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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:38:58 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:38:58 -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/12107-0.txt b/12107-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e3fb8c --- /dev/null +++ b/12107-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8309 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12107 *** + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX.--MAY, 1862.--NO. LV. + + + + * * * * * + +MAN UNDER SEALED ORDERS. + + +A vessel of war leaves its port, but no one on board knows for what +object, nor whither it is bound. It is a secret Government expedition. +As it sets out, a number of documents, carefully sealed, are put in +charge of the commander, in which all his instructions are contained. +When far away from his sovereign, these are to be the authority which he +must obey; as he sails on in the dark, these are to be the lights on the +deep by which he must steer. They provide for every stage of the way. +They direct what ports to approach and what ports to avoid, what to do +in different seas, what variation to make in certain contingencies, and +what acts to perform at certain opportunities. Each paper of the series +forbids the opening of the next until its own directions have been +fulfilled; so that no one can see beyond the immediate point for which +he is making. + +The wide ocean is before that ship, and a wider mystery. But in the +passage of time, as the strange cruise proceeds, its course begins to +tell upon the chart. The zigzag line, like obscure chirography, has an +intelligible look, and seems to spell out intimations. As order after +order is opened, those sibyl leaves of the cabin commence to prophesy, +glimpses multiply, surmises come quick, and shortly the whole ship's +company more than suspect, from the accumulating _data_ behind them, +what must be their destination, and the mission they have been sent to +accomplish. + +People are beginning to imagine that the career of the human race is +something like this. There is a fast-growing conviction that man has +been sent out, from the first, to fulfil some inexplicable purpose, and +that he holds a Divine commission to perform a wonderful work on the +earth. It would seem as if his marvellous brain were the bundle of +mystic scrolls on which it is written, and within which its terms are +hid,--and as if his imperishable soul were the great seal, bearing the +Divine image and superscription, which attests its Almighty original. + +This commission is yet obscure. It has so far only gradually opened to +him, for he is sailing under sealed orders. He is still led on from +point to point. But the farther he goes, and the more his past gathers +behind him, the better is he able to imagine what must be before him. +His chart is every day getting more full of amazing indications. He is +beginning to feel about him the increasing press of some Providential +design that has been permeating and moulding age after age, and to +discover that be has been all along unconsciously prosecuting a secret +mission. And so it comes at last that everything new takes that look; +every evolution of mind, every addition to knowledge, every discovery of +truth, every novel achievement appearing like the breaking of seals and +opening of rolls, in the performance of an inexhaustible and mysterious +trust that has been committed to his hands. + +It is the purpose of this paper to collect together some of these facts +and incidents of progress, in order to show that this is not a mere +dream, but a stupendous reality. History shall be the inspiration of our +prophecy. + +There is a past to be recounted, a present to be described, and a future +to be foretold. An immense review for a magazine article, and it will +require some ingenuity to be brief and graphic at the same time. In the +attempt to get as much as possible into the smallest space, many things +will have to be omitted, and some most profound particulars merely +glanced at; but enough will be furnished, perhaps, to make the point we +have in view. + +We may compare human progress to a tall tree which has reared itself, +slowly and imperceptibly, through century after century, hardly more +than a bare trunk, with here and there only the slight outshoot of some +temporary exploit of genius, but which in this age gives the signs of +that immense foliage and fruitage which shall in time embower the whole +earth. We see but its spring-time of leaf,--for it is only within fifty +years that this rich outburst of wonders began. We live in an era when +progress is so new as to be a matter of amazement. A hundred years +hence, perhaps it will have become so much a matter of course to +develop, to expand, and to discover, that it will excite no comment. But +it is yet novel, and we are yet fresh. Therefore we may gaze back at +what has been, and gaze forward at what is promised to be, with more +likelihood of being impressed than if we were a few centuries older. + +If we look down at the roots out of which this tree has risen, and then +up at its spreading branches,--omitting its intermediate trunk of ages, +through which its processes have been secretly working,--perhaps we may +realize in a briefer space the wonder of it all. + +In the beginning of history, according to received authority, there +was but a little tract of the earth occupied, and that by one family, +speaking but one tongue, and worshipping but one God,--all the rest of +the world being an uninhabited wild. At _this_ stage of history the +whole globe is explored, covered with races of every color, a host of +nations and languages, with every diversity of custom, development of +character, and form of religion. The physical bound from that to this is +equalled only by the leap which the world of mind has made. + +Once upon a time a man hollowed a tree, and, launching it upon the +water, found that it would bear him up. After this a few little floats, +creeping cautiously near the land, were all on which men were wont to +venture. _Now_ there are sails fluttering on every sea, prodigious +steamers throbbing like leviathans against wind and wave; harbors are +built, and rocks and shoals removed; lighthouses gleam nightly from ten +thousand stations on the shore; the great deep itself is sounded by +plummet and diving-bell; the submarine world is disclosed; and man +is gathering into his hands the laws of the very winds that toss its +surface. + +Once the earth had a single rude, mud-built hamlet, in which human +dwellings were first clustered together. _Now_ it is studded with +splendid cities, strewn thick with towns and villages, diversified by +infinite varieties of architecture: sumptuous buildings, unlike in every +clime, each as if sprung from its own soil and made out of its air. + +Once there were only the elementary discoveries of the lever, the wedge, +the bended bow, the wheel; Tubal worked in iron and copper, and Naamah +twisted threads. Since then what a jump the mechanical arts have made! +These primitive elements are now so intricately combined that we can +hardly recognize them; new forces have been added, new principles +evolved; ponderous engines, like moving mountains of iron, shake the +very earth; many-windowed factories, filled with complex machinery +driven by water or its vapor, clatter night and day, weaving the plain +garments of the poor man and the rich robes of the prince, the curtains +of the cottage and the upholstery of the palace. + +Once there were but the spear and bow and shield, and hand-to-hand +conflicts of brute strength. See now the whole enginery of war, the art +of fortification, the terrific perfection of artillery, the mathematical +transfer of all from the body to the mind, till the battlefield is but +a chess-board, and the battle is really waged in the brains of the +generals. How astonishing was that last European field of Solferino, +ten miles in sweep,--with the balloon floating above it for its spy +and scout,--with the thread-like wire trailing in the grass, and +the lightning coursing back and forth, Napoleon's ubiquitous +aide-de-camp,--with railway-trains, bringing reinforcements into the +midst of the _melée_, and their steam-whistle shrieking amid the +thunders of battle! And what a picture of even greater magnificence, in +some respects, is before us to-day! A field not of ten, but ten +thousand miles in sweep! McClellan, standing on the eminence of present +scientific achievement, is able to overlook half the breadth of a +continent, and the widely scattered detachments of a host of six hundred +thousand men. The rail connects city with city; the wire hangs between +camp and camp, and reaches from army to army. Steam is hurling his +legions from one point to another; electricity brings him intelligence, +and carries his orders; the aëronaut in the sky is his field-glass +searching the horizon. It is practically but one great battle that is +raging beneath him, on the Potomac, in the mountains of Virginia, +down the valley of the Mississippi, in the interiors of Kentucky and +Tennessee, along the seaboard, and on the Gulf coast. The combatants are +hidden from each other, but under the chieftain's eye the dozen armies +are only the squadrons of a single host, their battles only the separate +conflicts of a single field, the movements of the whole campaign only +the evolutions of a prolonged engagement. The spectacle is a good +illustration of the day. Under the magic of progress, war in its essence +and vitality is really diminishing, even while increasing in _materiel_ +and grandeur. Neither time nor space will permit the old and tedious +contests of history to be repeated. Military science has entered upon a +new era, nearer than ever to the period when wars shall cease. + +But to go on with a few more contrasts of the past with the present. +Once men wrote only in symbols, like wedges and arrow-heads, on +tiles and bricks, or in hieroglyphic pictures on obelisks and +sepulchres,--afterward in crude, but current characters on stone, metal, +wax, and papyrus. In a much later age appeared the farthest perfection +of the invention: books engrossed on illuminated rolls of vellum, and +wound on cylinders of boxwood, ivory, or gold,--and then put away like +richest treasures of art. What a difference between perfection then and +progress now! To-day the steam printing-press throws out its sheets in +clouds, and fills the world with books. Vast libraries are the vaulted +catacombs of modern times, in which the dead past is laid away, and the +living present takes refuge. The glory of costly scrolls is dimmed by +the illustrated and typographical wonders which make the bookstore a +gorgeous dream. Knowledge, no longer rare, no longer lies in precarious +accumulations within the cells of some poor monk's crumbling brain, but +swells up like the ocean, universal and imperishable, pouring into the +vacant recesses of all minds as the ocean pours into the hollows under +its shore. To-day, newspapers multiplied by millions whiten the whole +country every morning, like the hoar-frost; and books, numerous and +brilliant as the stars, seem by a sort of astral influence to unseal the +latent destinies of many an intellect, as by their illumination they +stimulate thought and activity everywhere. + +Once art seemed to have reached perfection in the pictures and +sculptures of Greece and Rome. Yet now those master-pieces are not only +equalled on canvas and in fresco, but reproduced by tens of thousands +from graven sheets of copper, steel, and even blocks of wood,--or, if +modelled in marble or bronze, are remodelled by hundreds, and set up in +countless households as the household gods. It is the glory of to-day +that the sun himself has come down to be the rival and teacher of +artists, to work wonders and perform miracles in art. He is the +celestial limner who shall preserve the authentic faces of every +generation from now until the world is no more. He holds the mirror up +to Nature, paralyzes the fleeting phantom, by chemical subtilty, on the +burnished plate,--and there it is fixed forever. He prepares the optical +illusion of the stereoscope, so that through tiny windows we may look as +into fairy-land and find sections of this magnificent world modelled in +miniature. + +Once men imagined the earth to be a flat and limited tract. Now they +realize that it is a ponderous ball floating in infinite ether. Once +they thought the sky was a solid blue concave, studded with blazing +points, an empire of fate, the gold-and-azure floor of the abode of +gods and spirits. Now all that is dissolved away; the wandering planets +become at will broad disks, like sisters of the moon; and countless +millions of stars are now mirrored in the same retina with which the +Magi saw the few thousands of the firmament that were visible from the +plains of Chaldea. + +Once men were aware of nothing in the earth beneath its hills and +valleys and teeming soil. Now they walk consciously over the ruins +of old worlds; they can decipher the strange characters and read the +strange history graven on these gigantic tablets. The stony veil is +rent, and they can look inimitable periods back, and see the curious +animals which then moved up and down in the earth. + +Once a glass bubble was a wonder for magnifying power. Now the lenses of +the microscope bring an inverted universe to light. Men can look into a +drop and discover an ocean crowded with millions of living creatures, +monsters untypified in the visible world, playing about as in a great +deep. + +Once a Roman emperor prized a mysterious jewel because it brought the +gladiators contending in the arena closer to the imperial canopy. Now +observatories, with their revolving domes, crown the heights at every +centre of civilization, and the mighty telescope, poised on exquisite +mechanism, turns infinite space into a Coliseum, brings its invisible +luminaries close to the astronomer's seat, and reveals the harmonies and +splendors of those distant works of God. + +Once the supposed elements were fire, and water, and earth, and air; +once the amber was unique in its peculiar property, and the loadstone +in its singular power. Now chemistry holds in solution the elements and +secrets of creation; now electricity would seem to be the veil which +hangs before the soul; now the magnetic needle, true to the loadstar, +trembles on the sea, to make the mariner brave and the haven sure. + +We have by no means exhausted the wonders that have accumulated upon +man, in being accumulated by man. Their enumeration would be almost +endless. But we leave all to mention one, with which there is nothing of +old time to compare. It had no beginning then,--not even a germ. It is +the peculiar leap and development of the age in which we live. Many +things have combined to bring it to pass. + +A spirit that had been hid, since the world began, in a coffer of metal +and acid,--the genie of the lightning,--shut down, as by the seal of +Solomon in the Arabian tale, was let loose but the other day, and +commenced to do the bidding of man. Every one found that he could +transport his thought to the ends of the earth in the twinkling of an +eye. That spirit, with its electric wings, soon flew from city to city, +and whithersoever the magnetic wire could be traced through the air, +till the nations of all Europe stood as face to face, and the States +of this great Union gazed one upon another. It made a continent like a +household,--a cluster of peoples like members of a family,--each within +hearing of the other's voice. + +But one achievement remained to be performed before the whole world +could become one. The ocean had hitherto hopelessly severed the globe +into two hemispheres. Could man make it a single sphere? Could man, like +Moses, smite the waves with his electric rod, and lead the legions of +human thought across dry shod? He could,--and he did. We all remember +it well. A range of submarine mountains was discovered, stretching from +America to Europe. Their top formed a plateau, which, lying within two +miles of the surface, offered an undulating shoal within human reach. A +fleet of steamers, wary of storms, one day cautiously assembled midway +over it. They caught the monster asleep, safely uncoiled the wire, and +laid it from shore to shore. The treacherous, dreadful, omnipotent ocean +was conquered and bound! + +How the heart of the two worlds leaped when the news came! Then, more +than at any time before, were most of us startled into a conviction of +how _real_ progress was,--how tremendous, and limitless, apparently, the +power which God had put into man. Not that this, in itself, was greater +than that which had preceded it, but it was the climax of all. The +mechanical feat awoke more enthusiasm than even the scientific +achievement which was its living soul,--not because it was more +wonderful, but because it dispelled our last doubt. We all began to form +a more definite idea of something great to come, that was yet lying +stored away in the brain,--laid there from the beginning. Like the +Magian on the heights of Moab, as he saw the tents of Israel and the +tabernacle of God in the distance, we grew big with an involuntary +vision, and were surprised into prophecies. + +It was wonderful to see the Queen of England, on one side of that chasm +of three thousand miles, wave a greeting to the President, and the +President wave back a greeting to the Queen. But it was glorious to see +that chord quiver with the music and the truth of the angelic song:-- + + "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth + peace, + Good-will toward men!" + +Soon, however, came a check to the excitement. For above a score of days +was that mysterious highway kept open from Valentia to Trinity Bay. But +then the spell was lost, the waves flowed back, old ocean rolled on as +before, and the crossing messages perished, like the hosts of Pharaoh in +the sea. + +That the miracle is ended is no indication that it cannot be repeated. +For the very reason that the now dead, inarticulate wire, like an +infant, lisped and stammered once, it is certain that another will +soon be born, which will live to trumpet forth like the angel of +civilization, its minister of flaming fire! No one should abate a jot +from the high hope excited then. No imagination should suffer a cloud on +the picture it then painted. Governments and capitalists have not +been idle, and will not be discouraged. Already Europe and Africa are +connected by an electric tunnel under the sea, five hundred miles in +length; already Malta and Alexandria speak to each other through a tube +lying under thirteen hundred miles of Mediterranean waters; already +Britain bound to Holland and Hanover and Denmark by a triple cord of +sympathy which all the tempests of the German Ocean cannot sever. And if +we come nearer home, we shall find a project matured which will carry a +fiery cordon around the entire coast of our country, linking fortress to +fortress, and providing that last, desperate resource of unity, an outer +girdle and jointed chain of force, to bind together and save a nation +whose inner bonds of peace and love are broken. + +Such energy and such success are enough to revive the expectation and to +guaranty the coming of the day when we shall behold the electric light +playing round the world unquenched by the seas, illuminating the land, +revealing nation to nation, and mingling language with language, as if +the "cloven tongues like as of fire" had appeared again, and "sat upon +each of them." + +It will be a strange period, and yet we shall see it. The word spoken +here under the sun of mid-day, when it speaks at the antipodes, will be +heard under the stars of midnight. Of the world of commerce it may be +written, "There shall be no night there!" and of the ancient clock of +the sun and stars, "There shall be time no longer!" + +When the electric wire shall stretch from Pekin, by successive India +stations, to London, and from India, by leaps from island to island, to +Australia, and from New York westward to San Francisco, (as has been +already accomplished,) and southward to Cape Horn, and across the +Atlantic, or over the Strait to St. Petersburg,--when the endless +circle is formed, and the magic net-work binds continent, and city, and +village, and the isles of the sea, in one,--then who will know the world +we live in, for the change that shall come upon it? + +Time no more! Space no more! Mankind brought into one vast neighborhood! + +Prophesy the greater union of all hearts in this interblending of all +minds. Prophesy the boundless spread of civilization, when all barriers +are swept away. Prophesy the catholicity of that religion in which as +many phases of a common faith shall be endured as there are climes for +the common human constitution and countries in a common world! + +In those days men will carry a watch, not with a single face, as now, +telling only the time of their own region, but a dial-plate subdivided +into the disks of a dozen timepieces, announcing at a glance the hour of +as many meridian stations on the globe. It will be the fair type of +the man who wears it. When human skill shall find itself under this +necessity, and mechanism shall reach this perfection, then the soul +of that man will become also many-disked. He will be alive with the +perpetual consciousness of many zeniths and horizons beside his own, of +many nations far different from his own, of many customs, manners, and +ideas, which he could not share, but is able to account for and respect. + +We can peer as far as this into the future; for what we predict is only +a reasonable deduction from certain given circumstances that are nearly +around us now. We do not lay all the stress upon the telegraph, as if to +attribute everything to it, but because that invention, and its recent +crowning event, are the last great leap which the mind has made, and +because in itself, and in its carrying out, it summoned all the previous +discoveries and achievements of man to its aid. It is their last-born +child,--the greater for its many parents. There is hardly a science, or +an art, or an invention, which has not contributed to it, or which is +not deriving sustenance or inspiration from it. + +This latter fact makes it particularly suggestive. As it was begotten +itself, and is in its turn begetting, so has it been with everything +else in the world of progress. Every scientific or mechanical idea, +every species of discovery, has been as naturally born of one or more +antecedents of its own kind as men are born of men. There is a kith and +kin among all these extraordinary creatures of the brain. They have +their ancestors and descendants; not one is a Melchizedek, without +father, without mother. Every one is a link in a regular order of +generations. Some became extinct with their age, being superseded or no +longer wanted; while others had the power of immense propagation, and +produced an innumerable offspring, which have a family likeness to this +day. The law of cause and effect has no better illustration than the +history of inventions and discoveries. If there were among us an +intellect sufficiently encyclopedic in knowledge and versatile in +genius, it could take every one of these facts and trace its intricate +lineage of principles and mechanisms, step by step, up to the original +Adam of the first invention and the original Eve of the first necessity. + +There is a period between us and these first parents of our present +progress that is strangely obscure. It is a sort of antediluvian age, in +which there were evidently stupendous mechanical powers of some kind, +and an extensive acquaintance with some things. The ruins of Egypt alone +would prove this. But a deluge of oblivion has washed over them, and +left these colossal bones to tell what story they can. The only way to +account for such an extinction is, that they were monstrous contrivances +out of all proportion to their age, spasmodic successes in science, +wonders born out of due time,--deriving no sustenance or support from a +wide and various kindred, and therefore, like the giants which were of +old, dying out with their day. + +It is different with what has taken place since. Every work has come in +its right time, just when best prepared for, and most required. There is +not one but is sustained on every side, and fits into its place, as each +new piece of colored stone in a mosaic is sustained by the progressive +picture. Every one is conserved by its connections. Whatever has been +done is sure,--and the past being secure, the future is guarantied. +It is impossible that the present knowledge in the world should be +extinguished. Nothing but a stroke of imbecility upon the race, nothing +but the destruction of its libraries, nothing but the paralysis of +the printing-press, and the annihilation of these means of +intercommunication,--nothing but some such arbitrary intervention +could accomplish it. The facts already in human possession, and the +constitution of the mind, together insure what we have as imperishable, +and what we are to obtain as illimitable. + +We come now to another suggestive characteristic of the time,--another +of its promises. So far we find Progress gathering fulness and +strength,--making sure of itself. It has also been gathering impetus. It +has been, all along, accumulating momentum, and now it sweeps on with +breathless _rapidity_. The reason is, that, the farther it has gone, the +more it has multiplied its agents. The present generation is not only +carried forward, but is excited in every quarter. The activity and +versatility of the intellect would appear to be inexhaustible. Instead +of getting overstrained, or becoming lethargic, it never was so +powerful, never had so many resources, never was so wide-awake. Men +are busy turning over every stone in their way, in the hope of finding +something new. Nothing would seem too small for human attention, nothing +too great for human undertaking. The government Patent-Office, with +its countless chambers, is not so large a museum of inventions as the +capacious brain of to-day. + +One man is engrossed over an apple-parer; another snatches the needle +from the weary fingers of the seamstress, and offers her in return the +sewing-machine. That man yonder has turned himself into an armory, and +he brings out the deadliest instrument he can produce, something perhaps +that can shoot you at sight, even though you be a speck in the horizon. +His next-door neighbor is an iron workshop, and is forging an armor of +proof for a vessel of war, from which the mightiest balls shall bound +as lightly as the arrows from an old-time breastplate. There is another +searching for that new motive power which shall keep pace with the +telegraph, and hurl the bodies of men through space as fast as their +thoughts are hurled; there is another seeking that electro-magnetic +battery which shall speak instantly and distinctly to the ends of +the earth. The mind of that astronomer is a telescope, through whose +increasing field new worlds float daily by; the mind of that geologist +is a divining-rod, forever bending toward the waters of chaos, and +pointing out new places where a shaft can be sunk into periods of almost +infinite antiquity; the mind of that chemist is a subtile crucible, in +which aboriginal secrets lie disclosed, and within whose depths the true +philosopher's stone will be found; the mind of that mathematician is a +maze of ethereal stair-ways, rising higher and higher toward the heaven +of truth. + +The ambition is everywhere,--in every breast; the power is +everywhere,--in every brain. The giant and the pigmy are alike active +in seeking out and finding out many inventions. And in this very +universality of effort and result we discover another guaranty of the +great future. The river of Progress multiplies its tributaries the +farther it flows, and even now, unknown ages from its mouth, we already +see that magnificent widening of its channel, in which, like the Amazon, +it long anticipates the sea. + +Man, the great achiever! the marvellous magician! Look at him! A head +hardly six feet above the ground out of which he was taken. His "dome +of thought and palace of the soul" scarce twenty-two inches in +circumference; and within it, a little, gray, oval mass of "convoluted +albumen and fibre, of some four pounds' weight," and there sits the +intelligence which has worked all these wonders! An intelligence, say, +six thousand years old next century. How many thousand years more will +it think, and think, and wave the wand, and raise new spirits out of +Nature, open her sealed-up mysteries, scale the stars, and uncover a +universe at home? How long will it be before this inherent power, laid +in it at the beginning by the Almighty, shall be exhausted, and reach +its limit? Yes, how long? We cannot begin to know. We cannot imagine +where the stopping-place could be. Perhaps there is none. + +To take up the nautical figure which has furnished our title,--we are in +the midst of an infinite sea, sailing on to a destination we know not +of, but of which the vague and splendid fancies we have formed hang +before our prow like illusions in the sky. We are meeting on every hand +great opportunities which must not be lost, new achievements which must +be wrought, and strange adventures which must be undertaken: every day +wondering more to what our commission shall bring us at last, full of +magnificent hopes and a growing faith,--the inscrutable bundle of orders +not nearly exhausted: whole continents of knowledge yet to be discovered +and explored; the gates of yet distant sciences to be sought and +unlocked; the fortresses of yet undreamed necessities to be taken; +Arcadias of beauty to be visited and their treasures garnered by the +imagination; an intricate course to be followed amid all future nations +and governments, and their winding histories, as if threading the +devious channels of endless archipelagoes; the spoils of all ages to +be gathered, and treaties of commerce with all generations to be made, +before the mysterious voyage is done. + +And now, before we leave this fascinating theme, or suffer another +dream, let us stop where we are, in order to see where we are. Let us +take our bearings. What says our chart? What do we find in the horizon +of the present, which may give us the wherewithal to hope, to doubt, or +to fear? + +The era in which we live presents some remarkable characteristics, +which have been brought into it by this immense material success. It +is preeminently an age of _reality:_ an age in which a host of +unrealities--queer and strange old notions--have been destroyed forever. +Never were the vaulted spaces in this grand old temple of a world swept +so clean of cobwebs before. The mind has not gone forth working outside +wonders, without effecting equal inside changes. In achieving abroad, it +has been ennobling at home. At no time was it so free from superstition +as now, and from the absurdities which have for centuries beset and +filled it. What numberless delusions, what ghosts, what mysteries, what +fables, what curious ideas, have disappeared before the besom of the +day! The old author long ago foretasted this, who wrote,--"The divine +arts of printing and gunpowder have frightened away Robin Goodfellow, +and all the fairies." It is told of Kepler, that he believed the planets +were borne through the skies in the arms of angels; but science shortly +took a wider sweep, killed off the angels, and showed that the wandering +luminaries had been accustomed from infancy to take care of themselves. +And so has the firmament of all knowledge been cleared of its vapors and +fictions, and been revealed in its solid and shining facts. + +Here, then, lies the great distinction of the time: the accumulation of +_Truth_, and the growing appetite for the true and the real. The year +whirls round like the toothed cylinder in a threshing-machine, blowing +out the chaff in clouds, but quietly dropping the rich kernels within +our reach. And it will always be so. Men will sow their notions and reap +harvests, but the inexorable age will winnow out the truth, and scatter +to the winds whatsoever is error. + +Now we see how that impalpable something has been produced which we call +the "Spirit of the Age,"--that peculiar atmosphere in which we live, +which fills the lungs of the human spirit, and gives vitality and +character to all that men at present think and say and feel and do. It +is this identical spirit of courageous inquiry, honest reality, and +intense activity, wrought up into a kind of universal inspiration, +moving with the same disposition, the same taste, the same thought, +persons whole regions apart and unknown to each other. We are frequently +surprised by coincidences which prove this novel, yet common _afflatus_. +Two astronomers, with the ocean between them, calculate at the same +moment, in the same direction, and simultaneously light upon the same +new orb. Two inventors, falling in with the same necessity, think of the +same contrivance, and meet for the first time in a newspaper war, or +a duel of pamphlets, for the credit of its authorship. A dozen widely +scattered philosophers as quickly hit upon the self-same idea as if +they were in council together. A more rational development of some old +doctrine in divinity springs up in a hundred places at once, as if a +theological epidemic were abroad, or a synod of all the churches were in +session. It has also another peculiarity. The thought which may occur at +first to but one mind seems to have an affinity to all minds; and if +it be a free and generous thought, it is instantly caught, intuitively +comprehended, and received with acclamations all over the world. Such a +spirit as this is rapidly bringing all sections and classes of mankind +into sympathy with one another, and producing a supreme caste in human +nature, which, as it increases in numbers, will mould the character and +control the destinies of the race. + +So far we speak of the upper air of the day. But there is no denying the +prevalence of a lower and baser spirit. We are uncomfortably aware that +there is another extreme to the freaks of the imagination. There are +superstitions of the reason and of realism,--the grotesque fancies, +mysticisms, and vagaries which prevail, and the diseased gusto for +something ultra and outlandish which affects many raw and undisciplined +minds. Yet even these are, in their way, indications of the pervading +disposition,--the unhealthy exhalations to be expected from hitherto +stagnant regions, stirred up by the active and regenerating thought of +the time. There is promise even in them, and they serve to distinguish +the more that purer and higher spirit of honesty and reality, which +clarifies the intellect, and invigorates the faculties that apprehend +and grasp the noble and the true. + +We glory in this triumph of the reason over the imagination, and in this +predominance of the real over the ideal. We prefer that common sense +should lead the van, and that mere fancy, like the tinselled conjurer +behind his hollow table and hollow apparatus, should be taken for what +it is, and that its tricks and surprises should cease to bamboozle, +however much they may amuse mankind. Nothing, in the course of +Providence, conveys so much encouragement as this recent and growing +development of reality in thought and pursuit. In its presence the +future of the world looks substantial and sure. We dream of an immense +change in the tone of the human spirit, and in the character of the +civilization which shall in time embower the earth. + +But, as it has always been, the greater the good, the nearer the evil; +Satan is next-door neighbor to the saint; Eden had a lurking-hole for +the serpent. Just here the voyaging is most dangerous; just here we drop +the plummet and strike upon a shoal; we lift up our eyes, and discover a +lee-shore. + +The mind that is not profound enough to perceive and believe even what +it cannot comprehend,--that is the shoal. Unless the reason will permit +the sounding-lead to fall illimitably down into a submarine world +of mystery, too deep for the diver, and yet a true and living +world,--unless there is admitted to be a fathomless gulf, called +_faith_, underlying the surface-sea of demonstration, the race will +surely ground in time, and go to pieces. There is the peril of this +all-prevailing love of the real. It may become such an infatuation that +nothing will appear actual which is not visible or demonstrable, which +the hand cannot handle or the intellect weigh and measure. Even to this +extreme may the reason run. Its vulnerable point is pride. It is easily +encouraged by success, easily incited to conceit, readily inclined to +overestimate its power. It has a Chinese weakness for throwing up a wall +on its involuntary boundary-line, and for despising and defying all +that is beyond its jurisdiction. The reason may be the greatest or the +meanest faculty in the soul. It may be the most wise or the most foolish +of active things. It may be so profound as to acknowledge a whole +infinitude of truth which it cannot comprehend, or it may be so +superficial as to suspect everything it is asked to believe, and refuse +to trust a fact out of its sight. There is the danger of the day. There +is the lee-shore upon which the tendencies of the age are blowing our +bark: a gross and destructive materialism, which is the horrid and +treacherous development of a shallow realism. + +In the midst of this splendid era there is a fast-increasing class who +are disposed to make the earth the absolute All,--to deny any outlet +from it,--to deny any capacity in man for another sphere,--to deny any +attribute in God which interests Him in man,--to shut out, therefore, +all faith, all that is mysterious, all that is spiritual, all that is +immortal, all that is Divine. + + "There live, alas! of heaven-directed mien, + Of cultured soul, and sapient eye serene, + Who hail thee Man!--the pilgrim of a day, + Spouse of the worm, and brother of the clay, + Frail as the leaf in autumn's yellow bower, + Dust in the wind, or dew upon the flower, + A friendless slave, a child without a sire. + * * * * * + Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim, + Lights of the world, and demigods of Fame? + Is this your triumph, this your proud applause, + Children of Truth, and champions of her cause? + For this hath Science searched on weary wing, + By shore and sea, each mute and living thing? + Launched with Iberia's pilot from the steep, + To worlds unknown, and isles beyond the deep? + Or round the cope her living chariot driven, + And wheeled in triumph through the signs of heaven? + O star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered there, + To waft us home the message of despair?" + +Is shipwreck, after all, to be the end of the mysterious voyage? Yes, +unless there is something else beside materialism in the world. Unless +there is another spirit blowing _off_ that dreadful shore, unless the +chart opens a farther sea, unless the needle points to the same distant +star, unless there are other orders, yet sealed and secret, there is no +further destiny for the race, no further development for the soul. The +intellect, however grand, is not the whole of man. Material progress, +however magnificent, is not the guaranty, not even the cardinal element, +of civilization. And civilization, in the highest possible meaning of +that most expressive word, is that great and final and all-embosoming +harbor toward which all these achievements and changes dimly, but +directly, point. Upon that we have fixed our eyes, but we cannot imagine +how it can be attained by intellectual and material force alone. + +In order to indicate this more vividly, let us suppose that there is +no other condition necessary to the glory of human nature and the +world,--let us suppose that no other provision has been made, and that +the age is to go on developing only in this one direction,--what a +dreary grandeur would soon surround us! As icebergs floating in an +Arctic sea are splendid, so would be these ponderous and glistering +works. As the gilded and crimsoned cliffs of snow beautify the Polar +day, so would these achievements beautify the present day. But expect no +life, no joy, no soul, amid such ice-bound circumstances as these. The +tropical heart must congeal and die; its luxuriant fruits can never +spring up. The earth must lie sepulchred under its own magnificence; and +the divinest feelings of the spirit, floating upward in the instinct of +a higher life, but benumbed by the frigid air, and rebuked by the leaden +sky, must fall back like clouds of frozen vapor upon the soul: and "so +shall its thoughts perish." + +It would be a gloomy picture to paint, if one could for a moment imagine +that intellectual power and material success were all that enter into +the development of the race. For if there is no other capacity, and no +other field in which at least an equal commission to achieve is given, +and for which equal arrangements have been made by the Providence that +orders all, then the soul must soon be smothered, society dismembered, +and human nature ruined. + +But this very fact, which we purposely put in these strong colors, +proves that there must be another and greater element, another and +higher faculty, another and wider department, likewise under express and +secret conditions of success. It shall come to pass, as the development +goes on, that this other will become the foremost and all-important, +--the relation between them will be reversed,--this must increase, that +decrease,--the Material, although the first in time, the first in the +world's interest, and the first in the world's effort, will be found to +be only an ordained forerunner, preparing the way for Something Else, +the latchet of whose shoes it is not worthy to unloose. + +There is that in man--also wrapt up and sealed within his inscrutable +brain--which provides for his inner as well as outer life; which +insures his highest development; which shall protect, cherish, warm, and +fertilize his nature now, and perpetuate and exalt his soul forever. +It is a commission which begins, but does not end, in time. It is a +commission which makes him the agent and builder of an immense moral +work on the earth. Under its instructions he shall add improvement to +improvement in that social fabric which is already his shelter and +habitation. He has found it of brick,--he shall leave it of marble. He +shall seek out every contrivance, and perfect every plan, and exhaust +every scheme, which will bring a greater prosperity and a nobler +happiness to mankind. He shall quarry out each human spirit, and carve +it into the beauty and symmetry of a living stone that shall be worthy +to take its place in the rising structure. This is the work which is +given him to do. He must develop those conditions of virtue, and peace, +and faith, and truth, and love, by which the race shall be lifted +nearer its Creator, and the individual ascend into a more conscious +neighborhood and stronger affinity to the world which shall receive him +at last. All this must that other department be, and this other capacity +achieve or there is a fatal disproportion in the progress of man. + +The beauty of this as a dream perhaps all men will admit; but they +question its possibility. "It is the old Utopia," they say, "the +impracticable enterprise that has always baffled the world." Some will +doubt whether the Spiritual has an existence at all. Others will doubt, +if it does exist, whether man can accomplish anything in it. It is +invisible, impalpable, unknown. It cannot be substantial, it cannot +be real,--at least to man as at present constituted. Its elements and +conditions cannot be controlled by his spirit. That spirit cannot +control itself,--how much less go forth and work solid wonders in that +phantom realm! There can be no success in this that will be coequal with +the other; nor a coequal grandeur. There is no such thing as keeping +pace with it. The heart cannot grow better, society cannot be built +higher, mankind cannot become happier, God will not draw nearer, the +hidden truth of all that universe will never be more ascertained than +it is,--can never be accumulated and stored away among other human +acquisitions. It is utterly, gloomily impracticable. In this respect we +shall forever remain as we are, and where we are. So they think. + +And now we venture to contradict it all, and to assert that there +is, there must be, just such a corresponding field, and just such a +corresponding progress, or else (we say it reverently) God's ways are +not equal. So great is our faith. Like Columbus, therefore, we dream +of the golden Indies, and of that "unknown residue" which must yet be +found, and be taken possession of by mankind. + +We look far out to where the horizon dips its vapory veil into the sea, +and beyond which lies that other hemisphere, and ask,--Is there no world +there to be a counterpoise to the world that is here? Has the Creator +made no provision for the equilibrium of the soul? Is all that infinite +area a shoreless waste, over which the fleets of speculation may sail +forever, and discover nothing? Or is there not, rather, a broad +and solid continent of spiritual truth, eternally rooted in that +ocean,--prepared, from the beginning, for the occupation of man, when +the fulness of time shall have come,--ordained to take its place in the +historic evolution of the race, and to give the last and definite shape +to its wondrous destinies? + +Is there, or is there not, another region of truth, of enterprise, of +progress,--to finish, to balance, to consummate the world? + +Such is the Problem. + + * * * * * + + +MY GARDEN. + + +I can speak of it calmly now; but there have been moments when the +lightest mention of those words would sway my soul to its profoundest +depths. + +I am a woman. I nip this fact in the bud of my narrative, because I like +to do as I would be done by, when I can just as well as not. It rasps a +person of my temperament exceedingly to be deceived. When any one tells +a story, we wish to know at the outset whether the story-teller is a man +or a woman. The two sexes awaken two entirely distinct sets of feelings, +and you would no more use the one for the other than you would put +on your tiny teacups at breakfast, or lay the carving-knife by the +butter-plate. Consequently it is very exasperating to sit, open-eyed and +expectant, watching the removal of the successive swathings which hide +from you the dusky glories of an old-time princess, and, when the +unrolling is over, to find it is nothing, after all, but a great +lubberly boy. Equally trying is it to feel your interest clustering +round a narrator's manhood, all your individuality merging in his, till, +of a sudden, by the merest chance, you catch the swell of crinoline, +and there you are. Away with such clumsiness! Let us have everybody +christened before we begin. + +I do, therefore, with Spartan firmness depose and say that I am a woman. +I am aware that I place myself at signal disadvantage by the avowal. I +fly in the face of hereditary prejudice. I am thrust at once beyond +the pale of masculine sympathy. Men will neither credit my success nor +lament my failure, because they will consider me poaching on their +manor. If I chronicle a big beet, they will bring forward one twice +as large. If I mourn a deceased squash, they will mutter, "Woman's +farming!" Shunning Scylla, I shall perforce fall into Charybdis. (_Vide_ +Classical Dictionary. I have lent mine, but I know one was a rock and +the other a whirlpool, though I cannot state, with any definiteness, +which was which.) I may be as humble and deprecating as I choose, but +it will not avail me. A very agony of self-abasement will be no armor +against the poisoned shafts which assumed superiority will hurl against +me. Yet I press the arrow to my bleeding heart, and calmly reiterate, I +am a woman. + +The full magnanimity of which reiteration can be perceived only when I +inform you that I could easily deceive you, if I chose. There is about +my serious style a vigor of thought, a comprehensiveness of view, a +closeness of logic, and a terseness of diction commonly supposed to +pertain only to the stronger sex. Not wanting in a certain fanciful +sprightliness which is the peculiar grace of woman, it possesses also, +in large measure, that concentrativeness which is deemed the peculiar +strength of man. Where an ordinary woman will leave the beaten track, +wandering in a thousand little by ways of her own,--flowery and +beautiful, it is true, and leading her airy feet to "sunny spots of +greenery" and the gleam of golden apples, but keeping her not less +surely from the goal,--I march straight on, turning neither to the +right hand nor to the left, beguiled into no side-issues, discussing no +collateral question, but with keen eye and strong hand aiming right at +the heart of my theme. Judge thus of the stern severity of my virtue. +There is no heroism in denying ourselves the pleasures which we cannot +compass. It is not self-sacrifice, but self-cherishing, that turns the +dyspeptic alderman away from turtle-soup and the _pâté de foie gras_ to +mush and milk. The hungry newsboy, regaling his nostrils with the scents +that come up from a subterranean kitchen, does not always know whether +or not he is honest, till the cook turns away for a moment, and a +steaming joint is within reach of his yearning fingers. It is no credit +to a weak-minded woman not to be strong-minded and write poetry. She +couldn't, if she tried; but to feed on locusts and wild honey that the +soul may be in better condition to fight the truth's battles,--to +go with empty stomach for a clear conscience's sake,--to sacrifice +intellectual tastes to womanly duties, when the two conflict,-- + + "That's the true pathos and sublime, + Of human life." + +You will, therefore, no longer withhold your appreciative admiration, +when, in full possession of what theologians call the power of contrary +choice, I make the unmistakable assertion that I am a woman. + +Of the circumstances that led me to inchoate a garden it is not +necessary now to speak. Enough that the first and most important step +had been taken, the land was bought,--a few acres, with a smart little +house peeking up, a crazy little barn tumbling down, and a dozen or so +fruit-trees that might do either as opportunity offered, and I set out +on my triumphal march from the city of my birth to the estate of my +adoption. Triumphal indeed! My pathway was strewed with roses. Feathery +asparagus and the crispness of tender lettuce waved dewy greetings from +every railroad-side; green peas crested the racing waves of Long Island +Sound, and unnumbered carrots of gold sprang up in the wake of the +ploughing steamer; till I was wellnigh drunk with the new wine of my own +purple vintage. But I was not ungenerous. In the height of my innocent +exultation, I remembered the dwellers in cities who do all their +gardening at stalls, and in my heart I determined, when the season +should be fully blown, to invite as many as my house could hold to +share with me the delight of plucking strawberries from their stems and +drinking in foaming health from the balmy-breathed cows. Moreover, in +the exuberance of my joy, I determined to go still farther, and despatch +to those doomed ones who cannot purchase even a furlough from burning +pavements baskets of fragrance and sweetness. I pleased myself with +pretty conceits. To one who toils early and late in an official Sahara, +that the home atmosphere may always be redolent of perfume, I would send +a bunch of long-stemmed white and crimson rose-buds, in the midst of +which he should find a dainty note whispering, "Dear Fritz: Drink this +pure glass of my overflowing June to the health of weans and wife, not +forgetting your unforgetful friend." To a pale-browed, sad-eyed woman, +who flits from velvet carpets and broidered flounces to the bedside +of an invalid mother, whom her slender fingers and unslender and most +godlike devotion can scarcely keep this side the pearly gates, I would +heap a basket of summer-hued peaches smiling up from cool, green leaves +into their straitened home, and, with eyes, perchance, tear-dimmed, she +should read, "My good Maria: The peaches are to go to your lips, the +bloom to your cheeks, and the gardener to your heart." Ah me! How much +grace and gladness may bud and blossom in one little garden! Only +three acres of land, but what a crop of sunny surprises, unexpected +tendernesses, grateful joys, hopes, loves, and restful memories!--what +wells of happiness, what sparkles of mirth, what sweeps of summer in the +heart, what glimpses of the Upper Country! + +Halicarnassus was there before me (in the garden, I mean, not in the +spot last alluded to). It has been the one misfortune of my life that +Halicarnassus got the start of me at the outset. With a fair field and +no favor I should have been quite adequate to him. As it was, he was +born and began, and there was no resource left to me but to be born and +follow, which I did as fast as possible; but that one false move could +never be redeemed. I know there are shallow thinkers who love to prate +of the supremacy of mind over matter,--who assert that circumstances are +plastic as clay in the hands of the man who knows how to mould them. +They clench their fists, and inflate their lungs, and quote Napoleon's +proud boast,--"Circumstances! I _make_ circumstances!" Vain babblers! +Whither did this Napoleonic Idea lead? To a barren rock in a waste of +waters. Do we need St. Helena and Sir Hudson Lowe to refute it? Control +circumstances! I should like to know if the most important circumstance +that can happen to a man isn't to be born? and if that is under his +control, or in any way affected by his whims and wishes? Would not Louis +XVI. have been the son of a goldsmith, if he could have had his way? +Would Burns have been born a slaving, starving peasant, if he had been +consulted beforehand? Would not the children of vice be the children of +virtue, if they could have had their choice? and would not the whole +tenor of their lives have been changed thereby? Would a good many of +us have been born at all, if we could have helped it? Control +circumstances, forsooth! when a mother's sudden terror brings an idiot +child into the world,--when the restive eye of his great-grandfather, +whom he never saw, looks at you from your two-year-old, and the spirit +of that roving ancestor makes the boy also a fugitive and a vagabond on +the earth! No, no. We may coax circumstances a little, and shove them +about, and make the best of them, but there they are. We may try to get +out of their way; but they will trip us up, not once, but many times. +We may affect to tread them under foot in the daylight, but in the +night-time they will turn again and rend us. All we can do is first to +accept them as facts, and then reason from them as premises. We cannot +control them, but we can control our own use of them. We can make them a +savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. + +Application.--If mind could have been supreme over matter, Halicarnassus +should, in the first place, have taken the world at second-hand from +me, and, in the second place, he should not have stood smiling on the +front-door steps when the coach set me down there. As it was, I made the +best of the one case by following in his footsteps,--not meekly, not +acquiescently, but protesting, yet following,--and of the other, by +smiling responsive and asking pleasantly,-- + +"Are the things planted yet?" + +"No," said Halicarnassus. + +This was better than I had dared to hope. When I saw him standing there +so complacent and serene, I felt certain that a storm was brewing, or +rather had brewed, and burst over my garden, and blighted its fair +prospects. I was confident that he had gone and planted every square +inch of the soil with some hideous absurdity which would spring up a +hundred-fold in perpetual reminders of the one misfortune to which I +have alluded. + +So his ready answer gave me relief, and yet I could not divest myself of +a vague fear, a sense of coming thunder. In spite of my endeavors, +that calm, clear face would lift itself to my view as a mere +"weather-breeder"; but I ate my supper, unpacked my trunks, took out my +papers of precious seeds, and sitting in the flooding sunlight under the +little western porch, I poured them into my lap, and bade Halicarnassus +come to me. He came, I am sorry to say, with a pipe in his mouth. + +"Do you wish to see my jewels?" I asked, looking as much like Cornelia +as a little woman, somewhat inclined to dumpiness, can. + +Halicarnassus nodded assent. + +"There," said I, unrolling a paper, "that is _Lychnidea acuminala_. +Sometimes it flowers in white masses, pure as a baby's soul. Sometimes +it glows in purple, pink, and crimson, intense, but unconsuming, like +Horeb's burning bush. The old Greeks knew it well, and they baptized +its prismatic loveliness with their sunny symbolism, and called it the +Flame-Flower. These very seeds may have sprung centuries ago from the +hearts of heroes who sleep at Marathon; and when their tender petals +quiver in the sunlight of my garden, I shall see the gleam of Attic +armor and the flash of royal souls. Like heroes, too, it is both +beautiful and bold. It does not demand careful cultivation,--no +hot-house, tenderness"-- + +"I should rather think not," interrupted Halicarnassus. "Pat Curran has +his front-yard full of it." + +I collapsed at once, and asked humbly,-- + +"Where did he get it?" + +"Got it anywhere. It grows wild almost. It's nothing but phlox. My +opinion is, that the old Greeks knew no more about it than that brindled +cow." + +Nothing further occurring to me to be said on the subject, I waived +it and took up another parcel, on which I spelled out, with some +difficulty, "_Delphinium exaltatum_. Its name indicates its nature." + +"It's an exalted dolphin, then, I suppose," said Halicarnassus. + +"Yes!" I said, dexterously catching up an _argumentum ad hominem_, "It +_is_ an exalted dolphin,--an apotheosized dolphin,--a dolphin made +glorious. For, as the dolphin catches the sunbeams and sends them back +with a thousand added splendors, so this flower opens its quivering +bosom and gathers from the vast laboratory of the sky the purple of a +monarch's robe and the ocean's deep, calm blue. In its gracious cup you +shall see"-- + +"A fiddlestick!" jerked out Halicarnassus, profanely. "What are you +raving about such a precious bundle of weeds for? There isn't a +shoemaker's apprentice in the village that hasn't his seven-by-nine +garden overrun with them. You might have done better than bring +cartloads of phlox and larkspur a thousand miles. Why didn't you import +a few hollyhocks, or a sunflower or two, and perhaps a dainty slip +of cabbage? A pumpkin-vine, now, would climb over the front-door +deliciously, and a row of burdocks would make a highly entertaining +border." + +The reader will bear me witness that I had met my first rebuff with +humility. It was probably this very humility that emboldened him to a +second attack. I determined to change my tactics and give battle. + +"Halicarnassus," said I, severely, "you are a hypocrite. You set up for +a Democrat"-- + +"Not I," interrupted he; "I voted for Harrison in '40, and for Fremont +in '56, and"-- + +"Nonsense!" interrupted I, in turn; "I mean a Democrat etymological, not +a Democrat political. You stand by the Declaration of Independence, and +believe in liberty, equality, and fraternity, and that all men are of +one blood; and here you are, ridiculing these innocent flowers, because +their brilliant beauty is not shut up in a conservatory to exhale its +fragrance on a fastidious few, but blooms on all alike, gladdening the +home of exile and lightening the burden of labor." + +Halicarnassus saw that I had made a point against him, and preserved a +discreet silence. + +"But you are wrong," I went on, "even if you are right. You may laugh to +scorn my floral treasures, because they seem to you common and unclean, +but your laughter is premature. It is no ordinary seed that you see +before you. It sprang from no profane soil. It came from the--the--some +kind of an office at WASHINGTON, Sir! It was given me by one whose name +stands high on the scroll of fame,--a statesman whose views are as +broad as his judgment is sound,--an orator who holds all hearts in his +hand,--a man who is always found on the side of the feeble truth against +the strong falsehood,--whose sympathy for all that is good, whose +hostility to all that is bad, and whose boldness in every righteous +cause make him alike the terror and abhorrence of the oppressor, and the +hope and joy and staff of the oppressed." + +"What is his name?" said Halicarnassus, phlegmatically. + +"And for your miserable pumpkin-vine," I went on, "behold this +morning-glory, that shall open its barbaric splendor to the sun and +mount heavenward on the sparkling chariots of the dew. I took this from +the white hand of a young girl in whose heart poetry and purity have +met, grace and virtue have kissed each other,--whose feet have danced +over lilies and roses, who has known no sterner duty than to give +caresses, and whose gentle, spontaneous, and ever active loveliness +continually remind me that of such is the kingdom of heaven." + +"Courted yet?" asked Halicarnassus, with a show of interest. + +I transfixed him with a look, and continued,-- + +"This _Maurandia_, a climber, it may be common or it may be a king's +ransom. I only know that it is rosy-hued, and that I shall look at +life through its pleasant medium. Some fantastic trellis, brown and +benevolent, shall knot supporting arms around it, and day by day it +shall twine daintily up toward my southern window, and whisper softly of +the sweet-voiced, tender-eyed woman from whose fairy bower it came in +rosy wrappings. And this _Nemophila_, 'blue as my brother's eyes,'--the +brave young brother whose heroism and manhood have outstripped his +years, and who looks forth from the dank leafiness of far Australia +lovingly and longingly over the blue waters, as if, floating above them, +he might catch the flutter of white garments and the smile on a sister's +lip"-- + +"What are you going to do with 'em?" put in Halicarnassus again. + +I hesitated a moment, undecided whether to be amiable or bellicose under +the provocation, but concluded that my ends would stand a better +chance of being gained by adopting the former course, and so answered +seriously, as if I had not been switched off the track, but was going on +with perfect continuity,-- + +"To-morrow I shall take observations. Then, where the situation seems +most favorable, I shall lay out a garden. I shall plant these seeds in +it, except the vines and such things, which I wish to put near the house +to hide as much as possible its garish white. Then, with every little +tender shoot that appears above the ground, there will blossom also a +pleasant memory or a sunny hope or an admiring thrill." + +"What do you expect will be the market-value of that crop?" + +"Wealth which an empire could not purchase," I answered, with +enthusiasm. "But I shall not confine my attention to flowers. I shall +make the useful go with the beautiful. I shall plant vegetables,-- +lettuce, and asparagus, and--so forth. Our table shall be garnished with +the products of our own soil, and our own works shall praise us." + +There was a pause of several minutes, during which I fondled the seeds +and Halicarnassus enveloped himself in clouds of smoke. Presently there +was a cessation of puffs, a rift in the cloud showed that the oracle was +opening his mouth, and directly thereafter he delivered himself of the +encouraging remark,-- + +"If we don't have any vegetables till we raise 'em, we shall be +carnivorous some time to come." + +It was said with that provoking indifference more trying to a sensitive +mind than downright insult. You know it is based on some hidden +obstacle, palpable to your enemy, though hidden from you,--and that he +is calm because he know that the nature of things will work against you, +so that he need not interfere. If I had been less interested, I would +have revenged myself on him by remaining silent; but I was very much +interested, so I strangled my pride and said,-- + +"Why not?" + +"Land is too old for such things. Soil isn't mellow enough." + +I had always supposed that the greater part of the main-land of our +continent was of equal antiquity, and dated back alike to the alluvial +period; but I suppose our little three acres must have been injected +through the intervening strata by some physical convulsion, from the +drift, or the tertiary formation, perhaps even from the primitive +granite. + +"What are you going to do?" I ventured to inquire. "I don't suppose the +land will grow any younger by keeping." + +"Plant it with corn and potatoes for at least two years before there can +be anything like a garden." + +And Halicarnassus put up his pipe and betook himself to the house, and +I was glad of it, the abominable bore! to sit there and listen to my +glowing schemes, knowing all the while that they were soap-bubbles. +"Corn and potatoes," indeed! I didn't believe a word of it. +Halicarnassus always had an insane passion for corn and potatoes. Land +represented to him so many bushels of the one or the other. Now corn +and potatoes are very well in their way, but, like every other innocent +indulgence, carried too far, become a vice; and I more than suspected he +had planned the strategy simply to gratify his own weakness. Corn and +potatoes, indeed! + +But when Halicarnassus entered the lists against me, he found an +opponent worthy of his steel. A few more such victories would be his +ruin. A grand scheme fired and filled my mind during the silent watches +of the night, and sent me forth in the morning, jubilant with high +resolve. Alexander might weep that he had no more worlds to conquer; +but I would create new. Archimedes might desiderate a place to stand +on before he could bring his lever into play; I would move the world, +self-poised. If Halicarnassus fancied that I was cut up, dispersed, and +annihilated by one disaster, he should weep tears of blood to see me +rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of my dead hopes, to a newer and more +glorious life. Here, having exhausted my classics, I took a long sweep +down to modern times, and vowed in my heart never to give up the ship. + +Halicarnassus saw that a fell purpose was working in my mind, but a +certain high tragedy in my aspect warned him to silence; so he only +dogged me around the corners of the house, eyed me askance from the +wood-shed, and peeped through the crevices of the demented little barn. +But his vigilance bore no fruit. I but walked moodily "with folded arms +and fixed eyes," or struck out new paths at random, so long as there +were any vestiges of his creation extant. His time and patience being at +length exhausted, he went into the field to immolate himself with ever +new devotion on the shrine of corn and potatoes. Then my scheme came to +a head at once. In my walking, I had observed a box about three feet +long, two broad, and one foot deep, which Halicarnassus, with his usual +disregard of the proprieties of life, had used to block up a gate-way +that was waiting for a gate. It was just what I wanted. I straightway +knocked out the few nails that kept it in place, and, like another +Samson, bore it away on my shoulders. It was not an easy thing to +manage, as any one may find by trying,--nor would I advise young ladies, +as a general thing, to adopt that form of exercise,--but the end, not +the means, was my object, and by skilful diplomacy I got it up the +backstairs and through my window, out upon the roof of the porch +directly below. I then took the ash-pail and the fire-shovel and went +into the field, carefully keeping the lee side of Halicarnassus. "Good, +rich loam" I had observed all the gardening books to recommend; but +wherein the virtue or the richness of loam consisted I did not feel +competent to decide, and I scorned to ask. There seemed to be two kinds: +one black, damp, and dismal; the other fine, yellow, and good-natured. +A little reflection decided me to take the latter. Gold constituted +riches, and this was yellow like gold. Moreover, it seemed to have more +life in it. Night and darkness belonged to the other, while the very +heart of sunshine and summer seemed to be imprisoned in this golden +dust. So I plied my shovel and filled my pail again and again, bearing +it aloft with joyful labor, eager to be through before Halicarnassus +should reappear; but he got on the trail just as I was whisking +up-stairs for the last time, and shouted, astonished,-- + +"What are you doing?" + +"Nothing," I answered, with that well-known accent which says, +"Everything! and I mean to keep doing it." + +I have observed, that, in managing parents, husbands, lovers, brothers, +and indeed all classes of inferiors, nothing is so efficacious as to let +them know at the outset that you are going to have your own way. They +may fret a little at first, and interpose a few puny obstacles, but +it will be only a temporary obstruction; whereas, if you parley and +hesitate and suggest, they will but gather courage and strength for a +formidable resistance. It is the first step that costs. Halicarnassus +understood at once from my one small shot that I was in a mood to be let +alone, and he let me alone accordingly. + +I remembered he had said that the soil was not mellow enough, and I +determined that my soil should be mellow, to which end I took it up by +handfuls and squeezed it through my fingers, completely pulverizing it. +It was not disagreeable work. Things in their right places are very +seldom disagreeable. A spider on your dress is a horror, but a spider +outdoors is rather interesting. Besides, the loam had a fine, soft feel +that was absolutely pleasant; but a hideous black and yellow reptile +with horns and hoofs, that winked up at me from it, was decidedly +unpleasant and out of place, and I at once concluded that the soil was +sufficiently mellow for my purposes, and smoothed it off directly. Then, +with delighted fingers, in sweeping circles, and fantastic whirls, and +exact triangles, I planted my seeds in generous profusion, determined, +that, if my wilderness did not blossom, it should not be from +niggardliness of seed. But even then my box was full before my basket +was emptied, and I was very reluctantly compelled to bring down from the +garret another box, which had been the property of my great-grandfather. +My great-grandfather was, I regret to say, a barber. I would rather +never have had any. If there is anything in the world besides worth that +I reverence, it is ancestry. My whole life long have I been in search of +a pedigree, and though I ran well at the beginning, I invariably stop +short at the third remove by running my head into a barber's shop. If +he had only been a farmer, now, I should not have minded. There is +something dignified and antique in land, and no one need trouble himself +to ascertain whether "farmer" stood for a close-fisted, narrow-souled +clodhopper, or the smiling, benevolent master of broad acres. Farmer +means both these, I could have chosen the meaning I liked, and it is not +probable that any troublesome facts would have floated down the years to +intercept any theory I might have launched. I would rather he had been +a shoemaker; it would have been so easy to transform him, after his +lamented decease, into a shoe-manufacturer,--and shoe-manufacturers, we +all know, are highly respectable people, often become great men, and +get sent to Congress. An apothecary might have figured as an M.D. +A greengrocer might have been apotheosized into a merchant. A +dancing-master would flourish on the family-records as a professor of +the Terpsichorean art. A taker of daguerreotype portraits would never +be recognized in "my great-grandfather _the artist_." But a barber is +unmitigated and immitigable. It cannot be shaded off nor toned down +nor brushed up. Besides, was greatness ever allied to barbarity? +Shakspeare's father was a wool-driver, Tillotson's a clothier, Barrow's +a linen-draper, Defoe's a butcher, Milton's a scrivener, Richardson's a +joiner, Burns's a farmer; but did any one ever hear of a barber's +having remarkable children? I must say, with all deference to my +great-grandfather, that I do wish he would have been considerate enough +of his descendants' feelings to have been born in the old days when +barbers and doctors were one, or else have chosen some other occupation +than barbering. Barber he did, however; in this very box he kept his +wigs, and, painful as it was to have continually before my eyes this +perpetual reminder of plebeian great-grand-paternity, I consented to it +rather than lose my seeds. Then I folded my hands in sweet, though calm +satisfaction. I had proved myself equal to the emergency, and that +always diffuses a glow of genial complacency through the soul. I had +outwitted Halicarnassus. Exultation number two. He had designed to cheat +me out of my garden by a story about land, and here was my garden ready +to burst forth into blossom under my eyes. He said little, but I knew +he felt deeply. I caught him one day looking out at my window with +corroding envy in every lineament. "You might have got some dust out of +the road; it would have been nearer." That was all he said. Even that +little I did not fully understand. + +I watched, and waited, and watered, in silent expectancy, for several +days, but nothing came up, and I began to be anxious. Suddenly I thought +of my vegetable-seeds, and determined to try those. Of course a hanging +kitchen-garden was not to be thought of, and as Halicarnassus was +fortunately absent for a few days, I prospected on the farm. A sunny +little corner on a southern slope smiled up at me, and seemed to offer +itself as a delightful situation for the diminutive garden which mine +must be. The soil, too, seemed as fine and mellow as could be desired. +I at once captured an Englishman from a neighboring plantation, hurried +him into my corner, and bade him dig me and hoe me and plant me a garden +as soon as possible. He looked blankly at me for a moment, and I looked +blankly at him,--wondering what lion he saw in the way. + +"Them is planted with potatoes now," he gasped, at length. + +"No matter," I returned, with sudden relief to find that nothing but +potatoes interfered. "I want it to be unplanted, and planted with +vegetables,--lettuce and--asparagus--and such." + +He stood hesitating. + +"Will the master like it?" + +"Yes," said Diplomacy, "he will be delighted." + +"No matter whether he likes it or not," codiciled Conscience. "You do +it." + +"I--don't exactly like--to--take the responsibility," wavered this +modern Faint-Heart. + +"I don't want you to take the responsibility," I ejaculated, with +volcanic vehemence. "I'll take the responsibility. You take the hoe." + +These duty-people do infuriate me. They are so afraid to do anything +that isn't laid out in a right-angled triangle. Every path must be +graded and turfed before they dare set their scrupulous feet in it. +I like conscience, but, like corn and potatoes, carried too far, it +becomes a vice. I think I could commit a murder with less hesitation +than some people buy a ninepenny calico. And to see that man stand +there, balancing probabilities over a piece of ground no bigger than a +bed-quilt, as if a nation's fate were at stake, was enough to ruffle a +calmer temper than mine. My impetuosity impressed him, however, and he +began to lay about him vigorously with hoe and rake and lines, and, in +an incredibly short space of time, had a bit of square flatness laid out +with wonderful precision. Meanwhile I had ransacked my vegetable-bag, +and though lettuce and asparagus were not there, plenty of beets and +parsnips and squashes, etc., were. I let him take his choice. He took +the first two. The rest were left on my hands. But I had gone too far to +recede. They burned in my pocket for a few days, and I saw that I must +get them into the ground somewhere. I could not sleep with them in the +room. They were wandering shades craving at my hands a burial, and I +determined to put them where Banquo's ghost would not go,--down. Down +accordingly they went, but not symmetrically nor simultaneously. I faced +Halicarnassus on the subject of the beet-bed, and though I cannot say +that either of us gained a brilliant victory, yet I can say that I +kept possession of the ground; still, I did not care to risk a second +encounter. So I kept my seeds about me continually, and dropped them +surreptitiously as occasion offered. Consequently, my garden, taken as +a whole, was located where the Penobscot Indian was born,--"all along +shore." The squashes were scattered among the corn. The beans were +tucked under the brushwood, in the fond hope that they would climb +up it. Two tomato-plants were lodged in the potato-field, under the +protection of some broken apple-branches dragged thither for the +purpose. The cucumbers went down on the sheltered side of a wood-pile. +The peas took their chances of life under the sink-nose. The sweet-corn +was marked off from the rest by a broomstick,--and all took root alike +in my heart. + +May I ask you now, O Friend, who, I would fain believe, have followed me +thus far with no hostile eyes, to glide in tranced forgetfulness through +the white blooms of May and the roses of June, into the warm breath of +July afternoons and the languid pulse of August, perhaps even into +the mild haze of September and the "flying gold" of brown October? In +narrating to you the fruition of my hopes, I shall endeavor to preserve +that calm equanimity which is the birthright of royal minds. I shall +endeavor not to be unduly elated by success nor unduly depressed by +failure, but to state in simple language the result of my experiments, +both for an encouragement and a warning. I shall give the history of the +several ventures separately, as nearly as I can recollect in the +order in which they grew, beginning with the humbler ministers to our +appetites, and soaring gradually into the region of the poetical and the +beautiful. + +BEETS.--The beets came up, little red-veined leaves, struggling for +breath among a tangle of Roman wormwood and garlic; and though they +exhibited great tenacity of life, they also exhibited great irregularity +of purpose. In one spot there would be nothing, in an adjacent spot a +whorl of beets, big and little, crowding and jostling and elbowing each +other, like school-boys round the red-hot stove on a winter's morning. +I knew they had been planted in a right line, and I don't, even now, +comprehend why they should not come up in a right line. I weeded them, +and though freedom from foreign growth discovered an intention, of +straightness, the most casual observer could not but see that skewiness +had usurped its place. I repaired to my friend the gardener. He said +they must be thinned out and transplanted. It went to my heart to pull +up the dear things, but I did it, and set them down again tenderly in +the vacant spots. It was evening. The next morning I went to them. +Flatness has a new meaning to me since that morning. You can hardly +conceive that anything could look so utterly forlorn, disconsolate, +disheartened, and collapsed. In fact, they exhibited a degree of +depression so entirely beyond what the circumstances demanded, that I +was enraged. If they had shown any symptoms of trying to live, I could +have sighed and forgiven them; but, on the contrary, they had flopped +and died without a struggle, and I pulled them up without a pang, +comforting myself with the remaining ones, which throve on their +companions' graves, and waxed fat and full and crimson-hearted, in their +soft, brown beds. So delighted was I with their luxuriant rotundity, +that I made an internal resolve that henceforth I would always plant +beets. True, I cannot abide beets. Their fragrance and their flavor are +alike nauseating; but they come up, and a beet that will come up is +better than a cedar of Lebanon that won't. In all the vegetable kingdom +I know of no quality better than this, growth,--nor any quality that +will atone for its absence. + +PARSNIPS.--They ran the race with an indescribable vehemence that fairly +threw the beets into the shade. They trod so delicately at first that +I was quite unprepared for such enthusiasm. Lacking the red veining, I +could not distinguish them even from the weeds with any certainty, and +was forced to let both grow together till the harvest. So both grew +together, a perfect jungle. But the parsnips got ahead, and rushed up +gloriously, magnificently, bacchanalianly,--as the winds come when +forests are rended,--as the waves come when navies are stranded. I am, +indeed, troubled with a suspicion that their vitality has all run to +leaves, and that, when I go down into the depths of the earth for +the parsnips, I shall find only bread of emptiness. It is a pleasing +reflection that parsnips cannot be eaten till the second year. I am told +that they must lie in the ground during the winter. Consequently it +cannot be decided whether there are any or not till next spring. I shall +in the mean time assume and assert without hesitation or qualification +that there are as many tubers below the surface as there are leaves +above it. I shall thereby enjoy a pleasant consciousness, and the +respect of all, for the winter; and if disappointment awaits me in the +spring, time will have blunted its keenness for me, and other people +will have forgotten the whole subject. You may be sure I shall not +remind them of it. + +CUCUMBERS.--The cucumbers came up so far and stuck. It must have been +innate depravity, for there was no shadow of reason why they should not +keep on as they began. They did not. They stopped growing in the prime +of life. Only three cucumbers developed, and they hid under the vines so +that I did not see them till they were become ripe, yellow, soft, and +worthless. They are an unwholesome fruit at best, and I bore their loss +with great fortitude. + +TOMATOES.--Both dead. I had been instructed to protect them from the +frost by night and from the sun by day. I intended to do so ultimately, +but I did not suppose there was any emergency. A frost came the first +night and killed them, and a hot sun the next day burned up all there +was left. When they were both thoroughly dead, I took great pains to +cover them every night and noon. No symptoms of revival appearing to +reward my efforts, I left them to shift for themselves. I did not think +there was any need of their dying, in the first place; and if they would +be so absurd as to die without provocation, I did not see the necessity +of going into a decline about it. Besides, I never did value plants +or animals that have to be nursed, and petted, and coaxed to live. +If things want to die, I think they'd better die. Provoked by my +indifference, one of the tomatoes flared up and took a new start,--put +forth leaves, shot out vines, and covered himself with fruit and glory. +The chickens picked out the heart of all the tomatoes as soon as they +ripened, which was of no consequence, however, as they had wasted +so much time in the beginning that the autumn frosts came upon them +unawares, and there wouldn't have been fruit enough ripe to be of any +account, if no chicken had ever broken a shell. + +SQUASHES.--They appeared above-ground, large-lobed and vigorous. Large +and vigorous appeared the bugs, all gleaming in green and gold, like +the wolf on the fold, and stopped up all the stomata and ate up all the +parenchyma, till my squash-leaves looked as if they had grown for the +sole purpose of illustrating net-veined organizations. In consternation +I sought again my neighbor the Englishman. He assured me he had 'em +on his, too,--lots of 'em. This reconciled me to mine. Bugs are not +inherently desirable, but a universal bug does not indicate special want +of skill in any one. So I was comforted. But the Englishman said they +must be killed. He had killed his. Then I said I would kill mine, too. +How should it be done? Oh! put a shingle near the vine at night and they +would crawl upon it to keep dry, and go out early in the morning and +kill 'em. But how to kill them? Why, take 'em right between your thumb +and finger and crush 'em! + +As soon as I could recover breath, I informed him confidentially, that, +if the world were one great squash, I wouldn't undertake to save it in +that way. He smiled a little, but I think he was not overmuch pleased. I +asked him why I couldn't take a bucket of water and dip the shingle in +it and drown them. He said, well, I could try it. I did try it,--first +wrapping my hand in a cloth to prevent contact with any stray bug. To +my amazement, the moment they touched the water they all spread unseen +wings and flew away, safe and sound. I should not have been much more +surprised to see Halicarnassus soaring over the ridge-pole. I had not +the slightest idea that they could fly. Of course I gave up the design +of drowning them. I called a council of war. One said I must put a +newspaper over them and fasten it down at the edges; then they couldn't +get in. I timidly suggested that the squashes couldn't get out. Yes, +they could, he said,--they'd grow right through the paper. Another said +I must surround them with round boxes with the bottoms broken out; for, +though they could fly, they couldn't steer, and when they flew up, they +just dropped down anywhere, and as there was on the whole a good deal +more land on the outside of the boxes than on the inside, the chances +were in favor of their dropping on the outside. Another said that ashes +must be sprinkled on them. A fourth said lime was an infallible remedy. +I began with the paper, which I secured with no little difficulty; for +the wind--the same wind, strange to say--kept blowing the dirt at me +and the paper away from me; but I consoled myself by remembering the +numberless rows of squash-pies that should crown my labors, and May took +heart from Thanksgiving. The next day I peeped under the paper and the +bugs were a solid phalanx. I reported at head-quarters, and they asked +me if I killed the bugs before I put the paper down. I said no, I +supposed it would stifle them,--in fact, I didn't think anything about +it, but if I thought anything, that was what I thought. I wasn't pleased +to find I had been cultivating the bugs and furnishing them with free +lodgings. I went home and tried all the remedies in succession. I could +hardly decide which agreed best with the structure and habits of the +bugs, but they throve on all. Then I tried them all at once and all o'er +with a mighty uproar. Presently the bugs went away. I am not sure that +they wouldn't have gone just as soon, if I had let them alone. After +they were gone, the vines scrambled out and put forth some beautiful, +deep golden blossoms. When they fell off, that was the end of them. Not +a squash,--not one,--not a single squash,--not even a pumpkin. They +were all false blossoms. + +APPLES.--The trees swelled into masses of pink and white fragrance. +Nothing could exceed their fluttering loveliness or their luxuriant +promise. A few days of fairy beauty, and showers of soft petals floated +noiselessly down, covering the earth with delicate snow; but I knew, +that, though the first blush of beauty was gone, a mighty work was going +on in a million little laboratories, and that the real glory was yet to +come. I was surprised to observe, one day, that the trees seemed to be +turning red. I remarked to Halicarnassus that that was one of Nature's +processes which I did not remember to have seen noticed in any +botanical treatise. I thought such a change did not occur till autumn. +Halicarnassus curved the thumb and forefinger of his right hand into an +arch, the ends of which rested on the wrist of his left coat-sleeve. He +then lifted the forefinger high and brought it forward. Then he lifted +the thumb and brought it up behind the forefinger, and so made them +travel up to his elbow. It seemed to require considerable exertion in +the thumb and forefinger, and I watched the progress with interest. Then +I asked him what he meant by it. + +"That's the way they walk," he replied. + +"Who walk?" + +"The little fellows that have squatted on our trees." + +"What little fellows do you mean?" + +"The canker-worms." + +"How many are there?" + +"About twenty-five decillions, I should think, as near as I can count." + +"Why! what are they for? What good do they do?" + +"Oh! no end. Keep the children from eating green apples and getting +sick." + +"How do they do that?" + +"Eat 'em themselves." + +A frightful idea dawned upon me. I believe I turned a kind of ghastly +blue. + +"Halicarnassus, do you mean to tell me that the canker-worms are eating +up our apples and that we shan't have any?" + +"It looks like that exceedingly." + +That was months ago, and it looks a great deal more like it now. I +watched those trees with sadness at my heart. Millions of brown, ugly, +villanous worms gnawed, gnawed, gnawed, at the poor little tender leaves +and buds,--held them in foul embrace,--polluted their sweetness with +hateful breath. I could almost feel the shudder of the trees in that +slimy clasp,--could almost hear the shrieking and moaning of the young +fruit that saw its hope of happy life thus slowly consuming; but I +was powerless to save. For weeks that loathsome army preyed upon the +unhappy, helpless trees, and then spun loathsomely to the ground, and +buried itself in the reluctant, shuddering soil. A few dismal little +apples escaped the common fate, but when they rounded into greenness and +a suspicion of pulp, a boring worm came and bored them, and they, +too, died. No apple-pies at Thanksgiving. No apple-roasting in winter +evenings. No pan-pie with hot brown bread on Sunday mornings. + +CHERRIES.--They rivalled the apple-blooms in snowy profusion, and the +branches were covered with tiny balls. The sun mounted warm and high in +the heavens and they blushed under his ardent gaze. I felt an increasing +conviction that here there would be no disappointment; but it soon +became palpable that another class of depredators had marked our trees +for their own. Little brown toes could occasionally be seen peeping from +the foliage, and little bare feet left their print on the garden-soil. +Humanity had evidently deposited its larva in the vicinity. There was a +schoolhouse not very far away, and the children used to draw water from +an old well in a distant part of the garden. It was surprising to see +how thirsty they all became as the cherries ripened. It was as if the +village had simultaneously agreed to breakfast on salt fish. Their +wooden bucket might have been the urn of the Danaïdes, judging from the +time it took to fill it. The boys were as fleet of foot as young zebras, +and presented upon discovery no apology or justification but their +heels,--which was a wise stroke in them. A troop of rosy-cheeked, +bright-eyed little snips in white pantalets, caught in the act, reasoned +with in a semi-circle, and cajoled with candy, were as sweet as +distilled honey, and promised with all their innocent hearts and hands +not to do so any more. But the real _pièce de résistance_ was a mass of +pretty well developed crinoline which an informal walk in the infested +district brought to light, engaged in a systematic raid upon the +tempting fruit. Now, in my country, the presence of unknown individuals +in your own garden, plucking your fruit from your trees, without your +knowledge and against your will, is universally considered as affording +presumptive evidence of--something. In this part of the world, however, +I find they do things differently. It doesn't furnish presumptive +evidence of anything. If you think it does, you do so at your own risk. +I thought it did, and escaped by the skin of my teeth. I hinted my +views, and found myself in a den of lions, and was thankful to come out +second-best. Second? nay, third-best, fourth-best, no best at all, not +even good,--very bad. In short, I was glad to get out with my life. Nor +was my repulse confined to the passing hour. The injured innocents come +no more for water. I am consumed with inward remorse as I see them daily +file majestically past my house to my neighbor's well. I have resolved +to plant a strawberry-bed next year, and offer them the fruit of it by +way of atonement, and never, under any provocation, hereafter, to assert +or insinuate that I have any claim whatever to anything under the sun. +If this course, perseveringly persisted in, does not restore the state +of quo, I am hopeless. I have no further resources. + +The one drop of sweetness in the bitter cup was, that the cherries, +being thus let severely alone, were allowed to hang on the trees and +ripen. It took them a great while. If they had been as big as hogsheads, +I should think the sun might have got through them sooner than he did. +They looked ripe long before they were so; and as they were very +plenty, the trees presented a beautiful appearance. I bought a stack of +fantastic little baskets from a travelling Indian tribe, at a fabulous +price, for the sake of fulfilling my long-cherished design of sending +fruit to my city friends. After long waiting, Halicarnassus came in one +morning with a tin pail full, and said that they were ripe at last, for +they were turning purple and falling off; and he was going to have them +gathered at once. He had brought in the first-fruits for breakfast. I +put them in the best preserve-dish, twined it with myrtle, and set it +in the centre of the table. It looked charming,--so ruddy and rural and +Arcadian. I wished we could breakfast out-doors; but the summer was one +of unusual severity, and it was hardly prudent thus to brave its rigor. +We had cup-custards at the close of our breakfast that morning,--very +vulgar, but very delicious. We reached the cherries at the same moment, +and swallowed the first one simultaneously. The effect was instantaneous +and electric. Halicarnassus puckered his face into a perfect wheel, +with his mouth for the hub. I don't know how I looked, but I felt badly +enough. + +"It was unfortunate that we had custards this morning," I remarked. +"They are so sweet that the cherries seem sour by contrast. We shall +soon get the sweet taste out of our mouths, however." + +"That's so!" said Halicarnassus, who _will_ be coarse. + +We tried another. He exhibited a similar pantomime, with improvements. +My feelings were also the same, intensified. + +"I am not in luck to-day," I said, attempting to smile. "I got hold of a +sour cherry this time." + +"I got hold of a bitter one," said Halicarnassus. + +"Mine was a little bitter, too," I added. + +"Mine was a little sour, too," said Halicarnassus. + +"We shall have to try again," said I. + +We did try again. + +"Mine was a good deal of both this time," said Halicarnassus. "But we +will give them a fair trial." + +"Yes," said I, sepulchrally. + +We sat there sacrificing ourselves to abstract right for five minutes. +Then I leaned back in my chair, and looked at Halicarnassus. He rested +his right elbow on the table, and looked at me. + +"Well," said he, at last, "how are cherries and things?" + +"Halicarnassus," said I, solemnly, "it is my firm conviction that +farming is not a lucrative occupation. You have no certain assurance of +return, either for labor or capital invested. Look at it. The bugs eat +up the squashes. The worms eat up the apples. The cucumbers won't grow +at all. The peas have got lost. The cherries are bitter as wormwood and +sour as you in your worst moods. Everything that is good for anything +won't grow, and everything that grows isn't good for anything." + +"My Indian corn, though," began Halicarnassus; but I snapped him up +before he was fairly under way. I had no idea of travelling in that +direction. + +"What am I to do with all those baskets that I bought, I should like to +know?" I asked, sharply. + +"What did you buy them for?" he asked in return. + +"To send cherries to the Hudsons and the Mavericks and Fred Ashley," I +replied promptly. + +"Why don't you send 'em, then? There's plenty of them,--more than we +shall want." + +"Because," I answered, "I have not exhausted the pleasures of +friendship. Nor do I perceive the benefit that would accrue from turning +life-long friends into life-long enemies." + +"I'll tell you what we can do," said Halicarnassus. "We can give a party +and treat them to cherries. They'll have to eat 'em out of politeness." + +"Halicarnassus," said I, "we should be mobbed. We should fall victims to +the fury of a disappointed and enraged populace." + +"At any rate," said he, "we can offer them to chance visitors." + +The suggestion seemed to me a good one,--at any rate, the only one that +held out any prospect of relief. Thereafter, whenever friends called +singly or in squads,--if the squads were not large enough to be +formidable,--we invariably set cherries before them, and with generous +hospitality pressed them to partake. The varying phases of emotion which +they exhibited were painful to me at first, but I at length came to take +a morbid pleasure in noting them. It was a study for a sculptor. By long +practice I learned to detect the shadow of each coming change, where a +casual observer would see only a serene expanse of placid politeness. +I knew just where the radiance, awakened by the luscious, swelling, +crimson globes, faded into doubt, settled into certainty, glared into +perplexity, fired into rage. I saw the grimace, suppressed as soon as +begun, but not less patent to my preternaturally keen eyes. No one +deceived me by being suddenly seized with admiration of a view. I +knew it was only to relieve his nerves by making faces behind the +window-curtains. + +I grew to take a fiendish delight in watching the conflict, and the +fierce desperation which marked its violence. On the one side were +the forces of fusion, a reluctant stomach, an unwilling oesophagus, a +loathing palate; on the other, the stern, unconquerable will. A natural +philosopher would have gathered new proofs of the unlimited capacity of +the human race to adapt itself to circumstances, from the _débris_ that +strewed our premises after each fresh departure. Cherries were chucked +under the sofa, into the table-drawers, behind the books, under the +lamp-mats, into the vases, in any and every place where a dexterous hand +could dispose of them without detection. Yet their number seemed to +suffer no abatement. Like Tityus's liver, they were constantly renewed, +though constantly consumed. The small boys seemed to be suffering from a +fit of conscience. In vain we closed the blinds and shut ourselves up in +the house to give them a fair field. Not a cherry was taken. In vain we +went ostentatiously to church all day on Sunday. Not a twig was touched. +Finally I dropped all the curtains on that side of the house, and +avoided that part of the garden in my walks. The cherries may be hanging +there to this day, for aught I know. + +But why do I thus linger over the sad recital? _"Ab uno disce omnes."_ +(A quotation from Virgil: means, "All of a piece.") There may have been, +there probably was, an abundance of sweet-corn, but the broomstick that +had marked the spot was lost, and I could in no wise recall either spot +or stick. Nor did I ever see or hear of the peas,--or the beans. If our +chickens could be brought to the witness-box, they might throw light on +the subject. As it is, I drop a natural tear, and pass on to + +THE FLOWER-GARDEN.--It appeared very much behind time,--chiefly Roman +wormwood. I was grateful even for that. Then two rows of four-o'clocks +became visible to the naked eye. They are cryptogamous, it seems. +Botanists have hitherto classed them among the Phaenogamia. A sweet-pea +and a china-aster dawdled up just in time to get frost-bitten. _"Et +praeterea nihil."_ (Virgil: means, "That's all.") I am sure it was no +fault of mine. I tended my seeds with assiduous care. My devotion was +unwearied. I was a very slave to their caprices. I planted them just +beneath the surface in the first place, so that they might have an easy +passage. In two or three days they all seemed to be lying round loose on +the top, and I planted them an inch deep. Then I didn't see them at +all for so long that I took them up again, and planted them half-way +between. It was of no use. You cannot suit people or plants that are +determined not to be suited. + +Yet, sad as my story is, I cannot regret that I came into the country +and attempted a garden. It has been fruitful in lessons, if in nothing +else. I have seen how every evil has its compensating good. When I am +tempted to repine that my squashes did not grow, I reflect, that, if +they had grown, they would probably have all turned into pumpkins, or if +they had stayed squashes, they would have been stolen. When it seems +a mysterious Providence that kept all my young hopes underground, I +reflect how fine an illustration I should otherwise have lost of what +Kossuth calls the solidarity of the human race,--what Paul alludes to, +when he says, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. I +recall with grateful tears the sympathy of my neighbors on the right +hand and on the left,--expressed not only by words, but by deeds. In my +mind's eye, Horatio, I see again the baskets of apples, and pears, and +tomatoes, and strawberries,--squashes too heavy to lift,--and corn +sweet as the dews of Hymettus, that bore daily witness of human +brotherhood. I remember, too, the victory which I gained over my own +depraved nature. I saw my neighbor prosper in everything he undertook. +_Nihil tetigit quod non crevit._ Fertility found in his soil its +congenial home, and spanned it with rainbow hues. Every day I walked by +his garden and saw it putting on its strength, its beautiful garments. +I had not even the small satisfaction of reflecting that amid all his +splendid success his life was cold and cheerless, while mine, amid all +its failures, was full of warmth,--a reflection which, I have often +observed, seems to go a great way towards making a person contented with +his lot,--for he had a lovely wife, promising children, and the whole +village for his friends. Yet, notwithstanding all these obstacles, I +learned to look over his garden-wall with sincere joy. + +There is one provocation, however, which I cannot yet bear with +equanimity, and which I do not believe I shall ever meet without at +least a spasm of wrath, even if my Christian character shall ever become +strong enough to preclude absolute tetanus; and I do hereby beseech all +persons who would not be guilty of the sin of Jeroboam who made Israel +to sin, who do not wish to have on their hands the burden of my ruined +temper, to let me go quietly down into the valley of humiliation and +oblivion, and not pester me, as they have hitherto done from all parts +of the North-American continent, with the infuriating question, "How did +you get on with your garden?" + + * * * * * + + +LYRICS OF THE STREET. + + +I. + +THE TELEGRAMS. + + + Bring the hearse to the station, + When one shall demand it, late; + For that dark consummation + The traveller must not wait. + Men say not by what connivance + He slid from his weight of woe, + Whether sickness or weak contrivance, + But we know him glad to go. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Nor let the priest be wanting + With his hollow eyes of prayer, + While the sexton wrenches, panting, + The stone from the dismal stair. + But call not the friends who left him, + When Fortune and Pleasure fled; + Mortality hath not bereft him, + That they should confront him, dead. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Bid my mother be ready: + We are coming home to-night: + Let my chamber be still and shady, + With the softened nuptial light. + We have travelled so gayly, madly, + No shadow hath crossed our way; + Yet we come back like children, gladly, + Joy-spent with our holiday. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Stop the train at the landing, + And search every carriage through; + Let no one escape your handing, + None shiver or shrink from view. + Three blood-stained guests expect him, + Three murders oppress his soul; + Be strained every nerve to detect him + Who feasted, and killed, and stole. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Be rid of the notes they scattered; + The great house is down at last; + The image of gold is shattered, + And never can be recast. + The bankrupts show leaden features, + And weary, distracted looks, + While harpy-eyed, wolf-souled creatures + Pry through their dishonored books. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Let him hasten, lest worse befall him, + To look on me, ere I die: + I will whisper one curse to appall him, + Ere the black flood carry me by. + His bridal? the friends forbid it; + I have shown them his proofs of guilt: + Let him hear, with my laugh, who did it; + Then hurry, Death, as thou wilt! + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Thus the living and dying daily + Flash forward their wants and words, + While still on Thought's slender railway + Sit scathless the little birds: + They heed not the sentence dire + By magical hands exprest, + And only the sun's warm fire + Stirs softly their happy breast. + On, and on, and ever on! + God next! + + + + +THE SOUTH BREAKER. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART I. + + +Just a cap-full of wind, and Dan shook loose the linen, and a straight +shining streak with specks of foam shot after us. The mast bent like +eel-grass, and our keel was half out of the water. Faith belied her +name, and clung to the sides with her ten finger-nails; but as for me, I +liked it. + +"Take the stick, Georgie," said Dan, suddenly, his cheeks white. "Head +her up the wind. Steady. Sight the figurehead on Pearson's loft. Here's +too much sail for a frigate." + +But before the words were well uttered, the mast doubled up and coiled +like a whip-lash, there was a report like the crack of doom, and half of +the thing crashed short over the bows, dragging the heavy sail in the +waves. + +Then there came a great laugh of thunder close above, and the black +cloud dropped like a curtain round us: the squall had broken. + +"Cut it off, Dan! quick!" I cried. "Let it alone," said he, snapping +together his jack-knife; "it's as good as a best bower-anchor. Now I'll +take the tiller, Georgie. Strong little hand," said he, bending so that +I didn't see his face. "And lucky it's good as strong. It's saved us +all.--My God, Georgie! where's Faith?" + +I turned. There was no Faith in the boat. We both sprang to our feet, +and so the tiller swung round and threw us broadside to the wind, and +between the dragging mast and the centre-board drowning seemed too good +for us. + +"You'll have to cut it off," I cried again; but he had already ripped +half through the canvas and was casting it loose. + +At length he gave his arm a toss. With the next moment, I never shall +forget the look of horror that froze Dan's face. + +"I've thrown her off!" he exclaimed. "I've thrown her off!" + +He reached his whole length over the boat, I ran to his side, and +perhaps our motion impelled it, or perhaps some unseen hand; for he +caught at an end of rope, drew it in a second, let go and clutched at a +handful of the sail, and then I saw how it had twisted round and swept +poor little Faith over, and she had swung there in it like a dead +butterfly in a chrysalis. The lightnings were slipping down into the +water like blades of fire everywhere around us, with short, sharp +volleys of thunder, and the waves were more than I ever rode this side +of the bar before or since, and we took in water every time our hearts +beat; but we never once thought of our own danger while we bent to pull +dear little Faith out of hers; and that done, Dan broke into a great +hearty fit of crying that I'm sure he'd no need to be ashamed of. But it +didn't last long; he just up and dashed off the tears and set himself at +work again, while I was down on the floor rubbing Faith. There she +lay like a broken lily, with no life in her little white face, and no +breath, and maybe a pulse and maybe not. I couldn't hear a word Dan +said, for the wind; and the rain was pouring through us. I saw him take +out the oars, but I knew they'd do no good in such a chop, even if they +didn't break; and pretty soon he found it so, for he drew them in and +began to untie the anchor-rope and wind it round his waist. I sprang to +him. + +"What are you doing, Dan?" I exclaimed. + +"I can swim, at least," he answered. + +"And tow us?--a mile? You know you can't! It's madness!" + +"I must try. Little Faith will die, if we don't get ashore." + +"She's dead now, Dan." + +"What! No, no, she isn't. Faith isn't dead. But we must get ashore." + +"Dan," I cried, clinging to his arm, "Faith's only one. But if you die +so,--and you will!--I shall die too." + +"You?" + +"Yes; because, if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been here at +all." + +"And is that all the reason?" he asked, still at work. + +"Reason enough," said I. + +"Not quite," said he. + +"Dan,--for my sake"---- + +"I can't, Georgie. Don't ask me. I mustn't"--and here he stopped short, +with the coil of rope in his hand, and fixed me with his eye, and his +look was terrible--"_we_ mustn't let Faith die." + +"Well," I said, "try it, if you dare,--and as true as there's a Lord in +heaven, I'll cut the rope!" + +He hesitated, for he saw I was resolute; and I would, I declare I would +have done it; for, do you know, at the moment I hated the little dead +thing in the bottom of the boat there. + +Just then there came a streak of sunshine through the gloom where we'd +been plunging between wind and water, and then a patch of blue sky, and +the great cloud went blowing down river. Dan threw away the rope and +took out the oars again. + +"Give me one, Dan," said I; but he shook his head. "Oh, Dan, because I'm +so sorry!" + +"See to her, then,--fetch Faith to," he replied, not looking at me, and +making up with great sturdy pulls. + +So I busied myself, though I couldn't do a bit of good. The instant we +touched bottom, Dan snatched her, sprang through the water and up the +landing. I stayed behind; as the boat recoiled, pushed in a little, +fastened the anchor and threw it over, and then followed. + +Our house was next the landing, and there Dan had carried Faith; and +when I reached it, a great fire was roaring up the chimney, and the +tea-kettle hung over it, and he was rubbing Faith's feet hard enough to +strike sparks. I couldn't understand exactly what made Dan so fiercely +earnest, for I thought I knew just how he felt about Faith; but +suddenly, when nothing seemed to answer, and he stood up and our eyes +met, I saw such a haggard, conscience-stricken face that it all rushed +over me. But now we had done what we could, and then I felt all at once +as if every moment that I effected nothing was drawing out murder. +Something flashed by the window, I tore out of the house and threw up my +arms, I don't know whether I screamed or not, but I caught the doctor's +eye, and he jumped from his gig and followed me in. We had a siege of +it. But at length, with hot blankets, and hot water, and hot brandy +dribbled down her throat, a little pulse began to play upon Faith's +temple and a little pink to beat up and down her cheek, and she opened +her pretty dark eyes and lifted herself and wrung the water out of her +braids; then she sank back. + +"Faith! Faith! speak to me!" said Dan, close in her ear. "Don't you know +me?" + +"Go away," she said, hoarsely, pushing his face with her flat wet palm. +"You let the sail take me over and drown me, while you kissed Georgie's +hand." + +I flung my hand before her eyes. + +"Is there a kiss on those fingers?" I cried, in a blaze. "He never +kissed my hands or my lips. Dan is your husband, Faith!" + +For all answer Faith hid her head and gave a little moan. Somehow I +couldn't stand that; so I ran and put my arms round her neck and lifted +her face and kissed it, and then we cried together. And Dan, walking the +floor, took up his hat and went out, while she never cast a look after +him. To think of such a great strong nature and such a powerful depth of +feeling being wasted on such a little limp rag! I cried as much for that +as anything. Then I helped Faith into my bedroom, and running home, I +got her some dry clothes,--after rummaging enough, dear knows! for you'd +be more like to find her nightcap in the tea-caddy than elsewhere,--and +I made her a corner on the settle, for she was afraid to stay in the +bedroom, and when she was comfortably covered there she fell asleep. +Dan came in soon and sat down beside her, his eyes on the floor, never +glancing aside nor smiling, but gloomier than the grave. As for me, I +felt at ease now, so I went and laid my hand on the back of his chair +and made him look up. I wanted he should know the same rest that I +had, and perhaps he did,--for, still looking up, the quiet smile came +floating round his lips, and his eyes grew steady and sweet as they used +to be before he married Faith. Then I went bustling lightly about the +kitchen again. + +"Dan," I said, "if you'd just bring me in a couple of those chickens +stalking out there like two gentlemen from Spain." + +While he was gone I flew round and got a cake into the bake-kettle, and +a pan of biscuit down before the fire; and I set the tea to steep on the +coals, because father always likes his tea strong enough to bear up an +egg, after a hard day's work, and he'd had that to-day; and I put on the +coffee to boil, for I knew Dan never had it at home, because Faith liked +it and it didn't agree with her. And then he brought me in the chickens +all ready for the pot, and so at last I sat down, but at the opposite +side of the chimney. Then he rose, and, without exactly touching me, +swept me back to the other side, where lay the great net I was making +for father; and I took the little stool by the settle, and not far from +him, and went to work. + +"Georgie," said Dan, at length, after he'd watched me a considerable +time, "if any word I may have said to-day disturbed you a moment, I want +you to know that it hurt me first, and just as much." + +"Yes, Dan," said I. + +I've always thought there was something real noble between Dan and me +then. There was I,--well, I don't mind telling you. And he,--yes, I'm +sure he loved me perfectly,--you mustn't be startled, I'll tell you how +it was,--and always had, only maybe he hadn't known it; but it was deep +down in his heart just the same, and by-and-by it stirred. There we +were, both of us thoroughly conscious, yet neither of us expressing it +by a word, and trying not to by a look,--both of us content to wait for +the next life, when we could belong to one another. In those days I +contrived to have it always pleasure enough for me just to know that Dan +was in the room; and though that wasn't often, I never grudged Faith her +right in him, perhaps because I knew she didn't care anything about it. +You see, this is how it was. + +When Dan was a lad of sixteen, and took care of his mother, a ship went +to pieces down there on the island. It was one of the worst storms that +ever whistled, and though crowds were on the shore, it was impossible to +reach her. They could see the poor wretches hanging in the rigging, and +dropping one by one, and they could only stay and sicken, for the surf +stove the boats, and they didn't know then how to send out ropes on +rockets or on cannon-balls, and so the night fell, and the people wrung +their hands and left the sea to its prey, and felt as if blue sky could +never come again. And with the bright, keen morning not a vestige of the +ship, but here a spar and there a door, and on the side of a sand-hill +a great dog watching over a little child that he'd kept warm all night. +Dan, he'd got up at turn of tide, and walked down,--the sea running over +the road knee-deep,--for there was too much swell for boats; and when +day broke, he found the little girl, and carried her up to town. He +didn't take her home, for he saw that what clothes she had were the very +finest,--made as delicately,--with seams like the hair-strokes on that +heart's-ease there; and he concluded that he couldn't bring her up as +she ought to be. So he took her round to the rich men, and represented +that she was the child of a lady, and that a poor fellow like +himself--for Dan was older than his years, you see--couldn't do her +justice: she was a slight little thing, and needed dainty training +and fancy food, maybe a matter of seven years old, and she spoke some +foreign language, and perhaps she didn't speak it plain, for nobody knew +what it was. However, everybody was very much interested, and everybody +was willing to give and to help, but nobody wanted to take her, and the +upshot of it was that Dan refused all their offers and took her himself. + +His mother'd been in to our house all the afternoon before, and she'd +kept taking her pipe out of her mouth,--she had the asthma, and +smoked,--and kept sighing. + +"This storm's going to bring me something," says she, in a mighty +miserable tone. "I'm sure of it!" + +"No harm, I hope, Miss Devereux," said mother. + +"Well, Rhody,"--mother's father, he was a queer kind,--called his girls +all after the thirteen States, and there being none left for Uncle Mat, +he called him after the state of matrimony,--"Well, Rhody," she replied, +rather dismally, and knocking the ashes out of the bowl, "I don't know; +but I'll have faith to believe that the Lord won't send me no ill +without distincter warning. And that it's good I _have_ faith to +believe." + +And so when the child appeared, and had no name, and couldn't answer for +herself, Mrs. Devereux called her Faith. + +We're a people of presentiments down here on the Flats, and well we +may be. You'd own up yourself, maybe, if in the dark of the night, you +locked in sleep, there's a knock on the door enough to wake the dead, +and you start up and listen and nothing follows; and falling back, +you're just dozing off, and there it is once more, so that the lad in +the next room cries out, "Who's that, mother?" No one answering, you're +half lost again, when _rap_ comes the hand again, the loudest of the +three, and you spring to the door and open it, and there's nought there +but a wind from the graves blowing in your face; and after a while you +learn that in that hour of that same night your husband was lost at sea. +Well, that happened to Mrs. Devereux. And I haven't time to tell you the +warnings I've known of. As for Faith, I mind that she said herself, as +we were in the boat for that clear midnight sail, that the sea had a +spite against her, but third time was trying time. + +So Faith grew up, and Dan sent her to school what he could, for he set +store by her. She was always ailing,--a little, wilful, pettish thing, +but pretty as a flower; and folks put things into her head, and she +began to think she was some great shakes; and she may have been a matter +of seventeen years old when Mrs. Devereux died. Dan, as simple at +twenty-six as he had been ten years before, thought to go on just in +the old way, but the neighbors were one too many for him; and they all +represented that it would never do, and so on, till the poor fellow got +perplexed and vexed and half beside himself. There wasn't the first +thing she could do for herself, and he couldn't afford to board her out, +for Dan was only a laboring-man, mackerelling all summer and shoemaking +all winter, less the dreadful times when he stayed out on the Georges; +and then he couldn't afford, either, to keep her there and ruin the poor +girl's reputation;--and what did Dan do but come to me with it all? + +Now for a number of years I'd been up in the other part of the town with +Aunt Netty, who kept a shop that I tended between schools and before and +after, and I'd almost forgotten there was such a soul on earth as Dan +Devereux,--though he'd not forgotten me. I'd got through the Grammar +and had a year in the High, and suppose I should have finished with an +education and gone off teaching somewhere, instead of being here now, +cheerful as heart could wish, with a little black-haired hussy tiltering +on the back of my chair.--Rolly, get down! Her name's Laura,--for his +mother.--I mean I might have done all this, if at that time mother +hadn't been thrown on her back, and been bedridden ever since. I haven't +said much about mother yet, but there all the time she was, just as she +is to-day, in her little tidy bed in one corner of the great kitchen, +sweet as a saint, and as patient; and I had to come and keep house for +father. He never meant that I should lose by it, father didn't; begged, +borrowed, or stolen, bought or hired, I should have my books, he said: +he's mighty proud of my learning, though between you and me it's little +enough to be proud of; but the neighbors think I know 'most as much as +the minister,--and I let 'em think. Well, while Mrs. Devereux was sick I +was over there a good deal,--for if Faith had one talent, it was total +incapacity,--and there had a chance of knowing the stuff that Dan was +made of; and I declare to man 'twould have touched a heart of stone to +see the love between the two. She thought Dan held up the sky, and Dan +thought she was the sky. It's no wonder,--the risks our men lead can't +make common-sized women out of their wives and mothers. But I hadn't +been coming in and out, busying about where Dan was, all that time, +without making any mark; though he was so lost in grief about his mother +that he didn't take notice of his other feelings, or think of himself at +all. And who could care the less about him for that? It always brings +down a woman to see a man wrapt in some sorrow that's lawful, and tender +as it is large. And when he came and told me what the neighbors said he +must do with Faith, the blood stood still in my heart. + +"Ask mother, Dan," says I,--for I couldn't have advised him. "She knows +best about everything." + +So he asked her. + +"I think--I'm sorry to think, for I fear she'll not make you a good +wife," said mother, "but that perhaps her love for you will teach her to +be--you'd best marry Faith." + +"But I can't marry her!" said Dan, half choking; "I don't want to marry +her,--it--it makes me uncomfortable-like to think of such a thing. I +care for the child plenty----Besides," said Dan, catching at a bright +hope, "I'm not sure that she'd have me." + +"Have you, poor boy! What else can she do?" + +Dan groaned. + +"Poor little Faith!" said mother. "She's so pretty, Dan, and she's so +young, and she's pliant. And then how can we tell what may turn up about +her some day? She may be a duke's daughter yet,--who knows? Think of the +stroke of good-fortune she may give you!" + +"But I don't love her," said Dan, as a finality. + +"Perhaps----It isn't----You don't love any one else?" + +"No," said Dan, as a matter of course, and not at all with reflection. +And then, as his eyes went wandering, there came over them a misty look, +just as the haze creeps between you and some object away out at sea, and +he seemed to be searching his very soul. Suddenly the look swept off +them, and his eyes struck mine, and he turned, not having meant to, and +faced me entirely, and there came such a light into his countenance, +such a smile round his lips, such a red stamped his cheek, and he bent +a little,--and it was just as if the angel of the Lord had shaken his +wings over us in passing, and we both of us knew that here was a man and +here was a woman, each for the other, in life and death; and I just hid +my head in my apron, and mother turned on her pillow with a little moan. +How long that lasted I can't say, but by-and-by I heard mother's +voice, clear and sweet as a tolling bell far away on some fair Sunday +morning,-- + +"The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his +eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men." + +And nobody spoke. + +"Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Thou wilt +light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For with +thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." + +Then came the hush again, and Dan started to his feet, and began to walk +up and down the room as if something drove him; but wearying, he stood +and leaned his head on the chimney there. And mother's voice broke the +stillness anew, and she said,-- + +"Hath God forgotten to be gracious? His mercy endureth forever. And none +of them that trust in him shall be desolate." + +There was something in mother's tone that made me forget myself and my +sorrow, and look; and there she was, as she hadn't been before for six +months, half risen from the bed, one hand up, and her whole face white +and shining with confident faith. Well, when I see all that such trust +has buoyed mother over, I wish to goodness I had it: I take more after +Martha. But never mind, do well here and you'll do well there, say I. +Perhaps you think it wasn't much, the quiet and the few texts breathed +through it; but sometimes when one's soul's at a white heat, it may be +moulded like wax with a finger. As for me, maybe God hardened Pharaoh's +heart,--though how that was Pharaoh's fault I never could see. But +Dan,--he felt what it was to have a refuge in trouble, to have a great +love always extending over him like a wing; he longed for it; he +couldn't believe it was his now, he was so suddenly convicted of all sin +and wickedness; and something sprang up in his heart, a kind of holy +passion that he felt to be possible for this great and tender Divine +Being; and he came and fell on his knees by the side of the bed, crying +out for mother to show him the way; and mother, she put her hand on his +head and prayed,--prayed, oh, so beautifully, that it makes the water +stand in my eyes now to remember what she said. But I didn't feel so +then, my heart and my soul were rebellious, and love for Dan alone kept +me under, not love for God. And in fact, if ever I'd got to heaven +then, love for Dan'd have been my only saving grace; for I was mighty +high-spirited, as a girl. Well, Dan he never made open profession; but +when he left the house, he went and asked Faith to marry him. + +Now Faith didn't care anything about Dan,--except the quiet attachment +that she couldn't help, from living in the house with him, and he'd +always petted and made much of her, and dressed her like a doll,--he +wasn't the kind of man to take her fancy: she'd have maybe liked some +slender, smooth-faced chap; but Dan was a black, shaggy fellow, with +shoulders like the cross-tree, and a length of limb like Saul's, and +eyes set deep, like lamps in caverns. And he had a great, powerful +heart,--and, oh, how it was lost! for she might have won it, she might +have made him love her, since I would have stood wide away and aside for +the sake of seeing him happy. But Faith was one of those that, if they +can't get what they want, haven't any idea of putting up with what they +have,--God forgive me, if I'm hard on the child! And she couldn't give +Dan an answer right off, but was loath to think of it, and went flirting +about among the other boys; and Dan, when he saw she wasn't so easily +gotten, perhaps set more value on her. For Faith, she grew prettier +every day; her great brown eyes were so soft and clear, and had a wide, +sorrowful way of looking at you; and her cheeks, that were usually pale, +blossomed to roses when you spoke to her, her hair drooping over them +dark and silky; and though she was slack and untidy and at loose ends +about her dress, she somehow always seemed like a princess in disguise; +and when she had on any thing new,--a sprigged calico, and her little +straw bonnet with the pink ribbons, and Mrs. Devereux's black scarf, for +instance,--you'd have allowed that she might have been daughter to the +Queen of Sheba. I don't know, but I rather think Dan wouldn't have said +any more to Faith, from various motives, you see, notwithstanding the +neighbors were still remonstrating with him, if it hadn't been that Miss +Brown--she that lived round the corner there; the town's well quit +of her now, poor thing!--went to saying the same stuff to Faith, +and telling her all that other folks said. And Faith went home in a +passion,--some of your timid kind nothing ever abashes, and nobody gets +to the windward of them,--and, being perfectly furious, fell to accusing +Dan of having brought her to this, so that Dan actually believed he had, +and was cut to the quick with contrition, and told her that all the +reparation he could make he was waiting and wishing to make, and then +there came floods of tears. Some women seem to have set out with the +idea that life's a desert for them to cross, and they've laid in a +supply of water-bags accordingly,--but it's the meanest weapon! And then +again, there's men that are iron, and not to be bent under calamities, +that these tears can twist round your little finger. Well, I suppose +Faith concluded 'twas no use to go hungry because her bread wasn't +buttered on both sides, but she always acted as if she'd condescended +ninety degrees in marrying Dan, and Dan always seemed to feel that he'd +done her a great injury; and there it was. + +I kept in the house for a time; mother was worse.--and I thought the +less Dan saw of me the better; I kind of hoped he'd forget, and find his +happiness where it ought to be. But the first time I saw him, when Faith +had been his wife all the spring, there was the look in his eyes that +told of the ache in his heart. Faith wasn't very happy herself, of +course, though she was careless; and she gave him trouble,--keeping +company with the young men just as before; and she got into a way of +flying straight to me, if Dan ventured to reprove her ever so lightly; +and stormy nights, when he was gone, and in his long trips, she always +locked up her doors and came over and got into my bed; and she was one +of those that never listened to reason, and it was none so easy for me, +you may suppose. + +Things had gone on now for some three years, and I'd about lived in my +books,--I'd tried to teach Faith some, but she wouldn't go any farther +than newspaper stories,--when one day Dan took her and me to sail, and +we were to have had a clam-chowder on the Point, if the squall hadn't +come. As it was, we'd got to put up with chicken-broth, and it couldn't +have been better, considering who made it. It was getting on toward the +cool of the May evening, the sunset was round on the other side of the +house, but all the east looked as if the sky had been stirred up +with currant-juice, till it grew purple and dark, and then the two +light-houses flared out and showed us the lip of froth lapping the +shadowy shore beyond, and I--heard father's voice, and he came in. + +There was nothing but the fire-light in the room, and it threw about +great shadows, so that at first entering all was indistinct; but I heard +a foot behind father's, and then a form appeared, and something, I never +could tell what, made a great shiver rush down my back, just as when a +creature is frightened in the dark at what you don't see, and so, though +my soul was unconscious, my body felt that there was danger in the air. +Dan had risen and lighted the lamp that swings in the chimney, and +father first of all had gone up and kissed mother, and left the stranger +standing; then he turned round, saying,-- + +"A tough day,--it's been a tough day; and here's some un to prove it. +Georgie, hope that pot's steam don't belie it, for Mr. Gabriel Verelay +and I want a good supper and a good bed." + +At this, the stranger, still standing, bowed. + +"Here's the one, father," said I. "But about the bed,--Faith'll have to +stay here,--and I don't see--unless Dan takes him over"---- + +"That I'll do," said Dan. + +"All right," said the stranger, in a voice that you didn't seem to +notice while he was speaking, but that you remembered afterwards like +the ring of any silver thing that has been thrown down; and he dropped +his hat on the floor and drew near the fireplace, warming hands that +were slender and brown, but shapely as a woman's. I was taking up the +supper; so I only gave him a glance or two, and saw him standing there, +his left hand extended to the blaze, and his eye resting lightly and +then earnestly on Faith in her pretty sleep, and turning away much as +one turns from a picture. At length I came to ask him to sit by, and at +that moment Faith's eyes opened. + +Faith always woke up just as a baby does, wide and bewildered, and the +fire had flushed her cheeks, and her hair was disordered, and she fixed +her gaze on him as if he had stepped out of her dream, her lips half +parted and then curling in a smile,--but in a second he moved off with +me, and Faith slipped down and into the little bedroom. + +Well, we didn't waste many words until father'd lost the edge of his +appetite, and then I told about Faith. + +"'F that don't beat the Dutch!" said father. "Here's Mr.--Mr."------ + +"Gabriel," said the stranger. + +"Yes,--Mr. Gabriel Verelay been served the same trick by the same +squall, only worse and more of it,--knocked off the yacht--What's that +you call her?" + +"La belle Louise." + +"And left for drowned,--if they see him go at all. But he couldn't 'a' +sinked in that sea, if he'd tried. He kep' afloat; we blundered into +him; and here he is." + +Dan and I looked round In considerable surprise, for he was dry as an +August leaf. + +"Oh," said the stranger, coloring, and with the least little turn of his +words, as if he didn't always speak English, "the good captain reached +shore, and, finding sticks, he kindled a fire, and we did dry our +clothes until it made fine weather once more." + +"Yes," said father; "but 't wouldn't been quite such fine weather, I +reckon, if this 'd gone to the fishes!" And he pushed something across +the table. + +It was a pouch with steel snaps, and well stuffed. The stranger colored +again, and held his hand for it, and the snap burst, and great gold +pieces, English coin and very old French ones, rolled about the table, +and father shut his eyes tight; and just then Faith came back and +slipped into her chair. I saw her eyes sparkle as we all reached, +laughing and joking, to gather them; and Mr. Gabriel--we got into the +way of calling him so,--he liked it best--hurried to get them out of +sight as if he'd committed some act of ostentation. And then, to make +amends, he threw off what constraint he had worn in this new atmosphere +of ours, and was so gay, so full of questions and quips and conceits, +all spoken in his strange way, his voice was so sweet, and he laughed so +much and so like a boy, and his words had so much point and brightness, +that I could think of nothing but the showers of colored stars in +fireworks. Dan felt it like a play, sat quiet, but enjoying, and I saw +he liked it;--the fellow had a way of attaching every one. Father was +uproarious, and kept calling out, "Mother, do you hear?--d' you hear +_that_, mother?" And Faith, she was near, taking it all in as a flower +does sunshine, only smiling a little, and looking utterly happy. Then I +hurried to clear up, and Faith sat in the great arm-chair, and father +got out the pipes, and you could hardly see across the room for the wide +tobacco-wreaths; and then it was father's turn, and he told story after +story of the hardships and the dangers and the charms of our way of +living. And I could see Mr. Gabriel's cheek blanch, and he would bend +forward, forgetting to smoke, and his breath coming short, and then +right himself like a boat after lurching,--he had such natural ways, and +except that he'd maybe been a spoiled child, he would have had a good +heart, as hearts go. And nothing would do at last but he must stay and +live the same scenes for a little; and father told him 't wouldn't +pay;--they weren't so much to go through with as to tell of,--there was +too much prose in the daily life, and too much dirt, and 't wa'n't fit +for gentlemen. Oh, he said, he'd been used to roughing it,--woodsing, +camping and gunning and yachting, ever since he'd been a free man. He +was Canadian, and had been cruising from the St. Lawrence to Florida, +--and now, as his companions would go on without him, he had a mind to +try a bit of coast-life. And could he board here? or was there any handy +place? And father said, there was Dan,--Dan Devereux, a man that hadn't +his match at oar or helm. And Mr. Gabriel turned his keen eye and bowed +again,--and couldn't Dan take Mr. Gabriel? And before Dan could answer, +for he'd referred it to Faith, Mr. Gabriel had forgotten all about it, +and was humming a little French song and stirring the coals with the +tongs. And that put father off in a fresh remembrance; and as the hours +lengthened, the stories grew fearful, and he told them deep into the +midnight, till at last Mr. Gabriel stood up. + +"No more, good friend," said he. "But I will have a taste of this life +perilous. And now where is it that I go?" + +Dan also stood up. + +"My little woman," said he, glancing at Faith, "thinks there's a corner +for you, Sir." + +"I beg your pardon"--And Mr. Gabriel paused, with a shadow skimming +over his clear dark face. + +Dan wondered what he was begging pardon for, but thought perhaps he +hadn't heard him, so he repeated,-- + +"My wife"--nodding over his shoulder at Faith, "she's my wife--thinks +there's a"---- + +"She's your wife?" said Mr. Gabriel, his eyes opening and brightening +the way an aurora runs up the sky, and looking first at one and then at +the other, as if he couldn't understand how so delicate a flower grew on +so thorny a stem. + +The red flushed up Dan's face,--and up mine too, for the matter of +that,--but in a minute the stranger had dropped his glance. + +"And why did you not tell me," he said, "that I might have found her +less beautiful?" + +Then he raised his shoulders, gave her a saucy bow, with his hand on +Dan's arm,--Dan, who was now too well pleased at having Faith made +happy by a compliment to sift it,--and they went out. + +But I was angry enough; and you may imagine I wasn't much soothed by +seeing Faith, who'd been so die-away all the evening, sitting up before +my scrap of looking-glass, trying in my old coral earrings, bowing up my +ribbons, and plaiting and prinking till the clock frightened her into +bed. + +The next morning, mother, who wasn't used to such disturbance, was ill, +and I was kept pretty busy tending on her for two or three days. Faith +had insisted on going home the first thing after breakfast, and in +that time I heard no more of anybody,--for father was out with the +night-tides, and, except to ask how mother did, and if I'd seen the +stray from the Lobblelyese again, was too tired for talking when he came +back. That had been--let me see--on a Monday, I think,--yes, on a +Monday; and Thursday evening, as in-doors had begun to tell on me, and +mother was so much improved, I thought I'd run out for a walk along the +seawall. The sunset was creeping round everything, and lying in great +sheets on the broad, still river, the children were frolicking in +the water, and all was so gay, and the air was so sweet, that I went +lingering along farther than I'd meant, and by-and-by who should I see +but a couple sauntering toward me at my own gait, and one of them was +Faith. She had on a muslin with little roses blushing all over it, +and she floated along in it as if she were in a pink cloud, and she'd +snatched a vine of the tender young woodbine as she went, and, throwing +it round her shoulders, held the two ends in one hand like a ribbon, +while with the other she swung her white sun-bonnet. She laughed, and +shook her head at me, and there, large as life, under the dark braids +dangled my coral ear-rings, that she'd adopted without leave or license. +She'd been down to the lower landing to meet Dan,--a thing she'd done +before I don't know when,--and was walking up with Mr. Gabriel while Dan +stayed behind to see to things. I kept them talking, and Mr. Gabriel was +sparkling with fun, for he'd got to feeling acquainted, and it had put +him in high spirits to get ashore at this hour, though he liked the sea, +and we were all laughing, when Dan came up. Now I must confess I hadn't +fancied Mr. Gabriel over and above; I suppose my first impression had +hardened into a prejudice; and after I'd fathomed the meaning of Faith's +fine feathers I liked him less than ever. But when Dan came up, he +joined right in, gay and hearty, and liking his new acquaintance so +much, that, thinks I, he must know best, and I'll let him look out for +his interests himself. It would 'a' been no use, though, for Dan to +pretend to beat the Frenchman at his own weapons,--and I don't know that +I should have cared to have him. The older I grow, the less I think of +your mere intellect; throw learning out of the scales, and give me a +great, warm heart,--like Dan's. + +Well, it was getting on in the evening, when the latch lifted, and in +ran Faith. She twisted my ear-rings out of her hair, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, Georgie, are you busy? Can't you perse my ears now?" + +"Pierce them yourself, Faith." + +"Well, pierce, then. But I can't,--you know I can't. Won't you now, +Georgie?" and she tossed the ear-rings into my lap. + +"Why, Faith," said I, "how'd you contrive to wear these, if your ears +aren't"-- + +"Oh, I tied them on. Come now, Georgie!" + +So I got the ball of yarn and the darning-needle. + +"Oh, not such a big one!" cried she. + +"Perhaps you'd like a cambric needle," said I. + +"I don't want a winch," she pouted. + +"Well, here's a smaller one. Now kneel down." + +"Yes, but you wait a moment, till I screw up my courage." + +"No need. You can talk, and I'll take you at unawares." + +So Faith knelt down, and I got all ready. + +"And what shall I talk about?" said she. "About Aunt Rhody, or Mr. +Gabriel, or--I'll tell you the queerest thing, Georgie! Going to now?" + +"Do be quiet, Faith, and not keep your head flirting about so!"--for +she'd started up to speak. Then she composed herself once more. + +"What was I saying? Oh, about that. Yes, Georgie, the queerest thing! +You see, this evening, when Dan was out, I was sitting talkin' with Mr. +Gabriel, and he was wondering how I came to be dropped down here, so I +told him all about it. And he was so interested that I went and showed +him the things I had on when Dan found me,--you know they've been kept +real nice. And he took them, and looked them over, close, admiring them, +and--and--admiring me,--and finally he started, and then held the frock +to the light, and then lifted a little plait, and in the under side of +the belt-lining there was a name very finely wrought,--Virginie des +Violets; and he looked at all the others, and in some hidden corner of +every one was the initials of the same name,--V. des V. + +"'That should be your name, Mrs. Devereux,' says he. + +"'Oh, no!' says I. 'My name's Faith.' + +"Well, and on that he asked, was there no more; and so I took off the +little chain that I've always worn and showed him that, and he asked if +there was a face in it, in what we thought was a coin, you know; and I +said, oh, it didn't open; and he turned it over and over, and finally +something snapped, and there _was_ a face,--here, you shall see it, +Georgie." + +And Faith drew it from her bosom, and opened and held it before me; for +I'd sat with my needle poised, and forgetting to strike. And there was +the face indeed, a sad, serious face, dark and sweet, yet the image of +Faith, and with the same mouth,--that so lovely in a woman becomes weak +in a man,--and on the other side there were a few threads of hair, with +the same darkness and fineness as Faith's hair, and under them a little +picture chased in the gold and enamelled, which, from what I've read +since, I suppose must have been the crest of the Des Violets. + +"And what did Mr. Gabriel say then?" I asked, giving it back to Faith, +who put her head into the old position again. + +"Oh, he acted real queer. 'The very man!' he cried out. 'The man +himself! His portrait,--I have seen it a hundred times!' And then +he told me that about a dozen years ago or more, a ship sailed +from--from--I forget the place exactly, somewhere up there where _he_ +came from,--Mr. Gabriel, I mean,--and among the passengers was this +man and his wife, and his little daughter, whose name was Virginie des +Violets, and the ship was never heard from again. But he says that +without a doubt I'm the little daughter and my name is Virginie, though +I suppose every one'll call me Faith. Oh, and that isn't the queerest. +The queerest is, this gentleman," and Faith lifted her head, "was very +rich. I can't tell you how much he owned. Lands that you can walk on a +whole day and not come to the end, and ships, and gold. And the whole of +it's lying idle and waiting for an heir,--and I, Georgie, am the heir." + +And Faith told it with cheeks burning and eyes shining, but yet quite as +if she'd been born and brought up in the knowledge. + +"It don't seem to move you much, Faith," said I, perfectly amazed, +although I'd frequently expected something of the kind. + +"Well, I may never get it, and so on. If I do, I'll give you a silk +dress and set you up in a book-store. But here's a queerer thing yet. +Des Violets is the way Mr. Gabriel's own name is spelt, and his father +and mine--his mother and--Well, some way or other we're sort of +cousins. Only think, Georgie! isn't that--I thought, to be sure, when he +quartered at our house, Dan'd begin to take me to do, if I looked at +him sideways,--make the same fuss that he does, if I nod to any of the +other young men." + +"I don't think Dan speaks before he should, Faith." + +"Why don't you say Virginie?" says she, laughing. + +"Because Faith you've always been, and Faith you'll have to remain, with +us, to the end of the chapter." + +"Well, that's as it may be. But Dan can't object now to my going where +I'm a mind to with my own cousin!" And here Faith laid her ear on the +ball of yarn again. + +"Hasten, headsman!" said she, out of a novel, "or they'll wonder where I +am." + +"Well," I answered, "just let me run the needle through the emery." + +"Yes, Georgie," said Faith, going back with her memories while I +sharpened my steel, "Mr. Gabriel and I are kin. And he said that the +moment he laid eyes on me he knew I was of different blood from the rest +of the people"--. + +"What people?" asked I. + +"Why, you, and Dan, and all these. And he said he was struck to stone +when he heard I was married to Dan,--I must have been entrapped,--the +courts would annul it,--any one could see the difference between us"-- + +Here was my moment, and I didn't spare it, but jabbed the needle into +the ball of yarn, if her ear did lie between them. + +"Yes!" says I, "anybody with half an eye can see the difference between +you, and that's a fact! Nobody'd ever imagine for a breath that you were +deserving of Dan,--Dan, who's so noble he'd die for what he thought was +right,--you, who are so selfish and idle and fickle and"-- + +And at that Faith burst out crying. + +"Oh, I never expected you'd talk about me so, Georgie!" said she between +her sobs. "How could I tell you were such a mighty friend of Dan's? And +besides, if ever I was Virginie des Violets, I'm Faith Devereux now, and +Dan'll resent _any one's_ speaking so about his wife!" + +And she stood up, the tears sparkling like diamonds in her flashing dark +eyes, her cheeks red, and her little fist clenched. + +"That's the right spirit, Faith," says I, "and I'm glad to see you show +it. And as for this young Canadian, the best thing to do with him is to +send him packing. I don't believe a word he says; it's more than likely +nothing but to get into your good graces." + +"But there's the names," said she, so astonished that she didn't +remember she was angry. + +"Happened so." + +"Oh, yes! 'Happened so' A likely story! It's nothing but your envy, and +that's all!" + +"Faith!" says I, for I forgot she didn't know how close she struck. + +"Well,--I mean----There, don't let's talk about it any more! How under +the sun am I going to get these ends tied?" + +"Come here. There! Now for the other one." + +"No, I sha'n't let you do that; you hurt me dreadfully, and you got +angry and took the big needle." + +"I thought you expected to be hurt." + +"I didn't expect to be stabbed." + +"Well, just as you please. I suppose you'll go round with one ear-ring." + +"Like a little pig with his ear cropped? No, I shall do it myself. See +there, Georgie!" and she threw a bit of a box into my hands. + +I opened it, and there lay inside, on their velvet cushion, a pair of +the prettiest things you ever saw,--a tiny bunch of white grapes, and +every grape a round pearl, and all hung so that they would tinkle +together on their golden stems every time Faith shook her head,--and she +had a cunning little way of shaking it often enough. + +"These must have cost a penny, Faith," said I. "Where'd you get them?" + +"Mr. Gabriel gave them to me, just now. He went up-town and bought them. +And I don't want him to know that my ears weren't bored." + +"Mr. Gabriel? And you took them?" + +"Of course I took them, and mighty glad to get them." + +"Faith, dear," said I, "don't you know that you shouldn't accept +presents from gentlemen, and especially now you're a married woman, and +especially from those of higher station?" + +"But he isn't higher." + +"You know what I mean. And then, too, he is; for one always takes rank +from one's husband." + +Faith looked rather downcast at this. + +"Yes," said I,--"and pearls and calico"---- + +"Just because you haven't got a pair yourself! There, be still! I don't +want any of your instructions in duty!" + +"You ought to put up with a word from a friend, Faith," said I. "You +always come to me with your grievances. And I'll tell you what I'll do. +You used to like these coral branches of mine; and if you'll give those +back to Mr. Gabriel, you shall have the coral." + +Well, Faith she hesitated, standing there trying to muster her mind to +the needle, and it ended by her taking the coral, though I don't believe +she returned the pearls,--but we none of us ever saw them afterwards. + +We'd been talking in a pretty low tone, because mother was asleep; and +just as she'd finished the other ear, and a little drop of blood stood +up on it like a live ruby, the door opened and Dan and Mr. Gabriel came +in. There never was a prettier picture than Faith at that moment, and so +the young stranger thought, for he stared at her, smiling and at ease, +just as if she'd been hung in a gallery and he'd bought a ticket. So +then he sat down and repeated to Dan and mother what she'd told me, and +he promised to send for the papers to prove it all. But he never did +send for them,--delaying and delaying, till the summer wore away; and +perhaps there were such papers and perhaps there weren't. I've always +thought he didn't want his own friends to know where he was. Dan might +be a rich man to-day, if he chose to look them up; but he'd scorch at a +slow fire before he'd touch a copper of it. Father never believed a word +about it, when we recited it again to him. + +"So Faith 'a come into her fortune, has she?" said he. "Pretty child! +She 'a'n't had so much before sence she fell heir to old Miss Devereux's +best chany, her six silver spoons, and her surname." + +So the days passed, and the greater part of every one Mr. Gabriel was +dabbling in the water somewhere. There wasn't a brook within ten miles +that he didn't empty of trout, for Dan knew the woods as well as the +shores, and he knew the clear nights when the insects can keep free from +the water so that next day the fish rise hungry to the surface; and so +sometimes in the brightest of May noons they'd bring home a string of +those beauties, speckled with little tongues of flame; and Mr. Gabriel +would have them cooked, and make us all taste them,--for we don't care +much for that sort, down here on the Flats; we should think we were +famished, if we had to eat fish. And then they'd lie in wait all day for +the darting pickerel in the little Stream of Shadows above; and when +it came June, up the river he went trolling for bass, and he used +a different sort of bait from the rest,--bass won't bite much at +clams,--and he hauled in great forty-pounders. And sometimes in the +afternoons he took out Faith and me,--for, as Faith would go, whether or +no, I always made it a point to put by everything and go too; and I used +to try and get some of the other girls in, but Mr. Gabriel never would +take them, though he was hail-fellow-well-met with everybody, and was +everybody's favorite, and it was known all round how he found out Faith, +and that alone made him so popular, that I do believe, if he'd only +taken out naturalization-papers, we'd have sent him to General Court. +And then it grew time for the river-mackerel, and they used to bring in +at sunset two or three hundred in a shining heap, together with great +lobsters that looked as if they'd been carved out of heliotrope-stone, +and so old that they were barnacled. And it was so novel to Mr. Gabriel, +that he used to act as if he'd fallen in fairy-land. + +After all, I don't know what we should have done without him that +summer: he always paid Dan or father a dollar a day and the hire of the +boat; and the times were so hard, and there was so little doing, that, +but for this, and packing the barrels of clam-bait, they'd have been +idle and fared sorely. But we'd rather have starved: though, as for +that, I've heard father say there never was a time when he couldn't +go out and catch some sort of fish and sell it for enough to get us +something to eat. And then this Mr. Gabriel, he had such a winning way +with him, he was as quick at wit as a bird on the wing, he had a story +or a song for every point, he seemed to take to our simple life as if +he'd been born to it, and he was as much interested in all our trifles +as we were ourselves. Then he was so sympathetic, he felt everybody's +troubles, he went to the city and brought down a wonderful doctor to see +mother, and he got her queer things that helped her more than you'd have +thought anything could, and he went himself and set honeysuckles out +all round Dan's house, so that before summer was over it was a bower of +great sweet blows, and he had an alms for every beggar, and a kind word +for every urchin, and he followed Dan about as a child would follow some +big shaggy dog. He introduced, too, a lot of new-fangled games; he was +what they called a gymnast, and in feats of rassling there wasn't a man +among them all but he could stretch as flat as a flounder. And then he +always treated. Everybody had a place for him soon,--even _I_ did; and +as for Dan, he'd have cut his own heart out of his body, if Mr. Gabriel +'d had occasion to use it. He was a different man from any Dan 'd ever +met before, something finer, and he might have been better, and Dan's +loyal soul was glad to acknowledge him master, and I declare I believe +he felt just as the Jacobites in the old songs used to feel for royal +Charlie. There are some men born to rule with a haughty, careless +sweetness, and others born to die for them with stern and dogged +devotion. + +Well, and all this while Faith wasn't standing still; she was changing +steadily, as much as ever the moon changed in the sky. I noticed it +first one day when Mr. Gabriel'd caught every child in the region and +given them a picnic in the woods of the Stack-Yard-Gate, and Faith was +nowhere to be seen tiptoeing round every one as she used to do, but +I found her at last standing at the head of the table,--Mr. Gabriel +dancing here and there, seeing to it that all should be as gay as he +seemed to be,--quiet and dignified as you please, and feeling every one +of her inches. But it wasn't dignity really that was the matter with +Faith,--it was just gloom. She'd brighten up for a moment or two and +then down would fall the cloud again, she took to long fits of dreaming, +and sometimes she'd burst out crying at any careless word, so that my +heart fairly bled for the poor child,--for one couldn't help seeing that +she'd some secret unhappiness or other; and I was as gentle and soothing +to her as it's in my nature to be. She was in to our house a good deal; +she kept it pretty well out of Dan's way, and I hoped she'd get over it +sooner or later, and make up her mind to circumstances. And I talked +to her a sight about Dan, praising him constantly before her, though I +couldn't hear to do it; and finally, one very confidential evening, I +told her that I'd been in love with Dan myself once a little, but I'd +seen that he would marry her, and so had left off thinking about it; +for, do you know, I thought it might make her set more price on him now, +if she knew somebody else had ever cared for him. Well, that did answer +awhile: whether she thought she ought to make it up to Dan, or whether +he really did grow more in her eyes, Faith got to being very neat and +domestic and praiseworthy. But still there was the change, and it didn't +make her any the less lovely. Indeed, if I'd been a man, I should have +cared for her more than ever: it was like turning a child into a woman: +and I really think, as Dan saw her going about with such a pleasant +gravity, her pretty figure moving so quietly, her pretty face so still +and fair, as if she had thoughts and feelings now, he began to wonder +what had come over Faith, and, if she were really as charming as this, +why he hadn't felt it before; and then, you know, whether you love a +woman or not, the mere fact that she's your wife, that her life is sunk +in yours, that she's something for you to protect and that your honor +lies in doing so, gives you a certain kindly feeling that might ripen +into love any day under sunshine and a south wall. + + * * * * * + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY + + +XI. + + +Among the astounding discoveries of modern science is that of the +immense periods which have passed in the gradual formation of our earth. +So vast were the cycles of time preceding even the appearance of man on +the surface of our globe, that our own period seems as yesterday when +compared with the epochs that have gone before it. Had we only the +evidence of the deposits of rock heaped above each other in regular +strata by the slow accumulation of materials, they alone would convince +us of the long and slow maturing of God's work on the earth but when we +add to these the successive populations of whose life this world has +been the theatre, and whose remains are hidden in the rocks into which +the mud or sand or soil of whatever kind on which they lived has +hardened in the course of time,--or the enormous chains of mountains +whose upheaval divided these periods of quiet accumulation by great +convulsions,--or the changes of a different nature in the configuration +of our globe, as the sinking of lands beneath the ocean, or the gradual +rising of continents and islands above it,--or the wearing of great +river-beds, or the filling of extensive water-basins, till marshes first +and then dry land succeeded to inland seas,--or the slow growth of coral +reefs, those wonderful sea-walls raised by the little ocean-architects +whose own bodies furnish both the building-stones and the cement that +binds them together, and who have worked so busily during the long +centuries, that there are extensive countries, mountain-chains, islands, +and long lines of coast consisting solely of their remains,--or the +countless forests that must have grown up, flourished, died, and +decayed, to fill the storehouses of coal that feed the fires of the +human race to-day,--if we consider all these records of the past, the +intellect fails to grasp a chronology for which our experience furnishes +no data, and the time that lies behind us seems as much an eternity to +our conception as the future that stretches indefinitely before us. + +The physical as well as the human history of the world has its mythical +age, lying dim and vague in the morning mists of creation, like that of +the heroes and demigods in the early traditions of man, defying all +our ordinary dates and measures. But if the succession of periods that +prepared the earth for the coming of man, and the animals and plants +that accompany him on earth, baffles our finite attempts to estimate its +duration, have we any means of determining even approximately the length +of the period to which we ourselves belong? If so, it may furnish us +with some data for the further solution of these wonderful mysteries of +time, and it is besides of especial importance with reference to the +question of permanence of Species. Those who maintain the mutability of +Species, and account for all the variety of life on earth by the gradual +changes wrought by time and circumstances, do not accept historical +evidence as affecting the question at all. The monuments of those oldest +nations, all whose history is preserved in monumental records, do not +indicate the slightest variation of organic types from that day to this. +The animals that were preserved within their tombs or carved upon their +walls by the ancient Egyptians were the same as those that have their +home in the valley of the Nile today; the negro, whose peculiar features +are unmistakable even in their rude artistic attempts to represent them, +was the same woolly-haired, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, dark-skinned being +in the days of the Rameses that he is now. The Apis, the Ibis, the +Crocodiles, the sacred Beetles, have brought down to us unchanged all +the characters that superstition hallowed in those early days. The +stony face of the Sphinx is not more true to its past, nor the massive +architecture of the Pyramids more unchanged, than they are. But the +advocates of the mutability of Species say truly enough that the most +ancient traditions are but as yesterday in the world's history, and that +what six thousand years could not do sixty thousand years might effect. +Leaving aside, then, all historical chronology, how far back can we +trace our own geological period, and the Species belonging to it? By +what means can we determine its duration? Within what limits, by what +standard, may it be measured? Shall hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds +of thousands, or millions of years be the unit from which we start? + +I will begin this inquiry with a series of facts which I myself have +had an opportunity of investigating with especial care respecting the +formation and growth of the Coral Reefs of Florida. But first a few +words on Coral Reefs in general. They are living limestone walls that +are built up from certain depths in the ocean by the natural growth of a +variety of animals, but limited by the level of high-water, beyond which +they cannot rise, since the little beings that compose them die as soon +as they are removed from the vitalizing influence of the pure sea-water. +These walls have a variety of outlines: they may be straight, circular, +semicircular, oblong, according to the form of the coast along which +the little Reef-Builders establish themselves; and their height is, of +course, determined by the depth of the bottom on which they rest. If +they settle about an island on all sides of which the conditions for +their growth are equally favorable, they will raise a wall all around +it, thus encircling it with a ring of Coral growth. The Athols in the +Pacific Ocean, those circular islands inclosing sometimes a fresh-water +lake in mid-ocean, are Coral walls of this kind, that have formed a ring +around a central island. This is easily understood, if we remember that +the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is by no means a stable foundation +for such a structure. On the contrary, over a certain area, which has +already been surveyed with some accuracy by Professor Dana, during the +United States Exploring Expedition, it is subsiding; and if an island +upon which the Reef-Builders have established themselves be situated +in that area of subsidence, it will, of course, sink with the floor on +which it rests, carrying down also the Coral wall to a greater depth in +the sea. In such instances, if the rate of subsidence be more rapid than +the rate of growth in the Corals, the island and the wall itself will +disappear beneath the ocean. But whenever, on the contrary, the rate of +increase in the wall is greater than that of subsidence in the island, +while the latter gradually sinks below the surface, the former rises +in proportion, and by the time it has completed its growth the central +island has vanished, and there remains only a ring of Coral Reef, with +here and there a break, perhaps, at some spot where the more prosperous +growth of the Corals has been checked. If, however, as sometimes +happens, there is no such break, and the wall is perfectly +uninterrupted, the sheet of sea-water so inclosed may be changed to +fresh water by the rains that are poured into it. Such a water-basin +will remain salt, it is true, in its lower part, and the fact that it is +affected by the rise and fall of the tides shows that it is not entirely +secluded from communication with the ocean outside; but the salt water, +being heavier, sinks, while the lighter rain-water remains above, and it +is to all appearance actually changed into a fresh-water lake. + +I need not dwell here on the further history of such a Coral island, or +follow it through the changes by which the summit of its circular wall +becomes covered with a fertile soil, a tropical vegetation springs up on +it, and it is at last perhaps inhabited by man. There is something very +attractive in the idea of these green rings inclosing sheltered harbors +and quiet lakes in mid-ocean, and the subject has lost none of its +fascination since the mystery of their existence has been solved by the +investigations of several contemporary naturalists who have enabled us +to trace the whole story of their structure. I would refer all who wish +for a more detailed account of them to Charles Darwin's charming +little volume on "Coral Reefs," where their mode of formation is fully +described, and also to James D. Dana's "Geological Report of the United +States Exploring Expedition." + +Coral Reefs are found only in tropical regions: although Polyps, animals +of the same class as those chiefly instrumental in their formation, +are found in all parts of the globe, yet the Reef-Building Polyps are +limited to the Tropics. We are too apt to forget that the homes of +animals are as definitely limited in the water as on the land. Indeed, +the subject of the geographical distribution of animals according to +laws that are established by altitude, by latitude and longitude, by +pressure of atmosphere or pressure of water, already alluded to in +a previous article, is exceedingly interesting, and presents a most +important field of investigation. The climatic effect of different +degrees of altitude upon the growth of animals and plants is the same as +that of different degrees of latitude; and the slope of a high mountain +in the Tropics, from base to summit, presents, in a condensed form, an +epitome, as it were, of the same kind of gradation in vegetable growth +that may be observed from the Tropics to the Arctics. At the base of +such a mountain we have all the luxuriance of growth characteristic +of the tropical forest,--the Palms, the Bananas, the Bread-trees, the +Mimosas; higher up, these give way to a different kind of growth, +corresponding to our Oaks, Chestnuts, Maples, etc.; as these wane, on +the loftier slopes comes in the Pine forest, fading gradually, as it +ascends, into a dwarfish growth of the same kind; and this at last gives +way to the low creeping Mosses and Lichens of the greater heights, till +even these find a foothold no longer, and the summit of the mountain is +clothed in perpetual snow and ice. What have we here but the same series +of changes through which we pass, if, travelling northward from the +Tropics, we leave Palms and Pomegranates and Bananas behind, where the +Live-Oaks and Cypresses, the Orange-trees and Myrtles of the warmer +Temperate Zone come in, and these die out as we reach the Oaks, +Chestnuts, Maples, Elms, Nut-trees, Beeches, and Birches of the colder +Temperate Zone, these again waning as we enter the Pine forests of +the Arctic borders, till, passing out of these, nothing but a dwarf +vegetation, a carpet of Moss and Lichen, fit food for the Reindeer and +the Esquimaux, greets us, and beyond that lies the region of the snow +and ice fields, impenetrable to all but the daring Arctic voyager? + +I have thus far spoken of the changes in the vegetable growth alone as +influenced by altitude and latitude, but the same is equally true of +animals. Every zone of the earth's surface has its own animals, suited +to the conditions under which they are meant to live; and with the +exception of those that accompany man in all his pilgrimages, and are +subject to the same modifying influences by which he adapts his home and +himself to all climates, animals are absolutely bound by the laws of +their nature within the range assigned to them. Nor is this the case +only on land, where river-banks, lake-shores, and mountain-ranges might +be supposed to form the impassable boundaries that keep animals within +certain limits; but the ocean as well as the land has its faunae and +florae bound within their respective zoölogical and botanical provinces; +and a wall of granite is not more impassable to a marine animal than +that ocean-line, fluid and flowing and ever-changing though it be, on +which is written for him, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." +One word as to the effect of pressure on animals will explain this. + +We all live under the pressure of the atmosphere. Now thirty-two feet +under the sea doubles that pressure, since a column of water of that +height is equal in weight to the pressure of one atmosphere. At the +depth of thirty-two feet, then, any marine animal is under the pressure +of two atmospheres,--that of the air which surrounds our globe, and of a +weight of water equal to it; at sixty-four feet he is under the pressure +of three atmospheres, and so on,--the weight of one atmosphere being +always added for every thirty-two feet of depth. There is a great +difference in the sensitiveness of animals to this pressure. Some fishes +live at a great depth and find the weight of water genial to them, while +others would be killed at once by the same pressure, and the latter +naturally seek the shallow waters. Every fisherman knows that he must +throw a long line for a Halibut, while with a common fishing-rod he will +catch plenty of Perch from the rocks near the shore; and the differently +colored bands of sea-weed revealed by low tide, from the green line of +the Ulvas through the brown zone of the common Fucas to the rosy and +purple hued sea-weeds of the deeper water show that the florae as well +as the faunae of the ocean have their precise boundaries. This wider +or narrower range of marine animals is in direct relation to their +structure, which enables them to bear a greater or less pressure of +water. All fishes, and, indeed, all animals having a wide range of +distribution in ocean-depths, have a special apparatus of water-pores, +so that the surrounding element penetrates their structure, thus +equalizing the pressure of the weight, which is diminished from without +in proportion to the quantity of water they can admit into their bodies. +Marine animals differ in their ability to sustain this pressure, just +as land animals differ in their power of enduring great variations of +climate and of atmospheric pressure. + +Of all air-breathing animals, none exhibits a more surprising power of +adapting itself to great and rapid changes of external influences than +the Condor. It may be seen feeding on the sea-shore under a burning +tropical sun, and then, rising from its repast, it floats up among the +highest summits of the Andes and is lost to sight beyond them, miles +above the line of perpetual snow, where the temperature must be lower +than that of the Arctics. But even the Condor, sweeping at one flight +from tropic heat to arctic cold, although it passes through greater +changes of temperature, does not undergo such changes of pressure as a +fish that rises from a depth of sixty-four feet to the surface of the +sea; for the former remains within the air that surrounds our globe, +and therefore the increase or diminution of pressure to which it is +subjected must be confined within the limits of one atmosphere, while +the latter, at a depth of sixty-four feet, is under a weight equal to +that of three such atmospheres, which is reduced to one when it reaches +the sea-level. The change is even much greater for those fishes that +come from a depth of several hundred feet. These laws of limitation in +space explain many facts in the growth of Coral Reefs that would be +otherwise inexplicable, and which I will endeavor to make clear to my +readers. + +For a long time it was supposed that the Coral animals inhabited very +deep waters, for they were sometimes brought up on sounding-lines from a +depth of many hundreds or even thousands of feet, and it was taken for +granted that they must have had their home where they were found; +but the facts recently ascertained respecting the subsidence of +ocean-bottoms have shown that the foundation of a Coral wall may have +sunk far below the place where it was laid, and it is now proved beyond +a doubt that no Reef-Building Coral can thrive at a depth of more than +fifteen fathoms, though Corals of other kinds occur far lower, and that +the dead Reef-Corals sometimes brought to the surface from much greater +depths are only broken fragments of some Reef that has subsided with +the bottom on which it was growing. But though fifteen fathoms is the +maximum depth at which any Reef-Builder can prosper, there are many +which will not sustain even that degree of pressure, and this fact has, +as we shall see, an important influence on the structure of the Reef. + +Imagine now a sloping shore on some tropical coast descending gradually +below the surface of the sea. Upon that slope, at a depth of from ten +to twelve or fifteen fathoms, and two or three or more miles from the +main-land, according to the shelving of the shore, we will suppose that +one of those little Coral animals to whom a home in such deep waters is +genial has established itself. How it happens that such a being, which +we know is immovably attached to the ground and forms the foundation of +a solid wall, was ever able to swim freely about in the water till it +found a suitable resting-place, I shall explain hereafter, when I say +something of the mode of reproduction of these animals. Accept, for the +moment, my unsustained assertion, and plant our little Coral on this +sloping shore some twelve or fifteen fathoms below the surface of the +sea. The internal structure of such a Coral corresponds to that of the +Sea-Anemone: the body is divided by vertical partitions from top to +bottom, leaving open chambers between, while in the centre hangs the +digestive cavity connecting by an opening in the bottom with all these +chambers; at the top is an aperture which serves as a mouth, surrounded +by a wreath of hollow tentacles, each one connecting at its base with +one of the chambers, so that all parts of the animal communicate freely +with each other. But though the structure of the Coral is identical in +all its parts with that of the Sea-Anemone, it nevertheless presents one +important difference. The body of the Sea-Anemone is soft, while that of +the Coral is hard. It is well known that all animals and plants have the +power of appropriating to themselves and assimilating the materials they +need, each selecting from the surrounding elements whatever contributes +to its well-being. The plant takes carbon, the animal takes oxygen, each +rejecting what the other requires. We ourselves build our bones with +the lime that we find unconsciously in the world around us; much of our +nourishment supplies us with it, and the very vegetables we eat have, +perhaps, themselves been fed from some old lime strata deposited +centuries ago. We all represent materials that have contributed to +construct our bodies. Now Corals possess, in an extraordinary degree, +the power of assimilating to themselves the lime contained in the salt +water around them; and as soon as our little Coral is established on a +firm foundation, a lime deposit begins to form in all the walls of its +body, so that its base, its partitions, and its outer wall, which in +the Sea-Anemone remain always soft, become perfectly solid in the Polyp +Coral and form a frame as hard as bone. It may naturally be asked +where the lime comes from in the sea which the Corals absorb in such +quantities. As far as the living Corals are concerned the answer is +easy, for an immense deal of lime is brought down to the ocean by +rivers that wear away the lime deposits through which they pass. The +Mississippi, whose course lies through extensive lime regions, brings +down yearly lime enough to supply all the animals living in the Gulf of +Mexico. But behind this lies a question not so easily settled, as to +the origin of the extensive deposits of limestone found at the very +beginning of life upon earth. This problem brings us to the threshold of +astronomy, for limestone is metallic in character, susceptible therefore +of fusion, and may have formed a part of the materials of our earth, +even in an incandescent state, when the worlds were forming. But though +this investigation as to the origin of lime does not belong either to +the naturalist or the geologist, its suggestion reminds us that the +time has come when all the sciences and their results are so intimately +connected that no one can be carried on independently of the others. +Since the study of the rocks has revealed a crowded life whose records +are hoarded within them, the work of the geologist and the naturalist +has become one and the same, and at that border-land where the first +crust of the earth condensed out of the igneous mass of materials which +formed its earliest condition their investigation mingles with that of +the astronomer, and we cannot trace the limestone in a little Coral +without going back to the creation of our solar system, when the worlds +that compose it were thrown off from a central mass in a gaseous +condition. + +When the Coral has become in this way permeated with lime, all parts of +the body are rigid, with the exception of the upper margin, the stomach, +and the tentacles. The tentacles are soft and waving, projected or drawn +in at will, and they retain their flexible character through life, and +decompose when the animal dies. For this reason the dried specimens of +Corals preserved in museums do not give us the least idea of the living +Corals, in which every one of the millions of beings composing such +a community is crowned by a waving wreath of white or green or +rose-colored tentacles. + +As soon as the little Coral is fairly established and solidly attached +to the ground, it begins to bud. This may take place in a variety of +ways, dividing at the top or budding from the base or from the sides, +till the primitive animal is surrounded by a number of individuals like +itself, of which it forms the nucleus, and which now begin to bud in +their turn, each one surrounding itself with a numerous progeny, all +remaining, however, attached to the parent. Such a community increases +till its individuals are numbered by millions; and I have myself counted +no less than fourteen millions of individuals in a Coral mass measuring +not more than twelve feet in diameter. These are the so-called Coral +heads which form the foundation of a Coral wall, and their massive +character and regular form seem to be especially adapted to give a +strong, solid base to the whole structure. They are known in our +classifications as the Astraeans, so named on account of the star-shaped +form of the little pits that are crowded upon the surface, each one +marking the place of a single individual in such a community. + +Thus firmly and strongly is the foundation of the reef laid by the +Astraeans; but we have seen that for their prosperous growth they +require a certain depth and pressure of water, and when they have +brought the wall so high that they have not more than six fathoms of +water above them, this kind of Coral ceases to grow. They have, however, +prepared a fitting surface for different kinds of Corals that could not +live in the depths from which the Astraeans have come, but find their +genial home nearer the surface; such a home being made ready for them +by their predecessors, they now establish themselves on the top of the +Coral wall and continue its growth for a certain time. These are the +Mandrinas, or the so-called Brain-Corals, and the Porites. The Mandrinas +differ from the Astraeans by their less compact and definite pits. In +the Astraeans the place occupied by the animal in the community is +marked by a little star-shaped spot, in the centre of which all the +partition-walls meet. But in the Mandrinas, although all the partitions +converge toward the central opening, as in the Astraeans, these central +openings elongate, run into each other, and form waving furrows all over +the surface, instead of the small round pits so characteristic of the +Astraeans. The Porites resemble the Astraeans, but the pits are smaller, +with fewer partitions and fewer tentacles, and their whole substance is +more porous. + +But these also have their bounds within the sea: they in their turn +reach the limit beyond which they are forbidden by the laws of their +nature to pass, and there they also pause. But the Coral wall continues +its steady progress; for here the lighter kinds set in,--the Madrepores, +the Millepores, and a great variety of Sea-Fans and Corallines, and the +reef is crowned at last with a many-colored shrubbery of low feathery +growth. These are all branching in form, and many of them are simple +calciferous plants, though most of them are true animals, resembling, +however, delicate Algae more than any marine animals; but, on +examination of the latter, one finds them to be covered with myriads of +minute dots, each representing one of the little beings out of which the +whole is built. + +I would add here one word on the true nature of the Millepores, long +misunderstood by naturalists, because it throws light not only on some +interesting facts respecting Coral Reefs, especially the ancient ones, +but also because it tells us something of the early inhabitants of the +globe, and shows us that a class of Radiates supposed to be missing in +that primitive creation had its representatives then as now. In the +diagram of the geological periods introduced in a previous article, I +have represented all the three classes of Radiates, Polyps, Acalephs, +and Echinoderms, as present on the first floor of our globe that was +inhabited at all. But it is only recently that positive proofs have been +found of the existence of Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, as they are +called, at that early period. Their very name indicates their delicate +structure; and were there no remains preserved in the rocks of these +soft, transparent creatures, it would yet be no evidence that they did +not exist. Fragile as they are, however, they have left here and there +some faint record of themselves, and in the Museum at Carlsruhe, on a +slab from Solenhofen, I have seen a very perfect outline of one which +remains undescribed to this day. This, however, does not carry them +farther back than the Jurassic period, and it is only lately that I have +satisfied myself that they not only existed, but were among the most +numerous animals in the first representation of organic life. + +The earliest Corals correspond in certain features of their structure to +the Millepores. They differ from them as all early animals differ from +the succeeding ones, every geological period having its special set of +representatives. But still they are always true to their class, and have +a certain general correspondence with animals of like kind that follow +them in later periods. In this sense the Millepores are in our epoch the +representatives of those early Corals called by naturalists Tabulata and +Rugosa,--distinguished from the Polyp Corals by the horizontal floors, +waving in some, straight in others, which divide the body transversely +at successive heights through its whole length, and also by the absence +of the vertical partitions, extending from top to bottom of each animal, +so characteristic of the true Polyps. As I have said, they were for a +long time supposed, notwithstanding these differences, to be Polyps, and +I had shared in this opinion, till, during the winter of 1857, while +pursuing my investigations on the Coral Reefs of Florida, one of these +Millepores revealed itself to me in its true character of Acaleph. It is +by its soft parts alone--those parts which are seen only in its living +state, and when the animal is fully open--that its Acalephian character +can be perceived, and this accounts for its being so long accepted as +a Polyp, when studied in the dry Coral stock. Nothing could exceed +my astonishment when for the first time I saw such an animal fully +expanded, and found it to be a true Acaleph. It is exceedingly difficult +to obtain a view of them in this state, for, at any approach, they draw +themselves in, and remain closed to all investigation. Only once, for a +short hour, I had this opportunity; during that time one of these little +creatures revealed to me its whole structure, as if to tell me, once for +all, the story of its existence through all the successive epochs from +the dawn of Creation till now, and then withdrew. With my most patient +watching, I have never been able to see one of them open again. But to +establish the fact that one of the Corals represented from the earliest +period till now, and indeed far more numerous in the beginning than any +other, was in truth no Polyp, but an Acaleph, the glimpse I had was +all-sufficient. It came out as if to bear witness of its class,--as if +to say, "We, too, were among the hosts of living beings with which God +first peopled His earth." + +With these branching Corals the reef reaches the level of high-water, +beyond which, as I have said, there can be no further growth, for want +of the action of the fresh sea-water. This dependence upon the vivifying +influence of the sea accounts for one unfailing feature in the Coral +walls. They are always abrupt and steep on the seaward side, but have a +gentle slope towards the land. This is accounted for by the circumstance +that the Corals on the outer side of the reef are in immediate contact +with the pure ocean-water, while by their growth they partially exclude +the inner ones from the same influence,--the rapid growth of the latter +being also impeded by any impurity or foreign material washed away from +the neighboring shore and mingling with the water that fills the channel +between the main-land and the reef. Thus the Coral Reefs, whether built +around an island, or concentric to a rounding shore, or along a straight +line of coast, are always shelving toward the land, while they +are comparatively abrupt and steep toward the sea. This should be +remembered, for, as we shall see hereafter, it has an important bearing +on the question of time as illustrated by Coral Reefs. + +I have spoken of the budding of Corals, by which each one becomes the +centre of a cluster; but this is not the only way in which they multiply +their kind. They give birth to eggs also, which are carried on the inner +edge of their partition-walls, till they drop into the sea, where they +float about, little, soft, transparent, pear-shaped bodies, as unlike as +possible to the rigid stony structure they are to assume hereafter. In +this condition they are covered with vibratile cilia or fringes, that +are always in rapid, uninterrupted motion, and keep them swimming about +in the water. It is by means of these little germs of the Corals, +swimming freely about during their earliest stages of growth, that the +reef is continued, at the various heights where special kinds die +out, by those that prosper at shallower depths; otherwise it would be +impossible to understand how this variety of building material, as it +were, is introduced wherever it is needed. This point, formerly a puzzle +to naturalists, has become quite clear since it has been found that +myriads of these little germs are poured into the water surrounding a +reef. There they swim about till they find a genial spot on which to +establish themselves, when they become attached to the ground by one +end, while a depression takes place at the opposite end, which gradually +deepens to form the mouth and inner cavity, while the edges expand to +form the tentacles, and the productive life of the little Coral begins: +it buds from every side, and becomes the foundation of a new community. + +I should add, that, beside the Polyps and the Acalephs, Mollusks also +have their representatives among the Corals. There is a group of small +Mollusks called Bryozoa, allied to the Clams by their structure, but +excessively minute when compared to the other members of their class, +which, like the other Corals, harden in consequence of an absorption of +solid materials, and contribute to the formation of the reef. Besides +these, there are certain plants, limestone Algae,--Corallines, as they +are called,--which have their share also in the work. + +I had intended to give some account of the Coral Reefs of Florida, +and to show what bearing they have upon the question of time and the +permanence of Species; but this cursory sketch of Coral Reefs in general +has grown to such dimensions that I must reserve a more particular +account of the Florida Reefs and Keys for a future article. + + * * * * * + + +SPIRITS. + + +"Did you ever see a ghost?" said a gentleman to his friend. + +"No, but I once came very nigh seeing one," was the facetious reply. + +The writer of this article has had still better luck,--having _twice_ +come very nigh seeing a ghost. In other words, two friends, in whose +veracity and healthy clearness of vision I have perfect confidence, have +assured me that they have distinctly seen a disembodied spirit. + +If I had permission to do so, I would record the street in Boston, and +the number of the house, where the first of these two apparitions was +seen; but that would be unpleasant to parties concerned. Years ago, the +lady who witnessed it told me the particulars, and I have recently heard +her repeat them. A cousin, with whom her relations were as intimate as +with a brother, was in the last stages of consumption. One morning, when +she carried him her customary offering of fruit or flowers, she found +him unusually bright, his cheeks flushed, his eyes brilliant, and his +state of mind exceedingly cheerful. He talked of his recovery and future +plans in life with hopefulness almost amounting to certainty. This made +her somewhat sad, for she regarded it as a delusion of his flattering +disease, a flaring up of the life-candle before it sank in the socket. +She thus reported the case, when she returned home. In the afternoon she +was sewing as usual, surrounded by her mother and sisters, and listening +to one who was reading aloud. While thus occupied, she chanced to raise +her eyes from her work and glance to the opposite corner of the room. +Her mother, seeing her give a sudden start, exclaimed, "What is the +matter?" She pointed to the corner of the room and replied, "There is +Cousin ------!" They all told her she had been dreaming, and was only +half wakened. She assured them she had not even been drowsy; and she +repeated with great earnestness, "There is Cousin ------, just as I saw +him this morning. Don't you see him?" She could not measure the time +that the vision remained; but it was long enough for several questions +and answers to pass rapidly between herself and other members of the +family. In reply to their persistent incredulity, she said, "It is very +strange that you don't see him; for I see him as plainly as I do any +of you." She was so obviously awake and in her right mind, that the +incident naturally made an impression on those who listened to her. Her +mother looked at her watch, and despatched a messenger to inquire how +Cousin ------ did. Word was soon brought that he died at the same moment +he had appeared in the house of his relatives. The lady who had +this singular experience is too sensible and well-informed to be +superstitious. She was not afflicted with any disorder of the nerves, +and was in good health at the time. + +To my other story I can give "a local habitation and a name" well known. +When Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, visited her native country a few +years ago, I had an interview with her, during which our conversation +happened to turn upon dreams and visions. + +"I have had some experience in that way," said she. "Let me tell you a +singular circumstance that happened to me in Rome. An Italian girl named +Rosa was in my employ for a long time, but was finally obliged to return +to her mother, on account of confirmed ill-health. We were mutually +sorry to part, for we liked each other. When I took my customary +exercise on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On one of these +occasions, I found her brighter than I had seen her for some time past. +I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was nothing in +her appearance that gave me the impression of immediate danger. I left +her with the expectation of calling to see her again many times. During +the remainder of the day I was busy in my studio, and I do not recollect +that Rosa was in my thoughts after I parted from her. I retired to rest +in good health and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound +sleep with an oppressive feeling that some one was in the room. I +wondered at the sensation, for it was entirely new to me; but in vain +I tried to dispel it. I peered beyond the curtain of my bed, but could +distinguish no objects in the darkness. Trying to gather up my thoughts, +I soon reflected that the door was locked, and that I had put the key +under my bolster. I felt for it, and found it where I had placed it. I +said to myself that I had probably had some ugly dream, and had waked +with a vague impression of it still on my mind. Reasoning thus, I +arranged myself comfortably for another nap. I am habitually a good +sleeper, and a stranger to fear; but, do what I would, the idea still +haunted me that some one was in the room. Finding it impossible to +sleep, I longed for daylight to dawn, that I might rise and pursue +my customary avocations. It was not long before I was able dimly to +distinguish the furniture in my room, and soon after I heard, in the +apartments below, familiar noises of servants opening windows and doors. +An old clock, with ringing vibrations, proclaimed the hour. I counted +one, two, three, four, five, and resolved to rise immediately. My bed +was partially screened by a long curtain looped up at one side. As I +raised my head from the pillow, Rosa looked inside the curtain, and +smiled at me. The idea of anything supernatural did not occur to me. I +was simply surprised, and exclaimed, 'Why, Rosa! How came you here, +when you are so ill?' In the old familiar tones, to which I was so much +accustomed, a voice replied, 'I am well, now.' With no other thought +than that of greeting her joyfully, I sprang out of bed. There was +no Rosa there! I moved the curtain, thinking she might perhaps have +playfully hidden herself behind its folds. The same feeling induced me +to look into the closet. The sight of her had come so suddenly, that, in +the first moment of surprise and bewilderment, I did not reflect that +the door was locked. When I became convinced there was no one in the +room but myself, I recollected that fact, and thought I must have seen a +vision. + +"At the breakfast-table, I said to the old lady with whom I boarded, +'Rosa is dead.' 'What do you mean by that?' she inquired. 'You told me +she seemed better than common when you called to see her yesterday.' +I related the occurrences of the morning, and told her I had a strong +impression Rosa was dead. She laughed, and said I had dreamed it all. I +assured her I was thoroughly awake, and in proof thereof told her I had +heard all the customary household noises, and had counted the clock when +it struck five. She replied, 'All that is very possible, my dear. The +clock struck into your dream. Real sounds often mix with the illusions +of sleep. I am surprised that a dream should make such an impression on +a young lady so free from superstition as you are.' She continued to +jest on the subject, and slightly annoyed me by her persistence in +believing it a dream, when I was perfectly sure of having been wide +awake. To settle the question, I summoned a messenger and sent him to +inquire how Rosa did. He returned with the answer that she died that +morning at five o'clock." + +I wrote the story as Miss Hosmer told it to me, and after I had shown +it to her, I asked if she had any objection, to its being published, +without suppression of names. She replied, "You have reported the story +of Rosa correctly. Make what use you please of it. You cannot think it +more interesting, or unaccountable, than I do myself." + +A remarkable instance of communication between spirits at the moment of +death is recorded in the Life of the Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, written +by his sister. When he was dying in Boston, their father was dying in +Vermont, ignorant of his son's illness. Early in the morning, he said to +his wife, "My son Joseph is dead." She told him he had been dreaming. +He calmly replied, "I have not slept, nor dreamed. He is dead." When +letters arrived from Boston, they announced that the spirit of the son +had departed from his body the same night that the father received an +impression of it. + +Such incidents suggest curious psychological inquiries, which I think +have attracted less attention than they deserve. It is common to explain +all such phenomena as "optical illusions" produced by "disordered +nerves." But _is_ that any explanation? _How_ do certain states of the +nerves produce visions as distinct as material forms? In the two cases I +have mentioned, there was no disorder of the nerves, no derangement of +health, no disquietude of mind. Similar accounts come to us from all +nations, and from the remotest periods of time; and I doubt whether +there ever was a universal superstition that had not some great, +unchangeable truth for its basis. Some secret laws of our being are +wrapt up in these occasional mysteries, and in the course of the world's +progress we may perhaps become familiar with the explanation, and +find genuine philosophy under the mask of superstition. When any +well-authenticated incidents of this kind are related, it is a very +common inquiry, "What are such visions sent _for_?" The question implies +a supposition of miraculous power, exerted for a temporary and special +purpose. But would it not be more rational to believe that all +appearances, whether spiritual or material, are caused by the operation +of universal laws, manifested under varying circumstances? In the +infancy of the world, it was the general tendency of the human mind to +consider all occasional phenomena as direct interventions of the gods, +for some special purpose at the time. Thus, the rainbow was supposed +to be a celestial road, made to accommodate the swift messenger of the +gods, when she was sent on an errand, and withdrawn as soon as she had +done with it. We now know that the laws of the refraction and reflection +of light produce the radiant iris, and that it will always appear +whenever drops of water in the air present themselves to the sun's rays +in a suitable position. Knowing this, we have ceased to ask what the +rainbow appears _for_. + +That a spiritual form is contained within the material body is a very +ancient and almost universal belief. Hindoo books of the remotest +antiquity describe man as a triune being, consisting of the soul, the +spiritual body, and the material body. This form within the outer body +was variously named by Grecian poets and philosophers. They called +it "the soul's image," "the invisible body," "the aërial body," "the +shade." Sometimes they called it "the sensuous soul," and described it +as "_all_ eye and _all_ ear,"--expressions which cannot fail to suggest +the phenomena of clairvoyance. The "shade" of Hercules is described by +poets as dwelling in the Elysian Fields, while his body was converted to +ashes on the earth, and his soul was dwelling on Olympus with the gods. +Swedenborg speaks of himself as having been a visible form to angels in +the spiritual world; and members of his household, observing him at such +times, describe the eyes of his body on earth as having the expression +of one walking in his sleep. He tells us, that, when his thoughts turned +toward earthly things, the angels would say to him, "Now we are losing +sight of you": and he himself felt that he was returning to his material +body. For several years of his life, he was in the habit of seeing and +conversing familiarly with visitors unseen by those around him. The +deceased brother of the Queen of Sweden repeated to him a secret +conversation, known only to himself and his sister. The Queen had asked +for this, as a test of Swedenborg's veracity; and she became pale with +astonishment when every minute particular of her interview with her +brother was reported to her. Swedenborg was a sedate man, apparently +devoid of any wish to excite a sensation, engrossed in scientific +pursuits, and remarkable for the orderly habits of his mind. The +intelligent and enlightened German, Nicolai, in the later years of his +life, was accustomed to find himself in the midst of persons whom he +knew perfectly well, but who were invisible to others. He reasoned very +calmly about it, but arrived at no solution more satisfactory than the +old one of "optical illusion," which is certainly a very inadequate +explanation. Instances are recorded, and some of them apparently well +authenticated, of persons still living in this world, and unconscious of +disease, who have seen _themselves_ in a distinct visible form, without +the aid of a mirror. It would seem as if such experiences had not been +confined to any particular part of the world; for they have given birth +to a general superstition that such apparitions are a forerunner of +death,--or, in other words, of the complete separation of the spiritual +body from the natural body. A friend related to me the particulars of a +fainting-fit, during which her body remained senseless an unusually long +time. When she was restored to consciousness, she told her attendant +friends that she had been standing near the sofa all the time, watching +her own lifeless body, and seeing what they did to resuscitate it. In +proof thereof she correctly repeated to them all they had said and +done while her body remained insensible. Those present at the time +corroborated her statement, so far as her accurate knowledge of all +their words, looks, and proceedings was concerned. + +The most numerous class of phenomena concerning the "spiritual body" +relate to its visible appearance to others at the moment of dissolution. +There is so much testimony on this subject, from widely separated +witnesses, that an unprejudiced mind, equally removed from superstition +and skepticism, inclines to believe that they must be manifestations of +some hidden law of our mysterious being. Plato says that everything in +this world is merely the material form of some model previously existing +in a higher world of ethereal spiritual forms; and Swedenborg's +beautiful doctrine of Correspondences is a reappearance of the same +idea. If their theory be true, may not the antecedent type of that +strange force which in the material world we call electricity be a +_spiritual_ magnetism. As yet, we know extremely little of the laws of +electricity, and we know nothing of those laws of _spiritual_ attraction +and repulsion which are perhaps the _cause_ of electricity. There may be +subtile and as yet unexplained causes, connected with the state of the +nervous system, the state of the mind, the accord of two souls under +peculiar circumstances, etc., which may sometimes enable a person who is +in a material body to see another who is in a spiritual body. That such +visions are not of daily occurrence may be owing to the fact that it +requires an unusual combination of many favorable circumstances to +produce them; and when they do occur, they seem to us miraculous +simply because we are ignorant of the laws of which they are transient +manifestations. + +Lord Bacon says,--"The relations touching the force of imagination and +the secret instincts of Nature are so uncertain, as they require a great +deal of examination ere we conclude upon them. I would have it first +thoroughly inquired whether there be any secret passages of sympathy +between persons of near blood,--as parents, children, brothers, sisters, +nurse-children, husbands, wives, etc. There be many reports in history, +that, upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward +feeling of it. I myself remember, that, being in Paris, and my father +dying in London, two or three days before my father's death I had a +dream, which I told to divers English gentlemen, that my father's house +in the country was plastered all over with black mortar. Next to those +that are near in blood, there may be the like passage and instincts of +Nature between great friends and great enemies. Some trial also would be +made whether pact or agreement do anything: as, if two friends should +agree, that, such a day in every week, they, being in far distant +places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet +one for another's sake, whether, if one of them should break their vow +and promise, the other should have any feeling of it in absence." + +This query of Lord Bacon, whether an agreement between two distant +persons to think of each other at a particular time may not produce an +actual nearness between their spirits, is suggestive. People partially +drowned and resuscitated have often described their last moments of +consciousness as flooded with memories, so that they seemed to be +surrounded by the voices and countenances of those they loved. If this +is common when soul and body are approaching dissolution, may not such +concentration of loving thoughts produce an actual nearness, filling the +person thought of with "a feeling as if somebody were in the room"? And +if the feeling thus induced is very powerful, may not the presence thus +felt become objective, or, in other words, a vision? + +The feeling of the nearness of spirits to when the thoughts are busily +occupied with them may have led to the almost universal belief among +ancient nations that the souls of the dead came back on the anniversary +of their death to the places where their bodies were deposited. This +belief invested their tombs with peculiar sacredness, and led the +wealthy to great expense in their construction. Egyptians, Greeks, and +Romans built them with upper apartments, more or less spacious. These +chambers were adorned with vases, sculptures, and paintings on the +walls, varying in costliness and style according to the means or taste +of the builder. The tomb of Cestius in Rome contained a chamber much +ornamented with paintings. Ancient Egyptian tombs abound with sculptures +and paintings, probably representative of the character of the deceased. +Thus, on the walls of one a man is pictured throwing seed into the +ground, followed by a troop of laborers; farther on, the same individual +is represented as gathering in the harvest; then he is seen in +procession with wife, children, friends, and followers, carrying sheaves +to the temple, a thank-offering to the gods. This seems to be a painted +epitaph, signifying that the deceased was industrious, prosperous, and +pious. It was common to deposit in these tombs various articles of +use or ornament, such as the departed ones had been familiar with and +attached to, while on earth. Many things in the ancient sculptures +indicate that Egyptian women were very fond of flowers. It is a curious +fact, that little china boxes with Chinese letters on them, like those +in which the Chinese now sell flower-seeds, have been discovered in some +of these tombs. Probably the ladies buried there were partial to exotics +from China; and perhaps friends placed them there with the tender +thought that the spirit of the deceased would be pleased to see them, +when it came on its annual visit. Sometimes these paintings and +sculptures embodied ideas reaching beyond the earthly existence, and +"the aërial body" was represented floating among stars, escorted by +what we should call angels, but which they named "Spirits of the +Sun." Families and friends visited these consecrated chambers on the +anniversary of the death of those whose bodies were placed in the +room below. They carried with them music and flowers, cakes and wine. +Religious ceremonies were performed, with the idea that the "invisible +body" was present with them and took part in the prayers and offerings. +The visitors talked together of past scenes, and doubtless their +conversation abounded with touching allusions to the character and +habits of the unseen friend supposed to be listening. It was, in fact, +an annual family-gathering, scarcely sadder in its memories than is our +Thanksgiving festival to those who have travelled far on the pilgrimage +of life. + +St. Paul teaches that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual +body." The early Christians had a very vivid faith, that, when the +soul dropped its outer envelope of flesh, it continued to exist in +a spiritual form. When any of their number died, they observed the +anniversary of his departure by placing on the altar an offering to the +church, in his name. On such occasions, they partook of the sacrament, +with the full belief that his unseen form was present with them, and +shared in the sacred rite, as he had done while in the material body. On +the anniversary of the death of martyrs, there were such commemorations +in all the churches; and that their spirits were believed to be present +is evident from the fact that numerous petitions were addressed to them. +In the Roman Catacombs, where many of the early Christians were buried, +are apartments containing sculptures and paintings of apostles and +martyrs. They are few and rude, because the Christians of that period +were poor, and used such worldly goods as they had more for benevolence +than for show. But these memorials, in such a place, indicate the same +feeling that adorned the magnificent tombs of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. +These subterranean apartments were used for religious meetings in the +first centuries of our era, and it is generally supposed that they were +chosen as safe hiding-places from persecution. Very likely it was so; +but it is not improbable that the spot had peculiar attractions to +worshippers, from the feeling that they were in the midst of an unseen +congregation, whose bodies were buried there. If it was so, it would be +but one of many proofs that the early Christians mixed with their new +religion many of the traditions and ceremonies of their forefathers, who +had been educated in other forms of faith. Even in our own time, threads +of these ancient traditions are more or less visible through the whole +warp and woof of our literature and our customs. Many of the tombs in +the Cemetery of Père la Chaise have pretty upper apartments. On the +anniversary of the death of those buried beneath, friends and relatives +carry thither flowers and garlands. Women often spend the entire day +there, and parties of friends assemble to partake of a picnic repast. + +Most of the ancient nations annually observed a day in honor of the +Souls of Ancestors. This naturally grew out of the custom of meeting in +tombs to commemorate the death of relatives. As generations passed away, +it was unavoidable that many of the very old sepulchres should be seldom +or never visited. Still it was believed that the "shades" even of remote +ancestors hovered about their descendants and were cognizant of their +doings. It was impossible to observe separately the anniversaries of +departed millions, and therefore a day was set apart for religious +ceremonies in honor of _all_ ancestors. Hindoo and Chinese families have +from time immemorial consecrated such days; and the Romans observed a +similar anniversary under the name of Parentalia. + +Christians retained this ancient custom, but it took a new coloring from +their peculiar circumstances. The ties of the church were substituted +for ties of kindred. Its members were considered _spiritual_ fathers +and brothers, and there was an annual festival in honor of _spiritual_ +ancestors. The forms greatly resembled those of the Roman Parentalia. +The gathering-place was usually at the tomb of some celebrated martyr, +or in some chapel consecrated to his memory. Crowds of people came +from all quarters to implore the spirits of the martyrs to send them +favorable seasons, good crops, healthy children, etc., just as the old +Romans had been accustomed to invoke the names of their ancestors for +similar blessings. Prayers were repeated, hymns sung, and offerings +presented to the church, as aforetime to the gods. A great banquet was +prepared, and wine was drunk to the souls of the martyrs so freely that +complete intoxication was common. In view of this and other excesses, +the pious among the bishops exerted their influence to abolish the +custom. But it was so intertwined with the traditional faith of the +populace, and so gratifying to their social propensities, that it was +a long time before it could be suppressed. A vestige of the old +anniversaries in honor of the Souls of Ancestors remains in the Catholic +Church under the name of All-Souls' Day. + +In France, the Parentalia of the ancient Romans is annually observed +under the name of "Le Jour des Morts." All Paris flock to the +cemeteries, bearing bouquets, crosses, and garlands to decorate the +tombs of departed ancestors, relatives, and friends. The gay population +is, for that day, sobered by tender and solemn memories. Many a tear +glistens on the wreaths, and the passing traveller notices many a one +whose trembling lips and swollen eyelids indicate that the soul is +immersed in recollections of departed loved ones. The "cities of the +dead" bloom with fresh flowers, in multifarious forms of crosses, +crowns, and hearts. From all the churches prayers ascend for those who +have dropped their earthly garment of flesh, and who live henceforth in +the "spiritual body," which becomes more and more beautiful with the +progress of the soul,--it being, as the ancients called it, "the soul's +image." + + + + +THE TITMOUSE. + + + You shall not be over-bold + When you deal with arctic cold, + As late I found my lukewarm blood + Chilled wading in the snow-choked wood. + How should I fight? my foeman fine + Has million arms to one of mine. + East, west, for aid I looked in vain; + East, west, north, south, are his domain. + Miles off, three dangerous miles, is home; + Must borrow his winds who there would come. + Up and away for life! be fleet! + The frost-king ties my fumbling feet, + Sings in my ears, my hands are stones, + Curdles the blood to the marble bones, + Tugs at the heartstrings, numbs the sense, + Hems in the life with narrowing fence. + + Well, in this broad bed lie and sleep, + The punctual stars will vigil keep, + Embalmed by purifying cold, + The winds shall sing their dead-march old, + The snow is no ignoble shroud, + The moon thy mourner, and the cloud. + Softly,--but this way fate was pointing, + 'Twas coming fast to such anointing, + When piped a tiny voice hard by, + Gay and polite, a cheerful cry, + "_Chic-chic-a-dee-dee_!" saucy note, + Out of sound heart and merry throat, + As if it said, "Good day, good Sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places, + Where January brings few men's faces." + + This poet, though he live apart, + Moved by a hospitable heart, + Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort, + To do the honors of his court, + As fits a feathered lord of land, + Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand, + Hopped on the bough, then, darting low, + Prints his small impress on the snow, + Shows feats of his gymnastic play, + Head downward, clinging to the spray. + Here was this atom in full breath + Hurling defiance at vast death, + This scrap of valor just for play + Fronts the north-wind in waistcoat gray, + As if to shame my weak behavior. + I greeted loud my little saviour: + "Thou pet! what dost here? and what for? + In these woods, thy small Labrador, + At this pinch, wee San Salvador! + What fire burns in that little chest, + So frolic, stout, and self-possest? + Didst steal the glow that lights the West? + Henceforth I wear no stripe but thine: + Ashes and black all hues outshine. + Why are not diamonds black and gray, + To ape thy dare-devil array? + And I affirm the spacious North + Exists to draw thy virtue forth. + I think no virtue goes with size: + The reason of all cowardice + Is, that men are overgrown, + And, to be valiant, must come down + To the titmouse dimension." + + 'Tis good-will makes intelligence, + And I began to catch the sense + Of my bird's song: "Live out of doors, + In the great woods, and prairie floors. + I dine in the sun; when he sinks in the sea, + I, too, have a hole in a hollow tree. + And I like less when summer beats + With stifling beams on these retreats + Than noontide twilights which snow makes + With tempest of the blinding flakes: + For well the soul, if stout within, + Can arm impregnably the skin; + And polar frost my frame defied, + Made of the air that blows outside." + + With glad remembrance of my debt, + I homeward turn. Farewell, my pet! + When here again thy pilgrim comes, + He shall bring store of seeds and crumbs. + Henceforth I prize thy wiry chant + O'er all that mass and minster vaunt: + For men mishear thy call in spring, + As 'twould accost some frivolous wing, + Crying out of the hazel copse, "_Phe--be!_" + And in winter, "_Chic-a-dee-dee!_" + I think old Caesar must have heard + In Northern Gaul my dauntless bird, + And, echoed in some frosty wold, + Borrowed thy battle-numbers bold. + And I shall write our annals new, + + And thank thee for a better clew: + I, who dreamed not, when I came here, + To find the antidote of fear, + Now hear thee say in Roman key, + "_Paean! Ve-ni, Vi-di, Vi-ci._" + + * * * * * + + +SALTPETRE AS A SOURCE OF POWER. + + +Every element of _strength_ in a civilized community demands special +notice. The present material progress of nations brings us every day in +contact with the application of power under various conditions, and the +most thoughtless person is to some extent influenced mentally by the +improvements, taking the places of older means and ways of adaptation, +in the arts of life. + +We travel by the aid of steam-power, and we think and speak of a +locomotive or a steamboat as we once thought and spoke of a horse or +a man; and no little feeling of self-sufficiency is engendered by the +conclusion that this new source of power has been brought under control +and put to work in our day. + +It is also true that we do not always entertain the most correct view of +what we term the new power of locomotive and steamboat; and as it may +aid us in some further steps connected with the subject of my remarks, +a familiar object, such as a steamboat, may be taken as illustrative of +the application of power, and we may thus obtain some simple ideas of +what power truly is, in Nature. + +My travelled friend considers a steamboat as a ship propelled by wheels, +the shaft to which they are attached being moved by the machinery. +He follows back to the piston of the engine and finds the motor +there,--satisfied that he has discovered in the transference of +rectilinear to rotatory motion the reason for the progress of the boat. +A more inquisitive friend does not rest here, but assumes that the power +of the steam flowing through the machine sets in action its parts; and +he rests from farther pursuit of the power, where the larger number +of those who give any observation to the application of steam are +found,--gratified with the knowledge accumulated, and the readiness with +which an explanation of the motion of the boat can be traced to the +power of steam as its source. + +We must proceed a little farther on our backward course from the point +where the power is applied, and in our analysis consider the steam as +only the vehicle or carrier of the power; and examining the conditions, +we find that water acted on by fire, while contained in a suitable +vessel, after some time takes up certain properties which enable it +to go forward and move the ponderous machinery of the boat. The water +evidently here derives its new character of steam from the fire, and we +have now reached the source of the _movement_ of steam, and traced it +to the fire. In fact, we have found the source of power, in this most +mechanical of all mechanical machines, to be removed from the department +of knowledge which treats of machines! + +But we need not pause here, although we must now enter a little way into +chemical, instead of mechanical science. The fire prepares the water to +act as a carrier of power; it must contain power, therefore; and what +is it which we call fire? In placing on the grate coal or wood, and +providing for the contact of a continuous current of air, we intend to +bring about certain chemical actions as consequent on a disposition +which we know coal and wood to possess. When we apply fire, the chemical +actions commence and the usual effects follow. Now, if we for a moment +dismiss the consideration of the means adopted, it becomes apparent to +every one, that, as the fire will continue to increase with successive +additions of fuel, or as it will continue indefinitely with a regular +supply, there must be something else than mere motor action here. We +cannot call it chemical action, and dismiss the thought, and neglect +further inquiry, unless we would place ourselves with those who regard +the movement of the steamboat as being due to the machinery. + +Our farther progress in this analysis will soon open a wide field of +knowledge and inquiry; but it is sufficient for our present purpose, if, +by a careful study of the composition and chemical disposition of the +proximate compounds of the coal and the wood fuel, we arrive at the +conclusion that both are the result of forces which, very slight in +themselves at any moment, yet when acting through long periods of time +become laid up in the form of coal and wood. All that effort which the +tree has exhibited during its growth from the germ of the seed to its +state of maturity, when taken as fuel, is pent up in its substance, +ready, when fire is applied, to escape slowly and continuously. In +the case of the coal, after the growth of the plant from which it was +formed, the material underwent changes which enabled it to conserve more +forces, and to exhibit more energy when fire is applied to its mass; and +hence the distinction between wood and coal. + +Our analysis thus far has developed the source of the power moving +the steamboat as existing in the gradual action of forces influencing +vegetation, concentrated and locked up in the fuel. For the purpose of +illustrating the subject of this essay, we require no farther progress +in this direction. A moment of thought at this point and we shall cease +to consider steam-power as _new_; for, long before man appeared on this +earth, the vegetation was collecting and condensing those ordinary +natural powers which we find in fuel. In our time, too, the rains and +dews, heat, motion, and gaseous food, are being stored up in a wondrous +manner, to serve as elements of power which may be used and applied now +or hereafter. + +In this view, too, we may include the winds, the falling of rain, the +ascent and descent of sap, the condensation of gases,--in short, +the natural powers, exerted before,--as the cause of motion in the +steamboat. + +Passing from these considerations not unconnected with the subject, let +us inquire what saltpetre is, and how it is formed. + +The term Saltpetre is applied to a variety of bodies, distinguished, +however, by their bases, as potash saltpetre, soda saltpetre, lime +saltpetre, etc., which occur naturally. They are all compounds of nitric +acid and bases, or the gases nitrogen and oxygen united to bases, and +are found in all soils which have not been recently washed by rains, and +which are protected from excessive moisture. + +The decomposition of animal and of some vegetable bodies in the soil +causes the production of one constituent of saltpetre, while the earth +and the animal remains supply the other. Evaporation of pure water from +the surface of the earth causes the moisture which rises from below to +bring to the surface the salt dissolved in it; and as this salt is not +volatile, the escape of the moisture leaves it at or near the surface. +Hence, under buildings, especially habitations of men and animals, the +salt accumulates, and in times of scarcity it may be collected. In all +cases of its extraction from the earth several kinds of saltpetre are +obtained, and the usual course is to decompose these by the addition of +salts of potash, so as to form from them potash saltpetre, the kind most +generally consumed. + +In this decomposition of animal remains and the formation of saltpetre +the air performs an important part, and the changes it effects are +worthy of our attention. + +Let us consider the aërial ocean surrounding our earth and resting upon +it, greatly larger in mass and extent than the more familiar aqueous +ocean below it, and more closely and momentarily affecting our +well-being. + +The pure air, consisting of 20.96 volumes of oxygen gas and 79.04 +volumes of nitrogen gas, preserves, under all the variations of climate +and height above the surface of the earth, a remarkable constancy of +composition,--the variation of one one-hundredth part never having been +observed. But additions and subtractions are being constantly made, +and the atmosphere, as distinguished from the pure air, is mixed with +exhalations from countless sources on the land and the sea. Wherever man +moves, his fire, his food, the materials of his dwellings, the soil he +disturbs, all add their volatile parts to the atmosphere. Vegetation, +death, and decay pour into it copiously substances foreign to the +composition of pure air. The combustion of one ton of coal adds at least +sixteen tons of impurity to the atmosphere; and when we estimate on +the daily consumption of coal the addition from this source alone, the +amount becomes enormous. + +Experiments have been made for the purpose of estimating these +additions, and the results of those most carefully conducted show how +very slightly the combined causes affect the general composition of our +atmosphere; and although the present refined methods of chemists enable +them to detect the presence of an abnormal amount of some substances, no +research has yet been successful in determining how far this varies from +the natural quantity at all times necessarily present in the atmosphere. + +It is, however, the comparatively minute portions of nitrogenous matter +in the atmosphere that we are to consider as the source of the nitrous +acids formed there, and of part of that found in the earth. From some +experiments made during the day and night it has been found, that, under +the most favorable circumstances, six millions six hundred and seventy +thousand parts of air afford one part of nitrogenous bodies, if the +whole quantity be abstracted! A portion only of this quantity can be +withdrawn in natural operations, such as the falling of rain and the +deposition of dew,--the larger part always remaining behind. + +When the oxygen of our atmosphere is exposed, while in its usual +hygrometric state, to the influence of bodies attracting a portion of +it, such as decomposing substances, or when it forms the medium of +electrical discharges, it suddenly assumes new powers, acquires a +greatly increased activity, affects our organs of smell, dissolves +in fluids, and has been mistaken for a new substance, and even named +"ozone." Among the new characters thus conferred on it is the power of +uniting with or burning many substances. This ozonized oxygen, when +brought into mixture with many nitrogenized bodies, forms with them +nitrous acids, completely destroying their former condition and +composition; hence, in the atmosphere, this part of the oxygen becomes +a purifier of the whole mass, from which it removes putrescent +exhalations, miasmatic vapors, and the effluvia from every source of sea +or land. Very curious are the effects of this active oxygen, which is +ever present in some portion of the atmosphere. Moved by the wind, mixed +with the impure upward currents rising from cities, it seizes on +and changes rapidly all foulness, and if the currents are not too +voluminous, the impure air becomes changed to pure. As ozonized oxygen +can be easily detected, we may pass from the city, where (overpowered +by the exhalations) it does not exist, and find it in the air of the +vicinity; and moving away several miles, ascertain that a normal amount +there prevails, and that step by step, on our return to abodes of a +dense population, the quantity diminishes and finally all disappears. + +We are now prepared to answer the second part of the question which was +suggested, and to find that nitrous acids formed in the atmosphere +by direct oxidation of nitrogenous matter may unite with the ammonia +present to produce one kind of saltpetre; and when the rains or the dews +carry this to the earth, the salts of lime, potash, and soda there found +will decompose this ammoniacal saltpetre, and set the ammonia free, to +act over again its part. So in regard to decomposing organic matters in +the soil: ozonized oxygen changes them in the same way. The earth +and calcareous rocks of caves, penetrated by the air, slowly produce +saltpetre, and before the theory of the action was understood, +artificial imitation of natural conditions enabled us to manufacture +saltpetre. Animal remains, stratified with porous earth or the sweepings +of cities, and disposed in long heaps or walls, protected from rain, but +exposed to the prevailing winds, soon form nitrous salts, and a large +space covered with these deposits carefully tended forms a saltpetre +plantation. France, Prussia, Sweden, Switzerland, and other countries, +have been supplied with saltpetre from similar artificial arrangements. + +But the atmosphere is washed most thoroughly by the rains falling in and +near tropical countries, and the changes there are most rapid, so that +the production of saltpetre, favored by moisture and hot winds, attains +its highest limit in parts of India and the bordering countries. + +During the prevalence of dry winds, the earth in many districts of India +becomes frosted over with nitrous efflorescences, and the great quantity +shipped from the commercial ports, and that consumed in China, is thus a +natural production of that region. The increased amount due to tropical +influences will be seen in the instances here given of the produce from +the rich earths of different countries:-- + +_Natural_. + + France, Church of Mousseau, 5-3/8 per cent. + " Cavern of Fouquières, 3-1/2 " + U. States, Tennessee, dirt of caves, 0.86 " + Ceylon, Cave of Memoora, 3-1/10 " + Upper Bengal, Tirhoot, earth simply, 1-6/10 " + Patree in Guzerat, best sweepings, 8-7/10 " + +In each case the salt is mixed saltpetres. + +_Artificial_. + + France, 100 lbs. earth from + plantations afford 8 to 9 oz. + Hungary and Sweden, from + the same, 1/2 to 2-3/10 per cent. + +It may be calculated that the flesh of animals, free from bone, +carefully decomposed, will afford ninety-five pounds of saltpetre for +one thousand pounds thus consumed. + +In the manufacture of saltpetre, the earths, whether naturally or +artificially impregnated, are mixed with the ashes from burnt wood, or +salts of potash, so that this base may take the place of all others, and +produce long prisms of potash saltpetre. + +In this country there are numerous caves of great extent in Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Missouri, from which saltpetre has been manufactured. +Under the most favorable conditions of abundance of labor, obtainable +at a low price, potash saltpetre can be made at a cost about one-fourth +greater than the average price of India saltpetre, and those sources of +supply are the best natural deposits known on this side of the Rocky +Mountains. Where there is an insufficient supply of manure in a country, +resort to the artificial production of saltpetre is simply a robbery +committed on the resources of the agriculturists, and it is only during +the pressure of a great struggle like that of the wars of Napoleon, that +the conversion into saltpetre of materials which can become food for the +community would be permitted. + +Hitherto, in peaceful times, our supply of saltpetre has come from India +through commercial channels; but twice within a few years this course of +trade has been interrupted by the British Government, and the price of a +necessary article has been greatly enhanced,--leading reflecting minds +to the inquiry after other sources whence to draw the quantity required +for an increasing consumption. On the boundary between Peru and Chili, +in South Peru, about forty miles from the ports of Conception and +Iquique, is a depression in the general surface of a saline desert, +where a bed of soda saltpetre, about two and a half feet thick and +one hundred and fifty miles long, exists. The salt is massive, and, +occurring in a rainless climate, it is dry, and contains about sixty per +cent. of pure soda saltpetre. In Brazil, on the San Francisco, the same +salt is found extending sixty or seventy miles,--and again near the town +of Pilao Arcado, the beds being about two hundred and forty miles from +Bahia, but at present inaccessible for want of roads. The Peruvian +native saltpetre is rudely refined in the desert, and then transported +on the backs of mules to the shipping-port. As found in commerce, it is +less impure than India saltpetre; and it might be usefully substituted +for the latter in the manufacture of gunpowder, were it less +deliquescent in damp atmospheres. For chemical purposes it now replaces +India saltpetre, but the larger consumption is perhaps as a fertilizer +of land, in the cool and humid climate of England, the low price it +bears in the market permitting this consumption. + +We have found that the various saltpetres of natural production, or +those obtained in artificial arrangements, are converted by the use of +potash salts into potash saltpetre, and among the products so changed is +natural soda saltpetre. Now to us in this country, so near the sources +of abundant supply of soda saltpetre, this substitution becomes a matter +of great interest. We possess and can produce the alkaline salt of +potash in almost unlimited quantity, and, excepting for some special +purposes, it is consumed for its alkaline energy alone. When soda +saltpetre in proper proportion is dissolved and thus mixed with potash +salt, an exchange of bases takes place, and no loss of alkaline energy +follows. The soda in a quite pure state is eliminated from the soda +saltpetre, and will serve for the manufactures of glass and soap; while +the potash, taking the oxygen compound of the soda saltpetre, produces, +as a final result, a pure and beautiful prismatic saltpetre, most +economically and abundantly. + +Instead of working on a hundred pounds of earth to obtain at most eight +or nine pounds of saltpetre, a hundred pounds of soda saltpetre will +afford more than one hundred and nine pounds of potash saltpetre, when +skilfully treated. Here, then, we have, by simple chemical treatment +of an imported, but very cheap salt, a result constituting a source of +abundant supply of potash saltpetre, _without the loss of the agent_ +concerned in the transformation. + +We have traced slightly in outline the formation of saltpetre to the +action of ozonized oxygen on nitrogen compounds, in the atmosphere, or +in the earth,--the conditions being the same in both cases. If we pursue +the study of this action of ozonized oxygen farther, we shall not +restrict its combining disposition to these compounds, but prove that it +has the power of uniting directly with the nitrogen naturally forming +part of the pure air. While nitrogenized bodies are present, however, +in the atmosphere, or in the humid artificial heaps of saltpetre +plantations, the action of ozonized oxygen is on these, and the nitrous +compounds formed unite with the bases lime, soda, and potash, also +present, to form saltpetre. + +Under all the conditions necessary, we see the permanent gases, oxygen +and nitrogen, leaving the atmosphere and changing from their gaseous to +a solid dry state, when they become chemically combined with potash, and +there are 53-46/100 parts of the gaseous matter and 46-54/100 parts of +the potash in 100 parts of the saltpetre by weight. + +Having now found what saltpetre is and how it is formed, let us advance +to the consideration of it as a source of power. + +Through the exertion of chemical attraction the gaseous elements of the +atmosphere have become solid in the saltpetre; and as we know the weight +of this part in a cubic inch of saltpetre, the volume of the gases +combined is easily ascertained to be about eight hundred times that of +the saltpetre. Hence, as every cubic inch of condensation represents +an atmosphere as large as the cubic inch of saltpetre formed, we may +roughly estimate that the condensing force arising from chemical +attraction in this case is 800 times 15 lbs., or 12,000 lbs.! + +Strictly speaking, only about four-tenths of a cubic inch of potash +holds this enormous power in connection with it so as to form a cubic +inch of saltpetre, which we may handle and bruise, may melt and cool, +dissolve and crystallize, without explosion or change. It contains +conserved a force which represents the aggregate result of innumerable +minute actions, taking place among portions of matter which escape +our senses from their minuteness and excite our wonder by their +transformation. Closely similar are these actions to the agencies in +vegetation which build up the wood of the tree or the material of +the coal destined to serve for the production of fire in all the +applications of steam which we have briefly noticed in illustration. + +In availing ourselves of the concentrated power accumulated in +saltpetre, we resort to bodies which easily kindle when fire is applied, +such as sulphur and finely powdered charcoal: these substances are +most intimately mixed with the saltpetre in a powdered state, and the +dampened mass subjected to great pressure is afterwards broken into +grains of varied size, constituting gunpowder. + +The substances thus added to the saltpetre have both the disposition and +the power of burning with and decomposing the nitrous element of the +saltpetre, and in so doing they do not simply open the way for the +energetic action of the gases escaping, but, owing to the high +temperature produced, a new force is added. + +If the gases escaped from combination simply, they would exert for every +cubic inch of saltpetre, as we have here considered it, the direct power +of 12,000 lbs.; but under the new conditions, the volume of escaping gas +has a temperature above 2,000° Fahrenheit, and consequently its force +in overcoming resistance is more than four times as great, or at least +48,000 lbs. + +Such, then, is the power which can be obtained from a cubic inch of +saltpetre, when it is so compounded as to form some of the kinds of +gunpowder; and the fact of greatest importance in this connection is the +control we have over the amount of the force exerted and the time in +which the energy can be expended, by variations in the proportions of +the eliminating agents employed. + +We have used the well-known term Gunpowder to express the compound by +which we easily obtain the power latent in saltpetre; and the use of the +term suggests the employment of guns, which is secondary to the main +point we are illustrating. As the enormous consumption of power takes +place during peaceful times, so the consumption of saltpetre during a +state of war is much lessened, because the prosecution of public and +private works is then nearly suspended. + +The value and importance of saltpetre as a source of power is seen in +the adaptation of its explosive force to special purposes. It performs +that work well which we cannot carry on so perfectly by means of any +other agent, and the great mining and engineering works of a country are +dependent on this source for their success, and for overcoming obstacles +where other forces fail. With positive certainty the engineer can remove +a portion of a cliff or rock without breaking it into many parts, and +can displace masses to convenient distances, under all the varying +demands which arise in the process of mining, tunnelling, or cutting +into the earth. + +In all these cases of application we see that the powder contains within +itself both the material for producing force and the means by which that +force is applied, no other motor being necessary in its application. + +Modern warfare has become in its simplest expression the intelligent +application of force, and that side will successfully overcome or resist +the other which can in the shortest time so direct the greater force. +In artillery as well as infantry practice, the control over the time +necessary in the decomposition of the powder has been obtained through +the refinements already made in the manufacture, and the best results +of the latest trials confirm in full the conclusion that saltpetre is a +source of great and easily controlled power, which can act through short +or extended space. + +Under the view here presented, it is evident that saltpetre is +indispensable to progress in the arts of civilization and peace, as well +as in military operations, and that no nation can advance in material +interests, or even maintain strict independence, without possessing +within its boundaries either saltpetre or the sources from which it +can be drawn at all times. In its use for protecting the property of +a nation from the attacks of an enemy, and as the means of insuring +respect, we may consider saltpetre as an element of strength in a State, +and as such deserving a high place in the consideration of those who +direct the counsels or form the policy of a country. + +Has the subject of having an exhaustless supply of this important +product or the means of producing it been duly considered? + + * * * * * + + +WEATHER IN WAR. + + +It is not very flattering to that glory-loving, battle-seeking creature, +Man, that his best-arranged schemes for the destruction of his fellows +should often be made to fail by the condition of the weather. More +or less have the greatest of generals been "servile to all the skyey +influences." Upon the state of the atmosphere frequently depends the +ability of men to fight, and military hopes rise and fall with the +rising and falling of the metal in the thermometer's tube. Mercury +governs Mars. A hero is stripped of his plumes by a tempest, and his +laurels fly away on the invisible wings of the wind, and are seen no +more forever. Empires fall because of a heavy fall of snow. Storms of +rain have more than once caused monarchs to cease to reign. A hard +frost, a sudden thaw, a "hot spell," a "cold snap," a contrary wind, a +long drought, a storm of sand,--all these things have had their part in +deciding the destinies of dynasties, the fortunes of races, and the fate +of nations. Leave the weather out of history, and it is as if night were +left out of the day, and winter out of the year. Americans have fretted +a little because their "Grand Army" could not advance through mud that +came up to the horses' shoulders, and in which even the seven-league +boots would have stuck, though they had been worn as deftly as Ariel +could have worn them. They talked as if no such thing had ever before +been known to stay the march of armies; whereas all military operations +have, to a greater or a lesser extent, depended for their issue upon the +softening or the hardening of the earth, or upon the clearing or the +clouding of the sky. The elements have fought against this or that +conqueror, or would-be conqueror, as the stars in their courses fought +against Sisera; and the Kishon is not the only river that has through +its rise put an end to the hopes of a tyrant. The condition of rivers, +which must be owing to the condition of the weather, has often colored +events for ages, perhaps forever. The melting of the snows of the +Pyrenees, causing a great rise of the rivers of Northern Spain, came +nigh bringing ruin upon Julius Caesar himself; and nothing but the +feeble character of the opposing general saved him from destruction. + +The preservation of Greece, with all its incalculable consequences, must +be credited to the weather. The first attempt to conquer that country, +made by the Persians, failed because of a storm that disabled their +fleet. Mardonius crossed the Hellespont twelve or thirteen years before +that feat was accomplished by Xerxes, and he purposed marching as far as +Athens. His army was not unsuccessful, but off Mount Athos the Persian +fleet was overtaken by a storm, which destroyed three hundred ships +and twenty thousand men. This compelled him to retreat, and the Greeks +gained time to prepare for the coming of their enemy. But for that +storm, Athens would have been taken and destroyed, the Persians having +an especial grudge against the Athenians because of their part in the +taking and burning of Sardis; and Athens was destined to become Greece +for all after-time, so that her as yet dim light could not have been +quenched without darkening the whole world. When Xerxes himself entered +Europe, and was apparently about to convert Hellas into a satrapy, it +was a storm, or a brace of storms, that saved that country from so sad a +fate, and preserved it for the welfare of all after generations of men. +The Great King, in the hope of escaping "the unseen atmospheric enemies +which howl around that formidable promontory," had caused Mount Athos to +be cut through, but, as the historian observes, "the work of destruction +to his fleet was only transferred to the opposite side of the +intervening Thracian sea." That fleet was anchored on the Magnesian +coast, when a hurricane came upon it, known to the people of the country +as the _Hellespontias_, and which blew right upon the shore. For three +days this wind continued to blow, and the Persians lost four hundred +warships, many transports and provision craft, myriads of men, and an +enormous amount of _matériel_. The Grecian fleet, which had fled before +that of Persia, now retraced its course, believing that the latter was +destroyed, and would have fled again but for the arts and influence +of Themistocles. The sea-fights of Artemisium followed, in which the +advantage was, though not decisively, with the Greeks; and that +they finally retreated was owing to the success of the Persians at +Thermopylae. Between the first and second battle of Artemisium the +Persians suffered from another storm, which inflicted great losses upon +them. These disasters to the enemy greatly encouraged the Greeks, +who believed that they came directly from the gods; and they made it +possible for them to fight the naval battle of Salamis, and to win it. +So great was the alarm of Xerxes, who thought that the victors would +sail to the Hellespont, and destroy the bridge he had thrown over that +strait, that he ordered his still powerful fleet to hasten to its +protection. He himself fled by land, but on his arrival at the +Hellespont he found that the bridge had been destroyed by a storm; and +he must have been impressed as deeply as Napoleon was in this century, +that the elements had leagued themselves with his mortal enemies. After +his flight, and the withdrawal of his fleet from the war, the Persians +had not a chance left, and the defeat of his lieutenant Mardonius, at +Plataea, was of the nature of a foregone conclusion. + +It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of the assistance which +the Greeks received from the storms mentioned, and it is not strange +that they were lavish in their thanks and offerings to Poseidon the +Saviour, or that they continued piously to express their gratitude +in later days. Mankind at large have reason to be thankful for the +occurrence of those storms; for if they had not happened, Greece must +have been conquered, and all that she has been to the world would have +been that world's loss. It was not until after the overthrow of the +Persians that Athens became the home of science, literature, art, and +commerce; and if Athens had been removed from Greece, there would have +been little of Hellenic genius left for the delight of future days. Not +only was most of that which is known as Greek literature the production +of the years that followed the failure of Xerxes, but the success of the +Greeks was the means of preserving all of their earlier literature. The +Persians were not barbarians, and, had they achieved their purpose, they +might have promoted civilisation in Europe; but that civilization would +have been Asiatic in its character, and it might have been as fleeting +as the labors of the Carthaginians in Europe and Africa. Nor would they +have felt any interest in the preservation of the works of those Greeks +who wrote before the Marathonian time, which they would have regarded +with that contempt with which most conquerors look upon the labors of +those whom they have enslaved. That most brilliant of ages, the age of +Pericles, could never have come to pass under the dominion of Persia; +and the Greeks of Europe, when ruled by satraps from Susa, would have +been of as little weight in the ancient world as, under that kind of +rule, were the Greeks of Ionia. All future history was involved in the +decision of the Persian contest, and we may well feel grateful that the +event was not left for the hands of men to decide, but that the winds +and the waves of the Grecian seas so far equalized the power of the +combatants as to enable the Greeks, who fought for us as well as for +themselves, to roll back the tide of Oriental conquest. We might not +have had even the Secession War, if there had been no storms in the +Thracian seas in a summer the roses of which perished more than two +thousand three hundred years ago.[A] + +[Footnote A: When the Athenian patriots under Thrasybulus occupied +Phyle, they would have been destroyed by the forces of the Thirty +Tyrants, had not a violent snow-storm happened, which compelled +the besiegers to retreat. The patriots characterized this storm as +Providential. Had the weather remained fair, the patriots would have +been beaten, the democracy would not have been restored, and we should +never have had the orations of Demosthenes; and perhaps even Plato might +not have written and thought for all after time.] + +The modern contest which most resembles that which was waged between the +Greeks and the Persians is that war between England and Spain which +came to a crisis in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was destroyed by the +tempests of the Northern seas, after having been well mauled by the +English fleet. The English seamen behaved well, as they always do; but +the Spanish loss would not have been irreparable, if the weather had +remained mild. What men had begun so well storms completed. A contrary +wind prevented the Spanish Admiral from pursuing his course in a +direction that would have proved favorable to his second object, which +was the preservation of his fleet. He was forced to stand to the North, +so that he rushed right into the jaws of destruction. He encountered +in those remote and almost unknown waters tempests that were even more +merciless than the fighting ships and fireships of the island heretics. +Philip II. bore his loss with the same calmness that he bore the victory +of Lepanto. As, on hearing of the latter, he merely said, "Don John +risked a great deal," so, when tidings came to him that the Invincible +Armada had been found vincible, he quietly remarked, "I sent it out +against men, and not against the billows." Down to the very last year, +it had been the common, and all but universal opinion, that, if the +Spaniards had succeeded in landing in England, they would have been +beaten, so resolute were the English in their determination to oppose +them, and so extensive were their preparations for resistance. Elizabeth +at Tilbury had been one of the stock pieces of history, and her words of +defiance to Parma and to Spain have been ringing through the world ever +since they were uttered _after_ the Armada had ceased to threaten her +throne. We now know that the common opinion on this subject, like the +common opinion respecting some other crises, was all wrong, a delusion +and a sham, and based on nothing but plausible lies. Mr. Motley has put +men right on this point, as on some others; and it is impossible to +read his brilliant and accurate narrative of the events of 1588 without +coming to the conclusion that Elizabeth was in the summer of that year +in the way to receive punishment for the cowardly butchery which had +been perpetrated, in her name, if not by her direct orders, in the great +hall of Fotheringay. She was saved by those winds which helped the Dutch +to blockade Parma's army, in the first instance, and then by those +Orcadian tempests which smote the Armada, and converted its haughty +pride into a by-word and a scoffing. The military preparations of +England were of the feeblest character; and it is not too much to say, +that the only parallel case of Governmental weakness is that which is +afforded by the American history of last spring, when we had not an +efficient company or a seaworthy armed ship with which to fight the +Secessionists, who had been openly making their preparations for war for +months. The late Mr. Richard Rush mentions, in the second series of his +"Residence at the Court of London," that at a dinner at the Marquis of +Lansdowne's, in 1820, the conversation turned on the Spanish Armada; and +he was surprised to find that most of the company, which was composed of +members of Parliament and other public men, were of the opinion that the +Spaniards, could they have been landed, would have been victorious. With +genuine American faith in English invincibility, he wondered what the +company could mean, and also what the English armies would have been +about. It was not possible for any one then to have said that there were +no English armies at that time to be about anything; but now we see +that those armies were but imaginary bodies, having not even a paper +existence. Parma, who was even an abler diplomatist than soldier,--that +is, he was the most accomplished liar in an age that was made up of +falsehood,--had so completely gulled the astute Elizabeth that she was +living in the fools' paradise; and so little did she and most of her +counsellors expect invasion, that a single Spanish regiment of infantry +might, had it then been landed, have driven the whole organized force +of England from Sheerness to Bristol. Those Englishmen who sneer so +bitterly at the conduct of our Government but a year ago would do well +to study closely the history of their own country in 1588, in which they +will find much matter calculated to lessen their conceit, and to teach +them charity. The Lincoln Government of the United States had been in +existence but little more than thirty days when it found itself involved +in war with the Rebels; the Elizabethan Government had been in existence +for thirty years when the Armada came to the shores of England, to the +astonishment and dismay of those "barons bold and statesmen old in +bearded majesty" whom we have been content to regard as the bravest and +the wisest men that have lived since David and Solomon. Elizabeth, who +had a beard that vied with Burleigh's,--the evidence of her virgin +innocence,--felt every hair of her head curling from terror when she +learned how she had been "done" by Philip's lieutenant; and old Burleigh +must have thought that his mistress was in the condition of Jockey of +Norfolk's master at Bosworth,--"bought and sold." Fortunately for both +old women, and for us all, the summer gales of 1588 were adverse to the +Spaniards, and protected Old England. We know not whence the wind cometh +nor whither it goeth, but we know that its blows have often been given +with effect on human affairs; and it never blew with more usefulness, +since the time when it used up the ships of Xerxes, than when it sent +the ships of Philip to join "the treasures that old Ocean hoards." Had +England then been conquered by Spain, though but temporarily, Protestant +England would have ceased to exist, and the current of history would +have been as emphatically changed as was the current of the Euphrates +under the labors of the soldiers of Cyrus. We should have had no +Shakspeare, or a very different Shakspeare from the one that we have; +and the Elizabethan age would have presented to after centuries an +appearance altogether unlike that which now so impressively strikes the +mind. As that was the time out of which all that is great and good in +England and America has proceeded, in letters and in arms, in religion +and in politics, we can easily understand how vast must have been the +change, had not the winds of the North been so unpropitious to the +purposes of the King of the South. + +The English are very proud of the victories of Crécy and Agincourt, as +well they may be; for, though gained in the course of as unjust and +unprovoked and cruel wars as ever were waged even by Englishmen, they +are as splendid specimens of slaughter-work as can be found in the +history of "the Devil's code of honor." But they owe them both to the +weather, which favored their ancestors, and was as unfavorable to the +ancestors of the French. At Crécy the Italian cross-bow men in the +French army not only came into the field worn down by a long march on a +hot day in August, but immediately after their arrival they were +exposed to a terrible thunder-storm, in which the rain fell in absolute +torrents, wetting the strings of their bows, and rendering them +unserviceable. The English archers, who carried the far more useful +long-bow, kept their bows in their cases until the rain ceased, and then +took them out dry, and in perfect condition; besides which, even if +the strings of the long-bows had been wetted, they could not have been +materially injured, as they were thin and pliable, while those of the +cross-bows were so thick and unpliable that they could not be tightened +or slackened at pleasure. In after-days this defect in the cross-bow was +removed, but it existed in full force in 1346. When the battle began, +the Italian _quarrel_ was found to be worthless, because of the strings +of the arbalists having absorbed so much moisture, while the English +arrows came upon the poor Genoese in frightful showers, throwing them +into a panic, and inaugurating disaster to the French at the very +beginning of the action. The day was lost from that moment, and there +was not a leader among the French capable of restoring it. + +At Agincourt the circumstances were very different, but quite as fatal +to the French. That battle was fought on the 25th of October, 1415, and +the French should have won it according to all the rules of war,--but +they did not win it, because they had too much valor and too little +sense. A cautious coward makes a better soldier than a valiant fool, and +the boiling bravery of the French has lost them more battles than any +other people have lost through timidity. Henry V.'s invasion of France +was the most wicked attack that ever was made even by England on a +neighboring nation, and it was meeting with its proper reward, when +French folly ruined everything. The French overtook the English on the +24th of October, and by judicious action might have destroyed them, for +they were by far the more numerous,--though most English authorities, +with characteristic "unveracity," grossly exaggerate the inequality of +numbers that really did exist between the two armies. On the night of +the 24th the rain fell heavily, making the ground quite unfit for +the operations of heavy cavalry, in which the strength of the French +consisted, while the English had their incomparable archers, the +worthy predecessors of the English infantry of to-day, one of whom was +calculated to do more efficient service than could have been expected, +as the circumstances of the field were, from ten knights cumbered with +bulky mail. Sir Harris Nicolas, the most candid English historian of the +battle, and who prepared a very useful, but unreadable volume concerning +it, after speaking of the bad arrangements adopted by the French, +proceeds to say,--"The inconveniences under which the French labored +were much increased by the state of the ground, which was not only soft +from heavy rains, but was broken up by their horses during the preceding +night, the weather having obliged the valets and pages to keep them in +motion. Thus the statement of French historians may readily be credited, +that, from the ponderous armor with which the men-at-arms were +enveloped, and the softness of the ground, it was with the utmost +difficulty they could either move or lift their weapons, notwithstanding +their lances had been shortened to enable them to fight closely,--that +the horses at every step sunk so deeply into the mud, that it required +great exertion to extricate them,--and that the narrowness of the place +caused their archers to be so crowded as to prevent them from drawing +their bows." Michelet's description of the day is the best that can be +read, and he tells us, that, when the signal of battle was given by Sir +Thomas Erpingham, the English shouted, but "the French army, to their +great astonishment, remained motionless. Horses and knights appeared to +be enchanted, or struck dead in their armor. The fact was, that their +large battle-steeds, weighed down with their heavy riders and lumbering +caparisons of iron, had all their feet completely sunk in the deep wet +clay; they were fixed there, and could only struggle out to crawl on a +few steps at a walk," Upon this mass of chivalry, all stuck in the mud, +the cloth-yard shafts of the English yeomen fell like hailstones upon +the summer corn. Some few of the French made mad efforts to charge, but +were annihilated before they could reach the English line. The English +advanced upon the "mountain of men and horses mixed together," and +butchered their immovable enemies at their leisure. Plebeian hands that +day poured out patrician blood in torrents. The French fell into a +panic, and those of their number who could run away did so. It was the +story of Poitiers over again, in one respect; for the Black Prince owed +his victory to a panic that befell a body of sixteen thousand French, +who scattered and fled without having struck a blow. Agincourt was +fought on St. Crispin's day, and a precious strapping the French got. +The English found that there was "nothing like leather." It was the last +battle in which the oriflamme was displayed; and well it might be; for, +red as it was, it must have blushed a deeper red over the folly of the +French commanders. + +The greatest battle ever fought on British ground, with the exceptions +of Hastings and Bannockburn,--and greater even than Hastings, if numbers +are allowed to count,--was that of Towton, the chief action in the Wars +of the Roses; and its decision was due to the effect of the weather on +the defeated army. It was fought on the 29th of March, 1461, which was +the Palm-Sunday of that year. Edward, Earl of March, eldest son of the +Duke of York, having made himself King of England, advanced to the North +to meet the Lancastrian army. That army was sixty thousand strong, while +Edward IV. was at the head of less than forty-nine thousand. After some +preliminary fighting, battle was joined on a plain between the villages +of Saxton and Towton, in Yorkshire, and raged for ten hours. Palm-Sunday +was a dark and tempestuous day, with the snow falling heavily. At first +the wind was favorable to the Lancastrians, but it suddenly changed, and +blew the snow right into their faces. This was bad enough, but it was +not the worst, for the snow slackened their bow-strings, causing their +arrows to fall short of the Yorkists, who took them from the ground, and +sent them back with fatal effect. The Lancastrian leaders then sought +closer conflict, but the Yorkists had already achieved those advantages +which, under a good general, are sure to prepare the way to victory. It +was as if the snow had resolved to give success to the pale rose. That +which Edward had won he was resolved to increase, and his dispositions +were of the highest military excellence; but it is asserted that he +would have been beaten, because of the superiority of the enemy in men, +but for the coming up, at the eleventh hour, of the Duke of Norfolk, who +was the Joseph Johnston of 1461, doing for Edward what the Secessionist +Johnston did for Beauregard in 1861. The Lancastrians then gave way, +and retreated, at first in orderly fashion, but finally falling into +a panic, when they were cut down by thousands. They lost twenty-eight +thousand men, and the Yorkists eight thousand. This was a fine piece of +work for the beginning of Passion-Week, bloody laurels gained in civil +conflict being substituted for palm-branches! No such battle was ever +fought by Englishmen in foreign lands. This was the day when + + "Wharfe ran red with slaughter, + Gathering in its guilty flood + The carnage, and the ill-spilt blood + That forty thousand lives could yield. + Crécy was to this but sport, + Poitiers but a pageant vain, + And the work of Agincourt + Only like a tournament. + Half the blood which there was spent + Had sufficed to win again + Anjou and ill-yielded Maine, + Normandy and Aquitaine." + +Edward IV., it should seem, was especially favored by the powers of the +air; for, if he owed victory at Towton to wind and snow, he owed it to a +mist at Barnet. This last action was fought on the 14th of April, 1471, +and the prevalence of the mist, which was very thick, enabled Edward so +to order his military work as to counterbalance the enemy's superiority +in numbers. The mist was attributed to the arts of Friar Bungay, a +famous and most rascally "nigromancer." The mistake made by Warwick's +men, when they thought Oxford's cognizance, a star paled with rays, +was that of Edward, which was a sun in full glory, (the White Rose _en +soleil,_) and so assailed their own friends, and created a panic, was in +part attributable to the mist, which prevented them from seeing clearly; +and this mistake was the immediate occasion of the overthrow of the army +of the Red Rose. That Edward was enabled to fight the Battle of Barnet +with any hope of success was also owing to the weather. Margaret of +Anjou had assembled a force in France, Louis XI. supporting her cause, +and this force was ready to sail in February, and by its presence +in England victory would unquestionably have been secured for the +Lancastrians. But the elements opposed themselves to her purpose with so +much pertinacity and consistency that it is not strange that men should +have seen therein the visible hand of Providence. Three times did she +embark, but only to be driven back by the wind, and to suffer loss. Some +of her party sought to persuade her to abandon the enterprise, as Heaven +seemed to oppose it; but Margaret was a strong-minded woman, and would +not listen to the suggestions of superstitious cowards. She sailed a +fourth time, and held on in the face of bad weather. Half a day of good +weather was all that was necessary to reach England, but it was not +until the end of almost the third week that she was able to effect a +landing, and then at a point distant from Warwick. Had the King-maker +been the statesman-soldier that he has had the credit of being, he never +would have fought Edward until he had been joined by Margaret; and he +must have known that her non-arrival was owing to contrary winds, +he having been himself a naval commander. But he acted like a +knight-errant, not like a general, gave battle, and was defeated and +slain, "The Last of the Barons." Having triumphed at Barnet, Edward +marched to meet Margaret's army, which was led by Somerset, and defeated +it on the 4th of May, after a hardly-contested action at Tewkesbury. It +was on that field that Prince Edward of Lancaster perished; and as his +father, Henry VI., died a few days later, "of pure displeasure and +melancholy," the line of Lancaster became extinct. + +In justice to the memory of a monarch, to whom justice has never been +done, it should be remarked, in passing, that Edward IV. deserved the +favors of Fortune, if talent for war insures success in war. He was, so +far as success goes, one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived. He +never fought a battle that he did not win, and he never won a battle +without annihilating his foe. He was not yet nineteen when he commanded +at Towton, at the head of almost fifty thousand men; and two months +before he had gained the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, under circumstances +that showed skillful generalship. No similar instance of precocity is +to be found in the military history of mankind. His victories have been +attributed to Warwick, but it is noticeable that he was as successful +over Warwick as he had been over the Lancastrians, against whom Warwick +originally fought. Barnet was, with fewer combatants, as remarkable an +action as Towton; and at Mortimer's Cross Warwick was not present, while +he fought and lost the second battle of St. Alban's seventeen days after +Edward had won his first victory. Warwick was not a general, but a +magnificent paladin, resembling much Coeur de Lion, and most decidedly +out of place in the England of the last half of the fifteenth century. +What is peculiarly remarkable in Edward's case is this: he had received +no military training beyond that which was common to all high-born +youths in that age. The French wars had long been over, and what had +happened in the early years of the Roses' quarrel was certainly not +calculated to make generals out of children. In this respect Edward +stands quite alone in the list of great commanders. Alexander, Hannibal, +the first Scipio Africanus, Pompeius, Don John of Austria, Condé, +Charles XII., Napoleon, and some other young soldiers of the highest +eminence, were either all regularly instructed in the military art, or +succeeded to the command of veteran armies, or were advised and assisted +by old and skilful generals. Besides, they were all older than Edward +when they first had independent command. Gaston de Foix approaches +nearest to the Yorkist king, but he gained only one battle, was older at +Ravenna than Edward was at Towton, and perished in the hour of victory. +Clive, perhaps, may be considered as equalling the Plantagenet king in +original genius for war, but the scene of his actions, and the materials +with which he wrought, were so very different from those of other +youthful commanders, that no just comparison can be made between him and +any one of their number. + +The English have asserted that they lost the Battle of Falkirk, in 1746, +because of the severity of a snow-storm that took place when they went +into action, a strong wind blowing the snow straight into their faces; +and one of the causes of the defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden, +three months later, was another fall of snow, which was accompanied by +wind that then blew into their faces. Fortune was impartial, and made +the one storm to balance the other. + +That the American army was not destroyed soon after the Battle of Long +Island must be attributed to the foggy weather of the 29th of August, +1776. But for the successful retreat of Washington's army from Long +Island, on the night of the 29th-30th, the Declaration of Independence +would have been made waste paper in "sixty days" after its adoption; and +that retreat could not have been made, had there not been a dense fog +under cover of which to make it, and to deter the enemy from action. +Washington and his whole army would have been slain or captured, could +the British forces have had clear weather in which to operate. "The +fog which prevailed all this time," says Irving, "seemed almost +Providential. While it hung over Long Island, and concealed the +movements of the Americans, the atmosphere was clear on the New York +side of the river. The adverse wind, too, died away, the river became +so smooth that the rowboats could be laden almost to the gunwale; and a +favoring breeze sprang up for the sail-boats. The whole embarkation of +troops, ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, and carts, was happily +effected, and by daybreak the greater part had safely reached the city, +thanks to the aid of Glover's Marblehead men. Scarce anything was +abandoned to the enemy, excepting a few heavy pieces of artillery. At +a proper time, Mifflin with his covering party left the lines, and +effected a silent retreat to the ferry. Washington, though repeatedly +entreated, refused to enter a boat until all the troops were embarked, +and crossed the river with the last." Americans should ever regard a fog +with a certain reverence, for a fog saved their country in 1776. + +That Poland was not restored to national rank by Napoleon I. was in some +measure owing to the weather of the latter days of 1806. Those of the +French officers who marched through the better portions of that country +were for its restoration, but others who waded through its terrible +mud took different ground in every sense. Hence there was a serious +difference of opinion in the French councils on this vitally important +subject, which had its influence on Napoleon's mind. The severe +winter-weather of 1806-7, by preventing the Emperor from destroying the +Russians, which he was on the point of doing, was prejudicial to the +interests of Poland; for the ultimate effect was, to compel France to +treat with Russia as equal with equal, notwithstanding the crowning +victory of Friedland. This done, there was no present hope of Polish +restoration, as Alexander frankly told the French Emperor that the world +would not be large enough for them both, if he should seek to renew +Poland's rank as a nation. So far as the failure of the French in 1812 +is chargeable upon the weather, the weather must be considered as having +been again the enemy of Poland; for Napoleon would have restored that +country, had he succeeded in his Russian campaign. Such restoration +would then have been a necessity of his position. But it was not the +weather of Russia that caused the French failure of 1812. That failure +was all but complete before the invaders of Russia had experienced any +very severe weather. The two powers that conquered Napoleon were those +which General Von Knesebeck had pointed out to Alexander as sure to +be too much for him,--Space and Time. The cold, frosts, and snows of +Russia simply completed what those powers had so well begun, and so well +done. + +In the grand campaign of 1813, the weather had an extraordinary +influence on Napoleon's fortunes, the rains of Germany really doing him +far more mischief than he had experienced from the snows of Russia; and, +oddly enough, a portion of this mischief came to him through the gate +of victory. The war between the French and the Allies was renewed the +middle of August, and Napoleon purposed crushing the Army of Silesia, +under old Blücher, and marched upon it; but he was recalled by the +advance of the Grand Army of the Allies upon Dresden; for, if that city +had fallen into their hands, his communications with the Rhine would +have been lost. Returning to Dresden, he restored affairs there on the +26th of August; and on the 27th, the Battle of Dresden was fought, the +last of his great victories. It was a day of mist and rain, the mist +being thick, and the rain heavy. Under cover of the mist, Murat +surprised a portion of the Austrian infantry, and, as their muskets were +rendered unserviceable by the rain, they fell a prey to his horse, who +were assisted by infantry and artillery, more than sixteen thousand men +being killed, wounded, or captured. The left wing of the Allies was +annihilated. So far all was well for the Child of Destiny; but Nemesis +was preparing to exact her dues very swiftly. A victory can scarcely be +so called, unless it be well followed up; and whether Dresden should be +another Austerlitz depended upon what might be done during the next two +or three days. Napoleon did _not_ act with his usual energy on that +critical occasion, and in seven months he had ceased to reign. Why did +he refrain from reaping the fruits of victory? Because the weather, +which had been so favorable to his fortunes on the 27th, was quite as +unfavorable to his person. On that day he was exposed to the rain for +twelve hours, and when he returned to Dresden, at night, he was wet to +the skin, and covered with mud, while the water was streaming from his +chapeau, which the storm had knocked _out_ of a cocked hat. It was a +peculiarity of Napoleon's constitution, that he could not expose himself +to damp without bringing on a pain in the stomach; and this pain seized +him at noon on the 28th, when he had partaken of a repast at Pirna, +whither he had gone in the course of his operations against the beaten +enemy. This illness caused him to cease his personal exertions, but not +from giving such orders as the work before him required him to issue. +Perhaps it would have had no evil effect, had it not been, that, while +halting at Pirna, news came to him of two great failures of distant +armies, which led him to order the Young Guard to halt at that +place,--an order that cost him his empire. One more march in advance, +and Napoleon would have become greater than ever he had been; but +that march was not made, and so the flying foe was converted into a +victorious army. For General Vandamme, who was at the head of the chief +force of the pursuing French, pressed the Allies with energy, relying on +the support of the Emperor, whose orders he was carrying out in the best +manner. This led to the Battle of Kulm, in which Vandamme was defeated, +and his army destroyed for the time, because of the overwhelming +superiority of the enemy; whereas that action would have been one of the +completest French victories, had the Young Guard been ordered to march +from Pirna, according to the original intention. The roads were in a +most frightful state, in consequence of the wet weather; but, as a +victorious army always finds food, so it always finds roads over which +to advance to the completion of its task, unless its chief has no head. +Vandamme had a head, and thought he was winning the Marshal's staff +which Napoleon had said was awaiting him in the midst of the enemy's +retiring masses. So confident was he that the Emperor would support him, +that he would not retreat while yet it was in his power to do so; and +the consequence was that his _corps d'armée_ was torn to pieces, and +himself captured. Napoleon had the meanness to charge Vandamme with +going too far and seeking to do too much, as he supposed he was slain, +and therefore could not prove that he was simply obeying orders, as +well as acting in exact accordance with sound military principles. That +Vandamme was right is established by the fact that an order came from +Napoleon to Marshal Mortier, who commanded at Pirna, to reinforce him +with two divisions; but the order did not reach Mortier until after +Vandamme had been defeated. Marshal Saint-Cyr, who was bound to aid +Vandamme, was grossly negligent, and failed of his duty; but even he +would have acted well, had he been acting under the eye of the Emperor, +as would have been the case, had not the weather of the 27th broken down +the health of Napoleon, and had not other disasters to the French, all +caused by the same storm that had raged around Dresden, induced Napoleon +to direct his personal attention to points remote from the scene of his +last triumph.[B] + +[Footnote B: There was a story current that Napoleon's indisposition on +the 28th of August was caused by his eating heartily of a shoulder of +mutton stuffed with garlic, not the wholesomest food in the world; and +the digestive powers having been reduced by long exposure to damp, this +dish may have been too much for them. Thiers says that the Imperial +illness at Pirna was "a malady invented by flatterers," and yet only a +few pages before he says that "Napoleon proceeded to Pirna, where he +arrived about noon, and where, after having partaken of a slight repast, +he was seized with a pain in the stomach, to which he was subject after +exposure to damp." Napoleon suffered from stomach complaints from an +early period of his career, and one of their effects is greatly to +lessen the powers of the sufferer's mind. His want of energy at Borodino +was attributed to a disordered stomach, and the Russians were simply +beaten, not destroyed, on that field. When he beard of Vandamme's +defeat, Napoleon said, "One should make a bridge of gold for a flying +enemy, where it is impossible, as in Vandamme's case, to oppose to him +a bulwark of steel." He forgot that his own plan was to have opposed to +the enemy a bulwark of steel, and that the non-existence of that bulwark +on the 30th of August was owing to his own negligence. Still, the +reverse at Kulm might not have proved so terribly fatal, had it not been +preceded by the reverses on the Katzbach, which also were owing to the +heavy rains, and news of which was the cause of the halting of so large +a portion of his pursuing force at Pirna, and the march of many of his +best men back to Dresden, his intention being to attempt the restoration +of affairs in that quarter, where they had been so sadly compromised +under Macdonald's direction. He was as much overworked by the necessity +of attending to so many theatres of action as his armies were +overmatched in the field by the superior numbers of the Allies. He is +said to have repeated the following lines, after musing for a while on +the news from Kulm:-- + + "J'ai servi, commandé, vaincu quarante années; + Du monde entre mes mains j'ai tu les destinées, + Et j'ai toujours connu qu'en chaque événement + Le destin des états dépendait d'un moment." + +But he had hours, we might say days, to settle his destiny, and was not +tied down to a moment. Afterward he had the fairness to admit that he +had lost a great opportunity to regain the ascendency in not supporting +Vandamme with the whole of the Young Guard.] + +When Napoleon was called from the pursuit of Blücher by Schwarzenberg's +advance upon Dresden, he confided the command of the army that was to +act against that of Silesia to Marshal Macdonald, a brave and honest +man, but a very inferior soldier, yet who might have managed to hold his +own against so unscientific a leader as the fighting old hussar, had it +not been for the terrible rainstorm that began on the night of the 25th +of August. The swelling of the rivers, some of them deep and rapid, led +to the isolation of the French divisions, while the rain was so severe +as to prevent them from using their muskets. Animated by the most ardent +hatred, the new Prussian levies, few of whom had been in service half as +long as our volunteers, and many of whom were but mere boys, rushed upon +their enemies, butchering them with butt and bayonet, and forcing +them into the boiling torrent of the Katzbach. Puthod's division was +prevented from rejoining its comrades by the height of the waters, and +was destroyed, though one of the best bodies in the French army. The +state of the country drove the French divisions together on the same +lines of retreat, creating immense confusion, and leading to the most +serious losses of men and _matériel_. Macdonald's blunder was in +advancing after the storm began, and had lasted for a whole night. His +officers pointed out the danger of his course, but he was one of those +men who think, that, because they are not knaves, they can accomplish +everything; but the laws of Nature no more yield to honest stupidity +than to clever roguery. The Baron Von Müffling, who was present in +Blücher's army, says, that, when the French attempted to protect their +retreat at the Katzbach with artillery, the guns stuck in the mud; and +he adds,--"The field of battle was so saturated by the incessant rain, +that a great portion of our infantry left their shoes sticking in +the mud, and followed the enemy barefoot." Even a brook, called the +Deichsel, was so swollen by the rain that the French could cross it at +only one place, and there they lost wagons and guns. Old Blücher issued +a thundering proclamation for the encouragement of his troops. "In the +battle on the Katzbach," he said to them, "the enemy came to meet you +with defiance. Courageously, and with the rapidity of lightning, you +issued from behind your heights. You scorned to attack them with +musketry-fire: you advanced without a halt; your bayonets drove them +down the steep ridge of the valley of the raging Neisse and Katzbach. +Afterwards you waded through rivers and brooks swollen with rain. You +passed nights in mud. You suffered for want of provisions, as the +impassable roads and want of conveyance hindered the baggage from +following. You struggled with cold, wet, privations, and want of +clothing; nevertheless you did not murmur,--with great exertions you +pursued your routed foe. Receive my thanks for such laudable conduct. +The man alone who unites such qualities is a true soldier. One hundred +and three cannons, two hundred and fifty ammunition-wagons, the enemy's +field-hospitals, their field-forges, their flour-wagons, one general of +division, two generals of brigade, a great number of colonels, staff +and other officers, eighteen thousand prisoners, two eagles, and other +trophies, are in your hands. The terror of your arms has so seized upon +the rest of your opponents, that they will no longer bear the sight of +your bayonets. You have seen the roads and fields between the Katzbach +and the Bober: they bear the signs of the terror and confusion of your +enemy." The bluff old General, who at seventy had more "dash" than all +the rest of the leaders of the Allies combined, and who did most of the +real fighting business of "those who wished and worked" Napoleon's fall, +knew how to talk to soldiers, which is a quality not always possessed +by even eminent commanders. Soldiers love a leader who can take them to +victory, and then talk to them about it. Such a man is "one of them." + +Napoleon never recovered from the effects of the losses he experienced +at Kulm and on the Katzbach,--losses due entirely to the wetness of the +weather. He went downward from that time with terrible velocity, and was +in Elba the next spring, seven months after having been on the Elbe. The +winter campaign of 1814, of which so much is said, ought to furnish +some matter for a paper on weather in war; but the truth is, that that +campaign was conducted politically by the Allies. There was never a +time, after the first of February, when, if they had conducted the war +solely on military principles, they could not have been in Paris in a +fortnight. + +Napoleon's last campaign owed its lamentable decision to the peculiar +character of the weather on its last two days, though one would not look +for such a thing as severe weather in June, in Flanders. But so it was, +and Waterloo would have been a French victory, and Wellington where +_Henry_ was when he ran against _Eclipse_,--nowhere,--if the rain that +fell so heavily on the 17th of June had been postponed only twenty-four +hours. Up to the afternoon of the 17th, the weather, though very warm, +was dry, and the French were engaged in following their enemies. The +Anglo-Dutch infantry had retreated from Quatre-Bras, and the cavalry was +following, and was itself followed by the French cavalry, who pressed it +with great audacity. "The weather," says Captain Siborne, "during the +morning, had become oppressively hot; it was now a dead calm; not a leaf +was stirring; and the atmosphere was close to an intolerable degree; +while a dark, heavy, dense cloud impended over the combatants. The 18th +[English] Hussars were fully prepared, and awaited but the command to +charge, when the brigade guns on the right commenced firing, for the +purpose of previously disturbing and breaking the order of the enemy's +advance. The concussion seemed instantly to rebound through the still +atmosphere, and communicate, as an electric spark, with the heavily +charged mass above. A most awfully loud thunder-clap burst forth, +immediately succeeded by a rain which has never, probably, been exceeded +in violence even within the tropics. In a very few minutes the ground +became perfectly saturated,--so much so, that it was quite impracticable +for any rapid movement of the cavalry." This storm prevented the French +from pressing with due force upon their retiring foes; but that would +have been but a small evil, if the storm had not settled into a steady +and heavy rain, which converted the fat Flemish soil into a mud that +would have done discredit even to the "sacred soil" of Virginia, and the +latter has the discredit of being the nastiest earth in America. All +through the night the windows of heaven were open, as if weeping over +the spectacle of two hundred thousand men preparing to butcher each +other. Occasionally the rain fell in torrents, greatly distressing the +soldiers, who had no tents. On the morning of the 18th the rain ceased, +but the day continued cloudy, and the sun did not show himself until the +moment before setting, when for an instant he blazed forth in full glory +upon the forward movement of the Allies. One may wonder if Napoleon +then thought of that morning "Sun of Austerlitz," which he had so often +apostrophized in the days of his meridian triumphs. The evening sun of +Waterloo was the practical antithesis to the rising sun of Austerlitz. + +The Battle of Waterloo was not begun until about twelve o'clock, because +of the state of the ground, which did not admit of the action of cavalry +and artillery until several hours had been allowed for its hardening. +That inevitable delay was the occasion of the victory of the Allies; +for, if the battle had been opened at seven o'clock, the French would +have defeated Wellington's army before a Prussian regiment could have +arrived on the field. It has been said that the rain was as baneful to +the Allies as to the French, as it prevented the early arrival of the +Prussians; but the remark comes only from persons who are not familiar +with the details of the most momentous of modern pitched battles. +Bülow's Prussian corps, which was the first to reach the field, marched +through Wavre in the forenoon of the 18th; but no sooner had its +advanced guard--an infantry brigade, a cavalry regiment, and one +battery--cleared that town, than a fire broke out there, which greatly +delayed the march of the remainder of the corps. There were many +ammunition-wagons in the streets, and, fearful of losing them, and of +being deprived of the means of fighting, the Prussians halted, and +turned firemen for the occasion. This not only prevented most of the +corps from arriving early on the right flank of the French, but it +prevented the advanced guard from acting, Bülow being too good a soldier +to risk so small a force as that immediately at his command in an attack +on the French army. It was not until about half-past one that the +Prussians were first seen by the Emperor, and then at so great a +distance that even with glasses it was difficult to say whether the +objects looked at were men or trees. But for the bad weather, it is +possible that Bülow's whole corps, supposing there had been no fire at +Wavre, might have arrived within striking distance of the French army +by two o'clock, P.M.; but by that hour the battle between Napoleon and +Wellington would have been decided, and the Prussians would have come +up only to "augment the slaughter," had the ground been hard enough for +operations at an early hour of the day. As the battle was necessarily +fought in the afternoon, because of the softness of the soil consequent +on the heavy rains of the preceding day and night, there was time gained +for the arrival of Bülow's corps by four o'clock of the afternoon of the +18th. Against that corps Napoleon had to send almost twenty thousand of +his men, and sixty-six pieces of cannon, all of which might have been +employed against Wellington's army, had the battle been fought in the +forenoon. As it was, that large force never fired a shot at the English. +The other Prussian corps that reached the field toward the close of the +day, Zieten's and Pirch's, did not leave Wavre until about noon. The +coming up of the advanced guard of Zieten, but a short time before the +close of the battle, enabled Wellington to employ the fresh cavalry of +Vivian and Vandeleur at another part of his line, where they did eminent +service for him at a time which is known as "the crisis" of the day. +Taking all these facts into consideration, it must be admitted that +there never was a more important rain-storm than that which happened on +the 17th of June, 1815. Had it occurred twenty-four hours later, the +destinies of the world might, and most probably would, have been +completely changed; for Waterloo was one of those decisive battles which +dominate the ages through their results, belonging to the same class +of combats as do Marathon, Pharsalia, Lepanto, Blenheim, Yorktown, and +Trafalgar. It was decided by water, and not by fire, though the latter +was hot enough on that fatal field to satisfy the most determined lover +of courage and glory. + +If space permitted, we could bring forward many other facts to show the +influence of weather on the operations of war. We could show that it was +owing to changes of wind that the Spaniards failed to take Leyden, the +fall of which into their hands would probably have proved fatal to the +Dutch cause; that a sudden thaw prevented the French from seizing the +Hague in 1672, and compelling the Dutch to acknowledge themselves +subjects of Louis XIV.; that a change of wind enabled William of Orange +to land in England, in 1688, without fighting a battle, when even +victory might have been fatal to his purpose; that Continental +expeditions fitted out for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the +British throne were more than once ruined by the occurrence of tempests; +that the defeat of our army at Germantown was in part due to the +existence of a fog; that a severe storm prevented General Howe from +assailing the American position on Dorchester Heights, and so enabled +Washington to make that position too strong to be attacked with hope +of success, whereby Boston was freed from the enemy's presence; that a +heavy fall of rain, by rendering the River Catawba unfordable, put +a stop, for a few days, to those movements by which Lord Cornwallis +intended to destroy the army of General Morgan, and obtain compensation +for Tarleton's defeat at the Cowpens; that an autumnal tempest compelled +the same British commander to abandon a project of retreat from +Yorktown, which good military critics have thought well conceived, and +promising success; that the severity of the winter of 1813 interfered +effectively with the measures which Napoleon had formed with the view of +restoring his affairs, so sadly compromised by his failure in Russia; +that the "misty, chilly, and insalubrious" weather of Louisiana, and its +mud, had a marked effect on Sir Edward Pakenham's army, and helped us to +victory over one of the finest forces ever sent by Europe to the West; +that in 1828 the Russians lost myriads of men and horses, in the +Danubian country and its vicinity, through heavy rains and hard frosts; +that the November hurricane of 1854 all but paralyzed the allied forces +in the Crimea;--and many similar things that establish the helplessness +of men in arms when the weather is adverse to them. But enough has been +said to convince even the most skeptical that our Potomac Army did not +stand alone in being forced to stand still before the dictation of the +elements. Our armies, indeed, have suffered less from the weather than +it might reasonably have been expected they would suffer, having simply +been delayed at some points by the occurrence of winds and thaws; and +over all such obstacles they are destined ultimately to triumph, as +the Union itself will bid defiance to what Bacon calls "the waves and +weathers of time." + + * * * * * + +LINES + +WRITTEN UNDER A PORTRAIT OF THEODORE WINTHROP. + + + O Knightly soldier bravely dead! + O poet-soul too early sped! + O life so pure! O life so brief! + Our hearts are moved with deeper grief, + As, dwelling on thy gentle face, + Its twilight smile, its tender grace, + We fill the shadowy years to be + With what had been thy destiny. + And still, amid our sorrow's pain, + We feel the loss is yet our gain; + For through the death we know the life, + Its gold in thought, its steel in strife,-- + And so with reverent kiss we say + Adieu! O Bayard of our day! + + + + +HINDRANCE. + + +Much that is in itself undesirable occurs in obedience to a general law +which is not only desirable, but of infinite necessity and benefit. It +is not desirable that Topper and Macaulay should be read by tens of +thousands, and Wilkinson only by tens. It is not desirable that a +narrow, selfish, envious Cecil, who could never forgive his noblest +contemporaries for failing to be hunchbacks like himself, should steer +England all his life as it were with supreme hand, and himself sail on +the topmost tide of fortune; while the royal head of Raleigh goes to the +block, and while Bacon, with his broad and bountiful nature,--Bacon, +one of the two or three greatest and humanest statesmen ever born to +England, and one of the friendliest men toward mankind ever born into +the world,--dies in privacy and poverty, bequeathing his memory "to +foreign nations and the next ages." But it is wholly desirable that +he who would consecrate himself to excellence in art or life should +sometimes be compelled to make it very clear to himself whether it be +indeed excellence that he covets, or only plaudits and pounds sterling. +So when we find our purest wishes perpetually hindered, not only in the +world around us, but even in our own bosoms, many of the particular +facts may indeed merit reproach, but the general fact merits, on the +contrary, gratitude and gratulation. For were our best wishes not, nor +ever, hindered, sure it is that the still better wishes of destiny +in our behalf would be hindered yet worse. Sure it is, I say, that +Hindrance, both outward and inward, comes to us not through any +improvidence or defect of benignity in Nature, but in answer to our +need, and as part of the best bounty which enriches our days. And to +make this indubitably clear, let us hasten to meditate that simple and +central law which governs this matter and at the same time many others. + +And the law is, that every definite action is conditioned upon a +definite resistance, and is impossible without it. We walk in virtue of +the earth's resistance to the foot, and are unable to tread the elements +of air and water only because they are too complaisant, and deny the +foot that opposition which it requires. Precisely that, accordingly, +which makes the difficulty of an action may at the same time make its +possibility. Why is flight difficult? Because the weight of every +creature draws it toward the earth. But without this downward +proclivity, the wing of the bird would have no power upon the air. +Why is it difficult for a solid body to make rapid progress in water? +Because the water presses powerfully upon it, and at every inch of +progress must be overcome and displaced. Yet the ship is able to float +only in virtue of this same hindering pressure, and without it would not +sail, but sink. The bird and the steamer, moreover,--the one with +its wings and the other with its paddles,--apply themselves to this +hindrance to progression as their only means of making progress; so +that, were not their motion obstructed, it would be impossible. + +The law governs not actions only, but all definite effects whatsoever. +If the luminiferous ether did not resist the sun's influence, it could +not be wrought into those undulations wherein light consists; if the +air did not resist the vibrations of a resonant object, and strive +to preserve its own form, the sound-waves could not be created and +propagated: if the tympanum did not resist these waves, it would not +transmit their suggestion to the brain; if any given object does not +resist the sun's rays,--in other words, reflect them,--it will not be +visible; neither can the eye mediate between any object and the brain +save by a like opposing of rays on the part of the retina. + +These instances might be multiplied _ad libitum_, since there is +literally _no_ exception to the law. Observe, however, what the law is, +namely, that _some_ resistance is indispensable,--by no means that this +alone is so, or that all modes and kinds of resistance are of equal +service. Resistance and Affinity concur for all right effects; but it is +the former that, in some of its aspects, is much accused as a calamity +to man and a contumely to the universe; and of this, therefore, we +consider here. + +Not all kinds of resistance are alike serviceable; yet that which is +required may not always consist with pleasure, nor even with safety. Our +most customary actions are rendered possible by forces and conditions +that inflict weariness at times upon all, and cost the lives of many. +Gravitation, forcing all men against the earth's surface with an energy +measured by their weight avoirdupois, makes locomotion feasible; but by +the same attraction it may draw one into the pit, over the precipice, to +the bottom of the sea. What multitudes of lives does it yearly destroy! +Why has it never occurred to some ingenious victim of a sluggish liver +to represent Gravitation as a murderous monster revelling in blood? +Surely there are woful considerations here that might be used with the +happiest effect to enhance the sense of man's misery, and have been too +much neglected! + +Probably there are few children to whom the fancy has not occurred, How +convenient, how fine were it to weigh nothing! We smile at the little +wiseacres; we know better. How much better do we know? That ancient +lament, that ever iterated accusation of the world because it opposes a +certain hindrance to freedom, love, reason, and every excellence which +the imagination of man can portray and his heart pursue,--what is it, in +the final analysis, but a complaint that we cannot walk without weight, +and that therefore climbing _is_ climbing? + +Instead, however, of turning aside to applications, let us push forward +the central statement in the interest of applications to be made by +every reader for himself,--since he says too much who does not leave +much more unsaid. Observe, then, that objects which so utterly submit +themselves to man as to become testimonies and publications of his +inward conceptions serve even these most exacting and monarchical +purposes only by opposition to them, and, to a certain extent, in the +very measure of that opposition. The stone which the sculptor carves +becomes a fit vehicle for his thought through its resistance to his +chisel; it sustains the impress of his imagination solely through its +unwillingness to receive the same. Not chalk, not any loose and friable +material, does Phidias or Michel Angelo choose, but ivory, bronze, +basalt, marble. It is quite the same whether we seek expression or +uses. The stream must be dammed before it will drive wheels; the steam +compressed ere it will compel the piston. In fine, Potentiality combines +with Hindrance to constitute active Power. Man, in order to obtain +instrumentalities and uses, blends his will and intelligence with a +force that vigorously seeks to pursue its own separate free course; and +while this resists him, it becomes his servant. + +But why not look at this fact in its largest light? For do we not here +touch upon the probable reason why God must, as it were, be offset by +World, Spirit by Matter, Soul by Body? The Maker must needs, if it be +lawful so to speak, heap up in the balance against His own pure, eternal +freedom these numberless globes of cold, inert matter. Matter is, +indeed, movable by no fine persuasions: brutely faithful to its own law, +it cares no more for AEschylus than for the tortoise that breaks his +crown; the purpose of a cross for the sweetest saint it serves no less +willingly than any other purpose,--stiffly holding out its arms there, +about its own wooden business, neither more nor less, centred utterly +upon itself. But is it not this stolid self-centration which makes it +needful to Divinity? An infinite energy required a resisting or doggedly +indifferent material, itself _quasi_ infinite, to take the impression of +its life, and render potentiality into power. So by the encountering of +body with soul is the product, man, evolved. Philosophers and saints +have perceived that the spiritual element of man is hampered and +hindered by his physical part: have they also perceived that it is the +very collision between these which strikes out the spark of thought +and kindles the sense of law? As the tables of stone to the finger of +Jehovah on Sinai, so is the firm marble of man's material nature to the +recording soul. But even Plato, when he arrives at these provinces of +thought, begins to limp a little, and to go upon Egyptian crutches. In +the incomparable apologues of the "Phaedrus" he represents our inward +charioteer as driving toward the empyrean two steeds, of which the one +is virtuously attracted toward heaven, while the other is viciously +drawn to the earth; but he countenances the inference that the earthward +proclivity of the latter is to be accounted pure misfortune. But to the +universe there is neither fortune nor misfortune; there is only the +reaper, Destiny, and his perpetual harvest. All that occurs on a +universal scale lies in the line of a pure success. Nor can the universe +attain any success by pushing past man and leaving him aside. That +were like the prosperity of a father who should enrich himself by +disinheriting his only son. + +Principles necessary to all action must of course appear in moral +action. The moral imagination, which pioneers and produces inward +advancement, works under the same conditions with the imagination of +the artist, and must needs have somewhat to work _upon_. Man is both +sculptor and quarry,--and a great noise and dust of chiselling is there +sometimes in his bosom. If, therefore, we find in him somewhat which +does not immediately and actively sympathize with his moral nature, let +us not fancy this element equally out of sympathy with his pure destiny. +The impulsion and the resistance are alike included in the design of our +being. Hunger--to illustrate--respects food, food only. It asks leave to +be hunger neither of your conscience, your sense of personal dignity, +nor indeed of your humanity in any form; but exists by its own +permission, and pushes with brute directness toward its own ends. True, +the soul may at last so far prevail as to make itself felt even in +the stomach; and the true gentleman could as soon relish a lunch of +porcupines' quills as a dinner basely obtained, though it were of +nightingales' tongues. But this is sheer conquest on the part of +the soul, not any properly gastric inspiration at all; and it is in +furnishing opportunity for precisely such conquest that the lower nature +becomes a stairway of ascent for the soul. + +And now, if in the relations between every manly spirit and the world +around him we discover the same fact, are we not by this time prepared +to contemplate it altogether with dry eyes? What if it be true, that +in trade, in politics, in society, all tends to low levels? What if +disadvantages are to be suffered by the grocer who will not sell +adulterated food, by the politician who will not palter, by the +diplomatist who is ashamed to lie? For this means only that no one can +be honest otherwise than by a productive energy of honesty in his own +bosom. In other words,--a man reaches the true welfare of a human +soul only when his bosom is a generative centre and source of noble +principles; and therefore, in pure, wise kindness to man, the world +is so arranged that there shall be perpetual need of this access and +reinforcement of principle. Society, the State, and every institution, +grow lean the moment there is a falling off in this divine fruitfulness +of man's heart, because only in virtue of bearing such fruit is man +worthy of his name. Honor and honesty are constantly consumed _between_ +men, that they may be forever newly demanded _in_ them. + +We cannot too often remind ourselves that the aim of the universe is +a personality. As the terrestrial globe through so many patient +aeons climbed toward the production of a human body, that by this +all-comprehending, perfect symbol it might enter into final union with +Spirit, so do the uses of the world still forever ascend toward man, and +seek a continual realization of that ancient wish. When, therefore, +Time shall come to his great audit with Eternity, persons alone will be +passed to his credit. "So many wise and wealthy souls,"--that is what +the sun and his household will have come to. The use of the world is not +found in societies faultlessly mechanized; for societies are themselves +but uses and means. They are the soil in which persons grow; and I no +more undervalue them than the husbandman despises his fertile acres +because it is not earth, but the wheat that grows from it, which comes +to his table. Society is the culmination of all uses and delights; +persons, of all results. And societies answer their ends when they +afford two things: first, a need for energy of eye and heart, of noble +human vigor; and secondly, a generous appreciation of high qualities, +when these may appear. The latter is, indeed, indispensable; and +whenever noble manhood ceases to be recognized in a nation, the days of +that nation are numbered. But the need is also necessary. Society must +be a consumer of virtue, if individual souls are to be producers of it. +The law of demand and supply has its applications here also. New waters +must forever flow from the fountain-heads of our true life, if the +millwheel of the world is to continue turning; and this not because the +supernal powers so greatly cared to get corn ground, but because the +Highest would have rivers of His influence forever flowing, and would +call them men. Therefore it is that satirists who paint in high colors +the resistances, but have no perception of the law of conversion into +opposites, which is the grand trick of Nature,--these pleasant gentlemen +are themselves a part of the folly at which they mock. + +As a man among men, so is a nation among nations. Very freely I +acknowledge that any nation, by proposing to itself large and liberal +aims, plucks itself innumerable envies and hatreds from without, and +confers new power for mischief upon all blindness and savagery that +exist within it. But what does this signify? Simply that no nation can +be free longer than it nobly loves freedom; that none can be great in +its national purposes when it has ceased to be so in the hearts of its +citizens. Freedom must be perpetually won, or it must be lost; and this +because the sagacious Manager of the world will not let us off from +the disciplines that should make us men. The material of the artist is +passive, and may be either awakened from its ancient rest or suffered +to sleep on; but that marble from which the perfections of manhood and +womanhood are wrought quits the quarry to meet us, and converts us to +stone, if we do not rather transform that to life and beauty. +Hostile, predatory, it rushes upon us; and we, cutting at it in brave +self-defence, hew it above our hope into shapes of celestial and +immortal comeliness. So that angels are born, as it were, from the noble +fears of man,--from an heroic fear in man's heart that he shall fall +away from the privilege of humanity, and falsify the divine vaticination +of his soul. + +Hence follows the fine result, that in life to hold your own is to make +advance. Destiny comes to us, like the children in their play, saying, +"Hold fast all I give you"; and while we nobly detain it, the penny +changes between our palms to the wealth of cities and kingdoms. The +barge of blessing, freighted for us by unspeakable hands, comes floating +down from the head-waters of that stream whereon we also are afloat; and +to meet it we have only to wait for it, not ourselves ebbing away, but +loyally stemming the tide. It may be, as Mr. Carlyle alleges, that the +Constitution of the United States is no supreme effort of genius; but +events now passing are teaching us that every day of fidelity to the +spirit of it lends it new preciousness; and that an adherence to it, not +petty and literal, but at once large and indomitable, might almost make +it a charter of new sanctities both of law and liberty for the human +race. + + + + +THE STATESMANSHIP OF RICHELIEU. + + +Thus far, the struggles of the world have developed its statesmanship +after three leading types. + +First of these is that based on faith in some great militant principle. +Strong among statesmen of this type, in this time, stand Cavour, with +his faith in constitutional liberty,--Cobden, with his faith in freedom +of trade,--the third Napoleon, with his faith that the world moves, and +that a successful policy must keep the world's pace. + +The second style of statesmanship is seen in the reorganization of old +States to fit new times. In this the chiefs are such men as Cranmer and +Turgot. + +But there is a third class of statesmen sometimes doing more brilliant +work than either of the others. These are they who serve a State in +times of dire chaos,--in times when a nation is by no means ripe for +revolution, but only stung by desperate revolt: these are they who are +quick enough and firm enough to bind all the good forces of the State +into one cosmic force, therewith to compress or crush all chaotic +forces: these are they who throttle treason and stab rebellion,--who +fear not, when defeat must send down misery through ages, to insure +victory by using weapons of the hottest and sharpest. Theirs, then, is a +statesmanship which it may be well for the leading men of this land and +time to be looking at and thinking of, and its representative man shall +be Richelieu. + +Never, perhaps, did a nation plunge more suddenly from the height of +prosperity into the depth of misery than did France on that fourteenth +of May, 1610, when Henry IV. fell dead by the dagger of Ravaillac. +All earnest men, in a moment, saw the abyss yawning,--felt the State +sinking,--felt themselves sinking with it. And they did what, in such a +time, men always do: first all shrieked, then every man clutched at the +means of safety nearest him. Sully rode through the streets of Paris +with big tears streaming down his face,--strong men whose hearts had +been toughened and crusted in the dreadful religious wars sobbed +like children,--all the populace swarmed abroad bewildered,--many +swooned,--some went mad. This was the first phase of feeling. + +Then came a second phase yet more terrible. For now burst forth that old +whirlwind of anarchy and bigotry and selfishness and terror which Henry +had curbed during twenty years. All earnest men felt bound to protect +themselves, and seized the nearest means of defence. Sully shut himself +up in the Bastille, and sent orders to his son-in-law, the Duke of +Rohan, to bring in six thousand soldiers to protect the Protestants. +All un-earnest men, especially the great nobles, rushed to the Court, +determined, now that the only guardians of the State were a weak-minded +woman and a weak-bodied child, to dip deep into the treasury which Henry +had filled to develop the nation, and to wrench away the power which he +had built to guard the nation. + +In order to make ready for this grasp at the State treasure and power by +the nobles, the Duke of Epernon, from the corpse of the King, by +whose side he was sitting when Ravaillac struck him, strides into the +Parliament of Paris, and orders it to declare the late Queen, Mary of +Medici, Regent; and when this Parisian court, knowing full well that it +had no right to confer the regency, hesitated, he laid his hand on his +sword, and declared, that, unless they did his bidding at once, his +sword should be drawn from its scabbard. This threat did its work. +Within three hours after the King's death, the Paris Parliament, which +had no right to give it, bestowed the regency on a woman who had no +capacity to take it. + +At first things seemed to brighten a little. The Queen-Regent sent such +urgent messages to Sully that he left his stronghold of the Bastille and +went to the palace. She declared to him, before the assembled Court, +that he must govern France still. With tears she gave the young King +into his arms, telling Louis that Sully was his father's best friend, +and bidding him pray the old statesman to serve the State yet longer. + +But soon this good scene changed. Mary had a foster-sister, Leonora +Galligai, and Leonora was married to an Italian adventurer, Concini. +These seemed a poor couple, worthless and shiftless, their only stock in +trade Leonora's Italian cunning; but this stock soon came to be of +vast account, for thereby she soon managed to bind and rule the +Queen-Regent,--managed to drive Sully into retirement in less than a +year,--managed to make herself and her husband the great dispensers at +Court of place and pelf. Penniless though Concini had been, he was in a +few months able to buy the Marquisate of Ancre, which cost him nearly +half a million livres,--and, soon after, the post of First Gentleman of +the Bedchamber, and that cost him nearly a quarter of a million,--and, +soon after that, a multitude of broad estates and high offices at +immense prices. Leonora, also, was not idle, and among her many +gains was a bribe of three hundred thousand livres to screen certain +financiers under trial for fraud. + +Next came the turn of the great nobles. For ages the nobility of France +had been the worst among her many afflictions. From age to age attempts +had been made to curb them. In the fifteenth century Charles VII. had +done much to undermine their power, and Louis XI. had done much to crush +it. But strong as was the policy of Charles, and cunning as was the +policy of Louis, they had made one omission, and that omission left +France, though advanced, miserable. For these monarchs had not cut +the root of the evil. The French nobility continued practically a +serf-holding nobility. + +Despite, then, the curb put upon many old pretensions of the nobles, the +serf-owning spirit continued to spread a net-work of curses over every +arm of the French government, over every acre of the French soil, and, +worst of all, over the hearts and minds of the French people. Enterprise +was deadened; invention crippled. Honesty was nothing; honor everything. +Life was of little value. Labor was the badge of servility; laziness the +very badge and passport of gentility. The serf-owning spirit was an iron +wall between noble and not-noble,--the only unyielding wall between +France and prosperous peace. + +But the serf-owning spirit begat another evil far more terrible: it +begat a substitute for patriotism,--a substitute which crushed out +patriotism just at the very emergencies when patriotism was most needed. +For the first question which in any State emergency sprang into the mind +of a French noble was not,--How does this affect the welfare of the +nation? but,--How does this affect the position of my order? The +serf-owning spirit developed in the French aristocracy an instinct which +led them in national troubles to guard the serf-owning class first and +the nation afterward, and to acknowledge fealty to the serf-owning +interest first and to the national interest afterward. + +So it proved in that emergency at the death of Henry. Instead of +planting themselves as a firm bulwark between the State and harm, the +Duke of Épernon, the Prince of Condé, the Count of Soissons, the Duke of +Guise, the Duke of Bouillon, and many others, wheedled or threatened +the Queen into granting pensions of such immense amount that the great +treasury filled by Henry and Sully with such noble sacrifices, and to +such noble ends, was soon nearly empty. + +But as soon as the treasury began to run low the nobles began a worse +work, Mary had thought to buy their loyalty; but when they had gained +such treasures, their ideas mounted higher. A saying of one among them +became their formula, and became noted:--"The day of Kings is past; now +is come the day of the Grandees." + +Every great noble now tried to grasp some strong fortress or rich city. +One fact will show the spirit of many. The Duke of Épernon had served +Henry as Governor of Metz, and Metz was the most important fortified +town in France; therefore Henry, while allowing D'Épernon the honor of +the Governorship, had always kept a Royal Lieutenant in the citadel, who +corresponded directly with the Ministry. But, on the very day of the +King's death, D'Épernon despatched commands to his own creatures at Metz +to seize the citadel, and to hold it for him against all other orders. + +But at last even Mary had to refuse to lavish more of the national +treasure and to shred more of the national territory among these +magnates. Then came their rebellion. + +Immediately Condé and several great nobles issued a proclamation +denouncing the tyranny and extravagance of the Court,--calling on +the Catholics to rise against the Regent in behalf of their +religion,--calling on the Protestants to rise in behalf of +theirs,--summoning the whole people to rise against the waste of their +State treasure. + +It was all a glorious joke. To call on the Protestants was wondrous +impudence, for Condé had left their faith, and had persecuted them; to +call on the Catholics was not less impudent, for he had betrayed their +cause scores of times; but to call on the whole people to rise in +defence of their treasury was impudence sublime, for no man had besieged +the treasury more persistently, no man had dipped into it more deeply, +than Condé himself. + +The people saw this and would not stir. Condé could rally only a few +great nobles and their retainers, and therefore, as a last tremendous +blow at the Court, he and his followers raised the cry that the Regent +must convoke the States-General. + +Any who have read much in the history of France, and especially in the +history of the French Revolution, know, in part, how terrible this cry +was. By the Court, and by the great privileged classes of France, this +great assembly of the three estates of the realm was looked upon as the +last resort amid direst calamities. For at its summons came stalking +forth from the foul past the long train of Titanic abuses and Satanic +wrongs; then came surging up from the seething present the great hoarse +cry of the people; then loomed up, dim in the distance, vast shadowy +ideas of new truth and new right; and at the bare hint of these, all +that was proud in France trembled. + +This cry for the States-General, then, brought the Regent to terms at +once, and, instead of acting vigorously, she betook herself to her old +vicious fashion of compromising,--buying off the rebels at prices more +enormous than ever. By her treaty of Sainte-Ménehould, Condé received +half a million of livres, and his followers received payments +proportionate to the evil they had done. + +But this compromise succeeded no better than previous compromises. Even +if the nobles had wished to remain quiet, they could not. Their lordship +over a servile class made them independent of all ordinary labor and of +all care arising from labor; some exercise of mind and body they must +have; Condé soon took this needed exercise by attempting to seize the +city of Poitiers, and, when the burgesses were too strong for him, by +ravaging the neighboring country. The other nobles broke the compromise +in ways wonderfully numerous and ingenious. France was again filled with +misery. + +Dull as Regent Mary was, she now saw that she must call that dreaded +States-General, or lose not only the nobles, but the people: undecided +as she was, she soon saw that she must do it at once,--that, if she +delayed it, her great nobles would raise the cry for it, again and +again, just as often as they wished to extort office or money. +Accordingly, on the fourteenth of October, 1614, she summoned the +deputies of the three estates to Paris, and then the storm set in. + +Each of the three orders presented its "portfolio of grievances" and its +programme of reforms. It might seem, to one who has not noted closely +the spirit which serf-mastering thrusts into a man, that the nobles +would appear in the States-General not to make complaints, but to answer +complaints. So it was not. The noble order, with due form, entered +complaint that theirs was the injured order. They asked relief from +familiarities and assumptions of equality on the part of the people. +Said the Baron de Sénecé, "It is a great piece of insolence to pretend +to establish any sort of equality between the people and the nobility": +other nobles declared, "There is between them and us as much difference +as between master and lackey." + +To match these complaints and theories, the nobles made +demands,--demands that commoners should not be allowed to keep +fire-arms,--nor to possess dogs, unless the dogs were hamstrung,--nor to +clothe themselves like the nobles,--nor to clothe their wives like the +wives of nobles,--nor to wear velvet or satin under a penalty of five +thousand livres. And, preposterous as such claims may seem to us, they +carried them into practice. A deputy of the Third Estate having been +severely beaten by a noble, his demands for redress were treated as +absurd. One of the orators of the lower order having spoken of the +French as forming one great family in which the nobles were the elder +brothers and the commoners the younger, the nobles made a formal +complaint to the King, charging the Third Estate with insolence +insufferable. + +Next came the complaints and demands of the clergy. They insisted on +the adoption in France of the Decrees of the Council of Trent, and the +destruction of the liberties of the Gallican Church. + +But far stronger than these came the voice of the people. + +First spoke Montaigne, denouncing the grasping spirit of the nobles. +Then spoke Savaron, stinging them with sarcasm, torturing them with +rhetoric, crushing them with statements of facts. + +But chief among the speakers was the President of the Third Estate, +Robert Miron, Provost of the Merchants of Paris. His speech, though +spoken across the great abyss of time and space and thought and custom +which separates him from us, warms a true man's heart even now. With +touching fidelity he pictured the sad life of the lower orders,--their +thankless toil, their constant misery; then, with a sturdiness which +awes us, he arraigned, first, royalty for its crushing taxation,--next, +the whole upper class for its oppressions,--and then, daring death, he +thus launched into popular thought an _idea_:-- + +"It is nothing less than a miracle that the people are able to answer so +many demands. On the labor of _their_ hands depends the maintenance +of Your Majesty, of the clergy, of the nobility, of the commons. What +without _their_ exertions would be the value of the tithes and great +possessions of the Church, of the splendid estates of the nobility, +or of our own house-rents and inheritances? With their bones scarcely +skinned over, your wretched people present themselves before you, beaten +down and helpless, with the aspect rather of death itself than of living +men, imploring your succor in the name of Him who has appointed you to +reign over them,--who made you a man, that you might be merciful to +other men,--and who made you the father of your subjects, that you might +be compassionate to these your helpless children. If Your Majesty shall +not take means for that end, _I fear lest despair should teach the +sufferers that a soldier is, after all, nothing more than a peasant +bearing arms; and lest, when the vine-dresser shall have taken up his +arquebuse, he should cease to become an anvil only that he may become a +hammer."_ + +After this the Third Estate demanded the convocation of a general +assembly every ten years, a more just distribution of taxes, equality +of all before the law, the suppression of interior custom-houses, the +abolition of sundry sinecures held by nobles, the forbidding to leading +nobles of unauthorized levies of soldiery, some stipulations regarding +the working clergy and the non-residence of bishops; and in the midst of +all these demands, as a golden grain amid husks, they placed a demand +for the emancipation of the serfs. + +But these demands were sneered at. The idea of the natural equality in +rights of all men,--the idea of the personal worth of every man,--the +idea that rough-clad workers have prerogatives which can be whipped out +by no smooth-clad idlers,--these ideas were as far beyond serf-owners +of those days as they are beyond slave-owners of these days. Nothing was +done. Augustin Thierry is authority for the statement that the clergy +were willing to yield something. The nobles would yield nothing. The +different orders quarrelled until one March morning in 1615, when, on +going to their hall, they were barred out and told that the workmen were +fitting the place for a Court ball. And so the deputies separated,--to +all appearance no new work done, no new ideas enforced, no strong men +set loose. + +So it was in seeming,--so it was not in reality. Something had been +done. That assembly planted ideas in the French mind which struck more +and more deeply, and spread more and more widely, until, after a century +and a half, the Third Estate met again and refused to present petitions +kneeling,--and when king and nobles put on their hats, the commons put +on theirs,--and when that old brilliant stroke was again made, and the +hall was closed and filled with busy carpenters and upholsterers, the +deputies of the people swore that great tennis-court oath which blasted +French tyranny. + +But something great was done _immediately_; to that suffering nation a +great man was revealed. For, when the clergy pressed their requests, +they chose as their orator a young man only twenty-nine years of age, +the Bishop of Lucon, ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU. + +He spoke well. His thoughts were clear, his words pointed, his bearing +firm. He had been bred a soldier, and so had strengthened his will; +afterwards he had been made a scholar, and so had strengthened his mind. +He grappled with the problems given him in that stormy assembly with +such force that he seemed about to _do_ something; but just then came +that day of the Court ball, and Richelieu turned away like the rest. + +But men had seen him and heard him. Forget him they could not. From that +tremendous farce, then, France had gained directly one thing at least, +and that was a sight at Richelieu. + +The year after the States-General wore away in the old vile fashion. +Condé revolted again, and this time he managed to scare the Protestants +into revolt with him. The daring of the nobles was greater than ever. +They even attacked the young King's train as he journeyed to Bordeaux, +and another compromise had to be wearily built in the Treaty of Loudun. +By this Condé was again bought off,--but this time only by a bribe of +a million and a half of livres. The other nobles were also paid +enormously, and, on making a reckoning, it was found that this +compromise had cost the King four millions, and the country twenty +millions. The nation had also to give into the hands of the nobles some +of its richest cities and strongest fortresses. + +Immediately after this compromise, Condé returned to Paris, loud, +strong, jubilant, defiant, bearing himself like a king. Soon he and his +revolted again; but just at that moment Concini happened to remember +Richelieu. The young bishop was called and set at work. + +Richelieu grasped the rebellion at once. In broad daylight he seized +Condé and shut him up in the Bastille; other noble leaders he declared +guilty of treason, and degraded them; he set forth the crimes and +follies of the nobles in a manifesto which stung their cause to death in +a moment; he published his policy in a proclamation which ran through +France like fire, warming all hearts of patriots, withering all hearts +of rebels; he sent out three great armies: one northward to grasp +Picardy, one eastward to grasp Champagne, one southward to grasp Berri. +There is a man who can _do_ something! The nobles yield in a moment: +they _must_ yield. + +But, just at this moment, when a better day seemed to dawn, came an +event which threw France back into anarchy, and Richelieu out into the +world again. + +The young King, Louis XIII., was now sixteen years old. His mother the +Regent and her favorite Concini had carefully kept him down. Under their +treatment he had grown morose and seemingly stupid; but he had wit +enough to understand the policy of his mother and Concini, and strength +enough to hate them for it. + +The only human being to whom Louis showed any love was a young falconer, +Albert de Luynes,--and with De Luynes he conspired against his mother's +power and her favorite's life. On an April morning, 1617, the King and +De Luynes sent a party of chosen men to seize Concini. They met him at +the gate of the Louvre. As usual, he is bird-like in his utterance, +snake-like in his bearing. They order him to surrender; he chirps forth +his surprise,--and they blow out his brains. Louis, understanding the +noise, puts on his sword, appears on the balcony of the palace, is +saluted with hurrahs, and becomes master of his kingdom. + +Straightway measures are taken against all supposed to be attached +to the Regency. Concini's wife, the favorite Leonora, is burned as a +witch,--Regent Mary is sent to Blois,--Richelieu is banished to his +bishopric. + +And now matters went from bad to worse. King Louis was no stronger +than Regent Mary had been,--King's favorite Luynes was no better than +Regent's favorite Concini had been. The nobles rebelled against the new +rule, as they had rebelled against the old. The King went through the +same old extortions and humiliations. + +Then came also to full development yet another vast evil. As far back +as the year after Henry's assassination, the Protestants, in terror of +their enemies, now that Henry was gone and the Spaniards seemed to grow +in favor, formed themselves into a great republican league,--a State +within the State,--regularly organised in peace for political effort, +and in war for military effort,--with a Protestant clerical caste which +ruled always with pride, and often with menace. + +Against such a theocratic republic war must come sooner or later, and in +1617 the struggle began. Army was pitted against army,--Protestant Duke +of Rohan against Catholic Duke of Luynes. Meanwhile Austria and the +foreign enemies of France, Condé and the domestic enemies of France, +fished in the troubled waters, and made rich gains every day. So France +plunged into sorrows ever deeper and blacker. But in 1624, Mary +de Medici, having been reconciled to her son, urged him to recall +Richelieu. + +The dislike which Louis bore Richelieu was strong, but the dislike he +bore toward compromises had become stronger. Into his poor brain, at +last, began to gleam the truth, that a serf-mastering caste, after a +compromise, only whines more steadily and snarls more loudly,--that, at +last, compromising becomes worse than fighting. Richelieu was called and +set at work. + +Fortunately for our studies of the great statesman's policy, he left at +his death a "Political Testament" which floods with light his steadiest +aims and boldest acts. In that Testament he wrote this message:-- + + "When Your Majesty resolved to give + me entrance into your councils and a + great share of your confidence, I can declare + with truth that the Huguenots divided + the authority with Your Majesty, that + the great nobles acted not at all as subjects, + that the governors of provinces took + on themselves the airs of sovereigns, and + that the foreign alliances of France were + despised. I promised Your Majesty to + use all my industry, and all the authority + you gave me, to ruin the Huguenot party, + to abase the pride of the high nobles, + and to raise your name among foreign + nations to the place where it ought to + be." + +Such were the plans of Richelieu at the outset. Let us see how he +wrought out their fulfilment. + +First of all, he performed daring surgery and cautery about the very +heart of the Court. In a short time he had cut out from that living +centre of French power a number of unworthy ministers and favorites, and +replaced them by men, on whom he could rely. + +Then he began his vast work. His policy embraced three great objects: +First, the overthrow of the Huguenot power; secondly, the subjugation +of the great nobles; thirdly, the destruction of the undue might of +Austria. + +First, then, after some preliminary negotiations with foreign +powers,--to be studied hereafter,--he attacked the great +politico-religious party of the Huguenots. + +These held, as their great centre and stronghold, the famous seaport of +La Rochelle. He who but glances at the map shall see how strong was this +position: he shall see two islands lying just off the west coast at that +point, controlled by La Rochelle, yet affording to any foreign allies +whom the Huguenots might admit there facilities for stinging France +during centuries. The position of the Huguenots seemed impregnable. The +city was well fortressed,--garrisoned by the bravest of men,--mistress +of a noble harbor open at all times to supplies from foreign ports,--and +in that harbor rode a fleet, belonging to the city, greater than the +navy of France. + +Richelieu saw well that here was the head of the rebellion. Here, then, +he must strike it. + +Strange as it may seem, his diplomacy was so skillful that he obtained +ships to attack Protestants in La Rochelle from the two great Protestant +powers,--England and Holland. With these he was successful. He attacked +the city fleet, ruined it, and cleared the harbor. + +But now came a terrible check. Richelieu had aroused the hate of that +incarnation of all that was and Is offensive in English politics,--the +Duke of Buckingham. Scandal-mongers were wont to say that both were in +love with the Queen,--and that the Cardinal, though unsuccessful in his +suit, outwitted the Duke and sent him out of the kingdom,--and that the +Duke swore a great oath, that, if he could not enter France in one way, +he would enter in another,--and that he brought about a war, and came +himself as a commander: of this scandal believe what you will. But, be +the causes what they may, the English policy changed, and Charles I. +sent Buckingham with ninety ships to aid La Rochelle. + +But Buckingham was flippant and careless; Richelieu, careful when there +was need, and daring when there was need. Buckingham's heavy blows +were foiled by Richelieu's keen thrusts, and then, in his confusion, +Buckingham blundered so foolishly, and Richelieu profited by his +blunders so shrewdly, that the fleet returned to England without any +accomplishment of its purpose. The English were also driven from that +vexing position in the Isle of Rhé. + +Having thus sent the English home, for a time at least, he led king and +nobles and armies to La Rochelle, and commenced the siege in full force. +Difficulties met him at every turn; but the worst difficulty of all was +that arising from the spirit of the nobility. + +No one could charge the nobles of France with lack of bravery. The only +charge was, that their bravery was almost sure to shun every useful +form, and to take every noxious form. The bravery which finds outlet +in duels they showed constantly; the bravery which finds outlet in +street-fights they had shown from the days when the Duke of Orleans +perished in a brawl to the days when the _"Mignons"_ of Henry III. +fought at sight every noble whose beard was not cut to suit them. The +pride fostered by lording it over serfs, in the country, and by lording +it over men who did not own serfs, in the capital, aroused bravery of +this sort and plenty of it. But that bravery which serves a great, good +cause, which must be backed by steadiness and watchfulness, was not so +plentiful. So Richelieu found that the nobles who had conducted the +siege before he took command had, through their brawling propensities +and lazy propensities, allowed the besieged to garner in the crops from +the surrounding country, and to master all the best points of attack. + +But Richelieu pressed on. First he built an immense wall and earthwork, +nine miles long, surrounding the city, and, to protect this, he raised +eleven great forts and eighteen redoubts. + +Still the harbor was open, and into this the English fleet might return +and succor the city at any time. His plan was soon made. In the midst of +that great harbor of La Rochelle he sank sixty hulks of vessels filled +with stone; then, across the harbor,--nearly a mile wide, and, in +places, more than eight hundred feet deep,--he began building over these +sunken ships a great dike and wall,--thoroughly fortified, carefully +engineered, faced with sloping layers of hewn stone. His own men scolded +at the magnitude of the work,--the men in La Rochelle laughed at +it. Worse than that, the Ocean sometimes laughed and scolded at it. +Sometimes the waves sweeping in from that fierce Bay of Biscay destroyed +in an hour the work of a week. The carelessness of a subordinate once +destroyed in a moment the work of three months. + +Yet it is but fair to admit that there was one storm which did not beat +against Richelieu's dike. There set in against it no storm of hypocrisy +from neighboring nations. Keen works for and against Richelieu were put +forth in his day,--works calm and strong for and against him have been +issuing from the presses of France and England and Germany ever since; +but not one of the old school of keen writers or of the new school of +calm writers is known to have ever hinted that this complete sealing of +the only entrance to a leading European harbor was unjust to the world +at large or unfair to the besieged themselves. + +But all other obstacles Richelieu had to break through or cut through +constantly. He was his own engineer, general, admiral, prime-minister. +While he urged on the army to work upon the dike, he organized a French +navy, and in due time brought it around to that coast and anchored it so +as to guard the dike and to be guarded by it. + +Yet, daring as all this work was, it was but the smallest part of his +work. Richelieu found that his officers were cheating his soldiers +in their pay and disheartening them; in face of the enemy he had to +reorganize the army and to create a new military system. He made the +army twice as effective and supported it at two-thirds less cost than +before. It was his boast in his "Testament," that, from a mob, the +army became "like a well-ordered convent." He found also that his +subordinates were plundering the surrounding country, and thus rendering +it disaffected; he at once ordered that what had been taken should be +paid for, and that persons trespassing thereafter should be severely +punished. He found also the great nobles who commanded in the army +half-hearted and almost traitorous from sympathy with those of their own +caste on the other side of the walls of La Rochelle, and from their fear +of his increased power, should he gain a victory. It was their common +saying, that they were fools to help him do it. But he saw the true +point at once--He placed in the most responsible positions of his army +men who felt for his cause, whose hearts and souls were in it,--men not +of the Dalgetty stamp, but of the Cromwell stamp. He found also, as he +afterward said, that he had to conquer not only the Kings of England and +Spain, but also the King of France. At the most critical moment of the +siege Louis deserted him,--went back to Paris,--allowed courtiers to +fill him with suspicions. Not only Richelieu's place, but his life, +was in danger, and he well knew it; yet he never left his dike and +siege-works, but wrought on steadily until they were done; and then the +King, of his own will, in very shame, broke away from his courtiers, and +went back to his master. + +And now a Royal Herald summoned the people of La Rochelle to surrender. +But they were not yet half conquered. Even when they had seen two +English fleets, sent to aid them, driven back from Richelieu's dike, +they still held out manfully. The Duchess of Rohan, the Mayor Guiton, +and the Minister Salbert, by noble sacrifices and burning words, kept +the will of the besieged firm as steel. They were reduced to feed on +their horses,--then on bits of filthy shell-fish,--then on stewed +leather. They died in multitudes. + +Guiton the Mayor kept a dagger on the city council-table to stab any man +who should speak of surrender; some who spoke of yielding he ordered +to execution as seditious. When a friend showed him a person dying of +hunger, be said, "Does that astonish you? Both you and I must come to +that." When another told him that multitudes were perishing, he said, +"Provided one remains to hold the city-gate, I ask nothing more." + +But at last even Guiton had to yield. After the siege had lasted more +than a year, after five thousand were found remaining out of fifteen +thousand, after a mother had been seen to feed her child with her own +blood, the Cardinal's policy became too strong for him. The people +yielded, and Richelieu entered the city as master. + +And now the victorious statesman showed a greatness of soul to which all +the rest of his life was as nothing. He was a Catholic cardinal,--the +Rochellois were Protestants; he was a stern ruler,--they were +rebellious subjects who had long worried and almost impoverished +him;--all Europe, therefore, looked for a retribution more terrible than +any in history. + +Richelieu allowed nothing of the sort. He destroyed the old franchises +of the city, for they were incompatible with that royal authority +which he so earnestly strove to build. But this was all. He took no +vengeance,--he allowed the Protestants to worship as before,--he took +many of them into the public service,--and to Guiton he showed marks of +respect. He stretched forth that strong arm of his over the city, and +warded off all harm. He kept back greedy soldiers from pillage,--he kept +back bigot priests from persecution. Years before this he had said, "The +diversity of religions may indeed create a division in the other world, +but not in this"; at another time he wrote, "Violent remedies only +aggravate spiritual diseases." And he was now so tested, that these +expressions were found to embody not merely an idea, but a belief. For, +when the Protestants in La Rochelle, though thug owing tolerance +and even existence to a Catholic, vexed Catholics in a spirit most +intolerant, even that could not force him to abridge the religious +liberties he had given. + +He saw beyond his time,--not only beyond Catholics, but beyond +Protestants. Two years after that great example of toleration in La +Rochelle, Nicholas Antoine w as executed for apostasy from Calvinism at +Geneva. And for his leniency Richelieu received the titles of Pope of +the Protestants and Patriarch of the Atheists. But he had gained the +first great object of his policy, and he would not abuse it: he had +crushed the political power of the Huguenots forever. + +Let us turn now to the second great object of his policy. He must break +the power of the nobility: on that condition alone could France have +strength and order, and here he showed his daring at the outset. "It is +iniquitous," he was wont to tell the King, "to try to make an example by +punishing the lesser offenders: they are but trees which cast no shade: +it is the great nobles who must be disciplined." + +It was not long before he had to begin this work,--and with +the highest,--with no less a personage than Gaston, Duke of +Orleans,--favorite son of Mary,--brother of the King. He who thinks +shall come to a higher idea of Richelieu's boldness, when he remembers +that for many years after this Louis was childless and sickly, and +that during all those years Richelieu might awake any morning to find +Gaston--King. + +In 1626, Gaston, with the Duke of Vendôme, half-brother of the King, the +Duchess of Chevreuse, confidential friend of the Queen, the Count +of Soissons, the Count of Chalais, and the Marshal Ornano, formed a +conspiracy after the old fashion. Richelieu had his hand at their lofty +throats in a moment. Gaston, who was used only as a makeweight, he +forced into the most humble apologies and the most binding pledges; +Ornano he sent to die in the Bastille; the Duke of Vendôme and the +Duchess of Chevreuse he banished; Chalais he sent to the scaffold. + +The next year he gave the grandees another lesson. The serf-owning +spirit had fostered in France, through many years, a rage for duelling. +Richelieu determined that this should stop. He gave notice that the law +against duelling was revived, and that he would enforce it. It was +soon broken by two of the loftiest nobles in France,--by the Count of +Bouteville-Montmorency and the Count des Chapelles. They laughed at the +law: they fought defiantly in broad daylight. Nobody dreamed that the +law would be carried out against _them_. The Cardinal would, they +thought, deal with them as rulers have dealt with serf-mastering +law-breakers from those days to these,--invent some quibble and screen +them with it. But his method was sharper and shorter. He seized both, +and executed both on the Place de Greve,--the place of execution for the +vilest malefactors. + +No doubt, that, under the present domineering of the pettifogger caste, +there are hosts of men whose minds run in such small old grooves that +they hold legal forms not a means, but an end: these will cry out +against this proceeding as tyrannical. No doubt, too, that, under the +present palaver of the "sensationist" caste, the old ladies of both +sexes have come to regard crime as mere misfortune: these will lament +this proceeding as cruel. But, for this act, if for no other, an earnest +man's heart ought in these times to warm toward the great statesman. The +man had a spine. To his mind crime was cot mere misfortune: crime was +CRIME. Crime was strong; it would pay him well to screen it; it might +cost him dear to fight it. But he was not a modern "smart" lawyer, to +seek popularity by screening criminals,--nor a modern soft juryman, +to suffer his eyes to be blinded by quirks and quibbles to the great +purposes of law,--nor a modern bland governor, who lets a murderer loose +out of politeness to the murderer's mistress. He hated crime; he whipped +the criminal; no petty forms and no petty men of forms could stand +between him and a rascal. He had the sense to see that this course was +not cruel, but merciful. See that for yourselves. In the eighteen years +before Richelieu's administration, four thousand men perished in duels; +in the ten years after Richelieu's death, nearly a thousand thus +perished; but during his whole administration, duelling was checked +completely. Which policy was tyrannical? which policy was cruel? + +The hatred of the serf-mastering caste toward their new ruler grew +blacker and blacker; but he never flinched. The two brothers Marillac, +proud of birth, high in office, endeavored to stir revolt as in their +good days of old. The first, who was Keeper of the Seals, Richelieu +threw into prison; with the second, who was a Marshal of France, +Richelieu took another course. For this Marshal had added to revolt +things more vile and more insidiously hurtful: he had defrauded the +Government in army-contracts. Richelieu tore him from his army and +put him on trial. The Queen-Mother, whose pet he was, insisted on his +liberation. Marillac himself blubbered, that it "was all about a little +straw and hay, a matter for which a master would not whip a lackey." +Marshal Marillac was executed. So, when statesmen rule, fare all who +take advantage of the agonies of a nation to pilfer a nation's treasure. + +To crown all, the Queen-Mother began now to plot against Richelieu, +because he would not be her puppet,--and he banished her from France +forever. + +The high nobles were now exasperate. Gaston tied the country, first +issuing against Richelieu a threatening manifesto. Now awoke the Duke +of Montmorency. By birth he stood next the King's family: by office, as +Constable of France, he stood next the King himself. Montmorency was +defeated and taken. The nobles supplicated for him lustily: they looked +on crimes of nobles resulting in deaths of plebeians as lightly as the +English House of Lords afterward looked on Lord Mohun's murder of Will +Mountfort, or as another body of lords looked on Matt Ward's murder of +Professor Butler: but Montmorency was executed. Says Richelieu, in his +Memoirs, "Many murmured at this act, and called it severe; but others, +more wise, praised the justice of the King, _who preferred the good of +the State to the vain reputation of a hurtful clemency._" + +Nor did the great minister grow indolent as he grew old. The Duke of +Epernon, who seems to have had more direct power of the old feudal sort +than any other man in France, and who had been so turbulent under the +Regency,--him Richelieu humbled completely. The Duke of La Valette +disobeyed orders in the army, and he was executed as a common soldier +would have been for the same offence. The Count of Soissons tried to see +if he could not revive the good old turbulent times, and raised a rebel +army; but Richelieu hunted him down like a wild beast. Then certain +Court nobles,--pets of the King,--Cinq-Mars and De Thou, wove a new +plot, and, to strengthen it, made a secret treaty with Spain; but the +Cardinal, though dying, obtained a copy of the treaty, through his +agent, and the traitors expiated their treason with their blood. + +But this was not all. The Parliament of Paris,--a court of +justice,--filled with the idea that law is not a means, but an end, +tried to interpose _forms_ between the Master of France and the vermin +he was exterminating. That Parisian court might, years before, have done +something. They might have insisted that petty quibbles set forth by the +lawyers of Paris should not defeat the eternal laws of retribution set +forth by the Lawgiver of the Universe. That they had not done, and the +time for legal forms had gone by. The Paris Parliament would not see +this, and Richelieu crushed the Parliament. Then the Court of Aids +refused to grant supplies, and he crushed that court. In all this the +nation braced him. Woe to the courts of a nation, when they have forced +the great body of plain men to regard legality as injustice!--woe to the +councils of a nation, when they have forced the great body of plain men +to regard legislation as traffic!--woe, thrice repeated, to gentlemen of +the small pettifogger sort, when they have brought such times, and God +has brought a man to fit them! + +There was now in France no man who could stand against the statesman's +purpose. + +And so, having hewn, through all that anarchy and bigotry and +selfishness, a way for the people, he called them to the work. In 1626 +he summoned an assembly to carry out reforms. It was essentially a +people's assembly. That anarchical States-General, domineered by great +nobles, he would not call; but he called an Assembly of Notables. In +this was not one prince or duke, and two-thirds of the members came +directly from the people. Into this body he thrust some of his own +energy. Measures were taken for the creation of a navy. An idea was now +carried into effect which many suppose to have sprung from the French +Revolution; for the army was made more effective by opening its high +grades to the commons.[A] A reform was also made in taxation, and shrewd +measures were taken to spread commerce and industry by calling the +nobility into them. + +[Footnote A: See the ordonnances in Thierry, Histoire du Tiers Etat.] + +Thus did France, under his guidance, secure order and progress. Calmly +he destroyed all useless feudal castles which had so long overawed the +people and defied the monarchy. He abolished also the military titles of +Grand Admiral and High Constable, which had hitherto given the army +and navy into the hands of leading noble families. He destroyed some +troublesome remnants of feudal courts, and created royal courts: in one +year that of Poitiers alone punished for exactions and violence against +the people more than two hundred nobles. Greatest step of all, he +deposed the hereditary noble governors, and placed in their stead +governors taken from the people,--_Intendants,_--responsible to the +central authority alone.[B] + +[Footnote B: For the best sketch of this see Caillet, _L'Administration +sous Richelieu._] + +We are brought now to the _third_ great object of Richelieu's policy. +He saw from the beginning that Austria and her satellite Spain must be +humbled, if France was to take her rightful place in Europe. + +Hardly, then, had he entered the council, when he negotiated a marriage +of the King's sister with the son of James I. of England; next he signed +an alliance with Holland; next he sent ten thousand soldiers to drive +the troops of the Pope and Spain out of the Valtelline district of the +Alps, and thus secured an alliance with the Swiss. We are to note here +the fact which Buckle wields so well, that, though Richelieu was a +Cardinal of the Roman Church, all these alliances were with Protestant +powers against Catholic.[C] Austria and Spain intrigued against +him,--sowing money in the mountain-districts of South France which +brought forth those crops of armed men who defended La Rochelle. But he +beat them at their own game. He set loose Count Mansfyld, who revived +the Thirty Tears' War by raising a rebellion in Bohemia; and when one +great man, Wallenstein, stood between Austria and ruin, Richelieu sent +his monkish diplomatist, Father Joseph, to the German Assembly of +Electors, and persuaded them to dismiss Wallenstein and to disgrace him. + +[Footnote C: History of Civilisation in England, Vol. I. Chap. VIII.] + +But the great Frenchman's master-stroke was his treaty with Gustavus +Adolphus. With that keen glance of his, he saw and knew Gustavus while +yet the world knew him not,--while he was battling afar off in the wilds +of Poland. Richelieu's plan was formed at once. He brought about a +treaty between Gustavus and Poland; then he filled Gustavus's mind with +pictures of the wrongs inflicted by Austria on German Protestants, +hinted to him probably of a new realm, filled his treasury, and finally +hurled against Austria the man who destroyed Tilly, who conquered +Wallenstein, who annihilated Austrian supremacy at the Battle of Lüizen, +who, though in his grave, wrenched Protestant rights from Austria at the +Treaty of Westphalia, who pierced the Austrian monarchy with the most +terrible sorrows it ever saw before the time of Napoleon. + +To the main objects of Richelieu's policy already given might be added +two subordinate objects. + +The first of these was a healthful extension of French territory. In +this Richelieu planned better than the first Napoleon; for, while he did +much to carry France out to her natural boundaries, he kept her always +within them. On the South he added Roussillon, on the East, Alsace, on +the Northeast, Artois. + +The second subordinate object of his policy sometimes flashed forth +brilliantly. He was determined that England should never again interfere +on French soil. We have seen him driving the English from La Rochelle +and from the Isle of Rhé; but he went farther. In 1628, on making some +proposals to England, he was repulsed with English haughtiness. +"They shall know," said the Cardinal, "that they cannot despise me." +Straightway one sees protests and revolts of the Presbyterians of +Scotland, and Richelieu's agents in the thickest of them. + +And now what was Richelieu's statesmanship in its sum? + +I. In the Political Progress of France, his work has already been +sketched as building monarchy and breaking anarchy. + +Therefore have men said that he swept away old French liberties. What +old liberties? Richelieu but tore away the decaying, poisonous husks +and rinds which hindered French liberties from their chance at life and +growth. + +Therefore, also, have men said that Richelieu built up absolutism. The +charge is true and welcome. For, evidently, absolutism was the only +force, in that age, which could destroy the serf-mastering caste. Many a +Polish patriot, as he to-day wanders through the Polish villages, groans +that absolutism was not built to crush that serf-owning aristocracy +which has been the real architect of Poland's ruin. Any one who reads to +much purpose in De Mably, or Guizot, or Henri Martin, knows that this +part of Richelieu's statesmanship was but a masterful continuation of +all great French statesmanship since the twelfth-century league of king +and commons against nobles, and that Richelieu stood in the heirship of +all great French statesmen since Suger. That part of Richelieu's work, +then, was evidently bedded in the great line of Divine Purpose running +through that age and through all ages. + +II. In the _Internal Development of France_, Richelieu proved himself a +true builder. The founding of the French Academy and of the Jardin des +Plantes, the building of the College of Plessis, and the rebuilding of +the College of the Sorbonne, are among the monuments of this part of his +statesmanship. His, also, is much of that praise usually lavished on +Louis XIV. for the career opened in the seventeenth century to science, +literature, and art. He was also a reformer, and his zeal was proved, +when, in the fiercest of the La Rochelle struggle, he found time to +institute great reforms not only in the army and navy, but even in the +monasteries. + +III. On the _General Progress of Europe_, his work must be judged as +mainly for good. Austria was the chief barrier to European progress, and +that barrier he broke. But a far greater impulse to the general progress +of Europe was given by the idea of Toleration which he thrust into the +methods of European statesmen. He, first of all statesmen in France, +saw, that, in French policy, to use his own words, "A Protestant +Frenchman is better than a Catholic Spaniard"; and he, first of all +statesmen in Europe, saw, that, in European policy, patriotism, must +outweigh bigotry. + +IV. His _Faults in Method_ were many. His under-estimate of the +sacredness of human life was one; but that was the fault of his age. +His frequent working by intrigue was another; but that also was a vile +method accepted by his age. The fair questions, then, are,--Did he not +commit the fewest and smallest wrongs possible in beating back those +many and great wrongs? Wrong has often a quick, spasmodic force; but was +there not in _his_ arm a steady growing force, which could only be a +force of right? + +V. His _Faults in Policy_ crystallized about one: for, while he subdued +the serf-mastering nobility, he struck no final blow at the serf-system +itself. + +Our running readers of French history need here a word of caution. They +follow De Tocqueville, and De Tocqueville follows Biot in speaking of +the serf-system as abolished in most of France hundreds of years before +this. But Biot and De Tocqueville take for granted a knowledge in their +readers that the essential vileness of the system, and even many of its +most shocking outward features, remained. + +Richelieu might have crushed the serf-system, really, as easily as Louis +X. and Philip the Long had crushed it nominally. This Richelieu did not. + +And the consequences of this great man's great fault were terrible. +Hardly was he in his grave, when the nobles perverted the effort of +the Paris Parliament for advance in liberty, and took the lead in the +fearful revolts and massacres of the Fronde. Then came Richelieu's +pupil, Mazarin, who tricked the nobles into order, and Mazarin's pupil, +Louis XIV., who bribed them into order. But a nobility borne on high by +the labor of a servile class must despise labor; so there came those +weary years of indolent gambling and debauchery and "serf-eating" at +Versailles. + +Then came Louis XV., who was too feeble to maintain even the poor decent +restraints imposed by Louis XIV.; so the serf-mastering caste became +active in a new way, and their leaders in vileness unutterable became at +last Fronsac and De Sade. + +Then came "the deluge." The spirit of the serf-mastering caste, as left +by Richelieu, was a main cause of the miseries which brought on the +French Revolution. When the Third Estate brought up their "portfolio of +grievances," for one complaint against the exactions of the monarchy +there were fifty complaints against the exactions of the nobility.[D] + +[Footnote D: See any _Résumé des Cahiers_,--even the meagre ones in +Buchez and Roux, or Le Bas, or Chéruel.] + +Then came the failure of the Revolution in its direct purpose; and of +this failure the serf-mastering caste was a main cause. For this caste, +hardened by ages of domineering over a servile class, despite fourth of +August renunciations, would not, could not, accept a position compatible +with freedom and order: so earnest men were maddened, and sought to tear +out this cancerous mass, with all its burning roots. + +But for Richelieu's great fault there is an excuse. His mind was +saturated with ideas of the impossibility of inducing freed peasants to +work,--the impossibility of making them citizens,--the impossibility, in +short, of making them _men_. To his view was not unrolled the rich newer +world-history, to show that a working class is most dangerous when +restricted,--that oppression is more dangerous to the oppressor than to +the oppressed,--that, if man will hew out paths to liberty, God will +hew out paths to prosperity. But Richelieu's fault teaches the world not +less than his virtues. + +At last, on the third of December, 1642, the great statesman lay upon +his death-bed. The death-hour is a great revealer of motives, and as +with weaker men, so with Richelieu. Light then shot over the secret of +his whole life's plan and work. + +He was told that he must die: he received the words with calmness. As +the Host, which he believed the veritable body of the Crucified, was +brought him, he said, "Behold my Judge before whom I must shortly +appear! I pray Him to condemn me, if I have ever had any other motive +than the cause of religion and my country." The confessor asked him if +he pardoned his enemies: he answered, "I have none but those of the +State." + +So passed from earth this strong man. Keen he was in sight, steady in +aim, strong in act. A true man,--not "non-committal," but wedded to a +great policy in the sight of all men: seen by earnest men of all times +to have marshalled against riot and bigotry and unreason divine forces +and purposes; seen by earnest men of these times to have taught the true +method of grasping desperate revolt, and of strangling that worst foe of +liberty and order in every age,--a serf-owning aristocracy. + + + + +UNDER THE SNOW. + + +The spring had tripped and lost her flowers, + The summer sauntered through the glades, +The wounded feet of autumn hours + Left ruddy footprints on the blades. + +And all the glories of the woods + Had flung their shadowy silence down,-- +When, wilder than the storm it broods, + She fled before the winter's frown. + +For _her_ sweet spring had lost its flowers, + She fell, and passion's tongues of flame +Ran reddening through the blushing bowers, + Now haggard as her naked shame. + +One secret thought her soul had screened, + When prying matrons sought her wrong, +And Blame stalked on, a mouthing fiend, + And mocked her as she fled along. + +And now she bore its weight aloof, + To hide it where one ghastly birch +Held up the rafters of the roof, + And grim old pine-trees formed a church. + +'Twas there her spring-time vows were sworn, + And there upon its frozen sod, +While wintry midnight reigned forlorn, + She knelt, and held her hands to God. + +The cautious creatures of the air + Looked out from many a secret place, +To see the embers of despair + Flush the gray ashes of her face. + +And where the last week's snow had caught + The gray beard of a cypress limb, +She heard the music of a thought + More sweet than her own childhood's hymn. + +For rising in that cadence low, + With "Now I lay me down to sleep," +Her mother rocked her to and fro, + And prayed the Lord her soul to keep. + +And still her prayer was humbly raised, + Held up in two cold hands to God, +That, white as some old pine-tree blazed, + Gleamed far o'er that dark frozen sod. + +The storm stole out beyond the wood, + She grew the vision of a cloud, +Her dark hair was a misty hood, + Her stark face shone as from a shroud. + +Still sped the wild storm's rustling feet + To martial music of the pines, +And to her cold heart's muffled beat + Wheeled grandly into solemn lines. + +And still, as if her secret's woe + No mortal words had ever found, +This dying sinner draped in snow + Held up her prayer without a sound. + +But when the holy angel bands + Saw this lone vigil, lowly kept, +They gathered from her frozen hands + The prayer thus folded, and they wept. + +Some snow-flakes--wiser than the rest-- + Soon faltered o'er a thing of clay, +First read this secret of her breast, + Then gently robed her where she lay. + +The dead dark hair, made white with snow, + A still stark face, two folded palms, +And (mothers, breathe her secret low!) + An unborn infant--asking alms. + +God kept her counsel; cold and mute + His steadfast mourners closed her eyes, +Her head-stone was an old tree's root, + Be mine to utter,--"Here she lies." + + + + +SLAVERY, IN ITS PRINCIPLES, DEVELOPMENT, AND EXPEDIENTS. + + +Within the memory of men still in the vigor of life, American Slavery +was considered by a vast majority of the North, and by a large minority +of the South, as an evil which should, at best, be tolerated, and not +a good which deserved to be extended and protected. A kind of +lazy acquiescence in it as a local matter, to be managed by local +legislation, was the feeling of the Free States. In both the Slave and +the Free States, the discussion of the essential principles on which +Slavery rests was confined to a few disappointed Nullifiers and a few +uncompromising Abolitionists, and we can recollect the time when Calhoun +and Garrison were both classed by practical statesmen of the South and +North in one category of pestilent "abstractionists." Negro Slavery +was considered simply as a fact; and general irritation among most +politicians of all sections was sure to follow any attempt to explore +the principles on which the fact reposed. That these principles had the +mischievous vitality which events have proved them to possess, few of +our wisest statesmen then dreamed, and we have drifted by degrees into +the present war without any clear perception of its animating causes. + +The future historian will trace the steps by which the subject of +Slavery was forced on the reluctant attention of the citizens of the +Free States, so that at last the most cautious conservative could not +ignore its intrusive presence, could not banish its reality from his +eyes, or its image from his mind. He will show why Slavery, disdaining +its old argument from expediency, challenged discussion on its +principles. He will explain the process by which it became discontented +with toleration within its old limits, and demanded the championship +or connivance of the National Government in a plan for its limitless +extension. He will indicate the means by which it corrupted the Southern +heart and Southern brain, so that at last the elemental principles of +morals and religion were boldly denied, and the people came to "believe +a lie." He will, not unnaturally, indulge in a little sarcasm, when +he comes to consider the occupation of Southern professors of ethics, +compelled by their position to scoff at the "rights" of man, and +Southern professors of theology, compelled by their position to teach +that Christ came into the world, not so much to save sinners, as to +enslave negroes. He will be forced to class these among the meanest +and most abject slaves that the planters owned. In treating of the +subserviency of the North, he will be constrained to write many a page +which will flush the cheeks of our descendants with indignation and +shame. He will show the method by which Slavery, after vitiating the +conscience and intelligence of the South, contrived to vitiate in part, +and for a time, the conscience and intelligence of the North. It will +be his ungrateful task to point to many instances of compliance and +concession on the part of able Northern statesmen which will deeply +affect their fame with posterity, though he will doubtless refuse to +adopt to the full the contemporary clamor against their motives. He will +understand, better than we, the amount of patriotism which entered +into their "concessions," and the amount of fraternal good-will which +prompted their fatal "compromises." But he will also declare that the +object of the Slave Power was not attained. Vacillating statesmen and +corrupt politicians it might address, the first through their fears, +the second through their interests; but the intrepid and incorruptible +"people" were but superficially affected. A few elections were gained, +but the victories were barren of results. From political defeat the free +people of the North came forth more earnest and more united than ever. + +The insolent pretensions of the Slavocracy were repudiated; its +political and ethical maxims were disowned; and after having stirred the +noblest impulses of the human heart by the spectacle of its tyranny, its +attempt to extend that tyranny only roused an insurrection of the human +understanding against the impudence of its logic. The historian can then +only say, that the Slave Power "seceded," being determined to form a +part of no government which it could not control. The present war is to +decide whether its real force corresponds to the political force it has +exerted heretofore in our affairs. + +That this war has been forced upon the Free States by the "aggressions" +of the Slave Power is so plain that no argument is necessary to sustain +the proposition. It is not so universally understood that the Slave +Power is aggressive by the necessities of the wretched system of labor +on which its existence is based. By a short exposition of the principles +of Slavery, and the expedients it has practised during the last twenty +or thirty years, we think that this proposition can be established. + +And first it must be always borne in mind, that Slavery, as a system, +is based on the most audacious, inhuman, and self-evident of lies,--the +assertion, namely, that property can be held in men. Property applies to +things. There is a meta-physical impossibility implied in the attempt to +extend its application to persons. It is possible, we admit, to ordain +by local law that four and four make ten, but such an exercise of +legislative wisdom could not overcome certain arithmetical prejudices +innate in our minds, or dethrone the stubborn eight from its accustomed +position in our thoughts. But you might as well ordain that four and +four make ten as ordain that a man has no right to himself, but can +properly be held as the chattel of another. Yet this arrogant falsehood +of property in men has been organized into a colossal institution. The +South calls it a "peculiar" institution; and herein perhaps consists +its peculiarity, that it is an absurdity which has lied itself into a +substantial form, and now argues its right to exist from the fact of its +existence. Doubtless, the fact that a thing exists proves that it has +its roots in human nature; but before we accept this as decisive of +its right to exist, it may be well to explore those qualities in human +nature, "peculiar" and perverse as itself, from which it derives +its poisonous vitality and strength. It is plain, we think, that an +institution embodying an essential falsity, which equally affronts the +common sense and the moral sense of mankind, and which, as respects +chronology, was as repugnant to the instincts of Homer as it is to the +instincts of Whittier, must have sprung from the unblessed union of +wilfulness and avarice, of avarice which knows no conscience, and of +wilfulness that tramples on reason; and the marks of this parentage, +the signs of these its boasted roots in human nature, are, we are +constrained to concede, visible in every stage of its growth, in every +argument for its existence, in every motive for its extension. + +It is not, perhaps, surprising that some of the advocates of Slavery do +not relish the analysis which reveals the origin of their institution +in those dispositions which connect man with the tiger and the wolf. +Accordingly they discourage, with true democratic humility, all +genealogical inquiries into the ancestry of their system, substitute +generalization for analysis, and, twisting the maxims of religion into +a philosophy of servitude, bear down all arguments with the sounding +proposition, that Slavery is included in the plan of God's providence, +and therefore cannot be wrong. Certain thinkers of our day have asserted +the universality of the religious element in human nature: and it must +be admitted that men become very pious when their minds are illuminated +by the discernment of a Providential sanction for their darling sins, +and by the discovery that God is on the side of their interests and +passions. Napoleon's religious perceptions were somewhat obtuse, as +tried by the standards of the Church, yet nothing could exceed the depth +of his belief that God "was with the heaviest column"; and the most +obdurate jobber in human flesh may well glow with apostolic fervor, as, +from the height of philosophic contemplation to which this principle +lifts him, he discerns the sublime import of his Providential mission. +It is true, he is now willing to concede, that a man's right to himself, +being given by God, can only by God be taken away. "But," he exultingly +exclaims, "it _has_ been taken away by God. The negro, having always +been a slave, must have been so by divine appointment; and I, the mark +of obloquy to a few fanatical enthusiasts, am really an humble agent in +carrying out the designs of a higher law even than that of the State, of +a higher will even than my own." This mode of baptizing man's sin and +calling it God's providence has not altogether lacked the aid of certain +Southern clergymen, who ostentatiously profess to preach Christ and Him +crucified, and by such arguments, we may fear, crucified _by them_. +Here is Slavery's abhorred riot of vices and crimes, from whose +soul-sickening details the human imagination shrinks aghast,--and over +all, to complete the picture, these theologians bring in the seraphic +countenance of the Saviour of mankind, smiling celestial approval of the +multitudinous miseries and infamies it serenely beholds! + +It may be presumptuous to proffer counsel to such authorized expositors +of religion, but one can hardly help insinuating the humble suggestion, +that it would be as well, if they must give up the principles of +liberty, not to throw Christianity in. We may be permitted to doubt the +theory of Providence which teaches that a man never so much serves God +as when he serves the Devil. Doubtless, Slavery, though opposed to God's +laws, is included in the plan of God's providence, but, in the long run, +the providence most terribly confirms the laws. The stream of events, +having its fountains in iniquity, has its end in retribution. It is +because God's laws are immutable that God's providence can be _foreseen_ +as well as seen. The mere fact that a thing exists, and persists in +existing, is of little importance in determining its right to exist, +or its eventual destiny. These must be found in an inspection of the +principles by which it exists; and from the nature of its principles, +we can predict its future history. The confidence of bad men and the +despair of good men proceed equally from a too fixed attention to the +facts and events before their eyes, to the exclusion of the principles +which underlie and animate them; for no insight of principles, and of +the moral laws which govern human events, could ever cause tyrants to +exult or philanthropists to despond. + +If we go farther into this question, we shall commonly find that the +facts and events to which we give the name of Providence are the acts +of human wills divinely overruled. There is iniquity and wrong in these +facts and events, because they are the work of free human wills. But +when these free human wills organize falsehood, institute injustice, and +establish oppression, they have passed into that mental state where +will has been perverted into wilfulness, and self-direction has been +exaggerated into self-worship. It is the essence of wilfulness that it +exalts the impulses of its pride above the intuitions of conscience +and intelligence, and puts force in the place of reason and right. The +person has thus emancipated himself from all restraints of a law higher +than his personality, and acts _from_ self, _for_ self, and in sole +obedience _to_ self. But this is personality in its Satanic form; yet it +is just here that some of our theologians have discovered in a person's +actions the purposes of Providence, and discerned the Divine intention +in the fact of guilt instead of in the certainty of retribution. +The tyrant element in man is found in this Satanic form of his +individuality. His will, self-released from restraint, preys upon and +crushes other wills. He asserts himself by enslaving others, and mimics +Divinity on the stilts of diabolism. Like the barbarian who thought +himself enriched by the powers and gifts of the enemy he slew, he +aggrandizes his own personality, and heightens his own sense of freedom, +through the subjection of feebler natures. Ruthless, rapacious, greedy +of power, greedy of gain, it is in Slavery that he wantons in all +the luxury of injustice, for it is here that he tastes the exquisite +pleasure of depriving others of that which he most values in himself. + +Thus, whether we examine this system in the light of conscience and +intelligence, or in the light of history and experience, we come to but +one result,--that it has its source and sustenance in Satanic energy, in +Satanic pride, and in Satanic greed. This is Slavery in itself, detached +from the ameliorations it may receive from individual slaveholders. +Now a bad system is not continued or extended by the virtues of any +individuals who are but partially corrupted by it, but by those who +work in the spirit and with the implements of its originators. Every +amelioration is a confession of the essential injustice of the thing +ameliorated, and a step towards its abolition; and the humane and +Christian slaveholders owe their safety, and the security of what they +are pleased to call their property, to the vices of the hard and stern +spirits whom they profess to abhor. If they invest in stock of the +Devil's corporation, they ought not to be severe on those who look out +that they punctually receive their dividends. The true slaveholder feels +that he is encamped among his slaves, that he holds them by the right of +conquest, that the relation is one of war, and that there is no crime he +may not be compelled to commit in self-defence. Disdaining all cant, +he clearly perceives that the system, in its practical working, must +conform to the principles on which it is based. He accordingly believes +in the lash and the fear of the lash. If he is cruel and brutal, it may +as often be from policy as from disposition, for brutality and cruelty +are the means by which weaker races are best kept "subordinated" to +stronger races; and the influence of his brutality and cruelty is felt +as restraint and terror on the plantation of his less resolute neighbor. +And when we speak of brutality and cruelty, we do not limit the +application of the words to those who scourge, but extend it to some of +those who preach,--who hold up heaven as the reward of those slaves who +are sufficiently abject on earth, and threaten damnation in the next +world to all who dare to assert their manhood in this. + +If, however, any one still doubts that this system develops itself +logically and naturally, and tramples down the resistance offered by the +better sentiments of human nature, let him look at the legislation which +defines and protects it,--a legislation which, as expressing the average +sense and purpose of the community, is to be quoted as conclusive +against the testimony of any of its individual members. This legislation +evinces the dominion of a malignant principle. You can hear the crack +of the whip and the clank of the chain in all its enactments. Yet these +laws, which cannot be read in any civilized country without mingled +horror and derision, indicate a mastery of the whole theory and practice +of oppression, are admirably adapted to the end they have in view, and +bear the unmistakable marks of being the work of practical men,--of men +who know their sin, and "knowing, dare maintain." They do not, it +is true, enrich the science of jurisprudence with any large or wise +additions, but we do not look for such luxuries as justice, reason, and +beneficence in ordinances devised to prop up iniquity, falsehood, and +tyranny. Ghastly caricatures of justice as these offshoots of Slavery +are, they are still dictated by the nature and necessities of the +system. They have the flavor of the rank soil whence they spring. + +If we desire any stronger evidence that slaveholders constitute a +general Slave Power, that this Slave Power acts as a unit, the unity of +a great interest impelled by powerful passions, and that the virtues of +individual slaveholders have little effect in checking the vices of the +system, we can find that evidence in the zeal and audacity with which +this power engaged in extending its dominion. Seemingly aggressive in +this, it was really acting on the defensive,--on the defensive, however, +not against the assaults of men, but against the immutable decrees of +God. The world is so constituted, that wrong and oppression are not, in +a large view, politic. They heavily mortgage the future, when they +glut the avarice of the present. The avenging Providence, which the +slaveholder cannot find in the New Testament, or in the teachings of +conscience, he is at last compelled to find in political economy; and +however indifferent to the Gospel according to Saint John, he must give +heed to the gospel according to Adam Smith and Malthus. He discovers, no +doubt to his surprise, and somewhat to his indignation, that there is an +intimate relation between industrial success and justice; and however +much, as a practical man, he may despise the abstract principles which +declare Slavery a nonsensical enormity, he cannot fail to read its +nature, when it slowly, but legibly, writes itself out in curses on the +land. He finds how true is the old proverb, that, "if God moves with +leaden feet, He strikes with iron hands." The law of Slavery is, that, +to be lucrative, it must have a scanty population diffused over large +areas. To limit it is therefore to doom it to come to an end by the laws +of population. To limit it is to force the planters, in the end, to free +their slaves, from an inability to support them, and to force the slaves +into more energy and intelligence in labor, in order that they may +subsist as freemen. People prattle about the necessity of compulsory +labor; but the true compulsory labor, the labor which has produced the +miracles of modern industry, is the labor to which a man is compelled by +the necessity of saving himself, and those who are dearer to him than +self, from ignominy and want. It was by this policy of territorial +limitation, that Henry Clay, before the annexation of Texas, declared +that Slavery must eventually expire. The way was gradual, it was +prudent, it was safe, it was distant, it was sure, it was according to +the nature of things. It would have been accepted, had there been any +general truth in the assertion that the slaveholders were honestly +desirous of reconverting, at any time, and on any practicable plan, +their chattels into men. But true to the malignant principles of their +system, they accepted the law of its existence, but determined to evade +the law of its extinction. As Slavery required large areas and scanty +population, large areas and scanty population it should at all times +have. New markets should be opened for the surplus slave-population; +to open new markets was to acquire new territory; and to acquire new +territory was to gain additional political strength. The expansive +tendencies of freedom would thus be checked by the tendencies no less +expansive of bondage. To acquire Texas was not merely to acquire an +additional Slave State, but it was to keep up a demand for slaves which +would prevent Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky from +becoming Free States. As soon as old soils were worn out, new soils were +to be ready to receive the curse; and where slave-labor ceased to be +profitable, slave-breeding was to take its place. + +This purpose was so diabolical, that, when first announced, it +was treated as a caprice of certain hot spirits, irritated by the +declamations of the Abolitionists. But it is idle to refer to transient +heat thoughts which bear all the signs of cool atrocity; and needless +to seek for the causes of actions in extraneous sources, when they +are plainly but steps in the development of principles already known. +Slave-breeding and Slavery-extension are necessities of the system. Like +Romulus and Remus, "they are both suckled from one wolf." + +But it was just here that the question became to the Free States a +practical question. There could be no "fanaticism" in meeting it at this +stage. What usually goes under the name of fanaticism is the habit of +uncompromising assault on a thing because its principles are absurd +or wicked; what usually goes under the name of common sense is the +disposition to assail it at that point where, in the development of its +principles, it has become immediately and pressingly dangerous. Now by +no sophistry could we of the Free States evade the responsibility of +being the extenders of Slavery, if we allowed Slavery to be extended. If +we did not oppose it from a sense of right, we were bound to oppose it +from a sense of decency. It may be said that we had nothing to do with +Slavery at the South; but we had something to do with rescuing the +national character from infamy, and unhappily we could not have anything +to do with rescuing the national character from infamy without having +something to do with Slavery at the South. The question with us was, +whether we would allow the whole force of the National Government to be +employed in upholding, extending, and perpetuating this detestable and +nonsensical enormity?--especially, whether we would be guilty of that +last and foulest atheism to free principles, the deliberate planting of +slave institutions on virgin soil? If this question had been put to +any despot of Europe,--we had almost said, to any despot of Asia,--his +answer would undoubtedly have been an indignant negative. Yet the South +confidently expected so to wheedle or bully us into dragging our common +sense through the mud and mire of momentary expedients, that we should +connive at the commission of this execrable crime! + +There can be no doubt, that, if the question had been fairly put to the +inhabitants of the Free States, their answer would have been at once +decisive for freedom. Even the strongest conservatives would have been +"Free-Soilers,"--not only those who are conservatives in virtue of +their prudence, moderation, sagacity, and temper, but prejudiced +conservatives, conservatives who are tolerant of all iniquity which is +decorous, inert, long-established, and disposed to die when its time +comes, conservatives as thorough in their hatred of change as Lamennais +himself. "What a noise," says Paul Louis Courier, "Lamennais would have +made on the day of creation, could he have witnessed it. His first cry +to the Divinity would have been to respect that ancient chaos." But even +to conservatives of this class, the attempt to extend Slavery, though +really in the order of its natural development, must still have appeared +a monstrous innovation, and they were bound to oppose the Marats and +Robespierres of despotism who were busy in the bad work. Indeed, in our +country, conservatism, through the presence of Slavery, has inverted +its usual order. In other countries, the radical of one century is the +conservative of the next; in ours, the conservative of one generation +is the radical of the next. The American conservative of 1790 is the +so-called fanatic of 1820; the conservative of 1820 is the fanatic +of 1856. The American conservative, indeed, descended the stairs of +compromise until his descent into utter abnegation of all that civilized +humanity holds dear was arrested by the Rebellion. And the reason of +this strange inversion of conservative principles was, that the movement +of Slavery is towards barbarism, while the movement of all countries +in which labor is not positively chattellized is towards freedom and +civilization. True conservatism, it must never be forgotten, is the +refusal to give up a positive, though imperfect good, for a possible, +but uncertain improvement: in the United States it has been misused to +denote the cowardly surrender of a positive good from a fear to resist +the innovations of an advancing evil and wrong. + +There was, therefore, little danger that Slavery would be extended +through the conscious thought and will of the people, but there +was danger that its extension might, somehow or other, _occur_. +Misconception of the question, devotion to party or the memory of +party, prejudice against the men who more immediately represented the +Anti-Slavery principle, might make the people unconsciously slide into +this crime. And it must be said that for the divisions in the Free +States as to the mode in which the free sentiment of the people should +operate the strictly Anti-Slavery men were to some extent responsible. +It is difficult to convince an ardent reformer that the principle +for which he contends, being impersonal, should be purified from the +passions and whims of his own personality. The more fervid he is, the +more he is identified in the public mind with his cause; and, in a large +view, he is bound not merely to defend his cause, but to see that the +cause, through him, does not become offensive. Men are ever ready to +dodge disagreeable duties by converting questions of principles into +criticisms on the men who represent principles; and the men who +represent principles should therefore look to it that they make no +needless enemies and give no needless shock to public opinion for +the purpose of pushing pet opinions, wreaking personal grudges, or +gratifying individual antipathies. The artillery of the North has +heretofore played altogether too much on Northerners. + +But to return. The South expected to fool the North into a compliance +with its designs, by availing itself of the divisions among its +professed opponents, and by dazzling away the attention of the people +from the real nature of the wickedness to be perpetrated. Slavery was to +be extended, and the North was to be an accomplice in the business; but +the Slave Power did not expect that we should be active and enthusiastic +in this work of self-degradation. It did not ask us to extend Slavery, +but simply to allow its extension to occur; and in this appeal to our +moral timidity and moral laziness, it contemptuously tossed us a few +fig-leaves of fallacy and false statement to save appearances. + +We were informed, for instance, that by the equality of men is meant the +equality of those whom Providence has made equal. But this is exactly +the sense in which no sane man ever understood the doctrine of equality; +for Providence has palpably made men unequal, white men as well as +black. + +Then we were told that the white and black races could dwell together +only in the relation of masters and slaves,--and, in the same breath, +that in this relation the slaves were steadily advancing in civilization +and Christianity. But, if steadily advancing in civilization and +Christianity, the time must inevitably come when they would not submit +to be slaves; and then what becomes of the statement that the white +and black races cannot dwell together as freemen? Why boast of their +improvement, when you are improving them only that you may exterminate +them, or they _you?_ + +Then, with a composure of face which touches the exquisite in +effrontery, we were assured that this antithesis of master and slave, of +tyrant and abject natures, is really a perfect harmony. Slavery--so said +these logicians of liberticide--has solved the great social problem of +the working-classes, comfortably for capital, happily for labor; and has +effected this by an ingenious expedient which could have occurred only +to minds of the greatest depth and comprehension, the expedient, namely, +of enslaving labor. Now doubtless there has always been a struggle +between employers and employed, and this struggle will probably continue +until the relations between the two are more humane and Christian. But +Slavery exhibits this struggle in its earliest and most savage stage, +a stage answering to the rude energies and still ruder conceptions of +barbarians. The issue of the struggle, it is plain, will not be that +capital will own labor, but that labor will own capital, and no _man_ be +owned. + +Still we were vehemently told, that, though the slaves, for their own +good, were deprived of their rights as men, they were in a fine state +of physical comfort. This was not and could not be true; but even if it +were, it only represented the slaveholder as addressing his slave in +some such words of derisive scorn as Byron hurls at Duke Alphonso,-- + +"Thou! born to eat, and be despised, and die, Even as the brutes that +perish,"-- + +though we doubt if he could truly add,-- + +"save that thou Hast a more splendid trough and wider sty." + +Then we were solemnly warned of our patriotic duty to "know no North and +no South." This was the very impudence of ingratitude; for we had long +known no North, and unhappily had known altogether too much South. + +Then we were most plaintively adjured to to comply with the demands of +the Slave Power, in order to save the Union. But how save the Union? +Why, by violating the principles on which the Union was formed, and +scouting the objects it was intended to serve. + +But lastly came the question, on which the South confidently relied as +a decisive argument, "What could we do with our slaves, provided we +emancipated them?" The peculiarity which distinguished this question +from all other interrogatories ever addressed to human beings was this, +that it was asked for the purpose of not being answered. The moment a +reply was begun, the ground was swiftly shifted, and we were overwhelmed +with a torrent of words about State Rights and the duty of minding our +own business. + +But it is needless to continue the examination of these substitutes and +apologies for fact and reason, especially as their chief characteristic +consisted in their having nothing to do with the practical question +before the people. They were thrown out by the interested defenders of +Slavery, North and South, to divert attention from the main issue. In +the fine felicity of their in appropriateness to the actual condition of +the struggle between the Free and Slave States, they were almost a match +for that renowned sermon, preached by a metropolitan bishop before an +asylum for the blind, the halt, and the legless, on "The Moral Dangers +of Foreign Travel." But still they were infinitely mischievous, +considered as pretences under which Northern men could skulk from their +duties, and as sophistries to lull into a sleepy acquiescence the +consciences of those political adventurers who are always seeking +occasions for being tempted and reasons for being rogues. They were all +the more influential from the circumstance that their show of argument +was backed by the solid substance of patronage. These false facts and +bad reasons were the keys to many fat offices. The South had succeeded +in instituting a new political test, namely, that no man is qualified +serve the United States unless he is the champion or the sycophant of +the Slave Power. Proscription to the friends of American freedom, honors +and emoluments to the friends of American slavery,--adopt that creed, +or you did not belong to any "healthy" political organization! Now we +have heard of civil disabilities for opinion's sake before. In some +countries no Catholics are allowed to hold office, in others no +Protestants, in others no Jews. But it is not, we believe, in Protestant +countries that Protestants are proscribed; it is not in Catholic +countries that Catholics are incompetent to serve the State. It was left +for a free country to establish, practically, civil disabilities against +freemen,--for Republican America to proscribe Republicans! Think of +it,--that no American, whatever his worth, talents, or patriotism,--could +two years ago serve his country in any branch of its executive +administration, unless he was unfortunate enough to agree with the +slaveholders, or base enough to sham an agreement with them! The test, +at Washington, of political orthodoxy was modelled on the pattern of +the test of religious orthodoxy established by Napoleon's minister of +police. "You are not orthodox," he said to a priest "In what," inquired +the astonished ecclesiastic, "have I sinned against orthodoxy?" +"You have not pronounced the eulogium of the Emperor, or proved the +righteousness of the conscription." + +Now we had been often warned of the danger of sectional parties, on +account of their tendency to break up the Government. The people gave +heed to this warning; for here was a sectional party in possession +of the Government. We had been often advised not to form political +combinations on one idea. The people gave heed to this advice; for here +was a triumphant political combination, formed not only on one idea, but +that the worst idea that ever animated any political combination. Here +was an association of three hundred and fifty thousand persons, spread +over some nine hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, and +wielding its whole political power, engaged in the work of turning the +United States into a sort of slave plantation, of which they were to be +overseers. We opposed them by argument, passion, and numerical power; +and they read us long homilies on the beauty of law and order,--order +sustained by Border Ruffians, law which was but the legalizing of +criminal instincts,--law and order which, judged by the code established +for Kansas, seemed based on legislative ideas imported from the Fegee +Islands. We opposed them again, and they talked to us about the +necessity of preserving the Union;--as if, in the Free States, the love +of the Union had not been a principle and a passion, proof against many +losses, and insensible to many humiliations; as if, with our teachers, +disunion had not been for half a century a stereotyped menace to scare +us into compliance with their rascalities; as if it were not known that +only so long as they could wield the powers of the National Government +to accomplish their designs, were they loyal to the Union! We opposed +them again, and they clamored about their Constitutional rights and our +Constitutional obligations; but they adopted for themselves a theory of +the Constitution which made each State the judge of the Constitution in +the last resort, while they held us to that view of it which made the +Supreme Court the judge in the last resort. Written constitutions, by a +process of interpretation, are always made to follow the drift of great +forces; they are twisted and tortured into conformity with the views +of the power dominant in the State; and our Constitution, originally +a charter of freedom, was converted into an instrument which the +slaveholders seemed to possess by right of squatter sovereignty and +eminent domain. + +Did any one suppose that we could retard the ever-onward movement of +their unscrupulous force and defiant wills by timely compromises and +concessions? Every compromise we made with them only stimulated their +rapacity, heightened their arrogance, increased their demands. Every +concession we made to their insolent threats was only a step downwards +to a deeper abasement; and we parted with our most cherished convictions +of duty to purchase, not their gratitude, but their contempt. Every +concession, too, weakened us and strengthened them for the inevitable +struggle, into which the Free States were eventually goaded, to preserve +what remained of their dignity, their honor, and their self-respect. In +1850 we conceded the application of the Wilmot Proviso; in 1856 we were +compelled to concede the principle of the Wilmot Proviso. In 1850 we had +no fears that slaves would enter New Mexico; in 1861 we were threatened +with a view of the flag of the rattlesnake floating over Faneuil Hall. +If any principle has been established by events, with the certainty of +mathematical demonstration, it is this, that concession to the Slave +Power is the suicide of Freedom. We are purchasing this fact at the +expense of arming five hundred thousand men and spending a thousand +millions of dollars. More than this, if any concessions were to be made, +they ought, on all principles of concession, to have been made to the +North. Concessions, historically, are not made by freedom to privilege, +but by privilege to freedom. Thus King John conceded Magna Charta; thus +King Charles conceded the Petition of Right; thus Protestant England +conceded Catholic Emancipation to Ireland; thus aristocratic England +conceded the Reform Bill to the English middle class. And had not we, +the misgoverned many, a right to demand from the slaveholders, the +governing few, some concessions to our sense of justice and our +prejudices for freedom? Concession indeed! If any class of men hold in +their grasp one of the dear-bought chartered "rights of man," it is +infamous to concede it. + + "Make it the darling of your precious eye! + _To lose or give 't away_ were such perdition + As nothing else could match." + +Considerations so obvious as these could not, by any ingenuity of +party-contrivance, be prevented from forcing themselves by degrees into +the minds of the great body of the voters of the Free States. The common +sense, the "large roundabout common sense" of the people, slowly, and +somewhat reluctantly, came up to the demands of the occasion. The +sophistries and fallacies of the Northern defenders of the pretensions +of the slave-holding sectional minority were gradually exposed, and were +repudiated in the lump. The conviction was implanted in the minds of the +people of the Free States, that the Slave Power, representing only a +thirtieth part of the population of the Slave States, and a ninth part +of the property of the country, was bent on governing the nation, and +on subordinating all principles and all interests to its own. Not being +ambitious of having the United States converted into a Western Congo, +with the traffic in "niggers" as its fundamental idea, the people +elected Abraham Lincoln, in a perfectly Constitutional way, President. +As the majority of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of +the Supreme Court was still left, by this election, on the side of the +"rights of the South," (humorously so styled,) and as the President +could do little to advance Republican principles with all the other +branches of the Government opposed to him, the people naturally imagined +that the slaveholders would acquiesce in their decision. + +But such was not the result. The election was in November. The new +President could not assume office until March. The triumphs of the Slave +Power had been heretofore owing to its willingness and readiness to +peril everything on each question as it arose, and each event as it +occurred. South Carolina, perhaps the only one of the Slave States that +was thoroughly in earnest, at once "seceded." The "Gulf States" and +others followed its example, not so much from any fixed intention of +forming a Southern Confederacy as for the purpose of intimidating the +Free States into compliance with the extreme demands of the South. The +Border Slave States were avowedly neutral between the "belligerents," +but indicated their purpose to stand by their "Southern brethren," in +case the Government of the United States attempted to carry out the +Constitution and the laws in the seceded States by the process of +"coercion." + +The combination was perfect. The heart of the Rebellion was in South +Carolina, a State whose free population was about equal to that of the +city of Brooklyn, and whose annual productions were exceeded by those +of Essex County, in the State of Massachusetts. Around this centre was +congregated as base a set of politicians as ever disgraced human nature. +A conspiracy was formed to compel a first-class power, representing +thirty millions of people, to submit to the dictation of about three +hundred thousand of its citizens. The conspirators did not dream of +failure. They were sure, as they thought, of the Gulf States and of the +Border States, of the whole Slave Power, in fact. They also felt sure +of that large minority in the Free States which had formerly acted with +them, and obeyed their most humiliating behests. They therefore entered +the Congress of the nation with a confident front, knowing that +President Buchanan and the majority of his Cabinet were practically on +their side. Before Mr. Lincoln could be inaugurated they imagined they +could accomplish all their designs, and make the Government of the +United States a Pro-Slavery power in the eyes of all the nations of the +world. Mr. Calhoun's paradoxes had heretofore been indorsed only by +majorities in the national legislature and by the Supreme Court. What a +victory it would be, if, by threatening rebellion, they could induce +the people of the United States to incorporate those paradoxes into +the fundamental law of the nation, dominant over both Congress and the +Court! All their previous "compromises" had been merely legislative +compromises, which, as their cause advanced, they had themselves +annulled. They now seized the occasion, when the "people" had risen +against them, to compel the people to sanction their most extreme +demands. They determined to convert defeat, sustained at the polls, into +a victory which would have far transcended any victory they might have +gained by electing their candidate, Breckinridge, as President. + +A portion of the Republicans, seeing clearly the force arrayed against +them, and disbelieving that the population of the Free States would be +willing, _en masse_, to sustain the cause of free labor by force of +arms, tried to avert the blow by proposing a new compromise. Mr. +Seward, the calmest, most moderate, and most obnoxious statesman of the +Republican party, offered to divide the existing territories of the +United States by the Missouri line, all south of which should be open +to slave labor. As he at the same time stated that by natural laws the +South could obtain no material advantage by his seeming concession, the +concession only made him enemies among the uncompromising champions of +the Wilmot Proviso. The conspirators demanded that the Missouri line +should be the boundary, not only between the territories which the +United States then possessed, but between the territories they might +hereafter _acquire_. As the country north of the Missouri line was held +by powerful European States which it would be madness to offend, and as +the country south of that line was held by feeble States which it would +be easy to conquer, no Northern or Western statesman could vote for such +a measure without proving himself a rogue or a simpleton. Hence all +measures of "compromise" necessarily failed during the last days of the +administration of James Buchanan. + +It is plain, that, when Mr. Lincoln--after having escaped assassination +from the "Chivalry" of Maryland, and after having been subjected to a +virulence of invective such as no other President had incurred--arrived +at Washington, his mind was utterly unaffected by the illusions of +passion. His Inaugural Message was eminently moderate. The Slave +Power, having failed to delude or bully Congress, or to intimidate the +people,--having failed to murder the elected President on his way to +the capital,--was at wits' end. It thought it could still rely on its +Northern supporters, as James II. of England thought he could rely +on the Church of England. While the nation, therefore, was busy in +expedients to call back the seceded States to their allegiance, the +latter suddenly bombarded Fort Sumter, trampled on the American flag, +threatened to wave the rattlesnake rag over Faneuil Hall, and to make +the Yankees "smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel." All this +was done with the idea that the Northern "Democracy" would rally to the +support of their "Southern brethren." The result proved that the South +was, in the words of Mr. Davis's last and most melancholy Message, the +victim of "misplaced confidence" in its Northern "associates." The +moment a gun was fired, the honest Democratic voters of the North were +even more furious than the Republican voters; the leaders, including +those who had been the obedient servants of Slavery, were ravenous for +commands in the great army which was to "coerce" and "subjugate" the +South; and the whole organization of the "Democratic party" of the North +melted away at once in the fierce fires of a reawakened patriotism. The +slaveholders ventured everything on their last stake, and lost. A North, +for the first time, sprang into being; and it issued, like Minerva from +the brain of Jove, full-armed. The much-vaunted engineer, Beauregard, +was "hoist with his own petard." + +Now that the slaveholders have been so foolish as to appeal to physical +force, abandoning their vantage-ground of political influence, they must +be not only politically overthrown, but physically humiliated. Their +arrogant sense of superiority must be beaten out of them by main force. +The feeling with which every Texan and Arkansas bully and assassin +regarded a Northern mechanic--a feeling akin to that with which the old +Norman robber looked on the sturdy Saxon laborer--must be changed, by +showing the bully that his bowie-knife is dangerous only to peaceful, +and is imbecile before armed citizens. The Southerner has appealed to +force, and force he should have, until, by the laws of force, he is not +only beaten, but compelled to admit the humiliating fact. That he is not +disposed "to die in the last ditch," that he has none of the practical +heroism of desperation, is proved by the actual results of battles. +When defeated, and his means of escape are such as only desperation can +surmount, he quickly surrenders, and is even disposed to take the oath +of allegiance. The martial virtues of the common European soldier he has +displayed in exceedingly scanty measure in the present conflict. He +has relied on engineers; and the moment his fortresses are turned or +stormed, he retreats or becomes a prisoner of war. Let Mr. Davis's +Message to the Confederate Congress, and his order suspending Pillow +and Floyd, testify to this unquestionable statement. Even if we grant +martial intrepidity to the members of the Slavocracy, the present war +proves that the system of Slavery is not one which develops martial +virtues among the "free whites" it has cajoled or forced into its +hateful service. Indeed, the armies of Jefferson Davis are weak on the +same principle on which the slave-system is weak. Everything depends on +the intelligence and courage of the commanders, and the moment these +fail the soldiers become a mere mob. + +American Slavery, by the laws which control its existence, first rose +from a local power, dominant in certain States, to a national power, +assuming to dominate over the United States. At the first faint fact +which indicated the intention of the Free States to check its progress +and overturn its insolent dominion, it rebelled. The rebellion now +promises to be a failure; but it will cost the Free States the arming of +half a million of men and the spending of a thousand millions of dollars +to make it a failure. Can we afford to trifle with the cause which +produced it? We note that some of the representatives of the loyal Slave +States in Congress are furious to hang individual Rebels, but at the +same time are anxious to surround the system those Rebels represent +with new guaranties. When they speak of Jeff Davis and his crew, their +feeling is as fierce as that of Tilly and Pappenheim towards the +Protestants of Germany. They would burn, destroy, confiscate, and kill +without any mercy, and without any regard to the laws of civilized war; +but when they come to speak of Slavery, their whole tone is changed. +They wish us to do everything barbarous and inhuman, provided we do not +go to the last extent of barbarity and inhumanity, which, according to +their notions, is, to inaugurate a system of freedom, equality, and +justice. Provided the negro is held in bondage and denied the rights of +human nature, they are willing that any severity should be exercised +towards his rebellious master. Now we have no revengeful feeling towards +the master at all. We think that he is a victim as well as an oppressor. +We wish to emancipate the master as well as the slave, and we think that +thousands of masters are persons who merely submit to the conditions +of labor established in their respective localities. Our opposition is +directed, not against Jefferson Davis, but against the system whose +cumulative corruptions and enormities Jefferson Davis very fairly +represents. As an individual, Jefferson Davis is not worse than many +people whom a general amnesty would preserve in their persons and +property. To hang him, and at the same time guaranty Slavery, would be +like destroying a plant by a vain attempt to kill its most poisonous +blossom. Our opposition is not to the blossom, but to the root. + +We admit that to strike at the root is a very difficult operation. In +the present condition of the country it may present obstacles which will +practically prove insuperable. But it is plain that we can strike lower +than the blossom; and it is also plain that we must, as practical +men, devise some method by which the existence of the Slavocracy as a +political power may be annihilated. The President of the United States +has lately recommended that Congress offer the cooperation and financial +aid of the whole nation in a peaceful effort to abolish Slavery,--with +a significant hint, that, unless the loyal Slave States accept the +proposition, the necessities of the war may dictate severer measures. +Emancipation is the policy of the Government, and will soon be the +determination of the people. Whether it shall be gradual or immediate +depends altogether on the slaveholders themselves. The prolongation of +the war for a year, and the operation of the internal tax bill, will +convert all the voters of the Free States, whether Republicans or +Democrats, into practical Emancipationists. The tax bill alone will +teach the people important lessons which no politicians can gainsay. +Every person who buys a piece of broadcloth or calico,--every person who +takes a cup of tea or coffee,--every person who lives from day to day +on the energy he thinks he derives from patent medicines, or beer, or +whiskey,--every person who signs a note, or draws a bill of exchange, or +sends a telegraphic despatch, or advertises in a newspaper, or makes a +will, or "raises" anything, or manufactures anything, will naturally +inquire why he or she is compelled to submit to an irritating as well as +an onerous tax. The only answer that can possibly be returned is this,-- +that all these vexatious burdens are necessary because a comparatively +few persons out of an immense population have chosen to get up a civil +war in order to protect and foster their slave-property, and the +political power it confers. As this property is but a small fraction of +the whole property of the country, and as its owners are not a hundredth +part of the population of the country, does any sane man doubt that the +slave-property will be relentlessly confiscated in order that the Slave +Power may be forever crushed? + +There are, we know, persons in the Free States who pretend to believe +that the war will leave Slavery where the war found it,--that our half +a million of soldiers have gone South on a sort of military picnic, +and will return in a cordial mood towards their Southern brethren in +arms,--and that there is no real depth and earnestness of purpose in the +Free States. Though one year has done the ordinary work of a century +in effecting or confirming changes in the ideas and sentiments of the +people, these persons still sagely rely on the party-phrases current +some eighteen months ago to reconstruct the Union on the old basis of +the domination of the Slave Power, through the combination of a divided +North with a united South. By the theory of these persons, there is +something peculiarly sacred in property in men, distinguishing it from +the more vulgar form of property in things; and though the cost of +putting down the Rebellion will nearly equal the value of the Southern +slaves, considered as chattels, they suppose that the owners of property +in things will cheerfully submit to be taxed for a thousand millions,--a +fourth of the almost fabulous debt of England,--without any irritation +against the chivalric owners of property in men, whose pride, caprice, +and insubordination have made the taxation necessary. Such may possibly +be the fact, but as sane men we cannot but disbelieve it. Our conviction +is, that, whether the war is ended in three months or in twelve months, +the Slave Power is sure to be undermined or overthrown. + +The sooner the war is ended, the more favorable will be the terms +granted to the Slavocracy; but no terms will be granted which do not +look to its extinction. The slaveholders are impelled by their system to +complete victory or utter ruin. If they obey the laws of their system, +they have, from present appearances, nothing but defeat, beggary, and +despair to expect. If they violate the laws of their system, they must +take their place in some one of the numerous degrees, orders, and ranks +of the Abolitionists. It will be well for them, if the wilfulness +developed by their miserable system gives way to the plain reason and +logic of facts and events. It will be well for them, if they submit to a +necessity, not only inherent in the inevitable operation of divine laws, +but propelled by half a million of men in arms. Be it that God is on the +side of the heaviest column,--there can be no doubt that the heaviest +column is now the column of Freedom. + + * * * * * + + +THE VOLUNTEER. + + + "At dawn," he said, "I bid them all farewell, + To go where bugles call and rifles gleam." + And with the restless thought asleep he fell, + And glided into dream. + + A great hot plain from sea to mountain spread,-- + Through it a level river slowly drawn. + He moved with a vast crowd, and at its head + Streamed banners like the dawn. + + There came a blinding flash, a deafening roar, + And dissonant cries of triumph and dismay; + Blood trickled down the river's reedy shore, + And with the dead he lay. + + The morn broke in upon his solemn dream; + And still, with steady pulse and deepening eye, + "Where bugles call," he said, "and rifles gleam, + I follow, though I die!" + + Wise youth! By few is glory's wreath attained; + But death or late or soon awaiteth all. + To fight in Freedom's cause is something gained,-- + And nothing lost, to fall. + + + + +SPEECH OF HON'BLE PRESERVED DOE IN SECRET CAUCUS. + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Jaalam, 12th April, 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--As I cannot but hope that the ultimate, if not speedy, +success of the national arms is now sufficiently ascertained, sure as +I am of the righteousness of our cause and its consequent claim on the +blessing of God, (for I would not show a faith inferiour to that of the +pagan historian with his _Facile evenit quod Dis cordi est_,) it seems +to me a suitable occasion to withdraw our minds a moment from the +confusing din of battle to objects of peaceful and permanent interest. +Let us not neglect the monuments of preterite history because what +shall be history is so diligently making under our eyes. _Cras ingens +iterabimus aequor_; to-morrow will be time enough for that stormy sea; +to-day let me engage the attention of your readers with the Runick +inscription to whose fortunate discovery I have heretofore alluded. Well +may we say with the poet, _Multa renascuntur quae jam cecidere_. And I +would premise, that, although I can no longer resist the evidence of my +own senses from the stone before me to the ante-Columbian discovery of +this continent by the Northmen, _gens inclytissima_, as they are called +in Palermitan inscription, written fortunately in a less debatable +character than that which I am about to decypher, yet I would by no +means be understood as wishing to vilipend the merits of the great +Genoese, whose name will never be forgotten so long as the inspiring +strains of "Hail Columbia" shall continue to be heard. Though he must +be stripped also of whatever praise may belong to the experiment of the +egg, which I find proverbially attributed by Castilian authours to a +certain Juanito or Jack, (perhaps an offshoot of our giant-killing my +thus,) his name will still remain one of the most illustrious of modern +times. But the impartial historian owes a duty likewise to obscure +merit, and my solicitude to render a tardy justice is perhaps quickened +by my having known those who, had their own field of labour been less +secluded, might have found a readier acceptance with the reading +publick. I could give an example, but I forbear: _forsitan nostris ex +ossibus oritur ultor_. + +Touching Runick inscriptions, I find that they may be classed under +three general heads: 1°. Those which are understood by the Danish Royal +Society of Northern Antiquaries, and Professor Rafn, their Secretary; +2°. Those which are comprehensible only by Mr Rafn; and 3º. Those which +neither the Society, Mr Rafn, nor anybody else can be said in any +definite sense to understand, and which accordingly offer peculiar +temptations to enucleating sagacity. These last are naturally deemed the +most valuable by intelligent antiquaries, and to this class the stone +now in my possession fortunately belongs. Such give a picturesque +variety to ancient events, because susceptible oftentimes of as many +interpretations as there are individual archaeologists; and since facts +are only the pulp in which the Idea or event-seed is softly imbedded +till it ripen, it is of little consequence what colour or flavour we +attribute to them, provided it be agreeable. Availing myself of the +obliging assistance of Mr. Arphaxad Bowers, an ingenious photographick +artist, whose house-on-wheels has now stood for three years on our +Meeting-House Green, with the somewhat contradictory inscription,--"_Our +motto is onward_,"--I have sent accurate copies of my treasure to many +learned men and societies, both native and European. I may hereafter +communicate their different and (_me judice_) equally erroneous +solutions. I solicit also, Messrs. Editors, your own acceptance of the +copy herewith inclosed. I need only premise further, that the stone +itself is a goodly block of metamorphick sandstone, and that the Runes +resemble very nearly the ornithichnites or fossil bird-tracks of Dr. +Hitchcock, but with less regularity or apparent design than is displayed +by those remarkable geological monuments. These are rather the _non bene +junctarum discordia semina rerum_. Resolved to leave no door open to +cavil, I first of all attempted the elucidation of this remarkable +example of lithick literature by the ordinary modes, but with no +adequate return for my labour. I then considered myself amply justified +in resorting to that heroick treatment the felicity of which, as applied +by the great Bentley to Milton, had long ago enlisted my admiration. +Indeed, I had already made up my mind, that, in case good-fortune should +throw any such invaluable record in my way, I would proceed with it +in the following simple and satisfactory method. After a cursory +examination, merely sufficing for an approximative estimate of its +length, I would write down a hypothetical inscription based upon +antecedent probabilities, and then proceed to extract from the +characters engraven on the stone a meaning as nearly as possible +conformed to this _a priori_ product of my own ingenuity. The result +more than justified my hopes, inasmuch as the two inscriptions were made +without any great violence to tally in all essential particulars. I then +proceeded, not without some anxiety, to my second test, which was, to +read the Runick letters diagonally, and again with the same success. +With an excitement pardonable under the circumstances, yet tempered +with thankful humility, I now applied my last and severest trial, my +_experimentum crucis_. I turned the stone, now doubly precious in my +eyes, with scrupulous exactness upside down. The physical exertion so +far displaced my spectacles as to derange for a moment the focus of +vision. I confess that it was with some tremulousness that I readjusted +them upon my nose, and prepared my mind to bear with calmness any +disappointment that might ensue. But, _O albo dies notanda lapillo!_ +what was my delight to find that the change of position had effected +none in the sense of the writing, even by so much as a single letter! +I was now, and justly, as I think, satisfied of the conscientious +exactness of my interpretation. It is as follows:-- + + +HERE + +BJARNA GRÍMÓLFSSON + +FIRST DRANK CLOUD-BROTHER + +THROUGH CHILD-OF-LAND-AND-WATER: + +that is, drew smoke through a reed stem. In other words, we have here +a record of the first smoking of the herb _Nicotiana Tabacum_ by a +European on this continent. The probable results of this discovery are +so vast as to baffle conjecture. If it be objected, that the smoking +of a pipe would hardly justify the setting up of a memorial stone, I +answer, that even now the Moquis Indian, ere he takes his first whiff, +bows reverently toward the four quarters of the sky in succession, and +that the loftiest monuments have been reared to perpetuate fame, which +is the dream of the shadow of smoke. The _Saga_, it will be remembered, +leaves this Bjarna to a fate something like that of Sir Humphrey +Gilbert, on board a sinking ship in the "wormy sea," having generously +given up his place in the boat to a certain Icelander. It is doubly +pleasant, therefore, to meet with this proof that the brave old man +arrived safely in Vinland, and that his declining years were cheered by +the respectful attentions of the dusky denizens of our then uninvaded +forests. Most of all was I gratified, however, in thus linking forever +the name of my native town with one of the most momentous occurrences of +modern times. Hitherto Jaalam, though in soil, climate, and geographical +position as highly qualified to be the theatre of remarkable historical +incidents as any spot on the earth's surface, has been, if I may say it +without seeming to question the wisdom of Providence, almost maliciously +neglected, as it might appear, by occurrences of world-wide interest in +want of a situation. And in matters of this nature it must be confessed +that adequate events are as necessary as the _vates sacer_ to record +them. Jaalam stood always modestly ready, but circumstances made no +fitting response to her generous intentions. Now, however, she assumes +her place on the historick roll. I have hitherto been a zealous opponent +of the Circean herb, but I shall now reexamine the question without +bias. + +I am aware that the Rev'd Jonas Tutchel, in a recent communication to +the Bogus Four Corners Weekly Meridian, has endeavoured to show that +this is the sepulchral inscription of Thorwald Eriksson, who, as is well +known, was slain in Vinland by the natives. But I think he has been +misled by a preconceived theory, and cannot but feel that he has thus +made an ungracious return for my allowing him to inspect the stone with +the aid of my own glasses (he having by accident left his at home) +and in my own study. The heathen ancients might have instructed this +Christian minister in the rites of hospitality; but much is to be +pardoned to the spirit of self-love. He must indeed be ingenious who can +make out the words _hèr hrilir_ from any characters in the inscription +in question, which, whatever else it may be, is certainly not mortuary. +And even should the reverend gentleman succeed in persuading some +fantastical wits of the soundness of his views, I do not see what useful +end he will have gained. For if the English Courts of Law hold the +testimony of grave-stones from the burial-grounds of Protestant +dissenters to be questionable, even where it is essential in proving a +descent, I cannot conceive that the epitaphial assertions of heathens +should be esteemed of more authority by any man of orthodox sentiments. + +At this moment, happening to cast my eyes upon the stone, on which a +transverse light from my southern window brings out the characters +with singular distinctness, another interpretation has occurred to me, +promising even more interesting results. I hasten to close my letter in +order to follow at once the clue thus providentially suggested. + +I inclose, as usual, a contribution from Mr. Biglow, and remain, +Gentlemen, with esteem and respect, + +Your Ob't Humble Servant, + +HOMER WILBUR. A.M. + + I thank ye, my friens, for the warmth o' your greetin': + Ther' 's few airthly blessins but wut's vain an' fleetin'; + But ef ther' is one thet hain't _no_ cracks an' flaws, + An' is wuth goin' in for, it's pop'lar applause; + It sends up the sperits ez lively ez rockets, + An' I feel it--wal, down to the eend o' my pockets. + Jes' lovin' the people is Canaan in view, + But it's Canaan paid quarterly t' hev 'em love you; + It's a blessin' thet's breakin' out ollus in fresh spots; + It's a-follerin' Moses 'thout losin' the flesh-pots. + + But, Gennlemen,'scuse me, I ain't sech a raw cus + Ez to go luggin' ellerkence into a caucus,-- + Thet is, into one where the call comprehens + Nut the People in person, but on'y their friens; + I'm so kin' o' used to convincin' the masses + Of th' edvantage o' bein' self-governin' asses, + I forgut thet _we_ 're all o' the sort thet pull wires + An' arrange for the public their wants an' desires, + An' thet wut we hed met for wuz jes' to agree + Wut the People's opinions in futur' should be. + + But to come to the nuh, we've ben all disappinted, + An' our leadin' idees are a kind o' disjinted,-- + Though, fur ez the nateral man could discern, + Things ough' to ha' took most an oppersite turn. + But The'ry is jes' like a train on the rail, + Thet, weather or no, puts her thru without fail, + While Fac's the ole stage thet gits sloughed in the ruts, + An' hez to allow for your darned efs an' buts, + An' so, nut intendin' no pers'nal reflections, + They don't--don't nut allus, thet is--make connections: + Sometimes, when it really doos seem thet they'd oughter + Combine jest ez kindly ez new rum an' water, + Both 'll be jest ez sot in their ways ez a bagnet, + Ez otherwise-minded ez th' eends of a magnet, + An' folks like you 'n me, thet ain't ept to be sold, + Git somehow or 'nother left out in the cold. + + I expected 'fore this, 'thout no gret of a row, + Jeff D. would ha' ben where A. Lincoln is now, + With Taney to say 't wuz all legle an' fair, + An' a jury o' Deemocrats ready to swear + Thet the ingin o' State gut throwed into the ditch + By the fault o' the North in misplacin' the switch. + Things wuz ripenin' fust-rate with Buchanan to nuss 'em; + But the People they wouldn't be Mexicans, cuss 'em! + Ain't the safeguards o' freedom upsot, 'z you may say, + Ef the right o' rev'lution is took clean away? + An' doosn't the right primy-fashy include + The bein' entitled to nut be subdued? + The fact is, we'd gone for the Union so strong, + When Union meant South ollus right an' North wrong, + Thet the people gut fooled into thinkin' it might + Worry on middlin' wal with the North in the right. + We might ha' ben now jest ez prosp'rous ez France, + Where politikle enterprise hez a fair chance, + An' the people is heppy an' proud et this hour, + Long ez they hev the votes, to let Nap hev the power; + But _our_ folks they went an' believed wut we'd told 'em, + An', the flag once insulted, no mortle could hold 'em. + 'T wuz pervokin' jest when we wuz cert'in to win,-- + An' I, for one, wunt trust the masses agin: + For a people thet knows much ain't fit to be free + In the self-cockin', back-action style o' J.D. + + I can't believe now but wut half on't is lies; + For who'd thought the North wuz a-goin' to rise, + Or take the pervokin'est kin' of a stump, + 'Thout't wuz sunthin' ez pressin' ez Gabr'el's las' trump? + Or who'd ha' supposed, arter _sech_ swell an' bluster + 'Bout the lick-ary-ten-on-ye fighters they'd muster, + Raised by hand on briled lightnin', ez op'lent 'z you please + In a primitive furrest o' femmily-trees, + Who'd ha' thought thet them Southerners ever 'ud show + Starns with pedigrees to 'em like theirn to the foe, + Or, when the vamosin' come, ever to find + Nat'ral masters in front an' mean white folks behind? + By ginger, ef I'd ha' known half I know now, + When I wuz to Congress, I wouldn't, I swow, + Hev let 'em cair on so high-minded an' sarsy, + 'Thout _some_ show o' wut you may call vicy-varsy. + To be sure, we wuz under a contrac' jes' then + To be dreffle forbearin' towards Southun men; + We hed to go sheers in preservin' the bellance: + An' ez they seemed to feel they wuz wastin' their tellents + 'Thout some un to kick, 't warn't more 'n proper, you know, + Each should funnish his part; an' sence they found the toe, + An' we wuzn't cherubs--wal, we found the buffer, + For fear thet the Compromise System should suffer. + + I wun't say the plan hed n't onpleasant featurs,-- + For men are perverse an' onreasonin' creaturs, + An' forgit thet in this life 't ain't likely to heppen + Their own privit fancy should oltus be cappen,-- + But it worked jest ez smooth ez the key of a safe, + An' the gret Union bearins played free from all chafe. + They warn't hard to suit, ef they hed their own way; + An' we (thet is, some on us) made the thing pay: + 'T wuz a fair give-an'-take out of Uncle Sam's heap; + Ef they took wut warn't theirn, wut we give come ez cheap; + The elect gut the offices down to tidewaiter, + The people took skinnin' ez mild ez a tater, + Seemed to choose who they wanted tu, footed the bills, + An' felt kind o' 'z though they wuz havin' their wills, + Which kep' 'em ez harmless an' clerfle ez crickets, + While all we invested wuz names on the tickets: + Wal, ther' 's nothin' for folks fond o' lib'ral consumption, + Free o' charge, like democ'acy tempered with gumption! + + Now warn't thet a system wuth pains in presarvin', + Where the people found jints an' their friens done the carvin',-- + Where the many done all o' their thinkin' by proxy, + An' were proud on't ez long ez't wuz christened Democ'cy,-- + Where the few let us sap all o' Freedom's foundations, + Ef you called it reformin' with prudence an' patience, + An' were willin' Jeff's snake-egg should hetch with the rest, + Ef you writ "Constitootional" over the nest? + But it's all out o' kilter, ('t wuz too good to last,) + An' all jes' by J.D.'s perceedin' too fast; + Ef he'd on'y hung on for a month or two more, + We'd ha' gut things fixed nicer 'n they hed ben before: + Afore he drawed off an' lef all in confusion, + We wuz safely intrenched in the ole Constitootion, + With an outlyin', heavy-gun, casemated fort + To rake all assailants,--I mean th' S.J. Court. + Now I never 'II acknowledge (nut ef you should skin me) + 'T wuz wise to abandon sech works to the in'my, + An' let him fin' out thet wut scared him so long, + Our whole line of argyments, lookin' so strong, + All our Scriptur' an' law, every the'ry an' fac', + Wuz Quaker-guns daubed with Pro-slavery black. + Why, ef the Republicans ever should git + Andy Johnson or some one to lend 'em the wit + An' the spunk jes' to mount Constitootion an' Court + With Columbiad guns, your real ekle-rights sort, + Or drill out the spike from the ole Declaration + Thet can kerry a solid shot clearn roun' creation, + We'd better take maysures for shettin' up shop, + An' put off our stock by a vendoo or swop. + + But they wun't never dare tu; you 'll see 'em in Edom + 'Fore they ventur' to go where their doctrines 'ud lead 'em: + They 've ben takin' our princerples up ez we dropt 'em, + An' thought it wuz terrible 'cute to adopt 'em; + But they'll fin' out 'fore long thet their hope 's ben deceivin' 'em, + An' thet princerples ain't o' no good, ef you b'lieve in 'em; + It makes 'em tu stiff for a party to use, + Where they'd ough' to be easy 'z an ole pair o' shoes. + Ef _we_ say 'n our pletform thet all men are brothers, + We don't mean thet some folks ain't more so 'n some others; + An' it's wal understood thet we make a selection, + An' thet brotherhood kin' o' subsides arter 'lection. + The fust thing for sound politicians to larn is, + Thet Truth, to dror kindly in all sorts o' harness, + Mus' be kep' in the abstract,--for, 'come to apply it, + You're ept to hurt some folks's interists by it. + Wal, these 'ere Republicans (some on 'em) acs + Ez though gineral mexims 'ud suit speshle facs; + An' there's where we 'll nick 'em, there 's where they 'll be lost: + For applyin' your princerple's wut makes it cost, + An' folks don't want Fourth o' July t' interfere + With the business-consarns o' the rest o' the year, + No more 'n they want Sunday to pry an' to peek + Into wut they are doin' the rest o' the week. + + A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, + Ef he _must_ hev beliefs, nut to b'lieve 'em tu hard; + For, ez sure ez he doos, he'll be blartin' 'em out + 'Thout regardin' the natur' o' man more 'n a spout, + Nor it don't ask much gumption to pick out a flaw + In a party whose leaders are loose in the jaw: + An' so in our own case I ventur' to hint + Thet we'd better nut air our perceedins in print, + Nor pass resserlootions ez long ez your arm + Thet may, ez things heppen to turn, do us harm; + For when you've done all your real meanin' to smother, + The darned things'll up an' mean sunthin' or 'nother. + Jeff'son prob'ly meant wal with his "born free an' ekle," + But it's turned out a real crooked stick in the sekle; + It's taken full eighty-odd year--don't you see?-- + From the pop'lar belief to root out thet idee, + An', arter all, sprouts on 't keep on buddin' forth + In the nat'lly onprincipled mind o' the North. + No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu, + An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu, + Nor don't leave no friction-idees layin' loose + For the ign'ant to put to incend'ary use. + + You know I'm a feller thet keeps a skinned eye + On the leetle events thet go skurryin' by, + Coz it's of'ner by them than by gret ones you'll see + Wut the p'litickle weather is likely to be. + Now I don't think the South's more 'n begun to be licked, + But I _du_ think, ez Jeff says, the wind-bag's gut pricked; + It'll blow for a spell an' keep puffin' an' wheezin', + The tighter our army an' navy keep squeezin',-- + For they can't help spread-eaglein' long 'z ther's a mouth + To blow Enfield's Speaker thru lef' at the South. + But it's high time for us to be settin' our faces + Towards reconstructin' the national basis, + With an eye to beginnin' agin on the jolly ticks + We used to chalk up 'hind the back-door o' politics; + An' the fus' thing's to save wut of Slav'ry ther's lef' + Arter this (I mus' call it) imprudence o' Jeff: + For a real good Abuse, with its roots fur an' wide, + Is the kin' o' thing _I_ like to hev on my side; + A Scriptur' name makes it ez sweet ez a rose, + An' it's tougher the older an' uglier it grows-- + (I ain't speakin' now o' the righteousness of it, + But the p'litickle purchase it gives, an' the profit). + + Things looks pooty squally, it must be allowed, + An' I don't see much signs of a bow in the cloud: + Ther' 's too many Decmocrats--leaders, wut's wuss-- + Thet go for the Union 'thout carin' a cuss + Ef it helps ary party thet ever wuz heard on, + So our eagle ain't made a split Austrian bird on. + But ther' 's still some conservative signs to be found + Thet shows the gret heart o' the People is sound: + (Excuse me for usin' a stump-phrase agin, + But, once in the way on 't, they _will_ stick like sin:) + There's Phillips, for instance, hez jes' ketched a Tartar + In the Law-'n'-Order Party of ole Cincinnater; + An' the Compromise System ain't gone out o' reach, + Long 'z you keep the right limits on freedom o' speech; + 'T warn't none too late, neither, to put on the gag, + For he's dangerous now he goes in for the flag: + Nut thet I altogether approve o' bad eggs, + They're mos' gin'lly argymunt on its las' legs,-- + An' their logic is ept to be tu indiscriminate, + Nor don't ollus wait the right objecs to 'liminate; + But there is a variety on 'em, you 'll find, + Jest ez usefie an' more, besides bein' refined,-- + I mean o' the sort thet are laid by the dictionary, + Sech ez sophisms an' cant thet'll kerry conviction ary + Way thet you want to the right class o' men, + An' are staler than all't ever come from a hen: + "Disunion" done wal till our resh Soutlun friends + Took the savor all out on't for national ends; + But I guess "Abolition" 'll work a spell yit, + When the war's done, an' so will "Forgive-an'-forgit." + Times mus' be pooty thoroughly out o' all jint, + Ef we can't make a good constitootional pint; + An' the good time 'll come to be grindin' our exes, + When the war goes to seed in the nettle o' texes: + Ef Jon'than don't squirm, with sech helps to assist him, + I give up my faith in the free-suffrage system; + Democ'cy wun't be nut a mite interestin', + Nor p'litikle capital much wuth investin'; + An' my notion is, to keep dark an' lay low + Till we see the right minute to put in our blow.-- + + But I've talked longer now 'n I hed any idee, + An' ther's others you want to hear more 'n you du me; + So I'll set down an' give thet 'ere bottle a skrimmage, + For I've spoke till I'm dry ez a real graven image. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Record of an Obscure Man. Tragedy of Errors_, Parts I. and II. Boston: +Ticknor and Fields. 1861, 1862. + +Among the marked literary productions long to be associated with our +present struggle--among them, yet not of them--are the volumes whose +titles we have quoted. They differ from the recent electric messages of +Holmes, Whittier, and Mrs. Howe, in not being obvious results of vivid +events. "Bread and the Newspaper," "The Song of the Negro Boatmen," and +"Our Orders" will reproduce for another generation the fervid feelings +of to-day. But the pathetic warnings exquisitely breathed in the +writings before us will then come to their place as a deep and tender +prelude to the voices heard in this passing tragedy. + +The "Record of an Obscure Man" is the modest introduction to a dramatic +poem of singular pathos and beauty. A New-Englander of culture and +sensibility, naturalized at the South, is supposed to communicate the +results of his study and observation of that outcast race which has been +the easy contempt of ignorance in both sections of the country. Our +instructor has not only a clear judgment Of the value of different +testimonies, and the scholarly instinct of arrangement and +classification, but also that divine gift of sympathy, which alone, in +this world given for our observation, can tell us what to observe. +The illustrations of the negro's character, and the answers to vulgar +depreciation of his tendencies and capacities, are given with the simple +directness of real comprehension. It is the privilege of one acquainted +in no common degree with languages and their history to expose that +dreary joke of the dialect of the oppressed, which superficial people +have so long found funny or contemptible. The simplicity and earnestness +which give dignity to any phraseology come from the humanity behind it. +We are well reminded that divergences from the common use of language, +never held to degrade the meaning in Milton or Shakespeare, need not +render thought despicable when the negro uses identical forms. If he +calls a leopard a "libbard," he only imitates the most sublime of +English poets; and the first word of his petition, "_Gib_ us this day +our daily bread," is pronounced as it rose from the lips of Luther. +The highest truths the faith of man may reach are symbolized more +definitely, and often more picturesquely, by the warm imagination of the +African than by the cultivated genius of the Caucasian. Also it is shown +how the laziness and ferocity with which the negro is sometimes charged +may be more than matched in the history of his assumed superior. +Yet, while acknowledging how well-considered is the matter of this +introductory volume, we regret what seems to be an imperfection in +the form in which it is presented. There is too much _story_, or too +little,--too little to command the assistance of fiction, too much to +prevent a feeling of disappointment that romance is attempted at +all. The concluding autobiography of the friend of Colvil is hardly +consistent with his character as previously suggested; it seems +unnecessary to the author's purpose, and is not drawn with the +minuteness or power which might justify its introduction. We notice this +circumstance as explaining why this Introduction may possibly fail of a +popularity more extended than that which its tenderness of thought and +style at once claimed from the best readers. + +The "Tragedy of Errors" presents, with the vivid idealization of +art, some of the results of American Slavery. Travellers, novelists, +ethnologists have spoken with various ability of the laborers of the +South; and now the poet breaks through the hard monotony of their +external lives, and lends the plasticity of a cultivated mind to take +impress of feeling to which the gift of utterance is denied. And it is +often only through the imagination of another that the human bosom can +be delivered "of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart." For +it is a very common error to estimate mental activity by a command +of the arts of expression; whereas, at its best estate, speech is an +imperfect sign of perception, and one which without special cultivation +must be wholly inadequate. Thus it will be seen that an employment of +the dialect and limited vocabulary of the negro would be obviously +unsuitable to the purpose of the poem; and these have been wisely +discarded. In doing this, however, the common license of dramatists +is not exceeded; and the critical censure we have read about "the +extravagant idealization of the negro" merely amounts to saying that the +writer has been bold enough to stem the current of traditional opinion, +and find a poetic view of humanity at the present time and in its most +despised portion. The end of dramatic writing is not to reproduce +Nature, but to idealize it; a literal copying of the same, as everybody +knows, is the merit of the photographer, not of the artist. Again, it +should be remembered that the highly wrought characters among the slaves +are whites, or whites slightly tinged with African blood. With the +commonest allowance for the exigencies of poetic presentation, we find +no individual character unnatural or improbable; though the particular +grouping of these characters is necessarily improbable. For grace of +position and arrangement every dramatist must claim. If the poet will +but take observations from real persons, however widely scattered, +discretion may be exercised in the conjunction of those persons, and +in the sequence of incidents by which they are affected. An aesthetic +invention may be as _natural_ as a mechanical one, although the +materials for each are collected from a wide surface, and placed in new +relations. Thus much we say as expressing dissent from objections which +have been hastily made to this poem. + +Of the plot of the "Tragedy of Errors" we have only space to say that +the writer has cut a channel for very delicate verses through the heart +of a Southern plantation. Here, at length, seems to be one of those +thoroughly national subjects for which critics have long been clamorous. +The deepest passion is expressed without touching the tawdry properties +of the "intense" school of poetry. The language passes from the ease of +perfect simplicity to the conciseness of power, while the relation of +emotion to character is admirably preserved. The moral--which, let us +observe in passing, is decently covered with artistic beauty--relates, +not to the most obvious, but to the most dangerous mischiefs of Slavery. +Indeed, the story is only saved from being too painful by a fine +appreciation of the medicinal quality of all wretchedness that the +writer everywhere displays. In the First Part, the nice intelligence +shown in the rough contrast between Hermann and Stanley, and in the +finished contrast between Alice and Helen, will claim the reader's +attention. The sketches of American life and tendencies, both Northern +and Southern, are given with discrimination and truth. The dying scene, +which closes the First Part, seems to us nobly wrought. The "death-bed +hymn" of the slaves sounds a pathetic wail over an abortive life +shivering on the brink of the Unknown. In the Second Part we find less +of the color and music of a poem, and more of the rapid movement of a +drama. The doom of Slavery upon the master now comes into full relief. +The characters of Herbert and his father are favorable specimens of +well-meaning, even honorable, Southern gentlemen,--only not endowed +with such exceptional moral heroism as to offer the pride of life to be +crushed before hideous laws. The connection between lyric and tragic +power is shown in the "Tragedy of Errors." The songs and chants of the +slaves mingle with the higher dialogue like the chorus of the Greek +stage; they mediate with gentle authority between the worlds of natural +feeling and barbarous usage. Let us also say that the _sentiment_ +throughout this drama is sound and sweet; for it is that mature +sentiment, born again of discipline, which is the pledge of fidelity to +the highest business of life. + +Before concluding, we take the liberty to remove a mask, not +impenetrable to the careful reader, by saying that the writer is a +woman. And let us be thankful that a woman so representative of the best +culture and instinct of New England cannot wholly conceal herself by the +modesty of a pseudonyme. In no way has the Northern spirit roused to +oppose the usurpations of Slavery more truly vindicated its high quality +than by giving development to that feminine element which has mingled +with our national life an influence of genuine power. And to-day there +are few men justly claiming the much-abused title of thinkers who do +not perceive that the opportunity of our regenerated republic cannot be +fully realized, until we cease to press into factitious conformity +the faculties, tastes, and--let us not shrink from the odious +word--_missions_ of women. The merely literary privilege accorded a +generation or two ago is in itself of slight value. Since the success of +"Evelina," women have been freely permitted to jingle pretty verses for +family newspapers, and to _novelize_ morbid sentiments of the feebler +sort. And we see one legitimate result in that flightiness of the +feminine mind which, in a lower stratum of current literature, displays +inaccurate opinions, feeble prejudices, and finally blossoms into pert +vulgarity. But instances of perverted license increase our obligation to +Mrs. Child, Mrs. Stowe and to others whose eloquence is only in deeds. +Of such as these, and of her whom we may now associate with them, it is +not impossible some unborn historian may write, that in certain great +perils of American liberty, when the best men could only offer rhetoric, +women came forward with demonstration. Yet, after all, our deepest +indebtedness to the present series of volumes seems to be this: they +bear gentle testimony to what the wise ever believed, that the delicacy +of spirit we love to characterize by the dear word "womanly" is not +inconsistent with varied and exact information, independent opinion, and +the insights of genius. + +Finally, we venture to mention, what has been in the minds of many +New-England readers, that these books are indissolubly associated with a +young life offered in the nation's great necessity. At the time when the +first of the series was made public, a shudder ran through our homes, as +a regiment, rich in historic names, stood face to face with death. Among +the fallen was the only son of her whose writings have been given us. +Let us think without bitterness of the sacrifice of one influenced and +formed by the rare nature we find in these poems. What better result of +culture than to dissipate intellectual mists and uncertainties, and to +fix the grasp firmly upon some great practical good? There is nothing +wasted in one who lived long enough to show that the refinement acquired +and inherited was of the noble kind which could prefer the roughest +action for humanity to elegant allurements of gratified taste. The best +gift of scholarship is the power it gives a man to descend with all the +force of his acquired position, and come into effective union with the +world of facts. For it is the crucial test of brave qualities that they +are truer and more practical for being filtered through libraries. In +reading the "Theages" of Plato we feel a certain respect for the young +seeker of wisdom whose only wish is to associate with Socrates; and +there is a certain admiration for the father, Demodocus, who joyfully +resigns his son, if the teacher will admit him to his friendship and +impart all that he can. But it is a higher result of a higher order of +society, when a young man with aptitude to follow science and assimilate +knowledge sees in the most perilous service of civilization a rarer +illumination of mind and heart. In the great scheme of things, where all +grades of human worthiness are shown for the benefit of man, this costly +instruction shall not fail of fruit. And so the deepest moral that comes +to us from the "Tragedy of Errors" seems a prophetic memorial of the +soldier for constitutional liberty with whom it will be long connected. +The wealth of life--so we read the final meaning of these verses--is in +its discipline; and the graceful dreams of the poet, and the quickened +intellect of the scholar, are but humble instruments for the helping of +mankind. + + +_A Discourse on the Life, Character, and Policy of Count Cavour_. +Delivered in the Hall of the New York Historical Society, February 20, +1862. By VINCENZO BOTTA, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Literature in the +New York University, late Member of the Parliament, and Professor of +Philosophy in the Colleges of Sardinia. New York: G.P. Putnam. 8vo. pp. +108. + +This is a most admirable tribute to one of the greatest men of our age, +by a writer singularly well qualified in all respects to do justice +to his rich and comprehensive theme. Professor Botta is a native of +Northern Italy, in the first place, and thus by inheritance and natural +transmission is heir to a great deal of knowledge as to the important +movements of which Cavour was the mainspring, which a foreigner could +acquire only by diligent study and inquiry. In the next place, he has +not been exclusively a secluded student, but he has taken part in the +great political drama which he commemorates, and has been brought into +personal relations with the illustrious man whose worth he here sets +forth with such ample knowledge, such generous devotion, such patriotic +fervor. And lastly, he is a man of distinguished literary ability, +wielding the language of his adopted country with an ease and grace +which hardly leave a suspicion that he was not writing his vernacular +tongue. A namesake of his--whether a relation or not, we are not +informed--has written "in very choice Italian" a history of the American +Revolution; and the work before us, relating in such excellent English +the leading events of a glorious Italian revolution, is a partial +payment of the debt of gratitude contracted by the publication of that +classical production. + +But a writer of inferior opportunities and inferior capacity to +Professor Botta could hardly have failed to produce an attractive and +interesting work, with such a subject. There never was a life which +stood less in need of the embellishments of rhetoric, which could rest +more confidently and securely upon its plain, unvarnished truth, than +that of Count Cavour. He was a man of the highest order of greatness; +and when we have said that, we have also said that he was a man of +simplicity, directness, and transparency. A man of the first class is +always easily interpreted and understood. The biographer of Cavour has +nothing to do but to recount simply and consecutively what he said and +what he did, and his task is accomplished: no great statesman has less +need of apology or justification; no one's name is less associated with +doubtful acts or questionable policy. His ends were not more noble than +was the path in which he moved towards them direct. Professor Botta +has fully comprehended the advantages derived from the nature of his +subject, and has confined himself to the task of relating in simple +and vigorous English the life and acts of Cavour from his birth to his +death. He has given us a rapid and condensed summary, but nothing of +importance is omitted, and surely enough is told to vindicate for Cavour +the highest rank which the enthusiastic admiration and gratitude of his +countrymen have accorded to him. Where can we find a nobler life? And, +take him all in all, whom shall we pronounce to have been a greater +statesman? What variety of power he showed, and what wealth of resources +he had at command! Without the pride and coldness of Pitt, the private +vices of Fox, the tempestuous and ill-regulated sensibility of Burke, he +had the useful and commanding intellectual qualities of all the three, +except the splendid and imaginative eloquence of the last. + +This life of Cavour, and the incidental sketches of his associates which +it includes, will have a tendency to correct some of the erroneous +impressions current among us as to the intellectual qualities and +temperament of the Italian people. The common, or, at least, a very +prevalent, notion concerning them is that they are an impassioned, +imaginative, excitable, visionary race, capable of brilliant individual +efforts, but deficient in the power of organization and combination, +and in patience and practical sagacity. Some of us go, or have gone, +farther, and have supposed that the Austrian domination in Italy was the +necessary consequence of want of manliness and persistency in the people +of Italy, and was perhaps as much for their good as the dangerous boon +of independence would have been. All such prejudices will be removed by +a candid perusal of this memoir. Cavour himself, as a statesman and a +man, was of exactly that stamp which we flatter ourselves to be the +exclusive growth of America and England. He was nothing of a visionary, +nothing of a political pedant, nothing of a _doctrinaire_. Franklin +himself had not a more practical understanding, or more of large, plain, +roundabout sense. He had, too, Franklin's shrewdness, his love of humor, +and his relish for the natural pleasures of life. He had a large amount +of patience, the least showy, but perhaps the most important, of the +qualifications of a great statesman. And in his glorious career he was +warmly and generously sustained, not merely by the king, and by the +favored classes, but by the people, whose efforts and sacrifices have +shown how worthy they were of the freedom they have won. We speak here +more particularly of the people of the kingdom of Sardinia; but what we +say in praise of them may be extended to the people of Italy generally. +The history of Italy for the last fifteen years is a glorious chapter +in the history of the world. Whatever of active courage and passive +endurance has in times past made the name of Roman illustrious, the +events of these years have proved to belong equally to the name of +Italian. + +But we are wandering from Count Cavour and Professor Botta. We have to +thank the latter for enriching the literature of his adopted country +with a memoir which in the lucid beauty and transparent flow of its +style reminds the Italian scholar of the charm of Boccaccio's limpid +narrative, and is besides animated with a patriot's enthusiasm and +elevated by a statesman's comprehension. A more cordial, heart-warming +book we have not for a long time read. + + +_A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation_. By THADDEUS +WILLIAM HARRIS, M.D. A New Edition, enlarged and improved, with +Additions from the Author's Manuscripts, and Original Notes. Illustrated +by Engravings drawn from Nature under the Supervision of Professor +Agassiz. Edited by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts +State Board of Agriculture. 8vo. + +This handsome octavo, prepared with such scientific care, is for +the special benefit of Agriculture; and the order, method, and +comprehensiveness so evident throughout the Treatise compel the +admiration of all who study its beautifully illustrated pages. The +community is largely benefited by such an aid to the improvement of +pursuits in which so many are concerned; and no cultivator of the soil +can safely be ignorant of what Dr. Harris has studied and put on record +for the use of those whose honorable occupation it is to till the earth. + +As a work of Art we cannot refrain from special praise of the book +before us. Turning over its leaves is like a spring or summer ramble in +the country. All creeping and flying things seem harmlessly swarming in +vivid beauty of color over its pages. Such gorgeous moths we never +saw before out of the flower-beds, and there are some butterflies and +caterpillars reposing here and there between the leaves that must have +slipped in and gone to sleep on a fine warm day in July. + +The printing of the volume reaches the highest rank of excellence. +Messrs. Welch, Bigelow, & Company may take their place among the +Typographical Masters of this or any other century. + + +_Pictures of Old England_. By DR. REINHOLD PAULI, Author of "History of +Alfred the Great," etc. Translated, with the Author's Sanction, by E.C. +OTTÉ. Cambridge [England]: Macmillan & Co. Small 8vo. pp. xii., 457. + +Dr. Pauli is already known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author +of two works of acknowledged learning and ability,--a "History of +England during the Middle Ages," and a "History of Alfred the Great." +In his new volume he furnishes some further fruits of his profound +researches into the social and political history of England in the +Middle Ages; and if the book will add little or nothing to his present +reputation, it affords at least new evidence of his large acquaintance +with English literature. It comprises twelve descriptive essays on as +many different topics, closely connected with his previous studies. +Among the best of these are the papers entitled "Monks and Mendicant +Friars," which give a brief and interesting account of monastic +institutions in England; "The Hanseatic Steel-Yard in London," +comprising a history of that famous company of merchant-adventurers, +with a description of the buildings occupied by them, and a sketch of +their domestic life; and "London in the Middle Ages," which presents an +excellent description of the topography and general condition of the +city during that period, and is illustrated by a small and carefully +drawn plan. There are also several elaborate essays on the early +relations of England with the Continent, besides papers on "The +Parliament in the Fourteenth Century," "Two Poets, Gower and Chaucer," +"John Wiclif," (as Dr. Pauli spells the name,) and some other topics. +All the papers show an adequate familiarity with the original sources of +information, and are marked by the same candor and impartiality which +have hitherto characterized Dr. Pauli's labors. The translation, without +being distinguished by any special graces of style, is free from the +admixture of foreign idioms, and, so far as one may judge from the +internal evidence, appears to be faithfully executed. As a collection of +popular essays, the volume is worthy of much praise. + + +_The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt_. Edited by his Eldest Son. London: +Smith, Elder, & Co. 1862. 2 vols. 12mo. + +In Lamb's famous controversy with Southey in 1823, (the only controversy +"Elia" ever indulged in,) he says of the author of "Rimini," "He is one +of the most cordial-minded men I ever knew, and matchless as a fireside +companion." + +Few authors have had warmer admirers of their writings, or more sincere +personal friends, than Leigh Hunt. He seemed always to inspire earnestly +and lovingly every one who came into friendly relations with him. When +Shelley inscribed his "Cenci" to him in 1819, he expressed in this +sentence of the Dedication what all have felt who have known Leigh Hunt +intimately:-- + +"Had I known a person more highly endowed than yourself with all that it +becomes a man to possess, I had solicited for this work the ornament of +his name. One more gentle, honorable, innocent, and brave,--one of more +exalted toleration for all who do and think evil, and yet himself more +free from evil,--one who knows better how to receive and how to confer a +benefit, though he must ever confer far more than he can receive,--one +of simpler, and, in the highest sense of the word, of purer life and +manners, I never knew; and I had already been fortunate in friendship +when your name was added to the list." + +With this immortal record of his excellence made by Shelley's hand, +Leigh Hunt cannot be forgotten. Counting among his friends the best men +and women of his time, his name and fame are embalmed in their books +as they were in their hearts. Charles Lamb, Keats, Shelley, and Mrs. +Browning knew his worth, and prized it far above praising him; and there +are those still living who held him very dear, and loved the sound of +his voice like the tones of a father or a son. + +A man's letters betray his heart,--both those he sends and those he +receives. Leigh Hunt's correspondence, as here collected by his son, is +full of the wine of life in the best sense of _spirit_. + + +_The Works of Charles Dickens_. Household Edition. _Martin Chuzzlewit_. +New York: Sheldon & Company. + +It is not our intention, at the present writing, to enter into any +discussion concerning the characteristics or the value of the novels of +Charles Dickens: we have neither time nor space for it. Besides, to few +of our readers do these books need introduction or recommendation from +us. They have long been accepted by the world as worthy to rank among +those works of genius which harmonize alike with the thoughtful mind of +the cultivated and the simple feelings of the unlearned,--which discover +in every class and condition of men some truth or beauty for all +humanity. They are, in the full sense of the word, _household_ books, as +indispensable as Shakspeare or Milton, Scott or Irving. + +We may fairly say of the various editions of Dickens's writings, that +their "name is Legion." None of them all, however, is better adapted to +common libraries than the new edition now publishing in New York. It +will be comprised in fifty volumes, to be published in instalments +at intervals of six or eight weeks. The mechanical execution is most +commendable in every respect: clear, pleasantly tinted paper; typography +in the best style of the Riverside Press; binding novel and tasteful. A +vignette, designed either by Darley or Gilbert, and engraved upon steel, +is prefixed to each volume. We have to congratulate the publishers that +they have so successfully fulfilled the promises of their prospectus, +and the public that an edition at once elegant and inexpensive is now +provided. + + + + +FOREIGN LITERATURE. + + +_Die Schweizerische Literatur des achzehnten Jahrhunderts_. Von T.C. +MÖRIKOFER. Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel. 8vo. pp. 536. + +In the early part of the Middle Ages Switzerland contributed +comparatively little to the literary glory of Germany. Beyond Conrad +of Würzburg, who is claimed as a native of Basel, no Swiss name can be +found among the poets of the Hohenstaufen period. In a later age it is +rather the practical than the romantic character of the Swiss that is +manifested in their productions. The Reformation brought them in closer +contact with German culture. There was need of this; for in no country +was the gap wider between the language of the people and that of the +learned. Scholars like Zwinglius and Bullinger were almost helpless, +when they sought to express themselves in German. Little appeal could, +therefore, be made to the masses in their own tongue by such writers. +During the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the +vernacular was even more neglected than before. It was not until the +beginning of the eighteenth that Latin and French ceased to be the only +languages deemed worthy of use in literary composition. In 1715 Johannes +Muralt wrote his "Eidgnöszischen Lustgarten," and later several other +works, mostly scientific, in German. Political causes came in to help +the reaction, and from that time the Protestant portion of the Helvetic +Confederation may be said to have had a literature of its own. + +It is the history of the literature of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century that Mörikofer has essayed to write. He has chosen a +subject hitherto but little studied, and his work deserves to stand by +the side of the best German literary histories of our time. + +The author begins with the first signs of the reaction against the +influence of France, agreeably portraying the awakening of Swiss +consciousness, and the gradual development of the enlightened patriotism +that impelled Swiss writers to lay aside mere courtly elegance of +diction for their own more terse and vigorous idiom. + +This awakening was not confined to letters. Formerly the Swiss, instead +of appreciating the beauties of their own land, rather considered them +as impediments to the progress of civilization. It seems incredible to +us now that there ever could have been a time when mountain-scenery, +instead of being sought, was shunned,--when princes possessing the most +beautiful lands among the Rhine hills should, with great trouble +and expense, have transported their seats to some flat, uninviting +locality,--when, for instance, the dull, flat, prosy, wearisome gardens +of Schwetzingen should have been deemed more beautiful than the +immediate environs of Heidelberg. Yet such were the sentiments that +prevailed in Switzerland until a comparatively late date. It is only +since the days of Scheuchzer that Swiss scenery has been appreciated, +and in this appreciation were the germs of a new culture. + +As in Germany societies had been established "for the practice of +German" at Leipsic and Hamburg, so in various Swiss cities associations +were formed with the avowed purpose of discouraging the imitation of +French models. Thus, at Zürich several literary young men, among them +Hagenbuch and Lavater, met at the house of the poet Bodmer. The example +was followed in other cities. Though these clubs and their periodical +organs soon fell into an unwarrantable admiration of all that was +English, the result was a gradual development of the national taste. +Since then the literary efforts of the Swiss have been characterized by +an ardent love of country. A direct popular influence may be felt in +their best productions; hence the nature of their many beauties, as well +as of their faults. To the same influence also we owe that phalanx of +reformers and philanthropists, Hirzel, Iselin, Lavater, and Pestalozzi. + +A great portion of the work under consideration is devoted to the lives +and labors of these benefactors of their people. The book is, therefore, +not a literary history in the strict sense of the term. It gives a +comprehensive view of the culture of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century. To Bodmer alone one hundred and seventy-five pages +are devoted. In this essay, as well as in that on the historian Müller, +a vast amount of information is presented, and many facts collated by +the author are now given, we believe, for the first time. + + +_Literaturbilder.--Darstellungen deutscher Literatur aus den Werken der +vorzüglichsten Literarhistoriker_, etc. Herausgegeben von J.W. SCHAEFER. +Leipzig: Friedrich Brandstetter. 8vo. pp. 409. + +There is no lack of German literary histories. While English letters +have not yet found an historian, there are scores of works upon every +branch of German literature. Of these, many possess rare merits, and are +characterized by a depth, a comprehensiveness of criticism not to be +found in the similar productions of any other nation. Whoever has once +been guided by the master-minds of Germany will bear witness that the +guidance cannot be replaced by that of any other class of writers. +Nowhere can such universality, such freedom from national prejudice, be +found,--and this united to a love of truth, earnestness of labor, and +perseverance of research that may be looked for in vain elsewhere. + +The difficulty for the student of German literary history lies, then, in +the selection. A new work, the "Literaturbilder" of J.W. Schaefer, will +greatly tend to facilitate the choice. This is a representation of +the chief points of the literature of Germany by means of well-chosen +selections from the principal historians of letters. The editor +introduces these by an essay upon the "Epochs of German Literature." +Then follow, with due regard to chronological order, extracts from the +works of Vilmar, Gervinus, Wackernagel, Schlosser, Julian Schmidt, and +others. These extracts are of such length as to give a fair idea of the +writers, and so arranged as to form a connected history. Thus, under +the third division, comprising the eighteenth century until Herder and +Goethe, we find the following articles following each other: "State of +Literature in the Eighteenth Century"; "Johann Christian Gottsched," by +F.C. Schlosser; "Gottsched's Attempts at Dramatic Reform," by R. Prutz; +"Hagedorn and Haller," by J.W. Schaefer; "Bodmer and Breitinger," by +A. Koberstein; "The Leipsic Association of Poets and the Bremen +Contributions," by Chr. F. Weisse; "German Literature in the Middle of +the Eighteenth Century," by Goethe; "Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener," by H. +Gelzer; "Gellert's Fables," by H. Prutz. Those who do not possess the +comprehensive works of Gervinus, Cholerius, Wackernagel, etc., may thus +in one volume find enough to be able to form a fair opinion of the +nature of their labors. + +The "Literaturbilder," though perhaps lacking in unity, is one of the +most attractive of literary histories. A few important names are missed, +as that of Menzel, from whom nothing is quoted. The omission seems the +more unwarrantable, as this writer, whatever we may think of his views, +still enjoys the highest consideration among a numerous class of German +readers. The contributions of the editor himself form no inconsiderable +part of the volume. Those quoted from his "Life of Goethe" deserve +special mention. The work does not extend beyond the first years of the +present century, and closes with Jean Paul. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Martin Chuzzlewit. In Four +Volumes. New York. Sheldon & Co. 16mo. pp. 322, 299, 292, 322. $3.00. + +The Earl's Heirs. A Tale of Domestic Life. By the Author of "East +Lynne," etc. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. +200. 50 cts. + +The Spirit of Military Institutions; or, Essential Principles of the Art +of War. By Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa. Translated from the Latest +Edition, revised and corrected by the Author; with Illustrative Notes +by Henry Coppée, Professor of English Literature in the University of +Pennsylvania, late an Officer of Artillery in the Service of the United +States. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 272. $1.00. + +Maxims, Advice, and Instructions on the Art of War; or, A Practical +Military Guide for the Use of Soldiers of all Arms and of all Countries. +Translated from the French by Captain Lendy, Director of the Practical +Military College, late of the French Staff, etc. New York. D. Van +Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 212. 75 cts. + +Rhymed Tactics. By "Gov." New York. D. Van Nostrand. 18mo. paper, pp. +144. 25 cts. + +Official Army Register, for 1862. From the Copy issued by the +Adjutant-General U.S. Army. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. paper, pp. +108. 50 cts. + +Water: Its History, Characteristics, Hygienic and Therapeutic Uses. By +Samuel W. Francis, A.M., M.D., Physician to the Northern Dispensary, New +York. New York. S.S. & W. Wood. 8vo. paper, pp. 47. 25 cts. + +An Exposition of Modern Spiritualism, showing its Tendency to a Total +Annihilation of Christianity. With other Miscellaneous Remarks and +Criticisms, in Support of the Fundamental Principles of the Christian +Religion. By Samuel Post. New York. Printed by James Egbert. 8vo. paper, +pp. 86. 25 cts. + +Sybelle, and other Poems. By L. New York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 192. +50 cts. + +Aids to Faith: A Series of Theological Essays. By Several Writers. Being +a Reply to "Essays and Reviews." Edited by William Thomson, D.D., Lord +Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +538. $1.50. + +A Popular Treatise on Deafness: Its Causes and Prevention, by Drs. +Lighthill. Edited by E. Bunford Lighthill, M.D. With Illustrations. New +York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 133. 50 cts. + +Cadet Life at West Point. By an Officer of the United States Army. +With a Descriptive Sketch of West Point, by Benson J. Lossing. Boston. +T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. xviii., 367. $1.00. + +Can Wrong be Right? By Mrs. S.C. Hall Boston. T.O.H.P. Burnham. 8vo. +paper. pp. 143. 38 cts. + +The Old Lieutenant and his Son. By Norman Macleod. Boston. T.O.H.P. +Burnham, 8vo. paper, pp. 130. 30 cts. + +Eighth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of +the State of New York. Transmitted to the Legislature January 8,1882. +Albany. C. Van Benthuysen, Printer. 8vo. pp. 133. + +Nolan's System for Training Cavalry Horses. By Kenner Garrard, Captain +Fifth Cavalry, U.S.A. With Twenty-Four Lithographed Illustrations. New +York. D. Van Nostrand. 12mo. pp. 114. $1.50. + +The Koran; commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated into +English immediately from the Original Arabic. By George Sale, Gent. To +which is prefixed The Life of Mohammed; or, The History of that Doctrine +which was begun, carried on, and finally established by him in Arabia, +and which has subjugated a Larger Portion of the Globe than the Religion +of Jesus has set at Liberty. Boston. T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. 472. +$1,00. + +A Strange Story. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. With Engravings on Steel by +F.O. Freeman, after Drawings by J.N. Hyde, from Designs by Gardner A. +Fuller. Boston. Gardner A. Fuller. 12mo. pp. 387. paper, 25 cts. muslin, +$1.00. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, +1862, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12107 *** 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..d9c1547 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12107 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12107) diff --git a/old/12107-8.txt b/old/12107-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b0d0d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12107-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8736 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page scans provided by Cornell University. + + + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX.--MAY, 1862.--NO. LV. + + + + * * * * * + +MAN UNDER SEALED ORDERS. + + +A vessel of war leaves its port, but no one on board knows for what +object, nor whither it is bound. It is a secret Government expedition. +As it sets out, a number of documents, carefully sealed, are put in +charge of the commander, in which all his instructions are contained. +When far away from his sovereign, these are to be the authority which he +must obey; as he sails on in the dark, these are to be the lights on the +deep by which he must steer. They provide for every stage of the way. +They direct what ports to approach and what ports to avoid, what to do +in different seas, what variation to make in certain contingencies, and +what acts to perform at certain opportunities. Each paper of the series +forbids the opening of the next until its own directions have been +fulfilled; so that no one can see beyond the immediate point for which +he is making. + +The wide ocean is before that ship, and a wider mystery. But in the +passage of time, as the strange cruise proceeds, its course begins to +tell upon the chart. The zigzag line, like obscure chirography, has an +intelligible look, and seems to spell out intimations. As order after +order is opened, those sibyl leaves of the cabin commence to prophesy, +glimpses multiply, surmises come quick, and shortly the whole ship's +company more than suspect, from the accumulating _data_ behind them, +what must be their destination, and the mission they have been sent to +accomplish. + +People are beginning to imagine that the career of the human race is +something like this. There is a fast-growing conviction that man has +been sent out, from the first, to fulfil some inexplicable purpose, and +that he holds a Divine commission to perform a wonderful work on the +earth. It would seem as if his marvellous brain were the bundle of +mystic scrolls on which it is written, and within which its terms are +hid,--and as if his imperishable soul were the great seal, bearing the +Divine image and superscription, which attests its Almighty original. + +This commission is yet obscure. It has so far only gradually opened to +him, for he is sailing under sealed orders. He is still led on from +point to point. But the farther he goes, and the more his past gathers +behind him, the better is he able to imagine what must be before him. +His chart is every day getting more full of amazing indications. He is +beginning to feel about him the increasing press of some Providential +design that has been permeating and moulding age after age, and to +discover that be has been all along unconsciously prosecuting a secret +mission. And so it comes at last that everything new takes that look; +every evolution of mind, every addition to knowledge, every discovery of +truth, every novel achievement appearing like the breaking of seals and +opening of rolls, in the performance of an inexhaustible and mysterious +trust that has been committed to his hands. + +It is the purpose of this paper to collect together some of these facts +and incidents of progress, in order to show that this is not a mere +dream, but a stupendous reality. History shall be the inspiration of our +prophecy. + +There is a past to be recounted, a present to be described, and a future +to be foretold. An immense review for a magazine article, and it will +require some ingenuity to be brief and graphic at the same time. In the +attempt to get as much as possible into the smallest space, many things +will have to be omitted, and some most profound particulars merely +glanced at; but enough will be furnished, perhaps, to make the point we +have in view. + +We may compare human progress to a tall tree which has reared itself, +slowly and imperceptibly, through century after century, hardly more +than a bare trunk, with here and there only the slight outshoot of some +temporary exploit of genius, but which in this age gives the signs of +that immense foliage and fruitage which shall in time embower the whole +earth. We see but its spring-time of leaf,--for it is only within fifty +years that this rich outburst of wonders began. We live in an era when +progress is so new as to be a matter of amazement. A hundred years +hence, perhaps it will have become so much a matter of course to +develop, to expand, and to discover, that it will excite no comment. But +it is yet novel, and we are yet fresh. Therefore we may gaze back at +what has been, and gaze forward at what is promised to be, with more +likelihood of being impressed than if we were a few centuries older. + +If we look down at the roots out of which this tree has risen, and then +up at its spreading branches,--omitting its intermediate trunk of ages, +through which its processes have been secretly working,--perhaps we may +realize in a briefer space the wonder of it all. + +In the beginning of history, according to received authority, there +was but a little tract of the earth occupied, and that by one family, +speaking but one tongue, and worshipping but one God,--all the rest of +the world being an uninhabited wild. At _this_ stage of history the +whole globe is explored, covered with races of every color, a host of +nations and languages, with every diversity of custom, development of +character, and form of religion. The physical bound from that to this is +equalled only by the leap which the world of mind has made. + +Once upon a time a man hollowed a tree, and, launching it upon the +water, found that it would bear him up. After this a few little floats, +creeping cautiously near the land, were all on which men were wont to +venture. _Now_ there are sails fluttering on every sea, prodigious +steamers throbbing like leviathans against wind and wave; harbors are +built, and rocks and shoals removed; lighthouses gleam nightly from ten +thousand stations on the shore; the great deep itself is sounded by +plummet and diving-bell; the submarine world is disclosed; and man +is gathering into his hands the laws of the very winds that toss its +surface. + +Once the earth had a single rude, mud-built hamlet, in which human +dwellings were first clustered together. _Now_ it is studded with +splendid cities, strewn thick with towns and villages, diversified by +infinite varieties of architecture: sumptuous buildings, unlike in every +clime, each as if sprung from its own soil and made out of its air. + +Once there were only the elementary discoveries of the lever, the wedge, +the bended bow, the wheel; Tubal worked in iron and copper, and Naamah +twisted threads. Since then what a jump the mechanical arts have made! +These primitive elements are now so intricately combined that we can +hardly recognize them; new forces have been added, new principles +evolved; ponderous engines, like moving mountains of iron, shake the +very earth; many-windowed factories, filled with complex machinery +driven by water or its vapor, clatter night and day, weaving the plain +garments of the poor man and the rich robes of the prince, the curtains +of the cottage and the upholstery of the palace. + +Once there were but the spear and bow and shield, and hand-to-hand +conflicts of brute strength. See now the whole enginery of war, the art +of fortification, the terrific perfection of artillery, the mathematical +transfer of all from the body to the mind, till the battlefield is but +a chess-board, and the battle is really waged in the brains of the +generals. How astonishing was that last European field of Solferino, +ten miles in sweep,--with the balloon floating above it for its spy +and scout,--with the thread-like wire trailing in the grass, and +the lightning coursing back and forth, Napoleon's ubiquitous +aide-de-camp,--with railway-trains, bringing reinforcements into the +midst of the _mele_, and their steam-whistle shrieking amid the +thunders of battle! And what a picture of even greater magnificence, in +some respects, is before us to-day! A field not of ten, but ten +thousand miles in sweep! McClellan, standing on the eminence of present +scientific achievement, is able to overlook half the breadth of a +continent, and the widely scattered detachments of a host of six hundred +thousand men. The rail connects city with city; the wire hangs between +camp and camp, and reaches from army to army. Steam is hurling his +legions from one point to another; electricity brings him intelligence, +and carries his orders; the aronaut in the sky is his field-glass +searching the horizon. It is practically but one great battle that is +raging beneath him, on the Potomac, in the mountains of Virginia, +down the valley of the Mississippi, in the interiors of Kentucky and +Tennessee, along the seaboard, and on the Gulf coast. The combatants are +hidden from each other, but under the chieftain's eye the dozen armies +are only the squadrons of a single host, their battles only the separate +conflicts of a single field, the movements of the whole campaign only +the evolutions of a prolonged engagement. The spectacle is a good +illustration of the day. Under the magic of progress, war in its essence +and vitality is really diminishing, even while increasing in _materiel_ +and grandeur. Neither time nor space will permit the old and tedious +contests of history to be repeated. Military science has entered upon a +new era, nearer than ever to the period when wars shall cease. + +But to go on with a few more contrasts of the past with the present. +Once men wrote only in symbols, like wedges and arrow-heads, on +tiles and bricks, or in hieroglyphic pictures on obelisks and +sepulchres,--afterward in crude, but current characters on stone, metal, +wax, and papyrus. In a much later age appeared the farthest perfection +of the invention: books engrossed on illuminated rolls of vellum, and +wound on cylinders of boxwood, ivory, or gold,--and then put away like +richest treasures of art. What a difference between perfection then and +progress now! To-day the steam printing-press throws out its sheets in +clouds, and fills the world with books. Vast libraries are the vaulted +catacombs of modern times, in which the dead past is laid away, and the +living present takes refuge. The glory of costly scrolls is dimmed by +the illustrated and typographical wonders which make the bookstore a +gorgeous dream. Knowledge, no longer rare, no longer lies in precarious +accumulations within the cells of some poor monk's crumbling brain, but +swells up like the ocean, universal and imperishable, pouring into the +vacant recesses of all minds as the ocean pours into the hollows under +its shore. To-day, newspapers multiplied by millions whiten the whole +country every morning, like the hoar-frost; and books, numerous and +brilliant as the stars, seem by a sort of astral influence to unseal the +latent destinies of many an intellect, as by their illumination they +stimulate thought and activity everywhere. + +Once art seemed to have reached perfection in the pictures and +sculptures of Greece and Rome. Yet now those master-pieces are not only +equalled on canvas and in fresco, but reproduced by tens of thousands +from graven sheets of copper, steel, and even blocks of wood,--or, if +modelled in marble or bronze, are remodelled by hundreds, and set up in +countless households as the household gods. It is the glory of to-day +that the sun himself has come down to be the rival and teacher of +artists, to work wonders and perform miracles in art. He is the +celestial limner who shall preserve the authentic faces of every +generation from now until the world is no more. He holds the mirror up +to Nature, paralyzes the fleeting phantom, by chemical subtilty, on the +burnished plate,--and there it is fixed forever. He prepares the optical +illusion of the stereoscope, so that through tiny windows we may look as +into fairy-land and find sections of this magnificent world modelled in +miniature. + +Once men imagined the earth to be a flat and limited tract. Now they +realize that it is a ponderous ball floating in infinite ether. Once +they thought the sky was a solid blue concave, studded with blazing +points, an empire of fate, the gold-and-azure floor of the abode of +gods and spirits. Now all that is dissolved away; the wandering planets +become at will broad disks, like sisters of the moon; and countless +millions of stars are now mirrored in the same retina with which the +Magi saw the few thousands of the firmament that were visible from the +plains of Chaldea. + +Once men were aware of nothing in the earth beneath its hills and +valleys and teeming soil. Now they walk consciously over the ruins +of old worlds; they can decipher the strange characters and read the +strange history graven on these gigantic tablets. The stony veil is +rent, and they can look inimitable periods back, and see the curious +animals which then moved up and down in the earth. + +Once a glass bubble was a wonder for magnifying power. Now the lenses of +the microscope bring an inverted universe to light. Men can look into a +drop and discover an ocean crowded with millions of living creatures, +monsters untypified in the visible world, playing about as in a great +deep. + +Once a Roman emperor prized a mysterious jewel because it brought the +gladiators contending in the arena closer to the imperial canopy. Now +observatories, with their revolving domes, crown the heights at every +centre of civilization, and the mighty telescope, poised on exquisite +mechanism, turns infinite space into a Coliseum, brings its invisible +luminaries close to the astronomer's seat, and reveals the harmonies and +splendors of those distant works of God. + +Once the supposed elements were fire, and water, and earth, and air; +once the amber was unique in its peculiar property, and the loadstone +in its singular power. Now chemistry holds in solution the elements and +secrets of creation; now electricity would seem to be the veil which +hangs before the soul; now the magnetic needle, true to the loadstar, +trembles on the sea, to make the mariner brave and the haven sure. + +We have by no means exhausted the wonders that have accumulated upon +man, in being accumulated by man. Their enumeration would be almost +endless. But we leave all to mention one, with which there is nothing of +old time to compare. It had no beginning then,--not even a germ. It is +the peculiar leap and development of the age in which we live. Many +things have combined to bring it to pass. + +A spirit that had been hid, since the world began, in a coffer of metal +and acid,--the genie of the lightning,--shut down, as by the seal of +Solomon in the Arabian tale, was let loose but the other day, and +commenced to do the bidding of man. Every one found that he could +transport his thought to the ends of the earth in the twinkling of an +eye. That spirit, with its electric wings, soon flew from city to city, +and whithersoever the magnetic wire could be traced through the air, +till the nations of all Europe stood as face to face, and the States +of this great Union gazed one upon another. It made a continent like a +household,--a cluster of peoples like members of a family,--each within +hearing of the other's voice. + +But one achievement remained to be performed before the whole world +could become one. The ocean had hitherto hopelessly severed the globe +into two hemispheres. Could man make it a single sphere? Could man, like +Moses, smite the waves with his electric rod, and lead the legions of +human thought across dry shod? He could,--and he did. We all remember +it well. A range of submarine mountains was discovered, stretching from +America to Europe. Their top formed a plateau, which, lying within two +miles of the surface, offered an undulating shoal within human reach. A +fleet of steamers, wary of storms, one day cautiously assembled midway +over it. They caught the monster asleep, safely uncoiled the wire, and +laid it from shore to shore. The treacherous, dreadful, omnipotent ocean +was conquered and bound! + +How the heart of the two worlds leaped when the news came! Then, more +than at any time before, were most of us startled into a conviction of +how _real_ progress was,--how tremendous, and limitless, apparently, the +power which God had put into man. Not that this, in itself, was greater +than that which had preceded it, but it was the climax of all. The +mechanical feat awoke more enthusiasm than even the scientific +achievement which was its living soul,--not because it was more +wonderful, but because it dispelled our last doubt. We all began to form +a more definite idea of something great to come, that was yet lying +stored away in the brain,--laid there from the beginning. Like the +Magian on the heights of Moab, as he saw the tents of Israel and the +tabernacle of God in the distance, we grew big with an involuntary +vision, and were surprised into prophecies. + +It was wonderful to see the Queen of England, on one side of that chasm +of three thousand miles, wave a greeting to the President, and the +President wave back a greeting to the Queen. But it was glorious to see +that chord quiver with the music and the truth of the angelic song:-- + + "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth + peace, + Good-will toward men!" + +Soon, however, came a check to the excitement. For above a score of days +was that mysterious highway kept open from Valentia to Trinity Bay. But +then the spell was lost, the waves flowed back, old ocean rolled on as +before, and the crossing messages perished, like the hosts of Pharaoh in +the sea. + +That the miracle is ended is no indication that it cannot be repeated. +For the very reason that the now dead, inarticulate wire, like an +infant, lisped and stammered once, it is certain that another will +soon be born, which will live to trumpet forth like the angel of +civilization, its minister of flaming fire! No one should abate a jot +from the high hope excited then. No imagination should suffer a cloud on +the picture it then painted. Governments and capitalists have not +been idle, and will not be discouraged. Already Europe and Africa are +connected by an electric tunnel under the sea, five hundred miles in +length; already Malta and Alexandria speak to each other through a tube +lying under thirteen hundred miles of Mediterranean waters; already +Britain bound to Holland and Hanover and Denmark by a triple cord of +sympathy which all the tempests of the German Ocean cannot sever. And if +we come nearer home, we shall find a project matured which will carry a +fiery cordon around the entire coast of our country, linking fortress to +fortress, and providing that last, desperate resource of unity, an outer +girdle and jointed chain of force, to bind together and save a nation +whose inner bonds of peace and love are broken. + +Such energy and such success are enough to revive the expectation and to +guaranty the coming of the day when we shall behold the electric light +playing round the world unquenched by the seas, illuminating the land, +revealing nation to nation, and mingling language with language, as if +the "cloven tongues like as of fire" had appeared again, and "sat upon +each of them." + +It will be a strange period, and yet we shall see it. The word spoken +here under the sun of mid-day, when it speaks at the antipodes, will be +heard under the stars of midnight. Of the world of commerce it may be +written, "There shall be no night there!" and of the ancient clock of +the sun and stars, "There shall be time no longer!" + +When the electric wire shall stretch from Pekin, by successive India +stations, to London, and from India, by leaps from island to island, to +Australia, and from New York westward to San Francisco, (as has been +already accomplished,) and southward to Cape Horn, and across the +Atlantic, or over the Strait to St. Petersburg,--when the endless +circle is formed, and the magic net-work binds continent, and city, and +village, and the isles of the sea, in one,--then who will know the world +we live in, for the change that shall come upon it? + +Time no more! Space no more! Mankind brought into one vast neighborhood! + +Prophesy the greater union of all hearts in this interblending of all +minds. Prophesy the boundless spread of civilization, when all barriers +are swept away. Prophesy the catholicity of that religion in which as +many phases of a common faith shall be endured as there are climes for +the common human constitution and countries in a common world! + +In those days men will carry a watch, not with a single face, as now, +telling only the time of their own region, but a dial-plate subdivided +into the disks of a dozen timepieces, announcing at a glance the hour of +as many meridian stations on the globe. It will be the fair type of +the man who wears it. When human skill shall find itself under this +necessity, and mechanism shall reach this perfection, then the soul +of that man will become also many-disked. He will be alive with the +perpetual consciousness of many zeniths and horizons beside his own, of +many nations far different from his own, of many customs, manners, and +ideas, which he could not share, but is able to account for and respect. + +We can peer as far as this into the future; for what we predict is only +a reasonable deduction from certain given circumstances that are nearly +around us now. We do not lay all the stress upon the telegraph, as if to +attribute everything to it, but because that invention, and its recent +crowning event, are the last great leap which the mind has made, and +because in itself, and in its carrying out, it summoned all the previous +discoveries and achievements of man to its aid. It is their last-born +child,--the greater for its many parents. There is hardly a science, or +an art, or an invention, which has not contributed to it, or which is +not deriving sustenance or inspiration from it. + +This latter fact makes it particularly suggestive. As it was begotten +itself, and is in its turn begetting, so has it been with everything +else in the world of progress. Every scientific or mechanical idea, +every species of discovery, has been as naturally born of one or more +antecedents of its own kind as men are born of men. There is a kith and +kin among all these extraordinary creatures of the brain. They have +their ancestors and descendants; not one is a Melchizedek, without +father, without mother. Every one is a link in a regular order of +generations. Some became extinct with their age, being superseded or no +longer wanted; while others had the power of immense propagation, and +produced an innumerable offspring, which have a family likeness to this +day. The law of cause and effect has no better illustration than the +history of inventions and discoveries. If there were among us an +intellect sufficiently encyclopedic in knowledge and versatile in +genius, it could take every one of these facts and trace its intricate +lineage of principles and mechanisms, step by step, up to the original +Adam of the first invention and the original Eve of the first necessity. + +There is a period between us and these first parents of our present +progress that is strangely obscure. It is a sort of antediluvian age, in +which there were evidently stupendous mechanical powers of some kind, +and an extensive acquaintance with some things. The ruins of Egypt alone +would prove this. But a deluge of oblivion has washed over them, and +left these colossal bones to tell what story they can. The only way to +account for such an extinction is, that they were monstrous contrivances +out of all proportion to their age, spasmodic successes in science, +wonders born out of due time,--deriving no sustenance or support from a +wide and various kindred, and therefore, like the giants which were of +old, dying out with their day. + +It is different with what has taken place since. Every work has come in +its right time, just when best prepared for, and most required. There is +not one but is sustained on every side, and fits into its place, as each +new piece of colored stone in a mosaic is sustained by the progressive +picture. Every one is conserved by its connections. Whatever has been +done is sure,--and the past being secure, the future is guarantied. +It is impossible that the present knowledge in the world should be +extinguished. Nothing but a stroke of imbecility upon the race, nothing +but the destruction of its libraries, nothing but the paralysis of +the printing-press, and the annihilation of these means of +intercommunication,--nothing but some such arbitrary intervention +could accomplish it. The facts already in human possession, and the +constitution of the mind, together insure what we have as imperishable, +and what we are to obtain as illimitable. + +We come now to another suggestive characteristic of the time,--another +of its promises. So far we find Progress gathering fulness and +strength,--making sure of itself. It has also been gathering impetus. It +has been, all along, accumulating momentum, and now it sweeps on with +breathless _rapidity_. The reason is, that, the farther it has gone, the +more it has multiplied its agents. The present generation is not only +carried forward, but is excited in every quarter. The activity and +versatility of the intellect would appear to be inexhaustible. Instead +of getting overstrained, or becoming lethargic, it never was so +powerful, never had so many resources, never was so wide-awake. Men +are busy turning over every stone in their way, in the hope of finding +something new. Nothing would seem too small for human attention, nothing +too great for human undertaking. The government Patent-Office, with +its countless chambers, is not so large a museum of inventions as the +capacious brain of to-day. + +One man is engrossed over an apple-parer; another snatches the needle +from the weary fingers of the seamstress, and offers her in return the +sewing-machine. That man yonder has turned himself into an armory, and +he brings out the deadliest instrument he can produce, something perhaps +that can shoot you at sight, even though you be a speck in the horizon. +His next-door neighbor is an iron workshop, and is forging an armor of +proof for a vessel of war, from which the mightiest balls shall bound +as lightly as the arrows from an old-time breastplate. There is another +searching for that new motive power which shall keep pace with the +telegraph, and hurl the bodies of men through space as fast as their +thoughts are hurled; there is another seeking that electro-magnetic +battery which shall speak instantly and distinctly to the ends of +the earth. The mind of that astronomer is a telescope, through whose +increasing field new worlds float daily by; the mind of that geologist +is a divining-rod, forever bending toward the waters of chaos, and +pointing out new places where a shaft can be sunk into periods of almost +infinite antiquity; the mind of that chemist is a subtile crucible, in +which aboriginal secrets lie disclosed, and within whose depths the true +philosopher's stone will be found; the mind of that mathematician is a +maze of ethereal stair-ways, rising higher and higher toward the heaven +of truth. + +The ambition is everywhere,--in every breast; the power is +everywhere,--in every brain. The giant and the pigmy are alike active +in seeking out and finding out many inventions. And in this very +universality of effort and result we discover another guaranty of the +great future. The river of Progress multiplies its tributaries the +farther it flows, and even now, unknown ages from its mouth, we already +see that magnificent widening of its channel, in which, like the Amazon, +it long anticipates the sea. + +Man, the great achiever! the marvellous magician! Look at him! A head +hardly six feet above the ground out of which he was taken. His "dome +of thought and palace of the soul" scarce twenty-two inches in +circumference; and within it, a little, gray, oval mass of "convoluted +albumen and fibre, of some four pounds' weight," and there sits the +intelligence which has worked all these wonders! An intelligence, say, +six thousand years old next century. How many thousand years more will +it think, and think, and wave the wand, and raise new spirits out of +Nature, open her sealed-up mysteries, scale the stars, and uncover a +universe at home? How long will it be before this inherent power, laid +in it at the beginning by the Almighty, shall be exhausted, and reach +its limit? Yes, how long? We cannot begin to know. We cannot imagine +where the stopping-place could be. Perhaps there is none. + +To take up the nautical figure which has furnished our title,--we are in +the midst of an infinite sea, sailing on to a destination we know not +of, but of which the vague and splendid fancies we have formed hang +before our prow like illusions in the sky. We are meeting on every hand +great opportunities which must not be lost, new achievements which must +be wrought, and strange adventures which must be undertaken: every day +wondering more to what our commission shall bring us at last, full of +magnificent hopes and a growing faith,--the inscrutable bundle of orders +not nearly exhausted: whole continents of knowledge yet to be discovered +and explored; the gates of yet distant sciences to be sought and +unlocked; the fortresses of yet undreamed necessities to be taken; +Arcadias of beauty to be visited and their treasures garnered by the +imagination; an intricate course to be followed amid all future nations +and governments, and their winding histories, as if threading the +devious channels of endless archipelagoes; the spoils of all ages to +be gathered, and treaties of commerce with all generations to be made, +before the mysterious voyage is done. + +And now, before we leave this fascinating theme, or suffer another +dream, let us stop where we are, in order to see where we are. Let us +take our bearings. What says our chart? What do we find in the horizon +of the present, which may give us the wherewithal to hope, to doubt, or +to fear? + +The era in which we live presents some remarkable characteristics, +which have been brought into it by this immense material success. It +is preeminently an age of _reality:_ an age in which a host of +unrealities--queer and strange old notions--have been destroyed forever. +Never were the vaulted spaces in this grand old temple of a world swept +so clean of cobwebs before. The mind has not gone forth working outside +wonders, without effecting equal inside changes. In achieving abroad, it +has been ennobling at home. At no time was it so free from superstition +as now, and from the absurdities which have for centuries beset and +filled it. What numberless delusions, what ghosts, what mysteries, what +fables, what curious ideas, have disappeared before the besom of the +day! The old author long ago foretasted this, who wrote,--"The divine +arts of printing and gunpowder have frightened away Robin Goodfellow, +and all the fairies." It is told of Kepler, that he believed the planets +were borne through the skies in the arms of angels; but science shortly +took a wider sweep, killed off the angels, and showed that the wandering +luminaries had been accustomed from infancy to take care of themselves. +And so has the firmament of all knowledge been cleared of its vapors and +fictions, and been revealed in its solid and shining facts. + +Here, then, lies the great distinction of the time: the accumulation of +_Truth_, and the growing appetite for the true and the real. The year +whirls round like the toothed cylinder in a threshing-machine, blowing +out the chaff in clouds, but quietly dropping the rich kernels within +our reach. And it will always be so. Men will sow their notions and reap +harvests, but the inexorable age will winnow out the truth, and scatter +to the winds whatsoever is error. + +Now we see how that impalpable something has been produced which we call +the "Spirit of the Age,"--that peculiar atmosphere in which we live, +which fills the lungs of the human spirit, and gives vitality and +character to all that men at present think and say and feel and do. It +is this identical spirit of courageous inquiry, honest reality, and +intense activity, wrought up into a kind of universal inspiration, +moving with the same disposition, the same taste, the same thought, +persons whole regions apart and unknown to each other. We are frequently +surprised by coincidences which prove this novel, yet common _afflatus_. +Two astronomers, with the ocean between them, calculate at the same +moment, in the same direction, and simultaneously light upon the same +new orb. Two inventors, falling in with the same necessity, think of the +same contrivance, and meet for the first time in a newspaper war, or +a duel of pamphlets, for the credit of its authorship. A dozen widely +scattered philosophers as quickly hit upon the self-same idea as if +they were in council together. A more rational development of some old +doctrine in divinity springs up in a hundred places at once, as if a +theological epidemic were abroad, or a synod of all the churches were in +session. It has also another peculiarity. The thought which may occur at +first to but one mind seems to have an affinity to all minds; and if +it be a free and generous thought, it is instantly caught, intuitively +comprehended, and received with acclamations all over the world. Such a +spirit as this is rapidly bringing all sections and classes of mankind +into sympathy with one another, and producing a supreme caste in human +nature, which, as it increases in numbers, will mould the character and +control the destinies of the race. + +So far we speak of the upper air of the day. But there is no denying the +prevalence of a lower and baser spirit. We are uncomfortably aware that +there is another extreme to the freaks of the imagination. There are +superstitions of the reason and of realism,--the grotesque fancies, +mysticisms, and vagaries which prevail, and the diseased gusto for +something ultra and outlandish which affects many raw and undisciplined +minds. Yet even these are, in their way, indications of the pervading +disposition,--the unhealthy exhalations to be expected from hitherto +stagnant regions, stirred up by the active and regenerating thought of +the time. There is promise even in them, and they serve to distinguish +the more that purer and higher spirit of honesty and reality, which +clarifies the intellect, and invigorates the faculties that apprehend +and grasp the noble and the true. + +We glory in this triumph of the reason over the imagination, and in this +predominance of the real over the ideal. We prefer that common sense +should lead the van, and that mere fancy, like the tinselled conjurer +behind his hollow table and hollow apparatus, should be taken for what +it is, and that its tricks and surprises should cease to bamboozle, +however much they may amuse mankind. Nothing, in the course of +Providence, conveys so much encouragement as this recent and growing +development of reality in thought and pursuit. In its presence the +future of the world looks substantial and sure. We dream of an immense +change in the tone of the human spirit, and in the character of the +civilization which shall in time embower the earth. + +But, as it has always been, the greater the good, the nearer the evil; +Satan is next-door neighbor to the saint; Eden had a lurking-hole for +the serpent. Just here the voyaging is most dangerous; just here we drop +the plummet and strike upon a shoal; we lift up our eyes, and discover a +lee-shore. + +The mind that is not profound enough to perceive and believe even what +it cannot comprehend,--that is the shoal. Unless the reason will permit +the sounding-lead to fall illimitably down into a submarine world +of mystery, too deep for the diver, and yet a true and living +world,--unless there is admitted to be a fathomless gulf, called +_faith_, underlying the surface-sea of demonstration, the race will +surely ground in time, and go to pieces. There is the peril of this +all-prevailing love of the real. It may become such an infatuation that +nothing will appear actual which is not visible or demonstrable, which +the hand cannot handle or the intellect weigh and measure. Even to this +extreme may the reason run. Its vulnerable point is pride. It is easily +encouraged by success, easily incited to conceit, readily inclined to +overestimate its power. It has a Chinese weakness for throwing up a wall +on its involuntary boundary-line, and for despising and defying all +that is beyond its jurisdiction. The reason may be the greatest or the +meanest faculty in the soul. It may be the most wise or the most foolish +of active things. It may be so profound as to acknowledge a whole +infinitude of truth which it cannot comprehend, or it may be so +superficial as to suspect everything it is asked to believe, and refuse +to trust a fact out of its sight. There is the danger of the day. There +is the lee-shore upon which the tendencies of the age are blowing our +bark: a gross and destructive materialism, which is the horrid and +treacherous development of a shallow realism. + +In the midst of this splendid era there is a fast-increasing class who +are disposed to make the earth the absolute All,--to deny any outlet +from it,--to deny any capacity in man for another sphere,--to deny any +attribute in God which interests Him in man,--to shut out, therefore, +all faith, all that is mysterious, all that is spiritual, all that is +immortal, all that is Divine. + + "There live, alas! of heaven-directed mien, + Of cultured soul, and sapient eye serene, + Who hail thee Man!--the pilgrim of a day, + Spouse of the worm, and brother of the clay, + Frail as the leaf in autumn's yellow bower, + Dust in the wind, or dew upon the flower, + A friendless slave, a child without a sire. + * * * * * + Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim, + Lights of the world, and demigods of Fame? + Is this your triumph, this your proud applause, + Children of Truth, and champions of her cause? + For this hath Science searched on weary wing, + By shore and sea, each mute and living thing? + Launched with Iberia's pilot from the steep, + To worlds unknown, and isles beyond the deep? + Or round the cope her living chariot driven, + And wheeled in triumph through the signs of heaven? + O star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered there, + To waft us home the message of despair?" + +Is shipwreck, after all, to be the end of the mysterious voyage? Yes, +unless there is something else beside materialism in the world. Unless +there is another spirit blowing _off_ that dreadful shore, unless the +chart opens a farther sea, unless the needle points to the same distant +star, unless there are other orders, yet sealed and secret, there is no +further destiny for the race, no further development for the soul. The +intellect, however grand, is not the whole of man. Material progress, +however magnificent, is not the guaranty, not even the cardinal element, +of civilization. And civilization, in the highest possible meaning of +that most expressive word, is that great and final and all-embosoming +harbor toward which all these achievements and changes dimly, but +directly, point. Upon that we have fixed our eyes, but we cannot imagine +how it can be attained by intellectual and material force alone. + +In order to indicate this more vividly, let us suppose that there is +no other condition necessary to the glory of human nature and the +world,--let us suppose that no other provision has been made, and that +the age is to go on developing only in this one direction,--what a +dreary grandeur would soon surround us! As icebergs floating in an +Arctic sea are splendid, so would be these ponderous and glistering +works. As the gilded and crimsoned cliffs of snow beautify the Polar +day, so would these achievements beautify the present day. But expect no +life, no joy, no soul, amid such ice-bound circumstances as these. The +tropical heart must congeal and die; its luxuriant fruits can never +spring up. The earth must lie sepulchred under its own magnificence; and +the divinest feelings of the spirit, floating upward in the instinct of +a higher life, but benumbed by the frigid air, and rebuked by the leaden +sky, must fall back like clouds of frozen vapor upon the soul: and "so +shall its thoughts perish." + +It would be a gloomy picture to paint, if one could for a moment imagine +that intellectual power and material success were all that enter into +the development of the race. For if there is no other capacity, and no +other field in which at least an equal commission to achieve is given, +and for which equal arrangements have been made by the Providence that +orders all, then the soul must soon be smothered, society dismembered, +and human nature ruined. + +But this very fact, which we purposely put in these strong colors, +proves that there must be another and greater element, another and +higher faculty, another and wider department, likewise under express and +secret conditions of success. It shall come to pass, as the development +goes on, that this other will become the foremost and all-important, +--the relation between them will be reversed,--this must increase, that +decrease,--the Material, although the first in time, the first in the +world's interest, and the first in the world's effort, will be found to +be only an ordained forerunner, preparing the way for Something Else, +the latchet of whose shoes it is not worthy to unloose. + +There is that in man--also wrapt up and sealed within his inscrutable +brain--which provides for his inner as well as outer life; which +insures his highest development; which shall protect, cherish, warm, and +fertilize his nature now, and perpetuate and exalt his soul forever. +It is a commission which begins, but does not end, in time. It is a +commission which makes him the agent and builder of an immense moral +work on the earth. Under its instructions he shall add improvement to +improvement in that social fabric which is already his shelter and +habitation. He has found it of brick,--he shall leave it of marble. He +shall seek out every contrivance, and perfect every plan, and exhaust +every scheme, which will bring a greater prosperity and a nobler +happiness to mankind. He shall quarry out each human spirit, and carve +it into the beauty and symmetry of a living stone that shall be worthy +to take its place in the rising structure. This is the work which is +given him to do. He must develop those conditions of virtue, and peace, +and faith, and truth, and love, by which the race shall be lifted +nearer its Creator, and the individual ascend into a more conscious +neighborhood and stronger affinity to the world which shall receive him +at last. All this must that other department be, and this other capacity +achieve or there is a fatal disproportion in the progress of man. + +The beauty of this as a dream perhaps all men will admit; but they +question its possibility. "It is the old Utopia," they say, "the +impracticable enterprise that has always baffled the world." Some will +doubt whether the Spiritual has an existence at all. Others will doubt, +if it does exist, whether man can accomplish anything in it. It is +invisible, impalpable, unknown. It cannot be substantial, it cannot +be real,--at least to man as at present constituted. Its elements and +conditions cannot be controlled by his spirit. That spirit cannot +control itself,--how much less go forth and work solid wonders in that +phantom realm! There can be no success in this that will be coequal with +the other; nor a coequal grandeur. There is no such thing as keeping +pace with it. The heart cannot grow better, society cannot be built +higher, mankind cannot become happier, God will not draw nearer, the +hidden truth of all that universe will never be more ascertained than +it is,--can never be accumulated and stored away among other human +acquisitions. It is utterly, gloomily impracticable. In this respect we +shall forever remain as we are, and where we are. So they think. + +And now we venture to contradict it all, and to assert that there +is, there must be, just such a corresponding field, and just such a +corresponding progress, or else (we say it reverently) God's ways are +not equal. So great is our faith. Like Columbus, therefore, we dream +of the golden Indies, and of that "unknown residue" which must yet be +found, and be taken possession of by mankind. + +We look far out to where the horizon dips its vapory veil into the sea, +and beyond which lies that other hemisphere, and ask,--Is there no world +there to be a counterpoise to the world that is here? Has the Creator +made no provision for the equilibrium of the soul? Is all that infinite +area a shoreless waste, over which the fleets of speculation may sail +forever, and discover nothing? Or is there not, rather, a broad +and solid continent of spiritual truth, eternally rooted in that +ocean,--prepared, from the beginning, for the occupation of man, when +the fulness of time shall have come,--ordained to take its place in the +historic evolution of the race, and to give the last and definite shape +to its wondrous destinies? + +Is there, or is there not, another region of truth, of enterprise, of +progress,--to finish, to balance, to consummate the world? + +Such is the Problem. + + * * * * * + + +MY GARDEN. + + +I can speak of it calmly now; but there have been moments when the +lightest mention of those words would sway my soul to its profoundest +depths. + +I am a woman. I nip this fact in the bud of my narrative, because I like +to do as I would be done by, when I can just as well as not. It rasps a +person of my temperament exceedingly to be deceived. When any one tells +a story, we wish to know at the outset whether the story-teller is a man +or a woman. The two sexes awaken two entirely distinct sets of feelings, +and you would no more use the one for the other than you would put +on your tiny teacups at breakfast, or lay the carving-knife by the +butter-plate. Consequently it is very exasperating to sit, open-eyed and +expectant, watching the removal of the successive swathings which hide +from you the dusky glories of an old-time princess, and, when the +unrolling is over, to find it is nothing, after all, but a great +lubberly boy. Equally trying is it to feel your interest clustering +round a narrator's manhood, all your individuality merging in his, till, +of a sudden, by the merest chance, you catch the swell of crinoline, +and there you are. Away with such clumsiness! Let us have everybody +christened before we begin. + +I do, therefore, with Spartan firmness depose and say that I am a woman. +I am aware that I place myself at signal disadvantage by the avowal. I +fly in the face of hereditary prejudice. I am thrust at once beyond +the pale of masculine sympathy. Men will neither credit my success nor +lament my failure, because they will consider me poaching on their +manor. If I chronicle a big beet, they will bring forward one twice +as large. If I mourn a deceased squash, they will mutter, "Woman's +farming!" Shunning Scylla, I shall perforce fall into Charybdis. (_Vide_ +Classical Dictionary. I have lent mine, but I know one was a rock and +the other a whirlpool, though I cannot state, with any definiteness, +which was which.) I may be as humble and deprecating as I choose, but +it will not avail me. A very agony of self-abasement will be no armor +against the poisoned shafts which assumed superiority will hurl against +me. Yet I press the arrow to my bleeding heart, and calmly reiterate, I +am a woman. + +The full magnanimity of which reiteration can be perceived only when I +inform you that I could easily deceive you, if I chose. There is about +my serious style a vigor of thought, a comprehensiveness of view, a +closeness of logic, and a terseness of diction commonly supposed to +pertain only to the stronger sex. Not wanting in a certain fanciful +sprightliness which is the peculiar grace of woman, it possesses also, +in large measure, that concentrativeness which is deemed the peculiar +strength of man. Where an ordinary woman will leave the beaten track, +wandering in a thousand little by ways of her own,--flowery and +beautiful, it is true, and leading her airy feet to "sunny spots of +greenery" and the gleam of golden apples, but keeping her not less +surely from the goal,--I march straight on, turning neither to the +right hand nor to the left, beguiled into no side-issues, discussing no +collateral question, but with keen eye and strong hand aiming right at +the heart of my theme. Judge thus of the stern severity of my virtue. +There is no heroism in denying ourselves the pleasures which we cannot +compass. It is not self-sacrifice, but self-cherishing, that turns the +dyspeptic alderman away from turtle-soup and the _pt de foie gras_ to +mush and milk. The hungry newsboy, regaling his nostrils with the scents +that come up from a subterranean kitchen, does not always know whether +or not he is honest, till the cook turns away for a moment, and a +steaming joint is within reach of his yearning fingers. It is no credit +to a weak-minded woman not to be strong-minded and write poetry. She +couldn't, if she tried; but to feed on locusts and wild honey that the +soul may be in better condition to fight the truth's battles,--to +go with empty stomach for a clear conscience's sake,--to sacrifice +intellectual tastes to womanly duties, when the two conflict,-- + + "That's the true pathos and sublime, + Of human life." + +You will, therefore, no longer withhold your appreciative admiration, +when, in full possession of what theologians call the power of contrary +choice, I make the unmistakable assertion that I am a woman. + +Of the circumstances that led me to inchoate a garden it is not +necessary now to speak. Enough that the first and most important step +had been taken, the land was bought,--a few acres, with a smart little +house peeking up, a crazy little barn tumbling down, and a dozen or so +fruit-trees that might do either as opportunity offered, and I set out +on my triumphal march from the city of my birth to the estate of my +adoption. Triumphal indeed! My pathway was strewed with roses. Feathery +asparagus and the crispness of tender lettuce waved dewy greetings from +every railroad-side; green peas crested the racing waves of Long Island +Sound, and unnumbered carrots of gold sprang up in the wake of the +ploughing steamer; till I was wellnigh drunk with the new wine of my own +purple vintage. But I was not ungenerous. In the height of my innocent +exultation, I remembered the dwellers in cities who do all their +gardening at stalls, and in my heart I determined, when the season +should be fully blown, to invite as many as my house could hold to +share with me the delight of plucking strawberries from their stems and +drinking in foaming health from the balmy-breathed cows. Moreover, in +the exuberance of my joy, I determined to go still farther, and despatch +to those doomed ones who cannot purchase even a furlough from burning +pavements baskets of fragrance and sweetness. I pleased myself with +pretty conceits. To one who toils early and late in an official Sahara, +that the home atmosphere may always be redolent of perfume, I would send +a bunch of long-stemmed white and crimson rose-buds, in the midst of +which he should find a dainty note whispering, "Dear Fritz: Drink this +pure glass of my overflowing June to the health of weans and wife, not +forgetting your unforgetful friend." To a pale-browed, sad-eyed woman, +who flits from velvet carpets and broidered flounces to the bedside +of an invalid mother, whom her slender fingers and unslender and most +godlike devotion can scarcely keep this side the pearly gates, I would +heap a basket of summer-hued peaches smiling up from cool, green leaves +into their straitened home, and, with eyes, perchance, tear-dimmed, she +should read, "My good Maria: The peaches are to go to your lips, the +bloom to your cheeks, and the gardener to your heart." Ah me! How much +grace and gladness may bud and blossom in one little garden! Only +three acres of land, but what a crop of sunny surprises, unexpected +tendernesses, grateful joys, hopes, loves, and restful memories!--what +wells of happiness, what sparkles of mirth, what sweeps of summer in the +heart, what glimpses of the Upper Country! + +Halicarnassus was there before me (in the garden, I mean, not in the +spot last alluded to). It has been the one misfortune of my life that +Halicarnassus got the start of me at the outset. With a fair field and +no favor I should have been quite adequate to him. As it was, he was +born and began, and there was no resource left to me but to be born and +follow, which I did as fast as possible; but that one false move could +never be redeemed. I know there are shallow thinkers who love to prate +of the supremacy of mind over matter,--who assert that circumstances are +plastic as clay in the hands of the man who knows how to mould them. +They clench their fists, and inflate their lungs, and quote Napoleon's +proud boast,--"Circumstances! I _make_ circumstances!" Vain babblers! +Whither did this Napoleonic Idea lead? To a barren rock in a waste of +waters. Do we need St. Helena and Sir Hudson Lowe to refute it? Control +circumstances! I should like to know if the most important circumstance +that can happen to a man isn't to be born? and if that is under his +control, or in any way affected by his whims and wishes? Would not Louis +XVI. have been the son of a goldsmith, if he could have had his way? +Would Burns have been born a slaving, starving peasant, if he had been +consulted beforehand? Would not the children of vice be the children of +virtue, if they could have had their choice? and would not the whole +tenor of their lives have been changed thereby? Would a good many of +us have been born at all, if we could have helped it? Control +circumstances, forsooth! when a mother's sudden terror brings an idiot +child into the world,--when the restive eye of his great-grandfather, +whom he never saw, looks at you from your two-year-old, and the spirit +of that roving ancestor makes the boy also a fugitive and a vagabond on +the earth! No, no. We may coax circumstances a little, and shove them +about, and make the best of them, but there they are. We may try to get +out of their way; but they will trip us up, not once, but many times. +We may affect to tread them under foot in the daylight, but in the +night-time they will turn again and rend us. All we can do is first to +accept them as facts, and then reason from them as premises. We cannot +control them, but we can control our own use of them. We can make them a +savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. + +Application.--If mind could have been supreme over matter, Halicarnassus +should, in the first place, have taken the world at second-hand from +me, and, in the second place, he should not have stood smiling on the +front-door steps when the coach set me down there. As it was, I made the +best of the one case by following in his footsteps,--not meekly, not +acquiescently, but protesting, yet following,--and of the other, by +smiling responsive and asking pleasantly,-- + +"Are the things planted yet?" + +"No," said Halicarnassus. + +This was better than I had dared to hope. When I saw him standing there +so complacent and serene, I felt certain that a storm was brewing, or +rather had brewed, and burst over my garden, and blighted its fair +prospects. I was confident that he had gone and planted every square +inch of the soil with some hideous absurdity which would spring up a +hundred-fold in perpetual reminders of the one misfortune to which I +have alluded. + +So his ready answer gave me relief, and yet I could not divest myself of +a vague fear, a sense of coming thunder. In spite of my endeavors, +that calm, clear face would lift itself to my view as a mere +"weather-breeder"; but I ate my supper, unpacked my trunks, took out my +papers of precious seeds, and sitting in the flooding sunlight under the +little western porch, I poured them into my lap, and bade Halicarnassus +come to me. He came, I am sorry to say, with a pipe in his mouth. + +"Do you wish to see my jewels?" I asked, looking as much like Cornelia +as a little woman, somewhat inclined to dumpiness, can. + +Halicarnassus nodded assent. + +"There," said I, unrolling a paper, "that is _Lychnidea acuminala_. +Sometimes it flowers in white masses, pure as a baby's soul. Sometimes +it glows in purple, pink, and crimson, intense, but unconsuming, like +Horeb's burning bush. The old Greeks knew it well, and they baptized +its prismatic loveliness with their sunny symbolism, and called it the +Flame-Flower. These very seeds may have sprung centuries ago from the +hearts of heroes who sleep at Marathon; and when their tender petals +quiver in the sunlight of my garden, I shall see the gleam of Attic +armor and the flash of royal souls. Like heroes, too, it is both +beautiful and bold. It does not demand careful cultivation,--no +hot-house, tenderness"-- + +"I should rather think not," interrupted Halicarnassus. "Pat Curran has +his front-yard full of it." + +I collapsed at once, and asked humbly,-- + +"Where did he get it?" + +"Got it anywhere. It grows wild almost. It's nothing but phlox. My +opinion is, that the old Greeks knew no more about it than that brindled +cow." + +Nothing further occurring to me to be said on the subject, I waived +it and took up another parcel, on which I spelled out, with some +difficulty, "_Delphinium exaltatum_. Its name indicates its nature." + +"It's an exalted dolphin, then, I suppose," said Halicarnassus. + +"Yes!" I said, dexterously catching up an _argumentum ad hominem_, "It +_is_ an exalted dolphin,--an apotheosized dolphin,--a dolphin made +glorious. For, as the dolphin catches the sunbeams and sends them back +with a thousand added splendors, so this flower opens its quivering +bosom and gathers from the vast laboratory of the sky the purple of a +monarch's robe and the ocean's deep, calm blue. In its gracious cup you +shall see"-- + +"A fiddlestick!" jerked out Halicarnassus, profanely. "What are you +raving about such a precious bundle of weeds for? There isn't a +shoemaker's apprentice in the village that hasn't his seven-by-nine +garden overrun with them. You might have done better than bring +cartloads of phlox and larkspur a thousand miles. Why didn't you import +a few hollyhocks, or a sunflower or two, and perhaps a dainty slip +of cabbage? A pumpkin-vine, now, would climb over the front-door +deliciously, and a row of burdocks would make a highly entertaining +border." + +The reader will bear me witness that I had met my first rebuff with +humility. It was probably this very humility that emboldened him to a +second attack. I determined to change my tactics and give battle. + +"Halicarnassus," said I, severely, "you are a hypocrite. You set up for +a Democrat"-- + +"Not I," interrupted he; "I voted for Harrison in '40, and for Fremont +in '56, and"-- + +"Nonsense!" interrupted I, in turn; "I mean a Democrat etymological, not +a Democrat political. You stand by the Declaration of Independence, and +believe in liberty, equality, and fraternity, and that all men are of +one blood; and here you are, ridiculing these innocent flowers, because +their brilliant beauty is not shut up in a conservatory to exhale its +fragrance on a fastidious few, but blooms on all alike, gladdening the +home of exile and lightening the burden of labor." + +Halicarnassus saw that I had made a point against him, and preserved a +discreet silence. + +"But you are wrong," I went on, "even if you are right. You may laugh to +scorn my floral treasures, because they seem to you common and unclean, +but your laughter is premature. It is no ordinary seed that you see +before you. It sprang from no profane soil. It came from the--the--some +kind of an office at WASHINGTON, Sir! It was given me by one whose name +stands high on the scroll of fame,--a statesman whose views are as +broad as his judgment is sound,--an orator who holds all hearts in his +hand,--a man who is always found on the side of the feeble truth against +the strong falsehood,--whose sympathy for all that is good, whose +hostility to all that is bad, and whose boldness in every righteous +cause make him alike the terror and abhorrence of the oppressor, and the +hope and joy and staff of the oppressed." + +"What is his name?" said Halicarnassus, phlegmatically. + +"And for your miserable pumpkin-vine," I went on, "behold this +morning-glory, that shall open its barbaric splendor to the sun and +mount heavenward on the sparkling chariots of the dew. I took this from +the white hand of a young girl in whose heart poetry and purity have +met, grace and virtue have kissed each other,--whose feet have danced +over lilies and roses, who has known no sterner duty than to give +caresses, and whose gentle, spontaneous, and ever active loveliness +continually remind me that of such is the kingdom of heaven." + +"Courted yet?" asked Halicarnassus, with a show of interest. + +I transfixed him with a look, and continued,-- + +"This _Maurandia_, a climber, it may be common or it may be a king's +ransom. I only know that it is rosy-hued, and that I shall look at +life through its pleasant medium. Some fantastic trellis, brown and +benevolent, shall knot supporting arms around it, and day by day it +shall twine daintily up toward my southern window, and whisper softly of +the sweet-voiced, tender-eyed woman from whose fairy bower it came in +rosy wrappings. And this _Nemophila_, 'blue as my brother's eyes,'--the +brave young brother whose heroism and manhood have outstripped his +years, and who looks forth from the dank leafiness of far Australia +lovingly and longingly over the blue waters, as if, floating above them, +he might catch the flutter of white garments and the smile on a sister's +lip"-- + +"What are you going to do with 'em?" put in Halicarnassus again. + +I hesitated a moment, undecided whether to be amiable or bellicose under +the provocation, but concluded that my ends would stand a better +chance of being gained by adopting the former course, and so answered +seriously, as if I had not been switched off the track, but was going on +with perfect continuity,-- + +"To-morrow I shall take observations. Then, where the situation seems +most favorable, I shall lay out a garden. I shall plant these seeds in +it, except the vines and such things, which I wish to put near the house +to hide as much as possible its garish white. Then, with every little +tender shoot that appears above the ground, there will blossom also a +pleasant memory or a sunny hope or an admiring thrill." + +"What do you expect will be the market-value of that crop?" + +"Wealth which an empire could not purchase," I answered, with +enthusiasm. "But I shall not confine my attention to flowers. I shall +make the useful go with the beautiful. I shall plant vegetables,-- +lettuce, and asparagus, and--so forth. Our table shall be garnished with +the products of our own soil, and our own works shall praise us." + +There was a pause of several minutes, during which I fondled the seeds +and Halicarnassus enveloped himself in clouds of smoke. Presently there +was a cessation of puffs, a rift in the cloud showed that the oracle was +opening his mouth, and directly thereafter he delivered himself of the +encouraging remark,-- + +"If we don't have any vegetables till we raise 'em, we shall be +carnivorous some time to come." + +It was said with that provoking indifference more trying to a sensitive +mind than downright insult. You know it is based on some hidden +obstacle, palpable to your enemy, though hidden from you,--and that he +is calm because he know that the nature of things will work against you, +so that he need not interfere. If I had been less interested, I would +have revenged myself on him by remaining silent; but I was very much +interested, so I strangled my pride and said,-- + +"Why not?" + +"Land is too old for such things. Soil isn't mellow enough." + +I had always supposed that the greater part of the main-land of our +continent was of equal antiquity, and dated back alike to the alluvial +period; but I suppose our little three acres must have been injected +through the intervening strata by some physical convulsion, from the +drift, or the tertiary formation, perhaps even from the primitive +granite. + +"What are you going to do?" I ventured to inquire. "I don't suppose the +land will grow any younger by keeping." + +"Plant it with corn and potatoes for at least two years before there can +be anything like a garden." + +And Halicarnassus put up his pipe and betook himself to the house, and +I was glad of it, the abominable bore! to sit there and listen to my +glowing schemes, knowing all the while that they were soap-bubbles. +"Corn and potatoes," indeed! I didn't believe a word of it. +Halicarnassus always had an insane passion for corn and potatoes. Land +represented to him so many bushels of the one or the other. Now corn +and potatoes are very well in their way, but, like every other innocent +indulgence, carried too far, become a vice; and I more than suspected he +had planned the strategy simply to gratify his own weakness. Corn and +potatoes, indeed! + +But when Halicarnassus entered the lists against me, he found an +opponent worthy of his steel. A few more such victories would be his +ruin. A grand scheme fired and filled my mind during the silent watches +of the night, and sent me forth in the morning, jubilant with high +resolve. Alexander might weep that he had no more worlds to conquer; +but I would create new. Archimedes might desiderate a place to stand +on before he could bring his lever into play; I would move the world, +self-poised. If Halicarnassus fancied that I was cut up, dispersed, and +annihilated by one disaster, he should weep tears of blood to see me +rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of my dead hopes, to a newer and more +glorious life. Here, having exhausted my classics, I took a long sweep +down to modern times, and vowed in my heart never to give up the ship. + +Halicarnassus saw that a fell purpose was working in my mind, but a +certain high tragedy in my aspect warned him to silence; so he only +dogged me around the corners of the house, eyed me askance from the +wood-shed, and peeped through the crevices of the demented little barn. +But his vigilance bore no fruit. I but walked moodily "with folded arms +and fixed eyes," or struck out new paths at random, so long as there +were any vestiges of his creation extant. His time and patience being at +length exhausted, he went into the field to immolate himself with ever +new devotion on the shrine of corn and potatoes. Then my scheme came to +a head at once. In my walking, I had observed a box about three feet +long, two broad, and one foot deep, which Halicarnassus, with his usual +disregard of the proprieties of life, had used to block up a gate-way +that was waiting for a gate. It was just what I wanted. I straightway +knocked out the few nails that kept it in place, and, like another +Samson, bore it away on my shoulders. It was not an easy thing to +manage, as any one may find by trying,--nor would I advise young ladies, +as a general thing, to adopt that form of exercise,--but the end, not +the means, was my object, and by skilful diplomacy I got it up the +backstairs and through my window, out upon the roof of the porch +directly below. I then took the ash-pail and the fire-shovel and went +into the field, carefully keeping the lee side of Halicarnassus. "Good, +rich loam" I had observed all the gardening books to recommend; but +wherein the virtue or the richness of loam consisted I did not feel +competent to decide, and I scorned to ask. There seemed to be two kinds: +one black, damp, and dismal; the other fine, yellow, and good-natured. +A little reflection decided me to take the latter. Gold constituted +riches, and this was yellow like gold. Moreover, it seemed to have more +life in it. Night and darkness belonged to the other, while the very +heart of sunshine and summer seemed to be imprisoned in this golden +dust. So I plied my shovel and filled my pail again and again, bearing +it aloft with joyful labor, eager to be through before Halicarnassus +should reappear; but he got on the trail just as I was whisking +up-stairs for the last time, and shouted, astonished,-- + +"What are you doing?" + +"Nothing," I answered, with that well-known accent which says, +"Everything! and I mean to keep doing it." + +I have observed, that, in managing parents, husbands, lovers, brothers, +and indeed all classes of inferiors, nothing is so efficacious as to let +them know at the outset that you are going to have your own way. They +may fret a little at first, and interpose a few puny obstacles, but +it will be only a temporary obstruction; whereas, if you parley and +hesitate and suggest, they will but gather courage and strength for a +formidable resistance. It is the first step that costs. Halicarnassus +understood at once from my one small shot that I was in a mood to be let +alone, and he let me alone accordingly. + +I remembered he had said that the soil was not mellow enough, and I +determined that my soil should be mellow, to which end I took it up by +handfuls and squeezed it through my fingers, completely pulverizing it. +It was not disagreeable work. Things in their right places are very +seldom disagreeable. A spider on your dress is a horror, but a spider +outdoors is rather interesting. Besides, the loam had a fine, soft feel +that was absolutely pleasant; but a hideous black and yellow reptile +with horns and hoofs, that winked up at me from it, was decidedly +unpleasant and out of place, and I at once concluded that the soil was +sufficiently mellow for my purposes, and smoothed it off directly. Then, +with delighted fingers, in sweeping circles, and fantastic whirls, and +exact triangles, I planted my seeds in generous profusion, determined, +that, if my wilderness did not blossom, it should not be from +niggardliness of seed. But even then my box was full before my basket +was emptied, and I was very reluctantly compelled to bring down from the +garret another box, which had been the property of my great-grandfather. +My great-grandfather was, I regret to say, a barber. I would rather +never have had any. If there is anything in the world besides worth that +I reverence, it is ancestry. My whole life long have I been in search of +a pedigree, and though I ran well at the beginning, I invariably stop +short at the third remove by running my head into a barber's shop. If +he had only been a farmer, now, I should not have minded. There is +something dignified and antique in land, and no one need trouble himself +to ascertain whether "farmer" stood for a close-fisted, narrow-souled +clodhopper, or the smiling, benevolent master of broad acres. Farmer +means both these, I could have chosen the meaning I liked, and it is not +probable that any troublesome facts would have floated down the years to +intercept any theory I might have launched. I would rather he had been +a shoemaker; it would have been so easy to transform him, after his +lamented decease, into a shoe-manufacturer,--and shoe-manufacturers, we +all know, are highly respectable people, often become great men, and +get sent to Congress. An apothecary might have figured as an M.D. +A greengrocer might have been apotheosized into a merchant. A +dancing-master would flourish on the family-records as a professor of +the Terpsichorean art. A taker of daguerreotype portraits would never +be recognized in "my great-grandfather _the artist_." But a barber is +unmitigated and immitigable. It cannot be shaded off nor toned down +nor brushed up. Besides, was greatness ever allied to barbarity? +Shakspeare's father was a wool-driver, Tillotson's a clothier, Barrow's +a linen-draper, Defoe's a butcher, Milton's a scrivener, Richardson's a +joiner, Burns's a farmer; but did any one ever hear of a barber's +having remarkable children? I must say, with all deference to my +great-grandfather, that I do wish he would have been considerate enough +of his descendants' feelings to have been born in the old days when +barbers and doctors were one, or else have chosen some other occupation +than barbering. Barber he did, however; in this very box he kept his +wigs, and, painful as it was to have continually before my eyes this +perpetual reminder of plebeian great-grand-paternity, I consented to it +rather than lose my seeds. Then I folded my hands in sweet, though calm +satisfaction. I had proved myself equal to the emergency, and that +always diffuses a glow of genial complacency through the soul. I had +outwitted Halicarnassus. Exultation number two. He had designed to cheat +me out of my garden by a story about land, and here was my garden ready +to burst forth into blossom under my eyes. He said little, but I knew +he felt deeply. I caught him one day looking out at my window with +corroding envy in every lineament. "You might have got some dust out of +the road; it would have been nearer." That was all he said. Even that +little I did not fully understand. + +I watched, and waited, and watered, in silent expectancy, for several +days, but nothing came up, and I began to be anxious. Suddenly I thought +of my vegetable-seeds, and determined to try those. Of course a hanging +kitchen-garden was not to be thought of, and as Halicarnassus was +fortunately absent for a few days, I prospected on the farm. A sunny +little corner on a southern slope smiled up at me, and seemed to offer +itself as a delightful situation for the diminutive garden which mine +must be. The soil, too, seemed as fine and mellow as could be desired. +I at once captured an Englishman from a neighboring plantation, hurried +him into my corner, and bade him dig me and hoe me and plant me a garden +as soon as possible. He looked blankly at me for a moment, and I looked +blankly at him,--wondering what lion he saw in the way. + +"Them is planted with potatoes now," he gasped, at length. + +"No matter," I returned, with sudden relief to find that nothing but +potatoes interfered. "I want it to be unplanted, and planted with +vegetables,--lettuce and--asparagus--and such." + +He stood hesitating. + +"Will the master like it?" + +"Yes," said Diplomacy, "he will be delighted." + +"No matter whether he likes it or not," codiciled Conscience. "You do +it." + +"I--don't exactly like--to--take the responsibility," wavered this +modern Faint-Heart. + +"I don't want you to take the responsibility," I ejaculated, with +volcanic vehemence. "I'll take the responsibility. You take the hoe." + +These duty-people do infuriate me. They are so afraid to do anything +that isn't laid out in a right-angled triangle. Every path must be +graded and turfed before they dare set their scrupulous feet in it. +I like conscience, but, like corn and potatoes, carried too far, it +becomes a vice. I think I could commit a murder with less hesitation +than some people buy a ninepenny calico. And to see that man stand +there, balancing probabilities over a piece of ground no bigger than a +bed-quilt, as if a nation's fate were at stake, was enough to ruffle a +calmer temper than mine. My impetuosity impressed him, however, and he +began to lay about him vigorously with hoe and rake and lines, and, in +an incredibly short space of time, had a bit of square flatness laid out +with wonderful precision. Meanwhile I had ransacked my vegetable-bag, +and though lettuce and asparagus were not there, plenty of beets and +parsnips and squashes, etc., were. I let him take his choice. He took +the first two. The rest were left on my hands. But I had gone too far to +recede. They burned in my pocket for a few days, and I saw that I must +get them into the ground somewhere. I could not sleep with them in the +room. They were wandering shades craving at my hands a burial, and I +determined to put them where Banquo's ghost would not go,--down. Down +accordingly they went, but not symmetrically nor simultaneously. I faced +Halicarnassus on the subject of the beet-bed, and though I cannot say +that either of us gained a brilliant victory, yet I can say that I +kept possession of the ground; still, I did not care to risk a second +encounter. So I kept my seeds about me continually, and dropped them +surreptitiously as occasion offered. Consequently, my garden, taken as +a whole, was located where the Penobscot Indian was born,--"all along +shore." The squashes were scattered among the corn. The beans were +tucked under the brushwood, in the fond hope that they would climb +up it. Two tomato-plants were lodged in the potato-field, under the +protection of some broken apple-branches dragged thither for the +purpose. The cucumbers went down on the sheltered side of a wood-pile. +The peas took their chances of life under the sink-nose. The sweet-corn +was marked off from the rest by a broomstick,--and all took root alike +in my heart. + +May I ask you now, O Friend, who, I would fain believe, have followed me +thus far with no hostile eyes, to glide in tranced forgetfulness through +the white blooms of May and the roses of June, into the warm breath of +July afternoons and the languid pulse of August, perhaps even into +the mild haze of September and the "flying gold" of brown October? In +narrating to you the fruition of my hopes, I shall endeavor to preserve +that calm equanimity which is the birthright of royal minds. I shall +endeavor not to be unduly elated by success nor unduly depressed by +failure, but to state in simple language the result of my experiments, +both for an encouragement and a warning. I shall give the history of the +several ventures separately, as nearly as I can recollect in the +order in which they grew, beginning with the humbler ministers to our +appetites, and soaring gradually into the region of the poetical and the +beautiful. + +BEETS.--The beets came up, little red-veined leaves, struggling for +breath among a tangle of Roman wormwood and garlic; and though they +exhibited great tenacity of life, they also exhibited great irregularity +of purpose. In one spot there would be nothing, in an adjacent spot a +whorl of beets, big and little, crowding and jostling and elbowing each +other, like school-boys round the red-hot stove on a winter's morning. +I knew they had been planted in a right line, and I don't, even now, +comprehend why they should not come up in a right line. I weeded them, +and though freedom from foreign growth discovered an intention, of +straightness, the most casual observer could not but see that skewiness +had usurped its place. I repaired to my friend the gardener. He said +they must be thinned out and transplanted. It went to my heart to pull +up the dear things, but I did it, and set them down again tenderly in +the vacant spots. It was evening. The next morning I went to them. +Flatness has a new meaning to me since that morning. You can hardly +conceive that anything could look so utterly forlorn, disconsolate, +disheartened, and collapsed. In fact, they exhibited a degree of +depression so entirely beyond what the circumstances demanded, that I +was enraged. If they had shown any symptoms of trying to live, I could +have sighed and forgiven them; but, on the contrary, they had flopped +and died without a struggle, and I pulled them up without a pang, +comforting myself with the remaining ones, which throve on their +companions' graves, and waxed fat and full and crimson-hearted, in their +soft, brown beds. So delighted was I with their luxuriant rotundity, +that I made an internal resolve that henceforth I would always plant +beets. True, I cannot abide beets. Their fragrance and their flavor are +alike nauseating; but they come up, and a beet that will come up is +better than a cedar of Lebanon that won't. In all the vegetable kingdom +I know of no quality better than this, growth,--nor any quality that +will atone for its absence. + +PARSNIPS.--They ran the race with an indescribable vehemence that fairly +threw the beets into the shade. They trod so delicately at first that +I was quite unprepared for such enthusiasm. Lacking the red veining, I +could not distinguish them even from the weeds with any certainty, and +was forced to let both grow together till the harvest. So both grew +together, a perfect jungle. But the parsnips got ahead, and rushed up +gloriously, magnificently, bacchanalianly,--as the winds come when +forests are rended,--as the waves come when navies are stranded. I am, +indeed, troubled with a suspicion that their vitality has all run to +leaves, and that, when I go down into the depths of the earth for +the parsnips, I shall find only bread of emptiness. It is a pleasing +reflection that parsnips cannot be eaten till the second year. I am told +that they must lie in the ground during the winter. Consequently it +cannot be decided whether there are any or not till next spring. I shall +in the mean time assume and assert without hesitation or qualification +that there are as many tubers below the surface as there are leaves +above it. I shall thereby enjoy a pleasant consciousness, and the +respect of all, for the winter; and if disappointment awaits me in the +spring, time will have blunted its keenness for me, and other people +will have forgotten the whole subject. You may be sure I shall not +remind them of it. + +CUCUMBERS.--The cucumbers came up so far and stuck. It must have been +innate depravity, for there was no shadow of reason why they should not +keep on as they began. They did not. They stopped growing in the prime +of life. Only three cucumbers developed, and they hid under the vines so +that I did not see them till they were become ripe, yellow, soft, and +worthless. They are an unwholesome fruit at best, and I bore their loss +with great fortitude. + +TOMATOES.--Both dead. I had been instructed to protect them from the +frost by night and from the sun by day. I intended to do so ultimately, +but I did not suppose there was any emergency. A frost came the first +night and killed them, and a hot sun the next day burned up all there +was left. When they were both thoroughly dead, I took great pains to +cover them every night and noon. No symptoms of revival appearing to +reward my efforts, I left them to shift for themselves. I did not think +there was any need of their dying, in the first place; and if they would +be so absurd as to die without provocation, I did not see the necessity +of going into a decline about it. Besides, I never did value plants +or animals that have to be nursed, and petted, and coaxed to live. +If things want to die, I think they'd better die. Provoked by my +indifference, one of the tomatoes flared up and took a new start,--put +forth leaves, shot out vines, and covered himself with fruit and glory. +The chickens picked out the heart of all the tomatoes as soon as they +ripened, which was of no consequence, however, as they had wasted +so much time in the beginning that the autumn frosts came upon them +unawares, and there wouldn't have been fruit enough ripe to be of any +account, if no chicken had ever broken a shell. + +SQUASHES.--They appeared above-ground, large-lobed and vigorous. Large +and vigorous appeared the bugs, all gleaming in green and gold, like +the wolf on the fold, and stopped up all the stomata and ate up all the +parenchyma, till my squash-leaves looked as if they had grown for the +sole purpose of illustrating net-veined organizations. In consternation +I sought again my neighbor the Englishman. He assured me he had 'em +on his, too,--lots of 'em. This reconciled me to mine. Bugs are not +inherently desirable, but a universal bug does not indicate special want +of skill in any one. So I was comforted. But the Englishman said they +must be killed. He had killed his. Then I said I would kill mine, too. +How should it be done? Oh! put a shingle near the vine at night and they +would crawl upon it to keep dry, and go out early in the morning and +kill 'em. But how to kill them? Why, take 'em right between your thumb +and finger and crush 'em! + +As soon as I could recover breath, I informed him confidentially, that, +if the world were one great squash, I wouldn't undertake to save it in +that way. He smiled a little, but I think he was not overmuch pleased. I +asked him why I couldn't take a bucket of water and dip the shingle in +it and drown them. He said, well, I could try it. I did try it,--first +wrapping my hand in a cloth to prevent contact with any stray bug. To +my amazement, the moment they touched the water they all spread unseen +wings and flew away, safe and sound. I should not have been much more +surprised to see Halicarnassus soaring over the ridge-pole. I had not +the slightest idea that they could fly. Of course I gave up the design +of drowning them. I called a council of war. One said I must put a +newspaper over them and fasten it down at the edges; then they couldn't +get in. I timidly suggested that the squashes couldn't get out. Yes, +they could, he said,--they'd grow right through the paper. Another said +I must surround them with round boxes with the bottoms broken out; for, +though they could fly, they couldn't steer, and when they flew up, they +just dropped down anywhere, and as there was on the whole a good deal +more land on the outside of the boxes than on the inside, the chances +were in favor of their dropping on the outside. Another said that ashes +must be sprinkled on them. A fourth said lime was an infallible remedy. +I began with the paper, which I secured with no little difficulty; for +the wind--the same wind, strange to say--kept blowing the dirt at me +and the paper away from me; but I consoled myself by remembering the +numberless rows of squash-pies that should crown my labors, and May took +heart from Thanksgiving. The next day I peeped under the paper and the +bugs were a solid phalanx. I reported at head-quarters, and they asked +me if I killed the bugs before I put the paper down. I said no, I +supposed it would stifle them,--in fact, I didn't think anything about +it, but if I thought anything, that was what I thought. I wasn't pleased +to find I had been cultivating the bugs and furnishing them with free +lodgings. I went home and tried all the remedies in succession. I could +hardly decide which agreed best with the structure and habits of the +bugs, but they throve on all. Then I tried them all at once and all o'er +with a mighty uproar. Presently the bugs went away. I am not sure that +they wouldn't have gone just as soon, if I had let them alone. After +they were gone, the vines scrambled out and put forth some beautiful, +deep golden blossoms. When they fell off, that was the end of them. Not +a squash,--not one,--not a single squash,--not even a pumpkin. They +were all false blossoms. + +APPLES.--The trees swelled into masses of pink and white fragrance. +Nothing could exceed their fluttering loveliness or their luxuriant +promise. A few days of fairy beauty, and showers of soft petals floated +noiselessly down, covering the earth with delicate snow; but I knew, +that, though the first blush of beauty was gone, a mighty work was going +on in a million little laboratories, and that the real glory was yet to +come. I was surprised to observe, one day, that the trees seemed to be +turning red. I remarked to Halicarnassus that that was one of Nature's +processes which I did not remember to have seen noticed in any +botanical treatise. I thought such a change did not occur till autumn. +Halicarnassus curved the thumb and forefinger of his right hand into an +arch, the ends of which rested on the wrist of his left coat-sleeve. He +then lifted the forefinger high and brought it forward. Then he lifted +the thumb and brought it up behind the forefinger, and so made them +travel up to his elbow. It seemed to require considerable exertion in +the thumb and forefinger, and I watched the progress with interest. Then +I asked him what he meant by it. + +"That's the way they walk," he replied. + +"Who walk?" + +"The little fellows that have squatted on our trees." + +"What little fellows do you mean?" + +"The canker-worms." + +"How many are there?" + +"About twenty-five decillions, I should think, as near as I can count." + +"Why! what are they for? What good do they do?" + +"Oh! no end. Keep the children from eating green apples and getting +sick." + +"How do they do that?" + +"Eat 'em themselves." + +A frightful idea dawned upon me. I believe I turned a kind of ghastly +blue. + +"Halicarnassus, do you mean to tell me that the canker-worms are eating +up our apples and that we shan't have any?" + +"It looks like that exceedingly." + +That was months ago, and it looks a great deal more like it now. I +watched those trees with sadness at my heart. Millions of brown, ugly, +villanous worms gnawed, gnawed, gnawed, at the poor little tender leaves +and buds,--held them in foul embrace,--polluted their sweetness with +hateful breath. I could almost feel the shudder of the trees in that +slimy clasp,--could almost hear the shrieking and moaning of the young +fruit that saw its hope of happy life thus slowly consuming; but I +was powerless to save. For weeks that loathsome army preyed upon the +unhappy, helpless trees, and then spun loathsomely to the ground, and +buried itself in the reluctant, shuddering soil. A few dismal little +apples escaped the common fate, but when they rounded into greenness and +a suspicion of pulp, a boring worm came and bored them, and they, +too, died. No apple-pies at Thanksgiving. No apple-roasting in winter +evenings. No pan-pie with hot brown bread on Sunday mornings. + +CHERRIES.--They rivalled the apple-blooms in snowy profusion, and the +branches were covered with tiny balls. The sun mounted warm and high in +the heavens and they blushed under his ardent gaze. I felt an increasing +conviction that here there would be no disappointment; but it soon +became palpable that another class of depredators had marked our trees +for their own. Little brown toes could occasionally be seen peeping from +the foliage, and little bare feet left their print on the garden-soil. +Humanity had evidently deposited its larva in the vicinity. There was a +schoolhouse not very far away, and the children used to draw water from +an old well in a distant part of the garden. It was surprising to see +how thirsty they all became as the cherries ripened. It was as if the +village had simultaneously agreed to breakfast on salt fish. Their +wooden bucket might have been the urn of the Danades, judging from the +time it took to fill it. The boys were as fleet of foot as young zebras, +and presented upon discovery no apology or justification but their +heels,--which was a wise stroke in them. A troop of rosy-cheeked, +bright-eyed little snips in white pantalets, caught in the act, reasoned +with in a semi-circle, and cajoled with candy, were as sweet as +distilled honey, and promised with all their innocent hearts and hands +not to do so any more. But the real _pice de rsistance_ was a mass of +pretty well developed crinoline which an informal walk in the infested +district brought to light, engaged in a systematic raid upon the +tempting fruit. Now, in my country, the presence of unknown individuals +in your own garden, plucking your fruit from your trees, without your +knowledge and against your will, is universally considered as affording +presumptive evidence of--something. In this part of the world, however, +I find they do things differently. It doesn't furnish presumptive +evidence of anything. If you think it does, you do so at your own risk. +I thought it did, and escaped by the skin of my teeth. I hinted my +views, and found myself in a den of lions, and was thankful to come out +second-best. Second? nay, third-best, fourth-best, no best at all, not +even good,--very bad. In short, I was glad to get out with my life. Nor +was my repulse confined to the passing hour. The injured innocents come +no more for water. I am consumed with inward remorse as I see them daily +file majestically past my house to my neighbor's well. I have resolved +to plant a strawberry-bed next year, and offer them the fruit of it by +way of atonement, and never, under any provocation, hereafter, to assert +or insinuate that I have any claim whatever to anything under the sun. +If this course, perseveringly persisted in, does not restore the state +of quo, I am hopeless. I have no further resources. + +The one drop of sweetness in the bitter cup was, that the cherries, +being thus let severely alone, were allowed to hang on the trees and +ripen. It took them a great while. If they had been as big as hogsheads, +I should think the sun might have got through them sooner than he did. +They looked ripe long before they were so; and as they were very +plenty, the trees presented a beautiful appearance. I bought a stack of +fantastic little baskets from a travelling Indian tribe, at a fabulous +price, for the sake of fulfilling my long-cherished design of sending +fruit to my city friends. After long waiting, Halicarnassus came in one +morning with a tin pail full, and said that they were ripe at last, for +they were turning purple and falling off; and he was going to have them +gathered at once. He had brought in the first-fruits for breakfast. I +put them in the best preserve-dish, twined it with myrtle, and set it +in the centre of the table. It looked charming,--so ruddy and rural and +Arcadian. I wished we could breakfast out-doors; but the summer was one +of unusual severity, and it was hardly prudent thus to brave its rigor. +We had cup-custards at the close of our breakfast that morning,--very +vulgar, but very delicious. We reached the cherries at the same moment, +and swallowed the first one simultaneously. The effect was instantaneous +and electric. Halicarnassus puckered his face into a perfect wheel, +with his mouth for the hub. I don't know how I looked, but I felt badly +enough. + +"It was unfortunate that we had custards this morning," I remarked. +"They are so sweet that the cherries seem sour by contrast. We shall +soon get the sweet taste out of our mouths, however." + +"That's so!" said Halicarnassus, who _will_ be coarse. + +We tried another. He exhibited a similar pantomime, with improvements. +My feelings were also the same, intensified. + +"I am not in luck to-day," I said, attempting to smile. "I got hold of a +sour cherry this time." + +"I got hold of a bitter one," said Halicarnassus. + +"Mine was a little bitter, too," I added. + +"Mine was a little sour, too," said Halicarnassus. + +"We shall have to try again," said I. + +We did try again. + +"Mine was a good deal of both this time," said Halicarnassus. "But we +will give them a fair trial." + +"Yes," said I, sepulchrally. + +We sat there sacrificing ourselves to abstract right for five minutes. +Then I leaned back in my chair, and looked at Halicarnassus. He rested +his right elbow on the table, and looked at me. + +"Well," said he, at last, "how are cherries and things?" + +"Halicarnassus," said I, solemnly, "it is my firm conviction that +farming is not a lucrative occupation. You have no certain assurance of +return, either for labor or capital invested. Look at it. The bugs eat +up the squashes. The worms eat up the apples. The cucumbers won't grow +at all. The peas have got lost. The cherries are bitter as wormwood and +sour as you in your worst moods. Everything that is good for anything +won't grow, and everything that grows isn't good for anything." + +"My Indian corn, though," began Halicarnassus; but I snapped him up +before he was fairly under way. I had no idea of travelling in that +direction. + +"What am I to do with all those baskets that I bought, I should like to +know?" I asked, sharply. + +"What did you buy them for?" he asked in return. + +"To send cherries to the Hudsons and the Mavericks and Fred Ashley," I +replied promptly. + +"Why don't you send 'em, then? There's plenty of them,--more than we +shall want." + +"Because," I answered, "I have not exhausted the pleasures of +friendship. Nor do I perceive the benefit that would accrue from turning +life-long friends into life-long enemies." + +"I'll tell you what we can do," said Halicarnassus. "We can give a party +and treat them to cherries. They'll have to eat 'em out of politeness." + +"Halicarnassus," said I, "we should be mobbed. We should fall victims to +the fury of a disappointed and enraged populace." + +"At any rate," said he, "we can offer them to chance visitors." + +The suggestion seemed to me a good one,--at any rate, the only one that +held out any prospect of relief. Thereafter, whenever friends called +singly or in squads,--if the squads were not large enough to be +formidable,--we invariably set cherries before them, and with generous +hospitality pressed them to partake. The varying phases of emotion which +they exhibited were painful to me at first, but I at length came to take +a morbid pleasure in noting them. It was a study for a sculptor. By long +practice I learned to detect the shadow of each coming change, where a +casual observer would see only a serene expanse of placid politeness. +I knew just where the radiance, awakened by the luscious, swelling, +crimson globes, faded into doubt, settled into certainty, glared into +perplexity, fired into rage. I saw the grimace, suppressed as soon as +begun, but not less patent to my preternaturally keen eyes. No one +deceived me by being suddenly seized with admiration of a view. I +knew it was only to relieve his nerves by making faces behind the +window-curtains. + +I grew to take a fiendish delight in watching the conflict, and the +fierce desperation which marked its violence. On the one side were +the forces of fusion, a reluctant stomach, an unwilling oesophagus, a +loathing palate; on the other, the stern, unconquerable will. A natural +philosopher would have gathered new proofs of the unlimited capacity of +the human race to adapt itself to circumstances, from the _dbris_ that +strewed our premises after each fresh departure. Cherries were chucked +under the sofa, into the table-drawers, behind the books, under the +lamp-mats, into the vases, in any and every place where a dexterous hand +could dispose of them without detection. Yet their number seemed to +suffer no abatement. Like Tityus's liver, they were constantly renewed, +though constantly consumed. The small boys seemed to be suffering from a +fit of conscience. In vain we closed the blinds and shut ourselves up in +the house to give them a fair field. Not a cherry was taken. In vain we +went ostentatiously to church all day on Sunday. Not a twig was touched. +Finally I dropped all the curtains on that side of the house, and +avoided that part of the garden in my walks. The cherries may be hanging +there to this day, for aught I know. + +But why do I thus linger over the sad recital? _"Ab uno disce omnes."_ +(A quotation from Virgil: means, "All of a piece.") There may have been, +there probably was, an abundance of sweet-corn, but the broomstick that +had marked the spot was lost, and I could in no wise recall either spot +or stick. Nor did I ever see or hear of the peas,--or the beans. If our +chickens could be brought to the witness-box, they might throw light on +the subject. As it is, I drop a natural tear, and pass on to + +THE FLOWER-GARDEN.--It appeared very much behind time,--chiefly Roman +wormwood. I was grateful even for that. Then two rows of four-o'clocks +became visible to the naked eye. They are cryptogamous, it seems. +Botanists have hitherto classed them among the Phaenogamia. A sweet-pea +and a china-aster dawdled up just in time to get frost-bitten. _"Et +praeterea nihil."_ (Virgil: means, "That's all.") I am sure it was no +fault of mine. I tended my seeds with assiduous care. My devotion was +unwearied. I was a very slave to their caprices. I planted them just +beneath the surface in the first place, so that they might have an easy +passage. In two or three days they all seemed to be lying round loose on +the top, and I planted them an inch deep. Then I didn't see them at +all for so long that I took them up again, and planted them half-way +between. It was of no use. You cannot suit people or plants that are +determined not to be suited. + +Yet, sad as my story is, I cannot regret that I came into the country +and attempted a garden. It has been fruitful in lessons, if in nothing +else. I have seen how every evil has its compensating good. When I am +tempted to repine that my squashes did not grow, I reflect, that, if +they had grown, they would probably have all turned into pumpkins, or if +they had stayed squashes, they would have been stolen. When it seems +a mysterious Providence that kept all my young hopes underground, I +reflect how fine an illustration I should otherwise have lost of what +Kossuth calls the solidarity of the human race,--what Paul alludes to, +when he says, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. I +recall with grateful tears the sympathy of my neighbors on the right +hand and on the left,--expressed not only by words, but by deeds. In my +mind's eye, Horatio, I see again the baskets of apples, and pears, and +tomatoes, and strawberries,--squashes too heavy to lift,--and corn +sweet as the dews of Hymettus, that bore daily witness of human +brotherhood. I remember, too, the victory which I gained over my own +depraved nature. I saw my neighbor prosper in everything he undertook. +_Nihil tetigit quod non crevit._ Fertility found in his soil its +congenial home, and spanned it with rainbow hues. Every day I walked by +his garden and saw it putting on its strength, its beautiful garments. +I had not even the small satisfaction of reflecting that amid all his +splendid success his life was cold and cheerless, while mine, amid all +its failures, was full of warmth,--a reflection which, I have often +observed, seems to go a great way towards making a person contented with +his lot,--for he had a lovely wife, promising children, and the whole +village for his friends. Yet, notwithstanding all these obstacles, I +learned to look over his garden-wall with sincere joy. + +There is one provocation, however, which I cannot yet bear with +equanimity, and which I do not believe I shall ever meet without at +least a spasm of wrath, even if my Christian character shall ever become +strong enough to preclude absolute tetanus; and I do hereby beseech all +persons who would not be guilty of the sin of Jeroboam who made Israel +to sin, who do not wish to have on their hands the burden of my ruined +temper, to let me go quietly down into the valley of humiliation and +oblivion, and not pester me, as they have hitherto done from all parts +of the North-American continent, with the infuriating question, "How did +you get on with your garden?" + + * * * * * + + +LYRICS OF THE STREET. + + +I. + +THE TELEGRAMS. + + + Bring the hearse to the station, + When one shall demand it, late; + For that dark consummation + The traveller must not wait. + Men say not by what connivance + He slid from his weight of woe, + Whether sickness or weak contrivance, + But we know him glad to go. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Nor let the priest be wanting + With his hollow eyes of prayer, + While the sexton wrenches, panting, + The stone from the dismal stair. + But call not the friends who left him, + When Fortune and Pleasure fled; + Mortality hath not bereft him, + That they should confront him, dead. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Bid my mother be ready: + We are coming home to-night: + Let my chamber be still and shady, + With the softened nuptial light. + We have travelled so gayly, madly, + No shadow hath crossed our way; + Yet we come back like children, gladly, + Joy-spent with our holiday. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Stop the train at the landing, + And search every carriage through; + Let no one escape your handing, + None shiver or shrink from view. + Three blood-stained guests expect him, + Three murders oppress his soul; + Be strained every nerve to detect him + Who feasted, and killed, and stole. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Be rid of the notes they scattered; + The great house is down at last; + The image of gold is shattered, + And never can be recast. + The bankrupts show leaden features, + And weary, distracted looks, + While harpy-eyed, wolf-souled creatures + Pry through their dishonored books. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Let him hasten, lest worse befall him, + To look on me, ere I die: + I will whisper one curse to appall him, + Ere the black flood carry me by. + His bridal? the friends forbid it; + I have shown them his proofs of guilt: + Let him hear, with my laugh, who did it; + Then hurry, Death, as thou wilt! + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Thus the living and dying daily + Flash forward their wants and words, + While still on Thought's slender railway + Sit scathless the little birds: + They heed not the sentence dire + By magical hands exprest, + And only the sun's warm fire + Stirs softly their happy breast. + On, and on, and ever on! + God next! + + + + +THE SOUTH BREAKER. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART I. + + +Just a cap-full of wind, and Dan shook loose the linen, and a straight +shining streak with specks of foam shot after us. The mast bent like +eel-grass, and our keel was half out of the water. Faith belied her +name, and clung to the sides with her ten finger-nails; but as for me, I +liked it. + +"Take the stick, Georgie," said Dan, suddenly, his cheeks white. "Head +her up the wind. Steady. Sight the figurehead on Pearson's loft. Here's +too much sail for a frigate." + +But before the words were well uttered, the mast doubled up and coiled +like a whip-lash, there was a report like the crack of doom, and half of +the thing crashed short over the bows, dragging the heavy sail in the +waves. + +Then there came a great laugh of thunder close above, and the black +cloud dropped like a curtain round us: the squall had broken. + +"Cut it off, Dan! quick!" I cried. "Let it alone," said he, snapping +together his jack-knife; "it's as good as a best bower-anchor. Now I'll +take the tiller, Georgie. Strong little hand," said he, bending so that +I didn't see his face. "And lucky it's good as strong. It's saved us +all.--My God, Georgie! where's Faith?" + +I turned. There was no Faith in the boat. We both sprang to our feet, +and so the tiller swung round and threw us broadside to the wind, and +between the dragging mast and the centre-board drowning seemed too good +for us. + +"You'll have to cut it off," I cried again; but he had already ripped +half through the canvas and was casting it loose. + +At length he gave his arm a toss. With the next moment, I never shall +forget the look of horror that froze Dan's face. + +"I've thrown her off!" he exclaimed. "I've thrown her off!" + +He reached his whole length over the boat, I ran to his side, and +perhaps our motion impelled it, or perhaps some unseen hand; for he +caught at an end of rope, drew it in a second, let go and clutched at a +handful of the sail, and then I saw how it had twisted round and swept +poor little Faith over, and she had swung there in it like a dead +butterfly in a chrysalis. The lightnings were slipping down into the +water like blades of fire everywhere around us, with short, sharp +volleys of thunder, and the waves were more than I ever rode this side +of the bar before or since, and we took in water every time our hearts +beat; but we never once thought of our own danger while we bent to pull +dear little Faith out of hers; and that done, Dan broke into a great +hearty fit of crying that I'm sure he'd no need to be ashamed of. But it +didn't last long; he just up and dashed off the tears and set himself at +work again, while I was down on the floor rubbing Faith. There she +lay like a broken lily, with no life in her little white face, and no +breath, and maybe a pulse and maybe not. I couldn't hear a word Dan +said, for the wind; and the rain was pouring through us. I saw him take +out the oars, but I knew they'd do no good in such a chop, even if they +didn't break; and pretty soon he found it so, for he drew them in and +began to untie the anchor-rope and wind it round his waist. I sprang to +him. + +"What are you doing, Dan?" I exclaimed. + +"I can swim, at least," he answered. + +"And tow us?--a mile? You know you can't! It's madness!" + +"I must try. Little Faith will die, if we don't get ashore." + +"She's dead now, Dan." + +"What! No, no, she isn't. Faith isn't dead. But we must get ashore." + +"Dan," I cried, clinging to his arm, "Faith's only one. But if you die +so,--and you will!--I shall die too." + +"You?" + +"Yes; because, if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been here at +all." + +"And is that all the reason?" he asked, still at work. + +"Reason enough," said I. + +"Not quite," said he. + +"Dan,--for my sake"---- + +"I can't, Georgie. Don't ask me. I mustn't"--and here he stopped short, +with the coil of rope in his hand, and fixed me with his eye, and his +look was terrible--"_we_ mustn't let Faith die." + +"Well," I said, "try it, if you dare,--and as true as there's a Lord in +heaven, I'll cut the rope!" + +He hesitated, for he saw I was resolute; and I would, I declare I would +have done it; for, do you know, at the moment I hated the little dead +thing in the bottom of the boat there. + +Just then there came a streak of sunshine through the gloom where we'd +been plunging between wind and water, and then a patch of blue sky, and +the great cloud went blowing down river. Dan threw away the rope and +took out the oars again. + +"Give me one, Dan," said I; but he shook his head. "Oh, Dan, because I'm +so sorry!" + +"See to her, then,--fetch Faith to," he replied, not looking at me, and +making up with great sturdy pulls. + +So I busied myself, though I couldn't do a bit of good. The instant we +touched bottom, Dan snatched her, sprang through the water and up the +landing. I stayed behind; as the boat recoiled, pushed in a little, +fastened the anchor and threw it over, and then followed. + +Our house was next the landing, and there Dan had carried Faith; and +when I reached it, a great fire was roaring up the chimney, and the +tea-kettle hung over it, and he was rubbing Faith's feet hard enough to +strike sparks. I couldn't understand exactly what made Dan so fiercely +earnest, for I thought I knew just how he felt about Faith; but +suddenly, when nothing seemed to answer, and he stood up and our eyes +met, I saw such a haggard, conscience-stricken face that it all rushed +over me. But now we had done what we could, and then I felt all at once +as if every moment that I effected nothing was drawing out murder. +Something flashed by the window, I tore out of the house and threw up my +arms, I don't know whether I screamed or not, but I caught the doctor's +eye, and he jumped from his gig and followed me in. We had a siege of +it. But at length, with hot blankets, and hot water, and hot brandy +dribbled down her throat, a little pulse began to play upon Faith's +temple and a little pink to beat up and down her cheek, and she opened +her pretty dark eyes and lifted herself and wrung the water out of her +braids; then she sank back. + +"Faith! Faith! speak to me!" said Dan, close in her ear. "Don't you know +me?" + +"Go away," she said, hoarsely, pushing his face with her flat wet palm. +"You let the sail take me over and drown me, while you kissed Georgie's +hand." + +I flung my hand before her eyes. + +"Is there a kiss on those fingers?" I cried, in a blaze. "He never +kissed my hands or my lips. Dan is your husband, Faith!" + +For all answer Faith hid her head and gave a little moan. Somehow I +couldn't stand that; so I ran and put my arms round her neck and lifted +her face and kissed it, and then we cried together. And Dan, walking the +floor, took up his hat and went out, while she never cast a look after +him. To think of such a great strong nature and such a powerful depth of +feeling being wasted on such a little limp rag! I cried as much for that +as anything. Then I helped Faith into my bedroom, and running home, I +got her some dry clothes,--after rummaging enough, dear knows! for you'd +be more like to find her nightcap in the tea-caddy than elsewhere,--and +I made her a corner on the settle, for she was afraid to stay in the +bedroom, and when she was comfortably covered there she fell asleep. +Dan came in soon and sat down beside her, his eyes on the floor, never +glancing aside nor smiling, but gloomier than the grave. As for me, I +felt at ease now, so I went and laid my hand on the back of his chair +and made him look up. I wanted he should know the same rest that I +had, and perhaps he did,--for, still looking up, the quiet smile came +floating round his lips, and his eyes grew steady and sweet as they used +to be before he married Faith. Then I went bustling lightly about the +kitchen again. + +"Dan," I said, "if you'd just bring me in a couple of those chickens +stalking out there like two gentlemen from Spain." + +While he was gone I flew round and got a cake into the bake-kettle, and +a pan of biscuit down before the fire; and I set the tea to steep on the +coals, because father always likes his tea strong enough to bear up an +egg, after a hard day's work, and he'd had that to-day; and I put on the +coffee to boil, for I knew Dan never had it at home, because Faith liked +it and it didn't agree with her. And then he brought me in the chickens +all ready for the pot, and so at last I sat down, but at the opposite +side of the chimney. Then he rose, and, without exactly touching me, +swept me back to the other side, where lay the great net I was making +for father; and I took the little stool by the settle, and not far from +him, and went to work. + +"Georgie," said Dan, at length, after he'd watched me a considerable +time, "if any word I may have said to-day disturbed you a moment, I want +you to know that it hurt me first, and just as much." + +"Yes, Dan," said I. + +I've always thought there was something real noble between Dan and me +then. There was I,--well, I don't mind telling you. And he,--yes, I'm +sure he loved me perfectly,--you mustn't be startled, I'll tell you how +it was,--and always had, only maybe he hadn't known it; but it was deep +down in his heart just the same, and by-and-by it stirred. There we +were, both of us thoroughly conscious, yet neither of us expressing it +by a word, and trying not to by a look,--both of us content to wait for +the next life, when we could belong to one another. In those days I +contrived to have it always pleasure enough for me just to know that Dan +was in the room; and though that wasn't often, I never grudged Faith her +right in him, perhaps because I knew she didn't care anything about it. +You see, this is how it was. + +When Dan was a lad of sixteen, and took care of his mother, a ship went +to pieces down there on the island. It was one of the worst storms that +ever whistled, and though crowds were on the shore, it was impossible to +reach her. They could see the poor wretches hanging in the rigging, and +dropping one by one, and they could only stay and sicken, for the surf +stove the boats, and they didn't know then how to send out ropes on +rockets or on cannon-balls, and so the night fell, and the people wrung +their hands and left the sea to its prey, and felt as if blue sky could +never come again. And with the bright, keen morning not a vestige of the +ship, but here a spar and there a door, and on the side of a sand-hill +a great dog watching over a little child that he'd kept warm all night. +Dan, he'd got up at turn of tide, and walked down,--the sea running over +the road knee-deep,--for there was too much swell for boats; and when +day broke, he found the little girl, and carried her up to town. He +didn't take her home, for he saw that what clothes she had were the very +finest,--made as delicately,--with seams like the hair-strokes on that +heart's-ease there; and he concluded that he couldn't bring her up as +she ought to be. So he took her round to the rich men, and represented +that she was the child of a lady, and that a poor fellow like +himself--for Dan was older than his years, you see--couldn't do her +justice: she was a slight little thing, and needed dainty training +and fancy food, maybe a matter of seven years old, and she spoke some +foreign language, and perhaps she didn't speak it plain, for nobody knew +what it was. However, everybody was very much interested, and everybody +was willing to give and to help, but nobody wanted to take her, and the +upshot of it was that Dan refused all their offers and took her himself. + +His mother'd been in to our house all the afternoon before, and she'd +kept taking her pipe out of her mouth,--she had the asthma, and +smoked,--and kept sighing. + +"This storm's going to bring me something," says she, in a mighty +miserable tone. "I'm sure of it!" + +"No harm, I hope, Miss Devereux," said mother. + +"Well, Rhody,"--mother's father, he was a queer kind,--called his girls +all after the thirteen States, and there being none left for Uncle Mat, +he called him after the state of matrimony,--"Well, Rhody," she replied, +rather dismally, and knocking the ashes out of the bowl, "I don't know; +but I'll have faith to believe that the Lord won't send me no ill +without distincter warning. And that it's good I _have_ faith to +believe." + +And so when the child appeared, and had no name, and couldn't answer for +herself, Mrs. Devereux called her Faith. + +We're a people of presentiments down here on the Flats, and well we +may be. You'd own up yourself, maybe, if in the dark of the night, you +locked in sleep, there's a knock on the door enough to wake the dead, +and you start up and listen and nothing follows; and falling back, +you're just dozing off, and there it is once more, so that the lad in +the next room cries out, "Who's that, mother?" No one answering, you're +half lost again, when _rap_ comes the hand again, the loudest of the +three, and you spring to the door and open it, and there's nought there +but a wind from the graves blowing in your face; and after a while you +learn that in that hour of that same night your husband was lost at sea. +Well, that happened to Mrs. Devereux. And I haven't time to tell you the +warnings I've known of. As for Faith, I mind that she said herself, as +we were in the boat for that clear midnight sail, that the sea had a +spite against her, but third time was trying time. + +So Faith grew up, and Dan sent her to school what he could, for he set +store by her. She was always ailing,--a little, wilful, pettish thing, +but pretty as a flower; and folks put things into her head, and she +began to think she was some great shakes; and she may have been a matter +of seventeen years old when Mrs. Devereux died. Dan, as simple at +twenty-six as he had been ten years before, thought to go on just in +the old way, but the neighbors were one too many for him; and they all +represented that it would never do, and so on, till the poor fellow got +perplexed and vexed and half beside himself. There wasn't the first +thing she could do for herself, and he couldn't afford to board her out, +for Dan was only a laboring-man, mackerelling all summer and shoemaking +all winter, less the dreadful times when he stayed out on the Georges; +and then he couldn't afford, either, to keep her there and ruin the poor +girl's reputation;--and what did Dan do but come to me with it all? + +Now for a number of years I'd been up in the other part of the town with +Aunt Netty, who kept a shop that I tended between schools and before and +after, and I'd almost forgotten there was such a soul on earth as Dan +Devereux,--though he'd not forgotten me. I'd got through the Grammar +and had a year in the High, and suppose I should have finished with an +education and gone off teaching somewhere, instead of being here now, +cheerful as heart could wish, with a little black-haired hussy tiltering +on the back of my chair.--Rolly, get down! Her name's Laura,--for his +mother.--I mean I might have done all this, if at that time mother +hadn't been thrown on her back, and been bedridden ever since. I haven't +said much about mother yet, but there all the time she was, just as she +is to-day, in her little tidy bed in one corner of the great kitchen, +sweet as a saint, and as patient; and I had to come and keep house for +father. He never meant that I should lose by it, father didn't; begged, +borrowed, or stolen, bought or hired, I should have my books, he said: +he's mighty proud of my learning, though between you and me it's little +enough to be proud of; but the neighbors think I know 'most as much as +the minister,--and I let 'em think. Well, while Mrs. Devereux was sick I +was over there a good deal,--for if Faith had one talent, it was total +incapacity,--and there had a chance of knowing the stuff that Dan was +made of; and I declare to man 'twould have touched a heart of stone to +see the love between the two. She thought Dan held up the sky, and Dan +thought she was the sky. It's no wonder,--the risks our men lead can't +make common-sized women out of their wives and mothers. But I hadn't +been coming in and out, busying about where Dan was, all that time, +without making any mark; though he was so lost in grief about his mother +that he didn't take notice of his other feelings, or think of himself at +all. And who could care the less about him for that? It always brings +down a woman to see a man wrapt in some sorrow that's lawful, and tender +as it is large. And when he came and told me what the neighbors said he +must do with Faith, the blood stood still in my heart. + +"Ask mother, Dan," says I,--for I couldn't have advised him. "She knows +best about everything." + +So he asked her. + +"I think--I'm sorry to think, for I fear she'll not make you a good +wife," said mother, "but that perhaps her love for you will teach her to +be--you'd best marry Faith." + +"But I can't marry her!" said Dan, half choking; "I don't want to marry +her,--it--it makes me uncomfortable-like to think of such a thing. I +care for the child plenty----Besides," said Dan, catching at a bright +hope, "I'm not sure that she'd have me." + +"Have you, poor boy! What else can she do?" + +Dan groaned. + +"Poor little Faith!" said mother. "She's so pretty, Dan, and she's so +young, and she's pliant. And then how can we tell what may turn up about +her some day? She may be a duke's daughter yet,--who knows? Think of the +stroke of good-fortune she may give you!" + +"But I don't love her," said Dan, as a finality. + +"Perhaps----It isn't----You don't love any one else?" + +"No," said Dan, as a matter of course, and not at all with reflection. +And then, as his eyes went wandering, there came over them a misty look, +just as the haze creeps between you and some object away out at sea, and +he seemed to be searching his very soul. Suddenly the look swept off +them, and his eyes struck mine, and he turned, not having meant to, and +faced me entirely, and there came such a light into his countenance, +such a smile round his lips, such a red stamped his cheek, and he bent +a little,--and it was just as if the angel of the Lord had shaken his +wings over us in passing, and we both of us knew that here was a man and +here was a woman, each for the other, in life and death; and I just hid +my head in my apron, and mother turned on her pillow with a little moan. +How long that lasted I can't say, but by-and-by I heard mother's +voice, clear and sweet as a tolling bell far away on some fair Sunday +morning,-- + +"The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his +eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men." + +And nobody spoke. + +"Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Thou wilt +light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For with +thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." + +Then came the hush again, and Dan started to his feet, and began to walk +up and down the room as if something drove him; but wearying, he stood +and leaned his head on the chimney there. And mother's voice broke the +stillness anew, and she said,-- + +"Hath God forgotten to be gracious? His mercy endureth forever. And none +of them that trust in him shall be desolate." + +There was something in mother's tone that made me forget myself and my +sorrow, and look; and there she was, as she hadn't been before for six +months, half risen from the bed, one hand up, and her whole face white +and shining with confident faith. Well, when I see all that such trust +has buoyed mother over, I wish to goodness I had it: I take more after +Martha. But never mind, do well here and you'll do well there, say I. +Perhaps you think it wasn't much, the quiet and the few texts breathed +through it; but sometimes when one's soul's at a white heat, it may be +moulded like wax with a finger. As for me, maybe God hardened Pharaoh's +heart,--though how that was Pharaoh's fault I never could see. But +Dan,--he felt what it was to have a refuge in trouble, to have a great +love always extending over him like a wing; he longed for it; he +couldn't believe it was his now, he was so suddenly convicted of all sin +and wickedness; and something sprang up in his heart, a kind of holy +passion that he felt to be possible for this great and tender Divine +Being; and he came and fell on his knees by the side of the bed, crying +out for mother to show him the way; and mother, she put her hand on his +head and prayed,--prayed, oh, so beautifully, that it makes the water +stand in my eyes now to remember what she said. But I didn't feel so +then, my heart and my soul were rebellious, and love for Dan alone kept +me under, not love for God. And in fact, if ever I'd got to heaven +then, love for Dan'd have been my only saving grace; for I was mighty +high-spirited, as a girl. Well, Dan he never made open profession; but +when he left the house, he went and asked Faith to marry him. + +Now Faith didn't care anything about Dan,--except the quiet attachment +that she couldn't help, from living in the house with him, and he'd +always petted and made much of her, and dressed her like a doll,--he +wasn't the kind of man to take her fancy: she'd have maybe liked some +slender, smooth-faced chap; but Dan was a black, shaggy fellow, with +shoulders like the cross-tree, and a length of limb like Saul's, and +eyes set deep, like lamps in caverns. And he had a great, powerful +heart,--and, oh, how it was lost! for she might have won it, she might +have made him love her, since I would have stood wide away and aside for +the sake of seeing him happy. But Faith was one of those that, if they +can't get what they want, haven't any idea of putting up with what they +have,--God forgive me, if I'm hard on the child! And she couldn't give +Dan an answer right off, but was loath to think of it, and went flirting +about among the other boys; and Dan, when he saw she wasn't so easily +gotten, perhaps set more value on her. For Faith, she grew prettier +every day; her great brown eyes were so soft and clear, and had a wide, +sorrowful way of looking at you; and her cheeks, that were usually pale, +blossomed to roses when you spoke to her, her hair drooping over them +dark and silky; and though she was slack and untidy and at loose ends +about her dress, she somehow always seemed like a princess in disguise; +and when she had on any thing new,--a sprigged calico, and her little +straw bonnet with the pink ribbons, and Mrs. Devereux's black scarf, for +instance,--you'd have allowed that she might have been daughter to the +Queen of Sheba. I don't know, but I rather think Dan wouldn't have said +any more to Faith, from various motives, you see, notwithstanding the +neighbors were still remonstrating with him, if it hadn't been that Miss +Brown--she that lived round the corner there; the town's well quit +of her now, poor thing!--went to saying the same stuff to Faith, +and telling her all that other folks said. And Faith went home in a +passion,--some of your timid kind nothing ever abashes, and nobody gets +to the windward of them,--and, being perfectly furious, fell to accusing +Dan of having brought her to this, so that Dan actually believed he had, +and was cut to the quick with contrition, and told her that all the +reparation he could make he was waiting and wishing to make, and then +there came floods of tears. Some women seem to have set out with the +idea that life's a desert for them to cross, and they've laid in a +supply of water-bags accordingly,--but it's the meanest weapon! And then +again, there's men that are iron, and not to be bent under calamities, +that these tears can twist round your little finger. Well, I suppose +Faith concluded 'twas no use to go hungry because her bread wasn't +buttered on both sides, but she always acted as if she'd condescended +ninety degrees in marrying Dan, and Dan always seemed to feel that he'd +done her a great injury; and there it was. + +I kept in the house for a time; mother was worse.--and I thought the +less Dan saw of me the better; I kind of hoped he'd forget, and find his +happiness where it ought to be. But the first time I saw him, when Faith +had been his wife all the spring, there was the look in his eyes that +told of the ache in his heart. Faith wasn't very happy herself, of +course, though she was careless; and she gave him trouble,--keeping +company with the young men just as before; and she got into a way of +flying straight to me, if Dan ventured to reprove her ever so lightly; +and stormy nights, when he was gone, and in his long trips, she always +locked up her doors and came over and got into my bed; and she was one +of those that never listened to reason, and it was none so easy for me, +you may suppose. + +Things had gone on now for some three years, and I'd about lived in my +books,--I'd tried to teach Faith some, but she wouldn't go any farther +than newspaper stories,--when one day Dan took her and me to sail, and +we were to have had a clam-chowder on the Point, if the squall hadn't +come. As it was, we'd got to put up with chicken-broth, and it couldn't +have been better, considering who made it. It was getting on toward the +cool of the May evening, the sunset was round on the other side of the +house, but all the east looked as if the sky had been stirred up +with currant-juice, till it grew purple and dark, and then the two +light-houses flared out and showed us the lip of froth lapping the +shadowy shore beyond, and I--heard father's voice, and he came in. + +There was nothing but the fire-light in the room, and it threw about +great shadows, so that at first entering all was indistinct; but I heard +a foot behind father's, and then a form appeared, and something, I never +could tell what, made a great shiver rush down my back, just as when a +creature is frightened in the dark at what you don't see, and so, though +my soul was unconscious, my body felt that there was danger in the air. +Dan had risen and lighted the lamp that swings in the chimney, and +father first of all had gone up and kissed mother, and left the stranger +standing; then he turned round, saying,-- + +"A tough day,--it's been a tough day; and here's some un to prove it. +Georgie, hope that pot's steam don't belie it, for Mr. Gabriel Verelay +and I want a good supper and a good bed." + +At this, the stranger, still standing, bowed. + +"Here's the one, father," said I. "But about the bed,--Faith'll have to +stay here,--and I don't see--unless Dan takes him over"---- + +"That I'll do," said Dan. + +"All right," said the stranger, in a voice that you didn't seem to +notice while he was speaking, but that you remembered afterwards like +the ring of any silver thing that has been thrown down; and he dropped +his hat on the floor and drew near the fireplace, warming hands that +were slender and brown, but shapely as a woman's. I was taking up the +supper; so I only gave him a glance or two, and saw him standing there, +his left hand extended to the blaze, and his eye resting lightly and +then earnestly on Faith in her pretty sleep, and turning away much as +one turns from a picture. At length I came to ask him to sit by, and at +that moment Faith's eyes opened. + +Faith always woke up just as a baby does, wide and bewildered, and the +fire had flushed her cheeks, and her hair was disordered, and she fixed +her gaze on him as if he had stepped out of her dream, her lips half +parted and then curling in a smile,--but in a second he moved off with +me, and Faith slipped down and into the little bedroom. + +Well, we didn't waste many words until father'd lost the edge of his +appetite, and then I told about Faith. + +"'F that don't beat the Dutch!" said father. "Here's Mr.--Mr."------ + +"Gabriel," said the stranger. + +"Yes,--Mr. Gabriel Verelay been served the same trick by the same +squall, only worse and more of it,--knocked off the yacht--What's that +you call her?" + +"La belle Louise." + +"And left for drowned,--if they see him go at all. But he couldn't 'a' +sinked in that sea, if he'd tried. He kep' afloat; we blundered into +him; and here he is." + +Dan and I looked round In considerable surprise, for he was dry as an +August leaf. + +"Oh," said the stranger, coloring, and with the least little turn of his +words, as if he didn't always speak English, "the good captain reached +shore, and, finding sticks, he kindled a fire, and we did dry our +clothes until it made fine weather once more." + +"Yes," said father; "but 't wouldn't been quite such fine weather, I +reckon, if this 'd gone to the fishes!" And he pushed something across +the table. + +It was a pouch with steel snaps, and well stuffed. The stranger colored +again, and held his hand for it, and the snap burst, and great gold +pieces, English coin and very old French ones, rolled about the table, +and father shut his eyes tight; and just then Faith came back and +slipped into her chair. I saw her eyes sparkle as we all reached, +laughing and joking, to gather them; and Mr. Gabriel--we got into the +way of calling him so,--he liked it best--hurried to get them out of +sight as if he'd committed some act of ostentation. And then, to make +amends, he threw off what constraint he had worn in this new atmosphere +of ours, and was so gay, so full of questions and quips and conceits, +all spoken in his strange way, his voice was so sweet, and he laughed so +much and so like a boy, and his words had so much point and brightness, +that I could think of nothing but the showers of colored stars in +fireworks. Dan felt it like a play, sat quiet, but enjoying, and I saw +he liked it;--the fellow had a way of attaching every one. Father was +uproarious, and kept calling out, "Mother, do you hear?--d' you hear +_that_, mother?" And Faith, she was near, taking it all in as a flower +does sunshine, only smiling a little, and looking utterly happy. Then I +hurried to clear up, and Faith sat in the great arm-chair, and father +got out the pipes, and you could hardly see across the room for the wide +tobacco-wreaths; and then it was father's turn, and he told story after +story of the hardships and the dangers and the charms of our way of +living. And I could see Mr. Gabriel's cheek blanch, and he would bend +forward, forgetting to smoke, and his breath coming short, and then +right himself like a boat after lurching,--he had such natural ways, and +except that he'd maybe been a spoiled child, he would have had a good +heart, as hearts go. And nothing would do at last but he must stay and +live the same scenes for a little; and father told him 't wouldn't +pay;--they weren't so much to go through with as to tell of,--there was +too much prose in the daily life, and too much dirt, and 't wa'n't fit +for gentlemen. Oh, he said, he'd been used to roughing it,--woodsing, +camping and gunning and yachting, ever since he'd been a free man. He +was Canadian, and had been cruising from the St. Lawrence to Florida, +--and now, as his companions would go on without him, he had a mind to +try a bit of coast-life. And could he board here? or was there any handy +place? And father said, there was Dan,--Dan Devereux, a man that hadn't +his match at oar or helm. And Mr. Gabriel turned his keen eye and bowed +again,--and couldn't Dan take Mr. Gabriel? And before Dan could answer, +for he'd referred it to Faith, Mr. Gabriel had forgotten all about it, +and was humming a little French song and stirring the coals with the +tongs. And that put father off in a fresh remembrance; and as the hours +lengthened, the stories grew fearful, and he told them deep into the +midnight, till at last Mr. Gabriel stood up. + +"No more, good friend," said he. "But I will have a taste of this life +perilous. And now where is it that I go?" + +Dan also stood up. + +"My little woman," said he, glancing at Faith, "thinks there's a corner +for you, Sir." + +"I beg your pardon"--And Mr. Gabriel paused, with a shadow skimming +over his clear dark face. + +Dan wondered what he was begging pardon for, but thought perhaps he +hadn't heard him, so he repeated,-- + +"My wife"--nodding over his shoulder at Faith, "she's my wife--thinks +there's a"---- + +"She's your wife?" said Mr. Gabriel, his eyes opening and brightening +the way an aurora runs up the sky, and looking first at one and then at +the other, as if he couldn't understand how so delicate a flower grew on +so thorny a stem. + +The red flushed up Dan's face,--and up mine too, for the matter of +that,--but in a minute the stranger had dropped his glance. + +"And why did you not tell me," he said, "that I might have found her +less beautiful?" + +Then he raised his shoulders, gave her a saucy bow, with his hand on +Dan's arm,--Dan, who was now too well pleased at having Faith made +happy by a compliment to sift it,--and they went out. + +But I was angry enough; and you may imagine I wasn't much soothed by +seeing Faith, who'd been so die-away all the evening, sitting up before +my scrap of looking-glass, trying in my old coral earrings, bowing up my +ribbons, and plaiting and prinking till the clock frightened her into +bed. + +The next morning, mother, who wasn't used to such disturbance, was ill, +and I was kept pretty busy tending on her for two or three days. Faith +had insisted on going home the first thing after breakfast, and in +that time I heard no more of anybody,--for father was out with the +night-tides, and, except to ask how mother did, and if I'd seen the +stray from the Lobblelyese again, was too tired for talking when he came +back. That had been--let me see--on a Monday, I think,--yes, on a +Monday; and Thursday evening, as in-doors had begun to tell on me, and +mother was so much improved, I thought I'd run out for a walk along the +seawall. The sunset was creeping round everything, and lying in great +sheets on the broad, still river, the children were frolicking in +the water, and all was so gay, and the air was so sweet, that I went +lingering along farther than I'd meant, and by-and-by who should I see +but a couple sauntering toward me at my own gait, and one of them was +Faith. She had on a muslin with little roses blushing all over it, +and she floated along in it as if she were in a pink cloud, and she'd +snatched a vine of the tender young woodbine as she went, and, throwing +it round her shoulders, held the two ends in one hand like a ribbon, +while with the other she swung her white sun-bonnet. She laughed, and +shook her head at me, and there, large as life, under the dark braids +dangled my coral ear-rings, that she'd adopted without leave or license. +She'd been down to the lower landing to meet Dan,--a thing she'd done +before I don't know when,--and was walking up with Mr. Gabriel while Dan +stayed behind to see to things. I kept them talking, and Mr. Gabriel was +sparkling with fun, for he'd got to feeling acquainted, and it had put +him in high spirits to get ashore at this hour, though he liked the sea, +and we were all laughing, when Dan came up. Now I must confess I hadn't +fancied Mr. Gabriel over and above; I suppose my first impression had +hardened into a prejudice; and after I'd fathomed the meaning of Faith's +fine feathers I liked him less than ever. But when Dan came up, he +joined right in, gay and hearty, and liking his new acquaintance so +much, that, thinks I, he must know best, and I'll let him look out for +his interests himself. It would 'a' been no use, though, for Dan to +pretend to beat the Frenchman at his own weapons,--and I don't know that +I should have cared to have him. The older I grow, the less I think of +your mere intellect; throw learning out of the scales, and give me a +great, warm heart,--like Dan's. + +Well, it was getting on in the evening, when the latch lifted, and in +ran Faith. She twisted my ear-rings out of her hair, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, Georgie, are you busy? Can't you perse my ears now?" + +"Pierce them yourself, Faith." + +"Well, pierce, then. But I can't,--you know I can't. Won't you now, +Georgie?" and she tossed the ear-rings into my lap. + +"Why, Faith," said I, "how'd you contrive to wear these, if your ears +aren't"-- + +"Oh, I tied them on. Come now, Georgie!" + +So I got the ball of yarn and the darning-needle. + +"Oh, not such a big one!" cried she. + +"Perhaps you'd like a cambric needle," said I. + +"I don't want a winch," she pouted. + +"Well, here's a smaller one. Now kneel down." + +"Yes, but you wait a moment, till I screw up my courage." + +"No need. You can talk, and I'll take you at unawares." + +So Faith knelt down, and I got all ready. + +"And what shall I talk about?" said she. "About Aunt Rhody, or Mr. +Gabriel, or--I'll tell you the queerest thing, Georgie! Going to now?" + +"Do be quiet, Faith, and not keep your head flirting about so!"--for +she'd started up to speak. Then she composed herself once more. + +"What was I saying? Oh, about that. Yes, Georgie, the queerest thing! +You see, this evening, when Dan was out, I was sitting talkin' with Mr. +Gabriel, and he was wondering how I came to be dropped down here, so I +told him all about it. And he was so interested that I went and showed +him the things I had on when Dan found me,--you know they've been kept +real nice. And he took them, and looked them over, close, admiring them, +and--and--admiring me,--and finally he started, and then held the frock +to the light, and then lifted a little plait, and in the under side of +the belt-lining there was a name very finely wrought,--Virginie des +Violets; and he looked at all the others, and in some hidden corner of +every one was the initials of the same name,--V. des V. + +"'That should be your name, Mrs. Devereux,' says he. + +"'Oh, no!' says I. 'My name's Faith.' + +"Well, and on that he asked, was there no more; and so I took off the +little chain that I've always worn and showed him that, and he asked if +there was a face in it, in what we thought was a coin, you know; and I +said, oh, it didn't open; and he turned it over and over, and finally +something snapped, and there _was_ a face,--here, you shall see it, +Georgie." + +And Faith drew it from her bosom, and opened and held it before me; for +I'd sat with my needle poised, and forgetting to strike. And there was +the face indeed, a sad, serious face, dark and sweet, yet the image of +Faith, and with the same mouth,--that so lovely in a woman becomes weak +in a man,--and on the other side there were a few threads of hair, with +the same darkness and fineness as Faith's hair, and under them a little +picture chased in the gold and enamelled, which, from what I've read +since, I suppose must have been the crest of the Des Violets. + +"And what did Mr. Gabriel say then?" I asked, giving it back to Faith, +who put her head into the old position again. + +"Oh, he acted real queer. 'The very man!' he cried out. 'The man +himself! His portrait,--I have seen it a hundred times!' And then +he told me that about a dozen years ago or more, a ship sailed +from--from--I forget the place exactly, somewhere up there where _he_ +came from,--Mr. Gabriel, I mean,--and among the passengers was this +man and his wife, and his little daughter, whose name was Virginie des +Violets, and the ship was never heard from again. But he says that +without a doubt I'm the little daughter and my name is Virginie, though +I suppose every one'll call me Faith. Oh, and that isn't the queerest. +The queerest is, this gentleman," and Faith lifted her head, "was very +rich. I can't tell you how much he owned. Lands that you can walk on a +whole day and not come to the end, and ships, and gold. And the whole of +it's lying idle and waiting for an heir,--and I, Georgie, am the heir." + +And Faith told it with cheeks burning and eyes shining, but yet quite as +if she'd been born and brought up in the knowledge. + +"It don't seem to move you much, Faith," said I, perfectly amazed, +although I'd frequently expected something of the kind. + +"Well, I may never get it, and so on. If I do, I'll give you a silk +dress and set you up in a book-store. But here's a queerer thing yet. +Des Violets is the way Mr. Gabriel's own name is spelt, and his father +and mine--his mother and--Well, some way or other we're sort of +cousins. Only think, Georgie! isn't that--I thought, to be sure, when he +quartered at our house, Dan'd begin to take me to do, if I looked at +him sideways,--make the same fuss that he does, if I nod to any of the +other young men." + +"I don't think Dan speaks before he should, Faith." + +"Why don't you say Virginie?" says she, laughing. + +"Because Faith you've always been, and Faith you'll have to remain, with +us, to the end of the chapter." + +"Well, that's as it may be. But Dan can't object now to my going where +I'm a mind to with my own cousin!" And here Faith laid her ear on the +ball of yarn again. + +"Hasten, headsman!" said she, out of a novel, "or they'll wonder where I +am." + +"Well," I answered, "just let me run the needle through the emery." + +"Yes, Georgie," said Faith, going back with her memories while I +sharpened my steel, "Mr. Gabriel and I are kin. And he said that the +moment he laid eyes on me he knew I was of different blood from the rest +of the people"--. + +"What people?" asked I. + +"Why, you, and Dan, and all these. And he said he was struck to stone +when he heard I was married to Dan,--I must have been entrapped,--the +courts would annul it,--any one could see the difference between us"-- + +Here was my moment, and I didn't spare it, but jabbed the needle into +the ball of yarn, if her ear did lie between them. + +"Yes!" says I, "anybody with half an eye can see the difference between +you, and that's a fact! Nobody'd ever imagine for a breath that you were +deserving of Dan,--Dan, who's so noble he'd die for what he thought was +right,--you, who are so selfish and idle and fickle and"-- + +And at that Faith burst out crying. + +"Oh, I never expected you'd talk about me so, Georgie!" said she between +her sobs. "How could I tell you were such a mighty friend of Dan's? And +besides, if ever I was Virginie des Violets, I'm Faith Devereux now, and +Dan'll resent _any one's_ speaking so about his wife!" + +And she stood up, the tears sparkling like diamonds in her flashing dark +eyes, her cheeks red, and her little fist clenched. + +"That's the right spirit, Faith," says I, "and I'm glad to see you show +it. And as for this young Canadian, the best thing to do with him is to +send him packing. I don't believe a word he says; it's more than likely +nothing but to get into your good graces." + +"But there's the names," said she, so astonished that she didn't +remember she was angry. + +"Happened so." + +"Oh, yes! 'Happened so' A likely story! It's nothing but your envy, and +that's all!" + +"Faith!" says I, for I forgot she didn't know how close she struck. + +"Well,--I mean----There, don't let's talk about it any more! How under +the sun am I going to get these ends tied?" + +"Come here. There! Now for the other one." + +"No, I sha'n't let you do that; you hurt me dreadfully, and you got +angry and took the big needle." + +"I thought you expected to be hurt." + +"I didn't expect to be stabbed." + +"Well, just as you please. I suppose you'll go round with one ear-ring." + +"Like a little pig with his ear cropped? No, I shall do it myself. See +there, Georgie!" and she threw a bit of a box into my hands. + +I opened it, and there lay inside, on their velvet cushion, a pair of +the prettiest things you ever saw,--a tiny bunch of white grapes, and +every grape a round pearl, and all hung so that they would tinkle +together on their golden stems every time Faith shook her head,--and she +had a cunning little way of shaking it often enough. + +"These must have cost a penny, Faith," said I. "Where'd you get them?" + +"Mr. Gabriel gave them to me, just now. He went up-town and bought them. +And I don't want him to know that my ears weren't bored." + +"Mr. Gabriel? And you took them?" + +"Of course I took them, and mighty glad to get them." + +"Faith, dear," said I, "don't you know that you shouldn't accept +presents from gentlemen, and especially now you're a married woman, and +especially from those of higher station?" + +"But he isn't higher." + +"You know what I mean. And then, too, he is; for one always takes rank +from one's husband." + +Faith looked rather downcast at this. + +"Yes," said I,--"and pearls and calico"---- + +"Just because you haven't got a pair yourself! There, be still! I don't +want any of your instructions in duty!" + +"You ought to put up with a word from a friend, Faith," said I. "You +always come to me with your grievances. And I'll tell you what I'll do. +You used to like these coral branches of mine; and if you'll give those +back to Mr. Gabriel, you shall have the coral." + +Well, Faith she hesitated, standing there trying to muster her mind to +the needle, and it ended by her taking the coral, though I don't believe +she returned the pearls,--but we none of us ever saw them afterwards. + +We'd been talking in a pretty low tone, because mother was asleep; and +just as she'd finished the other ear, and a little drop of blood stood +up on it like a live ruby, the door opened and Dan and Mr. Gabriel came +in. There never was a prettier picture than Faith at that moment, and so +the young stranger thought, for he stared at her, smiling and at ease, +just as if she'd been hung in a gallery and he'd bought a ticket. So +then he sat down and repeated to Dan and mother what she'd told me, and +he promised to send for the papers to prove it all. But he never did +send for them,--delaying and delaying, till the summer wore away; and +perhaps there were such papers and perhaps there weren't. I've always +thought he didn't want his own friends to know where he was. Dan might +be a rich man to-day, if he chose to look them up; but he'd scorch at a +slow fire before he'd touch a copper of it. Father never believed a word +about it, when we recited it again to him. + +"So Faith 'a come into her fortune, has she?" said he. "Pretty child! +She 'a'n't had so much before sence she fell heir to old Miss Devereux's +best chany, her six silver spoons, and her surname." + +So the days passed, and the greater part of every one Mr. Gabriel was +dabbling in the water somewhere. There wasn't a brook within ten miles +that he didn't empty of trout, for Dan knew the woods as well as the +shores, and he knew the clear nights when the insects can keep free from +the water so that next day the fish rise hungry to the surface; and so +sometimes in the brightest of May noons they'd bring home a string of +those beauties, speckled with little tongues of flame; and Mr. Gabriel +would have them cooked, and make us all taste them,--for we don't care +much for that sort, down here on the Flats; we should think we were +famished, if we had to eat fish. And then they'd lie in wait all day for +the darting pickerel in the little Stream of Shadows above; and when +it came June, up the river he went trolling for bass, and he used +a different sort of bait from the rest,--bass won't bite much at +clams,--and he hauled in great forty-pounders. And sometimes in the +afternoons he took out Faith and me,--for, as Faith would go, whether or +no, I always made it a point to put by everything and go too; and I used +to try and get some of the other girls in, but Mr. Gabriel never would +take them, though he was hail-fellow-well-met with everybody, and was +everybody's favorite, and it was known all round how he found out Faith, +and that alone made him so popular, that I do believe, if he'd only +taken out naturalization-papers, we'd have sent him to General Court. +And then it grew time for the river-mackerel, and they used to bring in +at sunset two or three hundred in a shining heap, together with great +lobsters that looked as if they'd been carved out of heliotrope-stone, +and so old that they were barnacled. And it was so novel to Mr. Gabriel, +that he used to act as if he'd fallen in fairy-land. + +After all, I don't know what we should have done without him that +summer: he always paid Dan or father a dollar a day and the hire of the +boat; and the times were so hard, and there was so little doing, that, +but for this, and packing the barrels of clam-bait, they'd have been +idle and fared sorely. But we'd rather have starved: though, as for +that, I've heard father say there never was a time when he couldn't +go out and catch some sort of fish and sell it for enough to get us +something to eat. And then this Mr. Gabriel, he had such a winning way +with him, he was as quick at wit as a bird on the wing, he had a story +or a song for every point, he seemed to take to our simple life as if +he'd been born to it, and he was as much interested in all our trifles +as we were ourselves. Then he was so sympathetic, he felt everybody's +troubles, he went to the city and brought down a wonderful doctor to see +mother, and he got her queer things that helped her more than you'd have +thought anything could, and he went himself and set honeysuckles out +all round Dan's house, so that before summer was over it was a bower of +great sweet blows, and he had an alms for every beggar, and a kind word +for every urchin, and he followed Dan about as a child would follow some +big shaggy dog. He introduced, too, a lot of new-fangled games; he was +what they called a gymnast, and in feats of rassling there wasn't a man +among them all but he could stretch as flat as a flounder. And then he +always treated. Everybody had a place for him soon,--even _I_ did; and +as for Dan, he'd have cut his own heart out of his body, if Mr. Gabriel +'d had occasion to use it. He was a different man from any Dan 'd ever +met before, something finer, and he might have been better, and Dan's +loyal soul was glad to acknowledge him master, and I declare I believe +he felt just as the Jacobites in the old songs used to feel for royal +Charlie. There are some men born to rule with a haughty, careless +sweetness, and others born to die for them with stern and dogged +devotion. + +Well, and all this while Faith wasn't standing still; she was changing +steadily, as much as ever the moon changed in the sky. I noticed it +first one day when Mr. Gabriel'd caught every child in the region and +given them a picnic in the woods of the Stack-Yard-Gate, and Faith was +nowhere to be seen tiptoeing round every one as she used to do, but +I found her at last standing at the head of the table,--Mr. Gabriel +dancing here and there, seeing to it that all should be as gay as he +seemed to be,--quiet and dignified as you please, and feeling every one +of her inches. But it wasn't dignity really that was the matter with +Faith,--it was just gloom. She'd brighten up for a moment or two and +then down would fall the cloud again, she took to long fits of dreaming, +and sometimes she'd burst out crying at any careless word, so that my +heart fairly bled for the poor child,--for one couldn't help seeing that +she'd some secret unhappiness or other; and I was as gentle and soothing +to her as it's in my nature to be. She was in to our house a good deal; +she kept it pretty well out of Dan's way, and I hoped she'd get over it +sooner or later, and make up her mind to circumstances. And I talked +to her a sight about Dan, praising him constantly before her, though I +couldn't hear to do it; and finally, one very confidential evening, I +told her that I'd been in love with Dan myself once a little, but I'd +seen that he would marry her, and so had left off thinking about it; +for, do you know, I thought it might make her set more price on him now, +if she knew somebody else had ever cared for him. Well, that did answer +awhile: whether she thought she ought to make it up to Dan, or whether +he really did grow more in her eyes, Faith got to being very neat and +domestic and praiseworthy. But still there was the change, and it didn't +make her any the less lovely. Indeed, if I'd been a man, I should have +cared for her more than ever: it was like turning a child into a woman: +and I really think, as Dan saw her going about with such a pleasant +gravity, her pretty figure moving so quietly, her pretty face so still +and fair, as if she had thoughts and feelings now, he began to wonder +what had come over Faith, and, if she were really as charming as this, +why he hadn't felt it before; and then, you know, whether you love a +woman or not, the mere fact that she's your wife, that her life is sunk +in yours, that she's something for you to protect and that your honor +lies in doing so, gives you a certain kindly feeling that might ripen +into love any day under sunshine and a south wall. + + * * * * * + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY + + +XI. + + +Among the astounding discoveries of modern science is that of the +immense periods which have passed in the gradual formation of our earth. +So vast were the cycles of time preceding even the appearance of man on +the surface of our globe, that our own period seems as yesterday when +compared with the epochs that have gone before it. Had we only the +evidence of the deposits of rock heaped above each other in regular +strata by the slow accumulation of materials, they alone would convince +us of the long and slow maturing of God's work on the earth but when we +add to these the successive populations of whose life this world has +been the theatre, and whose remains are hidden in the rocks into which +the mud or sand or soil of whatever kind on which they lived has +hardened in the course of time,--or the enormous chains of mountains +whose upheaval divided these periods of quiet accumulation by great +convulsions,--or the changes of a different nature in the configuration +of our globe, as the sinking of lands beneath the ocean, or the gradual +rising of continents and islands above it,--or the wearing of great +river-beds, or the filling of extensive water-basins, till marshes first +and then dry land succeeded to inland seas,--or the slow growth of coral +reefs, those wonderful sea-walls raised by the little ocean-architects +whose own bodies furnish both the building-stones and the cement that +binds them together, and who have worked so busily during the long +centuries, that there are extensive countries, mountain-chains, islands, +and long lines of coast consisting solely of their remains,--or the +countless forests that must have grown up, flourished, died, and +decayed, to fill the storehouses of coal that feed the fires of the +human race to-day,--if we consider all these records of the past, the +intellect fails to grasp a chronology for which our experience furnishes +no data, and the time that lies behind us seems as much an eternity to +our conception as the future that stretches indefinitely before us. + +The physical as well as the human history of the world has its mythical +age, lying dim and vague in the morning mists of creation, like that of +the heroes and demigods in the early traditions of man, defying all +our ordinary dates and measures. But if the succession of periods that +prepared the earth for the coming of man, and the animals and plants +that accompany him on earth, baffles our finite attempts to estimate its +duration, have we any means of determining even approximately the length +of the period to which we ourselves belong? If so, it may furnish us +with some data for the further solution of these wonderful mysteries of +time, and it is besides of especial importance with reference to the +question of permanence of Species. Those who maintain the mutability of +Species, and account for all the variety of life on earth by the gradual +changes wrought by time and circumstances, do not accept historical +evidence as affecting the question at all. The monuments of those oldest +nations, all whose history is preserved in monumental records, do not +indicate the slightest variation of organic types from that day to this. +The animals that were preserved within their tombs or carved upon their +walls by the ancient Egyptians were the same as those that have their +home in the valley of the Nile today; the negro, whose peculiar features +are unmistakable even in their rude artistic attempts to represent them, +was the same woolly-haired, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, dark-skinned being +in the days of the Rameses that he is now. The Apis, the Ibis, the +Crocodiles, the sacred Beetles, have brought down to us unchanged all +the characters that superstition hallowed in those early days. The +stony face of the Sphinx is not more true to its past, nor the massive +architecture of the Pyramids more unchanged, than they are. But the +advocates of the mutability of Species say truly enough that the most +ancient traditions are but as yesterday in the world's history, and that +what six thousand years could not do sixty thousand years might effect. +Leaving aside, then, all historical chronology, how far back can we +trace our own geological period, and the Species belonging to it? By +what means can we determine its duration? Within what limits, by what +standard, may it be measured? Shall hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds +of thousands, or millions of years be the unit from which we start? + +I will begin this inquiry with a series of facts which I myself have +had an opportunity of investigating with especial care respecting the +formation and growth of the Coral Reefs of Florida. But first a few +words on Coral Reefs in general. They are living limestone walls that +are built up from certain depths in the ocean by the natural growth of a +variety of animals, but limited by the level of high-water, beyond which +they cannot rise, since the little beings that compose them die as soon +as they are removed from the vitalizing influence of the pure sea-water. +These walls have a variety of outlines: they may be straight, circular, +semicircular, oblong, according to the form of the coast along which +the little Reef-Builders establish themselves; and their height is, of +course, determined by the depth of the bottom on which they rest. If +they settle about an island on all sides of which the conditions for +their growth are equally favorable, they will raise a wall all around +it, thus encircling it with a ring of Coral growth. The Athols in the +Pacific Ocean, those circular islands inclosing sometimes a fresh-water +lake in mid-ocean, are Coral walls of this kind, that have formed a ring +around a central island. This is easily understood, if we remember that +the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is by no means a stable foundation +for such a structure. On the contrary, over a certain area, which has +already been surveyed with some accuracy by Professor Dana, during the +United States Exploring Expedition, it is subsiding; and if an island +upon which the Reef-Builders have established themselves be situated +in that area of subsidence, it will, of course, sink with the floor on +which it rests, carrying down also the Coral wall to a greater depth in +the sea. In such instances, if the rate of subsidence be more rapid than +the rate of growth in the Corals, the island and the wall itself will +disappear beneath the ocean. But whenever, on the contrary, the rate of +increase in the wall is greater than that of subsidence in the island, +while the latter gradually sinks below the surface, the former rises +in proportion, and by the time it has completed its growth the central +island has vanished, and there remains only a ring of Coral Reef, with +here and there a break, perhaps, at some spot where the more prosperous +growth of the Corals has been checked. If, however, as sometimes +happens, there is no such break, and the wall is perfectly +uninterrupted, the sheet of sea-water so inclosed may be changed to +fresh water by the rains that are poured into it. Such a water-basin +will remain salt, it is true, in its lower part, and the fact that it is +affected by the rise and fall of the tides shows that it is not entirely +secluded from communication with the ocean outside; but the salt water, +being heavier, sinks, while the lighter rain-water remains above, and it +is to all appearance actually changed into a fresh-water lake. + +I need not dwell here on the further history of such a Coral island, or +follow it through the changes by which the summit of its circular wall +becomes covered with a fertile soil, a tropical vegetation springs up on +it, and it is at last perhaps inhabited by man. There is something very +attractive in the idea of these green rings inclosing sheltered harbors +and quiet lakes in mid-ocean, and the subject has lost none of its +fascination since the mystery of their existence has been solved by the +investigations of several contemporary naturalists who have enabled us +to trace the whole story of their structure. I would refer all who wish +for a more detailed account of them to Charles Darwin's charming +little volume on "Coral Reefs," where their mode of formation is fully +described, and also to James D. Dana's "Geological Report of the United +States Exploring Expedition." + +Coral Reefs are found only in tropical regions: although Polyps, animals +of the same class as those chiefly instrumental in their formation, +are found in all parts of the globe, yet the Reef-Building Polyps are +limited to the Tropics. We are too apt to forget that the homes of +animals are as definitely limited in the water as on the land. Indeed, +the subject of the geographical distribution of animals according to +laws that are established by altitude, by latitude and longitude, by +pressure of atmosphere or pressure of water, already alluded to in +a previous article, is exceedingly interesting, and presents a most +important field of investigation. The climatic effect of different +degrees of altitude upon the growth of animals and plants is the same as +that of different degrees of latitude; and the slope of a high mountain +in the Tropics, from base to summit, presents, in a condensed form, an +epitome, as it were, of the same kind of gradation in vegetable growth +that may be observed from the Tropics to the Arctics. At the base of +such a mountain we have all the luxuriance of growth characteristic +of the tropical forest,--the Palms, the Bananas, the Bread-trees, the +Mimosas; higher up, these give way to a different kind of growth, +corresponding to our Oaks, Chestnuts, Maples, etc.; as these wane, on +the loftier slopes comes in the Pine forest, fading gradually, as it +ascends, into a dwarfish growth of the same kind; and this at last gives +way to the low creeping Mosses and Lichens of the greater heights, till +even these find a foothold no longer, and the summit of the mountain is +clothed in perpetual snow and ice. What have we here but the same series +of changes through which we pass, if, travelling northward from the +Tropics, we leave Palms and Pomegranates and Bananas behind, where the +Live-Oaks and Cypresses, the Orange-trees and Myrtles of the warmer +Temperate Zone come in, and these die out as we reach the Oaks, +Chestnuts, Maples, Elms, Nut-trees, Beeches, and Birches of the colder +Temperate Zone, these again waning as we enter the Pine forests of +the Arctic borders, till, passing out of these, nothing but a dwarf +vegetation, a carpet of Moss and Lichen, fit food for the Reindeer and +the Esquimaux, greets us, and beyond that lies the region of the snow +and ice fields, impenetrable to all but the daring Arctic voyager? + +I have thus far spoken of the changes in the vegetable growth alone as +influenced by altitude and latitude, but the same is equally true of +animals. Every zone of the earth's surface has its own animals, suited +to the conditions under which they are meant to live; and with the +exception of those that accompany man in all his pilgrimages, and are +subject to the same modifying influences by which he adapts his home and +himself to all climates, animals are absolutely bound by the laws of +their nature within the range assigned to them. Nor is this the case +only on land, where river-banks, lake-shores, and mountain-ranges might +be supposed to form the impassable boundaries that keep animals within +certain limits; but the ocean as well as the land has its faunae and +florae bound within their respective zological and botanical provinces; +and a wall of granite is not more impassable to a marine animal than +that ocean-line, fluid and flowing and ever-changing though it be, on +which is written for him, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." +One word as to the effect of pressure on animals will explain this. + +We all live under the pressure of the atmosphere. Now thirty-two feet +under the sea doubles that pressure, since a column of water of that +height is equal in weight to the pressure of one atmosphere. At the +depth of thirty-two feet, then, any marine animal is under the pressure +of two atmospheres,--that of the air which surrounds our globe, and of a +weight of water equal to it; at sixty-four feet he is under the pressure +of three atmospheres, and so on,--the weight of one atmosphere being +always added for every thirty-two feet of depth. There is a great +difference in the sensitiveness of animals to this pressure. Some fishes +live at a great depth and find the weight of water genial to them, while +others would be killed at once by the same pressure, and the latter +naturally seek the shallow waters. Every fisherman knows that he must +throw a long line for a Halibut, while with a common fishing-rod he will +catch plenty of Perch from the rocks near the shore; and the differently +colored bands of sea-weed revealed by low tide, from the green line of +the Ulvas through the brown zone of the common Fucas to the rosy and +purple hued sea-weeds of the deeper water show that the florae as well +as the faunae of the ocean have their precise boundaries. This wider +or narrower range of marine animals is in direct relation to their +structure, which enables them to bear a greater or less pressure of +water. All fishes, and, indeed, all animals having a wide range of +distribution in ocean-depths, have a special apparatus of water-pores, +so that the surrounding element penetrates their structure, thus +equalizing the pressure of the weight, which is diminished from without +in proportion to the quantity of water they can admit into their bodies. +Marine animals differ in their ability to sustain this pressure, just +as land animals differ in their power of enduring great variations of +climate and of atmospheric pressure. + +Of all air-breathing animals, none exhibits a more surprising power of +adapting itself to great and rapid changes of external influences than +the Condor. It may be seen feeding on the sea-shore under a burning +tropical sun, and then, rising from its repast, it floats up among the +highest summits of the Andes and is lost to sight beyond them, miles +above the line of perpetual snow, where the temperature must be lower +than that of the Arctics. But even the Condor, sweeping at one flight +from tropic heat to arctic cold, although it passes through greater +changes of temperature, does not undergo such changes of pressure as a +fish that rises from a depth of sixty-four feet to the surface of the +sea; for the former remains within the air that surrounds our globe, +and therefore the increase or diminution of pressure to which it is +subjected must be confined within the limits of one atmosphere, while +the latter, at a depth of sixty-four feet, is under a weight equal to +that of three such atmospheres, which is reduced to one when it reaches +the sea-level. The change is even much greater for those fishes that +come from a depth of several hundred feet. These laws of limitation in +space explain many facts in the growth of Coral Reefs that would be +otherwise inexplicable, and which I will endeavor to make clear to my +readers. + +For a long time it was supposed that the Coral animals inhabited very +deep waters, for they were sometimes brought up on sounding-lines from a +depth of many hundreds or even thousands of feet, and it was taken for +granted that they must have had their home where they were found; +but the facts recently ascertained respecting the subsidence of +ocean-bottoms have shown that the foundation of a Coral wall may have +sunk far below the place where it was laid, and it is now proved beyond +a doubt that no Reef-Building Coral can thrive at a depth of more than +fifteen fathoms, though Corals of other kinds occur far lower, and that +the dead Reef-Corals sometimes brought to the surface from much greater +depths are only broken fragments of some Reef that has subsided with +the bottom on which it was growing. But though fifteen fathoms is the +maximum depth at which any Reef-Builder can prosper, there are many +which will not sustain even that degree of pressure, and this fact has, +as we shall see, an important influence on the structure of the Reef. + +Imagine now a sloping shore on some tropical coast descending gradually +below the surface of the sea. Upon that slope, at a depth of from ten +to twelve or fifteen fathoms, and two or three or more miles from the +main-land, according to the shelving of the shore, we will suppose that +one of those little Coral animals to whom a home in such deep waters is +genial has established itself. How it happens that such a being, which +we know is immovably attached to the ground and forms the foundation of +a solid wall, was ever able to swim freely about in the water till it +found a suitable resting-place, I shall explain hereafter, when I say +something of the mode of reproduction of these animals. Accept, for the +moment, my unsustained assertion, and plant our little Coral on this +sloping shore some twelve or fifteen fathoms below the surface of the +sea. The internal structure of such a Coral corresponds to that of the +Sea-Anemone: the body is divided by vertical partitions from top to +bottom, leaving open chambers between, while in the centre hangs the +digestive cavity connecting by an opening in the bottom with all these +chambers; at the top is an aperture which serves as a mouth, surrounded +by a wreath of hollow tentacles, each one connecting at its base with +one of the chambers, so that all parts of the animal communicate freely +with each other. But though the structure of the Coral is identical in +all its parts with that of the Sea-Anemone, it nevertheless presents one +important difference. The body of the Sea-Anemone is soft, while that of +the Coral is hard. It is well known that all animals and plants have the +power of appropriating to themselves and assimilating the materials they +need, each selecting from the surrounding elements whatever contributes +to its well-being. The plant takes carbon, the animal takes oxygen, each +rejecting what the other requires. We ourselves build our bones with +the lime that we find unconsciously in the world around us; much of our +nourishment supplies us with it, and the very vegetables we eat have, +perhaps, themselves been fed from some old lime strata deposited +centuries ago. We all represent materials that have contributed to +construct our bodies. Now Corals possess, in an extraordinary degree, +the power of assimilating to themselves the lime contained in the salt +water around them; and as soon as our little Coral is established on a +firm foundation, a lime deposit begins to form in all the walls of its +body, so that its base, its partitions, and its outer wall, which in +the Sea-Anemone remain always soft, become perfectly solid in the Polyp +Coral and form a frame as hard as bone. It may naturally be asked +where the lime comes from in the sea which the Corals absorb in such +quantities. As far as the living Corals are concerned the answer is +easy, for an immense deal of lime is brought down to the ocean by +rivers that wear away the lime deposits through which they pass. The +Mississippi, whose course lies through extensive lime regions, brings +down yearly lime enough to supply all the animals living in the Gulf of +Mexico. But behind this lies a question not so easily settled, as to +the origin of the extensive deposits of limestone found at the very +beginning of life upon earth. This problem brings us to the threshold of +astronomy, for limestone is metallic in character, susceptible therefore +of fusion, and may have formed a part of the materials of our earth, +even in an incandescent state, when the worlds were forming. But though +this investigation as to the origin of lime does not belong either to +the naturalist or the geologist, its suggestion reminds us that the +time has come when all the sciences and their results are so intimately +connected that no one can be carried on independently of the others. +Since the study of the rocks has revealed a crowded life whose records +are hoarded within them, the work of the geologist and the naturalist +has become one and the same, and at that border-land where the first +crust of the earth condensed out of the igneous mass of materials which +formed its earliest condition their investigation mingles with that of +the astronomer, and we cannot trace the limestone in a little Coral +without going back to the creation of our solar system, when the worlds +that compose it were thrown off from a central mass in a gaseous +condition. + +When the Coral has become in this way permeated with lime, all parts of +the body are rigid, with the exception of the upper margin, the stomach, +and the tentacles. The tentacles are soft and waving, projected or drawn +in at will, and they retain their flexible character through life, and +decompose when the animal dies. For this reason the dried specimens of +Corals preserved in museums do not give us the least idea of the living +Corals, in which every one of the millions of beings composing such +a community is crowned by a waving wreath of white or green or +rose-colored tentacles. + +As soon as the little Coral is fairly established and solidly attached +to the ground, it begins to bud. This may take place in a variety of +ways, dividing at the top or budding from the base or from the sides, +till the primitive animal is surrounded by a number of individuals like +itself, of which it forms the nucleus, and which now begin to bud in +their turn, each one surrounding itself with a numerous progeny, all +remaining, however, attached to the parent. Such a community increases +till its individuals are numbered by millions; and I have myself counted +no less than fourteen millions of individuals in a Coral mass measuring +not more than twelve feet in diameter. These are the so-called Coral +heads which form the foundation of a Coral wall, and their massive +character and regular form seem to be especially adapted to give a +strong, solid base to the whole structure. They are known in our +classifications as the Astraeans, so named on account of the star-shaped +form of the little pits that are crowded upon the surface, each one +marking the place of a single individual in such a community. + +Thus firmly and strongly is the foundation of the reef laid by the +Astraeans; but we have seen that for their prosperous growth they +require a certain depth and pressure of water, and when they have +brought the wall so high that they have not more than six fathoms of +water above them, this kind of Coral ceases to grow. They have, however, +prepared a fitting surface for different kinds of Corals that could not +live in the depths from which the Astraeans have come, but find their +genial home nearer the surface; such a home being made ready for them +by their predecessors, they now establish themselves on the top of the +Coral wall and continue its growth for a certain time. These are the +Mandrinas, or the so-called Brain-Corals, and the Porites. The Mandrinas +differ from the Astraeans by their less compact and definite pits. In +the Astraeans the place occupied by the animal in the community is +marked by a little star-shaped spot, in the centre of which all the +partition-walls meet. But in the Mandrinas, although all the partitions +converge toward the central opening, as in the Astraeans, these central +openings elongate, run into each other, and form waving furrows all over +the surface, instead of the small round pits so characteristic of the +Astraeans. The Porites resemble the Astraeans, but the pits are smaller, +with fewer partitions and fewer tentacles, and their whole substance is +more porous. + +But these also have their bounds within the sea: they in their turn +reach the limit beyond which they are forbidden by the laws of their +nature to pass, and there they also pause. But the Coral wall continues +its steady progress; for here the lighter kinds set in,--the Madrepores, +the Millepores, and a great variety of Sea-Fans and Corallines, and the +reef is crowned at last with a many-colored shrubbery of low feathery +growth. These are all branching in form, and many of them are simple +calciferous plants, though most of them are true animals, resembling, +however, delicate Algae more than any marine animals; but, on +examination of the latter, one finds them to be covered with myriads of +minute dots, each representing one of the little beings out of which the +whole is built. + +I would add here one word on the true nature of the Millepores, long +misunderstood by naturalists, because it throws light not only on some +interesting facts respecting Coral Reefs, especially the ancient ones, +but also because it tells us something of the early inhabitants of the +globe, and shows us that a class of Radiates supposed to be missing in +that primitive creation had its representatives then as now. In the +diagram of the geological periods introduced in a previous article, I +have represented all the three classes of Radiates, Polyps, Acalephs, +and Echinoderms, as present on the first floor of our globe that was +inhabited at all. But it is only recently that positive proofs have been +found of the existence of Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, as they are +called, at that early period. Their very name indicates their delicate +structure; and were there no remains preserved in the rocks of these +soft, transparent creatures, it would yet be no evidence that they did +not exist. Fragile as they are, however, they have left here and there +some faint record of themselves, and in the Museum at Carlsruhe, on a +slab from Solenhofen, I have seen a very perfect outline of one which +remains undescribed to this day. This, however, does not carry them +farther back than the Jurassic period, and it is only lately that I have +satisfied myself that they not only existed, but were among the most +numerous animals in the first representation of organic life. + +The earliest Corals correspond in certain features of their structure to +the Millepores. They differ from them as all early animals differ from +the succeeding ones, every geological period having its special set of +representatives. But still they are always true to their class, and have +a certain general correspondence with animals of like kind that follow +them in later periods. In this sense the Millepores are in our epoch the +representatives of those early Corals called by naturalists Tabulata and +Rugosa,--distinguished from the Polyp Corals by the horizontal floors, +waving in some, straight in others, which divide the body transversely +at successive heights through its whole length, and also by the absence +of the vertical partitions, extending from top to bottom of each animal, +so characteristic of the true Polyps. As I have said, they were for a +long time supposed, notwithstanding these differences, to be Polyps, and +I had shared in this opinion, till, during the winter of 1857, while +pursuing my investigations on the Coral Reefs of Florida, one of these +Millepores revealed itself to me in its true character of Acaleph. It is +by its soft parts alone--those parts which are seen only in its living +state, and when the animal is fully open--that its Acalephian character +can be perceived, and this accounts for its being so long accepted as +a Polyp, when studied in the dry Coral stock. Nothing could exceed +my astonishment when for the first time I saw such an animal fully +expanded, and found it to be a true Acaleph. It is exceedingly difficult +to obtain a view of them in this state, for, at any approach, they draw +themselves in, and remain closed to all investigation. Only once, for a +short hour, I had this opportunity; during that time one of these little +creatures revealed to me its whole structure, as if to tell me, once for +all, the story of its existence through all the successive epochs from +the dawn of Creation till now, and then withdrew. With my most patient +watching, I have never been able to see one of them open again. But to +establish the fact that one of the Corals represented from the earliest +period till now, and indeed far more numerous in the beginning than any +other, was in truth no Polyp, but an Acaleph, the glimpse I had was +all-sufficient. It came out as if to bear witness of its class,--as if +to say, "We, too, were among the hosts of living beings with which God +first peopled His earth." + +With these branching Corals the reef reaches the level of high-water, +beyond which, as I have said, there can be no further growth, for want +of the action of the fresh sea-water. This dependence upon the vivifying +influence of the sea accounts for one unfailing feature in the Coral +walls. They are always abrupt and steep on the seaward side, but have a +gentle slope towards the land. This is accounted for by the circumstance +that the Corals on the outer side of the reef are in immediate contact +with the pure ocean-water, while by their growth they partially exclude +the inner ones from the same influence,--the rapid growth of the latter +being also impeded by any impurity or foreign material washed away from +the neighboring shore and mingling with the water that fills the channel +between the main-land and the reef. Thus the Coral Reefs, whether built +around an island, or concentric to a rounding shore, or along a straight +line of coast, are always shelving toward the land, while they +are comparatively abrupt and steep toward the sea. This should be +remembered, for, as we shall see hereafter, it has an important bearing +on the question of time as illustrated by Coral Reefs. + +I have spoken of the budding of Corals, by which each one becomes the +centre of a cluster; but this is not the only way in which they multiply +their kind. They give birth to eggs also, which are carried on the inner +edge of their partition-walls, till they drop into the sea, where they +float about, little, soft, transparent, pear-shaped bodies, as unlike as +possible to the rigid stony structure they are to assume hereafter. In +this condition they are covered with vibratile cilia or fringes, that +are always in rapid, uninterrupted motion, and keep them swimming about +in the water. It is by means of these little germs of the Corals, +swimming freely about during their earliest stages of growth, that the +reef is continued, at the various heights where special kinds die +out, by those that prosper at shallower depths; otherwise it would be +impossible to understand how this variety of building material, as it +were, is introduced wherever it is needed. This point, formerly a puzzle +to naturalists, has become quite clear since it has been found that +myriads of these little germs are poured into the water surrounding a +reef. There they swim about till they find a genial spot on which to +establish themselves, when they become attached to the ground by one +end, while a depression takes place at the opposite end, which gradually +deepens to form the mouth and inner cavity, while the edges expand to +form the tentacles, and the productive life of the little Coral begins: +it buds from every side, and becomes the foundation of a new community. + +I should add, that, beside the Polyps and the Acalephs, Mollusks also +have their representatives among the Corals. There is a group of small +Mollusks called Bryozoa, allied to the Clams by their structure, but +excessively minute when compared to the other members of their class, +which, like the other Corals, harden in consequence of an absorption of +solid materials, and contribute to the formation of the reef. Besides +these, there are certain plants, limestone Algae,--Corallines, as they +are called,--which have their share also in the work. + +I had intended to give some account of the Coral Reefs of Florida, +and to show what bearing they have upon the question of time and the +permanence of Species; but this cursory sketch of Coral Reefs in general +has grown to such dimensions that I must reserve a more particular +account of the Florida Reefs and Keys for a future article. + + * * * * * + + +SPIRITS. + + +"Did you ever see a ghost?" said a gentleman to his friend. + +"No, but I once came very nigh seeing one," was the facetious reply. + +The writer of this article has had still better luck,--having _twice_ +come very nigh seeing a ghost. In other words, two friends, in whose +veracity and healthy clearness of vision I have perfect confidence, have +assured me that they have distinctly seen a disembodied spirit. + +If I had permission to do so, I would record the street in Boston, and +the number of the house, where the first of these two apparitions was +seen; but that would be unpleasant to parties concerned. Years ago, the +lady who witnessed it told me the particulars, and I have recently heard +her repeat them. A cousin, with whom her relations were as intimate as +with a brother, was in the last stages of consumption. One morning, when +she carried him her customary offering of fruit or flowers, she found +him unusually bright, his cheeks flushed, his eyes brilliant, and his +state of mind exceedingly cheerful. He talked of his recovery and future +plans in life with hopefulness almost amounting to certainty. This made +her somewhat sad, for she regarded it as a delusion of his flattering +disease, a flaring up of the life-candle before it sank in the socket. +She thus reported the case, when she returned home. In the afternoon she +was sewing as usual, surrounded by her mother and sisters, and listening +to one who was reading aloud. While thus occupied, she chanced to raise +her eyes from her work and glance to the opposite corner of the room. +Her mother, seeing her give a sudden start, exclaimed, "What is the +matter?" She pointed to the corner of the room and replied, "There is +Cousin ------!" They all told her she had been dreaming, and was only +half wakened. She assured them she had not even been drowsy; and she +repeated with great earnestness, "There is Cousin ------, just as I saw +him this morning. Don't you see him?" She could not measure the time +that the vision remained; but it was long enough for several questions +and answers to pass rapidly between herself and other members of the +family. In reply to their persistent incredulity, she said, "It is very +strange that you don't see him; for I see him as plainly as I do any +of you." She was so obviously awake and in her right mind, that the +incident naturally made an impression on those who listened to her. Her +mother looked at her watch, and despatched a messenger to inquire how +Cousin ------ did. Word was soon brought that he died at the same moment +he had appeared in the house of his relatives. The lady who had +this singular experience is too sensible and well-informed to be +superstitious. She was not afflicted with any disorder of the nerves, +and was in good health at the time. + +To my other story I can give "a local habitation and a name" well known. +When Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, visited her native country a few +years ago, I had an interview with her, during which our conversation +happened to turn upon dreams and visions. + +"I have had some experience in that way," said she. "Let me tell you a +singular circumstance that happened to me in Rome. An Italian girl named +Rosa was in my employ for a long time, but was finally obliged to return +to her mother, on account of confirmed ill-health. We were mutually +sorry to part, for we liked each other. When I took my customary +exercise on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On one of these +occasions, I found her brighter than I had seen her for some time past. +I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was nothing in +her appearance that gave me the impression of immediate danger. I left +her with the expectation of calling to see her again many times. During +the remainder of the day I was busy in my studio, and I do not recollect +that Rosa was in my thoughts after I parted from her. I retired to rest +in good health and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound +sleep with an oppressive feeling that some one was in the room. I +wondered at the sensation, for it was entirely new to me; but in vain +I tried to dispel it. I peered beyond the curtain of my bed, but could +distinguish no objects in the darkness. Trying to gather up my thoughts, +I soon reflected that the door was locked, and that I had put the key +under my bolster. I felt for it, and found it where I had placed it. I +said to myself that I had probably had some ugly dream, and had waked +with a vague impression of it still on my mind. Reasoning thus, I +arranged myself comfortably for another nap. I am habitually a good +sleeper, and a stranger to fear; but, do what I would, the idea still +haunted me that some one was in the room. Finding it impossible to +sleep, I longed for daylight to dawn, that I might rise and pursue +my customary avocations. It was not long before I was able dimly to +distinguish the furniture in my room, and soon after I heard, in the +apartments below, familiar noises of servants opening windows and doors. +An old clock, with ringing vibrations, proclaimed the hour. I counted +one, two, three, four, five, and resolved to rise immediately. My bed +was partially screened by a long curtain looped up at one side. As I +raised my head from the pillow, Rosa looked inside the curtain, and +smiled at me. The idea of anything supernatural did not occur to me. I +was simply surprised, and exclaimed, 'Why, Rosa! How came you here, +when you are so ill?' In the old familiar tones, to which I was so much +accustomed, a voice replied, 'I am well, now.' With no other thought +than that of greeting her joyfully, I sprang out of bed. There was +no Rosa there! I moved the curtain, thinking she might perhaps have +playfully hidden herself behind its folds. The same feeling induced me +to look into the closet. The sight of her had come so suddenly, that, in +the first moment of surprise and bewilderment, I did not reflect that +the door was locked. When I became convinced there was no one in the +room but myself, I recollected that fact, and thought I must have seen a +vision. + +"At the breakfast-table, I said to the old lady with whom I boarded, +'Rosa is dead.' 'What do you mean by that?' she inquired. 'You told me +she seemed better than common when you called to see her yesterday.' +I related the occurrences of the morning, and told her I had a strong +impression Rosa was dead. She laughed, and said I had dreamed it all. I +assured her I was thoroughly awake, and in proof thereof told her I had +heard all the customary household noises, and had counted the clock when +it struck five. She replied, 'All that is very possible, my dear. The +clock struck into your dream. Real sounds often mix with the illusions +of sleep. I am surprised that a dream should make such an impression on +a young lady so free from superstition as you are.' She continued to +jest on the subject, and slightly annoyed me by her persistence in +believing it a dream, when I was perfectly sure of having been wide +awake. To settle the question, I summoned a messenger and sent him to +inquire how Rosa did. He returned with the answer that she died that +morning at five o'clock." + +I wrote the story as Miss Hosmer told it to me, and after I had shown +it to her, I asked if she had any objection, to its being published, +without suppression of names. She replied, "You have reported the story +of Rosa correctly. Make what use you please of it. You cannot think it +more interesting, or unaccountable, than I do myself." + +A remarkable instance of communication between spirits at the moment of +death is recorded in the Life of the Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, written +by his sister. When he was dying in Boston, their father was dying in +Vermont, ignorant of his son's illness. Early in the morning, he said to +his wife, "My son Joseph is dead." She told him he had been dreaming. +He calmly replied, "I have not slept, nor dreamed. He is dead." When +letters arrived from Boston, they announced that the spirit of the son +had departed from his body the same night that the father received an +impression of it. + +Such incidents suggest curious psychological inquiries, which I think +have attracted less attention than they deserve. It is common to explain +all such phenomena as "optical illusions" produced by "disordered +nerves." But _is_ that any explanation? _How_ do certain states of the +nerves produce visions as distinct as material forms? In the two cases I +have mentioned, there was no disorder of the nerves, no derangement of +health, no disquietude of mind. Similar accounts come to us from all +nations, and from the remotest periods of time; and I doubt whether +there ever was a universal superstition that had not some great, +unchangeable truth for its basis. Some secret laws of our being are +wrapt up in these occasional mysteries, and in the course of the world's +progress we may perhaps become familiar with the explanation, and +find genuine philosophy under the mask of superstition. When any +well-authenticated incidents of this kind are related, it is a very +common inquiry, "What are such visions sent _for_?" The question implies +a supposition of miraculous power, exerted for a temporary and special +purpose. But would it not be more rational to believe that all +appearances, whether spiritual or material, are caused by the operation +of universal laws, manifested under varying circumstances? In the +infancy of the world, it was the general tendency of the human mind to +consider all occasional phenomena as direct interventions of the gods, +for some special purpose at the time. Thus, the rainbow was supposed +to be a celestial road, made to accommodate the swift messenger of the +gods, when she was sent on an errand, and withdrawn as soon as she had +done with it. We now know that the laws of the refraction and reflection +of light produce the radiant iris, and that it will always appear +whenever drops of water in the air present themselves to the sun's rays +in a suitable position. Knowing this, we have ceased to ask what the +rainbow appears _for_. + +That a spiritual form is contained within the material body is a very +ancient and almost universal belief. Hindoo books of the remotest +antiquity describe man as a triune being, consisting of the soul, the +spiritual body, and the material body. This form within the outer body +was variously named by Grecian poets and philosophers. They called +it "the soul's image," "the invisible body," "the arial body," "the +shade." Sometimes they called it "the sensuous soul," and described it +as "_all_ eye and _all_ ear,"--expressions which cannot fail to suggest +the phenomena of clairvoyance. The "shade" of Hercules is described by +poets as dwelling in the Elysian Fields, while his body was converted to +ashes on the earth, and his soul was dwelling on Olympus with the gods. +Swedenborg speaks of himself as having been a visible form to angels in +the spiritual world; and members of his household, observing him at such +times, describe the eyes of his body on earth as having the expression +of one walking in his sleep. He tells us, that, when his thoughts turned +toward earthly things, the angels would say to him, "Now we are losing +sight of you": and he himself felt that he was returning to his material +body. For several years of his life, he was in the habit of seeing and +conversing familiarly with visitors unseen by those around him. The +deceased brother of the Queen of Sweden repeated to him a secret +conversation, known only to himself and his sister. The Queen had asked +for this, as a test of Swedenborg's veracity; and she became pale with +astonishment when every minute particular of her interview with her +brother was reported to her. Swedenborg was a sedate man, apparently +devoid of any wish to excite a sensation, engrossed in scientific +pursuits, and remarkable for the orderly habits of his mind. The +intelligent and enlightened German, Nicolai, in the later years of his +life, was accustomed to find himself in the midst of persons whom he +knew perfectly well, but who were invisible to others. He reasoned very +calmly about it, but arrived at no solution more satisfactory than the +old one of "optical illusion," which is certainly a very inadequate +explanation. Instances are recorded, and some of them apparently well +authenticated, of persons still living in this world, and unconscious of +disease, who have seen _themselves_ in a distinct visible form, without +the aid of a mirror. It would seem as if such experiences had not been +confined to any particular part of the world; for they have given birth +to a general superstition that such apparitions are a forerunner of +death,--or, in other words, of the complete separation of the spiritual +body from the natural body. A friend related to me the particulars of a +fainting-fit, during which her body remained senseless an unusually long +time. When she was restored to consciousness, she told her attendant +friends that she had been standing near the sofa all the time, watching +her own lifeless body, and seeing what they did to resuscitate it. In +proof thereof she correctly repeated to them all they had said and +done while her body remained insensible. Those present at the time +corroborated her statement, so far as her accurate knowledge of all +their words, looks, and proceedings was concerned. + +The most numerous class of phenomena concerning the "spiritual body" +relate to its visible appearance to others at the moment of dissolution. +There is so much testimony on this subject, from widely separated +witnesses, that an unprejudiced mind, equally removed from superstition +and skepticism, inclines to believe that they must be manifestations of +some hidden law of our mysterious being. Plato says that everything in +this world is merely the material form of some model previously existing +in a higher world of ethereal spiritual forms; and Swedenborg's +beautiful doctrine of Correspondences is a reappearance of the same +idea. If their theory be true, may not the antecedent type of that +strange force which in the material world we call electricity be a +_spiritual_ magnetism. As yet, we know extremely little of the laws of +electricity, and we know nothing of those laws of _spiritual_ attraction +and repulsion which are perhaps the _cause_ of electricity. There may be +subtile and as yet unexplained causes, connected with the state of the +nervous system, the state of the mind, the accord of two souls under +peculiar circumstances, etc., which may sometimes enable a person who is +in a material body to see another who is in a spiritual body. That such +visions are not of daily occurrence may be owing to the fact that it +requires an unusual combination of many favorable circumstances to +produce them; and when they do occur, they seem to us miraculous +simply because we are ignorant of the laws of which they are transient +manifestations. + +Lord Bacon says,--"The relations touching the force of imagination and +the secret instincts of Nature are so uncertain, as they require a great +deal of examination ere we conclude upon them. I would have it first +thoroughly inquired whether there be any secret passages of sympathy +between persons of near blood,--as parents, children, brothers, sisters, +nurse-children, husbands, wives, etc. There be many reports in history, +that, upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward +feeling of it. I myself remember, that, being in Paris, and my father +dying in London, two or three days before my father's death I had a +dream, which I told to divers English gentlemen, that my father's house +in the country was plastered all over with black mortar. Next to those +that are near in blood, there may be the like passage and instincts of +Nature between great friends and great enemies. Some trial also would be +made whether pact or agreement do anything: as, if two friends should +agree, that, such a day in every week, they, being in far distant +places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet +one for another's sake, whether, if one of them should break their vow +and promise, the other should have any feeling of it in absence." + +This query of Lord Bacon, whether an agreement between two distant +persons to think of each other at a particular time may not produce an +actual nearness between their spirits, is suggestive. People partially +drowned and resuscitated have often described their last moments of +consciousness as flooded with memories, so that they seemed to be +surrounded by the voices and countenances of those they loved. If this +is common when soul and body are approaching dissolution, may not such +concentration of loving thoughts produce an actual nearness, filling the +person thought of with "a feeling as if somebody were in the room"? And +if the feeling thus induced is very powerful, may not the presence thus +felt become objective, or, in other words, a vision? + +The feeling of the nearness of spirits to when the thoughts are busily +occupied with them may have led to the almost universal belief among +ancient nations that the souls of the dead came back on the anniversary +of their death to the places where their bodies were deposited. This +belief invested their tombs with peculiar sacredness, and led the +wealthy to great expense in their construction. Egyptians, Greeks, and +Romans built them with upper apartments, more or less spacious. These +chambers were adorned with vases, sculptures, and paintings on the +walls, varying in costliness and style according to the means or taste +of the builder. The tomb of Cestius in Rome contained a chamber much +ornamented with paintings. Ancient Egyptian tombs abound with sculptures +and paintings, probably representative of the character of the deceased. +Thus, on the walls of one a man is pictured throwing seed into the +ground, followed by a troop of laborers; farther on, the same individual +is represented as gathering in the harvest; then he is seen in +procession with wife, children, friends, and followers, carrying sheaves +to the temple, a thank-offering to the gods. This seems to be a painted +epitaph, signifying that the deceased was industrious, prosperous, and +pious. It was common to deposit in these tombs various articles of +use or ornament, such as the departed ones had been familiar with and +attached to, while on earth. Many things in the ancient sculptures +indicate that Egyptian women were very fond of flowers. It is a curious +fact, that little china boxes with Chinese letters on them, like those +in which the Chinese now sell flower-seeds, have been discovered in some +of these tombs. Probably the ladies buried there were partial to exotics +from China; and perhaps friends placed them there with the tender +thought that the spirit of the deceased would be pleased to see them, +when it came on its annual visit. Sometimes these paintings and +sculptures embodied ideas reaching beyond the earthly existence, and +"the arial body" was represented floating among stars, escorted by +what we should call angels, but which they named "Spirits of the +Sun." Families and friends visited these consecrated chambers on the +anniversary of the death of those whose bodies were placed in the +room below. They carried with them music and flowers, cakes and wine. +Religious ceremonies were performed, with the idea that the "invisible +body" was present with them and took part in the prayers and offerings. +The visitors talked together of past scenes, and doubtless their +conversation abounded with touching allusions to the character and +habits of the unseen friend supposed to be listening. It was, in fact, +an annual family-gathering, scarcely sadder in its memories than is our +Thanksgiving festival to those who have travelled far on the pilgrimage +of life. + +St. Paul teaches that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual +body." The early Christians had a very vivid faith, that, when the +soul dropped its outer envelope of flesh, it continued to exist in +a spiritual form. When any of their number died, they observed the +anniversary of his departure by placing on the altar an offering to the +church, in his name. On such occasions, they partook of the sacrament, +with the full belief that his unseen form was present with them, and +shared in the sacred rite, as he had done while in the material body. On +the anniversary of the death of martyrs, there were such commemorations +in all the churches; and that their spirits were believed to be present +is evident from the fact that numerous petitions were addressed to them. +In the Roman Catacombs, where many of the early Christians were buried, +are apartments containing sculptures and paintings of apostles and +martyrs. They are few and rude, because the Christians of that period +were poor, and used such worldly goods as they had more for benevolence +than for show. But these memorials, in such a place, indicate the same +feeling that adorned the magnificent tombs of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. +These subterranean apartments were used for religious meetings in the +first centuries of our era, and it is generally supposed that they were +chosen as safe hiding-places from persecution. Very likely it was so; +but it is not improbable that the spot had peculiar attractions to +worshippers, from the feeling that they were in the midst of an unseen +congregation, whose bodies were buried there. If it was so, it would be +but one of many proofs that the early Christians mixed with their new +religion many of the traditions and ceremonies of their forefathers, who +had been educated in other forms of faith. Even in our own time, threads +of these ancient traditions are more or less visible through the whole +warp and woof of our literature and our customs. Many of the tombs in +the Cemetery of Pre la Chaise have pretty upper apartments. On the +anniversary of the death of those buried beneath, friends and relatives +carry thither flowers and garlands. Women often spend the entire day +there, and parties of friends assemble to partake of a picnic repast. + +Most of the ancient nations annually observed a day in honor of the +Souls of Ancestors. This naturally grew out of the custom of meeting in +tombs to commemorate the death of relatives. As generations passed away, +it was unavoidable that many of the very old sepulchres should be seldom +or never visited. Still it was believed that the "shades" even of remote +ancestors hovered about their descendants and were cognizant of their +doings. It was impossible to observe separately the anniversaries of +departed millions, and therefore a day was set apart for religious +ceremonies in honor of _all_ ancestors. Hindoo and Chinese families have +from time immemorial consecrated such days; and the Romans observed a +similar anniversary under the name of Parentalia. + +Christians retained this ancient custom, but it took a new coloring from +their peculiar circumstances. The ties of the church were substituted +for ties of kindred. Its members were considered _spiritual_ fathers +and brothers, and there was an annual festival in honor of _spiritual_ +ancestors. The forms greatly resembled those of the Roman Parentalia. +The gathering-place was usually at the tomb of some celebrated martyr, +or in some chapel consecrated to his memory. Crowds of people came +from all quarters to implore the spirits of the martyrs to send them +favorable seasons, good crops, healthy children, etc., just as the old +Romans had been accustomed to invoke the names of their ancestors for +similar blessings. Prayers were repeated, hymns sung, and offerings +presented to the church, as aforetime to the gods. A great banquet was +prepared, and wine was drunk to the souls of the martyrs so freely that +complete intoxication was common. In view of this and other excesses, +the pious among the bishops exerted their influence to abolish the +custom. But it was so intertwined with the traditional faith of the +populace, and so gratifying to their social propensities, that it was +a long time before it could be suppressed. A vestige of the old +anniversaries in honor of the Souls of Ancestors remains in the Catholic +Church under the name of All-Souls' Day. + +In France, the Parentalia of the ancient Romans is annually observed +under the name of "Le Jour des Morts." All Paris flock to the +cemeteries, bearing bouquets, crosses, and garlands to decorate the +tombs of departed ancestors, relatives, and friends. The gay population +is, for that day, sobered by tender and solemn memories. Many a tear +glistens on the wreaths, and the passing traveller notices many a one +whose trembling lips and swollen eyelids indicate that the soul is +immersed in recollections of departed loved ones. The "cities of the +dead" bloom with fresh flowers, in multifarious forms of crosses, +crowns, and hearts. From all the churches prayers ascend for those who +have dropped their earthly garment of flesh, and who live henceforth in +the "spiritual body," which becomes more and more beautiful with the +progress of the soul,--it being, as the ancients called it, "the soul's +image." + + + + +THE TITMOUSE. + + + You shall not be over-bold + When you deal with arctic cold, + As late I found my lukewarm blood + Chilled wading in the snow-choked wood. + How should I fight? my foeman fine + Has million arms to one of mine. + East, west, for aid I looked in vain; + East, west, north, south, are his domain. + Miles off, three dangerous miles, is home; + Must borrow his winds who there would come. + Up and away for life! be fleet! + The frost-king ties my fumbling feet, + Sings in my ears, my hands are stones, + Curdles the blood to the marble bones, + Tugs at the heartstrings, numbs the sense, + Hems in the life with narrowing fence. + + Well, in this broad bed lie and sleep, + The punctual stars will vigil keep, + Embalmed by purifying cold, + The winds shall sing their dead-march old, + The snow is no ignoble shroud, + The moon thy mourner, and the cloud. + Softly,--but this way fate was pointing, + 'Twas coming fast to such anointing, + When piped a tiny voice hard by, + Gay and polite, a cheerful cry, + "_Chic-chic-a-dee-dee_!" saucy note, + Out of sound heart and merry throat, + As if it said, "Good day, good Sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places, + Where January brings few men's faces." + + This poet, though he live apart, + Moved by a hospitable heart, + Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort, + To do the honors of his court, + As fits a feathered lord of land, + Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand, + Hopped on the bough, then, darting low, + Prints his small impress on the snow, + Shows feats of his gymnastic play, + Head downward, clinging to the spray. + Here was this atom in full breath + Hurling defiance at vast death, + This scrap of valor just for play + Fronts the north-wind in waistcoat gray, + As if to shame my weak behavior. + I greeted loud my little saviour: + "Thou pet! what dost here? and what for? + In these woods, thy small Labrador, + At this pinch, wee San Salvador! + What fire burns in that little chest, + So frolic, stout, and self-possest? + Didst steal the glow that lights the West? + Henceforth I wear no stripe but thine: + Ashes and black all hues outshine. + Why are not diamonds black and gray, + To ape thy dare-devil array? + And I affirm the spacious North + Exists to draw thy virtue forth. + I think no virtue goes with size: + The reason of all cowardice + Is, that men are overgrown, + And, to be valiant, must come down + To the titmouse dimension." + + 'Tis good-will makes intelligence, + And I began to catch the sense + Of my bird's song: "Live out of doors, + In the great woods, and prairie floors. + I dine in the sun; when he sinks in the sea, + I, too, have a hole in a hollow tree. + And I like less when summer beats + With stifling beams on these retreats + Than noontide twilights which snow makes + With tempest of the blinding flakes: + For well the soul, if stout within, + Can arm impregnably the skin; + And polar frost my frame defied, + Made of the air that blows outside." + + With glad remembrance of my debt, + I homeward turn. Farewell, my pet! + When here again thy pilgrim comes, + He shall bring store of seeds and crumbs. + Henceforth I prize thy wiry chant + O'er all that mass and minster vaunt: + For men mishear thy call in spring, + As 'twould accost some frivolous wing, + Crying out of the hazel copse, "_Phe--be!_" + And in winter, "_Chic-a-dee-dee!_" + I think old Caesar must have heard + In Northern Gaul my dauntless bird, + And, echoed in some frosty wold, + Borrowed thy battle-numbers bold. + And I shall write our annals new, + + And thank thee for a better clew: + I, who dreamed not, when I came here, + To find the antidote of fear, + Now hear thee say in Roman key, + "_Paean! Ve-ni, Vi-di, Vi-ci._" + + * * * * * + + +SALTPETRE AS A SOURCE OF POWER. + + +Every element of _strength_ in a civilized community demands special +notice. The present material progress of nations brings us every day in +contact with the application of power under various conditions, and the +most thoughtless person is to some extent influenced mentally by the +improvements, taking the places of older means and ways of adaptation, +in the arts of life. + +We travel by the aid of steam-power, and we think and speak of a +locomotive or a steamboat as we once thought and spoke of a horse or +a man; and no little feeling of self-sufficiency is engendered by the +conclusion that this new source of power has been brought under control +and put to work in our day. + +It is also true that we do not always entertain the most correct view of +what we term the new power of locomotive and steamboat; and as it may +aid us in some further steps connected with the subject of my remarks, +a familiar object, such as a steamboat, may be taken as illustrative of +the application of power, and we may thus obtain some simple ideas of +what power truly is, in Nature. + +My travelled friend considers a steamboat as a ship propelled by wheels, +the shaft to which they are attached being moved by the machinery. +He follows back to the piston of the engine and finds the motor +there,--satisfied that he has discovered in the transference of +rectilinear to rotatory motion the reason for the progress of the boat. +A more inquisitive friend does not rest here, but assumes that the power +of the steam flowing through the machine sets in action its parts; and +he rests from farther pursuit of the power, where the larger number +of those who give any observation to the application of steam are +found,--gratified with the knowledge accumulated, and the readiness with +which an explanation of the motion of the boat can be traced to the +power of steam as its source. + +We must proceed a little farther on our backward course from the point +where the power is applied, and in our analysis consider the steam as +only the vehicle or carrier of the power; and examining the conditions, +we find that water acted on by fire, while contained in a suitable +vessel, after some time takes up certain properties which enable it +to go forward and move the ponderous machinery of the boat. The water +evidently here derives its new character of steam from the fire, and we +have now reached the source of the _movement_ of steam, and traced it +to the fire. In fact, we have found the source of power, in this most +mechanical of all mechanical machines, to be removed from the department +of knowledge which treats of machines! + +But we need not pause here, although we must now enter a little way into +chemical, instead of mechanical science. The fire prepares the water to +act as a carrier of power; it must contain power, therefore; and what +is it which we call fire? In placing on the grate coal or wood, and +providing for the contact of a continuous current of air, we intend to +bring about certain chemical actions as consequent on a disposition +which we know coal and wood to possess. When we apply fire, the chemical +actions commence and the usual effects follow. Now, if we for a moment +dismiss the consideration of the means adopted, it becomes apparent to +every one, that, as the fire will continue to increase with successive +additions of fuel, or as it will continue indefinitely with a regular +supply, there must be something else than mere motor action here. We +cannot call it chemical action, and dismiss the thought, and neglect +further inquiry, unless we would place ourselves with those who regard +the movement of the steamboat as being due to the machinery. + +Our farther progress in this analysis will soon open a wide field of +knowledge and inquiry; but it is sufficient for our present purpose, if, +by a careful study of the composition and chemical disposition of the +proximate compounds of the coal and the wood fuel, we arrive at the +conclusion that both are the result of forces which, very slight in +themselves at any moment, yet when acting through long periods of time +become laid up in the form of coal and wood. All that effort which the +tree has exhibited during its growth from the germ of the seed to its +state of maturity, when taken as fuel, is pent up in its substance, +ready, when fire is applied, to escape slowly and continuously. In +the case of the coal, after the growth of the plant from which it was +formed, the material underwent changes which enabled it to conserve more +forces, and to exhibit more energy when fire is applied to its mass; and +hence the distinction between wood and coal. + +Our analysis thus far has developed the source of the power moving +the steamboat as existing in the gradual action of forces influencing +vegetation, concentrated and locked up in the fuel. For the purpose of +illustrating the subject of this essay, we require no farther progress +in this direction. A moment of thought at this point and we shall cease +to consider steam-power as _new_; for, long before man appeared on this +earth, the vegetation was collecting and condensing those ordinary +natural powers which we find in fuel. In our time, too, the rains and +dews, heat, motion, and gaseous food, are being stored up in a wondrous +manner, to serve as elements of power which may be used and applied now +or hereafter. + +In this view, too, we may include the winds, the falling of rain, the +ascent and descent of sap, the condensation of gases,--in short, +the natural powers, exerted before,--as the cause of motion in the +steamboat. + +Passing from these considerations not unconnected with the subject, let +us inquire what saltpetre is, and how it is formed. + +The term Saltpetre is applied to a variety of bodies, distinguished, +however, by their bases, as potash saltpetre, soda saltpetre, lime +saltpetre, etc., which occur naturally. They are all compounds of nitric +acid and bases, or the gases nitrogen and oxygen united to bases, and +are found in all soils which have not been recently washed by rains, and +which are protected from excessive moisture. + +The decomposition of animal and of some vegetable bodies in the soil +causes the production of one constituent of saltpetre, while the earth +and the animal remains supply the other. Evaporation of pure water from +the surface of the earth causes the moisture which rises from below to +bring to the surface the salt dissolved in it; and as this salt is not +volatile, the escape of the moisture leaves it at or near the surface. +Hence, under buildings, especially habitations of men and animals, the +salt accumulates, and in times of scarcity it may be collected. In all +cases of its extraction from the earth several kinds of saltpetre are +obtained, and the usual course is to decompose these by the addition of +salts of potash, so as to form from them potash saltpetre, the kind most +generally consumed. + +In this decomposition of animal remains and the formation of saltpetre +the air performs an important part, and the changes it effects are +worthy of our attention. + +Let us consider the arial ocean surrounding our earth and resting upon +it, greatly larger in mass and extent than the more familiar aqueous +ocean below it, and more closely and momentarily affecting our +well-being. + +The pure air, consisting of 20.96 volumes of oxygen gas and 79.04 +volumes of nitrogen gas, preserves, under all the variations of climate +and height above the surface of the earth, a remarkable constancy of +composition,--the variation of one one-hundredth part never having been +observed. But additions and subtractions are being constantly made, +and the atmosphere, as distinguished from the pure air, is mixed with +exhalations from countless sources on the land and the sea. Wherever man +moves, his fire, his food, the materials of his dwellings, the soil he +disturbs, all add their volatile parts to the atmosphere. Vegetation, +death, and decay pour into it copiously substances foreign to the +composition of pure air. The combustion of one ton of coal adds at least +sixteen tons of impurity to the atmosphere; and when we estimate on +the daily consumption of coal the addition from this source alone, the +amount becomes enormous. + +Experiments have been made for the purpose of estimating these +additions, and the results of those most carefully conducted show how +very slightly the combined causes affect the general composition of our +atmosphere; and although the present refined methods of chemists enable +them to detect the presence of an abnormal amount of some substances, no +research has yet been successful in determining how far this varies from +the natural quantity at all times necessarily present in the atmosphere. + +It is, however, the comparatively minute portions of nitrogenous matter +in the atmosphere that we are to consider as the source of the nitrous +acids formed there, and of part of that found in the earth. From some +experiments made during the day and night it has been found, that, under +the most favorable circumstances, six millions six hundred and seventy +thousand parts of air afford one part of nitrogenous bodies, if the +whole quantity be abstracted! A portion only of this quantity can be +withdrawn in natural operations, such as the falling of rain and the +deposition of dew,--the larger part always remaining behind. + +When the oxygen of our atmosphere is exposed, while in its usual +hygrometric state, to the influence of bodies attracting a portion of +it, such as decomposing substances, or when it forms the medium of +electrical discharges, it suddenly assumes new powers, acquires a +greatly increased activity, affects our organs of smell, dissolves +in fluids, and has been mistaken for a new substance, and even named +"ozone." Among the new characters thus conferred on it is the power of +uniting with or burning many substances. This ozonized oxygen, when +brought into mixture with many nitrogenized bodies, forms with them +nitrous acids, completely destroying their former condition and +composition; hence, in the atmosphere, this part of the oxygen becomes +a purifier of the whole mass, from which it removes putrescent +exhalations, miasmatic vapors, and the effluvia from every source of sea +or land. Very curious are the effects of this active oxygen, which is +ever present in some portion of the atmosphere. Moved by the wind, mixed +with the impure upward currents rising from cities, it seizes on +and changes rapidly all foulness, and if the currents are not too +voluminous, the impure air becomes changed to pure. As ozonized oxygen +can be easily detected, we may pass from the city, where (overpowered +by the exhalations) it does not exist, and find it in the air of the +vicinity; and moving away several miles, ascertain that a normal amount +there prevails, and that step by step, on our return to abodes of a +dense population, the quantity diminishes and finally all disappears. + +We are now prepared to answer the second part of the question which was +suggested, and to find that nitrous acids formed in the atmosphere +by direct oxidation of nitrogenous matter may unite with the ammonia +present to produce one kind of saltpetre; and when the rains or the dews +carry this to the earth, the salts of lime, potash, and soda there found +will decompose this ammoniacal saltpetre, and set the ammonia free, to +act over again its part. So in regard to decomposing organic matters in +the soil: ozonized oxygen changes them in the same way. The earth +and calcareous rocks of caves, penetrated by the air, slowly produce +saltpetre, and before the theory of the action was understood, +artificial imitation of natural conditions enabled us to manufacture +saltpetre. Animal remains, stratified with porous earth or the sweepings +of cities, and disposed in long heaps or walls, protected from rain, but +exposed to the prevailing winds, soon form nitrous salts, and a large +space covered with these deposits carefully tended forms a saltpetre +plantation. France, Prussia, Sweden, Switzerland, and other countries, +have been supplied with saltpetre from similar artificial arrangements. + +But the atmosphere is washed most thoroughly by the rains falling in and +near tropical countries, and the changes there are most rapid, so that +the production of saltpetre, favored by moisture and hot winds, attains +its highest limit in parts of India and the bordering countries. + +During the prevalence of dry winds, the earth in many districts of India +becomes frosted over with nitrous efflorescences, and the great quantity +shipped from the commercial ports, and that consumed in China, is thus a +natural production of that region. The increased amount due to tropical +influences will be seen in the instances here given of the produce from +the rich earths of different countries:-- + +_Natural_. + + France, Church of Mousseau, 5-3/8 per cent. + " Cavern of Fouquires, 3-1/2 " + U. States, Tennessee, dirt of caves, 0.86 " + Ceylon, Cave of Memoora, 3-1/10 " + Upper Bengal, Tirhoot, earth simply, 1-6/10 " + Patree in Guzerat, best sweepings, 8-7/10 " + +In each case the salt is mixed saltpetres. + +_Artificial_. + + France, 100 lbs. earth from + plantations afford 8 to 9 oz. + Hungary and Sweden, from + the same, 1/2 to 2-3/10 per cent. + +It may be calculated that the flesh of animals, free from bone, +carefully decomposed, will afford ninety-five pounds of saltpetre for +one thousand pounds thus consumed. + +In the manufacture of saltpetre, the earths, whether naturally or +artificially impregnated, are mixed with the ashes from burnt wood, or +salts of potash, so that this base may take the place of all others, and +produce long prisms of potash saltpetre. + +In this country there are numerous caves of great extent in Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Missouri, from which saltpetre has been manufactured. +Under the most favorable conditions of abundance of labor, obtainable +at a low price, potash saltpetre can be made at a cost about one-fourth +greater than the average price of India saltpetre, and those sources of +supply are the best natural deposits known on this side of the Rocky +Mountains. Where there is an insufficient supply of manure in a country, +resort to the artificial production of saltpetre is simply a robbery +committed on the resources of the agriculturists, and it is only during +the pressure of a great struggle like that of the wars of Napoleon, that +the conversion into saltpetre of materials which can become food for the +community would be permitted. + +Hitherto, in peaceful times, our supply of saltpetre has come from India +through commercial channels; but twice within a few years this course of +trade has been interrupted by the British Government, and the price of a +necessary article has been greatly enhanced,--leading reflecting minds +to the inquiry after other sources whence to draw the quantity required +for an increasing consumption. On the boundary between Peru and Chili, +in South Peru, about forty miles from the ports of Conception and +Iquique, is a depression in the general surface of a saline desert, +where a bed of soda saltpetre, about two and a half feet thick and +one hundred and fifty miles long, exists. The salt is massive, and, +occurring in a rainless climate, it is dry, and contains about sixty per +cent. of pure soda saltpetre. In Brazil, on the San Francisco, the same +salt is found extending sixty or seventy miles,--and again near the town +of Pilao Arcado, the beds being about two hundred and forty miles from +Bahia, but at present inaccessible for want of roads. The Peruvian +native saltpetre is rudely refined in the desert, and then transported +on the backs of mules to the shipping-port. As found in commerce, it is +less impure than India saltpetre; and it might be usefully substituted +for the latter in the manufacture of gunpowder, were it less +deliquescent in damp atmospheres. For chemical purposes it now replaces +India saltpetre, but the larger consumption is perhaps as a fertilizer +of land, in the cool and humid climate of England, the low price it +bears in the market permitting this consumption. + +We have found that the various saltpetres of natural production, or +those obtained in artificial arrangements, are converted by the use of +potash salts into potash saltpetre, and among the products so changed is +natural soda saltpetre. Now to us in this country, so near the sources +of abundant supply of soda saltpetre, this substitution becomes a matter +of great interest. We possess and can produce the alkaline salt of +potash in almost unlimited quantity, and, excepting for some special +purposes, it is consumed for its alkaline energy alone. When soda +saltpetre in proper proportion is dissolved and thus mixed with potash +salt, an exchange of bases takes place, and no loss of alkaline energy +follows. The soda in a quite pure state is eliminated from the soda +saltpetre, and will serve for the manufactures of glass and soap; while +the potash, taking the oxygen compound of the soda saltpetre, produces, +as a final result, a pure and beautiful prismatic saltpetre, most +economically and abundantly. + +Instead of working on a hundred pounds of earth to obtain at most eight +or nine pounds of saltpetre, a hundred pounds of soda saltpetre will +afford more than one hundred and nine pounds of potash saltpetre, when +skilfully treated. Here, then, we have, by simple chemical treatment +of an imported, but very cheap salt, a result constituting a source of +abundant supply of potash saltpetre, _without the loss of the agent_ +concerned in the transformation. + +We have traced slightly in outline the formation of saltpetre to the +action of ozonized oxygen on nitrogen compounds, in the atmosphere, or +in the earth,--the conditions being the same in both cases. If we pursue +the study of this action of ozonized oxygen farther, we shall not +restrict its combining disposition to these compounds, but prove that it +has the power of uniting directly with the nitrogen naturally forming +part of the pure air. While nitrogenized bodies are present, however, +in the atmosphere, or in the humid artificial heaps of saltpetre +plantations, the action of ozonized oxygen is on these, and the nitrous +compounds formed unite with the bases lime, soda, and potash, also +present, to form saltpetre. + +Under all the conditions necessary, we see the permanent gases, oxygen +and nitrogen, leaving the atmosphere and changing from their gaseous to +a solid dry state, when they become chemically combined with potash, and +there are 53-46/100 parts of the gaseous matter and 46-54/100 parts of +the potash in 100 parts of the saltpetre by weight. + +Having now found what saltpetre is and how it is formed, let us advance +to the consideration of it as a source of power. + +Through the exertion of chemical attraction the gaseous elements of the +atmosphere have become solid in the saltpetre; and as we know the weight +of this part in a cubic inch of saltpetre, the volume of the gases +combined is easily ascertained to be about eight hundred times that of +the saltpetre. Hence, as every cubic inch of condensation represents +an atmosphere as large as the cubic inch of saltpetre formed, we may +roughly estimate that the condensing force arising from chemical +attraction in this case is 800 times 15 lbs., or 12,000 lbs.! + +Strictly speaking, only about four-tenths of a cubic inch of potash +holds this enormous power in connection with it so as to form a cubic +inch of saltpetre, which we may handle and bruise, may melt and cool, +dissolve and crystallize, without explosion or change. It contains +conserved a force which represents the aggregate result of innumerable +minute actions, taking place among portions of matter which escape +our senses from their minuteness and excite our wonder by their +transformation. Closely similar are these actions to the agencies in +vegetation which build up the wood of the tree or the material of +the coal destined to serve for the production of fire in all the +applications of steam which we have briefly noticed in illustration. + +In availing ourselves of the concentrated power accumulated in +saltpetre, we resort to bodies which easily kindle when fire is applied, +such as sulphur and finely powdered charcoal: these substances are +most intimately mixed with the saltpetre in a powdered state, and the +dampened mass subjected to great pressure is afterwards broken into +grains of varied size, constituting gunpowder. + +The substances thus added to the saltpetre have both the disposition and +the power of burning with and decomposing the nitrous element of the +saltpetre, and in so doing they do not simply open the way for the +energetic action of the gases escaping, but, owing to the high +temperature produced, a new force is added. + +If the gases escaped from combination simply, they would exert for every +cubic inch of saltpetre, as we have here considered it, the direct power +of 12,000 lbs.; but under the new conditions, the volume of escaping gas +has a temperature above 2,000 Fahrenheit, and consequently its force +in overcoming resistance is more than four times as great, or at least +48,000 lbs. + +Such, then, is the power which can be obtained from a cubic inch of +saltpetre, when it is so compounded as to form some of the kinds of +gunpowder; and the fact of greatest importance in this connection is the +control we have over the amount of the force exerted and the time in +which the energy can be expended, by variations in the proportions of +the eliminating agents employed. + +We have used the well-known term Gunpowder to express the compound by +which we easily obtain the power latent in saltpetre; and the use of the +term suggests the employment of guns, which is secondary to the main +point we are illustrating. As the enormous consumption of power takes +place during peaceful times, so the consumption of saltpetre during a +state of war is much lessened, because the prosecution of public and +private works is then nearly suspended. + +The value and importance of saltpetre as a source of power is seen in +the adaptation of its explosive force to special purposes. It performs +that work well which we cannot carry on so perfectly by means of any +other agent, and the great mining and engineering works of a country are +dependent on this source for their success, and for overcoming obstacles +where other forces fail. With positive certainty the engineer can remove +a portion of a cliff or rock without breaking it into many parts, and +can displace masses to convenient distances, under all the varying +demands which arise in the process of mining, tunnelling, or cutting +into the earth. + +In all these cases of application we see that the powder contains within +itself both the material for producing force and the means by which that +force is applied, no other motor being necessary in its application. + +Modern warfare has become in its simplest expression the intelligent +application of force, and that side will successfully overcome or resist +the other which can in the shortest time so direct the greater force. +In artillery as well as infantry practice, the control over the time +necessary in the decomposition of the powder has been obtained through +the refinements already made in the manufacture, and the best results +of the latest trials confirm in full the conclusion that saltpetre is a +source of great and easily controlled power, which can act through short +or extended space. + +Under the view here presented, it is evident that saltpetre is +indispensable to progress in the arts of civilization and peace, as well +as in military operations, and that no nation can advance in material +interests, or even maintain strict independence, without possessing +within its boundaries either saltpetre or the sources from which it +can be drawn at all times. In its use for protecting the property of +a nation from the attacks of an enemy, and as the means of insuring +respect, we may consider saltpetre as an element of strength in a State, +and as such deserving a high place in the consideration of those who +direct the counsels or form the policy of a country. + +Has the subject of having an exhaustless supply of this important +product or the means of producing it been duly considered? + + * * * * * + + +WEATHER IN WAR. + + +It is not very flattering to that glory-loving, battle-seeking creature, +Man, that his best-arranged schemes for the destruction of his fellows +should often be made to fail by the condition of the weather. More +or less have the greatest of generals been "servile to all the skyey +influences." Upon the state of the atmosphere frequently depends the +ability of men to fight, and military hopes rise and fall with the +rising and falling of the metal in the thermometer's tube. Mercury +governs Mars. A hero is stripped of his plumes by a tempest, and his +laurels fly away on the invisible wings of the wind, and are seen no +more forever. Empires fall because of a heavy fall of snow. Storms of +rain have more than once caused monarchs to cease to reign. A hard +frost, a sudden thaw, a "hot spell," a "cold snap," a contrary wind, a +long drought, a storm of sand,--all these things have had their part in +deciding the destinies of dynasties, the fortunes of races, and the fate +of nations. Leave the weather out of history, and it is as if night were +left out of the day, and winter out of the year. Americans have fretted +a little because their "Grand Army" could not advance through mud that +came up to the horses' shoulders, and in which even the seven-league +boots would have stuck, though they had been worn as deftly as Ariel +could have worn them. They talked as if no such thing had ever before +been known to stay the march of armies; whereas all military operations +have, to a greater or a lesser extent, depended for their issue upon the +softening or the hardening of the earth, or upon the clearing or the +clouding of the sky. The elements have fought against this or that +conqueror, or would-be conqueror, as the stars in their courses fought +against Sisera; and the Kishon is not the only river that has through +its rise put an end to the hopes of a tyrant. The condition of rivers, +which must be owing to the condition of the weather, has often colored +events for ages, perhaps forever. The melting of the snows of the +Pyrenees, causing a great rise of the rivers of Northern Spain, came +nigh bringing ruin upon Julius Caesar himself; and nothing but the +feeble character of the opposing general saved him from destruction. + +The preservation of Greece, with all its incalculable consequences, must +be credited to the weather. The first attempt to conquer that country, +made by the Persians, failed because of a storm that disabled their +fleet. Mardonius crossed the Hellespont twelve or thirteen years before +that feat was accomplished by Xerxes, and he purposed marching as far as +Athens. His army was not unsuccessful, but off Mount Athos the Persian +fleet was overtaken by a storm, which destroyed three hundred ships +and twenty thousand men. This compelled him to retreat, and the Greeks +gained time to prepare for the coming of their enemy. But for that +storm, Athens would have been taken and destroyed, the Persians having +an especial grudge against the Athenians because of their part in the +taking and burning of Sardis; and Athens was destined to become Greece +for all after-time, so that her as yet dim light could not have been +quenched without darkening the whole world. When Xerxes himself entered +Europe, and was apparently about to convert Hellas into a satrapy, it +was a storm, or a brace of storms, that saved that country from so sad a +fate, and preserved it for the welfare of all after generations of men. +The Great King, in the hope of escaping "the unseen atmospheric enemies +which howl around that formidable promontory," had caused Mount Athos to +be cut through, but, as the historian observes, "the work of destruction +to his fleet was only transferred to the opposite side of the +intervening Thracian sea." That fleet was anchored on the Magnesian +coast, when a hurricane came upon it, known to the people of the country +as the _Hellespontias_, and which blew right upon the shore. For three +days this wind continued to blow, and the Persians lost four hundred +warships, many transports and provision craft, myriads of men, and an +enormous amount of _matriel_. The Grecian fleet, which had fled before +that of Persia, now retraced its course, believing that the latter was +destroyed, and would have fled again but for the arts and influence +of Themistocles. The sea-fights of Artemisium followed, in which the +advantage was, though not decisively, with the Greeks; and that +they finally retreated was owing to the success of the Persians at +Thermopylae. Between the first and second battle of Artemisium the +Persians suffered from another storm, which inflicted great losses upon +them. These disasters to the enemy greatly encouraged the Greeks, +who believed that they came directly from the gods; and they made it +possible for them to fight the naval battle of Salamis, and to win it. +So great was the alarm of Xerxes, who thought that the victors would +sail to the Hellespont, and destroy the bridge he had thrown over that +strait, that he ordered his still powerful fleet to hasten to its +protection. He himself fled by land, but on his arrival at the +Hellespont he found that the bridge had been destroyed by a storm; and +he must have been impressed as deeply as Napoleon was in this century, +that the elements had leagued themselves with his mortal enemies. After +his flight, and the withdrawal of his fleet from the war, the Persians +had not a chance left, and the defeat of his lieutenant Mardonius, at +Plataea, was of the nature of a foregone conclusion. + +It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of the assistance which +the Greeks received from the storms mentioned, and it is not strange +that they were lavish in their thanks and offerings to Poseidon the +Saviour, or that they continued piously to express their gratitude +in later days. Mankind at large have reason to be thankful for the +occurrence of those storms; for if they had not happened, Greece must +have been conquered, and all that she has been to the world would have +been that world's loss. It was not until after the overthrow of the +Persians that Athens became the home of science, literature, art, and +commerce; and if Athens had been removed from Greece, there would have +been little of Hellenic genius left for the delight of future days. Not +only was most of that which is known as Greek literature the production +of the years that followed the failure of Xerxes, but the success of the +Greeks was the means of preserving all of their earlier literature. The +Persians were not barbarians, and, had they achieved their purpose, they +might have promoted civilisation in Europe; but that civilization would +have been Asiatic in its character, and it might have been as fleeting +as the labors of the Carthaginians in Europe and Africa. Nor would they +have felt any interest in the preservation of the works of those Greeks +who wrote before the Marathonian time, which they would have regarded +with that contempt with which most conquerors look upon the labors of +those whom they have enslaved. That most brilliant of ages, the age of +Pericles, could never have come to pass under the dominion of Persia; +and the Greeks of Europe, when ruled by satraps from Susa, would have +been of as little weight in the ancient world as, under that kind of +rule, were the Greeks of Ionia. All future history was involved in the +decision of the Persian contest, and we may well feel grateful that the +event was not left for the hands of men to decide, but that the winds +and the waves of the Grecian seas so far equalized the power of the +combatants as to enable the Greeks, who fought for us as well as for +themselves, to roll back the tide of Oriental conquest. We might not +have had even the Secession War, if there had been no storms in the +Thracian seas in a summer the roses of which perished more than two +thousand three hundred years ago.[A] + +[Footnote A: When the Athenian patriots under Thrasybulus occupied +Phyle, they would have been destroyed by the forces of the Thirty +Tyrants, had not a violent snow-storm happened, which compelled +the besiegers to retreat. The patriots characterized this storm as +Providential. Had the weather remained fair, the patriots would have +been beaten, the democracy would not have been restored, and we should +never have had the orations of Demosthenes; and perhaps even Plato might +not have written and thought for all after time.] + +The modern contest which most resembles that which was waged between the +Greeks and the Persians is that war between England and Spain which +came to a crisis in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was destroyed by the +tempests of the Northern seas, after having been well mauled by the +English fleet. The English seamen behaved well, as they always do; but +the Spanish loss would not have been irreparable, if the weather had +remained mild. What men had begun so well storms completed. A contrary +wind prevented the Spanish Admiral from pursuing his course in a +direction that would have proved favorable to his second object, which +was the preservation of his fleet. He was forced to stand to the North, +so that he rushed right into the jaws of destruction. He encountered +in those remote and almost unknown waters tempests that were even more +merciless than the fighting ships and fireships of the island heretics. +Philip II. bore his loss with the same calmness that he bore the victory +of Lepanto. As, on hearing of the latter, he merely said, "Don John +risked a great deal," so, when tidings came to him that the Invincible +Armada had been found vincible, he quietly remarked, "I sent it out +against men, and not against the billows." Down to the very last year, +it had been the common, and all but universal opinion, that, if the +Spaniards had succeeded in landing in England, they would have been +beaten, so resolute were the English in their determination to oppose +them, and so extensive were their preparations for resistance. Elizabeth +at Tilbury had been one of the stock pieces of history, and her words of +defiance to Parma and to Spain have been ringing through the world ever +since they were uttered _after_ the Armada had ceased to threaten her +throne. We now know that the common opinion on this subject, like the +common opinion respecting some other crises, was all wrong, a delusion +and a sham, and based on nothing but plausible lies. Mr. Motley has put +men right on this point, as on some others; and it is impossible to +read his brilliant and accurate narrative of the events of 1588 without +coming to the conclusion that Elizabeth was in the summer of that year +in the way to receive punishment for the cowardly butchery which had +been perpetrated, in her name, if not by her direct orders, in the great +hall of Fotheringay. She was saved by those winds which helped the Dutch +to blockade Parma's army, in the first instance, and then by those +Orcadian tempests which smote the Armada, and converted its haughty +pride into a by-word and a scoffing. The military preparations of +England were of the feeblest character; and it is not too much to say, +that the only parallel case of Governmental weakness is that which is +afforded by the American history of last spring, when we had not an +efficient company or a seaworthy armed ship with which to fight the +Secessionists, who had been openly making their preparations for war for +months. The late Mr. Richard Rush mentions, in the second series of his +"Residence at the Court of London," that at a dinner at the Marquis of +Lansdowne's, in 1820, the conversation turned on the Spanish Armada; and +he was surprised to find that most of the company, which was composed of +members of Parliament and other public men, were of the opinion that the +Spaniards, could they have been landed, would have been victorious. With +genuine American faith in English invincibility, he wondered what the +company could mean, and also what the English armies would have been +about. It was not possible for any one then to have said that there were +no English armies at that time to be about anything; but now we see +that those armies were but imaginary bodies, having not even a paper +existence. Parma, who was even an abler diplomatist than soldier,--that +is, he was the most accomplished liar in an age that was made up of +falsehood,--had so completely gulled the astute Elizabeth that she was +living in the fools' paradise; and so little did she and most of her +counsellors expect invasion, that a single Spanish regiment of infantry +might, had it then been landed, have driven the whole organized force +of England from Sheerness to Bristol. Those Englishmen who sneer so +bitterly at the conduct of our Government but a year ago would do well +to study closely the history of their own country in 1588, in which they +will find much matter calculated to lessen their conceit, and to teach +them charity. The Lincoln Government of the United States had been in +existence but little more than thirty days when it found itself involved +in war with the Rebels; the Elizabethan Government had been in existence +for thirty years when the Armada came to the shores of England, to the +astonishment and dismay of those "barons bold and statesmen old in +bearded majesty" whom we have been content to regard as the bravest and +the wisest men that have lived since David and Solomon. Elizabeth, who +had a beard that vied with Burleigh's,--the evidence of her virgin +innocence,--felt every hair of her head curling from terror when she +learned how she had been "done" by Philip's lieutenant; and old Burleigh +must have thought that his mistress was in the condition of Jockey of +Norfolk's master at Bosworth,--"bought and sold." Fortunately for both +old women, and for us all, the summer gales of 1588 were adverse to the +Spaniards, and protected Old England. We know not whence the wind cometh +nor whither it goeth, but we know that its blows have often been given +with effect on human affairs; and it never blew with more usefulness, +since the time when it used up the ships of Xerxes, than when it sent +the ships of Philip to join "the treasures that old Ocean hoards." Had +England then been conquered by Spain, though but temporarily, Protestant +England would have ceased to exist, and the current of history would +have been as emphatically changed as was the current of the Euphrates +under the labors of the soldiers of Cyrus. We should have had no +Shakspeare, or a very different Shakspeare from the one that we have; +and the Elizabethan age would have presented to after centuries an +appearance altogether unlike that which now so impressively strikes the +mind. As that was the time out of which all that is great and good in +England and America has proceeded, in letters and in arms, in religion +and in politics, we can easily understand how vast must have been the +change, had not the winds of the North been so unpropitious to the +purposes of the King of the South. + +The English are very proud of the victories of Crcy and Agincourt, as +well they may be; for, though gained in the course of as unjust and +unprovoked and cruel wars as ever were waged even by Englishmen, they +are as splendid specimens of slaughter-work as can be found in the +history of "the Devil's code of honor." But they owe them both to the +weather, which favored their ancestors, and was as unfavorable to the +ancestors of the French. At Crcy the Italian cross-bow men in the +French army not only came into the field worn down by a long march on a +hot day in August, but immediately after their arrival they were +exposed to a terrible thunder-storm, in which the rain fell in absolute +torrents, wetting the strings of their bows, and rendering them +unserviceable. The English archers, who carried the far more useful +long-bow, kept their bows in their cases until the rain ceased, and then +took them out dry, and in perfect condition; besides which, even if +the strings of the long-bows had been wetted, they could not have been +materially injured, as they were thin and pliable, while those of the +cross-bows were so thick and unpliable that they could not be tightened +or slackened at pleasure. In after-days this defect in the cross-bow was +removed, but it existed in full force in 1346. When the battle began, +the Italian _quarrel_ was found to be worthless, because of the strings +of the arbalists having absorbed so much moisture, while the English +arrows came upon the poor Genoese in frightful showers, throwing them +into a panic, and inaugurating disaster to the French at the very +beginning of the action. The day was lost from that moment, and there +was not a leader among the French capable of restoring it. + +At Agincourt the circumstances were very different, but quite as fatal +to the French. That battle was fought on the 25th of October, 1415, and +the French should have won it according to all the rules of war,--but +they did not win it, because they had too much valor and too little +sense. A cautious coward makes a better soldier than a valiant fool, and +the boiling bravery of the French has lost them more battles than any +other people have lost through timidity. Henry V.'s invasion of France +was the most wicked attack that ever was made even by England on a +neighboring nation, and it was meeting with its proper reward, when +French folly ruined everything. The French overtook the English on the +24th of October, and by judicious action might have destroyed them, for +they were by far the more numerous,--though most English authorities, +with characteristic "unveracity," grossly exaggerate the inequality of +numbers that really did exist between the two armies. On the night of +the 24th the rain fell heavily, making the ground quite unfit for +the operations of heavy cavalry, in which the strength of the French +consisted, while the English had their incomparable archers, the +worthy predecessors of the English infantry of to-day, one of whom was +calculated to do more efficient service than could have been expected, +as the circumstances of the field were, from ten knights cumbered with +bulky mail. Sir Harris Nicolas, the most candid English historian of the +battle, and who prepared a very useful, but unreadable volume concerning +it, after speaking of the bad arrangements adopted by the French, +proceeds to say,--"The inconveniences under which the French labored +were much increased by the state of the ground, which was not only soft +from heavy rains, but was broken up by their horses during the preceding +night, the weather having obliged the valets and pages to keep them in +motion. Thus the statement of French historians may readily be credited, +that, from the ponderous armor with which the men-at-arms were +enveloped, and the softness of the ground, it was with the utmost +difficulty they could either move or lift their weapons, notwithstanding +their lances had been shortened to enable them to fight closely,--that +the horses at every step sunk so deeply into the mud, that it required +great exertion to extricate them,--and that the narrowness of the place +caused their archers to be so crowded as to prevent them from drawing +their bows." Michelet's description of the day is the best that can be +read, and he tells us, that, when the signal of battle was given by Sir +Thomas Erpingham, the English shouted, but "the French army, to their +great astonishment, remained motionless. Horses and knights appeared to +be enchanted, or struck dead in their armor. The fact was, that their +large battle-steeds, weighed down with their heavy riders and lumbering +caparisons of iron, had all their feet completely sunk in the deep wet +clay; they were fixed there, and could only struggle out to crawl on a +few steps at a walk," Upon this mass of chivalry, all stuck in the mud, +the cloth-yard shafts of the English yeomen fell like hailstones upon +the summer corn. Some few of the French made mad efforts to charge, but +were annihilated before they could reach the English line. The English +advanced upon the "mountain of men and horses mixed together," and +butchered their immovable enemies at their leisure. Plebeian hands that +day poured out patrician blood in torrents. The French fell into a +panic, and those of their number who could run away did so. It was the +story of Poitiers over again, in one respect; for the Black Prince owed +his victory to a panic that befell a body of sixteen thousand French, +who scattered and fled without having struck a blow. Agincourt was +fought on St. Crispin's day, and a precious strapping the French got. +The English found that there was "nothing like leather." It was the last +battle in which the oriflamme was displayed; and well it might be; for, +red as it was, it must have blushed a deeper red over the folly of the +French commanders. + +The greatest battle ever fought on British ground, with the exceptions +of Hastings and Bannockburn,--and greater even than Hastings, if numbers +are allowed to count,--was that of Towton, the chief action in the Wars +of the Roses; and its decision was due to the effect of the weather on +the defeated army. It was fought on the 29th of March, 1461, which was +the Palm-Sunday of that year. Edward, Earl of March, eldest son of the +Duke of York, having made himself King of England, advanced to the North +to meet the Lancastrian army. That army was sixty thousand strong, while +Edward IV. was at the head of less than forty-nine thousand. After some +preliminary fighting, battle was joined on a plain between the villages +of Saxton and Towton, in Yorkshire, and raged for ten hours. Palm-Sunday +was a dark and tempestuous day, with the snow falling heavily. At first +the wind was favorable to the Lancastrians, but it suddenly changed, and +blew the snow right into their faces. This was bad enough, but it was +not the worst, for the snow slackened their bow-strings, causing their +arrows to fall short of the Yorkists, who took them from the ground, and +sent them back with fatal effect. The Lancastrian leaders then sought +closer conflict, but the Yorkists had already achieved those advantages +which, under a good general, are sure to prepare the way to victory. It +was as if the snow had resolved to give success to the pale rose. That +which Edward had won he was resolved to increase, and his dispositions +were of the highest military excellence; but it is asserted that he +would have been beaten, because of the superiority of the enemy in men, +but for the coming up, at the eleventh hour, of the Duke of Norfolk, who +was the Joseph Johnston of 1461, doing for Edward what the Secessionist +Johnston did for Beauregard in 1861. The Lancastrians then gave way, +and retreated, at first in orderly fashion, but finally falling into +a panic, when they were cut down by thousands. They lost twenty-eight +thousand men, and the Yorkists eight thousand. This was a fine piece of +work for the beginning of Passion-Week, bloody laurels gained in civil +conflict being substituted for palm-branches! No such battle was ever +fought by Englishmen in foreign lands. This was the day when + + "Wharfe ran red with slaughter, + Gathering in its guilty flood + The carnage, and the ill-spilt blood + That forty thousand lives could yield. + Crcy was to this but sport, + Poitiers but a pageant vain, + And the work of Agincourt + Only like a tournament. + Half the blood which there was spent + Had sufficed to win again + Anjou and ill-yielded Maine, + Normandy and Aquitaine." + +Edward IV., it should seem, was especially favored by the powers of the +air; for, if he owed victory at Towton to wind and snow, he owed it to a +mist at Barnet. This last action was fought on the 14th of April, 1471, +and the prevalence of the mist, which was very thick, enabled Edward so +to order his military work as to counterbalance the enemy's superiority +in numbers. The mist was attributed to the arts of Friar Bungay, a +famous and most rascally "nigromancer." The mistake made by Warwick's +men, when they thought Oxford's cognizance, a star paled with rays, +was that of Edward, which was a sun in full glory, (the White Rose _en +soleil,_) and so assailed their own friends, and created a panic, was in +part attributable to the mist, which prevented them from seeing clearly; +and this mistake was the immediate occasion of the overthrow of the army +of the Red Rose. That Edward was enabled to fight the Battle of Barnet +with any hope of success was also owing to the weather. Margaret of +Anjou had assembled a force in France, Louis XI. supporting her cause, +and this force was ready to sail in February, and by its presence +in England victory would unquestionably have been secured for the +Lancastrians. But the elements opposed themselves to her purpose with so +much pertinacity and consistency that it is not strange that men should +have seen therein the visible hand of Providence. Three times did she +embark, but only to be driven back by the wind, and to suffer loss. Some +of her party sought to persuade her to abandon the enterprise, as Heaven +seemed to oppose it; but Margaret was a strong-minded woman, and would +not listen to the suggestions of superstitious cowards. She sailed a +fourth time, and held on in the face of bad weather. Half a day of good +weather was all that was necessary to reach England, but it was not +until the end of almost the third week that she was able to effect a +landing, and then at a point distant from Warwick. Had the King-maker +been the statesman-soldier that he has had the credit of being, he never +would have fought Edward until he had been joined by Margaret; and he +must have known that her non-arrival was owing to contrary winds, +he having been himself a naval commander. But he acted like a +knight-errant, not like a general, gave battle, and was defeated and +slain, "The Last of the Barons." Having triumphed at Barnet, Edward +marched to meet Margaret's army, which was led by Somerset, and defeated +it on the 4th of May, after a hardly-contested action at Tewkesbury. It +was on that field that Prince Edward of Lancaster perished; and as his +father, Henry VI., died a few days later, "of pure displeasure and +melancholy," the line of Lancaster became extinct. + +In justice to the memory of a monarch, to whom justice has never been +done, it should be remarked, in passing, that Edward IV. deserved the +favors of Fortune, if talent for war insures success in war. He was, so +far as success goes, one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived. He +never fought a battle that he did not win, and he never won a battle +without annihilating his foe. He was not yet nineteen when he commanded +at Towton, at the head of almost fifty thousand men; and two months +before he had gained the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, under circumstances +that showed skillful generalship. No similar instance of precocity is +to be found in the military history of mankind. His victories have been +attributed to Warwick, but it is noticeable that he was as successful +over Warwick as he had been over the Lancastrians, against whom Warwick +originally fought. Barnet was, with fewer combatants, as remarkable an +action as Towton; and at Mortimer's Cross Warwick was not present, while +he fought and lost the second battle of St. Alban's seventeen days after +Edward had won his first victory. Warwick was not a general, but a +magnificent paladin, resembling much Coeur de Lion, and most decidedly +out of place in the England of the last half of the fifteenth century. +What is peculiarly remarkable in Edward's case is this: he had received +no military training beyond that which was common to all high-born +youths in that age. The French wars had long been over, and what had +happened in the early years of the Roses' quarrel was certainly not +calculated to make generals out of children. In this respect Edward +stands quite alone in the list of great commanders. Alexander, Hannibal, +the first Scipio Africanus, Pompeius, Don John of Austria, Cond, +Charles XII., Napoleon, and some other young soldiers of the highest +eminence, were either all regularly instructed in the military art, or +succeeded to the command of veteran armies, or were advised and assisted +by old and skilful generals. Besides, they were all older than Edward +when they first had independent command. Gaston de Foix approaches +nearest to the Yorkist king, but he gained only one battle, was older at +Ravenna than Edward was at Towton, and perished in the hour of victory. +Clive, perhaps, may be considered as equalling the Plantagenet king in +original genius for war, but the scene of his actions, and the materials +with which he wrought, were so very different from those of other +youthful commanders, that no just comparison can be made between him and +any one of their number. + +The English have asserted that they lost the Battle of Falkirk, in 1746, +because of the severity of a snow-storm that took place when they went +into action, a strong wind blowing the snow straight into their faces; +and one of the causes of the defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden, +three months later, was another fall of snow, which was accompanied by +wind that then blew into their faces. Fortune was impartial, and made +the one storm to balance the other. + +That the American army was not destroyed soon after the Battle of Long +Island must be attributed to the foggy weather of the 29th of August, +1776. But for the successful retreat of Washington's army from Long +Island, on the night of the 29th-30th, the Declaration of Independence +would have been made waste paper in "sixty days" after its adoption; and +that retreat could not have been made, had there not been a dense fog +under cover of which to make it, and to deter the enemy from action. +Washington and his whole army would have been slain or captured, could +the British forces have had clear weather in which to operate. "The +fog which prevailed all this time," says Irving, "seemed almost +Providential. While it hung over Long Island, and concealed the +movements of the Americans, the atmosphere was clear on the New York +side of the river. The adverse wind, too, died away, the river became +so smooth that the rowboats could be laden almost to the gunwale; and a +favoring breeze sprang up for the sail-boats. The whole embarkation of +troops, ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, and carts, was happily +effected, and by daybreak the greater part had safely reached the city, +thanks to the aid of Glover's Marblehead men. Scarce anything was +abandoned to the enemy, excepting a few heavy pieces of artillery. At +a proper time, Mifflin with his covering party left the lines, and +effected a silent retreat to the ferry. Washington, though repeatedly +entreated, refused to enter a boat until all the troops were embarked, +and crossed the river with the last." Americans should ever regard a fog +with a certain reverence, for a fog saved their country in 1776. + +That Poland was not restored to national rank by Napoleon I. was in some +measure owing to the weather of the latter days of 1806. Those of the +French officers who marched through the better portions of that country +were for its restoration, but others who waded through its terrible +mud took different ground in every sense. Hence there was a serious +difference of opinion in the French councils on this vitally important +subject, which had its influence on Napoleon's mind. The severe +winter-weather of 1806-7, by preventing the Emperor from destroying the +Russians, which he was on the point of doing, was prejudicial to the +interests of Poland; for the ultimate effect was, to compel France to +treat with Russia as equal with equal, notwithstanding the crowning +victory of Friedland. This done, there was no present hope of Polish +restoration, as Alexander frankly told the French Emperor that the world +would not be large enough for them both, if he should seek to renew +Poland's rank as a nation. So far as the failure of the French in 1812 +is chargeable upon the weather, the weather must be considered as having +been again the enemy of Poland; for Napoleon would have restored that +country, had he succeeded in his Russian campaign. Such restoration +would then have been a necessity of his position. But it was not the +weather of Russia that caused the French failure of 1812. That failure +was all but complete before the invaders of Russia had experienced any +very severe weather. The two powers that conquered Napoleon were those +which General Von Knesebeck had pointed out to Alexander as sure to +be too much for him,--Space and Time. The cold, frosts, and snows of +Russia simply completed what those powers had so well begun, and so well +done. + +In the grand campaign of 1813, the weather had an extraordinary +influence on Napoleon's fortunes, the rains of Germany really doing him +far more mischief than he had experienced from the snows of Russia; and, +oddly enough, a portion of this mischief came to him through the gate +of victory. The war between the French and the Allies was renewed the +middle of August, and Napoleon purposed crushing the Army of Silesia, +under old Blcher, and marched upon it; but he was recalled by the +advance of the Grand Army of the Allies upon Dresden; for, if that city +had fallen into their hands, his communications with the Rhine would +have been lost. Returning to Dresden, he restored affairs there on the +26th of August; and on the 27th, the Battle of Dresden was fought, the +last of his great victories. It was a day of mist and rain, the mist +being thick, and the rain heavy. Under cover of the mist, Murat +surprised a portion of the Austrian infantry, and, as their muskets were +rendered unserviceable by the rain, they fell a prey to his horse, who +were assisted by infantry and artillery, more than sixteen thousand men +being killed, wounded, or captured. The left wing of the Allies was +annihilated. So far all was well for the Child of Destiny; but Nemesis +was preparing to exact her dues very swiftly. A victory can scarcely be +so called, unless it be well followed up; and whether Dresden should be +another Austerlitz depended upon what might be done during the next two +or three days. Napoleon did _not_ act with his usual energy on that +critical occasion, and in seven months he had ceased to reign. Why did +he refrain from reaping the fruits of victory? Because the weather, +which had been so favorable to his fortunes on the 27th, was quite as +unfavorable to his person. On that day he was exposed to the rain for +twelve hours, and when he returned to Dresden, at night, he was wet to +the skin, and covered with mud, while the water was streaming from his +chapeau, which the storm had knocked _out_ of a cocked hat. It was a +peculiarity of Napoleon's constitution, that he could not expose himself +to damp without bringing on a pain in the stomach; and this pain seized +him at noon on the 28th, when he had partaken of a repast at Pirna, +whither he had gone in the course of his operations against the beaten +enemy. This illness caused him to cease his personal exertions, but not +from giving such orders as the work before him required him to issue. +Perhaps it would have had no evil effect, had it not been, that, while +halting at Pirna, news came to him of two great failures of distant +armies, which led him to order the Young Guard to halt at that +place,--an order that cost him his empire. One more march in advance, +and Napoleon would have become greater than ever he had been; but +that march was not made, and so the flying foe was converted into a +victorious army. For General Vandamme, who was at the head of the chief +force of the pursuing French, pressed the Allies with energy, relying on +the support of the Emperor, whose orders he was carrying out in the best +manner. This led to the Battle of Kulm, in which Vandamme was defeated, +and his army destroyed for the time, because of the overwhelming +superiority of the enemy; whereas that action would have been one of the +completest French victories, had the Young Guard been ordered to march +from Pirna, according to the original intention. The roads were in a +most frightful state, in consequence of the wet weather; but, as a +victorious army always finds food, so it always finds roads over which +to advance to the completion of its task, unless its chief has no head. +Vandamme had a head, and thought he was winning the Marshal's staff +which Napoleon had said was awaiting him in the midst of the enemy's +retiring masses. So confident was he that the Emperor would support him, +that he would not retreat while yet it was in his power to do so; and +the consequence was that his _corps d'arme_ was torn to pieces, and +himself captured. Napoleon had the meanness to charge Vandamme with +going too far and seeking to do too much, as he supposed he was slain, +and therefore could not prove that he was simply obeying orders, as +well as acting in exact accordance with sound military principles. That +Vandamme was right is established by the fact that an order came from +Napoleon to Marshal Mortier, who commanded at Pirna, to reinforce him +with two divisions; but the order did not reach Mortier until after +Vandamme had been defeated. Marshal Saint-Cyr, who was bound to aid +Vandamme, was grossly negligent, and failed of his duty; but even he +would have acted well, had he been acting under the eye of the Emperor, +as would have been the case, had not the weather of the 27th broken down +the health of Napoleon, and had not other disasters to the French, all +caused by the same storm that had raged around Dresden, induced Napoleon +to direct his personal attention to points remote from the scene of his +last triumph.[B] + +[Footnote B: There was a story current that Napoleon's indisposition on +the 28th of August was caused by his eating heartily of a shoulder of +mutton stuffed with garlic, not the wholesomest food in the world; and +the digestive powers having been reduced by long exposure to damp, this +dish may have been too much for them. Thiers says that the Imperial +illness at Pirna was "a malady invented by flatterers," and yet only a +few pages before he says that "Napoleon proceeded to Pirna, where he +arrived about noon, and where, after having partaken of a slight repast, +he was seized with a pain in the stomach, to which he was subject after +exposure to damp." Napoleon suffered from stomach complaints from an +early period of his career, and one of their effects is greatly to +lessen the powers of the sufferer's mind. His want of energy at Borodino +was attributed to a disordered stomach, and the Russians were simply +beaten, not destroyed, on that field. When he beard of Vandamme's +defeat, Napoleon said, "One should make a bridge of gold for a flying +enemy, where it is impossible, as in Vandamme's case, to oppose to him +a bulwark of steel." He forgot that his own plan was to have opposed to +the enemy a bulwark of steel, and that the non-existence of that bulwark +on the 30th of August was owing to his own negligence. Still, the +reverse at Kulm might not have proved so terribly fatal, had it not been +preceded by the reverses on the Katzbach, which also were owing to the +heavy rains, and news of which was the cause of the halting of so large +a portion of his pursuing force at Pirna, and the march of many of his +best men back to Dresden, his intention being to attempt the restoration +of affairs in that quarter, where they had been so sadly compromised +under Macdonald's direction. He was as much overworked by the necessity +of attending to so many theatres of action as his armies were +overmatched in the field by the superior numbers of the Allies. He is +said to have repeated the following lines, after musing for a while on +the news from Kulm:-- + + "J'ai servi, command, vaincu quarante annes; + Du monde entre mes mains j'ai tu les destines, + Et j'ai toujours connu qu'en chaque vnement + Le destin des tats dpendait d'un moment." + +But he had hours, we might say days, to settle his destiny, and was not +tied down to a moment. Afterward he had the fairness to admit that he +had lost a great opportunity to regain the ascendency in not supporting +Vandamme with the whole of the Young Guard.] + +When Napoleon was called from the pursuit of Blcher by Schwarzenberg's +advance upon Dresden, he confided the command of the army that was to +act against that of Silesia to Marshal Macdonald, a brave and honest +man, but a very inferior soldier, yet who might have managed to hold his +own against so unscientific a leader as the fighting old hussar, had it +not been for the terrible rainstorm that began on the night of the 25th +of August. The swelling of the rivers, some of them deep and rapid, led +to the isolation of the French divisions, while the rain was so severe +as to prevent them from using their muskets. Animated by the most ardent +hatred, the new Prussian levies, few of whom had been in service half as +long as our volunteers, and many of whom were but mere boys, rushed upon +their enemies, butchering them with butt and bayonet, and forcing +them into the boiling torrent of the Katzbach. Puthod's division was +prevented from rejoining its comrades by the height of the waters, and +was destroyed, though one of the best bodies in the French army. The +state of the country drove the French divisions together on the same +lines of retreat, creating immense confusion, and leading to the most +serious losses of men and _matriel_. Macdonald's blunder was in +advancing after the storm began, and had lasted for a whole night. His +officers pointed out the danger of his course, but he was one of those +men who think, that, because they are not knaves, they can accomplish +everything; but the laws of Nature no more yield to honest stupidity +than to clever roguery. The Baron Von Mffling, who was present in +Blcher's army, says, that, when the French attempted to protect their +retreat at the Katzbach with artillery, the guns stuck in the mud; and +he adds,--"The field of battle was so saturated by the incessant rain, +that a great portion of our infantry left their shoes sticking in +the mud, and followed the enemy barefoot." Even a brook, called the +Deichsel, was so swollen by the rain that the French could cross it at +only one place, and there they lost wagons and guns. Old Blcher issued +a thundering proclamation for the encouragement of his troops. "In the +battle on the Katzbach," he said to them, "the enemy came to meet you +with defiance. Courageously, and with the rapidity of lightning, you +issued from behind your heights. You scorned to attack them with +musketry-fire: you advanced without a halt; your bayonets drove them +down the steep ridge of the valley of the raging Neisse and Katzbach. +Afterwards you waded through rivers and brooks swollen with rain. You +passed nights in mud. You suffered for want of provisions, as the +impassable roads and want of conveyance hindered the baggage from +following. You struggled with cold, wet, privations, and want of +clothing; nevertheless you did not murmur,--with great exertions you +pursued your routed foe. Receive my thanks for such laudable conduct. +The man alone who unites such qualities is a true soldier. One hundred +and three cannons, two hundred and fifty ammunition-wagons, the enemy's +field-hospitals, their field-forges, their flour-wagons, one general of +division, two generals of brigade, a great number of colonels, staff +and other officers, eighteen thousand prisoners, two eagles, and other +trophies, are in your hands. The terror of your arms has so seized upon +the rest of your opponents, that they will no longer bear the sight of +your bayonets. You have seen the roads and fields between the Katzbach +and the Bober: they bear the signs of the terror and confusion of your +enemy." The bluff old General, who at seventy had more "dash" than all +the rest of the leaders of the Allies combined, and who did most of the +real fighting business of "those who wished and worked" Napoleon's fall, +knew how to talk to soldiers, which is a quality not always possessed +by even eminent commanders. Soldiers love a leader who can take them to +victory, and then talk to them about it. Such a man is "one of them." + +Napoleon never recovered from the effects of the losses he experienced +at Kulm and on the Katzbach,--losses due entirely to the wetness of the +weather. He went downward from that time with terrible velocity, and was +in Elba the next spring, seven months after having been on the Elbe. The +winter campaign of 1814, of which so much is said, ought to furnish +some matter for a paper on weather in war; but the truth is, that that +campaign was conducted politically by the Allies. There was never a +time, after the first of February, when, if they had conducted the war +solely on military principles, they could not have been in Paris in a +fortnight. + +Napoleon's last campaign owed its lamentable decision to the peculiar +character of the weather on its last two days, though one would not look +for such a thing as severe weather in June, in Flanders. But so it was, +and Waterloo would have been a French victory, and Wellington where +_Henry_ was when he ran against _Eclipse_,--nowhere,--if the rain that +fell so heavily on the 17th of June had been postponed only twenty-four +hours. Up to the afternoon of the 17th, the weather, though very warm, +was dry, and the French were engaged in following their enemies. The +Anglo-Dutch infantry had retreated from Quatre-Bras, and the cavalry was +following, and was itself followed by the French cavalry, who pressed it +with great audacity. "The weather," says Captain Siborne, "during the +morning, had become oppressively hot; it was now a dead calm; not a leaf +was stirring; and the atmosphere was close to an intolerable degree; +while a dark, heavy, dense cloud impended over the combatants. The 18th +[English] Hussars were fully prepared, and awaited but the command to +charge, when the brigade guns on the right commenced firing, for the +purpose of previously disturbing and breaking the order of the enemy's +advance. The concussion seemed instantly to rebound through the still +atmosphere, and communicate, as an electric spark, with the heavily +charged mass above. A most awfully loud thunder-clap burst forth, +immediately succeeded by a rain which has never, probably, been exceeded +in violence even within the tropics. In a very few minutes the ground +became perfectly saturated,--so much so, that it was quite impracticable +for any rapid movement of the cavalry." This storm prevented the French +from pressing with due force upon their retiring foes; but that would +have been but a small evil, if the storm had not settled into a steady +and heavy rain, which converted the fat Flemish soil into a mud that +would have done discredit even to the "sacred soil" of Virginia, and the +latter has the discredit of being the nastiest earth in America. All +through the night the windows of heaven were open, as if weeping over +the spectacle of two hundred thousand men preparing to butcher each +other. Occasionally the rain fell in torrents, greatly distressing the +soldiers, who had no tents. On the morning of the 18th the rain ceased, +but the day continued cloudy, and the sun did not show himself until the +moment before setting, when for an instant he blazed forth in full glory +upon the forward movement of the Allies. One may wonder if Napoleon +then thought of that morning "Sun of Austerlitz," which he had so often +apostrophized in the days of his meridian triumphs. The evening sun of +Waterloo was the practical antithesis to the rising sun of Austerlitz. + +The Battle of Waterloo was not begun until about twelve o'clock, because +of the state of the ground, which did not admit of the action of cavalry +and artillery until several hours had been allowed for its hardening. +That inevitable delay was the occasion of the victory of the Allies; +for, if the battle had been opened at seven o'clock, the French would +have defeated Wellington's army before a Prussian regiment could have +arrived on the field. It has been said that the rain was as baneful to +the Allies as to the French, as it prevented the early arrival of the +Prussians; but the remark comes only from persons who are not familiar +with the details of the most momentous of modern pitched battles. +Blow's Prussian corps, which was the first to reach the field, marched +through Wavre in the forenoon of the 18th; but no sooner had its +advanced guard--an infantry brigade, a cavalry regiment, and one +battery--cleared that town, than a fire broke out there, which greatly +delayed the march of the remainder of the corps. There were many +ammunition-wagons in the streets, and, fearful of losing them, and of +being deprived of the means of fighting, the Prussians halted, and +turned firemen for the occasion. This not only prevented most of the +corps from arriving early on the right flank of the French, but it +prevented the advanced guard from acting, Blow being too good a soldier +to risk so small a force as that immediately at his command in an attack +on the French army. It was not until about half-past one that the +Prussians were first seen by the Emperor, and then at so great a +distance that even with glasses it was difficult to say whether the +objects looked at were men or trees. But for the bad weather, it is +possible that Blow's whole corps, supposing there had been no fire at +Wavre, might have arrived within striking distance of the French army +by two o'clock, P.M.; but by that hour the battle between Napoleon and +Wellington would have been decided, and the Prussians would have come +up only to "augment the slaughter," had the ground been hard enough for +operations at an early hour of the day. As the battle was necessarily +fought in the afternoon, because of the softness of the soil consequent +on the heavy rains of the preceding day and night, there was time gained +for the arrival of Blow's corps by four o'clock of the afternoon of the +18th. Against that corps Napoleon had to send almost twenty thousand of +his men, and sixty-six pieces of cannon, all of which might have been +employed against Wellington's army, had the battle been fought in the +forenoon. As it was, that large force never fired a shot at the English. +The other Prussian corps that reached the field toward the close of the +day, Zieten's and Pirch's, did not leave Wavre until about noon. The +coming up of the advanced guard of Zieten, but a short time before the +close of the battle, enabled Wellington to employ the fresh cavalry of +Vivian and Vandeleur at another part of his line, where they did eminent +service for him at a time which is known as "the crisis" of the day. +Taking all these facts into consideration, it must be admitted that +there never was a more important rain-storm than that which happened on +the 17th of June, 1815. Had it occurred twenty-four hours later, the +destinies of the world might, and most probably would, have been +completely changed; for Waterloo was one of those decisive battles which +dominate the ages through their results, belonging to the same class +of combats as do Marathon, Pharsalia, Lepanto, Blenheim, Yorktown, and +Trafalgar. It was decided by water, and not by fire, though the latter +was hot enough on that fatal field to satisfy the most determined lover +of courage and glory. + +If space permitted, we could bring forward many other facts to show the +influence of weather on the operations of war. We could show that it was +owing to changes of wind that the Spaniards failed to take Leyden, the +fall of which into their hands would probably have proved fatal to the +Dutch cause; that a sudden thaw prevented the French from seizing the +Hague in 1672, and compelling the Dutch to acknowledge themselves +subjects of Louis XIV.; that a change of wind enabled William of Orange +to land in England, in 1688, without fighting a battle, when even +victory might have been fatal to his purpose; that Continental +expeditions fitted out for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the +British throne were more than once ruined by the occurrence of tempests; +that the defeat of our army at Germantown was in part due to the +existence of a fog; that a severe storm prevented General Howe from +assailing the American position on Dorchester Heights, and so enabled +Washington to make that position too strong to be attacked with hope +of success, whereby Boston was freed from the enemy's presence; that a +heavy fall of rain, by rendering the River Catawba unfordable, put +a stop, for a few days, to those movements by which Lord Cornwallis +intended to destroy the army of General Morgan, and obtain compensation +for Tarleton's defeat at the Cowpens; that an autumnal tempest compelled +the same British commander to abandon a project of retreat from +Yorktown, which good military critics have thought well conceived, and +promising success; that the severity of the winter of 1813 interfered +effectively with the measures which Napoleon had formed with the view of +restoring his affairs, so sadly compromised by his failure in Russia; +that the "misty, chilly, and insalubrious" weather of Louisiana, and its +mud, had a marked effect on Sir Edward Pakenham's army, and helped us to +victory over one of the finest forces ever sent by Europe to the West; +that in 1828 the Russians lost myriads of men and horses, in the +Danubian country and its vicinity, through heavy rains and hard frosts; +that the November hurricane of 1854 all but paralyzed the allied forces +in the Crimea;--and many similar things that establish the helplessness +of men in arms when the weather is adverse to them. But enough has been +said to convince even the most skeptical that our Potomac Army did not +stand alone in being forced to stand still before the dictation of the +elements. Our armies, indeed, have suffered less from the weather than +it might reasonably have been expected they would suffer, having simply +been delayed at some points by the occurrence of winds and thaws; and +over all such obstacles they are destined ultimately to triumph, as +the Union itself will bid defiance to what Bacon calls "the waves and +weathers of time." + + * * * * * + +LINES + +WRITTEN UNDER A PORTRAIT OF THEODORE WINTHROP. + + + O Knightly soldier bravely dead! + O poet-soul too early sped! + O life so pure! O life so brief! + Our hearts are moved with deeper grief, + As, dwelling on thy gentle face, + Its twilight smile, its tender grace, + We fill the shadowy years to be + With what had been thy destiny. + And still, amid our sorrow's pain, + We feel the loss is yet our gain; + For through the death we know the life, + Its gold in thought, its steel in strife,-- + And so with reverent kiss we say + Adieu! O Bayard of our day! + + + + +HINDRANCE. + + +Much that is in itself undesirable occurs in obedience to a general law +which is not only desirable, but of infinite necessity and benefit. It +is not desirable that Topper and Macaulay should be read by tens of +thousands, and Wilkinson only by tens. It is not desirable that a +narrow, selfish, envious Cecil, who could never forgive his noblest +contemporaries for failing to be hunchbacks like himself, should steer +England all his life as it were with supreme hand, and himself sail on +the topmost tide of fortune; while the royal head of Raleigh goes to the +block, and while Bacon, with his broad and bountiful nature,--Bacon, +one of the two or three greatest and humanest statesmen ever born to +England, and one of the friendliest men toward mankind ever born into +the world,--dies in privacy and poverty, bequeathing his memory "to +foreign nations and the next ages." But it is wholly desirable that +he who would consecrate himself to excellence in art or life should +sometimes be compelled to make it very clear to himself whether it be +indeed excellence that he covets, or only plaudits and pounds sterling. +So when we find our purest wishes perpetually hindered, not only in the +world around us, but even in our own bosoms, many of the particular +facts may indeed merit reproach, but the general fact merits, on the +contrary, gratitude and gratulation. For were our best wishes not, nor +ever, hindered, sure it is that the still better wishes of destiny +in our behalf would be hindered yet worse. Sure it is, I say, that +Hindrance, both outward and inward, comes to us not through any +improvidence or defect of benignity in Nature, but in answer to our +need, and as part of the best bounty which enriches our days. And to +make this indubitably clear, let us hasten to meditate that simple and +central law which governs this matter and at the same time many others. + +And the law is, that every definite action is conditioned upon a +definite resistance, and is impossible without it. We walk in virtue of +the earth's resistance to the foot, and are unable to tread the elements +of air and water only because they are too complaisant, and deny the +foot that opposition which it requires. Precisely that, accordingly, +which makes the difficulty of an action may at the same time make its +possibility. Why is flight difficult? Because the weight of every +creature draws it toward the earth. But without this downward +proclivity, the wing of the bird would have no power upon the air. +Why is it difficult for a solid body to make rapid progress in water? +Because the water presses powerfully upon it, and at every inch of +progress must be overcome and displaced. Yet the ship is able to float +only in virtue of this same hindering pressure, and without it would not +sail, but sink. The bird and the steamer, moreover,--the one with +its wings and the other with its paddles,--apply themselves to this +hindrance to progression as their only means of making progress; so +that, were not their motion obstructed, it would be impossible. + +The law governs not actions only, but all definite effects whatsoever. +If the luminiferous ether did not resist the sun's influence, it could +not be wrought into those undulations wherein light consists; if the +air did not resist the vibrations of a resonant object, and strive +to preserve its own form, the sound-waves could not be created and +propagated: if the tympanum did not resist these waves, it would not +transmit their suggestion to the brain; if any given object does not +resist the sun's rays,--in other words, reflect them,--it will not be +visible; neither can the eye mediate between any object and the brain +save by a like opposing of rays on the part of the retina. + +These instances might be multiplied _ad libitum_, since there is +literally _no_ exception to the law. Observe, however, what the law is, +namely, that _some_ resistance is indispensable,--by no means that this +alone is so, or that all modes and kinds of resistance are of equal +service. Resistance and Affinity concur for all right effects; but it is +the former that, in some of its aspects, is much accused as a calamity +to man and a contumely to the universe; and of this, therefore, we +consider here. + +Not all kinds of resistance are alike serviceable; yet that which is +required may not always consist with pleasure, nor even with safety. Our +most customary actions are rendered possible by forces and conditions +that inflict weariness at times upon all, and cost the lives of many. +Gravitation, forcing all men against the earth's surface with an energy +measured by their weight avoirdupois, makes locomotion feasible; but by +the same attraction it may draw one into the pit, over the precipice, to +the bottom of the sea. What multitudes of lives does it yearly destroy! +Why has it never occurred to some ingenious victim of a sluggish liver +to represent Gravitation as a murderous monster revelling in blood? +Surely there are woful considerations here that might be used with the +happiest effect to enhance the sense of man's misery, and have been too +much neglected! + +Probably there are few children to whom the fancy has not occurred, How +convenient, how fine were it to weigh nothing! We smile at the little +wiseacres; we know better. How much better do we know? That ancient +lament, that ever iterated accusation of the world because it opposes a +certain hindrance to freedom, love, reason, and every excellence which +the imagination of man can portray and his heart pursue,--what is it, in +the final analysis, but a complaint that we cannot walk without weight, +and that therefore climbing _is_ climbing? + +Instead, however, of turning aside to applications, let us push forward +the central statement in the interest of applications to be made by +every reader for himself,--since he says too much who does not leave +much more unsaid. Observe, then, that objects which so utterly submit +themselves to man as to become testimonies and publications of his +inward conceptions serve even these most exacting and monarchical +purposes only by opposition to them, and, to a certain extent, in the +very measure of that opposition. The stone which the sculptor carves +becomes a fit vehicle for his thought through its resistance to his +chisel; it sustains the impress of his imagination solely through its +unwillingness to receive the same. Not chalk, not any loose and friable +material, does Phidias or Michel Angelo choose, but ivory, bronze, +basalt, marble. It is quite the same whether we seek expression or +uses. The stream must be dammed before it will drive wheels; the steam +compressed ere it will compel the piston. In fine, Potentiality combines +with Hindrance to constitute active Power. Man, in order to obtain +instrumentalities and uses, blends his will and intelligence with a +force that vigorously seeks to pursue its own separate free course; and +while this resists him, it becomes his servant. + +But why not look at this fact in its largest light? For do we not here +touch upon the probable reason why God must, as it were, be offset by +World, Spirit by Matter, Soul by Body? The Maker must needs, if it be +lawful so to speak, heap up in the balance against His own pure, eternal +freedom these numberless globes of cold, inert matter. Matter is, +indeed, movable by no fine persuasions: brutely faithful to its own law, +it cares no more for AEschylus than for the tortoise that breaks his +crown; the purpose of a cross for the sweetest saint it serves no less +willingly than any other purpose,--stiffly holding out its arms there, +about its own wooden business, neither more nor less, centred utterly +upon itself. But is it not this stolid self-centration which makes it +needful to Divinity? An infinite energy required a resisting or doggedly +indifferent material, itself _quasi_ infinite, to take the impression of +its life, and render potentiality into power. So by the encountering of +body with soul is the product, man, evolved. Philosophers and saints +have perceived that the spiritual element of man is hampered and +hindered by his physical part: have they also perceived that it is the +very collision between these which strikes out the spark of thought +and kindles the sense of law? As the tables of stone to the finger of +Jehovah on Sinai, so is the firm marble of man's material nature to the +recording soul. But even Plato, when he arrives at these provinces of +thought, begins to limp a little, and to go upon Egyptian crutches. In +the incomparable apologues of the "Phaedrus" he represents our inward +charioteer as driving toward the empyrean two steeds, of which the one +is virtuously attracted toward heaven, while the other is viciously +drawn to the earth; but he countenances the inference that the earthward +proclivity of the latter is to be accounted pure misfortune. But to the +universe there is neither fortune nor misfortune; there is only the +reaper, Destiny, and his perpetual harvest. All that occurs on a +universal scale lies in the line of a pure success. Nor can the universe +attain any success by pushing past man and leaving him aside. That +were like the prosperity of a father who should enrich himself by +disinheriting his only son. + +Principles necessary to all action must of course appear in moral +action. The moral imagination, which pioneers and produces inward +advancement, works under the same conditions with the imagination of +the artist, and must needs have somewhat to work _upon_. Man is both +sculptor and quarry,--and a great noise and dust of chiselling is there +sometimes in his bosom. If, therefore, we find in him somewhat which +does not immediately and actively sympathize with his moral nature, let +us not fancy this element equally out of sympathy with his pure destiny. +The impulsion and the resistance are alike included in the design of our +being. Hunger--to illustrate--respects food, food only. It asks leave to +be hunger neither of your conscience, your sense of personal dignity, +nor indeed of your humanity in any form; but exists by its own +permission, and pushes with brute directness toward its own ends. True, +the soul may at last so far prevail as to make itself felt even in +the stomach; and the true gentleman could as soon relish a lunch of +porcupines' quills as a dinner basely obtained, though it were of +nightingales' tongues. But this is sheer conquest on the part of +the soul, not any properly gastric inspiration at all; and it is in +furnishing opportunity for precisely such conquest that the lower nature +becomes a stairway of ascent for the soul. + +And now, if in the relations between every manly spirit and the world +around him we discover the same fact, are we not by this time prepared +to contemplate it altogether with dry eyes? What if it be true, that +in trade, in politics, in society, all tends to low levels? What if +disadvantages are to be suffered by the grocer who will not sell +adulterated food, by the politician who will not palter, by the +diplomatist who is ashamed to lie? For this means only that no one can +be honest otherwise than by a productive energy of honesty in his own +bosom. In other words,--a man reaches the true welfare of a human +soul only when his bosom is a generative centre and source of noble +principles; and therefore, in pure, wise kindness to man, the world +is so arranged that there shall be perpetual need of this access and +reinforcement of principle. Society, the State, and every institution, +grow lean the moment there is a falling off in this divine fruitfulness +of man's heart, because only in virtue of bearing such fruit is man +worthy of his name. Honor and honesty are constantly consumed _between_ +men, that they may be forever newly demanded _in_ them. + +We cannot too often remind ourselves that the aim of the universe is +a personality. As the terrestrial globe through so many patient +aeons climbed toward the production of a human body, that by this +all-comprehending, perfect symbol it might enter into final union with +Spirit, so do the uses of the world still forever ascend toward man, and +seek a continual realization of that ancient wish. When, therefore, +Time shall come to his great audit with Eternity, persons alone will be +passed to his credit. "So many wise and wealthy souls,"--that is what +the sun and his household will have come to. The use of the world is not +found in societies faultlessly mechanized; for societies are themselves +but uses and means. They are the soil in which persons grow; and I no +more undervalue them than the husbandman despises his fertile acres +because it is not earth, but the wheat that grows from it, which comes +to his table. Society is the culmination of all uses and delights; +persons, of all results. And societies answer their ends when they +afford two things: first, a need for energy of eye and heart, of noble +human vigor; and secondly, a generous appreciation of high qualities, +when these may appear. The latter is, indeed, indispensable; and +whenever noble manhood ceases to be recognized in a nation, the days of +that nation are numbered. But the need is also necessary. Society must +be a consumer of virtue, if individual souls are to be producers of it. +The law of demand and supply has its applications here also. New waters +must forever flow from the fountain-heads of our true life, if the +millwheel of the world is to continue turning; and this not because the +supernal powers so greatly cared to get corn ground, but because the +Highest would have rivers of His influence forever flowing, and would +call them men. Therefore it is that satirists who paint in high colors +the resistances, but have no perception of the law of conversion into +opposites, which is the grand trick of Nature,--these pleasant gentlemen +are themselves a part of the folly at which they mock. + +As a man among men, so is a nation among nations. Very freely I +acknowledge that any nation, by proposing to itself large and liberal +aims, plucks itself innumerable envies and hatreds from without, and +confers new power for mischief upon all blindness and savagery that +exist within it. But what does this signify? Simply that no nation can +be free longer than it nobly loves freedom; that none can be great in +its national purposes when it has ceased to be so in the hearts of its +citizens. Freedom must be perpetually won, or it must be lost; and this +because the sagacious Manager of the world will not let us off from +the disciplines that should make us men. The material of the artist is +passive, and may be either awakened from its ancient rest or suffered +to sleep on; but that marble from which the perfections of manhood and +womanhood are wrought quits the quarry to meet us, and converts us to +stone, if we do not rather transform that to life and beauty. +Hostile, predatory, it rushes upon us; and we, cutting at it in brave +self-defence, hew it above our hope into shapes of celestial and +immortal comeliness. So that angels are born, as it were, from the noble +fears of man,--from an heroic fear in man's heart that he shall fall +away from the privilege of humanity, and falsify the divine vaticination +of his soul. + +Hence follows the fine result, that in life to hold your own is to make +advance. Destiny comes to us, like the children in their play, saying, +"Hold fast all I give you"; and while we nobly detain it, the penny +changes between our palms to the wealth of cities and kingdoms. The +barge of blessing, freighted for us by unspeakable hands, comes floating +down from the head-waters of that stream whereon we also are afloat; and +to meet it we have only to wait for it, not ourselves ebbing away, but +loyally stemming the tide. It may be, as Mr. Carlyle alleges, that the +Constitution of the United States is no supreme effort of genius; but +events now passing are teaching us that every day of fidelity to the +spirit of it lends it new preciousness; and that an adherence to it, not +petty and literal, but at once large and indomitable, might almost make +it a charter of new sanctities both of law and liberty for the human +race. + + + + +THE STATESMANSHIP OF RICHELIEU. + + +Thus far, the struggles of the world have developed its statesmanship +after three leading types. + +First of these is that based on faith in some great militant principle. +Strong among statesmen of this type, in this time, stand Cavour, with +his faith in constitutional liberty,--Cobden, with his faith in freedom +of trade,--the third Napoleon, with his faith that the world moves, and +that a successful policy must keep the world's pace. + +The second style of statesmanship is seen in the reorganization of old +States to fit new times. In this the chiefs are such men as Cranmer and +Turgot. + +But there is a third class of statesmen sometimes doing more brilliant +work than either of the others. These are they who serve a State in +times of dire chaos,--in times when a nation is by no means ripe for +revolution, but only stung by desperate revolt: these are they who are +quick enough and firm enough to bind all the good forces of the State +into one cosmic force, therewith to compress or crush all chaotic +forces: these are they who throttle treason and stab rebellion,--who +fear not, when defeat must send down misery through ages, to insure +victory by using weapons of the hottest and sharpest. Theirs, then, is a +statesmanship which it may be well for the leading men of this land and +time to be looking at and thinking of, and its representative man shall +be Richelieu. + +Never, perhaps, did a nation plunge more suddenly from the height of +prosperity into the depth of misery than did France on that fourteenth +of May, 1610, when Henry IV. fell dead by the dagger of Ravaillac. +All earnest men, in a moment, saw the abyss yawning,--felt the State +sinking,--felt themselves sinking with it. And they did what, in such a +time, men always do: first all shrieked, then every man clutched at the +means of safety nearest him. Sully rode through the streets of Paris +with big tears streaming down his face,--strong men whose hearts had +been toughened and crusted in the dreadful religious wars sobbed +like children,--all the populace swarmed abroad bewildered,--many +swooned,--some went mad. This was the first phase of feeling. + +Then came a second phase yet more terrible. For now burst forth that old +whirlwind of anarchy and bigotry and selfishness and terror which Henry +had curbed during twenty years. All earnest men felt bound to protect +themselves, and seized the nearest means of defence. Sully shut himself +up in the Bastille, and sent orders to his son-in-law, the Duke of +Rohan, to bring in six thousand soldiers to protect the Protestants. +All un-earnest men, especially the great nobles, rushed to the Court, +determined, now that the only guardians of the State were a weak-minded +woman and a weak-bodied child, to dip deep into the treasury which Henry +had filled to develop the nation, and to wrench away the power which he +had built to guard the nation. + +In order to make ready for this grasp at the State treasure and power by +the nobles, the Duke of Epernon, from the corpse of the King, by +whose side he was sitting when Ravaillac struck him, strides into the +Parliament of Paris, and orders it to declare the late Queen, Mary of +Medici, Regent; and when this Parisian court, knowing full well that it +had no right to confer the regency, hesitated, he laid his hand on his +sword, and declared, that, unless they did his bidding at once, his +sword should be drawn from its scabbard. This threat did its work. +Within three hours after the King's death, the Paris Parliament, which +had no right to give it, bestowed the regency on a woman who had no +capacity to take it. + +At first things seemed to brighten a little. The Queen-Regent sent such +urgent messages to Sully that he left his stronghold of the Bastille and +went to the palace. She declared to him, before the assembled Court, +that he must govern France still. With tears she gave the young King +into his arms, telling Louis that Sully was his father's best friend, +and bidding him pray the old statesman to serve the State yet longer. + +But soon this good scene changed. Mary had a foster-sister, Leonora +Galligai, and Leonora was married to an Italian adventurer, Concini. +These seemed a poor couple, worthless and shiftless, their only stock in +trade Leonora's Italian cunning; but this stock soon came to be of +vast account, for thereby she soon managed to bind and rule the +Queen-Regent,--managed to drive Sully into retirement in less than a +year,--managed to make herself and her husband the great dispensers at +Court of place and pelf. Penniless though Concini had been, he was in a +few months able to buy the Marquisate of Ancre, which cost him nearly +half a million livres,--and, soon after, the post of First Gentleman of +the Bedchamber, and that cost him nearly a quarter of a million,--and, +soon after that, a multitude of broad estates and high offices at +immense prices. Leonora, also, was not idle, and among her many +gains was a bribe of three hundred thousand livres to screen certain +financiers under trial for fraud. + +Next came the turn of the great nobles. For ages the nobility of France +had been the worst among her many afflictions. From age to age attempts +had been made to curb them. In the fifteenth century Charles VII. had +done much to undermine their power, and Louis XI. had done much to crush +it. But strong as was the policy of Charles, and cunning as was the +policy of Louis, they had made one omission, and that omission left +France, though advanced, miserable. For these monarchs had not cut +the root of the evil. The French nobility continued practically a +serf-holding nobility. + +Despite, then, the curb put upon many old pretensions of the nobles, the +serf-owning spirit continued to spread a net-work of curses over every +arm of the French government, over every acre of the French soil, and, +worst of all, over the hearts and minds of the French people. Enterprise +was deadened; invention crippled. Honesty was nothing; honor everything. +Life was of little value. Labor was the badge of servility; laziness the +very badge and passport of gentility. The serf-owning spirit was an iron +wall between noble and not-noble,--the only unyielding wall between +France and prosperous peace. + +But the serf-owning spirit begat another evil far more terrible: it +begat a substitute for patriotism,--a substitute which crushed out +patriotism just at the very emergencies when patriotism was most needed. +For the first question which in any State emergency sprang into the mind +of a French noble was not,--How does this affect the welfare of the +nation? but,--How does this affect the position of my order? The +serf-owning spirit developed in the French aristocracy an instinct which +led them in national troubles to guard the serf-owning class first and +the nation afterward, and to acknowledge fealty to the serf-owning +interest first and to the national interest afterward. + +So it proved in that emergency at the death of Henry. Instead of +planting themselves as a firm bulwark between the State and harm, the +Duke of pernon, the Prince of Cond, the Count of Soissons, the Duke of +Guise, the Duke of Bouillon, and many others, wheedled or threatened +the Queen into granting pensions of such immense amount that the great +treasury filled by Henry and Sully with such noble sacrifices, and to +such noble ends, was soon nearly empty. + +But as soon as the treasury began to run low the nobles began a worse +work, Mary had thought to buy their loyalty; but when they had gained +such treasures, their ideas mounted higher. A saying of one among them +became their formula, and became noted:--"The day of Kings is past; now +is come the day of the Grandees." + +Every great noble now tried to grasp some strong fortress or rich city. +One fact will show the spirit of many. The Duke of pernon had served +Henry as Governor of Metz, and Metz was the most important fortified +town in France; therefore Henry, while allowing D'pernon the honor of +the Governorship, had always kept a Royal Lieutenant in the citadel, who +corresponded directly with the Ministry. But, on the very day of the +King's death, D'pernon despatched commands to his own creatures at Metz +to seize the citadel, and to hold it for him against all other orders. + +But at last even Mary had to refuse to lavish more of the national +treasure and to shred more of the national territory among these +magnates. Then came their rebellion. + +Immediately Cond and several great nobles issued a proclamation +denouncing the tyranny and extravagance of the Court,--calling on +the Catholics to rise against the Regent in behalf of their +religion,--calling on the Protestants to rise in behalf of +theirs,--summoning the whole people to rise against the waste of their +State treasure. + +It was all a glorious joke. To call on the Protestants was wondrous +impudence, for Cond had left their faith, and had persecuted them; to +call on the Catholics was not less impudent, for he had betrayed their +cause scores of times; but to call on the whole people to rise in +defence of their treasury was impudence sublime, for no man had besieged +the treasury more persistently, no man had dipped into it more deeply, +than Cond himself. + +The people saw this and would not stir. Cond could rally only a few +great nobles and their retainers, and therefore, as a last tremendous +blow at the Court, he and his followers raised the cry that the Regent +must convoke the States-General. + +Any who have read much in the history of France, and especially in the +history of the French Revolution, know, in part, how terrible this cry +was. By the Court, and by the great privileged classes of France, this +great assembly of the three estates of the realm was looked upon as the +last resort amid direst calamities. For at its summons came stalking +forth from the foul past the long train of Titanic abuses and Satanic +wrongs; then came surging up from the seething present the great hoarse +cry of the people; then loomed up, dim in the distance, vast shadowy +ideas of new truth and new right; and at the bare hint of these, all +that was proud in France trembled. + +This cry for the States-General, then, brought the Regent to terms at +once, and, instead of acting vigorously, she betook herself to her old +vicious fashion of compromising,--buying off the rebels at prices more +enormous than ever. By her treaty of Sainte-Mnehould, Cond received +half a million of livres, and his followers received payments +proportionate to the evil they had done. + +But this compromise succeeded no better than previous compromises. Even +if the nobles had wished to remain quiet, they could not. Their lordship +over a servile class made them independent of all ordinary labor and of +all care arising from labor; some exercise of mind and body they must +have; Cond soon took this needed exercise by attempting to seize the +city of Poitiers, and, when the burgesses were too strong for him, by +ravaging the neighboring country. The other nobles broke the compromise +in ways wonderfully numerous and ingenious. France was again filled with +misery. + +Dull as Regent Mary was, she now saw that she must call that dreaded +States-General, or lose not only the nobles, but the people: undecided +as she was, she soon saw that she must do it at once,--that, if she +delayed it, her great nobles would raise the cry for it, again and +again, just as often as they wished to extort office or money. +Accordingly, on the fourteenth of October, 1614, she summoned the +deputies of the three estates to Paris, and then the storm set in. + +Each of the three orders presented its "portfolio of grievances" and its +programme of reforms. It might seem, to one who has not noted closely +the spirit which serf-mastering thrusts into a man, that the nobles +would appear in the States-General not to make complaints, but to answer +complaints. So it was not. The noble order, with due form, entered +complaint that theirs was the injured order. They asked relief from +familiarities and assumptions of equality on the part of the people. +Said the Baron de Snec, "It is a great piece of insolence to pretend +to establish any sort of equality between the people and the nobility": +other nobles declared, "There is between them and us as much difference +as between master and lackey." + +To match these complaints and theories, the nobles made +demands,--demands that commoners should not be allowed to keep +fire-arms,--nor to possess dogs, unless the dogs were hamstrung,--nor to +clothe themselves like the nobles,--nor to clothe their wives like the +wives of nobles,--nor to wear velvet or satin under a penalty of five +thousand livres. And, preposterous as such claims may seem to us, they +carried them into practice. A deputy of the Third Estate having been +severely beaten by a noble, his demands for redress were treated as +absurd. One of the orators of the lower order having spoken of the +French as forming one great family in which the nobles were the elder +brothers and the commoners the younger, the nobles made a formal +complaint to the King, charging the Third Estate with insolence +insufferable. + +Next came the complaints and demands of the clergy. They insisted on +the adoption in France of the Decrees of the Council of Trent, and the +destruction of the liberties of the Gallican Church. + +But far stronger than these came the voice of the people. + +First spoke Montaigne, denouncing the grasping spirit of the nobles. +Then spoke Savaron, stinging them with sarcasm, torturing them with +rhetoric, crushing them with statements of facts. + +But chief among the speakers was the President of the Third Estate, +Robert Miron, Provost of the Merchants of Paris. His speech, though +spoken across the great abyss of time and space and thought and custom +which separates him from us, warms a true man's heart even now. With +touching fidelity he pictured the sad life of the lower orders,--their +thankless toil, their constant misery; then, with a sturdiness which +awes us, he arraigned, first, royalty for its crushing taxation,--next, +the whole upper class for its oppressions,--and then, daring death, he +thus launched into popular thought an _idea_:-- + +"It is nothing less than a miracle that the people are able to answer so +many demands. On the labor of _their_ hands depends the maintenance +of Your Majesty, of the clergy, of the nobility, of the commons. What +without _their_ exertions would be the value of the tithes and great +possessions of the Church, of the splendid estates of the nobility, +or of our own house-rents and inheritances? With their bones scarcely +skinned over, your wretched people present themselves before you, beaten +down and helpless, with the aspect rather of death itself than of living +men, imploring your succor in the name of Him who has appointed you to +reign over them,--who made you a man, that you might be merciful to +other men,--and who made you the father of your subjects, that you might +be compassionate to these your helpless children. If Your Majesty shall +not take means for that end, _I fear lest despair should teach the +sufferers that a soldier is, after all, nothing more than a peasant +bearing arms; and lest, when the vine-dresser shall have taken up his +arquebuse, he should cease to become an anvil only that he may become a +hammer."_ + +After this the Third Estate demanded the convocation of a general +assembly every ten years, a more just distribution of taxes, equality +of all before the law, the suppression of interior custom-houses, the +abolition of sundry sinecures held by nobles, the forbidding to leading +nobles of unauthorized levies of soldiery, some stipulations regarding +the working clergy and the non-residence of bishops; and in the midst of +all these demands, as a golden grain amid husks, they placed a demand +for the emancipation of the serfs. + +But these demands were sneered at. The idea of the natural equality in +rights of all men,--the idea of the personal worth of every man,--the +idea that rough-clad workers have prerogatives which can be whipped out +by no smooth-clad idlers,--these ideas were as far beyond serf-owners +of those days as they are beyond slave-owners of these days. Nothing was +done. Augustin Thierry is authority for the statement that the clergy +were willing to yield something. The nobles would yield nothing. The +different orders quarrelled until one March morning in 1615, when, on +going to their hall, they were barred out and told that the workmen were +fitting the place for a Court ball. And so the deputies separated,--to +all appearance no new work done, no new ideas enforced, no strong men +set loose. + +So it was in seeming,--so it was not in reality. Something had been +done. That assembly planted ideas in the French mind which struck more +and more deeply, and spread more and more widely, until, after a century +and a half, the Third Estate met again and refused to present petitions +kneeling,--and when king and nobles put on their hats, the commons put +on theirs,--and when that old brilliant stroke was again made, and the +hall was closed and filled with busy carpenters and upholsterers, the +deputies of the people swore that great tennis-court oath which blasted +French tyranny. + +But something great was done _immediately_; to that suffering nation a +great man was revealed. For, when the clergy pressed their requests, +they chose as their orator a young man only twenty-nine years of age, +the Bishop of Lucon, ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU. + +He spoke well. His thoughts were clear, his words pointed, his bearing +firm. He had been bred a soldier, and so had strengthened his will; +afterwards he had been made a scholar, and so had strengthened his mind. +He grappled with the problems given him in that stormy assembly with +such force that he seemed about to _do_ something; but just then came +that day of the Court ball, and Richelieu turned away like the rest. + +But men had seen him and heard him. Forget him they could not. From that +tremendous farce, then, France had gained directly one thing at least, +and that was a sight at Richelieu. + +The year after the States-General wore away in the old vile fashion. +Cond revolted again, and this time he managed to scare the Protestants +into revolt with him. The daring of the nobles was greater than ever. +They even attacked the young King's train as he journeyed to Bordeaux, +and another compromise had to be wearily built in the Treaty of Loudun. +By this Cond was again bought off,--but this time only by a bribe of +a million and a half of livres. The other nobles were also paid +enormously, and, on making a reckoning, it was found that this +compromise had cost the King four millions, and the country twenty +millions. The nation had also to give into the hands of the nobles some +of its richest cities and strongest fortresses. + +Immediately after this compromise, Cond returned to Paris, loud, +strong, jubilant, defiant, bearing himself like a king. Soon he and his +revolted again; but just at that moment Concini happened to remember +Richelieu. The young bishop was called and set at work. + +Richelieu grasped the rebellion at once. In broad daylight he seized +Cond and shut him up in the Bastille; other noble leaders he declared +guilty of treason, and degraded them; he set forth the crimes and +follies of the nobles in a manifesto which stung their cause to death in +a moment; he published his policy in a proclamation which ran through +France like fire, warming all hearts of patriots, withering all hearts +of rebels; he sent out three great armies: one northward to grasp +Picardy, one eastward to grasp Champagne, one southward to grasp Berri. +There is a man who can _do_ something! The nobles yield in a moment: +they _must_ yield. + +But, just at this moment, when a better day seemed to dawn, came an +event which threw France back into anarchy, and Richelieu out into the +world again. + +The young King, Louis XIII., was now sixteen years old. His mother the +Regent and her favorite Concini had carefully kept him down. Under their +treatment he had grown morose and seemingly stupid; but he had wit +enough to understand the policy of his mother and Concini, and strength +enough to hate them for it. + +The only human being to whom Louis showed any love was a young falconer, +Albert de Luynes,--and with De Luynes he conspired against his mother's +power and her favorite's life. On an April morning, 1617, the King and +De Luynes sent a party of chosen men to seize Concini. They met him at +the gate of the Louvre. As usual, he is bird-like in his utterance, +snake-like in his bearing. They order him to surrender; he chirps forth +his surprise,--and they blow out his brains. Louis, understanding the +noise, puts on his sword, appears on the balcony of the palace, is +saluted with hurrahs, and becomes master of his kingdom. + +Straightway measures are taken against all supposed to be attached +to the Regency. Concini's wife, the favorite Leonora, is burned as a +witch,--Regent Mary is sent to Blois,--Richelieu is banished to his +bishopric. + +And now matters went from bad to worse. King Louis was no stronger +than Regent Mary had been,--King's favorite Luynes was no better than +Regent's favorite Concini had been. The nobles rebelled against the new +rule, as they had rebelled against the old. The King went through the +same old extortions and humiliations. + +Then came also to full development yet another vast evil. As far back +as the year after Henry's assassination, the Protestants, in terror of +their enemies, now that Henry was gone and the Spaniards seemed to grow +in favor, formed themselves into a great republican league,--a State +within the State,--regularly organised in peace for political effort, +and in war for military effort,--with a Protestant clerical caste which +ruled always with pride, and often with menace. + +Against such a theocratic republic war must come sooner or later, and in +1617 the struggle began. Army was pitted against army,--Protestant Duke +of Rohan against Catholic Duke of Luynes. Meanwhile Austria and the +foreign enemies of France, Cond and the domestic enemies of France, +fished in the troubled waters, and made rich gains every day. So France +plunged into sorrows ever deeper and blacker. But in 1624, Mary +de Medici, having been reconciled to her son, urged him to recall +Richelieu. + +The dislike which Louis bore Richelieu was strong, but the dislike he +bore toward compromises had become stronger. Into his poor brain, at +last, began to gleam the truth, that a serf-mastering caste, after a +compromise, only whines more steadily and snarls more loudly,--that, at +last, compromising becomes worse than fighting. Richelieu was called and +set at work. + +Fortunately for our studies of the great statesman's policy, he left at +his death a "Political Testament" which floods with light his steadiest +aims and boldest acts. In that Testament he wrote this message:-- + + "When Your Majesty resolved to give + me entrance into your councils and a + great share of your confidence, I can declare + with truth that the Huguenots divided + the authority with Your Majesty, that + the great nobles acted not at all as subjects, + that the governors of provinces took + on themselves the airs of sovereigns, and + that the foreign alliances of France were + despised. I promised Your Majesty to + use all my industry, and all the authority + you gave me, to ruin the Huguenot party, + to abase the pride of the high nobles, + and to raise your name among foreign + nations to the place where it ought to + be." + +Such were the plans of Richelieu at the outset. Let us see how he +wrought out their fulfilment. + +First of all, he performed daring surgery and cautery about the very +heart of the Court. In a short time he had cut out from that living +centre of French power a number of unworthy ministers and favorites, and +replaced them by men, on whom he could rely. + +Then he began his vast work. His policy embraced three great objects: +First, the overthrow of the Huguenot power; secondly, the subjugation +of the great nobles; thirdly, the destruction of the undue might of +Austria. + +First, then, after some preliminary negotiations with foreign +powers,--to be studied hereafter,--he attacked the great +politico-religious party of the Huguenots. + +These held, as their great centre and stronghold, the famous seaport of +La Rochelle. He who but glances at the map shall see how strong was this +position: he shall see two islands lying just off the west coast at that +point, controlled by La Rochelle, yet affording to any foreign allies +whom the Huguenots might admit there facilities for stinging France +during centuries. The position of the Huguenots seemed impregnable. The +city was well fortressed,--garrisoned by the bravest of men,--mistress +of a noble harbor open at all times to supplies from foreign ports,--and +in that harbor rode a fleet, belonging to the city, greater than the +navy of France. + +Richelieu saw well that here was the head of the rebellion. Here, then, +he must strike it. + +Strange as it may seem, his diplomacy was so skillful that he obtained +ships to attack Protestants in La Rochelle from the two great Protestant +powers,--England and Holland. With these he was successful. He attacked +the city fleet, ruined it, and cleared the harbor. + +But now came a terrible check. Richelieu had aroused the hate of that +incarnation of all that was and Is offensive in English politics,--the +Duke of Buckingham. Scandal-mongers were wont to say that both were in +love with the Queen,--and that the Cardinal, though unsuccessful in his +suit, outwitted the Duke and sent him out of the kingdom,--and that the +Duke swore a great oath, that, if he could not enter France in one way, +he would enter in another,--and that he brought about a war, and came +himself as a commander: of this scandal believe what you will. But, be +the causes what they may, the English policy changed, and Charles I. +sent Buckingham with ninety ships to aid La Rochelle. + +But Buckingham was flippant and careless; Richelieu, careful when there +was need, and daring when there was need. Buckingham's heavy blows +were foiled by Richelieu's keen thrusts, and then, in his confusion, +Buckingham blundered so foolishly, and Richelieu profited by his +blunders so shrewdly, that the fleet returned to England without any +accomplishment of its purpose. The English were also driven from that +vexing position in the Isle of Rh. + +Having thus sent the English home, for a time at least, he led king and +nobles and armies to La Rochelle, and commenced the siege in full force. +Difficulties met him at every turn; but the worst difficulty of all was +that arising from the spirit of the nobility. + +No one could charge the nobles of France with lack of bravery. The only +charge was, that their bravery was almost sure to shun every useful +form, and to take every noxious form. The bravery which finds outlet +in duels they showed constantly; the bravery which finds outlet in +street-fights they had shown from the days when the Duke of Orleans +perished in a brawl to the days when the _"Mignons"_ of Henry III. +fought at sight every noble whose beard was not cut to suit them. The +pride fostered by lording it over serfs, in the country, and by lording +it over men who did not own serfs, in the capital, aroused bravery of +this sort and plenty of it. But that bravery which serves a great, good +cause, which must be backed by steadiness and watchfulness, was not so +plentiful. So Richelieu found that the nobles who had conducted the +siege before he took command had, through their brawling propensities +and lazy propensities, allowed the besieged to garner in the crops from +the surrounding country, and to master all the best points of attack. + +But Richelieu pressed on. First he built an immense wall and earthwork, +nine miles long, surrounding the city, and, to protect this, he raised +eleven great forts and eighteen redoubts. + +Still the harbor was open, and into this the English fleet might return +and succor the city at any time. His plan was soon made. In the midst of +that great harbor of La Rochelle he sank sixty hulks of vessels filled +with stone; then, across the harbor,--nearly a mile wide, and, in +places, more than eight hundred feet deep,--he began building over these +sunken ships a great dike and wall,--thoroughly fortified, carefully +engineered, faced with sloping layers of hewn stone. His own men scolded +at the magnitude of the work,--the men in La Rochelle laughed at +it. Worse than that, the Ocean sometimes laughed and scolded at it. +Sometimes the waves sweeping in from that fierce Bay of Biscay destroyed +in an hour the work of a week. The carelessness of a subordinate once +destroyed in a moment the work of three months. + +Yet it is but fair to admit that there was one storm which did not beat +against Richelieu's dike. There set in against it no storm of hypocrisy +from neighboring nations. Keen works for and against Richelieu were put +forth in his day,--works calm and strong for and against him have been +issuing from the presses of France and England and Germany ever since; +but not one of the old school of keen writers or of the new school of +calm writers is known to have ever hinted that this complete sealing of +the only entrance to a leading European harbor was unjust to the world +at large or unfair to the besieged themselves. + +But all other obstacles Richelieu had to break through or cut through +constantly. He was his own engineer, general, admiral, prime-minister. +While he urged on the army to work upon the dike, he organized a French +navy, and in due time brought it around to that coast and anchored it so +as to guard the dike and to be guarded by it. + +Yet, daring as all this work was, it was but the smallest part of his +work. Richelieu found that his officers were cheating his soldiers +in their pay and disheartening them; in face of the enemy he had to +reorganize the army and to create a new military system. He made the +army twice as effective and supported it at two-thirds less cost than +before. It was his boast in his "Testament," that, from a mob, the +army became "like a well-ordered convent." He found also that his +subordinates were plundering the surrounding country, and thus rendering +it disaffected; he at once ordered that what had been taken should be +paid for, and that persons trespassing thereafter should be severely +punished. He found also the great nobles who commanded in the army +half-hearted and almost traitorous from sympathy with those of their own +caste on the other side of the walls of La Rochelle, and from their fear +of his increased power, should he gain a victory. It was their common +saying, that they were fools to help him do it. But he saw the true +point at once--He placed in the most responsible positions of his army +men who felt for his cause, whose hearts and souls were in it,--men not +of the Dalgetty stamp, but of the Cromwell stamp. He found also, as he +afterward said, that he had to conquer not only the Kings of England and +Spain, but also the King of France. At the most critical moment of the +siege Louis deserted him,--went back to Paris,--allowed courtiers to +fill him with suspicions. Not only Richelieu's place, but his life, +was in danger, and he well knew it; yet he never left his dike and +siege-works, but wrought on steadily until they were done; and then the +King, of his own will, in very shame, broke away from his courtiers, and +went back to his master. + +And now a Royal Herald summoned the people of La Rochelle to surrender. +But they were not yet half conquered. Even when they had seen two +English fleets, sent to aid them, driven back from Richelieu's dike, +they still held out manfully. The Duchess of Rohan, the Mayor Guiton, +and the Minister Salbert, by noble sacrifices and burning words, kept +the will of the besieged firm as steel. They were reduced to feed on +their horses,--then on bits of filthy shell-fish,--then on stewed +leather. They died in multitudes. + +Guiton the Mayor kept a dagger on the city council-table to stab any man +who should speak of surrender; some who spoke of yielding he ordered +to execution as seditious. When a friend showed him a person dying of +hunger, be said, "Does that astonish you? Both you and I must come to +that." When another told him that multitudes were perishing, he said, +"Provided one remains to hold the city-gate, I ask nothing more." + +But at last even Guiton had to yield. After the siege had lasted more +than a year, after five thousand were found remaining out of fifteen +thousand, after a mother had been seen to feed her child with her own +blood, the Cardinal's policy became too strong for him. The people +yielded, and Richelieu entered the city as master. + +And now the victorious statesman showed a greatness of soul to which all +the rest of his life was as nothing. He was a Catholic cardinal,--the +Rochellois were Protestants; he was a stern ruler,--they were +rebellious subjects who had long worried and almost impoverished +him;--all Europe, therefore, looked for a retribution more terrible than +any in history. + +Richelieu allowed nothing of the sort. He destroyed the old franchises +of the city, for they were incompatible with that royal authority +which he so earnestly strove to build. But this was all. He took no +vengeance,--he allowed the Protestants to worship as before,--he took +many of them into the public service,--and to Guiton he showed marks of +respect. He stretched forth that strong arm of his over the city, and +warded off all harm. He kept back greedy soldiers from pillage,--he kept +back bigot priests from persecution. Years before this he had said, "The +diversity of religions may indeed create a division in the other world, +but not in this"; at another time he wrote, "Violent remedies only +aggravate spiritual diseases." And he was now so tested, that these +expressions were found to embody not merely an idea, but a belief. For, +when the Protestants in La Rochelle, though thug owing tolerance +and even existence to a Catholic, vexed Catholics in a spirit most +intolerant, even that could not force him to abridge the religious +liberties he had given. + +He saw beyond his time,--not only beyond Catholics, but beyond +Protestants. Two years after that great example of toleration in La +Rochelle, Nicholas Antoine w as executed for apostasy from Calvinism at +Geneva. And for his leniency Richelieu received the titles of Pope of +the Protestants and Patriarch of the Atheists. But he had gained the +first great object of his policy, and he would not abuse it: he had +crushed the political power of the Huguenots forever. + +Let us turn now to the second great object of his policy. He must break +the power of the nobility: on that condition alone could France have +strength and order, and here he showed his daring at the outset. "It is +iniquitous," he was wont to tell the King, "to try to make an example by +punishing the lesser offenders: they are but trees which cast no shade: +it is the great nobles who must be disciplined." + +It was not long before he had to begin this work,--and with +the highest,--with no less a personage than Gaston, Duke of +Orleans,--favorite son of Mary,--brother of the King. He who thinks +shall come to a higher idea of Richelieu's boldness, when he remembers +that for many years after this Louis was childless and sickly, and +that during all those years Richelieu might awake any morning to find +Gaston--King. + +In 1626, Gaston, with the Duke of Vendme, half-brother of the King, the +Duchess of Chevreuse, confidential friend of the Queen, the Count +of Soissons, the Count of Chalais, and the Marshal Ornano, formed a +conspiracy after the old fashion. Richelieu had his hand at their lofty +throats in a moment. Gaston, who was used only as a makeweight, he +forced into the most humble apologies and the most binding pledges; +Ornano he sent to die in the Bastille; the Duke of Vendme and the +Duchess of Chevreuse he banished; Chalais he sent to the scaffold. + +The next year he gave the grandees another lesson. The serf-owning +spirit had fostered in France, through many years, a rage for duelling. +Richelieu determined that this should stop. He gave notice that the law +against duelling was revived, and that he would enforce it. It was +soon broken by two of the loftiest nobles in France,--by the Count of +Bouteville-Montmorency and the Count des Chapelles. They laughed at the +law: they fought defiantly in broad daylight. Nobody dreamed that the +law would be carried out against _them_. The Cardinal would, they +thought, deal with them as rulers have dealt with serf-mastering +law-breakers from those days to these,--invent some quibble and screen +them with it. But his method was sharper and shorter. He seized both, +and executed both on the Place de Greve,--the place of execution for the +vilest malefactors. + +No doubt, that, under the present domineering of the pettifogger caste, +there are hosts of men whose minds run in such small old grooves that +they hold legal forms not a means, but an end: these will cry out +against this proceeding as tyrannical. No doubt, too, that, under the +present palaver of the "sensationist" caste, the old ladies of both +sexes have come to regard crime as mere misfortune: these will lament +this proceeding as cruel. But, for this act, if for no other, an earnest +man's heart ought in these times to warm toward the great statesman. The +man had a spine. To his mind crime was cot mere misfortune: crime was +CRIME. Crime was strong; it would pay him well to screen it; it might +cost him dear to fight it. But he was not a modern "smart" lawyer, to +seek popularity by screening criminals,--nor a modern soft juryman, +to suffer his eyes to be blinded by quirks and quibbles to the great +purposes of law,--nor a modern bland governor, who lets a murderer loose +out of politeness to the murderer's mistress. He hated crime; he whipped +the criminal; no petty forms and no petty men of forms could stand +between him and a rascal. He had the sense to see that this course was +not cruel, but merciful. See that for yourselves. In the eighteen years +before Richelieu's administration, four thousand men perished in duels; +in the ten years after Richelieu's death, nearly a thousand thus +perished; but during his whole administration, duelling was checked +completely. Which policy was tyrannical? which policy was cruel? + +The hatred of the serf-mastering caste toward their new ruler grew +blacker and blacker; but he never flinched. The two brothers Marillac, +proud of birth, high in office, endeavored to stir revolt as in their +good days of old. The first, who was Keeper of the Seals, Richelieu +threw into prison; with the second, who was a Marshal of France, +Richelieu took another course. For this Marshal had added to revolt +things more vile and more insidiously hurtful: he had defrauded the +Government in army-contracts. Richelieu tore him from his army and +put him on trial. The Queen-Mother, whose pet he was, insisted on his +liberation. Marillac himself blubbered, that it "was all about a little +straw and hay, a matter for which a master would not whip a lackey." +Marshal Marillac was executed. So, when statesmen rule, fare all who +take advantage of the agonies of a nation to pilfer a nation's treasure. + +To crown all, the Queen-Mother began now to plot against Richelieu, +because he would not be her puppet,--and he banished her from France +forever. + +The high nobles were now exasperate. Gaston tied the country, first +issuing against Richelieu a threatening manifesto. Now awoke the Duke +of Montmorency. By birth he stood next the King's family: by office, as +Constable of France, he stood next the King himself. Montmorency was +defeated and taken. The nobles supplicated for him lustily: they looked +on crimes of nobles resulting in deaths of plebeians as lightly as the +English House of Lords afterward looked on Lord Mohun's murder of Will +Mountfort, or as another body of lords looked on Matt Ward's murder of +Professor Butler: but Montmorency was executed. Says Richelieu, in his +Memoirs, "Many murmured at this act, and called it severe; but others, +more wise, praised the justice of the King, _who preferred the good of +the State to the vain reputation of a hurtful clemency._" + +Nor did the great minister grow indolent as he grew old. The Duke of +Epernon, who seems to have had more direct power of the old feudal sort +than any other man in France, and who had been so turbulent under the +Regency,--him Richelieu humbled completely. The Duke of La Valette +disobeyed orders in the army, and he was executed as a common soldier +would have been for the same offence. The Count of Soissons tried to see +if he could not revive the good old turbulent times, and raised a rebel +army; but Richelieu hunted him down like a wild beast. Then certain +Court nobles,--pets of the King,--Cinq-Mars and De Thou, wove a new +plot, and, to strengthen it, made a secret treaty with Spain; but the +Cardinal, though dying, obtained a copy of the treaty, through his +agent, and the traitors expiated their treason with their blood. + +But this was not all. The Parliament of Paris,--a court of +justice,--filled with the idea that law is not a means, but an end, +tried to interpose _forms_ between the Master of France and the vermin +he was exterminating. That Parisian court might, years before, have done +something. They might have insisted that petty quibbles set forth by the +lawyers of Paris should not defeat the eternal laws of retribution set +forth by the Lawgiver of the Universe. That they had not done, and the +time for legal forms had gone by. The Paris Parliament would not see +this, and Richelieu crushed the Parliament. Then the Court of Aids +refused to grant supplies, and he crushed that court. In all this the +nation braced him. Woe to the courts of a nation, when they have forced +the great body of plain men to regard legality as injustice!--woe to the +councils of a nation, when they have forced the great body of plain men +to regard legislation as traffic!--woe, thrice repeated, to gentlemen of +the small pettifogger sort, when they have brought such times, and God +has brought a man to fit them! + +There was now in France no man who could stand against the statesman's +purpose. + +And so, having hewn, through all that anarchy and bigotry and +selfishness, a way for the people, he called them to the work. In 1626 +he summoned an assembly to carry out reforms. It was essentially a +people's assembly. That anarchical States-General, domineered by great +nobles, he would not call; but he called an Assembly of Notables. In +this was not one prince or duke, and two-thirds of the members came +directly from the people. Into this body he thrust some of his own +energy. Measures were taken for the creation of a navy. An idea was now +carried into effect which many suppose to have sprung from the French +Revolution; for the army was made more effective by opening its high +grades to the commons.[A] A reform was also made in taxation, and shrewd +measures were taken to spread commerce and industry by calling the +nobility into them. + +[Footnote A: See the ordonnances in Thierry, Histoire du Tiers Etat.] + +Thus did France, under his guidance, secure order and progress. Calmly +he destroyed all useless feudal castles which had so long overawed the +people and defied the monarchy. He abolished also the military titles of +Grand Admiral and High Constable, which had hitherto given the army +and navy into the hands of leading noble families. He destroyed some +troublesome remnants of feudal courts, and created royal courts: in one +year that of Poitiers alone punished for exactions and violence against +the people more than two hundred nobles. Greatest step of all, he +deposed the hereditary noble governors, and placed in their stead +governors taken from the people,--_Intendants,_--responsible to the +central authority alone.[B] + +[Footnote B: For the best sketch of this see Caillet, _L'Administration +sous Richelieu._] + +We are brought now to the _third_ great object of Richelieu's policy. +He saw from the beginning that Austria and her satellite Spain must be +humbled, if France was to take her rightful place in Europe. + +Hardly, then, had he entered the council, when he negotiated a marriage +of the King's sister with the son of James I. of England; next he signed +an alliance with Holland; next he sent ten thousand soldiers to drive +the troops of the Pope and Spain out of the Valtelline district of the +Alps, and thus secured an alliance with the Swiss. We are to note here +the fact which Buckle wields so well, that, though Richelieu was a +Cardinal of the Roman Church, all these alliances were with Protestant +powers against Catholic.[C] Austria and Spain intrigued against +him,--sowing money in the mountain-districts of South France which +brought forth those crops of armed men who defended La Rochelle. But he +beat them at their own game. He set loose Count Mansfyld, who revived +the Thirty Tears' War by raising a rebellion in Bohemia; and when one +great man, Wallenstein, stood between Austria and ruin, Richelieu sent +his monkish diplomatist, Father Joseph, to the German Assembly of +Electors, and persuaded them to dismiss Wallenstein and to disgrace him. + +[Footnote C: History of Civilisation in England, Vol. I. Chap. VIII.] + +But the great Frenchman's master-stroke was his treaty with Gustavus +Adolphus. With that keen glance of his, he saw and knew Gustavus while +yet the world knew him not,--while he was battling afar off in the wilds +of Poland. Richelieu's plan was formed at once. He brought about a +treaty between Gustavus and Poland; then he filled Gustavus's mind with +pictures of the wrongs inflicted by Austria on German Protestants, +hinted to him probably of a new realm, filled his treasury, and finally +hurled against Austria the man who destroyed Tilly, who conquered +Wallenstein, who annihilated Austrian supremacy at the Battle of Lizen, +who, though in his grave, wrenched Protestant rights from Austria at the +Treaty of Westphalia, who pierced the Austrian monarchy with the most +terrible sorrows it ever saw before the time of Napoleon. + +To the main objects of Richelieu's policy already given might be added +two subordinate objects. + +The first of these was a healthful extension of French territory. In +this Richelieu planned better than the first Napoleon; for, while he did +much to carry France out to her natural boundaries, he kept her always +within them. On the South he added Roussillon, on the East, Alsace, on +the Northeast, Artois. + +The second subordinate object of his policy sometimes flashed forth +brilliantly. He was determined that England should never again interfere +on French soil. We have seen him driving the English from La Rochelle +and from the Isle of Rh; but he went farther. In 1628, on making some +proposals to England, he was repulsed with English haughtiness. +"They shall know," said the Cardinal, "that they cannot despise me." +Straightway one sees protests and revolts of the Presbyterians of +Scotland, and Richelieu's agents in the thickest of them. + +And now what was Richelieu's statesmanship in its sum? + +I. In the Political Progress of France, his work has already been +sketched as building monarchy and breaking anarchy. + +Therefore have men said that he swept away old French liberties. What +old liberties? Richelieu but tore away the decaying, poisonous husks +and rinds which hindered French liberties from their chance at life and +growth. + +Therefore, also, have men said that Richelieu built up absolutism. The +charge is true and welcome. For, evidently, absolutism was the only +force, in that age, which could destroy the serf-mastering caste. Many a +Polish patriot, as he to-day wanders through the Polish villages, groans +that absolutism was not built to crush that serf-owning aristocracy +which has been the real architect of Poland's ruin. Any one who reads to +much purpose in De Mably, or Guizot, or Henri Martin, knows that this +part of Richelieu's statesmanship was but a masterful continuation of +all great French statesmanship since the twelfth-century league of king +and commons against nobles, and that Richelieu stood in the heirship of +all great French statesmen since Suger. That part of Richelieu's work, +then, was evidently bedded in the great line of Divine Purpose running +through that age and through all ages. + +II. In the _Internal Development of France_, Richelieu proved himself a +true builder. The founding of the French Academy and of the Jardin des +Plantes, the building of the College of Plessis, and the rebuilding of +the College of the Sorbonne, are among the monuments of this part of his +statesmanship. His, also, is much of that praise usually lavished on +Louis XIV. for the career opened in the seventeenth century to science, +literature, and art. He was also a reformer, and his zeal was proved, +when, in the fiercest of the La Rochelle struggle, he found time to +institute great reforms not only in the army and navy, but even in the +monasteries. + +III. On the _General Progress of Europe_, his work must be judged as +mainly for good. Austria was the chief barrier to European progress, and +that barrier he broke. But a far greater impulse to the general progress +of Europe was given by the idea of Toleration which he thrust into the +methods of European statesmen. He, first of all statesmen in France, +saw, that, in French policy, to use his own words, "A Protestant +Frenchman is better than a Catholic Spaniard"; and he, first of all +statesmen in Europe, saw, that, in European policy, patriotism, must +outweigh bigotry. + +IV. His _Faults in Method_ were many. His under-estimate of the +sacredness of human life was one; but that was the fault of his age. +His frequent working by intrigue was another; but that also was a vile +method accepted by his age. The fair questions, then, are,--Did he not +commit the fewest and smallest wrongs possible in beating back those +many and great wrongs? Wrong has often a quick, spasmodic force; but was +there not in _his_ arm a steady growing force, which could only be a +force of right? + +V. His _Faults in Policy_ crystallized about one: for, while he subdued +the serf-mastering nobility, he struck no final blow at the serf-system +itself. + +Our running readers of French history need here a word of caution. They +follow De Tocqueville, and De Tocqueville follows Biot in speaking of +the serf-system as abolished in most of France hundreds of years before +this. But Biot and De Tocqueville take for granted a knowledge in their +readers that the essential vileness of the system, and even many of its +most shocking outward features, remained. + +Richelieu might have crushed the serf-system, really, as easily as Louis +X. and Philip the Long had crushed it nominally. This Richelieu did not. + +And the consequences of this great man's great fault were terrible. +Hardly was he in his grave, when the nobles perverted the effort of +the Paris Parliament for advance in liberty, and took the lead in the +fearful revolts and massacres of the Fronde. Then came Richelieu's +pupil, Mazarin, who tricked the nobles into order, and Mazarin's pupil, +Louis XIV., who bribed them into order. But a nobility borne on high by +the labor of a servile class must despise labor; so there came those +weary years of indolent gambling and debauchery and "serf-eating" at +Versailles. + +Then came Louis XV., who was too feeble to maintain even the poor decent +restraints imposed by Louis XIV.; so the serf-mastering caste became +active in a new way, and their leaders in vileness unutterable became at +last Fronsac and De Sade. + +Then came "the deluge." The spirit of the serf-mastering caste, as left +by Richelieu, was a main cause of the miseries which brought on the +French Revolution. When the Third Estate brought up their "portfolio of +grievances," for one complaint against the exactions of the monarchy +there were fifty complaints against the exactions of the nobility.[D] + +[Footnote D: See any _Rsum des Cahiers_,--even the meagre ones in +Buchez and Roux, or Le Bas, or Chruel.] + +Then came the failure of the Revolution in its direct purpose; and of +this failure the serf-mastering caste was a main cause. For this caste, +hardened by ages of domineering over a servile class, despite fourth of +August renunciations, would not, could not, accept a position compatible +with freedom and order: so earnest men were maddened, and sought to tear +out this cancerous mass, with all its burning roots. + +But for Richelieu's great fault there is an excuse. His mind was +saturated with ideas of the impossibility of inducing freed peasants to +work,--the impossibility of making them citizens,--the impossibility, in +short, of making them _men_. To his view was not unrolled the rich newer +world-history, to show that a working class is most dangerous when +restricted,--that oppression is more dangerous to the oppressor than to +the oppressed,--that, if man will hew out paths to liberty, God will +hew out paths to prosperity. But Richelieu's fault teaches the world not +less than his virtues. + +At last, on the third of December, 1642, the great statesman lay upon +his death-bed. The death-hour is a great revealer of motives, and as +with weaker men, so with Richelieu. Light then shot over the secret of +his whole life's plan and work. + +He was told that he must die: he received the words with calmness. As +the Host, which he believed the veritable body of the Crucified, was +brought him, he said, "Behold my Judge before whom I must shortly +appear! I pray Him to condemn me, if I have ever had any other motive +than the cause of religion and my country." The confessor asked him if +he pardoned his enemies: he answered, "I have none but those of the +State." + +So passed from earth this strong man. Keen he was in sight, steady in +aim, strong in act. A true man,--not "non-committal," but wedded to a +great policy in the sight of all men: seen by earnest men of all times +to have marshalled against riot and bigotry and unreason divine forces +and purposes; seen by earnest men of these times to have taught the true +method of grasping desperate revolt, and of strangling that worst foe of +liberty and order in every age,--a serf-owning aristocracy. + + + + +UNDER THE SNOW. + + +The spring had tripped and lost her flowers, + The summer sauntered through the glades, +The wounded feet of autumn hours + Left ruddy footprints on the blades. + +And all the glories of the woods + Had flung their shadowy silence down,-- +When, wilder than the storm it broods, + She fled before the winter's frown. + +For _her_ sweet spring had lost its flowers, + She fell, and passion's tongues of flame +Ran reddening through the blushing bowers, + Now haggard as her naked shame. + +One secret thought her soul had screened, + When prying matrons sought her wrong, +And Blame stalked on, a mouthing fiend, + And mocked her as she fled along. + +And now she bore its weight aloof, + To hide it where one ghastly birch +Held up the rafters of the roof, + And grim old pine-trees formed a church. + +'Twas there her spring-time vows were sworn, + And there upon its frozen sod, +While wintry midnight reigned forlorn, + She knelt, and held her hands to God. + +The cautious creatures of the air + Looked out from many a secret place, +To see the embers of despair + Flush the gray ashes of her face. + +And where the last week's snow had caught + The gray beard of a cypress limb, +She heard the music of a thought + More sweet than her own childhood's hymn. + +For rising in that cadence low, + With "Now I lay me down to sleep," +Her mother rocked her to and fro, + And prayed the Lord her soul to keep. + +And still her prayer was humbly raised, + Held up in two cold hands to God, +That, white as some old pine-tree blazed, + Gleamed far o'er that dark frozen sod. + +The storm stole out beyond the wood, + She grew the vision of a cloud, +Her dark hair was a misty hood, + Her stark face shone as from a shroud. + +Still sped the wild storm's rustling feet + To martial music of the pines, +And to her cold heart's muffled beat + Wheeled grandly into solemn lines. + +And still, as if her secret's woe + No mortal words had ever found, +This dying sinner draped in snow + Held up her prayer without a sound. + +But when the holy angel bands + Saw this lone vigil, lowly kept, +They gathered from her frozen hands + The prayer thus folded, and they wept. + +Some snow-flakes--wiser than the rest-- + Soon faltered o'er a thing of clay, +First read this secret of her breast, + Then gently robed her where she lay. + +The dead dark hair, made white with snow, + A still stark face, two folded palms, +And (mothers, breathe her secret low!) + An unborn infant--asking alms. + +God kept her counsel; cold and mute + His steadfast mourners closed her eyes, +Her head-stone was an old tree's root, + Be mine to utter,--"Here she lies." + + + + +SLAVERY, IN ITS PRINCIPLES, DEVELOPMENT, AND EXPEDIENTS. + + +Within the memory of men still in the vigor of life, American Slavery +was considered by a vast majority of the North, and by a large minority +of the South, as an evil which should, at best, be tolerated, and not +a good which deserved to be extended and protected. A kind of +lazy acquiescence in it as a local matter, to be managed by local +legislation, was the feeling of the Free States. In both the Slave and +the Free States, the discussion of the essential principles on which +Slavery rests was confined to a few disappointed Nullifiers and a few +uncompromising Abolitionists, and we can recollect the time when Calhoun +and Garrison were both classed by practical statesmen of the South and +North in one category of pestilent "abstractionists." Negro Slavery +was considered simply as a fact; and general irritation among most +politicians of all sections was sure to follow any attempt to explore +the principles on which the fact reposed. That these principles had the +mischievous vitality which events have proved them to possess, few of +our wisest statesmen then dreamed, and we have drifted by degrees into +the present war without any clear perception of its animating causes. + +The future historian will trace the steps by which the subject of +Slavery was forced on the reluctant attention of the citizens of the +Free States, so that at last the most cautious conservative could not +ignore its intrusive presence, could not banish its reality from his +eyes, or its image from his mind. He will show why Slavery, disdaining +its old argument from expediency, challenged discussion on its +principles. He will explain the process by which it became discontented +with toleration within its old limits, and demanded the championship +or connivance of the National Government in a plan for its limitless +extension. He will indicate the means by which it corrupted the Southern +heart and Southern brain, so that at last the elemental principles of +morals and religion were boldly denied, and the people came to "believe +a lie." He will, not unnaturally, indulge in a little sarcasm, when +he comes to consider the occupation of Southern professors of ethics, +compelled by their position to scoff at the "rights" of man, and +Southern professors of theology, compelled by their position to teach +that Christ came into the world, not so much to save sinners, as to +enslave negroes. He will be forced to class these among the meanest +and most abject slaves that the planters owned. In treating of the +subserviency of the North, he will be constrained to write many a page +which will flush the cheeks of our descendants with indignation and +shame. He will show the method by which Slavery, after vitiating the +conscience and intelligence of the South, contrived to vitiate in part, +and for a time, the conscience and intelligence of the North. It will +be his ungrateful task to point to many instances of compliance and +concession on the part of able Northern statesmen which will deeply +affect their fame with posterity, though he will doubtless refuse to +adopt to the full the contemporary clamor against their motives. He will +understand, better than we, the amount of patriotism which entered +into their "concessions," and the amount of fraternal good-will which +prompted their fatal "compromises." But he will also declare that the +object of the Slave Power was not attained. Vacillating statesmen and +corrupt politicians it might address, the first through their fears, +the second through their interests; but the intrepid and incorruptible +"people" were but superficially affected. A few elections were gained, +but the victories were barren of results. From political defeat the free +people of the North came forth more earnest and more united than ever. + +The insolent pretensions of the Slavocracy were repudiated; its +political and ethical maxims were disowned; and after having stirred the +noblest impulses of the human heart by the spectacle of its tyranny, its +attempt to extend that tyranny only roused an insurrection of the human +understanding against the impudence of its logic. The historian can then +only say, that the Slave Power "seceded," being determined to form a +part of no government which it could not control. The present war is to +decide whether its real force corresponds to the political force it has +exerted heretofore in our affairs. + +That this war has been forced upon the Free States by the "aggressions" +of the Slave Power is so plain that no argument is necessary to sustain +the proposition. It is not so universally understood that the Slave +Power is aggressive by the necessities of the wretched system of labor +on which its existence is based. By a short exposition of the principles +of Slavery, and the expedients it has practised during the last twenty +or thirty years, we think that this proposition can be established. + +And first it must be always borne in mind, that Slavery, as a system, +is based on the most audacious, inhuman, and self-evident of lies,--the +assertion, namely, that property can be held in men. Property applies to +things. There is a meta-physical impossibility implied in the attempt to +extend its application to persons. It is possible, we admit, to ordain +by local law that four and four make ten, but such an exercise of +legislative wisdom could not overcome certain arithmetical prejudices +innate in our minds, or dethrone the stubborn eight from its accustomed +position in our thoughts. But you might as well ordain that four and +four make ten as ordain that a man has no right to himself, but can +properly be held as the chattel of another. Yet this arrogant falsehood +of property in men has been organized into a colossal institution. The +South calls it a "peculiar" institution; and herein perhaps consists +its peculiarity, that it is an absurdity which has lied itself into a +substantial form, and now argues its right to exist from the fact of its +existence. Doubtless, the fact that a thing exists proves that it has +its roots in human nature; but before we accept this as decisive of +its right to exist, it may be well to explore those qualities in human +nature, "peculiar" and perverse as itself, from which it derives +its poisonous vitality and strength. It is plain, we think, that an +institution embodying an essential falsity, which equally affronts the +common sense and the moral sense of mankind, and which, as respects +chronology, was as repugnant to the instincts of Homer as it is to the +instincts of Whittier, must have sprung from the unblessed union of +wilfulness and avarice, of avarice which knows no conscience, and of +wilfulness that tramples on reason; and the marks of this parentage, +the signs of these its boasted roots in human nature, are, we are +constrained to concede, visible in every stage of its growth, in every +argument for its existence, in every motive for its extension. + +It is not, perhaps, surprising that some of the advocates of Slavery do +not relish the analysis which reveals the origin of their institution +in those dispositions which connect man with the tiger and the wolf. +Accordingly they discourage, with true democratic humility, all +genealogical inquiries into the ancestry of their system, substitute +generalization for analysis, and, twisting the maxims of religion into +a philosophy of servitude, bear down all arguments with the sounding +proposition, that Slavery is included in the plan of God's providence, +and therefore cannot be wrong. Certain thinkers of our day have asserted +the universality of the religious element in human nature: and it must +be admitted that men become very pious when their minds are illuminated +by the discernment of a Providential sanction for their darling sins, +and by the discovery that God is on the side of their interests and +passions. Napoleon's religious perceptions were somewhat obtuse, as +tried by the standards of the Church, yet nothing could exceed the depth +of his belief that God "was with the heaviest column"; and the most +obdurate jobber in human flesh may well glow with apostolic fervor, as, +from the height of philosophic contemplation to which this principle +lifts him, he discerns the sublime import of his Providential mission. +It is true, he is now willing to concede, that a man's right to himself, +being given by God, can only by God be taken away. "But," he exultingly +exclaims, "it _has_ been taken away by God. The negro, having always +been a slave, must have been so by divine appointment; and I, the mark +of obloquy to a few fanatical enthusiasts, am really an humble agent in +carrying out the designs of a higher law even than that of the State, of +a higher will even than my own." This mode of baptizing man's sin and +calling it God's providence has not altogether lacked the aid of certain +Southern clergymen, who ostentatiously profess to preach Christ and Him +crucified, and by such arguments, we may fear, crucified _by them_. +Here is Slavery's abhorred riot of vices and crimes, from whose +soul-sickening details the human imagination shrinks aghast,--and over +all, to complete the picture, these theologians bring in the seraphic +countenance of the Saviour of mankind, smiling celestial approval of the +multitudinous miseries and infamies it serenely beholds! + +It may be presumptuous to proffer counsel to such authorized expositors +of religion, but one can hardly help insinuating the humble suggestion, +that it would be as well, if they must give up the principles of +liberty, not to throw Christianity in. We may be permitted to doubt the +theory of Providence which teaches that a man never so much serves God +as when he serves the Devil. Doubtless, Slavery, though opposed to God's +laws, is included in the plan of God's providence, but, in the long run, +the providence most terribly confirms the laws. The stream of events, +having its fountains in iniquity, has its end in retribution. It is +because God's laws are immutable that God's providence can be _foreseen_ +as well as seen. The mere fact that a thing exists, and persists in +existing, is of little importance in determining its right to exist, +or its eventual destiny. These must be found in an inspection of the +principles by which it exists; and from the nature of its principles, +we can predict its future history. The confidence of bad men and the +despair of good men proceed equally from a too fixed attention to the +facts and events before their eyes, to the exclusion of the principles +which underlie and animate them; for no insight of principles, and of +the moral laws which govern human events, could ever cause tyrants to +exult or philanthropists to despond. + +If we go farther into this question, we shall commonly find that the +facts and events to which we give the name of Providence are the acts +of human wills divinely overruled. There is iniquity and wrong in these +facts and events, because they are the work of free human wills. But +when these free human wills organize falsehood, institute injustice, and +establish oppression, they have passed into that mental state where +will has been perverted into wilfulness, and self-direction has been +exaggerated into self-worship. It is the essence of wilfulness that it +exalts the impulses of its pride above the intuitions of conscience +and intelligence, and puts force in the place of reason and right. The +person has thus emancipated himself from all restraints of a law higher +than his personality, and acts _from_ self, _for_ self, and in sole +obedience _to_ self. But this is personality in its Satanic form; yet it +is just here that some of our theologians have discovered in a person's +actions the purposes of Providence, and discerned the Divine intention +in the fact of guilt instead of in the certainty of retribution. +The tyrant element in man is found in this Satanic form of his +individuality. His will, self-released from restraint, preys upon and +crushes other wills. He asserts himself by enslaving others, and mimics +Divinity on the stilts of diabolism. Like the barbarian who thought +himself enriched by the powers and gifts of the enemy he slew, he +aggrandizes his own personality, and heightens his own sense of freedom, +through the subjection of feebler natures. Ruthless, rapacious, greedy +of power, greedy of gain, it is in Slavery that he wantons in all +the luxury of injustice, for it is here that he tastes the exquisite +pleasure of depriving others of that which he most values in himself. + +Thus, whether we examine this system in the light of conscience and +intelligence, or in the light of history and experience, we come to but +one result,--that it has its source and sustenance in Satanic energy, in +Satanic pride, and in Satanic greed. This is Slavery in itself, detached +from the ameliorations it may receive from individual slaveholders. +Now a bad system is not continued or extended by the virtues of any +individuals who are but partially corrupted by it, but by those who +work in the spirit and with the implements of its originators. Every +amelioration is a confession of the essential injustice of the thing +ameliorated, and a step towards its abolition; and the humane and +Christian slaveholders owe their safety, and the security of what they +are pleased to call their property, to the vices of the hard and stern +spirits whom they profess to abhor. If they invest in stock of the +Devil's corporation, they ought not to be severe on those who look out +that they punctually receive their dividends. The true slaveholder feels +that he is encamped among his slaves, that he holds them by the right of +conquest, that the relation is one of war, and that there is no crime he +may not be compelled to commit in self-defence. Disdaining all cant, +he clearly perceives that the system, in its practical working, must +conform to the principles on which it is based. He accordingly believes +in the lash and the fear of the lash. If he is cruel and brutal, it may +as often be from policy as from disposition, for brutality and cruelty +are the means by which weaker races are best kept "subordinated" to +stronger races; and the influence of his brutality and cruelty is felt +as restraint and terror on the plantation of his less resolute neighbor. +And when we speak of brutality and cruelty, we do not limit the +application of the words to those who scourge, but extend it to some of +those who preach,--who hold up heaven as the reward of those slaves who +are sufficiently abject on earth, and threaten damnation in the next +world to all who dare to assert their manhood in this. + +If, however, any one still doubts that this system develops itself +logically and naturally, and tramples down the resistance offered by the +better sentiments of human nature, let him look at the legislation which +defines and protects it,--a legislation which, as expressing the average +sense and purpose of the community, is to be quoted as conclusive +against the testimony of any of its individual members. This legislation +evinces the dominion of a malignant principle. You can hear the crack +of the whip and the clank of the chain in all its enactments. Yet these +laws, which cannot be read in any civilized country without mingled +horror and derision, indicate a mastery of the whole theory and practice +of oppression, are admirably adapted to the end they have in view, and +bear the unmistakable marks of being the work of practical men,--of men +who know their sin, and "knowing, dare maintain." They do not, it +is true, enrich the science of jurisprudence with any large or wise +additions, but we do not look for such luxuries as justice, reason, and +beneficence in ordinances devised to prop up iniquity, falsehood, and +tyranny. Ghastly caricatures of justice as these offshoots of Slavery +are, they are still dictated by the nature and necessities of the +system. They have the flavor of the rank soil whence they spring. + +If we desire any stronger evidence that slaveholders constitute a +general Slave Power, that this Slave Power acts as a unit, the unity of +a great interest impelled by powerful passions, and that the virtues of +individual slaveholders have little effect in checking the vices of the +system, we can find that evidence in the zeal and audacity with which +this power engaged in extending its dominion. Seemingly aggressive in +this, it was really acting on the defensive,--on the defensive, however, +not against the assaults of men, but against the immutable decrees of +God. The world is so constituted, that wrong and oppression are not, in +a large view, politic. They heavily mortgage the future, when they +glut the avarice of the present. The avenging Providence, which the +slaveholder cannot find in the New Testament, or in the teachings of +conscience, he is at last compelled to find in political economy; and +however indifferent to the Gospel according to Saint John, he must give +heed to the gospel according to Adam Smith and Malthus. He discovers, no +doubt to his surprise, and somewhat to his indignation, that there is an +intimate relation between industrial success and justice; and however +much, as a practical man, he may despise the abstract principles which +declare Slavery a nonsensical enormity, he cannot fail to read its +nature, when it slowly, but legibly, writes itself out in curses on the +land. He finds how true is the old proverb, that, "if God moves with +leaden feet, He strikes with iron hands." The law of Slavery is, that, +to be lucrative, it must have a scanty population diffused over large +areas. To limit it is therefore to doom it to come to an end by the laws +of population. To limit it is to force the planters, in the end, to free +their slaves, from an inability to support them, and to force the slaves +into more energy and intelligence in labor, in order that they may +subsist as freemen. People prattle about the necessity of compulsory +labor; but the true compulsory labor, the labor which has produced the +miracles of modern industry, is the labor to which a man is compelled by +the necessity of saving himself, and those who are dearer to him than +self, from ignominy and want. It was by this policy of territorial +limitation, that Henry Clay, before the annexation of Texas, declared +that Slavery must eventually expire. The way was gradual, it was +prudent, it was safe, it was distant, it was sure, it was according to +the nature of things. It would have been accepted, had there been any +general truth in the assertion that the slaveholders were honestly +desirous of reconverting, at any time, and on any practicable plan, +their chattels into men. But true to the malignant principles of their +system, they accepted the law of its existence, but determined to evade +the law of its extinction. As Slavery required large areas and scanty +population, large areas and scanty population it should at all times +have. New markets should be opened for the surplus slave-population; +to open new markets was to acquire new territory; and to acquire new +territory was to gain additional political strength. The expansive +tendencies of freedom would thus be checked by the tendencies no less +expansive of bondage. To acquire Texas was not merely to acquire an +additional Slave State, but it was to keep up a demand for slaves which +would prevent Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky from +becoming Free States. As soon as old soils were worn out, new soils were +to be ready to receive the curse; and where slave-labor ceased to be +profitable, slave-breeding was to take its place. + +This purpose was so diabolical, that, when first announced, it +was treated as a caprice of certain hot spirits, irritated by the +declamations of the Abolitionists. But it is idle to refer to transient +heat thoughts which bear all the signs of cool atrocity; and needless +to seek for the causes of actions in extraneous sources, when they +are plainly but steps in the development of principles already known. +Slave-breeding and Slavery-extension are necessities of the system. Like +Romulus and Remus, "they are both suckled from one wolf." + +But it was just here that the question became to the Free States a +practical question. There could be no "fanaticism" in meeting it at this +stage. What usually goes under the name of fanaticism is the habit of +uncompromising assault on a thing because its principles are absurd +or wicked; what usually goes under the name of common sense is the +disposition to assail it at that point where, in the development of its +principles, it has become immediately and pressingly dangerous. Now by +no sophistry could we of the Free States evade the responsibility of +being the extenders of Slavery, if we allowed Slavery to be extended. If +we did not oppose it from a sense of right, we were bound to oppose it +from a sense of decency. It may be said that we had nothing to do with +Slavery at the South; but we had something to do with rescuing the +national character from infamy, and unhappily we could not have anything +to do with rescuing the national character from infamy without having +something to do with Slavery at the South. The question with us was, +whether we would allow the whole force of the National Government to be +employed in upholding, extending, and perpetuating this detestable and +nonsensical enormity?--especially, whether we would be guilty of that +last and foulest atheism to free principles, the deliberate planting of +slave institutions on virgin soil? If this question had been put to +any despot of Europe,--we had almost said, to any despot of Asia,--his +answer would undoubtedly have been an indignant negative. Yet the South +confidently expected so to wheedle or bully us into dragging our common +sense through the mud and mire of momentary expedients, that we should +connive at the commission of this execrable crime! + +There can be no doubt, that, if the question had been fairly put to the +inhabitants of the Free States, their answer would have been at once +decisive for freedom. Even the strongest conservatives would have been +"Free-Soilers,"--not only those who are conservatives in virtue of +their prudence, moderation, sagacity, and temper, but prejudiced +conservatives, conservatives who are tolerant of all iniquity which is +decorous, inert, long-established, and disposed to die when its time +comes, conservatives as thorough in their hatred of change as Lamennais +himself. "What a noise," says Paul Louis Courier, "Lamennais would have +made on the day of creation, could he have witnessed it. His first cry +to the Divinity would have been to respect that ancient chaos." But even +to conservatives of this class, the attempt to extend Slavery, though +really in the order of its natural development, must still have appeared +a monstrous innovation, and they were bound to oppose the Marats and +Robespierres of despotism who were busy in the bad work. Indeed, in our +country, conservatism, through the presence of Slavery, has inverted +its usual order. In other countries, the radical of one century is the +conservative of the next; in ours, the conservative of one generation +is the radical of the next. The American conservative of 1790 is the +so-called fanatic of 1820; the conservative of 1820 is the fanatic +of 1856. The American conservative, indeed, descended the stairs of +compromise until his descent into utter abnegation of all that civilized +humanity holds dear was arrested by the Rebellion. And the reason of +this strange inversion of conservative principles was, that the movement +of Slavery is towards barbarism, while the movement of all countries +in which labor is not positively chattellized is towards freedom and +civilization. True conservatism, it must never be forgotten, is the +refusal to give up a positive, though imperfect good, for a possible, +but uncertain improvement: in the United States it has been misused to +denote the cowardly surrender of a positive good from a fear to resist +the innovations of an advancing evil and wrong. + +There was, therefore, little danger that Slavery would be extended +through the conscious thought and will of the people, but there +was danger that its extension might, somehow or other, _occur_. +Misconception of the question, devotion to party or the memory of +party, prejudice against the men who more immediately represented the +Anti-Slavery principle, might make the people unconsciously slide into +this crime. And it must be said that for the divisions in the Free +States as to the mode in which the free sentiment of the people should +operate the strictly Anti-Slavery men were to some extent responsible. +It is difficult to convince an ardent reformer that the principle +for which he contends, being impersonal, should be purified from the +passions and whims of his own personality. The more fervid he is, the +more he is identified in the public mind with his cause; and, in a large +view, he is bound not merely to defend his cause, but to see that the +cause, through him, does not become offensive. Men are ever ready to +dodge disagreeable duties by converting questions of principles into +criticisms on the men who represent principles; and the men who +represent principles should therefore look to it that they make no +needless enemies and give no needless shock to public opinion for +the purpose of pushing pet opinions, wreaking personal grudges, or +gratifying individual antipathies. The artillery of the North has +heretofore played altogether too much on Northerners. + +But to return. The South expected to fool the North into a compliance +with its designs, by availing itself of the divisions among its +professed opponents, and by dazzling away the attention of the people +from the real nature of the wickedness to be perpetrated. Slavery was to +be extended, and the North was to be an accomplice in the business; but +the Slave Power did not expect that we should be active and enthusiastic +in this work of self-degradation. It did not ask us to extend Slavery, +but simply to allow its extension to occur; and in this appeal to our +moral timidity and moral laziness, it contemptuously tossed us a few +fig-leaves of fallacy and false statement to save appearances. + +We were informed, for instance, that by the equality of men is meant the +equality of those whom Providence has made equal. But this is exactly +the sense in which no sane man ever understood the doctrine of equality; +for Providence has palpably made men unequal, white men as well as +black. + +Then we were told that the white and black races could dwell together +only in the relation of masters and slaves,--and, in the same breath, +that in this relation the slaves were steadily advancing in civilization +and Christianity. But, if steadily advancing in civilization and +Christianity, the time must inevitably come when they would not submit +to be slaves; and then what becomes of the statement that the white +and black races cannot dwell together as freemen? Why boast of their +improvement, when you are improving them only that you may exterminate +them, or they _you?_ + +Then, with a composure of face which touches the exquisite in +effrontery, we were assured that this antithesis of master and slave, of +tyrant and abject natures, is really a perfect harmony. Slavery--so said +these logicians of liberticide--has solved the great social problem of +the working-classes, comfortably for capital, happily for labor; and has +effected this by an ingenious expedient which could have occurred only +to minds of the greatest depth and comprehension, the expedient, namely, +of enslaving labor. Now doubtless there has always been a struggle +between employers and employed, and this struggle will probably continue +until the relations between the two are more humane and Christian. But +Slavery exhibits this struggle in its earliest and most savage stage, +a stage answering to the rude energies and still ruder conceptions of +barbarians. The issue of the struggle, it is plain, will not be that +capital will own labor, but that labor will own capital, and no _man_ be +owned. + +Still we were vehemently told, that, though the slaves, for their own +good, were deprived of their rights as men, they were in a fine state +of physical comfort. This was not and could not be true; but even if it +were, it only represented the slaveholder as addressing his slave in +some such words of derisive scorn as Byron hurls at Duke Alphonso,-- + +"Thou! born to eat, and be despised, and die, Even as the brutes that +perish,"-- + +though we doubt if he could truly add,-- + +"save that thou Hast a more splendid trough and wider sty." + +Then we were solemnly warned of our patriotic duty to "know no North and +no South." This was the very impudence of ingratitude; for we had long +known no North, and unhappily had known altogether too much South. + +Then we were most plaintively adjured to to comply with the demands of +the Slave Power, in order to save the Union. But how save the Union? +Why, by violating the principles on which the Union was formed, and +scouting the objects it was intended to serve. + +But lastly came the question, on which the South confidently relied as +a decisive argument, "What could we do with our slaves, provided we +emancipated them?" The peculiarity which distinguished this question +from all other interrogatories ever addressed to human beings was this, +that it was asked for the purpose of not being answered. The moment a +reply was begun, the ground was swiftly shifted, and we were overwhelmed +with a torrent of words about State Rights and the duty of minding our +own business. + +But it is needless to continue the examination of these substitutes and +apologies for fact and reason, especially as their chief characteristic +consisted in their having nothing to do with the practical question +before the people. They were thrown out by the interested defenders of +Slavery, North and South, to divert attention from the main issue. In +the fine felicity of their in appropriateness to the actual condition of +the struggle between the Free and Slave States, they were almost a match +for that renowned sermon, preached by a metropolitan bishop before an +asylum for the blind, the halt, and the legless, on "The Moral Dangers +of Foreign Travel." But still they were infinitely mischievous, +considered as pretences under which Northern men could skulk from their +duties, and as sophistries to lull into a sleepy acquiescence the +consciences of those political adventurers who are always seeking +occasions for being tempted and reasons for being rogues. They were all +the more influential from the circumstance that their show of argument +was backed by the solid substance of patronage. These false facts and +bad reasons were the keys to many fat offices. The South had succeeded +in instituting a new political test, namely, that no man is qualified +serve the United States unless he is the champion or the sycophant of +the Slave Power. Proscription to the friends of American freedom, honors +and emoluments to the friends of American slavery,--adopt that creed, +or you did not belong to any "healthy" political organization! Now we +have heard of civil disabilities for opinion's sake before. In some +countries no Catholics are allowed to hold office, in others no +Protestants, in others no Jews. But it is not, we believe, in Protestant +countries that Protestants are proscribed; it is not in Catholic +countries that Catholics are incompetent to serve the State. It was left +for a free country to establish, practically, civil disabilities against +freemen,--for Republican America to proscribe Republicans! Think of +it,--that no American, whatever his worth, talents, or patriotism,--could +two years ago serve his country in any branch of its executive +administration, unless he was unfortunate enough to agree with the +slaveholders, or base enough to sham an agreement with them! The test, +at Washington, of political orthodoxy was modelled on the pattern of +the test of religious orthodoxy established by Napoleon's minister of +police. "You are not orthodox," he said to a priest "In what," inquired +the astonished ecclesiastic, "have I sinned against orthodoxy?" +"You have not pronounced the eulogium of the Emperor, or proved the +righteousness of the conscription." + +Now we had been often warned of the danger of sectional parties, on +account of their tendency to break up the Government. The people gave +heed to this warning; for here was a sectional party in possession +of the Government. We had been often advised not to form political +combinations on one idea. The people gave heed to this advice; for here +was a triumphant political combination, formed not only on one idea, but +that the worst idea that ever animated any political combination. Here +was an association of three hundred and fifty thousand persons, spread +over some nine hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, and +wielding its whole political power, engaged in the work of turning the +United States into a sort of slave plantation, of which they were to be +overseers. We opposed them by argument, passion, and numerical power; +and they read us long homilies on the beauty of law and order,--order +sustained by Border Ruffians, law which was but the legalizing of +criminal instincts,--law and order which, judged by the code established +for Kansas, seemed based on legislative ideas imported from the Fegee +Islands. We opposed them again, and they talked to us about the +necessity of preserving the Union;--as if, in the Free States, the love +of the Union had not been a principle and a passion, proof against many +losses, and insensible to many humiliations; as if, with our teachers, +disunion had not been for half a century a stereotyped menace to scare +us into compliance with their rascalities; as if it were not known that +only so long as they could wield the powers of the National Government +to accomplish their designs, were they loyal to the Union! We opposed +them again, and they clamored about their Constitutional rights and our +Constitutional obligations; but they adopted for themselves a theory of +the Constitution which made each State the judge of the Constitution in +the last resort, while they held us to that view of it which made the +Supreme Court the judge in the last resort. Written constitutions, by a +process of interpretation, are always made to follow the drift of great +forces; they are twisted and tortured into conformity with the views +of the power dominant in the State; and our Constitution, originally +a charter of freedom, was converted into an instrument which the +slaveholders seemed to possess by right of squatter sovereignty and +eminent domain. + +Did any one suppose that we could retard the ever-onward movement of +their unscrupulous force and defiant wills by timely compromises and +concessions? Every compromise we made with them only stimulated their +rapacity, heightened their arrogance, increased their demands. Every +concession we made to their insolent threats was only a step downwards +to a deeper abasement; and we parted with our most cherished convictions +of duty to purchase, not their gratitude, but their contempt. Every +concession, too, weakened us and strengthened them for the inevitable +struggle, into which the Free States were eventually goaded, to preserve +what remained of their dignity, their honor, and their self-respect. In +1850 we conceded the application of the Wilmot Proviso; in 1856 we were +compelled to concede the principle of the Wilmot Proviso. In 1850 we had +no fears that slaves would enter New Mexico; in 1861 we were threatened +with a view of the flag of the rattlesnake floating over Faneuil Hall. +If any principle has been established by events, with the certainty of +mathematical demonstration, it is this, that concession to the Slave +Power is the suicide of Freedom. We are purchasing this fact at the +expense of arming five hundred thousand men and spending a thousand +millions of dollars. More than this, if any concessions were to be made, +they ought, on all principles of concession, to have been made to the +North. Concessions, historically, are not made by freedom to privilege, +but by privilege to freedom. Thus King John conceded Magna Charta; thus +King Charles conceded the Petition of Right; thus Protestant England +conceded Catholic Emancipation to Ireland; thus aristocratic England +conceded the Reform Bill to the English middle class. And had not we, +the misgoverned many, a right to demand from the slaveholders, the +governing few, some concessions to our sense of justice and our +prejudices for freedom? Concession indeed! If any class of men hold in +their grasp one of the dear-bought chartered "rights of man," it is +infamous to concede it. + + "Make it the darling of your precious eye! + _To lose or give 't away_ were such perdition + As nothing else could match." + +Considerations so obvious as these could not, by any ingenuity of +party-contrivance, be prevented from forcing themselves by degrees into +the minds of the great body of the voters of the Free States. The common +sense, the "large roundabout common sense" of the people, slowly, and +somewhat reluctantly, came up to the demands of the occasion. The +sophistries and fallacies of the Northern defenders of the pretensions +of the slave-holding sectional minority were gradually exposed, and were +repudiated in the lump. The conviction was implanted in the minds of the +people of the Free States, that the Slave Power, representing only a +thirtieth part of the population of the Slave States, and a ninth part +of the property of the country, was bent on governing the nation, and +on subordinating all principles and all interests to its own. Not being +ambitious of having the United States converted into a Western Congo, +with the traffic in "niggers" as its fundamental idea, the people +elected Abraham Lincoln, in a perfectly Constitutional way, President. +As the majority of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of +the Supreme Court was still left, by this election, on the side of the +"rights of the South," (humorously so styled,) and as the President +could do little to advance Republican principles with all the other +branches of the Government opposed to him, the people naturally imagined +that the slaveholders would acquiesce in their decision. + +But such was not the result. The election was in November. The new +President could not assume office until March. The triumphs of the Slave +Power had been heretofore owing to its willingness and readiness to +peril everything on each question as it arose, and each event as it +occurred. South Carolina, perhaps the only one of the Slave States that +was thoroughly in earnest, at once "seceded." The "Gulf States" and +others followed its example, not so much from any fixed intention of +forming a Southern Confederacy as for the purpose of intimidating the +Free States into compliance with the extreme demands of the South. The +Border Slave States were avowedly neutral between the "belligerents," +but indicated their purpose to stand by their "Southern brethren," in +case the Government of the United States attempted to carry out the +Constitution and the laws in the seceded States by the process of +"coercion." + +The combination was perfect. The heart of the Rebellion was in South +Carolina, a State whose free population was about equal to that of the +city of Brooklyn, and whose annual productions were exceeded by those +of Essex County, in the State of Massachusetts. Around this centre was +congregated as base a set of politicians as ever disgraced human nature. +A conspiracy was formed to compel a first-class power, representing +thirty millions of people, to submit to the dictation of about three +hundred thousand of its citizens. The conspirators did not dream of +failure. They were sure, as they thought, of the Gulf States and of the +Border States, of the whole Slave Power, in fact. They also felt sure +of that large minority in the Free States which had formerly acted with +them, and obeyed their most humiliating behests. They therefore entered +the Congress of the nation with a confident front, knowing that +President Buchanan and the majority of his Cabinet were practically on +their side. Before Mr. Lincoln could be inaugurated they imagined they +could accomplish all their designs, and make the Government of the +United States a Pro-Slavery power in the eyes of all the nations of the +world. Mr. Calhoun's paradoxes had heretofore been indorsed only by +majorities in the national legislature and by the Supreme Court. What a +victory it would be, if, by threatening rebellion, they could induce +the people of the United States to incorporate those paradoxes into +the fundamental law of the nation, dominant over both Congress and the +Court! All their previous "compromises" had been merely legislative +compromises, which, as their cause advanced, they had themselves +annulled. They now seized the occasion, when the "people" had risen +against them, to compel the people to sanction their most extreme +demands. They determined to convert defeat, sustained at the polls, into +a victory which would have far transcended any victory they might have +gained by electing their candidate, Breckinridge, as President. + +A portion of the Republicans, seeing clearly the force arrayed against +them, and disbelieving that the population of the Free States would be +willing, _en masse_, to sustain the cause of free labor by force of +arms, tried to avert the blow by proposing a new compromise. Mr. +Seward, the calmest, most moderate, and most obnoxious statesman of the +Republican party, offered to divide the existing territories of the +United States by the Missouri line, all south of which should be open +to slave labor. As he at the same time stated that by natural laws the +South could obtain no material advantage by his seeming concession, the +concession only made him enemies among the uncompromising champions of +the Wilmot Proviso. The conspirators demanded that the Missouri line +should be the boundary, not only between the territories which the +United States then possessed, but between the territories they might +hereafter _acquire_. As the country north of the Missouri line was held +by powerful European States which it would be madness to offend, and as +the country south of that line was held by feeble States which it would +be easy to conquer, no Northern or Western statesman could vote for such +a measure without proving himself a rogue or a simpleton. Hence all +measures of "compromise" necessarily failed during the last days of the +administration of James Buchanan. + +It is plain, that, when Mr. Lincoln--after having escaped assassination +from the "Chivalry" of Maryland, and after having been subjected to a +virulence of invective such as no other President had incurred--arrived +at Washington, his mind was utterly unaffected by the illusions of +passion. His Inaugural Message was eminently moderate. The Slave +Power, having failed to delude or bully Congress, or to intimidate the +people,--having failed to murder the elected President on his way to +the capital,--was at wits' end. It thought it could still rely on its +Northern supporters, as James II. of England thought he could rely +on the Church of England. While the nation, therefore, was busy in +expedients to call back the seceded States to their allegiance, the +latter suddenly bombarded Fort Sumter, trampled on the American flag, +threatened to wave the rattlesnake rag over Faneuil Hall, and to make +the Yankees "smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel." All this +was done with the idea that the Northern "Democracy" would rally to the +support of their "Southern brethren." The result proved that the South +was, in the words of Mr. Davis's last and most melancholy Message, the +victim of "misplaced confidence" in its Northern "associates." The +moment a gun was fired, the honest Democratic voters of the North were +even more furious than the Republican voters; the leaders, including +those who had been the obedient servants of Slavery, were ravenous for +commands in the great army which was to "coerce" and "subjugate" the +South; and the whole organization of the "Democratic party" of the North +melted away at once in the fierce fires of a reawakened patriotism. The +slaveholders ventured everything on their last stake, and lost. A North, +for the first time, sprang into being; and it issued, like Minerva from +the brain of Jove, full-armed. The much-vaunted engineer, Beauregard, +was "hoist with his own petard." + +Now that the slaveholders have been so foolish as to appeal to physical +force, abandoning their vantage-ground of political influence, they must +be not only politically overthrown, but physically humiliated. Their +arrogant sense of superiority must be beaten out of them by main force. +The feeling with which every Texan and Arkansas bully and assassin +regarded a Northern mechanic--a feeling akin to that with which the old +Norman robber looked on the sturdy Saxon laborer--must be changed, by +showing the bully that his bowie-knife is dangerous only to peaceful, +and is imbecile before armed citizens. The Southerner has appealed to +force, and force he should have, until, by the laws of force, he is not +only beaten, but compelled to admit the humiliating fact. That he is not +disposed "to die in the last ditch," that he has none of the practical +heroism of desperation, is proved by the actual results of battles. +When defeated, and his means of escape are such as only desperation can +surmount, he quickly surrenders, and is even disposed to take the oath +of allegiance. The martial virtues of the common European soldier he has +displayed in exceedingly scanty measure in the present conflict. He +has relied on engineers; and the moment his fortresses are turned or +stormed, he retreats or becomes a prisoner of war. Let Mr. Davis's +Message to the Confederate Congress, and his order suspending Pillow +and Floyd, testify to this unquestionable statement. Even if we grant +martial intrepidity to the members of the Slavocracy, the present war +proves that the system of Slavery is not one which develops martial +virtues among the "free whites" it has cajoled or forced into its +hateful service. Indeed, the armies of Jefferson Davis are weak on the +same principle on which the slave-system is weak. Everything depends on +the intelligence and courage of the commanders, and the moment these +fail the soldiers become a mere mob. + +American Slavery, by the laws which control its existence, first rose +from a local power, dominant in certain States, to a national power, +assuming to dominate over the United States. At the first faint fact +which indicated the intention of the Free States to check its progress +and overturn its insolent dominion, it rebelled. The rebellion now +promises to be a failure; but it will cost the Free States the arming of +half a million of men and the spending of a thousand millions of dollars +to make it a failure. Can we afford to trifle with the cause which +produced it? We note that some of the representatives of the loyal Slave +States in Congress are furious to hang individual Rebels, but at the +same time are anxious to surround the system those Rebels represent +with new guaranties. When they speak of Jeff Davis and his crew, their +feeling is as fierce as that of Tilly and Pappenheim towards the +Protestants of Germany. They would burn, destroy, confiscate, and kill +without any mercy, and without any regard to the laws of civilized war; +but when they come to speak of Slavery, their whole tone is changed. +They wish us to do everything barbarous and inhuman, provided we do not +go to the last extent of barbarity and inhumanity, which, according to +their notions, is, to inaugurate a system of freedom, equality, and +justice. Provided the negro is held in bondage and denied the rights of +human nature, they are willing that any severity should be exercised +towards his rebellious master. Now we have no revengeful feeling towards +the master at all. We think that he is a victim as well as an oppressor. +We wish to emancipate the master as well as the slave, and we think that +thousands of masters are persons who merely submit to the conditions +of labor established in their respective localities. Our opposition is +directed, not against Jefferson Davis, but against the system whose +cumulative corruptions and enormities Jefferson Davis very fairly +represents. As an individual, Jefferson Davis is not worse than many +people whom a general amnesty would preserve in their persons and +property. To hang him, and at the same time guaranty Slavery, would be +like destroying a plant by a vain attempt to kill its most poisonous +blossom. Our opposition is not to the blossom, but to the root. + +We admit that to strike at the root is a very difficult operation. In +the present condition of the country it may present obstacles which will +practically prove insuperable. But it is plain that we can strike lower +than the blossom; and it is also plain that we must, as practical +men, devise some method by which the existence of the Slavocracy as a +political power may be annihilated. The President of the United States +has lately recommended that Congress offer the cooperation and financial +aid of the whole nation in a peaceful effort to abolish Slavery,--with +a significant hint, that, unless the loyal Slave States accept the +proposition, the necessities of the war may dictate severer measures. +Emancipation is the policy of the Government, and will soon be the +determination of the people. Whether it shall be gradual or immediate +depends altogether on the slaveholders themselves. The prolongation of +the war for a year, and the operation of the internal tax bill, will +convert all the voters of the Free States, whether Republicans or +Democrats, into practical Emancipationists. The tax bill alone will +teach the people important lessons which no politicians can gainsay. +Every person who buys a piece of broadcloth or calico,--every person who +takes a cup of tea or coffee,--every person who lives from day to day +on the energy he thinks he derives from patent medicines, or beer, or +whiskey,--every person who signs a note, or draws a bill of exchange, or +sends a telegraphic despatch, or advertises in a newspaper, or makes a +will, or "raises" anything, or manufactures anything, will naturally +inquire why he or she is compelled to submit to an irritating as well as +an onerous tax. The only answer that can possibly be returned is this,-- +that all these vexatious burdens are necessary because a comparatively +few persons out of an immense population have chosen to get up a civil +war in order to protect and foster their slave-property, and the +political power it confers. As this property is but a small fraction of +the whole property of the country, and as its owners are not a hundredth +part of the population of the country, does any sane man doubt that the +slave-property will be relentlessly confiscated in order that the Slave +Power may be forever crushed? + +There are, we know, persons in the Free States who pretend to believe +that the war will leave Slavery where the war found it,--that our half +a million of soldiers have gone South on a sort of military picnic, +and will return in a cordial mood towards their Southern brethren in +arms,--and that there is no real depth and earnestness of purpose in the +Free States. Though one year has done the ordinary work of a century +in effecting or confirming changes in the ideas and sentiments of the +people, these persons still sagely rely on the party-phrases current +some eighteen months ago to reconstruct the Union on the old basis of +the domination of the Slave Power, through the combination of a divided +North with a united South. By the theory of these persons, there is +something peculiarly sacred in property in men, distinguishing it from +the more vulgar form of property in things; and though the cost of +putting down the Rebellion will nearly equal the value of the Southern +slaves, considered as chattels, they suppose that the owners of property +in things will cheerfully submit to be taxed for a thousand millions,--a +fourth of the almost fabulous debt of England,--without any irritation +against the chivalric owners of property in men, whose pride, caprice, +and insubordination have made the taxation necessary. Such may possibly +be the fact, but as sane men we cannot but disbelieve it. Our conviction +is, that, whether the war is ended in three months or in twelve months, +the Slave Power is sure to be undermined or overthrown. + +The sooner the war is ended, the more favorable will be the terms +granted to the Slavocracy; but no terms will be granted which do not +look to its extinction. The slaveholders are impelled by their system to +complete victory or utter ruin. If they obey the laws of their system, +they have, from present appearances, nothing but defeat, beggary, and +despair to expect. If they violate the laws of their system, they must +take their place in some one of the numerous degrees, orders, and ranks +of the Abolitionists. It will be well for them, if the wilfulness +developed by their miserable system gives way to the plain reason and +logic of facts and events. It will be well for them, if they submit to a +necessity, not only inherent in the inevitable operation of divine laws, +but propelled by half a million of men in arms. Be it that God is on the +side of the heaviest column,--there can be no doubt that the heaviest +column is now the column of Freedom. + + * * * * * + + +THE VOLUNTEER. + + + "At dawn," he said, "I bid them all farewell, + To go where bugles call and rifles gleam." + And with the restless thought asleep he fell, + And glided into dream. + + A great hot plain from sea to mountain spread,-- + Through it a level river slowly drawn. + He moved with a vast crowd, and at its head + Streamed banners like the dawn. + + There came a blinding flash, a deafening roar, + And dissonant cries of triumph and dismay; + Blood trickled down the river's reedy shore, + And with the dead he lay. + + The morn broke in upon his solemn dream; + And still, with steady pulse and deepening eye, + "Where bugles call," he said, "and rifles gleam, + I follow, though I die!" + + Wise youth! By few is glory's wreath attained; + But death or late or soon awaiteth all. + To fight in Freedom's cause is something gained,-- + And nothing lost, to fall. + + + + +SPEECH OF HON'BLE PRESERVED DOE IN SECRET CAUCUS. + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Jaalam, 12th April, 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--As I cannot but hope that the ultimate, if not speedy, +success of the national arms is now sufficiently ascertained, sure as +I am of the righteousness of our cause and its consequent claim on the +blessing of God, (for I would not show a faith inferiour to that of the +pagan historian with his _Facile evenit quod Dis cordi est_,) it seems +to me a suitable occasion to withdraw our minds a moment from the +confusing din of battle to objects of peaceful and permanent interest. +Let us not neglect the monuments of preterite history because what +shall be history is so diligently making under our eyes. _Cras ingens +iterabimus aequor_; to-morrow will be time enough for that stormy sea; +to-day let me engage the attention of your readers with the Runick +inscription to whose fortunate discovery I have heretofore alluded. Well +may we say with the poet, _Multa renascuntur quae jam cecidere_. And I +would premise, that, although I can no longer resist the evidence of my +own senses from the stone before me to the ante-Columbian discovery of +this continent by the Northmen, _gens inclytissima_, as they are called +in Palermitan inscription, written fortunately in a less debatable +character than that which I am about to decypher, yet I would by no +means be understood as wishing to vilipend the merits of the great +Genoese, whose name will never be forgotten so long as the inspiring +strains of "Hail Columbia" shall continue to be heard. Though he must +be stripped also of whatever praise may belong to the experiment of the +egg, which I find proverbially attributed by Castilian authours to a +certain Juanito or Jack, (perhaps an offshoot of our giant-killing my +thus,) his name will still remain one of the most illustrious of modern +times. But the impartial historian owes a duty likewise to obscure +merit, and my solicitude to render a tardy justice is perhaps quickened +by my having known those who, had their own field of labour been less +secluded, might have found a readier acceptance with the reading +publick. I could give an example, but I forbear: _forsitan nostris ex +ossibus oritur ultor_. + +Touching Runick inscriptions, I find that they may be classed under +three general heads: 1. Those which are understood by the Danish Royal +Society of Northern Antiquaries, and Professor Rafn, their Secretary; +2. Those which are comprehensible only by Mr Rafn; and 3. Those which +neither the Society, Mr Rafn, nor anybody else can be said in any +definite sense to understand, and which accordingly offer peculiar +temptations to enucleating sagacity. These last are naturally deemed the +most valuable by intelligent antiquaries, and to this class the stone +now in my possession fortunately belongs. Such give a picturesque +variety to ancient events, because susceptible oftentimes of as many +interpretations as there are individual archaeologists; and since facts +are only the pulp in which the Idea or event-seed is softly imbedded +till it ripen, it is of little consequence what colour or flavour we +attribute to them, provided it be agreeable. Availing myself of the +obliging assistance of Mr. Arphaxad Bowers, an ingenious photographick +artist, whose house-on-wheels has now stood for three years on our +Meeting-House Green, with the somewhat contradictory inscription,--"_Our +motto is onward_,"--I have sent accurate copies of my treasure to many +learned men and societies, both native and European. I may hereafter +communicate their different and (_me judice_) equally erroneous +solutions. I solicit also, Messrs. Editors, your own acceptance of the +copy herewith inclosed. I need only premise further, that the stone +itself is a goodly block of metamorphick sandstone, and that the Runes +resemble very nearly the ornithichnites or fossil bird-tracks of Dr. +Hitchcock, but with less regularity or apparent design than is displayed +by those remarkable geological monuments. These are rather the _non bene +junctarum discordia semina rerum_. Resolved to leave no door open to +cavil, I first of all attempted the elucidation of this remarkable +example of lithick literature by the ordinary modes, but with no +adequate return for my labour. I then considered myself amply justified +in resorting to that heroick treatment the felicity of which, as applied +by the great Bentley to Milton, had long ago enlisted my admiration. +Indeed, I had already made up my mind, that, in case good-fortune should +throw any such invaluable record in my way, I would proceed with it +in the following simple and satisfactory method. After a cursory +examination, merely sufficing for an approximative estimate of its +length, I would write down a hypothetical inscription based upon +antecedent probabilities, and then proceed to extract from the +characters engraven on the stone a meaning as nearly as possible +conformed to this _a priori_ product of my own ingenuity. The result +more than justified my hopes, inasmuch as the two inscriptions were made +without any great violence to tally in all essential particulars. I then +proceeded, not without some anxiety, to my second test, which was, to +read the Runick letters diagonally, and again with the same success. +With an excitement pardonable under the circumstances, yet tempered +with thankful humility, I now applied my last and severest trial, my +_experimentum crucis_. I turned the stone, now doubly precious in my +eyes, with scrupulous exactness upside down. The physical exertion so +far displaced my spectacles as to derange for a moment the focus of +vision. I confess that it was with some tremulousness that I readjusted +them upon my nose, and prepared my mind to bear with calmness any +disappointment that might ensue. But, _O albo dies notanda lapillo!_ +what was my delight to find that the change of position had effected +none in the sense of the writing, even by so much as a single letter! +I was now, and justly, as I think, satisfied of the conscientious +exactness of my interpretation. It is as follows:-- + + +HERE + +BJARNA GRMLFSSON + +FIRST DRANK CLOUD-BROTHER + +THROUGH CHILD-OF-LAND-AND-WATER: + +that is, drew smoke through a reed stem. In other words, we have here +a record of the first smoking of the herb _Nicotiana Tabacum_ by a +European on this continent. The probable results of this discovery are +so vast as to baffle conjecture. If it be objected, that the smoking +of a pipe would hardly justify the setting up of a memorial stone, I +answer, that even now the Moquis Indian, ere he takes his first whiff, +bows reverently toward the four quarters of the sky in succession, and +that the loftiest monuments have been reared to perpetuate fame, which +is the dream of the shadow of smoke. The _Saga_, it will be remembered, +leaves this Bjarna to a fate something like that of Sir Humphrey +Gilbert, on board a sinking ship in the "wormy sea," having generously +given up his place in the boat to a certain Icelander. It is doubly +pleasant, therefore, to meet with this proof that the brave old man +arrived safely in Vinland, and that his declining years were cheered by +the respectful attentions of the dusky denizens of our then uninvaded +forests. Most of all was I gratified, however, in thus linking forever +the name of my native town with one of the most momentous occurrences of +modern times. Hitherto Jaalam, though in soil, climate, and geographical +position as highly qualified to be the theatre of remarkable historical +incidents as any spot on the earth's surface, has been, if I may say it +without seeming to question the wisdom of Providence, almost maliciously +neglected, as it might appear, by occurrences of world-wide interest in +want of a situation. And in matters of this nature it must be confessed +that adequate events are as necessary as the _vates sacer_ to record +them. Jaalam stood always modestly ready, but circumstances made no +fitting response to her generous intentions. Now, however, she assumes +her place on the historick roll. I have hitherto been a zealous opponent +of the Circean herb, but I shall now reexamine the question without +bias. + +I am aware that the Rev'd Jonas Tutchel, in a recent communication to +the Bogus Four Corners Weekly Meridian, has endeavoured to show that +this is the sepulchral inscription of Thorwald Eriksson, who, as is well +known, was slain in Vinland by the natives. But I think he has been +misled by a preconceived theory, and cannot but feel that he has thus +made an ungracious return for my allowing him to inspect the stone with +the aid of my own glasses (he having by accident left his at home) +and in my own study. The heathen ancients might have instructed this +Christian minister in the rites of hospitality; but much is to be +pardoned to the spirit of self-love. He must indeed be ingenious who can +make out the words _hr hrilir_ from any characters in the inscription +in question, which, whatever else it may be, is certainly not mortuary. +And even should the reverend gentleman succeed in persuading some +fantastical wits of the soundness of his views, I do not see what useful +end he will have gained. For if the English Courts of Law hold the +testimony of grave-stones from the burial-grounds of Protestant +dissenters to be questionable, even where it is essential in proving a +descent, I cannot conceive that the epitaphial assertions of heathens +should be esteemed of more authority by any man of orthodox sentiments. + +At this moment, happening to cast my eyes upon the stone, on which a +transverse light from my southern window brings out the characters +with singular distinctness, another interpretation has occurred to me, +promising even more interesting results. I hasten to close my letter in +order to follow at once the clue thus providentially suggested. + +I inclose, as usual, a contribution from Mr. Biglow, and remain, +Gentlemen, with esteem and respect, + +Your Ob't Humble Servant, + +HOMER WILBUR. A.M. + + I thank ye, my friens, for the warmth o' your greetin': + Ther' 's few airthly blessins but wut's vain an' fleetin'; + But ef ther' is one thet hain't _no_ cracks an' flaws, + An' is wuth goin' in for, it's pop'lar applause; + It sends up the sperits ez lively ez rockets, + An' I feel it--wal, down to the eend o' my pockets. + Jes' lovin' the people is Canaan in view, + But it's Canaan paid quarterly t' hev 'em love you; + It's a blessin' thet's breakin' out ollus in fresh spots; + It's a-follerin' Moses 'thout losin' the flesh-pots. + + But, Gennlemen,'scuse me, I ain't sech a raw cus + Ez to go luggin' ellerkence into a caucus,-- + Thet is, into one where the call comprehens + Nut the People in person, but on'y their friens; + I'm so kin' o' used to convincin' the masses + Of th' edvantage o' bein' self-governin' asses, + I forgut thet _we_ 're all o' the sort thet pull wires + An' arrange for the public their wants an' desires, + An' thet wut we hed met for wuz jes' to agree + Wut the People's opinions in futur' should be. + + But to come to the nuh, we've ben all disappinted, + An' our leadin' idees are a kind o' disjinted,-- + Though, fur ez the nateral man could discern, + Things ough' to ha' took most an oppersite turn. + But The'ry is jes' like a train on the rail, + Thet, weather or no, puts her thru without fail, + While Fac's the ole stage thet gits sloughed in the ruts, + An' hez to allow for your darned efs an' buts, + An' so, nut intendin' no pers'nal reflections, + They don't--don't nut allus, thet is--make connections: + Sometimes, when it really doos seem thet they'd oughter + Combine jest ez kindly ez new rum an' water, + Both 'll be jest ez sot in their ways ez a bagnet, + Ez otherwise-minded ez th' eends of a magnet, + An' folks like you 'n me, thet ain't ept to be sold, + Git somehow or 'nother left out in the cold. + + I expected 'fore this, 'thout no gret of a row, + Jeff D. would ha' ben where A. Lincoln is now, + With Taney to say 't wuz all legle an' fair, + An' a jury o' Deemocrats ready to swear + Thet the ingin o' State gut throwed into the ditch + By the fault o' the North in misplacin' the switch. + Things wuz ripenin' fust-rate with Buchanan to nuss 'em; + But the People they wouldn't be Mexicans, cuss 'em! + Ain't the safeguards o' freedom upsot, 'z you may say, + Ef the right o' rev'lution is took clean away? + An' doosn't the right primy-fashy include + The bein' entitled to nut be subdued? + The fact is, we'd gone for the Union so strong, + When Union meant South ollus right an' North wrong, + Thet the people gut fooled into thinkin' it might + Worry on middlin' wal with the North in the right. + We might ha' ben now jest ez prosp'rous ez France, + Where politikle enterprise hez a fair chance, + An' the people is heppy an' proud et this hour, + Long ez they hev the votes, to let Nap hev the power; + But _our_ folks they went an' believed wut we'd told 'em, + An', the flag once insulted, no mortle could hold 'em. + 'T wuz pervokin' jest when we wuz cert'in to win,-- + An' I, for one, wunt trust the masses agin: + For a people thet knows much ain't fit to be free + In the self-cockin', back-action style o' J.D. + + I can't believe now but wut half on't is lies; + For who'd thought the North wuz a-goin' to rise, + Or take the pervokin'est kin' of a stump, + 'Thout't wuz sunthin' ez pressin' ez Gabr'el's las' trump? + Or who'd ha' supposed, arter _sech_ swell an' bluster + 'Bout the lick-ary-ten-on-ye fighters they'd muster, + Raised by hand on briled lightnin', ez op'lent 'z you please + In a primitive furrest o' femmily-trees, + Who'd ha' thought thet them Southerners ever 'ud show + Starns with pedigrees to 'em like theirn to the foe, + Or, when the vamosin' come, ever to find + Nat'ral masters in front an' mean white folks behind? + By ginger, ef I'd ha' known half I know now, + When I wuz to Congress, I wouldn't, I swow, + Hev let 'em cair on so high-minded an' sarsy, + 'Thout _some_ show o' wut you may call vicy-varsy. + To be sure, we wuz under a contrac' jes' then + To be dreffle forbearin' towards Southun men; + We hed to go sheers in preservin' the bellance: + An' ez they seemed to feel they wuz wastin' their tellents + 'Thout some un to kick, 't warn't more 'n proper, you know, + Each should funnish his part; an' sence they found the toe, + An' we wuzn't cherubs--wal, we found the buffer, + For fear thet the Compromise System should suffer. + + I wun't say the plan hed n't onpleasant featurs,-- + For men are perverse an' onreasonin' creaturs, + An' forgit thet in this life 't ain't likely to heppen + Their own privit fancy should oltus be cappen,-- + But it worked jest ez smooth ez the key of a safe, + An' the gret Union bearins played free from all chafe. + They warn't hard to suit, ef they hed their own way; + An' we (thet is, some on us) made the thing pay: + 'T wuz a fair give-an'-take out of Uncle Sam's heap; + Ef they took wut warn't theirn, wut we give come ez cheap; + The elect gut the offices down to tidewaiter, + The people took skinnin' ez mild ez a tater, + Seemed to choose who they wanted tu, footed the bills, + An' felt kind o' 'z though they wuz havin' their wills, + Which kep' 'em ez harmless an' clerfle ez crickets, + While all we invested wuz names on the tickets: + Wal, ther' 's nothin' for folks fond o' lib'ral consumption, + Free o' charge, like democ'acy tempered with gumption! + + Now warn't thet a system wuth pains in presarvin', + Where the people found jints an' their friens done the carvin',-- + Where the many done all o' their thinkin' by proxy, + An' were proud on't ez long ez't wuz christened Democ'cy,-- + Where the few let us sap all o' Freedom's foundations, + Ef you called it reformin' with prudence an' patience, + An' were willin' Jeff's snake-egg should hetch with the rest, + Ef you writ "Constitootional" over the nest? + But it's all out o' kilter, ('t wuz too good to last,) + An' all jes' by J.D.'s perceedin' too fast; + Ef he'd on'y hung on for a month or two more, + We'd ha' gut things fixed nicer 'n they hed ben before: + Afore he drawed off an' lef all in confusion, + We wuz safely intrenched in the ole Constitootion, + With an outlyin', heavy-gun, casemated fort + To rake all assailants,--I mean th' S.J. Court. + Now I never 'II acknowledge (nut ef you should skin me) + 'T wuz wise to abandon sech works to the in'my, + An' let him fin' out thet wut scared him so long, + Our whole line of argyments, lookin' so strong, + All our Scriptur' an' law, every the'ry an' fac', + Wuz Quaker-guns daubed with Pro-slavery black. + Why, ef the Republicans ever should git + Andy Johnson or some one to lend 'em the wit + An' the spunk jes' to mount Constitootion an' Court + With Columbiad guns, your real ekle-rights sort, + Or drill out the spike from the ole Declaration + Thet can kerry a solid shot clearn roun' creation, + We'd better take maysures for shettin' up shop, + An' put off our stock by a vendoo or swop. + + But they wun't never dare tu; you 'll see 'em in Edom + 'Fore they ventur' to go where their doctrines 'ud lead 'em: + They 've ben takin' our princerples up ez we dropt 'em, + An' thought it wuz terrible 'cute to adopt 'em; + But they'll fin' out 'fore long thet their hope 's ben deceivin' 'em, + An' thet princerples ain't o' no good, ef you b'lieve in 'em; + It makes 'em tu stiff for a party to use, + Where they'd ough' to be easy 'z an ole pair o' shoes. + Ef _we_ say 'n our pletform thet all men are brothers, + We don't mean thet some folks ain't more so 'n some others; + An' it's wal understood thet we make a selection, + An' thet brotherhood kin' o' subsides arter 'lection. + The fust thing for sound politicians to larn is, + Thet Truth, to dror kindly in all sorts o' harness, + Mus' be kep' in the abstract,--for, 'come to apply it, + You're ept to hurt some folks's interists by it. + Wal, these 'ere Republicans (some on 'em) acs + Ez though gineral mexims 'ud suit speshle facs; + An' there's where we 'll nick 'em, there 's where they 'll be lost: + For applyin' your princerple's wut makes it cost, + An' folks don't want Fourth o' July t' interfere + With the business-consarns o' the rest o' the year, + No more 'n they want Sunday to pry an' to peek + Into wut they are doin' the rest o' the week. + + A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, + Ef he _must_ hev beliefs, nut to b'lieve 'em tu hard; + For, ez sure ez he doos, he'll be blartin' 'em out + 'Thout regardin' the natur' o' man more 'n a spout, + Nor it don't ask much gumption to pick out a flaw + In a party whose leaders are loose in the jaw: + An' so in our own case I ventur' to hint + Thet we'd better nut air our perceedins in print, + Nor pass resserlootions ez long ez your arm + Thet may, ez things heppen to turn, do us harm; + For when you've done all your real meanin' to smother, + The darned things'll up an' mean sunthin' or 'nother. + Jeff'son prob'ly meant wal with his "born free an' ekle," + But it's turned out a real crooked stick in the sekle; + It's taken full eighty-odd year--don't you see?-- + From the pop'lar belief to root out thet idee, + An', arter all, sprouts on 't keep on buddin' forth + In the nat'lly onprincipled mind o' the North. + No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu, + An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu, + Nor don't leave no friction-idees layin' loose + For the ign'ant to put to incend'ary use. + + You know I'm a feller thet keeps a skinned eye + On the leetle events thet go skurryin' by, + Coz it's of'ner by them than by gret ones you'll see + Wut the p'litickle weather is likely to be. + Now I don't think the South's more 'n begun to be licked, + But I _du_ think, ez Jeff says, the wind-bag's gut pricked; + It'll blow for a spell an' keep puffin' an' wheezin', + The tighter our army an' navy keep squeezin',-- + For they can't help spread-eaglein' long 'z ther's a mouth + To blow Enfield's Speaker thru lef' at the South. + But it's high time for us to be settin' our faces + Towards reconstructin' the national basis, + With an eye to beginnin' agin on the jolly ticks + We used to chalk up 'hind the back-door o' politics; + An' the fus' thing's to save wut of Slav'ry ther's lef' + Arter this (I mus' call it) imprudence o' Jeff: + For a real good Abuse, with its roots fur an' wide, + Is the kin' o' thing _I_ like to hev on my side; + A Scriptur' name makes it ez sweet ez a rose, + An' it's tougher the older an' uglier it grows-- + (I ain't speakin' now o' the righteousness of it, + But the p'litickle purchase it gives, an' the profit). + + Things looks pooty squally, it must be allowed, + An' I don't see much signs of a bow in the cloud: + Ther' 's too many Decmocrats--leaders, wut's wuss-- + Thet go for the Union 'thout carin' a cuss + Ef it helps ary party thet ever wuz heard on, + So our eagle ain't made a split Austrian bird on. + But ther' 's still some conservative signs to be found + Thet shows the gret heart o' the People is sound: + (Excuse me for usin' a stump-phrase agin, + But, once in the way on 't, they _will_ stick like sin:) + There's Phillips, for instance, hez jes' ketched a Tartar + In the Law-'n'-Order Party of ole Cincinnater; + An' the Compromise System ain't gone out o' reach, + Long 'z you keep the right limits on freedom o' speech; + 'T warn't none too late, neither, to put on the gag, + For he's dangerous now he goes in for the flag: + Nut thet I altogether approve o' bad eggs, + They're mos' gin'lly argymunt on its las' legs,-- + An' their logic is ept to be tu indiscriminate, + Nor don't ollus wait the right objecs to 'liminate; + But there is a variety on 'em, you 'll find, + Jest ez usefie an' more, besides bein' refined,-- + I mean o' the sort thet are laid by the dictionary, + Sech ez sophisms an' cant thet'll kerry conviction ary + Way thet you want to the right class o' men, + An' are staler than all't ever come from a hen: + "Disunion" done wal till our resh Soutlun friends + Took the savor all out on't for national ends; + But I guess "Abolition" 'll work a spell yit, + When the war's done, an' so will "Forgive-an'-forgit." + Times mus' be pooty thoroughly out o' all jint, + Ef we can't make a good constitootional pint; + An' the good time 'll come to be grindin' our exes, + When the war goes to seed in the nettle o' texes: + Ef Jon'than don't squirm, with sech helps to assist him, + I give up my faith in the free-suffrage system; + Democ'cy wun't be nut a mite interestin', + Nor p'litikle capital much wuth investin'; + An' my notion is, to keep dark an' lay low + Till we see the right minute to put in our blow.-- + + But I've talked longer now 'n I hed any idee, + An' ther's others you want to hear more 'n you du me; + So I'll set down an' give thet 'ere bottle a skrimmage, + For I've spoke till I'm dry ez a real graven image. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Record of an Obscure Man. Tragedy of Errors_, Parts I. and II. Boston: +Ticknor and Fields. 1861, 1862. + +Among the marked literary productions long to be associated with our +present struggle--among them, yet not of them--are the volumes whose +titles we have quoted. They differ from the recent electric messages of +Holmes, Whittier, and Mrs. Howe, in not being obvious results of vivid +events. "Bread and the Newspaper," "The Song of the Negro Boatmen," and +"Our Orders" will reproduce for another generation the fervid feelings +of to-day. But the pathetic warnings exquisitely breathed in the +writings before us will then come to their place as a deep and tender +prelude to the voices heard in this passing tragedy. + +The "Record of an Obscure Man" is the modest introduction to a dramatic +poem of singular pathos and beauty. A New-Englander of culture and +sensibility, naturalized at the South, is supposed to communicate the +results of his study and observation of that outcast race which has been +the easy contempt of ignorance in both sections of the country. Our +instructor has not only a clear judgment Of the value of different +testimonies, and the scholarly instinct of arrangement and +classification, but also that divine gift of sympathy, which alone, in +this world given for our observation, can tell us what to observe. +The illustrations of the negro's character, and the answers to vulgar +depreciation of his tendencies and capacities, are given with the simple +directness of real comprehension. It is the privilege of one acquainted +in no common degree with languages and their history to expose that +dreary joke of the dialect of the oppressed, which superficial people +have so long found funny or contemptible. The simplicity and earnestness +which give dignity to any phraseology come from the humanity behind it. +We are well reminded that divergences from the common use of language, +never held to degrade the meaning in Milton or Shakespeare, need not +render thought despicable when the negro uses identical forms. If he +calls a leopard a "libbard," he only imitates the most sublime of +English poets; and the first word of his petition, "_Gib_ us this day +our daily bread," is pronounced as it rose from the lips of Luther. +The highest truths the faith of man may reach are symbolized more +definitely, and often more picturesquely, by the warm imagination of the +African than by the cultivated genius of the Caucasian. Also it is shown +how the laziness and ferocity with which the negro is sometimes charged +may be more than matched in the history of his assumed superior. +Yet, while acknowledging how well-considered is the matter of this +introductory volume, we regret what seems to be an imperfection in +the form in which it is presented. There is too much _story_, or too +little,--too little to command the assistance of fiction, too much to +prevent a feeling of disappointment that romance is attempted at +all. The concluding autobiography of the friend of Colvil is hardly +consistent with his character as previously suggested; it seems +unnecessary to the author's purpose, and is not drawn with the +minuteness or power which might justify its introduction. We notice this +circumstance as explaining why this Introduction may possibly fail of a +popularity more extended than that which its tenderness of thought and +style at once claimed from the best readers. + +The "Tragedy of Errors" presents, with the vivid idealization of +art, some of the results of American Slavery. Travellers, novelists, +ethnologists have spoken with various ability of the laborers of the +South; and now the poet breaks through the hard monotony of their +external lives, and lends the plasticity of a cultivated mind to take +impress of feeling to which the gift of utterance is denied. And it is +often only through the imagination of another that the human bosom can +be delivered "of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart." For +it is a very common error to estimate mental activity by a command +of the arts of expression; whereas, at its best estate, speech is an +imperfect sign of perception, and one which without special cultivation +must be wholly inadequate. Thus it will be seen that an employment of +the dialect and limited vocabulary of the negro would be obviously +unsuitable to the purpose of the poem; and these have been wisely +discarded. In doing this, however, the common license of dramatists +is not exceeded; and the critical censure we have read about "the +extravagant idealization of the negro" merely amounts to saying that the +writer has been bold enough to stem the current of traditional opinion, +and find a poetic view of humanity at the present time and in its most +despised portion. The end of dramatic writing is not to reproduce +Nature, but to idealize it; a literal copying of the same, as everybody +knows, is the merit of the photographer, not of the artist. Again, it +should be remembered that the highly wrought characters among the slaves +are whites, or whites slightly tinged with African blood. With the +commonest allowance for the exigencies of poetic presentation, we find +no individual character unnatural or improbable; though the particular +grouping of these characters is necessarily improbable. For grace of +position and arrangement every dramatist must claim. If the poet will +but take observations from real persons, however widely scattered, +discretion may be exercised in the conjunction of those persons, and +in the sequence of incidents by which they are affected. An aesthetic +invention may be as _natural_ as a mechanical one, although the +materials for each are collected from a wide surface, and placed in new +relations. Thus much we say as expressing dissent from objections which +have been hastily made to this poem. + +Of the plot of the "Tragedy of Errors" we have only space to say that +the writer has cut a channel for very delicate verses through the heart +of a Southern plantation. Here, at length, seems to be one of those +thoroughly national subjects for which critics have long been clamorous. +The deepest passion is expressed without touching the tawdry properties +of the "intense" school of poetry. The language passes from the ease of +perfect simplicity to the conciseness of power, while the relation of +emotion to character is admirably preserved. The moral--which, let us +observe in passing, is decently covered with artistic beauty--relates, +not to the most obvious, but to the most dangerous mischiefs of Slavery. +Indeed, the story is only saved from being too painful by a fine +appreciation of the medicinal quality of all wretchedness that the +writer everywhere displays. In the First Part, the nice intelligence +shown in the rough contrast between Hermann and Stanley, and in the +finished contrast between Alice and Helen, will claim the reader's +attention. The sketches of American life and tendencies, both Northern +and Southern, are given with discrimination and truth. The dying scene, +which closes the First Part, seems to us nobly wrought. The "death-bed +hymn" of the slaves sounds a pathetic wail over an abortive life +shivering on the brink of the Unknown. In the Second Part we find less +of the color and music of a poem, and more of the rapid movement of a +drama. The doom of Slavery upon the master now comes into full relief. +The characters of Herbert and his father are favorable specimens of +well-meaning, even honorable, Southern gentlemen,--only not endowed +with such exceptional moral heroism as to offer the pride of life to be +crushed before hideous laws. The connection between lyric and tragic +power is shown in the "Tragedy of Errors." The songs and chants of the +slaves mingle with the higher dialogue like the chorus of the Greek +stage; they mediate with gentle authority between the worlds of natural +feeling and barbarous usage. Let us also say that the _sentiment_ +throughout this drama is sound and sweet; for it is that mature +sentiment, born again of discipline, which is the pledge of fidelity to +the highest business of life. + +Before concluding, we take the liberty to remove a mask, not +impenetrable to the careful reader, by saying that the writer is a +woman. And let us be thankful that a woman so representative of the best +culture and instinct of New England cannot wholly conceal herself by the +modesty of a pseudonyme. In no way has the Northern spirit roused to +oppose the usurpations of Slavery more truly vindicated its high quality +than by giving development to that feminine element which has mingled +with our national life an influence of genuine power. And to-day there +are few men justly claiming the much-abused title of thinkers who do +not perceive that the opportunity of our regenerated republic cannot be +fully realized, until we cease to press into factitious conformity +the faculties, tastes, and--let us not shrink from the odious +word--_missions_ of women. The merely literary privilege accorded a +generation or two ago is in itself of slight value. Since the success of +"Evelina," women have been freely permitted to jingle pretty verses for +family newspapers, and to _novelize_ morbid sentiments of the feebler +sort. And we see one legitimate result in that flightiness of the +feminine mind which, in a lower stratum of current literature, displays +inaccurate opinions, feeble prejudices, and finally blossoms into pert +vulgarity. But instances of perverted license increase our obligation to +Mrs. Child, Mrs. Stowe and to others whose eloquence is only in deeds. +Of such as these, and of her whom we may now associate with them, it is +not impossible some unborn historian may write, that in certain great +perils of American liberty, when the best men could only offer rhetoric, +women came forward with demonstration. Yet, after all, our deepest +indebtedness to the present series of volumes seems to be this: they +bear gentle testimony to what the wise ever believed, that the delicacy +of spirit we love to characterize by the dear word "womanly" is not +inconsistent with varied and exact information, independent opinion, and +the insights of genius. + +Finally, we venture to mention, what has been in the minds of many +New-England readers, that these books are indissolubly associated with a +young life offered in the nation's great necessity. At the time when the +first of the series was made public, a shudder ran through our homes, as +a regiment, rich in historic names, stood face to face with death. Among +the fallen was the only son of her whose writings have been given us. +Let us think without bitterness of the sacrifice of one influenced and +formed by the rare nature we find in these poems. What better result of +culture than to dissipate intellectual mists and uncertainties, and to +fix the grasp firmly upon some great practical good? There is nothing +wasted in one who lived long enough to show that the refinement acquired +and inherited was of the noble kind which could prefer the roughest +action for humanity to elegant allurements of gratified taste. The best +gift of scholarship is the power it gives a man to descend with all the +force of his acquired position, and come into effective union with the +world of facts. For it is the crucial test of brave qualities that they +are truer and more practical for being filtered through libraries. In +reading the "Theages" of Plato we feel a certain respect for the young +seeker of wisdom whose only wish is to associate with Socrates; and +there is a certain admiration for the father, Demodocus, who joyfully +resigns his son, if the teacher will admit him to his friendship and +impart all that he can. But it is a higher result of a higher order of +society, when a young man with aptitude to follow science and assimilate +knowledge sees in the most perilous service of civilization a rarer +illumination of mind and heart. In the great scheme of things, where all +grades of human worthiness are shown for the benefit of man, this costly +instruction shall not fail of fruit. And so the deepest moral that comes +to us from the "Tragedy of Errors" seems a prophetic memorial of the +soldier for constitutional liberty with whom it will be long connected. +The wealth of life--so we read the final meaning of these verses--is in +its discipline; and the graceful dreams of the poet, and the quickened +intellect of the scholar, are but humble instruments for the helping of +mankind. + + +_A Discourse on the Life, Character, and Policy of Count Cavour_. +Delivered in the Hall of the New York Historical Society, February 20, +1862. By VINCENZO BOTTA, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Literature in the +New York University, late Member of the Parliament, and Professor of +Philosophy in the Colleges of Sardinia. New York: G.P. Putnam. 8vo. pp. +108. + +This is a most admirable tribute to one of the greatest men of our age, +by a writer singularly well qualified in all respects to do justice +to his rich and comprehensive theme. Professor Botta is a native of +Northern Italy, in the first place, and thus by inheritance and natural +transmission is heir to a great deal of knowledge as to the important +movements of which Cavour was the mainspring, which a foreigner could +acquire only by diligent study and inquiry. In the next place, he has +not been exclusively a secluded student, but he has taken part in the +great political drama which he commemorates, and has been brought into +personal relations with the illustrious man whose worth he here sets +forth with such ample knowledge, such generous devotion, such patriotic +fervor. And lastly, he is a man of distinguished literary ability, +wielding the language of his adopted country with an ease and grace +which hardly leave a suspicion that he was not writing his vernacular +tongue. A namesake of his--whether a relation or not, we are not +informed--has written "in very choice Italian" a history of the American +Revolution; and the work before us, relating in such excellent English +the leading events of a glorious Italian revolution, is a partial +payment of the debt of gratitude contracted by the publication of that +classical production. + +But a writer of inferior opportunities and inferior capacity to +Professor Botta could hardly have failed to produce an attractive and +interesting work, with such a subject. There never was a life which +stood less in need of the embellishments of rhetoric, which could rest +more confidently and securely upon its plain, unvarnished truth, than +that of Count Cavour. He was a man of the highest order of greatness; +and when we have said that, we have also said that he was a man of +simplicity, directness, and transparency. A man of the first class is +always easily interpreted and understood. The biographer of Cavour has +nothing to do but to recount simply and consecutively what he said and +what he did, and his task is accomplished: no great statesman has less +need of apology or justification; no one's name is less associated with +doubtful acts or questionable policy. His ends were not more noble than +was the path in which he moved towards them direct. Professor Botta +has fully comprehended the advantages derived from the nature of his +subject, and has confined himself to the task of relating in simple +and vigorous English the life and acts of Cavour from his birth to his +death. He has given us a rapid and condensed summary, but nothing of +importance is omitted, and surely enough is told to vindicate for Cavour +the highest rank which the enthusiastic admiration and gratitude of his +countrymen have accorded to him. Where can we find a nobler life? And, +take him all in all, whom shall we pronounce to have been a greater +statesman? What variety of power he showed, and what wealth of resources +he had at command! Without the pride and coldness of Pitt, the private +vices of Fox, the tempestuous and ill-regulated sensibility of Burke, he +had the useful and commanding intellectual qualities of all the three, +except the splendid and imaginative eloquence of the last. + +This life of Cavour, and the incidental sketches of his associates which +it includes, will have a tendency to correct some of the erroneous +impressions current among us as to the intellectual qualities and +temperament of the Italian people. The common, or, at least, a very +prevalent, notion concerning them is that they are an impassioned, +imaginative, excitable, visionary race, capable of brilliant individual +efforts, but deficient in the power of organization and combination, +and in patience and practical sagacity. Some of us go, or have gone, +farther, and have supposed that the Austrian domination in Italy was the +necessary consequence of want of manliness and persistency in the people +of Italy, and was perhaps as much for their good as the dangerous boon +of independence would have been. All such prejudices will be removed by +a candid perusal of this memoir. Cavour himself, as a statesman and a +man, was of exactly that stamp which we flatter ourselves to be the +exclusive growth of America and England. He was nothing of a visionary, +nothing of a political pedant, nothing of a _doctrinaire_. Franklin +himself had not a more practical understanding, or more of large, plain, +roundabout sense. He had, too, Franklin's shrewdness, his love of humor, +and his relish for the natural pleasures of life. He had a large amount +of patience, the least showy, but perhaps the most important, of the +qualifications of a great statesman. And in his glorious career he was +warmly and generously sustained, not merely by the king, and by the +favored classes, but by the people, whose efforts and sacrifices have +shown how worthy they were of the freedom they have won. We speak here +more particularly of the people of the kingdom of Sardinia; but what we +say in praise of them may be extended to the people of Italy generally. +The history of Italy for the last fifteen years is a glorious chapter +in the history of the world. Whatever of active courage and passive +endurance has in times past made the name of Roman illustrious, the +events of these years have proved to belong equally to the name of +Italian. + +But we are wandering from Count Cavour and Professor Botta. We have to +thank the latter for enriching the literature of his adopted country +with a memoir which in the lucid beauty and transparent flow of its +style reminds the Italian scholar of the charm of Boccaccio's limpid +narrative, and is besides animated with a patriot's enthusiasm and +elevated by a statesman's comprehension. A more cordial, heart-warming +book we have not for a long time read. + + +_A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation_. By THADDEUS +WILLIAM HARRIS, M.D. A New Edition, enlarged and improved, with +Additions from the Author's Manuscripts, and Original Notes. Illustrated +by Engravings drawn from Nature under the Supervision of Professor +Agassiz. Edited by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts +State Board of Agriculture. 8vo. + +This handsome octavo, prepared with such scientific care, is for +the special benefit of Agriculture; and the order, method, and +comprehensiveness so evident throughout the Treatise compel the +admiration of all who study its beautifully illustrated pages. The +community is largely benefited by such an aid to the improvement of +pursuits in which so many are concerned; and no cultivator of the soil +can safely be ignorant of what Dr. Harris has studied and put on record +for the use of those whose honorable occupation it is to till the earth. + +As a work of Art we cannot refrain from special praise of the book +before us. Turning over its leaves is like a spring or summer ramble in +the country. All creeping and flying things seem harmlessly swarming in +vivid beauty of color over its pages. Such gorgeous moths we never +saw before out of the flower-beds, and there are some butterflies and +caterpillars reposing here and there between the leaves that must have +slipped in and gone to sleep on a fine warm day in July. + +The printing of the volume reaches the highest rank of excellence. +Messrs. Welch, Bigelow, & Company may take their place among the +Typographical Masters of this or any other century. + + +_Pictures of Old England_. By DR. REINHOLD PAULI, Author of "History of +Alfred the Great," etc. Translated, with the Author's Sanction, by E.C. +OTT. Cambridge [England]: Macmillan & Co. Small 8vo. pp. xii., 457. + +Dr. Pauli is already known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author +of two works of acknowledged learning and ability,--a "History of +England during the Middle Ages," and a "History of Alfred the Great." +In his new volume he furnishes some further fruits of his profound +researches into the social and political history of England in the +Middle Ages; and if the book will add little or nothing to his present +reputation, it affords at least new evidence of his large acquaintance +with English literature. It comprises twelve descriptive essays on as +many different topics, closely connected with his previous studies. +Among the best of these are the papers entitled "Monks and Mendicant +Friars," which give a brief and interesting account of monastic +institutions in England; "The Hanseatic Steel-Yard in London," +comprising a history of that famous company of merchant-adventurers, +with a description of the buildings occupied by them, and a sketch of +their domestic life; and "London in the Middle Ages," which presents an +excellent description of the topography and general condition of the +city during that period, and is illustrated by a small and carefully +drawn plan. There are also several elaborate essays on the early +relations of England with the Continent, besides papers on "The +Parliament in the Fourteenth Century," "Two Poets, Gower and Chaucer," +"John Wiclif," (as Dr. Pauli spells the name,) and some other topics. +All the papers show an adequate familiarity with the original sources of +information, and are marked by the same candor and impartiality which +have hitherto characterized Dr. Pauli's labors. The translation, without +being distinguished by any special graces of style, is free from the +admixture of foreign idioms, and, so far as one may judge from the +internal evidence, appears to be faithfully executed. As a collection of +popular essays, the volume is worthy of much praise. + + +_The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt_. Edited by his Eldest Son. London: +Smith, Elder, & Co. 1862. 2 vols. 12mo. + +In Lamb's famous controversy with Southey in 1823, (the only controversy +"Elia" ever indulged in,) he says of the author of "Rimini," "He is one +of the most cordial-minded men I ever knew, and matchless as a fireside +companion." + +Few authors have had warmer admirers of their writings, or more sincere +personal friends, than Leigh Hunt. He seemed always to inspire earnestly +and lovingly every one who came into friendly relations with him. When +Shelley inscribed his "Cenci" to him in 1819, he expressed in this +sentence of the Dedication what all have felt who have known Leigh Hunt +intimately:-- + +"Had I known a person more highly endowed than yourself with all that it +becomes a man to possess, I had solicited for this work the ornament of +his name. One more gentle, honorable, innocent, and brave,--one of more +exalted toleration for all who do and think evil, and yet himself more +free from evil,--one who knows better how to receive and how to confer a +benefit, though he must ever confer far more than he can receive,--one +of simpler, and, in the highest sense of the word, of purer life and +manners, I never knew; and I had already been fortunate in friendship +when your name was added to the list." + +With this immortal record of his excellence made by Shelley's hand, +Leigh Hunt cannot be forgotten. Counting among his friends the best men +and women of his time, his name and fame are embalmed in their books +as they were in their hearts. Charles Lamb, Keats, Shelley, and Mrs. +Browning knew his worth, and prized it far above praising him; and there +are those still living who held him very dear, and loved the sound of +his voice like the tones of a father or a son. + +A man's letters betray his heart,--both those he sends and those he +receives. Leigh Hunt's correspondence, as here collected by his son, is +full of the wine of life in the best sense of _spirit_. + + +_The Works of Charles Dickens_. Household Edition. _Martin Chuzzlewit_. +New York: Sheldon & Company. + +It is not our intention, at the present writing, to enter into any +discussion concerning the characteristics or the value of the novels of +Charles Dickens: we have neither time nor space for it. Besides, to few +of our readers do these books need introduction or recommendation from +us. They have long been accepted by the world as worthy to rank among +those works of genius which harmonize alike with the thoughtful mind of +the cultivated and the simple feelings of the unlearned,--which discover +in every class and condition of men some truth or beauty for all +humanity. They are, in the full sense of the word, _household_ books, as +indispensable as Shakspeare or Milton, Scott or Irving. + +We may fairly say of the various editions of Dickens's writings, that +their "name is Legion." None of them all, however, is better adapted to +common libraries than the new edition now publishing in New York. It +will be comprised in fifty volumes, to be published in instalments +at intervals of six or eight weeks. The mechanical execution is most +commendable in every respect: clear, pleasantly tinted paper; typography +in the best style of the Riverside Press; binding novel and tasteful. A +vignette, designed either by Darley or Gilbert, and engraved upon steel, +is prefixed to each volume. We have to congratulate the publishers that +they have so successfully fulfilled the promises of their prospectus, +and the public that an edition at once elegant and inexpensive is now +provided. + + + + +FOREIGN LITERATURE. + + +_Die Schweizerische Literatur des achzehnten Jahrhunderts_. Von T.C. +MRIKOFER. Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel. 8vo. pp. 536. + +In the early part of the Middle Ages Switzerland contributed +comparatively little to the literary glory of Germany. Beyond Conrad +of Wrzburg, who is claimed as a native of Basel, no Swiss name can be +found among the poets of the Hohenstaufen period. In a later age it is +rather the practical than the romantic character of the Swiss that is +manifested in their productions. The Reformation brought them in closer +contact with German culture. There was need of this; for in no country +was the gap wider between the language of the people and that of the +learned. Scholars like Zwinglius and Bullinger were almost helpless, +when they sought to express themselves in German. Little appeal could, +therefore, be made to the masses in their own tongue by such writers. +During the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the +vernacular was even more neglected than before. It was not until the +beginning of the eighteenth that Latin and French ceased to be the only +languages deemed worthy of use in literary composition. In 1715 Johannes +Muralt wrote his "Eidgnszischen Lustgarten," and later several other +works, mostly scientific, in German. Political causes came in to help +the reaction, and from that time the Protestant portion of the Helvetic +Confederation may be said to have had a literature of its own. + +It is the history of the literature of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century that Mrikofer has essayed to write. He has chosen a +subject hitherto but little studied, and his work deserves to stand by +the side of the best German literary histories of our time. + +The author begins with the first signs of the reaction against the +influence of France, agreeably portraying the awakening of Swiss +consciousness, and the gradual development of the enlightened patriotism +that impelled Swiss writers to lay aside mere courtly elegance of +diction for their own more terse and vigorous idiom. + +This awakening was not confined to letters. Formerly the Swiss, instead +of appreciating the beauties of their own land, rather considered them +as impediments to the progress of civilization. It seems incredible to +us now that there ever could have been a time when mountain-scenery, +instead of being sought, was shunned,--when princes possessing the most +beautiful lands among the Rhine hills should, with great trouble +and expense, have transported their seats to some flat, uninviting +locality,--when, for instance, the dull, flat, prosy, wearisome gardens +of Schwetzingen should have been deemed more beautiful than the +immediate environs of Heidelberg. Yet such were the sentiments that +prevailed in Switzerland until a comparatively late date. It is only +since the days of Scheuchzer that Swiss scenery has been appreciated, +and in this appreciation were the germs of a new culture. + +As in Germany societies had been established "for the practice of +German" at Leipsic and Hamburg, so in various Swiss cities associations +were formed with the avowed purpose of discouraging the imitation of +French models. Thus, at Zrich several literary young men, among them +Hagenbuch and Lavater, met at the house of the poet Bodmer. The example +was followed in other cities. Though these clubs and their periodical +organs soon fell into an unwarrantable admiration of all that was +English, the result was a gradual development of the national taste. +Since then the literary efforts of the Swiss have been characterized by +an ardent love of country. A direct popular influence may be felt in +their best productions; hence the nature of their many beauties, as well +as of their faults. To the same influence also we owe that phalanx of +reformers and philanthropists, Hirzel, Iselin, Lavater, and Pestalozzi. + +A great portion of the work under consideration is devoted to the lives +and labors of these benefactors of their people. The book is, therefore, +not a literary history in the strict sense of the term. It gives a +comprehensive view of the culture of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century. To Bodmer alone one hundred and seventy-five pages +are devoted. In this essay, as well as in that on the historian Mller, +a vast amount of information is presented, and many facts collated by +the author are now given, we believe, for the first time. + + +_Literaturbilder.--Darstellungen deutscher Literatur aus den Werken der +vorzglichsten Literarhistoriker_, etc. Herausgegeben von J.W. SCHAEFER. +Leipzig: Friedrich Brandstetter. 8vo. pp. 409. + +There is no lack of German literary histories. While English letters +have not yet found an historian, there are scores of works upon every +branch of German literature. Of these, many possess rare merits, and are +characterized by a depth, a comprehensiveness of criticism not to be +found in the similar productions of any other nation. Whoever has once +been guided by the master-minds of Germany will bear witness that the +guidance cannot be replaced by that of any other class of writers. +Nowhere can such universality, such freedom from national prejudice, be +found,--and this united to a love of truth, earnestness of labor, and +perseverance of research that may be looked for in vain elsewhere. + +The difficulty for the student of German literary history lies, then, in +the selection. A new work, the "Literaturbilder" of J.W. Schaefer, will +greatly tend to facilitate the choice. This is a representation of +the chief points of the literature of Germany by means of well-chosen +selections from the principal historians of letters. The editor +introduces these by an essay upon the "Epochs of German Literature." +Then follow, with due regard to chronological order, extracts from the +works of Vilmar, Gervinus, Wackernagel, Schlosser, Julian Schmidt, and +others. These extracts are of such length as to give a fair idea of the +writers, and so arranged as to form a connected history. Thus, under +the third division, comprising the eighteenth century until Herder and +Goethe, we find the following articles following each other: "State of +Literature in the Eighteenth Century"; "Johann Christian Gottsched," by +F.C. Schlosser; "Gottsched's Attempts at Dramatic Reform," by R. Prutz; +"Hagedorn and Haller," by J.W. Schaefer; "Bodmer and Breitinger," by +A. Koberstein; "The Leipsic Association of Poets and the Bremen +Contributions," by Chr. F. Weisse; "German Literature in the Middle of +the Eighteenth Century," by Goethe; "Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener," by H. +Gelzer; "Gellert's Fables," by H. Prutz. Those who do not possess the +comprehensive works of Gervinus, Cholerius, Wackernagel, etc., may thus +in one volume find enough to be able to form a fair opinion of the +nature of their labors. + +The "Literaturbilder," though perhaps lacking in unity, is one of the +most attractive of literary histories. A few important names are missed, +as that of Menzel, from whom nothing is quoted. The omission seems the +more unwarrantable, as this writer, whatever we may think of his views, +still enjoys the highest consideration among a numerous class of German +readers. The contributions of the editor himself form no inconsiderable +part of the volume. Those quoted from his "Life of Goethe" deserve +special mention. The work does not extend beyond the first years of the +present century, and closes with Jean Paul. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Martin Chuzzlewit. In Four +Volumes. New York. Sheldon & Co. 16mo. pp. 322, 299, 292, 322. $3.00. + +The Earl's Heirs. A Tale of Domestic Life. By the Author of "East +Lynne," etc. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. +200. 50 cts. + +The Spirit of Military Institutions; or, Essential Principles of the Art +of War. By Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa. Translated from the Latest +Edition, revised and corrected by the Author; with Illustrative Notes +by Henry Coppe, Professor of English Literature in the University of +Pennsylvania, late an Officer of Artillery in the Service of the United +States. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 272. $1.00. + +Maxims, Advice, and Instructions on the Art of War; or, A Practical +Military Guide for the Use of Soldiers of all Arms and of all Countries. +Translated from the French by Captain Lendy, Director of the Practical +Military College, late of the French Staff, etc. New York. D. Van +Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 212. 75 cts. + +Rhymed Tactics. By "Gov." New York. D. Van Nostrand. 18mo. paper, pp. +144. 25 cts. + +Official Army Register, for 1862. From the Copy issued by the +Adjutant-General U.S. Army. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. paper, pp. +108. 50 cts. + +Water: Its History, Characteristics, Hygienic and Therapeutic Uses. By +Samuel W. Francis, A.M., M.D., Physician to the Northern Dispensary, New +York. New York. S.S. & W. Wood. 8vo. paper, pp. 47. 25 cts. + +An Exposition of Modern Spiritualism, showing its Tendency to a Total +Annihilation of Christianity. With other Miscellaneous Remarks and +Criticisms, in Support of the Fundamental Principles of the Christian +Religion. By Samuel Post. New York. Printed by James Egbert. 8vo. paper, +pp. 86. 25 cts. + +Sybelle, and other Poems. By L. New York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 192. +50 cts. + +Aids to Faith: A Series of Theological Essays. By Several Writers. Being +a Reply to "Essays and Reviews." Edited by William Thomson, D.D., Lord +Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +538. $1.50. + +A Popular Treatise on Deafness: Its Causes and Prevention, by Drs. +Lighthill. Edited by E. Bunford Lighthill, M.D. With Illustrations. New +York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 133. 50 cts. + +Cadet Life at West Point. By an Officer of the United States Army. +With a Descriptive Sketch of West Point, by Benson J. Lossing. Boston. +T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. xviii., 367. $1.00. + +Can Wrong be Right? By Mrs. S.C. Hall Boston. T.O.H.P. Burnham. 8vo. +paper. pp. 143. 38 cts. + +The Old Lieutenant and his Son. By Norman Macleod. Boston. T.O.H.P. +Burnham, 8vo. paper, pp. 130. 30 cts. + +Eighth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of +the State of New York. Transmitted to the Legislature January 8,1882. +Albany. C. Van Benthuysen, Printer. 8vo. pp. 133. + +Nolan's System for Training Cavalry Horses. By Kenner Garrard, Captain +Fifth Cavalry, U.S.A. With Twenty-Four Lithographed Illustrations. New +York. D. Van Nostrand. 12mo. pp. 114. $1.50. + +The Koran; commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated into +English immediately from the Original Arabic. By George Sale, Gent. To +which is prefixed The Life of Mohammed; or, The History of that Doctrine +which was begun, carried on, and finally established by him in Arabia, +and which has subjugated a Larger Portion of the Globe than the Religion +of Jesus has set at Liberty. Boston. T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. 472. +$1,00. + +A Strange Story. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. With Engravings on Steel by +F.O. Freeman, after Drawings by J.N. Hyde, from Designs by Gardner A. +Fuller. Boston. Gardner A. Fuller. 12mo. pp. 387. paper, 25 cts. muslin, +$1.00. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, +1862, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 12107-8.txt or 12107-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/1/0/12107/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page scans provided by Cornell University. + + +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. 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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 + + diff --git a/old/12107-8.zip b/old/12107-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9685654 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12107-8.zip diff --git a/old/12107.txt b/old/12107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e25ec1e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8736 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page scans provided by Cornell University. + + + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX.--MAY, 1862.--NO. LV. + + + + * * * * * + +MAN UNDER SEALED ORDERS. + + +A vessel of war leaves its port, but no one on board knows for what +object, nor whither it is bound. It is a secret Government expedition. +As it sets out, a number of documents, carefully sealed, are put in +charge of the commander, in which all his instructions are contained. +When far away from his sovereign, these are to be the authority which he +must obey; as he sails on in the dark, these are to be the lights on the +deep by which he must steer. They provide for every stage of the way. +They direct what ports to approach and what ports to avoid, what to do +in different seas, what variation to make in certain contingencies, and +what acts to perform at certain opportunities. Each paper of the series +forbids the opening of the next until its own directions have been +fulfilled; so that no one can see beyond the immediate point for which +he is making. + +The wide ocean is before that ship, and a wider mystery. But in the +passage of time, as the strange cruise proceeds, its course begins to +tell upon the chart. The zigzag line, like obscure chirography, has an +intelligible look, and seems to spell out intimations. As order after +order is opened, those sibyl leaves of the cabin commence to prophesy, +glimpses multiply, surmises come quick, and shortly the whole ship's +company more than suspect, from the accumulating _data_ behind them, +what must be their destination, and the mission they have been sent to +accomplish. + +People are beginning to imagine that the career of the human race is +something like this. There is a fast-growing conviction that man has +been sent out, from the first, to fulfil some inexplicable purpose, and +that he holds a Divine commission to perform a wonderful work on the +earth. It would seem as if his marvellous brain were the bundle of +mystic scrolls on which it is written, and within which its terms are +hid,--and as if his imperishable soul were the great seal, bearing the +Divine image and superscription, which attests its Almighty original. + +This commission is yet obscure. It has so far only gradually opened to +him, for he is sailing under sealed orders. He is still led on from +point to point. But the farther he goes, and the more his past gathers +behind him, the better is he able to imagine what must be before him. +His chart is every day getting more full of amazing indications. He is +beginning to feel about him the increasing press of some Providential +design that has been permeating and moulding age after age, and to +discover that be has been all along unconsciously prosecuting a secret +mission. And so it comes at last that everything new takes that look; +every evolution of mind, every addition to knowledge, every discovery of +truth, every novel achievement appearing like the breaking of seals and +opening of rolls, in the performance of an inexhaustible and mysterious +trust that has been committed to his hands. + +It is the purpose of this paper to collect together some of these facts +and incidents of progress, in order to show that this is not a mere +dream, but a stupendous reality. History shall be the inspiration of our +prophecy. + +There is a past to be recounted, a present to be described, and a future +to be foretold. An immense review for a magazine article, and it will +require some ingenuity to be brief and graphic at the same time. In the +attempt to get as much as possible into the smallest space, many things +will have to be omitted, and some most profound particulars merely +glanced at; but enough will be furnished, perhaps, to make the point we +have in view. + +We may compare human progress to a tall tree which has reared itself, +slowly and imperceptibly, through century after century, hardly more +than a bare trunk, with here and there only the slight outshoot of some +temporary exploit of genius, but which in this age gives the signs of +that immense foliage and fruitage which shall in time embower the whole +earth. We see but its spring-time of leaf,--for it is only within fifty +years that this rich outburst of wonders began. We live in an era when +progress is so new as to be a matter of amazement. A hundred years +hence, perhaps it will have become so much a matter of course to +develop, to expand, and to discover, that it will excite no comment. But +it is yet novel, and we are yet fresh. Therefore we may gaze back at +what has been, and gaze forward at what is promised to be, with more +likelihood of being impressed than if we were a few centuries older. + +If we look down at the roots out of which this tree has risen, and then +up at its spreading branches,--omitting its intermediate trunk of ages, +through which its processes have been secretly working,--perhaps we may +realize in a briefer space the wonder of it all. + +In the beginning of history, according to received authority, there +was but a little tract of the earth occupied, and that by one family, +speaking but one tongue, and worshipping but one God,--all the rest of +the world being an uninhabited wild. At _this_ stage of history the +whole globe is explored, covered with races of every color, a host of +nations and languages, with every diversity of custom, development of +character, and form of religion. The physical bound from that to this is +equalled only by the leap which the world of mind has made. + +Once upon a time a man hollowed a tree, and, launching it upon the +water, found that it would bear him up. After this a few little floats, +creeping cautiously near the land, were all on which men were wont to +venture. _Now_ there are sails fluttering on every sea, prodigious +steamers throbbing like leviathans against wind and wave; harbors are +built, and rocks and shoals removed; lighthouses gleam nightly from ten +thousand stations on the shore; the great deep itself is sounded by +plummet and diving-bell; the submarine world is disclosed; and man +is gathering into his hands the laws of the very winds that toss its +surface. + +Once the earth had a single rude, mud-built hamlet, in which human +dwellings were first clustered together. _Now_ it is studded with +splendid cities, strewn thick with towns and villages, diversified by +infinite varieties of architecture: sumptuous buildings, unlike in every +clime, each as if sprung from its own soil and made out of its air. + +Once there were only the elementary discoveries of the lever, the wedge, +the bended bow, the wheel; Tubal worked in iron and copper, and Naamah +twisted threads. Since then what a jump the mechanical arts have made! +These primitive elements are now so intricately combined that we can +hardly recognize them; new forces have been added, new principles +evolved; ponderous engines, like moving mountains of iron, shake the +very earth; many-windowed factories, filled with complex machinery +driven by water or its vapor, clatter night and day, weaving the plain +garments of the poor man and the rich robes of the prince, the curtains +of the cottage and the upholstery of the palace. + +Once there were but the spear and bow and shield, and hand-to-hand +conflicts of brute strength. See now the whole enginery of war, the art +of fortification, the terrific perfection of artillery, the mathematical +transfer of all from the body to the mind, till the battlefield is but +a chess-board, and the battle is really waged in the brains of the +generals. How astonishing was that last European field of Solferino, +ten miles in sweep,--with the balloon floating above it for its spy +and scout,--with the thread-like wire trailing in the grass, and +the lightning coursing back and forth, Napoleon's ubiquitous +aide-de-camp,--with railway-trains, bringing reinforcements into the +midst of the _melee_, and their steam-whistle shrieking amid the +thunders of battle! And what a picture of even greater magnificence, in +some respects, is before us to-day! A field not of ten, but ten +thousand miles in sweep! McClellan, standing on the eminence of present +scientific achievement, is able to overlook half the breadth of a +continent, and the widely scattered detachments of a host of six hundred +thousand men. The rail connects city with city; the wire hangs between +camp and camp, and reaches from army to army. Steam is hurling his +legions from one point to another; electricity brings him intelligence, +and carries his orders; the aeronaut in the sky is his field-glass +searching the horizon. It is practically but one great battle that is +raging beneath him, on the Potomac, in the mountains of Virginia, +down the valley of the Mississippi, in the interiors of Kentucky and +Tennessee, along the seaboard, and on the Gulf coast. The combatants are +hidden from each other, but under the chieftain's eye the dozen armies +are only the squadrons of a single host, their battles only the separate +conflicts of a single field, the movements of the whole campaign only +the evolutions of a prolonged engagement. The spectacle is a good +illustration of the day. Under the magic of progress, war in its essence +and vitality is really diminishing, even while increasing in _materiel_ +and grandeur. Neither time nor space will permit the old and tedious +contests of history to be repeated. Military science has entered upon a +new era, nearer than ever to the period when wars shall cease. + +But to go on with a few more contrasts of the past with the present. +Once men wrote only in symbols, like wedges and arrow-heads, on +tiles and bricks, or in hieroglyphic pictures on obelisks and +sepulchres,--afterward in crude, but current characters on stone, metal, +wax, and papyrus. In a much later age appeared the farthest perfection +of the invention: books engrossed on illuminated rolls of vellum, and +wound on cylinders of boxwood, ivory, or gold,--and then put away like +richest treasures of art. What a difference between perfection then and +progress now! To-day the steam printing-press throws out its sheets in +clouds, and fills the world with books. Vast libraries are the vaulted +catacombs of modern times, in which the dead past is laid away, and the +living present takes refuge. The glory of costly scrolls is dimmed by +the illustrated and typographical wonders which make the bookstore a +gorgeous dream. Knowledge, no longer rare, no longer lies in precarious +accumulations within the cells of some poor monk's crumbling brain, but +swells up like the ocean, universal and imperishable, pouring into the +vacant recesses of all minds as the ocean pours into the hollows under +its shore. To-day, newspapers multiplied by millions whiten the whole +country every morning, like the hoar-frost; and books, numerous and +brilliant as the stars, seem by a sort of astral influence to unseal the +latent destinies of many an intellect, as by their illumination they +stimulate thought and activity everywhere. + +Once art seemed to have reached perfection in the pictures and +sculptures of Greece and Rome. Yet now those master-pieces are not only +equalled on canvas and in fresco, but reproduced by tens of thousands +from graven sheets of copper, steel, and even blocks of wood,--or, if +modelled in marble or bronze, are remodelled by hundreds, and set up in +countless households as the household gods. It is the glory of to-day +that the sun himself has come down to be the rival and teacher of +artists, to work wonders and perform miracles in art. He is the +celestial limner who shall preserve the authentic faces of every +generation from now until the world is no more. He holds the mirror up +to Nature, paralyzes the fleeting phantom, by chemical subtilty, on the +burnished plate,--and there it is fixed forever. He prepares the optical +illusion of the stereoscope, so that through tiny windows we may look as +into fairy-land and find sections of this magnificent world modelled in +miniature. + +Once men imagined the earth to be a flat and limited tract. Now they +realize that it is a ponderous ball floating in infinite ether. Once +they thought the sky was a solid blue concave, studded with blazing +points, an empire of fate, the gold-and-azure floor of the abode of +gods and spirits. Now all that is dissolved away; the wandering planets +become at will broad disks, like sisters of the moon; and countless +millions of stars are now mirrored in the same retina with which the +Magi saw the few thousands of the firmament that were visible from the +plains of Chaldea. + +Once men were aware of nothing in the earth beneath its hills and +valleys and teeming soil. Now they walk consciously over the ruins +of old worlds; they can decipher the strange characters and read the +strange history graven on these gigantic tablets. The stony veil is +rent, and they can look inimitable periods back, and see the curious +animals which then moved up and down in the earth. + +Once a glass bubble was a wonder for magnifying power. Now the lenses of +the microscope bring an inverted universe to light. Men can look into a +drop and discover an ocean crowded with millions of living creatures, +monsters untypified in the visible world, playing about as in a great +deep. + +Once a Roman emperor prized a mysterious jewel because it brought the +gladiators contending in the arena closer to the imperial canopy. Now +observatories, with their revolving domes, crown the heights at every +centre of civilization, and the mighty telescope, poised on exquisite +mechanism, turns infinite space into a Coliseum, brings its invisible +luminaries close to the astronomer's seat, and reveals the harmonies and +splendors of those distant works of God. + +Once the supposed elements were fire, and water, and earth, and air; +once the amber was unique in its peculiar property, and the loadstone +in its singular power. Now chemistry holds in solution the elements and +secrets of creation; now electricity would seem to be the veil which +hangs before the soul; now the magnetic needle, true to the loadstar, +trembles on the sea, to make the mariner brave and the haven sure. + +We have by no means exhausted the wonders that have accumulated upon +man, in being accumulated by man. Their enumeration would be almost +endless. But we leave all to mention one, with which there is nothing of +old time to compare. It had no beginning then,--not even a germ. It is +the peculiar leap and development of the age in which we live. Many +things have combined to bring it to pass. + +A spirit that had been hid, since the world began, in a coffer of metal +and acid,--the genie of the lightning,--shut down, as by the seal of +Solomon in the Arabian tale, was let loose but the other day, and +commenced to do the bidding of man. Every one found that he could +transport his thought to the ends of the earth in the twinkling of an +eye. That spirit, with its electric wings, soon flew from city to city, +and whithersoever the magnetic wire could be traced through the air, +till the nations of all Europe stood as face to face, and the States +of this great Union gazed one upon another. It made a continent like a +household,--a cluster of peoples like members of a family,--each within +hearing of the other's voice. + +But one achievement remained to be performed before the whole world +could become one. The ocean had hitherto hopelessly severed the globe +into two hemispheres. Could man make it a single sphere? Could man, like +Moses, smite the waves with his electric rod, and lead the legions of +human thought across dry shod? He could,--and he did. We all remember +it well. A range of submarine mountains was discovered, stretching from +America to Europe. Their top formed a plateau, which, lying within two +miles of the surface, offered an undulating shoal within human reach. A +fleet of steamers, wary of storms, one day cautiously assembled midway +over it. They caught the monster asleep, safely uncoiled the wire, and +laid it from shore to shore. The treacherous, dreadful, omnipotent ocean +was conquered and bound! + +How the heart of the two worlds leaped when the news came! Then, more +than at any time before, were most of us startled into a conviction of +how _real_ progress was,--how tremendous, and limitless, apparently, the +power which God had put into man. Not that this, in itself, was greater +than that which had preceded it, but it was the climax of all. The +mechanical feat awoke more enthusiasm than even the scientific +achievement which was its living soul,--not because it was more +wonderful, but because it dispelled our last doubt. We all began to form +a more definite idea of something great to come, that was yet lying +stored away in the brain,--laid there from the beginning. Like the +Magian on the heights of Moab, as he saw the tents of Israel and the +tabernacle of God in the distance, we grew big with an involuntary +vision, and were surprised into prophecies. + +It was wonderful to see the Queen of England, on one side of that chasm +of three thousand miles, wave a greeting to the President, and the +President wave back a greeting to the Queen. But it was glorious to see +that chord quiver with the music and the truth of the angelic song:-- + + "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth + peace, + Good-will toward men!" + +Soon, however, came a check to the excitement. For above a score of days +was that mysterious highway kept open from Valentia to Trinity Bay. But +then the spell was lost, the waves flowed back, old ocean rolled on as +before, and the crossing messages perished, like the hosts of Pharaoh in +the sea. + +That the miracle is ended is no indication that it cannot be repeated. +For the very reason that the now dead, inarticulate wire, like an +infant, lisped and stammered once, it is certain that another will +soon be born, which will live to trumpet forth like the angel of +civilization, its minister of flaming fire! No one should abate a jot +from the high hope excited then. No imagination should suffer a cloud on +the picture it then painted. Governments and capitalists have not +been idle, and will not be discouraged. Already Europe and Africa are +connected by an electric tunnel under the sea, five hundred miles in +length; already Malta and Alexandria speak to each other through a tube +lying under thirteen hundred miles of Mediterranean waters; already +Britain bound to Holland and Hanover and Denmark by a triple cord of +sympathy which all the tempests of the German Ocean cannot sever. And if +we come nearer home, we shall find a project matured which will carry a +fiery cordon around the entire coast of our country, linking fortress to +fortress, and providing that last, desperate resource of unity, an outer +girdle and jointed chain of force, to bind together and save a nation +whose inner bonds of peace and love are broken. + +Such energy and such success are enough to revive the expectation and to +guaranty the coming of the day when we shall behold the electric light +playing round the world unquenched by the seas, illuminating the land, +revealing nation to nation, and mingling language with language, as if +the "cloven tongues like as of fire" had appeared again, and "sat upon +each of them." + +It will be a strange period, and yet we shall see it. The word spoken +here under the sun of mid-day, when it speaks at the antipodes, will be +heard under the stars of midnight. Of the world of commerce it may be +written, "There shall be no night there!" and of the ancient clock of +the sun and stars, "There shall be time no longer!" + +When the electric wire shall stretch from Pekin, by successive India +stations, to London, and from India, by leaps from island to island, to +Australia, and from New York westward to San Francisco, (as has been +already accomplished,) and southward to Cape Horn, and across the +Atlantic, or over the Strait to St. Petersburg,--when the endless +circle is formed, and the magic net-work binds continent, and city, and +village, and the isles of the sea, in one,--then who will know the world +we live in, for the change that shall come upon it? + +Time no more! Space no more! Mankind brought into one vast neighborhood! + +Prophesy the greater union of all hearts in this interblending of all +minds. Prophesy the boundless spread of civilization, when all barriers +are swept away. Prophesy the catholicity of that religion in which as +many phases of a common faith shall be endured as there are climes for +the common human constitution and countries in a common world! + +In those days men will carry a watch, not with a single face, as now, +telling only the time of their own region, but a dial-plate subdivided +into the disks of a dozen timepieces, announcing at a glance the hour of +as many meridian stations on the globe. It will be the fair type of +the man who wears it. When human skill shall find itself under this +necessity, and mechanism shall reach this perfection, then the soul +of that man will become also many-disked. He will be alive with the +perpetual consciousness of many zeniths and horizons beside his own, of +many nations far different from his own, of many customs, manners, and +ideas, which he could not share, but is able to account for and respect. + +We can peer as far as this into the future; for what we predict is only +a reasonable deduction from certain given circumstances that are nearly +around us now. We do not lay all the stress upon the telegraph, as if to +attribute everything to it, but because that invention, and its recent +crowning event, are the last great leap which the mind has made, and +because in itself, and in its carrying out, it summoned all the previous +discoveries and achievements of man to its aid. It is their last-born +child,--the greater for its many parents. There is hardly a science, or +an art, or an invention, which has not contributed to it, or which is +not deriving sustenance or inspiration from it. + +This latter fact makes it particularly suggestive. As it was begotten +itself, and is in its turn begetting, so has it been with everything +else in the world of progress. Every scientific or mechanical idea, +every species of discovery, has been as naturally born of one or more +antecedents of its own kind as men are born of men. There is a kith and +kin among all these extraordinary creatures of the brain. They have +their ancestors and descendants; not one is a Melchizedek, without +father, without mother. Every one is a link in a regular order of +generations. Some became extinct with their age, being superseded or no +longer wanted; while others had the power of immense propagation, and +produced an innumerable offspring, which have a family likeness to this +day. The law of cause and effect has no better illustration than the +history of inventions and discoveries. If there were among us an +intellect sufficiently encyclopedic in knowledge and versatile in +genius, it could take every one of these facts and trace its intricate +lineage of principles and mechanisms, step by step, up to the original +Adam of the first invention and the original Eve of the first necessity. + +There is a period between us and these first parents of our present +progress that is strangely obscure. It is a sort of antediluvian age, in +which there were evidently stupendous mechanical powers of some kind, +and an extensive acquaintance with some things. The ruins of Egypt alone +would prove this. But a deluge of oblivion has washed over them, and +left these colossal bones to tell what story they can. The only way to +account for such an extinction is, that they were monstrous contrivances +out of all proportion to their age, spasmodic successes in science, +wonders born out of due time,--deriving no sustenance or support from a +wide and various kindred, and therefore, like the giants which were of +old, dying out with their day. + +It is different with what has taken place since. Every work has come in +its right time, just when best prepared for, and most required. There is +not one but is sustained on every side, and fits into its place, as each +new piece of colored stone in a mosaic is sustained by the progressive +picture. Every one is conserved by its connections. Whatever has been +done is sure,--and the past being secure, the future is guarantied. +It is impossible that the present knowledge in the world should be +extinguished. Nothing but a stroke of imbecility upon the race, nothing +but the destruction of its libraries, nothing but the paralysis of +the printing-press, and the annihilation of these means of +intercommunication,--nothing but some such arbitrary intervention +could accomplish it. The facts already in human possession, and the +constitution of the mind, together insure what we have as imperishable, +and what we are to obtain as illimitable. + +We come now to another suggestive characteristic of the time,--another +of its promises. So far we find Progress gathering fulness and +strength,--making sure of itself. It has also been gathering impetus. It +has been, all along, accumulating momentum, and now it sweeps on with +breathless _rapidity_. The reason is, that, the farther it has gone, the +more it has multiplied its agents. The present generation is not only +carried forward, but is excited in every quarter. The activity and +versatility of the intellect would appear to be inexhaustible. Instead +of getting overstrained, or becoming lethargic, it never was so +powerful, never had so many resources, never was so wide-awake. Men +are busy turning over every stone in their way, in the hope of finding +something new. Nothing would seem too small for human attention, nothing +too great for human undertaking. The government Patent-Office, with +its countless chambers, is not so large a museum of inventions as the +capacious brain of to-day. + +One man is engrossed over an apple-parer; another snatches the needle +from the weary fingers of the seamstress, and offers her in return the +sewing-machine. That man yonder has turned himself into an armory, and +he brings out the deadliest instrument he can produce, something perhaps +that can shoot you at sight, even though you be a speck in the horizon. +His next-door neighbor is an iron workshop, and is forging an armor of +proof for a vessel of war, from which the mightiest balls shall bound +as lightly as the arrows from an old-time breastplate. There is another +searching for that new motive power which shall keep pace with the +telegraph, and hurl the bodies of men through space as fast as their +thoughts are hurled; there is another seeking that electro-magnetic +battery which shall speak instantly and distinctly to the ends of +the earth. The mind of that astronomer is a telescope, through whose +increasing field new worlds float daily by; the mind of that geologist +is a divining-rod, forever bending toward the waters of chaos, and +pointing out new places where a shaft can be sunk into periods of almost +infinite antiquity; the mind of that chemist is a subtile crucible, in +which aboriginal secrets lie disclosed, and within whose depths the true +philosopher's stone will be found; the mind of that mathematician is a +maze of ethereal stair-ways, rising higher and higher toward the heaven +of truth. + +The ambition is everywhere,--in every breast; the power is +everywhere,--in every brain. The giant and the pigmy are alike active +in seeking out and finding out many inventions. And in this very +universality of effort and result we discover another guaranty of the +great future. The river of Progress multiplies its tributaries the +farther it flows, and even now, unknown ages from its mouth, we already +see that magnificent widening of its channel, in which, like the Amazon, +it long anticipates the sea. + +Man, the great achiever! the marvellous magician! Look at him! A head +hardly six feet above the ground out of which he was taken. His "dome +of thought and palace of the soul" scarce twenty-two inches in +circumference; and within it, a little, gray, oval mass of "convoluted +albumen and fibre, of some four pounds' weight," and there sits the +intelligence which has worked all these wonders! An intelligence, say, +six thousand years old next century. How many thousand years more will +it think, and think, and wave the wand, and raise new spirits out of +Nature, open her sealed-up mysteries, scale the stars, and uncover a +universe at home? How long will it be before this inherent power, laid +in it at the beginning by the Almighty, shall be exhausted, and reach +its limit? Yes, how long? We cannot begin to know. We cannot imagine +where the stopping-place could be. Perhaps there is none. + +To take up the nautical figure which has furnished our title,--we are in +the midst of an infinite sea, sailing on to a destination we know not +of, but of which the vague and splendid fancies we have formed hang +before our prow like illusions in the sky. We are meeting on every hand +great opportunities which must not be lost, new achievements which must +be wrought, and strange adventures which must be undertaken: every day +wondering more to what our commission shall bring us at last, full of +magnificent hopes and a growing faith,--the inscrutable bundle of orders +not nearly exhausted: whole continents of knowledge yet to be discovered +and explored; the gates of yet distant sciences to be sought and +unlocked; the fortresses of yet undreamed necessities to be taken; +Arcadias of beauty to be visited and their treasures garnered by the +imagination; an intricate course to be followed amid all future nations +and governments, and their winding histories, as if threading the +devious channels of endless archipelagoes; the spoils of all ages to +be gathered, and treaties of commerce with all generations to be made, +before the mysterious voyage is done. + +And now, before we leave this fascinating theme, or suffer another +dream, let us stop where we are, in order to see where we are. Let us +take our bearings. What says our chart? What do we find in the horizon +of the present, which may give us the wherewithal to hope, to doubt, or +to fear? + +The era in which we live presents some remarkable characteristics, +which have been brought into it by this immense material success. It +is preeminently an age of _reality:_ an age in which a host of +unrealities--queer and strange old notions--have been destroyed forever. +Never were the vaulted spaces in this grand old temple of a world swept +so clean of cobwebs before. The mind has not gone forth working outside +wonders, without effecting equal inside changes. In achieving abroad, it +has been ennobling at home. At no time was it so free from superstition +as now, and from the absurdities which have for centuries beset and +filled it. What numberless delusions, what ghosts, what mysteries, what +fables, what curious ideas, have disappeared before the besom of the +day! The old author long ago foretasted this, who wrote,--"The divine +arts of printing and gunpowder have frightened away Robin Goodfellow, +and all the fairies." It is told of Kepler, that he believed the planets +were borne through the skies in the arms of angels; but science shortly +took a wider sweep, killed off the angels, and showed that the wandering +luminaries had been accustomed from infancy to take care of themselves. +And so has the firmament of all knowledge been cleared of its vapors and +fictions, and been revealed in its solid and shining facts. + +Here, then, lies the great distinction of the time: the accumulation of +_Truth_, and the growing appetite for the true and the real. The year +whirls round like the toothed cylinder in a threshing-machine, blowing +out the chaff in clouds, but quietly dropping the rich kernels within +our reach. And it will always be so. Men will sow their notions and reap +harvests, but the inexorable age will winnow out the truth, and scatter +to the winds whatsoever is error. + +Now we see how that impalpable something has been produced which we call +the "Spirit of the Age,"--that peculiar atmosphere in which we live, +which fills the lungs of the human spirit, and gives vitality and +character to all that men at present think and say and feel and do. It +is this identical spirit of courageous inquiry, honest reality, and +intense activity, wrought up into a kind of universal inspiration, +moving with the same disposition, the same taste, the same thought, +persons whole regions apart and unknown to each other. We are frequently +surprised by coincidences which prove this novel, yet common _afflatus_. +Two astronomers, with the ocean between them, calculate at the same +moment, in the same direction, and simultaneously light upon the same +new orb. Two inventors, falling in with the same necessity, think of the +same contrivance, and meet for the first time in a newspaper war, or +a duel of pamphlets, for the credit of its authorship. A dozen widely +scattered philosophers as quickly hit upon the self-same idea as if +they were in council together. A more rational development of some old +doctrine in divinity springs up in a hundred places at once, as if a +theological epidemic were abroad, or a synod of all the churches were in +session. It has also another peculiarity. The thought which may occur at +first to but one mind seems to have an affinity to all minds; and if +it be a free and generous thought, it is instantly caught, intuitively +comprehended, and received with acclamations all over the world. Such a +spirit as this is rapidly bringing all sections and classes of mankind +into sympathy with one another, and producing a supreme caste in human +nature, which, as it increases in numbers, will mould the character and +control the destinies of the race. + +So far we speak of the upper air of the day. But there is no denying the +prevalence of a lower and baser spirit. We are uncomfortably aware that +there is another extreme to the freaks of the imagination. There are +superstitions of the reason and of realism,--the grotesque fancies, +mysticisms, and vagaries which prevail, and the diseased gusto for +something ultra and outlandish which affects many raw and undisciplined +minds. Yet even these are, in their way, indications of the pervading +disposition,--the unhealthy exhalations to be expected from hitherto +stagnant regions, stirred up by the active and regenerating thought of +the time. There is promise even in them, and they serve to distinguish +the more that purer and higher spirit of honesty and reality, which +clarifies the intellect, and invigorates the faculties that apprehend +and grasp the noble and the true. + +We glory in this triumph of the reason over the imagination, and in this +predominance of the real over the ideal. We prefer that common sense +should lead the van, and that mere fancy, like the tinselled conjurer +behind his hollow table and hollow apparatus, should be taken for what +it is, and that its tricks and surprises should cease to bamboozle, +however much they may amuse mankind. Nothing, in the course of +Providence, conveys so much encouragement as this recent and growing +development of reality in thought and pursuit. In its presence the +future of the world looks substantial and sure. We dream of an immense +change in the tone of the human spirit, and in the character of the +civilization which shall in time embower the earth. + +But, as it has always been, the greater the good, the nearer the evil; +Satan is next-door neighbor to the saint; Eden had a lurking-hole for +the serpent. Just here the voyaging is most dangerous; just here we drop +the plummet and strike upon a shoal; we lift up our eyes, and discover a +lee-shore. + +The mind that is not profound enough to perceive and believe even what +it cannot comprehend,--that is the shoal. Unless the reason will permit +the sounding-lead to fall illimitably down into a submarine world +of mystery, too deep for the diver, and yet a true and living +world,--unless there is admitted to be a fathomless gulf, called +_faith_, underlying the surface-sea of demonstration, the race will +surely ground in time, and go to pieces. There is the peril of this +all-prevailing love of the real. It may become such an infatuation that +nothing will appear actual which is not visible or demonstrable, which +the hand cannot handle or the intellect weigh and measure. Even to this +extreme may the reason run. Its vulnerable point is pride. It is easily +encouraged by success, easily incited to conceit, readily inclined to +overestimate its power. It has a Chinese weakness for throwing up a wall +on its involuntary boundary-line, and for despising and defying all +that is beyond its jurisdiction. The reason may be the greatest or the +meanest faculty in the soul. It may be the most wise or the most foolish +of active things. It may be so profound as to acknowledge a whole +infinitude of truth which it cannot comprehend, or it may be so +superficial as to suspect everything it is asked to believe, and refuse +to trust a fact out of its sight. There is the danger of the day. There +is the lee-shore upon which the tendencies of the age are blowing our +bark: a gross and destructive materialism, which is the horrid and +treacherous development of a shallow realism. + +In the midst of this splendid era there is a fast-increasing class who +are disposed to make the earth the absolute All,--to deny any outlet +from it,--to deny any capacity in man for another sphere,--to deny any +attribute in God which interests Him in man,--to shut out, therefore, +all faith, all that is mysterious, all that is spiritual, all that is +immortal, all that is Divine. + + "There live, alas! of heaven-directed mien, + Of cultured soul, and sapient eye serene, + Who hail thee Man!--the pilgrim of a day, + Spouse of the worm, and brother of the clay, + Frail as the leaf in autumn's yellow bower, + Dust in the wind, or dew upon the flower, + A friendless slave, a child without a sire. + * * * * * + Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim, + Lights of the world, and demigods of Fame? + Is this your triumph, this your proud applause, + Children of Truth, and champions of her cause? + For this hath Science searched on weary wing, + By shore and sea, each mute and living thing? + Launched with Iberia's pilot from the steep, + To worlds unknown, and isles beyond the deep? + Or round the cope her living chariot driven, + And wheeled in triumph through the signs of heaven? + O star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered there, + To waft us home the message of despair?" + +Is shipwreck, after all, to be the end of the mysterious voyage? Yes, +unless there is something else beside materialism in the world. Unless +there is another spirit blowing _off_ that dreadful shore, unless the +chart opens a farther sea, unless the needle points to the same distant +star, unless there are other orders, yet sealed and secret, there is no +further destiny for the race, no further development for the soul. The +intellect, however grand, is not the whole of man. Material progress, +however magnificent, is not the guaranty, not even the cardinal element, +of civilization. And civilization, in the highest possible meaning of +that most expressive word, is that great and final and all-embosoming +harbor toward which all these achievements and changes dimly, but +directly, point. Upon that we have fixed our eyes, but we cannot imagine +how it can be attained by intellectual and material force alone. + +In order to indicate this more vividly, let us suppose that there is +no other condition necessary to the glory of human nature and the +world,--let us suppose that no other provision has been made, and that +the age is to go on developing only in this one direction,--what a +dreary grandeur would soon surround us! As icebergs floating in an +Arctic sea are splendid, so would be these ponderous and glistering +works. As the gilded and crimsoned cliffs of snow beautify the Polar +day, so would these achievements beautify the present day. But expect no +life, no joy, no soul, amid such ice-bound circumstances as these. The +tropical heart must congeal and die; its luxuriant fruits can never +spring up. The earth must lie sepulchred under its own magnificence; and +the divinest feelings of the spirit, floating upward in the instinct of +a higher life, but benumbed by the frigid air, and rebuked by the leaden +sky, must fall back like clouds of frozen vapor upon the soul: and "so +shall its thoughts perish." + +It would be a gloomy picture to paint, if one could for a moment imagine +that intellectual power and material success were all that enter into +the development of the race. For if there is no other capacity, and no +other field in which at least an equal commission to achieve is given, +and for which equal arrangements have been made by the Providence that +orders all, then the soul must soon be smothered, society dismembered, +and human nature ruined. + +But this very fact, which we purposely put in these strong colors, +proves that there must be another and greater element, another and +higher faculty, another and wider department, likewise under express and +secret conditions of success. It shall come to pass, as the development +goes on, that this other will become the foremost and all-important, +--the relation between them will be reversed,--this must increase, that +decrease,--the Material, although the first in time, the first in the +world's interest, and the first in the world's effort, will be found to +be only an ordained forerunner, preparing the way for Something Else, +the latchet of whose shoes it is not worthy to unloose. + +There is that in man--also wrapt up and sealed within his inscrutable +brain--which provides for his inner as well as outer life; which +insures his highest development; which shall protect, cherish, warm, and +fertilize his nature now, and perpetuate and exalt his soul forever. +It is a commission which begins, but does not end, in time. It is a +commission which makes him the agent and builder of an immense moral +work on the earth. Under its instructions he shall add improvement to +improvement in that social fabric which is already his shelter and +habitation. He has found it of brick,--he shall leave it of marble. He +shall seek out every contrivance, and perfect every plan, and exhaust +every scheme, which will bring a greater prosperity and a nobler +happiness to mankind. He shall quarry out each human spirit, and carve +it into the beauty and symmetry of a living stone that shall be worthy +to take its place in the rising structure. This is the work which is +given him to do. He must develop those conditions of virtue, and peace, +and faith, and truth, and love, by which the race shall be lifted +nearer its Creator, and the individual ascend into a more conscious +neighborhood and stronger affinity to the world which shall receive him +at last. All this must that other department be, and this other capacity +achieve or there is a fatal disproportion in the progress of man. + +The beauty of this as a dream perhaps all men will admit; but they +question its possibility. "It is the old Utopia," they say, "the +impracticable enterprise that has always baffled the world." Some will +doubt whether the Spiritual has an existence at all. Others will doubt, +if it does exist, whether man can accomplish anything in it. It is +invisible, impalpable, unknown. It cannot be substantial, it cannot +be real,--at least to man as at present constituted. Its elements and +conditions cannot be controlled by his spirit. That spirit cannot +control itself,--how much less go forth and work solid wonders in that +phantom realm! There can be no success in this that will be coequal with +the other; nor a coequal grandeur. There is no such thing as keeping +pace with it. The heart cannot grow better, society cannot be built +higher, mankind cannot become happier, God will not draw nearer, the +hidden truth of all that universe will never be more ascertained than +it is,--can never be accumulated and stored away among other human +acquisitions. It is utterly, gloomily impracticable. In this respect we +shall forever remain as we are, and where we are. So they think. + +And now we venture to contradict it all, and to assert that there +is, there must be, just such a corresponding field, and just such a +corresponding progress, or else (we say it reverently) God's ways are +not equal. So great is our faith. Like Columbus, therefore, we dream +of the golden Indies, and of that "unknown residue" which must yet be +found, and be taken possession of by mankind. + +We look far out to where the horizon dips its vapory veil into the sea, +and beyond which lies that other hemisphere, and ask,--Is there no world +there to be a counterpoise to the world that is here? Has the Creator +made no provision for the equilibrium of the soul? Is all that infinite +area a shoreless waste, over which the fleets of speculation may sail +forever, and discover nothing? Or is there not, rather, a broad +and solid continent of spiritual truth, eternally rooted in that +ocean,--prepared, from the beginning, for the occupation of man, when +the fulness of time shall have come,--ordained to take its place in the +historic evolution of the race, and to give the last and definite shape +to its wondrous destinies? + +Is there, or is there not, another region of truth, of enterprise, of +progress,--to finish, to balance, to consummate the world? + +Such is the Problem. + + * * * * * + + +MY GARDEN. + + +I can speak of it calmly now; but there have been moments when the +lightest mention of those words would sway my soul to its profoundest +depths. + +I am a woman. I nip this fact in the bud of my narrative, because I like +to do as I would be done by, when I can just as well as not. It rasps a +person of my temperament exceedingly to be deceived. When any one tells +a story, we wish to know at the outset whether the story-teller is a man +or a woman. The two sexes awaken two entirely distinct sets of feelings, +and you would no more use the one for the other than you would put +on your tiny teacups at breakfast, or lay the carving-knife by the +butter-plate. Consequently it is very exasperating to sit, open-eyed and +expectant, watching the removal of the successive swathings which hide +from you the dusky glories of an old-time princess, and, when the +unrolling is over, to find it is nothing, after all, but a great +lubberly boy. Equally trying is it to feel your interest clustering +round a narrator's manhood, all your individuality merging in his, till, +of a sudden, by the merest chance, you catch the swell of crinoline, +and there you are. Away with such clumsiness! Let us have everybody +christened before we begin. + +I do, therefore, with Spartan firmness depose and say that I am a woman. +I am aware that I place myself at signal disadvantage by the avowal. I +fly in the face of hereditary prejudice. I am thrust at once beyond +the pale of masculine sympathy. Men will neither credit my success nor +lament my failure, because they will consider me poaching on their +manor. If I chronicle a big beet, they will bring forward one twice +as large. If I mourn a deceased squash, they will mutter, "Woman's +farming!" Shunning Scylla, I shall perforce fall into Charybdis. (_Vide_ +Classical Dictionary. I have lent mine, but I know one was a rock and +the other a whirlpool, though I cannot state, with any definiteness, +which was which.) I may be as humble and deprecating as I choose, but +it will not avail me. A very agony of self-abasement will be no armor +against the poisoned shafts which assumed superiority will hurl against +me. Yet I press the arrow to my bleeding heart, and calmly reiterate, I +am a woman. + +The full magnanimity of which reiteration can be perceived only when I +inform you that I could easily deceive you, if I chose. There is about +my serious style a vigor of thought, a comprehensiveness of view, a +closeness of logic, and a terseness of diction commonly supposed to +pertain only to the stronger sex. Not wanting in a certain fanciful +sprightliness which is the peculiar grace of woman, it possesses also, +in large measure, that concentrativeness which is deemed the peculiar +strength of man. Where an ordinary woman will leave the beaten track, +wandering in a thousand little by ways of her own,--flowery and +beautiful, it is true, and leading her airy feet to "sunny spots of +greenery" and the gleam of golden apples, but keeping her not less +surely from the goal,--I march straight on, turning neither to the +right hand nor to the left, beguiled into no side-issues, discussing no +collateral question, but with keen eye and strong hand aiming right at +the heart of my theme. Judge thus of the stern severity of my virtue. +There is no heroism in denying ourselves the pleasures which we cannot +compass. It is not self-sacrifice, but self-cherishing, that turns the +dyspeptic alderman away from turtle-soup and the _pate de foie gras_ to +mush and milk. The hungry newsboy, regaling his nostrils with the scents +that come up from a subterranean kitchen, does not always know whether +or not he is honest, till the cook turns away for a moment, and a +steaming joint is within reach of his yearning fingers. It is no credit +to a weak-minded woman not to be strong-minded and write poetry. She +couldn't, if she tried; but to feed on locusts and wild honey that the +soul may be in better condition to fight the truth's battles,--to +go with empty stomach for a clear conscience's sake,--to sacrifice +intellectual tastes to womanly duties, when the two conflict,-- + + "That's the true pathos and sublime, + Of human life." + +You will, therefore, no longer withhold your appreciative admiration, +when, in full possession of what theologians call the power of contrary +choice, I make the unmistakable assertion that I am a woman. + +Of the circumstances that led me to inchoate a garden it is not +necessary now to speak. Enough that the first and most important step +had been taken, the land was bought,--a few acres, with a smart little +house peeking up, a crazy little barn tumbling down, and a dozen or so +fruit-trees that might do either as opportunity offered, and I set out +on my triumphal march from the city of my birth to the estate of my +adoption. Triumphal indeed! My pathway was strewed with roses. Feathery +asparagus and the crispness of tender lettuce waved dewy greetings from +every railroad-side; green peas crested the racing waves of Long Island +Sound, and unnumbered carrots of gold sprang up in the wake of the +ploughing steamer; till I was wellnigh drunk with the new wine of my own +purple vintage. But I was not ungenerous. In the height of my innocent +exultation, I remembered the dwellers in cities who do all their +gardening at stalls, and in my heart I determined, when the season +should be fully blown, to invite as many as my house could hold to +share with me the delight of plucking strawberries from their stems and +drinking in foaming health from the balmy-breathed cows. Moreover, in +the exuberance of my joy, I determined to go still farther, and despatch +to those doomed ones who cannot purchase even a furlough from burning +pavements baskets of fragrance and sweetness. I pleased myself with +pretty conceits. To one who toils early and late in an official Sahara, +that the home atmosphere may always be redolent of perfume, I would send +a bunch of long-stemmed white and crimson rose-buds, in the midst of +which he should find a dainty note whispering, "Dear Fritz: Drink this +pure glass of my overflowing June to the health of weans and wife, not +forgetting your unforgetful friend." To a pale-browed, sad-eyed woman, +who flits from velvet carpets and broidered flounces to the bedside +of an invalid mother, whom her slender fingers and unslender and most +godlike devotion can scarcely keep this side the pearly gates, I would +heap a basket of summer-hued peaches smiling up from cool, green leaves +into their straitened home, and, with eyes, perchance, tear-dimmed, she +should read, "My good Maria: The peaches are to go to your lips, the +bloom to your cheeks, and the gardener to your heart." Ah me! How much +grace and gladness may bud and blossom in one little garden! Only +three acres of land, but what a crop of sunny surprises, unexpected +tendernesses, grateful joys, hopes, loves, and restful memories!--what +wells of happiness, what sparkles of mirth, what sweeps of summer in the +heart, what glimpses of the Upper Country! + +Halicarnassus was there before me (in the garden, I mean, not in the +spot last alluded to). It has been the one misfortune of my life that +Halicarnassus got the start of me at the outset. With a fair field and +no favor I should have been quite adequate to him. As it was, he was +born and began, and there was no resource left to me but to be born and +follow, which I did as fast as possible; but that one false move could +never be redeemed. I know there are shallow thinkers who love to prate +of the supremacy of mind over matter,--who assert that circumstances are +plastic as clay in the hands of the man who knows how to mould them. +They clench their fists, and inflate their lungs, and quote Napoleon's +proud boast,--"Circumstances! I _make_ circumstances!" Vain babblers! +Whither did this Napoleonic Idea lead? To a barren rock in a waste of +waters. Do we need St. Helena and Sir Hudson Lowe to refute it? Control +circumstances! I should like to know if the most important circumstance +that can happen to a man isn't to be born? and if that is under his +control, or in any way affected by his whims and wishes? Would not Louis +XVI. have been the son of a goldsmith, if he could have had his way? +Would Burns have been born a slaving, starving peasant, if he had been +consulted beforehand? Would not the children of vice be the children of +virtue, if they could have had their choice? and would not the whole +tenor of their lives have been changed thereby? Would a good many of +us have been born at all, if we could have helped it? Control +circumstances, forsooth! when a mother's sudden terror brings an idiot +child into the world,--when the restive eye of his great-grandfather, +whom he never saw, looks at you from your two-year-old, and the spirit +of that roving ancestor makes the boy also a fugitive and a vagabond on +the earth! No, no. We may coax circumstances a little, and shove them +about, and make the best of them, but there they are. We may try to get +out of their way; but they will trip us up, not once, but many times. +We may affect to tread them under foot in the daylight, but in the +night-time they will turn again and rend us. All we can do is first to +accept them as facts, and then reason from them as premises. We cannot +control them, but we can control our own use of them. We can make them a +savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. + +Application.--If mind could have been supreme over matter, Halicarnassus +should, in the first place, have taken the world at second-hand from +me, and, in the second place, he should not have stood smiling on the +front-door steps when the coach set me down there. As it was, I made the +best of the one case by following in his footsteps,--not meekly, not +acquiescently, but protesting, yet following,--and of the other, by +smiling responsive and asking pleasantly,-- + +"Are the things planted yet?" + +"No," said Halicarnassus. + +This was better than I had dared to hope. When I saw him standing there +so complacent and serene, I felt certain that a storm was brewing, or +rather had brewed, and burst over my garden, and blighted its fair +prospects. I was confident that he had gone and planted every square +inch of the soil with some hideous absurdity which would spring up a +hundred-fold in perpetual reminders of the one misfortune to which I +have alluded. + +So his ready answer gave me relief, and yet I could not divest myself of +a vague fear, a sense of coming thunder. In spite of my endeavors, +that calm, clear face would lift itself to my view as a mere +"weather-breeder"; but I ate my supper, unpacked my trunks, took out my +papers of precious seeds, and sitting in the flooding sunlight under the +little western porch, I poured them into my lap, and bade Halicarnassus +come to me. He came, I am sorry to say, with a pipe in his mouth. + +"Do you wish to see my jewels?" I asked, looking as much like Cornelia +as a little woman, somewhat inclined to dumpiness, can. + +Halicarnassus nodded assent. + +"There," said I, unrolling a paper, "that is _Lychnidea acuminala_. +Sometimes it flowers in white masses, pure as a baby's soul. Sometimes +it glows in purple, pink, and crimson, intense, but unconsuming, like +Horeb's burning bush. The old Greeks knew it well, and they baptized +its prismatic loveliness with their sunny symbolism, and called it the +Flame-Flower. These very seeds may have sprung centuries ago from the +hearts of heroes who sleep at Marathon; and when their tender petals +quiver in the sunlight of my garden, I shall see the gleam of Attic +armor and the flash of royal souls. Like heroes, too, it is both +beautiful and bold. It does not demand careful cultivation,--no +hot-house, tenderness"-- + +"I should rather think not," interrupted Halicarnassus. "Pat Curran has +his front-yard full of it." + +I collapsed at once, and asked humbly,-- + +"Where did he get it?" + +"Got it anywhere. It grows wild almost. It's nothing but phlox. My +opinion is, that the old Greeks knew no more about it than that brindled +cow." + +Nothing further occurring to me to be said on the subject, I waived +it and took up another parcel, on which I spelled out, with some +difficulty, "_Delphinium exaltatum_. Its name indicates its nature." + +"It's an exalted dolphin, then, I suppose," said Halicarnassus. + +"Yes!" I said, dexterously catching up an _argumentum ad hominem_, "It +_is_ an exalted dolphin,--an apotheosized dolphin,--a dolphin made +glorious. For, as the dolphin catches the sunbeams and sends them back +with a thousand added splendors, so this flower opens its quivering +bosom and gathers from the vast laboratory of the sky the purple of a +monarch's robe and the ocean's deep, calm blue. In its gracious cup you +shall see"-- + +"A fiddlestick!" jerked out Halicarnassus, profanely. "What are you +raving about such a precious bundle of weeds for? There isn't a +shoemaker's apprentice in the village that hasn't his seven-by-nine +garden overrun with them. You might have done better than bring +cartloads of phlox and larkspur a thousand miles. Why didn't you import +a few hollyhocks, or a sunflower or two, and perhaps a dainty slip +of cabbage? A pumpkin-vine, now, would climb over the front-door +deliciously, and a row of burdocks would make a highly entertaining +border." + +The reader will bear me witness that I had met my first rebuff with +humility. It was probably this very humility that emboldened him to a +second attack. I determined to change my tactics and give battle. + +"Halicarnassus," said I, severely, "you are a hypocrite. You set up for +a Democrat"-- + +"Not I," interrupted he; "I voted for Harrison in '40, and for Fremont +in '56, and"-- + +"Nonsense!" interrupted I, in turn; "I mean a Democrat etymological, not +a Democrat political. You stand by the Declaration of Independence, and +believe in liberty, equality, and fraternity, and that all men are of +one blood; and here you are, ridiculing these innocent flowers, because +their brilliant beauty is not shut up in a conservatory to exhale its +fragrance on a fastidious few, but blooms on all alike, gladdening the +home of exile and lightening the burden of labor." + +Halicarnassus saw that I had made a point against him, and preserved a +discreet silence. + +"But you are wrong," I went on, "even if you are right. You may laugh to +scorn my floral treasures, because they seem to you common and unclean, +but your laughter is premature. It is no ordinary seed that you see +before you. It sprang from no profane soil. It came from the--the--some +kind of an office at WASHINGTON, Sir! It was given me by one whose name +stands high on the scroll of fame,--a statesman whose views are as +broad as his judgment is sound,--an orator who holds all hearts in his +hand,--a man who is always found on the side of the feeble truth against +the strong falsehood,--whose sympathy for all that is good, whose +hostility to all that is bad, and whose boldness in every righteous +cause make him alike the terror and abhorrence of the oppressor, and the +hope and joy and staff of the oppressed." + +"What is his name?" said Halicarnassus, phlegmatically. + +"And for your miserable pumpkin-vine," I went on, "behold this +morning-glory, that shall open its barbaric splendor to the sun and +mount heavenward on the sparkling chariots of the dew. I took this from +the white hand of a young girl in whose heart poetry and purity have +met, grace and virtue have kissed each other,--whose feet have danced +over lilies and roses, who has known no sterner duty than to give +caresses, and whose gentle, spontaneous, and ever active loveliness +continually remind me that of such is the kingdom of heaven." + +"Courted yet?" asked Halicarnassus, with a show of interest. + +I transfixed him with a look, and continued,-- + +"This _Maurandia_, a climber, it may be common or it may be a king's +ransom. I only know that it is rosy-hued, and that I shall look at +life through its pleasant medium. Some fantastic trellis, brown and +benevolent, shall knot supporting arms around it, and day by day it +shall twine daintily up toward my southern window, and whisper softly of +the sweet-voiced, tender-eyed woman from whose fairy bower it came in +rosy wrappings. And this _Nemophila_, 'blue as my brother's eyes,'--the +brave young brother whose heroism and manhood have outstripped his +years, and who looks forth from the dank leafiness of far Australia +lovingly and longingly over the blue waters, as if, floating above them, +he might catch the flutter of white garments and the smile on a sister's +lip"-- + +"What are you going to do with 'em?" put in Halicarnassus again. + +I hesitated a moment, undecided whether to be amiable or bellicose under +the provocation, but concluded that my ends would stand a better +chance of being gained by adopting the former course, and so answered +seriously, as if I had not been switched off the track, but was going on +with perfect continuity,-- + +"To-morrow I shall take observations. Then, where the situation seems +most favorable, I shall lay out a garden. I shall plant these seeds in +it, except the vines and such things, which I wish to put near the house +to hide as much as possible its garish white. Then, with every little +tender shoot that appears above the ground, there will blossom also a +pleasant memory or a sunny hope or an admiring thrill." + +"What do you expect will be the market-value of that crop?" + +"Wealth which an empire could not purchase," I answered, with +enthusiasm. "But I shall not confine my attention to flowers. I shall +make the useful go with the beautiful. I shall plant vegetables,-- +lettuce, and asparagus, and--so forth. Our table shall be garnished with +the products of our own soil, and our own works shall praise us." + +There was a pause of several minutes, during which I fondled the seeds +and Halicarnassus enveloped himself in clouds of smoke. Presently there +was a cessation of puffs, a rift in the cloud showed that the oracle was +opening his mouth, and directly thereafter he delivered himself of the +encouraging remark,-- + +"If we don't have any vegetables till we raise 'em, we shall be +carnivorous some time to come." + +It was said with that provoking indifference more trying to a sensitive +mind than downright insult. You know it is based on some hidden +obstacle, palpable to your enemy, though hidden from you,--and that he +is calm because he know that the nature of things will work against you, +so that he need not interfere. If I had been less interested, I would +have revenged myself on him by remaining silent; but I was very much +interested, so I strangled my pride and said,-- + +"Why not?" + +"Land is too old for such things. Soil isn't mellow enough." + +I had always supposed that the greater part of the main-land of our +continent was of equal antiquity, and dated back alike to the alluvial +period; but I suppose our little three acres must have been injected +through the intervening strata by some physical convulsion, from the +drift, or the tertiary formation, perhaps even from the primitive +granite. + +"What are you going to do?" I ventured to inquire. "I don't suppose the +land will grow any younger by keeping." + +"Plant it with corn and potatoes for at least two years before there can +be anything like a garden." + +And Halicarnassus put up his pipe and betook himself to the house, and +I was glad of it, the abominable bore! to sit there and listen to my +glowing schemes, knowing all the while that they were soap-bubbles. +"Corn and potatoes," indeed! I didn't believe a word of it. +Halicarnassus always had an insane passion for corn and potatoes. Land +represented to him so many bushels of the one or the other. Now corn +and potatoes are very well in their way, but, like every other innocent +indulgence, carried too far, become a vice; and I more than suspected he +had planned the strategy simply to gratify his own weakness. Corn and +potatoes, indeed! + +But when Halicarnassus entered the lists against me, he found an +opponent worthy of his steel. A few more such victories would be his +ruin. A grand scheme fired and filled my mind during the silent watches +of the night, and sent me forth in the morning, jubilant with high +resolve. Alexander might weep that he had no more worlds to conquer; +but I would create new. Archimedes might desiderate a place to stand +on before he could bring his lever into play; I would move the world, +self-poised. If Halicarnassus fancied that I was cut up, dispersed, and +annihilated by one disaster, he should weep tears of blood to see me +rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of my dead hopes, to a newer and more +glorious life. Here, having exhausted my classics, I took a long sweep +down to modern times, and vowed in my heart never to give up the ship. + +Halicarnassus saw that a fell purpose was working in my mind, but a +certain high tragedy in my aspect warned him to silence; so he only +dogged me around the corners of the house, eyed me askance from the +wood-shed, and peeped through the crevices of the demented little barn. +But his vigilance bore no fruit. I but walked moodily "with folded arms +and fixed eyes," or struck out new paths at random, so long as there +were any vestiges of his creation extant. His time and patience being at +length exhausted, he went into the field to immolate himself with ever +new devotion on the shrine of corn and potatoes. Then my scheme came to +a head at once. In my walking, I had observed a box about three feet +long, two broad, and one foot deep, which Halicarnassus, with his usual +disregard of the proprieties of life, had used to block up a gate-way +that was waiting for a gate. It was just what I wanted. I straightway +knocked out the few nails that kept it in place, and, like another +Samson, bore it away on my shoulders. It was not an easy thing to +manage, as any one may find by trying,--nor would I advise young ladies, +as a general thing, to adopt that form of exercise,--but the end, not +the means, was my object, and by skilful diplomacy I got it up the +backstairs and through my window, out upon the roof of the porch +directly below. I then took the ash-pail and the fire-shovel and went +into the field, carefully keeping the lee side of Halicarnassus. "Good, +rich loam" I had observed all the gardening books to recommend; but +wherein the virtue or the richness of loam consisted I did not feel +competent to decide, and I scorned to ask. There seemed to be two kinds: +one black, damp, and dismal; the other fine, yellow, and good-natured. +A little reflection decided me to take the latter. Gold constituted +riches, and this was yellow like gold. Moreover, it seemed to have more +life in it. Night and darkness belonged to the other, while the very +heart of sunshine and summer seemed to be imprisoned in this golden +dust. So I plied my shovel and filled my pail again and again, bearing +it aloft with joyful labor, eager to be through before Halicarnassus +should reappear; but he got on the trail just as I was whisking +up-stairs for the last time, and shouted, astonished,-- + +"What are you doing?" + +"Nothing," I answered, with that well-known accent which says, +"Everything! and I mean to keep doing it." + +I have observed, that, in managing parents, husbands, lovers, brothers, +and indeed all classes of inferiors, nothing is so efficacious as to let +them know at the outset that you are going to have your own way. They +may fret a little at first, and interpose a few puny obstacles, but +it will be only a temporary obstruction; whereas, if you parley and +hesitate and suggest, they will but gather courage and strength for a +formidable resistance. It is the first step that costs. Halicarnassus +understood at once from my one small shot that I was in a mood to be let +alone, and he let me alone accordingly. + +I remembered he had said that the soil was not mellow enough, and I +determined that my soil should be mellow, to which end I took it up by +handfuls and squeezed it through my fingers, completely pulverizing it. +It was not disagreeable work. Things in their right places are very +seldom disagreeable. A spider on your dress is a horror, but a spider +outdoors is rather interesting. Besides, the loam had a fine, soft feel +that was absolutely pleasant; but a hideous black and yellow reptile +with horns and hoofs, that winked up at me from it, was decidedly +unpleasant and out of place, and I at once concluded that the soil was +sufficiently mellow for my purposes, and smoothed it off directly. Then, +with delighted fingers, in sweeping circles, and fantastic whirls, and +exact triangles, I planted my seeds in generous profusion, determined, +that, if my wilderness did not blossom, it should not be from +niggardliness of seed. But even then my box was full before my basket +was emptied, and I was very reluctantly compelled to bring down from the +garret another box, which had been the property of my great-grandfather. +My great-grandfather was, I regret to say, a barber. I would rather +never have had any. If there is anything in the world besides worth that +I reverence, it is ancestry. My whole life long have I been in search of +a pedigree, and though I ran well at the beginning, I invariably stop +short at the third remove by running my head into a barber's shop. If +he had only been a farmer, now, I should not have minded. There is +something dignified and antique in land, and no one need trouble himself +to ascertain whether "farmer" stood for a close-fisted, narrow-souled +clodhopper, or the smiling, benevolent master of broad acres. Farmer +means both these, I could have chosen the meaning I liked, and it is not +probable that any troublesome facts would have floated down the years to +intercept any theory I might have launched. I would rather he had been +a shoemaker; it would have been so easy to transform him, after his +lamented decease, into a shoe-manufacturer,--and shoe-manufacturers, we +all know, are highly respectable people, often become great men, and +get sent to Congress. An apothecary might have figured as an M.D. +A greengrocer might have been apotheosized into a merchant. A +dancing-master would flourish on the family-records as a professor of +the Terpsichorean art. A taker of daguerreotype portraits would never +be recognized in "my great-grandfather _the artist_." But a barber is +unmitigated and immitigable. It cannot be shaded off nor toned down +nor brushed up. Besides, was greatness ever allied to barbarity? +Shakspeare's father was a wool-driver, Tillotson's a clothier, Barrow's +a linen-draper, Defoe's a butcher, Milton's a scrivener, Richardson's a +joiner, Burns's a farmer; but did any one ever hear of a barber's +having remarkable children? I must say, with all deference to my +great-grandfather, that I do wish he would have been considerate enough +of his descendants' feelings to have been born in the old days when +barbers and doctors were one, or else have chosen some other occupation +than barbering. Barber he did, however; in this very box he kept his +wigs, and, painful as it was to have continually before my eyes this +perpetual reminder of plebeian great-grand-paternity, I consented to it +rather than lose my seeds. Then I folded my hands in sweet, though calm +satisfaction. I had proved myself equal to the emergency, and that +always diffuses a glow of genial complacency through the soul. I had +outwitted Halicarnassus. Exultation number two. He had designed to cheat +me out of my garden by a story about land, and here was my garden ready +to burst forth into blossom under my eyes. He said little, but I knew +he felt deeply. I caught him one day looking out at my window with +corroding envy in every lineament. "You might have got some dust out of +the road; it would have been nearer." That was all he said. Even that +little I did not fully understand. + +I watched, and waited, and watered, in silent expectancy, for several +days, but nothing came up, and I began to be anxious. Suddenly I thought +of my vegetable-seeds, and determined to try those. Of course a hanging +kitchen-garden was not to be thought of, and as Halicarnassus was +fortunately absent for a few days, I prospected on the farm. A sunny +little corner on a southern slope smiled up at me, and seemed to offer +itself as a delightful situation for the diminutive garden which mine +must be. The soil, too, seemed as fine and mellow as could be desired. +I at once captured an Englishman from a neighboring plantation, hurried +him into my corner, and bade him dig me and hoe me and plant me a garden +as soon as possible. He looked blankly at me for a moment, and I looked +blankly at him,--wondering what lion he saw in the way. + +"Them is planted with potatoes now," he gasped, at length. + +"No matter," I returned, with sudden relief to find that nothing but +potatoes interfered. "I want it to be unplanted, and planted with +vegetables,--lettuce and--asparagus--and such." + +He stood hesitating. + +"Will the master like it?" + +"Yes," said Diplomacy, "he will be delighted." + +"No matter whether he likes it or not," codiciled Conscience. "You do +it." + +"I--don't exactly like--to--take the responsibility," wavered this +modern Faint-Heart. + +"I don't want you to take the responsibility," I ejaculated, with +volcanic vehemence. "I'll take the responsibility. You take the hoe." + +These duty-people do infuriate me. They are so afraid to do anything +that isn't laid out in a right-angled triangle. Every path must be +graded and turfed before they dare set their scrupulous feet in it. +I like conscience, but, like corn and potatoes, carried too far, it +becomes a vice. I think I could commit a murder with less hesitation +than some people buy a ninepenny calico. And to see that man stand +there, balancing probabilities over a piece of ground no bigger than a +bed-quilt, as if a nation's fate were at stake, was enough to ruffle a +calmer temper than mine. My impetuosity impressed him, however, and he +began to lay about him vigorously with hoe and rake and lines, and, in +an incredibly short space of time, had a bit of square flatness laid out +with wonderful precision. Meanwhile I had ransacked my vegetable-bag, +and though lettuce and asparagus were not there, plenty of beets and +parsnips and squashes, etc., were. I let him take his choice. He took +the first two. The rest were left on my hands. But I had gone too far to +recede. They burned in my pocket for a few days, and I saw that I must +get them into the ground somewhere. I could not sleep with them in the +room. They were wandering shades craving at my hands a burial, and I +determined to put them where Banquo's ghost would not go,--down. Down +accordingly they went, but not symmetrically nor simultaneously. I faced +Halicarnassus on the subject of the beet-bed, and though I cannot say +that either of us gained a brilliant victory, yet I can say that I +kept possession of the ground; still, I did not care to risk a second +encounter. So I kept my seeds about me continually, and dropped them +surreptitiously as occasion offered. Consequently, my garden, taken as +a whole, was located where the Penobscot Indian was born,--"all along +shore." The squashes were scattered among the corn. The beans were +tucked under the brushwood, in the fond hope that they would climb +up it. Two tomato-plants were lodged in the potato-field, under the +protection of some broken apple-branches dragged thither for the +purpose. The cucumbers went down on the sheltered side of a wood-pile. +The peas took their chances of life under the sink-nose. The sweet-corn +was marked off from the rest by a broomstick,--and all took root alike +in my heart. + +May I ask you now, O Friend, who, I would fain believe, have followed me +thus far with no hostile eyes, to glide in tranced forgetfulness through +the white blooms of May and the roses of June, into the warm breath of +July afternoons and the languid pulse of August, perhaps even into +the mild haze of September and the "flying gold" of brown October? In +narrating to you the fruition of my hopes, I shall endeavor to preserve +that calm equanimity which is the birthright of royal minds. I shall +endeavor not to be unduly elated by success nor unduly depressed by +failure, but to state in simple language the result of my experiments, +both for an encouragement and a warning. I shall give the history of the +several ventures separately, as nearly as I can recollect in the +order in which they grew, beginning with the humbler ministers to our +appetites, and soaring gradually into the region of the poetical and the +beautiful. + +BEETS.--The beets came up, little red-veined leaves, struggling for +breath among a tangle of Roman wormwood and garlic; and though they +exhibited great tenacity of life, they also exhibited great irregularity +of purpose. In one spot there would be nothing, in an adjacent spot a +whorl of beets, big and little, crowding and jostling and elbowing each +other, like school-boys round the red-hot stove on a winter's morning. +I knew they had been planted in a right line, and I don't, even now, +comprehend why they should not come up in a right line. I weeded them, +and though freedom from foreign growth discovered an intention, of +straightness, the most casual observer could not but see that skewiness +had usurped its place. I repaired to my friend the gardener. He said +they must be thinned out and transplanted. It went to my heart to pull +up the dear things, but I did it, and set them down again tenderly in +the vacant spots. It was evening. The next morning I went to them. +Flatness has a new meaning to me since that morning. You can hardly +conceive that anything could look so utterly forlorn, disconsolate, +disheartened, and collapsed. In fact, they exhibited a degree of +depression so entirely beyond what the circumstances demanded, that I +was enraged. If they had shown any symptoms of trying to live, I could +have sighed and forgiven them; but, on the contrary, they had flopped +and died without a struggle, and I pulled them up without a pang, +comforting myself with the remaining ones, which throve on their +companions' graves, and waxed fat and full and crimson-hearted, in their +soft, brown beds. So delighted was I with their luxuriant rotundity, +that I made an internal resolve that henceforth I would always plant +beets. True, I cannot abide beets. Their fragrance and their flavor are +alike nauseating; but they come up, and a beet that will come up is +better than a cedar of Lebanon that won't. In all the vegetable kingdom +I know of no quality better than this, growth,--nor any quality that +will atone for its absence. + +PARSNIPS.--They ran the race with an indescribable vehemence that fairly +threw the beets into the shade. They trod so delicately at first that +I was quite unprepared for such enthusiasm. Lacking the red veining, I +could not distinguish them even from the weeds with any certainty, and +was forced to let both grow together till the harvest. So both grew +together, a perfect jungle. But the parsnips got ahead, and rushed up +gloriously, magnificently, bacchanalianly,--as the winds come when +forests are rended,--as the waves come when navies are stranded. I am, +indeed, troubled with a suspicion that their vitality has all run to +leaves, and that, when I go down into the depths of the earth for +the parsnips, I shall find only bread of emptiness. It is a pleasing +reflection that parsnips cannot be eaten till the second year. I am told +that they must lie in the ground during the winter. Consequently it +cannot be decided whether there are any or not till next spring. I shall +in the mean time assume and assert without hesitation or qualification +that there are as many tubers below the surface as there are leaves +above it. I shall thereby enjoy a pleasant consciousness, and the +respect of all, for the winter; and if disappointment awaits me in the +spring, time will have blunted its keenness for me, and other people +will have forgotten the whole subject. You may be sure I shall not +remind them of it. + +CUCUMBERS.--The cucumbers came up so far and stuck. It must have been +innate depravity, for there was no shadow of reason why they should not +keep on as they began. They did not. They stopped growing in the prime +of life. Only three cucumbers developed, and they hid under the vines so +that I did not see them till they were become ripe, yellow, soft, and +worthless. They are an unwholesome fruit at best, and I bore their loss +with great fortitude. + +TOMATOES.--Both dead. I had been instructed to protect them from the +frost by night and from the sun by day. I intended to do so ultimately, +but I did not suppose there was any emergency. A frost came the first +night and killed them, and a hot sun the next day burned up all there +was left. When they were both thoroughly dead, I took great pains to +cover them every night and noon. No symptoms of revival appearing to +reward my efforts, I left them to shift for themselves. I did not think +there was any need of their dying, in the first place; and if they would +be so absurd as to die without provocation, I did not see the necessity +of going into a decline about it. Besides, I never did value plants +or animals that have to be nursed, and petted, and coaxed to live. +If things want to die, I think they'd better die. Provoked by my +indifference, one of the tomatoes flared up and took a new start,--put +forth leaves, shot out vines, and covered himself with fruit and glory. +The chickens picked out the heart of all the tomatoes as soon as they +ripened, which was of no consequence, however, as they had wasted +so much time in the beginning that the autumn frosts came upon them +unawares, and there wouldn't have been fruit enough ripe to be of any +account, if no chicken had ever broken a shell. + +SQUASHES.--They appeared above-ground, large-lobed and vigorous. Large +and vigorous appeared the bugs, all gleaming in green and gold, like +the wolf on the fold, and stopped up all the stomata and ate up all the +parenchyma, till my squash-leaves looked as if they had grown for the +sole purpose of illustrating net-veined organizations. In consternation +I sought again my neighbor the Englishman. He assured me he had 'em +on his, too,--lots of 'em. This reconciled me to mine. Bugs are not +inherently desirable, but a universal bug does not indicate special want +of skill in any one. So I was comforted. But the Englishman said they +must be killed. He had killed his. Then I said I would kill mine, too. +How should it be done? Oh! put a shingle near the vine at night and they +would crawl upon it to keep dry, and go out early in the morning and +kill 'em. But how to kill them? Why, take 'em right between your thumb +and finger and crush 'em! + +As soon as I could recover breath, I informed him confidentially, that, +if the world were one great squash, I wouldn't undertake to save it in +that way. He smiled a little, but I think he was not overmuch pleased. I +asked him why I couldn't take a bucket of water and dip the shingle in +it and drown them. He said, well, I could try it. I did try it,--first +wrapping my hand in a cloth to prevent contact with any stray bug. To +my amazement, the moment they touched the water they all spread unseen +wings and flew away, safe and sound. I should not have been much more +surprised to see Halicarnassus soaring over the ridge-pole. I had not +the slightest idea that they could fly. Of course I gave up the design +of drowning them. I called a council of war. One said I must put a +newspaper over them and fasten it down at the edges; then they couldn't +get in. I timidly suggested that the squashes couldn't get out. Yes, +they could, he said,--they'd grow right through the paper. Another said +I must surround them with round boxes with the bottoms broken out; for, +though they could fly, they couldn't steer, and when they flew up, they +just dropped down anywhere, and as there was on the whole a good deal +more land on the outside of the boxes than on the inside, the chances +were in favor of their dropping on the outside. Another said that ashes +must be sprinkled on them. A fourth said lime was an infallible remedy. +I began with the paper, which I secured with no little difficulty; for +the wind--the same wind, strange to say--kept blowing the dirt at me +and the paper away from me; but I consoled myself by remembering the +numberless rows of squash-pies that should crown my labors, and May took +heart from Thanksgiving. The next day I peeped under the paper and the +bugs were a solid phalanx. I reported at head-quarters, and they asked +me if I killed the bugs before I put the paper down. I said no, I +supposed it would stifle them,--in fact, I didn't think anything about +it, but if I thought anything, that was what I thought. I wasn't pleased +to find I had been cultivating the bugs and furnishing them with free +lodgings. I went home and tried all the remedies in succession. I could +hardly decide which agreed best with the structure and habits of the +bugs, but they throve on all. Then I tried them all at once and all o'er +with a mighty uproar. Presently the bugs went away. I am not sure that +they wouldn't have gone just as soon, if I had let them alone. After +they were gone, the vines scrambled out and put forth some beautiful, +deep golden blossoms. When they fell off, that was the end of them. Not +a squash,--not one,--not a single squash,--not even a pumpkin. They +were all false blossoms. + +APPLES.--The trees swelled into masses of pink and white fragrance. +Nothing could exceed their fluttering loveliness or their luxuriant +promise. A few days of fairy beauty, and showers of soft petals floated +noiselessly down, covering the earth with delicate snow; but I knew, +that, though the first blush of beauty was gone, a mighty work was going +on in a million little laboratories, and that the real glory was yet to +come. I was surprised to observe, one day, that the trees seemed to be +turning red. I remarked to Halicarnassus that that was one of Nature's +processes which I did not remember to have seen noticed in any +botanical treatise. I thought such a change did not occur till autumn. +Halicarnassus curved the thumb and forefinger of his right hand into an +arch, the ends of which rested on the wrist of his left coat-sleeve. He +then lifted the forefinger high and brought it forward. Then he lifted +the thumb and brought it up behind the forefinger, and so made them +travel up to his elbow. It seemed to require considerable exertion in +the thumb and forefinger, and I watched the progress with interest. Then +I asked him what he meant by it. + +"That's the way they walk," he replied. + +"Who walk?" + +"The little fellows that have squatted on our trees." + +"What little fellows do you mean?" + +"The canker-worms." + +"How many are there?" + +"About twenty-five decillions, I should think, as near as I can count." + +"Why! what are they for? What good do they do?" + +"Oh! no end. Keep the children from eating green apples and getting +sick." + +"How do they do that?" + +"Eat 'em themselves." + +A frightful idea dawned upon me. I believe I turned a kind of ghastly +blue. + +"Halicarnassus, do you mean to tell me that the canker-worms are eating +up our apples and that we shan't have any?" + +"It looks like that exceedingly." + +That was months ago, and it looks a great deal more like it now. I +watched those trees with sadness at my heart. Millions of brown, ugly, +villanous worms gnawed, gnawed, gnawed, at the poor little tender leaves +and buds,--held them in foul embrace,--polluted their sweetness with +hateful breath. I could almost feel the shudder of the trees in that +slimy clasp,--could almost hear the shrieking and moaning of the young +fruit that saw its hope of happy life thus slowly consuming; but I +was powerless to save. For weeks that loathsome army preyed upon the +unhappy, helpless trees, and then spun loathsomely to the ground, and +buried itself in the reluctant, shuddering soil. A few dismal little +apples escaped the common fate, but when they rounded into greenness and +a suspicion of pulp, a boring worm came and bored them, and they, +too, died. No apple-pies at Thanksgiving. No apple-roasting in winter +evenings. No pan-pie with hot brown bread on Sunday mornings. + +CHERRIES.--They rivalled the apple-blooms in snowy profusion, and the +branches were covered with tiny balls. The sun mounted warm and high in +the heavens and they blushed under his ardent gaze. I felt an increasing +conviction that here there would be no disappointment; but it soon +became palpable that another class of depredators had marked our trees +for their own. Little brown toes could occasionally be seen peeping from +the foliage, and little bare feet left their print on the garden-soil. +Humanity had evidently deposited its larva in the vicinity. There was a +schoolhouse not very far away, and the children used to draw water from +an old well in a distant part of the garden. It was surprising to see +how thirsty they all became as the cherries ripened. It was as if the +village had simultaneously agreed to breakfast on salt fish. Their +wooden bucket might have been the urn of the Danaides, judging from the +time it took to fill it. The boys were as fleet of foot as young zebras, +and presented upon discovery no apology or justification but their +heels,--which was a wise stroke in them. A troop of rosy-cheeked, +bright-eyed little snips in white pantalets, caught in the act, reasoned +with in a semi-circle, and cajoled with candy, were as sweet as +distilled honey, and promised with all their innocent hearts and hands +not to do so any more. But the real _piece de resistance_ was a mass of +pretty well developed crinoline which an informal walk in the infested +district brought to light, engaged in a systematic raid upon the +tempting fruit. Now, in my country, the presence of unknown individuals +in your own garden, plucking your fruit from your trees, without your +knowledge and against your will, is universally considered as affording +presumptive evidence of--something. In this part of the world, however, +I find they do things differently. It doesn't furnish presumptive +evidence of anything. If you think it does, you do so at your own risk. +I thought it did, and escaped by the skin of my teeth. I hinted my +views, and found myself in a den of lions, and was thankful to come out +second-best. Second? nay, third-best, fourth-best, no best at all, not +even good,--very bad. In short, I was glad to get out with my life. Nor +was my repulse confined to the passing hour. The injured innocents come +no more for water. I am consumed with inward remorse as I see them daily +file majestically past my house to my neighbor's well. I have resolved +to plant a strawberry-bed next year, and offer them the fruit of it by +way of atonement, and never, under any provocation, hereafter, to assert +or insinuate that I have any claim whatever to anything under the sun. +If this course, perseveringly persisted in, does not restore the state +of quo, I am hopeless. I have no further resources. + +The one drop of sweetness in the bitter cup was, that the cherries, +being thus let severely alone, were allowed to hang on the trees and +ripen. It took them a great while. If they had been as big as hogsheads, +I should think the sun might have got through them sooner than he did. +They looked ripe long before they were so; and as they were very +plenty, the trees presented a beautiful appearance. I bought a stack of +fantastic little baskets from a travelling Indian tribe, at a fabulous +price, for the sake of fulfilling my long-cherished design of sending +fruit to my city friends. After long waiting, Halicarnassus came in one +morning with a tin pail full, and said that they were ripe at last, for +they were turning purple and falling off; and he was going to have them +gathered at once. He had brought in the first-fruits for breakfast. I +put them in the best preserve-dish, twined it with myrtle, and set it +in the centre of the table. It looked charming,--so ruddy and rural and +Arcadian. I wished we could breakfast out-doors; but the summer was one +of unusual severity, and it was hardly prudent thus to brave its rigor. +We had cup-custards at the close of our breakfast that morning,--very +vulgar, but very delicious. We reached the cherries at the same moment, +and swallowed the first one simultaneously. The effect was instantaneous +and electric. Halicarnassus puckered his face into a perfect wheel, +with his mouth for the hub. I don't know how I looked, but I felt badly +enough. + +"It was unfortunate that we had custards this morning," I remarked. +"They are so sweet that the cherries seem sour by contrast. We shall +soon get the sweet taste out of our mouths, however." + +"That's so!" said Halicarnassus, who _will_ be coarse. + +We tried another. He exhibited a similar pantomime, with improvements. +My feelings were also the same, intensified. + +"I am not in luck to-day," I said, attempting to smile. "I got hold of a +sour cherry this time." + +"I got hold of a bitter one," said Halicarnassus. + +"Mine was a little bitter, too," I added. + +"Mine was a little sour, too," said Halicarnassus. + +"We shall have to try again," said I. + +We did try again. + +"Mine was a good deal of both this time," said Halicarnassus. "But we +will give them a fair trial." + +"Yes," said I, sepulchrally. + +We sat there sacrificing ourselves to abstract right for five minutes. +Then I leaned back in my chair, and looked at Halicarnassus. He rested +his right elbow on the table, and looked at me. + +"Well," said he, at last, "how are cherries and things?" + +"Halicarnassus," said I, solemnly, "it is my firm conviction that +farming is not a lucrative occupation. You have no certain assurance of +return, either for labor or capital invested. Look at it. The bugs eat +up the squashes. The worms eat up the apples. The cucumbers won't grow +at all. The peas have got lost. The cherries are bitter as wormwood and +sour as you in your worst moods. Everything that is good for anything +won't grow, and everything that grows isn't good for anything." + +"My Indian corn, though," began Halicarnassus; but I snapped him up +before he was fairly under way. I had no idea of travelling in that +direction. + +"What am I to do with all those baskets that I bought, I should like to +know?" I asked, sharply. + +"What did you buy them for?" he asked in return. + +"To send cherries to the Hudsons and the Mavericks and Fred Ashley," I +replied promptly. + +"Why don't you send 'em, then? There's plenty of them,--more than we +shall want." + +"Because," I answered, "I have not exhausted the pleasures of +friendship. Nor do I perceive the benefit that would accrue from turning +life-long friends into life-long enemies." + +"I'll tell you what we can do," said Halicarnassus. "We can give a party +and treat them to cherries. They'll have to eat 'em out of politeness." + +"Halicarnassus," said I, "we should be mobbed. We should fall victims to +the fury of a disappointed and enraged populace." + +"At any rate," said he, "we can offer them to chance visitors." + +The suggestion seemed to me a good one,--at any rate, the only one that +held out any prospect of relief. Thereafter, whenever friends called +singly or in squads,--if the squads were not large enough to be +formidable,--we invariably set cherries before them, and with generous +hospitality pressed them to partake. The varying phases of emotion which +they exhibited were painful to me at first, but I at length came to take +a morbid pleasure in noting them. It was a study for a sculptor. By long +practice I learned to detect the shadow of each coming change, where a +casual observer would see only a serene expanse of placid politeness. +I knew just where the radiance, awakened by the luscious, swelling, +crimson globes, faded into doubt, settled into certainty, glared into +perplexity, fired into rage. I saw the grimace, suppressed as soon as +begun, but not less patent to my preternaturally keen eyes. No one +deceived me by being suddenly seized with admiration of a view. I +knew it was only to relieve his nerves by making faces behind the +window-curtains. + +I grew to take a fiendish delight in watching the conflict, and the +fierce desperation which marked its violence. On the one side were +the forces of fusion, a reluctant stomach, an unwilling oesophagus, a +loathing palate; on the other, the stern, unconquerable will. A natural +philosopher would have gathered new proofs of the unlimited capacity of +the human race to adapt itself to circumstances, from the _debris_ that +strewed our premises after each fresh departure. Cherries were chucked +under the sofa, into the table-drawers, behind the books, under the +lamp-mats, into the vases, in any and every place where a dexterous hand +could dispose of them without detection. Yet their number seemed to +suffer no abatement. Like Tityus's liver, they were constantly renewed, +though constantly consumed. The small boys seemed to be suffering from a +fit of conscience. In vain we closed the blinds and shut ourselves up in +the house to give them a fair field. Not a cherry was taken. In vain we +went ostentatiously to church all day on Sunday. Not a twig was touched. +Finally I dropped all the curtains on that side of the house, and +avoided that part of the garden in my walks. The cherries may be hanging +there to this day, for aught I know. + +But why do I thus linger over the sad recital? _"Ab uno disce omnes."_ +(A quotation from Virgil: means, "All of a piece.") There may have been, +there probably was, an abundance of sweet-corn, but the broomstick that +had marked the spot was lost, and I could in no wise recall either spot +or stick. Nor did I ever see or hear of the peas,--or the beans. If our +chickens could be brought to the witness-box, they might throw light on +the subject. As it is, I drop a natural tear, and pass on to + +THE FLOWER-GARDEN.--It appeared very much behind time,--chiefly Roman +wormwood. I was grateful even for that. Then two rows of four-o'clocks +became visible to the naked eye. They are cryptogamous, it seems. +Botanists have hitherto classed them among the Phaenogamia. A sweet-pea +and a china-aster dawdled up just in time to get frost-bitten. _"Et +praeterea nihil."_ (Virgil: means, "That's all.") I am sure it was no +fault of mine. I tended my seeds with assiduous care. My devotion was +unwearied. I was a very slave to their caprices. I planted them just +beneath the surface in the first place, so that they might have an easy +passage. In two or three days they all seemed to be lying round loose on +the top, and I planted them an inch deep. Then I didn't see them at +all for so long that I took them up again, and planted them half-way +between. It was of no use. You cannot suit people or plants that are +determined not to be suited. + +Yet, sad as my story is, I cannot regret that I came into the country +and attempted a garden. It has been fruitful in lessons, if in nothing +else. I have seen how every evil has its compensating good. When I am +tempted to repine that my squashes did not grow, I reflect, that, if +they had grown, they would probably have all turned into pumpkins, or if +they had stayed squashes, they would have been stolen. When it seems +a mysterious Providence that kept all my young hopes underground, I +reflect how fine an illustration I should otherwise have lost of what +Kossuth calls the solidarity of the human race,--what Paul alludes to, +when he says, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. I +recall with grateful tears the sympathy of my neighbors on the right +hand and on the left,--expressed not only by words, but by deeds. In my +mind's eye, Horatio, I see again the baskets of apples, and pears, and +tomatoes, and strawberries,--squashes too heavy to lift,--and corn +sweet as the dews of Hymettus, that bore daily witness of human +brotherhood. I remember, too, the victory which I gained over my own +depraved nature. I saw my neighbor prosper in everything he undertook. +_Nihil tetigit quod non crevit._ Fertility found in his soil its +congenial home, and spanned it with rainbow hues. Every day I walked by +his garden and saw it putting on its strength, its beautiful garments. +I had not even the small satisfaction of reflecting that amid all his +splendid success his life was cold and cheerless, while mine, amid all +its failures, was full of warmth,--a reflection which, I have often +observed, seems to go a great way towards making a person contented with +his lot,--for he had a lovely wife, promising children, and the whole +village for his friends. Yet, notwithstanding all these obstacles, I +learned to look over his garden-wall with sincere joy. + +There is one provocation, however, which I cannot yet bear with +equanimity, and which I do not believe I shall ever meet without at +least a spasm of wrath, even if my Christian character shall ever become +strong enough to preclude absolute tetanus; and I do hereby beseech all +persons who would not be guilty of the sin of Jeroboam who made Israel +to sin, who do not wish to have on their hands the burden of my ruined +temper, to let me go quietly down into the valley of humiliation and +oblivion, and not pester me, as they have hitherto done from all parts +of the North-American continent, with the infuriating question, "How did +you get on with your garden?" + + * * * * * + + +LYRICS OF THE STREET. + + +I. + +THE TELEGRAMS. + + + Bring the hearse to the station, + When one shall demand it, late; + For that dark consummation + The traveller must not wait. + Men say not by what connivance + He slid from his weight of woe, + Whether sickness or weak contrivance, + But we know him glad to go. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Nor let the priest be wanting + With his hollow eyes of prayer, + While the sexton wrenches, panting, + The stone from the dismal stair. + But call not the friends who left him, + When Fortune and Pleasure fled; + Mortality hath not bereft him, + That they should confront him, dead. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Bid my mother be ready: + We are coming home to-night: + Let my chamber be still and shady, + With the softened nuptial light. + We have travelled so gayly, madly, + No shadow hath crossed our way; + Yet we come back like children, gladly, + Joy-spent with our holiday. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Stop the train at the landing, + And search every carriage through; + Let no one escape your handing, + None shiver or shrink from view. + Three blood-stained guests expect him, + Three murders oppress his soul; + Be strained every nerve to detect him + Who feasted, and killed, and stole. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Be rid of the notes they scattered; + The great house is down at last; + The image of gold is shattered, + And never can be recast. + The bankrupts show leaden features, + And weary, distracted looks, + While harpy-eyed, wolf-souled creatures + Pry through their dishonored books. + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Let him hasten, lest worse befall him, + To look on me, ere I die: + I will whisper one curse to appall him, + Ere the black flood carry me by. + His bridal? the friends forbid it; + I have shown them his proofs of guilt: + Let him hear, with my laugh, who did it; + Then hurry, Death, as thou wilt! + On, and on, and ever on! + What next? + + Thus the living and dying daily + Flash forward their wants and words, + While still on Thought's slender railway + Sit scathless the little birds: + They heed not the sentence dire + By magical hands exprest, + And only the sun's warm fire + Stirs softly their happy breast. + On, and on, and ever on! + God next! + + + + +THE SOUTH BREAKER. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART I. + + +Just a cap-full of wind, and Dan shook loose the linen, and a straight +shining streak with specks of foam shot after us. The mast bent like +eel-grass, and our keel was half out of the water. Faith belied her +name, and clung to the sides with her ten finger-nails; but as for me, I +liked it. + +"Take the stick, Georgie," said Dan, suddenly, his cheeks white. "Head +her up the wind. Steady. Sight the figurehead on Pearson's loft. Here's +too much sail for a frigate." + +But before the words were well uttered, the mast doubled up and coiled +like a whip-lash, there was a report like the crack of doom, and half of +the thing crashed short over the bows, dragging the heavy sail in the +waves. + +Then there came a great laugh of thunder close above, and the black +cloud dropped like a curtain round us: the squall had broken. + +"Cut it off, Dan! quick!" I cried. "Let it alone," said he, snapping +together his jack-knife; "it's as good as a best bower-anchor. Now I'll +take the tiller, Georgie. Strong little hand," said he, bending so that +I didn't see his face. "And lucky it's good as strong. It's saved us +all.--My God, Georgie! where's Faith?" + +I turned. There was no Faith in the boat. We both sprang to our feet, +and so the tiller swung round and threw us broadside to the wind, and +between the dragging mast and the centre-board drowning seemed too good +for us. + +"You'll have to cut it off," I cried again; but he had already ripped +half through the canvas and was casting it loose. + +At length he gave his arm a toss. With the next moment, I never shall +forget the look of horror that froze Dan's face. + +"I've thrown her off!" he exclaimed. "I've thrown her off!" + +He reached his whole length over the boat, I ran to his side, and +perhaps our motion impelled it, or perhaps some unseen hand; for he +caught at an end of rope, drew it in a second, let go and clutched at a +handful of the sail, and then I saw how it had twisted round and swept +poor little Faith over, and she had swung there in it like a dead +butterfly in a chrysalis. The lightnings were slipping down into the +water like blades of fire everywhere around us, with short, sharp +volleys of thunder, and the waves were more than I ever rode this side +of the bar before or since, and we took in water every time our hearts +beat; but we never once thought of our own danger while we bent to pull +dear little Faith out of hers; and that done, Dan broke into a great +hearty fit of crying that I'm sure he'd no need to be ashamed of. But it +didn't last long; he just up and dashed off the tears and set himself at +work again, while I was down on the floor rubbing Faith. There she +lay like a broken lily, with no life in her little white face, and no +breath, and maybe a pulse and maybe not. I couldn't hear a word Dan +said, for the wind; and the rain was pouring through us. I saw him take +out the oars, but I knew they'd do no good in such a chop, even if they +didn't break; and pretty soon he found it so, for he drew them in and +began to untie the anchor-rope and wind it round his waist. I sprang to +him. + +"What are you doing, Dan?" I exclaimed. + +"I can swim, at least," he answered. + +"And tow us?--a mile? You know you can't! It's madness!" + +"I must try. Little Faith will die, if we don't get ashore." + +"She's dead now, Dan." + +"What! No, no, she isn't. Faith isn't dead. But we must get ashore." + +"Dan," I cried, clinging to his arm, "Faith's only one. But if you die +so,--and you will!--I shall die too." + +"You?" + +"Yes; because, if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been here at +all." + +"And is that all the reason?" he asked, still at work. + +"Reason enough," said I. + +"Not quite," said he. + +"Dan,--for my sake"---- + +"I can't, Georgie. Don't ask me. I mustn't"--and here he stopped short, +with the coil of rope in his hand, and fixed me with his eye, and his +look was terrible--"_we_ mustn't let Faith die." + +"Well," I said, "try it, if you dare,--and as true as there's a Lord in +heaven, I'll cut the rope!" + +He hesitated, for he saw I was resolute; and I would, I declare I would +have done it; for, do you know, at the moment I hated the little dead +thing in the bottom of the boat there. + +Just then there came a streak of sunshine through the gloom where we'd +been plunging between wind and water, and then a patch of blue sky, and +the great cloud went blowing down river. Dan threw away the rope and +took out the oars again. + +"Give me one, Dan," said I; but he shook his head. "Oh, Dan, because I'm +so sorry!" + +"See to her, then,--fetch Faith to," he replied, not looking at me, and +making up with great sturdy pulls. + +So I busied myself, though I couldn't do a bit of good. The instant we +touched bottom, Dan snatched her, sprang through the water and up the +landing. I stayed behind; as the boat recoiled, pushed in a little, +fastened the anchor and threw it over, and then followed. + +Our house was next the landing, and there Dan had carried Faith; and +when I reached it, a great fire was roaring up the chimney, and the +tea-kettle hung over it, and he was rubbing Faith's feet hard enough to +strike sparks. I couldn't understand exactly what made Dan so fiercely +earnest, for I thought I knew just how he felt about Faith; but +suddenly, when nothing seemed to answer, and he stood up and our eyes +met, I saw such a haggard, conscience-stricken face that it all rushed +over me. But now we had done what we could, and then I felt all at once +as if every moment that I effected nothing was drawing out murder. +Something flashed by the window, I tore out of the house and threw up my +arms, I don't know whether I screamed or not, but I caught the doctor's +eye, and he jumped from his gig and followed me in. We had a siege of +it. But at length, with hot blankets, and hot water, and hot brandy +dribbled down her throat, a little pulse began to play upon Faith's +temple and a little pink to beat up and down her cheek, and she opened +her pretty dark eyes and lifted herself and wrung the water out of her +braids; then she sank back. + +"Faith! Faith! speak to me!" said Dan, close in her ear. "Don't you know +me?" + +"Go away," she said, hoarsely, pushing his face with her flat wet palm. +"You let the sail take me over and drown me, while you kissed Georgie's +hand." + +I flung my hand before her eyes. + +"Is there a kiss on those fingers?" I cried, in a blaze. "He never +kissed my hands or my lips. Dan is your husband, Faith!" + +For all answer Faith hid her head and gave a little moan. Somehow I +couldn't stand that; so I ran and put my arms round her neck and lifted +her face and kissed it, and then we cried together. And Dan, walking the +floor, took up his hat and went out, while she never cast a look after +him. To think of such a great strong nature and such a powerful depth of +feeling being wasted on such a little limp rag! I cried as much for that +as anything. Then I helped Faith into my bedroom, and running home, I +got her some dry clothes,--after rummaging enough, dear knows! for you'd +be more like to find her nightcap in the tea-caddy than elsewhere,--and +I made her a corner on the settle, for she was afraid to stay in the +bedroom, and when she was comfortably covered there she fell asleep. +Dan came in soon and sat down beside her, his eyes on the floor, never +glancing aside nor smiling, but gloomier than the grave. As for me, I +felt at ease now, so I went and laid my hand on the back of his chair +and made him look up. I wanted he should know the same rest that I +had, and perhaps he did,--for, still looking up, the quiet smile came +floating round his lips, and his eyes grew steady and sweet as they used +to be before he married Faith. Then I went bustling lightly about the +kitchen again. + +"Dan," I said, "if you'd just bring me in a couple of those chickens +stalking out there like two gentlemen from Spain." + +While he was gone I flew round and got a cake into the bake-kettle, and +a pan of biscuit down before the fire; and I set the tea to steep on the +coals, because father always likes his tea strong enough to bear up an +egg, after a hard day's work, and he'd had that to-day; and I put on the +coffee to boil, for I knew Dan never had it at home, because Faith liked +it and it didn't agree with her. And then he brought me in the chickens +all ready for the pot, and so at last I sat down, but at the opposite +side of the chimney. Then he rose, and, without exactly touching me, +swept me back to the other side, where lay the great net I was making +for father; and I took the little stool by the settle, and not far from +him, and went to work. + +"Georgie," said Dan, at length, after he'd watched me a considerable +time, "if any word I may have said to-day disturbed you a moment, I want +you to know that it hurt me first, and just as much." + +"Yes, Dan," said I. + +I've always thought there was something real noble between Dan and me +then. There was I,--well, I don't mind telling you. And he,--yes, I'm +sure he loved me perfectly,--you mustn't be startled, I'll tell you how +it was,--and always had, only maybe he hadn't known it; but it was deep +down in his heart just the same, and by-and-by it stirred. There we +were, both of us thoroughly conscious, yet neither of us expressing it +by a word, and trying not to by a look,--both of us content to wait for +the next life, when we could belong to one another. In those days I +contrived to have it always pleasure enough for me just to know that Dan +was in the room; and though that wasn't often, I never grudged Faith her +right in him, perhaps because I knew she didn't care anything about it. +You see, this is how it was. + +When Dan was a lad of sixteen, and took care of his mother, a ship went +to pieces down there on the island. It was one of the worst storms that +ever whistled, and though crowds were on the shore, it was impossible to +reach her. They could see the poor wretches hanging in the rigging, and +dropping one by one, and they could only stay and sicken, for the surf +stove the boats, and they didn't know then how to send out ropes on +rockets or on cannon-balls, and so the night fell, and the people wrung +their hands and left the sea to its prey, and felt as if blue sky could +never come again. And with the bright, keen morning not a vestige of the +ship, but here a spar and there a door, and on the side of a sand-hill +a great dog watching over a little child that he'd kept warm all night. +Dan, he'd got up at turn of tide, and walked down,--the sea running over +the road knee-deep,--for there was too much swell for boats; and when +day broke, he found the little girl, and carried her up to town. He +didn't take her home, for he saw that what clothes she had were the very +finest,--made as delicately,--with seams like the hair-strokes on that +heart's-ease there; and he concluded that he couldn't bring her up as +she ought to be. So he took her round to the rich men, and represented +that she was the child of a lady, and that a poor fellow like +himself--for Dan was older than his years, you see--couldn't do her +justice: she was a slight little thing, and needed dainty training +and fancy food, maybe a matter of seven years old, and she spoke some +foreign language, and perhaps she didn't speak it plain, for nobody knew +what it was. However, everybody was very much interested, and everybody +was willing to give and to help, but nobody wanted to take her, and the +upshot of it was that Dan refused all their offers and took her himself. + +His mother'd been in to our house all the afternoon before, and she'd +kept taking her pipe out of her mouth,--she had the asthma, and +smoked,--and kept sighing. + +"This storm's going to bring me something," says she, in a mighty +miserable tone. "I'm sure of it!" + +"No harm, I hope, Miss Devereux," said mother. + +"Well, Rhody,"--mother's father, he was a queer kind,--called his girls +all after the thirteen States, and there being none left for Uncle Mat, +he called him after the state of matrimony,--"Well, Rhody," she replied, +rather dismally, and knocking the ashes out of the bowl, "I don't know; +but I'll have faith to believe that the Lord won't send me no ill +without distincter warning. And that it's good I _have_ faith to +believe." + +And so when the child appeared, and had no name, and couldn't answer for +herself, Mrs. Devereux called her Faith. + +We're a people of presentiments down here on the Flats, and well we +may be. You'd own up yourself, maybe, if in the dark of the night, you +locked in sleep, there's a knock on the door enough to wake the dead, +and you start up and listen and nothing follows; and falling back, +you're just dozing off, and there it is once more, so that the lad in +the next room cries out, "Who's that, mother?" No one answering, you're +half lost again, when _rap_ comes the hand again, the loudest of the +three, and you spring to the door and open it, and there's nought there +but a wind from the graves blowing in your face; and after a while you +learn that in that hour of that same night your husband was lost at sea. +Well, that happened to Mrs. Devereux. And I haven't time to tell you the +warnings I've known of. As for Faith, I mind that she said herself, as +we were in the boat for that clear midnight sail, that the sea had a +spite against her, but third time was trying time. + +So Faith grew up, and Dan sent her to school what he could, for he set +store by her. She was always ailing,--a little, wilful, pettish thing, +but pretty as a flower; and folks put things into her head, and she +began to think she was some great shakes; and she may have been a matter +of seventeen years old when Mrs. Devereux died. Dan, as simple at +twenty-six as he had been ten years before, thought to go on just in +the old way, but the neighbors were one too many for him; and they all +represented that it would never do, and so on, till the poor fellow got +perplexed and vexed and half beside himself. There wasn't the first +thing she could do for herself, and he couldn't afford to board her out, +for Dan was only a laboring-man, mackerelling all summer and shoemaking +all winter, less the dreadful times when he stayed out on the Georges; +and then he couldn't afford, either, to keep her there and ruin the poor +girl's reputation;--and what did Dan do but come to me with it all? + +Now for a number of years I'd been up in the other part of the town with +Aunt Netty, who kept a shop that I tended between schools and before and +after, and I'd almost forgotten there was such a soul on earth as Dan +Devereux,--though he'd not forgotten me. I'd got through the Grammar +and had a year in the High, and suppose I should have finished with an +education and gone off teaching somewhere, instead of being here now, +cheerful as heart could wish, with a little black-haired hussy tiltering +on the back of my chair.--Rolly, get down! Her name's Laura,--for his +mother.--I mean I might have done all this, if at that time mother +hadn't been thrown on her back, and been bedridden ever since. I haven't +said much about mother yet, but there all the time she was, just as she +is to-day, in her little tidy bed in one corner of the great kitchen, +sweet as a saint, and as patient; and I had to come and keep house for +father. He never meant that I should lose by it, father didn't; begged, +borrowed, or stolen, bought or hired, I should have my books, he said: +he's mighty proud of my learning, though between you and me it's little +enough to be proud of; but the neighbors think I know 'most as much as +the minister,--and I let 'em think. Well, while Mrs. Devereux was sick I +was over there a good deal,--for if Faith had one talent, it was total +incapacity,--and there had a chance of knowing the stuff that Dan was +made of; and I declare to man 'twould have touched a heart of stone to +see the love between the two. She thought Dan held up the sky, and Dan +thought she was the sky. It's no wonder,--the risks our men lead can't +make common-sized women out of their wives and mothers. But I hadn't +been coming in and out, busying about where Dan was, all that time, +without making any mark; though he was so lost in grief about his mother +that he didn't take notice of his other feelings, or think of himself at +all. And who could care the less about him for that? It always brings +down a woman to see a man wrapt in some sorrow that's lawful, and tender +as it is large. And when he came and told me what the neighbors said he +must do with Faith, the blood stood still in my heart. + +"Ask mother, Dan," says I,--for I couldn't have advised him. "She knows +best about everything." + +So he asked her. + +"I think--I'm sorry to think, for I fear she'll not make you a good +wife," said mother, "but that perhaps her love for you will teach her to +be--you'd best marry Faith." + +"But I can't marry her!" said Dan, half choking; "I don't want to marry +her,--it--it makes me uncomfortable-like to think of such a thing. I +care for the child plenty----Besides," said Dan, catching at a bright +hope, "I'm not sure that she'd have me." + +"Have you, poor boy! What else can she do?" + +Dan groaned. + +"Poor little Faith!" said mother. "She's so pretty, Dan, and she's so +young, and she's pliant. And then how can we tell what may turn up about +her some day? She may be a duke's daughter yet,--who knows? Think of the +stroke of good-fortune she may give you!" + +"But I don't love her," said Dan, as a finality. + +"Perhaps----It isn't----You don't love any one else?" + +"No," said Dan, as a matter of course, and not at all with reflection. +And then, as his eyes went wandering, there came over them a misty look, +just as the haze creeps between you and some object away out at sea, and +he seemed to be searching his very soul. Suddenly the look swept off +them, and his eyes struck mine, and he turned, not having meant to, and +faced me entirely, and there came such a light into his countenance, +such a smile round his lips, such a red stamped his cheek, and he bent +a little,--and it was just as if the angel of the Lord had shaken his +wings over us in passing, and we both of us knew that here was a man and +here was a woman, each for the other, in life and death; and I just hid +my head in my apron, and mother turned on her pillow with a little moan. +How long that lasted I can't say, but by-and-by I heard mother's +voice, clear and sweet as a tolling bell far away on some fair Sunday +morning,-- + +"The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his +eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men." + +And nobody spoke. + +"Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Thou wilt +light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For with +thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." + +Then came the hush again, and Dan started to his feet, and began to walk +up and down the room as if something drove him; but wearying, he stood +and leaned his head on the chimney there. And mother's voice broke the +stillness anew, and she said,-- + +"Hath God forgotten to be gracious? His mercy endureth forever. And none +of them that trust in him shall be desolate." + +There was something in mother's tone that made me forget myself and my +sorrow, and look; and there she was, as she hadn't been before for six +months, half risen from the bed, one hand up, and her whole face white +and shining with confident faith. Well, when I see all that such trust +has buoyed mother over, I wish to goodness I had it: I take more after +Martha. But never mind, do well here and you'll do well there, say I. +Perhaps you think it wasn't much, the quiet and the few texts breathed +through it; but sometimes when one's soul's at a white heat, it may be +moulded like wax with a finger. As for me, maybe God hardened Pharaoh's +heart,--though how that was Pharaoh's fault I never could see. But +Dan,--he felt what it was to have a refuge in trouble, to have a great +love always extending over him like a wing; he longed for it; he +couldn't believe it was his now, he was so suddenly convicted of all sin +and wickedness; and something sprang up in his heart, a kind of holy +passion that he felt to be possible for this great and tender Divine +Being; and he came and fell on his knees by the side of the bed, crying +out for mother to show him the way; and mother, she put her hand on his +head and prayed,--prayed, oh, so beautifully, that it makes the water +stand in my eyes now to remember what she said. But I didn't feel so +then, my heart and my soul were rebellious, and love for Dan alone kept +me under, not love for God. And in fact, if ever I'd got to heaven +then, love for Dan'd have been my only saving grace; for I was mighty +high-spirited, as a girl. Well, Dan he never made open profession; but +when he left the house, he went and asked Faith to marry him. + +Now Faith didn't care anything about Dan,--except the quiet attachment +that she couldn't help, from living in the house with him, and he'd +always petted and made much of her, and dressed her like a doll,--he +wasn't the kind of man to take her fancy: she'd have maybe liked some +slender, smooth-faced chap; but Dan was a black, shaggy fellow, with +shoulders like the cross-tree, and a length of limb like Saul's, and +eyes set deep, like lamps in caverns. And he had a great, powerful +heart,--and, oh, how it was lost! for she might have won it, she might +have made him love her, since I would have stood wide away and aside for +the sake of seeing him happy. But Faith was one of those that, if they +can't get what they want, haven't any idea of putting up with what they +have,--God forgive me, if I'm hard on the child! And she couldn't give +Dan an answer right off, but was loath to think of it, and went flirting +about among the other boys; and Dan, when he saw she wasn't so easily +gotten, perhaps set more value on her. For Faith, she grew prettier +every day; her great brown eyes were so soft and clear, and had a wide, +sorrowful way of looking at you; and her cheeks, that were usually pale, +blossomed to roses when you spoke to her, her hair drooping over them +dark and silky; and though she was slack and untidy and at loose ends +about her dress, she somehow always seemed like a princess in disguise; +and when she had on any thing new,--a sprigged calico, and her little +straw bonnet with the pink ribbons, and Mrs. Devereux's black scarf, for +instance,--you'd have allowed that she might have been daughter to the +Queen of Sheba. I don't know, but I rather think Dan wouldn't have said +any more to Faith, from various motives, you see, notwithstanding the +neighbors were still remonstrating with him, if it hadn't been that Miss +Brown--she that lived round the corner there; the town's well quit +of her now, poor thing!--went to saying the same stuff to Faith, +and telling her all that other folks said. And Faith went home in a +passion,--some of your timid kind nothing ever abashes, and nobody gets +to the windward of them,--and, being perfectly furious, fell to accusing +Dan of having brought her to this, so that Dan actually believed he had, +and was cut to the quick with contrition, and told her that all the +reparation he could make he was waiting and wishing to make, and then +there came floods of tears. Some women seem to have set out with the +idea that life's a desert for them to cross, and they've laid in a +supply of water-bags accordingly,--but it's the meanest weapon! And then +again, there's men that are iron, and not to be bent under calamities, +that these tears can twist round your little finger. Well, I suppose +Faith concluded 'twas no use to go hungry because her bread wasn't +buttered on both sides, but she always acted as if she'd condescended +ninety degrees in marrying Dan, and Dan always seemed to feel that he'd +done her a great injury; and there it was. + +I kept in the house for a time; mother was worse.--and I thought the +less Dan saw of me the better; I kind of hoped he'd forget, and find his +happiness where it ought to be. But the first time I saw him, when Faith +had been his wife all the spring, there was the look in his eyes that +told of the ache in his heart. Faith wasn't very happy herself, of +course, though she was careless; and she gave him trouble,--keeping +company with the young men just as before; and she got into a way of +flying straight to me, if Dan ventured to reprove her ever so lightly; +and stormy nights, when he was gone, and in his long trips, she always +locked up her doors and came over and got into my bed; and she was one +of those that never listened to reason, and it was none so easy for me, +you may suppose. + +Things had gone on now for some three years, and I'd about lived in my +books,--I'd tried to teach Faith some, but she wouldn't go any farther +than newspaper stories,--when one day Dan took her and me to sail, and +we were to have had a clam-chowder on the Point, if the squall hadn't +come. As it was, we'd got to put up with chicken-broth, and it couldn't +have been better, considering who made it. It was getting on toward the +cool of the May evening, the sunset was round on the other side of the +house, but all the east looked as if the sky had been stirred up +with currant-juice, till it grew purple and dark, and then the two +light-houses flared out and showed us the lip of froth lapping the +shadowy shore beyond, and I--heard father's voice, and he came in. + +There was nothing but the fire-light in the room, and it threw about +great shadows, so that at first entering all was indistinct; but I heard +a foot behind father's, and then a form appeared, and something, I never +could tell what, made a great shiver rush down my back, just as when a +creature is frightened in the dark at what you don't see, and so, though +my soul was unconscious, my body felt that there was danger in the air. +Dan had risen and lighted the lamp that swings in the chimney, and +father first of all had gone up and kissed mother, and left the stranger +standing; then he turned round, saying,-- + +"A tough day,--it's been a tough day; and here's some un to prove it. +Georgie, hope that pot's steam don't belie it, for Mr. Gabriel Verelay +and I want a good supper and a good bed." + +At this, the stranger, still standing, bowed. + +"Here's the one, father," said I. "But about the bed,--Faith'll have to +stay here,--and I don't see--unless Dan takes him over"---- + +"That I'll do," said Dan. + +"All right," said the stranger, in a voice that you didn't seem to +notice while he was speaking, but that you remembered afterwards like +the ring of any silver thing that has been thrown down; and he dropped +his hat on the floor and drew near the fireplace, warming hands that +were slender and brown, but shapely as a woman's. I was taking up the +supper; so I only gave him a glance or two, and saw him standing there, +his left hand extended to the blaze, and his eye resting lightly and +then earnestly on Faith in her pretty sleep, and turning away much as +one turns from a picture. At length I came to ask him to sit by, and at +that moment Faith's eyes opened. + +Faith always woke up just as a baby does, wide and bewildered, and the +fire had flushed her cheeks, and her hair was disordered, and she fixed +her gaze on him as if he had stepped out of her dream, her lips half +parted and then curling in a smile,--but in a second he moved off with +me, and Faith slipped down and into the little bedroom. + +Well, we didn't waste many words until father'd lost the edge of his +appetite, and then I told about Faith. + +"'F that don't beat the Dutch!" said father. "Here's Mr.--Mr."------ + +"Gabriel," said the stranger. + +"Yes,--Mr. Gabriel Verelay been served the same trick by the same +squall, only worse and more of it,--knocked off the yacht--What's that +you call her?" + +"La belle Louise." + +"And left for drowned,--if they see him go at all. But he couldn't 'a' +sinked in that sea, if he'd tried. He kep' afloat; we blundered into +him; and here he is." + +Dan and I looked round In considerable surprise, for he was dry as an +August leaf. + +"Oh," said the stranger, coloring, and with the least little turn of his +words, as if he didn't always speak English, "the good captain reached +shore, and, finding sticks, he kindled a fire, and we did dry our +clothes until it made fine weather once more." + +"Yes," said father; "but 't wouldn't been quite such fine weather, I +reckon, if this 'd gone to the fishes!" And he pushed something across +the table. + +It was a pouch with steel snaps, and well stuffed. The stranger colored +again, and held his hand for it, and the snap burst, and great gold +pieces, English coin and very old French ones, rolled about the table, +and father shut his eyes tight; and just then Faith came back and +slipped into her chair. I saw her eyes sparkle as we all reached, +laughing and joking, to gather them; and Mr. Gabriel--we got into the +way of calling him so,--he liked it best--hurried to get them out of +sight as if he'd committed some act of ostentation. And then, to make +amends, he threw off what constraint he had worn in this new atmosphere +of ours, and was so gay, so full of questions and quips and conceits, +all spoken in his strange way, his voice was so sweet, and he laughed so +much and so like a boy, and his words had so much point and brightness, +that I could think of nothing but the showers of colored stars in +fireworks. Dan felt it like a play, sat quiet, but enjoying, and I saw +he liked it;--the fellow had a way of attaching every one. Father was +uproarious, and kept calling out, "Mother, do you hear?--d' you hear +_that_, mother?" And Faith, she was near, taking it all in as a flower +does sunshine, only smiling a little, and looking utterly happy. Then I +hurried to clear up, and Faith sat in the great arm-chair, and father +got out the pipes, and you could hardly see across the room for the wide +tobacco-wreaths; and then it was father's turn, and he told story after +story of the hardships and the dangers and the charms of our way of +living. And I could see Mr. Gabriel's cheek blanch, and he would bend +forward, forgetting to smoke, and his breath coming short, and then +right himself like a boat after lurching,--he had such natural ways, and +except that he'd maybe been a spoiled child, he would have had a good +heart, as hearts go. And nothing would do at last but he must stay and +live the same scenes for a little; and father told him 't wouldn't +pay;--they weren't so much to go through with as to tell of,--there was +too much prose in the daily life, and too much dirt, and 't wa'n't fit +for gentlemen. Oh, he said, he'd been used to roughing it,--woodsing, +camping and gunning and yachting, ever since he'd been a free man. He +was Canadian, and had been cruising from the St. Lawrence to Florida, +--and now, as his companions would go on without him, he had a mind to +try a bit of coast-life. And could he board here? or was there any handy +place? And father said, there was Dan,--Dan Devereux, a man that hadn't +his match at oar or helm. And Mr. Gabriel turned his keen eye and bowed +again,--and couldn't Dan take Mr. Gabriel? And before Dan could answer, +for he'd referred it to Faith, Mr. Gabriel had forgotten all about it, +and was humming a little French song and stirring the coals with the +tongs. And that put father off in a fresh remembrance; and as the hours +lengthened, the stories grew fearful, and he told them deep into the +midnight, till at last Mr. Gabriel stood up. + +"No more, good friend," said he. "But I will have a taste of this life +perilous. And now where is it that I go?" + +Dan also stood up. + +"My little woman," said he, glancing at Faith, "thinks there's a corner +for you, Sir." + +"I beg your pardon"--And Mr. Gabriel paused, with a shadow skimming +over his clear dark face. + +Dan wondered what he was begging pardon for, but thought perhaps he +hadn't heard him, so he repeated,-- + +"My wife"--nodding over his shoulder at Faith, "she's my wife--thinks +there's a"---- + +"She's your wife?" said Mr. Gabriel, his eyes opening and brightening +the way an aurora runs up the sky, and looking first at one and then at +the other, as if he couldn't understand how so delicate a flower grew on +so thorny a stem. + +The red flushed up Dan's face,--and up mine too, for the matter of +that,--but in a minute the stranger had dropped his glance. + +"And why did you not tell me," he said, "that I might have found her +less beautiful?" + +Then he raised his shoulders, gave her a saucy bow, with his hand on +Dan's arm,--Dan, who was now too well pleased at having Faith made +happy by a compliment to sift it,--and they went out. + +But I was angry enough; and you may imagine I wasn't much soothed by +seeing Faith, who'd been so die-away all the evening, sitting up before +my scrap of looking-glass, trying in my old coral earrings, bowing up my +ribbons, and plaiting and prinking till the clock frightened her into +bed. + +The next morning, mother, who wasn't used to such disturbance, was ill, +and I was kept pretty busy tending on her for two or three days. Faith +had insisted on going home the first thing after breakfast, and in +that time I heard no more of anybody,--for father was out with the +night-tides, and, except to ask how mother did, and if I'd seen the +stray from the Lobblelyese again, was too tired for talking when he came +back. That had been--let me see--on a Monday, I think,--yes, on a +Monday; and Thursday evening, as in-doors had begun to tell on me, and +mother was so much improved, I thought I'd run out for a walk along the +seawall. The sunset was creeping round everything, and lying in great +sheets on the broad, still river, the children were frolicking in +the water, and all was so gay, and the air was so sweet, that I went +lingering along farther than I'd meant, and by-and-by who should I see +but a couple sauntering toward me at my own gait, and one of them was +Faith. She had on a muslin with little roses blushing all over it, +and she floated along in it as if she were in a pink cloud, and she'd +snatched a vine of the tender young woodbine as she went, and, throwing +it round her shoulders, held the two ends in one hand like a ribbon, +while with the other she swung her white sun-bonnet. She laughed, and +shook her head at me, and there, large as life, under the dark braids +dangled my coral ear-rings, that she'd adopted without leave or license. +She'd been down to the lower landing to meet Dan,--a thing she'd done +before I don't know when,--and was walking up with Mr. Gabriel while Dan +stayed behind to see to things. I kept them talking, and Mr. Gabriel was +sparkling with fun, for he'd got to feeling acquainted, and it had put +him in high spirits to get ashore at this hour, though he liked the sea, +and we were all laughing, when Dan came up. Now I must confess I hadn't +fancied Mr. Gabriel over and above; I suppose my first impression had +hardened into a prejudice; and after I'd fathomed the meaning of Faith's +fine feathers I liked him less than ever. But when Dan came up, he +joined right in, gay and hearty, and liking his new acquaintance so +much, that, thinks I, he must know best, and I'll let him look out for +his interests himself. It would 'a' been no use, though, for Dan to +pretend to beat the Frenchman at his own weapons,--and I don't know that +I should have cared to have him. The older I grow, the less I think of +your mere intellect; throw learning out of the scales, and give me a +great, warm heart,--like Dan's. + +Well, it was getting on in the evening, when the latch lifted, and in +ran Faith. She twisted my ear-rings out of her hair, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, Georgie, are you busy? Can't you perse my ears now?" + +"Pierce them yourself, Faith." + +"Well, pierce, then. But I can't,--you know I can't. Won't you now, +Georgie?" and she tossed the ear-rings into my lap. + +"Why, Faith," said I, "how'd you contrive to wear these, if your ears +aren't"-- + +"Oh, I tied them on. Come now, Georgie!" + +So I got the ball of yarn and the darning-needle. + +"Oh, not such a big one!" cried she. + +"Perhaps you'd like a cambric needle," said I. + +"I don't want a winch," she pouted. + +"Well, here's a smaller one. Now kneel down." + +"Yes, but you wait a moment, till I screw up my courage." + +"No need. You can talk, and I'll take you at unawares." + +So Faith knelt down, and I got all ready. + +"And what shall I talk about?" said she. "About Aunt Rhody, or Mr. +Gabriel, or--I'll tell you the queerest thing, Georgie! Going to now?" + +"Do be quiet, Faith, and not keep your head flirting about so!"--for +she'd started up to speak. Then she composed herself once more. + +"What was I saying? Oh, about that. Yes, Georgie, the queerest thing! +You see, this evening, when Dan was out, I was sitting talkin' with Mr. +Gabriel, and he was wondering how I came to be dropped down here, so I +told him all about it. And he was so interested that I went and showed +him the things I had on when Dan found me,--you know they've been kept +real nice. And he took them, and looked them over, close, admiring them, +and--and--admiring me,--and finally he started, and then held the frock +to the light, and then lifted a little plait, and in the under side of +the belt-lining there was a name very finely wrought,--Virginie des +Violets; and he looked at all the others, and in some hidden corner of +every one was the initials of the same name,--V. des V. + +"'That should be your name, Mrs. Devereux,' says he. + +"'Oh, no!' says I. 'My name's Faith.' + +"Well, and on that he asked, was there no more; and so I took off the +little chain that I've always worn and showed him that, and he asked if +there was a face in it, in what we thought was a coin, you know; and I +said, oh, it didn't open; and he turned it over and over, and finally +something snapped, and there _was_ a face,--here, you shall see it, +Georgie." + +And Faith drew it from her bosom, and opened and held it before me; for +I'd sat with my needle poised, and forgetting to strike. And there was +the face indeed, a sad, serious face, dark and sweet, yet the image of +Faith, and with the same mouth,--that so lovely in a woman becomes weak +in a man,--and on the other side there were a few threads of hair, with +the same darkness and fineness as Faith's hair, and under them a little +picture chased in the gold and enamelled, which, from what I've read +since, I suppose must have been the crest of the Des Violets. + +"And what did Mr. Gabriel say then?" I asked, giving it back to Faith, +who put her head into the old position again. + +"Oh, he acted real queer. 'The very man!' he cried out. 'The man +himself! His portrait,--I have seen it a hundred times!' And then +he told me that about a dozen years ago or more, a ship sailed +from--from--I forget the place exactly, somewhere up there where _he_ +came from,--Mr. Gabriel, I mean,--and among the passengers was this +man and his wife, and his little daughter, whose name was Virginie des +Violets, and the ship was never heard from again. But he says that +without a doubt I'm the little daughter and my name is Virginie, though +I suppose every one'll call me Faith. Oh, and that isn't the queerest. +The queerest is, this gentleman," and Faith lifted her head, "was very +rich. I can't tell you how much he owned. Lands that you can walk on a +whole day and not come to the end, and ships, and gold. And the whole of +it's lying idle and waiting for an heir,--and I, Georgie, am the heir." + +And Faith told it with cheeks burning and eyes shining, but yet quite as +if she'd been born and brought up in the knowledge. + +"It don't seem to move you much, Faith," said I, perfectly amazed, +although I'd frequently expected something of the kind. + +"Well, I may never get it, and so on. If I do, I'll give you a silk +dress and set you up in a book-store. But here's a queerer thing yet. +Des Violets is the way Mr. Gabriel's own name is spelt, and his father +and mine--his mother and--Well, some way or other we're sort of +cousins. Only think, Georgie! isn't that--I thought, to be sure, when he +quartered at our house, Dan'd begin to take me to do, if I looked at +him sideways,--make the same fuss that he does, if I nod to any of the +other young men." + +"I don't think Dan speaks before he should, Faith." + +"Why don't you say Virginie?" says she, laughing. + +"Because Faith you've always been, and Faith you'll have to remain, with +us, to the end of the chapter." + +"Well, that's as it may be. But Dan can't object now to my going where +I'm a mind to with my own cousin!" And here Faith laid her ear on the +ball of yarn again. + +"Hasten, headsman!" said she, out of a novel, "or they'll wonder where I +am." + +"Well," I answered, "just let me run the needle through the emery." + +"Yes, Georgie," said Faith, going back with her memories while I +sharpened my steel, "Mr. Gabriel and I are kin. And he said that the +moment he laid eyes on me he knew I was of different blood from the rest +of the people"--. + +"What people?" asked I. + +"Why, you, and Dan, and all these. And he said he was struck to stone +when he heard I was married to Dan,--I must have been entrapped,--the +courts would annul it,--any one could see the difference between us"-- + +Here was my moment, and I didn't spare it, but jabbed the needle into +the ball of yarn, if her ear did lie between them. + +"Yes!" says I, "anybody with half an eye can see the difference between +you, and that's a fact! Nobody'd ever imagine for a breath that you were +deserving of Dan,--Dan, who's so noble he'd die for what he thought was +right,--you, who are so selfish and idle and fickle and"-- + +And at that Faith burst out crying. + +"Oh, I never expected you'd talk about me so, Georgie!" said she between +her sobs. "How could I tell you were such a mighty friend of Dan's? And +besides, if ever I was Virginie des Violets, I'm Faith Devereux now, and +Dan'll resent _any one's_ speaking so about his wife!" + +And she stood up, the tears sparkling like diamonds in her flashing dark +eyes, her cheeks red, and her little fist clenched. + +"That's the right spirit, Faith," says I, "and I'm glad to see you show +it. And as for this young Canadian, the best thing to do with him is to +send him packing. I don't believe a word he says; it's more than likely +nothing but to get into your good graces." + +"But there's the names," said she, so astonished that she didn't +remember she was angry. + +"Happened so." + +"Oh, yes! 'Happened so' A likely story! It's nothing but your envy, and +that's all!" + +"Faith!" says I, for I forgot she didn't know how close she struck. + +"Well,--I mean----There, don't let's talk about it any more! How under +the sun am I going to get these ends tied?" + +"Come here. There! Now for the other one." + +"No, I sha'n't let you do that; you hurt me dreadfully, and you got +angry and took the big needle." + +"I thought you expected to be hurt." + +"I didn't expect to be stabbed." + +"Well, just as you please. I suppose you'll go round with one ear-ring." + +"Like a little pig with his ear cropped? No, I shall do it myself. See +there, Georgie!" and she threw a bit of a box into my hands. + +I opened it, and there lay inside, on their velvet cushion, a pair of +the prettiest things you ever saw,--a tiny bunch of white grapes, and +every grape a round pearl, and all hung so that they would tinkle +together on their golden stems every time Faith shook her head,--and she +had a cunning little way of shaking it often enough. + +"These must have cost a penny, Faith," said I. "Where'd you get them?" + +"Mr. Gabriel gave them to me, just now. He went up-town and bought them. +And I don't want him to know that my ears weren't bored." + +"Mr. Gabriel? And you took them?" + +"Of course I took them, and mighty glad to get them." + +"Faith, dear," said I, "don't you know that you shouldn't accept +presents from gentlemen, and especially now you're a married woman, and +especially from those of higher station?" + +"But he isn't higher." + +"You know what I mean. And then, too, he is; for one always takes rank +from one's husband." + +Faith looked rather downcast at this. + +"Yes," said I,--"and pearls and calico"---- + +"Just because you haven't got a pair yourself! There, be still! I don't +want any of your instructions in duty!" + +"You ought to put up with a word from a friend, Faith," said I. "You +always come to me with your grievances. And I'll tell you what I'll do. +You used to like these coral branches of mine; and if you'll give those +back to Mr. Gabriel, you shall have the coral." + +Well, Faith she hesitated, standing there trying to muster her mind to +the needle, and it ended by her taking the coral, though I don't believe +she returned the pearls,--but we none of us ever saw them afterwards. + +We'd been talking in a pretty low tone, because mother was asleep; and +just as she'd finished the other ear, and a little drop of blood stood +up on it like a live ruby, the door opened and Dan and Mr. Gabriel came +in. There never was a prettier picture than Faith at that moment, and so +the young stranger thought, for he stared at her, smiling and at ease, +just as if she'd been hung in a gallery and he'd bought a ticket. So +then he sat down and repeated to Dan and mother what she'd told me, and +he promised to send for the papers to prove it all. But he never did +send for them,--delaying and delaying, till the summer wore away; and +perhaps there were such papers and perhaps there weren't. I've always +thought he didn't want his own friends to know where he was. Dan might +be a rich man to-day, if he chose to look them up; but he'd scorch at a +slow fire before he'd touch a copper of it. Father never believed a word +about it, when we recited it again to him. + +"So Faith 'a come into her fortune, has she?" said he. "Pretty child! +She 'a'n't had so much before sence she fell heir to old Miss Devereux's +best chany, her six silver spoons, and her surname." + +So the days passed, and the greater part of every one Mr. Gabriel was +dabbling in the water somewhere. There wasn't a brook within ten miles +that he didn't empty of trout, for Dan knew the woods as well as the +shores, and he knew the clear nights when the insects can keep free from +the water so that next day the fish rise hungry to the surface; and so +sometimes in the brightest of May noons they'd bring home a string of +those beauties, speckled with little tongues of flame; and Mr. Gabriel +would have them cooked, and make us all taste them,--for we don't care +much for that sort, down here on the Flats; we should think we were +famished, if we had to eat fish. And then they'd lie in wait all day for +the darting pickerel in the little Stream of Shadows above; and when +it came June, up the river he went trolling for bass, and he used +a different sort of bait from the rest,--bass won't bite much at +clams,--and he hauled in great forty-pounders. And sometimes in the +afternoons he took out Faith and me,--for, as Faith would go, whether or +no, I always made it a point to put by everything and go too; and I used +to try and get some of the other girls in, but Mr. Gabriel never would +take them, though he was hail-fellow-well-met with everybody, and was +everybody's favorite, and it was known all round how he found out Faith, +and that alone made him so popular, that I do believe, if he'd only +taken out naturalization-papers, we'd have sent him to General Court. +And then it grew time for the river-mackerel, and they used to bring in +at sunset two or three hundred in a shining heap, together with great +lobsters that looked as if they'd been carved out of heliotrope-stone, +and so old that they were barnacled. And it was so novel to Mr. Gabriel, +that he used to act as if he'd fallen in fairy-land. + +After all, I don't know what we should have done without him that +summer: he always paid Dan or father a dollar a day and the hire of the +boat; and the times were so hard, and there was so little doing, that, +but for this, and packing the barrels of clam-bait, they'd have been +idle and fared sorely. But we'd rather have starved: though, as for +that, I've heard father say there never was a time when he couldn't +go out and catch some sort of fish and sell it for enough to get us +something to eat. And then this Mr. Gabriel, he had such a winning way +with him, he was as quick at wit as a bird on the wing, he had a story +or a song for every point, he seemed to take to our simple life as if +he'd been born to it, and he was as much interested in all our trifles +as we were ourselves. Then he was so sympathetic, he felt everybody's +troubles, he went to the city and brought down a wonderful doctor to see +mother, and he got her queer things that helped her more than you'd have +thought anything could, and he went himself and set honeysuckles out +all round Dan's house, so that before summer was over it was a bower of +great sweet blows, and he had an alms for every beggar, and a kind word +for every urchin, and he followed Dan about as a child would follow some +big shaggy dog. He introduced, too, a lot of new-fangled games; he was +what they called a gymnast, and in feats of rassling there wasn't a man +among them all but he could stretch as flat as a flounder. And then he +always treated. Everybody had a place for him soon,--even _I_ did; and +as for Dan, he'd have cut his own heart out of his body, if Mr. Gabriel +'d had occasion to use it. He was a different man from any Dan 'd ever +met before, something finer, and he might have been better, and Dan's +loyal soul was glad to acknowledge him master, and I declare I believe +he felt just as the Jacobites in the old songs used to feel for royal +Charlie. There are some men born to rule with a haughty, careless +sweetness, and others born to die for them with stern and dogged +devotion. + +Well, and all this while Faith wasn't standing still; she was changing +steadily, as much as ever the moon changed in the sky. I noticed it +first one day when Mr. Gabriel'd caught every child in the region and +given them a picnic in the woods of the Stack-Yard-Gate, and Faith was +nowhere to be seen tiptoeing round every one as she used to do, but +I found her at last standing at the head of the table,--Mr. Gabriel +dancing here and there, seeing to it that all should be as gay as he +seemed to be,--quiet and dignified as you please, and feeling every one +of her inches. But it wasn't dignity really that was the matter with +Faith,--it was just gloom. She'd brighten up for a moment or two and +then down would fall the cloud again, she took to long fits of dreaming, +and sometimes she'd burst out crying at any careless word, so that my +heart fairly bled for the poor child,--for one couldn't help seeing that +she'd some secret unhappiness or other; and I was as gentle and soothing +to her as it's in my nature to be. She was in to our house a good deal; +she kept it pretty well out of Dan's way, and I hoped she'd get over it +sooner or later, and make up her mind to circumstances. And I talked +to her a sight about Dan, praising him constantly before her, though I +couldn't hear to do it; and finally, one very confidential evening, I +told her that I'd been in love with Dan myself once a little, but I'd +seen that he would marry her, and so had left off thinking about it; +for, do you know, I thought it might make her set more price on him now, +if she knew somebody else had ever cared for him. Well, that did answer +awhile: whether she thought she ought to make it up to Dan, or whether +he really did grow more in her eyes, Faith got to being very neat and +domestic and praiseworthy. But still there was the change, and it didn't +make her any the less lovely. Indeed, if I'd been a man, I should have +cared for her more than ever: it was like turning a child into a woman: +and I really think, as Dan saw her going about with such a pleasant +gravity, her pretty figure moving so quietly, her pretty face so still +and fair, as if she had thoughts and feelings now, he began to wonder +what had come over Faith, and, if she were really as charming as this, +why he hadn't felt it before; and then, you know, whether you love a +woman or not, the mere fact that she's your wife, that her life is sunk +in yours, that she's something for you to protect and that your honor +lies in doing so, gives you a certain kindly feeling that might ripen +into love any day under sunshine and a south wall. + + * * * * * + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY + + +XI. + + +Among the astounding discoveries of modern science is that of the +immense periods which have passed in the gradual formation of our earth. +So vast were the cycles of time preceding even the appearance of man on +the surface of our globe, that our own period seems as yesterday when +compared with the epochs that have gone before it. Had we only the +evidence of the deposits of rock heaped above each other in regular +strata by the slow accumulation of materials, they alone would convince +us of the long and slow maturing of God's work on the earth but when we +add to these the successive populations of whose life this world has +been the theatre, and whose remains are hidden in the rocks into which +the mud or sand or soil of whatever kind on which they lived has +hardened in the course of time,--or the enormous chains of mountains +whose upheaval divided these periods of quiet accumulation by great +convulsions,--or the changes of a different nature in the configuration +of our globe, as the sinking of lands beneath the ocean, or the gradual +rising of continents and islands above it,--or the wearing of great +river-beds, or the filling of extensive water-basins, till marshes first +and then dry land succeeded to inland seas,--or the slow growth of coral +reefs, those wonderful sea-walls raised by the little ocean-architects +whose own bodies furnish both the building-stones and the cement that +binds them together, and who have worked so busily during the long +centuries, that there are extensive countries, mountain-chains, islands, +and long lines of coast consisting solely of their remains,--or the +countless forests that must have grown up, flourished, died, and +decayed, to fill the storehouses of coal that feed the fires of the +human race to-day,--if we consider all these records of the past, the +intellect fails to grasp a chronology for which our experience furnishes +no data, and the time that lies behind us seems as much an eternity to +our conception as the future that stretches indefinitely before us. + +The physical as well as the human history of the world has its mythical +age, lying dim and vague in the morning mists of creation, like that of +the heroes and demigods in the early traditions of man, defying all +our ordinary dates and measures. But if the succession of periods that +prepared the earth for the coming of man, and the animals and plants +that accompany him on earth, baffles our finite attempts to estimate its +duration, have we any means of determining even approximately the length +of the period to which we ourselves belong? If so, it may furnish us +with some data for the further solution of these wonderful mysteries of +time, and it is besides of especial importance with reference to the +question of permanence of Species. Those who maintain the mutability of +Species, and account for all the variety of life on earth by the gradual +changes wrought by time and circumstances, do not accept historical +evidence as affecting the question at all. The monuments of those oldest +nations, all whose history is preserved in monumental records, do not +indicate the slightest variation of organic types from that day to this. +The animals that were preserved within their tombs or carved upon their +walls by the ancient Egyptians were the same as those that have their +home in the valley of the Nile today; the negro, whose peculiar features +are unmistakable even in their rude artistic attempts to represent them, +was the same woolly-haired, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, dark-skinned being +in the days of the Rameses that he is now. The Apis, the Ibis, the +Crocodiles, the sacred Beetles, have brought down to us unchanged all +the characters that superstition hallowed in those early days. The +stony face of the Sphinx is not more true to its past, nor the massive +architecture of the Pyramids more unchanged, than they are. But the +advocates of the mutability of Species say truly enough that the most +ancient traditions are but as yesterday in the world's history, and that +what six thousand years could not do sixty thousand years might effect. +Leaving aside, then, all historical chronology, how far back can we +trace our own geological period, and the Species belonging to it? By +what means can we determine its duration? Within what limits, by what +standard, may it be measured? Shall hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds +of thousands, or millions of years be the unit from which we start? + +I will begin this inquiry with a series of facts which I myself have +had an opportunity of investigating with especial care respecting the +formation and growth of the Coral Reefs of Florida. But first a few +words on Coral Reefs in general. They are living limestone walls that +are built up from certain depths in the ocean by the natural growth of a +variety of animals, but limited by the level of high-water, beyond which +they cannot rise, since the little beings that compose them die as soon +as they are removed from the vitalizing influence of the pure sea-water. +These walls have a variety of outlines: they may be straight, circular, +semicircular, oblong, according to the form of the coast along which +the little Reef-Builders establish themselves; and their height is, of +course, determined by the depth of the bottom on which they rest. If +they settle about an island on all sides of which the conditions for +their growth are equally favorable, they will raise a wall all around +it, thus encircling it with a ring of Coral growth. The Athols in the +Pacific Ocean, those circular islands inclosing sometimes a fresh-water +lake in mid-ocean, are Coral walls of this kind, that have formed a ring +around a central island. This is easily understood, if we remember that +the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is by no means a stable foundation +for such a structure. On the contrary, over a certain area, which has +already been surveyed with some accuracy by Professor Dana, during the +United States Exploring Expedition, it is subsiding; and if an island +upon which the Reef-Builders have established themselves be situated +in that area of subsidence, it will, of course, sink with the floor on +which it rests, carrying down also the Coral wall to a greater depth in +the sea. In such instances, if the rate of subsidence be more rapid than +the rate of growth in the Corals, the island and the wall itself will +disappear beneath the ocean. But whenever, on the contrary, the rate of +increase in the wall is greater than that of subsidence in the island, +while the latter gradually sinks below the surface, the former rises +in proportion, and by the time it has completed its growth the central +island has vanished, and there remains only a ring of Coral Reef, with +here and there a break, perhaps, at some spot where the more prosperous +growth of the Corals has been checked. If, however, as sometimes +happens, there is no such break, and the wall is perfectly +uninterrupted, the sheet of sea-water so inclosed may be changed to +fresh water by the rains that are poured into it. Such a water-basin +will remain salt, it is true, in its lower part, and the fact that it is +affected by the rise and fall of the tides shows that it is not entirely +secluded from communication with the ocean outside; but the salt water, +being heavier, sinks, while the lighter rain-water remains above, and it +is to all appearance actually changed into a fresh-water lake. + +I need not dwell here on the further history of such a Coral island, or +follow it through the changes by which the summit of its circular wall +becomes covered with a fertile soil, a tropical vegetation springs up on +it, and it is at last perhaps inhabited by man. There is something very +attractive in the idea of these green rings inclosing sheltered harbors +and quiet lakes in mid-ocean, and the subject has lost none of its +fascination since the mystery of their existence has been solved by the +investigations of several contemporary naturalists who have enabled us +to trace the whole story of their structure. I would refer all who wish +for a more detailed account of them to Charles Darwin's charming +little volume on "Coral Reefs," where their mode of formation is fully +described, and also to James D. Dana's "Geological Report of the United +States Exploring Expedition." + +Coral Reefs are found only in tropical regions: although Polyps, animals +of the same class as those chiefly instrumental in their formation, +are found in all parts of the globe, yet the Reef-Building Polyps are +limited to the Tropics. We are too apt to forget that the homes of +animals are as definitely limited in the water as on the land. Indeed, +the subject of the geographical distribution of animals according to +laws that are established by altitude, by latitude and longitude, by +pressure of atmosphere or pressure of water, already alluded to in +a previous article, is exceedingly interesting, and presents a most +important field of investigation. The climatic effect of different +degrees of altitude upon the growth of animals and plants is the same as +that of different degrees of latitude; and the slope of a high mountain +in the Tropics, from base to summit, presents, in a condensed form, an +epitome, as it were, of the same kind of gradation in vegetable growth +that may be observed from the Tropics to the Arctics. At the base of +such a mountain we have all the luxuriance of growth characteristic +of the tropical forest,--the Palms, the Bananas, the Bread-trees, the +Mimosas; higher up, these give way to a different kind of growth, +corresponding to our Oaks, Chestnuts, Maples, etc.; as these wane, on +the loftier slopes comes in the Pine forest, fading gradually, as it +ascends, into a dwarfish growth of the same kind; and this at last gives +way to the low creeping Mosses and Lichens of the greater heights, till +even these find a foothold no longer, and the summit of the mountain is +clothed in perpetual snow and ice. What have we here but the same series +of changes through which we pass, if, travelling northward from the +Tropics, we leave Palms and Pomegranates and Bananas behind, where the +Live-Oaks and Cypresses, the Orange-trees and Myrtles of the warmer +Temperate Zone come in, and these die out as we reach the Oaks, +Chestnuts, Maples, Elms, Nut-trees, Beeches, and Birches of the colder +Temperate Zone, these again waning as we enter the Pine forests of +the Arctic borders, till, passing out of these, nothing but a dwarf +vegetation, a carpet of Moss and Lichen, fit food for the Reindeer and +the Esquimaux, greets us, and beyond that lies the region of the snow +and ice fields, impenetrable to all but the daring Arctic voyager? + +I have thus far spoken of the changes in the vegetable growth alone as +influenced by altitude and latitude, but the same is equally true of +animals. Every zone of the earth's surface has its own animals, suited +to the conditions under which they are meant to live; and with the +exception of those that accompany man in all his pilgrimages, and are +subject to the same modifying influences by which he adapts his home and +himself to all climates, animals are absolutely bound by the laws of +their nature within the range assigned to them. Nor is this the case +only on land, where river-banks, lake-shores, and mountain-ranges might +be supposed to form the impassable boundaries that keep animals within +certain limits; but the ocean as well as the land has its faunae and +florae bound within their respective zooelogical and botanical provinces; +and a wall of granite is not more impassable to a marine animal than +that ocean-line, fluid and flowing and ever-changing though it be, on +which is written for him, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." +One word as to the effect of pressure on animals will explain this. + +We all live under the pressure of the atmosphere. Now thirty-two feet +under the sea doubles that pressure, since a column of water of that +height is equal in weight to the pressure of one atmosphere. At the +depth of thirty-two feet, then, any marine animal is under the pressure +of two atmospheres,--that of the air which surrounds our globe, and of a +weight of water equal to it; at sixty-four feet he is under the pressure +of three atmospheres, and so on,--the weight of one atmosphere being +always added for every thirty-two feet of depth. There is a great +difference in the sensitiveness of animals to this pressure. Some fishes +live at a great depth and find the weight of water genial to them, while +others would be killed at once by the same pressure, and the latter +naturally seek the shallow waters. Every fisherman knows that he must +throw a long line for a Halibut, while with a common fishing-rod he will +catch plenty of Perch from the rocks near the shore; and the differently +colored bands of sea-weed revealed by low tide, from the green line of +the Ulvas through the brown zone of the common Fucas to the rosy and +purple hued sea-weeds of the deeper water show that the florae as well +as the faunae of the ocean have their precise boundaries. This wider +or narrower range of marine animals is in direct relation to their +structure, which enables them to bear a greater or less pressure of +water. All fishes, and, indeed, all animals having a wide range of +distribution in ocean-depths, have a special apparatus of water-pores, +so that the surrounding element penetrates their structure, thus +equalizing the pressure of the weight, which is diminished from without +in proportion to the quantity of water they can admit into their bodies. +Marine animals differ in their ability to sustain this pressure, just +as land animals differ in their power of enduring great variations of +climate and of atmospheric pressure. + +Of all air-breathing animals, none exhibits a more surprising power of +adapting itself to great and rapid changes of external influences than +the Condor. It may be seen feeding on the sea-shore under a burning +tropical sun, and then, rising from its repast, it floats up among the +highest summits of the Andes and is lost to sight beyond them, miles +above the line of perpetual snow, where the temperature must be lower +than that of the Arctics. But even the Condor, sweeping at one flight +from tropic heat to arctic cold, although it passes through greater +changes of temperature, does not undergo such changes of pressure as a +fish that rises from a depth of sixty-four feet to the surface of the +sea; for the former remains within the air that surrounds our globe, +and therefore the increase or diminution of pressure to which it is +subjected must be confined within the limits of one atmosphere, while +the latter, at a depth of sixty-four feet, is under a weight equal to +that of three such atmospheres, which is reduced to one when it reaches +the sea-level. The change is even much greater for those fishes that +come from a depth of several hundred feet. These laws of limitation in +space explain many facts in the growth of Coral Reefs that would be +otherwise inexplicable, and which I will endeavor to make clear to my +readers. + +For a long time it was supposed that the Coral animals inhabited very +deep waters, for they were sometimes brought up on sounding-lines from a +depth of many hundreds or even thousands of feet, and it was taken for +granted that they must have had their home where they were found; +but the facts recently ascertained respecting the subsidence of +ocean-bottoms have shown that the foundation of a Coral wall may have +sunk far below the place where it was laid, and it is now proved beyond +a doubt that no Reef-Building Coral can thrive at a depth of more than +fifteen fathoms, though Corals of other kinds occur far lower, and that +the dead Reef-Corals sometimes brought to the surface from much greater +depths are only broken fragments of some Reef that has subsided with +the bottom on which it was growing. But though fifteen fathoms is the +maximum depth at which any Reef-Builder can prosper, there are many +which will not sustain even that degree of pressure, and this fact has, +as we shall see, an important influence on the structure of the Reef. + +Imagine now a sloping shore on some tropical coast descending gradually +below the surface of the sea. Upon that slope, at a depth of from ten +to twelve or fifteen fathoms, and two or three or more miles from the +main-land, according to the shelving of the shore, we will suppose that +one of those little Coral animals to whom a home in such deep waters is +genial has established itself. How it happens that such a being, which +we know is immovably attached to the ground and forms the foundation of +a solid wall, was ever able to swim freely about in the water till it +found a suitable resting-place, I shall explain hereafter, when I say +something of the mode of reproduction of these animals. Accept, for the +moment, my unsustained assertion, and plant our little Coral on this +sloping shore some twelve or fifteen fathoms below the surface of the +sea. The internal structure of such a Coral corresponds to that of the +Sea-Anemone: the body is divided by vertical partitions from top to +bottom, leaving open chambers between, while in the centre hangs the +digestive cavity connecting by an opening in the bottom with all these +chambers; at the top is an aperture which serves as a mouth, surrounded +by a wreath of hollow tentacles, each one connecting at its base with +one of the chambers, so that all parts of the animal communicate freely +with each other. But though the structure of the Coral is identical in +all its parts with that of the Sea-Anemone, it nevertheless presents one +important difference. The body of the Sea-Anemone is soft, while that of +the Coral is hard. It is well known that all animals and plants have the +power of appropriating to themselves and assimilating the materials they +need, each selecting from the surrounding elements whatever contributes +to its well-being. The plant takes carbon, the animal takes oxygen, each +rejecting what the other requires. We ourselves build our bones with +the lime that we find unconsciously in the world around us; much of our +nourishment supplies us with it, and the very vegetables we eat have, +perhaps, themselves been fed from some old lime strata deposited +centuries ago. We all represent materials that have contributed to +construct our bodies. Now Corals possess, in an extraordinary degree, +the power of assimilating to themselves the lime contained in the salt +water around them; and as soon as our little Coral is established on a +firm foundation, a lime deposit begins to form in all the walls of its +body, so that its base, its partitions, and its outer wall, which in +the Sea-Anemone remain always soft, become perfectly solid in the Polyp +Coral and form a frame as hard as bone. It may naturally be asked +where the lime comes from in the sea which the Corals absorb in such +quantities. As far as the living Corals are concerned the answer is +easy, for an immense deal of lime is brought down to the ocean by +rivers that wear away the lime deposits through which they pass. The +Mississippi, whose course lies through extensive lime regions, brings +down yearly lime enough to supply all the animals living in the Gulf of +Mexico. But behind this lies a question not so easily settled, as to +the origin of the extensive deposits of limestone found at the very +beginning of life upon earth. This problem brings us to the threshold of +astronomy, for limestone is metallic in character, susceptible therefore +of fusion, and may have formed a part of the materials of our earth, +even in an incandescent state, when the worlds were forming. But though +this investigation as to the origin of lime does not belong either to +the naturalist or the geologist, its suggestion reminds us that the +time has come when all the sciences and their results are so intimately +connected that no one can be carried on independently of the others. +Since the study of the rocks has revealed a crowded life whose records +are hoarded within them, the work of the geologist and the naturalist +has become one and the same, and at that border-land where the first +crust of the earth condensed out of the igneous mass of materials which +formed its earliest condition their investigation mingles with that of +the astronomer, and we cannot trace the limestone in a little Coral +without going back to the creation of our solar system, when the worlds +that compose it were thrown off from a central mass in a gaseous +condition. + +When the Coral has become in this way permeated with lime, all parts of +the body are rigid, with the exception of the upper margin, the stomach, +and the tentacles. The tentacles are soft and waving, projected or drawn +in at will, and they retain their flexible character through life, and +decompose when the animal dies. For this reason the dried specimens of +Corals preserved in museums do not give us the least idea of the living +Corals, in which every one of the millions of beings composing such +a community is crowned by a waving wreath of white or green or +rose-colored tentacles. + +As soon as the little Coral is fairly established and solidly attached +to the ground, it begins to bud. This may take place in a variety of +ways, dividing at the top or budding from the base or from the sides, +till the primitive animal is surrounded by a number of individuals like +itself, of which it forms the nucleus, and which now begin to bud in +their turn, each one surrounding itself with a numerous progeny, all +remaining, however, attached to the parent. Such a community increases +till its individuals are numbered by millions; and I have myself counted +no less than fourteen millions of individuals in a Coral mass measuring +not more than twelve feet in diameter. These are the so-called Coral +heads which form the foundation of a Coral wall, and their massive +character and regular form seem to be especially adapted to give a +strong, solid base to the whole structure. They are known in our +classifications as the Astraeans, so named on account of the star-shaped +form of the little pits that are crowded upon the surface, each one +marking the place of a single individual in such a community. + +Thus firmly and strongly is the foundation of the reef laid by the +Astraeans; but we have seen that for their prosperous growth they +require a certain depth and pressure of water, and when they have +brought the wall so high that they have not more than six fathoms of +water above them, this kind of Coral ceases to grow. They have, however, +prepared a fitting surface for different kinds of Corals that could not +live in the depths from which the Astraeans have come, but find their +genial home nearer the surface; such a home being made ready for them +by their predecessors, they now establish themselves on the top of the +Coral wall and continue its growth for a certain time. These are the +Mandrinas, or the so-called Brain-Corals, and the Porites. The Mandrinas +differ from the Astraeans by their less compact and definite pits. In +the Astraeans the place occupied by the animal in the community is +marked by a little star-shaped spot, in the centre of which all the +partition-walls meet. But in the Mandrinas, although all the partitions +converge toward the central opening, as in the Astraeans, these central +openings elongate, run into each other, and form waving furrows all over +the surface, instead of the small round pits so characteristic of the +Astraeans. The Porites resemble the Astraeans, but the pits are smaller, +with fewer partitions and fewer tentacles, and their whole substance is +more porous. + +But these also have their bounds within the sea: they in their turn +reach the limit beyond which they are forbidden by the laws of their +nature to pass, and there they also pause. But the Coral wall continues +its steady progress; for here the lighter kinds set in,--the Madrepores, +the Millepores, and a great variety of Sea-Fans and Corallines, and the +reef is crowned at last with a many-colored shrubbery of low feathery +growth. These are all branching in form, and many of them are simple +calciferous plants, though most of them are true animals, resembling, +however, delicate Algae more than any marine animals; but, on +examination of the latter, one finds them to be covered with myriads of +minute dots, each representing one of the little beings out of which the +whole is built. + +I would add here one word on the true nature of the Millepores, long +misunderstood by naturalists, because it throws light not only on some +interesting facts respecting Coral Reefs, especially the ancient ones, +but also because it tells us something of the early inhabitants of the +globe, and shows us that a class of Radiates supposed to be missing in +that primitive creation had its representatives then as now. In the +diagram of the geological periods introduced in a previous article, I +have represented all the three classes of Radiates, Polyps, Acalephs, +and Echinoderms, as present on the first floor of our globe that was +inhabited at all. But it is only recently that positive proofs have been +found of the existence of Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, as they are +called, at that early period. Their very name indicates their delicate +structure; and were there no remains preserved in the rocks of these +soft, transparent creatures, it would yet be no evidence that they did +not exist. Fragile as they are, however, they have left here and there +some faint record of themselves, and in the Museum at Carlsruhe, on a +slab from Solenhofen, I have seen a very perfect outline of one which +remains undescribed to this day. This, however, does not carry them +farther back than the Jurassic period, and it is only lately that I have +satisfied myself that they not only existed, but were among the most +numerous animals in the first representation of organic life. + +The earliest Corals correspond in certain features of their structure to +the Millepores. They differ from them as all early animals differ from +the succeeding ones, every geological period having its special set of +representatives. But still they are always true to their class, and have +a certain general correspondence with animals of like kind that follow +them in later periods. In this sense the Millepores are in our epoch the +representatives of those early Corals called by naturalists Tabulata and +Rugosa,--distinguished from the Polyp Corals by the horizontal floors, +waving in some, straight in others, which divide the body transversely +at successive heights through its whole length, and also by the absence +of the vertical partitions, extending from top to bottom of each animal, +so characteristic of the true Polyps. As I have said, they were for a +long time supposed, notwithstanding these differences, to be Polyps, and +I had shared in this opinion, till, during the winter of 1857, while +pursuing my investigations on the Coral Reefs of Florida, one of these +Millepores revealed itself to me in its true character of Acaleph. It is +by its soft parts alone--those parts which are seen only in its living +state, and when the animal is fully open--that its Acalephian character +can be perceived, and this accounts for its being so long accepted as +a Polyp, when studied in the dry Coral stock. Nothing could exceed +my astonishment when for the first time I saw such an animal fully +expanded, and found it to be a true Acaleph. It is exceedingly difficult +to obtain a view of them in this state, for, at any approach, they draw +themselves in, and remain closed to all investigation. Only once, for a +short hour, I had this opportunity; during that time one of these little +creatures revealed to me its whole structure, as if to tell me, once for +all, the story of its existence through all the successive epochs from +the dawn of Creation till now, and then withdrew. With my most patient +watching, I have never been able to see one of them open again. But to +establish the fact that one of the Corals represented from the earliest +period till now, and indeed far more numerous in the beginning than any +other, was in truth no Polyp, but an Acaleph, the glimpse I had was +all-sufficient. It came out as if to bear witness of its class,--as if +to say, "We, too, were among the hosts of living beings with which God +first peopled His earth." + +With these branching Corals the reef reaches the level of high-water, +beyond which, as I have said, there can be no further growth, for want +of the action of the fresh sea-water. This dependence upon the vivifying +influence of the sea accounts for one unfailing feature in the Coral +walls. They are always abrupt and steep on the seaward side, but have a +gentle slope towards the land. This is accounted for by the circumstance +that the Corals on the outer side of the reef are in immediate contact +with the pure ocean-water, while by their growth they partially exclude +the inner ones from the same influence,--the rapid growth of the latter +being also impeded by any impurity or foreign material washed away from +the neighboring shore and mingling with the water that fills the channel +between the main-land and the reef. Thus the Coral Reefs, whether built +around an island, or concentric to a rounding shore, or along a straight +line of coast, are always shelving toward the land, while they +are comparatively abrupt and steep toward the sea. This should be +remembered, for, as we shall see hereafter, it has an important bearing +on the question of time as illustrated by Coral Reefs. + +I have spoken of the budding of Corals, by which each one becomes the +centre of a cluster; but this is not the only way in which they multiply +their kind. They give birth to eggs also, which are carried on the inner +edge of their partition-walls, till they drop into the sea, where they +float about, little, soft, transparent, pear-shaped bodies, as unlike as +possible to the rigid stony structure they are to assume hereafter. In +this condition they are covered with vibratile cilia or fringes, that +are always in rapid, uninterrupted motion, and keep them swimming about +in the water. It is by means of these little germs of the Corals, +swimming freely about during their earliest stages of growth, that the +reef is continued, at the various heights where special kinds die +out, by those that prosper at shallower depths; otherwise it would be +impossible to understand how this variety of building material, as it +were, is introduced wherever it is needed. This point, formerly a puzzle +to naturalists, has become quite clear since it has been found that +myriads of these little germs are poured into the water surrounding a +reef. There they swim about till they find a genial spot on which to +establish themselves, when they become attached to the ground by one +end, while a depression takes place at the opposite end, which gradually +deepens to form the mouth and inner cavity, while the edges expand to +form the tentacles, and the productive life of the little Coral begins: +it buds from every side, and becomes the foundation of a new community. + +I should add, that, beside the Polyps and the Acalephs, Mollusks also +have their representatives among the Corals. There is a group of small +Mollusks called Bryozoa, allied to the Clams by their structure, but +excessively minute when compared to the other members of their class, +which, like the other Corals, harden in consequence of an absorption of +solid materials, and contribute to the formation of the reef. Besides +these, there are certain plants, limestone Algae,--Corallines, as they +are called,--which have their share also in the work. + +I had intended to give some account of the Coral Reefs of Florida, +and to show what bearing they have upon the question of time and the +permanence of Species; but this cursory sketch of Coral Reefs in general +has grown to such dimensions that I must reserve a more particular +account of the Florida Reefs and Keys for a future article. + + * * * * * + + +SPIRITS. + + +"Did you ever see a ghost?" said a gentleman to his friend. + +"No, but I once came very nigh seeing one," was the facetious reply. + +The writer of this article has had still better luck,--having _twice_ +come very nigh seeing a ghost. In other words, two friends, in whose +veracity and healthy clearness of vision I have perfect confidence, have +assured me that they have distinctly seen a disembodied spirit. + +If I had permission to do so, I would record the street in Boston, and +the number of the house, where the first of these two apparitions was +seen; but that would be unpleasant to parties concerned. Years ago, the +lady who witnessed it told me the particulars, and I have recently heard +her repeat them. A cousin, with whom her relations were as intimate as +with a brother, was in the last stages of consumption. One morning, when +she carried him her customary offering of fruit or flowers, she found +him unusually bright, his cheeks flushed, his eyes brilliant, and his +state of mind exceedingly cheerful. He talked of his recovery and future +plans in life with hopefulness almost amounting to certainty. This made +her somewhat sad, for she regarded it as a delusion of his flattering +disease, a flaring up of the life-candle before it sank in the socket. +She thus reported the case, when she returned home. In the afternoon she +was sewing as usual, surrounded by her mother and sisters, and listening +to one who was reading aloud. While thus occupied, she chanced to raise +her eyes from her work and glance to the opposite corner of the room. +Her mother, seeing her give a sudden start, exclaimed, "What is the +matter?" She pointed to the corner of the room and replied, "There is +Cousin ------!" They all told her she had been dreaming, and was only +half wakened. She assured them she had not even been drowsy; and she +repeated with great earnestness, "There is Cousin ------, just as I saw +him this morning. Don't you see him?" She could not measure the time +that the vision remained; but it was long enough for several questions +and answers to pass rapidly between herself and other members of the +family. In reply to their persistent incredulity, she said, "It is very +strange that you don't see him; for I see him as plainly as I do any +of you." She was so obviously awake and in her right mind, that the +incident naturally made an impression on those who listened to her. Her +mother looked at her watch, and despatched a messenger to inquire how +Cousin ------ did. Word was soon brought that he died at the same moment +he had appeared in the house of his relatives. The lady who had +this singular experience is too sensible and well-informed to be +superstitious. She was not afflicted with any disorder of the nerves, +and was in good health at the time. + +To my other story I can give "a local habitation and a name" well known. +When Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, visited her native country a few +years ago, I had an interview with her, during which our conversation +happened to turn upon dreams and visions. + +"I have had some experience in that way," said she. "Let me tell you a +singular circumstance that happened to me in Rome. An Italian girl named +Rosa was in my employ for a long time, but was finally obliged to return +to her mother, on account of confirmed ill-health. We were mutually +sorry to part, for we liked each other. When I took my customary +exercise on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On one of these +occasions, I found her brighter than I had seen her for some time past. +I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was nothing in +her appearance that gave me the impression of immediate danger. I left +her with the expectation of calling to see her again many times. During +the remainder of the day I was busy in my studio, and I do not recollect +that Rosa was in my thoughts after I parted from her. I retired to rest +in good health and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound +sleep with an oppressive feeling that some one was in the room. I +wondered at the sensation, for it was entirely new to me; but in vain +I tried to dispel it. I peered beyond the curtain of my bed, but could +distinguish no objects in the darkness. Trying to gather up my thoughts, +I soon reflected that the door was locked, and that I had put the key +under my bolster. I felt for it, and found it where I had placed it. I +said to myself that I had probably had some ugly dream, and had waked +with a vague impression of it still on my mind. Reasoning thus, I +arranged myself comfortably for another nap. I am habitually a good +sleeper, and a stranger to fear; but, do what I would, the idea still +haunted me that some one was in the room. Finding it impossible to +sleep, I longed for daylight to dawn, that I might rise and pursue +my customary avocations. It was not long before I was able dimly to +distinguish the furniture in my room, and soon after I heard, in the +apartments below, familiar noises of servants opening windows and doors. +An old clock, with ringing vibrations, proclaimed the hour. I counted +one, two, three, four, five, and resolved to rise immediately. My bed +was partially screened by a long curtain looped up at one side. As I +raised my head from the pillow, Rosa looked inside the curtain, and +smiled at me. The idea of anything supernatural did not occur to me. I +was simply surprised, and exclaimed, 'Why, Rosa! How came you here, +when you are so ill?' In the old familiar tones, to which I was so much +accustomed, a voice replied, 'I am well, now.' With no other thought +than that of greeting her joyfully, I sprang out of bed. There was +no Rosa there! I moved the curtain, thinking she might perhaps have +playfully hidden herself behind its folds. The same feeling induced me +to look into the closet. The sight of her had come so suddenly, that, in +the first moment of surprise and bewilderment, I did not reflect that +the door was locked. When I became convinced there was no one in the +room but myself, I recollected that fact, and thought I must have seen a +vision. + +"At the breakfast-table, I said to the old lady with whom I boarded, +'Rosa is dead.' 'What do you mean by that?' she inquired. 'You told me +she seemed better than common when you called to see her yesterday.' +I related the occurrences of the morning, and told her I had a strong +impression Rosa was dead. She laughed, and said I had dreamed it all. I +assured her I was thoroughly awake, and in proof thereof told her I had +heard all the customary household noises, and had counted the clock when +it struck five. She replied, 'All that is very possible, my dear. The +clock struck into your dream. Real sounds often mix with the illusions +of sleep. I am surprised that a dream should make such an impression on +a young lady so free from superstition as you are.' She continued to +jest on the subject, and slightly annoyed me by her persistence in +believing it a dream, when I was perfectly sure of having been wide +awake. To settle the question, I summoned a messenger and sent him to +inquire how Rosa did. He returned with the answer that she died that +morning at five o'clock." + +I wrote the story as Miss Hosmer told it to me, and after I had shown +it to her, I asked if she had any objection, to its being published, +without suppression of names. She replied, "You have reported the story +of Rosa correctly. Make what use you please of it. You cannot think it +more interesting, or unaccountable, than I do myself." + +A remarkable instance of communication between spirits at the moment of +death is recorded in the Life of the Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, written +by his sister. When he was dying in Boston, their father was dying in +Vermont, ignorant of his son's illness. Early in the morning, he said to +his wife, "My son Joseph is dead." She told him he had been dreaming. +He calmly replied, "I have not slept, nor dreamed. He is dead." When +letters arrived from Boston, they announced that the spirit of the son +had departed from his body the same night that the father received an +impression of it. + +Such incidents suggest curious psychological inquiries, which I think +have attracted less attention than they deserve. It is common to explain +all such phenomena as "optical illusions" produced by "disordered +nerves." But _is_ that any explanation? _How_ do certain states of the +nerves produce visions as distinct as material forms? In the two cases I +have mentioned, there was no disorder of the nerves, no derangement of +health, no disquietude of mind. Similar accounts come to us from all +nations, and from the remotest periods of time; and I doubt whether +there ever was a universal superstition that had not some great, +unchangeable truth for its basis. Some secret laws of our being are +wrapt up in these occasional mysteries, and in the course of the world's +progress we may perhaps become familiar with the explanation, and +find genuine philosophy under the mask of superstition. When any +well-authenticated incidents of this kind are related, it is a very +common inquiry, "What are such visions sent _for_?" The question implies +a supposition of miraculous power, exerted for a temporary and special +purpose. But would it not be more rational to believe that all +appearances, whether spiritual or material, are caused by the operation +of universal laws, manifested under varying circumstances? In the +infancy of the world, it was the general tendency of the human mind to +consider all occasional phenomena as direct interventions of the gods, +for some special purpose at the time. Thus, the rainbow was supposed +to be a celestial road, made to accommodate the swift messenger of the +gods, when she was sent on an errand, and withdrawn as soon as she had +done with it. We now know that the laws of the refraction and reflection +of light produce the radiant iris, and that it will always appear +whenever drops of water in the air present themselves to the sun's rays +in a suitable position. Knowing this, we have ceased to ask what the +rainbow appears _for_. + +That a spiritual form is contained within the material body is a very +ancient and almost universal belief. Hindoo books of the remotest +antiquity describe man as a triune being, consisting of the soul, the +spiritual body, and the material body. This form within the outer body +was variously named by Grecian poets and philosophers. They called +it "the soul's image," "the invisible body," "the aerial body," "the +shade." Sometimes they called it "the sensuous soul," and described it +as "_all_ eye and _all_ ear,"--expressions which cannot fail to suggest +the phenomena of clairvoyance. The "shade" of Hercules is described by +poets as dwelling in the Elysian Fields, while his body was converted to +ashes on the earth, and his soul was dwelling on Olympus with the gods. +Swedenborg speaks of himself as having been a visible form to angels in +the spiritual world; and members of his household, observing him at such +times, describe the eyes of his body on earth as having the expression +of one walking in his sleep. He tells us, that, when his thoughts turned +toward earthly things, the angels would say to him, "Now we are losing +sight of you": and he himself felt that he was returning to his material +body. For several years of his life, he was in the habit of seeing and +conversing familiarly with visitors unseen by those around him. The +deceased brother of the Queen of Sweden repeated to him a secret +conversation, known only to himself and his sister. The Queen had asked +for this, as a test of Swedenborg's veracity; and she became pale with +astonishment when every minute particular of her interview with her +brother was reported to her. Swedenborg was a sedate man, apparently +devoid of any wish to excite a sensation, engrossed in scientific +pursuits, and remarkable for the orderly habits of his mind. The +intelligent and enlightened German, Nicolai, in the later years of his +life, was accustomed to find himself in the midst of persons whom he +knew perfectly well, but who were invisible to others. He reasoned very +calmly about it, but arrived at no solution more satisfactory than the +old one of "optical illusion," which is certainly a very inadequate +explanation. Instances are recorded, and some of them apparently well +authenticated, of persons still living in this world, and unconscious of +disease, who have seen _themselves_ in a distinct visible form, without +the aid of a mirror. It would seem as if such experiences had not been +confined to any particular part of the world; for they have given birth +to a general superstition that such apparitions are a forerunner of +death,--or, in other words, of the complete separation of the spiritual +body from the natural body. A friend related to me the particulars of a +fainting-fit, during which her body remained senseless an unusually long +time. When she was restored to consciousness, she told her attendant +friends that she had been standing near the sofa all the time, watching +her own lifeless body, and seeing what they did to resuscitate it. In +proof thereof she correctly repeated to them all they had said and +done while her body remained insensible. Those present at the time +corroborated her statement, so far as her accurate knowledge of all +their words, looks, and proceedings was concerned. + +The most numerous class of phenomena concerning the "spiritual body" +relate to its visible appearance to others at the moment of dissolution. +There is so much testimony on this subject, from widely separated +witnesses, that an unprejudiced mind, equally removed from superstition +and skepticism, inclines to believe that they must be manifestations of +some hidden law of our mysterious being. Plato says that everything in +this world is merely the material form of some model previously existing +in a higher world of ethereal spiritual forms; and Swedenborg's +beautiful doctrine of Correspondences is a reappearance of the same +idea. If their theory be true, may not the antecedent type of that +strange force which in the material world we call electricity be a +_spiritual_ magnetism. As yet, we know extremely little of the laws of +electricity, and we know nothing of those laws of _spiritual_ attraction +and repulsion which are perhaps the _cause_ of electricity. There may be +subtile and as yet unexplained causes, connected with the state of the +nervous system, the state of the mind, the accord of two souls under +peculiar circumstances, etc., which may sometimes enable a person who is +in a material body to see another who is in a spiritual body. That such +visions are not of daily occurrence may be owing to the fact that it +requires an unusual combination of many favorable circumstances to +produce them; and when they do occur, they seem to us miraculous +simply because we are ignorant of the laws of which they are transient +manifestations. + +Lord Bacon says,--"The relations touching the force of imagination and +the secret instincts of Nature are so uncertain, as they require a great +deal of examination ere we conclude upon them. I would have it first +thoroughly inquired whether there be any secret passages of sympathy +between persons of near blood,--as parents, children, brothers, sisters, +nurse-children, husbands, wives, etc. There be many reports in history, +that, upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward +feeling of it. I myself remember, that, being in Paris, and my father +dying in London, two or three days before my father's death I had a +dream, which I told to divers English gentlemen, that my father's house +in the country was plastered all over with black mortar. Next to those +that are near in blood, there may be the like passage and instincts of +Nature between great friends and great enemies. Some trial also would be +made whether pact or agreement do anything: as, if two friends should +agree, that, such a day in every week, they, being in far distant +places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet +one for another's sake, whether, if one of them should break their vow +and promise, the other should have any feeling of it in absence." + +This query of Lord Bacon, whether an agreement between two distant +persons to think of each other at a particular time may not produce an +actual nearness between their spirits, is suggestive. People partially +drowned and resuscitated have often described their last moments of +consciousness as flooded with memories, so that they seemed to be +surrounded by the voices and countenances of those they loved. If this +is common when soul and body are approaching dissolution, may not such +concentration of loving thoughts produce an actual nearness, filling the +person thought of with "a feeling as if somebody were in the room"? And +if the feeling thus induced is very powerful, may not the presence thus +felt become objective, or, in other words, a vision? + +The feeling of the nearness of spirits to when the thoughts are busily +occupied with them may have led to the almost universal belief among +ancient nations that the souls of the dead came back on the anniversary +of their death to the places where their bodies were deposited. This +belief invested their tombs with peculiar sacredness, and led the +wealthy to great expense in their construction. Egyptians, Greeks, and +Romans built them with upper apartments, more or less spacious. These +chambers were adorned with vases, sculptures, and paintings on the +walls, varying in costliness and style according to the means or taste +of the builder. The tomb of Cestius in Rome contained a chamber much +ornamented with paintings. Ancient Egyptian tombs abound with sculptures +and paintings, probably representative of the character of the deceased. +Thus, on the walls of one a man is pictured throwing seed into the +ground, followed by a troop of laborers; farther on, the same individual +is represented as gathering in the harvest; then he is seen in +procession with wife, children, friends, and followers, carrying sheaves +to the temple, a thank-offering to the gods. This seems to be a painted +epitaph, signifying that the deceased was industrious, prosperous, and +pious. It was common to deposit in these tombs various articles of +use or ornament, such as the departed ones had been familiar with and +attached to, while on earth. Many things in the ancient sculptures +indicate that Egyptian women were very fond of flowers. It is a curious +fact, that little china boxes with Chinese letters on them, like those +in which the Chinese now sell flower-seeds, have been discovered in some +of these tombs. Probably the ladies buried there were partial to exotics +from China; and perhaps friends placed them there with the tender +thought that the spirit of the deceased would be pleased to see them, +when it came on its annual visit. Sometimes these paintings and +sculptures embodied ideas reaching beyond the earthly existence, and +"the aerial body" was represented floating among stars, escorted by +what we should call angels, but which they named "Spirits of the +Sun." Families and friends visited these consecrated chambers on the +anniversary of the death of those whose bodies were placed in the +room below. They carried with them music and flowers, cakes and wine. +Religious ceremonies were performed, with the idea that the "invisible +body" was present with them and took part in the prayers and offerings. +The visitors talked together of past scenes, and doubtless their +conversation abounded with touching allusions to the character and +habits of the unseen friend supposed to be listening. It was, in fact, +an annual family-gathering, scarcely sadder in its memories than is our +Thanksgiving festival to those who have travelled far on the pilgrimage +of life. + +St. Paul teaches that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual +body." The early Christians had a very vivid faith, that, when the +soul dropped its outer envelope of flesh, it continued to exist in +a spiritual form. When any of their number died, they observed the +anniversary of his departure by placing on the altar an offering to the +church, in his name. On such occasions, they partook of the sacrament, +with the full belief that his unseen form was present with them, and +shared in the sacred rite, as he had done while in the material body. On +the anniversary of the death of martyrs, there were such commemorations +in all the churches; and that their spirits were believed to be present +is evident from the fact that numerous petitions were addressed to them. +In the Roman Catacombs, where many of the early Christians were buried, +are apartments containing sculptures and paintings of apostles and +martyrs. They are few and rude, because the Christians of that period +were poor, and used such worldly goods as they had more for benevolence +than for show. But these memorials, in such a place, indicate the same +feeling that adorned the magnificent tombs of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. +These subterranean apartments were used for religious meetings in the +first centuries of our era, and it is generally supposed that they were +chosen as safe hiding-places from persecution. Very likely it was so; +but it is not improbable that the spot had peculiar attractions to +worshippers, from the feeling that they were in the midst of an unseen +congregation, whose bodies were buried there. If it was so, it would be +but one of many proofs that the early Christians mixed with their new +religion many of the traditions and ceremonies of their forefathers, who +had been educated in other forms of faith. Even in our own time, threads +of these ancient traditions are more or less visible through the whole +warp and woof of our literature and our customs. Many of the tombs in +the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise have pretty upper apartments. On the +anniversary of the death of those buried beneath, friends and relatives +carry thither flowers and garlands. Women often spend the entire day +there, and parties of friends assemble to partake of a picnic repast. + +Most of the ancient nations annually observed a day in honor of the +Souls of Ancestors. This naturally grew out of the custom of meeting in +tombs to commemorate the death of relatives. As generations passed away, +it was unavoidable that many of the very old sepulchres should be seldom +or never visited. Still it was believed that the "shades" even of remote +ancestors hovered about their descendants and were cognizant of their +doings. It was impossible to observe separately the anniversaries of +departed millions, and therefore a day was set apart for religious +ceremonies in honor of _all_ ancestors. Hindoo and Chinese families have +from time immemorial consecrated such days; and the Romans observed a +similar anniversary under the name of Parentalia. + +Christians retained this ancient custom, but it took a new coloring from +their peculiar circumstances. The ties of the church were substituted +for ties of kindred. Its members were considered _spiritual_ fathers +and brothers, and there was an annual festival in honor of _spiritual_ +ancestors. The forms greatly resembled those of the Roman Parentalia. +The gathering-place was usually at the tomb of some celebrated martyr, +or in some chapel consecrated to his memory. Crowds of people came +from all quarters to implore the spirits of the martyrs to send them +favorable seasons, good crops, healthy children, etc., just as the old +Romans had been accustomed to invoke the names of their ancestors for +similar blessings. Prayers were repeated, hymns sung, and offerings +presented to the church, as aforetime to the gods. A great banquet was +prepared, and wine was drunk to the souls of the martyrs so freely that +complete intoxication was common. In view of this and other excesses, +the pious among the bishops exerted their influence to abolish the +custom. But it was so intertwined with the traditional faith of the +populace, and so gratifying to their social propensities, that it was +a long time before it could be suppressed. A vestige of the old +anniversaries in honor of the Souls of Ancestors remains in the Catholic +Church under the name of All-Souls' Day. + +In France, the Parentalia of the ancient Romans is annually observed +under the name of "Le Jour des Morts." All Paris flock to the +cemeteries, bearing bouquets, crosses, and garlands to decorate the +tombs of departed ancestors, relatives, and friends. The gay population +is, for that day, sobered by tender and solemn memories. Many a tear +glistens on the wreaths, and the passing traveller notices many a one +whose trembling lips and swollen eyelids indicate that the soul is +immersed in recollections of departed loved ones. The "cities of the +dead" bloom with fresh flowers, in multifarious forms of crosses, +crowns, and hearts. From all the churches prayers ascend for those who +have dropped their earthly garment of flesh, and who live henceforth in +the "spiritual body," which becomes more and more beautiful with the +progress of the soul,--it being, as the ancients called it, "the soul's +image." + + + + +THE TITMOUSE. + + + You shall not be over-bold + When you deal with arctic cold, + As late I found my lukewarm blood + Chilled wading in the snow-choked wood. + How should I fight? my foeman fine + Has million arms to one of mine. + East, west, for aid I looked in vain; + East, west, north, south, are his domain. + Miles off, three dangerous miles, is home; + Must borrow his winds who there would come. + Up and away for life! be fleet! + The frost-king ties my fumbling feet, + Sings in my ears, my hands are stones, + Curdles the blood to the marble bones, + Tugs at the heartstrings, numbs the sense, + Hems in the life with narrowing fence. + + Well, in this broad bed lie and sleep, + The punctual stars will vigil keep, + Embalmed by purifying cold, + The winds shall sing their dead-march old, + The snow is no ignoble shroud, + The moon thy mourner, and the cloud. + Softly,--but this way fate was pointing, + 'Twas coming fast to such anointing, + When piped a tiny voice hard by, + Gay and polite, a cheerful cry, + "_Chic-chic-a-dee-dee_!" saucy note, + Out of sound heart and merry throat, + As if it said, "Good day, good Sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places, + Where January brings few men's faces." + + This poet, though he live apart, + Moved by a hospitable heart, + Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort, + To do the honors of his court, + As fits a feathered lord of land, + Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand, + Hopped on the bough, then, darting low, + Prints his small impress on the snow, + Shows feats of his gymnastic play, + Head downward, clinging to the spray. + Here was this atom in full breath + Hurling defiance at vast death, + This scrap of valor just for play + Fronts the north-wind in waistcoat gray, + As if to shame my weak behavior. + I greeted loud my little saviour: + "Thou pet! what dost here? and what for? + In these woods, thy small Labrador, + At this pinch, wee San Salvador! + What fire burns in that little chest, + So frolic, stout, and self-possest? + Didst steal the glow that lights the West? + Henceforth I wear no stripe but thine: + Ashes and black all hues outshine. + Why are not diamonds black and gray, + To ape thy dare-devil array? + And I affirm the spacious North + Exists to draw thy virtue forth. + I think no virtue goes with size: + The reason of all cowardice + Is, that men are overgrown, + And, to be valiant, must come down + To the titmouse dimension." + + 'Tis good-will makes intelligence, + And I began to catch the sense + Of my bird's song: "Live out of doors, + In the great woods, and prairie floors. + I dine in the sun; when he sinks in the sea, + I, too, have a hole in a hollow tree. + And I like less when summer beats + With stifling beams on these retreats + Than noontide twilights which snow makes + With tempest of the blinding flakes: + For well the soul, if stout within, + Can arm impregnably the skin; + And polar frost my frame defied, + Made of the air that blows outside." + + With glad remembrance of my debt, + I homeward turn. Farewell, my pet! + When here again thy pilgrim comes, + He shall bring store of seeds and crumbs. + Henceforth I prize thy wiry chant + O'er all that mass and minster vaunt: + For men mishear thy call in spring, + As 'twould accost some frivolous wing, + Crying out of the hazel copse, "_Phe--be!_" + And in winter, "_Chic-a-dee-dee!_" + I think old Caesar must have heard + In Northern Gaul my dauntless bird, + And, echoed in some frosty wold, + Borrowed thy battle-numbers bold. + And I shall write our annals new, + + And thank thee for a better clew: + I, who dreamed not, when I came here, + To find the antidote of fear, + Now hear thee say in Roman key, + "_Paean! Ve-ni, Vi-di, Vi-ci._" + + * * * * * + + +SALTPETRE AS A SOURCE OF POWER. + + +Every element of _strength_ in a civilized community demands special +notice. The present material progress of nations brings us every day in +contact with the application of power under various conditions, and the +most thoughtless person is to some extent influenced mentally by the +improvements, taking the places of older means and ways of adaptation, +in the arts of life. + +We travel by the aid of steam-power, and we think and speak of a +locomotive or a steamboat as we once thought and spoke of a horse or +a man; and no little feeling of self-sufficiency is engendered by the +conclusion that this new source of power has been brought under control +and put to work in our day. + +It is also true that we do not always entertain the most correct view of +what we term the new power of locomotive and steamboat; and as it may +aid us in some further steps connected with the subject of my remarks, +a familiar object, such as a steamboat, may be taken as illustrative of +the application of power, and we may thus obtain some simple ideas of +what power truly is, in Nature. + +My travelled friend considers a steamboat as a ship propelled by wheels, +the shaft to which they are attached being moved by the machinery. +He follows back to the piston of the engine and finds the motor +there,--satisfied that he has discovered in the transference of +rectilinear to rotatory motion the reason for the progress of the boat. +A more inquisitive friend does not rest here, but assumes that the power +of the steam flowing through the machine sets in action its parts; and +he rests from farther pursuit of the power, where the larger number +of those who give any observation to the application of steam are +found,--gratified with the knowledge accumulated, and the readiness with +which an explanation of the motion of the boat can be traced to the +power of steam as its source. + +We must proceed a little farther on our backward course from the point +where the power is applied, and in our analysis consider the steam as +only the vehicle or carrier of the power; and examining the conditions, +we find that water acted on by fire, while contained in a suitable +vessel, after some time takes up certain properties which enable it +to go forward and move the ponderous machinery of the boat. The water +evidently here derives its new character of steam from the fire, and we +have now reached the source of the _movement_ of steam, and traced it +to the fire. In fact, we have found the source of power, in this most +mechanical of all mechanical machines, to be removed from the department +of knowledge which treats of machines! + +But we need not pause here, although we must now enter a little way into +chemical, instead of mechanical science. The fire prepares the water to +act as a carrier of power; it must contain power, therefore; and what +is it which we call fire? In placing on the grate coal or wood, and +providing for the contact of a continuous current of air, we intend to +bring about certain chemical actions as consequent on a disposition +which we know coal and wood to possess. When we apply fire, the chemical +actions commence and the usual effects follow. Now, if we for a moment +dismiss the consideration of the means adopted, it becomes apparent to +every one, that, as the fire will continue to increase with successive +additions of fuel, or as it will continue indefinitely with a regular +supply, there must be something else than mere motor action here. We +cannot call it chemical action, and dismiss the thought, and neglect +further inquiry, unless we would place ourselves with those who regard +the movement of the steamboat as being due to the machinery. + +Our farther progress in this analysis will soon open a wide field of +knowledge and inquiry; but it is sufficient for our present purpose, if, +by a careful study of the composition and chemical disposition of the +proximate compounds of the coal and the wood fuel, we arrive at the +conclusion that both are the result of forces which, very slight in +themselves at any moment, yet when acting through long periods of time +become laid up in the form of coal and wood. All that effort which the +tree has exhibited during its growth from the germ of the seed to its +state of maturity, when taken as fuel, is pent up in its substance, +ready, when fire is applied, to escape slowly and continuously. In +the case of the coal, after the growth of the plant from which it was +formed, the material underwent changes which enabled it to conserve more +forces, and to exhibit more energy when fire is applied to its mass; and +hence the distinction between wood and coal. + +Our analysis thus far has developed the source of the power moving +the steamboat as existing in the gradual action of forces influencing +vegetation, concentrated and locked up in the fuel. For the purpose of +illustrating the subject of this essay, we require no farther progress +in this direction. A moment of thought at this point and we shall cease +to consider steam-power as _new_; for, long before man appeared on this +earth, the vegetation was collecting and condensing those ordinary +natural powers which we find in fuel. In our time, too, the rains and +dews, heat, motion, and gaseous food, are being stored up in a wondrous +manner, to serve as elements of power which may be used and applied now +or hereafter. + +In this view, too, we may include the winds, the falling of rain, the +ascent and descent of sap, the condensation of gases,--in short, +the natural powers, exerted before,--as the cause of motion in the +steamboat. + +Passing from these considerations not unconnected with the subject, let +us inquire what saltpetre is, and how it is formed. + +The term Saltpetre is applied to a variety of bodies, distinguished, +however, by their bases, as potash saltpetre, soda saltpetre, lime +saltpetre, etc., which occur naturally. They are all compounds of nitric +acid and bases, or the gases nitrogen and oxygen united to bases, and +are found in all soils which have not been recently washed by rains, and +which are protected from excessive moisture. + +The decomposition of animal and of some vegetable bodies in the soil +causes the production of one constituent of saltpetre, while the earth +and the animal remains supply the other. Evaporation of pure water from +the surface of the earth causes the moisture which rises from below to +bring to the surface the salt dissolved in it; and as this salt is not +volatile, the escape of the moisture leaves it at or near the surface. +Hence, under buildings, especially habitations of men and animals, the +salt accumulates, and in times of scarcity it may be collected. In all +cases of its extraction from the earth several kinds of saltpetre are +obtained, and the usual course is to decompose these by the addition of +salts of potash, so as to form from them potash saltpetre, the kind most +generally consumed. + +In this decomposition of animal remains and the formation of saltpetre +the air performs an important part, and the changes it effects are +worthy of our attention. + +Let us consider the aerial ocean surrounding our earth and resting upon +it, greatly larger in mass and extent than the more familiar aqueous +ocean below it, and more closely and momentarily affecting our +well-being. + +The pure air, consisting of 20.96 volumes of oxygen gas and 79.04 +volumes of nitrogen gas, preserves, under all the variations of climate +and height above the surface of the earth, a remarkable constancy of +composition,--the variation of one one-hundredth part never having been +observed. But additions and subtractions are being constantly made, +and the atmosphere, as distinguished from the pure air, is mixed with +exhalations from countless sources on the land and the sea. Wherever man +moves, his fire, his food, the materials of his dwellings, the soil he +disturbs, all add their volatile parts to the atmosphere. Vegetation, +death, and decay pour into it copiously substances foreign to the +composition of pure air. The combustion of one ton of coal adds at least +sixteen tons of impurity to the atmosphere; and when we estimate on +the daily consumption of coal the addition from this source alone, the +amount becomes enormous. + +Experiments have been made for the purpose of estimating these +additions, and the results of those most carefully conducted show how +very slightly the combined causes affect the general composition of our +atmosphere; and although the present refined methods of chemists enable +them to detect the presence of an abnormal amount of some substances, no +research has yet been successful in determining how far this varies from +the natural quantity at all times necessarily present in the atmosphere. + +It is, however, the comparatively minute portions of nitrogenous matter +in the atmosphere that we are to consider as the source of the nitrous +acids formed there, and of part of that found in the earth. From some +experiments made during the day and night it has been found, that, under +the most favorable circumstances, six millions six hundred and seventy +thousand parts of air afford one part of nitrogenous bodies, if the +whole quantity be abstracted! A portion only of this quantity can be +withdrawn in natural operations, such as the falling of rain and the +deposition of dew,--the larger part always remaining behind. + +When the oxygen of our atmosphere is exposed, while in its usual +hygrometric state, to the influence of bodies attracting a portion of +it, such as decomposing substances, or when it forms the medium of +electrical discharges, it suddenly assumes new powers, acquires a +greatly increased activity, affects our organs of smell, dissolves +in fluids, and has been mistaken for a new substance, and even named +"ozone." Among the new characters thus conferred on it is the power of +uniting with or burning many substances. This ozonized oxygen, when +brought into mixture with many nitrogenized bodies, forms with them +nitrous acids, completely destroying their former condition and +composition; hence, in the atmosphere, this part of the oxygen becomes +a purifier of the whole mass, from which it removes putrescent +exhalations, miasmatic vapors, and the effluvia from every source of sea +or land. Very curious are the effects of this active oxygen, which is +ever present in some portion of the atmosphere. Moved by the wind, mixed +with the impure upward currents rising from cities, it seizes on +and changes rapidly all foulness, and if the currents are not too +voluminous, the impure air becomes changed to pure. As ozonized oxygen +can be easily detected, we may pass from the city, where (overpowered +by the exhalations) it does not exist, and find it in the air of the +vicinity; and moving away several miles, ascertain that a normal amount +there prevails, and that step by step, on our return to abodes of a +dense population, the quantity diminishes and finally all disappears. + +We are now prepared to answer the second part of the question which was +suggested, and to find that nitrous acids formed in the atmosphere +by direct oxidation of nitrogenous matter may unite with the ammonia +present to produce one kind of saltpetre; and when the rains or the dews +carry this to the earth, the salts of lime, potash, and soda there found +will decompose this ammoniacal saltpetre, and set the ammonia free, to +act over again its part. So in regard to decomposing organic matters in +the soil: ozonized oxygen changes them in the same way. The earth +and calcareous rocks of caves, penetrated by the air, slowly produce +saltpetre, and before the theory of the action was understood, +artificial imitation of natural conditions enabled us to manufacture +saltpetre. Animal remains, stratified with porous earth or the sweepings +of cities, and disposed in long heaps or walls, protected from rain, but +exposed to the prevailing winds, soon form nitrous salts, and a large +space covered with these deposits carefully tended forms a saltpetre +plantation. France, Prussia, Sweden, Switzerland, and other countries, +have been supplied with saltpetre from similar artificial arrangements. + +But the atmosphere is washed most thoroughly by the rains falling in and +near tropical countries, and the changes there are most rapid, so that +the production of saltpetre, favored by moisture and hot winds, attains +its highest limit in parts of India and the bordering countries. + +During the prevalence of dry winds, the earth in many districts of India +becomes frosted over with nitrous efflorescences, and the great quantity +shipped from the commercial ports, and that consumed in China, is thus a +natural production of that region. The increased amount due to tropical +influences will be seen in the instances here given of the produce from +the rich earths of different countries:-- + +_Natural_. + + France, Church of Mousseau, 5-3/8 per cent. + " Cavern of Fouquieres, 3-1/2 " + U. States, Tennessee, dirt of caves, 0.86 " + Ceylon, Cave of Memoora, 3-1/10 " + Upper Bengal, Tirhoot, earth simply, 1-6/10 " + Patree in Guzerat, best sweepings, 8-7/10 " + +In each case the salt is mixed saltpetres. + +_Artificial_. + + France, 100 lbs. earth from + plantations afford 8 to 9 oz. + Hungary and Sweden, from + the same, 1/2 to 2-3/10 per cent. + +It may be calculated that the flesh of animals, free from bone, +carefully decomposed, will afford ninety-five pounds of saltpetre for +one thousand pounds thus consumed. + +In the manufacture of saltpetre, the earths, whether naturally or +artificially impregnated, are mixed with the ashes from burnt wood, or +salts of potash, so that this base may take the place of all others, and +produce long prisms of potash saltpetre. + +In this country there are numerous caves of great extent in Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Missouri, from which saltpetre has been manufactured. +Under the most favorable conditions of abundance of labor, obtainable +at a low price, potash saltpetre can be made at a cost about one-fourth +greater than the average price of India saltpetre, and those sources of +supply are the best natural deposits known on this side of the Rocky +Mountains. Where there is an insufficient supply of manure in a country, +resort to the artificial production of saltpetre is simply a robbery +committed on the resources of the agriculturists, and it is only during +the pressure of a great struggle like that of the wars of Napoleon, that +the conversion into saltpetre of materials which can become food for the +community would be permitted. + +Hitherto, in peaceful times, our supply of saltpetre has come from India +through commercial channels; but twice within a few years this course of +trade has been interrupted by the British Government, and the price of a +necessary article has been greatly enhanced,--leading reflecting minds +to the inquiry after other sources whence to draw the quantity required +for an increasing consumption. On the boundary between Peru and Chili, +in South Peru, about forty miles from the ports of Conception and +Iquique, is a depression in the general surface of a saline desert, +where a bed of soda saltpetre, about two and a half feet thick and +one hundred and fifty miles long, exists. The salt is massive, and, +occurring in a rainless climate, it is dry, and contains about sixty per +cent. of pure soda saltpetre. In Brazil, on the San Francisco, the same +salt is found extending sixty or seventy miles,--and again near the town +of Pilao Arcado, the beds being about two hundred and forty miles from +Bahia, but at present inaccessible for want of roads. The Peruvian +native saltpetre is rudely refined in the desert, and then transported +on the backs of mules to the shipping-port. As found in commerce, it is +less impure than India saltpetre; and it might be usefully substituted +for the latter in the manufacture of gunpowder, were it less +deliquescent in damp atmospheres. For chemical purposes it now replaces +India saltpetre, but the larger consumption is perhaps as a fertilizer +of land, in the cool and humid climate of England, the low price it +bears in the market permitting this consumption. + +We have found that the various saltpetres of natural production, or +those obtained in artificial arrangements, are converted by the use of +potash salts into potash saltpetre, and among the products so changed is +natural soda saltpetre. Now to us in this country, so near the sources +of abundant supply of soda saltpetre, this substitution becomes a matter +of great interest. We possess and can produce the alkaline salt of +potash in almost unlimited quantity, and, excepting for some special +purposes, it is consumed for its alkaline energy alone. When soda +saltpetre in proper proportion is dissolved and thus mixed with potash +salt, an exchange of bases takes place, and no loss of alkaline energy +follows. The soda in a quite pure state is eliminated from the soda +saltpetre, and will serve for the manufactures of glass and soap; while +the potash, taking the oxygen compound of the soda saltpetre, produces, +as a final result, a pure and beautiful prismatic saltpetre, most +economically and abundantly. + +Instead of working on a hundred pounds of earth to obtain at most eight +or nine pounds of saltpetre, a hundred pounds of soda saltpetre will +afford more than one hundred and nine pounds of potash saltpetre, when +skilfully treated. Here, then, we have, by simple chemical treatment +of an imported, but very cheap salt, a result constituting a source of +abundant supply of potash saltpetre, _without the loss of the agent_ +concerned in the transformation. + +We have traced slightly in outline the formation of saltpetre to the +action of ozonized oxygen on nitrogen compounds, in the atmosphere, or +in the earth,--the conditions being the same in both cases. If we pursue +the study of this action of ozonized oxygen farther, we shall not +restrict its combining disposition to these compounds, but prove that it +has the power of uniting directly with the nitrogen naturally forming +part of the pure air. While nitrogenized bodies are present, however, +in the atmosphere, or in the humid artificial heaps of saltpetre +plantations, the action of ozonized oxygen is on these, and the nitrous +compounds formed unite with the bases lime, soda, and potash, also +present, to form saltpetre. + +Under all the conditions necessary, we see the permanent gases, oxygen +and nitrogen, leaving the atmosphere and changing from their gaseous to +a solid dry state, when they become chemically combined with potash, and +there are 53-46/100 parts of the gaseous matter and 46-54/100 parts of +the potash in 100 parts of the saltpetre by weight. + +Having now found what saltpetre is and how it is formed, let us advance +to the consideration of it as a source of power. + +Through the exertion of chemical attraction the gaseous elements of the +atmosphere have become solid in the saltpetre; and as we know the weight +of this part in a cubic inch of saltpetre, the volume of the gases +combined is easily ascertained to be about eight hundred times that of +the saltpetre. Hence, as every cubic inch of condensation represents +an atmosphere as large as the cubic inch of saltpetre formed, we may +roughly estimate that the condensing force arising from chemical +attraction in this case is 800 times 15 lbs., or 12,000 lbs.! + +Strictly speaking, only about four-tenths of a cubic inch of potash +holds this enormous power in connection with it so as to form a cubic +inch of saltpetre, which we may handle and bruise, may melt and cool, +dissolve and crystallize, without explosion or change. It contains +conserved a force which represents the aggregate result of innumerable +minute actions, taking place among portions of matter which escape +our senses from their minuteness and excite our wonder by their +transformation. Closely similar are these actions to the agencies in +vegetation which build up the wood of the tree or the material of +the coal destined to serve for the production of fire in all the +applications of steam which we have briefly noticed in illustration. + +In availing ourselves of the concentrated power accumulated in +saltpetre, we resort to bodies which easily kindle when fire is applied, +such as sulphur and finely powdered charcoal: these substances are +most intimately mixed with the saltpetre in a powdered state, and the +dampened mass subjected to great pressure is afterwards broken into +grains of varied size, constituting gunpowder. + +The substances thus added to the saltpetre have both the disposition and +the power of burning with and decomposing the nitrous element of the +saltpetre, and in so doing they do not simply open the way for the +energetic action of the gases escaping, but, owing to the high +temperature produced, a new force is added. + +If the gases escaped from combination simply, they would exert for every +cubic inch of saltpetre, as we have here considered it, the direct power +of 12,000 lbs.; but under the new conditions, the volume of escaping gas +has a temperature above 2,000 deg. Fahrenheit, and consequently its force +in overcoming resistance is more than four times as great, or at least +48,000 lbs. + +Such, then, is the power which can be obtained from a cubic inch of +saltpetre, when it is so compounded as to form some of the kinds of +gunpowder; and the fact of greatest importance in this connection is the +control we have over the amount of the force exerted and the time in +which the energy can be expended, by variations in the proportions of +the eliminating agents employed. + +We have used the well-known term Gunpowder to express the compound by +which we easily obtain the power latent in saltpetre; and the use of the +term suggests the employment of guns, which is secondary to the main +point we are illustrating. As the enormous consumption of power takes +place during peaceful times, so the consumption of saltpetre during a +state of war is much lessened, because the prosecution of public and +private works is then nearly suspended. + +The value and importance of saltpetre as a source of power is seen in +the adaptation of its explosive force to special purposes. It performs +that work well which we cannot carry on so perfectly by means of any +other agent, and the great mining and engineering works of a country are +dependent on this source for their success, and for overcoming obstacles +where other forces fail. With positive certainty the engineer can remove +a portion of a cliff or rock without breaking it into many parts, and +can displace masses to convenient distances, under all the varying +demands which arise in the process of mining, tunnelling, or cutting +into the earth. + +In all these cases of application we see that the powder contains within +itself both the material for producing force and the means by which that +force is applied, no other motor being necessary in its application. + +Modern warfare has become in its simplest expression the intelligent +application of force, and that side will successfully overcome or resist +the other which can in the shortest time so direct the greater force. +In artillery as well as infantry practice, the control over the time +necessary in the decomposition of the powder has been obtained through +the refinements already made in the manufacture, and the best results +of the latest trials confirm in full the conclusion that saltpetre is a +source of great and easily controlled power, which can act through short +or extended space. + +Under the view here presented, it is evident that saltpetre is +indispensable to progress in the arts of civilization and peace, as well +as in military operations, and that no nation can advance in material +interests, or even maintain strict independence, without possessing +within its boundaries either saltpetre or the sources from which it +can be drawn at all times. In its use for protecting the property of +a nation from the attacks of an enemy, and as the means of insuring +respect, we may consider saltpetre as an element of strength in a State, +and as such deserving a high place in the consideration of those who +direct the counsels or form the policy of a country. + +Has the subject of having an exhaustless supply of this important +product or the means of producing it been duly considered? + + * * * * * + + +WEATHER IN WAR. + + +It is not very flattering to that glory-loving, battle-seeking creature, +Man, that his best-arranged schemes for the destruction of his fellows +should often be made to fail by the condition of the weather. More +or less have the greatest of generals been "servile to all the skyey +influences." Upon the state of the atmosphere frequently depends the +ability of men to fight, and military hopes rise and fall with the +rising and falling of the metal in the thermometer's tube. Mercury +governs Mars. A hero is stripped of his plumes by a tempest, and his +laurels fly away on the invisible wings of the wind, and are seen no +more forever. Empires fall because of a heavy fall of snow. Storms of +rain have more than once caused monarchs to cease to reign. A hard +frost, a sudden thaw, a "hot spell," a "cold snap," a contrary wind, a +long drought, a storm of sand,--all these things have had their part in +deciding the destinies of dynasties, the fortunes of races, and the fate +of nations. Leave the weather out of history, and it is as if night were +left out of the day, and winter out of the year. Americans have fretted +a little because their "Grand Army" could not advance through mud that +came up to the horses' shoulders, and in which even the seven-league +boots would have stuck, though they had been worn as deftly as Ariel +could have worn them. They talked as if no such thing had ever before +been known to stay the march of armies; whereas all military operations +have, to a greater or a lesser extent, depended for their issue upon the +softening or the hardening of the earth, or upon the clearing or the +clouding of the sky. The elements have fought against this or that +conqueror, or would-be conqueror, as the stars in their courses fought +against Sisera; and the Kishon is not the only river that has through +its rise put an end to the hopes of a tyrant. The condition of rivers, +which must be owing to the condition of the weather, has often colored +events for ages, perhaps forever. The melting of the snows of the +Pyrenees, causing a great rise of the rivers of Northern Spain, came +nigh bringing ruin upon Julius Caesar himself; and nothing but the +feeble character of the opposing general saved him from destruction. + +The preservation of Greece, with all its incalculable consequences, must +be credited to the weather. The first attempt to conquer that country, +made by the Persians, failed because of a storm that disabled their +fleet. Mardonius crossed the Hellespont twelve or thirteen years before +that feat was accomplished by Xerxes, and he purposed marching as far as +Athens. His army was not unsuccessful, but off Mount Athos the Persian +fleet was overtaken by a storm, which destroyed three hundred ships +and twenty thousand men. This compelled him to retreat, and the Greeks +gained time to prepare for the coming of their enemy. But for that +storm, Athens would have been taken and destroyed, the Persians having +an especial grudge against the Athenians because of their part in the +taking and burning of Sardis; and Athens was destined to become Greece +for all after-time, so that her as yet dim light could not have been +quenched without darkening the whole world. When Xerxes himself entered +Europe, and was apparently about to convert Hellas into a satrapy, it +was a storm, or a brace of storms, that saved that country from so sad a +fate, and preserved it for the welfare of all after generations of men. +The Great King, in the hope of escaping "the unseen atmospheric enemies +which howl around that formidable promontory," had caused Mount Athos to +be cut through, but, as the historian observes, "the work of destruction +to his fleet was only transferred to the opposite side of the +intervening Thracian sea." That fleet was anchored on the Magnesian +coast, when a hurricane came upon it, known to the people of the country +as the _Hellespontias_, and which blew right upon the shore. For three +days this wind continued to blow, and the Persians lost four hundred +warships, many transports and provision craft, myriads of men, and an +enormous amount of _materiel_. The Grecian fleet, which had fled before +that of Persia, now retraced its course, believing that the latter was +destroyed, and would have fled again but for the arts and influence +of Themistocles. The sea-fights of Artemisium followed, in which the +advantage was, though not decisively, with the Greeks; and that +they finally retreated was owing to the success of the Persians at +Thermopylae. Between the first and second battle of Artemisium the +Persians suffered from another storm, which inflicted great losses upon +them. These disasters to the enemy greatly encouraged the Greeks, +who believed that they came directly from the gods; and they made it +possible for them to fight the naval battle of Salamis, and to win it. +So great was the alarm of Xerxes, who thought that the victors would +sail to the Hellespont, and destroy the bridge he had thrown over that +strait, that he ordered his still powerful fleet to hasten to its +protection. He himself fled by land, but on his arrival at the +Hellespont he found that the bridge had been destroyed by a storm; and +he must have been impressed as deeply as Napoleon was in this century, +that the elements had leagued themselves with his mortal enemies. After +his flight, and the withdrawal of his fleet from the war, the Persians +had not a chance left, and the defeat of his lieutenant Mardonius, at +Plataea, was of the nature of a foregone conclusion. + +It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of the assistance which +the Greeks received from the storms mentioned, and it is not strange +that they were lavish in their thanks and offerings to Poseidon the +Saviour, or that they continued piously to express their gratitude +in later days. Mankind at large have reason to be thankful for the +occurrence of those storms; for if they had not happened, Greece must +have been conquered, and all that she has been to the world would have +been that world's loss. It was not until after the overthrow of the +Persians that Athens became the home of science, literature, art, and +commerce; and if Athens had been removed from Greece, there would have +been little of Hellenic genius left for the delight of future days. Not +only was most of that which is known as Greek literature the production +of the years that followed the failure of Xerxes, but the success of the +Greeks was the means of preserving all of their earlier literature. The +Persians were not barbarians, and, had they achieved their purpose, they +might have promoted civilisation in Europe; but that civilization would +have been Asiatic in its character, and it might have been as fleeting +as the labors of the Carthaginians in Europe and Africa. Nor would they +have felt any interest in the preservation of the works of those Greeks +who wrote before the Marathonian time, which they would have regarded +with that contempt with which most conquerors look upon the labors of +those whom they have enslaved. That most brilliant of ages, the age of +Pericles, could never have come to pass under the dominion of Persia; +and the Greeks of Europe, when ruled by satraps from Susa, would have +been of as little weight in the ancient world as, under that kind of +rule, were the Greeks of Ionia. All future history was involved in the +decision of the Persian contest, and we may well feel grateful that the +event was not left for the hands of men to decide, but that the winds +and the waves of the Grecian seas so far equalized the power of the +combatants as to enable the Greeks, who fought for us as well as for +themselves, to roll back the tide of Oriental conquest. We might not +have had even the Secession War, if there had been no storms in the +Thracian seas in a summer the roses of which perished more than two +thousand three hundred years ago.[A] + +[Footnote A: When the Athenian patriots under Thrasybulus occupied +Phyle, they would have been destroyed by the forces of the Thirty +Tyrants, had not a violent snow-storm happened, which compelled +the besiegers to retreat. The patriots characterized this storm as +Providential. Had the weather remained fair, the patriots would have +been beaten, the democracy would not have been restored, and we should +never have had the orations of Demosthenes; and perhaps even Plato might +not have written and thought for all after time.] + +The modern contest which most resembles that which was waged between the +Greeks and the Persians is that war between England and Spain which +came to a crisis in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was destroyed by the +tempests of the Northern seas, after having been well mauled by the +English fleet. The English seamen behaved well, as they always do; but +the Spanish loss would not have been irreparable, if the weather had +remained mild. What men had begun so well storms completed. A contrary +wind prevented the Spanish Admiral from pursuing his course in a +direction that would have proved favorable to his second object, which +was the preservation of his fleet. He was forced to stand to the North, +so that he rushed right into the jaws of destruction. He encountered +in those remote and almost unknown waters tempests that were even more +merciless than the fighting ships and fireships of the island heretics. +Philip II. bore his loss with the same calmness that he bore the victory +of Lepanto. As, on hearing of the latter, he merely said, "Don John +risked a great deal," so, when tidings came to him that the Invincible +Armada had been found vincible, he quietly remarked, "I sent it out +against men, and not against the billows." Down to the very last year, +it had been the common, and all but universal opinion, that, if the +Spaniards had succeeded in landing in England, they would have been +beaten, so resolute were the English in their determination to oppose +them, and so extensive were their preparations for resistance. Elizabeth +at Tilbury had been one of the stock pieces of history, and her words of +defiance to Parma and to Spain have been ringing through the world ever +since they were uttered _after_ the Armada had ceased to threaten her +throne. We now know that the common opinion on this subject, like the +common opinion respecting some other crises, was all wrong, a delusion +and a sham, and based on nothing but plausible lies. Mr. Motley has put +men right on this point, as on some others; and it is impossible to +read his brilliant and accurate narrative of the events of 1588 without +coming to the conclusion that Elizabeth was in the summer of that year +in the way to receive punishment for the cowardly butchery which had +been perpetrated, in her name, if not by her direct orders, in the great +hall of Fotheringay. She was saved by those winds which helped the Dutch +to blockade Parma's army, in the first instance, and then by those +Orcadian tempests which smote the Armada, and converted its haughty +pride into a by-word and a scoffing. The military preparations of +England were of the feeblest character; and it is not too much to say, +that the only parallel case of Governmental weakness is that which is +afforded by the American history of last spring, when we had not an +efficient company or a seaworthy armed ship with which to fight the +Secessionists, who had been openly making their preparations for war for +months. The late Mr. Richard Rush mentions, in the second series of his +"Residence at the Court of London," that at a dinner at the Marquis of +Lansdowne's, in 1820, the conversation turned on the Spanish Armada; and +he was surprised to find that most of the company, which was composed of +members of Parliament and other public men, were of the opinion that the +Spaniards, could they have been landed, would have been victorious. With +genuine American faith in English invincibility, he wondered what the +company could mean, and also what the English armies would have been +about. It was not possible for any one then to have said that there were +no English armies at that time to be about anything; but now we see +that those armies were but imaginary bodies, having not even a paper +existence. Parma, who was even an abler diplomatist than soldier,--that +is, he was the most accomplished liar in an age that was made up of +falsehood,--had so completely gulled the astute Elizabeth that she was +living in the fools' paradise; and so little did she and most of her +counsellors expect invasion, that a single Spanish regiment of infantry +might, had it then been landed, have driven the whole organized force +of England from Sheerness to Bristol. Those Englishmen who sneer so +bitterly at the conduct of our Government but a year ago would do well +to study closely the history of their own country in 1588, in which they +will find much matter calculated to lessen their conceit, and to teach +them charity. The Lincoln Government of the United States had been in +existence but little more than thirty days when it found itself involved +in war with the Rebels; the Elizabethan Government had been in existence +for thirty years when the Armada came to the shores of England, to the +astonishment and dismay of those "barons bold and statesmen old in +bearded majesty" whom we have been content to regard as the bravest and +the wisest men that have lived since David and Solomon. Elizabeth, who +had a beard that vied with Burleigh's,--the evidence of her virgin +innocence,--felt every hair of her head curling from terror when she +learned how she had been "done" by Philip's lieutenant; and old Burleigh +must have thought that his mistress was in the condition of Jockey of +Norfolk's master at Bosworth,--"bought and sold." Fortunately for both +old women, and for us all, the summer gales of 1588 were adverse to the +Spaniards, and protected Old England. We know not whence the wind cometh +nor whither it goeth, but we know that its blows have often been given +with effect on human affairs; and it never blew with more usefulness, +since the time when it used up the ships of Xerxes, than when it sent +the ships of Philip to join "the treasures that old Ocean hoards." Had +England then been conquered by Spain, though but temporarily, Protestant +England would have ceased to exist, and the current of history would +have been as emphatically changed as was the current of the Euphrates +under the labors of the soldiers of Cyrus. We should have had no +Shakspeare, or a very different Shakspeare from the one that we have; +and the Elizabethan age would have presented to after centuries an +appearance altogether unlike that which now so impressively strikes the +mind. As that was the time out of which all that is great and good in +England and America has proceeded, in letters and in arms, in religion +and in politics, we can easily understand how vast must have been the +change, had not the winds of the North been so unpropitious to the +purposes of the King of the South. + +The English are very proud of the victories of Crecy and Agincourt, as +well they may be; for, though gained in the course of as unjust and +unprovoked and cruel wars as ever were waged even by Englishmen, they +are as splendid specimens of slaughter-work as can be found in the +history of "the Devil's code of honor." But they owe them both to the +weather, which favored their ancestors, and was as unfavorable to the +ancestors of the French. At Crecy the Italian cross-bow men in the +French army not only came into the field worn down by a long march on a +hot day in August, but immediately after their arrival they were +exposed to a terrible thunder-storm, in which the rain fell in absolute +torrents, wetting the strings of their bows, and rendering them +unserviceable. The English archers, who carried the far more useful +long-bow, kept their bows in their cases until the rain ceased, and then +took them out dry, and in perfect condition; besides which, even if +the strings of the long-bows had been wetted, they could not have been +materially injured, as they were thin and pliable, while those of the +cross-bows were so thick and unpliable that they could not be tightened +or slackened at pleasure. In after-days this defect in the cross-bow was +removed, but it existed in full force in 1346. When the battle began, +the Italian _quarrel_ was found to be worthless, because of the strings +of the arbalists having absorbed so much moisture, while the English +arrows came upon the poor Genoese in frightful showers, throwing them +into a panic, and inaugurating disaster to the French at the very +beginning of the action. The day was lost from that moment, and there +was not a leader among the French capable of restoring it. + +At Agincourt the circumstances were very different, but quite as fatal +to the French. That battle was fought on the 25th of October, 1415, and +the French should have won it according to all the rules of war,--but +they did not win it, because they had too much valor and too little +sense. A cautious coward makes a better soldier than a valiant fool, and +the boiling bravery of the French has lost them more battles than any +other people have lost through timidity. Henry V.'s invasion of France +was the most wicked attack that ever was made even by England on a +neighboring nation, and it was meeting with its proper reward, when +French folly ruined everything. The French overtook the English on the +24th of October, and by judicious action might have destroyed them, for +they were by far the more numerous,--though most English authorities, +with characteristic "unveracity," grossly exaggerate the inequality of +numbers that really did exist between the two armies. On the night of +the 24th the rain fell heavily, making the ground quite unfit for +the operations of heavy cavalry, in which the strength of the French +consisted, while the English had their incomparable archers, the +worthy predecessors of the English infantry of to-day, one of whom was +calculated to do more efficient service than could have been expected, +as the circumstances of the field were, from ten knights cumbered with +bulky mail. Sir Harris Nicolas, the most candid English historian of the +battle, and who prepared a very useful, but unreadable volume concerning +it, after speaking of the bad arrangements adopted by the French, +proceeds to say,--"The inconveniences under which the French labored +were much increased by the state of the ground, which was not only soft +from heavy rains, but was broken up by their horses during the preceding +night, the weather having obliged the valets and pages to keep them in +motion. Thus the statement of French historians may readily be credited, +that, from the ponderous armor with which the men-at-arms were +enveloped, and the softness of the ground, it was with the utmost +difficulty they could either move or lift their weapons, notwithstanding +their lances had been shortened to enable them to fight closely,--that +the horses at every step sunk so deeply into the mud, that it required +great exertion to extricate them,--and that the narrowness of the place +caused their archers to be so crowded as to prevent them from drawing +their bows." Michelet's description of the day is the best that can be +read, and he tells us, that, when the signal of battle was given by Sir +Thomas Erpingham, the English shouted, but "the French army, to their +great astonishment, remained motionless. Horses and knights appeared to +be enchanted, or struck dead in their armor. The fact was, that their +large battle-steeds, weighed down with their heavy riders and lumbering +caparisons of iron, had all their feet completely sunk in the deep wet +clay; they were fixed there, and could only struggle out to crawl on a +few steps at a walk," Upon this mass of chivalry, all stuck in the mud, +the cloth-yard shafts of the English yeomen fell like hailstones upon +the summer corn. Some few of the French made mad efforts to charge, but +were annihilated before they could reach the English line. The English +advanced upon the "mountain of men and horses mixed together," and +butchered their immovable enemies at their leisure. Plebeian hands that +day poured out patrician blood in torrents. The French fell into a +panic, and those of their number who could run away did so. It was the +story of Poitiers over again, in one respect; for the Black Prince owed +his victory to a panic that befell a body of sixteen thousand French, +who scattered and fled without having struck a blow. Agincourt was +fought on St. Crispin's day, and a precious strapping the French got. +The English found that there was "nothing like leather." It was the last +battle in which the oriflamme was displayed; and well it might be; for, +red as it was, it must have blushed a deeper red over the folly of the +French commanders. + +The greatest battle ever fought on British ground, with the exceptions +of Hastings and Bannockburn,--and greater even than Hastings, if numbers +are allowed to count,--was that of Towton, the chief action in the Wars +of the Roses; and its decision was due to the effect of the weather on +the defeated army. It was fought on the 29th of March, 1461, which was +the Palm-Sunday of that year. Edward, Earl of March, eldest son of the +Duke of York, having made himself King of England, advanced to the North +to meet the Lancastrian army. That army was sixty thousand strong, while +Edward IV. was at the head of less than forty-nine thousand. After some +preliminary fighting, battle was joined on a plain between the villages +of Saxton and Towton, in Yorkshire, and raged for ten hours. Palm-Sunday +was a dark and tempestuous day, with the snow falling heavily. At first +the wind was favorable to the Lancastrians, but it suddenly changed, and +blew the snow right into their faces. This was bad enough, but it was +not the worst, for the snow slackened their bow-strings, causing their +arrows to fall short of the Yorkists, who took them from the ground, and +sent them back with fatal effect. The Lancastrian leaders then sought +closer conflict, but the Yorkists had already achieved those advantages +which, under a good general, are sure to prepare the way to victory. It +was as if the snow had resolved to give success to the pale rose. That +which Edward had won he was resolved to increase, and his dispositions +were of the highest military excellence; but it is asserted that he +would have been beaten, because of the superiority of the enemy in men, +but for the coming up, at the eleventh hour, of the Duke of Norfolk, who +was the Joseph Johnston of 1461, doing for Edward what the Secessionist +Johnston did for Beauregard in 1861. The Lancastrians then gave way, +and retreated, at first in orderly fashion, but finally falling into +a panic, when they were cut down by thousands. They lost twenty-eight +thousand men, and the Yorkists eight thousand. This was a fine piece of +work for the beginning of Passion-Week, bloody laurels gained in civil +conflict being substituted for palm-branches! No such battle was ever +fought by Englishmen in foreign lands. This was the day when + + "Wharfe ran red with slaughter, + Gathering in its guilty flood + The carnage, and the ill-spilt blood + That forty thousand lives could yield. + Crecy was to this but sport, + Poitiers but a pageant vain, + And the work of Agincourt + Only like a tournament. + Half the blood which there was spent + Had sufficed to win again + Anjou and ill-yielded Maine, + Normandy and Aquitaine." + +Edward IV., it should seem, was especially favored by the powers of the +air; for, if he owed victory at Towton to wind and snow, he owed it to a +mist at Barnet. This last action was fought on the 14th of April, 1471, +and the prevalence of the mist, which was very thick, enabled Edward so +to order his military work as to counterbalance the enemy's superiority +in numbers. The mist was attributed to the arts of Friar Bungay, a +famous and most rascally "nigromancer." The mistake made by Warwick's +men, when they thought Oxford's cognizance, a star paled with rays, +was that of Edward, which was a sun in full glory, (the White Rose _en +soleil,_) and so assailed their own friends, and created a panic, was in +part attributable to the mist, which prevented them from seeing clearly; +and this mistake was the immediate occasion of the overthrow of the army +of the Red Rose. That Edward was enabled to fight the Battle of Barnet +with any hope of success was also owing to the weather. Margaret of +Anjou had assembled a force in France, Louis XI. supporting her cause, +and this force was ready to sail in February, and by its presence +in England victory would unquestionably have been secured for the +Lancastrians. But the elements opposed themselves to her purpose with so +much pertinacity and consistency that it is not strange that men should +have seen therein the visible hand of Providence. Three times did she +embark, but only to be driven back by the wind, and to suffer loss. Some +of her party sought to persuade her to abandon the enterprise, as Heaven +seemed to oppose it; but Margaret was a strong-minded woman, and would +not listen to the suggestions of superstitious cowards. She sailed a +fourth time, and held on in the face of bad weather. Half a day of good +weather was all that was necessary to reach England, but it was not +until the end of almost the third week that she was able to effect a +landing, and then at a point distant from Warwick. Had the King-maker +been the statesman-soldier that he has had the credit of being, he never +would have fought Edward until he had been joined by Margaret; and he +must have known that her non-arrival was owing to contrary winds, +he having been himself a naval commander. But he acted like a +knight-errant, not like a general, gave battle, and was defeated and +slain, "The Last of the Barons." Having triumphed at Barnet, Edward +marched to meet Margaret's army, which was led by Somerset, and defeated +it on the 4th of May, after a hardly-contested action at Tewkesbury. It +was on that field that Prince Edward of Lancaster perished; and as his +father, Henry VI., died a few days later, "of pure displeasure and +melancholy," the line of Lancaster became extinct. + +In justice to the memory of a monarch, to whom justice has never been +done, it should be remarked, in passing, that Edward IV. deserved the +favors of Fortune, if talent for war insures success in war. He was, so +far as success goes, one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived. He +never fought a battle that he did not win, and he never won a battle +without annihilating his foe. He was not yet nineteen when he commanded +at Towton, at the head of almost fifty thousand men; and two months +before he had gained the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, under circumstances +that showed skillful generalship. No similar instance of precocity is +to be found in the military history of mankind. His victories have been +attributed to Warwick, but it is noticeable that he was as successful +over Warwick as he had been over the Lancastrians, against whom Warwick +originally fought. Barnet was, with fewer combatants, as remarkable an +action as Towton; and at Mortimer's Cross Warwick was not present, while +he fought and lost the second battle of St. Alban's seventeen days after +Edward had won his first victory. Warwick was not a general, but a +magnificent paladin, resembling much Coeur de Lion, and most decidedly +out of place in the England of the last half of the fifteenth century. +What is peculiarly remarkable in Edward's case is this: he had received +no military training beyond that which was common to all high-born +youths in that age. The French wars had long been over, and what had +happened in the early years of the Roses' quarrel was certainly not +calculated to make generals out of children. In this respect Edward +stands quite alone in the list of great commanders. Alexander, Hannibal, +the first Scipio Africanus, Pompeius, Don John of Austria, Conde, +Charles XII., Napoleon, and some other young soldiers of the highest +eminence, were either all regularly instructed in the military art, or +succeeded to the command of veteran armies, or were advised and assisted +by old and skilful generals. Besides, they were all older than Edward +when they first had independent command. Gaston de Foix approaches +nearest to the Yorkist king, but he gained only one battle, was older at +Ravenna than Edward was at Towton, and perished in the hour of victory. +Clive, perhaps, may be considered as equalling the Plantagenet king in +original genius for war, but the scene of his actions, and the materials +with which he wrought, were so very different from those of other +youthful commanders, that no just comparison can be made between him and +any one of their number. + +The English have asserted that they lost the Battle of Falkirk, in 1746, +because of the severity of a snow-storm that took place when they went +into action, a strong wind blowing the snow straight into their faces; +and one of the causes of the defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden, +three months later, was another fall of snow, which was accompanied by +wind that then blew into their faces. Fortune was impartial, and made +the one storm to balance the other. + +That the American army was not destroyed soon after the Battle of Long +Island must be attributed to the foggy weather of the 29th of August, +1776. But for the successful retreat of Washington's army from Long +Island, on the night of the 29th-30th, the Declaration of Independence +would have been made waste paper in "sixty days" after its adoption; and +that retreat could not have been made, had there not been a dense fog +under cover of which to make it, and to deter the enemy from action. +Washington and his whole army would have been slain or captured, could +the British forces have had clear weather in which to operate. "The +fog which prevailed all this time," says Irving, "seemed almost +Providential. While it hung over Long Island, and concealed the +movements of the Americans, the atmosphere was clear on the New York +side of the river. The adverse wind, too, died away, the river became +so smooth that the rowboats could be laden almost to the gunwale; and a +favoring breeze sprang up for the sail-boats. The whole embarkation of +troops, ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, and carts, was happily +effected, and by daybreak the greater part had safely reached the city, +thanks to the aid of Glover's Marblehead men. Scarce anything was +abandoned to the enemy, excepting a few heavy pieces of artillery. At +a proper time, Mifflin with his covering party left the lines, and +effected a silent retreat to the ferry. Washington, though repeatedly +entreated, refused to enter a boat until all the troops were embarked, +and crossed the river with the last." Americans should ever regard a fog +with a certain reverence, for a fog saved their country in 1776. + +That Poland was not restored to national rank by Napoleon I. was in some +measure owing to the weather of the latter days of 1806. Those of the +French officers who marched through the better portions of that country +were for its restoration, but others who waded through its terrible +mud took different ground in every sense. Hence there was a serious +difference of opinion in the French councils on this vitally important +subject, which had its influence on Napoleon's mind. The severe +winter-weather of 1806-7, by preventing the Emperor from destroying the +Russians, which he was on the point of doing, was prejudicial to the +interests of Poland; for the ultimate effect was, to compel France to +treat with Russia as equal with equal, notwithstanding the crowning +victory of Friedland. This done, there was no present hope of Polish +restoration, as Alexander frankly told the French Emperor that the world +would not be large enough for them both, if he should seek to renew +Poland's rank as a nation. So far as the failure of the French in 1812 +is chargeable upon the weather, the weather must be considered as having +been again the enemy of Poland; for Napoleon would have restored that +country, had he succeeded in his Russian campaign. Such restoration +would then have been a necessity of his position. But it was not the +weather of Russia that caused the French failure of 1812. That failure +was all but complete before the invaders of Russia had experienced any +very severe weather. The two powers that conquered Napoleon were those +which General Von Knesebeck had pointed out to Alexander as sure to +be too much for him,--Space and Time. The cold, frosts, and snows of +Russia simply completed what those powers had so well begun, and so well +done. + +In the grand campaign of 1813, the weather had an extraordinary +influence on Napoleon's fortunes, the rains of Germany really doing him +far more mischief than he had experienced from the snows of Russia; and, +oddly enough, a portion of this mischief came to him through the gate +of victory. The war between the French and the Allies was renewed the +middle of August, and Napoleon purposed crushing the Army of Silesia, +under old Bluecher, and marched upon it; but he was recalled by the +advance of the Grand Army of the Allies upon Dresden; for, if that city +had fallen into their hands, his communications with the Rhine would +have been lost. Returning to Dresden, he restored affairs there on the +26th of August; and on the 27th, the Battle of Dresden was fought, the +last of his great victories. It was a day of mist and rain, the mist +being thick, and the rain heavy. Under cover of the mist, Murat +surprised a portion of the Austrian infantry, and, as their muskets were +rendered unserviceable by the rain, they fell a prey to his horse, who +were assisted by infantry and artillery, more than sixteen thousand men +being killed, wounded, or captured. The left wing of the Allies was +annihilated. So far all was well for the Child of Destiny; but Nemesis +was preparing to exact her dues very swiftly. A victory can scarcely be +so called, unless it be well followed up; and whether Dresden should be +another Austerlitz depended upon what might be done during the next two +or three days. Napoleon did _not_ act with his usual energy on that +critical occasion, and in seven months he had ceased to reign. Why did +he refrain from reaping the fruits of victory? Because the weather, +which had been so favorable to his fortunes on the 27th, was quite as +unfavorable to his person. On that day he was exposed to the rain for +twelve hours, and when he returned to Dresden, at night, he was wet to +the skin, and covered with mud, while the water was streaming from his +chapeau, which the storm had knocked _out_ of a cocked hat. It was a +peculiarity of Napoleon's constitution, that he could not expose himself +to damp without bringing on a pain in the stomach; and this pain seized +him at noon on the 28th, when he had partaken of a repast at Pirna, +whither he had gone in the course of his operations against the beaten +enemy. This illness caused him to cease his personal exertions, but not +from giving such orders as the work before him required him to issue. +Perhaps it would have had no evil effect, had it not been, that, while +halting at Pirna, news came to him of two great failures of distant +armies, which led him to order the Young Guard to halt at that +place,--an order that cost him his empire. One more march in advance, +and Napoleon would have become greater than ever he had been; but +that march was not made, and so the flying foe was converted into a +victorious army. For General Vandamme, who was at the head of the chief +force of the pursuing French, pressed the Allies with energy, relying on +the support of the Emperor, whose orders he was carrying out in the best +manner. This led to the Battle of Kulm, in which Vandamme was defeated, +and his army destroyed for the time, because of the overwhelming +superiority of the enemy; whereas that action would have been one of the +completest French victories, had the Young Guard been ordered to march +from Pirna, according to the original intention. The roads were in a +most frightful state, in consequence of the wet weather; but, as a +victorious army always finds food, so it always finds roads over which +to advance to the completion of its task, unless its chief has no head. +Vandamme had a head, and thought he was winning the Marshal's staff +which Napoleon had said was awaiting him in the midst of the enemy's +retiring masses. So confident was he that the Emperor would support him, +that he would not retreat while yet it was in his power to do so; and +the consequence was that his _corps d'armee_ was torn to pieces, and +himself captured. Napoleon had the meanness to charge Vandamme with +going too far and seeking to do too much, as he supposed he was slain, +and therefore could not prove that he was simply obeying orders, as +well as acting in exact accordance with sound military principles. That +Vandamme was right is established by the fact that an order came from +Napoleon to Marshal Mortier, who commanded at Pirna, to reinforce him +with two divisions; but the order did not reach Mortier until after +Vandamme had been defeated. Marshal Saint-Cyr, who was bound to aid +Vandamme, was grossly negligent, and failed of his duty; but even he +would have acted well, had he been acting under the eye of the Emperor, +as would have been the case, had not the weather of the 27th broken down +the health of Napoleon, and had not other disasters to the French, all +caused by the same storm that had raged around Dresden, induced Napoleon +to direct his personal attention to points remote from the scene of his +last triumph.[B] + +[Footnote B: There was a story current that Napoleon's indisposition on +the 28th of August was caused by his eating heartily of a shoulder of +mutton stuffed with garlic, not the wholesomest food in the world; and +the digestive powers having been reduced by long exposure to damp, this +dish may have been too much for them. Thiers says that the Imperial +illness at Pirna was "a malady invented by flatterers," and yet only a +few pages before he says that "Napoleon proceeded to Pirna, where he +arrived about noon, and where, after having partaken of a slight repast, +he was seized with a pain in the stomach, to which he was subject after +exposure to damp." Napoleon suffered from stomach complaints from an +early period of his career, and one of their effects is greatly to +lessen the powers of the sufferer's mind. His want of energy at Borodino +was attributed to a disordered stomach, and the Russians were simply +beaten, not destroyed, on that field. When he beard of Vandamme's +defeat, Napoleon said, "One should make a bridge of gold for a flying +enemy, where it is impossible, as in Vandamme's case, to oppose to him +a bulwark of steel." He forgot that his own plan was to have opposed to +the enemy a bulwark of steel, and that the non-existence of that bulwark +on the 30th of August was owing to his own negligence. Still, the +reverse at Kulm might not have proved so terribly fatal, had it not been +preceded by the reverses on the Katzbach, which also were owing to the +heavy rains, and news of which was the cause of the halting of so large +a portion of his pursuing force at Pirna, and the march of many of his +best men back to Dresden, his intention being to attempt the restoration +of affairs in that quarter, where they had been so sadly compromised +under Macdonald's direction. He was as much overworked by the necessity +of attending to so many theatres of action as his armies were +overmatched in the field by the superior numbers of the Allies. He is +said to have repeated the following lines, after musing for a while on +the news from Kulm:-- + + "J'ai servi, commande, vaincu quarante annees; + Du monde entre mes mains j'ai tu les destinees, + Et j'ai toujours connu qu'en chaque evenement + Le destin des etats dependait d'un moment." + +But he had hours, we might say days, to settle his destiny, and was not +tied down to a moment. Afterward he had the fairness to admit that he +had lost a great opportunity to regain the ascendency in not supporting +Vandamme with the whole of the Young Guard.] + +When Napoleon was called from the pursuit of Bluecher by Schwarzenberg's +advance upon Dresden, he confided the command of the army that was to +act against that of Silesia to Marshal Macdonald, a brave and honest +man, but a very inferior soldier, yet who might have managed to hold his +own against so unscientific a leader as the fighting old hussar, had it +not been for the terrible rainstorm that began on the night of the 25th +of August. The swelling of the rivers, some of them deep and rapid, led +to the isolation of the French divisions, while the rain was so severe +as to prevent them from using their muskets. Animated by the most ardent +hatred, the new Prussian levies, few of whom had been in service half as +long as our volunteers, and many of whom were but mere boys, rushed upon +their enemies, butchering them with butt and bayonet, and forcing +them into the boiling torrent of the Katzbach. Puthod's division was +prevented from rejoining its comrades by the height of the waters, and +was destroyed, though one of the best bodies in the French army. The +state of the country drove the French divisions together on the same +lines of retreat, creating immense confusion, and leading to the most +serious losses of men and _materiel_. Macdonald's blunder was in +advancing after the storm began, and had lasted for a whole night. His +officers pointed out the danger of his course, but he was one of those +men who think, that, because they are not knaves, they can accomplish +everything; but the laws of Nature no more yield to honest stupidity +than to clever roguery. The Baron Von Mueffling, who was present in +Bluecher's army, says, that, when the French attempted to protect their +retreat at the Katzbach with artillery, the guns stuck in the mud; and +he adds,--"The field of battle was so saturated by the incessant rain, +that a great portion of our infantry left their shoes sticking in +the mud, and followed the enemy barefoot." Even a brook, called the +Deichsel, was so swollen by the rain that the French could cross it at +only one place, and there they lost wagons and guns. Old Bluecher issued +a thundering proclamation for the encouragement of his troops. "In the +battle on the Katzbach," he said to them, "the enemy came to meet you +with defiance. Courageously, and with the rapidity of lightning, you +issued from behind your heights. You scorned to attack them with +musketry-fire: you advanced without a halt; your bayonets drove them +down the steep ridge of the valley of the raging Neisse and Katzbach. +Afterwards you waded through rivers and brooks swollen with rain. You +passed nights in mud. You suffered for want of provisions, as the +impassable roads and want of conveyance hindered the baggage from +following. You struggled with cold, wet, privations, and want of +clothing; nevertheless you did not murmur,--with great exertions you +pursued your routed foe. Receive my thanks for such laudable conduct. +The man alone who unites such qualities is a true soldier. One hundred +and three cannons, two hundred and fifty ammunition-wagons, the enemy's +field-hospitals, their field-forges, their flour-wagons, one general of +division, two generals of brigade, a great number of colonels, staff +and other officers, eighteen thousand prisoners, two eagles, and other +trophies, are in your hands. The terror of your arms has so seized upon +the rest of your opponents, that they will no longer bear the sight of +your bayonets. You have seen the roads and fields between the Katzbach +and the Bober: they bear the signs of the terror and confusion of your +enemy." The bluff old General, who at seventy had more "dash" than all +the rest of the leaders of the Allies combined, and who did most of the +real fighting business of "those who wished and worked" Napoleon's fall, +knew how to talk to soldiers, which is a quality not always possessed +by even eminent commanders. Soldiers love a leader who can take them to +victory, and then talk to them about it. Such a man is "one of them." + +Napoleon never recovered from the effects of the losses he experienced +at Kulm and on the Katzbach,--losses due entirely to the wetness of the +weather. He went downward from that time with terrible velocity, and was +in Elba the next spring, seven months after having been on the Elbe. The +winter campaign of 1814, of which so much is said, ought to furnish +some matter for a paper on weather in war; but the truth is, that that +campaign was conducted politically by the Allies. There was never a +time, after the first of February, when, if they had conducted the war +solely on military principles, they could not have been in Paris in a +fortnight. + +Napoleon's last campaign owed its lamentable decision to the peculiar +character of the weather on its last two days, though one would not look +for such a thing as severe weather in June, in Flanders. But so it was, +and Waterloo would have been a French victory, and Wellington where +_Henry_ was when he ran against _Eclipse_,--nowhere,--if the rain that +fell so heavily on the 17th of June had been postponed only twenty-four +hours. Up to the afternoon of the 17th, the weather, though very warm, +was dry, and the French were engaged in following their enemies. The +Anglo-Dutch infantry had retreated from Quatre-Bras, and the cavalry was +following, and was itself followed by the French cavalry, who pressed it +with great audacity. "The weather," says Captain Siborne, "during the +morning, had become oppressively hot; it was now a dead calm; not a leaf +was stirring; and the atmosphere was close to an intolerable degree; +while a dark, heavy, dense cloud impended over the combatants. The 18th +[English] Hussars were fully prepared, and awaited but the command to +charge, when the brigade guns on the right commenced firing, for the +purpose of previously disturbing and breaking the order of the enemy's +advance. The concussion seemed instantly to rebound through the still +atmosphere, and communicate, as an electric spark, with the heavily +charged mass above. A most awfully loud thunder-clap burst forth, +immediately succeeded by a rain which has never, probably, been exceeded +in violence even within the tropics. In a very few minutes the ground +became perfectly saturated,--so much so, that it was quite impracticable +for any rapid movement of the cavalry." This storm prevented the French +from pressing with due force upon their retiring foes; but that would +have been but a small evil, if the storm had not settled into a steady +and heavy rain, which converted the fat Flemish soil into a mud that +would have done discredit even to the "sacred soil" of Virginia, and the +latter has the discredit of being the nastiest earth in America. All +through the night the windows of heaven were open, as if weeping over +the spectacle of two hundred thousand men preparing to butcher each +other. Occasionally the rain fell in torrents, greatly distressing the +soldiers, who had no tents. On the morning of the 18th the rain ceased, +but the day continued cloudy, and the sun did not show himself until the +moment before setting, when for an instant he blazed forth in full glory +upon the forward movement of the Allies. One may wonder if Napoleon +then thought of that morning "Sun of Austerlitz," which he had so often +apostrophized in the days of his meridian triumphs. The evening sun of +Waterloo was the practical antithesis to the rising sun of Austerlitz. + +The Battle of Waterloo was not begun until about twelve o'clock, because +of the state of the ground, which did not admit of the action of cavalry +and artillery until several hours had been allowed for its hardening. +That inevitable delay was the occasion of the victory of the Allies; +for, if the battle had been opened at seven o'clock, the French would +have defeated Wellington's army before a Prussian regiment could have +arrived on the field. It has been said that the rain was as baneful to +the Allies as to the French, as it prevented the early arrival of the +Prussians; but the remark comes only from persons who are not familiar +with the details of the most momentous of modern pitched battles. +Buelow's Prussian corps, which was the first to reach the field, marched +through Wavre in the forenoon of the 18th; but no sooner had its +advanced guard--an infantry brigade, a cavalry regiment, and one +battery--cleared that town, than a fire broke out there, which greatly +delayed the march of the remainder of the corps. There were many +ammunition-wagons in the streets, and, fearful of losing them, and of +being deprived of the means of fighting, the Prussians halted, and +turned firemen for the occasion. This not only prevented most of the +corps from arriving early on the right flank of the French, but it +prevented the advanced guard from acting, Buelow being too good a soldier +to risk so small a force as that immediately at his command in an attack +on the French army. It was not until about half-past one that the +Prussians were first seen by the Emperor, and then at so great a +distance that even with glasses it was difficult to say whether the +objects looked at were men or trees. But for the bad weather, it is +possible that Buelow's whole corps, supposing there had been no fire at +Wavre, might have arrived within striking distance of the French army +by two o'clock, P.M.; but by that hour the battle between Napoleon and +Wellington would have been decided, and the Prussians would have come +up only to "augment the slaughter," had the ground been hard enough for +operations at an early hour of the day. As the battle was necessarily +fought in the afternoon, because of the softness of the soil consequent +on the heavy rains of the preceding day and night, there was time gained +for the arrival of Buelow's corps by four o'clock of the afternoon of the +18th. Against that corps Napoleon had to send almost twenty thousand of +his men, and sixty-six pieces of cannon, all of which might have been +employed against Wellington's army, had the battle been fought in the +forenoon. As it was, that large force never fired a shot at the English. +The other Prussian corps that reached the field toward the close of the +day, Zieten's and Pirch's, did not leave Wavre until about noon. The +coming up of the advanced guard of Zieten, but a short time before the +close of the battle, enabled Wellington to employ the fresh cavalry of +Vivian and Vandeleur at another part of his line, where they did eminent +service for him at a time which is known as "the crisis" of the day. +Taking all these facts into consideration, it must be admitted that +there never was a more important rain-storm than that which happened on +the 17th of June, 1815. Had it occurred twenty-four hours later, the +destinies of the world might, and most probably would, have been +completely changed; for Waterloo was one of those decisive battles which +dominate the ages through their results, belonging to the same class +of combats as do Marathon, Pharsalia, Lepanto, Blenheim, Yorktown, and +Trafalgar. It was decided by water, and not by fire, though the latter +was hot enough on that fatal field to satisfy the most determined lover +of courage and glory. + +If space permitted, we could bring forward many other facts to show the +influence of weather on the operations of war. We could show that it was +owing to changes of wind that the Spaniards failed to take Leyden, the +fall of which into their hands would probably have proved fatal to the +Dutch cause; that a sudden thaw prevented the French from seizing the +Hague in 1672, and compelling the Dutch to acknowledge themselves +subjects of Louis XIV.; that a change of wind enabled William of Orange +to land in England, in 1688, without fighting a battle, when even +victory might have been fatal to his purpose; that Continental +expeditions fitted out for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the +British throne were more than once ruined by the occurrence of tempests; +that the defeat of our army at Germantown was in part due to the +existence of a fog; that a severe storm prevented General Howe from +assailing the American position on Dorchester Heights, and so enabled +Washington to make that position too strong to be attacked with hope +of success, whereby Boston was freed from the enemy's presence; that a +heavy fall of rain, by rendering the River Catawba unfordable, put +a stop, for a few days, to those movements by which Lord Cornwallis +intended to destroy the army of General Morgan, and obtain compensation +for Tarleton's defeat at the Cowpens; that an autumnal tempest compelled +the same British commander to abandon a project of retreat from +Yorktown, which good military critics have thought well conceived, and +promising success; that the severity of the winter of 1813 interfered +effectively with the measures which Napoleon had formed with the view of +restoring his affairs, so sadly compromised by his failure in Russia; +that the "misty, chilly, and insalubrious" weather of Louisiana, and its +mud, had a marked effect on Sir Edward Pakenham's army, and helped us to +victory over one of the finest forces ever sent by Europe to the West; +that in 1828 the Russians lost myriads of men and horses, in the +Danubian country and its vicinity, through heavy rains and hard frosts; +that the November hurricane of 1854 all but paralyzed the allied forces +in the Crimea;--and many similar things that establish the helplessness +of men in arms when the weather is adverse to them. But enough has been +said to convince even the most skeptical that our Potomac Army did not +stand alone in being forced to stand still before the dictation of the +elements. Our armies, indeed, have suffered less from the weather than +it might reasonably have been expected they would suffer, having simply +been delayed at some points by the occurrence of winds and thaws; and +over all such obstacles they are destined ultimately to triumph, as +the Union itself will bid defiance to what Bacon calls "the waves and +weathers of time." + + * * * * * + +LINES + +WRITTEN UNDER A PORTRAIT OF THEODORE WINTHROP. + + + O Knightly soldier bravely dead! + O poet-soul too early sped! + O life so pure! O life so brief! + Our hearts are moved with deeper grief, + As, dwelling on thy gentle face, + Its twilight smile, its tender grace, + We fill the shadowy years to be + With what had been thy destiny. + And still, amid our sorrow's pain, + We feel the loss is yet our gain; + For through the death we know the life, + Its gold in thought, its steel in strife,-- + And so with reverent kiss we say + Adieu! O Bayard of our day! + + + + +HINDRANCE. + + +Much that is in itself undesirable occurs in obedience to a general law +which is not only desirable, but of infinite necessity and benefit. It +is not desirable that Topper and Macaulay should be read by tens of +thousands, and Wilkinson only by tens. It is not desirable that a +narrow, selfish, envious Cecil, who could never forgive his noblest +contemporaries for failing to be hunchbacks like himself, should steer +England all his life as it were with supreme hand, and himself sail on +the topmost tide of fortune; while the royal head of Raleigh goes to the +block, and while Bacon, with his broad and bountiful nature,--Bacon, +one of the two or three greatest and humanest statesmen ever born to +England, and one of the friendliest men toward mankind ever born into +the world,--dies in privacy and poverty, bequeathing his memory "to +foreign nations and the next ages." But it is wholly desirable that +he who would consecrate himself to excellence in art or life should +sometimes be compelled to make it very clear to himself whether it be +indeed excellence that he covets, or only plaudits and pounds sterling. +So when we find our purest wishes perpetually hindered, not only in the +world around us, but even in our own bosoms, many of the particular +facts may indeed merit reproach, but the general fact merits, on the +contrary, gratitude and gratulation. For were our best wishes not, nor +ever, hindered, sure it is that the still better wishes of destiny +in our behalf would be hindered yet worse. Sure it is, I say, that +Hindrance, both outward and inward, comes to us not through any +improvidence or defect of benignity in Nature, but in answer to our +need, and as part of the best bounty which enriches our days. And to +make this indubitably clear, let us hasten to meditate that simple and +central law which governs this matter and at the same time many others. + +And the law is, that every definite action is conditioned upon a +definite resistance, and is impossible without it. We walk in virtue of +the earth's resistance to the foot, and are unable to tread the elements +of air and water only because they are too complaisant, and deny the +foot that opposition which it requires. Precisely that, accordingly, +which makes the difficulty of an action may at the same time make its +possibility. Why is flight difficult? Because the weight of every +creature draws it toward the earth. But without this downward +proclivity, the wing of the bird would have no power upon the air. +Why is it difficult for a solid body to make rapid progress in water? +Because the water presses powerfully upon it, and at every inch of +progress must be overcome and displaced. Yet the ship is able to float +only in virtue of this same hindering pressure, and without it would not +sail, but sink. The bird and the steamer, moreover,--the one with +its wings and the other with its paddles,--apply themselves to this +hindrance to progression as their only means of making progress; so +that, were not their motion obstructed, it would be impossible. + +The law governs not actions only, but all definite effects whatsoever. +If the luminiferous ether did not resist the sun's influence, it could +not be wrought into those undulations wherein light consists; if the +air did not resist the vibrations of a resonant object, and strive +to preserve its own form, the sound-waves could not be created and +propagated: if the tympanum did not resist these waves, it would not +transmit their suggestion to the brain; if any given object does not +resist the sun's rays,--in other words, reflect them,--it will not be +visible; neither can the eye mediate between any object and the brain +save by a like opposing of rays on the part of the retina. + +These instances might be multiplied _ad libitum_, since there is +literally _no_ exception to the law. Observe, however, what the law is, +namely, that _some_ resistance is indispensable,--by no means that this +alone is so, or that all modes and kinds of resistance are of equal +service. Resistance and Affinity concur for all right effects; but it is +the former that, in some of its aspects, is much accused as a calamity +to man and a contumely to the universe; and of this, therefore, we +consider here. + +Not all kinds of resistance are alike serviceable; yet that which is +required may not always consist with pleasure, nor even with safety. Our +most customary actions are rendered possible by forces and conditions +that inflict weariness at times upon all, and cost the lives of many. +Gravitation, forcing all men against the earth's surface with an energy +measured by their weight avoirdupois, makes locomotion feasible; but by +the same attraction it may draw one into the pit, over the precipice, to +the bottom of the sea. What multitudes of lives does it yearly destroy! +Why has it never occurred to some ingenious victim of a sluggish liver +to represent Gravitation as a murderous monster revelling in blood? +Surely there are woful considerations here that might be used with the +happiest effect to enhance the sense of man's misery, and have been too +much neglected! + +Probably there are few children to whom the fancy has not occurred, How +convenient, how fine were it to weigh nothing! We smile at the little +wiseacres; we know better. How much better do we know? That ancient +lament, that ever iterated accusation of the world because it opposes a +certain hindrance to freedom, love, reason, and every excellence which +the imagination of man can portray and his heart pursue,--what is it, in +the final analysis, but a complaint that we cannot walk without weight, +and that therefore climbing _is_ climbing? + +Instead, however, of turning aside to applications, let us push forward +the central statement in the interest of applications to be made by +every reader for himself,--since he says too much who does not leave +much more unsaid. Observe, then, that objects which so utterly submit +themselves to man as to become testimonies and publications of his +inward conceptions serve even these most exacting and monarchical +purposes only by opposition to them, and, to a certain extent, in the +very measure of that opposition. The stone which the sculptor carves +becomes a fit vehicle for his thought through its resistance to his +chisel; it sustains the impress of his imagination solely through its +unwillingness to receive the same. Not chalk, not any loose and friable +material, does Phidias or Michel Angelo choose, but ivory, bronze, +basalt, marble. It is quite the same whether we seek expression or +uses. The stream must be dammed before it will drive wheels; the steam +compressed ere it will compel the piston. In fine, Potentiality combines +with Hindrance to constitute active Power. Man, in order to obtain +instrumentalities and uses, blends his will and intelligence with a +force that vigorously seeks to pursue its own separate free course; and +while this resists him, it becomes his servant. + +But why not look at this fact in its largest light? For do we not here +touch upon the probable reason why God must, as it were, be offset by +World, Spirit by Matter, Soul by Body? The Maker must needs, if it be +lawful so to speak, heap up in the balance against His own pure, eternal +freedom these numberless globes of cold, inert matter. Matter is, +indeed, movable by no fine persuasions: brutely faithful to its own law, +it cares no more for AEschylus than for the tortoise that breaks his +crown; the purpose of a cross for the sweetest saint it serves no less +willingly than any other purpose,--stiffly holding out its arms there, +about its own wooden business, neither more nor less, centred utterly +upon itself. But is it not this stolid self-centration which makes it +needful to Divinity? An infinite energy required a resisting or doggedly +indifferent material, itself _quasi_ infinite, to take the impression of +its life, and render potentiality into power. So by the encountering of +body with soul is the product, man, evolved. Philosophers and saints +have perceived that the spiritual element of man is hampered and +hindered by his physical part: have they also perceived that it is the +very collision between these which strikes out the spark of thought +and kindles the sense of law? As the tables of stone to the finger of +Jehovah on Sinai, so is the firm marble of man's material nature to the +recording soul. But even Plato, when he arrives at these provinces of +thought, begins to limp a little, and to go upon Egyptian crutches. In +the incomparable apologues of the "Phaedrus" he represents our inward +charioteer as driving toward the empyrean two steeds, of which the one +is virtuously attracted toward heaven, while the other is viciously +drawn to the earth; but he countenances the inference that the earthward +proclivity of the latter is to be accounted pure misfortune. But to the +universe there is neither fortune nor misfortune; there is only the +reaper, Destiny, and his perpetual harvest. All that occurs on a +universal scale lies in the line of a pure success. Nor can the universe +attain any success by pushing past man and leaving him aside. That +were like the prosperity of a father who should enrich himself by +disinheriting his only son. + +Principles necessary to all action must of course appear in moral +action. The moral imagination, which pioneers and produces inward +advancement, works under the same conditions with the imagination of +the artist, and must needs have somewhat to work _upon_. Man is both +sculptor and quarry,--and a great noise and dust of chiselling is there +sometimes in his bosom. If, therefore, we find in him somewhat which +does not immediately and actively sympathize with his moral nature, let +us not fancy this element equally out of sympathy with his pure destiny. +The impulsion and the resistance are alike included in the design of our +being. Hunger--to illustrate--respects food, food only. It asks leave to +be hunger neither of your conscience, your sense of personal dignity, +nor indeed of your humanity in any form; but exists by its own +permission, and pushes with brute directness toward its own ends. True, +the soul may at last so far prevail as to make itself felt even in +the stomach; and the true gentleman could as soon relish a lunch of +porcupines' quills as a dinner basely obtained, though it were of +nightingales' tongues. But this is sheer conquest on the part of +the soul, not any properly gastric inspiration at all; and it is in +furnishing opportunity for precisely such conquest that the lower nature +becomes a stairway of ascent for the soul. + +And now, if in the relations between every manly spirit and the world +around him we discover the same fact, are we not by this time prepared +to contemplate it altogether with dry eyes? What if it be true, that +in trade, in politics, in society, all tends to low levels? What if +disadvantages are to be suffered by the grocer who will not sell +adulterated food, by the politician who will not palter, by the +diplomatist who is ashamed to lie? For this means only that no one can +be honest otherwise than by a productive energy of honesty in his own +bosom. In other words,--a man reaches the true welfare of a human +soul only when his bosom is a generative centre and source of noble +principles; and therefore, in pure, wise kindness to man, the world +is so arranged that there shall be perpetual need of this access and +reinforcement of principle. Society, the State, and every institution, +grow lean the moment there is a falling off in this divine fruitfulness +of man's heart, because only in virtue of bearing such fruit is man +worthy of his name. Honor and honesty are constantly consumed _between_ +men, that they may be forever newly demanded _in_ them. + +We cannot too often remind ourselves that the aim of the universe is +a personality. As the terrestrial globe through so many patient +aeons climbed toward the production of a human body, that by this +all-comprehending, perfect symbol it might enter into final union with +Spirit, so do the uses of the world still forever ascend toward man, and +seek a continual realization of that ancient wish. When, therefore, +Time shall come to his great audit with Eternity, persons alone will be +passed to his credit. "So many wise and wealthy souls,"--that is what +the sun and his household will have come to. The use of the world is not +found in societies faultlessly mechanized; for societies are themselves +but uses and means. They are the soil in which persons grow; and I no +more undervalue them than the husbandman despises his fertile acres +because it is not earth, but the wheat that grows from it, which comes +to his table. Society is the culmination of all uses and delights; +persons, of all results. And societies answer their ends when they +afford two things: first, a need for energy of eye and heart, of noble +human vigor; and secondly, a generous appreciation of high qualities, +when these may appear. The latter is, indeed, indispensable; and +whenever noble manhood ceases to be recognized in a nation, the days of +that nation are numbered. But the need is also necessary. Society must +be a consumer of virtue, if individual souls are to be producers of it. +The law of demand and supply has its applications here also. New waters +must forever flow from the fountain-heads of our true life, if the +millwheel of the world is to continue turning; and this not because the +supernal powers so greatly cared to get corn ground, but because the +Highest would have rivers of His influence forever flowing, and would +call them men. Therefore it is that satirists who paint in high colors +the resistances, but have no perception of the law of conversion into +opposites, which is the grand trick of Nature,--these pleasant gentlemen +are themselves a part of the folly at which they mock. + +As a man among men, so is a nation among nations. Very freely I +acknowledge that any nation, by proposing to itself large and liberal +aims, plucks itself innumerable envies and hatreds from without, and +confers new power for mischief upon all blindness and savagery that +exist within it. But what does this signify? Simply that no nation can +be free longer than it nobly loves freedom; that none can be great in +its national purposes when it has ceased to be so in the hearts of its +citizens. Freedom must be perpetually won, or it must be lost; and this +because the sagacious Manager of the world will not let us off from +the disciplines that should make us men. The material of the artist is +passive, and may be either awakened from its ancient rest or suffered +to sleep on; but that marble from which the perfections of manhood and +womanhood are wrought quits the quarry to meet us, and converts us to +stone, if we do not rather transform that to life and beauty. +Hostile, predatory, it rushes upon us; and we, cutting at it in brave +self-defence, hew it above our hope into shapes of celestial and +immortal comeliness. So that angels are born, as it were, from the noble +fears of man,--from an heroic fear in man's heart that he shall fall +away from the privilege of humanity, and falsify the divine vaticination +of his soul. + +Hence follows the fine result, that in life to hold your own is to make +advance. Destiny comes to us, like the children in their play, saying, +"Hold fast all I give you"; and while we nobly detain it, the penny +changes between our palms to the wealth of cities and kingdoms. The +barge of blessing, freighted for us by unspeakable hands, comes floating +down from the head-waters of that stream whereon we also are afloat; and +to meet it we have only to wait for it, not ourselves ebbing away, but +loyally stemming the tide. It may be, as Mr. Carlyle alleges, that the +Constitution of the United States is no supreme effort of genius; but +events now passing are teaching us that every day of fidelity to the +spirit of it lends it new preciousness; and that an adherence to it, not +petty and literal, but at once large and indomitable, might almost make +it a charter of new sanctities both of law and liberty for the human +race. + + + + +THE STATESMANSHIP OF RICHELIEU. + + +Thus far, the struggles of the world have developed its statesmanship +after three leading types. + +First of these is that based on faith in some great militant principle. +Strong among statesmen of this type, in this time, stand Cavour, with +his faith in constitutional liberty,--Cobden, with his faith in freedom +of trade,--the third Napoleon, with his faith that the world moves, and +that a successful policy must keep the world's pace. + +The second style of statesmanship is seen in the reorganization of old +States to fit new times. In this the chiefs are such men as Cranmer and +Turgot. + +But there is a third class of statesmen sometimes doing more brilliant +work than either of the others. These are they who serve a State in +times of dire chaos,--in times when a nation is by no means ripe for +revolution, but only stung by desperate revolt: these are they who are +quick enough and firm enough to bind all the good forces of the State +into one cosmic force, therewith to compress or crush all chaotic +forces: these are they who throttle treason and stab rebellion,--who +fear not, when defeat must send down misery through ages, to insure +victory by using weapons of the hottest and sharpest. Theirs, then, is a +statesmanship which it may be well for the leading men of this land and +time to be looking at and thinking of, and its representative man shall +be Richelieu. + +Never, perhaps, did a nation plunge more suddenly from the height of +prosperity into the depth of misery than did France on that fourteenth +of May, 1610, when Henry IV. fell dead by the dagger of Ravaillac. +All earnest men, in a moment, saw the abyss yawning,--felt the State +sinking,--felt themselves sinking with it. And they did what, in such a +time, men always do: first all shrieked, then every man clutched at the +means of safety nearest him. Sully rode through the streets of Paris +with big tears streaming down his face,--strong men whose hearts had +been toughened and crusted in the dreadful religious wars sobbed +like children,--all the populace swarmed abroad bewildered,--many +swooned,--some went mad. This was the first phase of feeling. + +Then came a second phase yet more terrible. For now burst forth that old +whirlwind of anarchy and bigotry and selfishness and terror which Henry +had curbed during twenty years. All earnest men felt bound to protect +themselves, and seized the nearest means of defence. Sully shut himself +up in the Bastille, and sent orders to his son-in-law, the Duke of +Rohan, to bring in six thousand soldiers to protect the Protestants. +All un-earnest men, especially the great nobles, rushed to the Court, +determined, now that the only guardians of the State were a weak-minded +woman and a weak-bodied child, to dip deep into the treasury which Henry +had filled to develop the nation, and to wrench away the power which he +had built to guard the nation. + +In order to make ready for this grasp at the State treasure and power by +the nobles, the Duke of Epernon, from the corpse of the King, by +whose side he was sitting when Ravaillac struck him, strides into the +Parliament of Paris, and orders it to declare the late Queen, Mary of +Medici, Regent; and when this Parisian court, knowing full well that it +had no right to confer the regency, hesitated, he laid his hand on his +sword, and declared, that, unless they did his bidding at once, his +sword should be drawn from its scabbard. This threat did its work. +Within three hours after the King's death, the Paris Parliament, which +had no right to give it, bestowed the regency on a woman who had no +capacity to take it. + +At first things seemed to brighten a little. The Queen-Regent sent such +urgent messages to Sully that he left his stronghold of the Bastille and +went to the palace. She declared to him, before the assembled Court, +that he must govern France still. With tears she gave the young King +into his arms, telling Louis that Sully was his father's best friend, +and bidding him pray the old statesman to serve the State yet longer. + +But soon this good scene changed. Mary had a foster-sister, Leonora +Galligai, and Leonora was married to an Italian adventurer, Concini. +These seemed a poor couple, worthless and shiftless, their only stock in +trade Leonora's Italian cunning; but this stock soon came to be of +vast account, for thereby she soon managed to bind and rule the +Queen-Regent,--managed to drive Sully into retirement in less than a +year,--managed to make herself and her husband the great dispensers at +Court of place and pelf. Penniless though Concini had been, he was in a +few months able to buy the Marquisate of Ancre, which cost him nearly +half a million livres,--and, soon after, the post of First Gentleman of +the Bedchamber, and that cost him nearly a quarter of a million,--and, +soon after that, a multitude of broad estates and high offices at +immense prices. Leonora, also, was not idle, and among her many +gains was a bribe of three hundred thousand livres to screen certain +financiers under trial for fraud. + +Next came the turn of the great nobles. For ages the nobility of France +had been the worst among her many afflictions. From age to age attempts +had been made to curb them. In the fifteenth century Charles VII. had +done much to undermine their power, and Louis XI. had done much to crush +it. But strong as was the policy of Charles, and cunning as was the +policy of Louis, they had made one omission, and that omission left +France, though advanced, miserable. For these monarchs had not cut +the root of the evil. The French nobility continued practically a +serf-holding nobility. + +Despite, then, the curb put upon many old pretensions of the nobles, the +serf-owning spirit continued to spread a net-work of curses over every +arm of the French government, over every acre of the French soil, and, +worst of all, over the hearts and minds of the French people. Enterprise +was deadened; invention crippled. Honesty was nothing; honor everything. +Life was of little value. Labor was the badge of servility; laziness the +very badge and passport of gentility. The serf-owning spirit was an iron +wall between noble and not-noble,--the only unyielding wall between +France and prosperous peace. + +But the serf-owning spirit begat another evil far more terrible: it +begat a substitute for patriotism,--a substitute which crushed out +patriotism just at the very emergencies when patriotism was most needed. +For the first question which in any State emergency sprang into the mind +of a French noble was not,--How does this affect the welfare of the +nation? but,--How does this affect the position of my order? The +serf-owning spirit developed in the French aristocracy an instinct which +led them in national troubles to guard the serf-owning class first and +the nation afterward, and to acknowledge fealty to the serf-owning +interest first and to the national interest afterward. + +So it proved in that emergency at the death of Henry. Instead of +planting themselves as a firm bulwark between the State and harm, the +Duke of Epernon, the Prince of Conde, the Count of Soissons, the Duke of +Guise, the Duke of Bouillon, and many others, wheedled or threatened +the Queen into granting pensions of such immense amount that the great +treasury filled by Henry and Sully with such noble sacrifices, and to +such noble ends, was soon nearly empty. + +But as soon as the treasury began to run low the nobles began a worse +work, Mary had thought to buy their loyalty; but when they had gained +such treasures, their ideas mounted higher. A saying of one among them +became their formula, and became noted:--"The day of Kings is past; now +is come the day of the Grandees." + +Every great noble now tried to grasp some strong fortress or rich city. +One fact will show the spirit of many. The Duke of Epernon had served +Henry as Governor of Metz, and Metz was the most important fortified +town in France; therefore Henry, while allowing D'Epernon the honor of +the Governorship, had always kept a Royal Lieutenant in the citadel, who +corresponded directly with the Ministry. But, on the very day of the +King's death, D'Epernon despatched commands to his own creatures at Metz +to seize the citadel, and to hold it for him against all other orders. + +But at last even Mary had to refuse to lavish more of the national +treasure and to shred more of the national territory among these +magnates. Then came their rebellion. + +Immediately Conde and several great nobles issued a proclamation +denouncing the tyranny and extravagance of the Court,--calling on +the Catholics to rise against the Regent in behalf of their +religion,--calling on the Protestants to rise in behalf of +theirs,--summoning the whole people to rise against the waste of their +State treasure. + +It was all a glorious joke. To call on the Protestants was wondrous +impudence, for Conde had left their faith, and had persecuted them; to +call on the Catholics was not less impudent, for he had betrayed their +cause scores of times; but to call on the whole people to rise in +defence of their treasury was impudence sublime, for no man had besieged +the treasury more persistently, no man had dipped into it more deeply, +than Conde himself. + +The people saw this and would not stir. Conde could rally only a few +great nobles and their retainers, and therefore, as a last tremendous +blow at the Court, he and his followers raised the cry that the Regent +must convoke the States-General. + +Any who have read much in the history of France, and especially in the +history of the French Revolution, know, in part, how terrible this cry +was. By the Court, and by the great privileged classes of France, this +great assembly of the three estates of the realm was looked upon as the +last resort amid direst calamities. For at its summons came stalking +forth from the foul past the long train of Titanic abuses and Satanic +wrongs; then came surging up from the seething present the great hoarse +cry of the people; then loomed up, dim in the distance, vast shadowy +ideas of new truth and new right; and at the bare hint of these, all +that was proud in France trembled. + +This cry for the States-General, then, brought the Regent to terms at +once, and, instead of acting vigorously, she betook herself to her old +vicious fashion of compromising,--buying off the rebels at prices more +enormous than ever. By her treaty of Sainte-Menehould, Conde received +half a million of livres, and his followers received payments +proportionate to the evil they had done. + +But this compromise succeeded no better than previous compromises. Even +if the nobles had wished to remain quiet, they could not. Their lordship +over a servile class made them independent of all ordinary labor and of +all care arising from labor; some exercise of mind and body they must +have; Conde soon took this needed exercise by attempting to seize the +city of Poitiers, and, when the burgesses were too strong for him, by +ravaging the neighboring country. The other nobles broke the compromise +in ways wonderfully numerous and ingenious. France was again filled with +misery. + +Dull as Regent Mary was, she now saw that she must call that dreaded +States-General, or lose not only the nobles, but the people: undecided +as she was, she soon saw that she must do it at once,--that, if she +delayed it, her great nobles would raise the cry for it, again and +again, just as often as they wished to extort office or money. +Accordingly, on the fourteenth of October, 1614, she summoned the +deputies of the three estates to Paris, and then the storm set in. + +Each of the three orders presented its "portfolio of grievances" and its +programme of reforms. It might seem, to one who has not noted closely +the spirit which serf-mastering thrusts into a man, that the nobles +would appear in the States-General not to make complaints, but to answer +complaints. So it was not. The noble order, with due form, entered +complaint that theirs was the injured order. They asked relief from +familiarities and assumptions of equality on the part of the people. +Said the Baron de Senece, "It is a great piece of insolence to pretend +to establish any sort of equality between the people and the nobility": +other nobles declared, "There is between them and us as much difference +as between master and lackey." + +To match these complaints and theories, the nobles made +demands,--demands that commoners should not be allowed to keep +fire-arms,--nor to possess dogs, unless the dogs were hamstrung,--nor to +clothe themselves like the nobles,--nor to clothe their wives like the +wives of nobles,--nor to wear velvet or satin under a penalty of five +thousand livres. And, preposterous as such claims may seem to us, they +carried them into practice. A deputy of the Third Estate having been +severely beaten by a noble, his demands for redress were treated as +absurd. One of the orators of the lower order having spoken of the +French as forming one great family in which the nobles were the elder +brothers and the commoners the younger, the nobles made a formal +complaint to the King, charging the Third Estate with insolence +insufferable. + +Next came the complaints and demands of the clergy. They insisted on +the adoption in France of the Decrees of the Council of Trent, and the +destruction of the liberties of the Gallican Church. + +But far stronger than these came the voice of the people. + +First spoke Montaigne, denouncing the grasping spirit of the nobles. +Then spoke Savaron, stinging them with sarcasm, torturing them with +rhetoric, crushing them with statements of facts. + +But chief among the speakers was the President of the Third Estate, +Robert Miron, Provost of the Merchants of Paris. His speech, though +spoken across the great abyss of time and space and thought and custom +which separates him from us, warms a true man's heart even now. With +touching fidelity he pictured the sad life of the lower orders,--their +thankless toil, their constant misery; then, with a sturdiness which +awes us, he arraigned, first, royalty for its crushing taxation,--next, +the whole upper class for its oppressions,--and then, daring death, he +thus launched into popular thought an _idea_:-- + +"It is nothing less than a miracle that the people are able to answer so +many demands. On the labor of _their_ hands depends the maintenance +of Your Majesty, of the clergy, of the nobility, of the commons. What +without _their_ exertions would be the value of the tithes and great +possessions of the Church, of the splendid estates of the nobility, +or of our own house-rents and inheritances? With their bones scarcely +skinned over, your wretched people present themselves before you, beaten +down and helpless, with the aspect rather of death itself than of living +men, imploring your succor in the name of Him who has appointed you to +reign over them,--who made you a man, that you might be merciful to +other men,--and who made you the father of your subjects, that you might +be compassionate to these your helpless children. If Your Majesty shall +not take means for that end, _I fear lest despair should teach the +sufferers that a soldier is, after all, nothing more than a peasant +bearing arms; and lest, when the vine-dresser shall have taken up his +arquebuse, he should cease to become an anvil only that he may become a +hammer."_ + +After this the Third Estate demanded the convocation of a general +assembly every ten years, a more just distribution of taxes, equality +of all before the law, the suppression of interior custom-houses, the +abolition of sundry sinecures held by nobles, the forbidding to leading +nobles of unauthorized levies of soldiery, some stipulations regarding +the working clergy and the non-residence of bishops; and in the midst of +all these demands, as a golden grain amid husks, they placed a demand +for the emancipation of the serfs. + +But these demands were sneered at. The idea of the natural equality in +rights of all men,--the idea of the personal worth of every man,--the +idea that rough-clad workers have prerogatives which can be whipped out +by no smooth-clad idlers,--these ideas were as far beyond serf-owners +of those days as they are beyond slave-owners of these days. Nothing was +done. Augustin Thierry is authority for the statement that the clergy +were willing to yield something. The nobles would yield nothing. The +different orders quarrelled until one March morning in 1615, when, on +going to their hall, they were barred out and told that the workmen were +fitting the place for a Court ball. And so the deputies separated,--to +all appearance no new work done, no new ideas enforced, no strong men +set loose. + +So it was in seeming,--so it was not in reality. Something had been +done. That assembly planted ideas in the French mind which struck more +and more deeply, and spread more and more widely, until, after a century +and a half, the Third Estate met again and refused to present petitions +kneeling,--and when king and nobles put on their hats, the commons put +on theirs,--and when that old brilliant stroke was again made, and the +hall was closed and filled with busy carpenters and upholsterers, the +deputies of the people swore that great tennis-court oath which blasted +French tyranny. + +But something great was done _immediately_; to that suffering nation a +great man was revealed. For, when the clergy pressed their requests, +they chose as their orator a young man only twenty-nine years of age, +the Bishop of Lucon, ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU. + +He spoke well. His thoughts were clear, his words pointed, his bearing +firm. He had been bred a soldier, and so had strengthened his will; +afterwards he had been made a scholar, and so had strengthened his mind. +He grappled with the problems given him in that stormy assembly with +such force that he seemed about to _do_ something; but just then came +that day of the Court ball, and Richelieu turned away like the rest. + +But men had seen him and heard him. Forget him they could not. From that +tremendous farce, then, France had gained directly one thing at least, +and that was a sight at Richelieu. + +The year after the States-General wore away in the old vile fashion. +Conde revolted again, and this time he managed to scare the Protestants +into revolt with him. The daring of the nobles was greater than ever. +They even attacked the young King's train as he journeyed to Bordeaux, +and another compromise had to be wearily built in the Treaty of Loudun. +By this Conde was again bought off,--but this time only by a bribe of +a million and a half of livres. The other nobles were also paid +enormously, and, on making a reckoning, it was found that this +compromise had cost the King four millions, and the country twenty +millions. The nation had also to give into the hands of the nobles some +of its richest cities and strongest fortresses. + +Immediately after this compromise, Conde returned to Paris, loud, +strong, jubilant, defiant, bearing himself like a king. Soon he and his +revolted again; but just at that moment Concini happened to remember +Richelieu. The young bishop was called and set at work. + +Richelieu grasped the rebellion at once. In broad daylight he seized +Conde and shut him up in the Bastille; other noble leaders he declared +guilty of treason, and degraded them; he set forth the crimes and +follies of the nobles in a manifesto which stung their cause to death in +a moment; he published his policy in a proclamation which ran through +France like fire, warming all hearts of patriots, withering all hearts +of rebels; he sent out three great armies: one northward to grasp +Picardy, one eastward to grasp Champagne, one southward to grasp Berri. +There is a man who can _do_ something! The nobles yield in a moment: +they _must_ yield. + +But, just at this moment, when a better day seemed to dawn, came an +event which threw France back into anarchy, and Richelieu out into the +world again. + +The young King, Louis XIII., was now sixteen years old. His mother the +Regent and her favorite Concini had carefully kept him down. Under their +treatment he had grown morose and seemingly stupid; but he had wit +enough to understand the policy of his mother and Concini, and strength +enough to hate them for it. + +The only human being to whom Louis showed any love was a young falconer, +Albert de Luynes,--and with De Luynes he conspired against his mother's +power and her favorite's life. On an April morning, 1617, the King and +De Luynes sent a party of chosen men to seize Concini. They met him at +the gate of the Louvre. As usual, he is bird-like in his utterance, +snake-like in his bearing. They order him to surrender; he chirps forth +his surprise,--and they blow out his brains. Louis, understanding the +noise, puts on his sword, appears on the balcony of the palace, is +saluted with hurrahs, and becomes master of his kingdom. + +Straightway measures are taken against all supposed to be attached +to the Regency. Concini's wife, the favorite Leonora, is burned as a +witch,--Regent Mary is sent to Blois,--Richelieu is banished to his +bishopric. + +And now matters went from bad to worse. King Louis was no stronger +than Regent Mary had been,--King's favorite Luynes was no better than +Regent's favorite Concini had been. The nobles rebelled against the new +rule, as they had rebelled against the old. The King went through the +same old extortions and humiliations. + +Then came also to full development yet another vast evil. As far back +as the year after Henry's assassination, the Protestants, in terror of +their enemies, now that Henry was gone and the Spaniards seemed to grow +in favor, formed themselves into a great republican league,--a State +within the State,--regularly organised in peace for political effort, +and in war for military effort,--with a Protestant clerical caste which +ruled always with pride, and often with menace. + +Against such a theocratic republic war must come sooner or later, and in +1617 the struggle began. Army was pitted against army,--Protestant Duke +of Rohan against Catholic Duke of Luynes. Meanwhile Austria and the +foreign enemies of France, Conde and the domestic enemies of France, +fished in the troubled waters, and made rich gains every day. So France +plunged into sorrows ever deeper and blacker. But in 1624, Mary +de Medici, having been reconciled to her son, urged him to recall +Richelieu. + +The dislike which Louis bore Richelieu was strong, but the dislike he +bore toward compromises had become stronger. Into his poor brain, at +last, began to gleam the truth, that a serf-mastering caste, after a +compromise, only whines more steadily and snarls more loudly,--that, at +last, compromising becomes worse than fighting. Richelieu was called and +set at work. + +Fortunately for our studies of the great statesman's policy, he left at +his death a "Political Testament" which floods with light his steadiest +aims and boldest acts. In that Testament he wrote this message:-- + + "When Your Majesty resolved to give + me entrance into your councils and a + great share of your confidence, I can declare + with truth that the Huguenots divided + the authority with Your Majesty, that + the great nobles acted not at all as subjects, + that the governors of provinces took + on themselves the airs of sovereigns, and + that the foreign alliances of France were + despised. I promised Your Majesty to + use all my industry, and all the authority + you gave me, to ruin the Huguenot party, + to abase the pride of the high nobles, + and to raise your name among foreign + nations to the place where it ought to + be." + +Such were the plans of Richelieu at the outset. Let us see how he +wrought out their fulfilment. + +First of all, he performed daring surgery and cautery about the very +heart of the Court. In a short time he had cut out from that living +centre of French power a number of unworthy ministers and favorites, and +replaced them by men, on whom he could rely. + +Then he began his vast work. His policy embraced three great objects: +First, the overthrow of the Huguenot power; secondly, the subjugation +of the great nobles; thirdly, the destruction of the undue might of +Austria. + +First, then, after some preliminary negotiations with foreign +powers,--to be studied hereafter,--he attacked the great +politico-religious party of the Huguenots. + +These held, as their great centre and stronghold, the famous seaport of +La Rochelle. He who but glances at the map shall see how strong was this +position: he shall see two islands lying just off the west coast at that +point, controlled by La Rochelle, yet affording to any foreign allies +whom the Huguenots might admit there facilities for stinging France +during centuries. The position of the Huguenots seemed impregnable. The +city was well fortressed,--garrisoned by the bravest of men,--mistress +of a noble harbor open at all times to supplies from foreign ports,--and +in that harbor rode a fleet, belonging to the city, greater than the +navy of France. + +Richelieu saw well that here was the head of the rebellion. Here, then, +he must strike it. + +Strange as it may seem, his diplomacy was so skillful that he obtained +ships to attack Protestants in La Rochelle from the two great Protestant +powers,--England and Holland. With these he was successful. He attacked +the city fleet, ruined it, and cleared the harbor. + +But now came a terrible check. Richelieu had aroused the hate of that +incarnation of all that was and Is offensive in English politics,--the +Duke of Buckingham. Scandal-mongers were wont to say that both were in +love with the Queen,--and that the Cardinal, though unsuccessful in his +suit, outwitted the Duke and sent him out of the kingdom,--and that the +Duke swore a great oath, that, if he could not enter France in one way, +he would enter in another,--and that he brought about a war, and came +himself as a commander: of this scandal believe what you will. But, be +the causes what they may, the English policy changed, and Charles I. +sent Buckingham with ninety ships to aid La Rochelle. + +But Buckingham was flippant and careless; Richelieu, careful when there +was need, and daring when there was need. Buckingham's heavy blows +were foiled by Richelieu's keen thrusts, and then, in his confusion, +Buckingham blundered so foolishly, and Richelieu profited by his +blunders so shrewdly, that the fleet returned to England without any +accomplishment of its purpose. The English were also driven from that +vexing position in the Isle of Rhe. + +Having thus sent the English home, for a time at least, he led king and +nobles and armies to La Rochelle, and commenced the siege in full force. +Difficulties met him at every turn; but the worst difficulty of all was +that arising from the spirit of the nobility. + +No one could charge the nobles of France with lack of bravery. The only +charge was, that their bravery was almost sure to shun every useful +form, and to take every noxious form. The bravery which finds outlet +in duels they showed constantly; the bravery which finds outlet in +street-fights they had shown from the days when the Duke of Orleans +perished in a brawl to the days when the _"Mignons"_ of Henry III. +fought at sight every noble whose beard was not cut to suit them. The +pride fostered by lording it over serfs, in the country, and by lording +it over men who did not own serfs, in the capital, aroused bravery of +this sort and plenty of it. But that bravery which serves a great, good +cause, which must be backed by steadiness and watchfulness, was not so +plentiful. So Richelieu found that the nobles who had conducted the +siege before he took command had, through their brawling propensities +and lazy propensities, allowed the besieged to garner in the crops from +the surrounding country, and to master all the best points of attack. + +But Richelieu pressed on. First he built an immense wall and earthwork, +nine miles long, surrounding the city, and, to protect this, he raised +eleven great forts and eighteen redoubts. + +Still the harbor was open, and into this the English fleet might return +and succor the city at any time. His plan was soon made. In the midst of +that great harbor of La Rochelle he sank sixty hulks of vessels filled +with stone; then, across the harbor,--nearly a mile wide, and, in +places, more than eight hundred feet deep,--he began building over these +sunken ships a great dike and wall,--thoroughly fortified, carefully +engineered, faced with sloping layers of hewn stone. His own men scolded +at the magnitude of the work,--the men in La Rochelle laughed at +it. Worse than that, the Ocean sometimes laughed and scolded at it. +Sometimes the waves sweeping in from that fierce Bay of Biscay destroyed +in an hour the work of a week. The carelessness of a subordinate once +destroyed in a moment the work of three months. + +Yet it is but fair to admit that there was one storm which did not beat +against Richelieu's dike. There set in against it no storm of hypocrisy +from neighboring nations. Keen works for and against Richelieu were put +forth in his day,--works calm and strong for and against him have been +issuing from the presses of France and England and Germany ever since; +but not one of the old school of keen writers or of the new school of +calm writers is known to have ever hinted that this complete sealing of +the only entrance to a leading European harbor was unjust to the world +at large or unfair to the besieged themselves. + +But all other obstacles Richelieu had to break through or cut through +constantly. He was his own engineer, general, admiral, prime-minister. +While he urged on the army to work upon the dike, he organized a French +navy, and in due time brought it around to that coast and anchored it so +as to guard the dike and to be guarded by it. + +Yet, daring as all this work was, it was but the smallest part of his +work. Richelieu found that his officers were cheating his soldiers +in their pay and disheartening them; in face of the enemy he had to +reorganize the army and to create a new military system. He made the +army twice as effective and supported it at two-thirds less cost than +before. It was his boast in his "Testament," that, from a mob, the +army became "like a well-ordered convent." He found also that his +subordinates were plundering the surrounding country, and thus rendering +it disaffected; he at once ordered that what had been taken should be +paid for, and that persons trespassing thereafter should be severely +punished. He found also the great nobles who commanded in the army +half-hearted and almost traitorous from sympathy with those of their own +caste on the other side of the walls of La Rochelle, and from their fear +of his increased power, should he gain a victory. It was their common +saying, that they were fools to help him do it. But he saw the true +point at once--He placed in the most responsible positions of his army +men who felt for his cause, whose hearts and souls were in it,--men not +of the Dalgetty stamp, but of the Cromwell stamp. He found also, as he +afterward said, that he had to conquer not only the Kings of England and +Spain, but also the King of France. At the most critical moment of the +siege Louis deserted him,--went back to Paris,--allowed courtiers to +fill him with suspicions. Not only Richelieu's place, but his life, +was in danger, and he well knew it; yet he never left his dike and +siege-works, but wrought on steadily until they were done; and then the +King, of his own will, in very shame, broke away from his courtiers, and +went back to his master. + +And now a Royal Herald summoned the people of La Rochelle to surrender. +But they were not yet half conquered. Even when they had seen two +English fleets, sent to aid them, driven back from Richelieu's dike, +they still held out manfully. The Duchess of Rohan, the Mayor Guiton, +and the Minister Salbert, by noble sacrifices and burning words, kept +the will of the besieged firm as steel. They were reduced to feed on +their horses,--then on bits of filthy shell-fish,--then on stewed +leather. They died in multitudes. + +Guiton the Mayor kept a dagger on the city council-table to stab any man +who should speak of surrender; some who spoke of yielding he ordered +to execution as seditious. When a friend showed him a person dying of +hunger, be said, "Does that astonish you? Both you and I must come to +that." When another told him that multitudes were perishing, he said, +"Provided one remains to hold the city-gate, I ask nothing more." + +But at last even Guiton had to yield. After the siege had lasted more +than a year, after five thousand were found remaining out of fifteen +thousand, after a mother had been seen to feed her child with her own +blood, the Cardinal's policy became too strong for him. The people +yielded, and Richelieu entered the city as master. + +And now the victorious statesman showed a greatness of soul to which all +the rest of his life was as nothing. He was a Catholic cardinal,--the +Rochellois were Protestants; he was a stern ruler,--they were +rebellious subjects who had long worried and almost impoverished +him;--all Europe, therefore, looked for a retribution more terrible than +any in history. + +Richelieu allowed nothing of the sort. He destroyed the old franchises +of the city, for they were incompatible with that royal authority +which he so earnestly strove to build. But this was all. He took no +vengeance,--he allowed the Protestants to worship as before,--he took +many of them into the public service,--and to Guiton he showed marks of +respect. He stretched forth that strong arm of his over the city, and +warded off all harm. He kept back greedy soldiers from pillage,--he kept +back bigot priests from persecution. Years before this he had said, "The +diversity of religions may indeed create a division in the other world, +but not in this"; at another time he wrote, "Violent remedies only +aggravate spiritual diseases." And he was now so tested, that these +expressions were found to embody not merely an idea, but a belief. For, +when the Protestants in La Rochelle, though thug owing tolerance +and even existence to a Catholic, vexed Catholics in a spirit most +intolerant, even that could not force him to abridge the religious +liberties he had given. + +He saw beyond his time,--not only beyond Catholics, but beyond +Protestants. Two years after that great example of toleration in La +Rochelle, Nicholas Antoine w as executed for apostasy from Calvinism at +Geneva. And for his leniency Richelieu received the titles of Pope of +the Protestants and Patriarch of the Atheists. But he had gained the +first great object of his policy, and he would not abuse it: he had +crushed the political power of the Huguenots forever. + +Let us turn now to the second great object of his policy. He must break +the power of the nobility: on that condition alone could France have +strength and order, and here he showed his daring at the outset. "It is +iniquitous," he was wont to tell the King, "to try to make an example by +punishing the lesser offenders: they are but trees which cast no shade: +it is the great nobles who must be disciplined." + +It was not long before he had to begin this work,--and with +the highest,--with no less a personage than Gaston, Duke of +Orleans,--favorite son of Mary,--brother of the King. He who thinks +shall come to a higher idea of Richelieu's boldness, when he remembers +that for many years after this Louis was childless and sickly, and +that during all those years Richelieu might awake any morning to find +Gaston--King. + +In 1626, Gaston, with the Duke of Vendome, half-brother of the King, the +Duchess of Chevreuse, confidential friend of the Queen, the Count +of Soissons, the Count of Chalais, and the Marshal Ornano, formed a +conspiracy after the old fashion. Richelieu had his hand at their lofty +throats in a moment. Gaston, who was used only as a makeweight, he +forced into the most humble apologies and the most binding pledges; +Ornano he sent to die in the Bastille; the Duke of Vendome and the +Duchess of Chevreuse he banished; Chalais he sent to the scaffold. + +The next year he gave the grandees another lesson. The serf-owning +spirit had fostered in France, through many years, a rage for duelling. +Richelieu determined that this should stop. He gave notice that the law +against duelling was revived, and that he would enforce it. It was +soon broken by two of the loftiest nobles in France,--by the Count of +Bouteville-Montmorency and the Count des Chapelles. They laughed at the +law: they fought defiantly in broad daylight. Nobody dreamed that the +law would be carried out against _them_. The Cardinal would, they +thought, deal with them as rulers have dealt with serf-mastering +law-breakers from those days to these,--invent some quibble and screen +them with it. But his method was sharper and shorter. He seized both, +and executed both on the Place de Greve,--the place of execution for the +vilest malefactors. + +No doubt, that, under the present domineering of the pettifogger caste, +there are hosts of men whose minds run in such small old grooves that +they hold legal forms not a means, but an end: these will cry out +against this proceeding as tyrannical. No doubt, too, that, under the +present palaver of the "sensationist" caste, the old ladies of both +sexes have come to regard crime as mere misfortune: these will lament +this proceeding as cruel. But, for this act, if for no other, an earnest +man's heart ought in these times to warm toward the great statesman. The +man had a spine. To his mind crime was cot mere misfortune: crime was +CRIME. Crime was strong; it would pay him well to screen it; it might +cost him dear to fight it. But he was not a modern "smart" lawyer, to +seek popularity by screening criminals,--nor a modern soft juryman, +to suffer his eyes to be blinded by quirks and quibbles to the great +purposes of law,--nor a modern bland governor, who lets a murderer loose +out of politeness to the murderer's mistress. He hated crime; he whipped +the criminal; no petty forms and no petty men of forms could stand +between him and a rascal. He had the sense to see that this course was +not cruel, but merciful. See that for yourselves. In the eighteen years +before Richelieu's administration, four thousand men perished in duels; +in the ten years after Richelieu's death, nearly a thousand thus +perished; but during his whole administration, duelling was checked +completely. Which policy was tyrannical? which policy was cruel? + +The hatred of the serf-mastering caste toward their new ruler grew +blacker and blacker; but he never flinched. The two brothers Marillac, +proud of birth, high in office, endeavored to stir revolt as in their +good days of old. The first, who was Keeper of the Seals, Richelieu +threw into prison; with the second, who was a Marshal of France, +Richelieu took another course. For this Marshal had added to revolt +things more vile and more insidiously hurtful: he had defrauded the +Government in army-contracts. Richelieu tore him from his army and +put him on trial. The Queen-Mother, whose pet he was, insisted on his +liberation. Marillac himself blubbered, that it "was all about a little +straw and hay, a matter for which a master would not whip a lackey." +Marshal Marillac was executed. So, when statesmen rule, fare all who +take advantage of the agonies of a nation to pilfer a nation's treasure. + +To crown all, the Queen-Mother began now to plot against Richelieu, +because he would not be her puppet,--and he banished her from France +forever. + +The high nobles were now exasperate. Gaston tied the country, first +issuing against Richelieu a threatening manifesto. Now awoke the Duke +of Montmorency. By birth he stood next the King's family: by office, as +Constable of France, he stood next the King himself. Montmorency was +defeated and taken. The nobles supplicated for him lustily: they looked +on crimes of nobles resulting in deaths of plebeians as lightly as the +English House of Lords afterward looked on Lord Mohun's murder of Will +Mountfort, or as another body of lords looked on Matt Ward's murder of +Professor Butler: but Montmorency was executed. Says Richelieu, in his +Memoirs, "Many murmured at this act, and called it severe; but others, +more wise, praised the justice of the King, _who preferred the good of +the State to the vain reputation of a hurtful clemency._" + +Nor did the great minister grow indolent as he grew old. The Duke of +Epernon, who seems to have had more direct power of the old feudal sort +than any other man in France, and who had been so turbulent under the +Regency,--him Richelieu humbled completely. The Duke of La Valette +disobeyed orders in the army, and he was executed as a common soldier +would have been for the same offence. The Count of Soissons tried to see +if he could not revive the good old turbulent times, and raised a rebel +army; but Richelieu hunted him down like a wild beast. Then certain +Court nobles,--pets of the King,--Cinq-Mars and De Thou, wove a new +plot, and, to strengthen it, made a secret treaty with Spain; but the +Cardinal, though dying, obtained a copy of the treaty, through his +agent, and the traitors expiated their treason with their blood. + +But this was not all. The Parliament of Paris,--a court of +justice,--filled with the idea that law is not a means, but an end, +tried to interpose _forms_ between the Master of France and the vermin +he was exterminating. That Parisian court might, years before, have done +something. They might have insisted that petty quibbles set forth by the +lawyers of Paris should not defeat the eternal laws of retribution set +forth by the Lawgiver of the Universe. That they had not done, and the +time for legal forms had gone by. The Paris Parliament would not see +this, and Richelieu crushed the Parliament. Then the Court of Aids +refused to grant supplies, and he crushed that court. In all this the +nation braced him. Woe to the courts of a nation, when they have forced +the great body of plain men to regard legality as injustice!--woe to the +councils of a nation, when they have forced the great body of plain men +to regard legislation as traffic!--woe, thrice repeated, to gentlemen of +the small pettifogger sort, when they have brought such times, and God +has brought a man to fit them! + +There was now in France no man who could stand against the statesman's +purpose. + +And so, having hewn, through all that anarchy and bigotry and +selfishness, a way for the people, he called them to the work. In 1626 +he summoned an assembly to carry out reforms. It was essentially a +people's assembly. That anarchical States-General, domineered by great +nobles, he would not call; but he called an Assembly of Notables. In +this was not one prince or duke, and two-thirds of the members came +directly from the people. Into this body he thrust some of his own +energy. Measures were taken for the creation of a navy. An idea was now +carried into effect which many suppose to have sprung from the French +Revolution; for the army was made more effective by opening its high +grades to the commons.[A] A reform was also made in taxation, and shrewd +measures were taken to spread commerce and industry by calling the +nobility into them. + +[Footnote A: See the ordonnances in Thierry, Histoire du Tiers Etat.] + +Thus did France, under his guidance, secure order and progress. Calmly +he destroyed all useless feudal castles which had so long overawed the +people and defied the monarchy. He abolished also the military titles of +Grand Admiral and High Constable, which had hitherto given the army +and navy into the hands of leading noble families. He destroyed some +troublesome remnants of feudal courts, and created royal courts: in one +year that of Poitiers alone punished for exactions and violence against +the people more than two hundred nobles. Greatest step of all, he +deposed the hereditary noble governors, and placed in their stead +governors taken from the people,--_Intendants,_--responsible to the +central authority alone.[B] + +[Footnote B: For the best sketch of this see Caillet, _L'Administration +sous Richelieu._] + +We are brought now to the _third_ great object of Richelieu's policy. +He saw from the beginning that Austria and her satellite Spain must be +humbled, if France was to take her rightful place in Europe. + +Hardly, then, had he entered the council, when he negotiated a marriage +of the King's sister with the son of James I. of England; next he signed +an alliance with Holland; next he sent ten thousand soldiers to drive +the troops of the Pope and Spain out of the Valtelline district of the +Alps, and thus secured an alliance with the Swiss. We are to note here +the fact which Buckle wields so well, that, though Richelieu was a +Cardinal of the Roman Church, all these alliances were with Protestant +powers against Catholic.[C] Austria and Spain intrigued against +him,--sowing money in the mountain-districts of South France which +brought forth those crops of armed men who defended La Rochelle. But he +beat them at their own game. He set loose Count Mansfyld, who revived +the Thirty Tears' War by raising a rebellion in Bohemia; and when one +great man, Wallenstein, stood between Austria and ruin, Richelieu sent +his monkish diplomatist, Father Joseph, to the German Assembly of +Electors, and persuaded them to dismiss Wallenstein and to disgrace him. + +[Footnote C: History of Civilisation in England, Vol. I. Chap. VIII.] + +But the great Frenchman's master-stroke was his treaty with Gustavus +Adolphus. With that keen glance of his, he saw and knew Gustavus while +yet the world knew him not,--while he was battling afar off in the wilds +of Poland. Richelieu's plan was formed at once. He brought about a +treaty between Gustavus and Poland; then he filled Gustavus's mind with +pictures of the wrongs inflicted by Austria on German Protestants, +hinted to him probably of a new realm, filled his treasury, and finally +hurled against Austria the man who destroyed Tilly, who conquered +Wallenstein, who annihilated Austrian supremacy at the Battle of Lueizen, +who, though in his grave, wrenched Protestant rights from Austria at the +Treaty of Westphalia, who pierced the Austrian monarchy with the most +terrible sorrows it ever saw before the time of Napoleon. + +To the main objects of Richelieu's policy already given might be added +two subordinate objects. + +The first of these was a healthful extension of French territory. In +this Richelieu planned better than the first Napoleon; for, while he did +much to carry France out to her natural boundaries, he kept her always +within them. On the South he added Roussillon, on the East, Alsace, on +the Northeast, Artois. + +The second subordinate object of his policy sometimes flashed forth +brilliantly. He was determined that England should never again interfere +on French soil. We have seen him driving the English from La Rochelle +and from the Isle of Rhe; but he went farther. In 1628, on making some +proposals to England, he was repulsed with English haughtiness. +"They shall know," said the Cardinal, "that they cannot despise me." +Straightway one sees protests and revolts of the Presbyterians of +Scotland, and Richelieu's agents in the thickest of them. + +And now what was Richelieu's statesmanship in its sum? + +I. In the Political Progress of France, his work has already been +sketched as building monarchy and breaking anarchy. + +Therefore have men said that he swept away old French liberties. What +old liberties? Richelieu but tore away the decaying, poisonous husks +and rinds which hindered French liberties from their chance at life and +growth. + +Therefore, also, have men said that Richelieu built up absolutism. The +charge is true and welcome. For, evidently, absolutism was the only +force, in that age, which could destroy the serf-mastering caste. Many a +Polish patriot, as he to-day wanders through the Polish villages, groans +that absolutism was not built to crush that serf-owning aristocracy +which has been the real architect of Poland's ruin. Any one who reads to +much purpose in De Mably, or Guizot, or Henri Martin, knows that this +part of Richelieu's statesmanship was but a masterful continuation of +all great French statesmanship since the twelfth-century league of king +and commons against nobles, and that Richelieu stood in the heirship of +all great French statesmen since Suger. That part of Richelieu's work, +then, was evidently bedded in the great line of Divine Purpose running +through that age and through all ages. + +II. In the _Internal Development of France_, Richelieu proved himself a +true builder. The founding of the French Academy and of the Jardin des +Plantes, the building of the College of Plessis, and the rebuilding of +the College of the Sorbonne, are among the monuments of this part of his +statesmanship. His, also, is much of that praise usually lavished on +Louis XIV. for the career opened in the seventeenth century to science, +literature, and art. He was also a reformer, and his zeal was proved, +when, in the fiercest of the La Rochelle struggle, he found time to +institute great reforms not only in the army and navy, but even in the +monasteries. + +III. On the _General Progress of Europe_, his work must be judged as +mainly for good. Austria was the chief barrier to European progress, and +that barrier he broke. But a far greater impulse to the general progress +of Europe was given by the idea of Toleration which he thrust into the +methods of European statesmen. He, first of all statesmen in France, +saw, that, in French policy, to use his own words, "A Protestant +Frenchman is better than a Catholic Spaniard"; and he, first of all +statesmen in Europe, saw, that, in European policy, patriotism, must +outweigh bigotry. + +IV. His _Faults in Method_ were many. His under-estimate of the +sacredness of human life was one; but that was the fault of his age. +His frequent working by intrigue was another; but that also was a vile +method accepted by his age. The fair questions, then, are,--Did he not +commit the fewest and smallest wrongs possible in beating back those +many and great wrongs? Wrong has often a quick, spasmodic force; but was +there not in _his_ arm a steady growing force, which could only be a +force of right? + +V. His _Faults in Policy_ crystallized about one: for, while he subdued +the serf-mastering nobility, he struck no final blow at the serf-system +itself. + +Our running readers of French history need here a word of caution. They +follow De Tocqueville, and De Tocqueville follows Biot in speaking of +the serf-system as abolished in most of France hundreds of years before +this. But Biot and De Tocqueville take for granted a knowledge in their +readers that the essential vileness of the system, and even many of its +most shocking outward features, remained. + +Richelieu might have crushed the serf-system, really, as easily as Louis +X. and Philip the Long had crushed it nominally. This Richelieu did not. + +And the consequences of this great man's great fault were terrible. +Hardly was he in his grave, when the nobles perverted the effort of +the Paris Parliament for advance in liberty, and took the lead in the +fearful revolts and massacres of the Fronde. Then came Richelieu's +pupil, Mazarin, who tricked the nobles into order, and Mazarin's pupil, +Louis XIV., who bribed them into order. But a nobility borne on high by +the labor of a servile class must despise labor; so there came those +weary years of indolent gambling and debauchery and "serf-eating" at +Versailles. + +Then came Louis XV., who was too feeble to maintain even the poor decent +restraints imposed by Louis XIV.; so the serf-mastering caste became +active in a new way, and their leaders in vileness unutterable became at +last Fronsac and De Sade. + +Then came "the deluge." The spirit of the serf-mastering caste, as left +by Richelieu, was a main cause of the miseries which brought on the +French Revolution. When the Third Estate brought up their "portfolio of +grievances," for one complaint against the exactions of the monarchy +there were fifty complaints against the exactions of the nobility.[D] + +[Footnote D: See any _Resume des Cahiers_,--even the meagre ones in +Buchez and Roux, or Le Bas, or Cheruel.] + +Then came the failure of the Revolution in its direct purpose; and of +this failure the serf-mastering caste was a main cause. For this caste, +hardened by ages of domineering over a servile class, despite fourth of +August renunciations, would not, could not, accept a position compatible +with freedom and order: so earnest men were maddened, and sought to tear +out this cancerous mass, with all its burning roots. + +But for Richelieu's great fault there is an excuse. His mind was +saturated with ideas of the impossibility of inducing freed peasants to +work,--the impossibility of making them citizens,--the impossibility, in +short, of making them _men_. To his view was not unrolled the rich newer +world-history, to show that a working class is most dangerous when +restricted,--that oppression is more dangerous to the oppressor than to +the oppressed,--that, if man will hew out paths to liberty, God will +hew out paths to prosperity. But Richelieu's fault teaches the world not +less than his virtues. + +At last, on the third of December, 1642, the great statesman lay upon +his death-bed. The death-hour is a great revealer of motives, and as +with weaker men, so with Richelieu. Light then shot over the secret of +his whole life's plan and work. + +He was told that he must die: he received the words with calmness. As +the Host, which he believed the veritable body of the Crucified, was +brought him, he said, "Behold my Judge before whom I must shortly +appear! I pray Him to condemn me, if I have ever had any other motive +than the cause of religion and my country." The confessor asked him if +he pardoned his enemies: he answered, "I have none but those of the +State." + +So passed from earth this strong man. Keen he was in sight, steady in +aim, strong in act. A true man,--not "non-committal," but wedded to a +great policy in the sight of all men: seen by earnest men of all times +to have marshalled against riot and bigotry and unreason divine forces +and purposes; seen by earnest men of these times to have taught the true +method of grasping desperate revolt, and of strangling that worst foe of +liberty and order in every age,--a serf-owning aristocracy. + + + + +UNDER THE SNOW. + + +The spring had tripped and lost her flowers, + The summer sauntered through the glades, +The wounded feet of autumn hours + Left ruddy footprints on the blades. + +And all the glories of the woods + Had flung their shadowy silence down,-- +When, wilder than the storm it broods, + She fled before the winter's frown. + +For _her_ sweet spring had lost its flowers, + She fell, and passion's tongues of flame +Ran reddening through the blushing bowers, + Now haggard as her naked shame. + +One secret thought her soul had screened, + When prying matrons sought her wrong, +And Blame stalked on, a mouthing fiend, + And mocked her as she fled along. + +And now she bore its weight aloof, + To hide it where one ghastly birch +Held up the rafters of the roof, + And grim old pine-trees formed a church. + +'Twas there her spring-time vows were sworn, + And there upon its frozen sod, +While wintry midnight reigned forlorn, + She knelt, and held her hands to God. + +The cautious creatures of the air + Looked out from many a secret place, +To see the embers of despair + Flush the gray ashes of her face. + +And where the last week's snow had caught + The gray beard of a cypress limb, +She heard the music of a thought + More sweet than her own childhood's hymn. + +For rising in that cadence low, + With "Now I lay me down to sleep," +Her mother rocked her to and fro, + And prayed the Lord her soul to keep. + +And still her prayer was humbly raised, + Held up in two cold hands to God, +That, white as some old pine-tree blazed, + Gleamed far o'er that dark frozen sod. + +The storm stole out beyond the wood, + She grew the vision of a cloud, +Her dark hair was a misty hood, + Her stark face shone as from a shroud. + +Still sped the wild storm's rustling feet + To martial music of the pines, +And to her cold heart's muffled beat + Wheeled grandly into solemn lines. + +And still, as if her secret's woe + No mortal words had ever found, +This dying sinner draped in snow + Held up her prayer without a sound. + +But when the holy angel bands + Saw this lone vigil, lowly kept, +They gathered from her frozen hands + The prayer thus folded, and they wept. + +Some snow-flakes--wiser than the rest-- + Soon faltered o'er a thing of clay, +First read this secret of her breast, + Then gently robed her where she lay. + +The dead dark hair, made white with snow, + A still stark face, two folded palms, +And (mothers, breathe her secret low!) + An unborn infant--asking alms. + +God kept her counsel; cold and mute + His steadfast mourners closed her eyes, +Her head-stone was an old tree's root, + Be mine to utter,--"Here she lies." + + + + +SLAVERY, IN ITS PRINCIPLES, DEVELOPMENT, AND EXPEDIENTS. + + +Within the memory of men still in the vigor of life, American Slavery +was considered by a vast majority of the North, and by a large minority +of the South, as an evil which should, at best, be tolerated, and not +a good which deserved to be extended and protected. A kind of +lazy acquiescence in it as a local matter, to be managed by local +legislation, was the feeling of the Free States. In both the Slave and +the Free States, the discussion of the essential principles on which +Slavery rests was confined to a few disappointed Nullifiers and a few +uncompromising Abolitionists, and we can recollect the time when Calhoun +and Garrison were both classed by practical statesmen of the South and +North in one category of pestilent "abstractionists." Negro Slavery +was considered simply as a fact; and general irritation among most +politicians of all sections was sure to follow any attempt to explore +the principles on which the fact reposed. That these principles had the +mischievous vitality which events have proved them to possess, few of +our wisest statesmen then dreamed, and we have drifted by degrees into +the present war without any clear perception of its animating causes. + +The future historian will trace the steps by which the subject of +Slavery was forced on the reluctant attention of the citizens of the +Free States, so that at last the most cautious conservative could not +ignore its intrusive presence, could not banish its reality from his +eyes, or its image from his mind. He will show why Slavery, disdaining +its old argument from expediency, challenged discussion on its +principles. He will explain the process by which it became discontented +with toleration within its old limits, and demanded the championship +or connivance of the National Government in a plan for its limitless +extension. He will indicate the means by which it corrupted the Southern +heart and Southern brain, so that at last the elemental principles of +morals and religion were boldly denied, and the people came to "believe +a lie." He will, not unnaturally, indulge in a little sarcasm, when +he comes to consider the occupation of Southern professors of ethics, +compelled by their position to scoff at the "rights" of man, and +Southern professors of theology, compelled by their position to teach +that Christ came into the world, not so much to save sinners, as to +enslave negroes. He will be forced to class these among the meanest +and most abject slaves that the planters owned. In treating of the +subserviency of the North, he will be constrained to write many a page +which will flush the cheeks of our descendants with indignation and +shame. He will show the method by which Slavery, after vitiating the +conscience and intelligence of the South, contrived to vitiate in part, +and for a time, the conscience and intelligence of the North. It will +be his ungrateful task to point to many instances of compliance and +concession on the part of able Northern statesmen which will deeply +affect their fame with posterity, though he will doubtless refuse to +adopt to the full the contemporary clamor against their motives. He will +understand, better than we, the amount of patriotism which entered +into their "concessions," and the amount of fraternal good-will which +prompted their fatal "compromises." But he will also declare that the +object of the Slave Power was not attained. Vacillating statesmen and +corrupt politicians it might address, the first through their fears, +the second through their interests; but the intrepid and incorruptible +"people" were but superficially affected. A few elections were gained, +but the victories were barren of results. From political defeat the free +people of the North came forth more earnest and more united than ever. + +The insolent pretensions of the Slavocracy were repudiated; its +political and ethical maxims were disowned; and after having stirred the +noblest impulses of the human heart by the spectacle of its tyranny, its +attempt to extend that tyranny only roused an insurrection of the human +understanding against the impudence of its logic. The historian can then +only say, that the Slave Power "seceded," being determined to form a +part of no government which it could not control. The present war is to +decide whether its real force corresponds to the political force it has +exerted heretofore in our affairs. + +That this war has been forced upon the Free States by the "aggressions" +of the Slave Power is so plain that no argument is necessary to sustain +the proposition. It is not so universally understood that the Slave +Power is aggressive by the necessities of the wretched system of labor +on which its existence is based. By a short exposition of the principles +of Slavery, and the expedients it has practised during the last twenty +or thirty years, we think that this proposition can be established. + +And first it must be always borne in mind, that Slavery, as a system, +is based on the most audacious, inhuman, and self-evident of lies,--the +assertion, namely, that property can be held in men. Property applies to +things. There is a meta-physical impossibility implied in the attempt to +extend its application to persons. It is possible, we admit, to ordain +by local law that four and four make ten, but such an exercise of +legislative wisdom could not overcome certain arithmetical prejudices +innate in our minds, or dethrone the stubborn eight from its accustomed +position in our thoughts. But you might as well ordain that four and +four make ten as ordain that a man has no right to himself, but can +properly be held as the chattel of another. Yet this arrogant falsehood +of property in men has been organized into a colossal institution. The +South calls it a "peculiar" institution; and herein perhaps consists +its peculiarity, that it is an absurdity which has lied itself into a +substantial form, and now argues its right to exist from the fact of its +existence. Doubtless, the fact that a thing exists proves that it has +its roots in human nature; but before we accept this as decisive of +its right to exist, it may be well to explore those qualities in human +nature, "peculiar" and perverse as itself, from which it derives +its poisonous vitality and strength. It is plain, we think, that an +institution embodying an essential falsity, which equally affronts the +common sense and the moral sense of mankind, and which, as respects +chronology, was as repugnant to the instincts of Homer as it is to the +instincts of Whittier, must have sprung from the unblessed union of +wilfulness and avarice, of avarice which knows no conscience, and of +wilfulness that tramples on reason; and the marks of this parentage, +the signs of these its boasted roots in human nature, are, we are +constrained to concede, visible in every stage of its growth, in every +argument for its existence, in every motive for its extension. + +It is not, perhaps, surprising that some of the advocates of Slavery do +not relish the analysis which reveals the origin of their institution +in those dispositions which connect man with the tiger and the wolf. +Accordingly they discourage, with true democratic humility, all +genealogical inquiries into the ancestry of their system, substitute +generalization for analysis, and, twisting the maxims of religion into +a philosophy of servitude, bear down all arguments with the sounding +proposition, that Slavery is included in the plan of God's providence, +and therefore cannot be wrong. Certain thinkers of our day have asserted +the universality of the religious element in human nature: and it must +be admitted that men become very pious when their minds are illuminated +by the discernment of a Providential sanction for their darling sins, +and by the discovery that God is on the side of their interests and +passions. Napoleon's religious perceptions were somewhat obtuse, as +tried by the standards of the Church, yet nothing could exceed the depth +of his belief that God "was with the heaviest column"; and the most +obdurate jobber in human flesh may well glow with apostolic fervor, as, +from the height of philosophic contemplation to which this principle +lifts him, he discerns the sublime import of his Providential mission. +It is true, he is now willing to concede, that a man's right to himself, +being given by God, can only by God be taken away. "But," he exultingly +exclaims, "it _has_ been taken away by God. The negro, having always +been a slave, must have been so by divine appointment; and I, the mark +of obloquy to a few fanatical enthusiasts, am really an humble agent in +carrying out the designs of a higher law even than that of the State, of +a higher will even than my own." This mode of baptizing man's sin and +calling it God's providence has not altogether lacked the aid of certain +Southern clergymen, who ostentatiously profess to preach Christ and Him +crucified, and by such arguments, we may fear, crucified _by them_. +Here is Slavery's abhorred riot of vices and crimes, from whose +soul-sickening details the human imagination shrinks aghast,--and over +all, to complete the picture, these theologians bring in the seraphic +countenance of the Saviour of mankind, smiling celestial approval of the +multitudinous miseries and infamies it serenely beholds! + +It may be presumptuous to proffer counsel to such authorized expositors +of religion, but one can hardly help insinuating the humble suggestion, +that it would be as well, if they must give up the principles of +liberty, not to throw Christianity in. We may be permitted to doubt the +theory of Providence which teaches that a man never so much serves God +as when he serves the Devil. Doubtless, Slavery, though opposed to God's +laws, is included in the plan of God's providence, but, in the long run, +the providence most terribly confirms the laws. The stream of events, +having its fountains in iniquity, has its end in retribution. It is +because God's laws are immutable that God's providence can be _foreseen_ +as well as seen. The mere fact that a thing exists, and persists in +existing, is of little importance in determining its right to exist, +or its eventual destiny. These must be found in an inspection of the +principles by which it exists; and from the nature of its principles, +we can predict its future history. The confidence of bad men and the +despair of good men proceed equally from a too fixed attention to the +facts and events before their eyes, to the exclusion of the principles +which underlie and animate them; for no insight of principles, and of +the moral laws which govern human events, could ever cause tyrants to +exult or philanthropists to despond. + +If we go farther into this question, we shall commonly find that the +facts and events to which we give the name of Providence are the acts +of human wills divinely overruled. There is iniquity and wrong in these +facts and events, because they are the work of free human wills. But +when these free human wills organize falsehood, institute injustice, and +establish oppression, they have passed into that mental state where +will has been perverted into wilfulness, and self-direction has been +exaggerated into self-worship. It is the essence of wilfulness that it +exalts the impulses of its pride above the intuitions of conscience +and intelligence, and puts force in the place of reason and right. The +person has thus emancipated himself from all restraints of a law higher +than his personality, and acts _from_ self, _for_ self, and in sole +obedience _to_ self. But this is personality in its Satanic form; yet it +is just here that some of our theologians have discovered in a person's +actions the purposes of Providence, and discerned the Divine intention +in the fact of guilt instead of in the certainty of retribution. +The tyrant element in man is found in this Satanic form of his +individuality. His will, self-released from restraint, preys upon and +crushes other wills. He asserts himself by enslaving others, and mimics +Divinity on the stilts of diabolism. Like the barbarian who thought +himself enriched by the powers and gifts of the enemy he slew, he +aggrandizes his own personality, and heightens his own sense of freedom, +through the subjection of feebler natures. Ruthless, rapacious, greedy +of power, greedy of gain, it is in Slavery that he wantons in all +the luxury of injustice, for it is here that he tastes the exquisite +pleasure of depriving others of that which he most values in himself. + +Thus, whether we examine this system in the light of conscience and +intelligence, or in the light of history and experience, we come to but +one result,--that it has its source and sustenance in Satanic energy, in +Satanic pride, and in Satanic greed. This is Slavery in itself, detached +from the ameliorations it may receive from individual slaveholders. +Now a bad system is not continued or extended by the virtues of any +individuals who are but partially corrupted by it, but by those who +work in the spirit and with the implements of its originators. Every +amelioration is a confession of the essential injustice of the thing +ameliorated, and a step towards its abolition; and the humane and +Christian slaveholders owe their safety, and the security of what they +are pleased to call their property, to the vices of the hard and stern +spirits whom they profess to abhor. If they invest in stock of the +Devil's corporation, they ought not to be severe on those who look out +that they punctually receive their dividends. The true slaveholder feels +that he is encamped among his slaves, that he holds them by the right of +conquest, that the relation is one of war, and that there is no crime he +may not be compelled to commit in self-defence. Disdaining all cant, +he clearly perceives that the system, in its practical working, must +conform to the principles on which it is based. He accordingly believes +in the lash and the fear of the lash. If he is cruel and brutal, it may +as often be from policy as from disposition, for brutality and cruelty +are the means by which weaker races are best kept "subordinated" to +stronger races; and the influence of his brutality and cruelty is felt +as restraint and terror on the plantation of his less resolute neighbor. +And when we speak of brutality and cruelty, we do not limit the +application of the words to those who scourge, but extend it to some of +those who preach,--who hold up heaven as the reward of those slaves who +are sufficiently abject on earth, and threaten damnation in the next +world to all who dare to assert their manhood in this. + +If, however, any one still doubts that this system develops itself +logically and naturally, and tramples down the resistance offered by the +better sentiments of human nature, let him look at the legislation which +defines and protects it,--a legislation which, as expressing the average +sense and purpose of the community, is to be quoted as conclusive +against the testimony of any of its individual members. This legislation +evinces the dominion of a malignant principle. You can hear the crack +of the whip and the clank of the chain in all its enactments. Yet these +laws, which cannot be read in any civilized country without mingled +horror and derision, indicate a mastery of the whole theory and practice +of oppression, are admirably adapted to the end they have in view, and +bear the unmistakable marks of being the work of practical men,--of men +who know their sin, and "knowing, dare maintain." They do not, it +is true, enrich the science of jurisprudence with any large or wise +additions, but we do not look for such luxuries as justice, reason, and +beneficence in ordinances devised to prop up iniquity, falsehood, and +tyranny. Ghastly caricatures of justice as these offshoots of Slavery +are, they are still dictated by the nature and necessities of the +system. They have the flavor of the rank soil whence they spring. + +If we desire any stronger evidence that slaveholders constitute a +general Slave Power, that this Slave Power acts as a unit, the unity of +a great interest impelled by powerful passions, and that the virtues of +individual slaveholders have little effect in checking the vices of the +system, we can find that evidence in the zeal and audacity with which +this power engaged in extending its dominion. Seemingly aggressive in +this, it was really acting on the defensive,--on the defensive, however, +not against the assaults of men, but against the immutable decrees of +God. The world is so constituted, that wrong and oppression are not, in +a large view, politic. They heavily mortgage the future, when they +glut the avarice of the present. The avenging Providence, which the +slaveholder cannot find in the New Testament, or in the teachings of +conscience, he is at last compelled to find in political economy; and +however indifferent to the Gospel according to Saint John, he must give +heed to the gospel according to Adam Smith and Malthus. He discovers, no +doubt to his surprise, and somewhat to his indignation, that there is an +intimate relation between industrial success and justice; and however +much, as a practical man, he may despise the abstract principles which +declare Slavery a nonsensical enormity, he cannot fail to read its +nature, when it slowly, but legibly, writes itself out in curses on the +land. He finds how true is the old proverb, that, "if God moves with +leaden feet, He strikes with iron hands." The law of Slavery is, that, +to be lucrative, it must have a scanty population diffused over large +areas. To limit it is therefore to doom it to come to an end by the laws +of population. To limit it is to force the planters, in the end, to free +their slaves, from an inability to support them, and to force the slaves +into more energy and intelligence in labor, in order that they may +subsist as freemen. People prattle about the necessity of compulsory +labor; but the true compulsory labor, the labor which has produced the +miracles of modern industry, is the labor to which a man is compelled by +the necessity of saving himself, and those who are dearer to him than +self, from ignominy and want. It was by this policy of territorial +limitation, that Henry Clay, before the annexation of Texas, declared +that Slavery must eventually expire. The way was gradual, it was +prudent, it was safe, it was distant, it was sure, it was according to +the nature of things. It would have been accepted, had there been any +general truth in the assertion that the slaveholders were honestly +desirous of reconverting, at any time, and on any practicable plan, +their chattels into men. But true to the malignant principles of their +system, they accepted the law of its existence, but determined to evade +the law of its extinction. As Slavery required large areas and scanty +population, large areas and scanty population it should at all times +have. New markets should be opened for the surplus slave-population; +to open new markets was to acquire new territory; and to acquire new +territory was to gain additional political strength. The expansive +tendencies of freedom would thus be checked by the tendencies no less +expansive of bondage. To acquire Texas was not merely to acquire an +additional Slave State, but it was to keep up a demand for slaves which +would prevent Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky from +becoming Free States. As soon as old soils were worn out, new soils were +to be ready to receive the curse; and where slave-labor ceased to be +profitable, slave-breeding was to take its place. + +This purpose was so diabolical, that, when first announced, it +was treated as a caprice of certain hot spirits, irritated by the +declamations of the Abolitionists. But it is idle to refer to transient +heat thoughts which bear all the signs of cool atrocity; and needless +to seek for the causes of actions in extraneous sources, when they +are plainly but steps in the development of principles already known. +Slave-breeding and Slavery-extension are necessities of the system. Like +Romulus and Remus, "they are both suckled from one wolf." + +But it was just here that the question became to the Free States a +practical question. There could be no "fanaticism" in meeting it at this +stage. What usually goes under the name of fanaticism is the habit of +uncompromising assault on a thing because its principles are absurd +or wicked; what usually goes under the name of common sense is the +disposition to assail it at that point where, in the development of its +principles, it has become immediately and pressingly dangerous. Now by +no sophistry could we of the Free States evade the responsibility of +being the extenders of Slavery, if we allowed Slavery to be extended. If +we did not oppose it from a sense of right, we were bound to oppose it +from a sense of decency. It may be said that we had nothing to do with +Slavery at the South; but we had something to do with rescuing the +national character from infamy, and unhappily we could not have anything +to do with rescuing the national character from infamy without having +something to do with Slavery at the South. The question with us was, +whether we would allow the whole force of the National Government to be +employed in upholding, extending, and perpetuating this detestable and +nonsensical enormity?--especially, whether we would be guilty of that +last and foulest atheism to free principles, the deliberate planting of +slave institutions on virgin soil? If this question had been put to +any despot of Europe,--we had almost said, to any despot of Asia,--his +answer would undoubtedly have been an indignant negative. Yet the South +confidently expected so to wheedle or bully us into dragging our common +sense through the mud and mire of momentary expedients, that we should +connive at the commission of this execrable crime! + +There can be no doubt, that, if the question had been fairly put to the +inhabitants of the Free States, their answer would have been at once +decisive for freedom. Even the strongest conservatives would have been +"Free-Soilers,"--not only those who are conservatives in virtue of +their prudence, moderation, sagacity, and temper, but prejudiced +conservatives, conservatives who are tolerant of all iniquity which is +decorous, inert, long-established, and disposed to die when its time +comes, conservatives as thorough in their hatred of change as Lamennais +himself. "What a noise," says Paul Louis Courier, "Lamennais would have +made on the day of creation, could he have witnessed it. His first cry +to the Divinity would have been to respect that ancient chaos." But even +to conservatives of this class, the attempt to extend Slavery, though +really in the order of its natural development, must still have appeared +a monstrous innovation, and they were bound to oppose the Marats and +Robespierres of despotism who were busy in the bad work. Indeed, in our +country, conservatism, through the presence of Slavery, has inverted +its usual order. In other countries, the radical of one century is the +conservative of the next; in ours, the conservative of one generation +is the radical of the next. The American conservative of 1790 is the +so-called fanatic of 1820; the conservative of 1820 is the fanatic +of 1856. The American conservative, indeed, descended the stairs of +compromise until his descent into utter abnegation of all that civilized +humanity holds dear was arrested by the Rebellion. And the reason of +this strange inversion of conservative principles was, that the movement +of Slavery is towards barbarism, while the movement of all countries +in which labor is not positively chattellized is towards freedom and +civilization. True conservatism, it must never be forgotten, is the +refusal to give up a positive, though imperfect good, for a possible, +but uncertain improvement: in the United States it has been misused to +denote the cowardly surrender of a positive good from a fear to resist +the innovations of an advancing evil and wrong. + +There was, therefore, little danger that Slavery would be extended +through the conscious thought and will of the people, but there +was danger that its extension might, somehow or other, _occur_. +Misconception of the question, devotion to party or the memory of +party, prejudice against the men who more immediately represented the +Anti-Slavery principle, might make the people unconsciously slide into +this crime. And it must be said that for the divisions in the Free +States as to the mode in which the free sentiment of the people should +operate the strictly Anti-Slavery men were to some extent responsible. +It is difficult to convince an ardent reformer that the principle +for which he contends, being impersonal, should be purified from the +passions and whims of his own personality. The more fervid he is, the +more he is identified in the public mind with his cause; and, in a large +view, he is bound not merely to defend his cause, but to see that the +cause, through him, does not become offensive. Men are ever ready to +dodge disagreeable duties by converting questions of principles into +criticisms on the men who represent principles; and the men who +represent principles should therefore look to it that they make no +needless enemies and give no needless shock to public opinion for +the purpose of pushing pet opinions, wreaking personal grudges, or +gratifying individual antipathies. The artillery of the North has +heretofore played altogether too much on Northerners. + +But to return. The South expected to fool the North into a compliance +with its designs, by availing itself of the divisions among its +professed opponents, and by dazzling away the attention of the people +from the real nature of the wickedness to be perpetrated. Slavery was to +be extended, and the North was to be an accomplice in the business; but +the Slave Power did not expect that we should be active and enthusiastic +in this work of self-degradation. It did not ask us to extend Slavery, +but simply to allow its extension to occur; and in this appeal to our +moral timidity and moral laziness, it contemptuously tossed us a few +fig-leaves of fallacy and false statement to save appearances. + +We were informed, for instance, that by the equality of men is meant the +equality of those whom Providence has made equal. But this is exactly +the sense in which no sane man ever understood the doctrine of equality; +for Providence has palpably made men unequal, white men as well as +black. + +Then we were told that the white and black races could dwell together +only in the relation of masters and slaves,--and, in the same breath, +that in this relation the slaves were steadily advancing in civilization +and Christianity. But, if steadily advancing in civilization and +Christianity, the time must inevitably come when they would not submit +to be slaves; and then what becomes of the statement that the white +and black races cannot dwell together as freemen? Why boast of their +improvement, when you are improving them only that you may exterminate +them, or they _you?_ + +Then, with a composure of face which touches the exquisite in +effrontery, we were assured that this antithesis of master and slave, of +tyrant and abject natures, is really a perfect harmony. Slavery--so said +these logicians of liberticide--has solved the great social problem of +the working-classes, comfortably for capital, happily for labor; and has +effected this by an ingenious expedient which could have occurred only +to minds of the greatest depth and comprehension, the expedient, namely, +of enslaving labor. Now doubtless there has always been a struggle +between employers and employed, and this struggle will probably continue +until the relations between the two are more humane and Christian. But +Slavery exhibits this struggle in its earliest and most savage stage, +a stage answering to the rude energies and still ruder conceptions of +barbarians. The issue of the struggle, it is plain, will not be that +capital will own labor, but that labor will own capital, and no _man_ be +owned. + +Still we were vehemently told, that, though the slaves, for their own +good, were deprived of their rights as men, they were in a fine state +of physical comfort. This was not and could not be true; but even if it +were, it only represented the slaveholder as addressing his slave in +some such words of derisive scorn as Byron hurls at Duke Alphonso,-- + +"Thou! born to eat, and be despised, and die, Even as the brutes that +perish,"-- + +though we doubt if he could truly add,-- + +"save that thou Hast a more splendid trough and wider sty." + +Then we were solemnly warned of our patriotic duty to "know no North and +no South." This was the very impudence of ingratitude; for we had long +known no North, and unhappily had known altogether too much South. + +Then we were most plaintively adjured to to comply with the demands of +the Slave Power, in order to save the Union. But how save the Union? +Why, by violating the principles on which the Union was formed, and +scouting the objects it was intended to serve. + +But lastly came the question, on which the South confidently relied as +a decisive argument, "What could we do with our slaves, provided we +emancipated them?" The peculiarity which distinguished this question +from all other interrogatories ever addressed to human beings was this, +that it was asked for the purpose of not being answered. The moment a +reply was begun, the ground was swiftly shifted, and we were overwhelmed +with a torrent of words about State Rights and the duty of minding our +own business. + +But it is needless to continue the examination of these substitutes and +apologies for fact and reason, especially as their chief characteristic +consisted in their having nothing to do with the practical question +before the people. They were thrown out by the interested defenders of +Slavery, North and South, to divert attention from the main issue. In +the fine felicity of their in appropriateness to the actual condition of +the struggle between the Free and Slave States, they were almost a match +for that renowned sermon, preached by a metropolitan bishop before an +asylum for the blind, the halt, and the legless, on "The Moral Dangers +of Foreign Travel." But still they were infinitely mischievous, +considered as pretences under which Northern men could skulk from their +duties, and as sophistries to lull into a sleepy acquiescence the +consciences of those political adventurers who are always seeking +occasions for being tempted and reasons for being rogues. They were all +the more influential from the circumstance that their show of argument +was backed by the solid substance of patronage. These false facts and +bad reasons were the keys to many fat offices. The South had succeeded +in instituting a new political test, namely, that no man is qualified +serve the United States unless he is the champion or the sycophant of +the Slave Power. Proscription to the friends of American freedom, honors +and emoluments to the friends of American slavery,--adopt that creed, +or you did not belong to any "healthy" political organization! Now we +have heard of civil disabilities for opinion's sake before. In some +countries no Catholics are allowed to hold office, in others no +Protestants, in others no Jews. But it is not, we believe, in Protestant +countries that Protestants are proscribed; it is not in Catholic +countries that Catholics are incompetent to serve the State. It was left +for a free country to establish, practically, civil disabilities against +freemen,--for Republican America to proscribe Republicans! Think of +it,--that no American, whatever his worth, talents, or patriotism,--could +two years ago serve his country in any branch of its executive +administration, unless he was unfortunate enough to agree with the +slaveholders, or base enough to sham an agreement with them! The test, +at Washington, of political orthodoxy was modelled on the pattern of +the test of religious orthodoxy established by Napoleon's minister of +police. "You are not orthodox," he said to a priest "In what," inquired +the astonished ecclesiastic, "have I sinned against orthodoxy?" +"You have not pronounced the eulogium of the Emperor, or proved the +righteousness of the conscription." + +Now we had been often warned of the danger of sectional parties, on +account of their tendency to break up the Government. The people gave +heed to this warning; for here was a sectional party in possession +of the Government. We had been often advised not to form political +combinations on one idea. The people gave heed to this advice; for here +was a triumphant political combination, formed not only on one idea, but +that the worst idea that ever animated any political combination. Here +was an association of three hundred and fifty thousand persons, spread +over some nine hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, and +wielding its whole political power, engaged in the work of turning the +United States into a sort of slave plantation, of which they were to be +overseers. We opposed them by argument, passion, and numerical power; +and they read us long homilies on the beauty of law and order,--order +sustained by Border Ruffians, law which was but the legalizing of +criminal instincts,--law and order which, judged by the code established +for Kansas, seemed based on legislative ideas imported from the Fegee +Islands. We opposed them again, and they talked to us about the +necessity of preserving the Union;--as if, in the Free States, the love +of the Union had not been a principle and a passion, proof against many +losses, and insensible to many humiliations; as if, with our teachers, +disunion had not been for half a century a stereotyped menace to scare +us into compliance with their rascalities; as if it were not known that +only so long as they could wield the powers of the National Government +to accomplish their designs, were they loyal to the Union! We opposed +them again, and they clamored about their Constitutional rights and our +Constitutional obligations; but they adopted for themselves a theory of +the Constitution which made each State the judge of the Constitution in +the last resort, while they held us to that view of it which made the +Supreme Court the judge in the last resort. Written constitutions, by a +process of interpretation, are always made to follow the drift of great +forces; they are twisted and tortured into conformity with the views +of the power dominant in the State; and our Constitution, originally +a charter of freedom, was converted into an instrument which the +slaveholders seemed to possess by right of squatter sovereignty and +eminent domain. + +Did any one suppose that we could retard the ever-onward movement of +their unscrupulous force and defiant wills by timely compromises and +concessions? Every compromise we made with them only stimulated their +rapacity, heightened their arrogance, increased their demands. Every +concession we made to their insolent threats was only a step downwards +to a deeper abasement; and we parted with our most cherished convictions +of duty to purchase, not their gratitude, but their contempt. Every +concession, too, weakened us and strengthened them for the inevitable +struggle, into which the Free States were eventually goaded, to preserve +what remained of their dignity, their honor, and their self-respect. In +1850 we conceded the application of the Wilmot Proviso; in 1856 we were +compelled to concede the principle of the Wilmot Proviso. In 1850 we had +no fears that slaves would enter New Mexico; in 1861 we were threatened +with a view of the flag of the rattlesnake floating over Faneuil Hall. +If any principle has been established by events, with the certainty of +mathematical demonstration, it is this, that concession to the Slave +Power is the suicide of Freedom. We are purchasing this fact at the +expense of arming five hundred thousand men and spending a thousand +millions of dollars. More than this, if any concessions were to be made, +they ought, on all principles of concession, to have been made to the +North. Concessions, historically, are not made by freedom to privilege, +but by privilege to freedom. Thus King John conceded Magna Charta; thus +King Charles conceded the Petition of Right; thus Protestant England +conceded Catholic Emancipation to Ireland; thus aristocratic England +conceded the Reform Bill to the English middle class. And had not we, +the misgoverned many, a right to demand from the slaveholders, the +governing few, some concessions to our sense of justice and our +prejudices for freedom? Concession indeed! If any class of men hold in +their grasp one of the dear-bought chartered "rights of man," it is +infamous to concede it. + + "Make it the darling of your precious eye! + _To lose or give 't away_ were such perdition + As nothing else could match." + +Considerations so obvious as these could not, by any ingenuity of +party-contrivance, be prevented from forcing themselves by degrees into +the minds of the great body of the voters of the Free States. The common +sense, the "large roundabout common sense" of the people, slowly, and +somewhat reluctantly, came up to the demands of the occasion. The +sophistries and fallacies of the Northern defenders of the pretensions +of the slave-holding sectional minority were gradually exposed, and were +repudiated in the lump. The conviction was implanted in the minds of the +people of the Free States, that the Slave Power, representing only a +thirtieth part of the population of the Slave States, and a ninth part +of the property of the country, was bent on governing the nation, and +on subordinating all principles and all interests to its own. Not being +ambitious of having the United States converted into a Western Congo, +with the traffic in "niggers" as its fundamental idea, the people +elected Abraham Lincoln, in a perfectly Constitutional way, President. +As the majority of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of +the Supreme Court was still left, by this election, on the side of the +"rights of the South," (humorously so styled,) and as the President +could do little to advance Republican principles with all the other +branches of the Government opposed to him, the people naturally imagined +that the slaveholders would acquiesce in their decision. + +But such was not the result. The election was in November. The new +President could not assume office until March. The triumphs of the Slave +Power had been heretofore owing to its willingness and readiness to +peril everything on each question as it arose, and each event as it +occurred. South Carolina, perhaps the only one of the Slave States that +was thoroughly in earnest, at once "seceded." The "Gulf States" and +others followed its example, not so much from any fixed intention of +forming a Southern Confederacy as for the purpose of intimidating the +Free States into compliance with the extreme demands of the South. The +Border Slave States were avowedly neutral between the "belligerents," +but indicated their purpose to stand by their "Southern brethren," in +case the Government of the United States attempted to carry out the +Constitution and the laws in the seceded States by the process of +"coercion." + +The combination was perfect. The heart of the Rebellion was in South +Carolina, a State whose free population was about equal to that of the +city of Brooklyn, and whose annual productions were exceeded by those +of Essex County, in the State of Massachusetts. Around this centre was +congregated as base a set of politicians as ever disgraced human nature. +A conspiracy was formed to compel a first-class power, representing +thirty millions of people, to submit to the dictation of about three +hundred thousand of its citizens. The conspirators did not dream of +failure. They were sure, as they thought, of the Gulf States and of the +Border States, of the whole Slave Power, in fact. They also felt sure +of that large minority in the Free States which had formerly acted with +them, and obeyed their most humiliating behests. They therefore entered +the Congress of the nation with a confident front, knowing that +President Buchanan and the majority of his Cabinet were practically on +their side. Before Mr. Lincoln could be inaugurated they imagined they +could accomplish all their designs, and make the Government of the +United States a Pro-Slavery power in the eyes of all the nations of the +world. Mr. Calhoun's paradoxes had heretofore been indorsed only by +majorities in the national legislature and by the Supreme Court. What a +victory it would be, if, by threatening rebellion, they could induce +the people of the United States to incorporate those paradoxes into +the fundamental law of the nation, dominant over both Congress and the +Court! All their previous "compromises" had been merely legislative +compromises, which, as their cause advanced, they had themselves +annulled. They now seized the occasion, when the "people" had risen +against them, to compel the people to sanction their most extreme +demands. They determined to convert defeat, sustained at the polls, into +a victory which would have far transcended any victory they might have +gained by electing their candidate, Breckinridge, as President. + +A portion of the Republicans, seeing clearly the force arrayed against +them, and disbelieving that the population of the Free States would be +willing, _en masse_, to sustain the cause of free labor by force of +arms, tried to avert the blow by proposing a new compromise. Mr. +Seward, the calmest, most moderate, and most obnoxious statesman of the +Republican party, offered to divide the existing territories of the +United States by the Missouri line, all south of which should be open +to slave labor. As he at the same time stated that by natural laws the +South could obtain no material advantage by his seeming concession, the +concession only made him enemies among the uncompromising champions of +the Wilmot Proviso. The conspirators demanded that the Missouri line +should be the boundary, not only between the territories which the +United States then possessed, but between the territories they might +hereafter _acquire_. As the country north of the Missouri line was held +by powerful European States which it would be madness to offend, and as +the country south of that line was held by feeble States which it would +be easy to conquer, no Northern or Western statesman could vote for such +a measure without proving himself a rogue or a simpleton. Hence all +measures of "compromise" necessarily failed during the last days of the +administration of James Buchanan. + +It is plain, that, when Mr. Lincoln--after having escaped assassination +from the "Chivalry" of Maryland, and after having been subjected to a +virulence of invective such as no other President had incurred--arrived +at Washington, his mind was utterly unaffected by the illusions of +passion. His Inaugural Message was eminently moderate. The Slave +Power, having failed to delude or bully Congress, or to intimidate the +people,--having failed to murder the elected President on his way to +the capital,--was at wits' end. It thought it could still rely on its +Northern supporters, as James II. of England thought he could rely +on the Church of England. While the nation, therefore, was busy in +expedients to call back the seceded States to their allegiance, the +latter suddenly bombarded Fort Sumter, trampled on the American flag, +threatened to wave the rattlesnake rag over Faneuil Hall, and to make +the Yankees "smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel." All this +was done with the idea that the Northern "Democracy" would rally to the +support of their "Southern brethren." The result proved that the South +was, in the words of Mr. Davis's last and most melancholy Message, the +victim of "misplaced confidence" in its Northern "associates." The +moment a gun was fired, the honest Democratic voters of the North were +even more furious than the Republican voters; the leaders, including +those who had been the obedient servants of Slavery, were ravenous for +commands in the great army which was to "coerce" and "subjugate" the +South; and the whole organization of the "Democratic party" of the North +melted away at once in the fierce fires of a reawakened patriotism. The +slaveholders ventured everything on their last stake, and lost. A North, +for the first time, sprang into being; and it issued, like Minerva from +the brain of Jove, full-armed. The much-vaunted engineer, Beauregard, +was "hoist with his own petard." + +Now that the slaveholders have been so foolish as to appeal to physical +force, abandoning their vantage-ground of political influence, they must +be not only politically overthrown, but physically humiliated. Their +arrogant sense of superiority must be beaten out of them by main force. +The feeling with which every Texan and Arkansas bully and assassin +regarded a Northern mechanic--a feeling akin to that with which the old +Norman robber looked on the sturdy Saxon laborer--must be changed, by +showing the bully that his bowie-knife is dangerous only to peaceful, +and is imbecile before armed citizens. The Southerner has appealed to +force, and force he should have, until, by the laws of force, he is not +only beaten, but compelled to admit the humiliating fact. That he is not +disposed "to die in the last ditch," that he has none of the practical +heroism of desperation, is proved by the actual results of battles. +When defeated, and his means of escape are such as only desperation can +surmount, he quickly surrenders, and is even disposed to take the oath +of allegiance. The martial virtues of the common European soldier he has +displayed in exceedingly scanty measure in the present conflict. He +has relied on engineers; and the moment his fortresses are turned or +stormed, he retreats or becomes a prisoner of war. Let Mr. Davis's +Message to the Confederate Congress, and his order suspending Pillow +and Floyd, testify to this unquestionable statement. Even if we grant +martial intrepidity to the members of the Slavocracy, the present war +proves that the system of Slavery is not one which develops martial +virtues among the "free whites" it has cajoled or forced into its +hateful service. Indeed, the armies of Jefferson Davis are weak on the +same principle on which the slave-system is weak. Everything depends on +the intelligence and courage of the commanders, and the moment these +fail the soldiers become a mere mob. + +American Slavery, by the laws which control its existence, first rose +from a local power, dominant in certain States, to a national power, +assuming to dominate over the United States. At the first faint fact +which indicated the intention of the Free States to check its progress +and overturn its insolent dominion, it rebelled. The rebellion now +promises to be a failure; but it will cost the Free States the arming of +half a million of men and the spending of a thousand millions of dollars +to make it a failure. Can we afford to trifle with the cause which +produced it? We note that some of the representatives of the loyal Slave +States in Congress are furious to hang individual Rebels, but at the +same time are anxious to surround the system those Rebels represent +with new guaranties. When they speak of Jeff Davis and his crew, their +feeling is as fierce as that of Tilly and Pappenheim towards the +Protestants of Germany. They would burn, destroy, confiscate, and kill +without any mercy, and without any regard to the laws of civilized war; +but when they come to speak of Slavery, their whole tone is changed. +They wish us to do everything barbarous and inhuman, provided we do not +go to the last extent of barbarity and inhumanity, which, according to +their notions, is, to inaugurate a system of freedom, equality, and +justice. Provided the negro is held in bondage and denied the rights of +human nature, they are willing that any severity should be exercised +towards his rebellious master. Now we have no revengeful feeling towards +the master at all. We think that he is a victim as well as an oppressor. +We wish to emancipate the master as well as the slave, and we think that +thousands of masters are persons who merely submit to the conditions +of labor established in their respective localities. Our opposition is +directed, not against Jefferson Davis, but against the system whose +cumulative corruptions and enormities Jefferson Davis very fairly +represents. As an individual, Jefferson Davis is not worse than many +people whom a general amnesty would preserve in their persons and +property. To hang him, and at the same time guaranty Slavery, would be +like destroying a plant by a vain attempt to kill its most poisonous +blossom. Our opposition is not to the blossom, but to the root. + +We admit that to strike at the root is a very difficult operation. In +the present condition of the country it may present obstacles which will +practically prove insuperable. But it is plain that we can strike lower +than the blossom; and it is also plain that we must, as practical +men, devise some method by which the existence of the Slavocracy as a +political power may be annihilated. The President of the United States +has lately recommended that Congress offer the cooperation and financial +aid of the whole nation in a peaceful effort to abolish Slavery,--with +a significant hint, that, unless the loyal Slave States accept the +proposition, the necessities of the war may dictate severer measures. +Emancipation is the policy of the Government, and will soon be the +determination of the people. Whether it shall be gradual or immediate +depends altogether on the slaveholders themselves. The prolongation of +the war for a year, and the operation of the internal tax bill, will +convert all the voters of the Free States, whether Republicans or +Democrats, into practical Emancipationists. The tax bill alone will +teach the people important lessons which no politicians can gainsay. +Every person who buys a piece of broadcloth or calico,--every person who +takes a cup of tea or coffee,--every person who lives from day to day +on the energy he thinks he derives from patent medicines, or beer, or +whiskey,--every person who signs a note, or draws a bill of exchange, or +sends a telegraphic despatch, or advertises in a newspaper, or makes a +will, or "raises" anything, or manufactures anything, will naturally +inquire why he or she is compelled to submit to an irritating as well as +an onerous tax. The only answer that can possibly be returned is this,-- +that all these vexatious burdens are necessary because a comparatively +few persons out of an immense population have chosen to get up a civil +war in order to protect and foster their slave-property, and the +political power it confers. As this property is but a small fraction of +the whole property of the country, and as its owners are not a hundredth +part of the population of the country, does any sane man doubt that the +slave-property will be relentlessly confiscated in order that the Slave +Power may be forever crushed? + +There are, we know, persons in the Free States who pretend to believe +that the war will leave Slavery where the war found it,--that our half +a million of soldiers have gone South on a sort of military picnic, +and will return in a cordial mood towards their Southern brethren in +arms,--and that there is no real depth and earnestness of purpose in the +Free States. Though one year has done the ordinary work of a century +in effecting or confirming changes in the ideas and sentiments of the +people, these persons still sagely rely on the party-phrases current +some eighteen months ago to reconstruct the Union on the old basis of +the domination of the Slave Power, through the combination of a divided +North with a united South. By the theory of these persons, there is +something peculiarly sacred in property in men, distinguishing it from +the more vulgar form of property in things; and though the cost of +putting down the Rebellion will nearly equal the value of the Southern +slaves, considered as chattels, they suppose that the owners of property +in things will cheerfully submit to be taxed for a thousand millions,--a +fourth of the almost fabulous debt of England,--without any irritation +against the chivalric owners of property in men, whose pride, caprice, +and insubordination have made the taxation necessary. Such may possibly +be the fact, but as sane men we cannot but disbelieve it. Our conviction +is, that, whether the war is ended in three months or in twelve months, +the Slave Power is sure to be undermined or overthrown. + +The sooner the war is ended, the more favorable will be the terms +granted to the Slavocracy; but no terms will be granted which do not +look to its extinction. The slaveholders are impelled by their system to +complete victory or utter ruin. If they obey the laws of their system, +they have, from present appearances, nothing but defeat, beggary, and +despair to expect. If they violate the laws of their system, they must +take their place in some one of the numerous degrees, orders, and ranks +of the Abolitionists. It will be well for them, if the wilfulness +developed by their miserable system gives way to the plain reason and +logic of facts and events. It will be well for them, if they submit to a +necessity, not only inherent in the inevitable operation of divine laws, +but propelled by half a million of men in arms. Be it that God is on the +side of the heaviest column,--there can be no doubt that the heaviest +column is now the column of Freedom. + + * * * * * + + +THE VOLUNTEER. + + + "At dawn," he said, "I bid them all farewell, + To go where bugles call and rifles gleam." + And with the restless thought asleep he fell, + And glided into dream. + + A great hot plain from sea to mountain spread,-- + Through it a level river slowly drawn. + He moved with a vast crowd, and at its head + Streamed banners like the dawn. + + There came a blinding flash, a deafening roar, + And dissonant cries of triumph and dismay; + Blood trickled down the river's reedy shore, + And with the dead he lay. + + The morn broke in upon his solemn dream; + And still, with steady pulse and deepening eye, + "Where bugles call," he said, "and rifles gleam, + I follow, though I die!" + + Wise youth! By few is glory's wreath attained; + But death or late or soon awaiteth all. + To fight in Freedom's cause is something gained,-- + And nothing lost, to fall. + + + + +SPEECH OF HON'BLE PRESERVED DOE IN SECRET CAUCUS. + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Jaalam, 12th April, 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--As I cannot but hope that the ultimate, if not speedy, +success of the national arms is now sufficiently ascertained, sure as +I am of the righteousness of our cause and its consequent claim on the +blessing of God, (for I would not show a faith inferiour to that of the +pagan historian with his _Facile evenit quod Dis cordi est_,) it seems +to me a suitable occasion to withdraw our minds a moment from the +confusing din of battle to objects of peaceful and permanent interest. +Let us not neglect the monuments of preterite history because what +shall be history is so diligently making under our eyes. _Cras ingens +iterabimus aequor_; to-morrow will be time enough for that stormy sea; +to-day let me engage the attention of your readers with the Runick +inscription to whose fortunate discovery I have heretofore alluded. Well +may we say with the poet, _Multa renascuntur quae jam cecidere_. And I +would premise, that, although I can no longer resist the evidence of my +own senses from the stone before me to the ante-Columbian discovery of +this continent by the Northmen, _gens inclytissima_, as they are called +in Palermitan inscription, written fortunately in a less debatable +character than that which I am about to decypher, yet I would by no +means be understood as wishing to vilipend the merits of the great +Genoese, whose name will never be forgotten so long as the inspiring +strains of "Hail Columbia" shall continue to be heard. Though he must +be stripped also of whatever praise may belong to the experiment of the +egg, which I find proverbially attributed by Castilian authours to a +certain Juanito or Jack, (perhaps an offshoot of our giant-killing my +thus,) his name will still remain one of the most illustrious of modern +times. But the impartial historian owes a duty likewise to obscure +merit, and my solicitude to render a tardy justice is perhaps quickened +by my having known those who, had their own field of labour been less +secluded, might have found a readier acceptance with the reading +publick. I could give an example, but I forbear: _forsitan nostris ex +ossibus oritur ultor_. + +Touching Runick inscriptions, I find that they may be classed under +three general heads: 1 deg.. Those which are understood by the Danish Royal +Society of Northern Antiquaries, and Professor Rafn, their Secretary; +2 deg.. Those which are comprehensible only by Mr Rafn; and 3. Those which +neither the Society, Mr Rafn, nor anybody else can be said in any +definite sense to understand, and which accordingly offer peculiar +temptations to enucleating sagacity. These last are naturally deemed the +most valuable by intelligent antiquaries, and to this class the stone +now in my possession fortunately belongs. Such give a picturesque +variety to ancient events, because susceptible oftentimes of as many +interpretations as there are individual archaeologists; and since facts +are only the pulp in which the Idea or event-seed is softly imbedded +till it ripen, it is of little consequence what colour or flavour we +attribute to them, provided it be agreeable. Availing myself of the +obliging assistance of Mr. Arphaxad Bowers, an ingenious photographick +artist, whose house-on-wheels has now stood for three years on our +Meeting-House Green, with the somewhat contradictory inscription,--"_Our +motto is onward_,"--I have sent accurate copies of my treasure to many +learned men and societies, both native and European. I may hereafter +communicate their different and (_me judice_) equally erroneous +solutions. I solicit also, Messrs. Editors, your own acceptance of the +copy herewith inclosed. I need only premise further, that the stone +itself is a goodly block of metamorphick sandstone, and that the Runes +resemble very nearly the ornithichnites or fossil bird-tracks of Dr. +Hitchcock, but with less regularity or apparent design than is displayed +by those remarkable geological monuments. These are rather the _non bene +junctarum discordia semina rerum_. Resolved to leave no door open to +cavil, I first of all attempted the elucidation of this remarkable +example of lithick literature by the ordinary modes, but with no +adequate return for my labour. I then considered myself amply justified +in resorting to that heroick treatment the felicity of which, as applied +by the great Bentley to Milton, had long ago enlisted my admiration. +Indeed, I had already made up my mind, that, in case good-fortune should +throw any such invaluable record in my way, I would proceed with it +in the following simple and satisfactory method. After a cursory +examination, merely sufficing for an approximative estimate of its +length, I would write down a hypothetical inscription based upon +antecedent probabilities, and then proceed to extract from the +characters engraven on the stone a meaning as nearly as possible +conformed to this _a priori_ product of my own ingenuity. The result +more than justified my hopes, inasmuch as the two inscriptions were made +without any great violence to tally in all essential particulars. I then +proceeded, not without some anxiety, to my second test, which was, to +read the Runick letters diagonally, and again with the same success. +With an excitement pardonable under the circumstances, yet tempered +with thankful humility, I now applied my last and severest trial, my +_experimentum crucis_. I turned the stone, now doubly precious in my +eyes, with scrupulous exactness upside down. The physical exertion so +far displaced my spectacles as to derange for a moment the focus of +vision. I confess that it was with some tremulousness that I readjusted +them upon my nose, and prepared my mind to bear with calmness any +disappointment that might ensue. But, _O albo dies notanda lapillo!_ +what was my delight to find that the change of position had effected +none in the sense of the writing, even by so much as a single letter! +I was now, and justly, as I think, satisfied of the conscientious +exactness of my interpretation. It is as follows:-- + + +HERE + +BJARNA GRIMOLFSSON + +FIRST DRANK CLOUD-BROTHER + +THROUGH CHILD-OF-LAND-AND-WATER: + +that is, drew smoke through a reed stem. In other words, we have here +a record of the first smoking of the herb _Nicotiana Tabacum_ by a +European on this continent. The probable results of this discovery are +so vast as to baffle conjecture. If it be objected, that the smoking +of a pipe would hardly justify the setting up of a memorial stone, I +answer, that even now the Moquis Indian, ere he takes his first whiff, +bows reverently toward the four quarters of the sky in succession, and +that the loftiest monuments have been reared to perpetuate fame, which +is the dream of the shadow of smoke. The _Saga_, it will be remembered, +leaves this Bjarna to a fate something like that of Sir Humphrey +Gilbert, on board a sinking ship in the "wormy sea," having generously +given up his place in the boat to a certain Icelander. It is doubly +pleasant, therefore, to meet with this proof that the brave old man +arrived safely in Vinland, and that his declining years were cheered by +the respectful attentions of the dusky denizens of our then uninvaded +forests. Most of all was I gratified, however, in thus linking forever +the name of my native town with one of the most momentous occurrences of +modern times. Hitherto Jaalam, though in soil, climate, and geographical +position as highly qualified to be the theatre of remarkable historical +incidents as any spot on the earth's surface, has been, if I may say it +without seeming to question the wisdom of Providence, almost maliciously +neglected, as it might appear, by occurrences of world-wide interest in +want of a situation. And in matters of this nature it must be confessed +that adequate events are as necessary as the _vates sacer_ to record +them. Jaalam stood always modestly ready, but circumstances made no +fitting response to her generous intentions. Now, however, she assumes +her place on the historick roll. I have hitherto been a zealous opponent +of the Circean herb, but I shall now reexamine the question without +bias. + +I am aware that the Rev'd Jonas Tutchel, in a recent communication to +the Bogus Four Corners Weekly Meridian, has endeavoured to show that +this is the sepulchral inscription of Thorwald Eriksson, who, as is well +known, was slain in Vinland by the natives. But I think he has been +misled by a preconceived theory, and cannot but feel that he has thus +made an ungracious return for my allowing him to inspect the stone with +the aid of my own glasses (he having by accident left his at home) +and in my own study. The heathen ancients might have instructed this +Christian minister in the rites of hospitality; but much is to be +pardoned to the spirit of self-love. He must indeed be ingenious who can +make out the words _her hrilir_ from any characters in the inscription +in question, which, whatever else it may be, is certainly not mortuary. +And even should the reverend gentleman succeed in persuading some +fantastical wits of the soundness of his views, I do not see what useful +end he will have gained. For if the English Courts of Law hold the +testimony of grave-stones from the burial-grounds of Protestant +dissenters to be questionable, even where it is essential in proving a +descent, I cannot conceive that the epitaphial assertions of heathens +should be esteemed of more authority by any man of orthodox sentiments. + +At this moment, happening to cast my eyes upon the stone, on which a +transverse light from my southern window brings out the characters +with singular distinctness, another interpretation has occurred to me, +promising even more interesting results. I hasten to close my letter in +order to follow at once the clue thus providentially suggested. + +I inclose, as usual, a contribution from Mr. Biglow, and remain, +Gentlemen, with esteem and respect, + +Your Ob't Humble Servant, + +HOMER WILBUR. A.M. + + I thank ye, my friens, for the warmth o' your greetin': + Ther' 's few airthly blessins but wut's vain an' fleetin'; + But ef ther' is one thet hain't _no_ cracks an' flaws, + An' is wuth goin' in for, it's pop'lar applause; + It sends up the sperits ez lively ez rockets, + An' I feel it--wal, down to the eend o' my pockets. + Jes' lovin' the people is Canaan in view, + But it's Canaan paid quarterly t' hev 'em love you; + It's a blessin' thet's breakin' out ollus in fresh spots; + It's a-follerin' Moses 'thout losin' the flesh-pots. + + But, Gennlemen,'scuse me, I ain't sech a raw cus + Ez to go luggin' ellerkence into a caucus,-- + Thet is, into one where the call comprehens + Nut the People in person, but on'y their friens; + I'm so kin' o' used to convincin' the masses + Of th' edvantage o' bein' self-governin' asses, + I forgut thet _we_ 're all o' the sort thet pull wires + An' arrange for the public their wants an' desires, + An' thet wut we hed met for wuz jes' to agree + Wut the People's opinions in futur' should be. + + But to come to the nuh, we've ben all disappinted, + An' our leadin' idees are a kind o' disjinted,-- + Though, fur ez the nateral man could discern, + Things ough' to ha' took most an oppersite turn. + But The'ry is jes' like a train on the rail, + Thet, weather or no, puts her thru without fail, + While Fac's the ole stage thet gits sloughed in the ruts, + An' hez to allow for your darned efs an' buts, + An' so, nut intendin' no pers'nal reflections, + They don't--don't nut allus, thet is--make connections: + Sometimes, when it really doos seem thet they'd oughter + Combine jest ez kindly ez new rum an' water, + Both 'll be jest ez sot in their ways ez a bagnet, + Ez otherwise-minded ez th' eends of a magnet, + An' folks like you 'n me, thet ain't ept to be sold, + Git somehow or 'nother left out in the cold. + + I expected 'fore this, 'thout no gret of a row, + Jeff D. would ha' ben where A. Lincoln is now, + With Taney to say 't wuz all legle an' fair, + An' a jury o' Deemocrats ready to swear + Thet the ingin o' State gut throwed into the ditch + By the fault o' the North in misplacin' the switch. + Things wuz ripenin' fust-rate with Buchanan to nuss 'em; + But the People they wouldn't be Mexicans, cuss 'em! + Ain't the safeguards o' freedom upsot, 'z you may say, + Ef the right o' rev'lution is took clean away? + An' doosn't the right primy-fashy include + The bein' entitled to nut be subdued? + The fact is, we'd gone for the Union so strong, + When Union meant South ollus right an' North wrong, + Thet the people gut fooled into thinkin' it might + Worry on middlin' wal with the North in the right. + We might ha' ben now jest ez prosp'rous ez France, + Where politikle enterprise hez a fair chance, + An' the people is heppy an' proud et this hour, + Long ez they hev the votes, to let Nap hev the power; + But _our_ folks they went an' believed wut we'd told 'em, + An', the flag once insulted, no mortle could hold 'em. + 'T wuz pervokin' jest when we wuz cert'in to win,-- + An' I, for one, wunt trust the masses agin: + For a people thet knows much ain't fit to be free + In the self-cockin', back-action style o' J.D. + + I can't believe now but wut half on't is lies; + For who'd thought the North wuz a-goin' to rise, + Or take the pervokin'est kin' of a stump, + 'Thout't wuz sunthin' ez pressin' ez Gabr'el's las' trump? + Or who'd ha' supposed, arter _sech_ swell an' bluster + 'Bout the lick-ary-ten-on-ye fighters they'd muster, + Raised by hand on briled lightnin', ez op'lent 'z you please + In a primitive furrest o' femmily-trees, + Who'd ha' thought thet them Southerners ever 'ud show + Starns with pedigrees to 'em like theirn to the foe, + Or, when the vamosin' come, ever to find + Nat'ral masters in front an' mean white folks behind? + By ginger, ef I'd ha' known half I know now, + When I wuz to Congress, I wouldn't, I swow, + Hev let 'em cair on so high-minded an' sarsy, + 'Thout _some_ show o' wut you may call vicy-varsy. + To be sure, we wuz under a contrac' jes' then + To be dreffle forbearin' towards Southun men; + We hed to go sheers in preservin' the bellance: + An' ez they seemed to feel they wuz wastin' their tellents + 'Thout some un to kick, 't warn't more 'n proper, you know, + Each should funnish his part; an' sence they found the toe, + An' we wuzn't cherubs--wal, we found the buffer, + For fear thet the Compromise System should suffer. + + I wun't say the plan hed n't onpleasant featurs,-- + For men are perverse an' onreasonin' creaturs, + An' forgit thet in this life 't ain't likely to heppen + Their own privit fancy should oltus be cappen,-- + But it worked jest ez smooth ez the key of a safe, + An' the gret Union bearins played free from all chafe. + They warn't hard to suit, ef they hed their own way; + An' we (thet is, some on us) made the thing pay: + 'T wuz a fair give-an'-take out of Uncle Sam's heap; + Ef they took wut warn't theirn, wut we give come ez cheap; + The elect gut the offices down to tidewaiter, + The people took skinnin' ez mild ez a tater, + Seemed to choose who they wanted tu, footed the bills, + An' felt kind o' 'z though they wuz havin' their wills, + Which kep' 'em ez harmless an' clerfle ez crickets, + While all we invested wuz names on the tickets: + Wal, ther' 's nothin' for folks fond o' lib'ral consumption, + Free o' charge, like democ'acy tempered with gumption! + + Now warn't thet a system wuth pains in presarvin', + Where the people found jints an' their friens done the carvin',-- + Where the many done all o' their thinkin' by proxy, + An' were proud on't ez long ez't wuz christened Democ'cy,-- + Where the few let us sap all o' Freedom's foundations, + Ef you called it reformin' with prudence an' patience, + An' were willin' Jeff's snake-egg should hetch with the rest, + Ef you writ "Constitootional" over the nest? + But it's all out o' kilter, ('t wuz too good to last,) + An' all jes' by J.D.'s perceedin' too fast; + Ef he'd on'y hung on for a month or two more, + We'd ha' gut things fixed nicer 'n they hed ben before: + Afore he drawed off an' lef all in confusion, + We wuz safely intrenched in the ole Constitootion, + With an outlyin', heavy-gun, casemated fort + To rake all assailants,--I mean th' S.J. Court. + Now I never 'II acknowledge (nut ef you should skin me) + 'T wuz wise to abandon sech works to the in'my, + An' let him fin' out thet wut scared him so long, + Our whole line of argyments, lookin' so strong, + All our Scriptur' an' law, every the'ry an' fac', + Wuz Quaker-guns daubed with Pro-slavery black. + Why, ef the Republicans ever should git + Andy Johnson or some one to lend 'em the wit + An' the spunk jes' to mount Constitootion an' Court + With Columbiad guns, your real ekle-rights sort, + Or drill out the spike from the ole Declaration + Thet can kerry a solid shot clearn roun' creation, + We'd better take maysures for shettin' up shop, + An' put off our stock by a vendoo or swop. + + But they wun't never dare tu; you 'll see 'em in Edom + 'Fore they ventur' to go where their doctrines 'ud lead 'em: + They 've ben takin' our princerples up ez we dropt 'em, + An' thought it wuz terrible 'cute to adopt 'em; + But they'll fin' out 'fore long thet their hope 's ben deceivin' 'em, + An' thet princerples ain't o' no good, ef you b'lieve in 'em; + It makes 'em tu stiff for a party to use, + Where they'd ough' to be easy 'z an ole pair o' shoes. + Ef _we_ say 'n our pletform thet all men are brothers, + We don't mean thet some folks ain't more so 'n some others; + An' it's wal understood thet we make a selection, + An' thet brotherhood kin' o' subsides arter 'lection. + The fust thing for sound politicians to larn is, + Thet Truth, to dror kindly in all sorts o' harness, + Mus' be kep' in the abstract,--for, 'come to apply it, + You're ept to hurt some folks's interists by it. + Wal, these 'ere Republicans (some on 'em) acs + Ez though gineral mexims 'ud suit speshle facs; + An' there's where we 'll nick 'em, there 's where they 'll be lost: + For applyin' your princerple's wut makes it cost, + An' folks don't want Fourth o' July t' interfere + With the business-consarns o' the rest o' the year, + No more 'n they want Sunday to pry an' to peek + Into wut they are doin' the rest o' the week. + + A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, + Ef he _must_ hev beliefs, nut to b'lieve 'em tu hard; + For, ez sure ez he doos, he'll be blartin' 'em out + 'Thout regardin' the natur' o' man more 'n a spout, + Nor it don't ask much gumption to pick out a flaw + In a party whose leaders are loose in the jaw: + An' so in our own case I ventur' to hint + Thet we'd better nut air our perceedins in print, + Nor pass resserlootions ez long ez your arm + Thet may, ez things heppen to turn, do us harm; + For when you've done all your real meanin' to smother, + The darned things'll up an' mean sunthin' or 'nother. + Jeff'son prob'ly meant wal with his "born free an' ekle," + But it's turned out a real crooked stick in the sekle; + It's taken full eighty-odd year--don't you see?-- + From the pop'lar belief to root out thet idee, + An', arter all, sprouts on 't keep on buddin' forth + In the nat'lly onprincipled mind o' the North. + No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu, + An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu, + Nor don't leave no friction-idees layin' loose + For the ign'ant to put to incend'ary use. + + You know I'm a feller thet keeps a skinned eye + On the leetle events thet go skurryin' by, + Coz it's of'ner by them than by gret ones you'll see + Wut the p'litickle weather is likely to be. + Now I don't think the South's more 'n begun to be licked, + But I _du_ think, ez Jeff says, the wind-bag's gut pricked; + It'll blow for a spell an' keep puffin' an' wheezin', + The tighter our army an' navy keep squeezin',-- + For they can't help spread-eaglein' long 'z ther's a mouth + To blow Enfield's Speaker thru lef' at the South. + But it's high time for us to be settin' our faces + Towards reconstructin' the national basis, + With an eye to beginnin' agin on the jolly ticks + We used to chalk up 'hind the back-door o' politics; + An' the fus' thing's to save wut of Slav'ry ther's lef' + Arter this (I mus' call it) imprudence o' Jeff: + For a real good Abuse, with its roots fur an' wide, + Is the kin' o' thing _I_ like to hev on my side; + A Scriptur' name makes it ez sweet ez a rose, + An' it's tougher the older an' uglier it grows-- + (I ain't speakin' now o' the righteousness of it, + But the p'litickle purchase it gives, an' the profit). + + Things looks pooty squally, it must be allowed, + An' I don't see much signs of a bow in the cloud: + Ther' 's too many Decmocrats--leaders, wut's wuss-- + Thet go for the Union 'thout carin' a cuss + Ef it helps ary party thet ever wuz heard on, + So our eagle ain't made a split Austrian bird on. + But ther' 's still some conservative signs to be found + Thet shows the gret heart o' the People is sound: + (Excuse me for usin' a stump-phrase agin, + But, once in the way on 't, they _will_ stick like sin:) + There's Phillips, for instance, hez jes' ketched a Tartar + In the Law-'n'-Order Party of ole Cincinnater; + An' the Compromise System ain't gone out o' reach, + Long 'z you keep the right limits on freedom o' speech; + 'T warn't none too late, neither, to put on the gag, + For he's dangerous now he goes in for the flag: + Nut thet I altogether approve o' bad eggs, + They're mos' gin'lly argymunt on its las' legs,-- + An' their logic is ept to be tu indiscriminate, + Nor don't ollus wait the right objecs to 'liminate; + But there is a variety on 'em, you 'll find, + Jest ez usefie an' more, besides bein' refined,-- + I mean o' the sort thet are laid by the dictionary, + Sech ez sophisms an' cant thet'll kerry conviction ary + Way thet you want to the right class o' men, + An' are staler than all't ever come from a hen: + "Disunion" done wal till our resh Soutlun friends + Took the savor all out on't for national ends; + But I guess "Abolition" 'll work a spell yit, + When the war's done, an' so will "Forgive-an'-forgit." + Times mus' be pooty thoroughly out o' all jint, + Ef we can't make a good constitootional pint; + An' the good time 'll come to be grindin' our exes, + When the war goes to seed in the nettle o' texes: + Ef Jon'than don't squirm, with sech helps to assist him, + I give up my faith in the free-suffrage system; + Democ'cy wun't be nut a mite interestin', + Nor p'litikle capital much wuth investin'; + An' my notion is, to keep dark an' lay low + Till we see the right minute to put in our blow.-- + + But I've talked longer now 'n I hed any idee, + An' ther's others you want to hear more 'n you du me; + So I'll set down an' give thet 'ere bottle a skrimmage, + For I've spoke till I'm dry ez a real graven image. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Record of an Obscure Man. Tragedy of Errors_, Parts I. and II. Boston: +Ticknor and Fields. 1861, 1862. + +Among the marked literary productions long to be associated with our +present struggle--among them, yet not of them--are the volumes whose +titles we have quoted. They differ from the recent electric messages of +Holmes, Whittier, and Mrs. Howe, in not being obvious results of vivid +events. "Bread and the Newspaper," "The Song of the Negro Boatmen," and +"Our Orders" will reproduce for another generation the fervid feelings +of to-day. But the pathetic warnings exquisitely breathed in the +writings before us will then come to their place as a deep and tender +prelude to the voices heard in this passing tragedy. + +The "Record of an Obscure Man" is the modest introduction to a dramatic +poem of singular pathos and beauty. A New-Englander of culture and +sensibility, naturalized at the South, is supposed to communicate the +results of his study and observation of that outcast race which has been +the easy contempt of ignorance in both sections of the country. Our +instructor has not only a clear judgment Of the value of different +testimonies, and the scholarly instinct of arrangement and +classification, but also that divine gift of sympathy, which alone, in +this world given for our observation, can tell us what to observe. +The illustrations of the negro's character, and the answers to vulgar +depreciation of his tendencies and capacities, are given with the simple +directness of real comprehension. It is the privilege of one acquainted +in no common degree with languages and their history to expose that +dreary joke of the dialect of the oppressed, which superficial people +have so long found funny or contemptible. The simplicity and earnestness +which give dignity to any phraseology come from the humanity behind it. +We are well reminded that divergences from the common use of language, +never held to degrade the meaning in Milton or Shakespeare, need not +render thought despicable when the negro uses identical forms. If he +calls a leopard a "libbard," he only imitates the most sublime of +English poets; and the first word of his petition, "_Gib_ us this day +our daily bread," is pronounced as it rose from the lips of Luther. +The highest truths the faith of man may reach are symbolized more +definitely, and often more picturesquely, by the warm imagination of the +African than by the cultivated genius of the Caucasian. Also it is shown +how the laziness and ferocity with which the negro is sometimes charged +may be more than matched in the history of his assumed superior. +Yet, while acknowledging how well-considered is the matter of this +introductory volume, we regret what seems to be an imperfection in +the form in which it is presented. There is too much _story_, or too +little,--too little to command the assistance of fiction, too much to +prevent a feeling of disappointment that romance is attempted at +all. The concluding autobiography of the friend of Colvil is hardly +consistent with his character as previously suggested; it seems +unnecessary to the author's purpose, and is not drawn with the +minuteness or power which might justify its introduction. We notice this +circumstance as explaining why this Introduction may possibly fail of a +popularity more extended than that which its tenderness of thought and +style at once claimed from the best readers. + +The "Tragedy of Errors" presents, with the vivid idealization of +art, some of the results of American Slavery. Travellers, novelists, +ethnologists have spoken with various ability of the laborers of the +South; and now the poet breaks through the hard monotony of their +external lives, and lends the plasticity of a cultivated mind to take +impress of feeling to which the gift of utterance is denied. And it is +often only through the imagination of another that the human bosom can +be delivered "of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart." For +it is a very common error to estimate mental activity by a command +of the arts of expression; whereas, at its best estate, speech is an +imperfect sign of perception, and one which without special cultivation +must be wholly inadequate. Thus it will be seen that an employment of +the dialect and limited vocabulary of the negro would be obviously +unsuitable to the purpose of the poem; and these have been wisely +discarded. In doing this, however, the common license of dramatists +is not exceeded; and the critical censure we have read about "the +extravagant idealization of the negro" merely amounts to saying that the +writer has been bold enough to stem the current of traditional opinion, +and find a poetic view of humanity at the present time and in its most +despised portion. The end of dramatic writing is not to reproduce +Nature, but to idealize it; a literal copying of the same, as everybody +knows, is the merit of the photographer, not of the artist. Again, it +should be remembered that the highly wrought characters among the slaves +are whites, or whites slightly tinged with African blood. With the +commonest allowance for the exigencies of poetic presentation, we find +no individual character unnatural or improbable; though the particular +grouping of these characters is necessarily improbable. For grace of +position and arrangement every dramatist must claim. If the poet will +but take observations from real persons, however widely scattered, +discretion may be exercised in the conjunction of those persons, and +in the sequence of incidents by which they are affected. An aesthetic +invention may be as _natural_ as a mechanical one, although the +materials for each are collected from a wide surface, and placed in new +relations. Thus much we say as expressing dissent from objections which +have been hastily made to this poem. + +Of the plot of the "Tragedy of Errors" we have only space to say that +the writer has cut a channel for very delicate verses through the heart +of a Southern plantation. Here, at length, seems to be one of those +thoroughly national subjects for which critics have long been clamorous. +The deepest passion is expressed without touching the tawdry properties +of the "intense" school of poetry. The language passes from the ease of +perfect simplicity to the conciseness of power, while the relation of +emotion to character is admirably preserved. The moral--which, let us +observe in passing, is decently covered with artistic beauty--relates, +not to the most obvious, but to the most dangerous mischiefs of Slavery. +Indeed, the story is only saved from being too painful by a fine +appreciation of the medicinal quality of all wretchedness that the +writer everywhere displays. In the First Part, the nice intelligence +shown in the rough contrast between Hermann and Stanley, and in the +finished contrast between Alice and Helen, will claim the reader's +attention. The sketches of American life and tendencies, both Northern +and Southern, are given with discrimination and truth. The dying scene, +which closes the First Part, seems to us nobly wrought. The "death-bed +hymn" of the slaves sounds a pathetic wail over an abortive life +shivering on the brink of the Unknown. In the Second Part we find less +of the color and music of a poem, and more of the rapid movement of a +drama. The doom of Slavery upon the master now comes into full relief. +The characters of Herbert and his father are favorable specimens of +well-meaning, even honorable, Southern gentlemen,--only not endowed +with such exceptional moral heroism as to offer the pride of life to be +crushed before hideous laws. The connection between lyric and tragic +power is shown in the "Tragedy of Errors." The songs and chants of the +slaves mingle with the higher dialogue like the chorus of the Greek +stage; they mediate with gentle authority between the worlds of natural +feeling and barbarous usage. Let us also say that the _sentiment_ +throughout this drama is sound and sweet; for it is that mature +sentiment, born again of discipline, which is the pledge of fidelity to +the highest business of life. + +Before concluding, we take the liberty to remove a mask, not +impenetrable to the careful reader, by saying that the writer is a +woman. And let us be thankful that a woman so representative of the best +culture and instinct of New England cannot wholly conceal herself by the +modesty of a pseudonyme. In no way has the Northern spirit roused to +oppose the usurpations of Slavery more truly vindicated its high quality +than by giving development to that feminine element which has mingled +with our national life an influence of genuine power. And to-day there +are few men justly claiming the much-abused title of thinkers who do +not perceive that the opportunity of our regenerated republic cannot be +fully realized, until we cease to press into factitious conformity +the faculties, tastes, and--let us not shrink from the odious +word--_missions_ of women. The merely literary privilege accorded a +generation or two ago is in itself of slight value. Since the success of +"Evelina," women have been freely permitted to jingle pretty verses for +family newspapers, and to _novelize_ morbid sentiments of the feebler +sort. And we see one legitimate result in that flightiness of the +feminine mind which, in a lower stratum of current literature, displays +inaccurate opinions, feeble prejudices, and finally blossoms into pert +vulgarity. But instances of perverted license increase our obligation to +Mrs. Child, Mrs. Stowe and to others whose eloquence is only in deeds. +Of such as these, and of her whom we may now associate with them, it is +not impossible some unborn historian may write, that in certain great +perils of American liberty, when the best men could only offer rhetoric, +women came forward with demonstration. Yet, after all, our deepest +indebtedness to the present series of volumes seems to be this: they +bear gentle testimony to what the wise ever believed, that the delicacy +of spirit we love to characterize by the dear word "womanly" is not +inconsistent with varied and exact information, independent opinion, and +the insights of genius. + +Finally, we venture to mention, what has been in the minds of many +New-England readers, that these books are indissolubly associated with a +young life offered in the nation's great necessity. At the time when the +first of the series was made public, a shudder ran through our homes, as +a regiment, rich in historic names, stood face to face with death. Among +the fallen was the only son of her whose writings have been given us. +Let us think without bitterness of the sacrifice of one influenced and +formed by the rare nature we find in these poems. What better result of +culture than to dissipate intellectual mists and uncertainties, and to +fix the grasp firmly upon some great practical good? There is nothing +wasted in one who lived long enough to show that the refinement acquired +and inherited was of the noble kind which could prefer the roughest +action for humanity to elegant allurements of gratified taste. The best +gift of scholarship is the power it gives a man to descend with all the +force of his acquired position, and come into effective union with the +world of facts. For it is the crucial test of brave qualities that they +are truer and more practical for being filtered through libraries. In +reading the "Theages" of Plato we feel a certain respect for the young +seeker of wisdom whose only wish is to associate with Socrates; and +there is a certain admiration for the father, Demodocus, who joyfully +resigns his son, if the teacher will admit him to his friendship and +impart all that he can. But it is a higher result of a higher order of +society, when a young man with aptitude to follow science and assimilate +knowledge sees in the most perilous service of civilization a rarer +illumination of mind and heart. In the great scheme of things, where all +grades of human worthiness are shown for the benefit of man, this costly +instruction shall not fail of fruit. And so the deepest moral that comes +to us from the "Tragedy of Errors" seems a prophetic memorial of the +soldier for constitutional liberty with whom it will be long connected. +The wealth of life--so we read the final meaning of these verses--is in +its discipline; and the graceful dreams of the poet, and the quickened +intellect of the scholar, are but humble instruments for the helping of +mankind. + + +_A Discourse on the Life, Character, and Policy of Count Cavour_. +Delivered in the Hall of the New York Historical Society, February 20, +1862. By VINCENZO BOTTA, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Literature in the +New York University, late Member of the Parliament, and Professor of +Philosophy in the Colleges of Sardinia. New York: G.P. Putnam. 8vo. pp. +108. + +This is a most admirable tribute to one of the greatest men of our age, +by a writer singularly well qualified in all respects to do justice +to his rich and comprehensive theme. Professor Botta is a native of +Northern Italy, in the first place, and thus by inheritance and natural +transmission is heir to a great deal of knowledge as to the important +movements of which Cavour was the mainspring, which a foreigner could +acquire only by diligent study and inquiry. In the next place, he has +not been exclusively a secluded student, but he has taken part in the +great political drama which he commemorates, and has been brought into +personal relations with the illustrious man whose worth he here sets +forth with such ample knowledge, such generous devotion, such patriotic +fervor. And lastly, he is a man of distinguished literary ability, +wielding the language of his adopted country with an ease and grace +which hardly leave a suspicion that he was not writing his vernacular +tongue. A namesake of his--whether a relation or not, we are not +informed--has written "in very choice Italian" a history of the American +Revolution; and the work before us, relating in such excellent English +the leading events of a glorious Italian revolution, is a partial +payment of the debt of gratitude contracted by the publication of that +classical production. + +But a writer of inferior opportunities and inferior capacity to +Professor Botta could hardly have failed to produce an attractive and +interesting work, with such a subject. There never was a life which +stood less in need of the embellishments of rhetoric, which could rest +more confidently and securely upon its plain, unvarnished truth, than +that of Count Cavour. He was a man of the highest order of greatness; +and when we have said that, we have also said that he was a man of +simplicity, directness, and transparency. A man of the first class is +always easily interpreted and understood. The biographer of Cavour has +nothing to do but to recount simply and consecutively what he said and +what he did, and his task is accomplished: no great statesman has less +need of apology or justification; no one's name is less associated with +doubtful acts or questionable policy. His ends were not more noble than +was the path in which he moved towards them direct. Professor Botta +has fully comprehended the advantages derived from the nature of his +subject, and has confined himself to the task of relating in simple +and vigorous English the life and acts of Cavour from his birth to his +death. He has given us a rapid and condensed summary, but nothing of +importance is omitted, and surely enough is told to vindicate for Cavour +the highest rank which the enthusiastic admiration and gratitude of his +countrymen have accorded to him. Where can we find a nobler life? And, +take him all in all, whom shall we pronounce to have been a greater +statesman? What variety of power he showed, and what wealth of resources +he had at command! Without the pride and coldness of Pitt, the private +vices of Fox, the tempestuous and ill-regulated sensibility of Burke, he +had the useful and commanding intellectual qualities of all the three, +except the splendid and imaginative eloquence of the last. + +This life of Cavour, and the incidental sketches of his associates which +it includes, will have a tendency to correct some of the erroneous +impressions current among us as to the intellectual qualities and +temperament of the Italian people. The common, or, at least, a very +prevalent, notion concerning them is that they are an impassioned, +imaginative, excitable, visionary race, capable of brilliant individual +efforts, but deficient in the power of organization and combination, +and in patience and practical sagacity. Some of us go, or have gone, +farther, and have supposed that the Austrian domination in Italy was the +necessary consequence of want of manliness and persistency in the people +of Italy, and was perhaps as much for their good as the dangerous boon +of independence would have been. All such prejudices will be removed by +a candid perusal of this memoir. Cavour himself, as a statesman and a +man, was of exactly that stamp which we flatter ourselves to be the +exclusive growth of America and England. He was nothing of a visionary, +nothing of a political pedant, nothing of a _doctrinaire_. Franklin +himself had not a more practical understanding, or more of large, plain, +roundabout sense. He had, too, Franklin's shrewdness, his love of humor, +and his relish for the natural pleasures of life. He had a large amount +of patience, the least showy, but perhaps the most important, of the +qualifications of a great statesman. And in his glorious career he was +warmly and generously sustained, not merely by the king, and by the +favored classes, but by the people, whose efforts and sacrifices have +shown how worthy they were of the freedom they have won. We speak here +more particularly of the people of the kingdom of Sardinia; but what we +say in praise of them may be extended to the people of Italy generally. +The history of Italy for the last fifteen years is a glorious chapter +in the history of the world. Whatever of active courage and passive +endurance has in times past made the name of Roman illustrious, the +events of these years have proved to belong equally to the name of +Italian. + +But we are wandering from Count Cavour and Professor Botta. We have to +thank the latter for enriching the literature of his adopted country +with a memoir which in the lucid beauty and transparent flow of its +style reminds the Italian scholar of the charm of Boccaccio's limpid +narrative, and is besides animated with a patriot's enthusiasm and +elevated by a statesman's comprehension. A more cordial, heart-warming +book we have not for a long time read. + + +_A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation_. By THADDEUS +WILLIAM HARRIS, M.D. A New Edition, enlarged and improved, with +Additions from the Author's Manuscripts, and Original Notes. Illustrated +by Engravings drawn from Nature under the Supervision of Professor +Agassiz. Edited by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts +State Board of Agriculture. 8vo. + +This handsome octavo, prepared with such scientific care, is for +the special benefit of Agriculture; and the order, method, and +comprehensiveness so evident throughout the Treatise compel the +admiration of all who study its beautifully illustrated pages. The +community is largely benefited by such an aid to the improvement of +pursuits in which so many are concerned; and no cultivator of the soil +can safely be ignorant of what Dr. Harris has studied and put on record +for the use of those whose honorable occupation it is to till the earth. + +As a work of Art we cannot refrain from special praise of the book +before us. Turning over its leaves is like a spring or summer ramble in +the country. All creeping and flying things seem harmlessly swarming in +vivid beauty of color over its pages. Such gorgeous moths we never +saw before out of the flower-beds, and there are some butterflies and +caterpillars reposing here and there between the leaves that must have +slipped in and gone to sleep on a fine warm day in July. + +The printing of the volume reaches the highest rank of excellence. +Messrs. Welch, Bigelow, & Company may take their place among the +Typographical Masters of this or any other century. + + +_Pictures of Old England_. By DR. REINHOLD PAULI, Author of "History of +Alfred the Great," etc. Translated, with the Author's Sanction, by E.C. +OTTE. Cambridge [England]: Macmillan & Co. Small 8vo. pp. xii., 457. + +Dr. Pauli is already known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author +of two works of acknowledged learning and ability,--a "History of +England during the Middle Ages," and a "History of Alfred the Great." +In his new volume he furnishes some further fruits of his profound +researches into the social and political history of England in the +Middle Ages; and if the book will add little or nothing to his present +reputation, it affords at least new evidence of his large acquaintance +with English literature. It comprises twelve descriptive essays on as +many different topics, closely connected with his previous studies. +Among the best of these are the papers entitled "Monks and Mendicant +Friars," which give a brief and interesting account of monastic +institutions in England; "The Hanseatic Steel-Yard in London," +comprising a history of that famous company of merchant-adventurers, +with a description of the buildings occupied by them, and a sketch of +their domestic life; and "London in the Middle Ages," which presents an +excellent description of the topography and general condition of the +city during that period, and is illustrated by a small and carefully +drawn plan. There are also several elaborate essays on the early +relations of England with the Continent, besides papers on "The +Parliament in the Fourteenth Century," "Two Poets, Gower and Chaucer," +"John Wiclif," (as Dr. Pauli spells the name,) and some other topics. +All the papers show an adequate familiarity with the original sources of +information, and are marked by the same candor and impartiality which +have hitherto characterized Dr. Pauli's labors. The translation, without +being distinguished by any special graces of style, is free from the +admixture of foreign idioms, and, so far as one may judge from the +internal evidence, appears to be faithfully executed. As a collection of +popular essays, the volume is worthy of much praise. + + +_The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt_. Edited by his Eldest Son. London: +Smith, Elder, & Co. 1862. 2 vols. 12mo. + +In Lamb's famous controversy with Southey in 1823, (the only controversy +"Elia" ever indulged in,) he says of the author of "Rimini," "He is one +of the most cordial-minded men I ever knew, and matchless as a fireside +companion." + +Few authors have had warmer admirers of their writings, or more sincere +personal friends, than Leigh Hunt. He seemed always to inspire earnestly +and lovingly every one who came into friendly relations with him. When +Shelley inscribed his "Cenci" to him in 1819, he expressed in this +sentence of the Dedication what all have felt who have known Leigh Hunt +intimately:-- + +"Had I known a person more highly endowed than yourself with all that it +becomes a man to possess, I had solicited for this work the ornament of +his name. One more gentle, honorable, innocent, and brave,--one of more +exalted toleration for all who do and think evil, and yet himself more +free from evil,--one who knows better how to receive and how to confer a +benefit, though he must ever confer far more than he can receive,--one +of simpler, and, in the highest sense of the word, of purer life and +manners, I never knew; and I had already been fortunate in friendship +when your name was added to the list." + +With this immortal record of his excellence made by Shelley's hand, +Leigh Hunt cannot be forgotten. Counting among his friends the best men +and women of his time, his name and fame are embalmed in their books +as they were in their hearts. Charles Lamb, Keats, Shelley, and Mrs. +Browning knew his worth, and prized it far above praising him; and there +are those still living who held him very dear, and loved the sound of +his voice like the tones of a father or a son. + +A man's letters betray his heart,--both those he sends and those he +receives. Leigh Hunt's correspondence, as here collected by his son, is +full of the wine of life in the best sense of _spirit_. + + +_The Works of Charles Dickens_. Household Edition. _Martin Chuzzlewit_. +New York: Sheldon & Company. + +It is not our intention, at the present writing, to enter into any +discussion concerning the characteristics or the value of the novels of +Charles Dickens: we have neither time nor space for it. Besides, to few +of our readers do these books need introduction or recommendation from +us. They have long been accepted by the world as worthy to rank among +those works of genius which harmonize alike with the thoughtful mind of +the cultivated and the simple feelings of the unlearned,--which discover +in every class and condition of men some truth or beauty for all +humanity. They are, in the full sense of the word, _household_ books, as +indispensable as Shakspeare or Milton, Scott or Irving. + +We may fairly say of the various editions of Dickens's writings, that +their "name is Legion." None of them all, however, is better adapted to +common libraries than the new edition now publishing in New York. It +will be comprised in fifty volumes, to be published in instalments +at intervals of six or eight weeks. The mechanical execution is most +commendable in every respect: clear, pleasantly tinted paper; typography +in the best style of the Riverside Press; binding novel and tasteful. A +vignette, designed either by Darley or Gilbert, and engraved upon steel, +is prefixed to each volume. We have to congratulate the publishers that +they have so successfully fulfilled the promises of their prospectus, +and the public that an edition at once elegant and inexpensive is now +provided. + + + + +FOREIGN LITERATURE. + + +_Die Schweizerische Literatur des achzehnten Jahrhunderts_. Von T.C. +MOeRIKOFER. Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel. 8vo. pp. 536. + +In the early part of the Middle Ages Switzerland contributed +comparatively little to the literary glory of Germany. Beyond Conrad +of Wuerzburg, who is claimed as a native of Basel, no Swiss name can be +found among the poets of the Hohenstaufen period. In a later age it is +rather the practical than the romantic character of the Swiss that is +manifested in their productions. The Reformation brought them in closer +contact with German culture. There was need of this; for in no country +was the gap wider between the language of the people and that of the +learned. Scholars like Zwinglius and Bullinger were almost helpless, +when they sought to express themselves in German. Little appeal could, +therefore, be made to the masses in their own tongue by such writers. +During the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the +vernacular was even more neglected than before. It was not until the +beginning of the eighteenth that Latin and French ceased to be the only +languages deemed worthy of use in literary composition. In 1715 Johannes +Muralt wrote his "Eidgnoeszischen Lustgarten," and later several other +works, mostly scientific, in German. Political causes came in to help +the reaction, and from that time the Protestant portion of the Helvetic +Confederation may be said to have had a literature of its own. + +It is the history of the literature of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century that Moerikofer has essayed to write. He has chosen a +subject hitherto but little studied, and his work deserves to stand by +the side of the best German literary histories of our time. + +The author begins with the first signs of the reaction against the +influence of France, agreeably portraying the awakening of Swiss +consciousness, and the gradual development of the enlightened patriotism +that impelled Swiss writers to lay aside mere courtly elegance of +diction for their own more terse and vigorous idiom. + +This awakening was not confined to letters. Formerly the Swiss, instead +of appreciating the beauties of their own land, rather considered them +as impediments to the progress of civilization. It seems incredible to +us now that there ever could have been a time when mountain-scenery, +instead of being sought, was shunned,--when princes possessing the most +beautiful lands among the Rhine hills should, with great trouble +and expense, have transported their seats to some flat, uninviting +locality,--when, for instance, the dull, flat, prosy, wearisome gardens +of Schwetzingen should have been deemed more beautiful than the +immediate environs of Heidelberg. Yet such were the sentiments that +prevailed in Switzerland until a comparatively late date. It is only +since the days of Scheuchzer that Swiss scenery has been appreciated, +and in this appreciation were the germs of a new culture. + +As in Germany societies had been established "for the practice of +German" at Leipsic and Hamburg, so in various Swiss cities associations +were formed with the avowed purpose of discouraging the imitation of +French models. Thus, at Zuerich several literary young men, among them +Hagenbuch and Lavater, met at the house of the poet Bodmer. The example +was followed in other cities. Though these clubs and their periodical +organs soon fell into an unwarrantable admiration of all that was +English, the result was a gradual development of the national taste. +Since then the literary efforts of the Swiss have been characterized by +an ardent love of country. A direct popular influence may be felt in +their best productions; hence the nature of their many beauties, as well +as of their faults. To the same influence also we owe that phalanx of +reformers and philanthropists, Hirzel, Iselin, Lavater, and Pestalozzi. + +A great portion of the work under consideration is devoted to the lives +and labors of these benefactors of their people. The book is, therefore, +not a literary history in the strict sense of the term. It gives a +comprehensive view of the culture of German Switzerland during the +eighteenth century. To Bodmer alone one hundred and seventy-five pages +are devoted. In this essay, as well as in that on the historian Mueller, +a vast amount of information is presented, and many facts collated by +the author are now given, we believe, for the first time. + + +_Literaturbilder.--Darstellungen deutscher Literatur aus den Werken der +vorzueglichsten Literarhistoriker_, etc. Herausgegeben von J.W. SCHAEFER. +Leipzig: Friedrich Brandstetter. 8vo. pp. 409. + +There is no lack of German literary histories. While English letters +have not yet found an historian, there are scores of works upon every +branch of German literature. Of these, many possess rare merits, and are +characterized by a depth, a comprehensiveness of criticism not to be +found in the similar productions of any other nation. Whoever has once +been guided by the master-minds of Germany will bear witness that the +guidance cannot be replaced by that of any other class of writers. +Nowhere can such universality, such freedom from national prejudice, be +found,--and this united to a love of truth, earnestness of labor, and +perseverance of research that may be looked for in vain elsewhere. + +The difficulty for the student of German literary history lies, then, in +the selection. A new work, the "Literaturbilder" of J.W. Schaefer, will +greatly tend to facilitate the choice. This is a representation of +the chief points of the literature of Germany by means of well-chosen +selections from the principal historians of letters. The editor +introduces these by an essay upon the "Epochs of German Literature." +Then follow, with due regard to chronological order, extracts from the +works of Vilmar, Gervinus, Wackernagel, Schlosser, Julian Schmidt, and +others. These extracts are of such length as to give a fair idea of the +writers, and so arranged as to form a connected history. Thus, under +the third division, comprising the eighteenth century until Herder and +Goethe, we find the following articles following each other: "State of +Literature in the Eighteenth Century"; "Johann Christian Gottsched," by +F.C. Schlosser; "Gottsched's Attempts at Dramatic Reform," by R. Prutz; +"Hagedorn and Haller," by J.W. Schaefer; "Bodmer and Breitinger," by +A. Koberstein; "The Leipsic Association of Poets and the Bremen +Contributions," by Chr. F. Weisse; "German Literature in the Middle of +the Eighteenth Century," by Goethe; "Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener," by H. +Gelzer; "Gellert's Fables," by H. Prutz. Those who do not possess the +comprehensive works of Gervinus, Cholerius, Wackernagel, etc., may thus +in one volume find enough to be able to form a fair opinion of the +nature of their labors. + +The "Literaturbilder," though perhaps lacking in unity, is one of the +most attractive of literary histories. A few important names are missed, +as that of Menzel, from whom nothing is quoted. The omission seems the +more unwarrantable, as this writer, whatever we may think of his views, +still enjoys the highest consideration among a numerous class of German +readers. The contributions of the editor himself form no inconsiderable +part of the volume. Those quoted from his "Life of Goethe" deserve +special mention. The work does not extend beyond the first years of the +present century, and closes with Jean Paul. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Martin Chuzzlewit. In Four +Volumes. New York. Sheldon & Co. 16mo. pp. 322, 299, 292, 322. $3.00. + +The Earl's Heirs. A Tale of Domestic Life. By the Author of "East +Lynne," etc. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. +200. 50 cts. + +The Spirit of Military Institutions; or, Essential Principles of the Art +of War. By Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa. Translated from the Latest +Edition, revised and corrected by the Author; with Illustrative Notes +by Henry Coppee, Professor of English Literature in the University of +Pennsylvania, late an Officer of Artillery in the Service of the United +States. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 272. $1.00. + +Maxims, Advice, and Instructions on the Art of War; or, A Practical +Military Guide for the Use of Soldiers of all Arms and of all Countries. +Translated from the French by Captain Lendy, Director of the Practical +Military College, late of the French Staff, etc. New York. D. 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