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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:45 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:45 -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/12373-0.txt b/12373-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d3842f --- /dev/null +++ b/12373-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8352 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12373 *** + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. I--MARCH, 1858.--NO. V. + + * * * * * + + +THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. + + + --------parti elette + Di Roma, che son state cimitero + Alla milizia che Pietro seguette. + + PARADISO, c. ix. + +"Roma Sotterranea,"--the underground Rome of the dead,--the buried city +of graves. Sacred is the dust of its narrow streets. Blessed were those +who, having died for their faith, were laid to rest in its chambers. +_In pace_ is the epitaph that marks the places where they lie. +_In pace_ is the inscription which the imagination reads over the +entrance to the Christian Catacombs. + +Full as the upper city is of great and precious memories, it possesses +none greater and more precious than those which belong to the city under +ground. Republican Rome had no braver heroes than Christian Rome. The +ground and motives of action were changed, but the courage and devotion +of earlier times did not surpass the courage and devotion of later +days,--while a new spirit displayed itself in new and unexampled deeds, +and a new and brighter glory shone from them over the world. But, +unhappily, the stories of the early Christian centuries were taken +possession of by a Church which has sought in them the means of +enhancing her claims and increasing her power; mingling with them +falsehoods and absurdities, cherishing the wildest and most unnatural +traditions, inventing fictitious miracles, dogmatizing on false +assertions, until reasonable and thoughtful religious men have turned +away from the history of the first Christians in Rome with a sensation +of disgust, and with despair at the apparently inextricable confusion of +fact and fable concerning them. + +But within a few years the period to which these stories belong has +begun to be investigated with a new spirit, even at Rome itself, and in +the bosom of the Roman Church. It was no unreasonable expectation, that, +from a faithful and honest exploration of the catacombs, and examination +of the inscriptions and works of art in them or derived from them, more +light might be thrown upon the character, the faith, the feeling, and +the life of the early Christians at Rome, than from any other source +whatever. Results of unexpected interest have proved the justness of +this expectation. + +These results are chiefly due to the labors of two Romans, one a priest +and the other a layman, the Padre Marchi, and the Cavaliere de Rossi, +who have devoted themselves with the utmost zeal and with great ability +to the task of exploration. The present Pope, stimulated by the efforts +of these scholars, established some years since a Commission of Sacred +Archeology for the express purpose of forwarding the investigations +in the catacombs; and the French government, soon after its military +occupation of Rome, likewise established a commission for the purpose of +conducting independent investigations in the same field.[A] + +[Footnote A: In 1844, Padre Marchi published a series of numbers, +seventeen in all, of a work entitled _Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane +Primitive nella Metropol del Cristianesmo_. The numbers are in quarto, +and illustrated by many carefully executed plates. The work was never +completed; but it contains a vast amount of important information, +chiefly the result of Padre Marchi's own inquiries. The Cavaliere de +Rossi, still a young man, one of the most learned and accomplished +scholars of Italy, is engaged at present in editing all the Christian +inscriptions of the first six centuries. No part of this work has yet +appeared. He is the highest living authority on any question regarding +the catacombs. The work of the French Commission has been published at +Paris in the most magnificent style, in six imperial folio volumes, +under the title, _Catacombes de Rome_, etc., etc. _Par_ LOUIS PERRET. +_Ouvrage publié par Ordre et aux Frais du Gouvernement, sous la +Direction d'une Commission composée de_ MM. AMPERE, INGRES, MERIMÉE, +VITET. It consists of four volumes of elaborate colored plates of +architecture, mural paintings, and all works of art found in the +catacombs, with one volume of inscriptions, reduced in fac-simile from +the originals, and one volume of text. The work is of especial value as +regards the first period of Christian Art. Its chief defect is the want +of entire accuracy, in some instances, in its representations of the +mural paintings,--some outlines effaced in the original being filled out +in the copy, and some colors rendered too brightly. But notwithstanding +this defect, it is of first importance in illustrating the hitherto very +obscure history and character of early Christian Art.] + +The Roman catacombs consist for the most part of a subterranean +labyrinth of passages, cut through the soft volcanic rock of the +Campagna, so narrow as rarely to admit of two persons walking abreast +easily, but here and there on either side opening into chambers of +varying size and form. The walls of the passages, through their whole +extent, are lined with narrow excavations, one above another, large +enough to admit of a body being placed in each; and where they remain +in their original condition, these excavations are closed in front by +tiles, or by a slab of marble cemented to the rock, and in most cases +bearing an inscription. Nor is the labyrinth composed of passages upon a +single level only; frequently there are several stories, connected with +each other by sloping ways. + +There is no single circumstance, in relation to the catacombs, of more +striking and at first sight perplexing character than their vast extent. +About twenty different catacombs are now known and are more or less +open,--and a year is now hardly likely to pass without the discovery +of a new one; for the original number of underground cemeteries, as +ascertained from the early authorities, was nearly, if not quite, three +times this number. It is but a very few years since the entrance to the +famous catacomb of St. Callixtus, one of the most interesting of all, +was found by the Cavaliere de Rossi; and it was only in the spring +of 1855 that the buried church and catacomb of St. Alexander on the +Nomentan Way were brought to light. Earthquakes, floods, and neglect +have obliterated the openings of many of these ancient cemeteries,--and +the hollow soil of the Campagna is full "of hidden graves, which men +walk over without knowing where they are." + +Each of the twelve great highways which ran from the gates of Rome was +bordered on either side, at a short distance from the city wall, by the +hidden Christian cemeteries. The only one of the catacombs of which even +a partial survey has been made is that of St. Agnes, of a portion of +which the Padre Marchi published a map in 1845. "It is calculated to +contain about an eighth part of that cemetery. The greatest length of +the portion thus measured is not more than seven hundred feet, and its +greatest width about five hundred and fifty; nevertheless, if we measure +all the streets that it contains, their united length scarcely falls +short of two English miles. This would give fifteen or sixteen miles for +all the streets in the cemetery of St. Agnes."[B] Taking this as a fair +average of the size of the catacombs, for some are larger and some +smaller, we must assign to the streets of graves already known a total +length of about three hundred miles, with a probability that the unknown +ones are at least of equal length. This conclusion appears startling, +when one thinks of the close arrangement of the lines of graves along +the walls of these passages. The height of the passages varies greatly, +and with it the number of graves, one above another; but the Padre +Marchi, who is competent authority, estimates the average number at ten, +that is, five on each side, for every seven feet,--which would give a +population of the dead, for the three hundred miles, of not less than +two millions and a quarter. No one who has visited the catacombs can +believe, surprising as this number may seem, that the Padre Marchi's +calculation is an extravagant one as to the number of graves in a given +space. We have ourselves counted eleven graves, one over another, on +each side of the passage, and there is no space lost between the head +of one grave and the foot of another. Everywhere there is economy of +space,--the economy of men working on a hard material, difficult to be +removed, and laboring in a confined space, with the need of haste. + +[Footnote B: The foregoing extract is taken from a book by the Rev. J. +Spencer Northcote, called _The Roman Catacombs, or some Account of the +Burial-Places of the Early Christians in Rome_: London, 1857. It is the +best accessible manual in English,--the only one with any claims to +accuracy, and which contains the results of recent investigations. Mr. +Northcote is one of the learned band of converts from Oxford to Rome. A +Protestant may question some of the conclusions in his book, but not its +general fairness. Our own first introduction to the catacombs, in the +winter of 1856, was under Mr. Northcote's guidance, and much of our +knowledge of them was gained through him. Mr. Northcote estimates the +total length of the catacombs at nine hundred miles; we cannot but think +this too high.] + +This question of the number of the dead in the catacombs opens the way +to many other curious questions. The length of time that the catacombs +were used as burial-places; the probability of others, beside +Christians, being buried in them; the number of Christians at Rome +during the first two centuries, in comparison with the total number +of the inhabitants of the city; and how far the public profession +of Christianity was attended with peril in ordinary times at Rome, +previously to the conversion of Constantine, so as to require secret and +hasty burial of the dead;--these are points demanding solution, but of +which we will take up only those relating immediately to the catacombs. + +There can, of course, be no certainty with regard to the period when the +first Christian catacomb was begun at Rome,--but it was probably +within a few years after the first preaching of the Gospel there. The +Christians would naturally desire to separate themselves in burial from +the heathen, and to avoid everything having the semblance of pagan +rites. And what mode of sepulture so natural for them to adopt, in +the new and affecting circumstances of their lives, as that which was +already familiar to them in the account of the burial of their Lord? +They knew that he had been "wrapped in linen, and laid in a sepulchre +which was hewn out of a rock, and a stone had been rolled unto the door +of the sepulchre." They would be buried as he was. Moreover, there was +a general and ardent expectation among them of the second coming of the +Saviour; they believed it to be near at hand; and they believed also +that then the dead would be called from their graves, clothed once more +in their bodies, and that as Lazarus rose from the tomb at the voice of +his Master, so in that awful day when judgment should be passed upon the +earth their dead would rise at the call of the same beloved voice. + +But there were, in all probability, other more direct, though not more +powerful reasons, which led them to the choice of this mode of burial. +We read that the Saviour was buried--at least, the phrase appears +applicable to the whole account of his entombment ... "as the manner +of the Jews is to bury." The Jewish population at Rome in the early +imperial times was very large. They clung, as Jews have clung wherever +they have been scattered, to the memories and to the customs of their +country,--and that they retained their ancient mode of sepulture was +curiously ascertained by Bosio, the first explorer of the catacombs. +In the year 1602, he discovered a catacomb on what is called Monte +Verde,--the southern extremity of the Janiculum, outside the walls of +Rome, near to the Porta Portese. This gate is in the Transtiberine +district, and in this quarter of Rome the Jews dwelt. The catacomb +resembled in its general form and arrangements those which were of +Christian origin;--but here no Christian emblem was found. On the +contrary, the only emblems and articles that Bosio describes as having +been seen were plainly of Jewish origin. The seven-branched candlestick +was painted on the wall; the word "Synagogue" was read on a portion of +a broken inscription and the whole catacomb had an air of meanness and +poverty which was appropriate to the condition of the mass of the Jews +at Rome. It seemed to be beyond doubt that it was a Jewish cemetery. In +the course of years, through the changes in the external condition and +the cultivation of Monte Verde, the access to this catacomb has been +lost. Padre Marchi made ineffectual efforts a few years since to find +an entrance to it, and Bosio's account still remains the only one that +exists concerning it. Supposing the Jews to have followed this mode of +interment at Rome, it would have been a strong motive for its adoption +by the early Christians. The first converts in Rome, as St. Paul's +Epistle shows, were, in great part, from among the Jews. The Gentile and +the Jewish Christians made one community, and the Gentiles adopted the +manner of the Jews in placing their dead, "wrapped in linen cloths, in +new tombs hewn out of the rock." + +Believing, then, the catacombs to have been begun within a few years +after the first preaching of Christianity in Rome, there is abundant +evidence to prove that their construction was continued during the time +when the Church was persecuted or simply tolerated, and that they were +extended during a considerable time after Christianity became the +established creed of the empire. Indeed, several catacombs now known +were not begun until some time after Constantine's conversion.[C] They +continued to be used as burial-places certainly as late as the sixth +century. This use seems to have been given up at the time of the +frequent desolation of the land around the walls of Rome by the +incursions of barbarians, and the custom gradually discontinued was +never resumed. The catacombs then fell into neglect, were lost sight of, +and their very existence was almost forgotten. But during the first five +hundred years of our era they were the burial-places of a smaller or +greater portion of the citizens of Rome,--and as not a single church +of that time remains, they are, and contain in themselves, the most +important monuments that exist of the Christian history of Rome for all +that long period. + + +[Footnote C: For instance, about the middle of the fourth century, St. +Julius, then Pope, is said to have begun three. See Marchi's _Momumenti +delle Arti Cristiane_, p. 82.] + +It has been much the fashion during the last two centuries, among a +certain class of critics hostile to the Roman Church, and sometimes +hostile to Christianity, to endeavor to throw doubts on the fact of +this immense amount of underground work having been accomplished by the +Christians. It has been said that the catacombs were in part the work of +the heathen, and that the Christians made use of excavations which they +found ready to their hand. Such and other similar assertions have been +put forward with great confidence; but there is one overwhelming +and complete answer to all such doubts,--a visit to the catacombs +themselves. No skepticism can stand against such arguments as are +presented there. Every pathway is distinctly the work of Christian +hands; the whole subterranean city is filled with a host of the +Christian dead. But there are other convincing proofs of the character +of their makers. These are of a curiously simple description, and are +due chiefly to the investigations of late years. Nine tenths of the +catacombs now known are cut through one of the volcanic rocks which +abound in the neighborhood of Rome. Of the three chief varieties of +volcanic rock that exist there, this is the only one which is of little +use for purposes of art or trade. It could not have been quarried for +profit. It would not have been quarried, therefore, by the Romans, +except for the purposes of burial,--and the only inscriptions and other +indications of the character of the occupants of these burial-places +prove that they were Christian.[D] They are very different from the +sepulchres of the great and rich families of Rome, who lined the Appian, +the Nomentan, and Flaminian Ways with their tombs, even now magnificent +in ruin; very different, too, from the _columbaria_, or pigeon-holes, +in which the ashes of the less wealthy were packed away; and still more +different from the sad undistinguished ditch that received the bodies of +the poor:-- + + "Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum." + +[Footnote D: The volcanic rocks are the _Tufa litoide_, very hard, and +used for paving and other such purposes; difficult to be quarried, and +unfit for graves on account of this difficulty. The _Tufi granulare_, a +soft, friable, coarse-grained rock, easily cut,--fitted for excavation. +It is in this that the catacombs are made. It is used for very few +purposes in Rome. One may now and then see some coarse filling-up of +walls done with it, or its square-cut blocks piled up as a fence. The +third is the _Pura pozzolana_,--which is the _Tufa granulare_ in a state +of compact sand, yielding to the print of the heel, dug like sand, and +used extensively in the unsurpassed mortar of the Roman buildings.] + +It not unfrequently happens in the soil of the Campagna, that the vein +of harder rock in which the catacombs are quarried assumes the soft and +sandy character which belongs to it in a state of decomposition. The +ancient Romans dug this sand as the modern Romans do; and it seems +probable, from the fact that some of the catacombs open out into +_arenaria_, or sandpits, as in the case of the famous one of St. Agnes, +that the Christians, in time of persecution, when obliged to bury with +secresy, may have chosen a locality near some disused sandpit, or near a +sandpit belonging to one of their own number, for the easier concealment +of their work, and for the safer removal of the quarried tufa. In such +cases the tufa may have been broken down into the condition of sand for +removal. In later times, as the catacombs were extended, the tufa dug +out from one passage was carried into the old passages no longer used; +and thus, as the catacomb extended in one direction, it was closed up in +another, and the ancient graves were concealed. This is now one of the +great impediments in the way of modern exploration; and the same process +is being repeated at present; for the Church allows none of the earth or +stone to be removed that has been hallowed as the resting-place of the +martyrs, and thus, as one passage is now opened, another has to be +closed. The archaeologists may rebel, but the priests have their way. +The ancient filling up was, however, productive of one good result; it +preserved some of the graves from the rifling to which most were exposed +during the period of the desertion of the catacombs. Most of the graves +which are now found with their tiled or marble front complete, and with +the inscription of name or date upon them unbroken, are those which were +thus secluded. + +But there is still another curious fact bearing upon the Christian +origin of the catacombs. They are in general situated on somewhat +elevated land, and always on land protected from the overflow of the +river, and from the drainage of the hills. The early traditions of the +Church preserve the names of many Christians who gave land for the +purpose,--a portion of their _vignas_, or their villas. The names of the +women Priscilla, Cyriaca, and Lucina are honored with such remembrance, +and are attached to three of the catacombs. Sometimes a piece of land +was thus occupied which was surrounded by property belonging to those +who were not Christian. This seems to have been the case, for instance, +in regard to the cemetery of St. Callixtus; for (and this is one of +the recent discoveries of the Cavaliere de Rossi) the paths of this +cemetery, crossing and recrossing in three, four, and five stages, are +all limited to a definite and confined area,--and this area is not +determined by the quality of the ground, but apparently by the limits of +the field overhead. There can be no other probable explanation of this +but that Christians would not extend their burial-place under land that +was not in their possession. Many other facts, as we shall see in other +connections, go to establish beyond the slightest doubt the Christian +origin and occupation of the catacombs. + +Descending from the level of the ground by a flight of steps into one of +the narrow underground passages, one sees on either side, by the light +of the taper with which he is provided, range upon range of tombs cut, +as has been described, in the walls that border the pathway. Usually the +arrangement is careful, but with an indiscriminate mingling of larger +and smaller graves, as if they had been made one after another for young +and old, according as they might be brought for burial. Now and then a +system of regularity is introduced, as if the _fossor_, or digger, who +was a recognized officer of the early Church, had had the leisure for +preparing graves before they were needed. Here, there is a range of +little graves for the youngest children, so that all infants should be +laid together, then a range for older children, and then one for the +grown up. Sometimes, instead of a grave suitable for a single body, the +excavation is made deep enough into the rock to admit of two, three, or +four bodies being placed side by side,--family graves. And sometimes, +instead of the simple _loculus_, or coffin-like excavation, there is +an arch cut out of the tufa, and sunk back over the whole depth of the +grave, the outer side of which is not cut away, so that, instead of +being closed in front by a perpendicular slab of marble or by tiles, it +is covered on the top by a horizontal slab. Such a grave is called an +_arcosolium_, and its somewhat elaborate construction leads to the +conclusion that it was rarely used in the earliest period of the +catacombs[E]. The _arcosolia_ are usually wide enough for more than +one body; and it would seem, from inscriptions that have been found upon +their covering-slabs, that they were not infrequently prepared during +the lifetime of persons who had paid beforehand for their graves. It is +not improbable that the expenses of some one or more of the cemeteries +may have been borne by the richer members of the Christian community, +for the sake of their poorer brothers in the faith. The example of +Nicodemus was one that would be readily followed. + +[Footnote E: There is one puzzling circumstance in the cemetery of S. +Domitilla. _All_ the graves in this cemetery are _arcosolia_, and yet +the date of construction is early. The Cavaliere de Rossi suggests that +the cemetery was begun at the expense of the Domitilla whose name it +bears, the niece of Domitian, previously to her banishment; that her +position enabled her to have it laid out from the beginning on a regular +plan, and to introduce this more expensive and elaborate form of +grave, which was continued for the sake of uniformity in the later +excavations.] + +But beside the different forms of the graves, by which their general +character was varied, there were often personal marks of affection +and remembrance affixed to the narrow excavations, which give to the +catacombs their most peculiar and touching interest. The marble facing +of the tomb is engraved with a simple name or date; or where tiles take +the place of marble, the few words needed are scratched upon their hard +surface. It is not too much to say that we know more of the common faith +and feeling, of the sufferings and rejoicings of the Christians of the +first two centuries from these inscriptions than from all other sources +put together. In another paper we propose to treat more fully of them. +As we walk along the dark passage, the eye is caught by the gleam of a +little flake of glass fastened in the cement which once held the closing +slab before the long since rifled grave. We stop to look at it. It is a +broken bit from the bottom of a little jar (_ampulla_); but that little +glass jar once held the drops of a martyr's blood, which had been +carefully gathered up by those who learned from him how to die, and +placed here as a precious memorial of his faith. The name of the martyr +was perhaps never written on his grave; if it were ever there, it has +been lost for centuries; but the little dulled bit of glass, as it +catches the rays of the taper borne through the silent files of graves, +sparkles and gleams with a light and glory not of this world. There are +other graves in which martyrs have lain, where no such sign as this +appears, but in its place the rude scratching of a palm-branch upon the +rock or the plaster. It was the sign of victory, and he who lay within +had conquered. The great rudeness in the drawing of the palm, often as +if, while the mortar was still wet, the mason had made the lines upon it +with his trowel, is a striking indication of the state of feeling at the +time when the grave was made. There was no pomp or parade; possibly the +burial of him or of her who had died for the faith was in secret; those +who carried the corpse of their beloved to the tomb were, perhaps, in +this very act, preparing to follow his steps,--were, perhaps, preparing +themselves for his fate. Their thoughts were with their Lord, and with +his disciple who had just suffered for his sake,--with their Saviour who +was coming so soon. What matter to put a name on the tomb? They could +not forget where they had laid the torn and wearied limbs away. _In +pace_, they would write upon the stone; a palm branch should be marked +in the mortar, the sign of suffering and triumph. Their Lord would +remember his servant. Was not his blood crying to God from the ground? +And could they doubt that the Lord would also protect and avenge? In +those first days there was little thought of relics to be carried +away,--little thought of material suggestions to the dull imagination, +and pricks to the failing memory. The eternal truths of their religion +were too real to them; their faith was too sincere; their belief in the +actual union of heaven and earth, and of the presence of God with them +in the world, too absolute to allow them to feel the need of that lower +order of incitements which are the resort of superstition, ignorance, +and conventionalism in religion. In the earlier burials, no differences, +save the ampulla and the palm, or some equally slight sign, +distinguished the graves of the martyrs from those of other Christians. + +It is not to be supposed that the normal state of the Christian +community in Rome, during the first three centuries, was that of +suffering and alarm. A period of persecution was the exception to long +courses of calm years. Undoubtedly, during most of the time, the faith +was professed under restraint, and possibly with a sense of insecurity +which rendered it attractive to ardent souls, and preserved something +of its first sincerity. It must be remembered that the first Christian +converts were mostly from among the poorer classes, and that, however +we might have admired their virtues, we might yet have been offended by +much that was coarse and unrefined in the external exhibitions of their +religion. The same features which accompany the religious manifestations +of the uncultivated in our own days, undoubtedly, with somewhat +different aspect, presented themselves at Rome. The enthusiasms, +the visions, the loud preaching and praying, the dull iteration and +reiteration of inspired truth till all the inspiration is driven out, +were all probably to be heard and witnessed in the early Christian days +at Rome. Not all the converts were saints,--and none of them were +such saints as the Catholic painters of the last three centuries have +prostituted Art and debased Religion in producing. The real St. Cecilia +stood in the beauty of holiness before the disciples at Rome far purer +and lovelier than Raphael has painted her. Domenichino has outraged +every feeling of devotion, every sense of truth, every sympathy for the +true suffering of the women who were cruelly murdered for their faith, +in his picture of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes. It is difficult to destroy +the effect that has been produced upon one's own heart by these and +innumerable other pictures of declining Art,--pictures honored by the +Roman Church of to-day,--and to bring up before one's imagination, in +vivid, natural, and probable outline, the life and form of the converts, +saints, and martyrs of the first centuries. If we could banish all +remembrance of all the churches and all the pictures contained in them, +built and painted, since the fourteenth century, we might hope to gain +some better view of the Christians who lived above the catacombs, and +were buried in them. It is from the catacombs that we must seek all that +is left to enable us to construct the image that we desire. + +On other graves beside those of the martyrs there are often found some +little signs by which they could be easily recognized by the friends who +might wish to visit them again. Sometimes there is the impression of a +seal upon the mortar; sometimes a ring or coin is left fastened into +it; often a _terra-cotta_ lamp is set in the cement at the head of the +grave. Touching, tender memorials of love and piety! Few are left now in +the opened catacombs, but here and there one may be seen in its original +place,--the visible sign of the sorrow and the faith of those who +seventeen or eighteen centuries ago rested upon that support on which we +rest to-day, and found it, in hardest trial, unfailing. + +But the galleries of the catacombs are not wholly occupied with graves. +Now and then they open on either side into chambers (_cubicula_) of +small dimension and of various form, scooped out of the rock, and +furnished with graves around their sides,--the burial-place arranged +beforehand for some large family, or for certain persons buried with +special honor. Other openings in the rock are designed for chapels, in +which the burial and other services of the Church were performed. These, +too, are of various sizes and forms; the largest of them would hold but +a small number of persons;[F] but not unfrequently two stand opposite +each other on the passage-way, as if one were for the men and the other +for the women who should be present at the services. Entering the chapel +through a narrow door whose threshold is on a level with the path, we +see at the opposite side a recess sunk in the rock, often semicircular, +like the apsis of a church, and in this recess an _arcosolium_,--which +served at the same time as the grave of a martyr and as the altar of the +little chapel. It seems, indeed, as if in many cases the chapel had been +formed not so much for the general purpose of holding religious service +within the catacombs, as for that of celebrating worship over the +remains of the martyr whose body had been transferred from its original +grave to this new tomb. It was thus that the custom, still prevalent +in the Roman Church, of requiring that some relics shall be contained +within an altar before it is held to be consecrated, probably began. +Perhaps it was with some reference to that portion of the Apocalypse in +which St. John says, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were +slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And +they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, +dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the +earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was +said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until +their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as +they were should be fulfilled."[G] At any rate, these words must have +dwelt in the memories of the Christians who came to worship God in the +presence of the dead by whom they were surrounded in the catacombs. But +they knelt before the altar-tombs, not as before altars consecrated with +relics of saints, but as before altars dedicated to God and connected +with the memory of their own honored and beloved dead, whom he had +called from them into his holy presence. + +[Footnote F: These chapels are generally about ten feet square. Some are +larger, and a few smaller than this.] + +[Footnote G: Revelations, vi. 9-11. It seems probable that another +custom of the Roman Church took its rise in the catacombs,--that of +burning candles on the altar; a custom simple in its origin, now turned +into a form of superstition, and often abused to the profit of priests.] + +It is impossible to ascertain the date at which these chapels were first +made; probably some time about the middle of the second century they +became common. In many of the catacombs they are very numerous, and it +is in them that the chief ornaments and decorations, and the paintings +which give to the catacombs an especial value and importance in the +history of Art, and which are among the most interesting illustrations +of the state of religious feeling and belief in the early centuries, are +found. Some of the chapels are known to be of comparatively late date, +of the fourth and perhaps of the fifth century. In several even of +earlier construction is found, in addition to the altar, a niche cut out +in the rock, or a ledge projecting from it, which seems to have been +intended to serve the place of the credence table, for holding the +articles used in the service of the altar, and at a later period for +receiving the elements before they were handed to the priest for +consecration. The earliest services in the catacombs were undoubtedly +those connected with the communion of the Lord's Supper. The mystery +of the mass and the puzzles of transubstantiation had not yet been +introduced among the believers; but all who had received baptism as +followers of Christ, all save those who had fallen away into open and +manifest sin, were admitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. Possibly +upon some occasions these chapels may have been filled with the sounds +of exhortation and lamentation. In the legends of the Roman Church we +read of large numbers of Christians being buried alive, in time of +persecution, in these underground chambers where they had assembled for +worship and for counsel. But we are not aware of any proof of the truth +of these stories having been discovered in recent times. This, and +many other questionable points in the history and in the uses of the +catacombs, may be solved by the investigations which are now proceeding; +and it is fortunate for the interests, not only of truth, but of +religion, that so learned and so honest-minded a man as the Cavaliere de +Rossi should have the direction of these explorations. + +Few of the chapels that are to be seen now in the catacombs are in their +original condition. As time went on, and Christianity became a corrupt +and imperial religion, the simple truths which had sufficed for the +first Christians were succeeded by doctrines less plain, but more +adapted to touch cold and materialized imaginations, and to inflame dull +hearts. The worship of saints began, and was promoted by the heads of +the Church, who soon saw how it might be diverted to the purposes of +personal and ecclesiastical aggrandizement. Consequently the martyrs +were made into a hierarchy of saintly protectors of the strayed flock of +Christ, and round their graves in the catacombs sprang up a harvest of +tales, of visions, of miracles, and of superstitions. As the Church sank +lower and lower, as the need of a heavenly advocate with God was more +and more impressed upon the minds of the Christians of those days, the +idea seems to have arisen that neighborhood of burial to the grave of +some martyr might be an effectual way to secure the felicity of the +soul. Consequently we find in these chapels that the later Christians, +those perhaps of the fifth and sixth centuries, disregarding the +original arrangements, and having lost all respect for the Art, and all +reverence for the memorial pictures which made the walls precious, were +often accustomed to cut out graves in the walls above and around the +martyr's tomb, and as near as possible to it. The instances are numerous +in which pictures of the highest interest have been thus ruthlessly +defaced. No sacredness of subject could resist the force of the +superstition; and we remember one instance where, in a picture of which +the part that remains is of peculiar interest, the body of the Good +Shepherd has been cut through for the grave of a child,--so that only +the feet and a part of the head of the figure remain. + +There is little reason for supposing, as has frequently been done, that +the catacombs, even in times of persecution, afforded shelter to any +large body of the faithful. Single, specially obnoxious, or timid +individuals, undoubtedly, from time to time, took refuge in them, and +may have remained within them for a considerable period. Such at least +is the story, which we see no reason to question, in regard to several +of the early Popes. But no large number of persons could have existed +within them. The closeness of the air would very soon have rendered life +insupportable; and supposing any considerable number had collected near +the outlet, where a supply of fresh air could have reached them, the +difficulty of obtaining food and of concealing their place of retreat +would have been in most instances insurmountable. The catacombs were +always places for the few, not for the many; for the few who followed +a body to the grave; for the few who dug the narrow, dark passages in +which not many could work; for the few who came to supply the needs of +some hunted and hidden friend; for the few who in better times assembled +to join in the service commemorating the last supper of their Lord. + +It is difficult, as we have said before, to clear away the obscuring +fictions of the Roman Church from the entrance of the catacombs; but +doing this so far as with our present knowledge may be done, we find +ourselves entering upon paths that bring us into near connection and +neighborhood with the first followers of the founders of our faith at +Rome. The reality which is given to the lives of the Christians of the +first centuries by acquaintance with the memorials that they have left +of themselves here quickens our feeling for them into one almost of +personal sympathy. "Your obedience is come abroad unto all men," wrote +St. Paul to the first Christians of Rome. The record of that obedience +is in the catacombs. And in the vast labyrinth of obscure galleries one +beholds and enters into the spirit of the first followers of the Apostle +to the Gentiles. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE NEST. + + + MAY. + + When oaken woods with buds are pink, + And new-come birds each morning sing,-- + When fickle May on Summer's brink + Pauses, and knows not which to fling, + Whether fresh bud and bloom again, + Or hoar-frost silvering hill and plain,-- + + Then from the honeysuckle gray + The oriole with experienced quest + Twitches the fibrous bark away, + The cordage of his hammock-nest,-- + Cheering his labor with a note + Rich as the orange of his throat. + + High o'er the loud and dusty road + The soft gray cup in safety swings, + To brim ere August with its load + Of downy breasts and throbbing wings, + O'er which the friendly elm-tree heaves + An emerald roof with sculptured eaves. + + Below, the noisy World drags by + In the old way, because it must,-- + The bride with trouble in her eye, + The mourner following hated dust: + Thy duty, winged flame of Spring, + Is but to love and fly and sing. + + Oh, happy life, to soar and sway + Above the life by mortals led, + Singing the merry months away, + Master, not slave of daily bread, + And, when the Autumn comes, to flee + Wherever sunshine beckons thee! + + + PALINODE.--DECEMBER. + + Like some lorn abbey now, the wood + Stands roofless in the bitter air; + In ruins on its floor is strewed + The carven foliage quaint and rare, + And homeless winds complain along + The columned choir once thrilled with song. + + And thou, dear nest, whence joy and praise + The thankful oriole used to pour, + Swing'st empty while the north winds chase + Their snowy swarms from Labrador: + But, loyal to the happy past, + I love thee still for what thou wast. + + Ah, when the Summer graces flee + From other nests more dear than thou, + And, where June crowded once, I see + Only bare trunk and disleaved bough, + When springs of life that gleamed and gushed + Run chilled, and slower, and are hushed,-- + + I'll think, that, like the birds of Spring, + Our good goes not without repair, + But only flies to soar and sing + Far off in some diviner air, + Where we shall find it in the calms + Of that fair garden 'neath the palms. + + * * * * * + + +EBEN JACKSON. + + + Fear no more the heat o' the sun, + Nor the furious winter's rages; + Thou thine earthly task hast done. + +The large tropical moon rose in full majesty over the Gulf of Mexico, +that beneath it rolled a weltering surge of silver, which broke upon the +level sand of the beach with a low, sullen roar, prophetic of storms to +come. To-night a south wind was heavily blowing over Gulf and prairie, +laden with salt odors of weed and grass, now and then crossed by a +strain of such perfume as only tropic breezes know,--a breath of heavy, +passionate sweetness from orange-groves and rose gardens, mixed with the +miasmatic sighs of rank forests, and mile on mile of tangled cane-brake, +where jewel-tinted snakes glitter and emit their own sickly-sweet odor, +and the deep blue bells of luxuriant vines wave from their dusky censers +steams of poisonous incense. + +I endured the influence of all this as long as I dared, and then turned +my pony's head from the beach, and, loitering through the city's hot +streets, touched him into a gallop as the prairie opened before us, and +followed the preternatural, colossal shadow of horse and man east by the +moon across the dry dull grass and bitter yellow chamomile growth of +the sand, till I stopped at the office door of the Hospital, when, +consigning my horse to a servant, I commenced my nightly round of the +wards. + +There were but few patients just now, for the fever had not yet made +its appearance, and until within a week the unwontedly clear and cool +atmosphere had done the work of the physician. Most of the sick were +doing well enough without me; some few needed and received attention; +and these disposed of, I betook myself to the last bed in one of the +long wards, quite apart from the others, which was occupied by a sailor, +a man originally from New England, whose hard life and continual +exposure to all climates and weathers had at length resulted in slow +tubercular consumption. + +It was one of the rare cases of this disease not supervening upon an +original strumous diathesis, and, had it been properly cared for in the +beginning, might have been cured. Now there was no hope; but the case +being a peculiar and interesting one, I kept a faithful record of its +symptoms and progress for publication. Besides, I liked the man; rugged +and hardy by nature, it was curious to see what strange effects a long, +wasting, and painful disease produced upon him. At first he could not be +persuaded to be quiet; the muscular energies were still unaffected, and, +with continual hemorrhage from the lungs, he could not understand that +work or exercise could hurt him. But as the disease gained ground, its +characteristic languor unstrung his force; the hard and sinewy limbs +became attenuated and relaxed; his breath labored; a hectic fever burnt +in his veins like light flame every afternoon, and subsided into chilly +languor toward morning; profuse night-sweats increased the weakness; and +as he grew feebler, offering of course less resistance to the febrile +symptoms, they were exacerbated, till at times a slight delirium showed +itself; and so, without haste or delay, he "made for port," as he said. + +His name was Eben Jackson, and the homely appellation was no way belied +by his aspect. He never could have been handsome, and now fifteen +years of rough-and-tumble life had left their stains and scars on his +weather-beaten visage, whose only notable features were the deep-set +eyes retreating under shaggy brows, that looked one through and through +with the keen glance of honest instinct; while a light tattooing of red +and blue on either cheek-bone added an element of the grotesque to his +homeliness. He was a natural and simple man, with whom conventionalities +and the world's scale went for nothing,--without vanity as without +guile.--But it is best to let him speak for himself. I found him that +night very feverish, yet not wild at all. + +"Hullo, Doctor!" said he, "I'm all afire! I've ben thinkin' about my old +mother's humstead up to Simsbury, and the great big well to the back +door; how I used to tilt that 'are sweep up, of a hot day, till the +bucket went 'way down to the bottom and come up drippin' over,--such +cold, clear water! I swear, I'd give all Madagascar for a drink on't!" + +I called the nurse to bring me a small basket of oranges I had sent out +in the morning, expressly for this patient, and squeezing the juice from +one of them on a little bit of ice, I held it to his lips, and he drank +eagerly. + +"That's better for you than water, Jackson," said I. + +"I dunno but 'tis, Doctor; I dunno but 'tis; but there a'n't nothin' +goes to the spot like that Simsbury water. You ha'n't never v'yaged to +them parts, have ye?" + +"Bless you, yes, man! I was born and brought up in Hartford, just over +the mountain, and I've been to Simsbury, fishing, many a time." + +"Good Lord! _You_ don't never desert a feller, ef the ship _is_ a-goin' +down!" fervently ejaculated Eben, looking up as he did sometimes in his +brief delirium, when he said the Lord's Prayer, and thought his mother +held his folded hands; but this was no delirious aspiration. He went +on:-- + +"You see, Doctor, I've had somethin' in the hold a good spell't I wanted +to break bulk on, but I didn't know as I ever was goin' to see a shipmet +agin; and now you've jined convoy jist in time, for Davy Jones's a'n't +fur off. Are you calculatin' to go North afore long?" + +"Yes, I mean to go next spring," said I. + +Jackson began to fumble with weak and trembling hands about his throat, +to undo his shirt-collar,--he would not let me help him,--and presently, +flushed and panting from the effort, he drew out a length of delicate +Panama chain fastened rudely together by a link of copper wire, and +suspended on it a little old-fashioned ring of reddish gold, twisted of +two wires, and holding a very small dark garnet. Jackson looked at it as +I have seen many a Catholic look at his reliquary in mortal sickness. + +"Well," said he, "I've carried that 'are gimcrack nigh twenty long year +round my old scrag, and when I'm sunk I want you to take it off, Doctor. +Keep it safe till you go to Connecticut, and then some day take a tack +over to Simsbury. Don't ye go through the Gap, but go 'long out on +the turnpike over the mountain, and down t'other side to Avon, and so +nor'ard till jist arter you git into Simsbury town you see an old red +house 'longside o' the mountain, with a big ellum-tree afore the door, +and a stone well to the side on't. Go 'long in and ask for Hetty Buel, +and give her that 'are thing, and tell her where you got it, and that I +ha'n't never forgot to wish her well allus, though I couldn't write to +her." + +There was Eben Jackson's romance! It piqued my curiosity. The poor +fellow was wakeful and restless,--I knew he would not sleep, if I left +him,--and I encouraged him to go on talking. + +"I will, Jackson, I promise you. But wouldn't it be better for you to +tell me something about where you have been all these long years? Your +friends will like to know." + +His eye brightened; he was like all the rest of us, pleased with any +interest taken in him and his; he turned over on his pillow, and I +lifted him into a half-sitting position. + +"That's ship-shape, Doctor! I don't know but what I had oughter spin a +yarn for you; I'm kinder on a watch to-night; and Hetty won't never know +what I did do, if I don't send home the log 'long 'i' the cargo. + +"Well, you see I was born in them parts, down to Canton, where father +belonged; but mother was a Simsbury woman, and afore I was long-togged, +father he moved onter the old humstead up to Simsbury, when gran'ther +Peck died. Our farm was right 'longside o' Miss Buel's; you'll see't +when you go there; but there a'n't nobody there now. Mother died afore +I come away, and lies safe to the leeward o' Simsbury meetin'-house. +Father he got a stroke a spell back, and he couldn't farm it; so he sold +out and went West, to Parmely Larkum's, my sister's, to live. But I +guess the house is there, and that old well.--How etarnal hot it's +growin'! Doctor, give me a drink! + +"Well, as I was tellin', I lived there next to Miss Buel's, and Hetty'n' +I went to deestrict-school together, up to the cross-roads. We used to +hev' ovens in the sand together, and roast apples an' ears of corn in +'em; and we used to build cubby-houses, and fix 'em out with broken +chiny and posies. I swan 't makes me feel curus when I think what +children du contrive to get pleased, and likewise riled about! One day I +rec'lect Hetty'd stepped onto my biggest clam-shell and broke it, and +I up and hit her a switch right across her pretty lips. Now you'd 'a' +thought she would cry and run, for she wasn't bigger than a baby, much; +but she jest come up and put her little fat arms round my neck, and +says,-- + +"'I'm so sorry, Eben!' + +"And that's Hetty Buel! I declare I was beat, and I hav'n't never got +over bein' beat about that. So we growed up together, always out in the +woods between schools, huntin' checker-berries, and young winter-greens, +and prince's piney, and huckleberries, and saxifrax, and birch, and all +them woodsy things that children hanker arter; and by-'n'-by we got to +goin' to the 'Cademy; and when Hetty was seventeen she went in to +Hartford to her Aunt Smith's for a spell, to do chores, and get a little +Seminary larnin', and I went to work on the farm; and when she come +home, two year arter, she was growed to be a young woman, and though I +was five year older'n her, I was as sheepish a land-lubber as ever got +stuck a-goin' to the mast-head, whenever I sighted her. + +"She wasn't very much for looks neither; she had black eyes, and she +was pretty behaved; but she wasn't no gret for beauty, anyhow, only +I thought the world of her, and so did her old grandmother;--for her +mother died when she wa'n't but two year old, and she lived to old Miss +Buel's 'cause her father had married agin away down to Jersey. + +"Arter a spell I got over bein' so mighty sheepish about Hetty; her +ways was too kindly for me to keep on that tack. We took to goin' to +singin'-school together; then I always come home from quiltin'-parties +and conference-meetin's with her, because 'twas handy, bein' right next +door; and so it come about that I begun to think of settlin' down for +life, and that was the start of all my troubles. I couldn't take the +home farm; for 'twas such poor land, father could only jest make a live +out on't for him and me. Most of it was pastur', gravelly land, full of +mullens and stones; the rest was principally woodsy,--not hickory, nor +oak neither, but hemlock and white birches, that a'n't of no account +for timber nor firing, 'longside of the other trees. There was a little +strip of a medder-lot, and an orchard up on the mountain, where we used +to make redstreak cider that beat the Dutch; but we hadn't pastur' land +enough to keep more'n two cows, and altogether I knew 'twasn't any use +to think of bringin' a family on to't. So I wrote to Parmely's husband, +out West, to know about Government lands, and what I could do ef I was +to move out there and take an allotment; and gettin' an answer every way +favorable, I posted over to Miss Buel's one night arter milkin' to tell +Hetty. She was settin' on the south door-step, braidin' palm-leaf; and +her grandmother was knittin' in her old chair, a little back by the +window. Sometimes, a-lyin' here on my back, with my head full o' sounds, +and the hot wind and the salt sea-smell a-comin' in through the winders, +and the poor fellers groanin' overhead, I get clear away back to that +night, so cool and sweet; the air full of treely smells, dead leaves +like, and white-blows in the ma'sh below; and wood-robins singin' clear +fine whistles in the woods; and the big sweet-brier by the winder +all a-flowered out; and the drippin' little beads of dew on the +clover-heads; and the tinklin' sound of the mill-dam down to Squire +Turner's mill. + +"I set down by Hetty; and the old woman bein' as deaf as a post, it was +as good as if I'd been there alone. So I mustered up my courage, that +was sinkin' down to my boots, and told Hetty my plans, and asked her to +go along. She never said nothin' for a minute; she flushed all up as red +as a rose, and I see her little fingers was shakin', and her eye-winkers +shiny and wet; but she spoke presently, and said,-- + +"'I can't, Eben!' + +"I was shot betwixt wind and water then, I tell you, Doctor! 'Twa'n't +much to be said, but I've allers noticed afloat that real dangersome +squalls comes on still; there's a dumb kind of a time in the air, the +storm seems to be waitin' and holdin' its breath, and then a little +low whisper of wind,--a cat's paw we call't,--and then you get it real +'arnest. I'd rather she'd have taken on, and cried, and scolded, than +have said so still, 'I can't, Eben.' + +"'Why not, Hetty?' says I. + +"'I ought not to leave grandmother,' said she. + +"I declare, I hadn't thought o' that! Miss Buel was a real infirm woman +without kith nor kin, exceptin' Hetty; for Jason Buel he'd died down to +Jersey long before; and she hadn't means. Hetty nigh about kept 'em both +since Miss Buel had grown too rheumatic to make cheese and see to the +hens and cows, as she used to. They didn't keep any men-folks now, nor +but one cow; Hetty milked her, and drove her to pastur', and fed the +chickens, and braided hats, and did chores. The farm was all sold off; +'twas poor land, and didn't fetch much; but what there was went to keep +'em in vittles and firin'. I guess Hetty 'arnt most of what they lived +on, arter all. + +"'Well,' says I, after a spell of thinkin', 'can't she go along too, +Hetty?' + +"'Oh, no, Eben! she's too old; she never could get there, and she never +could live there. She says very often she wouldn't leave Simsbury for +gold untold; she was born here, and she's bound to die here. I know she +wouldn't go.' + +"'Ask her, Hetty!' + +"'No, it wouldn't be any use; it would only fret her always to think I +staid at home for her, and you know she can't do without me.' + +"'No more can't I,' says I. 'Do you love her the best, Hetty?' + +"I was kinder sorry I'd said that; for she grew real white, and I could +see by her throat she was chokin' to keep down somethin'. Finally she +said,-- + +"'That isn't for me to say, Eben. If it was right for me to go with you, +I should be glad to; but you know I can't leave grandmother.' + +"Well, Doctor, I couldn't say no more. I got up to go. Hetty put down +her work and walked to the big ellum by the gate with me. I was most too +full to speak, but I catched her up and kissed her soft little tremblin' +lips, and her pretty eyes, and then I set off for home as if I was goin' +to be hanged. + +"Young folks is obstreperous, Doctor. I've been a long spell away from +Hetty, and I don't know as I should take on so now. That night I never +slept. I lay kickin' and tumblin' all night, and before mornin' I'd +resolved to quit Simsbury, and go seek my fortin' beyond seas, hopin' +to come back to Hetty, arter all, with riches to take care on her right +there in the old place. You'd 'a' thought I might have had some kind of +feelin' for my old father, after seein' Hetty's faithful ways; but I was +a man and she was a woman, and I take it them is two different kind o' +craft. Men is allers for themselves first, an' Devil take the hindmost; +but women lives in other folks's lives, and ache, and work, and endure +all sorts of stress o' weather afore they'll quit the ship that's got +crew and passengers aboard. + +"I never said nothin' to father,--I couldn't 'a' stood no jawin',--but +I made up my kit, an' next night slung it over my shoulder, and tramped +off. I couldn't have gone without biddin' Hetty goodbye; so I stopped +there, and told her what I was up to, and charged her to tell father. + +"She tried her best to keep me to home, but I was sot in my way; so when +she found that out, she run up stairs an' got a little Bible, and made +me promise I'd read it sometimes, and then she pulled that 'are little +ring off her finger and give it to me to keep. + +"'Eben,' says she, 'I wish you well always, and I sha'n't never forget +you!' + +"And then she put up her face to me, as innocent as a baby, to kiss me +goodbye. I see she choked up when I said the word, though, and I said, +kinder laughin',-- + +"'I hope you'll get a better husband than me, Hetty!' + +"I swear! she give me a look like the judgment-day, and stoopin' +down she pressed her lips onto that ring, and says she, 'That is my +weddin'-ring, Eben!' and goes into the house as still and white as a +ghost; and I never see her again, nor never shall.--Oh, Doctor! give me +a drink!" + +I lifted the poor fellow, fevered and gasping, to an easier position, +and wet his hot lips with fresh orange-juice. + +"Stop, now, Jackson!" said I, "you are tired." + +"No, I a'n't, Doctor! No, I a'n't! I'm bound to finish now. But Lord +deliver us! look there! one of the Devil's own imps, I b'lieve!" + +I looked on the little deal stand where I had set the candle, and there +stood one of the quaint, evil-looking insects that infest the island, a +praying Mantis. Raised up against the candle, with its fore-legs in the +attitude of supplication that gives it the name, its long green body +relieved on the white stearin, it was eyeing Jackson, with its head +turned first on one side and then on the other, in the most elvish and +preternatural way. Presently it moved upward, stuck one of its fore-legs +cautiously into the flame, burnt it of course and drew it back, eyed it, +first from one angle, then from another, with deliberate investigation, +and at length conveyed the injured member to its mouth and sucked it +steadily, resuming its stare of blank scrutiny at my patient, who did +not at all fancy the interest taken in him. + +I could not help laughing at the strange manoeuvres of the creature, +familiar as I was with them. + +"It is only one of our Texan bugs, Jackson," said I; "it is harmless +enough." + +"It's got a pesky look, though, Doctor! I thought I'd seen enough curus +creturs in the Marquesas, but that beats all!" + +Seeing the insect really irritated and annoyed him, I put it out of the +window, and turned the blinds closely to prevent its reëntrance, and he +went on with his story. + +"So I tramped it to Hartford that night, got a lodgin' with a first +cousin I had there, worked my passage to Boston in a coaster, and after +hangin' about Long Wharf day in and day out for a week, I was driv' to +ship myself aboard of a whaler, the Lowisy Miles, Twist, cap'en; and I +writ from there to Hetty, so't she could know my bearin's so fur, and +tell my father. + +"It would take a week, Doctor, to tell you what a rough-an'-tumble time +I had on that 'are whaler. There's a feller's writ a book about v'yagin' +afore the mast that'll give ye an idee on't; he had an eddication so't +he could set it off, and I fell foul of his book down to Valparaiso +more'n a year back, and I swear I wanted to shake hands with him. I +heerd he was gone ashore somewheres down to Boston, and hed cast anchor +for good. But I tell you he's a brick, and what he said's gospel truth. +I thought I'd got to hell afore my time when we see blue water. I didn't +have no peace exceptin' times when I was to the top, lookin' out for +spouters; then I'd get nigh about into the clouds that was allers +a-hangin' down close to the sea mornin' and night, all kinds of colors, +red an' purple an' white; and 'stead of thinkin' o' whales, I'd get my +head full o' Simsbury, and get a precious knock with the butt end of a +handspike when I come down, 'cause I'd never sighted a whale till arter +they see'd it on deck. + +"We was bound to the South Seas after sperm whales, but we was eight +months gettin' there, and we took sech as we could find on the way. +The cap'en he scooted round into one port an' another arter his own +business,--down to Caraccas, into Rio; and when we'd rounded the Horn +and was nigh about dead of cold an' short rations, and hadn't killed but +three whales, we put into Valparaiso to get vittled, and there I laid +hold o' this little trinket of a chain, and spliced Hetty's ring on +to't, lest I should be stranded somewheres and get rid of it onawares. + +"We cruised about in them seas a good year or more, with poor luck, and +the cap'en growin' more and more outrageous continually. Them waters +aren't like the Gulf, Doctor,--nor like the Northern Ocean, nohow; there +a'n't no choppin' seas there, but a great, long, everlasting lazy swell, +that goes rollin' and fallin' away like the toll of a big bell, in +endless blue rollers; and the trades blow through the sails like +singin', as warm and soft as if they blowed right out o' sunshiny +gardens; and the sky's as blue as summer all the time, only jest round +the dip on't there's allers a hull fleet o' hazy round-topped clouds, so +thin you can see the moon rise through 'em; and the waves go ripplin' +off the cut-water as peaceful as a mill-pond, day and night. Squalls +is sca'ce some times o' the year; but when there is one, I tell you a +feller hears thunder! The clouds settle right down onto the mast-head, +black and thick, like the settlin's of an ink-bottle; the lightnin' +hisses an' cuts fore and aft; and corposants come flightin' down onto +the boom or the top, gret balls o' light; and the wind roars louder than +the seas; and the rain comes down in spouts,--it don't fall fur enough +to drop; you'd think heaven and earth was come together, with hell +betwixt 'em;--and then it'll all clear up as quiet and calm as a +Simsbury Sunday; and you wouldn't know it could be squally, if 'twan't +for the sail that you hadn't had a chance to furl was drove to ribbons, +and here an' there a stout spar snapped like a cornstalk, or the +bulwarks stove by a heavy sea. There's queer things to be heerd, too, in +them parts: cries to wind'ard like a drowndin' man, and you can't never +find him; noises right under the keel; bells ringin' off the land like, +when you a'n't within five hundred miles of shore; and curus hails out +o' ghost-ships that sails agin' wind an' tide.--Strange! strange! I +declare for't! seems as though I heerd my old mother a-singin' Mear +now!" + +I saw Jackson was getting excited, so I gave him a little soothing +draught and walked away to give the nurse some orders. But he made me +promise to return and hear the story out; so, after half an hour's +investigation of the wards, I came back and found him composed enough to +permit his resuming where he had left off. + +"Howsomever, Doctor, there wa'n't no smooth sailin' nor fair weather +with the cap'en; 'twas always squally in his latitude, and I begun to +get mutinous and think of desartin'. About eighteen months arter we sot +sail from Valparaiso, I hadn't done somethin' I'd been ordered, or I'd +done it wrong, and Cap'en Twist come on deck, ragin' and roarin', with +a handspike in his fist, and let fly at my head. I see what was comin', +and put my arm up to fend it off; and gettin' the blow on my fore-arm, +it got broke acrost as quick as a wink, and I dropped. So they picked me +up, and havin' a mate aboard who knew some doctorin', I was spliced +and bound up, and put under hatches on the sick-list. I tell you I +was dog-tired them days, lyin' in my berth, hearin' the rats and mice +scuttle round the bulkheads and skitter over the floor. I couldn't do +nothin', and finally I bethought myself of Hetty's Bible and contrived +to get it out o' my chist,--and when I could get a bit of a glim I'd +read it. I'm a master-hand to remember things, and what I read over and +over in that 'are dog-hole of cabin never got clean out of my head, no, +nor never will; and when the Lord above calls all hands on deck to pass +muster, ef I'm ship-shape afore him, it'll be because I follered his +signals and l'arnt 'em out of that 'are log. But I didn't foller 'em +then, nor not for a plaguy long cruise yet! + +"One day, as I laid there readin' by the light of a bit of tallow dip +the mate gave me, who should stick his head into the hole he called a +cabin, but old Twist! He'd got an idee I was shammin'; and when he saw +me with a book, he cussed, and swore, and raved, and finally hauled it +out o' my hand and flung it up through the hatchway clean and clear +overboard. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, if I'd 'a' had a sound arm, he'd 'a' gone after it; +but I had to take it out in ratin' at him, and that night my mind was +made up; I was bound to desart at the first land. And it come about that +a fortnight after my arm had jined, and I could haul shrouds agin, we +sighted the Marquesas, and bein' near about out o' water, the cap'en +laid his course for the nearest land, and by daybreak of the second day +we lay to in a small harbor, on the south side of an island where +ships wa'n't very prompt to go commonly. But old Twist didn't care for +cannibals nor wild beasts, when they stood in his way; and there wasn't +but half a cask of water aboard, and that a hog wouldn't 'a' drank, only +for the name on't. So we pulled ashore after some, and findin' a spring +near by, was takin' it out, hand over hand, as fast as we could bale it +up, when all of a sudden the mate see a bunch of feathers over a little +bush near by, and yelled out to run for our lives, the savages was come. + +"Now I had made up my mind to run away from the ship that very day, and +all the while I'd been baling the water up I had been tryin' to lay my +course so as to get quit of the boat's crew, and be off; but natur' is +stronger than a man thinks. When I heerd the mate sing out, and see the +men begin to run, I turned and run too, full speed, down to the shore; +but my foot caught in some root or hole, I fell flat down, and hittin' +my head ag'inst a stone near by, I lay; good as dead; and when I come +to, the boat was gone, and the ship makin' all sail out of harbor, and +a crew of wild Indian women were a-lookin' at me as I've seen a set of +Simsbury women-folks look at a baboon in a caravan; but they treated me +better! + +"Findin' I was helpless, for I'd sprained my ankle in the fall, four of +'em picked me up, and carried me away to a hut, and tended me like a +baby; and when the men, who'd come over to that side of the island 'long +with 'em, and gone a-fishin', come back, I was safe enough; for women +are women all the world over, soft-hearted, kindly creturs, that like +anything that's in trouble, 'specially if they can give it a lift out +on't. So I was nursed, and fed, and finally taken over the ridge of +rocks that run acrost the island to their town of bamboo huts; and now +begun to look about me, for here I was, stranded, as one may say, out o' +sight o' land. + +"Ships didn't never touch there, I knew by their ways, their wonderin' +and takin' sights at me. As for Cap'en Twist, he wouldn't come back for +his own father, unless he was short o' hands for whalin'. I was in for +life, no doubt on't; and I'd better look at the fair-weather side of the +thing. The island was as pretty a bit of land as ever lay betwixt sea +and sky; full of tall cocoa-nut palms, with broad, feathery tops, and +bunches of brown nuts; bananas hung in yellow clumps ready to drop off +at a touch; and big bread-fruit trees stood about everywhere, lookin' as +though a punkin-vine had climbed up into 'em and hung half-ripe punkins +off of every bough; beside lots of other trees that the natives set +great store by, and live on the fruit of 'em; and flyin' through all, +such pretty birds as you never see except in them parts; but one brown +thrasher'd beat the whole on 'em singin'; fact is, they run to feathers; +they don't sing none. + +"It was as sightly a country as ever Adam and Eve had to themselves; +but it wa'n't home. Howsomever, after a while the savages took to me +mightily. I was allers handy with tools, and by good luck I'd come off +with two jack-knives and a loose awl in my jacket-pocket, so I could +beat 'em all at whittlin'; and I made figgers on their bows an' +pipe-stems, of things they never see,--roosters, and horses, Miss Buel's +old sleigh, and the Albany stage, driver'n' all, and our yoke of oxen +a-ploughin',--till nothin' would serve them but I should have a house o' +my own, and be married to their king's daughter; so I did. + +"Well, Doctor, you kinder wonder I forgot Hetty Buel. I didn't forget +her, but I knew she wa'n't to be had anyhow; I thought I was in for +life; and Wailua was the prettiest little craft that ever you set eyes +on, as straight as a spar, and as kindly as a Christian; and besides, I +had to, or I'd have been killed, and broiled, and eaten, whether or no! +And then in that 'are latitude it a'n't just the way 'tis here; you +don't work; you get easy, and lazy, and sleepy; somethin' in the air +kind of hushes you up; it makes you sweat to think, and you're too hazy +to, if it didn't; and you don't care for nothing much but food and +drink. I hadn't no spunk left; so I married her after their fashion, and +I liked her well enough; and she was my wife, after all. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, it goes a gret way with men-folks to think +anything's their'n, and nobody else's. But when I married her, I took +the chain with Hetty Buel's ring off my neck, and put 'em in a shell, +and buried the shell under my doorway. I couldn't have Wailua touch +that. + +"So there I lived fifteen long year, as it might be, in a kind of a +curus dream, doin' nothin' much, only that when I got to know the tongue +them savages spoke, little by little I got pretty much the steerin' o' +the hull crew, till by-'n'-by some of 'em got jealous, and plotted and +planned to kill me, because the king, Wailua's father, was gettin' old, +and they thought I wanted to be king when he died, and they couldn't +stan' that no way. + +"Somehow or other Wailua got word of what was goin' on, and one night +she woke me out of sleep an' told me I must run for't, and she would +hide me safe till things took a turn. So I scratched up the shell with +Hetty's ring in't, and afore morning I was over t'other side of the +island, in a kind of a cave overlookin' the sea, near by to a grove of +bananas and mammee apples, and not fur from the harbor where I'd landed; +and safe enough, for nobody but Wailua knew the way to't. + +"Well, the sixth day I sot in the porthole of that cave I see a sail in +the offing. I declare, I thought I should 'a' choked! I catched off my +tappa cloth and h'isted it on a pole, but the ship kep' on stiddy out +to sea. My heart beat up to my eyes, but I held on ag'inst hope, and I +declare I prayed; words come to me that I hadn't said since I was a boy +to Simsbury, and the Lord he heerd; for, as true as the compass, that +ship lay to, tacked, put in for the island, and afore night I was +aboard of the Lysander, a Salem whaler, with my mouth full of grog and +ship-biscuit, and my body in civilized toggery. I own I felt queer to go +away so and leave Wailua; but I knew 'twas gettin' her out of danger, +for the old king was just a-goin' to die, and if ever I'd have gone +back, we should both have been murdered. Besides, we didn't always +agree; she had to walk straighter than her wild natur' agreed with, +because she was my wife; and we hadn't no children to hold us together; +and I couldn't 'a' taken her aboard of the whaler, if she'd wanted to +go. I guess it was best; anyhow, so it was. + +"But this wasn't to be the end of my v'yagin'. The Lysander foundered +just off Valparaiso; and though all hands was saved in the boats, when +we got to port there wasn't no craft there bound any nearer homeward +than an English merchant-ship, for Liverpool, by way of Madeira. So I +worked a passage to Funchal, and there I got aboard of a Southampton +steamer, bound for Cuba, that put in for coal. But when I come to Havana +I was nigh about tuckered out; for goin' round the Horn in the Lemon, +--that 'are English ship,--I'd ben on duty in all sorts o' weather; and +I'd lived lazy and warm so long I expect it was too tough for me, and +I was pestered with a hard cough, and spit blood, so't I was laid up a +long spell in the hospital at Havana. And there I kep' a-thinkin' over +Hetty's Bible, and I b'lieve I studied that 'are chart till I found out +the way to port, and made up my log all square for the owner; for I +knowed well enough where I was bound; but I did hanker to get home to +Simsbury afore shovin' off. + +"Well, finally, there come into the harbor a Mystic ship that was +a-goin' down the Gulf for a New York owner. I'd known Seth Crane, the +cap'en of her, away back in old Simsbury times. He was an Avon boy; and +when I sighted that vessel's name, as I was crawlin' along the quay one +day, and, seein' she was Connecticut-built, boarded her, and see Seth, I +was old fool enough to cry right out,--I was so shaky. And Seth he +was about as scart as ef he'd seen the dead, havin' heerd up to Avon, +fifteen year ago nearly, that the Lowisy Miles had been run down off the +Sandwich Islands by a British man-of-war, and all hands lost, exceptin' +one o' the boys. However, he come to his bearin's after a while, and +told me about our folks, and how't Hetty Buel wasn't married, but +keepin' deestrict school, and her old grandmother alive yet. + +"Well, I kinder heartened up, and agreed to take passage with +Seth.--Good Lord, Doctor! what's that?" + +A peculiar and oppressive stillness had settled down on everything in +and out of the hospital while Jackson was going on with his story. I +noticed it only as the hush of a tropic midnight; but as he spoke, +I heard--apparently out on the prairie--a heavy jarring sound like +repeated blows, drawing nearer and nearer the building. + +Jackson sprung upright on his pillows, the hectic passed from either +gaunt and sallow cheek, leaving the red and blue tattoo marks visible +in most ghastly distinctness, while the sweat poured in drops down his +hollow temples. + +The noise drew still nearer. All the patients in the ward awoke and +quitted their beds, hastily. The noise was at hand,--blows of great +violence and power; and a certain malign rapidity shook the walls from +one end of the hospital to the other,--blow upon blow, like the fierce +attacks of a catapult, only with no like result. The nurse, a German +Catholic, fell on his knees and told his beads, glancing over his +shoulder in undisguised horror; the patients cowered together, groaning +and praying; and I could hear the stir and confusion in the ward below. +In less than a minute's space the singular sound passed through the +house, and in hollow, jarring echoes died out toward the bay. + +I looked at Eben;--his jaw had fallen; his hands were rigid and locked +together; his eyes were rolled upward, fixed and glassy; a stream of +scarlet blood trickled over his gray beard from the corner of his +mouth;--he was dead! As I laid him back on the pillow and turned to +restore some quiet to the ward, a Norther came sweeping down the Gulf +like a rush of mad spirits; tore up the white crests of the sea and +flung them on the beach in thundering surf; burst through the heavy fog +that had trailed upon the moon's track and smothered the island in its +soft pestilent brooding; and in one mighty pouring out of cold pure +ether changed earth and sky from torrid to temperate zone. + +Vainly did I endeavor to calm the terror of my patients, excited still +more by the elemental uproar without; vainly did I harangue them, in the +plainest terms to which science is reducible, on atmospheric vibrations, +acoustics, reverberations, and volcanic agencies; they insisted on some +supernatural power having produced the recent fearful sounds. Neither +common nor uncommon sense could prevail with them; and when they +discovered, by the appearance of the extra nurse I had sent for, to +perform the last offices for Jackson, that he was dead, a renewed +and irrepressible horror attacked them, and it was broad day before +composure or stillness was regained in any part of the building except +my own rooms, to which I betook myself as soon as possible, and slept +till sunrise, too soundly for any mystical visitation whatever to have +disturbed my rest. + +The next day, in spite of the brief influence of the Norther, the first +case of yellow fever showed itself in the hospital; before night seven +had sickened, and one, already reduced by chronic disease, died. I had +hoped to bury Jackson decently, in the cemetery of the city, where his +vexed mortality might rest in peace under the oleanders and china-trees, +shut in by the hedge of Cherokee roses that guards the enclosure from +the prairie, a living wall of glassy green, strewn with ivory-white buds +and blossoms, fair and pure; but on applying for a burial-spot, the +city authorities, panic-stricken cowards that they were, denied me the +privilege even of a prairie grave, outside the cemetery hedge, for the +poor fellow. In vain did I represent that he had died of lingering +disease, and that nowise contagious; nothing moved them. It was enough +that there was yellow fever in the ward where he died. I was forthwith +strictly ordered to have all the dead from the hospital buried on the +sand-flats at the east end of the island. + +What a place that is it is scarcely possible to describe. Wide and +dreary levels of sand, some four or five feet lower than the town, +and flooded by high tides; the only vegetation a scanty, dingy gray, +brittle, crackling growth,--bitter sandworts and the like; over and +through which the abominable tawny sand-crabs are constantly executing +diabolic waltzes on the tips of their eight legs, vanishing into the +ground like imps as you approach; curlews start from behind the loose +drifts of sand and float away with heartbroken cries seaward; little +sandpipers twitter plaintively, running through the weeds; and great, +sulky, gray cranes droop their motionless heads over the still salt +pools along the shore. + +To this blank desolation I was forced to carry poor Jackson's body, +with that of the fever-patient, just at sunset. As the Dutchman who +officiated as hearse, sexton, bearer, and procession, stuck his spade +into the ground, and withdrew it full of crumbling shells and fine sand, +the hole it left filled with bitter black ooze. There, sunk in the ooze, +covered with the shifting sand, bewailed by the wild cries of sea-birds, +noteless and alone, I left Eben Jackson, and returned to the mass of +pestilence and wretchedness within the hospital walls. + +In the spring I reached home safely. None but the resident on a Southern +sand-bank can fully appreciate the verdure and bloom of the North. The +great elms of my native town were full of tender buds, like a clinging +mist in their graceful branches; earlier trees were decked with little +leaves, deep-creased, and silvery with down; the wide river in a fluent +track of metallic lustre weltered through green meadows that on either +hand stretched far and wide; the rolling land beyond was spread out in +pastures, where the cattle luxuriated after the winter's stalling; and +on many a slope and plain the patient farmer turned up his heavy sods +and clay, to moulder in sun and air for seed-time and harvest; and the +beautiful valley that met the horizon on the north and south rolled away +eastward and westward to a low blue range of hills, that guarded it with +granite walls and bristling spears of hemlock and pine. + +This is not my story; and if it were, I do not know that I should detail +my home-coming. It is enough to say, that I came after a five years' +absence, and found all that I had left nearly as I had left it;--how few +can say as much! + +Various duties and some business arrangements kept me at work for six or +seven weeks, and it was June before I could fulfil my promise to Eben +Jackson. I took the venerable old horse and chaise that had carried my +father on his rounds for years, and made the best of my way out toward +Simsbury. I was alone, of course; even Cousin Lizzy, charming as five +years had made the little girl of thirteen whom I had left behind on +quitting home, was not invited to share my drive; there was something +too serious in the errand to endure the presence of a gay young lady. +But I was not lonely; the drive up Talcott Mountain, under the rude +portcullis of the toll-gate, through fragrant woods, by trickling +brooks, past huge boulders that scarce a wild vine dare cling to, with +its feeble, delicate tendrils, is all exquisite, and full of living +repose; and turning to descend the mountain, just where a brook drops +headlong with clattering leap into a steep black ravine, and comes out +over a tiny green meadow, sliding past great granite rocks, and bending +the grass-blades to a shining track, you see suddenly at your feet the +beautiful mountain valley of the Farmington river, trending away in hill +after hill,--rough granite ledges crowned with cedar and pine,--deep +ravines full of heaped rocks,--and here and there the formal white rows +of a manufacturing village, where Kühleborn is captured and forced to +turn water-wheels, and Undine picks cotton or grinds hardware, dammed +into utility. + +Into this valley I plunged, and inquiring my way of many a prim farmer's +wife and white-headed school-boy, I edged my way northward under the +mountain side, and just before noon found myself beneath the "great +ellum," where, nearly twenty years ago, Eben Jackson and Hetty Buel had +said good-bye. + +I tied my horse to the fence and walked up the worn footpath to the +door. Apparently no one was at home. Under this impression I knocked +vehemently, by way of making sure; and a weak, cracked voice at length +answered, "Come in!" There, by the window, perhaps the same where she +sat so long before, crouched in an old chair covered with calico, her +bent fingers striving with mechanical motion to knit a coarse stocking, +sat old Mrs. Buel. Age had worn to the extreme of attenuation a face +that must always have been hard-featured, and a few locks of snow-white +hair, straying from under the bandanna handkerchief of bright red and +orange that was tied over her cap and under her chin, added to the +old-world expression of her whole figure. She was very deaf; scarcely +could I make her comprehend that I wanted to see her grand-daughter; at +last she understood, and asked me to sit down till Hetty should come +from school; and before long, a tall, thin figure opened the gate and +came slowly up the path. + +I had a good opportunity to observe the constant, dutiful, self-denying +Yankee girl,--girl no longer, now that twenty years of unrewarded +patience had lined her face with unmistakable graving. But I could not +agree with Eben's statement that she was not pretty; she must have been +so in her youth; even now there was beauty in her deep-set and heavily +fringed dark eyes, soft, tender, and serious, and in the noble and +pensive Greek outline of the brow and nose; her upper lip and chin were +too long to agree well with her little classic head, but they gave a +certain just and pure expression to the whole face, and to the large +thin-lipped mouth, flexible yet firm in its lines. It is true, her hair +was neither abundant, nor wanting in gleaming threads of gray; her skin +was freckled, sallow, and devoid of varying tint or freshness; her +figure angular and spare; her hands red with hard work; and her air at +once sad and shy;--still, Hetty Buel was a very lovely woman in my eyes, +though I doubt if Lizzy would have thought so. + +I hardly knew how to approach the painful errand I had come on, and with +true masculine awkwardness I cut the matter short by drawing out from my +pocket-book the Panama chain and ring, and placing them in her hands. +Well as I thought I knew the New England character, I was not prepared +for so quiet a reception of this token as she gave it. With a steady +hand she untwisted the wire fastening of the chain, slipped the ring +off, and, bending her head, placed it reverently on the ring-finger of +her left hand;--brief, but potent ceremony; and over without preface or +comment, but over for all time. + +Still holding the chain, she offered me a chair, and sat down +herself,--a little paler, a little more grave, than on entering. + +"Will you tell me how and where he died, Sir?" said she,--evidently +having long considered the fact in her heart as a fact; probably having +heard Seth Crane's story of the Louisa Miles's loss. + +I detailed my patient's tale as briefly and sympathetically as I knew +how. The episode of Wailua caused a little flushing of lip and cheek, a +little twisting of the ring, as if it were not to be worn, after all; +but as I told of his sacred care of the trinket for its giver's sake, +and the not unwilling forsaking of that island wife, the restless motion +passed away, and she listened quietly to the end; only once lifting her +left hand to her lips, and resting her head on it for a moment, as +I detailed the circumstances of his death, after supplying what was +wanting in his own story, from the time of his taking passage in Crane's +ship, to their touching at the island, expressly to leave him in the +Hospital, when a violent hemorrhage had disabled him from further +voyaging. + +I was about to tell her I had seen him decently buried,--of course +omitting descriptions of the how and where,--when the grandmother, who +had been watching us with the impatient querulousness of age, hobbled +across the room to ask "what that 'are man was a-talkin' about." + +Briefly and calmly, in the key long use had suited to her infirmity, +Hetty detailed the chief points of my story. + +"Dew tell!" exclaimed the old woman; "Eben Jackson a'n't dead on dry +land, is he? Left means, eh?" + +I walked away to the door, biting my lip. Hetty, for once, reddened to +the brow; but replaced her charge in the chair and followed me to the +gate. + +"Good day, Sir," said she, offering me her hand,--and then slightly +hesitating,--"Grandmother is very old. I thank you, Sir! I thank you +kindly!" + +As she turned and went toward the house, I saw the glitter of the Panama +chain about her thin and sallow throat, and, by the motion of her hands, +that she was retwisting the same wire fastening that Eben Jackson had +manufactured for it. + +Five years after, last June, I went to Simsbury with a gay picnic party. +This time Lizzy was with me; indeed, she generally is now. + +I detached myself from the rest, after we were fairly arranged for the +day, and wandered away alone to "Miss Buel's." + +The house was closed, the path grassy, a sweetbrier bush had blown +across the door, and was gay with blossoms; all was still, dusty, +desolate. I could not be satisfied with this. The meeting-house was +as near as any neighbor's, and the graveyard would ask me no curious +questions; I entered it doubting; but there, "on the leeward side," near +to the grave of "Bethia Jackson, wife of John Eben Jackson," were two +new stones, one dated but a year later than the other, recording the +deaths of "Temperance Buel, aged 96," and "Hester Buel, aged 44." + + * * * * * + + +AMOURS DE VOYAGE. + +[Continued.] + + +II. + + + Is it illusion? or does there a spirit from perfecter ages, + Here, even yet, amid loss, change, and corruption, abide? + Does there a spirit we know not, though seek, though we find, + comprehend not, + Here to entice and confuse, tempt and evade us, abide? + Lives in the exquisite grace of the column disjointed and single, + Haunts the rude masses of brick garlanded gayly with vine, + E'en in the turret fantastic surviving that springs from the ruin, + E'en in the people itself? Is it illusion or not? + Is it illusion or not that attracteth the pilgrim Transalpine, + Brings him a dullard and dunce hither to pry and to stare? + Is it illusion or not that allures the barbarian stranger, + Brings him with gold to the shrine, brings him in arms to the gate? + + I.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + What do the people say, and what does the government do?--you + Ask, and I know not at all. Yet fortune will favor your hopes; and + I, who avoided it all, am fated, it seems, to describe it. + I, who nor meddle nor make in politics,--I, who sincerely + Put not my trust in leagues nor any suffrage by ballot, + Never predicted Parisian millenniums, never beheld a + New Jerusalem coming down dressed like a bride out of heaven + Right on the Place de la Concorde,--I, ne'ertheless, let me say it, + Could in my soul of souls, this day, with the Gaul at the gates, shed + One true tear for thee, thou poor little Roman republic! + + France, it is foully done! and you, my stupid old England,-- + You, who a twelvemonth ago said nations must choose for themselves, you + Could not, of course, interfere,--you, now, when a nation has chosen-- + Pardon this folly! _The Times_ will, of course, have announced the + occasion, + Told you the news of to-day; and although it was slightly in error + When it proclaimed as a fact the Apollo was sold to a Yankee, + You may believe when it tells you the French are at Civita Vecchia. + + II.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + "Dulce" it is, and _"decorum"_ no doubt, for the country to fall,--to + Offer one's blood an oblation to Freedom, and die for the Cause; yet + Still, individual culture is also something, and no man + Finds quite distinct the assurance that he of all others is called on, + Or would be justified, even, in taking away from the world that + Precious creature, himself. Nature sent him here to abide here; + Else why sent him at all? Nature wants him still, it is likely. + On the whole, we are meant to look after ourselves; it is certain + Each has to eat for himself, digest for himself, and in general + Care for his own dear life, and see to his own preservation; + Nature's intentions, in most things uncertain, in this most plain and + decisive: + These, on the whole, I conjecture the Romans will follow, and I shall. + + So we cling to the rocks like limpets; Ocean may bluster, + Over and under and round us; we open our shells to imbibe our + Nourishment, close them again, and are safe, fulfilling the purpose + Nature intended,--a wise one, of course, and a noble, we doubt not. + Sweet it may be and decorous, perhaps, for the country to die; but, + On the whole, we conclude the Romans won't do it, and I shan't. + + III.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Will they fight? They say so. And will the French? I can hardly, + Hardly think so; and yet--He is come, they say, to Palo, + He is passed from Monterone, at Santa Severa + He hath laid up his guns. But the Virgin, the Daughter of Roma, + She hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn,--the Daughter of Tiber + She hath shaken her head and built barricades against thee! + + Will they fight? I believe it. Alas, 'tis ephemeral folly, + Vain and ephemeral folly, of course, compared with pictures, + Statues, and antique gems,--indeed: and yet indeed too, + Yet methought, in broad day did I dream,--tell it not in St. James's, + Whisper it not in thy courts, O Christ Church!--yet did I, waking, + Dream of a cadence that sings, _Si tombent nos jeunes héros, la + Terre en produit de nouveaux contre vous tous prêts à se battre;_ + Dreamt of great indignations and angers transcendental, + Dreamt of a sword at my side and a battle-horse underneath me. + + IV.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Now supposing the French or the Neapolitan soldier + Should by some evil chance come exploring the Maison Serny, + (Where the family English are all to assemble for safety,) + Am I prepared to lay down my life for the British female? + Really, who knows? One has bowed and talked, till, little by little, + All the natural heat has escaped of the chivalrous spirit. + Oh, one conformed, of course; but one doesn't die for good manners, + Stab or shoot, or be shot, by way of a graceful attention. + No, if it should be at all, it should be on the barricades there; + Should I incarnadine ever this inky pacifical finger, + Sooner far should it be for this vapor of Italy's freedom, + Sooner far by the side of the damned and dirty plebeians. + + Ah, for a child in the street I could strike; for the full-blown lady-- + Somehow, Eustace, alas, I have not felt the vocation. + Yet these people of course will expect, as of course, my protection, + Vernon in radiant arms stand forth for the lovely Georgina, + And to appear, I suppose, were but common civility. Yes, and + Truly I do not desire they should either be killed or offended. + + Oh, and of course you will say, "When the time comes, you will be ready." + Ah, but before it comes, am I to presume it will be so? + What I cannot feel now, am I to suppose that I shall feel? + Am I not free to attend for the ripe and indubious instinct? + Am I forbidden to wait for the clear and lawful perception? + Is it the calling of man to surrender his knowledge and insight, + For the mere venture of what may, perhaps, be the virtuous action? + Must we, walking o'er earth, discerning a little, and hoping + Some plain visible task shall yet for our hands be assigned us,-- + Must we abandon the future for fear of omitting the present, + Quit our own fireside hopes at the alien call of a neighbor, + To the mere possible shadow of Deity offer the victim? + And is all this, my friend, but a weak and ignoble repining, + Wholly unworthy the head or the heart of Your Own Correspondent? + + V.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Yes, we are fighting at last, it appears. This morning, as usual, + _Murray_, as usual, in hand, I enter the Caffè Nuovo; + Seating myself with a sense as it were of a change in the weather, + Not understanding, however, but thinking mostly of Murray, + And, for to-day is their day, of the Campidoglio Marbles, + _Caffè-latte!_ I call to the waiter,--and _Non c' è latte_, + This is the answer he makes me, and this the sign of a battle. + So I sit; and truly they seem to think any one else more + Worthy than me of attention. I wait for my milkless _nero_, + Free to observe undistracted all sorts and sizes of persons, + Blending civilian and soldier in strangest costume, coming in, and + Gulping in hottest haste, still standing, their coffee,--withdrawing + Eagerly, jangling a sword on the steps, or jogging a musket + Slung to the shoulder behind. They are fewer, moreover, than usual, + Much, and silenter far; and so I begin to imagine + Something is really afloat. Ere I leave, the Caffè is empty, + Empty too the streets, in all its length the Corso + Empty, and empty I see to my right and left the Condotti. + + Twelve o'clock, on the Pincian Hill, with lots of English, + Germans, Americans, French,--the Frenchmen, too, are protected. + So we stand in the sun, but afraid of a probable shower; + So we stand and stare, and see, to the left of St. Peter's, + Smoke, from the cannon, white,--but that is at intervals only,-- + Black, from a burning house, we suppose, by the Cavalleggieri; + And we believe we discern some lines of men descending + Down through the vineyard-slopes, and catch a bayonet gleaming. + Every ten minutes, however,--in this there is no misconception,-- + Comes a great white puff from behind Michel Angelo's dome, and + After a space the report of a real big gun,--not the Frenchman's?-- + That must be doing some work. And so we watch and conjecture. + + Shortly, an Englishman comes, who says he has been to St. Peter's, + Seen the Piazza and troops, but that is all he can tell us; + So we watch and sit, and, indeed, it begins to be tiresome.-- + All this smoke is outside; when it has come to the inside, + It will be time, perhaps, to descend and retreat to our houses. + + Half-past one, or two. The report of small arms frequent, + Sharp and savage indeed; that cannot all be for nothing: + So we watch and wonder; but guessing is tiresome, very. + Weary of wondering, watching, and guessing, and gossipping idly, + Down I go, and pass through the quiet streets with the knots of + National Guards patrolling and flags hanging out at the windows, + English, American, Danish,--and, after offering to help an + Irish family moving _en masse_ to the Maison Serny, + After endeavoring idly to minister balm to the trembling + Quinquagenarian fears of two lone British spinsters, + Go to make sure of my dinner before the enemy enter. + But by this there are signs of stragglers returning; and voices + Talk, though you don't believe it, of guns and prisoners taken; + And on the walls you read the first bulletin of the morning.-- + This is all that I saw, and all I know of the battle. + + VI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Victory! Victory!--Yes! ah, yes, thou republican Zion, + Truly the kings of the earth are gathered and gone by together; + Doubtless they marvelled to witness such things, were astonished, + and so forth. + Victory! Victory! Victory!--Ah, but it is, believe me, + Easier, easier far, to intone the chant of the martyr + Than to indite any paean of any victory. Death may + Sometimes be noble; but life, at the best, will appear an illusion, + While the great pain is upon us, it is great; when it is over, + Why, it is over. The smoke of the sacrifice rises to heaven, + Of a sweet savor, no doubt, to somebody; but on the altar, + Lo, there is nothing remaining but ashes and dirt and ill odor. + + So it stands, you perceive; the labial muscles, that swelled with + Vehement evolution of yesterday Marseillaises, + Articulations sublime of defiance and scorning, to-day col- + Lapse and languidly mumble, while men and women and papers + Scream and re-scream to each other the chorus of Victory. Well, but + I am thankful they fought, and glad that the Frenchmen were beaten. + + VII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + So I have seen a man killed! An experience that, among others! + Yes, I suppose I have; although I can hardly be certain, + And in a court of justice could never declare I had seen it. + But a man was killed, I am told, in a place where I saw + Something; a man was killed, I am told, and I saw something. + + I was returning home from St. Peter's; Murray, as usual, + Under my arm, I remember; had crossed the St. Angelo bridge; and + Moving towards the Condotti, had got to the first barricade, when + Gradually, thinking still of St. Peter's, I became conscious + Of a sensation of movement opposing me,--tendency this way + (Such as one fancies may be in a stream when the wave of the tide is + Coming and not yet come,--a sort of poise and retention); + So I turned, and, before I turned, caught sight of stragglers + Heading a crowd, it is plain, that is coming behind that corner. + Looking up, I see windows filled with heads; the Piazza, + Into which you remember the Ponte St. Angelo enters, + Since I passed, has thickened with curious groups; and now the + Crowd is coming, has turned, has crossed that last barricade, is + Here at my side. In the middle they drag at something. What is it? + Ha! bare swords in the air, held up! There seem to be voices + Pleading and hands putting back; official, perhaps; but the swords are + Many, and bare in the air,--in the air! They descend! They are smiting, + Hewing, chopping! At what? In the air once more upstretched! And + Is it blood that's on them? Yes, certainly blood! Of whom, then? + Over whom is the cry of this furor of exultation? + + While they are skipping and screaming, and dancing their caps on the + points of + Swords and bayonets, I to the outskirts back, and ask a + Mercantile-seeming bystander, "What is it?" and he, looking always + That way, makes me answer, "A Priest, who was trying to fly to + The Neapolitan army,"--and thus explains the proceeding. + + You didn't see the dead man? No;--I began to be doubtful; + I was in black myself, and didn't know what mightn't happen;-- + But a National Guard close by me, outside of the hubbub, + Broke his sword with slashing a broad hat covered with dust,--and + Passing away from the place with Murray under my arm, and + Stooping, I saw through the legs of the people the legs of a body. + + You are the first, do you know, to whom I have mentioned the matter. + Whom should I tell it to, else?--these girls?--the Heavens forbid it!-- + Quidnuncs at Monaldini's?--idlers upon the Pincian? + + If I rightly remember, it happened on that afternoon when + Word of the nearer approach of a new Neapolitan army + First was spread. I began to bethink me of Paris Septembers, + Thought I could fancy the look of the old 'Ninety-two. On that evening, + Three or four, or, it may be, five, of these people were slaughtered. + Some declare they had, one of them, fired on a sentinel; others + Say they were only escaping; a Priest, it is currently stated, + Stabbed a National Guard on the very Piazza Colonna: + History, Rumor of Rumors, I leave it to thee to determine! + + But I am thankful to say the government seems to have strength to + Put it down; it has vanished, at least; the place is now peaceful. + Through the Trastevere walking last night, at nine of the clock, I + Found no sort of disorder; I crossed by the Island-bridges, + So by the narrow streets to the Ponte Rotto, and onwards + Thence, by the Temple of Vesta, away to the great Coliseum, + Which at the full of the moon is an object worthy a visit. + + VIII.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + Only think, dearest Louisa, what fearful scenes we have witnessed!-- + + * * * * * + + George has just seen Garibaldi, dressed up in a long white cloak, on + Horseback, riding by, with his mounted negro behind him: + This is a man, you know, who came from America with him, + Out of the woods, I suppose, and uses a _lasso_ in fighting, + Which is, I don't quite know, but a sort of noose, I imagine; + This he throws on the heads of the enemy's men in a battle, + Pulls them into his reach, and then most cruelly kills them: + Mary does not believe, but we heard it from an Italian. + + Mary allows she was wrong about Mr. Claude _being selfish_; + He was _most_ useful and kind on the terrible thirtieth of April. + + Do not write here any more; we are starting directly for Florence: + We should be off to-morrow, if only Papa could get horses; + All have been seized everywhere for the use of this dreadful Mazzini. + + P.S. + + Mary has seen thus far.--I am really so angry, Louisa,-- + Quite out of patience, my dearest! What can the man be intending? + I am quite tired; and Mary, who might bring him to in a moment, + Lets him go on as he likes, and neither will help nor dismiss him. + + IX.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + It is most curious to see what a power a few calm words (in + Merely a brief proclamation) appear to possess on the people. + Order is perfect, and peace; the city is utterly tranquil; + And one cannot conceive that this easy and _nonchalant_ crowd, that + Flows like a quiet stream through street and market-place, entering + Shady recesses and bays of church, _osterÃa_ and _caffè_, + Could in a moment be changed to a flood as of molten lava, + Boil into deadly wrath and wild homicidal delusion. + + Ah, 'tis an excellent race,--and even in old degradation, + Under a rule that enforces to flattery, lying, and cheating, + E'en under Pope and Priest, a nice and natural people. + Oh, could they but be allowed this chance of redemption!--but clearly + That is not likely to be. Meantime, notwithstanding all journals, + Honor for once to the tongue and the pen of the eloquent writer! + Honor to speech! and all honor to thee, thou noble Mazzini! + + X.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + I am in love, meantime, you think; no doubt, you would think so. + I am in love, you say; with those letters, of course, you would say so. + + I am in love, you declare. I think not so; yet I grant you + It is a pleasure, indeed, to converse with this girl. Oh, rare gift, + Rare felicity, this! she can talk in a rational way, can + Speak upon subjects that really are matters of mind and of thinking, + Yet in perfection retain her simplicity; never, one moment, + Never, however you urge it, however you tempt her, consents to + Step from ideas and fancies and loving sensations to those vain + Conscious understandings that vex the minds of man-kind. + No, though she talk, it is music; her fingers desert not the keys; 'tis + Song, though you hear in her song the articulate vocables sounded, + Syllabled singly and sweetly the words of melodious meaning. + + XI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Ah, let me look, let me watch, let me wait, unbiased, unprompted! + Bid me not venture on aught that could alter or end what is present! + Say not, Time flies, and occasion, that never returns, is departing! + Drive me not out, ye ill angels with fiery swords, from my Eden, + Waiting, and watching, and looking! Let love be its own inspiration! + Shall not a voice, if a voice there must be, from the airs that environ, + Yea, from the conscious heavens, without our knowledge or effort, + Break into audible words? Let love be its own inspiration! + + XII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Wherefore and how I am certain, I hardly can tell; but it is so. + She doesn't like me, Eustace; I think she never will like me. + Is it my fault, as it is my misfortune, my ways are not her ways? + Is it my fault, that my habits and modes are dissimilar wholly? + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her nature, her virtue, to misapprehend them: + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her beautiful nature, not even to know me. + Hopeless it seems,--yet I cannot, hopeless, determine to leave it: + She goes,--therefore I go; she moves,--I move, not to lose her. + + XIII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Oh, 'tisn't manly, of course, 'tisn't manly, this method of wooing; + 'Tisn't the way very likely to win. For the woman, they tell you, + Ever prefers the audacious, the wilful, the vehement hero; + She has no heart for the timid, the sensitive soul; and for knowledge,-- + Knowledge, O ye gods!--when did they appreciate knowledge? + Wherefore should they, either? I am sure I do not desire it. + + Ah, and I feel too, Eustace, she cares not a tittle about me! + (Care about me, indeed! and do I really expect it?) + But my manner offends; my ways are wholly repugnant; + Every word that I utter estranges, hurts, and repels her; + Every moment of bliss that I gain, in her exquisite presence, + Slowly, surely, withdraws her, removes her, and severs her from me. + Not that I care very much!--any way, I escape from the boy's own + Folly, to which I am prone, of loving where it is easy. + Yet, after all, my Eustace, I know but little about it. + All I can say for myself, for present alike and for past, is, + Mary Trevellyn, Eustace, is certainly worth your acquaintance. + You couldn't come, I suppose, as far as Florence, to see her? + + XIV.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + * * * To-morrow we're starting for Florence, + Truly rejoiced, you may guess, to escape from republican terrors; + Sir. C. and Papa to escort us; we by _vettura_ + Through Siena, and Georgy to follow and join us by Leghorn. + Then----Ah, what shall I say, my dearest? I tremble in thinking! + You will imagine my feelings,--the blending of hope and of sorrow! + How can I bear to abandon Papa and Mamma and my sisters? + Dearest Louisa, indeed it is very alarming; but trust me + Ever, whatever may change, to remain your loving Georgina. + + P.S. BY MARY TREVELLYN. + + * * * "Do I like Mr. Claude any better?" + I am to tell you,--and, "Pray, is it Susan or I that attract him?" + This he never has told, but Georgina could certainly ask him. + All I can say for myself is, alas! that he rather repels me. + There! I think him agreeable, but also a little repulsive. + So be content, dear Louisa; for one satisfactory marriage + Surely will do in one year for the family you would establish, + Neither Susan nor I shall afford you the joy of a second. + + P.S. BY GEORGINA TREVELLYN. + + Mr. Claude, you must know, is behaving a little bit better; + He and Papa are great friends; but he really is too _shilly-shally_,-- + So unlike George! Yet I hope that the matter is going on fairly. + I shall, however, get George, before he goes, to say something. + Dearest Louisa, how delightful, to bring young people together! + + * * * * * + + Is it to Florence we follow, or are we to tarry yet longer, + E'en amid clamor of arms, here in the city of old, + Seeking from clamor of arms in the Past and the Arts to be hidden, + Vainly 'mid Arts and the Past seeking our life to forget? + + Ah, fair shadow, scarce seen, go forth! for anon he shall follow,-- + He that beheld thee, anon, whither thou leadest, must go! + Go, and the wise, loving Muse, she also will follow and find thee! + She, should she linger in Rome, were not dissevered from thee! + +[To be continued.] + + + + +A WELSH MUSICAL FESTIVAL. + + +I had been knocking about London, as the phrase goes, for more months +than I choose to mention, when, my purse presenting unmistakable +symptoms of a coming state of collapse, I began seriously to look about +me for the means of replenishing it. Luckily, I had not to wait long for +an opportunity. One morning, as I sat in the box of a coffee-room in +Holborn, running my eye over the advertisement columns of the "Times," +I met with one which promised novelty, at least; I had had too much +experience in such matters to anticipate from it any very great +_pecuniary_ compensation. The said advertisement was to the effect, +that a gentleman who combined literary tastes with business habits was +required to edit a paper published in a town in South Wales; and it went +on to state, that application, personally or by letter, might be made to +the proprietor of the said journal at M----. + +That I possessed some taste for literature I was well enough assured; +but as for my "business habits," perhaps the least said about them, the +better. This condition of candidateship, however, I quietly shirked, +while counting over my few remaining coins, scarcely more than +sufficient, after paying my landlady, to defray my expenses to M----, +some one hundred and sixty miles distant. Determining, then, to assume a +commercial virtue, though I had it not, I quitted the metropolis, and in +due time reached the land of leeks, with a light heart, and seven and +sixpence sterling in my pocket. + +A queer little Welsh town was M----, with an androgynous population,--or +so it seemed to me, who had never before beheld women wearing men's hats +and coats, and men with head-coverings and other articles of apparel +of a very ambiguous description. It chanced to be market-day when I +arrived, so that I had a capital opportunity of observing the population +for whose edification my "literary tastes" were, I hoped, to be called +into requisition. But at the very outset a tremendous difficulty stared +me in the face. Nine out of every ten of the people I met or passed +spoke in a language that to me was as unintelligibly mysterious as the +cuneiform characters on Mr. Layard's Nineveh sculptures. It was a hard, +harsh, guttural dialect, which even those who were to the manner born +seemed to jerk out painfully and spasmodically from their lingual +organs. This was especially obvious during a bargain, where an excited +market-man was endeavoring to pass off a tough old gander as a tender +young goose, to some equally excited customer. It was dissonant enough +to _my_ ear, but I fancy it would have driven a sensitive Italian to +distraction. After listening to the horrible jargon for some time, I +could easily believe the story which poor William Maginn used to tell +with such unction, of the origin of the Welsh language. It was to this +effect.--When the Tower of Babel was being built, the workmen all spoke +one tongue. Just at the very instant when the "confusion" occurred, a +mason, trowel in hand, called for a brick. This his assistant was so +long in handing to him, that he incontinently flew into a towering +passion, and discharged from the said trowel a quantity of mortar, which +entered the other's windpipe just as he was stammering out an excuse. +The air, rushing through the poultice-like mixture, caused a spluttering +and gurgling, which, blending with the half-formed words, became that +language ever since known as Welsh.--I think it my duty to advise the +reader never to tell this anecdote to any descendants of Cadwallader, +who are peculiarly sensitive on the subject, and so hot-blooded, that it +is not at all unlikely the injudicious story-teller might be deprived of +any future opportunity of insulting the Ap-Shenkins, the Ap-Joneses, and +the race of very irascible Taffys in general. + +I had, however, little time to study either language or character; so, +after a plain dinner at the Merlin's Head, the chief inn of the place, I +set out for the purpose of seeing the newspaper proprietor. Fortified by +a letter of introduction and some testimonials, I entered his shop,--he +was a bookseller and stationer,--and inquired for Mr. F----. + +"That's my name," said a red-faced man behind the counter. I handed him +the introductory note, he glanced at it and then at me, thrust it into +his waistcoat pocket, and, as soon as he had served the customer with +whom he was engaged, led the way into a little room adjoining the place +of business. + +Mr. F--- owned the newspaper; but, as he never ventured in a literary +way beyond reading proofs of advertisements, he was compelled to employ +an editor to do the leaders, select from the exchanges, prepare the +local news, and get up the reporting. He was, however, a practical +printer, and, in the main, a good fellow. After looking at my +testimonials and asking a few questions, my services were accepted, +and I was duly installed as editor of the "M---- Beacon," a small, +but rather influential county sheet. I ought to observe, that, as it +circulated chiefly in places where English was generally spoken, my +ignorance of Welsh was of but little importance, especially as the +foreman of the printing-office was a Cambrian, who could correct any +errors I might make in Taffy's orthography, which, prodigal as it is of +consonants and penurious of vowels, and, as it regards pronunciation, +embarrassing to the last degree, might drive Elihu Burritt back to his +smithy in an agony of despair. + +Thus assisted, I got on tolerably well, though at first I made some +awful mistakes in the names of places mentioned by witnesses in courts +of justice and elsewhere. For instance, at the assizes, a man swore that +he resided at a place which he pronounced Monothosluin, and so I spelt +it in my report. "Cot pless me, Sur!--sure inteed, and you have +not spelt hur right," remarked Mr. Morgan, the foreman; and for my +edification he set it up thus,--_Mynyddysllwyn_. I almost turned my +tongue into a corkscrew, trying to speak the word as he did, and I +fairly gave up in despair. After that, I made it a rule, when I did +not know how to spell some unpronounceable word, to huddle a number of +consonants together in most admired disorder, and I was then usually +nearer correctness than if I had orthographized by ear. + +I had been installed in the editorial chair some six months when Mr. +F---- informed me it was necessary I should visit Abergavenny, a town +some twenty-five miles distant, for the purpose of reporting the +proceedings at the CYMREIGGDDYON. + +"And what the deuse is that?" I inquired. + +I learned that it was a Triennial Musical Festival, so called,--at which +all the musical talent of Wales would be present; in short, that it was +a very grand occasion indeed, would be patronized by the aristocracy +of the Principality, and full reports of each of the three days' +proceedings were absolutely necessary. + +Here again the Welsh difficulty started up; but as the Cymreiggddyon +would be quite a novelty, I determined to trust to Chance and +Circumstance,--two allies of mine who have gallantly aided me in many a +tough battle of literary life. + +Remembering the words of Goldsmith,--"The young noble who is whirled +through Europe in his chariot sees society at a peculiar elevation, and +draws conclusions widely different from him who makes the grand tour on +foot," I determined to make my way to Abergavenny either by means of my +own legs or through the chance aid of those of a Welsh pony. So, +one bright morning, with stick in hand, knapsack on shoulder, and a +wandering artist for a companion, I started for the iron district, +as that part of Wales is termed. Wildly romantic were the roads we +traversed; and after having threaded many a glen, leaped frequent +torrents, ascended and descended mountains with impossible names, and +plodded wearily across dreary moors, glad enough were we to observe, in +the less thinly scattered cottages, indications of a town. + +The clouds had been gathering ominously during the latter half of our +long day of travel,--and as the sun set blood-red behind a heavy bank of +vapor, it cast lurid reflections on large bodies of dense mist, which +sailed heavily athwart the crests of the mountains, with low, ragged, +trailing edges, that were too surely the precursors of a storm. Just +before the orb finally disappeared, its slant rays streamed through some +dark purple bars on the horizon's verge, and for an instant tinged the +opposite distant mountains with strange supernatural hues. The Blorenge +and the Sugar Loaf glowed like huge carbuncles, while the pale green +light which bathed their bases gleamed faintly like a setting of +aqua-marina. My artist companion incontinently fell into professional +raptures, and raved of "effect," and "Turner," and "Ruskin," heedless of +my advice that he had better hasten onward, lest night should overtake +us in that wild region, where sheep-tracks, scarcely visible even by +daylight, were our sole guides. At length, however, I managed to +start him, and on we stalked, the decreasing twilight and the distant +reverberations of thunder among the mountains hastening our steps, until +they became almost a trot. + +But soon the trot declined once more into a walk, and a slow one +too,--for we entered a gloomy pass or gorge, whose rocky walls on either +side effectually excluded what little light yet lingered in the sky. +Cautiously picking our way, we slowly travelled on, until at length +we became sensible of a faint red flush in the narrow strip of sky +overhead. It seemed as though the sun had just wheeled back to give a +forgotten message to some starry-night-watcher,--or so my companion +intimated. But, unfortunately for his theory, the dull red glare +above us, which every moment deepened in intensity, was evidently +the reflection of earthly, not heavenly fire. I had seen too many +conflagrations to doubt that for an instant. Presently a dull, confused +sound fell on our ears, and at a sudden turn round an angle of our +mountain road we stood speechless as we gazed on a spectacle which +Milton might have conceived and Martin painted. + + "Far other light than that of day there shone + Upon the wanderers entering Padalon," + +murmured the artist, as he gazed on the strange scene. And strange +indeed was it to our startled eyes. We stood on the end and summit of a +mountain spur, some two thousand feet above the valley, or rather basin, +below, from the centre of which burst forth a thousand fires, whose +dull roar--dulled by distance--was like "the noise of the sea on an +iron-bound shore." The extent of space covered by those strange, fierce +fires must have amounted to many acres,--in fact, did so, as we +afterwards ascertained,--and the effect produced by them may be +partially imagined when it is remembered that these flames were of all +hues, from rich ruby-red, to the pale lurid light of burning sulphur. +Fancy all the gems of Aladdin's Palace or Sinbad's Valley in fierce +flashing combustion, immensely magnified, and you may form some faint +idea of the scene in that Welsh valley. + +Stretching out, like spokes of a gigantic wheel, from their fiery +centre, were huge embankments, like those of Titanic railways, whose +summits and sides, especially towards their extremities, glowed in +patches with all the hues of the rainbow. As I gazed wonderingly on one +of these,--a real mountain of light, far surpassing the Koh-i-Noor,--I +observed a dark figure gliding along its summit, pushing something +before it, like a black imp conveying an unfortunate soul from one part +of Tophet to another. At the extremity of the ridge the imp stopped, and +suddenly there shot down the steep, not a tortured ghost, but a shower +of radiant gems even more brilliant than those to which I have already +referred. + +"What, in the name of all that's wonderful, is _that_?" said my friend, +Mr. Vandyke Brown; and I was also trying to account for the phenomena, +when a voice close to my ear--a voice which I was certain belonged +neither to Mr. B. nor myself--uttered the mysterious word,-- + +"Sl-aa-g!" + +I looked round, and, sure enough, there stood a being who might very +easily be mistaken for a new arrival from the bottomless pit. Such, +however, it was evident he was not. Though he was black enough, in all +conscience, he had neither horns, hoof, nor tail, and he was redolent +rather of 'bacco than brimstone; a queer old hat, in the band of which +was stuck an unlighted candle, covered a mass of matted red hair; his +eyes were glaring and rimmed with red; and there was a gash in his face +where his mouth should have been. A loose flannel shirt, which had once +been red, a pair of indescribable trowsers, and thick-soled shoes, +completed his dress,--an attire which I at once recognized as that +common among the coal-miners of the district. + +"'Deed and truth, Sur, they is cinder-heaps and slag from the +iron-works, Sur; and yon is Merthyr-Tydvil, sure." + +Piloted by our dusky guide,--not exactly, though, like Campbell's +"_Morning_ brought by Night,"--we soon reached the town,--which is named +after a young lady of legendary times named Tydfil, a Christian martyr, +of which Merthyr-Tydvil is a corruption,--and made the best of our +way to the Bush Inn, where we treated our sable friend to some _cwrw +dach,--Anglicé_, strong ale; and after a hearty supper of Welsh rabbit, +which Tom Ingoldsby calls a "bunny without any bones," and "custard with +mustard,"--which, as made in the Principality, it much resembles,--I +took a stroll through the town. It was a dull-looking place enough, and +as dirty as dull; every house was built with dingy gray stones, without +any reference whatever to cleanliness or ventilation; and as to the +civilization of the inhabitants, I saw enough to convince me, that, to +see real barbarism, an Englishman need only visit that part of Great +Britain called Wales. It was eight in the evening, and the day-laborers +at the furnaces had just left work. The doors of all the cottages were +open, and, as I passed them, in almost every one was to be seen a +perfectly naked stalwart man rubbing himself down with a dirty rough +towel, while his wife and grown-up daughters or sisters, almost as nude +and filthy as himself, stood listlessly by, or prepared his supper. + +Glad to escape from such disgusting objects, I hurried back to the Bush +and to bed. But not to rest, though; for during that long, miserable +night, the eternal rattle of machinery, clattering of hammers, whirling +of huge wheels, and roaring of blast-furnaces completely murdered sleep. +Never, for one instant, did these sounds cease,--nor do they, it is +said, the long year through; for if any accident happens at one of the +five great iron-works, there are four others which rest not day nor +night. Little, however, is this heeded by the people of Merthyr; _they_ +are lulled to repose by the clatter of iron bars and the thumping of +trip-hammers, but are instantaneously awakened by the briefest intervals +of silence. + +Glad enough was I, the next morning early, to cross an ink-black stream +and leave the town, and pleasant was it to breathe the free, fresh +mountain air, after inhaling the foul smoke of the iron-works. Towards +the close of the afternoon, after a delightful walk, a great portion +of it on the banks of the picturesque river Usk, we came in sight of +Abergavenny, where the Cymreiggddyon was to be held. + +The first of the glorious three days was duly ushered in with the firing +of cannon, ringing of bells, and all kinds of extravagant jubilation. +It wasn't quite as noisy as a Fourth of July, but much more discordant. +Strings of flags were suspended across the streets,--flags with harps +of all sorts and sizes displayed thereon,--flags with Welsh mottoes, +English mottoes, Scotch mottoes, and no mottoes at all. In front of the +Town Hall was almost an acre of transparent painting,--meant, that is, +to be so after dark, but mournfully opaque and pictorially mysterious in +the full glare of sunshine. As far as I could make it out, it was the +full-length portrait--taken from life, no doubt--of an Ancient Welsh +Bard. He was depicted as a baldheaded, elderly gentleman, with upturned +eyes, apparently regarding with reverence a hole in an Indian-ink cloud +through which slanted a gamboge sunbeam, and having a white beard, +which streamed like a (horse-hair) "meteor on the troubled air." This +venerable minstrel was seated on a cairn of rude stones, his white robe +clasped at his throat and round his waist by golden brooches, and with a +harp, shaped like that of David in old Bible illustrations, resting on +the sward before him. In the background were some Druidical remains, by +way of audience; and the whole was surrounded by a botanical border, +consisting of leeks, oak-leaves, laurel, and mistletoe, which had a very +rare and agreeable effect. Nor were these hieroglyphical decorations +without a deep meaning to a Cambrian; for while the oak-leaf typified +the durability of Welsh minstrelsy, the mistletoe its mysterious origin, +and the laurel its reward, the national leek was pleasantly suggestive +of its usual culinary companions, Welsh mutton and toasted cheese. + +As in America, so in Wales, almost every public matter is provocative of +a procession, and the proceedings of the Festival commenced with one. No +doubt, it was to the eyes of the many, who from scores of miles round +had travelled to witness it, a very imposing and serious demonstration; +but anything more ridiculously amusing it was never my good fortune to +see. I had, however, to keep all my fun to myself, for Welshmen are not +to be trifled with. Any one who wishes to be convinced of this need only +walk into a Welsh village, singing the old child-doggerel of + + "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, + Taffy came to my house and stole a piece + of beef," etc., + +and, my life on it, he will not leave it without striking proofs of +Welsh sensitiveness, and voluble illustrations of some Jenny Jones's +displeasure. By no means inclined to subject myself to such inconvenient +experiences, I prudently kept my eyes wide open and my mouth shut,--or +if I spoke, I merely asked questions, by which means I acquired +necessary information and passed off for a gratified stranger and an +admiring spectator. + +All the resources of the town and its neighborhood, and indeed of the +county itself, had been exhausted to give due effect to the parade, +of which I regret to say that I cannot hope to give any adequate +description. All the usual elements of processions were to be seen. +Bands of music,--there were at least a dozen of them, all playing +different pieces at one and the same moment, which had a somewhat +distracting effect on those sensitively-eared people who weakly prefer +one air at a time and do not appreciate tuneful tornadoes. As the +procession went by at a brisk pace, it was curious enough to notice how +the last wailing notes of "A noble race was Shenkin," played by a band +in advance, blended with the brisk music of "My name's David Price, and +I'm come from Llangollen," performed by a company in the rear. In fact, +it was a genuine Welsh musical medley, and the daring genius who would +have occupied himself in "untwisting all the links which tied its hidden +soul of harmony," would have had about as difficult and distressing a +task as he who tried to make ropes out of sea-sand. + +Of course, these bands were made up of divers instruments, but the +national harp was head and chief of them all, as might naturally have +been expected in such a place and at such a time. There were harps of +all sorts and shapes; some of the Welsh urchins had even Jews-harps +between their teeth. There were Irish harps, English harps, and Welsh +harps. There was no Caledonian harp, though; but a remarkably dirty +fellow in the procession seemed to be making up for the lack of one +stringed instrument by bringing another,--the Scotch fiddle!--on which +he perpetually played the tune of "God bless the gude Duke of Argyle!" +There were harps with one, two, and three sets of strings,--harps with +gold strings, silver strings, brass strings,--strings of cat-gut and +brass,--strings red, and brown, and white. I looked sharp for the "harp +of a thousand strings," but it was nowhere to be seen; and surmising +that such is only played on by the spirits of just men made perfect, I +ceased to search further for it in _that_ procession,--for though the +men composing it might be just enough, they were evidently a long way +from perfection. And when it is remembered that all these harps were +twang-twanging away furiously, and that their strings were being +swept over with no Bochsa fingers, few will wonder that I longed for +cotton-wool, and blessed the memory of Paganini, who had only one string +to his bow. + +Harps, however, would be of little value, were there no bards to sing +and no minstrels to play. Walter Scott was decidedly wrong, when, +speaking of his minstrel, he says,-- + + "The _last_ of all the bards was he." + +Nonsense! I saw at least fifty in that procession,--regular, legitimate +bards,--each one having a bardic bald pate, a long white bardic beard, +flowing bardic robes, bardic sandals, a bardic harp in his hand, and an +ancient bardic name. There was Bard Alaw, Bard Llewellyn, Bard Ap-Tudor, +Bard Llyyddmunnddggynn, (pronounce it, if you can, Reader,--I can't,) +and I am afraid to say how many more, in face of the high poetical +authority I have just cited and refuted. Talk of the age of poetry +having passed away, when three-score and ten bards can be seen at one +time in a little Welsh town! These men of genius were headed by Bard +Alaw, whose unpoetical name, I almost hesitate to write it, was +Williams,--Taliesin Williams,--the Welsh given name alone redeeming it +from obscurity. I found, too, to my disenchantment, that all the other +bards were Joneses and Morgans, Pryces and Robertses, when they were met +in everyday life, before and after these festivals; and that they kept +shops, and carried on mechanical trades. Only fancy Bard Ap-Tudor +shaving you, or Bard Llyynnssllumpllyynn measuring you for a new pair of +trowsers! + +After the bards and minstrels came the gentry of the county, the clergy, +and distinguished strangers, before and behind whom banners floated and +flags streamed. On many of these banners were fancy portraits of Saint +David, the Patron Saint of Wales, always with a harp in his hand. But +the Saint must have had a singularly varied expression of countenance, +or else his portrait-painters must have been mere block-heads, for no +two of their productions were alike. I saw smiling Davids, frowning +Davids, mild Davids, and ferocious Davids,--Davids with oblique eyes, +red noses, and cavernous mouths,--and Davids as blind as bats, or with +great goggle-orbs, aquiline nasal organs, blue at the tips, and lips +made for a lisp. One David had a brown Welsh wig on his head, and was +anachronistically attired in a snuff-colored coat, black small-clothes, +gray, coarse, worsted stockings, high-low boots, with buckles, and he +wore on his head a three-cornered hat, and used spectacles as big as +tea-saucers. On my remarking to a bystander, that I was not aware +knee-breeches were worn in the time of the ancient kings, I was +condescendingly informed that _this_ David was not the celebrated +Monarch-Minstrel, but a Mr. Pryce David, the founder of the +Cymreiggddyon Society. But the most amusing David was one depicted on a +banner carried in front of a company of barbers belonging to the order +of Odd Fellows. In that magnificent work of art David was represented +bewailing the death of Absalom, that unhappy young man being seen +hanging by his hair from a tree. Out of the mouth of David issued a +scroll, on which was inscribed the following touching verse:-- + + "Oh, Absalom! Oh, Absalom! + Oh, Absalom, my son! + If thou hadst worn a good Welsh wig, + Thou hadst not been undone!" + +It was with no little trouble that I elbowed my way into the great +temporary hall where the exercises were to be held: but by dint of much +pressing forward, I at length reached the reporters' bench. Directly in +front was a raised platform, and on two sides of the tent galleries +had been erected for the bards and orators. On the platform table +were arranged prizes to be given for the best playing, singing, and +speaking,--and also for articles of domestic Welsh manufacture, such +as plaids, flannels, and the like. A large velvet and gilded chair was +placed on a daïs for the president, and on either side of this, seats +for ladies and visitors. In a very short time every corner of the +spacious area was crammed. + +And a pretty and a cheerful spectacle was presented wherever the eye +turned. As in almost all other gatherings of the kind, the fair sex were +greatly in the majority; and during the interval which elapsed between +the opening of the doors and the beginning of business, the clatter of +female tongues was prodigious. The sex generally are voluble when in +crowds; but as for Welsh women, their loquacity was far beyond anything +of the kind I had ever conceived of. And there were some wonderfully +handsome specimens of girlhood, womanhood, and matronhood among that +great gathering; though I am compelled to admit that in Wales beauty +forms the exception, rather than the rule. + +But the bards are in their places,--the front rows of either gallery; +the president has taken his seat; the leading ladies of the county are +in their chairs; and while the large audience are settling down into +their places, let us glance at two or three of the celebrities present. + +On the foremost seat, to the right of the chairman, sits a lady who is +evidently a somebody, since all the gentlemen, on entering, pay her +especial respect. She is rather past the middle age, but has worn well; +her eye is still bright, her cheek fresh-colored, and her skin smooth. +Evidently she takes much interest in the proceedings,--and little +wonder,--for it is mainly owing to her exertions that the Festival +has not become one of the things that were. Her name? You may see it +embroidered in dahlias on yonder broad strip of white cotton, stretching +across the breadth of the hall, nearly over her head. These blossoms +form the letters and words, GWENNEN GWENT, or "The Bee of Gwent,"--Gwent +being the ancient name of that portion of Glamorgan. The title is apt +enough; for Lady Hall--that is her matter-of-fact name--is proverbially +one of the busiest of her sex in all that relates to the welfare of her +poorer neighbors. She is wife of Sir Benjamin Hall, member of Parliament +for the largest parish in London, St. Mary-le-bone, and whose +county residence is at Llanover Court, near Abergavenny. That tall, +aristocratic man near her is her husband; but he looks somewhat out of +place there. As a member of the House of Commons, he is prominent; but +evidently his present position is not at all to his taste. + +On the left of the chairman is another lady, whose name is well known +in literary circles. She is not Welsh by birth, though she is so by +marriage,--she being united to one of the great iron-masters. She has a +large face, open and cheerful-looking, if not handsome. The forehead is +broad and white,--the eyes dark and lustrous. Formerly she was known to +the reading world as Lady Charlotte Lindsay; now she is Lady Charlotte +Guest; a woman than whom very few archaeologists are better acquainted +with the Welsh language and its ancient literature. She is the author of +that very learned work, "The Mabinogion," a collection of early Welsh +legends. This book was printed a few years since by the pale-faced, +intelligent-looking man who is standing behind her chair,--Mr. Rees,--a +printer in an obscure Welsh hamlet, named Llandovery. He has, with +perfect propriety, been termed the Welsh Elzevir; and certainly a finer +specimen of typography than that furnished by the "Mabinogion" can +scarcely be produced. + +The chairman is a pompous old nobody. Him I need not describe. The +presiding and directing spirit of the place is a tall, slender gentleman +with snow-white hair, dark, flashing eyes, and a graceful bearing; it is +the Rev. Thomas Price, or, as his Welsh title has it, _Carnuhanawc_. +He is a thorough believer in the ultra-excellence of everything +Welsh,--Welsh music, Welsh flannels, Welsh scenery, Welsh mutton; and +so far as regards the latter, I am quite of his opinion. After a very +animated speech, he directs the competitors on the triple harp to stand +forward and begin a harmonious contest. + +There are three,--an old blind man, a young man, and a girl some +fourteen years of age. Every one cheers the latter lustily, and "wishes +she may get it." So do I, of course; and I listen with great interest as +Miss Winifred Jenkins commences her performance, which she does without +blush or hesitation, and with quite an I-know-all-about-it sort of air. +I forget the particular piece the young lady played; but upon it she +extemporized so many variations, that long before she came to an ending +I had lost all remembrance of the text from which she had deduced her +melodious sermon. There was, I thought, more mechanical tact than +expression in her performance, but it was enthusiastically applauded for +all that; and with an awkward curtsy--much like Sydney Smith's little +servant-maid Bunch's "bobbing to the centre of the earth"--the +red-cheeked little harpist vanished. + +Next came the young man; but several of the harp-strings at once snapped +in consequence of his fierce fingering, and he broke down amidst howls +of guttural disapprobation. So far as competition was concerned, he was, +in sporting parlance, nowhere! + +The old blind gentleman followed, and I do not think that I ever +witnessed a more melancholy spectacle. Apollo playing on his stringed +instrument presents a very graceful appearance; but fancy a Welsh +Orpheus with a face all seamed and scarred by smallpox,--a short, fiery +button in the middle of his countenance, serving for a nose,--a mouth +awry and toothless,--and two long, dirty, bony hands, with claw-like +fingers tipped with dark crescents,--and I do not think the picture will +be a pleasant one. If the horrible-looking old fellow had concealed +his ghastly eyes by colored glasses, the effect would not have been so +disagreeable; but it was absolutely frightful to see him rolling his +head, as he played, and every now and then staring with the whites of +his eyes full in the faces of his unseen audience. At length, greatly +to my relief, he gave the last decisive twang, and was led away by his +wife. It is almost needless to say that the musical "Bunch" took the +prize. + +"Penillionn Singing" was the next attraction. This was something like +an old English madrigal done into Welsh, and, as a specimen of +vocalization, pleasing enough,--as pleasing, that is, as Welsh singing +can be to an English ear; but how different from the soft, liquid +Italian trillings, the flexible English warblings, the melodious ballads +of Scotland, or the rollicking songs of Ireland! There was only one of +the many singers I heard at the Festival who at all charmed me, and that +was a little vocalist of much repute in Southern Wales for her bird-like +voice and brilliancy of execution. Her professional name was pretty +enough,--_Eos Vach Morganwg_,--"The Little Nightingale of Glamorgan." +Her renderings of some simple Welsh melodies were delicious; they as far +excelled the outpourings of the other singers as the compositions of +Mendelssohn or Bellini surpass a midnight feline concert. I have heard +Chinese singing, and have come to the conclusion, that, next to it, +Welsh prize-vocalism is the most ear-distracting thing imaginable. + +So it went on; Welsh, Welsh, Welsh, nothing but Welsh, until I was +heartily sick of it. Then, the singing part of the performance being +concluded, the bardic portion of the business commenced. It was +conducted in this manner:-- + +The names of several subjects were written on separate slips of paper, +and these being placed in a box, each bard took one folded up and with +but brief preparation was expected to extemporize a poem on the theme he +had drawn. The contest speedily commenced, and to me this part of the +proceedings was far and away the most entertaining. Of course, being, as +I said, ignorant of the language, I could not understand the _matter_ of +the improvisations; but as for the _manner_, just imagine a mad North +American Indian, a howling and dancing Dervise, an excited Shaker, a +violent case of fever-and-ague, a New York auctioneer, and a pugilist +of the Tom Hyer school, all fused together, and you may form some faint +idea of a Welsh bard in the agony of inspiration. Such roaring, +such eye-rolling, such thumping of fists and stamping of feet, such +joint-dislocating action of the arms, such gyrations of the head, such +spasmodic jerkings--out of the language of the ancient Britons, I never +heard before, and fervently pray that I never may again. And, let it be +remembered, the grotesque costume of the bard wonderfully heightened the +effect. His long beard, made of tow, became matted with the saliva which +ran down upon it from the corners of his mouth; his make-believe +bald scalp was accidentally wiped to one side, as he mopped away the +perspiration from his forehead with a red cotton handkerchief; and a +nail in the gallery front catching his ancient robe, in a moment of +frenzy, a fearful rending sound indicated a solution of continuity, and +exposed a modern blue _un_bardic pair of breeches with bright brass +buttons beneath,--an incident in keeping with the sham nature of all the +proceedings. For a mortal half hour this exhibition lasted, and when +the impassioned speaker sat down, panting and perspiring, the multitude +stamped, clapped, and hallooed, and went into such paroxysms of frenzy, +that Bedlam broke loose could alone be compared with it. + +During the three days the Festival lasted, such scenes as I have +described were repeated,--the only changes being in the persons of +the singers and spouters. Glad enough was I when all was over, and my +occupation as reporter gone, for that time at least. With the aid of +a Welsh friend I managed to make a highly florid report of the +proceedings, which occupied no less than eight columns of the "M---- +Beacon." As several of the speakers were only too glad to give me, _sub +rosâ_, copies of their speeches in their native language, and as none +knew of the fact but ourselves, I gained no little reputation as an +accomplished Welsh scholar. The result of this was, that presents of +Welsh Bibles, hymn-books, histories, topographies, and the like, by the +score, were forwarded to me,--some out of respect for my talents as a +great Welsh linguist, others for review in the newspaper. I was neither +born to such greatness, nor did I ever achieve it; it was literally +thrust on me; so also were sundry joints of the delicious Liliputian +Welsh mutton, which latter I am not ashamed to say I thoroughly +understood, appreciated, and digested. The ancient _litter_-ature, I am +sorry to confess, I sold as waste paper, at so much per pound; but +to show that some lingering regard for at least two of Cambria's +institutions yet reigns in this ---- bosom, I am just about to begin +upon a Welsh rabbit, and wash it down with a pitcher of _cwrw dach_. + + + + +CORNUCOPIA. + + + There's a lodger lives on the first floor, + (My lodgings are up in the garret,) + At night and at morn he taketh a horn + And calleth his neighbors to share it,-- + A horn so long, and a horn so strong, + I wonder how they can bear it. + + I don't mean to say that he drinks, + For that were a joke or a scandal; + But, every one knows it, he night and day blows it;-- + I wish he'd blow out like a candle! + His horn is so long, and he blows it so strong, + He would make Handel fly off the handle. + + By taking a horn I don't hint + That he swigs either rum, gin, or whiskey; + It's _we_ who drink in his din worse than gin, + His strains that attempt to be frisky, + But are grievously sad.--A donkey, I add, + Is as musical, braying in _his_ key. + + It's a puzzle to know what he's at; + I could pity him, if it were madness: + I never yet knew him to play a tune through, + And it gives me more anger than sadness + To hear his horn stutter and stammer to utter + Its various abortions of badness. + + At his wide open window he stands, + Overlooking his bit of a garden; + One can see the great ass at one end of his brass + Blaring out, never asking your pardon: + This terrible blurting he thinks is not hurting, + As long as his own ear-drums harden. + + He thinks, I've no doubt, it is sweet, + While thus Time and Tune he is flaying; + The little house-sparrows feel all through their marrows + The jar and the fuss of his playing,-- + The windows all shaking, the babies all waking, + The very dogs howling and baying. + + One note out of twenty he hits, + And, cheered, blows _pianos_ like _fortes_. + His time is his own. He goes sounding alone, + (A sort of Columbus or Cortés,) + On a perilous ocean, without any notion + Whereabouts in the dim deep his port is. + + Like a man late from club, he has lost + His key, and around stumbles moping, + Touching this, trying that, now a sharp, now a flat, + Till he strikes on the note he is hoping, + And a terrible blare at the end of the air + Shows he's got through at last with his groping. + + There,--he's finished,--at least, for a while; + He is tired, or come to his senses; + And out of his horn shakes the drops that were borne + By the winds of his musical frenzies. + There's a rest, thank our stars, of ninety-nine bars, + Ere the tempest of sound recommences. + + When all the bad players are sent + Where all their false notes are protested, + I am sure that Old Nick will play him a trick, + When his bad trump and he are arrested, + And down in the regions of Discord's own legions + His head with two French horns be crested. + + * * * * * + + +MY JOURNAL TO MY COUSIN MARY. + + +March, 1855. + +Of all the letters of condolence I have received since my misfortune, +yours has consoled me most. It surprises me, I confess, that a far-away +cousin--of whom I only remember that she had the sweetest of earthly +smiles--should know better how to reach the heart of my grief and soothe +it into peace, than any nearest of kin or oldest of friends. But so it +has been, and therefore I feel that your more intimate acquaintance +would be something to interest me and keep my heart above despair. + +My sister Catalina, my devoted nurse, says I must snatch at anything +likely to do that, as a drowning man catches at straws, or I shall +be overwhelmed by this calamity. But is it not too late? Am I not +overwhelmed? I feel that life is a revolting subject of contemplation in +my circumstances, a poor thing to look forward to. Death itself looks +pleasanter. + +Call up to your mind what I was, and what my circumstances were. I was +healthy and strong. I could run, and wrestle, and breast strong winds, +and cleave rough waters, and climb steep hills,--things I shall +henceforth be able only to remember,--yes, and to sigh to do again. + +I was thoroughly educated for my profession. I was panting to fulfil its +duties and rise to its honors. I was beginning to make my way up. I +had gained one cause,--my first and last,--and my friends thought me +justified in entertaining the highest hopes. + +It had always been an object of ambition with me to--well, I will +confess--to be popular in society; and I know I was not the +reverse.--So much, Mary, for what I was. Now see what I am. + +I am, and shall forever be,--so the doctors tell me,--a miserable, +sickly, helpless being, without hope of health or independence. My +object in life can only be--to be comfortable, if possible, and not to +be an intolerable trial to those about me! Worth living for,--isn't it? + +An athlete, eager and glowing in the race of life, transformed by a +thunder-bolt into a palsied and whining cripple for whom there is no +Pool of Bethesda,--that is what has befallen me! + +I suppose you read the shocking details of the collision in the papers. +Catalina and I sat, of course, side by side in the cars. We had that day +met in New York, after a separation of years. She had just returned from +Europe. I went to meet and escort her home, and, as we whirled over the +Jersey sands, I told her of all my plans and hopes. She listened at +first with her usual lively interest; but as I went on, she looked me +full in the face with an air of exasperated endurance, as if what I +proposed to accomplish were beyond reason. I own that I was in a fool's +paradise of buoyant expectation. At last she interrupted me. + +"Ah, yes! No doubt! You'll do those trifles, of course! And, perhaps, +among your other plans and intentions is that of living forever? It is +an easy thing to resolve upon;--better not stop short of it." + +At this instant came the crash, and I knew nothing more until I heard +people remonstrating with Kate for persisting in trying to revive a dead +man, (myself,) while the blood was flowing profusely from her own wound. +I heard her indignantly deny that I was dead, and, with her customary +irritability, tell them that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for +saying so. They still insisted that I was "a perfect jelly," and could +not possibly survive, even if I came to consciousness. She contradicted +them energetically. Yet they pardoned, and liked her. They knew that a +fond heart keenly resents evil prophecies of its beloved ones. Besides, +whatever she does or says, people always like Kate. + +After a physician arrived, it was found that the jellying of my flesh +was not the worst of it; for, in consequence of some injury to my spine, +my lower limbs were paralyzed. My sister, thank Heaven, had received +only a slight cut upon the forehead. + +Of course I don't mean to bore you with a recital of all my sufferings +through those winter months. I don't ask your compassion for such +trifles as bodily pain; but for what I am, and must forever be in this +life, my own heart aches for pity. Let yours sympathize with it. + +I thought to be so active, so useful, perhaps so distinguished as a man, +so blest as husband and father!--for you must know how from my boyhood +up I have craved, what I have never had, a home. + +Now that I have been thrust out of active life and forced to make up my +mind to perfect passiveness, I have become a bugbear to myself. I cannot +endure the thought of ever being the peevish egotist, the exacting +tyrant, which men are apt to become when they are thrown upon woman's +love and long-suffering, as I am. + +My only safeguard is, I believe, to keep up interests out of myself, and +I beg of you to help me. I believe implicitly in your expressed desire +to be of some service to me, and I ask you to undertake the troublesome +task of correspondence with a sick man, and almost a stranger. I will, +however, try to make you acquainted with myself and my surroundings, so +thoroughly that the latter difficulty will soon be obviated. + +First, let me present my sister,--named Catalina,--called Kate, Catty, +or Lina, according to the fancy of the moment, or the degree of +sentimentality in the speaker. You have not seen her since she was a +child, so that, of course, you cannot imagine her as she is now. But you +know the circumstances in which our parents left us. You remember, that, +after living all his life in careless luxury, my father died penniless. +Our mother had secured her small fortune for Kate; and at her death, +just before my father's, she gave me--an infant a few weeks old--into my +sister's young arms, with full trust that I should be taken care of by +her. You know of all my obligations to her in my babyhood and for my +education, which she drudged at teaching for years to obtain for me. I +could never repay her for such devotion, but I hoped to make her forget +all her trials, and only retain the happy consciousness of having had +the making of such a famous man! I expected to place her in affluence, +at least. + +And now what can I bring to her but grief and gray hairs? I am dependent +upon her for my daily bread; I occupy all her time, either in nursing or +sewing for me; I try her temper hourly with my sick-man's whims; and I +doom her to a future of care and economy. Yet I believe in my soul that +she blesses me every time she looks upon me! + +Thackeray says women like to be martyrized. I hardly think it is the +pursuit of pleasure which leads them to self-denial. Men, at any rate, +do not often seek enjoyment in that form. If women do make choice of +such a class of delights, even instinctively, they need advance no other +claim to superiority over men. The higher the animal, the higher its +propensities. + +Kate the other day was asserting a wife's right to the control of her +own property, and incidentally advocating the equality of the sexes,--a +touchy point with her. I put in,-- + +"Tell me, then, Lina, why animals form stronger attachments to men than +to women. Your dog, your parrot, even your cat, already prefers me to +you. How can you account for it, unless by allowing that there is more +in us to respect and love?" + +"I account for it," said she, with her most decided nod, "by affinity. +There is more affinity between you and brutes. It is the sons of God who +find the daughters of men fair. We draw angels from the skies;--even +your jealous, reluctant sex has borne witness to that." + +"Pshaw! only those anomalous creatures, the poets. But please yourself +with such fancies; they encourage a pretty pride that becomes your sex. +Conscious forever of being your lords, we feel that the higher you raise +yourselves, the higher you place us. You can't help owning that angelic +woman-kind submits--and gladly--to us." + +"Nonsense! conceited nonsense!" + +"But _don't_ they?" + +"Some do; but I do not." + +"Why, all my life you have been to me a most devoted, obedient servant, +Kate." + +"Yes, I have my pets," she answered, "and I care for them. I am +housemaid to my bird; my cat makes her bed of my lap and my best silk +dress; I am purveyor to my dog, head-scratcher to my parrot, and so +forth. It is my pleasure to be kind. Higher natures always are so,--yes, +Charlie, even minutely solicitous for the welfare of the objects of +their care; for are not the very hairs of our head all numbered by the +Most Beneficent?" + +She began in playful insolence, but ended with tearful eyes, and a +grateful, humble glow upon her face. Its like I had never seen before in +her rather imperious countenance. I gazed at her with interest. She +saw me, and was irritated to be caught with moistened eyes. She scorns +crying, like a man. + +"Come, come!" said she, childishly and snappishly, "what are you looking +at?" + +Of course you cannot have any idea of her personal appearance from +memory, and I will try to give you one by description. + +Though over thirty, she is generally considered very handsome, and is +in the very prime of her beauty; for it is not of the fragile, delicate +order. She has jet-black, very abundant hair, hazel eyes, and a +complexion that is very fair, without being blonde. A bright, healthy +color in cheek and lip makes her look as fresh as a rose. Her nose is +the doubtful feature. It is--hum!--_Roman_, and some fastidious folks +think a _trifle_ too large. But I think it suits well her keen eyes +and slightly haughty mouth. She has fine hands, a tall figure, and an +independent "grand action," that is not wanting in grace, but is more +significant of prompt energy. + +The study of woman is a new one to me. I often see Kate's friends +and gossips,--for I occupy the parlor as sick-room,--and I lie +philosophizing upon them by the hour, puzzling myself to solve the +problem of their idiosyncrasies. Lady Mary Wortley Montague said, that, +in all her travels, she had met with but two kinds of people,--men +and women. I begin to think that one sex will never be thoroughly +comprehended by the other, notwithstanding the desperate efforts the +novelists are making now-a-days. They all go upon the same plan. They +take some favorite woman, watch her habits keenly, dissect her, analyze +her very blood and marrow,--then patch her up again, and set her in +motion by galvanism. She stalks through three volumes and--drops dead. +I have seen Kate laugh herself almost into convulsions over the knowing +remarks upon the sex in Thackeray, Reade, and others. And I must confess +that the women I know resemble those of no writer but Shakspeare. + +We take our revenge for this irritating incapacity by saying that +neither can women create ideal men at all resembling reality. But _halte +là !_ Was it not said at first that Rochester _must_ be a man's man? Is +not the little Professor Paul Emanuel an actual masculine creature? +Heathcliff was a fiend,--but a male fiend. + +But where am I wandering? To come back to my sister. She is a fair +specimen of the quick, impulsive, frank class of women. She says she +belongs to the _genus irritabile_. She is easily excited to every good +emotion, and also to the nobler failings of anger, indignation, and +pride. But she is so far above any meanness or littleness, that she +don't know them when she sees them. They pass with her for what they are +not, and she is spared the humiliation of knowing what her species is +capable of. Kate's nature is very charming, but there is a gentler, +calmer order of beings in the sex. I once was greatly attracted by one +of them; and you, I think, belong to that order. However, I should not +class you with her,--for Kate says she was a "deceitful thing." She may +have been so, for aught I know; but I hold it as my creed, that +there are some women all softness, all gentleness, all purity, all +loveableness, and yet all strength of principle. Kate says, if there +are men all courage, all chivalry, all ardor, and all virtue, I may be +right. + +The Germans say, "Give the Devil a hair, and he will get your whole +head." Luckily it is the same with the good angels. I have seen a +hundred examples to prove it true. I will give the one nearest my heart. + +Lina's generous aspiration at the birth of her baby brother was the +hair. Since then, the angel of generosity has drawn her on from one +self-denying deed to another, until he has possessed her utterly. Her +self-sacrifice was completed some weeks ago. I will tell you how,--for +her light shall not be hidden under a bushel. + +When I arrived at this, her little cottage home, after the accident, it +was found impossible to get me up stairs. So I have since occupied the +parlor as my sick-room,--having converted a large airy china-closet into +a recess for a bed, and banished the dishes to the kitchen dresser. +During the day I occupy a soft hair-cloth-covered couch, and from it I +can command, not a view, but a hearing, of the two porches, the hall, +and the garden. + +The day after my return was a soft, warm day; and though it was in +February, the windows were all open. I heard a light carriage drive up +to the front door, and supposing it to be the doctor, I awaited his +entrance with impatience. After some time I discovered that he was with +Kate in the garden, and I could hear their voices. I listened with all +my ears, that I might steal his true opinion of myself; for I concluded +that Kate was having a private consultation, and arranging plans by +which I was to be bolstered up with prepared accounts, and not told the +plain facts of the case. I had before suspected that they did not tell +me the worst. I could just catch my name now and then, but no more; and +I wished heartily that they were a little nearer the windows. They must +be, I thought, quite at the bottom of the garden. Suddenly I perceived +that the voice addressing my sister was one of impassioned persuasion, +and I heard the words, "Be calm and reasonable,"--"Not forever." Then +Kate said, with a burst of sobs, "Only in heaven." + +"It is all over with me, then," I thought, aghast. But having settled +it, after a struggle, to be the best thing both for me and Kate, I began +to listen again. They were quite silent for some moments. Then I heard +sounds which surprised me,--low, loving tones,--and I desperately +wrenched myself upon my elbows to look out. The agony of such effort was +more tolerable than the agony of suspense. They were not far off, as I +supposed, but close under the window, standing in the little box-tree +arbor, screened from all eyes but mine; and no doubt Kate believed +herself safe enough from these, as I had never been capable of such +exertion since the accident. Their low tones had deceived me as to their +distance. + +I was mistaken in another respect. It was not the doctor with Kate, but +a fine-looking man, whose emotion declared him her lover. His arm held +her, and hers rested upon his shoulder, as she looked up at him and +spoke earnestly. His face expressed the greatest alarm and grief. I do +not know where she found the resolution, while looking upon it, to do +what she did; for, Mary,--I can hardly bear to write it,--I heard her +forever renounce her love and happiness for my sake. + +I might then have cried out against this self-sacrifice; but there is +something sacred in such an interview, and I could not thrust myself +upon it. I wish now that I had done so. But then I listened in +silence--grief-struck--to the rejection of him she loved,--to the +farewells. I saw the long-clasped hands severed with an effort and a +shudder; I saw my proud sister offer and give a kiss far more fervent +than that which she received in return;--for she felt that this was a +final parting, and her heart was full of love and sorrow; while in his +there lingered both hope and anger,--hope that I would recover, and +release her,--resentment because she could sacrifice him to me. + +And yet, after the parting, Kate had but just turned from him, when a +change came over his countenance, at first of enthusiastic admiration, +then of a yet more burning pain. He walked quickly after her, caught her +in his arms, and dashing away tears, that they might not fall upon her +face, he kissed her passionately, and said, "It is hard that I must say +it, but you are right, Lina! Oh, my God! _must_ I lose such a woman?" + +Kate, trembling, panting, stamped her foot and cried, "Go, go!--I cannot +stand it!--go!" Ah, Mary! that poor, pale face! He went. Kate made one +quick, terrified, instantly restrained motion of recall, which he did +not see; but I did, and I fainted with the pang it gave me. + +When I recovered consciousness, I found my sister bending over me, +blaming herself for neglecting me for so long a time, and calling +herself a cruel, faithless nurse, with acute self-reproach!--There's +woman for you! + +I told her what I had overheard, and protested against what she had +done. She said I must not talk now,--I was too ill; she would listen to +me to-morrow. The next day I broached the subject again, as she sat by +my side, reading the evening paper. She put her finger on a paragraph +and handed it to me. I read that one of the steamships had sailed +at twelve o'clock that day. "He is in it," Kate said, and left the +room.--He is in Europe by this time. + +Helpless wretch that I am! + +Are not Kate's whole head and heart, and all, under the dominion of +Heaven's best angels? + + +II. + +March, 1855. + +And now, dear Mary, I intend to let you into our household affairs. This +illness has brought me one blessing,--a home. It has plunged me into the +bosom of domestic life, and I find things there exceedingly amusing. +Things commonplace to others are very novel and interesting to me, from +my long residence in hotels, and perfect ignorance of how the pot was +kept boiling from which my dinners came. + +But before you enter the house, take a look at the outside, and let me +localize myself in your imagination. Bosky Dell is a compact little +place of ten acres, covered mostly with a dense grove, and cut into two +unequal parts by a brawling, rocky stream. The house--a little cottage, +draped with vines, and porched--sits on a slope, with an orchard on one +side, a tiny lawn bordered with flowers on another, the shade of +the grove darkening the windows of a third, and on the fourth a +kitchen-garden with strawberry-beds and grape-trellises. It is a pretty +little place, and full of cosy corners. My favorite one I must describe. + +It is a porch on the south side of the house, between two projections. +Consequently both ends of it are closed; one, by the parlor wall, in +which there is a window,--and the other, by the kitchen window and wall. +It is quite shut in from winds, and the sun beams pleasantly upon it, +these chilly March days. There is just room enough for my couch, Kate's +rocking-chair, and a little table. Here we sit all the morning,--Kate +sewing, I reading, or watching the sailing clouds, the swelling +tree-buds in the grove, and the crocus-sprinkled grass, which is growing +greener every day. + +Thus, while busy with me, Kate can still have an eye to her kitchen, and +we both enjoy the queer doings and sayings of our "culled help," Saide. +She became Kate's servant under an inducement which I will give in her +own words. + +"Massy! Miss Catline, when _I_ does a pusson a good turn, seems like I +wants to keep on doin' 'em good turns. I didn't do so dreffle much +for you, but I jes got one chance to help you a bit, and seems like I +couldn't be satisfactioned to let you alone no more."--A novel reason to +hear given, but a true one in philosophy. + +This "chance" was when my sister was attacked with cholera once, in the +first panic caused by it, of late years. All her friends had fled to the +country, and she was quite alone in a boarding-house. I was at college. +She would have been left to die alone, so great was the fear of the +disease, if Saide, who was cook in the establishment, had not boiled +over with indignation, and addressed her selfish mistress in this +fashion:-- + +"That ar' young lady's not to have no care, nohow, took of her, a'n't +she? She's to be lef' there a-sufferin' all alone that-a-way, is she? I +guess so too! Hnh! Now I'se gwine to nuss her, and I don't keer if you +don't know nothin' about _culining_, you must get yer own dinnas and +breakwusses and suppas. That's the plain English of it,--leastways till +she's well ag'in." + +She devoted herself night and day to Kate for several weeks, and +then accompanied her to this house, as a matter of course. She is a +privileged personage. She often pops her head out of the kitchen window +to favor us with her remarks. As they always make us laugh, she +won't take reproofs upon that subject. Kate says her impertinence is +intolerable, but suffers it rather than resort to severity with her old +benefactress. I enjoy it. + +She manages to turn her humor to account in various ways. I heard her +exclaim,-- + +"Laws-a-me! Dere goes de best French-chayny gold-edged tureen all to +smash! Pieces not big enough to save! Laws now, do let me study how to +tell de folks, so's to set 'em larfin'. Dere's great 'casion to find +suthin' as 'll do it, 'cause dey thinks a heap o' dis yere ole chayny. +Mr. Charley now,--he's easy set off; but Miss Catline,--she takes +suthin' purty 'cute! Laws, I has to fly roun' to git dat studied out!" + +Kate overheard this;--how could she scold? + +Saide can never think unless she is "flyin' roun'"; and whenever there +is a great tumult in the kitchen, pans kicked about, tongs falling, +dishes rattling, and table shoved over the floor, something pretty good, +in the shape either of a _bonne-bouche_ or a _bon-mot_, is sure to turn +up. + +This morning there was a furious hubbub, that threatened to drown my +voice. Saide was evidently "flyin' roun'," and Kate, who could not hear +half that I read, got out of patience. + +"What _is_ the matter?" she asked, raising the sash of the window. + +"I on'y wants the currender, (colander,) Miss Catline,--dat's all, +Miss." + +"Well, does it take a whirlwind to produce it?" + +"Oh, laws, Miss Catline! Don't be _dat_ funny now, don't!--yegh! +yegh!--I'se find it presentry. I'se on'y a little frustrated, +(flustered,) Miss, with de 'fusion, and I'se jes a-studyin'. Never +mind me, Miss,--dat's all, indeed it is,--and you'll have a fuss-rate +minch-pie for dinner. I guess so, too!--yegh! yegh!"--And so we had. + +Kate's domestics stand in much awe of her, but feel at least equal love. +So that hers is a household kept in good order, with very little of the +vexation, annoyance, and care, I hear so many of her married friends +groaning about. + +April. + +For a month nearly, Kate has forbidden my writing, and the first part of +this letter was not sent; so I will finish it now. My sister thought the +effort of holding a pen, in my recumbent position, was too wearying to +me; but now I am stronger, and can sit up supported by pillows. I hasten +to tell you of another most important addition to my comfort, which has +been made since I wrote last. I am so eager with the news, that I can +hardly hold a steady pen. Isn't this a fine state for a promising young +lawyer to be reduced to? He is wild with excitement, because some one +has given him a new go-cart! + +Ben, the gardener, was that indulgent individual. He made for me, with +his own industrious hands, what he calls a "jaunting-car-r-r-r." It is a +large wheeled couch on springs. I am a house-prisoner no longer! + +I think the first ride I took in it was the most exciting event of my +life. I was not exactly conscious of being mortally tired of looking +from the same porch, over the same garden, into the same grove, and up +to the same quarter of the heavens, for so many months; but when the +change came unexpectedly, it was _transporting_ happiness. + +I suppose it may be so when we enter a future life. While here, we think +we do not want to go elsewhere,--even to a better land; but when we +reach that shore, we shall probably acknowledge it to be a lucky change. + +Ben drew me carefully down the garden-path. I inhaled the breath of the +tulips and hyacinths, as we passed them. I longed to stay there in that +fairy land, for they brought back all the unspeakably rapturous feelings +of my boyhood. Strange that such delight, after we become men, never +visits us except in moments brief as lightning-flashes,--and then +generally only as a memory,--not, as when we were children, in the form +of a hope! When we are boys, and sudden joy stirs our hearts, we say, +"Oh, how grand life will be!" When we are men, and are thus moved, it +is, "Ah, how bright life was!" + +Ben did not pause in the hyacinth-bed with me. He was anxious to prove +the excellence of his vehicle; so he dragged me on in it, until we had +nearly reached the boundary of our grounds, where the two tall, ragged +old cedar-trees marked the extreme point of the evergreen shrubbery, +and _the_ view of the neighborhood lies before us. He stopped there and +said,-- + +"Ye'll mappen like to look abroad a bit, and I'se go on to the +post-office. Miss Kathleen bid me put you here fornenst the landskip, +and then leave ye. She was greatly fashed at the coompany cooming just +then. I must go, Sir." + +"All right, Ben. You need not hurry." + +The fresh morning wind whisked up to me and kissed my face bewitchingly, +as Ben removed his tall, burly form from the narrow opening between the +two trees, and left me alone there in the shade, with nothing between me +and the view. + +That moment revealed to me the joy of all liberated prisoners. My eyes +flew over the wide earth and the broad heavens. After a sweeping view of +both in their vast unity, I began to single out particulars. There lay +the village in the lap of the hills, in summer time "bosomed high in +tufted trees," but now only half veiled by the gauze-like green of the +budding foliage. The apple orchards, still white with blossoms, and +green with wheat or early grass, extended up the hills, and encroached +upon the dense brown forests. There was the little red brick turret +which crowned the village church, and my eye rested lovingly upon it. +Not that it was anything to me; but Kate and all the women I respect +love it, or what it stands for, and through them I hope to experience +that warm love of worship, and of the places dedicated to it, which +seems native to them, and much to be desired for us. I have cared little +for such things hitherto. Their beauty and happiness are just beginning +to dawn upon me. + + ----"Dear Jesus, can it be? + Wait we till all things go from us or e'er we go to thee? + Ay, sooth! We feel such strength in weal, thy love may seem + withstood: + But what are we in agony? _Dumb,_ if we cry not 'God!'" + +Behind the village I can see the blue hazy line of a far-distant +horizon, as the valley opens in that direction. I know the sea lies +there, and sometimes I fancy that _mirage_ lifts its dark waters to my +sight. + +In a wooded nook on my right stands the little brown mill, with its huge +wheel, and wide blue pond, and foamy waterfall. On that day I heard its +drone, and saw the geese bathing, and throwing up the bright sparkling +drops with their wings, until they fell like fountains. + +On my left lay "a little lane serene," with stone fences half hid by +blackberry-bushes-- + + ----"A little lane serene, + Smooth-heaped from wall to wall with unbroken snows. + Or in the summer blithe with lamb-cropped green, + Save the one track, where naught more rude is seen + Than the plump wain at even + Bringing home four months' sunshine bound in sheaves." + +I thought of those lines there and then, and they enhanced even the joy +of Nature. They tinged her for me with the magic colors of poetry. + +When I had thus scrutinized earth, I looked up to heaven. It had been so +long shut from me by the network of the grove, that it was like escaping +from confining toils, to look straight into Heaven's face, with nothing +between, not even a cloud. + +I have never seen a sweeter, calmer picture than that I gazed upon all +the morning, and for which the two huge old cedars formed a rugged, but +harmonious frame. + +I have lived out of doors since. When it is cold, I am wrapped in a +wadded robe Kate has made for me,--a capital thing, loose, and warm, and +silky-soft. To an invalid with nerves all on edge, that is much. I never +found out, until Kate enveloped me in its luxurious folds, what it was +that rasped my feelings so, every morning, when I was dressed; I then +knew it must have been my flashy woollen dressing-gown. I envy women +their soft raiment, and I rather dread the day when I shall be compelled +to wear coats again. (Let me cheat myself, if I can.) + + +III. + +May, 1855. + +You wish to know more of Ben. I am glad of it. You shall be immediately +gratified. + +He is a true Scot, tall and strong and sandy-haired, with quick gray +eyes, and a grave countenance, which relaxes only upon very great +provocation. + +Before I came here, he was known simply as a most careful, industrious, +silent, saving machine, which cared not a jot for anybody in particular, +but never wanted any spur to its own mechanical duty. It was never known +to do a turn of work not legitimately its own, though mathematically +exact in its proper office. But after I came here with my sister, a +helpless cripple, we found out that the mathematical machine was a man, +with a soft, beating heart. He was called upon to lift me from the +carriage, and he did it as tenderly as a woman. He took me up as a +mother lifts her child from the cradle, and I reposed passively in his +strong arms, with a feeling of perfect security and ease. + +From that day to this, Ben has been a most devoted friend to me. He +watches for opportunities to do me kindnesses, and takes from his own +sacred time to make me comforts. He has had me in his arms a hundred +times, and carries me from bed to couch like a baby. I positively blush +in writing this to you. You have known me to be a man for years, and +here I am in arms again! + +Ben's decent, well-controlled self-satisfaction, which almost amounts +to dignity, is gone like a puff of smoke, at the word "Shanghai." Poor +fellow! He once had the hen-fever badly, and he don't like to recall his +sufferings. + +The first I knew of it was by his starting and changing color one day, +when I was reading the news from China to Kate in the garden, he being +engaged in tying up a rose-bush close by. Kate saw his confusion, and +smiled. Ben, catching the expression of her face, looked inconceivably +sheepish. He dropped his ball of twine, and was about to go away, but +thinking better of it, he suddenly turned and said, with a grin and a +blush,-- + +"Ye'll be telling on me, Miss Kathleen! so I'se be aforehond wi' ye, and +let Mr. Charlie knaw the warst frae my ain confassion, if he will na +grudge me a quarter hour." + +I signified my wish to hear, and with much difficulty and many questions +wrung from him his "confassion." Kate afterwards gave me her version, +and the facts were these:-- + +He persuaded Kate to let him buy a pair of Shanghais. + +"But don't do it unless you are sure of its being worth while," +Kate charged him; "because I can't afford to be making expensive +experiments." + +Ben counted out upon his fingers the numberless advantages. + +"First, the valie o' the eggs for sale, (mony ane had fetched a dollar,) +forbye the ecawnomy in size for cooking, one shell handing the meat o' +twa common eggs. Second, the size o' the chickens for table, each hen +the weight o' a turkey. Third, for speculation. Let the neebors buy, and +she could realize sixty dollar on the brood o' twal' chicks; for they +fetched ten dollar the pair, and could be had for nae less onywheres. +Every hen wad hae twa broods at the smallest." + +Kate doubted, but handed over the money. The next day she was awaked +from a nap on the parlor sofa by a most unearthly music. There was one +bar of four notes, first and third accepted; bar second, a _crescendo_ +on a long swelled note, then a _decrescendo_ equally long. + +"Why," she cried, "is that our little bull-calf practising singing? I +shall let Barnum know about him. He'll make my fortune!" + +Ben knocked at the door, presented a radiant grin, and invited +inspection of his Shanghais. Kate went with him to the cellar. There +stood two feathered bipeds on their tip-toes, with their giraffe necks +stretched up to my sister's swinging shelf where the cream and butter +were kept. It spoke well for the size of their craws certainly, that, +during the two minutes Ben was away, they had each devoured a "print" of +butter, about half a pound! + +"Saw ye ever the like o' thae birds, Miss Kathleen?" began Ben, proudly. + +"My butter, my butter!" cried Kate. + +Ben ran to the rescue, and having removed everything to the high shelf, +he came back, saying,-- + +"It was na their faut. I tak shame for not minding that they are so gay +tall. But did ye ever see the like o' yon rooster?" + +Indeed, she never had! The frightful monster, with its bob-tail and +boa-constrictor neck! But she said nothing. + +Ben named them the Emperor and Empress. They were not to be allowed to +walk with common fowls, and he soon had a large, airy house made for +them. He watched these creatures with incessant devotion, and one +morning he was beside himself with delight, for, by a most hideous +roaring on the part of the Emperor, and a vigorous cackling, which +Ben, very descriptively, called "scraughing," by the Empress, it was +announced that she had laid an egg! + +Etiquette required Kate to call and admire this promise of royal +offspring, and she was surprised into genuine admiration when she saw +the prodigy. Her nose had to lower its scornful turn, her lips to relax +their skeptical twist. It was an egg indeed! Ben was nobly justified in +his purchase. His step was light that day. Kate heard him singing, over +and over again, a verse from an old song which he had brought with him +from the land o' cakes:-- + + "I hae a hen wi' a happity leg, + (Lass, gin ye loe me, tell me noo,) + And ilka day she lays me an egg + (And I canna come ilka day to woo!)" + +Wooing any lass would, just now, have been quite as secondary an affair +with the singer as in the song,--a something _par parenthèse_. + +But, alas! Ben's face was more dubious the next day, and before the week +was over it was yard-long. The Empress, after that one great effort, +laid no more eggs, but duly began her second duty, sitting. There was no +doubt that she meant to have but one chick,--out of rivalry, perhaps, +with the Pynchon hen. It was gratifying, perhaps, to have her so +aristocratic, but it was not exactly profitable as a speculation. + +"Ben," said Kate, dryly, "I don't know that that egg was wonderfully +large, as it contained the whole brood!" + +Poor Ben! That was not all. The clumsy, heavy Empress stepped upon her +egg, and broke it in the second week of its existence; but, faithful to +its memory, she refused to forego the duties of maternity, and would +persist in staying on her nest. As the season advanced, Ben lost hope +of the second brood he had counted upon. In short, his Empress had +the legitimate "hen-fever," and it carried her off, though Ben tried +numberless remedies in common use for vulgar fowls, such as pumping upon +her, whirling her by one leg, tying red flannel to her tail, and so +forth. Of course such indignities were fatal to royalty, and Ben gave up +all hopes of a pure race of Shanghais. + +The Emperor was then set at liberty, and for one short half-hour +strutted like a giant-hero among the astounded hens. But no sooner did +the former old cock--who had game blood in him, repute said--return from +a distant excursion into the cornfields with his especial favorites +about him, and behold the mighty majesty of the monster, than his +pride and ire blazed up. He put his head low, ruffled out his long +neck-feathers, his eyes winked and snapped fire with rage, he set out +his wings, took a short run, and, throwing up his spurs with fury, +struck the stupid, staring Emperor a blow under the ear which laid him +low. Alas for royalty, opposed to force of will! + +"And you had to pocket the loss, Kate?" I said. + +"It was my gain," she replied. "Ben had always been dictatorial before; +but after that, I had only to smile to remind him of his fallibility, +and I have been mistress here ever since." + +So far had I written when your welcome letter arrived. Kate found me +this morning sighing over it, pen in hand, ready to reply. She put on +her imperious look, and said she forbade my writing, if I grew +gloomy over it. She feared my letters were only the outpourings of a +disappointed spirit. Indulgence in grief she considered weak, foolish, +unprincipled, and egotistical. + +"I can't help being egotistical," I replied, "when I see no one, and am +shut up in the 'little world of me,' as closely as mouse in trap. And +with myself for a subject, what can my letters be but melancholy?" + +"Anybody can write amusing letters, if they choose," said Kate, reckless +both of fact and grammar. + +"Unless I make fun of you, what else have I to laugh at?" + +"Well, do! Make fun of me to your heart's content! Who cares?" + +"You promise to laugh with us, and not be offended?" + +"I promise not to be offended. My laughing depends upon your wit." + +"There is no mirth left in me, Kate. I am convinced that I ought to say +with Jacques, ''Tis good to be sad, and say nothing.'" + +"Then I shall answer as Rosalind did,--'Why, then, 'tis good to be a +post!' No, no, Charlie, do be merry. Or if you cannot, just now, at +least encourage 'a most humorous sadness,' and that will he the first +step to real mirth." + +"I shall never be merry again, Lina, till you let me recall Mr. ----. +That care weighs me down, and I truly believe retards my recovery." + +"Hush, Charlie!" she said, imperiously. + +"Now, dear Kate, do not be obstinate. My position is too cruel. With the +alleviation of knowing your happiness secure, I could bear my lot. But +now it is intolerable, utterly!" + +She was silent. + +"You must give me that consolation." + +"To say I would ever leave you, Charlie, while you are so helpless, +would be to tell a lie, for I could not do it. Mr. ---- is a civil +engineer. He is always travelling about. I should have no settled home +to take you to. How can you suppose I would abandon you? Do you think I +could find any happiness after doing it? Let us be silent about this." + +"I will not, Kate. I am sure, that, besides being a selfish, it would +be a foolish thing to submit to you in this matter. I shall linger, +perhaps, until your youth is gone, and then have the pang, far worse +than any other I could suffer, of leaving you quite alone in the world. +Do listen to reason!" + +She sat thinking. At last she said, "Well, wait one year." + +"That would be nonsensical procrastination. Does not the doctor declare +that a year will not better my condition?" + +"But he cannot be sure. And I promise you, Charlie, that, if Mr. ---- +asks me then, I will think about it,--and if you are better, go with +him. More I will not promise." + +"A year from last February, you mean?"--A pause. + +"Encroacher! Yes, then." + +"And you will write to him to say so?" + +"Indeed! That would be pretty behavior!" + +"But as you rejected him decidedly, he may form new"----She clapped her +hand upon my mouth. + +"Dare to say it!" she cried. + +I removed her hand, and said, eagerly, "Now, Kate, do not trifle. I must +have some certainty that I am not wrecking your happiness. I cannot +wait a year in suspense. I am a man. I have not the patience of your +incomprehensible sex." + +"I have more than patience to support me, Charlie," she whispered. "He +insisted upon refusing to take a positive answer then, and said he +should return again next spring, to see if I were in the same mind. So +be at ease!" + +I sighed, unsatisfied. + +"I am sure he will come," she said, turning quite away, that I might not +dwell upon her warm blush. + +"There is Ben with the horse. Are you ready?" she asked, glad to change +the subject. + +I was always ready for that I had enjoyed the "jaunting-car-r-r" +so much, that my sister, resolved to gratify me further, had made +comfortable arrangements for longer excursions. I found that I could +sit up, if well supported by pillows; and so Kate had her "cabriolet" +brought out and repaired. + +She had not the least idea of what a cabriolet might be, when she named +her vehicle so; but it sounded fine and foreign, and was a sort of witty +contrast to the misshapen affair it represented. It was indescribable +in form, but had qualities which recommended it to me. It was low, +wide-seated, high-backed, broad, and long. The front wheels turned +under, which was a lucky circumstance, as Kate was to be driver. Ben +could not be spared from his work, and I was out of the question. + +We have a horse to match this unique affair, called "Old Soldier,"--an +excellent name for him; though, if Kate reads this remark, she will +take mortal offence at it. She calls the venerable fellow her charger, +because he makes such bold charges at the steep hills,--the only +occasions upon which the cunning beast ever exerts himself in the least, +well knowing that he will be instantly reined in. Kate has a horror of +going out of a walk, on either ascent or descent, because "up-hill is +such hard pulling, and down-hill so dangerous!" + +Old Soldier can discern a grade of five feet to the mile of either. If I +did not know his history, (an old omnibus horse,) I should say he +must have practised surveying for years. He accommodates himself most +obligingly to his mistress's whims, and walks carefully most of the +time, except when he is ambitious of great praise at little cost, when +he makes the charges aforesaid. + +"He is so considerate, usually!" Kate says; "he knows we don't like +tearing up and down hills; but now and then his spirit runs away with +him!"--I wish it would some day with us. No hope of it! + +We stop every two miles to water the horse, and though we are +exceedingly moderate in our donations, we are a fortune to the hostlers. +I carry the purse, as Kate is quite occupied in holding the reins, and +keeping a sharp look-out that her charger don't run off. Not that he +ever showed a disposition that way,--being generally quite agreeable, +if we wish him to stand ever so long a time; but Kate says he is very +nervous, and he _might_ be startled, and then we _might_ find it +impossible to stop him,--a thing easy enough hitherto. + +I am obliged to keep the purse in my hand all the time, there being such +frequent use for it. Kate says,-- + +"Give the man a half-dime, Charlie, if you can find one. A three-cent +piece looks mean, you know; and a fip mounts up so, it is rather +extravagant. That is the twelfth fip that man has had this week, and for +only holding up a bucket a half-minute at a time; for Soldier only takes +one swallow." + +She will pay every time we stop, if it is six times a day. + +"Shall I give the man a half-dollar at once," I ask, "and let that do +for a week?" + +"No, indeed! How mean I should feel, sneaking off without paying!" + +When the roadside shows a patch of tender grass, Kate eyes it, and +checks Soldier's pace. He knows what that means, and edges toward the +tempting herbage. + +"Poor fellow!" his driver says,--"it is like our having to pass a plate +of peaches. Let him have a bite." + +And so we wait while he grazes awhile. It is the same thing when we +cross a brook, and Soldier pauses in it to cool his feet and look at his +reflection in the water. + +"Perhaps he wants a drink. We won't hurry him. We will let him see that +we can afford to wait." + +If he had not come to that conclusion from the very start, he must have +believed human beings were miracles of patience and forbearance. + +I could write a fine dissertation upon Kate's foolish fondness and her +blind indulgence. I could show that these are the great failings of her +sex, and prove how very much more rational _my_ sex would be in like +circumstances. But I find it too pleasant to be the recipient of such +favors myself just now, to find fault. Wait until I do not need woman's +tenderness, and then I'll abuse it famously. I will say then, that she +is weak, foolish, imprudent; I will say, she kills with kindness, spoils +with indulgence, and all that; but just now I will say nothing. + +In one thing I think her kindness very sensible,--she uses no +check-rein. I think with Sir Francis Head, that all horses are handsomer +with their heads held as Nature pleases. I pity the poor creatures when +I see them turning to one side and the other, to find a little relief +in change of position. To restrain horses thus, who have heavy loads to +pull, is the height of folly, as a waste of power. + +You take no interest in these remarks, perhaps; but treasure them. If +ever, Cousin Mary, you _drive a dray_, they will serve you. + + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THY PSYCHE. + + + Like a strain of wondrous music rising up in cloister dim, + Through my life's unwritten measures thou dost steal, a glorious + hymn! + All the joys of earth and heaven in the singing meet, and flow + Richer, sweeter, for the wailing of an undertone of woe. + How I linger, how I listen for each mellow note that falls, + Clear as chime of angels floating downward o'er the jasper walls! + + Every night, when winds are moaning round my chamber by the sea, + Thine's the face that through the darkness latest looks with love at + me; + And I dream, ere thou departest, thou dost press thy lips to mine;-- + Then I sleep as slept the Immortals after draughts of Hebe's wine! + And I clasp thee, out of slumber when the rosy day is born, + As the soul, with rapture waking, clasps the resurrection morn. + + 'Twas thy soul-wife, 'twas thy Psyche, one uplifted, radiant day, + Thou didst call me;--how divinely on thy brow Love's glory lay! + Thou my Cupid,--not the boy-god whom the Thespians did adore, + But the man, so large, so noble, truer god than Venus bore. + I thy Psyche;--yet what blackness in this thread of gold is wove! + Thou canst never, never lead me, proud, before the throne of Jove! + All the gods might toil to help thee through the longest summer + day;-- + Still would watch the fatal Sisters, spinning in the twilight gray; + And their calm and silent faces, changeless looking through the + gloom, + From eternity, would answer, "Thou canst ne'er escape thy doom!" + Couldst thou clasp me, couldst thou claim me, 'neath the soft + Elysian skies, + Then what music and what odor through their azure depths would rise! + Roses all the Hours would scatter, every god would bring us joy, + So, in perfect loving blended, bliss would never know alloy! + + O my heart! the vision changes; fades the soft celestial blue; + Dies away the rapturous music, thrilling all my pulses through! + Lone I sit within my chamber; storms are beating 'gainst the pane, + And my tears are falling faster than the chill December rain;-- + Yet, though I am doomed to linger, joyless, on this earthly shore, + Thou art Cupid!--I am Psyche!--we are wedded evermore! + + + + +DR. WICHERN AND HIS PUPILS. + + +"Would you like to spend a day at Horn and visit the _Rauhe Haus?_" +inquired my friend, Herr X., of me, one evening, as we sat on the bank +of the Inner Alster, in the city of Hamburg. I had already visited most +of the "lions" in and about Hamburg, and had found in Herr X. a most +intelligent and obliging cicerone. So I said, "Yes," without hesitation, +though knowing little more of the Rauhe Haus than that it was a reform +school of some kind. + +"I will call for you in the morning," said my friend, as we parted for +the night. + +The morning was clear and bright, and I had hardly despatched my +breakfast when Herr X. appeared with his carriage. Entering it without +delay, we were driven swiftly over the pavements, till we came to the +old city-wall, now forming a fine drive, when my friend, turning to the +coachman, said,-- + +"Go more slowly." + +"The scenery in this vicinity we Hamburgers think very beautiful," he +continued, turning to me. + +To my eye, accustomed to our New England hills, it was much too flat to +merit the appellation of beautiful, though Art had done what it could to +improve upon Nature; so I assented to his encomiums upon the landscape, +but, desirous of changing the subject, added,-- + +"This Rauhe Haus, where we are going, I know but little of; will you +give me its history?" + +"Most willingly," he replied. "You must know that our immense commerce, +while it affords ample occupation for the enterprising and industrious, +draws hither also a large proportion of the idle, depraved, and vicious. +For many years, it was one of the most difficult questions with which +our Senate has had to grapple, to determine what should be done with +the hordes of vagrant children who swarmed about our quays, and were +harbored in the filthy dens which before the great fire of 1842 were so +abundant in the narrow streets. These children were ready for crime of +every description, and in audacity and hardihood far surpassed older +vagabonds. + +"In 1830, Dr. Wichern, then a young man of twenty-two, having completed +his theological studies at Göttingen and Berlin, returned home, and +began to devote himself to the religious instruction of the poor. He +established Sabbath-schools for these children, visited their parents +at their homes, and sought to bring them under better influences. He +succeeded in collecting some three or four hundred of them in his +Sabbath-schools; but he soon became convinced that they must be removed +from the evil influences to which they were subjected, before any +improvement could be hoped for in their morals. In 1832, he proposed +to a few friends, who had become interested in his labors, the +establishment of a House of Rescue for them. The suggestion met their +approval; but whence the means for founding such an institution were to +come none of them knew; their own resources were exceedingly limited, +and they had no wealthy friends to assist them. + +"About this time, a gentleman with whom he was but slightly acquainted +brought him three hundred dollars, desiring that it should be expended +in aid of some new charitable institution. Soon after, a legacy of +$17,500 was left for founding a House of Rescue. Thus encouraged, +Wichern and his friends went forward. A cottage, roughly built and +thatched with straw, with a few acres of land, was for sale at Horn, +about four miles from the city, and its situation pleasing them, they +appropriated their legacy to the purchase of it. Hither, in November, +1833, Dr. Wichern removed with his mother, and took into his household, +adopting them as his own children, three of the worst boys he could find +in Hamburg. In the course of a few months he had increased the number to +twelve, all selected from the most degraded children of the city. + +"His plan was the result of careful and mature deliberation. He saw that +these depraved and vicious children had never been brought under +the influence of a well-ordered family, and believing, that, in the +organization of the family, God had intended it as the best and most +efficient institution for training children in the ways of morality and +purity, he proposed to follow the Divine example. The children were +employed, at first, in improving the grounds, which had hitherto been +left without much care; the banks of a little stream, which flowed +past the cottage, were planted with trees; a fish-pond into which it +discharged its waters was transformed into a pretty sylvan lake; and the +barren and unproductive soil, by judicious cultivation, was brought into +a fertile condition. + +"In 1834, the numerous applications he received, and the desire of +extending the usefulness of the institution, led him to erect another +building for the accommodation of a second family of boys. The work +upon it was almost wholly performed by his first pupils. I should have +remarked, that, during the first year, a high fence, which surrounded +the premises when they were purchased, was removed by the boys, by Dr. +Wichern's direction, as he desired to have _love_ the only bond by +which to retain them in his family. When the new house was finished and +dedicated, the original family moved into it, and were placed under +the charge of two young men from Switzerland, named Baumgärtner and +Byckmeyer. + +"Workshops for the employment of the boys soon became necessary, and +means were contributed for their erection. New pupils were offered, +either by their parents, or by the city authorities, and new families +were organized. These required more "house-fathers," as they were +called, and for their training a separate house was needed. Dr. +Wichern has been very successful in obtaining assistants of the right +description. They are young men of good education, generally versed in +some mechanical employment, and whose zeal for philanthropic effort +leads them to place themselves under training here, for three or four +years, without salary. They are greatly in demand all over Germany +for home missionaries and superintendents of prisons and reformatory +institutions. You have heard, I presume, of the Inner Mission?" + +I assented, and he continued. + +"These young men are its most active promoters. The philanthropy of +Wichern was not satisfied, until he had established also several +families of vagrant girls at his Rough House.--But see, we are +approaching our destination. This is the Rauhe Haus." + +As he spoke, our carriage stopped. We alighted, and rarely has my eye +been greeted by a pleasanter scene. The grounds, comprising about +thirty-two acres, presented the appearance of a large landscape-garden. +The variety of choice forest-trees was very great, and mingled with them +were an abundance of fruit-trees, now laden with their golden treasures, +and a profusion of flowers of all hues. Two small lakes, whose borders +were fringed with the willow, the weeping-elm, and the alder, glittered +in the sunlight,--their finny inhabitants occasionally leaping in +the air, in joyous sport. Fourteen buildings were scattered over the +demesne,--one, by its spire, seeming to be devoted to purposes of +worship. + +"Let us go to the Mutter-Haus," (Mother-House,) said my friend; "we +shall probably find Dr. Wichern there." + +So saying, he led the way to a plain, neat building, situated nearly +centrally, though in the anterior portion of the grounds. This is Dr. +Wichern's private residence, and here he receives reports from the +Brothers, as the assistants are called, and gives advice to the pupils. +We were ushered into the superintendent's office, and found him a fine, +noble-looking man, with a clear, mild eye, and an expression of great +decision and energy. My friend introduced me, and Dr. Wichern welcomed +us both with great cordiality. + +"Be seated for a moment, gentlemen," said he; "I am just finishing +the proofs of our _Fliegenle Blätter_," (Flying Leaves, a periodical +published at the Rauhe Haus,) "and will presently show you through our +buildings." + +We waited accordingly, interesting ourselves, meanwhile, with the +portraits of benefactors of the institution which decorated the walls. + +In a few minutes Dr. Wichern rose, and merely saying, "I am at your +service, gentlemen," led the way to the original Rough House. It is +situated in the southeastern corner of the grounds, and is overshadowed +by one of the noblest chestnut-trees I have ever seen. The building is +old and very humble in appearance, but of considerable size. In addition +to accommodations for the House-Father and his family of twelve boys, +several of the Brothers of the Mission reside here, and there are also +rooms for a probationary department for new pupils. + +"Here," said the Doctor, "we began the experiment whose results you see +around you. When, with my mother and sister and three of the worst boys +to be found in Hamburg, I removed to this house in 1833, there was need +of strong faith to foresee the results which God has wrought since that +day." + +"What were the means you found most successful in bringing these +turbulent and intractable spirits into subjection?" I inquired. + +"Love, the affection of a parent for his children," was his reply. +"These wild, hardened boys were inaccessible to any emotion of fear; +they had never been treated with kindness or tenderness; and when they +found that there was no opportunity for the exercise of the defiant +spirit they had summoned to their aid, when they were told that all the +past of their lives was to be forgotten and never brought up against +them, and that here, away from temptation, they might enter upon a new +life, their sullen and intractable natures yielded, and they became +almost immediately docile and amiable." + +"But," I asked, "is there not danger, that, when removed from these +comfortable homes, and subjected again to the iron gripe of poverty, +they will resume their old habits?" + +"None of us know," replied Dr. Wichern, solemnly, "what we may be left +to do in the hour of temptation; but the danger is, nevertheless, not so +great as you think. Our children are fed and clothed like other peasant +children; they are not encouraged to hope for distinction, or an +elevated position in society; they are taught that poverty is not in +itself an evil, but, if borne in the right spirit, may be a blessing. +Our instruction is adapted to the same end; we do not instruct them +in studies above their rank in life; reading, writing, the elementary +principles of arithmetic, geography, some of the natural sciences, and +music, comprise the course of study. In the calling they select, we do +what we can to make them intelligent and competent. Our boys are much +sought for as apprentices by the farmers and artisans of the vicinity." + +"Many of them, I suppose," said I, "had been guilty of petty thefts +before coming here; do you not find trouble from that propensity?" + +"Very seldom; the perfect freedom from suspicion, and the confidence in +each other, which we have always maintained, make theft so mean a vice, +that no boy who has a spark of honor left will be guilty of it. In +the few instances which do occur, the moral sense of the family is +so strong, that the offender is entirely subdued by it. An incident, +illustrative of this, occurs to me. Early in our history, a number of +our boys undertook to erect a hut for some purpose. It was more than +half completed, and they were delighted with the idea of being able soon +to occupy it, when it was discovered that a single piece of timber, +contributed by one of the boys, had been obtained without leave. As soon +as this was known, one of the boys seized an axe, and demolished the +building, in the presence of the offender, the rest looking on and +approving; nor could they afterward be induced to go on with it. At +one time, several years since, there were two or three petty thefts +committed, (and a good deal of prevarication naturally followed,) mainly +by new pupils, of whom a considerable number had been admitted at once. +Finding ordinary reproof unavailing, I announced that family worship +would be suspended till the delinquents gave evidence of penitence. The +effect of this measure was far beyond my expectation. Many of the boys +would meet in little groups, in the huts, for prayers among themselves; +and ere long the offenders came humbly suing for pardon and the +resumption of worship." + +During this conversation, we had left the Rough House and visited +the new Lodge, erected in 1853, for a family of boys and a circle of +Brothers, and the "Beehive," (_Bienenkorb,_) erected in 1841, in the +northeast corner of the grounds, the home of another family. Turning +westward, we came to the chapel, and a group of buildings connected with +it, including the school-rooms, the preparatory department for girls, +the library, dwellings for two families of girls, the kitchen, +store-rooms, and offices. It was the hour of recess, and from the +school-rooms rushed forth a joyous company of children, plainly clad, +and evidently belonging to the peasant class; but though the marks of +an early career of vice were stamped on many of their countenances, yet +there were not a few bright eyes, and intelligent, thoughtful faces. +Seeing Dr. Wichern, they came at once to him, with the impulsiveness of +childhood, but with so evident a sense of propriety and decorum, that I +would not but compare their conduct with that of many pupils in our best +schools, and not to the advantage of the latter. The Doctor received +them cordially, and had a kind word for each, generally in reference to +their improvement in behavior, or their influence over others. + +"This," said he, turning to me, as a bright, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired +boy seized his hand, "is one of our peace boys." + +I did not understand what he meant by the term, and said so. + +"Our peace boys," he replied, "are selected from the most trustworthy +and exemplary of our pupils, to aid in superintending the others. They +have no authority to command, or even reprove; but only to counsel and +remind. To be selected for this duty is one of their highest rewards." + +"There must be among so many boys," I remarked, "and particularly +those taken from such sources, a considerable number of +_born-destructives_,--children in whom the propensity to break, tear, +and destroy is almost ineradicable; how do you manage these?" + +"In the earlier days of our experiment," he replied, "we had much +trouble from this source; but at last we hit upon the plan of allowing +each boy a certain sum of pocket-money, and deducting from this, in part +at least, the estimated value of whatever he destroyed. From the day +this rule was adopted all destructible articles seemed to have lost a +great part of their fragility." + +"Do the pupils often run away?" I asked. + +"Very seldom, of late years; formerly we were occasionally troubled in +that way. It was, of course, easy for them to do it, as no fences +or other methods of restraint were used,--our reliance being upon +affection, to retain them. If they made their escape, we usually sought +them out, and persuaded them to return, and they seldom repeated the +offence. Some years ago, one of our boys, who had repeatedly tried our +patience by his waywardness, ran away. I pursued him, found him, and +persuaded him to return. It was Christmas eve when we arrived, and this +festival was always celebrated in my mother's chamber. As we entered the +room, the children were singing the Christmas hymns. As he appeared, +they manifested strong disapprobation of his conduct. They were told +that they might decide among themselves how he should be punished. They +consulted together quietly for a few moments, and then one, who had +himself been forgiven some time before for a like fault, came forward, +and, bursting into tears, pleaded that the offender might be pardoned. +The rest joined in the petition, and, extending to him the hand of +fellowship, soon turned their festival into a season of rejoicing +over the returned prodigal. The pardon thus accorded was complete; no +subsequent reference was made to his misconduct; and the next day, to +show our confidence in him, a confidence which we never had occasion to +retract, we sent him on an errand to a considerable distance." + +"How did they behave at the time of the great fire?" I inquired; "the +excitement must surely have reached you." + +"No event in our whole history," answered Dr. Wichern, his fine +countenance lighting up as he spoke, "so fully satisfied me of the +success which had attended our labors, as their behavior on that +occasion. On the second day of the fire, the boys, some of whom had +relatives and friends in the burning district, became so much excited by +the intelligence brought by those who had escaped from the flames, that +they began to implore me to permit them to go and render assistance. I +feared, at first, the consequences of exposing them to the temptations +to escape and plunder by which they would be beset; but at length +permitted a company of twenty-two to go with me, on condition that +they would keep together as much as possible, and return with me at +an appointed time. They promised to do this, and they fulfilled their +promise to the letter. Their conduct was in the highest degree heroic; +they rushed into danger, for the sake of preserving lives and property, +with a coolness and bravery which put to shame the labors of the boldest +firemen; occasionally they would come to the place of rendezvous to +reassure their teacher, and then in a moment they were away again, +laboring as zealously as ever, and utterly refusing any compensation, +however urgently pressed upon them. When they returned home, another +band was sent out under the direction of one of the house-fathers, and +exerted themselves as faithfully as their predecessors had done. But +their sacrifices and toils did not end here. Among the thousands whom +that fearful conflagration left homeless, not a few came here for +shelter and food. With these our boys shared their meals, and gave up +to them their beds,--themselves sleeping upon the ground, and this for +months." + +I could not wonder at the enthusiasm of the good man over such deeds +as these on the part of boys whom he had rescued from a degradation of +which we can hardly form an idea. It was a triumph of which an angel +might have been proud. + +I was desirous of learning something of the industrial occupations of +the pupils, and made some inquiries respecting them. + +"A considerable portion of our boys," said Dr. Wichern, "are engaged in +agricultural, or rather, horticultural pursuits. As we practise spade +husbandry almost exclusively, and devote our grounds to gardening +purposes, we can furnish employment to quite a number. For those who +prefer mechanical pursuits, we have a printing-office, book-bindery, +stereotype-foundry, lithographing and wood-engraving establishment, +paint-shop, silk-weaving manufactory, and shoe-shop, as well as those +trades which are carried on for the most part out of doors, such as +masonry and carpentry. The girls are mostly employed in household +duties, and are in great demand as servants and assistants in the +households of our farmers." + +Passing westward, we came next to the bakery and the farmer's residence, +catching a glimpse through the trees of the Fisherman's Hut, at a little +distance, near the bank of the larger of the two sylvan lakes on the +premises, where another family are gathered, and then approachd a large +building of more pretension than the rest. + +"This," said Dr. Wichern, "is the home of the Brothers of our Inner +Mission, and the school-room for our boarding-school boys, the children +of respectable and often wealthy parents, who have proved intractable at +home." + +"What," I asked, "do you include in the term, Inner Mission?" + +"I must take a round-about method of answering your inquiry. When we +found it necessary to form new families, our greatest difficulty was in +procuring suitable persons to become house-fathers of these families. +It was easy enough to obtain honest, intelligent men and women, who +possessed a fair education and a sufficient knowledge of some of the +mechanic arts for the situation; but we felt that much more than this +was necessary. We wanted men and women who would act a parent's part, +and perform a parent's duty to the children under their care; and these, +we found, must be trained for the place. We then began our circles of +Brothers, to furnish house-fathers and assistants for our families. We +required in the candidates for this office an irreproachable character; +that they should be free from physical defect, of good health and robust +constitution; that they should give evidence of piety, and of special +adaptation to this calling; that they should understand farming, or some +one of the trades practised in the establishment, or possess sufficient +mechanical talent to acquire a knowledge of them readily; that they +should have already a certain amount of education, and an amiable and +teachable disposition; and that they should be not under twenty years of +age, and exempt from military service." + +"And do you find a sufficient number who can fulfil conditions so +strict?" I inquired. + +"Candidates are never wanting," was his reply, "though the demand for +their services is large." + +"What is your course of training?" + +"Mainly practical; though we have a course of special instruction for +them, occupying twenty hours a week, in which, during their four years' +residence with us, they are taught sacred and profane history, German, +English, geography, vocal and instrumental music, and the science of +teaching. Instruction on religious subjects is also given throughout the +course. For the purpose of practical training, they are attached, at +first, to families as assistants, and after a period of apprenticeship +they undertake in rotation the direction. They teach the elementary +classes; visit the parents of the children, and report to them the +progress which their pupils have made; maintain a watchful supervision +over them, after they leave the Rauhe Haus; and assist in religious +instruction, and in the correspondence. By the system of monthly +rotation we have adopted, each Brother is brought in contact with all +the pupils, and is thus enabled to avail himself of the experience +acquired in each family." + +"You spoke of a great demand for their services; I can easily imagine +that men so trained should be in demand; but what are the callings +they pursue after leaving you? for you need but a limited number as +house-fathers and teachers." + +"The Inner Mission," he replied, "has a wide field of usefulness. It +furnishes directors and house-fathers for reform schools organized +on our plan, of which there are a number in Germany; overseers, +instructors, and assistants in agricultural and other schools; directors +and subordinate officers for prisons; directors, overseers, and +assistants in hospitals and infirmaries; city and home missionaries; and +missionaries to colonies of emigrants in America." + +"What is your annual expenditure above the products of your farm and +workshops?" I asked. + +"Somewhat less than fifty dollars a head for our entire population," was +the reply. + +It was by this time high noon, and as we returned to the Mutter-Haus, +the benevolent superintendent insisted that we should remain and partake +with him of the mid-day meal. We complied, and presently were summoned +to the dining-hall, where we found a small circle of the Brothers, and +the two head teachers. After a brief but appropriate grace, we took our +seats, being introduced by the director. + +"At supper all our teachers assemble here," said Dr. Wichern, "and with +them those children whose birthday it is; but at dinner the Brothers +remain with their own families." + +The table was abundantly supplied with plain but wholesome food, and the +cheerful conversation which ensued gave evidence that the cares of their +position had not exerted a depressing influence on their spirits. Each +seemed thoroughly in love with his work, and in harmony with all the +rest. Dr. Wichern mentioned that I was from America. + +"Have you," inquired one of the Brothers, "any institutions like this in +your country?" + +"We have," I answered, "Reform Schools, Houses of Refuge, Juvenile +Asylums, and other reformatory institutions; but I am afraid I must say, +nothing like this. We are making progress, however, in Juvenile Reform, +and I hope that ere long we, too, may have a Rough House whose influence +shall pervade our country, as yours has done Central Europe." + +"Dr. Wichern," inquired another, "have our friends visited the 'God's +Acre?'"[A] + +[Footnote A: The German name of a grave-yard.] + +"Not yet," was the reply; "but I will go thither with them after we have +dined, if they can remain so long." + +We assented, and one of the Brothers remarked,-- + +"Our boys have taken especial pains to beautify that favorite spot, this +season." + +"This disposition to adorn the resting-place of the body, so common +among us, is becoming popular in your country, I believe," said our +host, courteously. + +I replied, that it was,--that in our larger towns the place of burial +was generally rendered attractive, but that in the rural districts the +burying-grounds were yet neglected and unsightly; and ventured the +opinion, that this neglect might be partly traceable to the iconoclastic +tendencies of our Puritan ancestors. + +Dr. Wichern thought not; the neglect of the earthly home of the dead +resulted from the prevalence of indifference to the glorious doctrine of +the Resurrection; and whatever a people might profess, he could not but +believe them infidel at heart, if they were entirely neglectful of the +resting-place of their dead. + +The close of our repast precluded further discussion, and at our host's +invitation we accompanied him to the rural cemetery, where such of the +pupils and Brothers as died during their connection with the school were +buried. An English writer has very appropriately called the Rauhe Haus a +"Home among the Flowers"; but the title is far more appropriate to this +beautiful spot. Whatever a pure and exquisite taste could conceive as +becoming in a place consecrated to such a purpose, willing hands have +executed; and early every Sabbath morning, Dr. Wichern says, the pupils +resort hither to see that everything necessary is done to keep it in +perfect order. The air seemed almost heavy with the perfume of flowers; +and though the home of the living pupils of the Rauhe Haus is plain in +the extreme, the palace of their dead surpasses in splendor that of the +proudest of earthly monarchs. One could hardly help coveting such a +resting-place. + +It was with reluctance that we at last turned our faces homeward, and +bade the excellent director farewell. The world has seen, in this +nineteenth century, few nobler spirits than his. Possessed of uncommon +intellect, he combines with it executive talent of no ordinary +character, and a capacity for labor which seems almost fabulous. His +duties as the head of the Inner Mission, whose scope comprises the +organization and management of reformatory institutions of all kinds, +throughout Germany, as well as efforts analogous to those of our city +missions, temperance societies, etc., might well be supposed to be +sufficient for one man; but these are supplementary to his labors as +director of the Rauhe Haus, and editor of the _Fliegende Blätter_, and +the other literature, by no means inconsiderable, of the Inner Mission. +Dr. Wichern is highly esteemed and possesses almost unbounded influence +throughout Germany; and that influence, potent as it is, even with the +princes and crowned heads of the German States, is uniformly exerted in +behalf of the poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, and the degraded. +When the history of philanthropy shall be written, and the just meed +of commendation bestowed on the benefactors of humanity, how much more +exalted a place will he receive, in the memory and gratitude of the +world, than the perjured and audacious despot who, born the same year, +in the neighboring city of the Hague, has won his way to the throne of +France by deeds of selfishness and cruelty! Even to-day, who would not +rather be John Henry Wichern, the director of the Rauhe Haus at Horn, +than Louis Napoleon, emperor of France? + +Would that on our own side of the Atlantic a Wichern might arise, whose +abilities should be sufficient to unite in one common purpose our +reformatory enterprises, and rescue from infamy and sin the tens of +thousands of children who now, apt scholars in crime, throng the +purlieus of vice in our large cities, and are already committing deeds +whose desperate wickedness might well cause hardened criminals to +shudder. The existence of a popular government depends, we are often +told, upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. What hope, then, +can we have of the perpetuity of our institutions, when those who are to +control them have become monsters of iniquity ere they have reached the +age of manhood? + +The forces of Good and Evil are ever striving for the mastery in human +society. Happy is that philanthropist, and honored should he be with a +nation's gratitude, who can rescue these juvenile offenders from the +power of evil, and from the fearful suggestings of temptation and want, +and enlist them on the side of virtue and right! We rear monuments of +marble and bronze to those heroes who on the battle-field and in the +fierce assault have kept our nation's fame untarnished, and added new +laurels to the renown of our country's prowess; but more enduring than +marble, more lasting than brass, should be the monument reared to him +who, in the fierce contest with the powers of evil, shall rescue +the soul of the child from the grasp of the tempter, and change the +brutalized and degraded offspring of crime and lust into a youth of +generous, active, and noble impulses. But though earthly fame may be +denied to such a benefactor of his race, his record shall be on high; +and at that grand assize where all human actions shall be weighed, His +voice, whose philanthropy exceeded, infinitely, the noblest deeds of +benevolence of the sons of earth, shall be heard, saying to these humble +laborers in the vineyard of our God, "Friends, come up higher!" + +Those who are interested in knowing what has been accomplished by the +reformatory institutions of Europe will find a full and entertaining +account of most of them in a volume recently published, entitled "Papers +on Preventive, Correctional, and Reformatory Institutions and Agencies +in Different Countries," by Henry Barnard, LL.D. Hartford: F.C. +Brownell, 1857. Dr. Barnard has done a good work in collecting these +valuable documents. + + + + +BEAUTY. + + + Fond lover of the Ideal Fair, + My soul, eluded everywhere, + Is lapsed into a sweet despair. + Perpetual pilgrim, seeking ever, + Baffled, enamored, finding never; + Each morn the cheerful chase renewing, + Misled, bewildered, still pursuing; + Not all my lavished years have bought + One steadfast smile from her I sought, + But sidelong glances, glimpsing light, + A something far too fine for sight, + Veiled voices, far off thridding strains, + And precious agonies and pains: + Not love, but only love's dear wound + And exquisite unrest I found. + + At early morn I saw her pass + The lone lake's blurred and quivering glass; + Her trailing veil of amber mist + The unbending beaded clover kissed; + And straight I hasted to waylay + Her coming by the willowy way;-- + But, swift companion of the Dawn, + She left her footprints on the lawn, + And, in arriving, she was gone. + Alert I ranged the winding shore; + Her luminous presence flashed before; + The wild-rose and the daisies wet + From her light touch were trembling yet; + Faint smiled the conscious violet; + Each bush and brier and rock betrayed + Some tender sign her parting made; + And when far on her flight I tracked + To where the thunderous cataract + O'er walls of foamy ledges broke, + She vanished in the vapory smoke. + + To-night I pace this pallid floor, + The sparkling waves curl up the shore, + The August moon is flushed and full; + The soft, low winds, the liquid lull, + The whited, silent, misty realm, + The wan-blue heaven, each ghostly elm, + All these, her ministers, conspire + To fill my bosom with the fire + And sweet delirium of desire. + Enchantress! leave thy sheeny height, + Descend, be all mine own this night, + Transfuse, enfold, entrance me quite! + Or break thy spell, my heart restore, + And disenchant me evermore! + + * * * * * + + +THE GRINDWELL GOVERNING MACHINE. + + +On the other side of the Atlantic there is a populous city called +Grandville. It is, as its name indicates, a great city,--but it is said +that it thinks itself a good deal greater than it really is. I meant to +say that Grandville was its original name, and the name by which even at +the present day it is called by its own citizens. But there are certain +wits, or it may be, vulgar people, who by some process have converted +this name into Grindwell. + +I may be able, in the course of this sketch, to give a reason why so +sounding and aristocratic a name as Grandville has been changed into the +plebeian one of Grindwell. I might account for it by adducing +similar instances of changes in the names of cities through the bad +pronunciation and spelling of foreigners. For instance, the English +nickname Livorno Leghorn, the Germans insist on calling Venice Venedig, +and the French convert Washington into the Chinese word Voss-Hang-Tong. +And so it may be that the name Grindwell has originated among us +Americans simply from miscalling or misspelling the foreign name of +Grandville. + +I incline to think, however, that there is a better reason for the name. + +For a good many years Grandville has been famous for a great machine, of +a very curious construction, which is said to regulate the movements of +the whole city, and almost to convert the men, women, and children into +cranks, wheels, and pinions. As a model of this machine does not exist +in our Patent Office at Washington, I shall beg the reader's indulgence +while I attempt to give some account of it. It may be thought a very +curious affair, though I believe there is little about it that is +original or new. The idea of it was handed down from remote generations. + +In America I know that many persons may consider the Grindwell Governing +Machine a humbug,--an obsolete, absurd, and tyrannous institution, +wholly unfitted to the nineteenth century. A machine that proposes to +think and act for the whole people, and which is rigidly opposed to the +people's thinking and acting for themselves, is likely to find little +favor among us. With us the doctrine is, that each one should think for +himself,--be an individual mind and will, and not the spoke of a wheel. +Every American voter or votress is allowed to keep his or her little +intellectual wind-mill, coffee-mill, pepper-mill, loom, steam-engine, +hand-organ, or whatever moral manufacturing or grinding apparatus he or +she likes. Each one may be his own Church or his own State, and yet be +none the less a good and useful citizen, and the union of the States be +in none the more danger. But it is not so in Grindwell. The rules of +the Grindwell machine allow no one to do his own grinding, unless his +mill-wheel is turned by the central governing power. He must allow the +big State machine to do everything,--he paying for it, of course. A +regular programme prescribes what he shall believe and say and do; and +any departure from this order is considered a violation of the laws, or +at least a reprehensible invasion of the time-honored customs of the +city. + +The Grindwell Governing Machine (though a patent has been taken out for +it in Europe, and it is thought everything of by royal heads and the +gilded flies that buzz about them) is really an old machine, nearly worn +out, and every now and then patched up and painted and varnished anew. +If a committee of our knowing Yankees were sent over to gain information +with regard to its actual condition, I am inclined to think they would +bring back a curious and not very favorable report. It wouldn't astonish +me, if they should pronounce the whole apparatus of the State rotten +from top to bottom, and only kept from falling to pieces by all sorts +of ingenious contrivances of an external and temporary nature,--here a +wheel, or pivot, or spring to be replaced,--there a prop or buttress to +be set up,--here a pipe choked up,--there a boiler burst,--and so on, +from one end of the works to the other. However, the machine keeps +a-going, and many persons think it works beautifully. + +Everything is reduced to such perfect system in its operations, that the +necessity for individual opinion is almost superseded, and even +private consciences are laid upon the shelf,--just as people lay by an +antiquated timepiece that no winding-up or shaking can persuade into +marking the hours,--for have they not the clock on the Government +railroad station opposite, which they can at any time consult by +stepping to the window? For instance, individual honesty is set aside +and replaced by a system of rewards and punishments. Honesty is an +old-fashioned coat. The police, like a great sponge, absorbs the private +virtue. It says to conscience, "Stay there,--don't trouble yourself,--I +will act for you." + +You drop your purse in the street. A rogue picks it up. In his private +conscience he says, "Honesty is a very good thing, perhaps, but it is by +no means the best policy,--it is simply no policy at all,--it is sheer +stupidity. What can be more politic than for me to pocket this windfall +and turn the corner quick?"--So preacheth his crooked fag-end of a +conscience, that _very, very_ small still voice, in very husky tones; +but he knows that a policeman, walking behind him, saw him pick up the +purse, which alters the case,--which, in fact, completely sets aside his +fag-end of a husky-voiced conscience, and makes virtue his necessity, +and necessity his virtue. External morality is hastily drawn on as +a decent overcoat to hide the tag-rags of his roguishness, while he +magnanimously restores the purse to the owner. + +Jones left his umbrella in a cab one night. Discovering that he hadn't +it under his arm, he rushed after the cabman; but he was gone. Jones +had his number, however, and with it proceeded the next day to the +police-office, feeling sure that he would find his umbrella there. And +there, in a closet appropriated to articles left in hackney-coaches,--a +perfect limbo of canes, parasols, shawls, pocket-books, and +what-not,--he found it, ticketed and awaiting its lawful owner. The +explanation of which mystery is, that the cabmen in Grindwell are +strictly amenable to the police for any departure from the system which +provides for the security of private property, and a yearly reward is +given to those of the coach-driving fraternity who prove to be the most +faithful restorers of articles left in their carriages. Surely, the +result of system can no farther go than this,--that Monsieur Vaurien's +moral sense, like his opinions, should be absorbed and overruled by the +governing powers. + +What a capital thing it is to have the great governmental head and +heart thinking and feeling for us! Why, even the little boys, on winter +afternoons, are restricted by the policemen from sliding on the ice +in the streets, for fear the impetuous little fellows should break or +dislocate some of their bones, and the hospital might have the expense +of setting them; so patriarchal a regard has the machine for its young +friends! + +I might allude here to a special department of the machine, which once +had great power in overruling the thoughts and consciences of the +people, and which is still considered by some as not altogether +powerless. I refer to the Ecclesiastic department of the Grindwell +works. This was formerly the greatest labor-saving machinery ever +invented. But however powerful the operation of the Church machinery +upon the grandmothers and grandfathers of the modern Grindwellites, it +has certainly fallen greatly into disuse, and is kept a-going now more +for the sake of appearances than for any real efficacy. The most knowing +ones think it rather old-fashioned and cumbrous,--at any rate, not +comparable to the State machinery, either in its design or its mode of +operation. And as in these days of percussion-caps and Miniè rifles +we lay by an old matchlock or crossbow, using it only to ornament our +walls,--or as the powdered postilion with his horn and his boots is +superseded by the locomotive and the electric telegraph,--so the old +rusty Church wheels are removed into buildings apart from the daily life +of the people, where they seem to revolve harmlessly and without any +necessary connection with the State wheels. + +Not that I mean to say that it works smoothly and well at all +times,--this Grindwell machine. How can such an old patched and +crumbling apparatus be expected always to work well? And how can you +hope to find, even in the most enslaved or routine-ridden community, +entire obedience to the will of the monarch and his satellites? +Unfortunately for the cause of order and quiet, there will always be +found certain tough lumps, in the shape of rebellious or non-conformist +men, which refuse to be melted in the strong solvents or ground up +in the swift mills of Absolutism. Government must look after these +impediments. If they are positively dangerous, they must be destroyed or +removed. If only suspected, or known to be powerless or inactive, they +must at least be watched. + +And here, again, the machine of government shows a remarkable ingenuity +of organization. + +For instance, it is said that there are pipes laid all along the +streets, like hose, leading from a central reservoir. Nobody knows +exactly what they are for; but if any one steps upon them, up spirts +something like a stream of gas, and takes the form of a _gendarme_,--and +the unlucky street-walker must pay dear for his carelessness. Telegraph +wires radiate like cobwebs from the chamber of the main-spring, and +carry intelligence of all that is going on in the houses and streets. +Man-traps are laid under the pavements,--sometimes they are secretly +introduced under your very table or bed,--and if anything is said +against that piece of machinery called the main-spring, or against the +head engineer, the trap will nab you and fly away with you, like the +spider that carried off Margery Mopp. If a number of people get together +to discuss the meaning of and the reasons for the existence of the +main-spring, or any of the big wheels immediately connected therewith, +the ground under them will sometimes give way, and they will suddenly +find themselves in unfurnished apartments not to their liking. And if +any one should be so rash as to put his hand on the wheels, he is cut to +pieces or strangled by the silent, incessant, fatal whirl of the engine. + +The head engineer keeps his machine, and the city on which it acts, as +much in the dark as possible. He has a special horror of sunshine. +He seems to think that the sky is one great burning lens, and his +machine-rooms and the city a vast powder-magazine. + +There are certain articles thought to be especially dangerous. +Newspapers are strictly forbidden,--unless first steeped in a tincture +of asbestos of a very dull color, expressly manufactured and supplied +by the Governing Machine. When properly saturated with the essence of +dulness and death, and brought down from a glaring white and black to a +decidedly ashy-gray neutral color, a few small newspapers are permitted +to be circulated, but with the greatest caution. They sometimes take +fire, it is said,--these journals,--when brought too near any brain +overcharged with electricity. Two or three times, it is said, the +Governing Machine has been put out of order by the newspapers and their +readers bringing too much electro-magnetism (or something like it) to +bear on parts of the works;--the machine had even taken fire and been +nearly burnt up, and the head engineer got so singed that he never dared +to take the management of the works again. + +So it is thought that nothing is so unfavorable to the working of the +wheels as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and, generally, all the +imponderable and uncatchable essences that float about in the air; and +these, it is thought, are generated and diffused by these villanous +newspapers. Certain kinds of books are also forbidden, as being electric +conductors. Most of the books allowed in the city of Grindwell are so +heavy, that they are thought to be usually non-conductors, and therefore +quite safe in the hands of the people. + +It is at the city gates that most vigilance is required with regard to +the prohibited articles. There the poor fellows who keep the gates have +no rest night or day,--so many suspicious-looking boxes, bundles, bales, +and barrels claim admittance. Quantities of articles are arrested and +prevented from entering. Nothing that can in any way interfere with the +great machine can come in. Newspapers and books from other countries +are torn and burnt up. Speaking-trumpets, ear-trumpets, spectacles, +microscopes, spy-glasses, telescopes, and, generally, all instruments +and contrivances for extending the sphere of ordinary knowledge, are +very narrowly examined before they are admitted. The only trumpets +freely allowed are of a musical sort, fit to amuse the people,--the +only spectacles, green goggles to keep out the glare of truth's +sunshine,--the magnifying-glasses, those which exaggerate the +proportions of the imperial governor of the machinery. All sorts of +moral lightning-rods and telegraph-wires are arrested, and lie in great +piles outside the city walls. + +But in spite of the utmost vigilance and care of the officers at the +gates and the sentinels on the thick walls, dangerous articles and +dangerous people will pass in. A man like Kossuth or Mazzini going +through would produce such a current of the electric fluid, that the +machine would be in great danger of combustion. Remonstrances were +sometimes sent to neighboring cities, to the effect that they should +keep their light and heat to themselves, and not be throwing such strong +_reflections_ into the weak eyes of the Grindwellites, and putting in +danger the governmental powder-magazine,--as the machine-offices were +sometimes called. An inundation or bad harvest, producing a famine among +the poor, causes great alarm, and the government officers have a time of +it, running about distributing alms, or raising money to keep down the +price of bread. Thousands of servants in livery, armed with terrific +instruments for the destruction of life, are kept standing on and around +the walls of the city, ready at a moment's notice to shoot down any one +who makes any movement or demonstration in a direction contrary to +the laws of the machine. And to support this great crowd of liveried +lackeys, the people are squeezed like sponges, till they furnish the +necessary money. + +The respectable editors of the daily papers go about somewhat as the +dogs do in August, with muzzles on their mouths. They are prohibited +from printing more than a hundred words a day. Any reference to the +sunshine, or to any of the subtile and imponderable substances before +mentioned, is considered contrary to the order of the machine; to +compensate for which, there is great show of gaslight (under glass +covers) throughout the city. Gas and moonshine are the staple subjects +of conversation. Besides lighting the streets and shops, the chief +use of fire seems to be for cooking, lighting pipes and cigars, and +fireworks to amuse the working classes. + +Great attention is paid to polishing and beautifying the outer case of +the machine, and the outer surface generally of the city of Grindwell. +Where any portion of the framework has fallen into dilapidation and +decay, the gaunt skeleton bones of the ruined structure are decked and +covered with leaves and flowers. Old rusty boilers that are on the verge +of bursting are newly painted, varnished, and labelled with letters +of gold. The main-spring, which has grown old and weak, is said to be +helped by the secret application of steam,--and the fires are fed with +huge bundles of worthless bank-bills and other paper promises. The noise +of the clanking piston and wheels is drowned by orchestras of music; +the roofs and sides of the machine buildings are covered all over with +roses; and the smell of smoke and machine oil is prevented by scattering +delicious perfumes. The minds of the populace are turned from the +precarious condition of things by all sorts of public amusements, such +as mask balls, theatres, operas, public gardens, etc. + +But all this does not preserve some persons from the continual +apprehension that there will be one day a great and terrific explosion. +Some say the city is sleeping over volcanic fires, which will sooner or +later burst up from below and destroy or change the whole upper surface. +The actual state of things might be represented on canvas by a gaping, +laughing crowd pressing around a Punch-and-Judy exhibition in the +street, beneath a great ruined palace in the process of repairing, where +the rickety scaffolding, the loose stones and mortar, and in fact the +whole rotten building, may at any moment topple down upon their heads. + +But while such grave thoughts are passing in the minds of some people, I +must relate one or two amusing scenes which lately occurred at the city +gates. + +Travellers are not prohibited from going and coming; but on entering, it +is necessary to be sure that they bring with their passports and baggage +no prohibited or dangerous articles. A young man from our side of the +Atlantic, engaged in commerce, had been annoyed a good deal by the +gate-officers opening and searching his baggage. The next time he went +to Grindwell, he brought, besides his usual trunks and carpet-bags, a +rather large and very mysterious-looking box. After going through with +the trunks and bags, the officers took hold of this box. + +"Gentlemen," said the young practical joker, "I have great objections +to having that box opened. Yet it contains, I assure you, nothing +contraband, nothing dangerous to the peace of the Grindwell government +or people. It is simply a toy I am taking to a friend's house as a +Christmas present to his little boy. If I open it, I fear I shall have +difficulty in arranging it again as neatly as I wish,--and it would be a +great disappointment to my little friend Auguste Henri, if he should not +find it neatly packed. It would show at once that it had been opened; +and children like to have their presents done up nicely, just as they +issued from the shop. Gentlemen, I shall take it as a great favor, if +you will let it pass." + +"Sir," said the head officer, "it is impossible to grant the favor you +ask. The government is very strict. Many prohibited articles have lately +found their way in. We are determined to put a stop to it." + +"Gentlemen," said the young man, "take hold of that box,--lift it. You +see how light it is; you see that there can be no contraband goods +there,--still less, anything dangerous. I pray you to let it pass." + +"Impossible, Sir!" said the officer. "How do I know that there is +nothing dangerous there? The weight is nothing. Its lightness rather +makes it the more suspicious. Boxes like this are usually heavy. This is +something out of the usual course. I'm afraid there's electricity here. +Gentlemen officers, proceed to do your duty!" + +So a crowd of custom-house officers gathered around the suspected box, +with their noses bent down over the lid, awaiting the opening. One of +them was about to proceed with hammer and chisel. + +"Stop," said the young merchant, "I can save you a great deal of +trouble. I can open it in an instant. Allow me--by touching a little +spring here"-- + +As he said this, he pressed a secret spring on the side of the box. +No sooner was it done than, the lid was thrown back with sudden and +tremendous violence, as if by some living force, and up jumped a hideous +and shaggy monster which knocked the six custom-house officers flat on +their backs. It was an enormous Punchinello on springs, who had been +confined in the box like the Genie in the Arabian story, and by the +broad grin on his face he seemed delighted with his liberty and his +triumph over his inquisitors. The six officers lay stunned by the blow; +and while others ran up to see what was the matter, the young traveller +persuaded Mr. Punch back again into his box, and, shutting him down, +took advantage of the confusion to carry it off with the rest of his +baggage, and reach a cab in safety. When the officers recovered their +senses, the practical joker had escaped into the crowded city. They +could give no clear account of what had happened; but I verily believe +they thought that Lucifer himself had knocked them down, and was now let +loose in the city of Grindwell. + +Another amusing incident occurred afterwards at the city gates. An +American lady, who was a great lover of Art, had purchased a bronze bust +of Plato somewhere on the Continent. She had it carefully boxed, and +took it along with her baggage. She got on very well until she reached +the city of Grindwell. Here she was stopped, of course, and her baggage +examined. Finding nothing contraband, they were about to let her pass, +when they came to the box containing the ancient philosopher's head. + +"What's this?" they asked. "What's in this box, so heavy?" + +"A bust," said the lady. + +"A bust? so heavy? a bust in a lady's baggage?--Impossible!" + +"I assure you, it is nothing but a bust." + +"Pray, whose bust may it be, Madam?" + +"The bust of Plato." + +"Plato? Plato? Who's Plato? Is he an Italian?" + +"He was a Greek philosopher." + +"Why is it so heavy?" + +"It is a bronze bust." + +"We beg your pardon, Madam; but we fear there's something wrong here. +This Plato may be a conspirator,--a Carbonaro,--a member of some secret +society,--a red-republican,--a conductor of the electric fluid. How can +we answer for this Plato? We don't like this heavy box;--these very +heavy boxes are suspicious. Suppose it should be some infernal-machine. +Madam, we have our doubts. This box must be detained till full inquiries +are made." + +There was no help for it. The box was detained. "It must be so, Plato!" +After waiting several hours, it was brought forward in presence of the +entire company of inquisitors, and cautiously opened. Seeing no Plato, +but only some sawdust, they grew still more suspicious. Having placed +the box on the ground, they all retired to a safe distance, as if +awaiting some explosion. They evidently took it for an infernal-machine. +In their eyes everything was a machine of some sort or other. After +waiting some time, and finding that it didn't burst, nor emit even +a smell of sulphur, the boldest man of the party approached it very +cautiously, and upset it with his foot and ran. + +All this while the lady and her friends stood by, silent spectators +of this farce. The only danger of explosion was on their part, with +laughter at the whole scene. They contrived, however, to keep their +countenances, though less rigidly than the Greek philosopher in the box +did his. + +When the custom-house officials found, that, though the box was upset, +nothing occurred, they grew more bold, and, approaching, saw a piece of +the bronze head peering above the sawdust. Then, for the first time, +they began to feel ashamed of themselves. So replacing the sawdust and +the cover, they allowed the box to pass into the city, and tried, by +avoiding to speak of the affair among themselves, to forget what donkeys +they had been. + +The Grindwell government has many such alarms, and never appears +entirely at its ease. It is fully aware of the combustible nature of the +component parts of the Governing Machine. There is consequently great +outlay of means to insure its safety. An immense number of public spies +and functionaries are constantly employed in looking after the fires and +lights about the city. Heavy restrictions are laid on all substances +containing electricity, and great care is taken lest this subtile fluid +should condense in spots and take the form of lightning. Fortunately, +the unclouded sunshine seldom comes into Grindwell, else there would be +the same fears with regard to light. + +So long as this perpetual surveillance is kept up, the machine seems to +work on well enough in the main; but the moment there is any remissness +on the part of the police,--bang! goes a small explosion somewhere,--or, +crack! a bit of the machinery,--and out rush the engineers with their +bags of cotton-wool or tow to stop up the chinks, or their bundles of +paper money to keep up the steam, or their buckets of oil and _soft +soap_ to pour upon the wheels. + +One eccentric gentleman of my acquaintance persists in predicting +that any day there may be a general blow-up, and the whole concern, +engineers, financiers, priests, soldiers, and flunkies, all go to smash. +He evidently wishes to see it, though, as far as personal comfort goes, +one would rather be out of the way at such a time. + +Most people seem to think, that, considering all things, the present +head engineer is about the best man that could be found for the post he +occupies. There are, however, a number of the Grindwell people--I can't +say how many, for they are afraid to speak--who feel more and more that +they are living in a stifled and altogether abnormal condition, and wish +for an indefinite supply of the light, heat, air, and electricity which +they see some of the neighboring cities enjoying. + +What the result is to be no one can yet tell. We are such stuff as +dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with--_a crust_; +some say, a very thin crust, such as might be got up by a skilful +_patissier_, and over which gilded court-flies, and even _scaraboei_, +may crawl with safety, but--which must inevitably cave in beneath the +boot-heels of a real, true, thinking man. We cannot forget that there +are measureless catacombs and caverns yawning beneath the streets and +houses of modern Grindwell. + + + + +SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES. + + +Ever since the time of that dyspeptic heathen, Plotinus, the saints have +been "ashamed of their bodies." What is worse, they have usually had +reason for the shame. Of the four famous Latin fathers, Jerome describes +his own limbs as misshapen, his skin as squalid, his bones as scarcely +holding together; while Gregory the Great speaks in his Epistles of his +own large size, as contrasted with his weakness and infirmities. +Three of the four Greek fathers--Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory of +Nazianzen--ruined their health early, and were wretched invalids for the +remainder of their days. Three only of the whole eight were able-bodied +men,--Ambrose, Augustine, and Athanasius; and the permanent influence of +these three has been far greater, for good or for evil, than that of all +the others put together. + +Robust military saints there have doubtless been, in the Roman Catholic +Church: George, Michael, Sebastian, Eustace, Martin,--not to mention +Hubert the Hunter, and Christopher the Christian Hercules. But these +have always held a very secondary place in canonization. If we mistake +not, Maurice and his whole Theban legion were sainted together, to the +number of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six; doubtless they were +stalwart men, but there never yet has been a chapel erected to one of +them. The mediaeval type of sanctity was a strong soul in a weak body; +and it could be intensified either by strengthening the one or by +further debilitating the other. The glory lay in contrast, not in +combination. Yet, to do them justice, they conceded a strong and stately +beauty to their female saints,--Catherine, Agnes, Agatha, Barbara, +Cecilia, and the rest. It was reserved for the modern Pre-Raphaelites to +attempt the combination of a maximum of saintliness with a minimum of +pulmonary and digestive capacity. + +But, indeed, from that day to this, the saints by spiritual laws have +usually been sinners against physical laws, and the artists have merely +followed the examples they found. Vasari records, that Carotto's +masterpiece of painting, "The Three Archangels," at Verona, was +criticized because the limbs of the angels were too slender, and +Carotto, true to his conventional standard, replied, "Then they will fly +the better." Saints have been flying to heaven for the same reason ever +since,--and have commonly flown very early. + +Indeed, the earlier some such saints cast off their bodies the better, +they make so little use of them. Chittagutta, the Buddhist saint, +dwelt in a cave in Ceylon. His devout visitors one day remarked on the +miraculous beauty of the legendary paintings, representing scenes from +the life of Buddha, which adorned the walls. The holy man informed them, +that, during his sixty years' residence in the cave, he had been too +much absorbed in meditation to notice the existence of the paintings, +but he would take their word for it. And in this non-intercourse with +the visible world there has been an apostolical succession, from +Chittagutta, down to the Andover divinity-student who refused to join +his companions in their admiring gaze on that wonderful autumnal +landscape which spreads itself before the Seminary Hill in October, but +marched back into the Library, ejaculating, "Lord, turn thou mine eyes +from beholding vanity!" + +It is to be reluctantly recorded, in fact, that the Protestant saints +have not ordinarily had much to boast of, in physical stamina, as +compared with the Roman Catholic. They have not got far beyond Plotinus. +We do not think it worth while to quote Calvin on this point, for he, as +everybody knows, was an invalid for his whole lifetime. But we do take +it hard, that the jovial Luther, in the midst of his ale and skittles, +should have deliberately censured Juvenal's _mens sana in corpore sano_, +as a pagan maxim! + +If Saint Luther fails us, where are the advocates of the body to look +for comfort? Nothing this side of ancient Greece, we fear, will afford +adequate examples of the union of saintly souls and strong bodies. +Pythagoras the sage we doubt not to have been identical with Pythagoras +the inventor of pugilism, and he was, at any rate, (in the loving words +of Bentley,) "a lusty proper man, and built as it were to make a good +boxer." Cleanthes, whose sublime "Prayer" is, to our thinking, the +highest strain left of early piety, was a boxer likewise. Plato was a +famous wrestler, and Socrates was unequalled for his military +endurance. Nor was one of these, like their puny follower Plotinus, too +weak-sighted to revise his own manuscripts. + +It would be tedious to analyze the causes of this modern deterioration +of the saints. The fact is clear. There is in the community an +impression that physical vigor and spiritual sanctity are incompatible. +We knew a young Orthodox divine who lost his parish by swimming the +Merrimac River, and another who was compelled to ask a dismissal in +consequence of vanquishing his most influential parishioner in a game +of ten-pins; it seemed to the beaten party very unclerical. We further +remember a match, in a certain sea-side bowling-alley, in which two +brothers, young divines, took part. The sides being made up, with the +exception of these two players, it was necessary to find places for +them also. The head of one side accordingly picked his man, on the +presumption (as he afterwards confessed) that the best preacher would +naturally be the worst bowler. The athletic capacity, he thought, would +be in inverse ratio to the sanctity. We are happy to add, that in this +case his hopes were signally disappointed. But it shows which way the +popular impression lies. + +The poets have probably assisted In maintaining the delusion. How many +cases of consumption Wordsworth must have accelerated by his assertion, +that "the good die first"! Happily, he lived to disprove his own maxim. +We, too, repudiate it utterly. Professor Peirce has proved by statistics +that the best scholars in our colleges survive the rest; and we hold +that virtue, like intellect, tends to longevity. The experience of the +literary class shows that all excess is destructive, and that we need +the harmonious action of all the faculties. Of the brilliant roll of the +"young men of 1830," in Paris,--Balzac, Soulié, De Musset, De Bernard, +Sue, and their compeers,--it is said that nearly every one has already +perished, in the prime of life. What is the explanation? A stern one: +opium, tobacco, wine, and licentiousness. "All died of softening of the +brain or spinal marrow, or swelling of the heart." No doubt, many of +the noble and the pure were dying prematurely at the same time; but it +proceeded from the same essential cause: physical laws disobeyed and +bodies exhausted. The evil is, that what in the debauchee is condemned, +as suicide, is lauded in the devotee, as saintship. The _delirium +tremens_ of the drunkard conveys scarcely a sterner moral lesson than +the second childishness of the pure and abstemious Southey. + +But, happily, times change, and saints with them. Our moral conceptions +are expanding to take in that "athletic virtue" of the Greeks, [Greek: +apetae gimnastikae] which Dr. Arnold, by precept and practice, defended. +The modern English "Broad Church" aims at breadth of shoulders, as well +as of doctrines. Kingsley paints his stalwart Philammons and Amyas +Leighs, and his critics charge him with laying down a new definition of +the saint, as a man who fears God and can walk a thousand miles in a +thousand hours. Our American saintship, also, is beginning to have +a body to it, a "Body of Divinity," indeed. Look at our three great +popular preachers. The vigor of the paternal blacksmith still swings the +sinewy arm of Beecher; Parker performed the labors, mental and physical, +of four able-bodied men, until even his great strength temporarily +yielded;--and if ever dyspepsia attack the burly frame of Chapin, we +fancy that dyspepsia will get the worst of it. + +This is as it should be. One of the most potent causes of the +ill-concealed alienation between the clergy and the people, in our +community, is the supposed deficiency, on the part of the former, of +a vigorous, manly life. It must be confessed that our saints suffer +greatly from this moral and physical _anhaemia_, this bloodlessness, +which separates them, more effectually than a cloister, from the strong +life of the age. What satirists upon religion are those parents who say +of their pallid, puny, sedentary, lifeless, joyless little offspring, +"He is born for a minister," while the ruddy, the brave, and the +strong are as promptly assigned to a secular career! Never yet did an +ill-starred young saint waste his Saturday afternoons in preaching +sermons in the garret to his deluded little sisters and their dolls, +without living to repent it in maturity. These precocious little +sentimentalists wither away like blanched potato-plants in a cellar; +and then comes some vigorous youth from his out-door work or play, and +grasps the rudder of the age, as he grasped the oar, the bat, or the +plough-handle. We distrust the achievements of every saint without a +body; and really have hopes of the Cambridge Divinity School, since +hearing that it has organized a boat-club. + +We speak especially of men, but the same principles apply to women. +The triumphs of Rosa Bonheur and Harriet Hosmer grew out of a free and +vigorous training, and they learned to delineate muscle by using it. + +Everybody admires the physical training of military and naval schools. +But these same persons never seem to imagine that the body is worth +cultivating for any purpose, except to annihilate the bodies of others. +Yet it needs more training to preserve life than to destroy it. The +vocation of a literary man is far more perilous than that of a frontier +dragoon. The latter dies at most but once, by an Indian bullet; the +former dies daily, unless he be warned in time and take occasional +refuge in the saddle and the prairie with the dragoon. What battle-piece +is so pathetic as Browning's "Grammarian's Funeral"? Do not waste your +gymnastics on the West Point or Annapolis student, whose whole life will +be one of active exercise, but bring them into the professional schools +and the counting-rooms. Whatever may be the exceptional cases, the stern +truth remains, that the great deeds of the world can be more easily done +by illiterate men than by sickly ones. Wisely said Horace Mann, "All +through the life of a pure-minded but feeble-bodied man, his path is +lined with memory's gravestones, which mark the spots where noble +enterprises perished, for lack of physical vigor to embody them in +deeds." And yet more eloquently it has been said by a younger American +thinker, (D.A. Wasson,) "Intellect in a weak body is like gold in +a spent swimmer's pocket,--the richer he would be, under other +circumstances, by so much the greater his danger now." + +Of course, the mind has immense control over physical endurance, and +every one knows that among soldiers, sailors, emigrants, and woodsmen, +the leaders, though more delicately nurtured, will often endure hardship +better than the followers,--"because," says Sir Philip Sidney, "they are +supported by the great appetites of honor." But for all these triumphs +of nervous power a reaction lies in store, as in the case of the +superhuman efforts often made by delicate women. And besides, there is +a point beyond which no mental heroism can ignore the body,--as, for +instance, in seasickness and toothache. Can virtue arrest consumption, +or self-devotion set free the agonized breath of asthma, or heroic +energy defy paralysis? More formidable still are those subtle results +of disease, which cannot be resisted, because their source is unseen. +Voltaire declared that the fate of a nation had often depended on the +good or bad digestion of a prime-minister; and Motley holds that the +gout of Charles V. changed the destinies of the world. + +But so blinded, on these matters, is our accustomed mode of thought, +that Mr. Beecher's recent lecture on the Laws of Nature has been met +with strong objections from a portion of the religious press. These +newspapers agree in asserting that admiration of physical strength +belonged to the barbarous ages of the world. So it certainly did, and so +much the better for those ages. They had that one merit, at least; and +so surely as an exclusively intellectual civilization ignored it, the +arm of some robust barbarian prostrated that civilization at last. What +Sismondi says of courage is preëminently true of that bodily vigor which +it usually presupposes: that, although it is by no means the first +of virtues, its loss is more fatal than that of all others. "Were it +possible to unite the advantages of a perfect government with the +cowardice of a whole people, those advantages would be utterly +valueless, since they would be utterly without security." + +Physical health is a necessary condition of all permanent success. To +the American people it has a stupendous importance because it is the +only attribute of power in which they are losing ground. Guaranty +us against physical degeneracy, and we can risk all other +perils,--financial crises, Slavery, Romanism, Mormonism, Border +Ruffians, and New York assassins; "domestic malice, foreign levy, +nothing" can daunt us. Guaranty us health, and Mrs. Stowe cannot +frighten us with all the prophecies of Dred; but when her sister +Catherine informs us that in all the vast female acquaintance of the +Beecher family there are not a dozen healthy women, we confess ourselves +a little tempted to despair of the republic. + +The one drawback to satisfaction in our Public-School System is the +physical weakness which it reveals and helps to perpetuate. One seldom +notices a ruddy face in the school-room, without tracing it back to a +Transatlantic origin. The teacher of a large school in Canada went so +far as to declare to us, that she could recognize the children born this +side the line by their invariable appearance of ill-health joined with +intellectual precocity,--stamina wanting, and the place supplied by +equations. Look at a class of boys or girls in our Grammar Schools; a +glance along the line of their backs affords a study of geometrical +curves. You almost long to reverse the position of their heads, as Dante +has those of the false prophets, and thus improve their figures; the +rounded shoulders affording a vigorous chest, and the hollow chest an +excellent back. + +There are statistics to show that the average length of human life is +increasing; but it is probable that this results from the diminution +of epidemic diseases, rather than from any general improvement in +_physique_. There are facts also to indicate an increase of size and +strength with advancing civilization. It is known that two men of middle +size were unable to find a suit of armor large enough among the sixty +sets owned by Sir Samuel Meyrick. It is also known that the strongest +American Indians cannot equal the average strength of wrist of +Europeans, or rival them in ordinary athletic feats. Indeed, it is +generally supposed that any physical deterioration is local, being +peculiar to the United States. Recently, however, we have read, with +great regret, in the "Englishwoman's Review," that "it is allowed by +all, that the appearance of the English peasant, in the present day, +is very different to [from] what it was fifty years ago; the robust, +healthy, hard-looking countrywoman or girl is as rare now as the pale, +delicate, nervous female of our times would have been a century ago." +And the writer proceeds to give alarming illustrations, based upon the +appearance of children in English schools, both in city and country. + +We cannot speak for England, but certainly no one can visit Canada +without being struck with the spectacle of a more athletic race of +people than our own. On every side one sees rosy female faces and noble +manly figures. In the shop-windows, in winter weather, hang snow-shoes, +"gentlemen's and ladies' sizes." The street-corners inform you that the +members of the "Curling Club" are to meet to-day at "Dolly's," and the +"Montreal Fox-hounds" at St. Lawrence Hall to-morrow. And next day +comes off the annual steeple-chase, at the "Mile-End Course," ridden by +gentlemen of the city with their own horses; a scene, by the way, whose +exciting interest can scarcely be conceived by those accustomed only +to "trials of speed" at agricultural exhibitions. Everything indicates +out-door habits and athletic constitutions. + +We are aware that we may be met with the distinction between a good idle +constitution and a good working constitution,--the latter of which often +belongs to persons who make no show of physical powers. But this only +means that there are different temperaments and types of physical +organization, while, within the limits of each, the distinction between +a healthy and a diseased condition still holds; and we insist on that +alone. + +Still more specious is the claim of the Fourth-of-July orators, that, +health or no health, it is the sallow Americans, and not the robust +English, who are really leading the world. But this, again, is a +question of temperaments. The Englishman concedes the greater intensity, +but prefers a more solid and permanent power. It is the noble masonry +and vast canals of Montreal, against the Aladdin's palaces of Chicago. +"I observe," admits the Englishman, "that an American can accomplish +more, at a single effort, than any other man on earth; but I also +observe that he exhausts himself in the achievement. Kane, a delicate +invalid, astounds the world by his two Arctic winters,--and then dies in +tropical Cuba." The solution is simple; nervous energy is grand, and so +is muscular power; combine the two, and you move the world. + +We shall assume, as admitted, therefore, the deficiency of physical +health in America, and the need of a great amendment. But into the +general question of cause and cure we do not propose to enter. In view +of the vast variety of special theories, and the inadequacy of any one, +(or any dozen,) we shall forbear. To our thinking, the best diagnosis +of the universal American disease is to be found in Andral's +famous description of the cholera: "Anatomical characteristics, +insufficient;--cause, mysterious;--nature, hypothetical;--symptoms, +characteristic;--diagnosis, easy;--_treatment, very doubtful_." + +Every man must have his hobby, however, and it is a great deal to ride +only one hobby at a time. For the present we disavow all minor ones. +We forbear giving our pet arguments in defence of animal food, and in +opposition to tobacco, coffee, and india-rubbers. We will not criticize +the old-school physician whom we once knew, who boasted of not having +performed a thorough ablution for twenty-five years; nor will we +question the physiological orthodoxy of Miss Sedgwick's New England +artist, who represented the Goddess of Health with a pair of flannel +drawers on. Still less should we think of debating (or of tasting) +Kennedy's Medical Discovery, or R.R.R., or the Cow Pepsin. We know our +aim, and will pursue it with a single eye. + + "The wise for cure on _exercise_ depend," + +saith Dryden,--and that is our hobby. + +A great physician has said, "I know not which is most indispensable +for the support of the frame,--food or exercise." But who, in this +community, really takes exercise? Even the mechanic commonly confines +himself to one set of muscles; the blacksmith acquires strength in his +right arm, and the dancing-master in his left leg. But the professional +or business man, what muscles has he at all? The tradition, that +Phidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, one hundred and twenty miles, in +two days, seems to us Americans as mythical as the Golden Fleece. Even +to ride sixty miles in a day, to walk thirty, to run five, or to swim +one, would cost most men among us a fit of illness, and many their +lives. Let any man test his physical condition, we will not say by +sawing his own cord of wood, but by an hour in the gymnasium or at +cricket, and his enfeebled muscular apparatus will groan with rheumatism +for a week. Or let him test the strength of his arms and chest by +raising and lowering himself a few times upon a horizontal bar, or +hanging by the arms to a rope, and he will probably agree with Galen +in pronouncing it _robustum validumque laborem_. Yet so manifestly are +these things within the reach of common constitutions, that a few weeks +or months of judicious practice will renovate his whole system, and the +most vigorous exercise will refresh him like a cold bath. + +To a well-regulated frame, mere physical exertion, even for an +uninteresting object, is a great enjoyment, which is, of course, +enhanced by the excitement of games and sports. To almost every man +there is joy in the memory of these things; they are the happiest +associations of his boyhood. It does not occur to him, that he also +might be as happy as a boy, if he lived more like one. What do most men +know of the "wild joys of living," the daily zest and luxury of out-door +existence, in which every healthy boy beside them revels?--skating, +while the orange sky of sunset dies away over the delicate tracery of +gray branches, and the throbbing feet pause in their tingling motion, +and the frosty air is filled with the shrill sound of distant steel, +the resounding of the ice, and the echoes up the hillsides?--sailing, +beating up against a stiff breeze, with the waves thumping under the +bow, as if a dozen sea-gods had laid their heads together to resist +it?--climbing tall trees, where the higher foliage, closing around, +cures the dizziness which began below, and one feels as if he had left a +coward beneath and found a hero above?--the joyous hour of crowded life +in football or cricket?--the gallant glories of riding, and the jubilee +of swimming? + +The charm which all have found in Tom Brown's "School Days at Rugby" +lies simply in this healthy boy's-life which it exhibits, and in the +recognition of physical culture, which is so novel to Americans. At +present, boys are annually sent across the Atlantic simply for bodily +training. But efforts after the same thing begin to creep in among +ourselves. A few Normal Schools have gymnasiums (rather neglected, +however); the "Mystic Hall Female Seminary" advertises riding-horses; +and we believe the new "Concord School" recognizes boating as an +incidental;--but these are all exceptional cases, and far between. +Faint and shadowy in our memory are certain ruined structures lingering +Stonehenge-like on the Cambridge "Delta,"--and mysterious pits +adjoining, into which Freshmen were decoyed to stumble, and of which +we find that vestiges still remain. Tradition spoke of Dr. Follen +and German gymnastics; but the beneficent exotic was transplanted +prematurely, and died. The only direct encouragement of athletic +exercises which stands out in our memory of academic life was a certain +inestimable shed on the "College Wharf," which was for a brief season +the paradise of swimmers, and which, after having been deliberately +arranged for their accommodation, was suddenly removed, the next season, +to make room for coal-bins. Manly sports were not positively discouraged +in our day,--but that was all. + +Yet earlier reminiscences of the same beloved Cambridge suggest deeper +gratitude. Thanks to thee, W.W.,--first pioneer, in New England, of true +classical learning,--last wielder of the old English birch,--for the +manly British sympathy which encouraged to activity the bodies, as well +as the brains, of the numerous band of boys who played beneath the +stately elms of that pleasant play-ground! Who among modern pedagogues +can show such an example of vigorous pedestrianism in his youth as thou +in thine age? and who now grants half-holidays, unasked, for no other +reason than that the skating is good and the boys must use it while it +lasts? + +We cling still to the belief, that the Persian _curriculum_ of +studies--to ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth--is the better part +of a boy's education. As the urchin is undoubtedly physically safer for +having learned to turn a somerset and fire a gun, perilous though these +feats appear to mothers,--so his soul is made healthier, larger, freer, +stronger, by hours and days of manly exercise and copious draughts of +open air, at whatever risk of idle habits and bad companions. Even +if the balance is sometimes lost, and play prevails, what matter? We +rejoice to have been a schoolmate of him who wrote + + "The hours the idle schoolboy squandered + The man would die ere he'd forget." + +Only keep in a boy a pure and generous heart, and, whether he work or +play, his time can scarcely be wasted. Which really has done most for +the education of Boston,--Dixwell and Sherwin, or Sheridan and Braman? + +Should it prove, however, that the cultivation of active exercises +diminishes the proportion of time given by children to study, we can +only view it as an added advantage. Every year confirms us in the +conviction, that our schools, public and private, systematically +overtask the brains of the rising generation. We all complain that Young +America grows to mental maturity too soon, and yet we all contribute +our share to continue the evil. It is but a few weeks since we saw the +warmest praises, in the New York newspapers, of a girl's school, in that +city, where the appointed hours of study amounted to nine and a quarter +daily, and the hours of exercise to a bare unit. Almost all the +Students' Manuals assume that American students need stimulus instead +of restraint, and urge them to multiply the hours of study and diminish +those of out-door amusements and of sleep, as if the great danger did +not lie that way already. When will parents and teachers learn to regard +mental precocity as a disaster to be shunned, instead of a glory to +be coveted? We could count up a dozen young men who have graduated at +Harvard College, during the last twenty years, with high honors, before +the age of eighteen; and we suppose that nearly every one of them has +lived to regret it. "Nature," says Tissot, in his Essay on the Health of +Men of Letters, "is unable successfully to carry on two rapid processes +at the same time. We attempt a prodigy, and the result is a fool." There +was a child in Languedoc who at six years was of the size of a large +man; of course, his mind was a vacuum. On the other hand, Jean Philippe +Baratier was a learned man in his eighth year, and died of apparent old +age at twenty. Both were monstrosities, and a healthy childhood would be +equidistant from either. + +One invaluable merit of out-door sports is to be found in this, that +they afford the best cement for childish friendship. Their associations +outlive all others. There is many a man, now perchance hard and worldly, +whom we love to pass in the street simply because in meeting him we +meet spring flowers and autumn chestnuts, skates and cricket-balls, +cherry-birds and pickerel. There is an indescribable fascination in +the gradual transference of these childish companionships into maturer +relations. We love to encounter in the contests of manhood those whom we +first met at football, and to follow the profound thoughts of those who +always dived deeper, even in the river, than our efforts could attain. +There is a certain governor, of whom we personally can remember only, +that he found the Fresh Pond heronry, which we sought in vain; and +in memory the august sheriff of a neighboring county still skates in +victorious pursuit of us, (fit emblem of swift-footed justice!) on the +black ice of the same lovely lake. Our imagination crowns the Cambridge +poet, and the Cambridge sculptor, not with their later laurels, but with +the willows out of which they taught us to carve whistles, shriller than +any trump of fame, in the happy days when Mount Auburn was Sweet Auburn +still. + +Luckily, boy-nature is too strong for theory. And we admit, for the sake +of truth, that physical education is not so entirely neglected among us +as the absence of popular games would indicate. We suppose, that, if the +truth were told, this last fact proceeds partly from the greater freedom +of field-sports in this country. There are few New England boys who do +not become familiar with the rod or gun in childhood. We take it, that, +in the mother country, the monopoly of land interferes with this, and +that game laws, by a sort of spontaneous pun, tend to introduce games. + +Again, the practice of match-playing is opposed to our habits, both as +a consumer of time and as partaking too much of gambling. Still, it is +done in the case of "firemen's musters," which are, we believe, a wholly +indigenous institution. We have known a very few cases where the young +men of neighboring country parishes have challenged each other to games +of base-ball, as is common in England; and there was, if we mistake not, +a recent match at football between the boys of the Fall River and +the New Bedford High Schools. And within a few years regattas and +cricket-matches have become common events. Still, these public +exhibitions are far from being a full exponent of the athletic habits of +our people; and there is really more going on among us than this meagre +"pentathlon" exhibits. + +Again, a foreigner is apt to infer, from the more desultory and +unsystematized character of our out-door amusements, that we are less +addicted to them than we really are. But this belongs to the habit of +our nation, impatient, to a fault, of precedents and conventionalisms. +The English-born Frank Forrester complains of the total indifference +of our sportsmen to correct phraseology. We should say, he urges, "for +large flocks of wild fowl,--of swans, a _whiteness_,--of geese, a +_gaggle_,--of brent, a _gang_,--of duck, a _team_ or a _plump_,--of +widgeon, a _trip_,--of snipes, a _wisp_,--of larks, an _exaltation_.--The +young of grouse are _cheepers_,--of quail, _squeakers_,--of +wild duck, _flappers_." And yet, careless of these proprieties, +Young America goes "gunning" to good purpose. So with all +games. A college football-player reads with astonishment Tom Brown's +description of the very complicated performance which passes under that +name at Rugby. So cricket is simplified; it is hard to organize +an American club into the conventional distribution of point and +cover-point, long slip and short slip, but the players persist in +winning the game by the most heterodox grouping. This constitutional +independence has its good and evil results, in sports as elsewhere. It +is this which has created the American breed of trotting horses, and +which won the Cowes regatta by a mainsail as flat as a board. + +But, so far as there is a deficiency in these respects among us, this +generation must not shrink from the responsibility. It is unfair +to charge it on the Puritans. They are not even answerable for +Massachusetts; for there is no doubt that athletic exercises, of some +sort, were far more generally practised in this community before the +Revolution than at present. A state of almost constant Indian warfare +then created an obvious demand for muscle and agility. At present there +is no such immediate necessity. And it has been supposed that a race of +shopkeepers, brokers, and lawyers could live without bodies. Now that +the terrible records of dyspepsia and paralysis are disproving this, we +may hope for a reaction in favor of bodily exercises. And when we once +begin the competition, there seems no reason why any other nation should +surpass us. The wide area of our country, and its variety of surface and +shore, offer a corresponding range of physical training. Take our coasts +and inland waters alone. It is one thing to steer a pleasure-boat with a +rudder, and another to steer a dory with an oar; one thing to paddle a +birch-canoe, and another to paddle a ducking-float; in a Charles River +club-boat, the post of honor is in the stern,--in a Penobscot _bateau_, +in the bow; and each of these experiences educates a different set of +muscles. Add to this the constitutional American receptiveness, which +welcomes new pursuits without distinction of origin,--unites German +gymnastics with English sports and sparring, and takes the red Indians +for instructors in paddling and running. With these various aptitudes, +we certainly ought to become a nation of athletes. + +We have shown, that, in one way or another, American schoolboys obtain +active exercise. The same is true, in a very limited degree, even +of girls. They are occasionally, in our larger cities, sent to +gymnasiums,--the more the better. Dancing-schools are better than +nothing, though all the attendant circumstances are usually unfavorable. +A fashionable young lady is estimated to traverse her three hundred +miles a season on foot; and this needs training. But out-door exercise +for girls is terribly restricted, first by their costume, and secondly +by the remarks of Mrs. Grundy. All young female animals unquestionably +require as much motion as their brothers, and naturally make as much +noise; but what mother would not be shocked, in the case of her girl of +twelve, by one-tenth part the activity and uproar which are recognized +as being the breath of life to her twin brother? Still, there is a +change going on, which is tantamount to an admission that there is an +evil to be remedied. Twenty years ago, if we mistake not, it was by no +means considered "proper" for little girls to play with their hoops +and balls on Boston Common; and swimming and skating have hardly been +recognized as "ladylike" for half that period of time. + +Still it is beyond question, that far more out-door exercise is +habitually taken by the female population of almost all European +countries than by our own. In the first place, the peasant women of all +other countries (a class non-existent here) are trained to active +labor from childhood; and what traveller has not seen, on foreign +mountain-paths, long rows of maidens ascending and descending the +difficult ways, bearing heavy burdens on their heads, and winning by the +exercise such a superb symmetry and grace of figure as were a new wonder +of the world to Cisatlantic eyes? Among the higher classes, physical +exercises take the place of these things. Miss Beecher glowingly +describes a Russian female seminary in which nine hundred girls of the +noblest families were being trained by Ling's system of calisthenics, +and her informant declared that she never beheld such an array of +girlish health and beauty. Englishwomen, again, have horsemanship and +pedestrianism, in which their ordinary feats appear to our healthy women +incredible. Thus, Mary Lamb writes to Miss Wordsworth, (both ladies +being between fifty and sixty,) "You say you can walk fifteen miles with +ease; that is exactly my stint, and more fatigues me"; and then speaks +pityingly of a delicate lady who could accomplish only "four or five +miles every third or fourth day, keeping very quiet between." How few +American ladies, in the fulness of their strength, (if female strength +among us has any fulness,) can surpass this English invalid! + +But even among American men, how few carry athletic habits into manhood! +The great hindrance, no doubt, is absorption in business; and we observe +that this winter's hard times and consequent leisure have given a great +stimulus to outdoor sports. But in most places there is the further +obstacle, that a certain stigma of boyishness goes with them. So early +does this begin, that we remember, in our teens, to have been slightly +reproached with juvenility, because, though a Senior Sophister, we still +clung to football. Juvenility! We only wish we had the opportunity now. +Full-grown men are, of course, intended to take not only as much, but +far more active exercise than boys. Some physiologists go so far as +to demand six hours of out-door life daily; and it is absurd in us to +complain that we have not the healthy animal happiness of children, +while we forswear their simple sources of pleasure. + +Most of the exercise habitually taken by men of sedentary pursuits is +in the form of walking. We believe its merits to be greatly overrated. +Walking is to real exercise what vegetable food is to animal; it +satisfies the appetite, but the nourishment is not sufficiently +concentrated to be invigorating. It takes a man out-doors, and it uses +his muscles, and therefore of course it is good; but it is not the best +kind of good. Walking, for walking's sake, becomes tedious. We must not +ignore the _play-impulse_ in human nature, which, according to Schiller, +is the foundation of all Art. In female boarding-schools, teachers +uniformly testify to the aversion of pupils to the prescribed walk. +Give them a sled, or a pair of skates, or a row-boat, or put them on +horseback, and they will protract the period of exercise till the +teacher in turn grumbles. Put them into a gymnasium, with an efficient +teacher, and they will soon require restraint, instead of urging. + +Gymnastic exercises have two disadvantages: one, in being commonly +performed under cover (though this may sometimes prove an advantage as +well); another, in requiring apparatus, and at first a teacher. These +apart, perhaps no other form of exercise is so universally invigorating. +A teacher is required, less for the sake of stimulus than of precaution. +The tendency is almost always to dare too much; and there is also need +of a daily moderation in commencing exercises; for the wise pupil will +always prefer to supple his muscles by mild exercises and calisthenics, +before proceeding to harsher performances on the bars and ladders. With +this precaution, strains are easily avoided; even with this, the hand +will sometimes blister and the body ache, but perseverance will cure the +one and Russia Salve the other; and the invigorated life in every +limb will give a perpetual charm to those seemingly aimless leaps and +somersets. The feats once learned, a private gymnasium can easily be +constructed, of the simplest apparatus, and so daily used; though +nothing can wholly supply the stimulus afforded by a class in a public +institution, with a competent teacher. In summer, the whole thing can +partially be dispensed with; but we are really unable to imagine how any +person gets through the winter happily without a gymnasium. + +For the favorite in-door exercise of dumb-bells we have little to say; +they are not an enlivening performance, nor do they task a variety of +muscles,--while they are apt to strain and fatigue them, if used with +energy. Far better, for a solitary exercise, is the Indian club, a +lineal descendant of that antique one in whose handle rare medicaments +were fabled to be concealed. The modern one is simply a rounded club, +weighing from four pounds upwards, according to the strength of the +pupil; grasping a pair of these by the handles, he learns a variety of +exercises, having always before him the feats of the marvellous Mr. +Harrison, whose praise is in the "Spirit of the Times," and whose +portrait adorns the back of Dr. Trall's Gymnastics. By the latest +bulletins, that gentleman measured forty-two and a half inches round the +chest, and employed clubs weighing no less than forty-seven pounds. + +It may seem to our non-resistant friends to be going rather far, if we +should indulge our saints in taking boxing lessons; yet it is not long +since a New York clergyman saved his life in Broadway by the judicious +administration of a "cross-counter" or a "flying crook," and we have +not heard of his excommunication from the Church Militant. No doubt, a +laudable aversion prevails, in this country, to the English practices of +pugilism; yet it must be remembered that sparring is, by its very name, +a "science of self-defence"; and if a gentleman wishes to know how to +hold a rude antagonist at bay, in any emergency, and keep out of an +undignified scuffle, the means are most easily afforded him by the art, +which Pythagoras founded. Apart from this, boxing exercises every muscle +in the body, and gives a wonderful quickness to eye and hand. These same +remarks apply, though in a minor degree, to fencing also. + +Billiards is a graceful game, and affords, in some respects, admirable +training, but is hardly to be classed among athletic exercises. Tenpins +afford, perhaps, the most popular form of exercise among us, and have +become almost a national game, and a good one, too, so far as it goes. +The English game of bowls is less entertaining, and is, indeed, rather a +sluggish sport, though it has the merit of being played in the open air. +The severer British sports, as tennis and rackets, are scarcely more +than names, to us Americans. + +Passing now to outdoor exercises, (and no one should confine himself to +in-door ones,) we hold with the Thalesian school, and rank water first. +Vishnu Sarma gives, in his apologues, the characteristics of the fit +place for a wise man to live in, and enumerates among its necessities +first "a Rajah" and then "a river." Democrats as we are, we can dispense +with the first, but not with the second. A square mile even of pond +water is worth a year's schooling to any intelligent boy. A boat is a +kingdom. We personally own one,--a mere flat-bottomed "float," with a +centre-board. It has seen service,--it is eight years old,--has spent +two winters under the ice, and been fished in by boys every day for as +many summers. It grew at last so hopelessly leaky, that even the boys +disdained it. It cost seven dollars originally, and we would not sell it +to-day for seventeen. To own the poorest boat is better than hiring the +best. It is a link to Nature; without a boat, one is so much the less a +man. + +Sailing is of course delicious; it is as good as flying to steer +anything with wings of canvas, whether one stand by the wheel of a +clipper-ship, or by the clumsy stern-oar of a "gundalow." But rowing has +also its charms; and the Indian noiselessness of the paddle, beneath the +fringing branches of the Assabeth or Artichoke, puts one into Fairyland +at once, and Hiawatha's _cheemaun_ becomes a possible possession. Rowing +is peculiarly graceful and appropriate as a feminine exercise, and any +able-bodied girl can learn to handle one light oar at the first lesson, +and two at the second; this, at least, we demand of our own pupils. + +Swimming has also a birdlike charm of motion. The novel element, the +free action, the abated drapery, give a sense of personal contact +with Nature which nothing else so fully bestows. No later triumph of +existence is so fascinating, perhaps, as that in which the boy first +wins his panting way across the deep gulf that severs one green bank +from another, (ten yards, perhaps,) and feels himself thenceforward lord +of the watery world. The Athenian phrase for a man who knew nothing was, +that he could "neither read nor swim." Yet there is a vast amount of +this ignorance; the majority of sailors, it is said, cannot swim a +stroke; and in a late lake disaster, many able-bodied men perished +by drowning, in calm water, only half a mile from shore. At our +watering-places it is rare to see a swimmer venture out more than a rod +or two, though this proceeds partly from the fear of sharks,--as if +sharks of the dangerous order were not far more afraid of the rocks +than the swimmers of being eaten. But the fact of the timidity is +unquestionable; and we were told by a certain clerical frequenter of a +watering-place, himself a robust swimmer, that he had never met but two +companions who would venture boldly out with him, both being ministers, +and one a distinguished Ex-President of Brown University. We place this +fact to the credit of the bodies of our saints. + +But space forbids us thus to descant on the details of all active +exercises. Riding may be left to the eulogies of Mr. N.P. Willis, and +cricket to Mr. Lillywhite's "Guide." We will only say, in passing, that +it is pleasant to see the rapid spread of clubs for the latter game, +which a few years since was practised only by a few transplanted +Englishmen and Scotchmen; and it is pleasant also to observe the twin +growth of our indigenous American game of base-ball, whose briskness +and unceasing activity are perhaps more congenial, after all, to our +national character, than the comparative deliberation of cricket. +Football, bating its roughness, is the most glorious of all games to +those whose animal life is sufficiently vigorous to enjoy it. Skating is +just at present the fashion for ladies as well as gentlemen, and needs +no apostle; the open weather of the current winter has been unusually +favorable for its practice, and it is destined to become a permanent +institution. + +A word, in passing, on the literature of athletic exercises; it is too +scanty to detain us long. Five hundred books, it is estimated, have been +written on the digestive organs, but we shall not speak of half a +dozen in connection with the muscular powers. The common Physiologies +recommend exercise in general terms, but seldom venture on details; +unhappily, they are written, for the most part, by men who have already +lost their own health, and are therefore useful as warnings rather than +examples. The first real book of gymnastics printed in this country, so +far as we know, was the work of the veteran Salzmann, translated and +published in Philadelphia, in 1802, and sometimes to be met with in +libraries,--an odd, desultory book, with many good reasonings and +suggestions, and quaint pictures of youths exercising in the old German +costume. Like Dr. Follen's gymnasium, at Cambridge, it was probably +transplanted too early, and produced no effect. Next came, in 1836, the +book which is still, after twenty years, the standard, so far as it +goes,--Walker's "Manly Exercises,"--a thoroughly English book, and +needing adaptation to our habits, but full of manly vigor, and +containing good and copious directions for skating, swimming, boating, +and horsemanship. The only later general treatise worth naming is Dr. +Trall's recently published "Family Gymnasium,"--a good book, yet not +good enough. On gymnastics proper it contains scarcely anything; and the +essays on rowing, riding, and skating are so meagre, that they might +almost as well have been omitted, though that on swimming is excellent. +The main body of the book is devoted to the subject of calisthenics, +and especially to Ling's system; all this is valuable for its novelty, +although we cannot imagine how a system so tediously elaborate and so +little interesting can ever be made very useful for American pupils. +Miss Beecher has an excellent essay on calisthenics, with very useful +figures, at the end of her "Physiology." And on proper gymnastic +exercises there is a little book so full and admirable, that it +atones for the defects of all the others,--"Paul Preston's +Gymnastics,"--nominally a child's book, but so spirited and graphic, +and entering so admirably into the whole extent of the subject, that it +ought to be reprinted and find ten thousand readers. + +In our own remarks, we have purposely confined ourselves to those +physical exercises which partake most of the character of sports. +Field-sports alone we have omitted, because these are so often discussed +by abler hands. Mechanical and horticultural labors lie out of our +present province. So do the walks and labors of the artist and the man +of science. The out-door study of natural history alone is a vast +field, even yet very little entered upon. In how many American towns or +villages are to be found _local collections_ of natural objects, such as +every large town in Europe affords, and without which the foundations of +thorough knowledge cannot be laid? We can scarcely point to any. We have +innumerable fragmentary and aimless "Museums,"--collections of South-Sea +shells in inland villages, and of aboriginal remains in seaport +towns,--mere curiosity-shops, which no man confers any real benefit by +collecting; while the most ignorant person may be a true benefactor +to science by forming a cabinet, however scanty, of the animal and +vegetable productions of his own township. We have often heard Professor +Agassiz lament this waste of energy, and we would urge upon all our +readers to do their share to remedy the defect, while they invigorate +their bodies by the exercise which the effort will give, and the joyous +open-air life into which it will take them. + +For, after all, the secret charm of all these sports and studies is +simply this,--that they bring us into more familiar intercourse +with Nature. They give us that _vitam sub divo_ in which the Roman +exulted,--those out-door days, which, say the Arabs, are not to be +reckoned in the length of life. Nay, to a true lover of the open air, +night beneath its curtain is as beautiful as day. We personally have +camped out under a variety of auspices,--before a fire of pine logs in +the forests of Maine, beside a blaze of faya-boughs on the steep side of +a foreign volcano, and beside no fire at all, (except a possible one +of Sharp's rifles,) in that domestic volcano, Kansas; and every such +remembrance is worth many nights of indoor slumber. We never found a +week in the year, nor an hour of day or night, which had not, in +the open air, its own special beauty. We will not say, with Reade's +Australians, that the only use of a house is to sleep in the lee of it; +but there is method in even that madness. As for rain, it is chiefly +formidable indoors. Lord Bacon used to ride with uncovered head in a +shower, and loved "to feel the spirit of the universe upon his brow"; +and we once knew an enthusiastic hydropathic physician who loved to +expose himself in thunder-storms at midnight, without a shred of earthly +clothing between himself and the atmosphere. Some prudent persons may +possibly regard this as being rather an extreme, while yet their own +extreme of avoidance of every breath from heaven is really the more +extravagantly unreasonable of the two. + +It is easy for the sentimentalist to say, "But if the object is, after +all, the enjoyment of Nature, why not go and enjoy her, without any +collateral aim?" Because it is the universal experience of man, that, if +we have a collateral aim, we enjoy her far more. He knows not the beauty +of the universe, who has not learned the subtile mystery, that Nature +loves to work on us by _indirections_. Astronomers say, that, when +observing with the naked eye, you see a star less clearly by looking +at it, than by looking at the next one. Margaret Fuller's fine saying +touches the same point,--"Nature will not be stared at." Go out merely +to enjoy her, and it seems a little tame, and you begin to suspect +yourself of affectation. We know persons who, after years of abstinence +from athletic sports or the pursuits of the naturalist or artist, have +resumed them, simply in order to restore to the woods and the sunsets +the zest of the old fascination. Go out under pretence of shooting on +the marshes or botanizing in the forests; study entomology, that most +fascinating, most neglected of all the branches of natural history; go +to paint a red maple-leaf in autumn, or watch a pickerel-line in winter; +meet Nature on the cricket ground or at the regatta; swim with her, ride +with her, run with her, and she gladly takes you back once more within +the horizon of her magic, and your heart of manhood is born again into +more than the fresh happiness of the boy. + + * * * * * + + +BY THE DEAD. + + + Pride that sat on the beautiful brow, + Scorn that lay in the arching lips, + Will of the oak-grain, where are ye now? + I may dare to touch her finger-tips! + Deep, flaming eyes, ye are shallow enough; + The steadiest fire burns out at last. + Throw back the shutters,--the sky is rough, + And the winds are high,--but the night is past. + + Mother, I speak with the voice of a man; + Death is between us,--I stoop no more; + And yet so dim is each new-born plan, + I am feebler than ever I was before,-- + Feebler than when the western hill + Faded away with its sunset gold. + Mother, your voice seemed dark and chill, + And your words made my young heart very cold. + + You talked of fame,--but my thoughts would stray + To the brook that laughed across the lane; + And of hopes for me,--but your hand's light play + On my brow was ice to my shrinking brain; + And you called me your son, your only son,-- + But I felt your eye on my tortured heart + To and fro, like a spider, run, + On a quivering web;--'twas a cruel art! + + But crueller, crueller far, the art + Of the low, quick laugh that Memory hears! + Mother, I lay my head on your heart; + Has it throbbed even once these fifty years? + Throbbed even once, by some strange heat thawed? + It would then have warmed to her, poor thing, + Who echoed your laugh with a cry!--O God, + When in my soul will it cease to ring? + + Starlike her eyes were,--but yours were blind; + Sweet her red lips,--but yours were curled; + Pure her young heart,--but yours,--ah, you find + This, mother, is not the only world! + She came,--bright gleam of the dawning day; + She went,--pale dream of the winding-sheet. + Mother, they come to me and say + Your headstone will almost touch her feet! + + You are walking now in a strange, dim land: + Tell me, has pride gone with you there? + Does a frail white form before you stand, + And tremble to earth, beneath your stare? + No, no!--she is strong in her pureness now, + And Love to Power no more defers. + I fear the roses will never grow + On your lonely grave as they do on hers! + + But now from those lips one last, sad touch,-- + Kiss it is not, and has never been; + In my boyhood's sleep I dreamed of such, + And shuddered,--they were so cold and thin! + There,--now cover the cold, white face, + Whiter and colder than statue stone! + Mother, you have a resting-place; + But I am weary, and all alone! + + + + +AARON BURR.[A] + +[Footnote A: _The Life and Times of Aaron Burr._ By J. PARTON. New York: +Mason, Brothers. 1857.] + + +The life of Aaron Burr is an admirable subject for a biographer. He +belonged to a class of men, rare in America, who are remarkable, not so +much for their talents or their achievements, as for their adventures +and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. Europe has produced many such +men and women: political intriguers; royal favorites; adroit courtiers; +adventurers who carried their swords into every scene of danger; +courtesans who controlled the affairs of states; persevering schemers +who haunted the purlieus of courts, plotted treason in garrets, and +levied war in fine ladies' boudoirs. + +In countries where all the social and political action is concentrated +around the throne, where a pretty woman may decide the policy of a +reign, a royal marriage plunge nations into war, and the disgrace of a +favorite cause the downfall of a party, such persons find an ample field +for the exercise of the arts upon which they depend for success. The +history and romance of Modern Europe are full of them; they crowd the +pages of Macaulay and Scott. But the full sunlight of our republican +life leaves no lurking-place for the mere trickster. Doubtless, selfish +purposes influence our statesmen, as well as the statesmen of other +countries; but such purposes cannot be accomplished here by the means +which effect them elsewhere. He who wishes to attract the attention of +a people must act publicly and with reference to practical matters; but +the ear of a monarch may be reached in private. Therefore there is a +certain monotony in the lives of most of our public men; they may be +read in the life of one. It is, generally, a simple story of a poor +youth, who was born in humble station, and who, by painful effort +in some useful occupation, rose slowly to distinguished place,--who +displayed high talents, and made an honorable use of them. Aaron Burr, +however, is an exception. His adventures, his striking relations with +the leading men of his time, his romantic enterprises, the crimes and +the talents which have been attributed to him, his sudden elevation, and +his protracted and agonizing humiliation have attached to his name a +strange and peculiar interest. Mr. Parton has done a good service in +recalling a character which had well-nigh passed out of popular thought, +though not entirely out of popular recollection. + +As to the manner in which this service has been performed, it is +impossible to speak very highly. The book has evidently cost its author +great pains; it is filled with detail, and with considerable gossip +concerning the hero, which is piquant, and, if true, important. The +style is meant to be lively, and in some passages is pleasant enough; +but it is marked with a flippancy, which, after a few pages, becomes +very disagreeable. It abounds with the slang usually confined to +sporting papers. According to the author, a civil man is "as civil as an +orange," a well-dressed man is "got up regardless of expense," and an +unobserved action is done "on the sly." He affects the intense, and, in +his pages, newspapers "go rabid and foam personalities," are "ablaze +with victories" and "bristling with bulletins,"--the public is in a +"delirium,"--the politicians are "maddened,"--letters are written in +"hot haste," and proclamations "sent flying." He appears to be on terms +of intimacy with historical personages such as few writers are fortunate +enough to be admitted to. He approves a remark of George II. and +patronizingly exclaims, "Sensible King!" He has occasion to mention John +Adams, and salutes him thus: "Glorious, delightful, honest John Adams! +An American John Bull! The Comic Uncle of this exciting drama!" He then +calls him "a high-mettled game-cock," and says "he made a splendid show +of fight." + +Such little foibles and vanities might easily be pardoned, if the book +had no more important defects. It professes to explain portions of +our history hitherto not perfectly understood, and it contains many +statements for the truth of which we must rely upon the good sense and +accuracy of the writer; yet it is full of errors, and often evinces a +disposition to exaggeration little calculated to produce confidence in +its reliability. + +Our space will not permit us to point out all the mistakes which Mr. +Parton has made, and we will mention only a few which attracted our +attention upon the first perusal of his book. His hero was appointed +Lieutenant-Colonel when only twenty-one years of age, and the +author says that he was "the youngest man who held that rank in the +Revolutionary army, or who has ever held it in an army of the United +States." Alexander Hamilton and Brockholst Livingston both reached that +rank at twenty years of age.--Mr. Parton tells us that Burr's rise in +politics was more "rapid than that of any other man who has played a +conspicuous part in the affairs of the United States"; and that "in four +years after fairly entering the political arena, he was advanced, +first, to the highest honor of the bar, next, to a seat in the National +Council, and then, to a competition with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, +and Clinton, for the Presidency itself." He could hardly have crowded +more errors into a single paragraph. Burr never attained the highest +honor of the bar. His first appearance in politics was as a member of +the Legislature of New York, in 1784, when twenty-eight years old; five +years after, he was appointed Attorney-General; in 1791 he was elected +to the Senate of the United States; and in 1801, at the age of +forty-five, _seventeen_ years after he fairly entered public life, he +became Vice-President. Hamilton was a member of Congress at twenty-five, +and at thirty-two was Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson wrote the +great Declaration when only thirty-two years old; and the present +Vice-President is a much younger man than Burr was when he reached that +station. The statement, that Burr was the rival of Washington and Adams +for the Presidency, is absurd. Under the Constitution, at that time, +each elector voted for two persons,--the candidate who received the +greatest number of votes (if a majority of the whole) being declared +President, and the one having the next highest number Vice-President. +In 1792, at which time Burr received one vote in the Electoral College, +_all_ the electors voted for Washington; consequently the vote for Burr, +upon the strength of which Mr. Parton makes his magnificent boast, was +palpably for the Vice-Presidency. In 1796, the Presidential candidates +were Adams and Jefferson, for one or the other of whom every elector +voted,--the votes for Burr, in this instance thirty in number, being, as +before, only for the Vice-Presidency. Even in 1800, when the votes for +Jefferson and Burr in the Electoral College were equal, it is notorious +that this equality was simply the result of their being supported on the +same ticket,--the former for the office of President, and the latter +for that of Vice-President. Mr. Parton says, that, in the House of +Representatives, Burr would have been elected on the first ballot, if a +majority would have sufficed; and that Mr. Jefferson never received more +than fifty-one votes in a House of one hundred and six members. Had he +taken the trouble to examine Gales's "Annals of Congress" for 1799-1801, +he would have found that the House consisted of one hundred and four +members, two seats being vacant; and that on the first ballot Jefferson +received fifty-five votes, a majority of six. We are several times told +that Robert R. Livingston was one of the framers of the Constitution. +Mr. Livingston was not a member of the Constitutional Convention; the +only person of the name in that body was William Livingston, Governor +of New Jersey.--Mr. Parton comes into conflict with other writers upon +matters affecting his hero, as to which he would have done well if he +had given his authority. Matthew L. Davis, Burr's first biographer and +intimate friend, says that Burr's grandfather was a German; Parton, +speaking of the family at the time of the birth of Burr's father, +says that it was Puritan and had flourished in New England for three +generations. Mr. Parton makes Burr a witness of a dramatic interview +between Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Prevost shortly after the discovery of +Arnold's treason, the particulars of which Davis says Burr obtained from +the latter lady after she became his wife.--Our author is not consistent +in his own statements. Upon one page he describes Mrs. Prevost, about +the time of her marriage, as "the beautiful Mrs. Prevost"; a few pages +farther on he says she was "not beautiful, being past her prime." He +informs us that it is the fashion to underrate Jefferson, that the +polite circles and writers of the country have never sympathized with +him,--and in the very same paragraph he remarks that "Thomas Jefferson +has been for fifty years the victim of incessant eulogy." + +This carelessness in reciting facts is associated with a certain +confusion of mind. Mr. Parton does not appear to have the power of +distinguishing between conflicting statements of the same thing. He +describes Hamilton as honest and generous, and then accuses him of +malignity and dishonorable intrigue. He says that Wilkinson, at that +time a general in the United States service, may have thought of +hastening the dissolution of the Union "without being in any sense a +traitor." How an officer can meditate the destruction of a government +which he has sworn to protect, and not be in any sense of the word a +traitor, will puzzle minds not educated in what the author calls "the +Burr school." But the most curious exhibition which Mr. Parton makes of +this mental and moral confusion occurs in a passage where he attempts to +prove his assertion, that "Burr has done the state some service, though +they know it not." This service, of which the state has continued so +obstinately ignorant, consists mainly in having invented filibustering, +and in having brought duelling into disgrace by killing Hamilton. "That +was a benefit," our moralist gravely remarks concerning this last claim +to gratitude. Certainly; just such a benefit as Captain Kidd conferred +upon the world; he brought piracy into disgrace by being hanged for it. +As to the invention of filibustering, we are hardly disposed to rank +Burr with Fulton and Morse for his valuable discovery; but perhaps +the shades of Lopez and De Boulbon, and the living "gray-eyed man of +destiny," will worship him as the founder of their order. + +It is impossible to define Mr. Parton's opinion of his hero. It is not +very clear to himself. He is inclined to admire him, and is quite sure +that he has been harshly dealt with. In the Preface he intimates that it +is his purpose to exhibit Burr's good qualities,--for, as he says, "it +is the good in a man who goes astray that ought most to alarm and warn +his fellow-men." The converse of which proposition we suppose the author +thinks equally true, and that it is the evil in a man who does not go +astray which ought most to delight and attract his fellow-men. At the +end of the volume Mr. Parton makes a summary of Burr's character,--says +that he was too good for a politician, and not great enough for a +statesman,--that Nature meant him for a schoolmaster,--that he was a +useful Senator, an ideal Vice-President, and would have been a good +President,--and that, if his Mexican expedition had succeeded, he would +have run a career similar to that of Napoleon. We do not dare attack +this extraordinary eulogy. To describe a man as not great enough for +a statesman, yet fitted to make a good President, as a natural-born +schoolmaster and at the same time a Napoleon, argues a boldness of +conception which makes criticism dangerous. + +Mr. Parton occasionally assumes an air of impartiality, and mildly +expresses his disapprobation of Burr's vices; but in every instance +where those vices were displayed he earnestly defends him. In the +contest with Jefferson, Parton insists that Burr acted honorably; in the +duel with Hamilton, Burr was the injured party; in his amours he was not +a bad man; so that, although we are told that Burr had faults, we look +in vain for any exhibition of them. In the cases where we have been +accustomed to think that his passions led him into crime, he either +displayed the strictest virtue, or, at most, sinned in so gentlemanlike +a manner, with so much kindness and generosity, as hardly to sin at all. + +There are three ways of writing a biography: one is, to make a simple +narrative and leave the reader to form his own opinion; another, to +present the facts so as to illustrate the author's conception of his +hero's character; a third, and the most common way, to proceed like an +advocate, to suppress everything which can be suppressed, to sneer +at everything which cannot be answered, to put the most favorable +construction upon all dubious matters, and to throw the strongest light +upon every fortunate circumstance. Mr. Parton has tried all three modes, +and failed in all. He is an unskilful delineator of character, a poor +story-teller, and a worse advocate. His book, despite its spasmodic +style, lacks vigor. It indicates a want of firmness and precision of +thought. It leaves a mixed impression on the mind. We venture to say, +that two thirds of its readers will close the volume with an indefinite +contradictory opinion that Burr was a sort of villanous saint, and that +the other third, by no means the most inattentive readers, will not be +able to form any opinion whatever. + +There are four periods or events in the life of Burr which are worthy of +attention: his career in the army; his political course and contest with +Jefferson; the duel; and the Mexican expedition. Upon the first and most +pleasing portion of his life we cannot dwell. He entered the service +shortly after the battle of Bunker Hill, and in two years rose to a +Lieutenant-Colonelcy. Though engaged in several important battles, he +did not have an opportunity to display great military talents, if he +possessed them. He was distinguished, but not more so than many other +young men. He resigned in the spring of 1779,--as he alleged, on account +of ill health, but more probably because the failure of the Lee and +Conway intrigue had disappointed his hopes of promotion. + +As an indication of character, the most important circumstance of Burr's +military life was his quarrel with Washington. This difficulty is said +to have grown out of some scandalous affair in which Burr was engaged, +a belief which is strengthened by his intrigue with the beautiful and +unfortunate Margaret Moncrieffe a few months after. But aside from any +such cause, there was ground enough for difference in the characters of +the two men. Discipline compelled Washington to hold his subordinates at +a distance of implied, if not asserted inferiority; and Burr never met +a man to whom he thought himself inferior. Mr. Parton's explanation is, +that "Hamilton probably implanted a dislike for Burr in Washington's +breast." The only difficulty with this theory is one which the author's +suppositions often encounter,--it has no foundation in fact. At the +time that Burr was in Washington's family, Hamilton was probably not +acquainted with the General; he did not enter his staff until nine +months after Burr had left it. + +Burr entered public life at the only period in our history when a man of +his stamp of mind could have played a conspicuous part. At the close +of the Revolution, in addition to the Tories, there were already two +political factions in New York. As early as 1777 the Whigs had divided +upon the election for Governor, and George Clinton was chosen over +Philip Schuyler. The division then created continued after the peace, +but the differences were, at first, purely personal. Schuyler was the +leader of a party made up of a few great families, most prominent among +which were the Van Rensselaers and Livingstons. The Van Rensselaers have +never been particularly distinguished except as the possessors of a +great estate; the Livingstons, on the other hand, second only to the +great Dutch family in wealth, far surpassed them in political power and +reputation. The Van Rensselaers and Schuylers were connected with the +Livingstons by marriage; and this powerful association, made more +powerful by the banishment of the wealthy inhabitants of New York city +and Long Island, was still further strengthened by the connection with +it of Alexander Hamilton, who married a daughter of Philip Schuyler, and +John Jay, who married a daughter of William Livingston. The Schuyler +faction excited that opposition which wealth and social and political +influence always excite. A party arose which was composed of men of +every condition and shade of opinion,--those who were galled by the +exclusiveness of the aristocracy,--those who had joined the opposition +to Washington,--the young men who had made their reputation during the +war and were eager for professional and political promotion,--and all +those who were converts to the new doctrines of government which the +dispute with England had originated. At the head of these was George +Clinton. Though a man of liberal education, and trained to a liberal +profession, he had not the showy and attractive accomplishments which +distinguished his rivals; but he possessed in an extraordinary degree +those more sturdy qualities of mind and character which, in a country +where distinction is in the gift of the people, are always generously +rewarded. He had great aptitude for business, a clear and rapid +judgment, and high physical and moral courage. He was faithful to his +friends, and though an unyielding, he was a magnanimous foe. At a time +when politics were looked upon almost wholly as the means of personal +and family aggrandizement, and the motives of party conduct such as flow +from the passions of men, he, more than any of his opponents, adhered to +a consistent and not illiberal theory of public action. + +At the outset of his political career, Burr acted upon the policy which +always governed him. He attached himself closely to neither party. When +the political issues grew broader, he was careful not to connect himself +with any measure. He did not heartily oppose the abolition of the Tory +disabilities, nor the adoption of the Constitution. He was a Clintonian, +but not so decidedly as to prevent him from attempting to defeat +Clinton. With a few adherents, he stood between the two parties and +maintained a position where he could avail himself of any overtures +which might be made to him; yet he was careful to be so far identified +with one side as to be able to claim some political association whenever +it became necessary to do so. His success in this artful course was +remarkable. Nominally a Clintonian, in 1789 he supported Yates, and a +few months afterwards took office under Clinton. In 1791, while holding +a place under a Republican governor, he persuaded a Federal legislature +to send him to the Senate of the United States. In the Senate he sided +with the opposition, but so moderately that some Federalists were +willing to support him for Governor. The Republicans nominated him for +the Vice-Presidency, and shortly after, the Federalists in Congress, +almost in a body, voted for him for the Presidency. During all this +time, his name was not associated with any important measure except a +fraudulent banking-scheme in New York. + +The occasion of his elevation to the Vice-Presidency is a perfect +illustration of the accidental circumstances and unimportant services to +which he was generally indebted for advancement. From the commencement +of the Presidential canvass of 1800, it was evident that the action of +New York would control the election. That State then had twelve votes +in the Electoral College; but the electors were chosen by the +Legislature,--not, as at present, by the people. The parties in New York +were nearly equal, and the result in the Legislature was very doubtful. +The city of New York sent twelve members to the Assembly, and usually +determined the political complexion of that body. Thus the contest in +the nation was narrowed down to a single city, and that not a large +one. This gave Burr a favorable field for the exercise of his peculiar +talents. His energy, tact, unscrupulousness, and art in conciliating the +hostile and animating the indifferent made him unequalled in political +finesse. He did not hesitate to use any means in his power. Some one in +his pay overheard the discussion in a Federal caucus, and revealed to +him the plans of his opponents. He had become unpopular, and had brought +odium upon his party by a corrupt speculation; he therefore declined +presenting his own name, and made a ticket comprehending the most +distinguished persons in the Republican ranks. George Clinton, Gen. +Gates, and Brockholst Livingston were placed at the head of it. The +most urgent solicitations were necessary to persuade these gentlemen to +consent to a nomination for places which were beneath their pretensions, +but Burr answered every objection and overcame every scruple. The +respectability of the candidates and the vigorous prosecution of the +canvass carried the city by a considerable majority, and insured the +election of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Parton finds in this abundant material +for extravagant eulogy of Burr. But most people will be surprised to +learn that such services constituted a claim to the Vice-Presidency. If +being an adroit politician entitles a person to high office, there is +not a town in New York which cannot furnish half a dozen statesmen whose +exploits have been far more remarkable than Burr's. + +Burr's nomination, however, was not solely due to his labors at this +election, but in part also to his subsequent address. The importance +of New York made it desirable to select the candidate for the +Vice-Presidency from that State. A caucus of the Republican members +of Congress directed Mr. Gallatin to ascertain who would be the most +acceptable candidate. He wrote to Commodore Nicholson, asking him to +discover the sentiments of the leading men in the State. The names of +Livingston, George Clinton, and Burr had been suggested. Livingston was +deaf, and Nicholson is said to have determined to recommend Clinton. +Burr, however, saw him afterwards, and persuaded him to substitute his +name instead of Clinton's in the letter which he had prepared to send +to Philadelphia. Col. Burr was accordingly placed upon the Republican +ticket. + +The tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, which unexpectedly occurred +in the Electoral College, has given rise to the assertion that Burr +endeavored to defeat Jefferson and secure his own election. Mr. Parton +devotes a chapter to the refutation of this charge, but does not succeed +in making a very strong argument. The evidence of Burr's treachery, is +as positive as from the nature of the case it can be. Of course, he made +no open pledges; it was unnecessary, and it would have been impolitic to +do so. The main fact cannot be denied, that for several weeks before and +after the election went to the House of Representatives, Burr was openly +supported by the Federalists in opposition to Jefferson. Burr knew it; +everybody knew it. Why was this support given? It will require plain +proof to satisfy any one who is familiar with the motives of political +action, that a party would have so earnestly advocated the election of +any man without good reason to suppose that he would make an adequate +return for its support. There was but one course which Burr, in honor, +could take; he should have peremptorily refused to permit his name to be +used. A word from him would have ended the matter; but that word was not +spoken. The evidence on the other side consists of some statements made +several years after, by parties concerned, which are by no means +so direct and unequivocal as might be wished,--and of a series +of depositions taken in some lawsuits instituted by Col. Burr to +investigate the truth of this charge. One circumstance, which seems to +have escaped the notice of our biographer, casts suspicion upon all +these documents. Burr applied to Samuel Smith, a United States Senator +from Maryland, for his testimony. Smith gives the following account of +the transaction:--"Col. Burr called on me. I told him that I had written +my deposition, and would have a fair copy made of it. He said, 'Trust +it to me and I will get Mr. ---- to copy it.' I did so, and, on his +returning it to me, _I found words not mine interpolated in the copy_." +It is not worth while to discuss a defence which was made out by +forgery. + +His election to the Vice-Presidency terminated Burr's official career. +He was deserted by his party, and denounced by the Republican press. +Burning with resentment, he turned upon his enemies, and, supported by +the Federalists, became a candidate for the Governorship of New York, +in opposition to the Republican nominee. Hamilton, who alone among the +Federal statesmen had openly opposed Burr during the contest for the +Presidency, again separated from his party, and earnestly denounced him. +Burr was defeated by an enormous majority. His disappointment and anger +at being again foiled by Hamilton prompted him to the most notorious and +unfortunate act of his life. + +In speaking of his duel with Gen. Hamilton, we do not intend to judge +Col. Burr's conduct by the rules by which a more enlightened public +opinion now judges the duellist. He and his adversary acted according +to the custom of their time; by that standard let them be measured. +Mr. Parton thinks that the challenge was as "near an approach to +a reasonable and inevitable action as an action can be which is +intrinsically wrong and absurd." By this we understand him to say that +the course of Col. Burr was in accordance with the etiquette which then +governed men of the world in such affairs. We think differently. + +During the election for Governor, Dr. Cooper, of Albany, heard Hamilton +declare that he was opposed to Burr, and made a public statement to that +effect. Gen. Schuyler denied the truth of this assertion, which Dr. +Cooper then reiterated in a published letter, saying that Hamilton and +Judge Kent had both characterized Burr as "a dangerous man, and one who +ought not to be trusted with the reins of government," and that "he +could detail a _still more despicable opinion_ which Gen. Hamilton had +expressed of Mr. Burr." Nearly two months after this letter was +written, Burr addressed a note to Hamilton asking for an unqualified +acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expression which would +justify Dr. Cooper's assertion. The dispute turned upon the words "more +despicable," and as to them there obviously were many difficulties. +Cooper thought that the expression, "a dangerous man and one who ought +not to be trusted with the reins of government," conveyed a despicable +opinion; but many persons might think that such language did not go +beyond the reasonable limits of political animadversion. Burr himself +made no objection to that particular phrase; he did not allude to it +except by way of explanation. The use of such language was common. +In his celebrated attack upon John Adams, Hamilton had spoken of Mr. +Jefferson as an "ineligible and dangerous candidate." The same words had +been publicly applied to Burr himself, two years before. He did not see +anything despicable in the opinion then expressed. A man may be unfit +for office from lack of capacity, and dangerous on account of his +principles. The most rigid construction of the Code of Honor has never +compelled a person to fight every fool whom he thought unworthy of +public station, and every demagogue whose views he considered unsound. +If Dr. Cooper, then, was able to discover a despicable opinion where +most people could find none, might he not have seen what he called a +_more despicable opinion_ in some remark equally innocent? Burr did not +ask what were the precise terms of the remark to which Cooper alluded; +he demanded that Hamilton should disavow Cooper's construction of that +expression. He took offence, not at what had been said, but at the +inference which another had drawn from what had been said. The +justification of such an inference devolved upon Cooper, not +Hamilton,--who by no rule of courtesy could be interrogated as to the +justice of another's opinions. These difficulties presented themselves +to the mind of Hamilton. He stated them in his reply, declared that he +was ready to answer for any precise or definite opinion which he had +expressed, but refused to explain the import which others had placed +upon his language. Unfortunately, the last line of his note contained +an intimation that he expected a challenge. Burr rudely retorted, +reiterating his demand in most insolent terms. The correspondence then +passed into the hands of Nathaniel Pendleton on the part of Hamilton, +and William P. Van Ness, a man of peculiar malignity of character, upon +the part of Burr. The responsibility of his position weighing upon +Hamilton's mind, before the final step was taken, he voluntarily stated +that the conversation with Dr. Cooper "related exclusively to political +topics, and did not attribute to Burr any instance of dishonorable +conduct," and again offered to explain any specific remark. This +generous, unusual, and, according to strict etiquette, unwarranted +proposition removed at once Burr's cause of complaint. Had he been +disposed to an honorable accommodation, he would have received +Hamilton's proposal in the spirit in which it was made. But, embarrassed +by this liberal offer, he at once changed his ground, abandoned Cooper's +remark, which had previously been the sole subject of discussion, and +peremptorily insisted that Gen. Hamilton should deny _ever_ having made +remarks from which inferences derogatory to him could fairly have been +drawn. This demand was plainly unjustifiable. No person would answer +such an interrogatory. It showed that Burr's desire was, not to satisfy +his honor, but to goad his adversary to the field. It establishes the +general charge, which Parton virtually admits, that it was not passion +excited by a recent insult which impelled him to revenge, but hatred +engendered during years of rivalry and stimulated by his late defeat. +Burr must long have known Hamilton's feelings towards him. Those +feelings had been freely expressed; and Burr's letters discover that he +was fully aware of the distrust and hostility with which he was regarded +by his political associates and opponents. A man has no claim to +satisfaction for an insult given years ago. The entire theory of the +duello makes it impossible for one to ask redress for an injury which he +has long permitted to go unredressed. The question being, not whether +the practice of duelling is wrong, but whether Burr was wrong according +to that practice, we have no difficulty in concluding that the challenge +was given upon vague and unjustifiable grounds, and that Gen. Hamilton +would have been excusable, if he had refused to meet him. + +It may be said, that, if Hamilton accepted an improper challenge, he +should receive the same condemnation as the one who gave it. But, even +on general grounds, some qualification should be made in favor of +the challenged party. His is a different position from that of the +challenger. A sensitive man, though he think that he is improperly +questioned, may have some delicacy about making his own judgment the +rule of another's conduct. Besides, there were many considerations +peculiar to this case. The menacing tone of Burr's first note made it +evident that he meant to force the quarrel to a bloody issue. Hamilton, +jealous of his reputation for courage, could not run the risk of +appearing anxious to avoid a danger so apparent. Moreover, he was +conscious, that, during his life, he had said many things which might +give Burr cause for offence, and he was unwilling to avail himself of a +technical, though reasonable objection, to escape the consequences of +his own remarks. Neither could he apologize for what he still thought +was true. These considerations were doubly powerful with Hamilton. His +early manhood had been passed in camps; his early fame had been won +in the profession of arms. He was a man of the world. He had never +discountenanced duelling; he himself had been engaged in the affair +between Laurens and Lee; and a few years before, his own son had fallen +in a duel. Neither his education nor his professions nor his practice +could excuse him. It was too late to take shelter behind his general +disapproval of a custom which was recognized by his professional +brethren and had been countenanced by himself. It is true that he would +have shown a higher courage by braving an ignorant and brutal public +opinion, but it would be unjust to censure him for not showing a degree +of courage which no man of his day displayed. He and Burr are to be +measured by their own standard, not by ours; and tried by that test, it +is easy to see a difference between one who accepts and one who sends an +unjustifiable challenge; it is the difference which exists between an +error and a crime. + +There was an interval of two weeks between the message and the meeting. +This was required by Hamilton to finish some important law business. +When he went to White Plains to try causes, he was in the habit of +staying at a friend's house. The last time he visited there, a few days +before his death, he said, upon leaving, "I shall probably never come +here again." During this period he invited Col. Wm. Smith, and his wife, +who was the only daughter of John Adams, to dine with him. Some rare old +Madeira which had been given to him was produced on this occasion, and +it was afterwards thought that it was his intention by this slight act +to express his desire to bury all personal differences between Mr. Adams +and himself. These, and various other little incidents, show that he +felt his death to be certain; yet all his business in court and out was +marked by his ordinary clearness and ability, all his intercourse with +his family and friends by his usual sweetness and cheerfulness of +disposition. + +On the Fourth of July, Hamilton and Burr met at the annual banquet of +the Society of Cincinnati. Hamilton presided. No one was afterwards able +to remember that his manner gave any indication of the dreadful event +which was so near at hand. He joined freely in the conversation and +badinage of such occasions, and towards the close of the feast sang +a song,--the only one he knew,--the ballad of the Drum. But many +remembered that Burr was silent and moody. He did not look towards +Hamilton until he began to sing, when he fixed his eyes upon him and +gazed intently at him until the song was ended. + +Hamilton was living at the Grange, his country-seat, near +Manhattanville. The place is still unchanged. His office was in a small +house on Cedar Street, where he likewise found lodgings when necessary. +The night previous to the duel was passed there. We have been told by +an aged citizen of New York, that Hamilton was seen long after midnight +walking to and fro in front of the house. + +During these last hours both parties wrote a few farewell lines. In no +act of their lives does the difference in the characters of Hamilton and +Burr show itself so distinctly as in these parting letters. Hamilton was +oppressed by the difficulties and responsibilities of his situation. His +duty to his creditors and his family forbade him rashly to expose a life +which was so valuable to them; his duty to his country forbade him to +leave so evil an example; he was not conscious of ill-will towards Col. +Burr; and his nature revolted at the thought of destroying human life in +a private quarrel. These thoughts, and the considerations of pride and +ambition which nevertheless controlled him, are beautifully expressed in +language which is full of pathos and manly dignity. He had made his +will the day before. He was distressed lest his estate should prove +insufficient to pay his debts, and, after committing their mother to +the filial protection of his children, he besought them, as his last +request, to vindicate his memory by making up any deficiency which might +occur. Burr's letters to Theodosia and her husband are mainly occupied +with directions as to the disposal of his property and papers. The +tone of them does not differ greatly from that of his ordinary +correspondence. They do not contain a word such as an affectionate +father or a patriotic citizen would have written at such a time. They +do not express a sentiment such as a generous and thoughtful man would +naturally feel on the eve of so momentous an occurrence. There are no +misgivings as to the propriety of his conduct, nor a whisper of regret +at the unfortunate circumstances which, as he professed to think, +compelled him to seek another's blood. He addressed to his daughter +a few lines of graceful compliment, and, in striking contrast with +Hamilton's injunction to his children, Burr's last request with regard +to Theodosia is, that she shall acquire a "critical knowledge of Latin, +English, and all branches of natural philosophy." + +The combatants met on the 11th of July, 1804, at a place beneath the +heights of Weehawken, upon the New Jersey side of the Hudson,--the usual +resort, at that time, for such encounters. Burr fired the moment the +word was given, raising his arm deliberately and taking aim. The ball +struck Hamilton on the side, and, as he reeled under the blow, his +pistol was discharged into the air. "I should have shot him through the +heart," said Burr, afterwards, "but, at the moment I was about to fire, +my aim was confused by a vapor." Burr stepped forward with a gesture of +regret, when he saw his adversary fall; but his second hurried him from +the field, screening him with an umbrella from the recognition of the +surgeon and bargemen. + +Hamilton was carried to the house of Mr. Bayard, in the suburbs of the +city. The news flew through the town, producing intense excitement. +Bulletins were posted at the Tontine, and changed with every new report. +Crowds soon gathered around Mr. Bayard's house, and in the grounds. So +deep was the feeling, that visitors were permitted to pass one by one +through the room where Gen. Hamilton was lying. From the first, there +was no hope of his recovery. This opinion of the most eminent surgeons +in the city was concurred in by the surgeons of two French frigates in +the harbor, who were consulted. Gen. Hamilton was a man of slight frame, +and a disorder, from which he had recently suffered, prevented the use +of the ordinary remedies. He retained his composure to the last; nor was +his fortitude disturbed until his seven children approached his bedside. +He gave them one look, and, closing his eyes, did not open them again +while they remained in the room. He expired at two o'clock on the day +after the duel. + +He was not the only victim. His oldest daughter, a girl of twenty, whose +education he had carefully directed, and whose musical talents gave him +great pleasure, never recovered from the shock of her father's death. +In her disordered fancy, she visited by night the fatal ground at +Weehawken, and told her friends that she crossed the river and returned +before morning. Her mind soon gave way entirely; and only last spring +death released her from a total, though gentle insanity of fifty years' +duration. + +The sudden and tragic death of Alexander Hamilton produced a universal +feeling of sympathy and sorrow. As the leader of the bar, the advocate +of the Constitution, the statesman who had given the law to American +commerce, the most accomplished soldier in the army, and connected +with the still recent glories of the Revolution,--his name had become +familiar to every ear, and was associated with every subject of popular +interest. His career was, in all respects, an extraordinary one. He came +here a stranger, without fortune or powerful family connections. While +yet a school-boy, he had borne a creditable part in the discussion of +public affairs. At an age when the ambition of most young soldiers +is satisfied, if, by the performance of their ordinary duties as +subalterns, they have attracted the regard of their superiors, he was +in a position of responsibility, and occupied with the most serious and +complicated matters of war. He was one of the youngest and at the +same time one of the most influential members of the Constitutional +Convention. To this distinction in affairs and arms he added equal +distinction at the bar. It will be difficult to find in our history, or +in that of England, an instance of such eminence in three departments of +action so distinct and dissimilar. Although it may he said of Hamilton, +that he had not the intuitive perception, which Jefferson possessed, of +the necessities imposed upon the country by its anomalous condition, +yet, as a statesman under an established government, he was surpassed +by no man of his generation. His talents were of the kind which most +attracts the sympathies and impresses the understandings of others. He +was a grave man, occupied with business affairs, but not unequal to +occasions which required the display of taste and eloquence. His solid +qualities of mind inspired universal confidence in the soundness of +his views upon all questions which were not the subject of political +dispute. There were many plain Republicans of that day who were firmly +attached to the principles which Jefferson advocated, but who thought +that Jefferson was a dreamer and an enthusiast, and that Hamilton was a +far safer man in the ordinary affairs of government. + +The grief which the death of Hamilton caused in the nation reacted upon +Burr; and when the correspondence was published, a storm of condemnation +burst upon him. Indictments were found against him in New York and New +Jersey. In every pulpit, upon every platform, where the virtues and +services of Hamilton were celebrated, the features of his malignant foe +were displayed in dramatic contrast. He was compared to Richard III. and +Catiline, to Saul, and to the wretch who fired the temple of Diana. This +feeling was not confined to orators and clergymen, nor to this country. +It reached other communities, and was shared by men of the world like +Talleyrand, and retired students like Jeremy Bentham. The former, a few +years before his death, related to an American gentleman, that Burr, on +his arrival in Paris, in 1810, sent to him and requested an interview. +The French statesman could not well refuse to receive an American of +such distinction, with whom he was personally acquainted, and by whom +he had formerly been hospitably entertained, and told the gentleman +who brought the message,--"Say to Col. Burr, that I will receive him +to-morrow; but tell him also, that Gen. Hamilton's likeness always hangs +over my mantel." Burr did not call upon him. Talleyrand directed that +after his death the miniature should be sent to Hamilton's descendants, +with some newspaper scraps relating to him, which he had thrust into the +lining. When Burr was in England, he became intimate with Bentham. The +latter, in his "Memoirs and Correspondence," makes a brief allusion to +the acquaintance, in which the following passage occurs: "Burr gave me +an account of his duel with Hamilton. He was sure of being able to kill +him: _so I thought it little better than a murder_." + +Previously to his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, in March, 1805, +Burr had formed the design of seeking a home in the Southwest. Little +more than a year before, Louisiana had been annexed, and then offered +a wide field to an ambitious man. Encouraged by some acquaintances, he +projected various political and financial speculations. In April, he +repaired to Pittsburg, and started upon a journey down the Ohio and +the Mississippi. On the way, curiosity led him to the house of Herman +Blennerhassett, and he thus accidentally made the acquaintance of a +man whose name has become historic by its association with his own. +Blennerhassett was an Irishman by birth; he had inherited a considerable +fortune, and was a man of education. Beguiled by the belief that in +the retirement of the American forests he would find the solitude most +congenial to the pursuit of his favorite studies, he purchased an island +in the Ohio River near the mouth of the Little Kanawha. He expended most +of his property in building a house and adorning his grounds. The house +was a plain wooden structure; and the shrubbery, in its best estate, +could hardly have excited the envy of Shenstone. Men of strong character +are not dependent upon certain conditions of climate and quiet for the +ability to accomplish their purposes. But Blennerhassett was not a man +of strong character; neither was he an exception to this rule. He was, +at the best, but an idle student; and his zeal for science never carried +him beyond a little desultory study of Astronomy and Botany and some +absurd experiments in Chemistry. His figure was awkward, his manners +were ungracious, and he was so near-sighted that he used to take a +servant hunting with him, to show him the game. His credulity and +want of worldly knowledge exposed him to the practices of the shrewd +frontiers-men among whom he lived. He soon became involved in debt, and +at the time of Burr's visit his situation made him a ready volunteer for +any enterprise which promised to repair his shattered fortunes. That the +enterprise was impracticable, and that he was unfit for it, only made it +more attractive to his imaginative and simple mind. The fancy of Wirt +has thrown a deceptive romance around the career of Blennerhassett, yet +there is enough of truth in the account of the misfortunes which Burr +brought upon him and his amiable wife to justify the sympathy with which +they have been regarded. + +Soon after his arrival at New Orleans Burr seems to have formed bolder +designs. From this time we find in his correspondence, and that of his +friends, vague hints of some great undertaking. This proved to be a +project for an expedition against Mexico, and the establishment there +of an Empire which was to include the States west of the Alleghanies; +subsidiary to this, and connected with it, was a plan for the +colonization of a large tract of land upon the Washita. + +It is difficult to believe that a design so absurd can have been +entertained by a man of common sense; yet it is certain that it was +seriously undertaken by Burr. His conduct in carrying it out furnishes +the best measure of his talents and a signal exhibition of his folly and +his vices. His high standing, his reputation as a soldier, attracted +the vulgar, and brought him into intercourse with the most intelligent +people of the Territory. The fascination of his manners, and the skill +in the arts of intrigue which long discipline had given him, enabled +him to sustain the impression which the prestige of his name everywhere +produced. The details of his political conduct could not have been +accurately known in a region so remote. The affair with Hamilton had not +injured his reputation in communities where such affairs were common +and often applauded. The circumstances of the time, to his superficial +glance, seemed to be encouraging. A large portion of the country had +lately passed under our flag;--many of the inhabitants spoke a foreign +language, and retained foreign customs and predilections;--the American +settlers were an adventurous race, and eager for an opportunity to +indulge their martial spirit;--Mexico was uneasy under the Spanish +yoke;--and some indications of a war between the United States and Spain +held out a faint hope that the initiatory steps of his enterprise might +be taken with the connivance of the government. To recruit an army among +the hardy citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to excite the jealousies +of the French in Louisiana, to subdue feeble and demoralized Mexico, and +create a new and stable empire, did not appear difficult to the sanguine +imagination of a man who was without means or powerful friends, and who +at no time had sufficient confidence in those with whom he was engaged +to fully inform them of his plans. But he pursued his purposes with a +tenacity which leaves no doubt of his sincerity, and an audacity and +unscrupulousness seldom equalled. A few whom he thought it safe to trust +were admitted to his secrets. Upon those in whom he did not dare to +confide he practised every species of deception. He told some, that his +intentions were approved by the government,--others, that his expedition +was against Mexico only, and that he was sure of foreign aid. He +represented to the honest, that he had bought lands, and wished to form +a colony and institute a new and better order of society; the ignorant +were deluded with a fanciful tale of Southern conquest, and a +magnificent empire, of which he was to be king, and Theodosia queen +after his death. So thoroughly was this deception carried out, that it +is difficult to determine who were actually engaged with him. Without +doubt, many acceded to his plans only because they did not knew what his +plans really were. He made rapid journeys from New Orleans to Natchez, +Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis. In the winter of 1805 +he returned to Washington, and in the following summer again went +down the Ohio. Wherever he went, he threw out complaints against the +government,--charged it with imbecility,--boasted that with two hundred +men he could drive the President and Congress into the Potomac,--freely +prophesied a dissolution of the Union, and published in the local +journals articles pointing out the advantages which would result from a +separation of the Western from the Eastern States. Gen. Eaton had been +denounced in Congress, and had a claim against the government; Burr +tempted him with an opportunity to redress his wrongs and satisfy his +claim. Commodore Truxton had been struck from the Navy list; he offered +him a high command in the Mexican navy. He took every occasion to +flatter the vanity of the people; attended militia parades, and praised +the troops for their discipline and martial bearing. Large donations +of land were freely promised to recruits; men were enlisted; +Blennerhassett's Island was made the rendezvous; and provisions were +gathered there. + +At length his movements began to cause some anxiety to the public +officers. The United States District Attorney attempted to indict him at +Frankfort, Kentucky, but the grand-jury refused to find a bill. Henry +Clay defended him in these proceedings, and in reference to his +connection with the case, Mr. Parton makes a characteristic display of +the spirit in which his book is written, and of his unfitness for the +ambitious task he has undertaken. He quotes the following passage from +Collins's "Historical Sketches of Kentucky":--"Before Mr. Clay took +any active part as the counsel of Burr, he required of him an explicit +disavowal, [avowal,] upon his honor, that he was engaged in no design +contrary to the laws and peace of the country. This pledge was +promptly given by Burr, in language the most broad, comprehensive, and +particular. He had no design, he said, to intermeddle with or disturb +the tranquillity of the United States, nor its territories, nor any part +of them. He had neither issued nor signed nor promised a commission to +any person for any purpose. He did not own a single musket, nor bayonet, +nor any single article of military stores,--nor did any other person +for him, by his authority or knowledge. His views had been explained +to several distinguished members of the administration, were well +understood and approved by the government. They were such as every man +of honor and every good citizen must approve." Upon this paragraph Mr. +Parton makes the following extraordinary comments:--"Mr. Clay, there is +reason to believe, went to his grave in the belief that each of these +assertions was an unmitigated falsehood, and the writer of the above +adduces them merely as remarkable instances of cool, impudent lying. +On the contrary, with one exception, all of Burr's allegations were +strictly true; and even that one was true in a _Burrian_ sense. He did +_not_ own any arms or military stores: by the terms of his engagement +with his recruits, every man was to join him armed, just as every +backwoodsman was armed whenever he went from home. He had _not_ issued +nor promised any commissions: the time had not come for that. Jefferson +and his cabinet undoubtedly knew his views and intentions, up to the +point where they ceased to be lawful." + +To this miserable tissue of sophistry and misrepresentation the only +reply we have to make is, that Burr's statements were the unmitigated +falsehoods which Henry Clay believed them to be. For at that very time +stores were collected on Blennerhassett's Island; other persons were +bringing arms for Burr's service and with his knowledge; the winter +previous he had offered commissions to Eaton and Truxton; and a month +before this statement was made, his agent had arrived at Wilkinson's +camp with the direct proposition to that officer, that he should attack +the Spaniards, hurry his country into a war, and enter upon a career of +conquest which was to result in dismembering the Union. And yet Burr +solemnly declared upon his honor that he was engaged in no design +"contrary to the laws and peace of the country," and that "his +views were such as every man of honor and every good citizen must +approve,"--and Parton says these averments were true. We have no wish +to deal harshly with this writer; but such an impudent defence of a +palpable falsehood is a disgrace to American letters. + +Every well-informed person knows the miserable issue of this +ill-contrived conspiracy. The only emotion which it now excites in the +student is wonder that the thought of it could ever have entered a sane +mind. A wilder or more chimerical scheme never disturbed the dreams of +a schoolboy; yet no one has ever pressed a reasonable undertaking with +more earnestness and confidence than Burr his visionary purpose. He +exhibited, throughout, an infatuation and a degree of incompetency for +great achievements, which would cover the enterprise with ridicule, were +it not for the misfortunes which it brought upon himself and others. + +We do not desire to linger over the last period of Burr's life. His +deadliest foe could not have wished for him so terrible a punishment as +that which afflicted his long and ignominious old age. + +In 1808 he went to Europe to obtain aid for his Mexican expedition. +While in England, he made another display of his adroitness and boldness +in falsehood. The English government became suspicious of him; whereupon +he had the hardihood to claim, that, although he had borne arms against +Great Britain and had held office in an independent state, he was still +a British subject. Mr. Parton says, that this "was an amusing instance +of Burr's lawyerlike audacity." Less partial judges will probably find a +harsher term to apply to it. + +After his return to this country, Burr resumed his profession in New +York, but never regained his former position at the bar. The standard +of legal acquirements was higher than it had been in his youth, and +the obloquy which rested upon him excluded him from the respectable +departments of practice. During all this time, by far the longest period +of his professional life, he never displayed any signal ability. His +society was shunned,--or sought only by a few personal admirers, or by +the profligate and the curious. When seventy-eight years of age, he +wheedled Madame Jumel, an eccentric and wealthy widow, into a marriage. +On the bridal trip he obtained possession of some of her property, and +squandered it in an idle speculation. A continuance of such practices +led to a separation, and his wife afterwards made application for a +divorce, upon a charge which Mr. Parton says is now known to have been +false, but which we have reason to believe was true, and which was so +disgusting that we cannot even hint at it. + +It is our duty to notice one chapter in this book, which, more than +anything else it contains, has given it notoriety. We refer to +its defence of, or, to speak more mildly, its apology for, Burr's +libertinism. All the faults of the author which we have had occasion +to notice, examples of which are scattered through the volume, are +concentrated in these few pages,--his inconsistency, his inaccuracy, +his disposition to draw inferences from facts which they directly +contradict, and to rely on evidence which has nothing to do with the +case in hand. He argues at great length upon the assumption, that Burr's +correspondence with women was unfit for publication, and then, in +contradiction to Burr's own positive declaration, asserts that there +were "no letters necessarily criminating ladies." To prove this, he +publishes two letters, one of which is an apology, written by Burr +in his seventy-fourth year, for having addressed a young woman in an +improper manner, and the other is a letter from a female, couched in +language much warmer than an innocent woman could use. Mr. Parton +attacks Davis because that writer stated that Burr left his +correspondence to be disposed of by him, and eulogizes his hero because +he ordered that the letters should be burned. To establish this +position, he quotes Burr's will, which directed Davis "to destroy, or +to deliver to all persons interested, such letters, as may, _in his +estimation_, be calculated to affect injuriously the feelings of +individuals against whom I have no complaint,"--thus giving Mr. Davis +all the discretionary power with which he claims to have been invested, +and making him the judge as to what letters should be destroyed. We +have no more space to expose Mr. Parton's blunders and sophistry. The +evidence of Burr's debauchery, of his heartless vanity, of his utter +disregard of the considerations which usually govern even the worst of +men, does not rest upon the admissions of Davis alone. Those who are +familiar with a scandalous book called the "Secret History of St. +Domingo," which consists of a series of letters addressed to Col. Burr +by Madame D'Auvergne, will need no further illustration of his influence +over women, nor of the character of those with whom he was most +intimately associated. The night before his duel with Hamilton, he +committed all the letters of his female correspondents to the care and +perusal of Theodosia, saying that she would "find in them something to +amuse, much to instruct, and more to forgive." When in Europe, he kept a +journal in which he recorded his various amorous adventures. This book, +as published, is one which no gentleman would place in the hands of a +lady, and the editor tells us that the most improper portions of the +diary have been expurgated; yet this journal was written, not to amuse +a scandal-loving public, not for purposes of gain, but for the private +perusal of Theodosia. What can be said of a man who could expose +the lascivious expressions of abandoned females and retail his own +debaucheries to a gentle and innocent woman, and that woman his own +daughter? The mere statement beggars invective. It shows a mind so +depraved as to be unconscious of its depravity. + +The character of Burr is not difficult to analyze. His life was +consistent, and at the beginning a wise man might have foretold the +end. Our author complains that Burr's reputation has suffered from +the disposition to exaggerate his faults. This may be true; but it is +likewise true that he has been benefited by the same disposition to +exaggeration. A character is more dramatic which unites great talents +with great vices, and therefore he has been represented both as a worse +and a greater man than he really was. Burr cannot be called great in +any sense. His successes, such as they were, never appear to have been +obtained by high mental effort. He has left not a single measure, no +speech, no written discussion of the various important subjects that +came before him, to which one can point as an exhibition of superior +talents. A certain description of ability cannot be denied to him. He +did well whatever could be done by address, courage, and industry, +joined to moderate talents. His chief power lay in the fascination of +personal intercourse. His countenance was pleasing, and illuminated +by eyes of singular beauty and vivacity; his bearing was lofty; his +self-possession could not be disturbed; he had the tact of a woman, and +an intellect which was active and equal to all ordinary occasions. But +even in society his range was a narrow one, and he seems to have been +successful mainly because he avoided positive effort. It is usual to +speak of him as a remarkable conversationalist; but if by that term we +mean to describe, a person who is distinguished for his eloquence, grace +of expression, information, force and originality of thought, Burr was +not a good converser. A distinguished gentleman, who, while young, +was much noticed by Burr, being asked in what his personal attraction +consisted, replied, "In his manner of listening to you. He seemed to +give your thought so much value by the air with which he received it, +and to find so much more meaning in your words than you had intended. +No flattery was equal to it." We think that this anecdote reveals the +entire power of the man. He was strong through the weakness of others, +rather than in his own strength. Therefore he was most attractive to +young or inferior people. He was not on terms of intimacy with any +leading man of his time, unless it was Jeremy Bentham, and the precise +nature of their relations is not understood. The philosopher, who could +not then boast many disciples, was favorably disposed toward Burr, +because the latter had ordered a London bookseller to send him Bentham's +works as fast as they were published. Upon acquaintance, he must have +been pleased with a gentleman with whom he could have had no cause for +dispute, who could supply him with information as to new and interesting +forms of society and government, and whose adventurous and romantic +career differed so widely from his own life of study and thought. + +Burr's conduct in his various public situations affords a perfect +measure of his abilities. As a soldier, he was brave, a good +disciplinarian, watchful of details, and an excellent executive officer. +At the head of a brigade he would have been useful; but he did not +possess the foresight, the breadth of mental vision, nor the magnetism +of nature awakening the enthusiasm of armies, which are necessary to a +great commander. He was an adroit lawyer, an adept in the fence of his +profession, skilful to avail himself of the errors of an opponent, and +to play upon the foibles of judge or jury; but he had not the faculty +for generalization and analysis, nor the nice discrimination in the +application of general principles to particular instances, which must be +combined in a great lawyer. He cannot by any figure of speech be called +a statesman. As a politician, he was one of the first to discover and +one of the most skilful in the use of those unworthy arts which have +brought the pursuit of politics into disrepute; but we doubt whether +he could have succeeded upon the broader field of the present day. +Perfectly competent to manage a single city, he would have failed in an +attempt to govern a party. His talents were well defined by Jefferson, +who spoke of him as a great man in little things, and a small man in +great things. + +One of the qualities most frequently attributed to Burr is fortitude; +upon this characteristic his biographer frequently dwells. And +indeed, when one reads of the misfortunes which came upon him,--the +disappointments which he encountered,--his poverty abroad,--his terrible +afflictions, and dreary old age,--and how gallantly he bore up under +all,--unblenching, unmurmuring, struggling cheerfully and patiently to +the end,--one cannot repress a feeling of admiration for the courage +which endured so much misery, and of pity for the faults which brought +that misery upon him. Such a feeling would be justified, if we could +believe that fortitude was a positive trait in his character. That is +to say, if he had been properly sensible of the odium which covered +his name, and had really felt the sorrows which visited him,--if these +things had moved him as they do others, and he had still gone on calmly +and bravely to the end, hiding the wounds which tortured him, and giving +no sign of pain,--he would, indeed, have been worthy of admiration; +he would have been a hero. But we think it will appear, upon a closer +examination, that his fortitude was a negative, not a positive quality; +it was insensibility, not courage. He did not suffer, because he did not +feel. The emotional part of our nature he did not possess; at least, it +did not show itself in any of the forms which it usually takes,--in love +of country, or of kindred,--in the opinions which he professed, or in +the subjects which occupied his thoughts. The first act of his manhood +was to join in the resistance of his countrymen to foreign oppression. +But it was no love of liberty that urged him to arms. He went to the +camp at Cambridge from the mere love of adventure. The sacred spirit +which gave nobility to so many,--which transformed mechanics, +tradesmen, village lawyers, and plain country-gentlemen into statesmen, +philosophers, diplomatists, and great captains,--which united the +children of many races into one nation, and roused a simple people to +deeds of lofty heroism,--awakened no enthusiasm in him. He was in the +very flush of youth, yet to his most intimate friends he did not breathe +a word of even moderate interest in the cause for which he had drawn his +sword. His political life was passed during the first twenty years of +our national existence, when men's minds were exercised in the effort to +adapt one government to the various and apparently conflicting interests +of many communities widely separated by distance, climate, and ancient +differences; but these complicated and momentous subjects, so absorbing +to all thoughtful men, never weighed upon his mind. He was in Europe +when Napoleon was at the height of his power, when his armies swept +from the Danube to the Guadalquivir; but that strange story, which the +giddiest school-girl cannot read with divided attention, drew no remark +from his lips. It is said that he was fond of his daughter;--it was a +fondness of the head, not of the heart. He admired her because she was +beautiful and intelligent;--had she been plain and dull, he would not +have cared for her. He made no return for the affection, warm and +generous, which her noble heart lavished upon him, liberal as the +sunlight. Had that earnest love touched, for a single instant, a +responsive chord in his heart, he could never have written those foul, +foul words to make her blush at the record of her father's shame. +Nowhere does he express regret for the misfortunes which he brought +upon others,--the bereaved family of Hamilton,--the ruin of +Blennerhassett,--the victims of his passions and his ambition. He spoke +freely, as if they were indifferent matters, of things which most men +would have concealed. He laughed at his trial,--alluded to Hamilton as +"my friend Hamilton, whom I shot,"--and used to repeat some doggerel +lines upon the duel, which he had seen in a strolling exhibition. It is +said that he was courteous and amiable, and that he did many kind and +generous acts. His courtesy and amiability did not restrain him from +perfidy and debauchery; neither did he ever do a kind act when an unkind +one would have served his purposes better. + +As we have seen, Mr. Parton has described Aaron Burr as suited to many +very incongruous conditions in life. If we were to select an epoch in +history and a form of society for which he was best adapted, we should +place him in France daring the Regency and the reign of Louis XV. There, +where a successful _bon-mot_ established a claim to office, and a +well-turned leg did more for a man than the best mind in Europe, Burr +would have risen to distinction. He might have shone in the literary +circles at Sceaux, and in the _petits soupers_ at the Palais Royal. +Among the wits, the _littérateurs_, the fashionable men and women of +the time, he would have found society congenial to his tastes, and +sufficient employment for his talents. He would have exhibited in his +own life and character their vices and their superficial virtues, their +extravagance, libertinism, and impiety, their politeness, courage, +and wit. He might have borne a distinguished part in the petty +statesmanship, the intriguing diplomacy, and the wild speculations of +that period. But here, among the stern rebels of the Revolution and the +practical statesmen of the early Republic, this trickster and shallow +politician, this visionary adventurer and boaster of ladies' favors, was +out of place. He has given to his country nothing except a pernicious +example. The full light, which shows us that his vices may have +been exaggerated, shows likewise that his talents have surely been +overestimated. The contrast which gave fascination to his career is +destroyed; and for a partial vindication of his character he will pay +the penalty which he would most have dreaded, that of being forgotten. + + * * * * * + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + + +A lyric conception--my friend, the Poet, said--hits me like a bullet in +the forehead. I have often had the blood drop from my cheeks when it +struck, and felt that I turned as white as death. Then comes a creeping +as of centipedes running down the spine,--then a gasp and a great jump +of the heart,--then a sudden flush and a beating in the vessels of the +head,--then a long sigh,--and the poem is written. + +It is an impromptu, I suppose, then, if you write it so suddenly,--I +replied. + +No,--said he,--far from it. I said written, but I did not say _copied_. +Every such poem has a soul and a body, and it is the body of it, or the +copy, that men read and publishers pay for. The soul of it is born in an +instant in the poet's soul. It comes to him a thought, tangled in the +meshes of a few sweet words,--words that have loved each other from the +cradle of the language, but have never been wedded until now. Whether it +will ever fully embody itself in a bridal train of a dozen stanzas or +not is uncertain; but it exists potentially from the instant that the +poet turns pale with it. It is enough to stun and scare anybody, to have +a hot thought come crashing into his brain, and ploughing up those +parallel ruts where the wagon trains of common ideas were jogging along +in their regular sequences of association. No wonder the ancients made +the poetical impulse wholly external. [Greek: Maenin aeide, Thea], +Goddess,--Muse,--divine afflatus,--something outside always. _I_ never +wrote any verses worth reading. I can't. I am too stupid. If I ever +copied any that were worth reading, I was only a medium. + +[I was talking all this time to our boarders, you understand,--telling +them what this poet told me. The company listened rather attentively, I +thought, considering the literary character of the remarks.] + +The old gentleman opposite all at once asked me if I ever read anything +better than Pope's "Essay on Man"? Had I ever perused McFingal? He was +fond of poetry when he was a boy,--his mother taught him to say many +little pieces,--he remembered one beautiful hymn;--and the old gentleman +began, in a clear, loud voice, for his years,-- + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And spangled heavens,"---- + +He stopped, as if startled by our silence, and a faint flush ran up +beneath the thin white hairs that fell upon his cheek. As I looked +round, I was reminded of a show I once saw at the Museum,--the Sleeping +Beauty, I think they called it. The old man's sudden breaking out in +this way turned every face towards him, and each kept his posture as if +changed to stone. Our Celtic Bridget, or Biddy, is not a foolish fat +scullion to burst out crying for a sentiment. She is of the serviceable, +red-handed, broad-and-high-shouldered type; one of those imported female +servants who are known in public by their amorphous style of person, +their stoop forwards, and a headlong and as it were precipitous +walk,--the waist plunging downwards into the rocking pelvis at every +heavy footfall. Bridget, constituted for action, not for emotion, was +about to deposit a plate heaped with something upon the table, when I +saw the coarse arm stretched by my shoulder arrested,--motionless as the +arm of a terra-cotta caryatid; she couldn't set the plate down while the +old gentleman was speaking! + +He was quite silent after this, still wearing the slight flush on his +cheek. Don't ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his +forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand +trembles! If they ever _were_ there, they _are_ there still! + +By and by we got talking again.--Does a poet love the verses written +through him, do you think, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +So long as they are warm from his mind, carry any of his animal heat +about them, _I know_ he loves them,--I answered. When they have had time +to cool, he is more indifferent. + +A good deal as it is with buckwheat cakes,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. + +The last words, only, reached the ear of the economically organized +female in black bombazine.--Buckwheat is skerce and high,--she remarked. +[Must be a poor relation sponging on our landlady,--pays nothing,--so +she must stand by the guns and be ready to repel boarders.] + +I liked the turn the conversation had taken, for I had some things I +wanted to say, and so, after waiting a minute, I began again.--I don't +think the poems I read you sometimes can be fairly appreciated, given to +you as they are in the green state. + +----You don't know what I mean by the _green state?_ Well, then, I will +tell you. Certain things are good for nothing until they have been kept +a long while; and some are good for nothing until they have been long +kept and _used_. Of the first, wine is the illustrious and immortal +example. Of those which must be kept and used, I will name +three,--meerschaum pipes, violins, and poems. The meerschaum is but +a poor affair until it has burned a thousand offerings to the +cloud-compelling deities. It comes to us without complexion or flavor, +born of the sea-foam, like Aphrodite, but colorless as _pallida Mors_ +herself. The fire is lighted in its central shrine, and gradually the +juices which the broad leaves of the Great Vegetable had sucked up from +an acre and curdled into a drachm are diffused through its thirsting +pores. First a discoloration, then a stain, and at last a rich, glowing, +umber tint spreading over the whole surface. Nature true to her old +brown autumnal hue, you see,--as true in the fire of the meerschaum +as in the sunshine of October! And then the cumulative wealth of its +fragrant reminiscences! he who inhales its vapors takes a thousand +whiffs in a single breath; and one cannot touch it without awakening +the old joys that hang around it, as the smell of flowers clings to the +dresses of the daughters of the house of Farina! + +[Don't think I use a meerschaum myself, for _I do not_, though I have +owned a calumet since my childhood, which from a naked Pict (of the +Mohawk species) my grandsire won, together with a tomahawk and beaded +knife-sheath; paying for the lot with a bullet-mark on his right +cheek. On the maternal side I inherit the loveliest silver-mounted +tobacco-stopper you ever saw. It is a little box-wood Triton, carved +with charming liveliness and truth; I have often compared it to a figure +in Raphael's "Triumph of Galatea." It came to me in an ancient shagreen +case,--how old it is I do not know,--but it must have been made since +Sir Walter Raleigh's time. If you are curious, you shall see it any +day. Neither will I pretend that I am so unused to the more perishable +smoking contrivance, that a few whiffs would make me feel as if I lay +in a groundswell on the Bay of Biscay. I am not unacquainted with +that fusiform, spiral-wound bundle of chopped stems and miscellaneous +incombustibles, the cigar, so called, of the shops,--which to "draw" +asks the suction-power of a nursling infant Hercules, and to relish, the +leathery palate of an old Silenus. I do not advise you, young man, even +if my illustration strikes your fancy, to consecrate the flower of your +life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain +of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think for. I +have seen the green leaf of early promise grow brown before its time +under such Nicotian regimen, and thought the umbered meerschaum was +dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved.] + +Violins, too,--the sweet old Amati!--the divine Straduarius! Played on +by ancient maestros until the bow-hand lost its power and the flying +fingers stiffened. Bequeathed to the passionate young enthusiast, who +made it whisper his hidden love, and cry his inarticulate longings, and +scream his untold agonies, and wail his monotonous despair. Passed from +his dying hand to the cold _virtuoso_, who let it slumber in its case +for a generation, till, when his hoard was broken up, it came forth once +more and rode the stormy symphonies of royal orchestras, beneath +the rushing bow of their lord and leader. Into lonely prisons with +improvident artists; into convents from which arose, day and night, the +holy hymns with which its tones were blended; and back again to orgies +in which it learned to howl and laugh as if a legion of devils were shut +up in it; then again to the gentle _dilettante_ who calmed it down with +easy melodies until it answered him softly as in the days of the old +_maestros_. And so given into our hands, its pores all full of music; +stained, like the meerschaum, through and through, with the concentrated +hue and sweetness of all the harmonies that have kindled and faded on +its strings. + +Now I tell you a poem must be kept _and used_, like a meerschaum, or a +violin. A poem is just as porous as the meerschaum;--the more porous +it is, the better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is capable of +absorbing an indefinite amount of the essence of our own humanity,--its +tenderness, its heroism, its regrets, its aspirations, so as to be +gradually stained through with a divine secondary color derived from +ourselves. So you see it must take time to bring the sentiment of a +poem into harmony with our nature, by staining ourselves through every +thought and image our being can penetrate. + +Then again as to the mere music of a new poem; why, who can expect +anything more from that than from the music of a violin fresh from +the maker's hands? Now you know very well that there are no less than +fifty-eight different pieces in a violin. These pieces are strangers +to each other, and it takes a century, more or less, to make them +thoroughly acquainted. At last they learn to vibrate in harmony, and the +instrument becomes an organic whole, as if it were a great seed-capsule +that had grown from a garden-bed in Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides, the +wood is juicy and full of sap for fifty years or so, but at the end of +fifty or a hundred more gets tolerably dry and comparatively resonant. + +Don't you see that all this is just as true of a poem? Counting each +word as a piece, there are more pieces in an average copy of verses than +in a violin. The poet has forced all these words together, and fastened +them, and they don't understand it at first. But let the poem be repeated +aloud and murmured over in the mind's muffled whisper often enough, and +at length the parts become knit together in such absolute solidarity +that you could not change a syllable without the whole world's crying +out against you for meddling with the harmonious fabric. Observe, too, +how the drying process takes place in the stuff of a poem just as in +that of a violin. Here is a Tyrolese fiddle that is just coming to its +hundredth birthday,--(Pedro Klauss, Tyroli, fecit, 1760,)--the sap is +pretty well out of it. And here is the song of an old poet whom Neaera +cheated:-- + + "Nox erat, et coelo fulgebat Luna sereno + Inter minora sidera, + Cum tu magnorum numen laesura deorum + In verba jurubas mea." + +Don't you perceive the sonorousness of these old dead Latin phrases? Now +I tell you that every word fresh from the dictionary brings with it +a certain succulence; and though I cannot expect the sheets of the +"Pactolian," in which, as I told you, I sometimes print my verses, +to get so dry as the crisp papyrus that held those words of Horatius +Flaccus, yet you may be sure, that, while the sheets are damp, and while +the lines hold their sap, you can't fairly judge of my performances, and +that, if made of the true stuff, they will ring better after a while. + +[There was silence for a brief space, after my somewhat elaborate +exposition of these self-evident analogies. Presently _a person_ turned +towards me--I do not choose to designate the individual--and said that +he rather expected my pieces had given pretty good "sahtisfahction."--I +had, up to this moment, considered this complimentary phrase as sacred +to the use of secretaries of lyceums, and, as it has been usually +accompanied by a small pecuniary testimonial, have acquired a certain +relish for this moderately tepid and unstimulating expression of +enthusiasm. But as a reward for gratuitous services, I confess I thought +it a little below that blood-heat standard which a man's breath ought to +have, whether silent, or vocal and articulate. I waited for a favorable +opportunity, however, before making the remarks which follow.] + +----There are single expressions, as I have told you already, that fix +a man's position for you before you have done shaking hands with him. +Allow me to expand a little. There are several things, very slight in +themselves, yet implying other things not so unimportant. Thus, your +French servant has _dévalisé_ your premises and got caught. _Excusez_, +says the _sergent-de-ville_, as he politely relieves him of his upper +garments and displays his bust in the full daylight. Good shoulders +enough,--a little marked,--traces of smallpox, perhaps,--but +white....._Crac!_ from the _sergent-de-ville's_ broad palm on the white +shoulder! Now look! _Vogue la galère!_ Out comes the big red V--mark of +the hot iron;--he had blistered it out pretty nearly,--hadn't he?--the +old rascal VOLEUR, branded in the galleys at Marseilles! [Don't! What +if he has got something like this? nobody supposes I _invented_ such a +story.] + +My man John, who used to drive two of those six equine females which I +told you I had owned,--for, look you, my friends, simple though I stand +here, I am one that has been driven in his "kerridge,"--not using that +term, as liberal shepherds do, for any battered old shabby-genteel +go-cart that has more than one wheel, but meaning thereby a four-wheeled +vehicle _with a pole_,--my man John, I say, was a retired soldier. He +retired unostentatiously, as many of Her Majesty's modest servants have +done before and since. John told me, that when an officer thinks he +recognizes one of these retiring heroes, and would know if he has really +been in the service, that he may restore him, if possible, to a grateful +country, he comes suddenly upon him, and says, sharply, "Strap!" If he +has ever worn the shoulder-strap, he has learned the reprimand for its +ill adjustment. The old word of command flashes through his muscles, and +his hand goes up in an instant to the place where the strap used to be. + +[I was all the time preparing for my grand _coup_, you understand; but +I saw they were not quite ready for it, and so continued,--always in +illustration of the general principle I had laid down.] + +Yes, odd things come out in ways that nobody thinks of. There was a +legend, that, when the Danish pirates made descents upon the English +coast, they caught a few Tartars occasionally, in the shape of Saxons, +that would not let them go,--on the contrary, insisted on their staying, +and, to make sure of it, treated them as Apollo treated Marsyas, or as +Bartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in his title-page, and, having +divested them of the one essential and perfectly fitting garment, +indispensable in the mildest climates, nailed the same on the +church-door as we do the banns of marriage, _in terrorem_. + +[There was a laugh at this among some of the young folks; but as I +looked at our landlady, I saw that "the water stood in her eyes," as it +did in Christiana's when the interpreter asked her about the spider, and +that the school-mistress blushed, as Mercy did in the same conversation, +as you remember.] + +That sounds like a cock-and-bull-story,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet's remark to Horatio, and +continued. + +Not long since, the church-wardens were repairing and beautifying an +old Saxon church in a certain English village, and among other things +thought the doors should be attended to. One of them particularly, the +front-door, looked very badly, crusted, as it were, and as if it would +be all the better for scraping. There happened to be a microscopist in +the village who had heard the old pirate story, and he took it into his +head to examine the crust on this door. There was no mistake about it; +it was a genuine historical document, of the Ziska drum-head +pattern,--a real _cutis humarca_, stripped from some old Scandinavian +filibuster,--and the legend was true. + +My friend, the Professor, settled an important historical and financial +question once by the aid of an exceedingly minute fragment of a similar +document. Behind the pane of plate-glass which bore his name and title +burned a modest lamp, signifying to the passers-by that at all hours of +the night the slightest favors (or fevers) were welcome. A youth who +had freely partaken of the cup which cheers and likewise inebriates, +following a moth-like impulse very natural under the circumstances, +dashed his fist at the light and quenched the meek luminary,--breaking +through the plate-glass, of course, to reach it. Now I don't want to +go into _minutiae_ at table, you know, but a naked hand can no more go +through a pane of thick glass without leaving some of its cuticle, +to say the least, behind it, than a butterfly can go through a +sausage-machine without looking the worse for it. The Professor gathered +up the fragments of glass, and with them certain very minute but +entirely satisfactory documents which would have identified and hanged +any rogue in Christendom who had parted with them.--The historical +question, _Who did it_? and the financial question, _Who paid for it_? +were both settled before the new lamp was lighted the next evening. + +You see, my friends, what immense conclusions, touching our lives, +our fortunes, and our sacred honor, may be reached by means of very +insignificant premises. This is eminently true of manners and forms of +speech; a movement or a phrase often tells you all you want to know +about a person. Thus, "How's your health?" (commonly pronounced +haälth)--instead of, How do you do? or, How are you? Or calling your +little dark entry a "hall," and your old rickety one-horse wagon a +"kerridge." Or telling a person who has been trying to please you that +he has given you pretty good "sahtisfahction." Or saying that you +"remember of" such a thing, or that you have been "stoppin'" at Deacon +Somebody's,--and other such expressions. One of my friends had a little +marble statuette of Cupid in the parlor of his country-house,--bow, +arrows, wings, and all complete. A visitor, indigenous to the region, +looking pensively at the figure, asked the lady of the house "if that +was a statoo of her deceased infant?" What a delicious, though somewhat +voluminous biography, social, educational, and aesthetic in that brief +question! + +[Please observe with what Machiavellian astuteness I smuggled in +the particular offence which it was my object to hold up to my +fellow-boarders, without too personal an attack on the individual at +whose door it lay.] + +That was an exceedingly dull person who made the remark, _Ex pede +Herculem_. He might as well have said, "From a peck of apples you may +judge of the barrel." _Ex_ PEDE, to be sure! Read, instead, _Ex ungue +minimi digiti pedis, Herculem, ejusque patrem, matrem, avos et proavos, +filios, nepotes et pronepotes!_ Talk to me about your [Greek: dos pou +sto]! Tell me about Cuvier's getting up a megatherium from a tooth, +or Agassiz's drawing a portrait of an undiscovered fish from a single +scale! As the "O" revealed Giotto,--as the one word "moi" betrayed the +Stratford-atte-Bowe-taught Anglais,--so all a man's antecedents and +possibilities are summed up in a single utterance which gives at once +the gauge of his education and his mental organization. + +Possibilities, Sir?--said the divinity-student; can't a man who says +_Haöw?_ arrive at distinction? + +Sir,--I replied,--in a republic all things are possible. But the man +_with a future_ has almost of necessity sense enough to see that any +odious trick of speech or manners must be got rid of. Doesn't Sidney +Smith say that a public man in England never gets over a false quantity +uttered in early life? _Our_ public men are in little danger of this +fatal misstep, as few of them are in the habit of introducing Latin into +their speeches,--for good and sufficient reasons. But they are bound to +speak decent English,--unless, indeed, they are rough old campaigners, +like General Jackson or General Taylor; in which case, a few scars on +Priscian's head are pardoned to old fellows that have quite as many +on their own, and a constituency of thirty empires is not at all +particular, provided they do not swear in their Presidential Messages. + +However, it is not for me to talk. I have made mistakes enough in +conversation and print. "Don't" for doesn't,--base misspelling of Clos +Vougeot, (I wish I saw the label on the bottle a little oftener,)--and +I don't know how many more. I never find them out until they are +stereotyped, and then I think they rarely escape me. I have no doubt +I shall make half a dozen slips before this breakfast is over, and +remember them all before another. How one does tremble with rage at his +own intense momentary stupidity about things he knows perfectly well, +and to think how he lays himself open to the impertinences of the +_captatores verborum_, those useful but humble scavengers of the +language, whose business it is to pick up what might offend or injure, +and remove it, hugging and feeding on it as they go! I don't want to +speak too slightingly of these verbal critics;--how can I, who am so +fond of talking about errors and vulgarisms of speech? Only there is +a difference between those clerical blunders which almost every man +commits, knowing better, and that habitual grossness or meanness of +speech which is unendurable to educated persons, from anybody that wears +silk or broadcloth. + +[I write down the above remarks this morning, January 26th, making this +record of the date that nobody may think it was written in wrath, on +account of any particular grievance suffered from the invasion of any +individual _scarabaeus grammaticus_.] + +----I wonder if anybody ever finds fault with anything I say at this +table when it is repeated? I hope they do, I am sure. I should be very +certain that I had said nothing of much significance, if they did not. + +Did you never, in walking in the fields, come across a large flat stone, +which had lain, nobody knows how long, just where you found it, with the +grass forming a little hedge, as it were, all round it, close to its +edges,--and have you not, in obedience to a kind of feeling that told +you it had been lying there long enough, insinuated your stick or your +foot or your fingers under its edge and turned it over as a housewife +turns a cake, when she says to herself, "It's done brown enough by this +time"? What an odd revelation, and what an unforeseen and unpleasant +surprise to a small community, the very existence of which you had not +suspected, until the sudden dismay and scattering among its members +produced by your turning the old stone over! Blades of grass flattened +down, colorless, matted together, as if they had been bleached and +ironed; hideous crawling creatures, some of them coleopterous or +horny-shelled,--turtle-bugs one wants to call them; some of them softer, +but cunningly spread out and compressed like Lepine watches; (Nature +never loses a crack or a crevice, mind you, or a joint in a tavern +bedstead, but she always has one of her flat-pattern live timekeepers +to slide into it;) black, glossy crickets, with their long filaments +sticking out like the whips of four-horse stage-coaches; motionless, +slug-like creatures, larvae, perhaps, more horrible in their pulpy +stillness than even in the infernal wriggle of maturity! But no sooner +is the stone turned and the wholesome light of day let upon this +compressed and blinded community of creeping things, than all of them +that enjoy the luxury of legs--and some of them have a good many--rush +round wildly, butting each other and everything in their way, and end in +a general stampede for underground retreats from the region poisoned by +sunshine. _Next year_ you will find the grass growing tall and green +where the stone lay; the ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle +had his hole; the dandelion and the buttercup are growing there, and the +broad fans of insect-angels open and shut over their golden disks, as +the rhythmic waves of blissful consciousness pulsate through their +glorified being. + +----The young fellow whom they call John saw fit to say, in his very +familiar way,--at which I do not choose to take offence, but which I +sometimes think it necessary to repress,--that I was coming it rather +strong on the butterflies. + +No, I replied; there is meaning in each of those images,--the butterfly +as well as the others. The stone is ancient error. The grass is human +nature borne down and bleached of all its color by it. The shapes that +are found beneath are the crafty beings that thrive in darkness, and the +weaker organisms kept helpless by it. He who turns the stone over is +whosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying incubus, no matter +whether he do it with a serious face or a laughing one. The next year +stands for the coming time. Then shall the nature which had lain +blanched and broken rise in its full stature and native hues in the +sunshine. Then shall God's minstrels build their nests in the hearts of +a new-born humanity. Then shall beauty--Divinity taking outlines and +color--light upon the souls of men as the butterfly, image of the +beatified spirit rising from the dust, soars from the shell that held a +poor grub, which would never have found wings, had not the stone been +lifted. + +You never need think you can turn over any old falsehood without a +terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that +dwells under it. + +----Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of +somebody or other. As soon as his breath comes back, he very probably +begins to expend it in hard words. These are the best evidence a man +can have that he has said something it was time to say. Dr. Johnson was +disappointed in the effect of one of his pamphlets. "I think I have not +been attacked enough for it," he said;--"attack is the reaction; I never +think I have hit hard unless it rebounds." + +----If a fellow attacked my opinions in print, would I reply? Not I. Do +you think I don't understand what my friend, the Professor, long ago +called _the hydrostatic paradox of controversy?_ + +Don't know what that means?--Well, I will tell you. You know, that, if +you had a bent tube, one arm of which was of the size of a pipe-stem, +and the other big enough to hold the ocean, water would stand at the +same height in one as in the other. Controversy equalizes fools and wise +men in the same way,--_and the fools know it._ + +----No, but I often read what they say about other people. There are +about a dozen phrases that all come tumbling along together, like the +tongs, and the shovel, and the poker, and the brush, and the bellows, in +one of those domestic avalanches that everybody knows. If you get one, +you get the whole lot. + +What are they?--Oh, that depends a good deal on latitude and longitude. +Epithets follow the isothermal lines pretty accurately. Grouping them +in two families, one finds himself a clever, genial, witty, wise, +brilliant, sparkling, thoughtful, distinguished, celebrated, illustrious +scholar and perfect gentleman, and first writer of the age; or a +dull, foolish, wicked, pert, shallow, ignorant, insolent, traitorous, +black-hearted outcast, and disgrace to civilization. + +What do I think determines the set of phrases a man gets?--Well, +I should say a set of influences something like these:--1st. +Relationships, political, religious, social, domestic. 2d. Oysters; +in the form of suppers given to gentlemen connected with criticism. I +believe in the school, the college, and the clergy; but my sovereign +logic for regulating public opinion--which means commonly the opinion +of half a dozen of the critical gentry--is the following: _Major +proposition._ Oysters _au naturel. Minor proposition._ The same +"scalloped." _Conclusion._ That ---- (here insert entertainer's name) is +clever, witty, wise, brilliant,--and the rest. + +----No, it isn't exactly bribery. One man has oysters, and another +epithets. It is an exchange of hospitalities; one gives a "spread" on +linen, and the other on paper,--that is all. Don't you think you and I +should be apt to do just so, if we were in the critical line? I am sure +I couldn't resist the softening influences of hospitality. I don't like +to dine out, you know,--I dine so well at our own table, [our landlady +looked radiant,] and the company is so pleasant [a rustling movement of +satisfaction among the boarders]; but if I did partake of a man's +salt, with such additions as that article of food requires to make it +palatable, I could never abuse him, and if I had to speak of him, I +suppose I should hang my set of jingling epithets round him like a +string of sleigh-bells. Good feeling helps society to make liars of most +of us,--not absolute liars, but such careless handlers of truth that its +sharp corners get terribly rounded. I love truth as chiefest among the +virtues; I trust it runs in my blood; but I would never be a critic, +because I know I could not always tell it. I might write a criticism of +a book that happened to please me; that is another matter. + +----Listen, Benjamin Franklin! This is for you, and such others of +tender age as you may tell it to. + +When we are as yet small children, long before the time when those two +grown ladies offer us the choice of Hercules, there comes up to us a +youthful angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his +left spheres like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on +each is written in letters of gold--TRUTH. The spheres are veined and +streaked and spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above, where the +light falls on them, and in a certain aspect you can make out upon +every one of them the three letters L, I, E. The child to whom they +are offered very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most +convenient things in the world; they roll with the least possible +impulse just where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at +all; they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right +side up. But very soon the young philosopher finds that things which +roll so easily are very apt to roll into the wrong corner, and to get +out of his way when he most wants them, while he always knows where to +find the others, which stay where they are left. Thus he learns--thus we +learn--to drop the streaked and speckled globes of falsehood and to hold +fast the white angular blocks of truth. But then comes Timidity, and +after her Good-nature, and last of all Polite-behavior, all insisting +that truth must _roll_ or nobody can do anything with it; and so the +first with her coarse rasp, and the second with her broad file, and the +third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and smooth and polish the +snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they have got a little dingy by +use, it becomes hard to tell them from the rolling spheres of falsehood. + +The schoolmistress was polite enough to say that she was pleased with +this, and that she would read it to her little flock the next day. But +she should tell the children, she said, that there were better reasons +for truth than could be found in mere experience of its convenience and +the inconvenience of lying. + +Yes,--I said,--but education always begins through the senses, and works +up to the idea of absolute right and wrong. The first thing +the child has to learn about this matter is, that lying is +unprofitable,--afterwards, that it is against the peace and dignity of +the universe. + +----Do I think that the particular form of lying often seen in +newspapers, under the title, "From our Foreign Correspondent," does any +harm?--Why, no,--I don't know that it does. I suppose it doesn't really +deceive people any more than the "Arabian Nights" or "Gulliver's +Travels" do. Sometimes the writers compile too carelessly, though, and +mix up facts out of geographies, and stories out of the penny papers, so +as to mislead those who are desirous of information. I cut a piece +out of one of the papers, the other day, that contains a number of +improbabilities, and, I suspect, misstatements. I will send up and get +it for you, if you would like to hear it.--Ah, this is it; it is headed + +"OUR SUMATRA CORRESPONDENCE. + +"This island is now the property of the Stamford family,--having +been won, it is said, in a raffle, by Sir ---- Stamford, during the +stock-gambling mania of the South-Sea Scheme. The history of this +gentleman may be found in an interesting series of questions +(unfortunately not yet answered) contained in the 'Notes and Queries.' +This island is entirely surrounded by the ocean, which here contains a +large amount of saline substance, crystallizing in cubes remarkable for +their symmetry, and frequently displays on its surface, during calm +weather, the rainbow tints of the celebrated South-Sea bubbles. The +summers are oppressively hot, and the winters very probably cold; but +this fact cannot be ascertained precisely, as, for some peculiar reason, +the mercury in these latitudes never shrinks, as in more northern +regions, and thus the thermometer is rendered useless in winter. + +"The principal vegetable productions of the island are the pepper tree +and the bread-fruit tree. Pepper being very abundantly produced, a +benevolent society was organized in London during the last century for +supplying the natives with vinegar and oysters, as an addition to that +delightful condiment. [Note received from Dr. D.P.] It is said, however +that, as the oysters were of the kind called _natives_ in England, the +natives of Sumatra, in obedience to a natural instinct refused to touch +them, and confined themselves entirely to the crew of the vessel in +which they were brought over. This information was received from one +of the oldest inhabitants, a native himself, and exceedingly fond of +missionaries. He is said also to be very skilful in the _cuisine_ +peculiar to the island. + +"During the season of gathering the pepper, the persons employed are +subject to various incommodities, the chief of which is violent and +long-continued sternutation or sneezing. Such is the vehemence of +these attacks, that the unfortunate subjects of them are often driven +backwards for great distances at immense speed, on the well-known +principle of the aeolipile. Not being able to see where they are going, +these poor creatures dash themselves to pieces against the rocks or are +precipitated over the cliffs, and thus many valuable lives are lost +annually. As, during the whole pepper-harvest, they feed exclusively on +this stimulant, they become exceedingly irritable. The smallest injury +is resented with ungovernable rage. A young man suffering from the +_pepper-fever_, as it is called, cudgelled another most severely for +appropriating a superannuated relative of trifling value, and was only +pacified by having a present made him of a pig of that peculiar species +of swine called the _Peccavi_ by the Catholic Jews, who, it is well +known, abstain from swine's flesh in imitation of the Mahometan +Buddhists. + +"The bread tree grows abundantly. Its branches are well known to Europe +and America under the familiar name of _maccaroni_ The smaller twigs +are called _vermicelli_. They have a decided animal flavor, as may be +observed in the soups containing them. Maccaroni, being tubular is +the favorite habitat of a very dangerous insect, which is rendered +peculiarly ferocious by being boiled. The government of the island, +therefore, never allows a stick of it to be exported without being +accompanied by a piston with which its cavity may at any time be +thoroughly swept out. These are commonly lost or stolen before the +maccaroni arrives among us. It therefore always contains many of these +insects, which, however, generally die of old age in the shops, so that +accidents from this source are comparatively rare. + +"The fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of hot rolls. The +buttered-muffin variety is supposed to be a hybrid with the cocoa-nut +palm, the cream found on the milk of the cocoa-nut exuding from the +hybrid in the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is splitting, so +as to fit it for the tea-table, where it is commonly served up with +cold"---- + +----There,--I don't want to read any more of it. You see that many of +these statements are highly improbable.--No, I shall not mention the +paper.--No, neither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the style +of these popular writers. I think the fellow that wrote it must have +been reading some of their stories, and got them mixed up with his +history and geography. I don't suppose _he_ lies;--he sells it to the +editor, who knows how many squares off "Sumatra" is. The editor, +who sells it to the public----By the way, the papers have been very +civil--haven't they?--to the--the--what d'ye call it?--"Northern +Magazine"--isn't it?--got up by some of those Come-outers, down East, as +an organ for their local peculiarities. + +----The Professor has been to see me. Came in, glorious, at about twelve +o'clock, last night. Said he had been with "the boys." On inquiry, found +that "the boys" were certain baldish and grayish old gentlemen that one +sees or hears of in various important stations of society. The Professor +is one of the same set, but he always talks as if he had been out of +college about ten years, whereas..... .... [Each of these dots was a +little nod, which the company understood, as the reader will, no doubt.] +He calls them sometimes "the boys," and sometimes "the old fellows." +Call him by the latter title, and see how he likes it.--Well, he came in +last night, glorious, as I was saying. Of course I don't mean vinously +exalted; he drinks little wine on such occasions, and is well known to +all the Johns and Patricks as the gentleman that always has indefinite +quantities of black tea to kill any extra glass of red claret he may +have swallowed. But the Professor says he always gets tipsy on old +memories at these gatherings. He was, I forget how many years old when +he went to the meeting; just turned of twenty now,--he said. He made +various youthful proposals to me, including a duet under the landlady's +daughter's window. He had just learned a trick, he said, of one of "the +boys," of getting a splendid bass out of a door-panel by rubbing it with +the palm of his hand,--offered to sing "The sky is bright," accompanying +himself on the front-door, if I would go down and help in the chorus. +Said there never was such a set of fellows as the old boys of the set he +has been with. Judges, mayors, Congress-men, Mr. Speakers, leaders in +science, clergymen better than famous, and famous too, poets by the +half-dozen, singers with voices like angels, financiers, wits, three of +the best laughers in the Commonwealth, engineers, agriculturists,--all +forms of talent and knowledge he pretended were represented in that +meeting. Then he began to quote Byron about Santa Croce, and maintained +that he could "furnish out creation" in all its details from that set +of his. He would like to have the whole boodle of them, (I remonstrated +against this word, but the Professor said it was a diabolish good word, +and he would have no other,) with their wives and children, shipwrecked +on a remote island, just to see how splendidly they would reorganize +society. They could build a city,--they have done it; make constitutions +and laws; establish churches and lyceums; teach and practise the healing +art; instruct in every department; found observatories; create commerce +and manufactures; write songs and hymns, and sing 'em, and make +instruments to accompany the songs with; lastly, publish a journal +almost as good as the "Northern Magazine," edited by the Come-outers. +There was nothing they were not up to, from a christening to a hanging; +the last, to be sure, could never be called for, unless some stranger +got in among them. + +----I let the Professor talk as long as he liked; it didn't make much +difference to me whether it was all truth, or partly made up of pale +Sherry and similar elements. All at once he jumped up and said,-- + +Don't you want to hear what I just read to the boys? + +I have had questions of a similar character asked me before, +occasionally. A man of iron mould might perhaps say, No! I am not a man +of iron mould, and said that I should be delighted. + +The Professor then read--with that slightly sing-song cadence which is +observed to be common in poets reading their own verses--the following +stanzas; holding them at a focal distance of about two feet and a half, +with an occasional movement back or forward for better adjustment, the +appearance of which has been likened by some impertinent young folks +to that of the act of playing on the trombone. His eyesight was never +better; I have his word for it. + + + + +MARE RUBRUM. + + + Flash out a stream of blood-red wine!-- + For I would drink to other days; + And brighter shall their memory shine, + Seen flaming through its crimson blaze. + The roses die, the summers fade; + But every ghost of boyhood's dream + By Nature's magic power is laid + To sleep beneath this blood-red stream. + + It filled the purple grapes that lay + And drank the splendors of the sun + Where the long summer's cloudless day + Is mirrored in the broad Garonne; + It pictures still the bacchant shapes + That saw their hoarded sunlight shed,-- + The maidens dancing on the grapes,-- + Their milk-white ankles splashed with red. + + Beneath these waves of crimson lie, + In rosy fetters prisoned fast, + Those flitting shapes that never die, + The swift-winged visions of the past. + Kiss but the crystal's mystic rim, + Each shadow rends its flowery chain, + Springs in a bubble from its brim, + And walks the chambers of the brain. + + Poor Beauty! time and fortune's wrong + No form nor feature may withstand,-- + Thy wrecks are scattered all along, + Like emptied sea-shells on the sand;-- + Yet, sprinkled with this blushing rain, + The dust restores each blooming girl, + As if the sea-shells moved again + Their glistening lips of pink and pearl. + + Here lies the home of school-boy life, + With creaking stair and wind-swept hall, + And, scarred by many a truant knife, + Our old initials on the wall; + Here rest--their keen vibrations mute-- + The shout of voices known so well, + The ringing laugh, the wailing flute, + The chiding of the sharp-tongued bell. + + Here, clad in burning robes, are laid + Life's blossomed joys, untimely shed; + And here those cherished forms have strayed + We miss awhile, and call them dead. + What wizard fills the maddening glass? + What soil the enchanted clusters grew, + That buried passions wake and pass + In beaded drops of fiery dew? + + Nay, take the cup of blood-red wine,-- + Our hearts can boast a warmer glow, + Filled from a vintage more divine,-- + Calmed, but not chilled by winter's snow! + To-night the palest wave we sip + Rich as the priceless draught shall be + That wet the bride of Cana's lip,-- + The wedding wine of Galilee! + + + + +CHILD-LIFE BY THE GANGES. + + +We are told--and, being philosophers, we will amuse ourselves by +believing--that there are towns in India, somewhere between Cape Comorin +and the Himalayas, wherein everything is _butcha_,--that is, "a little +chap"; where inhabitants and inhabited are alike in the estate of +urchins; where little Brahmins extort little offerings from little dupes +at the foot of little altars, and ring little bells, and blow little +horns, and pound little gongs, and mutter little rigmaroles before +stupid little Krishnas and Sivas and Vishnus, doing their little wooden +best to look solemn, mounted on little bulls or snakes, under little +canopies; where little Brahminee bulls, in all the little insolence of +their little sacred privileges, poke their little noses into the little +rice-baskets of pious little maidens in little bazaars, and help their +little selves to their little hearts' content, without "begging your +little pardons," or "by your little leaves"; where dirty little fakirs +and yogees hold their dirty little arms above their dirty little heads, +until their dirty little muscles are shrunk to dirty little rags, and +their dirty little finger-nails grow through the backs of their dirty +little hands,--or wear little ten-penny nails thrust through their +little tongues till they acquire little chronic impediments in their +decidedly dirty little speech,--or, by means of little hooks through the +little smalls-of-their-backs, circumgyrate from little _churruck_-posts +for the edification of infatuated little crowds and the honor of horrid +little goddesses; where plucky little widows perform their little +suttees for defunct little husbands, grilling on little funeral piles; +where mangy little Pariah dogs defile the little dinners of little +high-caste folks, by stealing hungry little sniffs from sacred little +pots; where omnivorous little adjutant-birds gobble up little glass +bottles, and bones, and little dead cats, and little old slippers, and +bits of little bricks, in front of little shops in little bazaars; where +vociferous little _circars_ are driving little bargains with obese +little _banyans_, and consequential little _chowkedars_--that is, +policemen--are bullying inoffensive little poor people, and calling them +_sooa-logue_,--that is, pigs;--where--where, in fine, everything in +heathen human-nature happens _butcha_, and the very fables with which +the little story-tellers entertain the little loafers on the corners of +the little streets, are full of _little_ giants and _little_ dwarfs. Let +us pursue the little idea, and talk _butcha_ to the end of this chapter. + +When, in Calcutta, you have smitten the dry rock of your lonely life +with the magic rod of connubial love, and that well-spring of pleasure, +a new baby, has leaped up in the midst of your wilderness of exile, the +demonstration, if any, with which your servants will receive the glad +tidings, will depend wholly on the "denomination of the imbecile +offspring," as our eleëmosynary widow, Mrs. Diana Theodosia Comfort +Green, would call it. If it happen to be only a girl, there will be a +trace of pity in the silent salaam with which the grim _durwan_ salutes +you as you roll into your _palkee_ at the gate to proceed to the +_godowns_ where they are weighing the saltpetre and the gunny bags. +As he touches his forehead with his joined palms, he thinks of the +difference that color makes to the babivorous crocodiles of Ganges. +Perhaps your gray-beard circar, privileged by virtue of high caste +and faithful service, will take upon himself to condole with you: +"_Khodabund_" he will say, "better luck next time; Heaven is not always +with one's paternal hopes; let us trust that my lord may live to say it +might have been worse; let us pray that the _baba's_ bridal necklace may +be as gay as rubies and as light as lilies, and that she may die before +her husband." + +But if to the existing number of your _suntoshums_--the jewels that +hang on the Mem Sahib's bosom--a man-child is added, ah, then there is +merry-making in the verandas, and happy salaaming on the stairs; and in +the fulness of his Hindoo Sary-Gampness, which counts the Sahib blessed +that hath "his quiver full of sich," he says, _Ap-ki kullejee kaisa +burri ho-jaga! Khodá rukho ki beebi-ka kullejee bhee itni burri +hoga,--Gurreeb-purwan!_ "How large my lord's liver is about to grow! +God grant to the Mem Sahib, my exalted lady, a liver likewise large,--O +favored protector of the poor!" The happiness and honors which should +follow upon the birth of a male child being figuratively comprehended in +that enlargement of the liver whence comes the good digestion for which +alone life is worth the living. + +Many and grievous perils do environ baby-life by the Ganges,--perils of +_dry_ nurses, perils by wolves, perils by crocodiles, perils by the Evil +Eye, perils by kidnappers, perils by cobras, perils by devils. + +You are living at one of the up-country stations, where the freer air of +the jungle imparts to babes and sucklings a voracious appetite. Besides +your own _dhye_, brought from Calcutta, there is not another wet-nurse +to be had, for love or money. Immediately Dhye strikes for higher wages. +The Baba Sahib, she says, has defiled her rice; yesterday he put +his foot into her curry; to-day he washes the monkey's tail in her +consecrated lotah. What shall she do? she has lost caste; the presents +to the Brahmins, that her reinstatement will cost her, will consume all +her earnings from the beginning. _Gurreeb-purwan_, O munificent and +merciful! what shall she do? She strikes for higher wages.--But you are +hard-hearted and hard-headed; you will not pay,--by Gunga, not another +pice! by Latchtmee, not one cowry more!--Oh, then she will leave; with +a heavy heart she will turn her back on the blessed baby; she will pour +dust upon her head before the Mem Sahib, at whose door her disgrace +shall lie, and she will return to her kindred.--Not she! the durwan, +grim and incorruptible, has his orders; she cannot pass the gate. Oho! +then immediately she dries up; no "fount," and Baby famishing. You try +ass's milk; it does not agree with Baby; besides, it costs a rupee a +pint. You try a goat; she does not agree with Baby, for she butts him +treacherously, and, leaping over his prostrate body, scampers, like +Leigh Hunt's pig in Smithfield Market, up all manner of figurative +streets. Then you send for Dhye, and say, "Milk, or I shave your head!" +Milk or death! And, lo, a miracle!--the "fount" again!--Baby is saved. + +What was, then, the conjuration and the mighty magic? In the folds +of her _saree_ the _dhye_ conceals leaves of _chambeli_, the Indian +jessamine, roots of _dhallapee_, the jungle radish. She chews the +_chambeli_, and hungry Baby, struggling for the "fount," is insulted +with apples of Sodom; she swallows a portion of _dhallapee_, and he is +regaled as with the melting melons of Ceylon. + + * * * * * + +Some fine afternoon your _ayah_ takes your little Johnny to stroll by +the river's bank,--to watch the green budgerows, as they glide, pulled +by singing _dandees_ (so the boatmen of Ganges are called) up to +Patna,--to watch the brown corpses, as they float silently down from +Benares. At night the ayah returns, wringing her hands. Where is your +merry darling? She knows not. _O Khodabund_, go ask the evil spirits! O +Sahib, go cry unto Gunga,--go accuse the greedy river, and say to the +envious waters, "Give back my boy!" She had left him sitting on a stone, +she says, counting the sailing corpses, while she went to find him a +blue-jay's nest among the rocks; when she returned to the stone,--no +Jonnee Sahib! "My golden image, who hath snatched him away? He that +skipped and hummed like a singing-top, where is he gone?"--A month after +that, your dandees capture a crocodile, and from his heathen maw recover +a familiar coral necklace with an inscription on the clasp,--"To Johnny, +on his birth-day." A pair of little silver bangles, whose jocund +jingling had once been happy household music to some poor Hindoo mother, +have kept the necklace company. + + * * * * * + +Over against the gate of our compound the Baboo's walks are bright with +roses, and ixoras, and the creeping nagatallis; the Baboo's park is +shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and imposing with +tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains; and Chinna Tumbe, the +Little Brother, the brown apple of the Baboo's eye, plays among the +bamboos by the tank, just within the gate, and pelts the gold-fishes +with mango-seeds. Presently comes along a pleasant peddler, all the way +from Cabool, with a pretty bushy-tailed kitten of Persia in the hollow +of his arm, and a cunning little mungooz cracking nuts on his shoulder. +A score of tiny silver bells tinkle from a silken cord around Chinna +Tumbe's loins, and the silver whistle with which he calls his cockatoos +is suspended from his neck by a chain of gold. So the pleasant peddler +all the way from Cabool greets Chinna Tumbe merrily, saying, "See my +pretty kitten, that knows a hundred tricks! and see my brave mungooz, +that can kill cobras in fair fight! My Persian kitten for your silver +bells, Chinna Tumbe, and my cunning mungooz for your golden chain!" And +Chinna Tumbe laughs, and claps his hands, and dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. And the pleasant peddler all the +way from Cabool says, "Step without the gate, Little Brother, if you +would see my pretty kitten play tricks; if you would stroke my cunning +mungooz, step without the gate; for I dare not pass within, lest my +lord, the Baboo of many lacs, should be angry." So Chinna Tumbe steps +out into the road, and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool sets +the Persian kitten on the ground, and rattles off some strange words, +that sound very funnily to the Little Brother; and immediately the +Persian kitten begins to run round after its bushy tail, faster and +faster, faster and faster, a ring of yellow light. And Chinna Tumbe +claps his hands, and cries, _Wah, wah!_ and he dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. So the pleasant peddler addresses +other strange and funny words to the ring of yellow light, and instantly +it stands still, and quivers its bushy tail, and pants. Then the peddler +speaks to the cunning mungooz, which immediately leaps to the ground, +and sitting quite erect, with its broad tail curled over its back, like +a marabout feather, holds its paws together in the quaint manner of a +squirrel, and looks attentive. More of the peddler's funny conjuration, +and up springs the mungooz into the air, like a Birman's wicker +football, and, alighting on the kitten's back, clings close and fast. +Away fly kitten and mungooz,--away from the gate,--away from the Baboo's +walks, bright with ixoras and creeping nagatallis,--away from the +Baboo's park, shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and +imposing with tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains,--away +from the Baboo's home, away from the Baboo's heart, bereft thenceforth +forever! For Chinna Tumbe follows fast, crying, _Wah, wah!_ and clapping +his hands, and jingling gleefully all his silver bells,--follows across +the road, and through the bamboo hedge, and into the darkness and the +danger of the jungle; and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool +goes smiling after,--but, as he goes, what is it that he draws from +the breast of his dusty _coortee_? Only a slender, smooth cord, with a +slip-knot at the end of it. + +Within the twelvemonth, in a stony nullah, hard by a clump of crooked +saul-trees, a mile away from the Baboo's gate, some jackals brought to +light the bones of a little child; and the deep grave from which they +dug them with their sharp, busy claws, bore marks of the mystic pick-axe +of Thuggee. But there were no tinkling bells, no chain of gold, no +silver whistle; and the cockatoos and the goldfishes knew Chinna Tumbe +no more. + +When a name was bestowed on the Little Brother, the Brahmins wrote a +score of pretty words in rice, and set over each a lamp freshly trimmed, +and the name whose light burned brightest, with happy augury, was +"Chinna Tumbe." And when they had likewise inscribed the day of his +birth, and the name of his natal star, the proud and happy Baboo cried, +with a loud voice, three times, "Chinna Tumbe," and all the Brahmins +stretched forth their hands and pronounced _Asowadam_,--benediction. +Then they performed _arati_ about the child's head, to avert the Evil +Eye, describing mystic circles with lamps of rice-paste set on copper +salvers, with many pious incantations. But, spite of all, the Evil Eye +overtook Chinna Tumbe, when the pleasant peddler came all the way from +Cabool, with his bushy-tailed kitten, and his mungooz cracking nuts. + +They do say the ghost of Chinna Tumbe walks,--that always at midnight, +when the Indian nightingale fills the Baboo's banian topes with her +lugubrious song, and the weird ulus hoot from the peepul tops, a child, +girt with silver bells, and followed by a Persian kitten and a mungooz, +shakes the Baboo's gate, blows upon a silver whistle, and cries, so +piteously, "Ayah! Ayah!" + + * * * * * + +At Hurdwar, in the great fair, among jugglers and tumblers, horse-tamers +and snake-charmers, fakirs and pilgrims, I saw a small boy possessed +of a devil,--an authentic devil, as of yore, meet for miraculous +driving-out. In the midst of dire din, heathenish and +horrible,--dissonant jangle of zogees' bells, brain-rending blasts from +Brahmins' shells, strepent howling of opium-drunk devotees, delirious +pounding of tom-toms, brazen clangor of gongs,--a child of seven years, +that might, unpossessed, have been beautiful, sat under the shed of +a sort of curiosity-shop, among bangles and armlets, mouthpieces +for pipes, leaden idols, and Brahminical cords, and made infernal +faces,--his mouth foaming epileptically, his hair dishevelled and matted +with sudden sweat, his eyes blood-shot, his whole aspect diabolic. And +on the ground before the miserable lad were set dishes of rice mixed +with blood, carcasses of rams and cocks, handfuls of red flowers, and +ragged locks of human hair, wherewith the more miserable people sought +to appease the fell _bhuta_ that had set up his throne in that fair +soul. _Sack bat?_ It was even so. And as the possessed made spasmy fists +with his feet, clinching his toes strangely, and grinned, with his chin +between his knees, I solemnly wished for the presence of One who might +cry with the voice of authority, as erst in the land of the Gadarenes, +"Come out of the lad, thou unclean spirit!" + +At the Hurdwar fair pretty little naked girls are exposed for sale, and +in their soft brown innocence appeal at once to the purity of your mind +and the tenderness of your heart. They come from Cashmere with the +shawls, or from Cabool with the kittens, or from the Punjaub with the +arms and shields. + + * * * * * + +Very quaint are the little Miriams, Ruths, and Hannahs of the Jewish +houses in Bombay,--with their full trousers of blue satin and gold, +their boyish Fez caps of spangled red velvet, bound round with +party-colored turbans, their chin-bands of pearls, their coin chains, +their great gold bangles, and the jingling tassels of their long plaits. + +Less interesting, because formal and inanimate, even to sulkiness, +are the prim little Parsee maidens, who often wear an "exercised" +expression, of a settled sort, as though they were weary of reflecting +on the hollowness of the world, and how their dolls are stuffed with +sawdust, and that Dakhma, the Tower of Silence, is the end of all +things. + +Then there are the regimental _babalogue_, the soldiers' children, +sturdiest and toughest of Anglo-Indian urchins,--affording, in their +brown cheeks and crisp muscles and boisterous ways, a consoling contrast +to the oh-call-it-pale-not-fairness, and the frailness, and premature +pensiveness of the little Civil Service. + +And there is the half-caste child, the lisping chee-chee, or Eurasian, +grandiloquently so called, much given to sentimental minstrelsy, +juvenile polkas, early coquetry, and early beer, hot curries, loud +clothes, bad English, and fast pertness. I never think of them without +recalling a precocious ballad-screamer of eight years who was flourished +indispensably at every chee-chee hop in Chandernagore: + + "O lay me in a little pit, + With a marvle thtone to cover it, + And keearve thereon a turkle-dove, + That the world may know I died for love!" + +I left India in consequence of that child. + +But for the true Anglo-Indian type of brat, at all points a complete +"torn-down," "dislikeable and rod-worthy," as Mrs. Mackenzie describes +it, there is nothing among nursery nuisances comparable to the +Civil-Service child of eight or ten years, whose father, a "Company's +Bad Bargain," in the Mint, or the Supreme Court, or the Marine Office, +draws _per mensem_ enough to set his brat up in the usual servile +surroundings of such small despots. Deriving the only education it ever +gets directly from its personal attendants, this young monster of bad +temper, bad manners, and bad language becomes precociously proficient in +overbearing ways, and voluble in Hindostanee Billingsgate, before it has +acquired enough of its ancestral tongue to frame the simplest sentence. +It bullies its _bhearer_; it bangs distractingly on the tom-tom; it +surfeits itself to an apoplectic point with pish-pash; it burns its +mouth with hot curry, and bawls; it indulges in horrid Hindostanee +songs, whereof the burden will not bear translation; it insults whatever +is most sacred to the caste attachments of its attendants; the Moab of +ayahs is its wash-pot, over an Edom of bhearers will it cast out its +shoe; it slaps the mouth of a gray-haired _khansaman_ with its slipper, +and dips its poodle's paws in a Mohammedan _kitmudgar's_ rice; it +calls a learned Pundit an _asal ulu_, an egregious owl; it says to +a high-caste _circar_, "Shut up, you pig!" and to an illustrious +_moonshee_, "_Hi, toom junglee-wallah!_" Whereat its fond mamma, to whom +Bengalee, Hindostanee, and Sanscrit are alike sealed books of Babel, +claps the hands of her heart, and crying, _Wah, wah!_ in all the +innocence of her philological deficiency, blesses the fine animal +spirits of her darling Hastings Clive. + +"_Soono_, you _sooa_, _loom kis-wasti omara bukri_ not bring?" says +Hastings Clive, whose English is apt to figure among his Hindostanee +like Brahmins in a regiment of Sepoys,--that is, one Brahmin to every +twenty low-caste fellows. + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Wellesley dear, _do_ listen to that +darling Hastings Clive, how sweetly he prattles! What _did_ he say then? +If one could _only_ learn that delightful Hindostanee, so that one could +converse with one's dear Hastings Clive! _Do_ tell me what he said. + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough, of the Company's Bad Bargains_.--Literally +interpreted, my dearest Maud, our darling Hastings Clive sweetly +remarked, "I say, you pig, why in thunder don't you fetch my goat into +the parlor?" + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough, of the Hon. Mr. Wellesley Gough's Bad +Bargains_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +_Hastings Clive_.--_Jou_, you _haremzeada_! _Bukri na munkta, +nimuk-aram_! + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough_.--My love, he says now, "Get out, you +good-for-nothing rascal! I don't want that goat here." + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +What dreadful crime did you commit in another life, O illustrious +Moonshee, that you should fall now among such thieves as this horrid +Hastings Clive? + +"Sahib, I know not. _Hum kia kurrenge? kismut hi_: What can I do? it is +my fate." + +Hastings Clive has a queer assortment of pets, first of which are +the bushy-tailed Persian kittens, hereinbefore mentioned. When, in +Yankee-land, some lovelorn Zeekle is notoriously sweet upon any Huldy of +the rural maids,--when + + "His heart keeps goin' pitypat, + And hern goes pity Zeekle,"-- + +when she is + + "All kind o' smily round the lips, + And teary round the lashes,"-- + +it is usual to describe his condition by a feline figure; he is said +to "cuddle up to her like a sick kitten to a hot brick." But the sick +Oriental kitten, reversing the Occidental order of kitten things, +cuddles up to a water-monkey, and fondly embraces the refreshing +evaporation of its beaded bulb with all her paws and all her bushy tail. +The Persian kitten stands high in the favor of Hastings Clive. + +Hastings Clive has a whole array of parroquets and hill-mainahs, which, +as they learned their small language from his peculiar scurrilous +practice, are but blackguard birds at best. He also rejoices in many +blue-jays, rescued from the Ganges, whereinto they were thrown as +offerings to the vengeful Doorga during the barbarous _pooja_ celebrated +in her name. Very proud, too, is Hastings Clive of his pigeons,--his +many-colored pigeons from Lucknow, Delhi, and Benares; an Oudean +bird-boy has trained them to the pretty sport of the Mohammedan princes, +and every afternoon he flies them from the house-top in flashing flocks, +for Hastings Clive's entertainment. + +Hastings Clive has toys, the wooden and earthen toys for which Benares +was ever famous among Indian children,--nondescript animals, and as +non-descript idols,--little Brahminee bulls with bells, and artillery +camels, like those at Rohilcund and Agra,--Sahibs taking the air in +buggies, country-folk in hackeries, baba-logue in gig-topped ton-jons. +But much more various and entertaining, though frailer, are his Calcutta +toys, of paper, clay, and wax,--hunting-parties in bamboo howdahs, on +elephants a foot high, that move their trunks very cunningly,--avadavats +of clay, which flutter so naturally, suspended by hairs in bamboo cages, +that the cats destroy them quickly,--miniature palanquins, budgerows, +bungalows, and pagodas, all of paper,--figures in clay of the different +castes and callings, baboos, kitmudgars, washermen, barbers, +tailors, street-waterers, box-wallahs, (as the peddlers are called,) +nautch-girls, jugglers, sepoys, policemen, doorkeepers, dog-boys,--all +true to the life, in costume, attitude, and expression. + +Statedly, on his birth-day, the Anglo-Indian child is treated to a +_kat-pootlee nautch_, and Hastings Clive has a birth-day every time he +conceives a longing for a puppet-show; so that our wilful young friend +may be said to be nine years, and about nineteen kat-pootlee nautches, +old. + +To make a birth-day for Hastings Clive, three or four _tamasha-wallahs_, +or show-fellows, are required; these, hired for a few rupees, come from +the nearest bazaar, bringing with them all the fantastic apparatus of a +kat-pootlee nautch, with its interludes of story-telling and jugglery. +A sheet, or table-cloth, or perhaps a painted drop-curtain, expressly +prepared, is hung between two pillars in the drawing-room, and reaches, +not to the floor, but to the tops of the miniature towers of a silver +palace, where some splendid Rajah, of fabulous wealth and power, is +about to hold a grand _durbar_, or levee. All the people, be they +illustrious personages or the common herd, who assist in the ceremony, +are puppets a span long, rudely constructed and coarsely painted, but +very faithful as to costume and manners, and most dexterously played +upon by the invisible tamasha-wallahs, whom the curtain conceals. + +A silver throne having been wheeled out on the portico by manikin +bhearers, the manikin Rajah, attended by his manikin moonshee, and as +many manikin courtiers as the tamasha property-man can supply, comes +forth in his wooden way, and seats himself on the throne in wooden +state; a manikin _hookah-badar_, or pipe-server, and a manikin +_chattah-wallah_, or umbrella-bearer, take up their wooden position +behind, while a manikin _punkah-wallah_ fans, woodenly, his manikin +Highness, and the manikin courtiers dance wooden attendance around. Then +manikin ladies and gentlemen come on manikin elephants and horses and +camels, or in manikin palanquins, and alight with wooden dignity at the +foot of the palace stairs, taking their respective orders of wooden +precedence with wooden pomposities and humilities, and all the manikin +forms of the customary bore. The manikin courtiers trip woodenly +down the grand stairs to meet the manikin guests with little wooden +Orientalisms of compliment, and all the little wooden delicacies of +the season; and they conduct the manikin Sahibs and Beebees into +the presence of the manikin Rajah, who receives them with wooden +condescension and affability, and graciously reciprocates their wooden +salaams, inquiring woodenly into the health of all their manikin +friends, and hoping, with the utmost ligneous solicitude, that they have +had a pleasant wooden journey: and so on, manikin by manikin, to the +wooden end. Of course, much desultory tomtomry and wild troubadouring +behind the curtain make the occasion musical. + +The audience is complete in all the picturesqueness of mixed baba-logue. +In the front row, chattering brown ayahs, gay with red sarees and +nose-rings, sit on the floor, holding in their laps pale, tender +babies, fair-haired and blue-eyed, lace-swaddled, coral-clasped, and +amber-studded. Behind these, on high chairs, are the striplings of three +years and upward, vociferous and kicking under the hand-punkahs of +their patient bhearers. Tall fellows are these bhearers, with fierce +moustaches, but gentle eyes,--a sort of nursery lions whom a little +child can lead. On each side are small chocolate-colored heathens, in a +sort of short chemises, silver-bangled as to their wrists and ankles, +and already with the caste-mark on the foreheads of some of them,--shy, +demure younglings, just learning all the awful significance of the word +_Sahib_, who have been brought from mysterious homes by fond ayahs, and +smuggled in through back-stairs influence, or boldly introduced by the +durwan under the glorifying patronage of that terrible Hastings Clive. + +Back of all are Dhobee, the washerman, and Dirzce, the tailor, and +Mehter, the sweeper, and Mussalehee, the torch-boy, and Metranee, the +scullion,--and all the rest of the household riff-raffry. There is much +clapping of hands, and happy wah-wah-ing, wherefrom you conclude that +Hastings Clive's birth-day is at least one good result of his being born +at all. + +The Sahib baba-logue have a lively share in several of the native +festivals. The Hoolee, for instance, is their high carnival of fun, +when they pelt their elders and each other with the red powder of the +_mhindee_, and repel laughing assaults with smart charges of rose-water +fired from busy little squirts. During the illumination of the Duwallee, +they receive from the servants presents of fantastic toys, and search +in the compounds by moonlight for the flower of the tree that never +blossoms, and for the soul of a snake, whence comes to the finder good +luck for the rest of his life. + +These are the traditional sports of the baba-logue; but they are +ingenious in inventing others, wherein, from time to time, the imitative +faculty, of the native child especially, is tragically manifested. + +When the Nawab, Shumsh-ud-deen, was hung at Delhi for hiring a _sowar_ +to assassinate Mr. Fraser, the British Commissioner, the country +population round about were seized with the news as with the coming of +a dragon or a destroying army; and the British Lion was the Bogy, the +Black Douglas, in whose name poor _ryots'_ wives scared refractory brats +into trembling obedience. Not far from Delhi was a village school, where +were many small boys,--so many Asiatic frogs-in-a-well,--to whom "the +news of the day" was full of terrible portent. Once, when they were +tired of foot-ball, and the shuttlecock had grown heavy on their +hands, the cry was, "What shall we play next?" And one daring little +fellow--whose father had been to Delhi with his rent, and had told +how the Nawab met his _kismut_ (his fate) so quietly, that the +gold-embroidered slippers did not fall from his feet--cried, "Let us +play hanging the Nawab! and I will be the Nawab; and Kama, here, shall +be Kurreim Khan, the sowar; and Joota shall be Metcalfe Sahib, the +magistrate; and the rest of you shall be the sahibs, and the sepoys, and +the priests." + +_Acha, acha!_--"Good, good!" they all cried. "Let us play the Nawab's +kismut! let us hang the Nawab! And Mungloo--he that is more clever than +all of us--he that is cunning as a Thug--Mungloo shall be the Nawab!" + +So they began with the murder of the Commissioner; and he who personated +Kurreim Khan, the assassin, played so naturally, that he sent the +Commissioner screaming to his mother, with an arrow sticking in his +arm. Then they arrested Kurreim Khan, and his accomplice, Unnia, a +_mehwatti_, who turned king's evidence, and betrayed the sowar; and +having tried and condemned Kurreim Khan, they would have hung him on the +spot; but, being but a little fellow, he became alarmed at the serious +turn the sport was taking, although he had himself set so sharp an +example; so he took nimbly to his heels, and followed his young friend, +the Commissioner. + +Then Unnia told how the Nawab had paid Kurreim Khan blood-money, because +Shumsh-ud-deen did so hate Fraser Sahib. Whereupon Metcalfe Sahib, a +little naked fellow, just the color of an old mahogany table, sent his +sepoys and had the Nawab dragged, in all his ragged breech-cloth glory, +to the bar of Sahib justice. In about three minutes, the Nawab was +condemned to die,--condemned to be hung by an outcast sweeper. But, in +consideration of his exalted rank, they consented that he should wear +his slippers, and ride to the place of execution, smoking his hookah; +and Mungloo acknowledged the Sahib's magnanimity by proudly inclining +his head, like a true Nawab, with a dignified "_Acha!"_ Then two members +of the court-martial, who lived nearest at hand, ran home, and quickly +returned, one with his father's slippers, the other with his mother's +hubble-bubble; and having tied the slippers, that were a world too big, +on Mungloo's little feet, and lighted the hubble-bubble, that he +might smoke, they mounted him on a buffalo, captured from the village +_hurkaru_, who happened, just in the nick of time, to come riding by, on +his way to Delhi, with the mail. And they led out the prisoner, smoking +his hubble-bubble,--and looking, as Metcalfe Sahib said of the real +Nawab, "as if he had been accustomed to be hanged every day of his +life,"--to the place of execution, an old saul-tree with low limbs. +Then, having taken the rope with which the hurkaru's mail-bag was lashed +to his buffalo, they slipped a noose over the Nawab's head, made the +other end fast to the lower limb of the saul-tree, and led away the +buffalo. + +Little Mungloo, who was cunning as a Thug, acted with surprising talent; +in fact, some of the Sahibs thought he rather overdid his part, for he +dropped his hubble-bubble almost awkwardly, and even kicked,--which the +real Nawab had too much self-respect to do,--so that he sent one of +his slippers flying one way, and the other another. But he choked, and +gasped, and showed the whites of his eyes, and turned black in the face, +and shivered through all his frame, so very naturally, that his admiring +companions clapped their hands vehemently, and cried, _Wah, wah!_ with +all their little lungs. _Wah, wah!_ they screamed,--_Wah khoob tamasha +kurta hi! Phir kello, Mungloo! Bahoot ucchi-turri nuhkul, kurte ho +toom!_ "Bravo! Bravo! Such fun! Do it again, Mungloo,--do it again! it +takes you!" Certainly Mungloo did it to the life,--for he was dead. + + * * * * * + +To conclude now with a specimen of the tales with which the native +story-tellers entertain little heathens on street-corners. + +There was once a bastard boy, the son of a Brahmin's widow; and he was +excluded from a merry wedding-feast on account of his disgraceful birth. +With a heart full of bitterness, he prayed to Siva for comfort or +revenge; and Siva, taking pity on him, taught him the mystic _mantra_, +or incantation, called Bijaksharam,--_Shrum, hrim, craoom, hroom, hroo_. +So the boy went to the door of the apartment where the wedding guests +were regaling themselves and making merry; and he pronounced the mantra +backwards,--_Hroo, hroom, craoom, hrim, shrum_. Immediately the fish, +and the cucumbers, and the mangoes, and the pumplenoses took the shape +of toads, and jumped into the faces of the guests, and into their bosoms +and laps, and on the floor. Then the boy laughed so loud, that the +astonished guests knew it was he who had conjured them; so they went to +the door and let him in, and set him at the head of the table. Then the +boy was satisfied, and uttering the mantra aright, he conjured the toads +back into the dishes again; and they all lay down in their places, and +became fish, and cucumbers, and mangoes, and pumplenoses, just as if +nothing had happened. + +Glory to Siva! + + + + +MUSIC. + + +The promise of the autumn has not been fulfilled; instead of the +anticipated feasts, we have had but few concerts, and, as yet, no opera. +Some few noteworthy incidents have occurred, however, which we desire +to record. We pass over the ever welcome orchestral concerts, the quiet +pleasures of our delightful chamber music, and the inspiring four-part +singing of the Orpheus Club. Neither can we give the space to notice +fully the _début_ of a young singer,--a singer with a rare voice, full, +flexible, and sympathetic, and who, with culture in a _larger_ style, +and with maturity of power and feeling, will be a real acquisition to +our musical public. Few young performers know + + "How much grace, strength, and dignity lie in repose." + +They dazzle us with pyrotechnics in the finale of _Com' e bello_ or _Qui +la voce_, but the simple feeling of _Vedrai carino_ is beyond their +grasp. Firmly sustained tones, careful phrasing, flowing grace in the +melody, and just, dramatic expression, are the great requisites; without +them the brilliant flourishes of a modern cadenza astonish only for a +brief period. + +The appearance of Carl Formes in oratorio was something to be long +remembered. The Handel and Haydn Society brought out "Elijah" and "The +Creation" before immense audiences at the Music Hall. For the first +time we heard "Elijah" represented by a great artist, and not by a +sentimental, mock-heroic singer. He infused into the performance his own +intense personality. Every phrase was charged with his own feeling. +He thundered out the curses of Heaven upon idolaters; he prayed with +all-absorbing devotion to the "Lord God of Abraham"; he taunted the +baffled priests of Baal in grim and terrible scorn; he gently soothed +the anguish of the widow; and when his career was finished, he +reverently said, "It is enough; now take away my life!" The _music_ +we had heard before; we had been rapt many a time while hearing the +magnificent choruses; but we never had known the dramatic power of the +composer as shown in the principal rôle. + +"The Creation" was performed on the following evening. Its ever fresh +and cheerful melodies presented a fine contrast to the severely +intellectual style of "Elijah." In rendering purely melodic phrases, +Herr Formes was not so preëminent as in declamatory passages. Not always +strictly in tune, not specially graceful, slow in delivery, even beyond +the requirements of a dignified style, he impressed the audience rather +by the volume and richness of his tones and by a certain reserved force, +than by any unusual excellence in execution. Some one has said, that it +makes a great difference in the force of a sentence whether or not there +is a man behind it. This impression of a fulness of resources always +accompanied the efforts of Herr Formes; every phrase had meaning +or beauty, as he delivered it. Perhaps it is as idle to lament his +deficiencies, in comparison with artists like Belletti, for instance, +as to complain because the grand figures of Michel Angelo have not the +delicacy of finish that marks the sweetly insipid Venus de Medici. Of +the other solo performers in the oratorios it is not necessary for us to +speak, save to commend the fine voice and good style of Mrs. Harwood, a +rising singer, well known here, and whom the country, we hope, will know +in due time. + +Another concert demands our attention, in which portions of a work by an +American composer were submitted to the test of public judgment. This we +must consider the most important musical event of the season; for great +singers, though surely not common among our English race, have not +been unknown; the ability to interpret God gives freely,--the power to +create, rarely. In any generation, probably not ten men arise who +write new melodies; of these, only a small proportion have either the +intellectual power or the aesthetic feeling to combine the subtile +elements of music into forms of lasting beauty. Most of them are +influenced by prevailing mannerisms, and their music is therefore +ephemeral, like the taste to which it ministers. Of all the composers +that have lived, probably not more than six or eight have attained to +an absolutely classic rank. These few are not in relations with any +temporary taste; their music might have been written to-day or a century +ago, and it will be as fresh a century hence. No one of the arts has had +fewer great masters. A new composer, therefore, has a right to claim our +attention. If, perchance, we discover that he has the gift of genius, +and is not merely a clever imitator, we cannot rejoice too much. + +The work to which we allude is the opera "Omano,"--the libretto in +Italian by Signor Manetta, the music by Mr. L. H. Southard. We shall +not stop now to consider the question, whether American Art is to be +benefited by the production of operas in the Italian tongue; it is +enough to say, that, until we have native singers capable of rendering +a great dramatic work, singers who can give us in English the effects +which Grisi, Badiali, Mario, and Alboni produce in their own language, +we must be content with the existing state of things, and allow our +composers to write for those artists who can do justice to their +conceptions. We hope to live to hear operas in English; but meanwhile we +must have music, and, at present, the Italian stage is the only common +ground. + +Mr. Southard's opera is founded upon Beckford's Oriental tale, "Vathek," +with such alterations as are necessary to adapt it for representation. +We are told that the plot is full of dramatic situations, full of human +interest, and that its scenes appeal to all the faculties, ranging +through comedy, ballet, and melodrama, and leading to the awful Hall +of Eblis at last. The principal characters are the Caliph Omano, +_baritone_; Carathis, his mother, _mezzo soprano_; Hinda, a slave in his +harem, _soprano_; Rustam, her lover, _tenor_; and Albatros, _basso_, +a Mephistophelean spirit who tempts the Caliph on to his destruction. +Selections were made from this opera, and were performed by resident +artists, without the aid of stage effects or orchestral accompaniments. +Only the music was given, with as much of the harmony as could be played +on the grand piano by one pair of hands. There could be no severer test +than this. The music is generally Italian in form, especially in the +flowing grace of the _cantabile_ passages, and in the working up of the +climaxes. But we did not hear one of the stereotyped Italian cadenzas, +nor did we fall into old _ruts_ in following the harmonic progressions. +The orchestral figures--the framework on which the melodies are +supported--are new, ingenious, and beautiful. The duets, quartette, +and quintette show great command of resources and the utmost skill in +construction; we can hardly remember any concerted pieces in the modern +opera where the "working up" is more satisfactory, or the effect more +brilliant. How far the music exhibits an absolutely original vein of +melody, it is perhaps premature to say. No composer has ever been free +at first from the influence of the masters whom he most admired. To +mention no later instances, it is well known that Beethoven's early +works are all colored by his recollections of Mozart, and that his own +peculiar qualities were not clearly brought out until he had reached +the maturity of his powers. This seems to be the law in all the arts; +imitation first, self-development and originality afterwards. Happy +are those who do not stop in the first stage! It is certain that Mr. +Southard's music _pleased_, and that some of the most critical of the +audience were roused to a real enthusiasm. And it is to be borne in mind +that the music is cast in a grand mould; it has no prettiness; it is +either great in itself, or wears the semblance of greatness. On the +whole, we are inclined to think that the "Diarist" in Dwight's "Journal +of Music" was not extravagant in saying that no _first_ work since the +time of Beethoven has had so much of promise as the opera "Omano." We +shall look with great interest for its production upon the stage with +the proper accompaniments and scenic effects. It is due to the composer +that this should be done. If the music we heard had been performed by +a company of great artists in the Boston Theatre or in the Academy of +Music, it would have been received with tumultuous applause. The +singers on this occasion gained to themselves great credit by their +conscientious endeavors. They generously offered their services, and +sang with a heartiness that showed a warm interest in the work. One of +them, at least, Mrs. J. H. Long, would have established her reputation +as an accomplished artist, even if she had never appeared in public +before. + +We suppose our readers will agree with us in looking with eager delight +to the promise of a national school of music. Every nation must create +its own song. The passionate music of Italy electrifies our cooler +blood, but it does not adequately express all our feelings nor in any +way represent our character. We also find many of the compositions of +Germany so purely intellectual that they do not touch us until we have +_learned_ to like them. If we ever have a school of music, it will be in +harmony with our rapidly developing characteristics. But it must grow +up on our own soil; exotics never flourish long under strange skies. We +think that many things point to this country as the place where music +will achieve new triumphs. We are not bound by old traditions, we have +few prejudices to unlearn, and we are able to see merit in more than +one school. The same audience that becomes almost intoxicated with the +excitement of the Italian opera will listen with the fullest, serenest +pleasure to the majestic symphonies of Beethoven or to the sublime +choruses of Handel. The devotees of the various European schools have +none of this catholicity. A very accomplished Italian musician used +frankly to say, that a symphony always put him to sleep; and as for the +songs of Franz and other recent German composers, he would rather +hear the filing of saws with an accompaniment of wet fingers on a +window-pane. The Germans, on the other hand, have an equal contempt for +Italian music. For them, Donizetti is melodramatic, Bellini puerile +and silly, and even Rossini (who has written as many melodies as any +composer, save Mozart) is only fit to compose for hand-organs. The +American musical public can and do render to both schools the justice +they deny each other,--and this because we appreciate the aim and +direction of both. The tendency of modern German music is more and more +in what we might call a mathematical direction; the Teutonic listener +examines the structure of a movement as he would a geometrical +proposition; he notices the connection and dependence of the several +parts, and at the end, if he like it, he thinks Q.E.D.; his pleasure is +quiet, but sincere. The Italian, on the other hand, makes everything +subordinate to feeling; for him the music must sparkle with pleasure, +burn with passion, or lighten with rage; borne upon the tide of emotion, +the under-current of harmony is a matter of little moment; there may be +symmetry of structure, and learning in the treatment of themes; if so, +well; if not, their absence is not noticed as an essential defect. + +For lyrical purposes the Italian style will always take the precedence, +because music must primarily be addressed to the feelings. But it may +happen, if ever we have great composers here in America, that to the +instinctive grace and beauty of this Southern school the magnificent +orchestral effects of the North may be added, and thereby a grander +and more perfect whole be produced. At least, we can continue to be +eclectic, and in due time we may develope music which, like Corinthian +brass, shall contain the valuable qualities of all the elements we +appropriate. + + * * * * * + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Biography of Elisha Kent Kane_. By WILLIAM ELDER. Philadelphia: Childs +& Peterson. + +If Dr. Kane's character had not been free from any taint of imposture +and vainglory, and if his reputation had not been of that kind which can +be submitted to the austerest tests without being materially lessened, he +would have suffered much in having so frank and truthful a biographer as +Dr. Elder. Nobody could have been selected for the task who would have +worse performed the business of puffing, or the work of recognizing and +celebrating lofty traits of character and vigorous mental endowments +better. He is a friendly biographer,--and well he may be; for he +declares that his researches into Dr. Kane's private correspondence and +papers revealed not a line which, if published, would injure his fame. +It is, of course, impossible for so genuine a man as Dr. Elder to +refrain from hearty eulogium where not to praise is the sign of a +cynical rather than a critical spirit; but his panegyric has the +raciness and sincerity which proceed from the generous recognition of +merit, and never indicates that ominous falseness of feeling which the +simplest reader instinctively detects in the formal constructer of +complimentary sentences. Throughout the book, the biographer writes in +the spirit of that sound maxim which declares it to be as base to refuse +praise where it is due, as to give praise where it is not due; and we +think that few readers will be inclined to quarrel with him for the +quickness and depth of his sympathies with his hero, except that small +class of "knowing" minds who, mistaking disbelief in human probity for +acuteness of intellect, find a mischievous satisfaction in depressing +heroes into coxcombs, and resolving noble actions into ignoble motives. + +We have been especially interested in the account given of Dr. Kane's +boyhood and early life. As a boy, he had too much force, originality, +and decided bias of nature to be what is called a "good boy,"--one of +those unfortunate children whose weakness of individuality passes for +moral excellence, and who give their guardians so little trouble in +the early development and so much trouble in the maturity of their +mediocrity. He would not learn what he did not like, and what he felt +would be of no use to him. He kept his memory free from all intellectual +information which could not be transmuted into intellectual ability. The +same daring, confidence, enterprise, and passion for action, which in +after life made him an explorer, were first expressed in that love of +mischief which vexes the hearts of parents and calls into exercise the +pedagogue's ferule. All arbitrary authority found him a resolute little +rebel. Dr. Elder furnishes some amusing instances of his audacity and +determination. Though smaller than other boys of his age, he possessed +"the clear advantage of that energy of nerve and that sort of twill in +the muscular texture which give tight little fellows more size than they +measure and more weight than they weigh." At school he had under his +charge a brother, two years younger than himself, who was once called up +by the master to be whipped. This disturbed Elisha's notions of justice +and his conceptions of the duties of a guardian, and, springing from his +seat, he exclaimed, "Don't whip him, he's such a little fellow!--whip +me!" The master, interpreting this to be mutiny, which really was +intended for fair compromise, answered, "I'll whip you, too, Sir!" +Strung for endurance, the sense of injustice changed his mood to +defiance, and such fight as he was able to make quickly converted the +discipline into a fracas, and Elisha left the school with marks which +required explanation. + +In his eighteenth year he was prostrated by a disease which developed +into inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart, from which he +never recovered. The verdict of the physician was ever in his mind: "You +may fall at any time as suddenly as from [by] a musket-shot." His life +was afterwards, indeed, like the life of a soldier constantly under +fire. Instead of making him a valetudinary, this continual liability to +death aided to make him a hero. He acted in the spirit of his father's +advice,--"If you must die, die in harness." Dr. Elder proves that his +existence was prolonged by the hardihood which made him careless of +death. "The current of his life shows convincingly that incessant toil +and exposure was [were] a sound hygienic policy in his case. Naturally +his physical constitution was a case of coil springs, compacted till +they quivered with their own mobility; nervous disease had added its +irritability, and mental energy electrified them. It was doing or dying, +with him. And it was not a tyrant selfishness, a wild ambition, that +ruled his life, but a rare concurrence of mental aptitude, moral +impulse, and bodily necessity, that kept him incessant in adventure." +Nothing could damp this ardor. He contracted the peculiar disease of +every country and climate he visited, and was frequently on what seemed +his death-bed; but no experience of physical misery had any influence +in blunting his intellectual curiosity or impairing the energies of his +will. One of those elastic natures "who ever with a frolic welcome take +the thunder or the sunshine," his whole existence was wedded to action, +and he was always ready to suffer everything, if he could thereby do +anything. + +We have no space to follow Dr. Elder in his minute and interesting +account of a life so short, yet so crowded with events, as that in which +the character of Dr. Kane was formed, manifested, and matured. The +character itself--so gentle and so persistent, so full at once of +self-reliance and reliance on Providence, so tender in affection and so +indomitable in fortitude--is now one of the moral possessions of the +country, worth more to it than any new invention which increases +its industrial productiveness or any new province which adds to its +territorial dominion. That must be a low view of utility which excludes +such a character from its list of useful things; for the great interest +of every nation is, to cherish and value whatever tends to prevent its +forces of intelligence and conscience from being weakened by idleness or +withheld by timidity and self-distrust; and certainly the example of Dr. +Kane will exert this wholesome influence, by the unmistakable directness +with which it gives the lie to that lazy or cowardly skepticism of the +powers of the will, which furnishes the excuse for thousands to slink +away from duty on the plea of inability to perform it. To the young men +of the country we especially commend this biography, in the full belief +that it will stimulate and stir to effort many a sensitive youth who +feels within himself the capacity to emulate the spirit which prompted +Dr. Kane's actions, if he cannot hope to rival their splendor and +importance. + + +_Beatrice Cenci_: A Historical Novel of the Sixteenth Century, by F.D. +GUERRAZZI. Translated from the Italian by Luigi Monti, A.M., Instructor +of Italian at Harvard University, Cambridge. New York: Rudd & Carleton, +310 Broadway. 1858. Two vols. in one. pp. 270 and 202. + +Three contemporary Italians, Mariotti, (Gallenga,) Mazzini, and Ruffini, +have afforded extraordinary examples of entire mastery over the English +language in original composition, and Mr. Monti has attained an almost +equal success in the translation before us. We have remarked, +in reading it, a few solecisms and one or two trifling +mistranslations,--but none of them such as either to affect the +essential integrity of the version or to render it difficult for the +least intelligent reader to make out clearly the sense of the original. +We should not have alluded to them at all, had we not thought that they +redounded rather to the credit of the translator; for they seem to prove +that the work is entirely his own, and has not been subjected to that +supervision which any one of Mr. Monti's numerous friends would have +been glad to offer. + +Guerrazzi, the author of the book, played a conspicuous part during the +Italian Revolution of 1848-9. An advocate, we believe, by profession, +he was one of the chiefs of the moderate liberal party in Tuscany, who, +after the breaking out of the Revolution, wished to avoid any sudden +overturn by carrying out such reforms as public sentiment demanded by +means of the existing powers and forms of government. As head of the +ministry called to inaugurate and administer the new Constitution +granted and sworn to by the Grand Duke, he became involuntarily the +Regent and in fact the Dictator of Tuscany, after the Grand Duke's +treacherous flight to Santo Stefano. There is no evidence that he abused +his power, or that he assumed any responsibilities not forced upon him +by the necessities of his position. Indeed, the best proof that he +did not is, that, after the Grand Duke had been forced again on his +unwilling subjects by the bayonets of his Austrian cousins, it was found +impossible to obtain Guerrazzi's conviction on a charge of high treason, +and that in a city garrisoned by Austrian soldiers and still under +martial law. He was, however, incarcerated for several years before +being brought to trial, and finally sentenced to fifteen years' +imprisonment. But even this was such an outrage on public opinion that +it was commuted to banishment. He is now living in exile near Genoa, +and enjoying those blessings of constitutional government which he had +desired to confer on his own country, and which we fervently hope may +survive the misguided assaults of a fanatic liberalism, and continue to +make Sardinia the centre of Italian hope, as it is the van of Italian +progress. + +His "Beatrice Cenci" was written during his imprisonment; and there is +something fitting in the circumstance, that the work of an exile should +be translated by a countryman also driven from his native land in +consequence of his devotion to the idea of liberal and constitutional +government, and, like the author, sustaining himself unrepiningly by a +dignified and useful industry. It was also peculiarly fitting that the +translation should have appeared just at the moment when the genius of +Miss Hosmer had renewed the interest of her countrymen in the story of +Beatrice, and deepened their compassion for her undeserved misfortunes +by a statue so full of pathos and power. + +Guerrazzi belongs to the extreme left of the school of historical +novelists. He is almost always at high pressure, and, in spite of +a certain force of thought and expression, is tinged decidedly and +sometimes unpleasantly with sentimentalism. He is so little of +an artist, that the story-teller is subordinated in him to the +propagandist, and his work is not so near his heart as the desire to +make a strong argument against the temporal power of the Papacy. He +interrupts his narrative too often with reflection and disquisition, +shows too much that fondness for the striking which is fatal to the +classic in expression, and rushes out of his way at a highly-colored +simile as certainly as a bull at scarlet. His characters talk much, and +yet develope themselves rather circumstantially than psychologically. + +Yet, in spite of these defects, Guerrazzi has succeeded in so +intensifying the high lights and deep shadows of passion, pathos, +and horror in the story, as to make a very effective picture, of the +Caravaggio school. There is a curious parallel between the chapter where +Count Cenci is imprisoned in the cavern, and those scenes in Webster's +"Duchess of Malfy" where the Duchess is tortured by her brothers. The +resemblance is interesting on many accounts, and serves to confirm us in +a belief we have long entertained that Webster's peculiar power has been +overrated, and that the tendency to heap one nightmare horror on another +is something characteristic rather of the childhood than the maturity +of genius. There is no modern story which renews for us the woes of the +house of Tantalus so awfully as this of the Cenci, and it cannot fail +to be of absorbing interest, especially to those unfamiliar with its +ghastly details. Whether the theory which Guerrazzi assumes in order to +render probable the innocence of the Cenci be tenable or not we shall +not stop to discuss; it is enough that it serves to heighten the romance +and complicate the plot in a very effective manner. + +We cannot leave the book without saying how much we were charmed with +the little episode of the old curate and his maid, and his ass Marco. +It seems to us that Guerrazzi in this chapter has come nearer to the +simplicity of nature than in any other part of the book, and we augur +favorably from it for his future escape from the perils of a too +ambitious style to the serenity of truer artistic development. + +Of Mr. Monti's translation we can speak in high terms of commendation. +Success in writing a foreign language is a rare thing, and he has shown +a remarkable command of idiomatic expression. His familiarity with the +habits and proverbial phrases of his native country gives him, we +think, an advantage over any English translator, which more than +counterbalances the trifling inaccuracies of phraseology that here and +there betray the foreigner, and amount to nothing more than an accent, +which is not without its merit of piquancy. In one respect we think he +has acted with great discretion, namely, in now and then curtailing +the reflections which Guerrazzi has interpolated upon the story to +the manifest detriment of its interest and consecutiveness. If Signor +Guerrazzi should profit by these silent criticisms, it would be to his +advantage as an author. + + +_The Elements of Drawing; in three Letters to Beginners._ By JOHN RUSKIN. +With Illustrations drawn by the Author. 12mo. London. 1857. + +The art of drawing may be called the art of learning to see,--and into +this art there is no guide to be compared with Mr. Ruskin. His own +admirable powers of sight and of expression have been cultivated by +long, patient, and laborious study. + +He has learned not only how to see, but what to see, and how best to +represent what he sees. A teacher of the most advanced students of Art +and Nature, he offers himself now as a teacher of beginners; and this +little book of his contains a course of instruction admirably adapted +not only to teach drawing, but also to teach the object and end for +which it is worth while to learn to draw. "I would rather teach +drawing," says Mr. Ruskin, in his Preface, "that my pupils may learn to +love Nature, than teach the looking at Nature that they may learn +to draw." And no one can study Mr. Ruskin's book without gaining a +profounder sense of the infinite beauty and variety of Nature, and of +the unfathomable stores of her freely lavished riches,--or without +acquiring clearer perceptions of this beauty, and of its relations to +the Divine government and order of the world. + +Mr. Ruskin's book is essentially a practical one. His long experience as +teacher of drawing in the Working-Men's College has given him knowledge +of and sympathy with the perplexities and difficulties of beginners. +It is a book for children of twelve or fourteen years old; and it is +especially fitted for circulation in district and school libraries. All +teachers of schools, in which drawing forms a part of the course, will +find invaluable hints and directions in it. In every case, the +English edition--which is easily obtainable, and at a very moderate +price--should be procured, not merely for the sake of the original +illustrations, but also as a mark of respect and gratitude to the +author. + +In an Appendix containing many wise and genial directions with regard to +"Things to be studied" is a passage concerning Books, which we quote for +its coincidence of opinion with our own views expressed in the January +Number, and for the sake of enforcing its recommendations. + +"I cannot, of course, suggest the choice of your library to you; every +several mind needs different books; but there are some books which +we all need; and assuredly, if you read Homer,[A] Plato, Aeschylus, +Herodotus Dante,[B] Shakspeare, and Spenser, as much as you ought, you +will not require wide enlargement of shelves to right and left of them +for purposes of perpetual study. Among modern books, avoid generally +magazine and review literature,[C] Sometimes it may contain a useful +abridgment or a wholesome piece of criticism; but the chances are ten to +one it will either waste your time or mislead you.... Avoid especially +that class of literature which has a knowing tone; it is the most +poisonous of all. Every good book, or piece of book, is full of +admiration and awe; it may contain firm assertion or stern satire, but +it never sneers coldly nor asserts haughtily, and it always leads you to +reverence or love something with your whole heart.... A common book will +often give you much amusement, but it is only a noble book which will +give you dear friends. Remember, also, that it is of less importance to +you, in your earlier years, that the books you read should be clever, +than that they should be right; I do not mean oppressively or +repulsively instructive, but that the thoughts they express should be +just, and the feelings they excite generous. It is not necessary for +you to read the wittiest or the most suggestive books; it is better, +in general, to hear what is already known and may be simply said.... +Certainly at present, and perhaps through all your life, your teachers +are wisest when they make you content in quiet virtue, and that +literature and art are best for you which point out, in common life and +familiar things, the objects for hopeful Labor and for humble love." pp. +847-350. + +[Footnote A: Chapman's, if not the original.] + +[Footnote B: Cary's or Cayley's, if not the original. I do not know +which are the best translations of Plato. Herodotus and Aeschylus can +only be read in the original. It may seem strange that I name books like +these for "beginners"; but all the greatest books contain food for all +ages; and an intelligent and rightly bred youth or girl ought to enjoy +much, even in Plato, by the time they are fifteen or sixteen.] + +[Footnote C: _The Atlantic Monthly_ was not in existence when Mr. +Ruskin wrote this condemnation of magazines. The saving word for it is +"generally."--EDITOR.] + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, +March, 1858, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12373 *** 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..55225c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12373 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12373) diff --git a/old/12373-8.txt b/old/12373-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a456fcf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12373-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8776 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858, 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. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 18, 2004 [EBook #12373] +[Date last updated: May 21, 2005] + +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. I--MARCH, 1858.--NO. V. + + * * * * * + + +THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. + + + --------parti elette + Di Roma, che son state cimitero + Alla milizia che Pietro seguette. + + PARADISO, c. ix. + +"Roma Sotterranea,"--the underground Rome of the dead,--the buried city +of graves. Sacred is the dust of its narrow streets. Blessed were those +who, having died for their faith, were laid to rest in its chambers. +_In pace_ is the epitaph that marks the places where they lie. +_In pace_ is the inscription which the imagination reads over the +entrance to the Christian Catacombs. + +Full as the upper city is of great and precious memories, it possesses +none greater and more precious than those which belong to the city under +ground. Republican Rome had no braver heroes than Christian Rome. The +ground and motives of action were changed, but the courage and devotion +of earlier times did not surpass the courage and devotion of later +days,--while a new spirit displayed itself in new and unexampled deeds, +and a new and brighter glory shone from them over the world. But, +unhappily, the stories of the early Christian centuries were taken +possession of by a Church which has sought in them the means of +enhancing her claims and increasing her power; mingling with them +falsehoods and absurdities, cherishing the wildest and most unnatural +traditions, inventing fictitious miracles, dogmatizing on false +assertions, until reasonable and thoughtful religious men have turned +away from the history of the first Christians in Rome with a sensation +of disgust, and with despair at the apparently inextricable confusion of +fact and fable concerning them. + +But within a few years the period to which these stories belong has +begun to be investigated with a new spirit, even at Rome itself, and in +the bosom of the Roman Church. It was no unreasonable expectation, that, +from a faithful and honest exploration of the catacombs, and examination +of the inscriptions and works of art in them or derived from them, more +light might be thrown upon the character, the faith, the feeling, and +the life of the early Christians at Rome, than from any other source +whatever. Results of unexpected interest have proved the justness of +this expectation. + +These results are chiefly due to the labors of two Romans, one a priest +and the other a layman, the Padre Marchi, and the Cavaliere de Rossi, +who have devoted themselves with the utmost zeal and with great ability +to the task of exploration. The present Pope, stimulated by the efforts +of these scholars, established some years since a Commission of Sacred +Archeology for the express purpose of forwarding the investigations +in the catacombs; and the French government, soon after its military +occupation of Rome, likewise established a commission for the purpose of +conducting independent investigations in the same field.[A] + +[Footnote A: In 1844, Padre Marchi published a series of numbers, +seventeen in all, of a work entitled _Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane +Primitive nella Metropol del Cristianesmo_. The numbers are in quarto, +and illustrated by many carefully executed plates. The work was never +completed; but it contains a vast amount of important information, +chiefly the result of Padre Marchi's own inquiries. The Cavaliere de +Rossi, still a young man, one of the most learned and accomplished +scholars of Italy, is engaged at present in editing all the Christian +inscriptions of the first six centuries. No part of this work has yet +appeared. He is the highest living authority on any question regarding +the catacombs. The work of the French Commission has been published at +Paris in the most magnificent style, in six imperial folio volumes, +under the title, _Catacombes de Rome_, etc., etc. _Par_ LOUIS PERRET. +_Ouvrage publié par Ordre et aux Frais du Gouvernement, sous la +Direction d'une Commission composée de_ MM. AMPERE, INGRES, MERIMÉE, +VITET. It consists of four volumes of elaborate colored plates of +architecture, mural paintings, and all works of art found in the +catacombs, with one volume of inscriptions, reduced in fac-simile from +the originals, and one volume of text. The work is of especial value as +regards the first period of Christian Art. Its chief defect is the want +of entire accuracy, in some instances, in its representations of the +mural paintings,--some outlines effaced in the original being filled out +in the copy, and some colors rendered too brightly. But notwithstanding +this defect, it is of first importance in illustrating the hitherto very +obscure history and character of early Christian Art.] + +The Roman catacombs consist for the most part of a subterranean +labyrinth of passages, cut through the soft volcanic rock of the +Campagna, so narrow as rarely to admit of two persons walking abreast +easily, but here and there on either side opening into chambers of +varying size and form. The walls of the passages, through their whole +extent, are lined with narrow excavations, one above another, large +enough to admit of a body being placed in each; and where they remain +in their original condition, these excavations are closed in front by +tiles, or by a slab of marble cemented to the rock, and in most cases +bearing an inscription. Nor is the labyrinth composed of passages upon a +single level only; frequently there are several stories, connected with +each other by sloping ways. + +There is no single circumstance, in relation to the catacombs, of more +striking and at first sight perplexing character than their vast extent. +About twenty different catacombs are now known and are more or less +open,--and a year is now hardly likely to pass without the discovery +of a new one; for the original number of underground cemeteries, as +ascertained from the early authorities, was nearly, if not quite, three +times this number. It is but a very few years since the entrance to the +famous catacomb of St. Callixtus, one of the most interesting of all, +was found by the Cavaliere de Rossi; and it was only in the spring +of 1855 that the buried church and catacomb of St. Alexander on the +Nomentan Way were brought to light. Earthquakes, floods, and neglect +have obliterated the openings of many of these ancient cemeteries,--and +the hollow soil of the Campagna is full "of hidden graves, which men +walk over without knowing where they are." + +Each of the twelve great highways which ran from the gates of Rome was +bordered on either side, at a short distance from the city wall, by the +hidden Christian cemeteries. The only one of the catacombs of which even +a partial survey has been made is that of St. Agnes, of a portion of +which the Padre Marchi published a map in 1845. "It is calculated to +contain about an eighth part of that cemetery. The greatest length of +the portion thus measured is not more than seven hundred feet, and its +greatest width about five hundred and fifty; nevertheless, if we measure +all the streets that it contains, their united length scarcely falls +short of two English miles. This would give fifteen or sixteen miles for +all the streets in the cemetery of St. Agnes."[B] Taking this as a fair +average of the size of the catacombs, for some are larger and some +smaller, we must assign to the streets of graves already known a total +length of about three hundred miles, with a probability that the unknown +ones are at least of equal length. This conclusion appears startling, +when one thinks of the close arrangement of the lines of graves along +the walls of these passages. The height of the passages varies greatly, +and with it the number of graves, one above another; but the Padre +Marchi, who is competent authority, estimates the average number at ten, +that is, five on each side, for every seven feet,--which would give a +population of the dead, for the three hundred miles, of not less than +two millions and a quarter. No one who has visited the catacombs can +believe, surprising as this number may seem, that the Padre Marchi's +calculation is an extravagant one as to the number of graves in a given +space. We have ourselves counted eleven graves, one over another, on +each side of the passage, and there is no space lost between the head +of one grave and the foot of another. Everywhere there is economy of +space,--the economy of men working on a hard material, difficult to be +removed, and laboring in a confined space, with the need of haste. + +[Footnote B: The foregoing extract is taken from a book by the Rev. J. +Spencer Northcote, called _The Roman Catacombs, or some Account of the +Burial-Places of the Early Christians in Rome_: London, 1857. It is the +best accessible manual in English,--the only one with any claims to +accuracy, and which contains the results of recent investigations. Mr. +Northcote is one of the learned band of converts from Oxford to Rome. A +Protestant may question some of the conclusions in his book, but not its +general fairness. Our own first introduction to the catacombs, in the +winter of 1856, was under Mr. Northcote's guidance, and much of our +knowledge of them was gained through him. Mr. Northcote estimates the +total length of the catacombs at nine hundred miles; we cannot but think +this too high.] + +This question of the number of the dead in the catacombs opens the way +to many other curious questions. The length of time that the catacombs +were used as burial-places; the probability of others, beside +Christians, being buried in them; the number of Christians at Rome +during the first two centuries, in comparison with the total number +of the inhabitants of the city; and how far the public profession +of Christianity was attended with peril in ordinary times at Rome, +previously to the conversion of Constantine, so as to require secret and +hasty burial of the dead;--these are points demanding solution, but of +which we will take up only those relating immediately to the catacombs. + +There can, of course, be no certainty with regard to the period when the +first Christian catacomb was begun at Rome,--but it was probably +within a few years after the first preaching of the Gospel there. The +Christians would naturally desire to separate themselves in burial from +the heathen, and to avoid everything having the semblance of pagan +rites. And what mode of sepulture so natural for them to adopt, in +the new and affecting circumstances of their lives, as that which was +already familiar to them in the account of the burial of their Lord? +They knew that he had been "wrapped in linen, and laid in a sepulchre +which was hewn out of a rock, and a stone had been rolled unto the door +of the sepulchre." They would be buried as he was. Moreover, there was +a general and ardent expectation among them of the second coming of the +Saviour; they believed it to be near at hand; and they believed also +that then the dead would be called from their graves, clothed once more +in their bodies, and that as Lazarus rose from the tomb at the voice of +his Master, so in that awful day when judgment should be passed upon the +earth their dead would rise at the call of the same beloved voice. + +But there were, in all probability, other more direct, though not more +powerful reasons, which led them to the choice of this mode of burial. +We read that the Saviour was buried--at least, the phrase appears +applicable to the whole account of his entombment ... "as the manner +of the Jews is to bury." The Jewish population at Rome in the early +imperial times was very large. They clung, as Jews have clung wherever +they have been scattered, to the memories and to the customs of their +country,--and that they retained their ancient mode of sepulture was +curiously ascertained by Bosio, the first explorer of the catacombs. +In the year 1602, he discovered a catacomb on what is called Monte +Verde,--the southern extremity of the Janiculum, outside the walls of +Rome, near to the Porta Portese. This gate is in the Transtiberine +district, and in this quarter of Rome the Jews dwelt. The catacomb +resembled in its general form and arrangements those which were of +Christian origin;--but here no Christian emblem was found. On the +contrary, the only emblems and articles that Bosio describes as having +been seen were plainly of Jewish origin. The seven-branched candlestick +was painted on the wall; the word "Synagogue" was read on a portion of +a broken inscription and the whole catacomb had an air of meanness and +poverty which was appropriate to the condition of the mass of the Jews +at Rome. It seemed to be beyond doubt that it was a Jewish cemetery. In +the course of years, through the changes in the external condition and +the cultivation of Monte Verde, the access to this catacomb has been +lost. Padre Marchi made ineffectual efforts a few years since to find +an entrance to it, and Bosio's account still remains the only one that +exists concerning it. Supposing the Jews to have followed this mode of +interment at Rome, it would have been a strong motive for its adoption +by the early Christians. The first converts in Rome, as St. Paul's +Epistle shows, were, in great part, from among the Jews. The Gentile and +the Jewish Christians made one community, and the Gentiles adopted the +manner of the Jews in placing their dead, "wrapped in linen cloths, in +new tombs hewn out of the rock." + +Believing, then, the catacombs to have been begun within a few years +after the first preaching of Christianity in Rome, there is abundant +evidence to prove that their construction was continued during the time +when the Church was persecuted or simply tolerated, and that they were +extended during a considerable time after Christianity became the +established creed of the empire. Indeed, several catacombs now known +were not begun until some time after Constantine's conversion.[C] They +continued to be used as burial-places certainly as late as the sixth +century. This use seems to have been given up at the time of the +frequent desolation of the land around the walls of Rome by the +incursions of barbarians, and the custom gradually discontinued was +never resumed. The catacombs then fell into neglect, were lost sight of, +and their very existence was almost forgotten. But during the first five +hundred years of our era they were the burial-places of a smaller or +greater portion of the citizens of Rome,--and as not a single church +of that time remains, they are, and contain in themselves, the most +important monuments that exist of the Christian history of Rome for all +that long period. + + +[Footnote C: For instance, about the middle of the fourth century, St. +Julius, then Pope, is said to have begun three. See Marchi's _Momumenti +delle Arti Cristiane_, p. 82.] + +It has been much the fashion during the last two centuries, among a +certain class of critics hostile to the Roman Church, and sometimes +hostile to Christianity, to endeavor to throw doubts on the fact of +this immense amount of underground work having been accomplished by the +Christians. It has been said that the catacombs were in part the work of +the heathen, and that the Christians made use of excavations which they +found ready to their hand. Such and other similar assertions have been +put forward with great confidence; but there is one overwhelming +and complete answer to all such doubts,--a visit to the catacombs +themselves. No skepticism can stand against such arguments as are +presented there. Every pathway is distinctly the work of Christian +hands; the whole subterranean city is filled with a host of the +Christian dead. But there are other convincing proofs of the character +of their makers. These are of a curiously simple description, and are +due chiefly to the investigations of late years. Nine tenths of the +catacombs now known are cut through one of the volcanic rocks which +abound in the neighborhood of Rome. Of the three chief varieties of +volcanic rock that exist there, this is the only one which is of little +use for purposes of art or trade. It could not have been quarried for +profit. It would not have been quarried, therefore, by the Romans, +except for the purposes of burial,--and the only inscriptions and other +indications of the character of the occupants of these burial-places +prove that they were Christian.[D] They are very different from the +sepulchres of the great and rich families of Rome, who lined the Appian, +the Nomentan, and Flaminian Ways with their tombs, even now magnificent +in ruin; very different, too, from the _columbaria_, or pigeon-holes, +in which the ashes of the less wealthy were packed away; and still more +different from the sad undistinguished ditch that received the bodies of +the poor:-- + + "Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum." + +[Footnote D: The volcanic rocks are the _Tufa litoide_, very hard, and +used for paving and other such purposes; difficult to be quarried, and +unfit for graves on account of this difficulty. The _Tufi granulare_, a +soft, friable, coarse-grained rock, easily cut,--fitted for excavation. +It is in this that the catacombs are made. It is used for very few +purposes in Rome. One may now and then see some coarse filling-up of +walls done with it, or its square-cut blocks piled up as a fence. The +third is the _Pura pozzolana_,--which is the _Tufa granulare_ in a state +of compact sand, yielding to the print of the heel, dug like sand, and +used extensively in the unsurpassed mortar of the Roman buildings.] + +It not unfrequently happens in the soil of the Campagna, that the vein +of harder rock in which the catacombs are quarried assumes the soft and +sandy character which belongs to it in a state of decomposition. The +ancient Romans dug this sand as the modern Romans do; and it seems +probable, from the fact that some of the catacombs open out into +_arenaria_, or sandpits, as in the case of the famous one of St. Agnes, +that the Christians, in time of persecution, when obliged to bury with +secresy, may have chosen a locality near some disused sandpit, or near a +sandpit belonging to one of their own number, for the easier concealment +of their work, and for the safer removal of the quarried tufa. In such +cases the tufa may have been broken down into the condition of sand for +removal. In later times, as the catacombs were extended, the tufa dug +out from one passage was carried into the old passages no longer used; +and thus, as the catacomb extended in one direction, it was closed up in +another, and the ancient graves were concealed. This is now one of the +great impediments in the way of modern exploration; and the same process +is being repeated at present; for the Church allows none of the earth or +stone to be removed that has been hallowed as the resting-place of the +martyrs, and thus, as one passage is now opened, another has to be +closed. The archaeologists may rebel, but the priests have their way. +The ancient filling up was, however, productive of one good result; it +preserved some of the graves from the rifling to which most were exposed +during the period of the desertion of the catacombs. Most of the graves +which are now found with their tiled or marble front complete, and with +the inscription of name or date upon them unbroken, are those which were +thus secluded. + +But there is still another curious fact bearing upon the Christian +origin of the catacombs. They are in general situated on somewhat +elevated land, and always on land protected from the overflow of the +river, and from the drainage of the hills. The early traditions of the +Church preserve the names of many Christians who gave land for the +purpose,--a portion of their _vignas_, or their villas. The names of the +women Priscilla, Cyriaca, and Lucina are honored with such remembrance, +and are attached to three of the catacombs. Sometimes a piece of land +was thus occupied which was surrounded by property belonging to those +who were not Christian. This seems to have been the case, for instance, +in regard to the cemetery of St. Callixtus; for (and this is one of +the recent discoveries of the Cavaliere de Rossi) the paths of this +cemetery, crossing and recrossing in three, four, and five stages, are +all limited to a definite and confined area,--and this area is not +determined by the quality of the ground, but apparently by the limits of +the field overhead. There can be no other probable explanation of this +but that Christians would not extend their burial-place under land that +was not in their possession. Many other facts, as we shall see in other +connections, go to establish beyond the slightest doubt the Christian +origin and occupation of the catacombs. + +Descending from the level of the ground by a flight of steps into one of +the narrow underground passages, one sees on either side, by the light +of the taper with which he is provided, range upon range of tombs cut, +as has been described, in the walls that border the pathway. Usually the +arrangement is careful, but with an indiscriminate mingling of larger +and smaller graves, as if they had been made one after another for young +and old, according as they might be brought for burial. Now and then a +system of regularity is introduced, as if the _fossor_, or digger, who +was a recognized officer of the early Church, had had the leisure for +preparing graves before they were needed. Here, there is a range of +little graves for the youngest children, so that all infants should be +laid together, then a range for older children, and then one for the +grown up. Sometimes, instead of a grave suitable for a single body, the +excavation is made deep enough into the rock to admit of two, three, or +four bodies being placed side by side,--family graves. And sometimes, +instead of the simple _loculus_, or coffin-like excavation, there is +an arch cut out of the tufa, and sunk back over the whole depth of the +grave, the outer side of which is not cut away, so that, instead of +being closed in front by a perpendicular slab of marble or by tiles, it +is covered on the top by a horizontal slab. Such a grave is called an +_arcosolium_, and its somewhat elaborate construction leads to the +conclusion that it was rarely used in the earliest period of the +catacombs[E]. The _arcosolia_ are usually wide enough for more than +one body; and it would seem, from inscriptions that have been found upon +their covering-slabs, that they were not infrequently prepared during +the lifetime of persons who had paid beforehand for their graves. It is +not improbable that the expenses of some one or more of the cemeteries +may have been borne by the richer members of the Christian community, +for the sake of their poorer brothers in the faith. The example of +Nicodemus was one that would be readily followed. + +[Footnote E: There is one puzzling circumstance in the cemetery of S. +Domitilla. _All_ the graves in this cemetery are _arcosolia_, and yet +the date of construction is early. The Cavaliere de Rossi suggests that +the cemetery was begun at the expense of the Domitilla whose name it +bears, the niece of Domitian, previously to her banishment; that her +position enabled her to have it laid out from the beginning on a regular +plan, and to introduce this more expensive and elaborate form of +grave, which was continued for the sake of uniformity in the later +excavations.] + +But beside the different forms of the graves, by which their general +character was varied, there were often personal marks of affection +and remembrance affixed to the narrow excavations, which give to the +catacombs their most peculiar and touching interest. The marble facing +of the tomb is engraved with a simple name or date; or where tiles take +the place of marble, the few words needed are scratched upon their hard +surface. It is not too much to say that we know more of the common faith +and feeling, of the sufferings and rejoicings of the Christians of the +first two centuries from these inscriptions than from all other sources +put together. In another paper we propose to treat more fully of them. +As we walk along the dark passage, the eye is caught by the gleam of a +little flake of glass fastened in the cement which once held the closing +slab before the long since rifled grave. We stop to look at it. It is a +broken bit from the bottom of a little jar (_ampulla_); but that little +glass jar once held the drops of a martyr's blood, which had been +carefully gathered up by those who learned from him how to die, and +placed here as a precious memorial of his faith. The name of the martyr +was perhaps never written on his grave; if it were ever there, it has +been lost for centuries; but the little dulled bit of glass, as it +catches the rays of the taper borne through the silent files of graves, +sparkles and gleams with a light and glory not of this world. There are +other graves in which martyrs have lain, where no such sign as this +appears, but in its place the rude scratching of a palm-branch upon the +rock or the plaster. It was the sign of victory, and he who lay within +had conquered. The great rudeness in the drawing of the palm, often as +if, while the mortar was still wet, the mason had made the lines upon it +with his trowel, is a striking indication of the state of feeling at the +time when the grave was made. There was no pomp or parade; possibly the +burial of him or of her who had died for the faith was in secret; those +who carried the corpse of their beloved to the tomb were, perhaps, in +this very act, preparing to follow his steps,--were, perhaps, preparing +themselves for his fate. Their thoughts were with their Lord, and with +his disciple who had just suffered for his sake,--with their Saviour who +was coming so soon. What matter to put a name on the tomb? They could +not forget where they had laid the torn and wearied limbs away. _In +pace_, they would write upon the stone; a palm branch should be marked +in the mortar, the sign of suffering and triumph. Their Lord would +remember his servant. Was not his blood crying to God from the ground? +And could they doubt that the Lord would also protect and avenge? In +those first days there was little thought of relics to be carried +away,--little thought of material suggestions to the dull imagination, +and pricks to the failing memory. The eternal truths of their religion +were too real to them; their faith was too sincere; their belief in the +actual union of heaven and earth, and of the presence of God with them +in the world, too absolute to allow them to feel the need of that lower +order of incitements which are the resort of superstition, ignorance, +and conventionalism in religion. In the earlier burials, no differences, +save the ampulla and the palm, or some equally slight sign, +distinguished the graves of the martyrs from those of other Christians. + +It is not to be supposed that the normal state of the Christian +community in Rome, during the first three centuries, was that of +suffering and alarm. A period of persecution was the exception to long +courses of calm years. Undoubtedly, during most of the time, the faith +was professed under restraint, and possibly with a sense of insecurity +which rendered it attractive to ardent souls, and preserved something +of its first sincerity. It must be remembered that the first Christian +converts were mostly from among the poorer classes, and that, however +we might have admired their virtues, we might yet have been offended by +much that was coarse and unrefined in the external exhibitions of their +religion. The same features which accompany the religious manifestations +of the uncultivated in our own days, undoubtedly, with somewhat +different aspect, presented themselves at Rome. The enthusiasms, +the visions, the loud preaching and praying, the dull iteration and +reiteration of inspired truth till all the inspiration is driven out, +were all probably to be heard and witnessed in the early Christian days +at Rome. Not all the converts were saints,--and none of them were +such saints as the Catholic painters of the last three centuries have +prostituted Art and debased Religion in producing. The real St. Cecilia +stood in the beauty of holiness before the disciples at Rome far purer +and lovelier than Raphael has painted her. Domenichino has outraged +every feeling of devotion, every sense of truth, every sympathy for the +true suffering of the women who were cruelly murdered for their faith, +in his picture of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes. It is difficult to destroy +the effect that has been produced upon one's own heart by these and +innumerable other pictures of declining Art,--pictures honored by the +Roman Church of to-day,--and to bring up before one's imagination, in +vivid, natural, and probable outline, the life and form of the converts, +saints, and martyrs of the first centuries. If we could banish all +remembrance of all the churches and all the pictures contained in them, +built and painted, since the fourteenth century, we might hope to gain +some better view of the Christians who lived above the catacombs, and +were buried in them. It is from the catacombs that we must seek all that +is left to enable us to construct the image that we desire. + +On other graves beside those of the martyrs there are often found some +little signs by which they could be easily recognized by the friends who +might wish to visit them again. Sometimes there is the impression of a +seal upon the mortar; sometimes a ring or coin is left fastened into +it; often a _terra-cotta_ lamp is set in the cement at the head of the +grave. Touching, tender memorials of love and piety! Few are left now in +the opened catacombs, but here and there one may be seen in its original +place,--the visible sign of the sorrow and the faith of those who +seventeen or eighteen centuries ago rested upon that support on which we +rest to-day, and found it, in hardest trial, unfailing. + +But the galleries of the catacombs are not wholly occupied with graves. +Now and then they open on either side into chambers (_cubicula_) of +small dimension and of various form, scooped out of the rock, and +furnished with graves around their sides,--the burial-place arranged +beforehand for some large family, or for certain persons buried with +special honor. Other openings in the rock are designed for chapels, in +which the burial and other services of the Church were performed. These, +too, are of various sizes and forms; the largest of them would hold but +a small number of persons;[F] but not unfrequently two stand opposite +each other on the passage-way, as if one were for the men and the other +for the women who should be present at the services. Entering the chapel +through a narrow door whose threshold is on a level with the path, we +see at the opposite side a recess sunk in the rock, often semicircular, +like the apsis of a church, and in this recess an _arcosolium_,--which +served at the same time as the grave of a martyr and as the altar of the +little chapel. It seems, indeed, as if in many cases the chapel had been +formed not so much for the general purpose of holding religious service +within the catacombs, as for that of celebrating worship over the +remains of the martyr whose body had been transferred from its original +grave to this new tomb. It was thus that the custom, still prevalent +in the Roman Church, of requiring that some relics shall be contained +within an altar before it is held to be consecrated, probably began. +Perhaps it was with some reference to that portion of the Apocalypse in +which St. John says, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were +slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And +they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, +dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the +earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was +said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until +their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as +they were should be fulfilled."[G] At any rate, these words must have +dwelt in the memories of the Christians who came to worship God in the +presence of the dead by whom they were surrounded in the catacombs. But +they knelt before the altar-tombs, not as before altars consecrated with +relics of saints, but as before altars dedicated to God and connected +with the memory of their own honored and beloved dead, whom he had +called from them into his holy presence. + +[Footnote F: These chapels are generally about ten feet square. Some are +larger, and a few smaller than this.] + +[Footnote G: Revelations, vi. 9-11. It seems probable that another +custom of the Roman Church took its rise in the catacombs,--that of +burning candles on the altar; a custom simple in its origin, now turned +into a form of superstition, and often abused to the profit of priests.] + +It is impossible to ascertain the date at which these chapels were first +made; probably some time about the middle of the second century they +became common. In many of the catacombs they are very numerous, and it +is in them that the chief ornaments and decorations, and the paintings +which give to the catacombs an especial value and importance in the +history of Art, and which are among the most interesting illustrations +of the state of religious feeling and belief in the early centuries, are +found. Some of the chapels are known to be of comparatively late date, +of the fourth and perhaps of the fifth century. In several even of +earlier construction is found, in addition to the altar, a niche cut out +in the rock, or a ledge projecting from it, which seems to have been +intended to serve the place of the credence table, for holding the +articles used in the service of the altar, and at a later period for +receiving the elements before they were handed to the priest for +consecration. The earliest services in the catacombs were undoubtedly +those connected with the communion of the Lord's Supper. The mystery +of the mass and the puzzles of transubstantiation had not yet been +introduced among the believers; but all who had received baptism as +followers of Christ, all save those who had fallen away into open and +manifest sin, were admitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. Possibly +upon some occasions these chapels may have been filled with the sounds +of exhortation and lamentation. In the legends of the Roman Church we +read of large numbers of Christians being buried alive, in time of +persecution, in these underground chambers where they had assembled for +worship and for counsel. But we are not aware of any proof of the truth +of these stories having been discovered in recent times. This, and +many other questionable points in the history and in the uses of the +catacombs, may be solved by the investigations which are now proceeding; +and it is fortunate for the interests, not only of truth, but of +religion, that so learned and so honest-minded a man as the Cavaliere de +Rossi should have the direction of these explorations. + +Few of the chapels that are to be seen now in the catacombs are in their +original condition. As time went on, and Christianity became a corrupt +and imperial religion, the simple truths which had sufficed for the +first Christians were succeeded by doctrines less plain, but more +adapted to touch cold and materialized imaginations, and to inflame dull +hearts. The worship of saints began, and was promoted by the heads of +the Church, who soon saw how it might be diverted to the purposes of +personal and ecclesiastical aggrandizement. Consequently the martyrs +were made into a hierarchy of saintly protectors of the strayed flock of +Christ, and round their graves in the catacombs sprang up a harvest of +tales, of visions, of miracles, and of superstitions. As the Church sank +lower and lower, as the need of a heavenly advocate with God was more +and more impressed upon the minds of the Christians of those days, the +idea seems to have arisen that neighborhood of burial to the grave of +some martyr might be an effectual way to secure the felicity of the +soul. Consequently we find in these chapels that the later Christians, +those perhaps of the fifth and sixth centuries, disregarding the +original arrangements, and having lost all respect for the Art, and all +reverence for the memorial pictures which made the walls precious, were +often accustomed to cut out graves in the walls above and around the +martyr's tomb, and as near as possible to it. The instances are numerous +in which pictures of the highest interest have been thus ruthlessly +defaced. No sacredness of subject could resist the force of the +superstition; and we remember one instance where, in a picture of which +the part that remains is of peculiar interest, the body of the Good +Shepherd has been cut through for the grave of a child,--so that only +the feet and a part of the head of the figure remain. + +There is little reason for supposing, as has frequently been done, that +the catacombs, even in times of persecution, afforded shelter to any +large body of the faithful. Single, specially obnoxious, or timid +individuals, undoubtedly, from time to time, took refuge in them, and +may have remained within them for a considerable period. Such at least +is the story, which we see no reason to question, in regard to several +of the early Popes. But no large number of persons could have existed +within them. The closeness of the air would very soon have rendered life +insupportable; and supposing any considerable number had collected near +the outlet, where a supply of fresh air could have reached them, the +difficulty of obtaining food and of concealing their place of retreat +would have been in most instances insurmountable. The catacombs were +always places for the few, not for the many; for the few who followed +a body to the grave; for the few who dug the narrow, dark passages in +which not many could work; for the few who came to supply the needs of +some hunted and hidden friend; for the few who in better times assembled +to join in the service commemorating the last supper of their Lord. + +It is difficult, as we have said before, to clear away the obscuring +fictions of the Roman Church from the entrance of the catacombs; but +doing this so far as with our present knowledge may be done, we find +ourselves entering upon paths that bring us into near connection and +neighborhood with the first followers of the founders of our faith at +Rome. The reality which is given to the lives of the Christians of the +first centuries by acquaintance with the memorials that they have left +of themselves here quickens our feeling for them into one almost of +personal sympathy. "Your obedience is come abroad unto all men," wrote +St. Paul to the first Christians of Rome. The record of that obedience +is in the catacombs. And in the vast labyrinth of obscure galleries one +beholds and enters into the spirit of the first followers of the Apostle +to the Gentiles. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE NEST. + + + MAY. + + When oaken woods with buds are pink, + And new-come birds each morning sing,-- + When fickle May on Summer's brink + Pauses, and knows not which to fling, + Whether fresh bud and bloom again, + Or hoar-frost silvering hill and plain,-- + + Then from the honeysuckle gray + The oriole with experienced quest + Twitches the fibrous bark away, + The cordage of his hammock-nest,-- + Cheering his labor with a note + Rich as the orange of his throat. + + High o'er the loud and dusty road + The soft gray cup in safety swings, + To brim ere August with its load + Of downy breasts and throbbing wings, + O'er which the friendly elm-tree heaves + An emerald roof with sculptured eaves. + + Below, the noisy World drags by + In the old way, because it must,-- + The bride with trouble in her eye, + The mourner following hated dust: + Thy duty, winged flame of Spring, + Is but to love and fly and sing. + + Oh, happy life, to soar and sway + Above the life by mortals led, + Singing the merry months away, + Master, not slave of daily bread, + And, when the Autumn comes, to flee + Wherever sunshine beckons thee! + + + PALINODE.--DECEMBER. + + Like some lorn abbey now, the wood + Stands roofless in the bitter air; + In ruins on its floor is strewed + The carven foliage quaint and rare, + And homeless winds complain along + The columned choir once thrilled with song. + + And thou, dear nest, whence joy and praise + The thankful oriole used to pour, + Swing'st empty while the north winds chase + Their snowy swarms from Labrador: + But, loyal to the happy past, + I love thee still for what thou wast. + + Ah, when the Summer graces flee + From other nests more dear than thou, + And, where June crowded once, I see + Only bare trunk and disleaved bough, + When springs of life that gleamed and gushed + Run chilled, and slower, and are hushed,-- + + I'll think, that, like the birds of Spring, + Our good goes not without repair, + But only flies to soar and sing + Far off in some diviner air, + Where we shall find it in the calms + Of that fair garden 'neath the palms. + + * * * * * + + +EBEN JACKSON. + + + Fear no more the heat o' the sun, + Nor the furious winter's rages; + Thou thine earthly task hast done. + +The large tropical moon rose in full majesty over the Gulf of Mexico, +that beneath it rolled a weltering surge of silver, which broke upon the +level sand of the beach with a low, sullen roar, prophetic of storms to +come. To-night a south wind was heavily blowing over Gulf and prairie, +laden with salt odors of weed and grass, now and then crossed by a +strain of such perfume as only tropic breezes know,--a breath of heavy, +passionate sweetness from orange-groves and rose gardens, mixed with the +miasmatic sighs of rank forests, and mile on mile of tangled cane-brake, +where jewel-tinted snakes glitter and emit their own sickly-sweet odor, +and the deep blue bells of luxuriant vines wave from their dusky censers +steams of poisonous incense. + +I endured the influence of all this as long as I dared, and then turned +my pony's head from the beach, and, loitering through the city's hot +streets, touched him into a gallop as the prairie opened before us, and +followed the preternatural, colossal shadow of horse and man east by the +moon across the dry dull grass and bitter yellow chamomile growth of +the sand, till I stopped at the office door of the Hospital, when, +consigning my horse to a servant, I commenced my nightly round of the +wards. + +There were but few patients just now, for the fever had not yet made +its appearance, and until within a week the unwontedly clear and cool +atmosphere had done the work of the physician. Most of the sick were +doing well enough without me; some few needed and received attention; +and these disposed of, I betook myself to the last bed in one of the +long wards, quite apart from the others, which was occupied by a sailor, +a man originally from New England, whose hard life and continual +exposure to all climates and weathers had at length resulted in slow +tubercular consumption. + +It was one of the rare cases of this disease not supervening upon an +original strumous diathesis, and, had it been properly cared for in the +beginning, might have been cured. Now there was no hope; but the case +being a peculiar and interesting one, I kept a faithful record of its +symptoms and progress for publication. Besides, I liked the man; rugged +and hardy by nature, it was curious to see what strange effects a long, +wasting, and painful disease produced upon him. At first he could not be +persuaded to be quiet; the muscular energies were still unaffected, and, +with continual hemorrhage from the lungs, he could not understand that +work or exercise could hurt him. But as the disease gained ground, its +characteristic languor unstrung his force; the hard and sinewy limbs +became attenuated and relaxed; his breath labored; a hectic fever burnt +in his veins like light flame every afternoon, and subsided into chilly +languor toward morning; profuse night-sweats increased the weakness; and +as he grew feebler, offering of course less resistance to the febrile +symptoms, they were exacerbated, till at times a slight delirium showed +itself; and so, without haste or delay, he "made for port," as he said. + +His name was Eben Jackson, and the homely appellation was no way belied +by his aspect. He never could have been handsome, and now fifteen +years of rough-and-tumble life had left their stains and scars on his +weather-beaten visage, whose only notable features were the deep-set +eyes retreating under shaggy brows, that looked one through and through +with the keen glance of honest instinct; while a light tattooing of red +and blue on either cheek-bone added an element of the grotesque to his +homeliness. He was a natural and simple man, with whom conventionalities +and the world's scale went for nothing,--without vanity as without +guile.--But it is best to let him speak for himself. I found him that +night very feverish, yet not wild at all. + +"Hullo, Doctor!" said he, "I'm all afire! I've ben thinkin' about my old +mother's humstead up to Simsbury, and the great big well to the back +door; how I used to tilt that 'are sweep up, of a hot day, till the +bucket went 'way down to the bottom and come up drippin' over,--such +cold, clear water! I swear, I'd give all Madagascar for a drink on't!" + +I called the nurse to bring me a small basket of oranges I had sent out +in the morning, expressly for this patient, and squeezing the juice from +one of them on a little bit of ice, I held it to his lips, and he drank +eagerly. + +"That's better for you than water, Jackson," said I. + +"I dunno but 'tis, Doctor; I dunno but 'tis; but there a'n't nothin' +goes to the spot like that Simsbury water. You ha'n't never v'yaged to +them parts, have ye?" + +"Bless you, yes, man! I was born and brought up in Hartford, just over +the mountain, and I've been to Simsbury, fishing, many a time." + +"Good Lord! _You_ don't never desert a feller, ef the ship _is_ a-goin' +down!" fervently ejaculated Eben, looking up as he did sometimes in his +brief delirium, when he said the Lord's Prayer, and thought his mother +held his folded hands; but this was no delirious aspiration. He went +on:-- + +"You see, Doctor, I've had somethin' in the hold a good spell't I wanted +to break bulk on, but I didn't know as I ever was goin' to see a shipmet +agin; and now you've jined convoy jist in time, for Davy Jones's a'n't +fur off. Are you calculatin' to go North afore long?" + +"Yes, I mean to go next spring," said I. + +Jackson began to fumble with weak and trembling hands about his throat, +to undo his shirt-collar,--he would not let me help him,--and presently, +flushed and panting from the effort, he drew out a length of delicate +Panama chain fastened rudely together by a link of copper wire, and +suspended on it a little old-fashioned ring of reddish gold, twisted of +two wires, and holding a very small dark garnet. Jackson looked at it as +I have seen many a Catholic look at his reliquary in mortal sickness. + +"Well," said he, "I've carried that 'are gimcrack nigh twenty long year +round my old scrag, and when I'm sunk I want you to take it off, Doctor. +Keep it safe till you go to Connecticut, and then some day take a tack +over to Simsbury. Don't ye go through the Gap, but go 'long out on +the turnpike over the mountain, and down t'other side to Avon, and so +nor'ard till jist arter you git into Simsbury town you see an old red +house 'longside o' the mountain, with a big ellum-tree afore the door, +and a stone well to the side on't. Go 'long in and ask for Hetty Buel, +and give her that 'are thing, and tell her where you got it, and that I +ha'n't never forgot to wish her well allus, though I couldn't write to +her." + +There was Eben Jackson's romance! It piqued my curiosity. The poor +fellow was wakeful and restless,--I knew he would not sleep, if I left +him,--and I encouraged him to go on talking. + +"I will, Jackson, I promise you. But wouldn't it be better for you to +tell me something about where you have been all these long years? Your +friends will like to know." + +His eye brightened; he was like all the rest of us, pleased with any +interest taken in him and his; he turned over on his pillow, and I +lifted him into a half-sitting position. + +"That's ship-shape, Doctor! I don't know but what I had oughter spin a +yarn for you; I'm kinder on a watch to-night; and Hetty won't never know +what I did do, if I don't send home the log 'long 'i' the cargo. + +"Well, you see I was born in them parts, down to Canton, where father +belonged; but mother was a Simsbury woman, and afore I was long-togged, +father he moved onter the old humstead up to Simsbury, when gran'ther +Peck died. Our farm was right 'longside o' Miss Buel's; you'll see't +when you go there; but there a'n't nobody there now. Mother died afore +I come away, and lies safe to the leeward o' Simsbury meetin'-house. +Father he got a stroke a spell back, and he couldn't farm it; so he sold +out and went West, to Parmely Larkum's, my sister's, to live. But I +guess the house is there, and that old well.--How etarnal hot it's +growin'! Doctor, give me a drink! + +"Well, as I was tellin', I lived there next to Miss Buel's, and Hetty'n' +I went to deestrict-school together, up to the cross-roads. We used to +hev' ovens in the sand together, and roast apples an' ears of corn in +'em; and we used to build cubby-houses, and fix 'em out with broken +chiny and posies. I swan 't makes me feel curus when I think what +children du contrive to get pleased, and likewise riled about! One day I +rec'lect Hetty'd stepped onto my biggest clam-shell and broke it, and +I up and hit her a switch right across her pretty lips. Now you'd 'a' +thought she would cry and run, for she wasn't bigger than a baby, much; +but she jest come up and put her little fat arms round my neck, and +says,-- + +"'I'm so sorry, Eben!' + +"And that's Hetty Buel! I declare I was beat, and I hav'n't never got +over bein' beat about that. So we growed up together, always out in the +woods between schools, huntin' checker-berries, and young winter-greens, +and prince's piney, and huckleberries, and saxifrax, and birch, and all +them woodsy things that children hanker arter; and by-'n'-by we got to +goin' to the 'Cademy; and when Hetty was seventeen she went in to +Hartford to her Aunt Smith's for a spell, to do chores, and get a little +Seminary larnin', and I went to work on the farm; and when she come +home, two year arter, she was growed to be a young woman, and though I +was five year older'n her, I was as sheepish a land-lubber as ever got +stuck a-goin' to the mast-head, whenever I sighted her. + +"She wasn't very much for looks neither; she had black eyes, and she +was pretty behaved; but she wasn't no gret for beauty, anyhow, only +I thought the world of her, and so did her old grandmother;--for her +mother died when she wa'n't but two year old, and she lived to old Miss +Buel's 'cause her father had married agin away down to Jersey. + +"Arter a spell I got over bein' so mighty sheepish about Hetty; her +ways was too kindly for me to keep on that tack. We took to goin' to +singin'-school together; then I always come home from quiltin'-parties +and conference-meetin's with her, because 'twas handy, bein' right next +door; and so it come about that I begun to think of settlin' down for +life, and that was the start of all my troubles. I couldn't take the +home farm; for 'twas such poor land, father could only jest make a live +out on't for him and me. Most of it was pastur', gravelly land, full of +mullens and stones; the rest was principally woodsy,--not hickory, nor +oak neither, but hemlock and white birches, that a'n't of no account +for timber nor firing, 'longside of the other trees. There was a little +strip of a medder-lot, and an orchard up on the mountain, where we used +to make redstreak cider that beat the Dutch; but we hadn't pastur' land +enough to keep more'n two cows, and altogether I knew 'twasn't any use +to think of bringin' a family on to't. So I wrote to Parmely's husband, +out West, to know about Government lands, and what I could do ef I was +to move out there and take an allotment; and gettin' an answer every way +favorable, I posted over to Miss Buel's one night arter milkin' to tell +Hetty. She was settin' on the south door-step, braidin' palm-leaf; and +her grandmother was knittin' in her old chair, a little back by the +window. Sometimes, a-lyin' here on my back, with my head full o' sounds, +and the hot wind and the salt sea-smell a-comin' in through the winders, +and the poor fellers groanin' overhead, I get clear away back to that +night, so cool and sweet; the air full of treely smells, dead leaves +like, and white-blows in the ma'sh below; and wood-robins singin' clear +fine whistles in the woods; and the big sweet-brier by the winder +all a-flowered out; and the drippin' little beads of dew on the +clover-heads; and the tinklin' sound of the mill-dam down to Squire +Turner's mill. + +"I set down by Hetty; and the old woman bein' as deaf as a post, it was +as good as if I'd been there alone. So I mustered up my courage, that +was sinkin' down to my boots, and told Hetty my plans, and asked her to +go along. She never said nothin' for a minute; she flushed all up as red +as a rose, and I see her little fingers was shakin', and her eye-winkers +shiny and wet; but she spoke presently, and said,-- + +"'I can't, Eben!' + +"I was shot betwixt wind and water then, I tell you, Doctor! 'Twa'n't +much to be said, but I've allers noticed afloat that real dangersome +squalls comes on still; there's a dumb kind of a time in the air, the +storm seems to be waitin' and holdin' its breath, and then a little +low whisper of wind,--a cat's paw we call't,--and then you get it real +'arnest. I'd rather she'd have taken on, and cried, and scolded, than +have said so still, 'I can't, Eben.' + +"'Why not, Hetty?' says I. + +"'I ought not to leave grandmother,' said she. + +"I declare, I hadn't thought o' that! Miss Buel was a real infirm woman +without kith nor kin, exceptin' Hetty; for Jason Buel he'd died down to +Jersey long before; and she hadn't means. Hetty nigh about kept 'em both +since Miss Buel had grown too rheumatic to make cheese and see to the +hens and cows, as she used to. They didn't keep any men-folks now, nor +but one cow; Hetty milked her, and drove her to pastur', and fed the +chickens, and braided hats, and did chores. The farm was all sold off; +'twas poor land, and didn't fetch much; but what there was went to keep +'em in vittles and firin'. I guess Hetty 'arnt most of what they lived +on, arter all. + +"'Well,' says I, after a spell of thinkin', 'can't she go along too, +Hetty?' + +"'Oh, no, Eben! she's too old; she never could get there, and she never +could live there. She says very often she wouldn't leave Simsbury for +gold untold; she was born here, and she's bound to die here. I know she +wouldn't go.' + +"'Ask her, Hetty!' + +"'No, it wouldn't be any use; it would only fret her always to think I +staid at home for her, and you know she can't do without me.' + +"'No more can't I,' says I. 'Do you love her the best, Hetty?' + +"I was kinder sorry I'd said that; for she grew real white, and I could +see by her throat she was chokin' to keep down somethin'. Finally she +said,-- + +"'That isn't for me to say, Eben. If it was right for me to go with you, +I should be glad to; but you know I can't leave grandmother.' + +"Well, Doctor, I couldn't say no more. I got up to go. Hetty put down +her work and walked to the big ellum by the gate with me. I was most too +full to speak, but I catched her up and kissed her soft little tremblin' +lips, and her pretty eyes, and then I set off for home as if I was goin' +to be hanged. + +"Young folks is obstreperous, Doctor. I've been a long spell away from +Hetty, and I don't know as I should take on so now. That night I never +slept. I lay kickin' and tumblin' all night, and before mornin' I'd +resolved to quit Simsbury, and go seek my fortin' beyond seas, hopin' +to come back to Hetty, arter all, with riches to take care on her right +there in the old place. You'd 'a' thought I might have had some kind of +feelin' for my old father, after seein' Hetty's faithful ways; but I was +a man and she was a woman, and I take it them is two different kind o' +craft. Men is allers for themselves first, an' Devil take the hindmost; +but women lives in other folks's lives, and ache, and work, and endure +all sorts of stress o' weather afore they'll quit the ship that's got +crew and passengers aboard. + +"I never said nothin' to father,--I couldn't 'a' stood no jawin',--but +I made up my kit, an' next night slung it over my shoulder, and tramped +off. I couldn't have gone without biddin' Hetty goodbye; so I stopped +there, and told her what I was up to, and charged her to tell father. + +"She tried her best to keep me to home, but I was sot in my way; so when +she found that out, she run up stairs an' got a little Bible, and made +me promise I'd read it sometimes, and then she pulled that 'are little +ring off her finger and give it to me to keep. + +"'Eben,' says she, 'I wish you well always, and I sha'n't never forget +you!' + +"And then she put up her face to me, as innocent as a baby, to kiss me +goodbye. I see she choked up when I said the word, though, and I said, +kinder laughin',-- + +"'I hope you'll get a better husband than me, Hetty!' + +"I swear! she give me a look like the judgment-day, and stoopin' +down she pressed her lips onto that ring, and says she, 'That is my +weddin'-ring, Eben!' and goes into the house as still and white as a +ghost; and I never see her again, nor never shall.--Oh, Doctor! give me +a drink!" + +I lifted the poor fellow, fevered and gasping, to an easier position, +and wet his hot lips with fresh orange-juice. + +"Stop, now, Jackson!" said I, "you are tired." + +"No, I a'n't, Doctor! No, I a'n't! I'm bound to finish now. But Lord +deliver us! look there! one of the Devil's own imps, I b'lieve!" + +I looked on the little deal stand where I had set the candle, and there +stood one of the quaint, evil-looking insects that infest the island, a +praying Mantis. Raised up against the candle, with its fore-legs in the +attitude of supplication that gives it the name, its long green body +relieved on the white stearin, it was eyeing Jackson, with its head +turned first on one side and then on the other, in the most elvish and +preternatural way. Presently it moved upward, stuck one of its fore-legs +cautiously into the flame, burnt it of course and drew it back, eyed it, +first from one angle, then from another, with deliberate investigation, +and at length conveyed the injured member to its mouth and sucked it +steadily, resuming its stare of blank scrutiny at my patient, who did +not at all fancy the interest taken in him. + +I could not help laughing at the strange manoeuvres of the creature, +familiar as I was with them. + +"It is only one of our Texan bugs, Jackson," said I; "it is harmless +enough." + +"It's got a pesky look, though, Doctor! I thought I'd seen enough curus +creturs in the Marquesas, but that beats all!" + +Seeing the insect really irritated and annoyed him, I put it out of the +window, and turned the blinds closely to prevent its reëntrance, and he +went on with his story. + +"So I tramped it to Hartford that night, got a lodgin' with a first +cousin I had there, worked my passage to Boston in a coaster, and after +hangin' about Long Wharf day in and day out for a week, I was driv' to +ship myself aboard of a whaler, the Lowisy Miles, Twist, cap'en; and I +writ from there to Hetty, so't she could know my bearin's so fur, and +tell my father. + +"It would take a week, Doctor, to tell you what a rough-an'-tumble time +I had on that 'are whaler. There's a feller's writ a book about v'yagin' +afore the mast that'll give ye an idee on't; he had an eddication so't +he could set it off, and I fell foul of his book down to Valparaiso +more'n a year back, and I swear I wanted to shake hands with him. I +heerd he was gone ashore somewheres down to Boston, and hed cast anchor +for good. But I tell you he's a brick, and what he said's gospel truth. +I thought I'd got to hell afore my time when we see blue water. I didn't +have no peace exceptin' times when I was to the top, lookin' out for +spouters; then I'd get nigh about into the clouds that was allers +a-hangin' down close to the sea mornin' and night, all kinds of colors, +red an' purple an' white; and 'stead of thinkin' o' whales, I'd get my +head full o' Simsbury, and get a precious knock with the butt end of a +handspike when I come down, 'cause I'd never sighted a whale till arter +they see'd it on deck. + +"We was bound to the South Seas after sperm whales, but we was eight +months gettin' there, and we took sech as we could find on the way. +The cap'en he scooted round into one port an' another arter his own +business,--down to Caraccas, into Rio; and when we'd rounded the Horn +and was nigh about dead of cold an' short rations, and hadn't killed but +three whales, we put into Valparaiso to get vittled, and there I laid +hold o' this little trinket of a chain, and spliced Hetty's ring on +to't, lest I should be stranded somewheres and get rid of it onawares. + +"We cruised about in them seas a good year or more, with poor luck, and +the cap'en growin' more and more outrageous continually. Them waters +aren't like the Gulf, Doctor,--nor like the Northern Ocean, nohow; there +a'n't no choppin' seas there, but a great, long, everlasting lazy swell, +that goes rollin' and fallin' away like the toll of a big bell, in +endless blue rollers; and the trades blow through the sails like +singin', as warm and soft as if they blowed right out o' sunshiny +gardens; and the sky's as blue as summer all the time, only jest round +the dip on't there's allers a hull fleet o' hazy round-topped clouds, so +thin you can see the moon rise through 'em; and the waves go ripplin' +off the cut-water as peaceful as a mill-pond, day and night. Squalls +is sca'ce some times o' the year; but when there is one, I tell you a +feller hears thunder! The clouds settle right down onto the mast-head, +black and thick, like the settlin's of an ink-bottle; the lightnin' +hisses an' cuts fore and aft; and corposants come flightin' down onto +the boom or the top, gret balls o' light; and the wind roars louder than +the seas; and the rain comes down in spouts,--it don't fall fur enough +to drop; you'd think heaven and earth was come together, with hell +betwixt 'em;--and then it'll all clear up as quiet and calm as a +Simsbury Sunday; and you wouldn't know it could be squally, if 'twan't +for the sail that you hadn't had a chance to furl was drove to ribbons, +and here an' there a stout spar snapped like a cornstalk, or the +bulwarks stove by a heavy sea. There's queer things to be heerd, too, in +them parts: cries to wind'ard like a drowndin' man, and you can't never +find him; noises right under the keel; bells ringin' off the land like, +when you a'n't within five hundred miles of shore; and curus hails out +o' ghost-ships that sails agin' wind an' tide.--Strange! strange! I +declare for't! seems as though I heerd my old mother a-singin' Mear +now!" + +I saw Jackson was getting excited, so I gave him a little soothing +draught and walked away to give the nurse some orders. But he made me +promise to return and hear the story out; so, after half an hour's +investigation of the wards, I came back and found him composed enough to +permit his resuming where he had left off. + +"Howsomever, Doctor, there wa'n't no smooth sailin' nor fair weather +with the cap'en; 'twas always squally in his latitude, and I begun to +get mutinous and think of desartin'. About eighteen months arter we sot +sail from Valparaiso, I hadn't done somethin' I'd been ordered, or I'd +done it wrong, and Cap'en Twist come on deck, ragin' and roarin', with +a handspike in his fist, and let fly at my head. I see what was comin', +and put my arm up to fend it off; and gettin' the blow on my fore-arm, +it got broke acrost as quick as a wink, and I dropped. So they picked me +up, and havin' a mate aboard who knew some doctorin', I was spliced +and bound up, and put under hatches on the sick-list. I tell you I +was dog-tired them days, lyin' in my berth, hearin' the rats and mice +scuttle round the bulkheads and skitter over the floor. I couldn't do +nothin', and finally I bethought myself of Hetty's Bible and contrived +to get it out o' my chist,--and when I could get a bit of a glim I'd +read it. I'm a master-hand to remember things, and what I read over and +over in that 'are dog-hole of cabin never got clean out of my head, no, +nor never will; and when the Lord above calls all hands on deck to pass +muster, ef I'm ship-shape afore him, it'll be because I follered his +signals and l'arnt 'em out of that 'are log. But I didn't foller 'em +then, nor not for a plaguy long cruise yet! + +"One day, as I laid there readin' by the light of a bit of tallow dip +the mate gave me, who should stick his head into the hole he called a +cabin, but old Twist! He'd got an idee I was shammin'; and when he saw +me with a book, he cussed, and swore, and raved, and finally hauled it +out o' my hand and flung it up through the hatchway clean and clear +overboard. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, if I'd 'a' had a sound arm, he'd 'a' gone after it; +but I had to take it out in ratin' at him, and that night my mind was +made up; I was bound to desart at the first land. And it come about that +a fortnight after my arm had jined, and I could haul shrouds agin, we +sighted the Marquesas, and bein' near about out o' water, the cap'en +laid his course for the nearest land, and by daybreak of the second day +we lay to in a small harbor, on the south side of an island where +ships wa'n't very prompt to go commonly. But old Twist didn't care for +cannibals nor wild beasts, when they stood in his way; and there wasn't +but half a cask of water aboard, and that a hog wouldn't 'a' drank, only +for the name on't. So we pulled ashore after some, and findin' a spring +near by, was takin' it out, hand over hand, as fast as we could bale it +up, when all of a sudden the mate see a bunch of feathers over a little +bush near by, and yelled out to run for our lives, the savages was come. + +"Now I had made up my mind to run away from the ship that very day, and +all the while I'd been baling the water up I had been tryin' to lay my +course so as to get quit of the boat's crew, and be off; but natur' is +stronger than a man thinks. When I heerd the mate sing out, and see the +men begin to run, I turned and run too, full speed, down to the shore; +but my foot caught in some root or hole, I fell flat down, and hittin' +my head ag'inst a stone near by, I lay; good as dead; and when I come +to, the boat was gone, and the ship makin' all sail out of harbor, and +a crew of wild Indian women were a-lookin' at me as I've seen a set of +Simsbury women-folks look at a baboon in a caravan; but they treated me +better! + +"Findin' I was helpless, for I'd sprained my ankle in the fall, four of +'em picked me up, and carried me away to a hut, and tended me like a +baby; and when the men, who'd come over to that side of the island 'long +with 'em, and gone a-fishin', come back, I was safe enough; for women +are women all the world over, soft-hearted, kindly creturs, that like +anything that's in trouble, 'specially if they can give it a lift out +on't. So I was nursed, and fed, and finally taken over the ridge of +rocks that run acrost the island to their town of bamboo huts; and now +begun to look about me, for here I was, stranded, as one may say, out o' +sight o' land. + +"Ships didn't never touch there, I knew by their ways, their wonderin' +and takin' sights at me. As for Cap'en Twist, he wouldn't come back for +his own father, unless he was short o' hands for whalin'. I was in for +life, no doubt on't; and I'd better look at the fair-weather side of the +thing. The island was as pretty a bit of land as ever lay betwixt sea +and sky; full of tall cocoa-nut palms, with broad, feathery tops, and +bunches of brown nuts; bananas hung in yellow clumps ready to drop off +at a touch; and big bread-fruit trees stood about everywhere, lookin' as +though a punkin-vine had climbed up into 'em and hung half-ripe punkins +off of every bough; beside lots of other trees that the natives set +great store by, and live on the fruit of 'em; and flyin' through all, +such pretty birds as you never see except in them parts; but one brown +thrasher'd beat the whole on 'em singin'; fact is, they run to feathers; +they don't sing none. + +"It was as sightly a country as ever Adam and Eve had to themselves; +but it wa'n't home. Howsomever, after a while the savages took to me +mightily. I was allers handy with tools, and by good luck I'd come off +with two jack-knives and a loose awl in my jacket-pocket, so I could +beat 'em all at whittlin'; and I made figgers on their bows an' +pipe-stems, of things they never see,--roosters, and horses, Miss Buel's +old sleigh, and the Albany stage, driver'n' all, and our yoke of oxen +a-ploughin',--till nothin' would serve them but I should have a house o' +my own, and be married to their king's daughter; so I did. + +"Well, Doctor, you kinder wonder I forgot Hetty Buel. I didn't forget +her, but I knew she wa'n't to be had anyhow; I thought I was in for +life; and Wailua was the prettiest little craft that ever you set eyes +on, as straight as a spar, and as kindly as a Christian; and besides, I +had to, or I'd have been killed, and broiled, and eaten, whether or no! +And then in that 'are latitude it a'n't just the way 'tis here; you +don't work; you get easy, and lazy, and sleepy; somethin' in the air +kind of hushes you up; it makes you sweat to think, and you're too hazy +to, if it didn't; and you don't care for nothing much but food and +drink. I hadn't no spunk left; so I married her after their fashion, and +I liked her well enough; and she was my wife, after all. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, it goes a gret way with men-folks to think +anything's their'n, and nobody else's. But when I married her, I took +the chain with Hetty Buel's ring off my neck, and put 'em in a shell, +and buried the shell under my doorway. I couldn't have Wailua touch +that. + +"So there I lived fifteen long year, as it might be, in a kind of a +curus dream, doin' nothin' much, only that when I got to know the tongue +them savages spoke, little by little I got pretty much the steerin' o' +the hull crew, till by-'n'-by some of 'em got jealous, and plotted and +planned to kill me, because the king, Wailua's father, was gettin' old, +and they thought I wanted to be king when he died, and they couldn't +stan' that no way. + +"Somehow or other Wailua got word of what was goin' on, and one night +she woke me out of sleep an' told me I must run for't, and she would +hide me safe till things took a turn. So I scratched up the shell with +Hetty's ring in't, and afore morning I was over t'other side of the +island, in a kind of a cave overlookin' the sea, near by to a grove of +bananas and mammee apples, and not fur from the harbor where I'd landed; +and safe enough, for nobody but Wailua knew the way to't. + +"Well, the sixth day I sot in the porthole of that cave I see a sail in +the offing. I declare, I thought I should 'a' choked! I catched off my +tappa cloth and h'isted it on a pole, but the ship kep' on stiddy out +to sea. My heart beat up to my eyes, but I held on ag'inst hope, and I +declare I prayed; words come to me that I hadn't said since I was a boy +to Simsbury, and the Lord he heerd; for, as true as the compass, that +ship lay to, tacked, put in for the island, and afore night I was +aboard of the Lysander, a Salem whaler, with my mouth full of grog and +ship-biscuit, and my body in civilized toggery. I own I felt queer to go +away so and leave Wailua; but I knew 'twas gettin' her out of danger, +for the old king was just a-goin' to die, and if ever I'd have gone +back, we should both have been murdered. Besides, we didn't always +agree; she had to walk straighter than her wild natur' agreed with, +because she was my wife; and we hadn't no children to hold us together; +and I couldn't 'a' taken her aboard of the whaler, if she'd wanted to +go. I guess it was best; anyhow, so it was. + +"But this wasn't to be the end of my v'yagin'. The Lysander foundered +just off Valparaiso; and though all hands was saved in the boats, when +we got to port there wasn't no craft there bound any nearer homeward +than an English merchant-ship, for Liverpool, by way of Madeira. So I +worked a passage to Funchal, and there I got aboard of a Southampton +steamer, bound for Cuba, that put in for coal. But when I come to Havana +I was nigh about tuckered out; for goin' round the Horn in the Lemon, +--that 'are English ship,--I'd ben on duty in all sorts o' weather; and +I'd lived lazy and warm so long I expect it was too tough for me, and +I was pestered with a hard cough, and spit blood, so't I was laid up a +long spell in the hospital at Havana. And there I kep' a-thinkin' over +Hetty's Bible, and I b'lieve I studied that 'are chart till I found out +the way to port, and made up my log all square for the owner; for I +knowed well enough where I was bound; but I did hanker to get home to +Simsbury afore shovin' off. + +"Well, finally, there come into the harbor a Mystic ship that was +a-goin' down the Gulf for a New York owner. I'd known Seth Crane, the +cap'en of her, away back in old Simsbury times. He was an Avon boy; and +when I sighted that vessel's name, as I was crawlin' along the quay one +day, and, seein' she was Connecticut-built, boarded her, and see Seth, I +was old fool enough to cry right out,--I was so shaky. And Seth he +was about as scart as ef he'd seen the dead, havin' heerd up to Avon, +fifteen year ago nearly, that the Lowisy Miles had been run down off the +Sandwich Islands by a British man-of-war, and all hands lost, exceptin' +one o' the boys. However, he come to his bearin's after a while, and +told me about our folks, and how't Hetty Buel wasn't married, but +keepin' deestrict school, and her old grandmother alive yet. + +"Well, I kinder heartened up, and agreed to take passage with +Seth.--Good Lord, Doctor! what's that?" + +A peculiar and oppressive stillness had settled down on everything in +and out of the hospital while Jackson was going on with his story. I +noticed it only as the hush of a tropic midnight; but as he spoke, +I heard--apparently out on the prairie--a heavy jarring sound like +repeated blows, drawing nearer and nearer the building. + +Jackson sprung upright on his pillows, the hectic passed from either +gaunt and sallow cheek, leaving the red and blue tattoo marks visible +in most ghastly distinctness, while the sweat poured in drops down his +hollow temples. + +The noise drew still nearer. All the patients in the ward awoke and +quitted their beds, hastily. The noise was at hand,--blows of great +violence and power; and a certain malign rapidity shook the walls from +one end of the hospital to the other,--blow upon blow, like the fierce +attacks of a catapult, only with no like result. The nurse, a German +Catholic, fell on his knees and told his beads, glancing over his +shoulder in undisguised horror; the patients cowered together, groaning +and praying; and I could hear the stir and confusion in the ward below. +In less than a minute's space the singular sound passed through the +house, and in hollow, jarring echoes died out toward the bay. + +I looked at Eben;--his jaw had fallen; his hands were rigid and locked +together; his eyes were rolled upward, fixed and glassy; a stream of +scarlet blood trickled over his gray beard from the corner of his +mouth;--he was dead! As I laid him back on the pillow and turned to +restore some quiet to the ward, a Norther came sweeping down the Gulf +like a rush of mad spirits; tore up the white crests of the sea and +flung them on the beach in thundering surf; burst through the heavy fog +that had trailed upon the moon's track and smothered the island in its +soft pestilent brooding; and in one mighty pouring out of cold pure +ether changed earth and sky from torrid to temperate zone. + +Vainly did I endeavor to calm the terror of my patients, excited still +more by the elemental uproar without; vainly did I harangue them, in the +plainest terms to which science is reducible, on atmospheric vibrations, +acoustics, reverberations, and volcanic agencies; they insisted on some +supernatural power having produced the recent fearful sounds. Neither +common nor uncommon sense could prevail with them; and when they +discovered, by the appearance of the extra nurse I had sent for, to +perform the last offices for Jackson, that he was dead, a renewed +and irrepressible horror attacked them, and it was broad day before +composure or stillness was regained in any part of the building except +my own rooms, to which I betook myself as soon as possible, and slept +till sunrise, too soundly for any mystical visitation whatever to have +disturbed my rest. + +The next day, in spite of the brief influence of the Norther, the first +case of yellow fever showed itself in the hospital; before night seven +had sickened, and one, already reduced by chronic disease, died. I had +hoped to bury Jackson decently, in the cemetery of the city, where his +vexed mortality might rest in peace under the oleanders and china-trees, +shut in by the hedge of Cherokee roses that guards the enclosure from +the prairie, a living wall of glassy green, strewn with ivory-white buds +and blossoms, fair and pure; but on applying for a burial-spot, the +city authorities, panic-stricken cowards that they were, denied me the +privilege even of a prairie grave, outside the cemetery hedge, for the +poor fellow. In vain did I represent that he had died of lingering +disease, and that nowise contagious; nothing moved them. It was enough +that there was yellow fever in the ward where he died. I was forthwith +strictly ordered to have all the dead from the hospital buried on the +sand-flats at the east end of the island. + +What a place that is it is scarcely possible to describe. Wide and +dreary levels of sand, some four or five feet lower than the town, +and flooded by high tides; the only vegetation a scanty, dingy gray, +brittle, crackling growth,--bitter sandworts and the like; over and +through which the abominable tawny sand-crabs are constantly executing +diabolic waltzes on the tips of their eight legs, vanishing into the +ground like imps as you approach; curlews start from behind the loose +drifts of sand and float away with heartbroken cries seaward; little +sandpipers twitter plaintively, running through the weeds; and great, +sulky, gray cranes droop their motionless heads over the still salt +pools along the shore. + +To this blank desolation I was forced to carry poor Jackson's body, +with that of the fever-patient, just at sunset. As the Dutchman who +officiated as hearse, sexton, bearer, and procession, stuck his spade +into the ground, and withdrew it full of crumbling shells and fine sand, +the hole it left filled with bitter black ooze. There, sunk in the ooze, +covered with the shifting sand, bewailed by the wild cries of sea-birds, +noteless and alone, I left Eben Jackson, and returned to the mass of +pestilence and wretchedness within the hospital walls. + +In the spring I reached home safely. None but the resident on a Southern +sand-bank can fully appreciate the verdure and bloom of the North. The +great elms of my native town were full of tender buds, like a clinging +mist in their graceful branches; earlier trees were decked with little +leaves, deep-creased, and silvery with down; the wide river in a fluent +track of metallic lustre weltered through green meadows that on either +hand stretched far and wide; the rolling land beyond was spread out in +pastures, where the cattle luxuriated after the winter's stalling; and +on many a slope and plain the patient farmer turned up his heavy sods +and clay, to moulder in sun and air for seed-time and harvest; and the +beautiful valley that met the horizon on the north and south rolled away +eastward and westward to a low blue range of hills, that guarded it with +granite walls and bristling spears of hemlock and pine. + +This is not my story; and if it were, I do not know that I should detail +my home-coming. It is enough to say, that I came after a five years' +absence, and found all that I had left nearly as I had left it;--how few +can say as much! + +Various duties and some business arrangements kept me at work for six or +seven weeks, and it was June before I could fulfil my promise to Eben +Jackson. I took the venerable old horse and chaise that had carried my +father on his rounds for years, and made the best of my way out toward +Simsbury. I was alone, of course; even Cousin Lizzy, charming as five +years had made the little girl of thirteen whom I had left behind on +quitting home, was not invited to share my drive; there was something +too serious in the errand to endure the presence of a gay young lady. +But I was not lonely; the drive up Talcott Mountain, under the rude +portcullis of the toll-gate, through fragrant woods, by trickling +brooks, past huge boulders that scarce a wild vine dare cling to, with +its feeble, delicate tendrils, is all exquisite, and full of living +repose; and turning to descend the mountain, just where a brook drops +headlong with clattering leap into a steep black ravine, and comes out +over a tiny green meadow, sliding past great granite rocks, and bending +the grass-blades to a shining track, you see suddenly at your feet the +beautiful mountain valley of the Farmington river, trending away in hill +after hill,--rough granite ledges crowned with cedar and pine,--deep +ravines full of heaped rocks,--and here and there the formal white rows +of a manufacturing village, where Kühleborn is captured and forced to +turn water-wheels, and Undine picks cotton or grinds hardware, dammed +into utility. + +Into this valley I plunged, and inquiring my way of many a prim farmer's +wife and white-headed school-boy, I edged my way northward under the +mountain side, and just before noon found myself beneath the "great +ellum," where, nearly twenty years ago, Eben Jackson and Hetty Buel had +said good-bye. + +I tied my horse to the fence and walked up the worn footpath to the +door. Apparently no one was at home. Under this impression I knocked +vehemently, by way of making sure; and a weak, cracked voice at length +answered, "Come in!" There, by the window, perhaps the same where she +sat so long before, crouched in an old chair covered with calico, her +bent fingers striving with mechanical motion to knit a coarse stocking, +sat old Mrs. Buel. Age had worn to the extreme of attenuation a face +that must always have been hard-featured, and a few locks of snow-white +hair, straying from under the bandanna handkerchief of bright red and +orange that was tied over her cap and under her chin, added to the +old-world expression of her whole figure. She was very deaf; scarcely +could I make her comprehend that I wanted to see her grand-daughter; at +last she understood, and asked me to sit down till Hetty should come +from school; and before long, a tall, thin figure opened the gate and +came slowly up the path. + +I had a good opportunity to observe the constant, dutiful, self-denying +Yankee girl,--girl no longer, now that twenty years of unrewarded +patience had lined her face with unmistakable graving. But I could not +agree with Eben's statement that she was not pretty; she must have been +so in her youth; even now there was beauty in her deep-set and heavily +fringed dark eyes, soft, tender, and serious, and in the noble and +pensive Greek outline of the brow and nose; her upper lip and chin were +too long to agree well with her little classic head, but they gave a +certain just and pure expression to the whole face, and to the large +thin-lipped mouth, flexible yet firm in its lines. It is true, her hair +was neither abundant, nor wanting in gleaming threads of gray; her skin +was freckled, sallow, and devoid of varying tint or freshness; her +figure angular and spare; her hands red with hard work; and her air at +once sad and shy;--still, Hetty Buel was a very lovely woman in my eyes, +though I doubt if Lizzy would have thought so. + +I hardly knew how to approach the painful errand I had come on, and with +true masculine awkwardness I cut the matter short by drawing out from my +pocket-book the Panama chain and ring, and placing them in her hands. +Well as I thought I knew the New England character, I was not prepared +for so quiet a reception of this token as she gave it. With a steady +hand she untwisted the wire fastening of the chain, slipped the ring +off, and, bending her head, placed it reverently on the ring-finger of +her left hand;--brief, but potent ceremony; and over without preface or +comment, but over for all time. + +Still holding the chain, she offered me a chair, and sat down +herself,--a little paler, a little more grave, than on entering. + +"Will you tell me how and where he died, Sir?" said she,--evidently +having long considered the fact in her heart as a fact; probably having +heard Seth Crane's story of the Louisa Miles's loss. + +I detailed my patient's tale as briefly and sympathetically as I knew +how. The episode of Wailua caused a little flushing of lip and cheek, a +little twisting of the ring, as if it were not to be worn, after all; +but as I told of his sacred care of the trinket for its giver's sake, +and the not unwilling forsaking of that island wife, the restless motion +passed away, and she listened quietly to the end; only once lifting her +left hand to her lips, and resting her head on it for a moment, as +I detailed the circumstances of his death, after supplying what was +wanting in his own story, from the time of his taking passage in Crane's +ship, to their touching at the island, expressly to leave him in the +Hospital, when a violent hemorrhage had disabled him from further +voyaging. + +I was about to tell her I had seen him decently buried,--of course +omitting descriptions of the how and where,--when the grandmother, who +had been watching us with the impatient querulousness of age, hobbled +across the room to ask "what that 'are man was a-talkin' about." + +Briefly and calmly, in the key long use had suited to her infirmity, +Hetty detailed the chief points of my story. + +"Dew tell!" exclaimed the old woman; "Eben Jackson a'n't dead on dry +land, is he? Left means, eh?" + +I walked away to the door, biting my lip. Hetty, for once, reddened to +the brow; but replaced her charge in the chair and followed me to the +gate. + +"Good day, Sir," said she, offering me her hand,--and then slightly +hesitating,--"Grandmother is very old. I thank you, Sir! I thank you +kindly!" + +As she turned and went toward the house, I saw the glitter of the Panama +chain about her thin and sallow throat, and, by the motion of her hands, +that she was retwisting the same wire fastening that Eben Jackson had +manufactured for it. + +Five years after, last June, I went to Simsbury with a gay picnic party. +This time Lizzy was with me; indeed, she generally is now. + +I detached myself from the rest, after we were fairly arranged for the +day, and wandered away alone to "Miss Buel's." + +The house was closed, the path grassy, a sweetbrier bush had blown +across the door, and was gay with blossoms; all was still, dusty, +desolate. I could not be satisfied with this. The meeting-house was +as near as any neighbor's, and the graveyard would ask me no curious +questions; I entered it doubting; but there, "on the leeward side," near +to the grave of "Bethia Jackson, wife of John Eben Jackson," were two +new stones, one dated but a year later than the other, recording the +deaths of "Temperance Buel, aged 96," and "Hester Buel, aged 44." + + * * * * * + + +AMOURS DE VOYAGE. + +[Continued.] + + +II. + + + Is it illusion? or does there a spirit from perfecter ages, + Here, even yet, amid loss, change, and corruption, abide? + Does there a spirit we know not, though seek, though we find, + comprehend not, + Here to entice and confuse, tempt and evade us, abide? + Lives in the exquisite grace of the column disjointed and single, + Haunts the rude masses of brick garlanded gayly with vine, + E'en in the turret fantastic surviving that springs from the ruin, + E'en in the people itself? Is it illusion or not? + Is it illusion or not that attracteth the pilgrim Transalpine, + Brings him a dullard and dunce hither to pry and to stare? + Is it illusion or not that allures the barbarian stranger, + Brings him with gold to the shrine, brings him in arms to the gate? + + I.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + What do the people say, and what does the government do?--you + Ask, and I know not at all. Yet fortune will favor your hopes; and + I, who avoided it all, am fated, it seems, to describe it. + I, who nor meddle nor make in politics,--I, who sincerely + Put not my trust in leagues nor any suffrage by ballot, + Never predicted Parisian millenniums, never beheld a + New Jerusalem coming down dressed like a bride out of heaven + Right on the Place de la Concorde,--I, ne'ertheless, let me say it, + Could in my soul of souls, this day, with the Gaul at the gates, shed + One true tear for thee, thou poor little Roman republic! + + France, it is foully done! and you, my stupid old England,-- + You, who a twelvemonth ago said nations must choose for themselves, you + Could not, of course, interfere,--you, now, when a nation has chosen-- + Pardon this folly! _The Times_ will, of course, have announced the + occasion, + Told you the news of to-day; and although it was slightly in error + When it proclaimed as a fact the Apollo was sold to a Yankee, + You may believe when it tells you the French are at Civita Vecchia. + + II.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + "Dulce" it is, and _"decorum"_ no doubt, for the country to fall,--to + Offer one's blood an oblation to Freedom, and die for the Cause; yet + Still, individual culture is also something, and no man + Finds quite distinct the assurance that he of all others is called on, + Or would be justified, even, in taking away from the world that + Precious creature, himself. Nature sent him here to abide here; + Else why sent him at all? Nature wants him still, it is likely. + On the whole, we are meant to look after ourselves; it is certain + Each has to eat for himself, digest for himself, and in general + Care for his own dear life, and see to his own preservation; + Nature's intentions, in most things uncertain, in this most plain and + decisive: + These, on the whole, I conjecture the Romans will follow, and I shall. + + So we cling to the rocks like limpets; Ocean may bluster, + Over and under and round us; we open our shells to imbibe our + Nourishment, close them again, and are safe, fulfilling the purpose + Nature intended,--a wise one, of course, and a noble, we doubt not. + Sweet it may be and decorous, perhaps, for the country to die; but, + On the whole, we conclude the Romans won't do it, and I shan't. + + III.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Will they fight? They say so. And will the French? I can hardly, + Hardly think so; and yet--He is come, they say, to Palo, + He is passed from Monterone, at Santa Severa + He hath laid up his guns. But the Virgin, the Daughter of Roma, + She hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn,--the Daughter of Tiber + She hath shaken her head and built barricades against thee! + + Will they fight? I believe it. Alas, 'tis ephemeral folly, + Vain and ephemeral folly, of course, compared with pictures, + Statues, and antique gems,--indeed: and yet indeed too, + Yet methought, in broad day did I dream,--tell it not in St. James's, + Whisper it not in thy courts, O Christ Church!--yet did I, waking, + Dream of a cadence that sings, _Si tombent nos jeunes héros, la + Terre en produit de nouveaux contre vous tous prêts à se battre;_ + Dreamt of great indignations and angers transcendental, + Dreamt of a sword at my side and a battle-horse underneath me. + + IV.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Now supposing the French or the Neapolitan soldier + Should by some evil chance come exploring the Maison Serny, + (Where the family English are all to assemble for safety,) + Am I prepared to lay down my life for the British female? + Really, who knows? One has bowed and talked, till, little by little, + All the natural heat has escaped of the chivalrous spirit. + Oh, one conformed, of course; but one doesn't die for good manners, + Stab or shoot, or be shot, by way of a graceful attention. + No, if it should be at all, it should be on the barricades there; + Should I incarnadine ever this inky pacifical finger, + Sooner far should it be for this vapor of Italy's freedom, + Sooner far by the side of the damned and dirty plebeians. + + Ah, for a child in the street I could strike; for the full-blown lady-- + Somehow, Eustace, alas, I have not felt the vocation. + Yet these people of course will expect, as of course, my protection, + Vernon in radiant arms stand forth for the lovely Georgina, + And to appear, I suppose, were but common civility. Yes, and + Truly I do not desire they should either be killed or offended. + + Oh, and of course you will say, "When the time comes, you will be ready." + Ah, but before it comes, am I to presume it will be so? + What I cannot feel now, am I to suppose that I shall feel? + Am I not free to attend for the ripe and indubious instinct? + Am I forbidden to wait for the clear and lawful perception? + Is it the calling of man to surrender his knowledge and insight, + For the mere venture of what may, perhaps, be the virtuous action? + Must we, walking o'er earth, discerning a little, and hoping + Some plain visible task shall yet for our hands be assigned us,-- + Must we abandon the future for fear of omitting the present, + Quit our own fireside hopes at the alien call of a neighbor, + To the mere possible shadow of Deity offer the victim? + And is all this, my friend, but a weak and ignoble repining, + Wholly unworthy the head or the heart of Your Own Correspondent? + + V.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Yes, we are fighting at last, it appears. This morning, as usual, + _Murray_, as usual, in hand, I enter the Caffè Nuovo; + Seating myself with a sense as it were of a change in the weather, + Not understanding, however, but thinking mostly of Murray, + And, for to-day is their day, of the Campidoglio Marbles, + _Caffè-latte!_ I call to the waiter,--and _Non c' è latte_, + This is the answer he makes me, and this the sign of a battle. + So I sit; and truly they seem to think any one else more + Worthy than me of attention. I wait for my milkless _nero_, + Free to observe undistracted all sorts and sizes of persons, + Blending civilian and soldier in strangest costume, coming in, and + Gulping in hottest haste, still standing, their coffee,--withdrawing + Eagerly, jangling a sword on the steps, or jogging a musket + Slung to the shoulder behind. They are fewer, moreover, than usual, + Much, and silenter far; and so I begin to imagine + Something is really afloat. Ere I leave, the Caffè is empty, + Empty too the streets, in all its length the Corso + Empty, and empty I see to my right and left the Condotti. + + Twelve o'clock, on the Pincian Hill, with lots of English, + Germans, Americans, French,--the Frenchmen, too, are protected. + So we stand in the sun, but afraid of a probable shower; + So we stand and stare, and see, to the left of St. Peter's, + Smoke, from the cannon, white,--but that is at intervals only,-- + Black, from a burning house, we suppose, by the Cavalleggieri; + And we believe we discern some lines of men descending + Down through the vineyard-slopes, and catch a bayonet gleaming. + Every ten minutes, however,--in this there is no misconception,-- + Comes a great white puff from behind Michel Angelo's dome, and + After a space the report of a real big gun,--not the Frenchman's?-- + That must be doing some work. And so we watch and conjecture. + + Shortly, an Englishman comes, who says he has been to St. Peter's, + Seen the Piazza and troops, but that is all he can tell us; + So we watch and sit, and, indeed, it begins to be tiresome.-- + All this smoke is outside; when it has come to the inside, + It will be time, perhaps, to descend and retreat to our houses. + + Half-past one, or two. The report of small arms frequent, + Sharp and savage indeed; that cannot all be for nothing: + So we watch and wonder; but guessing is tiresome, very. + Weary of wondering, watching, and guessing, and gossipping idly, + Down I go, and pass through the quiet streets with the knots of + National Guards patrolling and flags hanging out at the windows, + English, American, Danish,--and, after offering to help an + Irish family moving _en masse_ to the Maison Serny, + After endeavoring idly to minister balm to the trembling + Quinquagenarian fears of two lone British spinsters, + Go to make sure of my dinner before the enemy enter. + But by this there are signs of stragglers returning; and voices + Talk, though you don't believe it, of guns and prisoners taken; + And on the walls you read the first bulletin of the morning.-- + This is all that I saw, and all I know of the battle. + + VI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Victory! Victory!--Yes! ah, yes, thou republican Zion, + Truly the kings of the earth are gathered and gone by together; + Doubtless they marvelled to witness such things, were astonished, + and so forth. + Victory! Victory! Victory!--Ah, but it is, believe me, + Easier, easier far, to intone the chant of the martyr + Than to indite any paean of any victory. Death may + Sometimes be noble; but life, at the best, will appear an illusion, + While the great pain is upon us, it is great; when it is over, + Why, it is over. The smoke of the sacrifice rises to heaven, + Of a sweet savor, no doubt, to somebody; but on the altar, + Lo, there is nothing remaining but ashes and dirt and ill odor. + + So it stands, you perceive; the labial muscles, that swelled with + Vehement evolution of yesterday Marseillaises, + Articulations sublime of defiance and scorning, to-day col- + Lapse and languidly mumble, while men and women and papers + Scream and re-scream to each other the chorus of Victory. Well, but + I am thankful they fought, and glad that the Frenchmen were beaten. + + VII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + So I have seen a man killed! An experience that, among others! + Yes, I suppose I have; although I can hardly be certain, + And in a court of justice could never declare I had seen it. + But a man was killed, I am told, in a place where I saw + Something; a man was killed, I am told, and I saw something. + + I was returning home from St. Peter's; Murray, as usual, + Under my arm, I remember; had crossed the St. Angelo bridge; and + Moving towards the Condotti, had got to the first barricade, when + Gradually, thinking still of St. Peter's, I became conscious + Of a sensation of movement opposing me,--tendency this way + (Such as one fancies may be in a stream when the wave of the tide is + Coming and not yet come,--a sort of poise and retention); + So I turned, and, before I turned, caught sight of stragglers + Heading a crowd, it is plain, that is coming behind that corner. + Looking up, I see windows filled with heads; the Piazza, + Into which you remember the Ponte St. Angelo enters, + Since I passed, has thickened with curious groups; and now the + Crowd is coming, has turned, has crossed that last barricade, is + Here at my side. In the middle they drag at something. What is it? + Ha! bare swords in the air, held up! There seem to be voices + Pleading and hands putting back; official, perhaps; but the swords are + Many, and bare in the air,--in the air! They descend! They are smiting, + Hewing, chopping! At what? In the air once more upstretched! And + Is it blood that's on them? Yes, certainly blood! Of whom, then? + Over whom is the cry of this furor of exultation? + + While they are skipping and screaming, and dancing their caps on the + points of + Swords and bayonets, I to the outskirts back, and ask a + Mercantile-seeming bystander, "What is it?" and he, looking always + That way, makes me answer, "A Priest, who was trying to fly to + The Neapolitan army,"--and thus explains the proceeding. + + You didn't see the dead man? No;--I began to be doubtful; + I was in black myself, and didn't know what mightn't happen;-- + But a National Guard close by me, outside of the hubbub, + Broke his sword with slashing a broad hat covered with dust,--and + Passing away from the place with Murray under my arm, and + Stooping, I saw through the legs of the people the legs of a body. + + You are the first, do you know, to whom I have mentioned the matter. + Whom should I tell it to, else?--these girls?--the Heavens forbid it!-- + Quidnuncs at Monaldini's?--idlers upon the Pincian? + + If I rightly remember, it happened on that afternoon when + Word of the nearer approach of a new Neapolitan army + First was spread. I began to bethink me of Paris Septembers, + Thought I could fancy the look of the old 'Ninety-two. On that evening, + Three or four, or, it may be, five, of these people were slaughtered. + Some declare they had, one of them, fired on a sentinel; others + Say they were only escaping; a Priest, it is currently stated, + Stabbed a National Guard on the very Piazza Colonna: + History, Rumor of Rumors, I leave it to thee to determine! + + But I am thankful to say the government seems to have strength to + Put it down; it has vanished, at least; the place is now peaceful. + Through the Trastevere walking last night, at nine of the clock, I + Found no sort of disorder; I crossed by the Island-bridges, + So by the narrow streets to the Ponte Rotto, and onwards + Thence, by the Temple of Vesta, away to the great Coliseum, + Which at the full of the moon is an object worthy a visit. + + VIII.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + Only think, dearest Louisa, what fearful scenes we have witnessed!-- + + * * * * * + + George has just seen Garibaldi, dressed up in a long white cloak, on + Horseback, riding by, with his mounted negro behind him: + This is a man, you know, who came from America with him, + Out of the woods, I suppose, and uses a _lasso_ in fighting, + Which is, I don't quite know, but a sort of noose, I imagine; + This he throws on the heads of the enemy's men in a battle, + Pulls them into his reach, and then most cruelly kills them: + Mary does not believe, but we heard it from an Italian. + + Mary allows she was wrong about Mr. Claude _being selfish_; + He was _most_ useful and kind on the terrible thirtieth of April. + + Do not write here any more; we are starting directly for Florence: + We should be off to-morrow, if only Papa could get horses; + All have been seized everywhere for the use of this dreadful Mazzini. + + P.S. + + Mary has seen thus far.--I am really so angry, Louisa,-- + Quite out of patience, my dearest! What can the man be intending? + I am quite tired; and Mary, who might bring him to in a moment, + Lets him go on as he likes, and neither will help nor dismiss him. + + IX.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + It is most curious to see what a power a few calm words (in + Merely a brief proclamation) appear to possess on the people. + Order is perfect, and peace; the city is utterly tranquil; + And one cannot conceive that this easy and _nonchalant_ crowd, that + Flows like a quiet stream through street and market-place, entering + Shady recesses and bays of church, _ostería_ and _caffè_, + Could in a moment be changed to a flood as of molten lava, + Boil into deadly wrath and wild homicidal delusion. + + Ah, 'tis an excellent race,--and even in old degradation, + Under a rule that enforces to flattery, lying, and cheating, + E'en under Pope and Priest, a nice and natural people. + Oh, could they but be allowed this chance of redemption!--but clearly + That is not likely to be. Meantime, notwithstanding all journals, + Honor for once to the tongue and the pen of the eloquent writer! + Honor to speech! and all honor to thee, thou noble Mazzini! + + X.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + I am in love, meantime, you think; no doubt, you would think so. + I am in love, you say; with those letters, of course, you would say so. + + I am in love, you declare. I think not so; yet I grant you + It is a pleasure, indeed, to converse with this girl. Oh, rare gift, + Rare felicity, this! she can talk in a rational way, can + Speak upon subjects that really are matters of mind and of thinking, + Yet in perfection retain her simplicity; never, one moment, + Never, however you urge it, however you tempt her, consents to + Step from ideas and fancies and loving sensations to those vain + Conscious understandings that vex the minds of man-kind. + No, though she talk, it is music; her fingers desert not the keys; 'tis + Song, though you hear in her song the articulate vocables sounded, + Syllabled singly and sweetly the words of melodious meaning. + + XI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Ah, let me look, let me watch, let me wait, unbiased, unprompted! + Bid me not venture on aught that could alter or end what is present! + Say not, Time flies, and occasion, that never returns, is departing! + Drive me not out, ye ill angels with fiery swords, from my Eden, + Waiting, and watching, and looking! Let love be its own inspiration! + Shall not a voice, if a voice there must be, from the airs that environ, + Yea, from the conscious heavens, without our knowledge or effort, + Break into audible words? Let love be its own inspiration! + + XII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Wherefore and how I am certain, I hardly can tell; but it is so. + She doesn't like me, Eustace; I think she never will like me. + Is it my fault, as it is my misfortune, my ways are not her ways? + Is it my fault, that my habits and modes are dissimilar wholly? + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her nature, her virtue, to misapprehend them: + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her beautiful nature, not even to know me. + Hopeless it seems,--yet I cannot, hopeless, determine to leave it: + She goes,--therefore I go; she moves,--I move, not to lose her. + + XIII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Oh, 'tisn't manly, of course, 'tisn't manly, this method of wooing; + 'Tisn't the way very likely to win. For the woman, they tell you, + Ever prefers the audacious, the wilful, the vehement hero; + She has no heart for the timid, the sensitive soul; and for knowledge,-- + Knowledge, O ye gods!--when did they appreciate knowledge? + Wherefore should they, either? I am sure I do not desire it. + + Ah, and I feel too, Eustace, she cares not a tittle about me! + (Care about me, indeed! and do I really expect it?) + But my manner offends; my ways are wholly repugnant; + Every word that I utter estranges, hurts, and repels her; + Every moment of bliss that I gain, in her exquisite presence, + Slowly, surely, withdraws her, removes her, and severs her from me. + Not that I care very much!--any way, I escape from the boy's own + Folly, to which I am prone, of loving where it is easy. + Yet, after all, my Eustace, I know but little about it. + All I can say for myself, for present alike and for past, is, + Mary Trevellyn, Eustace, is certainly worth your acquaintance. + You couldn't come, I suppose, as far as Florence, to see her? + + XIV.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + * * * To-morrow we're starting for Florence, + Truly rejoiced, you may guess, to escape from republican terrors; + Sir. C. and Papa to escort us; we by _vettura_ + Through Siena, and Georgy to follow and join us by Leghorn. + Then----Ah, what shall I say, my dearest? I tremble in thinking! + You will imagine my feelings,--the blending of hope and of sorrow! + How can I bear to abandon Papa and Mamma and my sisters? + Dearest Louisa, indeed it is very alarming; but trust me + Ever, whatever may change, to remain your loving Georgina. + + P.S. BY MARY TREVELLYN. + + * * * "Do I like Mr. Claude any better?" + I am to tell you,--and, "Pray, is it Susan or I that attract him?" + This he never has told, but Georgina could certainly ask him. + All I can say for myself is, alas! that he rather repels me. + There! I think him agreeable, but also a little repulsive. + So be content, dear Louisa; for one satisfactory marriage + Surely will do in one year for the family you would establish, + Neither Susan nor I shall afford you the joy of a second. + + P.S. BY GEORGINA TREVELLYN. + + Mr. Claude, you must know, is behaving a little bit better; + He and Papa are great friends; but he really is too _shilly-shally_,-- + So unlike George! Yet I hope that the matter is going on fairly. + I shall, however, get George, before he goes, to say something. + Dearest Louisa, how delightful, to bring young people together! + + * * * * * + + Is it to Florence we follow, or are we to tarry yet longer, + E'en amid clamor of arms, here in the city of old, + Seeking from clamor of arms in the Past and the Arts to be hidden, + Vainly 'mid Arts and the Past seeking our life to forget? + + Ah, fair shadow, scarce seen, go forth! for anon he shall follow,-- + He that beheld thee, anon, whither thou leadest, must go! + Go, and the wise, loving Muse, she also will follow and find thee! + She, should she linger in Rome, were not dissevered from thee! + +[To be continued.] + + + + +A WELSH MUSICAL FESTIVAL. + + +I had been knocking about London, as the phrase goes, for more months +than I choose to mention, when, my purse presenting unmistakable +symptoms of a coming state of collapse, I began seriously to look about +me for the means of replenishing it. Luckily, I had not to wait long for +an opportunity. One morning, as I sat in the box of a coffee-room in +Holborn, running my eye over the advertisement columns of the "Times," +I met with one which promised novelty, at least; I had had too much +experience in such matters to anticipate from it any very great +_pecuniary_ compensation. The said advertisement was to the effect, +that a gentleman who combined literary tastes with business habits was +required to edit a paper published in a town in South Wales; and it went +on to state, that application, personally or by letter, might be made to +the proprietor of the said journal at M----. + +That I possessed some taste for literature I was well enough assured; +but as for my "business habits," perhaps the least said about them, the +better. This condition of candidateship, however, I quietly shirked, +while counting over my few remaining coins, scarcely more than +sufficient, after paying my landlady, to defray my expenses to M----, +some one hundred and sixty miles distant. Determining, then, to assume a +commercial virtue, though I had it not, I quitted the metropolis, and in +due time reached the land of leeks, with a light heart, and seven and +sixpence sterling in my pocket. + +A queer little Welsh town was M----, with an androgynous population,--or +so it seemed to me, who had never before beheld women wearing men's hats +and coats, and men with head-coverings and other articles of apparel +of a very ambiguous description. It chanced to be market-day when I +arrived, so that I had a capital opportunity of observing the population +for whose edification my "literary tastes" were, I hoped, to be called +into requisition. But at the very outset a tremendous difficulty stared +me in the face. Nine out of every ten of the people I met or passed +spoke in a language that to me was as unintelligibly mysterious as the +cuneiform characters on Mr. Layard's Nineveh sculptures. It was a hard, +harsh, guttural dialect, which even those who were to the manner born +seemed to jerk out painfully and spasmodically from their lingual +organs. This was especially obvious during a bargain, where an excited +market-man was endeavoring to pass off a tough old gander as a tender +young goose, to some equally excited customer. It was dissonant enough +to _my_ ear, but I fancy it would have driven a sensitive Italian to +distraction. After listening to the horrible jargon for some time, I +could easily believe the story which poor William Maginn used to tell +with such unction, of the origin of the Welsh language. It was to this +effect.--When the Tower of Babel was being built, the workmen all spoke +one tongue. Just at the very instant when the "confusion" occurred, a +mason, trowel in hand, called for a brick. This his assistant was so +long in handing to him, that he incontinently flew into a towering +passion, and discharged from the said trowel a quantity of mortar, which +entered the other's windpipe just as he was stammering out an excuse. +The air, rushing through the poultice-like mixture, caused a spluttering +and gurgling, which, blending with the half-formed words, became that +language ever since known as Welsh.--I think it my duty to advise the +reader never to tell this anecdote to any descendants of Cadwallader, +who are peculiarly sensitive on the subject, and so hot-blooded, that it +is not at all unlikely the injudicious story-teller might be deprived of +any future opportunity of insulting the Ap-Shenkins, the Ap-Joneses, and +the race of very irascible Taffys in general. + +I had, however, little time to study either language or character; so, +after a plain dinner at the Merlin's Head, the chief inn of the place, I +set out for the purpose of seeing the newspaper proprietor. Fortified by +a letter of introduction and some testimonials, I entered his shop,--he +was a bookseller and stationer,--and inquired for Mr. F----. + +"That's my name," said a red-faced man behind the counter. I handed him +the introductory note, he glanced at it and then at me, thrust it into +his waistcoat pocket, and, as soon as he had served the customer with +whom he was engaged, led the way into a little room adjoining the place +of business. + +Mr. F--- owned the newspaper; but, as he never ventured in a literary +way beyond reading proofs of advertisements, he was compelled to employ +an editor to do the leaders, select from the exchanges, prepare the +local news, and get up the reporting. He was, however, a practical +printer, and, in the main, a good fellow. After looking at my +testimonials and asking a few questions, my services were accepted, +and I was duly installed as editor of the "M---- Beacon," a small, +but rather influential county sheet. I ought to observe, that, as it +circulated chiefly in places where English was generally spoken, my +ignorance of Welsh was of but little importance, especially as the +foreman of the printing-office was a Cambrian, who could correct any +errors I might make in Taffy's orthography, which, prodigal as it is of +consonants and penurious of vowels, and, as it regards pronunciation, +embarrassing to the last degree, might drive Elihu Burritt back to his +smithy in an agony of despair. + +Thus assisted, I got on tolerably well, though at first I made some +awful mistakes in the names of places mentioned by witnesses in courts +of justice and elsewhere. For instance, at the assizes, a man swore that +he resided at a place which he pronounced Monothosluin, and so I spelt +it in my report. "Cot pless me, Sur!--sure inteed, and you have +not spelt hur right," remarked Mr. Morgan, the foreman; and for my +edification he set it up thus,--_Mynyddysllwyn_. I almost turned my +tongue into a corkscrew, trying to speak the word as he did, and I +fairly gave up in despair. After that, I made it a rule, when I did +not know how to spell some unpronounceable word, to huddle a number of +consonants together in most admired disorder, and I was then usually +nearer correctness than if I had orthographized by ear. + +I had been installed in the editorial chair some six months when Mr. +F---- informed me it was necessary I should visit Abergavenny, a town +some twenty-five miles distant, for the purpose of reporting the +proceedings at the CYMREIGGDDYON. + +"And what the deuse is that?" I inquired. + +I learned that it was a Triennial Musical Festival, so called,--at which +all the musical talent of Wales would be present; in short, that it was +a very grand occasion indeed, would be patronized by the aristocracy +of the Principality, and full reports of each of the three days' +proceedings were absolutely necessary. + +Here again the Welsh difficulty started up; but as the Cymreiggddyon +would be quite a novelty, I determined to trust to Chance and +Circumstance,--two allies of mine who have gallantly aided me in many a +tough battle of literary life. + +Remembering the words of Goldsmith,--"The young noble who is whirled +through Europe in his chariot sees society at a peculiar elevation, and +draws conclusions widely different from him who makes the grand tour on +foot," I determined to make my way to Abergavenny either by means of my +own legs or through the chance aid of those of a Welsh pony. So, +one bright morning, with stick in hand, knapsack on shoulder, and a +wandering artist for a companion, I started for the iron district, +as that part of Wales is termed. Wildly romantic were the roads we +traversed; and after having threaded many a glen, leaped frequent +torrents, ascended and descended mountains with impossible names, and +plodded wearily across dreary moors, glad enough were we to observe, in +the less thinly scattered cottages, indications of a town. + +The clouds had been gathering ominously during the latter half of our +long day of travel,--and as the sun set blood-red behind a heavy bank of +vapor, it cast lurid reflections on large bodies of dense mist, which +sailed heavily athwart the crests of the mountains, with low, ragged, +trailing edges, that were too surely the precursors of a storm. Just +before the orb finally disappeared, its slant rays streamed through some +dark purple bars on the horizon's verge, and for an instant tinged the +opposite distant mountains with strange supernatural hues. The Blorenge +and the Sugar Loaf glowed like huge carbuncles, while the pale green +light which bathed their bases gleamed faintly like a setting of +aqua-marina. My artist companion incontinently fell into professional +raptures, and raved of "effect," and "Turner," and "Ruskin," heedless of +my advice that he had better hasten onward, lest night should overtake +us in that wild region, where sheep-tracks, scarcely visible even by +daylight, were our sole guides. At length, however, I managed to +start him, and on we stalked, the decreasing twilight and the distant +reverberations of thunder among the mountains hastening our steps, until +they became almost a trot. + +But soon the trot declined once more into a walk, and a slow one +too,--for we entered a gloomy pass or gorge, whose rocky walls on either +side effectually excluded what little light yet lingered in the sky. +Cautiously picking our way, we slowly travelled on, until at length +we became sensible of a faint red flush in the narrow strip of sky +overhead. It seemed as though the sun had just wheeled back to give a +forgotten message to some starry-night-watcher,--or so my companion +intimated. But, unfortunately for his theory, the dull red glare +above us, which every moment deepened in intensity, was evidently +the reflection of earthly, not heavenly fire. I had seen too many +conflagrations to doubt that for an instant. Presently a dull, confused +sound fell on our ears, and at a sudden turn round an angle of our +mountain road we stood speechless as we gazed on a spectacle which +Milton might have conceived and Martin painted. + + "Far other light than that of day there shone + Upon the wanderers entering Padalon," + +murmured the artist, as he gazed on the strange scene. And strange +indeed was it to our startled eyes. We stood on the end and summit of a +mountain spur, some two thousand feet above the valley, or rather basin, +below, from the centre of which burst forth a thousand fires, whose +dull roar--dulled by distance--was like "the noise of the sea on an +iron-bound shore." The extent of space covered by those strange, fierce +fires must have amounted to many acres,--in fact, did so, as we +afterwards ascertained,--and the effect produced by them may be +partially imagined when it is remembered that these flames were of all +hues, from rich ruby-red, to the pale lurid light of burning sulphur. +Fancy all the gems of Aladdin's Palace or Sinbad's Valley in fierce +flashing combustion, immensely magnified, and you may form some faint +idea of the scene in that Welsh valley. + +Stretching out, like spokes of a gigantic wheel, from their fiery +centre, were huge embankments, like those of Titanic railways, whose +summits and sides, especially towards their extremities, glowed in +patches with all the hues of the rainbow. As I gazed wonderingly on one +of these,--a real mountain of light, far surpassing the Koh-i-Noor,--I +observed a dark figure gliding along its summit, pushing something +before it, like a black imp conveying an unfortunate soul from one part +of Tophet to another. At the extremity of the ridge the imp stopped, and +suddenly there shot down the steep, not a tortured ghost, but a shower +of radiant gems even more brilliant than those to which I have already +referred. + +"What, in the name of all that's wonderful, is _that_?" said my friend, +Mr. Vandyke Brown; and I was also trying to account for the phenomena, +when a voice close to my ear--a voice which I was certain belonged +neither to Mr. B. nor myself--uttered the mysterious word,-- + +"Sl-aa-g!" + +I looked round, and, sure enough, there stood a being who might very +easily be mistaken for a new arrival from the bottomless pit. Such, +however, it was evident he was not. Though he was black enough, in all +conscience, he had neither horns, hoof, nor tail, and he was redolent +rather of 'bacco than brimstone; a queer old hat, in the band of which +was stuck an unlighted candle, covered a mass of matted red hair; his +eyes were glaring and rimmed with red; and there was a gash in his face +where his mouth should have been. A loose flannel shirt, which had once +been red, a pair of indescribable trowsers, and thick-soled shoes, +completed his dress,--an attire which I at once recognized as that +common among the coal-miners of the district. + +"'Deed and truth, Sur, they is cinder-heaps and slag from the +iron-works, Sur; and yon is Merthyr-Tydvil, sure." + +Piloted by our dusky guide,--not exactly, though, like Campbell's +"_Morning_ brought by Night,"--we soon reached the town,--which is named +after a young lady of legendary times named Tydfil, a Christian martyr, +of which Merthyr-Tydvil is a corruption,--and made the best of our +way to the Bush Inn, where we treated our sable friend to some _cwrw +dach,--Anglicé_, strong ale; and after a hearty supper of Welsh rabbit, +which Tom Ingoldsby calls a "bunny without any bones," and "custard with +mustard,"--which, as made in the Principality, it much resembles,--I +took a stroll through the town. It was a dull-looking place enough, and +as dirty as dull; every house was built with dingy gray stones, without +any reference whatever to cleanliness or ventilation; and as to the +civilization of the inhabitants, I saw enough to convince me, that, to +see real barbarism, an Englishman need only visit that part of Great +Britain called Wales. It was eight in the evening, and the day-laborers +at the furnaces had just left work. The doors of all the cottages were +open, and, as I passed them, in almost every one was to be seen a +perfectly naked stalwart man rubbing himself down with a dirty rough +towel, while his wife and grown-up daughters or sisters, almost as nude +and filthy as himself, stood listlessly by, or prepared his supper. + +Glad to escape from such disgusting objects, I hurried back to the Bush +and to bed. But not to rest, though; for during that long, miserable +night, the eternal rattle of machinery, clattering of hammers, whirling +of huge wheels, and roaring of blast-furnaces completely murdered sleep. +Never, for one instant, did these sounds cease,--nor do they, it is +said, the long year through; for if any accident happens at one of the +five great iron-works, there are four others which rest not day nor +night. Little, however, is this heeded by the people of Merthyr; _they_ +are lulled to repose by the clatter of iron bars and the thumping of +trip-hammers, but are instantaneously awakened by the briefest intervals +of silence. + +Glad enough was I, the next morning early, to cross an ink-black stream +and leave the town, and pleasant was it to breathe the free, fresh +mountain air, after inhaling the foul smoke of the iron-works. Towards +the close of the afternoon, after a delightful walk, a great portion +of it on the banks of the picturesque river Usk, we came in sight of +Abergavenny, where the Cymreiggddyon was to be held. + +The first of the glorious three days was duly ushered in with the firing +of cannon, ringing of bells, and all kinds of extravagant jubilation. +It wasn't quite as noisy as a Fourth of July, but much more discordant. +Strings of flags were suspended across the streets,--flags with harps +of all sorts and sizes displayed thereon,--flags with Welsh mottoes, +English mottoes, Scotch mottoes, and no mottoes at all. In front of the +Town Hall was almost an acre of transparent painting,--meant, that is, +to be so after dark, but mournfully opaque and pictorially mysterious in +the full glare of sunshine. As far as I could make it out, it was the +full-length portrait--taken from life, no doubt--of an Ancient Welsh +Bard. He was depicted as a baldheaded, elderly gentleman, with upturned +eyes, apparently regarding with reverence a hole in an Indian-ink cloud +through which slanted a gamboge sunbeam, and having a white beard, +which streamed like a (horse-hair) "meteor on the troubled air." This +venerable minstrel was seated on a cairn of rude stones, his white robe +clasped at his throat and round his waist by golden brooches, and with a +harp, shaped like that of David in old Bible illustrations, resting on +the sward before him. In the background were some Druidical remains, by +way of audience; and the whole was surrounded by a botanical border, +consisting of leeks, oak-leaves, laurel, and mistletoe, which had a very +rare and agreeable effect. Nor were these hieroglyphical decorations +without a deep meaning to a Cambrian; for while the oak-leaf typified +the durability of Welsh minstrelsy, the mistletoe its mysterious origin, +and the laurel its reward, the national leek was pleasantly suggestive +of its usual culinary companions, Welsh mutton and toasted cheese. + +As in America, so in Wales, almost every public matter is provocative of +a procession, and the proceedings of the Festival commenced with one. No +doubt, it was to the eyes of the many, who from scores of miles round +had travelled to witness it, a very imposing and serious demonstration; +but anything more ridiculously amusing it was never my good fortune to +see. I had, however, to keep all my fun to myself, for Welshmen are not +to be trifled with. Any one who wishes to be convinced of this need only +walk into a Welsh village, singing the old child-doggerel of + + "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, + Taffy came to my house and stole a piece + of beef," etc., + +and, my life on it, he will not leave it without striking proofs of +Welsh sensitiveness, and voluble illustrations of some Jenny Jones's +displeasure. By no means inclined to subject myself to such inconvenient +experiences, I prudently kept my eyes wide open and my mouth shut,--or +if I spoke, I merely asked questions, by which means I acquired +necessary information and passed off for a gratified stranger and an +admiring spectator. + +All the resources of the town and its neighborhood, and indeed of the +county itself, had been exhausted to give due effect to the parade, +of which I regret to say that I cannot hope to give any adequate +description. All the usual elements of processions were to be seen. +Bands of music,--there were at least a dozen of them, all playing +different pieces at one and the same moment, which had a somewhat +distracting effect on those sensitively-eared people who weakly prefer +one air at a time and do not appreciate tuneful tornadoes. As the +procession went by at a brisk pace, it was curious enough to notice how +the last wailing notes of "A noble race was Shenkin," played by a band +in advance, blended with the brisk music of "My name's David Price, and +I'm come from Llangollen," performed by a company in the rear. In fact, +it was a genuine Welsh musical medley, and the daring genius who would +have occupied himself in "untwisting all the links which tied its hidden +soul of harmony," would have had about as difficult and distressing a +task as he who tried to make ropes out of sea-sand. + +Of course, these bands were made up of divers instruments, but the +national harp was head and chief of them all, as might naturally have +been expected in such a place and at such a time. There were harps of +all sorts and shapes; some of the Welsh urchins had even Jews-harps +between their teeth. There were Irish harps, English harps, and Welsh +harps. There was no Caledonian harp, though; but a remarkably dirty +fellow in the procession seemed to be making up for the lack of one +stringed instrument by bringing another,--the Scotch fiddle!--on which +he perpetually played the tune of "God bless the gude Duke of Argyle!" +There were harps with one, two, and three sets of strings,--harps with +gold strings, silver strings, brass strings,--strings of cat-gut and +brass,--strings red, and brown, and white. I looked sharp for the "harp +of a thousand strings," but it was nowhere to be seen; and surmising +that such is only played on by the spirits of just men made perfect, I +ceased to search further for it in _that_ procession,--for though the +men composing it might be just enough, they were evidently a long way +from perfection. And when it is remembered that all these harps were +twang-twanging away furiously, and that their strings were being +swept over with no Bochsa fingers, few will wonder that I longed for +cotton-wool, and blessed the memory of Paganini, who had only one string +to his bow. + +Harps, however, would be of little value, were there no bards to sing +and no minstrels to play. Walter Scott was decidedly wrong, when, +speaking of his minstrel, he says,-- + + "The _last_ of all the bards was he." + +Nonsense! I saw at least fifty in that procession,--regular, legitimate +bards,--each one having a bardic bald pate, a long white bardic beard, +flowing bardic robes, bardic sandals, a bardic harp in his hand, and an +ancient bardic name. There was Bard Alaw, Bard Llewellyn, Bard Ap-Tudor, +Bard Llyyddmunnddggynn, (pronounce it, if you can, Reader,--I can't,) +and I am afraid to say how many more, in face of the high poetical +authority I have just cited and refuted. Talk of the age of poetry +having passed away, when three-score and ten bards can be seen at one +time in a little Welsh town! These men of genius were headed by Bard +Alaw, whose unpoetical name, I almost hesitate to write it, was +Williams,--Taliesin Williams,--the Welsh given name alone redeeming it +from obscurity. I found, too, to my disenchantment, that all the other +bards were Joneses and Morgans, Pryces and Robertses, when they were met +in everyday life, before and after these festivals; and that they kept +shops, and carried on mechanical trades. Only fancy Bard Ap-Tudor +shaving you, or Bard Llyynnssllumpllyynn measuring you for a new pair of +trowsers! + +After the bards and minstrels came the gentry of the county, the clergy, +and distinguished strangers, before and behind whom banners floated and +flags streamed. On many of these banners were fancy portraits of Saint +David, the Patron Saint of Wales, always with a harp in his hand. But +the Saint must have had a singularly varied expression of countenance, +or else his portrait-painters must have been mere block-heads, for no +two of their productions were alike. I saw smiling Davids, frowning +Davids, mild Davids, and ferocious Davids,--Davids with oblique eyes, +red noses, and cavernous mouths,--and Davids as blind as bats, or with +great goggle-orbs, aquiline nasal organs, blue at the tips, and lips +made for a lisp. One David had a brown Welsh wig on his head, and was +anachronistically attired in a snuff-colored coat, black small-clothes, +gray, coarse, worsted stockings, high-low boots, with buckles, and he +wore on his head a three-cornered hat, and used spectacles as big as +tea-saucers. On my remarking to a bystander, that I was not aware +knee-breeches were worn in the time of the ancient kings, I was +condescendingly informed that _this_ David was not the celebrated +Monarch-Minstrel, but a Mr. Pryce David, the founder of the +Cymreiggddyon Society. But the most amusing David was one depicted on a +banner carried in front of a company of barbers belonging to the order +of Odd Fellows. In that magnificent work of art David was represented +bewailing the death of Absalom, that unhappy young man being seen +hanging by his hair from a tree. Out of the mouth of David issued a +scroll, on which was inscribed the following touching verse:-- + + "Oh, Absalom! Oh, Absalom! + Oh, Absalom, my son! + If thou hadst worn a good Welsh wig, + Thou hadst not been undone!" + +It was with no little trouble that I elbowed my way into the great +temporary hall where the exercises were to be held: but by dint of much +pressing forward, I at length reached the reporters' bench. Directly in +front was a raised platform, and on two sides of the tent galleries +had been erected for the bards and orators. On the platform table +were arranged prizes to be given for the best playing, singing, and +speaking,--and also for articles of domestic Welsh manufacture, such +as plaids, flannels, and the like. A large velvet and gilded chair was +placed on a daïs for the president, and on either side of this, seats +for ladies and visitors. In a very short time every corner of the +spacious area was crammed. + +And a pretty and a cheerful spectacle was presented wherever the eye +turned. As in almost all other gatherings of the kind, the fair sex were +greatly in the majority; and during the interval which elapsed between +the opening of the doors and the beginning of business, the clatter of +female tongues was prodigious. The sex generally are voluble when in +crowds; but as for Welsh women, their loquacity was far beyond anything +of the kind I had ever conceived of. And there were some wonderfully +handsome specimens of girlhood, womanhood, and matronhood among that +great gathering; though I am compelled to admit that in Wales beauty +forms the exception, rather than the rule. + +But the bards are in their places,--the front rows of either gallery; +the president has taken his seat; the leading ladies of the county are +in their chairs; and while the large audience are settling down into +their places, let us glance at two or three of the celebrities present. + +On the foremost seat, to the right of the chairman, sits a lady who is +evidently a somebody, since all the gentlemen, on entering, pay her +especial respect. She is rather past the middle age, but has worn well; +her eye is still bright, her cheek fresh-colored, and her skin smooth. +Evidently she takes much interest in the proceedings,--and little +wonder,--for it is mainly owing to her exertions that the Festival +has not become one of the things that were. Her name? You may see it +embroidered in dahlias on yonder broad strip of white cotton, stretching +across the breadth of the hall, nearly over her head. These blossoms +form the letters and words, GWENNEN GWENT, or "The Bee of Gwent,"--Gwent +being the ancient name of that portion of Glamorgan. The title is apt +enough; for Lady Hall--that is her matter-of-fact name--is proverbially +one of the busiest of her sex in all that relates to the welfare of her +poorer neighbors. She is wife of Sir Benjamin Hall, member of Parliament +for the largest parish in London, St. Mary-le-bone, and whose +county residence is at Llanover Court, near Abergavenny. That tall, +aristocratic man near her is her husband; but he looks somewhat out of +place there. As a member of the House of Commons, he is prominent; but +evidently his present position is not at all to his taste. + +On the left of the chairman is another lady, whose name is well known +in literary circles. She is not Welsh by birth, though she is so by +marriage,--she being united to one of the great iron-masters. She has a +large face, open and cheerful-looking, if not handsome. The forehead is +broad and white,--the eyes dark and lustrous. Formerly she was known to +the reading world as Lady Charlotte Lindsay; now she is Lady Charlotte +Guest; a woman than whom very few archaeologists are better acquainted +with the Welsh language and its ancient literature. She is the author of +that very learned work, "The Mabinogion," a collection of early Welsh +legends. This book was printed a few years since by the pale-faced, +intelligent-looking man who is standing behind her chair,--Mr. Rees,--a +printer in an obscure Welsh hamlet, named Llandovery. He has, with +perfect propriety, been termed the Welsh Elzevir; and certainly a finer +specimen of typography than that furnished by the "Mabinogion" can +scarcely be produced. + +The chairman is a pompous old nobody. Him I need not describe. The +presiding and directing spirit of the place is a tall, slender gentleman +with snow-white hair, dark, flashing eyes, and a graceful bearing; it is +the Rev. Thomas Price, or, as his Welsh title has it, _Carnuhanawc_. +He is a thorough believer in the ultra-excellence of everything +Welsh,--Welsh music, Welsh flannels, Welsh scenery, Welsh mutton; and +so far as regards the latter, I am quite of his opinion. After a very +animated speech, he directs the competitors on the triple harp to stand +forward and begin a harmonious contest. + +There are three,--an old blind man, a young man, and a girl some +fourteen years of age. Every one cheers the latter lustily, and "wishes +she may get it." So do I, of course; and I listen with great interest as +Miss Winifred Jenkins commences her performance, which she does without +blush or hesitation, and with quite an I-know-all-about-it sort of air. +I forget the particular piece the young lady played; but upon it she +extemporized so many variations, that long before she came to an ending +I had lost all remembrance of the text from which she had deduced her +melodious sermon. There was, I thought, more mechanical tact than +expression in her performance, but it was enthusiastically applauded for +all that; and with an awkward curtsy--much like Sydney Smith's little +servant-maid Bunch's "bobbing to the centre of the earth"--the +red-cheeked little harpist vanished. + +Next came the young man; but several of the harp-strings at once snapped +in consequence of his fierce fingering, and he broke down amidst howls +of guttural disapprobation. So far as competition was concerned, he was, +in sporting parlance, nowhere! + +The old blind gentleman followed, and I do not think that I ever +witnessed a more melancholy spectacle. Apollo playing on his stringed +instrument presents a very graceful appearance; but fancy a Welsh +Orpheus with a face all seamed and scarred by smallpox,--a short, fiery +button in the middle of his countenance, serving for a nose,--a mouth +awry and toothless,--and two long, dirty, bony hands, with claw-like +fingers tipped with dark crescents,--and I do not think the picture will +be a pleasant one. If the horrible-looking old fellow had concealed +his ghastly eyes by colored glasses, the effect would not have been so +disagreeable; but it was absolutely frightful to see him rolling his +head, as he played, and every now and then staring with the whites of +his eyes full in the faces of his unseen audience. At length, greatly +to my relief, he gave the last decisive twang, and was led away by his +wife. It is almost needless to say that the musical "Bunch" took the +prize. + +"Penillionn Singing" was the next attraction. This was something like +an old English madrigal done into Welsh, and, as a specimen of +vocalization, pleasing enough,--as pleasing, that is, as Welsh singing +can be to an English ear; but how different from the soft, liquid +Italian trillings, the flexible English warblings, the melodious ballads +of Scotland, or the rollicking songs of Ireland! There was only one of +the many singers I heard at the Festival who at all charmed me, and that +was a little vocalist of much repute in Southern Wales for her bird-like +voice and brilliancy of execution. Her professional name was pretty +enough,--_Eos Vach Morganwg_,--"The Little Nightingale of Glamorgan." +Her renderings of some simple Welsh melodies were delicious; they as far +excelled the outpourings of the other singers as the compositions of +Mendelssohn or Bellini surpass a midnight feline concert. I have heard +Chinese singing, and have come to the conclusion, that, next to it, +Welsh prize-vocalism is the most ear-distracting thing imaginable. + +So it went on; Welsh, Welsh, Welsh, nothing but Welsh, until I was +heartily sick of it. Then, the singing part of the performance being +concluded, the bardic portion of the business commenced. It was +conducted in this manner:-- + +The names of several subjects were written on separate slips of paper, +and these being placed in a box, each bard took one folded up and with +but brief preparation was expected to extemporize a poem on the theme he +had drawn. The contest speedily commenced, and to me this part of the +proceedings was far and away the most entertaining. Of course, being, as +I said, ignorant of the language, I could not understand the _matter_ of +the improvisations; but as for the _manner_, just imagine a mad North +American Indian, a howling and dancing Dervise, an excited Shaker, a +violent case of fever-and-ague, a New York auctioneer, and a pugilist +of the Tom Hyer school, all fused together, and you may form some faint +idea of a Welsh bard in the agony of inspiration. Such roaring, +such eye-rolling, such thumping of fists and stamping of feet, such +joint-dislocating action of the arms, such gyrations of the head, such +spasmodic jerkings--out of the language of the ancient Britons, I never +heard before, and fervently pray that I never may again. And, let it be +remembered, the grotesque costume of the bard wonderfully heightened the +effect. His long beard, made of tow, became matted with the saliva which +ran down upon it from the corners of his mouth; his make-believe +bald scalp was accidentally wiped to one side, as he mopped away the +perspiration from his forehead with a red cotton handkerchief; and a +nail in the gallery front catching his ancient robe, in a moment of +frenzy, a fearful rending sound indicated a solution of continuity, and +exposed a modern blue _un_bardic pair of breeches with bright brass +buttons beneath,--an incident in keeping with the sham nature of all the +proceedings. For a mortal half hour this exhibition lasted, and when +the impassioned speaker sat down, panting and perspiring, the multitude +stamped, clapped, and hallooed, and went into such paroxysms of frenzy, +that Bedlam broke loose could alone be compared with it. + +During the three days the Festival lasted, such scenes as I have +described were repeated,--the only changes being in the persons of +the singers and spouters. Glad enough was I when all was over, and my +occupation as reporter gone, for that time at least. With the aid of +a Welsh friend I managed to make a highly florid report of the +proceedings, which occupied no less than eight columns of the "M---- +Beacon." As several of the speakers were only too glad to give me, _sub +rosâ_, copies of their speeches in their native language, and as none +knew of the fact but ourselves, I gained no little reputation as an +accomplished Welsh scholar. The result of this was, that presents of +Welsh Bibles, hymn-books, histories, topographies, and the like, by the +score, were forwarded to me,--some out of respect for my talents as a +great Welsh linguist, others for review in the newspaper. I was neither +born to such greatness, nor did I ever achieve it; it was literally +thrust on me; so also were sundry joints of the delicious Liliputian +Welsh mutton, which latter I am not ashamed to say I thoroughly +understood, appreciated, and digested. The ancient _litter_-ature, I am +sorry to confess, I sold as waste paper, at so much per pound; but +to show that some lingering regard for at least two of Cambria's +institutions yet reigns in this ---- bosom, I am just about to begin +upon a Welsh rabbit, and wash it down with a pitcher of _cwrw dach_. + + + + +CORNUCOPIA. + + + There's a lodger lives on the first floor, + (My lodgings are up in the garret,) + At night and at morn he taketh a horn + And calleth his neighbors to share it,-- + A horn so long, and a horn so strong, + I wonder how they can bear it. + + I don't mean to say that he drinks, + For that were a joke or a scandal; + But, every one knows it, he night and day blows it;-- + I wish he'd blow out like a candle! + His horn is so long, and he blows it so strong, + He would make Handel fly off the handle. + + By taking a horn I don't hint + That he swigs either rum, gin, or whiskey; + It's _we_ who drink in his din worse than gin, + His strains that attempt to be frisky, + But are grievously sad.--A donkey, I add, + Is as musical, braying in _his_ key. + + It's a puzzle to know what he's at; + I could pity him, if it were madness: + I never yet knew him to play a tune through, + And it gives me more anger than sadness + To hear his horn stutter and stammer to utter + Its various abortions of badness. + + At his wide open window he stands, + Overlooking his bit of a garden; + One can see the great ass at one end of his brass + Blaring out, never asking your pardon: + This terrible blurting he thinks is not hurting, + As long as his own ear-drums harden. + + He thinks, I've no doubt, it is sweet, + While thus Time and Tune he is flaying; + The little house-sparrows feel all through their marrows + The jar and the fuss of his playing,-- + The windows all shaking, the babies all waking, + The very dogs howling and baying. + + One note out of twenty he hits, + And, cheered, blows _pianos_ like _fortes_. + His time is his own. He goes sounding alone, + (A sort of Columbus or Cortés,) + On a perilous ocean, without any notion + Whereabouts in the dim deep his port is. + + Like a man late from club, he has lost + His key, and around stumbles moping, + Touching this, trying that, now a sharp, now a flat, + Till he strikes on the note he is hoping, + And a terrible blare at the end of the air + Shows he's got through at last with his groping. + + There,--he's finished,--at least, for a while; + He is tired, or come to his senses; + And out of his horn shakes the drops that were borne + By the winds of his musical frenzies. + There's a rest, thank our stars, of ninety-nine bars, + Ere the tempest of sound recommences. + + When all the bad players are sent + Where all their false notes are protested, + I am sure that Old Nick will play him a trick, + When his bad trump and he are arrested, + And down in the regions of Discord's own legions + His head with two French horns be crested. + + * * * * * + + +MY JOURNAL TO MY COUSIN MARY. + + +March, 1855. + +Of all the letters of condolence I have received since my misfortune, +yours has consoled me most. It surprises me, I confess, that a far-away +cousin--of whom I only remember that she had the sweetest of earthly +smiles--should know better how to reach the heart of my grief and soothe +it into peace, than any nearest of kin or oldest of friends. But so it +has been, and therefore I feel that your more intimate acquaintance +would be something to interest me and keep my heart above despair. + +My sister Catalina, my devoted nurse, says I must snatch at anything +likely to do that, as a drowning man catches at straws, or I shall +be overwhelmed by this calamity. But is it not too late? Am I not +overwhelmed? I feel that life is a revolting subject of contemplation in +my circumstances, a poor thing to look forward to. Death itself looks +pleasanter. + +Call up to your mind what I was, and what my circumstances were. I was +healthy and strong. I could run, and wrestle, and breast strong winds, +and cleave rough waters, and climb steep hills,--things I shall +henceforth be able only to remember,--yes, and to sigh to do again. + +I was thoroughly educated for my profession. I was panting to fulfil its +duties and rise to its honors. I was beginning to make my way up. I +had gained one cause,--my first and last,--and my friends thought me +justified in entertaining the highest hopes. + +It had always been an object of ambition with me to--well, I will +confess--to be popular in society; and I know I was not the +reverse.--So much, Mary, for what I was. Now see what I am. + +I am, and shall forever be,--so the doctors tell me,--a miserable, +sickly, helpless being, without hope of health or independence. My +object in life can only be--to be comfortable, if possible, and not to +be an intolerable trial to those about me! Worth living for,--isn't it? + +An athlete, eager and glowing in the race of life, transformed by a +thunder-bolt into a palsied and whining cripple for whom there is no +Pool of Bethesda,--that is what has befallen me! + +I suppose you read the shocking details of the collision in the papers. +Catalina and I sat, of course, side by side in the cars. We had that day +met in New York, after a separation of years. She had just returned from +Europe. I went to meet and escort her home, and, as we whirled over the +Jersey sands, I told her of all my plans and hopes. She listened at +first with her usual lively interest; but as I went on, she looked me +full in the face with an air of exasperated endurance, as if what I +proposed to accomplish were beyond reason. I own that I was in a fool's +paradise of buoyant expectation. At last she interrupted me. + +"Ah, yes! No doubt! You'll do those trifles, of course! And, perhaps, +among your other plans and intentions is that of living forever? It is +an easy thing to resolve upon;--better not stop short of it." + +At this instant came the crash, and I knew nothing more until I heard +people remonstrating with Kate for persisting in trying to revive a dead +man, (myself,) while the blood was flowing profusely from her own wound. +I heard her indignantly deny that I was dead, and, with her customary +irritability, tell them that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for +saying so. They still insisted that I was "a perfect jelly," and could +not possibly survive, even if I came to consciousness. She contradicted +them energetically. Yet they pardoned, and liked her. They knew that a +fond heart keenly resents evil prophecies of its beloved ones. Besides, +whatever she does or says, people always like Kate. + +After a physician arrived, it was found that the jellying of my flesh +was not the worst of it; for, in consequence of some injury to my spine, +my lower limbs were paralyzed. My sister, thank Heaven, had received +only a slight cut upon the forehead. + +Of course I don't mean to bore you with a recital of all my sufferings +through those winter months. I don't ask your compassion for such +trifles as bodily pain; but for what I am, and must forever be in this +life, my own heart aches for pity. Let yours sympathize with it. + +I thought to be so active, so useful, perhaps so distinguished as a man, +so blest as husband and father!--for you must know how from my boyhood +up I have craved, what I have never had, a home. + +Now that I have been thrust out of active life and forced to make up my +mind to perfect passiveness, I have become a bugbear to myself. I cannot +endure the thought of ever being the peevish egotist, the exacting +tyrant, which men are apt to become when they are thrown upon woman's +love and long-suffering, as I am. + +My only safeguard is, I believe, to keep up interests out of myself, and +I beg of you to help me. I believe implicitly in your expressed desire +to be of some service to me, and I ask you to undertake the troublesome +task of correspondence with a sick man, and almost a stranger. I will, +however, try to make you acquainted with myself and my surroundings, so +thoroughly that the latter difficulty will soon be obviated. + +First, let me present my sister,--named Catalina,--called Kate, Catty, +or Lina, according to the fancy of the moment, or the degree of +sentimentality in the speaker. You have not seen her since she was a +child, so that, of course, you cannot imagine her as she is now. But you +know the circumstances in which our parents left us. You remember, that, +after living all his life in careless luxury, my father died penniless. +Our mother had secured her small fortune for Kate; and at her death, +just before my father's, she gave me--an infant a few weeks old--into my +sister's young arms, with full trust that I should be taken care of by +her. You know of all my obligations to her in my babyhood and for my +education, which she drudged at teaching for years to obtain for me. I +could never repay her for such devotion, but I hoped to make her forget +all her trials, and only retain the happy consciousness of having had +the making of such a famous man! I expected to place her in affluence, +at least. + +And now what can I bring to her but grief and gray hairs? I am dependent +upon her for my daily bread; I occupy all her time, either in nursing or +sewing for me; I try her temper hourly with my sick-man's whims; and I +doom her to a future of care and economy. Yet I believe in my soul that +she blesses me every time she looks upon me! + +Thackeray says women like to be martyrized. I hardly think it is the +pursuit of pleasure which leads them to self-denial. Men, at any rate, +do not often seek enjoyment in that form. If women do make choice of +such a class of delights, even instinctively, they need advance no other +claim to superiority over men. The higher the animal, the higher its +propensities. + +Kate the other day was asserting a wife's right to the control of her +own property, and incidentally advocating the equality of the sexes,--a +touchy point with her. I put in,-- + +"Tell me, then, Lina, why animals form stronger attachments to men than +to women. Your dog, your parrot, even your cat, already prefers me to +you. How can you account for it, unless by allowing that there is more +in us to respect and love?" + +"I account for it," said she, with her most decided nod, "by affinity. +There is more affinity between you and brutes. It is the sons of God who +find the daughters of men fair. We draw angels from the skies;--even +your jealous, reluctant sex has borne witness to that." + +"Pshaw! only those anomalous creatures, the poets. But please yourself +with such fancies; they encourage a pretty pride that becomes your sex. +Conscious forever of being your lords, we feel that the higher you raise +yourselves, the higher you place us. You can't help owning that angelic +woman-kind submits--and gladly--to us." + +"Nonsense! conceited nonsense!" + +"But _don't_ they?" + +"Some do; but I do not." + +"Why, all my life you have been to me a most devoted, obedient servant, +Kate." + +"Yes, I have my pets," she answered, "and I care for them. I am +housemaid to my bird; my cat makes her bed of my lap and my best silk +dress; I am purveyor to my dog, head-scratcher to my parrot, and so +forth. It is my pleasure to be kind. Higher natures always are so,--yes, +Charlie, even minutely solicitous for the welfare of the objects of +their care; for are not the very hairs of our head all numbered by the +Most Beneficent?" + +She began in playful insolence, but ended with tearful eyes, and a +grateful, humble glow upon her face. Its like I had never seen before in +her rather imperious countenance. I gazed at her with interest. She +saw me, and was irritated to be caught with moistened eyes. She scorns +crying, like a man. + +"Come, come!" said she, childishly and snappishly, "what are you looking +at?" + +Of course you cannot have any idea of her personal appearance from +memory, and I will try to give you one by description. + +Though over thirty, she is generally considered very handsome, and is +in the very prime of her beauty; for it is not of the fragile, delicate +order. She has jet-black, very abundant hair, hazel eyes, and a +complexion that is very fair, without being blonde. A bright, healthy +color in cheek and lip makes her look as fresh as a rose. Her nose is +the doubtful feature. It is--hum!--_Roman_, and some fastidious folks +think a _trifle_ too large. But I think it suits well her keen eyes +and slightly haughty mouth. She has fine hands, a tall figure, and an +independent "grand action," that is not wanting in grace, but is more +significant of prompt energy. + +The study of woman is a new one to me. I often see Kate's friends +and gossips,--for I occupy the parlor as sick-room,--and I lie +philosophizing upon them by the hour, puzzling myself to solve the +problem of their idiosyncrasies. Lady Mary Wortley Montague said, that, +in all her travels, she had met with but two kinds of people,--men +and women. I begin to think that one sex will never be thoroughly +comprehended by the other, notwithstanding the desperate efforts the +novelists are making now-a-days. They all go upon the same plan. They +take some favorite woman, watch her habits keenly, dissect her, analyze +her very blood and marrow,--then patch her up again, and set her in +motion by galvanism. She stalks through three volumes and--drops dead. +I have seen Kate laugh herself almost into convulsions over the knowing +remarks upon the sex in Thackeray, Reade, and others. And I must confess +that the women I know resemble those of no writer but Shakspeare. + +We take our revenge for this irritating incapacity by saying that +neither can women create ideal men at all resembling reality. But _halte +là!_ Was it not said at first that Rochester _must_ be a man's man? Is +not the little Professor Paul Emanuel an actual masculine creature? +Heathcliff was a fiend,--but a male fiend. + +But where am I wandering? To come back to my sister. She is a fair +specimen of the quick, impulsive, frank class of women. She says she +belongs to the _genus irritabile_. She is easily excited to every good +emotion, and also to the nobler failings of anger, indignation, and +pride. But she is so far above any meanness or littleness, that she +don't know them when she sees them. They pass with her for what they are +not, and she is spared the humiliation of knowing what her species is +capable of. Kate's nature is very charming, but there is a gentler, +calmer order of beings in the sex. I once was greatly attracted by one +of them; and you, I think, belong to that order. However, I should not +class you with her,--for Kate says she was a "deceitful thing." She may +have been so, for aught I know; but I hold it as my creed, that +there are some women all softness, all gentleness, all purity, all +loveableness, and yet all strength of principle. Kate says, if there +are men all courage, all chivalry, all ardor, and all virtue, I may be +right. + +The Germans say, "Give the Devil a hair, and he will get your whole +head." Luckily it is the same with the good angels. I have seen a +hundred examples to prove it true. I will give the one nearest my heart. + +Lina's generous aspiration at the birth of her baby brother was the +hair. Since then, the angel of generosity has drawn her on from one +self-denying deed to another, until he has possessed her utterly. Her +self-sacrifice was completed some weeks ago. I will tell you how,--for +her light shall not be hidden under a bushel. + +When I arrived at this, her little cottage home, after the accident, it +was found impossible to get me up stairs. So I have since occupied the +parlor as my sick-room,--having converted a large airy china-closet into +a recess for a bed, and banished the dishes to the kitchen dresser. +During the day I occupy a soft hair-cloth-covered couch, and from it I +can command, not a view, but a hearing, of the two porches, the hall, +and the garden. + +The day after my return was a soft, warm day; and though it was in +February, the windows were all open. I heard a light carriage drive up +to the front door, and supposing it to be the doctor, I awaited his +entrance with impatience. After some time I discovered that he was with +Kate in the garden, and I could hear their voices. I listened with all +my ears, that I might steal his true opinion of myself; for I concluded +that Kate was having a private consultation, and arranging plans by +which I was to be bolstered up with prepared accounts, and not told the +plain facts of the case. I had before suspected that they did not tell +me the worst. I could just catch my name now and then, but no more; and +I wished heartily that they were a little nearer the windows. They must +be, I thought, quite at the bottom of the garden. Suddenly I perceived +that the voice addressing my sister was one of impassioned persuasion, +and I heard the words, "Be calm and reasonable,"--"Not forever." Then +Kate said, with a burst of sobs, "Only in heaven." + +"It is all over with me, then," I thought, aghast. But having settled +it, after a struggle, to be the best thing both for me and Kate, I began +to listen again. They were quite silent for some moments. Then I heard +sounds which surprised me,--low, loving tones,--and I desperately +wrenched myself upon my elbows to look out. The agony of such effort was +more tolerable than the agony of suspense. They were not far off, as I +supposed, but close under the window, standing in the little box-tree +arbor, screened from all eyes but mine; and no doubt Kate believed +herself safe enough from these, as I had never been capable of such +exertion since the accident. Their low tones had deceived me as to their +distance. + +I was mistaken in another respect. It was not the doctor with Kate, but +a fine-looking man, whose emotion declared him her lover. His arm held +her, and hers rested upon his shoulder, as she looked up at him and +spoke earnestly. His face expressed the greatest alarm and grief. I do +not know where she found the resolution, while looking upon it, to do +what she did; for, Mary,--I can hardly bear to write it,--I heard her +forever renounce her love and happiness for my sake. + +I might then have cried out against this self-sacrifice; but there is +something sacred in such an interview, and I could not thrust myself +upon it. I wish now that I had done so. But then I listened in +silence--grief-struck--to the rejection of him she loved,--to the +farewells. I saw the long-clasped hands severed with an effort and a +shudder; I saw my proud sister offer and give a kiss far more fervent +than that which she received in return;--for she felt that this was a +final parting, and her heart was full of love and sorrow; while in his +there lingered both hope and anger,--hope that I would recover, and +release her,--resentment because she could sacrifice him to me. + +And yet, after the parting, Kate had but just turned from him, when a +change came over his countenance, at first of enthusiastic admiration, +then of a yet more burning pain. He walked quickly after her, caught her +in his arms, and dashing away tears, that they might not fall upon her +face, he kissed her passionately, and said, "It is hard that I must say +it, but you are right, Lina! Oh, my God! _must_ I lose such a woman?" + +Kate, trembling, panting, stamped her foot and cried, "Go, go!--I cannot +stand it!--go!" Ah, Mary! that poor, pale face! He went. Kate made one +quick, terrified, instantly restrained motion of recall, which he did +not see; but I did, and I fainted with the pang it gave me. + +When I recovered consciousness, I found my sister bending over me, +blaming herself for neglecting me for so long a time, and calling +herself a cruel, faithless nurse, with acute self-reproach!--There's +woman for you! + +I told her what I had overheard, and protested against what she had +done. She said I must not talk now,--I was too ill; she would listen to +me to-morrow. The next day I broached the subject again, as she sat by +my side, reading the evening paper. She put her finger on a paragraph +and handed it to me. I read that one of the steamships had sailed +at twelve o'clock that day. "He is in it," Kate said, and left the +room.--He is in Europe by this time. + +Helpless wretch that I am! + +Are not Kate's whole head and heart, and all, under the dominion of +Heaven's best angels? + + +II. + +March, 1855. + +And now, dear Mary, I intend to let you into our household affairs. This +illness has brought me one blessing,--a home. It has plunged me into the +bosom of domestic life, and I find things there exceedingly amusing. +Things commonplace to others are very novel and interesting to me, from +my long residence in hotels, and perfect ignorance of how the pot was +kept boiling from which my dinners came. + +But before you enter the house, take a look at the outside, and let me +localize myself in your imagination. Bosky Dell is a compact little +place of ten acres, covered mostly with a dense grove, and cut into two +unequal parts by a brawling, rocky stream. The house--a little cottage, +draped with vines, and porched--sits on a slope, with an orchard on one +side, a tiny lawn bordered with flowers on another, the shade of +the grove darkening the windows of a third, and on the fourth a +kitchen-garden with strawberry-beds and grape-trellises. It is a pretty +little place, and full of cosy corners. My favorite one I must describe. + +It is a porch on the south side of the house, between two projections. +Consequently both ends of it are closed; one, by the parlor wall, in +which there is a window,--and the other, by the kitchen window and wall. +It is quite shut in from winds, and the sun beams pleasantly upon it, +these chilly March days. There is just room enough for my couch, Kate's +rocking-chair, and a little table. Here we sit all the morning,--Kate +sewing, I reading, or watching the sailing clouds, the swelling +tree-buds in the grove, and the crocus-sprinkled grass, which is growing +greener every day. + +Thus, while busy with me, Kate can still have an eye to her kitchen, and +we both enjoy the queer doings and sayings of our "culled help," Saide. +She became Kate's servant under an inducement which I will give in her +own words. + +"Massy! Miss Catline, when _I_ does a pusson a good turn, seems like I +wants to keep on doin' 'em good turns. I didn't do so dreffle much +for you, but I jes got one chance to help you a bit, and seems like I +couldn't be satisfactioned to let you alone no more."--A novel reason to +hear given, but a true one in philosophy. + +This "chance" was when my sister was attacked with cholera once, in the +first panic caused by it, of late years. All her friends had fled to the +country, and she was quite alone in a boarding-house. I was at college. +She would have been left to die alone, so great was the fear of the +disease, if Saide, who was cook in the establishment, had not boiled +over with indignation, and addressed her selfish mistress in this +fashion:-- + +"That ar' young lady's not to have no care, nohow, took of her, a'n't +she? She's to be lef' there a-sufferin' all alone that-a-way, is she? I +guess so too! Hnh! Now I'se gwine to nuss her, and I don't keer if you +don't know nothin' about _culining_, you must get yer own dinnas and +breakwusses and suppas. That's the plain English of it,--leastways till +she's well ag'in." + +She devoted herself night and day to Kate for several weeks, and +then accompanied her to this house, as a matter of course. She is a +privileged personage. She often pops her head out of the kitchen window +to favor us with her remarks. As they always make us laugh, she +won't take reproofs upon that subject. Kate says her impertinence is +intolerable, but suffers it rather than resort to severity with her old +benefactress. I enjoy it. + +She manages to turn her humor to account in various ways. I heard her +exclaim,-- + +"Laws-a-me! Dere goes de best French-chayny gold-edged tureen all to +smash! Pieces not big enough to save! Laws now, do let me study how to +tell de folks, so's to set 'em larfin'. Dere's great 'casion to find +suthin' as 'll do it, 'cause dey thinks a heap o' dis yere ole chayny. +Mr. Charley now,--he's easy set off; but Miss Catline,--she takes +suthin' purty 'cute! Laws, I has to fly roun' to git dat studied out!" + +Kate overheard this;--how could she scold? + +Saide can never think unless she is "flyin' roun'"; and whenever there +is a great tumult in the kitchen, pans kicked about, tongs falling, +dishes rattling, and table shoved over the floor, something pretty good, +in the shape either of a _bonne-bouche_ or a _bon-mot_, is sure to turn +up. + +This morning there was a furious hubbub, that threatened to drown my +voice. Saide was evidently "flyin' roun'," and Kate, who could not hear +half that I read, got out of patience. + +"What _is_ the matter?" she asked, raising the sash of the window. + +"I on'y wants the currender, (colander,) Miss Catline,--dat's all, +Miss." + +"Well, does it take a whirlwind to produce it?" + +"Oh, laws, Miss Catline! Don't be _dat_ funny now, don't!--yegh! +yegh!--I'se find it presentry. I'se on'y a little frustrated, +(flustered,) Miss, with de 'fusion, and I'se jes a-studyin'. Never +mind me, Miss,--dat's all, indeed it is,--and you'll have a fuss-rate +minch-pie for dinner. I guess so, too!--yegh! yegh!"--And so we had. + +Kate's domestics stand in much awe of her, but feel at least equal love. +So that hers is a household kept in good order, with very little of the +vexation, annoyance, and care, I hear so many of her married friends +groaning about. + +April. + +For a month nearly, Kate has forbidden my writing, and the first part of +this letter was not sent; so I will finish it now. My sister thought the +effort of holding a pen, in my recumbent position, was too wearying to +me; but now I am stronger, and can sit up supported by pillows. I hasten +to tell you of another most important addition to my comfort, which has +been made since I wrote last. I am so eager with the news, that I can +hardly hold a steady pen. Isn't this a fine state for a promising young +lawyer to be reduced to? He is wild with excitement, because some one +has given him a new go-cart! + +Ben, the gardener, was that indulgent individual. He made for me, with +his own industrious hands, what he calls a "jaunting-car-r-r-r." It is a +large wheeled couch on springs. I am a house-prisoner no longer! + +I think the first ride I took in it was the most exciting event of my +life. I was not exactly conscious of being mortally tired of looking +from the same porch, over the same garden, into the same grove, and up +to the same quarter of the heavens, for so many months; but when the +change came unexpectedly, it was _transporting_ happiness. + +I suppose it may be so when we enter a future life. While here, we think +we do not want to go elsewhere,--even to a better land; but when we +reach that shore, we shall probably acknowledge it to be a lucky change. + +Ben drew me carefully down the garden-path. I inhaled the breath of the +tulips and hyacinths, as we passed them. I longed to stay there in that +fairy land, for they brought back all the unspeakably rapturous feelings +of my boyhood. Strange that such delight, after we become men, never +visits us except in moments brief as lightning-flashes,--and then +generally only as a memory,--not, as when we were children, in the form +of a hope! When we are boys, and sudden joy stirs our hearts, we say, +"Oh, how grand life will be!" When we are men, and are thus moved, it +is, "Ah, how bright life was!" + +Ben did not pause in the hyacinth-bed with me. He was anxious to prove +the excellence of his vehicle; so he dragged me on in it, until we had +nearly reached the boundary of our grounds, where the two tall, ragged +old cedar-trees marked the extreme point of the evergreen shrubbery, +and _the_ view of the neighborhood lies before us. He stopped there and +said,-- + +"Ye'll mappen like to look abroad a bit, and I'se go on to the +post-office. Miss Kathleen bid me put you here fornenst the landskip, +and then leave ye. She was greatly fashed at the coompany cooming just +then. I must go, Sir." + +"All right, Ben. You need not hurry." + +The fresh morning wind whisked up to me and kissed my face bewitchingly, +as Ben removed his tall, burly form from the narrow opening between the +two trees, and left me alone there in the shade, with nothing between me +and the view. + +That moment revealed to me the joy of all liberated prisoners. My eyes +flew over the wide earth and the broad heavens. After a sweeping view of +both in their vast unity, I began to single out particulars. There lay +the village in the lap of the hills, in summer time "bosomed high in +tufted trees," but now only half veiled by the gauze-like green of the +budding foliage. The apple orchards, still white with blossoms, and +green with wheat or early grass, extended up the hills, and encroached +upon the dense brown forests. There was the little red brick turret +which crowned the village church, and my eye rested lovingly upon it. +Not that it was anything to me; but Kate and all the women I respect +love it, or what it stands for, and through them I hope to experience +that warm love of worship, and of the places dedicated to it, which +seems native to them, and much to be desired for us. I have cared little +for such things hitherto. Their beauty and happiness are just beginning +to dawn upon me. + + ----"Dear Jesus, can it be? + Wait we till all things go from us or e'er we go to thee? + Ay, sooth! We feel such strength in weal, thy love may seem + withstood: + But what are we in agony? _Dumb,_ if we cry not 'God!'" + +Behind the village I can see the blue hazy line of a far-distant +horizon, as the valley opens in that direction. I know the sea lies +there, and sometimes I fancy that _mirage_ lifts its dark waters to my +sight. + +In a wooded nook on my right stands the little brown mill, with its huge +wheel, and wide blue pond, and foamy waterfall. On that day I heard its +drone, and saw the geese bathing, and throwing up the bright sparkling +drops with their wings, until they fell like fountains. + +On my left lay "a little lane serene," with stone fences half hid by +blackberry-bushes-- + + ----"A little lane serene, + Smooth-heaped from wall to wall with unbroken snows. + Or in the summer blithe with lamb-cropped green, + Save the one track, where naught more rude is seen + Than the plump wain at even + Bringing home four months' sunshine bound in sheaves." + +I thought of those lines there and then, and they enhanced even the joy +of Nature. They tinged her for me with the magic colors of poetry. + +When I had thus scrutinized earth, I looked up to heaven. It had been so +long shut from me by the network of the grove, that it was like escaping +from confining toils, to look straight into Heaven's face, with nothing +between, not even a cloud. + +I have never seen a sweeter, calmer picture than that I gazed upon all +the morning, and for which the two huge old cedars formed a rugged, but +harmonious frame. + +I have lived out of doors since. When it is cold, I am wrapped in a +wadded robe Kate has made for me,--a capital thing, loose, and warm, and +silky-soft. To an invalid with nerves all on edge, that is much. I never +found out, until Kate enveloped me in its luxurious folds, what it was +that rasped my feelings so, every morning, when I was dressed; I then +knew it must have been my flashy woollen dressing-gown. I envy women +their soft raiment, and I rather dread the day when I shall be compelled +to wear coats again. (Let me cheat myself, if I can.) + + +III. + +May, 1855. + +You wish to know more of Ben. I am glad of it. You shall be immediately +gratified. + +He is a true Scot, tall and strong and sandy-haired, with quick gray +eyes, and a grave countenance, which relaxes only upon very great +provocation. + +Before I came here, he was known simply as a most careful, industrious, +silent, saving machine, which cared not a jot for anybody in particular, +but never wanted any spur to its own mechanical duty. It was never known +to do a turn of work not legitimately its own, though mathematically +exact in its proper office. But after I came here with my sister, a +helpless cripple, we found out that the mathematical machine was a man, +with a soft, beating heart. He was called upon to lift me from the +carriage, and he did it as tenderly as a woman. He took me up as a +mother lifts her child from the cradle, and I reposed passively in his +strong arms, with a feeling of perfect security and ease. + +From that day to this, Ben has been a most devoted friend to me. He +watches for opportunities to do me kindnesses, and takes from his own +sacred time to make me comforts. He has had me in his arms a hundred +times, and carries me from bed to couch like a baby. I positively blush +in writing this to you. You have known me to be a man for years, and +here I am in arms again! + +Ben's decent, well-controlled self-satisfaction, which almost amounts +to dignity, is gone like a puff of smoke, at the word "Shanghai." Poor +fellow! He once had the hen-fever badly, and he don't like to recall his +sufferings. + +The first I knew of it was by his starting and changing color one day, +when I was reading the news from China to Kate in the garden, he being +engaged in tying up a rose-bush close by. Kate saw his confusion, and +smiled. Ben, catching the expression of her face, looked inconceivably +sheepish. He dropped his ball of twine, and was about to go away, but +thinking better of it, he suddenly turned and said, with a grin and a +blush,-- + +"Ye'll be telling on me, Miss Kathleen! so I'se be aforehond wi' ye, and +let Mr. Charlie knaw the warst frae my ain confassion, if he will na +grudge me a quarter hour." + +I signified my wish to hear, and with much difficulty and many questions +wrung from him his "confassion." Kate afterwards gave me her version, +and the facts were these:-- + +He persuaded Kate to let him buy a pair of Shanghais. + +"But don't do it unless you are sure of its being worth while," +Kate charged him; "because I can't afford to be making expensive +experiments." + +Ben counted out upon his fingers the numberless advantages. + +"First, the valie o' the eggs for sale, (mony ane had fetched a dollar,) +forbye the ecawnomy in size for cooking, one shell handing the meat o' +twa common eggs. Second, the size o' the chickens for table, each hen +the weight o' a turkey. Third, for speculation. Let the neebors buy, and +she could realize sixty dollar on the brood o' twal' chicks; for they +fetched ten dollar the pair, and could be had for nae less onywheres. +Every hen wad hae twa broods at the smallest." + +Kate doubted, but handed over the money. The next day she was awaked +from a nap on the parlor sofa by a most unearthly music. There was one +bar of four notes, first and third accepted; bar second, a _crescendo_ +on a long swelled note, then a _decrescendo_ equally long. + +"Why," she cried, "is that our little bull-calf practising singing? I +shall let Barnum know about him. He'll make my fortune!" + +Ben knocked at the door, presented a radiant grin, and invited +inspection of his Shanghais. Kate went with him to the cellar. There +stood two feathered bipeds on their tip-toes, with their giraffe necks +stretched up to my sister's swinging shelf where the cream and butter +were kept. It spoke well for the size of their craws certainly, that, +during the two minutes Ben was away, they had each devoured a "print" of +butter, about half a pound! + +"Saw ye ever the like o' thae birds, Miss Kathleen?" began Ben, proudly. + +"My butter, my butter!" cried Kate. + +Ben ran to the rescue, and having removed everything to the high shelf, +he came back, saying,-- + +"It was na their faut. I tak shame for not minding that they are so gay +tall. But did ye ever see the like o' yon rooster?" + +Indeed, she never had! The frightful monster, with its bob-tail and +boa-constrictor neck! But she said nothing. + +Ben named them the Emperor and Empress. They were not to be allowed to +walk with common fowls, and he soon had a large, airy house made for +them. He watched these creatures with incessant devotion, and one +morning he was beside himself with delight, for, by a most hideous +roaring on the part of the Emperor, and a vigorous cackling, which +Ben, very descriptively, called "scraughing," by the Empress, it was +announced that she had laid an egg! + +Etiquette required Kate to call and admire this promise of royal +offspring, and she was surprised into genuine admiration when she saw +the prodigy. Her nose had to lower its scornful turn, her lips to relax +their skeptical twist. It was an egg indeed! Ben was nobly justified in +his purchase. His step was light that day. Kate heard him singing, over +and over again, a verse from an old song which he had brought with him +from the land o' cakes:-- + + "I hae a hen wi' a happity leg, + (Lass, gin ye loe me, tell me noo,) + And ilka day she lays me an egg + (And I canna come ilka day to woo!)" + +Wooing any lass would, just now, have been quite as secondary an affair +with the singer as in the song,--a something _par parenthèse_. + +But, alas! Ben's face was more dubious the next day, and before the week +was over it was yard-long. The Empress, after that one great effort, +laid no more eggs, but duly began her second duty, sitting. There was no +doubt that she meant to have but one chick,--out of rivalry, perhaps, +with the Pynchon hen. It was gratifying, perhaps, to have her so +aristocratic, but it was not exactly profitable as a speculation. + +"Ben," said Kate, dryly, "I don't know that that egg was wonderfully +large, as it contained the whole brood!" + +Poor Ben! That was not all. The clumsy, heavy Empress stepped upon her +egg, and broke it in the second week of its existence; but, faithful to +its memory, she refused to forego the duties of maternity, and would +persist in staying on her nest. As the season advanced, Ben lost hope +of the second brood he had counted upon. In short, his Empress had +the legitimate "hen-fever," and it carried her off, though Ben tried +numberless remedies in common use for vulgar fowls, such as pumping upon +her, whirling her by one leg, tying red flannel to her tail, and so +forth. Of course such indignities were fatal to royalty, and Ben gave up +all hopes of a pure race of Shanghais. + +The Emperor was then set at liberty, and for one short half-hour +strutted like a giant-hero among the astounded hens. But no sooner did +the former old cock--who had game blood in him, repute said--return from +a distant excursion into the cornfields with his especial favorites +about him, and behold the mighty majesty of the monster, than his +pride and ire blazed up. He put his head low, ruffled out his long +neck-feathers, his eyes winked and snapped fire with rage, he set out +his wings, took a short run, and, throwing up his spurs with fury, +struck the stupid, staring Emperor a blow under the ear which laid him +low. Alas for royalty, opposed to force of will! + +"And you had to pocket the loss, Kate?" I said. + +"It was my gain," she replied. "Ben had always been dictatorial before; +but after that, I had only to smile to remind him of his fallibility, +and I have been mistress here ever since." + +So far had I written when your welcome letter arrived. Kate found me +this morning sighing over it, pen in hand, ready to reply. She put on +her imperious look, and said she forbade my writing, if I grew +gloomy over it. She feared my letters were only the outpourings of a +disappointed spirit. Indulgence in grief she considered weak, foolish, +unprincipled, and egotistical. + +"I can't help being egotistical," I replied, "when I see no one, and am +shut up in the 'little world of me,' as closely as mouse in trap. And +with myself for a subject, what can my letters be but melancholy?" + +"Anybody can write amusing letters, if they choose," said Kate, reckless +both of fact and grammar. + +"Unless I make fun of you, what else have I to laugh at?" + +"Well, do! Make fun of me to your heart's content! Who cares?" + +"You promise to laugh with us, and not be offended?" + +"I promise not to be offended. My laughing depends upon your wit." + +"There is no mirth left in me, Kate. I am convinced that I ought to say +with Jacques, ''Tis good to be sad, and say nothing.'" + +"Then I shall answer as Rosalind did,--'Why, then, 'tis good to be a +post!' No, no, Charlie, do be merry. Or if you cannot, just now, at +least encourage 'a most humorous sadness,' and that will he the first +step to real mirth." + +"I shall never be merry again, Lina, till you let me recall Mr. ----. +That care weighs me down, and I truly believe retards my recovery." + +"Hush, Charlie!" she said, imperiously. + +"Now, dear Kate, do not be obstinate. My position is too cruel. With the +alleviation of knowing your happiness secure, I could bear my lot. But +now it is intolerable, utterly!" + +She was silent. + +"You must give me that consolation." + +"To say I would ever leave you, Charlie, while you are so helpless, +would be to tell a lie, for I could not do it. Mr. ---- is a civil +engineer. He is always travelling about. I should have no settled home +to take you to. How can you suppose I would abandon you? Do you think I +could find any happiness after doing it? Let us be silent about this." + +"I will not, Kate. I am sure, that, besides being a selfish, it would +be a foolish thing to submit to you in this matter. I shall linger, +perhaps, until your youth is gone, and then have the pang, far worse +than any other I could suffer, of leaving you quite alone in the world. +Do listen to reason!" + +She sat thinking. At last she said, "Well, wait one year." + +"That would be nonsensical procrastination. Does not the doctor declare +that a year will not better my condition?" + +"But he cannot be sure. And I promise you, Charlie, that, if Mr. ---- +asks me then, I will think about it,--and if you are better, go with +him. More I will not promise." + +"A year from last February, you mean?"--A pause. + +"Encroacher! Yes, then." + +"And you will write to him to say so?" + +"Indeed! That would be pretty behavior!" + +"But as you rejected him decidedly, he may form new"----She clapped her +hand upon my mouth. + +"Dare to say it!" she cried. + +I removed her hand, and said, eagerly, "Now, Kate, do not trifle. I must +have some certainty that I am not wrecking your happiness. I cannot +wait a year in suspense. I am a man. I have not the patience of your +incomprehensible sex." + +"I have more than patience to support me, Charlie," she whispered. "He +insisted upon refusing to take a positive answer then, and said he +should return again next spring, to see if I were in the same mind. So +be at ease!" + +I sighed, unsatisfied. + +"I am sure he will come," she said, turning quite away, that I might not +dwell upon her warm blush. + +"There is Ben with the horse. Are you ready?" she asked, glad to change +the subject. + +I was always ready for that I had enjoyed the "jaunting-car-r-r" +so much, that my sister, resolved to gratify me further, had made +comfortable arrangements for longer excursions. I found that I could +sit up, if well supported by pillows; and so Kate had her "cabriolet" +brought out and repaired. + +She had not the least idea of what a cabriolet might be, when she named +her vehicle so; but it sounded fine and foreign, and was a sort of witty +contrast to the misshapen affair it represented. It was indescribable +in form, but had qualities which recommended it to me. It was low, +wide-seated, high-backed, broad, and long. The front wheels turned +under, which was a lucky circumstance, as Kate was to be driver. Ben +could not be spared from his work, and I was out of the question. + +We have a horse to match this unique affair, called "Old Soldier,"--an +excellent name for him; though, if Kate reads this remark, she will +take mortal offence at it. She calls the venerable fellow her charger, +because he makes such bold charges at the steep hills,--the only +occasions upon which the cunning beast ever exerts himself in the least, +well knowing that he will be instantly reined in. Kate has a horror of +going out of a walk, on either ascent or descent, because "up-hill is +such hard pulling, and down-hill so dangerous!" + +Old Soldier can discern a grade of five feet to the mile of either. If I +did not know his history, (an old omnibus horse,) I should say he +must have practised surveying for years. He accommodates himself most +obligingly to his mistress's whims, and walks carefully most of the +time, except when he is ambitious of great praise at little cost, when +he makes the charges aforesaid. + +"He is so considerate, usually!" Kate says; "he knows we don't like +tearing up and down hills; but now and then his spirit runs away with +him!"--I wish it would some day with us. No hope of it! + +We stop every two miles to water the horse, and though we are +exceedingly moderate in our donations, we are a fortune to the hostlers. +I carry the purse, as Kate is quite occupied in holding the reins, and +keeping a sharp look-out that her charger don't run off. Not that he +ever showed a disposition that way,--being generally quite agreeable, +if we wish him to stand ever so long a time; but Kate says he is very +nervous, and he _might_ be startled, and then we _might_ find it +impossible to stop him,--a thing easy enough hitherto. + +I am obliged to keep the purse in my hand all the time, there being such +frequent use for it. Kate says,-- + +"Give the man a half-dime, Charlie, if you can find one. A three-cent +piece looks mean, you know; and a fip mounts up so, it is rather +extravagant. That is the twelfth fip that man has had this week, and for +only holding up a bucket a half-minute at a time; for Soldier only takes +one swallow." + +She will pay every time we stop, if it is six times a day. + +"Shall I give the man a half-dollar at once," I ask, "and let that do +for a week?" + +"No, indeed! How mean I should feel, sneaking off without paying!" + +When the roadside shows a patch of tender grass, Kate eyes it, and +checks Soldier's pace. He knows what that means, and edges toward the +tempting herbage. + +"Poor fellow!" his driver says,--"it is like our having to pass a plate +of peaches. Let him have a bite." + +And so we wait while he grazes awhile. It is the same thing when we +cross a brook, and Soldier pauses in it to cool his feet and look at his +reflection in the water. + +"Perhaps he wants a drink. We won't hurry him. We will let him see that +we can afford to wait." + +If he had not come to that conclusion from the very start, he must have +believed human beings were miracles of patience and forbearance. + +I could write a fine dissertation upon Kate's foolish fondness and her +blind indulgence. I could show that these are the great failings of her +sex, and prove how very much more rational _my_ sex would be in like +circumstances. But I find it too pleasant to be the recipient of such +favors myself just now, to find fault. Wait until I do not need woman's +tenderness, and then I'll abuse it famously. I will say then, that she +is weak, foolish, imprudent; I will say, she kills with kindness, spoils +with indulgence, and all that; but just now I will say nothing. + +In one thing I think her kindness very sensible,--she uses no +check-rein. I think with Sir Francis Head, that all horses are handsomer +with their heads held as Nature pleases. I pity the poor creatures when +I see them turning to one side and the other, to find a little relief +in change of position. To restrain horses thus, who have heavy loads to +pull, is the height of folly, as a waste of power. + +You take no interest in these remarks, perhaps; but treasure them. If +ever, Cousin Mary, you _drive a dray_, they will serve you. + + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THY PSYCHE. + + + Like a strain of wondrous music rising up in cloister dim, + Through my life's unwritten measures thou dost steal, a glorious + hymn! + All the joys of earth and heaven in the singing meet, and flow + Richer, sweeter, for the wailing of an undertone of woe. + How I linger, how I listen for each mellow note that falls, + Clear as chime of angels floating downward o'er the jasper walls! + + Every night, when winds are moaning round my chamber by the sea, + Thine's the face that through the darkness latest looks with love at + me; + And I dream, ere thou departest, thou dost press thy lips to mine;-- + Then I sleep as slept the Immortals after draughts of Hebe's wine! + And I clasp thee, out of slumber when the rosy day is born, + As the soul, with rapture waking, clasps the resurrection morn. + + 'Twas thy soul-wife, 'twas thy Psyche, one uplifted, radiant day, + Thou didst call me;--how divinely on thy brow Love's glory lay! + Thou my Cupid,--not the boy-god whom the Thespians did adore, + But the man, so large, so noble, truer god than Venus bore. + I thy Psyche;--yet what blackness in this thread of gold is wove! + Thou canst never, never lead me, proud, before the throne of Jove! + All the gods might toil to help thee through the longest summer + day;-- + Still would watch the fatal Sisters, spinning in the twilight gray; + And their calm and silent faces, changeless looking through the + gloom, + From eternity, would answer, "Thou canst ne'er escape thy doom!" + Couldst thou clasp me, couldst thou claim me, 'neath the soft + Elysian skies, + Then what music and what odor through their azure depths would rise! + Roses all the Hours would scatter, every god would bring us joy, + So, in perfect loving blended, bliss would never know alloy! + + O my heart! the vision changes; fades the soft celestial blue; + Dies away the rapturous music, thrilling all my pulses through! + Lone I sit within my chamber; storms are beating 'gainst the pane, + And my tears are falling faster than the chill December rain;-- + Yet, though I am doomed to linger, joyless, on this earthly shore, + Thou art Cupid!--I am Psyche!--we are wedded evermore! + + + + +DR. WICHERN AND HIS PUPILS. + + +"Would you like to spend a day at Horn and visit the _Rauhe Haus?_" +inquired my friend, Herr X., of me, one evening, as we sat on the bank +of the Inner Alster, in the city of Hamburg. I had already visited most +of the "lions" in and about Hamburg, and had found in Herr X. a most +intelligent and obliging cicerone. So I said, "Yes," without hesitation, +though knowing little more of the Rauhe Haus than that it was a reform +school of some kind. + +"I will call for you in the morning," said my friend, as we parted for +the night. + +The morning was clear and bright, and I had hardly despatched my +breakfast when Herr X. appeared with his carriage. Entering it without +delay, we were driven swiftly over the pavements, till we came to the +old city-wall, now forming a fine drive, when my friend, turning to the +coachman, said,-- + +"Go more slowly." + +"The scenery in this vicinity we Hamburgers think very beautiful," he +continued, turning to me. + +To my eye, accustomed to our New England hills, it was much too flat to +merit the appellation of beautiful, though Art had done what it could to +improve upon Nature; so I assented to his encomiums upon the landscape, +but, desirous of changing the subject, added,-- + +"This Rauhe Haus, where we are going, I know but little of; will you +give me its history?" + +"Most willingly," he replied. "You must know that our immense commerce, +while it affords ample occupation for the enterprising and industrious, +draws hither also a large proportion of the idle, depraved, and vicious. +For many years, it was one of the most difficult questions with which +our Senate has had to grapple, to determine what should be done with +the hordes of vagrant children who swarmed about our quays, and were +harbored in the filthy dens which before the great fire of 1842 were so +abundant in the narrow streets. These children were ready for crime of +every description, and in audacity and hardihood far surpassed older +vagabonds. + +"In 1830, Dr. Wichern, then a young man of twenty-two, having completed +his theological studies at Göttingen and Berlin, returned home, and +began to devote himself to the religious instruction of the poor. He +established Sabbath-schools for these children, visited their parents +at their homes, and sought to bring them under better influences. He +succeeded in collecting some three or four hundred of them in his +Sabbath-schools; but he soon became convinced that they must be removed +from the evil influences to which they were subjected, before any +improvement could be hoped for in their morals. In 1832, he proposed +to a few friends, who had become interested in his labors, the +establishment of a House of Rescue for them. The suggestion met their +approval; but whence the means for founding such an institution were to +come none of them knew; their own resources were exceedingly limited, +and they had no wealthy friends to assist them. + +"About this time, a gentleman with whom he was but slightly acquainted +brought him three hundred dollars, desiring that it should be expended +in aid of some new charitable institution. Soon after, a legacy of +$17,500 was left for founding a House of Rescue. Thus encouraged, +Wichern and his friends went forward. A cottage, roughly built and +thatched with straw, with a few acres of land, was for sale at Horn, +about four miles from the city, and its situation pleasing them, they +appropriated their legacy to the purchase of it. Hither, in November, +1833, Dr. Wichern removed with his mother, and took into his household, +adopting them as his own children, three of the worst boys he could find +in Hamburg. In the course of a few months he had increased the number to +twelve, all selected from the most degraded children of the city. + +"His plan was the result of careful and mature deliberation. He saw that +these depraved and vicious children had never been brought under +the influence of a well-ordered family, and believing, that, in the +organization of the family, God had intended it as the best and most +efficient institution for training children in the ways of morality and +purity, he proposed to follow the Divine example. The children were +employed, at first, in improving the grounds, which had hitherto been +left without much care; the banks of a little stream, which flowed +past the cottage, were planted with trees; a fish-pond into which it +discharged its waters was transformed into a pretty sylvan lake; and the +barren and unproductive soil, by judicious cultivation, was brought into +a fertile condition. + +"In 1834, the numerous applications he received, and the desire of +extending the usefulness of the institution, led him to erect another +building for the accommodation of a second family of boys. The work +upon it was almost wholly performed by his first pupils. I should have +remarked, that, during the first year, a high fence, which surrounded +the premises when they were purchased, was removed by the boys, by Dr. +Wichern's direction, as he desired to have _love_ the only bond by +which to retain them in his family. When the new house was finished and +dedicated, the original family moved into it, and were placed under +the charge of two young men from Switzerland, named Baumgärtner and +Byckmeyer. + +"Workshops for the employment of the boys soon became necessary, and +means were contributed for their erection. New pupils were offered, +either by their parents, or by the city authorities, and new families +were organized. These required more "house-fathers," as they were +called, and for their training a separate house was needed. Dr. +Wichern has been very successful in obtaining assistants of the right +description. They are young men of good education, generally versed in +some mechanical employment, and whose zeal for philanthropic effort +leads them to place themselves under training here, for three or four +years, without salary. They are greatly in demand all over Germany +for home missionaries and superintendents of prisons and reformatory +institutions. You have heard, I presume, of the Inner Mission?" + +I assented, and he continued. + +"These young men are its most active promoters. The philanthropy of +Wichern was not satisfied, until he had established also several +families of vagrant girls at his Rough House.--But see, we are +approaching our destination. This is the Rauhe Haus." + +As he spoke, our carriage stopped. We alighted, and rarely has my eye +been greeted by a pleasanter scene. The grounds, comprising about +thirty-two acres, presented the appearance of a large landscape-garden. +The variety of choice forest-trees was very great, and mingled with them +were an abundance of fruit-trees, now laden with their golden treasures, +and a profusion of flowers of all hues. Two small lakes, whose borders +were fringed with the willow, the weeping-elm, and the alder, glittered +in the sunlight,--their finny inhabitants occasionally leaping in +the air, in joyous sport. Fourteen buildings were scattered over the +demesne,--one, by its spire, seeming to be devoted to purposes of +worship. + +"Let us go to the Mutter-Haus," (Mother-House,) said my friend; "we +shall probably find Dr. Wichern there." + +So saying, he led the way to a plain, neat building, situated nearly +centrally, though in the anterior portion of the grounds. This is Dr. +Wichern's private residence, and here he receives reports from the +Brothers, as the assistants are called, and gives advice to the pupils. +We were ushered into the superintendent's office, and found him a fine, +noble-looking man, with a clear, mild eye, and an expression of great +decision and energy. My friend introduced me, and Dr. Wichern welcomed +us both with great cordiality. + +"Be seated for a moment, gentlemen," said he; "I am just finishing +the proofs of our _Fliegenle Blätter_," (Flying Leaves, a periodical +published at the Rauhe Haus,) "and will presently show you through our +buildings." + +We waited accordingly, interesting ourselves, meanwhile, with the +portraits of benefactors of the institution which decorated the walls. + +In a few minutes Dr. Wichern rose, and merely saying, "I am at your +service, gentlemen," led the way to the original Rough House. It is +situated in the southeastern corner of the grounds, and is overshadowed +by one of the noblest chestnut-trees I have ever seen. The building is +old and very humble in appearance, but of considerable size. In addition +to accommodations for the House-Father and his family of twelve boys, +several of the Brothers of the Mission reside here, and there are also +rooms for a probationary department for new pupils. + +"Here," said the Doctor, "we began the experiment whose results you see +around you. When, with my mother and sister and three of the worst boys +to be found in Hamburg, I removed to this house in 1833, there was need +of strong faith to foresee the results which God has wrought since that +day." + +"What were the means you found most successful in bringing these +turbulent and intractable spirits into subjection?" I inquired. + +"Love, the affection of a parent for his children," was his reply. +"These wild, hardened boys were inaccessible to any emotion of fear; +they had never been treated with kindness or tenderness; and when they +found that there was no opportunity for the exercise of the defiant +spirit they had summoned to their aid, when they were told that all the +past of their lives was to be forgotten and never brought up against +them, and that here, away from temptation, they might enter upon a new +life, their sullen and intractable natures yielded, and they became +almost immediately docile and amiable." + +"But," I asked, "is there not danger, that, when removed from these +comfortable homes, and subjected again to the iron gripe of poverty, +they will resume their old habits?" + +"None of us know," replied Dr. Wichern, solemnly, "what we may be left +to do in the hour of temptation; but the danger is, nevertheless, not so +great as you think. Our children are fed and clothed like other peasant +children; they are not encouraged to hope for distinction, or an +elevated position in society; they are taught that poverty is not in +itself an evil, but, if borne in the right spirit, may be a blessing. +Our instruction is adapted to the same end; we do not instruct them +in studies above their rank in life; reading, writing, the elementary +principles of arithmetic, geography, some of the natural sciences, and +music, comprise the course of study. In the calling they select, we do +what we can to make them intelligent and competent. Our boys are much +sought for as apprentices by the farmers and artisans of the vicinity." + +"Many of them, I suppose," said I, "had been guilty of petty thefts +before coming here; do you not find trouble from that propensity?" + +"Very seldom; the perfect freedom from suspicion, and the confidence in +each other, which we have always maintained, make theft so mean a vice, +that no boy who has a spark of honor left will be guilty of it. In +the few instances which do occur, the moral sense of the family is +so strong, that the offender is entirely subdued by it. An incident, +illustrative of this, occurs to me. Early in our history, a number of +our boys undertook to erect a hut for some purpose. It was more than +half completed, and they were delighted with the idea of being able soon +to occupy it, when it was discovered that a single piece of timber, +contributed by one of the boys, had been obtained without leave. As soon +as this was known, one of the boys seized an axe, and demolished the +building, in the presence of the offender, the rest looking on and +approving; nor could they afterward be induced to go on with it. At +one time, several years since, there were two or three petty thefts +committed, (and a good deal of prevarication naturally followed,) mainly +by new pupils, of whom a considerable number had been admitted at once. +Finding ordinary reproof unavailing, I announced that family worship +would be suspended till the delinquents gave evidence of penitence. The +effect of this measure was far beyond my expectation. Many of the boys +would meet in little groups, in the huts, for prayers among themselves; +and ere long the offenders came humbly suing for pardon and the +resumption of worship." + +During this conversation, we had left the Rough House and visited +the new Lodge, erected in 1853, for a family of boys and a circle of +Brothers, and the "Beehive," (_Bienenkorb,_) erected in 1841, in the +northeast corner of the grounds, the home of another family. Turning +westward, we came to the chapel, and a group of buildings connected with +it, including the school-rooms, the preparatory department for girls, +the library, dwellings for two families of girls, the kitchen, +store-rooms, and offices. It was the hour of recess, and from the +school-rooms rushed forth a joyous company of children, plainly clad, +and evidently belonging to the peasant class; but though the marks of +an early career of vice were stamped on many of their countenances, yet +there were not a few bright eyes, and intelligent, thoughtful faces. +Seeing Dr. Wichern, they came at once to him, with the impulsiveness of +childhood, but with so evident a sense of propriety and decorum, that I +would not but compare their conduct with that of many pupils in our best +schools, and not to the advantage of the latter. The Doctor received +them cordially, and had a kind word for each, generally in reference to +their improvement in behavior, or their influence over others. + +"This," said he, turning to me, as a bright, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired +boy seized his hand, "is one of our peace boys." + +I did not understand what he meant by the term, and said so. + +"Our peace boys," he replied, "are selected from the most trustworthy +and exemplary of our pupils, to aid in superintending the others. They +have no authority to command, or even reprove; but only to counsel and +remind. To be selected for this duty is one of their highest rewards." + +"There must be among so many boys," I remarked, "and particularly +those taken from such sources, a considerable number of +_born-destructives_,--children in whom the propensity to break, tear, +and destroy is almost ineradicable; how do you manage these?" + +"In the earlier days of our experiment," he replied, "we had much +trouble from this source; but at last we hit upon the plan of allowing +each boy a certain sum of pocket-money, and deducting from this, in part +at least, the estimated value of whatever he destroyed. From the day +this rule was adopted all destructible articles seemed to have lost a +great part of their fragility." + +"Do the pupils often run away?" I asked. + +"Very seldom, of late years; formerly we were occasionally troubled in +that way. It was, of course, easy for them to do it, as no fences +or other methods of restraint were used,--our reliance being upon +affection, to retain them. If they made their escape, we usually sought +them out, and persuaded them to return, and they seldom repeated the +offence. Some years ago, one of our boys, who had repeatedly tried our +patience by his waywardness, ran away. I pursued him, found him, and +persuaded him to return. It was Christmas eve when we arrived, and this +festival was always celebrated in my mother's chamber. As we entered the +room, the children were singing the Christmas hymns. As he appeared, +they manifested strong disapprobation of his conduct. They were told +that they might decide among themselves how he should be punished. They +consulted together quietly for a few moments, and then one, who had +himself been forgiven some time before for a like fault, came forward, +and, bursting into tears, pleaded that the offender might be pardoned. +The rest joined in the petition, and, extending to him the hand of +fellowship, soon turned their festival into a season of rejoicing +over the returned prodigal. The pardon thus accorded was complete; no +subsequent reference was made to his misconduct; and the next day, to +show our confidence in him, a confidence which we never had occasion to +retract, we sent him on an errand to a considerable distance." + +"How did they behave at the time of the great fire?" I inquired; "the +excitement must surely have reached you." + +"No event in our whole history," answered Dr. Wichern, his fine +countenance lighting up as he spoke, "so fully satisfied me of the +success which had attended our labors, as their behavior on that +occasion. On the second day of the fire, the boys, some of whom had +relatives and friends in the burning district, became so much excited by +the intelligence brought by those who had escaped from the flames, that +they began to implore me to permit them to go and render assistance. I +feared, at first, the consequences of exposing them to the temptations +to escape and plunder by which they would be beset; but at length +permitted a company of twenty-two to go with me, on condition that +they would keep together as much as possible, and return with me at +an appointed time. They promised to do this, and they fulfilled their +promise to the letter. Their conduct was in the highest degree heroic; +they rushed into danger, for the sake of preserving lives and property, +with a coolness and bravery which put to shame the labors of the boldest +firemen; occasionally they would come to the place of rendezvous to +reassure their teacher, and then in a moment they were away again, +laboring as zealously as ever, and utterly refusing any compensation, +however urgently pressed upon them. When they returned home, another +band was sent out under the direction of one of the house-fathers, and +exerted themselves as faithfully as their predecessors had done. But +their sacrifices and toils did not end here. Among the thousands whom +that fearful conflagration left homeless, not a few came here for +shelter and food. With these our boys shared their meals, and gave up +to them their beds,--themselves sleeping upon the ground, and this for +months." + +I could not wonder at the enthusiasm of the good man over such deeds +as these on the part of boys whom he had rescued from a degradation of +which we can hardly form an idea. It was a triumph of which an angel +might have been proud. + +I was desirous of learning something of the industrial occupations of +the pupils, and made some inquiries respecting them. + +"A considerable portion of our boys," said Dr. Wichern, "are engaged in +agricultural, or rather, horticultural pursuits. As we practise spade +husbandry almost exclusively, and devote our grounds to gardening +purposes, we can furnish employment to quite a number. For those who +prefer mechanical pursuits, we have a printing-office, book-bindery, +stereotype-foundry, lithographing and wood-engraving establishment, +paint-shop, silk-weaving manufactory, and shoe-shop, as well as those +trades which are carried on for the most part out of doors, such as +masonry and carpentry. The girls are mostly employed in household +duties, and are in great demand as servants and assistants in the +households of our farmers." + +Passing westward, we came next to the bakery and the farmer's residence, +catching a glimpse through the trees of the Fisherman's Hut, at a little +distance, near the bank of the larger of the two sylvan lakes on the +premises, where another family are gathered, and then approachd a large +building of more pretension than the rest. + +"This," said Dr. Wichern, "is the home of the Brothers of our Inner +Mission, and the school-room for our boarding-school boys, the children +of respectable and often wealthy parents, who have proved intractable at +home." + +"What," I asked, "do you include in the term, Inner Mission?" + +"I must take a round-about method of answering your inquiry. When we +found it necessary to form new families, our greatest difficulty was in +procuring suitable persons to become house-fathers of these families. +It was easy enough to obtain honest, intelligent men and women, who +possessed a fair education and a sufficient knowledge of some of the +mechanic arts for the situation; but we felt that much more than this +was necessary. We wanted men and women who would act a parent's part, +and perform a parent's duty to the children under their care; and these, +we found, must be trained for the place. We then began our circles of +Brothers, to furnish house-fathers and assistants for our families. We +required in the candidates for this office an irreproachable character; +that they should be free from physical defect, of good health and robust +constitution; that they should give evidence of piety, and of special +adaptation to this calling; that they should understand farming, or some +one of the trades practised in the establishment, or possess sufficient +mechanical talent to acquire a knowledge of them readily; that they +should have already a certain amount of education, and an amiable and +teachable disposition; and that they should be not under twenty years of +age, and exempt from military service." + +"And do you find a sufficient number who can fulfil conditions so +strict?" I inquired. + +"Candidates are never wanting," was his reply, "though the demand for +their services is large." + +"What is your course of training?" + +"Mainly practical; though we have a course of special instruction for +them, occupying twenty hours a week, in which, during their four years' +residence with us, they are taught sacred and profane history, German, +English, geography, vocal and instrumental music, and the science of +teaching. Instruction on religious subjects is also given throughout the +course. For the purpose of practical training, they are attached, at +first, to families as assistants, and after a period of apprenticeship +they undertake in rotation the direction. They teach the elementary +classes; visit the parents of the children, and report to them the +progress which their pupils have made; maintain a watchful supervision +over them, after they leave the Rauhe Haus; and assist in religious +instruction, and in the correspondence. By the system of monthly +rotation we have adopted, each Brother is brought in contact with all +the pupils, and is thus enabled to avail himself of the experience +acquired in each family." + +"You spoke of a great demand for their services; I can easily imagine +that men so trained should be in demand; but what are the callings +they pursue after leaving you? for you need but a limited number as +house-fathers and teachers." + +"The Inner Mission," he replied, "has a wide field of usefulness. It +furnishes directors and house-fathers for reform schools organized +on our plan, of which there are a number in Germany; overseers, +instructors, and assistants in agricultural and other schools; directors +and subordinate officers for prisons; directors, overseers, and +assistants in hospitals and infirmaries; city and home missionaries; and +missionaries to colonies of emigrants in America." + +"What is your annual expenditure above the products of your farm and +workshops?" I asked. + +"Somewhat less than fifty dollars a head for our entire population," was +the reply. + +It was by this time high noon, and as we returned to the Mutter-Haus, +the benevolent superintendent insisted that we should remain and partake +with him of the mid-day meal. We complied, and presently were summoned +to the dining-hall, where we found a small circle of the Brothers, and +the two head teachers. After a brief but appropriate grace, we took our +seats, being introduced by the director. + +"At supper all our teachers assemble here," said Dr. Wichern, "and with +them those children whose birthday it is; but at dinner the Brothers +remain with their own families." + +The table was abundantly supplied with plain but wholesome food, and the +cheerful conversation which ensued gave evidence that the cares of their +position had not exerted a depressing influence on their spirits. Each +seemed thoroughly in love with his work, and in harmony with all the +rest. Dr. Wichern mentioned that I was from America. + +"Have you," inquired one of the Brothers, "any institutions like this in +your country?" + +"We have," I answered, "Reform Schools, Houses of Refuge, Juvenile +Asylums, and other reformatory institutions; but I am afraid I must say, +nothing like this. We are making progress, however, in Juvenile Reform, +and I hope that ere long we, too, may have a Rough House whose influence +shall pervade our country, as yours has done Central Europe." + +"Dr. Wichern," inquired another, "have our friends visited the 'God's +Acre?'"[A] + +[Footnote A: The German name of a grave-yard.] + +"Not yet," was the reply; "but I will go thither with them after we have +dined, if they can remain so long." + +We assented, and one of the Brothers remarked,-- + +"Our boys have taken especial pains to beautify that favorite spot, this +season." + +"This disposition to adorn the resting-place of the body, so common +among us, is becoming popular in your country, I believe," said our +host, courteously. + +I replied, that it was,--that in our larger towns the place of burial +was generally rendered attractive, but that in the rural districts the +burying-grounds were yet neglected and unsightly; and ventured the +opinion, that this neglect might be partly traceable to the iconoclastic +tendencies of our Puritan ancestors. + +Dr. Wichern thought not; the neglect of the earthly home of the dead +resulted from the prevalence of indifference to the glorious doctrine of +the Resurrection; and whatever a people might profess, he could not but +believe them infidel at heart, if they were entirely neglectful of the +resting-place of their dead. + +The close of our repast precluded further discussion, and at our host's +invitation we accompanied him to the rural cemetery, where such of the +pupils and Brothers as died during their connection with the school were +buried. An English writer has very appropriately called the Rauhe Haus a +"Home among the Flowers"; but the title is far more appropriate to this +beautiful spot. Whatever a pure and exquisite taste could conceive as +becoming in a place consecrated to such a purpose, willing hands have +executed; and early every Sabbath morning, Dr. Wichern says, the pupils +resort hither to see that everything necessary is done to keep it in +perfect order. The air seemed almost heavy with the perfume of flowers; +and though the home of the living pupils of the Rauhe Haus is plain in +the extreme, the palace of their dead surpasses in splendor that of the +proudest of earthly monarchs. One could hardly help coveting such a +resting-place. + +It was with reluctance that we at last turned our faces homeward, and +bade the excellent director farewell. The world has seen, in this +nineteenth century, few nobler spirits than his. Possessed of uncommon +intellect, he combines with it executive talent of no ordinary +character, and a capacity for labor which seems almost fabulous. His +duties as the head of the Inner Mission, whose scope comprises the +organization and management of reformatory institutions of all kinds, +throughout Germany, as well as efforts analogous to those of our city +missions, temperance societies, etc., might well be supposed to be +sufficient for one man; but these are supplementary to his labors as +director of the Rauhe Haus, and editor of the _Fliegende Blätter_, and +the other literature, by no means inconsiderable, of the Inner Mission. +Dr. Wichern is highly esteemed and possesses almost unbounded influence +throughout Germany; and that influence, potent as it is, even with the +princes and crowned heads of the German States, is uniformly exerted in +behalf of the poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, and the degraded. +When the history of philanthropy shall be written, and the just meed +of commendation bestowed on the benefactors of humanity, how much more +exalted a place will he receive, in the memory and gratitude of the +world, than the perjured and audacious despot who, born the same year, +in the neighboring city of the Hague, has won his way to the throne of +France by deeds of selfishness and cruelty! Even to-day, who would not +rather be John Henry Wichern, the director of the Rauhe Haus at Horn, +than Louis Napoleon, emperor of France? + +Would that on our own side of the Atlantic a Wichern might arise, whose +abilities should be sufficient to unite in one common purpose our +reformatory enterprises, and rescue from infamy and sin the tens of +thousands of children who now, apt scholars in crime, throng the +purlieus of vice in our large cities, and are already committing deeds +whose desperate wickedness might well cause hardened criminals to +shudder. The existence of a popular government depends, we are often +told, upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. What hope, then, +can we have of the perpetuity of our institutions, when those who are to +control them have become monsters of iniquity ere they have reached the +age of manhood? + +The forces of Good and Evil are ever striving for the mastery in human +society. Happy is that philanthropist, and honored should he be with a +nation's gratitude, who can rescue these juvenile offenders from the +power of evil, and from the fearful suggestings of temptation and want, +and enlist them on the side of virtue and right! We rear monuments of +marble and bronze to those heroes who on the battle-field and in the +fierce assault have kept our nation's fame untarnished, and added new +laurels to the renown of our country's prowess; but more enduring than +marble, more lasting than brass, should be the monument reared to him +who, in the fierce contest with the powers of evil, shall rescue +the soul of the child from the grasp of the tempter, and change the +brutalized and degraded offspring of crime and lust into a youth of +generous, active, and noble impulses. But though earthly fame may be +denied to such a benefactor of his race, his record shall be on high; +and at that grand assize where all human actions shall be weighed, His +voice, whose philanthropy exceeded, infinitely, the noblest deeds of +benevolence of the sons of earth, shall be heard, saying to these humble +laborers in the vineyard of our God, "Friends, come up higher!" + +Those who are interested in knowing what has been accomplished by the +reformatory institutions of Europe will find a full and entertaining +account of most of them in a volume recently published, entitled "Papers +on Preventive, Correctional, and Reformatory Institutions and Agencies +in Different Countries," by Henry Barnard, LL.D. Hartford: F.C. +Brownell, 1857. Dr. Barnard has done a good work in collecting these +valuable documents. + + + + +BEAUTY. + + + Fond lover of the Ideal Fair, + My soul, eluded everywhere, + Is lapsed into a sweet despair. + Perpetual pilgrim, seeking ever, + Baffled, enamored, finding never; + Each morn the cheerful chase renewing, + Misled, bewildered, still pursuing; + Not all my lavished years have bought + One steadfast smile from her I sought, + But sidelong glances, glimpsing light, + A something far too fine for sight, + Veiled voices, far off thridding strains, + And precious agonies and pains: + Not love, but only love's dear wound + And exquisite unrest I found. + + At early morn I saw her pass + The lone lake's blurred and quivering glass; + Her trailing veil of amber mist + The unbending beaded clover kissed; + And straight I hasted to waylay + Her coming by the willowy way;-- + But, swift companion of the Dawn, + She left her footprints on the lawn, + And, in arriving, she was gone. + Alert I ranged the winding shore; + Her luminous presence flashed before; + The wild-rose and the daisies wet + From her light touch were trembling yet; + Faint smiled the conscious violet; + Each bush and brier and rock betrayed + Some tender sign her parting made; + And when far on her flight I tracked + To where the thunderous cataract + O'er walls of foamy ledges broke, + She vanished in the vapory smoke. + + To-night I pace this pallid floor, + The sparkling waves curl up the shore, + The August moon is flushed and full; + The soft, low winds, the liquid lull, + The whited, silent, misty realm, + The wan-blue heaven, each ghostly elm, + All these, her ministers, conspire + To fill my bosom with the fire + And sweet delirium of desire. + Enchantress! leave thy sheeny height, + Descend, be all mine own this night, + Transfuse, enfold, entrance me quite! + Or break thy spell, my heart restore, + And disenchant me evermore! + + * * * * * + + +THE GRINDWELL GOVERNING MACHINE. + + +On the other side of the Atlantic there is a populous city called +Grandville. It is, as its name indicates, a great city,--but it is said +that it thinks itself a good deal greater than it really is. I meant to +say that Grandville was its original name, and the name by which even at +the present day it is called by its own citizens. But there are certain +wits, or it may be, vulgar people, who by some process have converted +this name into Grindwell. + +I may be able, in the course of this sketch, to give a reason why so +sounding and aristocratic a name as Grandville has been changed into the +plebeian one of Grindwell. I might account for it by adducing +similar instances of changes in the names of cities through the bad +pronunciation and spelling of foreigners. For instance, the English +nickname Livorno Leghorn, the Germans insist on calling Venice Venedig, +and the French convert Washington into the Chinese word Voss-Hang-Tong. +And so it may be that the name Grindwell has originated among us +Americans simply from miscalling or misspelling the foreign name of +Grandville. + +I incline to think, however, that there is a better reason for the name. + +For a good many years Grandville has been famous for a great machine, of +a very curious construction, which is said to regulate the movements of +the whole city, and almost to convert the men, women, and children into +cranks, wheels, and pinions. As a model of this machine does not exist +in our Patent Office at Washington, I shall beg the reader's indulgence +while I attempt to give some account of it. It may be thought a very +curious affair, though I believe there is little about it that is +original or new. The idea of it was handed down from remote generations. + +In America I know that many persons may consider the Grindwell Governing +Machine a humbug,--an obsolete, absurd, and tyrannous institution, +wholly unfitted to the nineteenth century. A machine that proposes to +think and act for the whole people, and which is rigidly opposed to the +people's thinking and acting for themselves, is likely to find little +favor among us. With us the doctrine is, that each one should think for +himself,--be an individual mind and will, and not the spoke of a wheel. +Every American voter or votress is allowed to keep his or her little +intellectual wind-mill, coffee-mill, pepper-mill, loom, steam-engine, +hand-organ, or whatever moral manufacturing or grinding apparatus he or +she likes. Each one may be his own Church or his own State, and yet be +none the less a good and useful citizen, and the union of the States be +in none the more danger. But it is not so in Grindwell. The rules of +the Grindwell machine allow no one to do his own grinding, unless his +mill-wheel is turned by the central governing power. He must allow the +big State machine to do everything,--he paying for it, of course. A +regular programme prescribes what he shall believe and say and do; and +any departure from this order is considered a violation of the laws, or +at least a reprehensible invasion of the time-honored customs of the +city. + +The Grindwell Governing Machine (though a patent has been taken out for +it in Europe, and it is thought everything of by royal heads and the +gilded flies that buzz about them) is really an old machine, nearly worn +out, and every now and then patched up and painted and varnished anew. +If a committee of our knowing Yankees were sent over to gain information +with regard to its actual condition, I am inclined to think they would +bring back a curious and not very favorable report. It wouldn't astonish +me, if they should pronounce the whole apparatus of the State rotten +from top to bottom, and only kept from falling to pieces by all sorts +of ingenious contrivances of an external and temporary nature,--here a +wheel, or pivot, or spring to be replaced,--there a prop or buttress to +be set up,--here a pipe choked up,--there a boiler burst,--and so on, +from one end of the works to the other. However, the machine keeps +a-going, and many persons think it works beautifully. + +Everything is reduced to such perfect system in its operations, that the +necessity for individual opinion is almost superseded, and even +private consciences are laid upon the shelf,--just as people lay by an +antiquated timepiece that no winding-up or shaking can persuade into +marking the hours,--for have they not the clock on the Government +railroad station opposite, which they can at any time consult by +stepping to the window? For instance, individual honesty is set aside +and replaced by a system of rewards and punishments. Honesty is an +old-fashioned coat. The police, like a great sponge, absorbs the private +virtue. It says to conscience, "Stay there,--don't trouble yourself,--I +will act for you." + +You drop your purse in the street. A rogue picks it up. In his private +conscience he says, "Honesty is a very good thing, perhaps, but it is by +no means the best policy,--it is simply no policy at all,--it is sheer +stupidity. What can be more politic than for me to pocket this windfall +and turn the corner quick?"--So preacheth his crooked fag-end of a +conscience, that _very, very_ small still voice, in very husky tones; +but he knows that a policeman, walking behind him, saw him pick up the +purse, which alters the case,--which, in fact, completely sets aside his +fag-end of a husky-voiced conscience, and makes virtue his necessity, +and necessity his virtue. External morality is hastily drawn on as +a decent overcoat to hide the tag-rags of his roguishness, while he +magnanimously restores the purse to the owner. + +Jones left his umbrella in a cab one night. Discovering that he hadn't +it under his arm, he rushed after the cabman; but he was gone. Jones +had his number, however, and with it proceeded the next day to the +police-office, feeling sure that he would find his umbrella there. And +there, in a closet appropriated to articles left in hackney-coaches,--a +perfect limbo of canes, parasols, shawls, pocket-books, and +what-not,--he found it, ticketed and awaiting its lawful owner. The +explanation of which mystery is, that the cabmen in Grindwell are +strictly amenable to the police for any departure from the system which +provides for the security of private property, and a yearly reward is +given to those of the coach-driving fraternity who prove to be the most +faithful restorers of articles left in their carriages. Surely, the +result of system can no farther go than this,--that Monsieur Vaurien's +moral sense, like his opinions, should be absorbed and overruled by the +governing powers. + +What a capital thing it is to have the great governmental head and +heart thinking and feeling for us! Why, even the little boys, on winter +afternoons, are restricted by the policemen from sliding on the ice +in the streets, for fear the impetuous little fellows should break or +dislocate some of their bones, and the hospital might have the expense +of setting them; so patriarchal a regard has the machine for its young +friends! + +I might allude here to a special department of the machine, which once +had great power in overruling the thoughts and consciences of the +people, and which is still considered by some as not altogether +powerless. I refer to the Ecclesiastic department of the Grindwell +works. This was formerly the greatest labor-saving machinery ever +invented. But however powerful the operation of the Church machinery +upon the grandmothers and grandfathers of the modern Grindwellites, it +has certainly fallen greatly into disuse, and is kept a-going now more +for the sake of appearances than for any real efficacy. The most knowing +ones think it rather old-fashioned and cumbrous,--at any rate, not +comparable to the State machinery, either in its design or its mode of +operation. And as in these days of percussion-caps and Miniè rifles +we lay by an old matchlock or crossbow, using it only to ornament our +walls,--or as the powdered postilion with his horn and his boots is +superseded by the locomotive and the electric telegraph,--so the old +rusty Church wheels are removed into buildings apart from the daily life +of the people, where they seem to revolve harmlessly and without any +necessary connection with the State wheels. + +Not that I mean to say that it works smoothly and well at all +times,--this Grindwell machine. How can such an old patched and +crumbling apparatus be expected always to work well? And how can you +hope to find, even in the most enslaved or routine-ridden community, +entire obedience to the will of the monarch and his satellites? +Unfortunately for the cause of order and quiet, there will always be +found certain tough lumps, in the shape of rebellious or non-conformist +men, which refuse to be melted in the strong solvents or ground up +in the swift mills of Absolutism. Government must look after these +impediments. If they are positively dangerous, they must be destroyed or +removed. If only suspected, or known to be powerless or inactive, they +must at least be watched. + +And here, again, the machine of government shows a remarkable ingenuity +of organization. + +For instance, it is said that there are pipes laid all along the +streets, like hose, leading from a central reservoir. Nobody knows +exactly what they are for; but if any one steps upon them, up spirts +something like a stream of gas, and takes the form of a _gendarme_,--and +the unlucky street-walker must pay dear for his carelessness. Telegraph +wires radiate like cobwebs from the chamber of the main-spring, and +carry intelligence of all that is going on in the houses and streets. +Man-traps are laid under the pavements,--sometimes they are secretly +introduced under your very table or bed,--and if anything is said +against that piece of machinery called the main-spring, or against the +head engineer, the trap will nab you and fly away with you, like the +spider that carried off Margery Mopp. If a number of people get together +to discuss the meaning of and the reasons for the existence of the +main-spring, or any of the big wheels immediately connected therewith, +the ground under them will sometimes give way, and they will suddenly +find themselves in unfurnished apartments not to their liking. And if +any one should be so rash as to put his hand on the wheels, he is cut to +pieces or strangled by the silent, incessant, fatal whirl of the engine. + +The head engineer keeps his machine, and the city on which it acts, as +much in the dark as possible. He has a special horror of sunshine. +He seems to think that the sky is one great burning lens, and his +machine-rooms and the city a vast powder-magazine. + +There are certain articles thought to be especially dangerous. +Newspapers are strictly forbidden,--unless first steeped in a tincture +of asbestos of a very dull color, expressly manufactured and supplied +by the Governing Machine. When properly saturated with the essence of +dulness and death, and brought down from a glaring white and black to a +decidedly ashy-gray neutral color, a few small newspapers are permitted +to be circulated, but with the greatest caution. They sometimes take +fire, it is said,--these journals,--when brought too near any brain +overcharged with electricity. Two or three times, it is said, the +Governing Machine has been put out of order by the newspapers and their +readers bringing too much electro-magnetism (or something like it) to +bear on parts of the works;--the machine had even taken fire and been +nearly burnt up, and the head engineer got so singed that he never dared +to take the management of the works again. + +So it is thought that nothing is so unfavorable to the working of the +wheels as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and, generally, all the +imponderable and uncatchable essences that float about in the air; and +these, it is thought, are generated and diffused by these villanous +newspapers. Certain kinds of books are also forbidden, as being electric +conductors. Most of the books allowed in the city of Grindwell are so +heavy, that they are thought to be usually non-conductors, and therefore +quite safe in the hands of the people. + +It is at the city gates that most vigilance is required with regard to +the prohibited articles. There the poor fellows who keep the gates have +no rest night or day,--so many suspicious-looking boxes, bundles, bales, +and barrels claim admittance. Quantities of articles are arrested and +prevented from entering. Nothing that can in any way interfere with the +great machine can come in. Newspapers and books from other countries +are torn and burnt up. Speaking-trumpets, ear-trumpets, spectacles, +microscopes, spy-glasses, telescopes, and, generally, all instruments +and contrivances for extending the sphere of ordinary knowledge, are +very narrowly examined before they are admitted. The only trumpets +freely allowed are of a musical sort, fit to amuse the people,--the +only spectacles, green goggles to keep out the glare of truth's +sunshine,--the magnifying-glasses, those which exaggerate the +proportions of the imperial governor of the machinery. All sorts of +moral lightning-rods and telegraph-wires are arrested, and lie in great +piles outside the city walls. + +But in spite of the utmost vigilance and care of the officers at the +gates and the sentinels on the thick walls, dangerous articles and +dangerous people will pass in. A man like Kossuth or Mazzini going +through would produce such a current of the electric fluid, that the +machine would be in great danger of combustion. Remonstrances were +sometimes sent to neighboring cities, to the effect that they should +keep their light and heat to themselves, and not be throwing such strong +_reflections_ into the weak eyes of the Grindwellites, and putting in +danger the governmental powder-magazine,--as the machine-offices were +sometimes called. An inundation or bad harvest, producing a famine among +the poor, causes great alarm, and the government officers have a time of +it, running about distributing alms, or raising money to keep down the +price of bread. Thousands of servants in livery, armed with terrific +instruments for the destruction of life, are kept standing on and around +the walls of the city, ready at a moment's notice to shoot down any one +who makes any movement or demonstration in a direction contrary to +the laws of the machine. And to support this great crowd of liveried +lackeys, the people are squeezed like sponges, till they furnish the +necessary money. + +The respectable editors of the daily papers go about somewhat as the +dogs do in August, with muzzles on their mouths. They are prohibited +from printing more than a hundred words a day. Any reference to the +sunshine, or to any of the subtile and imponderable substances before +mentioned, is considered contrary to the order of the machine; to +compensate for which, there is great show of gaslight (under glass +covers) throughout the city. Gas and moonshine are the staple subjects +of conversation. Besides lighting the streets and shops, the chief +use of fire seems to be for cooking, lighting pipes and cigars, and +fireworks to amuse the working classes. + +Great attention is paid to polishing and beautifying the outer case of +the machine, and the outer surface generally of the city of Grindwell. +Where any portion of the framework has fallen into dilapidation and +decay, the gaunt skeleton bones of the ruined structure are decked and +covered with leaves and flowers. Old rusty boilers that are on the verge +of bursting are newly painted, varnished, and labelled with letters +of gold. The main-spring, which has grown old and weak, is said to be +helped by the secret application of steam,--and the fires are fed with +huge bundles of worthless bank-bills and other paper promises. The noise +of the clanking piston and wheels is drowned by orchestras of music; +the roofs and sides of the machine buildings are covered all over with +roses; and the smell of smoke and machine oil is prevented by scattering +delicious perfumes. The minds of the populace are turned from the +precarious condition of things by all sorts of public amusements, such +as mask balls, theatres, operas, public gardens, etc. + +But all this does not preserve some persons from the continual +apprehension that there will be one day a great and terrific explosion. +Some say the city is sleeping over volcanic fires, which will sooner or +later burst up from below and destroy or change the whole upper surface. +The actual state of things might be represented on canvas by a gaping, +laughing crowd pressing around a Punch-and-Judy exhibition in the +street, beneath a great ruined palace in the process of repairing, where +the rickety scaffolding, the loose stones and mortar, and in fact the +whole rotten building, may at any moment topple down upon their heads. + +But while such grave thoughts are passing in the minds of some people, I +must relate one or two amusing scenes which lately occurred at the city +gates. + +Travellers are not prohibited from going and coming; but on entering, it +is necessary to be sure that they bring with their passports and baggage +no prohibited or dangerous articles. A young man from our side of the +Atlantic, engaged in commerce, had been annoyed a good deal by the +gate-officers opening and searching his baggage. The next time he went +to Grindwell, he brought, besides his usual trunks and carpet-bags, a +rather large and very mysterious-looking box. After going through with +the trunks and bags, the officers took hold of this box. + +"Gentlemen," said the young practical joker, "I have great objections +to having that box opened. Yet it contains, I assure you, nothing +contraband, nothing dangerous to the peace of the Grindwell government +or people. It is simply a toy I am taking to a friend's house as a +Christmas present to his little boy. If I open it, I fear I shall have +difficulty in arranging it again as neatly as I wish,--and it would be a +great disappointment to my little friend Auguste Henri, if he should not +find it neatly packed. It would show at once that it had been opened; +and children like to have their presents done up nicely, just as they +issued from the shop. Gentlemen, I shall take it as a great favor, if +you will let it pass." + +"Sir," said the head officer, "it is impossible to grant the favor you +ask. The government is very strict. Many prohibited articles have lately +found their way in. We are determined to put a stop to it." + +"Gentlemen," said the young man, "take hold of that box,--lift it. You +see how light it is; you see that there can be no contraband goods +there,--still less, anything dangerous. I pray you to let it pass." + +"Impossible, Sir!" said the officer. "How do I know that there is +nothing dangerous there? The weight is nothing. Its lightness rather +makes it the more suspicious. Boxes like this are usually heavy. This is +something out of the usual course. I'm afraid there's electricity here. +Gentlemen officers, proceed to do your duty!" + +So a crowd of custom-house officers gathered around the suspected box, +with their noses bent down over the lid, awaiting the opening. One of +them was about to proceed with hammer and chisel. + +"Stop," said the young merchant, "I can save you a great deal of +trouble. I can open it in an instant. Allow me--by touching a little +spring here"-- + +As he said this, he pressed a secret spring on the side of the box. +No sooner was it done than, the lid was thrown back with sudden and +tremendous violence, as if by some living force, and up jumped a hideous +and shaggy monster which knocked the six custom-house officers flat on +their backs. It was an enormous Punchinello on springs, who had been +confined in the box like the Genie in the Arabian story, and by the +broad grin on his face he seemed delighted with his liberty and his +triumph over his inquisitors. The six officers lay stunned by the blow; +and while others ran up to see what was the matter, the young traveller +persuaded Mr. Punch back again into his box, and, shutting him down, +took advantage of the confusion to carry it off with the rest of his +baggage, and reach a cab in safety. When the officers recovered their +senses, the practical joker had escaped into the crowded city. They +could give no clear account of what had happened; but I verily believe +they thought that Lucifer himself had knocked them down, and was now let +loose in the city of Grindwell. + +Another amusing incident occurred afterwards at the city gates. An +American lady, who was a great lover of Art, had purchased a bronze bust +of Plato somewhere on the Continent. She had it carefully boxed, and +took it along with her baggage. She got on very well until she reached +the city of Grindwell. Here she was stopped, of course, and her baggage +examined. Finding nothing contraband, they were about to let her pass, +when they came to the box containing the ancient philosopher's head. + +"What's this?" they asked. "What's in this box, so heavy?" + +"A bust," said the lady. + +"A bust? so heavy? a bust in a lady's baggage?--Impossible!" + +"I assure you, it is nothing but a bust." + +"Pray, whose bust may it be, Madam?" + +"The bust of Plato." + +"Plato? Plato? Who's Plato? Is he an Italian?" + +"He was a Greek philosopher." + +"Why is it so heavy?" + +"It is a bronze bust." + +"We beg your pardon, Madam; but we fear there's something wrong here. +This Plato may be a conspirator,--a Carbonaro,--a member of some secret +society,--a red-republican,--a conductor of the electric fluid. How can +we answer for this Plato? We don't like this heavy box;--these very +heavy boxes are suspicious. Suppose it should be some infernal-machine. +Madam, we have our doubts. This box must be detained till full inquiries +are made." + +There was no help for it. The box was detained. "It must be so, Plato!" +After waiting several hours, it was brought forward in presence of the +entire company of inquisitors, and cautiously opened. Seeing no Plato, +but only some sawdust, they grew still more suspicious. Having placed +the box on the ground, they all retired to a safe distance, as if +awaiting some explosion. They evidently took it for an infernal-machine. +In their eyes everything was a machine of some sort or other. After +waiting some time, and finding that it didn't burst, nor emit even +a smell of sulphur, the boldest man of the party approached it very +cautiously, and upset it with his foot and ran. + +All this while the lady and her friends stood by, silent spectators +of this farce. The only danger of explosion was on their part, with +laughter at the whole scene. They contrived, however, to keep their +countenances, though less rigidly than the Greek philosopher in the box +did his. + +When the custom-house officials found, that, though the box was upset, +nothing occurred, they grew more bold, and, approaching, saw a piece of +the bronze head peering above the sawdust. Then, for the first time, +they began to feel ashamed of themselves. So replacing the sawdust and +the cover, they allowed the box to pass into the city, and tried, by +avoiding to speak of the affair among themselves, to forget what donkeys +they had been. + +The Grindwell government has many such alarms, and never appears +entirely at its ease. It is fully aware of the combustible nature of the +component parts of the Governing Machine. There is consequently great +outlay of means to insure its safety. An immense number of public spies +and functionaries are constantly employed in looking after the fires and +lights about the city. Heavy restrictions are laid on all substances +containing electricity, and great care is taken lest this subtile fluid +should condense in spots and take the form of lightning. Fortunately, +the unclouded sunshine seldom comes into Grindwell, else there would be +the same fears with regard to light. + +So long as this perpetual surveillance is kept up, the machine seems to +work on well enough in the main; but the moment there is any remissness +on the part of the police,--bang! goes a small explosion somewhere,--or, +crack! a bit of the machinery,--and out rush the engineers with their +bags of cotton-wool or tow to stop up the chinks, or their bundles of +paper money to keep up the steam, or their buckets of oil and _soft +soap_ to pour upon the wheels. + +One eccentric gentleman of my acquaintance persists in predicting +that any day there may be a general blow-up, and the whole concern, +engineers, financiers, priests, soldiers, and flunkies, all go to smash. +He evidently wishes to see it, though, as far as personal comfort goes, +one would rather be out of the way at such a time. + +Most people seem to think, that, considering all things, the present +head engineer is about the best man that could be found for the post he +occupies. There are, however, a number of the Grindwell people--I can't +say how many, for they are afraid to speak--who feel more and more that +they are living in a stifled and altogether abnormal condition, and wish +for an indefinite supply of the light, heat, air, and electricity which +they see some of the neighboring cities enjoying. + +What the result is to be no one can yet tell. We are such stuff as +dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with--_a crust_; +some say, a very thin crust, such as might be got up by a skilful +_patissier_, and over which gilded court-flies, and even _scaraboei_, +may crawl with safety, but--which must inevitably cave in beneath the +boot-heels of a real, true, thinking man. We cannot forget that there +are measureless catacombs and caverns yawning beneath the streets and +houses of modern Grindwell. + + + + +SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES. + + +Ever since the time of that dyspeptic heathen, Plotinus, the saints have +been "ashamed of their bodies." What is worse, they have usually had +reason for the shame. Of the four famous Latin fathers, Jerome describes +his own limbs as misshapen, his skin as squalid, his bones as scarcely +holding together; while Gregory the Great speaks in his Epistles of his +own large size, as contrasted with his weakness and infirmities. +Three of the four Greek fathers--Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory of +Nazianzen--ruined their health early, and were wretched invalids for the +remainder of their days. Three only of the whole eight were able-bodied +men,--Ambrose, Augustine, and Athanasius; and the permanent influence of +these three has been far greater, for good or for evil, than that of all +the others put together. + +Robust military saints there have doubtless been, in the Roman Catholic +Church: George, Michael, Sebastian, Eustace, Martin,--not to mention +Hubert the Hunter, and Christopher the Christian Hercules. But these +have always held a very secondary place in canonization. If we mistake +not, Maurice and his whole Theban legion were sainted together, to the +number of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six; doubtless they were +stalwart men, but there never yet has been a chapel erected to one of +them. The mediaeval type of sanctity was a strong soul in a weak body; +and it could be intensified either by strengthening the one or by +further debilitating the other. The glory lay in contrast, not in +combination. Yet, to do them justice, they conceded a strong and stately +beauty to their female saints,--Catherine, Agnes, Agatha, Barbara, +Cecilia, and the rest. It was reserved for the modern Pre-Raphaelites to +attempt the combination of a maximum of saintliness with a minimum of +pulmonary and digestive capacity. + +But, indeed, from that day to this, the saints by spiritual laws have +usually been sinners against physical laws, and the artists have merely +followed the examples they found. Vasari records, that Carotto's +masterpiece of painting, "The Three Archangels," at Verona, was +criticized because the limbs of the angels were too slender, and +Carotto, true to his conventional standard, replied, "Then they will fly +the better." Saints have been flying to heaven for the same reason ever +since,--and have commonly flown very early. + +Indeed, the earlier some such saints cast off their bodies the better, +they make so little use of them. Chittagutta, the Buddhist saint, +dwelt in a cave in Ceylon. His devout visitors one day remarked on the +miraculous beauty of the legendary paintings, representing scenes from +the life of Buddha, which adorned the walls. The holy man informed them, +that, during his sixty years' residence in the cave, he had been too +much absorbed in meditation to notice the existence of the paintings, +but he would take their word for it. And in this non-intercourse with +the visible world there has been an apostolical succession, from +Chittagutta, down to the Andover divinity-student who refused to join +his companions in their admiring gaze on that wonderful autumnal +landscape which spreads itself before the Seminary Hill in October, but +marched back into the Library, ejaculating, "Lord, turn thou mine eyes +from beholding vanity!" + +It is to be reluctantly recorded, in fact, that the Protestant saints +have not ordinarily had much to boast of, in physical stamina, as +compared with the Roman Catholic. They have not got far beyond Plotinus. +We do not think it worth while to quote Calvin on this point, for he, as +everybody knows, was an invalid for his whole lifetime. But we do take +it hard, that the jovial Luther, in the midst of his ale and skittles, +should have deliberately censured Juvenal's _mens sana in corpore sano_, +as a pagan maxim! + +If Saint Luther fails us, where are the advocates of the body to look +for comfort? Nothing this side of ancient Greece, we fear, will afford +adequate examples of the union of saintly souls and strong bodies. +Pythagoras the sage we doubt not to have been identical with Pythagoras +the inventor of pugilism, and he was, at any rate, (in the loving words +of Bentley,) "a lusty proper man, and built as it were to make a good +boxer." Cleanthes, whose sublime "Prayer" is, to our thinking, the +highest strain left of early piety, was a boxer likewise. Plato was a +famous wrestler, and Socrates was unequalled for his military +endurance. Nor was one of these, like their puny follower Plotinus, too +weak-sighted to revise his own manuscripts. + +It would be tedious to analyze the causes of this modern deterioration +of the saints. The fact is clear. There is in the community an +impression that physical vigor and spiritual sanctity are incompatible. +We knew a young Orthodox divine who lost his parish by swimming the +Merrimac River, and another who was compelled to ask a dismissal in +consequence of vanquishing his most influential parishioner in a game +of ten-pins; it seemed to the beaten party very unclerical. We further +remember a match, in a certain sea-side bowling-alley, in which two +brothers, young divines, took part. The sides being made up, with the +exception of these two players, it was necessary to find places for +them also. The head of one side accordingly picked his man, on the +presumption (as he afterwards confessed) that the best preacher would +naturally be the worst bowler. The athletic capacity, he thought, would +be in inverse ratio to the sanctity. We are happy to add, that in this +case his hopes were signally disappointed. But it shows which way the +popular impression lies. + +The poets have probably assisted In maintaining the delusion. How many +cases of consumption Wordsworth must have accelerated by his assertion, +that "the good die first"! Happily, he lived to disprove his own maxim. +We, too, repudiate it utterly. Professor Peirce has proved by statistics +that the best scholars in our colleges survive the rest; and we hold +that virtue, like intellect, tends to longevity. The experience of the +literary class shows that all excess is destructive, and that we need +the harmonious action of all the faculties. Of the brilliant roll of the +"young men of 1830," in Paris,--Balzac, Soulié, De Musset, De Bernard, +Sue, and their compeers,--it is said that nearly every one has already +perished, in the prime of life. What is the explanation? A stern one: +opium, tobacco, wine, and licentiousness. "All died of softening of the +brain or spinal marrow, or swelling of the heart." No doubt, many of +the noble and the pure were dying prematurely at the same time; but it +proceeded from the same essential cause: physical laws disobeyed and +bodies exhausted. The evil is, that what in the debauchee is condemned, +as suicide, is lauded in the devotee, as saintship. The _delirium +tremens_ of the drunkard conveys scarcely a sterner moral lesson than +the second childishness of the pure and abstemious Southey. + +But, happily, times change, and saints with them. Our moral conceptions +are expanding to take in that "athletic virtue" of the Greeks, [Greek: +apetae gimnastikae] which Dr. Arnold, by precept and practice, defended. +The modern English "Broad Church" aims at breadth of shoulders, as well +as of doctrines. Kingsley paints his stalwart Philammons and Amyas +Leighs, and his critics charge him with laying down a new definition of +the saint, as a man who fears God and can walk a thousand miles in a +thousand hours. Our American saintship, also, is beginning to have +a body to it, a "Body of Divinity," indeed. Look at our three great +popular preachers. The vigor of the paternal blacksmith still swings the +sinewy arm of Beecher; Parker performed the labors, mental and physical, +of four able-bodied men, until even his great strength temporarily +yielded;--and if ever dyspepsia attack the burly frame of Chapin, we +fancy that dyspepsia will get the worst of it. + +This is as it should be. One of the most potent causes of the +ill-concealed alienation between the clergy and the people, in our +community, is the supposed deficiency, on the part of the former, of +a vigorous, manly life. It must be confessed that our saints suffer +greatly from this moral and physical _anhaemia_, this bloodlessness, +which separates them, more effectually than a cloister, from the strong +life of the age. What satirists upon religion are those parents who say +of their pallid, puny, sedentary, lifeless, joyless little offspring, +"He is born for a minister," while the ruddy, the brave, and the +strong are as promptly assigned to a secular career! Never yet did an +ill-starred young saint waste his Saturday afternoons in preaching +sermons in the garret to his deluded little sisters and their dolls, +without living to repent it in maturity. These precocious little +sentimentalists wither away like blanched potato-plants in a cellar; +and then comes some vigorous youth from his out-door work or play, and +grasps the rudder of the age, as he grasped the oar, the bat, or the +plough-handle. We distrust the achievements of every saint without a +body; and really have hopes of the Cambridge Divinity School, since +hearing that it has organized a boat-club. + +We speak especially of men, but the same principles apply to women. +The triumphs of Rosa Bonheur and Harriet Hosmer grew out of a free and +vigorous training, and they learned to delineate muscle by using it. + +Everybody admires the physical training of military and naval schools. +But these same persons never seem to imagine that the body is worth +cultivating for any purpose, except to annihilate the bodies of others. +Yet it needs more training to preserve life than to destroy it. The +vocation of a literary man is far more perilous than that of a frontier +dragoon. The latter dies at most but once, by an Indian bullet; the +former dies daily, unless he be warned in time and take occasional +refuge in the saddle and the prairie with the dragoon. What battle-piece +is so pathetic as Browning's "Grammarian's Funeral"? Do not waste your +gymnastics on the West Point or Annapolis student, whose whole life will +be one of active exercise, but bring them into the professional schools +and the counting-rooms. Whatever may be the exceptional cases, the stern +truth remains, that the great deeds of the world can be more easily done +by illiterate men than by sickly ones. Wisely said Horace Mann, "All +through the life of a pure-minded but feeble-bodied man, his path is +lined with memory's gravestones, which mark the spots where noble +enterprises perished, for lack of physical vigor to embody them in +deeds." And yet more eloquently it has been said by a younger American +thinker, (D.A. Wasson,) "Intellect in a weak body is like gold in +a spent swimmer's pocket,--the richer he would be, under other +circumstances, by so much the greater his danger now." + +Of course, the mind has immense control over physical endurance, and +every one knows that among soldiers, sailors, emigrants, and woodsmen, +the leaders, though more delicately nurtured, will often endure hardship +better than the followers,--"because," says Sir Philip Sidney, "they are +supported by the great appetites of honor." But for all these triumphs +of nervous power a reaction lies in store, as in the case of the +superhuman efforts often made by delicate women. And besides, there is +a point beyond which no mental heroism can ignore the body,--as, for +instance, in seasickness and toothache. Can virtue arrest consumption, +or self-devotion set free the agonized breath of asthma, or heroic +energy defy paralysis? More formidable still are those subtle results +of disease, which cannot be resisted, because their source is unseen. +Voltaire declared that the fate of a nation had often depended on the +good or bad digestion of a prime-minister; and Motley holds that the +gout of Charles V. changed the destinies of the world. + +But so blinded, on these matters, is our accustomed mode of thought, +that Mr. Beecher's recent lecture on the Laws of Nature has been met +with strong objections from a portion of the religious press. These +newspapers agree in asserting that admiration of physical strength +belonged to the barbarous ages of the world. So it certainly did, and so +much the better for those ages. They had that one merit, at least; and +so surely as an exclusively intellectual civilization ignored it, the +arm of some robust barbarian prostrated that civilization at last. What +Sismondi says of courage is preëminently true of that bodily vigor which +it usually presupposes: that, although it is by no means the first +of virtues, its loss is more fatal than that of all others. "Were it +possible to unite the advantages of a perfect government with the +cowardice of a whole people, those advantages would be utterly +valueless, since they would be utterly without security." + +Physical health is a necessary condition of all permanent success. To +the American people it has a stupendous importance because it is the +only attribute of power in which they are losing ground. Guaranty +us against physical degeneracy, and we can risk all other +perils,--financial crises, Slavery, Romanism, Mormonism, Border +Ruffians, and New York assassins; "domestic malice, foreign levy, +nothing" can daunt us. Guaranty us health, and Mrs. Stowe cannot +frighten us with all the prophecies of Dred; but when her sister +Catherine informs us that in all the vast female acquaintance of the +Beecher family there are not a dozen healthy women, we confess ourselves +a little tempted to despair of the republic. + +The one drawback to satisfaction in our Public-School System is the +physical weakness which it reveals and helps to perpetuate. One seldom +notices a ruddy face in the school-room, without tracing it back to a +Transatlantic origin. The teacher of a large school in Canada went so +far as to declare to us, that she could recognize the children born this +side the line by their invariable appearance of ill-health joined with +intellectual precocity,--stamina wanting, and the place supplied by +equations. Look at a class of boys or girls in our Grammar Schools; a +glance along the line of their backs affords a study of geometrical +curves. You almost long to reverse the position of their heads, as Dante +has those of the false prophets, and thus improve their figures; the +rounded shoulders affording a vigorous chest, and the hollow chest an +excellent back. + +There are statistics to show that the average length of human life is +increasing; but it is probable that this results from the diminution +of epidemic diseases, rather than from any general improvement in +_physique_. There are facts also to indicate an increase of size and +strength with advancing civilization. It is known that two men of middle +size were unable to find a suit of armor large enough among the sixty +sets owned by Sir Samuel Meyrick. It is also known that the strongest +American Indians cannot equal the average strength of wrist of +Europeans, or rival them in ordinary athletic feats. Indeed, it is +generally supposed that any physical deterioration is local, being +peculiar to the United States. Recently, however, we have read, with +great regret, in the "Englishwoman's Review," that "it is allowed by +all, that the appearance of the English peasant, in the present day, +is very different to [from] what it was fifty years ago; the robust, +healthy, hard-looking countrywoman or girl is as rare now as the pale, +delicate, nervous female of our times would have been a century ago." +And the writer proceeds to give alarming illustrations, based upon the +appearance of children in English schools, both in city and country. + +We cannot speak for England, but certainly no one can visit Canada +without being struck with the spectacle of a more athletic race of +people than our own. On every side one sees rosy female faces and noble +manly figures. In the shop-windows, in winter weather, hang snow-shoes, +"gentlemen's and ladies' sizes." The street-corners inform you that the +members of the "Curling Club" are to meet to-day at "Dolly's," and the +"Montreal Fox-hounds" at St. Lawrence Hall to-morrow. And next day +comes off the annual steeple-chase, at the "Mile-End Course," ridden by +gentlemen of the city with their own horses; a scene, by the way, whose +exciting interest can scarcely be conceived by those accustomed only +to "trials of speed" at agricultural exhibitions. Everything indicates +out-door habits and athletic constitutions. + +We are aware that we may be met with the distinction between a good idle +constitution and a good working constitution,--the latter of which often +belongs to persons who make no show of physical powers. But this only +means that there are different temperaments and types of physical +organization, while, within the limits of each, the distinction between +a healthy and a diseased condition still holds; and we insist on that +alone. + +Still more specious is the claim of the Fourth-of-July orators, that, +health or no health, it is the sallow Americans, and not the robust +English, who are really leading the world. But this, again, is a +question of temperaments. The Englishman concedes the greater intensity, +but prefers a more solid and permanent power. It is the noble masonry +and vast canals of Montreal, against the Aladdin's palaces of Chicago. +"I observe," admits the Englishman, "that an American can accomplish +more, at a single effort, than any other man on earth; but I also +observe that he exhausts himself in the achievement. Kane, a delicate +invalid, astounds the world by his two Arctic winters,--and then dies in +tropical Cuba." The solution is simple; nervous energy is grand, and so +is muscular power; combine the two, and you move the world. + +We shall assume, as admitted, therefore, the deficiency of physical +health in America, and the need of a great amendment. But into the +general question of cause and cure we do not propose to enter. In view +of the vast variety of special theories, and the inadequacy of any one, +(or any dozen,) we shall forbear. To our thinking, the best diagnosis +of the universal American disease is to be found in Andral's +famous description of the cholera: "Anatomical characteristics, +insufficient;--cause, mysterious;--nature, hypothetical;--symptoms, +characteristic;--diagnosis, easy;--_treatment, very doubtful_." + +Every man must have his hobby, however, and it is a great deal to ride +only one hobby at a time. For the present we disavow all minor ones. +We forbear giving our pet arguments in defence of animal food, and in +opposition to tobacco, coffee, and india-rubbers. We will not criticize +the old-school physician whom we once knew, who boasted of not having +performed a thorough ablution for twenty-five years; nor will we +question the physiological orthodoxy of Miss Sedgwick's New England +artist, who represented the Goddess of Health with a pair of flannel +drawers on. Still less should we think of debating (or of tasting) +Kennedy's Medical Discovery, or R.R.R., or the Cow Pepsin. We know our +aim, and will pursue it with a single eye. + + "The wise for cure on _exercise_ depend," + +saith Dryden,--and that is our hobby. + +A great physician has said, "I know not which is most indispensable +for the support of the frame,--food or exercise." But who, in this +community, really takes exercise? Even the mechanic commonly confines +himself to one set of muscles; the blacksmith acquires strength in his +right arm, and the dancing-master in his left leg. But the professional +or business man, what muscles has he at all? The tradition, that +Phidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, one hundred and twenty miles, in +two days, seems to us Americans as mythical as the Golden Fleece. Even +to ride sixty miles in a day, to walk thirty, to run five, or to swim +one, would cost most men among us a fit of illness, and many their +lives. Let any man test his physical condition, we will not say by +sawing his own cord of wood, but by an hour in the gymnasium or at +cricket, and his enfeebled muscular apparatus will groan with rheumatism +for a week. Or let him test the strength of his arms and chest by +raising and lowering himself a few times upon a horizontal bar, or +hanging by the arms to a rope, and he will probably agree with Galen +in pronouncing it _robustum validumque laborem_. Yet so manifestly are +these things within the reach of common constitutions, that a few weeks +or months of judicious practice will renovate his whole system, and the +most vigorous exercise will refresh him like a cold bath. + +To a well-regulated frame, mere physical exertion, even for an +uninteresting object, is a great enjoyment, which is, of course, +enhanced by the excitement of games and sports. To almost every man +there is joy in the memory of these things; they are the happiest +associations of his boyhood. It does not occur to him, that he also +might be as happy as a boy, if he lived more like one. What do most men +know of the "wild joys of living," the daily zest and luxury of out-door +existence, in which every healthy boy beside them revels?--skating, +while the orange sky of sunset dies away over the delicate tracery of +gray branches, and the throbbing feet pause in their tingling motion, +and the frosty air is filled with the shrill sound of distant steel, +the resounding of the ice, and the echoes up the hillsides?--sailing, +beating up against a stiff breeze, with the waves thumping under the +bow, as if a dozen sea-gods had laid their heads together to resist +it?--climbing tall trees, where the higher foliage, closing around, +cures the dizziness which began below, and one feels as if he had left a +coward beneath and found a hero above?--the joyous hour of crowded life +in football or cricket?--the gallant glories of riding, and the jubilee +of swimming? + +The charm which all have found in Tom Brown's "School Days at Rugby" +lies simply in this healthy boy's-life which it exhibits, and in the +recognition of physical culture, which is so novel to Americans. At +present, boys are annually sent across the Atlantic simply for bodily +training. But efforts after the same thing begin to creep in among +ourselves. A few Normal Schools have gymnasiums (rather neglected, +however); the "Mystic Hall Female Seminary" advertises riding-horses; +and we believe the new "Concord School" recognizes boating as an +incidental;--but these are all exceptional cases, and far between. +Faint and shadowy in our memory are certain ruined structures lingering +Stonehenge-like on the Cambridge "Delta,"--and mysterious pits +adjoining, into which Freshmen were decoyed to stumble, and of which +we find that vestiges still remain. Tradition spoke of Dr. Follen +and German gymnastics; but the beneficent exotic was transplanted +prematurely, and died. The only direct encouragement of athletic +exercises which stands out in our memory of academic life was a certain +inestimable shed on the "College Wharf," which was for a brief season +the paradise of swimmers, and which, after having been deliberately +arranged for their accommodation, was suddenly removed, the next season, +to make room for coal-bins. Manly sports were not positively discouraged +in our day,--but that was all. + +Yet earlier reminiscences of the same beloved Cambridge suggest deeper +gratitude. Thanks to thee, W.W.,--first pioneer, in New England, of true +classical learning,--last wielder of the old English birch,--for the +manly British sympathy which encouraged to activity the bodies, as well +as the brains, of the numerous band of boys who played beneath the +stately elms of that pleasant play-ground! Who among modern pedagogues +can show such an example of vigorous pedestrianism in his youth as thou +in thine age? and who now grants half-holidays, unasked, for no other +reason than that the skating is good and the boys must use it while it +lasts? + +We cling still to the belief, that the Persian _curriculum_ of +studies--to ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth--is the better part +of a boy's education. As the urchin is undoubtedly physically safer for +having learned to turn a somerset and fire a gun, perilous though these +feats appear to mothers,--so his soul is made healthier, larger, freer, +stronger, by hours and days of manly exercise and copious draughts of +open air, at whatever risk of idle habits and bad companions. Even +if the balance is sometimes lost, and play prevails, what matter? We +rejoice to have been a schoolmate of him who wrote + + "The hours the idle schoolboy squandered + The man would die ere he'd forget." + +Only keep in a boy a pure and generous heart, and, whether he work or +play, his time can scarcely be wasted. Which really has done most for +the education of Boston,--Dixwell and Sherwin, or Sheridan and Braman? + +Should it prove, however, that the cultivation of active exercises +diminishes the proportion of time given by children to study, we can +only view it as an added advantage. Every year confirms us in the +conviction, that our schools, public and private, systematically +overtask the brains of the rising generation. We all complain that Young +America grows to mental maturity too soon, and yet we all contribute +our share to continue the evil. It is but a few weeks since we saw the +warmest praises, in the New York newspapers, of a girl's school, in that +city, where the appointed hours of study amounted to nine and a quarter +daily, and the hours of exercise to a bare unit. Almost all the +Students' Manuals assume that American students need stimulus instead +of restraint, and urge them to multiply the hours of study and diminish +those of out-door amusements and of sleep, as if the great danger did +not lie that way already. When will parents and teachers learn to regard +mental precocity as a disaster to be shunned, instead of a glory to +be coveted? We could count up a dozen young men who have graduated at +Harvard College, during the last twenty years, with high honors, before +the age of eighteen; and we suppose that nearly every one of them has +lived to regret it. "Nature," says Tissot, in his Essay on the Health of +Men of Letters, "is unable successfully to carry on two rapid processes +at the same time. We attempt a prodigy, and the result is a fool." There +was a child in Languedoc who at six years was of the size of a large +man; of course, his mind was a vacuum. On the other hand, Jean Philippe +Baratier was a learned man in his eighth year, and died of apparent old +age at twenty. Both were monstrosities, and a healthy childhood would be +equidistant from either. + +One invaluable merit of out-door sports is to be found in this, that +they afford the best cement for childish friendship. Their associations +outlive all others. There is many a man, now perchance hard and worldly, +whom we love to pass in the street simply because in meeting him we +meet spring flowers and autumn chestnuts, skates and cricket-balls, +cherry-birds and pickerel. There is an indescribable fascination in +the gradual transference of these childish companionships into maturer +relations. We love to encounter in the contests of manhood those whom we +first met at football, and to follow the profound thoughts of those who +always dived deeper, even in the river, than our efforts could attain. +There is a certain governor, of whom we personally can remember only, +that he found the Fresh Pond heronry, which we sought in vain; and +in memory the august sheriff of a neighboring county still skates in +victorious pursuit of us, (fit emblem of swift-footed justice!) on the +black ice of the same lovely lake. Our imagination crowns the Cambridge +poet, and the Cambridge sculptor, not with their later laurels, but with +the willows out of which they taught us to carve whistles, shriller than +any trump of fame, in the happy days when Mount Auburn was Sweet Auburn +still. + +Luckily, boy-nature is too strong for theory. And we admit, for the sake +of truth, that physical education is not so entirely neglected among us +as the absence of popular games would indicate. We suppose, that, if the +truth were told, this last fact proceeds partly from the greater freedom +of field-sports in this country. There are few New England boys who do +not become familiar with the rod or gun in childhood. We take it, that, +in the mother country, the monopoly of land interferes with this, and +that game laws, by a sort of spontaneous pun, tend to introduce games. + +Again, the practice of match-playing is opposed to our habits, both as +a consumer of time and as partaking too much of gambling. Still, it is +done in the case of "firemen's musters," which are, we believe, a wholly +indigenous institution. We have known a very few cases where the young +men of neighboring country parishes have challenged each other to games +of base-ball, as is common in England; and there was, if we mistake not, +a recent match at football between the boys of the Fall River and +the New Bedford High Schools. And within a few years regattas and +cricket-matches have become common events. Still, these public +exhibitions are far from being a full exponent of the athletic habits of +our people; and there is really more going on among us than this meagre +"pentathlon" exhibits. + +Again, a foreigner is apt to infer, from the more desultory and +unsystematized character of our out-door amusements, that we are less +addicted to them than we really are. But this belongs to the habit of +our nation, impatient, to a fault, of precedents and conventionalisms. +The English-born Frank Forrester complains of the total indifference +of our sportsmen to correct phraseology. We should say, he urges, "for +large flocks of wild fowl,--of swans, a _whiteness_,--of geese, a +_gaggle_,--of brent, a _gang_,--of duck, a _team_ or a _plump_,--of +widgeon, a _trip_,--of snipes, a _wisp_,--of larks, an _exaltation_.--The +young of grouse are _cheepers_,--of quail, _squeakers_,--of +wild duck, _flappers_." And yet, careless of these proprieties, +Young America goes "gunning" to good purpose. So with all +games. A college football-player reads with astonishment Tom Brown's +description of the very complicated performance which passes under that +name at Rugby. So cricket is simplified; it is hard to organize +an American club into the conventional distribution of point and +cover-point, long slip and short slip, but the players persist in +winning the game by the most heterodox grouping. This constitutional +independence has its good and evil results, in sports as elsewhere. It +is this which has created the American breed of trotting horses, and +which won the Cowes regatta by a mainsail as flat as a board. + +But, so far as there is a deficiency in these respects among us, this +generation must not shrink from the responsibility. It is unfair +to charge it on the Puritans. They are not even answerable for +Massachusetts; for there is no doubt that athletic exercises, of some +sort, were far more generally practised in this community before the +Revolution than at present. A state of almost constant Indian warfare +then created an obvious demand for muscle and agility. At present there +is no such immediate necessity. And it has been supposed that a race of +shopkeepers, brokers, and lawyers could live without bodies. Now that +the terrible records of dyspepsia and paralysis are disproving this, we +may hope for a reaction in favor of bodily exercises. And when we once +begin the competition, there seems no reason why any other nation should +surpass us. The wide area of our country, and its variety of surface and +shore, offer a corresponding range of physical training. Take our coasts +and inland waters alone. It is one thing to steer a pleasure-boat with a +rudder, and another to steer a dory with an oar; one thing to paddle a +birch-canoe, and another to paddle a ducking-float; in a Charles River +club-boat, the post of honor is in the stern,--in a Penobscot _bateau_, +in the bow; and each of these experiences educates a different set of +muscles. Add to this the constitutional American receptiveness, which +welcomes new pursuits without distinction of origin,--unites German +gymnastics with English sports and sparring, and takes the red Indians +for instructors in paddling and running. With these various aptitudes, +we certainly ought to become a nation of athletes. + +We have shown, that, in one way or another, American schoolboys obtain +active exercise. The same is true, in a very limited degree, even +of girls. They are occasionally, in our larger cities, sent to +gymnasiums,--the more the better. Dancing-schools are better than +nothing, though all the attendant circumstances are usually unfavorable. +A fashionable young lady is estimated to traverse her three hundred +miles a season on foot; and this needs training. But out-door exercise +for girls is terribly restricted, first by their costume, and secondly +by the remarks of Mrs. Grundy. All young female animals unquestionably +require as much motion as their brothers, and naturally make as much +noise; but what mother would not be shocked, in the case of her girl of +twelve, by one-tenth part the activity and uproar which are recognized +as being the breath of life to her twin brother? Still, there is a +change going on, which is tantamount to an admission that there is an +evil to be remedied. Twenty years ago, if we mistake not, it was by no +means considered "proper" for little girls to play with their hoops +and balls on Boston Common; and swimming and skating have hardly been +recognized as "ladylike" for half that period of time. + +Still it is beyond question, that far more out-door exercise is +habitually taken by the female population of almost all European +countries than by our own. In the first place, the peasant women of all +other countries (a class non-existent here) are trained to active +labor from childhood; and what traveller has not seen, on foreign +mountain-paths, long rows of maidens ascending and descending the +difficult ways, bearing heavy burdens on their heads, and winning by the +exercise such a superb symmetry and grace of figure as were a new wonder +of the world to Cisatlantic eyes? Among the higher classes, physical +exercises take the place of these things. Miss Beecher glowingly +describes a Russian female seminary in which nine hundred girls of the +noblest families were being trained by Ling's system of calisthenics, +and her informant declared that she never beheld such an array of +girlish health and beauty. Englishwomen, again, have horsemanship and +pedestrianism, in which their ordinary feats appear to our healthy women +incredible. Thus, Mary Lamb writes to Miss Wordsworth, (both ladies +being between fifty and sixty,) "You say you can walk fifteen miles with +ease; that is exactly my stint, and more fatigues me"; and then speaks +pityingly of a delicate lady who could accomplish only "four or five +miles every third or fourth day, keeping very quiet between." How few +American ladies, in the fulness of their strength, (if female strength +among us has any fulness,) can surpass this English invalid! + +But even among American men, how few carry athletic habits into manhood! +The great hindrance, no doubt, is absorption in business; and we observe +that this winter's hard times and consequent leisure have given a great +stimulus to outdoor sports. But in most places there is the further +obstacle, that a certain stigma of boyishness goes with them. So early +does this begin, that we remember, in our teens, to have been slightly +reproached with juvenility, because, though a Senior Sophister, we still +clung to football. Juvenility! We only wish we had the opportunity now. +Full-grown men are, of course, intended to take not only as much, but +far more active exercise than boys. Some physiologists go so far as +to demand six hours of out-door life daily; and it is absurd in us to +complain that we have not the healthy animal happiness of children, +while we forswear their simple sources of pleasure. + +Most of the exercise habitually taken by men of sedentary pursuits is +in the form of walking. We believe its merits to be greatly overrated. +Walking is to real exercise what vegetable food is to animal; it +satisfies the appetite, but the nourishment is not sufficiently +concentrated to be invigorating. It takes a man out-doors, and it uses +his muscles, and therefore of course it is good; but it is not the best +kind of good. Walking, for walking's sake, becomes tedious. We must not +ignore the _play-impulse_ in human nature, which, according to Schiller, +is the foundation of all Art. In female boarding-schools, teachers +uniformly testify to the aversion of pupils to the prescribed walk. +Give them a sled, or a pair of skates, or a row-boat, or put them on +horseback, and they will protract the period of exercise till the +teacher in turn grumbles. Put them into a gymnasium, with an efficient +teacher, and they will soon require restraint, instead of urging. + +Gymnastic exercises have two disadvantages: one, in being commonly +performed under cover (though this may sometimes prove an advantage as +well); another, in requiring apparatus, and at first a teacher. These +apart, perhaps no other form of exercise is so universally invigorating. +A teacher is required, less for the sake of stimulus than of precaution. +The tendency is almost always to dare too much; and there is also need +of a daily moderation in commencing exercises; for the wise pupil will +always prefer to supple his muscles by mild exercises and calisthenics, +before proceeding to harsher performances on the bars and ladders. With +this precaution, strains are easily avoided; even with this, the hand +will sometimes blister and the body ache, but perseverance will cure the +one and Russia Salve the other; and the invigorated life in every +limb will give a perpetual charm to those seemingly aimless leaps and +somersets. The feats once learned, a private gymnasium can easily be +constructed, of the simplest apparatus, and so daily used; though +nothing can wholly supply the stimulus afforded by a class in a public +institution, with a competent teacher. In summer, the whole thing can +partially be dispensed with; but we are really unable to imagine how any +person gets through the winter happily without a gymnasium. + +For the favorite in-door exercise of dumb-bells we have little to say; +they are not an enlivening performance, nor do they task a variety of +muscles,--while they are apt to strain and fatigue them, if used with +energy. Far better, for a solitary exercise, is the Indian club, a +lineal descendant of that antique one in whose handle rare medicaments +were fabled to be concealed. The modern one is simply a rounded club, +weighing from four pounds upwards, according to the strength of the +pupil; grasping a pair of these by the handles, he learns a variety of +exercises, having always before him the feats of the marvellous Mr. +Harrison, whose praise is in the "Spirit of the Times," and whose +portrait adorns the back of Dr. Trall's Gymnastics. By the latest +bulletins, that gentleman measured forty-two and a half inches round the +chest, and employed clubs weighing no less than forty-seven pounds. + +It may seem to our non-resistant friends to be going rather far, if we +should indulge our saints in taking boxing lessons; yet it is not long +since a New York clergyman saved his life in Broadway by the judicious +administration of a "cross-counter" or a "flying crook," and we have +not heard of his excommunication from the Church Militant. No doubt, a +laudable aversion prevails, in this country, to the English practices of +pugilism; yet it must be remembered that sparring is, by its very name, +a "science of self-defence"; and if a gentleman wishes to know how to +hold a rude antagonist at bay, in any emergency, and keep out of an +undignified scuffle, the means are most easily afforded him by the art, +which Pythagoras founded. Apart from this, boxing exercises every muscle +in the body, and gives a wonderful quickness to eye and hand. These same +remarks apply, though in a minor degree, to fencing also. + +Billiards is a graceful game, and affords, in some respects, admirable +training, but is hardly to be classed among athletic exercises. Tenpins +afford, perhaps, the most popular form of exercise among us, and have +become almost a national game, and a good one, too, so far as it goes. +The English game of bowls is less entertaining, and is, indeed, rather a +sluggish sport, though it has the merit of being played in the open air. +The severer British sports, as tennis and rackets, are scarcely more +than names, to us Americans. + +Passing now to outdoor exercises, (and no one should confine himself to +in-door ones,) we hold with the Thalesian school, and rank water first. +Vishnu Sarma gives, in his apologues, the characteristics of the fit +place for a wise man to live in, and enumerates among its necessities +first "a Rajah" and then "a river." Democrats as we are, we can dispense +with the first, but not with the second. A square mile even of pond +water is worth a year's schooling to any intelligent boy. A boat is a +kingdom. We personally own one,--a mere flat-bottomed "float," with a +centre-board. It has seen service,--it is eight years old,--has spent +two winters under the ice, and been fished in by boys every day for as +many summers. It grew at last so hopelessly leaky, that even the boys +disdained it. It cost seven dollars originally, and we would not sell it +to-day for seventeen. To own the poorest boat is better than hiring the +best. It is a link to Nature; without a boat, one is so much the less a +man. + +Sailing is of course delicious; it is as good as flying to steer +anything with wings of canvas, whether one stand by the wheel of a +clipper-ship, or by the clumsy stern-oar of a "gundalow." But rowing has +also its charms; and the Indian noiselessness of the paddle, beneath the +fringing branches of the Assabeth or Artichoke, puts one into Fairyland +at once, and Hiawatha's _cheemaun_ becomes a possible possession. Rowing +is peculiarly graceful and appropriate as a feminine exercise, and any +able-bodied girl can learn to handle one light oar at the first lesson, +and two at the second; this, at least, we demand of our own pupils. + +Swimming has also a birdlike charm of motion. The novel element, the +free action, the abated drapery, give a sense of personal contact +with Nature which nothing else so fully bestows. No later triumph of +existence is so fascinating, perhaps, as that in which the boy first +wins his panting way across the deep gulf that severs one green bank +from another, (ten yards, perhaps,) and feels himself thenceforward lord +of the watery world. The Athenian phrase for a man who knew nothing was, +that he could "neither read nor swim." Yet there is a vast amount of +this ignorance; the majority of sailors, it is said, cannot swim a +stroke; and in a late lake disaster, many able-bodied men perished +by drowning, in calm water, only half a mile from shore. At our +watering-places it is rare to see a swimmer venture out more than a rod +or two, though this proceeds partly from the fear of sharks,--as if +sharks of the dangerous order were not far more afraid of the rocks +than the swimmers of being eaten. But the fact of the timidity is +unquestionable; and we were told by a certain clerical frequenter of a +watering-place, himself a robust swimmer, that he had never met but two +companions who would venture boldly out with him, both being ministers, +and one a distinguished Ex-President of Brown University. We place this +fact to the credit of the bodies of our saints. + +But space forbids us thus to descant on the details of all active +exercises. Riding may be left to the eulogies of Mr. N.P. Willis, and +cricket to Mr. Lillywhite's "Guide." We will only say, in passing, that +it is pleasant to see the rapid spread of clubs for the latter game, +which a few years since was practised only by a few transplanted +Englishmen and Scotchmen; and it is pleasant also to observe the twin +growth of our indigenous American game of base-ball, whose briskness +and unceasing activity are perhaps more congenial, after all, to our +national character, than the comparative deliberation of cricket. +Football, bating its roughness, is the most glorious of all games to +those whose animal life is sufficiently vigorous to enjoy it. Skating is +just at present the fashion for ladies as well as gentlemen, and needs +no apostle; the open weather of the current winter has been unusually +favorable for its practice, and it is destined to become a permanent +institution. + +A word, in passing, on the literature of athletic exercises; it is too +scanty to detain us long. Five hundred books, it is estimated, have been +written on the digestive organs, but we shall not speak of half a +dozen in connection with the muscular powers. The common Physiologies +recommend exercise in general terms, but seldom venture on details; +unhappily, they are written, for the most part, by men who have already +lost their own health, and are therefore useful as warnings rather than +examples. The first real book of gymnastics printed in this country, so +far as we know, was the work of the veteran Salzmann, translated and +published in Philadelphia, in 1802, and sometimes to be met with in +libraries,--an odd, desultory book, with many good reasonings and +suggestions, and quaint pictures of youths exercising in the old German +costume. Like Dr. Follen's gymnasium, at Cambridge, it was probably +transplanted too early, and produced no effect. Next came, in 1836, the +book which is still, after twenty years, the standard, so far as it +goes,--Walker's "Manly Exercises,"--a thoroughly English book, and +needing adaptation to our habits, but full of manly vigor, and +containing good and copious directions for skating, swimming, boating, +and horsemanship. The only later general treatise worth naming is Dr. +Trall's recently published "Family Gymnasium,"--a good book, yet not +good enough. On gymnastics proper it contains scarcely anything; and the +essays on rowing, riding, and skating are so meagre, that they might +almost as well have been omitted, though that on swimming is excellent. +The main body of the book is devoted to the subject of calisthenics, +and especially to Ling's system; all this is valuable for its novelty, +although we cannot imagine how a system so tediously elaborate and so +little interesting can ever be made very useful for American pupils. +Miss Beecher has an excellent essay on calisthenics, with very useful +figures, at the end of her "Physiology." And on proper gymnastic +exercises there is a little book so full and admirable, that it +atones for the defects of all the others,--"Paul Preston's +Gymnastics,"--nominally a child's book, but so spirited and graphic, +and entering so admirably into the whole extent of the subject, that it +ought to be reprinted and find ten thousand readers. + +In our own remarks, we have purposely confined ourselves to those +physical exercises which partake most of the character of sports. +Field-sports alone we have omitted, because these are so often discussed +by abler hands. Mechanical and horticultural labors lie out of our +present province. So do the walks and labors of the artist and the man +of science. The out-door study of natural history alone is a vast +field, even yet very little entered upon. In how many American towns or +villages are to be found _local collections_ of natural objects, such as +every large town in Europe affords, and without which the foundations of +thorough knowledge cannot be laid? We can scarcely point to any. We have +innumerable fragmentary and aimless "Museums,"--collections of South-Sea +shells in inland villages, and of aboriginal remains in seaport +towns,--mere curiosity-shops, which no man confers any real benefit by +collecting; while the most ignorant person may be a true benefactor +to science by forming a cabinet, however scanty, of the animal and +vegetable productions of his own township. We have often heard Professor +Agassiz lament this waste of energy, and we would urge upon all our +readers to do their share to remedy the defect, while they invigorate +their bodies by the exercise which the effort will give, and the joyous +open-air life into which it will take them. + +For, after all, the secret charm of all these sports and studies is +simply this,--that they bring us into more familiar intercourse +with Nature. They give us that _vitam sub divo_ in which the Roman +exulted,--those out-door days, which, say the Arabs, are not to be +reckoned in the length of life. Nay, to a true lover of the open air, +night beneath its curtain is as beautiful as day. We personally have +camped out under a variety of auspices,--before a fire of pine logs in +the forests of Maine, beside a blaze of faya-boughs on the steep side of +a foreign volcano, and beside no fire at all, (except a possible one +of Sharp's rifles,) in that domestic volcano, Kansas; and every such +remembrance is worth many nights of indoor slumber. We never found a +week in the year, nor an hour of day or night, which had not, in +the open air, its own special beauty. We will not say, with Reade's +Australians, that the only use of a house is to sleep in the lee of it; +but there is method in even that madness. As for rain, it is chiefly +formidable indoors. Lord Bacon used to ride with uncovered head in a +shower, and loved "to feel the spirit of the universe upon his brow"; +and we once knew an enthusiastic hydropathic physician who loved to +expose himself in thunder-storms at midnight, without a shred of earthly +clothing between himself and the atmosphere. Some prudent persons may +possibly regard this as being rather an extreme, while yet their own +extreme of avoidance of every breath from heaven is really the more +extravagantly unreasonable of the two. + +It is easy for the sentimentalist to say, "But if the object is, after +all, the enjoyment of Nature, why not go and enjoy her, without any +collateral aim?" Because it is the universal experience of man, that, if +we have a collateral aim, we enjoy her far more. He knows not the beauty +of the universe, who has not learned the subtile mystery, that Nature +loves to work on us by _indirections_. Astronomers say, that, when +observing with the naked eye, you see a star less clearly by looking +at it, than by looking at the next one. Margaret Fuller's fine saying +touches the same point,--"Nature will not be stared at." Go out merely +to enjoy her, and it seems a little tame, and you begin to suspect +yourself of affectation. We know persons who, after years of abstinence +from athletic sports or the pursuits of the naturalist or artist, have +resumed them, simply in order to restore to the woods and the sunsets +the zest of the old fascination. Go out under pretence of shooting on +the marshes or botanizing in the forests; study entomology, that most +fascinating, most neglected of all the branches of natural history; go +to paint a red maple-leaf in autumn, or watch a pickerel-line in winter; +meet Nature on the cricket ground or at the regatta; swim with her, ride +with her, run with her, and she gladly takes you back once more within +the horizon of her magic, and your heart of manhood is born again into +more than the fresh happiness of the boy. + + * * * * * + + +BY THE DEAD. + + + Pride that sat on the beautiful brow, + Scorn that lay in the arching lips, + Will of the oak-grain, where are ye now? + I may dare to touch her finger-tips! + Deep, flaming eyes, ye are shallow enough; + The steadiest fire burns out at last. + Throw back the shutters,--the sky is rough, + And the winds are high,--but the night is past. + + Mother, I speak with the voice of a man; + Death is between us,--I stoop no more; + And yet so dim is each new-born plan, + I am feebler than ever I was before,-- + Feebler than when the western hill + Faded away with its sunset gold. + Mother, your voice seemed dark and chill, + And your words made my young heart very cold. + + You talked of fame,--but my thoughts would stray + To the brook that laughed across the lane; + And of hopes for me,--but your hand's light play + On my brow was ice to my shrinking brain; + And you called me your son, your only son,-- + But I felt your eye on my tortured heart + To and fro, like a spider, run, + On a quivering web;--'twas a cruel art! + + But crueller, crueller far, the art + Of the low, quick laugh that Memory hears! + Mother, I lay my head on your heart; + Has it throbbed even once these fifty years? + Throbbed even once, by some strange heat thawed? + It would then have warmed to her, poor thing, + Who echoed your laugh with a cry!--O God, + When in my soul will it cease to ring? + + Starlike her eyes were,--but yours were blind; + Sweet her red lips,--but yours were curled; + Pure her young heart,--but yours,--ah, you find + This, mother, is not the only world! + She came,--bright gleam of the dawning day; + She went,--pale dream of the winding-sheet. + Mother, they come to me and say + Your headstone will almost touch her feet! + + You are walking now in a strange, dim land: + Tell me, has pride gone with you there? + Does a frail white form before you stand, + And tremble to earth, beneath your stare? + No, no!--she is strong in her pureness now, + And Love to Power no more defers. + I fear the roses will never grow + On your lonely grave as they do on hers! + + But now from those lips one last, sad touch,-- + Kiss it is not, and has never been; + In my boyhood's sleep I dreamed of such, + And shuddered,--they were so cold and thin! + There,--now cover the cold, white face, + Whiter and colder than statue stone! + Mother, you have a resting-place; + But I am weary, and all alone! + + + + +AARON BURR.[A] + +[Footnote A: _The Life and Times of Aaron Burr._ By J. PARTON. New York: +Mason, Brothers. 1857.] + + +The life of Aaron Burr is an admirable subject for a biographer. He +belonged to a class of men, rare in America, who are remarkable, not so +much for their talents or their achievements, as for their adventures +and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. Europe has produced many such +men and women: political intriguers; royal favorites; adroit courtiers; +adventurers who carried their swords into every scene of danger; +courtesans who controlled the affairs of states; persevering schemers +who haunted the purlieus of courts, plotted treason in garrets, and +levied war in fine ladies' boudoirs. + +In countries where all the social and political action is concentrated +around the throne, where a pretty woman may decide the policy of a +reign, a royal marriage plunge nations into war, and the disgrace of a +favorite cause the downfall of a party, such persons find an ample field +for the exercise of the arts upon which they depend for success. The +history and romance of Modern Europe are full of them; they crowd the +pages of Macaulay and Scott. But the full sunlight of our republican +life leaves no lurking-place for the mere trickster. Doubtless, selfish +purposes influence our statesmen, as well as the statesmen of other +countries; but such purposes cannot be accomplished here by the means +which effect them elsewhere. He who wishes to attract the attention of +a people must act publicly and with reference to practical matters; but +the ear of a monarch may be reached in private. Therefore there is a +certain monotony in the lives of most of our public men; they may be +read in the life of one. It is, generally, a simple story of a poor +youth, who was born in humble station, and who, by painful effort +in some useful occupation, rose slowly to distinguished place,--who +displayed high talents, and made an honorable use of them. Aaron Burr, +however, is an exception. His adventures, his striking relations with +the leading men of his time, his romantic enterprises, the crimes and +the talents which have been attributed to him, his sudden elevation, and +his protracted and agonizing humiliation have attached to his name a +strange and peculiar interest. Mr. Parton has done a good service in +recalling a character which had well-nigh passed out of popular thought, +though not entirely out of popular recollection. + +As to the manner in which this service has been performed, it is +impossible to speak very highly. The book has evidently cost its author +great pains; it is filled with detail, and with considerable gossip +concerning the hero, which is piquant, and, if true, important. The +style is meant to be lively, and in some passages is pleasant enough; +but it is marked with a flippancy, which, after a few pages, becomes +very disagreeable. It abounds with the slang usually confined to +sporting papers. According to the author, a civil man is "as civil as an +orange," a well-dressed man is "got up regardless of expense," and an +unobserved action is done "on the sly." He affects the intense, and, in +his pages, newspapers "go rabid and foam personalities," are "ablaze +with victories" and "bristling with bulletins,"--the public is in a +"delirium,"--the politicians are "maddened,"--letters are written in +"hot haste," and proclamations "sent flying." He appears to be on terms +of intimacy with historical personages such as few writers are fortunate +enough to be admitted to. He approves a remark of George II. and +patronizingly exclaims, "Sensible King!" He has occasion to mention John +Adams, and salutes him thus: "Glorious, delightful, honest John Adams! +An American John Bull! The Comic Uncle of this exciting drama!" He then +calls him "a high-mettled game-cock," and says "he made a splendid show +of fight." + +Such little foibles and vanities might easily be pardoned, if the book +had no more important defects. It professes to explain portions of +our history hitherto not perfectly understood, and it contains many +statements for the truth of which we must rely upon the good sense and +accuracy of the writer; yet it is full of errors, and often evinces a +disposition to exaggeration little calculated to produce confidence in +its reliability. + +Our space will not permit us to point out all the mistakes which Mr. +Parton has made, and we will mention only a few which attracted our +attention upon the first perusal of his book. His hero was appointed +Lieutenant-Colonel when only twenty-one years of age, and the +author says that he was "the youngest man who held that rank in the +Revolutionary army, or who has ever held it in an army of the United +States." Alexander Hamilton and Brockholst Livingston both reached that +rank at twenty years of age.--Mr. Parton tells us that Burr's rise in +politics was more "rapid than that of any other man who has played a +conspicuous part in the affairs of the United States"; and that "in four +years after fairly entering the political arena, he was advanced, +first, to the highest honor of the bar, next, to a seat in the National +Council, and then, to a competition with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, +and Clinton, for the Presidency itself." He could hardly have crowded +more errors into a single paragraph. Burr never attained the highest +honor of the bar. His first appearance in politics was as a member of +the Legislature of New York, in 1784, when twenty-eight years old; five +years after, he was appointed Attorney-General; in 1791 he was elected +to the Senate of the United States; and in 1801, at the age of +forty-five, _seventeen_ years after he fairly entered public life, he +became Vice-President. Hamilton was a member of Congress at twenty-five, +and at thirty-two was Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson wrote the +great Declaration when only thirty-two years old; and the present +Vice-President is a much younger man than Burr was when he reached that +station. The statement, that Burr was the rival of Washington and Adams +for the Presidency, is absurd. Under the Constitution, at that time, +each elector voted for two persons,--the candidate who received the +greatest number of votes (if a majority of the whole) being declared +President, and the one having the next highest number Vice-President. +In 1792, at which time Burr received one vote in the Electoral College, +_all_ the electors voted for Washington; consequently the vote for Burr, +upon the strength of which Mr. Parton makes his magnificent boast, was +palpably for the Vice-Presidency. In 1796, the Presidential candidates +were Adams and Jefferson, for one or the other of whom every elector +voted,--the votes for Burr, in this instance thirty in number, being, as +before, only for the Vice-Presidency. Even in 1800, when the votes for +Jefferson and Burr in the Electoral College were equal, it is notorious +that this equality was simply the result of their being supported on the +same ticket,--the former for the office of President, and the latter +for that of Vice-President. Mr. Parton says, that, in the House of +Representatives, Burr would have been elected on the first ballot, if a +majority would have sufficed; and that Mr. Jefferson never received more +than fifty-one votes in a House of one hundred and six members. Had he +taken the trouble to examine Gales's "Annals of Congress" for 1799-1801, +he would have found that the House consisted of one hundred and four +members, two seats being vacant; and that on the first ballot Jefferson +received fifty-five votes, a majority of six. We are several times told +that Robert R. Livingston was one of the framers of the Constitution. +Mr. Livingston was not a member of the Constitutional Convention; the +only person of the name in that body was William Livingston, Governor +of New Jersey.--Mr. Parton comes into conflict with other writers upon +matters affecting his hero, as to which he would have done well if he +had given his authority. Matthew L. Davis, Burr's first biographer and +intimate friend, says that Burr's grandfather was a German; Parton, +speaking of the family at the time of the birth of Burr's father, +says that it was Puritan and had flourished in New England for three +generations. Mr. Parton makes Burr a witness of a dramatic interview +between Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Prevost shortly after the discovery of +Arnold's treason, the particulars of which Davis says Burr obtained from +the latter lady after she became his wife.--Our author is not consistent +in his own statements. Upon one page he describes Mrs. Prevost, about +the time of her marriage, as "the beautiful Mrs. Prevost"; a few pages +farther on he says she was "not beautiful, being past her prime." He +informs us that it is the fashion to underrate Jefferson, that the +polite circles and writers of the country have never sympathized with +him,--and in the very same paragraph he remarks that "Thomas Jefferson +has been for fifty years the victim of incessant eulogy." + +This carelessness in reciting facts is associated with a certain +confusion of mind. Mr. Parton does not appear to have the power of +distinguishing between conflicting statements of the same thing. He +describes Hamilton as honest and generous, and then accuses him of +malignity and dishonorable intrigue. He says that Wilkinson, at that +time a general in the United States service, may have thought of +hastening the dissolution of the Union "without being in any sense a +traitor." How an officer can meditate the destruction of a government +which he has sworn to protect, and not be in any sense of the word a +traitor, will puzzle minds not educated in what the author calls "the +Burr school." But the most curious exhibition which Mr. Parton makes of +this mental and moral confusion occurs in a passage where he attempts to +prove his assertion, that "Burr has done the state some service, though +they know it not." This service, of which the state has continued so +obstinately ignorant, consists mainly in having invented filibustering, +and in having brought duelling into disgrace by killing Hamilton. "That +was a benefit," our moralist gravely remarks concerning this last claim +to gratitude. Certainly; just such a benefit as Captain Kidd conferred +upon the world; he brought piracy into disgrace by being hanged for it. +As to the invention of filibustering, we are hardly disposed to rank +Burr with Fulton and Morse for his valuable discovery; but perhaps +the shades of Lopez and De Boulbon, and the living "gray-eyed man of +destiny," will worship him as the founder of their order. + +It is impossible to define Mr. Parton's opinion of his hero. It is not +very clear to himself. He is inclined to admire him, and is quite sure +that he has been harshly dealt with. In the Preface he intimates that it +is his purpose to exhibit Burr's good qualities,--for, as he says, "it +is the good in a man who goes astray that ought most to alarm and warn +his fellow-men." The converse of which proposition we suppose the author +thinks equally true, and that it is the evil in a man who does not go +astray which ought most to delight and attract his fellow-men. At the +end of the volume Mr. Parton makes a summary of Burr's character,--says +that he was too good for a politician, and not great enough for a +statesman,--that Nature meant him for a schoolmaster,--that he was a +useful Senator, an ideal Vice-President, and would have been a good +President,--and that, if his Mexican expedition had succeeded, he would +have run a career similar to that of Napoleon. We do not dare attack +this extraordinary eulogy. To describe a man as not great enough for +a statesman, yet fitted to make a good President, as a natural-born +schoolmaster and at the same time a Napoleon, argues a boldness of +conception which makes criticism dangerous. + +Mr. Parton occasionally assumes an air of impartiality, and mildly +expresses his disapprobation of Burr's vices; but in every instance +where those vices were displayed he earnestly defends him. In the +contest with Jefferson, Parton insists that Burr acted honorably; in the +duel with Hamilton, Burr was the injured party; in his amours he was not +a bad man; so that, although we are told that Burr had faults, we look +in vain for any exhibition of them. In the cases where we have been +accustomed to think that his passions led him into crime, he either +displayed the strictest virtue, or, at most, sinned in so gentlemanlike +a manner, with so much kindness and generosity, as hardly to sin at all. + +There are three ways of writing a biography: one is, to make a simple +narrative and leave the reader to form his own opinion; another, to +present the facts so as to illustrate the author's conception of his +hero's character; a third, and the most common way, to proceed like an +advocate, to suppress everything which can be suppressed, to sneer +at everything which cannot be answered, to put the most favorable +construction upon all dubious matters, and to throw the strongest light +upon every fortunate circumstance. Mr. Parton has tried all three modes, +and failed in all. He is an unskilful delineator of character, a poor +story-teller, and a worse advocate. His book, despite its spasmodic +style, lacks vigor. It indicates a want of firmness and precision of +thought. It leaves a mixed impression on the mind. We venture to say, +that two thirds of its readers will close the volume with an indefinite +contradictory opinion that Burr was a sort of villanous saint, and that +the other third, by no means the most inattentive readers, will not be +able to form any opinion whatever. + +There are four periods or events in the life of Burr which are worthy of +attention: his career in the army; his political course and contest with +Jefferson; the duel; and the Mexican expedition. Upon the first and most +pleasing portion of his life we cannot dwell. He entered the service +shortly after the battle of Bunker Hill, and in two years rose to a +Lieutenant-Colonelcy. Though engaged in several important battles, he +did not have an opportunity to display great military talents, if he +possessed them. He was distinguished, but not more so than many other +young men. He resigned in the spring of 1779,--as he alleged, on account +of ill health, but more probably because the failure of the Lee and +Conway intrigue had disappointed his hopes of promotion. + +As an indication of character, the most important circumstance of Burr's +military life was his quarrel with Washington. This difficulty is said +to have grown out of some scandalous affair in which Burr was engaged, +a belief which is strengthened by his intrigue with the beautiful and +unfortunate Margaret Moncrieffe a few months after. But aside from any +such cause, there was ground enough for difference in the characters of +the two men. Discipline compelled Washington to hold his subordinates at +a distance of implied, if not asserted inferiority; and Burr never met +a man to whom he thought himself inferior. Mr. Parton's explanation is, +that "Hamilton probably implanted a dislike for Burr in Washington's +breast." The only difficulty with this theory is one which the author's +suppositions often encounter,--it has no foundation in fact. At the +time that Burr was in Washington's family, Hamilton was probably not +acquainted with the General; he did not enter his staff until nine +months after Burr had left it. + +Burr entered public life at the only period in our history when a man of +his stamp of mind could have played a conspicuous part. At the close +of the Revolution, in addition to the Tories, there were already two +political factions in New York. As early as 1777 the Whigs had divided +upon the election for Governor, and George Clinton was chosen over +Philip Schuyler. The division then created continued after the peace, +but the differences were, at first, purely personal. Schuyler was the +leader of a party made up of a few great families, most prominent among +which were the Van Rensselaers and Livingstons. The Van Rensselaers have +never been particularly distinguished except as the possessors of a +great estate; the Livingstons, on the other hand, second only to the +great Dutch family in wealth, far surpassed them in political power and +reputation. The Van Rensselaers and Schuylers were connected with the +Livingstons by marriage; and this powerful association, made more +powerful by the banishment of the wealthy inhabitants of New York city +and Long Island, was still further strengthened by the connection with +it of Alexander Hamilton, who married a daughter of Philip Schuyler, and +John Jay, who married a daughter of William Livingston. The Schuyler +faction excited that opposition which wealth and social and political +influence always excite. A party arose which was composed of men of +every condition and shade of opinion,--those who were galled by the +exclusiveness of the aristocracy,--those who had joined the opposition +to Washington,--the young men who had made their reputation during the +war and were eager for professional and political promotion,--and all +those who were converts to the new doctrines of government which the +dispute with England had originated. At the head of these was George +Clinton. Though a man of liberal education, and trained to a liberal +profession, he had not the showy and attractive accomplishments which +distinguished his rivals; but he possessed in an extraordinary degree +those more sturdy qualities of mind and character which, in a country +where distinction is in the gift of the people, are always generously +rewarded. He had great aptitude for business, a clear and rapid +judgment, and high physical and moral courage. He was faithful to his +friends, and though an unyielding, he was a magnanimous foe. At a time +when politics were looked upon almost wholly as the means of personal +and family aggrandizement, and the motives of party conduct such as flow +from the passions of men, he, more than any of his opponents, adhered to +a consistent and not illiberal theory of public action. + +At the outset of his political career, Burr acted upon the policy which +always governed him. He attached himself closely to neither party. When +the political issues grew broader, he was careful not to connect himself +with any measure. He did not heartily oppose the abolition of the Tory +disabilities, nor the adoption of the Constitution. He was a Clintonian, +but not so decidedly as to prevent him from attempting to defeat +Clinton. With a few adherents, he stood between the two parties and +maintained a position where he could avail himself of any overtures +which might be made to him; yet he was careful to be so far identified +with one side as to be able to claim some political association whenever +it became necessary to do so. His success in this artful course was +remarkable. Nominally a Clintonian, in 1789 he supported Yates, and a +few months afterwards took office under Clinton. In 1791, while holding +a place under a Republican governor, he persuaded a Federal legislature +to send him to the Senate of the United States. In the Senate he sided +with the opposition, but so moderately that some Federalists were +willing to support him for Governor. The Republicans nominated him for +the Vice-Presidency, and shortly after, the Federalists in Congress, +almost in a body, voted for him for the Presidency. During all this +time, his name was not associated with any important measure except a +fraudulent banking-scheme in New York. + +The occasion of his elevation to the Vice-Presidency is a perfect +illustration of the accidental circumstances and unimportant services to +which he was generally indebted for advancement. From the commencement +of the Presidential canvass of 1800, it was evident that the action of +New York would control the election. That State then had twelve votes +in the Electoral College; but the electors were chosen by the +Legislature,--not, as at present, by the people. The parties in New York +were nearly equal, and the result in the Legislature was very doubtful. +The city of New York sent twelve members to the Assembly, and usually +determined the political complexion of that body. Thus the contest in +the nation was narrowed down to a single city, and that not a large +one. This gave Burr a favorable field for the exercise of his peculiar +talents. His energy, tact, unscrupulousness, and art in conciliating the +hostile and animating the indifferent made him unequalled in political +finesse. He did not hesitate to use any means in his power. Some one in +his pay overheard the discussion in a Federal caucus, and revealed to +him the plans of his opponents. He had become unpopular, and had brought +odium upon his party by a corrupt speculation; he therefore declined +presenting his own name, and made a ticket comprehending the most +distinguished persons in the Republican ranks. George Clinton, Gen. +Gates, and Brockholst Livingston were placed at the head of it. The +most urgent solicitations were necessary to persuade these gentlemen to +consent to a nomination for places which were beneath their pretensions, +but Burr answered every objection and overcame every scruple. The +respectability of the candidates and the vigorous prosecution of the +canvass carried the city by a considerable majority, and insured the +election of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Parton finds in this abundant material +for extravagant eulogy of Burr. But most people will be surprised to +learn that such services constituted a claim to the Vice-Presidency. If +being an adroit politician entitles a person to high office, there is +not a town in New York which cannot furnish half a dozen statesmen whose +exploits have been far more remarkable than Burr's. + +Burr's nomination, however, was not solely due to his labors at this +election, but in part also to his subsequent address. The importance +of New York made it desirable to select the candidate for the +Vice-Presidency from that State. A caucus of the Republican members +of Congress directed Mr. Gallatin to ascertain who would be the most +acceptable candidate. He wrote to Commodore Nicholson, asking him to +discover the sentiments of the leading men in the State. The names of +Livingston, George Clinton, and Burr had been suggested. Livingston was +deaf, and Nicholson is said to have determined to recommend Clinton. +Burr, however, saw him afterwards, and persuaded him to substitute his +name instead of Clinton's in the letter which he had prepared to send +to Philadelphia. Col. Burr was accordingly placed upon the Republican +ticket. + +The tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, which unexpectedly occurred +in the Electoral College, has given rise to the assertion that Burr +endeavored to defeat Jefferson and secure his own election. Mr. Parton +devotes a chapter to the refutation of this charge, but does not succeed +in making a very strong argument. The evidence of Burr's treachery, is +as positive as from the nature of the case it can be. Of course, he made +no open pledges; it was unnecessary, and it would have been impolitic to +do so. The main fact cannot be denied, that for several weeks before and +after the election went to the House of Representatives, Burr was openly +supported by the Federalists in opposition to Jefferson. Burr knew it; +everybody knew it. Why was this support given? It will require plain +proof to satisfy any one who is familiar with the motives of political +action, that a party would have so earnestly advocated the election of +any man without good reason to suppose that he would make an adequate +return for its support. There was but one course which Burr, in honor, +could take; he should have peremptorily refused to permit his name to be +used. A word from him would have ended the matter; but that word was not +spoken. The evidence on the other side consists of some statements made +several years after, by parties concerned, which are by no means +so direct and unequivocal as might be wished,--and of a series +of depositions taken in some lawsuits instituted by Col. Burr to +investigate the truth of this charge. One circumstance, which seems to +have escaped the notice of our biographer, casts suspicion upon all +these documents. Burr applied to Samuel Smith, a United States Senator +from Maryland, for his testimony. Smith gives the following account of +the transaction:--"Col. Burr called on me. I told him that I had written +my deposition, and would have a fair copy made of it. He said, 'Trust +it to me and I will get Mr. ---- to copy it.' I did so, and, on his +returning it to me, _I found words not mine interpolated in the copy_." +It is not worth while to discuss a defence which was made out by +forgery. + +His election to the Vice-Presidency terminated Burr's official career. +He was deserted by his party, and denounced by the Republican press. +Burning with resentment, he turned upon his enemies, and, supported by +the Federalists, became a candidate for the Governorship of New York, +in opposition to the Republican nominee. Hamilton, who alone among the +Federal statesmen had openly opposed Burr during the contest for the +Presidency, again separated from his party, and earnestly denounced him. +Burr was defeated by an enormous majority. His disappointment and anger +at being again foiled by Hamilton prompted him to the most notorious and +unfortunate act of his life. + +In speaking of his duel with Gen. Hamilton, we do not intend to judge +Col. Burr's conduct by the rules by which a more enlightened public +opinion now judges the duellist. He and his adversary acted according +to the custom of their time; by that standard let them be measured. +Mr. Parton thinks that the challenge was as "near an approach to +a reasonable and inevitable action as an action can be which is +intrinsically wrong and absurd." By this we understand him to say that +the course of Col. Burr was in accordance with the etiquette which then +governed men of the world in such affairs. We think differently. + +During the election for Governor, Dr. Cooper, of Albany, heard Hamilton +declare that he was opposed to Burr, and made a public statement to that +effect. Gen. Schuyler denied the truth of this assertion, which Dr. +Cooper then reiterated in a published letter, saying that Hamilton and +Judge Kent had both characterized Burr as "a dangerous man, and one who +ought not to be trusted with the reins of government," and that "he +could detail a _still more despicable opinion_ which Gen. Hamilton had +expressed of Mr. Burr." Nearly two months after this letter was +written, Burr addressed a note to Hamilton asking for an unqualified +acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expression which would +justify Dr. Cooper's assertion. The dispute turned upon the words "more +despicable," and as to them there obviously were many difficulties. +Cooper thought that the expression, "a dangerous man and one who ought +not to be trusted with the reins of government," conveyed a despicable +opinion; but many persons might think that such language did not go +beyond the reasonable limits of political animadversion. Burr himself +made no objection to that particular phrase; he did not allude to it +except by way of explanation. The use of such language was common. +In his celebrated attack upon John Adams, Hamilton had spoken of Mr. +Jefferson as an "ineligible and dangerous candidate." The same words had +been publicly applied to Burr himself, two years before. He did not see +anything despicable in the opinion then expressed. A man may be unfit +for office from lack of capacity, and dangerous on account of his +principles. The most rigid construction of the Code of Honor has never +compelled a person to fight every fool whom he thought unworthy of +public station, and every demagogue whose views he considered unsound. +If Dr. Cooper, then, was able to discover a despicable opinion where +most people could find none, might he not have seen what he called a +_more despicable opinion_ in some remark equally innocent? Burr did not +ask what were the precise terms of the remark to which Cooper alluded; +he demanded that Hamilton should disavow Cooper's construction of that +expression. He took offence, not at what had been said, but at the +inference which another had drawn from what had been said. The +justification of such an inference devolved upon Cooper, not +Hamilton,--who by no rule of courtesy could be interrogated as to the +justice of another's opinions. These difficulties presented themselves +to the mind of Hamilton. He stated them in his reply, declared that he +was ready to answer for any precise or definite opinion which he had +expressed, but refused to explain the import which others had placed +upon his language. Unfortunately, the last line of his note contained +an intimation that he expected a challenge. Burr rudely retorted, +reiterating his demand in most insolent terms. The correspondence then +passed into the hands of Nathaniel Pendleton on the part of Hamilton, +and William P. Van Ness, a man of peculiar malignity of character, upon +the part of Burr. The responsibility of his position weighing upon +Hamilton's mind, before the final step was taken, he voluntarily stated +that the conversation with Dr. Cooper "related exclusively to political +topics, and did not attribute to Burr any instance of dishonorable +conduct," and again offered to explain any specific remark. This +generous, unusual, and, according to strict etiquette, unwarranted +proposition removed at once Burr's cause of complaint. Had he been +disposed to an honorable accommodation, he would have received +Hamilton's proposal in the spirit in which it was made. But, embarrassed +by this liberal offer, he at once changed his ground, abandoned Cooper's +remark, which had previously been the sole subject of discussion, and +peremptorily insisted that Gen. Hamilton should deny _ever_ having made +remarks from which inferences derogatory to him could fairly have been +drawn. This demand was plainly unjustifiable. No person would answer +such an interrogatory. It showed that Burr's desire was, not to satisfy +his honor, but to goad his adversary to the field. It establishes the +general charge, which Parton virtually admits, that it was not passion +excited by a recent insult which impelled him to revenge, but hatred +engendered during years of rivalry and stimulated by his late defeat. +Burr must long have known Hamilton's feelings towards him. Those +feelings had been freely expressed; and Burr's letters discover that he +was fully aware of the distrust and hostility with which he was regarded +by his political associates and opponents. A man has no claim to +satisfaction for an insult given years ago. The entire theory of the +duello makes it impossible for one to ask redress for an injury which he +has long permitted to go unredressed. The question being, not whether +the practice of duelling is wrong, but whether Burr was wrong according +to that practice, we have no difficulty in concluding that the challenge +was given upon vague and unjustifiable grounds, and that Gen. Hamilton +would have been excusable, if he had refused to meet him. + +It may be said, that, if Hamilton accepted an improper challenge, he +should receive the same condemnation as the one who gave it. But, even +on general grounds, some qualification should be made in favor of +the challenged party. His is a different position from that of the +challenger. A sensitive man, though he think that he is improperly +questioned, may have some delicacy about making his own judgment the +rule of another's conduct. Besides, there were many considerations +peculiar to this case. The menacing tone of Burr's first note made it +evident that he meant to force the quarrel to a bloody issue. Hamilton, +jealous of his reputation for courage, could not run the risk of +appearing anxious to avoid a danger so apparent. Moreover, he was +conscious, that, during his life, he had said many things which might +give Burr cause for offence, and he was unwilling to avail himself of a +technical, though reasonable objection, to escape the consequences of +his own remarks. Neither could he apologize for what he still thought +was true. These considerations were doubly powerful with Hamilton. His +early manhood had been passed in camps; his early fame had been won +in the profession of arms. He was a man of the world. He had never +discountenanced duelling; he himself had been engaged in the affair +between Laurens and Lee; and a few years before, his own son had fallen +in a duel. Neither his education nor his professions nor his practice +could excuse him. It was too late to take shelter behind his general +disapproval of a custom which was recognized by his professional +brethren and had been countenanced by himself. It is true that he would +have shown a higher courage by braving an ignorant and brutal public +opinion, but it would be unjust to censure him for not showing a degree +of courage which no man of his day displayed. He and Burr are to be +measured by their own standard, not by ours; and tried by that test, it +is easy to see a difference between one who accepts and one who sends an +unjustifiable challenge; it is the difference which exists between an +error and a crime. + +There was an interval of two weeks between the message and the meeting. +This was required by Hamilton to finish some important law business. +When he went to White Plains to try causes, he was in the habit of +staying at a friend's house. The last time he visited there, a few days +before his death, he said, upon leaving, "I shall probably never come +here again." During this period he invited Col. Wm. Smith, and his wife, +who was the only daughter of John Adams, to dine with him. Some rare old +Madeira which had been given to him was produced on this occasion, and +it was afterwards thought that it was his intention by this slight act +to express his desire to bury all personal differences between Mr. Adams +and himself. These, and various other little incidents, show that he +felt his death to be certain; yet all his business in court and out was +marked by his ordinary clearness and ability, all his intercourse with +his family and friends by his usual sweetness and cheerfulness of +disposition. + +On the Fourth of July, Hamilton and Burr met at the annual banquet of +the Society of Cincinnati. Hamilton presided. No one was afterwards able +to remember that his manner gave any indication of the dreadful event +which was so near at hand. He joined freely in the conversation and +badinage of such occasions, and towards the close of the feast sang +a song,--the only one he knew,--the ballad of the Drum. But many +remembered that Burr was silent and moody. He did not look towards +Hamilton until he began to sing, when he fixed his eyes upon him and +gazed intently at him until the song was ended. + +Hamilton was living at the Grange, his country-seat, near +Manhattanville. The place is still unchanged. His office was in a small +house on Cedar Street, where he likewise found lodgings when necessary. +The night previous to the duel was passed there. We have been told by +an aged citizen of New York, that Hamilton was seen long after midnight +walking to and fro in front of the house. + +During these last hours both parties wrote a few farewell lines. In no +act of their lives does the difference in the characters of Hamilton and +Burr show itself so distinctly as in these parting letters. Hamilton was +oppressed by the difficulties and responsibilities of his situation. His +duty to his creditors and his family forbade him rashly to expose a life +which was so valuable to them; his duty to his country forbade him to +leave so evil an example; he was not conscious of ill-will towards Col. +Burr; and his nature revolted at the thought of destroying human life in +a private quarrel. These thoughts, and the considerations of pride and +ambition which nevertheless controlled him, are beautifully expressed in +language which is full of pathos and manly dignity. He had made his +will the day before. He was distressed lest his estate should prove +insufficient to pay his debts, and, after committing their mother to +the filial protection of his children, he besought them, as his last +request, to vindicate his memory by making up any deficiency which might +occur. Burr's letters to Theodosia and her husband are mainly occupied +with directions as to the disposal of his property and papers. The +tone of them does not differ greatly from that of his ordinary +correspondence. They do not contain a word such as an affectionate +father or a patriotic citizen would have written at such a time. They +do not express a sentiment such as a generous and thoughtful man would +naturally feel on the eve of so momentous an occurrence. There are no +misgivings as to the propriety of his conduct, nor a whisper of regret +at the unfortunate circumstances which, as he professed to think, +compelled him to seek another's blood. He addressed to his daughter +a few lines of graceful compliment, and, in striking contrast with +Hamilton's injunction to his children, Burr's last request with regard +to Theodosia is, that she shall acquire a "critical knowledge of Latin, +English, and all branches of natural philosophy." + +The combatants met on the 11th of July, 1804, at a place beneath the +heights of Weehawken, upon the New Jersey side of the Hudson,--the usual +resort, at that time, for such encounters. Burr fired the moment the +word was given, raising his arm deliberately and taking aim. The ball +struck Hamilton on the side, and, as he reeled under the blow, his +pistol was discharged into the air. "I should have shot him through the +heart," said Burr, afterwards, "but, at the moment I was about to fire, +my aim was confused by a vapor." Burr stepped forward with a gesture of +regret, when he saw his adversary fall; but his second hurried him from +the field, screening him with an umbrella from the recognition of the +surgeon and bargemen. + +Hamilton was carried to the house of Mr. Bayard, in the suburbs of the +city. The news flew through the town, producing intense excitement. +Bulletins were posted at the Tontine, and changed with every new report. +Crowds soon gathered around Mr. Bayard's house, and in the grounds. So +deep was the feeling, that visitors were permitted to pass one by one +through the room where Gen. Hamilton was lying. From the first, there +was no hope of his recovery. This opinion of the most eminent surgeons +in the city was concurred in by the surgeons of two French frigates in +the harbor, who were consulted. Gen. Hamilton was a man of slight frame, +and a disorder, from which he had recently suffered, prevented the use +of the ordinary remedies. He retained his composure to the last; nor was +his fortitude disturbed until his seven children approached his bedside. +He gave them one look, and, closing his eyes, did not open them again +while they remained in the room. He expired at two o'clock on the day +after the duel. + +He was not the only victim. His oldest daughter, a girl of twenty, whose +education he had carefully directed, and whose musical talents gave him +great pleasure, never recovered from the shock of her father's death. +In her disordered fancy, she visited by night the fatal ground at +Weehawken, and told her friends that she crossed the river and returned +before morning. Her mind soon gave way entirely; and only last spring +death released her from a total, though gentle insanity of fifty years' +duration. + +The sudden and tragic death of Alexander Hamilton produced a universal +feeling of sympathy and sorrow. As the leader of the bar, the advocate +of the Constitution, the statesman who had given the law to American +commerce, the most accomplished soldier in the army, and connected +with the still recent glories of the Revolution,--his name had become +familiar to every ear, and was associated with every subject of popular +interest. His career was, in all respects, an extraordinary one. He came +here a stranger, without fortune or powerful family connections. While +yet a school-boy, he had borne a creditable part in the discussion of +public affairs. At an age when the ambition of most young soldiers +is satisfied, if, by the performance of their ordinary duties as +subalterns, they have attracted the regard of their superiors, he was +in a position of responsibility, and occupied with the most serious and +complicated matters of war. He was one of the youngest and at the +same time one of the most influential members of the Constitutional +Convention. To this distinction in affairs and arms he added equal +distinction at the bar. It will be difficult to find in our history, or +in that of England, an instance of such eminence in three departments of +action so distinct and dissimilar. Although it may he said of Hamilton, +that he had not the intuitive perception, which Jefferson possessed, of +the necessities imposed upon the country by its anomalous condition, +yet, as a statesman under an established government, he was surpassed +by no man of his generation. His talents were of the kind which most +attracts the sympathies and impresses the understandings of others. He +was a grave man, occupied with business affairs, but not unequal to +occasions which required the display of taste and eloquence. His solid +qualities of mind inspired universal confidence in the soundness of +his views upon all questions which were not the subject of political +dispute. There were many plain Republicans of that day who were firmly +attached to the principles which Jefferson advocated, but who thought +that Jefferson was a dreamer and an enthusiast, and that Hamilton was a +far safer man in the ordinary affairs of government. + +The grief which the death of Hamilton caused in the nation reacted upon +Burr; and when the correspondence was published, a storm of condemnation +burst upon him. Indictments were found against him in New York and New +Jersey. In every pulpit, upon every platform, where the virtues and +services of Hamilton were celebrated, the features of his malignant foe +were displayed in dramatic contrast. He was compared to Richard III. and +Catiline, to Saul, and to the wretch who fired the temple of Diana. This +feeling was not confined to orators and clergymen, nor to this country. +It reached other communities, and was shared by men of the world like +Talleyrand, and retired students like Jeremy Bentham. The former, a few +years before his death, related to an American gentleman, that Burr, on +his arrival in Paris, in 1810, sent to him and requested an interview. +The French statesman could not well refuse to receive an American of +such distinction, with whom he was personally acquainted, and by whom +he had formerly been hospitably entertained, and told the gentleman +who brought the message,--"Say to Col. Burr, that I will receive him +to-morrow; but tell him also, that Gen. Hamilton's likeness always hangs +over my mantel." Burr did not call upon him. Talleyrand directed that +after his death the miniature should be sent to Hamilton's descendants, +with some newspaper scraps relating to him, which he had thrust into the +lining. When Burr was in England, he became intimate with Bentham. The +latter, in his "Memoirs and Correspondence," makes a brief allusion to +the acquaintance, in which the following passage occurs: "Burr gave me +an account of his duel with Hamilton. He was sure of being able to kill +him: _so I thought it little better than a murder_." + +Previously to his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, in March, 1805, +Burr had formed the design of seeking a home in the Southwest. Little +more than a year before, Louisiana had been annexed, and then offered +a wide field to an ambitious man. Encouraged by some acquaintances, he +projected various political and financial speculations. In April, he +repaired to Pittsburg, and started upon a journey down the Ohio and +the Mississippi. On the way, curiosity led him to the house of Herman +Blennerhassett, and he thus accidentally made the acquaintance of a +man whose name has become historic by its association with his own. +Blennerhassett was an Irishman by birth; he had inherited a considerable +fortune, and was a man of education. Beguiled by the belief that in +the retirement of the American forests he would find the solitude most +congenial to the pursuit of his favorite studies, he purchased an island +in the Ohio River near the mouth of the Little Kanawha. He expended most +of his property in building a house and adorning his grounds. The house +was a plain wooden structure; and the shrubbery, in its best estate, +could hardly have excited the envy of Shenstone. Men of strong character +are not dependent upon certain conditions of climate and quiet for the +ability to accomplish their purposes. But Blennerhassett was not a man +of strong character; neither was he an exception to this rule. He was, +at the best, but an idle student; and his zeal for science never carried +him beyond a little desultory study of Astronomy and Botany and some +absurd experiments in Chemistry. His figure was awkward, his manners +were ungracious, and he was so near-sighted that he used to take a +servant hunting with him, to show him the game. His credulity and +want of worldly knowledge exposed him to the practices of the shrewd +frontiers-men among whom he lived. He soon became involved in debt, and +at the time of Burr's visit his situation made him a ready volunteer for +any enterprise which promised to repair his shattered fortunes. That the +enterprise was impracticable, and that he was unfit for it, only made it +more attractive to his imaginative and simple mind. The fancy of Wirt +has thrown a deceptive romance around the career of Blennerhassett, yet +there is enough of truth in the account of the misfortunes which Burr +brought upon him and his amiable wife to justify the sympathy with which +they have been regarded. + +Soon after his arrival at New Orleans Burr seems to have formed bolder +designs. From this time we find in his correspondence, and that of his +friends, vague hints of some great undertaking. This proved to be a +project for an expedition against Mexico, and the establishment there +of an Empire which was to include the States west of the Alleghanies; +subsidiary to this, and connected with it, was a plan for the +colonization of a large tract of land upon the Washita. + +It is difficult to believe that a design so absurd can have been +entertained by a man of common sense; yet it is certain that it was +seriously undertaken by Burr. His conduct in carrying it out furnishes +the best measure of his talents and a signal exhibition of his folly and +his vices. His high standing, his reputation as a soldier, attracted +the vulgar, and brought him into intercourse with the most intelligent +people of the Territory. The fascination of his manners, and the skill +in the arts of intrigue which long discipline had given him, enabled +him to sustain the impression which the prestige of his name everywhere +produced. The details of his political conduct could not have been +accurately known in a region so remote. The affair with Hamilton had not +injured his reputation in communities where such affairs were common +and often applauded. The circumstances of the time, to his superficial +glance, seemed to be encouraging. A large portion of the country had +lately passed under our flag;--many of the inhabitants spoke a foreign +language, and retained foreign customs and predilections;--the American +settlers were an adventurous race, and eager for an opportunity to +indulge their martial spirit;--Mexico was uneasy under the Spanish +yoke;--and some indications of a war between the United States and Spain +held out a faint hope that the initiatory steps of his enterprise might +be taken with the connivance of the government. To recruit an army among +the hardy citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to excite the jealousies +of the French in Louisiana, to subdue feeble and demoralized Mexico, and +create a new and stable empire, did not appear difficult to the sanguine +imagination of a man who was without means or powerful friends, and who +at no time had sufficient confidence in those with whom he was engaged +to fully inform them of his plans. But he pursued his purposes with a +tenacity which leaves no doubt of his sincerity, and an audacity and +unscrupulousness seldom equalled. A few whom he thought it safe to trust +were admitted to his secrets. Upon those in whom he did not dare to +confide he practised every species of deception. He told some, that his +intentions were approved by the government,--others, that his expedition +was against Mexico only, and that he was sure of foreign aid. He +represented to the honest, that he had bought lands, and wished to form +a colony and institute a new and better order of society; the ignorant +were deluded with a fanciful tale of Southern conquest, and a +magnificent empire, of which he was to be king, and Theodosia queen +after his death. So thoroughly was this deception carried out, that it +is difficult to determine who were actually engaged with him. Without +doubt, many acceded to his plans only because they did not knew what his +plans really were. He made rapid journeys from New Orleans to Natchez, +Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis. In the winter of 1805 +he returned to Washington, and in the following summer again went +down the Ohio. Wherever he went, he threw out complaints against the +government,--charged it with imbecility,--boasted that with two hundred +men he could drive the President and Congress into the Potomac,--freely +prophesied a dissolution of the Union, and published in the local +journals articles pointing out the advantages which would result from a +separation of the Western from the Eastern States. Gen. Eaton had been +denounced in Congress, and had a claim against the government; Burr +tempted him with an opportunity to redress his wrongs and satisfy his +claim. Commodore Truxton had been struck from the Navy list; he offered +him a high command in the Mexican navy. He took every occasion to +flatter the vanity of the people; attended militia parades, and praised +the troops for their discipline and martial bearing. Large donations +of land were freely promised to recruits; men were enlisted; +Blennerhassett's Island was made the rendezvous; and provisions were +gathered there. + +At length his movements began to cause some anxiety to the public +officers. The United States District Attorney attempted to indict him at +Frankfort, Kentucky, but the grand-jury refused to find a bill. Henry +Clay defended him in these proceedings, and in reference to his +connection with the case, Mr. Parton makes a characteristic display of +the spirit in which his book is written, and of his unfitness for the +ambitious task he has undertaken. He quotes the following passage from +Collins's "Historical Sketches of Kentucky":--"Before Mr. Clay took +any active part as the counsel of Burr, he required of him an explicit +disavowal, [avowal,] upon his honor, that he was engaged in no design +contrary to the laws and peace of the country. This pledge was +promptly given by Burr, in language the most broad, comprehensive, and +particular. He had no design, he said, to intermeddle with or disturb +the tranquillity of the United States, nor its territories, nor any part +of them. He had neither issued nor signed nor promised a commission to +any person for any purpose. He did not own a single musket, nor bayonet, +nor any single article of military stores,--nor did any other person +for him, by his authority or knowledge. His views had been explained +to several distinguished members of the administration, were well +understood and approved by the government. They were such as every man +of honor and every good citizen must approve." Upon this paragraph Mr. +Parton makes the following extraordinary comments:--"Mr. Clay, there is +reason to believe, went to his grave in the belief that each of these +assertions was an unmitigated falsehood, and the writer of the above +adduces them merely as remarkable instances of cool, impudent lying. +On the contrary, with one exception, all of Burr's allegations were +strictly true; and even that one was true in a _Burrian_ sense. He did +_not_ own any arms or military stores: by the terms of his engagement +with his recruits, every man was to join him armed, just as every +backwoodsman was armed whenever he went from home. He had _not_ issued +nor promised any commissions: the time had not come for that. Jefferson +and his cabinet undoubtedly knew his views and intentions, up to the +point where they ceased to be lawful." + +To this miserable tissue of sophistry and misrepresentation the only +reply we have to make is, that Burr's statements were the unmitigated +falsehoods which Henry Clay believed them to be. For at that very time +stores were collected on Blennerhassett's Island; other persons were +bringing arms for Burr's service and with his knowledge; the winter +previous he had offered commissions to Eaton and Truxton; and a month +before this statement was made, his agent had arrived at Wilkinson's +camp with the direct proposition to that officer, that he should attack +the Spaniards, hurry his country into a war, and enter upon a career of +conquest which was to result in dismembering the Union. And yet Burr +solemnly declared upon his honor that he was engaged in no design +"contrary to the laws and peace of the country," and that "his +views were such as every man of honor and every good citizen must +approve,"--and Parton says these averments were true. We have no wish +to deal harshly with this writer; but such an impudent defence of a +palpable falsehood is a disgrace to American letters. + +Every well-informed person knows the miserable issue of this +ill-contrived conspiracy. The only emotion which it now excites in the +student is wonder that the thought of it could ever have entered a sane +mind. A wilder or more chimerical scheme never disturbed the dreams of +a schoolboy; yet no one has ever pressed a reasonable undertaking with +more earnestness and confidence than Burr his visionary purpose. He +exhibited, throughout, an infatuation and a degree of incompetency for +great achievements, which would cover the enterprise with ridicule, were +it not for the misfortunes which it brought upon himself and others. + +We do not desire to linger over the last period of Burr's life. His +deadliest foe could not have wished for him so terrible a punishment as +that which afflicted his long and ignominious old age. + +In 1808 he went to Europe to obtain aid for his Mexican expedition. +While in England, he made another display of his adroitness and boldness +in falsehood. The English government became suspicious of him; whereupon +he had the hardihood to claim, that, although he had borne arms against +Great Britain and had held office in an independent state, he was still +a British subject. Mr. Parton says, that this "was an amusing instance +of Burr's lawyerlike audacity." Less partial judges will probably find a +harsher term to apply to it. + +After his return to this country, Burr resumed his profession in New +York, but never regained his former position at the bar. The standard +of legal acquirements was higher than it had been in his youth, and +the obloquy which rested upon him excluded him from the respectable +departments of practice. During all this time, by far the longest period +of his professional life, he never displayed any signal ability. His +society was shunned,--or sought only by a few personal admirers, or by +the profligate and the curious. When seventy-eight years of age, he +wheedled Madame Jumel, an eccentric and wealthy widow, into a marriage. +On the bridal trip he obtained possession of some of her property, and +squandered it in an idle speculation. A continuance of such practices +led to a separation, and his wife afterwards made application for a +divorce, upon a charge which Mr. Parton says is now known to have been +false, but which we have reason to believe was true, and which was so +disgusting that we cannot even hint at it. + +It is our duty to notice one chapter in this book, which, more than +anything else it contains, has given it notoriety. We refer to +its defence of, or, to speak more mildly, its apology for, Burr's +libertinism. All the faults of the author which we have had occasion +to notice, examples of which are scattered through the volume, are +concentrated in these few pages,--his inconsistency, his inaccuracy, +his disposition to draw inferences from facts which they directly +contradict, and to rely on evidence which has nothing to do with the +case in hand. He argues at great length upon the assumption, that Burr's +correspondence with women was unfit for publication, and then, in +contradiction to Burr's own positive declaration, asserts that there +were "no letters necessarily criminating ladies." To prove this, he +publishes two letters, one of which is an apology, written by Burr +in his seventy-fourth year, for having addressed a young woman in an +improper manner, and the other is a letter from a female, couched in +language much warmer than an innocent woman could use. Mr. Parton +attacks Davis because that writer stated that Burr left his +correspondence to be disposed of by him, and eulogizes his hero because +he ordered that the letters should be burned. To establish this +position, he quotes Burr's will, which directed Davis "to destroy, or +to deliver to all persons interested, such letters, as may, _in his +estimation_, be calculated to affect injuriously the feelings of +individuals against whom I have no complaint,"--thus giving Mr. Davis +all the discretionary power with which he claims to have been invested, +and making him the judge as to what letters should be destroyed. We +have no more space to expose Mr. Parton's blunders and sophistry. The +evidence of Burr's debauchery, of his heartless vanity, of his utter +disregard of the considerations which usually govern even the worst of +men, does not rest upon the admissions of Davis alone. Those who are +familiar with a scandalous book called the "Secret History of St. +Domingo," which consists of a series of letters addressed to Col. Burr +by Madame D'Auvergne, will need no further illustration of his influence +over women, nor of the character of those with whom he was most +intimately associated. The night before his duel with Hamilton, he +committed all the letters of his female correspondents to the care and +perusal of Theodosia, saying that she would "find in them something to +amuse, much to instruct, and more to forgive." When in Europe, he kept a +journal in which he recorded his various amorous adventures. This book, +as published, is one which no gentleman would place in the hands of a +lady, and the editor tells us that the most improper portions of the +diary have been expurgated; yet this journal was written, not to amuse +a scandal-loving public, not for purposes of gain, but for the private +perusal of Theodosia. What can be said of a man who could expose +the lascivious expressions of abandoned females and retail his own +debaucheries to a gentle and innocent woman, and that woman his own +daughter? The mere statement beggars invective. It shows a mind so +depraved as to be unconscious of its depravity. + +The character of Burr is not difficult to analyze. His life was +consistent, and at the beginning a wise man might have foretold the +end. Our author complains that Burr's reputation has suffered from +the disposition to exaggerate his faults. This may be true; but it is +likewise true that he has been benefited by the same disposition to +exaggeration. A character is more dramatic which unites great talents +with great vices, and therefore he has been represented both as a worse +and a greater man than he really was. Burr cannot be called great in +any sense. His successes, such as they were, never appear to have been +obtained by high mental effort. He has left not a single measure, no +speech, no written discussion of the various important subjects that +came before him, to which one can point as an exhibition of superior +talents. A certain description of ability cannot be denied to him. He +did well whatever could be done by address, courage, and industry, +joined to moderate talents. His chief power lay in the fascination of +personal intercourse. His countenance was pleasing, and illuminated +by eyes of singular beauty and vivacity; his bearing was lofty; his +self-possession could not be disturbed; he had the tact of a woman, and +an intellect which was active and equal to all ordinary occasions. But +even in society his range was a narrow one, and he seems to have been +successful mainly because he avoided positive effort. It is usual to +speak of him as a remarkable conversationalist; but if by that term we +mean to describe, a person who is distinguished for his eloquence, grace +of expression, information, force and originality of thought, Burr was +not a good converser. A distinguished gentleman, who, while young, +was much noticed by Burr, being asked in what his personal attraction +consisted, replied, "In his manner of listening to you. He seemed to +give your thought so much value by the air with which he received it, +and to find so much more meaning in your words than you had intended. +No flattery was equal to it." We think that this anecdote reveals the +entire power of the man. He was strong through the weakness of others, +rather than in his own strength. Therefore he was most attractive to +young or inferior people. He was not on terms of intimacy with any +leading man of his time, unless it was Jeremy Bentham, and the precise +nature of their relations is not understood. The philosopher, who could +not then boast many disciples, was favorably disposed toward Burr, +because the latter had ordered a London bookseller to send him Bentham's +works as fast as they were published. Upon acquaintance, he must have +been pleased with a gentleman with whom he could have had no cause for +dispute, who could supply him with information as to new and interesting +forms of society and government, and whose adventurous and romantic +career differed so widely from his own life of study and thought. + +Burr's conduct in his various public situations affords a perfect +measure of his abilities. As a soldier, he was brave, a good +disciplinarian, watchful of details, and an excellent executive officer. +At the head of a brigade he would have been useful; but he did not +possess the foresight, the breadth of mental vision, nor the magnetism +of nature awakening the enthusiasm of armies, which are necessary to a +great commander. He was an adroit lawyer, an adept in the fence of his +profession, skilful to avail himself of the errors of an opponent, and +to play upon the foibles of judge or jury; but he had not the faculty +for generalization and analysis, nor the nice discrimination in the +application of general principles to particular instances, which must be +combined in a great lawyer. He cannot by any figure of speech be called +a statesman. As a politician, he was one of the first to discover and +one of the most skilful in the use of those unworthy arts which have +brought the pursuit of politics into disrepute; but we doubt whether +he could have succeeded upon the broader field of the present day. +Perfectly competent to manage a single city, he would have failed in an +attempt to govern a party. His talents were well defined by Jefferson, +who spoke of him as a great man in little things, and a small man in +great things. + +One of the qualities most frequently attributed to Burr is fortitude; +upon this characteristic his biographer frequently dwells. And +indeed, when one reads of the misfortunes which came upon him,--the +disappointments which he encountered,--his poverty abroad,--his terrible +afflictions, and dreary old age,--and how gallantly he bore up under +all,--unblenching, unmurmuring, struggling cheerfully and patiently to +the end,--one cannot repress a feeling of admiration for the courage +which endured so much misery, and of pity for the faults which brought +that misery upon him. Such a feeling would be justified, if we could +believe that fortitude was a positive trait in his character. That is +to say, if he had been properly sensible of the odium which covered +his name, and had really felt the sorrows which visited him,--if these +things had moved him as they do others, and he had still gone on calmly +and bravely to the end, hiding the wounds which tortured him, and giving +no sign of pain,--he would, indeed, have been worthy of admiration; +he would have been a hero. But we think it will appear, upon a closer +examination, that his fortitude was a negative, not a positive quality; +it was insensibility, not courage. He did not suffer, because he did not +feel. The emotional part of our nature he did not possess; at least, it +did not show itself in any of the forms which it usually takes,--in love +of country, or of kindred,--in the opinions which he professed, or in +the subjects which occupied his thoughts. The first act of his manhood +was to join in the resistance of his countrymen to foreign oppression. +But it was no love of liberty that urged him to arms. He went to the +camp at Cambridge from the mere love of adventure. The sacred spirit +which gave nobility to so many,--which transformed mechanics, +tradesmen, village lawyers, and plain country-gentlemen into statesmen, +philosophers, diplomatists, and great captains,--which united the +children of many races into one nation, and roused a simple people to +deeds of lofty heroism,--awakened no enthusiasm in him. He was in the +very flush of youth, yet to his most intimate friends he did not breathe +a word of even moderate interest in the cause for which he had drawn his +sword. His political life was passed during the first twenty years of +our national existence, when men's minds were exercised in the effort to +adapt one government to the various and apparently conflicting interests +of many communities widely separated by distance, climate, and ancient +differences; but these complicated and momentous subjects, so absorbing +to all thoughtful men, never weighed upon his mind. He was in Europe +when Napoleon was at the height of his power, when his armies swept +from the Danube to the Guadalquivir; but that strange story, which the +giddiest school-girl cannot read with divided attention, drew no remark +from his lips. It is said that he was fond of his daughter;--it was a +fondness of the head, not of the heart. He admired her because she was +beautiful and intelligent;--had she been plain and dull, he would not +have cared for her. He made no return for the affection, warm and +generous, which her noble heart lavished upon him, liberal as the +sunlight. Had that earnest love touched, for a single instant, a +responsive chord in his heart, he could never have written those foul, +foul words to make her blush at the record of her father's shame. +Nowhere does he express regret for the misfortunes which he brought +upon others,--the bereaved family of Hamilton,--the ruin of +Blennerhassett,--the victims of his passions and his ambition. He spoke +freely, as if they were indifferent matters, of things which most men +would have concealed. He laughed at his trial,--alluded to Hamilton as +"my friend Hamilton, whom I shot,"--and used to repeat some doggerel +lines upon the duel, which he had seen in a strolling exhibition. It is +said that he was courteous and amiable, and that he did many kind and +generous acts. His courtesy and amiability did not restrain him from +perfidy and debauchery; neither did he ever do a kind act when an unkind +one would have served his purposes better. + +As we have seen, Mr. Parton has described Aaron Burr as suited to many +very incongruous conditions in life. If we were to select an epoch in +history and a form of society for which he was best adapted, we should +place him in France daring the Regency and the reign of Louis XV. There, +where a successful _bon-mot_ established a claim to office, and a +well-turned leg did more for a man than the best mind in Europe, Burr +would have risen to distinction. He might have shone in the literary +circles at Sceaux, and in the _petits soupers_ at the Palais Royal. +Among the wits, the _littérateurs_, the fashionable men and women of +the time, he would have found society congenial to his tastes, and +sufficient employment for his talents. He would have exhibited in his +own life and character their vices and their superficial virtues, their +extravagance, libertinism, and impiety, their politeness, courage, +and wit. He might have borne a distinguished part in the petty +statesmanship, the intriguing diplomacy, and the wild speculations of +that period. But here, among the stern rebels of the Revolution and the +practical statesmen of the early Republic, this trickster and shallow +politician, this visionary adventurer and boaster of ladies' favors, was +out of place. He has given to his country nothing except a pernicious +example. The full light, which shows us that his vices may have +been exaggerated, shows likewise that his talents have surely been +overestimated. The contrast which gave fascination to his career is +destroyed; and for a partial vindication of his character he will pay +the penalty which he would most have dreaded, that of being forgotten. + + * * * * * + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + + +A lyric conception--my friend, the Poet, said--hits me like a bullet in +the forehead. I have often had the blood drop from my cheeks when it +struck, and felt that I turned as white as death. Then comes a creeping +as of centipedes running down the spine,--then a gasp and a great jump +of the heart,--then a sudden flush and a beating in the vessels of the +head,--then a long sigh,--and the poem is written. + +It is an impromptu, I suppose, then, if you write it so suddenly,--I +replied. + +No,--said he,--far from it. I said written, but I did not say _copied_. +Every such poem has a soul and a body, and it is the body of it, or the +copy, that men read and publishers pay for. The soul of it is born in an +instant in the poet's soul. It comes to him a thought, tangled in the +meshes of a few sweet words,--words that have loved each other from the +cradle of the language, but have never been wedded until now. Whether it +will ever fully embody itself in a bridal train of a dozen stanzas or +not is uncertain; but it exists potentially from the instant that the +poet turns pale with it. It is enough to stun and scare anybody, to have +a hot thought come crashing into his brain, and ploughing up those +parallel ruts where the wagon trains of common ideas were jogging along +in their regular sequences of association. No wonder the ancients made +the poetical impulse wholly external. [Greek: Maenin aeide, Thea], +Goddess,--Muse,--divine afflatus,--something outside always. _I_ never +wrote any verses worth reading. I can't. I am too stupid. If I ever +copied any that were worth reading, I was only a medium. + +[I was talking all this time to our boarders, you understand,--telling +them what this poet told me. The company listened rather attentively, I +thought, considering the literary character of the remarks.] + +The old gentleman opposite all at once asked me if I ever read anything +better than Pope's "Essay on Man"? Had I ever perused McFingal? He was +fond of poetry when he was a boy,--his mother taught him to say many +little pieces,--he remembered one beautiful hymn;--and the old gentleman +began, in a clear, loud voice, for his years,-- + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And spangled heavens,"---- + +He stopped, as if startled by our silence, and a faint flush ran up +beneath the thin white hairs that fell upon his cheek. As I looked +round, I was reminded of a show I once saw at the Museum,--the Sleeping +Beauty, I think they called it. The old man's sudden breaking out in +this way turned every face towards him, and each kept his posture as if +changed to stone. Our Celtic Bridget, or Biddy, is not a foolish fat +scullion to burst out crying for a sentiment. She is of the serviceable, +red-handed, broad-and-high-shouldered type; one of those imported female +servants who are known in public by their amorphous style of person, +their stoop forwards, and a headlong and as it were precipitous +walk,--the waist plunging downwards into the rocking pelvis at every +heavy footfall. Bridget, constituted for action, not for emotion, was +about to deposit a plate heaped with something upon the table, when I +saw the coarse arm stretched by my shoulder arrested,--motionless as the +arm of a terra-cotta caryatid; she couldn't set the plate down while the +old gentleman was speaking! + +He was quite silent after this, still wearing the slight flush on his +cheek. Don't ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his +forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand +trembles! If they ever _were_ there, they _are_ there still! + +By and by we got talking again.--Does a poet love the verses written +through him, do you think, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +So long as they are warm from his mind, carry any of his animal heat +about them, _I know_ he loves them,--I answered. When they have had time +to cool, he is more indifferent. + +A good deal as it is with buckwheat cakes,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. + +The last words, only, reached the ear of the economically organized +female in black bombazine.--Buckwheat is skerce and high,--she remarked. +[Must be a poor relation sponging on our landlady,--pays nothing,--so +she must stand by the guns and be ready to repel boarders.] + +I liked the turn the conversation had taken, for I had some things I +wanted to say, and so, after waiting a minute, I began again.--I don't +think the poems I read you sometimes can be fairly appreciated, given to +you as they are in the green state. + +----You don't know what I mean by the _green state?_ Well, then, I will +tell you. Certain things are good for nothing until they have been kept +a long while; and some are good for nothing until they have been long +kept and _used_. Of the first, wine is the illustrious and immortal +example. Of those which must be kept and used, I will name +three,--meerschaum pipes, violins, and poems. The meerschaum is but +a poor affair until it has burned a thousand offerings to the +cloud-compelling deities. It comes to us without complexion or flavor, +born of the sea-foam, like Aphrodite, but colorless as _pallida Mors_ +herself. The fire is lighted in its central shrine, and gradually the +juices which the broad leaves of the Great Vegetable had sucked up from +an acre and curdled into a drachm are diffused through its thirsting +pores. First a discoloration, then a stain, and at last a rich, glowing, +umber tint spreading over the whole surface. Nature true to her old +brown autumnal hue, you see,--as true in the fire of the meerschaum +as in the sunshine of October! And then the cumulative wealth of its +fragrant reminiscences! he who inhales its vapors takes a thousand +whiffs in a single breath; and one cannot touch it without awakening +the old joys that hang around it, as the smell of flowers clings to the +dresses of the daughters of the house of Farina! + +[Don't think I use a meerschaum myself, for _I do not_, though I have +owned a calumet since my childhood, which from a naked Pict (of the +Mohawk species) my grandsire won, together with a tomahawk and beaded +knife-sheath; paying for the lot with a bullet-mark on his right +cheek. On the maternal side I inherit the loveliest silver-mounted +tobacco-stopper you ever saw. It is a little box-wood Triton, carved +with charming liveliness and truth; I have often compared it to a figure +in Raphael's "Triumph of Galatea." It came to me in an ancient shagreen +case,--how old it is I do not know,--but it must have been made since +Sir Walter Raleigh's time. If you are curious, you shall see it any +day. Neither will I pretend that I am so unused to the more perishable +smoking contrivance, that a few whiffs would make me feel as if I lay +in a groundswell on the Bay of Biscay. I am not unacquainted with +that fusiform, spiral-wound bundle of chopped stems and miscellaneous +incombustibles, the cigar, so called, of the shops,--which to "draw" +asks the suction-power of a nursling infant Hercules, and to relish, the +leathery palate of an old Silenus. I do not advise you, young man, even +if my illustration strikes your fancy, to consecrate the flower of your +life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain +of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think for. I +have seen the green leaf of early promise grow brown before its time +under such Nicotian regimen, and thought the umbered meerschaum was +dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved.] + +Violins, too,--the sweet old Amati!--the divine Straduarius! Played on +by ancient maestros until the bow-hand lost its power and the flying +fingers stiffened. Bequeathed to the passionate young enthusiast, who +made it whisper his hidden love, and cry his inarticulate longings, and +scream his untold agonies, and wail his monotonous despair. Passed from +his dying hand to the cold _virtuoso_, who let it slumber in its case +for a generation, till, when his hoard was broken up, it came forth once +more and rode the stormy symphonies of royal orchestras, beneath +the rushing bow of their lord and leader. Into lonely prisons with +improvident artists; into convents from which arose, day and night, the +holy hymns with which its tones were blended; and back again to orgies +in which it learned to howl and laugh as if a legion of devils were shut +up in it; then again to the gentle _dilettante_ who calmed it down with +easy melodies until it answered him softly as in the days of the old +_maestros_. And so given into our hands, its pores all full of music; +stained, like the meerschaum, through and through, with the concentrated +hue and sweetness of all the harmonies that have kindled and faded on +its strings. + +Now I tell you a poem must be kept _and used_, like a meerschaum, or a +violin. A poem is just as porous as the meerschaum;--the more porous +it is, the better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is capable of +absorbing an indefinite amount of the essence of our own humanity,--its +tenderness, its heroism, its regrets, its aspirations, so as to be +gradually stained through with a divine secondary color derived from +ourselves. So you see it must take time to bring the sentiment of a +poem into harmony with our nature, by staining ourselves through every +thought and image our being can penetrate. + +Then again as to the mere music of a new poem; why, who can expect +anything more from that than from the music of a violin fresh from +the maker's hands? Now you know very well that there are no less than +fifty-eight different pieces in a violin. These pieces are strangers +to each other, and it takes a century, more or less, to make them +thoroughly acquainted. At last they learn to vibrate in harmony, and the +instrument becomes an organic whole, as if it were a great seed-capsule +that had grown from a garden-bed in Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides, the +wood is juicy and full of sap for fifty years or so, but at the end of +fifty or a hundred more gets tolerably dry and comparatively resonant. + +Don't you see that all this is just as true of a poem? Counting each +word as a piece, there are more pieces in an average copy of verses than +in a violin. The poet has forced all these words together, and fastened +them, and they don't understand it at first. But let the poem be repeated +aloud and murmured over in the mind's muffled whisper often enough, and +at length the parts become knit together in such absolute solidarity +that you could not change a syllable without the whole world's crying +out against you for meddling with the harmonious fabric. Observe, too, +how the drying process takes place in the stuff of a poem just as in +that of a violin. Here is a Tyrolese fiddle that is just coming to its +hundredth birthday,--(Pedro Klauss, Tyroli, fecit, 1760,)--the sap is +pretty well out of it. And here is the song of an old poet whom Neaera +cheated:-- + + "Nox erat, et coelo fulgebat Luna sereno + Inter minora sidera, + Cum tu magnorum numen laesura deorum + In verba jurubas mea." + +Don't you perceive the sonorousness of these old dead Latin phrases? Now +I tell you that every word fresh from the dictionary brings with it +a certain succulence; and though I cannot expect the sheets of the +"Pactolian," in which, as I told you, I sometimes print my verses, +to get so dry as the crisp papyrus that held those words of Horatius +Flaccus, yet you may be sure, that, while the sheets are damp, and while +the lines hold their sap, you can't fairly judge of my performances, and +that, if made of the true stuff, they will ring better after a while. + +[There was silence for a brief space, after my somewhat elaborate +exposition of these self-evident analogies. Presently _a person_ turned +towards me--I do not choose to designate the individual--and said that +he rather expected my pieces had given pretty good "sahtisfahction."--I +had, up to this moment, considered this complimentary phrase as sacred +to the use of secretaries of lyceums, and, as it has been usually +accompanied by a small pecuniary testimonial, have acquired a certain +relish for this moderately tepid and unstimulating expression of +enthusiasm. But as a reward for gratuitous services, I confess I thought +it a little below that blood-heat standard which a man's breath ought to +have, whether silent, or vocal and articulate. I waited for a favorable +opportunity, however, before making the remarks which follow.] + +----There are single expressions, as I have told you already, that fix +a man's position for you before you have done shaking hands with him. +Allow me to expand a little. There are several things, very slight in +themselves, yet implying other things not so unimportant. Thus, your +French servant has _dévalisé_ your premises and got caught. _Excusez_, +says the _sergent-de-ville_, as he politely relieves him of his upper +garments and displays his bust in the full daylight. Good shoulders +enough,--a little marked,--traces of smallpox, perhaps,--but +white....._Crac!_ from the _sergent-de-ville's_ broad palm on the white +shoulder! Now look! _Vogue la galère!_ Out comes the big red V--mark of +the hot iron;--he had blistered it out pretty nearly,--hadn't he?--the +old rascal VOLEUR, branded in the galleys at Marseilles! [Don't! What +if he has got something like this? nobody supposes I _invented_ such a +story.] + +My man John, who used to drive two of those six equine females which I +told you I had owned,--for, look you, my friends, simple though I stand +here, I am one that has been driven in his "kerridge,"--not using that +term, as liberal shepherds do, for any battered old shabby-genteel +go-cart that has more than one wheel, but meaning thereby a four-wheeled +vehicle _with a pole_,--my man John, I say, was a retired soldier. He +retired unostentatiously, as many of Her Majesty's modest servants have +done before and since. John told me, that when an officer thinks he +recognizes one of these retiring heroes, and would know if he has really +been in the service, that he may restore him, if possible, to a grateful +country, he comes suddenly upon him, and says, sharply, "Strap!" If he +has ever worn the shoulder-strap, he has learned the reprimand for its +ill adjustment. The old word of command flashes through his muscles, and +his hand goes up in an instant to the place where the strap used to be. + +[I was all the time preparing for my grand _coup_, you understand; but +I saw they were not quite ready for it, and so continued,--always in +illustration of the general principle I had laid down.] + +Yes, odd things come out in ways that nobody thinks of. There was a +legend, that, when the Danish pirates made descents upon the English +coast, they caught a few Tartars occasionally, in the shape of Saxons, +that would not let them go,--on the contrary, insisted on their staying, +and, to make sure of it, treated them as Apollo treated Marsyas, or as +Bartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in his title-page, and, having +divested them of the one essential and perfectly fitting garment, +indispensable in the mildest climates, nailed the same on the +church-door as we do the banns of marriage, _in terrorem_. + +[There was a laugh at this among some of the young folks; but as I +looked at our landlady, I saw that "the water stood in her eyes," as it +did in Christiana's when the interpreter asked her about the spider, and +that the school-mistress blushed, as Mercy did in the same conversation, +as you remember.] + +That sounds like a cock-and-bull-story,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet's remark to Horatio, and +continued. + +Not long since, the church-wardens were repairing and beautifying an +old Saxon church in a certain English village, and among other things +thought the doors should be attended to. One of them particularly, the +front-door, looked very badly, crusted, as it were, and as if it would +be all the better for scraping. There happened to be a microscopist in +the village who had heard the old pirate story, and he took it into his +head to examine the crust on this door. There was no mistake about it; +it was a genuine historical document, of the Ziska drum-head +pattern,--a real _cutis humarca_, stripped from some old Scandinavian +filibuster,--and the legend was true. + +My friend, the Professor, settled an important historical and financial +question once by the aid of an exceedingly minute fragment of a similar +document. Behind the pane of plate-glass which bore his name and title +burned a modest lamp, signifying to the passers-by that at all hours of +the night the slightest favors (or fevers) were welcome. A youth who +had freely partaken of the cup which cheers and likewise inebriates, +following a moth-like impulse very natural under the circumstances, +dashed his fist at the light and quenched the meek luminary,--breaking +through the plate-glass, of course, to reach it. Now I don't want to +go into _minutiae_ at table, you know, but a naked hand can no more go +through a pane of thick glass without leaving some of its cuticle, +to say the least, behind it, than a butterfly can go through a +sausage-machine without looking the worse for it. The Professor gathered +up the fragments of glass, and with them certain very minute but +entirely satisfactory documents which would have identified and hanged +any rogue in Christendom who had parted with them.--The historical +question, _Who did it_? and the financial question, _Who paid for it_? +were both settled before the new lamp was lighted the next evening. + +You see, my friends, what immense conclusions, touching our lives, +our fortunes, and our sacred honor, may be reached by means of very +insignificant premises. This is eminently true of manners and forms of +speech; a movement or a phrase often tells you all you want to know +about a person. Thus, "How's your health?" (commonly pronounced +haälth)--instead of, How do you do? or, How are you? Or calling your +little dark entry a "hall," and your old rickety one-horse wagon a +"kerridge." Or telling a person who has been trying to please you that +he has given you pretty good "sahtisfahction." Or saying that you +"remember of" such a thing, or that you have been "stoppin'" at Deacon +Somebody's,--and other such expressions. One of my friends had a little +marble statuette of Cupid in the parlor of his country-house,--bow, +arrows, wings, and all complete. A visitor, indigenous to the region, +looking pensively at the figure, asked the lady of the house "if that +was a statoo of her deceased infant?" What a delicious, though somewhat +voluminous biography, social, educational, and aesthetic in that brief +question! + +[Please observe with what Machiavellian astuteness I smuggled in +the particular offence which it was my object to hold up to my +fellow-boarders, without too personal an attack on the individual at +whose door it lay.] + +That was an exceedingly dull person who made the remark, _Ex pede +Herculem_. He might as well have said, "From a peck of apples you may +judge of the barrel." _Ex_ PEDE, to be sure! Read, instead, _Ex ungue +minimi digiti pedis, Herculem, ejusque patrem, matrem, avos et proavos, +filios, nepotes et pronepotes!_ Talk to me about your [Greek: dos pou +sto]! Tell me about Cuvier's getting up a megatherium from a tooth, +or Agassiz's drawing a portrait of an undiscovered fish from a single +scale! As the "O" revealed Giotto,--as the one word "moi" betrayed the +Stratford-atte-Bowe-taught Anglais,--so all a man's antecedents and +possibilities are summed up in a single utterance which gives at once +the gauge of his education and his mental organization. + +Possibilities, Sir?--said the divinity-student; can't a man who says +_Haöw?_ arrive at distinction? + +Sir,--I replied,--in a republic all things are possible. But the man +_with a future_ has almost of necessity sense enough to see that any +odious trick of speech or manners must be got rid of. Doesn't Sidney +Smith say that a public man in England never gets over a false quantity +uttered in early life? _Our_ public men are in little danger of this +fatal misstep, as few of them are in the habit of introducing Latin into +their speeches,--for good and sufficient reasons. But they are bound to +speak decent English,--unless, indeed, they are rough old campaigners, +like General Jackson or General Taylor; in which case, a few scars on +Priscian's head are pardoned to old fellows that have quite as many +on their own, and a constituency of thirty empires is not at all +particular, provided they do not swear in their Presidential Messages. + +However, it is not for me to talk. I have made mistakes enough in +conversation and print. "Don't" for doesn't,--base misspelling of Clos +Vougeot, (I wish I saw the label on the bottle a little oftener,)--and +I don't know how many more. I never find them out until they are +stereotyped, and then I think they rarely escape me. I have no doubt +I shall make half a dozen slips before this breakfast is over, and +remember them all before another. How one does tremble with rage at his +own intense momentary stupidity about things he knows perfectly well, +and to think how he lays himself open to the impertinences of the +_captatores verborum_, those useful but humble scavengers of the +language, whose business it is to pick up what might offend or injure, +and remove it, hugging and feeding on it as they go! I don't want to +speak too slightingly of these verbal critics;--how can I, who am so +fond of talking about errors and vulgarisms of speech? Only there is +a difference between those clerical blunders which almost every man +commits, knowing better, and that habitual grossness or meanness of +speech which is unendurable to educated persons, from anybody that wears +silk or broadcloth. + +[I write down the above remarks this morning, January 26th, making this +record of the date that nobody may think it was written in wrath, on +account of any particular grievance suffered from the invasion of any +individual _scarabaeus grammaticus_.] + +----I wonder if anybody ever finds fault with anything I say at this +table when it is repeated? I hope they do, I am sure. I should be very +certain that I had said nothing of much significance, if they did not. + +Did you never, in walking in the fields, come across a large flat stone, +which had lain, nobody knows how long, just where you found it, with the +grass forming a little hedge, as it were, all round it, close to its +edges,--and have you not, in obedience to a kind of feeling that told +you it had been lying there long enough, insinuated your stick or your +foot or your fingers under its edge and turned it over as a housewife +turns a cake, when she says to herself, "It's done brown enough by this +time"? What an odd revelation, and what an unforeseen and unpleasant +surprise to a small community, the very existence of which you had not +suspected, until the sudden dismay and scattering among its members +produced by your turning the old stone over! Blades of grass flattened +down, colorless, matted together, as if they had been bleached and +ironed; hideous crawling creatures, some of them coleopterous or +horny-shelled,--turtle-bugs one wants to call them; some of them softer, +but cunningly spread out and compressed like Lepine watches; (Nature +never loses a crack or a crevice, mind you, or a joint in a tavern +bedstead, but she always has one of her flat-pattern live timekeepers +to slide into it;) black, glossy crickets, with their long filaments +sticking out like the whips of four-horse stage-coaches; motionless, +slug-like creatures, larvae, perhaps, more horrible in their pulpy +stillness than even in the infernal wriggle of maturity! But no sooner +is the stone turned and the wholesome light of day let upon this +compressed and blinded community of creeping things, than all of them +that enjoy the luxury of legs--and some of them have a good many--rush +round wildly, butting each other and everything in their way, and end in +a general stampede for underground retreats from the region poisoned by +sunshine. _Next year_ you will find the grass growing tall and green +where the stone lay; the ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle +had his hole; the dandelion and the buttercup are growing there, and the +broad fans of insect-angels open and shut over their golden disks, as +the rhythmic waves of blissful consciousness pulsate through their +glorified being. + +----The young fellow whom they call John saw fit to say, in his very +familiar way,--at which I do not choose to take offence, but which I +sometimes think it necessary to repress,--that I was coming it rather +strong on the butterflies. + +No, I replied; there is meaning in each of those images,--the butterfly +as well as the others. The stone is ancient error. The grass is human +nature borne down and bleached of all its color by it. The shapes that +are found beneath are the crafty beings that thrive in darkness, and the +weaker organisms kept helpless by it. He who turns the stone over is +whosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying incubus, no matter +whether he do it with a serious face or a laughing one. The next year +stands for the coming time. Then shall the nature which had lain +blanched and broken rise in its full stature and native hues in the +sunshine. Then shall God's minstrels build their nests in the hearts of +a new-born humanity. Then shall beauty--Divinity taking outlines and +color--light upon the souls of men as the butterfly, image of the +beatified spirit rising from the dust, soars from the shell that held a +poor grub, which would never have found wings, had not the stone been +lifted. + +You never need think you can turn over any old falsehood without a +terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that +dwells under it. + +----Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of +somebody or other. As soon as his breath comes back, he very probably +begins to expend it in hard words. These are the best evidence a man +can have that he has said something it was time to say. Dr. Johnson was +disappointed in the effect of one of his pamphlets. "I think I have not +been attacked enough for it," he said;--"attack is the reaction; I never +think I have hit hard unless it rebounds." + +----If a fellow attacked my opinions in print, would I reply? Not I. Do +you think I don't understand what my friend, the Professor, long ago +called _the hydrostatic paradox of controversy?_ + +Don't know what that means?--Well, I will tell you. You know, that, if +you had a bent tube, one arm of which was of the size of a pipe-stem, +and the other big enough to hold the ocean, water would stand at the +same height in one as in the other. Controversy equalizes fools and wise +men in the same way,--_and the fools know it._ + +----No, but I often read what they say about other people. There are +about a dozen phrases that all come tumbling along together, like the +tongs, and the shovel, and the poker, and the brush, and the bellows, in +one of those domestic avalanches that everybody knows. If you get one, +you get the whole lot. + +What are they?--Oh, that depends a good deal on latitude and longitude. +Epithets follow the isothermal lines pretty accurately. Grouping them +in two families, one finds himself a clever, genial, witty, wise, +brilliant, sparkling, thoughtful, distinguished, celebrated, illustrious +scholar and perfect gentleman, and first writer of the age; or a +dull, foolish, wicked, pert, shallow, ignorant, insolent, traitorous, +black-hearted outcast, and disgrace to civilization. + +What do I think determines the set of phrases a man gets?--Well, +I should say a set of influences something like these:--1st. +Relationships, political, religious, social, domestic. 2d. Oysters; +in the form of suppers given to gentlemen connected with criticism. I +believe in the school, the college, and the clergy; but my sovereign +logic for regulating public opinion--which means commonly the opinion +of half a dozen of the critical gentry--is the following: _Major +proposition._ Oysters _au naturel. Minor proposition._ The same +"scalloped." _Conclusion._ That ---- (here insert entertainer's name) is +clever, witty, wise, brilliant,--and the rest. + +----No, it isn't exactly bribery. One man has oysters, and another +epithets. It is an exchange of hospitalities; one gives a "spread" on +linen, and the other on paper,--that is all. Don't you think you and I +should be apt to do just so, if we were in the critical line? I am sure +I couldn't resist the softening influences of hospitality. I don't like +to dine out, you know,--I dine so well at our own table, [our landlady +looked radiant,] and the company is so pleasant [a rustling movement of +satisfaction among the boarders]; but if I did partake of a man's +salt, with such additions as that article of food requires to make it +palatable, I could never abuse him, and if I had to speak of him, I +suppose I should hang my set of jingling epithets round him like a +string of sleigh-bells. Good feeling helps society to make liars of most +of us,--not absolute liars, but such careless handlers of truth that its +sharp corners get terribly rounded. I love truth as chiefest among the +virtues; I trust it runs in my blood; but I would never be a critic, +because I know I could not always tell it. I might write a criticism of +a book that happened to please me; that is another matter. + +----Listen, Benjamin Franklin! This is for you, and such others of +tender age as you may tell it to. + +When we are as yet small children, long before the time when those two +grown ladies offer us the choice of Hercules, there comes up to us a +youthful angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his +left spheres like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on +each is written in letters of gold--TRUTH. The spheres are veined and +streaked and spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above, where the +light falls on them, and in a certain aspect you can make out upon +every one of them the three letters L, I, E. The child to whom they +are offered very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most +convenient things in the world; they roll with the least possible +impulse just where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at +all; they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right +side up. But very soon the young philosopher finds that things which +roll so easily are very apt to roll into the wrong corner, and to get +out of his way when he most wants them, while he always knows where to +find the others, which stay where they are left. Thus he learns--thus we +learn--to drop the streaked and speckled globes of falsehood and to hold +fast the white angular blocks of truth. But then comes Timidity, and +after her Good-nature, and last of all Polite-behavior, all insisting +that truth must _roll_ or nobody can do anything with it; and so the +first with her coarse rasp, and the second with her broad file, and the +third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and smooth and polish the +snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they have got a little dingy by +use, it becomes hard to tell them from the rolling spheres of falsehood. + +The schoolmistress was polite enough to say that she was pleased with +this, and that she would read it to her little flock the next day. But +she should tell the children, she said, that there were better reasons +for truth than could be found in mere experience of its convenience and +the inconvenience of lying. + +Yes,--I said,--but education always begins through the senses, and works +up to the idea of absolute right and wrong. The first thing +the child has to learn about this matter is, that lying is +unprofitable,--afterwards, that it is against the peace and dignity of +the universe. + +----Do I think that the particular form of lying often seen in +newspapers, under the title, "From our Foreign Correspondent," does any +harm?--Why, no,--I don't know that it does. I suppose it doesn't really +deceive people any more than the "Arabian Nights" or "Gulliver's +Travels" do. Sometimes the writers compile too carelessly, though, and +mix up facts out of geographies, and stories out of the penny papers, so +as to mislead those who are desirous of information. I cut a piece +out of one of the papers, the other day, that contains a number of +improbabilities, and, I suspect, misstatements. I will send up and get +it for you, if you would like to hear it.--Ah, this is it; it is headed + +"OUR SUMATRA CORRESPONDENCE. + +"This island is now the property of the Stamford family,--having +been won, it is said, in a raffle, by Sir ---- Stamford, during the +stock-gambling mania of the South-Sea Scheme. The history of this +gentleman may be found in an interesting series of questions +(unfortunately not yet answered) contained in the 'Notes and Queries.' +This island is entirely surrounded by the ocean, which here contains a +large amount of saline substance, crystallizing in cubes remarkable for +their symmetry, and frequently displays on its surface, during calm +weather, the rainbow tints of the celebrated South-Sea bubbles. The +summers are oppressively hot, and the winters very probably cold; but +this fact cannot be ascertained precisely, as, for some peculiar reason, +the mercury in these latitudes never shrinks, as in more northern +regions, and thus the thermometer is rendered useless in winter. + +"The principal vegetable productions of the island are the pepper tree +and the bread-fruit tree. Pepper being very abundantly produced, a +benevolent society was organized in London during the last century for +supplying the natives with vinegar and oysters, as an addition to that +delightful condiment. [Note received from Dr. D.P.] It is said, however +that, as the oysters were of the kind called _natives_ in England, the +natives of Sumatra, in obedience to a natural instinct refused to touch +them, and confined themselves entirely to the crew of the vessel in +which they were brought over. This information was received from one +of the oldest inhabitants, a native himself, and exceedingly fond of +missionaries. He is said also to be very skilful in the _cuisine_ +peculiar to the island. + +"During the season of gathering the pepper, the persons employed are +subject to various incommodities, the chief of which is violent and +long-continued sternutation or sneezing. Such is the vehemence of +these attacks, that the unfortunate subjects of them are often driven +backwards for great distances at immense speed, on the well-known +principle of the aeolipile. Not being able to see where they are going, +these poor creatures dash themselves to pieces against the rocks or are +precipitated over the cliffs, and thus many valuable lives are lost +annually. As, during the whole pepper-harvest, they feed exclusively on +this stimulant, they become exceedingly irritable. The smallest injury +is resented with ungovernable rage. A young man suffering from the +_pepper-fever_, as it is called, cudgelled another most severely for +appropriating a superannuated relative of trifling value, and was only +pacified by having a present made him of a pig of that peculiar species +of swine called the _Peccavi_ by the Catholic Jews, who, it is well +known, abstain from swine's flesh in imitation of the Mahometan +Buddhists. + +"The bread tree grows abundantly. Its branches are well known to Europe +and America under the familiar name of _maccaroni_ The smaller twigs +are called _vermicelli_. They have a decided animal flavor, as may be +observed in the soups containing them. Maccaroni, being tubular is +the favorite habitat of a very dangerous insect, which is rendered +peculiarly ferocious by being boiled. The government of the island, +therefore, never allows a stick of it to be exported without being +accompanied by a piston with which its cavity may at any time be +thoroughly swept out. These are commonly lost or stolen before the +maccaroni arrives among us. It therefore always contains many of these +insects, which, however, generally die of old age in the shops, so that +accidents from this source are comparatively rare. + +"The fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of hot rolls. The +buttered-muffin variety is supposed to be a hybrid with the cocoa-nut +palm, the cream found on the milk of the cocoa-nut exuding from the +hybrid in the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is splitting, so +as to fit it for the tea-table, where it is commonly served up with +cold"---- + +----There,--I don't want to read any more of it. You see that many of +these statements are highly improbable.--No, I shall not mention the +paper.--No, neither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the style +of these popular writers. I think the fellow that wrote it must have +been reading some of their stories, and got them mixed up with his +history and geography. I don't suppose _he_ lies;--he sells it to the +editor, who knows how many squares off "Sumatra" is. The editor, +who sells it to the public----By the way, the papers have been very +civil--haven't they?--to the--the--what d'ye call it?--"Northern +Magazine"--isn't it?--got up by some of those Come-outers, down East, as +an organ for their local peculiarities. + +----The Professor has been to see me. Came in, glorious, at about twelve +o'clock, last night. Said he had been with "the boys." On inquiry, found +that "the boys" were certain baldish and grayish old gentlemen that one +sees or hears of in various important stations of society. The Professor +is one of the same set, but he always talks as if he had been out of +college about ten years, whereas..... .... [Each of these dots was a +little nod, which the company understood, as the reader will, no doubt.] +He calls them sometimes "the boys," and sometimes "the old fellows." +Call him by the latter title, and see how he likes it.--Well, he came in +last night, glorious, as I was saying. Of course I don't mean vinously +exalted; he drinks little wine on such occasions, and is well known to +all the Johns and Patricks as the gentleman that always has indefinite +quantities of black tea to kill any extra glass of red claret he may +have swallowed. But the Professor says he always gets tipsy on old +memories at these gatherings. He was, I forget how many years old when +he went to the meeting; just turned of twenty now,--he said. He made +various youthful proposals to me, including a duet under the landlady's +daughter's window. He had just learned a trick, he said, of one of "the +boys," of getting a splendid bass out of a door-panel by rubbing it with +the palm of his hand,--offered to sing "The sky is bright," accompanying +himself on the front-door, if I would go down and help in the chorus. +Said there never was such a set of fellows as the old boys of the set he +has been with. Judges, mayors, Congress-men, Mr. Speakers, leaders in +science, clergymen better than famous, and famous too, poets by the +half-dozen, singers with voices like angels, financiers, wits, three of +the best laughers in the Commonwealth, engineers, agriculturists,--all +forms of talent and knowledge he pretended were represented in that +meeting. Then he began to quote Byron about Santa Croce, and maintained +that he could "furnish out creation" in all its details from that set +of his. He would like to have the whole boodle of them, (I remonstrated +against this word, but the Professor said it was a diabolish good word, +and he would have no other,) with their wives and children, shipwrecked +on a remote island, just to see how splendidly they would reorganize +society. They could build a city,--they have done it; make constitutions +and laws; establish churches and lyceums; teach and practise the healing +art; instruct in every department; found observatories; create commerce +and manufactures; write songs and hymns, and sing 'em, and make +instruments to accompany the songs with; lastly, publish a journal +almost as good as the "Northern Magazine," edited by the Come-outers. +There was nothing they were not up to, from a christening to a hanging; +the last, to be sure, could never be called for, unless some stranger +got in among them. + +----I let the Professor talk as long as he liked; it didn't make much +difference to me whether it was all truth, or partly made up of pale +Sherry and similar elements. All at once he jumped up and said,-- + +Don't you want to hear what I just read to the boys? + +I have had questions of a similar character asked me before, +occasionally. A man of iron mould might perhaps say, No! I am not a man +of iron mould, and said that I should be delighted. + +The Professor then read--with that slightly sing-song cadence which is +observed to be common in poets reading their own verses--the following +stanzas; holding them at a focal distance of about two feet and a half, +with an occasional movement back or forward for better adjustment, the +appearance of which has been likened by some impertinent young folks +to that of the act of playing on the trombone. His eyesight was never +better; I have his word for it. + + + + +MARE RUBRUM. + + + Flash out a stream of blood-red wine!-- + For I would drink to other days; + And brighter shall their memory shine, + Seen flaming through its crimson blaze. + The roses die, the summers fade; + But every ghost of boyhood's dream + By Nature's magic power is laid + To sleep beneath this blood-red stream. + + It filled the purple grapes that lay + And drank the splendors of the sun + Where the long summer's cloudless day + Is mirrored in the broad Garonne; + It pictures still the bacchant shapes + That saw their hoarded sunlight shed,-- + The maidens dancing on the grapes,-- + Their milk-white ankles splashed with red. + + Beneath these waves of crimson lie, + In rosy fetters prisoned fast, + Those flitting shapes that never die, + The swift-winged visions of the past. + Kiss but the crystal's mystic rim, + Each shadow rends its flowery chain, + Springs in a bubble from its brim, + And walks the chambers of the brain. + + Poor Beauty! time and fortune's wrong + No form nor feature may withstand,-- + Thy wrecks are scattered all along, + Like emptied sea-shells on the sand;-- + Yet, sprinkled with this blushing rain, + The dust restores each blooming girl, + As if the sea-shells moved again + Their glistening lips of pink and pearl. + + Here lies the home of school-boy life, + With creaking stair and wind-swept hall, + And, scarred by many a truant knife, + Our old initials on the wall; + Here rest--their keen vibrations mute-- + The shout of voices known so well, + The ringing laugh, the wailing flute, + The chiding of the sharp-tongued bell. + + Here, clad in burning robes, are laid + Life's blossomed joys, untimely shed; + And here those cherished forms have strayed + We miss awhile, and call them dead. + What wizard fills the maddening glass? + What soil the enchanted clusters grew, + That buried passions wake and pass + In beaded drops of fiery dew? + + Nay, take the cup of blood-red wine,-- + Our hearts can boast a warmer glow, + Filled from a vintage more divine,-- + Calmed, but not chilled by winter's snow! + To-night the palest wave we sip + Rich as the priceless draught shall be + That wet the bride of Cana's lip,-- + The wedding wine of Galilee! + + + + +CHILD-LIFE BY THE GANGES. + + +We are told--and, being philosophers, we will amuse ourselves by +believing--that there are towns in India, somewhere between Cape Comorin +and the Himalayas, wherein everything is _butcha_,--that is, "a little +chap"; where inhabitants and inhabited are alike in the estate of +urchins; where little Brahmins extort little offerings from little dupes +at the foot of little altars, and ring little bells, and blow little +horns, and pound little gongs, and mutter little rigmaroles before +stupid little Krishnas and Sivas and Vishnus, doing their little wooden +best to look solemn, mounted on little bulls or snakes, under little +canopies; where little Brahminee bulls, in all the little insolence of +their little sacred privileges, poke their little noses into the little +rice-baskets of pious little maidens in little bazaars, and help their +little selves to their little hearts' content, without "begging your +little pardons," or "by your little leaves"; where dirty little fakirs +and yogees hold their dirty little arms above their dirty little heads, +until their dirty little muscles are shrunk to dirty little rags, and +their dirty little finger-nails grow through the backs of their dirty +little hands,--or wear little ten-penny nails thrust through their +little tongues till they acquire little chronic impediments in their +decidedly dirty little speech,--or, by means of little hooks through the +little smalls-of-their-backs, circumgyrate from little _churruck_-posts +for the edification of infatuated little crowds and the honor of horrid +little goddesses; where plucky little widows perform their little +suttees for defunct little husbands, grilling on little funeral piles; +where mangy little Pariah dogs defile the little dinners of little +high-caste folks, by stealing hungry little sniffs from sacred little +pots; where omnivorous little adjutant-birds gobble up little glass +bottles, and bones, and little dead cats, and little old slippers, and +bits of little bricks, in front of little shops in little bazaars; where +vociferous little _circars_ are driving little bargains with obese +little _banyans_, and consequential little _chowkedars_--that is, +policemen--are bullying inoffensive little poor people, and calling them +_sooa-logue_,--that is, pigs;--where--where, in fine, everything in +heathen human-nature happens _butcha_, and the very fables with which +the little story-tellers entertain the little loafers on the corners of +the little streets, are full of _little_ giants and _little_ dwarfs. Let +us pursue the little idea, and talk _butcha_ to the end of this chapter. + +When, in Calcutta, you have smitten the dry rock of your lonely life +with the magic rod of connubial love, and that well-spring of pleasure, +a new baby, has leaped up in the midst of your wilderness of exile, the +demonstration, if any, with which your servants will receive the glad +tidings, will depend wholly on the "denomination of the imbecile +offspring," as our eleëmosynary widow, Mrs. Diana Theodosia Comfort +Green, would call it. If it happen to be only a girl, there will be a +trace of pity in the silent salaam with which the grim _durwan_ salutes +you as you roll into your _palkee_ at the gate to proceed to the +_godowns_ where they are weighing the saltpetre and the gunny bags. +As he touches his forehead with his joined palms, he thinks of the +difference that color makes to the babivorous crocodiles of Ganges. +Perhaps your gray-beard circar, privileged by virtue of high caste +and faithful service, will take upon himself to condole with you: +"_Khodabund_" he will say, "better luck next time; Heaven is not always +with one's paternal hopes; let us trust that my lord may live to say it +might have been worse; let us pray that the _baba's_ bridal necklace may +be as gay as rubies and as light as lilies, and that she may die before +her husband." + +But if to the existing number of your _suntoshums_--the jewels that +hang on the Mem Sahib's bosom--a man-child is added, ah, then there is +merry-making in the verandas, and happy salaaming on the stairs; and in +the fulness of his Hindoo Sary-Gampness, which counts the Sahib blessed +that hath "his quiver full of sich," he says, _Ap-ki kullejee kaisa +burri ho-jaga! Khodá rukho ki beebi-ka kullejee bhee itni burri +hoga,--Gurreeb-purwan!_ "How large my lord's liver is about to grow! +God grant to the Mem Sahib, my exalted lady, a liver likewise large,--O +favored protector of the poor!" The happiness and honors which should +follow upon the birth of a male child being figuratively comprehended in +that enlargement of the liver whence comes the good digestion for which +alone life is worth the living. + +Many and grievous perils do environ baby-life by the Ganges,--perils of +_dry_ nurses, perils by wolves, perils by crocodiles, perils by the Evil +Eye, perils by kidnappers, perils by cobras, perils by devils. + +You are living at one of the up-country stations, where the freer air of +the jungle imparts to babes and sucklings a voracious appetite. Besides +your own _dhye_, brought from Calcutta, there is not another wet-nurse +to be had, for love or money. Immediately Dhye strikes for higher wages. +The Baba Sahib, she says, has defiled her rice; yesterday he put +his foot into her curry; to-day he washes the monkey's tail in her +consecrated lotah. What shall she do? she has lost caste; the presents +to the Brahmins, that her reinstatement will cost her, will consume all +her earnings from the beginning. _Gurreeb-purwan_, O munificent and +merciful! what shall she do? She strikes for higher wages.--But you are +hard-hearted and hard-headed; you will not pay,--by Gunga, not another +pice! by Latchtmee, not one cowry more!--Oh, then she will leave; with +a heavy heart she will turn her back on the blessed baby; she will pour +dust upon her head before the Mem Sahib, at whose door her disgrace +shall lie, and she will return to her kindred.--Not she! the durwan, +grim and incorruptible, has his orders; she cannot pass the gate. Oho! +then immediately she dries up; no "fount," and Baby famishing. You try +ass's milk; it does not agree with Baby; besides, it costs a rupee a +pint. You try a goat; she does not agree with Baby, for she butts him +treacherously, and, leaping over his prostrate body, scampers, like +Leigh Hunt's pig in Smithfield Market, up all manner of figurative +streets. Then you send for Dhye, and say, "Milk, or I shave your head!" +Milk or death! And, lo, a miracle!--the "fount" again!--Baby is saved. + +What was, then, the conjuration and the mighty magic? In the folds +of her _saree_ the _dhye_ conceals leaves of _chambeli_, the Indian +jessamine, roots of _dhallapee_, the jungle radish. She chews the +_chambeli_, and hungry Baby, struggling for the "fount," is insulted +with apples of Sodom; she swallows a portion of _dhallapee_, and he is +regaled as with the melting melons of Ceylon. + + * * * * * + +Some fine afternoon your _ayah_ takes your little Johnny to stroll by +the river's bank,--to watch the green budgerows, as they glide, pulled +by singing _dandees_ (so the boatmen of Ganges are called) up to +Patna,--to watch the brown corpses, as they float silently down from +Benares. At night the ayah returns, wringing her hands. Where is your +merry darling? She knows not. _O Khodabund_, go ask the evil spirits! O +Sahib, go cry unto Gunga,--go accuse the greedy river, and say to the +envious waters, "Give back my boy!" She had left him sitting on a stone, +she says, counting the sailing corpses, while she went to find him a +blue-jay's nest among the rocks; when she returned to the stone,--no +Jonnee Sahib! "My golden image, who hath snatched him away? He that +skipped and hummed like a singing-top, where is he gone?"--A month after +that, your dandees capture a crocodile, and from his heathen maw recover +a familiar coral necklace with an inscription on the clasp,--"To Johnny, +on his birth-day." A pair of little silver bangles, whose jocund +jingling had once been happy household music to some poor Hindoo mother, +have kept the necklace company. + + * * * * * + +Over against the gate of our compound the Baboo's walks are bright with +roses, and ixoras, and the creeping nagatallis; the Baboo's park is +shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and imposing with +tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains; and Chinna Tumbe, the +Little Brother, the brown apple of the Baboo's eye, plays among the +bamboos by the tank, just within the gate, and pelts the gold-fishes +with mango-seeds. Presently comes along a pleasant peddler, all the way +from Cabool, with a pretty bushy-tailed kitten of Persia in the hollow +of his arm, and a cunning little mungooz cracking nuts on his shoulder. +A score of tiny silver bells tinkle from a silken cord around Chinna +Tumbe's loins, and the silver whistle with which he calls his cockatoos +is suspended from his neck by a chain of gold. So the pleasant peddler +all the way from Cabool greets Chinna Tumbe merrily, saying, "See my +pretty kitten, that knows a hundred tricks! and see my brave mungooz, +that can kill cobras in fair fight! My Persian kitten for your silver +bells, Chinna Tumbe, and my cunning mungooz for your golden chain!" And +Chinna Tumbe laughs, and claps his hands, and dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. And the pleasant peddler all the +way from Cabool says, "Step without the gate, Little Brother, if you +would see my pretty kitten play tricks; if you would stroke my cunning +mungooz, step without the gate; for I dare not pass within, lest my +lord, the Baboo of many lacs, should be angry." So Chinna Tumbe steps +out into the road, and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool sets +the Persian kitten on the ground, and rattles off some strange words, +that sound very funnily to the Little Brother; and immediately the +Persian kitten begins to run round after its bushy tail, faster and +faster, faster and faster, a ring of yellow light. And Chinna Tumbe +claps his hands, and cries, _Wah, wah!_ and he dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. So the pleasant peddler addresses +other strange and funny words to the ring of yellow light, and instantly +it stands still, and quivers its bushy tail, and pants. Then the peddler +speaks to the cunning mungooz, which immediately leaps to the ground, +and sitting quite erect, with its broad tail curled over its back, like +a marabout feather, holds its paws together in the quaint manner of a +squirrel, and looks attentive. More of the peddler's funny conjuration, +and up springs the mungooz into the air, like a Birman's wicker +football, and, alighting on the kitten's back, clings close and fast. +Away fly kitten and mungooz,--away from the gate,--away from the Baboo's +walks, bright with ixoras and creeping nagatallis,--away from the +Baboo's park, shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and +imposing with tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains,--away +from the Baboo's home, away from the Baboo's heart, bereft thenceforth +forever! For Chinna Tumbe follows fast, crying, _Wah, wah!_ and clapping +his hands, and jingling gleefully all his silver bells,--follows across +the road, and through the bamboo hedge, and into the darkness and the +danger of the jungle; and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool +goes smiling after,--but, as he goes, what is it that he draws from +the breast of his dusty _coortee_? Only a slender, smooth cord, with a +slip-knot at the end of it. + +Within the twelvemonth, in a stony nullah, hard by a clump of crooked +saul-trees, a mile away from the Baboo's gate, some jackals brought to +light the bones of a little child; and the deep grave from which they +dug them with their sharp, busy claws, bore marks of the mystic pick-axe +of Thuggee. But there were no tinkling bells, no chain of gold, no +silver whistle; and the cockatoos and the goldfishes knew Chinna Tumbe +no more. + +When a name was bestowed on the Little Brother, the Brahmins wrote a +score of pretty words in rice, and set over each a lamp freshly trimmed, +and the name whose light burned brightest, with happy augury, was +"Chinna Tumbe." And when they had likewise inscribed the day of his +birth, and the name of his natal star, the proud and happy Baboo cried, +with a loud voice, three times, "Chinna Tumbe," and all the Brahmins +stretched forth their hands and pronounced _Asowadam_,--benediction. +Then they performed _arati_ about the child's head, to avert the Evil +Eye, describing mystic circles with lamps of rice-paste set on copper +salvers, with many pious incantations. But, spite of all, the Evil Eye +overtook Chinna Tumbe, when the pleasant peddler came all the way from +Cabool, with his bushy-tailed kitten, and his mungooz cracking nuts. + +They do say the ghost of Chinna Tumbe walks,--that always at midnight, +when the Indian nightingale fills the Baboo's banian topes with her +lugubrious song, and the weird ulus hoot from the peepul tops, a child, +girt with silver bells, and followed by a Persian kitten and a mungooz, +shakes the Baboo's gate, blows upon a silver whistle, and cries, so +piteously, "Ayah! Ayah!" + + * * * * * + +At Hurdwar, in the great fair, among jugglers and tumblers, horse-tamers +and snake-charmers, fakirs and pilgrims, I saw a small boy possessed +of a devil,--an authentic devil, as of yore, meet for miraculous +driving-out. In the midst of dire din, heathenish and +horrible,--dissonant jangle of zogees' bells, brain-rending blasts from +Brahmins' shells, strepent howling of opium-drunk devotees, delirious +pounding of tom-toms, brazen clangor of gongs,--a child of seven years, +that might, unpossessed, have been beautiful, sat under the shed of +a sort of curiosity-shop, among bangles and armlets, mouthpieces +for pipes, leaden idols, and Brahminical cords, and made infernal +faces,--his mouth foaming epileptically, his hair dishevelled and matted +with sudden sweat, his eyes blood-shot, his whole aspect diabolic. And +on the ground before the miserable lad were set dishes of rice mixed +with blood, carcasses of rams and cocks, handfuls of red flowers, and +ragged locks of human hair, wherewith the more miserable people sought +to appease the fell _bhuta_ that had set up his throne in that fair +soul. _Sack bat?_ It was even so. And as the possessed made spasmy fists +with his feet, clinching his toes strangely, and grinned, with his chin +between his knees, I solemnly wished for the presence of One who might +cry with the voice of authority, as erst in the land of the Gadarenes, +"Come out of the lad, thou unclean spirit!" + +At the Hurdwar fair pretty little naked girls are exposed for sale, and +in their soft brown innocence appeal at once to the purity of your mind +and the tenderness of your heart. They come from Cashmere with the +shawls, or from Cabool with the kittens, or from the Punjaub with the +arms and shields. + + * * * * * + +Very quaint are the little Miriams, Ruths, and Hannahs of the Jewish +houses in Bombay,--with their full trousers of blue satin and gold, +their boyish Fez caps of spangled red velvet, bound round with +party-colored turbans, their chin-bands of pearls, their coin chains, +their great gold bangles, and the jingling tassels of their long plaits. + +Less interesting, because formal and inanimate, even to sulkiness, +are the prim little Parsee maidens, who often wear an "exercised" +expression, of a settled sort, as though they were weary of reflecting +on the hollowness of the world, and how their dolls are stuffed with +sawdust, and that Dakhma, the Tower of Silence, is the end of all +things. + +Then there are the regimental _babalogue_, the soldiers' children, +sturdiest and toughest of Anglo-Indian urchins,--affording, in their +brown cheeks and crisp muscles and boisterous ways, a consoling contrast +to the oh-call-it-pale-not-fairness, and the frailness, and premature +pensiveness of the little Civil Service. + +And there is the half-caste child, the lisping chee-chee, or Eurasian, +grandiloquently so called, much given to sentimental minstrelsy, +juvenile polkas, early coquetry, and early beer, hot curries, loud +clothes, bad English, and fast pertness. I never think of them without +recalling a precocious ballad-screamer of eight years who was flourished +indispensably at every chee-chee hop in Chandernagore: + + "O lay me in a little pit, + With a marvle thtone to cover it, + And keearve thereon a turkle-dove, + That the world may know I died for love!" + +I left India in consequence of that child. + +But for the true Anglo-Indian type of brat, at all points a complete +"torn-down," "dislikeable and rod-worthy," as Mrs. Mackenzie describes +it, there is nothing among nursery nuisances comparable to the +Civil-Service child of eight or ten years, whose father, a "Company's +Bad Bargain," in the Mint, or the Supreme Court, or the Marine Office, +draws _per mensem_ enough to set his brat up in the usual servile +surroundings of such small despots. Deriving the only education it ever +gets directly from its personal attendants, this young monster of bad +temper, bad manners, and bad language becomes precociously proficient in +overbearing ways, and voluble in Hindostanee Billingsgate, before it has +acquired enough of its ancestral tongue to frame the simplest sentence. +It bullies its _bhearer_; it bangs distractingly on the tom-tom; it +surfeits itself to an apoplectic point with pish-pash; it burns its +mouth with hot curry, and bawls; it indulges in horrid Hindostanee +songs, whereof the burden will not bear translation; it insults whatever +is most sacred to the caste attachments of its attendants; the Moab of +ayahs is its wash-pot, over an Edom of bhearers will it cast out its +shoe; it slaps the mouth of a gray-haired _khansaman_ with its slipper, +and dips its poodle's paws in a Mohammedan _kitmudgar's_ rice; it +calls a learned Pundit an _asal ulu_, an egregious owl; it says to +a high-caste _circar_, "Shut up, you pig!" and to an illustrious +_moonshee_, "_Hi, toom junglee-wallah!_" Whereat its fond mamma, to whom +Bengalee, Hindostanee, and Sanscrit are alike sealed books of Babel, +claps the hands of her heart, and crying, _Wah, wah!_ in all the +innocence of her philological deficiency, blesses the fine animal +spirits of her darling Hastings Clive. + +"_Soono_, you _sooa_, _loom kis-wasti omara bukri_ not bring?" says +Hastings Clive, whose English is apt to figure among his Hindostanee +like Brahmins in a regiment of Sepoys,--that is, one Brahmin to every +twenty low-caste fellows. + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Wellesley dear, _do_ listen to that +darling Hastings Clive, how sweetly he prattles! What _did_ he say then? +If one could _only_ learn that delightful Hindostanee, so that one could +converse with one's dear Hastings Clive! _Do_ tell me what he said. + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough, of the Company's Bad Bargains_.--Literally +interpreted, my dearest Maud, our darling Hastings Clive sweetly +remarked, "I say, you pig, why in thunder don't you fetch my goat into +the parlor?" + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough, of the Hon. Mr. Wellesley Gough's Bad +Bargains_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +_Hastings Clive_.--_Jou_, you _haremzeada_! _Bukri na munkta, +nimuk-aram_! + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough_.--My love, he says now, "Get out, you +good-for-nothing rascal! I don't want that goat here." + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +What dreadful crime did you commit in another life, O illustrious +Moonshee, that you should fall now among such thieves as this horrid +Hastings Clive? + +"Sahib, I know not. _Hum kia kurrenge? kismut hi_: What can I do? it is +my fate." + +Hastings Clive has a queer assortment of pets, first of which are +the bushy-tailed Persian kittens, hereinbefore mentioned. When, in +Yankee-land, some lovelorn Zeekle is notoriously sweet upon any Huldy of +the rural maids,--when + + "His heart keeps goin' pitypat, + And hern goes pity Zeekle,"-- + +when she is + + "All kind o' smily round the lips, + And teary round the lashes,"-- + +it is usual to describe his condition by a feline figure; he is said +to "cuddle up to her like a sick kitten to a hot brick." But the sick +Oriental kitten, reversing the Occidental order of kitten things, +cuddles up to a water-monkey, and fondly embraces the refreshing +evaporation of its beaded bulb with all her paws and all her bushy tail. +The Persian kitten stands high in the favor of Hastings Clive. + +Hastings Clive has a whole array of parroquets and hill-mainahs, which, +as they learned their small language from his peculiar scurrilous +practice, are but blackguard birds at best. He also rejoices in many +blue-jays, rescued from the Ganges, whereinto they were thrown as +offerings to the vengeful Doorga during the barbarous _pooja_ celebrated +in her name. Very proud, too, is Hastings Clive of his pigeons,--his +many-colored pigeons from Lucknow, Delhi, and Benares; an Oudean +bird-boy has trained them to the pretty sport of the Mohammedan princes, +and every afternoon he flies them from the house-top in flashing flocks, +for Hastings Clive's entertainment. + +Hastings Clive has toys, the wooden and earthen toys for which Benares +was ever famous among Indian children,--nondescript animals, and as +non-descript idols,--little Brahminee bulls with bells, and artillery +camels, like those at Rohilcund and Agra,--Sahibs taking the air in +buggies, country-folk in hackeries, baba-logue in gig-topped ton-jons. +But much more various and entertaining, though frailer, are his Calcutta +toys, of paper, clay, and wax,--hunting-parties in bamboo howdahs, on +elephants a foot high, that move their trunks very cunningly,--avadavats +of clay, which flutter so naturally, suspended by hairs in bamboo cages, +that the cats destroy them quickly,--miniature palanquins, budgerows, +bungalows, and pagodas, all of paper,--figures in clay of the different +castes and callings, baboos, kitmudgars, washermen, barbers, +tailors, street-waterers, box-wallahs, (as the peddlers are called,) +nautch-girls, jugglers, sepoys, policemen, doorkeepers, dog-boys,--all +true to the life, in costume, attitude, and expression. + +Statedly, on his birth-day, the Anglo-Indian child is treated to a +_kat-pootlee nautch_, and Hastings Clive has a birth-day every time he +conceives a longing for a puppet-show; so that our wilful young friend +may be said to be nine years, and about nineteen kat-pootlee nautches, +old. + +To make a birth-day for Hastings Clive, three or four _tamasha-wallahs_, +or show-fellows, are required; these, hired for a few rupees, come from +the nearest bazaar, bringing with them all the fantastic apparatus of a +kat-pootlee nautch, with its interludes of story-telling and jugglery. +A sheet, or table-cloth, or perhaps a painted drop-curtain, expressly +prepared, is hung between two pillars in the drawing-room, and reaches, +not to the floor, but to the tops of the miniature towers of a silver +palace, where some splendid Rajah, of fabulous wealth and power, is +about to hold a grand _durbar_, or levee. All the people, be they +illustrious personages or the common herd, who assist in the ceremony, +are puppets a span long, rudely constructed and coarsely painted, but +very faithful as to costume and manners, and most dexterously played +upon by the invisible tamasha-wallahs, whom the curtain conceals. + +A silver throne having been wheeled out on the portico by manikin +bhearers, the manikin Rajah, attended by his manikin moonshee, and as +many manikin courtiers as the tamasha property-man can supply, comes +forth in his wooden way, and seats himself on the throne in wooden +state; a manikin _hookah-badar_, or pipe-server, and a manikin +_chattah-wallah_, or umbrella-bearer, take up their wooden position +behind, while a manikin _punkah-wallah_ fans, woodenly, his manikin +Highness, and the manikin courtiers dance wooden attendance around. Then +manikin ladies and gentlemen come on manikin elephants and horses and +camels, or in manikin palanquins, and alight with wooden dignity at the +foot of the palace stairs, taking their respective orders of wooden +precedence with wooden pomposities and humilities, and all the manikin +forms of the customary bore. The manikin courtiers trip woodenly +down the grand stairs to meet the manikin guests with little wooden +Orientalisms of compliment, and all the little wooden delicacies of +the season; and they conduct the manikin Sahibs and Beebees into +the presence of the manikin Rajah, who receives them with wooden +condescension and affability, and graciously reciprocates their wooden +salaams, inquiring woodenly into the health of all their manikin +friends, and hoping, with the utmost ligneous solicitude, that they have +had a pleasant wooden journey: and so on, manikin by manikin, to the +wooden end. Of course, much desultory tomtomry and wild troubadouring +behind the curtain make the occasion musical. + +The audience is complete in all the picturesqueness of mixed baba-logue. +In the front row, chattering brown ayahs, gay with red sarees and +nose-rings, sit on the floor, holding in their laps pale, tender +babies, fair-haired and blue-eyed, lace-swaddled, coral-clasped, and +amber-studded. Behind these, on high chairs, are the striplings of three +years and upward, vociferous and kicking under the hand-punkahs of +their patient bhearers. Tall fellows are these bhearers, with fierce +moustaches, but gentle eyes,--a sort of nursery lions whom a little +child can lead. On each side are small chocolate-colored heathens, in a +sort of short chemises, silver-bangled as to their wrists and ankles, +and already with the caste-mark on the foreheads of some of them,--shy, +demure younglings, just learning all the awful significance of the word +_Sahib_, who have been brought from mysterious homes by fond ayahs, and +smuggled in through back-stairs influence, or boldly introduced by the +durwan under the glorifying patronage of that terrible Hastings Clive. + +Back of all are Dhobee, the washerman, and Dirzce, the tailor, and +Mehter, the sweeper, and Mussalehee, the torch-boy, and Metranee, the +scullion,--and all the rest of the household riff-raffry. There is much +clapping of hands, and happy wah-wah-ing, wherefrom you conclude that +Hastings Clive's birth-day is at least one good result of his being born +at all. + +The Sahib baba-logue have a lively share in several of the native +festivals. The Hoolee, for instance, is their high carnival of fun, +when they pelt their elders and each other with the red powder of the +_mhindee_, and repel laughing assaults with smart charges of rose-water +fired from busy little squirts. During the illumination of the Duwallee, +they receive from the servants presents of fantastic toys, and search +in the compounds by moonlight for the flower of the tree that never +blossoms, and for the soul of a snake, whence comes to the finder good +luck for the rest of his life. + +These are the traditional sports of the baba-logue; but they are +ingenious in inventing others, wherein, from time to time, the imitative +faculty, of the native child especially, is tragically manifested. + +When the Nawab, Shumsh-ud-deen, was hung at Delhi for hiring a _sowar_ +to assassinate Mr. Fraser, the British Commissioner, the country +population round about were seized with the news as with the coming of +a dragon or a destroying army; and the British Lion was the Bogy, the +Black Douglas, in whose name poor _ryots'_ wives scared refractory brats +into trembling obedience. Not far from Delhi was a village school, where +were many small boys,--so many Asiatic frogs-in-a-well,--to whom "the +news of the day" was full of terrible portent. Once, when they were +tired of foot-ball, and the shuttlecock had grown heavy on their +hands, the cry was, "What shall we play next?" And one daring little +fellow--whose father had been to Delhi with his rent, and had told +how the Nawab met his _kismut_ (his fate) so quietly, that the +gold-embroidered slippers did not fall from his feet--cried, "Let us +play hanging the Nawab! and I will be the Nawab; and Kama, here, shall +be Kurreim Khan, the sowar; and Joota shall be Metcalfe Sahib, the +magistrate; and the rest of you shall be the sahibs, and the sepoys, and +the priests." + +_Acha, acha!_--"Good, good!" they all cried. "Let us play the Nawab's +kismut! let us hang the Nawab! And Mungloo--he that is more clever than +all of us--he that is cunning as a Thug--Mungloo shall be the Nawab!" + +So they began with the murder of the Commissioner; and he who personated +Kurreim Khan, the assassin, played so naturally, that he sent the +Commissioner screaming to his mother, with an arrow sticking in his +arm. Then they arrested Kurreim Khan, and his accomplice, Unnia, a +_mehwatti_, who turned king's evidence, and betrayed the sowar; and +having tried and condemned Kurreim Khan, they would have hung him on the +spot; but, being but a little fellow, he became alarmed at the serious +turn the sport was taking, although he had himself set so sharp an +example; so he took nimbly to his heels, and followed his young friend, +the Commissioner. + +Then Unnia told how the Nawab had paid Kurreim Khan blood-money, because +Shumsh-ud-deen did so hate Fraser Sahib. Whereupon Metcalfe Sahib, a +little naked fellow, just the color of an old mahogany table, sent his +sepoys and had the Nawab dragged, in all his ragged breech-cloth glory, +to the bar of Sahib justice. In about three minutes, the Nawab was +condemned to die,--condemned to be hung by an outcast sweeper. But, in +consideration of his exalted rank, they consented that he should wear +his slippers, and ride to the place of execution, smoking his hookah; +and Mungloo acknowledged the Sahib's magnanimity by proudly inclining +his head, like a true Nawab, with a dignified "_Acha!"_ Then two members +of the court-martial, who lived nearest at hand, ran home, and quickly +returned, one with his father's slippers, the other with his mother's +hubble-bubble; and having tied the slippers, that were a world too big, +on Mungloo's little feet, and lighted the hubble-bubble, that he +might smoke, they mounted him on a buffalo, captured from the village +_hurkaru_, who happened, just in the nick of time, to come riding by, on +his way to Delhi, with the mail. And they led out the prisoner, smoking +his hubble-bubble,--and looking, as Metcalfe Sahib said of the real +Nawab, "as if he had been accustomed to be hanged every day of his +life,"--to the place of execution, an old saul-tree with low limbs. +Then, having taken the rope with which the hurkaru's mail-bag was lashed +to his buffalo, they slipped a noose over the Nawab's head, made the +other end fast to the lower limb of the saul-tree, and led away the +buffalo. + +Little Mungloo, who was cunning as a Thug, acted with surprising talent; +in fact, some of the Sahibs thought he rather overdid his part, for he +dropped his hubble-bubble almost awkwardly, and even kicked,--which the +real Nawab had too much self-respect to do,--so that he sent one of +his slippers flying one way, and the other another. But he choked, and +gasped, and showed the whites of his eyes, and turned black in the face, +and shivered through all his frame, so very naturally, that his admiring +companions clapped their hands vehemently, and cried, _Wah, wah!_ with +all their little lungs. _Wah, wah!_ they screamed,--_Wah khoob tamasha +kurta hi! Phir kello, Mungloo! Bahoot ucchi-turri nuhkul, kurte ho +toom!_ "Bravo! Bravo! Such fun! Do it again, Mungloo,--do it again! it +takes you!" Certainly Mungloo did it to the life,--for he was dead. + + * * * * * + +To conclude now with a specimen of the tales with which the native +story-tellers entertain little heathens on street-corners. + +There was once a bastard boy, the son of a Brahmin's widow; and he was +excluded from a merry wedding-feast on account of his disgraceful birth. +With a heart full of bitterness, he prayed to Siva for comfort or +revenge; and Siva, taking pity on him, taught him the mystic _mantra_, +or incantation, called Bijaksharam,--_Shrum, hrim, craoom, hroom, hroo_. +So the boy went to the door of the apartment where the wedding guests +were regaling themselves and making merry; and he pronounced the mantra +backwards,--_Hroo, hroom, craoom, hrim, shrum_. Immediately the fish, +and the cucumbers, and the mangoes, and the pumplenoses took the shape +of toads, and jumped into the faces of the guests, and into their bosoms +and laps, and on the floor. Then the boy laughed so loud, that the +astonished guests knew it was he who had conjured them; so they went to +the door and let him in, and set him at the head of the table. Then the +boy was satisfied, and uttering the mantra aright, he conjured the toads +back into the dishes again; and they all lay down in their places, and +became fish, and cucumbers, and mangoes, and pumplenoses, just as if +nothing had happened. + +Glory to Siva! + + + + +MUSIC. + + +The promise of the autumn has not been fulfilled; instead of the +anticipated feasts, we have had but few concerts, and, as yet, no opera. +Some few noteworthy incidents have occurred, however, which we desire +to record. We pass over the ever welcome orchestral concerts, the quiet +pleasures of our delightful chamber music, and the inspiring four-part +singing of the Orpheus Club. Neither can we give the space to notice +fully the _début_ of a young singer,--a singer with a rare voice, full, +flexible, and sympathetic, and who, with culture in a _larger_ style, +and with maturity of power and feeling, will be a real acquisition to +our musical public. Few young performers know + + "How much grace, strength, and dignity lie in repose." + +They dazzle us with pyrotechnics in the finale of _Com' e bello_ or _Qui +la voce_, but the simple feeling of _Vedrai carino_ is beyond their +grasp. Firmly sustained tones, careful phrasing, flowing grace in the +melody, and just, dramatic expression, are the great requisites; without +them the brilliant flourishes of a modern cadenza astonish only for a +brief period. + +The appearance of Carl Formes in oratorio was something to be long +remembered. The Handel and Haydn Society brought out "Elijah" and "The +Creation" before immense audiences at the Music Hall. For the first +time we heard "Elijah" represented by a great artist, and not by a +sentimental, mock-heroic singer. He infused into the performance his own +intense personality. Every phrase was charged with his own feeling. +He thundered out the curses of Heaven upon idolaters; he prayed with +all-absorbing devotion to the "Lord God of Abraham"; he taunted the +baffled priests of Baal in grim and terrible scorn; he gently soothed +the anguish of the widow; and when his career was finished, he +reverently said, "It is enough; now take away my life!" The _music_ +we had heard before; we had been rapt many a time while hearing the +magnificent choruses; but we never had known the dramatic power of the +composer as shown in the principal rôle. + +"The Creation" was performed on the following evening. Its ever fresh +and cheerful melodies presented a fine contrast to the severely +intellectual style of "Elijah." In rendering purely melodic phrases, +Herr Formes was not so preëminent as in declamatory passages. Not always +strictly in tune, not specially graceful, slow in delivery, even beyond +the requirements of a dignified style, he impressed the audience rather +by the volume and richness of his tones and by a certain reserved force, +than by any unusual excellence in execution. Some one has said, that it +makes a great difference in the force of a sentence whether or not there +is a man behind it. This impression of a fulness of resources always +accompanied the efforts of Herr Formes; every phrase had meaning +or beauty, as he delivered it. Perhaps it is as idle to lament his +deficiencies, in comparison with artists like Belletti, for instance, +as to complain because the grand figures of Michel Angelo have not the +delicacy of finish that marks the sweetly insipid Venus de Medici. Of +the other solo performers in the oratorios it is not necessary for us to +speak, save to commend the fine voice and good style of Mrs. Harwood, a +rising singer, well known here, and whom the country, we hope, will know +in due time. + +Another concert demands our attention, in which portions of a work by an +American composer were submitted to the test of public judgment. This we +must consider the most important musical event of the season; for great +singers, though surely not common among our English race, have not +been unknown; the ability to interpret God gives freely,--the power to +create, rarely. In any generation, probably not ten men arise who +write new melodies; of these, only a small proportion have either the +intellectual power or the aesthetic feeling to combine the subtile +elements of music into forms of lasting beauty. Most of them are +influenced by prevailing mannerisms, and their music is therefore +ephemeral, like the taste to which it ministers. Of all the composers +that have lived, probably not more than six or eight have attained to +an absolutely classic rank. These few are not in relations with any +temporary taste; their music might have been written to-day or a century +ago, and it will be as fresh a century hence. No one of the arts has had +fewer great masters. A new composer, therefore, has a right to claim our +attention. If, perchance, we discover that he has the gift of genius, +and is not merely a clever imitator, we cannot rejoice too much. + +The work to which we allude is the opera "Omano,"--the libretto in +Italian by Signor Manetta, the music by Mr. L. H. Southard. We shall +not stop now to consider the question, whether American Art is to be +benefited by the production of operas in the Italian tongue; it is +enough to say, that, until we have native singers capable of rendering +a great dramatic work, singers who can give us in English the effects +which Grisi, Badiali, Mario, and Alboni produce in their own language, +we must be content with the existing state of things, and allow our +composers to write for those artists who can do justice to their +conceptions. We hope to live to hear operas in English; but meanwhile we +must have music, and, at present, the Italian stage is the only common +ground. + +Mr. Southard's opera is founded upon Beckford's Oriental tale, "Vathek," +with such alterations as are necessary to adapt it for representation. +We are told that the plot is full of dramatic situations, full of human +interest, and that its scenes appeal to all the faculties, ranging +through comedy, ballet, and melodrama, and leading to the awful Hall +of Eblis at last. The principal characters are the Caliph Omano, +_baritone_; Carathis, his mother, _mezzo soprano_; Hinda, a slave in his +harem, _soprano_; Rustam, her lover, _tenor_; and Albatros, _basso_, +a Mephistophelean spirit who tempts the Caliph on to his destruction. +Selections were made from this opera, and were performed by resident +artists, without the aid of stage effects or orchestral accompaniments. +Only the music was given, with as much of the harmony as could be played +on the grand piano by one pair of hands. There could be no severer test +than this. The music is generally Italian in form, especially in the +flowing grace of the _cantabile_ passages, and in the working up of the +climaxes. But we did not hear one of the stereotyped Italian cadenzas, +nor did we fall into old _ruts_ in following the harmonic progressions. +The orchestral figures--the framework on which the melodies are +supported--are new, ingenious, and beautiful. The duets, quartette, +and quintette show great command of resources and the utmost skill in +construction; we can hardly remember any concerted pieces in the modern +opera where the "working up" is more satisfactory, or the effect more +brilliant. How far the music exhibits an absolutely original vein of +melody, it is perhaps premature to say. No composer has ever been free +at first from the influence of the masters whom he most admired. To +mention no later instances, it is well known that Beethoven's early +works are all colored by his recollections of Mozart, and that his own +peculiar qualities were not clearly brought out until he had reached +the maturity of his powers. This seems to be the law in all the arts; +imitation first, self-development and originality afterwards. Happy +are those who do not stop in the first stage! It is certain that Mr. +Southard's music _pleased_, and that some of the most critical of the +audience were roused to a real enthusiasm. And it is to be borne in mind +that the music is cast in a grand mould; it has no prettiness; it is +either great in itself, or wears the semblance of greatness. On the +whole, we are inclined to think that the "Diarist" in Dwight's "Journal +of Music" was not extravagant in saying that no _first_ work since the +time of Beethoven has had so much of promise as the opera "Omano." We +shall look with great interest for its production upon the stage with +the proper accompaniments and scenic effects. It is due to the composer +that this should be done. If the music we heard had been performed by +a company of great artists in the Boston Theatre or in the Academy of +Music, it would have been received with tumultuous applause. The +singers on this occasion gained to themselves great credit by their +conscientious endeavors. They generously offered their services, and +sang with a heartiness that showed a warm interest in the work. One of +them, at least, Mrs. J. H. Long, would have established her reputation +as an accomplished artist, even if she had never appeared in public +before. + +We suppose our readers will agree with us in looking with eager delight +to the promise of a national school of music. Every nation must create +its own song. The passionate music of Italy electrifies our cooler +blood, but it does not adequately express all our feelings nor in any +way represent our character. We also find many of the compositions of +Germany so purely intellectual that they do not touch us until we have +_learned_ to like them. If we ever have a school of music, it will be in +harmony with our rapidly developing characteristics. But it must grow +up on our own soil; exotics never flourish long under strange skies. We +think that many things point to this country as the place where music +will achieve new triumphs. We are not bound by old traditions, we have +few prejudices to unlearn, and we are able to see merit in more than +one school. The same audience that becomes almost intoxicated with the +excitement of the Italian opera will listen with the fullest, serenest +pleasure to the majestic symphonies of Beethoven or to the sublime +choruses of Handel. The devotees of the various European schools have +none of this catholicity. A very accomplished Italian musician used +frankly to say, that a symphony always put him to sleep; and as for the +songs of Franz and other recent German composers, he would rather +hear the filing of saws with an accompaniment of wet fingers on a +window-pane. The Germans, on the other hand, have an equal contempt for +Italian music. For them, Donizetti is melodramatic, Bellini puerile +and silly, and even Rossini (who has written as many melodies as any +composer, save Mozart) is only fit to compose for hand-organs. The +American musical public can and do render to both schools the justice +they deny each other,--and this because we appreciate the aim and +direction of both. The tendency of modern German music is more and more +in what we might call a mathematical direction; the Teutonic listener +examines the structure of a movement as he would a geometrical +proposition; he notices the connection and dependence of the several +parts, and at the end, if he like it, he thinks Q.E.D.; his pleasure is +quiet, but sincere. The Italian, on the other hand, makes everything +subordinate to feeling; for him the music must sparkle with pleasure, +burn with passion, or lighten with rage; borne upon the tide of emotion, +the under-current of harmony is a matter of little moment; there may be +symmetry of structure, and learning in the treatment of themes; if so, +well; if not, their absence is not noticed as an essential defect. + +For lyrical purposes the Italian style will always take the precedence, +because music must primarily be addressed to the feelings. But it may +happen, if ever we have great composers here in America, that to the +instinctive grace and beauty of this Southern school the magnificent +orchestral effects of the North may be added, and thereby a grander +and more perfect whole be produced. At least, we can continue to be +eclectic, and in due time we may develope music which, like Corinthian +brass, shall contain the valuable qualities of all the elements we +appropriate. + + * * * * * + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Biography of Elisha Kent Kane_. By WILLIAM ELDER. Philadelphia: Childs +& Peterson. + +If Dr. Kane's character had not been free from any taint of imposture +and vainglory, and if his reputation had not been of that kind which can +be submitted to the austerest tests without being materially lessened, he +would have suffered much in having so frank and truthful a biographer as +Dr. Elder. Nobody could have been selected for the task who would have +worse performed the business of puffing, or the work of recognizing and +celebrating lofty traits of character and vigorous mental endowments +better. He is a friendly biographer,--and well he may be; for he +declares that his researches into Dr. Kane's private correspondence and +papers revealed not a line which, if published, would injure his fame. +It is, of course, impossible for so genuine a man as Dr. Elder to +refrain from hearty eulogium where not to praise is the sign of a +cynical rather than a critical spirit; but his panegyric has the +raciness and sincerity which proceed from the generous recognition of +merit, and never indicates that ominous falseness of feeling which the +simplest reader instinctively detects in the formal constructer of +complimentary sentences. Throughout the book, the biographer writes in +the spirit of that sound maxim which declares it to be as base to refuse +praise where it is due, as to give praise where it is not due; and we +think that few readers will be inclined to quarrel with him for the +quickness and depth of his sympathies with his hero, except that small +class of "knowing" minds who, mistaking disbelief in human probity for +acuteness of intellect, find a mischievous satisfaction in depressing +heroes into coxcombs, and resolving noble actions into ignoble motives. + +We have been especially interested in the account given of Dr. Kane's +boyhood and early life. As a boy, he had too much force, originality, +and decided bias of nature to be what is called a "good boy,"--one of +those unfortunate children whose weakness of individuality passes for +moral excellence, and who give their guardians so little trouble in +the early development and so much trouble in the maturity of their +mediocrity. He would not learn what he did not like, and what he felt +would be of no use to him. He kept his memory free from all intellectual +information which could not be transmuted into intellectual ability. The +same daring, confidence, enterprise, and passion for action, which in +after life made him an explorer, were first expressed in that love of +mischief which vexes the hearts of parents and calls into exercise the +pedagogue's ferule. All arbitrary authority found him a resolute little +rebel. Dr. Elder furnishes some amusing instances of his audacity and +determination. Though smaller than other boys of his age, he possessed +"the clear advantage of that energy of nerve and that sort of twill in +the muscular texture which give tight little fellows more size than they +measure and more weight than they weigh." At school he had under his +charge a brother, two years younger than himself, who was once called up +by the master to be whipped. This disturbed Elisha's notions of justice +and his conceptions of the duties of a guardian, and, springing from his +seat, he exclaimed, "Don't whip him, he's such a little fellow!--whip +me!" The master, interpreting this to be mutiny, which really was +intended for fair compromise, answered, "I'll whip you, too, Sir!" +Strung for endurance, the sense of injustice changed his mood to +defiance, and such fight as he was able to make quickly converted the +discipline into a fracas, and Elisha left the school with marks which +required explanation. + +In his eighteenth year he was prostrated by a disease which developed +into inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart, from which he +never recovered. The verdict of the physician was ever in his mind: "You +may fall at any time as suddenly as from [by] a musket-shot." His life +was afterwards, indeed, like the life of a soldier constantly under +fire. Instead of making him a valetudinary, this continual liability to +death aided to make him a hero. He acted in the spirit of his father's +advice,--"If you must die, die in harness." Dr. Elder proves that his +existence was prolonged by the hardihood which made him careless of +death. "The current of his life shows convincingly that incessant toil +and exposure was [were] a sound hygienic policy in his case. Naturally +his physical constitution was a case of coil springs, compacted till +they quivered with their own mobility; nervous disease had added its +irritability, and mental energy electrified them. It was doing or dying, +with him. And it was not a tyrant selfishness, a wild ambition, that +ruled his life, but a rare concurrence of mental aptitude, moral +impulse, and bodily necessity, that kept him incessant in adventure." +Nothing could damp this ardor. He contracted the peculiar disease of +every country and climate he visited, and was frequently on what seemed +his death-bed; but no experience of physical misery had any influence +in blunting his intellectual curiosity or impairing the energies of his +will. One of those elastic natures "who ever with a frolic welcome take +the thunder or the sunshine," his whole existence was wedded to action, +and he was always ready to suffer everything, if he could thereby do +anything. + +We have no space to follow Dr. Elder in his minute and interesting +account of a life so short, yet so crowded with events, as that in which +the character of Dr. Kane was formed, manifested, and matured. The +character itself--so gentle and so persistent, so full at once of +self-reliance and reliance on Providence, so tender in affection and so +indomitable in fortitude--is now one of the moral possessions of the +country, worth more to it than any new invention which increases +its industrial productiveness or any new province which adds to its +territorial dominion. That must be a low view of utility which excludes +such a character from its list of useful things; for the great interest +of every nation is, to cherish and value whatever tends to prevent its +forces of intelligence and conscience from being weakened by idleness or +withheld by timidity and self-distrust; and certainly the example of Dr. +Kane will exert this wholesome influence, by the unmistakable directness +with which it gives the lie to that lazy or cowardly skepticism of the +powers of the will, which furnishes the excuse for thousands to slink +away from duty on the plea of inability to perform it. To the young men +of the country we especially commend this biography, in the full belief +that it will stimulate and stir to effort many a sensitive youth who +feels within himself the capacity to emulate the spirit which prompted +Dr. Kane's actions, if he cannot hope to rival their splendor and +importance. + + +_Beatrice Cenci_: A Historical Novel of the Sixteenth Century, by F.D. +GUERRAZZI. Translated from the Italian by Luigi Monti, A.M., Instructor +of Italian at Harvard University, Cambridge. New York: Rudd & Carleton, +310 Broadway. 1858. Two vols. in one. pp. 270 and 202. + +Three contemporary Italians, Mariotti, (Gallenga,) Mazzini, and Ruffini, +have afforded extraordinary examples of entire mastery over the English +language in original composition, and Mr. Monti has attained an almost +equal success in the translation before us. We have remarked, +in reading it, a few solecisms and one or two trifling +mistranslations,--but none of them such as either to affect the +essential integrity of the version or to render it difficult for the +least intelligent reader to make out clearly the sense of the original. +We should not have alluded to them at all, had we not thought that they +redounded rather to the credit of the translator; for they seem to prove +that the work is entirely his own, and has not been subjected to that +supervision which any one of Mr. Monti's numerous friends would have +been glad to offer. + +Guerrazzi, the author of the book, played a conspicuous part during the +Italian Revolution of 1848-9. An advocate, we believe, by profession, +he was one of the chiefs of the moderate liberal party in Tuscany, who, +after the breaking out of the Revolution, wished to avoid any sudden +overturn by carrying out such reforms as public sentiment demanded by +means of the existing powers and forms of government. As head of the +ministry called to inaugurate and administer the new Constitution +granted and sworn to by the Grand Duke, he became involuntarily the +Regent and in fact the Dictator of Tuscany, after the Grand Duke's +treacherous flight to Santo Stefano. There is no evidence that he abused +his power, or that he assumed any responsibilities not forced upon him +by the necessities of his position. Indeed, the best proof that he +did not is, that, after the Grand Duke had been forced again on his +unwilling subjects by the bayonets of his Austrian cousins, it was found +impossible to obtain Guerrazzi's conviction on a charge of high treason, +and that in a city garrisoned by Austrian soldiers and still under +martial law. He was, however, incarcerated for several years before +being brought to trial, and finally sentenced to fifteen years' +imprisonment. But even this was such an outrage on public opinion that +it was commuted to banishment. He is now living in exile near Genoa, +and enjoying those blessings of constitutional government which he had +desired to confer on his own country, and which we fervently hope may +survive the misguided assaults of a fanatic liberalism, and continue to +make Sardinia the centre of Italian hope, as it is the van of Italian +progress. + +His "Beatrice Cenci" was written during his imprisonment; and there is +something fitting in the circumstance, that the work of an exile should +be translated by a countryman also driven from his native land in +consequence of his devotion to the idea of liberal and constitutional +government, and, like the author, sustaining himself unrepiningly by a +dignified and useful industry. It was also peculiarly fitting that the +translation should have appeared just at the moment when the genius of +Miss Hosmer had renewed the interest of her countrymen in the story of +Beatrice, and deepened their compassion for her undeserved misfortunes +by a statue so full of pathos and power. + +Guerrazzi belongs to the extreme left of the school of historical +novelists. He is almost always at high pressure, and, in spite of +a certain force of thought and expression, is tinged decidedly and +sometimes unpleasantly with sentimentalism. He is so little of +an artist, that the story-teller is subordinated in him to the +propagandist, and his work is not so near his heart as the desire to +make a strong argument against the temporal power of the Papacy. He +interrupts his narrative too often with reflection and disquisition, +shows too much that fondness for the striking which is fatal to the +classic in expression, and rushes out of his way at a highly-colored +simile as certainly as a bull at scarlet. His characters talk much, and +yet develope themselves rather circumstantially than psychologically. + +Yet, in spite of these defects, Guerrazzi has succeeded in so +intensifying the high lights and deep shadows of passion, pathos, +and horror in the story, as to make a very effective picture, of the +Caravaggio school. There is a curious parallel between the chapter where +Count Cenci is imprisoned in the cavern, and those scenes in Webster's +"Duchess of Malfy" where the Duchess is tortured by her brothers. The +resemblance is interesting on many accounts, and serves to confirm us in +a belief we have long entertained that Webster's peculiar power has been +overrated, and that the tendency to heap one nightmare horror on another +is something characteristic rather of the childhood than the maturity +of genius. There is no modern story which renews for us the woes of the +house of Tantalus so awfully as this of the Cenci, and it cannot fail +to be of absorbing interest, especially to those unfamiliar with its +ghastly details. Whether the theory which Guerrazzi assumes in order to +render probable the innocence of the Cenci be tenable or not we shall +not stop to discuss; it is enough that it serves to heighten the romance +and complicate the plot in a very effective manner. + +We cannot leave the book without saying how much we were charmed with +the little episode of the old curate and his maid, and his ass Marco. +It seems to us that Guerrazzi in this chapter has come nearer to the +simplicity of nature than in any other part of the book, and we augur +favorably from it for his future escape from the perils of a too +ambitious style to the serenity of truer artistic development. + +Of Mr. Monti's translation we can speak in high terms of commendation. +Success in writing a foreign language is a rare thing, and he has shown +a remarkable command of idiomatic expression. His familiarity with the +habits and proverbial phrases of his native country gives him, we +think, an advantage over any English translator, which more than +counterbalances the trifling inaccuracies of phraseology that here and +there betray the foreigner, and amount to nothing more than an accent, +which is not without its merit of piquancy. In one respect we think he +has acted with great discretion, namely, in now and then curtailing +the reflections which Guerrazzi has interpolated upon the story to +the manifest detriment of its interest and consecutiveness. If Signor +Guerrazzi should profit by these silent criticisms, it would be to his +advantage as an author. + + +_The Elements of Drawing; in three Letters to Beginners._ By JOHN RUSKIN. +With Illustrations drawn by the Author. 12mo. London. 1857. + +The art of drawing may be called the art of learning to see,--and into +this art there is no guide to be compared with Mr. Ruskin. His own +admirable powers of sight and of expression have been cultivated by +long, patient, and laborious study. + +He has learned not only how to see, but what to see, and how best to +represent what he sees. A teacher of the most advanced students of Art +and Nature, he offers himself now as a teacher of beginners; and this +little book of his contains a course of instruction admirably adapted +not only to teach drawing, but also to teach the object and end for +which it is worth while to learn to draw. "I would rather teach +drawing," says Mr. Ruskin, in his Preface, "that my pupils may learn to +love Nature, than teach the looking at Nature that they may learn +to draw." And no one can study Mr. Ruskin's book without gaining a +profounder sense of the infinite beauty and variety of Nature, and of +the unfathomable stores of her freely lavished riches,--or without +acquiring clearer perceptions of this beauty, and of its relations to +the Divine government and order of the world. + +Mr. Ruskin's book is essentially a practical one. His long experience as +teacher of drawing in the Working-Men's College has given him knowledge +of and sympathy with the perplexities and difficulties of beginners. +It is a book for children of twelve or fourteen years old; and it is +especially fitted for circulation in district and school libraries. All +teachers of schools, in which drawing forms a part of the course, will +find invaluable hints and directions in it. In every case, the +English edition--which is easily obtainable, and at a very moderate +price--should be procured, not merely for the sake of the original +illustrations, but also as a mark of respect and gratitude to the +author. + +In an Appendix containing many wise and genial directions with regard to +"Things to be studied" is a passage concerning Books, which we quote for +its coincidence of opinion with our own views expressed in the January +Number, and for the sake of enforcing its recommendations. + +"I cannot, of course, suggest the choice of your library to you; every +several mind needs different books; but there are some books which +we all need; and assuredly, if you read Homer,[A] Plato, Aeschylus, +Herodotus Dante,[B] Shakspeare, and Spenser, as much as you ought, you +will not require wide enlargement of shelves to right and left of them +for purposes of perpetual study. Among modern books, avoid generally +magazine and review literature,[C] Sometimes it may contain a useful +abridgment or a wholesome piece of criticism; but the chances are ten to +one it will either waste your time or mislead you.... Avoid especially +that class of literature which has a knowing tone; it is the most +poisonous of all. Every good book, or piece of book, is full of +admiration and awe; it may contain firm assertion or stern satire, but +it never sneers coldly nor asserts haughtily, and it always leads you to +reverence or love something with your whole heart.... A common book will +often give you much amusement, but it is only a noble book which will +give you dear friends. Remember, also, that it is of less importance to +you, in your earlier years, that the books you read should be clever, +than that they should be right; I do not mean oppressively or +repulsively instructive, but that the thoughts they express should be +just, and the feelings they excite generous. It is not necessary for +you to read the wittiest or the most suggestive books; it is better, +in general, to hear what is already known and may be simply said.... +Certainly at present, and perhaps through all your life, your teachers +are wisest when they make you content in quiet virtue, and that +literature and art are best for you which point out, in common life and +familiar things, the objects for hopeful Labor and for humble love." pp. +847-350. + +[Footnote A: Chapman's, if not the original.] + +[Footnote B: Cary's or Cayley's, if not the original. I do not know +which are the best translations of Plato. Herodotus and Aeschylus can +only be read in the original. It may seem strange that I name books like +these for "beginners"; but all the greatest books contain food for all +ages; and an intelligent and rightly bred youth or girl ought to enjoy +much, even in Plato, by the time they are fifteen or sixteen.] + +[Footnote C: _The Atlantic Monthly_ was not in existence when Mr. +Ruskin wrote this condemnation of magazines. The saving word for it is +"generally."--EDITOR.] + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, +March, 1858, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 12373-8.txt or 12373-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/7/12373/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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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/12373-8.zip b/old/12373-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f097a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12373-8.zip diff --git a/old/12373.txt b/old/12373.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd7d1f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12373.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8776 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858, 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. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 18, 2004 [EBook #12373] +[Date last updated: May 21, 2005] + +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. I--MARCH, 1858.--NO. V. + + * * * * * + + +THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. + + + --------parti elette + Di Roma, che son state cimitero + Alla milizia che Pietro seguette. + + PARADISO, c. ix. + +"Roma Sotterranea,"--the underground Rome of the dead,--the buried city +of graves. Sacred is the dust of its narrow streets. Blessed were those +who, having died for their faith, were laid to rest in its chambers. +_In pace_ is the epitaph that marks the places where they lie. +_In pace_ is the inscription which the imagination reads over the +entrance to the Christian Catacombs. + +Full as the upper city is of great and precious memories, it possesses +none greater and more precious than those which belong to the city under +ground. Republican Rome had no braver heroes than Christian Rome. The +ground and motives of action were changed, but the courage and devotion +of earlier times did not surpass the courage and devotion of later +days,--while a new spirit displayed itself in new and unexampled deeds, +and a new and brighter glory shone from them over the world. But, +unhappily, the stories of the early Christian centuries were taken +possession of by a Church which has sought in them the means of +enhancing her claims and increasing her power; mingling with them +falsehoods and absurdities, cherishing the wildest and most unnatural +traditions, inventing fictitious miracles, dogmatizing on false +assertions, until reasonable and thoughtful religious men have turned +away from the history of the first Christians in Rome with a sensation +of disgust, and with despair at the apparently inextricable confusion of +fact and fable concerning them. + +But within a few years the period to which these stories belong has +begun to be investigated with a new spirit, even at Rome itself, and in +the bosom of the Roman Church. It was no unreasonable expectation, that, +from a faithful and honest exploration of the catacombs, and examination +of the inscriptions and works of art in them or derived from them, more +light might be thrown upon the character, the faith, the feeling, and +the life of the early Christians at Rome, than from any other source +whatever. Results of unexpected interest have proved the justness of +this expectation. + +These results are chiefly due to the labors of two Romans, one a priest +and the other a layman, the Padre Marchi, and the Cavaliere de Rossi, +who have devoted themselves with the utmost zeal and with great ability +to the task of exploration. The present Pope, stimulated by the efforts +of these scholars, established some years since a Commission of Sacred +Archeology for the express purpose of forwarding the investigations +in the catacombs; and the French government, soon after its military +occupation of Rome, likewise established a commission for the purpose of +conducting independent investigations in the same field.[A] + +[Footnote A: In 1844, Padre Marchi published a series of numbers, +seventeen in all, of a work entitled _Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane +Primitive nella Metropol del Cristianesmo_. The numbers are in quarto, +and illustrated by many carefully executed plates. The work was never +completed; but it contains a vast amount of important information, +chiefly the result of Padre Marchi's own inquiries. The Cavaliere de +Rossi, still a young man, one of the most learned and accomplished +scholars of Italy, is engaged at present in editing all the Christian +inscriptions of the first six centuries. No part of this work has yet +appeared. He is the highest living authority on any question regarding +the catacombs. The work of the French Commission has been published at +Paris in the most magnificent style, in six imperial folio volumes, +under the title, _Catacombes de Rome_, etc., etc. _Par_ LOUIS PERRET. +_Ouvrage publie par Ordre et aux Frais du Gouvernement, sous la +Direction d'une Commission composee de_ MM. AMPERE, INGRES, MERIMEE, +VITET. It consists of four volumes of elaborate colored plates of +architecture, mural paintings, and all works of art found in the +catacombs, with one volume of inscriptions, reduced in fac-simile from +the originals, and one volume of text. The work is of especial value as +regards the first period of Christian Art. Its chief defect is the want +of entire accuracy, in some instances, in its representations of the +mural paintings,--some outlines effaced in the original being filled out +in the copy, and some colors rendered too brightly. But notwithstanding +this defect, it is of first importance in illustrating the hitherto very +obscure history and character of early Christian Art.] + +The Roman catacombs consist for the most part of a subterranean +labyrinth of passages, cut through the soft volcanic rock of the +Campagna, so narrow as rarely to admit of two persons walking abreast +easily, but here and there on either side opening into chambers of +varying size and form. The walls of the passages, through their whole +extent, are lined with narrow excavations, one above another, large +enough to admit of a body being placed in each; and where they remain +in their original condition, these excavations are closed in front by +tiles, or by a slab of marble cemented to the rock, and in most cases +bearing an inscription. Nor is the labyrinth composed of passages upon a +single level only; frequently there are several stories, connected with +each other by sloping ways. + +There is no single circumstance, in relation to the catacombs, of more +striking and at first sight perplexing character than their vast extent. +About twenty different catacombs are now known and are more or less +open,--and a year is now hardly likely to pass without the discovery +of a new one; for the original number of underground cemeteries, as +ascertained from the early authorities, was nearly, if not quite, three +times this number. It is but a very few years since the entrance to the +famous catacomb of St. Callixtus, one of the most interesting of all, +was found by the Cavaliere de Rossi; and it was only in the spring +of 1855 that the buried church and catacomb of St. Alexander on the +Nomentan Way were brought to light. Earthquakes, floods, and neglect +have obliterated the openings of many of these ancient cemeteries,--and +the hollow soil of the Campagna is full "of hidden graves, which men +walk over without knowing where they are." + +Each of the twelve great highways which ran from the gates of Rome was +bordered on either side, at a short distance from the city wall, by the +hidden Christian cemeteries. The only one of the catacombs of which even +a partial survey has been made is that of St. Agnes, of a portion of +which the Padre Marchi published a map in 1845. "It is calculated to +contain about an eighth part of that cemetery. The greatest length of +the portion thus measured is not more than seven hundred feet, and its +greatest width about five hundred and fifty; nevertheless, if we measure +all the streets that it contains, their united length scarcely falls +short of two English miles. This would give fifteen or sixteen miles for +all the streets in the cemetery of St. Agnes."[B] Taking this as a fair +average of the size of the catacombs, for some are larger and some +smaller, we must assign to the streets of graves already known a total +length of about three hundred miles, with a probability that the unknown +ones are at least of equal length. This conclusion appears startling, +when one thinks of the close arrangement of the lines of graves along +the walls of these passages. The height of the passages varies greatly, +and with it the number of graves, one above another; but the Padre +Marchi, who is competent authority, estimates the average number at ten, +that is, five on each side, for every seven feet,--which would give a +population of the dead, for the three hundred miles, of not less than +two millions and a quarter. No one who has visited the catacombs can +believe, surprising as this number may seem, that the Padre Marchi's +calculation is an extravagant one as to the number of graves in a given +space. We have ourselves counted eleven graves, one over another, on +each side of the passage, and there is no space lost between the head +of one grave and the foot of another. Everywhere there is economy of +space,--the economy of men working on a hard material, difficult to be +removed, and laboring in a confined space, with the need of haste. + +[Footnote B: The foregoing extract is taken from a book by the Rev. J. +Spencer Northcote, called _The Roman Catacombs, or some Account of the +Burial-Places of the Early Christians in Rome_: London, 1857. It is the +best accessible manual in English,--the only one with any claims to +accuracy, and which contains the results of recent investigations. Mr. +Northcote is one of the learned band of converts from Oxford to Rome. A +Protestant may question some of the conclusions in his book, but not its +general fairness. Our own first introduction to the catacombs, in the +winter of 1856, was under Mr. Northcote's guidance, and much of our +knowledge of them was gained through him. Mr. Northcote estimates the +total length of the catacombs at nine hundred miles; we cannot but think +this too high.] + +This question of the number of the dead in the catacombs opens the way +to many other curious questions. The length of time that the catacombs +were used as burial-places; the probability of others, beside +Christians, being buried in them; the number of Christians at Rome +during the first two centuries, in comparison with the total number +of the inhabitants of the city; and how far the public profession +of Christianity was attended with peril in ordinary times at Rome, +previously to the conversion of Constantine, so as to require secret and +hasty burial of the dead;--these are points demanding solution, but of +which we will take up only those relating immediately to the catacombs. + +There can, of course, be no certainty with regard to the period when the +first Christian catacomb was begun at Rome,--but it was probably +within a few years after the first preaching of the Gospel there. The +Christians would naturally desire to separate themselves in burial from +the heathen, and to avoid everything having the semblance of pagan +rites. And what mode of sepulture so natural for them to adopt, in +the new and affecting circumstances of their lives, as that which was +already familiar to them in the account of the burial of their Lord? +They knew that he had been "wrapped in linen, and laid in a sepulchre +which was hewn out of a rock, and a stone had been rolled unto the door +of the sepulchre." They would be buried as he was. Moreover, there was +a general and ardent expectation among them of the second coming of the +Saviour; they believed it to be near at hand; and they believed also +that then the dead would be called from their graves, clothed once more +in their bodies, and that as Lazarus rose from the tomb at the voice of +his Master, so in that awful day when judgment should be passed upon the +earth their dead would rise at the call of the same beloved voice. + +But there were, in all probability, other more direct, though not more +powerful reasons, which led them to the choice of this mode of burial. +We read that the Saviour was buried--at least, the phrase appears +applicable to the whole account of his entombment ... "as the manner +of the Jews is to bury." The Jewish population at Rome in the early +imperial times was very large. They clung, as Jews have clung wherever +they have been scattered, to the memories and to the customs of their +country,--and that they retained their ancient mode of sepulture was +curiously ascertained by Bosio, the first explorer of the catacombs. +In the year 1602, he discovered a catacomb on what is called Monte +Verde,--the southern extremity of the Janiculum, outside the walls of +Rome, near to the Porta Portese. This gate is in the Transtiberine +district, and in this quarter of Rome the Jews dwelt. The catacomb +resembled in its general form and arrangements those which were of +Christian origin;--but here no Christian emblem was found. On the +contrary, the only emblems and articles that Bosio describes as having +been seen were plainly of Jewish origin. The seven-branched candlestick +was painted on the wall; the word "Synagogue" was read on a portion of +a broken inscription and the whole catacomb had an air of meanness and +poverty which was appropriate to the condition of the mass of the Jews +at Rome. It seemed to be beyond doubt that it was a Jewish cemetery. In +the course of years, through the changes in the external condition and +the cultivation of Monte Verde, the access to this catacomb has been +lost. Padre Marchi made ineffectual efforts a few years since to find +an entrance to it, and Bosio's account still remains the only one that +exists concerning it. Supposing the Jews to have followed this mode of +interment at Rome, it would have been a strong motive for its adoption +by the early Christians. The first converts in Rome, as St. Paul's +Epistle shows, were, in great part, from among the Jews. The Gentile and +the Jewish Christians made one community, and the Gentiles adopted the +manner of the Jews in placing their dead, "wrapped in linen cloths, in +new tombs hewn out of the rock." + +Believing, then, the catacombs to have been begun within a few years +after the first preaching of Christianity in Rome, there is abundant +evidence to prove that their construction was continued during the time +when the Church was persecuted or simply tolerated, and that they were +extended during a considerable time after Christianity became the +established creed of the empire. Indeed, several catacombs now known +were not begun until some time after Constantine's conversion.[C] They +continued to be used as burial-places certainly as late as the sixth +century. This use seems to have been given up at the time of the +frequent desolation of the land around the walls of Rome by the +incursions of barbarians, and the custom gradually discontinued was +never resumed. The catacombs then fell into neglect, were lost sight of, +and their very existence was almost forgotten. But during the first five +hundred years of our era they were the burial-places of a smaller or +greater portion of the citizens of Rome,--and as not a single church +of that time remains, they are, and contain in themselves, the most +important monuments that exist of the Christian history of Rome for all +that long period. + + +[Footnote C: For instance, about the middle of the fourth century, St. +Julius, then Pope, is said to have begun three. See Marchi's _Momumenti +delle Arti Cristiane_, p. 82.] + +It has been much the fashion during the last two centuries, among a +certain class of critics hostile to the Roman Church, and sometimes +hostile to Christianity, to endeavor to throw doubts on the fact of +this immense amount of underground work having been accomplished by the +Christians. It has been said that the catacombs were in part the work of +the heathen, and that the Christians made use of excavations which they +found ready to their hand. Such and other similar assertions have been +put forward with great confidence; but there is one overwhelming +and complete answer to all such doubts,--a visit to the catacombs +themselves. No skepticism can stand against such arguments as are +presented there. Every pathway is distinctly the work of Christian +hands; the whole subterranean city is filled with a host of the +Christian dead. But there are other convincing proofs of the character +of their makers. These are of a curiously simple description, and are +due chiefly to the investigations of late years. Nine tenths of the +catacombs now known are cut through one of the volcanic rocks which +abound in the neighborhood of Rome. Of the three chief varieties of +volcanic rock that exist there, this is the only one which is of little +use for purposes of art or trade. It could not have been quarried for +profit. It would not have been quarried, therefore, by the Romans, +except for the purposes of burial,--and the only inscriptions and other +indications of the character of the occupants of these burial-places +prove that they were Christian.[D] They are very different from the +sepulchres of the great and rich families of Rome, who lined the Appian, +the Nomentan, and Flaminian Ways with their tombs, even now magnificent +in ruin; very different, too, from the _columbaria_, or pigeon-holes, +in which the ashes of the less wealthy were packed away; and still more +different from the sad undistinguished ditch that received the bodies of +the poor:-- + + "Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum." + +[Footnote D: The volcanic rocks are the _Tufa litoide_, very hard, and +used for paving and other such purposes; difficult to be quarried, and +unfit for graves on account of this difficulty. The _Tufi granulare_, a +soft, friable, coarse-grained rock, easily cut,--fitted for excavation. +It is in this that the catacombs are made. It is used for very few +purposes in Rome. One may now and then see some coarse filling-up of +walls done with it, or its square-cut blocks piled up as a fence. The +third is the _Pura pozzolana_,--which is the _Tufa granulare_ in a state +of compact sand, yielding to the print of the heel, dug like sand, and +used extensively in the unsurpassed mortar of the Roman buildings.] + +It not unfrequently happens in the soil of the Campagna, that the vein +of harder rock in which the catacombs are quarried assumes the soft and +sandy character which belongs to it in a state of decomposition. The +ancient Romans dug this sand as the modern Romans do; and it seems +probable, from the fact that some of the catacombs open out into +_arenaria_, or sandpits, as in the case of the famous one of St. Agnes, +that the Christians, in time of persecution, when obliged to bury with +secresy, may have chosen a locality near some disused sandpit, or near a +sandpit belonging to one of their own number, for the easier concealment +of their work, and for the safer removal of the quarried tufa. In such +cases the tufa may have been broken down into the condition of sand for +removal. In later times, as the catacombs were extended, the tufa dug +out from one passage was carried into the old passages no longer used; +and thus, as the catacomb extended in one direction, it was closed up in +another, and the ancient graves were concealed. This is now one of the +great impediments in the way of modern exploration; and the same process +is being repeated at present; for the Church allows none of the earth or +stone to be removed that has been hallowed as the resting-place of the +martyrs, and thus, as one passage is now opened, another has to be +closed. The archaeologists may rebel, but the priests have their way. +The ancient filling up was, however, productive of one good result; it +preserved some of the graves from the rifling to which most were exposed +during the period of the desertion of the catacombs. Most of the graves +which are now found with their tiled or marble front complete, and with +the inscription of name or date upon them unbroken, are those which were +thus secluded. + +But there is still another curious fact bearing upon the Christian +origin of the catacombs. They are in general situated on somewhat +elevated land, and always on land protected from the overflow of the +river, and from the drainage of the hills. The early traditions of the +Church preserve the names of many Christians who gave land for the +purpose,--a portion of their _vignas_, or their villas. The names of the +women Priscilla, Cyriaca, and Lucina are honored with such remembrance, +and are attached to three of the catacombs. Sometimes a piece of land +was thus occupied which was surrounded by property belonging to those +who were not Christian. This seems to have been the case, for instance, +in regard to the cemetery of St. Callixtus; for (and this is one of +the recent discoveries of the Cavaliere de Rossi) the paths of this +cemetery, crossing and recrossing in three, four, and five stages, are +all limited to a definite and confined area,--and this area is not +determined by the quality of the ground, but apparently by the limits of +the field overhead. There can be no other probable explanation of this +but that Christians would not extend their burial-place under land that +was not in their possession. Many other facts, as we shall see in other +connections, go to establish beyond the slightest doubt the Christian +origin and occupation of the catacombs. + +Descending from the level of the ground by a flight of steps into one of +the narrow underground passages, one sees on either side, by the light +of the taper with which he is provided, range upon range of tombs cut, +as has been described, in the walls that border the pathway. Usually the +arrangement is careful, but with an indiscriminate mingling of larger +and smaller graves, as if they had been made one after another for young +and old, according as they might be brought for burial. Now and then a +system of regularity is introduced, as if the _fossor_, or digger, who +was a recognized officer of the early Church, had had the leisure for +preparing graves before they were needed. Here, there is a range of +little graves for the youngest children, so that all infants should be +laid together, then a range for older children, and then one for the +grown up. Sometimes, instead of a grave suitable for a single body, the +excavation is made deep enough into the rock to admit of two, three, or +four bodies being placed side by side,--family graves. And sometimes, +instead of the simple _loculus_, or coffin-like excavation, there is +an arch cut out of the tufa, and sunk back over the whole depth of the +grave, the outer side of which is not cut away, so that, instead of +being closed in front by a perpendicular slab of marble or by tiles, it +is covered on the top by a horizontal slab. Such a grave is called an +_arcosolium_, and its somewhat elaborate construction leads to the +conclusion that it was rarely used in the earliest period of the +catacombs[E]. The _arcosolia_ are usually wide enough for more than +one body; and it would seem, from inscriptions that have been found upon +their covering-slabs, that they were not infrequently prepared during +the lifetime of persons who had paid beforehand for their graves. It is +not improbable that the expenses of some one or more of the cemeteries +may have been borne by the richer members of the Christian community, +for the sake of their poorer brothers in the faith. The example of +Nicodemus was one that would be readily followed. + +[Footnote E: There is one puzzling circumstance in the cemetery of S. +Domitilla. _All_ the graves in this cemetery are _arcosolia_, and yet +the date of construction is early. The Cavaliere de Rossi suggests that +the cemetery was begun at the expense of the Domitilla whose name it +bears, the niece of Domitian, previously to her banishment; that her +position enabled her to have it laid out from the beginning on a regular +plan, and to introduce this more expensive and elaborate form of +grave, which was continued for the sake of uniformity in the later +excavations.] + +But beside the different forms of the graves, by which their general +character was varied, there were often personal marks of affection +and remembrance affixed to the narrow excavations, which give to the +catacombs their most peculiar and touching interest. The marble facing +of the tomb is engraved with a simple name or date; or where tiles take +the place of marble, the few words needed are scratched upon their hard +surface. It is not too much to say that we know more of the common faith +and feeling, of the sufferings and rejoicings of the Christians of the +first two centuries from these inscriptions than from all other sources +put together. In another paper we propose to treat more fully of them. +As we walk along the dark passage, the eye is caught by the gleam of a +little flake of glass fastened in the cement which once held the closing +slab before the long since rifled grave. We stop to look at it. It is a +broken bit from the bottom of a little jar (_ampulla_); but that little +glass jar once held the drops of a martyr's blood, which had been +carefully gathered up by those who learned from him how to die, and +placed here as a precious memorial of his faith. The name of the martyr +was perhaps never written on his grave; if it were ever there, it has +been lost for centuries; but the little dulled bit of glass, as it +catches the rays of the taper borne through the silent files of graves, +sparkles and gleams with a light and glory not of this world. There are +other graves in which martyrs have lain, where no such sign as this +appears, but in its place the rude scratching of a palm-branch upon the +rock or the plaster. It was the sign of victory, and he who lay within +had conquered. The great rudeness in the drawing of the palm, often as +if, while the mortar was still wet, the mason had made the lines upon it +with his trowel, is a striking indication of the state of feeling at the +time when the grave was made. There was no pomp or parade; possibly the +burial of him or of her who had died for the faith was in secret; those +who carried the corpse of their beloved to the tomb were, perhaps, in +this very act, preparing to follow his steps,--were, perhaps, preparing +themselves for his fate. Their thoughts were with their Lord, and with +his disciple who had just suffered for his sake,--with their Saviour who +was coming so soon. What matter to put a name on the tomb? They could +not forget where they had laid the torn and wearied limbs away. _In +pace_, they would write upon the stone; a palm branch should be marked +in the mortar, the sign of suffering and triumph. Their Lord would +remember his servant. Was not his blood crying to God from the ground? +And could they doubt that the Lord would also protect and avenge? In +those first days there was little thought of relics to be carried +away,--little thought of material suggestions to the dull imagination, +and pricks to the failing memory. The eternal truths of their religion +were too real to them; their faith was too sincere; their belief in the +actual union of heaven and earth, and of the presence of God with them +in the world, too absolute to allow them to feel the need of that lower +order of incitements which are the resort of superstition, ignorance, +and conventionalism in religion. In the earlier burials, no differences, +save the ampulla and the palm, or some equally slight sign, +distinguished the graves of the martyrs from those of other Christians. + +It is not to be supposed that the normal state of the Christian +community in Rome, during the first three centuries, was that of +suffering and alarm. A period of persecution was the exception to long +courses of calm years. Undoubtedly, during most of the time, the faith +was professed under restraint, and possibly with a sense of insecurity +which rendered it attractive to ardent souls, and preserved something +of its first sincerity. It must be remembered that the first Christian +converts were mostly from among the poorer classes, and that, however +we might have admired their virtues, we might yet have been offended by +much that was coarse and unrefined in the external exhibitions of their +religion. The same features which accompany the religious manifestations +of the uncultivated in our own days, undoubtedly, with somewhat +different aspect, presented themselves at Rome. The enthusiasms, +the visions, the loud preaching and praying, the dull iteration and +reiteration of inspired truth till all the inspiration is driven out, +were all probably to be heard and witnessed in the early Christian days +at Rome. Not all the converts were saints,--and none of them were +such saints as the Catholic painters of the last three centuries have +prostituted Art and debased Religion in producing. The real St. Cecilia +stood in the beauty of holiness before the disciples at Rome far purer +and lovelier than Raphael has painted her. Domenichino has outraged +every feeling of devotion, every sense of truth, every sympathy for the +true suffering of the women who were cruelly murdered for their faith, +in his picture of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes. It is difficult to destroy +the effect that has been produced upon one's own heart by these and +innumerable other pictures of declining Art,--pictures honored by the +Roman Church of to-day,--and to bring up before one's imagination, in +vivid, natural, and probable outline, the life and form of the converts, +saints, and martyrs of the first centuries. If we could banish all +remembrance of all the churches and all the pictures contained in them, +built and painted, since the fourteenth century, we might hope to gain +some better view of the Christians who lived above the catacombs, and +were buried in them. It is from the catacombs that we must seek all that +is left to enable us to construct the image that we desire. + +On other graves beside those of the martyrs there are often found some +little signs by which they could be easily recognized by the friends who +might wish to visit them again. Sometimes there is the impression of a +seal upon the mortar; sometimes a ring or coin is left fastened into +it; often a _terra-cotta_ lamp is set in the cement at the head of the +grave. Touching, tender memorials of love and piety! Few are left now in +the opened catacombs, but here and there one may be seen in its original +place,--the visible sign of the sorrow and the faith of those who +seventeen or eighteen centuries ago rested upon that support on which we +rest to-day, and found it, in hardest trial, unfailing. + +But the galleries of the catacombs are not wholly occupied with graves. +Now and then they open on either side into chambers (_cubicula_) of +small dimension and of various form, scooped out of the rock, and +furnished with graves around their sides,--the burial-place arranged +beforehand for some large family, or for certain persons buried with +special honor. Other openings in the rock are designed for chapels, in +which the burial and other services of the Church were performed. These, +too, are of various sizes and forms; the largest of them would hold but +a small number of persons;[F] but not unfrequently two stand opposite +each other on the passage-way, as if one were for the men and the other +for the women who should be present at the services. Entering the chapel +through a narrow door whose threshold is on a level with the path, we +see at the opposite side a recess sunk in the rock, often semicircular, +like the apsis of a church, and in this recess an _arcosolium_,--which +served at the same time as the grave of a martyr and as the altar of the +little chapel. It seems, indeed, as if in many cases the chapel had been +formed not so much for the general purpose of holding religious service +within the catacombs, as for that of celebrating worship over the +remains of the martyr whose body had been transferred from its original +grave to this new tomb. It was thus that the custom, still prevalent +in the Roman Church, of requiring that some relics shall be contained +within an altar before it is held to be consecrated, probably began. +Perhaps it was with some reference to that portion of the Apocalypse in +which St. John says, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were +slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And +they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, +dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the +earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was +said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until +their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as +they were should be fulfilled."[G] At any rate, these words must have +dwelt in the memories of the Christians who came to worship God in the +presence of the dead by whom they were surrounded in the catacombs. But +they knelt before the altar-tombs, not as before altars consecrated with +relics of saints, but as before altars dedicated to God and connected +with the memory of their own honored and beloved dead, whom he had +called from them into his holy presence. + +[Footnote F: These chapels are generally about ten feet square. Some are +larger, and a few smaller than this.] + +[Footnote G: Revelations, vi. 9-11. It seems probable that another +custom of the Roman Church took its rise in the catacombs,--that of +burning candles on the altar; a custom simple in its origin, now turned +into a form of superstition, and often abused to the profit of priests.] + +It is impossible to ascertain the date at which these chapels were first +made; probably some time about the middle of the second century they +became common. In many of the catacombs they are very numerous, and it +is in them that the chief ornaments and decorations, and the paintings +which give to the catacombs an especial value and importance in the +history of Art, and which are among the most interesting illustrations +of the state of religious feeling and belief in the early centuries, are +found. Some of the chapels are known to be of comparatively late date, +of the fourth and perhaps of the fifth century. In several even of +earlier construction is found, in addition to the altar, a niche cut out +in the rock, or a ledge projecting from it, which seems to have been +intended to serve the place of the credence table, for holding the +articles used in the service of the altar, and at a later period for +receiving the elements before they were handed to the priest for +consecration. The earliest services in the catacombs were undoubtedly +those connected with the communion of the Lord's Supper. The mystery +of the mass and the puzzles of transubstantiation had not yet been +introduced among the believers; but all who had received baptism as +followers of Christ, all save those who had fallen away into open and +manifest sin, were admitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. Possibly +upon some occasions these chapels may have been filled with the sounds +of exhortation and lamentation. In the legends of the Roman Church we +read of large numbers of Christians being buried alive, in time of +persecution, in these underground chambers where they had assembled for +worship and for counsel. But we are not aware of any proof of the truth +of these stories having been discovered in recent times. This, and +many other questionable points in the history and in the uses of the +catacombs, may be solved by the investigations which are now proceeding; +and it is fortunate for the interests, not only of truth, but of +religion, that so learned and so honest-minded a man as the Cavaliere de +Rossi should have the direction of these explorations. + +Few of the chapels that are to be seen now in the catacombs are in their +original condition. As time went on, and Christianity became a corrupt +and imperial religion, the simple truths which had sufficed for the +first Christians were succeeded by doctrines less plain, but more +adapted to touch cold and materialized imaginations, and to inflame dull +hearts. The worship of saints began, and was promoted by the heads of +the Church, who soon saw how it might be diverted to the purposes of +personal and ecclesiastical aggrandizement. Consequently the martyrs +were made into a hierarchy of saintly protectors of the strayed flock of +Christ, and round their graves in the catacombs sprang up a harvest of +tales, of visions, of miracles, and of superstitions. As the Church sank +lower and lower, as the need of a heavenly advocate with God was more +and more impressed upon the minds of the Christians of those days, the +idea seems to have arisen that neighborhood of burial to the grave of +some martyr might be an effectual way to secure the felicity of the +soul. Consequently we find in these chapels that the later Christians, +those perhaps of the fifth and sixth centuries, disregarding the +original arrangements, and having lost all respect for the Art, and all +reverence for the memorial pictures which made the walls precious, were +often accustomed to cut out graves in the walls above and around the +martyr's tomb, and as near as possible to it. The instances are numerous +in which pictures of the highest interest have been thus ruthlessly +defaced. No sacredness of subject could resist the force of the +superstition; and we remember one instance where, in a picture of which +the part that remains is of peculiar interest, the body of the Good +Shepherd has been cut through for the grave of a child,--so that only +the feet and a part of the head of the figure remain. + +There is little reason for supposing, as has frequently been done, that +the catacombs, even in times of persecution, afforded shelter to any +large body of the faithful. Single, specially obnoxious, or timid +individuals, undoubtedly, from time to time, took refuge in them, and +may have remained within them for a considerable period. Such at least +is the story, which we see no reason to question, in regard to several +of the early Popes. But no large number of persons could have existed +within them. The closeness of the air would very soon have rendered life +insupportable; and supposing any considerable number had collected near +the outlet, where a supply of fresh air could have reached them, the +difficulty of obtaining food and of concealing their place of retreat +would have been in most instances insurmountable. The catacombs were +always places for the few, not for the many; for the few who followed +a body to the grave; for the few who dug the narrow, dark passages in +which not many could work; for the few who came to supply the needs of +some hunted and hidden friend; for the few who in better times assembled +to join in the service commemorating the last supper of their Lord. + +It is difficult, as we have said before, to clear away the obscuring +fictions of the Roman Church from the entrance of the catacombs; but +doing this so far as with our present knowledge may be done, we find +ourselves entering upon paths that bring us into near connection and +neighborhood with the first followers of the founders of our faith at +Rome. The reality which is given to the lives of the Christians of the +first centuries by acquaintance with the memorials that they have left +of themselves here quickens our feeling for them into one almost of +personal sympathy. "Your obedience is come abroad unto all men," wrote +St. Paul to the first Christians of Rome. The record of that obedience +is in the catacombs. And in the vast labyrinth of obscure galleries one +beholds and enters into the spirit of the first followers of the Apostle +to the Gentiles. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE NEST. + + + MAY. + + When oaken woods with buds are pink, + And new-come birds each morning sing,-- + When fickle May on Summer's brink + Pauses, and knows not which to fling, + Whether fresh bud and bloom again, + Or hoar-frost silvering hill and plain,-- + + Then from the honeysuckle gray + The oriole with experienced quest + Twitches the fibrous bark away, + The cordage of his hammock-nest,-- + Cheering his labor with a note + Rich as the orange of his throat. + + High o'er the loud and dusty road + The soft gray cup in safety swings, + To brim ere August with its load + Of downy breasts and throbbing wings, + O'er which the friendly elm-tree heaves + An emerald roof with sculptured eaves. + + Below, the noisy World drags by + In the old way, because it must,-- + The bride with trouble in her eye, + The mourner following hated dust: + Thy duty, winged flame of Spring, + Is but to love and fly and sing. + + Oh, happy life, to soar and sway + Above the life by mortals led, + Singing the merry months away, + Master, not slave of daily bread, + And, when the Autumn comes, to flee + Wherever sunshine beckons thee! + + + PALINODE.--DECEMBER. + + Like some lorn abbey now, the wood + Stands roofless in the bitter air; + In ruins on its floor is strewed + The carven foliage quaint and rare, + And homeless winds complain along + The columned choir once thrilled with song. + + And thou, dear nest, whence joy and praise + The thankful oriole used to pour, + Swing'st empty while the north winds chase + Their snowy swarms from Labrador: + But, loyal to the happy past, + I love thee still for what thou wast. + + Ah, when the Summer graces flee + From other nests more dear than thou, + And, where June crowded once, I see + Only bare trunk and disleaved bough, + When springs of life that gleamed and gushed + Run chilled, and slower, and are hushed,-- + + I'll think, that, like the birds of Spring, + Our good goes not without repair, + But only flies to soar and sing + Far off in some diviner air, + Where we shall find it in the calms + Of that fair garden 'neath the palms. + + * * * * * + + +EBEN JACKSON. + + + Fear no more the heat o' the sun, + Nor the furious winter's rages; + Thou thine earthly task hast done. + +The large tropical moon rose in full majesty over the Gulf of Mexico, +that beneath it rolled a weltering surge of silver, which broke upon the +level sand of the beach with a low, sullen roar, prophetic of storms to +come. To-night a south wind was heavily blowing over Gulf and prairie, +laden with salt odors of weed and grass, now and then crossed by a +strain of such perfume as only tropic breezes know,--a breath of heavy, +passionate sweetness from orange-groves and rose gardens, mixed with the +miasmatic sighs of rank forests, and mile on mile of tangled cane-brake, +where jewel-tinted snakes glitter and emit their own sickly-sweet odor, +and the deep blue bells of luxuriant vines wave from their dusky censers +steams of poisonous incense. + +I endured the influence of all this as long as I dared, and then turned +my pony's head from the beach, and, loitering through the city's hot +streets, touched him into a gallop as the prairie opened before us, and +followed the preternatural, colossal shadow of horse and man east by the +moon across the dry dull grass and bitter yellow chamomile growth of +the sand, till I stopped at the office door of the Hospital, when, +consigning my horse to a servant, I commenced my nightly round of the +wards. + +There were but few patients just now, for the fever had not yet made +its appearance, and until within a week the unwontedly clear and cool +atmosphere had done the work of the physician. Most of the sick were +doing well enough without me; some few needed and received attention; +and these disposed of, I betook myself to the last bed in one of the +long wards, quite apart from the others, which was occupied by a sailor, +a man originally from New England, whose hard life and continual +exposure to all climates and weathers had at length resulted in slow +tubercular consumption. + +It was one of the rare cases of this disease not supervening upon an +original strumous diathesis, and, had it been properly cared for in the +beginning, might have been cured. Now there was no hope; but the case +being a peculiar and interesting one, I kept a faithful record of its +symptoms and progress for publication. Besides, I liked the man; rugged +and hardy by nature, it was curious to see what strange effects a long, +wasting, and painful disease produced upon him. At first he could not be +persuaded to be quiet; the muscular energies were still unaffected, and, +with continual hemorrhage from the lungs, he could not understand that +work or exercise could hurt him. But as the disease gained ground, its +characteristic languor unstrung his force; the hard and sinewy limbs +became attenuated and relaxed; his breath labored; a hectic fever burnt +in his veins like light flame every afternoon, and subsided into chilly +languor toward morning; profuse night-sweats increased the weakness; and +as he grew feebler, offering of course less resistance to the febrile +symptoms, they were exacerbated, till at times a slight delirium showed +itself; and so, without haste or delay, he "made for port," as he said. + +His name was Eben Jackson, and the homely appellation was no way belied +by his aspect. He never could have been handsome, and now fifteen +years of rough-and-tumble life had left their stains and scars on his +weather-beaten visage, whose only notable features were the deep-set +eyes retreating under shaggy brows, that looked one through and through +with the keen glance of honest instinct; while a light tattooing of red +and blue on either cheek-bone added an element of the grotesque to his +homeliness. He was a natural and simple man, with whom conventionalities +and the world's scale went for nothing,--without vanity as without +guile.--But it is best to let him speak for himself. I found him that +night very feverish, yet not wild at all. + +"Hullo, Doctor!" said he, "I'm all afire! I've ben thinkin' about my old +mother's humstead up to Simsbury, and the great big well to the back +door; how I used to tilt that 'are sweep up, of a hot day, till the +bucket went 'way down to the bottom and come up drippin' over,--such +cold, clear water! I swear, I'd give all Madagascar for a drink on't!" + +I called the nurse to bring me a small basket of oranges I had sent out +in the morning, expressly for this patient, and squeezing the juice from +one of them on a little bit of ice, I held it to his lips, and he drank +eagerly. + +"That's better for you than water, Jackson," said I. + +"I dunno but 'tis, Doctor; I dunno but 'tis; but there a'n't nothin' +goes to the spot like that Simsbury water. You ha'n't never v'yaged to +them parts, have ye?" + +"Bless you, yes, man! I was born and brought up in Hartford, just over +the mountain, and I've been to Simsbury, fishing, many a time." + +"Good Lord! _You_ don't never desert a feller, ef the ship _is_ a-goin' +down!" fervently ejaculated Eben, looking up as he did sometimes in his +brief delirium, when he said the Lord's Prayer, and thought his mother +held his folded hands; but this was no delirious aspiration. He went +on:-- + +"You see, Doctor, I've had somethin' in the hold a good spell't I wanted +to break bulk on, but I didn't know as I ever was goin' to see a shipmet +agin; and now you've jined convoy jist in time, for Davy Jones's a'n't +fur off. Are you calculatin' to go North afore long?" + +"Yes, I mean to go next spring," said I. + +Jackson began to fumble with weak and trembling hands about his throat, +to undo his shirt-collar,--he would not let me help him,--and presently, +flushed and panting from the effort, he drew out a length of delicate +Panama chain fastened rudely together by a link of copper wire, and +suspended on it a little old-fashioned ring of reddish gold, twisted of +two wires, and holding a very small dark garnet. Jackson looked at it as +I have seen many a Catholic look at his reliquary in mortal sickness. + +"Well," said he, "I've carried that 'are gimcrack nigh twenty long year +round my old scrag, and when I'm sunk I want you to take it off, Doctor. +Keep it safe till you go to Connecticut, and then some day take a tack +over to Simsbury. Don't ye go through the Gap, but go 'long out on +the turnpike over the mountain, and down t'other side to Avon, and so +nor'ard till jist arter you git into Simsbury town you see an old red +house 'longside o' the mountain, with a big ellum-tree afore the door, +and a stone well to the side on't. Go 'long in and ask for Hetty Buel, +and give her that 'are thing, and tell her where you got it, and that I +ha'n't never forgot to wish her well allus, though I couldn't write to +her." + +There was Eben Jackson's romance! It piqued my curiosity. The poor +fellow was wakeful and restless,--I knew he would not sleep, if I left +him,--and I encouraged him to go on talking. + +"I will, Jackson, I promise you. But wouldn't it be better for you to +tell me something about where you have been all these long years? Your +friends will like to know." + +His eye brightened; he was like all the rest of us, pleased with any +interest taken in him and his; he turned over on his pillow, and I +lifted him into a half-sitting position. + +"That's ship-shape, Doctor! I don't know but what I had oughter spin a +yarn for you; I'm kinder on a watch to-night; and Hetty won't never know +what I did do, if I don't send home the log 'long 'i' the cargo. + +"Well, you see I was born in them parts, down to Canton, where father +belonged; but mother was a Simsbury woman, and afore I was long-togged, +father he moved onter the old humstead up to Simsbury, when gran'ther +Peck died. Our farm was right 'longside o' Miss Buel's; you'll see't +when you go there; but there a'n't nobody there now. Mother died afore +I come away, and lies safe to the leeward o' Simsbury meetin'-house. +Father he got a stroke a spell back, and he couldn't farm it; so he sold +out and went West, to Parmely Larkum's, my sister's, to live. But I +guess the house is there, and that old well.--How etarnal hot it's +growin'! Doctor, give me a drink! + +"Well, as I was tellin', I lived there next to Miss Buel's, and Hetty'n' +I went to deestrict-school together, up to the cross-roads. We used to +hev' ovens in the sand together, and roast apples an' ears of corn in +'em; and we used to build cubby-houses, and fix 'em out with broken +chiny and posies. I swan 't makes me feel curus when I think what +children du contrive to get pleased, and likewise riled about! One day I +rec'lect Hetty'd stepped onto my biggest clam-shell and broke it, and +I up and hit her a switch right across her pretty lips. Now you'd 'a' +thought she would cry and run, for she wasn't bigger than a baby, much; +but she jest come up and put her little fat arms round my neck, and +says,-- + +"'I'm so sorry, Eben!' + +"And that's Hetty Buel! I declare I was beat, and I hav'n't never got +over bein' beat about that. So we growed up together, always out in the +woods between schools, huntin' checker-berries, and young winter-greens, +and prince's piney, and huckleberries, and saxifrax, and birch, and all +them woodsy things that children hanker arter; and by-'n'-by we got to +goin' to the 'Cademy; and when Hetty was seventeen she went in to +Hartford to her Aunt Smith's for a spell, to do chores, and get a little +Seminary larnin', and I went to work on the farm; and when she come +home, two year arter, she was growed to be a young woman, and though I +was five year older'n her, I was as sheepish a land-lubber as ever got +stuck a-goin' to the mast-head, whenever I sighted her. + +"She wasn't very much for looks neither; she had black eyes, and she +was pretty behaved; but she wasn't no gret for beauty, anyhow, only +I thought the world of her, and so did her old grandmother;--for her +mother died when she wa'n't but two year old, and she lived to old Miss +Buel's 'cause her father had married agin away down to Jersey. + +"Arter a spell I got over bein' so mighty sheepish about Hetty; her +ways was too kindly for me to keep on that tack. We took to goin' to +singin'-school together; then I always come home from quiltin'-parties +and conference-meetin's with her, because 'twas handy, bein' right next +door; and so it come about that I begun to think of settlin' down for +life, and that was the start of all my troubles. I couldn't take the +home farm; for 'twas such poor land, father could only jest make a live +out on't for him and me. Most of it was pastur', gravelly land, full of +mullens and stones; the rest was principally woodsy,--not hickory, nor +oak neither, but hemlock and white birches, that a'n't of no account +for timber nor firing, 'longside of the other trees. There was a little +strip of a medder-lot, and an orchard up on the mountain, where we used +to make redstreak cider that beat the Dutch; but we hadn't pastur' land +enough to keep more'n two cows, and altogether I knew 'twasn't any use +to think of bringin' a family on to't. So I wrote to Parmely's husband, +out West, to know about Government lands, and what I could do ef I was +to move out there and take an allotment; and gettin' an answer every way +favorable, I posted over to Miss Buel's one night arter milkin' to tell +Hetty. She was settin' on the south door-step, braidin' palm-leaf; and +her grandmother was knittin' in her old chair, a little back by the +window. Sometimes, a-lyin' here on my back, with my head full o' sounds, +and the hot wind and the salt sea-smell a-comin' in through the winders, +and the poor fellers groanin' overhead, I get clear away back to that +night, so cool and sweet; the air full of treely smells, dead leaves +like, and white-blows in the ma'sh below; and wood-robins singin' clear +fine whistles in the woods; and the big sweet-brier by the winder +all a-flowered out; and the drippin' little beads of dew on the +clover-heads; and the tinklin' sound of the mill-dam down to Squire +Turner's mill. + +"I set down by Hetty; and the old woman bein' as deaf as a post, it was +as good as if I'd been there alone. So I mustered up my courage, that +was sinkin' down to my boots, and told Hetty my plans, and asked her to +go along. She never said nothin' for a minute; she flushed all up as red +as a rose, and I see her little fingers was shakin', and her eye-winkers +shiny and wet; but she spoke presently, and said,-- + +"'I can't, Eben!' + +"I was shot betwixt wind and water then, I tell you, Doctor! 'Twa'n't +much to be said, but I've allers noticed afloat that real dangersome +squalls comes on still; there's a dumb kind of a time in the air, the +storm seems to be waitin' and holdin' its breath, and then a little +low whisper of wind,--a cat's paw we call't,--and then you get it real +'arnest. I'd rather she'd have taken on, and cried, and scolded, than +have said so still, 'I can't, Eben.' + +"'Why not, Hetty?' says I. + +"'I ought not to leave grandmother,' said she. + +"I declare, I hadn't thought o' that! Miss Buel was a real infirm woman +without kith nor kin, exceptin' Hetty; for Jason Buel he'd died down to +Jersey long before; and she hadn't means. Hetty nigh about kept 'em both +since Miss Buel had grown too rheumatic to make cheese and see to the +hens and cows, as she used to. They didn't keep any men-folks now, nor +but one cow; Hetty milked her, and drove her to pastur', and fed the +chickens, and braided hats, and did chores. The farm was all sold off; +'twas poor land, and didn't fetch much; but what there was went to keep +'em in vittles and firin'. I guess Hetty 'arnt most of what they lived +on, arter all. + +"'Well,' says I, after a spell of thinkin', 'can't she go along too, +Hetty?' + +"'Oh, no, Eben! she's too old; she never could get there, and she never +could live there. She says very often she wouldn't leave Simsbury for +gold untold; she was born here, and she's bound to die here. I know she +wouldn't go.' + +"'Ask her, Hetty!' + +"'No, it wouldn't be any use; it would only fret her always to think I +staid at home for her, and you know she can't do without me.' + +"'No more can't I,' says I. 'Do you love her the best, Hetty?' + +"I was kinder sorry I'd said that; for she grew real white, and I could +see by her throat she was chokin' to keep down somethin'. Finally she +said,-- + +"'That isn't for me to say, Eben. If it was right for me to go with you, +I should be glad to; but you know I can't leave grandmother.' + +"Well, Doctor, I couldn't say no more. I got up to go. Hetty put down +her work and walked to the big ellum by the gate with me. I was most too +full to speak, but I catched her up and kissed her soft little tremblin' +lips, and her pretty eyes, and then I set off for home as if I was goin' +to be hanged. + +"Young folks is obstreperous, Doctor. I've been a long spell away from +Hetty, and I don't know as I should take on so now. That night I never +slept. I lay kickin' and tumblin' all night, and before mornin' I'd +resolved to quit Simsbury, and go seek my fortin' beyond seas, hopin' +to come back to Hetty, arter all, with riches to take care on her right +there in the old place. You'd 'a' thought I might have had some kind of +feelin' for my old father, after seein' Hetty's faithful ways; but I was +a man and she was a woman, and I take it them is two different kind o' +craft. Men is allers for themselves first, an' Devil take the hindmost; +but women lives in other folks's lives, and ache, and work, and endure +all sorts of stress o' weather afore they'll quit the ship that's got +crew and passengers aboard. + +"I never said nothin' to father,--I couldn't 'a' stood no jawin',--but +I made up my kit, an' next night slung it over my shoulder, and tramped +off. I couldn't have gone without biddin' Hetty goodbye; so I stopped +there, and told her what I was up to, and charged her to tell father. + +"She tried her best to keep me to home, but I was sot in my way; so when +she found that out, she run up stairs an' got a little Bible, and made +me promise I'd read it sometimes, and then she pulled that 'are little +ring off her finger and give it to me to keep. + +"'Eben,' says she, 'I wish you well always, and I sha'n't never forget +you!' + +"And then she put up her face to me, as innocent as a baby, to kiss me +goodbye. I see she choked up when I said the word, though, and I said, +kinder laughin',-- + +"'I hope you'll get a better husband than me, Hetty!' + +"I swear! she give me a look like the judgment-day, and stoopin' +down she pressed her lips onto that ring, and says she, 'That is my +weddin'-ring, Eben!' and goes into the house as still and white as a +ghost; and I never see her again, nor never shall.--Oh, Doctor! give me +a drink!" + +I lifted the poor fellow, fevered and gasping, to an easier position, +and wet his hot lips with fresh orange-juice. + +"Stop, now, Jackson!" said I, "you are tired." + +"No, I a'n't, Doctor! No, I a'n't! I'm bound to finish now. But Lord +deliver us! look there! one of the Devil's own imps, I b'lieve!" + +I looked on the little deal stand where I had set the candle, and there +stood one of the quaint, evil-looking insects that infest the island, a +praying Mantis. Raised up against the candle, with its fore-legs in the +attitude of supplication that gives it the name, its long green body +relieved on the white stearin, it was eyeing Jackson, with its head +turned first on one side and then on the other, in the most elvish and +preternatural way. Presently it moved upward, stuck one of its fore-legs +cautiously into the flame, burnt it of course and drew it back, eyed it, +first from one angle, then from another, with deliberate investigation, +and at length conveyed the injured member to its mouth and sucked it +steadily, resuming its stare of blank scrutiny at my patient, who did +not at all fancy the interest taken in him. + +I could not help laughing at the strange manoeuvres of the creature, +familiar as I was with them. + +"It is only one of our Texan bugs, Jackson," said I; "it is harmless +enough." + +"It's got a pesky look, though, Doctor! I thought I'd seen enough curus +creturs in the Marquesas, but that beats all!" + +Seeing the insect really irritated and annoyed him, I put it out of the +window, and turned the blinds closely to prevent its reentrance, and he +went on with his story. + +"So I tramped it to Hartford that night, got a lodgin' with a first +cousin I had there, worked my passage to Boston in a coaster, and after +hangin' about Long Wharf day in and day out for a week, I was driv' to +ship myself aboard of a whaler, the Lowisy Miles, Twist, cap'en; and I +writ from there to Hetty, so't she could know my bearin's so fur, and +tell my father. + +"It would take a week, Doctor, to tell you what a rough-an'-tumble time +I had on that 'are whaler. There's a feller's writ a book about v'yagin' +afore the mast that'll give ye an idee on't; he had an eddication so't +he could set it off, and I fell foul of his book down to Valparaiso +more'n a year back, and I swear I wanted to shake hands with him. I +heerd he was gone ashore somewheres down to Boston, and hed cast anchor +for good. But I tell you he's a brick, and what he said's gospel truth. +I thought I'd got to hell afore my time when we see blue water. I didn't +have no peace exceptin' times when I was to the top, lookin' out for +spouters; then I'd get nigh about into the clouds that was allers +a-hangin' down close to the sea mornin' and night, all kinds of colors, +red an' purple an' white; and 'stead of thinkin' o' whales, I'd get my +head full o' Simsbury, and get a precious knock with the butt end of a +handspike when I come down, 'cause I'd never sighted a whale till arter +they see'd it on deck. + +"We was bound to the South Seas after sperm whales, but we was eight +months gettin' there, and we took sech as we could find on the way. +The cap'en he scooted round into one port an' another arter his own +business,--down to Caraccas, into Rio; and when we'd rounded the Horn +and was nigh about dead of cold an' short rations, and hadn't killed but +three whales, we put into Valparaiso to get vittled, and there I laid +hold o' this little trinket of a chain, and spliced Hetty's ring on +to't, lest I should be stranded somewheres and get rid of it onawares. + +"We cruised about in them seas a good year or more, with poor luck, and +the cap'en growin' more and more outrageous continually. Them waters +aren't like the Gulf, Doctor,--nor like the Northern Ocean, nohow; there +a'n't no choppin' seas there, but a great, long, everlasting lazy swell, +that goes rollin' and fallin' away like the toll of a big bell, in +endless blue rollers; and the trades blow through the sails like +singin', as warm and soft as if they blowed right out o' sunshiny +gardens; and the sky's as blue as summer all the time, only jest round +the dip on't there's allers a hull fleet o' hazy round-topped clouds, so +thin you can see the moon rise through 'em; and the waves go ripplin' +off the cut-water as peaceful as a mill-pond, day and night. Squalls +is sca'ce some times o' the year; but when there is one, I tell you a +feller hears thunder! The clouds settle right down onto the mast-head, +black and thick, like the settlin's of an ink-bottle; the lightnin' +hisses an' cuts fore and aft; and corposants come flightin' down onto +the boom or the top, gret balls o' light; and the wind roars louder than +the seas; and the rain comes down in spouts,--it don't fall fur enough +to drop; you'd think heaven and earth was come together, with hell +betwixt 'em;--and then it'll all clear up as quiet and calm as a +Simsbury Sunday; and you wouldn't know it could be squally, if 'twan't +for the sail that you hadn't had a chance to furl was drove to ribbons, +and here an' there a stout spar snapped like a cornstalk, or the +bulwarks stove by a heavy sea. There's queer things to be heerd, too, in +them parts: cries to wind'ard like a drowndin' man, and you can't never +find him; noises right under the keel; bells ringin' off the land like, +when you a'n't within five hundred miles of shore; and curus hails out +o' ghost-ships that sails agin' wind an' tide.--Strange! strange! I +declare for't! seems as though I heerd my old mother a-singin' Mear +now!" + +I saw Jackson was getting excited, so I gave him a little soothing +draught and walked away to give the nurse some orders. But he made me +promise to return and hear the story out; so, after half an hour's +investigation of the wards, I came back and found him composed enough to +permit his resuming where he had left off. + +"Howsomever, Doctor, there wa'n't no smooth sailin' nor fair weather +with the cap'en; 'twas always squally in his latitude, and I begun to +get mutinous and think of desartin'. About eighteen months arter we sot +sail from Valparaiso, I hadn't done somethin' I'd been ordered, or I'd +done it wrong, and Cap'en Twist come on deck, ragin' and roarin', with +a handspike in his fist, and let fly at my head. I see what was comin', +and put my arm up to fend it off; and gettin' the blow on my fore-arm, +it got broke acrost as quick as a wink, and I dropped. So they picked me +up, and havin' a mate aboard who knew some doctorin', I was spliced +and bound up, and put under hatches on the sick-list. I tell you I +was dog-tired them days, lyin' in my berth, hearin' the rats and mice +scuttle round the bulkheads and skitter over the floor. I couldn't do +nothin', and finally I bethought myself of Hetty's Bible and contrived +to get it out o' my chist,--and when I could get a bit of a glim I'd +read it. I'm a master-hand to remember things, and what I read over and +over in that 'are dog-hole of cabin never got clean out of my head, no, +nor never will; and when the Lord above calls all hands on deck to pass +muster, ef I'm ship-shape afore him, it'll be because I follered his +signals and l'arnt 'em out of that 'are log. But I didn't foller 'em +then, nor not for a plaguy long cruise yet! + +"One day, as I laid there readin' by the light of a bit of tallow dip +the mate gave me, who should stick his head into the hole he called a +cabin, but old Twist! He'd got an idee I was shammin'; and when he saw +me with a book, he cussed, and swore, and raved, and finally hauled it +out o' my hand and flung it up through the hatchway clean and clear +overboard. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, if I'd 'a' had a sound arm, he'd 'a' gone after it; +but I had to take it out in ratin' at him, and that night my mind was +made up; I was bound to desart at the first land. And it come about that +a fortnight after my arm had jined, and I could haul shrouds agin, we +sighted the Marquesas, and bein' near about out o' water, the cap'en +laid his course for the nearest land, and by daybreak of the second day +we lay to in a small harbor, on the south side of an island where +ships wa'n't very prompt to go commonly. But old Twist didn't care for +cannibals nor wild beasts, when they stood in his way; and there wasn't +but half a cask of water aboard, and that a hog wouldn't 'a' drank, only +for the name on't. So we pulled ashore after some, and findin' a spring +near by, was takin' it out, hand over hand, as fast as we could bale it +up, when all of a sudden the mate see a bunch of feathers over a little +bush near by, and yelled out to run for our lives, the savages was come. + +"Now I had made up my mind to run away from the ship that very day, and +all the while I'd been baling the water up I had been tryin' to lay my +course so as to get quit of the boat's crew, and be off; but natur' is +stronger than a man thinks. When I heerd the mate sing out, and see the +men begin to run, I turned and run too, full speed, down to the shore; +but my foot caught in some root or hole, I fell flat down, and hittin' +my head ag'inst a stone near by, I lay; good as dead; and when I come +to, the boat was gone, and the ship makin' all sail out of harbor, and +a crew of wild Indian women were a-lookin' at me as I've seen a set of +Simsbury women-folks look at a baboon in a caravan; but they treated me +better! + +"Findin' I was helpless, for I'd sprained my ankle in the fall, four of +'em picked me up, and carried me away to a hut, and tended me like a +baby; and when the men, who'd come over to that side of the island 'long +with 'em, and gone a-fishin', come back, I was safe enough; for women +are women all the world over, soft-hearted, kindly creturs, that like +anything that's in trouble, 'specially if they can give it a lift out +on't. So I was nursed, and fed, and finally taken over the ridge of +rocks that run acrost the island to their town of bamboo huts; and now +begun to look about me, for here I was, stranded, as one may say, out o' +sight o' land. + +"Ships didn't never touch there, I knew by their ways, their wonderin' +and takin' sights at me. As for Cap'en Twist, he wouldn't come back for +his own father, unless he was short o' hands for whalin'. I was in for +life, no doubt on't; and I'd better look at the fair-weather side of the +thing. The island was as pretty a bit of land as ever lay betwixt sea +and sky; full of tall cocoa-nut palms, with broad, feathery tops, and +bunches of brown nuts; bananas hung in yellow clumps ready to drop off +at a touch; and big bread-fruit trees stood about everywhere, lookin' as +though a punkin-vine had climbed up into 'em and hung half-ripe punkins +off of every bough; beside lots of other trees that the natives set +great store by, and live on the fruit of 'em; and flyin' through all, +such pretty birds as you never see except in them parts; but one brown +thrasher'd beat the whole on 'em singin'; fact is, they run to feathers; +they don't sing none. + +"It was as sightly a country as ever Adam and Eve had to themselves; +but it wa'n't home. Howsomever, after a while the savages took to me +mightily. I was allers handy with tools, and by good luck I'd come off +with two jack-knives and a loose awl in my jacket-pocket, so I could +beat 'em all at whittlin'; and I made figgers on their bows an' +pipe-stems, of things they never see,--roosters, and horses, Miss Buel's +old sleigh, and the Albany stage, driver'n' all, and our yoke of oxen +a-ploughin',--till nothin' would serve them but I should have a house o' +my own, and be married to their king's daughter; so I did. + +"Well, Doctor, you kinder wonder I forgot Hetty Buel. I didn't forget +her, but I knew she wa'n't to be had anyhow; I thought I was in for +life; and Wailua was the prettiest little craft that ever you set eyes +on, as straight as a spar, and as kindly as a Christian; and besides, I +had to, or I'd have been killed, and broiled, and eaten, whether or no! +And then in that 'are latitude it a'n't just the way 'tis here; you +don't work; you get easy, and lazy, and sleepy; somethin' in the air +kind of hushes you up; it makes you sweat to think, and you're too hazy +to, if it didn't; and you don't care for nothing much but food and +drink. I hadn't no spunk left; so I married her after their fashion, and +I liked her well enough; and she was my wife, after all. + +"I tell ye, Doctor, it goes a gret way with men-folks to think +anything's their'n, and nobody else's. But when I married her, I took +the chain with Hetty Buel's ring off my neck, and put 'em in a shell, +and buried the shell under my doorway. I couldn't have Wailua touch +that. + +"So there I lived fifteen long year, as it might be, in a kind of a +curus dream, doin' nothin' much, only that when I got to know the tongue +them savages spoke, little by little I got pretty much the steerin' o' +the hull crew, till by-'n'-by some of 'em got jealous, and plotted and +planned to kill me, because the king, Wailua's father, was gettin' old, +and they thought I wanted to be king when he died, and they couldn't +stan' that no way. + +"Somehow or other Wailua got word of what was goin' on, and one night +she woke me out of sleep an' told me I must run for't, and she would +hide me safe till things took a turn. So I scratched up the shell with +Hetty's ring in't, and afore morning I was over t'other side of the +island, in a kind of a cave overlookin' the sea, near by to a grove of +bananas and mammee apples, and not fur from the harbor where I'd landed; +and safe enough, for nobody but Wailua knew the way to't. + +"Well, the sixth day I sot in the porthole of that cave I see a sail in +the offing. I declare, I thought I should 'a' choked! I catched off my +tappa cloth and h'isted it on a pole, but the ship kep' on stiddy out +to sea. My heart beat up to my eyes, but I held on ag'inst hope, and I +declare I prayed; words come to me that I hadn't said since I was a boy +to Simsbury, and the Lord he heerd; for, as true as the compass, that +ship lay to, tacked, put in for the island, and afore night I was +aboard of the Lysander, a Salem whaler, with my mouth full of grog and +ship-biscuit, and my body in civilized toggery. I own I felt queer to go +away so and leave Wailua; but I knew 'twas gettin' her out of danger, +for the old king was just a-goin' to die, and if ever I'd have gone +back, we should both have been murdered. Besides, we didn't always +agree; she had to walk straighter than her wild natur' agreed with, +because she was my wife; and we hadn't no children to hold us together; +and I couldn't 'a' taken her aboard of the whaler, if she'd wanted to +go. I guess it was best; anyhow, so it was. + +"But this wasn't to be the end of my v'yagin'. The Lysander foundered +just off Valparaiso; and though all hands was saved in the boats, when +we got to port there wasn't no craft there bound any nearer homeward +than an English merchant-ship, for Liverpool, by way of Madeira. So I +worked a passage to Funchal, and there I got aboard of a Southampton +steamer, bound for Cuba, that put in for coal. But when I come to Havana +I was nigh about tuckered out; for goin' round the Horn in the Lemon, +--that 'are English ship,--I'd ben on duty in all sorts o' weather; and +I'd lived lazy and warm so long I expect it was too tough for me, and +I was pestered with a hard cough, and spit blood, so't I was laid up a +long spell in the hospital at Havana. And there I kep' a-thinkin' over +Hetty's Bible, and I b'lieve I studied that 'are chart till I found out +the way to port, and made up my log all square for the owner; for I +knowed well enough where I was bound; but I did hanker to get home to +Simsbury afore shovin' off. + +"Well, finally, there come into the harbor a Mystic ship that was +a-goin' down the Gulf for a New York owner. I'd known Seth Crane, the +cap'en of her, away back in old Simsbury times. He was an Avon boy; and +when I sighted that vessel's name, as I was crawlin' along the quay one +day, and, seein' she was Connecticut-built, boarded her, and see Seth, I +was old fool enough to cry right out,--I was so shaky. And Seth he +was about as scart as ef he'd seen the dead, havin' heerd up to Avon, +fifteen year ago nearly, that the Lowisy Miles had been run down off the +Sandwich Islands by a British man-of-war, and all hands lost, exceptin' +one o' the boys. However, he come to his bearin's after a while, and +told me about our folks, and how't Hetty Buel wasn't married, but +keepin' deestrict school, and her old grandmother alive yet. + +"Well, I kinder heartened up, and agreed to take passage with +Seth.--Good Lord, Doctor! what's that?" + +A peculiar and oppressive stillness had settled down on everything in +and out of the hospital while Jackson was going on with his story. I +noticed it only as the hush of a tropic midnight; but as he spoke, +I heard--apparently out on the prairie--a heavy jarring sound like +repeated blows, drawing nearer and nearer the building. + +Jackson sprung upright on his pillows, the hectic passed from either +gaunt and sallow cheek, leaving the red and blue tattoo marks visible +in most ghastly distinctness, while the sweat poured in drops down his +hollow temples. + +The noise drew still nearer. All the patients in the ward awoke and +quitted their beds, hastily. The noise was at hand,--blows of great +violence and power; and a certain malign rapidity shook the walls from +one end of the hospital to the other,--blow upon blow, like the fierce +attacks of a catapult, only with no like result. The nurse, a German +Catholic, fell on his knees and told his beads, glancing over his +shoulder in undisguised horror; the patients cowered together, groaning +and praying; and I could hear the stir and confusion in the ward below. +In less than a minute's space the singular sound passed through the +house, and in hollow, jarring echoes died out toward the bay. + +I looked at Eben;--his jaw had fallen; his hands were rigid and locked +together; his eyes were rolled upward, fixed and glassy; a stream of +scarlet blood trickled over his gray beard from the corner of his +mouth;--he was dead! As I laid him back on the pillow and turned to +restore some quiet to the ward, a Norther came sweeping down the Gulf +like a rush of mad spirits; tore up the white crests of the sea and +flung them on the beach in thundering surf; burst through the heavy fog +that had trailed upon the moon's track and smothered the island in its +soft pestilent brooding; and in one mighty pouring out of cold pure +ether changed earth and sky from torrid to temperate zone. + +Vainly did I endeavor to calm the terror of my patients, excited still +more by the elemental uproar without; vainly did I harangue them, in the +plainest terms to which science is reducible, on atmospheric vibrations, +acoustics, reverberations, and volcanic agencies; they insisted on some +supernatural power having produced the recent fearful sounds. Neither +common nor uncommon sense could prevail with them; and when they +discovered, by the appearance of the extra nurse I had sent for, to +perform the last offices for Jackson, that he was dead, a renewed +and irrepressible horror attacked them, and it was broad day before +composure or stillness was regained in any part of the building except +my own rooms, to which I betook myself as soon as possible, and slept +till sunrise, too soundly for any mystical visitation whatever to have +disturbed my rest. + +The next day, in spite of the brief influence of the Norther, the first +case of yellow fever showed itself in the hospital; before night seven +had sickened, and one, already reduced by chronic disease, died. I had +hoped to bury Jackson decently, in the cemetery of the city, where his +vexed mortality might rest in peace under the oleanders and china-trees, +shut in by the hedge of Cherokee roses that guards the enclosure from +the prairie, a living wall of glassy green, strewn with ivory-white buds +and blossoms, fair and pure; but on applying for a burial-spot, the +city authorities, panic-stricken cowards that they were, denied me the +privilege even of a prairie grave, outside the cemetery hedge, for the +poor fellow. In vain did I represent that he had died of lingering +disease, and that nowise contagious; nothing moved them. It was enough +that there was yellow fever in the ward where he died. I was forthwith +strictly ordered to have all the dead from the hospital buried on the +sand-flats at the east end of the island. + +What a place that is it is scarcely possible to describe. Wide and +dreary levels of sand, some four or five feet lower than the town, +and flooded by high tides; the only vegetation a scanty, dingy gray, +brittle, crackling growth,--bitter sandworts and the like; over and +through which the abominable tawny sand-crabs are constantly executing +diabolic waltzes on the tips of their eight legs, vanishing into the +ground like imps as you approach; curlews start from behind the loose +drifts of sand and float away with heartbroken cries seaward; little +sandpipers twitter plaintively, running through the weeds; and great, +sulky, gray cranes droop their motionless heads over the still salt +pools along the shore. + +To this blank desolation I was forced to carry poor Jackson's body, +with that of the fever-patient, just at sunset. As the Dutchman who +officiated as hearse, sexton, bearer, and procession, stuck his spade +into the ground, and withdrew it full of crumbling shells and fine sand, +the hole it left filled with bitter black ooze. There, sunk in the ooze, +covered with the shifting sand, bewailed by the wild cries of sea-birds, +noteless and alone, I left Eben Jackson, and returned to the mass of +pestilence and wretchedness within the hospital walls. + +In the spring I reached home safely. None but the resident on a Southern +sand-bank can fully appreciate the verdure and bloom of the North. The +great elms of my native town were full of tender buds, like a clinging +mist in their graceful branches; earlier trees were decked with little +leaves, deep-creased, and silvery with down; the wide river in a fluent +track of metallic lustre weltered through green meadows that on either +hand stretched far and wide; the rolling land beyond was spread out in +pastures, where the cattle luxuriated after the winter's stalling; and +on many a slope and plain the patient farmer turned up his heavy sods +and clay, to moulder in sun and air for seed-time and harvest; and the +beautiful valley that met the horizon on the north and south rolled away +eastward and westward to a low blue range of hills, that guarded it with +granite walls and bristling spears of hemlock and pine. + +This is not my story; and if it were, I do not know that I should detail +my home-coming. It is enough to say, that I came after a five years' +absence, and found all that I had left nearly as I had left it;--how few +can say as much! + +Various duties and some business arrangements kept me at work for six or +seven weeks, and it was June before I could fulfil my promise to Eben +Jackson. I took the venerable old horse and chaise that had carried my +father on his rounds for years, and made the best of my way out toward +Simsbury. I was alone, of course; even Cousin Lizzy, charming as five +years had made the little girl of thirteen whom I had left behind on +quitting home, was not invited to share my drive; there was something +too serious in the errand to endure the presence of a gay young lady. +But I was not lonely; the drive up Talcott Mountain, under the rude +portcullis of the toll-gate, through fragrant woods, by trickling +brooks, past huge boulders that scarce a wild vine dare cling to, with +its feeble, delicate tendrils, is all exquisite, and full of living +repose; and turning to descend the mountain, just where a brook drops +headlong with clattering leap into a steep black ravine, and comes out +over a tiny green meadow, sliding past great granite rocks, and bending +the grass-blades to a shining track, you see suddenly at your feet the +beautiful mountain valley of the Farmington river, trending away in hill +after hill,--rough granite ledges crowned with cedar and pine,--deep +ravines full of heaped rocks,--and here and there the formal white rows +of a manufacturing village, where Kuehleborn is captured and forced to +turn water-wheels, and Undine picks cotton or grinds hardware, dammed +into utility. + +Into this valley I plunged, and inquiring my way of many a prim farmer's +wife and white-headed school-boy, I edged my way northward under the +mountain side, and just before noon found myself beneath the "great +ellum," where, nearly twenty years ago, Eben Jackson and Hetty Buel had +said good-bye. + +I tied my horse to the fence and walked up the worn footpath to the +door. Apparently no one was at home. Under this impression I knocked +vehemently, by way of making sure; and a weak, cracked voice at length +answered, "Come in!" There, by the window, perhaps the same where she +sat so long before, crouched in an old chair covered with calico, her +bent fingers striving with mechanical motion to knit a coarse stocking, +sat old Mrs. Buel. Age had worn to the extreme of attenuation a face +that must always have been hard-featured, and a few locks of snow-white +hair, straying from under the bandanna handkerchief of bright red and +orange that was tied over her cap and under her chin, added to the +old-world expression of her whole figure. She was very deaf; scarcely +could I make her comprehend that I wanted to see her grand-daughter; at +last she understood, and asked me to sit down till Hetty should come +from school; and before long, a tall, thin figure opened the gate and +came slowly up the path. + +I had a good opportunity to observe the constant, dutiful, self-denying +Yankee girl,--girl no longer, now that twenty years of unrewarded +patience had lined her face with unmistakable graving. But I could not +agree with Eben's statement that she was not pretty; she must have been +so in her youth; even now there was beauty in her deep-set and heavily +fringed dark eyes, soft, tender, and serious, and in the noble and +pensive Greek outline of the brow and nose; her upper lip and chin were +too long to agree well with her little classic head, but they gave a +certain just and pure expression to the whole face, and to the large +thin-lipped mouth, flexible yet firm in its lines. It is true, her hair +was neither abundant, nor wanting in gleaming threads of gray; her skin +was freckled, sallow, and devoid of varying tint or freshness; her +figure angular and spare; her hands red with hard work; and her air at +once sad and shy;--still, Hetty Buel was a very lovely woman in my eyes, +though I doubt if Lizzy would have thought so. + +I hardly knew how to approach the painful errand I had come on, and with +true masculine awkwardness I cut the matter short by drawing out from my +pocket-book the Panama chain and ring, and placing them in her hands. +Well as I thought I knew the New England character, I was not prepared +for so quiet a reception of this token as she gave it. With a steady +hand she untwisted the wire fastening of the chain, slipped the ring +off, and, bending her head, placed it reverently on the ring-finger of +her left hand;--brief, but potent ceremony; and over without preface or +comment, but over for all time. + +Still holding the chain, she offered me a chair, and sat down +herself,--a little paler, a little more grave, than on entering. + +"Will you tell me how and where he died, Sir?" said she,--evidently +having long considered the fact in her heart as a fact; probably having +heard Seth Crane's story of the Louisa Miles's loss. + +I detailed my patient's tale as briefly and sympathetically as I knew +how. The episode of Wailua caused a little flushing of lip and cheek, a +little twisting of the ring, as if it were not to be worn, after all; +but as I told of his sacred care of the trinket for its giver's sake, +and the not unwilling forsaking of that island wife, the restless motion +passed away, and she listened quietly to the end; only once lifting her +left hand to her lips, and resting her head on it for a moment, as +I detailed the circumstances of his death, after supplying what was +wanting in his own story, from the time of his taking passage in Crane's +ship, to their touching at the island, expressly to leave him in the +Hospital, when a violent hemorrhage had disabled him from further +voyaging. + +I was about to tell her I had seen him decently buried,--of course +omitting descriptions of the how and where,--when the grandmother, who +had been watching us with the impatient querulousness of age, hobbled +across the room to ask "what that 'are man was a-talkin' about." + +Briefly and calmly, in the key long use had suited to her infirmity, +Hetty detailed the chief points of my story. + +"Dew tell!" exclaimed the old woman; "Eben Jackson a'n't dead on dry +land, is he? Left means, eh?" + +I walked away to the door, biting my lip. Hetty, for once, reddened to +the brow; but replaced her charge in the chair and followed me to the +gate. + +"Good day, Sir," said she, offering me her hand,--and then slightly +hesitating,--"Grandmother is very old. I thank you, Sir! I thank you +kindly!" + +As she turned and went toward the house, I saw the glitter of the Panama +chain about her thin and sallow throat, and, by the motion of her hands, +that she was retwisting the same wire fastening that Eben Jackson had +manufactured for it. + +Five years after, last June, I went to Simsbury with a gay picnic party. +This time Lizzy was with me; indeed, she generally is now. + +I detached myself from the rest, after we were fairly arranged for the +day, and wandered away alone to "Miss Buel's." + +The house was closed, the path grassy, a sweetbrier bush had blown +across the door, and was gay with blossoms; all was still, dusty, +desolate. I could not be satisfied with this. The meeting-house was +as near as any neighbor's, and the graveyard would ask me no curious +questions; I entered it doubting; but there, "on the leeward side," near +to the grave of "Bethia Jackson, wife of John Eben Jackson," were two +new stones, one dated but a year later than the other, recording the +deaths of "Temperance Buel, aged 96," and "Hester Buel, aged 44." + + * * * * * + + +AMOURS DE VOYAGE. + +[Continued.] + + +II. + + + Is it illusion? or does there a spirit from perfecter ages, + Here, even yet, amid loss, change, and corruption, abide? + Does there a spirit we know not, though seek, though we find, + comprehend not, + Here to entice and confuse, tempt and evade us, abide? + Lives in the exquisite grace of the column disjointed and single, + Haunts the rude masses of brick garlanded gayly with vine, + E'en in the turret fantastic surviving that springs from the ruin, + E'en in the people itself? Is it illusion or not? + Is it illusion or not that attracteth the pilgrim Transalpine, + Brings him a dullard and dunce hither to pry and to stare? + Is it illusion or not that allures the barbarian stranger, + Brings him with gold to the shrine, brings him in arms to the gate? + + I.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + What do the people say, and what does the government do?--you + Ask, and I know not at all. Yet fortune will favor your hopes; and + I, who avoided it all, am fated, it seems, to describe it. + I, who nor meddle nor make in politics,--I, who sincerely + Put not my trust in leagues nor any suffrage by ballot, + Never predicted Parisian millenniums, never beheld a + New Jerusalem coming down dressed like a bride out of heaven + Right on the Place de la Concorde,--I, ne'ertheless, let me say it, + Could in my soul of souls, this day, with the Gaul at the gates, shed + One true tear for thee, thou poor little Roman republic! + + France, it is foully done! and you, my stupid old England,-- + You, who a twelvemonth ago said nations must choose for themselves, you + Could not, of course, interfere,--you, now, when a nation has chosen-- + Pardon this folly! _The Times_ will, of course, have announced the + occasion, + Told you the news of to-day; and although it was slightly in error + When it proclaimed as a fact the Apollo was sold to a Yankee, + You may believe when it tells you the French are at Civita Vecchia. + + II.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + "Dulce" it is, and _"decorum"_ no doubt, for the country to fall,--to + Offer one's blood an oblation to Freedom, and die for the Cause; yet + Still, individual culture is also something, and no man + Finds quite distinct the assurance that he of all others is called on, + Or would be justified, even, in taking away from the world that + Precious creature, himself. Nature sent him here to abide here; + Else why sent him at all? Nature wants him still, it is likely. + On the whole, we are meant to look after ourselves; it is certain + Each has to eat for himself, digest for himself, and in general + Care for his own dear life, and see to his own preservation; + Nature's intentions, in most things uncertain, in this most plain and + decisive: + These, on the whole, I conjecture the Romans will follow, and I shall. + + So we cling to the rocks like limpets; Ocean may bluster, + Over and under and round us; we open our shells to imbibe our + Nourishment, close them again, and are safe, fulfilling the purpose + Nature intended,--a wise one, of course, and a noble, we doubt not. + Sweet it may be and decorous, perhaps, for the country to die; but, + On the whole, we conclude the Romans won't do it, and I shan't. + + III.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Will they fight? They say so. And will the French? I can hardly, + Hardly think so; and yet--He is come, they say, to Palo, + He is passed from Monterone, at Santa Severa + He hath laid up his guns. But the Virgin, the Daughter of Roma, + She hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn,--the Daughter of Tiber + She hath shaken her head and built barricades against thee! + + Will they fight? I believe it. Alas, 'tis ephemeral folly, + Vain and ephemeral folly, of course, compared with pictures, + Statues, and antique gems,--indeed: and yet indeed too, + Yet methought, in broad day did I dream,--tell it not in St. James's, + Whisper it not in thy courts, O Christ Church!--yet did I, waking, + Dream of a cadence that sings, _Si tombent nos jeunes heros, la + Terre en produit de nouveaux contre vous tous prets a se battre;_ + Dreamt of great indignations and angers transcendental, + Dreamt of a sword at my side and a battle-horse underneath me. + + IV.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Now supposing the French or the Neapolitan soldier + Should by some evil chance come exploring the Maison Serny, + (Where the family English are all to assemble for safety,) + Am I prepared to lay down my life for the British female? + Really, who knows? One has bowed and talked, till, little by little, + All the natural heat has escaped of the chivalrous spirit. + Oh, one conformed, of course; but one doesn't die for good manners, + Stab or shoot, or be shot, by way of a graceful attention. + No, if it should be at all, it should be on the barricades there; + Should I incarnadine ever this inky pacifical finger, + Sooner far should it be for this vapor of Italy's freedom, + Sooner far by the side of the damned and dirty plebeians. + + Ah, for a child in the street I could strike; for the full-blown lady-- + Somehow, Eustace, alas, I have not felt the vocation. + Yet these people of course will expect, as of course, my protection, + Vernon in radiant arms stand forth for the lovely Georgina, + And to appear, I suppose, were but common civility. Yes, and + Truly I do not desire they should either be killed or offended. + + Oh, and of course you will say, "When the time comes, you will be ready." + Ah, but before it comes, am I to presume it will be so? + What I cannot feel now, am I to suppose that I shall feel? + Am I not free to attend for the ripe and indubious instinct? + Am I forbidden to wait for the clear and lawful perception? + Is it the calling of man to surrender his knowledge and insight, + For the mere venture of what may, perhaps, be the virtuous action? + Must we, walking o'er earth, discerning a little, and hoping + Some plain visible task shall yet for our hands be assigned us,-- + Must we abandon the future for fear of omitting the present, + Quit our own fireside hopes at the alien call of a neighbor, + To the mere possible shadow of Deity offer the victim? + And is all this, my friend, but a weak and ignoble repining, + Wholly unworthy the head or the heart of Your Own Correspondent? + + V.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Yes, we are fighting at last, it appears. This morning, as usual, + _Murray_, as usual, in hand, I enter the Caffe Nuovo; + Seating myself with a sense as it were of a change in the weather, + Not understanding, however, but thinking mostly of Murray, + And, for to-day is their day, of the Campidoglio Marbles, + _Caffe-latte!_ I call to the waiter,--and _Non c' e latte_, + This is the answer he makes me, and this the sign of a battle. + So I sit; and truly they seem to think any one else more + Worthy than me of attention. I wait for my milkless _nero_, + Free to observe undistracted all sorts and sizes of persons, + Blending civilian and soldier in strangest costume, coming in, and + Gulping in hottest haste, still standing, their coffee,--withdrawing + Eagerly, jangling a sword on the steps, or jogging a musket + Slung to the shoulder behind. They are fewer, moreover, than usual, + Much, and silenter far; and so I begin to imagine + Something is really afloat. Ere I leave, the Caffe is empty, + Empty too the streets, in all its length the Corso + Empty, and empty I see to my right and left the Condotti. + + Twelve o'clock, on the Pincian Hill, with lots of English, + Germans, Americans, French,--the Frenchmen, too, are protected. + So we stand in the sun, but afraid of a probable shower; + So we stand and stare, and see, to the left of St. Peter's, + Smoke, from the cannon, white,--but that is at intervals only,-- + Black, from a burning house, we suppose, by the Cavalleggieri; + And we believe we discern some lines of men descending + Down through the vineyard-slopes, and catch a bayonet gleaming. + Every ten minutes, however,--in this there is no misconception,-- + Comes a great white puff from behind Michel Angelo's dome, and + After a space the report of a real big gun,--not the Frenchman's?-- + That must be doing some work. And so we watch and conjecture. + + Shortly, an Englishman comes, who says he has been to St. Peter's, + Seen the Piazza and troops, but that is all he can tell us; + So we watch and sit, and, indeed, it begins to be tiresome.-- + All this smoke is outside; when it has come to the inside, + It will be time, perhaps, to descend and retreat to our houses. + + Half-past one, or two. The report of small arms frequent, + Sharp and savage indeed; that cannot all be for nothing: + So we watch and wonder; but guessing is tiresome, very. + Weary of wondering, watching, and guessing, and gossipping idly, + Down I go, and pass through the quiet streets with the knots of + National Guards patrolling and flags hanging out at the windows, + English, American, Danish,--and, after offering to help an + Irish family moving _en masse_ to the Maison Serny, + After endeavoring idly to minister balm to the trembling + Quinquagenarian fears of two lone British spinsters, + Go to make sure of my dinner before the enemy enter. + But by this there are signs of stragglers returning; and voices + Talk, though you don't believe it, of guns and prisoners taken; + And on the walls you read the first bulletin of the morning.-- + This is all that I saw, and all I know of the battle. + + VI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Victory! Victory!--Yes! ah, yes, thou republican Zion, + Truly the kings of the earth are gathered and gone by together; + Doubtless they marvelled to witness such things, were astonished, + and so forth. + Victory! Victory! Victory!--Ah, but it is, believe me, + Easier, easier far, to intone the chant of the martyr + Than to indite any paean of any victory. Death may + Sometimes be noble; but life, at the best, will appear an illusion, + While the great pain is upon us, it is great; when it is over, + Why, it is over. The smoke of the sacrifice rises to heaven, + Of a sweet savor, no doubt, to somebody; but on the altar, + Lo, there is nothing remaining but ashes and dirt and ill odor. + + So it stands, you perceive; the labial muscles, that swelled with + Vehement evolution of yesterday Marseillaises, + Articulations sublime of defiance and scorning, to-day col- + Lapse and languidly mumble, while men and women and papers + Scream and re-scream to each other the chorus of Victory. Well, but + I am thankful they fought, and glad that the Frenchmen were beaten. + + VII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + So I have seen a man killed! An experience that, among others! + Yes, I suppose I have; although I can hardly be certain, + And in a court of justice could never declare I had seen it. + But a man was killed, I am told, in a place where I saw + Something; a man was killed, I am told, and I saw something. + + I was returning home from St. Peter's; Murray, as usual, + Under my arm, I remember; had crossed the St. Angelo bridge; and + Moving towards the Condotti, had got to the first barricade, when + Gradually, thinking still of St. Peter's, I became conscious + Of a sensation of movement opposing me,--tendency this way + (Such as one fancies may be in a stream when the wave of the tide is + Coming and not yet come,--a sort of poise and retention); + So I turned, and, before I turned, caught sight of stragglers + Heading a crowd, it is plain, that is coming behind that corner. + Looking up, I see windows filled with heads; the Piazza, + Into which you remember the Ponte St. Angelo enters, + Since I passed, has thickened with curious groups; and now the + Crowd is coming, has turned, has crossed that last barricade, is + Here at my side. In the middle they drag at something. What is it? + Ha! bare swords in the air, held up! There seem to be voices + Pleading and hands putting back; official, perhaps; but the swords are + Many, and bare in the air,--in the air! They descend! They are smiting, + Hewing, chopping! At what? In the air once more upstretched! And + Is it blood that's on them? Yes, certainly blood! Of whom, then? + Over whom is the cry of this furor of exultation? + + While they are skipping and screaming, and dancing their caps on the + points of + Swords and bayonets, I to the outskirts back, and ask a + Mercantile-seeming bystander, "What is it?" and he, looking always + That way, makes me answer, "A Priest, who was trying to fly to + The Neapolitan army,"--and thus explains the proceeding. + + You didn't see the dead man? No;--I began to be doubtful; + I was in black myself, and didn't know what mightn't happen;-- + But a National Guard close by me, outside of the hubbub, + Broke his sword with slashing a broad hat covered with dust,--and + Passing away from the place with Murray under my arm, and + Stooping, I saw through the legs of the people the legs of a body. + + You are the first, do you know, to whom I have mentioned the matter. + Whom should I tell it to, else?--these girls?--the Heavens forbid it!-- + Quidnuncs at Monaldini's?--idlers upon the Pincian? + + If I rightly remember, it happened on that afternoon when + Word of the nearer approach of a new Neapolitan army + First was spread. I began to bethink me of Paris Septembers, + Thought I could fancy the look of the old 'Ninety-two. On that evening, + Three or four, or, it may be, five, of these people were slaughtered. + Some declare they had, one of them, fired on a sentinel; others + Say they were only escaping; a Priest, it is currently stated, + Stabbed a National Guard on the very Piazza Colonna: + History, Rumor of Rumors, I leave it to thee to determine! + + But I am thankful to say the government seems to have strength to + Put it down; it has vanished, at least; the place is now peaceful. + Through the Trastevere walking last night, at nine of the clock, I + Found no sort of disorder; I crossed by the Island-bridges, + So by the narrow streets to the Ponte Rotto, and onwards + Thence, by the Temple of Vesta, away to the great Coliseum, + Which at the full of the moon is an object worthy a visit. + + VIII.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + Only think, dearest Louisa, what fearful scenes we have witnessed!-- + + * * * * * + + George has just seen Garibaldi, dressed up in a long white cloak, on + Horseback, riding by, with his mounted negro behind him: + This is a man, you know, who came from America with him, + Out of the woods, I suppose, and uses a _lasso_ in fighting, + Which is, I don't quite know, but a sort of noose, I imagine; + This he throws on the heads of the enemy's men in a battle, + Pulls them into his reach, and then most cruelly kills them: + Mary does not believe, but we heard it from an Italian. + + Mary allows she was wrong about Mr. Claude _being selfish_; + He was _most_ useful and kind on the terrible thirtieth of April. + + Do not write here any more; we are starting directly for Florence: + We should be off to-morrow, if only Papa could get horses; + All have been seized everywhere for the use of this dreadful Mazzini. + + P.S. + + Mary has seen thus far.--I am really so angry, Louisa,-- + Quite out of patience, my dearest! What can the man be intending? + I am quite tired; and Mary, who might bring him to in a moment, + Lets him go on as he likes, and neither will help nor dismiss him. + + IX.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + It is most curious to see what a power a few calm words (in + Merely a brief proclamation) appear to possess on the people. + Order is perfect, and peace; the city is utterly tranquil; + And one cannot conceive that this easy and _nonchalant_ crowd, that + Flows like a quiet stream through street and market-place, entering + Shady recesses and bays of church, _osteria_ and _caffe_, + Could in a moment be changed to a flood as of molten lava, + Boil into deadly wrath and wild homicidal delusion. + + Ah, 'tis an excellent race,--and even in old degradation, + Under a rule that enforces to flattery, lying, and cheating, + E'en under Pope and Priest, a nice and natural people. + Oh, could they but be allowed this chance of redemption!--but clearly + That is not likely to be. Meantime, notwithstanding all journals, + Honor for once to the tongue and the pen of the eloquent writer! + Honor to speech! and all honor to thee, thou noble Mazzini! + + X.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + I am in love, meantime, you think; no doubt, you would think so. + I am in love, you say; with those letters, of course, you would say so. + + I am in love, you declare. I think not so; yet I grant you + It is a pleasure, indeed, to converse with this girl. Oh, rare gift, + Rare felicity, this! she can talk in a rational way, can + Speak upon subjects that really are matters of mind and of thinking, + Yet in perfection retain her simplicity; never, one moment, + Never, however you urge it, however you tempt her, consents to + Step from ideas and fancies and loving sensations to those vain + Conscious understandings that vex the minds of man-kind. + No, though she talk, it is music; her fingers desert not the keys; 'tis + Song, though you hear in her song the articulate vocables sounded, + Syllabled singly and sweetly the words of melodious meaning. + + XI.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Ah, let me look, let me watch, let me wait, unbiased, unprompted! + Bid me not venture on aught that could alter or end what is present! + Say not, Time flies, and occasion, that never returns, is departing! + Drive me not out, ye ill angels with fiery swords, from my Eden, + Waiting, and watching, and looking! Let love be its own inspiration! + Shall not a voice, if a voice there must be, from the airs that environ, + Yea, from the conscious heavens, without our knowledge or effort, + Break into audible words? Let love be its own inspiration! + + XII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Wherefore and how I am certain, I hardly can tell; but it is so. + She doesn't like me, Eustace; I think she never will like me. + Is it my fault, as it is my misfortune, my ways are not her ways? + Is it my fault, that my habits and modes are dissimilar wholly? + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her nature, her virtue, to misapprehend them: + 'Tis not her fault, 'tis her beautiful nature, not even to know me. + Hopeless it seems,--yet I cannot, hopeless, determine to leave it: + She goes,--therefore I go; she moves,--I move, not to lose her. + + XIII.--CLAUDE TO EUSTACE. + + Oh, 'tisn't manly, of course, 'tisn't manly, this method of wooing; + 'Tisn't the way very likely to win. For the woman, they tell you, + Ever prefers the audacious, the wilful, the vehement hero; + She has no heart for the timid, the sensitive soul; and for knowledge,-- + Knowledge, O ye gods!--when did they appreciate knowledge? + Wherefore should they, either? I am sure I do not desire it. + + Ah, and I feel too, Eustace, she cares not a tittle about me! + (Care about me, indeed! and do I really expect it?) + But my manner offends; my ways are wholly repugnant; + Every word that I utter estranges, hurts, and repels her; + Every moment of bliss that I gain, in her exquisite presence, + Slowly, surely, withdraws her, removes her, and severs her from me. + Not that I care very much!--any way, I escape from the boy's own + Folly, to which I am prone, of loving where it is easy. + Yet, after all, my Eustace, I know but little about it. + All I can say for myself, for present alike and for past, is, + Mary Trevellyn, Eustace, is certainly worth your acquaintance. + You couldn't come, I suppose, as far as Florence, to see her? + + XIV.--GEORGINA TREVELLYN TO LOUISA ------. + + * * * To-morrow we're starting for Florence, + Truly rejoiced, you may guess, to escape from republican terrors; + Sir. C. and Papa to escort us; we by _vettura_ + Through Siena, and Georgy to follow and join us by Leghorn. + Then----Ah, what shall I say, my dearest? I tremble in thinking! + You will imagine my feelings,--the blending of hope and of sorrow! + How can I bear to abandon Papa and Mamma and my sisters? + Dearest Louisa, indeed it is very alarming; but trust me + Ever, whatever may change, to remain your loving Georgina. + + P.S. BY MARY TREVELLYN. + + * * * "Do I like Mr. Claude any better?" + I am to tell you,--and, "Pray, is it Susan or I that attract him?" + This he never has told, but Georgina could certainly ask him. + All I can say for myself is, alas! that he rather repels me. + There! I think him agreeable, but also a little repulsive. + So be content, dear Louisa; for one satisfactory marriage + Surely will do in one year for the family you would establish, + Neither Susan nor I shall afford you the joy of a second. + + P.S. BY GEORGINA TREVELLYN. + + Mr. Claude, you must know, is behaving a little bit better; + He and Papa are great friends; but he really is too _shilly-shally_,-- + So unlike George! Yet I hope that the matter is going on fairly. + I shall, however, get George, before he goes, to say something. + Dearest Louisa, how delightful, to bring young people together! + + * * * * * + + Is it to Florence we follow, or are we to tarry yet longer, + E'en amid clamor of arms, here in the city of old, + Seeking from clamor of arms in the Past and the Arts to be hidden, + Vainly 'mid Arts and the Past seeking our life to forget? + + Ah, fair shadow, scarce seen, go forth! for anon he shall follow,-- + He that beheld thee, anon, whither thou leadest, must go! + Go, and the wise, loving Muse, she also will follow and find thee! + She, should she linger in Rome, were not dissevered from thee! + +[To be continued.] + + + + +A WELSH MUSICAL FESTIVAL. + + +I had been knocking about London, as the phrase goes, for more months +than I choose to mention, when, my purse presenting unmistakable +symptoms of a coming state of collapse, I began seriously to look about +me for the means of replenishing it. Luckily, I had not to wait long for +an opportunity. One morning, as I sat in the box of a coffee-room in +Holborn, running my eye over the advertisement columns of the "Times," +I met with one which promised novelty, at least; I had had too much +experience in such matters to anticipate from it any very great +_pecuniary_ compensation. The said advertisement was to the effect, +that a gentleman who combined literary tastes with business habits was +required to edit a paper published in a town in South Wales; and it went +on to state, that application, personally or by letter, might be made to +the proprietor of the said journal at M----. + +That I possessed some taste for literature I was well enough assured; +but as for my "business habits," perhaps the least said about them, the +better. This condition of candidateship, however, I quietly shirked, +while counting over my few remaining coins, scarcely more than +sufficient, after paying my landlady, to defray my expenses to M----, +some one hundred and sixty miles distant. Determining, then, to assume a +commercial virtue, though I had it not, I quitted the metropolis, and in +due time reached the land of leeks, with a light heart, and seven and +sixpence sterling in my pocket. + +A queer little Welsh town was M----, with an androgynous population,--or +so it seemed to me, who had never before beheld women wearing men's hats +and coats, and men with head-coverings and other articles of apparel +of a very ambiguous description. It chanced to be market-day when I +arrived, so that I had a capital opportunity of observing the population +for whose edification my "literary tastes" were, I hoped, to be called +into requisition. But at the very outset a tremendous difficulty stared +me in the face. Nine out of every ten of the people I met or passed +spoke in a language that to me was as unintelligibly mysterious as the +cuneiform characters on Mr. Layard's Nineveh sculptures. It was a hard, +harsh, guttural dialect, which even those who were to the manner born +seemed to jerk out painfully and spasmodically from their lingual +organs. This was especially obvious during a bargain, where an excited +market-man was endeavoring to pass off a tough old gander as a tender +young goose, to some equally excited customer. It was dissonant enough +to _my_ ear, but I fancy it would have driven a sensitive Italian to +distraction. After listening to the horrible jargon for some time, I +could easily believe the story which poor William Maginn used to tell +with such unction, of the origin of the Welsh language. It was to this +effect.--When the Tower of Babel was being built, the workmen all spoke +one tongue. Just at the very instant when the "confusion" occurred, a +mason, trowel in hand, called for a brick. This his assistant was so +long in handing to him, that he incontinently flew into a towering +passion, and discharged from the said trowel a quantity of mortar, which +entered the other's windpipe just as he was stammering out an excuse. +The air, rushing through the poultice-like mixture, caused a spluttering +and gurgling, which, blending with the half-formed words, became that +language ever since known as Welsh.--I think it my duty to advise the +reader never to tell this anecdote to any descendants of Cadwallader, +who are peculiarly sensitive on the subject, and so hot-blooded, that it +is not at all unlikely the injudicious story-teller might be deprived of +any future opportunity of insulting the Ap-Shenkins, the Ap-Joneses, and +the race of very irascible Taffys in general. + +I had, however, little time to study either language or character; so, +after a plain dinner at the Merlin's Head, the chief inn of the place, I +set out for the purpose of seeing the newspaper proprietor. Fortified by +a letter of introduction and some testimonials, I entered his shop,--he +was a bookseller and stationer,--and inquired for Mr. F----. + +"That's my name," said a red-faced man behind the counter. I handed him +the introductory note, he glanced at it and then at me, thrust it into +his waistcoat pocket, and, as soon as he had served the customer with +whom he was engaged, led the way into a little room adjoining the place +of business. + +Mr. F--- owned the newspaper; but, as he never ventured in a literary +way beyond reading proofs of advertisements, he was compelled to employ +an editor to do the leaders, select from the exchanges, prepare the +local news, and get up the reporting. He was, however, a practical +printer, and, in the main, a good fellow. After looking at my +testimonials and asking a few questions, my services were accepted, +and I was duly installed as editor of the "M---- Beacon," a small, +but rather influential county sheet. I ought to observe, that, as it +circulated chiefly in places where English was generally spoken, my +ignorance of Welsh was of but little importance, especially as the +foreman of the printing-office was a Cambrian, who could correct any +errors I might make in Taffy's orthography, which, prodigal as it is of +consonants and penurious of vowels, and, as it regards pronunciation, +embarrassing to the last degree, might drive Elihu Burritt back to his +smithy in an agony of despair. + +Thus assisted, I got on tolerably well, though at first I made some +awful mistakes in the names of places mentioned by witnesses in courts +of justice and elsewhere. For instance, at the assizes, a man swore that +he resided at a place which he pronounced Monothosluin, and so I spelt +it in my report. "Cot pless me, Sur!--sure inteed, and you have +not spelt hur right," remarked Mr. Morgan, the foreman; and for my +edification he set it up thus,--_Mynyddysllwyn_. I almost turned my +tongue into a corkscrew, trying to speak the word as he did, and I +fairly gave up in despair. After that, I made it a rule, when I did +not know how to spell some unpronounceable word, to huddle a number of +consonants together in most admired disorder, and I was then usually +nearer correctness than if I had orthographized by ear. + +I had been installed in the editorial chair some six months when Mr. +F---- informed me it was necessary I should visit Abergavenny, a town +some twenty-five miles distant, for the purpose of reporting the +proceedings at the CYMREIGGDDYON. + +"And what the deuse is that?" I inquired. + +I learned that it was a Triennial Musical Festival, so called,--at which +all the musical talent of Wales would be present; in short, that it was +a very grand occasion indeed, would be patronized by the aristocracy +of the Principality, and full reports of each of the three days' +proceedings were absolutely necessary. + +Here again the Welsh difficulty started up; but as the Cymreiggddyon +would be quite a novelty, I determined to trust to Chance and +Circumstance,--two allies of mine who have gallantly aided me in many a +tough battle of literary life. + +Remembering the words of Goldsmith,--"The young noble who is whirled +through Europe in his chariot sees society at a peculiar elevation, and +draws conclusions widely different from him who makes the grand tour on +foot," I determined to make my way to Abergavenny either by means of my +own legs or through the chance aid of those of a Welsh pony. So, +one bright morning, with stick in hand, knapsack on shoulder, and a +wandering artist for a companion, I started for the iron district, +as that part of Wales is termed. Wildly romantic were the roads we +traversed; and after having threaded many a glen, leaped frequent +torrents, ascended and descended mountains with impossible names, and +plodded wearily across dreary moors, glad enough were we to observe, in +the less thinly scattered cottages, indications of a town. + +The clouds had been gathering ominously during the latter half of our +long day of travel,--and as the sun set blood-red behind a heavy bank of +vapor, it cast lurid reflections on large bodies of dense mist, which +sailed heavily athwart the crests of the mountains, with low, ragged, +trailing edges, that were too surely the precursors of a storm. Just +before the orb finally disappeared, its slant rays streamed through some +dark purple bars on the horizon's verge, and for an instant tinged the +opposite distant mountains with strange supernatural hues. The Blorenge +and the Sugar Loaf glowed like huge carbuncles, while the pale green +light which bathed their bases gleamed faintly like a setting of +aqua-marina. My artist companion incontinently fell into professional +raptures, and raved of "effect," and "Turner," and "Ruskin," heedless of +my advice that he had better hasten onward, lest night should overtake +us in that wild region, where sheep-tracks, scarcely visible even by +daylight, were our sole guides. At length, however, I managed to +start him, and on we stalked, the decreasing twilight and the distant +reverberations of thunder among the mountains hastening our steps, until +they became almost a trot. + +But soon the trot declined once more into a walk, and a slow one +too,--for we entered a gloomy pass or gorge, whose rocky walls on either +side effectually excluded what little light yet lingered in the sky. +Cautiously picking our way, we slowly travelled on, until at length +we became sensible of a faint red flush in the narrow strip of sky +overhead. It seemed as though the sun had just wheeled back to give a +forgotten message to some starry-night-watcher,--or so my companion +intimated. But, unfortunately for his theory, the dull red glare +above us, which every moment deepened in intensity, was evidently +the reflection of earthly, not heavenly fire. I had seen too many +conflagrations to doubt that for an instant. Presently a dull, confused +sound fell on our ears, and at a sudden turn round an angle of our +mountain road we stood speechless as we gazed on a spectacle which +Milton might have conceived and Martin painted. + + "Far other light than that of day there shone + Upon the wanderers entering Padalon," + +murmured the artist, as he gazed on the strange scene. And strange +indeed was it to our startled eyes. We stood on the end and summit of a +mountain spur, some two thousand feet above the valley, or rather basin, +below, from the centre of which burst forth a thousand fires, whose +dull roar--dulled by distance--was like "the noise of the sea on an +iron-bound shore." The extent of space covered by those strange, fierce +fires must have amounted to many acres,--in fact, did so, as we +afterwards ascertained,--and the effect produced by them may be +partially imagined when it is remembered that these flames were of all +hues, from rich ruby-red, to the pale lurid light of burning sulphur. +Fancy all the gems of Aladdin's Palace or Sinbad's Valley in fierce +flashing combustion, immensely magnified, and you may form some faint +idea of the scene in that Welsh valley. + +Stretching out, like spokes of a gigantic wheel, from their fiery +centre, were huge embankments, like those of Titanic railways, whose +summits and sides, especially towards their extremities, glowed in +patches with all the hues of the rainbow. As I gazed wonderingly on one +of these,--a real mountain of light, far surpassing the Koh-i-Noor,--I +observed a dark figure gliding along its summit, pushing something +before it, like a black imp conveying an unfortunate soul from one part +of Tophet to another. At the extremity of the ridge the imp stopped, and +suddenly there shot down the steep, not a tortured ghost, but a shower +of radiant gems even more brilliant than those to which I have already +referred. + +"What, in the name of all that's wonderful, is _that_?" said my friend, +Mr. Vandyke Brown; and I was also trying to account for the phenomena, +when a voice close to my ear--a voice which I was certain belonged +neither to Mr. B. nor myself--uttered the mysterious word,-- + +"Sl-aa-g!" + +I looked round, and, sure enough, there stood a being who might very +easily be mistaken for a new arrival from the bottomless pit. Such, +however, it was evident he was not. Though he was black enough, in all +conscience, he had neither horns, hoof, nor tail, and he was redolent +rather of 'bacco than brimstone; a queer old hat, in the band of which +was stuck an unlighted candle, covered a mass of matted red hair; his +eyes were glaring and rimmed with red; and there was a gash in his face +where his mouth should have been. A loose flannel shirt, which had once +been red, a pair of indescribable trowsers, and thick-soled shoes, +completed his dress,--an attire which I at once recognized as that +common among the coal-miners of the district. + +"'Deed and truth, Sur, they is cinder-heaps and slag from the +iron-works, Sur; and yon is Merthyr-Tydvil, sure." + +Piloted by our dusky guide,--not exactly, though, like Campbell's +"_Morning_ brought by Night,"--we soon reached the town,--which is named +after a young lady of legendary times named Tydfil, a Christian martyr, +of which Merthyr-Tydvil is a corruption,--and made the best of our +way to the Bush Inn, where we treated our sable friend to some _cwrw +dach,--Anglice_, strong ale; and after a hearty supper of Welsh rabbit, +which Tom Ingoldsby calls a "bunny without any bones," and "custard with +mustard,"--which, as made in the Principality, it much resembles,--I +took a stroll through the town. It was a dull-looking place enough, and +as dirty as dull; every house was built with dingy gray stones, without +any reference whatever to cleanliness or ventilation; and as to the +civilization of the inhabitants, I saw enough to convince me, that, to +see real barbarism, an Englishman need only visit that part of Great +Britain called Wales. It was eight in the evening, and the day-laborers +at the furnaces had just left work. The doors of all the cottages were +open, and, as I passed them, in almost every one was to be seen a +perfectly naked stalwart man rubbing himself down with a dirty rough +towel, while his wife and grown-up daughters or sisters, almost as nude +and filthy as himself, stood listlessly by, or prepared his supper. + +Glad to escape from such disgusting objects, I hurried back to the Bush +and to bed. But not to rest, though; for during that long, miserable +night, the eternal rattle of machinery, clattering of hammers, whirling +of huge wheels, and roaring of blast-furnaces completely murdered sleep. +Never, for one instant, did these sounds cease,--nor do they, it is +said, the long year through; for if any accident happens at one of the +five great iron-works, there are four others which rest not day nor +night. Little, however, is this heeded by the people of Merthyr; _they_ +are lulled to repose by the clatter of iron bars and the thumping of +trip-hammers, but are instantaneously awakened by the briefest intervals +of silence. + +Glad enough was I, the next morning early, to cross an ink-black stream +and leave the town, and pleasant was it to breathe the free, fresh +mountain air, after inhaling the foul smoke of the iron-works. Towards +the close of the afternoon, after a delightful walk, a great portion +of it on the banks of the picturesque river Usk, we came in sight of +Abergavenny, where the Cymreiggddyon was to be held. + +The first of the glorious three days was duly ushered in with the firing +of cannon, ringing of bells, and all kinds of extravagant jubilation. +It wasn't quite as noisy as a Fourth of July, but much more discordant. +Strings of flags were suspended across the streets,--flags with harps +of all sorts and sizes displayed thereon,--flags with Welsh mottoes, +English mottoes, Scotch mottoes, and no mottoes at all. In front of the +Town Hall was almost an acre of transparent painting,--meant, that is, +to be so after dark, but mournfully opaque and pictorially mysterious in +the full glare of sunshine. As far as I could make it out, it was the +full-length portrait--taken from life, no doubt--of an Ancient Welsh +Bard. He was depicted as a baldheaded, elderly gentleman, with upturned +eyes, apparently regarding with reverence a hole in an Indian-ink cloud +through which slanted a gamboge sunbeam, and having a white beard, +which streamed like a (horse-hair) "meteor on the troubled air." This +venerable minstrel was seated on a cairn of rude stones, his white robe +clasped at his throat and round his waist by golden brooches, and with a +harp, shaped like that of David in old Bible illustrations, resting on +the sward before him. In the background were some Druidical remains, by +way of audience; and the whole was surrounded by a botanical border, +consisting of leeks, oak-leaves, laurel, and mistletoe, which had a very +rare and agreeable effect. Nor were these hieroglyphical decorations +without a deep meaning to a Cambrian; for while the oak-leaf typified +the durability of Welsh minstrelsy, the mistletoe its mysterious origin, +and the laurel its reward, the national leek was pleasantly suggestive +of its usual culinary companions, Welsh mutton and toasted cheese. + +As in America, so in Wales, almost every public matter is provocative of +a procession, and the proceedings of the Festival commenced with one. No +doubt, it was to the eyes of the many, who from scores of miles round +had travelled to witness it, a very imposing and serious demonstration; +but anything more ridiculously amusing it was never my good fortune to +see. I had, however, to keep all my fun to myself, for Welshmen are not +to be trifled with. Any one who wishes to be convinced of this need only +walk into a Welsh village, singing the old child-doggerel of + + "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, + Taffy came to my house and stole a piece + of beef," etc., + +and, my life on it, he will not leave it without striking proofs of +Welsh sensitiveness, and voluble illustrations of some Jenny Jones's +displeasure. By no means inclined to subject myself to such inconvenient +experiences, I prudently kept my eyes wide open and my mouth shut,--or +if I spoke, I merely asked questions, by which means I acquired +necessary information and passed off for a gratified stranger and an +admiring spectator. + +All the resources of the town and its neighborhood, and indeed of the +county itself, had been exhausted to give due effect to the parade, +of which I regret to say that I cannot hope to give any adequate +description. All the usual elements of processions were to be seen. +Bands of music,--there were at least a dozen of them, all playing +different pieces at one and the same moment, which had a somewhat +distracting effect on those sensitively-eared people who weakly prefer +one air at a time and do not appreciate tuneful tornadoes. As the +procession went by at a brisk pace, it was curious enough to notice how +the last wailing notes of "A noble race was Shenkin," played by a band +in advance, blended with the brisk music of "My name's David Price, and +I'm come from Llangollen," performed by a company in the rear. In fact, +it was a genuine Welsh musical medley, and the daring genius who would +have occupied himself in "untwisting all the links which tied its hidden +soul of harmony," would have had about as difficult and distressing a +task as he who tried to make ropes out of sea-sand. + +Of course, these bands were made up of divers instruments, but the +national harp was head and chief of them all, as might naturally have +been expected in such a place and at such a time. There were harps of +all sorts and shapes; some of the Welsh urchins had even Jews-harps +between their teeth. There were Irish harps, English harps, and Welsh +harps. There was no Caledonian harp, though; but a remarkably dirty +fellow in the procession seemed to be making up for the lack of one +stringed instrument by bringing another,--the Scotch fiddle!--on which +he perpetually played the tune of "God bless the gude Duke of Argyle!" +There were harps with one, two, and three sets of strings,--harps with +gold strings, silver strings, brass strings,--strings of cat-gut and +brass,--strings red, and brown, and white. I looked sharp for the "harp +of a thousand strings," but it was nowhere to be seen; and surmising +that such is only played on by the spirits of just men made perfect, I +ceased to search further for it in _that_ procession,--for though the +men composing it might be just enough, they were evidently a long way +from perfection. And when it is remembered that all these harps were +twang-twanging away furiously, and that their strings were being +swept over with no Bochsa fingers, few will wonder that I longed for +cotton-wool, and blessed the memory of Paganini, who had only one string +to his bow. + +Harps, however, would be of little value, were there no bards to sing +and no minstrels to play. Walter Scott was decidedly wrong, when, +speaking of his minstrel, he says,-- + + "The _last_ of all the bards was he." + +Nonsense! I saw at least fifty in that procession,--regular, legitimate +bards,--each one having a bardic bald pate, a long white bardic beard, +flowing bardic robes, bardic sandals, a bardic harp in his hand, and an +ancient bardic name. There was Bard Alaw, Bard Llewellyn, Bard Ap-Tudor, +Bard Llyyddmunnddggynn, (pronounce it, if you can, Reader,--I can't,) +and I am afraid to say how many more, in face of the high poetical +authority I have just cited and refuted. Talk of the age of poetry +having passed away, when three-score and ten bards can be seen at one +time in a little Welsh town! These men of genius were headed by Bard +Alaw, whose unpoetical name, I almost hesitate to write it, was +Williams,--Taliesin Williams,--the Welsh given name alone redeeming it +from obscurity. I found, too, to my disenchantment, that all the other +bards were Joneses and Morgans, Pryces and Robertses, when they were met +in everyday life, before and after these festivals; and that they kept +shops, and carried on mechanical trades. Only fancy Bard Ap-Tudor +shaving you, or Bard Llyynnssllumpllyynn measuring you for a new pair of +trowsers! + +After the bards and minstrels came the gentry of the county, the clergy, +and distinguished strangers, before and behind whom banners floated and +flags streamed. On many of these banners were fancy portraits of Saint +David, the Patron Saint of Wales, always with a harp in his hand. But +the Saint must have had a singularly varied expression of countenance, +or else his portrait-painters must have been mere block-heads, for no +two of their productions were alike. I saw smiling Davids, frowning +Davids, mild Davids, and ferocious Davids,--Davids with oblique eyes, +red noses, and cavernous mouths,--and Davids as blind as bats, or with +great goggle-orbs, aquiline nasal organs, blue at the tips, and lips +made for a lisp. One David had a brown Welsh wig on his head, and was +anachronistically attired in a snuff-colored coat, black small-clothes, +gray, coarse, worsted stockings, high-low boots, with buckles, and he +wore on his head a three-cornered hat, and used spectacles as big as +tea-saucers. On my remarking to a bystander, that I was not aware +knee-breeches were worn in the time of the ancient kings, I was +condescendingly informed that _this_ David was not the celebrated +Monarch-Minstrel, but a Mr. Pryce David, the founder of the +Cymreiggddyon Society. But the most amusing David was one depicted on a +banner carried in front of a company of barbers belonging to the order +of Odd Fellows. In that magnificent work of art David was represented +bewailing the death of Absalom, that unhappy young man being seen +hanging by his hair from a tree. Out of the mouth of David issued a +scroll, on which was inscribed the following touching verse:-- + + "Oh, Absalom! Oh, Absalom! + Oh, Absalom, my son! + If thou hadst worn a good Welsh wig, + Thou hadst not been undone!" + +It was with no little trouble that I elbowed my way into the great +temporary hall where the exercises were to be held: but by dint of much +pressing forward, I at length reached the reporters' bench. Directly in +front was a raised platform, and on two sides of the tent galleries +had been erected for the bards and orators. On the platform table +were arranged prizes to be given for the best playing, singing, and +speaking,--and also for articles of domestic Welsh manufacture, such +as plaids, flannels, and the like. A large velvet and gilded chair was +placed on a dais for the president, and on either side of this, seats +for ladies and visitors. In a very short time every corner of the +spacious area was crammed. + +And a pretty and a cheerful spectacle was presented wherever the eye +turned. As in almost all other gatherings of the kind, the fair sex were +greatly in the majority; and during the interval which elapsed between +the opening of the doors and the beginning of business, the clatter of +female tongues was prodigious. The sex generally are voluble when in +crowds; but as for Welsh women, their loquacity was far beyond anything +of the kind I had ever conceived of. And there were some wonderfully +handsome specimens of girlhood, womanhood, and matronhood among that +great gathering; though I am compelled to admit that in Wales beauty +forms the exception, rather than the rule. + +But the bards are in their places,--the front rows of either gallery; +the president has taken his seat; the leading ladies of the county are +in their chairs; and while the large audience are settling down into +their places, let us glance at two or three of the celebrities present. + +On the foremost seat, to the right of the chairman, sits a lady who is +evidently a somebody, since all the gentlemen, on entering, pay her +especial respect. She is rather past the middle age, but has worn well; +her eye is still bright, her cheek fresh-colored, and her skin smooth. +Evidently she takes much interest in the proceedings,--and little +wonder,--for it is mainly owing to her exertions that the Festival +has not become one of the things that were. Her name? You may see it +embroidered in dahlias on yonder broad strip of white cotton, stretching +across the breadth of the hall, nearly over her head. These blossoms +form the letters and words, GWENNEN GWENT, or "The Bee of Gwent,"--Gwent +being the ancient name of that portion of Glamorgan. The title is apt +enough; for Lady Hall--that is her matter-of-fact name--is proverbially +one of the busiest of her sex in all that relates to the welfare of her +poorer neighbors. She is wife of Sir Benjamin Hall, member of Parliament +for the largest parish in London, St. Mary-le-bone, and whose +county residence is at Llanover Court, near Abergavenny. That tall, +aristocratic man near her is her husband; but he looks somewhat out of +place there. As a member of the House of Commons, he is prominent; but +evidently his present position is not at all to his taste. + +On the left of the chairman is another lady, whose name is well known +in literary circles. She is not Welsh by birth, though she is so by +marriage,--she being united to one of the great iron-masters. She has a +large face, open and cheerful-looking, if not handsome. The forehead is +broad and white,--the eyes dark and lustrous. Formerly she was known to +the reading world as Lady Charlotte Lindsay; now she is Lady Charlotte +Guest; a woman than whom very few archaeologists are better acquainted +with the Welsh language and its ancient literature. She is the author of +that very learned work, "The Mabinogion," a collection of early Welsh +legends. This book was printed a few years since by the pale-faced, +intelligent-looking man who is standing behind her chair,--Mr. Rees,--a +printer in an obscure Welsh hamlet, named Llandovery. He has, with +perfect propriety, been termed the Welsh Elzevir; and certainly a finer +specimen of typography than that furnished by the "Mabinogion" can +scarcely be produced. + +The chairman is a pompous old nobody. Him I need not describe. The +presiding and directing spirit of the place is a tall, slender gentleman +with snow-white hair, dark, flashing eyes, and a graceful bearing; it is +the Rev. Thomas Price, or, as his Welsh title has it, _Carnuhanawc_. +He is a thorough believer in the ultra-excellence of everything +Welsh,--Welsh music, Welsh flannels, Welsh scenery, Welsh mutton; and +so far as regards the latter, I am quite of his opinion. After a very +animated speech, he directs the competitors on the triple harp to stand +forward and begin a harmonious contest. + +There are three,--an old blind man, a young man, and a girl some +fourteen years of age. Every one cheers the latter lustily, and "wishes +she may get it." So do I, of course; and I listen with great interest as +Miss Winifred Jenkins commences her performance, which she does without +blush or hesitation, and with quite an I-know-all-about-it sort of air. +I forget the particular piece the young lady played; but upon it she +extemporized so many variations, that long before she came to an ending +I had lost all remembrance of the text from which she had deduced her +melodious sermon. There was, I thought, more mechanical tact than +expression in her performance, but it was enthusiastically applauded for +all that; and with an awkward curtsy--much like Sydney Smith's little +servant-maid Bunch's "bobbing to the centre of the earth"--the +red-cheeked little harpist vanished. + +Next came the young man; but several of the harp-strings at once snapped +in consequence of his fierce fingering, and he broke down amidst howls +of guttural disapprobation. So far as competition was concerned, he was, +in sporting parlance, nowhere! + +The old blind gentleman followed, and I do not think that I ever +witnessed a more melancholy spectacle. Apollo playing on his stringed +instrument presents a very graceful appearance; but fancy a Welsh +Orpheus with a face all seamed and scarred by smallpox,--a short, fiery +button in the middle of his countenance, serving for a nose,--a mouth +awry and toothless,--and two long, dirty, bony hands, with claw-like +fingers tipped with dark crescents,--and I do not think the picture will +be a pleasant one. If the horrible-looking old fellow had concealed +his ghastly eyes by colored glasses, the effect would not have been so +disagreeable; but it was absolutely frightful to see him rolling his +head, as he played, and every now and then staring with the whites of +his eyes full in the faces of his unseen audience. At length, greatly +to my relief, he gave the last decisive twang, and was led away by his +wife. It is almost needless to say that the musical "Bunch" took the +prize. + +"Penillionn Singing" was the next attraction. This was something like +an old English madrigal done into Welsh, and, as a specimen of +vocalization, pleasing enough,--as pleasing, that is, as Welsh singing +can be to an English ear; but how different from the soft, liquid +Italian trillings, the flexible English warblings, the melodious ballads +of Scotland, or the rollicking songs of Ireland! There was only one of +the many singers I heard at the Festival who at all charmed me, and that +was a little vocalist of much repute in Southern Wales for her bird-like +voice and brilliancy of execution. Her professional name was pretty +enough,--_Eos Vach Morganwg_,--"The Little Nightingale of Glamorgan." +Her renderings of some simple Welsh melodies were delicious; they as far +excelled the outpourings of the other singers as the compositions of +Mendelssohn or Bellini surpass a midnight feline concert. I have heard +Chinese singing, and have come to the conclusion, that, next to it, +Welsh prize-vocalism is the most ear-distracting thing imaginable. + +So it went on; Welsh, Welsh, Welsh, nothing but Welsh, until I was +heartily sick of it. Then, the singing part of the performance being +concluded, the bardic portion of the business commenced. It was +conducted in this manner:-- + +The names of several subjects were written on separate slips of paper, +and these being placed in a box, each bard took one folded up and with +but brief preparation was expected to extemporize a poem on the theme he +had drawn. The contest speedily commenced, and to me this part of the +proceedings was far and away the most entertaining. Of course, being, as +I said, ignorant of the language, I could not understand the _matter_ of +the improvisations; but as for the _manner_, just imagine a mad North +American Indian, a howling and dancing Dervise, an excited Shaker, a +violent case of fever-and-ague, a New York auctioneer, and a pugilist +of the Tom Hyer school, all fused together, and you may form some faint +idea of a Welsh bard in the agony of inspiration. Such roaring, +such eye-rolling, such thumping of fists and stamping of feet, such +joint-dislocating action of the arms, such gyrations of the head, such +spasmodic jerkings--out of the language of the ancient Britons, I never +heard before, and fervently pray that I never may again. And, let it be +remembered, the grotesque costume of the bard wonderfully heightened the +effect. His long beard, made of tow, became matted with the saliva which +ran down upon it from the corners of his mouth; his make-believe +bald scalp was accidentally wiped to one side, as he mopped away the +perspiration from his forehead with a red cotton handkerchief; and a +nail in the gallery front catching his ancient robe, in a moment of +frenzy, a fearful rending sound indicated a solution of continuity, and +exposed a modern blue _un_bardic pair of breeches with bright brass +buttons beneath,--an incident in keeping with the sham nature of all the +proceedings. For a mortal half hour this exhibition lasted, and when +the impassioned speaker sat down, panting and perspiring, the multitude +stamped, clapped, and hallooed, and went into such paroxysms of frenzy, +that Bedlam broke loose could alone be compared with it. + +During the three days the Festival lasted, such scenes as I have +described were repeated,--the only changes being in the persons of +the singers and spouters. Glad enough was I when all was over, and my +occupation as reporter gone, for that time at least. With the aid of +a Welsh friend I managed to make a highly florid report of the +proceedings, which occupied no less than eight columns of the "M---- +Beacon." As several of the speakers were only too glad to give me, _sub +rosa_, copies of their speeches in their native language, and as none +knew of the fact but ourselves, I gained no little reputation as an +accomplished Welsh scholar. The result of this was, that presents of +Welsh Bibles, hymn-books, histories, topographies, and the like, by the +score, were forwarded to me,--some out of respect for my talents as a +great Welsh linguist, others for review in the newspaper. I was neither +born to such greatness, nor did I ever achieve it; it was literally +thrust on me; so also were sundry joints of the delicious Liliputian +Welsh mutton, which latter I am not ashamed to say I thoroughly +understood, appreciated, and digested. The ancient _litter_-ature, I am +sorry to confess, I sold as waste paper, at so much per pound; but +to show that some lingering regard for at least two of Cambria's +institutions yet reigns in this ---- bosom, I am just about to begin +upon a Welsh rabbit, and wash it down with a pitcher of _cwrw dach_. + + + + +CORNUCOPIA. + + + There's a lodger lives on the first floor, + (My lodgings are up in the garret,) + At night and at morn he taketh a horn + And calleth his neighbors to share it,-- + A horn so long, and a horn so strong, + I wonder how they can bear it. + + I don't mean to say that he drinks, + For that were a joke or a scandal; + But, every one knows it, he night and day blows it;-- + I wish he'd blow out like a candle! + His horn is so long, and he blows it so strong, + He would make Handel fly off the handle. + + By taking a horn I don't hint + That he swigs either rum, gin, or whiskey; + It's _we_ who drink in his din worse than gin, + His strains that attempt to be frisky, + But are grievously sad.--A donkey, I add, + Is as musical, braying in _his_ key. + + It's a puzzle to know what he's at; + I could pity him, if it were madness: + I never yet knew him to play a tune through, + And it gives me more anger than sadness + To hear his horn stutter and stammer to utter + Its various abortions of badness. + + At his wide open window he stands, + Overlooking his bit of a garden; + One can see the great ass at one end of his brass + Blaring out, never asking your pardon: + This terrible blurting he thinks is not hurting, + As long as his own ear-drums harden. + + He thinks, I've no doubt, it is sweet, + While thus Time and Tune he is flaying; + The little house-sparrows feel all through their marrows + The jar and the fuss of his playing,-- + The windows all shaking, the babies all waking, + The very dogs howling and baying. + + One note out of twenty he hits, + And, cheered, blows _pianos_ like _fortes_. + His time is his own. He goes sounding alone, + (A sort of Columbus or Cortes,) + On a perilous ocean, without any notion + Whereabouts in the dim deep his port is. + + Like a man late from club, he has lost + His key, and around stumbles moping, + Touching this, trying that, now a sharp, now a flat, + Till he strikes on the note he is hoping, + And a terrible blare at the end of the air + Shows he's got through at last with his groping. + + There,--he's finished,--at least, for a while; + He is tired, or come to his senses; + And out of his horn shakes the drops that were borne + By the winds of his musical frenzies. + There's a rest, thank our stars, of ninety-nine bars, + Ere the tempest of sound recommences. + + When all the bad players are sent + Where all their false notes are protested, + I am sure that Old Nick will play him a trick, + When his bad trump and he are arrested, + And down in the regions of Discord's own legions + His head with two French horns be crested. + + * * * * * + + +MY JOURNAL TO MY COUSIN MARY. + + +March, 1855. + +Of all the letters of condolence I have received since my misfortune, +yours has consoled me most. It surprises me, I confess, that a far-away +cousin--of whom I only remember that she had the sweetest of earthly +smiles--should know better how to reach the heart of my grief and soothe +it into peace, than any nearest of kin or oldest of friends. But so it +has been, and therefore I feel that your more intimate acquaintance +would be something to interest me and keep my heart above despair. + +My sister Catalina, my devoted nurse, says I must snatch at anything +likely to do that, as a drowning man catches at straws, or I shall +be overwhelmed by this calamity. But is it not too late? Am I not +overwhelmed? I feel that life is a revolting subject of contemplation in +my circumstances, a poor thing to look forward to. Death itself looks +pleasanter. + +Call up to your mind what I was, and what my circumstances were. I was +healthy and strong. I could run, and wrestle, and breast strong winds, +and cleave rough waters, and climb steep hills,--things I shall +henceforth be able only to remember,--yes, and to sigh to do again. + +I was thoroughly educated for my profession. I was panting to fulfil its +duties and rise to its honors. I was beginning to make my way up. I +had gained one cause,--my first and last,--and my friends thought me +justified in entertaining the highest hopes. + +It had always been an object of ambition with me to--well, I will +confess--to be popular in society; and I know I was not the +reverse.--So much, Mary, for what I was. Now see what I am. + +I am, and shall forever be,--so the doctors tell me,--a miserable, +sickly, helpless being, without hope of health or independence. My +object in life can only be--to be comfortable, if possible, and not to +be an intolerable trial to those about me! Worth living for,--isn't it? + +An athlete, eager and glowing in the race of life, transformed by a +thunder-bolt into a palsied and whining cripple for whom there is no +Pool of Bethesda,--that is what has befallen me! + +I suppose you read the shocking details of the collision in the papers. +Catalina and I sat, of course, side by side in the cars. We had that day +met in New York, after a separation of years. She had just returned from +Europe. I went to meet and escort her home, and, as we whirled over the +Jersey sands, I told her of all my plans and hopes. She listened at +first with her usual lively interest; but as I went on, she looked me +full in the face with an air of exasperated endurance, as if what I +proposed to accomplish were beyond reason. I own that I was in a fool's +paradise of buoyant expectation. At last she interrupted me. + +"Ah, yes! No doubt! You'll do those trifles, of course! And, perhaps, +among your other plans and intentions is that of living forever? It is +an easy thing to resolve upon;--better not stop short of it." + +At this instant came the crash, and I knew nothing more until I heard +people remonstrating with Kate for persisting in trying to revive a dead +man, (myself,) while the blood was flowing profusely from her own wound. +I heard her indignantly deny that I was dead, and, with her customary +irritability, tell them that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for +saying so. They still insisted that I was "a perfect jelly," and could +not possibly survive, even if I came to consciousness. She contradicted +them energetically. Yet they pardoned, and liked her. They knew that a +fond heart keenly resents evil prophecies of its beloved ones. Besides, +whatever she does or says, people always like Kate. + +After a physician arrived, it was found that the jellying of my flesh +was not the worst of it; for, in consequence of some injury to my spine, +my lower limbs were paralyzed. My sister, thank Heaven, had received +only a slight cut upon the forehead. + +Of course I don't mean to bore you with a recital of all my sufferings +through those winter months. I don't ask your compassion for such +trifles as bodily pain; but for what I am, and must forever be in this +life, my own heart aches for pity. Let yours sympathize with it. + +I thought to be so active, so useful, perhaps so distinguished as a man, +so blest as husband and father!--for you must know how from my boyhood +up I have craved, what I have never had, a home. + +Now that I have been thrust out of active life and forced to make up my +mind to perfect passiveness, I have become a bugbear to myself. I cannot +endure the thought of ever being the peevish egotist, the exacting +tyrant, which men are apt to become when they are thrown upon woman's +love and long-suffering, as I am. + +My only safeguard is, I believe, to keep up interests out of myself, and +I beg of you to help me. I believe implicitly in your expressed desire +to be of some service to me, and I ask you to undertake the troublesome +task of correspondence with a sick man, and almost a stranger. I will, +however, try to make you acquainted with myself and my surroundings, so +thoroughly that the latter difficulty will soon be obviated. + +First, let me present my sister,--named Catalina,--called Kate, Catty, +or Lina, according to the fancy of the moment, or the degree of +sentimentality in the speaker. You have not seen her since she was a +child, so that, of course, you cannot imagine her as she is now. But you +know the circumstances in which our parents left us. You remember, that, +after living all his life in careless luxury, my father died penniless. +Our mother had secured her small fortune for Kate; and at her death, +just before my father's, she gave me--an infant a few weeks old--into my +sister's young arms, with full trust that I should be taken care of by +her. You know of all my obligations to her in my babyhood and for my +education, which she drudged at teaching for years to obtain for me. I +could never repay her for such devotion, but I hoped to make her forget +all her trials, and only retain the happy consciousness of having had +the making of such a famous man! I expected to place her in affluence, +at least. + +And now what can I bring to her but grief and gray hairs? I am dependent +upon her for my daily bread; I occupy all her time, either in nursing or +sewing for me; I try her temper hourly with my sick-man's whims; and I +doom her to a future of care and economy. Yet I believe in my soul that +she blesses me every time she looks upon me! + +Thackeray says women like to be martyrized. I hardly think it is the +pursuit of pleasure which leads them to self-denial. Men, at any rate, +do not often seek enjoyment in that form. If women do make choice of +such a class of delights, even instinctively, they need advance no other +claim to superiority over men. The higher the animal, the higher its +propensities. + +Kate the other day was asserting a wife's right to the control of her +own property, and incidentally advocating the equality of the sexes,--a +touchy point with her. I put in,-- + +"Tell me, then, Lina, why animals form stronger attachments to men than +to women. Your dog, your parrot, even your cat, already prefers me to +you. How can you account for it, unless by allowing that there is more +in us to respect and love?" + +"I account for it," said she, with her most decided nod, "by affinity. +There is more affinity between you and brutes. It is the sons of God who +find the daughters of men fair. We draw angels from the skies;--even +your jealous, reluctant sex has borne witness to that." + +"Pshaw! only those anomalous creatures, the poets. But please yourself +with such fancies; they encourage a pretty pride that becomes your sex. +Conscious forever of being your lords, we feel that the higher you raise +yourselves, the higher you place us. You can't help owning that angelic +woman-kind submits--and gladly--to us." + +"Nonsense! conceited nonsense!" + +"But _don't_ they?" + +"Some do; but I do not." + +"Why, all my life you have been to me a most devoted, obedient servant, +Kate." + +"Yes, I have my pets," she answered, "and I care for them. I am +housemaid to my bird; my cat makes her bed of my lap and my best silk +dress; I am purveyor to my dog, head-scratcher to my parrot, and so +forth. It is my pleasure to be kind. Higher natures always are so,--yes, +Charlie, even minutely solicitous for the welfare of the objects of +their care; for are not the very hairs of our head all numbered by the +Most Beneficent?" + +She began in playful insolence, but ended with tearful eyes, and a +grateful, humble glow upon her face. Its like I had never seen before in +her rather imperious countenance. I gazed at her with interest. She +saw me, and was irritated to be caught with moistened eyes. She scorns +crying, like a man. + +"Come, come!" said she, childishly and snappishly, "what are you looking +at?" + +Of course you cannot have any idea of her personal appearance from +memory, and I will try to give you one by description. + +Though over thirty, she is generally considered very handsome, and is +in the very prime of her beauty; for it is not of the fragile, delicate +order. She has jet-black, very abundant hair, hazel eyes, and a +complexion that is very fair, without being blonde. A bright, healthy +color in cheek and lip makes her look as fresh as a rose. Her nose is +the doubtful feature. It is--hum!--_Roman_, and some fastidious folks +think a _trifle_ too large. But I think it suits well her keen eyes +and slightly haughty mouth. She has fine hands, a tall figure, and an +independent "grand action," that is not wanting in grace, but is more +significant of prompt energy. + +The study of woman is a new one to me. I often see Kate's friends +and gossips,--for I occupy the parlor as sick-room,--and I lie +philosophizing upon them by the hour, puzzling myself to solve the +problem of their idiosyncrasies. Lady Mary Wortley Montague said, that, +in all her travels, she had met with but two kinds of people,--men +and women. I begin to think that one sex will never be thoroughly +comprehended by the other, notwithstanding the desperate efforts the +novelists are making now-a-days. They all go upon the same plan. They +take some favorite woman, watch her habits keenly, dissect her, analyze +her very blood and marrow,--then patch her up again, and set her in +motion by galvanism. She stalks through three volumes and--drops dead. +I have seen Kate laugh herself almost into convulsions over the knowing +remarks upon the sex in Thackeray, Reade, and others. And I must confess +that the women I know resemble those of no writer but Shakspeare. + +We take our revenge for this irritating incapacity by saying that +neither can women create ideal men at all resembling reality. But _halte +la!_ Was it not said at first that Rochester _must_ be a man's man? Is +not the little Professor Paul Emanuel an actual masculine creature? +Heathcliff was a fiend,--but a male fiend. + +But where am I wandering? To come back to my sister. She is a fair +specimen of the quick, impulsive, frank class of women. She says she +belongs to the _genus irritabile_. She is easily excited to every good +emotion, and also to the nobler failings of anger, indignation, and +pride. But she is so far above any meanness or littleness, that she +don't know them when she sees them. They pass with her for what they are +not, and she is spared the humiliation of knowing what her species is +capable of. Kate's nature is very charming, but there is a gentler, +calmer order of beings in the sex. I once was greatly attracted by one +of them; and you, I think, belong to that order. However, I should not +class you with her,--for Kate says she was a "deceitful thing." She may +have been so, for aught I know; but I hold it as my creed, that +there are some women all softness, all gentleness, all purity, all +loveableness, and yet all strength of principle. Kate says, if there +are men all courage, all chivalry, all ardor, and all virtue, I may be +right. + +The Germans say, "Give the Devil a hair, and he will get your whole +head." Luckily it is the same with the good angels. I have seen a +hundred examples to prove it true. I will give the one nearest my heart. + +Lina's generous aspiration at the birth of her baby brother was the +hair. Since then, the angel of generosity has drawn her on from one +self-denying deed to another, until he has possessed her utterly. Her +self-sacrifice was completed some weeks ago. I will tell you how,--for +her light shall not be hidden under a bushel. + +When I arrived at this, her little cottage home, after the accident, it +was found impossible to get me up stairs. So I have since occupied the +parlor as my sick-room,--having converted a large airy china-closet into +a recess for a bed, and banished the dishes to the kitchen dresser. +During the day I occupy a soft hair-cloth-covered couch, and from it I +can command, not a view, but a hearing, of the two porches, the hall, +and the garden. + +The day after my return was a soft, warm day; and though it was in +February, the windows were all open. I heard a light carriage drive up +to the front door, and supposing it to be the doctor, I awaited his +entrance with impatience. After some time I discovered that he was with +Kate in the garden, and I could hear their voices. I listened with all +my ears, that I might steal his true opinion of myself; for I concluded +that Kate was having a private consultation, and arranging plans by +which I was to be bolstered up with prepared accounts, and not told the +plain facts of the case. I had before suspected that they did not tell +me the worst. I could just catch my name now and then, but no more; and +I wished heartily that they were a little nearer the windows. They must +be, I thought, quite at the bottom of the garden. Suddenly I perceived +that the voice addressing my sister was one of impassioned persuasion, +and I heard the words, "Be calm and reasonable,"--"Not forever." Then +Kate said, with a burst of sobs, "Only in heaven." + +"It is all over with me, then," I thought, aghast. But having settled +it, after a struggle, to be the best thing both for me and Kate, I began +to listen again. They were quite silent for some moments. Then I heard +sounds which surprised me,--low, loving tones,--and I desperately +wrenched myself upon my elbows to look out. The agony of such effort was +more tolerable than the agony of suspense. They were not far off, as I +supposed, but close under the window, standing in the little box-tree +arbor, screened from all eyes but mine; and no doubt Kate believed +herself safe enough from these, as I had never been capable of such +exertion since the accident. Their low tones had deceived me as to their +distance. + +I was mistaken in another respect. It was not the doctor with Kate, but +a fine-looking man, whose emotion declared him her lover. His arm held +her, and hers rested upon his shoulder, as she looked up at him and +spoke earnestly. His face expressed the greatest alarm and grief. I do +not know where she found the resolution, while looking upon it, to do +what she did; for, Mary,--I can hardly bear to write it,--I heard her +forever renounce her love and happiness for my sake. + +I might then have cried out against this self-sacrifice; but there is +something sacred in such an interview, and I could not thrust myself +upon it. I wish now that I had done so. But then I listened in +silence--grief-struck--to the rejection of him she loved,--to the +farewells. I saw the long-clasped hands severed with an effort and a +shudder; I saw my proud sister offer and give a kiss far more fervent +than that which she received in return;--for she felt that this was a +final parting, and her heart was full of love and sorrow; while in his +there lingered both hope and anger,--hope that I would recover, and +release her,--resentment because she could sacrifice him to me. + +And yet, after the parting, Kate had but just turned from him, when a +change came over his countenance, at first of enthusiastic admiration, +then of a yet more burning pain. He walked quickly after her, caught her +in his arms, and dashing away tears, that they might not fall upon her +face, he kissed her passionately, and said, "It is hard that I must say +it, but you are right, Lina! Oh, my God! _must_ I lose such a woman?" + +Kate, trembling, panting, stamped her foot and cried, "Go, go!--I cannot +stand it!--go!" Ah, Mary! that poor, pale face! He went. Kate made one +quick, terrified, instantly restrained motion of recall, which he did +not see; but I did, and I fainted with the pang it gave me. + +When I recovered consciousness, I found my sister bending over me, +blaming herself for neglecting me for so long a time, and calling +herself a cruel, faithless nurse, with acute self-reproach!--There's +woman for you! + +I told her what I had overheard, and protested against what she had +done. She said I must not talk now,--I was too ill; she would listen to +me to-morrow. The next day I broached the subject again, as she sat by +my side, reading the evening paper. She put her finger on a paragraph +and handed it to me. I read that one of the steamships had sailed +at twelve o'clock that day. "He is in it," Kate said, and left the +room.--He is in Europe by this time. + +Helpless wretch that I am! + +Are not Kate's whole head and heart, and all, under the dominion of +Heaven's best angels? + + +II. + +March, 1855. + +And now, dear Mary, I intend to let you into our household affairs. This +illness has brought me one blessing,--a home. It has plunged me into the +bosom of domestic life, and I find things there exceedingly amusing. +Things commonplace to others are very novel and interesting to me, from +my long residence in hotels, and perfect ignorance of how the pot was +kept boiling from which my dinners came. + +But before you enter the house, take a look at the outside, and let me +localize myself in your imagination. Bosky Dell is a compact little +place of ten acres, covered mostly with a dense grove, and cut into two +unequal parts by a brawling, rocky stream. The house--a little cottage, +draped with vines, and porched--sits on a slope, with an orchard on one +side, a tiny lawn bordered with flowers on another, the shade of +the grove darkening the windows of a third, and on the fourth a +kitchen-garden with strawberry-beds and grape-trellises. It is a pretty +little place, and full of cosy corners. My favorite one I must describe. + +It is a porch on the south side of the house, between two projections. +Consequently both ends of it are closed; one, by the parlor wall, in +which there is a window,--and the other, by the kitchen window and wall. +It is quite shut in from winds, and the sun beams pleasantly upon it, +these chilly March days. There is just room enough for my couch, Kate's +rocking-chair, and a little table. Here we sit all the morning,--Kate +sewing, I reading, or watching the sailing clouds, the swelling +tree-buds in the grove, and the crocus-sprinkled grass, which is growing +greener every day. + +Thus, while busy with me, Kate can still have an eye to her kitchen, and +we both enjoy the queer doings and sayings of our "culled help," Saide. +She became Kate's servant under an inducement which I will give in her +own words. + +"Massy! Miss Catline, when _I_ does a pusson a good turn, seems like I +wants to keep on doin' 'em good turns. I didn't do so dreffle much +for you, but I jes got one chance to help you a bit, and seems like I +couldn't be satisfactioned to let you alone no more."--A novel reason to +hear given, but a true one in philosophy. + +This "chance" was when my sister was attacked with cholera once, in the +first panic caused by it, of late years. All her friends had fled to the +country, and she was quite alone in a boarding-house. I was at college. +She would have been left to die alone, so great was the fear of the +disease, if Saide, who was cook in the establishment, had not boiled +over with indignation, and addressed her selfish mistress in this +fashion:-- + +"That ar' young lady's not to have no care, nohow, took of her, a'n't +she? She's to be lef' there a-sufferin' all alone that-a-way, is she? I +guess so too! Hnh! Now I'se gwine to nuss her, and I don't keer if you +don't know nothin' about _culining_, you must get yer own dinnas and +breakwusses and suppas. That's the plain English of it,--leastways till +she's well ag'in." + +She devoted herself night and day to Kate for several weeks, and +then accompanied her to this house, as a matter of course. She is a +privileged personage. She often pops her head out of the kitchen window +to favor us with her remarks. As they always make us laugh, she +won't take reproofs upon that subject. Kate says her impertinence is +intolerable, but suffers it rather than resort to severity with her old +benefactress. I enjoy it. + +She manages to turn her humor to account in various ways. I heard her +exclaim,-- + +"Laws-a-me! Dere goes de best French-chayny gold-edged tureen all to +smash! Pieces not big enough to save! Laws now, do let me study how to +tell de folks, so's to set 'em larfin'. Dere's great 'casion to find +suthin' as 'll do it, 'cause dey thinks a heap o' dis yere ole chayny. +Mr. Charley now,--he's easy set off; but Miss Catline,--she takes +suthin' purty 'cute! Laws, I has to fly roun' to git dat studied out!" + +Kate overheard this;--how could she scold? + +Saide can never think unless she is "flyin' roun'"; and whenever there +is a great tumult in the kitchen, pans kicked about, tongs falling, +dishes rattling, and table shoved over the floor, something pretty good, +in the shape either of a _bonne-bouche_ or a _bon-mot_, is sure to turn +up. + +This morning there was a furious hubbub, that threatened to drown my +voice. Saide was evidently "flyin' roun'," and Kate, who could not hear +half that I read, got out of patience. + +"What _is_ the matter?" she asked, raising the sash of the window. + +"I on'y wants the currender, (colander,) Miss Catline,--dat's all, +Miss." + +"Well, does it take a whirlwind to produce it?" + +"Oh, laws, Miss Catline! Don't be _dat_ funny now, don't!--yegh! +yegh!--I'se find it presentry. I'se on'y a little frustrated, +(flustered,) Miss, with de 'fusion, and I'se jes a-studyin'. Never +mind me, Miss,--dat's all, indeed it is,--and you'll have a fuss-rate +minch-pie for dinner. I guess so, too!--yegh! yegh!"--And so we had. + +Kate's domestics stand in much awe of her, but feel at least equal love. +So that hers is a household kept in good order, with very little of the +vexation, annoyance, and care, I hear so many of her married friends +groaning about. + +April. + +For a month nearly, Kate has forbidden my writing, and the first part of +this letter was not sent; so I will finish it now. My sister thought the +effort of holding a pen, in my recumbent position, was too wearying to +me; but now I am stronger, and can sit up supported by pillows. I hasten +to tell you of another most important addition to my comfort, which has +been made since I wrote last. I am so eager with the news, that I can +hardly hold a steady pen. Isn't this a fine state for a promising young +lawyer to be reduced to? He is wild with excitement, because some one +has given him a new go-cart! + +Ben, the gardener, was that indulgent individual. He made for me, with +his own industrious hands, what he calls a "jaunting-car-r-r-r." It is a +large wheeled couch on springs. I am a house-prisoner no longer! + +I think the first ride I took in it was the most exciting event of my +life. I was not exactly conscious of being mortally tired of looking +from the same porch, over the same garden, into the same grove, and up +to the same quarter of the heavens, for so many months; but when the +change came unexpectedly, it was _transporting_ happiness. + +I suppose it may be so when we enter a future life. While here, we think +we do not want to go elsewhere,--even to a better land; but when we +reach that shore, we shall probably acknowledge it to be a lucky change. + +Ben drew me carefully down the garden-path. I inhaled the breath of the +tulips and hyacinths, as we passed them. I longed to stay there in that +fairy land, for they brought back all the unspeakably rapturous feelings +of my boyhood. Strange that such delight, after we become men, never +visits us except in moments brief as lightning-flashes,--and then +generally only as a memory,--not, as when we were children, in the form +of a hope! When we are boys, and sudden joy stirs our hearts, we say, +"Oh, how grand life will be!" When we are men, and are thus moved, it +is, "Ah, how bright life was!" + +Ben did not pause in the hyacinth-bed with me. He was anxious to prove +the excellence of his vehicle; so he dragged me on in it, until we had +nearly reached the boundary of our grounds, where the two tall, ragged +old cedar-trees marked the extreme point of the evergreen shrubbery, +and _the_ view of the neighborhood lies before us. He stopped there and +said,-- + +"Ye'll mappen like to look abroad a bit, and I'se go on to the +post-office. Miss Kathleen bid me put you here fornenst the landskip, +and then leave ye. She was greatly fashed at the coompany cooming just +then. I must go, Sir." + +"All right, Ben. You need not hurry." + +The fresh morning wind whisked up to me and kissed my face bewitchingly, +as Ben removed his tall, burly form from the narrow opening between the +two trees, and left me alone there in the shade, with nothing between me +and the view. + +That moment revealed to me the joy of all liberated prisoners. My eyes +flew over the wide earth and the broad heavens. After a sweeping view of +both in their vast unity, I began to single out particulars. There lay +the village in the lap of the hills, in summer time "bosomed high in +tufted trees," but now only half veiled by the gauze-like green of the +budding foliage. The apple orchards, still white with blossoms, and +green with wheat or early grass, extended up the hills, and encroached +upon the dense brown forests. There was the little red brick turret +which crowned the village church, and my eye rested lovingly upon it. +Not that it was anything to me; but Kate and all the women I respect +love it, or what it stands for, and through them I hope to experience +that warm love of worship, and of the places dedicated to it, which +seems native to them, and much to be desired for us. I have cared little +for such things hitherto. Their beauty and happiness are just beginning +to dawn upon me. + + ----"Dear Jesus, can it be? + Wait we till all things go from us or e'er we go to thee? + Ay, sooth! We feel such strength in weal, thy love may seem + withstood: + But what are we in agony? _Dumb,_ if we cry not 'God!'" + +Behind the village I can see the blue hazy line of a far-distant +horizon, as the valley opens in that direction. I know the sea lies +there, and sometimes I fancy that _mirage_ lifts its dark waters to my +sight. + +In a wooded nook on my right stands the little brown mill, with its huge +wheel, and wide blue pond, and foamy waterfall. On that day I heard its +drone, and saw the geese bathing, and throwing up the bright sparkling +drops with their wings, until they fell like fountains. + +On my left lay "a little lane serene," with stone fences half hid by +blackberry-bushes-- + + ----"A little lane serene, + Smooth-heaped from wall to wall with unbroken snows. + Or in the summer blithe with lamb-cropped green, + Save the one track, where naught more rude is seen + Than the plump wain at even + Bringing home four months' sunshine bound in sheaves." + +I thought of those lines there and then, and they enhanced even the joy +of Nature. They tinged her for me with the magic colors of poetry. + +When I had thus scrutinized earth, I looked up to heaven. It had been so +long shut from me by the network of the grove, that it was like escaping +from confining toils, to look straight into Heaven's face, with nothing +between, not even a cloud. + +I have never seen a sweeter, calmer picture than that I gazed upon all +the morning, and for which the two huge old cedars formed a rugged, but +harmonious frame. + +I have lived out of doors since. When it is cold, I am wrapped in a +wadded robe Kate has made for me,--a capital thing, loose, and warm, and +silky-soft. To an invalid with nerves all on edge, that is much. I never +found out, until Kate enveloped me in its luxurious folds, what it was +that rasped my feelings so, every morning, when I was dressed; I then +knew it must have been my flashy woollen dressing-gown. I envy women +their soft raiment, and I rather dread the day when I shall be compelled +to wear coats again. (Let me cheat myself, if I can.) + + +III. + +May, 1855. + +You wish to know more of Ben. I am glad of it. You shall be immediately +gratified. + +He is a true Scot, tall and strong and sandy-haired, with quick gray +eyes, and a grave countenance, which relaxes only upon very great +provocation. + +Before I came here, he was known simply as a most careful, industrious, +silent, saving machine, which cared not a jot for anybody in particular, +but never wanted any spur to its own mechanical duty. It was never known +to do a turn of work not legitimately its own, though mathematically +exact in its proper office. But after I came here with my sister, a +helpless cripple, we found out that the mathematical machine was a man, +with a soft, beating heart. He was called upon to lift me from the +carriage, and he did it as tenderly as a woman. He took me up as a +mother lifts her child from the cradle, and I reposed passively in his +strong arms, with a feeling of perfect security and ease. + +From that day to this, Ben has been a most devoted friend to me. He +watches for opportunities to do me kindnesses, and takes from his own +sacred time to make me comforts. He has had me in his arms a hundred +times, and carries me from bed to couch like a baby. I positively blush +in writing this to you. You have known me to be a man for years, and +here I am in arms again! + +Ben's decent, well-controlled self-satisfaction, which almost amounts +to dignity, is gone like a puff of smoke, at the word "Shanghai." Poor +fellow! He once had the hen-fever badly, and he don't like to recall his +sufferings. + +The first I knew of it was by his starting and changing color one day, +when I was reading the news from China to Kate in the garden, he being +engaged in tying up a rose-bush close by. Kate saw his confusion, and +smiled. Ben, catching the expression of her face, looked inconceivably +sheepish. He dropped his ball of twine, and was about to go away, but +thinking better of it, he suddenly turned and said, with a grin and a +blush,-- + +"Ye'll be telling on me, Miss Kathleen! so I'se be aforehond wi' ye, and +let Mr. Charlie knaw the warst frae my ain confassion, if he will na +grudge me a quarter hour." + +I signified my wish to hear, and with much difficulty and many questions +wrung from him his "confassion." Kate afterwards gave me her version, +and the facts were these:-- + +He persuaded Kate to let him buy a pair of Shanghais. + +"But don't do it unless you are sure of its being worth while," +Kate charged him; "because I can't afford to be making expensive +experiments." + +Ben counted out upon his fingers the numberless advantages. + +"First, the valie o' the eggs for sale, (mony ane had fetched a dollar,) +forbye the ecawnomy in size for cooking, one shell handing the meat o' +twa common eggs. Second, the size o' the chickens for table, each hen +the weight o' a turkey. Third, for speculation. Let the neebors buy, and +she could realize sixty dollar on the brood o' twal' chicks; for they +fetched ten dollar the pair, and could be had for nae less onywheres. +Every hen wad hae twa broods at the smallest." + +Kate doubted, but handed over the money. The next day she was awaked +from a nap on the parlor sofa by a most unearthly music. There was one +bar of four notes, first and third accepted; bar second, a _crescendo_ +on a long swelled note, then a _decrescendo_ equally long. + +"Why," she cried, "is that our little bull-calf practising singing? I +shall let Barnum know about him. He'll make my fortune!" + +Ben knocked at the door, presented a radiant grin, and invited +inspection of his Shanghais. Kate went with him to the cellar. There +stood two feathered bipeds on their tip-toes, with their giraffe necks +stretched up to my sister's swinging shelf where the cream and butter +were kept. It spoke well for the size of their craws certainly, that, +during the two minutes Ben was away, they had each devoured a "print" of +butter, about half a pound! + +"Saw ye ever the like o' thae birds, Miss Kathleen?" began Ben, proudly. + +"My butter, my butter!" cried Kate. + +Ben ran to the rescue, and having removed everything to the high shelf, +he came back, saying,-- + +"It was na their faut. I tak shame for not minding that they are so gay +tall. But did ye ever see the like o' yon rooster?" + +Indeed, she never had! The frightful monster, with its bob-tail and +boa-constrictor neck! But she said nothing. + +Ben named them the Emperor and Empress. They were not to be allowed to +walk with common fowls, and he soon had a large, airy house made for +them. He watched these creatures with incessant devotion, and one +morning he was beside himself with delight, for, by a most hideous +roaring on the part of the Emperor, and a vigorous cackling, which +Ben, very descriptively, called "scraughing," by the Empress, it was +announced that she had laid an egg! + +Etiquette required Kate to call and admire this promise of royal +offspring, and she was surprised into genuine admiration when she saw +the prodigy. Her nose had to lower its scornful turn, her lips to relax +their skeptical twist. It was an egg indeed! Ben was nobly justified in +his purchase. His step was light that day. Kate heard him singing, over +and over again, a verse from an old song which he had brought with him +from the land o' cakes:-- + + "I hae a hen wi' a happity leg, + (Lass, gin ye loe me, tell me noo,) + And ilka day she lays me an egg + (And I canna come ilka day to woo!)" + +Wooing any lass would, just now, have been quite as secondary an affair +with the singer as in the song,--a something _par parenthese_. + +But, alas! Ben's face was more dubious the next day, and before the week +was over it was yard-long. The Empress, after that one great effort, +laid no more eggs, but duly began her second duty, sitting. There was no +doubt that she meant to have but one chick,--out of rivalry, perhaps, +with the Pynchon hen. It was gratifying, perhaps, to have her so +aristocratic, but it was not exactly profitable as a speculation. + +"Ben," said Kate, dryly, "I don't know that that egg was wonderfully +large, as it contained the whole brood!" + +Poor Ben! That was not all. The clumsy, heavy Empress stepped upon her +egg, and broke it in the second week of its existence; but, faithful to +its memory, she refused to forego the duties of maternity, and would +persist in staying on her nest. As the season advanced, Ben lost hope +of the second brood he had counted upon. In short, his Empress had +the legitimate "hen-fever," and it carried her off, though Ben tried +numberless remedies in common use for vulgar fowls, such as pumping upon +her, whirling her by one leg, tying red flannel to her tail, and so +forth. Of course such indignities were fatal to royalty, and Ben gave up +all hopes of a pure race of Shanghais. + +The Emperor was then set at liberty, and for one short half-hour +strutted like a giant-hero among the astounded hens. But no sooner did +the former old cock--who had game blood in him, repute said--return from +a distant excursion into the cornfields with his especial favorites +about him, and behold the mighty majesty of the monster, than his +pride and ire blazed up. He put his head low, ruffled out his long +neck-feathers, his eyes winked and snapped fire with rage, he set out +his wings, took a short run, and, throwing up his spurs with fury, +struck the stupid, staring Emperor a blow under the ear which laid him +low. Alas for royalty, opposed to force of will! + +"And you had to pocket the loss, Kate?" I said. + +"It was my gain," she replied. "Ben had always been dictatorial before; +but after that, I had only to smile to remind him of his fallibility, +and I have been mistress here ever since." + +So far had I written when your welcome letter arrived. Kate found me +this morning sighing over it, pen in hand, ready to reply. She put on +her imperious look, and said she forbade my writing, if I grew +gloomy over it. She feared my letters were only the outpourings of a +disappointed spirit. Indulgence in grief she considered weak, foolish, +unprincipled, and egotistical. + +"I can't help being egotistical," I replied, "when I see no one, and am +shut up in the 'little world of me,' as closely as mouse in trap. And +with myself for a subject, what can my letters be but melancholy?" + +"Anybody can write amusing letters, if they choose," said Kate, reckless +both of fact and grammar. + +"Unless I make fun of you, what else have I to laugh at?" + +"Well, do! Make fun of me to your heart's content! Who cares?" + +"You promise to laugh with us, and not be offended?" + +"I promise not to be offended. My laughing depends upon your wit." + +"There is no mirth left in me, Kate. I am convinced that I ought to say +with Jacques, ''Tis good to be sad, and say nothing.'" + +"Then I shall answer as Rosalind did,--'Why, then, 'tis good to be a +post!' No, no, Charlie, do be merry. Or if you cannot, just now, at +least encourage 'a most humorous sadness,' and that will he the first +step to real mirth." + +"I shall never be merry again, Lina, till you let me recall Mr. ----. +That care weighs me down, and I truly believe retards my recovery." + +"Hush, Charlie!" she said, imperiously. + +"Now, dear Kate, do not be obstinate. My position is too cruel. With the +alleviation of knowing your happiness secure, I could bear my lot. But +now it is intolerable, utterly!" + +She was silent. + +"You must give me that consolation." + +"To say I would ever leave you, Charlie, while you are so helpless, +would be to tell a lie, for I could not do it. Mr. ---- is a civil +engineer. He is always travelling about. I should have no settled home +to take you to. How can you suppose I would abandon you? Do you think I +could find any happiness after doing it? Let us be silent about this." + +"I will not, Kate. I am sure, that, besides being a selfish, it would +be a foolish thing to submit to you in this matter. I shall linger, +perhaps, until your youth is gone, and then have the pang, far worse +than any other I could suffer, of leaving you quite alone in the world. +Do listen to reason!" + +She sat thinking. At last she said, "Well, wait one year." + +"That would be nonsensical procrastination. Does not the doctor declare +that a year will not better my condition?" + +"But he cannot be sure. And I promise you, Charlie, that, if Mr. ---- +asks me then, I will think about it,--and if you are better, go with +him. More I will not promise." + +"A year from last February, you mean?"--A pause. + +"Encroacher! Yes, then." + +"And you will write to him to say so?" + +"Indeed! That would be pretty behavior!" + +"But as you rejected him decidedly, he may form new"----She clapped her +hand upon my mouth. + +"Dare to say it!" she cried. + +I removed her hand, and said, eagerly, "Now, Kate, do not trifle. I must +have some certainty that I am not wrecking your happiness. I cannot +wait a year in suspense. I am a man. I have not the patience of your +incomprehensible sex." + +"I have more than patience to support me, Charlie," she whispered. "He +insisted upon refusing to take a positive answer then, and said he +should return again next spring, to see if I were in the same mind. So +be at ease!" + +I sighed, unsatisfied. + +"I am sure he will come," she said, turning quite away, that I might not +dwell upon her warm blush. + +"There is Ben with the horse. Are you ready?" she asked, glad to change +the subject. + +I was always ready for that I had enjoyed the "jaunting-car-r-r" +so much, that my sister, resolved to gratify me further, had made +comfortable arrangements for longer excursions. I found that I could +sit up, if well supported by pillows; and so Kate had her "cabriolet" +brought out and repaired. + +She had not the least idea of what a cabriolet might be, when she named +her vehicle so; but it sounded fine and foreign, and was a sort of witty +contrast to the misshapen affair it represented. It was indescribable +in form, but had qualities which recommended it to me. It was low, +wide-seated, high-backed, broad, and long. The front wheels turned +under, which was a lucky circumstance, as Kate was to be driver. Ben +could not be spared from his work, and I was out of the question. + +We have a horse to match this unique affair, called "Old Soldier,"--an +excellent name for him; though, if Kate reads this remark, she will +take mortal offence at it. She calls the venerable fellow her charger, +because he makes such bold charges at the steep hills,--the only +occasions upon which the cunning beast ever exerts himself in the least, +well knowing that he will be instantly reined in. Kate has a horror of +going out of a walk, on either ascent or descent, because "up-hill is +such hard pulling, and down-hill so dangerous!" + +Old Soldier can discern a grade of five feet to the mile of either. If I +did not know his history, (an old omnibus horse,) I should say he +must have practised surveying for years. He accommodates himself most +obligingly to his mistress's whims, and walks carefully most of the +time, except when he is ambitious of great praise at little cost, when +he makes the charges aforesaid. + +"He is so considerate, usually!" Kate says; "he knows we don't like +tearing up and down hills; but now and then his spirit runs away with +him!"--I wish it would some day with us. No hope of it! + +We stop every two miles to water the horse, and though we are +exceedingly moderate in our donations, we are a fortune to the hostlers. +I carry the purse, as Kate is quite occupied in holding the reins, and +keeping a sharp look-out that her charger don't run off. Not that he +ever showed a disposition that way,--being generally quite agreeable, +if we wish him to stand ever so long a time; but Kate says he is very +nervous, and he _might_ be startled, and then we _might_ find it +impossible to stop him,--a thing easy enough hitherto. + +I am obliged to keep the purse in my hand all the time, there being such +frequent use for it. Kate says,-- + +"Give the man a half-dime, Charlie, if you can find one. A three-cent +piece looks mean, you know; and a fip mounts up so, it is rather +extravagant. That is the twelfth fip that man has had this week, and for +only holding up a bucket a half-minute at a time; for Soldier only takes +one swallow." + +She will pay every time we stop, if it is six times a day. + +"Shall I give the man a half-dollar at once," I ask, "and let that do +for a week?" + +"No, indeed! How mean I should feel, sneaking off without paying!" + +When the roadside shows a patch of tender grass, Kate eyes it, and +checks Soldier's pace. He knows what that means, and edges toward the +tempting herbage. + +"Poor fellow!" his driver says,--"it is like our having to pass a plate +of peaches. Let him have a bite." + +And so we wait while he grazes awhile. It is the same thing when we +cross a brook, and Soldier pauses in it to cool his feet and look at his +reflection in the water. + +"Perhaps he wants a drink. We won't hurry him. We will let him see that +we can afford to wait." + +If he had not come to that conclusion from the very start, he must have +believed human beings were miracles of patience and forbearance. + +I could write a fine dissertation upon Kate's foolish fondness and her +blind indulgence. I could show that these are the great failings of her +sex, and prove how very much more rational _my_ sex would be in like +circumstances. But I find it too pleasant to be the recipient of such +favors myself just now, to find fault. Wait until I do not need woman's +tenderness, and then I'll abuse it famously. I will say then, that she +is weak, foolish, imprudent; I will say, she kills with kindness, spoils +with indulgence, and all that; but just now I will say nothing. + +In one thing I think her kindness very sensible,--she uses no +check-rein. I think with Sir Francis Head, that all horses are handsomer +with their heads held as Nature pleases. I pity the poor creatures when +I see them turning to one side and the other, to find a little relief +in change of position. To restrain horses thus, who have heavy loads to +pull, is the height of folly, as a waste of power. + +You take no interest in these remarks, perhaps; but treasure them. If +ever, Cousin Mary, you _drive a dray_, they will serve you. + + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THY PSYCHE. + + + Like a strain of wondrous music rising up in cloister dim, + Through my life's unwritten measures thou dost steal, a glorious + hymn! + All the joys of earth and heaven in the singing meet, and flow + Richer, sweeter, for the wailing of an undertone of woe. + How I linger, how I listen for each mellow note that falls, + Clear as chime of angels floating downward o'er the jasper walls! + + Every night, when winds are moaning round my chamber by the sea, + Thine's the face that through the darkness latest looks with love at + me; + And I dream, ere thou departest, thou dost press thy lips to mine;-- + Then I sleep as slept the Immortals after draughts of Hebe's wine! + And I clasp thee, out of slumber when the rosy day is born, + As the soul, with rapture waking, clasps the resurrection morn. + + 'Twas thy soul-wife, 'twas thy Psyche, one uplifted, radiant day, + Thou didst call me;--how divinely on thy brow Love's glory lay! + Thou my Cupid,--not the boy-god whom the Thespians did adore, + But the man, so large, so noble, truer god than Venus bore. + I thy Psyche;--yet what blackness in this thread of gold is wove! + Thou canst never, never lead me, proud, before the throne of Jove! + All the gods might toil to help thee through the longest summer + day;-- + Still would watch the fatal Sisters, spinning in the twilight gray; + And their calm and silent faces, changeless looking through the + gloom, + From eternity, would answer, "Thou canst ne'er escape thy doom!" + Couldst thou clasp me, couldst thou claim me, 'neath the soft + Elysian skies, + Then what music and what odor through their azure depths would rise! + Roses all the Hours would scatter, every god would bring us joy, + So, in perfect loving blended, bliss would never know alloy! + + O my heart! the vision changes; fades the soft celestial blue; + Dies away the rapturous music, thrilling all my pulses through! + Lone I sit within my chamber; storms are beating 'gainst the pane, + And my tears are falling faster than the chill December rain;-- + Yet, though I am doomed to linger, joyless, on this earthly shore, + Thou art Cupid!--I am Psyche!--we are wedded evermore! + + + + +DR. WICHERN AND HIS PUPILS. + + +"Would you like to spend a day at Horn and visit the _Rauhe Haus?_" +inquired my friend, Herr X., of me, one evening, as we sat on the bank +of the Inner Alster, in the city of Hamburg. I had already visited most +of the "lions" in and about Hamburg, and had found in Herr X. a most +intelligent and obliging cicerone. So I said, "Yes," without hesitation, +though knowing little more of the Rauhe Haus than that it was a reform +school of some kind. + +"I will call for you in the morning," said my friend, as we parted for +the night. + +The morning was clear and bright, and I had hardly despatched my +breakfast when Herr X. appeared with his carriage. Entering it without +delay, we were driven swiftly over the pavements, till we came to the +old city-wall, now forming a fine drive, when my friend, turning to the +coachman, said,-- + +"Go more slowly." + +"The scenery in this vicinity we Hamburgers think very beautiful," he +continued, turning to me. + +To my eye, accustomed to our New England hills, it was much too flat to +merit the appellation of beautiful, though Art had done what it could to +improve upon Nature; so I assented to his encomiums upon the landscape, +but, desirous of changing the subject, added,-- + +"This Rauhe Haus, where we are going, I know but little of; will you +give me its history?" + +"Most willingly," he replied. "You must know that our immense commerce, +while it affords ample occupation for the enterprising and industrious, +draws hither also a large proportion of the idle, depraved, and vicious. +For many years, it was one of the most difficult questions with which +our Senate has had to grapple, to determine what should be done with +the hordes of vagrant children who swarmed about our quays, and were +harbored in the filthy dens which before the great fire of 1842 were so +abundant in the narrow streets. These children were ready for crime of +every description, and in audacity and hardihood far surpassed older +vagabonds. + +"In 1830, Dr. Wichern, then a young man of twenty-two, having completed +his theological studies at Goettingen and Berlin, returned home, and +began to devote himself to the religious instruction of the poor. He +established Sabbath-schools for these children, visited their parents +at their homes, and sought to bring them under better influences. He +succeeded in collecting some three or four hundred of them in his +Sabbath-schools; but he soon became convinced that they must be removed +from the evil influences to which they were subjected, before any +improvement could be hoped for in their morals. In 1832, he proposed +to a few friends, who had become interested in his labors, the +establishment of a House of Rescue for them. The suggestion met their +approval; but whence the means for founding such an institution were to +come none of them knew; their own resources were exceedingly limited, +and they had no wealthy friends to assist them. + +"About this time, a gentleman with whom he was but slightly acquainted +brought him three hundred dollars, desiring that it should be expended +in aid of some new charitable institution. Soon after, a legacy of +$17,500 was left for founding a House of Rescue. Thus encouraged, +Wichern and his friends went forward. A cottage, roughly built and +thatched with straw, with a few acres of land, was for sale at Horn, +about four miles from the city, and its situation pleasing them, they +appropriated their legacy to the purchase of it. Hither, in November, +1833, Dr. Wichern removed with his mother, and took into his household, +adopting them as his own children, three of the worst boys he could find +in Hamburg. In the course of a few months he had increased the number to +twelve, all selected from the most degraded children of the city. + +"His plan was the result of careful and mature deliberation. He saw that +these depraved and vicious children had never been brought under +the influence of a well-ordered family, and believing, that, in the +organization of the family, God had intended it as the best and most +efficient institution for training children in the ways of morality and +purity, he proposed to follow the Divine example. The children were +employed, at first, in improving the grounds, which had hitherto been +left without much care; the banks of a little stream, which flowed +past the cottage, were planted with trees; a fish-pond into which it +discharged its waters was transformed into a pretty sylvan lake; and the +barren and unproductive soil, by judicious cultivation, was brought into +a fertile condition. + +"In 1834, the numerous applications he received, and the desire of +extending the usefulness of the institution, led him to erect another +building for the accommodation of a second family of boys. The work +upon it was almost wholly performed by his first pupils. I should have +remarked, that, during the first year, a high fence, which surrounded +the premises when they were purchased, was removed by the boys, by Dr. +Wichern's direction, as he desired to have _love_ the only bond by +which to retain them in his family. When the new house was finished and +dedicated, the original family moved into it, and were placed under +the charge of two young men from Switzerland, named Baumgaertner and +Byckmeyer. + +"Workshops for the employment of the boys soon became necessary, and +means were contributed for their erection. New pupils were offered, +either by their parents, or by the city authorities, and new families +were organized. These required more "house-fathers," as they were +called, and for their training a separate house was needed. Dr. +Wichern has been very successful in obtaining assistants of the right +description. They are young men of good education, generally versed in +some mechanical employment, and whose zeal for philanthropic effort +leads them to place themselves under training here, for three or four +years, without salary. They are greatly in demand all over Germany +for home missionaries and superintendents of prisons and reformatory +institutions. You have heard, I presume, of the Inner Mission?" + +I assented, and he continued. + +"These young men are its most active promoters. The philanthropy of +Wichern was not satisfied, until he had established also several +families of vagrant girls at his Rough House.--But see, we are +approaching our destination. This is the Rauhe Haus." + +As he spoke, our carriage stopped. We alighted, and rarely has my eye +been greeted by a pleasanter scene. The grounds, comprising about +thirty-two acres, presented the appearance of a large landscape-garden. +The variety of choice forest-trees was very great, and mingled with them +were an abundance of fruit-trees, now laden with their golden treasures, +and a profusion of flowers of all hues. Two small lakes, whose borders +were fringed with the willow, the weeping-elm, and the alder, glittered +in the sunlight,--their finny inhabitants occasionally leaping in +the air, in joyous sport. Fourteen buildings were scattered over the +demesne,--one, by its spire, seeming to be devoted to purposes of +worship. + +"Let us go to the Mutter-Haus," (Mother-House,) said my friend; "we +shall probably find Dr. Wichern there." + +So saying, he led the way to a plain, neat building, situated nearly +centrally, though in the anterior portion of the grounds. This is Dr. +Wichern's private residence, and here he receives reports from the +Brothers, as the assistants are called, and gives advice to the pupils. +We were ushered into the superintendent's office, and found him a fine, +noble-looking man, with a clear, mild eye, and an expression of great +decision and energy. My friend introduced me, and Dr. Wichern welcomed +us both with great cordiality. + +"Be seated for a moment, gentlemen," said he; "I am just finishing +the proofs of our _Fliegenle Blaetter_," (Flying Leaves, a periodical +published at the Rauhe Haus,) "and will presently show you through our +buildings." + +We waited accordingly, interesting ourselves, meanwhile, with the +portraits of benefactors of the institution which decorated the walls. + +In a few minutes Dr. Wichern rose, and merely saying, "I am at your +service, gentlemen," led the way to the original Rough House. It is +situated in the southeastern corner of the grounds, and is overshadowed +by one of the noblest chestnut-trees I have ever seen. The building is +old and very humble in appearance, but of considerable size. In addition +to accommodations for the House-Father and his family of twelve boys, +several of the Brothers of the Mission reside here, and there are also +rooms for a probationary department for new pupils. + +"Here," said the Doctor, "we began the experiment whose results you see +around you. When, with my mother and sister and three of the worst boys +to be found in Hamburg, I removed to this house in 1833, there was need +of strong faith to foresee the results which God has wrought since that +day." + +"What were the means you found most successful in bringing these +turbulent and intractable spirits into subjection?" I inquired. + +"Love, the affection of a parent for his children," was his reply. +"These wild, hardened boys were inaccessible to any emotion of fear; +they had never been treated with kindness or tenderness; and when they +found that there was no opportunity for the exercise of the defiant +spirit they had summoned to their aid, when they were told that all the +past of their lives was to be forgotten and never brought up against +them, and that here, away from temptation, they might enter upon a new +life, their sullen and intractable natures yielded, and they became +almost immediately docile and amiable." + +"But," I asked, "is there not danger, that, when removed from these +comfortable homes, and subjected again to the iron gripe of poverty, +they will resume their old habits?" + +"None of us know," replied Dr. Wichern, solemnly, "what we may be left +to do in the hour of temptation; but the danger is, nevertheless, not so +great as you think. Our children are fed and clothed like other peasant +children; they are not encouraged to hope for distinction, or an +elevated position in society; they are taught that poverty is not in +itself an evil, but, if borne in the right spirit, may be a blessing. +Our instruction is adapted to the same end; we do not instruct them +in studies above their rank in life; reading, writing, the elementary +principles of arithmetic, geography, some of the natural sciences, and +music, comprise the course of study. In the calling they select, we do +what we can to make them intelligent and competent. Our boys are much +sought for as apprentices by the farmers and artisans of the vicinity." + +"Many of them, I suppose," said I, "had been guilty of petty thefts +before coming here; do you not find trouble from that propensity?" + +"Very seldom; the perfect freedom from suspicion, and the confidence in +each other, which we have always maintained, make theft so mean a vice, +that no boy who has a spark of honor left will be guilty of it. In +the few instances which do occur, the moral sense of the family is +so strong, that the offender is entirely subdued by it. An incident, +illustrative of this, occurs to me. Early in our history, a number of +our boys undertook to erect a hut for some purpose. It was more than +half completed, and they were delighted with the idea of being able soon +to occupy it, when it was discovered that a single piece of timber, +contributed by one of the boys, had been obtained without leave. As soon +as this was known, one of the boys seized an axe, and demolished the +building, in the presence of the offender, the rest looking on and +approving; nor could they afterward be induced to go on with it. At +one time, several years since, there were two or three petty thefts +committed, (and a good deal of prevarication naturally followed,) mainly +by new pupils, of whom a considerable number had been admitted at once. +Finding ordinary reproof unavailing, I announced that family worship +would be suspended till the delinquents gave evidence of penitence. The +effect of this measure was far beyond my expectation. Many of the boys +would meet in little groups, in the huts, for prayers among themselves; +and ere long the offenders came humbly suing for pardon and the +resumption of worship." + +During this conversation, we had left the Rough House and visited +the new Lodge, erected in 1853, for a family of boys and a circle of +Brothers, and the "Beehive," (_Bienenkorb,_) erected in 1841, in the +northeast corner of the grounds, the home of another family. Turning +westward, we came to the chapel, and a group of buildings connected with +it, including the school-rooms, the preparatory department for girls, +the library, dwellings for two families of girls, the kitchen, +store-rooms, and offices. It was the hour of recess, and from the +school-rooms rushed forth a joyous company of children, plainly clad, +and evidently belonging to the peasant class; but though the marks of +an early career of vice were stamped on many of their countenances, yet +there were not a few bright eyes, and intelligent, thoughtful faces. +Seeing Dr. Wichern, they came at once to him, with the impulsiveness of +childhood, but with so evident a sense of propriety and decorum, that I +would not but compare their conduct with that of many pupils in our best +schools, and not to the advantage of the latter. The Doctor received +them cordially, and had a kind word for each, generally in reference to +their improvement in behavior, or their influence over others. + +"This," said he, turning to me, as a bright, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired +boy seized his hand, "is one of our peace boys." + +I did not understand what he meant by the term, and said so. + +"Our peace boys," he replied, "are selected from the most trustworthy +and exemplary of our pupils, to aid in superintending the others. They +have no authority to command, or even reprove; but only to counsel and +remind. To be selected for this duty is one of their highest rewards." + +"There must be among so many boys," I remarked, "and particularly +those taken from such sources, a considerable number of +_born-destructives_,--children in whom the propensity to break, tear, +and destroy is almost ineradicable; how do you manage these?" + +"In the earlier days of our experiment," he replied, "we had much +trouble from this source; but at last we hit upon the plan of allowing +each boy a certain sum of pocket-money, and deducting from this, in part +at least, the estimated value of whatever he destroyed. From the day +this rule was adopted all destructible articles seemed to have lost a +great part of their fragility." + +"Do the pupils often run away?" I asked. + +"Very seldom, of late years; formerly we were occasionally troubled in +that way. It was, of course, easy for them to do it, as no fences +or other methods of restraint were used,--our reliance being upon +affection, to retain them. If they made their escape, we usually sought +them out, and persuaded them to return, and they seldom repeated the +offence. Some years ago, one of our boys, who had repeatedly tried our +patience by his waywardness, ran away. I pursued him, found him, and +persuaded him to return. It was Christmas eve when we arrived, and this +festival was always celebrated in my mother's chamber. As we entered the +room, the children were singing the Christmas hymns. As he appeared, +they manifested strong disapprobation of his conduct. They were told +that they might decide among themselves how he should be punished. They +consulted together quietly for a few moments, and then one, who had +himself been forgiven some time before for a like fault, came forward, +and, bursting into tears, pleaded that the offender might be pardoned. +The rest joined in the petition, and, extending to him the hand of +fellowship, soon turned their festival into a season of rejoicing +over the returned prodigal. The pardon thus accorded was complete; no +subsequent reference was made to his misconduct; and the next day, to +show our confidence in him, a confidence which we never had occasion to +retract, we sent him on an errand to a considerable distance." + +"How did they behave at the time of the great fire?" I inquired; "the +excitement must surely have reached you." + +"No event in our whole history," answered Dr. Wichern, his fine +countenance lighting up as he spoke, "so fully satisfied me of the +success which had attended our labors, as their behavior on that +occasion. On the second day of the fire, the boys, some of whom had +relatives and friends in the burning district, became so much excited by +the intelligence brought by those who had escaped from the flames, that +they began to implore me to permit them to go and render assistance. I +feared, at first, the consequences of exposing them to the temptations +to escape and plunder by which they would be beset; but at length +permitted a company of twenty-two to go with me, on condition that +they would keep together as much as possible, and return with me at +an appointed time. They promised to do this, and they fulfilled their +promise to the letter. Their conduct was in the highest degree heroic; +they rushed into danger, for the sake of preserving lives and property, +with a coolness and bravery which put to shame the labors of the boldest +firemen; occasionally they would come to the place of rendezvous to +reassure their teacher, and then in a moment they were away again, +laboring as zealously as ever, and utterly refusing any compensation, +however urgently pressed upon them. When they returned home, another +band was sent out under the direction of one of the house-fathers, and +exerted themselves as faithfully as their predecessors had done. But +their sacrifices and toils did not end here. Among the thousands whom +that fearful conflagration left homeless, not a few came here for +shelter and food. With these our boys shared their meals, and gave up +to them their beds,--themselves sleeping upon the ground, and this for +months." + +I could not wonder at the enthusiasm of the good man over such deeds +as these on the part of boys whom he had rescued from a degradation of +which we can hardly form an idea. It was a triumph of which an angel +might have been proud. + +I was desirous of learning something of the industrial occupations of +the pupils, and made some inquiries respecting them. + +"A considerable portion of our boys," said Dr. Wichern, "are engaged in +agricultural, or rather, horticultural pursuits. As we practise spade +husbandry almost exclusively, and devote our grounds to gardening +purposes, we can furnish employment to quite a number. For those who +prefer mechanical pursuits, we have a printing-office, book-bindery, +stereotype-foundry, lithographing and wood-engraving establishment, +paint-shop, silk-weaving manufactory, and shoe-shop, as well as those +trades which are carried on for the most part out of doors, such as +masonry and carpentry. The girls are mostly employed in household +duties, and are in great demand as servants and assistants in the +households of our farmers." + +Passing westward, we came next to the bakery and the farmer's residence, +catching a glimpse through the trees of the Fisherman's Hut, at a little +distance, near the bank of the larger of the two sylvan lakes on the +premises, where another family are gathered, and then approachd a large +building of more pretension than the rest. + +"This," said Dr. Wichern, "is the home of the Brothers of our Inner +Mission, and the school-room for our boarding-school boys, the children +of respectable and often wealthy parents, who have proved intractable at +home." + +"What," I asked, "do you include in the term, Inner Mission?" + +"I must take a round-about method of answering your inquiry. When we +found it necessary to form new families, our greatest difficulty was in +procuring suitable persons to become house-fathers of these families. +It was easy enough to obtain honest, intelligent men and women, who +possessed a fair education and a sufficient knowledge of some of the +mechanic arts for the situation; but we felt that much more than this +was necessary. We wanted men and women who would act a parent's part, +and perform a parent's duty to the children under their care; and these, +we found, must be trained for the place. We then began our circles of +Brothers, to furnish house-fathers and assistants for our families. We +required in the candidates for this office an irreproachable character; +that they should be free from physical defect, of good health and robust +constitution; that they should give evidence of piety, and of special +adaptation to this calling; that they should understand farming, or some +one of the trades practised in the establishment, or possess sufficient +mechanical talent to acquire a knowledge of them readily; that they +should have already a certain amount of education, and an amiable and +teachable disposition; and that they should be not under twenty years of +age, and exempt from military service." + +"And do you find a sufficient number who can fulfil conditions so +strict?" I inquired. + +"Candidates are never wanting," was his reply, "though the demand for +their services is large." + +"What is your course of training?" + +"Mainly practical; though we have a course of special instruction for +them, occupying twenty hours a week, in which, during their four years' +residence with us, they are taught sacred and profane history, German, +English, geography, vocal and instrumental music, and the science of +teaching. Instruction on religious subjects is also given throughout the +course. For the purpose of practical training, they are attached, at +first, to families as assistants, and after a period of apprenticeship +they undertake in rotation the direction. They teach the elementary +classes; visit the parents of the children, and report to them the +progress which their pupils have made; maintain a watchful supervision +over them, after they leave the Rauhe Haus; and assist in religious +instruction, and in the correspondence. By the system of monthly +rotation we have adopted, each Brother is brought in contact with all +the pupils, and is thus enabled to avail himself of the experience +acquired in each family." + +"You spoke of a great demand for their services; I can easily imagine +that men so trained should be in demand; but what are the callings +they pursue after leaving you? for you need but a limited number as +house-fathers and teachers." + +"The Inner Mission," he replied, "has a wide field of usefulness. It +furnishes directors and house-fathers for reform schools organized +on our plan, of which there are a number in Germany; overseers, +instructors, and assistants in agricultural and other schools; directors +and subordinate officers for prisons; directors, overseers, and +assistants in hospitals and infirmaries; city and home missionaries; and +missionaries to colonies of emigrants in America." + +"What is your annual expenditure above the products of your farm and +workshops?" I asked. + +"Somewhat less than fifty dollars a head for our entire population," was +the reply. + +It was by this time high noon, and as we returned to the Mutter-Haus, +the benevolent superintendent insisted that we should remain and partake +with him of the mid-day meal. We complied, and presently were summoned +to the dining-hall, where we found a small circle of the Brothers, and +the two head teachers. After a brief but appropriate grace, we took our +seats, being introduced by the director. + +"At supper all our teachers assemble here," said Dr. Wichern, "and with +them those children whose birthday it is; but at dinner the Brothers +remain with their own families." + +The table was abundantly supplied with plain but wholesome food, and the +cheerful conversation which ensued gave evidence that the cares of their +position had not exerted a depressing influence on their spirits. Each +seemed thoroughly in love with his work, and in harmony with all the +rest. Dr. Wichern mentioned that I was from America. + +"Have you," inquired one of the Brothers, "any institutions like this in +your country?" + +"We have," I answered, "Reform Schools, Houses of Refuge, Juvenile +Asylums, and other reformatory institutions; but I am afraid I must say, +nothing like this. We are making progress, however, in Juvenile Reform, +and I hope that ere long we, too, may have a Rough House whose influence +shall pervade our country, as yours has done Central Europe." + +"Dr. Wichern," inquired another, "have our friends visited the 'God's +Acre?'"[A] + +[Footnote A: The German name of a grave-yard.] + +"Not yet," was the reply; "but I will go thither with them after we have +dined, if they can remain so long." + +We assented, and one of the Brothers remarked,-- + +"Our boys have taken especial pains to beautify that favorite spot, this +season." + +"This disposition to adorn the resting-place of the body, so common +among us, is becoming popular in your country, I believe," said our +host, courteously. + +I replied, that it was,--that in our larger towns the place of burial +was generally rendered attractive, but that in the rural districts the +burying-grounds were yet neglected and unsightly; and ventured the +opinion, that this neglect might be partly traceable to the iconoclastic +tendencies of our Puritan ancestors. + +Dr. Wichern thought not; the neglect of the earthly home of the dead +resulted from the prevalence of indifference to the glorious doctrine of +the Resurrection; and whatever a people might profess, he could not but +believe them infidel at heart, if they were entirely neglectful of the +resting-place of their dead. + +The close of our repast precluded further discussion, and at our host's +invitation we accompanied him to the rural cemetery, where such of the +pupils and Brothers as died during their connection with the school were +buried. An English writer has very appropriately called the Rauhe Haus a +"Home among the Flowers"; but the title is far more appropriate to this +beautiful spot. Whatever a pure and exquisite taste could conceive as +becoming in a place consecrated to such a purpose, willing hands have +executed; and early every Sabbath morning, Dr. Wichern says, the pupils +resort hither to see that everything necessary is done to keep it in +perfect order. The air seemed almost heavy with the perfume of flowers; +and though the home of the living pupils of the Rauhe Haus is plain in +the extreme, the palace of their dead surpasses in splendor that of the +proudest of earthly monarchs. One could hardly help coveting such a +resting-place. + +It was with reluctance that we at last turned our faces homeward, and +bade the excellent director farewell. The world has seen, in this +nineteenth century, few nobler spirits than his. Possessed of uncommon +intellect, he combines with it executive talent of no ordinary +character, and a capacity for labor which seems almost fabulous. His +duties as the head of the Inner Mission, whose scope comprises the +organization and management of reformatory institutions of all kinds, +throughout Germany, as well as efforts analogous to those of our city +missions, temperance societies, etc., might well be supposed to be +sufficient for one man; but these are supplementary to his labors as +director of the Rauhe Haus, and editor of the _Fliegende Blaetter_, and +the other literature, by no means inconsiderable, of the Inner Mission. +Dr. Wichern is highly esteemed and possesses almost unbounded influence +throughout Germany; and that influence, potent as it is, even with the +princes and crowned heads of the German States, is uniformly exerted in +behalf of the poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, and the degraded. +When the history of philanthropy shall be written, and the just meed +of commendation bestowed on the benefactors of humanity, how much more +exalted a place will he receive, in the memory and gratitude of the +world, than the perjured and audacious despot who, born the same year, +in the neighboring city of the Hague, has won his way to the throne of +France by deeds of selfishness and cruelty! Even to-day, who would not +rather be John Henry Wichern, the director of the Rauhe Haus at Horn, +than Louis Napoleon, emperor of France? + +Would that on our own side of the Atlantic a Wichern might arise, whose +abilities should be sufficient to unite in one common purpose our +reformatory enterprises, and rescue from infamy and sin the tens of +thousands of children who now, apt scholars in crime, throng the +purlieus of vice in our large cities, and are already committing deeds +whose desperate wickedness might well cause hardened criminals to +shudder. The existence of a popular government depends, we are often +told, upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. What hope, then, +can we have of the perpetuity of our institutions, when those who are to +control them have become monsters of iniquity ere they have reached the +age of manhood? + +The forces of Good and Evil are ever striving for the mastery in human +society. Happy is that philanthropist, and honored should he be with a +nation's gratitude, who can rescue these juvenile offenders from the +power of evil, and from the fearful suggestings of temptation and want, +and enlist them on the side of virtue and right! We rear monuments of +marble and bronze to those heroes who on the battle-field and in the +fierce assault have kept our nation's fame untarnished, and added new +laurels to the renown of our country's prowess; but more enduring than +marble, more lasting than brass, should be the monument reared to him +who, in the fierce contest with the powers of evil, shall rescue +the soul of the child from the grasp of the tempter, and change the +brutalized and degraded offspring of crime and lust into a youth of +generous, active, and noble impulses. But though earthly fame may be +denied to such a benefactor of his race, his record shall be on high; +and at that grand assize where all human actions shall be weighed, His +voice, whose philanthropy exceeded, infinitely, the noblest deeds of +benevolence of the sons of earth, shall be heard, saying to these humble +laborers in the vineyard of our God, "Friends, come up higher!" + +Those who are interested in knowing what has been accomplished by the +reformatory institutions of Europe will find a full and entertaining +account of most of them in a volume recently published, entitled "Papers +on Preventive, Correctional, and Reformatory Institutions and Agencies +in Different Countries," by Henry Barnard, LL.D. Hartford: F.C. +Brownell, 1857. Dr. Barnard has done a good work in collecting these +valuable documents. + + + + +BEAUTY. + + + Fond lover of the Ideal Fair, + My soul, eluded everywhere, + Is lapsed into a sweet despair. + Perpetual pilgrim, seeking ever, + Baffled, enamored, finding never; + Each morn the cheerful chase renewing, + Misled, bewildered, still pursuing; + Not all my lavished years have bought + One steadfast smile from her I sought, + But sidelong glances, glimpsing light, + A something far too fine for sight, + Veiled voices, far off thridding strains, + And precious agonies and pains: + Not love, but only love's dear wound + And exquisite unrest I found. + + At early morn I saw her pass + The lone lake's blurred and quivering glass; + Her trailing veil of amber mist + The unbending beaded clover kissed; + And straight I hasted to waylay + Her coming by the willowy way;-- + But, swift companion of the Dawn, + She left her footprints on the lawn, + And, in arriving, she was gone. + Alert I ranged the winding shore; + Her luminous presence flashed before; + The wild-rose and the daisies wet + From her light touch were trembling yet; + Faint smiled the conscious violet; + Each bush and brier and rock betrayed + Some tender sign her parting made; + And when far on her flight I tracked + To where the thunderous cataract + O'er walls of foamy ledges broke, + She vanished in the vapory smoke. + + To-night I pace this pallid floor, + The sparkling waves curl up the shore, + The August moon is flushed and full; + The soft, low winds, the liquid lull, + The whited, silent, misty realm, + The wan-blue heaven, each ghostly elm, + All these, her ministers, conspire + To fill my bosom with the fire + And sweet delirium of desire. + Enchantress! leave thy sheeny height, + Descend, be all mine own this night, + Transfuse, enfold, entrance me quite! + Or break thy spell, my heart restore, + And disenchant me evermore! + + * * * * * + + +THE GRINDWELL GOVERNING MACHINE. + + +On the other side of the Atlantic there is a populous city called +Grandville. It is, as its name indicates, a great city,--but it is said +that it thinks itself a good deal greater than it really is. I meant to +say that Grandville was its original name, and the name by which even at +the present day it is called by its own citizens. But there are certain +wits, or it may be, vulgar people, who by some process have converted +this name into Grindwell. + +I may be able, in the course of this sketch, to give a reason why so +sounding and aristocratic a name as Grandville has been changed into the +plebeian one of Grindwell. I might account for it by adducing +similar instances of changes in the names of cities through the bad +pronunciation and spelling of foreigners. For instance, the English +nickname Livorno Leghorn, the Germans insist on calling Venice Venedig, +and the French convert Washington into the Chinese word Voss-Hang-Tong. +And so it may be that the name Grindwell has originated among us +Americans simply from miscalling or misspelling the foreign name of +Grandville. + +I incline to think, however, that there is a better reason for the name. + +For a good many years Grandville has been famous for a great machine, of +a very curious construction, which is said to regulate the movements of +the whole city, and almost to convert the men, women, and children into +cranks, wheels, and pinions. As a model of this machine does not exist +in our Patent Office at Washington, I shall beg the reader's indulgence +while I attempt to give some account of it. It may be thought a very +curious affair, though I believe there is little about it that is +original or new. The idea of it was handed down from remote generations. + +In America I know that many persons may consider the Grindwell Governing +Machine a humbug,--an obsolete, absurd, and tyrannous institution, +wholly unfitted to the nineteenth century. A machine that proposes to +think and act for the whole people, and which is rigidly opposed to the +people's thinking and acting for themselves, is likely to find little +favor among us. With us the doctrine is, that each one should think for +himself,--be an individual mind and will, and not the spoke of a wheel. +Every American voter or votress is allowed to keep his or her little +intellectual wind-mill, coffee-mill, pepper-mill, loom, steam-engine, +hand-organ, or whatever moral manufacturing or grinding apparatus he or +she likes. Each one may be his own Church or his own State, and yet be +none the less a good and useful citizen, and the union of the States be +in none the more danger. But it is not so in Grindwell. The rules of +the Grindwell machine allow no one to do his own grinding, unless his +mill-wheel is turned by the central governing power. He must allow the +big State machine to do everything,--he paying for it, of course. A +regular programme prescribes what he shall believe and say and do; and +any departure from this order is considered a violation of the laws, or +at least a reprehensible invasion of the time-honored customs of the +city. + +The Grindwell Governing Machine (though a patent has been taken out for +it in Europe, and it is thought everything of by royal heads and the +gilded flies that buzz about them) is really an old machine, nearly worn +out, and every now and then patched up and painted and varnished anew. +If a committee of our knowing Yankees were sent over to gain information +with regard to its actual condition, I am inclined to think they would +bring back a curious and not very favorable report. It wouldn't astonish +me, if they should pronounce the whole apparatus of the State rotten +from top to bottom, and only kept from falling to pieces by all sorts +of ingenious contrivances of an external and temporary nature,--here a +wheel, or pivot, or spring to be replaced,--there a prop or buttress to +be set up,--here a pipe choked up,--there a boiler burst,--and so on, +from one end of the works to the other. However, the machine keeps +a-going, and many persons think it works beautifully. + +Everything is reduced to such perfect system in its operations, that the +necessity for individual opinion is almost superseded, and even +private consciences are laid upon the shelf,--just as people lay by an +antiquated timepiece that no winding-up or shaking can persuade into +marking the hours,--for have they not the clock on the Government +railroad station opposite, which they can at any time consult by +stepping to the window? For instance, individual honesty is set aside +and replaced by a system of rewards and punishments. Honesty is an +old-fashioned coat. The police, like a great sponge, absorbs the private +virtue. It says to conscience, "Stay there,--don't trouble yourself,--I +will act for you." + +You drop your purse in the street. A rogue picks it up. In his private +conscience he says, "Honesty is a very good thing, perhaps, but it is by +no means the best policy,--it is simply no policy at all,--it is sheer +stupidity. What can be more politic than for me to pocket this windfall +and turn the corner quick?"--So preacheth his crooked fag-end of a +conscience, that _very, very_ small still voice, in very husky tones; +but he knows that a policeman, walking behind him, saw him pick up the +purse, which alters the case,--which, in fact, completely sets aside his +fag-end of a husky-voiced conscience, and makes virtue his necessity, +and necessity his virtue. External morality is hastily drawn on as +a decent overcoat to hide the tag-rags of his roguishness, while he +magnanimously restores the purse to the owner. + +Jones left his umbrella in a cab one night. Discovering that he hadn't +it under his arm, he rushed after the cabman; but he was gone. Jones +had his number, however, and with it proceeded the next day to the +police-office, feeling sure that he would find his umbrella there. And +there, in a closet appropriated to articles left in hackney-coaches,--a +perfect limbo of canes, parasols, shawls, pocket-books, and +what-not,--he found it, ticketed and awaiting its lawful owner. The +explanation of which mystery is, that the cabmen in Grindwell are +strictly amenable to the police for any departure from the system which +provides for the security of private property, and a yearly reward is +given to those of the coach-driving fraternity who prove to be the most +faithful restorers of articles left in their carriages. Surely, the +result of system can no farther go than this,--that Monsieur Vaurien's +moral sense, like his opinions, should be absorbed and overruled by the +governing powers. + +What a capital thing it is to have the great governmental head and +heart thinking and feeling for us! Why, even the little boys, on winter +afternoons, are restricted by the policemen from sliding on the ice +in the streets, for fear the impetuous little fellows should break or +dislocate some of their bones, and the hospital might have the expense +of setting them; so patriarchal a regard has the machine for its young +friends! + +I might allude here to a special department of the machine, which once +had great power in overruling the thoughts and consciences of the +people, and which is still considered by some as not altogether +powerless. I refer to the Ecclesiastic department of the Grindwell +works. This was formerly the greatest labor-saving machinery ever +invented. But however powerful the operation of the Church machinery +upon the grandmothers and grandfathers of the modern Grindwellites, it +has certainly fallen greatly into disuse, and is kept a-going now more +for the sake of appearances than for any real efficacy. The most knowing +ones think it rather old-fashioned and cumbrous,--at any rate, not +comparable to the State machinery, either in its design or its mode of +operation. And as in these days of percussion-caps and Minie rifles +we lay by an old matchlock or crossbow, using it only to ornament our +walls,--or as the powdered postilion with his horn and his boots is +superseded by the locomotive and the electric telegraph,--so the old +rusty Church wheels are removed into buildings apart from the daily life +of the people, where they seem to revolve harmlessly and without any +necessary connection with the State wheels. + +Not that I mean to say that it works smoothly and well at all +times,--this Grindwell machine. How can such an old patched and +crumbling apparatus be expected always to work well? And how can you +hope to find, even in the most enslaved or routine-ridden community, +entire obedience to the will of the monarch and his satellites? +Unfortunately for the cause of order and quiet, there will always be +found certain tough lumps, in the shape of rebellious or non-conformist +men, which refuse to be melted in the strong solvents or ground up +in the swift mills of Absolutism. Government must look after these +impediments. If they are positively dangerous, they must be destroyed or +removed. If only suspected, or known to be powerless or inactive, they +must at least be watched. + +And here, again, the machine of government shows a remarkable ingenuity +of organization. + +For instance, it is said that there are pipes laid all along the +streets, like hose, leading from a central reservoir. Nobody knows +exactly what they are for; but if any one steps upon them, up spirts +something like a stream of gas, and takes the form of a _gendarme_,--and +the unlucky street-walker must pay dear for his carelessness. Telegraph +wires radiate like cobwebs from the chamber of the main-spring, and +carry intelligence of all that is going on in the houses and streets. +Man-traps are laid under the pavements,--sometimes they are secretly +introduced under your very table or bed,--and if anything is said +against that piece of machinery called the main-spring, or against the +head engineer, the trap will nab you and fly away with you, like the +spider that carried off Margery Mopp. If a number of people get together +to discuss the meaning of and the reasons for the existence of the +main-spring, or any of the big wheels immediately connected therewith, +the ground under them will sometimes give way, and they will suddenly +find themselves in unfurnished apartments not to their liking. And if +any one should be so rash as to put his hand on the wheels, he is cut to +pieces or strangled by the silent, incessant, fatal whirl of the engine. + +The head engineer keeps his machine, and the city on which it acts, as +much in the dark as possible. He has a special horror of sunshine. +He seems to think that the sky is one great burning lens, and his +machine-rooms and the city a vast powder-magazine. + +There are certain articles thought to be especially dangerous. +Newspapers are strictly forbidden,--unless first steeped in a tincture +of asbestos of a very dull color, expressly manufactured and supplied +by the Governing Machine. When properly saturated with the essence of +dulness and death, and brought down from a glaring white and black to a +decidedly ashy-gray neutral color, a few small newspapers are permitted +to be circulated, but with the greatest caution. They sometimes take +fire, it is said,--these journals,--when brought too near any brain +overcharged with electricity. Two or three times, it is said, the +Governing Machine has been put out of order by the newspapers and their +readers bringing too much electro-magnetism (or something like it) to +bear on parts of the works;--the machine had even taken fire and been +nearly burnt up, and the head engineer got so singed that he never dared +to take the management of the works again. + +So it is thought that nothing is so unfavorable to the working of the +wheels as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and, generally, all the +imponderable and uncatchable essences that float about in the air; and +these, it is thought, are generated and diffused by these villanous +newspapers. Certain kinds of books are also forbidden, as being electric +conductors. Most of the books allowed in the city of Grindwell are so +heavy, that they are thought to be usually non-conductors, and therefore +quite safe in the hands of the people. + +It is at the city gates that most vigilance is required with regard to +the prohibited articles. There the poor fellows who keep the gates have +no rest night or day,--so many suspicious-looking boxes, bundles, bales, +and barrels claim admittance. Quantities of articles are arrested and +prevented from entering. Nothing that can in any way interfere with the +great machine can come in. Newspapers and books from other countries +are torn and burnt up. Speaking-trumpets, ear-trumpets, spectacles, +microscopes, spy-glasses, telescopes, and, generally, all instruments +and contrivances for extending the sphere of ordinary knowledge, are +very narrowly examined before they are admitted. The only trumpets +freely allowed are of a musical sort, fit to amuse the people,--the +only spectacles, green goggles to keep out the glare of truth's +sunshine,--the magnifying-glasses, those which exaggerate the +proportions of the imperial governor of the machinery. All sorts of +moral lightning-rods and telegraph-wires are arrested, and lie in great +piles outside the city walls. + +But in spite of the utmost vigilance and care of the officers at the +gates and the sentinels on the thick walls, dangerous articles and +dangerous people will pass in. A man like Kossuth or Mazzini going +through would produce such a current of the electric fluid, that the +machine would be in great danger of combustion. Remonstrances were +sometimes sent to neighboring cities, to the effect that they should +keep their light and heat to themselves, and not be throwing such strong +_reflections_ into the weak eyes of the Grindwellites, and putting in +danger the governmental powder-magazine,--as the machine-offices were +sometimes called. An inundation or bad harvest, producing a famine among +the poor, causes great alarm, and the government officers have a time of +it, running about distributing alms, or raising money to keep down the +price of bread. Thousands of servants in livery, armed with terrific +instruments for the destruction of life, are kept standing on and around +the walls of the city, ready at a moment's notice to shoot down any one +who makes any movement or demonstration in a direction contrary to +the laws of the machine. And to support this great crowd of liveried +lackeys, the people are squeezed like sponges, till they furnish the +necessary money. + +The respectable editors of the daily papers go about somewhat as the +dogs do in August, with muzzles on their mouths. They are prohibited +from printing more than a hundred words a day. Any reference to the +sunshine, or to any of the subtile and imponderable substances before +mentioned, is considered contrary to the order of the machine; to +compensate for which, there is great show of gaslight (under glass +covers) throughout the city. Gas and moonshine are the staple subjects +of conversation. Besides lighting the streets and shops, the chief +use of fire seems to be for cooking, lighting pipes and cigars, and +fireworks to amuse the working classes. + +Great attention is paid to polishing and beautifying the outer case of +the machine, and the outer surface generally of the city of Grindwell. +Where any portion of the framework has fallen into dilapidation and +decay, the gaunt skeleton bones of the ruined structure are decked and +covered with leaves and flowers. Old rusty boilers that are on the verge +of bursting are newly painted, varnished, and labelled with letters +of gold. The main-spring, which has grown old and weak, is said to be +helped by the secret application of steam,--and the fires are fed with +huge bundles of worthless bank-bills and other paper promises. The noise +of the clanking piston and wheels is drowned by orchestras of music; +the roofs and sides of the machine buildings are covered all over with +roses; and the smell of smoke and machine oil is prevented by scattering +delicious perfumes. The minds of the populace are turned from the +precarious condition of things by all sorts of public amusements, such +as mask balls, theatres, operas, public gardens, etc. + +But all this does not preserve some persons from the continual +apprehension that there will be one day a great and terrific explosion. +Some say the city is sleeping over volcanic fires, which will sooner or +later burst up from below and destroy or change the whole upper surface. +The actual state of things might be represented on canvas by a gaping, +laughing crowd pressing around a Punch-and-Judy exhibition in the +street, beneath a great ruined palace in the process of repairing, where +the rickety scaffolding, the loose stones and mortar, and in fact the +whole rotten building, may at any moment topple down upon their heads. + +But while such grave thoughts are passing in the minds of some people, I +must relate one or two amusing scenes which lately occurred at the city +gates. + +Travellers are not prohibited from going and coming; but on entering, it +is necessary to be sure that they bring with their passports and baggage +no prohibited or dangerous articles. A young man from our side of the +Atlantic, engaged in commerce, had been annoyed a good deal by the +gate-officers opening and searching his baggage. The next time he went +to Grindwell, he brought, besides his usual trunks and carpet-bags, a +rather large and very mysterious-looking box. After going through with +the trunks and bags, the officers took hold of this box. + +"Gentlemen," said the young practical joker, "I have great objections +to having that box opened. Yet it contains, I assure you, nothing +contraband, nothing dangerous to the peace of the Grindwell government +or people. It is simply a toy I am taking to a friend's house as a +Christmas present to his little boy. If I open it, I fear I shall have +difficulty in arranging it again as neatly as I wish,--and it would be a +great disappointment to my little friend Auguste Henri, if he should not +find it neatly packed. It would show at once that it had been opened; +and children like to have their presents done up nicely, just as they +issued from the shop. Gentlemen, I shall take it as a great favor, if +you will let it pass." + +"Sir," said the head officer, "it is impossible to grant the favor you +ask. The government is very strict. Many prohibited articles have lately +found their way in. We are determined to put a stop to it." + +"Gentlemen," said the young man, "take hold of that box,--lift it. You +see how light it is; you see that there can be no contraband goods +there,--still less, anything dangerous. I pray you to let it pass." + +"Impossible, Sir!" said the officer. "How do I know that there is +nothing dangerous there? The weight is nothing. Its lightness rather +makes it the more suspicious. Boxes like this are usually heavy. This is +something out of the usual course. I'm afraid there's electricity here. +Gentlemen officers, proceed to do your duty!" + +So a crowd of custom-house officers gathered around the suspected box, +with their noses bent down over the lid, awaiting the opening. One of +them was about to proceed with hammer and chisel. + +"Stop," said the young merchant, "I can save you a great deal of +trouble. I can open it in an instant. Allow me--by touching a little +spring here"-- + +As he said this, he pressed a secret spring on the side of the box. +No sooner was it done than, the lid was thrown back with sudden and +tremendous violence, as if by some living force, and up jumped a hideous +and shaggy monster which knocked the six custom-house officers flat on +their backs. It was an enormous Punchinello on springs, who had been +confined in the box like the Genie in the Arabian story, and by the +broad grin on his face he seemed delighted with his liberty and his +triumph over his inquisitors. The six officers lay stunned by the blow; +and while others ran up to see what was the matter, the young traveller +persuaded Mr. Punch back again into his box, and, shutting him down, +took advantage of the confusion to carry it off with the rest of his +baggage, and reach a cab in safety. When the officers recovered their +senses, the practical joker had escaped into the crowded city. They +could give no clear account of what had happened; but I verily believe +they thought that Lucifer himself had knocked them down, and was now let +loose in the city of Grindwell. + +Another amusing incident occurred afterwards at the city gates. An +American lady, who was a great lover of Art, had purchased a bronze bust +of Plato somewhere on the Continent. She had it carefully boxed, and +took it along with her baggage. She got on very well until she reached +the city of Grindwell. Here she was stopped, of course, and her baggage +examined. Finding nothing contraband, they were about to let her pass, +when they came to the box containing the ancient philosopher's head. + +"What's this?" they asked. "What's in this box, so heavy?" + +"A bust," said the lady. + +"A bust? so heavy? a bust in a lady's baggage?--Impossible!" + +"I assure you, it is nothing but a bust." + +"Pray, whose bust may it be, Madam?" + +"The bust of Plato." + +"Plato? Plato? Who's Plato? Is he an Italian?" + +"He was a Greek philosopher." + +"Why is it so heavy?" + +"It is a bronze bust." + +"We beg your pardon, Madam; but we fear there's something wrong here. +This Plato may be a conspirator,--a Carbonaro,--a member of some secret +society,--a red-republican,--a conductor of the electric fluid. How can +we answer for this Plato? We don't like this heavy box;--these very +heavy boxes are suspicious. Suppose it should be some infernal-machine. +Madam, we have our doubts. This box must be detained till full inquiries +are made." + +There was no help for it. The box was detained. "It must be so, Plato!" +After waiting several hours, it was brought forward in presence of the +entire company of inquisitors, and cautiously opened. Seeing no Plato, +but only some sawdust, they grew still more suspicious. Having placed +the box on the ground, they all retired to a safe distance, as if +awaiting some explosion. They evidently took it for an infernal-machine. +In their eyes everything was a machine of some sort or other. After +waiting some time, and finding that it didn't burst, nor emit even +a smell of sulphur, the boldest man of the party approached it very +cautiously, and upset it with his foot and ran. + +All this while the lady and her friends stood by, silent spectators +of this farce. The only danger of explosion was on their part, with +laughter at the whole scene. They contrived, however, to keep their +countenances, though less rigidly than the Greek philosopher in the box +did his. + +When the custom-house officials found, that, though the box was upset, +nothing occurred, they grew more bold, and, approaching, saw a piece of +the bronze head peering above the sawdust. Then, for the first time, +they began to feel ashamed of themselves. So replacing the sawdust and +the cover, they allowed the box to pass into the city, and tried, by +avoiding to speak of the affair among themselves, to forget what donkeys +they had been. + +The Grindwell government has many such alarms, and never appears +entirely at its ease. It is fully aware of the combustible nature of the +component parts of the Governing Machine. There is consequently great +outlay of means to insure its safety. An immense number of public spies +and functionaries are constantly employed in looking after the fires and +lights about the city. Heavy restrictions are laid on all substances +containing electricity, and great care is taken lest this subtile fluid +should condense in spots and take the form of lightning. Fortunately, +the unclouded sunshine seldom comes into Grindwell, else there would be +the same fears with regard to light. + +So long as this perpetual surveillance is kept up, the machine seems to +work on well enough in the main; but the moment there is any remissness +on the part of the police,--bang! goes a small explosion somewhere,--or, +crack! a bit of the machinery,--and out rush the engineers with their +bags of cotton-wool or tow to stop up the chinks, or their bundles of +paper money to keep up the steam, or their buckets of oil and _soft +soap_ to pour upon the wheels. + +One eccentric gentleman of my acquaintance persists in predicting +that any day there may be a general blow-up, and the whole concern, +engineers, financiers, priests, soldiers, and flunkies, all go to smash. +He evidently wishes to see it, though, as far as personal comfort goes, +one would rather be out of the way at such a time. + +Most people seem to think, that, considering all things, the present +head engineer is about the best man that could be found for the post he +occupies. There are, however, a number of the Grindwell people--I can't +say how many, for they are afraid to speak--who feel more and more that +they are living in a stifled and altogether abnormal condition, and wish +for an indefinite supply of the light, heat, air, and electricity which +they see some of the neighboring cities enjoying. + +What the result is to be no one can yet tell. We are such stuff as +dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with--_a crust_; +some say, a very thin crust, such as might be got up by a skilful +_patissier_, and over which gilded court-flies, and even _scaraboei_, +may crawl with safety, but--which must inevitably cave in beneath the +boot-heels of a real, true, thinking man. We cannot forget that there +are measureless catacombs and caverns yawning beneath the streets and +houses of modern Grindwell. + + + + +SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES. + + +Ever since the time of that dyspeptic heathen, Plotinus, the saints have +been "ashamed of their bodies." What is worse, they have usually had +reason for the shame. Of the four famous Latin fathers, Jerome describes +his own limbs as misshapen, his skin as squalid, his bones as scarcely +holding together; while Gregory the Great speaks in his Epistles of his +own large size, as contrasted with his weakness and infirmities. +Three of the four Greek fathers--Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory of +Nazianzen--ruined their health early, and were wretched invalids for the +remainder of their days. Three only of the whole eight were able-bodied +men,--Ambrose, Augustine, and Athanasius; and the permanent influence of +these three has been far greater, for good or for evil, than that of all +the others put together. + +Robust military saints there have doubtless been, in the Roman Catholic +Church: George, Michael, Sebastian, Eustace, Martin,--not to mention +Hubert the Hunter, and Christopher the Christian Hercules. But these +have always held a very secondary place in canonization. If we mistake +not, Maurice and his whole Theban legion were sainted together, to the +number of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six; doubtless they were +stalwart men, but there never yet has been a chapel erected to one of +them. The mediaeval type of sanctity was a strong soul in a weak body; +and it could be intensified either by strengthening the one or by +further debilitating the other. The glory lay in contrast, not in +combination. Yet, to do them justice, they conceded a strong and stately +beauty to their female saints,--Catherine, Agnes, Agatha, Barbara, +Cecilia, and the rest. It was reserved for the modern Pre-Raphaelites to +attempt the combination of a maximum of saintliness with a minimum of +pulmonary and digestive capacity. + +But, indeed, from that day to this, the saints by spiritual laws have +usually been sinners against physical laws, and the artists have merely +followed the examples they found. Vasari records, that Carotto's +masterpiece of painting, "The Three Archangels," at Verona, was +criticized because the limbs of the angels were too slender, and +Carotto, true to his conventional standard, replied, "Then they will fly +the better." Saints have been flying to heaven for the same reason ever +since,--and have commonly flown very early. + +Indeed, the earlier some such saints cast off their bodies the better, +they make so little use of them. Chittagutta, the Buddhist saint, +dwelt in a cave in Ceylon. His devout visitors one day remarked on the +miraculous beauty of the legendary paintings, representing scenes from +the life of Buddha, which adorned the walls. The holy man informed them, +that, during his sixty years' residence in the cave, he had been too +much absorbed in meditation to notice the existence of the paintings, +but he would take their word for it. And in this non-intercourse with +the visible world there has been an apostolical succession, from +Chittagutta, down to the Andover divinity-student who refused to join +his companions in their admiring gaze on that wonderful autumnal +landscape which spreads itself before the Seminary Hill in October, but +marched back into the Library, ejaculating, "Lord, turn thou mine eyes +from beholding vanity!" + +It is to be reluctantly recorded, in fact, that the Protestant saints +have not ordinarily had much to boast of, in physical stamina, as +compared with the Roman Catholic. They have not got far beyond Plotinus. +We do not think it worth while to quote Calvin on this point, for he, as +everybody knows, was an invalid for his whole lifetime. But we do take +it hard, that the jovial Luther, in the midst of his ale and skittles, +should have deliberately censured Juvenal's _mens sana in corpore sano_, +as a pagan maxim! + +If Saint Luther fails us, where are the advocates of the body to look +for comfort? Nothing this side of ancient Greece, we fear, will afford +adequate examples of the union of saintly souls and strong bodies. +Pythagoras the sage we doubt not to have been identical with Pythagoras +the inventor of pugilism, and he was, at any rate, (in the loving words +of Bentley,) "a lusty proper man, and built as it were to make a good +boxer." Cleanthes, whose sublime "Prayer" is, to our thinking, the +highest strain left of early piety, was a boxer likewise. Plato was a +famous wrestler, and Socrates was unequalled for his military +endurance. Nor was one of these, like their puny follower Plotinus, too +weak-sighted to revise his own manuscripts. + +It would be tedious to analyze the causes of this modern deterioration +of the saints. The fact is clear. There is in the community an +impression that physical vigor and spiritual sanctity are incompatible. +We knew a young Orthodox divine who lost his parish by swimming the +Merrimac River, and another who was compelled to ask a dismissal in +consequence of vanquishing his most influential parishioner in a game +of ten-pins; it seemed to the beaten party very unclerical. We further +remember a match, in a certain sea-side bowling-alley, in which two +brothers, young divines, took part. The sides being made up, with the +exception of these two players, it was necessary to find places for +them also. The head of one side accordingly picked his man, on the +presumption (as he afterwards confessed) that the best preacher would +naturally be the worst bowler. The athletic capacity, he thought, would +be in inverse ratio to the sanctity. We are happy to add, that in this +case his hopes were signally disappointed. But it shows which way the +popular impression lies. + +The poets have probably assisted In maintaining the delusion. How many +cases of consumption Wordsworth must have accelerated by his assertion, +that "the good die first"! Happily, he lived to disprove his own maxim. +We, too, repudiate it utterly. Professor Peirce has proved by statistics +that the best scholars in our colleges survive the rest; and we hold +that virtue, like intellect, tends to longevity. The experience of the +literary class shows that all excess is destructive, and that we need +the harmonious action of all the faculties. Of the brilliant roll of the +"young men of 1830," in Paris,--Balzac, Soulie, De Musset, De Bernard, +Sue, and their compeers,--it is said that nearly every one has already +perished, in the prime of life. What is the explanation? A stern one: +opium, tobacco, wine, and licentiousness. "All died of softening of the +brain or spinal marrow, or swelling of the heart." No doubt, many of +the noble and the pure were dying prematurely at the same time; but it +proceeded from the same essential cause: physical laws disobeyed and +bodies exhausted. The evil is, that what in the debauchee is condemned, +as suicide, is lauded in the devotee, as saintship. The _delirium +tremens_ of the drunkard conveys scarcely a sterner moral lesson than +the second childishness of the pure and abstemious Southey. + +But, happily, times change, and saints with them. Our moral conceptions +are expanding to take in that "athletic virtue" of the Greeks, [Greek: +apetae gimnastikae] which Dr. Arnold, by precept and practice, defended. +The modern English "Broad Church" aims at breadth of shoulders, as well +as of doctrines. Kingsley paints his stalwart Philammons and Amyas +Leighs, and his critics charge him with laying down a new definition of +the saint, as a man who fears God and can walk a thousand miles in a +thousand hours. Our American saintship, also, is beginning to have +a body to it, a "Body of Divinity," indeed. Look at our three great +popular preachers. The vigor of the paternal blacksmith still swings the +sinewy arm of Beecher; Parker performed the labors, mental and physical, +of four able-bodied men, until even his great strength temporarily +yielded;--and if ever dyspepsia attack the burly frame of Chapin, we +fancy that dyspepsia will get the worst of it. + +This is as it should be. One of the most potent causes of the +ill-concealed alienation between the clergy and the people, in our +community, is the supposed deficiency, on the part of the former, of +a vigorous, manly life. It must be confessed that our saints suffer +greatly from this moral and physical _anhaemia_, this bloodlessness, +which separates them, more effectually than a cloister, from the strong +life of the age. What satirists upon religion are those parents who say +of their pallid, puny, sedentary, lifeless, joyless little offspring, +"He is born for a minister," while the ruddy, the brave, and the +strong are as promptly assigned to a secular career! Never yet did an +ill-starred young saint waste his Saturday afternoons in preaching +sermons in the garret to his deluded little sisters and their dolls, +without living to repent it in maturity. These precocious little +sentimentalists wither away like blanched potato-plants in a cellar; +and then comes some vigorous youth from his out-door work or play, and +grasps the rudder of the age, as he grasped the oar, the bat, or the +plough-handle. We distrust the achievements of every saint without a +body; and really have hopes of the Cambridge Divinity School, since +hearing that it has organized a boat-club. + +We speak especially of men, but the same principles apply to women. +The triumphs of Rosa Bonheur and Harriet Hosmer grew out of a free and +vigorous training, and they learned to delineate muscle by using it. + +Everybody admires the physical training of military and naval schools. +But these same persons never seem to imagine that the body is worth +cultivating for any purpose, except to annihilate the bodies of others. +Yet it needs more training to preserve life than to destroy it. The +vocation of a literary man is far more perilous than that of a frontier +dragoon. The latter dies at most but once, by an Indian bullet; the +former dies daily, unless he be warned in time and take occasional +refuge in the saddle and the prairie with the dragoon. What battle-piece +is so pathetic as Browning's "Grammarian's Funeral"? Do not waste your +gymnastics on the West Point or Annapolis student, whose whole life will +be one of active exercise, but bring them into the professional schools +and the counting-rooms. Whatever may be the exceptional cases, the stern +truth remains, that the great deeds of the world can be more easily done +by illiterate men than by sickly ones. Wisely said Horace Mann, "All +through the life of a pure-minded but feeble-bodied man, his path is +lined with memory's gravestones, which mark the spots where noble +enterprises perished, for lack of physical vigor to embody them in +deeds." And yet more eloquently it has been said by a younger American +thinker, (D.A. Wasson,) "Intellect in a weak body is like gold in +a spent swimmer's pocket,--the richer he would be, under other +circumstances, by so much the greater his danger now." + +Of course, the mind has immense control over physical endurance, and +every one knows that among soldiers, sailors, emigrants, and woodsmen, +the leaders, though more delicately nurtured, will often endure hardship +better than the followers,--"because," says Sir Philip Sidney, "they are +supported by the great appetites of honor." But for all these triumphs +of nervous power a reaction lies in store, as in the case of the +superhuman efforts often made by delicate women. And besides, there is +a point beyond which no mental heroism can ignore the body,--as, for +instance, in seasickness and toothache. Can virtue arrest consumption, +or self-devotion set free the agonized breath of asthma, or heroic +energy defy paralysis? More formidable still are those subtle results +of disease, which cannot be resisted, because their source is unseen. +Voltaire declared that the fate of a nation had often depended on the +good or bad digestion of a prime-minister; and Motley holds that the +gout of Charles V. changed the destinies of the world. + +But so blinded, on these matters, is our accustomed mode of thought, +that Mr. Beecher's recent lecture on the Laws of Nature has been met +with strong objections from a portion of the religious press. These +newspapers agree in asserting that admiration of physical strength +belonged to the barbarous ages of the world. So it certainly did, and so +much the better for those ages. They had that one merit, at least; and +so surely as an exclusively intellectual civilization ignored it, the +arm of some robust barbarian prostrated that civilization at last. What +Sismondi says of courage is preeminently true of that bodily vigor which +it usually presupposes: that, although it is by no means the first +of virtues, its loss is more fatal than that of all others. "Were it +possible to unite the advantages of a perfect government with the +cowardice of a whole people, those advantages would be utterly +valueless, since they would be utterly without security." + +Physical health is a necessary condition of all permanent success. To +the American people it has a stupendous importance because it is the +only attribute of power in which they are losing ground. Guaranty +us against physical degeneracy, and we can risk all other +perils,--financial crises, Slavery, Romanism, Mormonism, Border +Ruffians, and New York assassins; "domestic malice, foreign levy, +nothing" can daunt us. Guaranty us health, and Mrs. Stowe cannot +frighten us with all the prophecies of Dred; but when her sister +Catherine informs us that in all the vast female acquaintance of the +Beecher family there are not a dozen healthy women, we confess ourselves +a little tempted to despair of the republic. + +The one drawback to satisfaction in our Public-School System is the +physical weakness which it reveals and helps to perpetuate. One seldom +notices a ruddy face in the school-room, without tracing it back to a +Transatlantic origin. The teacher of a large school in Canada went so +far as to declare to us, that she could recognize the children born this +side the line by their invariable appearance of ill-health joined with +intellectual precocity,--stamina wanting, and the place supplied by +equations. Look at a class of boys or girls in our Grammar Schools; a +glance along the line of their backs affords a study of geometrical +curves. You almost long to reverse the position of their heads, as Dante +has those of the false prophets, and thus improve their figures; the +rounded shoulders affording a vigorous chest, and the hollow chest an +excellent back. + +There are statistics to show that the average length of human life is +increasing; but it is probable that this results from the diminution +of epidemic diseases, rather than from any general improvement in +_physique_. There are facts also to indicate an increase of size and +strength with advancing civilization. It is known that two men of middle +size were unable to find a suit of armor large enough among the sixty +sets owned by Sir Samuel Meyrick. It is also known that the strongest +American Indians cannot equal the average strength of wrist of +Europeans, or rival them in ordinary athletic feats. Indeed, it is +generally supposed that any physical deterioration is local, being +peculiar to the United States. Recently, however, we have read, with +great regret, in the "Englishwoman's Review," that "it is allowed by +all, that the appearance of the English peasant, in the present day, +is very different to [from] what it was fifty years ago; the robust, +healthy, hard-looking countrywoman or girl is as rare now as the pale, +delicate, nervous female of our times would have been a century ago." +And the writer proceeds to give alarming illustrations, based upon the +appearance of children in English schools, both in city and country. + +We cannot speak for England, but certainly no one can visit Canada +without being struck with the spectacle of a more athletic race of +people than our own. On every side one sees rosy female faces and noble +manly figures. In the shop-windows, in winter weather, hang snow-shoes, +"gentlemen's and ladies' sizes." The street-corners inform you that the +members of the "Curling Club" are to meet to-day at "Dolly's," and the +"Montreal Fox-hounds" at St. Lawrence Hall to-morrow. And next day +comes off the annual steeple-chase, at the "Mile-End Course," ridden by +gentlemen of the city with their own horses; a scene, by the way, whose +exciting interest can scarcely be conceived by those accustomed only +to "trials of speed" at agricultural exhibitions. Everything indicates +out-door habits and athletic constitutions. + +We are aware that we may be met with the distinction between a good idle +constitution and a good working constitution,--the latter of which often +belongs to persons who make no show of physical powers. But this only +means that there are different temperaments and types of physical +organization, while, within the limits of each, the distinction between +a healthy and a diseased condition still holds; and we insist on that +alone. + +Still more specious is the claim of the Fourth-of-July orators, that, +health or no health, it is the sallow Americans, and not the robust +English, who are really leading the world. But this, again, is a +question of temperaments. The Englishman concedes the greater intensity, +but prefers a more solid and permanent power. It is the noble masonry +and vast canals of Montreal, against the Aladdin's palaces of Chicago. +"I observe," admits the Englishman, "that an American can accomplish +more, at a single effort, than any other man on earth; but I also +observe that he exhausts himself in the achievement. Kane, a delicate +invalid, astounds the world by his two Arctic winters,--and then dies in +tropical Cuba." The solution is simple; nervous energy is grand, and so +is muscular power; combine the two, and you move the world. + +We shall assume, as admitted, therefore, the deficiency of physical +health in America, and the need of a great amendment. But into the +general question of cause and cure we do not propose to enter. In view +of the vast variety of special theories, and the inadequacy of any one, +(or any dozen,) we shall forbear. To our thinking, the best diagnosis +of the universal American disease is to be found in Andral's +famous description of the cholera: "Anatomical characteristics, +insufficient;--cause, mysterious;--nature, hypothetical;--symptoms, +characteristic;--diagnosis, easy;--_treatment, very doubtful_." + +Every man must have his hobby, however, and it is a great deal to ride +only one hobby at a time. For the present we disavow all minor ones. +We forbear giving our pet arguments in defence of animal food, and in +opposition to tobacco, coffee, and india-rubbers. We will not criticize +the old-school physician whom we once knew, who boasted of not having +performed a thorough ablution for twenty-five years; nor will we +question the physiological orthodoxy of Miss Sedgwick's New England +artist, who represented the Goddess of Health with a pair of flannel +drawers on. Still less should we think of debating (or of tasting) +Kennedy's Medical Discovery, or R.R.R., or the Cow Pepsin. We know our +aim, and will pursue it with a single eye. + + "The wise for cure on _exercise_ depend," + +saith Dryden,--and that is our hobby. + +A great physician has said, "I know not which is most indispensable +for the support of the frame,--food or exercise." But who, in this +community, really takes exercise? Even the mechanic commonly confines +himself to one set of muscles; the blacksmith acquires strength in his +right arm, and the dancing-master in his left leg. But the professional +or business man, what muscles has he at all? The tradition, that +Phidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, one hundred and twenty miles, in +two days, seems to us Americans as mythical as the Golden Fleece. Even +to ride sixty miles in a day, to walk thirty, to run five, or to swim +one, would cost most men among us a fit of illness, and many their +lives. Let any man test his physical condition, we will not say by +sawing his own cord of wood, but by an hour in the gymnasium or at +cricket, and his enfeebled muscular apparatus will groan with rheumatism +for a week. Or let him test the strength of his arms and chest by +raising and lowering himself a few times upon a horizontal bar, or +hanging by the arms to a rope, and he will probably agree with Galen +in pronouncing it _robustum validumque laborem_. Yet so manifestly are +these things within the reach of common constitutions, that a few weeks +or months of judicious practice will renovate his whole system, and the +most vigorous exercise will refresh him like a cold bath. + +To a well-regulated frame, mere physical exertion, even for an +uninteresting object, is a great enjoyment, which is, of course, +enhanced by the excitement of games and sports. To almost every man +there is joy in the memory of these things; they are the happiest +associations of his boyhood. It does not occur to him, that he also +might be as happy as a boy, if he lived more like one. What do most men +know of the "wild joys of living," the daily zest and luxury of out-door +existence, in which every healthy boy beside them revels?--skating, +while the orange sky of sunset dies away over the delicate tracery of +gray branches, and the throbbing feet pause in their tingling motion, +and the frosty air is filled with the shrill sound of distant steel, +the resounding of the ice, and the echoes up the hillsides?--sailing, +beating up against a stiff breeze, with the waves thumping under the +bow, as if a dozen sea-gods had laid their heads together to resist +it?--climbing tall trees, where the higher foliage, closing around, +cures the dizziness which began below, and one feels as if he had left a +coward beneath and found a hero above?--the joyous hour of crowded life +in football or cricket?--the gallant glories of riding, and the jubilee +of swimming? + +The charm which all have found in Tom Brown's "School Days at Rugby" +lies simply in this healthy boy's-life which it exhibits, and in the +recognition of physical culture, which is so novel to Americans. At +present, boys are annually sent across the Atlantic simply for bodily +training. But efforts after the same thing begin to creep in among +ourselves. A few Normal Schools have gymnasiums (rather neglected, +however); the "Mystic Hall Female Seminary" advertises riding-horses; +and we believe the new "Concord School" recognizes boating as an +incidental;--but these are all exceptional cases, and far between. +Faint and shadowy in our memory are certain ruined structures lingering +Stonehenge-like on the Cambridge "Delta,"--and mysterious pits +adjoining, into which Freshmen were decoyed to stumble, and of which +we find that vestiges still remain. Tradition spoke of Dr. Follen +and German gymnastics; but the beneficent exotic was transplanted +prematurely, and died. The only direct encouragement of athletic +exercises which stands out in our memory of academic life was a certain +inestimable shed on the "College Wharf," which was for a brief season +the paradise of swimmers, and which, after having been deliberately +arranged for their accommodation, was suddenly removed, the next season, +to make room for coal-bins. Manly sports were not positively discouraged +in our day,--but that was all. + +Yet earlier reminiscences of the same beloved Cambridge suggest deeper +gratitude. Thanks to thee, W.W.,--first pioneer, in New England, of true +classical learning,--last wielder of the old English birch,--for the +manly British sympathy which encouraged to activity the bodies, as well +as the brains, of the numerous band of boys who played beneath the +stately elms of that pleasant play-ground! Who among modern pedagogues +can show such an example of vigorous pedestrianism in his youth as thou +in thine age? and who now grants half-holidays, unasked, for no other +reason than that the skating is good and the boys must use it while it +lasts? + +We cling still to the belief, that the Persian _curriculum_ of +studies--to ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth--is the better part +of a boy's education. As the urchin is undoubtedly physically safer for +having learned to turn a somerset and fire a gun, perilous though these +feats appear to mothers,--so his soul is made healthier, larger, freer, +stronger, by hours and days of manly exercise and copious draughts of +open air, at whatever risk of idle habits and bad companions. Even +if the balance is sometimes lost, and play prevails, what matter? We +rejoice to have been a schoolmate of him who wrote + + "The hours the idle schoolboy squandered + The man would die ere he'd forget." + +Only keep in a boy a pure and generous heart, and, whether he work or +play, his time can scarcely be wasted. Which really has done most for +the education of Boston,--Dixwell and Sherwin, or Sheridan and Braman? + +Should it prove, however, that the cultivation of active exercises +diminishes the proportion of time given by children to study, we can +only view it as an added advantage. Every year confirms us in the +conviction, that our schools, public and private, systematically +overtask the brains of the rising generation. We all complain that Young +America grows to mental maturity too soon, and yet we all contribute +our share to continue the evil. It is but a few weeks since we saw the +warmest praises, in the New York newspapers, of a girl's school, in that +city, where the appointed hours of study amounted to nine and a quarter +daily, and the hours of exercise to a bare unit. Almost all the +Students' Manuals assume that American students need stimulus instead +of restraint, and urge them to multiply the hours of study and diminish +those of out-door amusements and of sleep, as if the great danger did +not lie that way already. When will parents and teachers learn to regard +mental precocity as a disaster to be shunned, instead of a glory to +be coveted? We could count up a dozen young men who have graduated at +Harvard College, during the last twenty years, with high honors, before +the age of eighteen; and we suppose that nearly every one of them has +lived to regret it. "Nature," says Tissot, in his Essay on the Health of +Men of Letters, "is unable successfully to carry on two rapid processes +at the same time. We attempt a prodigy, and the result is a fool." There +was a child in Languedoc who at six years was of the size of a large +man; of course, his mind was a vacuum. On the other hand, Jean Philippe +Baratier was a learned man in his eighth year, and died of apparent old +age at twenty. Both were monstrosities, and a healthy childhood would be +equidistant from either. + +One invaluable merit of out-door sports is to be found in this, that +they afford the best cement for childish friendship. Their associations +outlive all others. There is many a man, now perchance hard and worldly, +whom we love to pass in the street simply because in meeting him we +meet spring flowers and autumn chestnuts, skates and cricket-balls, +cherry-birds and pickerel. There is an indescribable fascination in +the gradual transference of these childish companionships into maturer +relations. We love to encounter in the contests of manhood those whom we +first met at football, and to follow the profound thoughts of those who +always dived deeper, even in the river, than our efforts could attain. +There is a certain governor, of whom we personally can remember only, +that he found the Fresh Pond heronry, which we sought in vain; and +in memory the august sheriff of a neighboring county still skates in +victorious pursuit of us, (fit emblem of swift-footed justice!) on the +black ice of the same lovely lake. Our imagination crowns the Cambridge +poet, and the Cambridge sculptor, not with their later laurels, but with +the willows out of which they taught us to carve whistles, shriller than +any trump of fame, in the happy days when Mount Auburn was Sweet Auburn +still. + +Luckily, boy-nature is too strong for theory. And we admit, for the sake +of truth, that physical education is not so entirely neglected among us +as the absence of popular games would indicate. We suppose, that, if the +truth were told, this last fact proceeds partly from the greater freedom +of field-sports in this country. There are few New England boys who do +not become familiar with the rod or gun in childhood. We take it, that, +in the mother country, the monopoly of land interferes with this, and +that game laws, by a sort of spontaneous pun, tend to introduce games. + +Again, the practice of match-playing is opposed to our habits, both as +a consumer of time and as partaking too much of gambling. Still, it is +done in the case of "firemen's musters," which are, we believe, a wholly +indigenous institution. We have known a very few cases where the young +men of neighboring country parishes have challenged each other to games +of base-ball, as is common in England; and there was, if we mistake not, +a recent match at football between the boys of the Fall River and +the New Bedford High Schools. And within a few years regattas and +cricket-matches have become common events. Still, these public +exhibitions are far from being a full exponent of the athletic habits of +our people; and there is really more going on among us than this meagre +"pentathlon" exhibits. + +Again, a foreigner is apt to infer, from the more desultory and +unsystematized character of our out-door amusements, that we are less +addicted to them than we really are. But this belongs to the habit of +our nation, impatient, to a fault, of precedents and conventionalisms. +The English-born Frank Forrester complains of the total indifference +of our sportsmen to correct phraseology. We should say, he urges, "for +large flocks of wild fowl,--of swans, a _whiteness_,--of geese, a +_gaggle_,--of brent, a _gang_,--of duck, a _team_ or a _plump_,--of +widgeon, a _trip_,--of snipes, a _wisp_,--of larks, an _exaltation_.--The +young of grouse are _cheepers_,--of quail, _squeakers_,--of +wild duck, _flappers_." And yet, careless of these proprieties, +Young America goes "gunning" to good purpose. So with all +games. A college football-player reads with astonishment Tom Brown's +description of the very complicated performance which passes under that +name at Rugby. So cricket is simplified; it is hard to organize +an American club into the conventional distribution of point and +cover-point, long slip and short slip, but the players persist in +winning the game by the most heterodox grouping. This constitutional +independence has its good and evil results, in sports as elsewhere. It +is this which has created the American breed of trotting horses, and +which won the Cowes regatta by a mainsail as flat as a board. + +But, so far as there is a deficiency in these respects among us, this +generation must not shrink from the responsibility. It is unfair +to charge it on the Puritans. They are not even answerable for +Massachusetts; for there is no doubt that athletic exercises, of some +sort, were far more generally practised in this community before the +Revolution than at present. A state of almost constant Indian warfare +then created an obvious demand for muscle and agility. At present there +is no such immediate necessity. And it has been supposed that a race of +shopkeepers, brokers, and lawyers could live without bodies. Now that +the terrible records of dyspepsia and paralysis are disproving this, we +may hope for a reaction in favor of bodily exercises. And when we once +begin the competition, there seems no reason why any other nation should +surpass us. The wide area of our country, and its variety of surface and +shore, offer a corresponding range of physical training. Take our coasts +and inland waters alone. It is one thing to steer a pleasure-boat with a +rudder, and another to steer a dory with an oar; one thing to paddle a +birch-canoe, and another to paddle a ducking-float; in a Charles River +club-boat, the post of honor is in the stern,--in a Penobscot _bateau_, +in the bow; and each of these experiences educates a different set of +muscles. Add to this the constitutional American receptiveness, which +welcomes new pursuits without distinction of origin,--unites German +gymnastics with English sports and sparring, and takes the red Indians +for instructors in paddling and running. With these various aptitudes, +we certainly ought to become a nation of athletes. + +We have shown, that, in one way or another, American schoolboys obtain +active exercise. The same is true, in a very limited degree, even +of girls. They are occasionally, in our larger cities, sent to +gymnasiums,--the more the better. Dancing-schools are better than +nothing, though all the attendant circumstances are usually unfavorable. +A fashionable young lady is estimated to traverse her three hundred +miles a season on foot; and this needs training. But out-door exercise +for girls is terribly restricted, first by their costume, and secondly +by the remarks of Mrs. Grundy. All young female animals unquestionably +require as much motion as their brothers, and naturally make as much +noise; but what mother would not be shocked, in the case of her girl of +twelve, by one-tenth part the activity and uproar which are recognized +as being the breath of life to her twin brother? Still, there is a +change going on, which is tantamount to an admission that there is an +evil to be remedied. Twenty years ago, if we mistake not, it was by no +means considered "proper" for little girls to play with their hoops +and balls on Boston Common; and swimming and skating have hardly been +recognized as "ladylike" for half that period of time. + +Still it is beyond question, that far more out-door exercise is +habitually taken by the female population of almost all European +countries than by our own. In the first place, the peasant women of all +other countries (a class non-existent here) are trained to active +labor from childhood; and what traveller has not seen, on foreign +mountain-paths, long rows of maidens ascending and descending the +difficult ways, bearing heavy burdens on their heads, and winning by the +exercise such a superb symmetry and grace of figure as were a new wonder +of the world to Cisatlantic eyes? Among the higher classes, physical +exercises take the place of these things. Miss Beecher glowingly +describes a Russian female seminary in which nine hundred girls of the +noblest families were being trained by Ling's system of calisthenics, +and her informant declared that she never beheld such an array of +girlish health and beauty. Englishwomen, again, have horsemanship and +pedestrianism, in which their ordinary feats appear to our healthy women +incredible. Thus, Mary Lamb writes to Miss Wordsworth, (both ladies +being between fifty and sixty,) "You say you can walk fifteen miles with +ease; that is exactly my stint, and more fatigues me"; and then speaks +pityingly of a delicate lady who could accomplish only "four or five +miles every third or fourth day, keeping very quiet between." How few +American ladies, in the fulness of their strength, (if female strength +among us has any fulness,) can surpass this English invalid! + +But even among American men, how few carry athletic habits into manhood! +The great hindrance, no doubt, is absorption in business; and we observe +that this winter's hard times and consequent leisure have given a great +stimulus to outdoor sports. But in most places there is the further +obstacle, that a certain stigma of boyishness goes with them. So early +does this begin, that we remember, in our teens, to have been slightly +reproached with juvenility, because, though a Senior Sophister, we still +clung to football. Juvenility! We only wish we had the opportunity now. +Full-grown men are, of course, intended to take not only as much, but +far more active exercise than boys. Some physiologists go so far as +to demand six hours of out-door life daily; and it is absurd in us to +complain that we have not the healthy animal happiness of children, +while we forswear their simple sources of pleasure. + +Most of the exercise habitually taken by men of sedentary pursuits is +in the form of walking. We believe its merits to be greatly overrated. +Walking is to real exercise what vegetable food is to animal; it +satisfies the appetite, but the nourishment is not sufficiently +concentrated to be invigorating. It takes a man out-doors, and it uses +his muscles, and therefore of course it is good; but it is not the best +kind of good. Walking, for walking's sake, becomes tedious. We must not +ignore the _play-impulse_ in human nature, which, according to Schiller, +is the foundation of all Art. In female boarding-schools, teachers +uniformly testify to the aversion of pupils to the prescribed walk. +Give them a sled, or a pair of skates, or a row-boat, or put them on +horseback, and they will protract the period of exercise till the +teacher in turn grumbles. Put them into a gymnasium, with an efficient +teacher, and they will soon require restraint, instead of urging. + +Gymnastic exercises have two disadvantages: one, in being commonly +performed under cover (though this may sometimes prove an advantage as +well); another, in requiring apparatus, and at first a teacher. These +apart, perhaps no other form of exercise is so universally invigorating. +A teacher is required, less for the sake of stimulus than of precaution. +The tendency is almost always to dare too much; and there is also need +of a daily moderation in commencing exercises; for the wise pupil will +always prefer to supple his muscles by mild exercises and calisthenics, +before proceeding to harsher performances on the bars and ladders. With +this precaution, strains are easily avoided; even with this, the hand +will sometimes blister and the body ache, but perseverance will cure the +one and Russia Salve the other; and the invigorated life in every +limb will give a perpetual charm to those seemingly aimless leaps and +somersets. The feats once learned, a private gymnasium can easily be +constructed, of the simplest apparatus, and so daily used; though +nothing can wholly supply the stimulus afforded by a class in a public +institution, with a competent teacher. In summer, the whole thing can +partially be dispensed with; but we are really unable to imagine how any +person gets through the winter happily without a gymnasium. + +For the favorite in-door exercise of dumb-bells we have little to say; +they are not an enlivening performance, nor do they task a variety of +muscles,--while they are apt to strain and fatigue them, if used with +energy. Far better, for a solitary exercise, is the Indian club, a +lineal descendant of that antique one in whose handle rare medicaments +were fabled to be concealed. The modern one is simply a rounded club, +weighing from four pounds upwards, according to the strength of the +pupil; grasping a pair of these by the handles, he learns a variety of +exercises, having always before him the feats of the marvellous Mr. +Harrison, whose praise is in the "Spirit of the Times," and whose +portrait adorns the back of Dr. Trall's Gymnastics. By the latest +bulletins, that gentleman measured forty-two and a half inches round the +chest, and employed clubs weighing no less than forty-seven pounds. + +It may seem to our non-resistant friends to be going rather far, if we +should indulge our saints in taking boxing lessons; yet it is not long +since a New York clergyman saved his life in Broadway by the judicious +administration of a "cross-counter" or a "flying crook," and we have +not heard of his excommunication from the Church Militant. No doubt, a +laudable aversion prevails, in this country, to the English practices of +pugilism; yet it must be remembered that sparring is, by its very name, +a "science of self-defence"; and if a gentleman wishes to know how to +hold a rude antagonist at bay, in any emergency, and keep out of an +undignified scuffle, the means are most easily afforded him by the art, +which Pythagoras founded. Apart from this, boxing exercises every muscle +in the body, and gives a wonderful quickness to eye and hand. These same +remarks apply, though in a minor degree, to fencing also. + +Billiards is a graceful game, and affords, in some respects, admirable +training, but is hardly to be classed among athletic exercises. Tenpins +afford, perhaps, the most popular form of exercise among us, and have +become almost a national game, and a good one, too, so far as it goes. +The English game of bowls is less entertaining, and is, indeed, rather a +sluggish sport, though it has the merit of being played in the open air. +The severer British sports, as tennis and rackets, are scarcely more +than names, to us Americans. + +Passing now to outdoor exercises, (and no one should confine himself to +in-door ones,) we hold with the Thalesian school, and rank water first. +Vishnu Sarma gives, in his apologues, the characteristics of the fit +place for a wise man to live in, and enumerates among its necessities +first "a Rajah" and then "a river." Democrats as we are, we can dispense +with the first, but not with the second. A square mile even of pond +water is worth a year's schooling to any intelligent boy. A boat is a +kingdom. We personally own one,--a mere flat-bottomed "float," with a +centre-board. It has seen service,--it is eight years old,--has spent +two winters under the ice, and been fished in by boys every day for as +many summers. It grew at last so hopelessly leaky, that even the boys +disdained it. It cost seven dollars originally, and we would not sell it +to-day for seventeen. To own the poorest boat is better than hiring the +best. It is a link to Nature; without a boat, one is so much the less a +man. + +Sailing is of course delicious; it is as good as flying to steer +anything with wings of canvas, whether one stand by the wheel of a +clipper-ship, or by the clumsy stern-oar of a "gundalow." But rowing has +also its charms; and the Indian noiselessness of the paddle, beneath the +fringing branches of the Assabeth or Artichoke, puts one into Fairyland +at once, and Hiawatha's _cheemaun_ becomes a possible possession. Rowing +is peculiarly graceful and appropriate as a feminine exercise, and any +able-bodied girl can learn to handle one light oar at the first lesson, +and two at the second; this, at least, we demand of our own pupils. + +Swimming has also a birdlike charm of motion. The novel element, the +free action, the abated drapery, give a sense of personal contact +with Nature which nothing else so fully bestows. No later triumph of +existence is so fascinating, perhaps, as that in which the boy first +wins his panting way across the deep gulf that severs one green bank +from another, (ten yards, perhaps,) and feels himself thenceforward lord +of the watery world. The Athenian phrase for a man who knew nothing was, +that he could "neither read nor swim." Yet there is a vast amount of +this ignorance; the majority of sailors, it is said, cannot swim a +stroke; and in a late lake disaster, many able-bodied men perished +by drowning, in calm water, only half a mile from shore. At our +watering-places it is rare to see a swimmer venture out more than a rod +or two, though this proceeds partly from the fear of sharks,--as if +sharks of the dangerous order were not far more afraid of the rocks +than the swimmers of being eaten. But the fact of the timidity is +unquestionable; and we were told by a certain clerical frequenter of a +watering-place, himself a robust swimmer, that he had never met but two +companions who would venture boldly out with him, both being ministers, +and one a distinguished Ex-President of Brown University. We place this +fact to the credit of the bodies of our saints. + +But space forbids us thus to descant on the details of all active +exercises. Riding may be left to the eulogies of Mr. N.P. Willis, and +cricket to Mr. Lillywhite's "Guide." We will only say, in passing, that +it is pleasant to see the rapid spread of clubs for the latter game, +which a few years since was practised only by a few transplanted +Englishmen and Scotchmen; and it is pleasant also to observe the twin +growth of our indigenous American game of base-ball, whose briskness +and unceasing activity are perhaps more congenial, after all, to our +national character, than the comparative deliberation of cricket. +Football, bating its roughness, is the most glorious of all games to +those whose animal life is sufficiently vigorous to enjoy it. Skating is +just at present the fashion for ladies as well as gentlemen, and needs +no apostle; the open weather of the current winter has been unusually +favorable for its practice, and it is destined to become a permanent +institution. + +A word, in passing, on the literature of athletic exercises; it is too +scanty to detain us long. Five hundred books, it is estimated, have been +written on the digestive organs, but we shall not speak of half a +dozen in connection with the muscular powers. The common Physiologies +recommend exercise in general terms, but seldom venture on details; +unhappily, they are written, for the most part, by men who have already +lost their own health, and are therefore useful as warnings rather than +examples. The first real book of gymnastics printed in this country, so +far as we know, was the work of the veteran Salzmann, translated and +published in Philadelphia, in 1802, and sometimes to be met with in +libraries,--an odd, desultory book, with many good reasonings and +suggestions, and quaint pictures of youths exercising in the old German +costume. Like Dr. Follen's gymnasium, at Cambridge, it was probably +transplanted too early, and produced no effect. Next came, in 1836, the +book which is still, after twenty years, the standard, so far as it +goes,--Walker's "Manly Exercises,"--a thoroughly English book, and +needing adaptation to our habits, but full of manly vigor, and +containing good and copious directions for skating, swimming, boating, +and horsemanship. The only later general treatise worth naming is Dr. +Trall's recently published "Family Gymnasium,"--a good book, yet not +good enough. On gymnastics proper it contains scarcely anything; and the +essays on rowing, riding, and skating are so meagre, that they might +almost as well have been omitted, though that on swimming is excellent. +The main body of the book is devoted to the subject of calisthenics, +and especially to Ling's system; all this is valuable for its novelty, +although we cannot imagine how a system so tediously elaborate and so +little interesting can ever be made very useful for American pupils. +Miss Beecher has an excellent essay on calisthenics, with very useful +figures, at the end of her "Physiology." And on proper gymnastic +exercises there is a little book so full and admirable, that it +atones for the defects of all the others,--"Paul Preston's +Gymnastics,"--nominally a child's book, but so spirited and graphic, +and entering so admirably into the whole extent of the subject, that it +ought to be reprinted and find ten thousand readers. + +In our own remarks, we have purposely confined ourselves to those +physical exercises which partake most of the character of sports. +Field-sports alone we have omitted, because these are so often discussed +by abler hands. Mechanical and horticultural labors lie out of our +present province. So do the walks and labors of the artist and the man +of science. The out-door study of natural history alone is a vast +field, even yet very little entered upon. In how many American towns or +villages are to be found _local collections_ of natural objects, such as +every large town in Europe affords, and without which the foundations of +thorough knowledge cannot be laid? We can scarcely point to any. We have +innumerable fragmentary and aimless "Museums,"--collections of South-Sea +shells in inland villages, and of aboriginal remains in seaport +towns,--mere curiosity-shops, which no man confers any real benefit by +collecting; while the most ignorant person may be a true benefactor +to science by forming a cabinet, however scanty, of the animal and +vegetable productions of his own township. We have often heard Professor +Agassiz lament this waste of energy, and we would urge upon all our +readers to do their share to remedy the defect, while they invigorate +their bodies by the exercise which the effort will give, and the joyous +open-air life into which it will take them. + +For, after all, the secret charm of all these sports and studies is +simply this,--that they bring us into more familiar intercourse +with Nature. They give us that _vitam sub divo_ in which the Roman +exulted,--those out-door days, which, say the Arabs, are not to be +reckoned in the length of life. Nay, to a true lover of the open air, +night beneath its curtain is as beautiful as day. We personally have +camped out under a variety of auspices,--before a fire of pine logs in +the forests of Maine, beside a blaze of faya-boughs on the steep side of +a foreign volcano, and beside no fire at all, (except a possible one +of Sharp's rifles,) in that domestic volcano, Kansas; and every such +remembrance is worth many nights of indoor slumber. We never found a +week in the year, nor an hour of day or night, which had not, in +the open air, its own special beauty. We will not say, with Reade's +Australians, that the only use of a house is to sleep in the lee of it; +but there is method in even that madness. As for rain, it is chiefly +formidable indoors. Lord Bacon used to ride with uncovered head in a +shower, and loved "to feel the spirit of the universe upon his brow"; +and we once knew an enthusiastic hydropathic physician who loved to +expose himself in thunder-storms at midnight, without a shred of earthly +clothing between himself and the atmosphere. Some prudent persons may +possibly regard this as being rather an extreme, while yet their own +extreme of avoidance of every breath from heaven is really the more +extravagantly unreasonable of the two. + +It is easy for the sentimentalist to say, "But if the object is, after +all, the enjoyment of Nature, why not go and enjoy her, without any +collateral aim?" Because it is the universal experience of man, that, if +we have a collateral aim, we enjoy her far more. He knows not the beauty +of the universe, who has not learned the subtile mystery, that Nature +loves to work on us by _indirections_. Astronomers say, that, when +observing with the naked eye, you see a star less clearly by looking +at it, than by looking at the next one. Margaret Fuller's fine saying +touches the same point,--"Nature will not be stared at." Go out merely +to enjoy her, and it seems a little tame, and you begin to suspect +yourself of affectation. We know persons who, after years of abstinence +from athletic sports or the pursuits of the naturalist or artist, have +resumed them, simply in order to restore to the woods and the sunsets +the zest of the old fascination. Go out under pretence of shooting on +the marshes or botanizing in the forests; study entomology, that most +fascinating, most neglected of all the branches of natural history; go +to paint a red maple-leaf in autumn, or watch a pickerel-line in winter; +meet Nature on the cricket ground or at the regatta; swim with her, ride +with her, run with her, and she gladly takes you back once more within +the horizon of her magic, and your heart of manhood is born again into +more than the fresh happiness of the boy. + + * * * * * + + +BY THE DEAD. + + + Pride that sat on the beautiful brow, + Scorn that lay in the arching lips, + Will of the oak-grain, where are ye now? + I may dare to touch her finger-tips! + Deep, flaming eyes, ye are shallow enough; + The steadiest fire burns out at last. + Throw back the shutters,--the sky is rough, + And the winds are high,--but the night is past. + + Mother, I speak with the voice of a man; + Death is between us,--I stoop no more; + And yet so dim is each new-born plan, + I am feebler than ever I was before,-- + Feebler than when the western hill + Faded away with its sunset gold. + Mother, your voice seemed dark and chill, + And your words made my young heart very cold. + + You talked of fame,--but my thoughts would stray + To the brook that laughed across the lane; + And of hopes for me,--but your hand's light play + On my brow was ice to my shrinking brain; + And you called me your son, your only son,-- + But I felt your eye on my tortured heart + To and fro, like a spider, run, + On a quivering web;--'twas a cruel art! + + But crueller, crueller far, the art + Of the low, quick laugh that Memory hears! + Mother, I lay my head on your heart; + Has it throbbed even once these fifty years? + Throbbed even once, by some strange heat thawed? + It would then have warmed to her, poor thing, + Who echoed your laugh with a cry!--O God, + When in my soul will it cease to ring? + + Starlike her eyes were,--but yours were blind; + Sweet her red lips,--but yours were curled; + Pure her young heart,--but yours,--ah, you find + This, mother, is not the only world! + She came,--bright gleam of the dawning day; + She went,--pale dream of the winding-sheet. + Mother, they come to me and say + Your headstone will almost touch her feet! + + You are walking now in a strange, dim land: + Tell me, has pride gone with you there? + Does a frail white form before you stand, + And tremble to earth, beneath your stare? + No, no!--she is strong in her pureness now, + And Love to Power no more defers. + I fear the roses will never grow + On your lonely grave as they do on hers! + + But now from those lips one last, sad touch,-- + Kiss it is not, and has never been; + In my boyhood's sleep I dreamed of such, + And shuddered,--they were so cold and thin! + There,--now cover the cold, white face, + Whiter and colder than statue stone! + Mother, you have a resting-place; + But I am weary, and all alone! + + + + +AARON BURR.[A] + +[Footnote A: _The Life and Times of Aaron Burr._ By J. PARTON. New York: +Mason, Brothers. 1857.] + + +The life of Aaron Burr is an admirable subject for a biographer. He +belonged to a class of men, rare in America, who are remarkable, not so +much for their talents or their achievements, as for their adventures +and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. Europe has produced many such +men and women: political intriguers; royal favorites; adroit courtiers; +adventurers who carried their swords into every scene of danger; +courtesans who controlled the affairs of states; persevering schemers +who haunted the purlieus of courts, plotted treason in garrets, and +levied war in fine ladies' boudoirs. + +In countries where all the social and political action is concentrated +around the throne, where a pretty woman may decide the policy of a +reign, a royal marriage plunge nations into war, and the disgrace of a +favorite cause the downfall of a party, such persons find an ample field +for the exercise of the arts upon which they depend for success. The +history and romance of Modern Europe are full of them; they crowd the +pages of Macaulay and Scott. But the full sunlight of our republican +life leaves no lurking-place for the mere trickster. Doubtless, selfish +purposes influence our statesmen, as well as the statesmen of other +countries; but such purposes cannot be accomplished here by the means +which effect them elsewhere. He who wishes to attract the attention of +a people must act publicly and with reference to practical matters; but +the ear of a monarch may be reached in private. Therefore there is a +certain monotony in the lives of most of our public men; they may be +read in the life of one. It is, generally, a simple story of a poor +youth, who was born in humble station, and who, by painful effort +in some useful occupation, rose slowly to distinguished place,--who +displayed high talents, and made an honorable use of them. Aaron Burr, +however, is an exception. His adventures, his striking relations with +the leading men of his time, his romantic enterprises, the crimes and +the talents which have been attributed to him, his sudden elevation, and +his protracted and agonizing humiliation have attached to his name a +strange and peculiar interest. Mr. Parton has done a good service in +recalling a character which had well-nigh passed out of popular thought, +though not entirely out of popular recollection. + +As to the manner in which this service has been performed, it is +impossible to speak very highly. The book has evidently cost its author +great pains; it is filled with detail, and with considerable gossip +concerning the hero, which is piquant, and, if true, important. The +style is meant to be lively, and in some passages is pleasant enough; +but it is marked with a flippancy, which, after a few pages, becomes +very disagreeable. It abounds with the slang usually confined to +sporting papers. According to the author, a civil man is "as civil as an +orange," a well-dressed man is "got up regardless of expense," and an +unobserved action is done "on the sly." He affects the intense, and, in +his pages, newspapers "go rabid and foam personalities," are "ablaze +with victories" and "bristling with bulletins,"--the public is in a +"delirium,"--the politicians are "maddened,"--letters are written in +"hot haste," and proclamations "sent flying." He appears to be on terms +of intimacy with historical personages such as few writers are fortunate +enough to be admitted to. He approves a remark of George II. and +patronizingly exclaims, "Sensible King!" He has occasion to mention John +Adams, and salutes him thus: "Glorious, delightful, honest John Adams! +An American John Bull! The Comic Uncle of this exciting drama!" He then +calls him "a high-mettled game-cock," and says "he made a splendid show +of fight." + +Such little foibles and vanities might easily be pardoned, if the book +had no more important defects. It professes to explain portions of +our history hitherto not perfectly understood, and it contains many +statements for the truth of which we must rely upon the good sense and +accuracy of the writer; yet it is full of errors, and often evinces a +disposition to exaggeration little calculated to produce confidence in +its reliability. + +Our space will not permit us to point out all the mistakes which Mr. +Parton has made, and we will mention only a few which attracted our +attention upon the first perusal of his book. His hero was appointed +Lieutenant-Colonel when only twenty-one years of age, and the +author says that he was "the youngest man who held that rank in the +Revolutionary army, or who has ever held it in an army of the United +States." Alexander Hamilton and Brockholst Livingston both reached that +rank at twenty years of age.--Mr. Parton tells us that Burr's rise in +politics was more "rapid than that of any other man who has played a +conspicuous part in the affairs of the United States"; and that "in four +years after fairly entering the political arena, he was advanced, +first, to the highest honor of the bar, next, to a seat in the National +Council, and then, to a competition with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, +and Clinton, for the Presidency itself." He could hardly have crowded +more errors into a single paragraph. Burr never attained the highest +honor of the bar. His first appearance in politics was as a member of +the Legislature of New York, in 1784, when twenty-eight years old; five +years after, he was appointed Attorney-General; in 1791 he was elected +to the Senate of the United States; and in 1801, at the age of +forty-five, _seventeen_ years after he fairly entered public life, he +became Vice-President. Hamilton was a member of Congress at twenty-five, +and at thirty-two was Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson wrote the +great Declaration when only thirty-two years old; and the present +Vice-President is a much younger man than Burr was when he reached that +station. The statement, that Burr was the rival of Washington and Adams +for the Presidency, is absurd. Under the Constitution, at that time, +each elector voted for two persons,--the candidate who received the +greatest number of votes (if a majority of the whole) being declared +President, and the one having the next highest number Vice-President. +In 1792, at which time Burr received one vote in the Electoral College, +_all_ the electors voted for Washington; consequently the vote for Burr, +upon the strength of which Mr. Parton makes his magnificent boast, was +palpably for the Vice-Presidency. In 1796, the Presidential candidates +were Adams and Jefferson, for one or the other of whom every elector +voted,--the votes for Burr, in this instance thirty in number, being, as +before, only for the Vice-Presidency. Even in 1800, when the votes for +Jefferson and Burr in the Electoral College were equal, it is notorious +that this equality was simply the result of their being supported on the +same ticket,--the former for the office of President, and the latter +for that of Vice-President. Mr. Parton says, that, in the House of +Representatives, Burr would have been elected on the first ballot, if a +majority would have sufficed; and that Mr. Jefferson never received more +than fifty-one votes in a House of one hundred and six members. Had he +taken the trouble to examine Gales's "Annals of Congress" for 1799-1801, +he would have found that the House consisted of one hundred and four +members, two seats being vacant; and that on the first ballot Jefferson +received fifty-five votes, a majority of six. We are several times told +that Robert R. Livingston was one of the framers of the Constitution. +Mr. Livingston was not a member of the Constitutional Convention; the +only person of the name in that body was William Livingston, Governor +of New Jersey.--Mr. Parton comes into conflict with other writers upon +matters affecting his hero, as to which he would have done well if he +had given his authority. Matthew L. Davis, Burr's first biographer and +intimate friend, says that Burr's grandfather was a German; Parton, +speaking of the family at the time of the birth of Burr's father, +says that it was Puritan and had flourished in New England for three +generations. Mr. Parton makes Burr a witness of a dramatic interview +between Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Prevost shortly after the discovery of +Arnold's treason, the particulars of which Davis says Burr obtained from +the latter lady after she became his wife.--Our author is not consistent +in his own statements. Upon one page he describes Mrs. Prevost, about +the time of her marriage, as "the beautiful Mrs. Prevost"; a few pages +farther on he says she was "not beautiful, being past her prime." He +informs us that it is the fashion to underrate Jefferson, that the +polite circles and writers of the country have never sympathized with +him,--and in the very same paragraph he remarks that "Thomas Jefferson +has been for fifty years the victim of incessant eulogy." + +This carelessness in reciting facts is associated with a certain +confusion of mind. Mr. Parton does not appear to have the power of +distinguishing between conflicting statements of the same thing. He +describes Hamilton as honest and generous, and then accuses him of +malignity and dishonorable intrigue. He says that Wilkinson, at that +time a general in the United States service, may have thought of +hastening the dissolution of the Union "without being in any sense a +traitor." How an officer can meditate the destruction of a government +which he has sworn to protect, and not be in any sense of the word a +traitor, will puzzle minds not educated in what the author calls "the +Burr school." But the most curious exhibition which Mr. Parton makes of +this mental and moral confusion occurs in a passage where he attempts to +prove his assertion, that "Burr has done the state some service, though +they know it not." This service, of which the state has continued so +obstinately ignorant, consists mainly in having invented filibustering, +and in having brought duelling into disgrace by killing Hamilton. "That +was a benefit," our moralist gravely remarks concerning this last claim +to gratitude. Certainly; just such a benefit as Captain Kidd conferred +upon the world; he brought piracy into disgrace by being hanged for it. +As to the invention of filibustering, we are hardly disposed to rank +Burr with Fulton and Morse for his valuable discovery; but perhaps +the shades of Lopez and De Boulbon, and the living "gray-eyed man of +destiny," will worship him as the founder of their order. + +It is impossible to define Mr. Parton's opinion of his hero. It is not +very clear to himself. He is inclined to admire him, and is quite sure +that he has been harshly dealt with. In the Preface he intimates that it +is his purpose to exhibit Burr's good qualities,--for, as he says, "it +is the good in a man who goes astray that ought most to alarm and warn +his fellow-men." The converse of which proposition we suppose the author +thinks equally true, and that it is the evil in a man who does not go +astray which ought most to delight and attract his fellow-men. At the +end of the volume Mr. Parton makes a summary of Burr's character,--says +that he was too good for a politician, and not great enough for a +statesman,--that Nature meant him for a schoolmaster,--that he was a +useful Senator, an ideal Vice-President, and would have been a good +President,--and that, if his Mexican expedition had succeeded, he would +have run a career similar to that of Napoleon. We do not dare attack +this extraordinary eulogy. To describe a man as not great enough for +a statesman, yet fitted to make a good President, as a natural-born +schoolmaster and at the same time a Napoleon, argues a boldness of +conception which makes criticism dangerous. + +Mr. Parton occasionally assumes an air of impartiality, and mildly +expresses his disapprobation of Burr's vices; but in every instance +where those vices were displayed he earnestly defends him. In the +contest with Jefferson, Parton insists that Burr acted honorably; in the +duel with Hamilton, Burr was the injured party; in his amours he was not +a bad man; so that, although we are told that Burr had faults, we look +in vain for any exhibition of them. In the cases where we have been +accustomed to think that his passions led him into crime, he either +displayed the strictest virtue, or, at most, sinned in so gentlemanlike +a manner, with so much kindness and generosity, as hardly to sin at all. + +There are three ways of writing a biography: one is, to make a simple +narrative and leave the reader to form his own opinion; another, to +present the facts so as to illustrate the author's conception of his +hero's character; a third, and the most common way, to proceed like an +advocate, to suppress everything which can be suppressed, to sneer +at everything which cannot be answered, to put the most favorable +construction upon all dubious matters, and to throw the strongest light +upon every fortunate circumstance. Mr. Parton has tried all three modes, +and failed in all. He is an unskilful delineator of character, a poor +story-teller, and a worse advocate. His book, despite its spasmodic +style, lacks vigor. It indicates a want of firmness and precision of +thought. It leaves a mixed impression on the mind. We venture to say, +that two thirds of its readers will close the volume with an indefinite +contradictory opinion that Burr was a sort of villanous saint, and that +the other third, by no means the most inattentive readers, will not be +able to form any opinion whatever. + +There are four periods or events in the life of Burr which are worthy of +attention: his career in the army; his political course and contest with +Jefferson; the duel; and the Mexican expedition. Upon the first and most +pleasing portion of his life we cannot dwell. He entered the service +shortly after the battle of Bunker Hill, and in two years rose to a +Lieutenant-Colonelcy. Though engaged in several important battles, he +did not have an opportunity to display great military talents, if he +possessed them. He was distinguished, but not more so than many other +young men. He resigned in the spring of 1779,--as he alleged, on account +of ill health, but more probably because the failure of the Lee and +Conway intrigue had disappointed his hopes of promotion. + +As an indication of character, the most important circumstance of Burr's +military life was his quarrel with Washington. This difficulty is said +to have grown out of some scandalous affair in which Burr was engaged, +a belief which is strengthened by his intrigue with the beautiful and +unfortunate Margaret Moncrieffe a few months after. But aside from any +such cause, there was ground enough for difference in the characters of +the two men. Discipline compelled Washington to hold his subordinates at +a distance of implied, if not asserted inferiority; and Burr never met +a man to whom he thought himself inferior. Mr. Parton's explanation is, +that "Hamilton probably implanted a dislike for Burr in Washington's +breast." The only difficulty with this theory is one which the author's +suppositions often encounter,--it has no foundation in fact. At the +time that Burr was in Washington's family, Hamilton was probably not +acquainted with the General; he did not enter his staff until nine +months after Burr had left it. + +Burr entered public life at the only period in our history when a man of +his stamp of mind could have played a conspicuous part. At the close +of the Revolution, in addition to the Tories, there were already two +political factions in New York. As early as 1777 the Whigs had divided +upon the election for Governor, and George Clinton was chosen over +Philip Schuyler. The division then created continued after the peace, +but the differences were, at first, purely personal. Schuyler was the +leader of a party made up of a few great families, most prominent among +which were the Van Rensselaers and Livingstons. The Van Rensselaers have +never been particularly distinguished except as the possessors of a +great estate; the Livingstons, on the other hand, second only to the +great Dutch family in wealth, far surpassed them in political power and +reputation. The Van Rensselaers and Schuylers were connected with the +Livingstons by marriage; and this powerful association, made more +powerful by the banishment of the wealthy inhabitants of New York city +and Long Island, was still further strengthened by the connection with +it of Alexander Hamilton, who married a daughter of Philip Schuyler, and +John Jay, who married a daughter of William Livingston. The Schuyler +faction excited that opposition which wealth and social and political +influence always excite. A party arose which was composed of men of +every condition and shade of opinion,--those who were galled by the +exclusiveness of the aristocracy,--those who had joined the opposition +to Washington,--the young men who had made their reputation during the +war and were eager for professional and political promotion,--and all +those who were converts to the new doctrines of government which the +dispute with England had originated. At the head of these was George +Clinton. Though a man of liberal education, and trained to a liberal +profession, he had not the showy and attractive accomplishments which +distinguished his rivals; but he possessed in an extraordinary degree +those more sturdy qualities of mind and character which, in a country +where distinction is in the gift of the people, are always generously +rewarded. He had great aptitude for business, a clear and rapid +judgment, and high physical and moral courage. He was faithful to his +friends, and though an unyielding, he was a magnanimous foe. At a time +when politics were looked upon almost wholly as the means of personal +and family aggrandizement, and the motives of party conduct such as flow +from the passions of men, he, more than any of his opponents, adhered to +a consistent and not illiberal theory of public action. + +At the outset of his political career, Burr acted upon the policy which +always governed him. He attached himself closely to neither party. When +the political issues grew broader, he was careful not to connect himself +with any measure. He did not heartily oppose the abolition of the Tory +disabilities, nor the adoption of the Constitution. He was a Clintonian, +but not so decidedly as to prevent him from attempting to defeat +Clinton. With a few adherents, he stood between the two parties and +maintained a position where he could avail himself of any overtures +which might be made to him; yet he was careful to be so far identified +with one side as to be able to claim some political association whenever +it became necessary to do so. His success in this artful course was +remarkable. Nominally a Clintonian, in 1789 he supported Yates, and a +few months afterwards took office under Clinton. In 1791, while holding +a place under a Republican governor, he persuaded a Federal legislature +to send him to the Senate of the United States. In the Senate he sided +with the opposition, but so moderately that some Federalists were +willing to support him for Governor. The Republicans nominated him for +the Vice-Presidency, and shortly after, the Federalists in Congress, +almost in a body, voted for him for the Presidency. During all this +time, his name was not associated with any important measure except a +fraudulent banking-scheme in New York. + +The occasion of his elevation to the Vice-Presidency is a perfect +illustration of the accidental circumstances and unimportant services to +which he was generally indebted for advancement. From the commencement +of the Presidential canvass of 1800, it was evident that the action of +New York would control the election. That State then had twelve votes +in the Electoral College; but the electors were chosen by the +Legislature,--not, as at present, by the people. The parties in New York +were nearly equal, and the result in the Legislature was very doubtful. +The city of New York sent twelve members to the Assembly, and usually +determined the political complexion of that body. Thus the contest in +the nation was narrowed down to a single city, and that not a large +one. This gave Burr a favorable field for the exercise of his peculiar +talents. His energy, tact, unscrupulousness, and art in conciliating the +hostile and animating the indifferent made him unequalled in political +finesse. He did not hesitate to use any means in his power. Some one in +his pay overheard the discussion in a Federal caucus, and revealed to +him the plans of his opponents. He had become unpopular, and had brought +odium upon his party by a corrupt speculation; he therefore declined +presenting his own name, and made a ticket comprehending the most +distinguished persons in the Republican ranks. George Clinton, Gen. +Gates, and Brockholst Livingston were placed at the head of it. The +most urgent solicitations were necessary to persuade these gentlemen to +consent to a nomination for places which were beneath their pretensions, +but Burr answered every objection and overcame every scruple. The +respectability of the candidates and the vigorous prosecution of the +canvass carried the city by a considerable majority, and insured the +election of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Parton finds in this abundant material +for extravagant eulogy of Burr. But most people will be surprised to +learn that such services constituted a claim to the Vice-Presidency. If +being an adroit politician entitles a person to high office, there is +not a town in New York which cannot furnish half a dozen statesmen whose +exploits have been far more remarkable than Burr's. + +Burr's nomination, however, was not solely due to his labors at this +election, but in part also to his subsequent address. The importance +of New York made it desirable to select the candidate for the +Vice-Presidency from that State. A caucus of the Republican members +of Congress directed Mr. Gallatin to ascertain who would be the most +acceptable candidate. He wrote to Commodore Nicholson, asking him to +discover the sentiments of the leading men in the State. The names of +Livingston, George Clinton, and Burr had been suggested. Livingston was +deaf, and Nicholson is said to have determined to recommend Clinton. +Burr, however, saw him afterwards, and persuaded him to substitute his +name instead of Clinton's in the letter which he had prepared to send +to Philadelphia. Col. Burr was accordingly placed upon the Republican +ticket. + +The tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, which unexpectedly occurred +in the Electoral College, has given rise to the assertion that Burr +endeavored to defeat Jefferson and secure his own election. Mr. Parton +devotes a chapter to the refutation of this charge, but does not succeed +in making a very strong argument. The evidence of Burr's treachery, is +as positive as from the nature of the case it can be. Of course, he made +no open pledges; it was unnecessary, and it would have been impolitic to +do so. The main fact cannot be denied, that for several weeks before and +after the election went to the House of Representatives, Burr was openly +supported by the Federalists in opposition to Jefferson. Burr knew it; +everybody knew it. Why was this support given? It will require plain +proof to satisfy any one who is familiar with the motives of political +action, that a party would have so earnestly advocated the election of +any man without good reason to suppose that he would make an adequate +return for its support. There was but one course which Burr, in honor, +could take; he should have peremptorily refused to permit his name to be +used. A word from him would have ended the matter; but that word was not +spoken. The evidence on the other side consists of some statements made +several years after, by parties concerned, which are by no means +so direct and unequivocal as might be wished,--and of a series +of depositions taken in some lawsuits instituted by Col. Burr to +investigate the truth of this charge. One circumstance, which seems to +have escaped the notice of our biographer, casts suspicion upon all +these documents. Burr applied to Samuel Smith, a United States Senator +from Maryland, for his testimony. Smith gives the following account of +the transaction:--"Col. Burr called on me. I told him that I had written +my deposition, and would have a fair copy made of it. He said, 'Trust +it to me and I will get Mr. ---- to copy it.' I did so, and, on his +returning it to me, _I found words not mine interpolated in the copy_." +It is not worth while to discuss a defence which was made out by +forgery. + +His election to the Vice-Presidency terminated Burr's official career. +He was deserted by his party, and denounced by the Republican press. +Burning with resentment, he turned upon his enemies, and, supported by +the Federalists, became a candidate for the Governorship of New York, +in opposition to the Republican nominee. Hamilton, who alone among the +Federal statesmen had openly opposed Burr during the contest for the +Presidency, again separated from his party, and earnestly denounced him. +Burr was defeated by an enormous majority. His disappointment and anger +at being again foiled by Hamilton prompted him to the most notorious and +unfortunate act of his life. + +In speaking of his duel with Gen. Hamilton, we do not intend to judge +Col. Burr's conduct by the rules by which a more enlightened public +opinion now judges the duellist. He and his adversary acted according +to the custom of their time; by that standard let them be measured. +Mr. Parton thinks that the challenge was as "near an approach to +a reasonable and inevitable action as an action can be which is +intrinsically wrong and absurd." By this we understand him to say that +the course of Col. Burr was in accordance with the etiquette which then +governed men of the world in such affairs. We think differently. + +During the election for Governor, Dr. Cooper, of Albany, heard Hamilton +declare that he was opposed to Burr, and made a public statement to that +effect. Gen. Schuyler denied the truth of this assertion, which Dr. +Cooper then reiterated in a published letter, saying that Hamilton and +Judge Kent had both characterized Burr as "a dangerous man, and one who +ought not to be trusted with the reins of government," and that "he +could detail a _still more despicable opinion_ which Gen. Hamilton had +expressed of Mr. Burr." Nearly two months after this letter was +written, Burr addressed a note to Hamilton asking for an unqualified +acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expression which would +justify Dr. Cooper's assertion. The dispute turned upon the words "more +despicable," and as to them there obviously were many difficulties. +Cooper thought that the expression, "a dangerous man and one who ought +not to be trusted with the reins of government," conveyed a despicable +opinion; but many persons might think that such language did not go +beyond the reasonable limits of political animadversion. Burr himself +made no objection to that particular phrase; he did not allude to it +except by way of explanation. The use of such language was common. +In his celebrated attack upon John Adams, Hamilton had spoken of Mr. +Jefferson as an "ineligible and dangerous candidate." The same words had +been publicly applied to Burr himself, two years before. He did not see +anything despicable in the opinion then expressed. A man may be unfit +for office from lack of capacity, and dangerous on account of his +principles. The most rigid construction of the Code of Honor has never +compelled a person to fight every fool whom he thought unworthy of +public station, and every demagogue whose views he considered unsound. +If Dr. Cooper, then, was able to discover a despicable opinion where +most people could find none, might he not have seen what he called a +_more despicable opinion_ in some remark equally innocent? Burr did not +ask what were the precise terms of the remark to which Cooper alluded; +he demanded that Hamilton should disavow Cooper's construction of that +expression. He took offence, not at what had been said, but at the +inference which another had drawn from what had been said. The +justification of such an inference devolved upon Cooper, not +Hamilton,--who by no rule of courtesy could be interrogated as to the +justice of another's opinions. These difficulties presented themselves +to the mind of Hamilton. He stated them in his reply, declared that he +was ready to answer for any precise or definite opinion which he had +expressed, but refused to explain the import which others had placed +upon his language. Unfortunately, the last line of his note contained +an intimation that he expected a challenge. Burr rudely retorted, +reiterating his demand in most insolent terms. The correspondence then +passed into the hands of Nathaniel Pendleton on the part of Hamilton, +and William P. Van Ness, a man of peculiar malignity of character, upon +the part of Burr. The responsibility of his position weighing upon +Hamilton's mind, before the final step was taken, he voluntarily stated +that the conversation with Dr. Cooper "related exclusively to political +topics, and did not attribute to Burr any instance of dishonorable +conduct," and again offered to explain any specific remark. This +generous, unusual, and, according to strict etiquette, unwarranted +proposition removed at once Burr's cause of complaint. Had he been +disposed to an honorable accommodation, he would have received +Hamilton's proposal in the spirit in which it was made. But, embarrassed +by this liberal offer, he at once changed his ground, abandoned Cooper's +remark, which had previously been the sole subject of discussion, and +peremptorily insisted that Gen. Hamilton should deny _ever_ having made +remarks from which inferences derogatory to him could fairly have been +drawn. This demand was plainly unjustifiable. No person would answer +such an interrogatory. It showed that Burr's desire was, not to satisfy +his honor, but to goad his adversary to the field. It establishes the +general charge, which Parton virtually admits, that it was not passion +excited by a recent insult which impelled him to revenge, but hatred +engendered during years of rivalry and stimulated by his late defeat. +Burr must long have known Hamilton's feelings towards him. Those +feelings had been freely expressed; and Burr's letters discover that he +was fully aware of the distrust and hostility with which he was regarded +by his political associates and opponents. A man has no claim to +satisfaction for an insult given years ago. The entire theory of the +duello makes it impossible for one to ask redress for an injury which he +has long permitted to go unredressed. The question being, not whether +the practice of duelling is wrong, but whether Burr was wrong according +to that practice, we have no difficulty in concluding that the challenge +was given upon vague and unjustifiable grounds, and that Gen. Hamilton +would have been excusable, if he had refused to meet him. + +It may be said, that, if Hamilton accepted an improper challenge, he +should receive the same condemnation as the one who gave it. But, even +on general grounds, some qualification should be made in favor of +the challenged party. His is a different position from that of the +challenger. A sensitive man, though he think that he is improperly +questioned, may have some delicacy about making his own judgment the +rule of another's conduct. Besides, there were many considerations +peculiar to this case. The menacing tone of Burr's first note made it +evident that he meant to force the quarrel to a bloody issue. Hamilton, +jealous of his reputation for courage, could not run the risk of +appearing anxious to avoid a danger so apparent. Moreover, he was +conscious, that, during his life, he had said many things which might +give Burr cause for offence, and he was unwilling to avail himself of a +technical, though reasonable objection, to escape the consequences of +his own remarks. Neither could he apologize for what he still thought +was true. These considerations were doubly powerful with Hamilton. His +early manhood had been passed in camps; his early fame had been won +in the profession of arms. He was a man of the world. He had never +discountenanced duelling; he himself had been engaged in the affair +between Laurens and Lee; and a few years before, his own son had fallen +in a duel. Neither his education nor his professions nor his practice +could excuse him. It was too late to take shelter behind his general +disapproval of a custom which was recognized by his professional +brethren and had been countenanced by himself. It is true that he would +have shown a higher courage by braving an ignorant and brutal public +opinion, but it would be unjust to censure him for not showing a degree +of courage which no man of his day displayed. He and Burr are to be +measured by their own standard, not by ours; and tried by that test, it +is easy to see a difference between one who accepts and one who sends an +unjustifiable challenge; it is the difference which exists between an +error and a crime. + +There was an interval of two weeks between the message and the meeting. +This was required by Hamilton to finish some important law business. +When he went to White Plains to try causes, he was in the habit of +staying at a friend's house. The last time he visited there, a few days +before his death, he said, upon leaving, "I shall probably never come +here again." During this period he invited Col. Wm. Smith, and his wife, +who was the only daughter of John Adams, to dine with him. Some rare old +Madeira which had been given to him was produced on this occasion, and +it was afterwards thought that it was his intention by this slight act +to express his desire to bury all personal differences between Mr. Adams +and himself. These, and various other little incidents, show that he +felt his death to be certain; yet all his business in court and out was +marked by his ordinary clearness and ability, all his intercourse with +his family and friends by his usual sweetness and cheerfulness of +disposition. + +On the Fourth of July, Hamilton and Burr met at the annual banquet of +the Society of Cincinnati. Hamilton presided. No one was afterwards able +to remember that his manner gave any indication of the dreadful event +which was so near at hand. He joined freely in the conversation and +badinage of such occasions, and towards the close of the feast sang +a song,--the only one he knew,--the ballad of the Drum. But many +remembered that Burr was silent and moody. He did not look towards +Hamilton until he began to sing, when he fixed his eyes upon him and +gazed intently at him until the song was ended. + +Hamilton was living at the Grange, his country-seat, near +Manhattanville. The place is still unchanged. His office was in a small +house on Cedar Street, where he likewise found lodgings when necessary. +The night previous to the duel was passed there. We have been told by +an aged citizen of New York, that Hamilton was seen long after midnight +walking to and fro in front of the house. + +During these last hours both parties wrote a few farewell lines. In no +act of their lives does the difference in the characters of Hamilton and +Burr show itself so distinctly as in these parting letters. Hamilton was +oppressed by the difficulties and responsibilities of his situation. His +duty to his creditors and his family forbade him rashly to expose a life +which was so valuable to them; his duty to his country forbade him to +leave so evil an example; he was not conscious of ill-will towards Col. +Burr; and his nature revolted at the thought of destroying human life in +a private quarrel. These thoughts, and the considerations of pride and +ambition which nevertheless controlled him, are beautifully expressed in +language which is full of pathos and manly dignity. He had made his +will the day before. He was distressed lest his estate should prove +insufficient to pay his debts, and, after committing their mother to +the filial protection of his children, he besought them, as his last +request, to vindicate his memory by making up any deficiency which might +occur. Burr's letters to Theodosia and her husband are mainly occupied +with directions as to the disposal of his property and papers. The +tone of them does not differ greatly from that of his ordinary +correspondence. They do not contain a word such as an affectionate +father or a patriotic citizen would have written at such a time. They +do not express a sentiment such as a generous and thoughtful man would +naturally feel on the eve of so momentous an occurrence. There are no +misgivings as to the propriety of his conduct, nor a whisper of regret +at the unfortunate circumstances which, as he professed to think, +compelled him to seek another's blood. He addressed to his daughter +a few lines of graceful compliment, and, in striking contrast with +Hamilton's injunction to his children, Burr's last request with regard +to Theodosia is, that she shall acquire a "critical knowledge of Latin, +English, and all branches of natural philosophy." + +The combatants met on the 11th of July, 1804, at a place beneath the +heights of Weehawken, upon the New Jersey side of the Hudson,--the usual +resort, at that time, for such encounters. Burr fired the moment the +word was given, raising his arm deliberately and taking aim. The ball +struck Hamilton on the side, and, as he reeled under the blow, his +pistol was discharged into the air. "I should have shot him through the +heart," said Burr, afterwards, "but, at the moment I was about to fire, +my aim was confused by a vapor." Burr stepped forward with a gesture of +regret, when he saw his adversary fall; but his second hurried him from +the field, screening him with an umbrella from the recognition of the +surgeon and bargemen. + +Hamilton was carried to the house of Mr. Bayard, in the suburbs of the +city. The news flew through the town, producing intense excitement. +Bulletins were posted at the Tontine, and changed with every new report. +Crowds soon gathered around Mr. Bayard's house, and in the grounds. So +deep was the feeling, that visitors were permitted to pass one by one +through the room where Gen. Hamilton was lying. From the first, there +was no hope of his recovery. This opinion of the most eminent surgeons +in the city was concurred in by the surgeons of two French frigates in +the harbor, who were consulted. Gen. Hamilton was a man of slight frame, +and a disorder, from which he had recently suffered, prevented the use +of the ordinary remedies. He retained his composure to the last; nor was +his fortitude disturbed until his seven children approached his bedside. +He gave them one look, and, closing his eyes, did not open them again +while they remained in the room. He expired at two o'clock on the day +after the duel. + +He was not the only victim. His oldest daughter, a girl of twenty, whose +education he had carefully directed, and whose musical talents gave him +great pleasure, never recovered from the shock of her father's death. +In her disordered fancy, she visited by night the fatal ground at +Weehawken, and told her friends that she crossed the river and returned +before morning. Her mind soon gave way entirely; and only last spring +death released her from a total, though gentle insanity of fifty years' +duration. + +The sudden and tragic death of Alexander Hamilton produced a universal +feeling of sympathy and sorrow. As the leader of the bar, the advocate +of the Constitution, the statesman who had given the law to American +commerce, the most accomplished soldier in the army, and connected +with the still recent glories of the Revolution,--his name had become +familiar to every ear, and was associated with every subject of popular +interest. His career was, in all respects, an extraordinary one. He came +here a stranger, without fortune or powerful family connections. While +yet a school-boy, he had borne a creditable part in the discussion of +public affairs. At an age when the ambition of most young soldiers +is satisfied, if, by the performance of their ordinary duties as +subalterns, they have attracted the regard of their superiors, he was +in a position of responsibility, and occupied with the most serious and +complicated matters of war. He was one of the youngest and at the +same time one of the most influential members of the Constitutional +Convention. To this distinction in affairs and arms he added equal +distinction at the bar. It will be difficult to find in our history, or +in that of England, an instance of such eminence in three departments of +action so distinct and dissimilar. Although it may he said of Hamilton, +that he had not the intuitive perception, which Jefferson possessed, of +the necessities imposed upon the country by its anomalous condition, +yet, as a statesman under an established government, he was surpassed +by no man of his generation. His talents were of the kind which most +attracts the sympathies and impresses the understandings of others. He +was a grave man, occupied with business affairs, but not unequal to +occasions which required the display of taste and eloquence. His solid +qualities of mind inspired universal confidence in the soundness of +his views upon all questions which were not the subject of political +dispute. There were many plain Republicans of that day who were firmly +attached to the principles which Jefferson advocated, but who thought +that Jefferson was a dreamer and an enthusiast, and that Hamilton was a +far safer man in the ordinary affairs of government. + +The grief which the death of Hamilton caused in the nation reacted upon +Burr; and when the correspondence was published, a storm of condemnation +burst upon him. Indictments were found against him in New York and New +Jersey. In every pulpit, upon every platform, where the virtues and +services of Hamilton were celebrated, the features of his malignant foe +were displayed in dramatic contrast. He was compared to Richard III. and +Catiline, to Saul, and to the wretch who fired the temple of Diana. This +feeling was not confined to orators and clergymen, nor to this country. +It reached other communities, and was shared by men of the world like +Talleyrand, and retired students like Jeremy Bentham. The former, a few +years before his death, related to an American gentleman, that Burr, on +his arrival in Paris, in 1810, sent to him and requested an interview. +The French statesman could not well refuse to receive an American of +such distinction, with whom he was personally acquainted, and by whom +he had formerly been hospitably entertained, and told the gentleman +who brought the message,--"Say to Col. Burr, that I will receive him +to-morrow; but tell him also, that Gen. Hamilton's likeness always hangs +over my mantel." Burr did not call upon him. Talleyrand directed that +after his death the miniature should be sent to Hamilton's descendants, +with some newspaper scraps relating to him, which he had thrust into the +lining. When Burr was in England, he became intimate with Bentham. The +latter, in his "Memoirs and Correspondence," makes a brief allusion to +the acquaintance, in which the following passage occurs: "Burr gave me +an account of his duel with Hamilton. He was sure of being able to kill +him: _so I thought it little better than a murder_." + +Previously to his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, in March, 1805, +Burr had formed the design of seeking a home in the Southwest. Little +more than a year before, Louisiana had been annexed, and then offered +a wide field to an ambitious man. Encouraged by some acquaintances, he +projected various political and financial speculations. In April, he +repaired to Pittsburg, and started upon a journey down the Ohio and +the Mississippi. On the way, curiosity led him to the house of Herman +Blennerhassett, and he thus accidentally made the acquaintance of a +man whose name has become historic by its association with his own. +Blennerhassett was an Irishman by birth; he had inherited a considerable +fortune, and was a man of education. Beguiled by the belief that in +the retirement of the American forests he would find the solitude most +congenial to the pursuit of his favorite studies, he purchased an island +in the Ohio River near the mouth of the Little Kanawha. He expended most +of his property in building a house and adorning his grounds. The house +was a plain wooden structure; and the shrubbery, in its best estate, +could hardly have excited the envy of Shenstone. Men of strong character +are not dependent upon certain conditions of climate and quiet for the +ability to accomplish their purposes. But Blennerhassett was not a man +of strong character; neither was he an exception to this rule. He was, +at the best, but an idle student; and his zeal for science never carried +him beyond a little desultory study of Astronomy and Botany and some +absurd experiments in Chemistry. His figure was awkward, his manners +were ungracious, and he was so near-sighted that he used to take a +servant hunting with him, to show him the game. His credulity and +want of worldly knowledge exposed him to the practices of the shrewd +frontiers-men among whom he lived. He soon became involved in debt, and +at the time of Burr's visit his situation made him a ready volunteer for +any enterprise which promised to repair his shattered fortunes. That the +enterprise was impracticable, and that he was unfit for it, only made it +more attractive to his imaginative and simple mind. The fancy of Wirt +has thrown a deceptive romance around the career of Blennerhassett, yet +there is enough of truth in the account of the misfortunes which Burr +brought upon him and his amiable wife to justify the sympathy with which +they have been regarded. + +Soon after his arrival at New Orleans Burr seems to have formed bolder +designs. From this time we find in his correspondence, and that of his +friends, vague hints of some great undertaking. This proved to be a +project for an expedition against Mexico, and the establishment there +of an Empire which was to include the States west of the Alleghanies; +subsidiary to this, and connected with it, was a plan for the +colonization of a large tract of land upon the Washita. + +It is difficult to believe that a design so absurd can have been +entertained by a man of common sense; yet it is certain that it was +seriously undertaken by Burr. His conduct in carrying it out furnishes +the best measure of his talents and a signal exhibition of his folly and +his vices. His high standing, his reputation as a soldier, attracted +the vulgar, and brought him into intercourse with the most intelligent +people of the Territory. The fascination of his manners, and the skill +in the arts of intrigue which long discipline had given him, enabled +him to sustain the impression which the prestige of his name everywhere +produced. The details of his political conduct could not have been +accurately known in a region so remote. The affair with Hamilton had not +injured his reputation in communities where such affairs were common +and often applauded. The circumstances of the time, to his superficial +glance, seemed to be encouraging. A large portion of the country had +lately passed under our flag;--many of the inhabitants spoke a foreign +language, and retained foreign customs and predilections;--the American +settlers were an adventurous race, and eager for an opportunity to +indulge their martial spirit;--Mexico was uneasy under the Spanish +yoke;--and some indications of a war between the United States and Spain +held out a faint hope that the initiatory steps of his enterprise might +be taken with the connivance of the government. To recruit an army among +the hardy citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to excite the jealousies +of the French in Louisiana, to subdue feeble and demoralized Mexico, and +create a new and stable empire, did not appear difficult to the sanguine +imagination of a man who was without means or powerful friends, and who +at no time had sufficient confidence in those with whom he was engaged +to fully inform them of his plans. But he pursued his purposes with a +tenacity which leaves no doubt of his sincerity, and an audacity and +unscrupulousness seldom equalled. A few whom he thought it safe to trust +were admitted to his secrets. Upon those in whom he did not dare to +confide he practised every species of deception. He told some, that his +intentions were approved by the government,--others, that his expedition +was against Mexico only, and that he was sure of foreign aid. He +represented to the honest, that he had bought lands, and wished to form +a colony and institute a new and better order of society; the ignorant +were deluded with a fanciful tale of Southern conquest, and a +magnificent empire, of which he was to be king, and Theodosia queen +after his death. So thoroughly was this deception carried out, that it +is difficult to determine who were actually engaged with him. Without +doubt, many acceded to his plans only because they did not knew what his +plans really were. He made rapid journeys from New Orleans to Natchez, +Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis. In the winter of 1805 +he returned to Washington, and in the following summer again went +down the Ohio. Wherever he went, he threw out complaints against the +government,--charged it with imbecility,--boasted that with two hundred +men he could drive the President and Congress into the Potomac,--freely +prophesied a dissolution of the Union, and published in the local +journals articles pointing out the advantages which would result from a +separation of the Western from the Eastern States. Gen. Eaton had been +denounced in Congress, and had a claim against the government; Burr +tempted him with an opportunity to redress his wrongs and satisfy his +claim. Commodore Truxton had been struck from the Navy list; he offered +him a high command in the Mexican navy. He took every occasion to +flatter the vanity of the people; attended militia parades, and praised +the troops for their discipline and martial bearing. Large donations +of land were freely promised to recruits; men were enlisted; +Blennerhassett's Island was made the rendezvous; and provisions were +gathered there. + +At length his movements began to cause some anxiety to the public +officers. The United States District Attorney attempted to indict him at +Frankfort, Kentucky, but the grand-jury refused to find a bill. Henry +Clay defended him in these proceedings, and in reference to his +connection with the case, Mr. Parton makes a characteristic display of +the spirit in which his book is written, and of his unfitness for the +ambitious task he has undertaken. He quotes the following passage from +Collins's "Historical Sketches of Kentucky":--"Before Mr. Clay took +any active part as the counsel of Burr, he required of him an explicit +disavowal, [avowal,] upon his honor, that he was engaged in no design +contrary to the laws and peace of the country. This pledge was +promptly given by Burr, in language the most broad, comprehensive, and +particular. He had no design, he said, to intermeddle with or disturb +the tranquillity of the United States, nor its territories, nor any part +of them. He had neither issued nor signed nor promised a commission to +any person for any purpose. He did not own a single musket, nor bayonet, +nor any single article of military stores,--nor did any other person +for him, by his authority or knowledge. His views had been explained +to several distinguished members of the administration, were well +understood and approved by the government. They were such as every man +of honor and every good citizen must approve." Upon this paragraph Mr. +Parton makes the following extraordinary comments:--"Mr. Clay, there is +reason to believe, went to his grave in the belief that each of these +assertions was an unmitigated falsehood, and the writer of the above +adduces them merely as remarkable instances of cool, impudent lying. +On the contrary, with one exception, all of Burr's allegations were +strictly true; and even that one was true in a _Burrian_ sense. He did +_not_ own any arms or military stores: by the terms of his engagement +with his recruits, every man was to join him armed, just as every +backwoodsman was armed whenever he went from home. He had _not_ issued +nor promised any commissions: the time had not come for that. Jefferson +and his cabinet undoubtedly knew his views and intentions, up to the +point where they ceased to be lawful." + +To this miserable tissue of sophistry and misrepresentation the only +reply we have to make is, that Burr's statements were the unmitigated +falsehoods which Henry Clay believed them to be. For at that very time +stores were collected on Blennerhassett's Island; other persons were +bringing arms for Burr's service and with his knowledge; the winter +previous he had offered commissions to Eaton and Truxton; and a month +before this statement was made, his agent had arrived at Wilkinson's +camp with the direct proposition to that officer, that he should attack +the Spaniards, hurry his country into a war, and enter upon a career of +conquest which was to result in dismembering the Union. And yet Burr +solemnly declared upon his honor that he was engaged in no design +"contrary to the laws and peace of the country," and that "his +views were such as every man of honor and every good citizen must +approve,"--and Parton says these averments were true. We have no wish +to deal harshly with this writer; but such an impudent defence of a +palpable falsehood is a disgrace to American letters. + +Every well-informed person knows the miserable issue of this +ill-contrived conspiracy. The only emotion which it now excites in the +student is wonder that the thought of it could ever have entered a sane +mind. A wilder or more chimerical scheme never disturbed the dreams of +a schoolboy; yet no one has ever pressed a reasonable undertaking with +more earnestness and confidence than Burr his visionary purpose. He +exhibited, throughout, an infatuation and a degree of incompetency for +great achievements, which would cover the enterprise with ridicule, were +it not for the misfortunes which it brought upon himself and others. + +We do not desire to linger over the last period of Burr's life. His +deadliest foe could not have wished for him so terrible a punishment as +that which afflicted his long and ignominious old age. + +In 1808 he went to Europe to obtain aid for his Mexican expedition. +While in England, he made another display of his adroitness and boldness +in falsehood. The English government became suspicious of him; whereupon +he had the hardihood to claim, that, although he had borne arms against +Great Britain and had held office in an independent state, he was still +a British subject. Mr. Parton says, that this "was an amusing instance +of Burr's lawyerlike audacity." Less partial judges will probably find a +harsher term to apply to it. + +After his return to this country, Burr resumed his profession in New +York, but never regained his former position at the bar. The standard +of legal acquirements was higher than it had been in his youth, and +the obloquy which rested upon him excluded him from the respectable +departments of practice. During all this time, by far the longest period +of his professional life, he never displayed any signal ability. His +society was shunned,--or sought only by a few personal admirers, or by +the profligate and the curious. When seventy-eight years of age, he +wheedled Madame Jumel, an eccentric and wealthy widow, into a marriage. +On the bridal trip he obtained possession of some of her property, and +squandered it in an idle speculation. A continuance of such practices +led to a separation, and his wife afterwards made application for a +divorce, upon a charge which Mr. Parton says is now known to have been +false, but which we have reason to believe was true, and which was so +disgusting that we cannot even hint at it. + +It is our duty to notice one chapter in this book, which, more than +anything else it contains, has given it notoriety. We refer to +its defence of, or, to speak more mildly, its apology for, Burr's +libertinism. All the faults of the author which we have had occasion +to notice, examples of which are scattered through the volume, are +concentrated in these few pages,--his inconsistency, his inaccuracy, +his disposition to draw inferences from facts which they directly +contradict, and to rely on evidence which has nothing to do with the +case in hand. He argues at great length upon the assumption, that Burr's +correspondence with women was unfit for publication, and then, in +contradiction to Burr's own positive declaration, asserts that there +were "no letters necessarily criminating ladies." To prove this, he +publishes two letters, one of which is an apology, written by Burr +in his seventy-fourth year, for having addressed a young woman in an +improper manner, and the other is a letter from a female, couched in +language much warmer than an innocent woman could use. Mr. Parton +attacks Davis because that writer stated that Burr left his +correspondence to be disposed of by him, and eulogizes his hero because +he ordered that the letters should be burned. To establish this +position, he quotes Burr's will, which directed Davis "to destroy, or +to deliver to all persons interested, such letters, as may, _in his +estimation_, be calculated to affect injuriously the feelings of +individuals against whom I have no complaint,"--thus giving Mr. Davis +all the discretionary power with which he claims to have been invested, +and making him the judge as to what letters should be destroyed. We +have no more space to expose Mr. Parton's blunders and sophistry. The +evidence of Burr's debauchery, of his heartless vanity, of his utter +disregard of the considerations which usually govern even the worst of +men, does not rest upon the admissions of Davis alone. Those who are +familiar with a scandalous book called the "Secret History of St. +Domingo," which consists of a series of letters addressed to Col. Burr +by Madame D'Auvergne, will need no further illustration of his influence +over women, nor of the character of those with whom he was most +intimately associated. The night before his duel with Hamilton, he +committed all the letters of his female correspondents to the care and +perusal of Theodosia, saying that she would "find in them something to +amuse, much to instruct, and more to forgive." When in Europe, he kept a +journal in which he recorded his various amorous adventures. This book, +as published, is one which no gentleman would place in the hands of a +lady, and the editor tells us that the most improper portions of the +diary have been expurgated; yet this journal was written, not to amuse +a scandal-loving public, not for purposes of gain, but for the private +perusal of Theodosia. What can be said of a man who could expose +the lascivious expressions of abandoned females and retail his own +debaucheries to a gentle and innocent woman, and that woman his own +daughter? The mere statement beggars invective. It shows a mind so +depraved as to be unconscious of its depravity. + +The character of Burr is not difficult to analyze. His life was +consistent, and at the beginning a wise man might have foretold the +end. Our author complains that Burr's reputation has suffered from +the disposition to exaggerate his faults. This may be true; but it is +likewise true that he has been benefited by the same disposition to +exaggeration. A character is more dramatic which unites great talents +with great vices, and therefore he has been represented both as a worse +and a greater man than he really was. Burr cannot be called great in +any sense. His successes, such as they were, never appear to have been +obtained by high mental effort. He has left not a single measure, no +speech, no written discussion of the various important subjects that +came before him, to which one can point as an exhibition of superior +talents. A certain description of ability cannot be denied to him. He +did well whatever could be done by address, courage, and industry, +joined to moderate talents. His chief power lay in the fascination of +personal intercourse. His countenance was pleasing, and illuminated +by eyes of singular beauty and vivacity; his bearing was lofty; his +self-possession could not be disturbed; he had the tact of a woman, and +an intellect which was active and equal to all ordinary occasions. But +even in society his range was a narrow one, and he seems to have been +successful mainly because he avoided positive effort. It is usual to +speak of him as a remarkable conversationalist; but if by that term we +mean to describe, a person who is distinguished for his eloquence, grace +of expression, information, force and originality of thought, Burr was +not a good converser. A distinguished gentleman, who, while young, +was much noticed by Burr, being asked in what his personal attraction +consisted, replied, "In his manner of listening to you. He seemed to +give your thought so much value by the air with which he received it, +and to find so much more meaning in your words than you had intended. +No flattery was equal to it." We think that this anecdote reveals the +entire power of the man. He was strong through the weakness of others, +rather than in his own strength. Therefore he was most attractive to +young or inferior people. He was not on terms of intimacy with any +leading man of his time, unless it was Jeremy Bentham, and the precise +nature of their relations is not understood. The philosopher, who could +not then boast many disciples, was favorably disposed toward Burr, +because the latter had ordered a London bookseller to send him Bentham's +works as fast as they were published. Upon acquaintance, he must have +been pleased with a gentleman with whom he could have had no cause for +dispute, who could supply him with information as to new and interesting +forms of society and government, and whose adventurous and romantic +career differed so widely from his own life of study and thought. + +Burr's conduct in his various public situations affords a perfect +measure of his abilities. As a soldier, he was brave, a good +disciplinarian, watchful of details, and an excellent executive officer. +At the head of a brigade he would have been useful; but he did not +possess the foresight, the breadth of mental vision, nor the magnetism +of nature awakening the enthusiasm of armies, which are necessary to a +great commander. He was an adroit lawyer, an adept in the fence of his +profession, skilful to avail himself of the errors of an opponent, and +to play upon the foibles of judge or jury; but he had not the faculty +for generalization and analysis, nor the nice discrimination in the +application of general principles to particular instances, which must be +combined in a great lawyer. He cannot by any figure of speech be called +a statesman. As a politician, he was one of the first to discover and +one of the most skilful in the use of those unworthy arts which have +brought the pursuit of politics into disrepute; but we doubt whether +he could have succeeded upon the broader field of the present day. +Perfectly competent to manage a single city, he would have failed in an +attempt to govern a party. His talents were well defined by Jefferson, +who spoke of him as a great man in little things, and a small man in +great things. + +One of the qualities most frequently attributed to Burr is fortitude; +upon this characteristic his biographer frequently dwells. And +indeed, when one reads of the misfortunes which came upon him,--the +disappointments which he encountered,--his poverty abroad,--his terrible +afflictions, and dreary old age,--and how gallantly he bore up under +all,--unblenching, unmurmuring, struggling cheerfully and patiently to +the end,--one cannot repress a feeling of admiration for the courage +which endured so much misery, and of pity for the faults which brought +that misery upon him. Such a feeling would be justified, if we could +believe that fortitude was a positive trait in his character. That is +to say, if he had been properly sensible of the odium which covered +his name, and had really felt the sorrows which visited him,--if these +things had moved him as they do others, and he had still gone on calmly +and bravely to the end, hiding the wounds which tortured him, and giving +no sign of pain,--he would, indeed, have been worthy of admiration; +he would have been a hero. But we think it will appear, upon a closer +examination, that his fortitude was a negative, not a positive quality; +it was insensibility, not courage. He did not suffer, because he did not +feel. The emotional part of our nature he did not possess; at least, it +did not show itself in any of the forms which it usually takes,--in love +of country, or of kindred,--in the opinions which he professed, or in +the subjects which occupied his thoughts. The first act of his manhood +was to join in the resistance of his countrymen to foreign oppression. +But it was no love of liberty that urged him to arms. He went to the +camp at Cambridge from the mere love of adventure. The sacred spirit +which gave nobility to so many,--which transformed mechanics, +tradesmen, village lawyers, and plain country-gentlemen into statesmen, +philosophers, diplomatists, and great captains,--which united the +children of many races into one nation, and roused a simple people to +deeds of lofty heroism,--awakened no enthusiasm in him. He was in the +very flush of youth, yet to his most intimate friends he did not breathe +a word of even moderate interest in the cause for which he had drawn his +sword. His political life was passed during the first twenty years of +our national existence, when men's minds were exercised in the effort to +adapt one government to the various and apparently conflicting interests +of many communities widely separated by distance, climate, and ancient +differences; but these complicated and momentous subjects, so absorbing +to all thoughtful men, never weighed upon his mind. He was in Europe +when Napoleon was at the height of his power, when his armies swept +from the Danube to the Guadalquivir; but that strange story, which the +giddiest school-girl cannot read with divided attention, drew no remark +from his lips. It is said that he was fond of his daughter;--it was a +fondness of the head, not of the heart. He admired her because she was +beautiful and intelligent;--had she been plain and dull, he would not +have cared for her. He made no return for the affection, warm and +generous, which her noble heart lavished upon him, liberal as the +sunlight. Had that earnest love touched, for a single instant, a +responsive chord in his heart, he could never have written those foul, +foul words to make her blush at the record of her father's shame. +Nowhere does he express regret for the misfortunes which he brought +upon others,--the bereaved family of Hamilton,--the ruin of +Blennerhassett,--the victims of his passions and his ambition. He spoke +freely, as if they were indifferent matters, of things which most men +would have concealed. He laughed at his trial,--alluded to Hamilton as +"my friend Hamilton, whom I shot,"--and used to repeat some doggerel +lines upon the duel, which he had seen in a strolling exhibition. It is +said that he was courteous and amiable, and that he did many kind and +generous acts. His courtesy and amiability did not restrain him from +perfidy and debauchery; neither did he ever do a kind act when an unkind +one would have served his purposes better. + +As we have seen, Mr. Parton has described Aaron Burr as suited to many +very incongruous conditions in life. If we were to select an epoch in +history and a form of society for which he was best adapted, we should +place him in France daring the Regency and the reign of Louis XV. There, +where a successful _bon-mot_ established a claim to office, and a +well-turned leg did more for a man than the best mind in Europe, Burr +would have risen to distinction. He might have shone in the literary +circles at Sceaux, and in the _petits soupers_ at the Palais Royal. +Among the wits, the _litterateurs_, the fashionable men and women of +the time, he would have found society congenial to his tastes, and +sufficient employment for his talents. He would have exhibited in his +own life and character their vices and their superficial virtues, their +extravagance, libertinism, and impiety, their politeness, courage, +and wit. He might have borne a distinguished part in the petty +statesmanship, the intriguing diplomacy, and the wild speculations of +that period. But here, among the stern rebels of the Revolution and the +practical statesmen of the early Republic, this trickster and shallow +politician, this visionary adventurer and boaster of ladies' favors, was +out of place. He has given to his country nothing except a pernicious +example. The full light, which shows us that his vices may have +been exaggerated, shows likewise that his talents have surely been +overestimated. The contrast which gave fascination to his career is +destroyed; and for a partial vindication of his character he will pay +the penalty which he would most have dreaded, that of being forgotten. + + * * * * * + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + + +A lyric conception--my friend, the Poet, said--hits me like a bullet in +the forehead. I have often had the blood drop from my cheeks when it +struck, and felt that I turned as white as death. Then comes a creeping +as of centipedes running down the spine,--then a gasp and a great jump +of the heart,--then a sudden flush and a beating in the vessels of the +head,--then a long sigh,--and the poem is written. + +It is an impromptu, I suppose, then, if you write it so suddenly,--I +replied. + +No,--said he,--far from it. I said written, but I did not say _copied_. +Every such poem has a soul and a body, and it is the body of it, or the +copy, that men read and publishers pay for. The soul of it is born in an +instant in the poet's soul. It comes to him a thought, tangled in the +meshes of a few sweet words,--words that have loved each other from the +cradle of the language, but have never been wedded until now. Whether it +will ever fully embody itself in a bridal train of a dozen stanzas or +not is uncertain; but it exists potentially from the instant that the +poet turns pale with it. It is enough to stun and scare anybody, to have +a hot thought come crashing into his brain, and ploughing up those +parallel ruts where the wagon trains of common ideas were jogging along +in their regular sequences of association. No wonder the ancients made +the poetical impulse wholly external. [Greek: Maenin aeide, Thea], +Goddess,--Muse,--divine afflatus,--something outside always. _I_ never +wrote any verses worth reading. I can't. I am too stupid. If I ever +copied any that were worth reading, I was only a medium. + +[I was talking all this time to our boarders, you understand,--telling +them what this poet told me. The company listened rather attentively, I +thought, considering the literary character of the remarks.] + +The old gentleman opposite all at once asked me if I ever read anything +better than Pope's "Essay on Man"? Had I ever perused McFingal? He was +fond of poetry when he was a boy,--his mother taught him to say many +little pieces,--he remembered one beautiful hymn;--and the old gentleman +began, in a clear, loud voice, for his years,-- + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And spangled heavens,"---- + +He stopped, as if startled by our silence, and a faint flush ran up +beneath the thin white hairs that fell upon his cheek. As I looked +round, I was reminded of a show I once saw at the Museum,--the Sleeping +Beauty, I think they called it. The old man's sudden breaking out in +this way turned every face towards him, and each kept his posture as if +changed to stone. Our Celtic Bridget, or Biddy, is not a foolish fat +scullion to burst out crying for a sentiment. She is of the serviceable, +red-handed, broad-and-high-shouldered type; one of those imported female +servants who are known in public by their amorphous style of person, +their stoop forwards, and a headlong and as it were precipitous +walk,--the waist plunging downwards into the rocking pelvis at every +heavy footfall. Bridget, constituted for action, not for emotion, was +about to deposit a plate heaped with something upon the table, when I +saw the coarse arm stretched by my shoulder arrested,--motionless as the +arm of a terra-cotta caryatid; she couldn't set the plate down while the +old gentleman was speaking! + +He was quite silent after this, still wearing the slight flush on his +cheek. Don't ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his +forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand +trembles! If they ever _were_ there, they _are_ there still! + +By and by we got talking again.--Does a poet love the verses written +through him, do you think, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +So long as they are warm from his mind, carry any of his animal heat +about them, _I know_ he loves them,--I answered. When they have had time +to cool, he is more indifferent. + +A good deal as it is with buckwheat cakes,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. + +The last words, only, reached the ear of the economically organized +female in black bombazine.--Buckwheat is skerce and high,--she remarked. +[Must be a poor relation sponging on our landlady,--pays nothing,--so +she must stand by the guns and be ready to repel boarders.] + +I liked the turn the conversation had taken, for I had some things I +wanted to say, and so, after waiting a minute, I began again.--I don't +think the poems I read you sometimes can be fairly appreciated, given to +you as they are in the green state. + +----You don't know what I mean by the _green state?_ Well, then, I will +tell you. Certain things are good for nothing until they have been kept +a long while; and some are good for nothing until they have been long +kept and _used_. Of the first, wine is the illustrious and immortal +example. Of those which must be kept and used, I will name +three,--meerschaum pipes, violins, and poems. The meerschaum is but +a poor affair until it has burned a thousand offerings to the +cloud-compelling deities. It comes to us without complexion or flavor, +born of the sea-foam, like Aphrodite, but colorless as _pallida Mors_ +herself. The fire is lighted in its central shrine, and gradually the +juices which the broad leaves of the Great Vegetable had sucked up from +an acre and curdled into a drachm are diffused through its thirsting +pores. First a discoloration, then a stain, and at last a rich, glowing, +umber tint spreading over the whole surface. Nature true to her old +brown autumnal hue, you see,--as true in the fire of the meerschaum +as in the sunshine of October! And then the cumulative wealth of its +fragrant reminiscences! he who inhales its vapors takes a thousand +whiffs in a single breath; and one cannot touch it without awakening +the old joys that hang around it, as the smell of flowers clings to the +dresses of the daughters of the house of Farina! + +[Don't think I use a meerschaum myself, for _I do not_, though I have +owned a calumet since my childhood, which from a naked Pict (of the +Mohawk species) my grandsire won, together with a tomahawk and beaded +knife-sheath; paying for the lot with a bullet-mark on his right +cheek. On the maternal side I inherit the loveliest silver-mounted +tobacco-stopper you ever saw. It is a little box-wood Triton, carved +with charming liveliness and truth; I have often compared it to a figure +in Raphael's "Triumph of Galatea." It came to me in an ancient shagreen +case,--how old it is I do not know,--but it must have been made since +Sir Walter Raleigh's time. If you are curious, you shall see it any +day. Neither will I pretend that I am so unused to the more perishable +smoking contrivance, that a few whiffs would make me feel as if I lay +in a groundswell on the Bay of Biscay. I am not unacquainted with +that fusiform, spiral-wound bundle of chopped stems and miscellaneous +incombustibles, the cigar, so called, of the shops,--which to "draw" +asks the suction-power of a nursling infant Hercules, and to relish, the +leathery palate of an old Silenus. I do not advise you, young man, even +if my illustration strikes your fancy, to consecrate the flower of your +life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain +of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think for. I +have seen the green leaf of early promise grow brown before its time +under such Nicotian regimen, and thought the umbered meerschaum was +dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved.] + +Violins, too,--the sweet old Amati!--the divine Straduarius! Played on +by ancient maestros until the bow-hand lost its power and the flying +fingers stiffened. Bequeathed to the passionate young enthusiast, who +made it whisper his hidden love, and cry his inarticulate longings, and +scream his untold agonies, and wail his monotonous despair. Passed from +his dying hand to the cold _virtuoso_, who let it slumber in its case +for a generation, till, when his hoard was broken up, it came forth once +more and rode the stormy symphonies of royal orchestras, beneath +the rushing bow of their lord and leader. Into lonely prisons with +improvident artists; into convents from which arose, day and night, the +holy hymns with which its tones were blended; and back again to orgies +in which it learned to howl and laugh as if a legion of devils were shut +up in it; then again to the gentle _dilettante_ who calmed it down with +easy melodies until it answered him softly as in the days of the old +_maestros_. And so given into our hands, its pores all full of music; +stained, like the meerschaum, through and through, with the concentrated +hue and sweetness of all the harmonies that have kindled and faded on +its strings. + +Now I tell you a poem must be kept _and used_, like a meerschaum, or a +violin. A poem is just as porous as the meerschaum;--the more porous +it is, the better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is capable of +absorbing an indefinite amount of the essence of our own humanity,--its +tenderness, its heroism, its regrets, its aspirations, so as to be +gradually stained through with a divine secondary color derived from +ourselves. So you see it must take time to bring the sentiment of a +poem into harmony with our nature, by staining ourselves through every +thought and image our being can penetrate. + +Then again as to the mere music of a new poem; why, who can expect +anything more from that than from the music of a violin fresh from +the maker's hands? Now you know very well that there are no less than +fifty-eight different pieces in a violin. These pieces are strangers +to each other, and it takes a century, more or less, to make them +thoroughly acquainted. At last they learn to vibrate in harmony, and the +instrument becomes an organic whole, as if it were a great seed-capsule +that had grown from a garden-bed in Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides, the +wood is juicy and full of sap for fifty years or so, but at the end of +fifty or a hundred more gets tolerably dry and comparatively resonant. + +Don't you see that all this is just as true of a poem? Counting each +word as a piece, there are more pieces in an average copy of verses than +in a violin. The poet has forced all these words together, and fastened +them, and they don't understand it at first. But let the poem be repeated +aloud and murmured over in the mind's muffled whisper often enough, and +at length the parts become knit together in such absolute solidarity +that you could not change a syllable without the whole world's crying +out against you for meddling with the harmonious fabric. Observe, too, +how the drying process takes place in the stuff of a poem just as in +that of a violin. Here is a Tyrolese fiddle that is just coming to its +hundredth birthday,--(Pedro Klauss, Tyroli, fecit, 1760,)--the sap is +pretty well out of it. And here is the song of an old poet whom Neaera +cheated:-- + + "Nox erat, et coelo fulgebat Luna sereno + Inter minora sidera, + Cum tu magnorum numen laesura deorum + In verba jurubas mea." + +Don't you perceive the sonorousness of these old dead Latin phrases? Now +I tell you that every word fresh from the dictionary brings with it +a certain succulence; and though I cannot expect the sheets of the +"Pactolian," in which, as I told you, I sometimes print my verses, +to get so dry as the crisp papyrus that held those words of Horatius +Flaccus, yet you may be sure, that, while the sheets are damp, and while +the lines hold their sap, you can't fairly judge of my performances, and +that, if made of the true stuff, they will ring better after a while. + +[There was silence for a brief space, after my somewhat elaborate +exposition of these self-evident analogies. Presently _a person_ turned +towards me--I do not choose to designate the individual--and said that +he rather expected my pieces had given pretty good "sahtisfahction."--I +had, up to this moment, considered this complimentary phrase as sacred +to the use of secretaries of lyceums, and, as it has been usually +accompanied by a small pecuniary testimonial, have acquired a certain +relish for this moderately tepid and unstimulating expression of +enthusiasm. But as a reward for gratuitous services, I confess I thought +it a little below that blood-heat standard which a man's breath ought to +have, whether silent, or vocal and articulate. I waited for a favorable +opportunity, however, before making the remarks which follow.] + +----There are single expressions, as I have told you already, that fix +a man's position for you before you have done shaking hands with him. +Allow me to expand a little. There are several things, very slight in +themselves, yet implying other things not so unimportant. Thus, your +French servant has _devalise_ your premises and got caught. _Excusez_, +says the _sergent-de-ville_, as he politely relieves him of his upper +garments and displays his bust in the full daylight. Good shoulders +enough,--a little marked,--traces of smallpox, perhaps,--but +white....._Crac!_ from the _sergent-de-ville's_ broad palm on the white +shoulder! Now look! _Vogue la galere!_ Out comes the big red V--mark of +the hot iron;--he had blistered it out pretty nearly,--hadn't he?--the +old rascal VOLEUR, branded in the galleys at Marseilles! [Don't! What +if he has got something like this? nobody supposes I _invented_ such a +story.] + +My man John, who used to drive two of those six equine females which I +told you I had owned,--for, look you, my friends, simple though I stand +here, I am one that has been driven in his "kerridge,"--not using that +term, as liberal shepherds do, for any battered old shabby-genteel +go-cart that has more than one wheel, but meaning thereby a four-wheeled +vehicle _with a pole_,--my man John, I say, was a retired soldier. He +retired unostentatiously, as many of Her Majesty's modest servants have +done before and since. John told me, that when an officer thinks he +recognizes one of these retiring heroes, and would know if he has really +been in the service, that he may restore him, if possible, to a grateful +country, he comes suddenly upon him, and says, sharply, "Strap!" If he +has ever worn the shoulder-strap, he has learned the reprimand for its +ill adjustment. The old word of command flashes through his muscles, and +his hand goes up in an instant to the place where the strap used to be. + +[I was all the time preparing for my grand _coup_, you understand; but +I saw they were not quite ready for it, and so continued,--always in +illustration of the general principle I had laid down.] + +Yes, odd things come out in ways that nobody thinks of. There was a +legend, that, when the Danish pirates made descents upon the English +coast, they caught a few Tartars occasionally, in the shape of Saxons, +that would not let them go,--on the contrary, insisted on their staying, +and, to make sure of it, treated them as Apollo treated Marsyas, or as +Bartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in his title-page, and, having +divested them of the one essential and perfectly fitting garment, +indispensable in the mildest climates, nailed the same on the +church-door as we do the banns of marriage, _in terrorem_. + +[There was a laugh at this among some of the young folks; but as I +looked at our landlady, I saw that "the water stood in her eyes," as it +did in Christiana's when the interpreter asked her about the spider, and +that the school-mistress blushed, as Mercy did in the same conversation, +as you remember.] + +That sounds like a cock-and-bull-story,--said the young fellow whom +they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet's remark to Horatio, and +continued. + +Not long since, the church-wardens were repairing and beautifying an +old Saxon church in a certain English village, and among other things +thought the doors should be attended to. One of them particularly, the +front-door, looked very badly, crusted, as it were, and as if it would +be all the better for scraping. There happened to be a microscopist in +the village who had heard the old pirate story, and he took it into his +head to examine the crust on this door. There was no mistake about it; +it was a genuine historical document, of the Ziska drum-head +pattern,--a real _cutis humarca_, stripped from some old Scandinavian +filibuster,--and the legend was true. + +My friend, the Professor, settled an important historical and financial +question once by the aid of an exceedingly minute fragment of a similar +document. Behind the pane of plate-glass which bore his name and title +burned a modest lamp, signifying to the passers-by that at all hours of +the night the slightest favors (or fevers) were welcome. A youth who +had freely partaken of the cup which cheers and likewise inebriates, +following a moth-like impulse very natural under the circumstances, +dashed his fist at the light and quenched the meek luminary,--breaking +through the plate-glass, of course, to reach it. Now I don't want to +go into _minutiae_ at table, you know, but a naked hand can no more go +through a pane of thick glass without leaving some of its cuticle, +to say the least, behind it, than a butterfly can go through a +sausage-machine without looking the worse for it. The Professor gathered +up the fragments of glass, and with them certain very minute but +entirely satisfactory documents which would have identified and hanged +any rogue in Christendom who had parted with them.--The historical +question, _Who did it_? and the financial question, _Who paid for it_? +were both settled before the new lamp was lighted the next evening. + +You see, my friends, what immense conclusions, touching our lives, +our fortunes, and our sacred honor, may be reached by means of very +insignificant premises. This is eminently true of manners and forms of +speech; a movement or a phrase often tells you all you want to know +about a person. Thus, "How's your health?" (commonly pronounced +haaelth)--instead of, How do you do? or, How are you? Or calling your +little dark entry a "hall," and your old rickety one-horse wagon a +"kerridge." Or telling a person who has been trying to please you that +he has given you pretty good "sahtisfahction." Or saying that you +"remember of" such a thing, or that you have been "stoppin'" at Deacon +Somebody's,--and other such expressions. One of my friends had a little +marble statuette of Cupid in the parlor of his country-house,--bow, +arrows, wings, and all complete. A visitor, indigenous to the region, +looking pensively at the figure, asked the lady of the house "if that +was a statoo of her deceased infant?" What a delicious, though somewhat +voluminous biography, social, educational, and aesthetic in that brief +question! + +[Please observe with what Machiavellian astuteness I smuggled in +the particular offence which it was my object to hold up to my +fellow-boarders, without too personal an attack on the individual at +whose door it lay.] + +That was an exceedingly dull person who made the remark, _Ex pede +Herculem_. He might as well have said, "From a peck of apples you may +judge of the barrel." _Ex_ PEDE, to be sure! Read, instead, _Ex ungue +minimi digiti pedis, Herculem, ejusque patrem, matrem, avos et proavos, +filios, nepotes et pronepotes!_ Talk to me about your [Greek: dos pou +sto]! Tell me about Cuvier's getting up a megatherium from a tooth, +or Agassiz's drawing a portrait of an undiscovered fish from a single +scale! As the "O" revealed Giotto,--as the one word "moi" betrayed the +Stratford-atte-Bowe-taught Anglais,--so all a man's antecedents and +possibilities are summed up in a single utterance which gives at once +the gauge of his education and his mental organization. + +Possibilities, Sir?--said the divinity-student; can't a man who says +_Haoew?_ arrive at distinction? + +Sir,--I replied,--in a republic all things are possible. But the man +_with a future_ has almost of necessity sense enough to see that any +odious trick of speech or manners must be got rid of. Doesn't Sidney +Smith say that a public man in England never gets over a false quantity +uttered in early life? _Our_ public men are in little danger of this +fatal misstep, as few of them are in the habit of introducing Latin into +their speeches,--for good and sufficient reasons. But they are bound to +speak decent English,--unless, indeed, they are rough old campaigners, +like General Jackson or General Taylor; in which case, a few scars on +Priscian's head are pardoned to old fellows that have quite as many +on their own, and a constituency of thirty empires is not at all +particular, provided they do not swear in their Presidential Messages. + +However, it is not for me to talk. I have made mistakes enough in +conversation and print. "Don't" for doesn't,--base misspelling of Clos +Vougeot, (I wish I saw the label on the bottle a little oftener,)--and +I don't know how many more. I never find them out until they are +stereotyped, and then I think they rarely escape me. I have no doubt +I shall make half a dozen slips before this breakfast is over, and +remember them all before another. How one does tremble with rage at his +own intense momentary stupidity about things he knows perfectly well, +and to think how he lays himself open to the impertinences of the +_captatores verborum_, those useful but humble scavengers of the +language, whose business it is to pick up what might offend or injure, +and remove it, hugging and feeding on it as they go! I don't want to +speak too slightingly of these verbal critics;--how can I, who am so +fond of talking about errors and vulgarisms of speech? Only there is +a difference between those clerical blunders which almost every man +commits, knowing better, and that habitual grossness or meanness of +speech which is unendurable to educated persons, from anybody that wears +silk or broadcloth. + +[I write down the above remarks this morning, January 26th, making this +record of the date that nobody may think it was written in wrath, on +account of any particular grievance suffered from the invasion of any +individual _scarabaeus grammaticus_.] + +----I wonder if anybody ever finds fault with anything I say at this +table when it is repeated? I hope they do, I am sure. I should be very +certain that I had said nothing of much significance, if they did not. + +Did you never, in walking in the fields, come across a large flat stone, +which had lain, nobody knows how long, just where you found it, with the +grass forming a little hedge, as it were, all round it, close to its +edges,--and have you not, in obedience to a kind of feeling that told +you it had been lying there long enough, insinuated your stick or your +foot or your fingers under its edge and turned it over as a housewife +turns a cake, when she says to herself, "It's done brown enough by this +time"? What an odd revelation, and what an unforeseen and unpleasant +surprise to a small community, the very existence of which you had not +suspected, until the sudden dismay and scattering among its members +produced by your turning the old stone over! Blades of grass flattened +down, colorless, matted together, as if they had been bleached and +ironed; hideous crawling creatures, some of them coleopterous or +horny-shelled,--turtle-bugs one wants to call them; some of them softer, +but cunningly spread out and compressed like Lepine watches; (Nature +never loses a crack or a crevice, mind you, or a joint in a tavern +bedstead, but she always has one of her flat-pattern live timekeepers +to slide into it;) black, glossy crickets, with their long filaments +sticking out like the whips of four-horse stage-coaches; motionless, +slug-like creatures, larvae, perhaps, more horrible in their pulpy +stillness than even in the infernal wriggle of maturity! But no sooner +is the stone turned and the wholesome light of day let upon this +compressed and blinded community of creeping things, than all of them +that enjoy the luxury of legs--and some of them have a good many--rush +round wildly, butting each other and everything in their way, and end in +a general stampede for underground retreats from the region poisoned by +sunshine. _Next year_ you will find the grass growing tall and green +where the stone lay; the ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle +had his hole; the dandelion and the buttercup are growing there, and the +broad fans of insect-angels open and shut over their golden disks, as +the rhythmic waves of blissful consciousness pulsate through their +glorified being. + +----The young fellow whom they call John saw fit to say, in his very +familiar way,--at which I do not choose to take offence, but which I +sometimes think it necessary to repress,--that I was coming it rather +strong on the butterflies. + +No, I replied; there is meaning in each of those images,--the butterfly +as well as the others. The stone is ancient error. The grass is human +nature borne down and bleached of all its color by it. The shapes that +are found beneath are the crafty beings that thrive in darkness, and the +weaker organisms kept helpless by it. He who turns the stone over is +whosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying incubus, no matter +whether he do it with a serious face or a laughing one. The next year +stands for the coming time. Then shall the nature which had lain +blanched and broken rise in its full stature and native hues in the +sunshine. Then shall God's minstrels build their nests in the hearts of +a new-born humanity. Then shall beauty--Divinity taking outlines and +color--light upon the souls of men as the butterfly, image of the +beatified spirit rising from the dust, soars from the shell that held a +poor grub, which would never have found wings, had not the stone been +lifted. + +You never need think you can turn over any old falsehood without a +terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that +dwells under it. + +----Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of +somebody or other. As soon as his breath comes back, he very probably +begins to expend it in hard words. These are the best evidence a man +can have that he has said something it was time to say. Dr. Johnson was +disappointed in the effect of one of his pamphlets. "I think I have not +been attacked enough for it," he said;--"attack is the reaction; I never +think I have hit hard unless it rebounds." + +----If a fellow attacked my opinions in print, would I reply? Not I. Do +you think I don't understand what my friend, the Professor, long ago +called _the hydrostatic paradox of controversy?_ + +Don't know what that means?--Well, I will tell you. You know, that, if +you had a bent tube, one arm of which was of the size of a pipe-stem, +and the other big enough to hold the ocean, water would stand at the +same height in one as in the other. Controversy equalizes fools and wise +men in the same way,--_and the fools know it._ + +----No, but I often read what they say about other people. There are +about a dozen phrases that all come tumbling along together, like the +tongs, and the shovel, and the poker, and the brush, and the bellows, in +one of those domestic avalanches that everybody knows. If you get one, +you get the whole lot. + +What are they?--Oh, that depends a good deal on latitude and longitude. +Epithets follow the isothermal lines pretty accurately. Grouping them +in two families, one finds himself a clever, genial, witty, wise, +brilliant, sparkling, thoughtful, distinguished, celebrated, illustrious +scholar and perfect gentleman, and first writer of the age; or a +dull, foolish, wicked, pert, shallow, ignorant, insolent, traitorous, +black-hearted outcast, and disgrace to civilization. + +What do I think determines the set of phrases a man gets?--Well, +I should say a set of influences something like these:--1st. +Relationships, political, religious, social, domestic. 2d. Oysters; +in the form of suppers given to gentlemen connected with criticism. I +believe in the school, the college, and the clergy; but my sovereign +logic for regulating public opinion--which means commonly the opinion +of half a dozen of the critical gentry--is the following: _Major +proposition._ Oysters _au naturel. Minor proposition._ The same +"scalloped." _Conclusion._ That ---- (here insert entertainer's name) is +clever, witty, wise, brilliant,--and the rest. + +----No, it isn't exactly bribery. One man has oysters, and another +epithets. It is an exchange of hospitalities; one gives a "spread" on +linen, and the other on paper,--that is all. Don't you think you and I +should be apt to do just so, if we were in the critical line? I am sure +I couldn't resist the softening influences of hospitality. I don't like +to dine out, you know,--I dine so well at our own table, [our landlady +looked radiant,] and the company is so pleasant [a rustling movement of +satisfaction among the boarders]; but if I did partake of a man's +salt, with such additions as that article of food requires to make it +palatable, I could never abuse him, and if I had to speak of him, I +suppose I should hang my set of jingling epithets round him like a +string of sleigh-bells. Good feeling helps society to make liars of most +of us,--not absolute liars, but such careless handlers of truth that its +sharp corners get terribly rounded. I love truth as chiefest among the +virtues; I trust it runs in my blood; but I would never be a critic, +because I know I could not always tell it. I might write a criticism of +a book that happened to please me; that is another matter. + +----Listen, Benjamin Franklin! This is for you, and such others of +tender age as you may tell it to. + +When we are as yet small children, long before the time when those two +grown ladies offer us the choice of Hercules, there comes up to us a +youthful angel, holding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his +left spheres like marbles. The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on +each is written in letters of gold--TRUTH. The spheres are veined and +streaked and spotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above, where the +light falls on them, and in a certain aspect you can make out upon +every one of them the three letters L, I, E. The child to whom they +are offered very probably clutches at both. The spheres are the most +convenient things in the world; they roll with the least possible +impulse just where the child would have them. The cubes will not roll at +all; they have a great talent for standing still, and always keep right +side up. But very soon the young philosopher finds that things which +roll so easily are very apt to roll into the wrong corner, and to get +out of his way when he most wants them, while he always knows where to +find the others, which stay where they are left. Thus he learns--thus we +learn--to drop the streaked and speckled globes of falsehood and to hold +fast the white angular blocks of truth. But then comes Timidity, and +after her Good-nature, and last of all Polite-behavior, all insisting +that truth must _roll_ or nobody can do anything with it; and so the +first with her coarse rasp, and the second with her broad file, and the +third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and smooth and polish the +snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they have got a little dingy by +use, it becomes hard to tell them from the rolling spheres of falsehood. + +The schoolmistress was polite enough to say that she was pleased with +this, and that she would read it to her little flock the next day. But +she should tell the children, she said, that there were better reasons +for truth than could be found in mere experience of its convenience and +the inconvenience of lying. + +Yes,--I said,--but education always begins through the senses, and works +up to the idea of absolute right and wrong. The first thing +the child has to learn about this matter is, that lying is +unprofitable,--afterwards, that it is against the peace and dignity of +the universe. + +----Do I think that the particular form of lying often seen in +newspapers, under the title, "From our Foreign Correspondent," does any +harm?--Why, no,--I don't know that it does. I suppose it doesn't really +deceive people any more than the "Arabian Nights" or "Gulliver's +Travels" do. Sometimes the writers compile too carelessly, though, and +mix up facts out of geographies, and stories out of the penny papers, so +as to mislead those who are desirous of information. I cut a piece +out of one of the papers, the other day, that contains a number of +improbabilities, and, I suspect, misstatements. I will send up and get +it for you, if you would like to hear it.--Ah, this is it; it is headed + +"OUR SUMATRA CORRESPONDENCE. + +"This island is now the property of the Stamford family,--having +been won, it is said, in a raffle, by Sir ---- Stamford, during the +stock-gambling mania of the South-Sea Scheme. The history of this +gentleman may be found in an interesting series of questions +(unfortunately not yet answered) contained in the 'Notes and Queries.' +This island is entirely surrounded by the ocean, which here contains a +large amount of saline substance, crystallizing in cubes remarkable for +their symmetry, and frequently displays on its surface, during calm +weather, the rainbow tints of the celebrated South-Sea bubbles. The +summers are oppressively hot, and the winters very probably cold; but +this fact cannot be ascertained precisely, as, for some peculiar reason, +the mercury in these latitudes never shrinks, as in more northern +regions, and thus the thermometer is rendered useless in winter. + +"The principal vegetable productions of the island are the pepper tree +and the bread-fruit tree. Pepper being very abundantly produced, a +benevolent society was organized in London during the last century for +supplying the natives with vinegar and oysters, as an addition to that +delightful condiment. [Note received from Dr. D.P.] It is said, however +that, as the oysters were of the kind called _natives_ in England, the +natives of Sumatra, in obedience to a natural instinct refused to touch +them, and confined themselves entirely to the crew of the vessel in +which they were brought over. This information was received from one +of the oldest inhabitants, a native himself, and exceedingly fond of +missionaries. He is said also to be very skilful in the _cuisine_ +peculiar to the island. + +"During the season of gathering the pepper, the persons employed are +subject to various incommodities, the chief of which is violent and +long-continued sternutation or sneezing. Such is the vehemence of +these attacks, that the unfortunate subjects of them are often driven +backwards for great distances at immense speed, on the well-known +principle of the aeolipile. Not being able to see where they are going, +these poor creatures dash themselves to pieces against the rocks or are +precipitated over the cliffs, and thus many valuable lives are lost +annually. As, during the whole pepper-harvest, they feed exclusively on +this stimulant, they become exceedingly irritable. The smallest injury +is resented with ungovernable rage. A young man suffering from the +_pepper-fever_, as it is called, cudgelled another most severely for +appropriating a superannuated relative of trifling value, and was only +pacified by having a present made him of a pig of that peculiar species +of swine called the _Peccavi_ by the Catholic Jews, who, it is well +known, abstain from swine's flesh in imitation of the Mahometan +Buddhists. + +"The bread tree grows abundantly. Its branches are well known to Europe +and America under the familiar name of _maccaroni_ The smaller twigs +are called _vermicelli_. They have a decided animal flavor, as may be +observed in the soups containing them. Maccaroni, being tubular is +the favorite habitat of a very dangerous insect, which is rendered +peculiarly ferocious by being boiled. The government of the island, +therefore, never allows a stick of it to be exported without being +accompanied by a piston with which its cavity may at any time be +thoroughly swept out. These are commonly lost or stolen before the +maccaroni arrives among us. It therefore always contains many of these +insects, which, however, generally die of old age in the shops, so that +accidents from this source are comparatively rare. + +"The fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of hot rolls. The +buttered-muffin variety is supposed to be a hybrid with the cocoa-nut +palm, the cream found on the milk of the cocoa-nut exuding from the +hybrid in the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is splitting, so +as to fit it for the tea-table, where it is commonly served up with +cold"---- + +----There,--I don't want to read any more of it. You see that many of +these statements are highly improbable.--No, I shall not mention the +paper.--No, neither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the style +of these popular writers. I think the fellow that wrote it must have +been reading some of their stories, and got them mixed up with his +history and geography. I don't suppose _he_ lies;--he sells it to the +editor, who knows how many squares off "Sumatra" is. The editor, +who sells it to the public----By the way, the papers have been very +civil--haven't they?--to the--the--what d'ye call it?--"Northern +Magazine"--isn't it?--got up by some of those Come-outers, down East, as +an organ for their local peculiarities. + +----The Professor has been to see me. Came in, glorious, at about twelve +o'clock, last night. Said he had been with "the boys." On inquiry, found +that "the boys" were certain baldish and grayish old gentlemen that one +sees or hears of in various important stations of society. The Professor +is one of the same set, but he always talks as if he had been out of +college about ten years, whereas..... .... [Each of these dots was a +little nod, which the company understood, as the reader will, no doubt.] +He calls them sometimes "the boys," and sometimes "the old fellows." +Call him by the latter title, and see how he likes it.--Well, he came in +last night, glorious, as I was saying. Of course I don't mean vinously +exalted; he drinks little wine on such occasions, and is well known to +all the Johns and Patricks as the gentleman that always has indefinite +quantities of black tea to kill any extra glass of red claret he may +have swallowed. But the Professor says he always gets tipsy on old +memories at these gatherings. He was, I forget how many years old when +he went to the meeting; just turned of twenty now,--he said. He made +various youthful proposals to me, including a duet under the landlady's +daughter's window. He had just learned a trick, he said, of one of "the +boys," of getting a splendid bass out of a door-panel by rubbing it with +the palm of his hand,--offered to sing "The sky is bright," accompanying +himself on the front-door, if I would go down and help in the chorus. +Said there never was such a set of fellows as the old boys of the set he +has been with. Judges, mayors, Congress-men, Mr. Speakers, leaders in +science, clergymen better than famous, and famous too, poets by the +half-dozen, singers with voices like angels, financiers, wits, three of +the best laughers in the Commonwealth, engineers, agriculturists,--all +forms of talent and knowledge he pretended were represented in that +meeting. Then he began to quote Byron about Santa Croce, and maintained +that he could "furnish out creation" in all its details from that set +of his. He would like to have the whole boodle of them, (I remonstrated +against this word, but the Professor said it was a diabolish good word, +and he would have no other,) with their wives and children, shipwrecked +on a remote island, just to see how splendidly they would reorganize +society. They could build a city,--they have done it; make constitutions +and laws; establish churches and lyceums; teach and practise the healing +art; instruct in every department; found observatories; create commerce +and manufactures; write songs and hymns, and sing 'em, and make +instruments to accompany the songs with; lastly, publish a journal +almost as good as the "Northern Magazine," edited by the Come-outers. +There was nothing they were not up to, from a christening to a hanging; +the last, to be sure, could never be called for, unless some stranger +got in among them. + +----I let the Professor talk as long as he liked; it didn't make much +difference to me whether it was all truth, or partly made up of pale +Sherry and similar elements. All at once he jumped up and said,-- + +Don't you want to hear what I just read to the boys? + +I have had questions of a similar character asked me before, +occasionally. A man of iron mould might perhaps say, No! I am not a man +of iron mould, and said that I should be delighted. + +The Professor then read--with that slightly sing-song cadence which is +observed to be common in poets reading their own verses--the following +stanzas; holding them at a focal distance of about two feet and a half, +with an occasional movement back or forward for better adjustment, the +appearance of which has been likened by some impertinent young folks +to that of the act of playing on the trombone. His eyesight was never +better; I have his word for it. + + + + +MARE RUBRUM. + + + Flash out a stream of blood-red wine!-- + For I would drink to other days; + And brighter shall their memory shine, + Seen flaming through its crimson blaze. + The roses die, the summers fade; + But every ghost of boyhood's dream + By Nature's magic power is laid + To sleep beneath this blood-red stream. + + It filled the purple grapes that lay + And drank the splendors of the sun + Where the long summer's cloudless day + Is mirrored in the broad Garonne; + It pictures still the bacchant shapes + That saw their hoarded sunlight shed,-- + The maidens dancing on the grapes,-- + Their milk-white ankles splashed with red. + + Beneath these waves of crimson lie, + In rosy fetters prisoned fast, + Those flitting shapes that never die, + The swift-winged visions of the past. + Kiss but the crystal's mystic rim, + Each shadow rends its flowery chain, + Springs in a bubble from its brim, + And walks the chambers of the brain. + + Poor Beauty! time and fortune's wrong + No form nor feature may withstand,-- + Thy wrecks are scattered all along, + Like emptied sea-shells on the sand;-- + Yet, sprinkled with this blushing rain, + The dust restores each blooming girl, + As if the sea-shells moved again + Their glistening lips of pink and pearl. + + Here lies the home of school-boy life, + With creaking stair and wind-swept hall, + And, scarred by many a truant knife, + Our old initials on the wall; + Here rest--their keen vibrations mute-- + The shout of voices known so well, + The ringing laugh, the wailing flute, + The chiding of the sharp-tongued bell. + + Here, clad in burning robes, are laid + Life's blossomed joys, untimely shed; + And here those cherished forms have strayed + We miss awhile, and call them dead. + What wizard fills the maddening glass? + What soil the enchanted clusters grew, + That buried passions wake and pass + In beaded drops of fiery dew? + + Nay, take the cup of blood-red wine,-- + Our hearts can boast a warmer glow, + Filled from a vintage more divine,-- + Calmed, but not chilled by winter's snow! + To-night the palest wave we sip + Rich as the priceless draught shall be + That wet the bride of Cana's lip,-- + The wedding wine of Galilee! + + + + +CHILD-LIFE BY THE GANGES. + + +We are told--and, being philosophers, we will amuse ourselves by +believing--that there are towns in India, somewhere between Cape Comorin +and the Himalayas, wherein everything is _butcha_,--that is, "a little +chap"; where inhabitants and inhabited are alike in the estate of +urchins; where little Brahmins extort little offerings from little dupes +at the foot of little altars, and ring little bells, and blow little +horns, and pound little gongs, and mutter little rigmaroles before +stupid little Krishnas and Sivas and Vishnus, doing their little wooden +best to look solemn, mounted on little bulls or snakes, under little +canopies; where little Brahminee bulls, in all the little insolence of +their little sacred privileges, poke their little noses into the little +rice-baskets of pious little maidens in little bazaars, and help their +little selves to their little hearts' content, without "begging your +little pardons," or "by your little leaves"; where dirty little fakirs +and yogees hold their dirty little arms above their dirty little heads, +until their dirty little muscles are shrunk to dirty little rags, and +their dirty little finger-nails grow through the backs of their dirty +little hands,--or wear little ten-penny nails thrust through their +little tongues till they acquire little chronic impediments in their +decidedly dirty little speech,--or, by means of little hooks through the +little smalls-of-their-backs, circumgyrate from little _churruck_-posts +for the edification of infatuated little crowds and the honor of horrid +little goddesses; where plucky little widows perform their little +suttees for defunct little husbands, grilling on little funeral piles; +where mangy little Pariah dogs defile the little dinners of little +high-caste folks, by stealing hungry little sniffs from sacred little +pots; where omnivorous little adjutant-birds gobble up little glass +bottles, and bones, and little dead cats, and little old slippers, and +bits of little bricks, in front of little shops in little bazaars; where +vociferous little _circars_ are driving little bargains with obese +little _banyans_, and consequential little _chowkedars_--that is, +policemen--are bullying inoffensive little poor people, and calling them +_sooa-logue_,--that is, pigs;--where--where, in fine, everything in +heathen human-nature happens _butcha_, and the very fables with which +the little story-tellers entertain the little loafers on the corners of +the little streets, are full of _little_ giants and _little_ dwarfs. Let +us pursue the little idea, and talk _butcha_ to the end of this chapter. + +When, in Calcutta, you have smitten the dry rock of your lonely life +with the magic rod of connubial love, and that well-spring of pleasure, +a new baby, has leaped up in the midst of your wilderness of exile, the +demonstration, if any, with which your servants will receive the glad +tidings, will depend wholly on the "denomination of the imbecile +offspring," as our eleemosynary widow, Mrs. Diana Theodosia Comfort +Green, would call it. If it happen to be only a girl, there will be a +trace of pity in the silent salaam with which the grim _durwan_ salutes +you as you roll into your _palkee_ at the gate to proceed to the +_godowns_ where they are weighing the saltpetre and the gunny bags. +As he touches his forehead with his joined palms, he thinks of the +difference that color makes to the babivorous crocodiles of Ganges. +Perhaps your gray-beard circar, privileged by virtue of high caste +and faithful service, will take upon himself to condole with you: +"_Khodabund_" he will say, "better luck next time; Heaven is not always +with one's paternal hopes; let us trust that my lord may live to say it +might have been worse; let us pray that the _baba's_ bridal necklace may +be as gay as rubies and as light as lilies, and that she may die before +her husband." + +But if to the existing number of your _suntoshums_--the jewels that +hang on the Mem Sahib's bosom--a man-child is added, ah, then there is +merry-making in the verandas, and happy salaaming on the stairs; and in +the fulness of his Hindoo Sary-Gampness, which counts the Sahib blessed +that hath "his quiver full of sich," he says, _Ap-ki kullejee kaisa +burri ho-jaga! Khoda rukho ki beebi-ka kullejee bhee itni burri +hoga,--Gurreeb-purwan!_ "How large my lord's liver is about to grow! +God grant to the Mem Sahib, my exalted lady, a liver likewise large,--O +favored protector of the poor!" The happiness and honors which should +follow upon the birth of a male child being figuratively comprehended in +that enlargement of the liver whence comes the good digestion for which +alone life is worth the living. + +Many and grievous perils do environ baby-life by the Ganges,--perils of +_dry_ nurses, perils by wolves, perils by crocodiles, perils by the Evil +Eye, perils by kidnappers, perils by cobras, perils by devils. + +You are living at one of the up-country stations, where the freer air of +the jungle imparts to babes and sucklings a voracious appetite. Besides +your own _dhye_, brought from Calcutta, there is not another wet-nurse +to be had, for love or money. Immediately Dhye strikes for higher wages. +The Baba Sahib, she says, has defiled her rice; yesterday he put +his foot into her curry; to-day he washes the monkey's tail in her +consecrated lotah. What shall she do? she has lost caste; the presents +to the Brahmins, that her reinstatement will cost her, will consume all +her earnings from the beginning. _Gurreeb-purwan_, O munificent and +merciful! what shall she do? She strikes for higher wages.--But you are +hard-hearted and hard-headed; you will not pay,--by Gunga, not another +pice! by Latchtmee, not one cowry more!--Oh, then she will leave; with +a heavy heart she will turn her back on the blessed baby; she will pour +dust upon her head before the Mem Sahib, at whose door her disgrace +shall lie, and she will return to her kindred.--Not she! the durwan, +grim and incorruptible, has his orders; she cannot pass the gate. Oho! +then immediately she dries up; no "fount," and Baby famishing. You try +ass's milk; it does not agree with Baby; besides, it costs a rupee a +pint. You try a goat; she does not agree with Baby, for she butts him +treacherously, and, leaping over his prostrate body, scampers, like +Leigh Hunt's pig in Smithfield Market, up all manner of figurative +streets. Then you send for Dhye, and say, "Milk, or I shave your head!" +Milk or death! And, lo, a miracle!--the "fount" again!--Baby is saved. + +What was, then, the conjuration and the mighty magic? In the folds +of her _saree_ the _dhye_ conceals leaves of _chambeli_, the Indian +jessamine, roots of _dhallapee_, the jungle radish. She chews the +_chambeli_, and hungry Baby, struggling for the "fount," is insulted +with apples of Sodom; she swallows a portion of _dhallapee_, and he is +regaled as with the melting melons of Ceylon. + + * * * * * + +Some fine afternoon your _ayah_ takes your little Johnny to stroll by +the river's bank,--to watch the green budgerows, as they glide, pulled +by singing _dandees_ (so the boatmen of Ganges are called) up to +Patna,--to watch the brown corpses, as they float silently down from +Benares. At night the ayah returns, wringing her hands. Where is your +merry darling? She knows not. _O Khodabund_, go ask the evil spirits! O +Sahib, go cry unto Gunga,--go accuse the greedy river, and say to the +envious waters, "Give back my boy!" She had left him sitting on a stone, +she says, counting the sailing corpses, while she went to find him a +blue-jay's nest among the rocks; when she returned to the stone,--no +Jonnee Sahib! "My golden image, who hath snatched him away? He that +skipped and hummed like a singing-top, where is he gone?"--A month after +that, your dandees capture a crocodile, and from his heathen maw recover +a familiar coral necklace with an inscription on the clasp,--"To Johnny, +on his birth-day." A pair of little silver bangles, whose jocund +jingling had once been happy household music to some poor Hindoo mother, +have kept the necklace company. + + * * * * * + +Over against the gate of our compound the Baboo's walks are bright with +roses, and ixoras, and the creeping nagatallis; the Baboo's park is +shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and imposing with +tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains; and Chinna Tumbe, the +Little Brother, the brown apple of the Baboo's eye, plays among the +bamboos by the tank, just within the gate, and pelts the gold-fishes +with mango-seeds. Presently comes along a pleasant peddler, all the way +from Cabool, with a pretty bushy-tailed kitten of Persia in the hollow +of his arm, and a cunning little mungooz cracking nuts on his shoulder. +A score of tiny silver bells tinkle from a silken cord around Chinna +Tumbe's loins, and the silver whistle with which he calls his cockatoos +is suspended from his neck by a chain of gold. So the pleasant peddler +all the way from Cabool greets Chinna Tumbe merrily, saying, "See my +pretty kitten, that knows a hundred tricks! and see my brave mungooz, +that can kill cobras in fair fight! My Persian kitten for your silver +bells, Chinna Tumbe, and my cunning mungooz for your golden chain!" And +Chinna Tumbe laughs, and claps his hands, and dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. And the pleasant peddler all the +way from Cabool says, "Step without the gate, Little Brother, if you +would see my pretty kitten play tricks; if you would stroke my cunning +mungooz, step without the gate; for I dare not pass within, lest my +lord, the Baboo of many lacs, should be angry." So Chinna Tumbe steps +out into the road, and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool sets +the Persian kitten on the ground, and rattles off some strange words, +that sound very funnily to the Little Brother; and immediately the +Persian kitten begins to run round after its bushy tail, faster and +faster, faster and faster, a ring of yellow light. And Chinna Tumbe +claps his hands, and cries, _Wah, wah!_ and he dances for delight, and +all his silver bells jingle gleefully. So the pleasant peddler addresses +other strange and funny words to the ring of yellow light, and instantly +it stands still, and quivers its bushy tail, and pants. Then the peddler +speaks to the cunning mungooz, which immediately leaps to the ground, +and sitting quite erect, with its broad tail curled over its back, like +a marabout feather, holds its paws together in the quaint manner of a +squirrel, and looks attentive. More of the peddler's funny conjuration, +and up springs the mungooz into the air, like a Birman's wicker +football, and, alighting on the kitten's back, clings close and fast. +Away fly kitten and mungooz,--away from the gate,--away from the Baboo's +walks, bright with ixoras and creeping nagatallis,--away from the +Baboo's park, shady with banians, and fragrant with sandal-trees, and +imposing with tall peepuls, and cool with sparkling fountains,--away +from the Baboo's home, away from the Baboo's heart, bereft thenceforth +forever! For Chinna Tumbe follows fast, crying, _Wah, wah!_ and clapping +his hands, and jingling gleefully all his silver bells,--follows across +the road, and through the bamboo hedge, and into the darkness and the +danger of the jungle; and the pleasant peddler all the way from Cabool +goes smiling after,--but, as he goes, what is it that he draws from +the breast of his dusty _coortee_? Only a slender, smooth cord, with a +slip-knot at the end of it. + +Within the twelvemonth, in a stony nullah, hard by a clump of crooked +saul-trees, a mile away from the Baboo's gate, some jackals brought to +light the bones of a little child; and the deep grave from which they +dug them with their sharp, busy claws, bore marks of the mystic pick-axe +of Thuggee. But there were no tinkling bells, no chain of gold, no +silver whistle; and the cockatoos and the goldfishes knew Chinna Tumbe +no more. + +When a name was bestowed on the Little Brother, the Brahmins wrote a +score of pretty words in rice, and set over each a lamp freshly trimmed, +and the name whose light burned brightest, with happy augury, was +"Chinna Tumbe." And when they had likewise inscribed the day of his +birth, and the name of his natal star, the proud and happy Baboo cried, +with a loud voice, three times, "Chinna Tumbe," and all the Brahmins +stretched forth their hands and pronounced _Asowadam_,--benediction. +Then they performed _arati_ about the child's head, to avert the Evil +Eye, describing mystic circles with lamps of rice-paste set on copper +salvers, with many pious incantations. But, spite of all, the Evil Eye +overtook Chinna Tumbe, when the pleasant peddler came all the way from +Cabool, with his bushy-tailed kitten, and his mungooz cracking nuts. + +They do say the ghost of Chinna Tumbe walks,--that always at midnight, +when the Indian nightingale fills the Baboo's banian topes with her +lugubrious song, and the weird ulus hoot from the peepul tops, a child, +girt with silver bells, and followed by a Persian kitten and a mungooz, +shakes the Baboo's gate, blows upon a silver whistle, and cries, so +piteously, "Ayah! Ayah!" + + * * * * * + +At Hurdwar, in the great fair, among jugglers and tumblers, horse-tamers +and snake-charmers, fakirs and pilgrims, I saw a small boy possessed +of a devil,--an authentic devil, as of yore, meet for miraculous +driving-out. In the midst of dire din, heathenish and +horrible,--dissonant jangle of zogees' bells, brain-rending blasts from +Brahmins' shells, strepent howling of opium-drunk devotees, delirious +pounding of tom-toms, brazen clangor of gongs,--a child of seven years, +that might, unpossessed, have been beautiful, sat under the shed of +a sort of curiosity-shop, among bangles and armlets, mouthpieces +for pipes, leaden idols, and Brahminical cords, and made infernal +faces,--his mouth foaming epileptically, his hair dishevelled and matted +with sudden sweat, his eyes blood-shot, his whole aspect diabolic. And +on the ground before the miserable lad were set dishes of rice mixed +with blood, carcasses of rams and cocks, handfuls of red flowers, and +ragged locks of human hair, wherewith the more miserable people sought +to appease the fell _bhuta_ that had set up his throne in that fair +soul. _Sack bat?_ It was even so. And as the possessed made spasmy fists +with his feet, clinching his toes strangely, and grinned, with his chin +between his knees, I solemnly wished for the presence of One who might +cry with the voice of authority, as erst in the land of the Gadarenes, +"Come out of the lad, thou unclean spirit!" + +At the Hurdwar fair pretty little naked girls are exposed for sale, and +in their soft brown innocence appeal at once to the purity of your mind +and the tenderness of your heart. They come from Cashmere with the +shawls, or from Cabool with the kittens, or from the Punjaub with the +arms and shields. + + * * * * * + +Very quaint are the little Miriams, Ruths, and Hannahs of the Jewish +houses in Bombay,--with their full trousers of blue satin and gold, +their boyish Fez caps of spangled red velvet, bound round with +party-colored turbans, their chin-bands of pearls, their coin chains, +their great gold bangles, and the jingling tassels of their long plaits. + +Less interesting, because formal and inanimate, even to sulkiness, +are the prim little Parsee maidens, who often wear an "exercised" +expression, of a settled sort, as though they were weary of reflecting +on the hollowness of the world, and how their dolls are stuffed with +sawdust, and that Dakhma, the Tower of Silence, is the end of all +things. + +Then there are the regimental _babalogue_, the soldiers' children, +sturdiest and toughest of Anglo-Indian urchins,--affording, in their +brown cheeks and crisp muscles and boisterous ways, a consoling contrast +to the oh-call-it-pale-not-fairness, and the frailness, and premature +pensiveness of the little Civil Service. + +And there is the half-caste child, the lisping chee-chee, or Eurasian, +grandiloquently so called, much given to sentimental minstrelsy, +juvenile polkas, early coquetry, and early beer, hot curries, loud +clothes, bad English, and fast pertness. I never think of them without +recalling a precocious ballad-screamer of eight years who was flourished +indispensably at every chee-chee hop in Chandernagore: + + "O lay me in a little pit, + With a marvle thtone to cover it, + And keearve thereon a turkle-dove, + That the world may know I died for love!" + +I left India in consequence of that child. + +But for the true Anglo-Indian type of brat, at all points a complete +"torn-down," "dislikeable and rod-worthy," as Mrs. Mackenzie describes +it, there is nothing among nursery nuisances comparable to the +Civil-Service child of eight or ten years, whose father, a "Company's +Bad Bargain," in the Mint, or the Supreme Court, or the Marine Office, +draws _per mensem_ enough to set his brat up in the usual servile +surroundings of such small despots. Deriving the only education it ever +gets directly from its personal attendants, this young monster of bad +temper, bad manners, and bad language becomes precociously proficient in +overbearing ways, and voluble in Hindostanee Billingsgate, before it has +acquired enough of its ancestral tongue to frame the simplest sentence. +It bullies its _bhearer_; it bangs distractingly on the tom-tom; it +surfeits itself to an apoplectic point with pish-pash; it burns its +mouth with hot curry, and bawls; it indulges in horrid Hindostanee +songs, whereof the burden will not bear translation; it insults whatever +is most sacred to the caste attachments of its attendants; the Moab of +ayahs is its wash-pot, over an Edom of bhearers will it cast out its +shoe; it slaps the mouth of a gray-haired _khansaman_ with its slipper, +and dips its poodle's paws in a Mohammedan _kitmudgar's_ rice; it +calls a learned Pundit an _asal ulu_, an egregious owl; it says to +a high-caste _circar_, "Shut up, you pig!" and to an illustrious +_moonshee_, "_Hi, toom junglee-wallah!_" Whereat its fond mamma, to whom +Bengalee, Hindostanee, and Sanscrit are alike sealed books of Babel, +claps the hands of her heart, and crying, _Wah, wah!_ in all the +innocence of her philological deficiency, blesses the fine animal +spirits of her darling Hastings Clive. + +"_Soono_, you _sooa_, _loom kis-wasti omara bukri_ not bring?" says +Hastings Clive, whose English is apt to figure among his Hindostanee +like Brahmins in a regiment of Sepoys,--that is, one Brahmin to every +twenty low-caste fellows. + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Wellesley dear, _do_ listen to that +darling Hastings Clive, how sweetly he prattles! What _did_ he say then? +If one could _only_ learn that delightful Hindostanee, so that one could +converse with one's dear Hastings Clive! _Do_ tell me what he said. + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough, of the Company's Bad Bargains_.--Literally +interpreted, my dearest Maud, our darling Hastings Clive sweetly +remarked, "I say, you pig, why in thunder don't you fetch my goat into +the parlor?" + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough, of the Hon. Mr. Wellesley Gough's Bad +Bargains_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +_Hastings Clive_.--_Jou_, you _haremzeada_! _Bukri na munkta, +nimuk-aram_! + +_The Hon. Wellesley Gough_.--My love, he says now, "Get out, you +good-for-nothing rascal! I don't want that goat here." + +_The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Gough_.--Oh, _isn't_ he clever? + +What dreadful crime did you commit in another life, O illustrious +Moonshee, that you should fall now among such thieves as this horrid +Hastings Clive? + +"Sahib, I know not. _Hum kia kurrenge? kismut hi_: What can I do? it is +my fate." + +Hastings Clive has a queer assortment of pets, first of which are +the bushy-tailed Persian kittens, hereinbefore mentioned. When, in +Yankee-land, some lovelorn Zeekle is notoriously sweet upon any Huldy of +the rural maids,--when + + "His heart keeps goin' pitypat, + And hern goes pity Zeekle,"-- + +when she is + + "All kind o' smily round the lips, + And teary round the lashes,"-- + +it is usual to describe his condition by a feline figure; he is said +to "cuddle up to her like a sick kitten to a hot brick." But the sick +Oriental kitten, reversing the Occidental order of kitten things, +cuddles up to a water-monkey, and fondly embraces the refreshing +evaporation of its beaded bulb with all her paws and all her bushy tail. +The Persian kitten stands high in the favor of Hastings Clive. + +Hastings Clive has a whole array of parroquets and hill-mainahs, which, +as they learned their small language from his peculiar scurrilous +practice, are but blackguard birds at best. He also rejoices in many +blue-jays, rescued from the Ganges, whereinto they were thrown as +offerings to the vengeful Doorga during the barbarous _pooja_ celebrated +in her name. Very proud, too, is Hastings Clive of his pigeons,--his +many-colored pigeons from Lucknow, Delhi, and Benares; an Oudean +bird-boy has trained them to the pretty sport of the Mohammedan princes, +and every afternoon he flies them from the house-top in flashing flocks, +for Hastings Clive's entertainment. + +Hastings Clive has toys, the wooden and earthen toys for which Benares +was ever famous among Indian children,--nondescript animals, and as +non-descript idols,--little Brahminee bulls with bells, and artillery +camels, like those at Rohilcund and Agra,--Sahibs taking the air in +buggies, country-folk in hackeries, baba-logue in gig-topped ton-jons. +But much more various and entertaining, though frailer, are his Calcutta +toys, of paper, clay, and wax,--hunting-parties in bamboo howdahs, on +elephants a foot high, that move their trunks very cunningly,--avadavats +of clay, which flutter so naturally, suspended by hairs in bamboo cages, +that the cats destroy them quickly,--miniature palanquins, budgerows, +bungalows, and pagodas, all of paper,--figures in clay of the different +castes and callings, baboos, kitmudgars, washermen, barbers, +tailors, street-waterers, box-wallahs, (as the peddlers are called,) +nautch-girls, jugglers, sepoys, policemen, doorkeepers, dog-boys,--all +true to the life, in costume, attitude, and expression. + +Statedly, on his birth-day, the Anglo-Indian child is treated to a +_kat-pootlee nautch_, and Hastings Clive has a birth-day every time he +conceives a longing for a puppet-show; so that our wilful young friend +may be said to be nine years, and about nineteen kat-pootlee nautches, +old. + +To make a birth-day for Hastings Clive, three or four _tamasha-wallahs_, +or show-fellows, are required; these, hired for a few rupees, come from +the nearest bazaar, bringing with them all the fantastic apparatus of a +kat-pootlee nautch, with its interludes of story-telling and jugglery. +A sheet, or table-cloth, or perhaps a painted drop-curtain, expressly +prepared, is hung between two pillars in the drawing-room, and reaches, +not to the floor, but to the tops of the miniature towers of a silver +palace, where some splendid Rajah, of fabulous wealth and power, is +about to hold a grand _durbar_, or levee. All the people, be they +illustrious personages or the common herd, who assist in the ceremony, +are puppets a span long, rudely constructed and coarsely painted, but +very faithful as to costume and manners, and most dexterously played +upon by the invisible tamasha-wallahs, whom the curtain conceals. + +A silver throne having been wheeled out on the portico by manikin +bhearers, the manikin Rajah, attended by his manikin moonshee, and as +many manikin courtiers as the tamasha property-man can supply, comes +forth in his wooden way, and seats himself on the throne in wooden +state; a manikin _hookah-badar_, or pipe-server, and a manikin +_chattah-wallah_, or umbrella-bearer, take up their wooden position +behind, while a manikin _punkah-wallah_ fans, woodenly, his manikin +Highness, and the manikin courtiers dance wooden attendance around. Then +manikin ladies and gentlemen come on manikin elephants and horses and +camels, or in manikin palanquins, and alight with wooden dignity at the +foot of the palace stairs, taking their respective orders of wooden +precedence with wooden pomposities and humilities, and all the manikin +forms of the customary bore. The manikin courtiers trip woodenly +down the grand stairs to meet the manikin guests with little wooden +Orientalisms of compliment, and all the little wooden delicacies of +the season; and they conduct the manikin Sahibs and Beebees into +the presence of the manikin Rajah, who receives them with wooden +condescension and affability, and graciously reciprocates their wooden +salaams, inquiring woodenly into the health of all their manikin +friends, and hoping, with the utmost ligneous solicitude, that they have +had a pleasant wooden journey: and so on, manikin by manikin, to the +wooden end. Of course, much desultory tomtomry and wild troubadouring +behind the curtain make the occasion musical. + +The audience is complete in all the picturesqueness of mixed baba-logue. +In the front row, chattering brown ayahs, gay with red sarees and +nose-rings, sit on the floor, holding in their laps pale, tender +babies, fair-haired and blue-eyed, lace-swaddled, coral-clasped, and +amber-studded. Behind these, on high chairs, are the striplings of three +years and upward, vociferous and kicking under the hand-punkahs of +their patient bhearers. Tall fellows are these bhearers, with fierce +moustaches, but gentle eyes,--a sort of nursery lions whom a little +child can lead. On each side are small chocolate-colored heathens, in a +sort of short chemises, silver-bangled as to their wrists and ankles, +and already with the caste-mark on the foreheads of some of them,--shy, +demure younglings, just learning all the awful significance of the word +_Sahib_, who have been brought from mysterious homes by fond ayahs, and +smuggled in through back-stairs influence, or boldly introduced by the +durwan under the glorifying patronage of that terrible Hastings Clive. + +Back of all are Dhobee, the washerman, and Dirzce, the tailor, and +Mehter, the sweeper, and Mussalehee, the torch-boy, and Metranee, the +scullion,--and all the rest of the household riff-raffry. There is much +clapping of hands, and happy wah-wah-ing, wherefrom you conclude that +Hastings Clive's birth-day is at least one good result of his being born +at all. + +The Sahib baba-logue have a lively share in several of the native +festivals. The Hoolee, for instance, is their high carnival of fun, +when they pelt their elders and each other with the red powder of the +_mhindee_, and repel laughing assaults with smart charges of rose-water +fired from busy little squirts. During the illumination of the Duwallee, +they receive from the servants presents of fantastic toys, and search +in the compounds by moonlight for the flower of the tree that never +blossoms, and for the soul of a snake, whence comes to the finder good +luck for the rest of his life. + +These are the traditional sports of the baba-logue; but they are +ingenious in inventing others, wherein, from time to time, the imitative +faculty, of the native child especially, is tragically manifested. + +When the Nawab, Shumsh-ud-deen, was hung at Delhi for hiring a _sowar_ +to assassinate Mr. Fraser, the British Commissioner, the country +population round about were seized with the news as with the coming of +a dragon or a destroying army; and the British Lion was the Bogy, the +Black Douglas, in whose name poor _ryots'_ wives scared refractory brats +into trembling obedience. Not far from Delhi was a village school, where +were many small boys,--so many Asiatic frogs-in-a-well,--to whom "the +news of the day" was full of terrible portent. Once, when they were +tired of foot-ball, and the shuttlecock had grown heavy on their +hands, the cry was, "What shall we play next?" And one daring little +fellow--whose father had been to Delhi with his rent, and had told +how the Nawab met his _kismut_ (his fate) so quietly, that the +gold-embroidered slippers did not fall from his feet--cried, "Let us +play hanging the Nawab! and I will be the Nawab; and Kama, here, shall +be Kurreim Khan, the sowar; and Joota shall be Metcalfe Sahib, the +magistrate; and the rest of you shall be the sahibs, and the sepoys, and +the priests." + +_Acha, acha!_--"Good, good!" they all cried. "Let us play the Nawab's +kismut! let us hang the Nawab! And Mungloo--he that is more clever than +all of us--he that is cunning as a Thug--Mungloo shall be the Nawab!" + +So they began with the murder of the Commissioner; and he who personated +Kurreim Khan, the assassin, played so naturally, that he sent the +Commissioner screaming to his mother, with an arrow sticking in his +arm. Then they arrested Kurreim Khan, and his accomplice, Unnia, a +_mehwatti_, who turned king's evidence, and betrayed the sowar; and +having tried and condemned Kurreim Khan, they would have hung him on the +spot; but, being but a little fellow, he became alarmed at the serious +turn the sport was taking, although he had himself set so sharp an +example; so he took nimbly to his heels, and followed his young friend, +the Commissioner. + +Then Unnia told how the Nawab had paid Kurreim Khan blood-money, because +Shumsh-ud-deen did so hate Fraser Sahib. Whereupon Metcalfe Sahib, a +little naked fellow, just the color of an old mahogany table, sent his +sepoys and had the Nawab dragged, in all his ragged breech-cloth glory, +to the bar of Sahib justice. In about three minutes, the Nawab was +condemned to die,--condemned to be hung by an outcast sweeper. But, in +consideration of his exalted rank, they consented that he should wear +his slippers, and ride to the place of execution, smoking his hookah; +and Mungloo acknowledged the Sahib's magnanimity by proudly inclining +his head, like a true Nawab, with a dignified "_Acha!"_ Then two members +of the court-martial, who lived nearest at hand, ran home, and quickly +returned, one with his father's slippers, the other with his mother's +hubble-bubble; and having tied the slippers, that were a world too big, +on Mungloo's little feet, and lighted the hubble-bubble, that he +might smoke, they mounted him on a buffalo, captured from the village +_hurkaru_, who happened, just in the nick of time, to come riding by, on +his way to Delhi, with the mail. And they led out the prisoner, smoking +his hubble-bubble,--and looking, as Metcalfe Sahib said of the real +Nawab, "as if he had been accustomed to be hanged every day of his +life,"--to the place of execution, an old saul-tree with low limbs. +Then, having taken the rope with which the hurkaru's mail-bag was lashed +to his buffalo, they slipped a noose over the Nawab's head, made the +other end fast to the lower limb of the saul-tree, and led away the +buffalo. + +Little Mungloo, who was cunning as a Thug, acted with surprising talent; +in fact, some of the Sahibs thought he rather overdid his part, for he +dropped his hubble-bubble almost awkwardly, and even kicked,--which the +real Nawab had too much self-respect to do,--so that he sent one of +his slippers flying one way, and the other another. But he choked, and +gasped, and showed the whites of his eyes, and turned black in the face, +and shivered through all his frame, so very naturally, that his admiring +companions clapped their hands vehemently, and cried, _Wah, wah!_ with +all their little lungs. _Wah, wah!_ they screamed,--_Wah khoob tamasha +kurta hi! Phir kello, Mungloo! Bahoot ucchi-turri nuhkul, kurte ho +toom!_ "Bravo! Bravo! Such fun! Do it again, Mungloo,--do it again! it +takes you!" Certainly Mungloo did it to the life,--for he was dead. + + * * * * * + +To conclude now with a specimen of the tales with which the native +story-tellers entertain little heathens on street-corners. + +There was once a bastard boy, the son of a Brahmin's widow; and he was +excluded from a merry wedding-feast on account of his disgraceful birth. +With a heart full of bitterness, he prayed to Siva for comfort or +revenge; and Siva, taking pity on him, taught him the mystic _mantra_, +or incantation, called Bijaksharam,--_Shrum, hrim, craoom, hroom, hroo_. +So the boy went to the door of the apartment where the wedding guests +were regaling themselves and making merry; and he pronounced the mantra +backwards,--_Hroo, hroom, craoom, hrim, shrum_. Immediately the fish, +and the cucumbers, and the mangoes, and the pumplenoses took the shape +of toads, and jumped into the faces of the guests, and into their bosoms +and laps, and on the floor. Then the boy laughed so loud, that the +astonished guests knew it was he who had conjured them; so they went to +the door and let him in, and set him at the head of the table. Then the +boy was satisfied, and uttering the mantra aright, he conjured the toads +back into the dishes again; and they all lay down in their places, and +became fish, and cucumbers, and mangoes, and pumplenoses, just as if +nothing had happened. + +Glory to Siva! + + + + +MUSIC. + + +The promise of the autumn has not been fulfilled; instead of the +anticipated feasts, we have had but few concerts, and, as yet, no opera. +Some few noteworthy incidents have occurred, however, which we desire +to record. We pass over the ever welcome orchestral concerts, the quiet +pleasures of our delightful chamber music, and the inspiring four-part +singing of the Orpheus Club. Neither can we give the space to notice +fully the _debut_ of a young singer,--a singer with a rare voice, full, +flexible, and sympathetic, and who, with culture in a _larger_ style, +and with maturity of power and feeling, will be a real acquisition to +our musical public. Few young performers know + + "How much grace, strength, and dignity lie in repose." + +They dazzle us with pyrotechnics in the finale of _Com' e bello_ or _Qui +la voce_, but the simple feeling of _Vedrai carino_ is beyond their +grasp. Firmly sustained tones, careful phrasing, flowing grace in the +melody, and just, dramatic expression, are the great requisites; without +them the brilliant flourishes of a modern cadenza astonish only for a +brief period. + +The appearance of Carl Formes in oratorio was something to be long +remembered. The Handel and Haydn Society brought out "Elijah" and "The +Creation" before immense audiences at the Music Hall. For the first +time we heard "Elijah" represented by a great artist, and not by a +sentimental, mock-heroic singer. He infused into the performance his own +intense personality. Every phrase was charged with his own feeling. +He thundered out the curses of Heaven upon idolaters; he prayed with +all-absorbing devotion to the "Lord God of Abraham"; he taunted the +baffled priests of Baal in grim and terrible scorn; he gently soothed +the anguish of the widow; and when his career was finished, he +reverently said, "It is enough; now take away my life!" The _music_ +we had heard before; we had been rapt many a time while hearing the +magnificent choruses; but we never had known the dramatic power of the +composer as shown in the principal role. + +"The Creation" was performed on the following evening. Its ever fresh +and cheerful melodies presented a fine contrast to the severely +intellectual style of "Elijah." In rendering purely melodic phrases, +Herr Formes was not so preeminent as in declamatory passages. Not always +strictly in tune, not specially graceful, slow in delivery, even beyond +the requirements of a dignified style, he impressed the audience rather +by the volume and richness of his tones and by a certain reserved force, +than by any unusual excellence in execution. Some one has said, that it +makes a great difference in the force of a sentence whether or not there +is a man behind it. This impression of a fulness of resources always +accompanied the efforts of Herr Formes; every phrase had meaning +or beauty, as he delivered it. Perhaps it is as idle to lament his +deficiencies, in comparison with artists like Belletti, for instance, +as to complain because the grand figures of Michel Angelo have not the +delicacy of finish that marks the sweetly insipid Venus de Medici. Of +the other solo performers in the oratorios it is not necessary for us to +speak, save to commend the fine voice and good style of Mrs. Harwood, a +rising singer, well known here, and whom the country, we hope, will know +in due time. + +Another concert demands our attention, in which portions of a work by an +American composer were submitted to the test of public judgment. This we +must consider the most important musical event of the season; for great +singers, though surely not common among our English race, have not +been unknown; the ability to interpret God gives freely,--the power to +create, rarely. In any generation, probably not ten men arise who +write new melodies; of these, only a small proportion have either the +intellectual power or the aesthetic feeling to combine the subtile +elements of music into forms of lasting beauty. Most of them are +influenced by prevailing mannerisms, and their music is therefore +ephemeral, like the taste to which it ministers. Of all the composers +that have lived, probably not more than six or eight have attained to +an absolutely classic rank. These few are not in relations with any +temporary taste; their music might have been written to-day or a century +ago, and it will be as fresh a century hence. No one of the arts has had +fewer great masters. A new composer, therefore, has a right to claim our +attention. If, perchance, we discover that he has the gift of genius, +and is not merely a clever imitator, we cannot rejoice too much. + +The work to which we allude is the opera "Omano,"--the libretto in +Italian by Signor Manetta, the music by Mr. L. H. Southard. We shall +not stop now to consider the question, whether American Art is to be +benefited by the production of operas in the Italian tongue; it is +enough to say, that, until we have native singers capable of rendering +a great dramatic work, singers who can give us in English the effects +which Grisi, Badiali, Mario, and Alboni produce in their own language, +we must be content with the existing state of things, and allow our +composers to write for those artists who can do justice to their +conceptions. We hope to live to hear operas in English; but meanwhile we +must have music, and, at present, the Italian stage is the only common +ground. + +Mr. Southard's opera is founded upon Beckford's Oriental tale, "Vathek," +with such alterations as are necessary to adapt it for representation. +We are told that the plot is full of dramatic situations, full of human +interest, and that its scenes appeal to all the faculties, ranging +through comedy, ballet, and melodrama, and leading to the awful Hall +of Eblis at last. The principal characters are the Caliph Omano, +_baritone_; Carathis, his mother, _mezzo soprano_; Hinda, a slave in his +harem, _soprano_; Rustam, her lover, _tenor_; and Albatros, _basso_, +a Mephistophelean spirit who tempts the Caliph on to his destruction. +Selections were made from this opera, and were performed by resident +artists, without the aid of stage effects or orchestral accompaniments. +Only the music was given, with as much of the harmony as could be played +on the grand piano by one pair of hands. There could be no severer test +than this. The music is generally Italian in form, especially in the +flowing grace of the _cantabile_ passages, and in the working up of the +climaxes. But we did not hear one of the stereotyped Italian cadenzas, +nor did we fall into old _ruts_ in following the harmonic progressions. +The orchestral figures--the framework on which the melodies are +supported--are new, ingenious, and beautiful. The duets, quartette, +and quintette show great command of resources and the utmost skill in +construction; we can hardly remember any concerted pieces in the modern +opera where the "working up" is more satisfactory, or the effect more +brilliant. How far the music exhibits an absolutely original vein of +melody, it is perhaps premature to say. No composer has ever been free +at first from the influence of the masters whom he most admired. To +mention no later instances, it is well known that Beethoven's early +works are all colored by his recollections of Mozart, and that his own +peculiar qualities were not clearly brought out until he had reached +the maturity of his powers. This seems to be the law in all the arts; +imitation first, self-development and originality afterwards. Happy +are those who do not stop in the first stage! It is certain that Mr. +Southard's music _pleased_, and that some of the most critical of the +audience were roused to a real enthusiasm. And it is to be borne in mind +that the music is cast in a grand mould; it has no prettiness; it is +either great in itself, or wears the semblance of greatness. On the +whole, we are inclined to think that the "Diarist" in Dwight's "Journal +of Music" was not extravagant in saying that no _first_ work since the +time of Beethoven has had so much of promise as the opera "Omano." We +shall look with great interest for its production upon the stage with +the proper accompaniments and scenic effects. It is due to the composer +that this should be done. If the music we heard had been performed by +a company of great artists in the Boston Theatre or in the Academy of +Music, it would have been received with tumultuous applause. The +singers on this occasion gained to themselves great credit by their +conscientious endeavors. They generously offered their services, and +sang with a heartiness that showed a warm interest in the work. One of +them, at least, Mrs. J. H. Long, would have established her reputation +as an accomplished artist, even if she had never appeared in public +before. + +We suppose our readers will agree with us in looking with eager delight +to the promise of a national school of music. Every nation must create +its own song. The passionate music of Italy electrifies our cooler +blood, but it does not adequately express all our feelings nor in any +way represent our character. We also find many of the compositions of +Germany so purely intellectual that they do not touch us until we have +_learned_ to like them. If we ever have a school of music, it will be in +harmony with our rapidly developing characteristics. But it must grow +up on our own soil; exotics never flourish long under strange skies. We +think that many things point to this country as the place where music +will achieve new triumphs. We are not bound by old traditions, we have +few prejudices to unlearn, and we are able to see merit in more than +one school. The same audience that becomes almost intoxicated with the +excitement of the Italian opera will listen with the fullest, serenest +pleasure to the majestic symphonies of Beethoven or to the sublime +choruses of Handel. The devotees of the various European schools have +none of this catholicity. A very accomplished Italian musician used +frankly to say, that a symphony always put him to sleep; and as for the +songs of Franz and other recent German composers, he would rather +hear the filing of saws with an accompaniment of wet fingers on a +window-pane. The Germans, on the other hand, have an equal contempt for +Italian music. For them, Donizetti is melodramatic, Bellini puerile +and silly, and even Rossini (who has written as many melodies as any +composer, save Mozart) is only fit to compose for hand-organs. The +American musical public can and do render to both schools the justice +they deny each other,--and this because we appreciate the aim and +direction of both. The tendency of modern German music is more and more +in what we might call a mathematical direction; the Teutonic listener +examines the structure of a movement as he would a geometrical +proposition; he notices the connection and dependence of the several +parts, and at the end, if he like it, he thinks Q.E.D.; his pleasure is +quiet, but sincere. The Italian, on the other hand, makes everything +subordinate to feeling; for him the music must sparkle with pleasure, +burn with passion, or lighten with rage; borne upon the tide of emotion, +the under-current of harmony is a matter of little moment; there may be +symmetry of structure, and learning in the treatment of themes; if so, +well; if not, their absence is not noticed as an essential defect. + +For lyrical purposes the Italian style will always take the precedence, +because music must primarily be addressed to the feelings. But it may +happen, if ever we have great composers here in America, that to the +instinctive grace and beauty of this Southern school the magnificent +orchestral effects of the North may be added, and thereby a grander +and more perfect whole be produced. At least, we can continue to be +eclectic, and in due time we may develope music which, like Corinthian +brass, shall contain the valuable qualities of all the elements we +appropriate. + + * * * * * + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Biography of Elisha Kent Kane_. By WILLIAM ELDER. Philadelphia: Childs +& Peterson. + +If Dr. Kane's character had not been free from any taint of imposture +and vainglory, and if his reputation had not been of that kind which can +be submitted to the austerest tests without being materially lessened, he +would have suffered much in having so frank and truthful a biographer as +Dr. Elder. Nobody could have been selected for the task who would have +worse performed the business of puffing, or the work of recognizing and +celebrating lofty traits of character and vigorous mental endowments +better. He is a friendly biographer,--and well he may be; for he +declares that his researches into Dr. Kane's private correspondence and +papers revealed not a line which, if published, would injure his fame. +It is, of course, impossible for so genuine a man as Dr. Elder to +refrain from hearty eulogium where not to praise is the sign of a +cynical rather than a critical spirit; but his panegyric has the +raciness and sincerity which proceed from the generous recognition of +merit, and never indicates that ominous falseness of feeling which the +simplest reader instinctively detects in the formal constructer of +complimentary sentences. Throughout the book, the biographer writes in +the spirit of that sound maxim which declares it to be as base to refuse +praise where it is due, as to give praise where it is not due; and we +think that few readers will be inclined to quarrel with him for the +quickness and depth of his sympathies with his hero, except that small +class of "knowing" minds who, mistaking disbelief in human probity for +acuteness of intellect, find a mischievous satisfaction in depressing +heroes into coxcombs, and resolving noble actions into ignoble motives. + +We have been especially interested in the account given of Dr. Kane's +boyhood and early life. As a boy, he had too much force, originality, +and decided bias of nature to be what is called a "good boy,"--one of +those unfortunate children whose weakness of individuality passes for +moral excellence, and who give their guardians so little trouble in +the early development and so much trouble in the maturity of their +mediocrity. He would not learn what he did not like, and what he felt +would be of no use to him. He kept his memory free from all intellectual +information which could not be transmuted into intellectual ability. The +same daring, confidence, enterprise, and passion for action, which in +after life made him an explorer, were first expressed in that love of +mischief which vexes the hearts of parents and calls into exercise the +pedagogue's ferule. All arbitrary authority found him a resolute little +rebel. Dr. Elder furnishes some amusing instances of his audacity and +determination. Though smaller than other boys of his age, he possessed +"the clear advantage of that energy of nerve and that sort of twill in +the muscular texture which give tight little fellows more size than they +measure and more weight than they weigh." At school he had under his +charge a brother, two years younger than himself, who was once called up +by the master to be whipped. This disturbed Elisha's notions of justice +and his conceptions of the duties of a guardian, and, springing from his +seat, he exclaimed, "Don't whip him, he's such a little fellow!--whip +me!" The master, interpreting this to be mutiny, which really was +intended for fair compromise, answered, "I'll whip you, too, Sir!" +Strung for endurance, the sense of injustice changed his mood to +defiance, and such fight as he was able to make quickly converted the +discipline into a fracas, and Elisha left the school with marks which +required explanation. + +In his eighteenth year he was prostrated by a disease which developed +into inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart, from which he +never recovered. The verdict of the physician was ever in his mind: "You +may fall at any time as suddenly as from [by] a musket-shot." His life +was afterwards, indeed, like the life of a soldier constantly under +fire. Instead of making him a valetudinary, this continual liability to +death aided to make him a hero. He acted in the spirit of his father's +advice,--"If you must die, die in harness." Dr. Elder proves that his +existence was prolonged by the hardihood which made him careless of +death. "The current of his life shows convincingly that incessant toil +and exposure was [were] a sound hygienic policy in his case. Naturally +his physical constitution was a case of coil springs, compacted till +they quivered with their own mobility; nervous disease had added its +irritability, and mental energy electrified them. It was doing or dying, +with him. And it was not a tyrant selfishness, a wild ambition, that +ruled his life, but a rare concurrence of mental aptitude, moral +impulse, and bodily necessity, that kept him incessant in adventure." +Nothing could damp this ardor. He contracted the peculiar disease of +every country and climate he visited, and was frequently on what seemed +his death-bed; but no experience of physical misery had any influence +in blunting his intellectual curiosity or impairing the energies of his +will. One of those elastic natures "who ever with a frolic welcome take +the thunder or the sunshine," his whole existence was wedded to action, +and he was always ready to suffer everything, if he could thereby do +anything. + +We have no space to follow Dr. Elder in his minute and interesting +account of a life so short, yet so crowded with events, as that in which +the character of Dr. Kane was formed, manifested, and matured. The +character itself--so gentle and so persistent, so full at once of +self-reliance and reliance on Providence, so tender in affection and so +indomitable in fortitude--is now one of the moral possessions of the +country, worth more to it than any new invention which increases +its industrial productiveness or any new province which adds to its +territorial dominion. That must be a low view of utility which excludes +such a character from its list of useful things; for the great interest +of every nation is, to cherish and value whatever tends to prevent its +forces of intelligence and conscience from being weakened by idleness or +withheld by timidity and self-distrust; and certainly the example of Dr. +Kane will exert this wholesome influence, by the unmistakable directness +with which it gives the lie to that lazy or cowardly skepticism of the +powers of the will, which furnishes the excuse for thousands to slink +away from duty on the plea of inability to perform it. To the young men +of the country we especially commend this biography, in the full belief +that it will stimulate and stir to effort many a sensitive youth who +feels within himself the capacity to emulate the spirit which prompted +Dr. Kane's actions, if he cannot hope to rival their splendor and +importance. + + +_Beatrice Cenci_: A Historical Novel of the Sixteenth Century, by F.D. +GUERRAZZI. Translated from the Italian by Luigi Monti, A.M., Instructor +of Italian at Harvard University, Cambridge. New York: Rudd & Carleton, +310 Broadway. 1858. Two vols. in one. pp. 270 and 202. + +Three contemporary Italians, Mariotti, (Gallenga,) Mazzini, and Ruffini, +have afforded extraordinary examples of entire mastery over the English +language in original composition, and Mr. Monti has attained an almost +equal success in the translation before us. We have remarked, +in reading it, a few solecisms and one or two trifling +mistranslations,--but none of them such as either to affect the +essential integrity of the version or to render it difficult for the +least intelligent reader to make out clearly the sense of the original. +We should not have alluded to them at all, had we not thought that they +redounded rather to the credit of the translator; for they seem to prove +that the work is entirely his own, and has not been subjected to that +supervision which any one of Mr. Monti's numerous friends would have +been glad to offer. + +Guerrazzi, the author of the book, played a conspicuous part during the +Italian Revolution of 1848-9. An advocate, we believe, by profession, +he was one of the chiefs of the moderate liberal party in Tuscany, who, +after the breaking out of the Revolution, wished to avoid any sudden +overturn by carrying out such reforms as public sentiment demanded by +means of the existing powers and forms of government. As head of the +ministry called to inaugurate and administer the new Constitution +granted and sworn to by the Grand Duke, he became involuntarily the +Regent and in fact the Dictator of Tuscany, after the Grand Duke's +treacherous flight to Santo Stefano. There is no evidence that he abused +his power, or that he assumed any responsibilities not forced upon him +by the necessities of his position. Indeed, the best proof that he +did not is, that, after the Grand Duke had been forced again on his +unwilling subjects by the bayonets of his Austrian cousins, it was found +impossible to obtain Guerrazzi's conviction on a charge of high treason, +and that in a city garrisoned by Austrian soldiers and still under +martial law. He was, however, incarcerated for several years before +being brought to trial, and finally sentenced to fifteen years' +imprisonment. But even this was such an outrage on public opinion that +it was commuted to banishment. He is now living in exile near Genoa, +and enjoying those blessings of constitutional government which he had +desired to confer on his own country, and which we fervently hope may +survive the misguided assaults of a fanatic liberalism, and continue to +make Sardinia the centre of Italian hope, as it is the van of Italian +progress. + +His "Beatrice Cenci" was written during his imprisonment; and there is +something fitting in the circumstance, that the work of an exile should +be translated by a countryman also driven from his native land in +consequence of his devotion to the idea of liberal and constitutional +government, and, like the author, sustaining himself unrepiningly by a +dignified and useful industry. It was also peculiarly fitting that the +translation should have appeared just at the moment when the genius of +Miss Hosmer had renewed the interest of her countrymen in the story of +Beatrice, and deepened their compassion for her undeserved misfortunes +by a statue so full of pathos and power. + +Guerrazzi belongs to the extreme left of the school of historical +novelists. He is almost always at high pressure, and, in spite of +a certain force of thought and expression, is tinged decidedly and +sometimes unpleasantly with sentimentalism. He is so little of +an artist, that the story-teller is subordinated in him to the +propagandist, and his work is not so near his heart as the desire to +make a strong argument against the temporal power of the Papacy. He +interrupts his narrative too often with reflection and disquisition, +shows too much that fondness for the striking which is fatal to the +classic in expression, and rushes out of his way at a highly-colored +simile as certainly as a bull at scarlet. His characters talk much, and +yet develope themselves rather circumstantially than psychologically. + +Yet, in spite of these defects, Guerrazzi has succeeded in so +intensifying the high lights and deep shadows of passion, pathos, +and horror in the story, as to make a very effective picture, of the +Caravaggio school. There is a curious parallel between the chapter where +Count Cenci is imprisoned in the cavern, and those scenes in Webster's +"Duchess of Malfy" where the Duchess is tortured by her brothers. The +resemblance is interesting on many accounts, and serves to confirm us in +a belief we have long entertained that Webster's peculiar power has been +overrated, and that the tendency to heap one nightmare horror on another +is something characteristic rather of the childhood than the maturity +of genius. There is no modern story which renews for us the woes of the +house of Tantalus so awfully as this of the Cenci, and it cannot fail +to be of absorbing interest, especially to those unfamiliar with its +ghastly details. Whether the theory which Guerrazzi assumes in order to +render probable the innocence of the Cenci be tenable or not we shall +not stop to discuss; it is enough that it serves to heighten the romance +and complicate the plot in a very effective manner. + +We cannot leave the book without saying how much we were charmed with +the little episode of the old curate and his maid, and his ass Marco. +It seems to us that Guerrazzi in this chapter has come nearer to the +simplicity of nature than in any other part of the book, and we augur +favorably from it for his future escape from the perils of a too +ambitious style to the serenity of truer artistic development. + +Of Mr. Monti's translation we can speak in high terms of commendation. +Success in writing a foreign language is a rare thing, and he has shown +a remarkable command of idiomatic expression. His familiarity with the +habits and proverbial phrases of his native country gives him, we +think, an advantage over any English translator, which more than +counterbalances the trifling inaccuracies of phraseology that here and +there betray the foreigner, and amount to nothing more than an accent, +which is not without its merit of piquancy. In one respect we think he +has acted with great discretion, namely, in now and then curtailing +the reflections which Guerrazzi has interpolated upon the story to +the manifest detriment of its interest and consecutiveness. If Signor +Guerrazzi should profit by these silent criticisms, it would be to his +advantage as an author. + + +_The Elements of Drawing; in three Letters to Beginners._ By JOHN RUSKIN. +With Illustrations drawn by the Author. 12mo. London. 1857. + +The art of drawing may be called the art of learning to see,--and into +this art there is no guide to be compared with Mr. Ruskin. His own +admirable powers of sight and of expression have been cultivated by +long, patient, and laborious study. + +He has learned not only how to see, but what to see, and how best to +represent what he sees. A teacher of the most advanced students of Art +and Nature, he offers himself now as a teacher of beginners; and this +little book of his contains a course of instruction admirably adapted +not only to teach drawing, but also to teach the object and end for +which it is worth while to learn to draw. "I would rather teach +drawing," says Mr. Ruskin, in his Preface, "that my pupils may learn to +love Nature, than teach the looking at Nature that they may learn +to draw." And no one can study Mr. Ruskin's book without gaining a +profounder sense of the infinite beauty and variety of Nature, and of +the unfathomable stores of her freely lavished riches,--or without +acquiring clearer perceptions of this beauty, and of its relations to +the Divine government and order of the world. + +Mr. Ruskin's book is essentially a practical one. His long experience as +teacher of drawing in the Working-Men's College has given him knowledge +of and sympathy with the perplexities and difficulties of beginners. +It is a book for children of twelve or fourteen years old; and it is +especially fitted for circulation in district and school libraries. All +teachers of schools, in which drawing forms a part of the course, will +find invaluable hints and directions in it. In every case, the +English edition--which is easily obtainable, and at a very moderate +price--should be procured, not merely for the sake of the original +illustrations, but also as a mark of respect and gratitude to the +author. + +In an Appendix containing many wise and genial directions with regard to +"Things to be studied" is a passage concerning Books, which we quote for +its coincidence of opinion with our own views expressed in the January +Number, and for the sake of enforcing its recommendations. + +"I cannot, of course, suggest the choice of your library to you; every +several mind needs different books; but there are some books which +we all need; and assuredly, if you read Homer,[A] Plato, Aeschylus, +Herodotus Dante,[B] Shakspeare, and Spenser, as much as you ought, you +will not require wide enlargement of shelves to right and left of them +for purposes of perpetual study. Among modern books, avoid generally +magazine and review literature,[C] Sometimes it may contain a useful +abridgment or a wholesome piece of criticism; but the chances are ten to +one it will either waste your time or mislead you.... Avoid especially +that class of literature which has a knowing tone; it is the most +poisonous of all. Every good book, or piece of book, is full of +admiration and awe; it may contain firm assertion or stern satire, but +it never sneers coldly nor asserts haughtily, and it always leads you to +reverence or love something with your whole heart.... A common book will +often give you much amusement, but it is only a noble book which will +give you dear friends. Remember, also, that it is of less importance to +you, in your earlier years, that the books you read should be clever, +than that they should be right; I do not mean oppressively or +repulsively instructive, but that the thoughts they express should be +just, and the feelings they excite generous. It is not necessary for +you to read the wittiest or the most suggestive books; it is better, +in general, to hear what is already known and may be simply said.... +Certainly at present, and perhaps through all your life, your teachers +are wisest when they make you content in quiet virtue, and that +literature and art are best for you which point out, in common life and +familiar things, the objects for hopeful Labor and for humble love." pp. +847-350. + +[Footnote A: Chapman's, if not the original.] + +[Footnote B: Cary's or Cayley's, if not the original. I do not know +which are the best translations of Plato. Herodotus and Aeschylus can +only be read in the original. It may seem strange that I name books like +these for "beginners"; but all the greatest books contain food for all +ages; and an intelligent and rightly bred youth or girl ought to enjoy +much, even in Plato, by the time they are fifteen or sixteen.] + +[Footnote C: _The Atlantic Monthly_ was not in existence when Mr. +Ruskin wrote this condemnation of magazines. The saving word for it is +"generally."--EDITOR.] + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, +March, 1858, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 12373.txt or 12373.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/7/12373/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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