by his own nation as a +model of manliness. He owes his long limbs and round chest to his +ancestors and his mode of life before enlisting. While on the +home-service, he does not yet exercise enough to harden him or to ward +off disease. Recent returns show a higher comparative rate of mortality +in the British army from consumption than among other Englishmen. His +close barracks, unvarying diet, and listless life explain it all. His +countrymen and countrywomen, however, who have the time and means, +largely cultivate athletic sports. The English lady is noted for her +long walks in the open air, and for the preservation of her youthful +bloom,--the English gentleman for his red face, broad shoulders, and +happy digestion. + +How do we compare with them in vigor and attention to gymnastics and +health-giving exercises? Better than we did ten years ago, but still not +very favorably. + +The Western Border-States are noted for the production of a large and +hardy race. New Hampshire and Vermont contribute a good share of the +tall and well-developed men who yearly recruit the population of +our Eastern cities. Let a generation pass, however, and we find the +offspring of such sires with equally capacious frames, but far less +muscular power. The skeleton is laid of a man mighty in strength, but +the filling-in is wanting. Broad-jointed bones swing listlessly in their +sockets, the head projects, and the shoulders bend, under the influence +of a sedentary life. The laboring and mechanical classes bring certain +groups of muscles to perfection in development and dexterity, but +present few instances of an harmonious organization. Commercial and +professional men do not accomplish even a limited muscular development. +For the other sex, Nature seems to have provided a certain immunity from +the necessity of active exercise for the rounding and completion of +their bodies. The lack of fresh air, however, soon tells with them a +fatal story of fading complexions and departing bloom. That ethereal +beauty which peculiarly marks the American woman is also the earliest to +decay. As they are the prettiest, so are they the soonest _passées_ of +any Northern nation. Could they but realize that exercise in the open +air is Nature's great and only cosmetic, the reproach of early old age +would cease. Nothing will give that peach-bloom to the cheek and that +peculiar sweetness to the eye which a long walk through the fields, of a +clear October day, bestows unbought. + +One evil breeds another. The brain fed only with thin blood gives rise +to morbid thoughts. Activity, sharpness, and quickness of perception +are but poor compensations for the want of the milder and more generous +attributes of the mind. Dyspepsia spawns a moody literature. Broad, +manly views and hopeful thoughts of life exist less here, we think, than +in England. The cities are supplied year by year with people from the +country; yet the latter, the source of all this supply, does not produce +so healthy mothers as the city; and were it not for the increasing study +of physiology and its vital truths, we fear that we should awaken too +late to a knowledge of our physical degeneration. + +Now what means are in use among us to furnish the needed stimulant of +exercise? It is paradoxical to say that the average of people take more +exercise in the city than in the country; yet we believe it to be true. +That exercise is only of one form, to be sure, namely, walking. The +common calls of business, and the mere daily locomotion from point to +point of an extended city, necessitate a large amount of this simplest +exercise. Other sources of health, as sunlight and the vivifying +influence of trees and grass upon the air, exist more in the real +country. Yet as many girls attain a vigorous development in town as out +of it; for in our smaller New England villages indoor cares and labors +confine the females excessively and prevent their using much exercise in +the open air. + +Our militia system, including the exercises of volunteer companies, +supplies but to a very limited extent the want of real gymnastics. The +common militia meet too infrequently and drill too little to gain much +sanative benefit. The old-fashioned "training-day" was always a day of +drunkenness and subsequent sickness. The "going into camp" now adopted +is even worse; for here youths taken from the sheltered counting-room +and furnace-heated house are exposed to the inclemencies of the weather +not long enough to harden them, but long enough to lay the foundation of +disease. Volunteer companies parade and are reviewed oftener, and +drill more constantly; but the good effects of the manual exercise are +rendered nugatory by its being conducted in confined armories and a bad +atmosphere. + +The frequency of conflagrations and the emulation of rival volunteer +corps render the fire-companies an active school of exercise. But the +benefits of this are neutralized by the violence and irregularity of +their exertions. Quitting the workshop half-clad, and running long +distances, the fireman arrives panting at the fire, to breathe in, with +lungs congested by the unusual effort, the rarefied and smoky atmosphere +of the burning buildings. We should naturally suppose this a fertile +source of pulmonary complaints. Besides, were it the most healthy of +exercises, it is followed only by the mechanic and the laborer, who use +their muscles enough without it. + +The "prize-ring" and the professed athlete still exist among us. +Unfortunately, their habits brutalize the mind. A limited knowledge +of sparring, and a full vocabulary of the slang of the pugilist, are +fashionable among many youths. Few young men, however, can cultivate the +one, or frequent the society of the other, without the risk of becoming +rowdies or bullies, if nothing worse. + +The revival of the Old-Country games of cricket and base-ball affords +some of the best examples of a growing desire for athletic sports. +They have many things to recommend them, and, as we conceive, no +objectionable features. + +The suicidal war waged against trees and birds alike by the early +settlers has left but little inducement to follow in this country the +field-sports so fashionable in England. Riding on horseback, however, is +now more popular than it has been since our carriage-roads were first +laid out. This exercise is peculiarly beneficial to the feeble in body. +Accelerated inspiration of pure air and a gentle succussion of all the +internal organs are blended with that consciousness of power and that +self-dependence which the good horseman always feels in the saddle. +Hardly less do we value the intimate acquaintance into which it brings +us with the noble animal who bears us, establishing a sympathy which no +amount of driving can awaken to its full extent. + +Our rivers, lakes, and bays spread around us a vast and inviting field +for the cultivation of summer or winter sports. Boating and sailing are +adapted, from their gentleness of motion, even to the most delicate +organizations. Rowing is equally suited to the young and strong. +Boat-clubs are quite popular in our colleges, and we hope they will ere +long become so in our academies and minor schools. Few exercises bring +more muscles into play than the steady stroke of the oar. Few are more +exhilarating and pleasant to those who have tried them. Give us the +strong pull through an open bay before all boating on placid lakes or +rivers. The long, well-timed stroke becomes a mere mechanical effort, +leaving the mind at liberty to enjoy the sense of freedom, the tonic +salt-breeze, and the enlivening scenes of the sea. + +When the boats are beached, and the wharf-logs grow, with successive +layers congealed from every tide, into huge spindles of ice, the same +element offers its glassy surface to the skater. That skating has +actually become fashionable among the gentler sex we regard as the +strongest indication of an awakening national taste for exercise. But +there is need of caution. Most persons skate with too heavy clothes. +The quick movements of the limbs in the changing evolutions of this +pastime--though the practised skater is unconscious of much muscular +effort--quicken the circulation enough to increase palpably the +animal heat and produce a very sensible perspiration. In this exposed +condition, the quiet walk home is taken without additional covering, and +is the origin of many colds. + +Returning to "first principles," we find one useful exercise more or +less within reach of all, without preparation or expense. We mean +walking. The flexors and extensors of the legs, the broad muscles of the +back and abdomen, and the slender and intricate bundles of fibres which +support and steady the spine, are all gently exercised in locomotion. +The respiration and circulation are moderately increased, and the blood +aërated with fresh air. And all this can be had by simply stepping out +of doors and setting in motion the muscular machinery, which moves so +automatically that we soon become unconscious of its exertions. This, +like all other exercise, should be taken at seasonable hours. We enter +our protest against long walks before breakfast. To any but the robust +they are positively injurious. The early riser and walker, unless long +habituated and naturally vigorous, returns from his exercise draggled, +faint, and exhausted, to begin the digestive labors of the day, and take +his food with hunger rather than appetite. Abstinence has blunted the +nicer perceptions of taste, and the jaded organs lose the power not +only of discriminating flavors, but of knowing when to cry, "Enough!" +"Brushing away the morning dew," like "love in a cottage," is very +pretty in a book, but needs a solid basis in the stomach or in the +larder. + +Running is a very healthy and an equally neglected exercise. Few +vocations call upon us to fully expand the chest once a month. Running +improves the wind, it is said. We give the name of long-winded to those +who have a reserve of breathing capacity which they do not use in +ordinary exertions, but which lies ready to carry them through +extraordinary efforts without distress or exhaustion. Such persons +breathe quietly and deeply. Running forms part of the training of the +prize-fighter. It should be begun and ended at a moderate pace, as +a knowing jockey drives a fast horse; otherwise, panting, and even +dangerous congestion, may arise from the too sudden afflux of blood to +the lungs. + +Nothing so pleasantly combines mental occupation with bodily labor as +a pursuit of some one of the natural sciences, particularly zoölogy +or botany. If our means allow a microscope to be added to our natural +resources, the field of exercise and pleasure is boundlessly enlarged. +To the labor of collecting specimens is joined the exhilaration of +discovery; and he who has once opened the outer gate of the sanctuary of +Nature finds in the study of her _arcana_ a pastime which will be a joy +forever. + +Our larger towns and cities still support gymnasia of greater or +less size and perfectness. But the modern gymnasium has two great +deficiencies: the lack of open air, and of the emulation arising from +publicity. The first is a very grave objection. Not a tithe of the +benefits of exercise can be obtained within-doors. The sallow mechanic +and the ruddy farmer are the two points of comparison. The one may work +as hard and be as strong as the other, and yet we cannot call him as +healthy. Nothing short of Nature's own sweet air will supply the highest +physical needs of the human frame. As our gymnasia are usually private, +and only moderately frequented, the gymnast is not stimulated to those +exertions which society and competition would arouse. _Ennui_ often mars +his enjoyment. We have seen men methodically pursuing, day after day, +the same exercises, with all the listless drudgery of a hack-horse. +Geniality and generous emulation are among the great benefits of the +true gymnasium. + +"But how shall I find time to follow out even one of these exercises?" +objects the victim of American social life. It is true, he cannot. We +live so fast that we have no time to live. Nevertheless, gymnastics +have one advantage adapted to our hurried habits. They afford the most +exercise in the shortest time. In no other way, so easily accessible, +can as much powerful motion be used in so brief a space. + +The tired clerk or merchant comes home late, with feverish brain and +weary legs. His chest and arms have had no exercise proportional to the +rest of his system. What shall he do to restore the balance? If he can, +let him erect in some upper room, away from furnace-heat, instead of a +billiard-table, a private shrine to Apollo or Mercury. He will need but +little apparatus. A set of weights and pulleys, a pair of parallel bars, +two suspended rings, and a leaping-pole are all the necessary permanent +fixtures. Other articles, as the dumb-bells, the Indian club, +boxing-gloves, foils, or single-sticks, take up no room, and can be +added as his growing taste for their use demands. We would single out +the parallel bars and the weights as the most generally useful. The +former develop particularly the chest, stretch the pectoral muscles, and +lengthen the collar-bones. The latter increase the volume and power +of the extensors of the shoulder, arm, and forearm, and are to be +sedulously practised, because we have fewer common and daily movements +of these muscles than of their antagonists, the flexors, and they are +consequently weaker in most persons. The windows should be widely +opened, and the room warmed by the sun alone. + +Though, after the first few trials, the whole body will ache, and the +astonished muscles tremble with soreness, a week's perseverance will +overcome these earlier drawbacks. The gymnast will be surprised at the +new feeling of vigor in the back and shoulders, and to find the upright, +military posture as natural as it was before difficult to maintain. +Temper and digestion undergo a parallel improvement, and it will require +much to make him forego the luxury of exercise which he at first thought +so painful. + +Many persons become discouraged by beginning too violently. Alarmed at +the fatigue and suffering at first induced, they shrink from further +efforts. Gymnastics are, to be sure, an injudicious mode of exercise +for some. Children get a good many sprains, and sometimes permanent +deformity, from their use. The growing period requires care to avoid +injuring the articulations; yet it is the most favorable time to spread +the shoulders and deepen the chest. The young grow most in height and +can best gain an harmonious development by frequenting the GYMNASIUM. + + * * * * * + + +WHY DID THE GOVERNESS FAINT? + + +We were all sitting together in the evening, and my sister Fanny had +been reading aloud from the newspaper. For my father's benefit, she had +read all the political articles, and all about business, till he had +said he had heard enough, and there was nothing in the papers, and then +had left the room. So Fanny looked over the marriages and deaths, and +read about the weather in New York and Chicago, and some other things +that she thought would interest us while we were sewing. Suddenly I +looked up, towards where Miss Agnes was sitting, far away at the other +end of the room. She was leaning back in her chair, and, all in a +moment, I thought she looked white, as though she had fainted. I did not +say a word, but got up and went quietly towards her. I found she had +fainted quite away, and her lips were pale, and her eyes shut. I opened +the window by her; for the night was cool, and all the windows were +closed. There came in a little breeze of fresh air, and then I ran to +fetch a glass of water. When I returned, I found Miss Agnes reviving a +little. The air and the water served to refresh her, and very gradually +she came back to herself. As she opened her eyes, she looked at me +wonderingly, then round the room,--then a shudder came over her, as if +with a sudden painful memory. + +"I'm better,--thank you for the water," she said; and then she rose up +and went to the window, and leaned against the casement. I had a glimpse +of her face; so sad a face I had never seen before. + +For Miss Agnes was not often sad, though she was quiet in her ways and +manners. She could be gay, when it was the time to be gay. She was our +governess,--that is, she taught Mary and Sophy and me. Fanny was too old +to be taught by her, and had an Italian master and a French teacher; +but she practised duets for the piano with Miss Agnes, and read with +her,--and she made visits with her, for Miss Agnes was a favorite +everywhere. She had a kind word for everybody, and listened kindly +to all that was said to her. She talked to everybody at the sewing +societies, had something to say to every one, and when she came home she +had always something to tell that was entertaining. I often wished I +could be one-quarter as amusing, but I never could succeed in making my +little experiences at all agreeable in the way Miss Agnes did. I have +tried it often since, but I always fail. Only the other day, I quite +prided myself that I had found out all about Mrs. Endicott's going to +Europe, and came home delighted with my piece of news. She was going +with her husband; two of the children she was to leave behind, and take +the baby with her; they were to be gone six months; and I even knew +the vessel they were going in, and the day they were to sail. My +intelligence was very quickly told;--Miss Agnes and many others would +have made a great deal more of it. I had no sooner come to the end than +Fanny said, "Who is going to take care of the children she leaves at +home?" I had never thought to ask! I was disappointed;--my news was +quite imperfect; I might as well not have tried to bring any news. But +it was never so with Miss Agnes. I believe it was because she was really +interested in what concerned others, that they always told her willingly +about themselves; and though she never was inquisitive about others' +affairs, yet she knew very well all that was going on. + +So she was a most valuable member of our home-circle, and was welcome +also among our friends. And we thought her beautiful, too. She was very +tall and slender, and her light-brown eyes were of the color of her +light-brown hair. We liked to see her come into the room,--her smile and +face made sunshine there; and she was more to us than a governess,--she +was our dear friend. + +But now she looked round at me, pale and sad. She suddenly saw that I +looked astonished at her, and she said, "I am not well, Jeanie, but we +will not say anything about it. I am going to my room; to-morrow I shall +be better." She held her hand to her head, and I thought there must be +some heavy pain there, she still looked so sad and pale. She bade us all +good night and went away. + +I did not tell the others what had happened,--partly because, as I have +said, I was not in the way of telling things, and partly because they +were all talking and had not observed what had been going on. But I +found the paper Fanny had been reading, and wondered if there were +anything in what she had read that could have moved Miss Agnes so much. +I had not been paying much attention to the reading, but I knew upon +which side of the paper to look. Fanny told me it was time for me to go +to bed, however, and I left my search before I could find anything that +seemed to concern Miss Agnes. I stopped at her door, and bade her good +night again; and she came out to me, and kissed me, and said,--I was a +good child, and I must not trouble myself about her. + +The next day she seemed quiet, yet the same as ever. Though I said +nothing to anybody else about her fainting, I could not help telling my +friend Jessie of it;--for I always told Jessie everything. Fanny called +us the two Jays, we chattered so when we were together. I knew she would +not tell anybody, so I could not help sharing my wonder with her,--what +could have made Miss Agnes faint so suddenly? She thought it must have +been something in the newspaper,--perhaps the death of some friend, or +the marriage of some other. I was willing to look again, and this time +remembered three things that Fanny had just been reading when I had +looked up at Miss Agnes. One was about Mr. Paul Shattuck;--in descending +from a haycart, he had fallen upon a pitchfork, and had seriously +wounded his thigh. Another was the marriage of Mr. Abraham Black to +Miss Susan Whitcomb, and Fanny had wondered if she were related to the +Whitcombs of Hadley. Then she had read a singular advertisement for a +lost ring, a seal ring, with some Arabic letters engraved upon it. I +was of opinion that Miss Agnes was somehow connected with this +signet-ring,--that it had some influence over her fate. Jessie thought +that Miss Agnes must have been formerly engaged to Mr. Abraham Black, +and that when she heard of his marriage----but I interrupted her in +this suggestion. In the first place, she could never have been engaged +to a Mr. Abraham Black; and then, nobody who could marry Miss Agnes +would think of taking up with a Susan Whitcomb. So Jessie fell back upon +Paul Shattuck, and, to tell the truth, we had some warm discussions on +the subject. + +Time passed on, and it was June. One lovely afternoon, we had quite a +frolic with the hay, the grass having been cut on the lawn in front of +the house. Miss Agnes had been with us. We had made nests in the hay, +and had buried each other in deep mounds of it, and had all played till +we were quite tired. I went into the house in search of Miss Agnes, +after she had gone in, and found her sitting at one of the side windows. +I came near, then wished to draw back again, for I saw there were tears +in her eyes. But when I found she had seen me, I tried to speak as if I +had seen nothing. + +"How high the cat has to step, to walk over the grass!" I said, as I +looked out of the window. + +Miss Agnes put her arms about me. "You wonder, because you see me +crying," she said, and looked into my face. + +"I never before saw anybody cry that was grown up," said I. + +Miss Agnes smiled and said, "They tell children it is naughty to cry; +but sometimes you can't help crying, can you?" And her tears came +dropping down. + +"Oh, Miss Agnes," I said, "I wish I could help your crying! It is too +bad!--it is too bad!" + +"Yes, it is very bad," she said, as she held me in her arms, "it is very +bad; but you do help me. You shall be my little friend." + +That was all. She did not tell me anything;--yet I felt as if she had +said a great deal, and I did not speak of this to Jessie. + +A few days after, as I was passing the door of the parlor, I fancied I +heard a little cry, and it sounded to me as if I had heard the voice +of Miss Agnes. I hurried in. A stranger had just entered the room. But +before me stood Miss Agnes, pale, erect, her lips quivering. She held +fast a chair, which she had drawn up in front of her, as one would +place a shield between one's self and some wild animal. How slender and +defenceless she looked! I followed the terrified glance of her eyes. +There, in the middle of the room, stood a stranger,--not so terrible to +look upon, for he was young, and it seemed to me I had never seen so +handsome a man. His black hair and eyes quite pictured the hero of my +romance. He was strongly built, and directly showed his strength by +seizing a large marble table that stood near the centre of the room, and +wheeling it between himself and Miss Agnes. + +"If you are afraid of me," he said, "I will build up a barrier between +us. Poor lamb, you would like to be free from the clutches of the wolf!" + +"I am afraid of you," said Miss Agnes, slowly,--and the color came into +her cheeks. "You know your power over me. I begged you, if you loved me, +not to come to me." + +"And all for that foolish ring! And the spirits of mischief betrayed its +loss to you; it was none of my work that published it in the papers. Can +you let a fancy, an old story in a ring, disturb your faith in me?" + +"If the faith is disturbed," answered Miss Agnes, "what use in asking +what has disturbed it? Ernest, as you stand there, you cannot say you +love me as you once professed to love me!" + +"I can say that you are my guiding star,--that, if you fail me, I fall +away into ruin." + +"Can my little light keep you from ruin?" said Miss Agnes, shuddering. +"Do not talk to me so! Alas, you know how weak I am!" + +"I know that you are an angel, and that I am too low a wretch to dare +to speak to you. I came here to tell you I was worthy of your deepest +hatred. But, Agnes, when you speak to me of my power over you, it tempts +me to wield it a little longer, before I fall below your contempt." + +He walked up and down the room, and presently saw me standing there. + +"A listener!" he exclaimed; "you are afraid to be alone with me!" + +I was about to leave the room, but he called me back. + +"Stay, child!" he said; "if I can speak in _her_ presence, it makes +little difference that any one else should hear me. Agnes, little Agnes, +you would not like to be quite alone;--let the child stay. Yet you know +already that I am faithless to you. You know what I am going to tell +you. I love you, passionately, as I have always loved you. But there are +other passions hold me tighter. Money, and position,--I need them,--I +cannot live without them. The first I have lost already, and the claims +I have to reputation will follow soon. I am mad. I am flinging away +happiness for the sake of its mask. Next week I marry riches,--a +fortune. With the golden lady, I go to Europe. I forsake home,--my +better self. I leave you, Agnes;--and you may thank God that I do leave +you; I am not worthy of you." + +She lifted herself from the chair on which she was leaning, and walked +towards him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and, white and pale, +looked in his face. + +"Do not go, Ernest!" she said. "You are mine. A promise cannot be +broken;--you are promised to me.--Stay,--do not go away!" + +"My beautiful Agnes!" he said, "do you come to lay your pure self down +in the scale against my follies and all my passions? You stand before +me too fair, too lovely for me. It is only in your presence that I can +appear noble enough for you. Even here, by your side, I see the life I +must lead with you, the struggle that you must share. In that life you +would only see me fail. I am weak; I can never be strong. Let me go +down the current. Your heart will not break;--I am not worth such a +sacrifice." + +"You are desperate," said she. "You say these cold, bitter words, and +you must know that each word cuts me. Oh, Ernest, you are false, indeed, +if you come to taunt me with your faithlessness!" + +"I needed to see you once more," he said, imperiously,--"I needed it. +But you were right, Agnes,--the ring was a true talisman. It seemed to +me that its letters had changed color. I carried it to an old Eastern +scholar. He declared that the letters could never have formed the word +'Faith,'--that the word was some black word that meant death. I left it +with him, that he might study it. When I saw him again, he declared he +had lost it, and had advertised it. You see you can trust your talisman +sooner than you can trust me." + +At this moment the outer door opened, and presently Fanny came in, +with one of her friends. Miss Agnes looked bewildered, but her visitor +recovered his composure directly. + +"Miss Fanny, I believe;--I have met you before. I have just been bidding +good-bye to Miss Agnes, before leaving for Europe. Can I be of service +to you?" + +Before we had time to think, he had said something to each one of us, +and had left the house. Fanny turned to speak to Miss Agnes, but she had +fallen to the ground before we could reach her. + +She was ill, very ill, for a long time. She had the brain fever,--so the +doctor said. They let me stay with her,--she liked to have me with her. +I was glad to sit in the darkened room all the long day. I never was a +"handy" child, but I learned to be useful to her. I waited on all her +wants. I held her hand when she reached it out as if to meet some kindly +touch. + +In the quiet of her room, I had not heard the great piece of news,--of +the terrible railroad accident: that Mr. Carr, the Ernest who had been +to see Miss Agnes, was among those who were suddenly killed,--the very +day he left our house! I had not heard it; so I was not able to warn +Fanny, when she came into the sick room of Miss Agnes, the first day she +was able to talk,--I could not warn Fanny that she must not speak of it. +But she did. How could she be so thoughtless? Miss Agnes, it is true, +looked almost well, as she was lying on her couch, a soft color in her +cheeks. But then Fanny need not have told her anything so painful. Miss +Agnes looked quite wild, and turned to me as if to know whether it were +true. I could not say anything to her, but knelt by her,--and she seemed +almost calm, as she asked to know all that was known, all the terrible +particulars that Fanny knew so well. + +She was worse after that. We thought she would die, one night. But she +did not die. Either she was too weak or too strong to die of a broken +heart. Perhaps she was not strong enough to love so earnestly such a one +as Mr. Carr, or else she had such strength as could bear the trial that +was given her to bear. She lived, but life seemed very feeble in her for +a long time. + +One day she began to talk with me. + +"You would like to know, Jeanie, the story of that ring," she said. + +I told her I was afraid to have her talk about it, but she went on:-- + +"It is an old heirloom, and all our family history is full of stories of +this ring. There are so many tales connected with it, that every one of +us has looked upon it with a sort of superstition, and cherished it as +a talisman connected with our lives. It was always a test of constancy, +and the stories of those occasions when it has detected falsehood have +always been remembered. I suppose there are many when it has been +quietly worn, undisturbed, that have been forgotten. It has told many a +sad tale in my own family. It came back, broken, to my brother Arthur, +and he died of a broken heart. My sister Eveline gave it to her young +cousin, to whom she engaged herself. But afterwards, when she went to +live with a gay and heartless aunt of mine, she broke her promise to him +for the sake of a richer match. The day that she was married, our cousin +far away saw the black letters turn red upon the signet-ring." + +"Oh, Miss Agnes!" I exclaimed. + +"And why should not letters change?" she asked, abruptly; and I saw her +eyes look out dreamily, as if at something I did not see. "The letter +clothes the spirit; and the spirit gives life to the form. A face grows +lovely or unlovely with the spirit that lies behind it. I cannot say if +there be a spirit in such things. Yet what we have worn we give a value +to. It has an expression in our eyes. Do we give it all that expression, +or has it some life of its own?" + +She interrupted herself, and went on:-- + +"I had known that Ernest was not true to me. I had known it by the words +he wrote to me. They did not have the ring of pure silver; there was a +clang to them. When Fanny read aloud the loss of that ring, it spoke to +a suspicion that was lying in the depth of my heart, and roused it into +life. My little Jeanie, I was very sad then. + +"You do not know how deeply I loved Ernest Carr. You do not know how I +might have loved your brother George,--yes, the noble, upright George. +He loved me, and treated me most tenderly; he found this home for me. +I did not banish him from it,--he would have stayed all these years in +Calcutta, if it had not been for me,--so he said. You cannot understand +how it was that Ernest Carr, whom I had known before, should have +impressed me more. You do not know, yet, that we cannot command our +love,--that it does not always follow where our admiration leads. I +loved Ernest for his very faults. The fascinations that made the world, +its prizes, its money, its fame, so attractive to him, won me as I saw +them in him. It is terrible to think of my last meeting with him; but +his fate seems to me not so awful as the fate towards which he was +hurrying,--the life which could never have satisfied him." + +She left off speaking, and dreamed on, her eyes and thoughts far away. +And I, too, dreamed. I fancied my brother George coming home, and that +he would meet with that ring somehow. I knew it must come back to her. +And it did; and he came with it. + + + + +TWO YEARS AFTER. + + + Oh, I forgot that, long ago! + It was very fine at the time, no doubt,-- + Remembering is so hard, you know;-- + Well, you will one day find it out. + I love the life of the happy flowers, + But I hate the brown and crumbling leaves; + You cannot with spices embalm the hours, + Nor gather the sunshine into sheaves. + + We are older now, and wiser, too. + Only two summers ago, you say, + Two autumns, two winters, two springs, since you---- + Will you hold for a moment my bouquet? + Yes,--take that sprig of mignonette; + It will wither with you as it would with me: + Freshness and sweetness a half-hour yet, + Then a toss of the hand, and one is free. + + Why will you talk of such silly things?-- + What a pretty bride! Do you like her hair? + See Madam there, with her twenty rings. + Ogling the youth with the foreign air!-- + The moon was bright and the winds were low, + The lilies bent listening to what we said? + I did not make your lilies grow; + Will they bloom for me now they are dead? + + You hate the rooms and the heartless hum, + The thick perfumes and the studied smile? + 'Tis the air I love to breathe,--yet come, + I will watch the stars with you awhile; + But you won't talk nonsense, you promise me? + Tear from the book the page we read; + We are friends,--dear friends. You must come and see + My new home, and soon.--What was it you said? + + Heartsick, and weary, and sad, and strange,-- + Ashes and dust where swept the fire? + I am sorry for you, but I cannot change.-- + Did you see that star fall from the Lyre? + A moment's gleam, and a deeper night + Closing around its wandering way: + But then there are other orbs as bright; + Let your incense burn to them, I pray. + + Oh, conjure your mighty manhood up! + Let it blaze its best in your flashing eyes! + Can it stare my womanhood down, or hope + To scorch my pride till it droops and dies?-- + There, do not be angry;--take my hand; + Forgive me;--I meant not anything: + I am foolish, and cannot understand + Why you throw life out for one dumb string. + + Sweeter its music than all the rest? + It may be so, though I cannot tell; + But take the good when you lose the best, + And school yourself till it seems as well. + Love may pass by, but here is fame, + And wealth, and power;--when these are gone, + God is left,--and the altar-flame + May, brightening ever, burn on and on. + + And yet to my heart at times there come + Tidings of lands I shall never see, + Sweet odors, and wooing winds, and hum + Of bees in the fields that are far from me,-- + Far fields, and skies that are always fair; + And I dream the old dreams of heaven, and you.-- + But here comes the youth of the foreign air. + I will dance and forget,--and you must, too. + + + + +A BUNDLE OF OLD LETTERS. + + +To struggle painfully for years, spending all of life's energies for +others, and then to be forgotten by those for whom all was hazarded and +consumed, is a lot demanding the most unselfish aims. Yet this befell +many a suffering patriot in our Revolutionary struggle. The names of +those who were the leaders in battle and in council, men whose +position in the field or whose words in Congress gave them a country's +immortality, have remained bright in our memory. But others there were +who cheerfully surrendered eminence in their private walks and happiness +in social life to endure the hardships of a protracted contest till life +was spent, and who, from the very nature of the services they rendered, +have remained in obscurity. They would not themselves repine at this; +for they gave their strength, not for their country's applause, but +their country's good. They sought, not our remembrance, but our freedom. + +In many an old garret, or treasured up in some old man's safest nook, +are worn-out, faded letters, telling of struggles and hopes in that long +contest, that would make their writers' names bright on the nation's +record, were not the number of those who rendered that our golden age +so countless. Pious is the task of tracing the services of some revered +ancestor, who gave whatever he had to give, when his country called, but +whose name is not now remembered. Those days are fast becoming to our +younger race almost mythical, so that every living word from the actors +in them is of use in vivifying scenes that else would seem dim fable. + +From a somewhat bulky bundle of yellow, tattered letters, long cherished +with fond and filial care, a few are selected to interest the readers of +the "Atlantic," who, it is supposed, will first be glad to know a little +about their writer. + +Dr. Isaac Foster was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 28th of +August, 1740. His father, in early life a sea-captain, making frequent +voyages between Boston and Europe, was for many years a prominent +citizen of Charlestown, participating largely in the measures that +preceded and led to the Revolution. At the age of eighteen, Dr. Foster +graduated at Harvard, in the class of 1758. He then studied medicine +under Dr. Lloyd of Boston, and afterwards completed his studies in +England. He married, as his first wife, Martha, daughter of Thaddeus +Mason of Cambridge, and at her death, some years later, Mary, daughter +of Richard Russell of Charlestown. In his profession he achieved a +considerable reputation, acquired a large practice, and numbered among +his pupils Doctors Bartlett, Welch, and Eustis. + +But while he was working his way to position and influence, more +exciting themes began to attract his attention. With the earliest signs +of coming conflict he took a determined stand on the Colonial side. In +the town-meetings of the day he seems to have been prominent, and his +name appears on most of the important committees appointed by the town +in reference to public affairs. Thus, when, as early as November, 1772, +the Committee of Correspondence in Boston called upon the other towns +"to stand firm as one man," his name is found upon a committee appointed +to answer this letter and prepare instructions to the representative of +the town in the General Court.[A] + +[Footnote A: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 286.] + +He was also one of a committee appointed to consult with the committees +of other towns concerning the expected importation of a quantity of +tea. This was November 24th. On the 22d of December of the same year, a +petition numerously signed was presented to the selectmen, asking that a +meeting might be called to take some effectual measures to prevent the +consumption of tea. Among the signatures is Dr. Foster's.[B] + +[Footnote B: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 293.] + +He was elected a delegate to the Convention in the County of Middlesex, +in August, 1774, and a member of the first Provincial Congress of +Massachusetts, in October of the same year. Early in 1775, he was +appointed a surgeon, and was, for some months, at the head of the +military medical department, while General Ward commanded at Cambridge. +The day after the battle of Concord, at the urgent request of General +Ward and Dr. Warren, he gave up his private practice, then very large, +to attend the wounded. On the 18th of June, he was appointed by the +Committee of Safety to attend the men wounded on the previous day at +the battle of Bunker's Hill. He was soon after appointed Surgeon of +the State Hospital, and by General Washington, on the discovery of the +treachery of Dr. Church, in October, Director-General, _pro tem._, of +the American Hospital Department. Congress soon nominated to this post +Dr. John Morgan of Philadelphia, Dr. Foster remaining as the oldest +surgeon in the hospital. + +It seemed necessary, before selecting some of Dr. Foster's letters, to +give this account of his earlier life, to show that he was no soldier of +fortune or eleventh-hour laborer, but that his sympathies were enlisted +and his aid given among the earliest of the friends of a then doubtful +cause,--and that he ventured influence, wealth, and professional fame, +and abandoned home and ease, at what seemed to him the call of his +country. + +The first extracts shall be from a letter to his wife, dated + +"_New York, Sunday, P.M., + +"June 2, 1776_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I received your kind letter of the 27th last, and thank you for your +ready acceptance of my invitation to come to me. Indeed, my dear, you +could not have given a stronger proof of your affection for me. Heaven +only knows what dangers and difficulties you may be exposed to in this +undertaking; but it shall be my constant endeavor to keep you out of the +way of danger, and procure the best accommodation for you this country +affords. If mother will add to her former kindness by taking the charge +of our children, it will greatly ease my mind; and as our enemies have, +by their wanton barbarity, from being inhabitants of Charlestown, made +us citizens of the United Colonies at large, I believe you will be as +safe and happy with or near me as anywhere.... + +"The night before last, the city was much alarmed. A signal had been +made from one of the islands of the arrival of a ship to join the small +fleet at the Hook. Some one raised this to a large number of transports +with the expected German forces; some of the Tories here had the +impudence to affirm they had seen eleven sail. When I came from the +hospital to my lodging, in the evening, I found the neighborhood in +confusion, the women talking of and preparing for flight. I thought it +my duty to wait on General Putnam, who at present commands here; in my +way, I met Major Webb, who acquainted me with the truth of the matter. +Upon this occasion, I could not help thinking I should go to my post +with much more alacrity, if I might have the pleasure of seeing you +again first.... + +"Your affectionate husband, + +"ISAAC FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +The next is a short extract from a letter to his father, bearing date +June 6th, 1776. Speaking of his wife, he says:-- + +"I wish she may have a pleasant journey, and arrive here in season to +see the city before our enemies attack us. We are in daily expectation +of them, and tolerably prepared to receive them. I am under no +apprehension of their being able to get footing here; but if they behave +with spirit, the city must suffer in the contest." + +The next is also to his father. + +"_New York, July 7th, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is with the greatest pleasure I embrace this opportunity of +congratulating you on the most important event that has happened +since the commencement of hostilities. On Tuesday, the 2nd inst., the +Honorable the Continental Congress declared the Thirteen United Colonies +free and independent States. This Declaration is to be published at +Philadelphia to-morrow, with all the pomp and solemnity proper on such +an occasion; and before the week is out, we hope to have the pleasure of +proclaiming it to the British fleet, now riding at anchor in full +view between this city and Staten Island, by a _feu de joie_ from our +musketry, and a general discharge of the cannon on our works. This step, +whatever some lukewarm would-be-thought friends or concealed enemies +may think, the cruel oppression, the wanton, insatiable revenge of the +British Administration, the venality of its Parliament and Electors, and +the unaccountable inattention of the people of Great Britain in general +to their true interest and the importance of the contest with their +late Colonies, had rendered absolutely necessary for our own +preservation,--and has given great spirits to the army, as, by shutting +the door against any reconciliation in the least degree connected with +dependence on Great Britain, they know for what they are fighting, and +are freed from the apprehension of being duped by Commissioners, after +having risked their lives in the service of their country, and to secure +the enjoyment of liberty to their posterity." + + * * * * * + +The next letters of public import are addressed to his father, and +relate mainly to the expected attack upon New York. + +"_New York, July 22nd, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I received your kind favor of the 15th inst. I am glad to hear our +friends are all well. I congratulate you on the spirited behavior and +glorious success of our army under General Lee. It is generally thought +to have been a decisive action, at least for this summer, as the two +fifty-gun ships are never like to get to sea again. I hope by the next +post you will hear some of our exploits, if the enemy have courage +enough to attack us. It is my week at the hospital; and if anything +happens, I hope to give you the particulars. Polly has got much better; +she joins me in duty to mother and love to the children. There has been +another flag from the fleet; the Adjutant-General of the British troops +has been on shore to wait on his Excellency. He endeavored, but in vain, +to persuade him to accept the letter which had been twice refused. In +conversation he related its contents, much the same as those to the late +Governor. He was answered, (as I am told from good authority,) that it +could not be expected people who were sensible of having committed +no offence should ask pardon,--that, as the American States owed no +allegiance, so they were not accountable, to any earthly prince. He +tarried about half an hour, and seemed pleased with the politeness of +his reception." + + +"_July 23d, P.M._ + +"I write to congratulate you on advice received this day from Virginia, +an agreeable supplement to the paper I sent yesterday. On the 9th +instant, Lord Dunmore with his slavish mercenaries and stolen negroes +were driven from their post on Gwin Island in Virginia, and the +piratical fleet from their station near it, with the loss of one ship, +two tenders or armed vessels burnt by themselves, three armed vessels +taken by our people, and Lord Dunmore wounded; on our side not a man +lost. I would be more particular, but, as I had only time to read the +Philadelphia paper of yesterday which contains the account, and Mr. Mayo +is just setting out, it is not in my power." + + +"_New York, Aug. 12, 1776_ + +"Polly is still here with me, and we are both very well, but +disappointed in not hearing oftener from our friends at Boston. For news +in general I must refer to the inclosed paper. I was in company the +evening they came to this city with the two gentlemen who came from +England in the packet. They say the British force on Staten Island +is from twelve to fifteen thousand, of which about one thousand are +Hessians; that Lord and General Howe speak very respectfully of our +worthy commander-in-chief, at their tables and in conversation giving +him the title of General; that many of the officers affect to hold our +army in contempt, calling it no more than a mob; that they envy us our +markets, and depend much on having their winter-quarters in this city, +out of which they are confident of driving us, and pretend only to dread +our destroying of it; that the officers' baggage was embarked, a number +of flat-bottom boats prepared, and every disposition made for an attack, +which we may hourly expect. On our side, we have not been wanting; our +army has for several nights lain on their arms, occasioned by several +ships of war and upwards of thirty transports going out at the Narrows +and anchoring at that part of Long Island best calculated for their +making a descent, and where they received, by means of flat-bottom +boats, a large detachment from the army on Staten Island. But this fleet +went to sea yesterday, where bound we know not; some think, to go round +the east end of Long Island, come down the Sound, and land on our backs, +in order to cut off any retreat, and oblige us to surrender ourselves +and the city into their hands: but if they are so infatuated as to +venture themselves into a broken, woody country, between us and the +New England governments, I trust they will have cause to repent their +rashness. Generals Heath, Spencer, Greene, and Sullivan are promoted by +the Honorable Congress to the rank of Major-Generals; and the +Colonels Reed, Nixon, Parsons, Clinton, Sinclair, and McDougall to be +Brigadier-Generals. We have removed all our superfluous clothing, and +whatever is not necessary for present use, to Rye, whither General +Putnam's lady has retired. Miss Putnam is yet in town, and the chaise is +in readiness for her and Polly to remove at a minute's warning." + + * * * * * + +The following copy of an "Order from Head-Quarters" was found among the +papers, directed apparently to his father; and as Washington's Orderly +Books have never been published, with the exception of a few orders +chiefly relating to court-martials, it has been thought that it would +be interesting. Though dated on successive days, it seems to have been +issued as one order. A note by Dr. Foster, at the close, says,--"This +copy was made in a hurry by one of the mates. Some sentences are +omitted. Imperfect as it is, I thought it would be agreeable. The +principal omission is the order for having three days' provisions +ready-dressed, and that all who do not appear at their posts upon the +signal are to be deemed cowards, and prosecuted as such." + + +_Head-Quarters, August_ 14, 1776. + +"The enemy's whole reinforcement is now arrived, so that an attack must +and soon will be made. The General, therefore, again repeats his +earnest request, that every officer and soldier will have his arms and +ammunition in good order, keep within their quarters and encampment as +much as possible, to be ready for action at a moment's call,--and when +called upon, to remember that liberty, property, and honor are all at +stake, that upon their courage and conduct rest the hopes of their +bleeding and insulted country, that their wives, children, and parents +expect safety from them only, and that we have every reason to expect +that Heaven will crown us with success in so just a cause. + +"The enemy will endeavor to intimidate us by show and appearance; but +remember how they have been repulsed on these occasions by a few brave +Americans. Their cause is bad, their men are conscious of it, and, +if opposed with firmness and coolness at their first onset, with our +advantages of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most +assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, +wait for orders, and reserve his fire till he is sure of its doing +execution;--the officers to be particularly careful of this. The +colonels and commanding officers of regiments are to see their +supernumerary officers so posted as to keep their men to their duty; and +it may not be amiss for the troops to know, that, if any infamous rascal +shall attempt to skulk, hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without +the orders of his commanding officers, he will instantly be shot down +as an example of cowardice. On the other hand, the General solemnly +promises that he will reward those who shall distinguish themselves by +brave and noble actions; and he desires every officer to be attentive to +this particular, that such men may be afterwards suitably noticed." + + +"_Head-Quarters, August 15, 1776_. + +"The General also flatters himself that every man's mind and arms are +now prepared for the glorious contest upon which so much depends. + +"The time is too precious, nor does the General think it necessary, to +spend it in exhorting his brave countrymen and fellow-soldiers to behave +like men fighting for everything that can be dear to free-men. We must +resolve to conquer or die. With this resolution, victory and success +certainly will attend us. There will then be a glorious issue to this +campaign, and the General will reward his brave soldiers with every +indulgence in his power." + + +"_New York, August 16, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is now past ten o'clock, and Mr. Adams, who favors me by carrying +this, sets out by five o'clock to-morrow morning, so that I have only +time to acknowledge the favors received by Dr. Welch. If I survive the +grand attack hourly expected, or if it is delayed until then, I will +write again by next post. Polly has her things packed up; the chaise can +be ready at a minute's warning; if the wind favors our enemies, it is +probable she will breakfast out of the way of danger. To-morrow is +watched for by our army in general with eager expectation of confirming +the independence of the American States. All the Ministerial force from +every part of America except Canada, with the mercenaries from Europe, +being collected for this attempt, God only knows the event. To His +protection I commend myself, earnestly praying that in this glorious +contest I may not disgrace the place of my nativity, nor, after it is +over, be ashamed to see my wife, my children, and my parents again. To +the care of Providence, and, under that, to you, honored Sir, with our +other friends, I commend all that is near and dear to me, and am, with +duty to mother, love to the children, &c., &c., + +"YOUR DUTIFUL SON." + +"P.S. Our troops are in good spirits, and, relying on the justice of +their cause and favor of Heaven, assured of victory." + + * * * * * + +The next four months were, of course, spent amid the hardships of camps +and removals. The frequent letters sent to his father and other friends +are all of interest to those who claim descent from him, but the general +reader can be concerned in but a few of more public import, and, in most +cases, only in extracts from these. + +"_Bethlehem, State of Penn., + +"Dec. 24, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I returned from General Washington's head-quarters last evening, and +had the pleasure of finding Polly well and as agreeably situated as I +could expect. Were I to attempt writing all I wish to communicate, a +week's time and a quire of paper would hardly suffice. I fancy I shall +be no gainer by lending my furniture to the General Court;--General +Washington would have paid me for the use of it before I left Cambridge, +but, for the credit of Massachusetts, I declined it." + + +_"Fishkill, State of N. York, + +"Jan_. 20, 1777. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"After spending the winter hitherto in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, +with frequent removals, some loss, much expense and fatigue, we are once +more on the east side of Hudson's River. We arrived at this place last +Friday, in good health, after a journey of more than one hundred miles, +in severe weather, through the upper part of New Jersey, a new-settled, +uncultivated country. The sight of a boarded house or glass window was a +great rarity; a cordial welcome to any connected with the American army +still greater. Although they are fully sensible of the value of money, +and we offered cash for all we wanted, yet I believe we were not a +little obliged to their fears for what civility we met with, except only +from one family. But I must defer a particular account until I have the +happiness to see you. + +"I have nothing of news to write but what you must hear sooner +in another way. General Heath and the militia are besieging Fort +Independence; if they can carry that, they will attempt New York. It is +not improbable I shall join him in a few days." + + * * * * * + +The office of Deputy Director-General of Hospitals was established by +ordinance, April 7th, 1777; and four days later, Dr. Foster was chosen +by Congress to this office, having charge of the Eastern Department. His +subsequent residence was mainly at Danbury, Connecticut. + + * * * * * + +Of Tryon's expedition against Danbury we have the following account, +differing in some respects from the common version:-- + +"_Danbury, May_ 1, 1777. + +"You have doubtless heard of the enemy's expedition to this place, and +been anxious for us. This is the first moment of leisure I have had, +and, if not interrupted, I will endeavor to give you a particular +account. + +"On Saturday morning, about three o'clock, an express from Fairfield +brought advice, that a large body, three or four thousand British +troops, had landed from upwards of twenty transports, under cover of +some ships of war near that place, and that it was probable their design +was against the provision and other stores collected in this town; +another express soon after sunrise informed us of their being on the +march. The militia were mustered, and a few Continental troops that +were here on their way to Peekskill prepared to receive them; but their +number was so inconsiderable, and that of the enemy so large, with a +formidable train of artillery, I had no hope of the place being saved. + +"I had, upon the first alarm, ordered all the stores in my charge to +be packed up, ready for removal at a minute's warning. Upon the second +express, I persuaded Polly, with what money was in my hands, to quit the +town: she was unwilling, but I insisted on it. We were so much put to it +for teams to remove the medicines and bedding, that I determined rather +to lose my own baggage than put it on any cart intended for that +purpose; and had not a gentleman's team, already loaded with his own +goods, taken it up, I must have lost it. As the enemy entered the room +at one end, after our troops had retreated to the heights, I went out at +the other, not without some apprehension (as I was to cross the route of +their flank-guard) of being intercepted by the light horse. + +"After having seen the medicines, all of them that were worth moving, +safe at New Milford, I returned to town the next morning, and went with +our forces in pursuit of the enemy. About noon the action began in their +rear, and continued with some intermission until night; the running +fight was renewed next morning, and lasted until the enemy got under +cover of their ships. We have lost some brave officers and men. Their +loss is unknown, as they buried some of their dead, and carried off +others; but, from the dead bodies they were forced to leave on the +field, it must have greatly exceeded ours. General Wooster was wounded +early in the action; he is in the same house with me, and I fear will +not live till morning. + +"Our loss in provisions, &c., is between two and three thousand barrels +of pork, a quantity of flour, some wheat, and some bedding." + + * * * * * + +In this bundle are many letters from Mrs. Foster. They are interesting +for their true-hearted patriotism and domestic love; but there is +room for only a brief extract from a letter referring to this same +expedition. + +"_Danbury, May 13, 1777_. + +"DEAR MADAM, + +"I received yours and father's by Messrs. Russell and Gorham. Doctor had +not the pleasure of seeing either of the gentlemen, as he was gone to +Fishkill to oversee the inoculation of the troops, which was a very +great disappointment. + +"I expected last Monday to have been with you by this time, as I was +driven from here by the enemy (tho' very unexpected, as this place was +thought to be very secure). I removed to New Milford, from whence I +intended to have set out for Boston. On Sunday, the Doctor took his +leave, and left me to take care of the wounded. Monday morning, +everything was got ready for me to set out at twelve o'clock, when I +received a note from the Doctor, desiring I would tarry a little longer. +I have now returned to my old lodgings at Danbury, where the Doctor +thinks of building a hospital. He joins me in duty and love. + +"Your affectionate daughter, + +"MARY FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +Much of Dr. Foster's time was necessarily spent in journeyings to the +several divisions of the army and various military stations. On such +journeys his letters to his wife were very frequent. We extract a part +of one. + +"_Palmer, Thursday even'g, + +"July 31, 1777_. + +"DEAR POLLY, + +"I arrived here, which is eighty-three miles from Boston, about sunset +this evening, in good health. The enemy's fleet has sailed from New +York, and was seen standing to eastward. Some suppose them bound for +Boston; but I cannot think so, as General Washington, who, I presume, +has the best intelligence, is moving towards Philadelphia. Before you +receive this, it will be made certain with you. Should they attack +Boston, I would have you get as many of our effects as possible removed +out of their way, and inform me by the post where you remove to. Should +such an event take place, it will become my duty, after visiting +Danbury, to return to the scene of action. To your own prudence and the +care of Heaven I leave all, and am, with love to the children, ever +yours." + + * * * * * + +In the lapse of years, many letters have, without doubt, been lost. +Thus, but two remain bearing date of 1778. Neither of these contains +matter of public import. In May, he speaks of intending a journey to +Yorktown, and says, "if anything extraordinary happens between the two +armies," he shall be on the spot. In a letter addressed to his father, +dated November 27, 1778, he says,-- + + * * * * * + +"Public business calls me to Philadelphia; but the state of your health, +and my own, which is much impaired, determine me to visit Boston first. +I expect a visit from the Marquis La Fayette next week, on his way to +Boston, and shall set out with him." + + * * * * * + +May 11th, 1779, he writes,-- + +"To-morrow all the gentlemen of the department at this post [Danbury] +dine with me, and the next morning I begin my journey to Head-Quarters. +I mean to take Newark in my way. + +"General Silliman was taken prisoner last week, and carried to Long +Island." + + * * * * * + +In the two following letters to his wife he speaks of this visit. + +"_Philadelphia, June_ 5, 1779. + +"My business is almost completed, and to my mind. I now wait for nothing +but the money which the Medical Committee recommended I should be +furnished with; I expect to receive it the beginning of next week, when +I shall set out immediately. Mr. Samuel Adams travels with me; indeed, +the time seems tedious until get away. Give my duty to our parents, +love to the children, &c., and believe me to be, with the sincerest +affection, my dearest Polly, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +_Philadelphia, June_ 9, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"Another post has arrived, and no letter from Boston. It is now a month, +and near five weeks, since I have heard from you. If I thought you had +neglected writing, it would make me very unhappy; but, from your usual +goodness, I cannot think that is the case, but am confident your letters +must have miscarried. I have wanted nothing but hearing from you to make +my time here perfectly agreeable. I have been received with the greatest +politeness and friendship, and every attention paid to me, by men I +most esteem, I could wish for; at the same time my business has gone +perfectly to my mind. I have leave to reside in Boston for the future, +and shall be under no necessity of attending the camp, nor be obliged +to visit Philadelphia oftener than once a year. I am to have a mode of +settling my accounts pointed out to me, that will be easy, simple, and +much to my mind. I now wait for nothing but money to begin my journey. +The Treasury Board this morning passed a resolve recommending it to +Congress to furnish me with $150,000. I expect to receive the warrant +to-morrow, and as soon as I get the money shall set out, which I expect +will be about next Monday, until which time I am engaged for almost +every day. I dine this day with Mr. Adams; tomorrow with Dr. Shippen, in +company with the New England delegation; Thursday and Friday I expect +to spend with Dr. Craigie in visiting Red Bank, Mud Island, and other +principal scenes of action while the enemy were here. We have an account +that the enemy are in motion up the North River; but of them you will +hear sooner than I can inform you. General Lincoln has actually defeated +the enemy in Carolina, and is like to take them all prisoners. The +express is on the road, and expected in town to-morrow, when there will +be great rejoicing." + + * * * * * + +The following letter describes one of Dr. Foster's frequent journeys on +business of his department. + +"_Windsor, October_ 7, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"As I am waiting for Mr. De Lamater to come up, I will endeavor to give +you an account of our journey. The evening we left Boston Dr. Warren +rode with us as far as Jamaica Plains; after he left us we proceeded +to Dedham, where we arrived about dark, and were exceedingly well +entertained: we had a brace of partridges for supper. Colonel Trumbull +spent the evening with us. The next morning we proceeded nine miles to +Heading's to breakfast, and from thence seven miles to Mann's, where +we fed our horses, and dined at Daggett's, nine miles further; that +afternoon we arrived at Providence, and put up at our old friend +Olney's. The next day we dined with Adams and Townshend at their +quarters; the General honored us with his company; the same evening +supped with the General. Sunday, dined with the General, in company with +some of the principal ladies of the place; here I also saw your old +acquaintance, General Stark; he drank tea at my quarters one afternoon, +and inquired after you. Having finished my business much to my mind, I +continued my journey on Monday morning; the General, Colonel Armstrong, +and Dr. Brown were so polite as to ride out four miles with us. After +they left us, we proceeded to Angell's, twelve miles from Providence, +where we dined,--not on the fat of the land. After dinner we rode to +Dorrence's, an Irishman, but beyond all comparison the best house on the +road; here we were exceedingly well entertained, and, as it looked like +a storm, intended staying there, but, it growing lighter towards noon, +we set out, but had not rode far before the rain came on; however, as +we had begun, we determined to go through with it, and rode a very +uncomfortable ten miles to Canterbury, where we dined, poorly enough, at +one Backus's. Not liking our quarters, we proceeded, notwithstanding the +rain, to Windham, eight miles further, where we were well entertained at +one Cary's. As the storm looked likely to continue, and I was so near +Windsor, I was determined, if I must lie by for it, to lie by in a place +where I could do some business. I accordingly proceeded fifteen miles in +the forenoon to Andover, where I dined at one White's, and fifteen miles +in the afternoon to Bissell's at East Windsor, where I lodged. I was +thoroughly soaked, but do not find that I have got any cold. Indeed, I +find my health considerably better than when I left Boston. This morning +it has cleared off very pleasant, and I crossed from East Windsor to +this place. I have just returned from visiting Mr. Hooker's and Dr. +Johonnot's stores. I find everything in such excellent order as to do +credit to the department. Mr. De Lamater is not yet come up; as soon as +he arrives we shall visit Springfield. I shall not close this letter +until I meet the post; if anything worth notice occurs, I shall mention +it. Adieu, my love. + +"_October_ 8.--Mr. De Lamater arrived last night. Altho' it is very +raw and uncomfortable, I shall proceed immediately after dinner to +Springfield. We have certain advice that the Count D'Estaing has been +at Georgia, and taken all the British ships there; it is reported, and +believed by many, that he is arrived off Long Island. You see, my dear +Polly, I have set you the example of a very long letter. I hope, as you +have leisure enough, you will follow it, as nothing can give me greater +pleasure." + + * * * * * + +"_Fishkill, October_ 21, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I returned from Head-Quarters this forenoon. We went down yesterday +morning, and dined with General Heath, who was so good as to lend us +his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters. His Excellency received us as I +could wish. He invited us to dine with him this day. Upon my excusing +myself, as being in haste to finish my journey, he accepted the excuse, +and invited us to breakfast with him, which we did. We returned last +night to Robinson's house, and slept with our friend Eustis. General +Heath favored us again with his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters, +and after breakfast his Excellency ordered his own to convey us to +our horses, which we had ordered four or five miles up the river. One +principal reason of my declining the General's invitation to dinner was +my impatience to return to Fishkill, that I might receive a letter from +you. Judge, then, what was my disappointment to find the post arrived +and no letter. I shall cross the North River to-morrow morning to +proceed on my journey to Philadelphia. If the nature of the service will +allow it, General Heath and his suit propose returning with me to spend +the winter in Boston. Eustis desires you would look out some suitable +object of his attentions, while in Boston. He pretends it is only with a +view to keep him alert and properly attentive to the ladies in general; +but I suspect he designs to become the domestic man." + + * * * * * + +"_Morristown, Oct. 26th, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Fishkill the day before I left it, and shall put this +into the office here for the post to take as he comes along. On Friday, +towards evening, we left Fishkill. It was dark and squally when we got +to the landing, and we had nine horses in the boat, which made us a +little uneasy, as a few days before a boat had been overset and some +people drowned; however, we got safe over, and lay that night at Colonel +Hawsbrook's, where you spent two or three days on your return from +Bethlehem. The next morning we breakfasted with Dr. Craik at Murderer's +Creek, and then proceeded through the Clove, a most disagreeable place, +and horrid road. In the evening we got to Ringwood. Upon our arrival +there, we were informed there was no public house in the place, and it +was after dark. Colonel Biddle had favored me with an order on all his +magazines to supply me with forage; he has one in this place. I waited +on his deputy and presented the order; he went out of the room, and in a +few minutes returned with a Mr. Erskine, who is surveyor-general of the +roads; he gave me a polite invitation to spend the night at his house, +where we were entertained in the most genteel, hospitable, and friendly +manner. A shower of rain yesterday morning prevented our proceeding, +but, as it cleared up about noon, we came on thirty-four miles to this +place. I expect to reach Philadelphia the day after tomorrow. I have +been from home almost a month, and have received but one letter, but +hope to find several waiting for me at Philadelphia, as I cannot think +you would miss a post. The enemy last Thursday left their posts at Stony +Point and Verplanck's Point, and retired to New York." + + * * * * * + +"_Bristol, October 27, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Morristown, which it is probable you will receive by +this post. Lest that should miscarry, this will inform you that I am at +length arrived within twenty miles of Philadelphia, where I expect +to dine this day. A few days will determine how long I am like to be +detained there;--I think it upon every account best to finish all my +business. The gentlemen have bound themselves to each other by an +engagement upon honor, if nothing is done for our department by New +Year's day, all to resign, and have informed Congress of it: I have +joined in the engagement. If I find I am like to be detained here any +time, it is not improbable I may put my accounts in the hands of the +Commissioners, and, if I can get fresh horses, proceed with Mr. Lee on a +visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Pleasant in Virginia. Mr. Lee desires +his compliments. Adieu, my love. I am, with the sincerest affection, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +"_Danbury, December 8, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I am once more returned to dear Danbury, on my way to Boston. I arrived +here about an hour since, and never had a more fatiguing, disagreeable +journey in my life than from Philadelphia here. I expected to have been +in Boston by this time; but two severe storms, and one day waiting for +his Excellency at Morristown, have made me twelve days performing a +journey which according to my usual way of travelling I should have +performed in four. I have, however, no reason to repent my undertaking +this journey. + +"If sickness or very bad weather does not prevent, I shall certainly be +home by Christmas, and wish to have all our friends together;--I promise +myself a great deal of happiness, and hope I shall not be disappointed. +Adieu, my love." + + * * * * * + +September 30th, 1780, the Hospital Department was newly organized, and +the office of Deputy Director-General was abolished, and of course the +incumbents of that office were no longer in the hospital service. + +Dr. Foster's health was irreparably injured by the fatigues and +exposures he had undergone, and he lingered but a few months longer, +dying on the 27th of February, 1781, in his forty-second year. + +One sentence in his will deserves record, as in harmony with the +disinterestedness of his life. After desiring that all debts due him +should be collected as soon as possible after his decease, he adds this +clause: "But I would not have any industrious and really poor persons +distressed for this purpose." + +The writer of these letters needs no additional eulogy. He sacrificed +all the prospects of his life to give his services in our struggle for +freedom. He, too, was but one of that innumerable multitude who, in +more exalted or in humbler stations, freely gave their exertions, their +wealth, their comfort, and their lives for freedom and right. It is +possible so to linger by the grave of the past as to forget the living +present; but the grateful memory of those who have in their times +contended for truth with self-denial should be ever animating to those +now laboring in the holy warfare, to which, in every age, whether the +outward signs be of peace or strife, God calls the noble of mankind. + + "Therefore bring violets! Yet, if we, + self-balked, + Stand still a-strewing violets all the while, + These had as well not moved, ourselves not + talked + Of these." + + * * * * * + + +IN THE PINES. + + +If I were a crow, or, at least, had the faculty of flying with that +swift directness which is proverbially attributed to the corvine tribe, +and were to wing a southwesterly course from the truck of the flag-staff +which rises from the Battery at New York, I should find myself, within a +very short time, about fifty miles from the turbulent city, and hovering +over a region of country as little like the civilized emporium just +quitted as it is well possible to conceive. Not being a crow, however, +nor fitted up with an apparatus for flying,--destitute even of a +balloon,--I am compelled to adopt the means of locomotion which the +bounty of God or the ingenuity of man affords me, and to spend a +somewhat longer time in transit to my destination. + +Over the New Jersey Railroad, then, I rattled, one fine, sunshiny autumn +morning, in the year that has recently taken leave of us, as far as +Bordentown, a distance of some fifty-seven miles, on my way to a +locality the very existence of which is scarcely dreamed of by thousands +in the metropolis, who can tell you how many square miles of malaria +there are in the Roman Campagna, and who have got the topography of +Caffre Land at their fingers' ends. It is a region aboriginal in +savagery, grand in the aspects of untrammelled Nature; where forests +extend in uninterrupted lines over scores of miles; where we may wander +a good day's journey without meeting half-a-dozen human faces; where +stately deer will bound across our path, and bears dispute our passage +through the cedar-brakes; where, in a word, we may enjoy the undiluted +essence, the perfect wildness, of woodland life. Deep and far "under the +shade of melancholy boughs" we shall be taken, if together we visit the +ancient Pines of New Jersey. + +In order to do so, we must make at Bordentown the acquaintance of Mr. +Cox, and take our seats in his stage for a jolt, twelve miles long, to +the village of New Egypt, on the frontier of the Pines. Although the +forest is accessible from many points, and may be entered by a number of +distinct approaches, I, the writer hereof, selected that _viâ_ New Egypt +as the most convenient to a comer from New York, and as, perhaps, the +least fatiguing to accomplish. + +But, oh! the horrors of those New Jersey roads! Mud? 'Tis as if all the +rains of heaven had been concentrated upon all the marls and clays of +earth, and all the sticky stratum plastered down in a wiggling line +of unascertainable length and breadth! Holes? As if a legion of +sharpshooters had been detailed for the defence of Sandy Hook, and had +excavated for themselves innumerable rifle-pits or caverns for the +discomfiture of unhappy passengers! Up hill and down dale,--with +merciless ruts and savage ridges,--now, a slough, to all appearance +destitute of bottom, and, next, a treacherous stretch of sand, into +which the wheels sink deeper and deeper at every revolution, as if the +vehicle were France, and the road disorder,--such is a faint adumbration +of the state of affairs in the benighted interior of our petulant little +whiskey-drinking sister State! + +But all earthly things come to an end, and so, accordingly, did our +three-hours' drive. The stage pompously rolled into the huddled street +of its terminus, and deposited me, in the neighborhood of noon, on the +stoop of the only tavern supported in the deadly-lively place. No long +sojourn, however, was in store for me. Presently--ere I had grown tired +of watching the couple of clodhoppers, well-bespattered as to boots and +undergarments with Jersey mud, who, leaning against a fence in true +agricultural laziness, deliberately eyed, or rather, gloated over the +inoffensive traveller, as though he were that "daily stranger," +for whom, as is well known, every Jerseyman offers up matutinal +supplications--a buggy appeared in the distance, and I was shortly asked +for. It was the vehicle in which I was to seek my destination in the +Pines; and my back was speedily turned upon the queer little +village with the curiously chosen name. My driver, an intelligent, +sharp-featured old man, soon informs me that he was born and has lived +for fifty years in the forest. A curious, old-world mortal,--our +father's "serving-man," to the very life! The Pines are to him what +Banks and City Halls and Cooper Institutes and Astor Houses are to a +poor _cittadini_; every tree is individualized; and I doubt not he could +find his way by night from one end to the other of the forest. + +We had driven no great distance, when my companion lifted his whip, and, +pointing to a long, dark, indistinct line which crossed the road in the +distance, blocking the prospect ahead and on either side, as far as the +eye could reach, exclaimed: "Them's the Pines!" As we approached the +forest, a change, theatrical in its suddenness, took place in the +scenery through which our course was taken. The rich and smiling +pasture-lands, interspersed with fields of luxuriant corn, were left +behind, the red clay of the road was exchanged for a gritty sand, and +the road itself dwindled to a mere pathway through a clearing. The +locality looked like a plagiarism from the Ohio backwoods. On both sides +of our path spread the graceful undergrowth, waving in an ocean of +green, and hiding the stumps with which the plain was covered, while far +away, to right and left, the prospect was bounded by forest walls, and +gloomy bulwarks and parapets of pines arose in front, as if designed, in +their perfect denseness, to exclude the world from some bosky Garden +of Paradise beyond. Not so, however; for our pathway squeezes itself +between two melancholy sentinel-pines, tracing its white scroll into the +forest farther than the eye can follow, and in a few moments we leave +the clearing behind, and pass into the shadow of the endless avenue, +and bow beneath the trailing branches of the silent, stern, immovable +warders at the gate. We were fairly in the Pines; and a drive of +somewhat more than three miles lay before us still. + +The immense forest region I had thus entered covers an extensive portion +of Burlington County, and nearly the whole of Ocean, beside parts +of Monmouth, Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester, and other counties. The +prevailing soils of this great area--some sixty miles in length by ten +in breadth, and reaching from the river Delaware to the very shore of +the Atlantic--are marls and sands of different qualities, of which the +most common is a fine, white, angular sand, of the kind so much in +request for building-purposes and the manufacture of glass. In such an +arid soil the _coniferae_ alone could flourish, and accordingly we find +that the wide-spreading region is overgrown almost entirely with white +and yellow pine, hemlock, and cedar. Hence its distinctive appellation. + +It was a most lovely afternoon, warm and serene as only an American +autumn afternoon knows how to be; and while we hurried past the mute, +monotonous, yet ever-shifting array of pines and cedars, the very rays +of the sun seemed to be perfumed with the aroma of the fragrant twigs, +about which humming-birds now and then whirred and fluttered as we +startled them, scarcely more brilliant in color than the gorgeous maples +which grew in one or two dry and open spots. For three-quarters of an +hour our drive continued, until at length a slight undulation broke the +level of the sand, and a fence, inclosing a patch of Indian corn, from +which the forest had been driven back, betokened for the first time the +proximity of some habitation. In fact, having reached the summit of the +slope, I found myself in the centre of an irregular range of dwellings, +scattered here and there in picturesque disregard of order, and +next moment my hand was grasped by my friend B. I had reached my +destination,--Hanover Iron-Works,--and was soon walking up, past the +white gateway, to the Big House. + +Somewhat less than eighty years ago, Mr. Benjamin Jones, a merchant of +Philadelphia, invested a portion of his fortune in the purchase of one +hundred thousand acres of land in the then unbroken forest of the Pines. +The site of the present hamlet of Hanover struck him as admirably +adapted for the establishment of a smelting-furnace, and he accordingly +projected a settlement on this spot. The Rancocus River forms here a +broad embayment, the damming of which was easily accomplished, and one +of the best of water-privileges was thus obtained. On the north of this +bay or pond, moreover, there rises a sloping bluff, which was covered, +at the period of its purchase, with ancient trees, but upon which a +large and commodious mansion was soon erected. Here Mr. Jones planted +himself, and quickly drew around him a settlement which rose in number +to some four hundred souls; and here he commenced the manufacture of +iron. At frequent intervals in the Pines were found surface-deposits +of ore, the precipitate from waters holding iron in solution, which +frequently covered an area of many acres, and reached a depth of +from two or three inches to as many feet. The ore thus existing in +surface-deposits was smelted in the iron-works, and the metal thence +obtained was at once molten and moulded in the adjoining foundry. Here, +in the midst of these spreading forests, many a ponderous casting, +many a fiery rush of tons of molten metal, has been seen. Here, +five-and-forty years ago, the celebrated Decatur superintended, during +many weeks, the casting of twenty-four pounders, to be used in the +famous contest with the Algerine pirates whom he humbled; and the echoes +of the forest were awakened with strange thunders then. As the great +guns were raised from the pits in which they had been cast, and were +declared ready for proof, Decatur ordered each one to be loaded with +repeated charges of powder and ball, and pointed into the woods. Then, +for miles between the grazed and quivering boles, crashed the missiles +of destruction, startling bear and deer and squirrel and raccoon, and +leaving traces of their passage which are even still occasionally +discovered. The cannon-balls themselves are now and then found imbedded +in the sand of the forest. In this manner the guns were tried which were +to thunder the challenge of America against the dens of Mediterranean +pirates. + +Hanover, too, in its day of pride, furnished many a city with its iron +tubes for water and for gas, many a factory and workshop with its +castings, many a farmer with his tools, but the glow of the furnace is +quenched forever now. The slowly gathering ferruginous deposits have +been exhausted, and three years have elapsed since the furnace-fires +were lighted. The blackened shell of the building stands in cold +decrepitude, a melancholy vestige of usefulness outlived. In consequence +of the stoppage of the works, Hanover has lost seven-eighths of its +population, and only about fifty inhabitants remain in the white +cottages grouped about the Big House, who are employed in agricultural +labors and occupations connected with the forest. Yet in this solitary +nook the elegances and the tastes of the most cultivated society are to +be found. The Big House, surrounded by its well-trimmed gardens sloping +down to the broad Rancocus, with its comfortable apartments, and the +diversified prospect which it commands, offers a resting-place which, +although deep in the genuine forest, combines urban refinement with the +quiet and seclusion of country-life. + +Bright and early on the morning after my arrival, Friend B. was at my +door; and after a savory, if hasty breakfast, we sounded _boute-selle_. +Outside the gate a couple of forest-ponies were waiting,--stout, lively, +five-year-olds, equal, if not to a two-forty heat, yet to twenty miles +of steady trot without distress,--brown and sleek as you please, with +the knowingest eyes, and intelligence expressed in the impatient stamp +of the fore-foot, and good-humor in the twitching of the ear. Into the +saddle and off, with the cheery breeze to bathe us in exhilaration, +as it went humming around us laden with aromatic odors and mysterious +whisperings of the pine-trees to the sea,--through the dew-diamonded +grass of the little lawn at the top of the hill,--past the great elm +with its glistening foliage, and its carolling crew of just-awakened +birds,--then a canter down the sandy slope to the edge of the forest, +and again the pines are around us. + +Before us lay a four-mile ride over a devious track among trees which my +companion knows by heart. Paths diverge into the forest on either side, +running north and south, east and west, straight and crooked, narrow +and broad; but B. follows unerringly the right, though undistinguished +trail. This knowledge of woodcraft,--how it appalls and wonder-strikes +the unlearned metropolitan, accustomed as he is to numbered houses and +name-boarded streets! No omnibus-driver threading the confusion of a +great thoroughfare could shape his course with greater assurance and +lack of hesitation than does B. through these endless avenues of +heavy-foliaged pines, broken only now and then by some tangled, +impenetrable brake of cedars, or by a charred and blackened clearing, +where the coaler has been at work. I gradually grew to believe that he +could call every tree by its name, as generals have been said to know +every soldier in their armies. + +At length we reached a clearing of one or two acres in extent, the site +of Cranberry Lodge, and the terminus of our ride. In the centre of the +lone expanse two unusually tall pines were left standing, at the base of +which a curious structure nestled, which had been for several weeks the +occasional hermitage of my companion. It was built entirely with his own +hands, of cedar rails and white-pine planks, which he had cut and sawed +from trees that his own hands had felled. A queer little cabin, some +nine feet in length by five or six in breadth, standing all alone in the +forest, with not a neighbor within a distance of at least four miles! + +Dismounting, we fastened our horses to a couple of saplings, and I was +introduced to the interior of Cranberry Lodge, which was tenanted only +by the "hired man," who, in the absence of Mr. B., reigned supreme in +the clearing. The dwelling I found no less primitive in internal than +in its external appearance. Three persons, moderately doubled up and +squeezed, could find room in the interior, which was furnished with a +bench for the safe-keeping of sundry pots, pans, and other culinary +necessaries, and with a shelf on which some blankets were laid, +constituting my companion's bedstead and bed, when he slept in Cranberry +Lodge. Beneath the "bunk" a small hole scooped in the sand stood in +lieu of a cellar, and contained a stock of provisions of Mr. B.'s own +cooking. + +Such a backwoodish dwelling as Cranberry Lodge, existing in the year +1858, within seventy miles of New York, requires some explanation. +Its foundation is--pies! Cape Cod, the great emporium of the +cranberry-trade, has been running short for the last few years; in other +words, its supply is unequal to the demand. The heavy Britishers +have awakened to the fact, since 1851, that, of all condiments and +delicacies, cranberry-sauce and cranberry-pie are best in their way; +and John Bull takes many a barrel clean out of our market now. It so +happened that in the Pines of New Jersey cranberries superior to those +of Cape Cod have grown unheeded for centuries,--grew red and purple +and white and pink when Columbus was unthought of, as well as when +Washington passed through the Pines,--and for sixty or seventy years +have furnished a certain class of gypsies--of whom more anon--with +merchandise which sold well in the neighboring villages and cities. +No one thought of cultivating cranberries; no one, but the gypsies +aforesaid, of gathering them for sale. But it came to pass that a +certain farmer of Hanover was, like many another, unsuccessful during +several years. As a last resource, he purchased of the owner of the Big +House a cranberry-bog,--that is to say, one of the many marshy spots +which are interspersed in the forest,--for which he paid five dollars +the acre. There were a little more than one hundred acres in the bog. At +a cost of some six hundred dollars Mr. F. fenced in his bog, and spent +three months in watching the cranberries as they ripened, to protect +them from depredation. To his intense astonishment, he found, in +October, that the yield was between two and three hundred bushels to the +acre, and that his land and fencing were paid for, with a balance left +over for next year. In consequence of this success, a little mania +for cranberry-farming seized upon the denizens of the Pines, and bogs +acquired a value they had never borne before. This was in 1857. Early in +1858, one of these plots of land, with an adjoining piece of forest, was +rented by Mr. B., who, like a right-down Yankee, determined to cultivate +it himself. So, with the aid of one hired man, a clearing was made in +his forest-patch, a hut built, four miles from the nearest habitation, +and the trees cut down were converted into rails, wherewith to fence in +the cranberry-land. At the time of my visit, the crop was just beginning +to think of getting ripe, and the great lazy vines, each one creeping +for several feet along the ground, were severally loaded with dozens of +delicately-tinted berries, plump and fair as British beauties, which +silently drew to themselves and absorbed the rays of the sun, turning +them to color and succulent subacidulousness. A most glorious sight that +same hundred-acre bog must have been a couple of weeks later, when the +berries had ripened, and a carpet of rosy redness blushed upwards to +the waning sun! Yet 1858 (the even year) was a bad season for +cranberries,--the yield was _only_ sufficient to pay for the land and +fencing, with a modicum over to begin 1859 with! + +So cranberries grew to be institutions in the Pines, and all the bogs +for miles around the site of the first experiment were hired by sanguine +farmers. But the cranberry-cultivator has one enemy, which is neither +bird, nor worm, nor blight, but biped,--a Rat, two-legged, erect, or +moderately so, talking, even, in audible and intelligible speech,--the +Pine Rat, namely. Few but New Jerseymen, and of them chiefly those who +dwell about the forest, have heard of this human species; it has not +yet had its Agassiz nor its Wyman,--yet there it flourishes and repeats +itself! + +My friend, Mr. B., considerately undertook to initiate me into some +of the mysteries of this race, which has proved minatory, though not +destructive, to his blushing crop,--and accordingly led me through brake +and brier, past wild and gloomy cedar-swamps, over brooks insecurely +bridged with fallen logs, or, perchance, with stepping-blocks of +pine-stumps, far into the silent forest, and to a little dell or +dingle,--a natural clearing,--where a couple of tents were pitched, and +the smoke of a struggling fire told infallibly of human neighborhood. +The barking of a splenetic little terrier brought from one of the tents +a man of some fifty years, lank and gaunt of visage, with matted hair, +and wild, uncivilized eyes, dressed in a ragged jacket and what had once +been a pair of trousers. His face wore no expression of intelligence; +but a look of intense, though animal cunning lurked in his eyes. While I +was gazing on this individual, who stood in silence by his tent, there +emerged from the other an ancient female, who might have been eighty +years of age, but who hobbled towards us with much briskness. + +"Good evening, Hannah Butler," said Mr. B.; "I've brought you some +tomatoes from the Big House. This is my friend, Mr. Smith of York." + +Mr. Smith of York (grimly repressing a smile, as his mischievous memory +whispered something about Brooks of Sheffield) bowed gravely to Mrs. +Butler. Mr. B. whispers,--"That's the Queen of the Pine Rats!" Hannah +meanwhile mumbles over one of the fleshy tomatoes. + +The man whom we had first seen held in his hand a tattered shawl, with +which he now began patching a portion of his tent, saying at the same +time that there was a storm a-brewing. + +"Ay, is there!" said Mrs. Butler; "and a storm like the one when I seed +Leeds's devil"-- + +"Hush!" interrupted her ragged companion, with a look of terror. "What's +the good o' namin' him, and allus talkin' about him, when yer don't +never know as he ar'n't byside ye?" + +"I'll devil yer!" shrieked the crone, through a half-eaten tomato. +"Finish mendin' up yer cover, yer mean cranberry-thief!" + +The spiteful terrier, which had meanwhile evinced an unpleasant interest +in the thickness of my pantaloons, added his yelping to the clamor, and +Mr. B., pointing to the clouds, thought we had better hasten homewards. +So we bade farewell to Hannah and her nephew, as I learned that the +unfortunate vessel of her wrath in reality was, and dived into the +gloomy recesses of the Pines again. + +Long ere we got back to Cranberry Lodge, all doubts of an impending +tempest had disappeared. The eastern sky, cloudless an hour before, +was now overhung with a livid bank of ash-gray clouds, which were +incessantly riven by broad and terrible flashes of silent lightning. A +slight westerly breeze was blowing, and evidently impeded the progress +of the storm, which was beating up from seaward against the wind. +Plunging through prickly thickets and dashing through the turbid brooks, +we hastened toward the clearing, committed Cranberry Lodge to the +custody of the "hired man," and untied our horses from the saplings to +which they were made fast. In another moment we were on the back trail. +Scarcely, however, was the clearing shut out of view when a little +hesitating puff of wind from the east blew chill upon us; the breeze had +veered, and the tempest was at hand. In the twinkling of an eye, the +western horizon was overhung with the same ghastly storm-bank that +threatened in the east, while a monitory gust rustled through the +sighing pines, wildly twisting and tossing the undergrowth,--overspread +with a quivering pallor as it bent before the breeze,--and bade us be +prepared. Next moment, a clap of thunder, rattling like the artillery of +ten thousand sieges, or like millions of bars of iron dashed furiously +together, broke upon the forest. It was the most awful sound, terrible +even in its expected suddenness, that I ever heard. Simultaneously a +flash of purple lightning fell from the zenith to the horizon, splitting +the clouds asunder, and with it there descended rain in a cataract +rather than in torrents, so that in the twinkling of an eye the thirsty +sand was saturated, and bubbling pools of water pattered in the deluged +path. Crash after crash, each clap more terrific than the one preceding, +came the awful thunder; blinding flashes of lightning darted around +us;--but still our phlegmatic ponies galloped on, and only once started +violently, when a peal which really seemed as if its shock must burst +the heavens asunder dazed us momentarily with its almost unendurable +sound. The gloomy canopy above us, meanwhile, was overrun by incessant +streams of purple lightning, and the deluge of rain still fell. At +length we reached the Big House, (somewhat ostentatiously reducing the +speed of our horses to a walk as we came within sight of its embowered +windows,) and were soon dripping in the kitchen. A change of apparel, +calling into requisition Mexican _ponchos_ and other picturesque +garments, with a smoke beside a roaring fire, completely obviated +all dangerous consequences; nor was it without feelings of great +satisfaction that B. and myself watched tranquilly from our comfortable +ensconcement the beatings of the storm on the encircling forest. + +The Big House, I found, was full of legends of the Pine Rats. This +extraordinary race of beings are lineal descendants of the New Jersey +Tories, who, during the Revolution, made the Pines their refuge, whence +they sallied in perpetual forays against the farms and dwellings of the +partisans of the opposite cause. Several hundreds of these fanatical +desperadoes made the forest their home, and laid waste the surrounding +townships by their sudden raids. Most barbarous cruelties were practised +on both sides, in the contests which continually took place between +Whigs and Tories, and the unnatural seven-years' war possessed nowhere +darker features than in the neighborhood of the New Jersey Pines. +Remains of these forest-freebooters are still discovered from time to +time, in the process of clearing the woods, and unmistakable relics are +occasionally met with in the denser portions of the forest, which must +have been comparatively open eighty years ago. + +The degraded descendants of these Tories constitute the principal +difficulty with which a proprietor in this region has to contend. +Completely besotted and brutish in their ignorance, they are incapable +of obtaining an honest living, and have supported themselves, from a +time which may be called immemorial, by practising petty larceny on +an organized plan. The Pine Rat steals wood, steals game, steals +cranberries, steals anything, in fact, that his hand can be laid upon; +and woe to the property of the man who dares attempt to restrain him! A +few weeks may, perhaps, elapse, after the tattered savage has received a +warning or a reprimand, and then a column of smoke will be seen stealing +up from some quarter in the forest;--he has set the woods on fire! +Conflagrations of this kind will sometimes sweep away many hundreds of +acres of the most valuable timber; while accidental fires are also of +frequent occurrence. When indications of a fire are noticed, every +available hand--men, women, and children alike--is hurried to the spot +for the purpose of "fighting" it. Getting to leeward of the flames, the +"fighters" kindle a counter-conflagration, which is drawn or sucked +against the wind to the part already burning, and in this manner a +vacant space is secured, which proves a barrier to the flames. Dexterity +in fighting fires is a prime requisite in a forest overseer or workman. + +"And now, something about Leeds's devil!" I said to my friend, after +satisfactory definition of the Pine Rat; "what fiend may he be, if you +please?" + +"I will answer,--I will tell you," replies Mr. B. "There lived, in the +year 1735, in the township of Burlington, a woman. Her name was Leeds, +and she was shrewdly suspected of a little amateur witchcraft. Be that +as it may, it is well established, that, one stormy, gusty night, when +the wind was howling in turret and tree, Mother Leeds gave birth to a +son, whose father could have been no other than the Prince of Darkness. +No sooner did he see the light than he assumed the form of a fiend, with +a horse's head, wings of bat, and a serpent's tail. The first thought of +the newborn Caliban was to fall foul of his mother, whom he scratched +and bepommelled soundly, and then flew through the window out into the +village, where he played the mischief generally. Little children he +devoured, maidens he abused, young men he mauled and battered; and it +was many days before a holy man succeeded in repeating the enchantment +of Prospero. At length, however, Leeds's devil was laid,--but only for +one hundred years. + +"During an entire century, the memory of that awful monster was +preserved, and, as 1835 drew nigh, the denizens of Burlington and the +Pines looked tremblingly for his rising. Strange to say, however, no one +but Hannah Butler has had a personal interview with the fiend; though, +since 1835, he has frequently been heard howling and screaming in the +forest at night, to the terror of the Rats in their lonely encampments. +Hannah Butler saw the devil, one stormy night, long ago; though some +skeptical individuals affirm, that very possibly she may have been led, +under the influence of liquid Jersey lightning, to invest a pine-stump, +or, possibly, a belated bear, with diabolical attributes and a Satanic +voice. However that may be, you cannot induce a Rat to leave his hut +after dark,--nor, indeed, will you find many Jerseymen, though of a +higher order of intelligence, who will brave the supernatural terrors of +the gloomy forest at night, unless secure in the strength of numbers." + +The Pine Rat, in his vocation as a picker-up of every unconsidered +trifle, is an adept at charcoal-burning, on the sly. The business of +legitimate charcoal-manufacture is also largely practised in the Pines, +although the growing value of wood interferes sadly with the coalers. +Here and there, however, a few acres are marked out every year for +charring, and the coal-pits are established in the clearing made by +felling the trees. The "coaling," as it is technically termed, is an +assemblage of "pits," or piles of wood, conical in form, and about ten +feet in height by twenty in diameter. The wood is cut in equal lengths, +and is piled three or four tiers high, each log resting on the end of +that below it, and inclining slightly inwards. An opening is left in the +centre of the pile, serving as a chimney; and the exterior is overlaid +with strips of turf, called "floats," which form an almost air-tight +covering. When the pile is overlaid, fire is set at various small +apertures in the sides, and when the whole "pit" is fairly burning, the +chimney is closed, in order to prevent too rapid combustion, and the +whole pile is slowly converted into charcoal. The application of the +term "pit" to these piles is worthy of remark. It is due, of course, +to the fact, that for centuries it was customary to burn charcoal in +excavated pits, until it was discovered that gradual combustion could be +as well secured by another and less tedious method. + +The Pine Rat glories in his surreptitious coal-pits. In secluded +portions of the forest, he may continually be discovered pottering over +a "coaling," for which he has stolen the wood. This, indeed, is his only +handicraft,--the single labor to which he condescends or is equal. Two +or three men sometimes band together and build themselves huts after +the curious fashion peculiar to the Rat, namely, by piling sticks or +branches in a slope on each side of some tall pine, so that a wigwam, +with the trunk of the tree in the centre, is constructed. Inside this +triangular shelter--the idea of which was probably borrowed from the +Indians--the Pine Rat ensconces himself with his whiskey-bottle at +night, crouching in dread of the darkness, or of Leeds's devil, +aforesaid. In this respect he singularly resembles the Bohemian +charcoal-burner, who trembles at the thought of Rübezahl, that malicious +goblin, who has an army of mountain-dwarfs and gnomes at his command. So +long as the sunlight inspires our Rat with confidence, however, he will +work at his coal-pit, while one comrade is away in the forest, snaring +game, and another has, perhaps, been dispatched to the precincts of +civilization with his wagon-load of coal. Yes! the Pine Rat sometimes +treads the streets of cities,--nay, even extends his wanderings to the +banks of the Delaware and the Hudson, to Philadelphia and Trenton, +to Jersey City and New York. Then, who so sharp as the grimy +tatterdemalion, who passes from street to street and from house to +house, with his swart and rickety wagon, and his jangling bell, the +discordant clangor of which, when we hear it, calls up horrible +recollections of the bells that froze our hearts in plague-stricken +cities of other lands, when doomed galley-slaves and _forçats_ wheeled +awful vehicles of putrefaction through the streets, clashing and +clinking their clamorous bells for more and still more corpses, and +foully jesting over the Death which they knew was already upon them! But +the long-drawn, monotonous, nasal cry of the charcoal-vender--who has +not heard it?--"Cha-r-coa'! Cha-r-coa'!"--is more cheerful than the +demoniac laughter of the desperate galley-slaves, and his bell sounds +musically when we hear it and think of theirs. Sometimes a couple of +these peregrinants may be seen to encounter each other in the streets, +and straightway there is an adjournment to the nearest bar-room, where +the most scientific method of "springing the arch" is discussed over a +glass of whiskey, at three cents the quart. Springing the arch, though +few may be able to interpret the phrase, is a trick by which every +housewife has suffered. It is the secret of piling the coal into the +measure in such a manner as to make the smaller quantity pass for the +larger, or, in other words, to make three pecks go for a bushel. So the +Pine Rat vindicates his claim to a common humanity with all the rest +of us men and women; for have not we all our secret and most approved +method of springing the arch,--of palming off our three short pecks for +a full and bounteous imperial bushel? Ah, yes! brothers and sisters, +whisper it, if you will, below your breath, but we all can do the Pine +Rat's trick! + +We shall not suffer his company much longer in this world,--poor, +neglected, pitiable, darkened soul that he is, this fellow-citizen +of ours. He must move on; for civilization, like a stern, prosaic +policeman, will have no idlers in the path. There must be no vagrants, +not even in the forest, the once free and merry greenwood, our +policeman-civilization says; nay, the forest, even, must keep a-moving! +We must have farms here, and happy homesteads, and orchards heavy with +promise of cider, and wheat golden as hope, instead of silent aisles and +avenues of mournful pine-trees, sheltering such forlorn miscreations as +our poor cranberry-stealing friends! Railways are piercing the Pines; +surveyors are marking them out in imaginary squares; market-gardeners +are engaging land; and farmers are clearing it. The Rat is driven from +point to point, from one means of subsistence to another; and shortly, +he will have to make the bitter choice between regulated labor and +starvation clean off from the face of the earth. There is no room for +a gypsy in all our wide America! The Rat must follow the Indian,--must +fade like breath from a window-pane in winter! + +In fact, the forest, left so long in its aboriginal savagery, is about +to be regenerated. A railroad is to be constructed, this year, which +will place Hanover and the centre of the forest within one hour's travel +of Philadelphia; and it is scarcely too much to anticipate, that, within +five years, thousands of acres, now dense with pines and cedars of a +hundred rings, will be laid out in blooming market-gardens and in fields +of generous corn. Such little cultivation as has hitherto been attempted +has been attended by the most astonishing results; and persons have +actually returned from the West and South, in order to occupy farms in the +neighborhood of Hanover. + +In one respect _c'est dommage_; one is grieved to part with the game +that is now so plentiful in the Pines. Owing to the beneficent provision +of the laws of New Jersey, which stringently forbid every description of +hunting in the State during alternate periods of five years, game of +all kinds has an opportunity to multiply; and at the termination of the +season of rest, in October, 1858, there was some noble hunting in the +neighborhood of Hanover. Five years hence, bears and deer will be a +tradition, panthers and raccoons a myth, partridges and quails a vain +and melancholy recollection, in what shall then be known as what was +once the Pines. + + * * * * * + + +THE LAST BIRD. + + + Little Bird that singest + Far atop, this warm December day, + Heaven bestead thee, that thou wingest, + Ere the welcome song is done, thy way + + To more certain weather, + Where, built high and solemnly, the skies, + Shaken by no storm together, + Fixed in vaults of steadfast sapphire rise! + + There, the smile that mocks us + Answers with its warm serenity; + There, the prison-ice that locks us + Melts forgotten in a purple sea. + + There, thy tuneful brothers, + In the palm's green plumage waiting long, + Mate them with the myriad others, + Like a broken rainbow bound with song. + + Winter scarce is hidden, + Veiled within this fair, deceitful sky; + Fly, ere, from his ambush bidden, + He descend in ruin swift and nigh! + + By the Summer stately, + Truant, thou wast fondly reared and bred: + Dost thou linger here so lately, + Knowing not thy beauteous friend is dead,-- + + Like to hearts that, clinging + Fervent where their first delight was fed, + Move us with untimely singing + Of the hopes whose blossom-time is sped? + + Beauties have their hour, + Safely perched on the Spring-budding tree; + For the ripened soul is trust and power, + And, beyond, the calm eternity. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Concluded.] + + +On the 3d of July, the Commissioners started on their return to the +States. During their stay at Salt Lake City, the doubt which they had +been led to entertain of the wisdom of the policy which they were the +agents to carry out, had ripened into a firm conviction. + +The people who were congregated on the eastern shore of Lake Utah did +not begin to repair to their homes until the army had marched thirty or +forty miles away from the city; and even then there was a secrecy +about their movements which was as needless as it was mysterious. They +returned in divisions of from twenty to a hundred families each. Their +trains, approaching the city during the afternoon, would encamp on some +creek in its vicinity until midnight, when, if intended for the northern +settlements, they would pass rapidly through the streets, or else make +a circuit around the city-wall. August arrived before the return was +completed. + +Morning after morning, one square after another was seen stripped of the +board barricades which had sheltered windows and doors from intrusion. +In front of every gateway wagons were emptying their loads of household +furniture. The streets soon lost their deserted aspect, though for many +days the only wayfarers were men,--not a woman being visible, except, by +chance, to the profane eyes of the invaders. It was near the end of July +before a single house was rented except to the intimate associates of +the Governor. Up to that time, those Gentiles who did not follow the +army to its permanent camp bivouacked on the public squares. By a Church +edict, all Mormons were forbidden to enter into business transactions +with persons outside their sect without consulting Brigham Young, whose +office was beset daily by a throng of clients beseeching indulgences +and instruction. Immediately after his return to the city, however, +he secluded himself from public observation, never appearing in the +streets, nor on the balconies of his mansion-house. He even encompassed +his residence with an armed guard. + +Gradually, nevertheless, the necessities of the people induced a +modification of this system of non-intercourse. The Gentile merchants, +who were present with great wagon-trains containing all those articles +indispensable to the comfort of life, of which the Mormons stood so much +in need, refused to open a single box or bale until they could hire +storehouses. The permission was at length accorded, and immediately the +absolute external reserve of the people began to wear away. Both sexes +thronged to the stores, eager to supply themselves with groceries and +garments; but there they experienced a wholesome rebuff, for which some +of them were not entirely unprepared. The merchants refused to receive +the paper of the Deseret Currency Association with which the Territory +was flooded; and its notes were depreciated instantly by more than +fifty per cent. Many of the people were driven to barter cattle and +farm-produce for the articles they needed; and for the first time since +the establishment of the Church in Utah an audible murmur arose among +its adherents against its exactions. The sight of their neglected +farms was also calculated to bring the poorer agriculturists to sober +reflection. They perceived that the army, which they had been taught to +believe would commit every conceivable outrage, was, on the contrary, +demeaning itself with extreme forbearance and even kindness toward them, +and was supplying an ampler market for the sale of their produce than +they had enjoyed since the years when the overland emigration to +California culminated. Nevertheless, their regrets, if entertained at +all, found no public and concerted utterance. The authority of the +Church exacted a sullen demeanor toward all Gentiles. + +The 24th of July, the great Mormon anniversary, was suffered to pass +without celebration; but its recurrence must have suggested anxious +thoughts and bitter recollections to a great part of the population. +When they remembered their enthusiastic declaration of independence +only one year before, the warlike demonstrations which followed it, the +prophecies of Young that the Lord would smite the army as he smote the +hosts of Sennacherib, the fever of hate and apprehension into which they +had been worked, and contrasted that period of excitement with their +present condition, they must, indeed, have found abundant material for +meditation. By the emigration southward they had lost at least four +months of the most valuable time of the year. Their families had been +subjected to every variety of exposure and hardship. Their ready money +had been extorted from them by the Currency Association, or consumed in +the expenses of transporting their movables to Lake Utah. And more than +all, the fields had so suffered by their absence, that the crops were +diminished to at least one-half the yield of an ordinary year. To a +community the mass of which lives from hand to mouth, this was a most +serious loss. + +Almost all agriculture in Utah is carried on by the aid of irrigation. +From April till October hardly a shower falls upon the soil, which +parches and cracks in the hot sunshine. The settlements are all at the +base of the mountains, where they can take advantage of the brooks that +leap down through the cañons. They are, therefore, necessarily scattered +along the line of the main Wahsatch range, from the Roseaux River, which +flows into the Salt Lake from the north, to the Vegas of the Santa +Clara,--a distance of nearly four hundred miles. The labor expended in +ditching has been immense, but it has been confined wholly to tapping +the smaller streams. + +By damming the Jordan in Salt Lake Valley and the Sevier in Parawan +Valley, and distributing their water over the broad bottom-lands, on +which the only vegetation now is wild sage and greasewood, the area of +arable ground might be quintupled; and any considerable increase of +population will render such an undertaking indispensable; for the narrow +strip which is fertilized by the mountain-brooks yields scarcely more +than enough to supply the present number of inhabitants. Nowhere does it +exceed two or three miles in breadth, except along the eastern shore of +Lake Utah, where it extends from the base of the mountains to the verge +of the lake. + +Almost all cereals and vegetables attain the utmost perfection, +rivalling the most luxuriant productions of California. Within the last +few years the cultivation of the Chinese sugar-cane has been introduced, +and has proved successful. In Salt Lake City considerable attention is +paid to horticulture. Peaches, apples, and grapes grow to great size, at +the same time retaining excellent flavor. The grape which is most common +is that of the vineyards of Los Angeles. In the vicinity of Provo an +attempt has been made to cultivate the tea-plant; and on the Santa Clara +several hundred acres have been devoted to the culture of cotton, +but with imperfect success. Flax, however, is raised in considerable +quantity. The fields are rarely fenced with rails, and almost never with +stones. The dirt-walls by which they are usually surrounded are built by +driving four posts into the ground, which support a case, ten or twelve +feet in length, made of boards. This is packed full of mud, which dries +rapidly in the intense heat of a summer noon. When it is sufficiently +dry to stand without crumbling, the posts are moved farther along and +the same operation is repeated. + +The country is not dotted with farmhouses, like the agricultural +districts of the East. The inhabitants all live in towns, or "forts," as +they are more commonly called, each of which is governed by a Bishop. +These are invariably laid out in a square, which is surrounded by a +lofty wall of mere dirt, or else of adobe. In the smaller forts there +are no streets, all the dwellings backing upon the wall, and inclosing +a quadrangular area, which is covered with heaps of rubbish, and alive +with pigs, chickens, and children. The same stream which irrigates the +fields in the vicinity supplies the people with water for domestic +purposes. There are few wells, even in the cities. Except in Salt Lake +City and Provo, no barns are to be seen. The wheat is usually stored +in the garrets of the houses; the hay is stacked; and the animals are +herded during the winter in sheltered pastures on the low lands. + +All the people of the smaller towns are agriculturists. In none of them +is there a single shop. In Provo there are several small manufacturing +establishments, for which the abundant water-power of the Timpanogas +River, that tumbles down the neighboring cañon, furnishes great +facilities. The principal manufacturing enterprise ever undertaken in +the Territory--that for the production of beet-sugar--proved a complete +failure. A capital advanced by Englishmen, to the amount of more +than one hundred thousand dollars, was totally lost, and the result +discouraged foreigners from all similar investments. Rifles and +revolvers are made in limited number from the iron tires of the numerous +wagons in which goods are brought into the Valley. There are tanneries, +and several distilleries and breweries. In the large towns there are +many thriving mechanics; but elsewhere even the blacksmith's trade +is hardly self-supporting, and the carpenters and shoemakers are all +farmers, practising their trades only during intervals from work in the +fields. + +The deficiency of iron, coal, and wood is the chief obstacle to the +material development of Utah. No iron-mines have been discovered, except +in the extreme southern portion of the Territory; and the quality of the +ore is so inferior, that it is available only for the manufacture of the +commonest household utensils, such as andirons. The principal coal-beds +hitherto found are in the immediate vicinity of Green River. There are +several sawmills, all run by water-power, scattered among the more +densely-wooded cañons; but they supply hardly lumber enough to meet the +demand,--even the sugar-boxes and boot-cases which are thrown aside at +the merchants' stores being eagerly sought after and appropriated. The +most ordinary articles of wooden furniture command extravagant prices. + +Nowhere is the absence of trees, the utter desolation of the scenery, +more impressive than in a view from the southern shore of the Great Salt +Lake. The broad plain which intervenes between its margin and the +foot of the Wahsatch Range is almost entirely lost sight of; the +mountain-slopes, their summits flecked with snow, seem to descend into +water on every side except the northern, on which the blue line of the +horizon is interrupted only by Antelope Island. The prospect in that +direction is apparently as illimitable as from the shore of an ocean. +The sky is almost invariably clear, and the water intensely blue, except +where it dashes over fragments of rock that have fallen from some +adjacent cliff, or where a wave, more aspiring than its fellows, +overreaches itself and breaks into a thin line of foam. Through a gap in +the ranges on the west, the line of the Great Desert is dimly visible. +The beach of the lake is marked by a broad belt of fine sand, the grains +of which are all globular. Along its upper margin is a rank growth of +reeds and salt grass. Swarms of tiny flies cover the surface of every +half-evaporated pool, and a few white sea-gulls are drifting on the +swells. Nowhere is there a sign of refreshing verdure except on the +distant mountainsides, where patches of green grass glow in the sunlight +among the vast fields of sage. + +The buildings throughout the entire Territory are, almost without +exception, of adobe. The brick is of a uniform drab color, more pleasing +to the eye than the reddish hue of the adobes of New Mexico or the buff +tinge of many of those in California. In size it is about double that +commonly used in the States. The clay, also, is of very superior +quality. The principal stone building in the Territory is the Capitol, +at Fillmore, one hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. The +design of the architect is for a very magnificent edifice in the shape +of a Greek cross, with a rotunda sixty feet in diameter. Only one wing +has been completed, but this is spacious enough to furnish all needful +accommodation. The material is rough-hammered sandstone, of an intense +red. + +The plan of Salt Lake City is an index to that of all the principal +towns. It is divided into squares, each side of which is forty rods +in length. The streets are more than a hundred feet wide, and are all +unpaved. There is not a single sidewalk of brick, stone, or plank. The +situation is well chosen, being directly at the foot of the southern +slope of a spur which juts out from the main Wahsatch range. Less than +twenty miles from the city, almost overshadowing it, are peaks which +rise to the altitude of nearly twelve thousand feet, from which the snow +of course never disappears. But during the summer months, when scarcely +a shower falls upon the valley, its drifts become dun-colored with dust +from the friable soil below, and present an aspect similar to that of +the Pyrenees at the same season. During most of the year, the rest of +the mountains which encircle the Valley are also capped with snow. The +residences of Young and Kimball are situated on almost the highest +ground within the city-limits, and the land slopes gradually down from +them to the south, east, and west. This inclination suggested the mode +of supplying the city with water. A mountain-brook, pure and cold, +bubbling from under snow-drifts, is guided from this highland down +the gently sloping streets in gutters adjoining both the sidewalks. A +municipal ordinance imposes severe penalties on any one who fouls it. +Young's buildings and gardens occupy an entire square, ten acres in +extent, as do also Kimball's. They consist, first, of the Mansion, a +spacious two-storied building, in the style of the Yankee-Grecian villas +which infest New England towns, with piazzas supported by Doric columns, +and a cupola which is surmounted by a beehive, the peculiar emblem of +the Mormons, although there is not a single honey-bee in the Territory. +This, like all its companions, is of adobe, but it is coated with +plaster, and painted white. Next to it is a small building, used +formerly as an office, in which the temporal business of the Governor +was transacted. By its side stands another office, on the same model, +but on a larger scale, devoted to the business of the President of the +Church. These are connected by passage-ways both with the Mansion and +with the Lion-House, which is the most westerly of the group, and is the +finest building in the Territory, having cost nearly eighty thousand +dollars. Like both the offices, it stands with a gable toward the +street, and the plaster with which it is covered has a light buff tinge. +The architecture is Elizabethan. Above a porch in front is the figure +of a recumbent lion, hewn in sandstone. On each of the sides, which +overlook the gardens, ten little windows project from the roof +just above the eaves. The whole square is surrounded by a wall of +cobblestones and mortar, ten or twelve feet in height, strengthened by +buttresses at intervals of forty or fifty feet. Massive plank gates bar +the entrances. In one corner is the Tithing-Office, where the faithful +render their reluctant tribute to the Lord. Only the swift city-creek +intervenes between this square and Kimball's, which is encompassed by a +similar wall. His buildings have no pretensions to architectural merit, +being merely rough piles of adobe scattered irregularly all over the +grounds. + +The Temple Square is in the immediate neighborhood, and is of the same +size. It is inclosed by a wall even more massive than the others, +plastered and divided into panels. Near its southwestern corner stands +the Tabernacle, a long, one-storied building, with an immense roof, +containing a hall which will hold three thousand people. There the +Mormon religious services are conducted during the winter months; but +throughout the summer the usual place of gathering to listen to the +sermons is in "boweries," so called, which are constructed by planting +posts in the ground and weaving over them a flat roof of willow-twigs. +An excavation near the centre of the square, partially filled with dirt +previously to the exodus to Provo, marks the spot where the Temple is +to rise. It is intended that this edifice shall infinitely surpass in +magnificence its predecessor at Nauvoo. The design purports to be a +revelation from heaven, and, if so, must have emanated from some one +of the Gothic architects of the Middle Ages whose taste had become +bewildered by his residence among the spheres; for the turrets are to be +surmounted by figures of sun, moon, and stars, and the whole building +bedecked with such celestial emblems. Only part of the foundation-wall +has yet been laid, but it sinks thirty feet deep and is eight feet broad +at the surface of the ground. Its length, according to the heavenly +plan, is to be two hundred and twenty feet, and its width one hundred +and fifty feet. Beside the Tabernacle and the incipient Temple, the only +considerable building within the square is the Endowment-House, where +those rites are celebrated which bind a member to fidelity to the Church +under penalty of death, and admit him to the privilege of polygamy. + +The other principal buildings within the city are the Council-House, +a square pile of sandstone, once used as the Capitol,--and the County +Court-House, yet unfinished, above which rises a cupola covered with +tin. Most of the houses in the immediate vicinity of Young's are two +stories high, for that is the aristocratic quarter of the town. In +the outskirts, however, they never exceed one story, and resemble in +dimensions the innumerable cobblers'-shops of Eastern Massachusetts. + +None of the streets have names, except those which bound the Temple +Square and are known as North, South, East, and West Temple Streets, and +also the broad avenue which receives the road from Emigration Cañon and +is called Emigration Street. Except on East Temple or Main Street, which +is the business street of the city, the houses are all built at least +twenty feet back from the sidewalk, and to each one is attached a +considerable plot of ground. There is no provision for lighting the +streets at night. The cotton-wood trees along the borders of the gutters +have attained a considerable growth during the eight or nine years since +they were planted, and afford an agreeable shade to all the sidewalks. + +Around a great portion of the city stretches a mud wall with embrasures +and loopholes for musketry, which was built under Young's direction in +1853, ostensibly to guard against Indian attacks, but really to keep +the people busy and prevent their murmuring. To the east of this runs a +narrow canal, which was dug by the voluntary labor of the Saints, nearly +fifteen miles to Cottonwood Creek, for the transportation of stone to be +used in building the Temple. + +Just outside the city-limits, near the northeastern corner of the wall, +lies the Cemetery, on a piece of undulating ground traversed by deep +gullies, and unadorned even by a solitary tree,--the only vegetation +sprouting out of its parched soil being a melancholy crop of weeds +interspersed with languid sunflowers. The disproportion between the +deaths of adults and those of children, which has been a subject for +comment by every writer on Mormonism, is peculiarly noticeable there. +Most of the graves are indicated only by rough boards, on which are +scrawled rudely, with pencil or paint, the names and ages of the dead, +and usually also verses from the Bible and scraps of poetry; but among +all the inscriptions it is remarkable that there is not a single +quotation from the "Book of Mormon." The graves are totally neglected +after the bodies are consigned to them. Nowhere has a shrub or a flower +been planted by any affectionate hand, except in one little corner of +the inclosure which is assigned to the Gentiles, between whose dust and +that of the Mormons there seems to exist a distinction like that which +prevails in Catholic countries between the ashes of heretics and those +of faithful churchmen. The mode of burial is singularly careless. A +funeral procession is rarely seen; and such instances are mentioned by +travellers as that of a father bearing to the grave the coffin of his +own child upon his shoulder. + +The interiors of the houses are as neat as could be expected, +considering the extent of the families. Very often, three wives, one +husband, and half-a-dozen children will be huddled together in a +hovel containing only two habitable rooms,--an arrangement of course +subversive of decency. Few people are able to purchase carpets, and +their furniture is of the coarsest and commonest kind. There are few, if +any, families which maintain servants. In that of Brigham Young, each +woman has a room assigned her, for the neatness of which she is herself +responsible;--Young's own chamber is in the rear of the office of the +President of the Church, upon the ground floor. The precise number +of the female inmates can often be computed from the exterior of the +houses. These being frequently divided into compartments, each with its +own entrance from the yard, and its own chimney, and being generally +only one story in height, the number of doors is an exact index to that +of residents. + +The domestic habits of the people vary greatly according to their +nativity. Of the forty-five thousand inhabitants of the Territory, at +least one-half are immigrants from England and Wales,--the scum of the +manufacturing towns and mining districts, so superstitious as to have +been capable of imbibing the Mormon faith,--though between what is +preached in Great Britain and what is practised in America there exists +a wide difference,--and so destitute in circumstances as to have been +incapable of deteriorating their fortunes by emigration. Possibly +one-fifth are Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. This allows a remainder of +three-tenths for the native American element. An Irishman or a German is +rarely found. Of the Americans, by far the greater proportion were born +in the Northeastern States; and the three principal characters in the +history of the Church--Smith, Young, and Kimball--all originated in +Vermont, but were reared in Western New York, a region which has been +the hot-bed of American _isms_ from the discovery of the Golden Bible to +the outbreak of the Rochester rappings. This American element maintains, +in all affairs of the Church, its natural political ascendency. Of the +twelve Apostles only one is a foreigner, and among the rest of the +ecclesiastical dignitaries the proportion is not very different. + +The Scandinavian Mormons are very clannish in their disposition. They +occupy some settlements exclusively, and in Salt Lake City there is one +quarter tenanted wholly by them, and nicknamed "Denmark," just as that +portion of Cincinnati monopolized by Germans is known as "over the +Rhine." Like their English and Welsh associates, they belonged to the +lowest classes of the mechanics and peasantry of their native countries. +They are all clownish and brutal. Their women work in the fields. +In their houses and gardens there is no symptom of taste, or of the +recollection of former and more innocent days; while in every cottage +owned by Americans there is visible, at least, a clock, or a pair of +China vases, or a rude picture, which once held a similar position in +some farm-house in New England. + +It is not intended to discuss here the cardinal points of the Mormon +faith, for the subject is too extensive for the limits of this article. +A great misapprehension, however, prevails concerning polygamy, that it +was one of the original doctrines of the Church. On the contrary, it was +expressly prohibited in the Book of Mormon, which declares:-- + +"Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which +thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. ... Wherefore hearken to +the word of the Lord: There shall not any man among you have save it +be one wife, and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, +delight in the chastity of women."--p. 118. + +Up to this date, there have been four eras in the history of polygamy +among the Mormons: the first, from about 1833 to 1843, during which it +was practised stealthily only by those Church leaders to whom it was +considered prudent to impart the secret; the second, from 1843 to 1852, +during which its existence was known to the Church, but denied to the +world; the third, from 1852 to 1856, during which it was left to the +discretion of individuals whether to adopt its practice or not; and the +fourth, since 1856, when its acceptance was inculcated as essential to +happiness in this world and salvation in the next. It was the inevitable +tendency of Mormonism, like every other religious delusion, from the +advent of John of Leyden to that of the Spiritualists, to disturb the +natural relation of the sexes under the Christian dispensation. The +mystery surrounding the subject constituted the most attractive charm of +the religion, both to the initiated and to those who were seeking to be +admitted to the secrets of the Endowment,--for the Endowed alone possess +the privilege of a plurality of wives. But until the community had +become firmly fixed in Utah, no one dared to justify or even to proclaim +the doctrine. At the time of the passage of the Organic Act of the +Territory, in the autumn of 1850, and repeatedly during the next +two years, prominent Mormons at Washington and New York denied its +existence, with the most solemn asseverations. It was on Sunday, August +29th, 1852, that it was openly avowed at Salt Lake City,--Brigham Young +on that day producing the copy of a revelation, pretended to have +been received by Smith on the 12th of July, 1843, which annulled +the monogamic injunctions of the Book of Mormon, and stating, that, +"although the doctrine of polygamy has not been preached by the elders, +the people have believed in it for years." Upon the same occasion, +another doctrine was urged,--that human beings upon earth propagate +merely bodies, the souls which inhabit them being begotten by spirits in +heaven. + +The number of the wives of many of the principal Mormons has been +greatly exaggerated. Attached to Young's establishment in Salt Lake +City, there are only sixteen. His first wife occupies the Mansion-House +exclusively, while the others are quartered in the Lion-House. Besides +these, he has probably fifty or sixty more, scattered all over the +Territory, and in the principal cities of the United States and of Great +Britain. His living children do not exceed thirty in number. Kimball's +wives, resident in Salt Lake City, are quite as numerous as Young's, and +his children even more so. Both of them aim to reproduce the domestic +life of the Biblical patriarchs; and within the squares which they +occupy their descendants dwell also, with their wives and progeny, all +of them acknowledging the control of the head of the family. The harems +of very few of the Church dignitaries approach these in magnitude. The +extent of the practice of polygamy cannot be determined by a residence +in Salt Lake City alone, for it is there that those Church officers +congregate whose wealth enables them to maintain large families. As +the traveller journeys northward or southward, he finds the instances +diminish in almost exact proportion to his remoteness from the central +ecclesiastical influence. There is even a sect of Mormons, called +Gladdenites, after their founder, one Gladden Bishop, who deny the +right of Young to supreme authority over the Church, and discountenance +polygamy. No computation of their number can be made, for few of them +dare avow their heresy, on account of the persecution which is the +invariable result. The leaders of this sect maintain that a majority of +the married men in Utah have but one wife each, and their assertion has +never been controverted. + +One of the most monstrous results of the practice is the indifference +with which an incestuous connection is tolerated. The cohabitation, with +the same man, of a mother, and her daughter by a previous marriage, is +not unfrequent; and there are other instances even more disgusting. One +or two of them will exemplify the character of the whole. One George D. +Watt, an Englishman, residing at Salt Lake City, has for his fourth +wife his own half-sister, who had been previously divorced from Brigham +Young; and one Aaron Johnson, the Bishop of the town of Springville, +on Lake Utah, has seven wives, four of whom are sisters, and his own +nieces. Young himself has declared in print, that he looks forward to +the time when his son by one wife shall marry his daughter by another. +Marriages also are effected with girls who are mere children. Accustomed +from their cradles to sights and sounds calculated to impart precocious +development, they mature rapidly, and few of them remain single after +attaining the age of sixteen. They look around for husbands, and +understand, that, if they marry young men and become first wives, in +course of time other wives will be associated with them; and they +conclude, therefore, that it is as well for themselves to unite with +some Bishop or High-Priest, with perhaps half-a-dozen wives already, who +is able to feed his family well and clothe them decently; so they plunge +into polygamy at once. Another result of the practice is universal +obscenity of language among both sexes. The published sermons of the +Mormon leaders are utterly vile in this respect, although they are +somewhat expurgated before being printed. They consider no language +profane from which the name of the Deity is exempted. + +There is, unquestionably, much unhappiness in families where polygamy +prevails,--daily bickering, jealousies, and heart-burnings,--but it +is carefully concealed from the knowledge of the public. If domestic +troubles become so aggravated as to be unendurable, recourse is usually +had to Brigham Young for a divorce. There are women in Salt Lake City +who have been married and divorced half-a-dozen times within a year. The +first wife maintains a supremacy over all the others. On the occasion +of her marriage, a civil magistrate usually officiates, and the rite of +"sealing" is afterwards administered by Young. By the civil process, +in the cant language of the Mormons, she is bound to her husband "for +time," and by the ecclesiastical solemnization "for eternity." Every +wife taken after the first is called a "spiritual," and is "sealed" +ecclesiastically only, not civilly. It follows, as a legitimate +consequence, that the first wife of one man "for time" may be the +"spiritual" wife of another man "for eternity." The power of sealing and +unsealing is vested in the Head of the Church, which, however, he may +and does assign, with certain limitations, to deputies. The ceremony is +performed in a room in the Mansion-House within Brigham's square, which +is furnished with an altar and kneelng-benches. In every instance of +divorce, the woman is supplied with a printed certificate of the fact, +for which a fee of ten or eleven dollars is exacted. When a polygamist +dies, it becomes the duty of his "next friend" to care for his wives. +Thus, when Young became the President of the Church, he succeeded to all +the widows of Joseph Smith. + +Every year some modification of the system is effected, which tends to +increase still further the confusion in the relations of the sexes. The +latest is the doctrine, (which, like polygamy in its earlier stages, is +believed, but not avowed,) that absence is temporary death, so far as +concerns the transference of wives. This is intended to apply to the two +or three hundred missionaries who are dispatched yearly to all parts +of the globe, from Stockholm to Macao. It is astonishing that these +missionary efforts, which have been pursued with unremitting zeal for +the last twenty years, should not have ingrafted upon Mormonism some +degree of that refinement which is supposed to result from travel. On +the contrary, they seem to have elaborated the natural brutality of the +Anglo-Saxon character; and especially with regard to polygamy, their +effect has been to acquaint the people of Utah with the grossest +features of its practice in foreign lands, and encourage them to +imitation. Every Mormon, prominent in the Church, however illiterate +in other respects, is thoroughly acquainted with the extent and +characteristics of polygamy in Asiatic countries, and prepared to defend +his own domestic habits, in argument, by historical and geographical +references. Not one of their missionaries has ever been admitted to +intercourse with the higher classes of European society. Their sphere +of labor and acquaintance has been entirely among those whom they would +term the lowly, but who might also be called the credulous and vulgar. +The abuse of a knowledge of the machinery of the Masonic order--from +which they have been formally excluded--is one of the least evil of +their practices, not only abroad, but at home. Of the Endowment, one +apostate Mormon has declared that "its signs, tokens, marks, and ideas +are plagiarized from Masonry"; and it was a notorious fact, that every +one of the Mormon prisoners at the camp at Fort Bridger was accustomed +to endeavor to influence the sentinels at the guard-tents by means of +the Masonic signs. + +This cursory review of the domestic condition of the Mormons would not +be complete without some allusion to the Indians who infest the whole +country. In the North, having their principal village at the foot of the +Wind River Mountains, in the southeastern corner of Oregon, is the tribe +of Mountain Snakes or Shoshonees, and the kindred tribe of Bannocks. +Throughout all the valleys south of Salt Lake City are the numerous +bands of the great tribe of Utahs. Still farther south are the Pyides. +The Snakes are superior in condition to any of the others; for, during +a portion of the year, they have access to the buffalo, which have not +crossed the Wahsatch Range into the Great Basin, within the recollection +of the oldest trapper. The only wild animals common in the country of +the Utahs are the hare, or "jackass-rabbit," the wild-cat, the wolf, and +the grizzly bear. There are few antelope or elk. Trout abound in the +mountain-brooks and in Lake Utah. In the Salt Lake, as in the Dead Sea, +there are no fish. Before the advent of the Mormons, the habits of all +the Utah bands were very degraded. No agency had been established among +them. They had few guns and blankets. For several years they were +engaged in constant hostilities with the people of the young and feeble +settlements,--their own method and implements of warfare improving +steadily all the while. Ultimately, however, the Mormons inaugurated a +system of Indian policy, which was highly successful. They propagated +their religion among the Utahs, baptized some of the most prominent +chiefs into the Church, fed and clothed them, and thereby acquired an +ascendency over most of the bands, which they attempted to use to the +detriment of the army during the winter of 1857-8, but without success. +Brigham Young, being vested with the superintendence of Indian affairs, +during his entire term of service as Governor, abused the functions of +that office. He taught the tribe, that there was a distinction between +"Americans" and "Mormons,"--and that the latter were their friends, +while they were free to commit any depredations on the former which +they might see fit. These infamous teachings were counteracted with +considerable success by Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, to whom allusion has +frequently been made; but it was impossible wholly to neutralize their +effect. Some of the Mormons even took squaws for spiritual wives; and in +all the settlements, from Provo to the Santa Clara, there are scores of +half-breed children, acknowledging half-a-dozen mothers, some white, +some red. The Utahs, though a beggarly, are a docile tribe. Several +Government farms have now been established among them, and they display +more than ordinary aptitude for work. But they require to be spurred to +regular labor. None of the charges which have been preferred against +the Mormons, of direct participation in the murder of Americans by +the Indians in the southern portion of the Territory, have ever been +substantiated by legal evidence; but no person can become familiar with +the relations which they sustain to those tribes, without attaching +to them some degree of credibility. The most noted instances were the +slaughter of Captain Gunnison and his exploring party, near Lake Sevier, +in October, 1853; and the horrible massacre of more than a hundred +emigrants on their way to California, at the Mountain Meadows, still +farther south, in September, 1857, from which only those children were +spared who were too young to speak. + +The history of events in Utah since the encamping of the army in Cedar +Valley and the return of the Mormons to the northern settlements is too +recent to need to be recounted. It has been established by satisfactory +experiments, that law is powerless in the Territory when it conflicts +with the Church. No Gentile, whose property was confiscated during the +rebellion, has yet obtained redress. The legislature refuses to provide +for the expenses of the District Courts while enforcing the Territorial +laws. The grand juries refuse to find indictments. The traverse juries +refuse to convict Mormons. The witnesses perjure themselves without +scruple and without exception. The unruly crowd of camp-followers, which +is the inseparable attendant of an army, has concentrated in Salt +Lake City, and is in constant contact and conflict with the Mormon +population. An apprehension prevails, day after day, that the presence +of the army may be demanded there to prevent mob-law and bloodshed. +The Governor is alien in his disposition to most of the other Federal +officers; and the Judges are probably already on their way to the +States, prepared to resign their commissions. The whole condition of +affairs justifies a prediction made by Brigham Young, June 17th, 1855, +in a sermon, in which he declared:-- + +"Though I may not be Governor here, my power will not be diminished. No +man they can send here will have much influence with this community, +unless he be the man of their choice. Let them send whom they will, it +does not diminish my influence one particle." + +The consequences of the Expedition, therefore, have not corresponded +to the original expectation of its projectors. So far as the political +condition of the Territory is concerned, the result, filtered down, +amounts simply to a demonstration of the impolicy of applying the +doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty as a rule for its government. The +administration of President Polk was an epoch in the history of +the continent. By the annexation of Texas a system of territorial +aggrandizement was inaugurated; and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by +which California, Utah, and New Mexico were acquired, was a legitimate +result. Every child knows that the tendency is toward the acquisition of +all North America. But the statesmen who originated a policy so +grand did not stop to establish a system of Territorial government +correspondent to its necessities. The character of such a Territorial +policy is now the principal subject upon which the great parties of +the nation are divided; and its development will constitute the chief +political achievement of the generation. On one side, it is proposed to +leave each community to work out its own destiny, trusting to Providence +for the result. On the other, it is contended, that the only safe +doctrine is, that supreme authority over the Territories resides in +Congress, which it is its duty to assign to such hands and in such +degrees as it may deem expedient, with a view to create homogeneous +States; that the same influences which moulded Minnesota into a State +homogeneous to Massachusetts might operate on Cuba, or Sonora and +Chihuahua, without avail; and that to various districts the various +methods should be applied which a father would employ to secure the +obedience and welfare of his children. + +At the very outset, the Territory of Utah now presents itself as a +subject for the application of the one system or the other. To all +intents and purposes, the Mormons are proved to be a people more foreign +to the population of the States than the inhabitants of Cuba or Mexico. +Alien in great part by birth, and entirely alien in religion, there +never can occur in the history of the country an instance of a community +harder to govern, with a view to adapt it to harmonious association +with the States on the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is undeniably +demonstrated that it is unsafe to trust it to administer a government in +accordance with republican ideas; for it acknowledges a higher law than +even the human conscience, in the will of a person whom it professes +to believe a vicegerent of Divinity, and in obedience to whom perjury, +robbery, incest, and even murder, may be justifiable,--for his commands +are those of Heaven. It is obvious that it is fruitless to anticipate +fair dealing from a people professing such doctrines; and the result has +shown, that, in transactions with Mormons, even under oath, no one who +does not acknowledge a standard of religious belief similar to their own +can count upon justice any farther than they may think it politic +to accord it. The army is, indeed, placed in a position to suppress +instantaneously another forcible outbreak; but everybody is aware that +there are means of annulling the operation of law quite as effectually +as by an uprising in arms. Recent proceedings in the courts of the +extreme Southern States have caused this fact to be keenly appreciated. +The pirates who sailed the slavers "Echo" and "Wanderer" yet remain to +be punished. So far as South Carolina and Georgia are concerned, the law +declaring the slave-trade piracy is a dead letter; and the sentiment +which prevails toward it in Charleston and Savannah is an imperfect +index of that which is manifested at Salt Lake City toward all national +authority. + +The legislation of Utah has been conducted with a view to precisely the +condition of affairs which now exists, and the Territorial statute-book +shows that the transfer of executive power from Brigham Young had long +been anticipated. It is impracticable to adduce, in this place, proof of +the fact _in extenso_; but a brief enumeration of some of the principal +statutes will indicate the character of the entire code. An act exists +incorporating the Mormon Church with power to hold property, both real +and personal, to an indefinite extent, exempt from taxation, coupled +with authority to establish laws and criteria for its safety, +government, comfort, and control, and for the punishment of all offences +relating to fellowship, according to its covenants. By this act the +Church is invested with absolute and perpetual sovereignty. Under it +the whole system of polygamy is conducted, for plural marriages are +sanctioned by the covenants; the Danite organization is authorized, for +it is instituted for the comfort and control of the Church, and the +punishment of offences relative to fellowship; the burden of the taxes +is thrown in a yearly increasing ratio upon Gentiles, for the Church +property exempted from taxation amounts already to several millions +of dollars, and increases every day; and the treasonable rites of the +Endowment are celebrated, and the inferior members of the Church tithed +and pillaged, for the benefit of the First Presidency and the Twelve +Apostles. Acts also exist legalizing negro and Indian slavery. There are +within the Territory at the present time not more than fifty or sixty +negroes, but there are several hundred Indians, held in servitude. +These are mostly Pyides, into whose country some of the Utah bands make +periodical forays, capturing their young women and children, whom they +sell to the Navajoes in New Mexico, as well as to the Mormons. There are +other acts, which rob the United States judges of their jurisdiction, +civil, criminal, and in equity, and confer it on the Probate Courts; +which forbid the citation of any reports, even those of the Supreme +Court of the United States, during any trial; which regulate the descent +of property so as to include the issue of polygamic marriages among the +legal heirs; which withdraw from exemption from attachment the entire +property of persons suspected of an intention to leave the Territory; +which authorize the invasion of domiciles for purposes of search, upon +the simple order of any judicial officer; which legalize the rendition +of verdicts in civil cases upon the concurrence of two-thirds of the +jurors; which command attorneys to present in court, under penalty +of fine and imprisonment, in all cases, every fact of which they are +cognizant, "whether calculated to make against their clients or not"; +which restrict the institution of proceedings against adulterers to the +husband or the wife of one of the guilty parties; which levy duties +on all goods imported into the Territory for sale; which abolish +the freedom of the ballot-box, by providing that each vote shall be +numbered, and a record kept of the names of the electors with the +numbers attached, which, together with the ballots, shall be preserved +for reference; and which empower the county courts to impose taxes to +an indefinite amount on whomsoever they may please, for the erection +of fortifications within their respective jurisdictions. But the most +extraordinary and unconstitutional series of acts--no less than sixty +in number--exists with regard to the primary disposal of the soil, with +which the Territorial legislature is expressly forbidden by the Organic +Act to interfere. These pretend to confer upon Church dignitaries, and +especially on Brigham Young and his family, tracts of land probably +amounting in the aggregate to more than ten thousand square miles, as +well as the exclusive right to establish bridges and ferries over the +principal rivers in the Territory,--together with the exclusive use of +those streams flowing down from the Wahsatch Mountains which are most +valuable for irrigating and manufacturing purposes. The virtual control +of the settlement of the eastern portion of Utah is thus vested in +the Church; for these grants include almost all the lands which are +immediately valuable for occupation. After a glance at a list of them, +it is not hard to understand the causes of the great disparity in the +distribution of wealth among the Mormons. They have been so allotted as +to benefit a very few at the expense of the whole people; and they are +protected by a terrorism which no one dares to confront in order to +challenge their validity. The majority of the population are ignorant +of their rights,--and too pusillanimous to maintain them against the +hierarchy, if they were not. They therefore contribute to its coffers +not merely their tithing, but heavy exactions also for grazing their +cattle on pastures to which they themselves have just as much title as +the nominal proprietors, and for grinding their grain and purchasing +their lumber at mills on streams which are of right common to all the +settlers on their banks. + +From the Utah Expedition, then, it has become patent to the world, if +it is not to ourselves, that the Mormons are unwilling to administer a +republican form of government, if not incapable of doing so. The author +of the letter recently addressed by "A Man of the Latin Race" to the +Emperor Napoleon, on the subject of French influence in America, +comments especially upon this fact as symptomatic of the disintegration +of this republic; and allusion is made to it in every other foreign +review of our political condition. It is obviously inconsistent with our +national dignity that a remedy should not be immediately applied; but +when we seek for such, only two courses of action are discernible, in +the maze of political quibbles and constitutional scruples that at once +suggest themselves. One is, to repeal the Organic Act and place the +Territory under military control; the other is, to buy the Mormons out +of Utah, offering them a reasonable compensation for the improvements +they have made there, as also transportation to whatever foreign region +they may select for a future abode. + +The embarrassments which might result from the adoption of the former +course are obvious. It would be attended with immense expense, and would +embitter the Mormons still more against the National Government; and +it would also deter Gentiles from emigrating to a region where three +thousand Federal bayonets would constitute the sole guaranty of the +security of their persons and property. + +The other course is not only practicable, but humane and expedient. +During his whole career, Brigham Young committed no greater mistake than +when he settled in Utah a community whose recruits are almost without +exception drawn from foreign lands; for, since the removal from +Illinois, every attempt to propagate Mormonism in the American States +has been a failure. Every avenue of communication with Utah is +necessarily obstructed. No railroad penetrates to within eleven hundred +miles of Salt Lake Valley. There is no watercourse within four hundred +miles, on which navigation is practicable. Neither the Columbia nor the +Colorado empties into seas bordered by nations from which the Mormons +derive accessions; and the length of a voyage up the Mississippi, +Missouri, and Yellowstone forbids any expectation that their channels +will ever become a pathway to the centre of the continent. The road to +Utah must always lead overland, and travel upon it is the more expensive +from the fact that no great passenger-transportation companies exist at +either of the termini. Each family of emigrants must provide its own +outfit of provisions, wagons, and oxen, or mules. Through the agency of +what is called the Perpetual Emigration Fund of the Church, the capital +of which amounts to several millions of dollars,--which was instituted +professedly to befriend, but really to fleece the foreign converts,--few +Englishmen arrive at Salt Lake City without having exhausted their own +means and incurred an amount of debt which it requires the labor of many +years to discharge. The physical sufferings of the journey, also, are +severe and often fatal. The bleak cemetery at Salt Lake City contains +but a small proportion of the Mormon dead. Along the thousand miles of +road from the Missouri River to the Great Lake, there stand, thicker +than milestones, memorials of those who failed on the way. A rough +board, a pile of stones, a grave ransacked by wolves, crown many a swell +of the bottom-lands along the Platte; and across the broad belt of +mountains there is no spot so desolate as to be unmarked by one of these +monuments of the march of Mormonism. + +As these difficulties of transit subside under the surge of population +toward the new State of Oregon, or to the gold-diggings on the +head-waters of the South Fork of the Platte, an element must permeate +Utah which would be fatal to the supremacy of the Church. That depends, +as has been so often repeated, upon isolation. Already the presence of +the army with its crowd of unruly dependents has begun to disturb it. +In the trail of the troops, like sparks shed from a rocket, a legion +of mail-stations and trading-posts have sprung up, which materially +facilitate communication with the East. A horseman, starting now from +Fort Leavenworth, with a good animal, can ride to Salt Lake City, +sleeping under cover every night; while in July, 1857, when the army +commenced its march from the frontier, there were stretches of more than +three hundred miles without a single white inhabitant. On the west, +under the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, there is a settlement of several +thousand Gentiles in Carson Valley, who, though nominally under the same +Territorial government with the Mormons, have no real connection with +them, politically, socially, or commercially, and are petitioning +Congress for a Territorial organisation of their own. A telegraphic wire +has already wound its way over the sierra among them, and will soon +palpitate through Salt Lake City in its progress toward the Atlantic. + +Brigham Young perceives this inevitable advance of Christian +civilization toward his stronghold, as clearly as the most unprejudiced +spectator. No one is better aware than himself, that, if the great +industrial conception of the age, the Pacific Railroad, shall ever begin +to be realized, the first shovelful of dirt thrown on its embankments +will be the commencement of the grave of his religion and authority. +Among the projects with which his brain is busy is that of yet another +exodus; and it must be undertaken speedily, if at all,--for a generation +is growing up in the Church with an attachment for the land in which it +was reared. The pioneers of the faith, who were buffeted from Ohio to +Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois to the Rocky +Mountains, are dwindling every year. Their migrations have been so +various, that no local sentiment would influence them against another +removal. Such a sentiment, if it exists at all among them, is not for +Utah, but for Missouri, where they believe that the capital will be +founded of that kingdom in which the Church in the progress of ages will +unite the world. They dropped upon the shores of the Salt Lake in 1847, +like birds spent upon the wing, only because they could not fly farther. + +Two regions have been suggested for the ultimate resort of the Mormons: +one, the Mosquito Coast in Central America; the other, the Island of +Papua or New Guinea, among the East Indies. During the winter, while +the army lay encamped at Fort Bridger, Colonel Kinney, the colonizing +adventurer, endeavored to communicate from the East to Brigham Young an +offer to sell to the Church several millions of acres of land on the +Mosquito Coast, of which he purports to be the proprietor. His agent, +however, reached no farther than Green River. But during the spring of +1858, other agents, dispatched from California, were more successful in +reaching Salt Lake Valley. They were hospitably received by the Mormons, +but Young declined to enter into the negotiation. The other scheme--that +for an emigration to Papua--originated at Washington during the same +winter. It was eagerly seized upon by Captain Walter Gibson, the same +who was once imprisoned by the Dutch in Java. He put himself into +communication on the subject with Mr. Bernhisel, the Mormon delegate +to Congress, who appeared to regard the plan with favor. After it +was developed, as a step preliminary to transmitting it to Utah for +consideration, Mr. Bernhisel waited upon the President of the United +States in order to ascertain whether the cooperation of the National +Government in the undertaking could be expected. The reply of Mr. +Buchanan was fatal to the project, which he discountenanced as a vague +and wild dream. + +Nevertheless, it may well be considered whether the movement toward Utah +appeared any less Quixotic in 1846 than does the idea of an emigration +to Papua now. On that island the Mormons would encounter no such +obstacles to material prosperity as their indomitable industry has +already conquered in Utah. They would find a fertile soil, a propitious +climate, and a native population which could be trained to docility. +Transplanted thither, they would cease to be a nuisance to America, and +would become benefactors to the world by opening to commerce a region +now valueless to Christendom, but of as great natural capacities as any +portion of the globe. The expense of their migration need not exceed +the amount already expended upon the Army of Utah, together with that +necessary to maintain it in its present position for the next five +years. Into the seats which they would relinquish on the border of +the Salt Lake a sturdy population would pour from the Valley of the +Mississippi, and develop an intelligent, Christian, and Republican +State. That portion of the Mormons which would not follow the fortunes +of the Church beyond the seas would soon become submerged, and the last +vestige of its religion and peculiar domestic life would disappear +speedily and forever from the continent. + +For that consummation, every genuine Christian must fervently pray. If +the Message in the Book of Mormon be, as one of its own Apostles has +asserted, indeed "such, that, if false, none who persist in believing it +can be saved," the sooner this nation washes its hands of responsibility +for its toleration, the better for its credit in history. The +Constitution, to be sure, denies to Congress the power to pass laws +prohibiting the free exercise of religion; but it is the most monstrous +nonsense to argue that the Federal Government is bound thereby to +connive at polygamy, perjury, incest, and murder. There are principles +of social order which constitute the political basis of every state in +Christendom, that are violated by the practices of the Mormon Church, +and which this Republic is bound to maintain without regard to any +pretence that their transgressors act in pursuance of religious belief. +Thirty years ago, no other doctrine would have occurred to the mind +of an American statesman. It is only the special-pleadings and +constitutional hair-splittings by which Slavery has been forced under +national protection, that now impede Congressional intervention in the +affairs of Utah. The Christian Church of the United States, also, has a +duty to perform toward the Mormons, which has long been neglected. While +its missionaries have been shipped by the score to India and China, it +has been blind to the growth, upon the threshold of its own temple, of a +pagan religion more corrupt than that of the Brahmin. Never once has a +Christian preacher opened his lips in the valleys of Utah; and yet the +surplice of a Christian priest would be a sight more portentous to the +Mormon, on his own soil, than the bayonet of the Federal soldier. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +The next day, Monroe went with the artist to good Mr. Holworthy, +and proposed to undertake the task of instructing a school. The +preliminaries were speedily arranged: he was to receive a small weekly +stipend, enough, with prudence, to meet his household expenses, and +was to commence at once. Both of the gentlemen accompanied him to the +quarter where his labor was to begin. A large room was hired in a +rickety and forlorn-looking house; the benches for the scholars and a +small desk and chair were the only furniture. And such scholars!--far +different from the delicate, curled darlings of the private schools. The +new teacher found his labor sufficiently discouraging. It was nothing +less than the civilization of a troop of savages. Everything was to be +done; manners, speech, moral instincts, were all equally depraved. They +were to be taught neatness, respect, truth-telling, as well as the usual +branches of knowledge. It was like the task of the pioneer settler in +the wilderness, who must uproot trees, drain swamps, burn briers and +brambles, exterminate hurtful beasts, and prepare the soil for the +reception of the seeds that are to produce the future harvest. We leave +him with his charge, while we attend to other personages of our story. + +Mr. Sandford and his sister, upon leaving their house, took lodgings, +and then began to cast about them for the means of support. The money on +which he had relied was gone. His credit was utterly destroyed, and he +had no hope of being reinstated in his former position. The only way +he could possibly be useful in the street was by becoming a curbstone +broker, a go-between, trusted by neither borrower nor lender, and +earning a precarious livelihood by commissions. Even in that position +he felt that he should labor under disadvantages, for he knew that his +course had been universally condemned. It was a matter of every-day +experience for him to meet old acquaintances who looked over him, or +across the street, or in at shop-windows, to avoid recognition. And the +half-patronizing, half-contemptuous nods he did receive were far worse +to bear than downright cuts. + +To a man out of employment, proscribed, marked, there is nothing so +terrible as the _impenetrability_ of the close ranks of society around +him. Every busy man seems to have found his place; each locks step with +his neighbor, and the vast procession moves on. Once out of the serried +order, the unhappy wretch can never resume his position. He finds +himself the fifth wheel of a coach; there is nothing for him to do,--no +place for him at the bountiful board where others are fed. He may starve +or drown himself, as he likes; the world has no use for him, and will +not miss him. What Sandford felt, as he walked along the streets, may +well be imagined. If he had not been supported by the indomitable +courage and assurance of his sister, he would have sunk to the level of +a pauper. + +One day, as he was passing a church, his eye was caught by a placard at +the door, inviting, in bold letters, "friend, stranger, or traveller +to enter, if but for a few minutes." It was a "business-men's +prayer-meeting." The novelty of the idea struck him; he was at leisure; +he had no notes to pay; anybody might fail, for aught he cared. He went +in, and, to his surprise, saw, among the worshippers, scores of his old +friends, engaged in devotion. Like himself, they had, many of them, +failed, and, after the loss of all temporal wealth, had turned their +attention to the "more durable riches." He fell into a profound +meditation, from which he did not recover until the meeting ended. + +The next day he returned, and the day following, also,--taking a seat +each time a little nearer the desk, until at last he reached the front +row of benches, where he was to be seen at every service. It is not +necessary to speculate upon his motives, or to conjecture how far +he deceived himself in his professions,--if, indeed, there was any +deception in the case. Let him have the benefit of whatever doubt there +may be. The leading religious men _hoped_, without feeling any great +confidence; the world, especially the business world, mocked and +derided. + +But piety, in itself, however heartfelt, does not clothe or feed its +possessor, and Mr. Sandford, even with that priceless gift, must find +some means of supplying his temporal wants. His new friends had plenty +of advice for him, and some of them would have been glad to furnish +him with employment; but none of them were so well satisfied with the +sincerity of his conversion as to trust him far. It was not to be +wondered, after his exploits on the day of his failure, that there +should be a reasonable shyness on the part of those who had money which +they could not afford or did not choose to give away. It was quite +remarkable to see the change produced when the subject was introduced. +Faces, that a few minutes before had shone with tearful joy or rapturous +aspirations, full of brotherly affection, would suddenly cool, and +contract, and grow severe, when Sandford broached the one topic that was +nearest to him. He found that there was no way of escaping from the +law of compensation by appropriating the results of other men's +labors,--that religion (very much to his disappointment) gave him no +warrant to live in idleness; therefore he was fain to do what he could +for himself. He tried to act as a curb-stone broker, as an insurance +agent, as an adjuster of marine losses and averages, as an itinerant +solicitor for a life-insurance company, as an accountant, and in various +other situations. All in vain. He was shunned like an escaped convict; +the motley suit itself would hardly have added to his disgrace. No one +put faith in him or gave him employment,--save in a few instances, for +charity's sake. Few men can brave a city; and Sandford, certainly, was +not the man to do it. The scowling, or suspicious, or contemptuous, +pitying glances he encountered smote him as with fiery swords. He +quailed; he cowered; he dropped his eyes; he acquired a stooping, +shambling gait. The man who _feels_ that he is looked down upon grows +more diminutive in his own estimation, until he shrinks into the place +which the world assigns him. So Sandford shrunk, until he crept through +the streets where once he had walked erect, and earned a support as +meagre and precarious as the more brazen-faced and ragged of the great +family of mendicants, to which he was gravitating. + +Mendicants,--an exceeding great army! They do not all knock at +area-doors for old clothes and broken victual, nor hold out hats at +street-crossings, nor expose sharp-faced babies to win pity, nor send +their infant tatterdemalions to torture the ears of the wealthy with +scratchy fiddles and wheezing accordions. No, these plagues of society +are only the extreme left wing; the right wing is a very respectable +class in the community. The party-leader who makes his name and +influence serve him in obtaining loans which he never intends to +pay,--shall we call him a beggar? It is an ugly word. The parasite +who makes himself agreeable to dinner-givers, who calculates upon his +accomplishments as a stock in trade, intending that his brains shall +feed his stomach,--what is he, pray? It is ungracious to stigmatize +such a jolly dog. The woman whose fingers are hooped with rings won +in wagers which gallantry or folly could not decline, who is ready by +_philopaena_, or even by more direct suggestions, to lay every beau or +acquaintance under contribution,--is she a beggar, too? It is a long +way, to be sure, from the girl with scanty and draggled petticoat and +tangled hair, picking out lumps of coal from ash-heaps, or carrying home +refuse from the tables of the rich,--a long way from that squalid object +to the richly-cloaked, furred, bonneted, jewelled, flaunting lady, whose +friends are all _so_ kind. + +But the most charitable must feel a certain degree of pity, if not of +scorn, for those who, like Mr. and Miss Sandford, contrive to wear the +outward semblance of respectability, boarding with fashionable people +and wearing garments _à la mode_, while they have neither fortune nor +visible occupation. Miss Sandford, to be sure, had a few pupils in +music,--young friends, who, as she averred, "insisted upon practising +with her, although she did not profess to give lessons," not she. Still +her toilet was as elegant as ever. The first appearance of a new style +of cloak, a new pattern of silk or embroidery, new ribbons, laces, +jewelry, might be observed, as she took her morning promenade. The +dealers in rich goods, elegant trifles, costly nothings, all knew her +well. Whatever satisfied her artistic taste she purchased. To see was to +desire, and, in some way, all she coveted tended by a magical attraction +to her rooms. "Society" frowned upon her; she went to no receptions in +the higher circles, but she had no lack of associates for all that. +At concerts and other public assemblages, her brilliant figure and +irreproachable costume were always to be seen,--the admiration of men, +the envy of women. Nor was she without gallants. Gentlemen flocked about +her, and seemed only too happy in her smiles; but it never happened that +their wives or sisters joined in their attentions. On fine days, as she +came out for a walk, she was sure to be accompanied by some person whose +dress and manners marked him as belonging to the wealthy classes; and +at such times it generally happened,--according to the scandal-loving +shopkeepers,--that the last new book, the little "love" of a ring, or +the engraved scent-bottle was purchased. + +An odd affair is Society. At its outposts are flaming swords for women, +though invisible to other eyes; men can venture without the lines, if +they only return at roll-call. Let a woman receive or visit one of the +_demi-monde_, (the technical use of the word is happily inapplicable +here,) and she might as well earn her living by her own labor, or do +any other disreputable thing; but her brother may pay court to the most +doubtful, and mothers will only shake their heads and say, "He _must_ +sow his wild oats; he'll get over all that by-and-by." + +So the beauty was still queen in her circle, and found admirers in +plenty. Perhaps she even enjoyed the freedom; for, to a woman of spirit, +the constraints of _taboo_ must be irksome at times. Not the Brahmin, +who fears to tread upon sole-leather from the sacred cow, and dares +not even think of the flavor of her forbidden beef, who keeps himself +haughtily aloof from the soldier and the trader, and walks sunward from +the pariah, lest the polluting shadow fall on his holy person, has a +more difficult and engrossing occupation than the woman of fashion, in +a country where the distinctions of rank are so purely factitious as in +ours. Miss Sandford's time was now her own; she was accountable to no +supervisor. Her brother was a cipher. He did not venture to intrude upon +her, except at seasons when she was at leisure, and in a humor to be +bored by him. Perhaps she looked back regretfully, but, as far as could +be told by her manner, she carried herself proudly, with the air of one +who says,-- + + "Better reign in hell than serve in heaven." + +The observant reader has doubtless wondered before this, that Mr. +Sandford did not, in his emergency, apply to his old clerk, Fletcher, +for the money in exchange for the peculiar obligation of which mention +has been made. It is presuming too much upon Mr. Sandford's stupidity +to suppose that the idea had not frequently occurred to him. But he was +satisfied that Fletcher was one of the few who were making money in this +time of general distress, and that with every day's acquisition the +paper became more valuable; therefore, as it was his last trump, he +preferred to play it when it would sweep the board; and he was willing +to live in any way until the proper time came. Not so easy was Fletcher. +Several times he attempted to pay the claim, so that he could once more +hold his head erect as a free man. But Sandford smiled blandly; "he was +in no hurry," he said; "Mr. Fletcher evidently had money, and was good +for the amount." Poor Fletcher!--walking about with a rope around his +neck,--a long rope now, and slack,--but held by a man who knows not what +pity means! + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +Greenleaf pursued his search for Alice with all the ardor of his nature. +One glimpse only he had of her;--at a clothing-store, where he inquired, +the clerk seemed to recognize the description given, and was quite +sure that such a girl had taken out work, but he knew nothing of +her whereabouts, and he believed she was now employed by another +establishment. It was something to know that she was in the city, and, +probably, not destitute; still better to know what path of life she had +chosen, so that his time need not be wasted in fruitless inquiries. +On his return, after the second day's search, he sought his friend +Easelmann, whose counsel and sympathy he particularly desired. + +"Any tidings of the fugitive?" was the first question. + +"No," replied Greenleaf,--"nothing satisfactory. I have heard of her +once; but it was like a trail in the woods, which the hunter comes upon, +then loses utterly." + +"But the hunter who measures a track once will be likely to find it +again." + +"Yes, I have that consolation. But, Easelmann, though this mishap of +losing Alice has cost me many sleepless nights, and will continue to +engross my time until I find her, I cannot rid myself of other troubles +and apprehensions. I have done nothing for a long time. I have no +orders; and, as I have no fortune to fall back upon, I see nothing but +starvation before me." + +"Then, my dear fellow, look the other way. It isn't wise to distress +yourself by looking ahead, so long as you have the chance of turning +round." + +"I feel lonely, too,--isolated. People that I meet are civil enough; +but I don't know a man, except in my profession, that I can consider a +friend." + +"Very likely. Caste isn't confined to India." + +"I had supposed that intellect and culture were enough to secure for +a man a recognition in good society; but I am made to feel, a hundred +times a day, that I have no more _status_ than a clever colored man, an +itinerant actor, or any other anomaly. To-day I met Travis; you know he +comes here and makes himself free and easy with us, and has always put +himself on a footing of equality." + +"Wherein you made a mistake. He has no right, but by courtesy, to +any equality. A little taste, perhaps, and money enough to gratify +it,--that's all. He never had an idea in his life." + +"That is the reason I felt the slight. He was walking with a lady whose +manner and dress were unmistakable,--a lady of undoubted position. I +bowed, and received in return one of those hardly-perceptible nods, with +a forced smile that covered only the side of his face _from_ the lady. +It was a recognition that one might throw to his boot-black. I am a +mild-mannered man, as you know; but I could have murdered him on the +spot." + +Greenleaf walked the floor with flashing eyes and his teeth set. + +"Now, I like the spirit," said Easelmann; "but, pray, be sensible. +'Where Macdonald sits, there is the head of the table.' Stand firm in +your own shoes, and graduate your bows by those you get." + +"I suppose I am thin-skinned." + +"As long as you are, you will chafe. Cultivate a hide like a +rhinoceros's, and Society will let fly its pin-pointed arrows in vain. +You have a great deal to learn, my dear boy." + +"But other special classes are not so treated,--literary men, for +instance." + +"Don't be too sure of that. An author who has attained position is +_fêted_, because the fashionable circles must have their lions. But to +stand permanently like other men, he must have money or family, or else +obey the world's ten commandments, of which the first is, 'Thou shalt +not wear a slouched hat,'--and the rest are like unto it. No,--the +literary men have their heart-burnings, I suspect. They forget, as you +do, that their very profession, the direction of their thoughts, their +mode of life, cut them off from sympathy and fellowship. What has a +writer who dreams of rivalling Emerson or the 'Autocrat' to do with +costly and absorbing private theatricals, with dances at Papanti's, with +any of the thousand modes of killing time agreeably? And how shall you +become the new Claude, if you give your thoughts to the style of your +clothes, and to the inanities that make up the staple of conversation?" + +"But because I am precluded from devoting my time to society, that is no +reason why I should bear the patronizing airs"---- + +"Don't be patronized,--that's all. If a man gives you such a look as +you have described, cut him dead the next time you meet him. If anybody +gives you two fingers to shake, give him only one of yours. I tried that +plan on a doctor of divinity once, and it worked admirably. His intended +condescension somehow vanished in a mist, and the foolish confusion that +overspread his blank features would have done you good to behold." + +"I have no doubt. I don't think it would be easy to be impertinent to +you. Not that there are not presuming people enough; but you have a +way with you. Your blade that cuts off a bayonet at a blow will glide +through a feather as well." + +"A delicate stroke of yours! Now to return. You are out of money, you +say. Perhaps you will allow me to become your creditor for a while. I +may presume upon the relation and take on some airs;--that's inevitable; +one can't forego such a privilege;--but I promise to bow very civilly +whenever I meet you; and I won't remind you of the debt--above twice a +day." + +Taking out his pocket-book, he handed his friend fifty dollars, and +_pshawed_ and _poohed_ at every expression of gratitude. + +"By the way, Greenleaf," he continued, "I have been in search of an +absconding female also. You remember Mrs. Sandford, the charming widow?" + +"Yes,--what has become of her?" + +"You see how philosophical I am. I have not seen her yet; and yet I am +not crazy about it. Some chickens think the sky is falling, whenever a +rose-leaf drops on their heads." + +"But you have no such reason to be anxious." + +"Haven't I? Do you think old fellows like me have lost recollection as +well as feeling? One of the most deadly cases of romance I ever knew was +between people of forty and upwards." + +"How dull I was! I saw some rather odd glances between you at the +musical party, but thought nothing more about it. But why haven't you +been looking for her?" + +"I have been cogitating," said Easelmann, twisting his moustaches. + +"I should think so. If you had asked me, now! I went with her to the +house where I suppose she is still boarding." + +"Did you?" [_very indifferently, and with the falling inflection._] + +"Why, don't you want to know?" + +"Yes,--to-morrow. And I think, that, when we find her, we may find a +clue to your Alice." + +Greenleaf started up as if he had been galvanized. + +"You _have_ seen her, then! You old fox! Where is she? To-morrow, +indeed! Tell me, and I will fly." + +"You can't; for, as Brother Chadband observed, you haven't any wings." + +"Don't trifle with me. I know your fondness for surprises; but if you +love me, don't put me off with your nonsense." + +Greenleaf was thoroughly in earnest, and Easelmann took a more +soothing tone. At another time the temptation to tease would have been +irresistible. + +"Be calm, you man of gunpowder, steel, whalebone, and gutta-percha! I +positively have nothing but guesses to give you. Besides, do you think +you have nothing to do but rush into Alice's arms when you find her? +Take some valerian to quiet your nerves, and go to bed. In the morning, +try to smooth over those sharp features of yours. Use rouge, if you +can't get up your natural color. When you are presentable, come over +here again, and we'll stroll out in search of adventure. But mind, I +promise nothing,--I only guess." + +While he spoke, Greenleaf looked into the mirror, and was surprised to +see how anxiety had worn upon him. His face was thin and bloodless, and +his eyes sunken, but glowing. The quiet influence of his friend calmed +him, and his impatience subsided. He took his leave silently, wringing +Easelmann's hand, and walked home with a lighter heart. + +"He is a good fellow," mused Easelmann, "and has suffered enough for his +folly. The lesson will do him good." + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Mr. Bullion was not without good natural impulses, but his education and +experience had been such as to develop only the sharp and selfish traits +of his character. An orphan at the age of eleven years, he was placed +in a shop under the charge of a grasping, unscrupulous man, where he +learned the rules of business which he followed afterwards with so much +success. The old-fashioned notions about the Golden Rule he was speedily +well rid of; for when his indiscreet frankness to customers was +observed, the rod taught him the folly of untimely truth-telling, if not +the propriety of smoothing the way to a bargain by a glib falsehood. +With such training, he grew up an expert salesman; and before he was of +age, after various changes in business, he became the confidential clerk +in a large wholesale house. Owing to unexpected reverses, the house +became embarrassed, and at length failed. The head of the firm went back +to his native town a broken-hearted man, and not long afterwards died, +leaving his family destitute. But Bullion, with a junior partner, +settled with the creditors, kept on with the business, and prospered. +Perhaps, if the widow had received what was rightfully hers, the juniors +would have had a smaller capital to begin upon,--Bullion knew; but the +account, if there was one, was past settlement by human tribunals, and +had gone upon the docket in the great Court of Review. + +Wealth grows like the banian, sending down branches that take root on +all sides in the thrifty soil, and then become trunks themselves, and +the parents of ever-increasing boughs,--a sturdy forest in breadth, a +tree in unity. So Bullion grew and flourished. At the time of our story +he was rich enough to satisfy any moderate ambition; but he wished to +rear a colossal fortune, and the operations he was now concerned in +were fortunate beyond his expectations. But he was not satisfied. He +conceived the idea of carrying on the same stock-speculation in New +York on a larger scale, and made an arrangement with one of the leading +"bears" of that city; but he was careful to keep this a secret, most of +all from Fletcher and others of his associates at home. Fortune favored +him, as usual, and he promised himself a success that would make him a +monarch in the financial world. Under the excitement of the moment, he +had filled the baby hands of Fletcher's child with gold pieces. It was +as Fletcher said; his head was fairly turned by the glittering prospect +before him. + +The associate in New York proposed to Bullion the purchase of a +controlling interest in a railroad; and Bullion, believing that the +depression had nearly reached its limit, and that affairs would soon +take a turn, agreed that it was best now to change their policy, and to +buy all the shares in this stock that should be offered while the price +was low, and keep them as an investment. He felt sure that he with the +New York capitalist had now money enough to "swing" all the shares in +market, and they each agreed to purchase all that should be brought +to the hammer in their respective cities. Following up his promise +faithfully, Bullion bought all the stock of the railroad that came into +State Street, and in this way rapidly exhausted his ready money. Then he +raised loans upon his other property, and still kept the market clear. +But he wondered that so many shares came to Boston for sale; for the +railroad was in a Western State, and few of the original holders were +New England men. + +Bullion now met the first check in his career. Kerbstone, whose appeals +for help he had disregarded, and whose property had been wofully +depreciated by the course of the "bears," of whom Bullion was chief, +failed for a large sum. As he was treasurer of the Neversink Mills, +the stockholders and creditors of that corporation made an immediate +investigation of its accounts. Kerbstone was found to be a defaulter +to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars; the property was +gone,--undermined like a snow-bank in spring. The largest owner was +Bullion. He was overreached by his own shrewdness; and the hitherto +unlucky "bulls," who had had small cause to laugh, thought that it was + + "sport to see the engineer + Hoist with his own petard,"-- + +better even than to have tossed him on their own horns. + +Bullion made some wry faces; but the loss, though great, was not +ruinous. He was obliged, however, to take back the shares of the +factory-stock on which he had obtained loans for his New York +operations, and to substitute an equal amount of other securities,--thus +cramping his resources at a time when he needed every dollar to carry +out his vast plans. + +In the multiplicity of his affairs, Bullion had almost forgotten +Fletcher, and left him to pursue his own course. But there was a man who +had not forgotten him, and who followed all his movements with vigilant +eyes. Sandford was convinced that Fletcher had in some way become +prosperous, and he now advanced to use the peculiar note as a draft on +the miserable debtor's funds. There was the same wily approach, the same +covert allusion to Fletcher's supposed resources, the same peremptory +demand, and the same ugly threat which had so desperately maddened him +when the subject was broached before. Fletcher felt the tightening of +the lasso, but could not free himself from the fatal noose. He must pay +whatever the cold-eyed creditor demanded. Two thousand dollars was the +sum asked for the acknowledgment of having appropriated five hundred. +Twopence for halfpenny has been accounted fair usury among the Jews; but +in Christian communities it is only crime that accumulates interest like +that. + +As a measure of precaution, Sandford had made a copy of the paper and +prepared an explanatory statement; these he now inclosed in an envelope, +in Fletcher's presence, and directed it to Messrs. Foggarty, Danforth, +and Dot. Then drawing out his watch, as if to make a careful computation +of time, he said,-- + +"Nine, ten, eleven,--yes,--at eleven, to-morrow, I shall expect to +receive the sum; otherwise I shall feel it my duty to send this letter +by a trusty hand. In fact, I suppose I have hardly done right in not +putting the gentlemen on their guard before." + +A cold sweat covered Fletcher's shivering limbs, and for a moment he +stood irresolute; but recollecting Bullion, he rallied himself, and, +assenting to the proposition, bade Sandford good-bye; then, as the only +revenge practicable, he cursed him with the heartiest emphasis, when +his back was turned. Presently Tonsor came with the news of Kerbstone's +failure. + +"The street is full of rumors," he said;--"Bullion is a large owner in +the Neversink." + +"Bosh!" said Fletcher,--"Bullion is in there for fifty thousand, to be +sure; but what is that? He has other property enough,--half a million, +at least." + +"Still, a pebble brought down Goliath. A house in New York, worth a +million, failed yesterday for want of twenty-five thousand." + +"Don't you be alarmed. Bullion knows. He isn't going to fail." + +"I want to get ten thousand from him to take some shares I bought for +him." + +"How soon?" + +"Now; and he is not at his office." + +"I'll get you the money from our house. I haven't deposited the funds +for to-day yet, and I'll put in a memorandum which Bullion will make +good." + +"Hadn't you better wait?" + +"No; it doesn't matter. He's all right; and it isn't best to break his +orders for any ten thousand dollars." + +Fletcher handed the money to the broker, and, as bank-hours were then +about over, he put his papers in order and went home. + +"Lovey!" he exclaimed, upon meeting his wife, "I have been thinking +over what you said about getting my notes cashed. I believe I'll take +Bullion's offer and salt the money down. Probably, now, he will give me +a better trade, for there is considerable more due." + +"Oh, John! how glad I am! You _will_ do it to-morrow,--won't you, now?" + +"Yes, I'll settle with him to-morrow." + +He was thinking of the fact that Tonsor had bought shares for Bullion, +and he wondered what the move meant. A house divided against itself +could not stand; and he said to himself, that a man must be uncommonly +deep to be a "bull" and a "bear" at the same time. There was no doubt +that Bullion had embarked in some speculation which he had not seen fit +to make known to his agent. + +"There you go,--off into one of your fogs again!" said the wife, +noticing his suddenly abstracted air. "That's the way you have done for +the last three months,--ever since you began with that hateful man." + +"I get to thinking about affairs, my little woman, and I don't want to +bother your simple head with them; so I go cruising off in the fog, as +you call it, by myself." + +"Oh, if you once get through with that man's affairs, we'll have no more +fogs!" + +"No, deary, we'll have summer weather and a smooth sea, I hope, for the +rest of our voyage." + +"You see, John, I have been dreadfully anxious, more than I could tell +you. If anything goes wrong, I've always noticed that it isn't the big +people that have to suffer; it's the smaller ones that get caught." + +"Yes, it's an old story; the big flies break out of the spider's net; +the little chaps hang there. But I'll settle up the business to-morrow. +I shall have enough to buy us a little house in the country,--a snug +box, with a garden; then I'll get a horse to drive about with, and we'll +take some comfort. Come, little woman, sit on my knee! Come, baby, here +is a knee for you, too!" + +Holding them in his arms, he still mused upon the morrow, and once and +again charged his mind to remember "two thousand for Sandford, ten +thousand for Danforth and Dot!" + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Alice did not feel the utter loneliness of her situation, until, as she +walked along, square after square, she encountered so many hundreds of +abstracted or curious or impudent faces, and reflected that it was upon +such people that her future support and comfort would depend. She tried +to discover in some countenance the impress of kindly benevolence;--not +that she proposed to risk so much as a question; but it was her first +experience with the busy world, and she wished to observe its ways, +when neither relationship nor personal interest was involved. Small +encouragement she would have felt to approach any that she met. Men of +middle-age walked by as in dreams, cold, unobservant, listless; the +younger ones, fuller of life, strode on with high heads, and flinging +glances that were harder to bear than stony indifference, even. Ladies +clothed in costly furs scanned the pretty face under the mourning bonnet +with prying eyes, or tossed her a hasty, scornful look. Shop-girls +giggled and stared. Boys rushed by, rudely jostling every passenger. +Old women in scanty petticoats that were fringed by no dressmaker, with +pinched faces and watery eyes, looked imploringly and hobbled along, +wrapping parcels of broken victual under their faded shawls.--A sorry +world Alice thought it. In the country, she had been used to receive a +kindly bow or a civil "Good-morning!" from every person she met; and the +isolation of the individual in the city was to her something unnatural, +even appalling. + +She had cut out some boarding-house advertisements from the daily +papers, and her first care was to find a home suited to her slender +means. Reaching the door of the first on her list, she rang and was +shown into a small drawing-room, shabby-genteel in its furniture and +ornaments. Two seamstresses sat chattering around the centre-table; +while a ruddy young man, with greenish brown moustaches and sandy hair, +rested his clumsy boots on the fender, holding an open music-book in his +lap and a flute in his ill-kept and gaudily-ringed hands. The kitchen, +apparently, was not ventilated; and a mingled odor, beyond the analysis +of chemistry, came up into the entry and pervaded the hot and confined +atmosphere of the room. The landlady, a stout and resolute woman, +entered with a studied smile, which changed gradually to a cold +civility. Her eyes, unlike Banquo's, had a deal of speculation in them. +One might read the price-current in the busy wrinkles. Around her +pursed-up mouth lurked the knowledge of the number of available slices +in a sirloin,--the judgment of the lump of butter that should leave no +margin for prodigality. Warfare with market-men, shrewish watchfulness +over servants, economy scarcely removed from meanness at the table, all +were clearly indicated in her flushed and hard-featured face. + +Alice was not familiar with such people; but she shrank from her by +instinct, as the first chicken fled from the first hawk. The landlady, +on her part, was equally suspicious, and, finding that Alice had no +relatives to depend upon, and that she expected to earn her own living, +was not at all solicitous to increase the number of her boarders. + +"It's pootty hard to tell who's who, now-a-days," she said. "I have to +pay cash for all I set on the table, and I can't trust to fair promises. +Perhaps, though, you've got some _cousin_ that looks arter your bills?" + +The flute-player exchanged knowing glances with the seamstresses. + +All-unconscious of the taunt, Alice simply replied,-- + +"No, I have told you that I have no one to depend upon." + +The landlady's mouth was primly set, and she merely exclaimed,-- + +"Oh! indeed!" + +"I think I'll look further," said Alice. "Good-morning." + +"Good-morning." + +Half-suppressed chuckles followed her, as she left the room. Sorely +grieved and indignant, she took her way to another house. Fortune this +time favored her. The landlady, a kind-hearted woman, was in mourning +for her only daughter, and with the first words she heard she felt +her heart drawn to the lovely and soft-voiced stranger. Without any +offensive inquiries, Alice was at once received, and an upper room +assigned to her. After sending for her trunk, she dressed for dinner. + +The table presented specimens of all the familiar characters of +boarding-house life. There was the lawyer, sharp, observant, talkative, +ready for a joke or an argument. There was the solemn man of business, +who ate from a sense of duty, and scowled at the lawyer's bad puns. Near +him, with an absurdly youthful wig and opaque goggles, sat the Unknown; +his name, occupation, resources, and tastes alike a profound mystery. +Several dapper clerks, whose right ears drooped from having been used as +pen-racks, wearing stunning cravats, _outré_ brooches and shirt-studs, +learned in the lore of "two-forty" driving, were ranged opposite. Then +there was the jolly widow, who was the admiration of men of her own age, +but who cruelly gave all her smiles to the boys with newly-sprouting +chins. Near her sat the fastidious man, whose nostrils curled ominously +when any stain appeared on his napkin, or when anything sullied the +virgin purity of his own exclusive fork. His spectacles seemed to serve +as microscopes, made for the sole purpose of detecting some fatal speck +invisible to other eyes. There was the singer, with a neck like +a swan's, bowing with the gracious air that is acquired in the +acknowledgment of bouquets and _bravas_. The artist was her _vis-à -vis_, +powerful like Samson in his bushy locks, negligent with fore-thought, +wearing a massive seal-ring, and fragrant with the perfume of countless +pipes. The nice old maid near him turns away in disgust when she sees +his moustaches draggle in the soup. + +Down the long row of faces Alice looked timidly, and at length fastened +her eyes upon a lady in mourning like herself. There is no physiognomist +like the frank, affectionate young man or woman who looks to find +appreciation and sympathy. It is not necessary, for such a purpose, to +speculate upon Grecian or Roman noses, thin or protruding lips, blue, +gray, or brown eyes; each soul knows its own sphere and the people that +belong in it; and a sure instinct or prescience guides us in our choice +of friends. Alice at a glance became conscious of an affinity, and +quietly waited till circumstances should bring her into associations +with the woman whom she hoped to make a friend. + +It was not long before the occasion came. Not to make any mystery, it +was our old acquaintance, Mrs. Sandford, who attracted the gaze of +Alice, and who soon became her kindly adviser. Never was there a more +_motherly_ woman; and, as she was now almost a stranger in the house, +she attached herself to Alice with a warmth and an unobtrusive +solicitude that quite won the girl's heart. Alice lost no time in +procuring such work from a tailor as she felt competent to do, and +applied herself diligently to her task; but a very short trial convinced +her, that, at the "starvation prices" then paid for needlework, she +should not be able to earn even her board. Then came in the thoughtful +friend, who, after gently drawing out the facts of the case, furnished +her with sewing on which she could display her taste and skill. Day +after day new employment came through the same kind hands, until Alice +wondered how one wearer could want such a quantity of the various +nameless, tasteful articles in which all women feel so much pride. +It was not until long after, that she learned how the work had been +procured by her friend's active, but noiseless agency. + +Not many days after their intimacy commenced, as Mrs. Sandford sat +watching Alice at her work, it occurred to her that there was a look of +tender sorrow, an unexplained melancholy, which her recent bereavement +did not wholly account for. Not that the girl was given to romantic +sighs or tragic starts, or that she carried a miniature for lachrymose +exercises; but it was evident that she had what we term "a history." She +was frank and cheerful, although there was palpably something kept +back, and her cheerfulness was like the mournful beauty of flowers that +blossom over graves. No sympathetic nature could refuse confidence to +Mrs. Sandford, and it was not long before she discovered that Alice had +passed through the golden gate to which all footsteps tend, and from +which no one comes back except with a change that colors all the after +life. + +"And so you are in love, poor child!" said Mrs. Sandford, +compassionately. + +"I have been" (with a gentle emphasis). + +"Ah, you think you are past it now, I suppose?" + +"I sha'n't _forget_ soon,--I could not, if I would; but love is +over,--gone like yesterday's sunshine." + +"But the sun shines again to-day." + +"Well, if you prefer another comparison," said Alice, smiling +faintly,--"gone out like yesterday's fire." + +"Fire lurks a long time in the ashes unseen, my dear." + +Alice dropped her needle and looked steadily at her companion. + +"I am young," she said; "yet I have outgrown the school-girl period. +The current of my life has flowed in a deep channel: the shallow little +brook may fancy its first spring-freshet to be a Niagara; but my +feelings have swelled with no transient overflow. I gave my utmost love +and devotion to a man I thought worthy. He treated me with neglect, and +at last falsified his word in offering his hand to another, I do not +hate him. I have none of that alchemy which changes despised love to +gall. But I could never forgive him, nor trust him again. And if he, +who seemed always so frank, so earnest, so tender, so single in his +aims,--if he could not be trusted, I do not know where I could rest my +heart and say,--'Here I am safe, whatever betide!'" + +It was a strange thing for Alice to speak in such an exalted strain, and +she trembled as she tried to resume her sewing. The thread slipped and +knotted; the needle broke and pricked her finger; and then, feeling her +cheeks begin to glow, she laid down her work and turned to the window. + +"Don't lose _all_ faith, Alice; there are true hearts in the world. +Perhaps this lover of yours, now, has repented and is striving to find +you. Or you may have been misinformed as to the extent of his treachery. +To take your own simile, you don't accuse the brook of fickleness merely +because it eddies around under some flowery bank; after it has made the +circle, it keeps on its steady course." + +Alice only shook her head, still keeping her face averted to conceal the +tremor of her lips. + +"But you haven't told me who this man is. How odd it would be, if I knew +him!" + +"I would rather not have you know. The secret isn't a fatal one, to be +sure; but I prefer to keep it." + +Suddenly she stepped back from the window, ashy pale, and gasping +hysterically. Mrs. Sandford rose hastily to assist her, and, as she +did so, noticed her old acquaintance, Mr. Greenleaf, on the opposite +sidewalk. She helped Alice to her seat and brought her a glass of +water, and, as she did so, in an instant the long track of the past was +illumined as by a flash of lightning. She saw the reason for Greenleaf's +conduct towards her sister-in-law, Marcia. She remembered his early +fascination, his long, vacillating resistance, his brief engagement, and +the stormy scene when it was broken. She had seen the thread of Fate +spun for each, without knowing that invisible strands connected them. +She had begun to read a tale of sorrow, but the page was torn, and now +she had finished it upon the chance-found fragment; the irregular and +jagged edges fitted together like mosaic-work. + +What a mystery is Truth! A Lie may simulate its form or hue, and, taken +by itself, may deceive the most acute observer. But in the affairs of +the world, every fact is related; it meets and is joined by other facts +on every side,--the whole forming an harmonious figure in all its angles +and curves as well as in its gradations of color. Each truth slips +easily into its predestined place; a lie, however trivial, has no place; +its angles are belligerent, its colors false; it makes confusion, and is +thrown out as soon as the eye of the Master falls upon it. + +Alice revived. + +"Did I speak?" she asked. + +"No,--you said nothing." + +"I am glad. I feared I had been foolish. It was a mere passing +faintness." + +Mrs. Sandford thought it was the _cause_ of the faintness that was +passing, but she prudently kept her discovery to herself. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Fletcher rose next morning betimes, after a night of fitful and +unrefreshing slumber. In his dreams he had sought Bullion in vain; that +substantial person seemed to have become a new Proteus, and to +escape, when nearly overtaken, by taking refuge in some unexpected +transformation. Sometimes the scene changed, and it was the dreamer that +was flying, while Sandford, shod with swiftness, pursued him, swinging +a lasso; and as often as the fierce hunter whirled the deadly coil, +Fletcher awoke with a suffocating sensation, and a cold sweat trickling +from his forehead. At breakfast, his wife noticed with intense anxiety +his sharpened features and his evident preoccupation of mind. He hurried +off, snatching a kiss from the baby and from the mother who held it, and +walked towards Bullion's office. He knew Bullion was an early riser, +and he felt sure of being able to see him before the usual hour of +commencing business. But the office was not even opened; and, looking +through the glass door, he saw that there was no fire in the grate. What +was the meaning of this? Going into the street, he met Tonsor near the +post-office. At the first sight of the broker's face, Fletcher's heart +seemed to stop beating. + +"Good-morning, Fletcher. Bad business, this! I suppose you've heard. +Bullion went to protest yesterday. Hope you got wind of it in time, and +made all safe." + +"Bullion failed!" exclaimed Fletcher, through his chattering teeth. +"Then I'm a ruined man!" + +But a sudden thought struck him, and he asked eagerly,-- + +"But the money,--haven't you got it still?" + +"No,--paid it over yesterday." + +"Well, the shares, then?" + +"No,--sorry to say, Bullion's clerk came for them not ten minutes before +I heard of the protest." + +"O God!" groaned the unhappy man, "there is no hope! But you, Mr. +Tonsor, you are my friend; help me out of this! You can raise the +money." + +"Ten thousand dollars! It's a pretty large sum. I'm afraid I couldn't +get it." + +"Try, my friend,--you shall never regret it." + +Tonsor hesitated, and Fletcher's spirits rose. He watched the broker's +composed face with eyes that might pierce a mummy. + +"What is the collateral?" asked Tonsor, slowly raising his wrinkled +eyelids. + +"Bullion's notes for seventeen thousand dollars." + +"And Bullion gone to protest." + +"He'll come up again." + +"Perhaps; but while he is down, I can't do anything with his paper. The +truth is, Fletcher, you ought not to have advanced the money for him. +Remember, I warned you when you were about to do it." + +Fletcher did not look as though he found the "Balm of I-told-you-so" +very consoling. + +Tonsor continued,-- + +"Now, if I were in your place, I would go and make a clean breast of it +to Danforth. It was wrong, though I know you didn't mean any harm. He +may be angry, but he won't touch you. You _can't_ raise ten thousand +dollars in these times,--not to save your soul." + +"Keep your advice, and your money, too," said Fletcher, in sullen +despair. "I ask for bread, and you give me a stone. Your moral lecture +won't pay my debts." + +He turned away abruptly and went again to Bullion's office. It was still +closed. Determined at all hazards to see the man for whom he had risked +so much, he went to his house on Beacon Hill. The servant said Mr. +Bullion was not at home. Fletcher did not believe it, but the door was +closed in his face before he could send a more urgent message, and with +a sinking heart he retraced his steps towards State Street. + +The horror of his position was now fully before him. He could not +conceal his defalcation, and there was no longer a shadow of hope of +replacing the money. Many a time he had taken the risk of lending large +sums to brokers and others; but who would trust him, a man without +estate, in a time like this? In his terrible anxiety about the new +obligation, he had forgotten the old, until he chanced to observe +Sandford on the opposite sidewalk, strolling leisurely towards the +business quarter of the town. The ex-secretary made a barely-perceptible +bow, and, drawing out his watch, significantly turned the face towards +his debtor. It was enough; there was no need of words. It was a little +after ten o'clock; the fatal letter would be delivered at eleven! +Fletcher crossed the street and accosted Sandford, though not without +trepidation; for he shuddered like a swimmer within reach of a shark, as +he encountered those cold and pitiless eyes. + +"Come to the office, Mr. Sandford, at eleven," he said. "The affair will +be settled then, and forever." + +Mr. Sandford nodded and walked on. Fletcher, meanwhile, quivering with +agony, hurried to his employer's office. He scanned each face sharply +as he entered, and felt sure that the loss had not yet been discovered. +Going to his desk, he wrote and sealed a letter, and then went out, +saying he had some business with a lawyer overhead. + +Mrs. Fletcher grew momently more uneasy, after her husband left the +house. A vague sense of coming evil oppressed her, until at length she +could bear it no longer; she left her child with the servant, and, +walking to the nearest stand, took a coach for State Street. On the way +she recalled again and again the muttered words she heard during the +night; she thought of the silent, comfortless breakfast, the hurried +good-bye; she felt again the pressure of his trembling lips upon her +own. Full of apprehension, she asked the coachman to call her husband +to the door. Answer was made by a clerk that Mr. Fletcher was out on +business, but was expected back presently. So she waited, looking out +of the carriage-window,--a sad face to see! The hands of the Old +State-House clock pointed at eleven, when Mr. Sandford punctually made +his appearance,--smooth, cheerful, and with a slight exhilaration, in +prospect of the two thousand dollars. Almost at the same moment Bullion +came also; for Tonsor, fearing that Fletcher would take some desperate +step, had been to the surly bankrupt's house and insisted upon his +coming down to see his unfortunate agent. Just at the office-door, and +opposite the carriage, met the two bankrupts, the disgraced "bull" +and the vanquished "bear." It was an odd look of recognition that +was exchanged between them; and if there was a shade of triumph in +Sandford's face, it was not to be wondered at. They stood at the door, +each motioning the other to enter first, when an unusual sound from the +adjoining entry caused both of them to stop, and one of them, at least, +to shiver. It was a sound of slow and hesitating, shuffling steps, as of +men carrying a burden. The steps came nearer. Both Bullion and Sandford +moved hurriedly to the spot. The men stopped in the doorway with their +burden, and in a moment, with frantic shrieks, Mrs. Fletcher rushed in +and fell upon the body of her husband! + +"Good God! what's this?" exclaimed Bullion. "Dead?" He stooped down and +thrust his hand under the waistcoat. The heart was still! He shuddered +convulsively and drew back, covering his eyes. "Dead!" + +Mr. Sandford seemed frozen to the threshold in speechless horror. There +was his debtor, free,--the old account settled forever! The pallid +temples would throb no more; the mobile lips had trembled their last; +the glancing, restless eyes had found a ghastly repose; the slender and +shapely frame, bereft of its active tenant, was limp and unresisting. +What a moment for the two men, as they stood over the corpse of their +victim! + +Attracted by the unusual outcry, Mr. Danforth came hastily out of the +office, and stood, as it were, transfixed at the sight of the dead. The +men who had brought down the body at last found words to tell their +dismal story. + +They were at work on the upper floor, when they heard a noise in one of +the adjoining rooms; as the apartment had been for some time unoccupied, +they were naturally surprised. After a while all sounds ceased, and +still no one came out to descend the stairs. Appalled by the silence, +they broke open the door, and discovered Fletcher hanging by the neck +from a coat-hook; a chair, overturned, had served as the scaffold from +which he had stepped into eternity. They took him down, but life was +already gone. A paper lay on his hat, with these words hastily pencilled +on it:-- + +"On my desk is a letter that explains all. I'm off. Good-bye. + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +Mr. Danforth, hearing this, instantly went into his office, and +reappeared, reading a note addressed to him. Mr. Sandford, meanwhile, +was striving to raise the wretched woman to her feet, and to lead her +to the carriage. Mr. Bullion no longer whisked his defiant eyebrow, but +stood downcast, silent, and conscience-stricken. + +"Listen a moment," said Mr. Danforth. "Here is a letter from our rash +friend, and, as it concerns you, gentlemen, I will read it. But first, +my dear Madam, let me help you into the carriage." + +The prostrate woman made no answer, save by a slow rolling of her +body,--her sobs continuing without cessation. The letter was read:-- + +"MR. DANFORTH, + +"To make a payment for shares bought by Mr. Bullion, I borrowed ten +thousand dollars from your house yesterday. Mr. Bullion has failed, and +does not protect me. He escapes, and I am left in the trap. I charge him +to pay my wife the notes he owes me. As he hopes to be saved, let him +consider that a debt of honor. + +"But my death I lay at Sandford's door. He has followed me with a steady +bay, like a bloodhound. His claim is now settled forever, as I told him. +I don't ask God to forgive him;--I don't, and God won't. Let him live, +the cold-blooded wretch that he is; one world or another would make no +difference; for, to a devil like him, there is no heaven, no earth, +nothing but hell. + +"My poor wife! See to her, if you have any pity for + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +"Look," said Mr. Danforth, holding the letter under the stony eyes of +Sandford,--"see where the tears blistered the paper!" + +All the while, Mrs. Fletcher kept up an inarticulate moaning, though the +sound grew fainter from exhaustion. + +"Let us stop this," said Bullion, seeing the gathering crowd of +passers-by. "Better be at home." + +Pointing to the still prostrate woman, he, with Mr. Danforth, gently +raised her up and placed her in the carriage. She did not speak, but +murmured pleadingly, while her face wore a look of agonized longing, and +her outstretched hands clutched nervously. + +"Poor thing!" said Mr. Danforth, his voice beginning to tremble,--"she +shall have her dead husband, if it is any comfort to her." + +"That's right," said Bullion,--"carry him off before half-a-dozen +coroner-buzzards come to fight over him." + +The body was laid in the carriage, the head she had so often caressed +resting in her lap, while her tears bathed the unconscious face, and +her groans became heart-rending. Still holding the carriage-door, Mr. +Danforth turned to Sandford, saying,-- + +"I don't know _what_ you have done, but his blood is on your soul. I +would rather be like him there, than you, on your feet.--Bullion, I +don't mind the ten thousand dollars; but was it just the manly thing to +leave a man that trusted you in this way to be sacrificed? Why didn't +you come down this morning? God forgive you!--Coachman, drive to +Carleton Street." + +He stepped into the carriage, and away it rolled with its load of +sorrow. + +Mr. Sandford found the glances of his companion and the bystanders quite +uncomfortable, and he slunk silently away. Failure and disgrace he +had met; but this was a position for which he had not the nerve. +The self-accusing Cain was not the only man who has exclaimed, "My +punishment is greater than I can bear." Flight was the only alternative +for Sandford. As long as he remained in Boston, every face seemed to +wear a look of condemnation. The mark was set upon him, and avenging +fiends pursued him. That very day he left the city in disguise. Through +what trials he passed will never be known. But destitute, friendless, +and broken-spirited, he wandered from city to city, a vagabond upon the +face of the earth. Nor did a sterner retribution long delay. In New +Orleans, he was so far reduced that he was obliged to earn a miserable +support in an oyster-saloon near the levee. One night, a fight began +between some drunken boatmen: and Sandford, though in no way concerned +in the affair, received a chance bullet in his forehead, and fell dead +without a word. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Bullion, at last, in spite of his armor of selfishness and stoicism, was +touched in a vital part. His dreams of wealth had vanished into air. The +confederate in New York in whom he had trusted had only made him a dupe. +Blindly following out his agreement, he found himself saddled with a +load of railroad-shares, useless for any present purpose, and all his +convertible property gone. The consciousness that he--the man of all +others who prided himself upon his sagacity--had been so easily +overreached was quite as humiliating as the idea of ruin itself. He +remembered Kerbstone's appeals, also, and now cursed his own stupidity +in refusing to aid him. There he had overreached himself; it was his own +stocks which he had thrown down to the "bears." And now, heaviest stroke +of all, Fletcher, his intrepid and chivalrous agent, who had stepped +into the breach for him, had paid for his indiscretion with his life. +The thought gave him a pang he had never felt, not even when he followed +his wife to the grave. Homeward he went, but slowly and almost without +volition. He recognized no acquaintances that he met, but walked on +abstractedly, fixing his eyes on vacancy with a look as mournful as his +iron features could wear. In his ears still rang those thrilling cries. +His hand, that had groped over that motionless heart, still felt a +creeping chill; it would not warm. And constantly an accusing voice +asked, "Why didn't you come down?"--and conscience repeated the question +in tones like those of a judge arraigning a criminal. He reached his +house and gave orders that no one should be admitted. In his room he +passed the day alone, drifting on an ocean of remorse, full of vague +purposes of repentance and restitution. Dinner passed unheeded, and +still he paced the silent chamber. With the approach of evening his +terrors increased; he rang for a servant and had the gas-burners +lighted. Still, in all the blaze, shapes would haunt him; they crouched +at the foot of his bed; they lurked behind his wardrobe-door. He dared +not look over his shoulder, but forced himself to stand up and face +what he so dreaded to see. He rang again and bade the servant bring +a screw-driver and take down the coat-hooks from the wardrobe; the +garments hanging there seemed to be men struggling in the agonies of +asphyxia. The slender thread of sound from the gas-burners seemed to be +changed to low, mournful cries, as of a woman over the dead. He turned +the gas down a little; then the shadows of the cannel-coal fire danced +like spectres on the ceiling. He jumped up and raised the lights again; +again the low, dismal monotone sang in his ears. He stopped them with +his fingers; again the persistent voice asked, "Why didn't you come +down?" Flakes fell off the coal in the grate in shapes like coffins; +the flames seemed to dart at him with their fiery tongues. He rang once +more, and when the servant came he bade him drink enough strong tea and +then take his chair by the fire. + +"Touch me, if I groan," said he to the astonished John. "Keep awake +yourself, and hold your tongue. If you go to sleep or leave me, I'll +murder you." + +Then wrapping himself in his dressing-gown, he settled down in his +easy-chair for the night. + +The night passed, as all nights will, and in the morning Mr. Bullion +was calmer. The first intelligence he received after breakfast was in a +message from Tonsor, delivered by a servant. + +"Plaze, Sur, Mr. Tonsor's compliments, and he says the banks is +suspinded and money's to be asier." + +"Send after Mr. Tonsor; overtake him, and ask him to come back. I want +to see him." + +Tonsor returned, and they had a long conference. It now seemed probable +that stocks would be more buoyant and the "bulls" would have their turn. +Any considerable rise in shares would place Bullion on his feet and +enable him to resume payment. Most of his time-contracts had been met, +and the change would be of the greatest service to him. He placed his +shares, therefore, in Tonsor's hands with instructions to sell when +prices advanced. He then looked over the amount of his liabilities, and +saw, with some of his old exultation, that, if he could effect sales +at the rates he expected, he should have at least two hundred thousand +dollars after paying all his debts. Ambition again whispered to him, +that he might now take his old place in the business world, and perhaps +might more than retrieve his losses. But he thought of the last night, +and shrank from encountering a new brood of horrors. Firm in his new +purpose, he dismissed the broker and sent for his counsellor. + +"My son," he meditated, "is a lawyer in good practice. He needs no +fortune. Twenty thousand will be enough for him; more than I had, which +wasn't a penny. My daughter is married rich. Didn't mean to have any +pauper son-in-law to be plaguing me. The same for her. The rest will +square those old accounts,--and the new one, too, on the book up yonder! +Best to fix it now, while I can muster the courage. If I once get the +money, I'm afraid I shouldn't do it. So my will shall set all these +matters right; and it shall be drawn and signed to-day." + +That night Mr. Bullion needed no servant to watch with him. The ghosts +were laid. + +[To be concluded in the next number.] + + * * * * * + + +INSCRIPTION + +FOR AN ALMS-CHEST MADE OF CAMPHOR-WOOD. + + + This fragrant box that breathes of India's balms + Hath one more fragrance, for it asketh alms; + But, though 'tis sweet and blessed to receive, + You know who said, "It is more blest to give": + Give, then, receive His blessing,--and for me + Thy silent boon sufficient blessing be! + If Ceylon's isle, that bears the bleeding trees, + With any perfume load the Orient breeze,-- + If Heber's Muse, by Ceylon as he sailed, + A pleasant odor from the shore inhaled,-- + More lives in me; for underneath my lid + A sweetness as of sacrifice is hid. + + Thou gentle almoner, in passing by, + Smell of my wood, and scan me with thine eye;-- + I, too, from Ceylon bear a spicy breath + That might put warmness in the lungs of death; + A simple chest of scented wood I seem, + But, oh! within me lurks a golden beam,-- + + A beam celestial, and a silver din, + As though imprisoned angels played within; + Hushed in my heart my fragrant secret dwells; + If thou wouldst learn it, Paul of Tarsus tells;-- + No jangled brass nor tinkling cymbal sound, + For in my bosom Charity is found. + + * * * * * + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +THE DEPARTURE. + + +Why one leaves home at all is a question that travellers are sure, +sooner or later, to ask themselves,--I mean, pleasure-travellers. Home, +where one has the "Transcript" every night, and the "Autocrat" +every month, opera, theatre, circus, and good society, in constant +rotation,--home, where everybody knows us, and the little good there is +to know about us,--finally, home, as seen regretfully for the last time, +with the gushing of long frozen friendships, the priceless kisses of +children, and the last sad look at dear baby's pale face through the +window-pane,--well, all this is left behind, and we review it as a +dream, while the railroad-train hurries us along to the spot where we +are to leave, not only this, but Winter, rude tyrant, with all our +precious hostages in his grasp. Soon the swift motion lulls our brains +into the accustomed muddle; we seem to be dragged along like a miserable +thread pulled through the eye of an ever-lasting needle,--through and +through, and never through,--while here and there, like painful knots, +the _dépôts_ stop us, the poor thread is arrested for a minute, and then +the pulling begins again. Or, in another dream, we are like fugitives +threading the gauntlet of the grim forests, while the ice-bound trees +essay a charge of bayonets on either side; but, under the guidance of +our fiery Mercury, we pass them as safely as ancient Priam passed the +outposts of the Greeks,--and New York, as hospitable as Achilles, +receives us in its mighty tent. Here we await the "Karnak," the British +Mail Company's new screw-steamer, bound for Havana, _viâ_ Nassau. At +length comes the welcome order to "be on board." We betake ourselves +thither,--the anchor is weighed, the gun fired, and we take leave of our +native land with a patriotic pang, which soon gives place to severer +spasms. + +I do not know why all celebrated people who write books of travels begin +by describing their days of sea-sickness. Dickens, George Combe, Fanny +Kemble, Mrs. Stowe, Miss Bremer, and many others, have opened in like +manner their valuable remarks on foreign countries. While intending to +avail myself of their privilege and example, I would, nevertheless, +suggest, for those who may come after me, that the subject of +sea-sickness should be embalmed in science, and enshrined in the crypt +of some modern encyclopaedia, so that future writers should refer to it +only as the Pang Unspeakable, for which _vide_ Ripley and Dana, +vol. ---, page ---. But, as I have already said, I shall speak of +sea-sickness in a hurried and picturesque manner, as follows:-- + +Who are these that sit by the long dinner-table in the forward cabin, +with a most unusual lack of interest in the bill of fare? Their eyes are +closed, mostly, their cheeks are pale, their lips are quite bloodless, +and to every offer of good cheer, their "No, thank you," is as faintly +uttered as are marriage-vows by maiden lips. Can they be the same that, +an hour ago, were so composed, so jovial, so full of dangerous defiance +to the old man of the sea? The officer who carves the roast-beef offers +at the same time a slice of fat;--this is too much; a panic runs through +the ranks, and the rout is instantaneous and complete. The ghost of what +each man was disappears through the trap-door of his state-room, and the +hell which the theatre faintly pictures behind the scenes begins in good +earnest. + +For to what but to Dante's "Inferno" can we liken this steamboat-cabin, +with its double row of pits, and its dismal captives? What are these +sighs, groans, and despairing noises, but the _alti guai_ rehearsed by +the poet? Its fiends are the stewards who rouse us from our perpetual +torpor with offers of food and praises of shadowy banquets,--"Nice +mutton-chop, Sir? roast-turkey? plate of soup?" Cries of "No, no!" +resound, and the wretched turn again, and groan. The philanthropist has +lost the movement of the age,--keeled up in an upper berth, convulsively +embracing a blanket, what conservative more immovable than he? The great +man of the party refrains from his large theories, which, like the +circles made by the stone thrown into the water, begin somewhere and end +nowhere. As we have said, he expounds himself no more, the significant +fore-finger is down, the eye no longer imprisons yours. But if you ask +him how he does, he shakes himself, as if, like Farinata,-- + + "avesse l' inferno in gran dispetto,"-- + +"he had a very contemptible opinion of hell." Let me not forget to add, +that it rains every day, that it blows every night, and that it rolls +through the twenty-four hours till the whole world seems as if turned +bottom upwards, clinging with its nails to chaos, and fearing to launch +away. The captain comes and says,--"It is true, you have a nasty, short, +chopping sea hereabouts; but you see, she is spinning away down South +jolly!" And this is the Gulf-Stream! + +But all things have an end, and most things have two. After the third +day, a new development manifests itself. Various shapeless masses are +carried upstairs and suffered to fall like snow-flakes on the deck, and +to lie there in shivering heaps. From these larvae gradually emerge +features and voices,--the luncheon-bell at last stirs them with the +thrill of returning life. They look up, they lean up, they exchange +pensive smiles of recognition,--the steward comes, no fiend this time, +but a ministering angel, and, lo! the strong man eats broth, and the +weak woman clamors for pickled oysters. And so ends my description of +our sea-sickness. + +For, as for betraying the confidences of those sad days, as for telling +how wofully untrue Professors of Temperance were to their principles, +how the Apostle of Total Abstinence developed a brandy-flask, not +altogether new, what unsuccessful tipplings were attempted in the +desperation of nausea, and for what lady that stunning brandy-smasher +was mixed,--as for such tales out of school, I would have you know that +I am not the man to tell them. + +Yet a portrait or so lingers in my mental repository;--let me throw them +in, to close off the lot. + +No. 1. A sober Bostonian in the next state-room, whose assiduity with +his sea-sick wife reminds one of Cock-Robin, when he sent Jenny Wren +sops and wine. This person was last seen in a dressing-gown, square-cut +night-cap, and odd slippers, dancing up and down the state-room floor +with a cup of gruel, making wild passes with a spoon at an individual in +a berth, who never got any of the contents. Item, the gruel, in a moment +of excitement, finally ran in a stream upon the floor, and was wiped up +by the steward. Result not known, but disappointment is presumable. + +No. 2. A stout lady, imprisoned by a board on a sofa nine inches wide, +called by a facetious friend "The Coffin." She complains that her sides +are tolerably battered in;--we hold our tongues, and think that the +board, too, has had a hard time of it. Yet she is a jolly soul, laughing +at her misfortunes, and chirruping to her baby. Her spirits keep up, +even when her dinner won't keep down. Her favorite expressions are "Good +George!" and "Oh, jolly!" She does not intend, she says, to lay in any +dry goods in Cuba, but means to eat up all the good victuals she comes +across. Though seen at present under unfavorable circumstances, she +inspires confidence as to her final accomplishment of this result. + +No. 3. A woman, said to be of a literary turn of mind, in the +miserablest condition imaginable. Her clothes, flung at her by the +stewardess, seem to have hit in some places, and missed in others. +Her listless hands occasionally make an attempt to keep her draperies +together, and to pull her hat on her head; but though the intention is +evident, she accomplishes little by her motion. She is perpetually being +lugged about by a stout steward, who knocks her head against both sides +of the vessel, folds her up in the gangway, spreads her out on the deck, +and takes her up-stairs, down-stairs, and in my lady's chamber, where, +report says, he feeds her with a spoon, and comforts her with such +philosophy as he is master of. N.B. This woman, upon the first change of +weather, rose like a cork, dressed like a Christian, and toddled about +the deck in the easiest manner, sipping her grog, and cutting sly jokes +upon her late companions in misery,--is supposed by some to have been an +impostor, and, when ill-treated, announced intentions of writing a book. + +No. 4, my last, is only a sketch;--circumstances allowed no more. Can +Grande, the great dog, has been got up out of the pit, where he worried +the stewardess and snapped at the friend who tried to pat him on the +head. Everybody asks where he is. Don't you see that heap of shawls +yonder, lying in the sun, and heated up to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit? +That slouched hat on top marks the spot where his head should lie,--by +treading cautiously in the opposite direction you may discover his +feet. All between is perfectly passive and harmless. His chief food is +pickles,--his only desire is rest. After all these years of controversy, +after all these battles, bravely fought and nobly won, you might write +with truth upon this moveless mound of woollens the pathetic words from +Père la Chaise:--_Implora Pace_. + +But no more at present, for land is in sight, and in my next you shall +hear how we found it, and what we saw at Nassau. + + +NASSAU. + + +Nassau looked very green and pleasant to us after our voyage;--the eyes +enjoy a little fresh provision after so long a course of salt food. The +first view of land is little more than "the feeling of the thing,"--it +is matter of faith, rather than of sight. You are shown a dark and +distant line, near the horizon, without color or features. They say it +is land, and you believe it. But you come nearer and nearer,--you see +first the green of vegetation, then the form of the trees,--the harbor +at last opens its welcome arms,--the anchor is dropped,--the gun +fired,--the steam snuffed out. Led by a thread of sunshine, you have +walked the labyrinth of the waters, and all their gigantic dangers lie +behind you. + +We made Nassau at twelve o'clock, on the sixth day from our departure, +counting the first as one. The first feature discernible was a group +of tall cocoa-nut trees, with which the island is bounteously +feathered;--the second was a group of negroes in a small boat, steering +towards us with open-mouthed and white-toothed wonder. Nothing makes its +simple impression upon the mind sophisticated by education. The negroes, +as they came nearer, suggested only Christy's Minstrels, of whom +they were a tolerably faithful imitation,--while the cocoa-nut-trees +transported us to the Boston in Ravel-time, and we strained our eyes to +see the wonderful ape, Jocko, whose pathetic death, nightly repeated, +used to cheat the credulous Bostonians of time, tears, and treasure. +Despite the clumsiest management, the boat soon effected a junction with +our gangway, allowing some nameless official to come on board, and to go +through I know not what mysterious and indispensable formality. Other +boats then came, like a shoal of little fishes around the carcass of +a giant whale. There were many negroes, together with whites of every +grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, saw for the first +time the raw material out of which Northern Humanitarians have spun so +fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. + +Now we who write, and they for whom we write, are all orthodox upon this +mighty question; we have all made our confession of faith in private and +in public; we all, on suitable occasions, walk up and apply the match to +the keg of gun-powder which is to blow up the Union, but which, somehow, +at the critical moment, fails to ignite. But you must allow us one +heretical whisper,--very small and low. The negro of the North is an +ideal negro; it is the negro refined by white culture, elevated by white +blood, instructed even by white iniquity;--the negro among negroes is a +coarse, grinning, flat-footed, thick-skulled creature, ugly as Caliban, +lazy as the laziest of brutes, chiefly ambitious to be of no use to any +in the world. View him as you will, his stock in trade is small;--he has +but the tangible instincts of all creatures,--love of life, of ease, and +of offspring. For all else, he must go to school to the white race, and +his discipline must be long and laborious. Nassau, and all that we saw +of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question, whether compulsory labor +be not better than none. But as a question I gladly leave it, and return +to the simple narration of what befell. + +There was a sort of eddy at the gangway of our steamer, made by the +conflicting tides of those who wanted to come on board and of those who +wanted to go on shore. We were among the number of the latter, but were +stopped and held by the button by one of the former, while those more +impatient or less sympathizing made their way to the small boats which +waited below. The individual in question had come alongside in a +handsome barge, rowed by a dozen stout blacks, in the undress uniform +of the Zouaves. These men, well drilled and disciplined, seemed of a +different sort from the sprawling, screaming creatures in the other +boats, and their bright red caps and white tunics became them well. +But he who now claimed my attention was of British birth and military +profession. His face was ardent, his pantaloons were of white flannel, +his expression of countenance was that of habitual discontent, but with +a twinkle of geniality in the eye which redeemed the Grumbler from the +usual tedium of his tribe. He accosted us as follows:-- + +"Go ashore? What for? To see something, eh? There's nothing to see; +the island isn't bigger than a nut-shell, and doesn't contain a single +prospect.--Go ashore and get some dinner? There isn't anything to eat +there.--Fruit? None to speak of; sour oranges and green bananas.--I went +to market last Saturday, and bought one cabbage, one banana, and half +a pig's head;--there's a market for you!--Fish? Oh, yes, if you like +it.--Turtle? Yes, you can get the Gallipagos turtle; it makes tolerable +soup, but has not the green fat, which, in _my_ opinion, is the most +important feature in turtle-soup.--Shops? You can't buy a pair of +scissors on the island, nor a baby's bottle;--broke mine the other day, +and tried to replace it; couldn't.--Society? There are lots of people to +call upon you, and bore you to death with returning their visits." + +At last the Major went below, and we broke away, and were duly conveyed +to _terra firma_. It was Sunday, and late in the afternoon. The first +glimpse certainly seemed to confirm the Major's disparaging statements. +The town is small; the houses dingy and out of repair; the legend, that +paint costs nothing, is not received here; and whatever may have been +the original colors of the buildings, the climate has had its own +way with them for many a day. The barracks are superior in finish +to anything else we see. Government-House is a melancholy-looking +_caserne_, surrounded by a piazza, the grounds being adorned with a most +chunky and inhuman statue of Columbus. All the houses are surrounded by +verandas, from which pale children and languid women in muslins look +out, and incline us to ask what epidemic has visited the island and +swept the rose from every cheek. They are a pallid race, the Nassauese, +and retain little of the vigor of their English ancestry. One English +trait they exhibit,--the hospitality which has passed into a proverb; +another, perhaps,--the stanch adherence to the forms and doctrines of +Episcopacy. We enter the principal church;--they are just lighting it +for evening service; it is hung with candles, each burning in a clear +glass shade. The walls and ceiling are whitewashed, and contrast +prettily with the dark timbering of the roof. We would gladly have +staid to give thanks for our safe and prosperous voyage, but a black +rain-cloud warns us homeward,--not, however, until we have received a +kind invitation from one of the hospitable islanders to return the next +morning for a drive and breakfast. + +Returning soon after sunrise to fulfil this promise, we encounter the +barracks, and are tempted to look in and see the sons of darkness +performing their evolutions. The morning drill is about half over. We +peep in,--the Colonel, a lean Don Quixote on a leaner Rosinante, dashes +up to us with a weak attempt at a canter; he courteously invites us to +come in and see all that is to be seen, and, lo! our friend the Major, +quite gallant in his sword and scarlet jacket, is detailed for our +service. The soldiers are black, and very black,--none of your dubious +American shades, ranging from clear salmon to _café au lait_ or even +to _café noir_. These are your good, satisfactory, African sables, +warranted not to change in the washing. Their Zouave costume is very +becoming, with the Oriental turban, caftan, and loose trousers; and the +Philosopher of our party remarks, that the African requires costume, +implying that the New Englander can stand alone, as can his clothes, in +their black rigidity. The officers are white, and the Major very polite; +he shows us the men, the arms, the kits, the quarters, and, having done +all that he can do for us, relinquishes us with a gallant bow to our +host of the drive and breakfast. + +The drive does something to retrieve the character of the island. The +road is hard and even, overhung with glossy branches of strange trees +bearing unknown fruits, and studded on each side with pleasant villas +and with negro huts. There are lovely flowers everywhere, among which +the Hibiscus, called South-Sea Rose, and the Oleander, are most +frequent, and most brilliant. We see many tall groves of cocoa-nut, +and cast longing glances towards the fruit, which little negroes, with +surprising activity, attain and shake down. A sudden turn in the road +discloses a lovely view of the bay, with its wonderful green waters, +clear and bright as emerald;--there is a little beach, and boats lie +about, and groups of negroes are laughing and chattering,--quoting +stocks from the last fish-market, very likely. We purchase for half a +dollar a bunch of bananas, for which Ford or Palmer would ask us ten +dollars at least, and go rejoicing to our breakfast. + +Our host is a physician of the island, English by birth, and retaining +his robust form and color in spite of a twenty-years' residence in the +warm climate. He has a pleasant family of sons and daughters, all in +health, but without a shade of pink in lips or cheeks. The breakfast +consists of excellent fried fish, fine Southern hominy,--not the pebbly +broken corn which our dealers impose under that name,--various hot +cakes, tea and coffee, bananas, sapodillas, and if there be anything +else not included in the present statement, let haste and want of time +excuse the omission. The conversation runs a good deal on the hopes of +increasing prosperity which the new mail-steamer opens to the eyes +of the Nassauese. Invalids, they say, will do better there than in +Cuba,--it is quieter, much cheaper, and the climate is milder. There +will be a hotel, very soon, where no attention will be spared, etc., +etc. The Government will afford every facility, etc., etc. It seemed, +indeed, a friendly little place, with delicious air and sky, and a good, +reasonable, decent, English tone about it. Expenses moderate, ye fathers +of encroaching families. Negroes abundant and natural, ye students +of ethnological possibilities. Officers in red jackets, you young +ladies,--young ones, some of them. Why wouldn't you all try it, +especially as the captain of the "Karnak" is an excellent sailor, and +the kindest and manliest of conductors? + + +FROM NASSAU TO CUBA. + + +The breakfast being over, we recall the captain's parting admonition to +be on board by ten o'clock, with the significant gesture and roll of the +eye which clearly express that England expects every passenger to do his +duty. Now we know very well that the "Karnak" is not likely to weigh +anchor before twelve, at the soonest, but we dare not, for our lives, +disobey the captain. So, passing by yards filled with the huge Bahama +sponges, piles of wreck-timber, fishing-boats with strange fishes, red, +yellow, blue, and white, and tubs of aldermanic turtle, we attain the +shore, and, presently, the steamer. Here we find a large deputation of +the towns-people taking passage with us for a pleasure excursion to +Havana. The greater number are ladies and children. They come fluttering +on board, poor things, like butterflies, in gauzy dresses, hats, and +feathers, according to the custom of their country; one gentleman takes +four little daughters with him for a holiday. We ask ourselves whether +they know what an ugly beast the Gulf-Stream is, that they affront him +in such light armor. "Good heavens! how sick they will be!" we exclaim; +while they eye us askance, in our winter trim, and pronounce us slow, +and old fogies. With all the rashness of youth, they attack the +luncheon-table. So boisterous a popping of corks was never heard in all +our boisterous passage;--there is a chorus, too, of merry tongues and +shrill laughter. But we get fairly out to sea, where the wind, an +adverse one, is waiting for us, and at that gay table there is silence, +followed by a rush and disappearance. The worst cases are hurried out of +sight, and, going above, we find the disabled lying in groups about the +deck, the feather-hats discarded, the muslins crumpled, and we, the old +fogies, going to cover the fallen with shawls and blankets, to speak +words of consolation, and to implore the sufferers not to cure +themselves with brandy, soda-water, claret, and wine-bitters, in quick +succession,--which they, nevertheless, do, and consequently are no +better that day, nor the next. + +But I am forgetting to chronicle a touching parting interview with the +Major, the last thing remembered in Nassau, and of course the last to be +forgotten anywhere. Our concluding words might best be recorded in the +form of a catechism of short questions and answers, to wit:-- + +"How long did the Major expect to stay in Nassau?" + +"About six months." + +"How long would he stay, if he had his own way?" + +"Not one!" + +"What did he come for, then?" + +"Oh, you buy into a nigger regiment for promotion." + +These were the most important facts elicited by cross-examination. At +last we shook hands warmly, promising to meet again somewhere, and the +crimson-lined barge with the black Zouaves carried him away. In humbler +equipages depart the many black women who have visited the steamer, some +for amusement, some to sell the beautiful shell-work made on the island. +These may be termed, in general, as ugly a set of wenches as one could +wish not to see. They all wear palm-leaf hats stuck on their heads +without strings or ribbons, and their clothes are so ill-made that you +cannot help thinking that each has borrowed somebody else's dress, until +you see that the ill-fitting garments are the rule, not the exception. + +But neither youth nor sea-sickness lasts forever. The forces of nature +rally on the second day, and the few who have taken no remedies recover +the use of their tongues and some of their faculties. From these I +gather what I shall here impart as + + +SERIOUS VIEWS OF THE BAHAMAS. + + +The principal exports of these favored islands are fruits, sponges, +molasses, and sugar. Their imports include most of the necessaries of +life, which come to them oftenest in the form of wrecks, by which they +obtain them at a small fraction of the original cost and value. For this +resource they are indebted to the famous Bahama Banks, which, to their +way of thinking, are institutions as important as the Bank of England +itself. These banks stand them in a handsome annual income, and +facilitate large discounts and transfers of property not contemplated by +the original possessors. One supposes that somebody must suffer by these +forced sales of large cargoes at prices ruinous to commerce,--but _who_ +suffers is a point not easy to ascertain. There seems to be a good, +comfortable understanding all round. The owners say, "Go ahead, and +don't bother yourself,--she's insured." The captain has got his ship +aground in shoal water where she can't sink, and no harm done. The +friendly wreckers are close at hand to haul the cargo ashore. The +underwriter of the insurance company has shut his eyes and opened his +mouth to receive a plum, which, being a good large one, will not let him +speak. And so the matter providentially comes to pass, and "enterprises +of great pith and moment" oftenest get no farther than the Bahamas. + +Nassau produces neither hay nor corn,--these, together with butter, +flour, and tea, being brought chiefly from the United States. Politics, +of course, it has none. As to laws, the colonial system certainly needs +propping up,--for under its action a man may lead so shameless a life +of immorality as to compel his wife to leave him, and yet not be held +responsible for her support and that of the children she has borne him. +The principal points of interest are, first, the garrison,--secondly, +Government-House, with an occasional ball there,--and, third, one's +next-door neighbor, and his or her doings. The principal event in the +memory of the citizens seems to be a certain most desirable wreck, in +consequence of which, a diamond card-case worth fifteen hundred dollars +was sold for an eighth part of that sum, and laces whose current price +ranges from thirty to forty dollars a yard were purchased at will for +seventy-five cents. That was a wreck worth having! say the Nassauese. +The price of milk ranges from eighteen to twenty-five cents a +quart;--think of that, ye New England housekeepers! That precious +article, the pudding, is nearly unknown in the Nassauese economy; nor +is pie-crust so short as it might be, owing to the enormous price of +butter, which has been known to attain the sum of one dollar per pound. +Eggs are quoted at prices not commendable for large families with +small means. On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, and sugar-cane are +abundant. + +The Nassauese, on the whole, seem to be a kind-hearted and friendly set +of people, partly English, partly Southern in character, but with rather +a predominance of the latter ingredient in their composition. Their +women resemble the women of our own Southern States, but seem simpler +and more domestic in their habits,--while the men would make tolerable +Yankees, but would scarcely support President Buchanan, the Kansas +question, or the Filibustero movement. Physically, the race suffers and +degenerates under the influence of the warm climate. Cases of pulmonary +disease, asthma, and neuralgia are of frequent occurrence, and cold is +considered as curative to them as heat is to us. The diet, too, is not +that "giant ox-beef" which the Saxon race requires. Meat is rare, and +tough, unless brought from the States at high cost. We were forced to +the conclusion that no genuine English life can be supported upon a +_régime_ of fish and fruit,--or, in other words, no beef, no Bull, but +a very different sort of John, lantern-jawed, leather-skinned, and of +a thirsty complexion. It occurred to us, furthermore, that it is a +dolorous thing to live on a lonely little island, tied up like a wart on +the face of civilization,--no healthful stream of life coming and going +from the great body of the main land,--the same moral air to be breathed +over and over again, without renewal,--the same social elements turned +and returned in one tiresome kaleidoscope. Wherefore rejoice, ye +Continentals, and be thankful, and visit the Nassauese, bringing beef, +butter, and beauty,--bringing a few French muslins to replace the +coarse English fabrics, and buxom Irish girls to outwork the idle negro +women,--bringing new books, newspapers, and periodicals,--bringing the +Yankee lecturer, all expenses paid, and his drink found him. All these +good things, and more, the States have for the Nassauese, of whom we +must now take leave, for all hands have been piped on deck. + +We have jolted for three weary days over the roughest of ocean-highways, +and Cuba, nay, Havana, is in sight. The worst cases are up, and begin to +talk about their sea-legs, now that the occasion for them is at an end. +Sobrina, the chief wit of our party, who would eat sour-sop, sapodilla, +orange, banana, cocoa-nut, and sugar-cane at Nassau, and who has lived +upon toddy of twenty-cocktail power ever since,--even she is seen, +clothed and in her right mind, sitting at the feet of the prophet she +loves, and going through the shawl-and-umbrella exercise. And here is +the Moro Castle, which guards the entrance of the harbor,--here go +the signals, answering to our own. Here comes the man with the +speaking-trumpet, who, understanding no English, yells out to our +captain, who understands no Spanish. The following is a free rendering +of their conversation:-- + +"Any Americans on board?" + +"Yes, thank Heaven, plenty." + +"How many are Filibusteros?" + +"All of them." + +"Bad luck to them, then!" + +"The same to you!" + +"_Caramba_" says the Spaniard. + +"--------," says the Englishman. + +And so the forms of diplomacy are fulfilled; and of Havana, more in my +next. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +_The Professor finds a Fly in his Teacup_. + +I have a long theological talk to relate, which must be dull reading to +some of my young and vivacious friends. I don't know, however, that any +of them have entered into a contract to read all that I write, or that I +have promised always to write to please them. What if I should sometimes +write to please myself? + +Now you must know that there are a great many things which interest me, +to some of which this or that particular class of readers may be totally +indifferent. I love Nature, and human nature, its thoughts, affections, +dreams, aspirations, delusions,--Art in all its forms,--_virtu_ in all +its eccentricities,--old stories from black-letter volumes and yellow +manuscripts, and new projects out of hot brains not yet imbedded in the +snows of age. I love the generous impulses of the reformer; but not less +does my imagination feed itself upon the old litanies, so often warmed +by the human breath upon which they were wafted to heaven that they glow +through our frames like our own heart's blood. I hope I love good men +and women; I know that they never speak a word to me, even if it be of +question or blame, that I do not take pleasantly, if it is expressed +with a reasonable amount of human kindness. + +I have before me at this time a beautiful and affecting letter, which +I have hesitated to answer, though the postmark upon it gave its +direction, and the name is one which is known to all, in some of its +representatives. It contains no reproach, only a delicately-hinted fear. +Speak gently, as this dear lady has spoken, and there is no heart so +insensible that it does not answer to the appeal, no intellect so virile +that it does not own a certain allegiance to the claims of age, of +childhood, of sensitive and timid natures, when they plead with it not +to look at those sacred things by the broad daylight which they see in +mystic shadow. How grateful would it be to make perpetual peace with +these pleading saints and their confessors, by the simple act +that silences all complainings! Sleep, sleep, sleep! says the +Arch-Enchantress of them all,--and pours her dark and potent anodyne, +distilled over the fires that consumed her foes,--its large, round drops +changing, as we look, into the beads of her convert's rosary! Silence! +the pride of reason! cries another, whose whole life is spent in +reasoning down reason. + +I hope I love good people, not for their sake, but for my own. And most +assuredly, if any deed of wrong or word of bitterness led me into an act +of disrespect towards that enlightened and excellent class of men who +make it their calling to teach goodness and their duty to practise it, +I should feel that I had done myself an injury rather than them. Go and +talk with any professional man holding any of the mediaeval creeds, +choosing one who wears upon his features the mark of inward and outward +health, who looks cheerful, intelligent, and kindly, and see how all +your prejudices melt away in his presence! It is impossible to come into +intimate relations with a large, sweet nature, such as you may often +find in this class, without longing to be at one with it in all its +modes of being and believing. But does it not occur to you that one may +love truth as he sees it, and his race as he views it, better than even +the sympathy and approbation of many good men whom he honors,--better +than sleeping to the sound of the Miserere or listening to the +repetition of an effete Confession of Faith? + +The three learned professions have but recently emerged from a state of +_quasi_ barbarism. None of them like too well to be told of it, but it +must be sounded in their ears whenever they put on airs. When a man has +taken an overdose of laudanum, the doctors tell us to place him between +two persons who shall make him walk up and down incessantly; and if he +still cannot be kept from going to sleep, they say that a lash or two +over his back is of great assistance. + +So we must keep the doctors awake by telling them that they have not +yet shaken off astrology and the doctrine of signatures, as is shown by +their prescriptions, and their use of nitrate of silver, which turns +epileptics into Ethiopians. If that is not enough, they must be given +over to the scourgers, who like their task and get good fees for it. A +few score years ago, sick people were made to swallow burnt toads and +powdered earth-worms and the expressed juice of wood-lice. The physician +of Charles I. and II. prescribed abominations not to be named. +Barbarism, as bad as that of Congo or Ashantee. Traces of this barbarism +linger even in the greatly improved medical science of our century. So +while the solemn farce of over-drugging is going on, the world over, +the harlequin pseudo-science jumps on to the stage, whip in hand, with +half-a-dozen somersets, and begins laying about him. + +In 1817, perhaps you remember, the law of wager by battle was +unrepealed, and the rascally murderous, and worse than murderous, clown, +Abraham Thornton, put on his gauntlet in open court and defied the +appellant to lift the other which he threw down. It was not until the +reign of George II. that the statutes against witchcraft were repealed. +As for the English Court of Chancery, we know that its antiquated abuses +form one of the staples of common proverbs and popular literature. +So the laws and the lawyers have to be watched perpetually by public +opinion as much as the doctors do. + +I don't think the other profession is an exception. When the Reverend +Mr. Cauvin and his associates burned my distinguished scientific +brother,--he was burned with green fagots, which made it rather slow and +painful,--it appears to me they were in a state of religious barbarism. +The dogmas of such people about the Father of Mankind and his creatures +are of no more account in my opinion than those of a council of Aztecs. +If a man picks your pocket, do you not consider him thereby disqualified +to pronounce any authoritative opinion on matters of ethics? If a man +hangs my ancient female relatives for sorcery, as they did in this +neighborhood a little while ago, or burns my instructor for not +believing as he does, I care no more for his religious edicts than I +should for those of any other barbarian. + +Of course, a barbarian may hold many true opinions; but when the ideas +of the healing art, of the administration of justice, of Christian love, +could not exclude systematic poisoning, judicial duelling, and murder +for opinion's sake, I do not see how we can trust the verdict of that +time relating to any subject which involves the primal instincts +violated in these abominations and absurdities.--What if we are even now +in a state of _semi_-barbarism? + +Perhaps some think we ought not to talk at table about such things.--I +am not so sure of that. Religion and government appear to me the two +subjects which of all others should belong to the common talk of people +who enjoy the blessings of freedom. Think, one moment. The earth is a +great factory-wheel, which, at every revolution on its axis, receives +fifty thousand raw souls and turns off nearly the same number worked up +more or less completely. There must be somewhere a population of two +hundred thousand million, perhaps ten or a hundred times as many, +earth-born intelligences. _Life_, as we call it, is nothing but the edge +of the boundless ocean of existence where it comes on soundings. In +this view, I do not see anything so fit to talk about, or half so +interesting, as that which relates to the innumerable majority of our +fellow-creatures, the dead-living, who are hundreds of thousands to one +of the live-living, and with whom we all potentially belong, though we +have got tangled for the present in some parcels of fibrine, albumen, +and phosphates, that keep us on the minority side of the house. In point +of fact, it is one of the many results of _Spiritualism_ to make +the permanent destiny of the race a matter of common reflection and +discourse, and a vehicle for the prevailing disbelief of the Middle-Age +doctrines on the subject. I cannot help thinking, when I remember how +many conversations my friend and myself have reported, that it would be +very extraordinary, if there were no mention of that class of subjects +which involves all that we have and all that we hope, not merely for +ourselves, but for the dear people whom we love best,--noble men, pure +and lovely women, ingenuous children,--about the destiny of nine-tenths +of whom you know the opinions that would have been taught by those old +man-roasting, woman-strangling dogmatists.--However, I fought this +matter with one of our boarders the other day, and I am going to report +the conversation. + + * * * * * + +The divinity-student came down, one morning, looking rather more serious +than usual. He said little at breakfast-time, but lingered after the +others, so that I, who am apt to be long at the table, found myself +alone with him. + +When the rest were all gone, he turned his chair round towards mine, and +began. + +I am afraid,--he said,--you express yourself a little too freely on a +most important class of subjects. Is there not danger in introducing +discussions or allusions relating to matters of religion into common +discourse? + +Danger to what?--I asked. + +Danger to truth,--he replied, after a slight pause. + +I didn't know Truth was such an invalid,--I said.--How long is it since +she could only take the air in a close carriage, with a gentleman in +a black coat on the box? Let me tell you a story, adapted to young +persons, but which won't hurt older ones. + +----There was a very little boy who had one of those balloons you may +have seen, which are filled with light gas, and are held by a string to +keep them from running off in aeronautic voyages on their own +account. This little boy had a naughty brother, who said to him, one +day,--Brother, pull down your balloon, so that I can look at it and take +hold of it. Then the little boy pulled it down. Now the naughty brother +had a sharp pin in his hand, and he thrust it into the balloon, and all +the gas oozed out, so that there was nothing left but a shrivelled skin. + +One evening, the little boy's father called him to the window to see the +moon, which pleased him very much; but presently he said,--Father, do +not pull the string and bring down the moon, for my naughty brother will +prick it, and then it will all shrivel up and we shall not see it any +more. + +Then his father laughed, and told him how the moon had been shining a +good while, and would shine a good while longer, and that all we could +do was to keep our windows clean, never letting the dust get too thick +on them, and especially to keep our eyes open, but that we could not +pull the moon down with a string, nor prick it with a pin.--Mind you +this, too, the moon is no man's private property, but is seen from a +good many parlor-windows. + +----Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, +you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and +full at evening. Does not Mr. Bryant say, that Truth gets well if she is +run over by a locomotive, while Error dies of lockjaw if she scratches +her finger? I never heard that a mathematician was alarmed for the +safety of a demonstrated proposition. I think, generally, that fear +of open discussion implies feebleness of inward conviction, and great +sensitiveness to the expression of individual opinion is a mark of +weakness. + +----I am not so much afraid for truth,--said the divinity-student,--as +for the conceptions of truth in the minds of persons not accustomed to +judge wisely the opinions uttered before them. + +Would you, then, banish all allusions to matters of this nature from the +society of people who come together habitually? + +I would be very careful in introducing them,--said the divinity-student. + +Yes, but friends of yours leave pamphlets in people's entries, to be +picked up by nervous misses and hysteric housemaids, full of doctrines +these people do not approve. Some of your friends stop little children +in the street, and give them books, which their parents, who have had +them baptized into the Christian fold and give them what they consider +proper religious instruction, do not think fit for them. One would say +it was fair enough to talk about matters thus forced upon people's +attention. + +The divinity-student could not deny that this was what might be called +opening the subject to the discussion of intelligent people. + +But,--he said,--the greatest objection is this, that persons who have +not made a professional study of theology are not competent to speak on +such subjects. Suppose a minister were to undertake to express opinions +on medical subjects, for instance, would you not think he was going +beyond his province? + +I laughed,--for I remembered John Wesley's "sulphur and supplication," +and so many other cases where ministers had meddled with +medicine,--sometimes well and sometimes ill, but, as a general rule, +with a tremendous lurch to quackery, owing to their very loose way of +admitting evidence,--that I could not help being amused. + +I beg your pardon,--I said,--I do not wish to be impolite, but I was +thinking of their certificates to patent medicines. Let us look at this +matter. + +If a minister had attended lectures on the theory and practice of +medicine, delivered by those who had studied it most deeply, for thirty +or forty years, at the rate of from fifty to one hundred a year,--if he +had been constantly reading and hearing read the most approved textbooks +on the subject,--if he had seen medicine actually practised according to +different methods, daily, for the same length of time,--I should think, +that, if a person of average understanding, he _was_ entitled to express +an opinion on the subject of medicine, or else that his instructors were +a set of ignorant and incompetent charlatans. + +If, before a medical practitioner would allow me to enjoy the full +privileges of the healing art, he expected me to affirm my belief in a +considerable number of medical doctrines, drugs, and formulae, I should +think that he thereby implied my right to discuss the same, and my +ability to do so, if I knew how to express myself in English. + +Suppose, for instance, the Medical Society should refuse to give us an +opiate, or to set a broken limb, until we had signed our belief in +a certain number of propositions,--of which we will say this is the +first:-- + +I. All men's teeth are naturally in a state of total decay or caries, +and, therefore, no man can bite until every one of them is extracted and +a new set is inserted according to the principles of dentistry adopted +by this Society. + +I, for one, should want to discuss that before signing my name to it, +and I should say this:--Why, no, that isn't true. There are a good many +bad teeth, we all know, but a great many more good ones. You mustn't +trust the _dentists_; they are all the time looking at the people who +have bad teeth, and such as are suffering from toothache. The idea that +you must pull out every one of every nice young man and young woman's +natural teeth! Poh, poh! Nobody believes that. This tooth must be +straightened, that must be filled with gold, and this other perhaps +extracted; but it must be a very rare case, if they are all so bad as to +require extraction; and if they are, don't blame the poor soul for it! +Don't tell us, as some old dentists used to, that everybody not only +always has every tooth in his head good for nothing, but that he ought +to have his head cut off as a punishment for that misfortune! No, I +can't sign Number One. Give us Number Two. + +II. We hold that no man can be well who does not agree with our views +of the efficacy of calomel, and who does not take the doses of it +prescribed in our tables, as there directed. + +To which I demur, questioning why it should be so, and get for answer +the two following:-- + +III. Every man who does not take our prepared calomel, as prescribed by +us in our Constitution and By-Laws, is and must be a mass of disease +from head to foot; it being self-evident that he is simultaneously +affected with Apoplexy, Arthritis, Ascites, Asphyxia, and Atrophy; with +Borborygmus, Bronchitis, and Bulimia; with Cachexia, Carcinoma, and +Cretinismus; and so on through the alphabet, to Xerophthalmia and Zona, +with all possible and incompatible diseases which are necessary to make +up a totally morbid state; and he will certainly die, if he does not +take freely of our prepared calomel, to be obtained only of one of our +authorized agents. + +IV. No man shall be allowed to take our prepared calomel who does not +give in his solemn adhesion to each and all of the above-named and the +following propositions (from ten to a hundred) and show his mouth to +certain of our apothecaries, who have _not_ studied dentistry, to +examine whether all his teeth have been extracted and a new set inserted +according to our regulations. + +Of course, the doctors have a right to say we shan't have any rhubarb, +if we don't sign their articles, and that, if, after signing them, we +express doubts (in public) about any of them, they will cut us off from +our jalap and squills,--but then to ask a fellow not to discuss the +propositions before he signs them is what I should call boiling it down +a little _too_ strong! + +If we understand them, why can't we discuss them? If we can't understand +them, because we haven't taken a medical degree, what the Father of Lies +do they ask us to sign them for? + +Just so with the graver profession. Every now and then some of its +members seem to lose common sense and common humanity. The laymen have +to keep setting the divines right constantly. Science, for instance,--in +other words, knowledge,--is not the enemy of religion; for, if so, +then religion would mean ignorance. But it is often the antagonist of +school-divinity. + +Everybody knows the story of early astronomy and the school-divines. +Come down a little later. Archbishop Usher, a very learned Protestant +prelate, tells us that the world was created on Sunday, the twenty-third +of October, four thousand and four years before the birth of Christ. +Deluge, December 7th, two thousand three hundred and forty-eight years +B.C.--Yes, and the earth stands on an elephant, and the elephant on a +tortoise. One statement is as near the truth as the other. + +Again, there is nothing so brutalizing to some natures as _moral +surgery_. I have often wondered that Hogarth did not add one more +picture to his four stages of Cruelty. Those wretched fools, reverend +divines and others, who were strangling men and women for imaginary +crimes a little more than a century ago among us, were set right by a +layman, and very angry it made them to have him meddle. + +The good people of Northampton had a very remarkable man for their +clergyman,--a man with a brain as nicely adjusted for certain mechanical +processes as Babbage's calculating machine. The commentary of the laymen +on the preaching and practising of Jonathan Edwards was, that, after +twenty-three years of endurance, they turned him out by a vote of twenty +to one, and passed a resolve that he should never preach for them again. +A man's logical and analytical adjustments are of little consequence, +compared to his primary relations with Nature and truth; and people have +sense enough to find it out in the long run; they know what "logic" is +worth. + +In that miserable delusion referred to above, the reverend Aztecs and +Fijians argued rightly enough from their premises, no doubt, for many +men can do this. But common sense and common humanity were unfortunately +left out from their premises, and a layman had to supply them. A hundred +more years and many of the barbarisms still lingering among us will, of +course, have disappeared like witch-hanging. But people are sensitive +now, as they were then. You will see by this extract that the Rev. +Cotton Mather did not like intermeddling with his business very well. +"Let the _Levites_ of the Lord keep close to their Instructions," he +says, "and _God will smile thro' the loins of those that rise up against +them._ I will report unto you a Thing which many Hundreds among us know +to be true. The _Godly Minister_ of a certain Town in Connecticut, when +he had occasion to be absent on a _Lord's Day_ from his Flock, employ'd +an honest _Neighbour_ of some small Talents for a _Mechanick_, to read a +_Sermon_ out of some _good Book_ unto 'em. This _Honest_, whom they ever +counted also a _Pious Man_, had so much conceit of his _Talents_, that +instead of _Reading a Sermon_ appointed, he to the _Surprize_ of the +People, fell to _preaching one of his own_. For his Text he took these +Words, _'Despise not Prophecyings'_; and in his Preachment he betook +himself to bewail the _Envy of the Clergy_ in the Land, in that they did +not wish _all the Lord's People to be Prophets_, and call forth _Private +Brethren_ publickly to _prophesie_. While he was thus in the midst +of his Exercise, God smote him with horrible _Madness_; he was taken +ravingly distracted; the People were forc'd with violent Hands to +carry him home.... I will not mention his Name: He was reputed a Pious +Man."--This is one of Cotton's "Remarkable Judgments of God, on Several +Sorts of Offenders,"--and the next cases referred to are the Judgments +on the "Abominable Sacrilege" of not paying the Ministers' Salaries. + +This sort of thing doesn't do here and now, you see, my young friend! We +talk about our free institutions;--they are nothing but a coarse outside +machinery to secure the freedom of individual thought. The President +of the United States is only the engine-driver of our broad-gauge +mail-train; and every honest, independent thinker has a seat in the +first-class cars behind him. + +----There is something in what you say,--replied the +divinity-student;--and yet it seems to me there are places and times +where disputed doctrines of religion should not be introduced. You would +not attack a church dogma--say, Total Depravity--in a lyceum-lecture, +for instance? + +Certainly not; I should choose another place,--I answered.--But, mind +you, at this table I think it is very different. I shall express my +ideas on any subject I like. The laws of the lecture-room, to which my +friends and myself are always amenable, do not hold here. I shall not +often give arguments, but frequently opinions,--I trust with courtesy +and propriety, but, at any rate, with such natural forms of expression +as it has pleased the Almighty to bestow upon me. + +A man's opinions, look you, are generally of much more value than his +arguments. These last are made by his brain, and perhaps he does not +believe the proposition they tend to prove,--as is often the case with +paid lawyers; but opinions are formed by our whole nature,--brain, +heart, instinct, brute life, everything all our experience has shaped +for us by contact with the whole circle of our being. + +----There is one thing more,--said the divinity-student,--that I wished +to speak of; I mean that idea of yours, expressed some time since, of +_depolarizing_ the text of sacred books in order to judge them fairly. +May I ask why you do not try the experiment yourself? + +Certainly,--I replied,--if it gives you any pleasure to ask foolish +questions. I think the ocean telegraph-wire ought to be laid and will be +laid, but I don't know that you have any right to ask me to go and +lay it. But, for that matter, I have heard a good deal of Scripture +depolarized in and out of the pulpit. I heard the Rev. Mr. F. once +depolarize the story of the Prodigal Son in Park-Street Church. Many +years afterwards, I heard him repeat the same or a similar depolarized +version in Rome, New York. I heard an admirable depolarization of the +story of the young man who "had great possessions" from the Rev. Mr. H. +in another pulpit, and felt that I had never half understood it before. +All paraphrases are more or less perfect depolarizations. But I tell you +this: the faith of our Christian community is not robust enough to +bear the turning of our most sacred language into its depolarized +equivalents. You have only to look back to Dr. Channing's famous +Baltimore discourse and remember the shrieks of blasphemy with which it +was greeted, to satisfy yourself on this point. Time, time only, +can gradually wean us from our _Epeolatry_, or word-worship, by +spiritualizing our ideas of the thing signified. Man is an idolater or +symbol-worshipper by nature, which, of course, is no fault of his; but +sooner or later all his local and temporary symbols must be ground to +powder, like the golden calf,--word-images as well as metal and wooden +ones. Rough work, iconoclasm,--but the only way to get at truth. It is, +indeed, as that quaint and rare old discourse, "A Summons for Sleepers," +hath it, "no doubt a thankless office, and a verie unthriftie +occupation; _veritas odium parit_, truth never goeth without a scratcht +face; he that will be busie with _vae vobis_, let him looke shortly for +_coram nobis_." + +The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think +what we like and say what we think. + +----Think what we like!--said the divinity-student;--think what we like! +What! against all human and divine authority? + +Against all human versions of its own or any other authority. At our own +peril always, if we do not _like_ the right,--but not at the risk of +being hanged and quartered for political heresy, or broiled on green +fagots for ecclesiastical treason! Nay, we have got so far, that the +very word _heresy_ has fallen into comparative disuse among us. + +And now, my young friend, let us shake hands and stop our discussion, +which we will not make a quarrel. I trust you know, or will learn, a +great many things in your profession which we common scholars do not +know; but mark this: when the common people of New England stop talking +politics and theology, it will be because they have got an Emperor to +teach them the one, and a Pope to teach them the other! + + * * * * * + +That was the end of my long conference with the divinity-student. +The next morning we got talking a little on the same subject, very +good-naturedly, as people return to a matter they have talked out. + +You must look to yourself,--said the divinity-student,--if your +democratic notions get into print. You will be fired into from all +quarters. + +If it were only a bullet, with the marksman's name on it!--I said.--I +can't stop to pick out the peep-shot of the anonymous scribblers. + +Right, Sir! right!--said Little Boston.--The scamps! I know the fellows. +They can't give fifty cents to one of the Antipodes, but they must have +it jingled along through everybody's palms all the way, till it reaches +him,--and forty cents of it get spilt, like the water out of the +fire-buckets passed along a "lane" at a fire;--but, when it comes to +anonymous defamation, putting lies into people's mouths, and then +advertising those people through the country as the authors of +them,--oh, then it is that they let not their left hand know what their +right hand doeth! + +I don't like Ehud's style of doing business, Sir. He comes along with a +very sanctimonious look, Sir, with his "secret errand unto thee," and +his "message from God unto thee," and then pulls out his hidden knife +with that unsuspected left hand of his,--(the little gentleman +lifted his clenched left hand with the blood-red jewel on the +ring-finger,)--and runs it, blade and haft, into a man's stomach! Don't +meddle with these fellows, Sir. They are read mostly by persons whom you +would not reach, if you were to write ever so much. Let 'em alone. A man +whose opinions are not attacked is beneath contempt. + +I hope so,--I said.--I got three pamphlets and innumerable squibs flung +at my head for attacking one of the pseudo-sciences, in former years. +When, by the permission of Providence, I held up to the professional +public the damnable facts connected with the conveyance of poison from +one young mother's chamber to another's,--for doing which humble office +I desire to be thankful that I have lived, though nothing else good +should ever come of my life,--I had to bear the sneers of those whose +position I had assailed, and, as I believe, have at last demolished, so +that nothing but the ghosts of dead women stir among the ruins.--What +would you do, if the folks without names kept at you, trying to get a +San Benito on to your shoulders that would fit you?--Would you stand +still in fly-time, or would you give a kick now and then? + +Let 'em bite!--said Little Boston;--let 'em bite! It makes 'em hungry to +shake 'em off, and they settle down again as thick as ever and twice as +savage. Do you know what meddling with the folks without names, as you +call 'em, is like?--It is like riding at the _quintain_. You run full +tilt at the board, but the board is on a pivot, with a bag of sand on an +arm that balances it. The board gives way as soon as you touch it; and +before you have got by, the bag of sand comes round whack on the back of +your neck. "Ananias," for instance, pitches into your lecture, we will +say, in some paper taken by the people in your kitchen. Your servants +get saucy and negligent. If their newspaper calls you names, they need +not be so particular about shutting doors softly or boiling potatoes. +So you lose your temper, and come out in an article which you think is +going to finish "Ananias," proving him a booby who doesn't know enough +to understand even a lyceum-lecture, or else a person that tells lies. +Now you think you've got him! Not so fast. "Ananias" keeps still and +winks to "Shimei," and "Shimei" comes out in the paper which they take +in your neighbor's kitchen, ten times worse than t'other fellow. If you +meddle with "Shimei," he steps out, and next week appears "Rab-shakeh," +an unsavory wretch; and now, at any rate, you find out what good +sense there was in Hezekiah's "Answer him not."--No, no,--keep your +temper.--So saying, the little gentleman doubled his left fist and +looked at it, as if he should like to hit something or somebody a most +pernicious punch with it. + +Good!--said I.--Now let me give you some axioms I have arrived at, after +seeing something of a great many kinds of good folks. + +----Of a hundred people of each of the different leading religious +sects, about the same proportion will be safe and pleasant persons to +deal and to live with. + +----There are, at least, three real saints among the women to one among +the men, in every denomination. + +----The spiritual standard of different classes I would reckon thus:-- + +1. The comfortably rich. + +2. The decently comfortable. + +3. The very rich, who are apt to be irreligious. + +4. The very poor, who are apt to be immoral. + +----The cut nails of machine-divinity may be driven in, but they won't +clinch. + +----The arguments which the greatest of our schoolmen could not refute +were two: the blood in men's veins, and the milk in women's breasts. + +----Humility is the first of the virtues--for other people. + +----Faith always implies the disbelief of a lesser fact in favor of +a greater. A little mind often sees the unbelief, without seeing the +belief, of a large one. + +The Poor Relation had been fidgeting about and working her mouth while +all this was going on. She broke out in speech at this point. + +I hate to hear folks talk so. I don't see that you are any better than a +heathen. + +I wish I were half as good as many heathens have been,--I said.--Dying +for a principle seems to me a higher degree of virtue than scolding for +it; and, the history of heathen races is full of instances where men +have laid down their lives for the love of their kind, of their country, +of truth, nay, even for simple manhood's sake, or to show their +obedience or fidelity. What would not such beings have done for the +souls of men, for the Christian commonwealth, for the King of Kings, +if they had lived in days of larger light? Which seems to you nearest +heaven, Socrates drinking his hemlock, Regulus going back to the enemy's +camp, or that old New England divine sitting comfortably in his study +and chuckling over his conceit of certain poor women, who had been +burned to death in his own town, going "roaring out of one fire into +another"? + +I don't believe he said any such thing,--replied the Poor Relation. + +It is hard to believe,--said I,--but it is true for all that. In another +hundred years it will be as incredible that men talked as we sometimes +hear them now. + +_Cor facit theologum._ The heart makes the theologian. Every race, +every civilization, either has a new revelation of its own or a new +interpretation of an old one. Democratic America has a different +humanity from feudal Europe, and so must have a new divinity. See, for +one moment, how intelligence reacts on our faiths. The Bible was a +divining-book to our ancestors, and is so still in the hands of some of +the vulgar. The Puritans went to the Old Testament for their laws; the +Mormons go to it for their patriarchal institution. Every generation +dissolves something new and precipitates something once held in solution +from that great storehouse of temporary and permanent truths. + +You may observe this: that the conversation of intelligent men of the +stricter sects is strangely in advance of the formulae that belong to +their organizations. So true is this, that I have doubts whether a large +proportion of them would not have been rather pleased than offended, +if they could have overheard our talk. For, look you, I think there is +hardly a professional teacher who will not in private conversation allow +a large part of what we have said, though it may frighten him in print; +and I know well what an under-current of secret sympathy gives vitality +to those poor words of mine which sometimes get a hearing. + +I don't mind the exclamation of any old stager who drinks Madeira +worth from two to six Bibles a bottle, and burns, according to his own +premises, a dozen souls a year in the cigars with which he muddles his +brains. But for the good and true and intelligent men whom we see all +around us, laborious, self-denying, hopeful, helpful,--men who know +that the active mind of the century is tending more and more to the two +poles, Rome and Reason, the sovereign church or the free soul, authority +or personality, God in us or God in our masters, and that, though a +man may by accident _stand_ half-way between these two points, he must +_look_ one way or the other,--I don't believe they would take offence at +anything I have reported of our late conversation. + +But supposing any one _do_ take offence at first sight, let him look +over these notes again, and see whether he is quite sure he does not +agree with most of these things that were said amongst us. If he agrees +with most of them, let him be patient with an opinion he does not +accept, or an expression or illustration a little too vivacious. I don't +know that I shall report any more conversations on these topics; but +I do insist on the right to express a civil opinion on this class of +subjects without giving offence, just when and where I please,--unless, +as in the lecture-room, there is an implied contract to keep clear of +doubtful matters. You didn't think a man could sit at a breakfast-table +doing nothing but making puns every morning for a year or two, and never +give a thought to the two thousand of his fellow-creatures who are +passing into another state during every hour that he sits talking and +laughing! Of course, the _one_ matter that a real human being cares for +is what is going to become of them and of him. And the plain truth is, +that a good many people are saying one thing about it and believing +another. + +----How do I know that? Why, I have known and loved to talk with good +people, all the way from Rome to Geneva in doctrine, as long as I can +remember. Besides, the real religion of the world comes from women much +more than from men,--from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our +souls in their bosoms. It is in their hearts that the "sentimental" +religion some people are so fond of sneering at has its source. The +sentiment of love, the sentiment of maternity, the sentiment of the +paramount obligation of the parent to the child as having called it into +existence, enhanced just in proportion to the power and knowledge of +the one and the weakness and ignorance of the other,--these are the +"sentiments" that have kept our soulless systems from driving men off to +die in holes like those that riddle the sides of the hill opposite +the Monastery of St. Saba, where the miserable victims of a +falsely-interpreted religion starved and withered in their delusion. + +I have looked on the face of a saintly woman this very day, whose creed +many dread and hate, but whose life is lovely and noble beyond all +praise. When I remember the bitter words I have heard spoken against her +faith, by men who have an Inquisition which excommunicates those who ask +to leave their communion in peace, and an _Index Expurgatorius_ on which +this article may possibly have the honor of figuring,--and, far worse +than these, the reluctant, pharisaical confession, that it might perhaps +be _possible_ that one who so believed should be accepted of the +Creator,--and then recall the sweet peace and love that show through +all her looks, the price of untold sacrifices and labors,--and again +recollect how thousands of women, filled with the same spirit, die, +without a murmur, to earthly life, die to their own names even, that +they may know nothing but their holy duties,--while men are torturing +and denouncing their fellows, and while we can hear day and night the +clinking of the hammers that are trying, like the brute forces in the +"Prometheus," to rivet their adamantine wedges right through the breast +of human nature,--I have been ready to believe that we have even now a +new revelation, and the name of its Messiah is WOMAN! + + * * * * * + +----I should be sorry,--I remarked, a day or two afterwards, to the +divinity-student,--if anything I said tended in any way to foster any +jealousy between the professions, or to throw disrespect upon that one +on whose counsel and sympathies almost all of us lean in our moments +of trial. But we are false to our new conditions of life, if we do not +resolutely maintain our religious as well as our political freedom, +in the face of any and all supposed monopolies. Certain men will, of +course, say two things, if we do not take their views: first, that we +don't know anything about these matters; and, secondly, that we are not +so good as they are. They have a polarized phraseology for saying these +things, but it comes to precisely that. To which it may be answered, in +the first place, that we have good authority for saying that even babes +and sucklings know _something_; and, in the second, that, if there is a +mote or so to be removed from our premises, the courts and councils of +the last few years have found beams enough in some other quarters to +build a church that would hold all the good people in Boston and have +sticks enough left to make a bonfire for all the heretics. + +As to that terrible depolarizing process of mine, of which we were +talking the other day, I will give you a specimen of one way of managing +it, if you like. I don't believe it will hurt you or anybody. Besides, I +had a great deal rather finish our talk with pleasant images and gentle +words than with sharp sayings, which will only afford a text, if anybody +repeats them, for endless relays of attacks from Messrs. Ananias, +Shimei, and Rab-sha-keh. + +[I must leave such gentry, if any of them show themselves, in the hands +of my clerical friends, many of whom are ready to stand up for the +rights of the laity,--and to those blessed souls, the good women, to +whom this version of the story of a mother's hidden hopes and tender +anxieties is dedicated by their peaceful and loving servant.] + + + + +A MOTHER'S SECRET. + + + How sweet the sacred legend--if unblamed + In my slight verse such holy things are named-- + Of Mary's secret hours of hidden joy, + Silent, but pondering on her wondrous boy! + _Ave, Maria!_ Pardon, if I wrong + Those heavenly words that shame my earthly song! + + The choral host had closed the angel's strain + Sung to the midnight watch on Bethlehem's plain; + And now the shepherds, hastening on their way, + Sought the still hamlet where the Infant lay. + They passed the fields that gleaning Ruth toiled o'er,-- + They saw afar the ruined threshing-floor + Where Moab's daughter, homeless and forlorn, + Found Boaz slumbering by his heaps of corn; + And some remembered how the holy scribe, + Skilled in the lore of every jealous tribe, + Traced the warm blood of Jesse's royal son + To that fair alien, bravely wooed and won. + So fared they on to seek the promised sign + That marked the anointed heir of David's line. + + At last, by forms of earthly semblance led, + They found the crowded inn, the oxen's shed. + No pomp was there, no glory shone around + On the coarse straw that strewed the reeking ground; + One dim retreat a flickering torch betrayed,-- + In that poor cell the Lord of Life was laid! + + The wondering shepherds told their breathless tale + Of the bright choir that woke the sleeping vale; + Told how the skies with sudden glory flamed; + Told how the shining multitude proclaimed, + "Joy, joy to earth! Behold the hallowed morn! + In David's city Christ the Lord is born! + 'Glory to God!' let angels shout on high,-- + 'Good-will to men!' the listening Earth reply!" + + They spoke with hurried words and accents wild; + Calm in his cradle slept the heavenly child. + No trembling word the mother's joy revealed,-- + One sigh of rapture, and her lips were sealed; + Unmoved she saw the rustic train depart, + But kept their words to ponder in her heart. + + Twelve years had passed; the boy was fair and tall, + Growing in wisdom, finding grace with all. + The maids of Nazareth, as they trooped to fill + Their balanced urns beside the mountain-rill,-- + The gathered matrons, as they sat and spun, + Spoke in soft words of Joseph's quiet son. + No voice had reached the Galilean vale + Of star-led kings or awe-struck shepherds' tale; + In the meek, studious child they only saw + The future Rabbi, learned in Israel's law. + + So grew the boy; and now the feast was near, + When at the holy place the tribes appear. + Scarce had the home-bred child of Nazareth seen + Beyond the hills that girt the village-green, + Save when at midnight, o'er the star-lit sands, + Snatched from the steel of Herod's murdering bands, + A babe, close-folded to his mother's breast, + Through Edom's wilds he sought the sheltering West. + + Then Joseph spake: "Thy boy hath largely grown; + Weave him fine raiment, fitting to be shown; + Fair robes beseem the pilgrim, as the priest: + Goes he not with us to the holy feast?" + + And Mary culled the flaxen fibres white; + Till eve she spun; she spun till morning light; + The thread was twined; its parting meshes through + From hand to hand her restless shuttle flew, + Till the full web was wound upon the beam,-- + Love's curious toil,--a vest without a seam! + + They reach the holy place, fulfil the days + To solemn feasting given, and grateful praise. + At last they turn, and far Moriah's height + Melts in the southern sky and fades from sight. + All day the dusky caravan has flowed + In devious trails along the winding road + (For many a step their homeward path attends,-- + And all the sons of Abraham are as friends). + Evening has come,--the hour of rest and joy;-- + Hush! hush!--that whisper,--"Where is Mary's boy?" + + O weary hour! O aching days that passed + Filled with strange fears, each wilder than the last: + The soldier's lance,--the fierce centurion's sword,-- + The crushing wheels that whirl some Roman lord,-- + The midnight crypt that sucks the captive's breath,-- + The blistering sun on Hinnom's vale of death! + + Thrice on his cheek had rained the morning light, + Thrice on his lips the mildewed kiss of night, + Crouched by some porphyry column's shining plinth, + Or stretched beneath the odorous terebinth. + + At last, in desperate mood, they sought once more + The Temple's porches, searched in vain before; + They found him seated with the ancient men,-- + The grim old rufflers of the tongue and pen,-- + Their bald heads glistening as they clustered near, + Their gray beards slanting as they turned to hear, + Lost in half-envious wonder and surprise + That lips so fresh should utter words so wise. + + And Mary said,--as one who, tried too long, + Tells all her grief and half her sense of wrong,-- + "What is this thoughtless thing which thou hast done? + Lo, we have sought thee sorrowing, O my son!" + + Few words he spake, and scarce of filial tone,-- + Strange words, their sense a mystery yet unknown; + Then turned with them and left the holy hill, + To all their mild commands obedient still. + + The tale was told to Nazareth's sober men, + And Nazareth's matrons told it oft again; + The maids re-told it at the fountain's side; + The youthful shepherds doubted or denied; + It passed around among the listening friends, + With all that fancy adds and fiction lends, + Till newer marvels dimmed the young renown + Of Joseph's son, who talked the Rabbis down. + + But Mary, faithful to its lightest word, + Kept in her heart the sayings she had heard, + Till the dread morning rent the Temple's veil, + And shuddering Earth confirmed the wondrous tale. + + Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall: + A mother's secret hope outlives them all. + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MISS PRISSY. + + +Will our little Mary really fall in love with the Doctor?--The question +reaches us in anxious tones from all the circle of our readers; and what +especially shocks us is, that grave doctors of divinity, and serious, +stocking-knitting matrons, seem to be the class who are particularly +set against the success of our excellent orthodox hero, and bent on +reminding us of the claims of that unregenerate James, whom we have sent +to sea on purpose that our heroine may recover herself of that foolish +partiality for him which all the Christian world seems bent on +perpetuating. + +"Now, really," says the Rev. Mrs. Q., looking up from her bundle of +Sewing-Society work, "you are _not_ going to let Mary marry the +Doctor?" + +My dear Madam, is not that just what you did, yourself, after having +turned off three or four fascinating young sinners as good as James any +day? Don't make us believe that you are sorry for it now! + +"Is it possible," says Dr. Theophrastus, who is himself a stanch +Hopkinsian divine, and who is at present recovering from his last grand +effort on Natural and Moral Ability,--"is it possible that you are going +to let Mary forget that poor young man and marry Dr. H.? That will never +do in the world!" + +Dear Doctor, consider what would have become of you, if some lady at a +certain time had not had the sense and discernment to fall in love with +the _man_ who came to her disguised as a theologian. + +"But he's so old!" says Aunt Maria. + +Not at all. Old? What do you mean? Forty is the very season of +ripeness,--the very meridian of manly lustre and splendor. + +"But he wears a wig." + +My dear Madam, so did Sir Charles Grandison, and Lovelace, and all the +other fine fellows of those days; the wig was the distinguishing mark of +a gentleman. + +No,--spite of all you may say and declare, we do insist that our Doctor +is a very proper and probable subject for a young lady to fall in love +with. + +If women have one weakness more marked than another, it is towards +veneration. They are born worshippers,--makers of silver shrines for +some divinity or other, which, of course, they always think fell +straight down from heaven. + +The first step towards their falling in love with an ordinary mortal +is generally to dress him out with all manner of real or fancied +superiority; and having made him up, they worship him. + +Now a truly great man, a man really grand and noble in heart and +intellect, has this advantage with women, that he is an idol ready-made +to hand; and so that very painstaking and ingenious sex have less labor +in getting him up, and can be ready to worship him on shorter notice. + +In particular is this the case where a sacred profession and a moral +supremacy are added to the intellectual. Just think of the career of +celebrated preachers and divines in all ages. Have they not stood like +the image that "Nebuchadnezzar the king set up," and all womankind, +coquettes and flirts not excepted, been ready to fall down and worship, +even before the sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and so forth? Is +not the faithful Paula, with her beautiful face, prostrate in reverence +before poor, old, lean, haggard, dying St. Jerome, in the most splendid +painting of the world, an emblem and sign of woman's eternal power of +self-sacrifice to what she deems noblest in man? Does not old Richard +Baxter tell us, with delightful single-heartedness, how his wife fell +in love with him first, spite of his long, pale face,--and how she +confessed, dear soul, after many years of married life, that she had +found him _less_ sour and bitter than she had expected? + +The fact is, women are burdened with fealty, faith, reverence, more +than they know what to do with; they stand like a hedge of sweet-peas, +throwing out fluttering tendrils everywhere for something high and +strong to climb by,--and when they find it, be it ever so rough in the +bark, they catch upon it. And instances are not wanting of those who +have turned away from the flattery of admirers to prostrate themselves +at the feet of a genuine hero who never wooed them, except by heroic +deeds and the rhetoric of a noble life. + +Never was there a distinguished man whose greatness could sustain the +test of minute domestic inspection better than our Doctor. Strong in a +single-hearted humility, a perfect unconsciousness of self, an honest +and sincere absorption in high and holy themes and objects, there was in +him what we so seldom see,--a perfect logic of life; his minutest deeds +were the true results of his sublimest principles. His whole nature, +moral, physical, and intellectual, was simple, pure, and cleanly. He was +temperate as an anchorite in all matters of living,--avoiding, from a +healthy instinct, all those intoxicating stimuli then common among the +clergy. In his early youth, indeed, he had formed an attachment to the +almost universal clerical pipe,--but, observing a delicate woman once +nauseated by coming into the atmosphere which he and his brethren had +polluted, he set himself gravely to reflect that that which could so +offend a woman must needs be uncomely and unworthy a Christian man; +wherefore he laid his pipe on the mantelpiece, and never afterwards +resumed the indulgence. + +In all his relations with womanhood he was delicate and reverential, +forming his manners by that old precept, "The elder women entreat as +mothers, the younger as sisters,"--which rule, short and simple as +it is, is nevertheless the most perfect _résumé_, of all true +gentlemanliness. Then, as for person, the Doctor was not handsome, to be +sure; but he was what sometimes serves with woman better,--majestic +and manly, and, when animated by thought and feeling, having even a +commanding grandeur of mien. Add to all this, that our valiant hero is +now on the straight road to bring him into that situation most likely +to engage the warm partisanship of a true woman,--namely, that of a man +unjustly abused for right-doing,--and one may see that it is ten to one +our Mary may fall in love with him yet, before she knows it. + +If it were not for this mysterious selfness-and-sameness which makes +this wild, wandering, uncanonical sailor, James Marvyn, so intimate +and internal,--if his thread were not knit up with the thread of her +life,--were it not for the old habit of feeling for him, thinking for +him, praying for him, hoping for him, fearing for him, which--woe is +us!--is the unfortunate habit of womankind,--if it were not for that +fatal something which neither judgment, nor wishes, nor reason, nor +common sense shows any great skill in unravelling,--we are quite sure +that Mary would be in love with the Doctor within the next six +months; as it is, we leave you all to infer from your own heart and +consciousness what his chances are. + +A new sort of scene is about to open on our heroine, and we shall show +her to you, for an evening at least, in new associations, and with a +different background from that homely and rural one in which she has +fluttered as a white dove amid leafy and congenial surroundings. + +As we have before intimated, Newport presented a _résumé_ of many +different phases of society, all brought upon a social level by the then +universally admitted principle of equality. + +There were scattered about in the settlement lordly mansions, whose +owners rolled in emblazoned carriages, and whose wide halls were the +scenes of a showy and almost princely hospitality. By her husband's +side, Mrs. Katy Scudder was allied to one of these families of wealthy +planters, and often recognized the connection with a quiet undertone +of satisfaction, as a dignified and self-respecting woman should. She +liked, once in a while, quietly to let people know, that, although they +lived in the plain little cottage and made no pretensions, yet they had +good blood in their veins,--that Mr. Scudder's mother was a Wilcox, and +that the Wilcoxes were, she supposed, as high as anybody,--generally +ending the remark with the observation, that "all these things, to be +sure, were matters of small consequence, since at last it would be of +far more importance to have been a true Christian than to have been +connected with the highest families of the land." + +Nevertheless, Mrs. Scudder was not a little pleased to have in her +possession a card of invitation to a splendid wedding-party that was +going to be given, on Friday, at the Wilcox Manor. She thought it a very +becoming mark of respect to the deceased Mr. Scudder that his widow and +daughter should be brought to mind,--so becoming and praiseworthy, +in fact, that, "though an old woman," as she said, with a complacent +straightening of her tall, lithe figure, she really thought she must +make an effort to go. + +Accordingly, early one morning, after all domestic duties had been +fulfilled, and the clock, loudly ticking through the empty rooms, told +that all needful bustle had died down to silence, Mrs. Katy, Mary, and +Miss Prissy Diamond, the dressmaker, might have been observed sitting in +solemn senate around the camphor-wood trunk, before spoken of, and which +exhaled vague foreign and Indian perfumes of silk and sandal-wood. + +You may have heard of dignitaries, my good reader,--but, I assure you, +you know very little of a situation of trust or importance compared to +that of _the_ dress-maker in a small New England town. + +What important interests does she hold in her hands! How is she +besieged, courted, deferred to! Three months beforehand, all her days +and nights are spoken for; and the simple statement, that _only_ on that +day you can have Miss Clippers, is of itself an apology for any omission +of attention elsewhere,--it strikes home at once to the deepest +consciousness of every woman, married or single. How thoughtfully is +everything arranged, weeks beforehand, for the golden, important season +when Miss Clippers can come! On that day, there is to be no extra +sweeping, dusting, cleaning, cooking, no visiting, no receiving, no +reading or writing, but all with one heart and soul are to wait upon +her, intent to forward the great work which she graciously affords +a day's leisure to direct. Seated in her chair of state, with her +well-worn cushion bristling with pins and needles at her side, her ready +roll of patterns and her scissors, she hears, judges, and decides _ex +cathedrâ_ on the possible or not possible, in that important art on +which depends the right presentation of the floral part of Nature's +great horticultural show. She alone is competent to say whether there is +any available remedy for the stained breadth in Jane's dress,--whether +the fatal spot by any magical hocus-pocus can be cut out from the +fulness, or turned up and smothered from view in the gathers, or +concealed by some new fashion of trimming falling with generous +appropriateness exactly across the fatal weak point. She can tell you +whether that remnant of velvet will make you a basque,--whether Mamma's +old silk can reappear in juvenile grace for Miss Lucy. What marvels +follow her, wherever she goes! What wonderful results does she contrive +from the most unlikely materials, as everybody after her departure +wonders to see old things become so much better than new! + +Among the most influential and happy of her class was Miss Prissy +Diamond,--a little, dapper, doll-like body, quick in her motions and +nimble in her tongue, whose delicate complexion, flaxen curls, merry +flow of spirits, and ready abundance of gayety, song, and story, apart +from her professional accomplishments, made her a welcome guest in every +family in the neighborhood. Miss Prissy laughingly boasted being past +forty, sure that the avowal would always draw down on her quite a storm +of compliments, on the freshness of her sweet-pea complexion and the +brightness of her merry blue eyes. She was well pleased to hear dawning +girls wondering why with so many advantages she had never married. At +such remarks, Miss Prissy always laughed loudly, and declared that she +had always had such a string of engagements with the women that she +never found half an hour to listen to what any _man_ living would say to +her, supposing she could stop to hear him. "Besides, if I were to get +married, nobody else could," she would say. "What would become of all +the wedding-clothes for everybody else?" But sometimes, when Miss Prissy +felt extremely gracious, she would draw out of her little chest just the +faintest tip-end of a sigh, and tell some young lady, in a confidential +undertone, that one of these days she would tell her something,--and +then there would come a wink of her blue eyes and a fluttering of the +pink ribbons in her cap quite stimulating to youthful inquisitiveness, +though we have never been able to learn by any of our antiquarian +researches that the expectations thus excited were ever gratified. + +In her professional prowess she felt a pardonable pride. What feats +could she relate of wonderful dresses got out of impossibly small +patterns of silk! what marvels of silks turned that could not be told +from new! what reclaimings of waists that other dress-makers had +hopelessly spoiled! Had not Mrs. General Wilcox once been obliged to +call in her aid on a dress sent to her from Paris? and did not Miss +Prissy work three days and nights on that dress, and make every stitch +of that trimming over with her own hands, before it was fit to be seen? +And when Mrs. Governor Dexter's best silver-gray brocade was spoiled by +Miss Pimlico, and there wasn't another scrap to pattern it with, didn't +she make a new waist out of the cape and piece one of the sleeves +twenty-nine times, and yet nobody would ever have known that there was a +joining in it? + +In fact, though Miss Prissy enjoyed the fair average plain-sailing of +her work, she might be said to _revel_ in difficulties. A full pattern +with trimming, all ample and ready, awoke a moderate enjoyment; but the +resurrection of anything half-worn or imperfectly made, the brilliant +success, when, after turning, twisting, piecing, contriving, and, +by unheard-of inventions of trimming, a dress faded and defaced was +restored to more than pristine splendor,--_that_ was a triumph worth +enjoying. + +It was true, Miss Prissy, like most of her nomadic compeers, was a +little given to gossip; but, after all, it was innocent gossip,--not +a bit of malice in it; it was only all the particulars about Mrs. +Thus-and-So's wardrobe,--all the statistics of Mrs. That-and-T'other's +china-closet,--all the minute items of Miss Simpkins's wedding-clothes, +--and how her mother cried, the morning of the wedding, and said +that she didn't know anything how she could spare Louisa Jane, only +that Edward was such a good boy that she felt she could love him +like an own son,--and what a providence it seemed that the very ring +that was put into the bride-loaf was one that he gave her when he first +went to sea, when she wouldn't be engaged to him because she thought she +loved Thomas Strickland better, but that was only because she hadn't +found him out, you know,--and so forth, and so forth. Sometimes, too, +her narrations assumed a solemn cast, and brought to mind the hush of +funerals, and told of words spoken in faint whispers, when hands were +clasped for the last time,--and of utterances crushed out from hearts, +when the hammer of a great sorrow strikes out sparks of the divine, even +from common stone; and there would be real tears in the little blue +eyes, and the pink bows would flutter tremulously, like the last +three leaves on a bare scarlet maple in autumn. In fact, dear reader, +_gossip_, like romance, has its noble side to it. How can you love your +neighbor as yourself and not feel a little curiosity as to how he +fares, what he wears, where he goes, and how he takes the great life +tragi-comedy at which you and he are both more than spectators? Show me +a person who lives in a country-village absolutely without curiosity or +interest on these subjects, and I will show you a cold, fat oyster, to +whom the tide-mud of propriety is the whole of existence. + +As one of our esteemed collaborators in the ATLANTIC remarks,--"A dull +town, where there is neither theatre nor circus nor opera, must have +some excitement, and the real tragedy and comedy of life _must_ come +in place of the second-hand. Hence the noted gossiping propensities +of country-places, which, so long as they are not poisoned by envy or +ill-will, have a respectable and picturesque side to them,--an undoubted +leave to be, as probably has almost everything, which obstinately and +always insists on being, except sin!" + +As it is, it must be confessed that the arrival of Miss Prissy in a +family was much like the setting up of a domestic show-case, through +which you could look into all the families in the neighborhood, and see +the never-ending drama of life,--births, marriages, deaths,--joy +of new-made mothers, whose babes weighed just eight pounds and +three-quarters, and had hair that would part with a comb,--and tears of +Rachels who wept for their children, and would not be comforted because +they were not. Was there a tragedy, a mystery, in all Newport, whose +secret closet had not been unlocked by Miss Prissy? She thought not; +and you always wondered, with an uncertain curiosity, what those things +might be over which she gravely shook her head, declaring, with such a +look,--"Oh, if you only _could_ know!"--and ending with a general sigh +and lamentation, like the confidential chorus of a Greek tragedy. + +We have been thus minute in sketching Miss Prissy's portrait, because +we rather like her. She has great power, we admit; and were she a +sour-faced, angular, energetic body, with a heart whose secretions had +all become acrid by disappointment and dyspepsia, she might be a fearful +gnome, against whose family-visitations one ought to watch and pray. As +it was, she came into the house rather like one of those breezy days +of spring, which burst all the blossoms, set all the doors and windows +open, make the hens cackle and the turtles peep,--filling a solemn +Puritan dwelling with as much bustle and chatter as if a box of martins +were setting up housekeeping in it. + +Let us now introduce you to the sanctuary of Mrs. Scudder's own private +bedroom, where the committee of exigencies, with Miss Prissy at their +head, are seated in solemn session around the camphor-wood trunk. + +"Dress, you know, is of _some_ importance, after all," said Mrs. +Scudder, in that apologetic way in which sensible people generally +acknowledge a secret leaning towards anything so very mundane. While +the good lady spoke, she was reverentially unpinning and shaking out +of their fragrant folds creamy crape shawls of rich Chinese +embroidery,--India muslin, scarfs, and aprons; and already her hands +were undoing the pins of a silvery damask linen in which was wrapped +her own wedding-dress. "I have always told Mary," she continued, "that, +though our hearts ought not to be set on these things, yet they had +their importance." + +"Certainly, certainly, Ma'am," chimed in Miss Prissy. "I was saying +to Miss General Wilcox, the other day, _I_ didn't see how we could +'consider the lilies of the field,' without seeing the importance of +looking pretty. I've got a flower-de-luce in my garden now, from one of +the new roots that old Major Seaforth brought over from France, which is +just the most beautiful thing you ever did see; and I was thinking, as +I looked at it to-day, that, if women's dresses only grew on 'em as +handsome and well-fitting as that, why, there wouldn't be any need of +me; but as it is, why, we _must think_, if we want to look well. Now +peach-trees, I s'pose, might bear just as good peaches without the pink +blows, but then who would want 'em to? Miss Deacon Twitchel, when I was +up there the other day, kept kind o' sighin' 'cause Cerintha Ann is +getting a new pink silk made up, 'cause she said it was such a dying +world it didn't seem right to call off our attention: but I told her +it wasn't any pinker than the apple-blossoms; and what with robins and +blue-birds and one thing or another, the Lord is always calling off our +attention; and I think we ought to observe the Lord's works and take a +lesson from 'em." + +"Yes, you are quite right," said Mrs. Scudder, rising and shaking out a +splendid white brocade, on which bunches of moss-roses were looped to +bunches of violets by graceful fillets of blue ribbons. "This was my +wedding-dress," she said. + +Little Miss Prissy sprang up and clapped her hands in an ecstasy. + +"Well, now, Miss Scudder, really!--did I ever see anything more +beautiful? It really goes beyond anything _I_ ever saw. I don't think, +in all the brocades I ever made up, I ever saw so pretty a pattern as +this." + +"Mr. Scudder chose it for me, himself, at the silk-factory in Lyons," +said Mrs. Scudder, with pardonable pride, "and I want it tried on to +Mary." + +"Really, Miss Scudder, this ought to be kept for _her_ wedding-dress," +said Miss Prissy, as she delightedly bustled about the congenial task. +"I was up to Miss Marvyn's, a-working, last week," she said, as she +threw the dress over Mary's head, "and she said that James expected to +make his fortune in that voyage, and come home and settle down." + +Mary's fair head emerged from the rustling folds of the brocade, her +cheeks crimson as one of the moss-roses,--while her mother's face assumed +a severe gravity, as she remarked that she believed James had been much +pleased with Jane Spencer, and that, for her part, she should be very +glad, when he came home, if he could marry such a steady, sensible girl, +and settle down to a useful, Christian life. + +"Ah, yes,--just so,--a very excellent idea, certainly," said Miss +Prissy. "It wants a little taken in here on the shoulders, and a +little under the arms. The biases are all right; the sleeves will want +altering, Miss Scudder. I hope you will have a hot iron ready for +pressing." + +Mrs. Scudder rose immediately, to see the command obeyed; and as her +back was turned, Miss Prissy went on in a low tone,-- + +"Now, _I_, for my part, don't think there's a word of truth in that +story about James Marvyn and Jane Spencer; for I was down there at work +one day when he called, and I _know_ there couldn't have been anything +between them,--besides, Miss Spencer, her mother, told me there +wasn't.--There, Miss Scudder, you see that is a good fit. It's +astonishing how near it comes to fitting, just as it was. I didn't think +Mary was so near what you were, when you were a girl, Miss Scudder. The +other day, when I was up to General Wilcox's, the General he was in the +room when I was a-trying on Miss Wilcox's cherry velvet, and she was +asking couldn't I come this week for her, and I mentioned I was coming +to Miss Scudder, and the General says he,--'I used to know her when she +was a girl. I tell you, she was one of the handsomest girls in Newport, +by George!' says he. And says I,--'General, you ought to see her +daughter.' And the General,--you know his jolly way,--he laughed, and +says he,--'If she is as handsome as her mother was, I don't want to see +her,' says he. 'I tell you, wife,' says he, 'I but just missed falling +in love with Katy Stephens.'" + +"I could have told her more than that," said Mrs. Scudder, with a +flash of her old coquette girlhood for a moment lighting her eyes and +straightening her lithe form. "I guess, if I should show a letter he +wrote me once----But what am I talking about?" she said, suddenly +stiffening back into a sensible woman. "Miss Prissy, do you think it +will be necessary to cut it off at the bottom? It seems a pity to cut +such rich silk." + +"So it does, I declare. Well, I believe it will do to turn it up." + +"I depend on you to put it a little into modern fashion, you know," said +Mrs. Scudder. "It is many a year, you know, since it was made." + +"Oh, never you fear! You leave all that to me," said Miss Prissy. "Now, +there never was anything so lucky as, that, just before all these +wedding-dresses had to be fixed, I got a letter from my sister Martha, +that works for all the first families of Boston. And Martha she is +really unusually privileged, because she works for Miss Cranch, and Miss +Cranch gets letters from Miss Adams,--you know Mr. Adams is Ambassador +now at the Court of St. James, and Miss Adams writes home all the +particulars about the court-dresses; and Martha she heard one of the +letters read, and she told Miss Cranch that she would give the best +five-pound-note she had, if she could just copy that description to send +to Prissy. Well, Miss Cranch let her do it, and I've got a copy of the +letter here in my work-pocket. I read it up to Miss General Wilcox's, +and to Major Seaforth's, and I'll read it to you." + +Mrs. Katy Scudder was a born subject of a crown, and, though now a +republican matron, had not outlived the reverence, from childhood +implanted, for the high and stately doings of courts, lords, ladies, +queens, and princesses, and therefore it was not without some awe that +she saw Miss Prissy produce from her little black work-bag the well-worn +epistle. + +"Here it is," said Miss Prissy, at last. "I only copied out the parts +about being presented at Court. She says:-- + +"'One is obliged here to attend the circles of the Queen, which are held +once a fortnight; and what renders it very expensive is, that you cannot +go twice in the same dress, and a court-dress you cannot make use of +elsewhere. I directed my mantua-maker to let my dress be elegant, but +plain as I could possibly appear with decency. Accordingly, it is white +lutestring, covered and full-trimmed with white crape, festooned with +lilac ribbon and mock point-lace, over a hoop of enormous size. There +is only a narrow train, about three yards in length to the gown-waist, +which is put into a ribbon on the left side,--the Queen only having her +train borne. Ruffled cuffs for married ladies,--treble lace ruffles, a +very dress cap with long lace lappets, two white plumes, and a blonde +lace handkerchief. This is my rigging.'" + +Miss Prissy here stopped to adjust her spectacles. Her audience +expressed a breathless interest. + +"You see," she said, "I used to know her when she was Nabby Smith. She +was Parson Smith's daughter, at Weymouth, and as handsome a girl as +ever I wanted to see,--just as graceful as a sweet-brier bush. I don't +believe any of those English ladies looked one bit better than she did. +She was always a master-hand at writing. Everything she writes about, +she puts it right before you. You feel as if you'd been there. Now, here +she goes on to tell about her daughter's dress. She says:-- + +"'My head is dressed for St. James's, and in my opinion looks very +tasty. Whilst my daughter is undergoing the same operation, I set myself +down composedly to write you a few lines. Well, methinks I hear Betsey +and Lucy say, "What is cousin's dress?" _White_, my dear girls, like +your aunt's, only differently trimmed and ornamented,--her train being +wholly of white crape, and trimmed with white ribbon; the petticoat, +which is the most showy part of the dress, covered and drawn up in +what are called festoons, with light wreaths of beautiful flowers; the +sleeves, white crape drawn over the silk, with a row of lace round the +sleeve near the shoulder, another half-way down the arm, and a third +upon the top of the ruffle,--a little stuck between,--a kind of hat-cap +with three large feathers and a bunch of flowers,--a wreath of flowers +on the hair.'" + +Miss Prissy concluded this relishing description with a little smack of +the lips, such as people sometimes give when reading things that are +particularly to their taste. + +"Now, I was a-thinking," she added, "that it would be an excellent way +to trim Mary's sleeves,--three rows of lace, with a sprig to each row." + +All this while, our Mary, with her white short-gown and blue +stuff-petticoat, her shining pale brown hair and serious large blue +eyes, sat innocently looking first at her mother, then at Miss Prissy, +and then at the finery. + +We do not claim for her any superhuman exemption from girlish feelings. +She was innocently dazzled with the vision of courtly halls and princely +splendors, and thought Mrs. Adams's descriptions almost a perfect +realization of things she had read in "Sir Charles Grandison." If her +mother thought it right and proper she should be dressed and made fine, +she was glad of it; only there came a heavy, leaden feeling in her +little heart, which she did not understand, but we who know womankind +will translate for you: it was, that a certain pair of dark eyes would +not see her after she was dressed; and so, after all, what was the use +of looking pretty? + +"I wonder what James _would_ think," passed through her head; for Mary +had never changed a ribbon, or altered the braid of her hair, or pinned +a flower in her bosom, that she had not quickly seen the effect of the +change mirrored in those dark eyes. It was a pity, of course, now she +had found out that she ought not to think about him, that so many +thought-strings were twisted round him. + +So while Miss Prissy turned over her papers, and read out of others +extracts about Lord Caermarthen and Sir Clement Cotterel Dormer and the +Princess Royal and Princess Augusta, in black and silver, with a silver +netting upon the coat, and a head stuck full of diamond pins,--and Lady +Salisbury and Lady Talbot and the Duchess of Devonshire, and scarlet +satin sacks and diamonds and ostrich-plumes, and the King's kissing Mrs. +Adams,--little Mary's blue eyes grew larger and larger, seeing far off +on the salt green sea, and her ears heard only the ripple and murmur of +those waters that earned her heart away,--till, by-and-by, Miss Prissy +gave her a smart little tap, which awakened her to the fact that she was +wanted again to try on the dress which Miss Prissy's nimble fingers had +basted. + +So passed the day,--Miss Prissy busily chattering, clipping, +basting,--Mary patiently trying on to an unheard-of extent,--and Mrs. +Scudder's neat room whipped into a perfect froth and foam of gauze, +lace, artificial flowers, linings, and other aids, accessories, and +abetments. + +At dinner, the Doctor, who had been all the morning studying out his +Treatise on the Millennium, discoursed tranquilly as usual, innocently +ignorant of the unusual cares which were distracting the minds of his +listeners. What should he know of dress-makers, good soul? Encouraged +by the respectful silence of his auditors, he calmly expanded and +soliloquized on his favorite topic, the last golden age of Time, the +Marriage-Supper of the Lamb, when the purified Earth, like a repentant +Psyche, shall be restored to the long-lost favor of a celestial +Bridegroom, and glorified saints and angels shall walk familiarly as +wedding-guests among men. + +"Sakes alive!" said little Miss Prissy, after dinner, "did I ever hear +any one go on like that blessed man?--such a spiritual mind! Oh, Miss +Scudder, how you are privileged in having him here! I do really think it +is a shame such a blessed man a'n't thought more of. Why, I could just +sit and hear him talk all day. Miss Scudder, I wish sometimes you'd just +let me make a ruffled shirt for him, and do it all up myself, and put a +stitch in the hem that I learned from my sister Martha, who learned it +from a French young lady who was educated in a convent;--nuns, you know, +poor things, can do _some_ things right; and I think _I_ never saw such +hemstitching as they do there;--and I should like to hemstitch the +Doctor's ruffles; he is _so_ spiritually-minded, it really makes me love +him. Why, hearing him talk put me in mind of a real beautiful song of +Mr. Watts,--I don't know as I could remember the tune." + +And Miss Prissy, whose musical talent was one of her special _fortes_, +tuned her voice, a little cracked and quavering, and sang, with a +vigorous accent on each accented syllable,-- + + "From _the_ third heaven, where God resides, + That holy, happy place, + The New Jerusalem comes down, + Adorned with shining grace. + + "Attending angels shout for joy, + And the bright armies sing,-- + 'Mortals! behold the sacred seat + Of your descending King!'" + +"Take care, Miss Scudder!--that silk must be cut exactly on the bias"; +and Miss Prissy, hastily finishing her last quaver, caught the silk and +the scissors out of Mrs. Scudder's hand, and fell down at once from +the Millennium into a discourse on her own particular way of covering +piping-cord. + +So we go, dear reader,--so long as we have a body and a soul. Two worlds +must mingle,--the great and the little, the solemn and the trivial, +wreathing in and out, like the grotesque carvings on a Gothic +shrine;--only, did we know it rightly, nothing is trivial; since the +human soul, with its awful shadow, makes all things sacred. Have not +ribbons, cast-off flowers, soiled bits of gauze, trivial, trashy +fragments of millinery, sometimes had an awful meaning, a deadly power, +when they belonged to one who should wear them no more, and whose +beautiful form, frail and crushed as they, is a hidden and a vanished +thing for all time? For so sacred and individual is a human being, that, +of all the million-peopled earth, no one form ever restores another. +The mould of each mortal type is broken at the grave; and never, never, +though you look through all the faces on earth, shall the exact form you +mourn ever meet your eyes again! You are living your daily life among +trifles that one death-stroke may make relics. One false step, one +luckless accident, an obstacle on the track of a train, the tangling of +the cord in shifting a sail, and the penknife, the pen, the papers, the +trivial articles of dress and clothing, which to-day you toss idly and +jestingly from hand to hand, may become dread memorials of that awful +tragedy whose deep abyss ever underlies our common life. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PARTY. + + +Well, let us proceed to tell how the eventful evening drew on,--how +Mary, by Miss Prissy's care, stood at last in a long-waisted gown +flowered with rose-buds and violets, opening in front to display a white +satin skirt trimmed with lace and flowers,--how her little feet were +put into high-heeled shoes, and a little jaunty cap with a wreath of +moss-rose-buds was fastened over her shining hair,--and how Miss Prissy, +delighted, turned her round and round, and then declared that she must +go and get the Doctor to look at her. She knew he must be a man of +taste, he talked so beautifully about the Millennium; and so, bursting +into his study, she actually chattered him back into the visible world, +and, leading the blushing Mary to the door, asked him, point-blank, if +he ever saw anything prettier. + +The Doctor, being now wide awake, gravely gave his mind to the subject, +and, after some consideration, said, gravely, "No,--he didn't think he +ever did." For the Doctor was not a man of compliment, and had a habit +of always thinking, before he spoke, whether what he was going to say +was exactly true; and having lived some time in the family of President +Edwards, renowned for beautiful daughters, he naturally thought them +over. + +The Doctor looked innocent and helpless, while Miss Prissy, having +got him now quite into her power, went on volubly to expatiate on the +difficulties overcome in adapting the ancient wedding-dress to its +present modern fit. He told her that it was very nice,--said, "Yes, +Ma'am," at proper places,--and, being a very obliging man, looked at +whatever he was directed to, with round, blank eyes; but ended all with +a long gaze on the laughing, blushing face, that, half in shame and +half in perplexed mirth, appeared and disappeared as Miss Prissy in her +warmth turned her round and showed her. + +"Now, don't she look beautiful?" Miss Prissy reiterated for the +twentieth time, as Mary left the room. + +The Doctor, looking after her musingly, said to himself,--"'The king's +daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold; she +shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.'" + +"Now, did I ever?" said Miss Prissy, rushing out. "How that good man +does turn everything! I believe you couldn't get anything, that he +wouldn't find a text right out of the Bible about it. I mean to get the +linen for that shirt this very week, with the Miss Wilcox's money; they +always pay well, those Wilcoxes,--and I've worked for them, off and on, +sixteen days and a quarter. To be sure, Miss Scudder, there's no +real need of my doing it, for I must say you keep him looking like a +pink,--but only I feel as if I must do something for such a good man." + +The good Doctor was brushed up for the evening with zealous care and +energy; and if he did _not_ look like a pink, it was certainly no fault +of his hostess. + +Well, we cannot reproduce in detail the faded glories of that +entertainment, nor relate how the Wilcox Manor and gardens were +illuminated,--how the bride wore a veil of real point-lace,--how +carriages rolled and grated on the gravel works, and negro servants, in +white kid gloves, handed out ladies in velvet and satin. + +To Mary's inexperienced eye it seemed like an enchanted dream,--a +realization of all she had dreamed of grand and high society. She had +her little triumph of an evening; for everybody asked who that beautiful +girl was, and more than one gallant of the old Newport first families +felt himself adorned and distinguished to walk with her on his arm. +Busy, officious dowagers repeated to Mrs. Scudder the applauding +whispers that followed her wherever she went. + +"Really, Mrs. Scudder," said gallant old General Wilcox, "where have you +kept such a beauty all this time? It's a sin and a shame to hide such a +light under a bushel." + +And Mrs. Scudder, though, of course, like you and me, sensible reader, +properly apprised of the perishable nature of such fleeting honors, was, +like us, too, but a mortal, and smiled condescendingly on the follies of +the scene. + +The house was divided by a wide hall opening by doors, the front one +upon the street, the back into a large garden, the broad central walk +of which, edged on each side with high clipped hedges of box, now +resplendent with colored lamps, seemed to continue the prospect in a +brilliant vista. + +The old-fashioned garden was lighted in every part, and the company +dispersed themselves about it in picturesque groups. + +We have the image in our mind of Mary as she stood with her little hat +and wreath of rose-buds, her fluttering ribbons and rich brocade, as it +were a picture framed in the door-way, with her back to the illuminated +garden, and her calm, innocent face regarding with a pleased wonder the +unaccustomed gayeties within. + +Her dress, which, under Miss Prissy's forming hand, had been made to +assume that appearance of style and fashion which more particularly +characterized the mode of those times, formed a singular, but not +unpleasing, contrast to the sort of dewy freshness of air and mien which +was characteristic of her style of beauty. It seemed so to represent +a being who was in the world, yet not of it,--who, though living +habitually in a higher region of thought and feeling, was artlessly +curious, and innocently pleased with a fresh experience in an altogether +untried sphere. The feeling of being in a circle to which she did not +belong, where her presence was in a manner an accident, and where she +felt none of the responsibilities which come from being a component part +of a society, gave to her a quiet, disengaged air, which produced all +the effect of the perfect ease of high breeding. + +While she stands there, there comes out of the door of the bridal +reception-room a gentleman with a stylishly-dressed lady on either arm, +with whom he seems wholly absorbed. He is of middle height, peculiarly +graceful in form and moulding, with that indescribable air of +high breeding which marks the polished man of the world. His +beautifully-formed head, delicate profile, fascinating sweetness of +smile, and, above all, an eye which seemed to have an almost mesmeric +power of attraction, were traits which distinguished one of the most +celebrated men of the time, and one whose peculiar history yet lives +not only in our national records, but in the private annals of many an +American family. + +"Good Heavens!" he said, suddenly pausing in conversation, as his eye +accidentally fell upon Mary. "Who is that lovely creature?" + +"Oh, that," said Mrs. Wilcox,--"why, that is Mary Scudder. Her father +was a family connection of the General's. The family are in rather +modest circumstances, but highly respectable." + +After a few moments more of ordinary chit-chat, in which from time to +time he darted upon her glances of rapid and piercing observation, the +gentleman might have been observed to disembarrass himself of one of the +ladies on his arm, by passing her with a compliment and a bow to another +gallant, and, after a few moments more, he spoke something to Mrs. +Wilcox, in a low voice, and with that gentle air of deferential +sweetness which always made everybody well satisfied to do his will. The +consequence was, that in a few moments Mary was startled from her calm +speculations by the voice of Mrs. Wilcox, saying at her elbow, in a +formal tone,-- + +"Miss Scudder, I have the honor to present to your acquaintance Colonel +Burr, of the United States Senate." + +(To be continued.) + + + + +THE WALKER OF THE SNOW. + + + Speed on, speed on, good master! + The camp lies far away;-- + We must cross the haunted valley + Before the close of day. + + How the snow-blight came upon me + I will tell you as we go,-- + The blight of the shadow hunter + Who walks the midnight snow. + + To the cold December heaven + Came the pale moon and the stars, + As the yellow sun was sinking + Behind the purple bars. + + The snow was deeply drifted + Upon the ridges drear + That lay for miles between me + And the camp for which we steer. + + 'Twas silent on the hill-side, + And by the solemn wood + No sound of life or motion + To break the solitude, + + Save the wailing of the moose-bird + With a plaintive note and low, + And the skating of the red leaf + Upon the frozen snow. + + And said I,--"Though dark is falling, + And far the camp must be, + Yet my heart it would be lightsome, + If I had but company." + + And then I sang and shouted, + Keeping measure, as I sped, + To the harp-twang of the snow-shoe + As it sprang beneath my tread. + + Nor far into the valley + Had I dipped upon my way, + When a dusky figure joined me, + In a capuchon of gray, + + Bending upon the snow-shoes + With a long and limber stride; + And I hailed the dusky stranger, + As we travelled side by side. + + But no token of communion + Gave he by word or look, + And the fear-chill fell upon me + At the crossing of the brook. + + For I saw by the sickly moonlight, + As I followed, bending low, + That the walking of the stranger + Left no foot-marks on the snow. + + Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me, + Like a shroud around me cast, + As I sank upon the snow-drift + Where the shadow hunter passed. + + And the otter-trappers found me, + Before the break of day, + With my dark hair blanched and whitened + As the snow in which I lay. + + But they spoke not, as they raised me; + For they knew that in the night + I had seen the shadow hunter, + And had withered in his blight. + + Sancta Maria speed us! + The sun is falling low,-- + Before us lies the Valley + Of the Walker of the Snow! + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_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. + +(SECOND NOTICE.) + +According to the well-authenticated legend of the martyrdom of Saint +Lawrence, the Saint, as he lay upon the grid-iron, conscious that he +had been sufficiently done on one side, begged the cooks, if it were +a matter of indifference to them, to turn him on the other. Common +humanity demanded compliance with so reasonable a request. We fancy that +we hear Mr. Wilson, preferring a similar petition; and we hope we are +too good-natured to be insensible to the appeal. We cannot, at this +moment, indeed, think of him otherwise than good-naturedly. With many +things in his book we have been highly pleased. The number, the +novelty, and the variety of his blunders have given us a very favorable +impression of his ingenuity, and have afforded us constant entertainment +in what we feared was to be a drudgery and a task. We had intended to +cull some of these beauties for the amusement of our readers and +the personal gratification of Mr. Wilson himself. But, as children, +gathering shells on the sea-shore, resign, one after another, the +treasures which they have collected, and grasp at newer, and, therefore, +more pleasing specimens, which are abandoned in their turn, so we, +finding our stores accumulate beyond our means of transportation, and +tantalized by a richness that made the task of selection an impossible +one, have been forced to relinquish the prize and come away with empty +hands. If there be, in the compass of what the author calls "these +volumes,"--though to us, perhaps from inability to distinguish between +unity and duality, his work appears to be comprised in a single tome,--a +sentence decently constructed, a foreign name correctly spelt, a +punctuation-mark rightly placed, a fact clearly and accurately stated, +or an argument that is not capable of an easy reduction to the absurd, +we have not been so unfortunate as to discover it. Mr. Wilson is a man +who, to use Carlyle's favorite expression, has "swallowed all formulas." +The principles that have generally been held to govern the use of +language appear to him mere arbitrary rules, invented by the "sevenfold +censorship" and the Spanish Inquisition, for the purpose of preventing +the free communication of ideas. All such trammels he rejects; and, +accordingly, we have to thank him, so far as mere style is concerned, +for an uninterrupted flow of pleasure in the perusal of his book, +adorned as it is with "graces" that are very far indeed "beyond the +reach of Art." + +We come now to those important questions which Mr. Wilson was not, +indeed, the first to agitate, but which he has awakened from their +profound slumbers in the bosom of the Hon. Lewis Cass and the pages +of the "North American Review." We are not to be tempted into writing +another "New History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but we shall endeavor +to state with clearness those points on which the world has had the +temerity to differ from the "high authorities" we have named. It has +been, then, commonly asserted, and is, we fear, by the great mass of +our readers still superstitiously believed, that, at the time of the +discovery of this continent, there existed, in certain portions of it, +nations not wholly barbarous, and yet not civilized, according to our +notions of that term,--nations which had regular governments and +systems of polity, many correct notions in regard to morals, and some +acquaintance with Art and with the refinements of life,--but which were +yet, in a great measure, ignorant of the true principles of science, +little skilled in mechanics, and addicted to the practice of idolatrous +rites. This assertion would seem to have some _primâ-facie_ evidence in +its favor. The regions in which these nations are said to have existed +lie within the tropics; and it is a well-established principle, that a +genial climate, a fertile soil, the consequent facilities for obtaining +a subsistence, and the stimulus thus given to the increase of +population, are the first elements of an advance from a savage to a +civilized state, of the abandonment of rude freedom and nomadic habits, +and of the development of a regular social system. This principle is +clearly set forth and elaborately illustrated by Mr. Buckle; and we the +more readily refer to this author, because he stands high in the esteem +of Mr. Wilson, who, in order to prove his own especial fitness for +historical composition, and the incompetence of all who have preceded +him in the attempt, refers to a passage in Buckle, containing an +enumeration of the qualifications which he considers indispensable for +the historian. This enumeration includes all the attainments that have +ever been in the common possession of the human family. Mr. Buckle +remarks, with indisputable truth, that one historian has lacked some of +these qualifications, another historian has lacked others of them. Mr. +Wilson states that "each and every writer" who has preceded him has +lacked them all. Mr. Buckle, by implication, excepts one person, as +uniting in himself all the qualifications he demands. Mr. Wilson thinks +_he_ is the exception; but we are quite sure that the exception intended +by the author was--Henry Thomas Buckle. + +In the Old World, civilization, as all admit, had its origin in tropical +regions. Across the whole extent of the Eastern Continent, races are +found inhabiting the warmer latitudes, which are now, or formerly were, +in what is popularly called a semi-civilized condition. No one, we +believe, has ever been foolish enough to account for this fact by +supposing that a single people or tribe, having attained some degree of +culture, had diffused the germs of knowledge over so large a portion +of the globe. Chinese civilization differs almost as much from that +of Hindostan as from that of England or of France. The Assyrian +civilization was indigenous on the borders of the Euphrates, and the +Egyptian on the borders of the Nile. What is remarkable in these and +in all the other cases that might be cited is, that in those regions +civilization never reached the high point which it has attained in other +parts of the world, less favored at the outset; that it exhibited a +grotesque union of refined ideas and strangely artificial institutions, +with customs, manners, and creeds that seem to the European mind +abhorrent and ridiculous; and that, the internal impulse with which it +started having been exhausted, it either remained stationary, without +further development, or sank into decay, or fell before the hostile +attacks of races that had never yielded to its influence. Now the +civilization which is described as having once existed in America +exhibits these general characteristics, while it has, like each of the +others, its own peculiar traits. If the discoverers had made a different +report, we might have been led to suppose that some such state of things +as we have described had previously existed, but had perished before +their arrival. + +Mr. Wilson, however, does not reason in this manner. He has found, from +his own observation,--the only source of knowledge, if such it can +be called, on which he is willing to place much reliance,--that the +Ojibways and Iroquois are savages, and he rightly argues that their +ancestors must have been savages. From these premises, without any +process of reasoning, he leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no +part of America could the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any +other than a savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements +regarding them, everything "must be rejected that is inconsistent +with well-established Indian traits." The ancient Mexican empire was, +according to his showing, nothing more than one of those confederacies +of tribes with which the reader of early New England history is +perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was "an Indian village +of the first class,"--such, we may hope, as that which the author saw +on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his immense astonishment, he +found the people "clothed, and in their right minds." The Aztecs, he +argues, could not have built temples, for the Iroquois do not build +temples. The Aztecs could not have been idolaters or offered up human +sacrifices, for the Iroquois are not idolaters and do not offer up human +sacrifices. The Aztecs could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for +the Iroquois never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This +is what Mr. Wilson means by the "American standpoint"; and those who +adopt his views may consider the whole question settled without any +debate. + +But there are some slight difficulties to be overcome, before we can +embrace these views. Putting human testimony aside, there are witnesses +of the past that still give their evidence to the fact, that parts of +this continent were once inhabited by races who had other pursuits +besides hunting and fishing, and whose ideas and manners differed +widely from those of the "red men" of the North. Ruined cities, defaced +temples, broken statues,--relics such as on the Eastern Continent, from +the Straits of Gibraltar to the shores of the Ganges, mark the sites of +fallen empires and extinct civilizations,--relics such as we should have +expected, from _a priori_ reasoning, to meet with in the corresponding +latitudes of the New World,--lie scattered through their whole extent, +proclaiming themselves the works of men who lived in settled communities +and under regular forms of government, who had some knowledge of +architecture and some rude notions of the beautiful and the sublime, who +had strong feelings and vivid conceptions in regard to the agency of +supernal powers in the control of human affairs, but who clothed their +conceptions in uncouth forms, and worshipped their deities with absurd +and debasing rites. Some of these remains being known to Mr. Wilson, +on the evidence of the only pair of eyes in the universe which, in his +estimation, have the faculty of seeing, he cannot treat them, according +to his usual method in such cases, as fabrications of Spanish priests +and lying chroniclers. How, then, does he account for them? He unfolds +a theory on the subject, which he has stolen from the "monkish +chroniclers" whom he treats with so much contempt, and which has long +ago been exploded and set aside. He tells us, that these relics have no +connection with the history of the American Aborigines,--that they have +a different origin and a far greater antiquity,--that they are proofs, +not to be gainsaid, of the discovery of this continent, at a very early +date, by Phoenician adventurers, and of the establishment, in the +regions where they are found, of Phoenician colonies. These ruins, he +tells us, were Phoenician temples, these statues are the representations +of Phoenician gods. In the comparison of facts by which he endeavors to +support this theory, we have been surprised to find him admitting +the testimony of other explorers. But they are, it seems, reluctant +witnesses. Their inferences from the facts which they have themselves +collected are directly opposite to his. "Proving our case," he says, "by +such testimony, we have admitted their statement of fact, only rejecting +their conclusions." Their proper business, it would appear, was to +amass the materials which our author alone was competent to use. He +encountered, indeed, a solitary difficulty; but this, in the most +astonishing manner, has been removed. "Thus far," he writes, "had we +carried the argument, but had here been compelled to stop, for want of +further evidence; and the very stereotype plate that at first occupied +this page, expressed our regrets that we were not able more completely +to identify the Palenque statue as Hercules. At our publishers', +however, the eyes of that distinguished Orientalist, the Rev. Mr. +Osborn, chanced to fall upon a proof of the American goddess in the +fourth note to this chapter, which he at once recognized as Astarte, +represented according to an antique pattern. Her head-dress, he +insisted, was in the ancient form of the mural crown, without the +crescent, the prototype of that worn by Diana of the Ephesians, and so +too, he insisted, was her necklace of 'two rows.'" Thus the chain of +evidence was complete, and, for once, Mr. Wilson derived assistance from +eyes not placed in his own head. + +But, whatever distinguished Orientalists may say, undistinguished +Occidentalists may be pardoned for inquiring when it was that this +stream of Phoenician emigration flowed to the American shores, in what +manner such an enormous body of colonists as the hypothesis necessarily +supposes were conveyed hither, and what has become of their descendants. +With an uncommon indulgence to our weakness of faith, Mr. Wilson +condescends to meet these obvious questions. The time he cannot exactly +fix; but it was "thousands of years ago,"--"before the time of Moses." +To the query in regard to the means of conveyance, he answers, that at +that remote period sailing ships were in common use,--as is proved by +representations of them found in Egyptian tombs,--although they were +afterwards superseded by galleys propelled by oars alone. The reason +assigned by Mr. Wilson for this change makes a valuable addition to the +stores of Biblical commentary. "The Greeks," he says, "appear to have +been selected from their imitative powers, to perpetuate such of the +arts and civilization of the elder world, as were to be preserved from +that decree of extermination, pronounced by the Almighty against its +nations. _Commerce had been the chief cause of the total demoralization +of antiquity_, and of this, they were permitted to preserve only a boat +navigation." Coeval with the decline of commerce and the extermination +of sailing ships was the cessation of this Phoenician emigration to +America. The colonists, having no longer any communication with the +mother country, soon dwindled away and perished, in accordance with a +well-known law of Nature. "Extinction is the doom of every immigrant +population in an uncongenial climate (habitat) when migration ceases to +keep up and renew the original stock." The same fate is impending over +us. "In our own country various causes have been assigned for the +recognized delicacy, which is steadily advancing in what may be called +the pure American. The growing smallness of the hands and feet, the +shortening of the jawbones, the diminution in the number of the teeth +and their rapid decay, are matters of daily comment." In like manner, +the Caucasian race is melting away in the colonies of Great Britain, +in South Africa, Australia, and the West Indies. "In these uniform +consequences the most obtuse cannot fail to recognise the operation of +a universal law, whose primary effects are to diminish migration, and +whose ultimate results are the extinction of the exotic population." We +suppose none of our readers are obtuse enough not to be aware of the +gradual shortening of their jawbones, a phenomenon especially noticeable +in members of Congress and popular lecturers. As for the diminution in +the number of our teeth, and their rapid decay, we need, alas! no Wilson +to remind us of these melancholy facts. + +What we may call the physical evidence in favor of the Aztec +civilization having been thus disposed of by Mr. Wilson, we come now to +his treatment of the written and traditional testimony, the accounts +that have been handed down to us of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and +of the condition of the country at the time when that conquest was made. +Mr. Wilson opens his "Chapter Preliminary" with the statement, that, "in +this work, the standard Spanish authorities have been followed as long +as they followed the truth." This declaration excited, we confess, +painful misgivings in our mind; for, if Mr. Wilson was already in +possession of the truth, independently of historical research,--whether +by communications from the spirits of the _Conquistadores_, or by any +other of the easy and popular methods of solving obscure problems,--what +need was there of his consulting the standard authorities at all? But we +were somewhat cheered, when, a little farther on, we found him stating, +that the writer who enters into these discussions must "con musty folios +innumerable"; that "it will not do to denounce in general terms the +venerable precedents [?] so constantly quoted by our annalists," but +that "their defects and their errors must be shown in detail." For +it does appear to us, that, if a great historical question is to be +opened,--if a series of extraordinary events, hitherto believed by the +world to have really happened, are to be denounced as fabulous,--if +numerous writers, whose statements and relations have been regarded +in the main as worthy of credit, are now to be rejected as liars +and impostors,--it is indispensable that the works containing these +relations should be carefully examined, that the statements should be +compared and subjected to the severest scrutiny, and that the refutation +should proceed, step by step, inch by inch, over the whole field of +debate. Has Mr. Wilson taken this course? Has he met with clear and +resolute argument the accounts which he denounces as "fabrications"? Has +he diligently and carefully examined the "standard Spanish authorities"? +Has he "conned musty folios innumerable"? Has he read all the works in +question? _Has he ever seen them?_ + +We may divide these works into three classes,--not with reference to +their different degrees of merit and importance, but as regards their +accessibility and the relative ease with which they may be consulted. +The first class comprises two or three works which have been translated +into English; and these translations may be procured with facility and +read by any one who has some acquaintance with the English language, +though not acquainted with any other. In the second class we may place a +considerable number of works which have been published indeed, but only +in the original Spanish, or, in a few instances, in French or Italian +translations. Some of them are rare, and difficult to meet with; others +may be found in several of our best libraries. The third class embraces +relations and documents which have never been translated, which have +never been published, of which the originals repose in the Spanish +archives at Simancas or the Escorial, or in private collections, +jealously guarded, in Mexico or Madrid, and of which the only copies +known to exist in this country are in the collection formed, with so +much trouble and at so great cost, by Mr. Prescott. Now the writings +which come under our first category Mr. Wilson has both seen and +read,--to what purpose and with what profit we shall hereafter show. The +publications comprised in the second class we feel very confident he +has never read. The manuscripts, which come under the last head, we are +morally certain he has never seen. That he has not seen them is capable +of the strongest proof, short of absolute demonstration. That he had +no acquaintance with Mr. Prescott's collection is a matter within our +personal knowledge. Had he been in a position to obtain copies for +himself, and had he availed himself of that circumstance, he would not +have failed to proclaim the fact in his loudest and shrillest tones. Nor +does he pretend that he has ever visited Spain, and had access to the +originals. Indeed, we do not think he would have ventured upon such +a step. He tells us, that, "besides the reasons already given for +distrusting the correctness of Spanish statements, there is another, +more secret in character, but not less potent than all combined--fear of +incurring the displeasure of that tribunal which punished unbelief +with fire, torture, and confiscation." If Mr. Wilson, as his language +implies, stands in fear of "fire, torture, and confiscation," and if +this is his most potent reason for distrusting the correctness of +Spanish statements, we can readily understand why he should have chosen +to remain on his native soil and write the history of the Conquest of +Mexico from "the American stand-point." Lastly, Mr. Wilson makes no +allusions to matter contained in the manuscripts which had not been +reproduced in the pages of Prescott. He is careful, indeed, to tell us +very little of the contents of these works; but he talks _about_ them +with the most gratifying candor, and in his choicest phraseology. He +informs us, that "Sarmiento's History of the Peruvian Incas altogether +surpasses that of Dr. Johnson's Rasselas and the Happy Valley." The +history of Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas" is related, we believe, by Boswell. +The great moralist composed his beautiful and philosophical, but +somewhat gloomy romance, in the evenings of a single week, in order to +obtain the means of defraying the expenses of his mother's funeral. The +story is a touching one; but Mr. Wilson's comparison is so inapt, that +we cannot help suspecting him of having had in his mind, not the history +of Johnson's "Rasselas," but Johnson's history of Rasselas. We think it +rather hard, that, having, in general, such a limited amount of meaning +to express, Mr. Wilson should have followed the maxim of Talleyrand, and +employed language chiefly as a means of concealing his thoughts. + +Mr. Wilson nowhere asserts, in so many words, that he has had access to +manuscript authorities. His mode of speaking of them, however, implies +as much, and he evidently intends that this inference should be drawn by +his readers. In a printed note, addressed to his publishers, disclaiming +any intention of "assailing the memory of the dead,"--a disclaimer +which was not needed to suggest the reason why his book, loaded with +typographical blunders, was hurried through the press,[A]--he "insists +on the lawyer's privilege of sifting the evidence--a labor which Mr. +Prescott was incapable of performing, from a physical infirmity"; and he +undertakes to prove that Mr. Prescott's "books and manuscripts were not +reliable authorities." Now even "the lawyer's privilege" does not extend +to sifting evidence which he has never heard; and if Mr. Prescott was +"incapable, from a physical infirmity," of properly scrutinizing his +authorities, it was the more necessary that Mr. Wilson, with his own +wonderful eyes, should undertake the task. There is one manuscript which +he might be supposed to have had a strong desire to examine. His book +professes to be a vindication of "Las Casas' denunciations of the +popular historians" of the Conquest. The work of Las Casas, supposed to +contain these denunciations, is his History of the Indies. Mr. Wilson +acknowledges that he has never seen this work; it has, he says, "been +wholly suppressed"; and he is terribly severe on the censorship and the +Inquisition for having been guilty of this suppression. But the only +suppression in the case is, that the book has never been printed. The +original manuscript may be consulted at Madrid. A copy of the most +important parts of it is in Mr. Prescott's collection. Mr. Wilson might +have seen that copy, had he expressed the wish. He did not, however, +give himself this trouble; and we think he was right. The truth is, +that, of all the Spanish historians of the Conquest of Mexico, Las Casas +is the one who has indulged most largely in hyperbole. Writing, with +little personal knowledge, in support of a theory which required him +to magnify the ruin accomplished by the _Conquistadores_, he has +exaggerated the population of the Mexican empire, the number and size of +its towns, and the evidences of its civilization. It was on this very +account that Navarrete, who examined the work with a view to its +publication, came to the decision not to print it. We have little doubt +as to the propriety of that decision; and Mr. Wilson, we think, also did +well in sticking to Cass and "suppressing" Las Casas.[B] + +[Footnote A: Author, compositor, and proof-reader were evidently engaged +in a "stampede,"--the (Printer's) Devil having strict orders to make +seizure of the hindmost. Part of a Spanish poem, borrowed, without +acknowledgment, from Prescott, seems to have gone to "pie" on the +imposing-stone, and been suffered to remain in that state.] + +[Footnote B: Mr. Wilson would have been less unfortunate, if he +could have "suppressed" the work of Mr. Gallatin to which he has the +effrontery to refer as an authority for his ridiculous assertion, that +the "so-called picture-writing" of the Aztecs was a Spanish invention. +As Mr. Gallatin's essay is within the reach of any of our readers who +may be inclined to consult it, we shall content ourselves with a single +remark on the subject. That learned writer, who had made a real and +thorough study of the Mexican civilization, (having obtained from Mr. +Prescott the books necessary for the purpose,) was so far from denying +that hieroglyphical painting was practised by the Aztecs, or that +authentic copies, and even actual specimens of it, have been preserved, +that he himself constructed a Mexican chronology which has no other +foundation than these same picture-writings. There is one remark in Mr. +Gallatin's work on which Mr. Wilson would have done wisely to ponder. It +is this:--"The conquest of Mexico is an important event in the history +of man. _Mr. Prescott has exhausted the subject._"] + +Our reason for believing that Mr. Wilson has never read the works, +relating to his subject, which have been published only in the original +Spanish or in translations into other foreign languages, is a very +simple one. He produces no evidence that he has ever read them. Some of +them he does not even mention. From none of them does he glean a single +fact that was not ready to his hand in the pages of Prescott. Except in +two or three instances, where he filches a reference from the citations +made by the latter historian, he brings forward no statement contained +in any of these books, either to support his own positions or to refute +theirs. Why did he take from Prescott--to whom on this occasion he +confesses his indebtedness--the facts in relation to the early life of +Cortés, (we would he had borrowed the language as well as the matter!) +if he had himself the means of consulting the works from which +Prescott's account was derived? But it is unnecessary to pursue the +argument; Mr. Wilson acknowledges that he knows nothing of the works in +question. "For our purpose," he writes, "the standard histories of the +conquest might as well be blank paper." We believe him; but had +his purpose been, not "to denounce in general terms the venerable +_precedents_ so constantly quoted by our annalists, but to show their +defects and their errors in detail," he would hardly have used them, as +he has done, as mere wadding for the great gun which he was loading, +and which has exploded with such terrible effect. His objection to +the "standard histories" is, that their authors were Spaniards, +ecclesiastics, royal historiographers,--that they wrote under the eye of +the Inquisition and the censorship. Like objections would apply to the +whole field of Spanish history. The reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, +Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second must, therefore, be as fabulous +as the conquests of Mexico and Peru. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson, when he +wishes to study the history of Spain, declines to have recourse to +Spanish writers. He goes to writers of other countries, and has a very +natural preference for such as speak the English tongue. Besides that +valuable work known among mortals as the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," +but usually cited by Mr. Wilson, in an off-hand and familiar way, as +"Britannica," he draws much upon a treasure of his own discovery, "a +ponderous folio" of the seventeenth century, written in English by one +Grimshaw, and containing a full and veritable history of Spain from +the earliest epochs. He makes much of Grimshaw, styling him "our +chronicler." He pats the volume fondly, and calls it "my old +folio,"--just as Mr. Collier pats and fondles _his_ celebrated old +folio. To judge from some specimens which Mr. Wilson gives us, the +venerable Grimshaw cannot have the merit of being very easy of +comprehension. Here is an extract, just as we find it:--"About the year +756, at which time there were great troops of Turks beginne to disperse +themselves over all Armenia, the which did overrunne and spoil the +Sarrazin's country." And here is another:--"Over common, then, in Spain, +and elsewhere, which nevertheless chastise the world in such sort, but +that this sinne is at this day more in use than ever it was, to the +dishonor of our God, contempt of his laws, and confusion of all good +order." Apparently, Mr. Wilson, besides writing in a singular style +himself, is the cause of singularities in the writings of other men. +What is more worthy of note is the credulity with which he swallows the +fabulous inventions of the "monkish chroniclers" when set before him +in English earthenware. We would undertake, for a very trifling +consideration, to furnish him with the Spanish originals of the stories +of "Hispan" and "Hercules," and all the other absurdities with which his +old folio has supplied him. From what source does he imagine them to +have been derived? Does he think they belong to the stock of traditions +in possession of the Anglo-Saxon race,--that Grimshaw got them from +Bagshaw, and Bagshaw from Bradshaw? + +Our argument in regard to Mr. Wilson's ignorance of most of the +"standard authorities" will be strengthened by a review of the works +which he actually has used,--or, to speak more correctly, misused,--and +an examination of his reasons for selecting them. They are two in +number. He can hardly be said to overrate the importance of one of +these works,--the celebrated Letters of Cortes. For the events of +the Conquest, and the first impressions made upon the minds of the +discoverers by the aspect of the country, we could have no evidence of +equal value with the dispatches written by the great adventurer from the +field of his enterprises and during the course of the operations. Mr. +Wilson does not, however, consult the original letters. His strong +prejudice against everything Spanish would not allow him to do so. He +has studied them through the medium of a translation; and the reason he +assigns for his preference of this version is, that "it is _better_ than +the original." We have no doubt that it _is_ better for Mr. Wilson's +"purpose"; indeed, we fear, that, had it not been for the labors of the +translator, Mr. George Folsom, the letters of Cortes would, like "most +of the standard histories," have been regarded by Mr. Wilson as "no +better than so much blank paper." Lockhart, by translating the chronicle +of Bernal Diaz, has saved it from similar condemnation,--but only that +it might incur a still more terrible fate. Mr. Wilson's theory in +regard to the origin and character of this work is no less subtile than +startling. According to the common belief, Bernal Diaz was a soldier in +the army of Cortés, accompanied him throughout his campaigns, and, at a +late period of his life, composed a narrative of the memorable events +in which he had participated as an actor or an eye-witness. Writers who +knew him in his old age have left us descriptions of his appearance +and character. Mr. Wilson, however, holds that he never existed. The +chronicle which bears the name is, according to him, a work of fiction, +written by some Spanish De Foe, who had read the common narratives of +the conquest of Mexico, but who had no personal knowledge of the scene +in which his story is laid. What first excited Mr. Wilson's suspicions +was the charming simplicity and apparent truthfulness which, in common +with all readers of Bernal Diaz, he has found to be the distinguishing +characteristics of the narrative. "A striking feature," he tells us, +"in Spanish literature, is the plausibility with which it has carried +a fictitious narrative through its most minute details, completely +captivating the _uninitiated_. If its supporters were not permitted to +write truth, they succeeded in getting up a most excellent imitation. In +Bernal Diaz the alleged individual affairs of private soldiers are so +artfully interwoven with the general history as to give the effect of +truth to the whole. There being no fear of contradiction, this practice +of inventing familiar details could be indulged in to any extent, while +the beauty and simplicity of such a style fixes at once the doubting." + + "Ah! si Molière avait connu l'autre!"-- + +Oh that Fielding had known Mr. Wilson! Partridge, a mere unsophisticated +booby, thought simplicity the characteristic of Nature, and therefore +out of place in Art. Mr. Wilson, a transcendental Partridge, thinks +simplicity the characteristic of Art, and therefore out of place in +Nature. He is more than ordinarily severe on Mr. Prescott for not having +detected in Bernal Diaz these "striking marks of the _counterfeit_ +instead of the _common soldier_." "We differ," he says, "decidedly from +Mr. Prescott." The difference seems to be, that Prescott regarded the +_appearance_ of truthfulness in the narrative of Bernal Diaz as _primâ +facie_ evidence of its truthfulness, while Mr. Wilson regards the same +appearance as the most complete evidence of its untruthfulness. + +But we have been anxious to discover some more definite and substantial +grounds for Mr. Wilson's hypothesis. In a couple of closely-printed +pages, devoted to the subject, he asks himself, again and again, the +questions,--"Who, then, was Bernal Diaz?"--"Who, then, wrote the +history of Bernal Diaz?" Failing to extract any reply from the singular +individual to whom these queries are addressed, he winds up with the +solemn and emphatic declaration, "On the evidence hereafter to be +presented, we have with much deliberation concluded to _denounce_ Bernal +Diaz as a _myth_." For the evidence here promised we have searched +with a patience of investigation which, if applied to the problem of +perpetual motion or squaring the circle, could not, we humbly think, +have been wholly unproductive; and these are the results. "The author of +'Bernal Diaz' says the march to Jalapa was accomplished in one day;--a +proof that he never saw the country.... Cortez makes the ascent the work +of three days, and says he did not reach Sienchimalen until the fourth +day." The main discrepancy here is Mr. Wilson's own handiwork, as he +has confounded the "Sienchimalen" of Cortés with Jalapa, instead of +identifying it with the "Socochima" of Bernal Diaz. But so far as there +is any real discrepancy, it may be sufficient to remark, in explanation +of it, that Bernal Diaz professes to have written many years after the +events which he narrates, and at a distance from the scene, while the +letters of Cortés were written in the country, and while the events were +taking place. On another occasion, Bernal Diaz represents the Tlascalans +as complaining that they could "get no cotton for their clothing." "If +this writer," says Mr. Wilson, "had really been acquainted with the +tribes of the table-land, he must have known that the fibres of the +_maguey_ were, among them, substitutes for that article, and are even +now used at the city of Mexico in the manufacture of some fine fabrics." +We do not see how Bernal Diaz could be expected to know that the fibres +of the _maguey_ are now used in Mexican manufactures; neither can we +comprehend how his statement, that the Tlascalans had _no_ cotton, is at +variance with Mr. Wilson's assertion, that they used the _maguey_ as a +substitute. We can imagine, however, that an old soldier, writing for +the "uninitiated," might prefer to speak of cotton, for which he had a +Spanish word, rather than enter into explanations in regard to an Indian +substitute for cotton, resembling it in appearance; while it is not easy +to believe, on Mr. Wilson's bare assertion, that an article in +common use throughout the Valley of Mexico was wholly unknown to the +inhabitants of the table-land. + +These, and, so far as we can discover, these alone, are the proofs on +which Mr. Wilson convicts Bernal Diaz of being a nonentity,--of having, +like Rosalind in "As you like it," merely "counterfeited to be a _man_." +As a natural _sequitur_ to this delicious train of reasoning, he +proceeds to take this nonentity, this "myth," as his guide throughout +the narrative of the Conquest. "We may safely follow Diaz," he remarks, +"in unimportant particulars"; and the "particulars" of the Conquest +being, in Mr. Wilson's narration of them, all equally "unimportant," he +is so far consistent in following Diaz throughout. Surely the Grecian +fables will never grow old; here again we have blind Polyphemus groping +in pursuit of cunning [Greek: Outis]. But we must be allowed to ask Mr. +Wilson why he has not rather preferred to take Gomara as his guide. +It is true that he entertains a strong loathing, a rooted +aversion, for this harmless old chronicler, whom he calls always +"Gomora,"--associating him, apparently, by some confusion of ideas, with +the ancient city of bad fame, buried with Sodom beneath the waters of +the Dead Sea. But, at least, he does not deny that Gomara had an actual +existence, that he was a veritable somebody,--a reality, and not a +"myth,"--that he was the chaplain of Cortés, that he had access to the +papers of the great commander, that he wrote a history of the Conquest, +and that this history is still extant. Mr. Wilson himself asserts that +the dispatches of Cortés "and the work of Gomora are the only original +documents touching the Conquest of Mexico, its people, its civilization, +its difficulties, and its dangers." After this declaration, it is +somewhat remarkable, that, throughout his narrative of the Conquest, +while continually quoting from Diaz, he makes not a single reference to +Gomara; and he even censures Mr. Prescott for having pursued a different +course. How shall we explain this fact? Alas for Gomara! he wrote in his +native Castilian, no Lockhart or Folsom had done him into English, and +so he missed his chance of having his statements cited, and, possibly +even,--though we should not like to hazard an assertion on this +point,--of having his name correctly spelt, by the author of the "New +History of the Conquest of Mexico." + +It remains only that we should notice, as briefly as possible, the use +which Mr. Wilson has made of his two authorities, the translations of +Bernal Diaz and Cortés, which, rejecting all assistance from other +quarters, he takes for the basis of his narrative. That narrative is +constructed on a plan which, we venture to say, is without a parallel +in literature. Like whatever else is strikingly original, it cannot be +described; we can only hope to convey a faint idea of it by some random +illustrations. To nearly every statement which he notices in the works +before him Mr. Wilson offers a flat contradiction. When these statements +relate to numbers, his method of treating them is a systematic one. +He has picked out of Bernal Diaz, who wrote in an avowed spirit of +hostility to Gomara, a pettish remark, that the exaggerations of the +latter are so great, that, when he says eighty thousand, we may read +one thousand. This piece of rhetoric Mr. Wilson receives literally, +and makes it a rule of measurement, applying it with more or less +exactness,--not, however, to the statements of Gomara, with whose work +he is acquainted only at second hand, but to those of Cortés and of +Bernal Diaz himself! Thus, in every computation of the number of the +enemy's forces, or of the Indian allies who joined the Spaniards in +their contest with the Aztecs, Mr. Wilson "takes the liberty," to use +his own phrase, of "dropping" one or more ciphers from the amount. This +mode of adapting the narrative to his own conceptions he calls "reducing +it to reality." When Cortés--not Gomara, be it remembered--computes the +number of his allies at eighty thousand, Mr. Wilson says, "Let us drop +the thousands, and _assume_ eighty as the actual number. _We must do so +often._" When Cortés writes "thirty-five thousand," Mr. Wilson prefers +to say "three hundred or so." When Diaz writes "twelve thousand," Mr. +Wilson suggests that we should read "five hundred." Cortés says that he +caused a canal to be dug twelve _feet_ deep. Mr. Wilson, speaking as +if he had been an eye-witness, says the canal was only twelve _inches_ +deep. In another place he writes, "Accordingly a force of thirteen +horse, two hundred foot, and three hundred--not thirty thousand--Indian +allies were sent to relieve that village"; merely leaving his readers to +the inference that the number placed between dashes is the one given by +Cortés. In a single instance, he admits the estimate of Bernal Diaz, who +puts the loss sustained by the Indians in a battle at eight hundred; +while Las Casas, whose corrections of other writers Mr. Wilson professes +to "vindicate," says the loss of the Indians on this occasion amounted +to thirty thousand. Las Casas also reckons the number of natives who +fell victims to Spanish cruelty in America at forty millions. This wild +estimate has been often quoted. Mr. Wilson, instead of "vindicating" it, +as he was bound to do, triumphantly refutes it. "There never probably +existed," he most justly remarks, "more than forty millions of savage +races at one time on our globe." + +It is not merely the arithmetic of his authorities that Mr. Wilson +undertakes to rectify. When they describe a pitched battle, he asserts +that it was a mere skirmish. When they speak of a large town, he tells +us it was a rude hamlet. When they portray the magnificence of the city +of Mexico, he says that they are "painting wild _figments_"--whatever +that may mean,--and that Montezuma's capital was a mere collection of +huts. Cortés tells us, that, in his retreat, he lost a great portion +of his treasure. Mr. Wilson writes, "The _Conquistador_ was too good a +soldier to hazard his gold; it was _therefore_, in the advance, and came +safely off." Cortés states, that, in a certain battle, he retired from +the front in order to make a new disposition of his rear. Mr. Wilson +replies, that Cortés did _not_ go to the rear, because, though his +presence was greatly needed there, the press must have been too great to +allow of his reaching it. The presents which Cortés, while at Vera Cruz, +received from Montezuma, he transmitted to the Emperor Charles the +Fifth, sending, at the same time, an inventory of the articles, among +which was "a large wheel of gold, with figures of strange animals on it, +and worked with tufts of leaves,--weighing three thousand eight hundred +ounces." The original inventory is still in existence. We have the +evidence of persons who were then at the imperial court of the reception +of these presents, of the sensation which they produced, and of the +ideas which they suggested in regard to the wealth and civilization +of the New World; and we have minute descriptions of the different +articles, including the wheel of gold, from persons who saw them at +Seville and at Valladolid. Mr. Wilson,--without making the least +allusion to this testimony, which we cannot help regarding as of the +strongest possible kind, intimates that the presents were of very little +value,--represents the workmanship, which excited the admiration of the +best European artificers, as a mere specimen of "savage ingenuity,"--and +as for the wheel of gold, tells us that it "never existed but in the +fertile fancy of Cortez." + +In general, Mr. Wilson contents himself with the barest, though +broadest, denial of the statements of his authorities, or with silently +substituting his own version of the facts in place of theirs. But he +sometimes condescends to argue the point. His logic is ingenious, but +singularly monotonous. His arguments are all drawn from one source, +namely, his own personal experience. The Tlascalan wall, described by +Cortés and Diaz, can never have been in existence, for Mr. Wilson has +been on the very spot and found no remains of a wall. Other travellers, +it may be remarked, have been more fortunate. Cortés states, that, in +a march across the mountains, some of his Indian allies perished of +thirst. This Mr. Wilson pronounces "impossible," because he himself +travelled over the same route, and did _not_ perish of thirst, as +neither did his horse, though the "sufferings of both," from that or +some other cause, were great. One of the most remarkable acts in the +career of Cortés was his voluntary destruction of the vessels which had +brought his little army to the Mexican coast, in order, as he avers, +that his men might stand committed to follow the fortunes of their +leader, whatever might be the dangers of the enterprise. "This event," +says Mr. Wilson, "has been the subject of eloquent eulogies for +centuries. Among these Robertson is of course pre-eminent." We are +here left in doubt whether Robertson is to be regarded as a preëminent +century or a pre-eminent eulogy. However this may be, our author denies +that the stranding of the vessels was the voluntary act of the Spanish +general. He is confident that they were cast away in a storm. His "most +potent" reason is, that he himself has "witnessed, not only hereabout, +but elsewhere, upon this tideless shore, wrecks by the grounding of +vessels at anchor." This he calls "submitting the narrative to the +ordeal of proof." + +However, as we have already intimated, it is seldom that his authorities +are submitted to this "ordeal," which we admit to be a trying one. +Usually they are informed that their assertions "rest on air,"--that +they are "foolish" and "baseless,"--"wild figments," or "intolerable +nonsense." Cortés states that some of his men, who had been taken +prisoners by the Mexicans, were offered up as sacrifices to the Aztec +deities. Mr. Wilson, after telling that their hearts were cut out, and +their bodies "tumbled to the ground," complains that "to this most +probable act of an Indian enemy, is _foolishly_ added--it was done in +sacrifice to their idols, though the very existence of Indian idols is +_still_ problematical!" Cortés, who had seen too many Indian idols to +entertain any doubts of their existence, ought, nevertheless, not +to have mentioned them, because to Mr. Wilson the matter is still a +problem. Whenever that gentleman finds it inconvenient to "reduce" the +statements of the Spanish historians to "realities," he omits them +altogether. Thus, he says not a word of those fearful spectacles which +struck horror to the hearts of the Spaniards in their visit to the +_teocallis_,--the pyramidal mound garnished with human skulls, the +hideous idols and the blood-stained priests, the chapels drenched with +gore, and other evidences of a diabolical worship. Not unfrequently he +fills up what he considers as gaps in the ordinary narratives. Thus, +he pictures the dying Cuitlahua as "stoically wrapping himself in +his feathered mantle," and "rejoicing at his expected welcome to the +celestial hunting-grounds," where he "felt that he was worthy a name +among the immortal braves." This "wild figment" from Mr. Wilson's +"fertile fancy" was, perhaps, suggested by Theobald's famous emendation +in the description of Falstaff's death-scene,--"a babbled o' green +fields." On such occasions, Mr. Wilson explains that he is relating +the occurrences "as they are understood by one familiar with Indian +affairs." A remarkable example of this method of narration shall close +our citations from his work. + +The reader is, doubtless, acquainted with the tradition, said to have +been preserved among the Mexicans, of a fair-complexioned deity, with +flowing beard, who had once ruled over them and taught them the arts +of peace, and, being subsequently driven from the country, promised to +return at some future time. Predictions of his reappearance lingered +amongst them, and were supposed to be accomplished in the arrival of the +Spaniards. Mr. Wilson tells us that "too much stress" has been laid on +this tradition; but we know of no modern writer who has laid any stress +on it except himself. It has been usually supposed to be one of those +myths in which nations partially civilized embalm the memory of their +heroes. Mr. Wilson does not believe the Mexicans to have been partially +civilized. He regards them merely as a horde of savages. Nevertheless, +he believes that among these savages "tradition [in the form here +noticed] had handed down, through untold generations, from a remote +antiquity," the establishment in America of Phoenician colonies, their +history, and their subsequent extinction. Nor is this the whole story. +In order to strengthen his argument, he gives a new and corrected +version of this tradition. "It told," he writes, "that _pale faces_ had +once before occupied the _hot country_, coming from beyond the _great +water_. _Perhaps_ with this were coupled also tales of suffering and +wrongs; _perhaps_ how cruelly they, the natives, had been forced, by +these hard task-masters, to labor upon the truncated pyramids and their +crowning chapels. With unrequited Indian toil, these men had builded +cities and public works which still preserved their memory, though they +themselves had long since perished, having fulfilled their allotted +centuries. But with their decaying monuments they left a fearful +prophecy, and thus it ran: that _floating houses_ would again return to +the eastern coast, wafted by like winds, and filled with the same race, +to teach the same religion, and to practise the same cruelties, until +they again finished their cycle, and gave place to others, such as the +laws of climate and population might determine." When the reader, after +perusing this extraordinary relation, recovers his breath, he naturally +casts his eye towards the bottom of the page, in the hope of finding +some explanation of it. He accordingly discovers a note, in which Mr. +Wilson states that he has "given a _little different shading_ to the +famous tradition," but that "such, _translated into Indian phraseology_, +would be the popular accounts." Now he had a perfect right to +_interpret_ the tradition as he pleased. He was at liberty to conjecture +that it related to the Phoenicians, as the Spaniards were at liberty to +conjecture that it related to St. Thomas. Of the two interpretations, we +prefer the latter. Mr. Wilson, were he consistent, would have done so +too; for how could the Aztecs, when they saw the Spaniards desecrating +the Phoenician temples and destroying the Phoenician idols, suppose that +these people were of the "same race," and had come "to teach the same +religion"? We care little for his inconsistencies; but the feat which +he has here performed, by his "shadings," his "translations into Indian +phraseology," and his medley of "pale faces," "great waters," "floating +houses," "truncated pyramids," "hard taskmasters," "winds," "climates," +"religions," and "laws of population," we believe to be unsurpassed +by anything ever perpetrated in prose or rhyme, by Grecian bard or +mediaeval monk. + +He appears to think himself justified in taking these liberties with the +Muse of History by his anxiety to construct a narrative that should not +overstep the bounds of probability. As if all history were not a chain +of improbabilities, and what is most improbable were not often that +which is most certain! But if, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as +improbable a series of events supported by far stronger evidence than +can be adduced for the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the +Norman conquest of England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon +us to believe? His skepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure +of his credulity. He contends that Cortés, the greatest Spaniard of the +sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed with +a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for success in +warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his brain so filled +with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied with reminiscences +of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that he saw in the New World +nothing but duplicates of those contests,--that his heated imagination +turned wigwams into palaces, Indian villages into cities like Granada, +swamps into lakes, a tribe of savages into an empire of civilized +men,--that, in the midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on +Mr. Wilson's showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, +he employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his +imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,--that, although +he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, enemies who were +in a position to discover the truth, his statements passed unchallenged +and uncontradicted by them,--that the numerous adventurers and explorers +who followed in his track, instead of exposing the falsity of his +relations and descriptions, found their interest in embellishing the +narrative,--that a similar drama was performed by other actors and on a +different stage,--that the Peruvian civilization, so analogous to that +of the Aztecs and yet so different from it, was, like that, the baseless +fabric of a vision,--that the whole intellect, in short, of the +sixteenth century was employed in fashioning a gorgeous fable, and that +to this end continents were discovered, nations exterminated, countries +laid waste, evidences forged, and witnesses invented. And this theory +is to be swallowed in one solid and indigestible lump, unleavened with +logic, unmoistened with grammar, unsweetened with rhetoric. Let those +whose appetites are strong, and whose olfactory nerves are not too +delicate, sit down to the repast. + +For our own part, we are quite satisfied with the bare contemplation of +the fare. Our readers, also, we suspect, have long ago been satiated. +They have dropped off, one by one, and left us alone with our kind +entertainer. What more we have to say must therefore be bestowed upon +his private ear. We shall speak with the greater freedom. We know +the exquisite pleasure we have given him. We are sure that he is not +ungrateful. When his book comes to a second edition,--with a _change of +title-page_ corresponding to some change in the popular sentiment,--we +shall have to submit to the same honors which he has inflicted on Mr. +Prescott and "Rousseau de St. Hilaire"; he will reprint our article +as "a flattering notice,"--as the "Atlantic Monthly's estimate of his +researches." We beg to call his attention to our closing remarks, which, +indeed, may serve as a digest of the whole. When he has "translated +them into Indian phraseology," (we regret that we cannot save him this +trouble,) and "reduced them to reality," we shall take our leave of +him, not without a mournful presentiment that the separation is to be +eternal. + +There are many points of difference between his work and Mr. Prescott's +"History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but the chief distinction, we +think, may be thus stated. If the foundations on which Mr. Prescott's +narrative is built should ever be overthrown,--a contingency which as +yet we do not apprehend,--that narrative would still rank among the +masterpieces of our literature. It could no longer be received as a +truthful relation of what had actually happened in the past; but it +would be received as a most faithful and graphic relation of what had +been asserted, of what was once universally _believed_, to have so +happened. If the reality appears strange, how much stranger would +appear the fiction! The truth of such a story may seem improbable; +the invention of such a story would be little short of miraculous. +Prescott's work, if removed from its place among histories, must stand +in the first rank among works of imagination,--must be classed with the +"Odyssey" and the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments." + +But this book of Wilson's must, under all conditions, and in any +contingency, be regarded as worthless. Be the story of the Conquest true +or false, this contains no relation of it, this contains no refutation +of it. Not content with vilifying his authorities, with impugning +their faith, denying their existence, and mangling their names, he has +disfigured their statements, corrupted their narrative, and substituted +gross absurdities for what was at least beautiful and coherent, whether +it was fiction or reality. His book is in every sense a fabrication. +It is no record of the truth; it is not a romance or a fable, artfully +constructed and elegantly told; it is--to use that plain language +which the occasion authorizes and demands--a barefaced, but awkward +falsification of history,--so awkward, that it has cost us little +trouble to detect it,--so barefaced, that it has been a duty, though, of +course, a painful one, to expose it. + + +_Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing._ Translated from the French +of _A Treatise_, etc., by DR. AL. DONNÉ, late Head of the Clinical +Department of the Faculty of Paris, etc., etc. Boston: Phillips, +Sampson, & Co. 1859. + +When the young Count of Paris was at the tender age which requires the +food that only mothers and their substitutes can supply, M. Donné, the +author of this work, was called in consultation at the royal palace. He +had a new way of examining milk through the microscope, and deciding +upon its healthy and nutritive qualities or its defects, as the case +might be. The whole world was full of the great question just then,--for +the deep-bosomed dame of Normandy or Picardy who should be selected +was to be the nurse not of a child only, but of a dynasty. So thought +short-sighted mortals, at least, in those days,--little dreaming what +cradle would be under the square dome of the Tuileries before twenty +years were past! + +M. Donné, as we said, was the man selected from all men for the task +of choosing a nurse for the most important baby of his time. This is a +voucher for his position at that period in the great medical world +of Paris. He is known, also, to the scientific world by a number of +treatises, with some of which we have long been familiar, as, for +instance, the "Cours de Microscopic," with the remarkable Atlas copied +from daguerreotypes taken by the aid of the camera. The present work is +of a somewhat more popular character than his previous productions. + +Little "Nursing" America is the father of Young America that is to be. +And there is no denying that our new vital conditions on this side of +the planet suggest some very grave questions,--such as these:--Whether +there be not a gradual deterioration of the primitive European stock +under these influences; and, Whether it is not possible that the +imported human breed may run out here, so that, some time or other, the +resuscitated tribes of Algonquins and Hurons may show a long shank of +the extinct Yankee, as they show the Dodo's foot at the British Museum. + +It is this contingency against which many intelligent and worthy persons +are now trying to provide. The indefatigable Dr. Bowditch has made a map +of this State of Massachusetts, showing the distribution of consumption +in its different localities. That is the first thing,--_where_ to live. +We have been told an alleged fact with reference to a certain large New +England town, which, if it were true, would raise the value of real +estate in that place a million of dollars, perhaps, in twenty-four +hours. We do not tell it, though mentioned to us by a celebrated +practitioner and professor, simply because we are afraid it is too good +to be true. At any rate, attention is beginning to be thoroughly awake +as to the point of _where_ we shall live. Now, then, _how_ shall we +live? + +It is just as well to begin early. Infancy is too late. If men were +dealt with like other live stock, a contractor might undertake to +deliver at Long Wharf a cargo of three-year old human colts and fillies +of almost any required standard of development and health, in five years +from date. If only a cheap article were required, such and such parents +would be selected; if the young animals were to be of prime quality, he +must know it long enough beforehand, and be particular in his choice. +This is plain speaking, but true,--as everybody knows, who studies the +laws of life. _Ex nihilo nihil fit_. Given a half-starved dyspeptic +and a bloodless negative blonde as parents, Hercules or Apollo is +an impossibility in their progeny. Yet people look with infinite +expectations of health, strength, beauty, intellect, as the product of +$0 times {-1}$. The late Colonel Jaques, of the "Ten Hills Farm," knew +ever so much better;--what a pity so much sound physiology should have +been confined to "Caelobs," and "Dolly Creampot," and the likes of them! + +Granted a sound, fair baby,--_viable_, as the French say,--liveable, or +life-capable, and life-worthy. What shall we do with it? + +A baby answers to the lively definition of an animal as "a stomach +provided with organs." It lives to feed. It does not know much, but in +its speciality it is unrivalled. The way in which it helps itself from +the sources of life is a masterpiece of hydraulic skill. Once let it +lose the Heaven-imparted art of haustion, and all the arts and academies +of the world can never teach it again. + +To manage this little feeding organism, with its wondrous instinct and +capacity of imbibition, is the first great question after that of race +is settled. Shall the mother's blood continue to flow through its +fast-throbbing heart, and all the subtile affinities that bind the two +lives be continued until reason and affection take up the chain where +the link of bodily dependence is broken? Or shall it cleave no more to +her bosom, but transfer its endearing dependence to a stranger, or learn +to call a bottle its mother? + +These are some of the questions learnedly, and yet familiarly, discussed +in M. Donné's book. He has laid down many excellent rules for the +physical and moral management of the infant, which the young mother can +readily learn and put in practice. For the physician, his work contains +many interesting facts with reference to the quality and the microscopic +appearances of milk, as obtained from various sources and under +different circumstances. + +On one or two points our American experience would somewhat modify the +rules commonly accepted in Paris. The nurse from the French provinces is +evidently a different being from our Milesian milky mothers. So, too, +the rules given by our own venerable and sagacious observer, Dr. James +Jackson, as to the period of separating the infant from its mother or +nurse, should be borne in mind, as laid down in his admirable "Letters +to a Young Physician." + +But there is a great deal of information applicable to children and +their mothers in all civilized regions; and as we wish to start fair +with the next generation, we are very glad to have so intelligent a +guide for the management of our infant citizens. + + +_Street Thoughts._ By the Rev. Henry M. Dexter, Pastor of Pine-Street +Church, Boston. With Illustrations by Billings. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, +& Co. 1859. + +If a profusion of introductory mottoes were any indication of the +excellence of a book, this volume would be indeed a _chef-d'oeuvre_. On +the page usually devoted to the Dedication, we have no less than six +more or less appropriate quotations: a Greek one from Julian, a Latin +one from Quintilian, a dramatic one from Shakspeare, a metrical one from +Young, a ponderous philosophical one from Dr. Johnson, and a commonplace +one from Bryant. In consideration of the number and learnedness of these +certificates of character, we approach the lucubrations of the Reverend +Mr. Dexter with profound respect. + +In the days when controversial literature was fashionable in England, +and the strife between Protestantism and Catholicism possessed some +interest for the public, we remember with considerable amusement the +manner in which the champions on either side conducted the attack. The +Romish warrior would this month issue a formidable volume entitled "A +Conversation between a Roman Catholic English Nobleman and an Irish +Protestant." In this work the Roman Catholic lord had it all his own +way; the Irish Protestant was accommodatingly weak in all his arguments, +and the noble Papist battered him famously. But the Episcopal side +was on hand next month with a volume entitled "A Dialogue between a +Protestant Peer and an Irish Papist." Here the whole thing was reversed. +The noble was still victorious, but he had changed his religion; and +this time the Roman Catholic was feeble, and the Protestant stalwart. It +is worthy of remark, however, that in both cases the nobleman was on the +right side. + +The Reverend Mr. Dexter thoroughly comprehends this ingenious method of +attack. Does he, for instance, desire to impress upon the mind of his +reader that it is in the highest degree criminal to wear kid gloves in +the street, he, by a happy accident, encounters on his way to the +office two persons conversing upon that important topic. He innocently +eavesdrops. The individual who advocates the wearing of gloves is (of +course) frivolous, fashionable, and feeble. His companion, who despises +such vanities, is poor, though honest,--brawny and impregnable. It is +wonderful how stupidly the kid-glove advocate reasons. The honest son +of toil overwhelms him in a few moments. When a man talks so splendidly +about the hard palm of labor being more useful to the world than the +silken fingers of the aristocrat, who would have the courage to reply? +The feeble aristocrat is (very properly) discomfited, and the curtain +falls amid applause from the gallery. + +The reverend gentleman seems to combine with his talent for +eavesdropping a most remarkable good-fortune in the contrasts afforded +by the various interlocutors whose conversation he overhears. Whether +he is in a shop, or an omnibus, or on the sidewalk, he is certain to +encounter a foolish person and a sensible person (according to Mr. +Dexter's idea of sense) discussing some important social topic,--such +as, Whether dancing is criminal, or, Whether people should wear +stove-pipe hats. At the end of the discussion, the reverend listener +appears in a paragraph as the _deus ex machinâ_ of the drama, pats the +victorious sensible boy on the head, and treats the foolish boy with +silent contempt. It does not take much to win Mr. Dexter's approval. He +goes into rhapsodies over a rich man who insists on carrying home his +own bundle; while another purchaser, who is villain enough to desire his +parcel to be sent to his house, meets with all the scorn that he merits. +Our author takes cheerful views of life. He goes into State Street, +and, struck with the great crowds of people, asks the solemn question, +"Whither are they going?"--"To the open grave!" is his jocund reply. He, +in fact, sees nothing but a job for the undertaker in all the health and +life by which he is surrounded; and a file of schoolboys out for a +walk would doubtless to him be nothing more than the beginning of a +procession to Mount Auburn. The shop-keepers should beware of Mr. +Dexter. He is the avowed enemy of nice coats, kid gloves, silk dresses, +fine houses, and his proof-reader knows what other _et ceteras_ which +ignorant people have been in the habit of looking on as commodities +useful in helping trade, and consequently forwarding civilization. + +We really thought that this shallow philosophy had completely died out, +and that every educated person had been brought to comprehend the uses +of Beauty and Luxury. Mr. Dexter's "Street Thoughts" is a silly proof +that there are men yet living whose theory of social ethics may +apparently be summed up thus: Live meanly, be afraid of God, and listen +at keyholes. + + +_The Mathematical Monthly_. Edited by J.D. RUNKLE, A.M., A.A.S. Nos. +I.-VII. October, 1858, to April, 1859. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 4to. +pp. 284. + +The title of Mr. Runkle's Monthly is much drier than its table of +contents. He has aimed at interesting all classes of mathematicians, has +introduced problems and discussions intelligible to scholars in our High +Schools, and has also published contributions to the highest departments +of the science. Educational questions have great prominence on the pages +of his journal; he gives frequent notes upon the best modes of teaching +the elementary branches, and proposes to publish in a serial form +treatises adapted to use in the school-room. Every number of the +"Monthly" contains five prize problems for students. Nor are its pages +confined to topics strictly mathematical. The number for February +introduces a problem by a quotation from Longfellow's "Hiawatha"; +another gives a list of fifty-five of the Asteroid group, with their +orbits, and the circumstances of their discovery. The March number +explains an ingenious holocryptic cipher, written with the English +alphabet, with no more letters than would be required for ordinary +writing, yet so curiously complicated, that, while with the key easy to +understand, it is without the key absolutely undecipherible, even to the +inventor of the plan; and the key is capable of so many variations, that +every pair of correspondents in Christendom may have their own cipher +practically different from all others. In the November and December +numbers, a popular account of Donati's Comet was given by Geo. P. Bond, +then assistant, now chief director of the Observatory at Cambridge. This +paper has been issued separately, very finely illustrated by twenty-one +cuts, and by two beautiful engravings. No papers, readily accessible to +the public, contain, in a form so entirely devoid of technicalities, and +so clearly illustrated to the eye, so much information relative to the +nature of cornels in general, and in particular to the phenomena of this +most beautiful comet of the present century. + +The purely mathematical articles are all original, many are of great +value, and some are, to those who understand their secret meaning, +peculiarly interesting. A note of Peirce's, for example, in the number +for February, proposes two new symbols, one for the mystic ratio of +the circumference to the diameter, a second for the base of Napier's +logarithms,--and then, by joining them in an equation with the imaginary +symbol, expresses in a single sentence the mutual relation of the three +great talismans in the magic of modern science. Another article, in the +April number, by Chauncey Wright, contains a new view of the law of +Phyllotaxis, approaching it from an _a priori_ stand-point, and showing +that the natural arrangement of leaves about the stems of plants is +precisely that which will keep the leaves most perfectly distributed for +the reception of light and air. + +We are glad to learn that a constantly increasing subscription-list, +both at home and abroad, shows, not only that Mr. Runkle judged wisely +in thinking such a journal needed, but also that the editorial office +has fallen upon the right man. + + +_Memoir and Letters of the late Thomas Seddon, Artist_, By his BROTHER. +London: 1858. + +Associations are fast gathering round the English Pre-Raphaelites. Those +that come with honors and with death already belong to them. A permanent +influence is assured to the new school by a continuance of vigor, and by +the space which it already occupies in the history of Art. This little +volume is of interest as being the first of its biographies. Mr. Seddon +attained no wide reputation during his life, but he left a few pictures +of enduring value; and his early death was felt, by those who best knew +his powers and purposes, to be a great loss to Art. + +He was the son of a cabinet-manufacturer, and was born in London in +1821. After receiving a good school-education, at the age of sixteen he +entered his father's work-rooms. He had already shown a decided love of +drawing. He had a quick perception of beauty, and excellent power of +observation. His disposition was serious, and his conscience sensitive; +but he had a pleasant vein of humor, and a generous nature. After some +years of irksome work, he was sent to Paris to perfect himself in the +arts of ornamentation, and his residence there seems to have confirmed +his taste for painting, to the practice of which he desired to devote +his life. But for the next ten years he was engaged in business, giving, +however, his evenings and his few vacations to the study and practice of +Art, and becoming more and more eager to leave an employment which was +wholly uncongenial to him. At length, in his thirtieth year, he was able +to begin his career as a professional artist. His experiences at first +differed but little from those of the common run of young painters; but +his fidelity in work, his conscientious rendering of the details of +Nature, and his sincerity of purpose, gave real worth even to his +earlier pictures, and brought him into relations of cordial +friendship with Holman Hunt, Madox Brown, and others of the heads of +Pre-Raphaelitism. After making a long visit, in company with Hunt, +for the purposes of study, to Egypt and Palestine, and painting a few +remarkable pictures, he returned home, and was married. Some months +afterward he set out again for the East, but had hardly reached Cairo +before he was seized with fatal illness. He died on the 23d of November, +1856,--just as he was grasping the fruit of years of labor and waiting. + +The best part of the volume of memoirs is made up of Seddon's letters +from the East. They exhibit his character in a most agreeable light, +while, apart from any personal interest, they have a charm, as natural, +vivid delineations of Eastern scenery and modes of life. He saw with +a painter's eye, and he described what he saw clearly and vigorously, +showing in his letters the same traits which he displayed in his +pictures. Writing from his camping-ground on the edge of the Desert, +he says,--"The Pyramids and Sphinxes, in ordinary daylight, are merely +ugly, and do not look half as large as they ought to look from their +real size; but in particular effects of light and shade, with a fine +sunset behind them, for example, or when the sky lights up again, a +quarter or half an hour afterwards,--when long beams of rose-colored +light shoot up like a glory from behind the middle one into a sky of +the most lovely violet,--they then look imposing, with their huge black +masses against the flood of brilliant light behind." + +Here is the first sight of Jerusalem:--"At length, about five o'clock, +after expecting, for the last half-hour, that every hill-side we climbed +would be the last, we came suddenly in full view of Jerusalem.--Few, I +think, however careless, have looked for the first time on this scene, +without some feelings of solemn awe. We read the accounts of all that +passed within or around these walls with something of the vagueness that +always veils the history of times that have gone by two thousand years +ago; but however soon the feeling may wear off or be cast away, it is +impossible, with the very spot before you where your Saviour lived and +died, not to feel vividly impressed with the actual reality of what we +have read of, and its intimate connection with ourselves.--But soon I +was struck with the very erroneous idea I had had of Jerusalem. From the +west it does not look at all like a city built on a hill; for, rather +below you, at the farther end of a barren plain, you see nothing but the +embattled walls of a feudal town, with one or two large buildings and a +minaret alone visible above them. To the right the ground dips into the +Valley of Hinnom,--but to the left it is level with the city-walls, and +its surface is covered with bare ribs of rock running along it; and it +is from this side that the Romans and Crusaders attacked. Behind the +city, rather to the north, lay the Mount of Olives, and the long, +straight lines of the Moab Mountains beyond the Dead Sea, stretching +from horizon to horizon, half-shadowy and veiled in mist, through which +they shone rosy in the evening's sunlight." + +We have no space for further descriptions, excellent as they are. But +we make one or two extracts relating more immediately to Art and to +Seddon's views of the duties of an artist. + +"I am sure that there is a great work to do, which wants every +laborer,--to show that Art's highest vocation is, to be the handmaid to +religion and purity, instead of to mere animal enjoyment and sensuality. +This is what the Pre-Raphaelites are really doing in various degrees, +but especially Hunt, who takes higher ground than mere morality, and +most manfully advocates its power and duty as an exponent of the higher +duties of religion." + +"I hope I may be able to return to this place; for, to assist in +directing attention to Jerusalem, and thus to render the Bible more +easily understood, seems to me to be a humble way in which, perhaps, I +may aid in doing some good." + +Here is a portion of a letter written in England:--"The railway from +Farnborough went through a most beautiful country,--by Guildford, +Dorking, and Boxhill. While I was at Farnborough, on the bridge, +sketching, a respectably-dressed man came up and touched his hat. After +standing a minute or two, he said, 'So you are doing something in my +line, Sir?'--'What!' said I, 'are you an artist?'--'Well, Sir, I cannot +venture to call myself an artist, but I gets my living by making +drawings. I makes 'em in pencil.'--I asked him if he took portraits.--'I +does every line, portraits and all; but I don't get many portraits since +the daguerreotype came in. No, Sir, my drawings are principally in the +sporting line. I does portraits of gentlemen going over a fence or a +five-barred gate. I does 'em all in pencil, and puts a little color on +their faces, but all the rest in pencil,--d'ye see?'--'Yes; but do you +make a good living?'--'Well, not much of that; I used to earn a good +deal more money when I did portraits at sixpence each than I do now.'--I +said, 'I suppose you begin to see that you can do better, and it takes +you longer.'--'That's just it; you've hit it, Sir. I used to knock them +off in a quarter or half an hour, and now it takes me seven or eight +days to do a sporting piece.'--So I told the poor man that I would +willingly give him advice, but I was afraid it would ruin him +completely, for that afterwards he would have to take two or three +months.--'Yes, Sir, I sees that; but I am too old now to learn a new +line. But I find trees very hard; I can't manage them.'--So I sat down, +and drew a branch of a tree, which he said was very much in his style; +and I gave him some advice which I thought might help him, and the good +man went away so much obliged." + +When the news of Mr. Seddon's death reached England, it was at once felt +by his friends that it was due to his memory that the public should be +made better acquainted with the excellence of his works. An exhibition +of them was accordingly made, and a subscription raised for the benefit +of his widow, by purchasing his large picture of Jerusalem, to be +presented to the National Gallery. The subscription was successful, and +Seddon's fame is secure. + +"Mr. Seddon's works," says Mr. Ruskin, "are the first which represent +a truly historic landscape Art; that is to say, they are the first +landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical +accuracy,--being directed with stern self-restraint to no other purpose +than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trustworthy knowledge +of the scenes which ought to be most interesting to them. Whatever +degrees of truth may have been attempted or attained by previous artists +have been more or less subordinate to pictorial or dramatic effect. In +Mr. Seddon's works, the primal object is to place the spectator, as far +as Art can do, in the scene represented, and to give him the perfect +sensation of its reality, wholly unmodified by the artist's execution." + +Mr. Ruskin's judgment will not be questioned by those who have seen +Seddon's pictures. But it might also be added, that such accuracy as he +attained is by no means the result of mere laborious and conscientious +copying, but implies and requires the possession of strong and +well-balanced imagination. + +We trust that the extracts we have given may lead lovers of Art to read +the whole of the little volume from which they are taken. + + +_Passages from my Autobiography_. By SYDNEY, LADY MORGAN. New York: D. +Appleton & Co. 1859. + +Aged sportiveness is not seductive, and we do not become slaves at the +tap of a fan, when the hand that holds it is palsied and withered. We +have in the volume before us the melancholy spectacle of an aged female +of quality setting her cap at everybody. + +When an old woman makes up her mind to be young, she invariably overdoes +it. The gypsy horse-dealers, when they have a particularly ancient horse +to dispose of administer a nostrum to the animal, which has the effect +of keeping him continually in motion, and bestowing on him a temporary +vivacity which a colt would hardly exhibit. Lady Morgan is unnecessarily +frisky. The gypsy's horse, when the effect of the medicine has passed +off, becomes more aged and infirm than ever. What a terrible reaction +must have been the lot of this old lady, after all the capers she had +cut in these passages from her autobiography! + +A great, great, great, long time ago, as the story-tellers say, when +novels were few and far between, and an Irish novel was a thing almost +unheard of, a smart, self-educated Irish girl, of, we believe, rather +humble origin, discovered that she had a knack at writing, and, having +published a cleverish novel, called "The Wild Irish Girl," was taken +up by great people, exploited, made the fashion, and had Sir Charles +Morgan, a physician of some standing, given her for a husband. She +continued to write. Her work on France made some noise, on account of +its having been prohibited by the French government; and her subsequent +book on Italy, if not profound, was at least sprightly. Her Irish novels +were, however, her best productions. There is considerable observation, +and some feeling, displayed in them. Her knowledge of Irish society +is very exact, and her pictures of it very slightly exaggerated. "The +O'Briens and O'Flahertys" and "Florence MacCarthy" are, perhaps, the +best of her works of fiction. At this period, Lady Morgan possessed a +rather interesting appearance, great audacity, and a certain reckless +style of conversation, which was found to be piquant by the jaded +gossips of the metropolis. She was taken up by London society,--which +must always be taking up something, whether it be a chimney-sweep that +composes music, or an elephant that dances the _valse à deux temps_; +and she fluttered from party to party, a sort of Tom Moore in +petticoats,--with this difference, that Moore left his meek little wife +at home, while Lady Morgan trotted her husband out after her on all +occasions. It is amusing to observe what pains the poor woman takes to +persuade us that Sir Charles is a monstrous clever man. Betsy Trotwood +never labored harder to convince the world of the merits of Mr. Dick, +than Lady Morgan does to obtain a place for her husband as a learned +philosopher who was in advance of his age, or, as she prettily expresses +it in French; (she likes to parade her French, this excellent wife,) +"_il devançait son siècle_." This mania for inlaying her writing with +French scraps rises with her Ladyship to a species of insanity. "_Est +il possible_ that I am going to Italy?" she exclaims. How much more +forcible is this than the vulgar "Is it possible?" When the Duke of +Sussex comes into a party, he does not excite anything so common-place +as a great sensation; no,--it is a "_grand mouvement_!" Praise bestowed +on her is an "_éloge_." She would not condescend to speak of such things +as folding-doors,--they are better as "_grands battants_." A change of +scene is a "_changement de décoration_." Mrs. Opie, whom she sees at a +party, is not in full dress, but "_en grand costume_." The three Messrs. +Lygon look very "_hautain_." And while driving with Lady Charleville, +instead of having a charming conversation on the road, her Ladyship +has it "_chemin faisant_." _Allons_, mi lady! you prefer that style of +writing. _Chacun à son gout!_ _Mais_ we, _nous autres_, love _mieux_ the +plain old Saxon _langue_. + +If Lady Morgan had called this volume "Passages from my Card-Basket," +there would have been some harmony between the title and the contents. +The three hundred and eighty-two pages are for the most part taken up +with frivolous notes from great people, either inviting her Ladyship to +parties or apologizing for not having called. These are interspersed +with a number of philoprogenitive letters to Lady Clarke,--her +Ladyship's sister,--in which, being childless herself, she expends all +her bottled-up maternity on her nephews and nieces. The little pieces of +autobiography scattered here and there are painfully vivacious. The poor +old lady smirks and capers and ogles, until one becomes sick of this +sexagenarian agility. Paris beheld no more melancholy spectacle than +that of poor old Madame Saqui dancing on the tight-rope for a living at +the age of eighty-five, and displaying her withered limbs and long +white hair to a curious public. We do not feel any particular degree +of veneration for that Countess of Desmond "who lived to the age of a +hundred and ten, and died of a fall from a cherry-tree then," as Mr. +Thomas Moore sings. Well, Lady Morgan dances on any amount of literary +tight-ropes, and climbs any number of intellectual cherry-trees. It is +a sight more surprising than pleasant; and her Ladyship must not be +astonished that the critics should not treat her with the respect due to +her age, when she herself labors so hard to make them forget it. + + +_Bitter-Sweet. A Poem_. By J.G. HOLLAND, Author of "The Bay Path," +"Titcomb's Letters," etc. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. +pp. 220. 1859. + +Unexpectedness is an essential element of wit,--perhaps, also, of +pleasure; and it is the ill-fortune of professional reviewers, not only +that surprise is necessarily something as rare with them as a June +frost, but that loyalty to their extemporized omniscience should forbid +them to acknowledge, even if they felt, so fallible an emotion. + +Unexpectedness is also one of the prime components of that singular +product called Poetry; and, accordingly, the much-enduring man whose +finger-ends have skimmed many volumes and many manners of verse may be +pardoned the involuntary bull of not greatly expecting to stumble +upon it in any such quarter. Shall we, then, be so untrue to our +craft,--shall we, in short, be so unguardedly natural, as to confess +that "Bitter-Sweet" has surprised us? It is truly an original poem,--as +genuine a product of our soil as a golden-rod or an aster. It is as +purely American,--nay, more than that,--as purely New-English,--as the +poems of Burns are Scotch. We read ourselves gradually back to our +boyhood in it, and were aware of a flavor in it deliciously local and +familiar,--a kind of sour-sweet, as in a _frozen-thaw_ apple. From +the title to the last line, it is delightfully characteristic. The +family-party met for Thanksgiving can hit on no better way to be jolly +than in a discussion of the Origin of Evil,--and the Yankee husband (a +shooting-star in the quiet heaven of village morals) about to run away +from his wife can be content with no less comet-like vehicle than +a balloon. The poem is Yankee, even to the questionable extent of +substituting "locality" for "scene" in the stage-directions; and we feel +sure that none of the characters ever went to bed in their lives, but +always sidled through the more decorous subterfuge of "retiring." + +We could easily show that "Bitter-Sweet" was not this and that and +t'other, but, after all said and done, it would remain an obstinately +charming little book. It is not free from faults of taste, nor from a +certain commonplaceness of metre; but Mr. Holland always saves himself +in some expression so simply poetical, some image so fresh and natural, +the harvest of his own heart and eye, that we are ready to forgive +him all faults, in our thankfulness at finding the soul of Theocritus +transmigrated into the body of a Yankee. + +It would seem the simplest thing in the world to be able to help +yourself to what lies all around you ready to your hand; but writers +of verse commonly find it a difficult, if not impossible, thing to do. +Conscious that a certain remoteness from ordinary life is essential in +poetry, they aim at it by laying their scenes far away in time, and +taking their images from far away in space,--thus contriving to be +foreign at once to their century and their country. Such self-made +exiles and aliens are never repatriated by posterity. It is only here +and there that a man is found, like Hawthorne, Judd, and Mr. Holland, +who discovers or instinctively feels that this remoteness is attained, +and attainable only, by lifting up and transfiguring the ordinary and +familiar with the _mirage_ of the ideal. We mean it as very high praise, +when we say that "Bitter-Sweet" is one of the few books that have found +the secret of drawing up and assimilating the juices of this New World +of ours. + + +_The Mustee; or, Love and Liberty_. By B.F. PRESBURY. Boston: Shepard, +Clark, & Brown. 12mo. + +The plot of this novel is open to criticism, and we might take exception +to some of the opinions expressed in it; but it is evidently the work of +a thoughtful and scholarly mind and benevolent heart,--is exceedingly +well written, shows a great deal of power in the delineation both of +ideal and humorous character, and includes some scenes of the most +absorbing dramatic interest. The character of Featherstone is admirably +drawn, and Bill Frink is a positive addition to the literature of +American low life. We commend him to our Southern friends, as an example +of one of the most peculiar products of their peculiar institution. The +author of the novel has lived at the South, and his descriptions of +slavery display accurate observation, candid judgment, and a vivid power +of pictorial representation. The scenes in New Orleans are all good; and +in few novels of the present day is there a finer instance of animated +narration than the account of Flora's escape from slavery. The incidents +are so managed that the reader is kept in breathless suspense to the +end, with sympathies excited almost to pain, as one circumstance after +another seems to threaten the capture of the beautiful fugitive. Though +the book belongs to the class of anti-slavery novels, it is not confined +to the subject of slavery, but includes a consideration of almost all +the "exciting topics" of the day, and treats of them all with singular +conscientiousness of spirit and vigor of thought. + + +_Rowse's Portrait of Emerson_. Published in Photograph. Boston: Williams +& Everett. + +_Durand's Portrait of Bryant_. Engraved by Schoff & Jones. New York: +Published by the Century Club. + +_Barry's Portrait of Whittier_. Published in Photograph. Boston: +Brainard. + +Almost one of the lost arts is that of portraiture. Raised by Titian and +his contemporaries to the position of one of the noblest walks of Art, +and in the generations following depressed to the position of minister +to vanity and foolish pride, it has remained, during the most of the +years since, one of the lowest and least reputable of the fields +of artistic labor. The lost vein was broken into by Reynolds and +Gainsborough, who left a golden glory in all they did for us; but no +one came to inherit, and in England no one has since appeared worthy of +comparison with them. In all Europe there is no school of portraiture +worth notice; the so-called portrait-painters are only likeness-makers, +comparing with the true portraitist as a topographical draughtsman does +with a landscape artist. The intellectual elements of the artistic +character, which successful portraiture insists on, are some of its very +greatest,--if we admit, as it seems to us that we must, that imagination +is not strictly intellectual, but an inspiration, an exaltation of the +whole nature. To paint a great man, one must not merely comprehend +that he is great, but must in some sense rise up by the side of, and +sympathize with, his greatness,--must enter into and identify himself +with some essential quality of his character, which quality will be the +theme of his portrait. So it inevitably follows that the greatness of +the artist is the limitation of his art,--that he expresses in his work +himself as much as his subject, but no more of the latter than he can +comprehend and appreciate. + +The distinction between the true and the false portraitist is that +between expression of something felt and representation of something +seen; and as the subtilest and noblest part of the human soul can only +be felt, as the signs of it in the face can be recognized and translated +only by sympathy, so no mere painter can ever succeed in expressing in +its fulness the character of any great man. The lines in which holiest +passion, subtilest thought, divinest activity have recorded in the face +their existence and presence, are hieroglyphs unintelligible to one who +has not kindled with that passion, been rapt in that thought, or swept +away in sympathy with that activity; he may follow the lines, but must +certainly miss their meaning. A successful portrait implies an equality, +in some sense, between the artist and his original. The greatest of +artists fail most completely in painting people with whom they have no +sympathy, and only the mechanical painter succeeds alike with all,--the +fair average of his works being a general levelling of his subjects; the +great successes of the genuine artist being as surely offset (if one +success _can_ find offset in a thousand failures) by as absolute and +extreme failure. + +As regards portraiture in general, the public may, without injury to Art +or history, employ the painters who make the prettiest pictures of them; +it doesn't matter to the future, if Mr. Jenkins, or even the Hon. Mr. +Twaddle, has employed the promising Mr. Mahlstock to perpetuate him +with a hundred transitory and borrowed graces,--if the talented young +_littérateur_, Mr. Simeah, has been found by his limner to resemble +Lord Byron amazingly, and has in consequence consented to sit for a +half-length, to be done _à la Corsair_, etc., etc.; but for our men of +thought, for those whose works will stand to all time as the signals +pointing out the road a nation followed, whose presence and acts shall +be our intellectual history,--it is of some little moment that these +should be given to us in such visible form, that men shall not +conjecture, a thousand years hence, if Emerson were really a man, or +a name under which some metaphysical club chose to publish their +philosophies. In psychological history, portraits are as necessary +as dates; and one of the most valuable gifts to an age is a great +portrait-painter,--a Titian, a Gainsborough, a Reynolds, or a +Page,--which last has more of the Titianesque character than any one who +has painted since the great Venetians lived, and few, indeed, are the +generations so endowed. + +Beside this full insight and representation of character, which makes +the ideal portraiture, we have the less complete, but only in degree +less valuable, apprehension which results from a point of sympathy, +a likeness of liking in one or more fields of thought, a common +sensitiveness, a common interest; and the rarer sympathy between artist +and subject, of that intimacy and complete understanding of personal +character, which, even where no great talent exists in the artist, gives +a unique value to his work, but which, where the intimacy is that of +great minds, gives us works on which no dilettanteism, even, makes a +criticism,--as in that portrait of Dante by Giotto, to our mind the +portrait _par excellence_ of past time. + +In the three admirable portraits whose titles stand at the head of our +notice, we have in one way and another all of the conditions we have +spoken of fulfilled. Rowse's portrait of Emerson is one of the most +masterly and subtile records of the character of a signal man, nay, +the most masterly, we have ever seen. Those who know Emerson best +will recognize him most fully in it. It represents him in his most +characteristic mood, the subtile intelligence mingling with the kindly +humor in his face, thoughtful, cordial, philosophic. The portrait is not +more happy in the comprehension of character than in the rendering of +it, and is as masterly technically as it is grandly characteristic. An +eminent English poet, who knows Emerson well, says of it, justly,--"It +is the best portrait I have ever seen of any man"; and we say of it, +without any hesitation, that no living man, except, _perhaps_, William +Page, is capable, at his best moment, of such a success. + +In Barry's portrait of Whittier it is easy to see the points of contact +between the characters of the artist and the poet-subject, in the +sensitiveness shown in the lines of the mouth in the drawing, in the +delicacy of organization which has wasted the cheek and left the eye +burning with undimmed brilliancy in the sunken socket, the fervent, +earnest face, defying age to affect its expressiveness, as the heart it +manifests defies the chill of time. It is an exceedingly interesting +drawing, and one by which those who love the poet are willing to have +him seen by the future. It must remain as the only and sufficient record +of Whittier's _personnel_. + +In the portrait of Bryant we have the results of an intimacy of the most +cordial kind, of years' duration,--an almost absolute unity of sentiment +and similarity of habits of regarding the things most interesting to +each. Of nearly the same age, Bryant and Durand have grown old together, +loving the same Nature, and regarding it with the same eyes,--the +painter catching inspiration from the poet's themes, and the poet in +turn getting new insight into the mystery of the outer world through the +painter's eyes. Bryant's face has been a Sphinx's riddle to our best +painters; none have succeeded in rendering its severe simplicity, and +clear, self-disciplined expression, until Durand tried it with a +success which renders the picture interesting evermore as a tribute of +friendship as well as a solution of a difficult problem. The artist's +hand was directed by a more than ordinary understanding of the lines it +drew; it has not varied in a line from reverence for the verisimilitude +the world had a right to insist on; it has not flattered or softened, +but is simply, completely, absolutely, true. Bryant's face has an +immovable tranquillity, a reserve and impassiveness, which yet are not +coldness; the clear gray eye calmly looks through and through you, but +permits no intelligence of what is passing behind it to come out to you. +It is such a face as one of the old Greek kings might have had, as he +sat administering justice. All this, it seems to us, Durand's picture +gives. It looks out at you impassive, penetrating, as though it would +hear all and tell nothing,--a strong, self-continent, completely +balanced character,--unshrinking, unyielding, yet without being +unsensitive,--concentrated, justly poised, and intense, without being +passionate. The head is admirably engraved, though we do not at all +fancy the way in which the background is done; it is heavy, formal, and +unartistic,--but this may be matter of choice. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Man and his Dwelllng-Place. An Essay towards the Interpretation of +Nature. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 391. $1.00. + +Annual of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art +for 1859, exhibiting the most Important Discoveries and Improvements in +Mechanics, etc., etc., etc. Edited by David A. Wells, A.M. Boston. Gould +& Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 410. $1.25. + +Letters of a Traveller. Second Series. By William Cullen Bryant. New +York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 277. $1.25. + +My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated. +New York. Oaksmith & Co. 12mo. pp. 458. $1.25. + +Tressilian and his Friend. By Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 372. $1.25. + +The New American Encyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General +Knowledge. By George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Vol. V. +_Chartreuse--Cougar_. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. $3.00. + +History of the Institution of the Sabbath-Day, its Uses and Abuses; +with Notices of the Puritans, Quakers, etc. By M. Logan Fisher. Second +Edition. Revised and enlarged. Philadelphia. J.B. Pugh. 16mo. pp. 248. +50 cts. + +Redemption. A Poem. By John D. Bryant, M.D. Philadelphia. John +Pennington & Son. 12mo. pp. 366. $1.00. + +Opportunities for Industry and the Safe Investment of Capital; or A +Thousand Chances to make Money. By a Retired Merchant. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.25. + +The Dead Secret. By Wilkie Collins. A New Edition. Philadelphia. T.B. +Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 637. $1.25. + +The Losing and Taking of Mansoul, or Lectures on the Holy War. By Alfred +S. Patton, A.M. New York. 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To which are + +[Transcriber's note: Final page missing in original.] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11727 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d246a69 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11727 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11727) diff --git a/old/11727-8.txt b/old/11727-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba99750 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11727-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9074 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, +1859, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 27, 2004 [eBook #11727] +[Date last updated: August 13, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 3, NO. +19, MAY, 1859*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MAY, 1859.--NO. XIX. + + + + + + + +THE GYMNASIUM. + + +Two distinct yet harmonious branches of study claimed the early +attention of the youth of ancient Greece. Education was comprised in +the two words, Music and Gymnastics. Plato includes it all under these +divisions:--"That having reference to the body is gymnastics, but to the +cultivation of the mind, music." + +Grammar was sometimes distinguished from the other branches classed +under the term, Music; and comprehended, besides a knowledge of +language, something of poetry, eloquence, and history. Music embraced +all the arts and sciences over which the Muses presided. + +Grammar, Music, and Gymnastics, then, comprised the whole _curriculum_ +of study which was prescribed to the Athenian boy. There were not +separate and distinct learned professions, or faculties, to so great +an extent as in modern times. The compass of knowledge was far less +defined, and the studies and attainments of the individual more +miscellaneous. Some of the arts rose to an unparalleled perfection. +Architecture and sculpture attained an excellence which no subsequent +civilization has reached. But the practical application of the sciences +to daily use was almost entirely neglected; and inventions and mechanics +languished until the far later uprising of the Saxon mind. + +Yet the whole system of education among the Greeks was peculiarly +calculated for the development of the powers of the mind and of the body +in common. And it is from this point of view that we wish to consider +it, and to show the nature and preeminence of gymnastics in their times +as compared with our own. + +Doubtless Grecian Art owed its superiority, in some degree, to the +gymnasium. Living models of manliness, grace, and beauty were daily +before the artist's eye. The _stadium_ furnished its fleet runners, +nimble as the wing-footed Mercury,--fit types for his light and airy +conceptions; while the arena of the athletes offered marvellous +opportunities for the study of muscle and posture, to show its results +in the burly limbs of Hercules or the starting sinews of Laocoön. Many +of the most lifelike groups of marble which remain to us from that time +are but copies of the living statues who wrestled or threw the quoit in +the public gymnasium. + +It is worthy of remark, in corroboration of this view, that the +department of the fine arts which depended on outline surpassed +that which derived its power from coloring and perspective. The +sculptors far excelled the painters. The statue was the natural result +of the imitative faculty surveying the nude human figure in every +posture of activity or repose. Pictures came later, from more educated +senses, and from minds which had first learned outward nature through +the medium of the simpler arts. + +The ancient gymnasium, apart from its baths and philosophic groves, +was far from being, as with us, a mere appendage of the school. Modern +instructors advertise, that, in addition to teachers of every tongue and +art, "a gymnasium is attached" to their educational institutions. In old +times, the gymnasium was the school,--the public games and festivals its +"annual exhibitions." + +The word _gymnasium_ has reference in its derivation to the nude or +semi-nude condition of those who exercised there. But in their proper +classical interpretation the public gymnasia were, to a great extent, +places set apart for physical education and training. Gymnastics, +indeed, in the broadest sense of the word, have been cultivated in all +ages. The spontaneous exercises and mimic contests of the boys of all +countries, the friendly emulation of robust youth in trials of speed and +strength, and the discipline and training of the military recruit have +in them much of the true gymnastic element. In Attica and Ionia they +were first adapted to their noblest ends. + +The hardy Spartans, who valued most the qualities of bravery, endurance, +and self-denial, used the gymnasia only as schools of training for the +more sanguinary contests of war. So, too, the martial Roman despised +those who practised gymnastics with any other object than as fitting +them to be better soldiers. Yet to so great a degree were these +exercises cultivated, even by the latter nation, that the Roman private +of the line did his fifteen or twenty miles' daily march under a weight +of camp-equipage and weapons which would have foundered some of the +best-drilled modern warriors, and concluded his day's labors by digging +the trenches of his camp at night. The ponderous _pilum_, and the heavy, +straight sword of the infantry were exchanged in the barrack-yard for +drill-weapons of twice their weight; and so perfectly were the detail +and regularity of actual service carried out in their daily discipline, +that, as an ancient writer has remarked, their sham-fights and reviews +differed only in bloodshed from real battles. The soldier of the early +Republic was hence taught gymnastics only as a means of increasing his +efficiency; the lax praetorian and the corrupt populace of the Empire +turned gladly from the gymnasium to the circus and the amphitheatre. + +In the same manner were these exercises regarded by the Dorians and the +people of some other of the Grecian States. The inhabitants of Attica +and of Ionia, on opposite shores of the Aegean, as more cultivated +races, viewed them in a more correct physiological light. But it was at +Athens that the gymnasium was held in highest repute. + +We read that Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, first established particular +regulations for its government. Attic legends, however, gratefully +refer the earliest rules of the gymnasium to Theseus, as to one of the +mightiest of the mythical heroes,--the emulator of Hercules, slayer of +the Minotaur, and conqueror of the Amazons. Hermes was the presiding +deity, which may appear strange to us, as he was as noted for an +unworthy cunning as for his dexterity. Generous emulation and +magnanimity were regarded as the noblest qualities called forth in +gymnastic exercises; and Mercury seems a fitter tutelar divinity of the +wary boxer and of the race-course than of the whole gymnasium. + +Probably no Greek town of any importance was destitute of one of +these schools of exercise. Athens boasted three public gymnasia,--the +Cynosarges, the Lyceum, and the Academy. These were the daily resort +of young and old alike, though certain penal laws forbade them from +exercising together at the same hour. + +The school-boy frequented them as part of his daily task; the young man +of leisure, as an agreeable lounging-place; the scholar, to listen +to the master in philosophy; the sedentary, for their customary +_constitutional_ on the foot-course; and the invalid and the aged, to +court the return of health, or to retain somewhat of the vigor of their +earlier years. The Athenians wisely held that there could be no health +of the mind, unless the body were cared for,--and viewed exercise also +as a powerful remedial agent in disease. Such a variety of useful +purposes were thus subserved by the gymnasia, that it will be proper +to look briefly at their internal arrangements. We shall follow the +description which has been left us by Vitruvius. + +The ancient gymnasium was generally situated in the suburbs, and was +often as large as a _stadium_ (six hundred and twenty-five feet) +square. Its principal entrance faced the east. A quadrangular inclosure +comprehended two principal courts, divided by a party-wall. The eastern +court was called the _peristylium,_ from the rows of columns which +surrounded it; the western also was bordered by porticos, but for it +we have no distinct name. The peristyle must have been from one to two +hundred feet square. It was sometimes termed the _palaestra_, though +this name was afterwards restricted to the training-school of the +athletes proper, who made gymnastics the business of their lives. It was +also styled the _sphaeristerium,_ or ball-ground, to which the nearest +approach in modern times is the tennis-court. The chief western +inclosure was planted with plane-trees in regular order, with walls +between them and seats of the so-called _signine_ work, and was about +one half larger than the peristyle. The space between the columns of the +latter and the outer walls allowed sufficient room for rows of chambers, +halls, and corridors, whose uses we will next designate. + +The first room on the right, as one entered the east gate, was the +_loutron_, or room for washing, distinct from the regular baths. Next, +in the northeast corner, was the _conisterium_, where sand was kept for +sprinkling the wrestlers after they had been anointed for the struggle. +West of this lay the _coryceum_, a hall for exercising with a sack of +sand suspended from the roof. It seems plausible to suppose that this +exercise corresponded with that more recently practised by Mr. Thomas +Hyer, previously to his fight with Yankee Sullivan. A bag of sand, equal +in weight to his adversary, was daily pommelled by the champion of +America until he could make it swing and recoil satisfactorily. + +Adjoining this room were two small apartments called the _ephebeum_ and +the _elaeothesium_ respectively. The former was devoted to preparatory +exercise, probably by way of warming up for severer efforts; the latter +was used for anointing, and was connected with the baths, which followed +next in order. These were the _frigidarium_, the _caldarium_, the +_sudatorium_, and the _tepidarium_, for the cold, the hot, the sweating +or vapor, and the warm baths. They did not possess the magnitude and +ornament of the Roman _thermae_. They were used in connection with and +after exercising, and were enough for all practical purposes. Bathing +was not then the business of hours every day, as it was later in the +Roman Empire, when the luxurious subjects of Caracalla indulged several +times in the twenty-four hours in such a variety of ablutions as would +have satisfied a Sandwich-Islander. + +We have now arrived at a point nearly opposite our entrance at the east, +and, continuing round the southwest, south, and southeast sides of the +peristyle, find a large number of consecutive chambers devoted mainly to +the philosophers, as lecture-rooms and auditories for their classes +and followers. On the north side of the peristyle is a double portico +containing the _exedrae_, or seats of the sophists, where each most +cunning rhetorician delivered his opinions _ex cathedrâ_, and lay in +wait for any passer whom he could insnare into an argument. The groves +of the great western court were probably used by the lounger, the +contemplative, and the studious, if we may judge by numerous seats and +benches, at convenient intervals. On the south side of these was again a +double portico; and on the north, outside the pillars, the _xystus_, +or covered porch, where the athletes exercised in winter and in bad +weather. The arena was twelve feet wide, and sunk a foot and a half +below a marginal path of ten feet, where spectators could walk. On the +north and south sides of the whole building were wings, of less width, +extending nearly its entire length. That on the north contained +the _stadium_, or foot-race course, which was, however, sometimes +disconnected from the gymnasium. The south wing was of like dimensions, +and adorned with plane-trees and walks, forming a more private retreat. + +It will be readily conceived that this vast area was not devoted +exclusively to physical exercises. Logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics +claimed their place in this common focus of the city's life, and were +the delight of the subtile Greeks. The Socratic reasoning and the +syllogisms of Aristotle met here on common ground. The Stoics, with +their stern fatalism, derived their name from the _stoae_, or porticos; +the Peripatetics imparted their ambulatory instructions under the +plane-trees of the Lyceum--and Plato reasoned in the Academy, which he +held with his school, and into which no ungeometrical mind was to enter. +And though some dog of a Cynic might despise the union of the ornamental +with the useful, and claim austerity as the rule of life, yet to the +great body of the social Greek people the gymnasium offered all those +attractions which _boulevards_, _cafés_, and _jardins-chantants_ do +now to the Gallic nation. There is more than one point of resemblance +between the two countries; but while the Athenian had the same mercurial +qualities, which fitted him for outdoor life, he had even a less +comfortable domestic establishment to retain him at home than the modern +Parisian. + +We must turn, however, rather to the physical view of the gymnasium. All +the sports of the gymnasia were either games, or special exercises for +the contests of the public festivals. And here a distinction must be +made between amateur and professional gymnasts. The former were +styled _agonistae_, and exercised in the public gymnasium; the latter +_athletae_, and were trained fighters, whose school was the _palaestra_. +At first frequenting the same, they afterwards became divided between +two institutions. Some of the harsher sports of the prize-fighters were +not thought genteel for well-nurtured youths to indulge in. Among the +simpler games were the ball, played in various ways, and the top, which +was as popular with juveniles then as now. The sport called _skaperda_ +can be seen in any gymnasium of to-day, and consisted in two boys +drawing each other up and down by the ends of a rope passing over a +pulley. Familiar still is also a game of dexterity played with five +stones thrown from the upper part of the hand and caught in the palm. +Various other gentle exercises might be mentioned. + +The training for the public games was comprised in the _pentathlon_, or +five exercises,--which were running, leaping, throwing the _discus_, +wrestling, boxing. The first four were practised also by amateurs, and +by most persons who frequented the gymnasium for health. + +The race, run upon the foot-race course, was between fixed boundaries, +about a _stadium_ apart. The distances run were from one to twenty +_stadia_, or from one-eighth of a mile to two and a half miles, and +sometimes more. This exercise was much followed. Horses were sometimes +introduced, but then the hippodrome was the course. They ran without +riders, as at the Roman carnival, or with chariots. Horse-racing was +most popular in the Roman circus, whose ruins still show its massiveness +and great size. + +Leaping was performed also within fixed limits,--generally with metallic +weights in the hands, but sometimes attached to the head or shoulders. + +The quoit, or _discus_, was made of stone or metal, of a circular form, +and thrown by means of a thong passing through the centre. It was three +inches thick and ten or twelve in diameter. He who threw farthest, won. +It is a modern game also, and is imitated in the Old-Country custom of +pitching the bar. + +Wrestling has been a favorite contest in all times. Milo of Crotona +was the prince of wrestlers. He who threw his adversary three times +conquered. The wrestlers were naked, anointed, and covered with sand, +that they might take firm hold. Striking was not allowed. Elegance was +studied in the attack, as well as force. There was a distinction between +upright and prostrate wrestling. In the former the one thrown was +allowed to get up; in the latter the struggle was continued on the +ground. The vanquished held up his finger when he acknowledged himself +beaten. + +Boxing was a severer sport, and not much followed except by gentlemen of +the "profession." It was practised with the clenched fists, either naked +or armed with the deadly _cestus_. The "science" of the game was to +parry the blows of the antagonist, as it is in the "noble and manly" art +of self-defence now. The exercise was violent and dangerous, and the +combatants often lost their lives, as they do at the present day. The +_cestus_, like our "brass-knuckle," was a thong of hide, loaded with +lead, and bound over the hand. At first used to add weight to the blow, +it was afterwards continued up the fore-arm, and formed also a weapon +of defence. Mr. Morrissey, or any other "shoulder-hitter," would hardly +need more than a few rounds to settle his opponent, if his sinewy arm +were garnished with the _cestus_. + +We read that the late contest for the "American belt," though short, was +unusually fierce, and afforded intense delight to the spectators,--in +proportion, probably, to its ferocity. By all means let the "profession" +take the _cestus_ from the hands of the highwayman and adopt it +themselves. It would be one step nearer the glorious days of the +gladiators, and would render their combats more bloody and more +exciting. Or, better still, let us revive the ancient mode of sparring +called the _klimax_, where both parties "faced the music" _without +warding_ blows at all. We scarcely think the ancients were up to +"countering," as it is understood now; but they fully appreciated the +facetious practice of falling backwards to avoid a blow, and letting the +adversary waste his strength on the air. The deceased Mr. Sullivan +would hardly recognize his favorite dodge under its classic name of +_hyptiasmos_, or be aware that it was in use by his very respectable +predecessor, Sostratus of Sicyon, who was noted for such tricks. + +The _pankration_, again, was a mode of battle which the modern +prize-ring is yet too magnanimous to adopt, and which excelled in +brutality the so-called "getting one's nob in chancery,"--the most +stirring episode of our pugilistic encounters. The Greek custom alluded +to was so named because it called all the powers of the fighter into +action. It was a union of boxing and wrestling. It began by trying to +get one's antagonist into the unfavorable position of facing the sun. +Then the sport commenced with either wrestling or sparring. As soon as +one party was thrown or knocked down, the other kept him so until he had +pommelled him into submission; and when he arose, at last, to receive +the plaudits of the assembly, it was often from the corpse of his +adversary. + +Beginning as the most promising pupils of the gymnasium, and becoming +victors in the public games, certain gymnasts gradually grew into +a distinct class of prize-runners, wrestlers, and fighters, called +Athletes. They then devoted their lives to attaining excellence in these +exercises, and withdrew to the _palaestra_, or training-school. Those who +quitted the profession became instructors in the public gymnasium. To +attain great bodily strength, they submitted to many rigid rules. By +frequent anointing, rubbing, and bathing, they rendered their bodies +very supple. The trainer, or teacher in the _palaestra_, was termed +_xystarch_. He was himself the Nestor of the "ring." The food of the +athlete was mainly beef and pork. The latter, we believe, is excluded +from the diet-list of the modern prize-fighter. Of their particular +rules of living and "getting into condition" we know but little. Before +being allowed to contend, they were subjected to a strict examination by +the judges. In so high estimation were the victors held, that they were +rewarded with a public proclamation of their names, the laudations +of the poet, statues, banquets, and other privileges. The immediate +material gain was not the winning of the stakes, but a simple crown or +garland of laurel, olive, pine, or parsley, according to the festival at +which they fought. Pindar has embalmed the names of many victors in his +Olympic, Pythian, and other odes. + +But let us leave the athletes for something more inviting. The +_lampadephoria_, or torch-race, must have been a singular spectacle. +There were five celebrations of this game at Athens, of which the most +noted was at the Panathenaea, where horsemen often contended. The text +describing it has been a puzzle to commentators;--the most rational +and accepted interpretation seems to be, that it was a contest between +opposite parties, and not between individuals. Lighted lamps, protected +by a shield, were passed from runner to runner along the lines of +players, to a certain goal. They who succeeded in carrying their lights +from boundary to boundary unextinguished were declared the victors. This +game will at once recall the _moccoletti_, which close the carnival at +Rome. + +Dancing to the sound of the _cithara_, flute, and pipe, was a favorite +amusement with all classes. The grizzly veterans and the younger +soldiers all joined in martial dances. The dance and the game of ball +were often connected. The Romaïc dance, peculiar to the modern Greeks, +is an inheritance from their ancestors. Dancing by youths and maidens +formed part of the entertainment of guests. Tumblers threw somersets +and leaped amid sharp knives, somewhat after the manner of the Chinese +jugglers. Music was also usually associated with either poetry or +dancing. + +Incitements to the various gymnastic exercises which have been mentioned +could be found only in public emulation, for which abundant opportunity +was offered in the national games or festivals. These were a part of +the religious customs of the Greeks, and were originally established +in honor of the gods. It was their effect to bring into nearer contact +people from the several parts of Greece, and to stimulate and publicly +reward talent, as well as bodily vigor. They afforded orators, poets, +and historians the best opportunities of rehearsing their productions. +Herodotus is said to have read his History, and Isocrates to have +recited his Panegyric at the Olympic games. The four sacred games were +the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean; and to these should be added +the Panathenaea, or festival of Minerva. The five exercises before +mentioned, together with music, in its classic sense, formed the +programme. In the lesser Panathenaea occurred, first, the torch-race; +next, the gymnastic exercises; thirdly, a musical contention, instituted +by Pericles; and lastly, a competition of the poets in four plays. +Numerous other observances, of a religious nature, were varied with the +different festivals. It may be doubted whether subsequent times have +seen any gatherings of equal magnitude for similar objects. + +So rigid was the discipline of the ancient gymnasium, and so important +was it considered that confidence should be undoubting there, that +thefts, exceeding ten _drachmae_ in amount, committed within its +precincts, were punished with death. + +The _Gymnasiarch_, or presiding magistrate, clothed in a purple cloak, +with white shoes, possessed almost unlimited authority. He had the +superintendence of the building, and could remove the teachers and +under-officers at his pleasure. The exercises practised were ordained +by law, subject to regulations and animated by the commendation of +the masters. Instructions were given by the _gymnastae_ and the +_paedotribae_, two classes of officers. The former gave practical +lessons, and were expected to know the physiological effect of the +different exercises, and to adapt them to the constitution and needs of +the youth. The latter possessed a knowledge of all the games, and taught +them in all their variety. Nor were the morals of the young less cared +for by the _sophronistae_, a set of officials appointed for that +purpose. + +The plan and scope of Grecian education were more adapted to the common +purposes of the community, and less to the individual aim of the pupil. +Beside the public teachings of philosophers and sophists, common schools +were established at Athens by Solon. Government provided for their +management, and strict discipline was enforced. Here the boy was +instructed in music and grammar. Until the age of sixteen, he pursued +these two branches in connection with gymnastics. Some authorities +assert, that, even at this period of his life, as much time was devoted +to the latter as to the other two together. At sixteen, he left the +school, and, until he was eighteen years of age, frequented the +gymnasium alone; probably devoting most of his time to physical +training, though enjoying opportunities of listening to the masters +in philosophy. The period of adolescence past, and his growing frame +expanded and well knit by exercise, he either continued to follow +athletic sports, or began a military or other career. If a young man +of leisure, he probably needed all the virtue imparted by his moral +teachers to restrain him from dice, quail-fights, and fine horses, and +all his physical vigor to resist the dissipations of Athens or Corinth, +and the potations of the _symposia_. + +So far the male rising generation was well cared for. What became of the +girls? + +In accordance with the freer manners, but not less virtuous habits of +Lacedemon, maidens were there admitted as spectators and sharers of the +gymnastic sports. Though clad only in the Spartan _chiton_, they took +vigorous part in dancing and probably wrestling. The Athenian maid could +not air even her modest garments in public with the consent of popular +opinion. The girls were educated and the women stayed at home. The +_gynaekeion_, or female apartment, was nearly as secluded as the +_seraglio_. The females were under direct, though not slavish submission +to the men. Modesty forbade their appearance in the gymnasium. Domestic +occupations, the rearing of children, spinning, light work, and +household cares filled up their time. We are told that an Athenian +mother once ventured in male attire to mingle among the spectators of +the Olympic games. Her cry of joy at the triumph of her son betrayed +her. Because she was the mother of many victors, she was spared from +infamy; and her services to the state, in rearing men, alone saved her +from the consequences of an act which maternal solicitude could not have +excused. + +Too much license in the intermingling of the sexes formed part of the +arguments of many distinguished Romans against the gymnasium. Habits of +idle lounging and waste of time, together with even graver vices, were +imputed to its influence. Some said it favored _polysarkia_, or obesity, +and unfitted for military or other active life. The Romans were too +utilitarian to see its higher aims. Though there was some justice, it +must be confessed, in these accusations, yet they applied with more +force to the _palaestra_ than to the gymnasium,--to the trained +fighters, who devoted their lives to exercise, than to the mass of the +Greeks, who cultivated it for nobler purposes. + +The ancients valued gymnastics highly as curative agents in disease. +Some of the gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, god of physicians. The +officers of these establishments passed for doctors, and were so called, +on account of the skill which long experience had given them. The +directors regulated the diet of the youth, the _gymnastae_ prescribed +for their diseases, and the inferiors dressed wounds and fractures. Not +only was the general idea entertained that bodily exercise is good for +the health, but different kinds of exertion were selected as adapted to +particular maladies. Upright wrestling was thought most beneficial to +the upper portion of the body, and the cure of dropsy was believed to be +peculiarly promoted by gymnastic sports. Hippocrates had some faith in +the "motor cure." In some cases he advises common wrestling; in others, +wrestling with the hands only. The practice with the _corycus_, or +hanging-bag of sand, and a regular motion of the upper limbs, resembling +the manual exercise of the soldier, were also esteemed by him. Galen +inveighs against the more violent exercises, but recommends moderate +ones as part of the physician's art. Asclepiades, in the time of Pompey +the Great, called exercises the common aids of physic, and got great +glory--and money, it is to be hoped--by various mechanical contrivances +for the sick. + +The ancients probably esteemed gymnastics too much, as the moderns do +too little, for medical or sanative purposes. The Greeks, with a very +limited knowledge of physiology and pathology, would be more apt to +treat symptoms than to trace the causes of disease; and no doubt they +sometimes prescribed exercises which were injudicious or positively +injurious. We still trust too much, perhaps, to medication, and do not +keep in view the great helps which Nature spreads around us. Truth lies +between the two extremes; and we are beginning to recognize the fact, +which experience daily teaches us, that light, air, and motion are more +potent than drugs,--and that iron will not redden the cheeks, nor bark +restring the nerves, so safely and so surely as moderate daily exercise +out of doors. + +In the flourishing days of Attica, the gymnasium was in its perfection. +It degenerated with the license of later times. It was absorbed and sunk +in the fashions and vices of imperial Rome. Though Nero built a +public gymnasium, and Roman gentlemen attached private ones to their +country-seats, it gradually fell into disuse, or existed only for +ignoble purposes. The gladiator succeeded naturally to the athlete, the +circus to the stadium, and the sanguinary scenes of the amphitheatre +brutalized the pure tastes of earlier years. Then came the barbarians, +and the rough, graceless strength of Goths and Vandals supplanted the +supple vigor of the gymnast. The rude, migratory life of the Dark Ages +needed not the gymnasium as a means of physical culture, and was too +changeable and evanescent to establish permanent institutions. Chivalry +afforded some exception. The profession of knighthood and the calling +of the men-at-arms gave ample scope to warlike exercises, reduced to +something like a science in armor, horses, and modes of combat. The +tournament recalled somewhat the generous emulation of the gymnasium; +but bodily exercise for physiological ends was lost sight of in the +midst of advancing civilization, until its culture was resumed in +Sweden, in the latter half of the last century. + +The reviver of gymnastics was PETER HENRY LING. Born of humble +parentage, and contending in his earlier years with the extremest +poverty, he completed a theological education, became a tutor, +volunteered in the Danish navy, travelled in France and England, and +began his career of gymnast as a fencing-master in Stockholm. He died +a professor, a knight, and a member of the Swedish Academy, and was +posthumously honored as a benefactor of his country. + +While fencing, he was struck with the wholesome effects which may +be produced on the body by a rational system of movements, and this +suggested the idea which he developed by practice and precept through +his entire life. It was, that "an harmonious organic development of the +body and of its powers and capabilities by exercises ought to constitute +an essential part in the general education of a people." Ling thought +not of merely imitating the gymnastics of the ancients, but he aimed at +their reformation and improvement. Wishing to put gymnastics in harmony +with Nature, he studied anatomy, physiology, and the natural sciences. +Of their value in directing rational exercise he says: "Anatomy, that +sacred genesis, which shows us the masterpiece of the Creator, and which +teaches us how little and how great man is, ought to form the constant +study of the gymnast. But we ought not to consider the organs of the +body as the lifeless forms of a mechanical mass, but as the living, +active instruments of the soul." And even this is not sufficient; "for +the gymnast, the ultimate aim of whose art is the _beau idéal_ of +humanity, must know what effects applied movements produce upon the +corporeal and psychical condition of man; a knowledge which can be +obtained only from the most careful and untiring examination." + +It has been asserted, that, in pursuance of this plan, Ling invented a +separate movement or exercise for every muscle in the body. This is not +strictly true, for it is practically impossible. Few muscles act alone, +and such as do are developed symmetrically, and are antagonized by those +of the opposite side. Most movements are performed by groups of muscles. +The cripple, swinging on his crutches, develops the broad sheet of +muscular fibres which enfolds the back and loins, and approaches in +form the simian tribe, the business of whose life is climbing. The +sledge-hammer brings out the _biceps_ of the blacksmith, and striking +out from the shoulder the _triceps_ of the pugilist. The calves of the +ballet-dancer are noted for the abrupt line which marks the transition +from muscle to tendon; and other instances might be cited. As a general +rule, however, numerous muscles act in concert. Trades stamp their +impress on special groups; and the power of co-ordination, which is +supposed to derive its impulse from the cerebellum, varies in different +persons, and marks them as clumsy or dexterous, sure-footed or the +reverse. Ling aimed only at the regulation of associated, or the equal +development of antagonistic groups. For, as the Supreme Medical Board of +Russia say in their report on his system, made to the Emperor in 1850, +"empirical gymnastics develop the muscular strength sometimes to a +wonderful degree, and teach the execution of movements combined with +an extraordinary effort of the muscles; by these means, instead of +fortifying the whole body equally and generally, they often contribute +to the development of the most dangerous diseases, since they do not +teach the evil which the injudicious use of movements may produce." It +was the harmonious and equable increase of all the voluntary and some of +the involuntary muscles which the Swedish system sought to attain. + +The authority just quoted, in continuation, says:--"Notwithstanding +bodily exercises under the name of _Turnen_ were generally known and +practised in Germany at the beginning of the present century, and many +of its enlightened professional writers tried to give to them a proper +direction by combining them with anatomy and physiology, Ling must be +considered as the founder of the rational system of movements." We have +all seen deformed gymnasts, with square shoulders and lank loins, or +with some particular group of muscles projecting in ugly prominences +from the violated outlines of nature. All this the followers of Ling +claim that he avoided or overcame. His gymnastics were introduced years +ago, not only into all the military academies of Sweden, but into all +town-schools, colleges, and universities, and even orphan-asylums and +country-schools. Three objects are asserted to be obtained by his +disciples: development of muscular fibre, increased arterialization, +and improved innervation. Increase of function promotes the growth and +capability of organic structures, and causes an augmented afflux of +arterial blood and nervous influence to the part. + +The ambitious reformer of the gymnasium did not pause here; but, +pursuing a still bolder course, undertook "to make gymnastics not only a +branch of education for healthy persons, but to demonstrate them to be +a remedy for disease." The new science was called _Kinesipathy_, or the +"motor-cure." The curative movements were first practised in 1813, +while Ling remained at Stockholm. A motor-hospital was established in +connection with the gymnasium; and to accommodate the invalid and the +feeble, new exercises, called "passive movements," were devised. These +were executed by an external agent upon the patient,--that agent being +usually the hand of the physician. The sick man, too weak for violent, +voluntary effort, was stretched and champooed, the muscles of his trunk +and limbs alternately flexed and extended by another person, until he +gradually acquired strength to use active movements. As he gained power, +he increased the voluntary resistance which he made to the operator, and +thus, at the same time, the amount of his own muscular exertion. It is +claimed that volition is thus called forth to neglected parts, and their +innervation and vascularity increased; and that so at length the normal +fulness of life and function is restored. This system confines itself +mostly to chronic diseases. In the paralysis of the young, in defective +volition from hysteria, in impaired local nutrition, in local +deformities dependent on muscular contraction, and in lateral curvature +of the spine, it unquestionably often produces the best results. Its +advocates claim for it much more. On its further benefits we are unable +to decide. Like all things else, it is susceptible of abuse. + +Russia and Prussia have adopted, to a limited extent, the Ling system +of corporeal training and the "motor-cure." In London there exists an +institution of this kind, and more recently one has been established +by the Doctors Taylor in New York. In a still less degree the Swedish +gymnastics are used in some educational institutions here. + +Ling died in 1839, in his seventy-third year. Even on his death-bed he +spoke till the last hour, and gave instructions in his favorite science. +His life is a remarkable instance of purity, energy, and devotion to a +single end. + +Meanwhile, what have modern nations done to atone for the neglect of the +ancient gymnasium? Germany, to some extent, has supplied its place with +the _Turnverein_. _Turnkunst_, or the gymnastic art, is cultivated by +a limited number of youth. As we see the public exhibitions of the +_Turners_ in this country, they are as noted for their libations to +Bacchus, and their sacrifices to the god of tobacco,--a deity still +wanting in the Pantheon,--as for their culture and superiority in +athletic sports. Still they exert a wide, and, for the most part, a good +influence. Other continental nations of Europe furnish a large portion +of their young men with the gymnastic element in the shape of military +discipline and drill. As affording the best examples of martial +training, Prussia and France are to be signalized,--the former for the +universality, the latter for the kind of its instructions. + +All young Prussians are liable to a call to actual service in the army +for three years. After this, if they do not continue members of the +regular standing army, they remain until a certain age in that portion +of the active force which is mustered and drilled every year. Past the +age referred to, they fall into the corps of reserve, a sort of National +Guard of veterans, summoned to the field only in emergencies. Young men +who have the means to purchase an immunity can obtain one for only two +years. One year they must serve, parade, drill, march, and mount guard, +though they are not required to live in the barracks. Occasional cases +of hardship or injustice occur. We know of a poor, but promising +pianist whose studies were cut short and his fingers stiffened by the +three-years' service. Leaving out of view exceptional facts, the system +works well. All the youth of the country acquire health, strength, an +upright carriage, and habits of punctuality and cleanliness. The clumsy +rustic is soon licked into shape, and leaves his barrack, to return to +the fields, a soldier and a more self-reliant man. Prussia, too, secures +the services of an army, in time of need, commensurate in numbers with +the adult male population. + +The French conscript, if he draws the unlucky number, can buy a +substitute. All are not enrolled as recruits; and all those so enrolled +are not obliged to serve. The only sons of widows, and some other +persons, are always exempt. Once in "the line," however, the young man +is engaged for five or seven years, and receives a training in matters +gymnastic and military which turns out the best soldiers in Europe. + +Little would one imagine, as he passes the groups of dainty and +scrupulously neat French officers upon the _boulevards_, looking the +laziest persons in the world, that these seeming carpet-knights are out +upon the _Champ de Mars_ at three o'clock in the morning, and +often drill until nine or ten in the forenoon,--or that the little +_toulourou_, as he is nicknamed, or private of the _ligne_, in his +brick-colored trowsers and clean gaiters, whose voice is the gayest and +whose legs are the nimblest in the barrier-ball, has done a day's work +of parade and gymnastics which equals the toil of an _ouvrier_. Running, +swimming, climbing, and fencing with the bayonet, are often but the +preludes of long marches on duty, or equally long walks to reach the +parade-ground, or to fetch the daily rations of the "mess." Then, too, +during several months of summer, camp-life is led on a grand scale. Vast +encampments, which for size, regularity, and order vie with the old +Roman _castra_, are formed at convenient spots. And here all the details +of actual service are imitated; cavalry and infantry are disciplined in +equally arduous labors; nor does the artillery escape the fatigue of +mock-sieges, sham-fights, and reviews. + +The _Chasseurs de Vincennes_, or rifle-corps, are the pride of the army. +Their training is still more severe. They are all athletic men, taught +to march almost upon the run, and to go through evolutions with the +rapidity of bush-fighters. There are few more stirring sights than a +French regiment upon the march. Advancing in loose order, and with a +long, swinging gait, their guns at an angle of forty-five degrees, +lightly carried upon the shoulder, they impart an idea of alertness and +efficiency which no other soldiers present to the same degree. + +Gymnasia are somewhat patronized by the civilians. The art of fencing is +a national accomplishment, and few gentlemen complete their education +without the instructions of the _maître d'escrime_. The _savate_ is a +rude exercise in vogue among rowdies, and consists in kicking with +the peasant's wooden shoe. The French are a tough, but not a large or +powerful race. The same amount of training dispensed among as large a +proportion of the youth of this country would show much greater results. + +The British soldier has long been considered by his own nation as a +model of manliness. He owes his long limbs and round chest to his +ancestors and his mode of life before enlisting. While on the +home-service, he does not yet exercise enough to harden him or to ward +off disease. Recent returns show a higher comparative rate of mortality +in the British army from consumption than among other Englishmen. His +close barracks, unvarying diet, and listless life explain it all. His +countrymen and countrywomen, however, who have the time and means, +largely cultivate athletic sports. The English lady is noted for her +long walks in the open air, and for the preservation of her youthful +bloom,--the English gentleman for his red face, broad shoulders, and +happy digestion. + +How do we compare with them in vigor and attention to gymnastics and +health-giving exercises? Better than we did ten years ago, but still not +very favorably. + +The Western Border-States are noted for the production of a large and +hardy race. New Hampshire and Vermont contribute a good share of the +tall and well-developed men who yearly recruit the population of +our Eastern cities. Let a generation pass, however, and we find the +offspring of such sires with equally capacious frames, but far less +muscular power. The skeleton is laid of a man mighty in strength, but +the filling-in is wanting. Broad-jointed bones swing listlessly in their +sockets, the head projects, and the shoulders bend, under the influence +of a sedentary life. The laboring and mechanical classes bring certain +groups of muscles to perfection in development and dexterity, but +present few instances of an harmonious organization. Commercial and +professional men do not accomplish even a limited muscular development. +For the other sex, Nature seems to have provided a certain immunity from +the necessity of active exercise for the rounding and completion of +their bodies. The lack of fresh air, however, soon tells with them a +fatal story of fading complexions and departing bloom. That ethereal +beauty which peculiarly marks the American woman is also the earliest to +decay. As they are the prettiest, so are they the soonest _passées_ of +any Northern nation. Could they but realize that exercise in the open +air is Nature's great and only cosmetic, the reproach of early old age +would cease. Nothing will give that peach-bloom to the cheek and that +peculiar sweetness to the eye which a long walk through the fields, of a +clear October day, bestows unbought. + +One evil breeds another. The brain fed only with thin blood gives rise +to morbid thoughts. Activity, sharpness, and quickness of perception +are but poor compensations for the want of the milder and more generous +attributes of the mind. Dyspepsia spawns a moody literature. Broad, +manly views and hopeful thoughts of life exist less here, we think, than +in England. The cities are supplied year by year with people from the +country; yet the latter, the source of all this supply, does not produce +so healthy mothers as the city; and were it not for the increasing study +of physiology and its vital truths, we fear that we should awaken too +late to a knowledge of our physical degeneration. + +Now what means are in use among us to furnish the needed stimulant of +exercise? It is paradoxical to say that the average of people take more +exercise in the city than in the country; yet we believe it to be true. +That exercise is only of one form, to be sure, namely, walking. The +common calls of business, and the mere daily locomotion from point to +point of an extended city, necessitate a large amount of this simplest +exercise. Other sources of health, as sunlight and the vivifying +influence of trees and grass upon the air, exist more in the real +country. Yet as many girls attain a vigorous development in town as out +of it; for in our smaller New England villages indoor cares and labors +confine the females excessively and prevent their using much exercise in +the open air. + +Our militia system, including the exercises of volunteer companies, +supplies but to a very limited extent the want of real gymnastics. The +common militia meet too infrequently and drill too little to gain much +sanative benefit. The old-fashioned "training-day" was always a day of +drunkenness and subsequent sickness. The "going into camp" now adopted +is even worse; for here youths taken from the sheltered counting-room +and furnace-heated house are exposed to the inclemencies of the weather +not long enough to harden them, but long enough to lay the foundation of +disease. Volunteer companies parade and are reviewed oftener, and +drill more constantly; but the good effects of the manual exercise are +rendered nugatory by its being conducted in confined armories and a bad +atmosphere. + +The frequency of conflagrations and the emulation of rival volunteer +corps render the fire-companies an active school of exercise. But the +benefits of this are neutralized by the violence and irregularity of +their exertions. Quitting the workshop half-clad, and running long +distances, the fireman arrives panting at the fire, to breathe in, with +lungs congested by the unusual effort, the rarefied and smoky atmosphere +of the burning buildings. We should naturally suppose this a fertile +source of pulmonary complaints. Besides, were it the most healthy of +exercises, it is followed only by the mechanic and the laborer, who use +their muscles enough without it. + +The "prize-ring" and the professed athlete still exist among us. +Unfortunately, their habits brutalize the mind. A limited knowledge +of sparring, and a full vocabulary of the slang of the pugilist, are +fashionable among many youths. Few young men, however, can cultivate the +one, or frequent the society of the other, without the risk of becoming +rowdies or bullies, if nothing worse. + +The revival of the Old-Country games of cricket and base-ball affords +some of the best examples of a growing desire for athletic sports. +They have many things to recommend them, and, as we conceive, no +objectionable features. + +The suicidal war waged against trees and birds alike by the early +settlers has left but little inducement to follow in this country the +field-sports so fashionable in England. Riding on horseback, however, is +now more popular than it has been since our carriage-roads were first +laid out. This exercise is peculiarly beneficial to the feeble in body. +Accelerated inspiration of pure air and a gentle succussion of all the +internal organs are blended with that consciousness of power and that +self-dependence which the good horseman always feels in the saddle. +Hardly less do we value the intimate acquaintance into which it brings +us with the noble animal who bears us, establishing a sympathy which no +amount of driving can awaken to its full extent. + +Our rivers, lakes, and bays spread around us a vast and inviting field +for the cultivation of summer or winter sports. Boating and sailing are +adapted, from their gentleness of motion, even to the most delicate +organizations. Rowing is equally suited to the young and strong. +Boat-clubs are quite popular in our colleges, and we hope they will ere +long become so in our academies and minor schools. Few exercises bring +more muscles into play than the steady stroke of the oar. Few are more +exhilarating and pleasant to those who have tried them. Give us the +strong pull through an open bay before all boating on placid lakes or +rivers. The long, well-timed stroke becomes a mere mechanical effort, +leaving the mind at liberty to enjoy the sense of freedom, the tonic +salt-breeze, and the enlivening scenes of the sea. + +When the boats are beached, and the wharf-logs grow, with successive +layers congealed from every tide, into huge spindles of ice, the same +element offers its glassy surface to the skater. That skating has +actually become fashionable among the gentler sex we regard as the +strongest indication of an awakening national taste for exercise. But +there is need of caution. Most persons skate with too heavy clothes. +The quick movements of the limbs in the changing evolutions of this +pastime--though the practised skater is unconscious of much muscular +effort--quicken the circulation enough to increase palpably the +animal heat and produce a very sensible perspiration. In this exposed +condition, the quiet walk home is taken without additional covering, and +is the origin of many colds. + +Returning to "first principles," we find one useful exercise more or +less within reach of all, without preparation or expense. We mean +walking. The flexors and extensors of the legs, the broad muscles of the +back and abdomen, and the slender and intricate bundles of fibres which +support and steady the spine, are all gently exercised in locomotion. +The respiration and circulation are moderately increased, and the blood +aërated with fresh air. And all this can be had by simply stepping out +of doors and setting in motion the muscular machinery, which moves so +automatically that we soon become unconscious of its exertions. This, +like all other exercise, should be taken at seasonable hours. We enter +our protest against long walks before breakfast. To any but the robust +they are positively injurious. The early riser and walker, unless long +habituated and naturally vigorous, returns from his exercise draggled, +faint, and exhausted, to begin the digestive labors of the day, and take +his food with hunger rather than appetite. Abstinence has blunted the +nicer perceptions of taste, and the jaded organs lose the power not +only of discriminating flavors, but of knowing when to cry, "Enough!" +"Brushing away the morning dew," like "love in a cottage," is very +pretty in a book, but needs a solid basis in the stomach or in the +larder. + +Running is a very healthy and an equally neglected exercise. Few +vocations call upon us to fully expand the chest once a month. Running +improves the wind, it is said. We give the name of long-winded to those +who have a reserve of breathing capacity which they do not use in +ordinary exertions, but which lies ready to carry them through +extraordinary efforts without distress or exhaustion. Such persons +breathe quietly and deeply. Running forms part of the training of the +prize-fighter. It should be begun and ended at a moderate pace, as +a knowing jockey drives a fast horse; otherwise, panting, and even +dangerous congestion, may arise from the too sudden afflux of blood to +the lungs. + +Nothing so pleasantly combines mental occupation with bodily labor as +a pursuit of some one of the natural sciences, particularly zoölogy +or botany. If our means allow a microscope to be added to our natural +resources, the field of exercise and pleasure is boundlessly enlarged. +To the labor of collecting specimens is joined the exhilaration of +discovery; and he who has once opened the outer gate of the sanctuary of +Nature finds in the study of her _arcana_ a pastime which will be a joy +forever. + +Our larger towns and cities still support gymnasia of greater or +less size and perfectness. But the modern gymnasium has two great +deficiencies: the lack of open air, and of the emulation arising from +publicity. The first is a very grave objection. Not a tithe of the +benefits of exercise can be obtained within-doors. The sallow mechanic +and the ruddy farmer are the two points of comparison. The one may work +as hard and be as strong as the other, and yet we cannot call him as +healthy. Nothing short of Nature's own sweet air will supply the highest +physical needs of the human frame. As our gymnasia are usually private, +and only moderately frequented, the gymnast is not stimulated to those +exertions which society and competition would arouse. _Ennui_ often mars +his enjoyment. We have seen men methodically pursuing, day after day, +the same exercises, with all the listless drudgery of a hack-horse. +Geniality and generous emulation are among the great benefits of the +true gymnasium. + +"But how shall I find time to follow out even one of these exercises?" +objects the victim of American social life. It is true, he cannot. We +live so fast that we have no time to live. Nevertheless, gymnastics +have one advantage adapted to our hurried habits. They afford the most +exercise in the shortest time. In no other way, so easily accessible, +can as much powerful motion be used in so brief a space. + +The tired clerk or merchant comes home late, with feverish brain and +weary legs. His chest and arms have had no exercise proportional to the +rest of his system. What shall he do to restore the balance? If he can, +let him erect in some upper room, away from furnace-heat, instead of a +billiard-table, a private shrine to Apollo or Mercury. He will need but +little apparatus. A set of weights and pulleys, a pair of parallel bars, +two suspended rings, and a leaping-pole are all the necessary permanent +fixtures. Other articles, as the dumb-bells, the Indian club, +boxing-gloves, foils, or single-sticks, take up no room, and can be +added as his growing taste for their use demands. We would single out +the parallel bars and the weights as the most generally useful. The +former develop particularly the chest, stretch the pectoral muscles, and +lengthen the collar-bones. The latter increase the volume and power +of the extensors of the shoulder, arm, and forearm, and are to be +sedulously practised, because we have fewer common and daily movements +of these muscles than of their antagonists, the flexors, and they are +consequently weaker in most persons. The windows should be widely +opened, and the room warmed by the sun alone. + +Though, after the first few trials, the whole body will ache, and the +astonished muscles tremble with soreness, a week's perseverance will +overcome these earlier drawbacks. The gymnast will be surprised at the +new feeling of vigor in the back and shoulders, and to find the upright, +military posture as natural as it was before difficult to maintain. +Temper and digestion undergo a parallel improvement, and it will require +much to make him forego the luxury of exercise which he at first thought +so painful. + +Many persons become discouraged by beginning too violently. Alarmed at +the fatigue and suffering at first induced, they shrink from further +efforts. Gymnastics are, to be sure, an injudicious mode of exercise +for some. Children get a good many sprains, and sometimes permanent +deformity, from their use. The growing period requires care to avoid +injuring the articulations; yet it is the most favorable time to spread +the shoulders and deepen the chest. The young grow most in height and +can best gain an harmonious development by frequenting the GYMNASIUM. + + * * * * * + + +WHY DID THE GOVERNESS FAINT? + + +We were all sitting together in the evening, and my sister Fanny had +been reading aloud from the newspaper. For my father's benefit, she had +read all the political articles, and all about business, till he had +said he had heard enough, and there was nothing in the papers, and then +had left the room. So Fanny looked over the marriages and deaths, and +read about the weather in New York and Chicago, and some other things +that she thought would interest us while we were sewing. Suddenly I +looked up, towards where Miss Agnes was sitting, far away at the other +end of the room. She was leaning back in her chair, and, all in a +moment, I thought she looked white, as though she had fainted. I did not +say a word, but got up and went quietly towards her. I found she had +fainted quite away, and her lips were pale, and her eyes shut. I opened +the window by her; for the night was cool, and all the windows were +closed. There came in a little breeze of fresh air, and then I ran to +fetch a glass of water. When I returned, I found Miss Agnes reviving a +little. The air and the water served to refresh her, and very gradually +she came back to herself. As she opened her eyes, she looked at me +wonderingly, then round the room,--then a shudder came over her, as if +with a sudden painful memory. + +"I'm better,--thank you for the water," she said; and then she rose up +and went to the window, and leaned against the casement. I had a glimpse +of her face; so sad a face I had never seen before. + +For Miss Agnes was not often sad, though she was quiet in her ways and +manners. She could be gay, when it was the time to be gay. She was our +governess,--that is, she taught Mary and Sophy and me. Fanny was too old +to be taught by her, and had an Italian master and a French teacher; +but she practised duets for the piano with Miss Agnes, and read with +her,--and she made visits with her, for Miss Agnes was a favorite +everywhere. She had a kind word for everybody, and listened kindly +to all that was said to her. She talked to everybody at the sewing +societies, had something to say to every one, and when she came home she +had always something to tell that was entertaining. I often wished I +could be one-quarter as amusing, but I never could succeed in making my +little experiences at all agreeable in the way Miss Agnes did. I have +tried it often since, but I always fail. Only the other day, I quite +prided myself that I had found out all about Mrs. Endicott's going to +Europe, and came home delighted with my piece of news. She was going +with her husband; two of the children she was to leave behind, and take +the baby with her; they were to be gone six months; and I even knew +the vessel they were going in, and the day they were to sail. My +intelligence was very quickly told;--Miss Agnes and many others would +have made a great deal more of it. I had no sooner come to the end than +Fanny said, "Who is going to take care of the children she leaves at +home?" I had never thought to ask! I was disappointed;--my news was +quite imperfect; I might as well not have tried to bring any news. But +it was never so with Miss Agnes. I believe it was because she was really +interested in what concerned others, that they always told her willingly +about themselves; and though she never was inquisitive about others' +affairs, yet she knew very well all that was going on. + +So she was a most valuable member of our home-circle, and was welcome +also among our friends. And we thought her beautiful, too. She was very +tall and slender, and her light-brown eyes were of the color of her +light-brown hair. We liked to see her come into the room,--her smile and +face made sunshine there; and she was more to us than a governess,--she +was our dear friend. + +But now she looked round at me, pale and sad. She suddenly saw that I +looked astonished at her, and she said, "I am not well, Jeanie, but we +will not say anything about it. I am going to my room; to-morrow I shall +be better." She held her hand to her head, and I thought there must be +some heavy pain there, she still looked so sad and pale. She bade us all +good night and went away. + +I did not tell the others what had happened,--partly because, as I have +said, I was not in the way of telling things, and partly because they +were all talking and had not observed what had been going on. But I +found the paper Fanny had been reading, and wondered if there were +anything in what she had read that could have moved Miss Agnes so much. +I had not been paying much attention to the reading, but I knew upon +which side of the paper to look. Fanny told me it was time for me to go +to bed, however, and I left my search before I could find anything that +seemed to concern Miss Agnes. I stopped at her door, and bade her good +night again; and she came out to me, and kissed me, and said,--I was a +good child, and I must not trouble myself about her. + +The next day she seemed quiet, yet the same as ever. Though I said +nothing to anybody else about her fainting, I could not help telling my +friend Jessie of it;--for I always told Jessie everything. Fanny called +us the two Jays, we chattered so when we were together. I knew she would +not tell anybody, so I could not help sharing my wonder with her,--what +could have made Miss Agnes faint so suddenly? She thought it must have +been something in the newspaper,--perhaps the death of some friend, or +the marriage of some other. I was willing to look again, and this time +remembered three things that Fanny had just been reading when I had +looked up at Miss Agnes. One was about Mr. Paul Shattuck;--in descending +from a haycart, he had fallen upon a pitchfork, and had seriously +wounded his thigh. Another was the marriage of Mr. Abraham Black to +Miss Susan Whitcomb, and Fanny had wondered if she were related to the +Whitcombs of Hadley. Then she had read a singular advertisement for a +lost ring, a seal ring, with some Arabic letters engraved upon it. I +was of opinion that Miss Agnes was somehow connected with this +signet-ring,--that it had some influence over her fate. Jessie thought +that Miss Agnes must have been formerly engaged to Mr. Abraham Black, +and that when she heard of his marriage----but I interrupted her in +this suggestion. In the first place, she could never have been engaged +to a Mr. Abraham Black; and then, nobody who could marry Miss Agnes +would think of taking up with a Susan Whitcomb. So Jessie fell back upon +Paul Shattuck, and, to tell the truth, we had some warm discussions on +the subject. + +Time passed on, and it was June. One lovely afternoon, we had quite a +frolic with the hay, the grass having been cut on the lawn in front of +the house. Miss Agnes had been with us. We had made nests in the hay, +and had buried each other in deep mounds of it, and had all played till +we were quite tired. I went into the house in search of Miss Agnes, +after she had gone in, and found her sitting at one of the side windows. +I came near, then wished to draw back again, for I saw there were tears +in her eyes. But when I found she had seen me, I tried to speak as if I +had seen nothing. + +"How high the cat has to step, to walk over the grass!" I said, as I +looked out of the window. + +Miss Agnes put her arms about me. "You wonder, because you see me +crying," she said, and looked into my face. + +"I never before saw anybody cry that was grown up," said I. + +Miss Agnes smiled and said, "They tell children it is naughty to cry; +but sometimes you can't help crying, can you?" And her tears came +dropping down. + +"Oh, Miss Agnes," I said, "I wish I could help your crying! It is too +bad!--it is too bad!" + +"Yes, it is very bad," she said, as she held me in her arms, "it is very +bad; but you do help me. You shall be my little friend." + +That was all. She did not tell me anything;--yet I felt as if she had +said a great deal, and I did not speak of this to Jessie. + +A few days after, as I was passing the door of the parlor, I fancied I +heard a little cry, and it sounded to me as if I had heard the voice +of Miss Agnes. I hurried in. A stranger had just entered the room. But +before me stood Miss Agnes, pale, erect, her lips quivering. She held +fast a chair, which she had drawn up in front of her, as one would +place a shield between one's self and some wild animal. How slender and +defenceless she looked! I followed the terrified glance of her eyes. +There, in the middle of the room, stood a stranger,--not so terrible to +look upon, for he was young, and it seemed to me I had never seen so +handsome a man. His black hair and eyes quite pictured the hero of my +romance. He was strongly built, and directly showed his strength by +seizing a large marble table that stood near the centre of the room, and +wheeling it between himself and Miss Agnes. + +"If you are afraid of me," he said, "I will build up a barrier between +us. Poor lamb, you would like to be free from the clutches of the wolf!" + +"I am afraid of you," said Miss Agnes, slowly,--and the color came into +her cheeks. "You know your power over me. I begged you, if you loved me, +not to come to me." + +"And all for that foolish ring! And the spirits of mischief betrayed its +loss to you; it was none of my work that published it in the papers. Can +you let a fancy, an old story in a ring, disturb your faith in me?" + +"If the faith is disturbed," answered Miss Agnes, "what use in asking +what has disturbed it? Ernest, as you stand there, you cannot say you +love me as you once professed to love me!" + +"I can say that you are my guiding star,--that, if you fail me, I fall +away into ruin." + +"Can my little light keep you from ruin?" said Miss Agnes, shuddering. +"Do not talk to me so! Alas, you know how weak I am!" + +"I know that you are an angel, and that I am too low a wretch to dare +to speak to you. I came here to tell you I was worthy of your deepest +hatred. But, Agnes, when you speak to me of my power over you, it tempts +me to wield it a little longer, before I fall below your contempt." + +He walked up and down the room, and presently saw me standing there. + +"A listener!" he exclaimed; "you are afraid to be alone with me!" + +I was about to leave the room, but he called me back. + +"Stay, child!" he said; "if I can speak in _her_ presence, it makes +little difference that any one else should hear me. Agnes, little Agnes, +you would not like to be quite alone;--let the child stay. Yet you know +already that I am faithless to you. You know what I am going to tell +you. I love you, passionately, as I have always loved you. But there are +other passions hold me tighter. Money, and position,--I need them,--I +cannot live without them. The first I have lost already, and the claims +I have to reputation will follow soon. I am mad. I am flinging away +happiness for the sake of its mask. Next week I marry riches,--a +fortune. With the golden lady, I go to Europe. I forsake home,--my +better self. I leave you, Agnes;--and you may thank God that I do leave +you; I am not worthy of you." + +She lifted herself from the chair on which she was leaning, and walked +towards him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and, white and pale, +looked in his face. + +"Do not go, Ernest!" she said. "You are mine. A promise cannot be +broken;--you are promised to me.--Stay,--do not go away!" + +"My beautiful Agnes!" he said, "do you come to lay your pure self down +in the scale against my follies and all my passions? You stand before +me too fair, too lovely for me. It is only in your presence that I can +appear noble enough for you. Even here, by your side, I see the life I +must lead with you, the struggle that you must share. In that life you +would only see me fail. I am weak; I can never be strong. Let me go +down the current. Your heart will not break;--I am not worth such a +sacrifice." + +"You are desperate," said she. "You say these cold, bitter words, and +you must know that each word cuts me. Oh, Ernest, you are false, indeed, +if you come to taunt me with your faithlessness!" + +"I needed to see you once more," he said, imperiously,--"I needed it. +But you were right, Agnes,--the ring was a true talisman. It seemed to +me that its letters had changed color. I carried it to an old Eastern +scholar. He declared that the letters could never have formed the word +'Faith,'--that the word was some black word that meant death. I left it +with him, that he might study it. When I saw him again, he declared he +had lost it, and had advertised it. You see you can trust your talisman +sooner than you can trust me." + +At this moment the outer door opened, and presently Fanny came in, +with one of her friends. Miss Agnes looked bewildered, but her visitor +recovered his composure directly. + +"Miss Fanny, I believe;--I have met you before. I have just been bidding +good-bye to Miss Agnes, before leaving for Europe. Can I be of service +to you?" + +Before we had time to think, he had said something to each one of us, +and had left the house. Fanny turned to speak to Miss Agnes, but she had +fallen to the ground before we could reach her. + +She was ill, very ill, for a long time. She had the brain fever,--so the +doctor said. They let me stay with her,--she liked to have me with her. +I was glad to sit in the darkened room all the long day. I never was a +"handy" child, but I learned to be useful to her. I waited on all her +wants. I held her hand when she reached it out as if to meet some kindly +touch. + +In the quiet of her room, I had not heard the great piece of news,--of +the terrible railroad accident: that Mr. Carr, the Ernest who had been +to see Miss Agnes, was among those who were suddenly killed,--the very +day he left our house! I had not heard it; so I was not able to warn +Fanny, when she came into the sick room of Miss Agnes, the first day she +was able to talk,--I could not warn Fanny that she must not speak of it. +But she did. How could she be so thoughtless? Miss Agnes, it is true, +looked almost well, as she was lying on her couch, a soft color in her +cheeks. But then Fanny need not have told her anything so painful. Miss +Agnes looked quite wild, and turned to me as if to know whether it were +true. I could not say anything to her, but knelt by her,--and she seemed +almost calm, as she asked to know all that was known, all the terrible +particulars that Fanny knew so well. + +She was worse after that. We thought she would die, one night. But she +did not die. Either she was too weak or too strong to die of a broken +heart. Perhaps she was not strong enough to love so earnestly such a one +as Mr. Carr, or else she had such strength as could bear the trial that +was given her to bear. She lived, but life seemed very feeble in her for +a long time. + +One day she began to talk with me. + +"You would like to know, Jeanie, the story of that ring," she said. + +I told her I was afraid to have her talk about it, but she went on:-- + +"It is an old heirloom, and all our family history is full of stories of +this ring. There are so many tales connected with it, that every one of +us has looked upon it with a sort of superstition, and cherished it as +a talisman connected with our lives. It was always a test of constancy, +and the stories of those occasions when it has detected falsehood have +always been remembered. I suppose there are many when it has been +quietly worn, undisturbed, that have been forgotten. It has told many a +sad tale in my own family. It came back, broken, to my brother Arthur, +and he died of a broken heart. My sister Eveline gave it to her young +cousin, to whom she engaged herself. But afterwards, when she went to +live with a gay and heartless aunt of mine, she broke her promise to him +for the sake of a richer match. The day that she was married, our cousin +far away saw the black letters turn red upon the signet-ring." + +"Oh, Miss Agnes!" I exclaimed. + +"And why should not letters change?" she asked, abruptly; and I saw her +eyes look out dreamily, as if at something I did not see. "The letter +clothes the spirit; and the spirit gives life to the form. A face grows +lovely or unlovely with the spirit that lies behind it. I cannot say if +there be a spirit in such things. Yet what we have worn we give a value +to. It has an expression in our eyes. Do we give it all that expression, +or has it some life of its own?" + +She interrupted herself, and went on:-- + +"I had known that Ernest was not true to me. I had known it by the words +he wrote to me. They did not have the ring of pure silver; there was a +clang to them. When Fanny read aloud the loss of that ring, it spoke to +a suspicion that was lying in the depth of my heart, and roused it into +life. My little Jeanie, I was very sad then. + +"You do not know how deeply I loved Ernest Carr. You do not know how I +might have loved your brother George,--yes, the noble, upright George. +He loved me, and treated me most tenderly; he found this home for me. +I did not banish him from it,--he would have stayed all these years in +Calcutta, if it had not been for me,--so he said. You cannot understand +how it was that Ernest Carr, whom I had known before, should have +impressed me more. You do not know, yet, that we cannot command our +love,--that it does not always follow where our admiration leads. I +loved Ernest for his very faults. The fascinations that made the world, +its prizes, its money, its fame, so attractive to him, won me as I saw +them in him. It is terrible to think of my last meeting with him; but +his fate seems to me not so awful as the fate towards which he was +hurrying,--the life which could never have satisfied him." + +She left off speaking, and dreamed on, her eyes and thoughts far away. +And I, too, dreamed. I fancied my brother George coming home, and that +he would meet with that ring somehow. I knew it must come back to her. +And it did; and he came with it. + + + + +TWO YEARS AFTER. + + + Oh, I forgot that, long ago! + It was very fine at the time, no doubt,-- + Remembering is so hard, you know;-- + Well, you will one day find it out. + I love the life of the happy flowers, + But I hate the brown and crumbling leaves; + You cannot with spices embalm the hours, + Nor gather the sunshine into sheaves. + + We are older now, and wiser, too. + Only two summers ago, you say, + Two autumns, two winters, two springs, since you---- + Will you hold for a moment my bouquet? + Yes,--take that sprig of mignonette; + It will wither with you as it would with me: + Freshness and sweetness a half-hour yet, + Then a toss of the hand, and one is free. + + Why will you talk of such silly things?-- + What a pretty bride! Do you like her hair? + See Madam there, with her twenty rings. + Ogling the youth with the foreign air!-- + The moon was bright and the winds were low, + The lilies bent listening to what we said? + I did not make your lilies grow; + Will they bloom for me now they are dead? + + You hate the rooms and the heartless hum, + The thick perfumes and the studied smile? + 'Tis the air I love to breathe,--yet come, + I will watch the stars with you awhile; + But you won't talk nonsense, you promise me? + Tear from the book the page we read; + We are friends,--dear friends. You must come and see + My new home, and soon.--What was it you said? + + Heartsick, and weary, and sad, and strange,-- + Ashes and dust where swept the fire? + I am sorry for you, but I cannot change.-- + Did you see that star fall from the Lyre? + A moment's gleam, and a deeper night + Closing around its wandering way: + But then there are other orbs as bright; + Let your incense burn to them, I pray. + + Oh, conjure your mighty manhood up! + Let it blaze its best in your flashing eyes! + Can it stare my womanhood down, or hope + To scorch my pride till it droops and dies?-- + There, do not be angry;--take my hand; + Forgive me;--I meant not anything: + I am foolish, and cannot understand + Why you throw life out for one dumb string. + + Sweeter its music than all the rest? + It may be so, though I cannot tell; + But take the good when you lose the best, + And school yourself till it seems as well. + Love may pass by, but here is fame, + And wealth, and power;--when these are gone, + God is left,--and the altar-flame + May, brightening ever, burn on and on. + + And yet to my heart at times there come + Tidings of lands I shall never see, + Sweet odors, and wooing winds, and hum + Of bees in the fields that are far from me,-- + Far fields, and skies that are always fair; + And I dream the old dreams of heaven, and you.-- + But here comes the youth of the foreign air. + I will dance and forget,--and you must, too. + + + + +A BUNDLE OF OLD LETTERS. + + +To struggle painfully for years, spending all of life's energies for +others, and then to be forgotten by those for whom all was hazarded and +consumed, is a lot demanding the most unselfish aims. Yet this befell +many a suffering patriot in our Revolutionary struggle. The names of +those who were the leaders in battle and in council, men whose +position in the field or whose words in Congress gave them a country's +immortality, have remained bright in our memory. But others there were +who cheerfully surrendered eminence in their private walks and happiness +in social life to endure the hardships of a protracted contest till life +was spent, and who, from the very nature of the services they rendered, +have remained in obscurity. They would not themselves repine at this; +for they gave their strength, not for their country's applause, but +their country's good. They sought, not our remembrance, but our freedom. + +In many an old garret, or treasured up in some old man's safest nook, +are worn-out, faded letters, telling of struggles and hopes in that long +contest, that would make their writers' names bright on the nation's +record, were not the number of those who rendered that our golden age +so countless. Pious is the task of tracing the services of some revered +ancestor, who gave whatever he had to give, when his country called, but +whose name is not now remembered. Those days are fast becoming to our +younger race almost mythical, so that every living word from the actors +in them is of use in vivifying scenes that else would seem dim fable. + +From a somewhat bulky bundle of yellow, tattered letters, long cherished +with fond and filial care, a few are selected to interest the readers of +the "Atlantic," who, it is supposed, will first be glad to know a little +about their writer. + +Dr. Isaac Foster was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 28th of +August, 1740. His father, in early life a sea-captain, making frequent +voyages between Boston and Europe, was for many years a prominent +citizen of Charlestown, participating largely in the measures that +preceded and led to the Revolution. At the age of eighteen, Dr. Foster +graduated at Harvard, in the class of 1758. He then studied medicine +under Dr. Lloyd of Boston, and afterwards completed his studies in +England. He married, as his first wife, Martha, daughter of Thaddeus +Mason of Cambridge, and at her death, some years later, Mary, daughter +of Richard Russell of Charlestown. In his profession he achieved a +considerable reputation, acquired a large practice, and numbered among +his pupils Doctors Bartlett, Welch, and Eustis. + +But while he was working his way to position and influence, more +exciting themes began to attract his attention. With the earliest signs +of coming conflict he took a determined stand on the Colonial side. In +the town-meetings of the day he seems to have been prominent, and his +name appears on most of the important committees appointed by the town +in reference to public affairs. Thus, when, as early as November, 1772, +the Committee of Correspondence in Boston called upon the other towns +"to stand firm as one man," his name is found upon a committee appointed +to answer this letter and prepare instructions to the representative of +the town in the General Court.[A] + +[Footnote A: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 286.] + +He was also one of a committee appointed to consult with the committees +of other towns concerning the expected importation of a quantity of +tea. This was November 24th. On the 22d of December of the same year, a +petition numerously signed was presented to the selectmen, asking that a +meeting might be called to take some effectual measures to prevent the +consumption of tea. Among the signatures is Dr. Foster's.[B] + +[Footnote B: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 293.] + +He was elected a delegate to the Convention in the County of Middlesex, +in August, 1774, and a member of the first Provincial Congress of +Massachusetts, in October of the same year. Early in 1775, he was +appointed a surgeon, and was, for some months, at the head of the +military medical department, while General Ward commanded at Cambridge. +The day after the battle of Concord, at the urgent request of General +Ward and Dr. Warren, he gave up his private practice, then very large, +to attend the wounded. On the 18th of June, he was appointed by the +Committee of Safety to attend the men wounded on the previous day at +the battle of Bunker's Hill. He was soon after appointed Surgeon of +the State Hospital, and by General Washington, on the discovery of the +treachery of Dr. Church, in October, Director-General, _pro tem._, of +the American Hospital Department. Congress soon nominated to this post +Dr. John Morgan of Philadelphia, Dr. Foster remaining as the oldest +surgeon in the hospital. + +It seemed necessary, before selecting some of Dr. Foster's letters, to +give this account of his earlier life, to show that he was no soldier of +fortune or eleventh-hour laborer, but that his sympathies were enlisted +and his aid given among the earliest of the friends of a then doubtful +cause,--and that he ventured influence, wealth, and professional fame, +and abandoned home and ease, at what seemed to him the call of his +country. + +The first extracts shall be from a letter to his wife, dated + +"_New York, Sunday, P.M., + +"June 2, 1776_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I received your kind letter of the 27th last, and thank you for your +ready acceptance of my invitation to come to me. Indeed, my dear, you +could not have given a stronger proof of your affection for me. Heaven +only knows what dangers and difficulties you may be exposed to in this +undertaking; but it shall be my constant endeavor to keep you out of the +way of danger, and procure the best accommodation for you this country +affords. If mother will add to her former kindness by taking the charge +of our children, it will greatly ease my mind; and as our enemies have, +by their wanton barbarity, from being inhabitants of Charlestown, made +us citizens of the United Colonies at large, I believe you will be as +safe and happy with or near me as anywhere.... + +"The night before last, the city was much alarmed. A signal had been +made from one of the islands of the arrival of a ship to join the small +fleet at the Hook. Some one raised this to a large number of transports +with the expected German forces; some of the Tories here had the +impudence to affirm they had seen eleven sail. When I came from the +hospital to my lodging, in the evening, I found the neighborhood in +confusion, the women talking of and preparing for flight. I thought it +my duty to wait on General Putnam, who at present commands here; in my +way, I met Major Webb, who acquainted me with the truth of the matter. +Upon this occasion, I could not help thinking I should go to my post +with much more alacrity, if I might have the pleasure of seeing you +again first.... + +"Your affectionate husband, + +"ISAAC FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +The next is a short extract from a letter to his father, bearing date +June 6th, 1776. Speaking of his wife, he says:-- + +"I wish she may have a pleasant journey, and arrive here in season to +see the city before our enemies attack us. We are in daily expectation +of them, and tolerably prepared to receive them. I am under no +apprehension of their being able to get footing here; but if they behave +with spirit, the city must suffer in the contest." + +The next is also to his father. + +"_New York, July 7th, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is with the greatest pleasure I embrace this opportunity of +congratulating you on the most important event that has happened +since the commencement of hostilities. On Tuesday, the 2nd inst., the +Honorable the Continental Congress declared the Thirteen United Colonies +free and independent States. This Declaration is to be published at +Philadelphia to-morrow, with all the pomp and solemnity proper on such +an occasion; and before the week is out, we hope to have the pleasure of +proclaiming it to the British fleet, now riding at anchor in full +view between this city and Staten Island, by a _feu de joie_ from our +musketry, and a general discharge of the cannon on our works. This step, +whatever some lukewarm would-be-thought friends or concealed enemies +may think, the cruel oppression, the wanton, insatiable revenge of the +British Administration, the venality of its Parliament and Electors, and +the unaccountable inattention of the people of Great Britain in general +to their true interest and the importance of the contest with their +late Colonies, had rendered absolutely necessary for our own +preservation,--and has given great spirits to the army, as, by shutting +the door against any reconciliation in the least degree connected with +dependence on Great Britain, they know for what they are fighting, and +are freed from the apprehension of being duped by Commissioners, after +having risked their lives in the service of their country, and to secure +the enjoyment of liberty to their posterity." + + * * * * * + +The next letters of public import are addressed to his father, and +relate mainly to the expected attack upon New York. + +"_New York, July 22nd, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I received your kind favor of the 15th inst. I am glad to hear our +friends are all well. I congratulate you on the spirited behavior and +glorious success of our army under General Lee. It is generally thought +to have been a decisive action, at least for this summer, as the two +fifty-gun ships are never like to get to sea again. I hope by the next +post you will hear some of our exploits, if the enemy have courage +enough to attack us. It is my week at the hospital; and if anything +happens, I hope to give you the particulars. Polly has got much better; +she joins me in duty to mother and love to the children. There has been +another flag from the fleet; the Adjutant-General of the British troops +has been on shore to wait on his Excellency. He endeavored, but in vain, +to persuade him to accept the letter which had been twice refused. In +conversation he related its contents, much the same as those to the late +Governor. He was answered, (as I am told from good authority,) that it +could not be expected people who were sensible of having committed +no offence should ask pardon,--that, as the American States owed no +allegiance, so they were not accountable, to any earthly prince. He +tarried about half an hour, and seemed pleased with the politeness of +his reception." + + +"_July 23d, P.M._ + +"I write to congratulate you on advice received this day from Virginia, +an agreeable supplement to the paper I sent yesterday. On the 9th +instant, Lord Dunmore with his slavish mercenaries and stolen negroes +were driven from their post on Gwin Island in Virginia, and the +piratical fleet from their station near it, with the loss of one ship, +two tenders or armed vessels burnt by themselves, three armed vessels +taken by our people, and Lord Dunmore wounded; on our side not a man +lost. I would be more particular, but, as I had only time to read the +Philadelphia paper of yesterday which contains the account, and Mr. Mayo +is just setting out, it is not in my power." + + +"_New York, Aug. 12, 1776_ + +"Polly is still here with me, and we are both very well, but +disappointed in not hearing oftener from our friends at Boston. For news +in general I must refer to the inclosed paper. I was in company the +evening they came to this city with the two gentlemen who came from +England in the packet. They say the British force on Staten Island +is from twelve to fifteen thousand, of which about one thousand are +Hessians; that Lord and General Howe speak very respectfully of our +worthy commander-in-chief, at their tables and in conversation giving +him the title of General; that many of the officers affect to hold our +army in contempt, calling it no more than a mob; that they envy us our +markets, and depend much on having their winter-quarters in this city, +out of which they are confident of driving us, and pretend only to dread +our destroying of it; that the officers' baggage was embarked, a number +of flat-bottom boats prepared, and every disposition made for an attack, +which we may hourly expect. On our side, we have not been wanting; our +army has for several nights lain on their arms, occasioned by several +ships of war and upwards of thirty transports going out at the Narrows +and anchoring at that part of Long Island best calculated for their +making a descent, and where they received, by means of flat-bottom +boats, a large detachment from the army on Staten Island. But this fleet +went to sea yesterday, where bound we know not; some think, to go round +the east end of Long Island, come down the Sound, and land on our backs, +in order to cut off any retreat, and oblige us to surrender ourselves +and the city into their hands: but if they are so infatuated as to +venture themselves into a broken, woody country, between us and the +New England governments, I trust they will have cause to repent their +rashness. Generals Heath, Spencer, Greene, and Sullivan are promoted by +the Honorable Congress to the rank of Major-Generals; and the +Colonels Reed, Nixon, Parsons, Clinton, Sinclair, and McDougall to be +Brigadier-Generals. We have removed all our superfluous clothing, and +whatever is not necessary for present use, to Rye, whither General +Putnam's lady has retired. Miss Putnam is yet in town, and the chaise is +in readiness for her and Polly to remove at a minute's warning." + + * * * * * + +The following copy of an "Order from Head-Quarters" was found among the +papers, directed apparently to his father; and as Washington's Orderly +Books have never been published, with the exception of a few orders +chiefly relating to court-martials, it has been thought that it would +be interesting. Though dated on successive days, it seems to have been +issued as one order. A note by Dr. Foster, at the close, says,--"This +copy was made in a hurry by one of the mates. Some sentences are +omitted. Imperfect as it is, I thought it would be agreeable. The +principal omission is the order for having three days' provisions +ready-dressed, and that all who do not appear at their posts upon the +signal are to be deemed cowards, and prosecuted as such." + + +_Head-Quarters, August_ 14, 1776. + +"The enemy's whole reinforcement is now arrived, so that an attack must +and soon will be made. The General, therefore, again repeats his +earnest request, that every officer and soldier will have his arms and +ammunition in good order, keep within their quarters and encampment as +much as possible, to be ready for action at a moment's call,--and when +called upon, to remember that liberty, property, and honor are all at +stake, that upon their courage and conduct rest the hopes of their +bleeding and insulted country, that their wives, children, and parents +expect safety from them only, and that we have every reason to expect +that Heaven will crown us with success in so just a cause. + +"The enemy will endeavor to intimidate us by show and appearance; but +remember how they have been repulsed on these occasions by a few brave +Americans. Their cause is bad, their men are conscious of it, and, +if opposed with firmness and coolness at their first onset, with our +advantages of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most +assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, +wait for orders, and reserve his fire till he is sure of its doing +execution;--the officers to be particularly careful of this. The +colonels and commanding officers of regiments are to see their +supernumerary officers so posted as to keep their men to their duty; and +it may not be amiss for the troops to know, that, if any infamous rascal +shall attempt to skulk, hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without +the orders of his commanding officers, he will instantly be shot down +as an example of cowardice. On the other hand, the General solemnly +promises that he will reward those who shall distinguish themselves by +brave and noble actions; and he desires every officer to be attentive to +this particular, that such men may be afterwards suitably noticed." + + +"_Head-Quarters, August 15, 1776_. + +"The General also flatters himself that every man's mind and arms are +now prepared for the glorious contest upon which so much depends. + +"The time is too precious, nor does the General think it necessary, to +spend it in exhorting his brave countrymen and fellow-soldiers to behave +like men fighting for everything that can be dear to free-men. We must +resolve to conquer or die. With this resolution, victory and success +certainly will attend us. There will then be a glorious issue to this +campaign, and the General will reward his brave soldiers with every +indulgence in his power." + + +"_New York, August 16, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is now past ten o'clock, and Mr. Adams, who favors me by carrying +this, sets out by five o'clock to-morrow morning, so that I have only +time to acknowledge the favors received by Dr. Welch. If I survive the +grand attack hourly expected, or if it is delayed until then, I will +write again by next post. Polly has her things packed up; the chaise can +be ready at a minute's warning; if the wind favors our enemies, it is +probable she will breakfast out of the way of danger. To-morrow is +watched for by our army in general with eager expectation of confirming +the independence of the American States. All the Ministerial force from +every part of America except Canada, with the mercenaries from Europe, +being collected for this attempt, God only knows the event. To His +protection I commend myself, earnestly praying that in this glorious +contest I may not disgrace the place of my nativity, nor, after it is +over, be ashamed to see my wife, my children, and my parents again. To +the care of Providence, and, under that, to you, honored Sir, with our +other friends, I commend all that is near and dear to me, and am, with +duty to mother, love to the children, &c., &c., + +"YOUR DUTIFUL SON." + +"P.S. Our troops are in good spirits, and, relying on the justice of +their cause and favor of Heaven, assured of victory." + + * * * * * + +The next four months were, of course, spent amid the hardships of camps +and removals. The frequent letters sent to his father and other friends +are all of interest to those who claim descent from him, but the general +reader can be concerned in but a few of more public import, and, in most +cases, only in extracts from these. + +"_Bethlehem, State of Penn., + +"Dec. 24, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I returned from General Washington's head-quarters last evening, and +had the pleasure of finding Polly well and as agreeably situated as I +could expect. Were I to attempt writing all I wish to communicate, a +week's time and a quire of paper would hardly suffice. I fancy I shall +be no gainer by lending my furniture to the General Court;--General +Washington would have paid me for the use of it before I left Cambridge, +but, for the credit of Massachusetts, I declined it." + + +_"Fishkill, State of N. York, + +"Jan_. 20, 1777. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"After spending the winter hitherto in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, +with frequent removals, some loss, much expense and fatigue, we are once +more on the east side of Hudson's River. We arrived at this place last +Friday, in good health, after a journey of more than one hundred miles, +in severe weather, through the upper part of New Jersey, a new-settled, +uncultivated country. The sight of a boarded house or glass window was a +great rarity; a cordial welcome to any connected with the American army +still greater. Although they are fully sensible of the value of money, +and we offered cash for all we wanted, yet I believe we were not a +little obliged to their fears for what civility we met with, except only +from one family. But I must defer a particular account until I have the +happiness to see you. + +"I have nothing of news to write but what you must hear sooner +in another way. General Heath and the militia are besieging Fort +Independence; if they can carry that, they will attempt New York. It is +not improbable I shall join him in a few days." + + * * * * * + +The office of Deputy Director-General of Hospitals was established by +ordinance, April 7th, 1777; and four days later, Dr. Foster was chosen +by Congress to this office, having charge of the Eastern Department. His +subsequent residence was mainly at Danbury, Connecticut. + + * * * * * + +Of Tryon's expedition against Danbury we have the following account, +differing in some respects from the common version:-- + +"_Danbury, May_ 1, 1777. + +"You have doubtless heard of the enemy's expedition to this place, and +been anxious for us. This is the first moment of leisure I have had, +and, if not interrupted, I will endeavor to give you a particular +account. + +"On Saturday morning, about three o'clock, an express from Fairfield +brought advice, that a large body, three or four thousand British +troops, had landed from upwards of twenty transports, under cover of +some ships of war near that place, and that it was probable their design +was against the provision and other stores collected in this town; +another express soon after sunrise informed us of their being on the +march. The militia were mustered, and a few Continental troops that +were here on their way to Peekskill prepared to receive them; but their +number was so inconsiderable, and that of the enemy so large, with a +formidable train of artillery, I had no hope of the place being saved. + +"I had, upon the first alarm, ordered all the stores in my charge to +be packed up, ready for removal at a minute's warning. Upon the second +express, I persuaded Polly, with what money was in my hands, to quit the +town: she was unwilling, but I insisted on it. We were so much put to it +for teams to remove the medicines and bedding, that I determined rather +to lose my own baggage than put it on any cart intended for that +purpose; and had not a gentleman's team, already loaded with his own +goods, taken it up, I must have lost it. As the enemy entered the room +at one end, after our troops had retreated to the heights, I went out at +the other, not without some apprehension (as I was to cross the route of +their flank-guard) of being intercepted by the light horse. + +"After having seen the medicines, all of them that were worth moving, +safe at New Milford, I returned to town the next morning, and went with +our forces in pursuit of the enemy. About noon the action began in their +rear, and continued with some intermission until night; the running +fight was renewed next morning, and lasted until the enemy got under +cover of their ships. We have lost some brave officers and men. Their +loss is unknown, as they buried some of their dead, and carried off +others; but, from the dead bodies they were forced to leave on the +field, it must have greatly exceeded ours. General Wooster was wounded +early in the action; he is in the same house with me, and I fear will +not live till morning. + +"Our loss in provisions, &c., is between two and three thousand barrels +of pork, a quantity of flour, some wheat, and some bedding." + + * * * * * + +In this bundle are many letters from Mrs. Foster. They are interesting +for their true-hearted patriotism and domestic love; but there is +room for only a brief extract from a letter referring to this same +expedition. + +"_Danbury, May 13, 1777_. + +"DEAR MADAM, + +"I received yours and father's by Messrs. Russell and Gorham. Doctor had +not the pleasure of seeing either of the gentlemen, as he was gone to +Fishkill to oversee the inoculation of the troops, which was a very +great disappointment. + +"I expected last Monday to have been with you by this time, as I was +driven from here by the enemy (tho' very unexpected, as this place was +thought to be very secure). I removed to New Milford, from whence I +intended to have set out for Boston. On Sunday, the Doctor took his +leave, and left me to take care of the wounded. Monday morning, +everything was got ready for me to set out at twelve o'clock, when I +received a note from the Doctor, desiring I would tarry a little longer. +I have now returned to my old lodgings at Danbury, where the Doctor +thinks of building a hospital. He joins me in duty and love. + +"Your affectionate daughter, + +"MARY FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +Much of Dr. Foster's time was necessarily spent in journeyings to the +several divisions of the army and various military stations. On such +journeys his letters to his wife were very frequent. We extract a part +of one. + +"_Palmer, Thursday even'g, + +"July 31, 1777_. + +"DEAR POLLY, + +"I arrived here, which is eighty-three miles from Boston, about sunset +this evening, in good health. The enemy's fleet has sailed from New +York, and was seen standing to eastward. Some suppose them bound for +Boston; but I cannot think so, as General Washington, who, I presume, +has the best intelligence, is moving towards Philadelphia. Before you +receive this, it will be made certain with you. Should they attack +Boston, I would have you get as many of our effects as possible removed +out of their way, and inform me by the post where you remove to. Should +such an event take place, it will become my duty, after visiting +Danbury, to return to the scene of action. To your own prudence and the +care of Heaven I leave all, and am, with love to the children, ever +yours." + + * * * * * + +In the lapse of years, many letters have, without doubt, been lost. +Thus, but two remain bearing date of 1778. Neither of these contains +matter of public import. In May, he speaks of intending a journey to +Yorktown, and says, "if anything extraordinary happens between the two +armies," he shall be on the spot. In a letter addressed to his father, +dated November 27, 1778, he says,-- + + * * * * * + +"Public business calls me to Philadelphia; but the state of your health, +and my own, which is much impaired, determine me to visit Boston first. +I expect a visit from the Marquis La Fayette next week, on his way to +Boston, and shall set out with him." + + * * * * * + +May 11th, 1779, he writes,-- + +"To-morrow all the gentlemen of the department at this post [Danbury] +dine with me, and the next morning I begin my journey to Head-Quarters. +I mean to take Newark in my way. + +"General Silliman was taken prisoner last week, and carried to Long +Island." + + * * * * * + +In the two following letters to his wife he speaks of this visit. + +"_Philadelphia, June_ 5, 1779. + +"My business is almost completed, and to my mind. I now wait for nothing +but the money which the Medical Committee recommended I should be +furnished with; I expect to receive it the beginning of next week, when +I shall set out immediately. Mr. Samuel Adams travels with me; indeed, +the time seems tedious until get away. Give my duty to our parents, +love to the children, &c., and believe me to be, with the sincerest +affection, my dearest Polly, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +_Philadelphia, June_ 9, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"Another post has arrived, and no letter from Boston. It is now a month, +and near five weeks, since I have heard from you. If I thought you had +neglected writing, it would make me very unhappy; but, from your usual +goodness, I cannot think that is the case, but am confident your letters +must have miscarried. I have wanted nothing but hearing from you to make +my time here perfectly agreeable. I have been received with the greatest +politeness and friendship, and every attention paid to me, by men I +most esteem, I could wish for; at the same time my business has gone +perfectly to my mind. I have leave to reside in Boston for the future, +and shall be under no necessity of attending the camp, nor be obliged +to visit Philadelphia oftener than once a year. I am to have a mode of +settling my accounts pointed out to me, that will be easy, simple, and +much to my mind. I now wait for nothing but money to begin my journey. +The Treasury Board this morning passed a resolve recommending it to +Congress to furnish me with $150,000. I expect to receive the warrant +to-morrow, and as soon as I get the money shall set out, which I expect +will be about next Monday, until which time I am engaged for almost +every day. I dine this day with Mr. Adams; tomorrow with Dr. Shippen, in +company with the New England delegation; Thursday and Friday I expect +to spend with Dr. Craigie in visiting Red Bank, Mud Island, and other +principal scenes of action while the enemy were here. We have an account +that the enemy are in motion up the North River; but of them you will +hear sooner than I can inform you. General Lincoln has actually defeated +the enemy in Carolina, and is like to take them all prisoners. The +express is on the road, and expected in town to-morrow, when there will +be great rejoicing." + + * * * * * + +The following letter describes one of Dr. Foster's frequent journeys on +business of his department. + +"_Windsor, October_ 7, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"As I am waiting for Mr. De Lamater to come up, I will endeavor to give +you an account of our journey. The evening we left Boston Dr. Warren +rode with us as far as Jamaica Plains; after he left us we proceeded +to Dedham, where we arrived about dark, and were exceedingly well +entertained: we had a brace of partridges for supper. Colonel Trumbull +spent the evening with us. The next morning we proceeded nine miles to +Heading's to breakfast, and from thence seven miles to Mann's, where +we fed our horses, and dined at Daggett's, nine miles further; that +afternoon we arrived at Providence, and put up at our old friend +Olney's. The next day we dined with Adams and Townshend at their +quarters; the General honored us with his company; the same evening +supped with the General. Sunday, dined with the General, in company with +some of the principal ladies of the place; here I also saw your old +acquaintance, General Stark; he drank tea at my quarters one afternoon, +and inquired after you. Having finished my business much to my mind, I +continued my journey on Monday morning; the General, Colonel Armstrong, +and Dr. Brown were so polite as to ride out four miles with us. After +they left us, we proceeded to Angell's, twelve miles from Providence, +where we dined,--not on the fat of the land. After dinner we rode to +Dorrence's, an Irishman, but beyond all comparison the best house on the +road; here we were exceedingly well entertained, and, as it looked like +a storm, intended staying there, but, it growing lighter towards noon, +we set out, but had not rode far before the rain came on; however, as +we had begun, we determined to go through with it, and rode a very +uncomfortable ten miles to Canterbury, where we dined, poorly enough, at +one Backus's. Not liking our quarters, we proceeded, notwithstanding the +rain, to Windham, eight miles further, where we were well entertained at +one Cary's. As the storm looked likely to continue, and I was so near +Windsor, I was determined, if I must lie by for it, to lie by in a place +where I could do some business. I accordingly proceeded fifteen miles in +the forenoon to Andover, where I dined at one White's, and fifteen miles +in the afternoon to Bissell's at East Windsor, where I lodged. I was +thoroughly soaked, but do not find that I have got any cold. Indeed, I +find my health considerably better than when I left Boston. This morning +it has cleared off very pleasant, and I crossed from East Windsor to +this place. I have just returned from visiting Mr. Hooker's and Dr. +Johonnot's stores. I find everything in such excellent order as to do +credit to the department. Mr. De Lamater is not yet come up; as soon as +he arrives we shall visit Springfield. I shall not close this letter +until I meet the post; if anything worth notice occurs, I shall mention +it. Adieu, my love. + +"_October_ 8.--Mr. De Lamater arrived last night. Altho' it is very +raw and uncomfortable, I shall proceed immediately after dinner to +Springfield. We have certain advice that the Count D'Estaing has been +at Georgia, and taken all the British ships there; it is reported, and +believed by many, that he is arrived off Long Island. You see, my dear +Polly, I have set you the example of a very long letter. I hope, as you +have leisure enough, you will follow it, as nothing can give me greater +pleasure." + + * * * * * + +"_Fishkill, October_ 21, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I returned from Head-Quarters this forenoon. We went down yesterday +morning, and dined with General Heath, who was so good as to lend us +his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters. His Excellency received us as I +could wish. He invited us to dine with him this day. Upon my excusing +myself, as being in haste to finish my journey, he accepted the excuse, +and invited us to breakfast with him, which we did. We returned last +night to Robinson's house, and slept with our friend Eustis. General +Heath favored us again with his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters, +and after breakfast his Excellency ordered his own to convey us to +our horses, which we had ordered four or five miles up the river. One +principal reason of my declining the General's invitation to dinner was +my impatience to return to Fishkill, that I might receive a letter from +you. Judge, then, what was my disappointment to find the post arrived +and no letter. I shall cross the North River to-morrow morning to +proceed on my journey to Philadelphia. If the nature of the service will +allow it, General Heath and his suit propose returning with me to spend +the winter in Boston. Eustis desires you would look out some suitable +object of his attentions, while in Boston. He pretends it is only with a +view to keep him alert and properly attentive to the ladies in general; +but I suspect he designs to become the domestic man." + + * * * * * + +"_Morristown, Oct. 26th, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Fishkill the day before I left it, and shall put this +into the office here for the post to take as he comes along. On Friday, +towards evening, we left Fishkill. It was dark and squally when we got +to the landing, and we had nine horses in the boat, which made us a +little uneasy, as a few days before a boat had been overset and some +people drowned; however, we got safe over, and lay that night at Colonel +Hawsbrook's, where you spent two or three days on your return from +Bethlehem. The next morning we breakfasted with Dr. Craik at Murderer's +Creek, and then proceeded through the Clove, a most disagreeable place, +and horrid road. In the evening we got to Ringwood. Upon our arrival +there, we were informed there was no public house in the place, and it +was after dark. Colonel Biddle had favored me with an order on all his +magazines to supply me with forage; he has one in this place. I waited +on his deputy and presented the order; he went out of the room, and in a +few minutes returned with a Mr. Erskine, who is surveyor-general of the +roads; he gave me a polite invitation to spend the night at his house, +where we were entertained in the most genteel, hospitable, and friendly +manner. A shower of rain yesterday morning prevented our proceeding, +but, as it cleared up about noon, we came on thirty-four miles to this +place. I expect to reach Philadelphia the day after tomorrow. I have +been from home almost a month, and have received but one letter, but +hope to find several waiting for me at Philadelphia, as I cannot think +you would miss a post. The enemy last Thursday left their posts at Stony +Point and Verplanck's Point, and retired to New York." + + * * * * * + +"_Bristol, October 27, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Morristown, which it is probable you will receive by +this post. Lest that should miscarry, this will inform you that I am at +length arrived within twenty miles of Philadelphia, where I expect +to dine this day. A few days will determine how long I am like to be +detained there;--I think it upon every account best to finish all my +business. The gentlemen have bound themselves to each other by an +engagement upon honor, if nothing is done for our department by New +Year's day, all to resign, and have informed Congress of it: I have +joined in the engagement. If I find I am like to be detained here any +time, it is not improbable I may put my accounts in the hands of the +Commissioners, and, if I can get fresh horses, proceed with Mr. Lee on a +visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Pleasant in Virginia. Mr. Lee desires +his compliments. Adieu, my love. I am, with the sincerest affection, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +"_Danbury, December 8, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I am once more returned to dear Danbury, on my way to Boston. I arrived +here about an hour since, and never had a more fatiguing, disagreeable +journey in my life than from Philadelphia here. I expected to have been +in Boston by this time; but two severe storms, and one day waiting for +his Excellency at Morristown, have made me twelve days performing a +journey which according to my usual way of travelling I should have +performed in four. I have, however, no reason to repent my undertaking +this journey. + +"If sickness or very bad weather does not prevent, I shall certainly be +home by Christmas, and wish to have all our friends together;--I promise +myself a great deal of happiness, and hope I shall not be disappointed. +Adieu, my love." + + * * * * * + +September 30th, 1780, the Hospital Department was newly organized, and +the office of Deputy Director-General was abolished, and of course the +incumbents of that office were no longer in the hospital service. + +Dr. Foster's health was irreparably injured by the fatigues and +exposures he had undergone, and he lingered but a few months longer, +dying on the 27th of February, 1781, in his forty-second year. + +One sentence in his will deserves record, as in harmony with the +disinterestedness of his life. After desiring that all debts due him +should be collected as soon as possible after his decease, he adds this +clause: "But I would not have any industrious and really poor persons +distressed for this purpose." + +The writer of these letters needs no additional eulogy. He sacrificed +all the prospects of his life to give his services in our struggle for +freedom. He, too, was but one of that innumerable multitude who, in +more exalted or in humbler stations, freely gave their exertions, their +wealth, their comfort, and their lives for freedom and right. It is +possible so to linger by the grave of the past as to forget the living +present; but the grateful memory of those who have in their times +contended for truth with self-denial should be ever animating to those +now laboring in the holy warfare, to which, in every age, whether the +outward signs be of peace or strife, God calls the noble of mankind. + + "Therefore bring violets! Yet, if we, + self-balked, + Stand still a-strewing violets all the while, + These had as well not moved, ourselves not + talked + Of these." + + * * * * * + + +IN THE PINES. + + +If I were a crow, or, at least, had the faculty of flying with that +swift directness which is proverbially attributed to the corvine tribe, +and were to wing a southwesterly course from the truck of the flag-staff +which rises from the Battery at New York, I should find myself, within a +very short time, about fifty miles from the turbulent city, and hovering +over a region of country as little like the civilized emporium just +quitted as it is well possible to conceive. Not being a crow, however, +nor fitted up with an apparatus for flying,--destitute even of a +balloon,--I am compelled to adopt the means of locomotion which the +bounty of God or the ingenuity of man affords me, and to spend a +somewhat longer time in transit to my destination. + +Over the New Jersey Railroad, then, I rattled, one fine, sunshiny autumn +morning, in the year that has recently taken leave of us, as far as +Bordentown, a distance of some fifty-seven miles, on my way to a +locality the very existence of which is scarcely dreamed of by thousands +in the metropolis, who can tell you how many square miles of malaria +there are in the Roman Campagna, and who have got the topography of +Caffre Land at their fingers' ends. It is a region aboriginal in +savagery, grand in the aspects of untrammelled Nature; where forests +extend in uninterrupted lines over scores of miles; where we may wander +a good day's journey without meeting half-a-dozen human faces; where +stately deer will bound across our path, and bears dispute our passage +through the cedar-brakes; where, in a word, we may enjoy the undiluted +essence, the perfect wildness, of woodland life. Deep and far "under the +shade of melancholy boughs" we shall be taken, if together we visit the +ancient Pines of New Jersey. + +In order to do so, we must make at Bordentown the acquaintance of Mr. +Cox, and take our seats in his stage for a jolt, twelve miles long, to +the village of New Egypt, on the frontier of the Pines. Although the +forest is accessible from many points, and may be entered by a number of +distinct approaches, I, the writer hereof, selected that _viâ_ New Egypt +as the most convenient to a comer from New York, and as, perhaps, the +least fatiguing to accomplish. + +But, oh! the horrors of those New Jersey roads! Mud? 'Tis as if all the +rains of heaven had been concentrated upon all the marls and clays of +earth, and all the sticky stratum plastered down in a wiggling line +of unascertainable length and breadth! Holes? As if a legion of +sharpshooters had been detailed for the defence of Sandy Hook, and had +excavated for themselves innumerable rifle-pits or caverns for the +discomfiture of unhappy passengers! Up hill and down dale,--with +merciless ruts and savage ridges,--now, a slough, to all appearance +destitute of bottom, and, next, a treacherous stretch of sand, into +which the wheels sink deeper and deeper at every revolution, as if the +vehicle were France, and the road disorder,--such is a faint adumbration +of the state of affairs in the benighted interior of our petulant little +whiskey-drinking sister State! + +But all earthly things come to an end, and so, accordingly, did our +three-hours' drive. The stage pompously rolled into the huddled street +of its terminus, and deposited me, in the neighborhood of noon, on the +stoop of the only tavern supported in the deadly-lively place. No long +sojourn, however, was in store for me. Presently--ere I had grown tired +of watching the couple of clodhoppers, well-bespattered as to boots and +undergarments with Jersey mud, who, leaning against a fence in true +agricultural laziness, deliberately eyed, or rather, gloated over the +inoffensive traveller, as though he were that "daily stranger," +for whom, as is well known, every Jerseyman offers up matutinal +supplications--a buggy appeared in the distance, and I was shortly asked +for. It was the vehicle in which I was to seek my destination in the +Pines; and my back was speedily turned upon the queer little +village with the curiously chosen name. My driver, an intelligent, +sharp-featured old man, soon informs me that he was born and has lived +for fifty years in the forest. A curious, old-world mortal,--our +father's "serving-man," to the very life! The Pines are to him what +Banks and City Halls and Cooper Institutes and Astor Houses are to a +poor _cittadini_; every tree is individualized; and I doubt not he could +find his way by night from one end to the other of the forest. + +We had driven no great distance, when my companion lifted his whip, and, +pointing to a long, dark, indistinct line which crossed the road in the +distance, blocking the prospect ahead and on either side, as far as the +eye could reach, exclaimed: "Them's the Pines!" As we approached the +forest, a change, theatrical in its suddenness, took place in the +scenery through which our course was taken. The rich and smiling +pasture-lands, interspersed with fields of luxuriant corn, were left +behind, the red clay of the road was exchanged for a gritty sand, and +the road itself dwindled to a mere pathway through a clearing. The +locality looked like a plagiarism from the Ohio backwoods. On both sides +of our path spread the graceful undergrowth, waving in an ocean of +green, and hiding the stumps with which the plain was covered, while far +away, to right and left, the prospect was bounded by forest walls, and +gloomy bulwarks and parapets of pines arose in front, as if designed, in +their perfect denseness, to exclude the world from some bosky Garden +of Paradise beyond. Not so, however; for our pathway squeezes itself +between two melancholy sentinel-pines, tracing its white scroll into the +forest farther than the eye can follow, and in a few moments we leave +the clearing behind, and pass into the shadow of the endless avenue, +and bow beneath the trailing branches of the silent, stern, immovable +warders at the gate. We were fairly in the Pines; and a drive of +somewhat more than three miles lay before us still. + +The immense forest region I had thus entered covers an extensive portion +of Burlington County, and nearly the whole of Ocean, beside parts +of Monmouth, Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester, and other counties. The +prevailing soils of this great area--some sixty miles in length by ten +in breadth, and reaching from the river Delaware to the very shore of +the Atlantic--are marls and sands of different qualities, of which the +most common is a fine, white, angular sand, of the kind so much in +request for building-purposes and the manufacture of glass. In such an +arid soil the _coniferae_ alone could flourish, and accordingly we find +that the wide-spreading region is overgrown almost entirely with white +and yellow pine, hemlock, and cedar. Hence its distinctive appellation. + +It was a most lovely afternoon, warm and serene as only an American +autumn afternoon knows how to be; and while we hurried past the mute, +monotonous, yet ever-shifting array of pines and cedars, the very rays +of the sun seemed to be perfumed with the aroma of the fragrant twigs, +about which humming-birds now and then whirred and fluttered as we +startled them, scarcely more brilliant in color than the gorgeous maples +which grew in one or two dry and open spots. For three-quarters of an +hour our drive continued, until at length a slight undulation broke the +level of the sand, and a fence, inclosing a patch of Indian corn, from +which the forest had been driven back, betokened for the first time the +proximity of some habitation. In fact, having reached the summit of the +slope, I found myself in the centre of an irregular range of dwellings, +scattered here and there in picturesque disregard of order, and +next moment my hand was grasped by my friend B. I had reached my +destination,--Hanover Iron-Works,--and was soon walking up, past the +white gateway, to the Big House. + +Somewhat less than eighty years ago, Mr. Benjamin Jones, a merchant of +Philadelphia, invested a portion of his fortune in the purchase of one +hundred thousand acres of land in the then unbroken forest of the Pines. +The site of the present hamlet of Hanover struck him as admirably +adapted for the establishment of a smelting-furnace, and he accordingly +projected a settlement on this spot. The Rancocus River forms here a +broad embayment, the damming of which was easily accomplished, and one +of the best of water-privileges was thus obtained. On the north of this +bay or pond, moreover, there rises a sloping bluff, which was covered, +at the period of its purchase, with ancient trees, but upon which a +large and commodious mansion was soon erected. Here Mr. Jones planted +himself, and quickly drew around him a settlement which rose in number +to some four hundred souls; and here he commenced the manufacture of +iron. At frequent intervals in the Pines were found surface-deposits +of ore, the precipitate from waters holding iron in solution, which +frequently covered an area of many acres, and reached a depth of +from two or three inches to as many feet. The ore thus existing in +surface-deposits was smelted in the iron-works, and the metal thence +obtained was at once molten and moulded in the adjoining foundry. Here, +in the midst of these spreading forests, many a ponderous casting, +many a fiery rush of tons of molten metal, has been seen. Here, +five-and-forty years ago, the celebrated Decatur superintended, during +many weeks, the casting of twenty-four pounders, to be used in the +famous contest with the Algerine pirates whom he humbled; and the echoes +of the forest were awakened with strange thunders then. As the great +guns were raised from the pits in which they had been cast, and were +declared ready for proof, Decatur ordered each one to be loaded with +repeated charges of powder and ball, and pointed into the woods. Then, +for miles between the grazed and quivering boles, crashed the missiles +of destruction, startling bear and deer and squirrel and raccoon, and +leaving traces of their passage which are even still occasionally +discovered. The cannon-balls themselves are now and then found imbedded +in the sand of the forest. In this manner the guns were tried which were +to thunder the challenge of America against the dens of Mediterranean +pirates. + +Hanover, too, in its day of pride, furnished many a city with its iron +tubes for water and for gas, many a factory and workshop with its +castings, many a farmer with his tools, but the glow of the furnace is +quenched forever now. The slowly gathering ferruginous deposits have +been exhausted, and three years have elapsed since the furnace-fires +were lighted. The blackened shell of the building stands in cold +decrepitude, a melancholy vestige of usefulness outlived. In consequence +of the stoppage of the works, Hanover has lost seven-eighths of its +population, and only about fifty inhabitants remain in the white +cottages grouped about the Big House, who are employed in agricultural +labors and occupations connected with the forest. Yet in this solitary +nook the elegances and the tastes of the most cultivated society are to +be found. The Big House, surrounded by its well-trimmed gardens sloping +down to the broad Rancocus, with its comfortable apartments, and the +diversified prospect which it commands, offers a resting-place which, +although deep in the genuine forest, combines urban refinement with the +quiet and seclusion of country-life. + +Bright and early on the morning after my arrival, Friend B. was at my +door; and after a savory, if hasty breakfast, we sounded _boute-selle_. +Outside the gate a couple of forest-ponies were waiting,--stout, lively, +five-year-olds, equal, if not to a two-forty heat, yet to twenty miles +of steady trot without distress,--brown and sleek as you please, with +the knowingest eyes, and intelligence expressed in the impatient stamp +of the fore-foot, and good-humor in the twitching of the ear. Into the +saddle and off, with the cheery breeze to bathe us in exhilaration, +as it went humming around us laden with aromatic odors and mysterious +whisperings of the pine-trees to the sea,--through the dew-diamonded +grass of the little lawn at the top of the hill,--past the great elm +with its glistening foliage, and its carolling crew of just-awakened +birds,--then a canter down the sandy slope to the edge of the forest, +and again the pines are around us. + +Before us lay a four-mile ride over a devious track among trees which my +companion knows by heart. Paths diverge into the forest on either side, +running north and south, east and west, straight and crooked, narrow +and broad; but B. follows unerringly the right, though undistinguished +trail. This knowledge of woodcraft,--how it appalls and wonder-strikes +the unlearned metropolitan, accustomed as he is to numbered houses and +name-boarded streets! No omnibus-driver threading the confusion of a +great thoroughfare could shape his course with greater assurance and +lack of hesitation than does B. through these endless avenues of +heavy-foliaged pines, broken only now and then by some tangled, +impenetrable brake of cedars, or by a charred and blackened clearing, +where the coaler has been at work. I gradually grew to believe that he +could call every tree by its name, as generals have been said to know +every soldier in their armies. + +At length we reached a clearing of one or two acres in extent, the site +of Cranberry Lodge, and the terminus of our ride. In the centre of the +lone expanse two unusually tall pines were left standing, at the base of +which a curious structure nestled, which had been for several weeks the +occasional hermitage of my companion. It was built entirely with his own +hands, of cedar rails and white-pine planks, which he had cut and sawed +from trees that his own hands had felled. A queer little cabin, some +nine feet in length by five or six in breadth, standing all alone in the +forest, with not a neighbor within a distance of at least four miles! + +Dismounting, we fastened our horses to a couple of saplings, and I was +introduced to the interior of Cranberry Lodge, which was tenanted only +by the "hired man," who, in the absence of Mr. B., reigned supreme in +the clearing. The dwelling I found no less primitive in internal than +in its external appearance. Three persons, moderately doubled up and +squeezed, could find room in the interior, which was furnished with a +bench for the safe-keeping of sundry pots, pans, and other culinary +necessaries, and with a shelf on which some blankets were laid, +constituting my companion's bedstead and bed, when he slept in Cranberry +Lodge. Beneath the "bunk" a small hole scooped in the sand stood in +lieu of a cellar, and contained a stock of provisions of Mr. B.'s own +cooking. + +Such a backwoodish dwelling as Cranberry Lodge, existing in the year +1858, within seventy miles of New York, requires some explanation. +Its foundation is--pies! Cape Cod, the great emporium of the +cranberry-trade, has been running short for the last few years; in other +words, its supply is unequal to the demand. The heavy Britishers +have awakened to the fact, since 1851, that, of all condiments and +delicacies, cranberry-sauce and cranberry-pie are best in their way; +and John Bull takes many a barrel clean out of our market now. It so +happened that in the Pines of New Jersey cranberries superior to those +of Cape Cod have grown unheeded for centuries,--grew red and purple +and white and pink when Columbus was unthought of, as well as when +Washington passed through the Pines,--and for sixty or seventy years +have furnished a certain class of gypsies--of whom more anon--with +merchandise which sold well in the neighboring villages and cities. +No one thought of cultivating cranberries; no one, but the gypsies +aforesaid, of gathering them for sale. But it came to pass that a +certain farmer of Hanover was, like many another, unsuccessful during +several years. As a last resource, he purchased of the owner of the Big +House a cranberry-bog,--that is to say, one of the many marshy spots +which are interspersed in the forest,--for which he paid five dollars +the acre. There were a little more than one hundred acres in the bog. At +a cost of some six hundred dollars Mr. F. fenced in his bog, and spent +three months in watching the cranberries as they ripened, to protect +them from depredation. To his intense astonishment, he found, in +October, that the yield was between two and three hundred bushels to the +acre, and that his land and fencing were paid for, with a balance left +over for next year. In consequence of this success, a little mania +for cranberry-farming seized upon the denizens of the Pines, and bogs +acquired a value they had never borne before. This was in 1857. Early in +1858, one of these plots of land, with an adjoining piece of forest, was +rented by Mr. B., who, like a right-down Yankee, determined to cultivate +it himself. So, with the aid of one hired man, a clearing was made in +his forest-patch, a hut built, four miles from the nearest habitation, +and the trees cut down were converted into rails, wherewith to fence in +the cranberry-land. At the time of my visit, the crop was just beginning +to think of getting ripe, and the great lazy vines, each one creeping +for several feet along the ground, were severally loaded with dozens of +delicately-tinted berries, plump and fair as British beauties, which +silently drew to themselves and absorbed the rays of the sun, turning +them to color and succulent subacidulousness. A most glorious sight that +same hundred-acre bog must have been a couple of weeks later, when the +berries had ripened, and a carpet of rosy redness blushed upwards to +the waning sun! Yet 1858 (the even year) was a bad season for +cranberries,--the yield was _only_ sufficient to pay for the land and +fencing, with a modicum over to begin 1859 with! + +So cranberries grew to be institutions in the Pines, and all the bogs +for miles around the site of the first experiment were hired by sanguine +farmers. But the cranberry-cultivator has one enemy, which is neither +bird, nor worm, nor blight, but biped,--a Rat, two-legged, erect, or +moderately so, talking, even, in audible and intelligible speech,--the +Pine Rat, namely. Few but New Jerseymen, and of them chiefly those who +dwell about the forest, have heard of this human species; it has not +yet had its Agassiz nor its Wyman,--yet there it flourishes and repeats +itself! + +My friend, Mr. B., considerately undertook to initiate me into some +of the mysteries of this race, which has proved minatory, though not +destructive, to his blushing crop,--and accordingly led me through brake +and brier, past wild and gloomy cedar-swamps, over brooks insecurely +bridged with fallen logs, or, perchance, with stepping-blocks of +pine-stumps, far into the silent forest, and to a little dell or +dingle,--a natural clearing,--where a couple of tents were pitched, and +the smoke of a struggling fire told infallibly of human neighborhood. +The barking of a splenetic little terrier brought from one of the tents +a man of some fifty years, lank and gaunt of visage, with matted hair, +and wild, uncivilized eyes, dressed in a ragged jacket and what had once +been a pair of trousers. His face wore no expression of intelligence; +but a look of intense, though animal cunning lurked in his eyes. While I +was gazing on this individual, who stood in silence by his tent, there +emerged from the other an ancient female, who might have been eighty +years of age, but who hobbled towards us with much briskness. + +"Good evening, Hannah Butler," said Mr. B.; "I've brought you some +tomatoes from the Big House. This is my friend, Mr. Smith of York." + +Mr. Smith of York (grimly repressing a smile, as his mischievous memory +whispered something about Brooks of Sheffield) bowed gravely to Mrs. +Butler. Mr. B. whispers,--"That's the Queen of the Pine Rats!" Hannah +meanwhile mumbles over one of the fleshy tomatoes. + +The man whom we had first seen held in his hand a tattered shawl, with +which he now began patching a portion of his tent, saying at the same +time that there was a storm a-brewing. + +"Ay, is there!" said Mrs. Butler; "and a storm like the one when I seed +Leeds's devil"-- + +"Hush!" interrupted her ragged companion, with a look of terror. "What's +the good o' namin' him, and allus talkin' about him, when yer don't +never know as he ar'n't byside ye?" + +"I'll devil yer!" shrieked the crone, through a half-eaten tomato. +"Finish mendin' up yer cover, yer mean cranberry-thief!" + +The spiteful terrier, which had meanwhile evinced an unpleasant interest +in the thickness of my pantaloons, added his yelping to the clamor, and +Mr. B., pointing to the clouds, thought we had better hasten homewards. +So we bade farewell to Hannah and her nephew, as I learned that the +unfortunate vessel of her wrath in reality was, and dived into the +gloomy recesses of the Pines again. + +Long ere we got back to Cranberry Lodge, all doubts of an impending +tempest had disappeared. The eastern sky, cloudless an hour before, +was now overhung with a livid bank of ash-gray clouds, which were +incessantly riven by broad and terrible flashes of silent lightning. A +slight westerly breeze was blowing, and evidently impeded the progress +of the storm, which was beating up from seaward against the wind. +Plunging through prickly thickets and dashing through the turbid brooks, +we hastened toward the clearing, committed Cranberry Lodge to the +custody of the "hired man," and untied our horses from the saplings to +which they were made fast. In another moment we were on the back trail. +Scarcely, however, was the clearing shut out of view when a little +hesitating puff of wind from the east blew chill upon us; the breeze had +veered, and the tempest was at hand. In the twinkling of an eye, the +western horizon was overhung with the same ghastly storm-bank that +threatened in the east, while a monitory gust rustled through the +sighing pines, wildly twisting and tossing the undergrowth,--overspread +with a quivering pallor as it bent before the breeze,--and bade us be +prepared. Next moment, a clap of thunder, rattling like the artillery of +ten thousand sieges, or like millions of bars of iron dashed furiously +together, broke upon the forest. It was the most awful sound, terrible +even in its expected suddenness, that I ever heard. Simultaneously a +flash of purple lightning fell from the zenith to the horizon, splitting +the clouds asunder, and with it there descended rain in a cataract +rather than in torrents, so that in the twinkling of an eye the thirsty +sand was saturated, and bubbling pools of water pattered in the deluged +path. Crash after crash, each clap more terrific than the one preceding, +came the awful thunder; blinding flashes of lightning darted around +us;--but still our phlegmatic ponies galloped on, and only once started +violently, when a peal which really seemed as if its shock must burst +the heavens asunder dazed us momentarily with its almost unendurable +sound. The gloomy canopy above us, meanwhile, was overrun by incessant +streams of purple lightning, and the deluge of rain still fell. At +length we reached the Big House, (somewhat ostentatiously reducing the +speed of our horses to a walk as we came within sight of its embowered +windows,) and were soon dripping in the kitchen. A change of apparel, +calling into requisition Mexican _ponchos_ and other picturesque +garments, with a smoke beside a roaring fire, completely obviated +all dangerous consequences; nor was it without feelings of great +satisfaction that B. and myself watched tranquilly from our comfortable +ensconcement the beatings of the storm on the encircling forest. + +The Big House, I found, was full of legends of the Pine Rats. This +extraordinary race of beings are lineal descendants of the New Jersey +Tories, who, during the Revolution, made the Pines their refuge, whence +they sallied in perpetual forays against the farms and dwellings of the +partisans of the opposite cause. Several hundreds of these fanatical +desperadoes made the forest their home, and laid waste the surrounding +townships by their sudden raids. Most barbarous cruelties were practised +on both sides, in the contests which continually took place between +Whigs and Tories, and the unnatural seven-years' war possessed nowhere +darker features than in the neighborhood of the New Jersey Pines. +Remains of these forest-freebooters are still discovered from time to +time, in the process of clearing the woods, and unmistakable relics are +occasionally met with in the denser portions of the forest, which must +have been comparatively open eighty years ago. + +The degraded descendants of these Tories constitute the principal +difficulty with which a proprietor in this region has to contend. +Completely besotted and brutish in their ignorance, they are incapable +of obtaining an honest living, and have supported themselves, from a +time which may be called immemorial, by practising petty larceny on +an organized plan. The Pine Rat steals wood, steals game, steals +cranberries, steals anything, in fact, that his hand can be laid upon; +and woe to the property of the man who dares attempt to restrain him! A +few weeks may, perhaps, elapse, after the tattered savage has received a +warning or a reprimand, and then a column of smoke will be seen stealing +up from some quarter in the forest;--he has set the woods on fire! +Conflagrations of this kind will sometimes sweep away many hundreds of +acres of the most valuable timber; while accidental fires are also of +frequent occurrence. When indications of a fire are noticed, every +available hand--men, women, and children alike--is hurried to the spot +for the purpose of "fighting" it. Getting to leeward of the flames, the +"fighters" kindle a counter-conflagration, which is drawn or sucked +against the wind to the part already burning, and in this manner a +vacant space is secured, which proves a barrier to the flames. Dexterity +in fighting fires is a prime requisite in a forest overseer or workman. + +"And now, something about Leeds's devil!" I said to my friend, after +satisfactory definition of the Pine Rat; "what fiend may he be, if you +please?" + +"I will answer,--I will tell you," replies Mr. B. "There lived, in the +year 1735, in the township of Burlington, a woman. Her name was Leeds, +and she was shrewdly suspected of a little amateur witchcraft. Be that +as it may, it is well established, that, one stormy, gusty night, when +the wind was howling in turret and tree, Mother Leeds gave birth to a +son, whose father could have been no other than the Prince of Darkness. +No sooner did he see the light than he assumed the form of a fiend, with +a horse's head, wings of bat, and a serpent's tail. The first thought of +the newborn Caliban was to fall foul of his mother, whom he scratched +and bepommelled soundly, and then flew through the window out into the +village, where he played the mischief generally. Little children he +devoured, maidens he abused, young men he mauled and battered; and it +was many days before a holy man succeeded in repeating the enchantment +of Prospero. At length, however, Leeds's devil was laid,--but only for +one hundred years. + +"During an entire century, the memory of that awful monster was +preserved, and, as 1835 drew nigh, the denizens of Burlington and the +Pines looked tremblingly for his rising. Strange to say, however, no one +but Hannah Butler has had a personal interview with the fiend; though, +since 1835, he has frequently been heard howling and screaming in the +forest at night, to the terror of the Rats in their lonely encampments. +Hannah Butler saw the devil, one stormy night, long ago; though some +skeptical individuals affirm, that very possibly she may have been led, +under the influence of liquid Jersey lightning, to invest a pine-stump, +or, possibly, a belated bear, with diabolical attributes and a Satanic +voice. However that may be, you cannot induce a Rat to leave his hut +after dark,--nor, indeed, will you find many Jerseymen, though of a +higher order of intelligence, who will brave the supernatural terrors of +the gloomy forest at night, unless secure in the strength of numbers." + +The Pine Rat, in his vocation as a picker-up of every unconsidered +trifle, is an adept at charcoal-burning, on the sly. The business of +legitimate charcoal-manufacture is also largely practised in the Pines, +although the growing value of wood interferes sadly with the coalers. +Here and there, however, a few acres are marked out every year for +charring, and the coal-pits are established in the clearing made by +felling the trees. The "coaling," as it is technically termed, is an +assemblage of "pits," or piles of wood, conical in form, and about ten +feet in height by twenty in diameter. The wood is cut in equal lengths, +and is piled three or four tiers high, each log resting on the end of +that below it, and inclining slightly inwards. An opening is left in the +centre of the pile, serving as a chimney; and the exterior is overlaid +with strips of turf, called "floats," which form an almost air-tight +covering. When the pile is overlaid, fire is set at various small +apertures in the sides, and when the whole "pit" is fairly burning, the +chimney is closed, in order to prevent too rapid combustion, and the +whole pile is slowly converted into charcoal. The application of the +term "pit" to these piles is worthy of remark. It is due, of course, +to the fact, that for centuries it was customary to burn charcoal in +excavated pits, until it was discovered that gradual combustion could be +as well secured by another and less tedious method. + +The Pine Rat glories in his surreptitious coal-pits. In secluded +portions of the forest, he may continually be discovered pottering over +a "coaling," for which he has stolen the wood. This, indeed, is his only +handicraft,--the single labor to which he condescends or is equal. Two +or three men sometimes band together and build themselves huts after +the curious fashion peculiar to the Rat, namely, by piling sticks or +branches in a slope on each side of some tall pine, so that a wigwam, +with the trunk of the tree in the centre, is constructed. Inside this +triangular shelter--the idea of which was probably borrowed from the +Indians--the Pine Rat ensconces himself with his whiskey-bottle at +night, crouching in dread of the darkness, or of Leeds's devil, +aforesaid. In this respect he singularly resembles the Bohemian +charcoal-burner, who trembles at the thought of Rübezahl, that malicious +goblin, who has an army of mountain-dwarfs and gnomes at his command. So +long as the sunlight inspires our Rat with confidence, however, he will +work at his coal-pit, while one comrade is away in the forest, snaring +game, and another has, perhaps, been dispatched to the precincts of +civilization with his wagon-load of coal. Yes! the Pine Rat sometimes +treads the streets of cities,--nay, even extends his wanderings to the +banks of the Delaware and the Hudson, to Philadelphia and Trenton, +to Jersey City and New York. Then, who so sharp as the grimy +tatterdemalion, who passes from street to street and from house to +house, with his swart and rickety wagon, and his jangling bell, the +discordant clangor of which, when we hear it, calls up horrible +recollections of the bells that froze our hearts in plague-stricken +cities of other lands, when doomed galley-slaves and _forçats_ wheeled +awful vehicles of putrefaction through the streets, clashing and +clinking their clamorous bells for more and still more corpses, and +foully jesting over the Death which they knew was already upon them! But +the long-drawn, monotonous, nasal cry of the charcoal-vender--who has +not heard it?--"Cha-r-coa'! Cha-r-coa'!"--is more cheerful than the +demoniac laughter of the desperate galley-slaves, and his bell sounds +musically when we hear it and think of theirs. Sometimes a couple of +these peregrinants may be seen to encounter each other in the streets, +and straightway there is an adjournment to the nearest bar-room, where +the most scientific method of "springing the arch" is discussed over a +glass of whiskey, at three cents the quart. Springing the arch, though +few may be able to interpret the phrase, is a trick by which every +housewife has suffered. It is the secret of piling the coal into the +measure in such a manner as to make the smaller quantity pass for the +larger, or, in other words, to make three pecks go for a bushel. So the +Pine Rat vindicates his claim to a common humanity with all the rest +of us men and women; for have not we all our secret and most approved +method of springing the arch,--of palming off our three short pecks for +a full and bounteous imperial bushel? Ah, yes! brothers and sisters, +whisper it, if you will, below your breath, but we all can do the Pine +Rat's trick! + +We shall not suffer his company much longer in this world,--poor, +neglected, pitiable, darkened soul that he is, this fellow-citizen +of ours. He must move on; for civilization, like a stern, prosaic +policeman, will have no idlers in the path. There must be no vagrants, +not even in the forest, the once free and merry greenwood, our +policeman-civilization says; nay, the forest, even, must keep a-moving! +We must have farms here, and happy homesteads, and orchards heavy with +promise of cider, and wheat golden as hope, instead of silent aisles and +avenues of mournful pine-trees, sheltering such forlorn miscreations as +our poor cranberry-stealing friends! Railways are piercing the Pines; +surveyors are marking them out in imaginary squares; market-gardeners +are engaging land; and farmers are clearing it. The Rat is driven from +point to point, from one means of subsistence to another; and shortly, +he will have to make the bitter choice between regulated labor and +starvation clean off from the face of the earth. There is no room for +a gypsy in all our wide America! The Rat must follow the Indian,--must +fade like breath from a window-pane in winter! + +In fact, the forest, left so long in its aboriginal savagery, is about +to be regenerated. A railroad is to be constructed, this year, which +will place Hanover and the centre of the forest within one hour's travel +of Philadelphia; and it is scarcely too much to anticipate, that, within +five years, thousands of acres, now dense with pines and cedars of a +hundred rings, will be laid out in blooming market-gardens and in fields +of generous corn. Such little cultivation as has hitherto been attempted +has been attended by the most astonishing results; and persons have +actually returned from the West and South, in order to occupy farms in the +neighborhood of Hanover. + +In one respect _c'est dommage_; one is grieved to part with the game +that is now so plentiful in the Pines. Owing to the beneficent provision +of the laws of New Jersey, which stringently forbid every description of +hunting in the State during alternate periods of five years, game of +all kinds has an opportunity to multiply; and at the termination of the +season of rest, in October, 1858, there was some noble hunting in the +neighborhood of Hanover. Five years hence, bears and deer will be a +tradition, panthers and raccoons a myth, partridges and quails a vain +and melancholy recollection, in what shall then be known as what was +once the Pines. + + * * * * * + + +THE LAST BIRD. + + + Little Bird that singest + Far atop, this warm December day, + Heaven bestead thee, that thou wingest, + Ere the welcome song is done, thy way + + To more certain weather, + Where, built high and solemnly, the skies, + Shaken by no storm together, + Fixed in vaults of steadfast sapphire rise! + + There, the smile that mocks us + Answers with its warm serenity; + There, the prison-ice that locks us + Melts forgotten in a purple sea. + + There, thy tuneful brothers, + In the palm's green plumage waiting long, + Mate them with the myriad others, + Like a broken rainbow bound with song. + + Winter scarce is hidden, + Veiled within this fair, deceitful sky; + Fly, ere, from his ambush bidden, + He descend in ruin swift and nigh! + + By the Summer stately, + Truant, thou wast fondly reared and bred: + Dost thou linger here so lately, + Knowing not thy beauteous friend is dead,-- + + Like to hearts that, clinging + Fervent where their first delight was fed, + Move us with untimely singing + Of the hopes whose blossom-time is sped? + + Beauties have their hour, + Safely perched on the Spring-budding tree; + For the ripened soul is trust and power, + And, beyond, the calm eternity. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Concluded.] + + +On the 3d of July, the Commissioners started on their return to the +States. During their stay at Salt Lake City, the doubt which they had +been led to entertain of the wisdom of the policy which they were the +agents to carry out, had ripened into a firm conviction. + +The people who were congregated on the eastern shore of Lake Utah did +not begin to repair to their homes until the army had marched thirty or +forty miles away from the city; and even then there was a secrecy +about their movements which was as needless as it was mysterious. They +returned in divisions of from twenty to a hundred families each. Their +trains, approaching the city during the afternoon, would encamp on some +creek in its vicinity until midnight, when, if intended for the northern +settlements, they would pass rapidly through the streets, or else make +a circuit around the city-wall. August arrived before the return was +completed. + +Morning after morning, one square after another was seen stripped of the +board barricades which had sheltered windows and doors from intrusion. +In front of every gateway wagons were emptying their loads of household +furniture. The streets soon lost their deserted aspect, though for many +days the only wayfarers were men,--not a woman being visible, except, by +chance, to the profane eyes of the invaders. It was near the end of July +before a single house was rented except to the intimate associates of +the Governor. Up to that time, those Gentiles who did not follow the +army to its permanent camp bivouacked on the public squares. By a Church +edict, all Mormons were forbidden to enter into business transactions +with persons outside their sect without consulting Brigham Young, whose +office was beset daily by a throng of clients beseeching indulgences +and instruction. Immediately after his return to the city, however, +he secluded himself from public observation, never appearing in the +streets, nor on the balconies of his mansion-house. He even encompassed +his residence with an armed guard. + +Gradually, nevertheless, the necessities of the people induced a +modification of this system of non-intercourse. The Gentile merchants, +who were present with great wagon-trains containing all those articles +indispensable to the comfort of life, of which the Mormons stood so much +in need, refused to open a single box or bale until they could hire +storehouses. The permission was at length accorded, and immediately the +absolute external reserve of the people began to wear away. Both sexes +thronged to the stores, eager to supply themselves with groceries and +garments; but there they experienced a wholesome rebuff, for which some +of them were not entirely unprepared. The merchants refused to receive +the paper of the Deseret Currency Association with which the Territory +was flooded; and its notes were depreciated instantly by more than +fifty per cent. Many of the people were driven to barter cattle and +farm-produce for the articles they needed; and for the first time since +the establishment of the Church in Utah an audible murmur arose among +its adherents against its exactions. The sight of their neglected +farms was also calculated to bring the poorer agriculturists to sober +reflection. They perceived that the army, which they had been taught to +believe would commit every conceivable outrage, was, on the contrary, +demeaning itself with extreme forbearance and even kindness toward them, +and was supplying an ampler market for the sale of their produce than +they had enjoyed since the years when the overland emigration to +California culminated. Nevertheless, their regrets, if entertained at +all, found no public and concerted utterance. The authority of the +Church exacted a sullen demeanor toward all Gentiles. + +The 24th of July, the great Mormon anniversary, was suffered to pass +without celebration; but its recurrence must have suggested anxious +thoughts and bitter recollections to a great part of the population. +When they remembered their enthusiastic declaration of independence +only one year before, the warlike demonstrations which followed it, the +prophecies of Young that the Lord would smite the army as he smote the +hosts of Sennacherib, the fever of hate and apprehension into which they +had been worked, and contrasted that period of excitement with their +present condition, they must, indeed, have found abundant material for +meditation. By the emigration southward they had lost at least four +months of the most valuable time of the year. Their families had been +subjected to every variety of exposure and hardship. Their ready money +had been extorted from them by the Currency Association, or consumed in +the expenses of transporting their movables to Lake Utah. And more than +all, the fields had so suffered by their absence, that the crops were +diminished to at least one-half the yield of an ordinary year. To a +community the mass of which lives from hand to mouth, this was a most +serious loss. + +Almost all agriculture in Utah is carried on by the aid of irrigation. +From April till October hardly a shower falls upon the soil, which +parches and cracks in the hot sunshine. The settlements are all at the +base of the mountains, where they can take advantage of the brooks that +leap down through the cañons. They are, therefore, necessarily scattered +along the line of the main Wahsatch range, from the Roseaux River, which +flows into the Salt Lake from the north, to the Vegas of the Santa +Clara,--a distance of nearly four hundred miles. The labor expended in +ditching has been immense, but it has been confined wholly to tapping +the smaller streams. + +By damming the Jordan in Salt Lake Valley and the Sevier in Parawan +Valley, and distributing their water over the broad bottom-lands, on +which the only vegetation now is wild sage and greasewood, the area of +arable ground might be quintupled; and any considerable increase of +population will render such an undertaking indispensable; for the narrow +strip which is fertilized by the mountain-brooks yields scarcely more +than enough to supply the present number of inhabitants. Nowhere does it +exceed two or three miles in breadth, except along the eastern shore of +Lake Utah, where it extends from the base of the mountains to the verge +of the lake. + +Almost all cereals and vegetables attain the utmost perfection, +rivalling the most luxuriant productions of California. Within the last +few years the cultivation of the Chinese sugar-cane has been introduced, +and has proved successful. In Salt Lake City considerable attention is +paid to horticulture. Peaches, apples, and grapes grow to great size, at +the same time retaining excellent flavor. The grape which is most common +is that of the vineyards of Los Angeles. In the vicinity of Provo an +attempt has been made to cultivate the tea-plant; and on the Santa Clara +several hundred acres have been devoted to the culture of cotton, +but with imperfect success. Flax, however, is raised in considerable +quantity. The fields are rarely fenced with rails, and almost never with +stones. The dirt-walls by which they are usually surrounded are built by +driving four posts into the ground, which support a case, ten or twelve +feet in length, made of boards. This is packed full of mud, which dries +rapidly in the intense heat of a summer noon. When it is sufficiently +dry to stand without crumbling, the posts are moved farther along and +the same operation is repeated. + +The country is not dotted with farmhouses, like the agricultural +districts of the East. The inhabitants all live in towns, or "forts," as +they are more commonly called, each of which is governed by a Bishop. +These are invariably laid out in a square, which is surrounded by a +lofty wall of mere dirt, or else of adobe. In the smaller forts there +are no streets, all the dwellings backing upon the wall, and inclosing +a quadrangular area, which is covered with heaps of rubbish, and alive +with pigs, chickens, and children. The same stream which irrigates the +fields in the vicinity supplies the people with water for domestic +purposes. There are few wells, even in the cities. Except in Salt Lake +City and Provo, no barns are to be seen. The wheat is usually stored +in the garrets of the houses; the hay is stacked; and the animals are +herded during the winter in sheltered pastures on the low lands. + +All the people of the smaller towns are agriculturists. In none of them +is there a single shop. In Provo there are several small manufacturing +establishments, for which the abundant water-power of the Timpanogas +River, that tumbles down the neighboring cañon, furnishes great +facilities. The principal manufacturing enterprise ever undertaken in +the Territory--that for the production of beet-sugar--proved a complete +failure. A capital advanced by Englishmen, to the amount of more +than one hundred thousand dollars, was totally lost, and the result +discouraged foreigners from all similar investments. Rifles and +revolvers are made in limited number from the iron tires of the numerous +wagons in which goods are brought into the Valley. There are tanneries, +and several distilleries and breweries. In the large towns there are +many thriving mechanics; but elsewhere even the blacksmith's trade +is hardly self-supporting, and the carpenters and shoemakers are all +farmers, practising their trades only during intervals from work in the +fields. + +The deficiency of iron, coal, and wood is the chief obstacle to the +material development of Utah. No iron-mines have been discovered, except +in the extreme southern portion of the Territory; and the quality of the +ore is so inferior, that it is available only for the manufacture of the +commonest household utensils, such as andirons. The principal coal-beds +hitherto found are in the immediate vicinity of Green River. There are +several sawmills, all run by water-power, scattered among the more +densely-wooded cañons; but they supply hardly lumber enough to meet the +demand,--even the sugar-boxes and boot-cases which are thrown aside at +the merchants' stores being eagerly sought after and appropriated. The +most ordinary articles of wooden furniture command extravagant prices. + +Nowhere is the absence of trees, the utter desolation of the scenery, +more impressive than in a view from the southern shore of the Great Salt +Lake. The broad plain which intervenes between its margin and the +foot of the Wahsatch Range is almost entirely lost sight of; the +mountain-slopes, their summits flecked with snow, seem to descend into +water on every side except the northern, on which the blue line of the +horizon is interrupted only by Antelope Island. The prospect in that +direction is apparently as illimitable as from the shore of an ocean. +The sky is almost invariably clear, and the water intensely blue, except +where it dashes over fragments of rock that have fallen from some +adjacent cliff, or where a wave, more aspiring than its fellows, +overreaches itself and breaks into a thin line of foam. Through a gap in +the ranges on the west, the line of the Great Desert is dimly visible. +The beach of the lake is marked by a broad belt of fine sand, the grains +of which are all globular. Along its upper margin is a rank growth of +reeds and salt grass. Swarms of tiny flies cover the surface of every +half-evaporated pool, and a few white sea-gulls are drifting on the +swells. Nowhere is there a sign of refreshing verdure except on the +distant mountainsides, where patches of green grass glow in the sunlight +among the vast fields of sage. + +The buildings throughout the entire Territory are, almost without +exception, of adobe. The brick is of a uniform drab color, more pleasing +to the eye than the reddish hue of the adobes of New Mexico or the buff +tinge of many of those in California. In size it is about double that +commonly used in the States. The clay, also, is of very superior +quality. The principal stone building in the Territory is the Capitol, +at Fillmore, one hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. The +design of the architect is for a very magnificent edifice in the shape +of a Greek cross, with a rotunda sixty feet in diameter. Only one wing +has been completed, but this is spacious enough to furnish all needful +accommodation. The material is rough-hammered sandstone, of an intense +red. + +The plan of Salt Lake City is an index to that of all the principal +towns. It is divided into squares, each side of which is forty rods +in length. The streets are more than a hundred feet wide, and are all +unpaved. There is not a single sidewalk of brick, stone, or plank. The +situation is well chosen, being directly at the foot of the southern +slope of a spur which juts out from the main Wahsatch range. Less than +twenty miles from the city, almost overshadowing it, are peaks which +rise to the altitude of nearly twelve thousand feet, from which the snow +of course never disappears. But during the summer months, when scarcely +a shower falls upon the valley, its drifts become dun-colored with dust +from the friable soil below, and present an aspect similar to that of +the Pyrenees at the same season. During most of the year, the rest of +the mountains which encircle the Valley are also capped with snow. The +residences of Young and Kimball are situated on almost the highest +ground within the city-limits, and the land slopes gradually down from +them to the south, east, and west. This inclination suggested the mode +of supplying the city with water. A mountain-brook, pure and cold, +bubbling from under snow-drifts, is guided from this highland down +the gently sloping streets in gutters adjoining both the sidewalks. A +municipal ordinance imposes severe penalties on any one who fouls it. +Young's buildings and gardens occupy an entire square, ten acres in +extent, as do also Kimball's. They consist, first, of the Mansion, a +spacious two-storied building, in the style of the Yankee-Grecian villas +which infest New England towns, with piazzas supported by Doric columns, +and a cupola which is surmounted by a beehive, the peculiar emblem of +the Mormons, although there is not a single honey-bee in the Territory. +This, like all its companions, is of adobe, but it is coated with +plaster, and painted white. Next to it is a small building, used +formerly as an office, in which the temporal business of the Governor +was transacted. By its side stands another office, on the same model, +but on a larger scale, devoted to the business of the President of the +Church. These are connected by passage-ways both with the Mansion and +with the Lion-House, which is the most westerly of the group, and is the +finest building in the Territory, having cost nearly eighty thousand +dollars. Like both the offices, it stands with a gable toward the +street, and the plaster with which it is covered has a light buff tinge. +The architecture is Elizabethan. Above a porch in front is the figure +of a recumbent lion, hewn in sandstone. On each of the sides, which +overlook the gardens, ten little windows project from the roof +just above the eaves. The whole square is surrounded by a wall of +cobblestones and mortar, ten or twelve feet in height, strengthened by +buttresses at intervals of forty or fifty feet. Massive plank gates bar +the entrances. In one corner is the Tithing-Office, where the faithful +render their reluctant tribute to the Lord. Only the swift city-creek +intervenes between this square and Kimball's, which is encompassed by a +similar wall. His buildings have no pretensions to architectural merit, +being merely rough piles of adobe scattered irregularly all over the +grounds. + +The Temple Square is in the immediate neighborhood, and is of the same +size. It is inclosed by a wall even more massive than the others, +plastered and divided into panels. Near its southwestern corner stands +the Tabernacle, a long, one-storied building, with an immense roof, +containing a hall which will hold three thousand people. There the +Mormon religious services are conducted during the winter months; but +throughout the summer the usual place of gathering to listen to the +sermons is in "boweries," so called, which are constructed by planting +posts in the ground and weaving over them a flat roof of willow-twigs. +An excavation near the centre of the square, partially filled with dirt +previously to the exodus to Provo, marks the spot where the Temple is +to rise. It is intended that this edifice shall infinitely surpass in +magnificence its predecessor at Nauvoo. The design purports to be a +revelation from heaven, and, if so, must have emanated from some one +of the Gothic architects of the Middle Ages whose taste had become +bewildered by his residence among the spheres; for the turrets are to be +surmounted by figures of sun, moon, and stars, and the whole building +bedecked with such celestial emblems. Only part of the foundation-wall +has yet been laid, but it sinks thirty feet deep and is eight feet broad +at the surface of the ground. Its length, according to the heavenly +plan, is to be two hundred and twenty feet, and its width one hundred +and fifty feet. Beside the Tabernacle and the incipient Temple, the only +considerable building within the square is the Endowment-House, where +those rites are celebrated which bind a member to fidelity to the Church +under penalty of death, and admit him to the privilege of polygamy. + +The other principal buildings within the city are the Council-House, +a square pile of sandstone, once used as the Capitol,--and the County +Court-House, yet unfinished, above which rises a cupola covered with +tin. Most of the houses in the immediate vicinity of Young's are two +stories high, for that is the aristocratic quarter of the town. In +the outskirts, however, they never exceed one story, and resemble in +dimensions the innumerable cobblers'-shops of Eastern Massachusetts. + +None of the streets have names, except those which bound the Temple +Square and are known as North, South, East, and West Temple Streets, and +also the broad avenue which receives the road from Emigration Cañon and +is called Emigration Street. Except on East Temple or Main Street, which +is the business street of the city, the houses are all built at least +twenty feet back from the sidewalk, and to each one is attached a +considerable plot of ground. There is no provision for lighting the +streets at night. The cotton-wood trees along the borders of the gutters +have attained a considerable growth during the eight or nine years since +they were planted, and afford an agreeable shade to all the sidewalks. + +Around a great portion of the city stretches a mud wall with embrasures +and loopholes for musketry, which was built under Young's direction in +1853, ostensibly to guard against Indian attacks, but really to keep +the people busy and prevent their murmuring. To the east of this runs a +narrow canal, which was dug by the voluntary labor of the Saints, nearly +fifteen miles to Cottonwood Creek, for the transportation of stone to be +used in building the Temple. + +Just outside the city-limits, near the northeastern corner of the wall, +lies the Cemetery, on a piece of undulating ground traversed by deep +gullies, and unadorned even by a solitary tree,--the only vegetation +sprouting out of its parched soil being a melancholy crop of weeds +interspersed with languid sunflowers. The disproportion between the +deaths of adults and those of children, which has been a subject for +comment by every writer on Mormonism, is peculiarly noticeable there. +Most of the graves are indicated only by rough boards, on which are +scrawled rudely, with pencil or paint, the names and ages of the dead, +and usually also verses from the Bible and scraps of poetry; but among +all the inscriptions it is remarkable that there is not a single +quotation from the "Book of Mormon." The graves are totally neglected +after the bodies are consigned to them. Nowhere has a shrub or a flower +been planted by any affectionate hand, except in one little corner of +the inclosure which is assigned to the Gentiles, between whose dust and +that of the Mormons there seems to exist a distinction like that which +prevails in Catholic countries between the ashes of heretics and those +of faithful churchmen. The mode of burial is singularly careless. A +funeral procession is rarely seen; and such instances are mentioned by +travellers as that of a father bearing to the grave the coffin of his +own child upon his shoulder. + +The interiors of the houses are as neat as could be expected, +considering the extent of the families. Very often, three wives, one +husband, and half-a-dozen children will be huddled together in a +hovel containing only two habitable rooms,--an arrangement of course +subversive of decency. Few people are able to purchase carpets, and +their furniture is of the coarsest and commonest kind. There are few, if +any, families which maintain servants. In that of Brigham Young, each +woman has a room assigned her, for the neatness of which she is herself +responsible;--Young's own chamber is in the rear of the office of the +President of the Church, upon the ground floor. The precise number +of the female inmates can often be computed from the exterior of the +houses. These being frequently divided into compartments, each with its +own entrance from the yard, and its own chimney, and being generally +only one story in height, the number of doors is an exact index to that +of residents. + +The domestic habits of the people vary greatly according to their +nativity. Of the forty-five thousand inhabitants of the Territory, at +least one-half are immigrants from England and Wales,--the scum of the +manufacturing towns and mining districts, so superstitious as to have +been capable of imbibing the Mormon faith,--though between what is +preached in Great Britain and what is practised in America there exists +a wide difference,--and so destitute in circumstances as to have been +incapable of deteriorating their fortunes by emigration. Possibly +one-fifth are Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. This allows a remainder of +three-tenths for the native American element. An Irishman or a German is +rarely found. Of the Americans, by far the greater proportion were born +in the Northeastern States; and the three principal characters in the +history of the Church--Smith, Young, and Kimball--all originated in +Vermont, but were reared in Western New York, a region which has been +the hot-bed of American _isms_ from the discovery of the Golden Bible to +the outbreak of the Rochester rappings. This American element maintains, +in all affairs of the Church, its natural political ascendency. Of the +twelve Apostles only one is a foreigner, and among the rest of the +ecclesiastical dignitaries the proportion is not very different. + +The Scandinavian Mormons are very clannish in their disposition. They +occupy some settlements exclusively, and in Salt Lake City there is one +quarter tenanted wholly by them, and nicknamed "Denmark," just as that +portion of Cincinnati monopolized by Germans is known as "over the +Rhine." Like their English and Welsh associates, they belonged to the +lowest classes of the mechanics and peasantry of their native countries. +They are all clownish and brutal. Their women work in the fields. +In their houses and gardens there is no symptom of taste, or of the +recollection of former and more innocent days; while in every cottage +owned by Americans there is visible, at least, a clock, or a pair of +China vases, or a rude picture, which once held a similar position in +some farm-house in New England. + +It is not intended to discuss here the cardinal points of the Mormon +faith, for the subject is too extensive for the limits of this article. +A great misapprehension, however, prevails concerning polygamy, that it +was one of the original doctrines of the Church. On the contrary, it was +expressly prohibited in the Book of Mormon, which declares:-- + +"Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which +thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. ... Wherefore hearken to +the word of the Lord: There shall not any man among you have save it +be one wife, and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, +delight in the chastity of women."--p. 118. + +Up to this date, there have been four eras in the history of polygamy +among the Mormons: the first, from about 1833 to 1843, during which it +was practised stealthily only by those Church leaders to whom it was +considered prudent to impart the secret; the second, from 1843 to 1852, +during which its existence was known to the Church, but denied to the +world; the third, from 1852 to 1856, during which it was left to the +discretion of individuals whether to adopt its practice or not; and the +fourth, since 1856, when its acceptance was inculcated as essential to +happiness in this world and salvation in the next. It was the inevitable +tendency of Mormonism, like every other religious delusion, from the +advent of John of Leyden to that of the Spiritualists, to disturb the +natural relation of the sexes under the Christian dispensation. The +mystery surrounding the subject constituted the most attractive charm of +the religion, both to the initiated and to those who were seeking to be +admitted to the secrets of the Endowment,--for the Endowed alone possess +the privilege of a plurality of wives. But until the community had +become firmly fixed in Utah, no one dared to justify or even to proclaim +the doctrine. At the time of the passage of the Organic Act of the +Territory, in the autumn of 1850, and repeatedly during the next +two years, prominent Mormons at Washington and New York denied its +existence, with the most solemn asseverations. It was on Sunday, August +29th, 1852, that it was openly avowed at Salt Lake City,--Brigham Young +on that day producing the copy of a revelation, pretended to have +been received by Smith on the 12th of July, 1843, which annulled +the monogamic injunctions of the Book of Mormon, and stating, that, +"although the doctrine of polygamy has not been preached by the elders, +the people have believed in it for years." Upon the same occasion, +another doctrine was urged,--that human beings upon earth propagate +merely bodies, the souls which inhabit them being begotten by spirits in +heaven. + +The number of the wives of many of the principal Mormons has been +greatly exaggerated. Attached to Young's establishment in Salt Lake +City, there are only sixteen. His first wife occupies the Mansion-House +exclusively, while the others are quartered in the Lion-House. Besides +these, he has probably fifty or sixty more, scattered all over the +Territory, and in the principal cities of the United States and of Great +Britain. His living children do not exceed thirty in number. Kimball's +wives, resident in Salt Lake City, are quite as numerous as Young's, and +his children even more so. Both of them aim to reproduce the domestic +life of the Biblical patriarchs; and within the squares which they +occupy their descendants dwell also, with their wives and progeny, all +of them acknowledging the control of the head of the family. The harems +of very few of the Church dignitaries approach these in magnitude. The +extent of the practice of polygamy cannot be determined by a residence +in Salt Lake City alone, for it is there that those Church officers +congregate whose wealth enables them to maintain large families. As +the traveller journeys northward or southward, he finds the instances +diminish in almost exact proportion to his remoteness from the central +ecclesiastical influence. There is even a sect of Mormons, called +Gladdenites, after their founder, one Gladden Bishop, who deny the +right of Young to supreme authority over the Church, and discountenance +polygamy. No computation of their number can be made, for few of them +dare avow their heresy, on account of the persecution which is the +invariable result. The leaders of this sect maintain that a majority of +the married men in Utah have but one wife each, and their assertion has +never been controverted. + +One of the most monstrous results of the practice is the indifference +with which an incestuous connection is tolerated. The cohabitation, with +the same man, of a mother, and her daughter by a previous marriage, is +not unfrequent; and there are other instances even more disgusting. One +or two of them will exemplify the character of the whole. One George D. +Watt, an Englishman, residing at Salt Lake City, has for his fourth +wife his own half-sister, who had been previously divorced from Brigham +Young; and one Aaron Johnson, the Bishop of the town of Springville, +on Lake Utah, has seven wives, four of whom are sisters, and his own +nieces. Young himself has declared in print, that he looks forward to +the time when his son by one wife shall marry his daughter by another. +Marriages also are effected with girls who are mere children. Accustomed +from their cradles to sights and sounds calculated to impart precocious +development, they mature rapidly, and few of them remain single after +attaining the age of sixteen. They look around for husbands, and +understand, that, if they marry young men and become first wives, in +course of time other wives will be associated with them; and they +conclude, therefore, that it is as well for themselves to unite with +some Bishop or High-Priest, with perhaps half-a-dozen wives already, who +is able to feed his family well and clothe them decently; so they plunge +into polygamy at once. Another result of the practice is universal +obscenity of language among both sexes. The published sermons of the +Mormon leaders are utterly vile in this respect, although they are +somewhat expurgated before being printed. They consider no language +profane from which the name of the Deity is exempted. + +There is, unquestionably, much unhappiness in families where polygamy +prevails,--daily bickering, jealousies, and heart-burnings,--but it +is carefully concealed from the knowledge of the public. If domestic +troubles become so aggravated as to be unendurable, recourse is usually +had to Brigham Young for a divorce. There are women in Salt Lake City +who have been married and divorced half-a-dozen times within a year. The +first wife maintains a supremacy over all the others. On the occasion +of her marriage, a civil magistrate usually officiates, and the rite of +"sealing" is afterwards administered by Young. By the civil process, +in the cant language of the Mormons, she is bound to her husband "for +time," and by the ecclesiastical solemnization "for eternity." Every +wife taken after the first is called a "spiritual," and is "sealed" +ecclesiastically only, not civilly. It follows, as a legitimate +consequence, that the first wife of one man "for time" may be the +"spiritual" wife of another man "for eternity." The power of sealing and +unsealing is vested in the Head of the Church, which, however, he may +and does assign, with certain limitations, to deputies. The ceremony is +performed in a room in the Mansion-House within Brigham's square, which +is furnished with an altar and kneelng-benches. In every instance of +divorce, the woman is supplied with a printed certificate of the fact, +for which a fee of ten or eleven dollars is exacted. When a polygamist +dies, it becomes the duty of his "next friend" to care for his wives. +Thus, when Young became the President of the Church, he succeeded to all +the widows of Joseph Smith. + +Every year some modification of the system is effected, which tends to +increase still further the confusion in the relations of the sexes. The +latest is the doctrine, (which, like polygamy in its earlier stages, is +believed, but not avowed,) that absence is temporary death, so far as +concerns the transference of wives. This is intended to apply to the two +or three hundred missionaries who are dispatched yearly to all parts +of the globe, from Stockholm to Macao. It is astonishing that these +missionary efforts, which have been pursued with unremitting zeal for +the last twenty years, should not have ingrafted upon Mormonism some +degree of that refinement which is supposed to result from travel. On +the contrary, they seem to have elaborated the natural brutality of the +Anglo-Saxon character; and especially with regard to polygamy, their +effect has been to acquaint the people of Utah with the grossest +features of its practice in foreign lands, and encourage them to +imitation. Every Mormon, prominent in the Church, however illiterate +in other respects, is thoroughly acquainted with the extent and +characteristics of polygamy in Asiatic countries, and prepared to defend +his own domestic habits, in argument, by historical and geographical +references. Not one of their missionaries has ever been admitted to +intercourse with the higher classes of European society. Their sphere +of labor and acquaintance has been entirely among those whom they would +term the lowly, but who might also be called the credulous and vulgar. +The abuse of a knowledge of the machinery of the Masonic order--from +which they have been formally excluded--is one of the least evil of +their practices, not only abroad, but at home. Of the Endowment, one +apostate Mormon has declared that "its signs, tokens, marks, and ideas +are plagiarized from Masonry"; and it was a notorious fact, that every +one of the Mormon prisoners at the camp at Fort Bridger was accustomed +to endeavor to influence the sentinels at the guard-tents by means of +the Masonic signs. + +This cursory review of the domestic condition of the Mormons would not +be complete without some allusion to the Indians who infest the whole +country. In the North, having their principal village at the foot of the +Wind River Mountains, in the southeastern corner of Oregon, is the tribe +of Mountain Snakes or Shoshonees, and the kindred tribe of Bannocks. +Throughout all the valleys south of Salt Lake City are the numerous +bands of the great tribe of Utahs. Still farther south are the Pyides. +The Snakes are superior in condition to any of the others; for, during +a portion of the year, they have access to the buffalo, which have not +crossed the Wahsatch Range into the Great Basin, within the recollection +of the oldest trapper. The only wild animals common in the country of +the Utahs are the hare, or "jackass-rabbit," the wild-cat, the wolf, and +the grizzly bear. There are few antelope or elk. Trout abound in the +mountain-brooks and in Lake Utah. In the Salt Lake, as in the Dead Sea, +there are no fish. Before the advent of the Mormons, the habits of all +the Utah bands were very degraded. No agency had been established among +them. They had few guns and blankets. For several years they were +engaged in constant hostilities with the people of the young and feeble +settlements,--their own method and implements of warfare improving +steadily all the while. Ultimately, however, the Mormons inaugurated a +system of Indian policy, which was highly successful. They propagated +their religion among the Utahs, baptized some of the most prominent +chiefs into the Church, fed and clothed them, and thereby acquired an +ascendency over most of the bands, which they attempted to use to the +detriment of the army during the winter of 1857-8, but without success. +Brigham Young, being vested with the superintendence of Indian affairs, +during his entire term of service as Governor, abused the functions of +that office. He taught the tribe, that there was a distinction between +"Americans" and "Mormons,"--and that the latter were their friends, +while they were free to commit any depredations on the former which +they might see fit. These infamous teachings were counteracted with +considerable success by Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, to whom allusion has +frequently been made; but it was impossible wholly to neutralize their +effect. Some of the Mormons even took squaws for spiritual wives; and in +all the settlements, from Provo to the Santa Clara, there are scores of +half-breed children, acknowledging half-a-dozen mothers, some white, +some red. The Utahs, though a beggarly, are a docile tribe. Several +Government farms have now been established among them, and they display +more than ordinary aptitude for work. But they require to be spurred to +regular labor. None of the charges which have been preferred against +the Mormons, of direct participation in the murder of Americans by +the Indians in the southern portion of the Territory, have ever been +substantiated by legal evidence; but no person can become familiar with +the relations which they sustain to those tribes, without attaching +to them some degree of credibility. The most noted instances were the +slaughter of Captain Gunnison and his exploring party, near Lake Sevier, +in October, 1853; and the horrible massacre of more than a hundred +emigrants on their way to California, at the Mountain Meadows, still +farther south, in September, 1857, from which only those children were +spared who were too young to speak. + +The history of events in Utah since the encamping of the army in Cedar +Valley and the return of the Mormons to the northern settlements is too +recent to need to be recounted. It has been established by satisfactory +experiments, that law is powerless in the Territory when it conflicts +with the Church. No Gentile, whose property was confiscated during the +rebellion, has yet obtained redress. The legislature refuses to provide +for the expenses of the District Courts while enforcing the Territorial +laws. The grand juries refuse to find indictments. The traverse juries +refuse to convict Mormons. The witnesses perjure themselves without +scruple and without exception. The unruly crowd of camp-followers, which +is the inseparable attendant of an army, has concentrated in Salt +Lake City, and is in constant contact and conflict with the Mormon +population. An apprehension prevails, day after day, that the presence +of the army may be demanded there to prevent mob-law and bloodshed. +The Governor is alien in his disposition to most of the other Federal +officers; and the Judges are probably already on their way to the +States, prepared to resign their commissions. The whole condition of +affairs justifies a prediction made by Brigham Young, June 17th, 1855, +in a sermon, in which he declared:-- + +"Though I may not be Governor here, my power will not be diminished. No +man they can send here will have much influence with this community, +unless he be the man of their choice. Let them send whom they will, it +does not diminish my influence one particle." + +The consequences of the Expedition, therefore, have not corresponded +to the original expectation of its projectors. So far as the political +condition of the Territory is concerned, the result, filtered down, +amounts simply to a demonstration of the impolicy of applying the +doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty as a rule for its government. The +administration of President Polk was an epoch in the history of +the continent. By the annexation of Texas a system of territorial +aggrandizement was inaugurated; and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by +which California, Utah, and New Mexico were acquired, was a legitimate +result. Every child knows that the tendency is toward the acquisition of +all North America. But the statesmen who originated a policy so +grand did not stop to establish a system of Territorial government +correspondent to its necessities. The character of such a Territorial +policy is now the principal subject upon which the great parties of +the nation are divided; and its development will constitute the chief +political achievement of the generation. On one side, it is proposed to +leave each community to work out its own destiny, trusting to Providence +for the result. On the other, it is contended, that the only safe +doctrine is, that supreme authority over the Territories resides in +Congress, which it is its duty to assign to such hands and in such +degrees as it may deem expedient, with a view to create homogeneous +States; that the same influences which moulded Minnesota into a State +homogeneous to Massachusetts might operate on Cuba, or Sonora and +Chihuahua, without avail; and that to various districts the various +methods should be applied which a father would employ to secure the +obedience and welfare of his children. + +At the very outset, the Territory of Utah now presents itself as a +subject for the application of the one system or the other. To all +intents and purposes, the Mormons are proved to be a people more foreign +to the population of the States than the inhabitants of Cuba or Mexico. +Alien in great part by birth, and entirely alien in religion, there +never can occur in the history of the country an instance of a community +harder to govern, with a view to adapt it to harmonious association +with the States on the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is undeniably +demonstrated that it is unsafe to trust it to administer a government in +accordance with republican ideas; for it acknowledges a higher law than +even the human conscience, in the will of a person whom it professes +to believe a vicegerent of Divinity, and in obedience to whom perjury, +robbery, incest, and even murder, may be justifiable,--for his commands +are those of Heaven. It is obvious that it is fruitless to anticipate +fair dealing from a people professing such doctrines; and the result has +shown, that, in transactions with Mormons, even under oath, no one who +does not acknowledge a standard of religious belief similar to their own +can count upon justice any farther than they may think it politic +to accord it. The army is, indeed, placed in a position to suppress +instantaneously another forcible outbreak; but everybody is aware that +there are means of annulling the operation of law quite as effectually +as by an uprising in arms. Recent proceedings in the courts of the +extreme Southern States have caused this fact to be keenly appreciated. +The pirates who sailed the slavers "Echo" and "Wanderer" yet remain to +be punished. So far as South Carolina and Georgia are concerned, the law +declaring the slave-trade piracy is a dead letter; and the sentiment +which prevails toward it in Charleston and Savannah is an imperfect +index of that which is manifested at Salt Lake City toward all national +authority. + +The legislation of Utah has been conducted with a view to precisely the +condition of affairs which now exists, and the Territorial statute-book +shows that the transfer of executive power from Brigham Young had long +been anticipated. It is impracticable to adduce, in this place, proof of +the fact _in extenso_; but a brief enumeration of some of the principal +statutes will indicate the character of the entire code. An act exists +incorporating the Mormon Church with power to hold property, both real +and personal, to an indefinite extent, exempt from taxation, coupled +with authority to establish laws and criteria for its safety, +government, comfort, and control, and for the punishment of all offences +relating to fellowship, according to its covenants. By this act the +Church is invested with absolute and perpetual sovereignty. Under it +the whole system of polygamy is conducted, for plural marriages are +sanctioned by the covenants; the Danite organization is authorized, for +it is instituted for the comfort and control of the Church, and the +punishment of offences relative to fellowship; the burden of the taxes +is thrown in a yearly increasing ratio upon Gentiles, for the Church +property exempted from taxation amounts already to several millions +of dollars, and increases every day; and the treasonable rites of the +Endowment are celebrated, and the inferior members of the Church tithed +and pillaged, for the benefit of the First Presidency and the Twelve +Apostles. Acts also exist legalizing negro and Indian slavery. There are +within the Territory at the present time not more than fifty or sixty +negroes, but there are several hundred Indians, held in servitude. +These are mostly Pyides, into whose country some of the Utah bands make +periodical forays, capturing their young women and children, whom they +sell to the Navajoes in New Mexico, as well as to the Mormons. There are +other acts, which rob the United States judges of their jurisdiction, +civil, criminal, and in equity, and confer it on the Probate Courts; +which forbid the citation of any reports, even those of the Supreme +Court of the United States, during any trial; which regulate the descent +of property so as to include the issue of polygamic marriages among the +legal heirs; which withdraw from exemption from attachment the entire +property of persons suspected of an intention to leave the Territory; +which authorize the invasion of domiciles for purposes of search, upon +the simple order of any judicial officer; which legalize the rendition +of verdicts in civil cases upon the concurrence of two-thirds of the +jurors; which command attorneys to present in court, under penalty +of fine and imprisonment, in all cases, every fact of which they are +cognizant, "whether calculated to make against their clients or not"; +which restrict the institution of proceedings against adulterers to the +husband or the wife of one of the guilty parties; which levy duties +on all goods imported into the Territory for sale; which abolish +the freedom of the ballot-box, by providing that each vote shall be +numbered, and a record kept of the names of the electors with the +numbers attached, which, together with the ballots, shall be preserved +for reference; and which empower the county courts to impose taxes to +an indefinite amount on whomsoever they may please, for the erection +of fortifications within their respective jurisdictions. But the most +extraordinary and unconstitutional series of acts--no less than sixty +in number--exists with regard to the primary disposal of the soil, with +which the Territorial legislature is expressly forbidden by the Organic +Act to interfere. These pretend to confer upon Church dignitaries, and +especially on Brigham Young and his family, tracts of land probably +amounting in the aggregate to more than ten thousand square miles, as +well as the exclusive right to establish bridges and ferries over the +principal rivers in the Territory,--together with the exclusive use of +those streams flowing down from the Wahsatch Mountains which are most +valuable for irrigating and manufacturing purposes. The virtual control +of the settlement of the eastern portion of Utah is thus vested in +the Church; for these grants include almost all the lands which are +immediately valuable for occupation. After a glance at a list of them, +it is not hard to understand the causes of the great disparity in the +distribution of wealth among the Mormons. They have been so allotted as +to benefit a very few at the expense of the whole people; and they are +protected by a terrorism which no one dares to confront in order to +challenge their validity. The majority of the population are ignorant +of their rights,--and too pusillanimous to maintain them against the +hierarchy, if they were not. They therefore contribute to its coffers +not merely their tithing, but heavy exactions also for grazing their +cattle on pastures to which they themselves have just as much title as +the nominal proprietors, and for grinding their grain and purchasing +their lumber at mills on streams which are of right common to all the +settlers on their banks. + +From the Utah Expedition, then, it has become patent to the world, if +it is not to ourselves, that the Mormons are unwilling to administer a +republican form of government, if not incapable of doing so. The author +of the letter recently addressed by "A Man of the Latin Race" to the +Emperor Napoleon, on the subject of French influence in America, +comments especially upon this fact as symptomatic of the disintegration +of this republic; and allusion is made to it in every other foreign +review of our political condition. It is obviously inconsistent with our +national dignity that a remedy should not be immediately applied; but +when we seek for such, only two courses of action are discernible, in +the maze of political quibbles and constitutional scruples that at once +suggest themselves. One is, to repeal the Organic Act and place the +Territory under military control; the other is, to buy the Mormons out +of Utah, offering them a reasonable compensation for the improvements +they have made there, as also transportation to whatever foreign region +they may select for a future abode. + +The embarrassments which might result from the adoption of the former +course are obvious. It would be attended with immense expense, and would +embitter the Mormons still more against the National Government; and +it would also deter Gentiles from emigrating to a region where three +thousand Federal bayonets would constitute the sole guaranty of the +security of their persons and property. + +The other course is not only practicable, but humane and expedient. +During his whole career, Brigham Young committed no greater mistake than +when he settled in Utah a community whose recruits are almost without +exception drawn from foreign lands; for, since the removal from +Illinois, every attempt to propagate Mormonism in the American States +has been a failure. Every avenue of communication with Utah is +necessarily obstructed. No railroad penetrates to within eleven hundred +miles of Salt Lake Valley. There is no watercourse within four hundred +miles, on which navigation is practicable. Neither the Columbia nor the +Colorado empties into seas bordered by nations from which the Mormons +derive accessions; and the length of a voyage up the Mississippi, +Missouri, and Yellowstone forbids any expectation that their channels +will ever become a pathway to the centre of the continent. The road to +Utah must always lead overland, and travel upon it is the more expensive +from the fact that no great passenger-transportation companies exist at +either of the termini. Each family of emigrants must provide its own +outfit of provisions, wagons, and oxen, or mules. Through the agency of +what is called the Perpetual Emigration Fund of the Church, the capital +of which amounts to several millions of dollars,--which was instituted +professedly to befriend, but really to fleece the foreign converts,--few +Englishmen arrive at Salt Lake City without having exhausted their own +means and incurred an amount of debt which it requires the labor of many +years to discharge. The physical sufferings of the journey, also, are +severe and often fatal. The bleak cemetery at Salt Lake City contains +but a small proportion of the Mormon dead. Along the thousand miles of +road from the Missouri River to the Great Lake, there stand, thicker +than milestones, memorials of those who failed on the way. A rough +board, a pile of stones, a grave ransacked by wolves, crown many a swell +of the bottom-lands along the Platte; and across the broad belt of +mountains there is no spot so desolate as to be unmarked by one of these +monuments of the march of Mormonism. + +As these difficulties of transit subside under the surge of population +toward the new State of Oregon, or to the gold-diggings on the +head-waters of the South Fork of the Platte, an element must permeate +Utah which would be fatal to the supremacy of the Church. That depends, +as has been so often repeated, upon isolation. Already the presence of +the army with its crowd of unruly dependents has begun to disturb it. +In the trail of the troops, like sparks shed from a rocket, a legion +of mail-stations and trading-posts have sprung up, which materially +facilitate communication with the East. A horseman, starting now from +Fort Leavenworth, with a good animal, can ride to Salt Lake City, +sleeping under cover every night; while in July, 1857, when the army +commenced its march from the frontier, there were stretches of more than +three hundred miles without a single white inhabitant. On the west, +under the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, there is a settlement of several +thousand Gentiles in Carson Valley, who, though nominally under the same +Territorial government with the Mormons, have no real connection with +them, politically, socially, or commercially, and are petitioning +Congress for a Territorial organisation of their own. A telegraphic wire +has already wound its way over the sierra among them, and will soon +palpitate through Salt Lake City in its progress toward the Atlantic. + +Brigham Young perceives this inevitable advance of Christian +civilization toward his stronghold, as clearly as the most unprejudiced +spectator. No one is better aware than himself, that, if the great +industrial conception of the age, the Pacific Railroad, shall ever begin +to be realized, the first shovelful of dirt thrown on its embankments +will be the commencement of the grave of his religion and authority. +Among the projects with which his brain is busy is that of yet another +exodus; and it must be undertaken speedily, if at all,--for a generation +is growing up in the Church with an attachment for the land in which it +was reared. The pioneers of the faith, who were buffeted from Ohio to +Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois to the Rocky +Mountains, are dwindling every year. Their migrations have been so +various, that no local sentiment would influence them against another +removal. Such a sentiment, if it exists at all among them, is not for +Utah, but for Missouri, where they believe that the capital will be +founded of that kingdom in which the Church in the progress of ages will +unite the world. They dropped upon the shores of the Salt Lake in 1847, +like birds spent upon the wing, only because they could not fly farther. + +Two regions have been suggested for the ultimate resort of the Mormons: +one, the Mosquito Coast in Central America; the other, the Island of +Papua or New Guinea, among the East Indies. During the winter, while +the army lay encamped at Fort Bridger, Colonel Kinney, the colonizing +adventurer, endeavored to communicate from the East to Brigham Young an +offer to sell to the Church several millions of acres of land on the +Mosquito Coast, of which he purports to be the proprietor. His agent, +however, reached no farther than Green River. But during the spring of +1858, other agents, dispatched from California, were more successful in +reaching Salt Lake Valley. They were hospitably received by the Mormons, +but Young declined to enter into the negotiation. The other scheme--that +for an emigration to Papua--originated at Washington during the same +winter. It was eagerly seized upon by Captain Walter Gibson, the same +who was once imprisoned by the Dutch in Java. He put himself into +communication on the subject with Mr. Bernhisel, the Mormon delegate +to Congress, who appeared to regard the plan with favor. After it +was developed, as a step preliminary to transmitting it to Utah for +consideration, Mr. Bernhisel waited upon the President of the United +States in order to ascertain whether the cooperation of the National +Government in the undertaking could be expected. The reply of Mr. +Buchanan was fatal to the project, which he discountenanced as a vague +and wild dream. + +Nevertheless, it may well be considered whether the movement toward Utah +appeared any less Quixotic in 1846 than does the idea of an emigration +to Papua now. On that island the Mormons would encounter no such +obstacles to material prosperity as their indomitable industry has +already conquered in Utah. They would find a fertile soil, a propitious +climate, and a native population which could be trained to docility. +Transplanted thither, they would cease to be a nuisance to America, and +would become benefactors to the world by opening to commerce a region +now valueless to Christendom, but of as great natural capacities as any +portion of the globe. The expense of their migration need not exceed +the amount already expended upon the Army of Utah, together with that +necessary to maintain it in its present position for the next five +years. Into the seats which they would relinquish on the border of +the Salt Lake a sturdy population would pour from the Valley of the +Mississippi, and develop an intelligent, Christian, and Republican +State. That portion of the Mormons which would not follow the fortunes +of the Church beyond the seas would soon become submerged, and the last +vestige of its religion and peculiar domestic life would disappear +speedily and forever from the continent. + +For that consummation, every genuine Christian must fervently pray. If +the Message in the Book of Mormon be, as one of its own Apostles has +asserted, indeed "such, that, if false, none who persist in believing it +can be saved," the sooner this nation washes its hands of responsibility +for its toleration, the better for its credit in history. The +Constitution, to be sure, denies to Congress the power to pass laws +prohibiting the free exercise of religion; but it is the most monstrous +nonsense to argue that the Federal Government is bound thereby to +connive at polygamy, perjury, incest, and murder. There are principles +of social order which constitute the political basis of every state in +Christendom, that are violated by the practices of the Mormon Church, +and which this Republic is bound to maintain without regard to any +pretence that their transgressors act in pursuance of religious belief. +Thirty years ago, no other doctrine would have occurred to the mind +of an American statesman. It is only the special-pleadings and +constitutional hair-splittings by which Slavery has been forced under +national protection, that now impede Congressional intervention in the +affairs of Utah. The Christian Church of the United States, also, has a +duty to perform toward the Mormons, which has long been neglected. While +its missionaries have been shipped by the score to India and China, it +has been blind to the growth, upon the threshold of its own temple, of a +pagan religion more corrupt than that of the Brahmin. Never once has a +Christian preacher opened his lips in the valleys of Utah; and yet the +surplice of a Christian priest would be a sight more portentous to the +Mormon, on his own soil, than the bayonet of the Federal soldier. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +The next day, Monroe went with the artist to good Mr. Holworthy, +and proposed to undertake the task of instructing a school. The +preliminaries were speedily arranged: he was to receive a small weekly +stipend, enough, with prudence, to meet his household expenses, and +was to commence at once. Both of the gentlemen accompanied him to the +quarter where his labor was to begin. A large room was hired in a +rickety and forlorn-looking house; the benches for the scholars and a +small desk and chair were the only furniture. And such scholars!--far +different from the delicate, curled darlings of the private schools. The +new teacher found his labor sufficiently discouraging. It was nothing +less than the civilization of a troop of savages. Everything was to be +done; manners, speech, moral instincts, were all equally depraved. They +were to be taught neatness, respect, truth-telling, as well as the usual +branches of knowledge. It was like the task of the pioneer settler in +the wilderness, who must uproot trees, drain swamps, burn briers and +brambles, exterminate hurtful beasts, and prepare the soil for the +reception of the seeds that are to produce the future harvest. We leave +him with his charge, while we attend to other personages of our story. + +Mr. Sandford and his sister, upon leaving their house, took lodgings, +and then began to cast about them for the means of support. The money on +which he had relied was gone. His credit was utterly destroyed, and he +had no hope of being reinstated in his former position. The only way +he could possibly be useful in the street was by becoming a curbstone +broker, a go-between, trusted by neither borrower nor lender, and +earning a precarious livelihood by commissions. Even in that position +he felt that he should labor under disadvantages, for he knew that his +course had been universally condemned. It was a matter of every-day +experience for him to meet old acquaintances who looked over him, or +across the street, or in at shop-windows, to avoid recognition. And the +half-patronizing, half-contemptuous nods he did receive were far worse +to bear than downright cuts. + +To a man out of employment, proscribed, marked, there is nothing so +terrible as the _impenetrability_ of the close ranks of society around +him. Every busy man seems to have found his place; each locks step with +his neighbor, and the vast procession moves on. Once out of the serried +order, the unhappy wretch can never resume his position. He finds +himself the fifth wheel of a coach; there is nothing for him to do,--no +place for him at the bountiful board where others are fed. He may starve +or drown himself, as he likes; the world has no use for him, and will +not miss him. What Sandford felt, as he walked along the streets, may +well be imagined. If he had not been supported by the indomitable +courage and assurance of his sister, he would have sunk to the level of +a pauper. + +One day, as he was passing a church, his eye was caught by a placard at +the door, inviting, in bold letters, "friend, stranger, or traveller +to enter, if but for a few minutes." It was a "business-men's +prayer-meeting." The novelty of the idea struck him; he was at leisure; +he had no notes to pay; anybody might fail, for aught he cared. He went +in, and, to his surprise, saw, among the worshippers, scores of his old +friends, engaged in devotion. Like himself, they had, many of them, +failed, and, after the loss of all temporal wealth, had turned their +attention to the "more durable riches." He fell into a profound +meditation, from which he did not recover until the meeting ended. + +The next day he returned, and the day following, also,--taking a seat +each time a little nearer the desk, until at last he reached the front +row of benches, where he was to be seen at every service. It is not +necessary to speculate upon his motives, or to conjecture how far +he deceived himself in his professions,--if, indeed, there was any +deception in the case. Let him have the benefit of whatever doubt there +may be. The leading religious men _hoped_, without feeling any great +confidence; the world, especially the business world, mocked and +derided. + +But piety, in itself, however heartfelt, does not clothe or feed its +possessor, and Mr. Sandford, even with that priceless gift, must find +some means of supplying his temporal wants. His new friends had plenty +of advice for him, and some of them would have been glad to furnish +him with employment; but none of them were so well satisfied with the +sincerity of his conversion as to trust him far. It was not to be +wondered, after his exploits on the day of his failure, that there +should be a reasonable shyness on the part of those who had money which +they could not afford or did not choose to give away. It was quite +remarkable to see the change produced when the subject was introduced. +Faces, that a few minutes before had shone with tearful joy or rapturous +aspirations, full of brotherly affection, would suddenly cool, and +contract, and grow severe, when Sandford broached the one topic that was +nearest to him. He found that there was no way of escaping from the +law of compensation by appropriating the results of other men's +labors,--that religion (very much to his disappointment) gave him no +warrant to live in idleness; therefore he was fain to do what he could +for himself. He tried to act as a curb-stone broker, as an insurance +agent, as an adjuster of marine losses and averages, as an itinerant +solicitor for a life-insurance company, as an accountant, and in various +other situations. All in vain. He was shunned like an escaped convict; +the motley suit itself would hardly have added to his disgrace. No one +put faith in him or gave him employment,--save in a few instances, for +charity's sake. Few men can brave a city; and Sandford, certainly, was +not the man to do it. The scowling, or suspicious, or contemptuous, +pitying glances he encountered smote him as with fiery swords. He +quailed; he cowered; he dropped his eyes; he acquired a stooping, +shambling gait. The man who _feels_ that he is looked down upon grows +more diminutive in his own estimation, until he shrinks into the place +which the world assigns him. So Sandford shrunk, until he crept through +the streets where once he had walked erect, and earned a support as +meagre and precarious as the more brazen-faced and ragged of the great +family of mendicants, to which he was gravitating. + +Mendicants,--an exceeding great army! They do not all knock at +area-doors for old clothes and broken victual, nor hold out hats at +street-crossings, nor expose sharp-faced babies to win pity, nor send +their infant tatterdemalions to torture the ears of the wealthy with +scratchy fiddles and wheezing accordions. No, these plagues of society +are only the extreme left wing; the right wing is a very respectable +class in the community. The party-leader who makes his name and +influence serve him in obtaining loans which he never intends to +pay,--shall we call him a beggar? It is an ugly word. The parasite +who makes himself agreeable to dinner-givers, who calculates upon his +accomplishments as a stock in trade, intending that his brains shall +feed his stomach,--what is he, pray? It is ungracious to stigmatize +such a jolly dog. The woman whose fingers are hooped with rings won +in wagers which gallantry or folly could not decline, who is ready by +_philopaena_, or even by more direct suggestions, to lay every beau or +acquaintance under contribution,--is she a beggar, too? It is a long +way, to be sure, from the girl with scanty and draggled petticoat and +tangled hair, picking out lumps of coal from ash-heaps, or carrying home +refuse from the tables of the rich,--a long way from that squalid object +to the richly-cloaked, furred, bonneted, jewelled, flaunting lady, whose +friends are all _so_ kind. + +But the most charitable must feel a certain degree of pity, if not of +scorn, for those who, like Mr. and Miss Sandford, contrive to wear the +outward semblance of respectability, boarding with fashionable people +and wearing garments _à la mode_, while they have neither fortune nor +visible occupation. Miss Sandford, to be sure, had a few pupils in +music,--young friends, who, as she averred, "insisted upon practising +with her, although she did not profess to give lessons," not she. Still +her toilet was as elegant as ever. The first appearance of a new style +of cloak, a new pattern of silk or embroidery, new ribbons, laces, +jewelry, might be observed, as she took her morning promenade. The +dealers in rich goods, elegant trifles, costly nothings, all knew her +well. Whatever satisfied her artistic taste she purchased. To see was to +desire, and, in some way, all she coveted tended by a magical attraction +to her rooms. "Society" frowned upon her; she went to no receptions in +the higher circles, but she had no lack of associates for all that. +At concerts and other public assemblages, her brilliant figure and +irreproachable costume were always to be seen,--the admiration of men, +the envy of women. Nor was she without gallants. Gentlemen flocked about +her, and seemed only too happy in her smiles; but it never happened that +their wives or sisters joined in their attentions. On fine days, as she +came out for a walk, she was sure to be accompanied by some person whose +dress and manners marked him as belonging to the wealthy classes; and +at such times it generally happened,--according to the scandal-loving +shopkeepers,--that the last new book, the little "love" of a ring, or +the engraved scent-bottle was purchased. + +An odd affair is Society. At its outposts are flaming swords for women, +though invisible to other eyes; men can venture without the lines, if +they only return at roll-call. Let a woman receive or visit one of the +_demi-monde_, (the technical use of the word is happily inapplicable +here,) and she might as well earn her living by her own labor, or do +any other disreputable thing; but her brother may pay court to the most +doubtful, and mothers will only shake their heads and say, "He _must_ +sow his wild oats; he'll get over all that by-and-by." + +So the beauty was still queen in her circle, and found admirers in +plenty. Perhaps she even enjoyed the freedom; for, to a woman of spirit, +the constraints of _taboo_ must be irksome at times. Not the Brahmin, +who fears to tread upon sole-leather from the sacred cow, and dares +not even think of the flavor of her forbidden beef, who keeps himself +haughtily aloof from the soldier and the trader, and walks sunward from +the pariah, lest the polluting shadow fall on his holy person, has a +more difficult and engrossing occupation than the woman of fashion, in +a country where the distinctions of rank are so purely factitious as in +ours. Miss Sandford's time was now her own; she was accountable to no +supervisor. Her brother was a cipher. He did not venture to intrude upon +her, except at seasons when she was at leisure, and in a humor to be +bored by him. Perhaps she looked back regretfully, but, as far as could +be told by her manner, she carried herself proudly, with the air of one +who says,-- + + "Better reign in hell than serve in heaven." + +The observant reader has doubtless wondered before this, that Mr. +Sandford did not, in his emergency, apply to his old clerk, Fletcher, +for the money in exchange for the peculiar obligation of which mention +has been made. It is presuming too much upon Mr. Sandford's stupidity +to suppose that the idea had not frequently occurred to him. But he was +satisfied that Fletcher was one of the few who were making money in this +time of general distress, and that with every day's acquisition the +paper became more valuable; therefore, as it was his last trump, he +preferred to play it when it would sweep the board; and he was willing +to live in any way until the proper time came. Not so easy was Fletcher. +Several times he attempted to pay the claim, so that he could once more +hold his head erect as a free man. But Sandford smiled blandly; "he was +in no hurry," he said; "Mr. Fletcher evidently had money, and was good +for the amount." Poor Fletcher!--walking about with a rope around his +neck,--a long rope now, and slack,--but held by a man who knows not what +pity means! + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +Greenleaf pursued his search for Alice with all the ardor of his nature. +One glimpse only he had of her;--at a clothing-store, where he inquired, +the clerk seemed to recognize the description given, and was quite +sure that such a girl had taken out work, but he knew nothing of +her whereabouts, and he believed she was now employed by another +establishment. It was something to know that she was in the city, and, +probably, not destitute; still better to know what path of life she had +chosen, so that his time need not be wasted in fruitless inquiries. +On his return, after the second day's search, he sought his friend +Easelmann, whose counsel and sympathy he particularly desired. + +"Any tidings of the fugitive?" was the first question. + +"No," replied Greenleaf,--"nothing satisfactory. I have heard of her +once; but it was like a trail in the woods, which the hunter comes upon, +then loses utterly." + +"But the hunter who measures a track once will be likely to find it +again." + +"Yes, I have that consolation. But, Easelmann, though this mishap of +losing Alice has cost me many sleepless nights, and will continue to +engross my time until I find her, I cannot rid myself of other troubles +and apprehensions. I have done nothing for a long time. I have no +orders; and, as I have no fortune to fall back upon, I see nothing but +starvation before me." + +"Then, my dear fellow, look the other way. It isn't wise to distress +yourself by looking ahead, so long as you have the chance of turning +round." + +"I feel lonely, too,--isolated. People that I meet are civil enough; +but I don't know a man, except in my profession, that I can consider a +friend." + +"Very likely. Caste isn't confined to India." + +"I had supposed that intellect and culture were enough to secure for +a man a recognition in good society; but I am made to feel, a hundred +times a day, that I have no more _status_ than a clever colored man, an +itinerant actor, or any other anomaly. To-day I met Travis; you know he +comes here and makes himself free and easy with us, and has always put +himself on a footing of equality." + +"Wherein you made a mistake. He has no right, but by courtesy, to +any equality. A little taste, perhaps, and money enough to gratify +it,--that's all. He never had an idea in his life." + +"That is the reason I felt the slight. He was walking with a lady whose +manner and dress were unmistakable,--a lady of undoubted position. I +bowed, and received in return one of those hardly-perceptible nods, with +a forced smile that covered only the side of his face _from_ the lady. +It was a recognition that one might throw to his boot-black. I am a +mild-mannered man, as you know; but I could have murdered him on the +spot." + +Greenleaf walked the floor with flashing eyes and his teeth set. + +"Now, I like the spirit," said Easelmann; "but, pray, be sensible. +'Where Macdonald sits, there is the head of the table.' Stand firm in +your own shoes, and graduate your bows by those you get." + +"I suppose I am thin-skinned." + +"As long as you are, you will chafe. Cultivate a hide like a +rhinoceros's, and Society will let fly its pin-pointed arrows in vain. +You have a great deal to learn, my dear boy." + +"But other special classes are not so treated,--literary men, for +instance." + +"Don't be too sure of that. An author who has attained position is +_fêted_, because the fashionable circles must have their lions. But to +stand permanently like other men, he must have money or family, or else +obey the world's ten commandments, of which the first is, 'Thou shalt +not wear a slouched hat,'--and the rest are like unto it. No,--the +literary men have their heart-burnings, I suspect. They forget, as you +do, that their very profession, the direction of their thoughts, their +mode of life, cut them off from sympathy and fellowship. What has a +writer who dreams of rivalling Emerson or the 'Autocrat' to do with +costly and absorbing private theatricals, with dances at Papanti's, with +any of the thousand modes of killing time agreeably? And how shall you +become the new Claude, if you give your thoughts to the style of your +clothes, and to the inanities that make up the staple of conversation?" + +"But because I am precluded from devoting my time to society, that is no +reason why I should bear the patronizing airs"---- + +"Don't be patronized,--that's all. If a man gives you such a look as +you have described, cut him dead the next time you meet him. If anybody +gives you two fingers to shake, give him only one of yours. I tried that +plan on a doctor of divinity once, and it worked admirably. His intended +condescension somehow vanished in a mist, and the foolish confusion that +overspread his blank features would have done you good to behold." + +"I have no doubt. I don't think it would be easy to be impertinent to +you. Not that there are not presuming people enough; but you have a +way with you. Your blade that cuts off a bayonet at a blow will glide +through a feather as well." + +"A delicate stroke of yours! Now to return. You are out of money, you +say. Perhaps you will allow me to become your creditor for a while. I +may presume upon the relation and take on some airs;--that's inevitable; +one can't forego such a privilege;--but I promise to bow very civilly +whenever I meet you; and I won't remind you of the debt--above twice a +day." + +Taking out his pocket-book, he handed his friend fifty dollars, and +_pshawed_ and _poohed_ at every expression of gratitude. + +"By the way, Greenleaf," he continued, "I have been in search of an +absconding female also. You remember Mrs. Sandford, the charming widow?" + +"Yes,--what has become of her?" + +"You see how philosophical I am. I have not seen her yet; and yet I am +not crazy about it. Some chickens think the sky is falling, whenever a +rose-leaf drops on their heads." + +"But you have no such reason to be anxious." + +"Haven't I? Do you think old fellows like me have lost recollection as +well as feeling? One of the most deadly cases of romance I ever knew was +between people of forty and upwards." + +"How dull I was! I saw some rather odd glances between you at the +musical party, but thought nothing more about it. But why haven't you +been looking for her?" + +"I have been cogitating," said Easelmann, twisting his moustaches. + +"I should think so. If you had asked me, now! I went with her to the +house where I suppose she is still boarding." + +"Did you?" [_very indifferently, and with the falling inflection._] + +"Why, don't you want to know?" + +"Yes,--to-morrow. And I think, that, when we find her, we may find a +clue to your Alice." + +Greenleaf started up as if he had been galvanized. + +"You _have_ seen her, then! You old fox! Where is she? To-morrow, +indeed! Tell me, and I will fly." + +"You can't; for, as Brother Chadband observed, you haven't any wings." + +"Don't trifle with me. I know your fondness for surprises; but if you +love me, don't put me off with your nonsense." + +Greenleaf was thoroughly in earnest, and Easelmann took a more +soothing tone. At another time the temptation to tease would have been +irresistible. + +"Be calm, you man of gunpowder, steel, whalebone, and gutta-percha! I +positively have nothing but guesses to give you. Besides, do you think +you have nothing to do but rush into Alice's arms when you find her? +Take some valerian to quiet your nerves, and go to bed. In the morning, +try to smooth over those sharp features of yours. Use rouge, if you +can't get up your natural color. When you are presentable, come over +here again, and we'll stroll out in search of adventure. But mind, I +promise nothing,--I only guess." + +While he spoke, Greenleaf looked into the mirror, and was surprised to +see how anxiety had worn upon him. His face was thin and bloodless, and +his eyes sunken, but glowing. The quiet influence of his friend calmed +him, and his impatience subsided. He took his leave silently, wringing +Easelmann's hand, and walked home with a lighter heart. + +"He is a good fellow," mused Easelmann, "and has suffered enough for his +folly. The lesson will do him good." + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Mr. Bullion was not without good natural impulses, but his education and +experience had been such as to develop only the sharp and selfish traits +of his character. An orphan at the age of eleven years, he was placed +in a shop under the charge of a grasping, unscrupulous man, where he +learned the rules of business which he followed afterwards with so much +success. The old-fashioned notions about the Golden Rule he was speedily +well rid of; for when his indiscreet frankness to customers was +observed, the rod taught him the folly of untimely truth-telling, if not +the propriety of smoothing the way to a bargain by a glib falsehood. +With such training, he grew up an expert salesman; and before he was of +age, after various changes in business, he became the confidential clerk +in a large wholesale house. Owing to unexpected reverses, the house +became embarrassed, and at length failed. The head of the firm went back +to his native town a broken-hearted man, and not long afterwards died, +leaving his family destitute. But Bullion, with a junior partner, +settled with the creditors, kept on with the business, and prospered. +Perhaps, if the widow had received what was rightfully hers, the juniors +would have had a smaller capital to begin upon,--Bullion knew; but the +account, if there was one, was past settlement by human tribunals, and +had gone upon the docket in the great Court of Review. + +Wealth grows like the banian, sending down branches that take root on +all sides in the thrifty soil, and then become trunks themselves, and +the parents of ever-increasing boughs,--a sturdy forest in breadth, a +tree in unity. So Bullion grew and flourished. At the time of our story +he was rich enough to satisfy any moderate ambition; but he wished to +rear a colossal fortune, and the operations he was now concerned in +were fortunate beyond his expectations. But he was not satisfied. He +conceived the idea of carrying on the same stock-speculation in New +York on a larger scale, and made an arrangement with one of the leading +"bears" of that city; but he was careful to keep this a secret, most of +all from Fletcher and others of his associates at home. Fortune favored +him, as usual, and he promised himself a success that would make him a +monarch in the financial world. Under the excitement of the moment, he +had filled the baby hands of Fletcher's child with gold pieces. It was +as Fletcher said; his head was fairly turned by the glittering prospect +before him. + +The associate in New York proposed to Bullion the purchase of a +controlling interest in a railroad; and Bullion, believing that the +depression had nearly reached its limit, and that affairs would soon +take a turn, agreed that it was best now to change their policy, and to +buy all the shares in this stock that should be offered while the price +was low, and keep them as an investment. He felt sure that he with the +New York capitalist had now money enough to "swing" all the shares in +market, and they each agreed to purchase all that should be brought +to the hammer in their respective cities. Following up his promise +faithfully, Bullion bought all the stock of the railroad that came into +State Street, and in this way rapidly exhausted his ready money. Then he +raised loans upon his other property, and still kept the market clear. +But he wondered that so many shares came to Boston for sale; for the +railroad was in a Western State, and few of the original holders were +New England men. + +Bullion now met the first check in his career. Kerbstone, whose appeals +for help he had disregarded, and whose property had been wofully +depreciated by the course of the "bears," of whom Bullion was chief, +failed for a large sum. As he was treasurer of the Neversink Mills, +the stockholders and creditors of that corporation made an immediate +investigation of its accounts. Kerbstone was found to be a defaulter +to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars; the property was +gone,--undermined like a snow-bank in spring. The largest owner was +Bullion. He was overreached by his own shrewdness; and the hitherto +unlucky "bulls," who had had small cause to laugh, thought that it was + + "sport to see the engineer + Hoist with his own petard,"-- + +better even than to have tossed him on their own horns. + +Bullion made some wry faces; but the loss, though great, was not +ruinous. He was obliged, however, to take back the shares of the +factory-stock on which he had obtained loans for his New York +operations, and to substitute an equal amount of other securities,--thus +cramping his resources at a time when he needed every dollar to carry +out his vast plans. + +In the multiplicity of his affairs, Bullion had almost forgotten +Fletcher, and left him to pursue his own course. But there was a man who +had not forgotten him, and who followed all his movements with vigilant +eyes. Sandford was convinced that Fletcher had in some way become +prosperous, and he now advanced to use the peculiar note as a draft on +the miserable debtor's funds. There was the same wily approach, the same +covert allusion to Fletcher's supposed resources, the same peremptory +demand, and the same ugly threat which had so desperately maddened him +when the subject was broached before. Fletcher felt the tightening of +the lasso, but could not free himself from the fatal noose. He must pay +whatever the cold-eyed creditor demanded. Two thousand dollars was the +sum asked for the acknowledgment of having appropriated five hundred. +Twopence for halfpenny has been accounted fair usury among the Jews; but +in Christian communities it is only crime that accumulates interest like +that. + +As a measure of precaution, Sandford had made a copy of the paper and +prepared an explanatory statement; these he now inclosed in an envelope, +in Fletcher's presence, and directed it to Messrs. Foggarty, Danforth, +and Dot. Then drawing out his watch, as if to make a careful computation +of time, he said,-- + +"Nine, ten, eleven,--yes,--at eleven, to-morrow, I shall expect to +receive the sum; otherwise I shall feel it my duty to send this letter +by a trusty hand. In fact, I suppose I have hardly done right in not +putting the gentlemen on their guard before." + +A cold sweat covered Fletcher's shivering limbs, and for a moment he +stood irresolute; but recollecting Bullion, he rallied himself, and, +assenting to the proposition, bade Sandford good-bye; then, as the only +revenge practicable, he cursed him with the heartiest emphasis, when +his back was turned. Presently Tonsor came with the news of Kerbstone's +failure. + +"The street is full of rumors," he said;--"Bullion is a large owner in +the Neversink." + +"Bosh!" said Fletcher,--"Bullion is in there for fifty thousand, to be +sure; but what is that? He has other property enough,--half a million, +at least." + +"Still, a pebble brought down Goliath. A house in New York, worth a +million, failed yesterday for want of twenty-five thousand." + +"Don't you be alarmed. Bullion knows. He isn't going to fail." + +"I want to get ten thousand from him to take some shares I bought for +him." + +"How soon?" + +"Now; and he is not at his office." + +"I'll get you the money from our house. I haven't deposited the funds +for to-day yet, and I'll put in a memorandum which Bullion will make +good." + +"Hadn't you better wait?" + +"No; it doesn't matter. He's all right; and it isn't best to break his +orders for any ten thousand dollars." + +Fletcher handed the money to the broker, and, as bank-hours were then +about over, he put his papers in order and went home. + +"Lovey!" he exclaimed, upon meeting his wife, "I have been thinking +over what you said about getting my notes cashed. I believe I'll take +Bullion's offer and salt the money down. Probably, now, he will give me +a better trade, for there is considerable more due." + +"Oh, John! how glad I am! You _will_ do it to-morrow,--won't you, now?" + +"Yes, I'll settle with him to-morrow." + +He was thinking of the fact that Tonsor had bought shares for Bullion, +and he wondered what the move meant. A house divided against itself +could not stand; and he said to himself, that a man must be uncommonly +deep to be a "bull" and a "bear" at the same time. There was no doubt +that Bullion had embarked in some speculation which he had not seen fit +to make known to his agent. + +"There you go,--off into one of your fogs again!" said the wife, +noticing his suddenly abstracted air. "That's the way you have done for +the last three months,--ever since you began with that hateful man." + +"I get to thinking about affairs, my little woman, and I don't want to +bother your simple head with them; so I go cruising off in the fog, as +you call it, by myself." + +"Oh, if you once get through with that man's affairs, we'll have no more +fogs!" + +"No, deary, we'll have summer weather and a smooth sea, I hope, for the +rest of our voyage." + +"You see, John, I have been dreadfully anxious, more than I could tell +you. If anything goes wrong, I've always noticed that it isn't the big +people that have to suffer; it's the smaller ones that get caught." + +"Yes, it's an old story; the big flies break out of the spider's net; +the little chaps hang there. But I'll settle up the business to-morrow. +I shall have enough to buy us a little house in the country,--a snug +box, with a garden; then I'll get a horse to drive about with, and we'll +take some comfort. Come, little woman, sit on my knee! Come, baby, here +is a knee for you, too!" + +Holding them in his arms, he still mused upon the morrow, and once and +again charged his mind to remember "two thousand for Sandford, ten +thousand for Danforth and Dot!" + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Alice did not feel the utter loneliness of her situation, until, as she +walked along, square after square, she encountered so many hundreds of +abstracted or curious or impudent faces, and reflected that it was upon +such people that her future support and comfort would depend. She tried +to discover in some countenance the impress of kindly benevolence;--not +that she proposed to risk so much as a question; but it was her first +experience with the busy world, and she wished to observe its ways, +when neither relationship nor personal interest was involved. Small +encouragement she would have felt to approach any that she met. Men of +middle-age walked by as in dreams, cold, unobservant, listless; the +younger ones, fuller of life, strode on with high heads, and flinging +glances that were harder to bear than stony indifference, even. Ladies +clothed in costly furs scanned the pretty face under the mourning bonnet +with prying eyes, or tossed her a hasty, scornful look. Shop-girls +giggled and stared. Boys rushed by, rudely jostling every passenger. +Old women in scanty petticoats that were fringed by no dressmaker, with +pinched faces and watery eyes, looked imploringly and hobbled along, +wrapping parcels of broken victual under their faded shawls.--A sorry +world Alice thought it. In the country, she had been used to receive a +kindly bow or a civil "Good-morning!" from every person she met; and the +isolation of the individual in the city was to her something unnatural, +even appalling. + +She had cut out some boarding-house advertisements from the daily +papers, and her first care was to find a home suited to her slender +means. Reaching the door of the first on her list, she rang and was +shown into a small drawing-room, shabby-genteel in its furniture and +ornaments. Two seamstresses sat chattering around the centre-table; +while a ruddy young man, with greenish brown moustaches and sandy hair, +rested his clumsy boots on the fender, holding an open music-book in his +lap and a flute in his ill-kept and gaudily-ringed hands. The kitchen, +apparently, was not ventilated; and a mingled odor, beyond the analysis +of chemistry, came up into the entry and pervaded the hot and confined +atmosphere of the room. The landlady, a stout and resolute woman, +entered with a studied smile, which changed gradually to a cold +civility. Her eyes, unlike Banquo's, had a deal of speculation in them. +One might read the price-current in the busy wrinkles. Around her +pursed-up mouth lurked the knowledge of the number of available slices +in a sirloin,--the judgment of the lump of butter that should leave no +margin for prodigality. Warfare with market-men, shrewish watchfulness +over servants, economy scarcely removed from meanness at the table, all +were clearly indicated in her flushed and hard-featured face. + +Alice was not familiar with such people; but she shrank from her by +instinct, as the first chicken fled from the first hawk. The landlady, +on her part, was equally suspicious, and, finding that Alice had no +relatives to depend upon, and that she expected to earn her own living, +was not at all solicitous to increase the number of her boarders. + +"It's pootty hard to tell who's who, now-a-days," she said. "I have to +pay cash for all I set on the table, and I can't trust to fair promises. +Perhaps, though, you've got some _cousin_ that looks arter your bills?" + +The flute-player exchanged knowing glances with the seamstresses. + +All-unconscious of the taunt, Alice simply replied,-- + +"No, I have told you that I have no one to depend upon." + +The landlady's mouth was primly set, and she merely exclaimed,-- + +"Oh! indeed!" + +"I think I'll look further," said Alice. "Good-morning." + +"Good-morning." + +Half-suppressed chuckles followed her, as she left the room. Sorely +grieved and indignant, she took her way to another house. Fortune this +time favored her. The landlady, a kind-hearted woman, was in mourning +for her only daughter, and with the first words she heard she felt +her heart drawn to the lovely and soft-voiced stranger. Without any +offensive inquiries, Alice was at once received, and an upper room +assigned to her. After sending for her trunk, she dressed for dinner. + +The table presented specimens of all the familiar characters of +boarding-house life. There was the lawyer, sharp, observant, talkative, +ready for a joke or an argument. There was the solemn man of business, +who ate from a sense of duty, and scowled at the lawyer's bad puns. Near +him, with an absurdly youthful wig and opaque goggles, sat the Unknown; +his name, occupation, resources, and tastes alike a profound mystery. +Several dapper clerks, whose right ears drooped from having been used as +pen-racks, wearing stunning cravats, _outré_ brooches and shirt-studs, +learned in the lore of "two-forty" driving, were ranged opposite. Then +there was the jolly widow, who was the admiration of men of her own age, +but who cruelly gave all her smiles to the boys with newly-sprouting +chins. Near her sat the fastidious man, whose nostrils curled ominously +when any stain appeared on his napkin, or when anything sullied the +virgin purity of his own exclusive fork. His spectacles seemed to serve +as microscopes, made for the sole purpose of detecting some fatal speck +invisible to other eyes. There was the singer, with a neck like +a swan's, bowing with the gracious air that is acquired in the +acknowledgment of bouquets and _bravas_. The artist was her _vis-à-vis_, +powerful like Samson in his bushy locks, negligent with fore-thought, +wearing a massive seal-ring, and fragrant with the perfume of countless +pipes. The nice old maid near him turns away in disgust when she sees +his moustaches draggle in the soup. + +Down the long row of faces Alice looked timidly, and at length fastened +her eyes upon a lady in mourning like herself. There is no physiognomist +like the frank, affectionate young man or woman who looks to find +appreciation and sympathy. It is not necessary, for such a purpose, to +speculate upon Grecian or Roman noses, thin or protruding lips, blue, +gray, or brown eyes; each soul knows its own sphere and the people that +belong in it; and a sure instinct or prescience guides us in our choice +of friends. Alice at a glance became conscious of an affinity, and +quietly waited till circumstances should bring her into associations +with the woman whom she hoped to make a friend. + +It was not long before the occasion came. Not to make any mystery, it +was our old acquaintance, Mrs. Sandford, who attracted the gaze of +Alice, and who soon became her kindly adviser. Never was there a more +_motherly_ woman; and, as she was now almost a stranger in the house, +she attached herself to Alice with a warmth and an unobtrusive +solicitude that quite won the girl's heart. Alice lost no time in +procuring such work from a tailor as she felt competent to do, and +applied herself diligently to her task; but a very short trial convinced +her, that, at the "starvation prices" then paid for needlework, she +should not be able to earn even her board. Then came in the thoughtful +friend, who, after gently drawing out the facts of the case, furnished +her with sewing on which she could display her taste and skill. Day +after day new employment came through the same kind hands, until Alice +wondered how one wearer could want such a quantity of the various +nameless, tasteful articles in which all women feel so much pride. +It was not until long after, that she learned how the work had been +procured by her friend's active, but noiseless agency. + +Not many days after their intimacy commenced, as Mrs. Sandford sat +watching Alice at her work, it occurred to her that there was a look of +tender sorrow, an unexplained melancholy, which her recent bereavement +did not wholly account for. Not that the girl was given to romantic +sighs or tragic starts, or that she carried a miniature for lachrymose +exercises; but it was evident that she had what we term "a history." She +was frank and cheerful, although there was palpably something kept +back, and her cheerfulness was like the mournful beauty of flowers that +blossom over graves. No sympathetic nature could refuse confidence to +Mrs. Sandford, and it was not long before she discovered that Alice had +passed through the golden gate to which all footsteps tend, and from +which no one comes back except with a change that colors all the after +life. + +"And so you are in love, poor child!" said Mrs. Sandford, +compassionately. + +"I have been" (with a gentle emphasis). + +"Ah, you think you are past it now, I suppose?" + +"I sha'n't _forget_ soon,--I could not, if I would; but love is +over,--gone like yesterday's sunshine." + +"But the sun shines again to-day." + +"Well, if you prefer another comparison," said Alice, smiling +faintly,--"gone out like yesterday's fire." + +"Fire lurks a long time in the ashes unseen, my dear." + +Alice dropped her needle and looked steadily at her companion. + +"I am young," she said; "yet I have outgrown the school-girl period. +The current of my life has flowed in a deep channel: the shallow little +brook may fancy its first spring-freshet to be a Niagara; but my +feelings have swelled with no transient overflow. I gave my utmost love +and devotion to a man I thought worthy. He treated me with neglect, and +at last falsified his word in offering his hand to another, I do not +hate him. I have none of that alchemy which changes despised love to +gall. But I could never forgive him, nor trust him again. And if he, +who seemed always so frank, so earnest, so tender, so single in his +aims,--if he could not be trusted, I do not know where I could rest my +heart and say,--'Here I am safe, whatever betide!'" + +It was a strange thing for Alice to speak in such an exalted strain, and +she trembled as she tried to resume her sewing. The thread slipped and +knotted; the needle broke and pricked her finger; and then, feeling her +cheeks begin to glow, she laid down her work and turned to the window. + +"Don't lose _all_ faith, Alice; there are true hearts in the world. +Perhaps this lover of yours, now, has repented and is striving to find +you. Or you may have been misinformed as to the extent of his treachery. +To take your own simile, you don't accuse the brook of fickleness merely +because it eddies around under some flowery bank; after it has made the +circle, it keeps on its steady course." + +Alice only shook her head, still keeping her face averted to conceal the +tremor of her lips. + +"But you haven't told me who this man is. How odd it would be, if I knew +him!" + +"I would rather not have you know. The secret isn't a fatal one, to be +sure; but I prefer to keep it." + +Suddenly she stepped back from the window, ashy pale, and gasping +hysterically. Mrs. Sandford rose hastily to assist her, and, as she +did so, noticed her old acquaintance, Mr. Greenleaf, on the opposite +sidewalk. She helped Alice to her seat and brought her a glass of +water, and, as she did so, in an instant the long track of the past was +illumined as by a flash of lightning. She saw the reason for Greenleaf's +conduct towards her sister-in-law, Marcia. She remembered his early +fascination, his long, vacillating resistance, his brief engagement, and +the stormy scene when it was broken. She had seen the thread of Fate +spun for each, without knowing that invisible strands connected them. +She had begun to read a tale of sorrow, but the page was torn, and now +she had finished it upon the chance-found fragment; the irregular and +jagged edges fitted together like mosaic-work. + +What a mystery is Truth! A Lie may simulate its form or hue, and, taken +by itself, may deceive the most acute observer. But in the affairs of +the world, every fact is related; it meets and is joined by other facts +on every side,--the whole forming an harmonious figure in all its angles +and curves as well as in its gradations of color. Each truth slips +easily into its predestined place; a lie, however trivial, has no place; +its angles are belligerent, its colors false; it makes confusion, and is +thrown out as soon as the eye of the Master falls upon it. + +Alice revived. + +"Did I speak?" she asked. + +"No,--you said nothing." + +"I am glad. I feared I had been foolish. It was a mere passing +faintness." + +Mrs. Sandford thought it was the _cause_ of the faintness that was +passing, but she prudently kept her discovery to herself. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Fletcher rose next morning betimes, after a night of fitful and +unrefreshing slumber. In his dreams he had sought Bullion in vain; that +substantial person seemed to have become a new Proteus, and to +escape, when nearly overtaken, by taking refuge in some unexpected +transformation. Sometimes the scene changed, and it was the dreamer that +was flying, while Sandford, shod with swiftness, pursued him, swinging +a lasso; and as often as the fierce hunter whirled the deadly coil, +Fletcher awoke with a suffocating sensation, and a cold sweat trickling +from his forehead. At breakfast, his wife noticed with intense anxiety +his sharpened features and his evident preoccupation of mind. He hurried +off, snatching a kiss from the baby and from the mother who held it, and +walked towards Bullion's office. He knew Bullion was an early riser, +and he felt sure of being able to see him before the usual hour of +commencing business. But the office was not even opened; and, looking +through the glass door, he saw that there was no fire in the grate. What +was the meaning of this? Going into the street, he met Tonsor near the +post-office. At the first sight of the broker's face, Fletcher's heart +seemed to stop beating. + +"Good-morning, Fletcher. Bad business, this! I suppose you've heard. +Bullion went to protest yesterday. Hope you got wind of it in time, and +made all safe." + +"Bullion failed!" exclaimed Fletcher, through his chattering teeth. +"Then I'm a ruined man!" + +But a sudden thought struck him, and he asked eagerly,-- + +"But the money,--haven't you got it still?" + +"No,--paid it over yesterday." + +"Well, the shares, then?" + +"No,--sorry to say, Bullion's clerk came for them not ten minutes before +I heard of the protest." + +"O God!" groaned the unhappy man, "there is no hope! But you, Mr. +Tonsor, you are my friend; help me out of this! You can raise the +money." + +"Ten thousand dollars! It's a pretty large sum. I'm afraid I couldn't +get it." + +"Try, my friend,--you shall never regret it." + +Tonsor hesitated, and Fletcher's spirits rose. He watched the broker's +composed face with eyes that might pierce a mummy. + +"What is the collateral?" asked Tonsor, slowly raising his wrinkled +eyelids. + +"Bullion's notes for seventeen thousand dollars." + +"And Bullion gone to protest." + +"He'll come up again." + +"Perhaps; but while he is down, I can't do anything with his paper. The +truth is, Fletcher, you ought not to have advanced the money for him. +Remember, I warned you when you were about to do it." + +Fletcher did not look as though he found the "Balm of I-told-you-so" +very consoling. + +Tonsor continued,-- + +"Now, if I were in your place, I would go and make a clean breast of it +to Danforth. It was wrong, though I know you didn't mean any harm. He +may be angry, but he won't touch you. You _can't_ raise ten thousand +dollars in these times,--not to save your soul." + +"Keep your advice, and your money, too," said Fletcher, in sullen +despair. "I ask for bread, and you give me a stone. Your moral lecture +won't pay my debts." + +He turned away abruptly and went again to Bullion's office. It was still +closed. Determined at all hazards to see the man for whom he had risked +so much, he went to his house on Beacon Hill. The servant said Mr. +Bullion was not at home. Fletcher did not believe it, but the door was +closed in his face before he could send a more urgent message, and with +a sinking heart he retraced his steps towards State Street. + +The horror of his position was now fully before him. He could not +conceal his defalcation, and there was no longer a shadow of hope of +replacing the money. Many a time he had taken the risk of lending large +sums to brokers and others; but who would trust him, a man without +estate, in a time like this? In his terrible anxiety about the new +obligation, he had forgotten the old, until he chanced to observe +Sandford on the opposite sidewalk, strolling leisurely towards the +business quarter of the town. The ex-secretary made a barely-perceptible +bow, and, drawing out his watch, significantly turned the face towards +his debtor. It was enough; there was no need of words. It was a little +after ten o'clock; the fatal letter would be delivered at eleven! +Fletcher crossed the street and accosted Sandford, though not without +trepidation; for he shuddered like a swimmer within reach of a shark, as +he encountered those cold and pitiless eyes. + +"Come to the office, Mr. Sandford, at eleven," he said. "The affair will +be settled then, and forever." + +Mr. Sandford nodded and walked on. Fletcher, meanwhile, quivering with +agony, hurried to his employer's office. He scanned each face sharply +as he entered, and felt sure that the loss had not yet been discovered. +Going to his desk, he wrote and sealed a letter, and then went out, +saying he had some business with a lawyer overhead. + +Mrs. Fletcher grew momently more uneasy, after her husband left the +house. A vague sense of coming evil oppressed her, until at length she +could bear it no longer; she left her child with the servant, and, +walking to the nearest stand, took a coach for State Street. On the way +she recalled again and again the muttered words she heard during the +night; she thought of the silent, comfortless breakfast, the hurried +good-bye; she felt again the pressure of his trembling lips upon her +own. Full of apprehension, she asked the coachman to call her husband +to the door. Answer was made by a clerk that Mr. Fletcher was out on +business, but was expected back presently. So she waited, looking out +of the carriage-window,--a sad face to see! The hands of the Old +State-House clock pointed at eleven, when Mr. Sandford punctually made +his appearance,--smooth, cheerful, and with a slight exhilaration, in +prospect of the two thousand dollars. Almost at the same moment Bullion +came also; for Tonsor, fearing that Fletcher would take some desperate +step, had been to the surly bankrupt's house and insisted upon his +coming down to see his unfortunate agent. Just at the office-door, and +opposite the carriage, met the two bankrupts, the disgraced "bull" +and the vanquished "bear." It was an odd look of recognition that +was exchanged between them; and if there was a shade of triumph in +Sandford's face, it was not to be wondered at. They stood at the door, +each motioning the other to enter first, when an unusual sound from the +adjoining entry caused both of them to stop, and one of them, at least, +to shiver. It was a sound of slow and hesitating, shuffling steps, as of +men carrying a burden. The steps came nearer. Both Bullion and Sandford +moved hurriedly to the spot. The men stopped in the doorway with their +burden, and in a moment, with frantic shrieks, Mrs. Fletcher rushed in +and fell upon the body of her husband! + +"Good God! what's this?" exclaimed Bullion. "Dead?" He stooped down and +thrust his hand under the waistcoat. The heart was still! He shuddered +convulsively and drew back, covering his eyes. "Dead!" + +Mr. Sandford seemed frozen to the threshold in speechless horror. There +was his debtor, free,--the old account settled forever! The pallid +temples would throb no more; the mobile lips had trembled their last; +the glancing, restless eyes had found a ghastly repose; the slender and +shapely frame, bereft of its active tenant, was limp and unresisting. +What a moment for the two men, as they stood over the corpse of their +victim! + +Attracted by the unusual outcry, Mr. Danforth came hastily out of the +office, and stood, as it were, transfixed at the sight of the dead. The +men who had brought down the body at last found words to tell their +dismal story. + +They were at work on the upper floor, when they heard a noise in one of +the adjoining rooms; as the apartment had been for some time unoccupied, +they were naturally surprised. After a while all sounds ceased, and +still no one came out to descend the stairs. Appalled by the silence, +they broke open the door, and discovered Fletcher hanging by the neck +from a coat-hook; a chair, overturned, had served as the scaffold from +which he had stepped into eternity. They took him down, but life was +already gone. A paper lay on his hat, with these words hastily pencilled +on it:-- + +"On my desk is a letter that explains all. I'm off. Good-bye. + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +Mr. Danforth, hearing this, instantly went into his office, and +reappeared, reading a note addressed to him. Mr. Sandford, meanwhile, +was striving to raise the wretched woman to her feet, and to lead her +to the carriage. Mr. Bullion no longer whisked his defiant eyebrow, but +stood downcast, silent, and conscience-stricken. + +"Listen a moment," said Mr. Danforth. "Here is a letter from our rash +friend, and, as it concerns you, gentlemen, I will read it. But first, +my dear Madam, let me help you into the carriage." + +The prostrate woman made no answer, save by a slow rolling of her +body,--her sobs continuing without cessation. The letter was read:-- + +"MR. DANFORTH, + +"To make a payment for shares bought by Mr. Bullion, I borrowed ten +thousand dollars from your house yesterday. Mr. Bullion has failed, and +does not protect me. He escapes, and I am left in the trap. I charge him +to pay my wife the notes he owes me. As he hopes to be saved, let him +consider that a debt of honor. + +"But my death I lay at Sandford's door. He has followed me with a steady +bay, like a bloodhound. His claim is now settled forever, as I told him. +I don't ask God to forgive him;--I don't, and God won't. Let him live, +the cold-blooded wretch that he is; one world or another would make no +difference; for, to a devil like him, there is no heaven, no earth, +nothing but hell. + +"My poor wife! See to her, if you have any pity for + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +"Look," said Mr. Danforth, holding the letter under the stony eyes of +Sandford,--"see where the tears blistered the paper!" + +All the while, Mrs. Fletcher kept up an inarticulate moaning, though the +sound grew fainter from exhaustion. + +"Let us stop this," said Bullion, seeing the gathering crowd of +passers-by. "Better be at home." + +Pointing to the still prostrate woman, he, with Mr. Danforth, gently +raised her up and placed her in the carriage. She did not speak, but +murmured pleadingly, while her face wore a look of agonized longing, and +her outstretched hands clutched nervously. + +"Poor thing!" said Mr. Danforth, his voice beginning to tremble,--"she +shall have her dead husband, if it is any comfort to her." + +"That's right," said Bullion,--"carry him off before half-a-dozen +coroner-buzzards come to fight over him." + +The body was laid in the carriage, the head she had so often caressed +resting in her lap, while her tears bathed the unconscious face, and +her groans became heart-rending. Still holding the carriage-door, Mr. +Danforth turned to Sandford, saying,-- + +"I don't know _what_ you have done, but his blood is on your soul. I +would rather be like him there, than you, on your feet.--Bullion, I +don't mind the ten thousand dollars; but was it just the manly thing to +leave a man that trusted you in this way to be sacrificed? Why didn't +you come down this morning? God forgive you!--Coachman, drive to +Carleton Street." + +He stepped into the carriage, and away it rolled with its load of +sorrow. + +Mr. Sandford found the glances of his companion and the bystanders quite +uncomfortable, and he slunk silently away. Failure and disgrace he +had met; but this was a position for which he had not the nerve. +The self-accusing Cain was not the only man who has exclaimed, "My +punishment is greater than I can bear." Flight was the only alternative +for Sandford. As long as he remained in Boston, every face seemed to +wear a look of condemnation. The mark was set upon him, and avenging +fiends pursued him. That very day he left the city in disguise. Through +what trials he passed will never be known. But destitute, friendless, +and broken-spirited, he wandered from city to city, a vagabond upon the +face of the earth. Nor did a sterner retribution long delay. In New +Orleans, he was so far reduced that he was obliged to earn a miserable +support in an oyster-saloon near the levee. One night, a fight began +between some drunken boatmen: and Sandford, though in no way concerned +in the affair, received a chance bullet in his forehead, and fell dead +without a word. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Bullion, at last, in spite of his armor of selfishness and stoicism, was +touched in a vital part. His dreams of wealth had vanished into air. The +confederate in New York in whom he had trusted had only made him a dupe. +Blindly following out his agreement, he found himself saddled with a +load of railroad-shares, useless for any present purpose, and all his +convertible property gone. The consciousness that he--the man of all +others who prided himself upon his sagacity--had been so easily +overreached was quite as humiliating as the idea of ruin itself. He +remembered Kerbstone's appeals, also, and now cursed his own stupidity +in refusing to aid him. There he had overreached himself; it was his own +stocks which he had thrown down to the "bears." And now, heaviest stroke +of all, Fletcher, his intrepid and chivalrous agent, who had stepped +into the breach for him, had paid for his indiscretion with his life. +The thought gave him a pang he had never felt, not even when he followed +his wife to the grave. Homeward he went, but slowly and almost without +volition. He recognized no acquaintances that he met, but walked on +abstractedly, fixing his eyes on vacancy with a look as mournful as his +iron features could wear. In his ears still rang those thrilling cries. +His hand, that had groped over that motionless heart, still felt a +creeping chill; it would not warm. And constantly an accusing voice +asked, "Why didn't you come down?"--and conscience repeated the question +in tones like those of a judge arraigning a criminal. He reached his +house and gave orders that no one should be admitted. In his room he +passed the day alone, drifting on an ocean of remorse, full of vague +purposes of repentance and restitution. Dinner passed unheeded, and +still he paced the silent chamber. With the approach of evening his +terrors increased; he rang for a servant and had the gas-burners +lighted. Still, in all the blaze, shapes would haunt him; they crouched +at the foot of his bed; they lurked behind his wardrobe-door. He dared +not look over his shoulder, but forced himself to stand up and face +what he so dreaded to see. He rang again and bade the servant bring +a screw-driver and take down the coat-hooks from the wardrobe; the +garments hanging there seemed to be men struggling in the agonies of +asphyxia. The slender thread of sound from the gas-burners seemed to be +changed to low, mournful cries, as of a woman over the dead. He turned +the gas down a little; then the shadows of the cannel-coal fire danced +like spectres on the ceiling. He jumped up and raised the lights again; +again the low, dismal monotone sang in his ears. He stopped them with +his fingers; again the persistent voice asked, "Why didn't you come +down?" Flakes fell off the coal in the grate in shapes like coffins; +the flames seemed to dart at him with their fiery tongues. He rang once +more, and when the servant came he bade him drink enough strong tea and +then take his chair by the fire. + +"Touch me, if I groan," said he to the astonished John. "Keep awake +yourself, and hold your tongue. If you go to sleep or leave me, I'll +murder you." + +Then wrapping himself in his dressing-gown, he settled down in his +easy-chair for the night. + +The night passed, as all nights will, and in the morning Mr. Bullion +was calmer. The first intelligence he received after breakfast was in a +message from Tonsor, delivered by a servant. + +"Plaze, Sur, Mr. Tonsor's compliments, and he says the banks is +suspinded and money's to be asier." + +"Send after Mr. Tonsor; overtake him, and ask him to come back. I want +to see him." + +Tonsor returned, and they had a long conference. It now seemed probable +that stocks would be more buoyant and the "bulls" would have their turn. +Any considerable rise in shares would place Bullion on his feet and +enable him to resume payment. Most of his time-contracts had been met, +and the change would be of the greatest service to him. He placed his +shares, therefore, in Tonsor's hands with instructions to sell when +prices advanced. He then looked over the amount of his liabilities, and +saw, with some of his old exultation, that, if he could effect sales +at the rates he expected, he should have at least two hundred thousand +dollars after paying all his debts. Ambition again whispered to him, +that he might now take his old place in the business world, and perhaps +might more than retrieve his losses. But he thought of the last night, +and shrank from encountering a new brood of horrors. Firm in his new +purpose, he dismissed the broker and sent for his counsellor. + +"My son," he meditated, "is a lawyer in good practice. He needs no +fortune. Twenty thousand will be enough for him; more than I had, which +wasn't a penny. My daughter is married rich. Didn't mean to have any +pauper son-in-law to be plaguing me. The same for her. The rest will +square those old accounts,--and the new one, too, on the book up yonder! +Best to fix it now, while I can muster the courage. If I once get the +money, I'm afraid I shouldn't do it. So my will shall set all these +matters right; and it shall be drawn and signed to-day." + +That night Mr. Bullion needed no servant to watch with him. The ghosts +were laid. + +[To be concluded in the next number.] + + * * * * * + + +INSCRIPTION + +FOR AN ALMS-CHEST MADE OF CAMPHOR-WOOD. + + + This fragrant box that breathes of India's balms + Hath one more fragrance, for it asketh alms; + But, though 'tis sweet and blessed to receive, + You know who said, "It is more blest to give": + Give, then, receive His blessing,--and for me + Thy silent boon sufficient blessing be! + If Ceylon's isle, that bears the bleeding trees, + With any perfume load the Orient breeze,-- + If Heber's Muse, by Ceylon as he sailed, + A pleasant odor from the shore inhaled,-- + More lives in me; for underneath my lid + A sweetness as of sacrifice is hid. + + Thou gentle almoner, in passing by, + Smell of my wood, and scan me with thine eye;-- + I, too, from Ceylon bear a spicy breath + That might put warmness in the lungs of death; + A simple chest of scented wood I seem, + But, oh! within me lurks a golden beam,-- + + A beam celestial, and a silver din, + As though imprisoned angels played within; + Hushed in my heart my fragrant secret dwells; + If thou wouldst learn it, Paul of Tarsus tells;-- + No jangled brass nor tinkling cymbal sound, + For in my bosom Charity is found. + + * * * * * + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +THE DEPARTURE. + + +Why one leaves home at all is a question that travellers are sure, +sooner or later, to ask themselves,--I mean, pleasure-travellers. Home, +where one has the "Transcript" every night, and the "Autocrat" +every month, opera, theatre, circus, and good society, in constant +rotation,--home, where everybody knows us, and the little good there is +to know about us,--finally, home, as seen regretfully for the last time, +with the gushing of long frozen friendships, the priceless kisses of +children, and the last sad look at dear baby's pale face through the +window-pane,--well, all this is left behind, and we review it as a +dream, while the railroad-train hurries us along to the spot where we +are to leave, not only this, but Winter, rude tyrant, with all our +precious hostages in his grasp. Soon the swift motion lulls our brains +into the accustomed muddle; we seem to be dragged along like a miserable +thread pulled through the eye of an ever-lasting needle,--through and +through, and never through,--while here and there, like painful knots, +the _dépôts_ stop us, the poor thread is arrested for a minute, and then +the pulling begins again. Or, in another dream, we are like fugitives +threading the gauntlet of the grim forests, while the ice-bound trees +essay a charge of bayonets on either side; but, under the guidance of +our fiery Mercury, we pass them as safely as ancient Priam passed the +outposts of the Greeks,--and New York, as hospitable as Achilles, +receives us in its mighty tent. Here we await the "Karnak," the British +Mail Company's new screw-steamer, bound for Havana, _viâ_ Nassau. At +length comes the welcome order to "be on board." We betake ourselves +thither,--the anchor is weighed, the gun fired, and we take leave of our +native land with a patriotic pang, which soon gives place to severer +spasms. + +I do not know why all celebrated people who write books of travels begin +by describing their days of sea-sickness. Dickens, George Combe, Fanny +Kemble, Mrs. Stowe, Miss Bremer, and many others, have opened in like +manner their valuable remarks on foreign countries. While intending to +avail myself of their privilege and example, I would, nevertheless, +suggest, for those who may come after me, that the subject of +sea-sickness should be embalmed in science, and enshrined in the crypt +of some modern encyclopaedia, so that future writers should refer to it +only as the Pang Unspeakable, for which _vide_ Ripley and Dana, +vol. ---, page ---. But, as I have already said, I shall speak of +sea-sickness in a hurried and picturesque manner, as follows:-- + +Who are these that sit by the long dinner-table in the forward cabin, +with a most unusual lack of interest in the bill of fare? Their eyes are +closed, mostly, their cheeks are pale, their lips are quite bloodless, +and to every offer of good cheer, their "No, thank you," is as faintly +uttered as are marriage-vows by maiden lips. Can they be the same that, +an hour ago, were so composed, so jovial, so full of dangerous defiance +to the old man of the sea? The officer who carves the roast-beef offers +at the same time a slice of fat;--this is too much; a panic runs through +the ranks, and the rout is instantaneous and complete. The ghost of what +each man was disappears through the trap-door of his state-room, and the +hell which the theatre faintly pictures behind the scenes begins in good +earnest. + +For to what but to Dante's "Inferno" can we liken this steamboat-cabin, +with its double row of pits, and its dismal captives? What are these +sighs, groans, and despairing noises, but the _alti guai_ rehearsed by +the poet? Its fiends are the stewards who rouse us from our perpetual +torpor with offers of food and praises of shadowy banquets,--"Nice +mutton-chop, Sir? roast-turkey? plate of soup?" Cries of "No, no!" +resound, and the wretched turn again, and groan. The philanthropist has +lost the movement of the age,--keeled up in an upper berth, convulsively +embracing a blanket, what conservative more immovable than he? The great +man of the party refrains from his large theories, which, like the +circles made by the stone thrown into the water, begin somewhere and end +nowhere. As we have said, he expounds himself no more, the significant +fore-finger is down, the eye no longer imprisons yours. But if you ask +him how he does, he shakes himself, as if, like Farinata,-- + + "avesse l' inferno in gran dispetto,"-- + +"he had a very contemptible opinion of hell." Let me not forget to add, +that it rains every day, that it blows every night, and that it rolls +through the twenty-four hours till the whole world seems as if turned +bottom upwards, clinging with its nails to chaos, and fearing to launch +away. The captain comes and says,--"It is true, you have a nasty, short, +chopping sea hereabouts; but you see, she is spinning away down South +jolly!" And this is the Gulf-Stream! + +But all things have an end, and most things have two. After the third +day, a new development manifests itself. Various shapeless masses are +carried upstairs and suffered to fall like snow-flakes on the deck, and +to lie there in shivering heaps. From these larvae gradually emerge +features and voices,--the luncheon-bell at last stirs them with the +thrill of returning life. They look up, they lean up, they exchange +pensive smiles of recognition,--the steward comes, no fiend this time, +but a ministering angel, and, lo! the strong man eats broth, and the +weak woman clamors for pickled oysters. And so ends my description of +our sea-sickness. + +For, as for betraying the confidences of those sad days, as for telling +how wofully untrue Professors of Temperance were to their principles, +how the Apostle of Total Abstinence developed a brandy-flask, not +altogether new, what unsuccessful tipplings were attempted in the +desperation of nausea, and for what lady that stunning brandy-smasher +was mixed,--as for such tales out of school, I would have you know that +I am not the man to tell them. + +Yet a portrait or so lingers in my mental repository;--let me throw them +in, to close off the lot. + +No. 1. A sober Bostonian in the next state-room, whose assiduity with +his sea-sick wife reminds one of Cock-Robin, when he sent Jenny Wren +sops and wine. This person was last seen in a dressing-gown, square-cut +night-cap, and odd slippers, dancing up and down the state-room floor +with a cup of gruel, making wild passes with a spoon at an individual in +a berth, who never got any of the contents. Item, the gruel, in a moment +of excitement, finally ran in a stream upon the floor, and was wiped up +by the steward. Result not known, but disappointment is presumable. + +No. 2. A stout lady, imprisoned by a board on a sofa nine inches wide, +called by a facetious friend "The Coffin." She complains that her sides +are tolerably battered in;--we hold our tongues, and think that the +board, too, has had a hard time of it. Yet she is a jolly soul, laughing +at her misfortunes, and chirruping to her baby. Her spirits keep up, +even when her dinner won't keep down. Her favorite expressions are "Good +George!" and "Oh, jolly!" She does not intend, she says, to lay in any +dry goods in Cuba, but means to eat up all the good victuals she comes +across. Though seen at present under unfavorable circumstances, she +inspires confidence as to her final accomplishment of this result. + +No. 3. A woman, said to be of a literary turn of mind, in the +miserablest condition imaginable. Her clothes, flung at her by the +stewardess, seem to have hit in some places, and missed in others. +Her listless hands occasionally make an attempt to keep her draperies +together, and to pull her hat on her head; but though the intention is +evident, she accomplishes little by her motion. She is perpetually being +lugged about by a stout steward, who knocks her head against both sides +of the vessel, folds her up in the gangway, spreads her out on the deck, +and takes her up-stairs, down-stairs, and in my lady's chamber, where, +report says, he feeds her with a spoon, and comforts her with such +philosophy as he is master of. N.B. This woman, upon the first change of +weather, rose like a cork, dressed like a Christian, and toddled about +the deck in the easiest manner, sipping her grog, and cutting sly jokes +upon her late companions in misery,--is supposed by some to have been an +impostor, and, when ill-treated, announced intentions of writing a book. + +No. 4, my last, is only a sketch;--circumstances allowed no more. Can +Grande, the great dog, has been got up out of the pit, where he worried +the stewardess and snapped at the friend who tried to pat him on the +head. Everybody asks where he is. Don't you see that heap of shawls +yonder, lying in the sun, and heated up to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit? +That slouched hat on top marks the spot where his head should lie,--by +treading cautiously in the opposite direction you may discover his +feet. All between is perfectly passive and harmless. His chief food is +pickles,--his only desire is rest. After all these years of controversy, +after all these battles, bravely fought and nobly won, you might write +with truth upon this moveless mound of woollens the pathetic words from +Père la Chaise:--_Implora Pace_. + +But no more at present, for land is in sight, and in my next you shall +hear how we found it, and what we saw at Nassau. + + +NASSAU. + + +Nassau looked very green and pleasant to us after our voyage;--the eyes +enjoy a little fresh provision after so long a course of salt food. The +first view of land is little more than "the feeling of the thing,"--it +is matter of faith, rather than of sight. You are shown a dark and +distant line, near the horizon, without color or features. They say it +is land, and you believe it. But you come nearer and nearer,--you see +first the green of vegetation, then the form of the trees,--the harbor +at last opens its welcome arms,--the anchor is dropped,--the gun +fired,--the steam snuffed out. Led by a thread of sunshine, you have +walked the labyrinth of the waters, and all their gigantic dangers lie +behind you. + +We made Nassau at twelve o'clock, on the sixth day from our departure, +counting the first as one. The first feature discernible was a group +of tall cocoa-nut trees, with which the island is bounteously +feathered;--the second was a group of negroes in a small boat, steering +towards us with open-mouthed and white-toothed wonder. Nothing makes its +simple impression upon the mind sophisticated by education. The negroes, +as they came nearer, suggested only Christy's Minstrels, of whom +they were a tolerably faithful imitation,--while the cocoa-nut-trees +transported us to the Boston in Ravel-time, and we strained our eyes to +see the wonderful ape, Jocko, whose pathetic death, nightly repeated, +used to cheat the credulous Bostonians of time, tears, and treasure. +Despite the clumsiest management, the boat soon effected a junction with +our gangway, allowing some nameless official to come on board, and to go +through I know not what mysterious and indispensable formality. Other +boats then came, like a shoal of little fishes around the carcass of +a giant whale. There were many negroes, together with whites of every +grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, saw for the first +time the raw material out of which Northern Humanitarians have spun so +fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. + +Now we who write, and they for whom we write, are all orthodox upon this +mighty question; we have all made our confession of faith in private and +in public; we all, on suitable occasions, walk up and apply the match to +the keg of gun-powder which is to blow up the Union, but which, somehow, +at the critical moment, fails to ignite. But you must allow us one +heretical whisper,--very small and low. The negro of the North is an +ideal negro; it is the negro refined by white culture, elevated by white +blood, instructed even by white iniquity;--the negro among negroes is a +coarse, grinning, flat-footed, thick-skulled creature, ugly as Caliban, +lazy as the laziest of brutes, chiefly ambitious to be of no use to any +in the world. View him as you will, his stock in trade is small;--he has +but the tangible instincts of all creatures,--love of life, of ease, and +of offspring. For all else, he must go to school to the white race, and +his discipline must be long and laborious. Nassau, and all that we saw +of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question, whether compulsory labor +be not better than none. But as a question I gladly leave it, and return +to the simple narration of what befell. + +There was a sort of eddy at the gangway of our steamer, made by the +conflicting tides of those who wanted to come on board and of those who +wanted to go on shore. We were among the number of the latter, but were +stopped and held by the button by one of the former, while those more +impatient or less sympathizing made their way to the small boats which +waited below. The individual in question had come alongside in a +handsome barge, rowed by a dozen stout blacks, in the undress uniform +of the Zouaves. These men, well drilled and disciplined, seemed of a +different sort from the sprawling, screaming creatures in the other +boats, and their bright red caps and white tunics became them well. +But he who now claimed my attention was of British birth and military +profession. His face was ardent, his pantaloons were of white flannel, +his expression of countenance was that of habitual discontent, but with +a twinkle of geniality in the eye which redeemed the Grumbler from the +usual tedium of his tribe. He accosted us as follows:-- + +"Go ashore? What for? To see something, eh? There's nothing to see; +the island isn't bigger than a nut-shell, and doesn't contain a single +prospect.--Go ashore and get some dinner? There isn't anything to eat +there.--Fruit? None to speak of; sour oranges and green bananas.--I went +to market last Saturday, and bought one cabbage, one banana, and half +a pig's head;--there's a market for you!--Fish? Oh, yes, if you like +it.--Turtle? Yes, you can get the Gallipagos turtle; it makes tolerable +soup, but has not the green fat, which, in _my_ opinion, is the most +important feature in turtle-soup.--Shops? You can't buy a pair of +scissors on the island, nor a baby's bottle;--broke mine the other day, +and tried to replace it; couldn't.--Society? There are lots of people to +call upon you, and bore you to death with returning their visits." + +At last the Major went below, and we broke away, and were duly conveyed +to _terra firma_. It was Sunday, and late in the afternoon. The first +glimpse certainly seemed to confirm the Major's disparaging statements. +The town is small; the houses dingy and out of repair; the legend, that +paint costs nothing, is not received here; and whatever may have been +the original colors of the buildings, the climate has had its own +way with them for many a day. The barracks are superior in finish +to anything else we see. Government-House is a melancholy-looking +_caserne_, surrounded by a piazza, the grounds being adorned with a most +chunky and inhuman statue of Columbus. All the houses are surrounded by +verandas, from which pale children and languid women in muslins look +out, and incline us to ask what epidemic has visited the island and +swept the rose from every cheek. They are a pallid race, the Nassauese, +and retain little of the vigor of their English ancestry. One English +trait they exhibit,--the hospitality which has passed into a proverb; +another, perhaps,--the stanch adherence to the forms and doctrines of +Episcopacy. We enter the principal church;--they are just lighting it +for evening service; it is hung with candles, each burning in a clear +glass shade. The walls and ceiling are whitewashed, and contrast +prettily with the dark timbering of the roof. We would gladly have +staid to give thanks for our safe and prosperous voyage, but a black +rain-cloud warns us homeward,--not, however, until we have received a +kind invitation from one of the hospitable islanders to return the next +morning for a drive and breakfast. + +Returning soon after sunrise to fulfil this promise, we encounter the +barracks, and are tempted to look in and see the sons of darkness +performing their evolutions. The morning drill is about half over. We +peep in,--the Colonel, a lean Don Quixote on a leaner Rosinante, dashes +up to us with a weak attempt at a canter; he courteously invites us to +come in and see all that is to be seen, and, lo! our friend the Major, +quite gallant in his sword and scarlet jacket, is detailed for our +service. The soldiers are black, and very black,--none of your dubious +American shades, ranging from clear salmon to _café au lait_ or even +to _café noir_. These are your good, satisfactory, African sables, +warranted not to change in the washing. Their Zouave costume is very +becoming, with the Oriental turban, caftan, and loose trousers; and the +Philosopher of our party remarks, that the African requires costume, +implying that the New Englander can stand alone, as can his clothes, in +their black rigidity. The officers are white, and the Major very polite; +he shows us the men, the arms, the kits, the quarters, and, having done +all that he can do for us, relinquishes us with a gallant bow to our +host of the drive and breakfast. + +The drive does something to retrieve the character of the island. The +road is hard and even, overhung with glossy branches of strange trees +bearing unknown fruits, and studded on each side with pleasant villas +and with negro huts. There are lovely flowers everywhere, among which +the Hibiscus, called South-Sea Rose, and the Oleander, are most +frequent, and most brilliant. We see many tall groves of cocoa-nut, +and cast longing glances towards the fruit, which little negroes, with +surprising activity, attain and shake down. A sudden turn in the road +discloses a lovely view of the bay, with its wonderful green waters, +clear and bright as emerald;--there is a little beach, and boats lie +about, and groups of negroes are laughing and chattering,--quoting +stocks from the last fish-market, very likely. We purchase for half a +dollar a bunch of bananas, for which Ford or Palmer would ask us ten +dollars at least, and go rejoicing to our breakfast. + +Our host is a physician of the island, English by birth, and retaining +his robust form and color in spite of a twenty-years' residence in the +warm climate. He has a pleasant family of sons and daughters, all in +health, but without a shade of pink in lips or cheeks. The breakfast +consists of excellent fried fish, fine Southern hominy,--not the pebbly +broken corn which our dealers impose under that name,--various hot +cakes, tea and coffee, bananas, sapodillas, and if there be anything +else not included in the present statement, let haste and want of time +excuse the omission. The conversation runs a good deal on the hopes of +increasing prosperity which the new mail-steamer opens to the eyes +of the Nassauese. Invalids, they say, will do better there than in +Cuba,--it is quieter, much cheaper, and the climate is milder. There +will be a hotel, very soon, where no attention will be spared, etc., +etc. The Government will afford every facility, etc., etc. It seemed, +indeed, a friendly little place, with delicious air and sky, and a good, +reasonable, decent, English tone about it. Expenses moderate, ye fathers +of encroaching families. Negroes abundant and natural, ye students +of ethnological possibilities. Officers in red jackets, you young +ladies,--young ones, some of them. Why wouldn't you all try it, +especially as the captain of the "Karnak" is an excellent sailor, and +the kindest and manliest of conductors? + + +FROM NASSAU TO CUBA. + + +The breakfast being over, we recall the captain's parting admonition to +be on board by ten o'clock, with the significant gesture and roll of the +eye which clearly express that England expects every passenger to do his +duty. Now we know very well that the "Karnak" is not likely to weigh +anchor before twelve, at the soonest, but we dare not, for our lives, +disobey the captain. So, passing by yards filled with the huge Bahama +sponges, piles of wreck-timber, fishing-boats with strange fishes, red, +yellow, blue, and white, and tubs of aldermanic turtle, we attain the +shore, and, presently, the steamer. Here we find a large deputation of +the towns-people taking passage with us for a pleasure excursion to +Havana. The greater number are ladies and children. They come fluttering +on board, poor things, like butterflies, in gauzy dresses, hats, and +feathers, according to the custom of their country; one gentleman takes +four little daughters with him for a holiday. We ask ourselves whether +they know what an ugly beast the Gulf-Stream is, that they affront him +in such light armor. "Good heavens! how sick they will be!" we exclaim; +while they eye us askance, in our winter trim, and pronounce us slow, +and old fogies. With all the rashness of youth, they attack the +luncheon-table. So boisterous a popping of corks was never heard in all +our boisterous passage;--there is a chorus, too, of merry tongues and +shrill laughter. But we get fairly out to sea, where the wind, an +adverse one, is waiting for us, and at that gay table there is silence, +followed by a rush and disappearance. The worst cases are hurried out of +sight, and, going above, we find the disabled lying in groups about the +deck, the feather-hats discarded, the muslins crumpled, and we, the old +fogies, going to cover the fallen with shawls and blankets, to speak +words of consolation, and to implore the sufferers not to cure +themselves with brandy, soda-water, claret, and wine-bitters, in quick +succession,--which they, nevertheless, do, and consequently are no +better that day, nor the next. + +But I am forgetting to chronicle a touching parting interview with the +Major, the last thing remembered in Nassau, and of course the last to be +forgotten anywhere. Our concluding words might best be recorded in the +form of a catechism of short questions and answers, to wit:-- + +"How long did the Major expect to stay in Nassau?" + +"About six months." + +"How long would he stay, if he had his own way?" + +"Not one!" + +"What did he come for, then?" + +"Oh, you buy into a nigger regiment for promotion." + +These were the most important facts elicited by cross-examination. At +last we shook hands warmly, promising to meet again somewhere, and the +crimson-lined barge with the black Zouaves carried him away. In humbler +equipages depart the many black women who have visited the steamer, some +for amusement, some to sell the beautiful shell-work made on the island. +These may be termed, in general, as ugly a set of wenches as one could +wish not to see. They all wear palm-leaf hats stuck on their heads +without strings or ribbons, and their clothes are so ill-made that you +cannot help thinking that each has borrowed somebody else's dress, until +you see that the ill-fitting garments are the rule, not the exception. + +But neither youth nor sea-sickness lasts forever. The forces of nature +rally on the second day, and the few who have taken no remedies recover +the use of their tongues and some of their faculties. From these I +gather what I shall here impart as + + +SERIOUS VIEWS OF THE BAHAMAS. + + +The principal exports of these favored islands are fruits, sponges, +molasses, and sugar. Their imports include most of the necessaries of +life, which come to them oftenest in the form of wrecks, by which they +obtain them at a small fraction of the original cost and value. For this +resource they are indebted to the famous Bahama Banks, which, to their +way of thinking, are institutions as important as the Bank of England +itself. These banks stand them in a handsome annual income, and +facilitate large discounts and transfers of property not contemplated by +the original possessors. One supposes that somebody must suffer by these +forced sales of large cargoes at prices ruinous to commerce,--but _who_ +suffers is a point not easy to ascertain. There seems to be a good, +comfortable understanding all round. The owners say, "Go ahead, and +don't bother yourself,--she's insured." The captain has got his ship +aground in shoal water where she can't sink, and no harm done. The +friendly wreckers are close at hand to haul the cargo ashore. The +underwriter of the insurance company has shut his eyes and opened his +mouth to receive a plum, which, being a good large one, will not let him +speak. And so the matter providentially comes to pass, and "enterprises +of great pith and moment" oftenest get no farther than the Bahamas. + +Nassau produces neither hay nor corn,--these, together with butter, +flour, and tea, being brought chiefly from the United States. Politics, +of course, it has none. As to laws, the colonial system certainly needs +propping up,--for under its action a man may lead so shameless a life +of immorality as to compel his wife to leave him, and yet not be held +responsible for her support and that of the children she has borne him. +The principal points of interest are, first, the garrison,--secondly, +Government-House, with an occasional ball there,--and, third, one's +next-door neighbor, and his or her doings. The principal event in the +memory of the citizens seems to be a certain most desirable wreck, in +consequence of which, a diamond card-case worth fifteen hundred dollars +was sold for an eighth part of that sum, and laces whose current price +ranges from thirty to forty dollars a yard were purchased at will for +seventy-five cents. That was a wreck worth having! say the Nassauese. +The price of milk ranges from eighteen to twenty-five cents a +quart;--think of that, ye New England housekeepers! That precious +article, the pudding, is nearly unknown in the Nassauese economy; nor +is pie-crust so short as it might be, owing to the enormous price of +butter, which has been known to attain the sum of one dollar per pound. +Eggs are quoted at prices not commendable for large families with +small means. On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, and sugar-cane are +abundant. + +The Nassauese, on the whole, seem to be a kind-hearted and friendly set +of people, partly English, partly Southern in character, but with rather +a predominance of the latter ingredient in their composition. Their +women resemble the women of our own Southern States, but seem simpler +and more domestic in their habits,--while the men would make tolerable +Yankees, but would scarcely support President Buchanan, the Kansas +question, or the Filibustero movement. Physically, the race suffers and +degenerates under the influence of the warm climate. Cases of pulmonary +disease, asthma, and neuralgia are of frequent occurrence, and cold is +considered as curative to them as heat is to us. The diet, too, is not +that "giant ox-beef" which the Saxon race requires. Meat is rare, and +tough, unless brought from the States at high cost. We were forced to +the conclusion that no genuine English life can be supported upon a +_régime_ of fish and fruit,--or, in other words, no beef, no Bull, but +a very different sort of John, lantern-jawed, leather-skinned, and of +a thirsty complexion. It occurred to us, furthermore, that it is a +dolorous thing to live on a lonely little island, tied up like a wart on +the face of civilization,--no healthful stream of life coming and going +from the great body of the main land,--the same moral air to be breathed +over and over again, without renewal,--the same social elements turned +and returned in one tiresome kaleidoscope. Wherefore rejoice, ye +Continentals, and be thankful, and visit the Nassauese, bringing beef, +butter, and beauty,--bringing a few French muslins to replace the +coarse English fabrics, and buxom Irish girls to outwork the idle negro +women,--bringing new books, newspapers, and periodicals,--bringing the +Yankee lecturer, all expenses paid, and his drink found him. All these +good things, and more, the States have for the Nassauese, of whom we +must now take leave, for all hands have been piped on deck. + +We have jolted for three weary days over the roughest of ocean-highways, +and Cuba, nay, Havana, is in sight. The worst cases are up, and begin to +talk about their sea-legs, now that the occasion for them is at an end. +Sobrina, the chief wit of our party, who would eat sour-sop, sapodilla, +orange, banana, cocoa-nut, and sugar-cane at Nassau, and who has lived +upon toddy of twenty-cocktail power ever since,--even she is seen, +clothed and in her right mind, sitting at the feet of the prophet she +loves, and going through the shawl-and-umbrella exercise. And here is +the Moro Castle, which guards the entrance of the harbor,--here go +the signals, answering to our own. Here comes the man with the +speaking-trumpet, who, understanding no English, yells out to our +captain, who understands no Spanish. The following is a free rendering +of their conversation:-- + +"Any Americans on board?" + +"Yes, thank Heaven, plenty." + +"How many are Filibusteros?" + +"All of them." + +"Bad luck to them, then!" + +"The same to you!" + +"_Caramba_" says the Spaniard. + +"--------," says the Englishman. + +And so the forms of diplomacy are fulfilled; and of Havana, more in my +next. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +_The Professor finds a Fly in his Teacup_. + +I have a long theological talk to relate, which must be dull reading to +some of my young and vivacious friends. I don't know, however, that any +of them have entered into a contract to read all that I write, or that I +have promised always to write to please them. What if I should sometimes +write to please myself? + +Now you must know that there are a great many things which interest me, +to some of which this or that particular class of readers may be totally +indifferent. I love Nature, and human nature, its thoughts, affections, +dreams, aspirations, delusions,--Art in all its forms,--_virtu_ in all +its eccentricities,--old stories from black-letter volumes and yellow +manuscripts, and new projects out of hot brains not yet imbedded in the +snows of age. I love the generous impulses of the reformer; but not less +does my imagination feed itself upon the old litanies, so often warmed +by the human breath upon which they were wafted to heaven that they glow +through our frames like our own heart's blood. I hope I love good men +and women; I know that they never speak a word to me, even if it be of +question or blame, that I do not take pleasantly, if it is expressed +with a reasonable amount of human kindness. + +I have before me at this time a beautiful and affecting letter, which +I have hesitated to answer, though the postmark upon it gave its +direction, and the name is one which is known to all, in some of its +representatives. It contains no reproach, only a delicately-hinted fear. +Speak gently, as this dear lady has spoken, and there is no heart so +insensible that it does not answer to the appeal, no intellect so virile +that it does not own a certain allegiance to the claims of age, of +childhood, of sensitive and timid natures, when they plead with it not +to look at those sacred things by the broad daylight which they see in +mystic shadow. How grateful would it be to make perpetual peace with +these pleading saints and their confessors, by the simple act +that silences all complainings! Sleep, sleep, sleep! says the +Arch-Enchantress of them all,--and pours her dark and potent anodyne, +distilled over the fires that consumed her foes,--its large, round drops +changing, as we look, into the beads of her convert's rosary! Silence! +the pride of reason! cries another, whose whole life is spent in +reasoning down reason. + +I hope I love good people, not for their sake, but for my own. And most +assuredly, if any deed of wrong or word of bitterness led me into an act +of disrespect towards that enlightened and excellent class of men who +make it their calling to teach goodness and their duty to practise it, +I should feel that I had done myself an injury rather than them. Go and +talk with any professional man holding any of the mediaeval creeds, +choosing one who wears upon his features the mark of inward and outward +health, who looks cheerful, intelligent, and kindly, and see how all +your prejudices melt away in his presence! It is impossible to come into +intimate relations with a large, sweet nature, such as you may often +find in this class, without longing to be at one with it in all its +modes of being and believing. But does it not occur to you that one may +love truth as he sees it, and his race as he views it, better than even +the sympathy and approbation of many good men whom he honors,--better +than sleeping to the sound of the Miserere or listening to the +repetition of an effete Confession of Faith? + +The three learned professions have but recently emerged from a state of +_quasi_ barbarism. None of them like too well to be told of it, but it +must be sounded in their ears whenever they put on airs. When a man has +taken an overdose of laudanum, the doctors tell us to place him between +two persons who shall make him walk up and down incessantly; and if he +still cannot be kept from going to sleep, they say that a lash or two +over his back is of great assistance. + +So we must keep the doctors awake by telling them that they have not +yet shaken off astrology and the doctrine of signatures, as is shown by +their prescriptions, and their use of nitrate of silver, which turns +epileptics into Ethiopians. If that is not enough, they must be given +over to the scourgers, who like their task and get good fees for it. A +few score years ago, sick people were made to swallow burnt toads and +powdered earth-worms and the expressed juice of wood-lice. The physician +of Charles I. and II. prescribed abominations not to be named. +Barbarism, as bad as that of Congo or Ashantee. Traces of this barbarism +linger even in the greatly improved medical science of our century. So +while the solemn farce of over-drugging is going on, the world over, +the harlequin pseudo-science jumps on to the stage, whip in hand, with +half-a-dozen somersets, and begins laying about him. + +In 1817, perhaps you remember, the law of wager by battle was +unrepealed, and the rascally murderous, and worse than murderous, clown, +Abraham Thornton, put on his gauntlet in open court and defied the +appellant to lift the other which he threw down. It was not until the +reign of George II. that the statutes against witchcraft were repealed. +As for the English Court of Chancery, we know that its antiquated abuses +form one of the staples of common proverbs and popular literature. +So the laws and the lawyers have to be watched perpetually by public +opinion as much as the doctors do. + +I don't think the other profession is an exception. When the Reverend +Mr. Cauvin and his associates burned my distinguished scientific +brother,--he was burned with green fagots, which made it rather slow and +painful,--it appears to me they were in a state of religious barbarism. +The dogmas of such people about the Father of Mankind and his creatures +are of no more account in my opinion than those of a council of Aztecs. +If a man picks your pocket, do you not consider him thereby disqualified +to pronounce any authoritative opinion on matters of ethics? If a man +hangs my ancient female relatives for sorcery, as they did in this +neighborhood a little while ago, or burns my instructor for not +believing as he does, I care no more for his religious edicts than I +should for those of any other barbarian. + +Of course, a barbarian may hold many true opinions; but when the ideas +of the healing art, of the administration of justice, of Christian love, +could not exclude systematic poisoning, judicial duelling, and murder +for opinion's sake, I do not see how we can trust the verdict of that +time relating to any subject which involves the primal instincts +violated in these abominations and absurdities.--What if we are even now +in a state of _semi_-barbarism? + +Perhaps some think we ought not to talk at table about such things.--I +am not so sure of that. Religion and government appear to me the two +subjects which of all others should belong to the common talk of people +who enjoy the blessings of freedom. Think, one moment. The earth is a +great factory-wheel, which, at every revolution on its axis, receives +fifty thousand raw souls and turns off nearly the same number worked up +more or less completely. There must be somewhere a population of two +hundred thousand million, perhaps ten or a hundred times as many, +earth-born intelligences. _Life_, as we call it, is nothing but the edge +of the boundless ocean of existence where it comes on soundings. In +this view, I do not see anything so fit to talk about, or half so +interesting, as that which relates to the innumerable majority of our +fellow-creatures, the dead-living, who are hundreds of thousands to one +of the live-living, and with whom we all potentially belong, though we +have got tangled for the present in some parcels of fibrine, albumen, +and phosphates, that keep us on the minority side of the house. In point +of fact, it is one of the many results of _Spiritualism_ to make +the permanent destiny of the race a matter of common reflection and +discourse, and a vehicle for the prevailing disbelief of the Middle-Age +doctrines on the subject. I cannot help thinking, when I remember how +many conversations my friend and myself have reported, that it would be +very extraordinary, if there were no mention of that class of subjects +which involves all that we have and all that we hope, not merely for +ourselves, but for the dear people whom we love best,--noble men, pure +and lovely women, ingenuous children,--about the destiny of nine-tenths +of whom you know the opinions that would have been taught by those old +man-roasting, woman-strangling dogmatists.--However, I fought this +matter with one of our boarders the other day, and I am going to report +the conversation. + + * * * * * + +The divinity-student came down, one morning, looking rather more serious +than usual. He said little at breakfast-time, but lingered after the +others, so that I, who am apt to be long at the table, found myself +alone with him. + +When the rest were all gone, he turned his chair round towards mine, and +began. + +I am afraid,--he said,--you express yourself a little too freely on a +most important class of subjects. Is there not danger in introducing +discussions or allusions relating to matters of religion into common +discourse? + +Danger to what?--I asked. + +Danger to truth,--he replied, after a slight pause. + +I didn't know Truth was such an invalid,--I said.--How long is it since +she could only take the air in a close carriage, with a gentleman in +a black coat on the box? Let me tell you a story, adapted to young +persons, but which won't hurt older ones. + +----There was a very little boy who had one of those balloons you may +have seen, which are filled with light gas, and are held by a string to +keep them from running off in aeronautic voyages on their own +account. This little boy had a naughty brother, who said to him, one +day,--Brother, pull down your balloon, so that I can look at it and take +hold of it. Then the little boy pulled it down. Now the naughty brother +had a sharp pin in his hand, and he thrust it into the balloon, and all +the gas oozed out, so that there was nothing left but a shrivelled skin. + +One evening, the little boy's father called him to the window to see the +moon, which pleased him very much; but presently he said,--Father, do +not pull the string and bring down the moon, for my naughty brother will +prick it, and then it will all shrivel up and we shall not see it any +more. + +Then his father laughed, and told him how the moon had been shining a +good while, and would shine a good while longer, and that all we could +do was to keep our windows clean, never letting the dust get too thick +on them, and especially to keep our eyes open, but that we could not +pull the moon down with a string, nor prick it with a pin.--Mind you +this, too, the moon is no man's private property, but is seen from a +good many parlor-windows. + +----Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, +you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and +full at evening. Does not Mr. Bryant say, that Truth gets well if she is +run over by a locomotive, while Error dies of lockjaw if she scratches +her finger? I never heard that a mathematician was alarmed for the +safety of a demonstrated proposition. I think, generally, that fear +of open discussion implies feebleness of inward conviction, and great +sensitiveness to the expression of individual opinion is a mark of +weakness. + +----I am not so much afraid for truth,--said the divinity-student,--as +for the conceptions of truth in the minds of persons not accustomed to +judge wisely the opinions uttered before them. + +Would you, then, banish all allusions to matters of this nature from the +society of people who come together habitually? + +I would be very careful in introducing them,--said the divinity-student. + +Yes, but friends of yours leave pamphlets in people's entries, to be +picked up by nervous misses and hysteric housemaids, full of doctrines +these people do not approve. Some of your friends stop little children +in the street, and give them books, which their parents, who have had +them baptized into the Christian fold and give them what they consider +proper religious instruction, do not think fit for them. One would say +it was fair enough to talk about matters thus forced upon people's +attention. + +The divinity-student could not deny that this was what might be called +opening the subject to the discussion of intelligent people. + +But,--he said,--the greatest objection is this, that persons who have +not made a professional study of theology are not competent to speak on +such subjects. Suppose a minister were to undertake to express opinions +on medical subjects, for instance, would you not think he was going +beyond his province? + +I laughed,--for I remembered John Wesley's "sulphur and supplication," +and so many other cases where ministers had meddled with +medicine,--sometimes well and sometimes ill, but, as a general rule, +with a tremendous lurch to quackery, owing to their very loose way of +admitting evidence,--that I could not help being amused. + +I beg your pardon,--I said,--I do not wish to be impolite, but I was +thinking of their certificates to patent medicines. Let us look at this +matter. + +If a minister had attended lectures on the theory and practice of +medicine, delivered by those who had studied it most deeply, for thirty +or forty years, at the rate of from fifty to one hundred a year,--if he +had been constantly reading and hearing read the most approved textbooks +on the subject,--if he had seen medicine actually practised according to +different methods, daily, for the same length of time,--I should think, +that, if a person of average understanding, he _was_ entitled to express +an opinion on the subject of medicine, or else that his instructors were +a set of ignorant and incompetent charlatans. + +If, before a medical practitioner would allow me to enjoy the full +privileges of the healing art, he expected me to affirm my belief in a +considerable number of medical doctrines, drugs, and formulae, I should +think that he thereby implied my right to discuss the same, and my +ability to do so, if I knew how to express myself in English. + +Suppose, for instance, the Medical Society should refuse to give us an +opiate, or to set a broken limb, until we had signed our belief in +a certain number of propositions,--of which we will say this is the +first:-- + +I. All men's teeth are naturally in a state of total decay or caries, +and, therefore, no man can bite until every one of them is extracted and +a new set is inserted according to the principles of dentistry adopted +by this Society. + +I, for one, should want to discuss that before signing my name to it, +and I should say this:--Why, no, that isn't true. There are a good many +bad teeth, we all know, but a great many more good ones. You mustn't +trust the _dentists_; they are all the time looking at the people who +have bad teeth, and such as are suffering from toothache. The idea that +you must pull out every one of every nice young man and young woman's +natural teeth! Poh, poh! Nobody believes that. This tooth must be +straightened, that must be filled with gold, and this other perhaps +extracted; but it must be a very rare case, if they are all so bad as to +require extraction; and if they are, don't blame the poor soul for it! +Don't tell us, as some old dentists used to, that everybody not only +always has every tooth in his head good for nothing, but that he ought +to have his head cut off as a punishment for that misfortune! No, I +can't sign Number One. Give us Number Two. + +II. We hold that no man can be well who does not agree with our views +of the efficacy of calomel, and who does not take the doses of it +prescribed in our tables, as there directed. + +To which I demur, questioning why it should be so, and get for answer +the two following:-- + +III. Every man who does not take our prepared calomel, as prescribed by +us in our Constitution and By-Laws, is and must be a mass of disease +from head to foot; it being self-evident that he is simultaneously +affected with Apoplexy, Arthritis, Ascites, Asphyxia, and Atrophy; with +Borborygmus, Bronchitis, and Bulimia; with Cachexia, Carcinoma, and +Cretinismus; and so on through the alphabet, to Xerophthalmia and Zona, +with all possible and incompatible diseases which are necessary to make +up a totally morbid state; and he will certainly die, if he does not +take freely of our prepared calomel, to be obtained only of one of our +authorized agents. + +IV. No man shall be allowed to take our prepared calomel who does not +give in his solemn adhesion to each and all of the above-named and the +following propositions (from ten to a hundred) and show his mouth to +certain of our apothecaries, who have _not_ studied dentistry, to +examine whether all his teeth have been extracted and a new set inserted +according to our regulations. + +Of course, the doctors have a right to say we shan't have any rhubarb, +if we don't sign their articles, and that, if, after signing them, we +express doubts (in public) about any of them, they will cut us off from +our jalap and squills,--but then to ask a fellow not to discuss the +propositions before he signs them is what I should call boiling it down +a little _too_ strong! + +If we understand them, why can't we discuss them? If we can't understand +them, because we haven't taken a medical degree, what the Father of Lies +do they ask us to sign them for? + +Just so with the graver profession. Every now and then some of its +members seem to lose common sense and common humanity. The laymen have +to keep setting the divines right constantly. Science, for instance,--in +other words, knowledge,--is not the enemy of religion; for, if so, +then religion would mean ignorance. But it is often the antagonist of +school-divinity. + +Everybody knows the story of early astronomy and the school-divines. +Come down a little later. Archbishop Usher, a very learned Protestant +prelate, tells us that the world was created on Sunday, the twenty-third +of October, four thousand and four years before the birth of Christ. +Deluge, December 7th, two thousand three hundred and forty-eight years +B.C.--Yes, and the earth stands on an elephant, and the elephant on a +tortoise. One statement is as near the truth as the other. + +Again, there is nothing so brutalizing to some natures as _moral +surgery_. I have often wondered that Hogarth did not add one more +picture to his four stages of Cruelty. Those wretched fools, reverend +divines and others, who were strangling men and women for imaginary +crimes a little more than a century ago among us, were set right by a +layman, and very angry it made them to have him meddle. + +The good people of Northampton had a very remarkable man for their +clergyman,--a man with a brain as nicely adjusted for certain mechanical +processes as Babbage's calculating machine. The commentary of the laymen +on the preaching and practising of Jonathan Edwards was, that, after +twenty-three years of endurance, they turned him out by a vote of twenty +to one, and passed a resolve that he should never preach for them again. +A man's logical and analytical adjustments are of little consequence, +compared to his primary relations with Nature and truth; and people have +sense enough to find it out in the long run; they know what "logic" is +worth. + +In that miserable delusion referred to above, the reverend Aztecs and +Fijians argued rightly enough from their premises, no doubt, for many +men can do this. But common sense and common humanity were unfortunately +left out from their premises, and a layman had to supply them. A hundred +more years and many of the barbarisms still lingering among us will, of +course, have disappeared like witch-hanging. But people are sensitive +now, as they were then. You will see by this extract that the Rev. +Cotton Mather did not like intermeddling with his business very well. +"Let the _Levites_ of the Lord keep close to their Instructions," he +says, "and _God will smile thro' the loins of those that rise up against +them._ I will report unto you a Thing which many Hundreds among us know +to be true. The _Godly Minister_ of a certain Town in Connecticut, when +he had occasion to be absent on a _Lord's Day_ from his Flock, employ'd +an honest _Neighbour_ of some small Talents for a _Mechanick_, to read a +_Sermon_ out of some _good Book_ unto 'em. This _Honest_, whom they ever +counted also a _Pious Man_, had so much conceit of his _Talents_, that +instead of _Reading a Sermon_ appointed, he to the _Surprize_ of the +People, fell to _preaching one of his own_. For his Text he took these +Words, _'Despise not Prophecyings'_; and in his Preachment he betook +himself to bewail the _Envy of the Clergy_ in the Land, in that they did +not wish _all the Lord's People to be Prophets_, and call forth _Private +Brethren_ publickly to _prophesie_. While he was thus in the midst +of his Exercise, God smote him with horrible _Madness_; he was taken +ravingly distracted; the People were forc'd with violent Hands to +carry him home.... I will not mention his Name: He was reputed a Pious +Man."--This is one of Cotton's "Remarkable Judgments of God, on Several +Sorts of Offenders,"--and the next cases referred to are the Judgments +on the "Abominable Sacrilege" of not paying the Ministers' Salaries. + +This sort of thing doesn't do here and now, you see, my young friend! We +talk about our free institutions;--they are nothing but a coarse outside +machinery to secure the freedom of individual thought. The President +of the United States is only the engine-driver of our broad-gauge +mail-train; and every honest, independent thinker has a seat in the +first-class cars behind him. + +----There is something in what you say,--replied the +divinity-student;--and yet it seems to me there are places and times +where disputed doctrines of religion should not be introduced. You would +not attack a church dogma--say, Total Depravity--in a lyceum-lecture, +for instance? + +Certainly not; I should choose another place,--I answered.--But, mind +you, at this table I think it is very different. I shall express my +ideas on any subject I like. The laws of the lecture-room, to which my +friends and myself are always amenable, do not hold here. I shall not +often give arguments, but frequently opinions,--I trust with courtesy +and propriety, but, at any rate, with such natural forms of expression +as it has pleased the Almighty to bestow upon me. + +A man's opinions, look you, are generally of much more value than his +arguments. These last are made by his brain, and perhaps he does not +believe the proposition they tend to prove,--as is often the case with +paid lawyers; but opinions are formed by our whole nature,--brain, +heart, instinct, brute life, everything all our experience has shaped +for us by contact with the whole circle of our being. + +----There is one thing more,--said the divinity-student,--that I wished +to speak of; I mean that idea of yours, expressed some time since, of +_depolarizing_ the text of sacred books in order to judge them fairly. +May I ask why you do not try the experiment yourself? + +Certainly,--I replied,--if it gives you any pleasure to ask foolish +questions. I think the ocean telegraph-wire ought to be laid and will be +laid, but I don't know that you have any right to ask me to go and +lay it. But, for that matter, I have heard a good deal of Scripture +depolarized in and out of the pulpit. I heard the Rev. Mr. F. once +depolarize the story of the Prodigal Son in Park-Street Church. Many +years afterwards, I heard him repeat the same or a similar depolarized +version in Rome, New York. I heard an admirable depolarization of the +story of the young man who "had great possessions" from the Rev. Mr. H. +in another pulpit, and felt that I had never half understood it before. +All paraphrases are more or less perfect depolarizations. But I tell you +this: the faith of our Christian community is not robust enough to +bear the turning of our most sacred language into its depolarized +equivalents. You have only to look back to Dr. Channing's famous +Baltimore discourse and remember the shrieks of blasphemy with which it +was greeted, to satisfy yourself on this point. Time, time only, +can gradually wean us from our _Epeolatry_, or word-worship, by +spiritualizing our ideas of the thing signified. Man is an idolater or +symbol-worshipper by nature, which, of course, is no fault of his; but +sooner or later all his local and temporary symbols must be ground to +powder, like the golden calf,--word-images as well as metal and wooden +ones. Rough work, iconoclasm,--but the only way to get at truth. It is, +indeed, as that quaint and rare old discourse, "A Summons for Sleepers," +hath it, "no doubt a thankless office, and a verie unthriftie +occupation; _veritas odium parit_, truth never goeth without a scratcht +face; he that will be busie with _vae vobis_, let him looke shortly for +_coram nobis_." + +The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think +what we like and say what we think. + +----Think what we like!--said the divinity-student;--think what we like! +What! against all human and divine authority? + +Against all human versions of its own or any other authority. At our own +peril always, if we do not _like_ the right,--but not at the risk of +being hanged and quartered for political heresy, or broiled on green +fagots for ecclesiastical treason! Nay, we have got so far, that the +very word _heresy_ has fallen into comparative disuse among us. + +And now, my young friend, let us shake hands and stop our discussion, +which we will not make a quarrel. I trust you know, or will learn, a +great many things in your profession which we common scholars do not +know; but mark this: when the common people of New England stop talking +politics and theology, it will be because they have got an Emperor to +teach them the one, and a Pope to teach them the other! + + * * * * * + +That was the end of my long conference with the divinity-student. +The next morning we got talking a little on the same subject, very +good-naturedly, as people return to a matter they have talked out. + +You must look to yourself,--said the divinity-student,--if your +democratic notions get into print. You will be fired into from all +quarters. + +If it were only a bullet, with the marksman's name on it!--I said.--I +can't stop to pick out the peep-shot of the anonymous scribblers. + +Right, Sir! right!--said Little Boston.--The scamps! I know the fellows. +They can't give fifty cents to one of the Antipodes, but they must have +it jingled along through everybody's palms all the way, till it reaches +him,--and forty cents of it get spilt, like the water out of the +fire-buckets passed along a "lane" at a fire;--but, when it comes to +anonymous defamation, putting lies into people's mouths, and then +advertising those people through the country as the authors of +them,--oh, then it is that they let not their left hand know what their +right hand doeth! + +I don't like Ehud's style of doing business, Sir. He comes along with a +very sanctimonious look, Sir, with his "secret errand unto thee," and +his "message from God unto thee," and then pulls out his hidden knife +with that unsuspected left hand of his,--(the little gentleman +lifted his clenched left hand with the blood-red jewel on the +ring-finger,)--and runs it, blade and haft, into a man's stomach! Don't +meddle with these fellows, Sir. They are read mostly by persons whom you +would not reach, if you were to write ever so much. Let 'em alone. A man +whose opinions are not attacked is beneath contempt. + +I hope so,--I said.--I got three pamphlets and innumerable squibs flung +at my head for attacking one of the pseudo-sciences, in former years. +When, by the permission of Providence, I held up to the professional +public the damnable facts connected with the conveyance of poison from +one young mother's chamber to another's,--for doing which humble office +I desire to be thankful that I have lived, though nothing else good +should ever come of my life,--I had to bear the sneers of those whose +position I had assailed, and, as I believe, have at last demolished, so +that nothing but the ghosts of dead women stir among the ruins.--What +would you do, if the folks without names kept at you, trying to get a +San Benito on to your shoulders that would fit you?--Would you stand +still in fly-time, or would you give a kick now and then? + +Let 'em bite!--said Little Boston;--let 'em bite! It makes 'em hungry to +shake 'em off, and they settle down again as thick as ever and twice as +savage. Do you know what meddling with the folks without names, as you +call 'em, is like?--It is like riding at the _quintain_. You run full +tilt at the board, but the board is on a pivot, with a bag of sand on an +arm that balances it. The board gives way as soon as you touch it; and +before you have got by, the bag of sand comes round whack on the back of +your neck. "Ananias," for instance, pitches into your lecture, we will +say, in some paper taken by the people in your kitchen. Your servants +get saucy and negligent. If their newspaper calls you names, they need +not be so particular about shutting doors softly or boiling potatoes. +So you lose your temper, and come out in an article which you think is +going to finish "Ananias," proving him a booby who doesn't know enough +to understand even a lyceum-lecture, or else a person that tells lies. +Now you think you've got him! Not so fast. "Ananias" keeps still and +winks to "Shimei," and "Shimei" comes out in the paper which they take +in your neighbor's kitchen, ten times worse than t'other fellow. If you +meddle with "Shimei," he steps out, and next week appears "Rab-shakeh," +an unsavory wretch; and now, at any rate, you find out what good +sense there was in Hezekiah's "Answer him not."--No, no,--keep your +temper.--So saying, the little gentleman doubled his left fist and +looked at it, as if he should like to hit something or somebody a most +pernicious punch with it. + +Good!--said I.--Now let me give you some axioms I have arrived at, after +seeing something of a great many kinds of good folks. + +----Of a hundred people of each of the different leading religious +sects, about the same proportion will be safe and pleasant persons to +deal and to live with. + +----There are, at least, three real saints among the women to one among +the men, in every denomination. + +----The spiritual standard of different classes I would reckon thus:-- + +1. The comfortably rich. + +2. The decently comfortable. + +3. The very rich, who are apt to be irreligious. + +4. The very poor, who are apt to be immoral. + +----The cut nails of machine-divinity may be driven in, but they won't +clinch. + +----The arguments which the greatest of our schoolmen could not refute +were two: the blood in men's veins, and the milk in women's breasts. + +----Humility is the first of the virtues--for other people. + +----Faith always implies the disbelief of a lesser fact in favor of +a greater. A little mind often sees the unbelief, without seeing the +belief, of a large one. + +The Poor Relation had been fidgeting about and working her mouth while +all this was going on. She broke out in speech at this point. + +I hate to hear folks talk so. I don't see that you are any better than a +heathen. + +I wish I were half as good as many heathens have been,--I said.--Dying +for a principle seems to me a higher degree of virtue than scolding for +it; and, the history of heathen races is full of instances where men +have laid down their lives for the love of their kind, of their country, +of truth, nay, even for simple manhood's sake, or to show their +obedience or fidelity. What would not such beings have done for the +souls of men, for the Christian commonwealth, for the King of Kings, +if they had lived in days of larger light? Which seems to you nearest +heaven, Socrates drinking his hemlock, Regulus going back to the enemy's +camp, or that old New England divine sitting comfortably in his study +and chuckling over his conceit of certain poor women, who had been +burned to death in his own town, going "roaring out of one fire into +another"? + +I don't believe he said any such thing,--replied the Poor Relation. + +It is hard to believe,--said I,--but it is true for all that. In another +hundred years it will be as incredible that men talked as we sometimes +hear them now. + +_Cor facit theologum._ The heart makes the theologian. Every race, +every civilization, either has a new revelation of its own or a new +interpretation of an old one. Democratic America has a different +humanity from feudal Europe, and so must have a new divinity. See, for +one moment, how intelligence reacts on our faiths. The Bible was a +divining-book to our ancestors, and is so still in the hands of some of +the vulgar. The Puritans went to the Old Testament for their laws; the +Mormons go to it for their patriarchal institution. Every generation +dissolves something new and precipitates something once held in solution +from that great storehouse of temporary and permanent truths. + +You may observe this: that the conversation of intelligent men of the +stricter sects is strangely in advance of the formulae that belong to +their organizations. So true is this, that I have doubts whether a large +proportion of them would not have been rather pleased than offended, +if they could have overheard our talk. For, look you, I think there is +hardly a professional teacher who will not in private conversation allow +a large part of what we have said, though it may frighten him in print; +and I know well what an under-current of secret sympathy gives vitality +to those poor words of mine which sometimes get a hearing. + +I don't mind the exclamation of any old stager who drinks Madeira +worth from two to six Bibles a bottle, and burns, according to his own +premises, a dozen souls a year in the cigars with which he muddles his +brains. But for the good and true and intelligent men whom we see all +around us, laborious, self-denying, hopeful, helpful,--men who know +that the active mind of the century is tending more and more to the two +poles, Rome and Reason, the sovereign church or the free soul, authority +or personality, God in us or God in our masters, and that, though a +man may by accident _stand_ half-way between these two points, he must +_look_ one way or the other,--I don't believe they would take offence at +anything I have reported of our late conversation. + +But supposing any one _do_ take offence at first sight, let him look +over these notes again, and see whether he is quite sure he does not +agree with most of these things that were said amongst us. If he agrees +with most of them, let him be patient with an opinion he does not +accept, or an expression or illustration a little too vivacious. I don't +know that I shall report any more conversations on these topics; but +I do insist on the right to express a civil opinion on this class of +subjects without giving offence, just when and where I please,--unless, +as in the lecture-room, there is an implied contract to keep clear of +doubtful matters. You didn't think a man could sit at a breakfast-table +doing nothing but making puns every morning for a year or two, and never +give a thought to the two thousand of his fellow-creatures who are +passing into another state during every hour that he sits talking and +laughing! Of course, the _one_ matter that a real human being cares for +is what is going to become of them and of him. And the plain truth is, +that a good many people are saying one thing about it and believing +another. + +----How do I know that? Why, I have known and loved to talk with good +people, all the way from Rome to Geneva in doctrine, as long as I can +remember. Besides, the real religion of the world comes from women much +more than from men,--from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our +souls in their bosoms. It is in their hearts that the "sentimental" +religion some people are so fond of sneering at has its source. The +sentiment of love, the sentiment of maternity, the sentiment of the +paramount obligation of the parent to the child as having called it into +existence, enhanced just in proportion to the power and knowledge of +the one and the weakness and ignorance of the other,--these are the +"sentiments" that have kept our soulless systems from driving men off to +die in holes like those that riddle the sides of the hill opposite +the Monastery of St. Saba, where the miserable victims of a +falsely-interpreted religion starved and withered in their delusion. + +I have looked on the face of a saintly woman this very day, whose creed +many dread and hate, but whose life is lovely and noble beyond all +praise. When I remember the bitter words I have heard spoken against her +faith, by men who have an Inquisition which excommunicates those who ask +to leave their communion in peace, and an _Index Expurgatorius_ on which +this article may possibly have the honor of figuring,--and, far worse +than these, the reluctant, pharisaical confession, that it might perhaps +be _possible_ that one who so believed should be accepted of the +Creator,--and then recall the sweet peace and love that show through +all her looks, the price of untold sacrifices and labors,--and again +recollect how thousands of women, filled with the same spirit, die, +without a murmur, to earthly life, die to their own names even, that +they may know nothing but their holy duties,--while men are torturing +and denouncing their fellows, and while we can hear day and night the +clinking of the hammers that are trying, like the brute forces in the +"Prometheus," to rivet their adamantine wedges right through the breast +of human nature,--I have been ready to believe that we have even now a +new revelation, and the name of its Messiah is WOMAN! + + * * * * * + +----I should be sorry,--I remarked, a day or two afterwards, to the +divinity-student,--if anything I said tended in any way to foster any +jealousy between the professions, or to throw disrespect upon that one +on whose counsel and sympathies almost all of us lean in our moments +of trial. But we are false to our new conditions of life, if we do not +resolutely maintain our religious as well as our political freedom, +in the face of any and all supposed monopolies. Certain men will, of +course, say two things, if we do not take their views: first, that we +don't know anything about these matters; and, secondly, that we are not +so good as they are. They have a polarized phraseology for saying these +things, but it comes to precisely that. To which it may be answered, in +the first place, that we have good authority for saying that even babes +and sucklings know _something_; and, in the second, that, if there is a +mote or so to be removed from our premises, the courts and councils of +the last few years have found beams enough in some other quarters to +build a church that would hold all the good people in Boston and have +sticks enough left to make a bonfire for all the heretics. + +As to that terrible depolarizing process of mine, of which we were +talking the other day, I will give you a specimen of one way of managing +it, if you like. I don't believe it will hurt you or anybody. Besides, I +had a great deal rather finish our talk with pleasant images and gentle +words than with sharp sayings, which will only afford a text, if anybody +repeats them, for endless relays of attacks from Messrs. Ananias, +Shimei, and Rab-sha-keh. + +[I must leave such gentry, if any of them show themselves, in the hands +of my clerical friends, many of whom are ready to stand up for the +rights of the laity,--and to those blessed souls, the good women, to +whom this version of the story of a mother's hidden hopes and tender +anxieties is dedicated by their peaceful and loving servant.] + + + + +A MOTHER'S SECRET. + + + How sweet the sacred legend--if unblamed + In my slight verse such holy things are named-- + Of Mary's secret hours of hidden joy, + Silent, but pondering on her wondrous boy! + _Ave, Maria!_ Pardon, if I wrong + Those heavenly words that shame my earthly song! + + The choral host had closed the angel's strain + Sung to the midnight watch on Bethlehem's plain; + And now the shepherds, hastening on their way, + Sought the still hamlet where the Infant lay. + They passed the fields that gleaning Ruth toiled o'er,-- + They saw afar the ruined threshing-floor + Where Moab's daughter, homeless and forlorn, + Found Boaz slumbering by his heaps of corn; + And some remembered how the holy scribe, + Skilled in the lore of every jealous tribe, + Traced the warm blood of Jesse's royal son + To that fair alien, bravely wooed and won. + So fared they on to seek the promised sign + That marked the anointed heir of David's line. + + At last, by forms of earthly semblance led, + They found the crowded inn, the oxen's shed. + No pomp was there, no glory shone around + On the coarse straw that strewed the reeking ground; + One dim retreat a flickering torch betrayed,-- + In that poor cell the Lord of Life was laid! + + The wondering shepherds told their breathless tale + Of the bright choir that woke the sleeping vale; + Told how the skies with sudden glory flamed; + Told how the shining multitude proclaimed, + "Joy, joy to earth! Behold the hallowed morn! + In David's city Christ the Lord is born! + 'Glory to God!' let angels shout on high,-- + 'Good-will to men!' the listening Earth reply!" + + They spoke with hurried words and accents wild; + Calm in his cradle slept the heavenly child. + No trembling word the mother's joy revealed,-- + One sigh of rapture, and her lips were sealed; + Unmoved she saw the rustic train depart, + But kept their words to ponder in her heart. + + Twelve years had passed; the boy was fair and tall, + Growing in wisdom, finding grace with all. + The maids of Nazareth, as they trooped to fill + Their balanced urns beside the mountain-rill,-- + The gathered matrons, as they sat and spun, + Spoke in soft words of Joseph's quiet son. + No voice had reached the Galilean vale + Of star-led kings or awe-struck shepherds' tale; + In the meek, studious child they only saw + The future Rabbi, learned in Israel's law. + + So grew the boy; and now the feast was near, + When at the holy place the tribes appear. + Scarce had the home-bred child of Nazareth seen + Beyond the hills that girt the village-green, + Save when at midnight, o'er the star-lit sands, + Snatched from the steel of Herod's murdering bands, + A babe, close-folded to his mother's breast, + Through Edom's wilds he sought the sheltering West. + + Then Joseph spake: "Thy boy hath largely grown; + Weave him fine raiment, fitting to be shown; + Fair robes beseem the pilgrim, as the priest: + Goes he not with us to the holy feast?" + + And Mary culled the flaxen fibres white; + Till eve she spun; she spun till morning light; + The thread was twined; its parting meshes through + From hand to hand her restless shuttle flew, + Till the full web was wound upon the beam,-- + Love's curious toil,--a vest without a seam! + + They reach the holy place, fulfil the days + To solemn feasting given, and grateful praise. + At last they turn, and far Moriah's height + Melts in the southern sky and fades from sight. + All day the dusky caravan has flowed + In devious trails along the winding road + (For many a step their homeward path attends,-- + And all the sons of Abraham are as friends). + Evening has come,--the hour of rest and joy;-- + Hush! hush!--that whisper,--"Where is Mary's boy?" + + O weary hour! O aching days that passed + Filled with strange fears, each wilder than the last: + The soldier's lance,--the fierce centurion's sword,-- + The crushing wheels that whirl some Roman lord,-- + The midnight crypt that sucks the captive's breath,-- + The blistering sun on Hinnom's vale of death! + + Thrice on his cheek had rained the morning light, + Thrice on his lips the mildewed kiss of night, + Crouched by some porphyry column's shining plinth, + Or stretched beneath the odorous terebinth. + + At last, in desperate mood, they sought once more + The Temple's porches, searched in vain before; + They found him seated with the ancient men,-- + The grim old rufflers of the tongue and pen,-- + Their bald heads glistening as they clustered near, + Their gray beards slanting as they turned to hear, + Lost in half-envious wonder and surprise + That lips so fresh should utter words so wise. + + And Mary said,--as one who, tried too long, + Tells all her grief and half her sense of wrong,-- + "What is this thoughtless thing which thou hast done? + Lo, we have sought thee sorrowing, O my son!" + + Few words he spake, and scarce of filial tone,-- + Strange words, their sense a mystery yet unknown; + Then turned with them and left the holy hill, + To all their mild commands obedient still. + + The tale was told to Nazareth's sober men, + And Nazareth's matrons told it oft again; + The maids re-told it at the fountain's side; + The youthful shepherds doubted or denied; + It passed around among the listening friends, + With all that fancy adds and fiction lends, + Till newer marvels dimmed the young renown + Of Joseph's son, who talked the Rabbis down. + + But Mary, faithful to its lightest word, + Kept in her heart the sayings she had heard, + Till the dread morning rent the Temple's veil, + And shuddering Earth confirmed the wondrous tale. + + Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall: + A mother's secret hope outlives them all. + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MISS PRISSY. + + +Will our little Mary really fall in love with the Doctor?--The question +reaches us in anxious tones from all the circle of our readers; and what +especially shocks us is, that grave doctors of divinity, and serious, +stocking-knitting matrons, seem to be the class who are particularly +set against the success of our excellent orthodox hero, and bent on +reminding us of the claims of that unregenerate James, whom we have sent +to sea on purpose that our heroine may recover herself of that foolish +partiality for him which all the Christian world seems bent on +perpetuating. + +"Now, really," says the Rev. Mrs. Q., looking up from her bundle of +Sewing-Society work, "you are _not_ going to let Mary marry the +Doctor?" + +My dear Madam, is not that just what you did, yourself, after having +turned off three or four fascinating young sinners as good as James any +day? Don't make us believe that you are sorry for it now! + +"Is it possible," says Dr. Theophrastus, who is himself a stanch +Hopkinsian divine, and who is at present recovering from his last grand +effort on Natural and Moral Ability,--"is it possible that you are going +to let Mary forget that poor young man and marry Dr. H.? That will never +do in the world!" + +Dear Doctor, consider what would have become of you, if some lady at a +certain time had not had the sense and discernment to fall in love with +the _man_ who came to her disguised as a theologian. + +"But he's so old!" says Aunt Maria. + +Not at all. Old? What do you mean? Forty is the very season of +ripeness,--the very meridian of manly lustre and splendor. + +"But he wears a wig." + +My dear Madam, so did Sir Charles Grandison, and Lovelace, and all the +other fine fellows of those days; the wig was the distinguishing mark of +a gentleman. + +No,--spite of all you may say and declare, we do insist that our Doctor +is a very proper and probable subject for a young lady to fall in love +with. + +If women have one weakness more marked than another, it is towards +veneration. They are born worshippers,--makers of silver shrines for +some divinity or other, which, of course, they always think fell +straight down from heaven. + +The first step towards their falling in love with an ordinary mortal +is generally to dress him out with all manner of real or fancied +superiority; and having made him up, they worship him. + +Now a truly great man, a man really grand and noble in heart and +intellect, has this advantage with women, that he is an idol ready-made +to hand; and so that very painstaking and ingenious sex have less labor +in getting him up, and can be ready to worship him on shorter notice. + +In particular is this the case where a sacred profession and a moral +supremacy are added to the intellectual. Just think of the career of +celebrated preachers and divines in all ages. Have they not stood like +the image that "Nebuchadnezzar the king set up," and all womankind, +coquettes and flirts not excepted, been ready to fall down and worship, +even before the sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and so forth? Is +not the faithful Paula, with her beautiful face, prostrate in reverence +before poor, old, lean, haggard, dying St. Jerome, in the most splendid +painting of the world, an emblem and sign of woman's eternal power of +self-sacrifice to what she deems noblest in man? Does not old Richard +Baxter tell us, with delightful single-heartedness, how his wife fell +in love with him first, spite of his long, pale face,--and how she +confessed, dear soul, after many years of married life, that she had +found him _less_ sour and bitter than she had expected? + +The fact is, women are burdened with fealty, faith, reverence, more +than they know what to do with; they stand like a hedge of sweet-peas, +throwing out fluttering tendrils everywhere for something high and +strong to climb by,--and when they find it, be it ever so rough in the +bark, they catch upon it. And instances are not wanting of those who +have turned away from the flattery of admirers to prostrate themselves +at the feet of a genuine hero who never wooed them, except by heroic +deeds and the rhetoric of a noble life. + +Never was there a distinguished man whose greatness could sustain the +test of minute domestic inspection better than our Doctor. Strong in a +single-hearted humility, a perfect unconsciousness of self, an honest +and sincere absorption in high and holy themes and objects, there was in +him what we so seldom see,--a perfect logic of life; his minutest deeds +were the true results of his sublimest principles. His whole nature, +moral, physical, and intellectual, was simple, pure, and cleanly. He was +temperate as an anchorite in all matters of living,--avoiding, from a +healthy instinct, all those intoxicating stimuli then common among the +clergy. In his early youth, indeed, he had formed an attachment to the +almost universal clerical pipe,--but, observing a delicate woman once +nauseated by coming into the atmosphere which he and his brethren had +polluted, he set himself gravely to reflect that that which could so +offend a woman must needs be uncomely and unworthy a Christian man; +wherefore he laid his pipe on the mantelpiece, and never afterwards +resumed the indulgence. + +In all his relations with womanhood he was delicate and reverential, +forming his manners by that old precept, "The elder women entreat as +mothers, the younger as sisters,"--which rule, short and simple as +it is, is nevertheless the most perfect _résumé_, of all true +gentlemanliness. Then, as for person, the Doctor was not handsome, to be +sure; but he was what sometimes serves with woman better,--majestic +and manly, and, when animated by thought and feeling, having even a +commanding grandeur of mien. Add to all this, that our valiant hero is +now on the straight road to bring him into that situation most likely +to engage the warm partisanship of a true woman,--namely, that of a man +unjustly abused for right-doing,--and one may see that it is ten to one +our Mary may fall in love with him yet, before she knows it. + +If it were not for this mysterious selfness-and-sameness which makes +this wild, wandering, uncanonical sailor, James Marvyn, so intimate +and internal,--if his thread were not knit up with the thread of her +life,--were it not for the old habit of feeling for him, thinking for +him, praying for him, hoping for him, fearing for him, which--woe is +us!--is the unfortunate habit of womankind,--if it were not for that +fatal something which neither judgment, nor wishes, nor reason, nor +common sense shows any great skill in unravelling,--we are quite sure +that Mary would be in love with the Doctor within the next six +months; as it is, we leave you all to infer from your own heart and +consciousness what his chances are. + +A new sort of scene is about to open on our heroine, and we shall show +her to you, for an evening at least, in new associations, and with a +different background from that homely and rural one in which she has +fluttered as a white dove amid leafy and congenial surroundings. + +As we have before intimated, Newport presented a _résumé_ of many +different phases of society, all brought upon a social level by the then +universally admitted principle of equality. + +There were scattered about in the settlement lordly mansions, whose +owners rolled in emblazoned carriages, and whose wide halls were the +scenes of a showy and almost princely hospitality. By her husband's +side, Mrs. Katy Scudder was allied to one of these families of wealthy +planters, and often recognized the connection with a quiet undertone +of satisfaction, as a dignified and self-respecting woman should. She +liked, once in a while, quietly to let people know, that, although they +lived in the plain little cottage and made no pretensions, yet they had +good blood in their veins,--that Mr. Scudder's mother was a Wilcox, and +that the Wilcoxes were, she supposed, as high as anybody,--generally +ending the remark with the observation, that "all these things, to be +sure, were matters of small consequence, since at last it would be of +far more importance to have been a true Christian than to have been +connected with the highest families of the land." + +Nevertheless, Mrs. Scudder was not a little pleased to have in her +possession a card of invitation to a splendid wedding-party that was +going to be given, on Friday, at the Wilcox Manor. She thought it a very +becoming mark of respect to the deceased Mr. Scudder that his widow and +daughter should be brought to mind,--so becoming and praiseworthy, +in fact, that, "though an old woman," as she said, with a complacent +straightening of her tall, lithe figure, she really thought she must +make an effort to go. + +Accordingly, early one morning, after all domestic duties had been +fulfilled, and the clock, loudly ticking through the empty rooms, told +that all needful bustle had died down to silence, Mrs. Katy, Mary, and +Miss Prissy Diamond, the dressmaker, might have been observed sitting in +solemn senate around the camphor-wood trunk, before spoken of, and which +exhaled vague foreign and Indian perfumes of silk and sandal-wood. + +You may have heard of dignitaries, my good reader,--but, I assure you, +you know very little of a situation of trust or importance compared to +that of _the_ dress-maker in a small New England town. + +What important interests does she hold in her hands! How is she +besieged, courted, deferred to! Three months beforehand, all her days +and nights are spoken for; and the simple statement, that _only_ on that +day you can have Miss Clippers, is of itself an apology for any omission +of attention elsewhere,--it strikes home at once to the deepest +consciousness of every woman, married or single. How thoughtfully is +everything arranged, weeks beforehand, for the golden, important season +when Miss Clippers can come! On that day, there is to be no extra +sweeping, dusting, cleaning, cooking, no visiting, no receiving, no +reading or writing, but all with one heart and soul are to wait upon +her, intent to forward the great work which she graciously affords +a day's leisure to direct. Seated in her chair of state, with her +well-worn cushion bristling with pins and needles at her side, her ready +roll of patterns and her scissors, she hears, judges, and decides _ex +cathedrâ_ on the possible or not possible, in that important art on +which depends the right presentation of the floral part of Nature's +great horticultural show. She alone is competent to say whether there is +any available remedy for the stained breadth in Jane's dress,--whether +the fatal spot by any magical hocus-pocus can be cut out from the +fulness, or turned up and smothered from view in the gathers, or +concealed by some new fashion of trimming falling with generous +appropriateness exactly across the fatal weak point. She can tell you +whether that remnant of velvet will make you a basque,--whether Mamma's +old silk can reappear in juvenile grace for Miss Lucy. What marvels +follow her, wherever she goes! What wonderful results does she contrive +from the most unlikely materials, as everybody after her departure +wonders to see old things become so much better than new! + +Among the most influential and happy of her class was Miss Prissy +Diamond,--a little, dapper, doll-like body, quick in her motions and +nimble in her tongue, whose delicate complexion, flaxen curls, merry +flow of spirits, and ready abundance of gayety, song, and story, apart +from her professional accomplishments, made her a welcome guest in every +family in the neighborhood. Miss Prissy laughingly boasted being past +forty, sure that the avowal would always draw down on her quite a storm +of compliments, on the freshness of her sweet-pea complexion and the +brightness of her merry blue eyes. She was well pleased to hear dawning +girls wondering why with so many advantages she had never married. At +such remarks, Miss Prissy always laughed loudly, and declared that she +had always had such a string of engagements with the women that she +never found half an hour to listen to what any _man_ living would say to +her, supposing she could stop to hear him. "Besides, if I were to get +married, nobody else could," she would say. "What would become of all +the wedding-clothes for everybody else?" But sometimes, when Miss Prissy +felt extremely gracious, she would draw out of her little chest just the +faintest tip-end of a sigh, and tell some young lady, in a confidential +undertone, that one of these days she would tell her something,--and +then there would come a wink of her blue eyes and a fluttering of the +pink ribbons in her cap quite stimulating to youthful inquisitiveness, +though we have never been able to learn by any of our antiquarian +researches that the expectations thus excited were ever gratified. + +In her professional prowess she felt a pardonable pride. What feats +could she relate of wonderful dresses got out of impossibly small +patterns of silk! what marvels of silks turned that could not be told +from new! what reclaimings of waists that other dress-makers had +hopelessly spoiled! Had not Mrs. General Wilcox once been obliged to +call in her aid on a dress sent to her from Paris? and did not Miss +Prissy work three days and nights on that dress, and make every stitch +of that trimming over with her own hands, before it was fit to be seen? +And when Mrs. Governor Dexter's best silver-gray brocade was spoiled by +Miss Pimlico, and there wasn't another scrap to pattern it with, didn't +she make a new waist out of the cape and piece one of the sleeves +twenty-nine times, and yet nobody would ever have known that there was a +joining in it? + +In fact, though Miss Prissy enjoyed the fair average plain-sailing of +her work, she might be said to _revel_ in difficulties. A full pattern +with trimming, all ample and ready, awoke a moderate enjoyment; but the +resurrection of anything half-worn or imperfectly made, the brilliant +success, when, after turning, twisting, piecing, contriving, and, +by unheard-of inventions of trimming, a dress faded and defaced was +restored to more than pristine splendor,--_that_ was a triumph worth +enjoying. + +It was true, Miss Prissy, like most of her nomadic compeers, was a +little given to gossip; but, after all, it was innocent gossip,--not +a bit of malice in it; it was only all the particulars about Mrs. +Thus-and-So's wardrobe,--all the statistics of Mrs. That-and-T'other's +china-closet,--all the minute items of Miss Simpkins's wedding-clothes, +--and how her mother cried, the morning of the wedding, and said +that she didn't know anything how she could spare Louisa Jane, only +that Edward was such a good boy that she felt she could love him +like an own son,--and what a providence it seemed that the very ring +that was put into the bride-loaf was one that he gave her when he first +went to sea, when she wouldn't be engaged to him because she thought she +loved Thomas Strickland better, but that was only because she hadn't +found him out, you know,--and so forth, and so forth. Sometimes, too, +her narrations assumed a solemn cast, and brought to mind the hush of +funerals, and told of words spoken in faint whispers, when hands were +clasped for the last time,--and of utterances crushed out from hearts, +when the hammer of a great sorrow strikes out sparks of the divine, even +from common stone; and there would be real tears in the little blue +eyes, and the pink bows would flutter tremulously, like the last +three leaves on a bare scarlet maple in autumn. In fact, dear reader, +_gossip_, like romance, has its noble side to it. How can you love your +neighbor as yourself and not feel a little curiosity as to how he +fares, what he wears, where he goes, and how he takes the great life +tragi-comedy at which you and he are both more than spectators? Show me +a person who lives in a country-village absolutely without curiosity or +interest on these subjects, and I will show you a cold, fat oyster, to +whom the tide-mud of propriety is the whole of existence. + +As one of our esteemed collaborators in the ATLANTIC remarks,--"A dull +town, where there is neither theatre nor circus nor opera, must have +some excitement, and the real tragedy and comedy of life _must_ come +in place of the second-hand. Hence the noted gossiping propensities +of country-places, which, so long as they are not poisoned by envy or +ill-will, have a respectable and picturesque side to them,--an undoubted +leave to be, as probably has almost everything, which obstinately and +always insists on being, except sin!" + +As it is, it must be confessed that the arrival of Miss Prissy in a +family was much like the setting up of a domestic show-case, through +which you could look into all the families in the neighborhood, and see +the never-ending drama of life,--births, marriages, deaths,--joy +of new-made mothers, whose babes weighed just eight pounds and +three-quarters, and had hair that would part with a comb,--and tears of +Rachels who wept for their children, and would not be comforted because +they were not. Was there a tragedy, a mystery, in all Newport, whose +secret closet had not been unlocked by Miss Prissy? She thought not; +and you always wondered, with an uncertain curiosity, what those things +might be over which she gravely shook her head, declaring, with such a +look,--"Oh, if you only _could_ know!"--and ending with a general sigh +and lamentation, like the confidential chorus of a Greek tragedy. + +We have been thus minute in sketching Miss Prissy's portrait, because +we rather like her. She has great power, we admit; and were she a +sour-faced, angular, energetic body, with a heart whose secretions had +all become acrid by disappointment and dyspepsia, she might be a fearful +gnome, against whose family-visitations one ought to watch and pray. As +it was, she came into the house rather like one of those breezy days +of spring, which burst all the blossoms, set all the doors and windows +open, make the hens cackle and the turtles peep,--filling a solemn +Puritan dwelling with as much bustle and chatter as if a box of martins +were setting up housekeeping in it. + +Let us now introduce you to the sanctuary of Mrs. Scudder's own private +bedroom, where the committee of exigencies, with Miss Prissy at their +head, are seated in solemn session around the camphor-wood trunk. + +"Dress, you know, is of _some_ importance, after all," said Mrs. +Scudder, in that apologetic way in which sensible people generally +acknowledge a secret leaning towards anything so very mundane. While +the good lady spoke, she was reverentially unpinning and shaking out +of their fragrant folds creamy crape shawls of rich Chinese +embroidery,--India muslin, scarfs, and aprons; and already her hands +were undoing the pins of a silvery damask linen in which was wrapped +her own wedding-dress. "I have always told Mary," she continued, "that, +though our hearts ought not to be set on these things, yet they had +their importance." + +"Certainly, certainly, Ma'am," chimed in Miss Prissy. "I was saying +to Miss General Wilcox, the other day, _I_ didn't see how we could +'consider the lilies of the field,' without seeing the importance of +looking pretty. I've got a flower-de-luce in my garden now, from one of +the new roots that old Major Seaforth brought over from France, which is +just the most beautiful thing you ever did see; and I was thinking, as +I looked at it to-day, that, if women's dresses only grew on 'em as +handsome and well-fitting as that, why, there wouldn't be any need of +me; but as it is, why, we _must think_, if we want to look well. Now +peach-trees, I s'pose, might bear just as good peaches without the pink +blows, but then who would want 'em to? Miss Deacon Twitchel, when I was +up there the other day, kept kind o' sighin' 'cause Cerintha Ann is +getting a new pink silk made up, 'cause she said it was such a dying +world it didn't seem right to call off our attention: but I told her +it wasn't any pinker than the apple-blossoms; and what with robins and +blue-birds and one thing or another, the Lord is always calling off our +attention; and I think we ought to observe the Lord's works and take a +lesson from 'em." + +"Yes, you are quite right," said Mrs. Scudder, rising and shaking out a +splendid white brocade, on which bunches of moss-roses were looped to +bunches of violets by graceful fillets of blue ribbons. "This was my +wedding-dress," she said. + +Little Miss Prissy sprang up and clapped her hands in an ecstasy. + +"Well, now, Miss Scudder, really!--did I ever see anything more +beautiful? It really goes beyond anything _I_ ever saw. I don't think, +in all the brocades I ever made up, I ever saw so pretty a pattern as +this." + +"Mr. Scudder chose it for me, himself, at the silk-factory in Lyons," +said Mrs. Scudder, with pardonable pride, "and I want it tried on to +Mary." + +"Really, Miss Scudder, this ought to be kept for _her_ wedding-dress," +said Miss Prissy, as she delightedly bustled about the congenial task. +"I was up to Miss Marvyn's, a-working, last week," she said, as she +threw the dress over Mary's head, "and she said that James expected to +make his fortune in that voyage, and come home and settle down." + +Mary's fair head emerged from the rustling folds of the brocade, her +cheeks crimson as one of the moss-roses,--while her mother's face assumed +a severe gravity, as she remarked that she believed James had been much +pleased with Jane Spencer, and that, for her part, she should be very +glad, when he came home, if he could marry such a steady, sensible girl, +and settle down to a useful, Christian life. + +"Ah, yes,--just so,--a very excellent idea, certainly," said Miss +Prissy. "It wants a little taken in here on the shoulders, and a +little under the arms. The biases are all right; the sleeves will want +altering, Miss Scudder. I hope you will have a hot iron ready for +pressing." + +Mrs. Scudder rose immediately, to see the command obeyed; and as her +back was turned, Miss Prissy went on in a low tone,-- + +"Now, _I_, for my part, don't think there's a word of truth in that +story about James Marvyn and Jane Spencer; for I was down there at work +one day when he called, and I _know_ there couldn't have been anything +between them,--besides, Miss Spencer, her mother, told me there +wasn't.--There, Miss Scudder, you see that is a good fit. It's +astonishing how near it comes to fitting, just as it was. I didn't think +Mary was so near what you were, when you were a girl, Miss Scudder. The +other day, when I was up to General Wilcox's, the General he was in the +room when I was a-trying on Miss Wilcox's cherry velvet, and she was +asking couldn't I come this week for her, and I mentioned I was coming +to Miss Scudder, and the General says he,--'I used to know her when she +was a girl. I tell you, she was one of the handsomest girls in Newport, +by George!' says he. And says I,--'General, you ought to see her +daughter.' And the General,--you know his jolly way,--he laughed, and +says he,--'If she is as handsome as her mother was, I don't want to see +her,' says he. 'I tell you, wife,' says he, 'I but just missed falling +in love with Katy Stephens.'" + +"I could have told her more than that," said Mrs. Scudder, with a +flash of her old coquette girlhood for a moment lighting her eyes and +straightening her lithe form. "I guess, if I should show a letter he +wrote me once----But what am I talking about?" she said, suddenly +stiffening back into a sensible woman. "Miss Prissy, do you think it +will be necessary to cut it off at the bottom? It seems a pity to cut +such rich silk." + +"So it does, I declare. Well, I believe it will do to turn it up." + +"I depend on you to put it a little into modern fashion, you know," said +Mrs. Scudder. "It is many a year, you know, since it was made." + +"Oh, never you fear! You leave all that to me," said Miss Prissy. "Now, +there never was anything so lucky as, that, just before all these +wedding-dresses had to be fixed, I got a letter from my sister Martha, +that works for all the first families of Boston. And Martha she is +really unusually privileged, because she works for Miss Cranch, and Miss +Cranch gets letters from Miss Adams,--you know Mr. Adams is Ambassador +now at the Court of St. James, and Miss Adams writes home all the +particulars about the court-dresses; and Martha she heard one of the +letters read, and she told Miss Cranch that she would give the best +five-pound-note she had, if she could just copy that description to send +to Prissy. Well, Miss Cranch let her do it, and I've got a copy of the +letter here in my work-pocket. I read it up to Miss General Wilcox's, +and to Major Seaforth's, and I'll read it to you." + +Mrs. Katy Scudder was a born subject of a crown, and, though now a +republican matron, had not outlived the reverence, from childhood +implanted, for the high and stately doings of courts, lords, ladies, +queens, and princesses, and therefore it was not without some awe that +she saw Miss Prissy produce from her little black work-bag the well-worn +epistle. + +"Here it is," said Miss Prissy, at last. "I only copied out the parts +about being presented at Court. She says:-- + +"'One is obliged here to attend the circles of the Queen, which are held +once a fortnight; and what renders it very expensive is, that you cannot +go twice in the same dress, and a court-dress you cannot make use of +elsewhere. I directed my mantua-maker to let my dress be elegant, but +plain as I could possibly appear with decency. Accordingly, it is white +lutestring, covered and full-trimmed with white crape, festooned with +lilac ribbon and mock point-lace, over a hoop of enormous size. There +is only a narrow train, about three yards in length to the gown-waist, +which is put into a ribbon on the left side,--the Queen only having her +train borne. Ruffled cuffs for married ladies,--treble lace ruffles, a +very dress cap with long lace lappets, two white plumes, and a blonde +lace handkerchief. This is my rigging.'" + +Miss Prissy here stopped to adjust her spectacles. Her audience +expressed a breathless interest. + +"You see," she said, "I used to know her when she was Nabby Smith. She +was Parson Smith's daughter, at Weymouth, and as handsome a girl as +ever I wanted to see,--just as graceful as a sweet-brier bush. I don't +believe any of those English ladies looked one bit better than she did. +She was always a master-hand at writing. Everything she writes about, +she puts it right before you. You feel as if you'd been there. Now, here +she goes on to tell about her daughter's dress. She says:-- + +"'My head is dressed for St. James's, and in my opinion looks very +tasty. Whilst my daughter is undergoing the same operation, I set myself +down composedly to write you a few lines. Well, methinks I hear Betsey +and Lucy say, "What is cousin's dress?" _White_, my dear girls, like +your aunt's, only differently trimmed and ornamented,--her train being +wholly of white crape, and trimmed with white ribbon; the petticoat, +which is the most showy part of the dress, covered and drawn up in +what are called festoons, with light wreaths of beautiful flowers; the +sleeves, white crape drawn over the silk, with a row of lace round the +sleeve near the shoulder, another half-way down the arm, and a third +upon the top of the ruffle,--a little stuck between,--a kind of hat-cap +with three large feathers and a bunch of flowers,--a wreath of flowers +on the hair.'" + +Miss Prissy concluded this relishing description with a little smack of +the lips, such as people sometimes give when reading things that are +particularly to their taste. + +"Now, I was a-thinking," she added, "that it would be an excellent way +to trim Mary's sleeves,--three rows of lace, with a sprig to each row." + +All this while, our Mary, with her white short-gown and blue +stuff-petticoat, her shining pale brown hair and serious large blue +eyes, sat innocently looking first at her mother, then at Miss Prissy, +and then at the finery. + +We do not claim for her any superhuman exemption from girlish feelings. +She was innocently dazzled with the vision of courtly halls and princely +splendors, and thought Mrs. Adams's descriptions almost a perfect +realization of things she had read in "Sir Charles Grandison." If her +mother thought it right and proper she should be dressed and made fine, +she was glad of it; only there came a heavy, leaden feeling in her +little heart, which she did not understand, but we who know womankind +will translate for you: it was, that a certain pair of dark eyes would +not see her after she was dressed; and so, after all, what was the use +of looking pretty? + +"I wonder what James _would_ think," passed through her head; for Mary +had never changed a ribbon, or altered the braid of her hair, or pinned +a flower in her bosom, that she had not quickly seen the effect of the +change mirrored in those dark eyes. It was a pity, of course, now she +had found out that she ought not to think about him, that so many +thought-strings were twisted round him. + +So while Miss Prissy turned over her papers, and read out of others +extracts about Lord Caermarthen and Sir Clement Cotterel Dormer and the +Princess Royal and Princess Augusta, in black and silver, with a silver +netting upon the coat, and a head stuck full of diamond pins,--and Lady +Salisbury and Lady Talbot and the Duchess of Devonshire, and scarlet +satin sacks and diamonds and ostrich-plumes, and the King's kissing Mrs. +Adams,--little Mary's blue eyes grew larger and larger, seeing far off +on the salt green sea, and her ears heard only the ripple and murmur of +those waters that earned her heart away,--till, by-and-by, Miss Prissy +gave her a smart little tap, which awakened her to the fact that she was +wanted again to try on the dress which Miss Prissy's nimble fingers had +basted. + +So passed the day,--Miss Prissy busily chattering, clipping, +basting,--Mary patiently trying on to an unheard-of extent,--and Mrs. +Scudder's neat room whipped into a perfect froth and foam of gauze, +lace, artificial flowers, linings, and other aids, accessories, and +abetments. + +At dinner, the Doctor, who had been all the morning studying out his +Treatise on the Millennium, discoursed tranquilly as usual, innocently +ignorant of the unusual cares which were distracting the minds of his +listeners. What should he know of dress-makers, good soul? Encouraged +by the respectful silence of his auditors, he calmly expanded and +soliloquized on his favorite topic, the last golden age of Time, the +Marriage-Supper of the Lamb, when the purified Earth, like a repentant +Psyche, shall be restored to the long-lost favor of a celestial +Bridegroom, and glorified saints and angels shall walk familiarly as +wedding-guests among men. + +"Sakes alive!" said little Miss Prissy, after dinner, "did I ever hear +any one go on like that blessed man?--such a spiritual mind! Oh, Miss +Scudder, how you are privileged in having him here! I do really think it +is a shame such a blessed man a'n't thought more of. Why, I could just +sit and hear him talk all day. Miss Scudder, I wish sometimes you'd just +let me make a ruffled shirt for him, and do it all up myself, and put a +stitch in the hem that I learned from my sister Martha, who learned it +from a French young lady who was educated in a convent;--nuns, you know, +poor things, can do _some_ things right; and I think _I_ never saw such +hemstitching as they do there;--and I should like to hemstitch the +Doctor's ruffles; he is _so_ spiritually-minded, it really makes me love +him. Why, hearing him talk put me in mind of a real beautiful song of +Mr. Watts,--I don't know as I could remember the tune." + +And Miss Prissy, whose musical talent was one of her special _fortes_, +tuned her voice, a little cracked and quavering, and sang, with a +vigorous accent on each accented syllable,-- + + "From _the_ third heaven, where God resides, + That holy, happy place, + The New Jerusalem comes down, + Adorned with shining grace. + + "Attending angels shout for joy, + And the bright armies sing,-- + 'Mortals! behold the sacred seat + Of your descending King!'" + +"Take care, Miss Scudder!--that silk must be cut exactly on the bias"; +and Miss Prissy, hastily finishing her last quaver, caught the silk and +the scissors out of Mrs. Scudder's hand, and fell down at once from +the Millennium into a discourse on her own particular way of covering +piping-cord. + +So we go, dear reader,--so long as we have a body and a soul. Two worlds +must mingle,--the great and the little, the solemn and the trivial, +wreathing in and out, like the grotesque carvings on a Gothic +shrine;--only, did we know it rightly, nothing is trivial; since the +human soul, with its awful shadow, makes all things sacred. Have not +ribbons, cast-off flowers, soiled bits of gauze, trivial, trashy +fragments of millinery, sometimes had an awful meaning, a deadly power, +when they belonged to one who should wear them no more, and whose +beautiful form, frail and crushed as they, is a hidden and a vanished +thing for all time? For so sacred and individual is a human being, that, +of all the million-peopled earth, no one form ever restores another. +The mould of each mortal type is broken at the grave; and never, never, +though you look through all the faces on earth, shall the exact form you +mourn ever meet your eyes again! You are living your daily life among +trifles that one death-stroke may make relics. One false step, one +luckless accident, an obstacle on the track of a train, the tangling of +the cord in shifting a sail, and the penknife, the pen, the papers, the +trivial articles of dress and clothing, which to-day you toss idly and +jestingly from hand to hand, may become dread memorials of that awful +tragedy whose deep abyss ever underlies our common life. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PARTY. + + +Well, let us proceed to tell how the eventful evening drew on,--how +Mary, by Miss Prissy's care, stood at last in a long-waisted gown +flowered with rose-buds and violets, opening in front to display a white +satin skirt trimmed with lace and flowers,--how her little feet were +put into high-heeled shoes, and a little jaunty cap with a wreath of +moss-rose-buds was fastened over her shining hair,--and how Miss Prissy, +delighted, turned her round and round, and then declared that she must +go and get the Doctor to look at her. She knew he must be a man of +taste, he talked so beautifully about the Millennium; and so, bursting +into his study, she actually chattered him back into the visible world, +and, leading the blushing Mary to the door, asked him, point-blank, if +he ever saw anything prettier. + +The Doctor, being now wide awake, gravely gave his mind to the subject, +and, after some consideration, said, gravely, "No,--he didn't think he +ever did." For the Doctor was not a man of compliment, and had a habit +of always thinking, before he spoke, whether what he was going to say +was exactly true; and having lived some time in the family of President +Edwards, renowned for beautiful daughters, he naturally thought them +over. + +The Doctor looked innocent and helpless, while Miss Prissy, having +got him now quite into her power, went on volubly to expatiate on the +difficulties overcome in adapting the ancient wedding-dress to its +present modern fit. He told her that it was very nice,--said, "Yes, +Ma'am," at proper places,--and, being a very obliging man, looked at +whatever he was directed to, with round, blank eyes; but ended all with +a long gaze on the laughing, blushing face, that, half in shame and +half in perplexed mirth, appeared and disappeared as Miss Prissy in her +warmth turned her round and showed her. + +"Now, don't she look beautiful?" Miss Prissy reiterated for the +twentieth time, as Mary left the room. + +The Doctor, looking after her musingly, said to himself,--"'The king's +daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold; she +shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.'" + +"Now, did I ever?" said Miss Prissy, rushing out. "How that good man +does turn everything! I believe you couldn't get anything, that he +wouldn't find a text right out of the Bible about it. I mean to get the +linen for that shirt this very week, with the Miss Wilcox's money; they +always pay well, those Wilcoxes,--and I've worked for them, off and on, +sixteen days and a quarter. To be sure, Miss Scudder, there's no +real need of my doing it, for I must say you keep him looking like a +pink,--but only I feel as if I must do something for such a good man." + +The good Doctor was brushed up for the evening with zealous care and +energy; and if he did _not_ look like a pink, it was certainly no fault +of his hostess. + +Well, we cannot reproduce in detail the faded glories of that +entertainment, nor relate how the Wilcox Manor and gardens were +illuminated,--how the bride wore a veil of real point-lace,--how +carriages rolled and grated on the gravel works, and negro servants, in +white kid gloves, handed out ladies in velvet and satin. + +To Mary's inexperienced eye it seemed like an enchanted dream,--a +realization of all she had dreamed of grand and high society. She had +her little triumph of an evening; for everybody asked who that beautiful +girl was, and more than one gallant of the old Newport first families +felt himself adorned and distinguished to walk with her on his arm. +Busy, officious dowagers repeated to Mrs. Scudder the applauding +whispers that followed her wherever she went. + +"Really, Mrs. Scudder," said gallant old General Wilcox, "where have you +kept such a beauty all this time? It's a sin and a shame to hide such a +light under a bushel." + +And Mrs. Scudder, though, of course, like you and me, sensible reader, +properly apprised of the perishable nature of such fleeting honors, was, +like us, too, but a mortal, and smiled condescendingly on the follies of +the scene. + +The house was divided by a wide hall opening by doors, the front one +upon the street, the back into a large garden, the broad central walk +of which, edged on each side with high clipped hedges of box, now +resplendent with colored lamps, seemed to continue the prospect in a +brilliant vista. + +The old-fashioned garden was lighted in every part, and the company +dispersed themselves about it in picturesque groups. + +We have the image in our mind of Mary as she stood with her little hat +and wreath of rose-buds, her fluttering ribbons and rich brocade, as it +were a picture framed in the door-way, with her back to the illuminated +garden, and her calm, innocent face regarding with a pleased wonder the +unaccustomed gayeties within. + +Her dress, which, under Miss Prissy's forming hand, had been made to +assume that appearance of style and fashion which more particularly +characterized the mode of those times, formed a singular, but not +unpleasing, contrast to the sort of dewy freshness of air and mien which +was characteristic of her style of beauty. It seemed so to represent +a being who was in the world, yet not of it,--who, though living +habitually in a higher region of thought and feeling, was artlessly +curious, and innocently pleased with a fresh experience in an altogether +untried sphere. The feeling of being in a circle to which she did not +belong, where her presence was in a manner an accident, and where she +felt none of the responsibilities which come from being a component part +of a society, gave to her a quiet, disengaged air, which produced all +the effect of the perfect ease of high breeding. + +While she stands there, there comes out of the door of the bridal +reception-room a gentleman with a stylishly-dressed lady on either arm, +with whom he seems wholly absorbed. He is of middle height, peculiarly +graceful in form and moulding, with that indescribable air of +high breeding which marks the polished man of the world. His +beautifully-formed head, delicate profile, fascinating sweetness of +smile, and, above all, an eye which seemed to have an almost mesmeric +power of attraction, were traits which distinguished one of the most +celebrated men of the time, and one whose peculiar history yet lives +not only in our national records, but in the private annals of many an +American family. + +"Good Heavens!" he said, suddenly pausing in conversation, as his eye +accidentally fell upon Mary. "Who is that lovely creature?" + +"Oh, that," said Mrs. Wilcox,--"why, that is Mary Scudder. Her father +was a family connection of the General's. The family are in rather +modest circumstances, but highly respectable." + +After a few moments more of ordinary chit-chat, in which from time to +time he darted upon her glances of rapid and piercing observation, the +gentleman might have been observed to disembarrass himself of one of the +ladies on his arm, by passing her with a compliment and a bow to another +gallant, and, after a few moments more, he spoke something to Mrs. +Wilcox, in a low voice, and with that gentle air of deferential +sweetness which always made everybody well satisfied to do his will. The +consequence was, that in a few moments Mary was startled from her calm +speculations by the voice of Mrs. Wilcox, saying at her elbow, in a +formal tone,-- + +"Miss Scudder, I have the honor to present to your acquaintance Colonel +Burr, of the United States Senate." + +(To be continued.) + + + + +THE WALKER OF THE SNOW. + + + Speed on, speed on, good master! + The camp lies far away;-- + We must cross the haunted valley + Before the close of day. + + How the snow-blight came upon me + I will tell you as we go,-- + The blight of the shadow hunter + Who walks the midnight snow. + + To the cold December heaven + Came the pale moon and the stars, + As the yellow sun was sinking + Behind the purple bars. + + The snow was deeply drifted + Upon the ridges drear + That lay for miles between me + And the camp for which we steer. + + 'Twas silent on the hill-side, + And by the solemn wood + No sound of life or motion + To break the solitude, + + Save the wailing of the moose-bird + With a plaintive note and low, + And the skating of the red leaf + Upon the frozen snow. + + And said I,--"Though dark is falling, + And far the camp must be, + Yet my heart it would be lightsome, + If I had but company." + + And then I sang and shouted, + Keeping measure, as I sped, + To the harp-twang of the snow-shoe + As it sprang beneath my tread. + + Nor far into the valley + Had I dipped upon my way, + When a dusky figure joined me, + In a capuchon of gray, + + Bending upon the snow-shoes + With a long and limber stride; + And I hailed the dusky stranger, + As we travelled side by side. + + But no token of communion + Gave he by word or look, + And the fear-chill fell upon me + At the crossing of the brook. + + For I saw by the sickly moonlight, + As I followed, bending low, + That the walking of the stranger + Left no foot-marks on the snow. + + Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me, + Like a shroud around me cast, + As I sank upon the snow-drift + Where the shadow hunter passed. + + And the otter-trappers found me, + Before the break of day, + With my dark hair blanched and whitened + As the snow in which I lay. + + But they spoke not, as they raised me; + For they knew that in the night + I had seen the shadow hunter, + And had withered in his blight. + + Sancta Maria speed us! + The sun is falling low,-- + Before us lies the Valley + Of the Walker of the Snow! + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_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. + +(SECOND NOTICE.) + +According to the well-authenticated legend of the martyrdom of Saint +Lawrence, the Saint, as he lay upon the grid-iron, conscious that he +had been sufficiently done on one side, begged the cooks, if it were +a matter of indifference to them, to turn him on the other. Common +humanity demanded compliance with so reasonable a request. We fancy that +we hear Mr. Wilson, preferring a similar petition; and we hope we are +too good-natured to be insensible to the appeal. We cannot, at this +moment, indeed, think of him otherwise than good-naturedly. With many +things in his book we have been highly pleased. The number, the +novelty, and the variety of his blunders have given us a very favorable +impression of his ingenuity, and have afforded us constant entertainment +in what we feared was to be a drudgery and a task. We had intended to +cull some of these beauties for the amusement of our readers and +the personal gratification of Mr. Wilson himself. But, as children, +gathering shells on the sea-shore, resign, one after another, the +treasures which they have collected, and grasp at newer, and, therefore, +more pleasing specimens, which are abandoned in their turn, so we, +finding our stores accumulate beyond our means of transportation, and +tantalized by a richness that made the task of selection an impossible +one, have been forced to relinquish the prize and come away with empty +hands. If there be, in the compass of what the author calls "these +volumes,"--though to us, perhaps from inability to distinguish between +unity and duality, his work appears to be comprised in a single tome,--a +sentence decently constructed, a foreign name correctly spelt, a +punctuation-mark rightly placed, a fact clearly and accurately stated, +or an argument that is not capable of an easy reduction to the absurd, +we have not been so unfortunate as to discover it. Mr. Wilson is a man +who, to use Carlyle's favorite expression, has "swallowed all formulas." +The principles that have generally been held to govern the use of +language appear to him mere arbitrary rules, invented by the "sevenfold +censorship" and the Spanish Inquisition, for the purpose of preventing +the free communication of ideas. All such trammels he rejects; and, +accordingly, we have to thank him, so far as mere style is concerned, +for an uninterrupted flow of pleasure in the perusal of his book, +adorned as it is with "graces" that are very far indeed "beyond the +reach of Art." + +We come now to those important questions which Mr. Wilson was not, +indeed, the first to agitate, but which he has awakened from their +profound slumbers in the bosom of the Hon. Lewis Cass and the pages +of the "North American Review." We are not to be tempted into writing +another "New History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but we shall endeavor +to state with clearness those points on which the world has had the +temerity to differ from the "high authorities" we have named. It has +been, then, commonly asserted, and is, we fear, by the great mass of +our readers still superstitiously believed, that, at the time of the +discovery of this continent, there existed, in certain portions of it, +nations not wholly barbarous, and yet not civilized, according to our +notions of that term,--nations which had regular governments and +systems of polity, many correct notions in regard to morals, and some +acquaintance with Art and with the refinements of life,--but which were +yet, in a great measure, ignorant of the true principles of science, +little skilled in mechanics, and addicted to the practice of idolatrous +rites. This assertion would seem to have some _primâ-facie_ evidence in +its favor. The regions in which these nations are said to have existed +lie within the tropics; and it is a well-established principle, that a +genial climate, a fertile soil, the consequent facilities for obtaining +a subsistence, and the stimulus thus given to the increase of +population, are the first elements of an advance from a savage to a +civilized state, of the abandonment of rude freedom and nomadic habits, +and of the development of a regular social system. This principle is +clearly set forth and elaborately illustrated by Mr. Buckle; and we the +more readily refer to this author, because he stands high in the esteem +of Mr. Wilson, who, in order to prove his own especial fitness for +historical composition, and the incompetence of all who have preceded +him in the attempt, refers to a passage in Buckle, containing an +enumeration of the qualifications which he considers indispensable for +the historian. This enumeration includes all the attainments that have +ever been in the common possession of the human family. Mr. Buckle +remarks, with indisputable truth, that one historian has lacked some of +these qualifications, another historian has lacked others of them. Mr. +Wilson states that "each and every writer" who has preceded him has +lacked them all. Mr. Buckle, by implication, excepts one person, as +uniting in himself all the qualifications he demands. Mr. Wilson thinks +_he_ is the exception; but we are quite sure that the exception intended +by the author was--Henry Thomas Buckle. + +In the Old World, civilization, as all admit, had its origin in tropical +regions. Across the whole extent of the Eastern Continent, races are +found inhabiting the warmer latitudes, which are now, or formerly were, +in what is popularly called a semi-civilized condition. No one, we +believe, has ever been foolish enough to account for this fact by +supposing that a single people or tribe, having attained some degree of +culture, had diffused the germs of knowledge over so large a portion +of the globe. Chinese civilization differs almost as much from that +of Hindostan as from that of England or of France. The Assyrian +civilization was indigenous on the borders of the Euphrates, and the +Egyptian on the borders of the Nile. What is remarkable in these and +in all the other cases that might be cited is, that in those regions +civilization never reached the high point which it has attained in other +parts of the world, less favored at the outset; that it exhibited a +grotesque union of refined ideas and strangely artificial institutions, +with customs, manners, and creeds that seem to the European mind +abhorrent and ridiculous; and that, the internal impulse with which it +started having been exhausted, it either remained stationary, without +further development, or sank into decay, or fell before the hostile +attacks of races that had never yielded to its influence. Now the +civilization which is described as having once existed in America +exhibits these general characteristics, while it has, like each of the +others, its own peculiar traits. If the discoverers had made a different +report, we might have been led to suppose that some such state of things +as we have described had previously existed, but had perished before +their arrival. + +Mr. Wilson, however, does not reason in this manner. He has found, from +his own observation,--the only source of knowledge, if such it can +be called, on which he is willing to place much reliance,--that the +Ojibways and Iroquois are savages, and he rightly argues that their +ancestors must have been savages. From these premises, without any +process of reasoning, he leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no +part of America could the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any +other than a savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements +regarding them, everything "must be rejected that is inconsistent +with well-established Indian traits." The ancient Mexican empire was, +according to his showing, nothing more than one of those confederacies +of tribes with which the reader of early New England history is +perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was "an Indian village +of the first class,"--such, we may hope, as that which the author saw +on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his immense astonishment, he +found the people "clothed, and in their right minds." The Aztecs, he +argues, could not have built temples, for the Iroquois do not build +temples. The Aztecs could not have been idolaters or offered up human +sacrifices, for the Iroquois are not idolaters and do not offer up human +sacrifices. The Aztecs could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for +the Iroquois never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This +is what Mr. Wilson means by the "American standpoint"; and those who +adopt his views may consider the whole question settled without any +debate. + +But there are some slight difficulties to be overcome, before we can +embrace these views. Putting human testimony aside, there are witnesses +of the past that still give their evidence to the fact, that parts of +this continent were once inhabited by races who had other pursuits +besides hunting and fishing, and whose ideas and manners differed +widely from those of the "red men" of the North. Ruined cities, defaced +temples, broken statues,--relics such as on the Eastern Continent, from +the Straits of Gibraltar to the shores of the Ganges, mark the sites of +fallen empires and extinct civilizations,--relics such as we should have +expected, from _a priori_ reasoning, to meet with in the corresponding +latitudes of the New World,--lie scattered through their whole extent, +proclaiming themselves the works of men who lived in settled communities +and under regular forms of government, who had some knowledge of +architecture and some rude notions of the beautiful and the sublime, who +had strong feelings and vivid conceptions in regard to the agency of +supernal powers in the control of human affairs, but who clothed their +conceptions in uncouth forms, and worshipped their deities with absurd +and debasing rites. Some of these remains being known to Mr. Wilson, +on the evidence of the only pair of eyes in the universe which, in his +estimation, have the faculty of seeing, he cannot treat them, according +to his usual method in such cases, as fabrications of Spanish priests +and lying chroniclers. How, then, does he account for them? He unfolds +a theory on the subject, which he has stolen from the "monkish +chroniclers" whom he treats with so much contempt, and which has long +ago been exploded and set aside. He tells us, that these relics have no +connection with the history of the American Aborigines,--that they have +a different origin and a far greater antiquity,--that they are proofs, +not to be gainsaid, of the discovery of this continent, at a very early +date, by Phoenician adventurers, and of the establishment, in the +regions where they are found, of Phoenician colonies. These ruins, he +tells us, were Phoenician temples, these statues are the representations +of Phoenician gods. In the comparison of facts by which he endeavors to +support this theory, we have been surprised to find him admitting +the testimony of other explorers. But they are, it seems, reluctant +witnesses. Their inferences from the facts which they have themselves +collected are directly opposite to his. "Proving our case," he says, "by +such testimony, we have admitted their statement of fact, only rejecting +their conclusions." Their proper business, it would appear, was to +amass the materials which our author alone was competent to use. He +encountered, indeed, a solitary difficulty; but this, in the most +astonishing manner, has been removed. "Thus far," he writes, "had we +carried the argument, but had here been compelled to stop, for want of +further evidence; and the very stereotype plate that at first occupied +this page, expressed our regrets that we were not able more completely +to identify the Palenque statue as Hercules. At our publishers', +however, the eyes of that distinguished Orientalist, the Rev. Mr. +Osborn, chanced to fall upon a proof of the American goddess in the +fourth note to this chapter, which he at once recognized as Astarte, +represented according to an antique pattern. Her head-dress, he +insisted, was in the ancient form of the mural crown, without the +crescent, the prototype of that worn by Diana of the Ephesians, and so +too, he insisted, was her necklace of 'two rows.'" Thus the chain of +evidence was complete, and, for once, Mr. Wilson derived assistance from +eyes not placed in his own head. + +But, whatever distinguished Orientalists may say, undistinguished +Occidentalists may be pardoned for inquiring when it was that this +stream of Phoenician emigration flowed to the American shores, in what +manner such an enormous body of colonists as the hypothesis necessarily +supposes were conveyed hither, and what has become of their descendants. +With an uncommon indulgence to our weakness of faith, Mr. Wilson +condescends to meet these obvious questions. The time he cannot exactly +fix; but it was "thousands of years ago,"--"before the time of Moses." +To the query in regard to the means of conveyance, he answers, that at +that remote period sailing ships were in common use,--as is proved by +representations of them found in Egyptian tombs,--although they were +afterwards superseded by galleys propelled by oars alone. The reason +assigned by Mr. Wilson for this change makes a valuable addition to the +stores of Biblical commentary. "The Greeks," he says, "appear to have +been selected from their imitative powers, to perpetuate such of the +arts and civilization of the elder world, as were to be preserved from +that decree of extermination, pronounced by the Almighty against its +nations. _Commerce had been the chief cause of the total demoralization +of antiquity_, and of this, they were permitted to preserve only a boat +navigation." Coeval with the decline of commerce and the extermination +of sailing ships was the cessation of this Phoenician emigration to +America. The colonists, having no longer any communication with the +mother country, soon dwindled away and perished, in accordance with a +well-known law of Nature. "Extinction is the doom of every immigrant +population in an uncongenial climate (habitat) when migration ceases to +keep up and renew the original stock." The same fate is impending over +us. "In our own country various causes have been assigned for the +recognized delicacy, which is steadily advancing in what may be called +the pure American. The growing smallness of the hands and feet, the +shortening of the jawbones, the diminution in the number of the teeth +and their rapid decay, are matters of daily comment." In like manner, +the Caucasian race is melting away in the colonies of Great Britain, +in South Africa, Australia, and the West Indies. "In these uniform +consequences the most obtuse cannot fail to recognise the operation of +a universal law, whose primary effects are to diminish migration, and +whose ultimate results are the extinction of the exotic population." We +suppose none of our readers are obtuse enough not to be aware of the +gradual shortening of their jawbones, a phenomenon especially noticeable +in members of Congress and popular lecturers. As for the diminution in +the number of our teeth, and their rapid decay, we need, alas! no Wilson +to remind us of these melancholy facts. + +What we may call the physical evidence in favor of the Aztec +civilization having been thus disposed of by Mr. Wilson, we come now to +his treatment of the written and traditional testimony, the accounts +that have been handed down to us of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and +of the condition of the country at the time when that conquest was made. +Mr. Wilson opens his "Chapter Preliminary" with the statement, that, "in +this work, the standard Spanish authorities have been followed as long +as they followed the truth." This declaration excited, we confess, +painful misgivings in our mind; for, if Mr. Wilson was already in +possession of the truth, independently of historical research,--whether +by communications from the spirits of the _Conquistadores_, or by any +other of the easy and popular methods of solving obscure problems,--what +need was there of his consulting the standard authorities at all? But we +were somewhat cheered, when, a little farther on, we found him stating, +that the writer who enters into these discussions must "con musty folios +innumerable"; that "it will not do to denounce in general terms the +venerable precedents [?] so constantly quoted by our annalists," but +that "their defects and their errors must be shown in detail." For +it does appear to us, that, if a great historical question is to be +opened,--if a series of extraordinary events, hitherto believed by the +world to have really happened, are to be denounced as fabulous,--if +numerous writers, whose statements and relations have been regarded +in the main as worthy of credit, are now to be rejected as liars +and impostors,--it is indispensable that the works containing these +relations should be carefully examined, that the statements should be +compared and subjected to the severest scrutiny, and that the refutation +should proceed, step by step, inch by inch, over the whole field of +debate. Has Mr. Wilson taken this course? Has he met with clear and +resolute argument the accounts which he denounces as "fabrications"? Has +he diligently and carefully examined the "standard Spanish authorities"? +Has he "conned musty folios innumerable"? Has he read all the works in +question? _Has he ever seen them?_ + +We may divide these works into three classes,--not with reference to +their different degrees of merit and importance, but as regards their +accessibility and the relative ease with which they may be consulted. +The first class comprises two or three works which have been translated +into English; and these translations may be procured with facility and +read by any one who has some acquaintance with the English language, +though not acquainted with any other. In the second class we may place a +considerable number of works which have been published indeed, but only +in the original Spanish, or, in a few instances, in French or Italian +translations. Some of them are rare, and difficult to meet with; others +may be found in several of our best libraries. The third class embraces +relations and documents which have never been translated, which have +never been published, of which the originals repose in the Spanish +archives at Simancas or the Escorial, or in private collections, +jealously guarded, in Mexico or Madrid, and of which the only copies +known to exist in this country are in the collection formed, with so +much trouble and at so great cost, by Mr. Prescott. Now the writings +which come under our first category Mr. Wilson has both seen and +read,--to what purpose and with what profit we shall hereafter show. The +publications comprised in the second class we feel very confident he +has never read. The manuscripts, which come under the last head, we are +morally certain he has never seen. That he has not seen them is capable +of the strongest proof, short of absolute demonstration. That he had +no acquaintance with Mr. Prescott's collection is a matter within our +personal knowledge. Had he been in a position to obtain copies for +himself, and had he availed himself of that circumstance, he would not +have failed to proclaim the fact in his loudest and shrillest tones. Nor +does he pretend that he has ever visited Spain, and had access to the +originals. Indeed, we do not think he would have ventured upon such +a step. He tells us, that, "besides the reasons already given for +distrusting the correctness of Spanish statements, there is another, +more secret in character, but not less potent than all combined--fear of +incurring the displeasure of that tribunal which punished unbelief +with fire, torture, and confiscation." If Mr. Wilson, as his language +implies, stands in fear of "fire, torture, and confiscation," and if +this is his most potent reason for distrusting the correctness of +Spanish statements, we can readily understand why he should have chosen +to remain on his native soil and write the history of the Conquest of +Mexico from "the American stand-point." Lastly, Mr. Wilson makes no +allusions to matter contained in the manuscripts which had not been +reproduced in the pages of Prescott. He is careful, indeed, to tell us +very little of the contents of these works; but he talks _about_ them +with the most gratifying candor, and in his choicest phraseology. He +informs us, that "Sarmiento's History of the Peruvian Incas altogether +surpasses that of Dr. Johnson's Rasselas and the Happy Valley." The +history of Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas" is related, we believe, by Boswell. +The great moralist composed his beautiful and philosophical, but +somewhat gloomy romance, in the evenings of a single week, in order to +obtain the means of defraying the expenses of his mother's funeral. The +story is a touching one; but Mr. Wilson's comparison is so inapt, that +we cannot help suspecting him of having had in his mind, not the history +of Johnson's "Rasselas," but Johnson's history of Rasselas. We think it +rather hard, that, having, in general, such a limited amount of meaning +to express, Mr. Wilson should have followed the maxim of Talleyrand, and +employed language chiefly as a means of concealing his thoughts. + +Mr. Wilson nowhere asserts, in so many words, that he has had access to +manuscript authorities. His mode of speaking of them, however, implies +as much, and he evidently intends that this inference should be drawn by +his readers. In a printed note, addressed to his publishers, disclaiming +any intention of "assailing the memory of the dead,"--a disclaimer +which was not needed to suggest the reason why his book, loaded with +typographical blunders, was hurried through the press,[A]--he "insists +on the lawyer's privilege of sifting the evidence--a labor which Mr. +Prescott was incapable of performing, from a physical infirmity"; and he +undertakes to prove that Mr. Prescott's "books and manuscripts were not +reliable authorities." Now even "the lawyer's privilege" does not extend +to sifting evidence which he has never heard; and if Mr. Prescott was +"incapable, from a physical infirmity," of properly scrutinizing his +authorities, it was the more necessary that Mr. Wilson, with his own +wonderful eyes, should undertake the task. There is one manuscript which +he might be supposed to have had a strong desire to examine. His book +professes to be a vindication of "Las Casas' denunciations of the +popular historians" of the Conquest. The work of Las Casas, supposed to +contain these denunciations, is his History of the Indies. Mr. Wilson +acknowledges that he has never seen this work; it has, he says, "been +wholly suppressed"; and he is terribly severe on the censorship and the +Inquisition for having been guilty of this suppression. But the only +suppression in the case is, that the book has never been printed. The +original manuscript may be consulted at Madrid. A copy of the most +important parts of it is in Mr. Prescott's collection. Mr. Wilson might +have seen that copy, had he expressed the wish. He did not, however, +give himself this trouble; and we think he was right. The truth is, +that, of all the Spanish historians of the Conquest of Mexico, Las Casas +is the one who has indulged most largely in hyperbole. Writing, with +little personal knowledge, in support of a theory which required him +to magnify the ruin accomplished by the _Conquistadores_, he has +exaggerated the population of the Mexican empire, the number and size of +its towns, and the evidences of its civilization. It was on this very +account that Navarrete, who examined the work with a view to its +publication, came to the decision not to print it. We have little doubt +as to the propriety of that decision; and Mr. Wilson, we think, also did +well in sticking to Cass and "suppressing" Las Casas.[B] + +[Footnote A: Author, compositor, and proof-reader were evidently engaged +in a "stampede,"--the (Printer's) Devil having strict orders to make +seizure of the hindmost. Part of a Spanish poem, borrowed, without +acknowledgment, from Prescott, seems to have gone to "pie" on the +imposing-stone, and been suffered to remain in that state.] + +[Footnote B: Mr. Wilson would have been less unfortunate, if he +could have "suppressed" the work of Mr. Gallatin to which he has the +effrontery to refer as an authority for his ridiculous assertion, that +the "so-called picture-writing" of the Aztecs was a Spanish invention. +As Mr. Gallatin's essay is within the reach of any of our readers who +may be inclined to consult it, we shall content ourselves with a single +remark on the subject. That learned writer, who had made a real and +thorough study of the Mexican civilization, (having obtained from Mr. +Prescott the books necessary for the purpose,) was so far from denying +that hieroglyphical painting was practised by the Aztecs, or that +authentic copies, and even actual specimens of it, have been preserved, +that he himself constructed a Mexican chronology which has no other +foundation than these same picture-writings. There is one remark in Mr. +Gallatin's work on which Mr. Wilson would have done wisely to ponder. It +is this:--"The conquest of Mexico is an important event in the history +of man. _Mr. Prescott has exhausted the subject._"] + +Our reason for believing that Mr. Wilson has never read the works, +relating to his subject, which have been published only in the original +Spanish or in translations into other foreign languages, is a very +simple one. He produces no evidence that he has ever read them. Some of +them he does not even mention. From none of them does he glean a single +fact that was not ready to his hand in the pages of Prescott. Except in +two or three instances, where he filches a reference from the citations +made by the latter historian, he brings forward no statement contained +in any of these books, either to support his own positions or to refute +theirs. Why did he take from Prescott--to whom on this occasion he +confesses his indebtedness--the facts in relation to the early life of +Cortés, (we would he had borrowed the language as well as the matter!) +if he had himself the means of consulting the works from which +Prescott's account was derived? But it is unnecessary to pursue the +argument; Mr. Wilson acknowledges that he knows nothing of the works in +question. "For our purpose," he writes, "the standard histories of the +conquest might as well be blank paper." We believe him; but had +his purpose been, not "to denounce in general terms the venerable +_precedents_ so constantly quoted by our annalists, but to show their +defects and their errors in detail," he would hardly have used them, as +he has done, as mere wadding for the great gun which he was loading, +and which has exploded with such terrible effect. His objection to +the "standard histories" is, that their authors were Spaniards, +ecclesiastics, royal historiographers,--that they wrote under the eye of +the Inquisition and the censorship. Like objections would apply to the +whole field of Spanish history. The reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, +Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second must, therefore, be as fabulous +as the conquests of Mexico and Peru. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson, when he +wishes to study the history of Spain, declines to have recourse to +Spanish writers. He goes to writers of other countries, and has a very +natural preference for such as speak the English tongue. Besides that +valuable work known among mortals as the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," +but usually cited by Mr. Wilson, in an off-hand and familiar way, as +"Britannica," he draws much upon a treasure of his own discovery, "a +ponderous folio" of the seventeenth century, written in English by one +Grimshaw, and containing a full and veritable history of Spain from +the earliest epochs. He makes much of Grimshaw, styling him "our +chronicler." He pats the volume fondly, and calls it "my old +folio,"--just as Mr. Collier pats and fondles _his_ celebrated old +folio. To judge from some specimens which Mr. Wilson gives us, the +venerable Grimshaw cannot have the merit of being very easy of +comprehension. Here is an extract, just as we find it:--"About the year +756, at which time there were great troops of Turks beginne to disperse +themselves over all Armenia, the which did overrunne and spoil the +Sarrazin's country." And here is another:--"Over common, then, in Spain, +and elsewhere, which nevertheless chastise the world in such sort, but +that this sinne is at this day more in use than ever it was, to the +dishonor of our God, contempt of his laws, and confusion of all good +order." Apparently, Mr. Wilson, besides writing in a singular style +himself, is the cause of singularities in the writings of other men. +What is more worthy of note is the credulity with which he swallows the +fabulous inventions of the "monkish chroniclers" when set before him +in English earthenware. We would undertake, for a very trifling +consideration, to furnish him with the Spanish originals of the stories +of "Hispan" and "Hercules," and all the other absurdities with which his +old folio has supplied him. From what source does he imagine them to +have been derived? Does he think they belong to the stock of traditions +in possession of the Anglo-Saxon race,--that Grimshaw got them from +Bagshaw, and Bagshaw from Bradshaw? + +Our argument in regard to Mr. Wilson's ignorance of most of the +"standard authorities" will be strengthened by a review of the works +which he actually has used,--or, to speak more correctly, misused,--and +an examination of his reasons for selecting them. They are two in +number. He can hardly be said to overrate the importance of one of +these works,--the celebrated Letters of Cortes. For the events of +the Conquest, and the first impressions made upon the minds of the +discoverers by the aspect of the country, we could have no evidence of +equal value with the dispatches written by the great adventurer from the +field of his enterprises and during the course of the operations. Mr. +Wilson does not, however, consult the original letters. His strong +prejudice against everything Spanish would not allow him to do so. He +has studied them through the medium of a translation; and the reason he +assigns for his preference of this version is, that "it is _better_ than +the original." We have no doubt that it _is_ better for Mr. Wilson's +"purpose"; indeed, we fear, that, had it not been for the labors of the +translator, Mr. George Folsom, the letters of Cortes would, like "most +of the standard histories," have been regarded by Mr. Wilson as "no +better than so much blank paper." Lockhart, by translating the chronicle +of Bernal Diaz, has saved it from similar condemnation,--but only that +it might incur a still more terrible fate. Mr. Wilson's theory in +regard to the origin and character of this work is no less subtile than +startling. According to the common belief, Bernal Diaz was a soldier in +the army of Cortés, accompanied him throughout his campaigns, and, at a +late period of his life, composed a narrative of the memorable events +in which he had participated as an actor or an eye-witness. Writers who +knew him in his old age have left us descriptions of his appearance +and character. Mr. Wilson, however, holds that he never existed. The +chronicle which bears the name is, according to him, a work of fiction, +written by some Spanish De Foe, who had read the common narratives of +the conquest of Mexico, but who had no personal knowledge of the scene +in which his story is laid. What first excited Mr. Wilson's suspicions +was the charming simplicity and apparent truthfulness which, in common +with all readers of Bernal Diaz, he has found to be the distinguishing +characteristics of the narrative. "A striking feature," he tells us, +"in Spanish literature, is the plausibility with which it has carried +a fictitious narrative through its most minute details, completely +captivating the _uninitiated_. If its supporters were not permitted to +write truth, they succeeded in getting up a most excellent imitation. In +Bernal Diaz the alleged individual affairs of private soldiers are so +artfully interwoven with the general history as to give the effect of +truth to the whole. There being no fear of contradiction, this practice +of inventing familiar details could be indulged in to any extent, while +the beauty and simplicity of such a style fixes at once the doubting." + + "Ah! si Molière avait connu l'autre!"-- + +Oh that Fielding had known Mr. Wilson! Partridge, a mere unsophisticated +booby, thought simplicity the characteristic of Nature, and therefore +out of place in Art. Mr. Wilson, a transcendental Partridge, thinks +simplicity the characteristic of Art, and therefore out of place in +Nature. He is more than ordinarily severe on Mr. Prescott for not having +detected in Bernal Diaz these "striking marks of the _counterfeit_ +instead of the _common soldier_." "We differ," he says, "decidedly from +Mr. Prescott." The difference seems to be, that Prescott regarded the +_appearance_ of truthfulness in the narrative of Bernal Diaz as _primâ +facie_ evidence of its truthfulness, while Mr. Wilson regards the same +appearance as the most complete evidence of its untruthfulness. + +But we have been anxious to discover some more definite and substantial +grounds for Mr. Wilson's hypothesis. In a couple of closely-printed +pages, devoted to the subject, he asks himself, again and again, the +questions,--"Who, then, was Bernal Diaz?"--"Who, then, wrote the +history of Bernal Diaz?" Failing to extract any reply from the singular +individual to whom these queries are addressed, he winds up with the +solemn and emphatic declaration, "On the evidence hereafter to be +presented, we have with much deliberation concluded to _denounce_ Bernal +Diaz as a _myth_." For the evidence here promised we have searched +with a patience of investigation which, if applied to the problem of +perpetual motion or squaring the circle, could not, we humbly think, +have been wholly unproductive; and these are the results. "The author of +'Bernal Diaz' says the march to Jalapa was accomplished in one day;--a +proof that he never saw the country.... Cortez makes the ascent the work +of three days, and says he did not reach Sienchimalen until the fourth +day." The main discrepancy here is Mr. Wilson's own handiwork, as he +has confounded the "Sienchimalen" of Cortés with Jalapa, instead of +identifying it with the "Socochima" of Bernal Diaz. But so far as there +is any real discrepancy, it may be sufficient to remark, in explanation +of it, that Bernal Diaz professes to have written many years after the +events which he narrates, and at a distance from the scene, while the +letters of Cortés were written in the country, and while the events were +taking place. On another occasion, Bernal Diaz represents the Tlascalans +as complaining that they could "get no cotton for their clothing." "If +this writer," says Mr. Wilson, "had really been acquainted with the +tribes of the table-land, he must have known that the fibres of the +_maguey_ were, among them, substitutes for that article, and are even +now used at the city of Mexico in the manufacture of some fine fabrics." +We do not see how Bernal Diaz could be expected to know that the fibres +of the _maguey_ are now used in Mexican manufactures; neither can we +comprehend how his statement, that the Tlascalans had _no_ cotton, is at +variance with Mr. Wilson's assertion, that they used the _maguey_ as a +substitute. We can imagine, however, that an old soldier, writing for +the "uninitiated," might prefer to speak of cotton, for which he had a +Spanish word, rather than enter into explanations in regard to an Indian +substitute for cotton, resembling it in appearance; while it is not easy +to believe, on Mr. Wilson's bare assertion, that an article in +common use throughout the Valley of Mexico was wholly unknown to the +inhabitants of the table-land. + +These, and, so far as we can discover, these alone, are the proofs on +which Mr. Wilson convicts Bernal Diaz of being a nonentity,--of having, +like Rosalind in "As you like it," merely "counterfeited to be a _man_." +As a natural _sequitur_ to this delicious train of reasoning, he +proceeds to take this nonentity, this "myth," as his guide throughout +the narrative of the Conquest. "We may safely follow Diaz," he remarks, +"in unimportant particulars"; and the "particulars" of the Conquest +being, in Mr. Wilson's narration of them, all equally "unimportant," he +is so far consistent in following Diaz throughout. Surely the Grecian +fables will never grow old; here again we have blind Polyphemus groping +in pursuit of cunning [Greek: Outis]. But we must be allowed to ask Mr. +Wilson why he has not rather preferred to take Gomara as his guide. +It is true that he entertains a strong loathing, a rooted +aversion, for this harmless old chronicler, whom he calls always +"Gomora,"--associating him, apparently, by some confusion of ideas, with +the ancient city of bad fame, buried with Sodom beneath the waters of +the Dead Sea. But, at least, he does not deny that Gomara had an actual +existence, that he was a veritable somebody,--a reality, and not a +"myth,"--that he was the chaplain of Cortés, that he had access to the +papers of the great commander, that he wrote a history of the Conquest, +and that this history is still extant. Mr. Wilson himself asserts that +the dispatches of Cortés "and the work of Gomora are the only original +documents touching the Conquest of Mexico, its people, its civilization, +its difficulties, and its dangers." After this declaration, it is +somewhat remarkable, that, throughout his narrative of the Conquest, +while continually quoting from Diaz, he makes not a single reference to +Gomara; and he even censures Mr. Prescott for having pursued a different +course. How shall we explain this fact? Alas for Gomara! he wrote in his +native Castilian, no Lockhart or Folsom had done him into English, and +so he missed his chance of having his statements cited, and, possibly +even,--though we should not like to hazard an assertion on this +point,--of having his name correctly spelt, by the author of the "New +History of the Conquest of Mexico." + +It remains only that we should notice, as briefly as possible, the use +which Mr. Wilson has made of his two authorities, the translations of +Bernal Diaz and Cortés, which, rejecting all assistance from other +quarters, he takes for the basis of his narrative. That narrative is +constructed on a plan which, we venture to say, is without a parallel +in literature. Like whatever else is strikingly original, it cannot be +described; we can only hope to convey a faint idea of it by some random +illustrations. To nearly every statement which he notices in the works +before him Mr. Wilson offers a flat contradiction. When these statements +relate to numbers, his method of treating them is a systematic one. +He has picked out of Bernal Diaz, who wrote in an avowed spirit of +hostility to Gomara, a pettish remark, that the exaggerations of the +latter are so great, that, when he says eighty thousand, we may read +one thousand. This piece of rhetoric Mr. Wilson receives literally, +and makes it a rule of measurement, applying it with more or less +exactness,--not, however, to the statements of Gomara, with whose work +he is acquainted only at second hand, but to those of Cortés and of +Bernal Diaz himself! Thus, in every computation of the number of the +enemy's forces, or of the Indian allies who joined the Spaniards in +their contest with the Aztecs, Mr. Wilson "takes the liberty," to use +his own phrase, of "dropping" one or more ciphers from the amount. This +mode of adapting the narrative to his own conceptions he calls "reducing +it to reality." When Cortés--not Gomara, be it remembered--computes the +number of his allies at eighty thousand, Mr. Wilson says, "Let us drop +the thousands, and _assume_ eighty as the actual number. _We must do so +often._" When Cortés writes "thirty-five thousand," Mr. Wilson prefers +to say "three hundred or so." When Diaz writes "twelve thousand," Mr. +Wilson suggests that we should read "five hundred." Cortés says that he +caused a canal to be dug twelve _feet_ deep. Mr. Wilson, speaking as +if he had been an eye-witness, says the canal was only twelve _inches_ +deep. In another place he writes, "Accordingly a force of thirteen +horse, two hundred foot, and three hundred--not thirty thousand--Indian +allies were sent to relieve that village"; merely leaving his readers to +the inference that the number placed between dashes is the one given by +Cortés. In a single instance, he admits the estimate of Bernal Diaz, who +puts the loss sustained by the Indians in a battle at eight hundred; +while Las Casas, whose corrections of other writers Mr. Wilson professes +to "vindicate," says the loss of the Indians on this occasion amounted +to thirty thousand. Las Casas also reckons the number of natives who +fell victims to Spanish cruelty in America at forty millions. This wild +estimate has been often quoted. Mr. Wilson, instead of "vindicating" it, +as he was bound to do, triumphantly refutes it. "There never probably +existed," he most justly remarks, "more than forty millions of savage +races at one time on our globe." + +It is not merely the arithmetic of his authorities that Mr. Wilson +undertakes to rectify. When they describe a pitched battle, he asserts +that it was a mere skirmish. When they speak of a large town, he tells +us it was a rude hamlet. When they portray the magnificence of the city +of Mexico, he says that they are "painting wild _figments_"--whatever +that may mean,--and that Montezuma's capital was a mere collection of +huts. Cortés tells us, that, in his retreat, he lost a great portion +of his treasure. Mr. Wilson writes, "The _Conquistador_ was too good a +soldier to hazard his gold; it was _therefore_, in the advance, and came +safely off." Cortés states, that, in a certain battle, he retired from +the front in order to make a new disposition of his rear. Mr. Wilson +replies, that Cortés did _not_ go to the rear, because, though his +presence was greatly needed there, the press must have been too great to +allow of his reaching it. The presents which Cortés, while at Vera Cruz, +received from Montezuma, he transmitted to the Emperor Charles the +Fifth, sending, at the same time, an inventory of the articles, among +which was "a large wheel of gold, with figures of strange animals on it, +and worked with tufts of leaves,--weighing three thousand eight hundred +ounces." The original inventory is still in existence. We have the +evidence of persons who were then at the imperial court of the reception +of these presents, of the sensation which they produced, and of the +ideas which they suggested in regard to the wealth and civilization +of the New World; and we have minute descriptions of the different +articles, including the wheel of gold, from persons who saw them at +Seville and at Valladolid. Mr. Wilson,--without making the least +allusion to this testimony, which we cannot help regarding as of the +strongest possible kind, intimates that the presents were of very little +value,--represents the workmanship, which excited the admiration of the +best European artificers, as a mere specimen of "savage ingenuity,"--and +as for the wheel of gold, tells us that it "never existed but in the +fertile fancy of Cortez." + +In general, Mr. Wilson contents himself with the barest, though +broadest, denial of the statements of his authorities, or with silently +substituting his own version of the facts in place of theirs. But he +sometimes condescends to argue the point. His logic is ingenious, but +singularly monotonous. His arguments are all drawn from one source, +namely, his own personal experience. The Tlascalan wall, described by +Cortés and Diaz, can never have been in existence, for Mr. Wilson has +been on the very spot and found no remains of a wall. Other travellers, +it may be remarked, have been more fortunate. Cortés states, that, in +a march across the mountains, some of his Indian allies perished of +thirst. This Mr. Wilson pronounces "impossible," because he himself +travelled over the same route, and did _not_ perish of thirst, as +neither did his horse, though the "sufferings of both," from that or +some other cause, were great. One of the most remarkable acts in the +career of Cortés was his voluntary destruction of the vessels which had +brought his little army to the Mexican coast, in order, as he avers, +that his men might stand committed to follow the fortunes of their +leader, whatever might be the dangers of the enterprise. "This event," +says Mr. Wilson, "has been the subject of eloquent eulogies for +centuries. Among these Robertson is of course pre-eminent." We are +here left in doubt whether Robertson is to be regarded as a preëminent +century or a pre-eminent eulogy. However this may be, our author denies +that the stranding of the vessels was the voluntary act of the Spanish +general. He is confident that they were cast away in a storm. His "most +potent" reason is, that he himself has "witnessed, not only hereabout, +but elsewhere, upon this tideless shore, wrecks by the grounding of +vessels at anchor." This he calls "submitting the narrative to the +ordeal of proof." + +However, as we have already intimated, it is seldom that his authorities +are submitted to this "ordeal," which we admit to be a trying one. +Usually they are informed that their assertions "rest on air,"--that +they are "foolish" and "baseless,"--"wild figments," or "intolerable +nonsense." Cortés states that some of his men, who had been taken +prisoners by the Mexicans, were offered up as sacrifices to the Aztec +deities. Mr. Wilson, after telling that their hearts were cut out, and +their bodies "tumbled to the ground," complains that "to this most +probable act of an Indian enemy, is _foolishly_ added--it was done in +sacrifice to their idols, though the very existence of Indian idols is +_still_ problematical!" Cortés, who had seen too many Indian idols to +entertain any doubts of their existence, ought, nevertheless, not +to have mentioned them, because to Mr. Wilson the matter is still a +problem. Whenever that gentleman finds it inconvenient to "reduce" the +statements of the Spanish historians to "realities," he omits them +altogether. Thus, he says not a word of those fearful spectacles which +struck horror to the hearts of the Spaniards in their visit to the +_teocallis_,--the pyramidal mound garnished with human skulls, the +hideous idols and the blood-stained priests, the chapels drenched with +gore, and other evidences of a diabolical worship. Not unfrequently he +fills up what he considers as gaps in the ordinary narratives. Thus, +he pictures the dying Cuitlahua as "stoically wrapping himself in +his feathered mantle," and "rejoicing at his expected welcome to the +celestial hunting-grounds," where he "felt that he was worthy a name +among the immortal braves." This "wild figment" from Mr. Wilson's +"fertile fancy" was, perhaps, suggested by Theobald's famous emendation +in the description of Falstaff's death-scene,--"a babbled o' green +fields." On such occasions, Mr. Wilson explains that he is relating +the occurrences "as they are understood by one familiar with Indian +affairs." A remarkable example of this method of narration shall close +our citations from his work. + +The reader is, doubtless, acquainted with the tradition, said to have +been preserved among the Mexicans, of a fair-complexioned deity, with +flowing beard, who had once ruled over them and taught them the arts +of peace, and, being subsequently driven from the country, promised to +return at some future time. Predictions of his reappearance lingered +amongst them, and were supposed to be accomplished in the arrival of the +Spaniards. Mr. Wilson tells us that "too much stress" has been laid on +this tradition; but we know of no modern writer who has laid any stress +on it except himself. It has been usually supposed to be one of those +myths in which nations partially civilized embalm the memory of their +heroes. Mr. Wilson does not believe the Mexicans to have been partially +civilized. He regards them merely as a horde of savages. Nevertheless, +he believes that among these savages "tradition [in the form here +noticed] had handed down, through untold generations, from a remote +antiquity," the establishment in America of Phoenician colonies, their +history, and their subsequent extinction. Nor is this the whole story. +In order to strengthen his argument, he gives a new and corrected +version of this tradition. "It told," he writes, "that _pale faces_ had +once before occupied the _hot country_, coming from beyond the _great +water_. _Perhaps_ with this were coupled also tales of suffering and +wrongs; _perhaps_ how cruelly they, the natives, had been forced, by +these hard task-masters, to labor upon the truncated pyramids and their +crowning chapels. With unrequited Indian toil, these men had builded +cities and public works which still preserved their memory, though they +themselves had long since perished, having fulfilled their allotted +centuries. But with their decaying monuments they left a fearful +prophecy, and thus it ran: that _floating houses_ would again return to +the eastern coast, wafted by like winds, and filled with the same race, +to teach the same religion, and to practise the same cruelties, until +they again finished their cycle, and gave place to others, such as the +laws of climate and population might determine." When the reader, after +perusing this extraordinary relation, recovers his breath, he naturally +casts his eye towards the bottom of the page, in the hope of finding +some explanation of it. He accordingly discovers a note, in which Mr. +Wilson states that he has "given a _little different shading_ to the +famous tradition," but that "such, _translated into Indian phraseology_, +would be the popular accounts." Now he had a perfect right to +_interpret_ the tradition as he pleased. He was at liberty to conjecture +that it related to the Phoenicians, as the Spaniards were at liberty to +conjecture that it related to St. Thomas. Of the two interpretations, we +prefer the latter. Mr. Wilson, were he consistent, would have done so +too; for how could the Aztecs, when they saw the Spaniards desecrating +the Phoenician temples and destroying the Phoenician idols, suppose that +these people were of the "same race," and had come "to teach the same +religion"? We care little for his inconsistencies; but the feat which +he has here performed, by his "shadings," his "translations into Indian +phraseology," and his medley of "pale faces," "great waters," "floating +houses," "truncated pyramids," "hard taskmasters," "winds," "climates," +"religions," and "laws of population," we believe to be unsurpassed +by anything ever perpetrated in prose or rhyme, by Grecian bard or +mediaeval monk. + +He appears to think himself justified in taking these liberties with the +Muse of History by his anxiety to construct a narrative that should not +overstep the bounds of probability. As if all history were not a chain +of improbabilities, and what is most improbable were not often that +which is most certain! But if, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as +improbable a series of events supported by far stronger evidence than +can be adduced for the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the +Norman conquest of England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon +us to believe? His skepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure +of his credulity. He contends that Cortés, the greatest Spaniard of the +sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed with +a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for success in +warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his brain so filled +with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied with reminiscences +of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that he saw in the New World +nothing but duplicates of those contests,--that his heated imagination +turned wigwams into palaces, Indian villages into cities like Granada, +swamps into lakes, a tribe of savages into an empire of civilized +men,--that, in the midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on +Mr. Wilson's showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, +he employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his +imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,--that, although +he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, enemies who were +in a position to discover the truth, his statements passed unchallenged +and uncontradicted by them,--that the numerous adventurers and explorers +who followed in his track, instead of exposing the falsity of his +relations and descriptions, found their interest in embellishing the +narrative,--that a similar drama was performed by other actors and on a +different stage,--that the Peruvian civilization, so analogous to that +of the Aztecs and yet so different from it, was, like that, the baseless +fabric of a vision,--that the whole intellect, in short, of the +sixteenth century was employed in fashioning a gorgeous fable, and that +to this end continents were discovered, nations exterminated, countries +laid waste, evidences forged, and witnesses invented. And this theory +is to be swallowed in one solid and indigestible lump, unleavened with +logic, unmoistened with grammar, unsweetened with rhetoric. Let those +whose appetites are strong, and whose olfactory nerves are not too +delicate, sit down to the repast. + +For our own part, we are quite satisfied with the bare contemplation of +the fare. Our readers, also, we suspect, have long ago been satiated. +They have dropped off, one by one, and left us alone with our kind +entertainer. What more we have to say must therefore be bestowed upon +his private ear. We shall speak with the greater freedom. We know +the exquisite pleasure we have given him. We are sure that he is not +ungrateful. When his book comes to a second edition,--with a _change of +title-page_ corresponding to some change in the popular sentiment,--we +shall have to submit to the same honors which he has inflicted on Mr. +Prescott and "Rousseau de St. Hilaire"; he will reprint our article +as "a flattering notice,"--as the "Atlantic Monthly's estimate of his +researches." We beg to call his attention to our closing remarks, which, +indeed, may serve as a digest of the whole. When he has "translated +them into Indian phraseology," (we regret that we cannot save him this +trouble,) and "reduced them to reality," we shall take our leave of +him, not without a mournful presentiment that the separation is to be +eternal. + +There are many points of difference between his work and Mr. Prescott's +"History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but the chief distinction, we +think, may be thus stated. If the foundations on which Mr. Prescott's +narrative is built should ever be overthrown,--a contingency which as +yet we do not apprehend,--that narrative would still rank among the +masterpieces of our literature. It could no longer be received as a +truthful relation of what had actually happened in the past; but it +would be received as a most faithful and graphic relation of what had +been asserted, of what was once universally _believed_, to have so +happened. If the reality appears strange, how much stranger would +appear the fiction! The truth of such a story may seem improbable; +the invention of such a story would be little short of miraculous. +Prescott's work, if removed from its place among histories, must stand +in the first rank among works of imagination,--must be classed with the +"Odyssey" and the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments." + +But this book of Wilson's must, under all conditions, and in any +contingency, be regarded as worthless. Be the story of the Conquest true +or false, this contains no relation of it, this contains no refutation +of it. Not content with vilifying his authorities, with impugning +their faith, denying their existence, and mangling their names, he has +disfigured their statements, corrupted their narrative, and substituted +gross absurdities for what was at least beautiful and coherent, whether +it was fiction or reality. His book is in every sense a fabrication. +It is no record of the truth; it is not a romance or a fable, artfully +constructed and elegantly told; it is--to use that plain language +which the occasion authorizes and demands--a barefaced, but awkward +falsification of history,--so awkward, that it has cost us little +trouble to detect it,--so barefaced, that it has been a duty, though, of +course, a painful one, to expose it. + + +_Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing._ Translated from the French +of _A Treatise_, etc., by DR. AL. DONNÉ, late Head of the Clinical +Department of the Faculty of Paris, etc., etc. Boston: Phillips, +Sampson, & Co. 1859. + +When the young Count of Paris was at the tender age which requires the +food that only mothers and their substitutes can supply, M. Donné, the +author of this work, was called in consultation at the royal palace. He +had a new way of examining milk through the microscope, and deciding +upon its healthy and nutritive qualities or its defects, as the case +might be. The whole world was full of the great question just then,--for +the deep-bosomed dame of Normandy or Picardy who should be selected +was to be the nurse not of a child only, but of a dynasty. So thought +short-sighted mortals, at least, in those days,--little dreaming what +cradle would be under the square dome of the Tuileries before twenty +years were past! + +M. Donné, as we said, was the man selected from all men for the task +of choosing a nurse for the most important baby of his time. This is a +voucher for his position at that period in the great medical world +of Paris. He is known, also, to the scientific world by a number of +treatises, with some of which we have long been familiar, as, for +instance, the "Cours de Microscopic," with the remarkable Atlas copied +from daguerreotypes taken by the aid of the camera. The present work is +of a somewhat more popular character than his previous productions. + +Little "Nursing" America is the father of Young America that is to be. +And there is no denying that our new vital conditions on this side of +the planet suggest some very grave questions,--such as these:--Whether +there be not a gradual deterioration of the primitive European stock +under these influences; and, Whether it is not possible that the +imported human breed may run out here, so that, some time or other, the +resuscitated tribes of Algonquins and Hurons may show a long shank of +the extinct Yankee, as they show the Dodo's foot at the British Museum. + +It is this contingency against which many intelligent and worthy persons +are now trying to provide. The indefatigable Dr. Bowditch has made a map +of this State of Massachusetts, showing the distribution of consumption +in its different localities. That is the first thing,--_where_ to live. +We have been told an alleged fact with reference to a certain large New +England town, which, if it were true, would raise the value of real +estate in that place a million of dollars, perhaps, in twenty-four +hours. We do not tell it, though mentioned to us by a celebrated +practitioner and professor, simply because we are afraid it is too good +to be true. At any rate, attention is beginning to be thoroughly awake +as to the point of _where_ we shall live. Now, then, _how_ shall we +live? + +It is just as well to begin early. Infancy is too late. If men were +dealt with like other live stock, a contractor might undertake to +deliver at Long Wharf a cargo of three-year old human colts and fillies +of almost any required standard of development and health, in five years +from date. If only a cheap article were required, such and such parents +would be selected; if the young animals were to be of prime quality, he +must know it long enough beforehand, and be particular in his choice. +This is plain speaking, but true,--as everybody knows, who studies the +laws of life. _Ex nihilo nihil fit_. Given a half-starved dyspeptic +and a bloodless negative blonde as parents, Hercules or Apollo is +an impossibility in their progeny. Yet people look with infinite +expectations of health, strength, beauty, intellect, as the product of +$0 times {-1}$. The late Colonel Jaques, of the "Ten Hills Farm," knew +ever so much better;--what a pity so much sound physiology should have +been confined to "Caelobs," and "Dolly Creampot," and the likes of them! + +Granted a sound, fair baby,--_viable_, as the French say,--liveable, or +life-capable, and life-worthy. What shall we do with it? + +A baby answers to the lively definition of an animal as "a stomach +provided with organs." It lives to feed. It does not know much, but in +its speciality it is unrivalled. The way in which it helps itself from +the sources of life is a masterpiece of hydraulic skill. Once let it +lose the Heaven-imparted art of haustion, and all the arts and academies +of the world can never teach it again. + +To manage this little feeding organism, with its wondrous instinct and +capacity of imbibition, is the first great question after that of race +is settled. Shall the mother's blood continue to flow through its +fast-throbbing heart, and all the subtile affinities that bind the two +lives be continued until reason and affection take up the chain where +the link of bodily dependence is broken? Or shall it cleave no more to +her bosom, but transfer its endearing dependence to a stranger, or learn +to call a bottle its mother? + +These are some of the questions learnedly, and yet familiarly, discussed +in M. Donné's book. He has laid down many excellent rules for the +physical and moral management of the infant, which the young mother can +readily learn and put in practice. For the physician, his work contains +many interesting facts with reference to the quality and the microscopic +appearances of milk, as obtained from various sources and under +different circumstances. + +On one or two points our American experience would somewhat modify the +rules commonly accepted in Paris. The nurse from the French provinces is +evidently a different being from our Milesian milky mothers. So, too, +the rules given by our own venerable and sagacious observer, Dr. James +Jackson, as to the period of separating the infant from its mother or +nurse, should be borne in mind, as laid down in his admirable "Letters +to a Young Physician." + +But there is a great deal of information applicable to children and +their mothers in all civilized regions; and as we wish to start fair +with the next generation, we are very glad to have so intelligent a +guide for the management of our infant citizens. + + +_Street Thoughts._ By the Rev. Henry M. Dexter, Pastor of Pine-Street +Church, Boston. With Illustrations by Billings. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, +& Co. 1859. + +If a profusion of introductory mottoes were any indication of the +excellence of a book, this volume would be indeed a _chef-d'oeuvre_. On +the page usually devoted to the Dedication, we have no less than six +more or less appropriate quotations: a Greek one from Julian, a Latin +one from Quintilian, a dramatic one from Shakspeare, a metrical one from +Young, a ponderous philosophical one from Dr. Johnson, and a commonplace +one from Bryant. In consideration of the number and learnedness of these +certificates of character, we approach the lucubrations of the Reverend +Mr. Dexter with profound respect. + +In the days when controversial literature was fashionable in England, +and the strife between Protestantism and Catholicism possessed some +interest for the public, we remember with considerable amusement the +manner in which the champions on either side conducted the attack. The +Romish warrior would this month issue a formidable volume entitled "A +Conversation between a Roman Catholic English Nobleman and an Irish +Protestant." In this work the Roman Catholic lord had it all his own +way; the Irish Protestant was accommodatingly weak in all his arguments, +and the noble Papist battered him famously. But the Episcopal side +was on hand next month with a volume entitled "A Dialogue between a +Protestant Peer and an Irish Papist." Here the whole thing was reversed. +The noble was still victorious, but he had changed his religion; and +this time the Roman Catholic was feeble, and the Protestant stalwart. It +is worthy of remark, however, that in both cases the nobleman was on the +right side. + +The Reverend Mr. Dexter thoroughly comprehends this ingenious method of +attack. Does he, for instance, desire to impress upon the mind of his +reader that it is in the highest degree criminal to wear kid gloves in +the street, he, by a happy accident, encounters on his way to the +office two persons conversing upon that important topic. He innocently +eavesdrops. The individual who advocates the wearing of gloves is (of +course) frivolous, fashionable, and feeble. His companion, who despises +such vanities, is poor, though honest,--brawny and impregnable. It is +wonderful how stupidly the kid-glove advocate reasons. The honest son +of toil overwhelms him in a few moments. When a man talks so splendidly +about the hard palm of labor being more useful to the world than the +silken fingers of the aristocrat, who would have the courage to reply? +The feeble aristocrat is (very properly) discomfited, and the curtain +falls amid applause from the gallery. + +The reverend gentleman seems to combine with his talent for +eavesdropping a most remarkable good-fortune in the contrasts afforded +by the various interlocutors whose conversation he overhears. Whether +he is in a shop, or an omnibus, or on the sidewalk, he is certain to +encounter a foolish person and a sensible person (according to Mr. +Dexter's idea of sense) discussing some important social topic,--such +as, Whether dancing is criminal, or, Whether people should wear +stove-pipe hats. At the end of the discussion, the reverend listener +appears in a paragraph as the _deus ex machinâ_ of the drama, pats the +victorious sensible boy on the head, and treats the foolish boy with +silent contempt. It does not take much to win Mr. Dexter's approval. He +goes into rhapsodies over a rich man who insists on carrying home his +own bundle; while another purchaser, who is villain enough to desire his +parcel to be sent to his house, meets with all the scorn that he merits. +Our author takes cheerful views of life. He goes into State Street, +and, struck with the great crowds of people, asks the solemn question, +"Whither are they going?"--"To the open grave!" is his jocund reply. He, +in fact, sees nothing but a job for the undertaker in all the health and +life by which he is surrounded; and a file of schoolboys out for a +walk would doubtless to him be nothing more than the beginning of a +procession to Mount Auburn. The shop-keepers should beware of Mr. +Dexter. He is the avowed enemy of nice coats, kid gloves, silk dresses, +fine houses, and his proof-reader knows what other _et ceteras_ which +ignorant people have been in the habit of looking on as commodities +useful in helping trade, and consequently forwarding civilization. + +We really thought that this shallow philosophy had completely died out, +and that every educated person had been brought to comprehend the uses +of Beauty and Luxury. Mr. Dexter's "Street Thoughts" is a silly proof +that there are men yet living whose theory of social ethics may +apparently be summed up thus: Live meanly, be afraid of God, and listen +at keyholes. + + +_The Mathematical Monthly_. Edited by J.D. RUNKLE, A.M., A.A.S. Nos. +I.-VII. October, 1858, to April, 1859. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 4to. +pp. 284. + +The title of Mr. Runkle's Monthly is much drier than its table of +contents. He has aimed at interesting all classes of mathematicians, has +introduced problems and discussions intelligible to scholars in our High +Schools, and has also published contributions to the highest departments +of the science. Educational questions have great prominence on the pages +of his journal; he gives frequent notes upon the best modes of teaching +the elementary branches, and proposes to publish in a serial form +treatises adapted to use in the school-room. Every number of the +"Monthly" contains five prize problems for students. Nor are its pages +confined to topics strictly mathematical. The number for February +introduces a problem by a quotation from Longfellow's "Hiawatha"; +another gives a list of fifty-five of the Asteroid group, with their +orbits, and the circumstances of their discovery. The March number +explains an ingenious holocryptic cipher, written with the English +alphabet, with no more letters than would be required for ordinary +writing, yet so curiously complicated, that, while with the key easy to +understand, it is without the key absolutely undecipherible, even to the +inventor of the plan; and the key is capable of so many variations, that +every pair of correspondents in Christendom may have their own cipher +practically different from all others. In the November and December +numbers, a popular account of Donati's Comet was given by Geo. P. Bond, +then assistant, now chief director of the Observatory at Cambridge. This +paper has been issued separately, very finely illustrated by twenty-one +cuts, and by two beautiful engravings. No papers, readily accessible to +the public, contain, in a form so entirely devoid of technicalities, and +so clearly illustrated to the eye, so much information relative to the +nature of cornels in general, and in particular to the phenomena of this +most beautiful comet of the present century. + +The purely mathematical articles are all original, many are of great +value, and some are, to those who understand their secret meaning, +peculiarly interesting. A note of Peirce's, for example, in the number +for February, proposes two new symbols, one for the mystic ratio of +the circumference to the diameter, a second for the base of Napier's +logarithms,--and then, by joining them in an equation with the imaginary +symbol, expresses in a single sentence the mutual relation of the three +great talismans in the magic of modern science. Another article, in the +April number, by Chauncey Wright, contains a new view of the law of +Phyllotaxis, approaching it from an _a priori_ stand-point, and showing +that the natural arrangement of leaves about the stems of plants is +precisely that which will keep the leaves most perfectly distributed for +the reception of light and air. + +We are glad to learn that a constantly increasing subscription-list, +both at home and abroad, shows, not only that Mr. Runkle judged wisely +in thinking such a journal needed, but also that the editorial office +has fallen upon the right man. + + +_Memoir and Letters of the late Thomas Seddon, Artist_, By his BROTHER. +London: 1858. + +Associations are fast gathering round the English Pre-Raphaelites. Those +that come with honors and with death already belong to them. A permanent +influence is assured to the new school by a continuance of vigor, and by +the space which it already occupies in the history of Art. This little +volume is of interest as being the first of its biographies. Mr. Seddon +attained no wide reputation during his life, but he left a few pictures +of enduring value; and his early death was felt, by those who best knew +his powers and purposes, to be a great loss to Art. + +He was the son of a cabinet-manufacturer, and was born in London in +1821. After receiving a good school-education, at the age of sixteen he +entered his father's work-rooms. He had already shown a decided love of +drawing. He had a quick perception of beauty, and excellent power of +observation. His disposition was serious, and his conscience sensitive; +but he had a pleasant vein of humor, and a generous nature. After some +years of irksome work, he was sent to Paris to perfect himself in the +arts of ornamentation, and his residence there seems to have confirmed +his taste for painting, to the practice of which he desired to devote +his life. But for the next ten years he was engaged in business, giving, +however, his evenings and his few vacations to the study and practice of +Art, and becoming more and more eager to leave an employment which was +wholly uncongenial to him. At length, in his thirtieth year, he was able +to begin his career as a professional artist. His experiences at first +differed but little from those of the common run of young painters; but +his fidelity in work, his conscientious rendering of the details of +Nature, and his sincerity of purpose, gave real worth even to his +earlier pictures, and brought him into relations of cordial +friendship with Holman Hunt, Madox Brown, and others of the heads of +Pre-Raphaelitism. After making a long visit, in company with Hunt, +for the purposes of study, to Egypt and Palestine, and painting a few +remarkable pictures, he returned home, and was married. Some months +afterward he set out again for the East, but had hardly reached Cairo +before he was seized with fatal illness. He died on the 23d of November, +1856,--just as he was grasping the fruit of years of labor and waiting. + +The best part of the volume of memoirs is made up of Seddon's letters +from the East. They exhibit his character in a most agreeable light, +while, apart from any personal interest, they have a charm, as natural, +vivid delineations of Eastern scenery and modes of life. He saw with +a painter's eye, and he described what he saw clearly and vigorously, +showing in his letters the same traits which he displayed in his +pictures. Writing from his camping-ground on the edge of the Desert, +he says,--"The Pyramids and Sphinxes, in ordinary daylight, are merely +ugly, and do not look half as large as they ought to look from their +real size; but in particular effects of light and shade, with a fine +sunset behind them, for example, or when the sky lights up again, a +quarter or half an hour afterwards,--when long beams of rose-colored +light shoot up like a glory from behind the middle one into a sky of +the most lovely violet,--they then look imposing, with their huge black +masses against the flood of brilliant light behind." + +Here is the first sight of Jerusalem:--"At length, about five o'clock, +after expecting, for the last half-hour, that every hill-side we climbed +would be the last, we came suddenly in full view of Jerusalem.--Few, I +think, however careless, have looked for the first time on this scene, +without some feelings of solemn awe. We read the accounts of all that +passed within or around these walls with something of the vagueness that +always veils the history of times that have gone by two thousand years +ago; but however soon the feeling may wear off or be cast away, it is +impossible, with the very spot before you where your Saviour lived and +died, not to feel vividly impressed with the actual reality of what we +have read of, and its intimate connection with ourselves.--But soon I +was struck with the very erroneous idea I had had of Jerusalem. From the +west it does not look at all like a city built on a hill; for, rather +below you, at the farther end of a barren plain, you see nothing but the +embattled walls of a feudal town, with one or two large buildings and a +minaret alone visible above them. To the right the ground dips into the +Valley of Hinnom,--but to the left it is level with the city-walls, and +its surface is covered with bare ribs of rock running along it; and it +is from this side that the Romans and Crusaders attacked. Behind the +city, rather to the north, lay the Mount of Olives, and the long, +straight lines of the Moab Mountains beyond the Dead Sea, stretching +from horizon to horizon, half-shadowy and veiled in mist, through which +they shone rosy in the evening's sunlight." + +We have no space for further descriptions, excellent as they are. But +we make one or two extracts relating more immediately to Art and to +Seddon's views of the duties of an artist. + +"I am sure that there is a great work to do, which wants every +laborer,--to show that Art's highest vocation is, to be the handmaid to +religion and purity, instead of to mere animal enjoyment and sensuality. +This is what the Pre-Raphaelites are really doing in various degrees, +but especially Hunt, who takes higher ground than mere morality, and +most manfully advocates its power and duty as an exponent of the higher +duties of religion." + +"I hope I may be able to return to this place; for, to assist in +directing attention to Jerusalem, and thus to render the Bible more +easily understood, seems to me to be a humble way in which, perhaps, I +may aid in doing some good." + +Here is a portion of a letter written in England:--"The railway from +Farnborough went through a most beautiful country,--by Guildford, +Dorking, and Boxhill. While I was at Farnborough, on the bridge, +sketching, a respectably-dressed man came up and touched his hat. After +standing a minute or two, he said, 'So you are doing something in my +line, Sir?'--'What!' said I, 'are you an artist?'--'Well, Sir, I cannot +venture to call myself an artist, but I gets my living by making +drawings. I makes 'em in pencil.'--I asked him if he took portraits.--'I +does every line, portraits and all; but I don't get many portraits since +the daguerreotype came in. No, Sir, my drawings are principally in the +sporting line. I does portraits of gentlemen going over a fence or a +five-barred gate. I does 'em all in pencil, and puts a little color on +their faces, but all the rest in pencil,--d'ye see?'--'Yes; but do you +make a good living?'--'Well, not much of that; I used to earn a good +deal more money when I did portraits at sixpence each than I do now.'--I +said, 'I suppose you begin to see that you can do better, and it takes +you longer.'--'That's just it; you've hit it, Sir. I used to knock them +off in a quarter or half an hour, and now it takes me seven or eight +days to do a sporting piece.'--So I told the poor man that I would +willingly give him advice, but I was afraid it would ruin him +completely, for that afterwards he would have to take two or three +months.--'Yes, Sir, I sees that; but I am too old now to learn a new +line. But I find trees very hard; I can't manage them.'--So I sat down, +and drew a branch of a tree, which he said was very much in his style; +and I gave him some advice which I thought might help him, and the good +man went away so much obliged." + +When the news of Mr. Seddon's death reached England, it was at once felt +by his friends that it was due to his memory that the public should be +made better acquainted with the excellence of his works. An exhibition +of them was accordingly made, and a subscription raised for the benefit +of his widow, by purchasing his large picture of Jerusalem, to be +presented to the National Gallery. The subscription was successful, and +Seddon's fame is secure. + +"Mr. Seddon's works," says Mr. Ruskin, "are the first which represent +a truly historic landscape Art; that is to say, they are the first +landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical +accuracy,--being directed with stern self-restraint to no other purpose +than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trustworthy knowledge +of the scenes which ought to be most interesting to them. Whatever +degrees of truth may have been attempted or attained by previous artists +have been more or less subordinate to pictorial or dramatic effect. In +Mr. Seddon's works, the primal object is to place the spectator, as far +as Art can do, in the scene represented, and to give him the perfect +sensation of its reality, wholly unmodified by the artist's execution." + +Mr. Ruskin's judgment will not be questioned by those who have seen +Seddon's pictures. But it might also be added, that such accuracy as he +attained is by no means the result of mere laborious and conscientious +copying, but implies and requires the possession of strong and +well-balanced imagination. + +We trust that the extracts we have given may lead lovers of Art to read +the whole of the little volume from which they are taken. + + +_Passages from my Autobiography_. By SYDNEY, LADY MORGAN. New York: D. +Appleton & Co. 1859. + +Aged sportiveness is not seductive, and we do not become slaves at the +tap of a fan, when the hand that holds it is palsied and withered. We +have in the volume before us the melancholy spectacle of an aged female +of quality setting her cap at everybody. + +When an old woman makes up her mind to be young, she invariably overdoes +it. The gypsy horse-dealers, when they have a particularly ancient horse +to dispose of administer a nostrum to the animal, which has the effect +of keeping him continually in motion, and bestowing on him a temporary +vivacity which a colt would hardly exhibit. Lady Morgan is unnecessarily +frisky. The gypsy's horse, when the effect of the medicine has passed +off, becomes more aged and infirm than ever. What a terrible reaction +must have been the lot of this old lady, after all the capers she had +cut in these passages from her autobiography! + +A great, great, great, long time ago, as the story-tellers say, when +novels were few and far between, and an Irish novel was a thing almost +unheard of, a smart, self-educated Irish girl, of, we believe, rather +humble origin, discovered that she had a knack at writing, and, having +published a cleverish novel, called "The Wild Irish Girl," was taken +up by great people, exploited, made the fashion, and had Sir Charles +Morgan, a physician of some standing, given her for a husband. She +continued to write. Her work on France made some noise, on account of +its having been prohibited by the French government; and her subsequent +book on Italy, if not profound, was at least sprightly. Her Irish novels +were, however, her best productions. There is considerable observation, +and some feeling, displayed in them. Her knowledge of Irish society +is very exact, and her pictures of it very slightly exaggerated. "The +O'Briens and O'Flahertys" and "Florence MacCarthy" are, perhaps, the +best of her works of fiction. At this period, Lady Morgan possessed a +rather interesting appearance, great audacity, and a certain reckless +style of conversation, which was found to be piquant by the jaded +gossips of the metropolis. She was taken up by London society,--which +must always be taking up something, whether it be a chimney-sweep that +composes music, or an elephant that dances the _valse à deux temps_; +and she fluttered from party to party, a sort of Tom Moore in +petticoats,--with this difference, that Moore left his meek little wife +at home, while Lady Morgan trotted her husband out after her on all +occasions. It is amusing to observe what pains the poor woman takes to +persuade us that Sir Charles is a monstrous clever man. Betsy Trotwood +never labored harder to convince the world of the merits of Mr. Dick, +than Lady Morgan does to obtain a place for her husband as a learned +philosopher who was in advance of his age, or, as she prettily expresses +it in French; (she likes to parade her French, this excellent wife,) +"_il devançait son siècle_." This mania for inlaying her writing with +French scraps rises with her Ladyship to a species of insanity. "_Est +il possible_ that I am going to Italy?" she exclaims. How much more +forcible is this than the vulgar "Is it possible?" When the Duke of +Sussex comes into a party, he does not excite anything so common-place +as a great sensation; no,--it is a "_grand mouvement_!" Praise bestowed +on her is an "_éloge_." She would not condescend to speak of such things +as folding-doors,--they are better as "_grands battants_." A change of +scene is a "_changement de décoration_." Mrs. Opie, whom she sees at a +party, is not in full dress, but "_en grand costume_." The three Messrs. +Lygon look very "_hautain_." And while driving with Lady Charleville, +instead of having a charming conversation on the road, her Ladyship +has it "_chemin faisant_." _Allons_, mi lady! you prefer that style of +writing. _Chacun à son gout!_ _Mais_ we, _nous autres_, love _mieux_ the +plain old Saxon _langue_. + +If Lady Morgan had called this volume "Passages from my Card-Basket," +there would have been some harmony between the title and the contents. +The three hundred and eighty-two pages are for the most part taken up +with frivolous notes from great people, either inviting her Ladyship to +parties or apologizing for not having called. These are interspersed +with a number of philoprogenitive letters to Lady Clarke,--her +Ladyship's sister,--in which, being childless herself, she expends all +her bottled-up maternity on her nephews and nieces. The little pieces of +autobiography scattered here and there are painfully vivacious. The poor +old lady smirks and capers and ogles, until one becomes sick of this +sexagenarian agility. Paris beheld no more melancholy spectacle than +that of poor old Madame Saqui dancing on the tight-rope for a living at +the age of eighty-five, and displaying her withered limbs and long +white hair to a curious public. We do not feel any particular degree +of veneration for that Countess of Desmond "who lived to the age of a +hundred and ten, and died of a fall from a cherry-tree then," as Mr. +Thomas Moore sings. Well, Lady Morgan dances on any amount of literary +tight-ropes, and climbs any number of intellectual cherry-trees. It is +a sight more surprising than pleasant; and her Ladyship must not be +astonished that the critics should not treat her with the respect due to +her age, when she herself labors so hard to make them forget it. + + +_Bitter-Sweet. A Poem_. By J.G. HOLLAND, Author of "The Bay Path," +"Titcomb's Letters," etc. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. +pp. 220. 1859. + +Unexpectedness is an essential element of wit,--perhaps, also, of +pleasure; and it is the ill-fortune of professional reviewers, not only +that surprise is necessarily something as rare with them as a June +frost, but that loyalty to their extemporized omniscience should forbid +them to acknowledge, even if they felt, so fallible an emotion. + +Unexpectedness is also one of the prime components of that singular +product called Poetry; and, accordingly, the much-enduring man whose +finger-ends have skimmed many volumes and many manners of verse may be +pardoned the involuntary bull of not greatly expecting to stumble +upon it in any such quarter. Shall we, then, be so untrue to our +craft,--shall we, in short, be so unguardedly natural, as to confess +that "Bitter-Sweet" has surprised us? It is truly an original poem,--as +genuine a product of our soil as a golden-rod or an aster. It is as +purely American,--nay, more than that,--as purely New-English,--as the +poems of Burns are Scotch. We read ourselves gradually back to our +boyhood in it, and were aware of a flavor in it deliciously local and +familiar,--a kind of sour-sweet, as in a _frozen-thaw_ apple. From +the title to the last line, it is delightfully characteristic. The +family-party met for Thanksgiving can hit on no better way to be jolly +than in a discussion of the Origin of Evil,--and the Yankee husband (a +shooting-star in the quiet heaven of village morals) about to run away +from his wife can be content with no less comet-like vehicle than +a balloon. The poem is Yankee, even to the questionable extent of +substituting "locality" for "scene" in the stage-directions; and we feel +sure that none of the characters ever went to bed in their lives, but +always sidled through the more decorous subterfuge of "retiring." + +We could easily show that "Bitter-Sweet" was not this and that and +t'other, but, after all said and done, it would remain an obstinately +charming little book. It is not free from faults of taste, nor from a +certain commonplaceness of metre; but Mr. Holland always saves himself +in some expression so simply poetical, some image so fresh and natural, +the harvest of his own heart and eye, that we are ready to forgive +him all faults, in our thankfulness at finding the soul of Theocritus +transmigrated into the body of a Yankee. + +It would seem the simplest thing in the world to be able to help +yourself to what lies all around you ready to your hand; but writers +of verse commonly find it a difficult, if not impossible, thing to do. +Conscious that a certain remoteness from ordinary life is essential in +poetry, they aim at it by laying their scenes far away in time, and +taking their images from far away in space,--thus contriving to be +foreign at once to their century and their country. Such self-made +exiles and aliens are never repatriated by posterity. It is only here +and there that a man is found, like Hawthorne, Judd, and Mr. Holland, +who discovers or instinctively feels that this remoteness is attained, +and attainable only, by lifting up and transfiguring the ordinary and +familiar with the _mirage_ of the ideal. We mean it as very high praise, +when we say that "Bitter-Sweet" is one of the few books that have found +the secret of drawing up and assimilating the juices of this New World +of ours. + + +_The Mustee; or, Love and Liberty_. By B.F. PRESBURY. Boston: Shepard, +Clark, & Brown. 12mo. + +The plot of this novel is open to criticism, and we might take exception +to some of the opinions expressed in it; but it is evidently the work of +a thoughtful and scholarly mind and benevolent heart,--is exceedingly +well written, shows a great deal of power in the delineation both of +ideal and humorous character, and includes some scenes of the most +absorbing dramatic interest. The character of Featherstone is admirably +drawn, and Bill Frink is a positive addition to the literature of +American low life. We commend him to our Southern friends, as an example +of one of the most peculiar products of their peculiar institution. The +author of the novel has lived at the South, and his descriptions of +slavery display accurate observation, candid judgment, and a vivid power +of pictorial representation. The scenes in New Orleans are all good; and +in few novels of the present day is there a finer instance of animated +narration than the account of Flora's escape from slavery. The incidents +are so managed that the reader is kept in breathless suspense to the +end, with sympathies excited almost to pain, as one circumstance after +another seems to threaten the capture of the beautiful fugitive. Though +the book belongs to the class of anti-slavery novels, it is not confined +to the subject of slavery, but includes a consideration of almost all +the "exciting topics" of the day, and treats of them all with singular +conscientiousness of spirit and vigor of thought. + + +_Rowse's Portrait of Emerson_. Published in Photograph. Boston: Williams +& Everett. + +_Durand's Portrait of Bryant_. Engraved by Schoff & Jones. New York: +Published by the Century Club. + +_Barry's Portrait of Whittier_. Published in Photograph. Boston: +Brainard. + +Almost one of the lost arts is that of portraiture. Raised by Titian and +his contemporaries to the position of one of the noblest walks of Art, +and in the generations following depressed to the position of minister +to vanity and foolish pride, it has remained, during the most of the +years since, one of the lowest and least reputable of the fields +of artistic labor. The lost vein was broken into by Reynolds and +Gainsborough, who left a golden glory in all they did for us; but no +one came to inherit, and in England no one has since appeared worthy of +comparison with them. In all Europe there is no school of portraiture +worth notice; the so-called portrait-painters are only likeness-makers, +comparing with the true portraitist as a topographical draughtsman does +with a landscape artist. The intellectual elements of the artistic +character, which successful portraiture insists on, are some of its very +greatest,--if we admit, as it seems to us that we must, that imagination +is not strictly intellectual, but an inspiration, an exaltation of the +whole nature. To paint a great man, one must not merely comprehend +that he is great, but must in some sense rise up by the side of, and +sympathize with, his greatness,--must enter into and identify himself +with some essential quality of his character, which quality will be the +theme of his portrait. So it inevitably follows that the greatness of +the artist is the limitation of his art,--that he expresses in his work +himself as much as his subject, but no more of the latter than he can +comprehend and appreciate. + +The distinction between the true and the false portraitist is that +between expression of something felt and representation of something +seen; and as the subtilest and noblest part of the human soul can only +be felt, as the signs of it in the face can be recognized and translated +only by sympathy, so no mere painter can ever succeed in expressing in +its fulness the character of any great man. The lines in which holiest +passion, subtilest thought, divinest activity have recorded in the face +their existence and presence, are hieroglyphs unintelligible to one who +has not kindled with that passion, been rapt in that thought, or swept +away in sympathy with that activity; he may follow the lines, but must +certainly miss their meaning. A successful portrait implies an equality, +in some sense, between the artist and his original. The greatest of +artists fail most completely in painting people with whom they have no +sympathy, and only the mechanical painter succeeds alike with all,--the +fair average of his works being a general levelling of his subjects; the +great successes of the genuine artist being as surely offset (if one +success _can_ find offset in a thousand failures) by as absolute and +extreme failure. + +As regards portraiture in general, the public may, without injury to Art +or history, employ the painters who make the prettiest pictures of them; +it doesn't matter to the future, if Mr. Jenkins, or even the Hon. Mr. +Twaddle, has employed the promising Mr. Mahlstock to perpetuate him +with a hundred transitory and borrowed graces,--if the talented young +_littérateur_, Mr. Simeah, has been found by his limner to resemble +Lord Byron amazingly, and has in consequence consented to sit for a +half-length, to be done _à la Corsair_, etc., etc.; but for our men of +thought, for those whose works will stand to all time as the signals +pointing out the road a nation followed, whose presence and acts shall +be our intellectual history,--it is of some little moment that these +should be given to us in such visible form, that men shall not +conjecture, a thousand years hence, if Emerson were really a man, or +a name under which some metaphysical club chose to publish their +philosophies. In psychological history, portraits are as necessary +as dates; and one of the most valuable gifts to an age is a great +portrait-painter,--a Titian, a Gainsborough, a Reynolds, or a +Page,--which last has more of the Titianesque character than any one who +has painted since the great Venetians lived, and few, indeed, are the +generations so endowed. + +Beside this full insight and representation of character, which makes +the ideal portraiture, we have the less complete, but only in degree +less valuable, apprehension which results from a point of sympathy, +a likeness of liking in one or more fields of thought, a common +sensitiveness, a common interest; and the rarer sympathy between artist +and subject, of that intimacy and complete understanding of personal +character, which, even where no great talent exists in the artist, gives +a unique value to his work, but which, where the intimacy is that of +great minds, gives us works on which no dilettanteism, even, makes a +criticism,--as in that portrait of Dante by Giotto, to our mind the +portrait _par excellence_ of past time. + +In the three admirable portraits whose titles stand at the head of our +notice, we have in one way and another all of the conditions we have +spoken of fulfilled. Rowse's portrait of Emerson is one of the most +masterly and subtile records of the character of a signal man, nay, +the most masterly, we have ever seen. Those who know Emerson best +will recognize him most fully in it. It represents him in his most +characteristic mood, the subtile intelligence mingling with the kindly +humor in his face, thoughtful, cordial, philosophic. The portrait is not +more happy in the comprehension of character than in the rendering of +it, and is as masterly technically as it is grandly characteristic. An +eminent English poet, who knows Emerson well, says of it, justly,--"It +is the best portrait I have ever seen of any man"; and we say of it, +without any hesitation, that no living man, except, _perhaps_, William +Page, is capable, at his best moment, of such a success. + +In Barry's portrait of Whittier it is easy to see the points of contact +between the characters of the artist and the poet-subject, in the +sensitiveness shown in the lines of the mouth in the drawing, in the +delicacy of organization which has wasted the cheek and left the eye +burning with undimmed brilliancy in the sunken socket, the fervent, +earnest face, defying age to affect its expressiveness, as the heart it +manifests defies the chill of time. It is an exceedingly interesting +drawing, and one by which those who love the poet are willing to have +him seen by the future. It must remain as the only and sufficient record +of Whittier's _personnel_. + +In the portrait of Bryant we have the results of an intimacy of the most +cordial kind, of years' duration,--an almost absolute unity of sentiment +and similarity of habits of regarding the things most interesting to +each. Of nearly the same age, Bryant and Durand have grown old together, +loving the same Nature, and regarding it with the same eyes,--the +painter catching inspiration from the poet's themes, and the poet in +turn getting new insight into the mystery of the outer world through the +painter's eyes. Bryant's face has been a Sphinx's riddle to our best +painters; none have succeeded in rendering its severe simplicity, and +clear, self-disciplined expression, until Durand tried it with a +success which renders the picture interesting evermore as a tribute of +friendship as well as a solution of a difficult problem. The artist's +hand was directed by a more than ordinary understanding of the lines it +drew; it has not varied in a line from reverence for the verisimilitude +the world had a right to insist on; it has not flattered or softened, +but is simply, completely, absolutely, true. Bryant's face has an +immovable tranquillity, a reserve and impassiveness, which yet are not +coldness; the clear gray eye calmly looks through and through you, but +permits no intelligence of what is passing behind it to come out to you. +It is such a face as one of the old Greek kings might have had, as he +sat administering justice. All this, it seems to us, Durand's picture +gives. It looks out at you impassive, penetrating, as though it would +hear all and tell nothing,--a strong, self-continent, completely +balanced character,--unshrinking, unyielding, yet without being +unsensitive,--concentrated, justly poised, and intense, without being +passionate. The head is admirably engraved, though we do not at all +fancy the way in which the background is done; it is heavy, formal, and +unartistic,--but this may be matter of choice. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Man and his Dwelllng-Place. An Essay towards the Interpretation of +Nature. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 391. $1.00. + +Annual of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art +for 1859, exhibiting the most Important Discoveries and Improvements in +Mechanics, etc., etc., etc. Edited by David A. Wells, A.M. Boston. Gould +& Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 410. $1.25. + +Letters of a Traveller. Second Series. By William Cullen Bryant. New +York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 277. $1.25. + +My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated. +New York. Oaksmith & Co. 12mo. pp. 458. $1.25. + +Tressilian and his Friend. By Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 372. $1.25. + +The New American Encyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General +Knowledge. By George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Vol. V. +_Chartreuse--Cougar_. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. $3.00. + +History of the Institution of the Sabbath-Day, its Uses and Abuses; +with Notices of the Puritans, Quakers, etc. By M. Logan Fisher. Second +Edition. Revised and enlarged. Philadelphia. J.B. Pugh. 16mo. pp. 248. +50 cts. + +Redemption. A Poem. By John D. Bryant, M.D. Philadelphia. John +Pennington & Son. 12mo. pp. 366. $1.00. + +Opportunities for Industry and the Safe Investment of Capital; or A +Thousand Chances to make Money. By a Retired Merchant. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.25. + +The Dead Secret. By Wilkie Collins. A New Edition. Philadelphia. T.B. +Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 637. $1.25. + +The Losing and Taking of Mansoul, or Lectures on the Holy War. By Alfred +S. Patton, A.M. New York. Shelton & Co. + +The Big Bear of Arkansas, and other Sketches, Illustrative of Characters +and Incidents in the South and Southwest. Edited by William T. Porter. +Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. $1.25. + +Judge Haliburton's Yankee Stories. With Illustrations. A New Edition. +Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. $1.25. + +American Weeds and Useful Plants. Being a Second and Illustrated Edition +of Agricultural Botany, etc. By William Darlington, M.D. Revised, with +Additions, by George Thurber. New York. A.O. Moore & Co. 12mo. pp. 460. +$1.50. + +The American Numismatic Manual of the Currency or Money of the +Aborigines and Colonial States, and United States Coins, with Historical +and Descriptive Notices of each Coin or Series. By Montroville Wilson +Dickerson, M.D. Illustrated by Nineteen Plates of Fac-Similes. +Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 4to. pp. 256. $6.75. + +Dictionary of the United States Congress, containing Biographical +Sketches of its Members, from the Foundation of the Government, with +an Appendix. Compiled as a Manual of Reference for the Legislator +and Statesman. By Charles Lanman. Published for the Author by J.B. +Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia. 8vo. $2.00. + +A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, adapted to +North America, etc., etc. By the late A.J. Downing. With a Supplement, +by Henry Winthrop Sargent. New York. A.O. Moore & Co. 8vo. pp. 576. +$2.75. + +The Roving Editor, or Talks with Slaves of Southern States. By James +Redpath. New York. A.D. Burdick. 12mo. pp. 349. $1.00. + +The Chess-Player's Instructor, or Guide to Beginners. Containing all the +Information necessary to acquire a Knowledge of the Game; with Diagrams, +Illustrative of the Various Movements of the Pieces. By Charles Henry +Stanley. New York. Robert M. DeWitt. 32mo. pp. 72. 38 cts. + +Matrimonial Brokerage in the Metropolis. Being the Narrative of Strange +Adventures in New York and Startling Facts in City Life. By a Reporter +of the Press. New York. Thatcher & Hutchinson. 12mo. pp. 355. $1.00. + +Adam Bede. By George Eliot, Author of "Scenes in Clerical Life." New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 496. $1.00. + +Three Visits to Madagascar, during the Years 1853, 1854, 1856. Including +a Journey to the Capital; with Notices of the Natural History of the +Country and of the Present Civilization of the People. By William Ellis, +F.H.S., Author of "Polynesian Researches." Illustrated by Wood-Cuts from +Photographs, etc. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 514. $2.50. + +The Lady of the Isle. A Romance of Real Life. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. +Southworth. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 528. +$1.25. + +The American Home Garden. Being Principles and Rules for the Culture of +Vegetables, Fruits, and Shrubbery. To which are + +[Transcriber's note: Final page missing in original.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 3, NO. 19, +MAY, 1859*** + + +******* This file should be named 11727-8.txt or 11727-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/2/11727 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11727-8.zip b/old/11727-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fe667f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11727-8.zip diff --git a/old/11727.txt b/old/11727.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ddbcc9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11727.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9074 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, +1859, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 27, 2004 [eBook #11727] +[Date last updated: August 13, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 3, NO. +19, MAY, 1859*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MAY, 1859.--NO. XIX. + + + + + + + +THE GYMNASIUM. + + +Two distinct yet harmonious branches of study claimed the early +attention of the youth of ancient Greece. Education was comprised in +the two words, Music and Gymnastics. Plato includes it all under these +divisions:--"That having reference to the body is gymnastics, but to the +cultivation of the mind, music." + +Grammar was sometimes distinguished from the other branches classed +under the term, Music; and comprehended, besides a knowledge of +language, something of poetry, eloquence, and history. Music embraced +all the arts and sciences over which the Muses presided. + +Grammar, Music, and Gymnastics, then, comprised the whole _curriculum_ +of study which was prescribed to the Athenian boy. There were not +separate and distinct learned professions, or faculties, to so great +an extent as in modern times. The compass of knowledge was far less +defined, and the studies and attainments of the individual more +miscellaneous. Some of the arts rose to an unparalleled perfection. +Architecture and sculpture attained an excellence which no subsequent +civilization has reached. But the practical application of the sciences +to daily use was almost entirely neglected; and inventions and mechanics +languished until the far later uprising of the Saxon mind. + +Yet the whole system of education among the Greeks was peculiarly +calculated for the development of the powers of the mind and of the body +in common. And it is from this point of view that we wish to consider +it, and to show the nature and preeminence of gymnastics in their times +as compared with our own. + +Doubtless Grecian Art owed its superiority, in some degree, to the +gymnasium. Living models of manliness, grace, and beauty were daily +before the artist's eye. The _stadium_ furnished its fleet runners, +nimble as the wing-footed Mercury,--fit types for his light and airy +conceptions; while the arena of the athletes offered marvellous +opportunities for the study of muscle and posture, to show its results +in the burly limbs of Hercules or the starting sinews of Laocooen. Many +of the most lifelike groups of marble which remain to us from that time +are but copies of the living statues who wrestled or threw the quoit in +the public gymnasium. + +It is worthy of remark, in corroboration of this view, that the +department of the fine arts which depended on outline surpassed +that which derived its power from coloring and perspective. The +sculptors far excelled the painters. The statue was the natural result +of the imitative faculty surveying the nude human figure in every +posture of activity or repose. Pictures came later, from more educated +senses, and from minds which had first learned outward nature through +the medium of the simpler arts. + +The ancient gymnasium, apart from its baths and philosophic groves, +was far from being, as with us, a mere appendage of the school. Modern +instructors advertise, that, in addition to teachers of every tongue and +art, "a gymnasium is attached" to their educational institutions. In old +times, the gymnasium was the school,--the public games and festivals its +"annual exhibitions." + +The word _gymnasium_ has reference in its derivation to the nude or +semi-nude condition of those who exercised there. But in their proper +classical interpretation the public gymnasia were, to a great extent, +places set apart for physical education and training. Gymnastics, +indeed, in the broadest sense of the word, have been cultivated in all +ages. The spontaneous exercises and mimic contests of the boys of all +countries, the friendly emulation of robust youth in trials of speed and +strength, and the discipline and training of the military recruit have +in them much of the true gymnastic element. In Attica and Ionia they +were first adapted to their noblest ends. + +The hardy Spartans, who valued most the qualities of bravery, endurance, +and self-denial, used the gymnasia only as schools of training for the +more sanguinary contests of war. So, too, the martial Roman despised +those who practised gymnastics with any other object than as fitting +them to be better soldiers. Yet to so great a degree were these +exercises cultivated, even by the latter nation, that the Roman private +of the line did his fifteen or twenty miles' daily march under a weight +of camp-equipage and weapons which would have foundered some of the +best-drilled modern warriors, and concluded his day's labors by digging +the trenches of his camp at night. The ponderous _pilum_, and the heavy, +straight sword of the infantry were exchanged in the barrack-yard for +drill-weapons of twice their weight; and so perfectly were the detail +and regularity of actual service carried out in their daily discipline, +that, as an ancient writer has remarked, their sham-fights and reviews +differed only in bloodshed from real battles. The soldier of the early +Republic was hence taught gymnastics only as a means of increasing his +efficiency; the lax praetorian and the corrupt populace of the Empire +turned gladly from the gymnasium to the circus and the amphitheatre. + +In the same manner were these exercises regarded by the Dorians and the +people of some other of the Grecian States. The inhabitants of Attica +and of Ionia, on opposite shores of the Aegean, as more cultivated +races, viewed them in a more correct physiological light. But it was at +Athens that the gymnasium was held in highest repute. + +We read that Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, first established particular +regulations for its government. Attic legends, however, gratefully +refer the earliest rules of the gymnasium to Theseus, as to one of the +mightiest of the mythical heroes,--the emulator of Hercules, slayer of +the Minotaur, and conqueror of the Amazons. Hermes was the presiding +deity, which may appear strange to us, as he was as noted for an +unworthy cunning as for his dexterity. Generous emulation and +magnanimity were regarded as the noblest qualities called forth in +gymnastic exercises; and Mercury seems a fitter tutelar divinity of the +wary boxer and of the race-course than of the whole gymnasium. + +Probably no Greek town of any importance was destitute of one of +these schools of exercise. Athens boasted three public gymnasia,--the +Cynosarges, the Lyceum, and the Academy. These were the daily resort +of young and old alike, though certain penal laws forbade them from +exercising together at the same hour. + +The school-boy frequented them as part of his daily task; the young man +of leisure, as an agreeable lounging-place; the scholar, to listen +to the master in philosophy; the sedentary, for their customary +_constitutional_ on the foot-course; and the invalid and the aged, to +court the return of health, or to retain somewhat of the vigor of their +earlier years. The Athenians wisely held that there could be no health +of the mind, unless the body were cared for,--and viewed exercise also +as a powerful remedial agent in disease. Such a variety of useful +purposes were thus subserved by the gymnasia, that it will be proper +to look briefly at their internal arrangements. We shall follow the +description which has been left us by Vitruvius. + +The ancient gymnasium was generally situated in the suburbs, and was +often as large as a _stadium_ (six hundred and twenty-five feet) +square. Its principal entrance faced the east. A quadrangular inclosure +comprehended two principal courts, divided by a party-wall. The eastern +court was called the _peristylium,_ from the rows of columns which +surrounded it; the western also was bordered by porticos, but for it +we have no distinct name. The peristyle must have been from one to two +hundred feet square. It was sometimes termed the _palaestra_, though +this name was afterwards restricted to the training-school of the +athletes proper, who made gymnastics the business of their lives. It was +also styled the _sphaeristerium,_ or ball-ground, to which the nearest +approach in modern times is the tennis-court. The chief western +inclosure was planted with plane-trees in regular order, with walls +between them and seats of the so-called _signine_ work, and was about +one half larger than the peristyle. The space between the columns of the +latter and the outer walls allowed sufficient room for rows of chambers, +halls, and corridors, whose uses we will next designate. + +The first room on the right, as one entered the east gate, was the +_loutron_, or room for washing, distinct from the regular baths. Next, +in the northeast corner, was the _conisterium_, where sand was kept for +sprinkling the wrestlers after they had been anointed for the struggle. +West of this lay the _coryceum_, a hall for exercising with a sack of +sand suspended from the roof. It seems plausible to suppose that this +exercise corresponded with that more recently practised by Mr. Thomas +Hyer, previously to his fight with Yankee Sullivan. A bag of sand, equal +in weight to his adversary, was daily pommelled by the champion of +America until he could make it swing and recoil satisfactorily. + +Adjoining this room were two small apartments called the _ephebeum_ and +the _elaeothesium_ respectively. The former was devoted to preparatory +exercise, probably by way of warming up for severer efforts; the latter +was used for anointing, and was connected with the baths, which followed +next in order. These were the _frigidarium_, the _caldarium_, the +_sudatorium_, and the _tepidarium_, for the cold, the hot, the sweating +or vapor, and the warm baths. They did not possess the magnitude and +ornament of the Roman _thermae_. They were used in connection with and +after exercising, and were enough for all practical purposes. Bathing +was not then the business of hours every day, as it was later in the +Roman Empire, when the luxurious subjects of Caracalla indulged several +times in the twenty-four hours in such a variety of ablutions as would +have satisfied a Sandwich-Islander. + +We have now arrived at a point nearly opposite our entrance at the east, +and, continuing round the southwest, south, and southeast sides of the +peristyle, find a large number of consecutive chambers devoted mainly to +the philosophers, as lecture-rooms and auditories for their classes +and followers. On the north side of the peristyle is a double portico +containing the _exedrae_, or seats of the sophists, where each most +cunning rhetorician delivered his opinions _ex cathedra_, and lay in +wait for any passer whom he could insnare into an argument. The groves +of the great western court were probably used by the lounger, the +contemplative, and the studious, if we may judge by numerous seats and +benches, at convenient intervals. On the south side of these was again a +double portico; and on the north, outside the pillars, the _xystus_, +or covered porch, where the athletes exercised in winter and in bad +weather. The arena was twelve feet wide, and sunk a foot and a half +below a marginal path of ten feet, where spectators could walk. On the +north and south sides of the whole building were wings, of less width, +extending nearly its entire length. That on the north contained +the _stadium_, or foot-race course, which was, however, sometimes +disconnected from the gymnasium. The south wing was of like dimensions, +and adorned with plane-trees and walks, forming a more private retreat. + +It will be readily conceived that this vast area was not devoted +exclusively to physical exercises. Logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics +claimed their place in this common focus of the city's life, and were +the delight of the subtile Greeks. The Socratic reasoning and the +syllogisms of Aristotle met here on common ground. The Stoics, with +their stern fatalism, derived their name from the _stoae_, or porticos; +the Peripatetics imparted their ambulatory instructions under the +plane-trees of the Lyceum--and Plato reasoned in the Academy, which he +held with his school, and into which no ungeometrical mind was to enter. +And though some dog of a Cynic might despise the union of the ornamental +with the useful, and claim austerity as the rule of life, yet to the +great body of the social Greek people the gymnasium offered all those +attractions which _boulevards_, _cafes_, and _jardins-chantants_ do +now to the Gallic nation. There is more than one point of resemblance +between the two countries; but while the Athenian had the same mercurial +qualities, which fitted him for outdoor life, he had even a less +comfortable domestic establishment to retain him at home than the modern +Parisian. + +We must turn, however, rather to the physical view of the gymnasium. All +the sports of the gymnasia were either games, or special exercises for +the contests of the public festivals. And here a distinction must be +made between amateur and professional gymnasts. The former were +styled _agonistae_, and exercised in the public gymnasium; the latter +_athletae_, and were trained fighters, whose school was the _palaestra_. +At first frequenting the same, they afterwards became divided between +two institutions. Some of the harsher sports of the prize-fighters were +not thought genteel for well-nurtured youths to indulge in. Among the +simpler games were the ball, played in various ways, and the top, which +was as popular with juveniles then as now. The sport called _skaperda_ +can be seen in any gymnasium of to-day, and consisted in two boys +drawing each other up and down by the ends of a rope passing over a +pulley. Familiar still is also a game of dexterity played with five +stones thrown from the upper part of the hand and caught in the palm. +Various other gentle exercises might be mentioned. + +The training for the public games was comprised in the _pentathlon_, or +five exercises,--which were running, leaping, throwing the _discus_, +wrestling, boxing. The first four were practised also by amateurs, and +by most persons who frequented the gymnasium for health. + +The race, run upon the foot-race course, was between fixed boundaries, +about a _stadium_ apart. The distances run were from one to twenty +_stadia_, or from one-eighth of a mile to two and a half miles, and +sometimes more. This exercise was much followed. Horses were sometimes +introduced, but then the hippodrome was the course. They ran without +riders, as at the Roman carnival, or with chariots. Horse-racing was +most popular in the Roman circus, whose ruins still show its massiveness +and great size. + +Leaping was performed also within fixed limits,--generally with metallic +weights in the hands, but sometimes attached to the head or shoulders. + +The quoit, or _discus_, was made of stone or metal, of a circular form, +and thrown by means of a thong passing through the centre. It was three +inches thick and ten or twelve in diameter. He who threw farthest, won. +It is a modern game also, and is imitated in the Old-Country custom of +pitching the bar. + +Wrestling has been a favorite contest in all times. Milo of Crotona +was the prince of wrestlers. He who threw his adversary three times +conquered. The wrestlers were naked, anointed, and covered with sand, +that they might take firm hold. Striking was not allowed. Elegance was +studied in the attack, as well as force. There was a distinction between +upright and prostrate wrestling. In the former the one thrown was +allowed to get up; in the latter the struggle was continued on the +ground. The vanquished held up his finger when he acknowledged himself +beaten. + +Boxing was a severer sport, and not much followed except by gentlemen of +the "profession." It was practised with the clenched fists, either naked +or armed with the deadly _cestus_. The "science" of the game was to +parry the blows of the antagonist, as it is in the "noble and manly" art +of self-defence now. The exercise was violent and dangerous, and the +combatants often lost their lives, as they do at the present day. The +_cestus_, like our "brass-knuckle," was a thong of hide, loaded with +lead, and bound over the hand. At first used to add weight to the blow, +it was afterwards continued up the fore-arm, and formed also a weapon +of defence. Mr. Morrissey, or any other "shoulder-hitter," would hardly +need more than a few rounds to settle his opponent, if his sinewy arm +were garnished with the _cestus_. + +We read that the late contest for the "American belt," though short, was +unusually fierce, and afforded intense delight to the spectators,--in +proportion, probably, to its ferocity. By all means let the "profession" +take the _cestus_ from the hands of the highwayman and adopt it +themselves. It would be one step nearer the glorious days of the +gladiators, and would render their combats more bloody and more +exciting. Or, better still, let us revive the ancient mode of sparring +called the _klimax_, where both parties "faced the music" _without +warding_ blows at all. We scarcely think the ancients were up to +"countering," as it is understood now; but they fully appreciated the +facetious practice of falling backwards to avoid a blow, and letting the +adversary waste his strength on the air. The deceased Mr. Sullivan +would hardly recognize his favorite dodge under its classic name of +_hyptiasmos_, or be aware that it was in use by his very respectable +predecessor, Sostratus of Sicyon, who was noted for such tricks. + +The _pankration_, again, was a mode of battle which the modern +prize-ring is yet too magnanimous to adopt, and which excelled in +brutality the so-called "getting one's nob in chancery,"--the most +stirring episode of our pugilistic encounters. The Greek custom alluded +to was so named because it called all the powers of the fighter into +action. It was a union of boxing and wrestling. It began by trying to +get one's antagonist into the unfavorable position of facing the sun. +Then the sport commenced with either wrestling or sparring. As soon as +one party was thrown or knocked down, the other kept him so until he had +pommelled him into submission; and when he arose, at last, to receive +the plaudits of the assembly, it was often from the corpse of his +adversary. + +Beginning as the most promising pupils of the gymnasium, and becoming +victors in the public games, certain gymnasts gradually grew into +a distinct class of prize-runners, wrestlers, and fighters, called +Athletes. They then devoted their lives to attaining excellence in these +exercises, and withdrew to the _palaestra_, or training-school. Those who +quitted the profession became instructors in the public gymnasium. To +attain great bodily strength, they submitted to many rigid rules. By +frequent anointing, rubbing, and bathing, they rendered their bodies +very supple. The trainer, or teacher in the _palaestra_, was termed +_xystarch_. He was himself the Nestor of the "ring." The food of the +athlete was mainly beef and pork. The latter, we believe, is excluded +from the diet-list of the modern prize-fighter. Of their particular +rules of living and "getting into condition" we know but little. Before +being allowed to contend, they were subjected to a strict examination by +the judges. In so high estimation were the victors held, that they were +rewarded with a public proclamation of their names, the laudations +of the poet, statues, banquets, and other privileges. The immediate +material gain was not the winning of the stakes, but a simple crown or +garland of laurel, olive, pine, or parsley, according to the festival at +which they fought. Pindar has embalmed the names of many victors in his +Olympic, Pythian, and other odes. + +But let us leave the athletes for something more inviting. The +_lampadephoria_, or torch-race, must have been a singular spectacle. +There were five celebrations of this game at Athens, of which the most +noted was at the Panathenaea, where horsemen often contended. The text +describing it has been a puzzle to commentators;--the most rational +and accepted interpretation seems to be, that it was a contest between +opposite parties, and not between individuals. Lighted lamps, protected +by a shield, were passed from runner to runner along the lines of +players, to a certain goal. They who succeeded in carrying their lights +from boundary to boundary unextinguished were declared the victors. This +game will at once recall the _moccoletti_, which close the carnival at +Rome. + +Dancing to the sound of the _cithara_, flute, and pipe, was a favorite +amusement with all classes. The grizzly veterans and the younger +soldiers all joined in martial dances. The dance and the game of ball +were often connected. The Romaic dance, peculiar to the modern Greeks, +is an inheritance from their ancestors. Dancing by youths and maidens +formed part of the entertainment of guests. Tumblers threw somersets +and leaped amid sharp knives, somewhat after the manner of the Chinese +jugglers. Music was also usually associated with either poetry or +dancing. + +Incitements to the various gymnastic exercises which have been mentioned +could be found only in public emulation, for which abundant opportunity +was offered in the national games or festivals. These were a part of +the religious customs of the Greeks, and were originally established +in honor of the gods. It was their effect to bring into nearer contact +people from the several parts of Greece, and to stimulate and publicly +reward talent, as well as bodily vigor. They afforded orators, poets, +and historians the best opportunities of rehearsing their productions. +Herodotus is said to have read his History, and Isocrates to have +recited his Panegyric at the Olympic games. The four sacred games were +the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean; and to these should be added +the Panathenaea, or festival of Minerva. The five exercises before +mentioned, together with music, in its classic sense, formed the +programme. In the lesser Panathenaea occurred, first, the torch-race; +next, the gymnastic exercises; thirdly, a musical contention, instituted +by Pericles; and lastly, a competition of the poets in four plays. +Numerous other observances, of a religious nature, were varied with the +different festivals. It may be doubted whether subsequent times have +seen any gatherings of equal magnitude for similar objects. + +So rigid was the discipline of the ancient gymnasium, and so important +was it considered that confidence should be undoubting there, that +thefts, exceeding ten _drachmae_ in amount, committed within its +precincts, were punished with death. + +The _Gymnasiarch_, or presiding magistrate, clothed in a purple cloak, +with white shoes, possessed almost unlimited authority. He had the +superintendence of the building, and could remove the teachers and +under-officers at his pleasure. The exercises practised were ordained +by law, subject to regulations and animated by the commendation of +the masters. Instructions were given by the _gymnastae_ and the +_paedotribae_, two classes of officers. The former gave practical +lessons, and were expected to know the physiological effect of the +different exercises, and to adapt them to the constitution and needs of +the youth. The latter possessed a knowledge of all the games, and taught +them in all their variety. Nor were the morals of the young less cared +for by the _sophronistae_, a set of officials appointed for that +purpose. + +The plan and scope of Grecian education were more adapted to the common +purposes of the community, and less to the individual aim of the pupil. +Beside the public teachings of philosophers and sophists, common schools +were established at Athens by Solon. Government provided for their +management, and strict discipline was enforced. Here the boy was +instructed in music and grammar. Until the age of sixteen, he pursued +these two branches in connection with gymnastics. Some authorities +assert, that, even at this period of his life, as much time was devoted +to the latter as to the other two together. At sixteen, he left the +school, and, until he was eighteen years of age, frequented the +gymnasium alone; probably devoting most of his time to physical +training, though enjoying opportunities of listening to the masters +in philosophy. The period of adolescence past, and his growing frame +expanded and well knit by exercise, he either continued to follow +athletic sports, or began a military or other career. If a young man +of leisure, he probably needed all the virtue imparted by his moral +teachers to restrain him from dice, quail-fights, and fine horses, and +all his physical vigor to resist the dissipations of Athens or Corinth, +and the potations of the _symposia_. + +So far the male rising generation was well cared for. What became of the +girls? + +In accordance with the freer manners, but not less virtuous habits of +Lacedemon, maidens were there admitted as spectators and sharers of the +gymnastic sports. Though clad only in the Spartan _chiton_, they took +vigorous part in dancing and probably wrestling. The Athenian maid could +not air even her modest garments in public with the consent of popular +opinion. The girls were educated and the women stayed at home. The +_gynaekeion_, or female apartment, was nearly as secluded as the +_seraglio_. The females were under direct, though not slavish submission +to the men. Modesty forbade their appearance in the gymnasium. Domestic +occupations, the rearing of children, spinning, light work, and +household cares filled up their time. We are told that an Athenian +mother once ventured in male attire to mingle among the spectators of +the Olympic games. Her cry of joy at the triumph of her son betrayed +her. Because she was the mother of many victors, she was spared from +infamy; and her services to the state, in rearing men, alone saved her +from the consequences of an act which maternal solicitude could not have +excused. + +Too much license in the intermingling of the sexes formed part of the +arguments of many distinguished Romans against the gymnasium. Habits of +idle lounging and waste of time, together with even graver vices, were +imputed to its influence. Some said it favored _polysarkia_, or obesity, +and unfitted for military or other active life. The Romans were too +utilitarian to see its higher aims. Though there was some justice, it +must be confessed, in these accusations, yet they applied with more +force to the _palaestra_ than to the gymnasium,--to the trained +fighters, who devoted their lives to exercise, than to the mass of the +Greeks, who cultivated it for nobler purposes. + +The ancients valued gymnastics highly as curative agents in disease. +Some of the gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, god of physicians. The +officers of these establishments passed for doctors, and were so called, +on account of the skill which long experience had given them. The +directors regulated the diet of the youth, the _gymnastae_ prescribed +for their diseases, and the inferiors dressed wounds and fractures. Not +only was the general idea entertained that bodily exercise is good for +the health, but different kinds of exertion were selected as adapted to +particular maladies. Upright wrestling was thought most beneficial to +the upper portion of the body, and the cure of dropsy was believed to be +peculiarly promoted by gymnastic sports. Hippocrates had some faith in +the "motor cure." In some cases he advises common wrestling; in others, +wrestling with the hands only. The practice with the _corycus_, or +hanging-bag of sand, and a regular motion of the upper limbs, resembling +the manual exercise of the soldier, were also esteemed by him. Galen +inveighs against the more violent exercises, but recommends moderate +ones as part of the physician's art. Asclepiades, in the time of Pompey +the Great, called exercises the common aids of physic, and got great +glory--and money, it is to be hoped--by various mechanical contrivances +for the sick. + +The ancients probably esteemed gymnastics too much, as the moderns do +too little, for medical or sanative purposes. The Greeks, with a very +limited knowledge of physiology and pathology, would be more apt to +treat symptoms than to trace the causes of disease; and no doubt they +sometimes prescribed exercises which were injudicious or positively +injurious. We still trust too much, perhaps, to medication, and do not +keep in view the great helps which Nature spreads around us. Truth lies +between the two extremes; and we are beginning to recognize the fact, +which experience daily teaches us, that light, air, and motion are more +potent than drugs,--and that iron will not redden the cheeks, nor bark +restring the nerves, so safely and so surely as moderate daily exercise +out of doors. + +In the flourishing days of Attica, the gymnasium was in its perfection. +It degenerated with the license of later times. It was absorbed and sunk +in the fashions and vices of imperial Rome. Though Nero built a +public gymnasium, and Roman gentlemen attached private ones to their +country-seats, it gradually fell into disuse, or existed only for +ignoble purposes. The gladiator succeeded naturally to the athlete, the +circus to the stadium, and the sanguinary scenes of the amphitheatre +brutalized the pure tastes of earlier years. Then came the barbarians, +and the rough, graceless strength of Goths and Vandals supplanted the +supple vigor of the gymnast. The rude, migratory life of the Dark Ages +needed not the gymnasium as a means of physical culture, and was too +changeable and evanescent to establish permanent institutions. Chivalry +afforded some exception. The profession of knighthood and the calling +of the men-at-arms gave ample scope to warlike exercises, reduced to +something like a science in armor, horses, and modes of combat. The +tournament recalled somewhat the generous emulation of the gymnasium; +but bodily exercise for physiological ends was lost sight of in the +midst of advancing civilization, until its culture was resumed in +Sweden, in the latter half of the last century. + +The reviver of gymnastics was PETER HENRY LING. Born of humble +parentage, and contending in his earlier years with the extremest +poverty, he completed a theological education, became a tutor, +volunteered in the Danish navy, travelled in France and England, and +began his career of gymnast as a fencing-master in Stockholm. He died +a professor, a knight, and a member of the Swedish Academy, and was +posthumously honored as a benefactor of his country. + +While fencing, he was struck with the wholesome effects which may +be produced on the body by a rational system of movements, and this +suggested the idea which he developed by practice and precept through +his entire life. It was, that "an harmonious organic development of the +body and of its powers and capabilities by exercises ought to constitute +an essential part in the general education of a people." Ling thought +not of merely imitating the gymnastics of the ancients, but he aimed at +their reformation and improvement. Wishing to put gymnastics in harmony +with Nature, he studied anatomy, physiology, and the natural sciences. +Of their value in directing rational exercise he says: "Anatomy, that +sacred genesis, which shows us the masterpiece of the Creator, and which +teaches us how little and how great man is, ought to form the constant +study of the gymnast. But we ought not to consider the organs of the +body as the lifeless forms of a mechanical mass, but as the living, +active instruments of the soul." And even this is not sufficient; "for +the gymnast, the ultimate aim of whose art is the _beau ideal_ of +humanity, must know what effects applied movements produce upon the +corporeal and psychical condition of man; a knowledge which can be +obtained only from the most careful and untiring examination." + +It has been asserted, that, in pursuance of this plan, Ling invented a +separate movement or exercise for every muscle in the body. This is not +strictly true, for it is practically impossible. Few muscles act alone, +and such as do are developed symmetrically, and are antagonized by those +of the opposite side. Most movements are performed by groups of muscles. +The cripple, swinging on his crutches, develops the broad sheet of +muscular fibres which enfolds the back and loins, and approaches in +form the simian tribe, the business of whose life is climbing. The +sledge-hammer brings out the _biceps_ of the blacksmith, and striking +out from the shoulder the _triceps_ of the pugilist. The calves of the +ballet-dancer are noted for the abrupt line which marks the transition +from muscle to tendon; and other instances might be cited. As a general +rule, however, numerous muscles act in concert. Trades stamp their +impress on special groups; and the power of co-ordination, which is +supposed to derive its impulse from the cerebellum, varies in different +persons, and marks them as clumsy or dexterous, sure-footed or the +reverse. Ling aimed only at the regulation of associated, or the equal +development of antagonistic groups. For, as the Supreme Medical Board of +Russia say in their report on his system, made to the Emperor in 1850, +"empirical gymnastics develop the muscular strength sometimes to a +wonderful degree, and teach the execution of movements combined with +an extraordinary effort of the muscles; by these means, instead of +fortifying the whole body equally and generally, they often contribute +to the development of the most dangerous diseases, since they do not +teach the evil which the injudicious use of movements may produce." It +was the harmonious and equable increase of all the voluntary and some of +the involuntary muscles which the Swedish system sought to attain. + +The authority just quoted, in continuation, says:--"Notwithstanding +bodily exercises under the name of _Turnen_ were generally known and +practised in Germany at the beginning of the present century, and many +of its enlightened professional writers tried to give to them a proper +direction by combining them with anatomy and physiology, Ling must be +considered as the founder of the rational system of movements." We have +all seen deformed gymnasts, with square shoulders and lank loins, or +with some particular group of muscles projecting in ugly prominences +from the violated outlines of nature. All this the followers of Ling +claim that he avoided or overcame. His gymnastics were introduced years +ago, not only into all the military academies of Sweden, but into all +town-schools, colleges, and universities, and even orphan-asylums and +country-schools. Three objects are asserted to be obtained by his +disciples: development of muscular fibre, increased arterialization, +and improved innervation. Increase of function promotes the growth and +capability of organic structures, and causes an augmented afflux of +arterial blood and nervous influence to the part. + +The ambitious reformer of the gymnasium did not pause here; but, +pursuing a still bolder course, undertook "to make gymnastics not only a +branch of education for healthy persons, but to demonstrate them to be +a remedy for disease." The new science was called _Kinesipathy_, or the +"motor-cure." The curative movements were first practised in 1813, +while Ling remained at Stockholm. A motor-hospital was established in +connection with the gymnasium; and to accommodate the invalid and the +feeble, new exercises, called "passive movements," were devised. These +were executed by an external agent upon the patient,--that agent being +usually the hand of the physician. The sick man, too weak for violent, +voluntary effort, was stretched and champooed, the muscles of his trunk +and limbs alternately flexed and extended by another person, until he +gradually acquired strength to use active movements. As he gained power, +he increased the voluntary resistance which he made to the operator, and +thus, at the same time, the amount of his own muscular exertion. It is +claimed that volition is thus called forth to neglected parts, and their +innervation and vascularity increased; and that so at length the normal +fulness of life and function is restored. This system confines itself +mostly to chronic diseases. In the paralysis of the young, in defective +volition from hysteria, in impaired local nutrition, in local +deformities dependent on muscular contraction, and in lateral curvature +of the spine, it unquestionably often produces the best results. Its +advocates claim for it much more. On its further benefits we are unable +to decide. Like all things else, it is susceptible of abuse. + +Russia and Prussia have adopted, to a limited extent, the Ling system +of corporeal training and the "motor-cure." In London there exists an +institution of this kind, and more recently one has been established +by the Doctors Taylor in New York. In a still less degree the Swedish +gymnastics are used in some educational institutions here. + +Ling died in 1839, in his seventy-third year. Even on his death-bed he +spoke till the last hour, and gave instructions in his favorite science. +His life is a remarkable instance of purity, energy, and devotion to a +single end. + +Meanwhile, what have modern nations done to atone for the neglect of the +ancient gymnasium? Germany, to some extent, has supplied its place with +the _Turnverein_. _Turnkunst_, or the gymnastic art, is cultivated by +a limited number of youth. As we see the public exhibitions of the +_Turners_ in this country, they are as noted for their libations to +Bacchus, and their sacrifices to the god of tobacco,--a deity still +wanting in the Pantheon,--as for their culture and superiority in +athletic sports. Still they exert a wide, and, for the most part, a good +influence. Other continental nations of Europe furnish a large portion +of their young men with the gymnastic element in the shape of military +discipline and drill. As affording the best examples of martial +training, Prussia and France are to be signalized,--the former for the +universality, the latter for the kind of its instructions. + +All young Prussians are liable to a call to actual service in the army +for three years. After this, if they do not continue members of the +regular standing army, they remain until a certain age in that portion +of the active force which is mustered and drilled every year. Past the +age referred to, they fall into the corps of reserve, a sort of National +Guard of veterans, summoned to the field only in emergencies. Young men +who have the means to purchase an immunity can obtain one for only two +years. One year they must serve, parade, drill, march, and mount guard, +though they are not required to live in the barracks. Occasional cases +of hardship or injustice occur. We know of a poor, but promising +pianist whose studies were cut short and his fingers stiffened by the +three-years' service. Leaving out of view exceptional facts, the system +works well. All the youth of the country acquire health, strength, an +upright carriage, and habits of punctuality and cleanliness. The clumsy +rustic is soon licked into shape, and leaves his barrack, to return to +the fields, a soldier and a more self-reliant man. Prussia, too, secures +the services of an army, in time of need, commensurate in numbers with +the adult male population. + +The French conscript, if he draws the unlucky number, can buy a +substitute. All are not enrolled as recruits; and all those so enrolled +are not obliged to serve. The only sons of widows, and some other +persons, are always exempt. Once in "the line," however, the young man +is engaged for five or seven years, and receives a training in matters +gymnastic and military which turns out the best soldiers in Europe. + +Little would one imagine, as he passes the groups of dainty and +scrupulously neat French officers upon the _boulevards_, looking the +laziest persons in the world, that these seeming carpet-knights are out +upon the _Champ de Mars_ at three o'clock in the morning, and +often drill until nine or ten in the forenoon,--or that the little +_toulourou_, as he is nicknamed, or private of the _ligne_, in his +brick-colored trowsers and clean gaiters, whose voice is the gayest and +whose legs are the nimblest in the barrier-ball, has done a day's work +of parade and gymnastics which equals the toil of an _ouvrier_. Running, +swimming, climbing, and fencing with the bayonet, are often but the +preludes of long marches on duty, or equally long walks to reach the +parade-ground, or to fetch the daily rations of the "mess." Then, too, +during several months of summer, camp-life is led on a grand scale. Vast +encampments, which for size, regularity, and order vie with the old +Roman _castra_, are formed at convenient spots. And here all the details +of actual service are imitated; cavalry and infantry are disciplined in +equally arduous labors; nor does the artillery escape the fatigue of +mock-sieges, sham-fights, and reviews. + +The _Chasseurs de Vincennes_, or rifle-corps, are the pride of the army. +Their training is still more severe. They are all athletic men, taught +to march almost upon the run, and to go through evolutions with the +rapidity of bush-fighters. There are few more stirring sights than a +French regiment upon the march. Advancing in loose order, and with a +long, swinging gait, their guns at an angle of forty-five degrees, +lightly carried upon the shoulder, they impart an idea of alertness and +efficiency which no other soldiers present to the same degree. + +Gymnasia are somewhat patronized by the civilians. The art of fencing is +a national accomplishment, and few gentlemen complete their education +without the instructions of the _maitre d'escrime_. The _savate_ is a +rude exercise in vogue among rowdies, and consists in kicking with +the peasant's wooden shoe. The French are a tough, but not a large or +powerful race. The same amount of training dispensed among as large a +proportion of the youth of this country would show much greater results. + +The British soldier has long been considered by his own nation as a +model of manliness. He owes his long limbs and round chest to his +ancestors and his mode of life before enlisting. While on the +home-service, he does not yet exercise enough to harden him or to ward +off disease. Recent returns show a higher comparative rate of mortality +in the British army from consumption than among other Englishmen. His +close barracks, unvarying diet, and listless life explain it all. His +countrymen and countrywomen, however, who have the time and means, +largely cultivate athletic sports. The English lady is noted for her +long walks in the open air, and for the preservation of her youthful +bloom,--the English gentleman for his red face, broad shoulders, and +happy digestion. + +How do we compare with them in vigor and attention to gymnastics and +health-giving exercises? Better than we did ten years ago, but still not +very favorably. + +The Western Border-States are noted for the production of a large and +hardy race. New Hampshire and Vermont contribute a good share of the +tall and well-developed men who yearly recruit the population of +our Eastern cities. Let a generation pass, however, and we find the +offspring of such sires with equally capacious frames, but far less +muscular power. The skeleton is laid of a man mighty in strength, but +the filling-in is wanting. Broad-jointed bones swing listlessly in their +sockets, the head projects, and the shoulders bend, under the influence +of a sedentary life. The laboring and mechanical classes bring certain +groups of muscles to perfection in development and dexterity, but +present few instances of an harmonious organization. Commercial and +professional men do not accomplish even a limited muscular development. +For the other sex, Nature seems to have provided a certain immunity from +the necessity of active exercise for the rounding and completion of +their bodies. The lack of fresh air, however, soon tells with them a +fatal story of fading complexions and departing bloom. That ethereal +beauty which peculiarly marks the American woman is also the earliest to +decay. As they are the prettiest, so are they the soonest _passees_ of +any Northern nation. Could they but realize that exercise in the open +air is Nature's great and only cosmetic, the reproach of early old age +would cease. Nothing will give that peach-bloom to the cheek and that +peculiar sweetness to the eye which a long walk through the fields, of a +clear October day, bestows unbought. + +One evil breeds another. The brain fed only with thin blood gives rise +to morbid thoughts. Activity, sharpness, and quickness of perception +are but poor compensations for the want of the milder and more generous +attributes of the mind. Dyspepsia spawns a moody literature. Broad, +manly views and hopeful thoughts of life exist less here, we think, than +in England. The cities are supplied year by year with people from the +country; yet the latter, the source of all this supply, does not produce +so healthy mothers as the city; and were it not for the increasing study +of physiology and its vital truths, we fear that we should awaken too +late to a knowledge of our physical degeneration. + +Now what means are in use among us to furnish the needed stimulant of +exercise? It is paradoxical to say that the average of people take more +exercise in the city than in the country; yet we believe it to be true. +That exercise is only of one form, to be sure, namely, walking. The +common calls of business, and the mere daily locomotion from point to +point of an extended city, necessitate a large amount of this simplest +exercise. Other sources of health, as sunlight and the vivifying +influence of trees and grass upon the air, exist more in the real +country. Yet as many girls attain a vigorous development in town as out +of it; for in our smaller New England villages indoor cares and labors +confine the females excessively and prevent their using much exercise in +the open air. + +Our militia system, including the exercises of volunteer companies, +supplies but to a very limited extent the want of real gymnastics. The +common militia meet too infrequently and drill too little to gain much +sanative benefit. The old-fashioned "training-day" was always a day of +drunkenness and subsequent sickness. The "going into camp" now adopted +is even worse; for here youths taken from the sheltered counting-room +and furnace-heated house are exposed to the inclemencies of the weather +not long enough to harden them, but long enough to lay the foundation of +disease. Volunteer companies parade and are reviewed oftener, and +drill more constantly; but the good effects of the manual exercise are +rendered nugatory by its being conducted in confined armories and a bad +atmosphere. + +The frequency of conflagrations and the emulation of rival volunteer +corps render the fire-companies an active school of exercise. But the +benefits of this are neutralized by the violence and irregularity of +their exertions. Quitting the workshop half-clad, and running long +distances, the fireman arrives panting at the fire, to breathe in, with +lungs congested by the unusual effort, the rarefied and smoky atmosphere +of the burning buildings. We should naturally suppose this a fertile +source of pulmonary complaints. Besides, were it the most healthy of +exercises, it is followed only by the mechanic and the laborer, who use +their muscles enough without it. + +The "prize-ring" and the professed athlete still exist among us. +Unfortunately, their habits brutalize the mind. A limited knowledge +of sparring, and a full vocabulary of the slang of the pugilist, are +fashionable among many youths. Few young men, however, can cultivate the +one, or frequent the society of the other, without the risk of becoming +rowdies or bullies, if nothing worse. + +The revival of the Old-Country games of cricket and base-ball affords +some of the best examples of a growing desire for athletic sports. +They have many things to recommend them, and, as we conceive, no +objectionable features. + +The suicidal war waged against trees and birds alike by the early +settlers has left but little inducement to follow in this country the +field-sports so fashionable in England. Riding on horseback, however, is +now more popular than it has been since our carriage-roads were first +laid out. This exercise is peculiarly beneficial to the feeble in body. +Accelerated inspiration of pure air and a gentle succussion of all the +internal organs are blended with that consciousness of power and that +self-dependence which the good horseman always feels in the saddle. +Hardly less do we value the intimate acquaintance into which it brings +us with the noble animal who bears us, establishing a sympathy which no +amount of driving can awaken to its full extent. + +Our rivers, lakes, and bays spread around us a vast and inviting field +for the cultivation of summer or winter sports. Boating and sailing are +adapted, from their gentleness of motion, even to the most delicate +organizations. Rowing is equally suited to the young and strong. +Boat-clubs are quite popular in our colleges, and we hope they will ere +long become so in our academies and minor schools. Few exercises bring +more muscles into play than the steady stroke of the oar. Few are more +exhilarating and pleasant to those who have tried them. Give us the +strong pull through an open bay before all boating on placid lakes or +rivers. The long, well-timed stroke becomes a mere mechanical effort, +leaving the mind at liberty to enjoy the sense of freedom, the tonic +salt-breeze, and the enlivening scenes of the sea. + +When the boats are beached, and the wharf-logs grow, with successive +layers congealed from every tide, into huge spindles of ice, the same +element offers its glassy surface to the skater. That skating has +actually become fashionable among the gentler sex we regard as the +strongest indication of an awakening national taste for exercise. But +there is need of caution. Most persons skate with too heavy clothes. +The quick movements of the limbs in the changing evolutions of this +pastime--though the practised skater is unconscious of much muscular +effort--quicken the circulation enough to increase palpably the +animal heat and produce a very sensible perspiration. In this exposed +condition, the quiet walk home is taken without additional covering, and +is the origin of many colds. + +Returning to "first principles," we find one useful exercise more or +less within reach of all, without preparation or expense. We mean +walking. The flexors and extensors of the legs, the broad muscles of the +back and abdomen, and the slender and intricate bundles of fibres which +support and steady the spine, are all gently exercised in locomotion. +The respiration and circulation are moderately increased, and the blood +aerated with fresh air. And all this can be had by simply stepping out +of doors and setting in motion the muscular machinery, which moves so +automatically that we soon become unconscious of its exertions. This, +like all other exercise, should be taken at seasonable hours. We enter +our protest against long walks before breakfast. To any but the robust +they are positively injurious. The early riser and walker, unless long +habituated and naturally vigorous, returns from his exercise draggled, +faint, and exhausted, to begin the digestive labors of the day, and take +his food with hunger rather than appetite. Abstinence has blunted the +nicer perceptions of taste, and the jaded organs lose the power not +only of discriminating flavors, but of knowing when to cry, "Enough!" +"Brushing away the morning dew," like "love in a cottage," is very +pretty in a book, but needs a solid basis in the stomach or in the +larder. + +Running is a very healthy and an equally neglected exercise. Few +vocations call upon us to fully expand the chest once a month. Running +improves the wind, it is said. We give the name of long-winded to those +who have a reserve of breathing capacity which they do not use in +ordinary exertions, but which lies ready to carry them through +extraordinary efforts without distress or exhaustion. Such persons +breathe quietly and deeply. Running forms part of the training of the +prize-fighter. It should be begun and ended at a moderate pace, as +a knowing jockey drives a fast horse; otherwise, panting, and even +dangerous congestion, may arise from the too sudden afflux of blood to +the lungs. + +Nothing so pleasantly combines mental occupation with bodily labor as +a pursuit of some one of the natural sciences, particularly zooelogy +or botany. If our means allow a microscope to be added to our natural +resources, the field of exercise and pleasure is boundlessly enlarged. +To the labor of collecting specimens is joined the exhilaration of +discovery; and he who has once opened the outer gate of the sanctuary of +Nature finds in the study of her _arcana_ a pastime which will be a joy +forever. + +Our larger towns and cities still support gymnasia of greater or +less size and perfectness. But the modern gymnasium has two great +deficiencies: the lack of open air, and of the emulation arising from +publicity. The first is a very grave objection. Not a tithe of the +benefits of exercise can be obtained within-doors. The sallow mechanic +and the ruddy farmer are the two points of comparison. The one may work +as hard and be as strong as the other, and yet we cannot call him as +healthy. Nothing short of Nature's own sweet air will supply the highest +physical needs of the human frame. As our gymnasia are usually private, +and only moderately frequented, the gymnast is not stimulated to those +exertions which society and competition would arouse. _Ennui_ often mars +his enjoyment. We have seen men methodically pursuing, day after day, +the same exercises, with all the listless drudgery of a hack-horse. +Geniality and generous emulation are among the great benefits of the +true gymnasium. + +"But how shall I find time to follow out even one of these exercises?" +objects the victim of American social life. It is true, he cannot. We +live so fast that we have no time to live. Nevertheless, gymnastics +have one advantage adapted to our hurried habits. They afford the most +exercise in the shortest time. In no other way, so easily accessible, +can as much powerful motion be used in so brief a space. + +The tired clerk or merchant comes home late, with feverish brain and +weary legs. His chest and arms have had no exercise proportional to the +rest of his system. What shall he do to restore the balance? If he can, +let him erect in some upper room, away from furnace-heat, instead of a +billiard-table, a private shrine to Apollo or Mercury. He will need but +little apparatus. A set of weights and pulleys, a pair of parallel bars, +two suspended rings, and a leaping-pole are all the necessary permanent +fixtures. Other articles, as the dumb-bells, the Indian club, +boxing-gloves, foils, or single-sticks, take up no room, and can be +added as his growing taste for their use demands. We would single out +the parallel bars and the weights as the most generally useful. The +former develop particularly the chest, stretch the pectoral muscles, and +lengthen the collar-bones. The latter increase the volume and power +of the extensors of the shoulder, arm, and forearm, and are to be +sedulously practised, because we have fewer common and daily movements +of these muscles than of their antagonists, the flexors, and they are +consequently weaker in most persons. The windows should be widely +opened, and the room warmed by the sun alone. + +Though, after the first few trials, the whole body will ache, and the +astonished muscles tremble with soreness, a week's perseverance will +overcome these earlier drawbacks. The gymnast will be surprised at the +new feeling of vigor in the back and shoulders, and to find the upright, +military posture as natural as it was before difficult to maintain. +Temper and digestion undergo a parallel improvement, and it will require +much to make him forego the luxury of exercise which he at first thought +so painful. + +Many persons become discouraged by beginning too violently. Alarmed at +the fatigue and suffering at first induced, they shrink from further +efforts. Gymnastics are, to be sure, an injudicious mode of exercise +for some. Children get a good many sprains, and sometimes permanent +deformity, from their use. The growing period requires care to avoid +injuring the articulations; yet it is the most favorable time to spread +the shoulders and deepen the chest. The young grow most in height and +can best gain an harmonious development by frequenting the GYMNASIUM. + + * * * * * + + +WHY DID THE GOVERNESS FAINT? + + +We were all sitting together in the evening, and my sister Fanny had +been reading aloud from the newspaper. For my father's benefit, she had +read all the political articles, and all about business, till he had +said he had heard enough, and there was nothing in the papers, and then +had left the room. So Fanny looked over the marriages and deaths, and +read about the weather in New York and Chicago, and some other things +that she thought would interest us while we were sewing. Suddenly I +looked up, towards where Miss Agnes was sitting, far away at the other +end of the room. She was leaning back in her chair, and, all in a +moment, I thought she looked white, as though she had fainted. I did not +say a word, but got up and went quietly towards her. I found she had +fainted quite away, and her lips were pale, and her eyes shut. I opened +the window by her; for the night was cool, and all the windows were +closed. There came in a little breeze of fresh air, and then I ran to +fetch a glass of water. When I returned, I found Miss Agnes reviving a +little. The air and the water served to refresh her, and very gradually +she came back to herself. As she opened her eyes, she looked at me +wonderingly, then round the room,--then a shudder came over her, as if +with a sudden painful memory. + +"I'm better,--thank you for the water," she said; and then she rose up +and went to the window, and leaned against the casement. I had a glimpse +of her face; so sad a face I had never seen before. + +For Miss Agnes was not often sad, though she was quiet in her ways and +manners. She could be gay, when it was the time to be gay. She was our +governess,--that is, she taught Mary and Sophy and me. Fanny was too old +to be taught by her, and had an Italian master and a French teacher; +but she practised duets for the piano with Miss Agnes, and read with +her,--and she made visits with her, for Miss Agnes was a favorite +everywhere. She had a kind word for everybody, and listened kindly +to all that was said to her. She talked to everybody at the sewing +societies, had something to say to every one, and when she came home she +had always something to tell that was entertaining. I often wished I +could be one-quarter as amusing, but I never could succeed in making my +little experiences at all agreeable in the way Miss Agnes did. I have +tried it often since, but I always fail. Only the other day, I quite +prided myself that I had found out all about Mrs. Endicott's going to +Europe, and came home delighted with my piece of news. She was going +with her husband; two of the children she was to leave behind, and take +the baby with her; they were to be gone six months; and I even knew +the vessel they were going in, and the day they were to sail. My +intelligence was very quickly told;--Miss Agnes and many others would +have made a great deal more of it. I had no sooner come to the end than +Fanny said, "Who is going to take care of the children she leaves at +home?" I had never thought to ask! I was disappointed;--my news was +quite imperfect; I might as well not have tried to bring any news. But +it was never so with Miss Agnes. I believe it was because she was really +interested in what concerned others, that they always told her willingly +about themselves; and though she never was inquisitive about others' +affairs, yet she knew very well all that was going on. + +So she was a most valuable member of our home-circle, and was welcome +also among our friends. And we thought her beautiful, too. She was very +tall and slender, and her light-brown eyes were of the color of her +light-brown hair. We liked to see her come into the room,--her smile and +face made sunshine there; and she was more to us than a governess,--she +was our dear friend. + +But now she looked round at me, pale and sad. She suddenly saw that I +looked astonished at her, and she said, "I am not well, Jeanie, but we +will not say anything about it. I am going to my room; to-morrow I shall +be better." She held her hand to her head, and I thought there must be +some heavy pain there, she still looked so sad and pale. She bade us all +good night and went away. + +I did not tell the others what had happened,--partly because, as I have +said, I was not in the way of telling things, and partly because they +were all talking and had not observed what had been going on. But I +found the paper Fanny had been reading, and wondered if there were +anything in what she had read that could have moved Miss Agnes so much. +I had not been paying much attention to the reading, but I knew upon +which side of the paper to look. Fanny told me it was time for me to go +to bed, however, and I left my search before I could find anything that +seemed to concern Miss Agnes. I stopped at her door, and bade her good +night again; and she came out to me, and kissed me, and said,--I was a +good child, and I must not trouble myself about her. + +The next day she seemed quiet, yet the same as ever. Though I said +nothing to anybody else about her fainting, I could not help telling my +friend Jessie of it;--for I always told Jessie everything. Fanny called +us the two Jays, we chattered so when we were together. I knew she would +not tell anybody, so I could not help sharing my wonder with her,--what +could have made Miss Agnes faint so suddenly? She thought it must have +been something in the newspaper,--perhaps the death of some friend, or +the marriage of some other. I was willing to look again, and this time +remembered three things that Fanny had just been reading when I had +looked up at Miss Agnes. One was about Mr. Paul Shattuck;--in descending +from a haycart, he had fallen upon a pitchfork, and had seriously +wounded his thigh. Another was the marriage of Mr. Abraham Black to +Miss Susan Whitcomb, and Fanny had wondered if she were related to the +Whitcombs of Hadley. Then she had read a singular advertisement for a +lost ring, a seal ring, with some Arabic letters engraved upon it. I +was of opinion that Miss Agnes was somehow connected with this +signet-ring,--that it had some influence over her fate. Jessie thought +that Miss Agnes must have been formerly engaged to Mr. Abraham Black, +and that when she heard of his marriage----but I interrupted her in +this suggestion. In the first place, she could never have been engaged +to a Mr. Abraham Black; and then, nobody who could marry Miss Agnes +would think of taking up with a Susan Whitcomb. So Jessie fell back upon +Paul Shattuck, and, to tell the truth, we had some warm discussions on +the subject. + +Time passed on, and it was June. One lovely afternoon, we had quite a +frolic with the hay, the grass having been cut on the lawn in front of +the house. Miss Agnes had been with us. We had made nests in the hay, +and had buried each other in deep mounds of it, and had all played till +we were quite tired. I went into the house in search of Miss Agnes, +after she had gone in, and found her sitting at one of the side windows. +I came near, then wished to draw back again, for I saw there were tears +in her eyes. But when I found she had seen me, I tried to speak as if I +had seen nothing. + +"How high the cat has to step, to walk over the grass!" I said, as I +looked out of the window. + +Miss Agnes put her arms about me. "You wonder, because you see me +crying," she said, and looked into my face. + +"I never before saw anybody cry that was grown up," said I. + +Miss Agnes smiled and said, "They tell children it is naughty to cry; +but sometimes you can't help crying, can you?" And her tears came +dropping down. + +"Oh, Miss Agnes," I said, "I wish I could help your crying! It is too +bad!--it is too bad!" + +"Yes, it is very bad," she said, as she held me in her arms, "it is very +bad; but you do help me. You shall be my little friend." + +That was all. She did not tell me anything;--yet I felt as if she had +said a great deal, and I did not speak of this to Jessie. + +A few days after, as I was passing the door of the parlor, I fancied I +heard a little cry, and it sounded to me as if I had heard the voice +of Miss Agnes. I hurried in. A stranger had just entered the room. But +before me stood Miss Agnes, pale, erect, her lips quivering. She held +fast a chair, which she had drawn up in front of her, as one would +place a shield between one's self and some wild animal. How slender and +defenceless she looked! I followed the terrified glance of her eyes. +There, in the middle of the room, stood a stranger,--not so terrible to +look upon, for he was young, and it seemed to me I had never seen so +handsome a man. His black hair and eyes quite pictured the hero of my +romance. He was strongly built, and directly showed his strength by +seizing a large marble table that stood near the centre of the room, and +wheeling it between himself and Miss Agnes. + +"If you are afraid of me," he said, "I will build up a barrier between +us. Poor lamb, you would like to be free from the clutches of the wolf!" + +"I am afraid of you," said Miss Agnes, slowly,--and the color came into +her cheeks. "You know your power over me. I begged you, if you loved me, +not to come to me." + +"And all for that foolish ring! And the spirits of mischief betrayed its +loss to you; it was none of my work that published it in the papers. Can +you let a fancy, an old story in a ring, disturb your faith in me?" + +"If the faith is disturbed," answered Miss Agnes, "what use in asking +what has disturbed it? Ernest, as you stand there, you cannot say you +love me as you once professed to love me!" + +"I can say that you are my guiding star,--that, if you fail me, I fall +away into ruin." + +"Can my little light keep you from ruin?" said Miss Agnes, shuddering. +"Do not talk to me so! Alas, you know how weak I am!" + +"I know that you are an angel, and that I am too low a wretch to dare +to speak to you. I came here to tell you I was worthy of your deepest +hatred. But, Agnes, when you speak to me of my power over you, it tempts +me to wield it a little longer, before I fall below your contempt." + +He walked up and down the room, and presently saw me standing there. + +"A listener!" he exclaimed; "you are afraid to be alone with me!" + +I was about to leave the room, but he called me back. + +"Stay, child!" he said; "if I can speak in _her_ presence, it makes +little difference that any one else should hear me. Agnes, little Agnes, +you would not like to be quite alone;--let the child stay. Yet you know +already that I am faithless to you. You know what I am going to tell +you. I love you, passionately, as I have always loved you. But there are +other passions hold me tighter. Money, and position,--I need them,--I +cannot live without them. The first I have lost already, and the claims +I have to reputation will follow soon. I am mad. I am flinging away +happiness for the sake of its mask. Next week I marry riches,--a +fortune. With the golden lady, I go to Europe. I forsake home,--my +better self. I leave you, Agnes;--and you may thank God that I do leave +you; I am not worthy of you." + +She lifted herself from the chair on which she was leaning, and walked +towards him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and, white and pale, +looked in his face. + +"Do not go, Ernest!" she said. "You are mine. A promise cannot be +broken;--you are promised to me.--Stay,--do not go away!" + +"My beautiful Agnes!" he said, "do you come to lay your pure self down +in the scale against my follies and all my passions? You stand before +me too fair, too lovely for me. It is only in your presence that I can +appear noble enough for you. Even here, by your side, I see the life I +must lead with you, the struggle that you must share. In that life you +would only see me fail. I am weak; I can never be strong. Let me go +down the current. Your heart will not break;--I am not worth such a +sacrifice." + +"You are desperate," said she. "You say these cold, bitter words, and +you must know that each word cuts me. Oh, Ernest, you are false, indeed, +if you come to taunt me with your faithlessness!" + +"I needed to see you once more," he said, imperiously,--"I needed it. +But you were right, Agnes,--the ring was a true talisman. It seemed to +me that its letters had changed color. I carried it to an old Eastern +scholar. He declared that the letters could never have formed the word +'Faith,'--that the word was some black word that meant death. I left it +with him, that he might study it. When I saw him again, he declared he +had lost it, and had advertised it. You see you can trust your talisman +sooner than you can trust me." + +At this moment the outer door opened, and presently Fanny came in, +with one of her friends. Miss Agnes looked bewildered, but her visitor +recovered his composure directly. + +"Miss Fanny, I believe;--I have met you before. I have just been bidding +good-bye to Miss Agnes, before leaving for Europe. Can I be of service +to you?" + +Before we had time to think, he had said something to each one of us, +and had left the house. Fanny turned to speak to Miss Agnes, but she had +fallen to the ground before we could reach her. + +She was ill, very ill, for a long time. She had the brain fever,--so the +doctor said. They let me stay with her,--she liked to have me with her. +I was glad to sit in the darkened room all the long day. I never was a +"handy" child, but I learned to be useful to her. I waited on all her +wants. I held her hand when she reached it out as if to meet some kindly +touch. + +In the quiet of her room, I had not heard the great piece of news,--of +the terrible railroad accident: that Mr. Carr, the Ernest who had been +to see Miss Agnes, was among those who were suddenly killed,--the very +day he left our house! I had not heard it; so I was not able to warn +Fanny, when she came into the sick room of Miss Agnes, the first day she +was able to talk,--I could not warn Fanny that she must not speak of it. +But she did. How could she be so thoughtless? Miss Agnes, it is true, +looked almost well, as she was lying on her couch, a soft color in her +cheeks. But then Fanny need not have told her anything so painful. Miss +Agnes looked quite wild, and turned to me as if to know whether it were +true. I could not say anything to her, but knelt by her,--and she seemed +almost calm, as she asked to know all that was known, all the terrible +particulars that Fanny knew so well. + +She was worse after that. We thought she would die, one night. But she +did not die. Either she was too weak or too strong to die of a broken +heart. Perhaps she was not strong enough to love so earnestly such a one +as Mr. Carr, or else she had such strength as could bear the trial that +was given her to bear. She lived, but life seemed very feeble in her for +a long time. + +One day she began to talk with me. + +"You would like to know, Jeanie, the story of that ring," she said. + +I told her I was afraid to have her talk about it, but she went on:-- + +"It is an old heirloom, and all our family history is full of stories of +this ring. There are so many tales connected with it, that every one of +us has looked upon it with a sort of superstition, and cherished it as +a talisman connected with our lives. It was always a test of constancy, +and the stories of those occasions when it has detected falsehood have +always been remembered. I suppose there are many when it has been +quietly worn, undisturbed, that have been forgotten. It has told many a +sad tale in my own family. It came back, broken, to my brother Arthur, +and he died of a broken heart. My sister Eveline gave it to her young +cousin, to whom she engaged herself. But afterwards, when she went to +live with a gay and heartless aunt of mine, she broke her promise to him +for the sake of a richer match. The day that she was married, our cousin +far away saw the black letters turn red upon the signet-ring." + +"Oh, Miss Agnes!" I exclaimed. + +"And why should not letters change?" she asked, abruptly; and I saw her +eyes look out dreamily, as if at something I did not see. "The letter +clothes the spirit; and the spirit gives life to the form. A face grows +lovely or unlovely with the spirit that lies behind it. I cannot say if +there be a spirit in such things. Yet what we have worn we give a value +to. It has an expression in our eyes. Do we give it all that expression, +or has it some life of its own?" + +She interrupted herself, and went on:-- + +"I had known that Ernest was not true to me. I had known it by the words +he wrote to me. They did not have the ring of pure silver; there was a +clang to them. When Fanny read aloud the loss of that ring, it spoke to +a suspicion that was lying in the depth of my heart, and roused it into +life. My little Jeanie, I was very sad then. + +"You do not know how deeply I loved Ernest Carr. You do not know how I +might have loved your brother George,--yes, the noble, upright George. +He loved me, and treated me most tenderly; he found this home for me. +I did not banish him from it,--he would have stayed all these years in +Calcutta, if it had not been for me,--so he said. You cannot understand +how it was that Ernest Carr, whom I had known before, should have +impressed me more. You do not know, yet, that we cannot command our +love,--that it does not always follow where our admiration leads. I +loved Ernest for his very faults. The fascinations that made the world, +its prizes, its money, its fame, so attractive to him, won me as I saw +them in him. It is terrible to think of my last meeting with him; but +his fate seems to me not so awful as the fate towards which he was +hurrying,--the life which could never have satisfied him." + +She left off speaking, and dreamed on, her eyes and thoughts far away. +And I, too, dreamed. I fancied my brother George coming home, and that +he would meet with that ring somehow. I knew it must come back to her. +And it did; and he came with it. + + + + +TWO YEARS AFTER. + + + Oh, I forgot that, long ago! + It was very fine at the time, no doubt,-- + Remembering is so hard, you know;-- + Well, you will one day find it out. + I love the life of the happy flowers, + But I hate the brown and crumbling leaves; + You cannot with spices embalm the hours, + Nor gather the sunshine into sheaves. + + We are older now, and wiser, too. + Only two summers ago, you say, + Two autumns, two winters, two springs, since you---- + Will you hold for a moment my bouquet? + Yes,--take that sprig of mignonette; + It will wither with you as it would with me: + Freshness and sweetness a half-hour yet, + Then a toss of the hand, and one is free. + + Why will you talk of such silly things?-- + What a pretty bride! Do you like her hair? + See Madam there, with her twenty rings. + Ogling the youth with the foreign air!-- + The moon was bright and the winds were low, + The lilies bent listening to what we said? + I did not make your lilies grow; + Will they bloom for me now they are dead? + + You hate the rooms and the heartless hum, + The thick perfumes and the studied smile? + 'Tis the air I love to breathe,--yet come, + I will watch the stars with you awhile; + But you won't talk nonsense, you promise me? + Tear from the book the page we read; + We are friends,--dear friends. You must come and see + My new home, and soon.--What was it you said? + + Heartsick, and weary, and sad, and strange,-- + Ashes and dust where swept the fire? + I am sorry for you, but I cannot change.-- + Did you see that star fall from the Lyre? + A moment's gleam, and a deeper night + Closing around its wandering way: + But then there are other orbs as bright; + Let your incense burn to them, I pray. + + Oh, conjure your mighty manhood up! + Let it blaze its best in your flashing eyes! + Can it stare my womanhood down, or hope + To scorch my pride till it droops and dies?-- + There, do not be angry;--take my hand; + Forgive me;--I meant not anything: + I am foolish, and cannot understand + Why you throw life out for one dumb string. + + Sweeter its music than all the rest? + It may be so, though I cannot tell; + But take the good when you lose the best, + And school yourself till it seems as well. + Love may pass by, but here is fame, + And wealth, and power;--when these are gone, + God is left,--and the altar-flame + May, brightening ever, burn on and on. + + And yet to my heart at times there come + Tidings of lands I shall never see, + Sweet odors, and wooing winds, and hum + Of bees in the fields that are far from me,-- + Far fields, and skies that are always fair; + And I dream the old dreams of heaven, and you.-- + But here comes the youth of the foreign air. + I will dance and forget,--and you must, too. + + + + +A BUNDLE OF OLD LETTERS. + + +To struggle painfully for years, spending all of life's energies for +others, and then to be forgotten by those for whom all was hazarded and +consumed, is a lot demanding the most unselfish aims. Yet this befell +many a suffering patriot in our Revolutionary struggle. The names of +those who were the leaders in battle and in council, men whose +position in the field or whose words in Congress gave them a country's +immortality, have remained bright in our memory. But others there were +who cheerfully surrendered eminence in their private walks and happiness +in social life to endure the hardships of a protracted contest till life +was spent, and who, from the very nature of the services they rendered, +have remained in obscurity. They would not themselves repine at this; +for they gave their strength, not for their country's applause, but +their country's good. They sought, not our remembrance, but our freedom. + +In many an old garret, or treasured up in some old man's safest nook, +are worn-out, faded letters, telling of struggles and hopes in that long +contest, that would make their writers' names bright on the nation's +record, were not the number of those who rendered that our golden age +so countless. Pious is the task of tracing the services of some revered +ancestor, who gave whatever he had to give, when his country called, but +whose name is not now remembered. Those days are fast becoming to our +younger race almost mythical, so that every living word from the actors +in them is of use in vivifying scenes that else would seem dim fable. + +From a somewhat bulky bundle of yellow, tattered letters, long cherished +with fond and filial care, a few are selected to interest the readers of +the "Atlantic," who, it is supposed, will first be glad to know a little +about their writer. + +Dr. Isaac Foster was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 28th of +August, 1740. His father, in early life a sea-captain, making frequent +voyages between Boston and Europe, was for many years a prominent +citizen of Charlestown, participating largely in the measures that +preceded and led to the Revolution. At the age of eighteen, Dr. Foster +graduated at Harvard, in the class of 1758. He then studied medicine +under Dr. Lloyd of Boston, and afterwards completed his studies in +England. He married, as his first wife, Martha, daughter of Thaddeus +Mason of Cambridge, and at her death, some years later, Mary, daughter +of Richard Russell of Charlestown. In his profession he achieved a +considerable reputation, acquired a large practice, and numbered among +his pupils Doctors Bartlett, Welch, and Eustis. + +But while he was working his way to position and influence, more +exciting themes began to attract his attention. With the earliest signs +of coming conflict he took a determined stand on the Colonial side. In +the town-meetings of the day he seems to have been prominent, and his +name appears on most of the important committees appointed by the town +in reference to public affairs. Thus, when, as early as November, 1772, +the Committee of Correspondence in Boston called upon the other towns +"to stand firm as one man," his name is found upon a committee appointed +to answer this letter and prepare instructions to the representative of +the town in the General Court.[A] + +[Footnote A: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 286.] + +He was also one of a committee appointed to consult with the committees +of other towns concerning the expected importation of a quantity of +tea. This was November 24th. On the 22d of December of the same year, a +petition numerously signed was presented to the selectmen, asking that a +meeting might be called to take some effectual measures to prevent the +consumption of tea. Among the signatures is Dr. Foster's.[B] + +[Footnote B: FROTHINGHAM'S _History of Charlestown_, p. 293.] + +He was elected a delegate to the Convention in the County of Middlesex, +in August, 1774, and a member of the first Provincial Congress of +Massachusetts, in October of the same year. Early in 1775, he was +appointed a surgeon, and was, for some months, at the head of the +military medical department, while General Ward commanded at Cambridge. +The day after the battle of Concord, at the urgent request of General +Ward and Dr. Warren, he gave up his private practice, then very large, +to attend the wounded. On the 18th of June, he was appointed by the +Committee of Safety to attend the men wounded on the previous day at +the battle of Bunker's Hill. He was soon after appointed Surgeon of +the State Hospital, and by General Washington, on the discovery of the +treachery of Dr. Church, in October, Director-General, _pro tem._, of +the American Hospital Department. Congress soon nominated to this post +Dr. John Morgan of Philadelphia, Dr. Foster remaining as the oldest +surgeon in the hospital. + +It seemed necessary, before selecting some of Dr. Foster's letters, to +give this account of his earlier life, to show that he was no soldier of +fortune or eleventh-hour laborer, but that his sympathies were enlisted +and his aid given among the earliest of the friends of a then doubtful +cause,--and that he ventured influence, wealth, and professional fame, +and abandoned home and ease, at what seemed to him the call of his +country. + +The first extracts shall be from a letter to his wife, dated + +"_New York, Sunday, P.M., + +"June 2, 1776_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I received your kind letter of the 27th last, and thank you for your +ready acceptance of my invitation to come to me. Indeed, my dear, you +could not have given a stronger proof of your affection for me. Heaven +only knows what dangers and difficulties you may be exposed to in this +undertaking; but it shall be my constant endeavor to keep you out of the +way of danger, and procure the best accommodation for you this country +affords. If mother will add to her former kindness by taking the charge +of our children, it will greatly ease my mind; and as our enemies have, +by their wanton barbarity, from being inhabitants of Charlestown, made +us citizens of the United Colonies at large, I believe you will be as +safe and happy with or near me as anywhere.... + +"The night before last, the city was much alarmed. A signal had been +made from one of the islands of the arrival of a ship to join the small +fleet at the Hook. Some one raised this to a large number of transports +with the expected German forces; some of the Tories here had the +impudence to affirm they had seen eleven sail. When I came from the +hospital to my lodging, in the evening, I found the neighborhood in +confusion, the women talking of and preparing for flight. I thought it +my duty to wait on General Putnam, who at present commands here; in my +way, I met Major Webb, who acquainted me with the truth of the matter. +Upon this occasion, I could not help thinking I should go to my post +with much more alacrity, if I might have the pleasure of seeing you +again first.... + +"Your affectionate husband, + +"ISAAC FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +The next is a short extract from a letter to his father, bearing date +June 6th, 1776. Speaking of his wife, he says:-- + +"I wish she may have a pleasant journey, and arrive here in season to +see the city before our enemies attack us. We are in daily expectation +of them, and tolerably prepared to receive them. I am under no +apprehension of their being able to get footing here; but if they behave +with spirit, the city must suffer in the contest." + +The next is also to his father. + +"_New York, July 7th, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is with the greatest pleasure I embrace this opportunity of +congratulating you on the most important event that has happened +since the commencement of hostilities. On Tuesday, the 2nd inst., the +Honorable the Continental Congress declared the Thirteen United Colonies +free and independent States. This Declaration is to be published at +Philadelphia to-morrow, with all the pomp and solemnity proper on such +an occasion; and before the week is out, we hope to have the pleasure of +proclaiming it to the British fleet, now riding at anchor in full +view between this city and Staten Island, by a _feu de joie_ from our +musketry, and a general discharge of the cannon on our works. This step, +whatever some lukewarm would-be-thought friends or concealed enemies +may think, the cruel oppression, the wanton, insatiable revenge of the +British Administration, the venality of its Parliament and Electors, and +the unaccountable inattention of the people of Great Britain in general +to their true interest and the importance of the contest with their +late Colonies, had rendered absolutely necessary for our own +preservation,--and has given great spirits to the army, as, by shutting +the door against any reconciliation in the least degree connected with +dependence on Great Britain, they know for what they are fighting, and +are freed from the apprehension of being duped by Commissioners, after +having risked their lives in the service of their country, and to secure +the enjoyment of liberty to their posterity." + + * * * * * + +The next letters of public import are addressed to his father, and +relate mainly to the expected attack upon New York. + +"_New York, July 22nd, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I received your kind favor of the 15th inst. I am glad to hear our +friends are all well. I congratulate you on the spirited behavior and +glorious success of our army under General Lee. It is generally thought +to have been a decisive action, at least for this summer, as the two +fifty-gun ships are never like to get to sea again. I hope by the next +post you will hear some of our exploits, if the enemy have courage +enough to attack us. It is my week at the hospital; and if anything +happens, I hope to give you the particulars. Polly has got much better; +she joins me in duty to mother and love to the children. There has been +another flag from the fleet; the Adjutant-General of the British troops +has been on shore to wait on his Excellency. He endeavored, but in vain, +to persuade him to accept the letter which had been twice refused. In +conversation he related its contents, much the same as those to the late +Governor. He was answered, (as I am told from good authority,) that it +could not be expected people who were sensible of having committed +no offence should ask pardon,--that, as the American States owed no +allegiance, so they were not accountable, to any earthly prince. He +tarried about half an hour, and seemed pleased with the politeness of +his reception." + + +"_July 23d, P.M._ + +"I write to congratulate you on advice received this day from Virginia, +an agreeable supplement to the paper I sent yesterday. On the 9th +instant, Lord Dunmore with his slavish mercenaries and stolen negroes +were driven from their post on Gwin Island in Virginia, and the +piratical fleet from their station near it, with the loss of one ship, +two tenders or armed vessels burnt by themselves, three armed vessels +taken by our people, and Lord Dunmore wounded; on our side not a man +lost. I would be more particular, but, as I had only time to read the +Philadelphia paper of yesterday which contains the account, and Mr. Mayo +is just setting out, it is not in my power." + + +"_New York, Aug. 12, 1776_ + +"Polly is still here with me, and we are both very well, but +disappointed in not hearing oftener from our friends at Boston. For news +in general I must refer to the inclosed paper. I was in company the +evening they came to this city with the two gentlemen who came from +England in the packet. They say the British force on Staten Island +is from twelve to fifteen thousand, of which about one thousand are +Hessians; that Lord and General Howe speak very respectfully of our +worthy commander-in-chief, at their tables and in conversation giving +him the title of General; that many of the officers affect to hold our +army in contempt, calling it no more than a mob; that they envy us our +markets, and depend much on having their winter-quarters in this city, +out of which they are confident of driving us, and pretend only to dread +our destroying of it; that the officers' baggage was embarked, a number +of flat-bottom boats prepared, and every disposition made for an attack, +which we may hourly expect. On our side, we have not been wanting; our +army has for several nights lain on their arms, occasioned by several +ships of war and upwards of thirty transports going out at the Narrows +and anchoring at that part of Long Island best calculated for their +making a descent, and where they received, by means of flat-bottom +boats, a large detachment from the army on Staten Island. But this fleet +went to sea yesterday, where bound we know not; some think, to go round +the east end of Long Island, come down the Sound, and land on our backs, +in order to cut off any retreat, and oblige us to surrender ourselves +and the city into their hands: but if they are so infatuated as to +venture themselves into a broken, woody country, between us and the +New England governments, I trust they will have cause to repent their +rashness. Generals Heath, Spencer, Greene, and Sullivan are promoted by +the Honorable Congress to the rank of Major-Generals; and the +Colonels Reed, Nixon, Parsons, Clinton, Sinclair, and McDougall to be +Brigadier-Generals. We have removed all our superfluous clothing, and +whatever is not necessary for present use, to Rye, whither General +Putnam's lady has retired. Miss Putnam is yet in town, and the chaise is +in readiness for her and Polly to remove at a minute's warning." + + * * * * * + +The following copy of an "Order from Head-Quarters" was found among the +papers, directed apparently to his father; and as Washington's Orderly +Books have never been published, with the exception of a few orders +chiefly relating to court-martials, it has been thought that it would +be interesting. Though dated on successive days, it seems to have been +issued as one order. A note by Dr. Foster, at the close, says,--"This +copy was made in a hurry by one of the mates. Some sentences are +omitted. Imperfect as it is, I thought it would be agreeable. The +principal omission is the order for having three days' provisions +ready-dressed, and that all who do not appear at their posts upon the +signal are to be deemed cowards, and prosecuted as such." + + +_Head-Quarters, August_ 14, 1776. + +"The enemy's whole reinforcement is now arrived, so that an attack must +and soon will be made. The General, therefore, again repeats his +earnest request, that every officer and soldier will have his arms and +ammunition in good order, keep within their quarters and encampment as +much as possible, to be ready for action at a moment's call,--and when +called upon, to remember that liberty, property, and honor are all at +stake, that upon their courage and conduct rest the hopes of their +bleeding and insulted country, that their wives, children, and parents +expect safety from them only, and that we have every reason to expect +that Heaven will crown us with success in so just a cause. + +"The enemy will endeavor to intimidate us by show and appearance; but +remember how they have been repulsed on these occasions by a few brave +Americans. Their cause is bad, their men are conscious of it, and, +if opposed with firmness and coolness at their first onset, with our +advantages of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most +assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, +wait for orders, and reserve his fire till he is sure of its doing +execution;--the officers to be particularly careful of this. The +colonels and commanding officers of regiments are to see their +supernumerary officers so posted as to keep their men to their duty; and +it may not be amiss for the troops to know, that, if any infamous rascal +shall attempt to skulk, hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without +the orders of his commanding officers, he will instantly be shot down +as an example of cowardice. On the other hand, the General solemnly +promises that he will reward those who shall distinguish themselves by +brave and noble actions; and he desires every officer to be attentive to +this particular, that such men may be afterwards suitably noticed." + + +"_Head-Quarters, August 15, 1776_. + +"The General also flatters himself that every man's mind and arms are +now prepared for the glorious contest upon which so much depends. + +"The time is too precious, nor does the General think it necessary, to +spend it in exhorting his brave countrymen and fellow-soldiers to behave +like men fighting for everything that can be dear to free-men. We must +resolve to conquer or die. With this resolution, victory and success +certainly will attend us. There will then be a glorious issue to this +campaign, and the General will reward his brave soldiers with every +indulgence in his power." + + +"_New York, August 16, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"It is now past ten o'clock, and Mr. Adams, who favors me by carrying +this, sets out by five o'clock to-morrow morning, so that I have only +time to acknowledge the favors received by Dr. Welch. If I survive the +grand attack hourly expected, or if it is delayed until then, I will +write again by next post. Polly has her things packed up; the chaise can +be ready at a minute's warning; if the wind favors our enemies, it is +probable she will breakfast out of the way of danger. To-morrow is +watched for by our army in general with eager expectation of confirming +the independence of the American States. All the Ministerial force from +every part of America except Canada, with the mercenaries from Europe, +being collected for this attempt, God only knows the event. To His +protection I commend myself, earnestly praying that in this glorious +contest I may not disgrace the place of my nativity, nor, after it is +over, be ashamed to see my wife, my children, and my parents again. To +the care of Providence, and, under that, to you, honored Sir, with our +other friends, I commend all that is near and dear to me, and am, with +duty to mother, love to the children, &c., &c., + +"YOUR DUTIFUL SON." + +"P.S. Our troops are in good spirits, and, relying on the justice of +their cause and favor of Heaven, assured of victory." + + * * * * * + +The next four months were, of course, spent amid the hardships of camps +and removals. The frequent letters sent to his father and other friends +are all of interest to those who claim descent from him, but the general +reader can be concerned in but a few of more public import, and, in most +cases, only in extracts from these. + +"_Bethlehem, State of Penn., + +"Dec. 24, 1776_. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"I returned from General Washington's head-quarters last evening, and +had the pleasure of finding Polly well and as agreeably situated as I +could expect. Were I to attempt writing all I wish to communicate, a +week's time and a quire of paper would hardly suffice. I fancy I shall +be no gainer by lending my furniture to the General Court;--General +Washington would have paid me for the use of it before I left Cambridge, +but, for the credit of Massachusetts, I declined it." + + +_"Fishkill, State of N. York, + +"Jan_. 20, 1777. + +"HONORED SIR, + +"After spending the winter hitherto in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, +with frequent removals, some loss, much expense and fatigue, we are once +more on the east side of Hudson's River. We arrived at this place last +Friday, in good health, after a journey of more than one hundred miles, +in severe weather, through the upper part of New Jersey, a new-settled, +uncultivated country. The sight of a boarded house or glass window was a +great rarity; a cordial welcome to any connected with the American army +still greater. Although they are fully sensible of the value of money, +and we offered cash for all we wanted, yet I believe we were not a +little obliged to their fears for what civility we met with, except only +from one family. But I must defer a particular account until I have the +happiness to see you. + +"I have nothing of news to write but what you must hear sooner +in another way. General Heath and the militia are besieging Fort +Independence; if they can carry that, they will attempt New York. It is +not improbable I shall join him in a few days." + + * * * * * + +The office of Deputy Director-General of Hospitals was established by +ordinance, April 7th, 1777; and four days later, Dr. Foster was chosen +by Congress to this office, having charge of the Eastern Department. His +subsequent residence was mainly at Danbury, Connecticut. + + * * * * * + +Of Tryon's expedition against Danbury we have the following account, +differing in some respects from the common version:-- + +"_Danbury, May_ 1, 1777. + +"You have doubtless heard of the enemy's expedition to this place, and +been anxious for us. This is the first moment of leisure I have had, +and, if not interrupted, I will endeavor to give you a particular +account. + +"On Saturday morning, about three o'clock, an express from Fairfield +brought advice, that a large body, three or four thousand British +troops, had landed from upwards of twenty transports, under cover of +some ships of war near that place, and that it was probable their design +was against the provision and other stores collected in this town; +another express soon after sunrise informed us of their being on the +march. The militia were mustered, and a few Continental troops that +were here on their way to Peekskill prepared to receive them; but their +number was so inconsiderable, and that of the enemy so large, with a +formidable train of artillery, I had no hope of the place being saved. + +"I had, upon the first alarm, ordered all the stores in my charge to +be packed up, ready for removal at a minute's warning. Upon the second +express, I persuaded Polly, with what money was in my hands, to quit the +town: she was unwilling, but I insisted on it. We were so much put to it +for teams to remove the medicines and bedding, that I determined rather +to lose my own baggage than put it on any cart intended for that +purpose; and had not a gentleman's team, already loaded with his own +goods, taken it up, I must have lost it. As the enemy entered the room +at one end, after our troops had retreated to the heights, I went out at +the other, not without some apprehension (as I was to cross the route of +their flank-guard) of being intercepted by the light horse. + +"After having seen the medicines, all of them that were worth moving, +safe at New Milford, I returned to town the next morning, and went with +our forces in pursuit of the enemy. About noon the action began in their +rear, and continued with some intermission until night; the running +fight was renewed next morning, and lasted until the enemy got under +cover of their ships. We have lost some brave officers and men. Their +loss is unknown, as they buried some of their dead, and carried off +others; but, from the dead bodies they were forced to leave on the +field, it must have greatly exceeded ours. General Wooster was wounded +early in the action; he is in the same house with me, and I fear will +not live till morning. + +"Our loss in provisions, &c., is between two and three thousand barrels +of pork, a quantity of flour, some wheat, and some bedding." + + * * * * * + +In this bundle are many letters from Mrs. Foster. They are interesting +for their true-hearted patriotism and domestic love; but there is +room for only a brief extract from a letter referring to this same +expedition. + +"_Danbury, May 13, 1777_. + +"DEAR MADAM, + +"I received yours and father's by Messrs. Russell and Gorham. Doctor had +not the pleasure of seeing either of the gentlemen, as he was gone to +Fishkill to oversee the inoculation of the troops, which was a very +great disappointment. + +"I expected last Monday to have been with you by this time, as I was +driven from here by the enemy (tho' very unexpected, as this place was +thought to be very secure). I removed to New Milford, from whence I +intended to have set out for Boston. On Sunday, the Doctor took his +leave, and left me to take care of the wounded. Monday morning, +everything was got ready for me to set out at twelve o'clock, when I +received a note from the Doctor, desiring I would tarry a little longer. +I have now returned to my old lodgings at Danbury, where the Doctor +thinks of building a hospital. He joins me in duty and love. + +"Your affectionate daughter, + +"MARY FOSTER." + + * * * * * + +Much of Dr. Foster's time was necessarily spent in journeyings to the +several divisions of the army and various military stations. On such +journeys his letters to his wife were very frequent. We extract a part +of one. + +"_Palmer, Thursday even'g, + +"July 31, 1777_. + +"DEAR POLLY, + +"I arrived here, which is eighty-three miles from Boston, about sunset +this evening, in good health. The enemy's fleet has sailed from New +York, and was seen standing to eastward. Some suppose them bound for +Boston; but I cannot think so, as General Washington, who, I presume, +has the best intelligence, is moving towards Philadelphia. Before you +receive this, it will be made certain with you. Should they attack +Boston, I would have you get as many of our effects as possible removed +out of their way, and inform me by the post where you remove to. Should +such an event take place, it will become my duty, after visiting +Danbury, to return to the scene of action. To your own prudence and the +care of Heaven I leave all, and am, with love to the children, ever +yours." + + * * * * * + +In the lapse of years, many letters have, without doubt, been lost. +Thus, but two remain bearing date of 1778. Neither of these contains +matter of public import. In May, he speaks of intending a journey to +Yorktown, and says, "if anything extraordinary happens between the two +armies," he shall be on the spot. In a letter addressed to his father, +dated November 27, 1778, he says,-- + + * * * * * + +"Public business calls me to Philadelphia; but the state of your health, +and my own, which is much impaired, determine me to visit Boston first. +I expect a visit from the Marquis La Fayette next week, on his way to +Boston, and shall set out with him." + + * * * * * + +May 11th, 1779, he writes,-- + +"To-morrow all the gentlemen of the department at this post [Danbury] +dine with me, and the next morning I begin my journey to Head-Quarters. +I mean to take Newark in my way. + +"General Silliman was taken prisoner last week, and carried to Long +Island." + + * * * * * + +In the two following letters to his wife he speaks of this visit. + +"_Philadelphia, June_ 5, 1779. + +"My business is almost completed, and to my mind. I now wait for nothing +but the money which the Medical Committee recommended I should be +furnished with; I expect to receive it the beginning of next week, when +I shall set out immediately. Mr. Samuel Adams travels with me; indeed, +the time seems tedious until get away. Give my duty to our parents, +love to the children, &c., and believe me to be, with the sincerest +affection, my dearest Polly, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +_Philadelphia, June_ 9, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"Another post has arrived, and no letter from Boston. It is now a month, +and near five weeks, since I have heard from you. If I thought you had +neglected writing, it would make me very unhappy; but, from your usual +goodness, I cannot think that is the case, but am confident your letters +must have miscarried. I have wanted nothing but hearing from you to make +my time here perfectly agreeable. I have been received with the greatest +politeness and friendship, and every attention paid to me, by men I +most esteem, I could wish for; at the same time my business has gone +perfectly to my mind. I have leave to reside in Boston for the future, +and shall be under no necessity of attending the camp, nor be obliged +to visit Philadelphia oftener than once a year. I am to have a mode of +settling my accounts pointed out to me, that will be easy, simple, and +much to my mind. I now wait for nothing but money to begin my journey. +The Treasury Board this morning passed a resolve recommending it to +Congress to furnish me with $150,000. I expect to receive the warrant +to-morrow, and as soon as I get the money shall set out, which I expect +will be about next Monday, until which time I am engaged for almost +every day. I dine this day with Mr. Adams; tomorrow with Dr. Shippen, in +company with the New England delegation; Thursday and Friday I expect +to spend with Dr. Craigie in visiting Red Bank, Mud Island, and other +principal scenes of action while the enemy were here. We have an account +that the enemy are in motion up the North River; but of them you will +hear sooner than I can inform you. General Lincoln has actually defeated +the enemy in Carolina, and is like to take them all prisoners. The +express is on the road, and expected in town to-morrow, when there will +be great rejoicing." + + * * * * * + +The following letter describes one of Dr. Foster's frequent journeys on +business of his department. + +"_Windsor, October_ 7, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"As I am waiting for Mr. De Lamater to come up, I will endeavor to give +you an account of our journey. The evening we left Boston Dr. Warren +rode with us as far as Jamaica Plains; after he left us we proceeded +to Dedham, where we arrived about dark, and were exceedingly well +entertained: we had a brace of partridges for supper. Colonel Trumbull +spent the evening with us. The next morning we proceeded nine miles to +Heading's to breakfast, and from thence seven miles to Mann's, where +we fed our horses, and dined at Daggett's, nine miles further; that +afternoon we arrived at Providence, and put up at our old friend +Olney's. The next day we dined with Adams and Townshend at their +quarters; the General honored us with his company; the same evening +supped with the General. Sunday, dined with the General, in company with +some of the principal ladies of the place; here I also saw your old +acquaintance, General Stark; he drank tea at my quarters one afternoon, +and inquired after you. Having finished my business much to my mind, I +continued my journey on Monday morning; the General, Colonel Armstrong, +and Dr. Brown were so polite as to ride out four miles with us. After +they left us, we proceeded to Angell's, twelve miles from Providence, +where we dined,--not on the fat of the land. After dinner we rode to +Dorrence's, an Irishman, but beyond all comparison the best house on the +road; here we were exceedingly well entertained, and, as it looked like +a storm, intended staying there, but, it growing lighter towards noon, +we set out, but had not rode far before the rain came on; however, as +we had begun, we determined to go through with it, and rode a very +uncomfortable ten miles to Canterbury, where we dined, poorly enough, at +one Backus's. Not liking our quarters, we proceeded, notwithstanding the +rain, to Windham, eight miles further, where we were well entertained at +one Cary's. As the storm looked likely to continue, and I was so near +Windsor, I was determined, if I must lie by for it, to lie by in a place +where I could do some business. I accordingly proceeded fifteen miles in +the forenoon to Andover, where I dined at one White's, and fifteen miles +in the afternoon to Bissell's at East Windsor, where I lodged. I was +thoroughly soaked, but do not find that I have got any cold. Indeed, I +find my health considerably better than when I left Boston. This morning +it has cleared off very pleasant, and I crossed from East Windsor to +this place. I have just returned from visiting Mr. Hooker's and Dr. +Johonnot's stores. I find everything in such excellent order as to do +credit to the department. Mr. De Lamater is not yet come up; as soon as +he arrives we shall visit Springfield. I shall not close this letter +until I meet the post; if anything worth notice occurs, I shall mention +it. Adieu, my love. + +"_October_ 8.--Mr. De Lamater arrived last night. Altho' it is very +raw and uncomfortable, I shall proceed immediately after dinner to +Springfield. We have certain advice that the Count D'Estaing has been +at Georgia, and taken all the British ships there; it is reported, and +believed by many, that he is arrived off Long Island. You see, my dear +Polly, I have set you the example of a very long letter. I hope, as you +have leisure enough, you will follow it, as nothing can give me greater +pleasure." + + * * * * * + +"_Fishkill, October_ 21, 1779. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I returned from Head-Quarters this forenoon. We went down yesterday +morning, and dined with General Heath, who was so good as to lend us +his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters. His Excellency received us as I +could wish. He invited us to dine with him this day. Upon my excusing +myself, as being in haste to finish my journey, he accepted the excuse, +and invited us to breakfast with him, which we did. We returned last +night to Robinson's house, and slept with our friend Eustis. General +Heath favored us again with his barge to carry us to Head-Quarters, +and after breakfast his Excellency ordered his own to convey us to +our horses, which we had ordered four or five miles up the river. One +principal reason of my declining the General's invitation to dinner was +my impatience to return to Fishkill, that I might receive a letter from +you. Judge, then, what was my disappointment to find the post arrived +and no letter. I shall cross the North River to-morrow morning to +proceed on my journey to Philadelphia. If the nature of the service will +allow it, General Heath and his suit propose returning with me to spend +the winter in Boston. Eustis desires you would look out some suitable +object of his attentions, while in Boston. He pretends it is only with a +view to keep him alert and properly attentive to the ladies in general; +but I suspect he designs to become the domestic man." + + * * * * * + +"_Morristown, Oct. 26th, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Fishkill the day before I left it, and shall put this +into the office here for the post to take as he comes along. On Friday, +towards evening, we left Fishkill. It was dark and squally when we got +to the landing, and we had nine horses in the boat, which made us a +little uneasy, as a few days before a boat had been overset and some +people drowned; however, we got safe over, and lay that night at Colonel +Hawsbrook's, where you spent two or three days on your return from +Bethlehem. The next morning we breakfasted with Dr. Craik at Murderer's +Creek, and then proceeded through the Clove, a most disagreeable place, +and horrid road. In the evening we got to Ringwood. Upon our arrival +there, we were informed there was no public house in the place, and it +was after dark. Colonel Biddle had favored me with an order on all his +magazines to supply me with forage; he has one in this place. I waited +on his deputy and presented the order; he went out of the room, and in a +few minutes returned with a Mr. Erskine, who is surveyor-general of the +roads; he gave me a polite invitation to spend the night at his house, +where we were entertained in the most genteel, hospitable, and friendly +manner. A shower of rain yesterday morning prevented our proceeding, +but, as it cleared up about noon, we came on thirty-four miles to this +place. I expect to reach Philadelphia the day after tomorrow. I have +been from home almost a month, and have received but one letter, but +hope to find several waiting for me at Philadelphia, as I cannot think +you would miss a post. The enemy last Thursday left their posts at Stony +Point and Verplanck's Point, and retired to New York." + + * * * * * + +"_Bristol, October 27, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I wrote you from Morristown, which it is probable you will receive by +this post. Lest that should miscarry, this will inform you that I am at +length arrived within twenty miles of Philadelphia, where I expect +to dine this day. A few days will determine how long I am like to be +detained there;--I think it upon every account best to finish all my +business. The gentlemen have bound themselves to each other by an +engagement upon honor, if nothing is done for our department by New +Year's day, all to resign, and have informed Congress of it: I have +joined in the engagement. If I find I am like to be detained here any +time, it is not improbable I may put my accounts in the hands of the +Commissioners, and, if I can get fresh horses, proceed with Mr. Lee on a +visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Pleasant in Virginia. Mr. Lee desires +his compliments. Adieu, my love. I am, with the sincerest affection, + +"Ever yours." + + * * * * * + +"_Danbury, December 8, 1779_. + +"MY DEAR POLLY, + +"I am once more returned to dear Danbury, on my way to Boston. I arrived +here about an hour since, and never had a more fatiguing, disagreeable +journey in my life than from Philadelphia here. I expected to have been +in Boston by this time; but two severe storms, and one day waiting for +his Excellency at Morristown, have made me twelve days performing a +journey which according to my usual way of travelling I should have +performed in four. I have, however, no reason to repent my undertaking +this journey. + +"If sickness or very bad weather does not prevent, I shall certainly be +home by Christmas, and wish to have all our friends together;--I promise +myself a great deal of happiness, and hope I shall not be disappointed. +Adieu, my love." + + * * * * * + +September 30th, 1780, the Hospital Department was newly organized, and +the office of Deputy Director-General was abolished, and of course the +incumbents of that office were no longer in the hospital service. + +Dr. Foster's health was irreparably injured by the fatigues and +exposures he had undergone, and he lingered but a few months longer, +dying on the 27th of February, 1781, in his forty-second year. + +One sentence in his will deserves record, as in harmony with the +disinterestedness of his life. After desiring that all debts due him +should be collected as soon as possible after his decease, he adds this +clause: "But I would not have any industrious and really poor persons +distressed for this purpose." + +The writer of these letters needs no additional eulogy. He sacrificed +all the prospects of his life to give his services in our struggle for +freedom. He, too, was but one of that innumerable multitude who, in +more exalted or in humbler stations, freely gave their exertions, their +wealth, their comfort, and their lives for freedom and right. It is +possible so to linger by the grave of the past as to forget the living +present; but the grateful memory of those who have in their times +contended for truth with self-denial should be ever animating to those +now laboring in the holy warfare, to which, in every age, whether the +outward signs be of peace or strife, God calls the noble of mankind. + + "Therefore bring violets! Yet, if we, + self-balked, + Stand still a-strewing violets all the while, + These had as well not moved, ourselves not + talked + Of these." + + * * * * * + + +IN THE PINES. + + +If I were a crow, or, at least, had the faculty of flying with that +swift directness which is proverbially attributed to the corvine tribe, +and were to wing a southwesterly course from the truck of the flag-staff +which rises from the Battery at New York, I should find myself, within a +very short time, about fifty miles from the turbulent city, and hovering +over a region of country as little like the civilized emporium just +quitted as it is well possible to conceive. Not being a crow, however, +nor fitted up with an apparatus for flying,--destitute even of a +balloon,--I am compelled to adopt the means of locomotion which the +bounty of God or the ingenuity of man affords me, and to spend a +somewhat longer time in transit to my destination. + +Over the New Jersey Railroad, then, I rattled, one fine, sunshiny autumn +morning, in the year that has recently taken leave of us, as far as +Bordentown, a distance of some fifty-seven miles, on my way to a +locality the very existence of which is scarcely dreamed of by thousands +in the metropolis, who can tell you how many square miles of malaria +there are in the Roman Campagna, and who have got the topography of +Caffre Land at their fingers' ends. It is a region aboriginal in +savagery, grand in the aspects of untrammelled Nature; where forests +extend in uninterrupted lines over scores of miles; where we may wander +a good day's journey without meeting half-a-dozen human faces; where +stately deer will bound across our path, and bears dispute our passage +through the cedar-brakes; where, in a word, we may enjoy the undiluted +essence, the perfect wildness, of woodland life. Deep and far "under the +shade of melancholy boughs" we shall be taken, if together we visit the +ancient Pines of New Jersey. + +In order to do so, we must make at Bordentown the acquaintance of Mr. +Cox, and take our seats in his stage for a jolt, twelve miles long, to +the village of New Egypt, on the frontier of the Pines. Although the +forest is accessible from many points, and may be entered by a number of +distinct approaches, I, the writer hereof, selected that _via_ New Egypt +as the most convenient to a comer from New York, and as, perhaps, the +least fatiguing to accomplish. + +But, oh! the horrors of those New Jersey roads! Mud? 'Tis as if all the +rains of heaven had been concentrated upon all the marls and clays of +earth, and all the sticky stratum plastered down in a wiggling line +of unascertainable length and breadth! Holes? As if a legion of +sharpshooters had been detailed for the defence of Sandy Hook, and had +excavated for themselves innumerable rifle-pits or caverns for the +discomfiture of unhappy passengers! Up hill and down dale,--with +merciless ruts and savage ridges,--now, a slough, to all appearance +destitute of bottom, and, next, a treacherous stretch of sand, into +which the wheels sink deeper and deeper at every revolution, as if the +vehicle were France, and the road disorder,--such is a faint adumbration +of the state of affairs in the benighted interior of our petulant little +whiskey-drinking sister State! + +But all earthly things come to an end, and so, accordingly, did our +three-hours' drive. The stage pompously rolled into the huddled street +of its terminus, and deposited me, in the neighborhood of noon, on the +stoop of the only tavern supported in the deadly-lively place. No long +sojourn, however, was in store for me. Presently--ere I had grown tired +of watching the couple of clodhoppers, well-bespattered as to boots and +undergarments with Jersey mud, who, leaning against a fence in true +agricultural laziness, deliberately eyed, or rather, gloated over the +inoffensive traveller, as though he were that "daily stranger," +for whom, as is well known, every Jerseyman offers up matutinal +supplications--a buggy appeared in the distance, and I was shortly asked +for. It was the vehicle in which I was to seek my destination in the +Pines; and my back was speedily turned upon the queer little +village with the curiously chosen name. My driver, an intelligent, +sharp-featured old man, soon informs me that he was born and has lived +for fifty years in the forest. A curious, old-world mortal,--our +father's "serving-man," to the very life! The Pines are to him what +Banks and City Halls and Cooper Institutes and Astor Houses are to a +poor _cittadini_; every tree is individualized; and I doubt not he could +find his way by night from one end to the other of the forest. + +We had driven no great distance, when my companion lifted his whip, and, +pointing to a long, dark, indistinct line which crossed the road in the +distance, blocking the prospect ahead and on either side, as far as the +eye could reach, exclaimed: "Them's the Pines!" As we approached the +forest, a change, theatrical in its suddenness, took place in the +scenery through which our course was taken. The rich and smiling +pasture-lands, interspersed with fields of luxuriant corn, were left +behind, the red clay of the road was exchanged for a gritty sand, and +the road itself dwindled to a mere pathway through a clearing. The +locality looked like a plagiarism from the Ohio backwoods. On both sides +of our path spread the graceful undergrowth, waving in an ocean of +green, and hiding the stumps with which the plain was covered, while far +away, to right and left, the prospect was bounded by forest walls, and +gloomy bulwarks and parapets of pines arose in front, as if designed, in +their perfect denseness, to exclude the world from some bosky Garden +of Paradise beyond. Not so, however; for our pathway squeezes itself +between two melancholy sentinel-pines, tracing its white scroll into the +forest farther than the eye can follow, and in a few moments we leave +the clearing behind, and pass into the shadow of the endless avenue, +and bow beneath the trailing branches of the silent, stern, immovable +warders at the gate. We were fairly in the Pines; and a drive of +somewhat more than three miles lay before us still. + +The immense forest region I had thus entered covers an extensive portion +of Burlington County, and nearly the whole of Ocean, beside parts +of Monmouth, Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester, and other counties. The +prevailing soils of this great area--some sixty miles in length by ten +in breadth, and reaching from the river Delaware to the very shore of +the Atlantic--are marls and sands of different qualities, of which the +most common is a fine, white, angular sand, of the kind so much in +request for building-purposes and the manufacture of glass. In such an +arid soil the _coniferae_ alone could flourish, and accordingly we find +that the wide-spreading region is overgrown almost entirely with white +and yellow pine, hemlock, and cedar. Hence its distinctive appellation. + +It was a most lovely afternoon, warm and serene as only an American +autumn afternoon knows how to be; and while we hurried past the mute, +monotonous, yet ever-shifting array of pines and cedars, the very rays +of the sun seemed to be perfumed with the aroma of the fragrant twigs, +about which humming-birds now and then whirred and fluttered as we +startled them, scarcely more brilliant in color than the gorgeous maples +which grew in one or two dry and open spots. For three-quarters of an +hour our drive continued, until at length a slight undulation broke the +level of the sand, and a fence, inclosing a patch of Indian corn, from +which the forest had been driven back, betokened for the first time the +proximity of some habitation. In fact, having reached the summit of the +slope, I found myself in the centre of an irregular range of dwellings, +scattered here and there in picturesque disregard of order, and +next moment my hand was grasped by my friend B. I had reached my +destination,--Hanover Iron-Works,--and was soon walking up, past the +white gateway, to the Big House. + +Somewhat less than eighty years ago, Mr. Benjamin Jones, a merchant of +Philadelphia, invested a portion of his fortune in the purchase of one +hundred thousand acres of land in the then unbroken forest of the Pines. +The site of the present hamlet of Hanover struck him as admirably +adapted for the establishment of a smelting-furnace, and he accordingly +projected a settlement on this spot. The Rancocus River forms here a +broad embayment, the damming of which was easily accomplished, and one +of the best of water-privileges was thus obtained. On the north of this +bay or pond, moreover, there rises a sloping bluff, which was covered, +at the period of its purchase, with ancient trees, but upon which a +large and commodious mansion was soon erected. Here Mr. Jones planted +himself, and quickly drew around him a settlement which rose in number +to some four hundred souls; and here he commenced the manufacture of +iron. At frequent intervals in the Pines were found surface-deposits +of ore, the precipitate from waters holding iron in solution, which +frequently covered an area of many acres, and reached a depth of +from two or three inches to as many feet. The ore thus existing in +surface-deposits was smelted in the iron-works, and the metal thence +obtained was at once molten and moulded in the adjoining foundry. Here, +in the midst of these spreading forests, many a ponderous casting, +many a fiery rush of tons of molten metal, has been seen. Here, +five-and-forty years ago, the celebrated Decatur superintended, during +many weeks, the casting of twenty-four pounders, to be used in the +famous contest with the Algerine pirates whom he humbled; and the echoes +of the forest were awakened with strange thunders then. As the great +guns were raised from the pits in which they had been cast, and were +declared ready for proof, Decatur ordered each one to be loaded with +repeated charges of powder and ball, and pointed into the woods. Then, +for miles between the grazed and quivering boles, crashed the missiles +of destruction, startling bear and deer and squirrel and raccoon, and +leaving traces of their passage which are even still occasionally +discovered. The cannon-balls themselves are now and then found imbedded +in the sand of the forest. In this manner the guns were tried which were +to thunder the challenge of America against the dens of Mediterranean +pirates. + +Hanover, too, in its day of pride, furnished many a city with its iron +tubes for water and for gas, many a factory and workshop with its +castings, many a farmer with his tools, but the glow of the furnace is +quenched forever now. The slowly gathering ferruginous deposits have +been exhausted, and three years have elapsed since the furnace-fires +were lighted. The blackened shell of the building stands in cold +decrepitude, a melancholy vestige of usefulness outlived. In consequence +of the stoppage of the works, Hanover has lost seven-eighths of its +population, and only about fifty inhabitants remain in the white +cottages grouped about the Big House, who are employed in agricultural +labors and occupations connected with the forest. Yet in this solitary +nook the elegances and the tastes of the most cultivated society are to +be found. The Big House, surrounded by its well-trimmed gardens sloping +down to the broad Rancocus, with its comfortable apartments, and the +diversified prospect which it commands, offers a resting-place which, +although deep in the genuine forest, combines urban refinement with the +quiet and seclusion of country-life. + +Bright and early on the morning after my arrival, Friend B. was at my +door; and after a savory, if hasty breakfast, we sounded _boute-selle_. +Outside the gate a couple of forest-ponies were waiting,--stout, lively, +five-year-olds, equal, if not to a two-forty heat, yet to twenty miles +of steady trot without distress,--brown and sleek as you please, with +the knowingest eyes, and intelligence expressed in the impatient stamp +of the fore-foot, and good-humor in the twitching of the ear. Into the +saddle and off, with the cheery breeze to bathe us in exhilaration, +as it went humming around us laden with aromatic odors and mysterious +whisperings of the pine-trees to the sea,--through the dew-diamonded +grass of the little lawn at the top of the hill,--past the great elm +with its glistening foliage, and its carolling crew of just-awakened +birds,--then a canter down the sandy slope to the edge of the forest, +and again the pines are around us. + +Before us lay a four-mile ride over a devious track among trees which my +companion knows by heart. Paths diverge into the forest on either side, +running north and south, east and west, straight and crooked, narrow +and broad; but B. follows unerringly the right, though undistinguished +trail. This knowledge of woodcraft,--how it appalls and wonder-strikes +the unlearned metropolitan, accustomed as he is to numbered houses and +name-boarded streets! No omnibus-driver threading the confusion of a +great thoroughfare could shape his course with greater assurance and +lack of hesitation than does B. through these endless avenues of +heavy-foliaged pines, broken only now and then by some tangled, +impenetrable brake of cedars, or by a charred and blackened clearing, +where the coaler has been at work. I gradually grew to believe that he +could call every tree by its name, as generals have been said to know +every soldier in their armies. + +At length we reached a clearing of one or two acres in extent, the site +of Cranberry Lodge, and the terminus of our ride. In the centre of the +lone expanse two unusually tall pines were left standing, at the base of +which a curious structure nestled, which had been for several weeks the +occasional hermitage of my companion. It was built entirely with his own +hands, of cedar rails and white-pine planks, which he had cut and sawed +from trees that his own hands had felled. A queer little cabin, some +nine feet in length by five or six in breadth, standing all alone in the +forest, with not a neighbor within a distance of at least four miles! + +Dismounting, we fastened our horses to a couple of saplings, and I was +introduced to the interior of Cranberry Lodge, which was tenanted only +by the "hired man," who, in the absence of Mr. B., reigned supreme in +the clearing. The dwelling I found no less primitive in internal than +in its external appearance. Three persons, moderately doubled up and +squeezed, could find room in the interior, which was furnished with a +bench for the safe-keeping of sundry pots, pans, and other culinary +necessaries, and with a shelf on which some blankets were laid, +constituting my companion's bedstead and bed, when he slept in Cranberry +Lodge. Beneath the "bunk" a small hole scooped in the sand stood in +lieu of a cellar, and contained a stock of provisions of Mr. B.'s own +cooking. + +Such a backwoodish dwelling as Cranberry Lodge, existing in the year +1858, within seventy miles of New York, requires some explanation. +Its foundation is--pies! Cape Cod, the great emporium of the +cranberry-trade, has been running short for the last few years; in other +words, its supply is unequal to the demand. The heavy Britishers +have awakened to the fact, since 1851, that, of all condiments and +delicacies, cranberry-sauce and cranberry-pie are best in their way; +and John Bull takes many a barrel clean out of our market now. It so +happened that in the Pines of New Jersey cranberries superior to those +of Cape Cod have grown unheeded for centuries,--grew red and purple +and white and pink when Columbus was unthought of, as well as when +Washington passed through the Pines,--and for sixty or seventy years +have furnished a certain class of gypsies--of whom more anon--with +merchandise which sold well in the neighboring villages and cities. +No one thought of cultivating cranberries; no one, but the gypsies +aforesaid, of gathering them for sale. But it came to pass that a +certain farmer of Hanover was, like many another, unsuccessful during +several years. As a last resource, he purchased of the owner of the Big +House a cranberry-bog,--that is to say, one of the many marshy spots +which are interspersed in the forest,--for which he paid five dollars +the acre. There were a little more than one hundred acres in the bog. At +a cost of some six hundred dollars Mr. F. fenced in his bog, and spent +three months in watching the cranberries as they ripened, to protect +them from depredation. To his intense astonishment, he found, in +October, that the yield was between two and three hundred bushels to the +acre, and that his land and fencing were paid for, with a balance left +over for next year. In consequence of this success, a little mania +for cranberry-farming seized upon the denizens of the Pines, and bogs +acquired a value they had never borne before. This was in 1857. Early in +1858, one of these plots of land, with an adjoining piece of forest, was +rented by Mr. B., who, like a right-down Yankee, determined to cultivate +it himself. So, with the aid of one hired man, a clearing was made in +his forest-patch, a hut built, four miles from the nearest habitation, +and the trees cut down were converted into rails, wherewith to fence in +the cranberry-land. At the time of my visit, the crop was just beginning +to think of getting ripe, and the great lazy vines, each one creeping +for several feet along the ground, were severally loaded with dozens of +delicately-tinted berries, plump and fair as British beauties, which +silently drew to themselves and absorbed the rays of the sun, turning +them to color and succulent subacidulousness. A most glorious sight that +same hundred-acre bog must have been a couple of weeks later, when the +berries had ripened, and a carpet of rosy redness blushed upwards to +the waning sun! Yet 1858 (the even year) was a bad season for +cranberries,--the yield was _only_ sufficient to pay for the land and +fencing, with a modicum over to begin 1859 with! + +So cranberries grew to be institutions in the Pines, and all the bogs +for miles around the site of the first experiment were hired by sanguine +farmers. But the cranberry-cultivator has one enemy, which is neither +bird, nor worm, nor blight, but biped,--a Rat, two-legged, erect, or +moderately so, talking, even, in audible and intelligible speech,--the +Pine Rat, namely. Few but New Jerseymen, and of them chiefly those who +dwell about the forest, have heard of this human species; it has not +yet had its Agassiz nor its Wyman,--yet there it flourishes and repeats +itself! + +My friend, Mr. B., considerately undertook to initiate me into some +of the mysteries of this race, which has proved minatory, though not +destructive, to his blushing crop,--and accordingly led me through brake +and brier, past wild and gloomy cedar-swamps, over brooks insecurely +bridged with fallen logs, or, perchance, with stepping-blocks of +pine-stumps, far into the silent forest, and to a little dell or +dingle,--a natural clearing,--where a couple of tents were pitched, and +the smoke of a struggling fire told infallibly of human neighborhood. +The barking of a splenetic little terrier brought from one of the tents +a man of some fifty years, lank and gaunt of visage, with matted hair, +and wild, uncivilized eyes, dressed in a ragged jacket and what had once +been a pair of trousers. His face wore no expression of intelligence; +but a look of intense, though animal cunning lurked in his eyes. While I +was gazing on this individual, who stood in silence by his tent, there +emerged from the other an ancient female, who might have been eighty +years of age, but who hobbled towards us with much briskness. + +"Good evening, Hannah Butler," said Mr. B.; "I've brought you some +tomatoes from the Big House. This is my friend, Mr. Smith of York." + +Mr. Smith of York (grimly repressing a smile, as his mischievous memory +whispered something about Brooks of Sheffield) bowed gravely to Mrs. +Butler. Mr. B. whispers,--"That's the Queen of the Pine Rats!" Hannah +meanwhile mumbles over one of the fleshy tomatoes. + +The man whom we had first seen held in his hand a tattered shawl, with +which he now began patching a portion of his tent, saying at the same +time that there was a storm a-brewing. + +"Ay, is there!" said Mrs. Butler; "and a storm like the one when I seed +Leeds's devil"-- + +"Hush!" interrupted her ragged companion, with a look of terror. "What's +the good o' namin' him, and allus talkin' about him, when yer don't +never know as he ar'n't byside ye?" + +"I'll devil yer!" shrieked the crone, through a half-eaten tomato. +"Finish mendin' up yer cover, yer mean cranberry-thief!" + +The spiteful terrier, which had meanwhile evinced an unpleasant interest +in the thickness of my pantaloons, added his yelping to the clamor, and +Mr. B., pointing to the clouds, thought we had better hasten homewards. +So we bade farewell to Hannah and her nephew, as I learned that the +unfortunate vessel of her wrath in reality was, and dived into the +gloomy recesses of the Pines again. + +Long ere we got back to Cranberry Lodge, all doubts of an impending +tempest had disappeared. The eastern sky, cloudless an hour before, +was now overhung with a livid bank of ash-gray clouds, which were +incessantly riven by broad and terrible flashes of silent lightning. A +slight westerly breeze was blowing, and evidently impeded the progress +of the storm, which was beating up from seaward against the wind. +Plunging through prickly thickets and dashing through the turbid brooks, +we hastened toward the clearing, committed Cranberry Lodge to the +custody of the "hired man," and untied our horses from the saplings to +which they were made fast. In another moment we were on the back trail. +Scarcely, however, was the clearing shut out of view when a little +hesitating puff of wind from the east blew chill upon us; the breeze had +veered, and the tempest was at hand. In the twinkling of an eye, the +western horizon was overhung with the same ghastly storm-bank that +threatened in the east, while a monitory gust rustled through the +sighing pines, wildly twisting and tossing the undergrowth,--overspread +with a quivering pallor as it bent before the breeze,--and bade us be +prepared. Next moment, a clap of thunder, rattling like the artillery of +ten thousand sieges, or like millions of bars of iron dashed furiously +together, broke upon the forest. It was the most awful sound, terrible +even in its expected suddenness, that I ever heard. Simultaneously a +flash of purple lightning fell from the zenith to the horizon, splitting +the clouds asunder, and with it there descended rain in a cataract +rather than in torrents, so that in the twinkling of an eye the thirsty +sand was saturated, and bubbling pools of water pattered in the deluged +path. Crash after crash, each clap more terrific than the one preceding, +came the awful thunder; blinding flashes of lightning darted around +us;--but still our phlegmatic ponies galloped on, and only once started +violently, when a peal which really seemed as if its shock must burst +the heavens asunder dazed us momentarily with its almost unendurable +sound. The gloomy canopy above us, meanwhile, was overrun by incessant +streams of purple lightning, and the deluge of rain still fell. At +length we reached the Big House, (somewhat ostentatiously reducing the +speed of our horses to a walk as we came within sight of its embowered +windows,) and were soon dripping in the kitchen. A change of apparel, +calling into requisition Mexican _ponchos_ and other picturesque +garments, with a smoke beside a roaring fire, completely obviated +all dangerous consequences; nor was it without feelings of great +satisfaction that B. and myself watched tranquilly from our comfortable +ensconcement the beatings of the storm on the encircling forest. + +The Big House, I found, was full of legends of the Pine Rats. This +extraordinary race of beings are lineal descendants of the New Jersey +Tories, who, during the Revolution, made the Pines their refuge, whence +they sallied in perpetual forays against the farms and dwellings of the +partisans of the opposite cause. Several hundreds of these fanatical +desperadoes made the forest their home, and laid waste the surrounding +townships by their sudden raids. Most barbarous cruelties were practised +on both sides, in the contests which continually took place between +Whigs and Tories, and the unnatural seven-years' war possessed nowhere +darker features than in the neighborhood of the New Jersey Pines. +Remains of these forest-freebooters are still discovered from time to +time, in the process of clearing the woods, and unmistakable relics are +occasionally met with in the denser portions of the forest, which must +have been comparatively open eighty years ago. + +The degraded descendants of these Tories constitute the principal +difficulty with which a proprietor in this region has to contend. +Completely besotted and brutish in their ignorance, they are incapable +of obtaining an honest living, and have supported themselves, from a +time which may be called immemorial, by practising petty larceny on +an organized plan. The Pine Rat steals wood, steals game, steals +cranberries, steals anything, in fact, that his hand can be laid upon; +and woe to the property of the man who dares attempt to restrain him! A +few weeks may, perhaps, elapse, after the tattered savage has received a +warning or a reprimand, and then a column of smoke will be seen stealing +up from some quarter in the forest;--he has set the woods on fire! +Conflagrations of this kind will sometimes sweep away many hundreds of +acres of the most valuable timber; while accidental fires are also of +frequent occurrence. When indications of a fire are noticed, every +available hand--men, women, and children alike--is hurried to the spot +for the purpose of "fighting" it. Getting to leeward of the flames, the +"fighters" kindle a counter-conflagration, which is drawn or sucked +against the wind to the part already burning, and in this manner a +vacant space is secured, which proves a barrier to the flames. Dexterity +in fighting fires is a prime requisite in a forest overseer or workman. + +"And now, something about Leeds's devil!" I said to my friend, after +satisfactory definition of the Pine Rat; "what fiend may he be, if you +please?" + +"I will answer,--I will tell you," replies Mr. B. "There lived, in the +year 1735, in the township of Burlington, a woman. Her name was Leeds, +and she was shrewdly suspected of a little amateur witchcraft. Be that +as it may, it is well established, that, one stormy, gusty night, when +the wind was howling in turret and tree, Mother Leeds gave birth to a +son, whose father could have been no other than the Prince of Darkness. +No sooner did he see the light than he assumed the form of a fiend, with +a horse's head, wings of bat, and a serpent's tail. The first thought of +the newborn Caliban was to fall foul of his mother, whom he scratched +and bepommelled soundly, and then flew through the window out into the +village, where he played the mischief generally. Little children he +devoured, maidens he abused, young men he mauled and battered; and it +was many days before a holy man succeeded in repeating the enchantment +of Prospero. At length, however, Leeds's devil was laid,--but only for +one hundred years. + +"During an entire century, the memory of that awful monster was +preserved, and, as 1835 drew nigh, the denizens of Burlington and the +Pines looked tremblingly for his rising. Strange to say, however, no one +but Hannah Butler has had a personal interview with the fiend; though, +since 1835, he has frequently been heard howling and screaming in the +forest at night, to the terror of the Rats in their lonely encampments. +Hannah Butler saw the devil, one stormy night, long ago; though some +skeptical individuals affirm, that very possibly she may have been led, +under the influence of liquid Jersey lightning, to invest a pine-stump, +or, possibly, a belated bear, with diabolical attributes and a Satanic +voice. However that may be, you cannot induce a Rat to leave his hut +after dark,--nor, indeed, will you find many Jerseymen, though of a +higher order of intelligence, who will brave the supernatural terrors of +the gloomy forest at night, unless secure in the strength of numbers." + +The Pine Rat, in his vocation as a picker-up of every unconsidered +trifle, is an adept at charcoal-burning, on the sly. The business of +legitimate charcoal-manufacture is also largely practised in the Pines, +although the growing value of wood interferes sadly with the coalers. +Here and there, however, a few acres are marked out every year for +charring, and the coal-pits are established in the clearing made by +felling the trees. The "coaling," as it is technically termed, is an +assemblage of "pits," or piles of wood, conical in form, and about ten +feet in height by twenty in diameter. The wood is cut in equal lengths, +and is piled three or four tiers high, each log resting on the end of +that below it, and inclining slightly inwards. An opening is left in the +centre of the pile, serving as a chimney; and the exterior is overlaid +with strips of turf, called "floats," which form an almost air-tight +covering. When the pile is overlaid, fire is set at various small +apertures in the sides, and when the whole "pit" is fairly burning, the +chimney is closed, in order to prevent too rapid combustion, and the +whole pile is slowly converted into charcoal. The application of the +term "pit" to these piles is worthy of remark. It is due, of course, +to the fact, that for centuries it was customary to burn charcoal in +excavated pits, until it was discovered that gradual combustion could be +as well secured by another and less tedious method. + +The Pine Rat glories in his surreptitious coal-pits. In secluded +portions of the forest, he may continually be discovered pottering over +a "coaling," for which he has stolen the wood. This, indeed, is his only +handicraft,--the single labor to which he condescends or is equal. Two +or three men sometimes band together and build themselves huts after +the curious fashion peculiar to the Rat, namely, by piling sticks or +branches in a slope on each side of some tall pine, so that a wigwam, +with the trunk of the tree in the centre, is constructed. Inside this +triangular shelter--the idea of which was probably borrowed from the +Indians--the Pine Rat ensconces himself with his whiskey-bottle at +night, crouching in dread of the darkness, or of Leeds's devil, +aforesaid. In this respect he singularly resembles the Bohemian +charcoal-burner, who trembles at the thought of Ruebezahl, that malicious +goblin, who has an army of mountain-dwarfs and gnomes at his command. So +long as the sunlight inspires our Rat with confidence, however, he will +work at his coal-pit, while one comrade is away in the forest, snaring +game, and another has, perhaps, been dispatched to the precincts of +civilization with his wagon-load of coal. Yes! the Pine Rat sometimes +treads the streets of cities,--nay, even extends his wanderings to the +banks of the Delaware and the Hudson, to Philadelphia and Trenton, +to Jersey City and New York. Then, who so sharp as the grimy +tatterdemalion, who passes from street to street and from house to +house, with his swart and rickety wagon, and his jangling bell, the +discordant clangor of which, when we hear it, calls up horrible +recollections of the bells that froze our hearts in plague-stricken +cities of other lands, when doomed galley-slaves and _forcats_ wheeled +awful vehicles of putrefaction through the streets, clashing and +clinking their clamorous bells for more and still more corpses, and +foully jesting over the Death which they knew was already upon them! But +the long-drawn, monotonous, nasal cry of the charcoal-vender--who has +not heard it?--"Cha-r-coa'! Cha-r-coa'!"--is more cheerful than the +demoniac laughter of the desperate galley-slaves, and his bell sounds +musically when we hear it and think of theirs. Sometimes a couple of +these peregrinants may be seen to encounter each other in the streets, +and straightway there is an adjournment to the nearest bar-room, where +the most scientific method of "springing the arch" is discussed over a +glass of whiskey, at three cents the quart. Springing the arch, though +few may be able to interpret the phrase, is a trick by which every +housewife has suffered. It is the secret of piling the coal into the +measure in such a manner as to make the smaller quantity pass for the +larger, or, in other words, to make three pecks go for a bushel. So the +Pine Rat vindicates his claim to a common humanity with all the rest +of us men and women; for have not we all our secret and most approved +method of springing the arch,--of palming off our three short pecks for +a full and bounteous imperial bushel? Ah, yes! brothers and sisters, +whisper it, if you will, below your breath, but we all can do the Pine +Rat's trick! + +We shall not suffer his company much longer in this world,--poor, +neglected, pitiable, darkened soul that he is, this fellow-citizen +of ours. He must move on; for civilization, like a stern, prosaic +policeman, will have no idlers in the path. There must be no vagrants, +not even in the forest, the once free and merry greenwood, our +policeman-civilization says; nay, the forest, even, must keep a-moving! +We must have farms here, and happy homesteads, and orchards heavy with +promise of cider, and wheat golden as hope, instead of silent aisles and +avenues of mournful pine-trees, sheltering such forlorn miscreations as +our poor cranberry-stealing friends! Railways are piercing the Pines; +surveyors are marking them out in imaginary squares; market-gardeners +are engaging land; and farmers are clearing it. The Rat is driven from +point to point, from one means of subsistence to another; and shortly, +he will have to make the bitter choice between regulated labor and +starvation clean off from the face of the earth. There is no room for +a gypsy in all our wide America! The Rat must follow the Indian,--must +fade like breath from a window-pane in winter! + +In fact, the forest, left so long in its aboriginal savagery, is about +to be regenerated. A railroad is to be constructed, this year, which +will place Hanover and the centre of the forest within one hour's travel +of Philadelphia; and it is scarcely too much to anticipate, that, within +five years, thousands of acres, now dense with pines and cedars of a +hundred rings, will be laid out in blooming market-gardens and in fields +of generous corn. Such little cultivation as has hitherto been attempted +has been attended by the most astonishing results; and persons have +actually returned from the West and South, in order to occupy farms in the +neighborhood of Hanover. + +In one respect _c'est dommage_; one is grieved to part with the game +that is now so plentiful in the Pines. Owing to the beneficent provision +of the laws of New Jersey, which stringently forbid every description of +hunting in the State during alternate periods of five years, game of +all kinds has an opportunity to multiply; and at the termination of the +season of rest, in October, 1858, there was some noble hunting in the +neighborhood of Hanover. Five years hence, bears and deer will be a +tradition, panthers and raccoons a myth, partridges and quails a vain +and melancholy recollection, in what shall then be known as what was +once the Pines. + + * * * * * + + +THE LAST BIRD. + + + Little Bird that singest + Far atop, this warm December day, + Heaven bestead thee, that thou wingest, + Ere the welcome song is done, thy way + + To more certain weather, + Where, built high and solemnly, the skies, + Shaken by no storm together, + Fixed in vaults of steadfast sapphire rise! + + There, the smile that mocks us + Answers with its warm serenity; + There, the prison-ice that locks us + Melts forgotten in a purple sea. + + There, thy tuneful brothers, + In the palm's green plumage waiting long, + Mate them with the myriad others, + Like a broken rainbow bound with song. + + Winter scarce is hidden, + Veiled within this fair, deceitful sky; + Fly, ere, from his ambush bidden, + He descend in ruin swift and nigh! + + By the Summer stately, + Truant, thou wast fondly reared and bred: + Dost thou linger here so lately, + Knowing not thy beauteous friend is dead,-- + + Like to hearts that, clinging + Fervent where their first delight was fed, + Move us with untimely singing + Of the hopes whose blossom-time is sped? + + Beauties have their hour, + Safely perched on the Spring-budding tree; + For the ripened soul is trust and power, + And, beyond, the calm eternity. + + * * * * * + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION: + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + +[Concluded.] + + +On the 3d of July, the Commissioners started on their return to the +States. During their stay at Salt Lake City, the doubt which they had +been led to entertain of the wisdom of the policy which they were the +agents to carry out, had ripened into a firm conviction. + +The people who were congregated on the eastern shore of Lake Utah did +not begin to repair to their homes until the army had marched thirty or +forty miles away from the city; and even then there was a secrecy +about their movements which was as needless as it was mysterious. They +returned in divisions of from twenty to a hundred families each. Their +trains, approaching the city during the afternoon, would encamp on some +creek in its vicinity until midnight, when, if intended for the northern +settlements, they would pass rapidly through the streets, or else make +a circuit around the city-wall. August arrived before the return was +completed. + +Morning after morning, one square after another was seen stripped of the +board barricades which had sheltered windows and doors from intrusion. +In front of every gateway wagons were emptying their loads of household +furniture. The streets soon lost their deserted aspect, though for many +days the only wayfarers were men,--not a woman being visible, except, by +chance, to the profane eyes of the invaders. It was near the end of July +before a single house was rented except to the intimate associates of +the Governor. Up to that time, those Gentiles who did not follow the +army to its permanent camp bivouacked on the public squares. By a Church +edict, all Mormons were forbidden to enter into business transactions +with persons outside their sect without consulting Brigham Young, whose +office was beset daily by a throng of clients beseeching indulgences +and instruction. Immediately after his return to the city, however, +he secluded himself from public observation, never appearing in the +streets, nor on the balconies of his mansion-house. He even encompassed +his residence with an armed guard. + +Gradually, nevertheless, the necessities of the people induced a +modification of this system of non-intercourse. The Gentile merchants, +who were present with great wagon-trains containing all those articles +indispensable to the comfort of life, of which the Mormons stood so much +in need, refused to open a single box or bale until they could hire +storehouses. The permission was at length accorded, and immediately the +absolute external reserve of the people began to wear away. Both sexes +thronged to the stores, eager to supply themselves with groceries and +garments; but there they experienced a wholesome rebuff, for which some +of them were not entirely unprepared. The merchants refused to receive +the paper of the Deseret Currency Association with which the Territory +was flooded; and its notes were depreciated instantly by more than +fifty per cent. Many of the people were driven to barter cattle and +farm-produce for the articles they needed; and for the first time since +the establishment of the Church in Utah an audible murmur arose among +its adherents against its exactions. The sight of their neglected +farms was also calculated to bring the poorer agriculturists to sober +reflection. They perceived that the army, which they had been taught to +believe would commit every conceivable outrage, was, on the contrary, +demeaning itself with extreme forbearance and even kindness toward them, +and was supplying an ampler market for the sale of their produce than +they had enjoyed since the years when the overland emigration to +California culminated. Nevertheless, their regrets, if entertained at +all, found no public and concerted utterance. The authority of the +Church exacted a sullen demeanor toward all Gentiles. + +The 24th of July, the great Mormon anniversary, was suffered to pass +without celebration; but its recurrence must have suggested anxious +thoughts and bitter recollections to a great part of the population. +When they remembered their enthusiastic declaration of independence +only one year before, the warlike demonstrations which followed it, the +prophecies of Young that the Lord would smite the army as he smote the +hosts of Sennacherib, the fever of hate and apprehension into which they +had been worked, and contrasted that period of excitement with their +present condition, they must, indeed, have found abundant material for +meditation. By the emigration southward they had lost at least four +months of the most valuable time of the year. Their families had been +subjected to every variety of exposure and hardship. Their ready money +had been extorted from them by the Currency Association, or consumed in +the expenses of transporting their movables to Lake Utah. And more than +all, the fields had so suffered by their absence, that the crops were +diminished to at least one-half the yield of an ordinary year. To a +community the mass of which lives from hand to mouth, this was a most +serious loss. + +Almost all agriculture in Utah is carried on by the aid of irrigation. +From April till October hardly a shower falls upon the soil, which +parches and cracks in the hot sunshine. The settlements are all at the +base of the mountains, where they can take advantage of the brooks that +leap down through the canons. They are, therefore, necessarily scattered +along the line of the main Wahsatch range, from the Roseaux River, which +flows into the Salt Lake from the north, to the Vegas of the Santa +Clara,--a distance of nearly four hundred miles. The labor expended in +ditching has been immense, but it has been confined wholly to tapping +the smaller streams. + +By damming the Jordan in Salt Lake Valley and the Sevier in Parawan +Valley, and distributing their water over the broad bottom-lands, on +which the only vegetation now is wild sage and greasewood, the area of +arable ground might be quintupled; and any considerable increase of +population will render such an undertaking indispensable; for the narrow +strip which is fertilized by the mountain-brooks yields scarcely more +than enough to supply the present number of inhabitants. Nowhere does it +exceed two or three miles in breadth, except along the eastern shore of +Lake Utah, where it extends from the base of the mountains to the verge +of the lake. + +Almost all cereals and vegetables attain the utmost perfection, +rivalling the most luxuriant productions of California. Within the last +few years the cultivation of the Chinese sugar-cane has been introduced, +and has proved successful. In Salt Lake City considerable attention is +paid to horticulture. Peaches, apples, and grapes grow to great size, at +the same time retaining excellent flavor. The grape which is most common +is that of the vineyards of Los Angeles. In the vicinity of Provo an +attempt has been made to cultivate the tea-plant; and on the Santa Clara +several hundred acres have been devoted to the culture of cotton, +but with imperfect success. Flax, however, is raised in considerable +quantity. The fields are rarely fenced with rails, and almost never with +stones. The dirt-walls by which they are usually surrounded are built by +driving four posts into the ground, which support a case, ten or twelve +feet in length, made of boards. This is packed full of mud, which dries +rapidly in the intense heat of a summer noon. When it is sufficiently +dry to stand without crumbling, the posts are moved farther along and +the same operation is repeated. + +The country is not dotted with farmhouses, like the agricultural +districts of the East. The inhabitants all live in towns, or "forts," as +they are more commonly called, each of which is governed by a Bishop. +These are invariably laid out in a square, which is surrounded by a +lofty wall of mere dirt, or else of adobe. In the smaller forts there +are no streets, all the dwellings backing upon the wall, and inclosing +a quadrangular area, which is covered with heaps of rubbish, and alive +with pigs, chickens, and children. The same stream which irrigates the +fields in the vicinity supplies the people with water for domestic +purposes. There are few wells, even in the cities. Except in Salt Lake +City and Provo, no barns are to be seen. The wheat is usually stored +in the garrets of the houses; the hay is stacked; and the animals are +herded during the winter in sheltered pastures on the low lands. + +All the people of the smaller towns are agriculturists. In none of them +is there a single shop. In Provo there are several small manufacturing +establishments, for which the abundant water-power of the Timpanogas +River, that tumbles down the neighboring canon, furnishes great +facilities. The principal manufacturing enterprise ever undertaken in +the Territory--that for the production of beet-sugar--proved a complete +failure. A capital advanced by Englishmen, to the amount of more +than one hundred thousand dollars, was totally lost, and the result +discouraged foreigners from all similar investments. Rifles and +revolvers are made in limited number from the iron tires of the numerous +wagons in which goods are brought into the Valley. There are tanneries, +and several distilleries and breweries. In the large towns there are +many thriving mechanics; but elsewhere even the blacksmith's trade +is hardly self-supporting, and the carpenters and shoemakers are all +farmers, practising their trades only during intervals from work in the +fields. + +The deficiency of iron, coal, and wood is the chief obstacle to the +material development of Utah. No iron-mines have been discovered, except +in the extreme southern portion of the Territory; and the quality of the +ore is so inferior, that it is available only for the manufacture of the +commonest household utensils, such as andirons. The principal coal-beds +hitherto found are in the immediate vicinity of Green River. There are +several sawmills, all run by water-power, scattered among the more +densely-wooded canons; but they supply hardly lumber enough to meet the +demand,--even the sugar-boxes and boot-cases which are thrown aside at +the merchants' stores being eagerly sought after and appropriated. The +most ordinary articles of wooden furniture command extravagant prices. + +Nowhere is the absence of trees, the utter desolation of the scenery, +more impressive than in a view from the southern shore of the Great Salt +Lake. The broad plain which intervenes between its margin and the +foot of the Wahsatch Range is almost entirely lost sight of; the +mountain-slopes, their summits flecked with snow, seem to descend into +water on every side except the northern, on which the blue line of the +horizon is interrupted only by Antelope Island. The prospect in that +direction is apparently as illimitable as from the shore of an ocean. +The sky is almost invariably clear, and the water intensely blue, except +where it dashes over fragments of rock that have fallen from some +adjacent cliff, or where a wave, more aspiring than its fellows, +overreaches itself and breaks into a thin line of foam. Through a gap in +the ranges on the west, the line of the Great Desert is dimly visible. +The beach of the lake is marked by a broad belt of fine sand, the grains +of which are all globular. Along its upper margin is a rank growth of +reeds and salt grass. Swarms of tiny flies cover the surface of every +half-evaporated pool, and a few white sea-gulls are drifting on the +swells. Nowhere is there a sign of refreshing verdure except on the +distant mountainsides, where patches of green grass glow in the sunlight +among the vast fields of sage. + +The buildings throughout the entire Territory are, almost without +exception, of adobe. The brick is of a uniform drab color, more pleasing +to the eye than the reddish hue of the adobes of New Mexico or the buff +tinge of many of those in California. In size it is about double that +commonly used in the States. The clay, also, is of very superior +quality. The principal stone building in the Territory is the Capitol, +at Fillmore, one hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. The +design of the architect is for a very magnificent edifice in the shape +of a Greek cross, with a rotunda sixty feet in diameter. Only one wing +has been completed, but this is spacious enough to furnish all needful +accommodation. The material is rough-hammered sandstone, of an intense +red. + +The plan of Salt Lake City is an index to that of all the principal +towns. It is divided into squares, each side of which is forty rods +in length. The streets are more than a hundred feet wide, and are all +unpaved. There is not a single sidewalk of brick, stone, or plank. The +situation is well chosen, being directly at the foot of the southern +slope of a spur which juts out from the main Wahsatch range. Less than +twenty miles from the city, almost overshadowing it, are peaks which +rise to the altitude of nearly twelve thousand feet, from which the snow +of course never disappears. But during the summer months, when scarcely +a shower falls upon the valley, its drifts become dun-colored with dust +from the friable soil below, and present an aspect similar to that of +the Pyrenees at the same season. During most of the year, the rest of +the mountains which encircle the Valley are also capped with snow. The +residences of Young and Kimball are situated on almost the highest +ground within the city-limits, and the land slopes gradually down from +them to the south, east, and west. This inclination suggested the mode +of supplying the city with water. A mountain-brook, pure and cold, +bubbling from under snow-drifts, is guided from this highland down +the gently sloping streets in gutters adjoining both the sidewalks. A +municipal ordinance imposes severe penalties on any one who fouls it. +Young's buildings and gardens occupy an entire square, ten acres in +extent, as do also Kimball's. They consist, first, of the Mansion, a +spacious two-storied building, in the style of the Yankee-Grecian villas +which infest New England towns, with piazzas supported by Doric columns, +and a cupola which is surmounted by a beehive, the peculiar emblem of +the Mormons, although there is not a single honey-bee in the Territory. +This, like all its companions, is of adobe, but it is coated with +plaster, and painted white. Next to it is a small building, used +formerly as an office, in which the temporal business of the Governor +was transacted. By its side stands another office, on the same model, +but on a larger scale, devoted to the business of the President of the +Church. These are connected by passage-ways both with the Mansion and +with the Lion-House, which is the most westerly of the group, and is the +finest building in the Territory, having cost nearly eighty thousand +dollars. Like both the offices, it stands with a gable toward the +street, and the plaster with which it is covered has a light buff tinge. +The architecture is Elizabethan. Above a porch in front is the figure +of a recumbent lion, hewn in sandstone. On each of the sides, which +overlook the gardens, ten little windows project from the roof +just above the eaves. The whole square is surrounded by a wall of +cobblestones and mortar, ten or twelve feet in height, strengthened by +buttresses at intervals of forty or fifty feet. Massive plank gates bar +the entrances. In one corner is the Tithing-Office, where the faithful +render their reluctant tribute to the Lord. Only the swift city-creek +intervenes between this square and Kimball's, which is encompassed by a +similar wall. His buildings have no pretensions to architectural merit, +being merely rough piles of adobe scattered irregularly all over the +grounds. + +The Temple Square is in the immediate neighborhood, and is of the same +size. It is inclosed by a wall even more massive than the others, +plastered and divided into panels. Near its southwestern corner stands +the Tabernacle, a long, one-storied building, with an immense roof, +containing a hall which will hold three thousand people. There the +Mormon religious services are conducted during the winter months; but +throughout the summer the usual place of gathering to listen to the +sermons is in "boweries," so called, which are constructed by planting +posts in the ground and weaving over them a flat roof of willow-twigs. +An excavation near the centre of the square, partially filled with dirt +previously to the exodus to Provo, marks the spot where the Temple is +to rise. It is intended that this edifice shall infinitely surpass in +magnificence its predecessor at Nauvoo. The design purports to be a +revelation from heaven, and, if so, must have emanated from some one +of the Gothic architects of the Middle Ages whose taste had become +bewildered by his residence among the spheres; for the turrets are to be +surmounted by figures of sun, moon, and stars, and the whole building +bedecked with such celestial emblems. Only part of the foundation-wall +has yet been laid, but it sinks thirty feet deep and is eight feet broad +at the surface of the ground. Its length, according to the heavenly +plan, is to be two hundred and twenty feet, and its width one hundred +and fifty feet. Beside the Tabernacle and the incipient Temple, the only +considerable building within the square is the Endowment-House, where +those rites are celebrated which bind a member to fidelity to the Church +under penalty of death, and admit him to the privilege of polygamy. + +The other principal buildings within the city are the Council-House, +a square pile of sandstone, once used as the Capitol,--and the County +Court-House, yet unfinished, above which rises a cupola covered with +tin. Most of the houses in the immediate vicinity of Young's are two +stories high, for that is the aristocratic quarter of the town. In +the outskirts, however, they never exceed one story, and resemble in +dimensions the innumerable cobblers'-shops of Eastern Massachusetts. + +None of the streets have names, except those which bound the Temple +Square and are known as North, South, East, and West Temple Streets, and +also the broad avenue which receives the road from Emigration Canon and +is called Emigration Street. Except on East Temple or Main Street, which +is the business street of the city, the houses are all built at least +twenty feet back from the sidewalk, and to each one is attached a +considerable plot of ground. There is no provision for lighting the +streets at night. The cotton-wood trees along the borders of the gutters +have attained a considerable growth during the eight or nine years since +they were planted, and afford an agreeable shade to all the sidewalks. + +Around a great portion of the city stretches a mud wall with embrasures +and loopholes for musketry, which was built under Young's direction in +1853, ostensibly to guard against Indian attacks, but really to keep +the people busy and prevent their murmuring. To the east of this runs a +narrow canal, which was dug by the voluntary labor of the Saints, nearly +fifteen miles to Cottonwood Creek, for the transportation of stone to be +used in building the Temple. + +Just outside the city-limits, near the northeastern corner of the wall, +lies the Cemetery, on a piece of undulating ground traversed by deep +gullies, and unadorned even by a solitary tree,--the only vegetation +sprouting out of its parched soil being a melancholy crop of weeds +interspersed with languid sunflowers. The disproportion between the +deaths of adults and those of children, which has been a subject for +comment by every writer on Mormonism, is peculiarly noticeable there. +Most of the graves are indicated only by rough boards, on which are +scrawled rudely, with pencil or paint, the names and ages of the dead, +and usually also verses from the Bible and scraps of poetry; but among +all the inscriptions it is remarkable that there is not a single +quotation from the "Book of Mormon." The graves are totally neglected +after the bodies are consigned to them. Nowhere has a shrub or a flower +been planted by any affectionate hand, except in one little corner of +the inclosure which is assigned to the Gentiles, between whose dust and +that of the Mormons there seems to exist a distinction like that which +prevails in Catholic countries between the ashes of heretics and those +of faithful churchmen. The mode of burial is singularly careless. A +funeral procession is rarely seen; and such instances are mentioned by +travellers as that of a father bearing to the grave the coffin of his +own child upon his shoulder. + +The interiors of the houses are as neat as could be expected, +considering the extent of the families. Very often, three wives, one +husband, and half-a-dozen children will be huddled together in a +hovel containing only two habitable rooms,--an arrangement of course +subversive of decency. Few people are able to purchase carpets, and +their furniture is of the coarsest and commonest kind. There are few, if +any, families which maintain servants. In that of Brigham Young, each +woman has a room assigned her, for the neatness of which she is herself +responsible;--Young's own chamber is in the rear of the office of the +President of the Church, upon the ground floor. The precise number +of the female inmates can often be computed from the exterior of the +houses. These being frequently divided into compartments, each with its +own entrance from the yard, and its own chimney, and being generally +only one story in height, the number of doors is an exact index to that +of residents. + +The domestic habits of the people vary greatly according to their +nativity. Of the forty-five thousand inhabitants of the Territory, at +least one-half are immigrants from England and Wales,--the scum of the +manufacturing towns and mining districts, so superstitious as to have +been capable of imbibing the Mormon faith,--though between what is +preached in Great Britain and what is practised in America there exists +a wide difference,--and so destitute in circumstances as to have been +incapable of deteriorating their fortunes by emigration. Possibly +one-fifth are Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. This allows a remainder of +three-tenths for the native American element. An Irishman or a German is +rarely found. Of the Americans, by far the greater proportion were born +in the Northeastern States; and the three principal characters in the +history of the Church--Smith, Young, and Kimball--all originated in +Vermont, but were reared in Western New York, a region which has been +the hot-bed of American _isms_ from the discovery of the Golden Bible to +the outbreak of the Rochester rappings. This American element maintains, +in all affairs of the Church, its natural political ascendency. Of the +twelve Apostles only one is a foreigner, and among the rest of the +ecclesiastical dignitaries the proportion is not very different. + +The Scandinavian Mormons are very clannish in their disposition. They +occupy some settlements exclusively, and in Salt Lake City there is one +quarter tenanted wholly by them, and nicknamed "Denmark," just as that +portion of Cincinnati monopolized by Germans is known as "over the +Rhine." Like their English and Welsh associates, they belonged to the +lowest classes of the mechanics and peasantry of their native countries. +They are all clownish and brutal. Their women work in the fields. +In their houses and gardens there is no symptom of taste, or of the +recollection of former and more innocent days; while in every cottage +owned by Americans there is visible, at least, a clock, or a pair of +China vases, or a rude picture, which once held a similar position in +some farm-house in New England. + +It is not intended to discuss here the cardinal points of the Mormon +faith, for the subject is too extensive for the limits of this article. +A great misapprehension, however, prevails concerning polygamy, that it +was one of the original doctrines of the Church. On the contrary, it was +expressly prohibited in the Book of Mormon, which declares:-- + +"Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which +thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. ... Wherefore hearken to +the word of the Lord: There shall not any man among you have save it +be one wife, and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, +delight in the chastity of women."--p. 118. + +Up to this date, there have been four eras in the history of polygamy +among the Mormons: the first, from about 1833 to 1843, during which it +was practised stealthily only by those Church leaders to whom it was +considered prudent to impart the secret; the second, from 1843 to 1852, +during which its existence was known to the Church, but denied to the +world; the third, from 1852 to 1856, during which it was left to the +discretion of individuals whether to adopt its practice or not; and the +fourth, since 1856, when its acceptance was inculcated as essential to +happiness in this world and salvation in the next. It was the inevitable +tendency of Mormonism, like every other religious delusion, from the +advent of John of Leyden to that of the Spiritualists, to disturb the +natural relation of the sexes under the Christian dispensation. The +mystery surrounding the subject constituted the most attractive charm of +the religion, both to the initiated and to those who were seeking to be +admitted to the secrets of the Endowment,--for the Endowed alone possess +the privilege of a plurality of wives. But until the community had +become firmly fixed in Utah, no one dared to justify or even to proclaim +the doctrine. At the time of the passage of the Organic Act of the +Territory, in the autumn of 1850, and repeatedly during the next +two years, prominent Mormons at Washington and New York denied its +existence, with the most solemn asseverations. It was on Sunday, August +29th, 1852, that it was openly avowed at Salt Lake City,--Brigham Young +on that day producing the copy of a revelation, pretended to have +been received by Smith on the 12th of July, 1843, which annulled +the monogamic injunctions of the Book of Mormon, and stating, that, +"although the doctrine of polygamy has not been preached by the elders, +the people have believed in it for years." Upon the same occasion, +another doctrine was urged,--that human beings upon earth propagate +merely bodies, the souls which inhabit them being begotten by spirits in +heaven. + +The number of the wives of many of the principal Mormons has been +greatly exaggerated. Attached to Young's establishment in Salt Lake +City, there are only sixteen. His first wife occupies the Mansion-House +exclusively, while the others are quartered in the Lion-House. Besides +these, he has probably fifty or sixty more, scattered all over the +Territory, and in the principal cities of the United States and of Great +Britain. His living children do not exceed thirty in number. Kimball's +wives, resident in Salt Lake City, are quite as numerous as Young's, and +his children even more so. Both of them aim to reproduce the domestic +life of the Biblical patriarchs; and within the squares which they +occupy their descendants dwell also, with their wives and progeny, all +of them acknowledging the control of the head of the family. The harems +of very few of the Church dignitaries approach these in magnitude. The +extent of the practice of polygamy cannot be determined by a residence +in Salt Lake City alone, for it is there that those Church officers +congregate whose wealth enables them to maintain large families. As +the traveller journeys northward or southward, he finds the instances +diminish in almost exact proportion to his remoteness from the central +ecclesiastical influence. There is even a sect of Mormons, called +Gladdenites, after their founder, one Gladden Bishop, who deny the +right of Young to supreme authority over the Church, and discountenance +polygamy. No computation of their number can be made, for few of them +dare avow their heresy, on account of the persecution which is the +invariable result. The leaders of this sect maintain that a majority of +the married men in Utah have but one wife each, and their assertion has +never been controverted. + +One of the most monstrous results of the practice is the indifference +with which an incestuous connection is tolerated. The cohabitation, with +the same man, of a mother, and her daughter by a previous marriage, is +not unfrequent; and there are other instances even more disgusting. One +or two of them will exemplify the character of the whole. One George D. +Watt, an Englishman, residing at Salt Lake City, has for his fourth +wife his own half-sister, who had been previously divorced from Brigham +Young; and one Aaron Johnson, the Bishop of the town of Springville, +on Lake Utah, has seven wives, four of whom are sisters, and his own +nieces. Young himself has declared in print, that he looks forward to +the time when his son by one wife shall marry his daughter by another. +Marriages also are effected with girls who are mere children. Accustomed +from their cradles to sights and sounds calculated to impart precocious +development, they mature rapidly, and few of them remain single after +attaining the age of sixteen. They look around for husbands, and +understand, that, if they marry young men and become first wives, in +course of time other wives will be associated with them; and they +conclude, therefore, that it is as well for themselves to unite with +some Bishop or High-Priest, with perhaps half-a-dozen wives already, who +is able to feed his family well and clothe them decently; so they plunge +into polygamy at once. Another result of the practice is universal +obscenity of language among both sexes. The published sermons of the +Mormon leaders are utterly vile in this respect, although they are +somewhat expurgated before being printed. They consider no language +profane from which the name of the Deity is exempted. + +There is, unquestionably, much unhappiness in families where polygamy +prevails,--daily bickering, jealousies, and heart-burnings,--but it +is carefully concealed from the knowledge of the public. If domestic +troubles become so aggravated as to be unendurable, recourse is usually +had to Brigham Young for a divorce. There are women in Salt Lake City +who have been married and divorced half-a-dozen times within a year. The +first wife maintains a supremacy over all the others. On the occasion +of her marriage, a civil magistrate usually officiates, and the rite of +"sealing" is afterwards administered by Young. By the civil process, +in the cant language of the Mormons, she is bound to her husband "for +time," and by the ecclesiastical solemnization "for eternity." Every +wife taken after the first is called a "spiritual," and is "sealed" +ecclesiastically only, not civilly. It follows, as a legitimate +consequence, that the first wife of one man "for time" may be the +"spiritual" wife of another man "for eternity." The power of sealing and +unsealing is vested in the Head of the Church, which, however, he may +and does assign, with certain limitations, to deputies. The ceremony is +performed in a room in the Mansion-House within Brigham's square, which +is furnished with an altar and kneelng-benches. In every instance of +divorce, the woman is supplied with a printed certificate of the fact, +for which a fee of ten or eleven dollars is exacted. When a polygamist +dies, it becomes the duty of his "next friend" to care for his wives. +Thus, when Young became the President of the Church, he succeeded to all +the widows of Joseph Smith. + +Every year some modification of the system is effected, which tends to +increase still further the confusion in the relations of the sexes. The +latest is the doctrine, (which, like polygamy in its earlier stages, is +believed, but not avowed,) that absence is temporary death, so far as +concerns the transference of wives. This is intended to apply to the two +or three hundred missionaries who are dispatched yearly to all parts +of the globe, from Stockholm to Macao. It is astonishing that these +missionary efforts, which have been pursued with unremitting zeal for +the last twenty years, should not have ingrafted upon Mormonism some +degree of that refinement which is supposed to result from travel. On +the contrary, they seem to have elaborated the natural brutality of the +Anglo-Saxon character; and especially with regard to polygamy, their +effect has been to acquaint the people of Utah with the grossest +features of its practice in foreign lands, and encourage them to +imitation. Every Mormon, prominent in the Church, however illiterate +in other respects, is thoroughly acquainted with the extent and +characteristics of polygamy in Asiatic countries, and prepared to defend +his own domestic habits, in argument, by historical and geographical +references. Not one of their missionaries has ever been admitted to +intercourse with the higher classes of European society. Their sphere +of labor and acquaintance has been entirely among those whom they would +term the lowly, but who might also be called the credulous and vulgar. +The abuse of a knowledge of the machinery of the Masonic order--from +which they have been formally excluded--is one of the least evil of +their practices, not only abroad, but at home. Of the Endowment, one +apostate Mormon has declared that "its signs, tokens, marks, and ideas +are plagiarized from Masonry"; and it was a notorious fact, that every +one of the Mormon prisoners at the camp at Fort Bridger was accustomed +to endeavor to influence the sentinels at the guard-tents by means of +the Masonic signs. + +This cursory review of the domestic condition of the Mormons would not +be complete without some allusion to the Indians who infest the whole +country. In the North, having their principal village at the foot of the +Wind River Mountains, in the southeastern corner of Oregon, is the tribe +of Mountain Snakes or Shoshonees, and the kindred tribe of Bannocks. +Throughout all the valleys south of Salt Lake City are the numerous +bands of the great tribe of Utahs. Still farther south are the Pyides. +The Snakes are superior in condition to any of the others; for, during +a portion of the year, they have access to the buffalo, which have not +crossed the Wahsatch Range into the Great Basin, within the recollection +of the oldest trapper. The only wild animals common in the country of +the Utahs are the hare, or "jackass-rabbit," the wild-cat, the wolf, and +the grizzly bear. There are few antelope or elk. Trout abound in the +mountain-brooks and in Lake Utah. In the Salt Lake, as in the Dead Sea, +there are no fish. Before the advent of the Mormons, the habits of all +the Utah bands were very degraded. No agency had been established among +them. They had few guns and blankets. For several years they were +engaged in constant hostilities with the people of the young and feeble +settlements,--their own method and implements of warfare improving +steadily all the while. Ultimately, however, the Mormons inaugurated a +system of Indian policy, which was highly successful. They propagated +their religion among the Utahs, baptized some of the most prominent +chiefs into the Church, fed and clothed them, and thereby acquired an +ascendency over most of the bands, which they attempted to use to the +detriment of the army during the winter of 1857-8, but without success. +Brigham Young, being vested with the superintendence of Indian affairs, +during his entire term of service as Governor, abused the functions of +that office. He taught the tribe, that there was a distinction between +"Americans" and "Mormons,"--and that the latter were their friends, +while they were free to commit any depredations on the former which +they might see fit. These infamous teachings were counteracted with +considerable success by Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, to whom allusion has +frequently been made; but it was impossible wholly to neutralize their +effect. Some of the Mormons even took squaws for spiritual wives; and in +all the settlements, from Provo to the Santa Clara, there are scores of +half-breed children, acknowledging half-a-dozen mothers, some white, +some red. The Utahs, though a beggarly, are a docile tribe. Several +Government farms have now been established among them, and they display +more than ordinary aptitude for work. But they require to be spurred to +regular labor. None of the charges which have been preferred against +the Mormons, of direct participation in the murder of Americans by +the Indians in the southern portion of the Territory, have ever been +substantiated by legal evidence; but no person can become familiar with +the relations which they sustain to those tribes, without attaching +to them some degree of credibility. The most noted instances were the +slaughter of Captain Gunnison and his exploring party, near Lake Sevier, +in October, 1853; and the horrible massacre of more than a hundred +emigrants on their way to California, at the Mountain Meadows, still +farther south, in September, 1857, from which only those children were +spared who were too young to speak. + +The history of events in Utah since the encamping of the army in Cedar +Valley and the return of the Mormons to the northern settlements is too +recent to need to be recounted. It has been established by satisfactory +experiments, that law is powerless in the Territory when it conflicts +with the Church. No Gentile, whose property was confiscated during the +rebellion, has yet obtained redress. The legislature refuses to provide +for the expenses of the District Courts while enforcing the Territorial +laws. The grand juries refuse to find indictments. The traverse juries +refuse to convict Mormons. The witnesses perjure themselves without +scruple and without exception. The unruly crowd of camp-followers, which +is the inseparable attendant of an army, has concentrated in Salt +Lake City, and is in constant contact and conflict with the Mormon +population. An apprehension prevails, day after day, that the presence +of the army may be demanded there to prevent mob-law and bloodshed. +The Governor is alien in his disposition to most of the other Federal +officers; and the Judges are probably already on their way to the +States, prepared to resign their commissions. The whole condition of +affairs justifies a prediction made by Brigham Young, June 17th, 1855, +in a sermon, in which he declared:-- + +"Though I may not be Governor here, my power will not be diminished. No +man they can send here will have much influence with this community, +unless he be the man of their choice. Let them send whom they will, it +does not diminish my influence one particle." + +The consequences of the Expedition, therefore, have not corresponded +to the original expectation of its projectors. So far as the political +condition of the Territory is concerned, the result, filtered down, +amounts simply to a demonstration of the impolicy of applying the +doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty as a rule for its government. The +administration of President Polk was an epoch in the history of +the continent. By the annexation of Texas a system of territorial +aggrandizement was inaugurated; and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by +which California, Utah, and New Mexico were acquired, was a legitimate +result. Every child knows that the tendency is toward the acquisition of +all North America. But the statesmen who originated a policy so +grand did not stop to establish a system of Territorial government +correspondent to its necessities. The character of such a Territorial +policy is now the principal subject upon which the great parties of +the nation are divided; and its development will constitute the chief +political achievement of the generation. On one side, it is proposed to +leave each community to work out its own destiny, trusting to Providence +for the result. On the other, it is contended, that the only safe +doctrine is, that supreme authority over the Territories resides in +Congress, which it is its duty to assign to such hands and in such +degrees as it may deem expedient, with a view to create homogeneous +States; that the same influences which moulded Minnesota into a State +homogeneous to Massachusetts might operate on Cuba, or Sonora and +Chihuahua, without avail; and that to various districts the various +methods should be applied which a father would employ to secure the +obedience and welfare of his children. + +At the very outset, the Territory of Utah now presents itself as a +subject for the application of the one system or the other. To all +intents and purposes, the Mormons are proved to be a people more foreign +to the population of the States than the inhabitants of Cuba or Mexico. +Alien in great part by birth, and entirely alien in religion, there +never can occur in the history of the country an instance of a community +harder to govern, with a view to adapt it to harmonious association +with the States on the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is undeniably +demonstrated that it is unsafe to trust it to administer a government in +accordance with republican ideas; for it acknowledges a higher law than +even the human conscience, in the will of a person whom it professes +to believe a vicegerent of Divinity, and in obedience to whom perjury, +robbery, incest, and even murder, may be justifiable,--for his commands +are those of Heaven. It is obvious that it is fruitless to anticipate +fair dealing from a people professing such doctrines; and the result has +shown, that, in transactions with Mormons, even under oath, no one who +does not acknowledge a standard of religious belief similar to their own +can count upon justice any farther than they may think it politic +to accord it. The army is, indeed, placed in a position to suppress +instantaneously another forcible outbreak; but everybody is aware that +there are means of annulling the operation of law quite as effectually +as by an uprising in arms. Recent proceedings in the courts of the +extreme Southern States have caused this fact to be keenly appreciated. +The pirates who sailed the slavers "Echo" and "Wanderer" yet remain to +be punished. So far as South Carolina and Georgia are concerned, the law +declaring the slave-trade piracy is a dead letter; and the sentiment +which prevails toward it in Charleston and Savannah is an imperfect +index of that which is manifested at Salt Lake City toward all national +authority. + +The legislation of Utah has been conducted with a view to precisely the +condition of affairs which now exists, and the Territorial statute-book +shows that the transfer of executive power from Brigham Young had long +been anticipated. It is impracticable to adduce, in this place, proof of +the fact _in extenso_; but a brief enumeration of some of the principal +statutes will indicate the character of the entire code. An act exists +incorporating the Mormon Church with power to hold property, both real +and personal, to an indefinite extent, exempt from taxation, coupled +with authority to establish laws and criteria for its safety, +government, comfort, and control, and for the punishment of all offences +relating to fellowship, according to its covenants. By this act the +Church is invested with absolute and perpetual sovereignty. Under it +the whole system of polygamy is conducted, for plural marriages are +sanctioned by the covenants; the Danite organization is authorized, for +it is instituted for the comfort and control of the Church, and the +punishment of offences relative to fellowship; the burden of the taxes +is thrown in a yearly increasing ratio upon Gentiles, for the Church +property exempted from taxation amounts already to several millions +of dollars, and increases every day; and the treasonable rites of the +Endowment are celebrated, and the inferior members of the Church tithed +and pillaged, for the benefit of the First Presidency and the Twelve +Apostles. Acts also exist legalizing negro and Indian slavery. There are +within the Territory at the present time not more than fifty or sixty +negroes, but there are several hundred Indians, held in servitude. +These are mostly Pyides, into whose country some of the Utah bands make +periodical forays, capturing their young women and children, whom they +sell to the Navajoes in New Mexico, as well as to the Mormons. There are +other acts, which rob the United States judges of their jurisdiction, +civil, criminal, and in equity, and confer it on the Probate Courts; +which forbid the citation of any reports, even those of the Supreme +Court of the United States, during any trial; which regulate the descent +of property so as to include the issue of polygamic marriages among the +legal heirs; which withdraw from exemption from attachment the entire +property of persons suspected of an intention to leave the Territory; +which authorize the invasion of domiciles for purposes of search, upon +the simple order of any judicial officer; which legalize the rendition +of verdicts in civil cases upon the concurrence of two-thirds of the +jurors; which command attorneys to present in court, under penalty +of fine and imprisonment, in all cases, every fact of which they are +cognizant, "whether calculated to make against their clients or not"; +which restrict the institution of proceedings against adulterers to the +husband or the wife of one of the guilty parties; which levy duties +on all goods imported into the Territory for sale; which abolish +the freedom of the ballot-box, by providing that each vote shall be +numbered, and a record kept of the names of the electors with the +numbers attached, which, together with the ballots, shall be preserved +for reference; and which empower the county courts to impose taxes to +an indefinite amount on whomsoever they may please, for the erection +of fortifications within their respective jurisdictions. But the most +extraordinary and unconstitutional series of acts--no less than sixty +in number--exists with regard to the primary disposal of the soil, with +which the Territorial legislature is expressly forbidden by the Organic +Act to interfere. These pretend to confer upon Church dignitaries, and +especially on Brigham Young and his family, tracts of land probably +amounting in the aggregate to more than ten thousand square miles, as +well as the exclusive right to establish bridges and ferries over the +principal rivers in the Territory,--together with the exclusive use of +those streams flowing down from the Wahsatch Mountains which are most +valuable for irrigating and manufacturing purposes. The virtual control +of the settlement of the eastern portion of Utah is thus vested in +the Church; for these grants include almost all the lands which are +immediately valuable for occupation. After a glance at a list of them, +it is not hard to understand the causes of the great disparity in the +distribution of wealth among the Mormons. They have been so allotted as +to benefit a very few at the expense of the whole people; and they are +protected by a terrorism which no one dares to confront in order to +challenge their validity. The majority of the population are ignorant +of their rights,--and too pusillanimous to maintain them against the +hierarchy, if they were not. They therefore contribute to its coffers +not merely their tithing, but heavy exactions also for grazing their +cattle on pastures to which they themselves have just as much title as +the nominal proprietors, and for grinding their grain and purchasing +their lumber at mills on streams which are of right common to all the +settlers on their banks. + +From the Utah Expedition, then, it has become patent to the world, if +it is not to ourselves, that the Mormons are unwilling to administer a +republican form of government, if not incapable of doing so. The author +of the letter recently addressed by "A Man of the Latin Race" to the +Emperor Napoleon, on the subject of French influence in America, +comments especially upon this fact as symptomatic of the disintegration +of this republic; and allusion is made to it in every other foreign +review of our political condition. It is obviously inconsistent with our +national dignity that a remedy should not be immediately applied; but +when we seek for such, only two courses of action are discernible, in +the maze of political quibbles and constitutional scruples that at once +suggest themselves. One is, to repeal the Organic Act and place the +Territory under military control; the other is, to buy the Mormons out +of Utah, offering them a reasonable compensation for the improvements +they have made there, as also transportation to whatever foreign region +they may select for a future abode. + +The embarrassments which might result from the adoption of the former +course are obvious. It would be attended with immense expense, and would +embitter the Mormons still more against the National Government; and +it would also deter Gentiles from emigrating to a region where three +thousand Federal bayonets would constitute the sole guaranty of the +security of their persons and property. + +The other course is not only practicable, but humane and expedient. +During his whole career, Brigham Young committed no greater mistake than +when he settled in Utah a community whose recruits are almost without +exception drawn from foreign lands; for, since the removal from +Illinois, every attempt to propagate Mormonism in the American States +has been a failure. Every avenue of communication with Utah is +necessarily obstructed. No railroad penetrates to within eleven hundred +miles of Salt Lake Valley. There is no watercourse within four hundred +miles, on which navigation is practicable. Neither the Columbia nor the +Colorado empties into seas bordered by nations from which the Mormons +derive accessions; and the length of a voyage up the Mississippi, +Missouri, and Yellowstone forbids any expectation that their channels +will ever become a pathway to the centre of the continent. The road to +Utah must always lead overland, and travel upon it is the more expensive +from the fact that no great passenger-transportation companies exist at +either of the termini. Each family of emigrants must provide its own +outfit of provisions, wagons, and oxen, or mules. Through the agency of +what is called the Perpetual Emigration Fund of the Church, the capital +of which amounts to several millions of dollars,--which was instituted +professedly to befriend, but really to fleece the foreign converts,--few +Englishmen arrive at Salt Lake City without having exhausted their own +means and incurred an amount of debt which it requires the labor of many +years to discharge. The physical sufferings of the journey, also, are +severe and often fatal. The bleak cemetery at Salt Lake City contains +but a small proportion of the Mormon dead. Along the thousand miles of +road from the Missouri River to the Great Lake, there stand, thicker +than milestones, memorials of those who failed on the way. A rough +board, a pile of stones, a grave ransacked by wolves, crown many a swell +of the bottom-lands along the Platte; and across the broad belt of +mountains there is no spot so desolate as to be unmarked by one of these +monuments of the march of Mormonism. + +As these difficulties of transit subside under the surge of population +toward the new State of Oregon, or to the gold-diggings on the +head-waters of the South Fork of the Platte, an element must permeate +Utah which would be fatal to the supremacy of the Church. That depends, +as has been so often repeated, upon isolation. Already the presence of +the army with its crowd of unruly dependents has begun to disturb it. +In the trail of the troops, like sparks shed from a rocket, a legion +of mail-stations and trading-posts have sprung up, which materially +facilitate communication with the East. A horseman, starting now from +Fort Leavenworth, with a good animal, can ride to Salt Lake City, +sleeping under cover every night; while in July, 1857, when the army +commenced its march from the frontier, there were stretches of more than +three hundred miles without a single white inhabitant. On the west, +under the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, there is a settlement of several +thousand Gentiles in Carson Valley, who, though nominally under the same +Territorial government with the Mormons, have no real connection with +them, politically, socially, or commercially, and are petitioning +Congress for a Territorial organisation of their own. A telegraphic wire +has already wound its way over the sierra among them, and will soon +palpitate through Salt Lake City in its progress toward the Atlantic. + +Brigham Young perceives this inevitable advance of Christian +civilization toward his stronghold, as clearly as the most unprejudiced +spectator. No one is better aware than himself, that, if the great +industrial conception of the age, the Pacific Railroad, shall ever begin +to be realized, the first shovelful of dirt thrown on its embankments +will be the commencement of the grave of his religion and authority. +Among the projects with which his brain is busy is that of yet another +exodus; and it must be undertaken speedily, if at all,--for a generation +is growing up in the Church with an attachment for the land in which it +was reared. The pioneers of the faith, who were buffeted from Ohio to +Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois to the Rocky +Mountains, are dwindling every year. Their migrations have been so +various, that no local sentiment would influence them against another +removal. Such a sentiment, if it exists at all among them, is not for +Utah, but for Missouri, where they believe that the capital will be +founded of that kingdom in which the Church in the progress of ages will +unite the world. They dropped upon the shores of the Salt Lake in 1847, +like birds spent upon the wing, only because they could not fly farther. + +Two regions have been suggested for the ultimate resort of the Mormons: +one, the Mosquito Coast in Central America; the other, the Island of +Papua or New Guinea, among the East Indies. During the winter, while +the army lay encamped at Fort Bridger, Colonel Kinney, the colonizing +adventurer, endeavored to communicate from the East to Brigham Young an +offer to sell to the Church several millions of acres of land on the +Mosquito Coast, of which he purports to be the proprietor. His agent, +however, reached no farther than Green River. But during the spring of +1858, other agents, dispatched from California, were more successful in +reaching Salt Lake Valley. They were hospitably received by the Mormons, +but Young declined to enter into the negotiation. The other scheme--that +for an emigration to Papua--originated at Washington during the same +winter. It was eagerly seized upon by Captain Walter Gibson, the same +who was once imprisoned by the Dutch in Java. He put himself into +communication on the subject with Mr. Bernhisel, the Mormon delegate +to Congress, who appeared to regard the plan with favor. After it +was developed, as a step preliminary to transmitting it to Utah for +consideration, Mr. Bernhisel waited upon the President of the United +States in order to ascertain whether the cooperation of the National +Government in the undertaking could be expected. The reply of Mr. +Buchanan was fatal to the project, which he discountenanced as a vague +and wild dream. + +Nevertheless, it may well be considered whether the movement toward Utah +appeared any less Quixotic in 1846 than does the idea of an emigration +to Papua now. On that island the Mormons would encounter no such +obstacles to material prosperity as their indomitable industry has +already conquered in Utah. They would find a fertile soil, a propitious +climate, and a native population which could be trained to docility. +Transplanted thither, they would cease to be a nuisance to America, and +would become benefactors to the world by opening to commerce a region +now valueless to Christendom, but of as great natural capacities as any +portion of the globe. The expense of their migration need not exceed +the amount already expended upon the Army of Utah, together with that +necessary to maintain it in its present position for the next five +years. Into the seats which they would relinquish on the border of +the Salt Lake a sturdy population would pour from the Valley of the +Mississippi, and develop an intelligent, Christian, and Republican +State. That portion of the Mormons which would not follow the fortunes +of the Church beyond the seas would soon become submerged, and the last +vestige of its religion and peculiar domestic life would disappear +speedily and forever from the continent. + +For that consummation, every genuine Christian must fervently pray. If +the Message in the Book of Mormon be, as one of its own Apostles has +asserted, indeed "such, that, if false, none who persist in believing it +can be saved," the sooner this nation washes its hands of responsibility +for its toleration, the better for its credit in history. The +Constitution, to be sure, denies to Congress the power to pass laws +prohibiting the free exercise of religion; but it is the most monstrous +nonsense to argue that the Federal Government is bound thereby to +connive at polygamy, perjury, incest, and murder. There are principles +of social order which constitute the political basis of every state in +Christendom, that are violated by the practices of the Mormon Church, +and which this Republic is bound to maintain without regard to any +pretence that their transgressors act in pursuance of religious belief. +Thirty years ago, no other doctrine would have occurred to the mind +of an American statesman. It is only the special-pleadings and +constitutional hair-splittings by which Slavery has been forced under +national protection, that now impede Congressional intervention in the +affairs of Utah. The Christian Church of the United States, also, has a +duty to perform toward the Mormons, which has long been neglected. While +its missionaries have been shipped by the score to India and China, it +has been blind to the growth, upon the threshold of its own temple, of a +pagan religion more corrupt than that of the Brahmin. Never once has a +Christian preacher opened his lips in the valleys of Utah; and yet the +surplice of a Christian priest would be a sight more portentous to the +Mormon, on his own soil, than the bayonet of the Federal soldier. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +The next day, Monroe went with the artist to good Mr. Holworthy, +and proposed to undertake the task of instructing a school. The +preliminaries were speedily arranged: he was to receive a small weekly +stipend, enough, with prudence, to meet his household expenses, and +was to commence at once. Both of the gentlemen accompanied him to the +quarter where his labor was to begin. A large room was hired in a +rickety and forlorn-looking house; the benches for the scholars and a +small desk and chair were the only furniture. And such scholars!--far +different from the delicate, curled darlings of the private schools. The +new teacher found his labor sufficiently discouraging. It was nothing +less than the civilization of a troop of savages. Everything was to be +done; manners, speech, moral instincts, were all equally depraved. They +were to be taught neatness, respect, truth-telling, as well as the usual +branches of knowledge. It was like the task of the pioneer settler in +the wilderness, who must uproot trees, drain swamps, burn briers and +brambles, exterminate hurtful beasts, and prepare the soil for the +reception of the seeds that are to produce the future harvest. We leave +him with his charge, while we attend to other personages of our story. + +Mr. Sandford and his sister, upon leaving their house, took lodgings, +and then began to cast about them for the means of support. The money on +which he had relied was gone. His credit was utterly destroyed, and he +had no hope of being reinstated in his former position. The only way +he could possibly be useful in the street was by becoming a curbstone +broker, a go-between, trusted by neither borrower nor lender, and +earning a precarious livelihood by commissions. Even in that position +he felt that he should labor under disadvantages, for he knew that his +course had been universally condemned. It was a matter of every-day +experience for him to meet old acquaintances who looked over him, or +across the street, or in at shop-windows, to avoid recognition. And the +half-patronizing, half-contemptuous nods he did receive were far worse +to bear than downright cuts. + +To a man out of employment, proscribed, marked, there is nothing so +terrible as the _impenetrability_ of the close ranks of society around +him. Every busy man seems to have found his place; each locks step with +his neighbor, and the vast procession moves on. Once out of the serried +order, the unhappy wretch can never resume his position. He finds +himself the fifth wheel of a coach; there is nothing for him to do,--no +place for him at the bountiful board where others are fed. He may starve +or drown himself, as he likes; the world has no use for him, and will +not miss him. What Sandford felt, as he walked along the streets, may +well be imagined. If he had not been supported by the indomitable +courage and assurance of his sister, he would have sunk to the level of +a pauper. + +One day, as he was passing a church, his eye was caught by a placard at +the door, inviting, in bold letters, "friend, stranger, or traveller +to enter, if but for a few minutes." It was a "business-men's +prayer-meeting." The novelty of the idea struck him; he was at leisure; +he had no notes to pay; anybody might fail, for aught he cared. He went +in, and, to his surprise, saw, among the worshippers, scores of his old +friends, engaged in devotion. Like himself, they had, many of them, +failed, and, after the loss of all temporal wealth, had turned their +attention to the "more durable riches." He fell into a profound +meditation, from which he did not recover until the meeting ended. + +The next day he returned, and the day following, also,--taking a seat +each time a little nearer the desk, until at last he reached the front +row of benches, where he was to be seen at every service. It is not +necessary to speculate upon his motives, or to conjecture how far +he deceived himself in his professions,--if, indeed, there was any +deception in the case. Let him have the benefit of whatever doubt there +may be. The leading religious men _hoped_, without feeling any great +confidence; the world, especially the business world, mocked and +derided. + +But piety, in itself, however heartfelt, does not clothe or feed its +possessor, and Mr. Sandford, even with that priceless gift, must find +some means of supplying his temporal wants. His new friends had plenty +of advice for him, and some of them would have been glad to furnish +him with employment; but none of them were so well satisfied with the +sincerity of his conversion as to trust him far. It was not to be +wondered, after his exploits on the day of his failure, that there +should be a reasonable shyness on the part of those who had money which +they could not afford or did not choose to give away. It was quite +remarkable to see the change produced when the subject was introduced. +Faces, that a few minutes before had shone with tearful joy or rapturous +aspirations, full of brotherly affection, would suddenly cool, and +contract, and grow severe, when Sandford broached the one topic that was +nearest to him. He found that there was no way of escaping from the +law of compensation by appropriating the results of other men's +labors,--that religion (very much to his disappointment) gave him no +warrant to live in idleness; therefore he was fain to do what he could +for himself. He tried to act as a curb-stone broker, as an insurance +agent, as an adjuster of marine losses and averages, as an itinerant +solicitor for a life-insurance company, as an accountant, and in various +other situations. All in vain. He was shunned like an escaped convict; +the motley suit itself would hardly have added to his disgrace. No one +put faith in him or gave him employment,--save in a few instances, for +charity's sake. Few men can brave a city; and Sandford, certainly, was +not the man to do it. The scowling, or suspicious, or contemptuous, +pitying glances he encountered smote him as with fiery swords. He +quailed; he cowered; he dropped his eyes; he acquired a stooping, +shambling gait. The man who _feels_ that he is looked down upon grows +more diminutive in his own estimation, until he shrinks into the place +which the world assigns him. So Sandford shrunk, until he crept through +the streets where once he had walked erect, and earned a support as +meagre and precarious as the more brazen-faced and ragged of the great +family of mendicants, to which he was gravitating. + +Mendicants,--an exceeding great army! They do not all knock at +area-doors for old clothes and broken victual, nor hold out hats at +street-crossings, nor expose sharp-faced babies to win pity, nor send +their infant tatterdemalions to torture the ears of the wealthy with +scratchy fiddles and wheezing accordions. No, these plagues of society +are only the extreme left wing; the right wing is a very respectable +class in the community. The party-leader who makes his name and +influence serve him in obtaining loans which he never intends to +pay,--shall we call him a beggar? It is an ugly word. The parasite +who makes himself agreeable to dinner-givers, who calculates upon his +accomplishments as a stock in trade, intending that his brains shall +feed his stomach,--what is he, pray? It is ungracious to stigmatize +such a jolly dog. The woman whose fingers are hooped with rings won +in wagers which gallantry or folly could not decline, who is ready by +_philopaena_, or even by more direct suggestions, to lay every beau or +acquaintance under contribution,--is she a beggar, too? It is a long +way, to be sure, from the girl with scanty and draggled petticoat and +tangled hair, picking out lumps of coal from ash-heaps, or carrying home +refuse from the tables of the rich,--a long way from that squalid object +to the richly-cloaked, furred, bonneted, jewelled, flaunting lady, whose +friends are all _so_ kind. + +But the most charitable must feel a certain degree of pity, if not of +scorn, for those who, like Mr. and Miss Sandford, contrive to wear the +outward semblance of respectability, boarding with fashionable people +and wearing garments _a la mode_, while they have neither fortune nor +visible occupation. Miss Sandford, to be sure, had a few pupils in +music,--young friends, who, as she averred, "insisted upon practising +with her, although she did not profess to give lessons," not she. Still +her toilet was as elegant as ever. The first appearance of a new style +of cloak, a new pattern of silk or embroidery, new ribbons, laces, +jewelry, might be observed, as she took her morning promenade. The +dealers in rich goods, elegant trifles, costly nothings, all knew her +well. Whatever satisfied her artistic taste she purchased. To see was to +desire, and, in some way, all she coveted tended by a magical attraction +to her rooms. "Society" frowned upon her; she went to no receptions in +the higher circles, but she had no lack of associates for all that. +At concerts and other public assemblages, her brilliant figure and +irreproachable costume were always to be seen,--the admiration of men, +the envy of women. Nor was she without gallants. Gentlemen flocked about +her, and seemed only too happy in her smiles; but it never happened that +their wives or sisters joined in their attentions. On fine days, as she +came out for a walk, she was sure to be accompanied by some person whose +dress and manners marked him as belonging to the wealthy classes; and +at such times it generally happened,--according to the scandal-loving +shopkeepers,--that the last new book, the little "love" of a ring, or +the engraved scent-bottle was purchased. + +An odd affair is Society. At its outposts are flaming swords for women, +though invisible to other eyes; men can venture without the lines, if +they only return at roll-call. Let a woman receive or visit one of the +_demi-monde_, (the technical use of the word is happily inapplicable +here,) and she might as well earn her living by her own labor, or do +any other disreputable thing; but her brother may pay court to the most +doubtful, and mothers will only shake their heads and say, "He _must_ +sow his wild oats; he'll get over all that by-and-by." + +So the beauty was still queen in her circle, and found admirers in +plenty. Perhaps she even enjoyed the freedom; for, to a woman of spirit, +the constraints of _taboo_ must be irksome at times. Not the Brahmin, +who fears to tread upon sole-leather from the sacred cow, and dares +not even think of the flavor of her forbidden beef, who keeps himself +haughtily aloof from the soldier and the trader, and walks sunward from +the pariah, lest the polluting shadow fall on his holy person, has a +more difficult and engrossing occupation than the woman of fashion, in +a country where the distinctions of rank are so purely factitious as in +ours. Miss Sandford's time was now her own; she was accountable to no +supervisor. Her brother was a cipher. He did not venture to intrude upon +her, except at seasons when she was at leisure, and in a humor to be +bored by him. Perhaps she looked back regretfully, but, as far as could +be told by her manner, she carried herself proudly, with the air of one +who says,-- + + "Better reign in hell than serve in heaven." + +The observant reader has doubtless wondered before this, that Mr. +Sandford did not, in his emergency, apply to his old clerk, Fletcher, +for the money in exchange for the peculiar obligation of which mention +has been made. It is presuming too much upon Mr. Sandford's stupidity +to suppose that the idea had not frequently occurred to him. But he was +satisfied that Fletcher was one of the few who were making money in this +time of general distress, and that with every day's acquisition the +paper became more valuable; therefore, as it was his last trump, he +preferred to play it when it would sweep the board; and he was willing +to live in any way until the proper time came. Not so easy was Fletcher. +Several times he attempted to pay the claim, so that he could once more +hold his head erect as a free man. But Sandford smiled blandly; "he was +in no hurry," he said; "Mr. Fletcher evidently had money, and was good +for the amount." Poor Fletcher!--walking about with a rope around his +neck,--a long rope now, and slack,--but held by a man who knows not what +pity means! + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +Greenleaf pursued his search for Alice with all the ardor of his nature. +One glimpse only he had of her;--at a clothing-store, where he inquired, +the clerk seemed to recognize the description given, and was quite +sure that such a girl had taken out work, but he knew nothing of +her whereabouts, and he believed she was now employed by another +establishment. It was something to know that she was in the city, and, +probably, not destitute; still better to know what path of life she had +chosen, so that his time need not be wasted in fruitless inquiries. +On his return, after the second day's search, he sought his friend +Easelmann, whose counsel and sympathy he particularly desired. + +"Any tidings of the fugitive?" was the first question. + +"No," replied Greenleaf,--"nothing satisfactory. I have heard of her +once; but it was like a trail in the woods, which the hunter comes upon, +then loses utterly." + +"But the hunter who measures a track once will be likely to find it +again." + +"Yes, I have that consolation. But, Easelmann, though this mishap of +losing Alice has cost me many sleepless nights, and will continue to +engross my time until I find her, I cannot rid myself of other troubles +and apprehensions. I have done nothing for a long time. I have no +orders; and, as I have no fortune to fall back upon, I see nothing but +starvation before me." + +"Then, my dear fellow, look the other way. It isn't wise to distress +yourself by looking ahead, so long as you have the chance of turning +round." + +"I feel lonely, too,--isolated. People that I meet are civil enough; +but I don't know a man, except in my profession, that I can consider a +friend." + +"Very likely. Caste isn't confined to India." + +"I had supposed that intellect and culture were enough to secure for +a man a recognition in good society; but I am made to feel, a hundred +times a day, that I have no more _status_ than a clever colored man, an +itinerant actor, or any other anomaly. To-day I met Travis; you know he +comes here and makes himself free and easy with us, and has always put +himself on a footing of equality." + +"Wherein you made a mistake. He has no right, but by courtesy, to +any equality. A little taste, perhaps, and money enough to gratify +it,--that's all. He never had an idea in his life." + +"That is the reason I felt the slight. He was walking with a lady whose +manner and dress were unmistakable,--a lady of undoubted position. I +bowed, and received in return one of those hardly-perceptible nods, with +a forced smile that covered only the side of his face _from_ the lady. +It was a recognition that one might throw to his boot-black. I am a +mild-mannered man, as you know; but I could have murdered him on the +spot." + +Greenleaf walked the floor with flashing eyes and his teeth set. + +"Now, I like the spirit," said Easelmann; "but, pray, be sensible. +'Where Macdonald sits, there is the head of the table.' Stand firm in +your own shoes, and graduate your bows by those you get." + +"I suppose I am thin-skinned." + +"As long as you are, you will chafe. Cultivate a hide like a +rhinoceros's, and Society will let fly its pin-pointed arrows in vain. +You have a great deal to learn, my dear boy." + +"But other special classes are not so treated,--literary men, for +instance." + +"Don't be too sure of that. An author who has attained position is +_feted_, because the fashionable circles must have their lions. But to +stand permanently like other men, he must have money or family, or else +obey the world's ten commandments, of which the first is, 'Thou shalt +not wear a slouched hat,'--and the rest are like unto it. No,--the +literary men have their heart-burnings, I suspect. They forget, as you +do, that their very profession, the direction of their thoughts, their +mode of life, cut them off from sympathy and fellowship. What has a +writer who dreams of rivalling Emerson or the 'Autocrat' to do with +costly and absorbing private theatricals, with dances at Papanti's, with +any of the thousand modes of killing time agreeably? And how shall you +become the new Claude, if you give your thoughts to the style of your +clothes, and to the inanities that make up the staple of conversation?" + +"But because I am precluded from devoting my time to society, that is no +reason why I should bear the patronizing airs"---- + +"Don't be patronized,--that's all. If a man gives you such a look as +you have described, cut him dead the next time you meet him. If anybody +gives you two fingers to shake, give him only one of yours. I tried that +plan on a doctor of divinity once, and it worked admirably. His intended +condescension somehow vanished in a mist, and the foolish confusion that +overspread his blank features would have done you good to behold." + +"I have no doubt. I don't think it would be easy to be impertinent to +you. Not that there are not presuming people enough; but you have a +way with you. Your blade that cuts off a bayonet at a blow will glide +through a feather as well." + +"A delicate stroke of yours! Now to return. You are out of money, you +say. Perhaps you will allow me to become your creditor for a while. I +may presume upon the relation and take on some airs;--that's inevitable; +one can't forego such a privilege;--but I promise to bow very civilly +whenever I meet you; and I won't remind you of the debt--above twice a +day." + +Taking out his pocket-book, he handed his friend fifty dollars, and +_pshawed_ and _poohed_ at every expression of gratitude. + +"By the way, Greenleaf," he continued, "I have been in search of an +absconding female also. You remember Mrs. Sandford, the charming widow?" + +"Yes,--what has become of her?" + +"You see how philosophical I am. I have not seen her yet; and yet I am +not crazy about it. Some chickens think the sky is falling, whenever a +rose-leaf drops on their heads." + +"But you have no such reason to be anxious." + +"Haven't I? Do you think old fellows like me have lost recollection as +well as feeling? One of the most deadly cases of romance I ever knew was +between people of forty and upwards." + +"How dull I was! I saw some rather odd glances between you at the +musical party, but thought nothing more about it. But why haven't you +been looking for her?" + +"I have been cogitating," said Easelmann, twisting his moustaches. + +"I should think so. If you had asked me, now! I went with her to the +house where I suppose she is still boarding." + +"Did you?" [_very indifferently, and with the falling inflection._] + +"Why, don't you want to know?" + +"Yes,--to-morrow. And I think, that, when we find her, we may find a +clue to your Alice." + +Greenleaf started up as if he had been galvanized. + +"You _have_ seen her, then! You old fox! Where is she? To-morrow, +indeed! Tell me, and I will fly." + +"You can't; for, as Brother Chadband observed, you haven't any wings." + +"Don't trifle with me. I know your fondness for surprises; but if you +love me, don't put me off with your nonsense." + +Greenleaf was thoroughly in earnest, and Easelmann took a more +soothing tone. At another time the temptation to tease would have been +irresistible. + +"Be calm, you man of gunpowder, steel, whalebone, and gutta-percha! I +positively have nothing but guesses to give you. Besides, do you think +you have nothing to do but rush into Alice's arms when you find her? +Take some valerian to quiet your nerves, and go to bed. In the morning, +try to smooth over those sharp features of yours. Use rouge, if you +can't get up your natural color. When you are presentable, come over +here again, and we'll stroll out in search of adventure. But mind, I +promise nothing,--I only guess." + +While he spoke, Greenleaf looked into the mirror, and was surprised to +see how anxiety had worn upon him. His face was thin and bloodless, and +his eyes sunken, but glowing. The quiet influence of his friend calmed +him, and his impatience subsided. He took his leave silently, wringing +Easelmann's hand, and walked home with a lighter heart. + +"He is a good fellow," mused Easelmann, "and has suffered enough for his +folly. The lesson will do him good." + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Mr. Bullion was not without good natural impulses, but his education and +experience had been such as to develop only the sharp and selfish traits +of his character. An orphan at the age of eleven years, he was placed +in a shop under the charge of a grasping, unscrupulous man, where he +learned the rules of business which he followed afterwards with so much +success. The old-fashioned notions about the Golden Rule he was speedily +well rid of; for when his indiscreet frankness to customers was +observed, the rod taught him the folly of untimely truth-telling, if not +the propriety of smoothing the way to a bargain by a glib falsehood. +With such training, he grew up an expert salesman; and before he was of +age, after various changes in business, he became the confidential clerk +in a large wholesale house. Owing to unexpected reverses, the house +became embarrassed, and at length failed. The head of the firm went back +to his native town a broken-hearted man, and not long afterwards died, +leaving his family destitute. But Bullion, with a junior partner, +settled with the creditors, kept on with the business, and prospered. +Perhaps, if the widow had received what was rightfully hers, the juniors +would have had a smaller capital to begin upon,--Bullion knew; but the +account, if there was one, was past settlement by human tribunals, and +had gone upon the docket in the great Court of Review. + +Wealth grows like the banian, sending down branches that take root on +all sides in the thrifty soil, and then become trunks themselves, and +the parents of ever-increasing boughs,--a sturdy forest in breadth, a +tree in unity. So Bullion grew and flourished. At the time of our story +he was rich enough to satisfy any moderate ambition; but he wished to +rear a colossal fortune, and the operations he was now concerned in +were fortunate beyond his expectations. But he was not satisfied. He +conceived the idea of carrying on the same stock-speculation in New +York on a larger scale, and made an arrangement with one of the leading +"bears" of that city; but he was careful to keep this a secret, most of +all from Fletcher and others of his associates at home. Fortune favored +him, as usual, and he promised himself a success that would make him a +monarch in the financial world. Under the excitement of the moment, he +had filled the baby hands of Fletcher's child with gold pieces. It was +as Fletcher said; his head was fairly turned by the glittering prospect +before him. + +The associate in New York proposed to Bullion the purchase of a +controlling interest in a railroad; and Bullion, believing that the +depression had nearly reached its limit, and that affairs would soon +take a turn, agreed that it was best now to change their policy, and to +buy all the shares in this stock that should be offered while the price +was low, and keep them as an investment. He felt sure that he with the +New York capitalist had now money enough to "swing" all the shares in +market, and they each agreed to purchase all that should be brought +to the hammer in their respective cities. Following up his promise +faithfully, Bullion bought all the stock of the railroad that came into +State Street, and in this way rapidly exhausted his ready money. Then he +raised loans upon his other property, and still kept the market clear. +But he wondered that so many shares came to Boston for sale; for the +railroad was in a Western State, and few of the original holders were +New England men. + +Bullion now met the first check in his career. Kerbstone, whose appeals +for help he had disregarded, and whose property had been wofully +depreciated by the course of the "bears," of whom Bullion was chief, +failed for a large sum. As he was treasurer of the Neversink Mills, +the stockholders and creditors of that corporation made an immediate +investigation of its accounts. Kerbstone was found to be a defaulter +to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars; the property was +gone,--undermined like a snow-bank in spring. The largest owner was +Bullion. He was overreached by his own shrewdness; and the hitherto +unlucky "bulls," who had had small cause to laugh, thought that it was + + "sport to see the engineer + Hoist with his own petard,"-- + +better even than to have tossed him on their own horns. + +Bullion made some wry faces; but the loss, though great, was not +ruinous. He was obliged, however, to take back the shares of the +factory-stock on which he had obtained loans for his New York +operations, and to substitute an equal amount of other securities,--thus +cramping his resources at a time when he needed every dollar to carry +out his vast plans. + +In the multiplicity of his affairs, Bullion had almost forgotten +Fletcher, and left him to pursue his own course. But there was a man who +had not forgotten him, and who followed all his movements with vigilant +eyes. Sandford was convinced that Fletcher had in some way become +prosperous, and he now advanced to use the peculiar note as a draft on +the miserable debtor's funds. There was the same wily approach, the same +covert allusion to Fletcher's supposed resources, the same peremptory +demand, and the same ugly threat which had so desperately maddened him +when the subject was broached before. Fletcher felt the tightening of +the lasso, but could not free himself from the fatal noose. He must pay +whatever the cold-eyed creditor demanded. Two thousand dollars was the +sum asked for the acknowledgment of having appropriated five hundred. +Twopence for halfpenny has been accounted fair usury among the Jews; but +in Christian communities it is only crime that accumulates interest like +that. + +As a measure of precaution, Sandford had made a copy of the paper and +prepared an explanatory statement; these he now inclosed in an envelope, +in Fletcher's presence, and directed it to Messrs. Foggarty, Danforth, +and Dot. Then drawing out his watch, as if to make a careful computation +of time, he said,-- + +"Nine, ten, eleven,--yes,--at eleven, to-morrow, I shall expect to +receive the sum; otherwise I shall feel it my duty to send this letter +by a trusty hand. In fact, I suppose I have hardly done right in not +putting the gentlemen on their guard before." + +A cold sweat covered Fletcher's shivering limbs, and for a moment he +stood irresolute; but recollecting Bullion, he rallied himself, and, +assenting to the proposition, bade Sandford good-bye; then, as the only +revenge practicable, he cursed him with the heartiest emphasis, when +his back was turned. Presently Tonsor came with the news of Kerbstone's +failure. + +"The street is full of rumors," he said;--"Bullion is a large owner in +the Neversink." + +"Bosh!" said Fletcher,--"Bullion is in there for fifty thousand, to be +sure; but what is that? He has other property enough,--half a million, +at least." + +"Still, a pebble brought down Goliath. A house in New York, worth a +million, failed yesterday for want of twenty-five thousand." + +"Don't you be alarmed. Bullion knows. He isn't going to fail." + +"I want to get ten thousand from him to take some shares I bought for +him." + +"How soon?" + +"Now; and he is not at his office." + +"I'll get you the money from our house. I haven't deposited the funds +for to-day yet, and I'll put in a memorandum which Bullion will make +good." + +"Hadn't you better wait?" + +"No; it doesn't matter. He's all right; and it isn't best to break his +orders for any ten thousand dollars." + +Fletcher handed the money to the broker, and, as bank-hours were then +about over, he put his papers in order and went home. + +"Lovey!" he exclaimed, upon meeting his wife, "I have been thinking +over what you said about getting my notes cashed. I believe I'll take +Bullion's offer and salt the money down. Probably, now, he will give me +a better trade, for there is considerable more due." + +"Oh, John! how glad I am! You _will_ do it to-morrow,--won't you, now?" + +"Yes, I'll settle with him to-morrow." + +He was thinking of the fact that Tonsor had bought shares for Bullion, +and he wondered what the move meant. A house divided against itself +could not stand; and he said to himself, that a man must be uncommonly +deep to be a "bull" and a "bear" at the same time. There was no doubt +that Bullion had embarked in some speculation which he had not seen fit +to make known to his agent. + +"There you go,--off into one of your fogs again!" said the wife, +noticing his suddenly abstracted air. "That's the way you have done for +the last three months,--ever since you began with that hateful man." + +"I get to thinking about affairs, my little woman, and I don't want to +bother your simple head with them; so I go cruising off in the fog, as +you call it, by myself." + +"Oh, if you once get through with that man's affairs, we'll have no more +fogs!" + +"No, deary, we'll have summer weather and a smooth sea, I hope, for the +rest of our voyage." + +"You see, John, I have been dreadfully anxious, more than I could tell +you. If anything goes wrong, I've always noticed that it isn't the big +people that have to suffer; it's the smaller ones that get caught." + +"Yes, it's an old story; the big flies break out of the spider's net; +the little chaps hang there. But I'll settle up the business to-morrow. +I shall have enough to buy us a little house in the country,--a snug +box, with a garden; then I'll get a horse to drive about with, and we'll +take some comfort. Come, little woman, sit on my knee! Come, baby, here +is a knee for you, too!" + +Holding them in his arms, he still mused upon the morrow, and once and +again charged his mind to remember "two thousand for Sandford, ten +thousand for Danforth and Dot!" + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Alice did not feel the utter loneliness of her situation, until, as she +walked along, square after square, she encountered so many hundreds of +abstracted or curious or impudent faces, and reflected that it was upon +such people that her future support and comfort would depend. She tried +to discover in some countenance the impress of kindly benevolence;--not +that she proposed to risk so much as a question; but it was her first +experience with the busy world, and she wished to observe its ways, +when neither relationship nor personal interest was involved. Small +encouragement she would have felt to approach any that she met. Men of +middle-age walked by as in dreams, cold, unobservant, listless; the +younger ones, fuller of life, strode on with high heads, and flinging +glances that were harder to bear than stony indifference, even. Ladies +clothed in costly furs scanned the pretty face under the mourning bonnet +with prying eyes, or tossed her a hasty, scornful look. Shop-girls +giggled and stared. Boys rushed by, rudely jostling every passenger. +Old women in scanty petticoats that were fringed by no dressmaker, with +pinched faces and watery eyes, looked imploringly and hobbled along, +wrapping parcels of broken victual under their faded shawls.--A sorry +world Alice thought it. In the country, she had been used to receive a +kindly bow or a civil "Good-morning!" from every person she met; and the +isolation of the individual in the city was to her something unnatural, +even appalling. + +She had cut out some boarding-house advertisements from the daily +papers, and her first care was to find a home suited to her slender +means. Reaching the door of the first on her list, she rang and was +shown into a small drawing-room, shabby-genteel in its furniture and +ornaments. Two seamstresses sat chattering around the centre-table; +while a ruddy young man, with greenish brown moustaches and sandy hair, +rested his clumsy boots on the fender, holding an open music-book in his +lap and a flute in his ill-kept and gaudily-ringed hands. The kitchen, +apparently, was not ventilated; and a mingled odor, beyond the analysis +of chemistry, came up into the entry and pervaded the hot and confined +atmosphere of the room. The landlady, a stout and resolute woman, +entered with a studied smile, which changed gradually to a cold +civility. Her eyes, unlike Banquo's, had a deal of speculation in them. +One might read the price-current in the busy wrinkles. Around her +pursed-up mouth lurked the knowledge of the number of available slices +in a sirloin,--the judgment of the lump of butter that should leave no +margin for prodigality. Warfare with market-men, shrewish watchfulness +over servants, economy scarcely removed from meanness at the table, all +were clearly indicated in her flushed and hard-featured face. + +Alice was not familiar with such people; but she shrank from her by +instinct, as the first chicken fled from the first hawk. The landlady, +on her part, was equally suspicious, and, finding that Alice had no +relatives to depend upon, and that she expected to earn her own living, +was not at all solicitous to increase the number of her boarders. + +"It's pootty hard to tell who's who, now-a-days," she said. "I have to +pay cash for all I set on the table, and I can't trust to fair promises. +Perhaps, though, you've got some _cousin_ that looks arter your bills?" + +The flute-player exchanged knowing glances with the seamstresses. + +All-unconscious of the taunt, Alice simply replied,-- + +"No, I have told you that I have no one to depend upon." + +The landlady's mouth was primly set, and she merely exclaimed,-- + +"Oh! indeed!" + +"I think I'll look further," said Alice. "Good-morning." + +"Good-morning." + +Half-suppressed chuckles followed her, as she left the room. Sorely +grieved and indignant, she took her way to another house. Fortune this +time favored her. The landlady, a kind-hearted woman, was in mourning +for her only daughter, and with the first words she heard she felt +her heart drawn to the lovely and soft-voiced stranger. Without any +offensive inquiries, Alice was at once received, and an upper room +assigned to her. After sending for her trunk, she dressed for dinner. + +The table presented specimens of all the familiar characters of +boarding-house life. There was the lawyer, sharp, observant, talkative, +ready for a joke or an argument. There was the solemn man of business, +who ate from a sense of duty, and scowled at the lawyer's bad puns. Near +him, with an absurdly youthful wig and opaque goggles, sat the Unknown; +his name, occupation, resources, and tastes alike a profound mystery. +Several dapper clerks, whose right ears drooped from having been used as +pen-racks, wearing stunning cravats, _outre_ brooches and shirt-studs, +learned in the lore of "two-forty" driving, were ranged opposite. Then +there was the jolly widow, who was the admiration of men of her own age, +but who cruelly gave all her smiles to the boys with newly-sprouting +chins. Near her sat the fastidious man, whose nostrils curled ominously +when any stain appeared on his napkin, or when anything sullied the +virgin purity of his own exclusive fork. His spectacles seemed to serve +as microscopes, made for the sole purpose of detecting some fatal speck +invisible to other eyes. There was the singer, with a neck like +a swan's, bowing with the gracious air that is acquired in the +acknowledgment of bouquets and _bravas_. The artist was her _vis-a-vis_, +powerful like Samson in his bushy locks, negligent with fore-thought, +wearing a massive seal-ring, and fragrant with the perfume of countless +pipes. The nice old maid near him turns away in disgust when she sees +his moustaches draggle in the soup. + +Down the long row of faces Alice looked timidly, and at length fastened +her eyes upon a lady in mourning like herself. There is no physiognomist +like the frank, affectionate young man or woman who looks to find +appreciation and sympathy. It is not necessary, for such a purpose, to +speculate upon Grecian or Roman noses, thin or protruding lips, blue, +gray, or brown eyes; each soul knows its own sphere and the people that +belong in it; and a sure instinct or prescience guides us in our choice +of friends. Alice at a glance became conscious of an affinity, and +quietly waited till circumstances should bring her into associations +with the woman whom she hoped to make a friend. + +It was not long before the occasion came. Not to make any mystery, it +was our old acquaintance, Mrs. Sandford, who attracted the gaze of +Alice, and who soon became her kindly adviser. Never was there a more +_motherly_ woman; and, as she was now almost a stranger in the house, +she attached herself to Alice with a warmth and an unobtrusive +solicitude that quite won the girl's heart. Alice lost no time in +procuring such work from a tailor as she felt competent to do, and +applied herself diligently to her task; but a very short trial convinced +her, that, at the "starvation prices" then paid for needlework, she +should not be able to earn even her board. Then came in the thoughtful +friend, who, after gently drawing out the facts of the case, furnished +her with sewing on which she could display her taste and skill. Day +after day new employment came through the same kind hands, until Alice +wondered how one wearer could want such a quantity of the various +nameless, tasteful articles in which all women feel so much pride. +It was not until long after, that she learned how the work had been +procured by her friend's active, but noiseless agency. + +Not many days after their intimacy commenced, as Mrs. Sandford sat +watching Alice at her work, it occurred to her that there was a look of +tender sorrow, an unexplained melancholy, which her recent bereavement +did not wholly account for. Not that the girl was given to romantic +sighs or tragic starts, or that she carried a miniature for lachrymose +exercises; but it was evident that she had what we term "a history." She +was frank and cheerful, although there was palpably something kept +back, and her cheerfulness was like the mournful beauty of flowers that +blossom over graves. No sympathetic nature could refuse confidence to +Mrs. Sandford, and it was not long before she discovered that Alice had +passed through the golden gate to which all footsteps tend, and from +which no one comes back except with a change that colors all the after +life. + +"And so you are in love, poor child!" said Mrs. Sandford, +compassionately. + +"I have been" (with a gentle emphasis). + +"Ah, you think you are past it now, I suppose?" + +"I sha'n't _forget_ soon,--I could not, if I would; but love is +over,--gone like yesterday's sunshine." + +"But the sun shines again to-day." + +"Well, if you prefer another comparison," said Alice, smiling +faintly,--"gone out like yesterday's fire." + +"Fire lurks a long time in the ashes unseen, my dear." + +Alice dropped her needle and looked steadily at her companion. + +"I am young," she said; "yet I have outgrown the school-girl period. +The current of my life has flowed in a deep channel: the shallow little +brook may fancy its first spring-freshet to be a Niagara; but my +feelings have swelled with no transient overflow. I gave my utmost love +and devotion to a man I thought worthy. He treated me with neglect, and +at last falsified his word in offering his hand to another, I do not +hate him. I have none of that alchemy which changes despised love to +gall. But I could never forgive him, nor trust him again. And if he, +who seemed always so frank, so earnest, so tender, so single in his +aims,--if he could not be trusted, I do not know where I could rest my +heart and say,--'Here I am safe, whatever betide!'" + +It was a strange thing for Alice to speak in such an exalted strain, and +she trembled as she tried to resume her sewing. The thread slipped and +knotted; the needle broke and pricked her finger; and then, feeling her +cheeks begin to glow, she laid down her work and turned to the window. + +"Don't lose _all_ faith, Alice; there are true hearts in the world. +Perhaps this lover of yours, now, has repented and is striving to find +you. Or you may have been misinformed as to the extent of his treachery. +To take your own simile, you don't accuse the brook of fickleness merely +because it eddies around under some flowery bank; after it has made the +circle, it keeps on its steady course." + +Alice only shook her head, still keeping her face averted to conceal the +tremor of her lips. + +"But you haven't told me who this man is. How odd it would be, if I knew +him!" + +"I would rather not have you know. The secret isn't a fatal one, to be +sure; but I prefer to keep it." + +Suddenly she stepped back from the window, ashy pale, and gasping +hysterically. Mrs. Sandford rose hastily to assist her, and, as she +did so, noticed her old acquaintance, Mr. Greenleaf, on the opposite +sidewalk. She helped Alice to her seat and brought her a glass of +water, and, as she did so, in an instant the long track of the past was +illumined as by a flash of lightning. She saw the reason for Greenleaf's +conduct towards her sister-in-law, Marcia. She remembered his early +fascination, his long, vacillating resistance, his brief engagement, and +the stormy scene when it was broken. She had seen the thread of Fate +spun for each, without knowing that invisible strands connected them. +She had begun to read a tale of sorrow, but the page was torn, and now +she had finished it upon the chance-found fragment; the irregular and +jagged edges fitted together like mosaic-work. + +What a mystery is Truth! A Lie may simulate its form or hue, and, taken +by itself, may deceive the most acute observer. But in the affairs of +the world, every fact is related; it meets and is joined by other facts +on every side,--the whole forming an harmonious figure in all its angles +and curves as well as in its gradations of color. Each truth slips +easily into its predestined place; a lie, however trivial, has no place; +its angles are belligerent, its colors false; it makes confusion, and is +thrown out as soon as the eye of the Master falls upon it. + +Alice revived. + +"Did I speak?" she asked. + +"No,--you said nothing." + +"I am glad. I feared I had been foolish. It was a mere passing +faintness." + +Mrs. Sandford thought it was the _cause_ of the faintness that was +passing, but she prudently kept her discovery to herself. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Fletcher rose next morning betimes, after a night of fitful and +unrefreshing slumber. In his dreams he had sought Bullion in vain; that +substantial person seemed to have become a new Proteus, and to +escape, when nearly overtaken, by taking refuge in some unexpected +transformation. Sometimes the scene changed, and it was the dreamer that +was flying, while Sandford, shod with swiftness, pursued him, swinging +a lasso; and as often as the fierce hunter whirled the deadly coil, +Fletcher awoke with a suffocating sensation, and a cold sweat trickling +from his forehead. At breakfast, his wife noticed with intense anxiety +his sharpened features and his evident preoccupation of mind. He hurried +off, snatching a kiss from the baby and from the mother who held it, and +walked towards Bullion's office. He knew Bullion was an early riser, +and he felt sure of being able to see him before the usual hour of +commencing business. But the office was not even opened; and, looking +through the glass door, he saw that there was no fire in the grate. What +was the meaning of this? Going into the street, he met Tonsor near the +post-office. At the first sight of the broker's face, Fletcher's heart +seemed to stop beating. + +"Good-morning, Fletcher. Bad business, this! I suppose you've heard. +Bullion went to protest yesterday. Hope you got wind of it in time, and +made all safe." + +"Bullion failed!" exclaimed Fletcher, through his chattering teeth. +"Then I'm a ruined man!" + +But a sudden thought struck him, and he asked eagerly,-- + +"But the money,--haven't you got it still?" + +"No,--paid it over yesterday." + +"Well, the shares, then?" + +"No,--sorry to say, Bullion's clerk came for them not ten minutes before +I heard of the protest." + +"O God!" groaned the unhappy man, "there is no hope! But you, Mr. +Tonsor, you are my friend; help me out of this! You can raise the +money." + +"Ten thousand dollars! It's a pretty large sum. I'm afraid I couldn't +get it." + +"Try, my friend,--you shall never regret it." + +Tonsor hesitated, and Fletcher's spirits rose. He watched the broker's +composed face with eyes that might pierce a mummy. + +"What is the collateral?" asked Tonsor, slowly raising his wrinkled +eyelids. + +"Bullion's notes for seventeen thousand dollars." + +"And Bullion gone to protest." + +"He'll come up again." + +"Perhaps; but while he is down, I can't do anything with his paper. The +truth is, Fletcher, you ought not to have advanced the money for him. +Remember, I warned you when you were about to do it." + +Fletcher did not look as though he found the "Balm of I-told-you-so" +very consoling. + +Tonsor continued,-- + +"Now, if I were in your place, I would go and make a clean breast of it +to Danforth. It was wrong, though I know you didn't mean any harm. He +may be angry, but he won't touch you. You _can't_ raise ten thousand +dollars in these times,--not to save your soul." + +"Keep your advice, and your money, too," said Fletcher, in sullen +despair. "I ask for bread, and you give me a stone. Your moral lecture +won't pay my debts." + +He turned away abruptly and went again to Bullion's office. It was still +closed. Determined at all hazards to see the man for whom he had risked +so much, he went to his house on Beacon Hill. The servant said Mr. +Bullion was not at home. Fletcher did not believe it, but the door was +closed in his face before he could send a more urgent message, and with +a sinking heart he retraced his steps towards State Street. + +The horror of his position was now fully before him. He could not +conceal his defalcation, and there was no longer a shadow of hope of +replacing the money. Many a time he had taken the risk of lending large +sums to brokers and others; but who would trust him, a man without +estate, in a time like this? In his terrible anxiety about the new +obligation, he had forgotten the old, until he chanced to observe +Sandford on the opposite sidewalk, strolling leisurely towards the +business quarter of the town. The ex-secretary made a barely-perceptible +bow, and, drawing out his watch, significantly turned the face towards +his debtor. It was enough; there was no need of words. It was a little +after ten o'clock; the fatal letter would be delivered at eleven! +Fletcher crossed the street and accosted Sandford, though not without +trepidation; for he shuddered like a swimmer within reach of a shark, as +he encountered those cold and pitiless eyes. + +"Come to the office, Mr. Sandford, at eleven," he said. "The affair will +be settled then, and forever." + +Mr. Sandford nodded and walked on. Fletcher, meanwhile, quivering with +agony, hurried to his employer's office. He scanned each face sharply +as he entered, and felt sure that the loss had not yet been discovered. +Going to his desk, he wrote and sealed a letter, and then went out, +saying he had some business with a lawyer overhead. + +Mrs. Fletcher grew momently more uneasy, after her husband left the +house. A vague sense of coming evil oppressed her, until at length she +could bear it no longer; she left her child with the servant, and, +walking to the nearest stand, took a coach for State Street. On the way +she recalled again and again the muttered words she heard during the +night; she thought of the silent, comfortless breakfast, the hurried +good-bye; she felt again the pressure of his trembling lips upon her +own. Full of apprehension, she asked the coachman to call her husband +to the door. Answer was made by a clerk that Mr. Fletcher was out on +business, but was expected back presently. So she waited, looking out +of the carriage-window,--a sad face to see! The hands of the Old +State-House clock pointed at eleven, when Mr. Sandford punctually made +his appearance,--smooth, cheerful, and with a slight exhilaration, in +prospect of the two thousand dollars. Almost at the same moment Bullion +came also; for Tonsor, fearing that Fletcher would take some desperate +step, had been to the surly bankrupt's house and insisted upon his +coming down to see his unfortunate agent. Just at the office-door, and +opposite the carriage, met the two bankrupts, the disgraced "bull" +and the vanquished "bear." It was an odd look of recognition that +was exchanged between them; and if there was a shade of triumph in +Sandford's face, it was not to be wondered at. They stood at the door, +each motioning the other to enter first, when an unusual sound from the +adjoining entry caused both of them to stop, and one of them, at least, +to shiver. It was a sound of slow and hesitating, shuffling steps, as of +men carrying a burden. The steps came nearer. Both Bullion and Sandford +moved hurriedly to the spot. The men stopped in the doorway with their +burden, and in a moment, with frantic shrieks, Mrs. Fletcher rushed in +and fell upon the body of her husband! + +"Good God! what's this?" exclaimed Bullion. "Dead?" He stooped down and +thrust his hand under the waistcoat. The heart was still! He shuddered +convulsively and drew back, covering his eyes. "Dead!" + +Mr. Sandford seemed frozen to the threshold in speechless horror. There +was his debtor, free,--the old account settled forever! The pallid +temples would throb no more; the mobile lips had trembled their last; +the glancing, restless eyes had found a ghastly repose; the slender and +shapely frame, bereft of its active tenant, was limp and unresisting. +What a moment for the two men, as they stood over the corpse of their +victim! + +Attracted by the unusual outcry, Mr. Danforth came hastily out of the +office, and stood, as it were, transfixed at the sight of the dead. The +men who had brought down the body at last found words to tell their +dismal story. + +They were at work on the upper floor, when they heard a noise in one of +the adjoining rooms; as the apartment had been for some time unoccupied, +they were naturally surprised. After a while all sounds ceased, and +still no one came out to descend the stairs. Appalled by the silence, +they broke open the door, and discovered Fletcher hanging by the neck +from a coat-hook; a chair, overturned, had served as the scaffold from +which he had stepped into eternity. They took him down, but life was +already gone. A paper lay on his hat, with these words hastily pencilled +on it:-- + +"On my desk is a letter that explains all. I'm off. Good-bye. + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +Mr. Danforth, hearing this, instantly went into his office, and +reappeared, reading a note addressed to him. Mr. Sandford, meanwhile, +was striving to raise the wretched woman to her feet, and to lead her +to the carriage. Mr. Bullion no longer whisked his defiant eyebrow, but +stood downcast, silent, and conscience-stricken. + +"Listen a moment," said Mr. Danforth. "Here is a letter from our rash +friend, and, as it concerns you, gentlemen, I will read it. But first, +my dear Madam, let me help you into the carriage." + +The prostrate woman made no answer, save by a slow rolling of her +body,--her sobs continuing without cessation. The letter was read:-- + +"MR. DANFORTH, + +"To make a payment for shares bought by Mr. Bullion, I borrowed ten +thousand dollars from your house yesterday. Mr. Bullion has failed, and +does not protect me. He escapes, and I am left in the trap. I charge him +to pay my wife the notes he owes me. As he hopes to be saved, let him +consider that a debt of honor. + +"But my death I lay at Sandford's door. He has followed me with a steady +bay, like a bloodhound. His claim is now settled forever, as I told him. +I don't ask God to forgive him;--I don't, and God won't. Let him live, +the cold-blooded wretch that he is; one world or another would make no +difference; for, to a devil like him, there is no heaven, no earth, +nothing but hell. + +"My poor wife! See to her, if you have any pity for + +"JOHN FLETCHER." + +"Look," said Mr. Danforth, holding the letter under the stony eyes of +Sandford,--"see where the tears blistered the paper!" + +All the while, Mrs. Fletcher kept up an inarticulate moaning, though the +sound grew fainter from exhaustion. + +"Let us stop this," said Bullion, seeing the gathering crowd of +passers-by. "Better be at home." + +Pointing to the still prostrate woman, he, with Mr. Danforth, gently +raised her up and placed her in the carriage. She did not speak, but +murmured pleadingly, while her face wore a look of agonized longing, and +her outstretched hands clutched nervously. + +"Poor thing!" said Mr. Danforth, his voice beginning to tremble,--"she +shall have her dead husband, if it is any comfort to her." + +"That's right," said Bullion,--"carry him off before half-a-dozen +coroner-buzzards come to fight over him." + +The body was laid in the carriage, the head she had so often caressed +resting in her lap, while her tears bathed the unconscious face, and +her groans became heart-rending. Still holding the carriage-door, Mr. +Danforth turned to Sandford, saying,-- + +"I don't know _what_ you have done, but his blood is on your soul. I +would rather be like him there, than you, on your feet.--Bullion, I +don't mind the ten thousand dollars; but was it just the manly thing to +leave a man that trusted you in this way to be sacrificed? Why didn't +you come down this morning? God forgive you!--Coachman, drive to +Carleton Street." + +He stepped into the carriage, and away it rolled with its load of +sorrow. + +Mr. Sandford found the glances of his companion and the bystanders quite +uncomfortable, and he slunk silently away. Failure and disgrace he +had met; but this was a position for which he had not the nerve. +The self-accusing Cain was not the only man who has exclaimed, "My +punishment is greater than I can bear." Flight was the only alternative +for Sandford. As long as he remained in Boston, every face seemed to +wear a look of condemnation. The mark was set upon him, and avenging +fiends pursued him. That very day he left the city in disguise. Through +what trials he passed will never be known. But destitute, friendless, +and broken-spirited, he wandered from city to city, a vagabond upon the +face of the earth. Nor did a sterner retribution long delay. In New +Orleans, he was so far reduced that he was obliged to earn a miserable +support in an oyster-saloon near the levee. One night, a fight began +between some drunken boatmen: and Sandford, though in no way concerned +in the affair, received a chance bullet in his forehead, and fell dead +without a word. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Bullion, at last, in spite of his armor of selfishness and stoicism, was +touched in a vital part. His dreams of wealth had vanished into air. The +confederate in New York in whom he had trusted had only made him a dupe. +Blindly following out his agreement, he found himself saddled with a +load of railroad-shares, useless for any present purpose, and all his +convertible property gone. The consciousness that he--the man of all +others who prided himself upon his sagacity--had been so easily +overreached was quite as humiliating as the idea of ruin itself. He +remembered Kerbstone's appeals, also, and now cursed his own stupidity +in refusing to aid him. There he had overreached himself; it was his own +stocks which he had thrown down to the "bears." And now, heaviest stroke +of all, Fletcher, his intrepid and chivalrous agent, who had stepped +into the breach for him, had paid for his indiscretion with his life. +The thought gave him a pang he had never felt, not even when he followed +his wife to the grave. Homeward he went, but slowly and almost without +volition. He recognized no acquaintances that he met, but walked on +abstractedly, fixing his eyes on vacancy with a look as mournful as his +iron features could wear. In his ears still rang those thrilling cries. +His hand, that had groped over that motionless heart, still felt a +creeping chill; it would not warm. And constantly an accusing voice +asked, "Why didn't you come down?"--and conscience repeated the question +in tones like those of a judge arraigning a criminal. He reached his +house and gave orders that no one should be admitted. In his room he +passed the day alone, drifting on an ocean of remorse, full of vague +purposes of repentance and restitution. Dinner passed unheeded, and +still he paced the silent chamber. With the approach of evening his +terrors increased; he rang for a servant and had the gas-burners +lighted. Still, in all the blaze, shapes would haunt him; they crouched +at the foot of his bed; they lurked behind his wardrobe-door. He dared +not look over his shoulder, but forced himself to stand up and face +what he so dreaded to see. He rang again and bade the servant bring +a screw-driver and take down the coat-hooks from the wardrobe; the +garments hanging there seemed to be men struggling in the agonies of +asphyxia. The slender thread of sound from the gas-burners seemed to be +changed to low, mournful cries, as of a woman over the dead. He turned +the gas down a little; then the shadows of the cannel-coal fire danced +like spectres on the ceiling. He jumped up and raised the lights again; +again the low, dismal monotone sang in his ears. He stopped them with +his fingers; again the persistent voice asked, "Why didn't you come +down?" Flakes fell off the coal in the grate in shapes like coffins; +the flames seemed to dart at him with their fiery tongues. He rang once +more, and when the servant came he bade him drink enough strong tea and +then take his chair by the fire. + +"Touch me, if I groan," said he to the astonished John. "Keep awake +yourself, and hold your tongue. If you go to sleep or leave me, I'll +murder you." + +Then wrapping himself in his dressing-gown, he settled down in his +easy-chair for the night. + +The night passed, as all nights will, and in the morning Mr. Bullion +was calmer. The first intelligence he received after breakfast was in a +message from Tonsor, delivered by a servant. + +"Plaze, Sur, Mr. Tonsor's compliments, and he says the banks is +suspinded and money's to be asier." + +"Send after Mr. Tonsor; overtake him, and ask him to come back. I want +to see him." + +Tonsor returned, and they had a long conference. It now seemed probable +that stocks would be more buoyant and the "bulls" would have their turn. +Any considerable rise in shares would place Bullion on his feet and +enable him to resume payment. Most of his time-contracts had been met, +and the change would be of the greatest service to him. He placed his +shares, therefore, in Tonsor's hands with instructions to sell when +prices advanced. He then looked over the amount of his liabilities, and +saw, with some of his old exultation, that, if he could effect sales +at the rates he expected, he should have at least two hundred thousand +dollars after paying all his debts. Ambition again whispered to him, +that he might now take his old place in the business world, and perhaps +might more than retrieve his losses. But he thought of the last night, +and shrank from encountering a new brood of horrors. Firm in his new +purpose, he dismissed the broker and sent for his counsellor. + +"My son," he meditated, "is a lawyer in good practice. He needs no +fortune. Twenty thousand will be enough for him; more than I had, which +wasn't a penny. My daughter is married rich. Didn't mean to have any +pauper son-in-law to be plaguing me. The same for her. The rest will +square those old accounts,--and the new one, too, on the book up yonder! +Best to fix it now, while I can muster the courage. If I once get the +money, I'm afraid I shouldn't do it. So my will shall set all these +matters right; and it shall be drawn and signed to-day." + +That night Mr. Bullion needed no servant to watch with him. The ghosts +were laid. + +[To be concluded in the next number.] + + * * * * * + + +INSCRIPTION + +FOR AN ALMS-CHEST MADE OF CAMPHOR-WOOD. + + + This fragrant box that breathes of India's balms + Hath one more fragrance, for it asketh alms; + But, though 'tis sweet and blessed to receive, + You know who said, "It is more blest to give": + Give, then, receive His blessing,--and for me + Thy silent boon sufficient blessing be! + If Ceylon's isle, that bears the bleeding trees, + With any perfume load the Orient breeze,-- + If Heber's Muse, by Ceylon as he sailed, + A pleasant odor from the shore inhaled,-- + More lives in me; for underneath my lid + A sweetness as of sacrifice is hid. + + Thou gentle almoner, in passing by, + Smell of my wood, and scan me with thine eye;-- + I, too, from Ceylon bear a spicy breath + That might put warmness in the lungs of death; + A simple chest of scented wood I seem, + But, oh! within me lurks a golden beam,-- + + A beam celestial, and a silver din, + As though imprisoned angels played within; + Hushed in my heart my fragrant secret dwells; + If thou wouldst learn it, Paul of Tarsus tells;-- + No jangled brass nor tinkling cymbal sound, + For in my bosom Charity is found. + + * * * * * + + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + + +THE DEPARTURE. + + +Why one leaves home at all is a question that travellers are sure, +sooner or later, to ask themselves,--I mean, pleasure-travellers. Home, +where one has the "Transcript" every night, and the "Autocrat" +every month, opera, theatre, circus, and good society, in constant +rotation,--home, where everybody knows us, and the little good there is +to know about us,--finally, home, as seen regretfully for the last time, +with the gushing of long frozen friendships, the priceless kisses of +children, and the last sad look at dear baby's pale face through the +window-pane,--well, all this is left behind, and we review it as a +dream, while the railroad-train hurries us along to the spot where we +are to leave, not only this, but Winter, rude tyrant, with all our +precious hostages in his grasp. Soon the swift motion lulls our brains +into the accustomed muddle; we seem to be dragged along like a miserable +thread pulled through the eye of an ever-lasting needle,--through and +through, and never through,--while here and there, like painful knots, +the _depots_ stop us, the poor thread is arrested for a minute, and then +the pulling begins again. Or, in another dream, we are like fugitives +threading the gauntlet of the grim forests, while the ice-bound trees +essay a charge of bayonets on either side; but, under the guidance of +our fiery Mercury, we pass them as safely as ancient Priam passed the +outposts of the Greeks,--and New York, as hospitable as Achilles, +receives us in its mighty tent. Here we await the "Karnak," the British +Mail Company's new screw-steamer, bound for Havana, _via_ Nassau. At +length comes the welcome order to "be on board." We betake ourselves +thither,--the anchor is weighed, the gun fired, and we take leave of our +native land with a patriotic pang, which soon gives place to severer +spasms. + +I do not know why all celebrated people who write books of travels begin +by describing their days of sea-sickness. Dickens, George Combe, Fanny +Kemble, Mrs. Stowe, Miss Bremer, and many others, have opened in like +manner their valuable remarks on foreign countries. While intending to +avail myself of their privilege and example, I would, nevertheless, +suggest, for those who may come after me, that the subject of +sea-sickness should be embalmed in science, and enshrined in the crypt +of some modern encyclopaedia, so that future writers should refer to it +only as the Pang Unspeakable, for which _vide_ Ripley and Dana, +vol. ---, page ---. But, as I have already said, I shall speak of +sea-sickness in a hurried and picturesque manner, as follows:-- + +Who are these that sit by the long dinner-table in the forward cabin, +with a most unusual lack of interest in the bill of fare? Their eyes are +closed, mostly, their cheeks are pale, their lips are quite bloodless, +and to every offer of good cheer, their "No, thank you," is as faintly +uttered as are marriage-vows by maiden lips. Can they be the same that, +an hour ago, were so composed, so jovial, so full of dangerous defiance +to the old man of the sea? The officer who carves the roast-beef offers +at the same time a slice of fat;--this is too much; a panic runs through +the ranks, and the rout is instantaneous and complete. The ghost of what +each man was disappears through the trap-door of his state-room, and the +hell which the theatre faintly pictures behind the scenes begins in good +earnest. + +For to what but to Dante's "Inferno" can we liken this steamboat-cabin, +with its double row of pits, and its dismal captives? What are these +sighs, groans, and despairing noises, but the _alti guai_ rehearsed by +the poet? Its fiends are the stewards who rouse us from our perpetual +torpor with offers of food and praises of shadowy banquets,--"Nice +mutton-chop, Sir? roast-turkey? plate of soup?" Cries of "No, no!" +resound, and the wretched turn again, and groan. The philanthropist has +lost the movement of the age,--keeled up in an upper berth, convulsively +embracing a blanket, what conservative more immovable than he? The great +man of the party refrains from his large theories, which, like the +circles made by the stone thrown into the water, begin somewhere and end +nowhere. As we have said, he expounds himself no more, the significant +fore-finger is down, the eye no longer imprisons yours. But if you ask +him how he does, he shakes himself, as if, like Farinata,-- + + "avesse l' inferno in gran dispetto,"-- + +"he had a very contemptible opinion of hell." Let me not forget to add, +that it rains every day, that it blows every night, and that it rolls +through the twenty-four hours till the whole world seems as if turned +bottom upwards, clinging with its nails to chaos, and fearing to launch +away. The captain comes and says,--"It is true, you have a nasty, short, +chopping sea hereabouts; but you see, she is spinning away down South +jolly!" And this is the Gulf-Stream! + +But all things have an end, and most things have two. After the third +day, a new development manifests itself. Various shapeless masses are +carried upstairs and suffered to fall like snow-flakes on the deck, and +to lie there in shivering heaps. From these larvae gradually emerge +features and voices,--the luncheon-bell at last stirs them with the +thrill of returning life. They look up, they lean up, they exchange +pensive smiles of recognition,--the steward comes, no fiend this time, +but a ministering angel, and, lo! the strong man eats broth, and the +weak woman clamors for pickled oysters. And so ends my description of +our sea-sickness. + +For, as for betraying the confidences of those sad days, as for telling +how wofully untrue Professors of Temperance were to their principles, +how the Apostle of Total Abstinence developed a brandy-flask, not +altogether new, what unsuccessful tipplings were attempted in the +desperation of nausea, and for what lady that stunning brandy-smasher +was mixed,--as for such tales out of school, I would have you know that +I am not the man to tell them. + +Yet a portrait or so lingers in my mental repository;--let me throw them +in, to close off the lot. + +No. 1. A sober Bostonian in the next state-room, whose assiduity with +his sea-sick wife reminds one of Cock-Robin, when he sent Jenny Wren +sops and wine. This person was last seen in a dressing-gown, square-cut +night-cap, and odd slippers, dancing up and down the state-room floor +with a cup of gruel, making wild passes with a spoon at an individual in +a berth, who never got any of the contents. Item, the gruel, in a moment +of excitement, finally ran in a stream upon the floor, and was wiped up +by the steward. Result not known, but disappointment is presumable. + +No. 2. A stout lady, imprisoned by a board on a sofa nine inches wide, +called by a facetious friend "The Coffin." She complains that her sides +are tolerably battered in;--we hold our tongues, and think that the +board, too, has had a hard time of it. Yet she is a jolly soul, laughing +at her misfortunes, and chirruping to her baby. Her spirits keep up, +even when her dinner won't keep down. Her favorite expressions are "Good +George!" and "Oh, jolly!" She does not intend, she says, to lay in any +dry goods in Cuba, but means to eat up all the good victuals she comes +across. Though seen at present under unfavorable circumstances, she +inspires confidence as to her final accomplishment of this result. + +No. 3. A woman, said to be of a literary turn of mind, in the +miserablest condition imaginable. Her clothes, flung at her by the +stewardess, seem to have hit in some places, and missed in others. +Her listless hands occasionally make an attempt to keep her draperies +together, and to pull her hat on her head; but though the intention is +evident, she accomplishes little by her motion. She is perpetually being +lugged about by a stout steward, who knocks her head against both sides +of the vessel, folds her up in the gangway, spreads her out on the deck, +and takes her up-stairs, down-stairs, and in my lady's chamber, where, +report says, he feeds her with a spoon, and comforts her with such +philosophy as he is master of. N.B. This woman, upon the first change of +weather, rose like a cork, dressed like a Christian, and toddled about +the deck in the easiest manner, sipping her grog, and cutting sly jokes +upon her late companions in misery,--is supposed by some to have been an +impostor, and, when ill-treated, announced intentions of writing a book. + +No. 4, my last, is only a sketch;--circumstances allowed no more. Can +Grande, the great dog, has been got up out of the pit, where he worried +the stewardess and snapped at the friend who tried to pat him on the +head. Everybody asks where he is. Don't you see that heap of shawls +yonder, lying in the sun, and heated up to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit? +That slouched hat on top marks the spot where his head should lie,--by +treading cautiously in the opposite direction you may discover his +feet. All between is perfectly passive and harmless. His chief food is +pickles,--his only desire is rest. After all these years of controversy, +after all these battles, bravely fought and nobly won, you might write +with truth upon this moveless mound of woollens the pathetic words from +Pere la Chaise:--_Implora Pace_. + +But no more at present, for land is in sight, and in my next you shall +hear how we found it, and what we saw at Nassau. + + +NASSAU. + + +Nassau looked very green and pleasant to us after our voyage;--the eyes +enjoy a little fresh provision after so long a course of salt food. The +first view of land is little more than "the feeling of the thing,"--it +is matter of faith, rather than of sight. You are shown a dark and +distant line, near the horizon, without color or features. They say it +is land, and you believe it. But you come nearer and nearer,--you see +first the green of vegetation, then the form of the trees,--the harbor +at last opens its welcome arms,--the anchor is dropped,--the gun +fired,--the steam snuffed out. Led by a thread of sunshine, you have +walked the labyrinth of the waters, and all their gigantic dangers lie +behind you. + +We made Nassau at twelve o'clock, on the sixth day from our departure, +counting the first as one. The first feature discernible was a group +of tall cocoa-nut trees, with which the island is bounteously +feathered;--the second was a group of negroes in a small boat, steering +towards us with open-mouthed and white-toothed wonder. Nothing makes its +simple impression upon the mind sophisticated by education. The negroes, +as they came nearer, suggested only Christy's Minstrels, of whom +they were a tolerably faithful imitation,--while the cocoa-nut-trees +transported us to the Boston in Ravel-time, and we strained our eyes to +see the wonderful ape, Jocko, whose pathetic death, nightly repeated, +used to cheat the credulous Bostonians of time, tears, and treasure. +Despite the clumsiest management, the boat soon effected a junction with +our gangway, allowing some nameless official to come on board, and to go +through I know not what mysterious and indispensable formality. Other +boats then came, like a shoal of little fishes around the carcass of +a giant whale. There were many negroes, together with whites of every +grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, saw for the first +time the raw material out of which Northern Humanitarians have spun so +fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. + +Now we who write, and they for whom we write, are all orthodox upon this +mighty question; we have all made our confession of faith in private and +in public; we all, on suitable occasions, walk up and apply the match to +the keg of gun-powder which is to blow up the Union, but which, somehow, +at the critical moment, fails to ignite. But you must allow us one +heretical whisper,--very small and low. The negro of the North is an +ideal negro; it is the negro refined by white culture, elevated by white +blood, instructed even by white iniquity;--the negro among negroes is a +coarse, grinning, flat-footed, thick-skulled creature, ugly as Caliban, +lazy as the laziest of brutes, chiefly ambitious to be of no use to any +in the world. View him as you will, his stock in trade is small;--he has +but the tangible instincts of all creatures,--love of life, of ease, and +of offspring. For all else, he must go to school to the white race, and +his discipline must be long and laborious. Nassau, and all that we saw +of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question, whether compulsory labor +be not better than none. But as a question I gladly leave it, and return +to the simple narration of what befell. + +There was a sort of eddy at the gangway of our steamer, made by the +conflicting tides of those who wanted to come on board and of those who +wanted to go on shore. We were among the number of the latter, but were +stopped and held by the button by one of the former, while those more +impatient or less sympathizing made their way to the small boats which +waited below. The individual in question had come alongside in a +handsome barge, rowed by a dozen stout blacks, in the undress uniform +of the Zouaves. These men, well drilled and disciplined, seemed of a +different sort from the sprawling, screaming creatures in the other +boats, and their bright red caps and white tunics became them well. +But he who now claimed my attention was of British birth and military +profession. His face was ardent, his pantaloons were of white flannel, +his expression of countenance was that of habitual discontent, but with +a twinkle of geniality in the eye which redeemed the Grumbler from the +usual tedium of his tribe. He accosted us as follows:-- + +"Go ashore? What for? To see something, eh? There's nothing to see; +the island isn't bigger than a nut-shell, and doesn't contain a single +prospect.--Go ashore and get some dinner? There isn't anything to eat +there.--Fruit? None to speak of; sour oranges and green bananas.--I went +to market last Saturday, and bought one cabbage, one banana, and half +a pig's head;--there's a market for you!--Fish? Oh, yes, if you like +it.--Turtle? Yes, you can get the Gallipagos turtle; it makes tolerable +soup, but has not the green fat, which, in _my_ opinion, is the most +important feature in turtle-soup.--Shops? You can't buy a pair of +scissors on the island, nor a baby's bottle;--broke mine the other day, +and tried to replace it; couldn't.--Society? There are lots of people to +call upon you, and bore you to death with returning their visits." + +At last the Major went below, and we broke away, and were duly conveyed +to _terra firma_. It was Sunday, and late in the afternoon. The first +glimpse certainly seemed to confirm the Major's disparaging statements. +The town is small; the houses dingy and out of repair; the legend, that +paint costs nothing, is not received here; and whatever may have been +the original colors of the buildings, the climate has had its own +way with them for many a day. The barracks are superior in finish +to anything else we see. Government-House is a melancholy-looking +_caserne_, surrounded by a piazza, the grounds being adorned with a most +chunky and inhuman statue of Columbus. All the houses are surrounded by +verandas, from which pale children and languid women in muslins look +out, and incline us to ask what epidemic has visited the island and +swept the rose from every cheek. They are a pallid race, the Nassauese, +and retain little of the vigor of their English ancestry. One English +trait they exhibit,--the hospitality which has passed into a proverb; +another, perhaps,--the stanch adherence to the forms and doctrines of +Episcopacy. We enter the principal church;--they are just lighting it +for evening service; it is hung with candles, each burning in a clear +glass shade. The walls and ceiling are whitewashed, and contrast +prettily with the dark timbering of the roof. We would gladly have +staid to give thanks for our safe and prosperous voyage, but a black +rain-cloud warns us homeward,--not, however, until we have received a +kind invitation from one of the hospitable islanders to return the next +morning for a drive and breakfast. + +Returning soon after sunrise to fulfil this promise, we encounter the +barracks, and are tempted to look in and see the sons of darkness +performing their evolutions. The morning drill is about half over. We +peep in,--the Colonel, a lean Don Quixote on a leaner Rosinante, dashes +up to us with a weak attempt at a canter; he courteously invites us to +come in and see all that is to be seen, and, lo! our friend the Major, +quite gallant in his sword and scarlet jacket, is detailed for our +service. The soldiers are black, and very black,--none of your dubious +American shades, ranging from clear salmon to _cafe au lait_ or even +to _cafe noir_. These are your good, satisfactory, African sables, +warranted not to change in the washing. Their Zouave costume is very +becoming, with the Oriental turban, caftan, and loose trousers; and the +Philosopher of our party remarks, that the African requires costume, +implying that the New Englander can stand alone, as can his clothes, in +their black rigidity. The officers are white, and the Major very polite; +he shows us the men, the arms, the kits, the quarters, and, having done +all that he can do for us, relinquishes us with a gallant bow to our +host of the drive and breakfast. + +The drive does something to retrieve the character of the island. The +road is hard and even, overhung with glossy branches of strange trees +bearing unknown fruits, and studded on each side with pleasant villas +and with negro huts. There are lovely flowers everywhere, among which +the Hibiscus, called South-Sea Rose, and the Oleander, are most +frequent, and most brilliant. We see many tall groves of cocoa-nut, +and cast longing glances towards the fruit, which little negroes, with +surprising activity, attain and shake down. A sudden turn in the road +discloses a lovely view of the bay, with its wonderful green waters, +clear and bright as emerald;--there is a little beach, and boats lie +about, and groups of negroes are laughing and chattering,--quoting +stocks from the last fish-market, very likely. We purchase for half a +dollar a bunch of bananas, for which Ford or Palmer would ask us ten +dollars at least, and go rejoicing to our breakfast. + +Our host is a physician of the island, English by birth, and retaining +his robust form and color in spite of a twenty-years' residence in the +warm climate. He has a pleasant family of sons and daughters, all in +health, but without a shade of pink in lips or cheeks. The breakfast +consists of excellent fried fish, fine Southern hominy,--not the pebbly +broken corn which our dealers impose under that name,--various hot +cakes, tea and coffee, bananas, sapodillas, and if there be anything +else not included in the present statement, let haste and want of time +excuse the omission. The conversation runs a good deal on the hopes of +increasing prosperity which the new mail-steamer opens to the eyes +of the Nassauese. Invalids, they say, will do better there than in +Cuba,--it is quieter, much cheaper, and the climate is milder. There +will be a hotel, very soon, where no attention will be spared, etc., +etc. The Government will afford every facility, etc., etc. It seemed, +indeed, a friendly little place, with delicious air and sky, and a good, +reasonable, decent, English tone about it. Expenses moderate, ye fathers +of encroaching families. Negroes abundant and natural, ye students +of ethnological possibilities. Officers in red jackets, you young +ladies,--young ones, some of them. Why wouldn't you all try it, +especially as the captain of the "Karnak" is an excellent sailor, and +the kindest and manliest of conductors? + + +FROM NASSAU TO CUBA. + + +The breakfast being over, we recall the captain's parting admonition to +be on board by ten o'clock, with the significant gesture and roll of the +eye which clearly express that England expects every passenger to do his +duty. Now we know very well that the "Karnak" is not likely to weigh +anchor before twelve, at the soonest, but we dare not, for our lives, +disobey the captain. So, passing by yards filled with the huge Bahama +sponges, piles of wreck-timber, fishing-boats with strange fishes, red, +yellow, blue, and white, and tubs of aldermanic turtle, we attain the +shore, and, presently, the steamer. Here we find a large deputation of +the towns-people taking passage with us for a pleasure excursion to +Havana. The greater number are ladies and children. They come fluttering +on board, poor things, like butterflies, in gauzy dresses, hats, and +feathers, according to the custom of their country; one gentleman takes +four little daughters with him for a holiday. We ask ourselves whether +they know what an ugly beast the Gulf-Stream is, that they affront him +in such light armor. "Good heavens! how sick they will be!" we exclaim; +while they eye us askance, in our winter trim, and pronounce us slow, +and old fogies. With all the rashness of youth, they attack the +luncheon-table. So boisterous a popping of corks was never heard in all +our boisterous passage;--there is a chorus, too, of merry tongues and +shrill laughter. But we get fairly out to sea, where the wind, an +adverse one, is waiting for us, and at that gay table there is silence, +followed by a rush and disappearance. The worst cases are hurried out of +sight, and, going above, we find the disabled lying in groups about the +deck, the feather-hats discarded, the muslins crumpled, and we, the old +fogies, going to cover the fallen with shawls and blankets, to speak +words of consolation, and to implore the sufferers not to cure +themselves with brandy, soda-water, claret, and wine-bitters, in quick +succession,--which they, nevertheless, do, and consequently are no +better that day, nor the next. + +But I am forgetting to chronicle a touching parting interview with the +Major, the last thing remembered in Nassau, and of course the last to be +forgotten anywhere. Our concluding words might best be recorded in the +form of a catechism of short questions and answers, to wit:-- + +"How long did the Major expect to stay in Nassau?" + +"About six months." + +"How long would he stay, if he had his own way?" + +"Not one!" + +"What did he come for, then?" + +"Oh, you buy into a nigger regiment for promotion." + +These were the most important facts elicited by cross-examination. At +last we shook hands warmly, promising to meet again somewhere, and the +crimson-lined barge with the black Zouaves carried him away. In humbler +equipages depart the many black women who have visited the steamer, some +for amusement, some to sell the beautiful shell-work made on the island. +These may be termed, in general, as ugly a set of wenches as one could +wish not to see. They all wear palm-leaf hats stuck on their heads +without strings or ribbons, and their clothes are so ill-made that you +cannot help thinking that each has borrowed somebody else's dress, until +you see that the ill-fitting garments are the rule, not the exception. + +But neither youth nor sea-sickness lasts forever. The forces of nature +rally on the second day, and the few who have taken no remedies recover +the use of their tongues and some of their faculties. From these I +gather what I shall here impart as + + +SERIOUS VIEWS OF THE BAHAMAS. + + +The principal exports of these favored islands are fruits, sponges, +molasses, and sugar. Their imports include most of the necessaries of +life, which come to them oftenest in the form of wrecks, by which they +obtain them at a small fraction of the original cost and value. For this +resource they are indebted to the famous Bahama Banks, which, to their +way of thinking, are institutions as important as the Bank of England +itself. These banks stand them in a handsome annual income, and +facilitate large discounts and transfers of property not contemplated by +the original possessors. One supposes that somebody must suffer by these +forced sales of large cargoes at prices ruinous to commerce,--but _who_ +suffers is a point not easy to ascertain. There seems to be a good, +comfortable understanding all round. The owners say, "Go ahead, and +don't bother yourself,--she's insured." The captain has got his ship +aground in shoal water where she can't sink, and no harm done. The +friendly wreckers are close at hand to haul the cargo ashore. The +underwriter of the insurance company has shut his eyes and opened his +mouth to receive a plum, which, being a good large one, will not let him +speak. And so the matter providentially comes to pass, and "enterprises +of great pith and moment" oftenest get no farther than the Bahamas. + +Nassau produces neither hay nor corn,--these, together with butter, +flour, and tea, being brought chiefly from the United States. Politics, +of course, it has none. As to laws, the colonial system certainly needs +propping up,--for under its action a man may lead so shameless a life +of immorality as to compel his wife to leave him, and yet not be held +responsible for her support and that of the children she has borne him. +The principal points of interest are, first, the garrison,--secondly, +Government-House, with an occasional ball there,--and, third, one's +next-door neighbor, and his or her doings. The principal event in the +memory of the citizens seems to be a certain most desirable wreck, in +consequence of which, a diamond card-case worth fifteen hundred dollars +was sold for an eighth part of that sum, and laces whose current price +ranges from thirty to forty dollars a yard were purchased at will for +seventy-five cents. That was a wreck worth having! say the Nassauese. +The price of milk ranges from eighteen to twenty-five cents a +quart;--think of that, ye New England housekeepers! That precious +article, the pudding, is nearly unknown in the Nassauese economy; nor +is pie-crust so short as it might be, owing to the enormous price of +butter, which has been known to attain the sum of one dollar per pound. +Eggs are quoted at prices not commendable for large families with +small means. On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, and sugar-cane are +abundant. + +The Nassauese, on the whole, seem to be a kind-hearted and friendly set +of people, partly English, partly Southern in character, but with rather +a predominance of the latter ingredient in their composition. Their +women resemble the women of our own Southern States, but seem simpler +and more domestic in their habits,--while the men would make tolerable +Yankees, but would scarcely support President Buchanan, the Kansas +question, or the Filibustero movement. Physically, the race suffers and +degenerates under the influence of the warm climate. Cases of pulmonary +disease, asthma, and neuralgia are of frequent occurrence, and cold is +considered as curative to them as heat is to us. The diet, too, is not +that "giant ox-beef" which the Saxon race requires. Meat is rare, and +tough, unless brought from the States at high cost. We were forced to +the conclusion that no genuine English life can be supported upon a +_regime_ of fish and fruit,--or, in other words, no beef, no Bull, but +a very different sort of John, lantern-jawed, leather-skinned, and of +a thirsty complexion. It occurred to us, furthermore, that it is a +dolorous thing to live on a lonely little island, tied up like a wart on +the face of civilization,--no healthful stream of life coming and going +from the great body of the main land,--the same moral air to be breathed +over and over again, without renewal,--the same social elements turned +and returned in one tiresome kaleidoscope. Wherefore rejoice, ye +Continentals, and be thankful, and visit the Nassauese, bringing beef, +butter, and beauty,--bringing a few French muslins to replace the +coarse English fabrics, and buxom Irish girls to outwork the idle negro +women,--bringing new books, newspapers, and periodicals,--bringing the +Yankee lecturer, all expenses paid, and his drink found him. All these +good things, and more, the States have for the Nassauese, of whom we +must now take leave, for all hands have been piped on deck. + +We have jolted for three weary days over the roughest of ocean-highways, +and Cuba, nay, Havana, is in sight. The worst cases are up, and begin to +talk about their sea-legs, now that the occasion for them is at an end. +Sobrina, the chief wit of our party, who would eat sour-sop, sapodilla, +orange, banana, cocoa-nut, and sugar-cane at Nassau, and who has lived +upon toddy of twenty-cocktail power ever since,--even she is seen, +clothed and in her right mind, sitting at the feet of the prophet she +loves, and going through the shawl-and-umbrella exercise. And here is +the Moro Castle, which guards the entrance of the harbor,--here go +the signals, answering to our own. Here comes the man with the +speaking-trumpet, who, understanding no English, yells out to our +captain, who understands no Spanish. The following is a free rendering +of their conversation:-- + +"Any Americans on board?" + +"Yes, thank Heaven, plenty." + +"How many are Filibusteros?" + +"All of them." + +"Bad luck to them, then!" + +"The same to you!" + +"_Caramba_" says the Spaniard. + +"--------," says the Englishman. + +And so the forms of diplomacy are fulfilled; and of Havana, more in my +next. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +_The Professor finds a Fly in his Teacup_. + +I have a long theological talk to relate, which must be dull reading to +some of my young and vivacious friends. I don't know, however, that any +of them have entered into a contract to read all that I write, or that I +have promised always to write to please them. What if I should sometimes +write to please myself? + +Now you must know that there are a great many things which interest me, +to some of which this or that particular class of readers may be totally +indifferent. I love Nature, and human nature, its thoughts, affections, +dreams, aspirations, delusions,--Art in all its forms,--_virtu_ in all +its eccentricities,--old stories from black-letter volumes and yellow +manuscripts, and new projects out of hot brains not yet imbedded in the +snows of age. I love the generous impulses of the reformer; but not less +does my imagination feed itself upon the old litanies, so often warmed +by the human breath upon which they were wafted to heaven that they glow +through our frames like our own heart's blood. I hope I love good men +and women; I know that they never speak a word to me, even if it be of +question or blame, that I do not take pleasantly, if it is expressed +with a reasonable amount of human kindness. + +I have before me at this time a beautiful and affecting letter, which +I have hesitated to answer, though the postmark upon it gave its +direction, and the name is one which is known to all, in some of its +representatives. It contains no reproach, only a delicately-hinted fear. +Speak gently, as this dear lady has spoken, and there is no heart so +insensible that it does not answer to the appeal, no intellect so virile +that it does not own a certain allegiance to the claims of age, of +childhood, of sensitive and timid natures, when they plead with it not +to look at those sacred things by the broad daylight which they see in +mystic shadow. How grateful would it be to make perpetual peace with +these pleading saints and their confessors, by the simple act +that silences all complainings! Sleep, sleep, sleep! says the +Arch-Enchantress of them all,--and pours her dark and potent anodyne, +distilled over the fires that consumed her foes,--its large, round drops +changing, as we look, into the beads of her convert's rosary! Silence! +the pride of reason! cries another, whose whole life is spent in +reasoning down reason. + +I hope I love good people, not for their sake, but for my own. And most +assuredly, if any deed of wrong or word of bitterness led me into an act +of disrespect towards that enlightened and excellent class of men who +make it their calling to teach goodness and their duty to practise it, +I should feel that I had done myself an injury rather than them. Go and +talk with any professional man holding any of the mediaeval creeds, +choosing one who wears upon his features the mark of inward and outward +health, who looks cheerful, intelligent, and kindly, and see how all +your prejudices melt away in his presence! It is impossible to come into +intimate relations with a large, sweet nature, such as you may often +find in this class, without longing to be at one with it in all its +modes of being and believing. But does it not occur to you that one may +love truth as he sees it, and his race as he views it, better than even +the sympathy and approbation of many good men whom he honors,--better +than sleeping to the sound of the Miserere or listening to the +repetition of an effete Confession of Faith? + +The three learned professions have but recently emerged from a state of +_quasi_ barbarism. None of them like too well to be told of it, but it +must be sounded in their ears whenever they put on airs. When a man has +taken an overdose of laudanum, the doctors tell us to place him between +two persons who shall make him walk up and down incessantly; and if he +still cannot be kept from going to sleep, they say that a lash or two +over his back is of great assistance. + +So we must keep the doctors awake by telling them that they have not +yet shaken off astrology and the doctrine of signatures, as is shown by +their prescriptions, and their use of nitrate of silver, which turns +epileptics into Ethiopians. If that is not enough, they must be given +over to the scourgers, who like their task and get good fees for it. A +few score years ago, sick people were made to swallow burnt toads and +powdered earth-worms and the expressed juice of wood-lice. The physician +of Charles I. and II. prescribed abominations not to be named. +Barbarism, as bad as that of Congo or Ashantee. Traces of this barbarism +linger even in the greatly improved medical science of our century. So +while the solemn farce of over-drugging is going on, the world over, +the harlequin pseudo-science jumps on to the stage, whip in hand, with +half-a-dozen somersets, and begins laying about him. + +In 1817, perhaps you remember, the law of wager by battle was +unrepealed, and the rascally murderous, and worse than murderous, clown, +Abraham Thornton, put on his gauntlet in open court and defied the +appellant to lift the other which he threw down. It was not until the +reign of George II. that the statutes against witchcraft were repealed. +As for the English Court of Chancery, we know that its antiquated abuses +form one of the staples of common proverbs and popular literature. +So the laws and the lawyers have to be watched perpetually by public +opinion as much as the doctors do. + +I don't think the other profession is an exception. When the Reverend +Mr. Cauvin and his associates burned my distinguished scientific +brother,--he was burned with green fagots, which made it rather slow and +painful,--it appears to me they were in a state of religious barbarism. +The dogmas of such people about the Father of Mankind and his creatures +are of no more account in my opinion than those of a council of Aztecs. +If a man picks your pocket, do you not consider him thereby disqualified +to pronounce any authoritative opinion on matters of ethics? If a man +hangs my ancient female relatives for sorcery, as they did in this +neighborhood a little while ago, or burns my instructor for not +believing as he does, I care no more for his religious edicts than I +should for those of any other barbarian. + +Of course, a barbarian may hold many true opinions; but when the ideas +of the healing art, of the administration of justice, of Christian love, +could not exclude systematic poisoning, judicial duelling, and murder +for opinion's sake, I do not see how we can trust the verdict of that +time relating to any subject which involves the primal instincts +violated in these abominations and absurdities.--What if we are even now +in a state of _semi_-barbarism? + +Perhaps some think we ought not to talk at table about such things.--I +am not so sure of that. Religion and government appear to me the two +subjects which of all others should belong to the common talk of people +who enjoy the blessings of freedom. Think, one moment. The earth is a +great factory-wheel, which, at every revolution on its axis, receives +fifty thousand raw souls and turns off nearly the same number worked up +more or less completely. There must be somewhere a population of two +hundred thousand million, perhaps ten or a hundred times as many, +earth-born intelligences. _Life_, as we call it, is nothing but the edge +of the boundless ocean of existence where it comes on soundings. In +this view, I do not see anything so fit to talk about, or half so +interesting, as that which relates to the innumerable majority of our +fellow-creatures, the dead-living, who are hundreds of thousands to one +of the live-living, and with whom we all potentially belong, though we +have got tangled for the present in some parcels of fibrine, albumen, +and phosphates, that keep us on the minority side of the house. In point +of fact, it is one of the many results of _Spiritualism_ to make +the permanent destiny of the race a matter of common reflection and +discourse, and a vehicle for the prevailing disbelief of the Middle-Age +doctrines on the subject. I cannot help thinking, when I remember how +many conversations my friend and myself have reported, that it would be +very extraordinary, if there were no mention of that class of subjects +which involves all that we have and all that we hope, not merely for +ourselves, but for the dear people whom we love best,--noble men, pure +and lovely women, ingenuous children,--about the destiny of nine-tenths +of whom you know the opinions that would have been taught by those old +man-roasting, woman-strangling dogmatists.--However, I fought this +matter with one of our boarders the other day, and I am going to report +the conversation. + + * * * * * + +The divinity-student came down, one morning, looking rather more serious +than usual. He said little at breakfast-time, but lingered after the +others, so that I, who am apt to be long at the table, found myself +alone with him. + +When the rest were all gone, he turned his chair round towards mine, and +began. + +I am afraid,--he said,--you express yourself a little too freely on a +most important class of subjects. Is there not danger in introducing +discussions or allusions relating to matters of religion into common +discourse? + +Danger to what?--I asked. + +Danger to truth,--he replied, after a slight pause. + +I didn't know Truth was such an invalid,--I said.--How long is it since +she could only take the air in a close carriage, with a gentleman in +a black coat on the box? Let me tell you a story, adapted to young +persons, but which won't hurt older ones. + +----There was a very little boy who had one of those balloons you may +have seen, which are filled with light gas, and are held by a string to +keep them from running off in aeronautic voyages on their own +account. This little boy had a naughty brother, who said to him, one +day,--Brother, pull down your balloon, so that I can look at it and take +hold of it. Then the little boy pulled it down. Now the naughty brother +had a sharp pin in his hand, and he thrust it into the balloon, and all +the gas oozed out, so that there was nothing left but a shrivelled skin. + +One evening, the little boy's father called him to the window to see the +moon, which pleased him very much; but presently he said,--Father, do +not pull the string and bring down the moon, for my naughty brother will +prick it, and then it will all shrivel up and we shall not see it any +more. + +Then his father laughed, and told him how the moon had been shining a +good while, and would shine a good while longer, and that all we could +do was to keep our windows clean, never letting the dust get too thick +on them, and especially to keep our eyes open, but that we could not +pull the moon down with a string, nor prick it with a pin.--Mind you +this, too, the moon is no man's private property, but is seen from a +good many parlor-windows. + +----Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, +you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and +full at evening. Does not Mr. Bryant say, that Truth gets well if she is +run over by a locomotive, while Error dies of lockjaw if she scratches +her finger? I never heard that a mathematician was alarmed for the +safety of a demonstrated proposition. I think, generally, that fear +of open discussion implies feebleness of inward conviction, and great +sensitiveness to the expression of individual opinion is a mark of +weakness. + +----I am not so much afraid for truth,--said the divinity-student,--as +for the conceptions of truth in the minds of persons not accustomed to +judge wisely the opinions uttered before them. + +Would you, then, banish all allusions to matters of this nature from the +society of people who come together habitually? + +I would be very careful in introducing them,--said the divinity-student. + +Yes, but friends of yours leave pamphlets in people's entries, to be +picked up by nervous misses and hysteric housemaids, full of doctrines +these people do not approve. Some of your friends stop little children +in the street, and give them books, which their parents, who have had +them baptized into the Christian fold and give them what they consider +proper religious instruction, do not think fit for them. One would say +it was fair enough to talk about matters thus forced upon people's +attention. + +The divinity-student could not deny that this was what might be called +opening the subject to the discussion of intelligent people. + +But,--he said,--the greatest objection is this, that persons who have +not made a professional study of theology are not competent to speak on +such subjects. Suppose a minister were to undertake to express opinions +on medical subjects, for instance, would you not think he was going +beyond his province? + +I laughed,--for I remembered John Wesley's "sulphur and supplication," +and so many other cases where ministers had meddled with +medicine,--sometimes well and sometimes ill, but, as a general rule, +with a tremendous lurch to quackery, owing to their very loose way of +admitting evidence,--that I could not help being amused. + +I beg your pardon,--I said,--I do not wish to be impolite, but I was +thinking of their certificates to patent medicines. Let us look at this +matter. + +If a minister had attended lectures on the theory and practice of +medicine, delivered by those who had studied it most deeply, for thirty +or forty years, at the rate of from fifty to one hundred a year,--if he +had been constantly reading and hearing read the most approved textbooks +on the subject,--if he had seen medicine actually practised according to +different methods, daily, for the same length of time,--I should think, +that, if a person of average understanding, he _was_ entitled to express +an opinion on the subject of medicine, or else that his instructors were +a set of ignorant and incompetent charlatans. + +If, before a medical practitioner would allow me to enjoy the full +privileges of the healing art, he expected me to affirm my belief in a +considerable number of medical doctrines, drugs, and formulae, I should +think that he thereby implied my right to discuss the same, and my +ability to do so, if I knew how to express myself in English. + +Suppose, for instance, the Medical Society should refuse to give us an +opiate, or to set a broken limb, until we had signed our belief in +a certain number of propositions,--of which we will say this is the +first:-- + +I. All men's teeth are naturally in a state of total decay or caries, +and, therefore, no man can bite until every one of them is extracted and +a new set is inserted according to the principles of dentistry adopted +by this Society. + +I, for one, should want to discuss that before signing my name to it, +and I should say this:--Why, no, that isn't true. There are a good many +bad teeth, we all know, but a great many more good ones. You mustn't +trust the _dentists_; they are all the time looking at the people who +have bad teeth, and such as are suffering from toothache. The idea that +you must pull out every one of every nice young man and young woman's +natural teeth! Poh, poh! Nobody believes that. This tooth must be +straightened, that must be filled with gold, and this other perhaps +extracted; but it must be a very rare case, if they are all so bad as to +require extraction; and if they are, don't blame the poor soul for it! +Don't tell us, as some old dentists used to, that everybody not only +always has every tooth in his head good for nothing, but that he ought +to have his head cut off as a punishment for that misfortune! No, I +can't sign Number One. Give us Number Two. + +II. We hold that no man can be well who does not agree with our views +of the efficacy of calomel, and who does not take the doses of it +prescribed in our tables, as there directed. + +To which I demur, questioning why it should be so, and get for answer +the two following:-- + +III. Every man who does not take our prepared calomel, as prescribed by +us in our Constitution and By-Laws, is and must be a mass of disease +from head to foot; it being self-evident that he is simultaneously +affected with Apoplexy, Arthritis, Ascites, Asphyxia, and Atrophy; with +Borborygmus, Bronchitis, and Bulimia; with Cachexia, Carcinoma, and +Cretinismus; and so on through the alphabet, to Xerophthalmia and Zona, +with all possible and incompatible diseases which are necessary to make +up a totally morbid state; and he will certainly die, if he does not +take freely of our prepared calomel, to be obtained only of one of our +authorized agents. + +IV. No man shall be allowed to take our prepared calomel who does not +give in his solemn adhesion to each and all of the above-named and the +following propositions (from ten to a hundred) and show his mouth to +certain of our apothecaries, who have _not_ studied dentistry, to +examine whether all his teeth have been extracted and a new set inserted +according to our regulations. + +Of course, the doctors have a right to say we shan't have any rhubarb, +if we don't sign their articles, and that, if, after signing them, we +express doubts (in public) about any of them, they will cut us off from +our jalap and squills,--but then to ask a fellow not to discuss the +propositions before he signs them is what I should call boiling it down +a little _too_ strong! + +If we understand them, why can't we discuss them? If we can't understand +them, because we haven't taken a medical degree, what the Father of Lies +do they ask us to sign them for? + +Just so with the graver profession. Every now and then some of its +members seem to lose common sense and common humanity. The laymen have +to keep setting the divines right constantly. Science, for instance,--in +other words, knowledge,--is not the enemy of religion; for, if so, +then religion would mean ignorance. But it is often the antagonist of +school-divinity. + +Everybody knows the story of early astronomy and the school-divines. +Come down a little later. Archbishop Usher, a very learned Protestant +prelate, tells us that the world was created on Sunday, the twenty-third +of October, four thousand and four years before the birth of Christ. +Deluge, December 7th, two thousand three hundred and forty-eight years +B.C.--Yes, and the earth stands on an elephant, and the elephant on a +tortoise. One statement is as near the truth as the other. + +Again, there is nothing so brutalizing to some natures as _moral +surgery_. I have often wondered that Hogarth did not add one more +picture to his four stages of Cruelty. Those wretched fools, reverend +divines and others, who were strangling men and women for imaginary +crimes a little more than a century ago among us, were set right by a +layman, and very angry it made them to have him meddle. + +The good people of Northampton had a very remarkable man for their +clergyman,--a man with a brain as nicely adjusted for certain mechanical +processes as Babbage's calculating machine. The commentary of the laymen +on the preaching and practising of Jonathan Edwards was, that, after +twenty-three years of endurance, they turned him out by a vote of twenty +to one, and passed a resolve that he should never preach for them again. +A man's logical and analytical adjustments are of little consequence, +compared to his primary relations with Nature and truth; and people have +sense enough to find it out in the long run; they know what "logic" is +worth. + +In that miserable delusion referred to above, the reverend Aztecs and +Fijians argued rightly enough from their premises, no doubt, for many +men can do this. But common sense and common humanity were unfortunately +left out from their premises, and a layman had to supply them. A hundred +more years and many of the barbarisms still lingering among us will, of +course, have disappeared like witch-hanging. But people are sensitive +now, as they were then. You will see by this extract that the Rev. +Cotton Mather did not like intermeddling with his business very well. +"Let the _Levites_ of the Lord keep close to their Instructions," he +says, "and _God will smile thro' the loins of those that rise up against +them._ I will report unto you a Thing which many Hundreds among us know +to be true. The _Godly Minister_ of a certain Town in Connecticut, when +he had occasion to be absent on a _Lord's Day_ from his Flock, employ'd +an honest _Neighbour_ of some small Talents for a _Mechanick_, to read a +_Sermon_ out of some _good Book_ unto 'em. This _Honest_, whom they ever +counted also a _Pious Man_, had so much conceit of his _Talents_, that +instead of _Reading a Sermon_ appointed, he to the _Surprize_ of the +People, fell to _preaching one of his own_. For his Text he took these +Words, _'Despise not Prophecyings'_; and in his Preachment he betook +himself to bewail the _Envy of the Clergy_ in the Land, in that they did +not wish _all the Lord's People to be Prophets_, and call forth _Private +Brethren_ publickly to _prophesie_. While he was thus in the midst +of his Exercise, God smote him with horrible _Madness_; he was taken +ravingly distracted; the People were forc'd with violent Hands to +carry him home.... I will not mention his Name: He was reputed a Pious +Man."--This is one of Cotton's "Remarkable Judgments of God, on Several +Sorts of Offenders,"--and the next cases referred to are the Judgments +on the "Abominable Sacrilege" of not paying the Ministers' Salaries. + +This sort of thing doesn't do here and now, you see, my young friend! We +talk about our free institutions;--they are nothing but a coarse outside +machinery to secure the freedom of individual thought. The President +of the United States is only the engine-driver of our broad-gauge +mail-train; and every honest, independent thinker has a seat in the +first-class cars behind him. + +----There is something in what you say,--replied the +divinity-student;--and yet it seems to me there are places and times +where disputed doctrines of religion should not be introduced. You would +not attack a church dogma--say, Total Depravity--in a lyceum-lecture, +for instance? + +Certainly not; I should choose another place,--I answered.--But, mind +you, at this table I think it is very different. I shall express my +ideas on any subject I like. The laws of the lecture-room, to which my +friends and myself are always amenable, do not hold here. I shall not +often give arguments, but frequently opinions,--I trust with courtesy +and propriety, but, at any rate, with such natural forms of expression +as it has pleased the Almighty to bestow upon me. + +A man's opinions, look you, are generally of much more value than his +arguments. These last are made by his brain, and perhaps he does not +believe the proposition they tend to prove,--as is often the case with +paid lawyers; but opinions are formed by our whole nature,--brain, +heart, instinct, brute life, everything all our experience has shaped +for us by contact with the whole circle of our being. + +----There is one thing more,--said the divinity-student,--that I wished +to speak of; I mean that idea of yours, expressed some time since, of +_depolarizing_ the text of sacred books in order to judge them fairly. +May I ask why you do not try the experiment yourself? + +Certainly,--I replied,--if it gives you any pleasure to ask foolish +questions. I think the ocean telegraph-wire ought to be laid and will be +laid, but I don't know that you have any right to ask me to go and +lay it. But, for that matter, I have heard a good deal of Scripture +depolarized in and out of the pulpit. I heard the Rev. Mr. F. once +depolarize the story of the Prodigal Son in Park-Street Church. Many +years afterwards, I heard him repeat the same or a similar depolarized +version in Rome, New York. I heard an admirable depolarization of the +story of the young man who "had great possessions" from the Rev. Mr. H. +in another pulpit, and felt that I had never half understood it before. +All paraphrases are more or less perfect depolarizations. But I tell you +this: the faith of our Christian community is not robust enough to +bear the turning of our most sacred language into its depolarized +equivalents. You have only to look back to Dr. Channing's famous +Baltimore discourse and remember the shrieks of blasphemy with which it +was greeted, to satisfy yourself on this point. Time, time only, +can gradually wean us from our _Epeolatry_, or word-worship, by +spiritualizing our ideas of the thing signified. Man is an idolater or +symbol-worshipper by nature, which, of course, is no fault of his; but +sooner or later all his local and temporary symbols must be ground to +powder, like the golden calf,--word-images as well as metal and wooden +ones. Rough work, iconoclasm,--but the only way to get at truth. It is, +indeed, as that quaint and rare old discourse, "A Summons for Sleepers," +hath it, "no doubt a thankless office, and a verie unthriftie +occupation; _veritas odium parit_, truth never goeth without a scratcht +face; he that will be busie with _vae vobis_, let him looke shortly for +_coram nobis_." + +The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think +what we like and say what we think. + +----Think what we like!--said the divinity-student;--think what we like! +What! against all human and divine authority? + +Against all human versions of its own or any other authority. At our own +peril always, if we do not _like_ the right,--but not at the risk of +being hanged and quartered for political heresy, or broiled on green +fagots for ecclesiastical treason! Nay, we have got so far, that the +very word _heresy_ has fallen into comparative disuse among us. + +And now, my young friend, let us shake hands and stop our discussion, +which we will not make a quarrel. I trust you know, or will learn, a +great many things in your profession which we common scholars do not +know; but mark this: when the common people of New England stop talking +politics and theology, it will be because they have got an Emperor to +teach them the one, and a Pope to teach them the other! + + * * * * * + +That was the end of my long conference with the divinity-student. +The next morning we got talking a little on the same subject, very +good-naturedly, as people return to a matter they have talked out. + +You must look to yourself,--said the divinity-student,--if your +democratic notions get into print. You will be fired into from all +quarters. + +If it were only a bullet, with the marksman's name on it!--I said.--I +can't stop to pick out the peep-shot of the anonymous scribblers. + +Right, Sir! right!--said Little Boston.--The scamps! I know the fellows. +They can't give fifty cents to one of the Antipodes, but they must have +it jingled along through everybody's palms all the way, till it reaches +him,--and forty cents of it get spilt, like the water out of the +fire-buckets passed along a "lane" at a fire;--but, when it comes to +anonymous defamation, putting lies into people's mouths, and then +advertising those people through the country as the authors of +them,--oh, then it is that they let not their left hand know what their +right hand doeth! + +I don't like Ehud's style of doing business, Sir. He comes along with a +very sanctimonious look, Sir, with his "secret errand unto thee," and +his "message from God unto thee," and then pulls out his hidden knife +with that unsuspected left hand of his,--(the little gentleman +lifted his clenched left hand with the blood-red jewel on the +ring-finger,)--and runs it, blade and haft, into a man's stomach! Don't +meddle with these fellows, Sir. They are read mostly by persons whom you +would not reach, if you were to write ever so much. Let 'em alone. A man +whose opinions are not attacked is beneath contempt. + +I hope so,--I said.--I got three pamphlets and innumerable squibs flung +at my head for attacking one of the pseudo-sciences, in former years. +When, by the permission of Providence, I held up to the professional +public the damnable facts connected with the conveyance of poison from +one young mother's chamber to another's,--for doing which humble office +I desire to be thankful that I have lived, though nothing else good +should ever come of my life,--I had to bear the sneers of those whose +position I had assailed, and, as I believe, have at last demolished, so +that nothing but the ghosts of dead women stir among the ruins.--What +would you do, if the folks without names kept at you, trying to get a +San Benito on to your shoulders that would fit you?--Would you stand +still in fly-time, or would you give a kick now and then? + +Let 'em bite!--said Little Boston;--let 'em bite! It makes 'em hungry to +shake 'em off, and they settle down again as thick as ever and twice as +savage. Do you know what meddling with the folks without names, as you +call 'em, is like?--It is like riding at the _quintain_. You run full +tilt at the board, but the board is on a pivot, with a bag of sand on an +arm that balances it. The board gives way as soon as you touch it; and +before you have got by, the bag of sand comes round whack on the back of +your neck. "Ananias," for instance, pitches into your lecture, we will +say, in some paper taken by the people in your kitchen. Your servants +get saucy and negligent. If their newspaper calls you names, they need +not be so particular about shutting doors softly or boiling potatoes. +So you lose your temper, and come out in an article which you think is +going to finish "Ananias," proving him a booby who doesn't know enough +to understand even a lyceum-lecture, or else a person that tells lies. +Now you think you've got him! Not so fast. "Ananias" keeps still and +winks to "Shimei," and "Shimei" comes out in the paper which they take +in your neighbor's kitchen, ten times worse than t'other fellow. If you +meddle with "Shimei," he steps out, and next week appears "Rab-shakeh," +an unsavory wretch; and now, at any rate, you find out what good +sense there was in Hezekiah's "Answer him not."--No, no,--keep your +temper.--So saying, the little gentleman doubled his left fist and +looked at it, as if he should like to hit something or somebody a most +pernicious punch with it. + +Good!--said I.--Now let me give you some axioms I have arrived at, after +seeing something of a great many kinds of good folks. + +----Of a hundred people of each of the different leading religious +sects, about the same proportion will be safe and pleasant persons to +deal and to live with. + +----There are, at least, three real saints among the women to one among +the men, in every denomination. + +----The spiritual standard of different classes I would reckon thus:-- + +1. The comfortably rich. + +2. The decently comfortable. + +3. The very rich, who are apt to be irreligious. + +4. The very poor, who are apt to be immoral. + +----The cut nails of machine-divinity may be driven in, but they won't +clinch. + +----The arguments which the greatest of our schoolmen could not refute +were two: the blood in men's veins, and the milk in women's breasts. + +----Humility is the first of the virtues--for other people. + +----Faith always implies the disbelief of a lesser fact in favor of +a greater. A little mind often sees the unbelief, without seeing the +belief, of a large one. + +The Poor Relation had been fidgeting about and working her mouth while +all this was going on. She broke out in speech at this point. + +I hate to hear folks talk so. I don't see that you are any better than a +heathen. + +I wish I were half as good as many heathens have been,--I said.--Dying +for a principle seems to me a higher degree of virtue than scolding for +it; and, the history of heathen races is full of instances where men +have laid down their lives for the love of their kind, of their country, +of truth, nay, even for simple manhood's sake, or to show their +obedience or fidelity. What would not such beings have done for the +souls of men, for the Christian commonwealth, for the King of Kings, +if they had lived in days of larger light? Which seems to you nearest +heaven, Socrates drinking his hemlock, Regulus going back to the enemy's +camp, or that old New England divine sitting comfortably in his study +and chuckling over his conceit of certain poor women, who had been +burned to death in his own town, going "roaring out of one fire into +another"? + +I don't believe he said any such thing,--replied the Poor Relation. + +It is hard to believe,--said I,--but it is true for all that. In another +hundred years it will be as incredible that men talked as we sometimes +hear them now. + +_Cor facit theologum._ The heart makes the theologian. Every race, +every civilization, either has a new revelation of its own or a new +interpretation of an old one. Democratic America has a different +humanity from feudal Europe, and so must have a new divinity. See, for +one moment, how intelligence reacts on our faiths. The Bible was a +divining-book to our ancestors, and is so still in the hands of some of +the vulgar. The Puritans went to the Old Testament for their laws; the +Mormons go to it for their patriarchal institution. Every generation +dissolves something new and precipitates something once held in solution +from that great storehouse of temporary and permanent truths. + +You may observe this: that the conversation of intelligent men of the +stricter sects is strangely in advance of the formulae that belong to +their organizations. So true is this, that I have doubts whether a large +proportion of them would not have been rather pleased than offended, +if they could have overheard our talk. For, look you, I think there is +hardly a professional teacher who will not in private conversation allow +a large part of what we have said, though it may frighten him in print; +and I know well what an under-current of secret sympathy gives vitality +to those poor words of mine which sometimes get a hearing. + +I don't mind the exclamation of any old stager who drinks Madeira +worth from two to six Bibles a bottle, and burns, according to his own +premises, a dozen souls a year in the cigars with which he muddles his +brains. But for the good and true and intelligent men whom we see all +around us, laborious, self-denying, hopeful, helpful,--men who know +that the active mind of the century is tending more and more to the two +poles, Rome and Reason, the sovereign church or the free soul, authority +or personality, God in us or God in our masters, and that, though a +man may by accident _stand_ half-way between these two points, he must +_look_ one way or the other,--I don't believe they would take offence at +anything I have reported of our late conversation. + +But supposing any one _do_ take offence at first sight, let him look +over these notes again, and see whether he is quite sure he does not +agree with most of these things that were said amongst us. If he agrees +with most of them, let him be patient with an opinion he does not +accept, or an expression or illustration a little too vivacious. I don't +know that I shall report any more conversations on these topics; but +I do insist on the right to express a civil opinion on this class of +subjects without giving offence, just when and where I please,--unless, +as in the lecture-room, there is an implied contract to keep clear of +doubtful matters. You didn't think a man could sit at a breakfast-table +doing nothing but making puns every morning for a year or two, and never +give a thought to the two thousand of his fellow-creatures who are +passing into another state during every hour that he sits talking and +laughing! Of course, the _one_ matter that a real human being cares for +is what is going to become of them and of him. And the plain truth is, +that a good many people are saying one thing about it and believing +another. + +----How do I know that? Why, I have known and loved to talk with good +people, all the way from Rome to Geneva in doctrine, as long as I can +remember. Besides, the real religion of the world comes from women much +more than from men,--from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our +souls in their bosoms. It is in their hearts that the "sentimental" +religion some people are so fond of sneering at has its source. The +sentiment of love, the sentiment of maternity, the sentiment of the +paramount obligation of the parent to the child as having called it into +existence, enhanced just in proportion to the power and knowledge of +the one and the weakness and ignorance of the other,--these are the +"sentiments" that have kept our soulless systems from driving men off to +die in holes like those that riddle the sides of the hill opposite +the Monastery of St. Saba, where the miserable victims of a +falsely-interpreted religion starved and withered in their delusion. + +I have looked on the face of a saintly woman this very day, whose creed +many dread and hate, but whose life is lovely and noble beyond all +praise. When I remember the bitter words I have heard spoken against her +faith, by men who have an Inquisition which excommunicates those who ask +to leave their communion in peace, and an _Index Expurgatorius_ on which +this article may possibly have the honor of figuring,--and, far worse +than these, the reluctant, pharisaical confession, that it might perhaps +be _possible_ that one who so believed should be accepted of the +Creator,--and then recall the sweet peace and love that show through +all her looks, the price of untold sacrifices and labors,--and again +recollect how thousands of women, filled with the same spirit, die, +without a murmur, to earthly life, die to their own names even, that +they may know nothing but their holy duties,--while men are torturing +and denouncing their fellows, and while we can hear day and night the +clinking of the hammers that are trying, like the brute forces in the +"Prometheus," to rivet their adamantine wedges right through the breast +of human nature,--I have been ready to believe that we have even now a +new revelation, and the name of its Messiah is WOMAN! + + * * * * * + +----I should be sorry,--I remarked, a day or two afterwards, to the +divinity-student,--if anything I said tended in any way to foster any +jealousy between the professions, or to throw disrespect upon that one +on whose counsel and sympathies almost all of us lean in our moments +of trial. But we are false to our new conditions of life, if we do not +resolutely maintain our religious as well as our political freedom, +in the face of any and all supposed monopolies. Certain men will, of +course, say two things, if we do not take their views: first, that we +don't know anything about these matters; and, secondly, that we are not +so good as they are. They have a polarized phraseology for saying these +things, but it comes to precisely that. To which it may be answered, in +the first place, that we have good authority for saying that even babes +and sucklings know _something_; and, in the second, that, if there is a +mote or so to be removed from our premises, the courts and councils of +the last few years have found beams enough in some other quarters to +build a church that would hold all the good people in Boston and have +sticks enough left to make a bonfire for all the heretics. + +As to that terrible depolarizing process of mine, of which we were +talking the other day, I will give you a specimen of one way of managing +it, if you like. I don't believe it will hurt you or anybody. Besides, I +had a great deal rather finish our talk with pleasant images and gentle +words than with sharp sayings, which will only afford a text, if anybody +repeats them, for endless relays of attacks from Messrs. Ananias, +Shimei, and Rab-sha-keh. + +[I must leave such gentry, if any of them show themselves, in the hands +of my clerical friends, many of whom are ready to stand up for the +rights of the laity,--and to those blessed souls, the good women, to +whom this version of the story of a mother's hidden hopes and tender +anxieties is dedicated by their peaceful and loving servant.] + + + + +A MOTHER'S SECRET. + + + How sweet the sacred legend--if unblamed + In my slight verse such holy things are named-- + Of Mary's secret hours of hidden joy, + Silent, but pondering on her wondrous boy! + _Ave, Maria!_ Pardon, if I wrong + Those heavenly words that shame my earthly song! + + The choral host had closed the angel's strain + Sung to the midnight watch on Bethlehem's plain; + And now the shepherds, hastening on their way, + Sought the still hamlet where the Infant lay. + They passed the fields that gleaning Ruth toiled o'er,-- + They saw afar the ruined threshing-floor + Where Moab's daughter, homeless and forlorn, + Found Boaz slumbering by his heaps of corn; + And some remembered how the holy scribe, + Skilled in the lore of every jealous tribe, + Traced the warm blood of Jesse's royal son + To that fair alien, bravely wooed and won. + So fared they on to seek the promised sign + That marked the anointed heir of David's line. + + At last, by forms of earthly semblance led, + They found the crowded inn, the oxen's shed. + No pomp was there, no glory shone around + On the coarse straw that strewed the reeking ground; + One dim retreat a flickering torch betrayed,-- + In that poor cell the Lord of Life was laid! + + The wondering shepherds told their breathless tale + Of the bright choir that woke the sleeping vale; + Told how the skies with sudden glory flamed; + Told how the shining multitude proclaimed, + "Joy, joy to earth! Behold the hallowed morn! + In David's city Christ the Lord is born! + 'Glory to God!' let angels shout on high,-- + 'Good-will to men!' the listening Earth reply!" + + They spoke with hurried words and accents wild; + Calm in his cradle slept the heavenly child. + No trembling word the mother's joy revealed,-- + One sigh of rapture, and her lips were sealed; + Unmoved she saw the rustic train depart, + But kept their words to ponder in her heart. + + Twelve years had passed; the boy was fair and tall, + Growing in wisdom, finding grace with all. + The maids of Nazareth, as they trooped to fill + Their balanced urns beside the mountain-rill,-- + The gathered matrons, as they sat and spun, + Spoke in soft words of Joseph's quiet son. + No voice had reached the Galilean vale + Of star-led kings or awe-struck shepherds' tale; + In the meek, studious child they only saw + The future Rabbi, learned in Israel's law. + + So grew the boy; and now the feast was near, + When at the holy place the tribes appear. + Scarce had the home-bred child of Nazareth seen + Beyond the hills that girt the village-green, + Save when at midnight, o'er the star-lit sands, + Snatched from the steel of Herod's murdering bands, + A babe, close-folded to his mother's breast, + Through Edom's wilds he sought the sheltering West. + + Then Joseph spake: "Thy boy hath largely grown; + Weave him fine raiment, fitting to be shown; + Fair robes beseem the pilgrim, as the priest: + Goes he not with us to the holy feast?" + + And Mary culled the flaxen fibres white; + Till eve she spun; she spun till morning light; + The thread was twined; its parting meshes through + From hand to hand her restless shuttle flew, + Till the full web was wound upon the beam,-- + Love's curious toil,--a vest without a seam! + + They reach the holy place, fulfil the days + To solemn feasting given, and grateful praise. + At last they turn, and far Moriah's height + Melts in the southern sky and fades from sight. + All day the dusky caravan has flowed + In devious trails along the winding road + (For many a step their homeward path attends,-- + And all the sons of Abraham are as friends). + Evening has come,--the hour of rest and joy;-- + Hush! hush!--that whisper,--"Where is Mary's boy?" + + O weary hour! O aching days that passed + Filled with strange fears, each wilder than the last: + The soldier's lance,--the fierce centurion's sword,-- + The crushing wheels that whirl some Roman lord,-- + The midnight crypt that sucks the captive's breath,-- + The blistering sun on Hinnom's vale of death! + + Thrice on his cheek had rained the morning light, + Thrice on his lips the mildewed kiss of night, + Crouched by some porphyry column's shining plinth, + Or stretched beneath the odorous terebinth. + + At last, in desperate mood, they sought once more + The Temple's porches, searched in vain before; + They found him seated with the ancient men,-- + The grim old rufflers of the tongue and pen,-- + Their bald heads glistening as they clustered near, + Their gray beards slanting as they turned to hear, + Lost in half-envious wonder and surprise + That lips so fresh should utter words so wise. + + And Mary said,--as one who, tried too long, + Tells all her grief and half her sense of wrong,-- + "What is this thoughtless thing which thou hast done? + Lo, we have sought thee sorrowing, O my son!" + + Few words he spake, and scarce of filial tone,-- + Strange words, their sense a mystery yet unknown; + Then turned with them and left the holy hill, + To all their mild commands obedient still. + + The tale was told to Nazareth's sober men, + And Nazareth's matrons told it oft again; + The maids re-told it at the fountain's side; + The youthful shepherds doubted or denied; + It passed around among the listening friends, + With all that fancy adds and fiction lends, + Till newer marvels dimmed the young renown + Of Joseph's son, who talked the Rabbis down. + + But Mary, faithful to its lightest word, + Kept in her heart the sayings she had heard, + Till the dread morning rent the Temple's veil, + And shuddering Earth confirmed the wondrous tale. + + Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall: + A mother's secret hope outlives them all. + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MISS PRISSY. + + +Will our little Mary really fall in love with the Doctor?--The question +reaches us in anxious tones from all the circle of our readers; and what +especially shocks us is, that grave doctors of divinity, and serious, +stocking-knitting matrons, seem to be the class who are particularly +set against the success of our excellent orthodox hero, and bent on +reminding us of the claims of that unregenerate James, whom we have sent +to sea on purpose that our heroine may recover herself of that foolish +partiality for him which all the Christian world seems bent on +perpetuating. + +"Now, really," says the Rev. Mrs. Q., looking up from her bundle of +Sewing-Society work, "you are _not_ going to let Mary marry the +Doctor?" + +My dear Madam, is not that just what you did, yourself, after having +turned off three or four fascinating young sinners as good as James any +day? Don't make us believe that you are sorry for it now! + +"Is it possible," says Dr. Theophrastus, who is himself a stanch +Hopkinsian divine, and who is at present recovering from his last grand +effort on Natural and Moral Ability,--"is it possible that you are going +to let Mary forget that poor young man and marry Dr. H.? That will never +do in the world!" + +Dear Doctor, consider what would have become of you, if some lady at a +certain time had not had the sense and discernment to fall in love with +the _man_ who came to her disguised as a theologian. + +"But he's so old!" says Aunt Maria. + +Not at all. Old? What do you mean? Forty is the very season of +ripeness,--the very meridian of manly lustre and splendor. + +"But he wears a wig." + +My dear Madam, so did Sir Charles Grandison, and Lovelace, and all the +other fine fellows of those days; the wig was the distinguishing mark of +a gentleman. + +No,--spite of all you may say and declare, we do insist that our Doctor +is a very proper and probable subject for a young lady to fall in love +with. + +If women have one weakness more marked than another, it is towards +veneration. They are born worshippers,--makers of silver shrines for +some divinity or other, which, of course, they always think fell +straight down from heaven. + +The first step towards their falling in love with an ordinary mortal +is generally to dress him out with all manner of real or fancied +superiority; and having made him up, they worship him. + +Now a truly great man, a man really grand and noble in heart and +intellect, has this advantage with women, that he is an idol ready-made +to hand; and so that very painstaking and ingenious sex have less labor +in getting him up, and can be ready to worship him on shorter notice. + +In particular is this the case where a sacred profession and a moral +supremacy are added to the intellectual. Just think of the career of +celebrated preachers and divines in all ages. Have they not stood like +the image that "Nebuchadnezzar the king set up," and all womankind, +coquettes and flirts not excepted, been ready to fall down and worship, +even before the sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and so forth? Is +not the faithful Paula, with her beautiful face, prostrate in reverence +before poor, old, lean, haggard, dying St. Jerome, in the most splendid +painting of the world, an emblem and sign of woman's eternal power of +self-sacrifice to what she deems noblest in man? Does not old Richard +Baxter tell us, with delightful single-heartedness, how his wife fell +in love with him first, spite of his long, pale face,--and how she +confessed, dear soul, after many years of married life, that she had +found him _less_ sour and bitter than she had expected? + +The fact is, women are burdened with fealty, faith, reverence, more +than they know what to do with; they stand like a hedge of sweet-peas, +throwing out fluttering tendrils everywhere for something high and +strong to climb by,--and when they find it, be it ever so rough in the +bark, they catch upon it. And instances are not wanting of those who +have turned away from the flattery of admirers to prostrate themselves +at the feet of a genuine hero who never wooed them, except by heroic +deeds and the rhetoric of a noble life. + +Never was there a distinguished man whose greatness could sustain the +test of minute domestic inspection better than our Doctor. Strong in a +single-hearted humility, a perfect unconsciousness of self, an honest +and sincere absorption in high and holy themes and objects, there was in +him what we so seldom see,--a perfect logic of life; his minutest deeds +were the true results of his sublimest principles. His whole nature, +moral, physical, and intellectual, was simple, pure, and cleanly. He was +temperate as an anchorite in all matters of living,--avoiding, from a +healthy instinct, all those intoxicating stimuli then common among the +clergy. In his early youth, indeed, he had formed an attachment to the +almost universal clerical pipe,--but, observing a delicate woman once +nauseated by coming into the atmosphere which he and his brethren had +polluted, he set himself gravely to reflect that that which could so +offend a woman must needs be uncomely and unworthy a Christian man; +wherefore he laid his pipe on the mantelpiece, and never afterwards +resumed the indulgence. + +In all his relations with womanhood he was delicate and reverential, +forming his manners by that old precept, "The elder women entreat as +mothers, the younger as sisters,"--which rule, short and simple as +it is, is nevertheless the most perfect _resume_, of all true +gentlemanliness. Then, as for person, the Doctor was not handsome, to be +sure; but he was what sometimes serves with woman better,--majestic +and manly, and, when animated by thought and feeling, having even a +commanding grandeur of mien. Add to all this, that our valiant hero is +now on the straight road to bring him into that situation most likely +to engage the warm partisanship of a true woman,--namely, that of a man +unjustly abused for right-doing,--and one may see that it is ten to one +our Mary may fall in love with him yet, before she knows it. + +If it were not for this mysterious selfness-and-sameness which makes +this wild, wandering, uncanonical sailor, James Marvyn, so intimate +and internal,--if his thread were not knit up with the thread of her +life,--were it not for the old habit of feeling for him, thinking for +him, praying for him, hoping for him, fearing for him, which--woe is +us!--is the unfortunate habit of womankind,--if it were not for that +fatal something which neither judgment, nor wishes, nor reason, nor +common sense shows any great skill in unravelling,--we are quite sure +that Mary would be in love with the Doctor within the next six +months; as it is, we leave you all to infer from your own heart and +consciousness what his chances are. + +A new sort of scene is about to open on our heroine, and we shall show +her to you, for an evening at least, in new associations, and with a +different background from that homely and rural one in which she has +fluttered as a white dove amid leafy and congenial surroundings. + +As we have before intimated, Newport presented a _resume_ of many +different phases of society, all brought upon a social level by the then +universally admitted principle of equality. + +There were scattered about in the settlement lordly mansions, whose +owners rolled in emblazoned carriages, and whose wide halls were the +scenes of a showy and almost princely hospitality. By her husband's +side, Mrs. Katy Scudder was allied to one of these families of wealthy +planters, and often recognized the connection with a quiet undertone +of satisfaction, as a dignified and self-respecting woman should. She +liked, once in a while, quietly to let people know, that, although they +lived in the plain little cottage and made no pretensions, yet they had +good blood in their veins,--that Mr. Scudder's mother was a Wilcox, and +that the Wilcoxes were, she supposed, as high as anybody,--generally +ending the remark with the observation, that "all these things, to be +sure, were matters of small consequence, since at last it would be of +far more importance to have been a true Christian than to have been +connected with the highest families of the land." + +Nevertheless, Mrs. Scudder was not a little pleased to have in her +possession a card of invitation to a splendid wedding-party that was +going to be given, on Friday, at the Wilcox Manor. She thought it a very +becoming mark of respect to the deceased Mr. Scudder that his widow and +daughter should be brought to mind,--so becoming and praiseworthy, +in fact, that, "though an old woman," as she said, with a complacent +straightening of her tall, lithe figure, she really thought she must +make an effort to go. + +Accordingly, early one morning, after all domestic duties had been +fulfilled, and the clock, loudly ticking through the empty rooms, told +that all needful bustle had died down to silence, Mrs. Katy, Mary, and +Miss Prissy Diamond, the dressmaker, might have been observed sitting in +solemn senate around the camphor-wood trunk, before spoken of, and which +exhaled vague foreign and Indian perfumes of silk and sandal-wood. + +You may have heard of dignitaries, my good reader,--but, I assure you, +you know very little of a situation of trust or importance compared to +that of _the_ dress-maker in a small New England town. + +What important interests does she hold in her hands! How is she +besieged, courted, deferred to! Three months beforehand, all her days +and nights are spoken for; and the simple statement, that _only_ on that +day you can have Miss Clippers, is of itself an apology for any omission +of attention elsewhere,--it strikes home at once to the deepest +consciousness of every woman, married or single. How thoughtfully is +everything arranged, weeks beforehand, for the golden, important season +when Miss Clippers can come! On that day, there is to be no extra +sweeping, dusting, cleaning, cooking, no visiting, no receiving, no +reading or writing, but all with one heart and soul are to wait upon +her, intent to forward the great work which she graciously affords +a day's leisure to direct. Seated in her chair of state, with her +well-worn cushion bristling with pins and needles at her side, her ready +roll of patterns and her scissors, she hears, judges, and decides _ex +cathedra_ on the possible or not possible, in that important art on +which depends the right presentation of the floral part of Nature's +great horticultural show. She alone is competent to say whether there is +any available remedy for the stained breadth in Jane's dress,--whether +the fatal spot by any magical hocus-pocus can be cut out from the +fulness, or turned up and smothered from view in the gathers, or +concealed by some new fashion of trimming falling with generous +appropriateness exactly across the fatal weak point. She can tell you +whether that remnant of velvet will make you a basque,--whether Mamma's +old silk can reappear in juvenile grace for Miss Lucy. What marvels +follow her, wherever she goes! What wonderful results does she contrive +from the most unlikely materials, as everybody after her departure +wonders to see old things become so much better than new! + +Among the most influential and happy of her class was Miss Prissy +Diamond,--a little, dapper, doll-like body, quick in her motions and +nimble in her tongue, whose delicate complexion, flaxen curls, merry +flow of spirits, and ready abundance of gayety, song, and story, apart +from her professional accomplishments, made her a welcome guest in every +family in the neighborhood. Miss Prissy laughingly boasted being past +forty, sure that the avowal would always draw down on her quite a storm +of compliments, on the freshness of her sweet-pea complexion and the +brightness of her merry blue eyes. She was well pleased to hear dawning +girls wondering why with so many advantages she had never married. At +such remarks, Miss Prissy always laughed loudly, and declared that she +had always had such a string of engagements with the women that she +never found half an hour to listen to what any _man_ living would say to +her, supposing she could stop to hear him. "Besides, if I were to get +married, nobody else could," she would say. "What would become of all +the wedding-clothes for everybody else?" But sometimes, when Miss Prissy +felt extremely gracious, she would draw out of her little chest just the +faintest tip-end of a sigh, and tell some young lady, in a confidential +undertone, that one of these days she would tell her something,--and +then there would come a wink of her blue eyes and a fluttering of the +pink ribbons in her cap quite stimulating to youthful inquisitiveness, +though we have never been able to learn by any of our antiquarian +researches that the expectations thus excited were ever gratified. + +In her professional prowess she felt a pardonable pride. What feats +could she relate of wonderful dresses got out of impossibly small +patterns of silk! what marvels of silks turned that could not be told +from new! what reclaimings of waists that other dress-makers had +hopelessly spoiled! Had not Mrs. General Wilcox once been obliged to +call in her aid on a dress sent to her from Paris? and did not Miss +Prissy work three days and nights on that dress, and make every stitch +of that trimming over with her own hands, before it was fit to be seen? +And when Mrs. Governor Dexter's best silver-gray brocade was spoiled by +Miss Pimlico, and there wasn't another scrap to pattern it with, didn't +she make a new waist out of the cape and piece one of the sleeves +twenty-nine times, and yet nobody would ever have known that there was a +joining in it? + +In fact, though Miss Prissy enjoyed the fair average plain-sailing of +her work, she might be said to _revel_ in difficulties. A full pattern +with trimming, all ample and ready, awoke a moderate enjoyment; but the +resurrection of anything half-worn or imperfectly made, the brilliant +success, when, after turning, twisting, piecing, contriving, and, +by unheard-of inventions of trimming, a dress faded and defaced was +restored to more than pristine splendor,--_that_ was a triumph worth +enjoying. + +It was true, Miss Prissy, like most of her nomadic compeers, was a +little given to gossip; but, after all, it was innocent gossip,--not +a bit of malice in it; it was only all the particulars about Mrs. +Thus-and-So's wardrobe,--all the statistics of Mrs. That-and-T'other's +china-closet,--all the minute items of Miss Simpkins's wedding-clothes, +--and how her mother cried, the morning of the wedding, and said +that she didn't know anything how she could spare Louisa Jane, only +that Edward was such a good boy that she felt she could love him +like an own son,--and what a providence it seemed that the very ring +that was put into the bride-loaf was one that he gave her when he first +went to sea, when she wouldn't be engaged to him because she thought she +loved Thomas Strickland better, but that was only because she hadn't +found him out, you know,--and so forth, and so forth. Sometimes, too, +her narrations assumed a solemn cast, and brought to mind the hush of +funerals, and told of words spoken in faint whispers, when hands were +clasped for the last time,--and of utterances crushed out from hearts, +when the hammer of a great sorrow strikes out sparks of the divine, even +from common stone; and there would be real tears in the little blue +eyes, and the pink bows would flutter tremulously, like the last +three leaves on a bare scarlet maple in autumn. In fact, dear reader, +_gossip_, like romance, has its noble side to it. How can you love your +neighbor as yourself and not feel a little curiosity as to how he +fares, what he wears, where he goes, and how he takes the great life +tragi-comedy at which you and he are both more than spectators? Show me +a person who lives in a country-village absolutely without curiosity or +interest on these subjects, and I will show you a cold, fat oyster, to +whom the tide-mud of propriety is the whole of existence. + +As one of our esteemed collaborators in the ATLANTIC remarks,--"A dull +town, where there is neither theatre nor circus nor opera, must have +some excitement, and the real tragedy and comedy of life _must_ come +in place of the second-hand. Hence the noted gossiping propensities +of country-places, which, so long as they are not poisoned by envy or +ill-will, have a respectable and picturesque side to them,--an undoubted +leave to be, as probably has almost everything, which obstinately and +always insists on being, except sin!" + +As it is, it must be confessed that the arrival of Miss Prissy in a +family was much like the setting up of a domestic show-case, through +which you could look into all the families in the neighborhood, and see +the never-ending drama of life,--births, marriages, deaths,--joy +of new-made mothers, whose babes weighed just eight pounds and +three-quarters, and had hair that would part with a comb,--and tears of +Rachels who wept for their children, and would not be comforted because +they were not. Was there a tragedy, a mystery, in all Newport, whose +secret closet had not been unlocked by Miss Prissy? She thought not; +and you always wondered, with an uncertain curiosity, what those things +might be over which she gravely shook her head, declaring, with such a +look,--"Oh, if you only _could_ know!"--and ending with a general sigh +and lamentation, like the confidential chorus of a Greek tragedy. + +We have been thus minute in sketching Miss Prissy's portrait, because +we rather like her. She has great power, we admit; and were she a +sour-faced, angular, energetic body, with a heart whose secretions had +all become acrid by disappointment and dyspepsia, she might be a fearful +gnome, against whose family-visitations one ought to watch and pray. As +it was, she came into the house rather like one of those breezy days +of spring, which burst all the blossoms, set all the doors and windows +open, make the hens cackle and the turtles peep,--filling a solemn +Puritan dwelling with as much bustle and chatter as if a box of martins +were setting up housekeeping in it. + +Let us now introduce you to the sanctuary of Mrs. Scudder's own private +bedroom, where the committee of exigencies, with Miss Prissy at their +head, are seated in solemn session around the camphor-wood trunk. + +"Dress, you know, is of _some_ importance, after all," said Mrs. +Scudder, in that apologetic way in which sensible people generally +acknowledge a secret leaning towards anything so very mundane. While +the good lady spoke, she was reverentially unpinning and shaking out +of their fragrant folds creamy crape shawls of rich Chinese +embroidery,--India muslin, scarfs, and aprons; and already her hands +were undoing the pins of a silvery damask linen in which was wrapped +her own wedding-dress. "I have always told Mary," she continued, "that, +though our hearts ought not to be set on these things, yet they had +their importance." + +"Certainly, certainly, Ma'am," chimed in Miss Prissy. "I was saying +to Miss General Wilcox, the other day, _I_ didn't see how we could +'consider the lilies of the field,' without seeing the importance of +looking pretty. I've got a flower-de-luce in my garden now, from one of +the new roots that old Major Seaforth brought over from France, which is +just the most beautiful thing you ever did see; and I was thinking, as +I looked at it to-day, that, if women's dresses only grew on 'em as +handsome and well-fitting as that, why, there wouldn't be any need of +me; but as it is, why, we _must think_, if we want to look well. Now +peach-trees, I s'pose, might bear just as good peaches without the pink +blows, but then who would want 'em to? Miss Deacon Twitchel, when I was +up there the other day, kept kind o' sighin' 'cause Cerintha Ann is +getting a new pink silk made up, 'cause she said it was such a dying +world it didn't seem right to call off our attention: but I told her +it wasn't any pinker than the apple-blossoms; and what with robins and +blue-birds and one thing or another, the Lord is always calling off our +attention; and I think we ought to observe the Lord's works and take a +lesson from 'em." + +"Yes, you are quite right," said Mrs. Scudder, rising and shaking out a +splendid white brocade, on which bunches of moss-roses were looped to +bunches of violets by graceful fillets of blue ribbons. "This was my +wedding-dress," she said. + +Little Miss Prissy sprang up and clapped her hands in an ecstasy. + +"Well, now, Miss Scudder, really!--did I ever see anything more +beautiful? It really goes beyond anything _I_ ever saw. I don't think, +in all the brocades I ever made up, I ever saw so pretty a pattern as +this." + +"Mr. Scudder chose it for me, himself, at the silk-factory in Lyons," +said Mrs. Scudder, with pardonable pride, "and I want it tried on to +Mary." + +"Really, Miss Scudder, this ought to be kept for _her_ wedding-dress," +said Miss Prissy, as she delightedly bustled about the congenial task. +"I was up to Miss Marvyn's, a-working, last week," she said, as she +threw the dress over Mary's head, "and she said that James expected to +make his fortune in that voyage, and come home and settle down." + +Mary's fair head emerged from the rustling folds of the brocade, her +cheeks crimson as one of the moss-roses,--while her mother's face assumed +a severe gravity, as she remarked that she believed James had been much +pleased with Jane Spencer, and that, for her part, she should be very +glad, when he came home, if he could marry such a steady, sensible girl, +and settle down to a useful, Christian life. + +"Ah, yes,--just so,--a very excellent idea, certainly," said Miss +Prissy. "It wants a little taken in here on the shoulders, and a +little under the arms. The biases are all right; the sleeves will want +altering, Miss Scudder. I hope you will have a hot iron ready for +pressing." + +Mrs. Scudder rose immediately, to see the command obeyed; and as her +back was turned, Miss Prissy went on in a low tone,-- + +"Now, _I_, for my part, don't think there's a word of truth in that +story about James Marvyn and Jane Spencer; for I was down there at work +one day when he called, and I _know_ there couldn't have been anything +between them,--besides, Miss Spencer, her mother, told me there +wasn't.--There, Miss Scudder, you see that is a good fit. It's +astonishing how near it comes to fitting, just as it was. I didn't think +Mary was so near what you were, when you were a girl, Miss Scudder. The +other day, when I was up to General Wilcox's, the General he was in the +room when I was a-trying on Miss Wilcox's cherry velvet, and she was +asking couldn't I come this week for her, and I mentioned I was coming +to Miss Scudder, and the General says he,--'I used to know her when she +was a girl. I tell you, she was one of the handsomest girls in Newport, +by George!' says he. And says I,--'General, you ought to see her +daughter.' And the General,--you know his jolly way,--he laughed, and +says he,--'If she is as handsome as her mother was, I don't want to see +her,' says he. 'I tell you, wife,' says he, 'I but just missed falling +in love with Katy Stephens.'" + +"I could have told her more than that," said Mrs. Scudder, with a +flash of her old coquette girlhood for a moment lighting her eyes and +straightening her lithe form. "I guess, if I should show a letter he +wrote me once----But what am I talking about?" she said, suddenly +stiffening back into a sensible woman. "Miss Prissy, do you think it +will be necessary to cut it off at the bottom? It seems a pity to cut +such rich silk." + +"So it does, I declare. Well, I believe it will do to turn it up." + +"I depend on you to put it a little into modern fashion, you know," said +Mrs. Scudder. "It is many a year, you know, since it was made." + +"Oh, never you fear! You leave all that to me," said Miss Prissy. "Now, +there never was anything so lucky as, that, just before all these +wedding-dresses had to be fixed, I got a letter from my sister Martha, +that works for all the first families of Boston. And Martha she is +really unusually privileged, because she works for Miss Cranch, and Miss +Cranch gets letters from Miss Adams,--you know Mr. Adams is Ambassador +now at the Court of St. James, and Miss Adams writes home all the +particulars about the court-dresses; and Martha she heard one of the +letters read, and she told Miss Cranch that she would give the best +five-pound-note she had, if she could just copy that description to send +to Prissy. Well, Miss Cranch let her do it, and I've got a copy of the +letter here in my work-pocket. I read it up to Miss General Wilcox's, +and to Major Seaforth's, and I'll read it to you." + +Mrs. Katy Scudder was a born subject of a crown, and, though now a +republican matron, had not outlived the reverence, from childhood +implanted, for the high and stately doings of courts, lords, ladies, +queens, and princesses, and therefore it was not without some awe that +she saw Miss Prissy produce from her little black work-bag the well-worn +epistle. + +"Here it is," said Miss Prissy, at last. "I only copied out the parts +about being presented at Court. She says:-- + +"'One is obliged here to attend the circles of the Queen, which are held +once a fortnight; and what renders it very expensive is, that you cannot +go twice in the same dress, and a court-dress you cannot make use of +elsewhere. I directed my mantua-maker to let my dress be elegant, but +plain as I could possibly appear with decency. Accordingly, it is white +lutestring, covered and full-trimmed with white crape, festooned with +lilac ribbon and mock point-lace, over a hoop of enormous size. There +is only a narrow train, about three yards in length to the gown-waist, +which is put into a ribbon on the left side,--the Queen only having her +train borne. Ruffled cuffs for married ladies,--treble lace ruffles, a +very dress cap with long lace lappets, two white plumes, and a blonde +lace handkerchief. This is my rigging.'" + +Miss Prissy here stopped to adjust her spectacles. Her audience +expressed a breathless interest. + +"You see," she said, "I used to know her when she was Nabby Smith. She +was Parson Smith's daughter, at Weymouth, and as handsome a girl as +ever I wanted to see,--just as graceful as a sweet-brier bush. I don't +believe any of those English ladies looked one bit better than she did. +She was always a master-hand at writing. Everything she writes about, +she puts it right before you. You feel as if you'd been there. Now, here +she goes on to tell about her daughter's dress. She says:-- + +"'My head is dressed for St. James's, and in my opinion looks very +tasty. Whilst my daughter is undergoing the same operation, I set myself +down composedly to write you a few lines. Well, methinks I hear Betsey +and Lucy say, "What is cousin's dress?" _White_, my dear girls, like +your aunt's, only differently trimmed and ornamented,--her train being +wholly of white crape, and trimmed with white ribbon; the petticoat, +which is the most showy part of the dress, covered and drawn up in +what are called festoons, with light wreaths of beautiful flowers; the +sleeves, white crape drawn over the silk, with a row of lace round the +sleeve near the shoulder, another half-way down the arm, and a third +upon the top of the ruffle,--a little stuck between,--a kind of hat-cap +with three large feathers and a bunch of flowers,--a wreath of flowers +on the hair.'" + +Miss Prissy concluded this relishing description with a little smack of +the lips, such as people sometimes give when reading things that are +particularly to their taste. + +"Now, I was a-thinking," she added, "that it would be an excellent way +to trim Mary's sleeves,--three rows of lace, with a sprig to each row." + +All this while, our Mary, with her white short-gown and blue +stuff-petticoat, her shining pale brown hair and serious large blue +eyes, sat innocently looking first at her mother, then at Miss Prissy, +and then at the finery. + +We do not claim for her any superhuman exemption from girlish feelings. +She was innocently dazzled with the vision of courtly halls and princely +splendors, and thought Mrs. Adams's descriptions almost a perfect +realization of things she had read in "Sir Charles Grandison." If her +mother thought it right and proper she should be dressed and made fine, +she was glad of it; only there came a heavy, leaden feeling in her +little heart, which she did not understand, but we who know womankind +will translate for you: it was, that a certain pair of dark eyes would +not see her after she was dressed; and so, after all, what was the use +of looking pretty? + +"I wonder what James _would_ think," passed through her head; for Mary +had never changed a ribbon, or altered the braid of her hair, or pinned +a flower in her bosom, that she had not quickly seen the effect of the +change mirrored in those dark eyes. It was a pity, of course, now she +had found out that she ought not to think about him, that so many +thought-strings were twisted round him. + +So while Miss Prissy turned over her papers, and read out of others +extracts about Lord Caermarthen and Sir Clement Cotterel Dormer and the +Princess Royal and Princess Augusta, in black and silver, with a silver +netting upon the coat, and a head stuck full of diamond pins,--and Lady +Salisbury and Lady Talbot and the Duchess of Devonshire, and scarlet +satin sacks and diamonds and ostrich-plumes, and the King's kissing Mrs. +Adams,--little Mary's blue eyes grew larger and larger, seeing far off +on the salt green sea, and her ears heard only the ripple and murmur of +those waters that earned her heart away,--till, by-and-by, Miss Prissy +gave her a smart little tap, which awakened her to the fact that she was +wanted again to try on the dress which Miss Prissy's nimble fingers had +basted. + +So passed the day,--Miss Prissy busily chattering, clipping, +basting,--Mary patiently trying on to an unheard-of extent,--and Mrs. +Scudder's neat room whipped into a perfect froth and foam of gauze, +lace, artificial flowers, linings, and other aids, accessories, and +abetments. + +At dinner, the Doctor, who had been all the morning studying out his +Treatise on the Millennium, discoursed tranquilly as usual, innocently +ignorant of the unusual cares which were distracting the minds of his +listeners. What should he know of dress-makers, good soul? Encouraged +by the respectful silence of his auditors, he calmly expanded and +soliloquized on his favorite topic, the last golden age of Time, the +Marriage-Supper of the Lamb, when the purified Earth, like a repentant +Psyche, shall be restored to the long-lost favor of a celestial +Bridegroom, and glorified saints and angels shall walk familiarly as +wedding-guests among men. + +"Sakes alive!" said little Miss Prissy, after dinner, "did I ever hear +any one go on like that blessed man?--such a spiritual mind! Oh, Miss +Scudder, how you are privileged in having him here! I do really think it +is a shame such a blessed man a'n't thought more of. Why, I could just +sit and hear him talk all day. Miss Scudder, I wish sometimes you'd just +let me make a ruffled shirt for him, and do it all up myself, and put a +stitch in the hem that I learned from my sister Martha, who learned it +from a French young lady who was educated in a convent;--nuns, you know, +poor things, can do _some_ things right; and I think _I_ never saw such +hemstitching as they do there;--and I should like to hemstitch the +Doctor's ruffles; he is _so_ spiritually-minded, it really makes me love +him. Why, hearing him talk put me in mind of a real beautiful song of +Mr. Watts,--I don't know as I could remember the tune." + +And Miss Prissy, whose musical talent was one of her special _fortes_, +tuned her voice, a little cracked and quavering, and sang, with a +vigorous accent on each accented syllable,-- + + "From _the_ third heaven, where God resides, + That holy, happy place, + The New Jerusalem comes down, + Adorned with shining grace. + + "Attending angels shout for joy, + And the bright armies sing,-- + 'Mortals! behold the sacred seat + Of your descending King!'" + +"Take care, Miss Scudder!--that silk must be cut exactly on the bias"; +and Miss Prissy, hastily finishing her last quaver, caught the silk and +the scissors out of Mrs. Scudder's hand, and fell down at once from +the Millennium into a discourse on her own particular way of covering +piping-cord. + +So we go, dear reader,--so long as we have a body and a soul. Two worlds +must mingle,--the great and the little, the solemn and the trivial, +wreathing in and out, like the grotesque carvings on a Gothic +shrine;--only, did we know it rightly, nothing is trivial; since the +human soul, with its awful shadow, makes all things sacred. Have not +ribbons, cast-off flowers, soiled bits of gauze, trivial, trashy +fragments of millinery, sometimes had an awful meaning, a deadly power, +when they belonged to one who should wear them no more, and whose +beautiful form, frail and crushed as they, is a hidden and a vanished +thing for all time? For so sacred and individual is a human being, that, +of all the million-peopled earth, no one form ever restores another. +The mould of each mortal type is broken at the grave; and never, never, +though you look through all the faces on earth, shall the exact form you +mourn ever meet your eyes again! You are living your daily life among +trifles that one death-stroke may make relics. One false step, one +luckless accident, an obstacle on the track of a train, the tangling of +the cord in shifting a sail, and the penknife, the pen, the papers, the +trivial articles of dress and clothing, which to-day you toss idly and +jestingly from hand to hand, may become dread memorials of that awful +tragedy whose deep abyss ever underlies our common life. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PARTY. + + +Well, let us proceed to tell how the eventful evening drew on,--how +Mary, by Miss Prissy's care, stood at last in a long-waisted gown +flowered with rose-buds and violets, opening in front to display a white +satin skirt trimmed with lace and flowers,--how her little feet were +put into high-heeled shoes, and a little jaunty cap with a wreath of +moss-rose-buds was fastened over her shining hair,--and how Miss Prissy, +delighted, turned her round and round, and then declared that she must +go and get the Doctor to look at her. She knew he must be a man of +taste, he talked so beautifully about the Millennium; and so, bursting +into his study, she actually chattered him back into the visible world, +and, leading the blushing Mary to the door, asked him, point-blank, if +he ever saw anything prettier. + +The Doctor, being now wide awake, gravely gave his mind to the subject, +and, after some consideration, said, gravely, "No,--he didn't think he +ever did." For the Doctor was not a man of compliment, and had a habit +of always thinking, before he spoke, whether what he was going to say +was exactly true; and having lived some time in the family of President +Edwards, renowned for beautiful daughters, he naturally thought them +over. + +The Doctor looked innocent and helpless, while Miss Prissy, having +got him now quite into her power, went on volubly to expatiate on the +difficulties overcome in adapting the ancient wedding-dress to its +present modern fit. He told her that it was very nice,--said, "Yes, +Ma'am," at proper places,--and, being a very obliging man, looked at +whatever he was directed to, with round, blank eyes; but ended all with +a long gaze on the laughing, blushing face, that, half in shame and +half in perplexed mirth, appeared and disappeared as Miss Prissy in her +warmth turned her round and showed her. + +"Now, don't she look beautiful?" Miss Prissy reiterated for the +twentieth time, as Mary left the room. + +The Doctor, looking after her musingly, said to himself,--"'The king's +daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold; she +shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.'" + +"Now, did I ever?" said Miss Prissy, rushing out. "How that good man +does turn everything! I believe you couldn't get anything, that he +wouldn't find a text right out of the Bible about it. I mean to get the +linen for that shirt this very week, with the Miss Wilcox's money; they +always pay well, those Wilcoxes,--and I've worked for them, off and on, +sixteen days and a quarter. To be sure, Miss Scudder, there's no +real need of my doing it, for I must say you keep him looking like a +pink,--but only I feel as if I must do something for such a good man." + +The good Doctor was brushed up for the evening with zealous care and +energy; and if he did _not_ look like a pink, it was certainly no fault +of his hostess. + +Well, we cannot reproduce in detail the faded glories of that +entertainment, nor relate how the Wilcox Manor and gardens were +illuminated,--how the bride wore a veil of real point-lace,--how +carriages rolled and grated on the gravel works, and negro servants, in +white kid gloves, handed out ladies in velvet and satin. + +To Mary's inexperienced eye it seemed like an enchanted dream,--a +realization of all she had dreamed of grand and high society. She had +her little triumph of an evening; for everybody asked who that beautiful +girl was, and more than one gallant of the old Newport first families +felt himself adorned and distinguished to walk with her on his arm. +Busy, officious dowagers repeated to Mrs. Scudder the applauding +whispers that followed her wherever she went. + +"Really, Mrs. Scudder," said gallant old General Wilcox, "where have you +kept such a beauty all this time? It's a sin and a shame to hide such a +light under a bushel." + +And Mrs. Scudder, though, of course, like you and me, sensible reader, +properly apprised of the perishable nature of such fleeting honors, was, +like us, too, but a mortal, and smiled condescendingly on the follies of +the scene. + +The house was divided by a wide hall opening by doors, the front one +upon the street, the back into a large garden, the broad central walk +of which, edged on each side with high clipped hedges of box, now +resplendent with colored lamps, seemed to continue the prospect in a +brilliant vista. + +The old-fashioned garden was lighted in every part, and the company +dispersed themselves about it in picturesque groups. + +We have the image in our mind of Mary as she stood with her little hat +and wreath of rose-buds, her fluttering ribbons and rich brocade, as it +were a picture framed in the door-way, with her back to the illuminated +garden, and her calm, innocent face regarding with a pleased wonder the +unaccustomed gayeties within. + +Her dress, which, under Miss Prissy's forming hand, had been made to +assume that appearance of style and fashion which more particularly +characterized the mode of those times, formed a singular, but not +unpleasing, contrast to the sort of dewy freshness of air and mien which +was characteristic of her style of beauty. It seemed so to represent +a being who was in the world, yet not of it,--who, though living +habitually in a higher region of thought and feeling, was artlessly +curious, and innocently pleased with a fresh experience in an altogether +untried sphere. The feeling of being in a circle to which she did not +belong, where her presence was in a manner an accident, and where she +felt none of the responsibilities which come from being a component part +of a society, gave to her a quiet, disengaged air, which produced all +the effect of the perfect ease of high breeding. + +While she stands there, there comes out of the door of the bridal +reception-room a gentleman with a stylishly-dressed lady on either arm, +with whom he seems wholly absorbed. He is of middle height, peculiarly +graceful in form and moulding, with that indescribable air of +high breeding which marks the polished man of the world. His +beautifully-formed head, delicate profile, fascinating sweetness of +smile, and, above all, an eye which seemed to have an almost mesmeric +power of attraction, were traits which distinguished one of the most +celebrated men of the time, and one whose peculiar history yet lives +not only in our national records, but in the private annals of many an +American family. + +"Good Heavens!" he said, suddenly pausing in conversation, as his eye +accidentally fell upon Mary. "Who is that lovely creature?" + +"Oh, that," said Mrs. Wilcox,--"why, that is Mary Scudder. Her father +was a family connection of the General's. The family are in rather +modest circumstances, but highly respectable." + +After a few moments more of ordinary chit-chat, in which from time to +time he darted upon her glances of rapid and piercing observation, the +gentleman might have been observed to disembarrass himself of one of the +ladies on his arm, by passing her with a compliment and a bow to another +gallant, and, after a few moments more, he spoke something to Mrs. +Wilcox, in a low voice, and with that gentle air of deferential +sweetness which always made everybody well satisfied to do his will. The +consequence was, that in a few moments Mary was startled from her calm +speculations by the voice of Mrs. Wilcox, saying at her elbow, in a +formal tone,-- + +"Miss Scudder, I have the honor to present to your acquaintance Colonel +Burr, of the United States Senate." + +(To be continued.) + + + + +THE WALKER OF THE SNOW. + + + Speed on, speed on, good master! + The camp lies far away;-- + We must cross the haunted valley + Before the close of day. + + How the snow-blight came upon me + I will tell you as we go,-- + The blight of the shadow hunter + Who walks the midnight snow. + + To the cold December heaven + Came the pale moon and the stars, + As the yellow sun was sinking + Behind the purple bars. + + The snow was deeply drifted + Upon the ridges drear + That lay for miles between me + And the camp for which we steer. + + 'Twas silent on the hill-side, + And by the solemn wood + No sound of life or motion + To break the solitude, + + Save the wailing of the moose-bird + With a plaintive note and low, + And the skating of the red leaf + Upon the frozen snow. + + And said I,--"Though dark is falling, + And far the camp must be, + Yet my heart it would be lightsome, + If I had but company." + + And then I sang and shouted, + Keeping measure, as I sped, + To the harp-twang of the snow-shoe + As it sprang beneath my tread. + + Nor far into the valley + Had I dipped upon my way, + When a dusky figure joined me, + In a capuchon of gray, + + Bending upon the snow-shoes + With a long and limber stride; + And I hailed the dusky stranger, + As we travelled side by side. + + But no token of communion + Gave he by word or look, + And the fear-chill fell upon me + At the crossing of the brook. + + For I saw by the sickly moonlight, + As I followed, bending low, + That the walking of the stranger + Left no foot-marks on the snow. + + Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me, + Like a shroud around me cast, + As I sank upon the snow-drift + Where the shadow hunter passed. + + And the otter-trappers found me, + Before the break of day, + With my dark hair blanched and whitened + As the snow in which I lay. + + But they spoke not, as they raised me; + For they knew that in the night + I had seen the shadow hunter, + And had withered in his blight. + + Sancta Maria speed us! + The sun is falling low,-- + Before us lies the Valley + Of the Walker of the Snow! + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_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. + +(SECOND NOTICE.) + +According to the well-authenticated legend of the martyrdom of Saint +Lawrence, the Saint, as he lay upon the grid-iron, conscious that he +had been sufficiently done on one side, begged the cooks, if it were +a matter of indifference to them, to turn him on the other. Common +humanity demanded compliance with so reasonable a request. We fancy that +we hear Mr. Wilson, preferring a similar petition; and we hope we are +too good-natured to be insensible to the appeal. We cannot, at this +moment, indeed, think of him otherwise than good-naturedly. With many +things in his book we have been highly pleased. The number, the +novelty, and the variety of his blunders have given us a very favorable +impression of his ingenuity, and have afforded us constant entertainment +in what we feared was to be a drudgery and a task. We had intended to +cull some of these beauties for the amusement of our readers and +the personal gratification of Mr. Wilson himself. But, as children, +gathering shells on the sea-shore, resign, one after another, the +treasures which they have collected, and grasp at newer, and, therefore, +more pleasing specimens, which are abandoned in their turn, so we, +finding our stores accumulate beyond our means of transportation, and +tantalized by a richness that made the task of selection an impossible +one, have been forced to relinquish the prize and come away with empty +hands. If there be, in the compass of what the author calls "these +volumes,"--though to us, perhaps from inability to distinguish between +unity and duality, his work appears to be comprised in a single tome,--a +sentence decently constructed, a foreign name correctly spelt, a +punctuation-mark rightly placed, a fact clearly and accurately stated, +or an argument that is not capable of an easy reduction to the absurd, +we have not been so unfortunate as to discover it. Mr. Wilson is a man +who, to use Carlyle's favorite expression, has "swallowed all formulas." +The principles that have generally been held to govern the use of +language appear to him mere arbitrary rules, invented by the "sevenfold +censorship" and the Spanish Inquisition, for the purpose of preventing +the free communication of ideas. All such trammels he rejects; and, +accordingly, we have to thank him, so far as mere style is concerned, +for an uninterrupted flow of pleasure in the perusal of his book, +adorned as it is with "graces" that are very far indeed "beyond the +reach of Art." + +We come now to those important questions which Mr. Wilson was not, +indeed, the first to agitate, but which he has awakened from their +profound slumbers in the bosom of the Hon. Lewis Cass and the pages +of the "North American Review." We are not to be tempted into writing +another "New History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but we shall endeavor +to state with clearness those points on which the world has had the +temerity to differ from the "high authorities" we have named. It has +been, then, commonly asserted, and is, we fear, by the great mass of +our readers still superstitiously believed, that, at the time of the +discovery of this continent, there existed, in certain portions of it, +nations not wholly barbarous, and yet not civilized, according to our +notions of that term,--nations which had regular governments and +systems of polity, many correct notions in regard to morals, and some +acquaintance with Art and with the refinements of life,--but which were +yet, in a great measure, ignorant of the true principles of science, +little skilled in mechanics, and addicted to the practice of idolatrous +rites. This assertion would seem to have some _prima-facie_ evidence in +its favor. The regions in which these nations are said to have existed +lie within the tropics; and it is a well-established principle, that a +genial climate, a fertile soil, the consequent facilities for obtaining +a subsistence, and the stimulus thus given to the increase of +population, are the first elements of an advance from a savage to a +civilized state, of the abandonment of rude freedom and nomadic habits, +and of the development of a regular social system. This principle is +clearly set forth and elaborately illustrated by Mr. Buckle; and we the +more readily refer to this author, because he stands high in the esteem +of Mr. Wilson, who, in order to prove his own especial fitness for +historical composition, and the incompetence of all who have preceded +him in the attempt, refers to a passage in Buckle, containing an +enumeration of the qualifications which he considers indispensable for +the historian. This enumeration includes all the attainments that have +ever been in the common possession of the human family. Mr. Buckle +remarks, with indisputable truth, that one historian has lacked some of +these qualifications, another historian has lacked others of them. Mr. +Wilson states that "each and every writer" who has preceded him has +lacked them all. Mr. Buckle, by implication, excepts one person, as +uniting in himself all the qualifications he demands. Mr. Wilson thinks +_he_ is the exception; but we are quite sure that the exception intended +by the author was--Henry Thomas Buckle. + +In the Old World, civilization, as all admit, had its origin in tropical +regions. Across the whole extent of the Eastern Continent, races are +found inhabiting the warmer latitudes, which are now, or formerly were, +in what is popularly called a semi-civilized condition. No one, we +believe, has ever been foolish enough to account for this fact by +supposing that a single people or tribe, having attained some degree of +culture, had diffused the germs of knowledge over so large a portion +of the globe. Chinese civilization differs almost as much from that +of Hindostan as from that of England or of France. The Assyrian +civilization was indigenous on the borders of the Euphrates, and the +Egyptian on the borders of the Nile. What is remarkable in these and +in all the other cases that might be cited is, that in those regions +civilization never reached the high point which it has attained in other +parts of the world, less favored at the outset; that it exhibited a +grotesque union of refined ideas and strangely artificial institutions, +with customs, manners, and creeds that seem to the European mind +abhorrent and ridiculous; and that, the internal impulse with which it +started having been exhausted, it either remained stationary, without +further development, or sank into decay, or fell before the hostile +attacks of races that had never yielded to its influence. Now the +civilization which is described as having once existed in America +exhibits these general characteristics, while it has, like each of the +others, its own peculiar traits. If the discoverers had made a different +report, we might have been led to suppose that some such state of things +as we have described had previously existed, but had perished before +their arrival. + +Mr. Wilson, however, does not reason in this manner. He has found, from +his own observation,--the only source of knowledge, if such it can +be called, on which he is willing to place much reliance,--that the +Ojibways and Iroquois are savages, and he rightly argues that their +ancestors must have been savages. From these premises, without any +process of reasoning, he leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no +part of America could the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any +other than a savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements +regarding them, everything "must be rejected that is inconsistent +with well-established Indian traits." The ancient Mexican empire was, +according to his showing, nothing more than one of those confederacies +of tribes with which the reader of early New England history is +perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was "an Indian village +of the first class,"--such, we may hope, as that which the author saw +on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his immense astonishment, he +found the people "clothed, and in their right minds." The Aztecs, he +argues, could not have built temples, for the Iroquois do not build +temples. The Aztecs could not have been idolaters or offered up human +sacrifices, for the Iroquois are not idolaters and do not offer up human +sacrifices. The Aztecs could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for +the Iroquois never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This +is what Mr. Wilson means by the "American standpoint"; and those who +adopt his views may consider the whole question settled without any +debate. + +But there are some slight difficulties to be overcome, before we can +embrace these views. Putting human testimony aside, there are witnesses +of the past that still give their evidence to the fact, that parts of +this continent were once inhabited by races who had other pursuits +besides hunting and fishing, and whose ideas and manners differed +widely from those of the "red men" of the North. Ruined cities, defaced +temples, broken statues,--relics such as on the Eastern Continent, from +the Straits of Gibraltar to the shores of the Ganges, mark the sites of +fallen empires and extinct civilizations,--relics such as we should have +expected, from _a priori_ reasoning, to meet with in the corresponding +latitudes of the New World,--lie scattered through their whole extent, +proclaiming themselves the works of men who lived in settled communities +and under regular forms of government, who had some knowledge of +architecture and some rude notions of the beautiful and the sublime, who +had strong feelings and vivid conceptions in regard to the agency of +supernal powers in the control of human affairs, but who clothed their +conceptions in uncouth forms, and worshipped their deities with absurd +and debasing rites. Some of these remains being known to Mr. Wilson, +on the evidence of the only pair of eyes in the universe which, in his +estimation, have the faculty of seeing, he cannot treat them, according +to his usual method in such cases, as fabrications of Spanish priests +and lying chroniclers. How, then, does he account for them? He unfolds +a theory on the subject, which he has stolen from the "monkish +chroniclers" whom he treats with so much contempt, and which has long +ago been exploded and set aside. He tells us, that these relics have no +connection with the history of the American Aborigines,--that they have +a different origin and a far greater antiquity,--that they are proofs, +not to be gainsaid, of the discovery of this continent, at a very early +date, by Phoenician adventurers, and of the establishment, in the +regions where they are found, of Phoenician colonies. These ruins, he +tells us, were Phoenician temples, these statues are the representations +of Phoenician gods. In the comparison of facts by which he endeavors to +support this theory, we have been surprised to find him admitting +the testimony of other explorers. But they are, it seems, reluctant +witnesses. Their inferences from the facts which they have themselves +collected are directly opposite to his. "Proving our case," he says, "by +such testimony, we have admitted their statement of fact, only rejecting +their conclusions." Their proper business, it would appear, was to +amass the materials which our author alone was competent to use. He +encountered, indeed, a solitary difficulty; but this, in the most +astonishing manner, has been removed. "Thus far," he writes, "had we +carried the argument, but had here been compelled to stop, for want of +further evidence; and the very stereotype plate that at first occupied +this page, expressed our regrets that we were not able more completely +to identify the Palenque statue as Hercules. At our publishers', +however, the eyes of that distinguished Orientalist, the Rev. Mr. +Osborn, chanced to fall upon a proof of the American goddess in the +fourth note to this chapter, which he at once recognized as Astarte, +represented according to an antique pattern. Her head-dress, he +insisted, was in the ancient form of the mural crown, without the +crescent, the prototype of that worn by Diana of the Ephesians, and so +too, he insisted, was her necklace of 'two rows.'" Thus the chain of +evidence was complete, and, for once, Mr. Wilson derived assistance from +eyes not placed in his own head. + +But, whatever distinguished Orientalists may say, undistinguished +Occidentalists may be pardoned for inquiring when it was that this +stream of Phoenician emigration flowed to the American shores, in what +manner such an enormous body of colonists as the hypothesis necessarily +supposes were conveyed hither, and what has become of their descendants. +With an uncommon indulgence to our weakness of faith, Mr. Wilson +condescends to meet these obvious questions. The time he cannot exactly +fix; but it was "thousands of years ago,"--"before the time of Moses." +To the query in regard to the means of conveyance, he answers, that at +that remote period sailing ships were in common use,--as is proved by +representations of them found in Egyptian tombs,--although they were +afterwards superseded by galleys propelled by oars alone. The reason +assigned by Mr. Wilson for this change makes a valuable addition to the +stores of Biblical commentary. "The Greeks," he says, "appear to have +been selected from their imitative powers, to perpetuate such of the +arts and civilization of the elder world, as were to be preserved from +that decree of extermination, pronounced by the Almighty against its +nations. _Commerce had been the chief cause of the total demoralization +of antiquity_, and of this, they were permitted to preserve only a boat +navigation." Coeval with the decline of commerce and the extermination +of sailing ships was the cessation of this Phoenician emigration to +America. The colonists, having no longer any communication with the +mother country, soon dwindled away and perished, in accordance with a +well-known law of Nature. "Extinction is the doom of every immigrant +population in an uncongenial climate (habitat) when migration ceases to +keep up and renew the original stock." The same fate is impending over +us. "In our own country various causes have been assigned for the +recognized delicacy, which is steadily advancing in what may be called +the pure American. The growing smallness of the hands and feet, the +shortening of the jawbones, the diminution in the number of the teeth +and their rapid decay, are matters of daily comment." In like manner, +the Caucasian race is melting away in the colonies of Great Britain, +in South Africa, Australia, and the West Indies. "In these uniform +consequences the most obtuse cannot fail to recognise the operation of +a universal law, whose primary effects are to diminish migration, and +whose ultimate results are the extinction of the exotic population." We +suppose none of our readers are obtuse enough not to be aware of the +gradual shortening of their jawbones, a phenomenon especially noticeable +in members of Congress and popular lecturers. As for the diminution in +the number of our teeth, and their rapid decay, we need, alas! no Wilson +to remind us of these melancholy facts. + +What we may call the physical evidence in favor of the Aztec +civilization having been thus disposed of by Mr. Wilson, we come now to +his treatment of the written and traditional testimony, the accounts +that have been handed down to us of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and +of the condition of the country at the time when that conquest was made. +Mr. Wilson opens his "Chapter Preliminary" with the statement, that, "in +this work, the standard Spanish authorities have been followed as long +as they followed the truth." This declaration excited, we confess, +painful misgivings in our mind; for, if Mr. Wilson was already in +possession of the truth, independently of historical research,--whether +by communications from the spirits of the _Conquistadores_, or by any +other of the easy and popular methods of solving obscure problems,--what +need was there of his consulting the standard authorities at all? But we +were somewhat cheered, when, a little farther on, we found him stating, +that the writer who enters into these discussions must "con musty folios +innumerable"; that "it will not do to denounce in general terms the +venerable precedents [?] so constantly quoted by our annalists," but +that "their defects and their errors must be shown in detail." For +it does appear to us, that, if a great historical question is to be +opened,--if a series of extraordinary events, hitherto believed by the +world to have really happened, are to be denounced as fabulous,--if +numerous writers, whose statements and relations have been regarded +in the main as worthy of credit, are now to be rejected as liars +and impostors,--it is indispensable that the works containing these +relations should be carefully examined, that the statements should be +compared and subjected to the severest scrutiny, and that the refutation +should proceed, step by step, inch by inch, over the whole field of +debate. Has Mr. Wilson taken this course? Has he met with clear and +resolute argument the accounts which he denounces as "fabrications"? Has +he diligently and carefully examined the "standard Spanish authorities"? +Has he "conned musty folios innumerable"? Has he read all the works in +question? _Has he ever seen them?_ + +We may divide these works into three classes,--not with reference to +their different degrees of merit and importance, but as regards their +accessibility and the relative ease with which they may be consulted. +The first class comprises two or three works which have been translated +into English; and these translations may be procured with facility and +read by any one who has some acquaintance with the English language, +though not acquainted with any other. In the second class we may place a +considerable number of works which have been published indeed, but only +in the original Spanish, or, in a few instances, in French or Italian +translations. Some of them are rare, and difficult to meet with; others +may be found in several of our best libraries. The third class embraces +relations and documents which have never been translated, which have +never been published, of which the originals repose in the Spanish +archives at Simancas or the Escorial, or in private collections, +jealously guarded, in Mexico or Madrid, and of which the only copies +known to exist in this country are in the collection formed, with so +much trouble and at so great cost, by Mr. Prescott. Now the writings +which come under our first category Mr. Wilson has both seen and +read,--to what purpose and with what profit we shall hereafter show. The +publications comprised in the second class we feel very confident he +has never read. The manuscripts, which come under the last head, we are +morally certain he has never seen. That he has not seen them is capable +of the strongest proof, short of absolute demonstration. That he had +no acquaintance with Mr. Prescott's collection is a matter within our +personal knowledge. Had he been in a position to obtain copies for +himself, and had he availed himself of that circumstance, he would not +have failed to proclaim the fact in his loudest and shrillest tones. Nor +does he pretend that he has ever visited Spain, and had access to the +originals. Indeed, we do not think he would have ventured upon such +a step. He tells us, that, "besides the reasons already given for +distrusting the correctness of Spanish statements, there is another, +more secret in character, but not less potent than all combined--fear of +incurring the displeasure of that tribunal which punished unbelief +with fire, torture, and confiscation." If Mr. Wilson, as his language +implies, stands in fear of "fire, torture, and confiscation," and if +this is his most potent reason for distrusting the correctness of +Spanish statements, we can readily understand why he should have chosen +to remain on his native soil and write the history of the Conquest of +Mexico from "the American stand-point." Lastly, Mr. Wilson makes no +allusions to matter contained in the manuscripts which had not been +reproduced in the pages of Prescott. He is careful, indeed, to tell us +very little of the contents of these works; but he talks _about_ them +with the most gratifying candor, and in his choicest phraseology. He +informs us, that "Sarmiento's History of the Peruvian Incas altogether +surpasses that of Dr. Johnson's Rasselas and the Happy Valley." The +history of Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas" is related, we believe, by Boswell. +The great moralist composed his beautiful and philosophical, but +somewhat gloomy romance, in the evenings of a single week, in order to +obtain the means of defraying the expenses of his mother's funeral. The +story is a touching one; but Mr. Wilson's comparison is so inapt, that +we cannot help suspecting him of having had in his mind, not the history +of Johnson's "Rasselas," but Johnson's history of Rasselas. We think it +rather hard, that, having, in general, such a limited amount of meaning +to express, Mr. Wilson should have followed the maxim of Talleyrand, and +employed language chiefly as a means of concealing his thoughts. + +Mr. Wilson nowhere asserts, in so many words, that he has had access to +manuscript authorities. His mode of speaking of them, however, implies +as much, and he evidently intends that this inference should be drawn by +his readers. In a printed note, addressed to his publishers, disclaiming +any intention of "assailing the memory of the dead,"--a disclaimer +which was not needed to suggest the reason why his book, loaded with +typographical blunders, was hurried through the press,[A]--he "insists +on the lawyer's privilege of sifting the evidence--a labor which Mr. +Prescott was incapable of performing, from a physical infirmity"; and he +undertakes to prove that Mr. Prescott's "books and manuscripts were not +reliable authorities." Now even "the lawyer's privilege" does not extend +to sifting evidence which he has never heard; and if Mr. Prescott was +"incapable, from a physical infirmity," of properly scrutinizing his +authorities, it was the more necessary that Mr. Wilson, with his own +wonderful eyes, should undertake the task. There is one manuscript which +he might be supposed to have had a strong desire to examine. His book +professes to be a vindication of "Las Casas' denunciations of the +popular historians" of the Conquest. The work of Las Casas, supposed to +contain these denunciations, is his History of the Indies. Mr. Wilson +acknowledges that he has never seen this work; it has, he says, "been +wholly suppressed"; and he is terribly severe on the censorship and the +Inquisition for having been guilty of this suppression. But the only +suppression in the case is, that the book has never been printed. The +original manuscript may be consulted at Madrid. A copy of the most +important parts of it is in Mr. Prescott's collection. Mr. Wilson might +have seen that copy, had he expressed the wish. He did not, however, +give himself this trouble; and we think he was right. The truth is, +that, of all the Spanish historians of the Conquest of Mexico, Las Casas +is the one who has indulged most largely in hyperbole. Writing, with +little personal knowledge, in support of a theory which required him +to magnify the ruin accomplished by the _Conquistadores_, he has +exaggerated the population of the Mexican empire, the number and size of +its towns, and the evidences of its civilization. It was on this very +account that Navarrete, who examined the work with a view to its +publication, came to the decision not to print it. We have little doubt +as to the propriety of that decision; and Mr. Wilson, we think, also did +well in sticking to Cass and "suppressing" Las Casas.[B] + +[Footnote A: Author, compositor, and proof-reader were evidently engaged +in a "stampede,"--the (Printer's) Devil having strict orders to make +seizure of the hindmost. Part of a Spanish poem, borrowed, without +acknowledgment, from Prescott, seems to have gone to "pie" on the +imposing-stone, and been suffered to remain in that state.] + +[Footnote B: Mr. Wilson would have been less unfortunate, if he +could have "suppressed" the work of Mr. Gallatin to which he has the +effrontery to refer as an authority for his ridiculous assertion, that +the "so-called picture-writing" of the Aztecs was a Spanish invention. +As Mr. Gallatin's essay is within the reach of any of our readers who +may be inclined to consult it, we shall content ourselves with a single +remark on the subject. That learned writer, who had made a real and +thorough study of the Mexican civilization, (having obtained from Mr. +Prescott the books necessary for the purpose,) was so far from denying +that hieroglyphical painting was practised by the Aztecs, or that +authentic copies, and even actual specimens of it, have been preserved, +that he himself constructed a Mexican chronology which has no other +foundation than these same picture-writings. There is one remark in Mr. +Gallatin's work on which Mr. Wilson would have done wisely to ponder. It +is this:--"The conquest of Mexico is an important event in the history +of man. _Mr. Prescott has exhausted the subject._"] + +Our reason for believing that Mr. Wilson has never read the works, +relating to his subject, which have been published only in the original +Spanish or in translations into other foreign languages, is a very +simple one. He produces no evidence that he has ever read them. Some of +them he does not even mention. From none of them does he glean a single +fact that was not ready to his hand in the pages of Prescott. Except in +two or three instances, where he filches a reference from the citations +made by the latter historian, he brings forward no statement contained +in any of these books, either to support his own positions or to refute +theirs. Why did he take from Prescott--to whom on this occasion he +confesses his indebtedness--the facts in relation to the early life of +Cortes, (we would he had borrowed the language as well as the matter!) +if he had himself the means of consulting the works from which +Prescott's account was derived? But it is unnecessary to pursue the +argument; Mr. Wilson acknowledges that he knows nothing of the works in +question. "For our purpose," he writes, "the standard histories of the +conquest might as well be blank paper." We believe him; but had +his purpose been, not "to denounce in general terms the venerable +_precedents_ so constantly quoted by our annalists, but to show their +defects and their errors in detail," he would hardly have used them, as +he has done, as mere wadding for the great gun which he was loading, +and which has exploded with such terrible effect. His objection to +the "standard histories" is, that their authors were Spaniards, +ecclesiastics, royal historiographers,--that they wrote under the eye of +the Inquisition and the censorship. Like objections would apply to the +whole field of Spanish history. The reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, +Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second must, therefore, be as fabulous +as the conquests of Mexico and Peru. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson, when he +wishes to study the history of Spain, declines to have recourse to +Spanish writers. He goes to writers of other countries, and has a very +natural preference for such as speak the English tongue. Besides that +valuable work known among mortals as the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," +but usually cited by Mr. Wilson, in an off-hand and familiar way, as +"Britannica," he draws much upon a treasure of his own discovery, "a +ponderous folio" of the seventeenth century, written in English by one +Grimshaw, and containing a full and veritable history of Spain from +the earliest epochs. He makes much of Grimshaw, styling him "our +chronicler." He pats the volume fondly, and calls it "my old +folio,"--just as Mr. Collier pats and fondles _his_ celebrated old +folio. To judge from some specimens which Mr. Wilson gives us, the +venerable Grimshaw cannot have the merit of being very easy of +comprehension. Here is an extract, just as we find it:--"About the year +756, at which time there were great troops of Turks beginne to disperse +themselves over all Armenia, the which did overrunne and spoil the +Sarrazin's country." And here is another:--"Over common, then, in Spain, +and elsewhere, which nevertheless chastise the world in such sort, but +that this sinne is at this day more in use than ever it was, to the +dishonor of our God, contempt of his laws, and confusion of all good +order." Apparently, Mr. Wilson, besides writing in a singular style +himself, is the cause of singularities in the writings of other men. +What is more worthy of note is the credulity with which he swallows the +fabulous inventions of the "monkish chroniclers" when set before him +in English earthenware. We would undertake, for a very trifling +consideration, to furnish him with the Spanish originals of the stories +of "Hispan" and "Hercules," and all the other absurdities with which his +old folio has supplied him. From what source does he imagine them to +have been derived? Does he think they belong to the stock of traditions +in possession of the Anglo-Saxon race,--that Grimshaw got them from +Bagshaw, and Bagshaw from Bradshaw? + +Our argument in regard to Mr. Wilson's ignorance of most of the +"standard authorities" will be strengthened by a review of the works +which he actually has used,--or, to speak more correctly, misused,--and +an examination of his reasons for selecting them. They are two in +number. He can hardly be said to overrate the importance of one of +these works,--the celebrated Letters of Cortes. For the events of +the Conquest, and the first impressions made upon the minds of the +discoverers by the aspect of the country, we could have no evidence of +equal value with the dispatches written by the great adventurer from the +field of his enterprises and during the course of the operations. Mr. +Wilson does not, however, consult the original letters. His strong +prejudice against everything Spanish would not allow him to do so. He +has studied them through the medium of a translation; and the reason he +assigns for his preference of this version is, that "it is _better_ than +the original." We have no doubt that it _is_ better for Mr. Wilson's +"purpose"; indeed, we fear, that, had it not been for the labors of the +translator, Mr. George Folsom, the letters of Cortes would, like "most +of the standard histories," have been regarded by Mr. Wilson as "no +better than so much blank paper." Lockhart, by translating the chronicle +of Bernal Diaz, has saved it from similar condemnation,--but only that +it might incur a still more terrible fate. Mr. Wilson's theory in +regard to the origin and character of this work is no less subtile than +startling. According to the common belief, Bernal Diaz was a soldier in +the army of Cortes, accompanied him throughout his campaigns, and, at a +late period of his life, composed a narrative of the memorable events +in which he had participated as an actor or an eye-witness. Writers who +knew him in his old age have left us descriptions of his appearance +and character. Mr. Wilson, however, holds that he never existed. The +chronicle which bears the name is, according to him, a work of fiction, +written by some Spanish De Foe, who had read the common narratives of +the conquest of Mexico, but who had no personal knowledge of the scene +in which his story is laid. What first excited Mr. Wilson's suspicions +was the charming simplicity and apparent truthfulness which, in common +with all readers of Bernal Diaz, he has found to be the distinguishing +characteristics of the narrative. "A striking feature," he tells us, +"in Spanish literature, is the plausibility with which it has carried +a fictitious narrative through its most minute details, completely +captivating the _uninitiated_. If its supporters were not permitted to +write truth, they succeeded in getting up a most excellent imitation. In +Bernal Diaz the alleged individual affairs of private soldiers are so +artfully interwoven with the general history as to give the effect of +truth to the whole. There being no fear of contradiction, this practice +of inventing familiar details could be indulged in to any extent, while +the beauty and simplicity of such a style fixes at once the doubting." + + "Ah! si Moliere avait connu l'autre!"-- + +Oh that Fielding had known Mr. Wilson! Partridge, a mere unsophisticated +booby, thought simplicity the characteristic of Nature, and therefore +out of place in Art. Mr. Wilson, a transcendental Partridge, thinks +simplicity the characteristic of Art, and therefore out of place in +Nature. He is more than ordinarily severe on Mr. Prescott for not having +detected in Bernal Diaz these "striking marks of the _counterfeit_ +instead of the _common soldier_." "We differ," he says, "decidedly from +Mr. Prescott." The difference seems to be, that Prescott regarded the +_appearance_ of truthfulness in the narrative of Bernal Diaz as _prima +facie_ evidence of its truthfulness, while Mr. Wilson regards the same +appearance as the most complete evidence of its untruthfulness. + +But we have been anxious to discover some more definite and substantial +grounds for Mr. Wilson's hypothesis. In a couple of closely-printed +pages, devoted to the subject, he asks himself, again and again, the +questions,--"Who, then, was Bernal Diaz?"--"Who, then, wrote the +history of Bernal Diaz?" Failing to extract any reply from the singular +individual to whom these queries are addressed, he winds up with the +solemn and emphatic declaration, "On the evidence hereafter to be +presented, we have with much deliberation concluded to _denounce_ Bernal +Diaz as a _myth_." For the evidence here promised we have searched +with a patience of investigation which, if applied to the problem of +perpetual motion or squaring the circle, could not, we humbly think, +have been wholly unproductive; and these are the results. "The author of +'Bernal Diaz' says the march to Jalapa was accomplished in one day;--a +proof that he never saw the country.... Cortez makes the ascent the work +of three days, and says he did not reach Sienchimalen until the fourth +day." The main discrepancy here is Mr. Wilson's own handiwork, as he +has confounded the "Sienchimalen" of Cortes with Jalapa, instead of +identifying it with the "Socochima" of Bernal Diaz. But so far as there +is any real discrepancy, it may be sufficient to remark, in explanation +of it, that Bernal Diaz professes to have written many years after the +events which he narrates, and at a distance from the scene, while the +letters of Cortes were written in the country, and while the events were +taking place. On another occasion, Bernal Diaz represents the Tlascalans +as complaining that they could "get no cotton for their clothing." "If +this writer," says Mr. Wilson, "had really been acquainted with the +tribes of the table-land, he must have known that the fibres of the +_maguey_ were, among them, substitutes for that article, and are even +now used at the city of Mexico in the manufacture of some fine fabrics." +We do not see how Bernal Diaz could be expected to know that the fibres +of the _maguey_ are now used in Mexican manufactures; neither can we +comprehend how his statement, that the Tlascalans had _no_ cotton, is at +variance with Mr. Wilson's assertion, that they used the _maguey_ as a +substitute. We can imagine, however, that an old soldier, writing for +the "uninitiated," might prefer to speak of cotton, for which he had a +Spanish word, rather than enter into explanations in regard to an Indian +substitute for cotton, resembling it in appearance; while it is not easy +to believe, on Mr. Wilson's bare assertion, that an article in +common use throughout the Valley of Mexico was wholly unknown to the +inhabitants of the table-land. + +These, and, so far as we can discover, these alone, are the proofs on +which Mr. Wilson convicts Bernal Diaz of being a nonentity,--of having, +like Rosalind in "As you like it," merely "counterfeited to be a _man_." +As a natural _sequitur_ to this delicious train of reasoning, he +proceeds to take this nonentity, this "myth," as his guide throughout +the narrative of the Conquest. "We may safely follow Diaz," he remarks, +"in unimportant particulars"; and the "particulars" of the Conquest +being, in Mr. Wilson's narration of them, all equally "unimportant," he +is so far consistent in following Diaz throughout. Surely the Grecian +fables will never grow old; here again we have blind Polyphemus groping +in pursuit of cunning [Greek: Outis]. But we must be allowed to ask Mr. +Wilson why he has not rather preferred to take Gomara as his guide. +It is true that he entertains a strong loathing, a rooted +aversion, for this harmless old chronicler, whom he calls always +"Gomora,"--associating him, apparently, by some confusion of ideas, with +the ancient city of bad fame, buried with Sodom beneath the waters of +the Dead Sea. But, at least, he does not deny that Gomara had an actual +existence, that he was a veritable somebody,--a reality, and not a +"myth,"--that he was the chaplain of Cortes, that he had access to the +papers of the great commander, that he wrote a history of the Conquest, +and that this history is still extant. Mr. Wilson himself asserts that +the dispatches of Cortes "and the work of Gomora are the only original +documents touching the Conquest of Mexico, its people, its civilization, +its difficulties, and its dangers." After this declaration, it is +somewhat remarkable, that, throughout his narrative of the Conquest, +while continually quoting from Diaz, he makes not a single reference to +Gomara; and he even censures Mr. Prescott for having pursued a different +course. How shall we explain this fact? Alas for Gomara! he wrote in his +native Castilian, no Lockhart or Folsom had done him into English, and +so he missed his chance of having his statements cited, and, possibly +even,--though we should not like to hazard an assertion on this +point,--of having his name correctly spelt, by the author of the "New +History of the Conquest of Mexico." + +It remains only that we should notice, as briefly as possible, the use +which Mr. Wilson has made of his two authorities, the translations of +Bernal Diaz and Cortes, which, rejecting all assistance from other +quarters, he takes for the basis of his narrative. That narrative is +constructed on a plan which, we venture to say, is without a parallel +in literature. Like whatever else is strikingly original, it cannot be +described; we can only hope to convey a faint idea of it by some random +illustrations. To nearly every statement which he notices in the works +before him Mr. Wilson offers a flat contradiction. When these statements +relate to numbers, his method of treating them is a systematic one. +He has picked out of Bernal Diaz, who wrote in an avowed spirit of +hostility to Gomara, a pettish remark, that the exaggerations of the +latter are so great, that, when he says eighty thousand, we may read +one thousand. This piece of rhetoric Mr. Wilson receives literally, +and makes it a rule of measurement, applying it with more or less +exactness,--not, however, to the statements of Gomara, with whose work +he is acquainted only at second hand, but to those of Cortes and of +Bernal Diaz himself! Thus, in every computation of the number of the +enemy's forces, or of the Indian allies who joined the Spaniards in +their contest with the Aztecs, Mr. Wilson "takes the liberty," to use +his own phrase, of "dropping" one or more ciphers from the amount. This +mode of adapting the narrative to his own conceptions he calls "reducing +it to reality." When Cortes--not Gomara, be it remembered--computes the +number of his allies at eighty thousand, Mr. Wilson says, "Let us drop +the thousands, and _assume_ eighty as the actual number. _We must do so +often._" When Cortes writes "thirty-five thousand," Mr. Wilson prefers +to say "three hundred or so." When Diaz writes "twelve thousand," Mr. +Wilson suggests that we should read "five hundred." Cortes says that he +caused a canal to be dug twelve _feet_ deep. Mr. Wilson, speaking as +if he had been an eye-witness, says the canal was only twelve _inches_ +deep. In another place he writes, "Accordingly a force of thirteen +horse, two hundred foot, and three hundred--not thirty thousand--Indian +allies were sent to relieve that village"; merely leaving his readers to +the inference that the number placed between dashes is the one given by +Cortes. In a single instance, he admits the estimate of Bernal Diaz, who +puts the loss sustained by the Indians in a battle at eight hundred; +while Las Casas, whose corrections of other writers Mr. Wilson professes +to "vindicate," says the loss of the Indians on this occasion amounted +to thirty thousand. Las Casas also reckons the number of natives who +fell victims to Spanish cruelty in America at forty millions. This wild +estimate has been often quoted. Mr. Wilson, instead of "vindicating" it, +as he was bound to do, triumphantly refutes it. "There never probably +existed," he most justly remarks, "more than forty millions of savage +races at one time on our globe." + +It is not merely the arithmetic of his authorities that Mr. Wilson +undertakes to rectify. When they describe a pitched battle, he asserts +that it was a mere skirmish. When they speak of a large town, he tells +us it was a rude hamlet. When they portray the magnificence of the city +of Mexico, he says that they are "painting wild _figments_"--whatever +that may mean,--and that Montezuma's capital was a mere collection of +huts. Cortes tells us, that, in his retreat, he lost a great portion +of his treasure. Mr. Wilson writes, "The _Conquistador_ was too good a +soldier to hazard his gold; it was _therefore_, in the advance, and came +safely off." Cortes states, that, in a certain battle, he retired from +the front in order to make a new disposition of his rear. Mr. Wilson +replies, that Cortes did _not_ go to the rear, because, though his +presence was greatly needed there, the press must have been too great to +allow of his reaching it. The presents which Cortes, while at Vera Cruz, +received from Montezuma, he transmitted to the Emperor Charles the +Fifth, sending, at the same time, an inventory of the articles, among +which was "a large wheel of gold, with figures of strange animals on it, +and worked with tufts of leaves,--weighing three thousand eight hundred +ounces." The original inventory is still in existence. We have the +evidence of persons who were then at the imperial court of the reception +of these presents, of the sensation which they produced, and of the +ideas which they suggested in regard to the wealth and civilization +of the New World; and we have minute descriptions of the different +articles, including the wheel of gold, from persons who saw them at +Seville and at Valladolid. Mr. Wilson,--without making the least +allusion to this testimony, which we cannot help regarding as of the +strongest possible kind, intimates that the presents were of very little +value,--represents the workmanship, which excited the admiration of the +best European artificers, as a mere specimen of "savage ingenuity,"--and +as for the wheel of gold, tells us that it "never existed but in the +fertile fancy of Cortez." + +In general, Mr. Wilson contents himself with the barest, though +broadest, denial of the statements of his authorities, or with silently +substituting his own version of the facts in place of theirs. But he +sometimes condescends to argue the point. His logic is ingenious, but +singularly monotonous. His arguments are all drawn from one source, +namely, his own personal experience. The Tlascalan wall, described by +Cortes and Diaz, can never have been in existence, for Mr. Wilson has +been on the very spot and found no remains of a wall. Other travellers, +it may be remarked, have been more fortunate. Cortes states, that, in +a march across the mountains, some of his Indian allies perished of +thirst. This Mr. Wilson pronounces "impossible," because he himself +travelled over the same route, and did _not_ perish of thirst, as +neither did his horse, though the "sufferings of both," from that or +some other cause, were great. One of the most remarkable acts in the +career of Cortes was his voluntary destruction of the vessels which had +brought his little army to the Mexican coast, in order, as he avers, +that his men might stand committed to follow the fortunes of their +leader, whatever might be the dangers of the enterprise. "This event," +says Mr. Wilson, "has been the subject of eloquent eulogies for +centuries. Among these Robertson is of course pre-eminent." We are +here left in doubt whether Robertson is to be regarded as a preeminent +century or a pre-eminent eulogy. However this may be, our author denies +that the stranding of the vessels was the voluntary act of the Spanish +general. He is confident that they were cast away in a storm. His "most +potent" reason is, that he himself has "witnessed, not only hereabout, +but elsewhere, upon this tideless shore, wrecks by the grounding of +vessels at anchor." This he calls "submitting the narrative to the +ordeal of proof." + +However, as we have already intimated, it is seldom that his authorities +are submitted to this "ordeal," which we admit to be a trying one. +Usually they are informed that their assertions "rest on air,"--that +they are "foolish" and "baseless,"--"wild figments," or "intolerable +nonsense." Cortes states that some of his men, who had been taken +prisoners by the Mexicans, were offered up as sacrifices to the Aztec +deities. Mr. Wilson, after telling that their hearts were cut out, and +their bodies "tumbled to the ground," complains that "to this most +probable act of an Indian enemy, is _foolishly_ added--it was done in +sacrifice to their idols, though the very existence of Indian idols is +_still_ problematical!" Cortes, who had seen too many Indian idols to +entertain any doubts of their existence, ought, nevertheless, not +to have mentioned them, because to Mr. Wilson the matter is still a +problem. Whenever that gentleman finds it inconvenient to "reduce" the +statements of the Spanish historians to "realities," he omits them +altogether. Thus, he says not a word of those fearful spectacles which +struck horror to the hearts of the Spaniards in their visit to the +_teocallis_,--the pyramidal mound garnished with human skulls, the +hideous idols and the blood-stained priests, the chapels drenched with +gore, and other evidences of a diabolical worship. Not unfrequently he +fills up what he considers as gaps in the ordinary narratives. Thus, +he pictures the dying Cuitlahua as "stoically wrapping himself in +his feathered mantle," and "rejoicing at his expected welcome to the +celestial hunting-grounds," where he "felt that he was worthy a name +among the immortal braves." This "wild figment" from Mr. Wilson's +"fertile fancy" was, perhaps, suggested by Theobald's famous emendation +in the description of Falstaff's death-scene,--"a babbled o' green +fields." On such occasions, Mr. Wilson explains that he is relating +the occurrences "as they are understood by one familiar with Indian +affairs." A remarkable example of this method of narration shall close +our citations from his work. + +The reader is, doubtless, acquainted with the tradition, said to have +been preserved among the Mexicans, of a fair-complexioned deity, with +flowing beard, who had once ruled over them and taught them the arts +of peace, and, being subsequently driven from the country, promised to +return at some future time. Predictions of his reappearance lingered +amongst them, and were supposed to be accomplished in the arrival of the +Spaniards. Mr. Wilson tells us that "too much stress" has been laid on +this tradition; but we know of no modern writer who has laid any stress +on it except himself. It has been usually supposed to be one of those +myths in which nations partially civilized embalm the memory of their +heroes. Mr. Wilson does not believe the Mexicans to have been partially +civilized. He regards them merely as a horde of savages. Nevertheless, +he believes that among these savages "tradition [in the form here +noticed] had handed down, through untold generations, from a remote +antiquity," the establishment in America of Phoenician colonies, their +history, and their subsequent extinction. Nor is this the whole story. +In order to strengthen his argument, he gives a new and corrected +version of this tradition. "It told," he writes, "that _pale faces_ had +once before occupied the _hot country_, coming from beyond the _great +water_. _Perhaps_ with this were coupled also tales of suffering and +wrongs; _perhaps_ how cruelly they, the natives, had been forced, by +these hard task-masters, to labor upon the truncated pyramids and their +crowning chapels. With unrequited Indian toil, these men had builded +cities and public works which still preserved their memory, though they +themselves had long since perished, having fulfilled their allotted +centuries. But with their decaying monuments they left a fearful +prophecy, and thus it ran: that _floating houses_ would again return to +the eastern coast, wafted by like winds, and filled with the same race, +to teach the same religion, and to practise the same cruelties, until +they again finished their cycle, and gave place to others, such as the +laws of climate and population might determine." When the reader, after +perusing this extraordinary relation, recovers his breath, he naturally +casts his eye towards the bottom of the page, in the hope of finding +some explanation of it. He accordingly discovers a note, in which Mr. +Wilson states that he has "given a _little different shading_ to the +famous tradition," but that "such, _translated into Indian phraseology_, +would be the popular accounts." Now he had a perfect right to +_interpret_ the tradition as he pleased. He was at liberty to conjecture +that it related to the Phoenicians, as the Spaniards were at liberty to +conjecture that it related to St. Thomas. Of the two interpretations, we +prefer the latter. Mr. Wilson, were he consistent, would have done so +too; for how could the Aztecs, when they saw the Spaniards desecrating +the Phoenician temples and destroying the Phoenician idols, suppose that +these people were of the "same race," and had come "to teach the same +religion"? We care little for his inconsistencies; but the feat which +he has here performed, by his "shadings," his "translations into Indian +phraseology," and his medley of "pale faces," "great waters," "floating +houses," "truncated pyramids," "hard taskmasters," "winds," "climates," +"religions," and "laws of population," we believe to be unsurpassed +by anything ever perpetrated in prose or rhyme, by Grecian bard or +mediaeval monk. + +He appears to think himself justified in taking these liberties with the +Muse of History by his anxiety to construct a narrative that should not +overstep the bounds of probability. As if all history were not a chain +of improbabilities, and what is most improbable were not often that +which is most certain! But if, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as +improbable a series of events supported by far stronger evidence than +can be adduced for the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the +Norman conquest of England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon +us to believe? His skepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure +of his credulity. He contends that Cortes, the greatest Spaniard of the +sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed with +a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for success in +warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his brain so filled +with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied with reminiscences +of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that he saw in the New World +nothing but duplicates of those contests,--that his heated imagination +turned wigwams into palaces, Indian villages into cities like Granada, +swamps into lakes, a tribe of savages into an empire of civilized +men,--that, in the midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on +Mr. Wilson's showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, +he employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his +imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,--that, although +he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, enemies who were +in a position to discover the truth, his statements passed unchallenged +and uncontradicted by them,--that the numerous adventurers and explorers +who followed in his track, instead of exposing the falsity of his +relations and descriptions, found their interest in embellishing the +narrative,--that a similar drama was performed by other actors and on a +different stage,--that the Peruvian civilization, so analogous to that +of the Aztecs and yet so different from it, was, like that, the baseless +fabric of a vision,--that the whole intellect, in short, of the +sixteenth century was employed in fashioning a gorgeous fable, and that +to this end continents were discovered, nations exterminated, countries +laid waste, evidences forged, and witnesses invented. And this theory +is to be swallowed in one solid and indigestible lump, unleavened with +logic, unmoistened with grammar, unsweetened with rhetoric. Let those +whose appetites are strong, and whose olfactory nerves are not too +delicate, sit down to the repast. + +For our own part, we are quite satisfied with the bare contemplation of +the fare. Our readers, also, we suspect, have long ago been satiated. +They have dropped off, one by one, and left us alone with our kind +entertainer. What more we have to say must therefore be bestowed upon +his private ear. We shall speak with the greater freedom. We know +the exquisite pleasure we have given him. We are sure that he is not +ungrateful. When his book comes to a second edition,--with a _change of +title-page_ corresponding to some change in the popular sentiment,--we +shall have to submit to the same honors which he has inflicted on Mr. +Prescott and "Rousseau de St. Hilaire"; he will reprint our article +as "a flattering notice,"--as the "Atlantic Monthly's estimate of his +researches." We beg to call his attention to our closing remarks, which, +indeed, may serve as a digest of the whole. When he has "translated +them into Indian phraseology," (we regret that we cannot save him this +trouble,) and "reduced them to reality," we shall take our leave of +him, not without a mournful presentiment that the separation is to be +eternal. + +There are many points of difference between his work and Mr. Prescott's +"History of the Conquest of Mexico"; but the chief distinction, we +think, may be thus stated. If the foundations on which Mr. Prescott's +narrative is built should ever be overthrown,--a contingency which as +yet we do not apprehend,--that narrative would still rank among the +masterpieces of our literature. It could no longer be received as a +truthful relation of what had actually happened in the past; but it +would be received as a most faithful and graphic relation of what had +been asserted, of what was once universally _believed_, to have so +happened. If the reality appears strange, how much stranger would +appear the fiction! The truth of such a story may seem improbable; +the invention of such a story would be little short of miraculous. +Prescott's work, if removed from its place among histories, must stand +in the first rank among works of imagination,--must be classed with the +"Odyssey" and the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments." + +But this book of Wilson's must, under all conditions, and in any +contingency, be regarded as worthless. Be the story of the Conquest true +or false, this contains no relation of it, this contains no refutation +of it. Not content with vilifying his authorities, with impugning +their faith, denying their existence, and mangling their names, he has +disfigured their statements, corrupted their narrative, and substituted +gross absurdities for what was at least beautiful and coherent, whether +it was fiction or reality. His book is in every sense a fabrication. +It is no record of the truth; it is not a romance or a fable, artfully +constructed and elegantly told; it is--to use that plain language +which the occasion authorizes and demands--a barefaced, but awkward +falsification of history,--so awkward, that it has cost us little +trouble to detect it,--so barefaced, that it has been a duty, though, of +course, a painful one, to expose it. + + +_Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing._ Translated from the French +of _A Treatise_, etc., by DR. AL. DONNE, late Head of the Clinical +Department of the Faculty of Paris, etc., etc. Boston: Phillips, +Sampson, & Co. 1859. + +When the young Count of Paris was at the tender age which requires the +food that only mothers and their substitutes can supply, M. Donne, the +author of this work, was called in consultation at the royal palace. He +had a new way of examining milk through the microscope, and deciding +upon its healthy and nutritive qualities or its defects, as the case +might be. The whole world was full of the great question just then,--for +the deep-bosomed dame of Normandy or Picardy who should be selected +was to be the nurse not of a child only, but of a dynasty. So thought +short-sighted mortals, at least, in those days,--little dreaming what +cradle would be under the square dome of the Tuileries before twenty +years were past! + +M. Donne, as we said, was the man selected from all men for the task +of choosing a nurse for the most important baby of his time. This is a +voucher for his position at that period in the great medical world +of Paris. He is known, also, to the scientific world by a number of +treatises, with some of which we have long been familiar, as, for +instance, the "Cours de Microscopic," with the remarkable Atlas copied +from daguerreotypes taken by the aid of the camera. The present work is +of a somewhat more popular character than his previous productions. + +Little "Nursing" America is the father of Young America that is to be. +And there is no denying that our new vital conditions on this side of +the planet suggest some very grave questions,--such as these:--Whether +there be not a gradual deterioration of the primitive European stock +under these influences; and, Whether it is not possible that the +imported human breed may run out here, so that, some time or other, the +resuscitated tribes of Algonquins and Hurons may show a long shank of +the extinct Yankee, as they show the Dodo's foot at the British Museum. + +It is this contingency against which many intelligent and worthy persons +are now trying to provide. The indefatigable Dr. Bowditch has made a map +of this State of Massachusetts, showing the distribution of consumption +in its different localities. That is the first thing,--_where_ to live. +We have been told an alleged fact with reference to a certain large New +England town, which, if it were true, would raise the value of real +estate in that place a million of dollars, perhaps, in twenty-four +hours. We do not tell it, though mentioned to us by a celebrated +practitioner and professor, simply because we are afraid it is too good +to be true. At any rate, attention is beginning to be thoroughly awake +as to the point of _where_ we shall live. Now, then, _how_ shall we +live? + +It is just as well to begin early. Infancy is too late. If men were +dealt with like other live stock, a contractor might undertake to +deliver at Long Wharf a cargo of three-year old human colts and fillies +of almost any required standard of development and health, in five years +from date. If only a cheap article were required, such and such parents +would be selected; if the young animals were to be of prime quality, he +must know it long enough beforehand, and be particular in his choice. +This is plain speaking, but true,--as everybody knows, who studies the +laws of life. _Ex nihilo nihil fit_. Given a half-starved dyspeptic +and a bloodless negative blonde as parents, Hercules or Apollo is +an impossibility in their progeny. Yet people look with infinite +expectations of health, strength, beauty, intellect, as the product of +$0 times {-1}$. The late Colonel Jaques, of the "Ten Hills Farm," knew +ever so much better;--what a pity so much sound physiology should have +been confined to "Caelobs," and "Dolly Creampot," and the likes of them! + +Granted a sound, fair baby,--_viable_, as the French say,--liveable, or +life-capable, and life-worthy. What shall we do with it? + +A baby answers to the lively definition of an animal as "a stomach +provided with organs." It lives to feed. It does not know much, but in +its speciality it is unrivalled. The way in which it helps itself from +the sources of life is a masterpiece of hydraulic skill. Once let it +lose the Heaven-imparted art of haustion, and all the arts and academies +of the world can never teach it again. + +To manage this little feeding organism, with its wondrous instinct and +capacity of imbibition, is the first great question after that of race +is settled. Shall the mother's blood continue to flow through its +fast-throbbing heart, and all the subtile affinities that bind the two +lives be continued until reason and affection take up the chain where +the link of bodily dependence is broken? Or shall it cleave no more to +her bosom, but transfer its endearing dependence to a stranger, or learn +to call a bottle its mother? + +These are some of the questions learnedly, and yet familiarly, discussed +in M. Donne's book. He has laid down many excellent rules for the +physical and moral management of the infant, which the young mother can +readily learn and put in practice. For the physician, his work contains +many interesting facts with reference to the quality and the microscopic +appearances of milk, as obtained from various sources and under +different circumstances. + +On one or two points our American experience would somewhat modify the +rules commonly accepted in Paris. The nurse from the French provinces is +evidently a different being from our Milesian milky mothers. So, too, +the rules given by our own venerable and sagacious observer, Dr. James +Jackson, as to the period of separating the infant from its mother or +nurse, should be borne in mind, as laid down in his admirable "Letters +to a Young Physician." + +But there is a great deal of information applicable to children and +their mothers in all civilized regions; and as we wish to start fair +with the next generation, we are very glad to have so intelligent a +guide for the management of our infant citizens. + + +_Street Thoughts._ By the Rev. Henry M. Dexter, Pastor of Pine-Street +Church, Boston. With Illustrations by Billings. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, +& Co. 1859. + +If a profusion of introductory mottoes were any indication of the +excellence of a book, this volume would be indeed a _chef-d'oeuvre_. On +the page usually devoted to the Dedication, we have no less than six +more or less appropriate quotations: a Greek one from Julian, a Latin +one from Quintilian, a dramatic one from Shakspeare, a metrical one from +Young, a ponderous philosophical one from Dr. Johnson, and a commonplace +one from Bryant. In consideration of the number and learnedness of these +certificates of character, we approach the lucubrations of the Reverend +Mr. Dexter with profound respect. + +In the days when controversial literature was fashionable in England, +and the strife between Protestantism and Catholicism possessed some +interest for the public, we remember with considerable amusement the +manner in which the champions on either side conducted the attack. The +Romish warrior would this month issue a formidable volume entitled "A +Conversation between a Roman Catholic English Nobleman and an Irish +Protestant." In this work the Roman Catholic lord had it all his own +way; the Irish Protestant was accommodatingly weak in all his arguments, +and the noble Papist battered him famously. But the Episcopal side +was on hand next month with a volume entitled "A Dialogue between a +Protestant Peer and an Irish Papist." Here the whole thing was reversed. +The noble was still victorious, but he had changed his religion; and +this time the Roman Catholic was feeble, and the Protestant stalwart. It +is worthy of remark, however, that in both cases the nobleman was on the +right side. + +The Reverend Mr. Dexter thoroughly comprehends this ingenious method of +attack. Does he, for instance, desire to impress upon the mind of his +reader that it is in the highest degree criminal to wear kid gloves in +the street, he, by a happy accident, encounters on his way to the +office two persons conversing upon that important topic. He innocently +eavesdrops. The individual who advocates the wearing of gloves is (of +course) frivolous, fashionable, and feeble. His companion, who despises +such vanities, is poor, though honest,--brawny and impregnable. It is +wonderful how stupidly the kid-glove advocate reasons. The honest son +of toil overwhelms him in a few moments. When a man talks so splendidly +about the hard palm of labor being more useful to the world than the +silken fingers of the aristocrat, who would have the courage to reply? +The feeble aristocrat is (very properly) discomfited, and the curtain +falls amid applause from the gallery. + +The reverend gentleman seems to combine with his talent for +eavesdropping a most remarkable good-fortune in the contrasts afforded +by the various interlocutors whose conversation he overhears. Whether +he is in a shop, or an omnibus, or on the sidewalk, he is certain to +encounter a foolish person and a sensible person (according to Mr. +Dexter's idea of sense) discussing some important social topic,--such +as, Whether dancing is criminal, or, Whether people should wear +stove-pipe hats. At the end of the discussion, the reverend listener +appears in a paragraph as the _deus ex machina_ of the drama, pats the +victorious sensible boy on the head, and treats the foolish boy with +silent contempt. It does not take much to win Mr. Dexter's approval. He +goes into rhapsodies over a rich man who insists on carrying home his +own bundle; while another purchaser, who is villain enough to desire his +parcel to be sent to his house, meets with all the scorn that he merits. +Our author takes cheerful views of life. He goes into State Street, +and, struck with the great crowds of people, asks the solemn question, +"Whither are they going?"--"To the open grave!" is his jocund reply. He, +in fact, sees nothing but a job for the undertaker in all the health and +life by which he is surrounded; and a file of schoolboys out for a +walk would doubtless to him be nothing more than the beginning of a +procession to Mount Auburn. The shop-keepers should beware of Mr. +Dexter. He is the avowed enemy of nice coats, kid gloves, silk dresses, +fine houses, and his proof-reader knows what other _et ceteras_ which +ignorant people have been in the habit of looking on as commodities +useful in helping trade, and consequently forwarding civilization. + +We really thought that this shallow philosophy had completely died out, +and that every educated person had been brought to comprehend the uses +of Beauty and Luxury. Mr. Dexter's "Street Thoughts" is a silly proof +that there are men yet living whose theory of social ethics may +apparently be summed up thus: Live meanly, be afraid of God, and listen +at keyholes. + + +_The Mathematical Monthly_. Edited by J.D. RUNKLE, A.M., A.A.S. Nos. +I.-VII. October, 1858, to April, 1859. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 4to. +pp. 284. + +The title of Mr. Runkle's Monthly is much drier than its table of +contents. He has aimed at interesting all classes of mathematicians, has +introduced problems and discussions intelligible to scholars in our High +Schools, and has also published contributions to the highest departments +of the science. Educational questions have great prominence on the pages +of his journal; he gives frequent notes upon the best modes of teaching +the elementary branches, and proposes to publish in a serial form +treatises adapted to use in the school-room. Every number of the +"Monthly" contains five prize problems for students. Nor are its pages +confined to topics strictly mathematical. The number for February +introduces a problem by a quotation from Longfellow's "Hiawatha"; +another gives a list of fifty-five of the Asteroid group, with their +orbits, and the circumstances of their discovery. The March number +explains an ingenious holocryptic cipher, written with the English +alphabet, with no more letters than would be required for ordinary +writing, yet so curiously complicated, that, while with the key easy to +understand, it is without the key absolutely undecipherible, even to the +inventor of the plan; and the key is capable of so many variations, that +every pair of correspondents in Christendom may have their own cipher +practically different from all others. In the November and December +numbers, a popular account of Donati's Comet was given by Geo. P. Bond, +then assistant, now chief director of the Observatory at Cambridge. This +paper has been issued separately, very finely illustrated by twenty-one +cuts, and by two beautiful engravings. No papers, readily accessible to +the public, contain, in a form so entirely devoid of technicalities, and +so clearly illustrated to the eye, so much information relative to the +nature of cornels in general, and in particular to the phenomena of this +most beautiful comet of the present century. + +The purely mathematical articles are all original, many are of great +value, and some are, to those who understand their secret meaning, +peculiarly interesting. A note of Peirce's, for example, in the number +for February, proposes two new symbols, one for the mystic ratio of +the circumference to the diameter, a second for the base of Napier's +logarithms,--and then, by joining them in an equation with the imaginary +symbol, expresses in a single sentence the mutual relation of the three +great talismans in the magic of modern science. Another article, in the +April number, by Chauncey Wright, contains a new view of the law of +Phyllotaxis, approaching it from an _a priori_ stand-point, and showing +that the natural arrangement of leaves about the stems of plants is +precisely that which will keep the leaves most perfectly distributed for +the reception of light and air. + +We are glad to learn that a constantly increasing subscription-list, +both at home and abroad, shows, not only that Mr. Runkle judged wisely +in thinking such a journal needed, but also that the editorial office +has fallen upon the right man. + + +_Memoir and Letters of the late Thomas Seddon, Artist_, By his BROTHER. +London: 1858. + +Associations are fast gathering round the English Pre-Raphaelites. Those +that come with honors and with death already belong to them. A permanent +influence is assured to the new school by a continuance of vigor, and by +the space which it already occupies in the history of Art. This little +volume is of interest as being the first of its biographies. Mr. Seddon +attained no wide reputation during his life, but he left a few pictures +of enduring value; and his early death was felt, by those who best knew +his powers and purposes, to be a great loss to Art. + +He was the son of a cabinet-manufacturer, and was born in London in +1821. After receiving a good school-education, at the age of sixteen he +entered his father's work-rooms. He had already shown a decided love of +drawing. He had a quick perception of beauty, and excellent power of +observation. His disposition was serious, and his conscience sensitive; +but he had a pleasant vein of humor, and a generous nature. After some +years of irksome work, he was sent to Paris to perfect himself in the +arts of ornamentation, and his residence there seems to have confirmed +his taste for painting, to the practice of which he desired to devote +his life. But for the next ten years he was engaged in business, giving, +however, his evenings and his few vacations to the study and practice of +Art, and becoming more and more eager to leave an employment which was +wholly uncongenial to him. At length, in his thirtieth year, he was able +to begin his career as a professional artist. His experiences at first +differed but little from those of the common run of young painters; but +his fidelity in work, his conscientious rendering of the details of +Nature, and his sincerity of purpose, gave real worth even to his +earlier pictures, and brought him into relations of cordial +friendship with Holman Hunt, Madox Brown, and others of the heads of +Pre-Raphaelitism. After making a long visit, in company with Hunt, +for the purposes of study, to Egypt and Palestine, and painting a few +remarkable pictures, he returned home, and was married. Some months +afterward he set out again for the East, but had hardly reached Cairo +before he was seized with fatal illness. He died on the 23d of November, +1856,--just as he was grasping the fruit of years of labor and waiting. + +The best part of the volume of memoirs is made up of Seddon's letters +from the East. They exhibit his character in a most agreeable light, +while, apart from any personal interest, they have a charm, as natural, +vivid delineations of Eastern scenery and modes of life. He saw with +a painter's eye, and he described what he saw clearly and vigorously, +showing in his letters the same traits which he displayed in his +pictures. Writing from his camping-ground on the edge of the Desert, +he says,--"The Pyramids and Sphinxes, in ordinary daylight, are merely +ugly, and do not look half as large as they ought to look from their +real size; but in particular effects of light and shade, with a fine +sunset behind them, for example, or when the sky lights up again, a +quarter or half an hour afterwards,--when long beams of rose-colored +light shoot up like a glory from behind the middle one into a sky of +the most lovely violet,--they then look imposing, with their huge black +masses against the flood of brilliant light behind." + +Here is the first sight of Jerusalem:--"At length, about five o'clock, +after expecting, for the last half-hour, that every hill-side we climbed +would be the last, we came suddenly in full view of Jerusalem.--Few, I +think, however careless, have looked for the first time on this scene, +without some feelings of solemn awe. We read the accounts of all that +passed within or around these walls with something of the vagueness that +always veils the history of times that have gone by two thousand years +ago; but however soon the feeling may wear off or be cast away, it is +impossible, with the very spot before you where your Saviour lived and +died, not to feel vividly impressed with the actual reality of what we +have read of, and its intimate connection with ourselves.--But soon I +was struck with the very erroneous idea I had had of Jerusalem. From the +west it does not look at all like a city built on a hill; for, rather +below you, at the farther end of a barren plain, you see nothing but the +embattled walls of a feudal town, with one or two large buildings and a +minaret alone visible above them. To the right the ground dips into the +Valley of Hinnom,--but to the left it is level with the city-walls, and +its surface is covered with bare ribs of rock running along it; and it +is from this side that the Romans and Crusaders attacked. Behind the +city, rather to the north, lay the Mount of Olives, and the long, +straight lines of the Moab Mountains beyond the Dead Sea, stretching +from horizon to horizon, half-shadowy and veiled in mist, through which +they shone rosy in the evening's sunlight." + +We have no space for further descriptions, excellent as they are. But +we make one or two extracts relating more immediately to Art and to +Seddon's views of the duties of an artist. + +"I am sure that there is a great work to do, which wants every +laborer,--to show that Art's highest vocation is, to be the handmaid to +religion and purity, instead of to mere animal enjoyment and sensuality. +This is what the Pre-Raphaelites are really doing in various degrees, +but especially Hunt, who takes higher ground than mere morality, and +most manfully advocates its power and duty as an exponent of the higher +duties of religion." + +"I hope I may be able to return to this place; for, to assist in +directing attention to Jerusalem, and thus to render the Bible more +easily understood, seems to me to be a humble way in which, perhaps, I +may aid in doing some good." + +Here is a portion of a letter written in England:--"The railway from +Farnborough went through a most beautiful country,--by Guildford, +Dorking, and Boxhill. While I was at Farnborough, on the bridge, +sketching, a respectably-dressed man came up and touched his hat. After +standing a minute or two, he said, 'So you are doing something in my +line, Sir?'--'What!' said I, 'are you an artist?'--'Well, Sir, I cannot +venture to call myself an artist, but I gets my living by making +drawings. I makes 'em in pencil.'--I asked him if he took portraits.--'I +does every line, portraits and all; but I don't get many portraits since +the daguerreotype came in. No, Sir, my drawings are principally in the +sporting line. I does portraits of gentlemen going over a fence or a +five-barred gate. I does 'em all in pencil, and puts a little color on +their faces, but all the rest in pencil,--d'ye see?'--'Yes; but do you +make a good living?'--'Well, not much of that; I used to earn a good +deal more money when I did portraits at sixpence each than I do now.'--I +said, 'I suppose you begin to see that you can do better, and it takes +you longer.'--'That's just it; you've hit it, Sir. I used to knock them +off in a quarter or half an hour, and now it takes me seven or eight +days to do a sporting piece.'--So I told the poor man that I would +willingly give him advice, but I was afraid it would ruin him +completely, for that afterwards he would have to take two or three +months.--'Yes, Sir, I sees that; but I am too old now to learn a new +line. But I find trees very hard; I can't manage them.'--So I sat down, +and drew a branch of a tree, which he said was very much in his style; +and I gave him some advice which I thought might help him, and the good +man went away so much obliged." + +When the news of Mr. Seddon's death reached England, it was at once felt +by his friends that it was due to his memory that the public should be +made better acquainted with the excellence of his works. An exhibition +of them was accordingly made, and a subscription raised for the benefit +of his widow, by purchasing his large picture of Jerusalem, to be +presented to the National Gallery. The subscription was successful, and +Seddon's fame is secure. + +"Mr. Seddon's works," says Mr. Ruskin, "are the first which represent +a truly historic landscape Art; that is to say, they are the first +landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical +accuracy,--being directed with stern self-restraint to no other purpose +than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trustworthy knowledge +of the scenes which ought to be most interesting to them. Whatever +degrees of truth may have been attempted or attained by previous artists +have been more or less subordinate to pictorial or dramatic effect. In +Mr. Seddon's works, the primal object is to place the spectator, as far +as Art can do, in the scene represented, and to give him the perfect +sensation of its reality, wholly unmodified by the artist's execution." + +Mr. Ruskin's judgment will not be questioned by those who have seen +Seddon's pictures. But it might also be added, that such accuracy as he +attained is by no means the result of mere laborious and conscientious +copying, but implies and requires the possession of strong and +well-balanced imagination. + +We trust that the extracts we have given may lead lovers of Art to read +the whole of the little volume from which they are taken. + + +_Passages from my Autobiography_. By SYDNEY, LADY MORGAN. New York: D. +Appleton & Co. 1859. + +Aged sportiveness is not seductive, and we do not become slaves at the +tap of a fan, when the hand that holds it is palsied and withered. We +have in the volume before us the melancholy spectacle of an aged female +of quality setting her cap at everybody. + +When an old woman makes up her mind to be young, she invariably overdoes +it. The gypsy horse-dealers, when they have a particularly ancient horse +to dispose of administer a nostrum to the animal, which has the effect +of keeping him continually in motion, and bestowing on him a temporary +vivacity which a colt would hardly exhibit. Lady Morgan is unnecessarily +frisky. The gypsy's horse, when the effect of the medicine has passed +off, becomes more aged and infirm than ever. What a terrible reaction +must have been the lot of this old lady, after all the capers she had +cut in these passages from her autobiography! + +A great, great, great, long time ago, as the story-tellers say, when +novels were few and far between, and an Irish novel was a thing almost +unheard of, a smart, self-educated Irish girl, of, we believe, rather +humble origin, discovered that she had a knack at writing, and, having +published a cleverish novel, called "The Wild Irish Girl," was taken +up by great people, exploited, made the fashion, and had Sir Charles +Morgan, a physician of some standing, given her for a husband. She +continued to write. Her work on France made some noise, on account of +its having been prohibited by the French government; and her subsequent +book on Italy, if not profound, was at least sprightly. Her Irish novels +were, however, her best productions. There is considerable observation, +and some feeling, displayed in them. Her knowledge of Irish society +is very exact, and her pictures of it very slightly exaggerated. "The +O'Briens and O'Flahertys" and "Florence MacCarthy" are, perhaps, the +best of her works of fiction. At this period, Lady Morgan possessed a +rather interesting appearance, great audacity, and a certain reckless +style of conversation, which was found to be piquant by the jaded +gossips of the metropolis. She was taken up by London society,--which +must always be taking up something, whether it be a chimney-sweep that +composes music, or an elephant that dances the _valse a deux temps_; +and she fluttered from party to party, a sort of Tom Moore in +petticoats,--with this difference, that Moore left his meek little wife +at home, while Lady Morgan trotted her husband out after her on all +occasions. It is amusing to observe what pains the poor woman takes to +persuade us that Sir Charles is a monstrous clever man. Betsy Trotwood +never labored harder to convince the world of the merits of Mr. Dick, +than Lady Morgan does to obtain a place for her husband as a learned +philosopher who was in advance of his age, or, as she prettily expresses +it in French; (she likes to parade her French, this excellent wife,) +"_il devancait son siecle_." This mania for inlaying her writing with +French scraps rises with her Ladyship to a species of insanity. "_Est +il possible_ that I am going to Italy?" she exclaims. How much more +forcible is this than the vulgar "Is it possible?" When the Duke of +Sussex comes into a party, he does not excite anything so common-place +as a great sensation; no,--it is a "_grand mouvement_!" Praise bestowed +on her is an "_eloge_." She would not condescend to speak of such things +as folding-doors,--they are better as "_grands battants_." A change of +scene is a "_changement de decoration_." Mrs. Opie, whom she sees at a +party, is not in full dress, but "_en grand costume_." The three Messrs. +Lygon look very "_hautain_." And while driving with Lady Charleville, +instead of having a charming conversation on the road, her Ladyship +has it "_chemin faisant_." _Allons_, mi lady! you prefer that style of +writing. _Chacun a son gout!_ _Mais_ we, _nous autres_, love _mieux_ the +plain old Saxon _langue_. + +If Lady Morgan had called this volume "Passages from my Card-Basket," +there would have been some harmony between the title and the contents. +The three hundred and eighty-two pages are for the most part taken up +with frivolous notes from great people, either inviting her Ladyship to +parties or apologizing for not having called. These are interspersed +with a number of philoprogenitive letters to Lady Clarke,--her +Ladyship's sister,--in which, being childless herself, she expends all +her bottled-up maternity on her nephews and nieces. The little pieces of +autobiography scattered here and there are painfully vivacious. The poor +old lady smirks and capers and ogles, until one becomes sick of this +sexagenarian agility. Paris beheld no more melancholy spectacle than +that of poor old Madame Saqui dancing on the tight-rope for a living at +the age of eighty-five, and displaying her withered limbs and long +white hair to a curious public. We do not feel any particular degree +of veneration for that Countess of Desmond "who lived to the age of a +hundred and ten, and died of a fall from a cherry-tree then," as Mr. +Thomas Moore sings. Well, Lady Morgan dances on any amount of literary +tight-ropes, and climbs any number of intellectual cherry-trees. It is +a sight more surprising than pleasant; and her Ladyship must not be +astonished that the critics should not treat her with the respect due to +her age, when she herself labors so hard to make them forget it. + + +_Bitter-Sweet. A Poem_. By J.G. HOLLAND, Author of "The Bay Path," +"Titcomb's Letters," etc. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. +pp. 220. 1859. + +Unexpectedness is an essential element of wit,--perhaps, also, of +pleasure; and it is the ill-fortune of professional reviewers, not only +that surprise is necessarily something as rare with them as a June +frost, but that loyalty to their extemporized omniscience should forbid +them to acknowledge, even if they felt, so fallible an emotion. + +Unexpectedness is also one of the prime components of that singular +product called Poetry; and, accordingly, the much-enduring man whose +finger-ends have skimmed many volumes and many manners of verse may be +pardoned the involuntary bull of not greatly expecting to stumble +upon it in any such quarter. Shall we, then, be so untrue to our +craft,--shall we, in short, be so unguardedly natural, as to confess +that "Bitter-Sweet" has surprised us? It is truly an original poem,--as +genuine a product of our soil as a golden-rod or an aster. It is as +purely American,--nay, more than that,--as purely New-English,--as the +poems of Burns are Scotch. We read ourselves gradually back to our +boyhood in it, and were aware of a flavor in it deliciously local and +familiar,--a kind of sour-sweet, as in a _frozen-thaw_ apple. From +the title to the last line, it is delightfully characteristic. The +family-party met for Thanksgiving can hit on no better way to be jolly +than in a discussion of the Origin of Evil,--and the Yankee husband (a +shooting-star in the quiet heaven of village morals) about to run away +from his wife can be content with no less comet-like vehicle than +a balloon. The poem is Yankee, even to the questionable extent of +substituting "locality" for "scene" in the stage-directions; and we feel +sure that none of the characters ever went to bed in their lives, but +always sidled through the more decorous subterfuge of "retiring." + +We could easily show that "Bitter-Sweet" was not this and that and +t'other, but, after all said and done, it would remain an obstinately +charming little book. It is not free from faults of taste, nor from a +certain commonplaceness of metre; but Mr. Holland always saves himself +in some expression so simply poetical, some image so fresh and natural, +the harvest of his own heart and eye, that we are ready to forgive +him all faults, in our thankfulness at finding the soul of Theocritus +transmigrated into the body of a Yankee. + +It would seem the simplest thing in the world to be able to help +yourself to what lies all around you ready to your hand; but writers +of verse commonly find it a difficult, if not impossible, thing to do. +Conscious that a certain remoteness from ordinary life is essential in +poetry, they aim at it by laying their scenes far away in time, and +taking their images from far away in space,--thus contriving to be +foreign at once to their century and their country. Such self-made +exiles and aliens are never repatriated by posterity. It is only here +and there that a man is found, like Hawthorne, Judd, and Mr. Holland, +who discovers or instinctively feels that this remoteness is attained, +and attainable only, by lifting up and transfiguring the ordinary and +familiar with the _mirage_ of the ideal. We mean it as very high praise, +when we say that "Bitter-Sweet" is one of the few books that have found +the secret of drawing up and assimilating the juices of this New World +of ours. + + +_The Mustee; or, Love and Liberty_. By B.F. PRESBURY. Boston: Shepard, +Clark, & Brown. 12mo. + +The plot of this novel is open to criticism, and we might take exception +to some of the opinions expressed in it; but it is evidently the work of +a thoughtful and scholarly mind and benevolent heart,--is exceedingly +well written, shows a great deal of power in the delineation both of +ideal and humorous character, and includes some scenes of the most +absorbing dramatic interest. The character of Featherstone is admirably +drawn, and Bill Frink is a positive addition to the literature of +American low life. We commend him to our Southern friends, as an example +of one of the most peculiar products of their peculiar institution. The +author of the novel has lived at the South, and his descriptions of +slavery display accurate observation, candid judgment, and a vivid power +of pictorial representation. The scenes in New Orleans are all good; and +in few novels of the present day is there a finer instance of animated +narration than the account of Flora's escape from slavery. The incidents +are so managed that the reader is kept in breathless suspense to the +end, with sympathies excited almost to pain, as one circumstance after +another seems to threaten the capture of the beautiful fugitive. Though +the book belongs to the class of anti-slavery novels, it is not confined +to the subject of slavery, but includes a consideration of almost all +the "exciting topics" of the day, and treats of them all with singular +conscientiousness of spirit and vigor of thought. + + +_Rowse's Portrait of Emerson_. Published in Photograph. Boston: Williams +& Everett. + +_Durand's Portrait of Bryant_. Engraved by Schoff & Jones. New York: +Published by the Century Club. + +_Barry's Portrait of Whittier_. Published in Photograph. Boston: +Brainard. + +Almost one of the lost arts is that of portraiture. Raised by Titian and +his contemporaries to the position of one of the noblest walks of Art, +and in the generations following depressed to the position of minister +to vanity and foolish pride, it has remained, during the most of the +years since, one of the lowest and least reputable of the fields +of artistic labor. The lost vein was broken into by Reynolds and +Gainsborough, who left a golden glory in all they did for us; but no +one came to inherit, and in England no one has since appeared worthy of +comparison with them. In all Europe there is no school of portraiture +worth notice; the so-called portrait-painters are only likeness-makers, +comparing with the true portraitist as a topographical draughtsman does +with a landscape artist. The intellectual elements of the artistic +character, which successful portraiture insists on, are some of its very +greatest,--if we admit, as it seems to us that we must, that imagination +is not strictly intellectual, but an inspiration, an exaltation of the +whole nature. To paint a great man, one must not merely comprehend +that he is great, but must in some sense rise up by the side of, and +sympathize with, his greatness,--must enter into and identify himself +with some essential quality of his character, which quality will be the +theme of his portrait. So it inevitably follows that the greatness of +the artist is the limitation of his art,--that he expresses in his work +himself as much as his subject, but no more of the latter than he can +comprehend and appreciate. + +The distinction between the true and the false portraitist is that +between expression of something felt and representation of something +seen; and as the subtilest and noblest part of the human soul can only +be felt, as the signs of it in the face can be recognized and translated +only by sympathy, so no mere painter can ever succeed in expressing in +its fulness the character of any great man. The lines in which holiest +passion, subtilest thought, divinest activity have recorded in the face +their existence and presence, are hieroglyphs unintelligible to one who +has not kindled with that passion, been rapt in that thought, or swept +away in sympathy with that activity; he may follow the lines, but must +certainly miss their meaning. A successful portrait implies an equality, +in some sense, between the artist and his original. The greatest of +artists fail most completely in painting people with whom they have no +sympathy, and only the mechanical painter succeeds alike with all,--the +fair average of his works being a general levelling of his subjects; the +great successes of the genuine artist being as surely offset (if one +success _can_ find offset in a thousand failures) by as absolute and +extreme failure. + +As regards portraiture in general, the public may, without injury to Art +or history, employ the painters who make the prettiest pictures of them; +it doesn't matter to the future, if Mr. Jenkins, or even the Hon. Mr. +Twaddle, has employed the promising Mr. Mahlstock to perpetuate him +with a hundred transitory and borrowed graces,--if the talented young +_litterateur_, Mr. Simeah, has been found by his limner to resemble +Lord Byron amazingly, and has in consequence consented to sit for a +half-length, to be done _a la Corsair_, etc., etc.; but for our men of +thought, for those whose works will stand to all time as the signals +pointing out the road a nation followed, whose presence and acts shall +be our intellectual history,--it is of some little moment that these +should be given to us in such visible form, that men shall not +conjecture, a thousand years hence, if Emerson were really a man, or +a name under which some metaphysical club chose to publish their +philosophies. In psychological history, portraits are as necessary +as dates; and one of the most valuable gifts to an age is a great +portrait-painter,--a Titian, a Gainsborough, a Reynolds, or a +Page,--which last has more of the Titianesque character than any one who +has painted since the great Venetians lived, and few, indeed, are the +generations so endowed. + +Beside this full insight and representation of character, which makes +the ideal portraiture, we have the less complete, but only in degree +less valuable, apprehension which results from a point of sympathy, +a likeness of liking in one or more fields of thought, a common +sensitiveness, a common interest; and the rarer sympathy between artist +and subject, of that intimacy and complete understanding of personal +character, which, even where no great talent exists in the artist, gives +a unique value to his work, but which, where the intimacy is that of +great minds, gives us works on which no dilettanteism, even, makes a +criticism,--as in that portrait of Dante by Giotto, to our mind the +portrait _par excellence_ of past time. + +In the three admirable portraits whose titles stand at the head of our +notice, we have in one way and another all of the conditions we have +spoken of fulfilled. Rowse's portrait of Emerson is one of the most +masterly and subtile records of the character of a signal man, nay, +the most masterly, we have ever seen. Those who know Emerson best +will recognize him most fully in it. It represents him in his most +characteristic mood, the subtile intelligence mingling with the kindly +humor in his face, thoughtful, cordial, philosophic. The portrait is not +more happy in the comprehension of character than in the rendering of +it, and is as masterly technically as it is grandly characteristic. An +eminent English poet, who knows Emerson well, says of it, justly,--"It +is the best portrait I have ever seen of any man"; and we say of it, +without any hesitation, that no living man, except, _perhaps_, William +Page, is capable, at his best moment, of such a success. + +In Barry's portrait of Whittier it is easy to see the points of contact +between the characters of the artist and the poet-subject, in the +sensitiveness shown in the lines of the mouth in the drawing, in the +delicacy of organization which has wasted the cheek and left the eye +burning with undimmed brilliancy in the sunken socket, the fervent, +earnest face, defying age to affect its expressiveness, as the heart it +manifests defies the chill of time. It is an exceedingly interesting +drawing, and one by which those who love the poet are willing to have +him seen by the future. It must remain as the only and sufficient record +of Whittier's _personnel_. + +In the portrait of Bryant we have the results of an intimacy of the most +cordial kind, of years' duration,--an almost absolute unity of sentiment +and similarity of habits of regarding the things most interesting to +each. Of nearly the same age, Bryant and Durand have grown old together, +loving the same Nature, and regarding it with the same eyes,--the +painter catching inspiration from the poet's themes, and the poet in +turn getting new insight into the mystery of the outer world through the +painter's eyes. Bryant's face has been a Sphinx's riddle to our best +painters; none have succeeded in rendering its severe simplicity, and +clear, self-disciplined expression, until Durand tried it with a +success which renders the picture interesting evermore as a tribute of +friendship as well as a solution of a difficult problem. The artist's +hand was directed by a more than ordinary understanding of the lines it +drew; it has not varied in a line from reverence for the verisimilitude +the world had a right to insist on; it has not flattered or softened, +but is simply, completely, absolutely, true. Bryant's face has an +immovable tranquillity, a reserve and impassiveness, which yet are not +coldness; the clear gray eye calmly looks through and through you, but +permits no intelligence of what is passing behind it to come out to you. +It is such a face as one of the old Greek kings might have had, as he +sat administering justice. All this, it seems to us, Durand's picture +gives. It looks out at you impassive, penetrating, as though it would +hear all and tell nothing,--a strong, self-continent, completely +balanced character,--unshrinking, unyielding, yet without being +unsensitive,--concentrated, justly poised, and intense, without being +passionate. The head is admirably engraved, though we do not at all +fancy the way in which the background is done; it is heavy, formal, and +unartistic,--but this may be matter of choice. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Man and his Dwelllng-Place. An Essay towards the Interpretation of +Nature. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 391. $1.00. + +Annual of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art +for 1859, exhibiting the most Important Discoveries and Improvements in +Mechanics, etc., etc., etc. Edited by David A. Wells, A.M. Boston. Gould +& Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 410. $1.25. + +Letters of a Traveller. Second Series. By William Cullen Bryant. New +York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 277. $1.25. + +My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated. +New York. Oaksmith & Co. 12mo. pp. 458. $1.25. + +Tressilian and his Friend. By Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 372. $1.25. + +The New American Encyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General +Knowledge. By George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Vol. V. +_Chartreuse--Cougar_. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. $3.00. + +History of the Institution of the Sabbath-Day, its Uses and Abuses; +with Notices of the Puritans, Quakers, etc. By M. Logan Fisher. Second +Edition. Revised and enlarged. Philadelphia. J.B. Pugh. 16mo. pp. 248. +50 cts. + +Redemption. A Poem. By John D. Bryant, M.D. Philadelphia. John +Pennington & Son. 12mo. pp. 366. $1.00. + +Opportunities for Industry and the Safe Investment of Capital; or A +Thousand Chances to make Money. By a Retired Merchant. Philadelphia. +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.25. + +The Dead Secret. By Wilkie Collins. A New Edition. Philadelphia. T.B. +Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 637. $1.25. + +The Losing and Taking of Mansoul, or Lectures on the Holy War. By Alfred +S. Patton, A.M. New York. 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