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diff --git a/old/12785.txt b/old/12785.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a5efb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12785.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, +No. LXIV., 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. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #12785] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. XI--FEBRUARY, 1863.--NO. LXIV. + + + + +SOVEREIGNS AND SONS. + + +The sudden death of Prince Albert caused profound regret, and the +Royal Family of Britain had the sincere sympathies of the civilized +world on that sad occasion. The Prince Consort was a man of brilliant +talents, and those talents he had cultivated with true German +thoroughness. His knowledge was extensive, various, and accurate. +There was no affectation in his regard for literature, art, and +science; for he felt toward them all as it was natural that an +educated gentleman of decided abilities, and who had strongly +pronounced intellectual tastes, should feel. Though he could not be +said to hold any official position, his place in the British Empire +was one of the highest that could be held by a person not born to the +sceptre. His knowledge of affairs, and the confidence that was placed +in him by the sovereign, made it impossible that he should not be +a man of much influence, no matter whether he was recognized by the +Constitution or not. As the director of the education of the princes +and princesses, his children, his character and ideas are likely to be +felt hereafter, when those personages shall have become the occupants +of high and responsible stations. The next English sovereign will be +pretty much what he was made by his father; and it is no light thing +to have had the formation of a mind that may be made to act, with +more or less directness, on the condition of two hundred millions of +people. + +We know it is the custom to speak of the Government of England as if +there were no other powerful institution in that Empire than the House +of Commons; and that very arrogant gentleman, Mr. John Arthur Roebuck, +has told us, in his usual style, that the crown is a word, and nothing +more. "The crown!" exclaimed the member for Sheffield, in 1858,--"the +crown! it is the House of Commons!" Theoretically Mr. Roebuek is +right, and the British practice conforms to the theory, whenever the +reigning prince is content to receive the theory, and to act upon it: +but all must depend upon that prince's character; and should a British +sovereign resolve to rule as well as to reign, he might give the House +of Commons much trouble, in which the whole Empire would share. The +House of Commons was never stronger than it was in the latter part of +1760. For more than seventy years it had been the first institution in +the State, and for forty-six years the interest of the sovereign had +been to maintain its supremacy. The king was a cipher. Yet a new +king had but to appear to change everything. George III. ascended the +throne with the determination not to be the slave of any minister, +himself the slave of Parliament; and from the day that he became king +to the day that the decline of his faculties enforced his retirement, +his personal power was everywhere felt, and his personal character +everywhere impressed itself on the British world, and to no ordinary +extent on other countries. George III. was not a great man, and it has +been argued that his mind was never really sound; and yet of all men +who then lived, and far more than either Washington or Napoleon, he +gave direction and color and tone to all public events, and to not +a little of private life, and much of his work will have everlasting +endurance. He did not supersede the House of Commons, but he would not +be the simple vizier of that many-headed sultan, which for the most +part became his humble tool. Yet he was not a popular sovereign until +he had long occupied the throne, and had perpetrated deeds that should +have destroyed the greatest popularity that sovereign ever possessed. +It was not until after the overthrow of the Fox-and-North Coalition +that he found himself popular, and so he remained unto the end. The +change that he wrought, and the power that he wielded in the State,--a +power as arbitrary as that of Louis XV.,--were the fruits of his +personal character, and that character was the consequence of the +peculiar education which he had received. + +Lord Brougham tells us that George III. "was impressed with a lofty +feeling of his prerogative, and a firm determination to maintain, +perhaps extend it. At all events, he was resolved not to be a mere +name or a cipher in public affairs; and whether from a sense of the +obligations imposed upon him by his station, or from a desire to enjoy +all its powers and privileges, he certainly, while his reason remained +entire, but especially during the earlier period of his reign, +interfered in the affairs of government more than any prince who ever +sat upon the throne of this country since our monarchy was distinctly +admitted to be a limited one, and its executive functions were +distributed among responsible ministers. The correspondence which he +carried on with his confidential servants during the ten most critical +years of his life lies before us, and it proves that his attention was +ever awake to all the occurrences of the government. Not a step was +taken in foreign, colonial, or domestic affairs, that he did not +form his opinion upon it, and exercise his influence over it. The +instructions to ambassadors, the orders to governors, the movements of +forces, down to the marching of a single battalion, in the districts +of this country, the appointment to all offices in Church and State, +not only the giving away of judgeships, bishoprics, regiments, but the +subordinate promotions, lay and clerical,--all these form the topics +of his letters; on all his opinion is pronounced decisively; in +all his will is declared peremptorily. In one letter he decides the +appointment of a Scotch puisne judge; in another the march of a troop +from Buckinghamshire into Yorkshire; in a third the nomination to +the Deanery of Westminster; in a fourth he says, that, 'if Adam, the +architect, succeeds Worsley at the Board of Works, he shall think +Chambers ill used.' For the greater affairs of State it is well known +how substantially he insisted upon being the king _de facto_ as well +as _de jure_. The American War, the long exclusion of the Liberal +party, the French Revolution, the Catholic question, are all sad +monuments of his real power." + +This is a true picture of George III., and why it should be supposed +that no descendant of that monarch will ever be able to make himself +potently felt in the government of his Empire we are at a loss to +understand. The exact part of that monarch would not be repeated, the +world having changed so much as to render such repetition impossible; +but the end at which George III. aimed, and which he largely +accomplished for himself, that end being the vindication of the +monarchical element in the British polity, might be undertaken by one +of his great-grandsons with every reason to expect success. The means +employed would have to be different from those which George III. made +use of, but that would prove nothing against the project itself. +The men who followed Cromwell to the Long Parliament and the men who +followed Bonaparte into the Council of Five Hundred were differently +clothed and armed, but the pikemen of the future Protector were +engaged in the same kind of work that was afterward done by the +grenadiers of the future Emperor. The one set of men had never +heard of the bayonet, and the other set had faith in nothing but the +bayonet, believing it to be as "holy" as M. Michelet asserts it to +be. The pikemen were the most pious of men, and could have eaten an +Atheist with relish, after having roasted him. The grenadiers were +Atheists, and cared no more for Christianity than for Mahometanism, +their chief having testified his regard for the latter, and +consequently his contempt for both, only the year before, in Egypt. +Yet both detachments were successfully employed in doing the same +thing, and that was the clearing away of what was regarded as +legislative rubbish, in order that military monarchies might be +erected on the cleared ground. In each instance there was the element +of violence actively at work, and it makes no possible difference that +the English Commons went out because they did not care to come to push +of pike, and that the French Representatives departed rather than risk +the consequence of a bayonet-charge. So if the Prince of Wales should +see fit to tread in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, he would +have very different instruments from those "king's friends" whose +existence and actions were so fatal to ministers in the early part of +those days when George III. was king. + +It is a common remark, that the institutions of England have been so +far reformed in a democratic direction, that no monarch could ever +expect to become powerful in that country. We think the observation +unphilosophical; and it is because the old aristocratical system of +England received a heavy blow in 1832 that we believe a king of that +country could make himself a ruler in fact as well as in theory. +Between a king and an aristocracy there never can be anything like a +sincere attachment, unless the king be content to be recognized as +the first member of the patrician order, to be _primus inter pares_ in +strict good faith, an agent of his class, but not the sovereign of his +kingdom. Kings generally prefer new men to men of established position +and old descent. They have a fondness for low-born favorites, who are +not only cleverer than most aristocrats will condescend to be, but who +recognize a chief in a monarch, and enable him to feel and to enjoy +his superiority when in their company. The hostility that prevails +between the peer and the _parvenu_ is the most natural thing in the +world, and is no more to be wondered at than that between the hare and +the hound. In earlier times the peerage had the best of it, and could +hang up the _parvenus_ with wonderful despatch,--as witness the +fate of Cochrane and his associates, favorites of the third James of +Scotland, who swung in the wind over Lauder Bridge. In later times +brains and intelligence tell in and on the world, and the peers, +having no longer pit and gallows for the punishment of presumptuous +plebeians who dare to get between them and the regal sunshine, must be +content to see those plebeians basking in the royal rays, if they are +not capable of outdoing them in those arts that ever have been found +most useful in the advancement of the interest of courtiers. Hanging +and heading have gone mostly out of date, or the peer would be in more +danger than the upstart. + +The Reform Bill has made it much easier for a king of Great Britain to +become a ruler than it was for George III. to carry his point over +the old aristocracy, for it has created a class of voters who could be +easily won over to the aid of a king engaged in a project that should +not injure them, while its success should reduce the power of the +aristocracy. The father of the Reform Bill made a strange mistake +as to the character of that measure. "I hope," said the old Tory and +Pittite, Lord Sidmouth, to him, "God will forgive you on account of +this bill: I don't think I can." "Mark my words," was Earl Grey's +answer,--"within two years you will find that we have become unpopular +for having brought forward the most aristocratic measure that ever was +proposed in Parliament." The great Whig statesman was but half right. +The Whigs became unpopular within the time named, but it was for very +different reasons from that assigned by Earl Grey in advance for their +fall in the people's favor. The Reform Bill, instead of proving an +aristocratic measure, has wellnigh rendered aristocratical government +impossible in England; and as a democracy in that country is as much +out of the question as a well-ordered monarchy is in America, a return +to a true regal government would seem to be the only course left for +England, if she desires to have a strong government. When the Duke of +Wellington, seeing the breaking up of the old system because of the +triumph of the Whig measure, asked the question, "How is the King's +government to be carried on?" he meant, "How will it be possible to +maintain the old aristocratical system of party-government?" + +Since the grand organic change that was effected thirty years ago, +there has been no strong and stable government in England. Lord Grey +went out of office because he could not keep his party together. The +King, under the spurring of his wife, made an effort to play the part +of his father in 1783, with Peel for Pitt, and was beaten. Peel was +floored, and Lord Melbourne became Premier again; and though he held +office six years, he never had a working majority in the Commons, nor +a majority of any kind in the Peers. The largest majorities that he +could command in the lower House would have been considered something +like very weak support in the ante-Reform times, and would have caused +the ministers of those times to resign themselves to resignation. +When the Tories came back to power, in 1841, with about one hundred +majority in the Commons, they thought they were secure for a decade +at least; but in a few months they found they were not secure of even +their own chief; and in five years they were compelled to abandon +protection, and to consent to the death and burial of their own party, +which was denied even the honor of embalmment, young Conservatism +being nothing but old Toryism, and therefore it was beyond even the +power of spices to prolong its decay. It had rotted of the potato-rot, +and the League's powerful breath blew it over. The Whigs returned +to office, but not to power, the Russell Government proving a most +ridiculous concern, and living through only five years of rickety +rule. A spasmodic Tory Government, that discarded Tory principles, +endured for less than a year, not even the vigorous intellect of the +Earl of Derby, seconded though it was by the genius of Disraeli, being +sufficient to insure it a longer term of existence. Then came the +Aberdeen Ministry, a regular coalition concern, a no-party government, +and necessarily so, because all parties but the extreme Tories were +represented in it, and were engaged in neutralizing each other. How +could there be a party government, or, indeed, for long a government +of any kind, by a ministry in which were such men as Aberdeen and +Russell, Palmerston and Grahame, Gladstone and Clarendon, all pigging +together in the same truckle-bed, to use Mr. Burke's figure concerning +the mixture that was called the Chatham Ministry? The coalition went +to pieces on the Russian rock, having managed the war much worse +than any American Administration ever mismanaged one. The Palmerston +Government followed, and has existed ever since, deducting the +fifteen months that the second Derby-Disraeli Ministry lasted; but the +Palmerston Ministry has seldom had a majority in Parliament, and has +lived, partly through the forbearance of its foes, partly through the +support of men who are neither its friends nor its enemies, and partly +through the personal popularity of its vigorous old chief, who is +as lively at seventy-eight as he was at forty-five, when he was a +Canningite. Ministries now maintain themselves because men do not know +what might happen, if they were to be dismissed; and this has been the +political state of England for more than a quarter of a century, with +no indications of a change so long as the government shall remain +purely Parliamentary in its character, Parliament meaning the House of +Commons. There is no party in the United Kingdom capable of electing a +strong majority to the House of Commons, and hence a strong government +is impossible so long as that body shall control the country. With the +removal of Lord Palmerston something like anarchy might be expected, +there being no man but him who is competent to keep the Commons in +order without the aid of a predominating party. The tendency has been +for some time to lean upon individuals, at the same time that +the number of individuals possessed of influence of the requisite +character has greatly diminished. Sir Robert Peel, had he lived, would +have been all that Lord Palmerston is, and more, and would have been +more acceptable to the middle class than is the Irish peer. + +The state of things that is thus presented, and which must become +every year of a more pronounced character, is one that would be highly +favorable to the exertions of a prince who should seek to make himself +felt as the wielder of the sceptre, and who should exert himself to +rise from the presidency of an aristocratical corporation, which is +all that a British monarch now is, to the place of king of a great and +free people. A prince with talent, and with a hold on the affection of +his nominal subjects, might confer the blessing of strong government +on Britain, and rule over the first of empires, instead of being a +mere doge, or, as Napoleon coarsely had it, a pig to fatten at the +public expense. The time would appear to be near at hand when England +shall be the scene of a new struggle for power, with the aristocracy +on the one side, and the sovereign and most of the people on the +other. A nation like England cannot exist long with weakness +organized for its government, and there is nothing in the condition +of Parliament or of parties that allows us to suppose that from them +strength could proceed, any more than that grapes could be gathered +from thorns or figs from thistles. A monarch who should effect the +change indicated might be called a usurper, and certainly would be a +revolutionist; but, as Mommsen says, "Any revolution or any usurpation +is justified before the bar of history by exclusive ability to +govern,"--and government is what most nations now stand most in need +of. The reason why George III.'s conduct is generally condemned is, +that he was a clumsy creature, and that he made a bad use of the power +which he monopolized, or sought to monopolize, his whole course being +unrelieved by a single trait of genius, or even of that tact which is +the genius of small minds. + + +It has been charged upon the princes of the House of Hanover that they +are given to quarrelling, and that between sovereign and heir-apparent +there has never been good-will, while they have on several occasions +disgusted the world by the vehemence of their hatred for each other. +That George I. hated his heir is well known; and George II. hated his +son Frederick with far more intensity than he himself had been hated +by his own father. The Memoirs of Lord Hervey show the state of +feeling that existed in the English royal family during the first +third of the reign of George II., and the spectacle is hideous beyond +parallel; and for many years longer, until Frederick's death, +there was no abatement of paternal and filial hate. George III. +was disgusted with his eldest son's personal conduct and political +principles, as well he might be; for while the father was a model of +decorum, and a bitter Tory, the son was a profligate, and a Whig,--and +the King probably found it harder to forgive the Whig than the +profligate. The Prince cared no more for Whig principles than he did +for his marriage-vows, but affected them as a means of annoying his +father, whose Toryism was of proof. He, as a man, toasted the buff and +blue, when that meant support of Washington and his associates, +for the same reason that, as a boy, he had cheered for Wilkes and +Liberty,--because it was the readiest way of annoying his father; but +he ever deserted the Whigs when his aid and countenance could have +been useful to them. George IV. had no child with whom to quarrel, but +while Prince Regent he did his worst to make his daughter unhappy, +as we find established in Miss Knight's Memoirs. The good-natured +and kind-hearted William IV. had no legitimate children, but he was +strongly attached to the Fitzclarences, who were borne to him by Mrs. +Jordan. Indeed, monarchs have often been as full of love for their +offspring born out of wedlock as of hate for their children born in +that holy state. Being men, they must love something, and what +so natural as that they should love their natural children, whose +helpless condition appeals so strongly to all their better feelings, +and who never can become their rivals? + +Queen Victoria is the first sovereign of the House of Hanover who, +having children, has not pained the world by quarrelling with them. +A model sovereign, she has not allowed an infirmity supposed to be +peculiar to her illustrious House to control her clear and just mind, +so that her career as a mother is as pleasing as her career as a +sovereign is splendid. About the time of the death of Prince Albert, +a leading British journal published some articles in which it was +insinuated, not asserted, that there had been trouble in the Royal +Family, and that that quarrelling between parent and child which +had been so common in that family in former times was about to +be exhibited again. It was even said that domestic peace was an +impossibility in the House of Hanover, which was but an indorsement +of Earl Granville's remark, in George II.'s reign. "This family," said +that eccentric peer, "always has quarrelled, and always will quarrel, +from generation to generation"; and he did not live to see the ill +feeling that existed between George III. and his eldest son. + +There is no reason for saying that the Hanover family is more +quarrelsome than most other royal lines; and the domestic dissensions +of great houses are more noted than those of lesser houses only +because kings and nobles are so placed as to live in sight of the +world. When a king falls out with his eldest son, the entertainment is +one to which all men go as spectators, and historians consider it +to be the first of their duties to give full details of that +entertainment. Since the Hanoverians have reigned over the English, +the world has been a writing and a reading world, and nothing has more +interested writers and readers than the dissensions of sovereigns and +their sons. If we extend our observation to those days when German +sovereigns were unthought of in England, we shall find that kings +and princes did not always agree; and if we go farther, and scan the +histories of other royal houses, we shall learn that it is not in +Britain alone that the wearers of crowns have looked with aversion +upon their heirs, and have had sons who have loved them so well and +truly as to wish to witness their promotion to heavenly crowns. The +Hanoverian monarchs of England, and their sons, have shared only the +common lot of those who reign and those who wish to reign. + +The Norman kings of England did not always live on good terms with +their sons. William the Conqueror had a very quarrelsome family. His +children quarrelled with one another, and the King quarrelled with his +wife. The oldest son of William and Matilda was Robert, afterward Duke +of Normandy,--and a very trying time this young man caused his father +to have; while the mother favored the son, probably out of revenge for +the beatings she had received, with fists and bridles, from her royal +husband, who used to swear "By the Splendor of God!"--his favorite +oath, and one that has as much merit as can belong to any piece of +blasphemy,--that he never would be governed by a woman. The father and +son went to war, and they actually met in battle, when the son ran the +old gentleman through the arm with his lance, and dropped him out of +the saddle with the utmost dexterity. This was the first time that +the Conqueror was ever conquered, and perhaps it was not altogether +without complacency that "the governor" saw what a clever fellow his +eldest son was with his tools. At the time of William's death Robert +was on bad terms with him, and is believed to have been bearing arms +against him. Henry I. lost his sons before he could well quarrel +with them, the wreck of the White Ship causing the death of his +heir-apparent, and also of his natural son Richard. He compensated for +this omission by quarrelling with his daughter Matilda, and with her +husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. He made war on his brother Robert, took +from him the Duchy of Normandy, and shut him up for life; but the +story, long believed, that he put out Robert's eyes, has been called +in question by modern writers. King Stephen, who bought his breeches +at so low a figure, had a falling-out with his son Eustace, when he +and Henry Plantagenet sought to restore peace to England, and nothing +but Eustace's death made a settlement possible. William Rufus, the Red +King, who was the second of the Norman sovereigns of England, had +no legitimate children, for he was never married. He was a jolly +bachelor, and as such he has had the honor of having his history +written by one of the ablest literary ladies of our time, Miss Agnes +Strickland. He was the only king of England, who arrived at years of +indiscretion, who did not marry. The other bachelor kings were Edward +V. and Edward VI., whose united ages were short of thirty years. His +character does not tend to make the single state of man respected. +"Never did a ruler die less regretted than William Rufus," says Dr. +Lappenberg, "although still young, being little above forty, not a +usurper, and successful in his undertakings. He was never married, +and, besides the crafty and officious tools of his power, was +surrounded only by a few Normans of quality, and harlots. In his last +struggle with the clergy, the most shameless rapacity is especially +prominent, and so glaring, that, notwithstanding some exaggerations +and errors that may be pointed out in the Chronicles, he still appears +in the same light. Effeminacy, drunkenness, gluttony, dissoluteness, +and unnatural crimes were the distinguishing characteristics of his +court. He was himself an example of incontinence." This is a nice +character to travel with down the page of history. He quarrelled with +his brothers, and with his uncle, and kept up the family character in +an exceedingly satisfactory manner, considering that he was unmarried. +The statement that he was slain by Walter Tirel, accidentally, in the +New Forest, is now disregarded. Our theory of his death is, that he +fell a victim to the ambition of his brother, Henry I., who succeeded +him, and who certainly had good information as to his fall, and made +good use of it, like a sensible fellow. + +Of all the royal races of the Middle Ages, no one stands out more +boldly on the historic page than the Plantagenets, who ruled over +England from 1154 to 1485, the line of descent being frequently +broken, and family quarrels constantly occurring. They were a bold and +an able race, and if they had possessed a closer resemblance to the +Hapsburgs, they would have become masters of Western Europe; but their +quarrelsome disposition more than undid all that they could effect +through the exercise of their talents. On the female side they were +descended from the Conqueror; and, as we have seen, the Conqueror's +family was one in which sons rebelled against the fathers, and brother +fought with brother. Matilda, daughter of Henry I., became the wife of +Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, and from their union came Henry II., first +of the royal Plantagenets. Now the Angevine Plantagenets were "a hard +set," as we should say in these days. Dissensions were common enough +in the family, and they descended to the offspring of Geoffrey and +Matilda, being in fact intensified by the elevation of the House to a +throne. Henry II. married Eleanora of Aquitaine, one of the greatest +matches of those days, a marriage which has had great effect on modern +history. The Aquitanian House was as little distinguished for the +practice of the moral virtues as were the lines of Anjou and Normandy. +One of the Countesses of Anjou was reported to be a demon, which +probably meant only that her husband had caught a Tartar in marrying +her; but the story was enough to satisfy the credulous people of those +times, who, very naturally, considering their conduct, believed that +the Devil was constant in his attention to their affairs. It was to +this lady that Richard Cocur de Lion referred, when he said, speaking +of the family contentions, "Is it to be wondered at, that, coming from +such a source, we live ill with one another? What comes from the Devil +must to the Devil return." With such an origin on his father's side, +crossing the fierce character of his mother, Henry II. thought he +could not do better than marry Eleanora, whose origin was almost as +bad as his own. Her grandfather had been a "fast man" in his youth and +middle life, and it was not until he had got nigh to seventy that he +began to think that it was time to repent. He had taken Eleanora's +grandmother from her husband, and a pious priest had said to them, +"Nothing good will be born to you," which prediction the event +justified. The old gentleman resigned his rich dominions, supposed to +be the best in Europe, to his grand-daughter, and she married Louis +VII., King of France, and accompanied him in the crusade that he was +so foolish as to take part in. She had women-warriors, who did their +cause immense mischief; and unless she has been greatly scandalized, +she made her husband fit for heaven in a manner approved neither by +the law nor the gospel. The Provencal ladies had no prejudices against +Saracens. After her return to Europe, she got herself divorced from +Louis, and married Henry Plantagenet, who was much her junior, she +having previously been the mistress of his father. It was a _mariage +de convenance_, and, as is sometimes the case with such marriages, +it turned out very inconveniently for both parties to it. It was not +unfruitful, but all the fruit it produced was bad, and to the husband +and father that fruit became the bitterest of bitter ashes. No +romancer would have dared to bring about such a scries of unions as +led to the creation of Plantagenet royalty, and to so much misery +as well as greatness. There is no exaggeration in Michelet's lively +picture of the Plantagenets. "In this family," he says, "it was a +succession of bloody wars and treacherous treaties. Once, when King +Henry had met his sons in a conference, their soldiers drew upon him. +This conduct was traditionary in the two Houses of Anjou and Normandy. +More than once had the children of William the Conqueror and Henry II. +pointed their swords against their father's breast. Fulk had placed +his foot on the neck of his vanquished son. The jealous Eleanora, with +the passion and vindictiveness of her Southern blood, encouraged her +sons' disobedience, and trained them to parricide. These youths, in +whose veins mingled the blood of so many different races,--Norman, +Saxon, and Aquitanian,--seemed to entertain, over and above the +violence of the Fulks of Anjou and the Williams of England, all the +opposing hatreds and discords of those races. They never knew whether +they were from the South or the North: they only knew that they hated +one another, and their father worse than all. They could not trace +back their ancestry, without finding, at each descent, or rape, or +incest, or parricide." Henry II. quarrelled with all his sons, and +they all did him all the mischief they could, under the advice and +direction of their excellent mother, whom Henry imprisoned. A priest +once sought to effect a reconciliation between Henry and his son +Geoffrey. He went to the Prince with a crucifix in his hand, and +entreated him not to imitate Absalom. + +"What!" exclaimed the Prince, "would you have me renounce my +birthright?" + +"God forbid!" answered the holy man; "I wish you to do nothing to your +own injury." + +"You do not understand my words," said Geoffrey; "it is our family +fate not to love one another. 'T is our inheritance; and not one of us +will ever forego it." + +That must have been a pleasant family to marry into! When the King's +eldest son, Henry, died, regretting his sins against his father, +that father durst not visit him, fearing treachery; and the immediate +occasion of the King's death was the discovery of the hostility of his +son John, who, being the worst of his children, was, of course, the +best-beloved of them all. The story was, that, when Richard entered +the Abbey of Fontevraud, in which his father's body lay, the corpse +bled profusely, which was held to indicate that the new king was his +father's murderer. Richard was very penitent, as his elder brother +Henry had been, on his death-bed. They were very sorrowful, were those +Plantagenet princes, when they had been guilty of atrocious acts, +and when it was too late for their repentance to have any practical +effect. + +Richard I. had no children, and so he could not get up a perfect +family-quarrel, though he and his brother John were enemies. He died +at forty-two, and but a few years after his marriage with Berengaria +of Navarre, an English queen who never was in England. When on his +death-bed, Richard was advised by the Bishop of Rouen to repent, and +to separate himself from his children. "I have no children," the King +answered. But the good priest told him that he had children, and that +they were avarice, luxury, and pride. "True," said Richard, who was +a humorist,--"and I leave my avarice to the Cistercians, my luxury +to the Gray Friars, and my pride to the Templars." History has fewer +sharper sayings than this, every word of which told like a cloth-yard +shaft sent against a naked bosom. Richard certainly never quarrelled +with the children whom he thus left to his _friends_. + +King John did not live long enough to illustrate the family character +by fighting with his children. When he died, in 1216, his eldest son, +Henry III., was but nine years old, and even a Plantagenet could not +well fall out with a son of that immature age. However, John did his +best to make his mark on his time. If he could not quarrel with his +children, because of their tender years, he, with a sense of duty that +cannot be too highly praised, devoted his venom to his wife. He was +pleased to suspect her of being as regardless of marriage-vows as he +had been himself, and so he hanged her supposed lover over her bed, +with two others, who were suspected of being their accomplices. +The Queen was imprisoned. On their being reconciled, he stinted her +wardrobe, a refinement of cruelty that was aggravated by his monstrous +expenditure on his own ugly person. Queen Isabella was very handsome, +and perhaps John was of the opinion of some modern husbands, who think +that dress extinguishes beauty as much as it inflames bills. Having +no children to torment, John turned his disagreeable attentions to his +nephew, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who, according to modern ideas, was +the lawful King of England. The end was the end of Arthur. How he was +disposed of is not exactly known, but, judging from John's character +and known actions, we incline to agree with those writers who say that +the uncle slew the nephew with his own royal hand. He never could +deny himself an attainable luxury, and to him the murder of a youthful +relative must have been a rich treat, and have created for him a new +sensation, something like the new pleasure for which the Persian king +offered a great reward. Besides, all uncles are notoriously bad, and +seem, indeed, to have been made only for the misery of their nephews +and nieces, of whose commands they are most reprehensibly negligent. +We mean to write a book, one of these days, for the express purpose of +showing what a mistake it was to allow any such relationship to exist, +and tracing all the evil that ever has afflicted humanity to the +innate wickedness of uncles, and requiring their extirpation. We +err, then, on the safe side, in supposing that John despatched Arthur +himself,--not to say, that, when you require that a delicate piece of +work should be done, you must do it with your own hand, or you may +be disappointed. John did the utmost that he could do to keep up the +discredit of the family; for, when a man has no son to whip and to +curse, he should not be severely censured for having done no more than +to kill his nephew. Men of large and charitable minds will take all +the circumstances of John's case into the account, and not allow their +judgment of his conduct to be harsh. What better can a man do than his +worst? + +Henry III. appears to have managed to live without quarrelling +with his children; but then he was a poor creature, and even was so +unkingly, and so little like what a Plantagenet should have been, that +he actually disliked war! He might with absolute propriety have worn +the lowly broom-corn from which his family-name was taken, while it +was a sweeping satire on almost all others who bore it. His heir, +Edward I., was a king of "high stomach," and as a prince he stood +stoutly by his father in the baronial wars. He, too, though the father +of sixteen children, dispensed with family dissensions, thus showing +that "The more, the merrier," is a true saying. Edward II. came to +grief from having a bad wife, Isabella of France, who made use of +his son against him. That son was Edward III., who became king in his +father's lifetime, and whose marriage with Philippa of Hainault is +one of the best-known facts of history, not only because it was an +uncommonly happy marriage, but that it had remarkable consequences. +This royal couple got along very happily with their children; but the +ambition of their fourth son, the Duke of Lancaster, troubled the +last days of the King, and prepared the way for great woes in the next +century. The King was governed by Lancaster, and the Black Prince, who +was then in a dying state, was at the head of what would now be called +the Opposition, as if he foresaw what evils his brother's ambition +would be the means of bringing upon his son. + +Richard II., son of the Black Prince, had no children, though he +was twice married. He was dethroned, the rebels being headed by his +cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who became Henry IV. Thus was brought +about that change in the course of descent which John of Gaunt seems +to have aimed at, but which he died just too soon to see effected. +It was a violent change, and one which had its origin in a family +quarrel, added to political dissatisfaction. Had the revolutionist +wished merely to set aside a bad king, they would have called the +House of Mortimer to the throne, the chief member of that House being +the next heir, as descended from the Duke of Clarence, elder brother +of the Duke of Lancaster; but more was meant than a political +revolution, and so the line of Clarence was passed over, and its right +to the crown treated with neglect, to be brought forward in bloody +fashion in after-days. In fact, the Englishmen who made Henry of +Lancaster king prepared the way for that long and terrible struggle +which took place in the fifteenth century, and which was, its +consequences as well as its course considered, the greatest civil +war that has ever afflicted Christendom. The movement that led to the +elevation of Henry of Holingbroke to the throne, though not precisely +a palace-revolution, resembles a revolution of that kind more than +anything else with which it can be compared; and it was as emphatic +a departure from the principle of hereditary right as can be found in +history. So much was this the case, that liberals in polities mostly +place their historical sympathies with the party of the Red Rose, for +no other reason, that we have ever been able to see, than that the +House of Lancaster's possession of the throne testified to the triumph +of revolutionary principles; for that House was jealous of its power +and cruel in the exercise of it, and was so far from being friendly to +the people, that it derived its main support from the aristocracy, +and was the ally of the Church in the harsh work of exterminating the +Lollards. The House of York, on the other hand, while it had, to use +modern words, the legitimate right to the throne, was a popular House, +and represented and embodied whatever there was then existing in +politics that could be identified with the idea of progress. + +The character of the troubles that existed between Henry IV. and his +eldest son and successor, Shakspeare's Prince Hal, is involved in much +obscurity. It used to be taken for granted that the poet's Prince was +an historical character, but that is no longer the case,--Falstaff's +royal associate being now regarded in the same light in which Falstaff +himself is regarded. The one is a poetic creation, and so is the +other. Prince Henry was neither a robber nor a rowdy, but from his +early youth a much graver character than most men are in advanced +life. He had great faults, but they were not such as are made to +appear in the pages of the player. The hero of Agincourt was a mean +fellow,--a tyrant, a persecutor, a false friend and a cruel enemy, and +the wager of most unjust wars; but he was not the "fast" youth that +he has been generally drawn. He had neither the good nor the bad +qualities that belong to young gentlemen who do not live on terms with +their papas. He was of a grave and sad temperament, and much more of +a Puritan than a Cavalier. It is a little singular that Shakspeare +should have given portraits so utterly false of the most unpopular of +the kings of the York family, and of the most popular of the kings of +the rival house,--of Richard III., that is, and of the fifth Henry +of Lancaster. Neither portrait has any resemblance to the original, +a point concerning which the poet probably never troubled himself, as +his sole purpose was to make good acting plays. Had it been necessary +to that end to make Richard walk on three legs, or Henry on one leg, +no doubt he would have done so,--just as Monk Lewis said he would have +made Lady Angela blue, in his "Castle Spectre," if by such painting +he could have made the play more effective. Prince Henry was a very +precocious youth, and had the management of great affairs when he was +but a child, and when it would have been better for his soul's and +his body's health, had he been engaged in acting as an esquire of some +good knight, and subjected to rigid discipline. The jealousy that +his father felt was the natural consequence of the popularity of the +Prince, who was young, and had highly distinguished himself in both +field and council, was not a usurper, and was not held responsible for +any of the unpopular acts done by the Government of his father. They +were at variance not long before Henry IV.'s death, but little is +known as to the nature of their quarrels. The crown scene, in which +the Prince helps himself to the crown while his father is yet alive, +is taken by Shakspeare from Monstrelet, who is supposed to have +invented all that he narrates in order to weaken the claim of the +English monarch to the French throne. If Henry IV., when dying, could +declare that he had no right to the crown of England, on what could +Henry V. base his claim to that of France? + +Henry V. died before his only son, Henry VI., had completed his first +year; and Henry VI. was early separated from his only son, Edward +of Lancaster, the same who was slain while flying from the field +of Tewkesbury, at the age of eighteen. There was, therefore, no +opportunity for quarrels between English kings and their sons for the +sixty years that followed the death of Henry IV.; but there was +much quarrelling, and some murdering, in the royal family, in those +years,--brothers and other relatives being fierce rivals, even unto +death, and zealous even unto slaying of one another. It would be hard +to say of what crime those Plantagenets were not guilty.[A] Edward +IV., with whom began the brief ascendency of the House of York, died +at forty-one, after killing his brother of Clarence, his eldest son +being but twelve years old. He had no opportunity to have troubles +with his boys, and he loved women too well to fall out with his +daughters, the eldest of whom was but just turned of seventeen. The +history of Edward IV. is admirably calculated to furnish matter for a +sermon on the visitation of the sins of parents on their children. He +had talent enough to have made himself master of Western Europe, +but he followed a life of debauchery, by which he was cut off in his +prime, leaving a large number of young children to encounter the worst +of fortunes. Both of his sons disappeared, whether murdered by Richard +III. or Henry VII. no one can say; and his daughters had in part to +depend upon that bastard slip of the Red-Rose line, Henry VII., for +the means to enable them to live as gentlewomen,--all but the eldest, +whom Henry took to wife as a point of policy, which her father would +have considered the greatest misfortune of all those that befell his +offspring. Richard III's only legitimate son died a mere boy. + +[Footnote A: It has been said of the Plantagenets that they "never +shed the blood of a woman." This is nonsense, as we could, time and +space permitting, show by the citation of numerous facts, but we shall +here mention only one. King John had a noble woman shut up with her +son, and starved to death. Perhaps that was not shedding her blood, +but it was something worse. Before English statesmen and orators and +writers take all the harlotry of Secessia under their kind care and +championship, it would be well for them to read up their own country's +history, and see how abominably women have been used in England for a +thousand years, from queens to queans.] + +The Tudors fame to the English throne in 1485. There was no want of +domestic quarrelling with them. Arthur, Henry VII.'s eldest son, died +young, but left a widow, Catharine of Aragon, whom the King treated +badly; and he appears to have been jealous of the Prince of Wales, +afterward Henry VIII., but died too soon to allow of that jealousy's +blooming into quarrels. According to some authorities, the Prince +thought of seizing the crown, on the ground that it belonged to him in +right of his mother, Elizabeth Plantagenet, who was unquestionably the +legitimate heir. Henry VIII. himself, who would have made a splendid +tyrant over a son who should have readied to man's estate,--an +absolute model in that way to all after-sovereigns,--was denied +by fortune an opportunity to round and perfect his character as +a domestic despot. Only one of his legitimate sons lived even to +boyhood, Edward VI., and Henry died when the heir-apparent was in his +tenth year. Of his illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond, Henry +was extravagantly fond, and at one time thought of making him +heir-apparent, which might have been done, for the English dread of +a succession war was then at its height. Richmond died in his +seventeenth year. Having no sons of a tormentable age, Henry made his +daughters as unhappy as he could make them by the harsh exercise of +paternal authority, and bastardized them both, in order to clear the +way to the throne for his son. Edward VI. died a bachelor, in his +sixteenth year, so that we can say nothing of him as a parent; but he +treated his sister Mary with much harshness, and exhibited on various +occasions a disposition to have things his own way that would have +delighted his father, provided it had been directed against anybody +but that severe old gentleman himself. Mary I. was the best sovereign +of her line, domestically considered; but then she had neither son nor +daughter with whom to quarrel, and the difficulties she had with her +half-sister, Elizabeth, like the differences between the Archangel +Michael and the Fallen Angel, were purely political in their +character. We do not think that she would have done much injustice, +if she had made Elizabeth's Tower-dungeon the half-way house to the +scaffold. But though political, the half-sisterly dissensions between +these ladies serve to keep Mary I. within the rules of the royal +houses to which she belonged. Mary, dying of the loss of Calais and +the want of children, was succeeded by Elizabeth, who, being a +maiden queen, had no issue with whom to make issue concerning +things political or personal. But observe how basely she treated her +relatives, those poor girls, the Greys, Catharine and Mary, sisters of +poor Lady Jane, whose fair and clever head Mary I. had taken off. The +barren Queen, too jealous to share her power with a husband, hated +marriage with all "the sour malevolence of antiquated virginity," and +was down upon the Lady Catharine and the Lady Mary because they chose +to become wives. Then she imprisoned her cousin, Mary Stuart, for +nineteen years, and finally had her butchered under an approach to +the forms of law, and in total violation of its spirit. She, too, kept +within the royal rules, and made herself as great a pest as possible +to her relatives. + +The English throne passed to the House of Stuart in 1603, and, after +a lapse of six-and-fifty years, England had a sovereign with sons and +daughters, the first since the death of Henry VIII. at the beginning +of 1547. There was little opportunity for family dissensions in the +days of most of the Stuarts, as either political troubles of the most +serious nature absorbed the attention of kings and princes, or the +reigning monarchs had no legitimate children. The open quarrel +between Charles I. and the Parliament began before his eldest son had +completed his eleventh year; and after that quarrel had increased to +war, and it was evident that the sword alone could decide the issue, +the King parted with his son forever. They had no opportunity to +become rivals, and to fall out. There is so much that can be said +against Charles I. with truth, that it is pleasing--as are most +novelties--to be able to mention something to his credit. Instead +of being jealous of his son, or desiring to keep him in ignorance of +affairs, he early determined to train him to business. According +to Clarendon, he said that he wished to "unboy him." Therefore he +conferred high military offices upon him before he had completed his +fifteenth year; and sent him to the West of England, to be the +nominal head of the Western Association. Charles II. had no legitimate +children, and so he could not have any quarrels with a Prince of +Wales. He was fond of his numerous bastards, and, like an affectionate +royal father, provided handsomely for them at the public-expense. What +more could a father do, situated as that father was, and always in +want of his people's money? Some of them were not his sons,--Monmouth, +the best beloved of them all, being the son of Robert Sidney, a +brother of the renowned Algernon, a fact that partially excuses the +harsh conduct of James II. toward his nominal nephew. James II. had +no legitimate son until the last year of his reign; but his two eldest +daughters treated him far worse than any sovereign of the Hanoverian +line was ever used by a son. They were most respectable women, and +their deficiency in piety has worked well for the world; but it must +ever be repugnant to humanity to regard the conduct of Mary and Anne +with respect. No wonder that people called Mary the modern Tullia. +Mary II. died young, and childless; and Queen Anne, though a most +prolific wife, and but fifty-one at her death, survived all her +children. Anne believed that her children's deaths were sent in +punishment of her unfilial conduct; and she would have restored her +nephew, the Pretender, to the British throne, but that the Jacobites +were the silliest political creatures that ever triumphed in the +how-not-to-do-it business, and could not even hold their mouths open +for the rich and ripened fruit to drop into them. + +The first of the English Stuarts, James I., is suspected of having +allowed his jealousy of his eldest son, the renowned Prince Henry, to +carry him to the extent of child-murder. The Stuarts are called the +Fated Line, and it is certain that none of their number, from Robert +II.--who got the Scottish throne in virtue of his veins containing a +portion of the blood of the Bruce, and so regalized the family, which, +like the Bruces, was of Norman origin, and originally Fitzalan +by name--to Charles Edward, and the Cardinal York, who died but +yesterday, as it were, but had a wonderful run of bad luck. They had +capital cards, but they knew not how to play them. With them, to play +was to lose, and the most fortunate of their number were those kings +who played as little as they could, such as James I. and Charles II. +Those who lost the most were those who played the hardest, as Charles +I. and his second son, James II. Yet the family was a clever one, with +strong traits, both of character and talent, that ought to have made +it the most successful of ruling races, and would have made it so, +if its chiefs could have learned to march with the times. They had to +contend, in Scotland, with one of the fiercest and most unprincipled +aristocracies that ever tried the patience and traversed the purposes +of monarchs who really aimed at the good government of their people; +and the idiosyncrasy contracted during more than two centuries of +Scottish rule clung to the family after it went to England, and found +itself living under altogether a different state of things. What was +virtue in Scotland became vice in England; and the ultra-monarchists, +who came into existence not long after James I. succeeded to +Elizabeth, helped to spoil the Stuarts. Both James and his successor +were dominated by Scotch traditions, and supposed that they were +contending with men who had the same end in view that had been +regarded by the Douglases, the Hamiltons, the Ruthvens, the Lindsays, +and others of the old Scotch baronage. What helped to deceive them was +this,--that their opponents in England, like the opponents of their +ancestors in Scotland, were aristocrats; and they supposed, that, as +aristocratical movements in their Northern kingdom had always been +subversive of order and peace, the same kind of movements would +produce similar results in their Southern kingdom. They could not +understand that one aristocracy may differ much from another, and +that, while in Scotland the interest of the people, or rather of the +whole nation, required the exaltation of the kingly power, in England +it was that exaltation which was most to be feared. Sufficient +allowance has not been made for the Stuarts in this respect, little +regard being paid to the effect of the family's long training at home, +which had rendered hostility to the nobility second nature to it. Had +the Stuarts been the supporters of liberal ideas in England, their +conduct would have given the lie to every known principle of human +action. As their distrust of aristocracy rendered them despotically +disposed, because the Scotch aristocracy had been the most lawless of +mankind, so did they become attached to the Church of England because +of the tyranny they had seen displayed by the Church of Scotland, the +most illiberal ecclesiastical body, in those times, that men had ever +seen, borne with, or suffered from. James I. and his grandson Charles +II. had their whole conduct colored, and dyed in the wool, too, by +their recollections of the odious treatment to which they had +been subjected by a harsh and intolerant clergy. They had not the +magnanimity to overlook, in the day of their power, what they had +suffered in the day of their weakness. + +James I. undoubtedly disliked his eldest son, and was jealous of him; +but it is by no means clear that he killed him, or caused him to +be killed. He used to say of him, "What! will he bury me alive?" +He ordered that the court should not go into mourning for Henry, a +circumstance that makes in his favor, as murderers are apt to affect +all kinds of hypocrisy in regard to their victims, and to weep in +weeds very copiously. Yet his conduct may have been a refinement of +hypocrisy, and, though a coward in the common acceptation of the word, +James had much of that peculiar kind of hardihood which enables its +possessor to treat commonly received ideas with contempt. His conduct +in "The Great Oyer of Poisoning" was most extraordinary, it must +be allowed, and is not reconcilable with innocence; but it does not +follow that the guilt which the great criminals in that business could +have established as against James related only to the death of Henry. +It bore harder upon the King than even that crime could have borne, +and must have concerned his conduct in matters that are peculiarly +shocking to the ears of Northern peoples, though Southern races have +ears that are less delicate. It was in Somerset's power to +explain James's conduct respecting some things that puzzled his +contemporaries, and which have continued to puzzle their descendants; +but the explanation would have ruined the monarch in the estimation of +even the most vicious portion of his subjects, and probably would have +given an impetus to the growing power of the Puritans that might have +led to their ascendency thirty years earlier than it came to pass +in the reign of his son. James was capable of almost any crime or +baseness; but in the matter of poisoning his eldest son he is entitled +to the Scotch verdict of _Not Proven_. + +Whether James killed his son or not, it is certain that the Prince's +death was a matter of extreme importance. Henry was one of those +characters who are capable of giving history a twist that shall +last forever. He had a fondness for active life, was very partial +to military pursuits, and was friendly to those opinions which +the bigoted chiefs of Austria and Bavaria were soon to combine to +suppress. Henry would have come to the throne in 1625, had he lived, +and there seems no reason to doubt that he would have anticipated the +part which Gustavus Adolphus played a few years later. He would have +made himself the champion of Protestantism, and not the less readily +because his sister, the Electress-Palatine and Winter-Queen of +Bohemia, would have been benefited by his successes in war. Bohemia +might have become the permanent possession of the Palatine, and +Protestantism have maintained its hold on Southern Germany, had Henry +lived and reigned, and had his conduct as a king justified the hopes +and expectations that were created by his conduct as a prince. The +House of Austria would in that case have had a very different +career from that which it has had since 1625, when Ferdinand II. was +preparing so much evil for the future of Europe. Had Henry returned +from Continental triumphs at the head of a great and an attached army, +what could have prevented him from establishing arbitrary power in +his insular dominions? His brother failed to make himself absolute, +because he had no army, and was personally unpopular; but Henry would +have had an army, and one, too, that would have stood high in English +estimation, because of what it had done for the English name and the +Protestant religion in Germany,--and Henry himself would have been +popular, as a successful military man is sure to be in any country. +Pym and Hampden would have found him a very different man to deal with +from his foolish brother, who had all the love of despotism that man +can have, but little of that kind of ability which enables a sovereign +to reign despotically. Charles I. had no military capacity or taste, +or he would have taken part in the Thirty Years' War, and in that way, +and through the assistance of his army, have accomplished his domestic +purpose. His tyranny was of a hard, iron character, unrelieved by +a single ray of glory, but aggravated by much disgrace from the ill +working of his foreign policy; so that it was well calculated to +create the resistance which it encountered, and by which it was +shivered to pieces. Henry would have gone to work in a different way, +and, like Cromwell, would have given England glory, while taking from +her freedom. There is nothing that the wearer of a crown cannot do, +provided that crown is encircled with laurel. But the Stuarts seldom +produced a man of military talent, which was a fortunate thing for +their subjects, who would have lost their right to boast of their +Constitutional polity, had Charles I. or James II. been a good +soldier. We Americans, too, would have had a very different sort +of annals to write, if the Stuarts, who have given so many names to +American places, had known how to use that sword which they were so +fond of handling. + + +The royal families of England did by no means monopolize the share of +domestic dissensions set apart for kings. The House of Stuart, even +before it ascended the English throne, and when it reigned over only +poor, but stout Scotland, was anything but famous for the love of its +fathers for their sons, or for its sons' love for their fathers; and +dissensions were common in the royal family. Robert III., second king +of the line, had great grief with his eldest son, the Duke of Rothsay; +and the King's brother, the Duke of Albany, did much to increase the +evil that had been caused by the loose life of the heir-apparent. The +end was, that Rothsay was imprisoned, and then murdered by his uncle. +Scott has used the details of this court-tragedy in his "Fair Maid of +Perth," one of the best of his later novels, most of the incidents in +which are strictly historical. James I. was murdered while he was yet +young, and James II. lost his life at twenty-nine; but James III. lost +both throne and life in a war that was waged against him in the name +of his son, who became king in consequence of his father's defeat and +death. When James IV. fell at Flodden, because he fought like a brave +fool, and not like a skilful general, he left a son who was not three +years old; and that son, James V., when he died, left a daughter, the +hapless Mary Stuart, who was but a week old. There was not much room +for quarrelling in either of these cases. Mary Stuart's son, then an +infant, was made the head of the party that dethroned his mother, +and forced her into that long exile that terminated in her murder by +Elizabeth of England. Mary's quarrels with her husband, Darnley, were +of so bitter a character as to create the belief that she caused +him to be murdered,--a belief that is as common now as it was in the +sixteenth century, though the Marian Controversy has been going on for +wellnigh three hundred years, and it has been distinctly proved by a +host of clever writers and skilful logicians that it was impossible +for her to have had any thing to do with that summary act of divorce. + +Several of the sovereigns of Continental Europe have had great +troubles with their children, and these children have often had very +disobedient fathers. In France, the Dauphin, afterward Louis XI., +could not always keep on good terms with his father, Charles VII., who +has the reputation of having restored the French monarchy, after the +English had all but subverted it, Charles at one time being derisively +called King of Bourges. Nothing annoyed Louis so much as being +compelled to run away before the army which his father was leading +against him. He would, he declared, have stayed and fought, but that +he had not even half so many men as composed the royal force. He +would have killed his father as readily as he killed his brother in +after-days,--if he did kill his brother, of which there is some +doubt, of which he should have the benefit. As was but natural, he +was jealous of his son, though he died when that prince was thirteen. +Owing to various causes, however, there have been fewer quarrels +between French kings and their eldest sons than between English kings +and their eldest sons. Few French monarchs have been succeeded by +their sons during the last three hundred years,--but two, in fact, +namely, Louis XIII., who followed his father, Henry IV., and Louis +XIV., who succeeded to Louis XIII., his father. It is two hundred +and twenty years since a father was succeeded by a son in France,--a +circumstance that Napoleon III. should lay to heart, and not be too +sure that the Prince Imperial is to become Napoleon IV. There seems +to be something fatal about the French purple, which has a strange +tendency to spread itself, and to settle upon shoulders that could not +have counted upon experiencing its weight and its warmth. Sometimes it +is hung up for the time, and becomes dusty, while republicans take a +turn at governing, though seldom with success. There were troubles +in the families of Louis XIV., who was too heartless, selfish, and +unfeeling not to be that worst kind of king, the domestic tyrant. He +tyrannized over even his mistresses. + +Philip II., the greatest monarch of modern times,--perhaps the +greatest of all time, the extent and diversity of his dominions +considered, and the ability of the races over which he ruled taken +into the account,--was under the painful necessity of putting his +eldest son, Don Carlos, in close confinement, from which he never came +forth until he was brought out feet foremost, the presumption being +that he had been put to death by his father's orders. Carlos has been +made a hero of romance, but a more worthless character never lived. +On his death-bed Philip II. was compelled to see how little his son +Philip, who succeeded him, cared for his feelings and wishes. Peter +the Great put to death his son Alexis; and Frederick William I. +of Prussia came very near taking the life of that son of his who +afterward became Frederick the Great. + +Jealousy is so common a feeling in Oriental royal houses, that it is +hardly allowable to quote anything from their history; but we may be +permitted to allude to the effect of one instance of paternal hate in +the Ottoman family at the time of its utmost greatness. Solyman +the Magnificent was jealous of his eldest son, Mustapha, who is +represented by all writers on the Turkish history of those times as +a remarkably superior man, and who, had he lived, would have been a +mighty foe to Christendom. This son the Sultan caused to be put to +death, and there are few incidents of a more tragical cast than those +which accompanied Mustapha's murder. They might be turned to great +use by an historical romancer, who would find matters all made to his +hand. The effect of this murder was to substitute for the succession +that miserable drunkard, Selim II., who was utterly unable to lead the +Turks in those wars that were absolutely essential to their existence +as a dominant people. "With him," says Ranke, "begins the series of +those inactive Sultans, in whose dubious character we may trace one +main cause of the decay of the Ottoman fortunes." Solyman's hatred of +his able son was a good thing for Christendom; for, if Mustapha had +lived, and become Sultan, the War of Cyprus--that contest in +which occurred the Battle of Lepanto--might have Lad a different +termination, and the Osmanlis have been successful invaders of both +Spain and Italy. It was a most fortunate circumstance for Europe, +that, while it was engaged in carrying on civil wars and wars of +religion, the Turks should have had for their chiefs men incapable of +carrying on that work of war and conquest through which alone it was +possible for those Mussulmans to maintain their position in Europe; +and that they were thus favored was owing to the causeless jealousy +felt by Sultan Solyman for the son who most resembled himself: and +Solyman was the greatest of his line, which some say ended with him. + + + + +UNDER THE PEAR-TREE. + +IN TWO PARTS. + +PART I. + +CHAPTER I. + + +One Sunday morning, long ago, a girl stood in her bed-room, +lingeringly occupied with the last touches of her toilet. + +A string of beads, made of pure gold and as large as peas, lay before +her. They had been her mother's,--given to her when the distracted +state of American currency made a wedding-present of the precious +metal as welcome as it was valuable. Three several times, under +circumstances of great pecuniary urgency, had the beads sufficed, one +by one, to restore the family to comfort,--to pay the expenses of a +journey, to buy seed-grain, and to make out the payment of a yoke of +oxen. Afterwards, when peace and plenty came to be housemates in the +land, the gold beads were redeemed, and the necklace, dearer than +ever, encircled the neck of the only daughter. + +The only daughter took them up, and clasped them round her throat with +a decisive snap. But the crowning graces remained in the shape of two +other ornaments that lay in a small China box. It had a head on the +cover, beautifully painted, of some queen,--perhaps of the Empress +Josephine, the girl thought. The hat had great ostrich-feathers, that +seemed proper to royalty, and it was a pretty face. + +In the box lay a pin and ring. On the back of the pin was braided +hair, and letters curiously intertwined. The young girl slipped the +ring on her own finger once more, and smiled. Then she took it off, +with a sigh that had no pain in it, and looked at the name engraved +inside,--DORCAS FOX. + +Whoever saw this name in the town records would naturally image to +himself the town tailoress or nurse, or somebody's single sister +who had been wise too long,--somebody tall, a little bent, and +bony,--somebody weather-beaten and determined--looking, with a sharp, +shrewd glance of a gray eye that said you could not possibly get the +better of her and so need not try,--somebody who goes out unattended +and fearless at night; for, as she very properly observes, "Who'd want +to speak to _me_?" + +This might have described the original owner of the pin and ring, who +had died years before, and left the ornaments for her namesake and +niece, when she was too young to remember or care for her, but not the +niece herself. She was young, blooming, twenty-two, and the belle of +the country-village where she dwelt. + +The bed-room where the girl stood and meditated, after her fashion, +was six feet by ten in dimensions, and the oval mirror before which +she stood was six inches by ten. It was a genuine relic of the +Mayflower, and had been brought over, together with the great chest in +the entry, by the grand-grand-grandmother of all the Foxes. If anybody +were disposed to be skeptical on this point, Colonel Fox had only to +point to the iron clamp at the end, by which it had been confined to +the deck; that would have produced conviction, if he had declared it +came out of the Ark. This was a queer-looking little mirror, in which +the young Dorcas saw her round face reflected: framed in black oak, +delicately carved, and cut on the edge with a slant that gave the +plate an appearance of being an inch thick. + +Sixty years ago there were not many mirrors in country-towns in New +England; and in Colonel Fox's house this and one more sufficed for the +family-reflections. In the "square room," a modern long looking-glass, +framed in mahogany, and surmounted by the American emblem of triumph, +was the astonishment of the neighbors,--and in Walton those were many, +though the population was small. + +Dorcas looked wistfully and wishingly at the oval pin; but with no +more notion of what she was looking at than the child who gazes into +the heavens on a winter night. When she looked into the oval mirror, +no dream of the centuries through which it had received on its surface +fair and suffering faces, grave, noble, self-sacrificing men, and +scenes of trial deep and agonizing,--no dream of the past disturbed +the serene unconsciousness of her gaze. She looked at the large +pearls that formed the long oval pin, and at the exquisite allegorical +painting, which, in the quaint fashion of the time of its execution, +was colored with the "ground hair" of the beloved; so materializing +sentiment, and, as it were, getting as near as possible to the very +heart's blood. Yet the old gold, the elaborate execution of the quaint +classical device, and the fanciful arrangement of the braided hair +interwoven with twisted gold letters, all told no tales to the +observer, whose unwakened nature, indeed, asked no questions. + +The little room, so small that in these days a College of Physicians +would at once condemn it, as a cradle of disease and death, had +nevertheless for twenty years been the nightly abode of as perfect a +piece of health as the country produced. Whatever might be wanting +in height and space was amply made up in inevitable and involuntary +ventilation. Health walked in at the wide cracks around the little +window-frame, peeped about in all directions with the snow-flakes in +winter and the ready breezes in summer, and settled itself permanently +on the fresh cheeks and lips of the light sleeper and early riser. + +Beside the white-covered cot there stood a straight-backed, +list-seated oaken chair, a mahogany chest of drawers that reached from +floor to ceiling, and a little three-legged light-stand. Everything +was covered with white, and the room was fragrant with the lavender +and dried rose-leaves with which every drawer was scrupulously +perfumed. There was no toilet-table, for Dorcas had use neither for +perfumes nor ointment. No Kalydors and no Glycerines came within the +category of her healthful experience. Alert and graceful, she neither +burnt her fingers nor cut her hands, and had need therefore of no +soothing salves or sirups; and as she did not totter in scrimped shoes +or tight laces, and so did not fall and break her bones, she had no +need even of that modern necessity in all well-regulated families, +"Prepared Glue." There was no medicine-chest in Colonel Fox's house. +Healthy, occupied, active, and wise--but not too wise--was Dorcas Fox. + +It is no proof that Dorcas was a beauty, that she looked often in the +little mirror. Ugliness is quite as anxious as beauty on that point, +and is even oftener found gazing with sad solicitude at itself, if +haply there may be found some mollifying or mitigating circumstance, +either in outline or expression. But Dorcas's face pleased herself and +everybody else. + +A certain freedom and ease, the result partly of a symmetrical form, +and partly of conscious good-looks, gave the grace of movement to +Dorcas which attracted all eyes. Almost every one has a sense of +harmony, and old and young loved to watch the musical motion of Dorcas +Fox, whatever she might be doing,--whether she queened it at the +"Thanksgiving Ball," and from heel-and-toe, pigeon-wing, or mazy +double-shuffle, evolved the finest and subtlest intricacies of muscle, +or whether, on the Sabbath, walking behind her parents to meeting, +she married the movement to the solemnity of the day, and, as it were, +walked in long metre. + +She always was in Hallelujah metre to the Blacks, Whites, Grays, +Greens, and Browns that color so largely every New-England community; +and the youths who were wont to form the crowd that invariably settled +at the corner of the meeting-house waited only till Dorcas Fox went up +the "broad-oil" to express open-mouthed admiration. After her fashion, +she was as much wondered at as the Duchess of Hamilton in her time, +and with much more reason, since Dorcas was composed of real roses and +lilies. + +On Sunday, though the Puritanic doctrine prevailed, as far as doctrine +can, of not speaking week-day thoughts, or having them, if they would +keep away, yet inevitably, among the younger portion of the flock, the +day of "meeting" was one of more than religious importance; and many +lads and lasses who were never attracted by Father Boardman's eloquent +sedatives still made it a point to be regular in their attendance at +meeting twice on every Sunday. From far and near came open one-horse +wagons, piled high with weekly shaven and dressed humanity,--young +and old with solemn and demure faces, with brown-ribboned queues, and +garments of domestic making. Fresh, strong, tall girls of five feet +ten, dressed in straw bonnets of their own handiwork, and sometimes +with scarlet cardinals lightly flung over their shoulders, sprang over +the wagon-thills to the ground. Now and then the more remote dwellers +came on horseback, each Jack with his Gill on a pillion behind, and +holding him with a proper and dignified embrace. + +Hard-handed youths, with bright, determined faces,--men nursed in +blockhouses, born in forts,--men who had raised their corn when the +loaded gun went every step with the hoe and the plough,--such men, +of whom the Revolution had been made, who could say nothing, and do +everything, stood in a crowd around the meeting-house door. There was +some excitement in meeting each other, though there was very little, +if anything, to say. There was time enough in those days. Progress +wasn't in such a hurry as now. Inventions came calmly along, once in +a man's life, and not, as now, each heel-trodden by that of his +neighbor, tripping up and passing it, in the speed of the breathless +race. + +The sun itself seemed to shine with a calmer and silenter radiance +over the broad, leisurely land. + +Time enough, bless you! and the Sunday, any way, is _so_ long! + +This Sunday morning, at ten o'clock, Dorcas has already been up and +dressed six hours. Everything having the remotest connection with +domestic duties has been finished and laid aside long ago, and she has +devoted the last two hours to solitary meditations, mostly of the kind +already mentioned. + +In the great oven, since last night, has lain the Sunday supper of +baked pork-and-beans, Indian-pudding, and brown bread, all the +better the longer they bake, and all unfailing in their character +of excellence. In the square room, in the green arm-chair, sits the +Colonel, fast asleep. + +Four hours ago, he fumed and fretted about barn and cow-house, +breakfasted, and had family-prayers. Since then, he has donned his +Sabbath array, both mental and bodily. Mentally, having dismissed the +cares of the week, he has strictly united himself with his body, and +gone to sleep. Bodily, he appears in a suit of hemlock-dyed, with +Matherman buttons, knee- and shoe-buckles of silver. His gray hair is +neatly composed in a queue, his full cheeks rest on his portly chest, +and the outward visibly harmonizes with the inward man. He +sleeps soundly now, purposing faithfully to keep awake during the +three-and-twenty heads of the minister's discourse. If he finds it +too much for him, he means to stand, as he often does. Sometimes he +partakes freely of the aromatic stimulants carried by his wife and +daughter as bouquets. The southernwood wakes him, and the green seeds +of the caraway get him well along through the sermon. + +Mrs. Fox steps softly in, rustling in the same black taffeta she +always wears, and the same black silk bonnet,--worn just fifty-two +days in a year, and carefully pinned and boxed away for all the other +three hundred and thirteen. + +As fashions did not come to Walton oftener than once in ten years, +it followed that apparel among the young people wore very much the +expression of individual taste, while among the elders it was wont to +assume the cast now irreverently designated by "fossil remains." And, +really, it did not much matter. Whatever our country-grandmothers were +admired and esteemed for, be sure it was not dress. + +As the clock pointed to half-past ten, the door opened quickly, and +Dorcas stood on the threshold, like a summer breeze that has stopped +one moment its fluttering, and hovers fresh, sweet, and sunny in +the morning air. The breath of her presence, if indeed it were not +association, roused old Colonel Fox from his sleep. He glanced at her, +took the ready arm of his wife, looked again at the clock, and passed +out over the flat door-stone with his cocked hat and cane, as became +an invalid soldier and a gentleman. Behind them, hymn-book in hand +and with downcast eyes, walked Dorcas. Not a word passed between the +parents and their only daughter. On Sunday, people were not to think +their own thoughts. And familiarity between parents and children, +never allowed even on week-days, would have been unpardonable +unfitness on the Sabbath. + +They reached the church-door just as the minister, with his white wig +shedding powder on his venerable back, passed up the broad-aisle. +A perfectly decorous throng of the loiterers followed, and the +pews rapidly filled. The Colonel and his wife, being persons of +consequence, took their way with suitable dignity and deliberation. In +the three who turned, about half-way up the broad-aisle, into a square +pew, a physiognomist would have seen at one glance the characteristic +features of each mind. In the Colonel, choleric, fresh, and +warm-hearted, a good lover, and not very good hater. In his wife, "a +chronicler of small-beer," with a perfectly negative expression. One +might guess she did no harm, and fear she did no good,--that she saved +the hire of an upper servant,--that she was an inveterate sewer and +cleaner, and would leave the world in time with an epitaph. + +On the third figure and face the physiognomist might dwell +longer,--but that rather because youth, hope, and inexperience had +refused to make any of the life-marks that tell stories in faces. +There was abundant room for imagination and prophecy. + +A figure not too tall, but full of wavy lines,--two dark-blue eyes, +whose full under-lids gave an expression of arch sweetness to the +glance,--a delicate complexion of roses and lilies, as suggestive of +fading as of blossoming,--features small, and not at all of the Greek +pattern,--and the rather large head and slightly developed bust, +typical of American rural beauty. + +To this summary of youthful charms would be at once added the grace of +motion before spoken of, which made Dorcas Fox a favorite with all the +young men in Walton, and which gave her a reputation of beauty which +in strictness she did not deserve. A little habitual ill-health, +and the glamour is gone, with the roses and lilies and the music +of motion. In our climate of fierce extremes, both field- and +garden-flowers speedily wilt and chill. Dorcas herself had been a +thousand times told she was the very picture of her mother at her age. +And just to look now at Mrs. Colonel Fox! + +A tall young man stood on the doorsteps of the meeting-house, as +Dorcas went demurely behind her parents in at the open door. He looked +at her with a quick, inquiring glance from his keen Yankee eyes, which +she answered with an almost imperceptible nod of her graceful head. +She dropped her eyes, and passed on. This young man was Henry Mowers, +and he owned the Mowers farm. He was a very good, sensible fellow, and +had "kept company," as the country-phrase is, with Dorcas Fox for +the last few weeks, having, indeed, had his eye on her ever since the +New-Year's sleigh-ride and ball. + +After Dorcas had reached her seat in the pew, and adjusted her +spotless Sunday chintz and the ribbon that confined her jaunty +gypsy-hat over her sunny hair, she raised her eyes carelessly to a pew +in a side-aisle. The Dorrs generally occupied it alone; but sometimes +Swan Day, when he wasn't in the choir, sat there too. + +Swan Day, or, as he might better have been called, Night Raven, kept +the country-store in Walton. One naturally thought of afternoon +rather than morning at seeing his olive complexion, dark eyes, and +thick-clustering black curls. Such romance as was to be had in Walton, +without the aid of a circulating library, certainly gathered about +Swan Day. An orphan, born of a Creole mother and a British sergeant, +he had been left early to his own resources. He had found them +sufficient thus far, in a cordial neighborhood like Walton, when +industry and temperance were cardinal virtues not carried to excess; +and he was rather a favorite among the young women. + +The peculiar languor and richness of his complexion,--the dark eyes, +soft as an Indian girl's,--the mouth, melting and red as the grapes +where under a tropical sun his foreign mother had lain, and, gathering +them ripe, had dropped them lazily into his baby mouth: these were new +and strange features in the Saxon community where he had accidentally +been left on the death of his father, who was shot at Saratoga. The +mother lingered awhile, and then dropped away, leaving Swan to thrive +in the bracing air in which she had shivered to death. + +Many Sundays before this, Swan had looked at Colonel Fox's pew, and, +looking, loved. + +Dorcas looked occasionally. + +All the time, while the minister preached, she twiddled her +caraway-stems, sometimes biting a seed in two very softly between her +little teeth, and keeping, on the whole, an appearance of exemplary +devoutness. When Father Boardman reached "sixthly," she raised her +eyes, and saw Henry Mowers looking straight at her. Then she +dropped her eyelids at once, sniffed delicately at her bouquet of +southernwood, and, gaining strength from its pungency, applied herself +to staring once more at the great pine pulpit, where, like a very old +sparrow on the house-top, Father Boardman denounced and anathematized +at leisure all who did not think as he did. By degrees, all the eyes +in Dorcas's neighborhood that had been any length of time in the world +were dozing and closing with the full leave of the spirit. Finally, +when Father Boardman entered on the "improvement," Dorcas, who had +not heard a word, looked again in the direction of the Dorr pew. Henry +Mowers had succumbed to Morpheus half an hour before. Still there +flamed on the deep, bewitching eyes of Day; and as all the rest in her +neighborhood had gone to sleep, and the young girl had really nothing +specially to keep herself awake with, she looked up, too, and then +down, and then rosily, and timidly, and consciously, and then at +him once more. By that time she blushed again, and a smile was just +beginning to wake from its sleep in the corner of her mouth, when +a rush, a rising, and a general clatter and banging of pew-seats +announced the blessed news of suspended instruction. + +In the fashion of sixty years ago, the congregation waited reverently, +until the pastor walked down the broad-aisle and out at the door, +before a soul stirred. Then the men followed, and last of all the +women. In the crowd, there were frequent opportunities for whispered +words, all the sweeter for the stealing; and in the crowd, after he +had seen Henry Mowers jump into the wagon and drive off his three +sisters half a mile to their home, and after seeing Jenny Post ride +off on a pillion behind her old brother, as in the gone-by days when +wide roads and wagons were not, Swan sauntered carelessly towards +Dorcas, and said, in a tone too low for her parents to hear, but very +distinctly,-- + +"I must see you to-morrow night." + +"I can't," was the murmured reply. + +"For the last time, Dorcas! come down to the old pear-tree to-morrow, +before sunset," he whispered, imploringly. + +He was wise to turn suddenly away before her parents could hear him, +touching on secular subjects, and before she could herself get up any +new objection. Her objections, truly, were very faint and few, and, +being tossed about awhile, finally settled out of sight. Henry +would, she knew, come to his weekly wooing as soon as the setting sun +proclaimed the Sabbath-day over. After that time she was safe. She +could slip down the orchard to the pear-tree, and hear what was the +important word, and what Swan meant by "the last." + +Eight or ten persons, who lived at a distance from "meeting," were in +the habit of partaking the hospitality of Colonel Fox, of a Sunday, +as the hour's intermission gave them no opportunity to return to +their distant homes. After the Puritan fashion, unlike enough to the +present, families were restricted on Sunday to two meals, and those +were provided with a Jewish regard to the fourth commandment. All +labor was scrupulously anticipated or postponed, but such hospitality +as consisted with the strict observance of the Sabbath was at the +service of their friends. + +On coming in at the door of the square room, with its sanded floor, +its old desk, its spare bed in the corner, and its cherry table with +wavy outlines, which had belonged to Colonel Fox's mother, Dorcas +found the cloth already laid, and the bonnets and cardinals of half a +dozen old friends on the bed. + +In five minutes, early apples, old cider, and a plate of raised +doughnuts, flanked by plates of mince- and apple-pie, rewarded the +patience and piety of the company. Colonel Fox, solemnly, and as if +he were quite accustomed to it, poured from a jug into large tumblers +that held at least a pint, dropped three large lumps of loaf-sugar, +filled the glass with water, grated some nutmeg on the top, and bade +his guests refresh themselves with toddy, unless they preferred flip: +if they did, they had only to say so: the poker was hot. + +They all ate and drank, and by that time the bell rang again; and then +they all went again. And if they heard Father Boardman at all, it was +with utterly composed minds, when he told them it was their duty to be +contented, even should their condemnation be eternally decreed, since +it must, of course, be for the good of the whole, and for the glory of +God. Hopkinsianism was in fashion then, and the minds of men in many +parts of the country had accepted the logic of its founder, negatived +as it was, in its practical application, by the sweetness of his +Christian benevolence and his large humanity. Then the toddy helped +them to swallow many doctrines that in our cold-water days are sharply +and defiantly contested. The head is much clearer; whether hearts are +better is doubtful. + +After supper, and while yet the sun lingered smilingly over the +Great Meadows and on the hills, behind which he sank, Dorcas, who had +meanwhile adorned herself with Aunt Dorcas's bequest, broke the long +silence, by whispering so low that her father's sleep should not be +disturbed,-- + +"Mother, do you set much by this pin?" + +"Of course I do, child! 'T was your Aunt Dorcas's," said Mrs. Fox, +"your father's own sister." + +"Yes, I know it, mother; but how did she come by it?" + +All these years, and this was the first time Dorcas had asked the +question! She colored a little, too, as if some secret thought or +story were busy about her heart, as she looked at the ring. + +"Well,--it was a man she 'xpected to 'a' bed. They was to 'a' ben +merried, an' he was to 'a' gi'n up v'yagin'. But he was cast away, an' +she never heerd nothin' about neither him nor the ship. He was waitin' +to git means, an' he did, privateerin' an' so; but I 'xpect he was +drownded," concluded Mrs. Fox, in a suitably plaintive tone. + +And that was Aunt Dorcas's story. + + +CHAPTER II. + +If anybody is curious to know why there should be mystery or secrecy +connected with Swan Day's meeting with Dorcas, or why they should meet +under a pear-tree, instead of her father's roof-tree, in a rational +way, it might be a sufficient answer, that there never was and never +will be anything direct and straightforward about Cupid or his doings. +But the real and more important reason was, that Colonel Fox did not +like Swan, and had said, in so many words, that "he wouldn't have +Swan Day a-hangin' round, no _how_!--that he was a poor kind of a +shote,--that he wished both him and his clutter well out o' town,--and +that he needn't think to make swans out of his geese, no _time_!" + +In the first and last sentence, Colonel Fox indicated the ground of +his dislike to the handsome young store-keeper, and his dread that +Swan's eyes would somehow interfere with his own cherished plans of a +union between the Fox and Mower farms. Whatever Colonel Fox determined +on was done or to be done. He had anticipated the French proverb; +and the "impossibility" made not the slightest difference. Therefore +Dorcas had no notion of disobedience in her head, permanently. She +solaced herself by the occasional luxury of departure from set rules, +and she intended to depart in that way to-morrow,--for just five +minutes,--just to hear what that foolish fellow wanted of her; and +what could it be? and why was it the last time?--would he give her up? + +Dorcas pondered the matter while the sun still crowned the heights, +and glanced at her sleeping father in silence. Why should Colonel Fox +dislike Swan so very much because he was a Britisher? All that was +done with, long ago, and why not be peaceable? Just then her father +drew the breath sharply between his teeth, as if in pain. It was the +old wound, that had never been healed since the Battle of Bennington. +He had lain on the ground,--Dorcas had often heard him tell the +tale,--and had striven to slake his deathly thirst with the blood that +he scooped up in the hollow of his hand from the ground about him. So +terrible was the carnage where he lay. "A d----d Britisher had shot +him,--another had driven his horse over him, and afterwards, while +he lay half-dead, had tried to rob him!" Would he ever forget it? +He would have continued, on the contrary, to fire and hack till the +present day, but for the wound in his knee, which had disabled him for +life, long before a peace was patched up with the mother-country. So +he had retired to Walton, and before Continental money had depreciated +more than half had bought acres by the thousand, and become +generalissimo of flocks and herds. Through the admiration of his +townsmen for his wounds, he rapidly and easily attained the rank +of Colonel, without the discomfort of fighting for it; and from his +excellent sense and the executive ability induced by military +habits, became, in turn, justice of the peace, deacon of the church, +town-clerk, and manager-general of Walton. + +Nobody--that is to say, nobody in the family--spoke, when Colonel Fox +was in the house, unless first spoken to,--not even Dorcas. Such were +the domestic tactics of the last century, and Colonel Fox held fast to +old notions. + +The social ones were far more liberal,--so very liberal, indeed, so +very free and easy, in the rural districts especially, that only a +knowledge of the primitive conditions under which such manners grew +up could possibly reconcile with them any impressions of purity and +discretion. In hearing of manners, therefore, it is always necessary +to remember that the children of country Puritans are and were wholly +different _in the grain_ from Paris or London society of the same +period,--as different, for example, as the Goddess of Reason from +our first mother, though at first glance one might think those two +similar. New-England parents had the utmost confidence in their +daughters, and almost no restraint was laid on social intercourse. +Their personal dignity and propriety wore presupposed, as matters of +course. Religion and virtue needed only to point, not to restrain. + +The Colonel, on his part, took little heed of Dorcas's movements in +the way of balls and sleigh-rides. Content that her face showed health +and enjoyment, he never thought or cared what passed in her mind. If +only the hay-crop proved abundant, and the Davis lot yielded well,--if +neither wheat got the blight, nor sheep the rot,--if it were better to +buy Buckhorn for milk, or sell the Calico-Trotter,--these thoughts so +filled his soul that there was very little room to let in any nonsense +about Dorcas, only "to have Swan Day shet up before he begins," for, +as he often said, "he wouldn't give the snap of his thumb for as many +Swan Days as could stand between this and Jerusalem!" + +She had met him twice before, and both times rather accidentally, as +she supposed, under the pear-tree,--both times, when she went to the +well for water. He had drawn the water, and had talked some with +his tongue, but more, far more, with his eyes of Oriental depth and +fascination. Dorcas thought and meant no harm in meeting Swan. Even if +her nature had been more wakened and conscious,--even if she had had +either the habit or the power of analyzing her own sensations,--even +if she had seen her soul from without, as she certainly did not +within,--she would have recoiled from the thought of deliberate +coquetry. + +In the nature even of a coquette there is not necessarily either +cruelty or hardness. It cannot be a fine nature, and must be deficient +in the tact which appreciates the feelings of another, and +the sympathy that shrinks from injuring them. It may be called +selfishness, which is another term for thoughtlessness or want of +consideration or perception, but it is not deliberate selfishness. +This last is often found with fine perceptions and intuitive tact. It +is rather a natural obtuseness, a want of thought on the subject. Such +persons remember and connect their own sensations with the object, +thinking little or nothing of the feelings they may themselves excite +by the heedlessness of their manner. + +If Dorcas had once thought of the value of the hearts she played with, +and as it were tossed from hand to hand,--if she had even weighed one +against another, she might have had some sorrow in grieving either. +But having no standard of delicacy and tenderness in her own nature +by which to judge theirs, Dorcas cannot be accused of intentional +injustice, which is generally understood by coquetry. On the contrary, +if she had been able to express her emotions,-- + + "How happy could I be with either!" + +would have done so. Dorcas was very young in experience. + +In those days of freedom there was no such word as "engaged"; least +of all, did the parties concerned violate all their own notions of +decorum by "announcing an engagement." The lists were free to all +to enter, and the bravest won the day. After weeks and months of +shy "company-keeping," it was "expected it would be a match" by the +keen-sighted or deeply interested. Sometimes the dissolution of an +engagement was mentioned as "a shame! after keeping company so many +years, and she had got all her quilts made and everything!" But best +of all was for the parties to be married outright, by a justice of +the peace, without a word of public warning, and then to enjoy +the pleasure of outwitting the neighbors, and coming down like a +thunderclap on a social sunshine unsuspicious of banns, which had been +published on some three literally public days, but when nobody +was hearing. That was something worth doing, and very much worth +remembering! + +The sun set. The Sabbath was done. The Colonel heaved a sigh of +relief. The Colonel's wife took her knitting-work; and the Colonel's +daughter looked up with a shy smile at Henry Mowers fastening his +horse by the corn-barn. It was time Sunday was over, indeed! Such a +long supper! but it must end sometime!--and then prayers, and then +Dorcas had amused herself with Bel and the Dragon and Tobit awhile. +All would not do, and the family had been obliged to resort to the +sweet restorer for the last ten minutes. Now they could think their +own thoughts in peace, and talk of what interested them,--cattle, +people, and the like. Poor Dorcas! what with Father Boardman's +preaching, and the Westminster Catechism, she associated religion with +all that was dull and inexplicable, though she did not doubt it was +good in case of dying. In the Nature and life that surrounded her +she had not seen God, but a refuge from Him. In the crimson floods +of sunshine, in the brilliant moonrise, or the pulsating stars of a +winter night, she found a sort of guilty relief from the dulness of +what she supposed was Revelation. But she never thought of questioning +or doubting any teachings, in the pulpit or out. A woman cannot, like +a man, fight a subject down. Her intellect shrinks from being tossed +and pierced on the pricks of doctrine. She is gentle and cowardly. She +sets the matter aside, and is contented to wait till she dies to +find out. But the men in Walton were all theologians, and sharp at +polemics. In the bar-room the spirit of liberty throve, which was +crushed in the pulpit. In that small New-England town, where, like +a great white sheep, Father Boardman now led his docile flock to the +fold, whoever looked long enough would see many new folds and many new +shepherds. Every shape of religious thinking will have its exponent, +and the widest liberty be claimed and enjoyed. Though he slept through +Father Boardman's sermons, it is doubtful if Henry Mowers did not in +his dreams lay the corner-stone of the new meeting-house on the hill. + +Monday, and the hurly-burly of washing over. Dorcas had nearly +finished her "stent" on the little wheel. As she sat by the open door, +diligently trotting her foot, and softly pulling the last flax from +her distaff, her glance went hastily and often towards the setting +sun. She could see beyond the sloping orchard, no longer loaded +with fruit, the Great Meadows, extending along the banks of the +Connecticut. She could see on the eastern side great white mountains, +that went modestly by the name of hills, and that came in after-years +to draw pilgrims from the ends of the earth. They were white-capped +and solemn-looking, and girdled by majestic forests; while the Green +Mountains, that lay along the horizon, not so high as "the Hills," +were crowned with verdure to the very top, and flaming with autumn +dyes. As far as the eye reached, beyond the immediate view rose an +immense solitude of forest that had lasted through centuries. + +Dorcas's eyes rested and roamed alternately over these massive natural +features. She felt dimly in her heart the effect of the solemn aspect +of these great wastes,--these sublime possibilities, concealed and +waiting for the energy of man to discover them. A melancholy, sweet +and soft, composed partly of the effect of the view, and partly of the +languor of the Indian-summer weather, diffused itself over her. She +accused herself of various sins,--of levity, vanity, and not knowing +her own mind. Soon, however, feeling her unskilfulness to steer, she +abandoned the bark, and left it to drift. She must see Swan Day. + +"And as to Henry!"--here Dorcas set back the little wheel,--"and as +to Henry!"--and here Dorcas threw her apron over her face,--"why, what +harm is there? I'm only going to see what he wants." + +Under the apron rippled and rushed a thousand warm blushes, that +contradicted every word Dorcas said to herself. They made her remember +how, only the evening before, Henry had said words to her, which, +although she pretended not to understand him, had made her heart beat +proudly and tenderly; and how she had thought whoever was chosen to +be Henry's wife would be a happy woman! How many times had he said, as +they stood parting on the stoop, how sorry he was to go, and she, +like Juliet, had whispered, 't was "not yet day"! Yes, of course +Henry Mowers would be her husband, and she would tell Swan Day so, +if--if----But then, perhaps, there was no such nonsense in Swan's +head, after all. + +Why could not the gypsy be satisfied with her almost angelic +happiness? But no. She shivered a little as the sun went down, and +exchanged her working-dress of petticoat and short-gown for something +warmer. + +Because Cely Temple was cutting apples and pumpkins, and stringing +them across the kitchen and pantry to dry, and because black Dinah +was making the "bean-porridge" for supper, it came to pass that the +daughter of the house was called on to lay the table. Dorcas bit her +lip, as she hastily did the duty, and postponed the pleasure. + +The laboring-season is nearly over, the eight hired men reduced to +two, and the family-table is spread in the kitchen. How is the table +spread for supper in the house of Colonel Fox, one of the richest +farmers in Walton? + +This is the way. + +Dorcas brushes a scrap from the long table, scoured as white as snow, +but puts no linen on it. On the buttery-shelves, a set of pewter +rivals silver in brightness, but Dorcas does not touch them. She +places a brown rye-and-Indian loaf, of the size of a half-peck, in the +centre of the table,--a pan of milk, with the cream stirred in,--brown +earthen bowls, with bright pewter spoons by the dozen,--a delicious +cheese, whole, and the table is ready. When Dinah appears, with +her bright Madras turban, and says she is ready to dish the +"bean-porridge, nine days old," Dorcas tells her she is going +down beyond the cider-mill, to bring up the yarn, and, throwing a +handkerchief over her head, is out of sight before Dinah has finished +blowing the tin horn that summons to supper. + +In five minutes, she was beyond the cider-mill, beyond the well, and +standing under the old pear-tree. Behind her, hiding her from the +house, is the corn-barn, stuffed and laden with the heavy harvest of +maize and wheat, and the cider-mill, where twenty bushels of apples +lie uncrushed on the ground, ready for the morrow's fate. A long row +of barrels already filled from the foaming vat stand ready to be taken +to the Colonel's own cellar, for the Colonel's own drinking, and as +far as one can see in one direction is the Colonel's own land. The +heiress of all would still be sought for herself. + +Dorcas stood in the departing light, and leaned against the pear-tree. +Not yet come? A flush went up to her forehead, as, dropping her +handkerchief, she raised her hand to her eyes and glanced hastily +about her. Her chestnut curls were fastened with a blue ribbon on the +side of her head, and the floating ends fell on her shoulder. + +This was the one departure from the severe simplicity of her dress, +for neither bright-hued calicoes nor muslins found their way to +Walton. Once in a long while, a print, at five times the present +prices, was introduced into the social circles of Walton by an +occasional peddler, or possibly by the adventurous spirit of Swan Day. +But these were rare instances. + +Flannel of domestic manufacture, pressed till you could almost see +your face in it, stood instead of the French woollen fabric of modern +days. It left the jimp little waist as round and definite as the eye +could ask, while the full flow of the skirt exposed the neat foot, +deftly incased in stout Jefferson shoes. A plaited lawn, technically +termed a "modesty-piece," was folded over the bosom, and concealed +all but the upper part of the throat. Above that rose a face full of +delicacy and healthy sweetness. Eyes full of sparkles, and dimples +all about the cheeks, chin, and rather large mouth. Youth, and the +radiance of a happy, unconscious nature, of the capabilities or +possibilities of which she was as ignorant as the robin on the branch +above her, whose evening song had just closed, and who has just shut +his coquettish eyes. + +A minute more, and Swan sprang over the stone wall, and with three +steps was standing by her. He stood still and looked at her, drawing +deep breaths of haste and agitation. + +Dorcas spoke first. + +"You wanted to see me. What is the matter?" + +"Nothing,--but--you know I've got home." + +"Why, yes, that is clear," answered Dorcas, mischievously, and +entirely easy herself, now that she saw Swan's cheeks aflame, and his +voice choking so he could not speak. + +"We might as well go towards the house, if that is all," added she, +gathering in her hand some skeins of yarn that had been spread out to +whiten. + +Swan caught the yarn and threw it away with an impatient jerk. Then he +took both of Dorcas's hands in his, holding them with a fierce grasp +that made her almost scream. + +"You know I can't go near the house." + +"Yes, I know," said Dorcas, half frightened at his manner. "When did +you get back from Boston?" + +"Saturday night. And I am going again to-morrow. And then--Dorcas--I +shall stay." + +"Stay?" + +"Stay,--till you tell me to come back, maybe!" + +"Why, where are you going, Swan?" + +"To China, Dorcas." + +"I want to know!" exclaimed she. + +"Just it,--and no two ways about it. Sold out to Sawtell. Now you have +it, Dorcas!" + +This curt and abrupt dialogue needed no more words. The rest was made +out fully by the bright color on each face, the sparkling interest +on the bent brow of Dorcas, and the deep, mellow voice, full of +tenderness and hope, mixed with stern decision, on the part of Swan +Day. + +No wonder Dorcas's eyes had a glamour over them as she listened and +looked. What did she see? A slight, erect figure, with Napoleonic +features, animated with admiration and sensibility; emotion glorifying +the rich, deep eyes, and making them look in the twilight like stars; +and over all, the indefinable ease that comes from knowledge of the +world, however small that world may be. + +Swan had little gift of language. The foregoing short dialogue is a +specimen of his ability in that way. But looks are a refinement on +speech, and say what words never can say. + +"You see, Dorcas, I'm going out for the Perkinses with Orrin Tileston. +We each put in five hundred, and have our share of the profits." + +"But to China! that's right under our feet! You'll never come back!" +murmured the girl. + +"Do you ever want I should? Dorcas, if I come back rich, shall you be +glad? It will be all for you,--dear!" the last word low and timidly. + +The mist went over her eyes again. A vision of Solomon in all his +glory swept across her. Even to Walton had spread rumors of the +immense fortunes acquired in the China and India trade, and the gold +of Cathay seemed to shimmer over the form before her, so strong, so +able to contend with, and compel, if need were, Fortune. + +As to Swan, he looked over the river of Time that separated him from +love and happiness, and saw his idol and ideal standing on the +farther bank, dressed in purple and fine linen, with jewels of his own +adorning. Like Bunyan's "shining ones," she seemed to him far lifted +out of the range of ordinary thought and expression, into the regions +of inspired song. Now that he was really going to the East, the image +of Dorcas in his heart took on itself, with a graceful readiness, the +gold of Ophir, the pomps of Palmyra, and the shining glories of Zion. +He longed to "crown her with rose-buds, to fill her with costly wine +and ointments,"--to pour over her the measureless bounty of his love, +from the cornucopia of Fortune. + +"Dorcas," said he,--and his words showed how inadequately thoughts can +be represented,--"Dorcas, I know your father thinks nothing at all +of me now; _but_, supposing I come back in two years, with--with--say +five thousand dollars!--then, Dorcas!" + +The bright, soft eyes looked pleadingly at her. + +Truly, in those days of simplicity and scant earnings, five thousand +dollars did seem likely to be an overwhelming temptation to the owner +of the Fox farm. + +"But,--Swan!" said the blushing girl, releasing herself from his +grasp, and stepping back. + +"Yes, Dorcas!--yes!--once!--only once!" + +He came between her and the image of Henry Mowers; he was going +away; she might never see him again. A vague sentiment, composed of +pleasure, pity, admiration, and ambition, but having the semblance +only of timidity in her rosy face and downcast eyes, made her yield +her shrinking form, for one moment, to his trembling and passionate +caress, and the next, she ran as swiftly as a deer to the house. + +Swan's eyes followed her. With his feet, he dared not. His bounding +heart half-choked him with pleasant pain. All be had not said,--all he +had meant to say to Dorcas, of his well-laid plans, his good-luck, +his hopes,--all he had meant to entreat of her constancy, for in the +infrequent communications between the two countries there was no hope +of a correspondence,--all he had meant to say to her of his fervent +love, of his anguish at separation, of the joy of reunion, and that +his love would leave him only with his life,--if he could only have +told her! But then he never would or could have put it all into +words, if Dorcas had stayed with him under the pear-tree till the next +morning. + +He thought of the Colonel's pride, and how it would come down, at the +sight of Swan Day returning to Walton with five thousand dollars in +his coat-pocket, and mounted, perhaps, on an elephant! If he had held +a foremost social position in Walton, even while selling tape and +mop-sticks, molasses and rum, at the country-store, what might not be +the impression on the public mind at seeing the glittering plumage of +this "bird let loose from Eastern skies, when hastening fondly home"? +There was much balm for wounded pride to be gathered in this Oriental +project. + +Swan collected his energies and his clothes, finished his remaining +last words and duties, and took his seat with the mail-carrier, who +had the only public conveyance at that period from the town of Walton +to the town of Boston. His parents were dead; his immediate relatives +were scattered already in different States; and he left Walton with +his heart full of one image, that of Dorcas Fox. + + +CHAPTER III. + +"They du say Swan Day's gun off for good!" said Cely Temple, as she +returned from the store, with a Dutch-oven in her hand, which she had +purchased,--"an' to th' East Injees!" + +"I want to know!" rejoined Mrs. Fox. + +"I know some'll be sorry!" continued Cely, while Dorcas diligently +stirred a five-pail kettle of apple-sauce, that hung stewing over the +low fire. + +Mrs. Fox looked up quickly at her daughter, but Dorcas continued +quietly stirring, and without turning round. + +"Mahala Dorr, I guess," said she. + +"Wall, M'hala'll be, an' so'll others," answered Cely, prudently. +"But I expect likely Swan'll do well, ef he don't die. They say the +atemuspere is pison there!--especially for dark-complected folks." + +To this hopeful remark Mrs. Fox rejoined, that "old Miss Day come +herself from a warm country, and 't was likely her son would settle +there for good, and enjoy his health there better than what he would +here." + +"He'll look out well for Number One, anyhow!" said Cely, lifting the +lid of the Dutch-oven from the fire. + +Dorcas shot an angry glance at the apple-sauce. + +Nothing further passed on the subject, and Dorcas somehow felt, as she +stirred, as if Swan were already a long, long way off,--as if the ship +had sailed, and would stay sailed, like an enchanted ship, hovering +on the horizon, and never come near enough for the passengers to be +distinguished,--or else, maybe, go up into the clouds, and rest there +with all its masts and spars distinct against the rose-mist, as she +had read of once in a book of travels,--or, perhaps, even be inverted, +and stand there on its head, as it were, always: but everything must +be upside down, of course, in China. Already the thought of Swan Day +had mingled with the mists of the past. The outline became indefinite, +and softened into a golden splendor, that belonged no more to her, but +was essentially of another hemisphere. He had by this time cut loose +from home and country. Whether a hundred, or a hundred thousand miles, +it mattered not. Since she could not grasp the idea, the distance was +as good as infinite to her. + +This, you see, is not exactly coquetry. But events drifted her. + +When supper was over, and Dinah had gone to sleep, and Cely to visit +the neighbors, as usual, Dorcas shyly approached the subject which +occupied her thoughts, by getting the little box of jewelry, and +looking at it. Her mother called her from the kitchen, out of which +the bed-room opened. + +"Does mother want me?" asked Dorcas, turning round, with the box in +her hand. + +"No, no matter," answered the mother; and, possibly with an intuitive +feeling of what was in her daughter's thought, she went into the +bed-room, and looked with her at the pin and ring of Aunt Dorcas. + +"Was it--was it a long time, mother,--I mean, before he came back?" +said Dorcas. + +"Who? Captain Waterhouse? Bless you! they was as good as merried for +ten year, an' he was goin' all the time, an' then, jest at the last +minute, to be 'racked! It's 'most always so, when people goes to sea," +added she, in a plaintive tone. + +Dorcas meditated; she looked wistfully at her mother. + +"It's a pretty pin,--dreadful pretty round the edge." + +"Yes, 't is! I expect likely them's di'mon's. 'T was made over in +foreign parts. He was goin' to bring his picter, too, from there. But +he's lost and gone! Your Aunt Dorcas never had no more suitors after +that, and she kind o' gin in, and never had no sperits." + +Dorcas's eyes filled, and she closed the box. + + +Henry Mowers would not come to the Fox farm till the next Sunday +night. That was as much settled as the new moon. So Dorcas had the +whole week to herself, to be thoroughly unhappy in,--all the more so, +a thousand times more so, for being utterly incapable of saying or +seeing why. An instinctive delicacy kept her from showing to any +of the family that she was even depressed; and her voice was heard +steadily warbling one of Wesley's hymns, or "Wolfe's Address to his +Army," in clear, brilliant tones, that rang up-stairs and down. The +general impression of distance and water associated her absent lover +with all that was heroic and romantic in song; for of novels she knew +nothing,--the Colonel's library being limited, in the imaginative +line, to a torn copy of the "Iliad," which had been left at the house +by a travelling cobbler. + +However, romance is before all rules, and shapes its own adventures. +The beauty of Swan Day, which, dark and slight as it was, gleamed with +a power for Dorcas's eye and heart before which Buonarotti's +would have been only pale stone forever,--that beauty dwelt in her +imagination and memory, as only first romantic impressions can. +Distance canonized him, enthroned him, glorified him. And when she +thought of his setting forth so boldly, so bravely, to tread the +wide water, to tempt the hot sun, the foreign exposure, the perpetual +dangers of heathen countries, for her unworthy sake, all that was +tenderest, most grateful, in her now first wakened nature, rose up in +distressful tumult, and agitated the depths that are in all women's +souls. + +If there had been anybody to whom she could confide the sad wrenching +of her spirit, any one who would have cleared her vision, and taught +her to look on "this picture and on this," she might not have been so +puzzled between her two Hyperions. But as it was, it was a sorrowful +struggle. One had the advantage of distance and imagination,--one of +presence, and of the magnetism of eye and lip. + +"I am a wicked, wicked girl!" said she, as she stood before the glass, +and loosened the locks that fell like sunshine over her shoulders. But +this confession, with true New-England reticence, was uttered only to +one listener,--herself. + +Then, she recalled, for it was Monday night once more, the frank and +noble nature of Henry: how he had not asked her to promise him, but +seemed to take for granted her truth and faith; how he had looked so +fondly, so clearly into her eyes, not for what he might find there, +but to show the transparent goodness and sincerity of his own; and +how he had told her of all his plans and hopes, of his wish and her +father's intention that they should be married that very fall; how +little he had said of his own overflowing affection, only that "he had +never thought of anybody else." Dorcas only felt, without putting the +sense into language, that in this life-boat there was safety. But +then had she not sent her heart on a venture in the other,--that other +which even now was tossing on the waves of a future, full-freighted +with hope, and faith in her truth? + +She opened the little box again, and looked at the ring and painted +pin. How sorrowfully she looked at them now, seen through tears of +conscious experience! How mournful seemed the ground hair, and +the tints woven of so many broken hopes, sad thoughts, and wrecked +expectations! the hair, kissed so many times in the weary years of +waiting, and then wept over in the drearier desolation, when the sight +could only bring thoughts of the salt waves dashing amongst it in the +deep sea! What a life that had been of poor Aunt Dorcas! Then came +across her busy thought the words of her mother,--"It's 'most always +so!" + +Swan sailed very far away, in these tearful reveries, and took hope +and life with him. + +When the next Sunday evening came, and the next, and the next,--and +when Dorcas had ceased to say, blushing and smiling,--"Don't, Henry! +you know I should make such a poor kind of a wife for you! and your +mother wouldn't think anything of me!"--and when, Henry had had an +offer to go to Western New York, where there were nobody knew how many +beautiful girls, all waiting to pounce on the tall, fine-looking +young farmer,--when Colonel Fox forgot he was a deacon, and swore +that Dorcas was undeserving of such a happy lot as was offered to +her,--when the tears, and the reveries, and the pictures of far-away +lands, and the hopes that might wither with long years of waiting, +were all merged and effaced in the healthy happiness of the +present,--Dorcas dried her tears, and applied herself diligently to +building up her flaxen _trousseau_, and smothered in her heart the +image of dark and brilliant beauty that had for a time occupied it. + +"She waited--a long time!--years--and years!" murmured Dorcas, +sorrowfully, as she looked at the pin and ring, which in her mind were +associated strongly with only one person,--and that one hereafter to +be dead to her. As soon as events clearly defined her duties, Dorcas +had no further questions with herself. If the box had been Pandora's, +not the less resolutely would she have shut it forever, and so crushed +the hope that it could never have leaped out. + +So, with choking tears, and throbbing pulses, she followed many +brilliant fancies and hopes to their last resting-place. Henceforth +her path was open and clear, her duties defined, and with daily +occupation of hand and thought she strove to displace all that had +ever made her other than the cheerful and busy Dorcas. For the last +time, she closed and put away the box. + + * * * * * + + +THRENODY. + +[Among the imprinted papers of the author of "Charles Auchester" and +"Counterparts" was found this poem, addressed to a father on the death +of a favorite son, whose noble disposition and intellectual gifts were +all enlisted on the side of suffering humanity.] + + O mourner by the ever-mourning deep, + Full as the sea of tears! imperial heart, + King in thy sorrow over all who weep! + O wrestler with the darkness set apart + + In clouds of woe whose lightnings are the throb + Of thy fast-flashing pulses! pause to hear + The lullabies of many an alien sob, + A storm of alien sighs,--so far! so near! + + Oh that our vigils with thy gentle dead + Could charm thee from thy night-long agonies, + Could steep thy brain in slumber mild, and shed + Elysian dreams upon thy closing eyes! + + In vain! all vain!--'tis yet the feast of tears; + Sorrow for sorrow is the only spell; + Nor wanders yet to melt in unspent years + The wringing murmur of our fresh farewell! + + Thousands bereft strew wide the ashes dim; + Rich hearts, poor hands, the lovely, the unlearned, + Bemoan the angel of the age in him, + A star unto its starlight strength returned, + + The City of Delights hath lost its gem, + The Sea the changeful glance so like its own, + Genius the darling of her diadem, + Whose smile made moonlight round her awful throne. + + Those elfin steps their music moves no more + Beneath light domes to tune the festal train, + Nor at the moony eves along the shore + To brim with fairy forms that wizard brain. + + Cold rocks, wild winds, and ever-changing waves, + Sad rains that fret the sea and drown the day, + We hail,--well pleased that stricken Autumn raves, + Though not with Winter shall our griefs decay. + + On lurid mornings, when the lustrous sea + Is violet-shadowed from the warm blue air, + When the dark grasses brighten over thee, + And the winged sunbeams flutter golden there,-- + + Then to the wild green slope, thy chosen rest, + The blossoms of our spirits we will bring, + (Again a babe upon thy mother's breast, + An infant seed of the eternal Spring,)-- + + Thoughts bright and dark as violets in their dew, + Unfading memories of a smile more sweet + Than perfume of pale roses, hopes that strew + Ethereal lilies on those silent feet + + The ghost of Pain haunts not that garden-land + Where Passion's phantom is so softly laid; + But Charity beside that earth doth stand, + Most lovely left of all, thy sister-shade. + + Her baby-loves like trembling snowdrops lean + Above thy calm hands and thy quiet head, + When morn is fair, or noonday's glory keen + Or the white star-fire glistens on thy bed. + + Her eyes of heaven upon thy slumbers brood, + Her watch is o'er thy pillow, and her breath + Tells every breeze that stirs thy solitude + How thou didst earn that rest on earth called Death,-- + + Earned in such quickening youth and brilliant years! + For us too early, not too soon for thee!-- + So may we rest, when Death shall dry our tears, + Till everlasting Morning makes us free! + + + + +THE UTILITY AND THE FUTILITY OF APHORISMS. + + +The best aphorisms are pointed expressions of the results of +observation, experience, and reflection. They are portable wisdom, +the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling. They furnish the +largest amount of intellectual stimulus and nutriment in the smallest +compass. About every weak point in human nature, or vicious spot +in human life, there is deposited a crystallization of warning and +protective proverbs. For instance, with what relishing force such +sayings as the following touch the evil resident in indolence and +delay!--"An unemployed mind is the Devil's workshop"; "The industrious +tortoise wins the race from the lagging eagle"; "When God says, +To-day, the Devil says, To-morrow." In like manner, another cluster +of adages depict the certainty of the detection and punishment of +crime:--"Murder will out"; "Justice has feet of wool, but hands of +iron"; "God's mills grind slow, but they grind sure." So in relation +to every marked exposure of our life, there will be found in the +records of the common thought of mankind a set of deprecating +aphorisms. + +The laconic compactness of these utterances, their constant +applicability, the pungent patness with which they hit some fact of +experience, principle of human nature, or phenomenon of life, the ease +with which their racy sense may be apprehended and remembered, give +them a powerful charm for the popular fancy. Accordingly, a multitude +of proverbs are afloat in the writings and in the mouths of every +civilized people. Groups of national proverbs exist in most of the +languages of the world, each family of apothegms revealing the +chief traits of the people who gave them birth. In these collective +expressions of national mind, we can recognize--if so incomplete a +characterization may be ventured--the indrawn meditativeness of the +Hindu, the fiery imagination of the Arab, the devout and prudential +understanding of the Hebrew, the aesthetic subtilty of the Greek, +the legal breadth and sensual recklessness of the Roman, the martial +frenzy of the Goth, the chivalric and dark pride of the Spaniard, +the treacherous blood of the Italian, the mercurial vanity of the +Frenchman, the blunt realism of the Englishman. + +It is obvious enough that the masses of moral statements or standing +exhortations composing the aphorisms of a language cannot mix in the +daily minds of men without deep cause and effect. It will be worth our +while to inquire into the bearings of this matter; for, though many a +gatherer has carried his basket through these diamond districts of the +mind, we do not remember that any one has sharply examined the value +of the treasures so often displayed, set forth the methods of their +influence and its qualifications, and determined the respective limits +of their use and their worthlessness. Undertaking this task, we must, +in the outset, divide aphorisms into the two classes of proverbs +and maxims, plebeian perceptions and aristocratic conclusions, moral +axioms and philosophic rules. This distinction may easily be made +clear, and will prove useful. + +Popular proverbs are national, or cosmopolitan, and they are +anonymous,--rising from among the multitude, and floating on their +breath. They are generalizations of the average observation of a +people. Undoubtedly, as a general thing, each one was first struck +out by some superior mind. But usually this happened so early that +the name of the author is lost. Proverbs--as the etymology hints--are +words held before the common mind, words in front of the public. Wise +maxims, on the contrary, are individual, may more commonly be traced +to their origin in the writings of some renowned author, and are +more limited in their audience. They are the results of comprehensive +insight, the ripened products of searching meditation, the weighty +utterances of weighty minds. The proverb, "A burnt child dreads the +fire," flies over all climes and alights on every tongue. The maxim, +"All true life begins with renunciation," appeals to comparatively +few, and tarries only in prepared and thoughtful minds. Proverbs +are often mere statements of facts, barren truisms, too obvious to +instruct our thought, affect our feeling, or in any way change our +conduct, though the accuracy with which the arrow is shot fixes our +attention. Notice a few examples of this sort:--"A friend in need is +a friend indeed"; "Many a little makes a mickle"; "Anger is a brief +madness"; "It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good." Such +affirmations are too general and obvious to be provocative awakeners +of original reflection, sentiment, or will. Maxims, on the other hand, +instead of being general descriptions or condensed common-places, are +usually definite directions, discriminative exhortations. Notice such +specimens as these:--"Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take +care of themselves"; "When angry, count ten before you speak"; "Do the +duty nearest your hand, and the next will already have grown clearer"; +"Remember that a thing begun is half done." Proverbs, then, are +results of observation, often affirmations of quite evident facts, +as, "Necessity is the mother of invention," or, "Who follows the +river will arrive at the sea." Maxims, in distinction, are results +of reflection. They are experience generalized into rules for the +guidance of action, as, "Think twice before you speak once," or, +"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will +not depart from it." Proverbs are statical; maxims are dynamic. Those +are wisdom embalmed; these wisdom vitalized. The former are literary +fodder; the latter are literary pemmican. + +The commonest application of proverbs is as mental economics, +_substitutes for thought_. They are constantly employed by the +ordinary sort of persons as provisions to avoid spiritual exertion, +artifices to dispose of a matter with the smallest amount of +intellectual trouble, as when one ends a controversy with the adage, +"Least said, soonest mended." The majority of people desire to get +along with the least possible expenditure of thinking. To many a +hard-headed laborer, five minutes of girded and continuous thinking +are more exhaustive than a whole day of muscular toil. No fact is more +familiar than that illiterate minds are furnished with an abundance of +trite sayings which they readily cite on all occasions. They thus +hit, or at least fancy they hit, the principle which applies to the +exigency, without the trouble of extemporaneously thinking it out +for themselves on the spot. Such saws as, "The pot must not call the +kettle black," "One swallow does not make a Spring," "Nought is never +in danger," "Out of sight, out of mind," often give employment to an +otherwise freightless tongue, and serve as excusing makeshifts for a +mind incompetent, from ignorance, indolence, or fatigue, to discharge +the duty of furnishing its own thought and expression for the +occasion. + +Proverbs are more frequently used as _explanations_ than as _guides_ +of conduct, as the reason why we _have_ acted in a certain manner than +as a reason why we _should_ act so. "Look before you leap," is usually +said _after_ we have leaped. When a miserly man refuses to give +anything in behalf of some distant object, his refusal is not prompted +by the remembrance of the proverb, "Charity begins at home"; but the +stingy propensity first stirs in the man and actuates him, and then he +expresses his motive, or evades the true issue, by quoting the selfish +old saw ever ready at his hand. In such cases the axiom is not the +forerunning cause of the action, but its justifying explanation. +Sometimes, undeniably, an applicable proverb coming to mind does +influence a man and decide his conduct. Coming at the right moment, in +the wavering of his will, it suggests the principle which determines +him, lends the needful balance of impulse for which he waited. An old +proverb, indorsed by the usage of generations, strikes on the ear like +a voice falling from the heights of antiquity; it is clothed with +a kind of authority. Doubtless many a poor boy has received a sound +flogging which he would have escaped, had not his father happened +to recall the somewhat cruel and questionable aphorism of Solomon, +currently abbreviated into "Spare the rod and spoil the child." +When Charles IX. was hesitating as to the enactment of the Saint +Bartholomew Massacre, his bigoted mother, infuriated with sectarian +hate, whispered in his ear, "Clemency is sometimes cruelty, and +cruelty clemency,"--and the fatal decree was sealed. But such +instances are exceptional, and partly deceptive, too. Man is usually +governed by his own passions, his own circumstances, or his own +reason, not by any verbal propositions. And when an apt and timely +adage seems to determine him, it is, for the most part, because +it acts upon responsive feelings preexistent in him and already +struggling to express themselves. And thus, upon the whole, it is +to be concluded that proverbs are the children of Epimetheus, or +afterthought, rather than of Prometheus, or forethought. They are +rather products than producers,--intellectual forms rather than +intellectual forces. The prevalent notion of their influence is a +huge and singular error. One of our wisest authors, himself a great +aphorist, says,--"Proverbs are the sanctuaries of the intuitions." But +the intuitions, for the very reason that they are intuitive, need no +advisory guidance, and admit of no verbal help. + +But when we turn from the aphoristic proverbs of the people to +the aphoristic maxims of the wise, a deep distinction and contrast +confront us. These, so far from being evasions of effort or +substitutes for thought, are direct stimulants to thought, provocative +summonses to more earnest mental application. Seneca says, "Wouldst +thou subject all things to thyself? Subject thyself to reason." A +modern writer says, "They are not kings who have thrones, but they who +know how to govern." Now any one meeting these maxims, if they have +any effect on him, will be set a-thinking to discover the principle +contained in them. He will feel that there is a profound significance +in them; and his curiosity will be awakened, his intellect fired, to +find out the grounds and bearings of the law they denote. In this way +the words of the wise are goads to prick and urge the faculties of +inferior minds. Pointed expressions of the experience of the sovereign +masters of life and the world impel feebler and less agile natures to +follow the tracks of light and emulate the choice examples set before +them, with swifter movements and with richer results than they could +ever have attained, if not thus encouraged. Proverbial axioms flourish +copiously in the idiomatic ground and vernacular climate of unlearned, +undisciplined, unreflective minds, as thistles on the highway where +every ass may gather them. But precious maxims, those "short sentences +drawn from a long experience," as Cervantes calls them, are found +mostly in the writings of the greatest geniuses, Solomon, Aristotle, +Shakspeare, Bacon, Goethe, Richter, Emerson: and they appeal +comparatively but to a select class of minds, kindred in some degree +to those that originated them. + +To appreciate and use correctly a valuable maxim requires a genius, +a vital appropriating exercise of mind, closely allied to that which +first created it. In order to secure genuine profit here, the disciple +must for himself repeat the processes of the teacher, reach the same +conclusion, see the same truth. Wisdom cannot be mechanically taken, +but must be spiritually assimilated,--cannot be put on as a coat or +hat, used as a hammer or a sling, but must be intelligently grasped, +digested, and organized into the mental structure and habits. The +truth of this is at once so palpable and so important that it has +found embodiment in numerous proverbs known to almost every one: "An +ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of school-wit"; "A pennyweight of +your own wit is worth a ton of other people's"; "Who cannot work out +his salvation by heart will never do it by book." + +For the reason just indicated, we think the common estimate of +the actual influence of even the costliest preceptive sayings is +monstrously exaggerated. That an aphorism should really be of use, it +must virtually be reproduced by the faculties of your own soul. But +the mental energy and acquirement which thus recreate it in a great +degree supersede the necessity of it, render it an expression not of +a guidance you need from without, but of an insight and force already +working within. Your character determines what maxims you will select +or create far more than the maxims you choose or make determine what +your character will be. Herbart says, "Characters with ruling plans +are energetic; characters with ruling maxims are virtuous." This is +true, since a continuous plan subsidizes the forces that would without +it run to waste, and a deliberately chosen authority girds and guides +the soul from perilous dallying and dissipation. Nevertheless, it is +not so much that characters are energetic or virtuous because they +have ruling plans or maxims as it is that they have ruling plans or +maxims because they are energetic or virtuous. Say to a penurious, +hard, grumpy man, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Will +you thus make him liberal, sympathetic, affable? No, his character +will neutralize your precept, as vinegar receiving the sunshine into +its bosom becomes more sour. Some persons seem to imagine that a wise +maxim is a sort of fairy's wand, one touch of which will transform the +loaded panniers of a donkey into the fiery wings of a Pegasus. Surely, +it is a great error. Trench says, with an amusing _naivete_, "There is +scarcely a mistake which in the course of our lives we have committed, +but some proverb, _had we known and attended to its lesson_, might +have saved us from it." The two comprehensive conditions, "had we +known and attended to its lesson," are discharging conductors, that +empty the sentence of all proper meaning, and leave only a rank of +hollow words behind. He might as well say, "Had we never been tempted, +we had never fallen,--had we possessed all wisdom, we had never +committed an error," The best maxim that ever was made cannot directly +impart or create knowledge or virtue or spiritual force. It can only +give a voice to those qualities where they already exist, and so set +in motion a strengthening interchange of action and reaction. Though a +fool's mouth be stuffed with proverbs, he still remains as much a fool +as before. He is past preaching to who does not care to mend. As the +brave Schiller affirms, "Heaven and earth fight in vain against a +dunce." Eternal contact with nutritious wisdom can teach no lesson, +nor profit at all one who has not a cooeperative and assimilative +mind. The anchor is always in the sea, but it never learns to swim. +Philosophic precepts address the reason; but the springs of motive and +regeneration are in the sentiments. To attempt the reformation of +a bad man by means of fine aphorisms is as hopeless as to bombard +a fortress with diamonds, or to strive to exhilarate the brain by +pelting the forehead with grapes. + +And yet, notwithstanding these large limitations and abatements, it +is not to be denied that both proverbs and maxims, when habitually +recalled, generally have some effect, often are strongly influential, +and may, by a faithful observance of the conditions, be made extremely +efficacious. What, then, are the conditions of deriving profit from +the contemplation of aphorisms? How can we make their futility end, +their utility begin? The first, ever indispensable condition is fresh +discrimination. There are false, cynical, mean, devilish aphorisms, as +well as sound and worthy ones. Each style of character, kind and grade +of experience breathes itself out in corresponding expressions. "Self +is the man"; "Look out for Number One"; "Devil take the hindmost"; +"One for me is as good as two for you"; "Every man has his price"; +"Draw the snake from its hole by another man's hand"; "Vengeance is +a feast fit for the gods." The fact that such infernal sentiments are +proverbs must be no excuse for not trampling them out of sight with +disgust and scorn. Discrimination is needed not only to reject bad +sayings, but also to correct incomplete or extravagant ones. The +maxim, "Never judge by appearances," must be modified, because in +reality appearances are all that we have to judge from. Its true +rendering is, "Judge cautiously, for appearances are often deceptive." +A proverb is almost always partial, presenting one aspect of the +matter,--or excessive, making no allowance for exceptions. Here +independent insight is requisite, that we may not err. As a general +thing, aphorisms are particular truths put into forms of universality, +and they must be severely scrutinized, lest a mere characteristic +of the individual be mistaken for a normal faculty of the race. For +instance, it is said, "A reconciled friend is an enemy in disguise." +Not always, by any means; it depends greatly on the character of +the man, "Forewarned is forearmed." Generally this is true, but not +invariably; as sometimes a man, by being forewarned of danger, is +unnerved with terror, and undone. So the two maxims, "Never abandon +a certainty for an uncertainty," "Nothing venture, nothing have," +destroy each other. Whether you shall give up the one bird in the hand +and try for the two in the bush depends on the relative worth of the +one and the two, and the probabilities of success in the trial. +No abstract maxim can help solve that problem: it requires living +intelligence. To follow a foreign rule empirically will often be to +fare as the monkey fared, who, undertaking to shave, as he had seen +his master do, gashed his face and paws. Fearful incisions of the soul +will he get who accepts unqualifyingly the class of impulsive proverbs +with their enormously overdrawn inferences: such as that of David, +when he said in his haste, "All men are liars"; or that of Moore, +when he said in his song, "The world is all a fleeting show, for man's +illusion given"; or that maxim of Schopenhauer, so full of deadly +misanthropy and melancholy that one would gladly turn his back on a +world in which he believed such a rule necessary, "Love no one, hate +no one, is the first half of all worldly wisdom; say nothing, believe +nothing, is the other half." + +The first condition of a profitable use of maxims being a thorough +mastery of the rule proposed, with its limits, the next condition +is an accurate self-knowledge. Know yourself, your weaknesses, your +aptitudes, your exposures, your gifts and strength, in order that you +may know what to seek or avoid, what to cherish or spurn, what to spur +or curb, what to fortify or assail. For example, if your head is made +of butter, it is clear that it will not do for you to be a baker. If +you are a coward, you must not volunteer to lead a forlorn hope. The +advantage of self-knowledge is that it enables us to prescribe for +ourselves the contemplation of such principles and motives as we +need. If our thought is narrow and our fancy cold, we should study the +maxims that instruct,--as, "Joys are wings, sorrows are spurs." If +our heart is faint and our will weak, we should study the maxims that +inspire,--as, "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." +The instructive maxim opens a vista of truth to the intellect, as when +Goethe said, "A man need not be an architect in order to live in a +house." The inspiring maxim strikes a martial chord in the soul, +as when Alexander said to his Greeks, shrinking at the sight of +the multitudinous host of Persians, "One butcher does not fear many +sheep." The evil of self-ignorance is, that it permits men to choose +as their favorite and guiding maxims those adages which express and +foster their already rampant propensities, leaving their drooping +deficiencies to pine and cramp in neglect. The miser pampers his +avarice by repeating a hundred times a day, "A penny saved is a penny +gained": as if that were the maxim _he_ needed! The spend-thrift +comforts and confirms himself in his prodigality by saying, "God +loveth a cheerful giver": as if that were not precisely the saying +he ought never to recall! Audacity and arrogance constantly say to +themselves, "Be bold, be bold, and evermore be bold." Timidity and +distrust are ever whispering, "Be not too bold." Thus what would be +one man's meat proves another man's poison; whereas, were it rightly +distributed, both would be nourished into healthy development. The +over-reckless should restrain himself by remembering that "Fools +rush in where angels fear to tread." The over-cautious should animate +himself with the reflection that "The coward dies a thousand deaths, +the brave man only one." A man who, with deep self-knowledge, +carefully chooses and perseveringly applies maxims adapted to check +his excess and arouse his defect may derive unspeakable profit from +them. + +To do this with full success, however, he must have a discriminating +knowledge of the circumstances as well as of the rule, and of himself. +"Circumstances alter cases." What applies happily in one exigency may +be perfectly absurd or ruinous in a different situation. The mule, +loaded with salt, waded through a brook, and, as the salt melted, +the burden grew light. The ass, loaded with wool, tried the same +experiment; but the wool, saturated with water, was twice as heavy as +before. So the Satyr, in AEsop's fable, asked the man coming in from +the cold, "Why he blew on his fingers?" and was told, "To warm them." +Soon after he asked, "Why he blew in his soup?" and was told, "To +cool it." Whereupon he rushed on the man with a club and slew him as a +liar. The ramifications of truth in varying emergencies are infinitely +subtile and complicated, and often demand the very nicest care +in distinguishing. Good advice, when empirically taken and rashly +followed, is as an eye in the hand, sure to be put out the first thing +on trying to use it. "Advice costs nothing and is good for nothing," +it is often said. But that depends on the quality of the advice, on +the circumstances, and on what kind of persons impart and receive the +counsel. Advice given with earnestness and wisdom, and applied with +docility and discrimination, may cost a great deal and be invaluable. +Competence and aptness, or folly and heedlessness, make a world of +difference. The great difficulty in regard to the fruitfulness of +advice is the universal readiness to impart, the usual unwillingness +to accept it. We give advice by the bucket, take it by the grain. For +these reasons the world is yet surfeited with precept and starving for +example: and the applicability is by no means exhausted of the +fable of Brabrius, who tells how when an old crab said to her child, +"Awkward one, walk not so crookedly!" he replied, "Mother, walk you +straight, I will watch and follow." Verbal wisdom would direct us; +exemplified wisdom draws us. + +The first danger, then, from aphorisms is, that they may enable us +to evade, instead of helping us to fulfil, the duty of meeting and +solving for ourselves each mental exigency as it arises. In such a +case, educative discipline and growth are forfeited. The other danger +from them is, that they may be applied mechanically, without a just +understanding of them, and thus that grievous mistakes may be made. +Their genuine use is to excite our own minds to master the principles +which their authors have set forth in them. Fresh honesty of personal +thought, aspiration, and patience, is the spiritual talisman wherewith +alone we can vivify truisms into truths, and transmute noble maxims +into flesh and blood, nay, into immortal mind. The master-thinkers aid +us to do this by the quickening power of their suggestions,--the great +critic not only giving his readers direction, but also helping them to +eyesight. + +To traverse the works of some authors is like going through a +carefully arranged herbarium, where every specimen is lifeless, +shrivelled, dusty, crumbling to the touch. The writings of genuine men +of genius are like a conservatory, where every plant of thought and +sentiment, whether indigenous or exotic, is alive, full of bloom and +fragrance, the sap at work in its veins. Verbal statements which are +petrifactions of wisdom can neither stimulate nor nourish; but verbal +statements which are vital concentrations of wisdom do both. He +has learned one of the most important lessons in human life who +understands adequately the difference between formal perception and +organic experience, contrasting the futility of detached and deathly +proverbs with the utility of nutritious and electrical maxims. +A mechanical teacher crowds the ear with mummified precepts and +exhortations; an inspired teacher brings surcharged examples and +rules into contact with the mind. The distinction is world-wide and +inexhaustible. + + * * * * * + + +SHELLEY. + +BY ONE WHO KNEW HIM. + + +If photography had existed during the lifetime of Shelley, it alone +would have sufficed to correct many a misconception of his character +founded upon imperfect portraiture; and even the most boyish +recollections of him, matter-of-fact as they are, may help to solve +the problem upon which many minds have been engaged without yet +having finished the work. For Shelley still remains before the +world misconceived because misdescribed; and if society is +gradually clearing its ideas of the man, it is not only because +the preconceptions of that multitudinous authority are themselves +gradually drifting away, but also because substantial facts are slowly +coming into view. Their development has been hindered by obstacles +which will be understood when I have proceeded a little farther, and +even within the compass of this brief sketch I hope that I shall be +able to make readers on both sides of the Atlantic work their own way +a little closer to the truth. + +Shelley is still regarded by the majority, either as a victim of +persecution, or a rebel against authority, or both,--his friends +probably inclining to hold him up as a philosopher-patriot, whose +resistance to intellectual oppression placed him in the condition of +a martyr and robbed him of his fair share of life. My own earliest +memory presents him very much in that aspect. I first recall him +pale and slender, worn with anxiety, openly alluding to the marks of +premature age in his own aspect, bursting with aspirations against +tyranny of all kinds, and yielding to fits of dreadful despondency +under sufferings inflicted by the dignitaries of the land at the +instance of his own family. The circumstances by which he was +surrounded contributed to this guise of martyrdom. + +My own earliest recollections began in prison, where my father[A] +was incarcerated for critical remarks which at the present day would +scarcely attract attention, and which were put forth in no impulse of +personal hostility, but under the strongest sense of duty, with the +desire to vindicate the constitutional freedom of England against the +perverted control of faction and the influences of a corrupt court. At +that time my father was accounted a man prone to mutiny against "the +powers that be," although his political opinions belonged to a class +which would now be regarded as too moderate for popular liberalism. +He has been censured for literary affectation and for personal +improvidence, but only by those who do not understand the real +elements of his character. The leading ideas of his mind were, +first, earnest duty to his country at any cost to himself; next, the +sacrifice of any ordinary consideration to personal affection and +friendship; and lastly, the cultivation of "the ideal," especially as +it is developed in imaginative literature. His life was passed in an +absolute devotion to these three principles. A one-sided frankness has +blazoned to the world the sacrifices which he accepted from friends, +but has whispered nothing of the more than commensurate sacrifices +made on his side; and the simplicity that rendered him the creature of +the library in which he lived entered into the expression of all his +thoughts and feelings. + +[Footnote A: Leigh Hunt.] + +Although I can remember some of the most eminent men who visited us +in prison, Shelley I cannot; but I can well recall my father's +description of the young stranger who came to him breathing the +classic thoughts of college, ardent with aspirations for the +emancipation of man from intellectual slavery, and endowed by Nature +with an aspect truly "angelic." + +In the interval before his next visit to us, Shelley had passed +through the first serious passion of his youth, had married Harriet +Westbrooke, had become the father of two children, and had thus to all +appearance secured the transmission of the estates strictly entailed +with the baronetcy,--but had also been exiled from his family-home, +as well as from college, for his revolutionary and infidel principles, +had gone through a course of domestic disappointment, had separated +from his wife, and was threatened with the removal of his children, +on the ground of the impious and "immoral" training to which they were +destined under his guardianship. He came to our house for support and +consolation; he found in it a home for his intellect as well as for +his feelings, and he was as strictly a part of the family as any of +our blood-relations, for he came and went at pleasure. I can remember +that I performed his bidding equally with that of my father; and as to +personal deference or regard, the only distinction which my memory +can discover is, that I found in Shelley a companion whom I better +understood, and whose country rambles I was more pleased to share. For +this there were many reasons, and amongst them that Shelley entered +more unreservedly into the sports and even the thoughts of children. +I had probably awakened interest in him, not only because I was my +father's eldest child, but still more because I had already begun to +read with great avidity, and with an especial sense of imaginative +wonders and horrors; and, familiarized with the conversation amongst +literary men, I had really been able to understand something of his +position, insomuch that no doubt he saw the intense interest I took in +himself and his sufferings. + +The emotions that he underwent were but too manifest in the +unconcealed anxiety and the eager recital of newly awakened hopes, +with intervals of the deepest depression. He suffered also from +physical causes, which I then only in part understood. This suffering +was traced to the attack made upon him at Tanyralt, in Wales, when, on +the night of February the 26th, 1813, some man who had been prowling +about the house in which he lived first fired at him through the +window, and then entered the room, escaping when the man-servant was +called in by the tumult and the screams of Mrs. Shelley. The whole +incident has been doubted,--why, I can hardly understand, unless the +reason is that some of the conjectures in which Mrs. Shelley indulged +were over-imaginative. She mentions by name a political opponent who +had said that "he would drive them out of the country." My own weak +recollections point to reasons more personal. But what I do know is, +that Shelley himself ascribed the injury from which he suffered to +a pressure of the assassin's knee upon him in the struggle. The +complaint was of long standing; the attacks were alarmingly severe, +and the seizure very sudden. I can remember one day at Hampstead: it +was soon after breakfast, and Shelley sat reading, when he suddenly +threw up his book and hands, and fell back, the chair sliding sharply +from under him, and he poured forth shrieks, loud and continuous, +stamping his feet madly on the ground. My father rushed to him, and, +while the women looked out for the usual remedies of cold water and +hand-rubbing, applied a strong pressure to his side, kneading it with +his hands; and the patient seemed gradually to be relieved by that +process. This happened about the time when he was most anxious for the +result of the trial which was to deprive him of his children. In +the intervals he sought relief in reading, in conversation,--which +especially turned upon classic literature,--in freedom of thought and +action, and in play with the children of the house. I can remember +well one day when we were both for some long time engaged in gambols, +broken off by my terror at his screwing up his long and curling +hair into a horn, and approaching me with rampant paws and frightful +gestures as some imaginative monster. + +It was at this time that the incident happened which has been +mentioned by my father. A poor woman had been attending her son before +a criminal court in London. As they were returning home at night, +fatigue and anxiety so overcame her that she fell on the ground in +convulsions, where she was found by Shelley. He appealed to a very +opulent person, who lived on the top of the hill, asking admission for +the woman into the house, or the use of the carriage, which had just +set the family down at the door. The stranger was repulsed with +the cold remark that impostors swarmed everywhere, and that his own +conduct was "extraordinary." The good Samaritan, whom the Christian +would not help, warned the uncharitable man that such treatment of the +poor is sometimes chastised by hard treatment of the rich in days +of trouble; and I heard Shelley describe the manner in which the +gentleman retreated into his mansion, exclaiming, "God bless me, Sir! +dear me, Sir!" In the account of the occurrence given by my father, +he has omitted to mention that Shelley and the woman's son, who had +already carried her a considerable way up the main hill of Hampstead, +brought her on from the inhospitable mansion to our house in their +arms; and I believe, that, the son's strength failing, for some way +down the hill into the Vale of Health Shelley carried her on his back. +I cannot help contrasting this action of the wanderer with the careful +self-regard of another friend who often came to see us, though I do +not remember that any of us were ever inside his doors. He was, I +believe, for some time actually a pensioner on Shelley's generosity, +though he ultimately rose to be comparatively wealthy. One night, when +he had been visiting us, he was in trouble because no person had been +sent from a tavern at the top of the hill to light him up the pathway +across the heath. That same self-caring gentleman afterwards became +one of the apologists who most powerfully contributed to mislead +public opinion in regard to his benefactor. + +Shelley often called me for a long ramble on the heath, or into +regions which I then thought far distant; and I went with him rather +than with my father, because he walked faster, and talked with +me while he walked, instead of being lost in his own thoughts and +conversing only at intervals. A love of wandering seemed to possess +him in the most literal sense; his rambles appeared to be without +design, or any limit but my fatigue; and when I was "done up," +he carried me home in his arms, on his shoulder, or pickback. Our +communion was not always concord; as I have intimated, he took a +pleasure in frightening me, though I never really lost my confidence +in his protection, if he would only drop the fantastic aspects that +he delighted to assume. Sometimes, but much more rarely, he teased me +with exasperating banter; and, inheriting from some of my progenitors +a vindictive temper, I once retaliated severely. We were in the +sitting-room with my father and some others, while I was tortured. The +chancery-suit was just then approaching its most critical point, and, +to inflict the cruellest stroke I could think of, I looked him in the +face, and expressed a hope that he would be beaten in the trial and +have his children taken from him. I was sitting on his knee, and as +I spoke, he let himself fall listlessly back in his chair, without +attempting to conceal the shock I had given him. But presently he +folded his arms round me and kissed me; and I perfectly understood +that he saw how sorry I was, and was as anxious as I was to be friends +again. It was not very long after that we were playing with paper +boats on the pond in the Vale of Health, watching the way in which the +wind carried some of them over, or swamped most of them before they +had surmounted many billows; and Shelley then playfully said how +much he should like it, if we could get into one of the boats and be +shipwrecked,--it was a death he should like better than any other. + +After the death of Harriet, Shelley's life entirely changed; and I +think I shall be able to show in the sequel that the change was far +greater than any of his biographers, except perhaps one who was most +likely to know, have acknowledged. Conventional form and Shelley are +almost incompatible ideas; as his admirable wife has said of him, "He +lived to idealize reality,--to ally the love of abstract truth, and +adoration of abstract good, with the living sympathies. And long as he +did this without injury to others, he had the reverse of any respect +for the dictates of orthodoxy or convention." As soon, therefore, +as the obstacle to a second marriage was removed, he and Mary +Wollstonecraft Godwin were regularly joined in matrimony, and retired +to Great Marlow, in Buckinghamshire. A brief year Shelley passed in +the position of a country-gentleman on a small scale. His abode was +a rough house in the village, with a garden at the back and nothing +beyond but the country. Close to the house there was a small +pleasure-ground, with a mound at the farther end of the lawn slightly +inclosing the view. Behind the mound there was a kitchen-garden, not +unintermixed with flowers and ornamental vegetation; and farther still +was a piece of ground traversed by a lane deeply excavated in the +chalk soil. At that time Shelley had a thousand a year allowed to +him by his father; but although he was in no respect the unreckoning, +wasteful person that many have represented him to be, such a sum must +have been insufficient for the mode in which he lived. His family +comprised himself, Mary, William their eldest son, and Claire +Claremont,--the daughter of Godwin's second wife, and therefore +the half-sister of Mary Shelley,--a girl of great ability, strong +feelings, lively temper, and, though not regularly handsome, of +brilliant appearance. They kept three servants, if not a fourth +assistant: a cook; Elise, a Swiss _gouvernante_ for the child; and +Harry, a man who did the work of gardener and man-servant in general. +He kept something like open house; for while I was there with my +father and mother, there also came, for a short time, several other +friends, some of whom stopped for more than a passing visit. He played +the Lord Bountiful among his humbler neighbors, not only helping them +with money or money's-worth, but also advising them in sickness; for +he had made some study of medicine, in part, I suspect, to be the more +useful. + +I have already intimated that he had assisted certain of his +companions; and I am convinced that these circumstances contributed to +the resolution which Shelley formed to leave England for Italy in +the year 1818, although he then ascribed his doing so to the score of +health,--or rather, as he said, of life. He then believed himself +to be laboring under a tendency to consumption, not without medical +warnings to that effect, although there were strong reasons for +doubting the validity of the belief, which was based upon less precise +grounds before the introduction of auscultation and the careful +examinations of our day. It was, however, characteristic of Shelley +to rest his actions upon the dominant motive; so that, if several +inducements operated to the same end, he absolutely discarded the +minor considerations, and acted solely upon the grand one. I can well +remember, that, when other persons urged upon him cumulative reasons +for any course of action, whether in politics, or morality, or +trifling personal matters of the day, he indignantly cast aside all +such makeweights, and insisted upon the one sufficient motive. I +mention this the more explicitly because the opposite course is the +most common, and some who did not sympathize with his concentration +of purpose afterwards imputed the suppression of all but one, out of +several apparent motives, to reserve, or even to a want of candor. +The accusation was first made by some of Shelley's false +friends,--creatures who gathered round him to get what they could, and +afterwards made a market of their connection, to his disadvantage. But +I was shocked to find a sanction for the notion under the hand of one +of Shelley's first and most faithful friends, and I discovered it, +too, when death had barred me from the opportunity of controverting +the mistake. It was easily accounted for. The writer to whom I allude +was himself a person whose scrupulous conscience and strong mistrust +of his own judgment, unless supported on every side, induced him to +accumulate and to avow as many motives as possible for each single +act. He could scarcely understand or believe the existence of a +mind which, although powerful and comprehensive in its grasp, should +nevertheless deliberately set aside all motives but one, and actually +proceed upon that exclusive ground without regard to the others. + +Both Shelley and his friends seem to have underrated his strength, and +one little incident will illustrate my meaning. He kept no horse or +carriage; but in accordance with his ruling passion he had a boat on +the river of sufficient size to carry a numerous party. It was made +both for sailing and rowing; and I can remember being one of an +expedition which went some distance up the Thames, when Shelley +himself towed the boat on the return home, while I walked, by his +side. His health had very much improved with the change that had +taken place in his mode of life, his more settled condition, and the +abatement of anxiety, with the absolute removal of some of its causes. +I am well aware that he _had_ suffered severely, and that he continued +to be haunted by certain recollections, partly real and partly +imaginative, which pursued him like an Orestes. He frequently talked +on such subjects; but it has always appeared to me that those who +have reported what he said have been guilty of a singular confusion in +their interpretations. As I proceed, you will find that certain facts +in his life have never yet been distinctly related, and I have a +strong reason for believing that some circumstances of which I became +accidentally aware were never disclosed at all, except to Mary; while +in her writings I can trace allusions to them, that remind me of +passages in ancient authors,--in Ovid, for instance,--which would have +been absolutely unintelligible, except for accidental references. In +spite, however, of the rude trials to which his constitution had +been subjected, and of new symptoms supposed to indicate pulmonary +weakness, there was a marked improvement in his aspect since he had +visited London. He still had that ultra-youthful figure that partook +the traits of the hobbledehoy, arrived at man's stature, but not yet +possessing the full manly proportions. His extremities were large, his +limbs long, his face small, and his thorax very partially developed, +especially in girth. An habitual eagerness of mood, thrusting forward +his face, made him stoop, with sunken chest and rounded shoulders; and +this was even more apparent in the easy costume of the country than +in London dress. But in his countenance there was life instead of +weariness; melancholy more often yielded to alternations of bright +thoughts; and paleness had given way to a certain freshness of color, +with something like roses in the cheeks. Notwithstanding the sense of +weakness in the chest, which attacked him on any sudden effort, +his power of exertion was considerable. Once, returning from a long +excursion, and entering the house by the back way, up a precipitous, +though not perpendicular bank, the women of the party had to be +helped; and Shelley was the most active in rendering that assistance. +While others were content to accomplish the feat for one, he, I think, +helped three up the bank, sliding in a half-sitting posture when he +returned to fetch a new charge. I well remember his shooting past me +in a cloud of chalk-dust, as I was slowly climbing up. He had a fit +of panting after it, but he made light of the exertion. I can also +recollect, that, although he frequently preferred to steer rather than +to put forth his strength, yet, if it were necessary, he would take +an oar, and could stick to his seat for any time against any force of +current or of wind, not only without complaining, but without being +compelled to give in until the set task was accomplished, though it +should involve some miles of hard pulling. These facts indicate the +amount of "grit" that lay under the outward appearance of weakness and +excitable nerves. + +Shelley's fulness of vitality did not at that time seem to be shared +by the partner of his life. Mary's intellectual powers had already +been manifested. He must to some extent have known the force of her +affection, and the tenderness of her nature; but it is remarkable that +her youth was not the period of her greatest beauty, and certainly at +that date she did not do justice to herself either in her aspect or in +the tone of her conversation. She was singularly pale. With a figure +that needed to be set off, she was careless in her dress; and the +decision of purpose which ultimately gained her the playful title of +"Wilful Woman" then appeared, at least in society, principally in the +negative form,--her temper being easily crossed, and her resentments +taking a somewhat querulous and peevish tone. Both of the pair were +still young, and their ideas of education were adverse to the +received doctrines of the day, rather than substantive; and their +own principles in this matter were exemplified somewhat perversely by +little William. Even at that early age the child called forth frequent +and poignant remonstrances from his _gouvernante_, and occasionally +drew perplexed exclamations or desponding looks from his father, who +took the child's little perversities seriously to heart, and sometimes +vented his embarrassment in generalized remarks on human nature. + +Some years elapsed between the night when I saw Shelley pack up his +pistols--which he allowed me to examine--for his departure for +the South, and the moment when, after our own arrival in Italy, my +attention was again called to his presence by the shrill sound of +his voice, as he rushed into my father's arms, which he did with an +impetuousness and a fervor scarcely to be imagined by any who did +not know the intensity of his feelings and the deep nature of his +affection for that friend. I remember his crying out that he was "so +_inexpressibly_ delighted!--you cannot think how _inexpressibly_ happy +it makes me!" + +The history of Shelley's brief visit to Pisa has been related by many, +and is, I believe, told in his published letters; but it appears to me +that those who have recounted it have in some respects fallen short. +Excepting Mary Shelley, the best-informed spoke too soon after the +event. Shelley's own letters are slightly misleading, from a very +intelligible cause. After he had encouraged, if he did not suggest, +the enterprise of "The Liberal,"--and I believe it would be nearly +impossible for any one of the three men interested in that venture to +ascertain exactly who was its author,--his mind misgave him. He knew +my father's necessities and his childish capacities for business. With +a keen sense of the power displayed in "Don Juan," and even in more +melodramatic works, Shelley had acquired a full knowledge of the +singularly licentious training from which Byron had then scarcely +emerged, and of the vacillating caprice which enfeebled all his +actions. His own ability to grapple with practical affairs was very +great; but he himself had scarcely formed a sufficient estimate of it. +Determined to maintain a thorough equality and freedom with the noble +bard in their social relations, he shrank from any position which +might raise in Byron's jealous and unstable mind the idea that he was +under pressure; yet he was anxious to prevent disappointment for Leigh +Hunt. He dreaded failure, and resolved that he would do his best to +prevent it; and yet again he scarcely anticipated success. + +As early as the end of 1818, he described the way in which Byron spent +his life, after he had been partly exiled, partly emancipated from the +ordinary restraints of society. At that time, "the Italian women were +the most contemptible of all who existed under the moon,--an ordinary +Englishman could not approach them"; "but," writes Shelley, "Lord +Byron is familiar with the lowest sort of these women,--the people +his _gondolieri_ pick up in the streets." Byron's curiosity, indeed, +tempted him to learn something of vice in its most revolting aspects. +"He has," writes Shelley, "a certain degree of candor, while you talk +to him, but unfortunately it does not outlast your departure." I am +sure that before 1821 Byron had risen in his friend's estimation, or +the "Liberal" scheme would never have been contemplated; and there +were excellent reasons for the change. It is only by degrees that men +have learned to appreciate at once the extraordinary nature and force +of Byron's genius and the equally monstrous and marvellous nature +of the evil training by which he was "dragged up." In the midst +of extravagant license he gained experiences which might have +extinguished his mind, but which, as they did not have that effect, +added to his resources. In the process some of his personal qualities +as a companion suffered severely. Very few grown men have been so +extravagantly sensitive to personal approbation; and he was anxious +to conciliate the liking of all who approached him, however foreign +to his own set, however humble, or however insignificant. He was as +mistrustful as a greedy child. He could be extravagant, but he was not +open-handed; and yet he would give up what he coveted for himself, +if he were urged by those whose esteem he desired to win. Now, of +all persons who came near him, Shelley was the one that combined the +greatest number of qualities calculated to influence a creature like +Byron. He was of gentle blood; he was as resolute as he was able to +maintain what is popularly called an independent position; he was +truly sincere; and his way of life displayed a purity which Byron +admired, though he fell from it so lamentably. On the other hand, +Shelley was at odds with society on the very same questions of morals; +he possessed all the philosophy for understanding the complicated +perplexities of aberrant genius; did actually make allowances for +Byron; estimated his powers more accurately, and therefore more +highly, than any other person who came near him; and thus commanded at +once his sympathies, his ambition, and his confidence. Everybody +knows that in the interval between 1818 and the date of his death at +Missolonghi, Byron's discipline of life had undergone a marked +and beneficial change, and many agencies have been mentioned as +contributing to that result, but I am sure that no one was so +all-sufficient as the personal association with Shelley. Nothing of +this is gainsaid by the fact that the greater part of this improvement +was displayed after Shelley's death. Change of scene, intercourse with +others, opportunities for acting upon his new principles, all helped, +together, probably, with the graver sense of counsel bequeathed by +the friend whom he had lost. Certain it is that Byron never mentioned +Shelley in my hearing without a peculiarly emphatic manner. I know +that to more than one person he performed acts of kindness and +friendly aid as tributes to the memory of Shelley; and if any action +were urged upon him as worthy of his own genius and dignity, nothing +clenched the appeal like the name of Shelley. But if you will for a +moment compare the characters of the two men,--if you will contrast +the large self-sacrifice of the one with the self-indulgence of the +other, the independence of the one with the craving of the other for +approval, the absolute trust in human hope and goodness of Shelley +with the _blase_ cynicism of Byron, I think two conclusions must +instantly strike you,--first, that Shelley must have possessed almost +unequalled power of influence over those who surrounded him, and, +secondly, that Byron himself must have been a much better man, or +possessing much more in common with Shelley than society or some of +his most intellectual companions at all imagined. Part of the facts +bearing upon the subject have come out since the death of both. My own +attention was drawn to the point by the striking discord between the +way in which other people speak of their relations and the manner of +Shelley and Byron towards each other, and especially Byron's way in +speaking of Shelley. It is not probable that Shelley formed to himself +any such idea of his own power; yet you will find hints at it in his +letters, you will see, curious traces of it in the letters of others, +and nothing else will fully explain the change in Byron's life. +Moreover, it reconciles the apparent inconsistencies of Shelley's +reservations in talking about Byron with his manifest and practical +confidence in the result of their joint working. + +When I met Shelley again in Italy, it was easy to see that a grand +change had come over his appearance and condition. The Southern +climate had suited him, and the boat which caused his death had in the +mean while been instrumental in developing his life. His retirement +from painful personal conflict had given him greater ease; intercourse +with Mary had made his life better; and, not to overlook one important +fact, he had _grown_ since he left England. For physiologists attest +the truth, that growth continues throughout human existence, even +until after decay begins; and Shelley's constitution was of that +kind--strong in some of its developments, slow in others--which needed +longer time than many to arrive at its full proportions. For instance, +in the interval since I had seen him his chest had manifestly become +of a larger girth. I am speaking only upon distant recollection; but +I should judge it to have been three or four inches larger round, or +perhaps more. His voice was stronger, his manner more confident +and downright, and, although not less emphatic, yet decidedly less +impulsively changeful. I can recall his reading from an ancient +author, translating as he went, a passage about the making of the +first man; and I remember it from the subject and from the easy +flow of his translation, but chiefly from the air of strength and +cheerfulness which I noticed in his voice and manner. In nothing, +however, does Shelley appear to me to have been so misdescribed as +in the outward man,--partly, as usual, from overstatement of +peculiarities, and partly because each artist has painted the portrait +from his own favorite view. Many, through exaggeration, or imperfect +knowledge, have equally misconstrued his moral character, and have +omitted to report the real conduct of his understanding as he advanced +towards "the middle of the way of life." + +From the story of his life after I first saw him, as well as from +many things that I have heard him say of his family, and the strange +recollections that he had of home, it is easy to understand the +general tenor of his early life. Through some caprice in genealogical +chemistry, in Percy the Shelley race struck out an entirely new idea: +an apparent caprice in the sequence of houses that has often been +noticed. For how often may we observe that the union of the most +remarkable intellects produces a _tertium quid_ which is the reverse +of an equivalent to the combined totals, representing only a fraction +of their qualities, and that fraction in its negative aspect; while, +on the other hand, rivulets of blood which have gained for themselves +no name upon earth may combine to form a river illustrious to the +whole world. In the latter case, not an unusual effect is that those +who are charged with the infancy of the new type in the family are +incompetent to their duty; and accordingly Shelley was regarded merely +as "a strange boy," wayward, mutinous, and to be severely chastised +into obedience. It has been said that he attracted no particular +notice at school; but this is not true. At Eton his resentment of +tyrannical authority displayed itself not only against the masters, +but against the privileges of young patricians. He refused to be +"fag"; and on one occasion he so braved the youthful public-opinion, +that, on being dared to the act by the surrounding boys, he pinned +a companion's hand to the table with a fork. According to my +recollection, the immediate provocative was that he was dared to +do it; but the incident arose out of his resistance to the seniors +amongst the scholars and to the customs of the school. It was evident +that the masters had their eye upon him. Such a youth, with a command +of language that was a born faculty and not simply acquired, _must_ +have attracted very positive attention on the part of the teachers; +but it was certain, that, with the tendencies of those days, they +would have thought it discreet to say as little as possible about the +slender mutineer. It is equally well known, that, notwithstanding his +youth, religious opinions caused his expulsion from college; and when +we turn to the earliest of his writings which assumed anything like a +complete shape, we discover at once the nature of those powers +which could not have been overlooked,--we detect the genius, the +revolutionary ideas, and the extraordinary command which he had +acquired over the subject-matter of much that is taught in schools +and colleges. Amid the orthodox reaction that followed upon the French +Revolution, he was struck with the excesses to which despotic power +could be carried. He read history with sympathies for the natural +impulses and aspirations of the race, as opposed to the small circles +which comprise established authorities. He looked upon knowledge as +the means of serving, not enslaving the race. And therefore, while he +excused the crimes of the Revolution, on the score of the ignorance +in which the people had been kept, their sufferings, and the natural +revulsion against such painful down-treading, he regarded the counter +acts of authority as a treachery to wisdom itself. He says,-- + + "Hath Nature's soul, + That formed this world so beautiful.... + And filled the meanest worm that crawls in dust + With spirit, thought, and love, on Man alone, + Partial in causeless malice, wantonly + Heaped ruin, vice, and slavery? + Nature?--no! + Kings, priests, and statesmen blast the human flower + Even in its tender bud; their influence darts + Like subtle poison through the bloodless veins + Of desolate society." + +The pretension of authority to speak with a supernatural warrant +provoked him to deny the warrant itself, or the sources from which it +was said to emanate. + + "Is there a God?--ay, an almighty God, + And vengeful as almighty? Once his voice + Was heard on earth; earth shuddered at the sound, + The fiery-visaged firmament expressed + Abhorrence, and the grave of Nature yawned + To swallow all the dauntless and the good + That dared to hurl defiance at his throne, + Girt as it was with power. None but slaves + Survived,--cold-blooded slaves, who did the work + Of tyrranous omnipotence." + +To these superstitious and ambitious pretensions he traced the +corruption which disorganized society, leading it down even to the +very worst immoralities. + + "All things are sold: the very light of heaven + Is venal.... + Those duties which heart of human love + Should urge him to perform instinctively + Are bought and sold as in a public mart. + + * * * * * + + Even love is sold; the solace of all woe + Is turned to deadliest agony, old age + Shivers in selfish beauty's loathing arms, + And youth's corrupted impulses prepare + A life of horror from the blighting bane + Of commerce; whilst the pestilence that springs + From unenjoying sensualism has filled + All human life with hydra-headed woes." + +"Shelley," says Mary, in her note on the poem, "was eighteen when he +wrote 'Queen Mab.' He never published it. When it was written, he +had come to the decision that he was too young to be a judge of +controversies." The wife-editor refers to a series of +articles published in the "New Monthly Magazine" for 1832 by a +fellow-collegian, a warm friend of Shelley's, touching upon his +school-life, and describing the state of his mind at college. The +worst of all these biographical sketches of remarkable men is, that +delicacy, discretion, or some other euphemistically named form of +hesitancy, induces writers to suppress the incidents which supply the +very angles of the form they want to delineate; and it is especially +so in Shelley's case. I am sure, that, if Mary, or my father, or any +of those with whom Shelley conversed most thoroughly, had related some +of the more extravagant incidents of his early life exactly as they +occurred, we should better understand the tenor of his thought,--and +we should also have the most valuable complement to that part of +his intellectual progress which stands in contrast with the earlier +portion. Now, as I have said, at school Shelley was a more practical +and impracticable mutineer than his friends have generally allowed. +They have been anxious to soften his "faults"; and the consequence +is, that we miss the force of the boy's logic and the vigor of his +Catonian experiments. + +Again, accident has made me aware of facts which give me to +understand, that, in passing through the usual curriculum of a college +life in all its paths, Shelley did not go scathless,--but that, in +the tampering with venal pleasures, his health was seriously, and not +transiently, injured. The effect was far greater on his mind than on +his body; and the intellectual being greater than the physical +power, the healthy reaction was greater. But that reaction was +also, especially in early youth, principally marked by horror and +antagonism. Conscientious, far beyond even the ordinary maximum +amongst ordinary men, he felt bound to denounce the mischief from +which he saw others suffer more severely than himself, since in them +there was no such reaction. I have no doubt that he himself would have +spoken even plainer language, though to me his language is perfectly +transparent, if he had not been restrained by a superstitious notion +of his own, that the true escape from the pestilent and abhorrent +brutalities which he detected around him in "real" life is found in +"the ideal" form of thought and language. Ardent and romantic, he was +eager to discover beauty "beneath" every natural aspect. Of all men +living, I am the one most bound to be aware of the inconsistency; but +you will see it reconciled a little later. + +Shelley left college prone "to fall in love,"--having already, indeed, +gone through some very slight experiences of that process. In his +wanderings, in a humble position which conciliated rather than +repelled him, he met with Harriet Westbrooke, a very comely, pleasing, +and simple type of girlhood. She was at some disadvantage, under some +kind of domestic oppression; so she served at once as an object for +his disengaged affection, and a subject for his liberating theories, +and as a substratum for the idealizing process upon which he +constructed a fictitious creation of Harriet Westbrooke. His dreams +bearing but a faint and controversial resemblance to the Harriet +Westbrooke of daily life, the fictitious image prevented him from +knowing her, until the reality broke through the poetical vision only +to shock him by its inferiority or repulsiveness. As to the poor girl +herself, she never had the capacity for learning to know him. In the +sequel she proved to be the not unwilling slave of a petty domestic +intrigue,--oppression from which he would have rescued her. Married +life enabled him to discover that she was the reverse of the being +that he had fancied. They were first married in Scotland in 1811. +Shelley made acquaintance with the Godwins in 1812, before his eldest +child was born. I am not sure whether he was acquainted with Mary at +that time; but some circumstances which I cannot verify make me doubt +it. Harriet's daughter was born early in the summer of 1813, and it +was before the close of that year that the couple began to disagree. +The wife was evidently under the dominion of a relative whose +influence was injurious to her. I do not find a hint of any imputation +upon what is usually called her "fidelity"; but the relative +manifestly desired to show her power over both. It is probable that at +an early day Shelley's disposition to see "sermons in stones and good +in everything" made him think better of that interloping lady than she +deserved,--and that consequently he not only gave her encouragement, +but committed himself to something which, to Harriet's mind, justified +her deference for ill-considered advice. It is very likely that she +was counselled to extend her power over Shelley in a manner which her +own simple nature would not have suggested; but, being as foolish as +it was cunning and vulgar, such conduct could no result but that of +repelling a man like Shelley. That he acquired a detestation of the +relative is a certain fact. He must have been expecting a second child +when he formally remarried Harriet in England on the twenty-fourth of +March, 1814; and that ceremony has been mentioned by several writers +to prove the most opposite conclusions,--that Shelley was devoted to +his first wife, and that he behaved to her with the basest hypocrisy. +It proves nothing but his desire to place the hereditary rights of the +second child, who might be a boy, beyond doubt; and the precaution +was justified by the event. Before the close of the same year Harriet +returned to her father's house, and there she gave birth to a son, +Charles, who would have inherited the baronetcy, if he had not died +in 1826, after his father's death. The parting took place about the +twenty-fourth of June, 1814; and at the same time Shelley wrote a +poem, of which fragments are given in the recently published "Relics." +The verse shows, first, that Shelley was suffering severely from the +chronic conflict which he had undergone, and, secondly, that he had +found some novel comfort in the intercourse with Mary. + + "To sit and curb the soul's mute rage, + Which preys upon itself alone; + To curse the life which is the cage + Of fettered grief that dares not groan, + Hiding from many a careless eye + The scorned load of agony. + + "Upon my heart thy accents sweet + Of peace and pity fell like dew + On flowers half dead.... + + "We are not happy, sweet! our state + Is strange and full of doubt and fear; + More need of words that ills abate;-- + Reserve or censure come not near + Our sacred friendship, lest there be + No solace left for thee and me." + +It is obvious that considerably after the date of this poem, Harriet +remained in amicable correspondence with Shelley; and not only so, +but, while she altogether abstained from opposing his new connection, +she was actually on friendly terms with Mary. It is easy to understand +how a limited nature like Harriet's should be worn out by the +exaction and impracticability of one like Shelley; for to her most +impracticable would seem his lofty and ideal requirements. On the +other hand, it is evident that Shelley regarded the unfortunate girl +with feelings of deep commiseration; and I know that he not only +pitied her, but felt strong compunctions for the share which his own +mistaken conduct at the beginning, even more than at the end, had had +in drawing her aside from what would have been her natural course in +ordinary life. Mary, I believe, clearly understood the whole case, +and felt nothing but compassion for one who was a "victim to +circumstances." + +The sequel has been alluded to in several publications, but so +obscurely as to be more than unintelligible; for the reader is led to +conclusions the reverse of the fact. In the "Memorials," at page 63, +the subject is barely touched upon. I take the whole passage. + +"Towards the close of 1813, estrangements, which for some time had +been slowly growing between Mr. and Mrs. Shelley, came to a crisis. +Separation ensued; and Mrs. Shelley returned to her father's house. +Here she gave birth to her second child,--a son, who died in 1826. + +"The occurrences of this painful epoch in Shelley's life, and the +causes which led to them, I am spared from relating. In Mary Shelley's +own words:--'This is not the time to relate the truth; and I should +reject any coloring of the truth.' + + * * * * * + +"Of those remaining who were intimate with Shelley at this time, each +has given us a different version of this sad event, colored by his own +views and personal feelings. Evidently, Shelley confided to none of +these friends. We, who bear his name and are of his family, have in +our possession papers written by his own hand, which, in after-years, +may make the story of his life complete, and which few now living, +except Shelley's own children, have ever perused. + +"One mistake which has gone forth to the world we feel ourselves +called upon positively to contradict. Harriet's death has sometimes +been ascribed to Shelley. This is entirely false. There was no +immediate connection whatever between her tragic end and any conduct +on the part of her husband." + +At the end of the "Relics" is a memorandum entitled, "Harriet +Shelley and Mr. Thomas Love Peacock." Mr. Peacock had been writing in +"Fraser's Magazine" a series of articles on Shelley; in "Macmillan's +Magazine" for June, 1866, was an article by Mr. Richard Garnet, +entitled, "Shelley in Pall-Mall"; to this Mr. Peacock replied in +"Percy Bysshe Shelley: Supplementary Notice"; and Mr. Garnet rejoined +in the new little volume which he ha; edited. The main purpose of +this last notice is, to show that Mr. Peacock was not accurate in his +chronology or in his interpretation of the severance between Shelley +and Harriet. Alluding either to the discretion which prevented Shelley +from making a confidant of Mr. Peacock, or to his grief occasioned by +the fate of Harriet, the writer refers to "the proof which exists in a +series of letters written by Shelley at this very time to one in whom +he had confidence, and at present in possession of his family," and +then proceeds thus:--"Nothing more beautiful or characteristic ever +proceeded from his pen; and they afford the most unequivocal testimony +of the grief and horror occasioned by the tragical incident to which +they bear reference. Yet self-reproach formed no element of his +sorrow, in the midst of which he could proudly say, '------, ------,' +(mentioning two dry, unbiased men of business,) 'every one, does me +full justice, bears testimony to the uprightness and liberality of my +conduct to her.'" + +In the "Memorials" and the "Relics" there is no further allusion to +the circumstances which preceded Harriet's suicide; but it appears to +me very desirable that the whole story should be brought out much more +distinctly, and I can at least show why I say so. The correspondence +in question took place in the middle of December, 1816. Shelley was +married to Mary about a fortnight later; and in the most emphatic +terms he alluded not only to the solace which he derived from the +conversation of his host, but to the manner in which my father spoke +of Mary. My own recollection goes back to the period, and I have +already testified to the state of Shelley's mind. He was just then +instituting the process to recover the children, and he caught at +an opinion that had been expressed, that, in the event of his again +becoming contracted in marriage, there would be no longer any pretence +to deprive him of the children. + +Let me for a moment pause on this incident, as it establishes two +facts of some interest. In the first place, it shows some of the +grounds of the very strong and unalterable friendship which subsisted +between my father and Mary,--a friendship which stood the test of many +vicissitudes, and even of some differences of opinion; both persons +being very sensitive in feeling, quick in temper, thoroughly +outspoken, and obstinately tenacious of their own convictions. +Secondly, it corroborates what I have said with regard to the +community of spirit that Shelley found in his real wife,--the woman +who became the companion of his fortunes, of his thoughts, of his +sufferings, and of his hopes. It will be seen, that, even before +marriage with his second wife, he was counting upon Mary's help in +preventing his separation from the two children already born to him. +She was a woman uniting intellectual faculties with strong ambitions +of affection as well as intellect; and esteem thus substantially +shown, at that early age, by two such men as Percy Shelley and Leigh +Hunt, must have conveyed the deepest gratification. + +Throughout these communications Shelley evinced the strong pity that +he felt for the unhappy being whom he had known. Circumstances had +come to his knowledge which had thrown considerable light upon his +relations with Harriet. There can be no doubt that one member of the +family had hoped to derive gain from the connection with himself, as a +person of rank and property. There seems also reason to suppose, that, +about the same time, Harriet's father, an aged man, became so ill that +his death might be regarded as approaching, and he had something to +leave. Poor, foolish Harriet had undoubtedly formed an attachment to +Shelley, whom she had been allowed to marry; but she had then +suffered herself to become a tool in the hands of others, and the fact +accounted for the idle way in which she importuned him to do things +repugnant to his feelings and convictions. She thus exasperated his +temper, and lost her own; they quarrelled, in the ordinary conjugal +sense, and, from all I have learned, I am induced to guess, that, when +she left him, it was not only in the indulgence of self-will, but also +in the vain hope that her retreating would induce him to follow her, +perhaps in a more obedient spirit. She sought refuge in her father's +house, where she might have expected kindness; but, as the old man +bent towards the grave, with rapid loss of faculties, he became more +severe in his treatment of the poor woman; and she was driven from the +paternal roof. This Shelley did not know at the time; nor did he until +afterwards learn the process by which she arrived at her fate. +Too late she became aware how fatal to her interests had been the +intrigues of which she had been the passive instrument; and I suspect +that she was debarred from seeking forgiveness and help partly by +false shame, and partly by the terrible adaptability of weak natures +to the condition of the society in which they find themselves. I have +said that there is not a trace of evidence or a whisper of scandal +against her before her voluntary departure from Shelley, and I have +indicated the most probable motives of that step; but subsequently she +forfeited her claim to a return, even in the eye of the law. Shelley +had information which made him believe that she fell even to the depth +of actual prostitution. If she left him, it would appear that she +herself was deserted in turn by a man in a very humble grade of life; +and it was in consequence of this desertion that she killed herself. + +The change in his personal aspect that showed itself at Marlow +appeared also in his writings,--the most typical of his works for this +period being naturally the most complete that issued from his pen, the +"Revolt of Islam." We find there identically the same doctrine that +there is in "Queen Mab,"--a systematic abhorrence of the servility +which renders man captive to power, denunciation of the love of gain +which blinds his insight and destroys his energy, of the prostitution +of religious faith, and, above all, of the slavery of womanhood. But +by this time the doctrine has more distinct in its expression, and far +more powerful in its utterance. + + "Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave + A lasting chain for his own slavery; + In fear and restless care that he may live, + He toils for others, who must ever be + The joyless thralls of like captivity; + He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin; + He builds the altar, that its idol's fee + May be his very blood; he is pursuing, + O blind and willing wretch! his own obscure undoing. + + "Woman!--she is his slave, she has become + A thing I weep to speak,--the child of scorn, + The outcast of a desolated home. + Falsehood and fear and toil, like waves, have worn + Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn, + As calm decks the false ocean. Well ye know + What woman is; for none of woman born + Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe, + Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow." + +The indignation against the revolting subjugation of womanhood comes +out still more distinctly in the preceding canto, where Cythna relates +the horrors to which she was subjected. + + "One was she among the many there, the thralls + Of the cold tyrant's cruel lust; and they + Laughed mournfully in those polluted halls; + But she was calm and sad, musing alway + On loftiest enterprise, till on a day + + * * * * * + + She told me what a loathsome agony + Is that when selfishness mocks love's delight, + Foul as in dreams' most fearful imagery + To dally with the mowing dead;--that night + All torture, fear, or horror made seem light + Which the soul dreams or knows." + +The poet bears testimony to the spiritual power which rules throughout +Nature; the monster recovering his dignity while he is under the +higher influence. + + "Even when he saw her wondrous loveliness, + One moment to great Nature's sacred power + He bent and was no longer passionless; + But when he bade her to his secret bower + Be borne a loveless victim, and she tore + Her locks in agony, and her words of flame + And mightier looks availed not, then he bore + Again his load of slavery, and became + A king, a heartless beast, a pageant and a name. + + ...."When the day + Shone on her awful frenzy, from the sight, + Where like a spirit in fleshly chains she lay + Struggling, aghast and pale the tyrant fled away. + + "Her madness was a beam of light, a power + Which dawned through the rent soul; and words it gave, + Gestures and looks, such as in whirlwinds bore + Which might not be withstood." + +The doctrine involved in this passage is very clear, and it marks a +decided progress since the days of "Queen Mab." It will be observed +that Shelley's mind had become familiarized with the idea of a spirit +ruling throughout Nature, obedience to which constitutes human power. +Most remarkable is the passage in which the tyrant recovers his +faculties through his subjection to this spirit; because it indicates +Shelley's faithful adhesion to the universal, though oft obscurely +formed belief, that the ability to _receive_ influence is the most +exalted faculty to which human nature can attain, while the exercise +of an arbitrary power centring in self is not only debasing, but is an +actual destroyer of human faculty. + +There can be no doubt that he had profited greatly in his moral +condition, as well as in his bodily health, by the greater +tranquillity which he enjoyed in the society of Mary, and also by the +sympathy which gave full play to his ideas, instead of diverting and +disappointing them. She was, indeed, herself a woman of extraordinary +power, of heart as well as head. Many circumstances conspired to +conceal some of her natural faculties. She lost her mother very young; +her father--speaking with great diffidence, from a very slight and +imperfect knowledge--appeared to me a harsh and ungenial man. She +inherited from him her thin voice, but not the steel-edged sharpness +of his own; and she inherited, not from him, but from her mother, a +largeness of heart that entered proportionately into the working +of her mind. She had a masculine capacity for study; for, though I +suspect her early schooling was irregular, she remained a student all +her life, and by painstaking industry made herself acquainted with +any subject that she had to handle. Her command of history and +her imaginative power are shown in such books as "Valperga" and +"Castruccio"; but the daring originality of her mind comes out most +distinctly in her earliest published work, "Frankenstein." Its leading +idea has been ascribed to her husband, but, I am sure, unduly; and the +vividness with which she has brought out the monstrous tale in all its +horror, but without coarse or revolting incidents, is a proof of the +genius which she inherited alike from both her parents. It is clear, +also, that the society of Shelley was to her a great school, which she +did not appreciate to the full until most calamitously it was taken +away; and yet, of course, she could not fail to learn the greater part +of what it had become to her. This again showed itself even in her +appearance, after she had spent some years in Italy; for, while she +had grown far more comely than she was in her mere youth, she had +acquired a deeper insight into many subjects that interested Shelley, +and some others; and she had learned to express the force of natural +affection, which she was born to feel, but which had somehow been +stunted and suppressed in her youth. In the preface to the collected +edition of his works, she says: "I have the liveliest recollection of +all that was done and said during the period of my knowing him. +Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I have no +apprehension of any mistake in my statements, as far as they go. In +other respects I am, indeed, incompetent; but I feel the importance of +the task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavor to fulfil +it in a manner he would himself approve; and hope in this publication +to lay the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his +sufferings, and his virtues." And in the postscript, written in +November, 1839, she says: "At my request, the publisher has restored +the omitted passages of 'Queen Mab.' I now present this edition as +a complete collection of my husband's poetical works, and I do not +foresee that I can hereafter add to or take away a word or line." So +writes the wife-editor; and then "The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe +Shelley" begin with a dedication to Harriet, restored to its place +by Mary. While the biographers of Shelley are chargeable with +suppression, the most straightforward and frank of all of them is +Mary, who, although not insensible to the passion of jealousy, and +carrying with her the painful sense of a life-opportunity not fully +used, thus writes the name of Harriet the first on her husband's +monument, while she has nobly abstained from telling those things that +other persons should have supplied to the narrative. I have heard her +accused of an over-anxiety to be admired; and something of the sort +was discernible in society: it was a weakness as venial as it was +purely superficial. Away from society, she was as truthful and simple +a woman as I have ever met,--was as faithful a friend as the world +has produced,--using that unreserved directness towards those whom she +regarded with affection which is the very crowning glory of friendly +intercourse. I suspect that these qualities came out in their greatest +force after her calamity; for many things which she said in her +regret, and passages in Shelley's own poetry, make me doubt whether +little habits of temper, and possibly of a refined and exacting +coquettishness, had not prevented him from acquiring so full a +knowledge of her as she had of him. This was natural for many reasons, +and especially two. Shelley had not the opportunity of retrospectively +studying her character, and his mind was by nature more constructed +than hers was to be preoccupied. If the reader desires a portrait +of Mary, he has one in the well-known antique bust sometimes called +"Isis" and sometimes "Clytie": a woman's head and shoulders rising +from a lotus-flower. It is most probably the portrait of a Roman lady, +is in some degree more elongated and "classic" than Mary; but, on the +other hand, it falls short of her, for it gives no idea of her +tall and intellectual forehead, nor has it any trace of the bright, +animated, and sweet expression that so often lighted up her face. + +Attention has often been concentrated on the passage in +"Epipsychidion" which appears to relate Shelley's experiences from +earliest youth until he met with the noble and unfortunate "Lady +Emilia V., now imprisoned in the convent of--," whose own words form +the motto to the poem, and a key to the sympathy which the writer felt +for her:--"The loving soul launches itself out of the created, and +creates in the infinite a world all its own, far different from this +dark and fearful abysm." The passage begins,-- + + "There was a being whom my spirit oft + Met on its visioned wanderings, far aloft, + In the clear golden prime of my youth's + dawn." + +And this being was the worshipped object of Shelley's adoring +aspirations in extreme youth; but it passed by him as a vision, +though-- + + "And as a man with mighty loss dismayed, + I would have followed, though the grave between + Yawned like a gulf whose spectres are unseen: + When a voice said,--'O thou of hearts the weakest, + The phantom is beside thee whom thou seekest.' + Then I,--'Where?' The world's echo answered, 'Where'!" + +She ever remained the veiled divinity of thoughts that worshipped her, +while he went forth into the world with hope and fear,-- + + "Into the wintry forest of our life; + And struggling through its error with vain strife, + And stumbling in my weakness and my haste, + And half bewildered by new forms, I passed + Seeking among those untaught foresters + If I could find one form resembling hers + In which she might have masked herself from me." + +The passage grows more and more intelligible. Hitherto he has been +simply a dreamy seeker; but now, at last, he thinks that Fate has +answered his questioning exclamation, "Where?" + + "There, one whose voice was venomed melody + Sat by a well, under the nightshade bowers; + The breath of her false mouth was like faint flowers; + Her touch was as electric poison; flame + Out of her looks into my vitals came; + And from her living cheeks and bosom flew + A killing air which pierced like honey-dew + Into the core of my green heart, and lay + Upon its leaves,--until, as hair grown gray + O'er a young brow, they hid its unblown prime + With ruins of unseasonable time." + +This is a plain and only too intelligible reference to the college +experiences to which I have alluded. The youth for the moment thought +that he had encountered her whom he was seeking, but, instead of the +Florimel, he found her venal, hideous, and fatal _simulacrum_; and +he indicates even the material consequences to himself in his injured +aspect and hair touched with gray. He continues his search. + + "In many mortal forms I rashly sought + The shadow of that idol of my thought: + And some were fair,--but beauty dies away; + Others were wise,--but honeyed words betray; + And one was true,--oh! why not true to me? + Then, as a hunted deer that could not flee, + I turned upon my thoughts and stood at bay." + +"Oh! why not true to me?" has been taken by some very few who were +cognizant of the facts as constituting an imputation on the one whom +he first married; but I am convinced that the interpretation is wrong, +although the surmise on which that interpretation is based was partly +correct. Nothing is more evident than the fact that Harriet possessed +rather an unusual degree of ability, but enormously less than Shelley +desired in the being whom he sought, and equally less than his +idealizing estimate originally ascribed to her. It is also plain, from +her own letters, that she courted his approval in a way far too common +with the wives of the artist-tribe, and perhaps with most wives: not +being exactly what he wished her to be, and lacking the faculties to +become so, she tried to seem it. The desire was partly sincere, partly +an affectation, as we discern in such little trifles as her suddenly +using the word "thou" in a letter to Hookham where she had previously +been using the ordinary colloquial "you." That she was not quite +ingenuous we also detect in the fast-and-loose conduct which enabled +her, while affecting to become what Shelley deemed her to be, also to +play into the hands of very inferior people, who must sometimes have +counselled her against him behind his back; and this, I am sure, is +what he means by "Oh! why not true to me?" though he may include +in the question a fervent regret for the fate which attended her +wandering from him. "Then like a hunted deer he turned upon his +thoughts and stood at bay," until + + "The cold day + Trembled, for pity of my strife and pain, + When, like a noonday dawn, there shone again + Deliverance. One stood on my path who seemed + As like the glorious shape that I had dreamed + As is the Moon, whose changes ever run + Into themselves, to the eternal Sun." + +"The cold chaste moon" fails to satisfy the longing of his soul. +"At her silver voice came death and life"; hope and despondency, +expectation from her noble qualities, disappointment at the failure +of response, were feelings that sprang from the exaggerations of his +ideal longings. + + "What storms then shook the ocean of my sleep, + Blotting that Moon whose pale and waning lips + Then shrank as in the sickness of eclipse!" + +The whole passage is worth perusing; and again wrong interpretation +has been given to this portion of his writing. I am still more firmly +convinced that in the other case, when he says, "The planet of that +hour was quenched," he alludes to nothing more than the partial +failure of his own ideal requirements. At length into the obscure +forest came + + "The vision I had sought through grief and shame. + + * * * * * + + I stood and felt the dawn of my long night + Was penetrating me with living light: + I knew it was the vision veiled from me + So many years,--that it was Emily." + +To grasp the entire meaning of this autobiographical episode, we must +remember the extent to which Shelley idealizes. "More popular poets +clothe the ideal with familiar and sensible imagery; Shelley loved +to idealize the real,--to gift the mechanism of the material universe +with a soul and a voice, and to bestow such also on the most delicate +and abstract emotions and thoughts of the mind. Sophocles was +his great master in this species of imagery." The heroine of the +"Epipsychidion" is an imagination; a creature, like Raphael's Galatea, +copied from no living model, but from "_una certa idea_"; a thing +originally created by himself, and suggested only by the living +portrait, as each one of the admired had previously suggested its +ideal counterpart. Emilia, then, was the bride of a dream, and, in the +indulgence of disappointed longing for a fuller satisfaction of his +soul, Shelley mournfully contrasts this vision, who had so eloquently +responded to his idealizing through her convent-bars, with Mary, whose +stubborn, independent realism had checked and daunted him. + +But the last year of Shelley's life had involved a very considerable +progress in the formation of his intellectual character. The +"Prometheus Unbound," perhaps at once the most characteristic and the +most perfect of all his works, is identical in spirit and tendency +even with the earliest, "Queen Mab"; but a re-perusal of it in +comparison with the other writings, even the "Revolt of Islam," will +show a more distinct presentment of the original ideas, coupled with +a much more measured suggestion for acting on them, and a far less +bitter allusion to the obstacles; while the charity and love are more +all-embracing and apparent than ever. Imperfect as it is for dramatic +representation, shortcoming even in the power to trace the working +of emotions and ideas in utterly diverse characters, the "Cenci" does +indicate a stronger aptitude for sympathy with other creatures +on their own terms than any other of the poet's writings. He had, +therefore, sobered in judgment, without declining in his inborn +genius; but, on the contrary, with a clearer sense of the limits +placed upon individual action, he had gained strength; and I feel +certain that a corresponding change had taken place in his perception +of the true import and value of characters unlike his own. The last +few months of his life at Lerici had very materially contributed to +this change. Although I cannot recall any distinct statement to that +effect by Mary Shelley, her conversation had left that impression on +me; it is also suggested by the way in which he himself spoke of it, +and is fully confirmed by the tone of the letters addressed to her +from Pisa. + + +All who have attempted to portray Shelley, either intellectually or +physically, have done so from some appreciable, almost personal point +of view. When many eyes see one object, it presents itself in as many +different aspects, and the description given by each bears often a +slight resemblance to that of others. So it has been with Shelley. The +artistic portraits of him have happened to be particularly imperfect. +I remember seeing a miniature by an amateur friend which actually +suggested a form broad and square. The ordinarily received miniature +is like almost all of its tribe, and resembles Shelley about as +much as a lady in a book of fashions resembles real women; and it +constitutes evidence all the more detrimental and misleading, since it +appears to give as well as to receive a color of verisimilitude from +the usual written description, which represents Shelley as "feminine," +"almost girlish," "ideal," "angelic," and so forth. The accounts of +him by firmer hands are still cramped by the individuality of the +authorship. + +His school-friend, Hogg, is a gentleman of independent property; +Shelley detected the sensitiveness of his nature; and I know that the +man has been capable of truly generous conduct. How is it, then, that +he has written such utterly unintelligible stuff, and has descended to +such evasions as to insert initials, lest people should detect amongst +Shelley's correspondents a most admirable friend, who happened, it +is supposed, to be of plebeian origin? Mr. Thomas Jefferson Hogg, +I surmise, was conscious, somewhat early in life, that his better +qualities were not fully appreciated; and his love of ease, his wit, +his perception of the ludicrous, made him take refuge in cynicism +until he learned almost to forget the origin of the real meaning of +the things he talked about. His account of Shelley is like a figure +seen through fantastically distorting panes of glass. + +Thomas Love Peacock, again, is a man to whose extraordinary powers +Shelley did full justice. He has worked through a long official career +without losing his very peculiar dry wit; but a dry wit was not the +man exactly to discern the form of Shelley's mind, or to portray it +with accuracy and distinctness. + +Few men knew the poet better than my father; but a mind checked by +"over-refinement," excessive conscientiousness, and an irresistible +tendency to find out niceties of difference,--a mind, in short, like +that of Hamlet, cultivated rather than corrected by the trials +of life, was scarcely suited to comprehend the strong instincts, +indomitable will, and complete unity of idea which distinguished +Shelley. Accordingly we have from my father a very doubtful portrait, +seldom advancing beyond details, which are at once exaggerated and +explained away by qualifications. + +Byron, I suspect, through the natural strength of his perceptive +power, was likely to have formed a better design; but the two were +separated soon after he had begun to learn that such a man as Shelley +might be found on the same earth with himself. + +One or two others that have written have been mere tourists or +acquaintances. Unquestionably the companion who knew him best of all +was Mary; and although she lacked the power of distinct, positive, and +absolute portraiture, her writings will be found to contain, together +with his own, the best materials for forming an estimate of his +natural character. + +The real man was reconcilable with all these descriptions. His traits +suggested everything that has been said of him; but his aspect, +conformation, and personal qualities contained more than any one has +ascribed to him, and more indeed than all put together. A few plain +matters-of-fact will make this intelligible. Shelley was a tall +man,--nearly, if not quite, five feet ten in height. He was peculiarly +slender, and, as I have said already, his chest had palpably +enlarged after the usual growing period. He retained the same kind +of straitness in the perpendicular outline on each side of him; his +shoulders were the reverse of broad, but yet they were not sloping, +and a certain squareness in them was naturally incompatible with +anything feminine in his appearance. To his last days he still +suffered his chest to collapse; but it was less a stoop than a +peculiar mode of holding the head and shoulders,--the face thrown a +little forward, and the shoulders slightly elevated; though the whole +attitude below the shoulders, when standing, was unusually upright, +and had the appearance of litheness and activity. I have mentioned +that bodily vigor which he could display; and from his action when I +last saw him, as well as from Mary's account, it is evident that he +had not abandoned his exercises, but the reverse. He had an oval face +and delicate features, not unlike those given to him in the well-known +miniature. His forehead was high. His fine, dark brown hair, when not +cut close, disposed itself in playful and very beautiful curls over +his brows and round the back of his neck. He had brown eyes, with +a color in his cheek "like a girl's"; but as he grew older, his +complexion bronzed. So far the reality agrees with the current +descriptions; nevertheless they omit material facts. The outline of +the features and face possessed a firmness and _hardness_ entirely +inconsistent with a feminine character. The outline was sharp and +firm; the markings distinct, and indicating an energetic _physique_. +The outline of the bone was distinctly perceptible at the temples, on +the bridge of the nose, at the back portion of the cheeks, and in the +jaw, and the artist could trace the principal muscles of the face. +The beard also, although the reverse of strong, was clearly marked, +especially about the chin. Thus, although the general aspect was +peculiarly slight, youthful, and delicate, yet, when you looked to +"the points" of the animal, you saw well enough the indications of a +masculine vigor, in many respects far above the average. And what I +say of the physical aspect of course bears upon the countenance. That +changed with every feeling. It usually looked earnest,--when +joyful, was singularly bright and animated, like that of a gay young +girl,--when saddened, had an aspect of sorrow peculiarly touching, and +sometimes it fell into a listless weariness still more mournful; but +for the most part there was a look of active movement, promptitude, +vigor, and decision, which bespoke a manly, and even a commanding +character. + +The general tendency that all who approached Shelley displayed to +yield to his dictate is a practical testimony to these qualities; +for his earnestness was apt to take a tone of command so generous, +so free, so simple, as to be utterly devoid of offence, and yet to +constitute him a sort of tyrant over all who came within his reach. + +The weakness ascribed to Shelley's voice was equally taken from +exceptional instances, and the account of it usually suggests the idea +that he spoke in a falsetto which might almost be mistaken for the +"shriek" of a harsh-toned woman. Nothing could be more unlike the +reality. The voice was indeed quite peculiar, and I do not know where +any parallel to it is likely to be found unless in Lancashire. Shelley +had no ear for music,--the words that he wrote for existing airs +being, strangely enough, inappropriate in rhythm and even in cadence; +and though he had a manifest relish for music and often talked of it, +I do not remember that I ever heard him sing even the briefest snatch. +I cannot tell, therefore, what was the "register" of his singing +voice; but his speaking voice unquestionably was then of a high +natural counter-tenor. I should say that he usually spoke at a pitch +somewhere about the D natural above the base line; but it was in no +respect a falsetto. It was a natural chest-voice, not powerful, but +telling, musical, and expressive. In reading aloud, the strain was +peculiarly clear, and had a sustained, song-like quality, which came +out more strongly when, as he often did, he recited verse. When he +called out in pain,--a very rare occurrence,--or sometimes in comic +playfulness, you might hear the "shrillness" of which people talk; but +it was only because the organ was forced beyond the ordinary effort. +His usual speech was clear, and yet with a breath in it, with an +especially distinct articulation, a soft, vibrating tone, emphatic, +pleasant, and persuasive. + +It seems to me that these physical characteristics forcibly illustrate +the moral and intellectual genius of the man. The impulsiveness which +has been ascribed to him is a wrong expression, for it is usually +interpreted to mean the action of sudden motives waywardly, +capriciously, or at least intermittingly working; whereas the +character which Shelley so constantly displayed was an overbearing +strength of conviction and feeling, a species of audacious, but +chivalrous readiness to act upon conviction as promptly as possible, +and, above all, a zealous disposition to say out all that was in his +mind. It is better expressed by the word which some satirist put +into the mouth of Coleridge, speaking of himself, and, instead of +impulsiveness, it should have been called an "utterancy," coupled with +decision and promptitude of action. The physical development of the +man with the progress of time may be traced in the advancement of his +writings. The physical qualities which are equally to be found in his +poetry and prose were quite as manifest in his aspect, and not less +so in his conduct of affairs. It must be remembered that his life +terminated long before he had arrived half-way, "_nel mezzo del cammin +di nostra vita_," when more than one other great intellect has been +but commencing its true work. I believe, that, if Shelley had lived, +he would himself have been the most potent and useful commentator on +his own writings, in the production of other and more complete works. +But meanwhile the true measure of his genius is to be found in the +influence which he has had, not only over those who have proclaimed +their debt to him, but over numbers who have mistrusted and even +denounced him. + + + + +THE TEST. + + "Farewell awhile, my bonnie darling! + One long, close kiss, and I depart: + I hear the angry trumpet snarling, + The drum-beat tingles at my heart." + + Behind him, softest flutes were breathing + Across the vale their sweet recall; + Before him burst the battle, seething + In flame beneath its thunder-pall. + + All sights and sounds to stay invited; + The meadows tossed their foam of flowers; + The lingering Day beheld, delighted, + The dances of his amorous Hours. + + He paused: again the fond temptation + Assailed his heart, so firm before, + And tender dreams, of Love's creation, + Persuaded from the peaceful shore. + + "But no!" he sternly cried; "I follow + The trumpet, not the shepherd's reed: + Let idlers pipe in pastoral hollow,-- + Be mine the sword, and mine the deed! + + "Farewell to Love!" he murmured, sighing: + "Perchance I lose what most is dear; + But better there, struck down and dying, + Than be a man and wanton here!" + + He went where battle's voice was loudest; + He pressed where danger nearest came; + His hand advanced, among the proudest, + Their banner through the lines of flame. + + And there, when wearied Carnage faltered, + He, foremost of the fallen, lay, + While Night looked down with brow unaltered, + And breathed the battle's dust away. + + There lying, sore from wounds untended, + A vision crossed the starry gleam: + The girl he loved beside him bended, + And kissed him in his fever-dream. + + "Oh, love!" she cried, "you fled, to find me; + I left with you the daisied vale; + I turned from flutes that wailed behind me, + To hear your trumpet's distant hail. + + "Your tender vows, your peaceful kisses, + They scarce outlived the moment's breath; + But now we clasp immortal blisses + Of passion proved on brinks of Death! + + "No fate henceforward shall estrange her + Who finds a heart more brave than fond; + For Love, forsook this side of danger, + Waits for the man who goes beyond!" + + + + +THE PREACHER'S TRIAL. + +Sitting in my New-England study, as do so many of my tribe, to peruse +the "Atlantic," I wonder whether, like its namesake, hospitable to +many persons and things, it will for once let me write as well as +read, and launch from my own calling a theme on its bosom. Our cloth +has been worn so long in the world, I doubt how far it may suit with +new fashions in fine company-parlors; but, seeing room is so cordially +made for some of my brethren, as the Reverend Mr. Wilbur and "The +Country Parson," to keep up the dignity of the profession, I am +emboldened to come for a day with what the editorial piety may accept, +"rejected article" as it might be elsewhere. + +The pulpit has lost something of its old sacredness in the general +mind. There is little popular superstition to endure its former +dictation. No exclusive incarnate theocracy in any particular persons +is left, Leviticus and the Hebrew priesthood are gone. Church, +ministry, and Sabbath are the regular targets taken out by our moral +riflemen and archers, though so seldom to hit fair in the centre, that +we may find ourselves, like spectators at the match, respecting the +old targets more than we do the shots. Yet homilies and exporters are +thought fair game. I have even heard splendid lecturers whose wit +ran so low or who were so pushed for matter as to talk of what +divinity-students wear round their necks, which seems a superficial +consideration. The anciently venerated desk has two sharp enemies, +the radical and the conservative, aiming their artillery from opposite +sides, putting it somewhat in the position of the poor fish who is in +danger from diverse classes of its fellow-creatures, one in the air +and one in the water, and knows not whether to dive or rise to the +surface, till it can conclude which is the more pleasant exit from +life, to be hawked at or swallowed outright. + +While, however, critics and reformers fail to furnish a fit substitute +for the sermon, and the finest essays show not only Bacon's "dry +light," but a very cold one too, and the wit and humor of the lyceum +fall short of any mark in the conscience of mankind, and philanthropy +uses stabbing often instead of surgery, a clerical institution, on +whose basis direct admonition can be administered by individuals +without egotism or impertinence, maintains an indefeasible claim. +Indeed, as was fancied of the innocent in the ordeal by fire, or like +the children from the furnace, it comes out the other side of all +censure, with some odor of sanctity yet on its unsinged robes and new +power in higher quarters in its hands. Defective, indeed, it is. If +some of its organs could speak a little more in their natural voice, +and could, moreover, wash off the deformity of this Indian war-paint +of high-wrought rhetoric,--if they could use a little more of the +colloquial earnestness of the street and table in their style, instead +of those freaks of eloquence which, among all our associations, +there ought to be a society to put down,--they would more honor their +vocation, and effect its purpose of saving human souls. Let us not be +so loudmouthed, or bluster as we do. Our declamation will have to hush +its barbarian noise some time. Nothing but conversation will be +left in heaven; and it were well, could we have on earth sober and +thoughtful assemblies, at blood-warmth instead of fever-heat, rather +than those over-crowded halls from which _hundreds go away unable to +obtain admission_. + +But the present design is a plea for justice, not a fresh charge. +The pulpit is to teach religion in application to life. But when we +reflect what life is, how deep in the soul, how wide in the world, +how complicated and delicate in its affairs and ties,--and when, we +consider what religion is, the whole truth of heaven respecting +all the operations of earth,--a kindly judgment is required for +unavoidable short-comings and ministerial mistakes. With different +ages, sexes, experiences, states of mind, degrees of intelligence and +impressibleness in a congregation, it is a rare felicity for a sermon +to reach all its members with equal impressiveness or acceptance. Who +ever heard a uniform estimate of any discourse? There seems almost a +curse upon the preacher's office from its very greatness, so that it +is never finished, and no portion of it can be done perfectly well and +secure against all objection. If he try to unfold the deep things +of the Spirit, and bring his best thoughts, which he would not throw +away, before his audience, though in language clearer than many a +chapter of Paul's Epistles, _some_ will call the topic obscure, and +complain that their children cannot understand it, quoting, perhaps, +the old sentence, that all truth necessary to salvation is so plain +that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, +cannot err therein, and commending superficial homilies on other +tongues to censure whatever is profound from his. But should the +poor occupant of the desk venture to emulate this eulogized sonorous +exhortation, exerting himself to come down to the ignorant and the +young, there will be _some_ to stigmatize that, too, as a sort of +trifling and disrespect to mature minds. He has by a senior now and +then been blamed for excessive attention to the lambs of his flock, +and annoyed with the menace to stay away, if they were especially +to be noticed. If a visitation of special grace or an exaltation of +physical strength make the mortal incumbent happy in his exposition, +so that he is listened to with edification and delight, it is, by +some, not passed over to his credit at the ebb-tide of his power. Half +the time the house is not half full, as though the institution which +all order to be conducted nobody but he is bound to shoulder. If the +preacher labor to express the mysterious relationship between God and +Christ, the divine and human nature, he will be considered by _some_ +a sectarian, controversialist, or heretic. If he unfold what is +above all denominational disputes, he will be fortunate to escape +accusations of transcendentalism, pantheism, spiritualism. If, lucky +man, he go scot-free of such indictment, a last stunning stroke, in +the gantlet he runs, will be sure to fetch him up, in the vague and +unanswerable imputation of being _very peculiar in his views_. If +he insist on the miracles as literal facts, he will be laughed at as +old-fashioned in one pew; if he slight them, he will be mourned over +as unsound in the next. Men grumble at taxes and tolls; alas! nobody +is stopped at so many gates and questioned in so many ways as he. If +he take in hand the tender matter of consoling stricken hearts, the +ecstasy of his visions will not save his topic from being regarded by +some as painful, and by others as a mere shining of the moon. He will +receive special requests not to harrow up the feelings he only meant +to bind up in balm. He may be informed of an aversion, more or less +extensive, to naming the _grave_ or _coffin_ and what it contains, +though he only puts one foot by pall or bier to plant the other in +paradise. If he turn the everlasting verities he is intrusted with to +events transpiring on the public stage, though he never sided with any +party in his life, and has no more committed himself to men than did +his Master, _some_ will be grieved at his _preaching politics_. His +head has throbbed, his heart ached, his eyes were hot and wet +once before he uttered himself; but he must suffer and weep worse +afterwards, because he went too far for one man and not far enough for +another. He is told, one day, that he is too severe on seceders, and +the next, ironically, that, with such merciful sentiments towards +them, he ought always to wear a cravat completely white. One man is +amused at his sermon, and another thinks the same is sad. He will be +asked if he cannot give a little less of one thing or more of another, +as though he were a dealer in wares or an exhibiter of curious +documents for a price, and could take an article from this or that +shelf, or a paper from any one of a hundred pigeon-holes, when, if he +be a servant of the Lord and organ of the Holy Ghost, he has no choice +and is shut up to his errand,--necessity is laid upon him, woe is unto +him if he deliver it not, but, like another Jonah, flee to Tarshish +when the Lord tells him to go to Nineveh and cry against its +wickedness; and he feels through every nerve that truth is not a +thing to be carried round as merchandise or peddled out at all to suit +particular tastes, to retain old friends or win new ones, hard as it +may go, to the anguish of his soul, to lose the good-will of those he +loves, and whose distrust is a chronic pang, though they come to love +him again all the more for what he has suffered and said. But if, +passing by discussions of general interest, and exposing himself +to the hint of being behind the times, he grapple with the sins +immediately about him, board the false customs of society and trade, +and strike with the sword of the Lord at private vices and family +faults, he will be blamed as very _personal_, and be apprised of his +insults to those of whom in his delivery he never thought, as he may +never preach _at_ anybody, or even _to_ anybody, in his most direct +thrusting, more than to himself, reaching others only through his own +wounded heart. Meantime, some of his ecclesiastical constituents +will suspect him, in his local ethics, of leniency to wide-spread +corruption; and professed philanthropists will brand him as a trimmer +and coward, recreant, fawning, and dumb,--the term _spaniel_ having +been flung at one of the best men and most conscientious ministers +that ever lived, simply because he could not vituperate as harshly +as some of his neighbors. Some would have him remember only those in +bonds; others say they cannot endure from him even the word _slavery_. +Blessed, if, from all these troubles, he can, for solace, and with a +sense of its significance, bethink himself of Christ's saying to +his disciples, "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!" +Thrice blessed, if he have an assurance and in that inward certificate +possess the peace which passeth understanding! + +I intend not, by my simple story, which has in it no fiction, to add +to the lamentations of the old prophet, nor will allow Jeremiah to +represent all my mood. It is perfectly fit the laity should criticize +the clergy. The minister,--who is he but one of the people, set apart +to particular functions, open to a judgment on the manner of their +discharge, from which no sacred mission or supposed apostolic +succession can exempt, the Apostles having been subject to it +themselves? Under their robes and ordinances, in high-raised desks, +priest and bishop are but men, after all. Ministers should be grateful +for all the folk's frankness. Only let the criticism be considerate +and fair; and in order to its becoming so, let us ascertain the +perfect model of their calling. Did not their Master give it, when he +said, "The field is the world"? If so, then to everything in the world +must the pulpit apply the moral law. What department of it shall be +excused? _Politics_,--because it embraces rival schools in the same +worshipping body, and no disinterested justice in alluding to its +principles can be expected from a preacher, or because whoever +disagrees with his opinions must be silent, there being on Sunday and +in the sanctuary no decency allowed of debate or reply, and therefore +whatever concerns the civil welfare and salvation of the community is +out of the watchman's beat now, though God so expressly bade him warn +the city of old? _Commerce_,--because a minister understands nothing +of the elements and necessities of business, and must blunder in +pointing to banks and shops or any transactions of the street, though +an old preacher, called Solomon, in his Proverbs refers so sharply to +the buyer and the seller? _Pleasure_,--because the servant of the Lord +cannot be supposed to sympathize with, but only to denounce, amusement +which poor tired humanity employs for its recreation, though Miriam's +smiting of her timbrel, which still rings from the borders of the +raging Red Sea, and David's dancing in a linen ephod with all his +might before the Lord, when the ark on a new cart came into the +city, were a sort of refreshment of triumphant sport? _The social +circle_,--because of course he cannot go to parties or comprehend the +play of feeling in which the natural affections run to and fro, +and should rather be at home reading his Bible, turning over his +Concordance, and writing his sermon, letting senate and dance, market +and exchange, opera and theatre, fights and negotiations go to the +winds, so he only comes duly with his _exegesis_ Sunday morning to his +place? In short, is the minister's concern and call of God only, with +certain imposing formalities and prearranged dogmas, to greet in their +Sunday-clothes his friends who have laid aside their pursuits and +delights with the gay garments or working-dress of the week, never +reminding them of what, during the six days, they have heard or where +they have been? "No!" let him say; "if this is to be a minister, no +minister can I be!" For what is left of the field the Lord sends the +minister into? It is cut up and fenced off into countless divisions, +to every one of which some earthly-agent or interest brings a +title-deed. The minister finds the land of the world, like some vast +tract of uncivilized territory, seized by wild squatters, owned and +settled by other parties, and, as a famous political-economist said +in another connection, there is no cover at Nature's table for him. +As with the soldier in the play, whose wars were over, _his_ +"occupation's gone." + +What is the minister, then? A ghost, or a figure like some in the +shop-window, all made up of dead cloth and color into an appearance of +life? Verily, he comes almost to that. But no such shape, no spectre +from extinct animation of thousands of years ago, like the geologist's +skeletons reconstructed from lifeless strata of the earth, can answer +the vital purposes of the revelation from God. Of no pompous or +abstract ritual administration did the Son of God set an example. He +had a parable for the steward living when _He_ did; He called +King Herod, then reigning, _a fox_, and the Scribes and Pharisees +hypocrites; He declared the prerogatives of His Father beyond Caesar's; +He maintained a responsibility of human beings coextensive with the +stage and inseparable from the smallest trifle of their existence. He +did not limit His marvellous tongue to antiquities and traditions. He +used the mustard-seed in the field and the leaven in the lump for His +everlasting designs. His finger was stretched out to the cruel stones +of self-righteousness flying through the air, and phylacteries of +dissimulation worn on the walk. He was so _political_, He would have +saved Jerusalem and Judea from Roman ruin, and wept because He could +not, with almost the only tears mentioned of His. Those who teach in +His name should copy after His pattern. + +"_Confine yourselves to the old first Gospel, preach Christianity, +early Christianity_," we ministers are often told. But what is +Christianity, early or late, and what does the Gospel mean, but a rule +of holy living in every circumstance now? Grief and offence may come, +as Jesus says they must; misapplications and complaints, which are +almost always misapprehensions, may be made; but are not these better +than indifference and death? No doubt there is a prudence, and still +more an impartial candor and equity, in treating every matter, but +no beauty in timid flight from any matter there is to treat. The +clergyman, like every man, speaks at his peril, and is as accountable +as any one for what he says. He ought justly and tenderly to remember +the diverse tenets represented among his auditors, to side with +no sect as such, to give no individual by his indorsement a mean +advantage over any other, nor any one a handle of private persecution +by his open anathema. Moreover, he should abstain from that +particularity in secular themes which so easily wanders from all +sight of spiritual law amid regions of uncertainty and speculative +conjecture. He should shun explorations less fit for prophets than for +experts. He should lay his finger on no details in which questions of +right and wrong are not plainly involved. He must be public-spirited; +he cannot be more concerned for his country and his race, that +righteousness and liberty and love may prevail, than divine seers have +ever been, as their books of record show; but, if he becomes a mere +diplomatist, financier, secretary-of-state, or military general, in +his counsels or his tone, he evacuates his own position, flees as +a craven from his post, and assumes that of other men. Yet it is an +extreme still worse for him to resort to lifeless generalities of +doctrine and duty, producing as little effect as comes from electric +batteries or telegraphic wires when no magnetic current is established +and no object reached. What section, of the world should evade or defy +the law of God? + +O preachers, beware of your sentimental descant on the worth of +goodness, the goodness of being good, and the sinfulness of sin, +without specifying either! It is a blank cartridge, or one of +treacherous sand instead of powder, or a spiked gun, only whose +priming explodes without noise or execution. Let nobody dodge the sure +direction of that better than lead or iron shot with which from you +the conscience is pierced and iniquity slain. Suffer not the statesman +to withdraw his policy, nor the broker his funds, nor the captain the +cause he fights for, from the sentence of divine truth on the good or +evil in all the acts of men. + +The preacher, however, as he pronounces or reports that sentence, must +never forget the bond he is under in his own temper to the spirit of +impartial love. Whatever is vindictive vitiates his announcement all +the more that he cannot be rebuked for it, as he ought to be, on the +spot. Only let not the hearers mistake earnestness for vindictiveness. +If kindly and with intense serenity he communicates what he has +struggled long and hard to attain, then for their own sake, if not for +his, they should beware of visiting him either with silent distrust or +open reproach. He, just like them, must stand or fall according to his +fidelity to the oracles of God. Only, once more, let him and let +the Church comprehend that those oracles are not summed up in any +laborious expounding of verbal texts. "The letter killeth," unless +itself enlivened through the immediate Providence. + +To be true to God, the preacher must be true to his time, as the +Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles were to theirs. The pulpit dies of +its dignity, when it creeps into the exhausted receiver of foregone +conclusions, and has nothing to say but of Adam and Pharaoh, Jew +and Gentile, Palestine and Tyre so far away. Its decorum of being +inoffensive to others is suicidal for itself. It is the sleep of +death for all. As the inductive philosopher took all knowledge for +his province, it must take all life. We have, indeed, a glorious and +venerable charter of inestimable worth in our map of the religious +history of mankind through centuries that are gone. We must study +the true meaning of the Bible, _the book_ and chief collection of +the records of faith, precious above all for the immortal image and +photograph, in so many a shifting light and various expression, of +the transcendent form of divinity through manhood in Him to be ever +reverently and lovingly named, Jesus Christ. But there is a spirit in +man. "The word of God," says an Apostle, "is not bound"; nor can it +be wholly bound up. The Holy Spirit of God that first descended never +died, and never ceased to act on the human soul. The day of miracles +is not past,--or, if none precisely like those of Jesus are +still wrought, miracles of grace, the principal workings of the +supernatural, of which external prodigies are the lowest species, are +performed abundantly in the living breast. Jesus Himself, after all +the sufficient and summary grandeur of His instructions, assures +His followers of the Spirit that would come to lead them, beyond +whatsoever He had said, into all truth. In that dispensation of the +Spirit we live. Its sphere endures through all change, impregnable. +It is "builded far from accident." No progress of earthly science can +threat or hurt its eternal proportions. It is the supreme knowledge, +and to whoever enters it a whisper comes whose only response is the +confession of our noble hymn,-- + + "True science is to read Thy name." + +Much is said of a contradictory relation of science to faith. But the +statement is a misnomer. True faith is the lushest science, even the +knowledge of God. Putting fishes or birds, shells or flowers, stones +or stars, in a circle or a row is a lower science than the sublime +intercommunication of the soul by prayer and love with its Father. +Mere physical, without spiritual science, has no bottom to hold +anything, and no foundation of peace. The king of science is not the +naturalist as such, but the saint conversing with Divinity,--not so +much Humboldt or La Place as Fenelon or Luther. So far as the progress +of outward science saps accredited writings, they must give way, or +rather any false conceptions of Nature they imply must yield, leaving +whatever spirituality there is in them untouched. But this is from +no essential contradiction between science and religious faith. What +faith or religion is there in believing the world was made in six +days? Less than in calculating, with Agassiz, by the coral reefs of +Florida, that to make one bit of it took more than sixty thousand +years. Religious faith, what is it? It is the trembling transport with +which the soul hearkens and gives itself up to God, in sympathy with +all likewise entranced souls. But from such consecrated listening to +the voice of Deity, fresh in our bosom or echoed from without by those +He has inspired, we verify the rule already affirmed, and fetch +advice and command for all the affairs of life. It is emphatically +the minister's duty thus to join the vision to the fact, that they +may strike through and through one another. Certainly, so the true +minister's speech should run. Let him stand up and boldly say, or +always imply, "I so construe it; and if the _Church_ interpret it +otherwise, the Church is no place for me. If the _world_ will accept +no such method, the world is no place for me. I see not why I was +born, or what with Church or world I have to do. From Church and world +I should beg leave to retire, trusting that God's Universe, somewhere +beyond this dingy spot, is true to the persuasion of His mind. I must +apply religion universally to life, or not at all. If, when my country +is in peril, I cannot bring her to the altar and ask that she may be +lifted up in the arms of a common supplication,--if, in the terrible +game of honesty with political corruption, when '_Check_' is said +to the adverse power, I cannot wish and pray that '_Checkmate_' may +follow,--when some huge evil, sorely wounded, in its fierce throes +spreads destruction about, as the dying monster in Northern seas casts +up boat-loads of dying men who fall bruised and bleeding among the +fragments into the waves with the threshing of its angry tail, if +then I cannot hope that the struggle may be short, and the ship of the +Republic gather back her crew from prevailing in the conflict to sail +prosperous with all her rich cargo of truth and freedom on the voyage +over the sea of Time,--if no sound of the news-boy's cry must mix with +the echoes of solemn courts, and no reflection of wasting fires in +which life and treasure melt can flash through their windows, and +no deeds of manly heroism or womanly patriotism are to have applause +before God and Christ in the temple,--if nothing but some preexisting +scheme of salvation, distinct from all living activity, must absorb +the mind,--then I totally misunderstand and am quite out of my place. +Then let me go. It is high time I were away. I have stayed too long +already." Such should be the speech of the minister, knowing he is +not tempted to be a partisan, and is possessed with but an over-kind +sensibility to dread any ruffling of others' feelings or discord with +those that are dear. + +In the first year of a young minister's service, Dr. Channing besought +him to let no possible independence of parochial support relax his +industry: a needless caution to one not constituted to feel seductions +of sloth, in whom active energy is no merit, and who can have no +motive but the people's good. What else is there for him to seek? +There is no by-end open, and no virtue in a devotedness there is no +lure to forego. There is no position he can covet, as politicians are +said to bid for the Presidency. But one thing is indispensable: he +must tell what he thinks; he is strong only in his convictions; the +sacrifice of them he cannot make; it were but his debility, if he did; +and the treasury of all the fortunes of the richest parish were no +more than a cipher to purchase it from any one who, quick as he may +be to human kindness, may have a more tremulous rapture for the +approbation of God. + +After all, to his profession and parish the preacher is in debt. +Exquisite rewards his work yields. If controversy arise on some point +with his friends, there may, after a while, be no remnant of hard +feeling,--as there are heavy cannonades, and no bit of wadding picked +up. Those who have striven with or defamed may come to cherish him all +the more for their alienation. Those who could not hear him, or, when +they heard, thought him too long, or what they heard did not like, may +own with him, out of their discontent, closer and sweeter bonds. His +business is expansive in its nature. The seasons of human life in +broad representation are always before him. How many moral springs and +summers, autumns and winters he sees, till he can hardly tell whether +his musing on this curious existence be memory or hope, retrospect +of earth or prospect of heaven! and he begins to think the spiritual +world abolishes distinctions of spheres and times, as parents, that +were his lambs, bring their babes to his arms, and, even in the +flesh, his mortal passing into eternal vision, he beholds, as in +vivid dreaming, other parents leading their children on other shores, +unseen, though hard by. Where, after a score or two of years, is his +church? He has several congregations,--one within the dedicated walls, +one of emigrants whom his fancy instead of the bell assembles, and +a third of elders and little ones gone back through the shadow of +mystery whence they came. In what abides of the flock nothing remains +as it was. Wondrous transformations snow maturity or decline in the +very forms that, to his also changing eye and hand, once wore soft +cheeks and silken locks. In his experience, miracle is less than +creation and lower than truth. He cannot credit Memory's ever losing +her seat, he has such things to remember. The best thereof can never +be written down, published, uttered by orators, or blown from the +trumpet of Fame, whose "brave instrument" must put up with a meaner +message and inferior breath. Out of his affections are born his +beliefs; earth is the cradle of his expectancy and persuasion of +heaven; and not otherwise than through the glass of his experience +could he have sight of a sphere of ineffable glory for better growth +than Nature here affords in all her gardens and fields. + +So let the preacher stand by his order. But let him be just, also, to +the constituency from which it springs. Hearty and cheerful, though +obscure worker, let him be. Let him fling his weaver's shuttle still, +daily while he lives, through the crossing party-colored threads of +human life, till, in his factory too, beauty flows from confusion, +contradiction ends in harmony, and the blows with which each one has +been stricken form the perfect pattern from all. There is a unity +which all faithful labor, through whatever jars, consults and creates. +Of all criticisms the resultant is truth; be the conflicts what they +may, the issue shall be peace; and one music of affection is yet +angelically to flow from the many divided notes of human life. Who is +the _minister_, then? No ordained functionary alone, but every man or +woman that has lived and served, loved and lamented, and now, for such +ends, suffers and hopes. + + + + +THE GHOST OF LITTLE JACQUES. + + +How quiet the saloon was, that morning, as I groped my way through the +little white tables, the light chairs, and the dimness of early dawn +to the windows. It was my business to open the windows every morning, +finding my way down as best I could; for it was not permitted to light +the gas at that hour, and no candles were allowed, lest they should +soil the furniture. This morning the glass dome which brightened the +ceiling, and helped to lighten the saloon, was of very little effect, +so cloudy and dusk was the sky. The high houses which shut in the +strip of garden on all sides reflected not a ray of light. A +chill struck through me, as I passed along the marble pavement; a +saloon-dampness, empty, vault-like, hung about the fireless, sunless +place; and the plashing of the fountain which dripped into the marble +basin beyond--dropping, dropping, incessantly--struck upon my ear like +water trickling down the side of a cave. + +It had never occurred to me to think the place lonely or dreary +before, or to demur at this morning operation of opening it for the +day; a tawdry, gilded, showy hall, it had seemed to me quite a grand +affair, compared with those in which I had hitherto found employment. +Now I shuddered and shivered, and felt the task, always regarded as a +compliment to my honesty, to be indeed hard and heavy enough. + +It might have been--yet I was not a coward--that the little coffin +in that little room at the end of the saloon had something to do with +this uneasiness. On each side of that narrow room (which opened upon a +long hall leading to the front of the building) were the small windows +looking out upon the garden, which I always unbolted first. I say I +do not know that this presence of death had anything to do with my +trepidation. The death of a child was no very solemn or very uncommon +thing in my master's family. He had many children, and, when death +thinned their ranks, took the loss like a philosopher,--as he was,--a +French philosopher. He philosophized that his utmost exertions could +not do much more for the child than bequeath to him just such a +life as he led, and a share in just such a saloon as he owned; and +therefore, if a priest and a coffin insured the little innocent +admission into heaven without any extra charge, he would not betray +such lack of wisdom as to demur at the proposition. Therefore, very +quietly, since I had been in his employ, (about a twelvemonth,) three +of his children, one by one, had been brought down to that little room +at the end of the saloon, and thence through the long hall, through +the crowded street out to some unheard-of burying-ground, where a pot +of flowers and a painted cross supplied the place of a head-stone. +The shop was not shut up on these occasions: that would have been an +unnecessary interference with the comfort of customers, and loss +of time and money. The necessity of providing for his little living +family had quite disenthralled Monsieur C---- from any weakly +sentimentality in regard to his little dead family. + +So I do not know why I shuddered, being also myself somewhat of a +philosopher,--of such cool philosophy as grows out inevitably from the +hard and stony strata of an overworked life. The sleeper within +was certainly better cared for now than he ever had been in life. +Monsieur's purse afforded no holiday-dress but a shroud; three of +these in requisition within so short a time quite scanted the wardrobe +of the other children. Little Jacques had always been a somewhat +restless and unhappy baby, longing for fresh air, and a change which +he never got; it seemed likely, so far as the child's promise was +concerned, that the "great change" was his only chance of variety, and +the very best thing that could have happened to him. + +And yet, after all, there was something about his death which +individualized it, and hung a certain sadness over its occurrence that +does not often belong to the death of children, or at least had not +marked the departure of his two stout little brothers. Scarlet-fever +and croup and measles are such every-day, red-winged, mottled angels, +that no one is appalled at their presence; they take off the little +sufferer in such vigorous fashion, clutch him with so hearty a +grip, that one is compelled to open the door, let them out, and +feel relieved when the exit is made. It is only when some dim-eyed, +white-robed shape, scarcely seen, scarcely felt, steps softly in and +steals away the little troublesome bundle of life with solemn eye and +hushed lip, that we have time to pause, to look, to grieve. + +This little Jacques, when I came to his father's house, was a rampant, +noisy, cunning child, with the vivacity of French and American blood +mingling in his veins, and filling him with strongest tendencies to +mischief, and prompting elfish feats of activity. He was not by any +means a fascinating child,--in fact, no children ever fascinated +me,--but this little fellow was rather disagreeable, a wonder to his +father, a horror to his mother, and a great annoyance generally; +we were all rather cross with him, and he was universally put down, +thrust aside, and ordered out of the way. + +This was the state of affairs when I came. It was little Jacques, with +a high forehead, white, tightly curling hair, and mischief-full blue +eye, who made himself translator of all imaginable inquisitorial +French phrases for my benefit,--who questioned, and tormented, +and made faces at me,--who pulled my apron, disappeared with my +carpet-bag, and placed a generous slice of molasses-candy upon the +seat of my chair, when I sat down to rest myself. + +Little Jacques ardently loved a sly fishing-expedition on the edge +of the marble fountain-basin, and had lured one or two unthinking +gold-fish to destruction with fly and a crooked pin. He would sit +perched up there at an odd chance, when his father was away, and he +dared venture into the saloon,--his little bare feet twinkling against +the water, his plump figure curled up into the minutest size, but +ready for a spring and a dart up-stairs at the shortest notice of +danger. This piscatory propensity had been severely punished by both +Monsieur and Madame C----, who could not afford to encourage such an +expensive Izaak Walton; but there was no managing the child. He +seemed to possess an impish capability of eluding detection and angry +denunciations. To be sure, circumstances were against any very strict +guard being kept over the youngster. Madame C---- was a very weak +woman, a very weak woman indeed,--she declared that such was the +case,--a nervous, dispirited woman, whom everything troubled, who +could not bear the noise and tramp of life, and altogether sank under +it. Destiny had had no mercy on her weakness, however, and had left +her to get along with an innumerable family of children, a philosophic +husband, who took all her troubles coolly, and a constant demand +for her services either in the shop or at the cradle. She could not, +therefore, have patience with the incessant anxiety which little +Jacques excited by his pranks. + +One day Madame C---- had gone out for a walk, leaving the children +locked in a room above, five of them, two younger and two older +than Jacques; and these together had been in a state of riotous +insurrection the whole morning. Little Jacques was not of a +disposition to submit to ignominious imprisonment, when human +ingenuity could devise means of escape; while his brothers were +running wild together, he soberly hunted up another key, screwed and +scraped and got it into the key-hole; it turned, and he was out. + +Half an hour afterwards, his mother, returning, caught the unfortunate +fugitive contemplatively perched on the edge of the fountain-basin. In +such a frenzy of anger as only unreasonable people are subject to, +she caught the child, shivering with terror, and thrust him into the +water. The gold-fish splashed and swirled, and the water streamed over +the sides of the basin. It was only an instant's work; snatching up +the forlorn fisher, she shook him unmercifully, and set him upon the +floor, dripping and breathless. I saw nothing of them until night. +His mother had then recovered her usual peevishness, weakness, and +inefficiency; the ebullition of energy had entirely subsided. I was +curious to know whether the summary punishment had had any effect upon +Jacques; but he was asleep, as soundly as usual after a day's hard +frolic. + +My curiosity was likely to be gratified to satiety. A strange change +came over the little fellow after this. To one accustomed to his apish +activity, and to being annoyed by it, there was something plaintive +in the fact of having got rid of that trouble. The child was silent, +mopish, "good," as his mother said, congratulating herself on the +effect of her summary visitation upon the offender. + +When, however, a month passed without any return of the evil +propensities, this continued quiescence grew to be something ghostly, +and, to people who had only their own hands to depend on for a living, +a subject of anxiety and alarm: it was expensive to clothe and feed a +child who promised but little service in future. + +"The _enfant_ will never come to anything," said Monsieur; "we could +better have spared him than Jean." + +To which his wife shook her head, and solemnly assented. + +The '_enfant_,' however, gave no signs of taking the hint. Day after +day his little ministerial head and flaxen curls were visible over +the top of his old-fashioned arm-chair, and day after day his food was +demanded, and his appetite was as good as ever. + +Watching the child, whose blue eyes, now the mischief was out of them, +grew utterly vacant of expression, I unaccountably to myself came to +feel an uncomfortable interest in, a morbid sympathy with him,--an +uneasy, unhappy sympathy, more physical than mental. + +No fault could have been found with the motherly carefulness and +attention of Madame C----. It was charmingly polite and French. But +the sight of her preparing the child's food, or coaxing him +with unaccustomed delicacies and _bonbons_, grew to be utterly +distasteful,--an infliction so nervously annoying that I could not +overcome it. A secret antipathy which I had nourished against Madame +seemed to be germinating; every action of hers irritated me, every +sound of her sharp, yet well-modulated voice gave me a tremor. The +truth was, that plunge into the water, taking place so unexpectedly in +my presence, had startled and upset me almost as completely as if it +had befallen myself. A hard-working woman had no business with such +nerves. I knew that, and tried to annihilate them; but the more I +cut them down, the more they bled. The thing was a mere trifle,--the +fountain-basin was shallow, the water healthy,--nothing could be more +healthy than bathing,--and, at any rate, it was no affair of mine. +Yet my mind in some unhealthy mood aggravated the circumstances, and +colored everything with its own dark hue. + +I could not give up my place, of course not; I was not likely to get +so good a situation anywhere else; I could not risk it; and yet the +servitude of horror under which I was held for a few weeks was almost +enough to reconcile one to starvation. Only that I was kept busy +in the shop most of the time, and had little leisure to observe the +course of affairs, or to be in Madame's society, I should have given +warning,--foolishly enough,--for there was not a tangible thing of +which I had to complain. But a shapeless suspicion which for some days +had been brooding in my mind was taking form, too dim for me to +dare to recognize it, but real enough to make me feel a miserable +fascination to the house while little Jacques still lived, a magnetic, +uncomfortable necessity for my presence, as though it were in some +sort a protection against an impending evil. + +Such suspicion I did not, of course, presume to name, scarcely +presumed to think, it seemed so like an unnatural monstrosity of my +own mind. But when, one morning, the child died, holding in his +hands the _bonbons_ his mother had given him, and Madame C----, all +agitation and frenzy and weeping, still contrived to extract them from +the tightly closed, tiny fists, and threw them into the grate, I felt +a horrid thrill like the effect of the last scene in a tragedy. _I +knew that the bonbons were poisoned_. + +So that is the reason I shuddered as I passed through the saloon. + +Throwing open the window, a dim light flickered through, and a sickly +ray fell upon the fountain. It shivered upon the dripping marble +column in its centre, and struck with an icy hue the water in the +basin below. The fountain was not in my range of vision from the +window; but I often turned to look at it as I opened the shutters, +thinking it a pretty sight when the drops sparkled in the misty light +against the background of the otherwise darkened room. It pleased my +imagination to watch the effect produced by a little more or a little +less opening of the shutters,--a nonsensical morning play-spell, which +quite enlivened me for the sedate occupations of the day. It was, +however, not imagination now which whispered to me that there was +something else to look at beside the jet of water and the shadowy +play of light. Stooping down upon the fountain-brink, absorbed in +contemplating the gold-fish swimming below, and with its naked little +feet touching the water's edge, a tiny figure sat. My first thought +(the first thoughts of fear are never reasonable) was, that some child +from up-stairs had stolen down unawares, (as children are quite as +fond as grown folks of forbidden pleasures,) to amuse itself with the +water. But the children were not risen yet, and the saloon was too +utterly dark and dismal at that hour to tempt the bravest of them. +Second thoughts reminded me of that certainty, and I looked again. The +figure raised its head from its drooping posture, and gazed vacantly, +out of a pair of dim blue eyes, at me. The eyes were the eyes of +little Jacques. + +I do not know how I should have been so utterly overcome, but I +started up in terror as I felt the dreamy phantom-gaze fixed upon me, +raising my hands wildly above my head. The hammer which I held in my +hand to drive back the bolts of the shutters flew from my grasp and +struck the great mirror,--the new mirror which had just been bought, +and was not yet hung up. All the savings of a year were shivered to +fragments in an instant. My horror at this catastrophe recalled my +presence of mind; for I was a poor woman, dependent for my bread on +the family. Poor women cannot afford to have fancies; some prompt +reality always startles them out of dream or superstition. My +superstition fled in dismay as I stooped over the fragments of +the looking-glass. What should I do? Where should I hide myself? I +involuntarily took hold of the mirror with the instinctive intention +of turning it to the wall. It was very heavy; I could scarcely lift +it. Pausing a moment, and looking forward at its shattered face in +utter anguish of despair, I saw again, repeated in a hundred jagged +splinters, up and down in zigzag confusion, in demoniac omnipresence, +the uncanny eye, the spectral shape, which had so appalled me. The +little phantom had arisen, its slim finger was outstretched,--it +beckoned, slowly beckoned, growing indistinct, it receded farther and +farther out from the saloon towards the shop. + +The fascination of a spell was upon me; I turned and followed the +retreating figure. The shutters of the show-window were not yet taken +down, but thin lines of light filtered through them,--light enough to +see that the apparition made its way to a forbidden spot slyly haunted +by the little boy in his days of mischief,--a certain shelf where a +box of some peculiar sort of expensive confections was kept. I had +seen his mother, with unwonted generosity, give the child a handful of +these a day or two before his death. I could go no farther. A mighty +fear fell upon me, a dimness of vision and a terrible faintness; for +that child-phantom, gliding on before, stopped like a retribution at +that very spot, and, raising its little hand, pointed to that very +box, glancing upward with its solemn eye, as, rising slowly in the +air, it grew indistinct, its outlines fading into darkness, and +disappeared. + +I did not fall or faint, however; I hastened out to the saloon again. +The door of the little room where the coffin stood was open, and +Madame stepping out, looked vaguely about her. + +"Madame! Madame!" I cried, "oh, I have seen--I have seen a terrible +sight!" + +Madame's face grew white, very white. She grasped me harshly by the +arm. + +"What _are_ you talking about, you crazy woman? You are getting quite +wild, I think. Do you imagine you can hide your guilt in that way?" +and she shook me with a savage fierceness that made my very bones +ache. "This is carrying it with a high hand, to be sure, to flatter +yourself that such wilful carelessness will not be discovered. Do you +suppose," she cried, pointing to the fragments of glass, "that _my_ +nerves could feel a crash like that, and I not come down to see what +had happened?" + +She spoke so volubly, and kept so firm a grip of my arm, that I could +not get breath to utter a word of self-defence,--indeed, what defence +could I make? Yet I should say, from my mistress's singular manner, +that _she_ had seen that vision too, so wild were her eyes, so haggard +her face. + +Little Jacques was buried. His attentive parents enjoyed a +carriage-ride, with his miniature coffin between them, quite as +well as if the little fellow had accompanied them alive and full of +mischief. + +Outside matters, as Monsieur said, being now off his mind, he could +attend to business again. + +The mirror belonged to "business." I had been writhing under that +knowledge all the morning of their absence. + +Monsieur took the sight of his despoiled glass as calmly as Diogenes +might have viewed a similar disaster from his tub. Monsieur's +philosophy was grounded upon common sense. He knew that the frame +was valuable. He knew also that I had saved enough to pay for the +accident. I knew it, too, and was well aware that he would exact +payment to the uttermost farthing. Monsieur, therefore, was quite +cool. He laughed loudly at Madame's excitement, and the feverish +account she gave of my fright, my deceitfulness, and pretending to see +what nobody else saw. + +"Little Jacques!" I heard him exclaim, as I entered the room, +shrugging his shoulders with such a contemptuously good-natured +sneer as only a Frenchman can manufacture; and raising both his hands +derisively, he went off with vivacity to his business. + +In the morning I left. Monsieur endeavored to persuade me to stay. But +my business there was finished. I was quite as cool as Monsieur,--in +fact, a little chilly. I was determined to go. Madame was determined +also; we could no longer get along together; each hated and feared +the other; and Madame C---- having used overnight what influence she +possessed to bring her husband to see the necessity of my departure, +his objections were not very difficult to remove. + +I could not afford to be out of work, that was true, and it might take +me a long time to get it; but I was tired to death, and glad of any +excuse for a little rest. What, after all, if I did lie by for a +little while? there was not much pleasure or profit either way. + +I should not grow rich by my work; I could not grow much poorer +by being idle. The past year, which I had spent in the service of +Monsieur and Madame C----, had been one of constant annoyance and +irritating variety of employment. I had grown fretful in the constant +hurry and drive, and the baneful atmosphere of Madame's peevishness. +Body and soul cried out for a season of release, which never in all my +life of service had I thought of before. + +I had my desire now. I had put away my bondage. I had ceased my +unprofitable labor. The rest I had so long craved was at hand. I might +take a jubilee, a siesta, if I pleased, of half a year, and nobody be +the wiser. I was responsible to nobody. Nobody had any demands upon +my time or exertion. Free! I stood in a vacuum; no rush of air, no +tempest or whirlpool stirred its infinite profundity. At length I +was at peace,--a peace which seemed likely to last as long as my slim +purse held out; for employment was not easy to obtain. Did I enjoy it? +Did I lap myself in the long-desired repose in thankful quiescence +of spirit? Perhaps,--I cannot tell; restlessness had become a chronic +disease with me. I felt like a ship drifted from its moorings: the +winds and the tides were pleasant; the ocean was at lull; but the ship +rocked aimless and unsteady upon the waters. The heavy weights of +life and activity so suddenly withdrawn left painful lightness akin to +emptiness. The broken chains trailed noisily after me. The time hung +heavily which I had so long prayed for. Long years of monotonous +servitude had made a very machine of me. I could only rust in +inaction. Some other power, to rack and grind and urge me on, was +necessary to my very existence. + +So it happened, that, at last, my holiday having spun out to the end +of my means, I left the city, and engaged work at very low wages in +a country-village. The situation and the remuneration were not in +the least calculated to stimulate ambition or avarice; and I remained +obscurely housed, incessantly busy, and coarsely clothed and fed, in +this place, for two years. They were not long years either. I had +no hard taskmaster, however hard my task, no uneasy, unexplainable +apprehensions, no moody forebodings of evil, no troublesome children +to distress me. At the end of that time I heard of a better situation, +and returned to the city. + +I had been engaged about a twelvemonth in my new place, a very +pleasant little shop, though the pay was less and the work harder +than I had had with Monsieur C----, when, one morning, standing at the +shop-window, I saw that gentleman pass: very brisk, very spruce, very +plump he looked. Glancing in, (I flatter myself that a show-window +arranged as I could arrange it would attract any one's eye,) he espied +me. A speedy recognition and a long conversation were the result. It +was early morning, and we had the store to ourselves. Monsieur was +very friendly. His business was very good. Poor Madame! he wished +she could have lived to see it; but she was gone, poor soul! out of a +world of trouble. And Monsieur plaintively fixed his eyes on the black +crape upon his hat. The unhappy exit took place a few months after my +departure. The children had gone to one or another relative. Monsieur +was all alone; he had been away since then himself, had been doing as +well as a bereaved man could do, and, having saved a snug little sum, +had returned to buy out the old stand, and reestablish himself in the +old place. No one was with him; he wished he could get a good hand to +superintend the concern, now his own hands were so full. It would be a +good situation for somebody. In short, Monsieur came again and again, +until, as I was poor and lonely, and had almost overworked myself +just to keep soul and body together, whose union, after all, was of +no importance to any one save myself, and as I was quite glad to +find some one else who was interested in the preservation of the +partnership, I consented to be his wife. It was a very sensible and +philosophic arrangement for both of us. We could make more money +together than apart, and were stout and well able to help each other, +if only well taken care of. So we settled the business, and settled +ourselves as partners in the saloon. + + +Three years had passed, and we were in the old place still. We had +been very busy that day. Many orders to fill, many customers to wait +upon. Monsieur, completely worn out, was sound asleep on the sofa +up-stairs. It was late; I was very much fatigued, as I descended, +according to my usual custom, to see that everything was safe about +the house and shop. The place was all shut and empty; the lights were +all out. A cushioned lounge in one corner of the saloon--_my_ saloon +now--attracted my weary limbs, and I threw myself upon it, setting the +lamp upon a marble table by its side. With a complacent sense of rest +settling upon me, I drowsily looked about at the dim magnificence of +loneliness which surrounded me. The night-lamp made more shadow than +shine; but even by its obscured rays one who had known the old place +would have been struck with the wonderful improvement we had made. So +I thought. It was almost like a palace, gilded, and mirrored, and hung +with silken curtains. Monsieur and I had thriven together, had worked +hard and saved much these many years to produce the change. But the +change had been, as everything we effected was, well considered, and +had proved very profitable in the end. Better reception-rooms brought +better customers; higher prices a higher class of patronage. It +was very pleasant, lying there, to reflect that we were actually +succeeding in the world; and a pleasant and quiet mood fell upon me, +as, hopeful of the future, I looked back at the past. I thought of my +old days in that saloon; I thought of little Jacques. Little Jacques +was still a thought of some horror to me, and I generally avoided any +allusion to him. But to-night, in this subdued and contemplative mood, +I even let the little phantom glide into my reverie without being +startled. I even speculated on the old theme which had so haunted +me. I wondered whether my suspicions had been correct, and +whether--whether Madame C---- was guilty of sending her little son +before her into the other world. So thinking,--I might have been +almost dreaming,--a slight rustle in the shop aroused me. I was not +alarmed; my nerves are now much healthier, and I wisely make a point +of not getting them unstrung by violent movements, or unaccustomed +feats of activity, when anything astonishing happens. I therefore +lifted my head calmly and looked about,--it might be a mouse. The +noise ceased that instant, as if the intruder were aware of being +observed. Mice sometimes have this instinct. We had some valuable +new confections, which I had no desire should be disposed of by such +customers. So, taking up my lamp, and peering cautiously about me, I +proceeded to the shop. The light flickered,--flickered on something +tall and white,--something white and shadowy, standing erect, +and shrinking aside, behind the counter. My heart stood still; +a sepulchral chill came over me. My old self, trembling, +angry, foreboding, stepped suddenly within the niche whence the +self-confident, full-grown, sensible woman had vanished utterly. For +an instant, I felt like a ghost myself. It seemed natural that ghosts, +if such there were, should spy me out, and appall my heart with their +presence. For there, in that old, haunted spot, where long years ago +the spectre of little Jacques had lifted its menacing finger, stood +the form of Marie, Madame C----. I knew it well; shuddering and +shivering myself, more like an intruder than one intruded upon, I laid +my hand upon the chill marble counter for support. It was no creation +of imagination; the figure laid its hand also upon the marble, and, +stretching over its gaunt neck, stood and peered into my eyes. + +"Madame C----! Madame C----!" I cried; "what in the name of God would +you have of me?" + +"Nothing," she answered,--"nothing of you,--and nothing in the name +of God. Oh, you need not shudder at me,--Christine C----! I know _you_ +well enough. You haven't got over your old tricks yet. I'm no ghost, +though. Mayhap you'd rather I'd be, for all your nerves, eh?"--and she +shook her head in the old vengeful, threatening way. + +It was true enough. "What evil atmosphere surrounded me? What fell +snare environed me? I looked about like a hunted animal brought to +bay,--like a robber suddenly entrapped in the midst of his ill-gotten +gains. For this was no dead woman, but a living vengeance, more +terrible than death, brought to my very door. Some unseen power, it +seemed, full of evil influence, full of malignant justice, stretched +its long arms through my life, and would not let me by any means +escape to peace, to rest. A direful vision of horrible struggles yet +to come--of want, despair, disgrace in reservation--sickened my soul. + +"I will call--I will call," said I, gasping,--"I will call Monsieur +C----; he"---- + +"Don't, don't, I beg of you!" she cried, catching me by the sleeve, +with a sardonic laugh; low, whispering, full of direful meaning, it +stealthily echoed through the saloon. "Don't disturb the good man. He +sleeps so soundly after his well-spent days! _He_ doesn't have any bad +dreams, I fancy,--rid of such a troublesome, vicious wife,--a wife who +harassed her husband to death, and murdered her little boy,--he sleeps +sound, doesn't he? And yet--I declare, in the name of God, Christine +C----,"--and she lifted up her bony finger like an avenging +fate,--"_he did it_!" + +I had been endeavoring to calm myself while this woman of spectral +face and form stared at me with her maniac eye across the counter. I +had succeeded. At any rate, this was a tangible horror, and could be +grappled with; it was not beyond human reach, a shadowy retribution +from the invisible world. To face the circumstances, however +repulsive, is less depressing than to await in suspense the coming +of their footsteps, and the descent of that blow we know they will +inflict. I had always found that policy best which was bravest. I +remembered this now. Dropping my high tone, and soothing my excited +features, I beckoned the woman and gave her a chair; I took a chair +myself, wrapping a shawl close about me to repress the shivering I +could not yet overcome, and I and that woman, returned from the grave, +as it seemed to me, sat calmly down in business-fashion, and held a +long conversation. + + +Madame C---- had loved her husband with that sort of respectful, +awe-filled affection which lower natures experience towards those +which are a grade above them. She had loved her children, too, +although they were her torment. Her inability to manage or keep +them in order fretted and irritated her excessively. Monsieur, as a +philosopher, could not understand the anomaly, that a woman who was +perpetually unhappy and ill-tempered, while her children, young, +buoyant, and mischievous, were about her, should sympathize with +and care for them when sick. He could not understand her +conscience-stricken misery when little Jacques drooped after her +severity towards him. Monsieur was a kind husband, however, and a wise +man in many things. He had studied much in his youth, chiefly medical +works, of which he had quite a collection. He could not understand +the whimsical nervousness of women, but, when so slight a thing as a +child's illness appeared to be the cause of it, could unhesitatingly +undertake to remove the difficulty. He had prescribed attentively +for the two children who died before Jacques, thereby rendering them +comfortable and quiet, and saving quite an item in the doctor's bill. + +When little Jacques fell ill, and Madame fretted incessantly about +his loss of vigor and vivacity, Monsieur, with fatherly kindness, +undertook, in the midst of his pressing business, to give the child +his medicine, which had to be most carefully prepared. Sometimes the +powders were disguised in _bonbons_, the more agreeably to dose +the patient little fellow; these were prepared with Monsieur's own +fatherly hands, and during his absence were once in a while left +for Madame to administer. Madame had great faith in these +medicines,--great faith in her husband's skill; but the child's +disease was obstinate, very; no progress could be discovered. It was +a comforting thought, at least, that, if his recovery was beyond +possibility, something had been done to soothe his pain and quiet +the vexed spirit in its bitter struggle with dissolution. Yes, the +medicines were certainly very quieting,--so quieting, so death-like +in their influence,--she could not tell how a suspicion (perhaps the +strange expression of the child's eye, when they were administered) +glided into her imagination (having so great a reverence for her +husband, it took no place in her mind for an instant,--it was merely a +spectral, haunting shadow) that these things were getting the child +no better,--that they were not medicine for keeping him here, but for +helping him away. This suspicion, breathing its baleful breath across +her mind, weak, vacillating, incapable of energetic action, had +rendered her miserable, morose, irritable, more so than ever before. +Yet little Jacques in his last hour hankered for the medicine, and +craved feverishly the delicate powder, the sweet confection, his +father prepared for him. + +While inwardly brooding over this unnamed terror, and cowering before +this shapeless thought which loomed in the darkness of her mental +gloom, an idea entered her mind that I, too, was suspicious that +something was going wrong,--that I was watching,--waiting the evil to +come. The child died. Her fear for him was utterly superseded by fear +for her husband. What if I should find him out and betray him? The +anxiety occasioned by this possibility made her hate me. The agony +of her little one's departure, the fear of some dire discovery, the +consciousness of guilt near enough of vicinage almost to seem her +own, combined to nearly distract her mind, and it seemed like a joyful +relief when I departed. The sudden release from that constant pressure +of fear (she knew I could do nothing against them without money, +credit, or friends) made her ill for a time, quite ill, she said. She +knew not what was done for her during this sickness,--who nursed her, +or who gave her medicine. But one morning, on waking from what seemed +a long sleep, in which she had dreamed strangely and talked wildly, +she beheld Monsieur, smiling kindly, standing beside her bed with a +vial and a spoon in his hand. + +"It is a cordial, my dear, which will strengthen and bring you round +again very soon. You need a sedative,--something to allay fever and +excitement." + +"Is it little Jacques's medicine?" + +"Quite similar, my dear,--not the powders,--the liquid. Equally +soothing to the nerves, and promotive of sleep." + +She turned her face away. She had slept long enough. She thanked +Monsieur, not daring to look up, but capriciously refused to touch +little Jacques's medicine. + +"And Monsieur," she said, "Monsieur was very angry. He said I was a +disobedient wife, who did not wish to get well, but desired to be a +constant expense and trouble to her husband. + +"And so, Christine C----, I trembled and shook, and let fall words I +never meant to have uttered to Monsieur, and I said he had killed +the child, and wished to kill me, that he might marry Mademoiselle +Christine. I did not say any more that day. In the morning, Monsieur +and I discoursed together again. I declared I would get well and go +away. Oh! Monsieur knew well I would not betray him. He was willing, +very willing to consent to my departure. He cared for me well, and +gave me much money; and I went away to my old aunt, who lived in +Paris. I have been dead,--I have died to Monsieur. I should never have +returned, but that my good aunt is gone. When I buried her,--shut her +kind eyes, and wrapped her so snugly in her shroud,--I thought it a +horrible thing to be living without a soul to care for me, or comfort +me, or even to wrap me up as I did her when the time was come. I felt +then a thirsty spirit rising within me to see my old place where I had +comfort and shelter long ago, and to see my children. I have been to +see them: they are in B----; they did not know me there. I did not +tell them who I was. I have been faithful to my promise. I tell no one +but you, Christine C----, who have stepped into my place, and stolen +away my home. A prettier home you have made of it for a prettier wife; +but it's the old place yet, with the old stain upon it." + + +Wishing to consider a moment what I should do, half paralyzed, like +one who is stricken with death, I left that other ME, (for was she not +also my husband's wife?) apparently exhausted, lying upon the sofa, +and went wearily up-stairs, with heavy steps, like one whose life +has suddenly become a weight to him. What, indeed, _should_ I do? +Starvation and misery stared me in the face. If I left the house, +casting its guilt and its comfort behind me, where could I go? I could +do nothing, earn nothing now. My reputation, now that we were so lone +established, would be entirely gone. And if I left all for which I had +labored so hard, for another to enjoy, would that better the matter? +Great God! would _anything_ help me? Before me in terrific vision +rose a dim vista of future ruin, of ineffectual years writhing in the +inescapable power of the law, of long trial, of horrible suspense, of +garish publicity, of my name handed from mouth to mouth, a forlorn, +duped, degraded thing, whose blighted life was a theme of newspaper +comment and cavil. These thoughts swept over me as a tempest sweeps +over the young tree whose roots are not firm in the soil, whose +writhing and wrestling are impotent to defend it from certain +destruction. There was no one I loved especially, no one I cared for +anxiously, to relieve the bitter thoughts which centred in myself +alone. Monsieur awoke as I was sitting thus, in ineffectual effort to +compose myself. Seeing me sitting near him, still dressed, the door +open, and the light burning, he inquired what was the matter. I had +something below requiring his attention, I said, and, taking up the +lamp, ushered him down-stairs. My chaotic thoughts were beginning to +settle themselves,--to form a nucleus about the first circumstance +that thrust itself definitely before them. That poor wretch waiting +below,--that forsaken, abject, dishonored wife,--I would confront him +with her, and charge him with his guilt. Opening the saloon-door, I +stepped in before him. The lamp which I had left upon the stand was +out, and the slender thread of light which fell from the one in my +hand, sweeping across the gloom, rested upon the deserted sofa. The +saloon was empty; no trace, no sign could be discovered of any human +being. The hush, the solemnity of night brooded over the place. +Monsieur mockingly, but unsteadily, inquired what child's game I +was playing,--he was too tired to be fooled with. He spoke hotly and +quickly, as he never had spoken to me before,--like one who has long +been ill at ease, and deems a slight circumstance portentous. + +So I turned upon him, with all the bitterness in my heart rising to +my tongue. I told him the story. I charged him with the guilt. He +listened in silence; marble-like he stood with folded arms, and heard +the conclusion of the whole matter. When I was silent, he strode up +to me, and, stooping, peered into my face steadily. His teeth were +clenched, his eyes shot fire; otherwise he was calm, quite composed. +He said, quietly,-- + +"Would you blame me for making an angel out of an idiot?" + +Monsieur's philosophy was too subtile for me. GUILTY seemed a coarse +word to apply to so fine a nature. + +He denied having attempted to injure his wife in any way. + +"Women are all fools," he said; "they are all alike,--go just as +they are led, and do just as they are taught. They cannot think +for themselves. They have no ideas of justice but just what the law +furnishes them with. It was silly to complain; it argued a narrow mind +to condemn merely because the laws condemn. In that case all should +be acquitted whom the laws acquit,--did we ever do this? Would his +darling Jacques, happy, angelic, condemn his parent for releasing him +from the drudgery of life? Was it not better to play on a golden harp +than to be a confectioner? Were not all men, in fact, more or less +slayers of their brothers? Was I not myself guilty in attributing +to Madame a deed in my eyes worthy of death, and of which she was +innocent? It was only those whose courage induced them to venture a +little farther who received condemnation. In some way or other, +every soul is wearing out and overtasking somebody else's soul, and +shortening somebody's days. A man who should throw his child into the +water, in order to save him from being burned to death, would not +be arraigned for the fierce choice. Little Jacques, if he had lived, +would have lingered in misery and imbecility. Was a lingering death of +torture to be preferred by a tenderhearted woman to one more rapid and +less painful, where the certainty of death left only such preference? +Ah, well! it was consolation that his little son was safe from all +vicissitude, whatever might befall his devoted father!" and Monsieur +wiped his eyes, and drew out a little miniature he always carried in +his bosom. It was the portrait of little Jacques. + +Well, as I have said, Monsieur was a philosopher, and I was a +philosopher; and yet I must have been a woman incapable of reason, +incapable of comprehending an argument; for the thought of this thing, +and of being in the presence of a man capable of such a deed, made me +uneasy, restless, unhappy, as though I were in some sort a partaker of +the crime. I could not sleep; I was haunted with horrific dreams; and +when, in few days, among the "accidents" the death of an unknown woman +was recorded, whose body had drifted ashore at night, and I recognized +by the description poor, unknown, uncared-for Madame C----, a wild +fever burned in my veins, a frenzy of anguish akin to remorse, as if +_I_ had wronged the dead, and sent her drifting, helpless, out to the +unknown world. A pitiable soul, who preferred misery for her portion, +rather than betray the man she loved, or become partaker of his crime, +had crept back, after years of self-imposed absence, with death in her +heart, to see the old place and the new wife,--and how had I received +her? With horror and shuddering, as though she were some guilty thing, +to be held at arm's-length. Not as one woman, generous, forgiving, +hoping for mercy hereafter, should receive another, however erring. It +was a sad boon, perhaps, she had endowed me with; yet it was all she +prized and cherished. + +With a nobleness of magnanimity, a passionate self-sacrifice, which +none but a woman could be capable of, Madame C---- had divested +herself of all peculiarities of clothing by which she could be +identified. It was only by recognizing the features, and a singular +scar upon the forehead, that I knew it was herself. She was buried by +stranger hands, however; we dared not come forward to claim her. + +The excitement attendant on this miserable death, and the +circumstances which preceded it, laid me, for the first time in my +life, upon a sick-bed. I was unconscious for many weeks of anything +save intolerable pain and intolerable heat. A fiery agony of fever +leaped in my veins, and scorched up my life-blood. I believe Monsieur +cared for me, and nursed me attentively during this illness. + +The fever left me; exhausted, spent, my life shrunken up within me, my +energy burned out, a puny, spiritless remnant of the strong woman who +lay down upon that couch, I lay despondent, vacant of all interest in +the world hitherto so exciting to me. I had not seen Monsieur since +this apparent commencement of recovery. A great, good-natured nurse +kept watch over me, and fed me with spiritless dainties, tasteless, +unsatisfying. + +One day, when my senses began to settle a little, and things began +to take shape again, I asked for Monsieur. He came and stood at my +bedside. + +"Christine," said he, "you have no faith in my power of making angels. +I have not made one of you. Being divided in our theories, we will +divide our earthly goods. We will part. Should you as a woman deem it +your duty to inform against me, I shall not think it wrong. I shall +bear it as a philosopher. You have no proof, you can substantiate +nothing; but it may be a satisfaction. I do not understand women; +therefore I cannot tell." + +"Monsieur," I answered, "leave it to God to fill His heaven as He +thinks best. He has not invited your assistance; neither has He +invited me to avenge Him. Since He does not punish, dare I invade His +prerogative?" + +And we did not part. + +We will live together in peace, we said, and the past shall be utterly +forgotten; shall not a whole lifetime of unwavering rectitude atone +for this one crime? + +I accepted my fate,--weakly, in the dread of poverty, in the horror +of disgrace, shrinking within myself with the secret thrust upon me. +I said we are all the makers of our own destiny, and there is +nothing supernatural in life. If this course is best and wisest in my +judgment, nothing evil will come of it. I said this, ignorant of the +mystery of existence, and inexperienced in that subtile power which +penetrates all the windings and turnings of humanity, searching out +hidden things,--the Purifier, and the Avenger, allotting to each one +his portion of bitterness, his inexorable punishment. "We will live +together in peace": it was the thought of a sudden moment of fervor, +which overleaped the dreary length of life, and assumed to compass the +repentance of a whole existence in a single day. + +But destiny holds always in store its retribution. God suffers no +dropped stitches in the web of His universe, and the smallest truth +evaded, the least wretch neglected, will surely be picked up again +in the unending circle that is winding its certain thread around all +beings, connecting by invisible links the most insignificant chances +with the most significant events. + +When I said we will be one, we will endure together, I thought that +so, in my enduring strength, I could bear up whatever burden came. I +know not how, by what invisible process, the load which I had lifted +to my shoulders grew into leaden heaviness,--heavy, heavy, like the +weight of some dead soul resting its lifeless shape upon my living +spirit, till I staggered under the unbearable presence. I had doomed +myself to stand side by side, to work hand in hand with guilt, to feel +hourly the dread lest in some moment of frenzy engendered by the dumb +anguish within me I might betray the secret whose rust was eating into +my soul, and shriek out my misery in the ears of all men. + +Monsieur, seeing me grow thin and pale, declared that I must have a +change, I must go somewhere, to the sea-shore. To the sea-shore! No, +I would not go to the sea-shore, or to any other shore; a stranded +vessel, I could not struggle from the place of shipwreck. + +Monsieur grew vexed and anxious, when I stubbornly shook my head. And +when week after week I still refused, he grew strangely uneasy. I had +better go; if I would not go alone, he would go with me, shut up the +shop, and take a holiday. + +I considered the matter that day. The project was a wild one; at this +busiest season of the year, it would be an injury to our business. +And what might the neighbors say? It might lead them to unpleasant +suspicions. We were not popular among them. No, it would not do. + +I explained this to Monsieur very calmly at the supper-table. His +face was pale and quiet as usual. He did not interrupt me. When I +concluded, he rose as if he would go out, but turning back suddenly +and striking the table with his clenched fist,-- + +"God!" he exclaimed. "Woman would you see me die like a dog? The +neighbors! for all I know, they have got me at their finger-ends +now,--the vile rabble! That old hag, Madame Justine, at the +ribbon-shop below,--some demon possessed her to look out that night +when SHE came crawling home. She noted her well with her greedy eyes; +some one _so_ like my dear first wife, she told me. There is mischief +and death in her eyes. She knows or guesses too much." + +"What can she guess?" I asked; "she has only lately come into the +neighborhood." + +In answer to this, Monsieur informed me that she professed to +have been an old friend of his wife's, who, in times gone by, half +bewildered with her troubles, had probably dropped many unguarded +words in this woman's presence. Madame C---- had died (to her old +home) while this woman was away on a visit. "Ah!" she said, "she had +her misgivings many a time. Did the same doctor attend Madame C---- +who prescribed for little Jacques? _He_ ought to be hung, then. Ah, +well, if all men had their deserts, she knew many things that would +hang some folks who looted all fair and square, and held their guilty +heads higher than their neighbors." + +"Well?" I said. + +"Well!--you women are so virtuous, you have no mercy, Madame. Go, +hang--go, drown the wretch who comes under the malediction of the +ladies! Oh, there is nothing too hard for him! And this one owed me a +grudge lately about a mistake,--a little mistake I made in an account +with her, and would not alter because I thought it all right." + + +The preparations were going on silently and steadily that night. I +would go anywhere now, anything would I do, to escape the fate whose +stealthy footsteps were tracking us out. Well I knew, that, once in +the power of the law, its firm grasp would wrest every secret from +the deepest depths where it was hidden. Once out of the city, we could +readily take flight, if immediate danger threatened. + +The doors were all closed; the trunks stood corded in the hall. I was +down-stairs, getting the silver together. Monsieur was in his room, +packing up his medicine-chest. There was no weakness in my nerves +now, no trembling in my limbs. I was determined. While thus engaged, +pausing a moment amid the light tinkle of the silver spoons, I thought +I heard footsteps in the saloon above. Softly ascending the stairs, I +met Monsieur at the door. He had come down under the same impression, +that some one was walking in the saloon, still holding in his hand the +tiny cup in which he measured his medicines. It was full, and Monsieur +carried it very carefully, as, opening the door, he looked cautiously +about. Nothing stirred; all was silent as death; and walking forward +toward the fountain, he straightened himself up, and his white face +flushed as he said in a whisper,-- + +"Christine, everything is ready. We are safe yet; we shall escape. +Once away, we will never return to this doomed place, let what will +come of it. Yes, I am certain that we shall escape!" + +Monsieur took a step forward as he said this, and stood transfixed. +The light shook which he held in his hand, as if a strong wind +had passed over it; his eye quailed; his cheek blanched to ghastly +whiteness. I thought that undue excitement had brought on a +fainting-fit of some kind, and was stooping to dip my hands in the +water and bathe his forehead, when I saw, distinctly, like a white +mist in the darkness, a visible shape sitting solemn upon the +basin-edge; the room was very dim, and the falling spray fell over the +shape like a weeping-willow, yet my eyes discerned it clearly. Oh, it +was no dream that I had dreamed in my young days long ago! That little +figure was no stranger to my vision, no stranger to the changeless +waterfall. Did Monsieur see it also? He stood close beside the +fountain now, with his face towards the spectre. The tiny cup in his +hand fell from the loosened fingers down into the water; a lonely +gold-fish, swimming there, turned over on its golden side and floated +motionless upon the surface. + +I scarcely noticed this, for, at the time, I heard the knob of the +shop-door turn quickly, and the door was shaken violently. It was +probably the night-watchman going his rounds; but, in my alarm and +excitement, I thought we were betrayed. I stepped swiftly to the door, +and pushed an extra bolt inside. + +"Monsieur!" I cried, under my breath, "hide! hide yourself! Quick! in +the name of Heaven!" + +But he did not answer, and, hastening to his side, I saw the faint +outlines of that shadowy visitant growing indistinct and disappearing. +As it vanished, Monsieur turned deliberately toward me; his eyes were +clear, the faintness was over; his voice was grave and steady, as he +said,-- + +"Christine! I have seen it. It is the warning of death. There is +no future and no escape for me. The retribution is at hand,"--and +stooping swiftly down, he lifted the tiny cup brimming to his lips. +"Go you," he said, huskily, "to the sea-shore. I have an errand +elsewhere." + +In the morning came the officers of justice; my dim eyes saw them, my +ears heard unshrinking their stern voices demanding Monsieur C----. I +did not answer; I pointed vaguely forward; and forward they marched, +with a heavy tramp, to where the one whom they were seeking lay prone +upon the marble floor, his head hanging nervelessly down over the +water. He had been arrested by a Higher Power. Monsieur C---- was +dead. + + + + +BOSTON HYMN. + + + The word of the Lord by night + To the watching Pilgrims came, + As they sat by the sea-side, + And filled their hearts with flame. + + God said,--I am tired of kings, + I suffer them no more; + Up to my ear the morning brings + The outrage of the poor. + + Think ye I made this ball + A field of havoc and war, + Where tyrants great and tyrants small + Might harry the weak and poor? + + My angel,--his name is Freedom, + Choose him to be your king; + He shall cut pathways east and west, + And fend you with his wing. + + Lo! I uncover the land + Which I hid of old time in the West, + As the sculptor uncovers his statue, + When he has wrought his best. + + I show Columbia, of the rocks + Which dip their foot in the seas + And soar to the air-borne flocks + Of clouds, and the boreal fleece. + + I will divide my goods, + Call in the wretch and slave: + None shall rule but the humble, + And none but Toil shall have. + + I will have never a noble, + No lineage counted great: + Fishers and choppers and ploughmen + Shall constitute a State. + + Go, cut down trees in the forest, + And trim the straightest boughs; + Cut down trees in the forest, + And build me a wooden house. + + Call the people together, + The young men and the sires, + The digger in the harvest-field, + Hireling, and him that hires. + + And here in a pine state-house + They shall choose men to rule + In every needful faculty, + In church, and state, and school. + + Lo, now! if these poor men + Can govern the land and sea, + And make just laws below the sun, + As planets faithful be. + + And ye shall succor men; + 'T is nobleness to serve; + Help them who cannot help again; + Beware from right to swerve. + + I break your bonds and masterships, + And I unchain the slave: + Free be his heart and hand henceforth, + As wind and wandering wave. + + I cause from every creature + His proper good to flow: + So much as he is and doeth, + So much he shall bestow. + + But, laying his hands on another + To coin his labor and sweat, + He goes in pawn to his victim + For eternal years in debt. + + Pay ransom to the owner, + And fill the bag to the brim. + Who is the owner? The slave is owner, + And ever was. Pay him. + + O North! give him beauty for rags, + And honor, O South! for his shame; + Nevada! coin thy golden crags + With Freedom's image and name. + + Up! and the dusky race + That sat in darkness long,-- + Be swift their feet as antelopes, + And as behemoth strong. + + Come, East, and West, and North, + By races, as snow-flakes, + And carry my purpose forth, + Which neither halts nor shakes. + + My will fulfilled shall be, + For, in daylight or in dark, + My thunderbolt has eyes to see + His way home to the mark. + + + + +THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI. + + +The live man of the old Revolution, the daring Hotspur of those +troublous days, was Anthony Wayne. The live man to-day of the great +Northwest is Lewis Wallace. With all the chivalric clash of the +stormer of Stony Point, he has a cooler head, with a capacity for +larger plans, and the steady nerve to execute whatever he conceives. +When a difficulty rises in his path, the difficulty, no matter what +its proportions, moves aside; he does not. When a river like the Ohio +at Cincinnati intervenes between him and his field of operations, +there is a sudden sound of saws and hammers at sunset, and the +next morning beholds the magic spectacle of a great pontoon-bridge +stretching between the shores of Freedom and Slavery, its planks +resounding to the heavy tread of almost endless regiments and +army-wagons. Is a city like Cincinnati menaced by a hungry foe, +striding on by forced marches, that foe sees his path suddenly blocked +by ten miles of fortifications thoroughly manned and armed, and he +finds it prudent, even with his twenty thousand veterans, to retreat +faster than he came, strewing the road with whatever articles impede +his haste. Some few incidents in the career of such a man, since he +has taken the field, ought not to be uninteresting to those for whom +he has fought so bravely; and we believe his services, when known, +will be appreciated, otherwise we will come under the old ban against +Republics, that they are ungrateful. + +While returning from New York at the expiration of a short leave of +absence, the first asked for since the beginning of the war, General +Wallace was persuaded by Governor Morton to stump the State of Indiana +in favor of voluntary enlistments, which at that time were progressing +slowly. Wallace went to work in all earnestness. His idea was to +obtain command of the new levies, drill them, and take them to the +field; and this idea was circulated throughout the State. The result +was, enlisting increased rapidly; the ardor for it rose shortly into +a fever, and has not yet abated. Regiments are still forming, shedding +additional lustre upon the name of patriotic Indiana. + +General Wallace was thus engaged when the news was received from +Morgan of the invasion of Kentucky by Kirby Smith. All eyes turned +at once to Governor Morton, many of whose regiments were now ready to +take the field, if they only had officers to lead them. Wallace came +promptly to the Governor's assistance, and offered to take command of +a regiment for the crisis. His offer was accepted, and he was sent to +New Albany, where the Sixty-Sixth Indiana was in camp. In twelve +hours he mustered it, paid its bounty money, clothed and armed it, and +marched it to Louisville. Brigadier-General Boyle was in command of +Kentucky. Wallace, who is a Major-General, reported to him at the +above-named city, and a peculiar scene occurred. + +"General Boyle," said Wallace, "I report to you the Sixty-Sixth +Indiana Regiment." + +"Who commands it?" asked the General. + +"I have that honor, Sir," was the reply. + +"You want orders, I suppose?" + +"Certainly." + +"It is a difficult matter for me," said Boyle. "I have no right to +order you." + +"That difficulty is easily solved," Wallace replied, with +characteristic promptness. "I come to report to you as a Colonel. I +come to take orders as such." + +General Boyle consulted with his Adjutant-General, and the result was +_a request_ that General Wallace would proceed to Lexington with his +command. Here was exhibited the ready, self-sacrificing spirit of +a true patriot: he did not stand and wait until he could find the +position to which his high rank entitled him, but stepped into the +place where he could best and quickest serve his country in her hour +of peril. + +While Wallace was still at the railway-station, he received an order +from General Boyle, putting him in command of all the forces in +Lexington. Here was a golden opportunity for our young commander. What +higher honor could be coveted than to relieve the brave Morgan, +pent up as he was with his little army in the mountain-gorges of the +Cumberland? The idea fired the soul of Wallace, and he pushed on to +Lexington. But here he was sadly disappointed. He found the forces +waiting there inadequate to the task: instead of an army, there were +only three regiments. He telegraphed for more troops. Indiana and Ohio +responded promptly and nobly. In three days he received and brigaded +nine regiments and started them toward the Gap. + +No one but an experienced soldier, one who has indeed tried it, can +conceive of the labor involved in such an undertaking. The material in +his hands was, to say the best of it, magnificently _raw_. Officers, +from colonels to corporals, brave though they might be as lions, knew +literally nothing of military affairs. The men had not learned even to +load their guns. Companies had to be led, like little children, by +the hand as it were, into their places in line of battle. There was +no cavalry, no artillery. It happened, however, that guns, horses, and +supplies intended for Morgan at the Gap were in depot at Lexington. +Then Wallace began to catch a glimpse of dawn through the dark tangle +of the wilderness. Some kind of order, prompt and immediate, must be +forced out of this chaos; and it came, for the master-spirit was there +to arrange and compel. He mounted several hundred men, giving them +rifles instead of sabres. He manned new guns, procuring harness and +ammunition for them from Louisville. Where there were no caissons, he +supplied wagons. But his regiments were not his sole reliance; he is +a believer in riflemen, a fighting class of which Kentucky was full. +These he summoned to his assistance, and was met by a ready and hearty +response: they came trooping to him by hundreds. Among others, +Garrett Davis, United States Senator, led a company of Home-Guards to +Lexington. In this way General Wallace composed, or rather improvised +a little army, and all without help, his regular staff being absent, +mostly in Memphis. + +"Kentucky has not been herself in this war," exclaimed General +Wallace; "she must be aroused; and I propose to do it thoroughly." + +"How will you do it?" asked a skeptic. + +"Easily enough, Sir. Kentucky has a host of great names. Kentuckians +believe in great names. It is to this tune that the traitors have +carried them to the field against us. I will take with me to the field +all the men living, old and young, who have made those names great. +Buckner took the young Crittendens and Clays; by Heaven, I'll take +their fathers!" + +"But they can't march." + +"I'll haul them, then." + +"They can be of no service in that way." + +"But the magic of their names!" exclaimed Wallace. "What will the +young Kentuckians say, when they hear John J. Crittenden, Leslie +Combs, Robert Breckenridge, Tom Clay, Garrett Davis, Judge Goodloe, +and fathers of that kind, are going down to battle with me?" + +The skeptics held their peace. + +General Wallace now constituted a volunteer staff. Wadsworth, M.C. +from Maysville district, was his adjutant-general. Brand, Gratz, +Goodloe, and young Tom Clay were his aids. Old Tom Clay, John J. +Crittenden, Leslie Combs, Judge Goodloe, Garrett Davis, were all +prepared and going, when General Wallace was suddenly relieved of his +command by General Nelson. + +Without instituting any comparison between these two generals, it +is enough to say that the supersession of Wallace by Nelson at that +moment was most unfortunate and untimely, as the sequel proved, +fraught as it was with disastrous consequences. The circumstances were +these. + +Scott's Rebel cavalry had whipped Metcalf's regiment of Loyalists at +Big Hill, some twelve or fifteen miles beyond Richmond, Kentucky, +and followed them to within four miles of that town, where they were +stopped by Lenck's brigade of infantry. The affair was reported to +Wallace, with the number and situation of the enemy. He at once took +prompt measures to meet the exigence of the situation. He could throw +Lenck's and Clay's brigades upon the Rebel front; the brigade at +Nicholasville could take them in flank by crossing the Kentucky River +at Tatt's Ford; while, by uniting Clay Smith's command with that of +Jacob, then _en route_ for Nicholasville, he could plant seventeen +hundred cavalry in their rear between Big Hill and Mount Vernon. + +The enemy at this time were at least twenty miles in advance of their +supports, and a night's march would have readily placed the several +forces mentioned in position to attack them by daylight. This was +Wallace's plan,--simple, feasible, and soldier-like. All his orders +were given. A supply-train with extra ammunition and abundant rations +was in line on the road to Richmond. Clay's brigade was drawn up ready +to move, and General Wallace's horse was saddled. He was writing a +last order in reference to the city of Lexington in his absence, and +directing the officer left in charge to forward regiments to him at +Richmond as fast as they should arrive, when General Nelson came and +instantly took the command. Fifteen minutes more and General Wallace +would have been on the road to Richmond to superintend the execution +of his plan of attack. The supersession was, of course, a bitter +disappointment; yet he never grumbled or demurred in the least, but, +like a true soldier who knows his duty, offered that evening to serve +his successor in any capacity, a generosity which General Nelson +declined. The well-conceived plan which Wallace had matured failed for +the simple reason, that, instead of marching to execute it that night, +as common sense would seem to have dictated, Nelson did not leave +Lexington until the next day at one o'clock; and at daylight, when the +attack was to have been made, the Rebel leader, Scott, discovered his +danger, and wisely retreated, finding nobody in his rear. The result +was, Nelson went to Richmond and was defeated. It is possible that +the same result might have followed Wallace; but by those competent to +judge it is thought otherwise. + +He had a plan adapted to the troops he was leading, who, although very +raw, would have been invincible behind breastworks, as American troops +have always shown themselves to be. Wallace never intended arraying +these inexperienced men in the open field against the veteran troops +of the Rebels. Neither did he intend they should dig. He had collected +large quantities of intrenching tools, and was rapidly assembling +a corps of negroes, nearly five hundred of whom he had already in +waiting in Morgan's factory, all prepared to follow his column, armed +with spades and picks. In Madison County he intended getting at least +five hundred more. "I will march," he said, "like Caesar in Gaul, and +intrench my camp every night. If I am attacked at any time in too +great numbers, I can drop back to my nearest works, and wait for +reinforcements." Such was his plan, and those who know him believe +firmly that he could have been at the Cumberland Gap in time not only +to succor our little army there, but to have prevented the destruction +and evacuation of that very important post. + +Wallace, finding himself thus suddenly superseded, his plans ignored, +and his voluntary service bluffly refused, left Lexington for +Cincinnati. While there the Battle of Richmond was fought, the +disastrous results of which are still too fresh in the public mind to +require repeating. Nelson, who did not arrive upon the field until the +day was about lost, and only in time to use his sword against his own +men in a fruitless endeavor to rally them, received a flesh-wound, +and hastened back the same night to Cincinnati, leaving many dead and +wounded on the field, and thousands of our brave boys prisoners to be +paroled by the Rebels. These are simple matters of record, and are not +here set down in any spirit of prejudice, or to throw a shadow upon +the memory of the misguided, unfortunate, but courageous Nelson. + +At this juncture General Wallace was again ordered to Lexington, this +time by General Wright, a general whose gentlemanly bearing in all +capacities makes him an ornament to the American army. Wallace was +ordered thither to resume command of the forces; but on arriving +at Paris, the order was countermanded, and he was sent back to take +charge of the city of Cincinnati. Shrewdly suspecting that our forces +would evacuate Lexington, he hastened to his new post. General Wright +was at that time in Louisville. On his way back, Wallace was asked by +one of his aids,-- + +"Do you believe the enemy will come to Cincinnati?" + +"Yes," was the reply. "Kirby Smith will first go to Frankfort. He must +have that place, if possible, for the political effect it will have. +If he gets it, he will surely come to Cincinnati. He is an idiot, if +he does not. Here is the material of war,--goods, groceries, salt, +supplies, machinery, etc.,--enough to restock the whole bogus +Confederacy." + +"What are you going to do? You have nothing to defend the city with." + +"I will show you," was the reply. + +Within the first half-hour after his arrival in Cincinnati, General +Wallace wrote and sent to the daily papers the following proclamation, +which fully and clearly develops his whole plan. + + +"PROCLAMATION. + +"The undersigned, by order of Major-General Wright, assumes command of +Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport. + +"It is but fair to inform the citizens, that an active, daring, and +powerful enemy threatens them with every consequence of war; yet the +cities must be defended, and their inhabitants must assist in the +preparation. + +"Patriotism, duty, honor, self-preservation, call them to the labor, +and it must be performed equally by all classes. + +"First. All business must be suspended at nine o'clock to-day. Every +business-house must be closed. + +"Second. Under the direction of the Mayor, the citizens must, within +an hour after the suspension of business, (ten o'clock, A.M.,) +assemble in convenient public places ready for orders. As soon as +possible they will then be assigned to their work. + +"This labor ought to be that of love, and the undersigned trusts and +believes it will be so. Anyhow, it must be done. + +"The willing shall be properly credited; the unwilling promptly +visited. The principle adopted is, Citizens for the labor, soldiers +for the battle. + +"Third. The ferry-boats will cease plying the river after four +o'clock, A.M., until further orders. + +"Martial law is hereby proclaimed in the three cities; but until they +can be relieved by the military, the injunctions of this proclamation +will be executed by the police. + + "LEWIS WALLACE, + "Maj.-Gen'r'l Commanding." + +Could anything be bolder and more to the purpose? It placed Cincinnati +under martial law. It totally suspended business, and sent every +citizen, without distinction, to the ranks or into the trenches. +"Citizens for labor, soldiers for battle," was the principle +underlying the whole plan,--a motto by which he reached every +able-bodied man in the metropolis, and united the energies of forty +thousand people,--a motto original with himself, and for which he +should have the credit. + +Imagine the astonishment that seized the city, when, in the morning, +this bold proclamation was read,--a city unused to the din of war and +its impediments. As yet there was no word of an advance of the enemy +in the direction of Cincinnati. It was a question whether they would +come or not. Thousands did not believe in the impending danger; yet +the proclamation was obeyed to the letter, and this, too, when there +was not a regiment to enforce it. The secret is easy of comprehension: +it was the universal confidence reposed in the man who issued the +order; and he was equally confident, not only in his own judgment, but +in the people with whom he had to deal. + +"If the enemy should not come after all this fuss," said one of the +General's friends, "you will be ruined." + +"Very well," he replied; "but they will come. And if they do not, it +will be because this same fuss has caused them to think better of it." + +The ten days ensuing will be forever memorable in the annals of the +city of Cincinnati. The cheerful alacrity with which the people rose +_en masse_ to swell the ranks and crowd into the trenches was a sight +worth seeing, and being seen could not readily be forgotten. + +Here were the representatives of all nations and classes. The sturdy +German, the lithe and gay-hearted Irishman, went shoulder to shoulder +in defence of their adopted country. The man of money, the man of law, +the merchant, the artist, and the artisan swelled the lines hastening +to the scene of action, armed either with musket, pick, or spade. +Added to these was seen Dickson's long and dusky brigade of colored +men, cheerfully wending their way to labor on the fortifications, +evidently holding it their especial right to put whatever impediments +they could in the northward path of those whom they considered their +own peculiar foe. But the pleasantest and most picturesque sight of +those remarkable days was the almost endless stream of sturdy men who +rushed to the rescue from the rural districts of the State. These +were known as the "Squirrel-Hunters." They came in files numbering +thousands upon thousands, in all kinds of costumes, and armed with all +kinds of fire-arms, but chiefly the deadly rifle, which they knew so +well bow to use. Old men, middle-aged men, young men, and often mere +boys, like the "minute-men" of the old Revolution, they left the +plough in the furrow, the flail on the half-threshed sheaves, the +unfinished iron upon the anvil,--in short, dropped all their peculiar +avocations, and with their leathern pouches full of bullets and their +ox-horns full of powder, poured into the city by every highway and +by-way in such numbers that it seemed as if the whole State of Ohio +were peopled only with hunters, and that the spirit of Daniel Boone +stood upon the hills opposite the town beckoning them into Kentucky. +The pontoon-bridge, which had been begun and completed between sundown +and sundown, groaned day and night with the perpetual stream of +life all setting southward. In three days there were ten miles of +intrenchments lining the hills, making a semicircle from the river +above the city to the banks of the river below; and these were thickly +manned from end to end, and made terrible to the astonished enemy by +black and frowning cannon. General Heath, with his twenty thousand +Rebel veterans, flushed with their late success at Richmond, drew up +before these formidable preparations, and deemed it prudent to take +the matter into serious consideration before making the attack. + +Our men were eagerly awaiting their approach, thousands in rifle-pits +and tens of thousands along the whole line of the fortifications, +while our scouts and pickets were skirmishing with their outposts in +the plains in front. Should the foe make a sudden dash and carry any +point of our lines, it was thought by some that nothing would prevent +them from entering Cincinnati. + +But for this also provision was made. The river about the city, above +and below, was well protected by a flotilla of gun-boats improvised +from the swarm of steamers which lay at the wharves. A storm of shot +and shell, such as they had not dreamed of, would have played upon +their advancing columns, while our regiments, pouring down from the +fortifications, would have fallen upon their rear. The shrewd leaders +of the Rebel army were probably kept well posted by traitors within +our own lines in regard to the reception prepared for them, and, +taking advantage of the darkness of night and the violence of a +thunder-storm, made a hasty and ruinous retreat. Wallace was anxious +to follow them, and was confident of success, but was overruled by +those higher in authority. + +The address which he now published to the citizens of Cincinnati, +Covington, and Newport was manly and well-deserved. He said,-- + + +"For the present, at least, the enemy has fallen back, and your cities +are safe. It is the time for acknowledgments. I beg leave to make you +mine. When I assumed command, there was nothing to defend you with, +except a few half-finished works and some dismounted guns; yet I was +confident. The energies of a great city are boundless; they have only +to be aroused, united, and directed. You were appealed to. The answer +will never be forgotten. Paris may have seen something like it in her +revolutionary days, but the cities of America never did. Be proud that +you have given them an example so splendid. The most commercial of +people, you submitted to a total suspension of business, and without +a murmur adopted my principle, 'Citizens for labor, soldiers for +battle.' In coming times, strangers viewing the works on the hills of +Newport and Covington will ask, 'Who built these intrenchments? You +can answer, 'We built them.' If they ask, 'Who guarded them?' you +can reply, 'We helped in thousands.' If they inquire the result, your +answer will be, 'The enemy came and looked at them, and stole away in +the night.' You have won much honor. Keep your organizations ready to +win more. Hereafter be always prepared to defend yourselves. + + "LEWIS WALLACE, + "Maj.-Gen'r'l." + + +It can safely be claimed for our young General, that he was the moving +spirit which inspired and directed the people, and thereby saved +Cincinnati and the surrounding cities, and, in the very face of Heath +and his victorious horde from Richmond, organized a new and formidable +army. That the citizens fully indorsed this was well exemplified on +the occasion of his leading back into the metropolis a number of her +volunteer regiments when the danger was over. They lined the streets, +crowded the doors and windows, and filled the air with shouts of +applause, in honor of the great work he had done. + + +In writing this notice of Wallace and the siege, we have had no +intention to overlook the services of his co-laborers, especially +those rendered to the West by the gallant Wright, who holds command +of the department. The writer has attempted to give what came directly +under his own observation, and what he believes to be the core of the +matter, and consequently most interesting to the public. + + + + +JANE AUSTEN. + + +In the old Cathedral of Winchester stand the tombs of kings, with +dates stretching back to William Rufus and Canute; here, too, are the +marble effigies of queens and noble ladies, of crusaders and warriors, +of priests and bishops. But our pilgrimage led us to a slab of black +marble set into the pavement of the north aisle, and there, under the +grand old arches, we read the name of Jane Austen. Many-colored as the +light which streams through painted windows, came the memories which +floated in our soul as we read the simple inscription: happy hours, +gladdened by her genius, weary hours, soothed by her touch; the +honored and the wise who first placed her volumes in our hand; the +beloved ones who had lingered over her pages, the voices of our +distant home, associated with every familiar story. + +The personal history of Jane Austen belongs to the close of the last +and the beginning of the present century. Her father through forty +years was rector of a parish in the South of England. Mr. Austen was +a man of great taste in all literary matters; from him his daughter +inherited many of her gifts. He probably guided her early education +and influenced the direction of her genius. Her life was passed +chiefly in the country. Bath, then a fashionable watering-place, with +occasional glimpses of London, must have afforded all the intercourse +which she held with what is called "the world." Her travels were +limited to excursions in the vicinity of her father's residence. +Those were days of post-chaises and sedan-chairs, when the rush of +the locomotive was unknown. Steam, that genie of the vapor, was yet a +little household elf, singing pleasant times by the evening fire, at +quiet hearthstones; it has since expanded into a mighty giant, whose +influences are no longer domestic. The circles of fashion are changed +also. Those were the days of country-dances and India muslins; the +beaux and belles of "the upper rooms" at Bath knew not the whirl of +the waltz, nor the ceaseless involvements of "the German." Yet the +measures of love and jealousy, of hope and fear, to which their hearts +beat time, would be recognized to-night in every ballroom. Infinite +sameness, infinite variety, are not more apparent in the outward than +in the inward world, and the work of that writer will alone be lasting +who recognizes and embodies this eternal law of the great Author. + +Jane Austen possessed in a remarkable degree this rare intuition. The +following passage is found in Sir Walter Scott's journal, under date +of the fourteenth of March, 1826:--"Read again, and for the third time +at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel of 'Pride and Prejudice.' +That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and +feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most +wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself +like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary +commonplace things and characters interesting from truth of the +description and the sentiment is denied to me." This is high praise, +but it is something more when we recur to the time at which Sir Walter +writes this paragraph. It is amid the dreary entries in his journal +of 1826, many of which make our hearts ache and our eyes overflow. He +read the pages of Jane Austen on the fourteenth of March, and on the +fifteenth he writes, "This morning I leave 39 Castle Street for the +last time." It was something to have written a book sought for by him +at such a moment. Even at Malta, in December, 1831, when the pressure +of disease, as well as of misfortune, was upon him, Sir Walter was +often found with a volume of Miss Austen in his hand, and said to a +friend, "There is a finishing-off in some of her scenes that is really +quite above everybody else." + +Jane Austen's life-world presented such a limited experience that it +is marvellous where she could have found the models from which she +studied such a variety of forms. It is only another proof that the +secret lies in the genius which seizes, not in the material which is +seized. We have been told by one who knew her well, that Miss Austen +never intentionally drew portraits from individuals, and avoided, +if possible, all sketches that could be recognized. But she was so +faithful to Nature, that many of her acquaintance, whose characters +had never entered her mind, were much offended, and could not be +persuaded that they or their friends had not been depicted in some +of her less attractive personages: a feeling which we have frequently +shared; for, as the touches of her pencil brought out the light +and shades very quietly, we have been startled to recognize our own +portrait come gradually out on the canvas, especially since we are not +equal to the courage of Cromwell, who said, "Paint me as I am." + +In the "Autobiography of Sir Egerton Brydges" we find the following +passage: it is characteristic of the man:-- + +"I remember Jane Austen, the novelist, a little child. Her mother was +a Miss Leigh, whose paternal grandmother was a sister of the first +Duke of Chandos. Mr. Austen was of a Kentish family, of which several +branches have been settled in the Weald, and some are still remaining +there. When I knew Jane Austen, I never suspected she was an +authoress; but my eyes told me that she was fair and handsome, slight +and elegant, with cheeks a little too full. The last time, I think, +I saw her was at Ramsgate, in 1803; perhaps she was then about +twenty-seven years old. Even then I did not know that she was addicted +to literary composition." + +We can readily suppose that the spheres of Jane Austen and Sir Egerton +could not be very congenial; and it does not appear that he was ever +tempted from the contemplation of his own performances, to read her +"literary compositions." A letter from Robert Southey to Sir Egerton +shows that the latter had not quite forgotten her. Southey writes, +under the dale of Keswick, April, 1830:-- + +"You mention Miss Austen; her novels are more true to Nature, and have +(for my sympathies) passages of finer feeling than any others of +this age. She was a person of whom I have heard so much, and think so +highly, that I regret not having seen her, or ever had an opportunity +of testifying to her the respect which I felt for her." + +A pleasant anecdote, told to us on good authority in England, is +illustrative of Miss Austen's power over various minds. A party of +distinguished literary men met at a country-seat; among them was +Macaulay, and, we believe, Hallam; at all events, they were men of +high reputation. While discussing the merits of various authors, it +was proposed that each should write down the name of that work of +fiction which had given him the greatest pleasure. Much surprise and +amusement followed; for, on opening the slips of paper, _seven_ bore +the name of "Mansfield Park,"--a coincidence of opinion most rare, and +a tribute to an author unsurpassed. + +Had we been of that party at the English country-house, we should have +written, "The _last_ novel by Miss Austen which we have read"; yet, +forced to a selection, we should have named "Persuasion." But we +withdraw our private preference, and, yielding to the decision of +seven wise men, place "Mansfield Park" at the head of the list, and +leave it there without further comment. + +"Persuasion" was her latest work, and bears the impress of a matured +mind and perfected style. The language of Miss Austen is, in all her +pages, drawn from the "wells of English undefiled." Concise and clear, +simple and vigorous, no word can be omitted that she puts down, +and none can be added to heighten the effect of her sentences. In +"Persuasion" there are passages whose depth and tenderness, welling +up from deep fountains of feeling, impress us with the conviction that +the angel of sorrow or suffering had troubled the waters, yet had left +in them a healing influence, which is felt rather than revealed. Of +all the heroines we have known through a long and somewhat varied +experience, there is not one whose life-companionship we should so +desire to secure as that of Anne Elliot. Ah! could she also forgive +our faults and bear with our weaknesses, while we were animated by +her sweet and noble example, existence would be, under any aspect, a +blessing. This felicity was reserved for Captain Wentworth. Happy man! +In "Persuasion" we also find the subtle Mr. Elliot. Here, as with Mr. +Crawford in "Mansfield Park," Miss Austen deals dexterously with the +character of a man of the world, and uses a nicer discernment than is +often found in the writings of women, even those who assume masculine +names. + +"Emma" we know to have been a favorite with the author. "I have drawn +a character full of faults," said she, "nevertheless I like her." +In Emma's company we meet Mr. Knightley, Harriet Smith, and Frank +Churchill. We sit beside good old Mr. Woodhouse, and please him by +tasting his gruel. We walk through Highbury, we are patronized by Mrs. +Elton, listen forbearingly to the indefatigable Miss Bates, and take +an early walk to the post-office with Jane Fairfax. Once we found +ourselves actually on "Box Hill," but it did not seem half so real as +when we "explored" there with the party from Highbury. + +"Pride and Prejudice" is piquant In style and masterly in portraiture. +We make perhaps too many disagreeable acquaintances to enjoy ourselves +entirely; yet who would forego Mr. Collins, or forget Lady Catherine +de Bourgh, though each in their way is more stupid and odious than any +one but Miss Austen could induce us to endure. Mr. Darcy's character +is ably given; a very difficult one to sustain under all the +circumstances in which he is placed. It is no small tribute to the +power of the author to concede that she has so managed the workings +of his real nature as to make it possible, and even probable, that a +high-born, high-bred Englishman of Mr. Darcy's stamp could become the +son-in-law of Mrs. Bennet. The scene of Darcy's declaration of love +to Elizabeth, at the Hunsford Parsonage, is one of the most remarkable +passages in Miss Austen's writings, and, indeed, we remember nothing +equal to it among the many writers of fiction who have endeavored to +describe that culminating point of human destiny. + +"Northanger Abbey" is written in a fine vein of irony, called forth, +in some degree, by the romantic school of Mrs. Radcliffe and her +imitators. We doubt whether Miss Austen was not over-wise with regard +to these romances. Though born after the Radcliffe era, we well +remember shivering through the "Mysteries of Udolpho" with as quaking +a heart as beat in the bosom of Catherine Morland. If Miss Austen was +not equally impressed by the power of these romances, we rejoice +that they were written, as with them we should have lost "Northanger +Abbey." For ourselves, we spent one very rainy day in the streets of +Bath, looking up every nook and corner familiar in the adventures +of Catherine, and time, not faith, failed, for a visit to Northanger +itself. Bath was also sanctified by the presence of Anne Elliot. Our +inn, the "White Hart," (made classic by the adventures of various +well-remembered characters,) was hallowed by exquisite memories +which connected one of the rooms (we faithfully believed it was our +apartment) with the conversation of Anne Elliot and Captain Harville, +as they stood by the window, while Captain Wentworth listened and +wrote. In vain did we gaze at the windows of Camden Place. No Anne +Elliot appeared. + +"Sense and Sensibility" was the first novel published by Miss Austen. +It is marked by her peculiar genius, though it may be wanting in the +nicer finish which experience gave to her later writings. + +The Earl of Carlisle, when Lord Morpheth, wrote a poem for some now +forgotten annual, entitled "The Lady and the Novel." The following +lines occur among the verses:-- + + "Or is it thou, all-perfect Austen? here + Let one poor wreath adorn thy early bier, + That scarce allowed thy modest worth to claim + The living portion of thy honest fame: + Oh, Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Morris, too, + While Memory survives, she'll dream of you; + And Mr. Woodhouse, with abstemious lip, + Must thin, but not too thin, the gruel sip; + Miss Bates, _our_ idol, though the village bore, + And Mrs. Elton, ardent to explore; + While the clear style flows on without pretence, + With unstained purity, and unmatched sense." + +If the Earl of Carlisle, in whose veins flows "the blood of all the +Howards," is willing to acknowledge so many of our friends, who are +anything but aristocratic, our republican soul shrinks not from the +confession that we should like to accompany good-natured Mrs. Jennings +in her hospitable carriage, (so useful to our young ladies of sense +and sensibility,) witness the happiness of Elinor at the parsonage, +and the reward of Colonel Brandon at the manor-house of Delaford, and +share with Mrs. Jennings all the charms of the mulberry-tree and the +yew arbor. + +An article on "Recent Novels," in "Fraser's Magazine" for +December, 1847, written by Mr. G.H. Lewes, contains the following +paragraphs:--"What we most heartily enjoy and applaud is truth in the +delineations of life and character.... To make our meaning precise, we +would say that Fielding and Miss Austen are the greatest novelists in +our language.... We would rather have written 'Pride and Prejudice,' +or 'Tom Jones,' than any of the 'Waverley Novels'.... Miss Austen has +been called a prose Shakspeare,--and among others, by Macaulay. In +spite of the sense of incongruity which besets us in the words _prose_ +Shakspeare, we confess the greatness of Miss Austen, her marvellous +dramatic power, seems, more than anything in Scott, akin to +Shakspeare." + +The conclusion of this article is devoted to a review of 'Jane Eyre,' +and led to the correspondence between Miss Bronte and Mr. Lewes +which will be found in the memoir of her life. In these letters it is +apparent that Mr. Lewes wishes Miss Bronte to read and to enjoy Miss +Austen's works, as he does himself. Mr. Lewes is disappointed, and +felt, doubtless, what all true lovers of Jane Austen have experienced, +a surprise to find how obtuse otherwise clever people sometimes +are. In this instance, however, we think Mr. Lewes expected what was +impossible. Charlotte Bronte could not harmonize with Jane Austen. The +luminous and familiar star which comes forth into the quiet evening +sky when the sun sets amid the amber light of an autumn evening, and +the comet which started into sight, unheralded and unnamed, and flamed +across the midnight sky, have no affinity, except in the Divine Mind, +whence both originate. + +The notice of Miss Austen, by Macaulay, to which Mr. Lewes alludes, +must be, we presume, the passage which occurs in Macaulay's article on +Madame D'Arblay, in the "Edinburgh Review," for January, 1843. We do +not find the phrase, "prose Shakspeare," but the meaning is the same; +we give the passage as it stands before us:-- + +"Shakspeare has neither equal nor second; but among writers who, in +the point we have noticed, have approached nearest the manner of the +great master, we have no hesitation in placing Jane Austen, as a +woman of whom England is justly proud. She has given us a multitude of +characters, all, in a certain sense, commonplace, all such as we meet +every day. Yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other +as if they were the most eccentric of human beings. There are, for +example, four clergymen, none of whom we should be surprised to +find in any parsonage in the kingdom,--Mr. Edward Ferrars, Mr. Henry +Tilney, Mr. Edward Bertram, and Mr. Elton. They are all specimens +of the upper part of the middle class. They have been all liberally +educated. They all lie under the restraints of the same sacred +profession. They are all young. They are all in love. Not any one of +them has any hobby-horse, to use the phrase of Sterne. Not one has any +ruling passion, such as we read in Pope. Who would not have expected +them to be insipid likenesses of each other? No such thing. Harpagon +is not more unlike Jourdain, Joseph Surface is not more unlike Sir +Lucius O'Trigger, than every one of Miss Austen's young divines to +all his reverend brethren. And almost all this is done by touches +so delicate that they elude analysis, that they defy the powers of +description, and that we know them to exist only by the general effect +to which they have contributed." + +Dr. Whately, the Archbishop of Dublin, in the "Quarterly Review," +1821, sums up his estimate of Miss Austen with these words: "The +Eastern monarch who proclaimed a reward to him who should discover a +new pleasure would have deserved well of mankind, had he stipulated +it should be blameless. Those again who delight in the study of human +nature may improve in the knowledge of it, and in the profitable +application of that knowledge, by the perusal of such fictions. Miss +Austen introduces very little of what is technically called religion +into her books, yet that must be a blinded soul which does not +recognize the vital essence, everywhere present in her pages, of a +deep and enlightened piety. + +There are but few descriptions of scenery in her novels. The figures +of the piece are her care; and if she draws in a tree, a hill, or a +manor-house, it is always in the background. This fact did not arise +from any want of appreciation for the glories or the beauties of the +outward creation, for we know that the pencil was as often in her hand +as the pen. It was that unity of purpose, ever present to her mind, +which never allowed her to swerve from the actual into the ideal, nor +even to yield to tempting descriptions of Nature which might be near, +and yet aside from the main object of her narrative. Her creations +are living people, not masks behind which the author soliloquizes +or lectures. These novels are impersonal; Miss Austen never herself +appears; and if she ever had a lover, we cannot decide whom he +resembled among the many masculine portraits she has drawn. + +Very much has been said in her praise, and we, in this brief article, +have summoned together witnesses to the extent of her powers, which +are fit and not few. Yet we are aware that to a class of readers Miss +Austen's novels must ever remain sealed books. So be it. While the +English language is read, the world will always be provided with souls +who can enjoy the rare excellence of that rich legacy left to them by +her genius. + +Once in our lifetime we spent three delicious days in the Isle of +Wight, and then crossed the water to Portsmouth. After taking a turn +on the ramparts in memory of Fanny Price, and looking upon the harbor +whence the Thrush went out, we drove over Portsdown Hill to visit the +surviving member of that household which called Jane Austen their own. + +We had been preceded by a letter, introducing us to Admiral Austen as +fervent admirers of his sister's genius, and were received by him with +a gentle courtesy most winning to our heart. + +In the finely-cut features of the brother, who retained at eighty +years of age much of the early beauty of his youth, we fancied we must +see a resemblance to his sister, of whom there exists no portrait. + +It was delightful to us to hear him speak of "Jane," and to be brought +so near the actual in her daily life. Of his sister's fame as a writer +the Admiral spoke understandingly, but reservedly. + +We found the old Admiral safely moored in that most delightful of +havens, a quiet English country-home, with the beauty of Nature around +the mansion, and the beauty of domestic love and happiness beneath its +hospitable roof. + +There we spent a summer day, and the passing hours seemed like the +pages over which we had often lingered, written by her hand whose +influence had guided us to those she loved. That day, with all its +associations, has become a sacred memory, and links us to the sphere +where dwells that soul whose gift of genius has rendered immortal the +name of Jane Austen. + + * * * * * + + +THE PROCLAMATION. + + + "I order and declare that all persons held as slaves in the + said designated States and parts of States are and hereafter + shall be free,... and I hereby enjoin upon the people so + declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in + necessary self-defence." + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + Saint Patrick, slave to Milcho of the herds + Of Ballymena, sleeping, heard these words: + "Arise, and flee + Out from the land of bondage, and be free!" + + Glad as a soul in pain, who hears from heaven + The angels singing of his sins forgiven, + And, wondering, sees + His prison opening to their golden keys, + + He rose a man who laid him down a slave, + Shook from his locks the ashes of the grave, + And outward trod + Into the glorious liberty of God. + + He cast the symbols of his shame away; + And passing where the sleeping Milcho lay, + Though back and limb + Smarted with wrong, he prayed, "God pardon him!" + + So went he forth: but in God's time he came + To light on Uilline's hills a holy flame; + And, dying, gave + The land a saint that lost him as a slave. + + O dark, sad millions, patiently and dumb + Waiting for God, your hour, at last, has come, + And freedom's song + Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong! + + Arise and flee! shake off the vile restraint + Of ages! but, like Ballymena's saint, + The oppressor spare, + Heap only on his head the coals of prayer! + + Go forth, like him! like him, return again, + To bless the land whereon in bitter pain + Ye toiled at first, + And heal with freedom what your slavery cursed! + + * * * * * + + +THE LAW OF COSTS. + + +Our nation is now paying the price, not only of its vice, but also +of its virtue,--not alone of its evil doing, but of its noble and +admirable doing as well. It has of late been a customary cry with +a certain class, that those who cherish freedom and advocate social +justice are the proper authors of the present war. No doubt there +is in this allegation an ungracious kind of truth; that is, had the +nation been destitute of a political faith and of moral feeling, there +would have been no contest. But were one lying ill of yellow-fever +or small-pox, there would be the same sort of lying truth in the +statement, that the _life_ in him, which alone resists the disease, is +really its cause; since to yellow-fever, or to any malady, dead bodies +are not subject. There is no preventive of disease so effectual as +death itself,--no place so impregnable to pestilence as the grave. So, +had the vitality gone out of the nation's heart, had that lamp of love +for freedom and justice and of homage to the being of man, which once +burned in its bosom so brightly, already sunk into death-flicker and +extinction, then in the sordid and icy dark that would remain there +could be no war of like nature with this that to-day gives the land +its woful baptism of blood and tears. Oh, no! there would have been +peace--_and_ putrefaction: peace, but without its sweetness, and +death, but without its hopes. + +In one important sense, however, this war--hateful and horrible though +it be--is the price which the nation must pay for its ideas and its +magnanimity. If you take a clear initial step toward any great end, +you thereby assume as a debt to destiny the pursuit and completion of +your action; and should you fail to meet this debt, it will not fail +to meet you, though now in the shape of retribution and with a biting +edge. The seaman who has signed shipping-papers owes a voyage, and +must either sail or suffer. The nation which has recognized absolute +rights of man, and in their name assumed to shed blood, has taken +upon itself the burden of a high destination, and must bear it, if +not willingly, reluctantly, if not in joy and honor, then in shame and +weeping. + +Our nation, by the early nobility of its faith and action, assumed +such a debt to destiny, and now must pay it. It needed not to come in +this shape: there need have been no horror of carnage,--no feast of +vultures, and carnival of fiends,--no weeping of Rachel, mourning +for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not. +There was required only a magnanimity in proceeding to sustain that of +our beginning,--only a sympathy broad enough to take our little planet +and all her human tribes in its arms, deep enough to go beneath +the skin in which men differ, to the heart's blood in which they +agree,--only pains and patience, faith and forbearance,--only a +national obedience to that profound precept of Christianity which +prescribes service to him that would be greatest, making the knowledge +of the wise due to the ignorant, and the strength of the strong due +to the weak. The costs of freedom would have been paid in the patient +lifting up of a degraded race from the slough of servitude; and the +nation would at the same time have avoided that slough of lava and +fire wherein it is now ingulfed. + +It was not to be so. History is coarse; it gets on by gross feeding +and fevers, not by delicacy of temperance and wisdom of regimen. Our +debt was to be paid, not in a pure form, but mixed with the costs of +unbelief, cowardice, avarice. Yet primarily it is the cost, not of +meanness, but of magnanimity, that we are now paying,--not of a base +skepticism, but of a noble faith. For, in truth, normal qualities and +actions involve costs no less than vicious and abnormal. Such is the +law of the world; and it is this law of the costs of worthiness, of +knowledge and nobility, of all memorable being and doing, that I now +desire to set forth. Having obtained the scope and power of the law, +having considered it also as applying to individuals, we may proceed +to exhibit its bearing upon the present struggle of our Republic. + +The general statement is this,--that whatever has a worth has also +a cost. "The law of the universe," says a wise thinker, "is, Pay and +take." If you desire silks of the mercer or supplies at the grocery, +you, of course, pay money. Is it a harvest from the field that +you seek? Tillage must be paid. Would you have the river toil in +production of cloths for your raiment? Only pay the due modicum of +knowledge, labor, and skill, and you shall bind its hand to your +water-wheels, and turn all its prone strength into pliant service. Or +perhaps you wish the comforts of a household. By payment of the +due bearing of its burdens, you may hope to obtain it,--surely not +otherwise. Do you ask that this house may be a true home, a treasury +for wealth of the heart, a little heaven? Once more the word +is _pay_,--pay your own heart's unselfish love, pay a generous +trustfulness, a pure sympathy, a tender consideration, and a sweet +firm-heartedness withal. And so, wherever there is a gaining, there +is a warning,--wherever a well-being, a well-doing,--wherever a +preciousness, a price of possession; and he who scants the payment +stints the purchase; and he that will proffer nothing shall profit +nothing; but he that freely and wisely gives shall receive as freely. + +But these _desiderata_ which I have named are all prices either of +ordinary use, of comfort, or felicity; and it is generally understood +that happiness is costly: but virtue? Virtue, so far from costing +anything, is often supposed to be itself a price that you pay for +happiness. It is told us that we shall be rewarded for our virtue; +what moralistic commonplace is more common than this? But rewarded +for your virtue you are not to be; you are to pay for it; at least, +payment made, rather than received, is the principal fact. He who +is honest for reward is a knave without reward. He who asks pay for +telling truth has truth only on his tongue and a double lie in his +heart. Do you think that the true artist strives to paint well that he +may get money for his work? Or rather, is not his desire to pay money, +to pay anything in reason, for the sake of excellence in his art? And, +indeed, what is worthier than Worth? What fitter, therefore, to be +paid for? And that payment is made, even under penal forms, every one +may see. For what did Raleigh give his lofty head? For the privilege +of being Raleigh, of being a man of great heart and a statesman of +great mind, with a King James, a burlesque of all sovereignty, on the +throne. For what did Socrates quaff the poison? For the privilege of +that divine sincerity and penetration which characterized his life. +For what did Kepler endure the last straits of poverty, his children +crying for bread, while his own heart was pierced with their wailing? +For the privilege--in his own noble words--"of reading God's thoughts +after Him,"--God's thoughts written in stellar signs on the scroll of +the skies. And Cicero and Thomas Cromwell, John Huss and John Knox, +John Rogers and John Brown, and many another, high and low, famed and +forgotten, must they not all make, as it were, penal payment for the +privilege of being true men, truest among true? And again I say, that, +if one knows something worthier than Worth, something more excellent +than Excellence, then only does he know something fitter than they to +be paid for. + +Payment _may_ assume a penal form: do not think this its only form. +And to take the law at once out of the limitations which these +examples suggest, let me show you that it is a law of healthy and +unlamenting Nature. Look at the scale of existence, and you will see +that for every step of advance in that scale payment is required. +The animal is higher than the vegetable; the animal, accordingly, is +subject to the sense of pain, the vegetable not; and among animals the +pain may be keener as the organization is nobler. The susceptibility +not only to pain, but to vital injury, observes the same gradation. +A little girdling kills an oak; but some low fungus may be cut and +troubled and trampled _ad libitum_, and it will not perish; and along +the shores, farmers year after year pluck sea-weed from the rocks, +and year after year it springs again lively as ever. Among the lowest +orders of animals you shall find a creature that, if you cut it in +two, straightway duplicates its existence and floats away twice as +happy as before; but of the prick of a bodkin or the sting of a bee +the noblest of men may die. + +In the animal body the organs make a draft from the general vigors +of the system just in proportion to their dignity. The eye,--what +an expensive boarder at the gastric tables is that! Considerable +provinces of the brain have to be made over to its exclusive use; +and it will be remembered that a single ounce of delicate, sensitive +brain, full of mysterious and marvellous powers, requires more vital +support than many pounds of common muscle. The powers of the eye are +great; it has a right to cost much, and it does cost. Also we observe +that in this organ there is the exceeding susceptibility to injury, +which, as we have observed, invariably accompanies powers of a lofty +grade. + +Noble senses cost much; noble susceptibilities cost vastly more. +Compare oxen with men in respect to the amount of feeling and nervous +wear and tear which they severally experience. The ox enjoys grass and +sleep; he feels hunger and weariness, and he is wounded by that which +goes through his hide. But upon the nerve of the man what an incessant +thousandfold play! Out of the eyes of the passers-by pleasures and +pains are rained upon him; a word, a look, a tone thrills his every +fibre; the touch of a hand warms or chills the very marrow in his +bones. Anticipation and memory, hope and regret, love and hate, +ideal joy and sorrow and shame, ah, what troops of visitants are +ever present with his soul, each and all, whether welcome guests or +unwelcome, to be nourished from the resources of his bosom! And out of +this high sensibility of man must come what innumerable stabs of quick +agony, what slow, gasping hours of grief and pain, that to the cattle +upon the hills are utterly unknown! But do you envy the ox his bovine +peace? It is precisely that which makes him an ox, It is due to +nothing but his insensibility,--by no means, as I take occasion to +assure those poets who laud outward Nature and inferior creatures +to the disparagement of man,--by no means due to composure and +philosophy. The ox is no great hero, after all, for he will bellow at +a thousandth part the sense of pain which from a Spartan child wrings +no tear nor cry. + +Yes, it is precisely this sensibility which makes man human. Were he +incapable of ideal joy and sorrow, he, too, were brute. It is through +this delicacy of conscious relationship, it is through this openness +to the finest impressions, that he can become an organ of supernal +intelligence, that he is capable of social and celestial inspirations. +High spiritual sensibility is the central condition of a noble and +admirable life; it is the hinge on which turn and open to man the +gates of his highest glory and purest peace. Yet for this he must pay +away all that induration of brutes and boors which sheds off so many +a wasting excitement and stinging chagrin, as the feathers of the +water-fowl shed rain. + +In entering, therefore, upon any noble course of life, any generous +and brave pursuit of excellence, understand, that, so far as ordinary +coin is concerned, you are rather to pay, than to be paid, for your +superiorities. Understand that the pursuit of excellence must indeed +be brave to be prosperous,--that is, it is always in some way opposed +and imperilled. Understand, that, with every step of spiritual +elevation which you attain, some part of your audience and +companionship will be left behind. Understand, that, if you carry +lofty principles and philosophic intelligence into camps, these +possessions will in general not be passed to your credit, but will be +charged against you; and you must surpass your inferiors in their +own kinds of virtue to regain what of popular regard these cost you. +Understand, that, if you have a reverence for theoretical and absolute +truth, less of common fortune will come to you in answer to equal +business and professional ability than to those who do care for money, +and do not care for truth. Are you a physician? Let me tell you that +there is a possible excellence in your profession which will rather +limit than increase your practice; yet that very excellence you must +strive to attain, for your soul's life is concerned in your doing so. +Are you a lawyer? Know that there is a depth and delicacy in the sense +of justice, which will sometimes send clients from your office, and +sometimes tie your tongue at the bar; yet, as you would preserve the +majesty of your manhood, strive just for that unprofitable sense of +justice,--unprofitable only because infinitely, rather than finitely, +profitable. In a stormy and critical time, when much is ending +and much beginning, and a great land is heaving and quivering with +commingled agonies of dissolution and throes of new birth, are you a +statesman of earnestness and insight, with your eye on the cardinal +question of your epoch, its answer clearly in your heart, and your +will irrevocably set to give it due enunciation and emphasis? Expect +calumny and affected contempt from the base; expect alienation +and misconstruction and undervaluing on the part of some who are +honorable. Are you a woman rich in high aims, in noble sympathies and +thrilling sensibilities, and, as must ever be the case with such, not +too rich in a meet companionship? Expect loneliness, and wear it as +a grace upon your brow; it is your laurel. Are you a true artist or +thinker? Expect to go beyond popular appreciation; _go_ beyond it, +or the highest appreciation you will not deserve. In fine, for all +excellence expect and _seek_ to pay. + +No one ever held this law more steadily in view than Jesus; and when +ardent young people came to him proposing pupilage, he was wont at +once to bring it before their eyes. It was on such an occasion that he +uttered the words, so simple and intense that they thrill to the touch +like the string of a harp, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the +air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." +Of like suggestion his question of the king going to war, who first +sitteth down and consulteth whether he be able, and of the man about +to build a house, who begins by counting the cost. + +The cost,--question of this must arise; question of this must on all +sides either be honestly met or dishonestly eluded. For observe, that +attempt to escape payment for the purest values, no less than for +the grossest, _is_ dishonest. If one seek to compass possession of +ordinary goods without compensation, we at once apply the opprobrious +term of _theft_ or _fraud_. Why does the same sort of attempt cease to +be fraudulent when it is carried up to a higher degree and applied to +possessions more precious? If he that evades the revenue law of the +State be guilty of fraud, what of him who would import Nature's +goods and pay no duties? For Nature has her own system of impost, and +permits no smuggling. There was a tax on truth ere there was one on +tea or on silver plate. Character, genius, high parts in history are +all assessed upon. Nature lets out her houses and lands on liberal +terms; but resorts to distraint, if her dues be not forthcoming. Be +sure, therefore, that little success and little honor will wait upon +any would-be thieving from God. He who attempts to purloin on this +high scale has set all the wit of the universe at work to thwart him, +and will certainly be worsted sorely in the end. + +The moment, therefore, that any man is found engaged in this business, +how to estimate him is clear. Daniel O'Connell tried the experiment of +being an heroic patriot and making money by it. It is conceded by +his friends that he applied to his private uses, to sustaining the +magnificence of his household, the rent-moneys sweated from the +foreheads of Irish peasants. But, they say, he had sacrificed many +ambitions in taking up the _role_ of a patriot; and he felt entitled +to revenues as liberal as any indulgence of them could have procured +him! The apology puts his case beyond all apology. He who--to employ +the old phraseology--seeks to exact the same bribe of God that he +might have obtained from the Devil is always the Devil's servant, no +matter whose livery he wears. Had one often to apply the good word +_patriot_ to such men, it would soon blister his mouth. I find, in +fact, no vice so bad as this spurious virtue, no sinners so unsavory +as these mock saints. + +To nations, also, this comprehensive law applies. Would you have +a noble and orderly freedom? Buy it, and it is yours. "Liberty or +death," cried eloquent Henry; and the speech is recited as bold and +peculiar; but, by an enduring ordinance of Nature, the people that +does not in its heart of hearts say, "Liberty or death," cannot have +liberty. Many of us had learned to fancy that the stern tenure by +which ancient communities held their civilization was now become an +obsolete fact, and that without peril or sacrifice we might forever +appropriate all that blesses nations; but by the iron throat of this +war Providence is thundering down upon us the unalterable law, that +man shall hold no ideal possession longer than he places all his lower +treasures at its command. + +But there was a special form of cost, invited by the virtue of our +national existence; and it is this in particular that we are now +paying,--paying it, I am sorry to say, in the form of retribution +because the nation declined to meet it otherwise. But the peculiarity +of the case is, as has been affirmed, that it was chiefly the virtue +and nobility of the nation which created this debt at the outset. + +And now what is the peculiar virtue and glory of this nation? Why, +that its national existence is based upon a recognition of the +absolute rights and duties of humanity. Theoretically this is our +basis; practically there is a commixture; much of this cosmopolitan +faith is mingled with much of confined self-regard. But the +theoretical fact is the one here in point: since the question now +is not of the national _un_faith or infidelity, but of the national +faith. And beyond a question, the real faith of the nation, so far as +it has one, is represented by its formal declaration, made sacred by +the shedding of blood. Our belief really is not in the special +right or privilege of Americans, but in the prerogative of man. +This prerogative we may have succeeded well or ill in stating and +interpreting; the fact, that our appeal is to this, alone concerns us +here. + +Now this national attitude, so far as history informs me, is +unprecedented. The true-born son of Albion, save as an exceptional +culture enlarges his soul, believes religiously that God is an +Englishman, and that the interests of England precede those of the +universe. When, therefore, he sees anything done which depletes the +pocket of England, it affects him with a sense of infidelity in those +to whom this loss is due. England professes to have a _national_ +religion; she has, and in a deeper sense than is commonly meant. + +We will not disparage England overmuch; she has done good service in +history. We will not boast of ourselves; the actual politics of this +country have been, in no small part, base and infidel to a degree +that is simply sickening. Nevertheless, it remains true that the +fundamental idea of the State here represents a new phase of human +history. Every European nationality had taken shape and character +while yet our globe was not known to be a globe, while before the eyes +of all lookers land and sea faded away into darkness and mystery; and +it was not possible that common human sympathy should take into its +arms a world of which it could not conceive. But a national spirit +was here generated when the ocean had been crossed, when the earth had +been rounded, when, too, Newton had, as it were, circumnavigated the +solar system,--when, therefore, there could be, and must be, a new +recognition of humanity. Our country, again, was peopled from the +minorities of Europe, from those whom the spirit of the new time +had touched, and taken away their content with old institutions,--a +population restless, uncertain, yeasty, chaotic, it might be, full of +the rawness of new conditions, mean and magnanimous by turns, as such +people are wont, but all leavened more or less with a sentiment new in +history,--all leavened with a kind of whole-world feeling, a sense +of the oneness of humanity, and, as derived from this, a sense of +absolute rights of man, of prerogatives belonging to human nature as +such. + +The truth of all this has been brought under suspicion by the +flatulent oratory of our Fourth-of-Julys; but truth it remains. Our +nation did enunciate a grand idea never equally felt by any other. Our +nation has said, and said with the sword in its right hand, "Every man +born into this world has the right from God to make the most and best +of his existence, and society is established only to further and guard +this sacred right." We thus established a new scale of justice; we +raised a demand for the individual which had not been so made before. +Freedom and order were made one; both were identified with justice, +simple, broad, equal, universal justice. The American idea, then, what +is it? _The identification of politics with justice_, this it is. With +justice, and this, too, not on a scale of conventional usage, but +on the scale of natural right. That, as I read, is the American +idea,--making politics moral by their unity with natural justice, +justice world-old and world-wide. + +This conception--obscurely seen and felt, and mixed with the +inevitable amount of folly and self-seeking, yet, after, all, +this conception--our nation dared to stand up and announce, and to +consecrate it by the shedding of blood, calling God and all good men +to witness. The deed was grand; the hearts of men everywhere were more +or less its accomplices; all the tides of history ran in its favor; +kings, forgetting themselves into virtue and generosity, lent it +good wishes or even good arms; it was successful; and on its primary +success waited such prosperities as the world has seldom seen. + +But, because the deed was noble, great costs must needs attend it, +attend it long. And first of all the cost of _applying our principle +within our own borders_. For, when a place had been obtained for us +among nations, we looked down, and, lo! at our feet the African--in +chains. A benighted and submissive race, down-trodden and despised +from of old, a race of outcasts, of Pariahs, covered with the shame of +servitude, and held by the claim of that terrible talisman, the +word _property_,--here it crouched at our feet, lifting its hands, +imploring. Yes, America, here is your task now; never flinch nor +hesitate, never begin to question now; thrust your right hand deep +into your heart's treasury, bring forth its costliest, purest justice, +and lay its immeasurable bounty into this sable palm, bind its +blessing on this degraded brow. Ah, but America did falter and +question. "How can I?" it said. "This is a Negro, a _Negro_! Besides, +he is PROPERTY!" And so America looked up, determined to ignore +the kneeling form. With pious blasphemy it said, "He is here +providentially; God in His own good time will dispose of him"; as +if God's hour for a good effect were not the earliest hour at +which courage and labor can bring it about, not the latest to which +indolence and infidelity can postpone it. Then it looked away across +oceans to other continents, and began again the chant, "Man is man; +natural right is sacred forever; and of politics the sole basis is +universal justice." Joyfully it sang for a while, but soon there began +to come up the clank of chains mingling with its chant, and the groans +of oppressed men and violated women, and prayers to Heaven for another +justice than this; and then the words of its chant grew bitter in the +mouth of our nation, and a sickness came in its heart, and an evil +blush mounted and stood on its brow; and at length a devil spoke in +its bosom and said, "The negro has no rights that a white man is bound +to respect"; and ere the words were fairly uttered, their meaning, as +was indeed inevitable, changed to this,--"A Northern 'mudsill' has no +rights that a Southern gentleman is bound to respect"; and soon guns +were heard booming about Sumter, and a new chapter in our history and +in the world's history began. + +Our nation refused allegiance to its own principles, refused to pay +the lawful costs of its virtue and nobility; therefore it is sued in +the courts of destiny, and the case is this day on trial. + +The case is plain, the logic clear. Natural right is sacred, or it is +not. If it is, the negro is lawfully free; if it is not, you may be +lawfully a slave. Just how all this stands in the Constitution of the +United States I do not presume to say. Other heads, whose business it +is, must attend to that. Every man to his vocation. I speak from the +stand-point of philosophy, not of politics; I attend to the logic of +history, the logic of destiny, according to which, of course, final +judgment will be rendered. It is not exactly to be supposed that +the statute of any nation makes grass green, or establishes the +relationship between cause and effect. The laws of the world are +considerably older than our calendar, and therefore date yet more +considerably beyond the year 1789. And by the laws of the world, by +the eternal relationship between cause and effect, it stands enacted +beyond repeal, and graven upon somewhat more durable than marble or +brass, that the destiny of this nation for more than one century to +come hinges upon its justice to that outcast race,--outcast, but not +henceforth to be cast out by us, save to the utter casting down of +ourselves. Once it might have been otherwise; now we have made it +so. Justice to the African is salvation to the white man upon this +continent. Oh, my America, you must not, cannot, shall not be blind +to this fact! America, deeper in my love and higher in my esteem than +ever before, newly illustrated in worth, newly proven to be capable +still, in some directions, of exceeding magnanimity, open your eyes +that your feet may have guidance, now when there is such need! Open +your eyes to see, that, if you deliberately deny justice and human +recognition to one innocent soul in all your borders, you stab at your +own existence; for, in violating the unity of humanity, you break the +principle that makes you a nation and alive. Give justice to black +and white, recognize man as man; or the constituting idea, the vital +faith, the crystallizing principle of the nation perishes, and the +whole disintegrates, falls into dust. + +I invite the attention of conservative men to the fact that in this +due paying of costs lies the true conservation. I invite them to +observe, that, as every living body has a principle which makes it +alive, makes it a unit, harmonizing the action of its members,--as +every crystal has a unitary law, which commands the arrangement of its +particles, the number and arrangement of its faces and angles,--so +it is with every orderly or living state. To this also there is a +central, clarifying, unifying faith. Without this you may collect +hordes into the brief, brutal empire of a Chingis Khan or Tamerlane; +but you can have no firm, free, orderly, inspiring national life. + +Whenever and wherever in history this central condition of national +existence has been destroyed, there a nation has fallen into chaos, +into imbecility, losing all power to produce genius, to generate able +souls, to sustain the trust of men in each other, or to support any of +the conditions of social health and order. Even advances in the right +line of progress have to be made slowly, gradually, lest the shock of +newness be too great, and break off a people from the traditions in +which its faith is embodied; but a mere recoil, a mere denial and +destruction of its centralizing principle, is the last and utmost +calamity which can befall any nation. + +This is no fine-spun doctrine, fit for parlors and lecture-rooms, but +not for counting-rooms and congressional halls. It is solid, durable +fact. History is full of it; and he is a mere mole, and blinder than +midnight, who cannot perceive it. The spectacle of nations falling +into sudden, chronic, careless imbecility is frequent and glaring +enough for even wilfulness to see; and the central secret of this +sad phenomenon, so I am _sure_, has been suggested here. When the +socializing faith of a nation has perished, the alternative for +it becomes this, that it can be stable only as it is stagnant, and +vigorous only as it is lawless. + +Of this I am sure; but whether Bullion Street can be willing to +understand it I am not so sure. Yet if it cannot, or some one in its +behalf, grass will grow there. And why should it refuse heed? Who is +more concerned? Does Bullion Street desire chaos? Does it wish that +the pith should be taken out of every statute, and the chief value +from every piece of property? If not, its course is clear. This nation +has a vital faith,--or had one,--well grounded in its traditions. +Conserve this; or, if it has been impaired, renew its vigor. This +faith is our one sole pledge of order, of peace, of growth, of all +that we prize in the present, or hope for the future. That it is +a noble faith, new in its breadth, its comprehension and +magnanimity,--this would seem in my eyes rather to enhance than +diminish the importance of its conservation. Yet the only argument +against it is, that it is generous, broad, inspiring; and the only +appeal in opposition to it must be made to the coldness of skepticism, +the suicidal miserliness of egotism, or the folly and fatuity of +ignorance. + +Our nation has a political faith. Will you, conservative men, conserve +this, and so regain and multiply the blessing it has already brought? +or will you destroy it, and wait till, through at least a century +of tossing and tumult, another, and that of less value, is grown? A +faith, a crystallizing principle for many millions of people is not +grown in a day; if it can be grown in a century is problematical. The +fact, and the choice, are before you. + +Our nation _had_ a faith which it cherished with sincerity and +sureness. If half the nation has fallen away from this,--if half the +remaining moiety is doubtful, skeptical about it,--if, therefore, +we are already a house divided against itself and tottering to its +fall,--to what is all due? Simply to the fact that no nation can long +unsay its central principle, and yet preserve it in faithfulness and +power,--that no nation can long preach the sanctity of natural right, +the venerableness of man's nature, and the identity of pure justice +with political interest, from an auction-block on which men and +maidens are sold,--that, in fine, a nation cannot continue long with +impunity to play within its own borders the part both of Gessler and +Tell, both of Washington and Benedict Arnold, both of Christ and of +him that betrayed him. + +We must choose. For our national faith we must make honest payment, +so conserving it, and with it all for which nations may hope; or else, +refusing to meet these costs, we must suffer the nation's soul to +perish, and in the imbecility, the chaos, and shame that will follow, +suffer therewith all that nations may lawfully fear. + +What good omens, then, attend our time, now when the first officer of +the land has put the trumpet to his mouth and blown round the world an +intimation that, to the extent of the nation's power, these costs will +begin to be paid, this true conservation to be practised! The work +is not yet done; and the late elections betoken too much of moral +debility in the people. But my trust continues firm. The work will be +done,--at least, so far as we are responsible for its doing. And then! +Then our shame, our misery, our deadly sickness will be taken away; +no more that poison in our politics; no more that degradation in our +commercial relations; no more that careful toning down of sentiment +to low levels, that it may harmonize with low conditions; no more that +need to shun the company of all healthful and heroic thoughts, such +as are fit, indeed, to brace the sinews of a sincere social order, but +sure to crack the sinews of a feeble and faithless conventionalism. +Base men there will yet be, and therefore base politics; but when once +our nation has paid the debt it owes to itself and the human race, +when once it has got out of its blood the venom of this great +injustice, it will, it must, arise beautiful in its young strength, +noble in its new-consecrated faith, and stride away with a generous +and achieving pace upon the great highways of historical progress. +Other costs will come, if we are worthy; other lessons there will be +to learn. I anticipate a place for brave and wise restrictions,--for +I am no Red Republican,--as well as for brave and generous expansions. +Lessons to learn, errors to unlearn, there will surely be; tasks to +attempt, and disciplines to practise; but once place the nation in the +condition of _health_, once get it at one with its own heart, once get +it out of these aimless eddies into clear sea, out of these accursed +"doldrums," (as the sailors phrase it,) this commixture of broiling +calm and sky-bursting thunder-gust, into the great trade-winds of +natural tendency that are so near at hand,--and I can trust it to meet +all future emergency. All the freshest blood of the world is flowing +hither: we have but to wed this with the life-blood of the universe, +with eternal truth and justice, and God has in store no blessing for +noblest nations that will not be secured for ours. + + * * * * * + + +THE CHASSEURS A PIED. + + +Among the most celebrated corps of the French army, one of the most +conspicuous and remarkable is that peculiar body of troops to which +has been given the name of _Chasseurs a Pied_, or _Foot-Chasseurs_, +to distinguish it from an organization of mounted men in the same +service, uniformed and trained on similar principles. The Chasseurs +a Pied have not attained the same romantic renown as that acquired +by their brethren and rivals in arms, the Zouaves, but, nevertheless, +they have had an exceedingly brilliant career in the late wars +and conquests of France. They possess their own characteristics of +originality, too, and are, in many respects, one of the most efficient +and formidable forces in existence. + +In order to convey a clear and correct idea of the new principles +adopted in the organization and equipment of the Chasseurs, and to +furnish our readers with some facts that may be interesting to them +as historical students, and most useful to such among them as are +connected with or may have any aspiration for military life, we must +beg them to go back with us, for a moment, to the very period of the +invention of gunpowder. It would be out of the question, of course, to +attempt, in these pages, a description of all the curious weapons +that were at first employed under the name of fire-arms. We will only +remark that such weapons were, despite the anathemas of Bayard and +the sarcasms of Ariosto, very much used as early as the middle of the +sixteenth century, and played an important part on the battle-fields +of that epoch. + +To the Spaniards belongs the credit of having rendered the use of +fire-arms more easy, more regular, and more general among the nations. +For more than a hundred years the Spaniards were the very masters +of the art of war. Their power had begun to decline, but they still +retained their military superiority; and from the Battle of Ceresole, +won by the Count of Enghien in 1544, down to the memorable victory of +Rocroy, gained in 1643 by a hero of the same race and the same name, +they had the upper-hand in all pitched engagements. Their generals +were the very best and most thoroughly instructed, and formed a real +school; they, too, were the only officers who practised strategy. +Their organization was better than any other, and their celebrated +_tercios_ were the very model of all regiments. Their armament was +likewise superior, as they had adopted the musket, which was the +first fire-arm that a man could handle with any facility, load with +rapidity, and aim with any precision. Each of their _tercios_ or +battalions contained a regulated proportion of these musketeers, and +the number was large, compared to the whole mass of troops. + +The excellent results attained by the Spaniards, in the more perfect +organization and equipment of their infantry, did not escape the +attention of the French officers; and one of them especially, the Duke +Francis de Guise, endeavored to turn his observations to good account. +It is to him that we are indebted for the first rough sketch of +regimental organization modelled upon that of the _tercios_, and, in +more than one encounter with the Huguenots, the numbers of thoroughly +skilled arquebuse-men embodied in the old French bands in Picardy and +Piedmont secured advantages to the Catholic armies. In the opposite +party, a young general who was destined to become a great king, +endowed with that creative instinct, that genius which is as readily +applicable to the science of government as to that of war, and which, +when tempered with good sense, may bestow glory and happiness upon +whole nations, Henry IV., had taken particular pains to increase the +number and the efficiency of his arquebuse-men, and frequently managed +to employ them in ways as novel as they were successful. At the Battle +of Coutras, he distributed them in groups of twenty-five, in the midst +of his squadrons of cavalry, so that, when the royal _gendarmerie_ +advanced to charge the latter, they were suddenly received with +murderous volleys by these arquebuse-men _of the spur_, as they were +called, owing to their combination with the cavalry, and the shock +they thus encountered gave victory to the Protestants. Henry IV. went +even too far with his passion for fire-arms. He increased their number +and their use among cavalry so extravagantly, that the latter arm was +perverted from its proper object. The cavalry, for a long time, forgot +that their strength lay in the points of their sabres, in the dash of +the men, and the speed of their horses. + +Most of the great captains of an early day thus signalized their +progress by some improvement in the equipment of their infantry. One +of the most formidable enemies of Spanish power, Maurice of Nassau, +a skilful engineer and tactician, was the first to array infantry in +such a manner as to combine the simultaneous use of the musket and the +pike. Before his time, fire-arms had been used only for skirmishing +service; he commenced to use them in line. This reform was, however, +only foreshadowed, as it were, by the Dutch General; it was reserved +for Gustavus Adolphus to complete it. While he was executing a series +of military operations such as the world had not beheld since the days +of Caesar, he was also creating a movable artillery, and giving to the +fire of his infantry an efficacy which had not been attained before. +For the heavy machines of war which were drawn by oxen to the field +of battle, and which remained there motionless and paralyzed by the +slightest movements of the contending armies, he substituted light +cannon drawn by horses and following up all the manoeuvres of either +cavalry or foot. He had found the infantry formed in dense battalions. +His system arranged it in long continuous lines in which each rank +of musketeers was sustained by several ranks of pikemen, so that his +array, thus distributed, should present to the enemy a front bristling +with steel, while, at the same time, it could cover a large space of +ground with its discharge of lead. Attentive to all kinds of detail, +he also gave his soldiers the cartouch-box and knapsack instead of +the cumbersome apparatus to which they had been accustomed. In fact, +Gustavus Adolphus was the founder of the modern science of battle. In +strategy and the grand combinations of warfare, he was the disciple +and rival of the ancient masters; for, even if this "divine portion" +of the military art be inaccessible to the vast number of its +votaries, and if history can easily enumerate those who were capable +of comprehending it, and, more especially, of applying it, its rules +and principles have, nevertheless, been by no means the same in all +ages. On the contrary, the invention of fire-arms demanded an entirely +new system of tactics, and this the Swedish hero introduced. + +The example set by Gustavus was not, however, very rapidly followed, +and, although some slight improvements were introduced by French +officers during the seventeenth century, it was not until the time +of Louis XIV. that the reforms started by Maurice of Nassau, and so +successfully continued by the Swedish army, began to attain their +consummation. The progress made in that direction was due to Vauban, +whose eminent genius had mastered every question and every branch of +study so completely, that, when applied to on any subject connected +with politics or war, his opinion was always clear and correct. +The very numerous essays and sketches from his hand which are found +deposited in the fortresses and in the archives of France all reveal +some flash of genius, and even his wildest speculations bear the stamp +of his high intellect and excellent heart. Engineering science was +carried by him to such a degree of perfection that it has made but few +advances since his time; and it was Vauban who induced Louis XIV. to +replace the pike and the musket with a weapon which should be, at +one and the same time, an instrument for both firing and thrusting, +namely, the bayonet-gun. The Royal Fusileer Regiment, since called the +Royal Artillery, was the first one armed with this weapon, (in +1670,) and in 1703 the whole French army finally gave up the pike. +Notwithstanding some reverses sustained by the infantry thus armed, +and notwithstanding the disapproval of Puysegur and others, this gun +was soon adopted by all Europe, and the success of the great Frederick +put a conclusive indorsement on this new style of weapon. Frederick +had taken up and perfected the ideas of Gustavus Adolphus; and he now +laid down certain rules for the formation and manoeuvring of infantry, +which are still followed at this day; and since that time, no one has +disputed the fact that the strength of foot-troops lies in their guns +and their legs. + +Our present firelock differs from the article used during the +Seven Years' War only in its more careful construction and some +modifications of detail. The most important of these relates to the +more rapid explosion of the charge. In 1840 the old flint-locks were +generally replaced by the percussion-lock, which is simpler, is +less exposed to the effects of dampness, and more quickly and surely +ignites the powder. Even the ordinary regulation-musket with its +bayonet was spoken of by Napoleon in his time as "the best engine of +warfare ever invented by man." Since the day of the Great Emperor, and +even during the reign of the present Napoleon, continued improvements +have been made in the character of the weapon used by the French +infantry. The weight, length, correctness of aim, durability, and +handiness of the gun have all been carefully examined and modified, to +the advantage of the soldier, until, finally, we have a weapon which +combines wonderful qualities of lightness, strength, correctness of +equipoise, ease and rapidity of loading, with perfect adaptability as +a combination of the lance, pike, and sword, when it has ceased to be +a fire-arm. + +We have not here the space to enter upon a disquisition concerning +these progressive changes; but suffice it to say that nearly all the +peculiar styles of fire-arms were well known at an early period, +and that the rifling, etc., of guns and cannon, with the other +modifications now adopted, are merely the development and consummation +of old ideas. For instance, the rifled arquebuse was known and used +at the close of the fifteenth century, and, although the rifled musket +was not put in general use by the French infantry, from the fact that +its reduced length and the greater complication of movements required +in loading and discharging it deprived it of other advantages when +in the hands of troops of the line, still it was adopted in a certain +proportion in some branches of the French service. + +As early as the middle of the seventeenth century, some corps of light +cavalry called _Carabins_ were armed with the short rifle-musket, and +hence the derivation of the term _carabines_ applied to the weapon. +These "carabines" were also very promptly adopted by hunters and +sportsmen everywhere. The Swiss and the Tyrolese employed them in +chasing the chamois among their mountains, and practised their skill +in the use of them at general shooting-matches, which to this very day +are celebrated as national festivals. The Austrian Government was the +first to profit by this preference on the part of certain populations +for accurate fire-arms, and at once proceeded to organize battalions +of Tyrolese _Chasseurs_, or _Huntsmen_,--to give the meaning of the +French word. These Chasseurs were applied in the Austrian service as +light troops, and so great was their efficiency against the Prussians +that Frederick the Great was compelled, in his turn, to organize a +battalion of Chasseur sharp-shooters. France followed suit, in the +course of the eighteenth century, and called into existence various +corps of the same description, under different names. These, however, +were but short-lived, although some of them, for instance, the Grassin +Legion, acquired quite a reputation. + +Finally came the French Revolution. The troops of the Republic were +more remarkable for courage and enthusiasm than for tactics and drill. +They usually attacked as skirmishers,--a system which may be employed +successfully by even the most regularly disciplined armies, but which +is sometimes more especially useful to raw troops, because it +gives the private soldier an opportunity to compensate by personal +intelligence for the lack of thorough instruction. Struck by the +aptitude of the French recruits for that kind of fighting, the +Convention, in reorganizing the army, decreed the formation of some +half-brigades of light infantry. The picked men were to be armed with +the new weapon, and received the name of _Carabiniers_. The carabine +of 1793 is the first specimen of that kind of arm which was regularly +employed in France. + +Subsequently, owing to many practical defects, when Napoleon +reorganized the equipment of the French armies, the carabine was +dropped from the service, although the regiments of light infantry +were retained, and their picked companies preserved the title of +Carabiniers. In the Imperial Guard, too, there were companies of +Skirmishers, Flankers, and Chasseurs, but neither one of these corps +was distinguished by any particular style of arms or drill. The +Emperor's wish was to have the armament and training of all his +infantry uniform, so that all the regiments should be equally adapted +to the service of troops of the line or light troops. Finally, to +carry out his design with greater ease, he formed all the men who were +more active and agile than the rest, or whose low stature prevented +them from becoming Grenadiers, into companies of Voltigeurs,--and this +was one of his finest military creations. + +However, notwithstanding the correctness of Napoleon's views, as a +general principle, the thousand and one uses of a corps of picked +marksmen as light troops were so universally admitted that the +different nations of Europe continued and even augmented that branch +of their military service. Under different names they were found not +only in the armies of England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, but also +under the banners of the secondary powers, such as Sweden, Piedmont, +and Switzerland. + +After the disasters of 1815, the reorganization of the French army +was confided to Marshal Gouvion de St. Cyr, who united to sincere +patriotism every qualification of an able general. He gave to the +French service the basis of its present success, his suggestions +having, of course, been perfected and expanded in the mean time. Among +other things, he prescribed the formation of battalions of Chasseurs, +to be organized in legions, side by side with the infantry of +the line, but with their own special equipment. This plan was not +efficiently executed, and the Chasseur battalions shared the fate +of the Department Legions of France, and were merged in the existing +regiments. + +The project, in a different form, was revived by Marshal Soult, who, +as Minister of War, in 1833, succeeded in securing the passage of +a royal ordinance prescribing the formation of companies of +sharp-shooters "armed with carabines and uniformed in a manner +befitting their special service." These companies were to be united +subsequently into battalions, and were to undergo a particular course +of training. Although the ordinance was not immediately carried +into execution, the impulse had been given, and erelong successful +improvements in the rifle having been effected by an old officer of +the Royal Guard, named Delvigne, and a certain Colonel Poncharra, +inspector of the manufacture of arms, the Duke of Orleans brought +about the formation of a company of marksmen peculiarly trained and +equipped, and provided with the so-called Delvigne-Poncharra carabine. +This company was placed in garrison at Vincennes, where, under skilful +and popular commanders, it gave such satisfaction that it was finally +decided to try the experiment on a larger scale, and a decree of +November 14, 1838, created a battalion of the same character. + +This corps, then, and even now, known to the people as the +_Tirailleurs de Vincennes_, wore a uniform very similar to that of the +present Chasseurs, but quite different from that of the infantry of +the period. Instead of the stiff accoutrements and heavy headgear of +the latter, they assumed a frock, wide and roomy pantaloons, and a +light military shako. The double folds of white buckskin, which were +very fine to look at, to be sure, but which oppressed the lungs and +offered a conspicuous mark to the enemy, were discarded; the sabre was +no longer allowed to dangle between the legs of the soldier and impede +his movements; while the necessary munitions were carried in a manner +more convenient and better adapted to their preservation. The arms +consisted of a carabine, and a long, solid, sharpened appendage to +it, termed the _sword-bayonet_. This latter weapon was provided with +a hilt, and could be used for both cut and thrust, with considerable +effect, while, affixed to the end of the carabine, it furnished a most +formidable pike. + +Although the Delvigne-Poncharra carabine had great advantages, it +still did not command the range of the coarser and heavier muskets of +the line, and, in order to make up for this in some degree, the most +robust and skilful men of the corps were armed with a heavier gun, +constructed on the same principles, but capable of throwing a heavier +charge with precision, to greater distances. The proportion of men so +armed was one-eighth of the battalion. The use of these two +different calibres of fire-arms had some drawbacks, but they were +counterbalanced by some curious advantages. For instance, the +battalion could keep up a steady fire at ordinary distances, while, +at the same moment, the men armed with the heavy carabines, or +_Carabiniers_, as they were distinctively called, even within their +own battalion, could reach the enemy at points where he deemed himself +beyond the range of the force he saw in front of him. United in +groups, the Carabiniers could thus produce severe effect, and actually +formed a sort of _hand artillery_,--to use an expression often +employed concerning them. + +The Tirailleurs thus composed were, owing to the shortness of their +carabines, drawn up in two ranks, instead of in the regimental style +of three ranks. They manoeuvred in line, like all other infantry +battalions, but, in addition to the ordinary drill, were trained in +gymnastics and double-quick evolutions, as well as in fencing with the +bayonet, a special course of sharp-shooting, and what was termed _the +new Tirailleur drill_. + +Gymnastics have always been encouraged in the French army, and, when +not carried to excess, they are of the greatest use, particularly in +developing the strength of young men, giving suppleness and confidence +to raw recruits, and facilitating their manoeuvres. Running was +naturally a portion of these exercises, although it was rarely +permitted in the evolutions of French troops, since it was found to +produce much disorder. The Tirailleurs were so trained, however, that +they could move, with all their accoutrements, in ranks, without noise +and without confusion, at a cadenced and measured running step termed +the _pas gymnastique_, or gymnastic step,--and they could use it +even during complicated field-manoeuvres. This was a most excellent +innovation, for it enabled infantry to pass rapidly to any important +point, and to execute many evolutions with the promptitude in some +degree which cavalry obtains from the combination of the two gaits. + +The bayonet-exercise was very acceptable to the men, for it augmented +their confidence in their weapons and their skill in handling them. + +The target or sharp-shooting drill was much the most complicated and +difficult, as the troops were taught to fire when kneeling and lying +on the ground, and to avail themselves of the slightest favoring +circumstances of the soil. The rules and methods adopted in this +branch of the drill have been the subject of profound and careful +study, and are exceedingly ingenious. + +The approval of these measures by the French Government was such, +that, by a decree of August 28th, 1839, the merely temporary +organization of the Tirailleurs was made permanent and separate, and +the corps was sent to camp at Fontainebleau. There, the agility of +the men, their neat and convenient uniforms and equipments, and their +rapid and orderly evolutions struck every one who saw them. When, at +the close of their period of encampment, the King was passing them in +review as a special compliment, he warmly asked Marshal Soult what +he thought of the new corps. The Marshal, in replying, emphatically +expressed the wish that His Majesty had thirty such battalions instead +of only one. + +However, the new organization found some opponents, and many urgent +arguments were adduced to prevent its extension. In order to put all +these to the test, it was finally determined to submit the Tirailleurs +to the ordeal of actual warfare; and they were speedily shipped to +Africa, where it was quickly discovered that their gymnastic training +had so prepared them that they easily became inured to the fatigues +and privations of campaigning life. Their heavy carabines succeeded +admirably, and the skill of their marksmen--among others, of a certain +Sergeant Pistouley--was the theme of universal praise. + +The Tirailleurs were now brigaded with the Zouaves, and erelong had +shared glorious laurels with those celebrated troops. + +Finally, in 1840, the dangers that seemed to be accumulating over +France on all sides assumed so dark a form that the patriotism of the +whole nation was aroused, and, in the midst of the general outpouring +of men and means, the Duke of Orleans was authorized to form no less +than ten battalions of Chasseurs. + +The Duke set himself about this important task with all the zeal that +had characterized his first effort to create the organization, and +all the erudition he had gleaned from years of military study and +research. In the first place, he abandoned the title of Tirailleurs, +as being not sufficiently distinctive, and adopted that of Chasseurs a +Pied, or Foot-Chasseurs. The organization by battalions was retained, +and the one formed two years before at Vincennes was designated as the +First Battalion, and recalled from Africa to St. Omer as a model for +the other nine that were to be organized. St. Omer offered extensive +barracks, a vast field suitable to military exercise, and, in fine, +all the establishments requisite for a large concourse of troops. The +ranks were soon filled with picked men from all sides, and ardent, +ambitious officers from every corps of the army sought commands. Among +the latter we may mention a certain Captain, since Marshal de M'Mahon, +who was put at the head of the Tenth Battalion. + +Under the eyes of the Prince Royal, and in accordance with a series +of regulations drawn up by him with the greatest care, and constantly +modified to suit circumstances, the battalions were drilled and +trained assiduously in all the walks of their profession connected +with their own destined service. Every branch of their military life +was illustrated by their exercises, and even the officers went through +a thorough course of special instruction under accomplished tutors, +who were also officers of peculiar ability and experience. While +the Duke of Orleans, with the distinguished General Rostolan and two +picked lieutenant-colonels, remained at St. Omer in charge of the +growing force, another lieutenant-colonel was intrusted with the task +of training subordinates to serve as teachers in sharp-shooting, and +for this purpose a detachment was assembled at Vincennes, consisting +of ten officers and a number of subalterns who had attracted attention +by their particular aptitude. These, after having been thoroughly +instructed in the manufacture of small arms, the preparation of +munitions, and the rules and practice of sharp-shooting, were sent to +St. Omer to furnish the new battalions with the officers who were to +form part of the permanent organization. The weapon selected was an +improvement upon the former carabines of the Tirailleurs; and while +the old proportion, to wit, the eighth part of each battalion, were +armed with guns of longer range, and styled distinctively Carabiniers, +these were set apart as the picked company of each battalion. The +Duke, taking up his residence at St. Omer, attended in person to all +that was going forward; and so constant were his exertions, and so +warm the zeal of those who assisted the enterprise, that in a few +months all the battalions were equipped, armed, and well drilled. + +One fine spring morning,--it was in May, 1841,--a long column of +troops entered Paris with a celerity hitherto unknown. There was no +false glitter, no tinsel; everything was neat and martial, with bugles +for their only music, and a uniform that was sombre, indeed, but of +such harmonious simplicity as to be by no means devoid of elegance. +This column consisted of the Chasseurs, coming to receive their +standard from the hands of Louis Philippe, and speeding through the +streets with their _gymnastic step_. On the very next day, as though +to signalize the serious and entirely military character of the +organization, four of these battalions were sent off to Africa, +and the remaining six posted at the different leading fortresses of +France, where the collections of artillery, etc., enabled them to +proceed with the perfect development of their training. + +It was only a year later, when the Duke of Orleans was snatched away, +on the very eve of some crowning experiments he was about to make in +illustration of the full uses and capacities of this force, that it +received the title of Chasseurs d'Orleans, which the modesty of +its founder would not tolerate during his lifetime. This name they +gallantly bore through the combats that marked their novitiate in +Africa, where it was at once found that the complete preparation of +both officers and men made victory comparatively easy for them. The +deadly precision of their aim struck terror into the Arabs, and, as +early as 1842, the splendid behavior of the Sixth Battalion in the +bloody fights of the Oued Foddah at once ranged the Chasseurs among +the finest troops in Africa. To attempt to follow them step by step +in their career would be idle in the space we have here allotted to +ourselves. We shall therefore cite merely a few instances where their +courage and efficiency shone with peculiar lustre. + +In the course of the year 1845, an impostor, playing upon the +credulity of the Arabs, and artfully availing himself of the +organization ready furnished by the religious sect to which he +belonged, succeeded in bringing about a revolt of a great portion of +the tribes in Algiers and Oran. He went by the title of "Master of the +Hour," a sort of Messiah who had been long expected in that region. +But he was more generally known as Bou-Maza, or _The Father with the +She-Goat_, from the fact that a she-goat was his customary companion, +and was supposed by the populace to serve him as a medium of +communication with the supernatural Powers. This man exhibited a great +deal of skill and audacity. His activity was so extraordinary, and +he had been seen at so many different points at almost the same time, +that his very existence was at first doubted, and many supposed him to +be a myth. At one time it was thought that the insurrection had been +quelled, as a chief calling himself Bou-Maza had been captured and +shot, when, suddenly, the real leader reappeared among the Flittas, +one of the most warlike tribes of Algeria, and living in a region very +difficult of access. Against these and the Prophet, General Bourjolly, +the French commander, marched at once, but unfortunately with very +inadequate force. A terrible combat ensued, the Fourth Regiment of the +Chasseurs d'Afrique and the Ninth Battalion of the Chasseurs d'Orleans +having to sustain the brunt of it. Both these corps performed +prodigies of valor, and it was worth while to hear the men of +each reciprocally narrating the glory and the peril of their +comrades,--these telling by what noble exploits the mounted Chasseurs +(d'Afrique) had saved the remains of Lieutenant-Colonel Berthier, and +the others describing the Chasseurs a Pied, how they stood immovable, +although without cartridges, around the body of their commander, +Clere, with their terrible sword-bayonets bloody to the hilt! + +On almost the same day, the Eighth Battalion succumbed to a frightful +catastrophe. At a period of supposed tranquillity, the Souhalia +tribe, who had been steadfast allies of the French, were unexpectedly +attacked by Abd-el-Kader at the head of an overwhelming force. +Lieutenant-Colonel Montagnac, with only sixty-two horsemen of the +Second Hussars and three hundred and fifty men of the Eighth Chasseurs +d'Orleans, hurried to the rescue. He was repeatedly warned of the +danger, but, despite all that could be said, he dashed at the whole +force of Abd-el-Kader. At the very first discharge, Montagnac fell +mortally wounded, and in a few moments all the horses and nearly all +the men were disabled. Captain Cognord, of the Second Hussars, rallied +the survivors, and this little handful of heroes, huddled together +upon a hillock, fought like tigers, until their ammunition was +exhausted. The Arabs then closed in upon the group, which had become +motionless and silent, and, to use the expressive language of an +eye-witness, "felled them to the earth as they would overturn a wall." +The enemy found none remaining but the dead, or those who were +so badly wounded that they gave no sign of life. Before expiring, +Montagnac had summoned to his aid a small detachment he had left in +reserve. The latter, on its approach, was immediately surrounded, and +perished to the very last man. There was now surviving of the whole +French force only the Carabinier company of the Eighth Chasseurs, upon +whom the Arabs rushed with fury, from every side. After a resistance +of almost fabulous heroism, during which the flag of the company was +shot away in shreds, and the Carabiniers cut their bullets into +six and eight pieces so as to prolong their defence, every volley +decimating the foe, this little band of seventy men, encumbered with +ten wounded, succeeded in wearying and disheartening the Emir to such +an extent that he determined to abandon the direct assault which was +costing him so dearly, and to surround the French detachment in the +ruined building which served them for a refuge, and so starve them +out. Captain Dutertre, Adjutant of the Eighth, who had been captured +by the Arabs in the early part of the action, was sent forward by the +enemy toward his old comrades. For a moment the firing ceased, and +the Captain shouted so that all could hear him,--"Chasseurs, they have +sworn to behead me, if you do not lay down your arms; and I say to +you, Die, rather than surrender one single man!" + +The Captain was instantly sabred, and the conflict recommenced. The +same summons was repeated twice afterwards, and twice failed, when, +finally, the firing ceased, and the Arabs bivouacked around their +prey. Every possible approach was closed and guarded, and, thus caged +in, the Chasseurs remained for three nights and days without food or +drink. At length, by a sudden and desperate dash, on the morning +of September 20th, the seventy heroes, bearing their ten wounded +comrades, succeeded in breaking through the line of Arab sentinels, +and escaped to a neighboring chain of hills. Thither they were pursued +by their wild foemen, who, although infuriated at the daring and +success of this sally, had a sufficient respect for the heavy +carabines of the French, and merely hovered closely on their rear, +awaiting some favorable opportunity to dash in upon them. This moment +soon came. The French soldiers, no longer able to withstand the +torments of thirst, descending from the hills, in spite of the +entreaties of their officers, dashed into a neighboring stream to cool +their burning lips. The instant of doom had come, and, in less time +than it takes to recite the narrative, all but twelve of the little +band were massacred by the exulting Arabs. The twelve escaped to +Djemaa only after terrible privations and sufferings. + +We might readily fill a volume with episodes equally glorious and +equally gloomy in the career of the Chasseurs. They were in nearly +all the brilliant actions of the ensuing Algerian campaigns, and, at +Zaatcha, Isly, and other famed engagements, they contended side by +side with the renowned Zouaves for the palm of military excellence. +Their agility, their promptitude in action, their ardor in attack, and +their solidity in retreat, their endurance on the march, their skill +and intelligence in availing themselves of every inequality of ground +and in turning everything to account, made them so conspicuously +preferable, as an infantry corps, for certain operations, that Marshal +Bugeaud caused the number of battalions employed in Africa to be +increased to six. From that time to the present, continual progress +has been, made in the organization, discipline, and instruction of +the Chasseurs, and all the objections which at different periods were, +raised against the special composition and details of the force having +been one by one met and obviated, France now counts no less than +twenty-one battalions of them in her army. + +It was for a long time thought by some, that, although the Chasseurs, +like the Zouaves, had been successful in the skirmishing engagements +of Algeria, they would not be found so useful in European warfare. +This opinion was proved to be erroneous at the siege of Rome, in 1849, +where the Chasseurs, armed with their new and terrible weapon, the +_carabine a tige_, in the management of which they had been thoroughly +drilled, rendered the most important service; and from what was seen +of them there it became evident that the existence of such a force, +so perfected in every particular, would hereafter greatly modify the +relations and conditions of the defence and attack of fortified works. +The importance of this fact will impress the reader, when he remembers +how large a part fortresses have played in warfare since 1815, and +especially when he glances at the tendency everywhere perceptible now +toward transforming military strongholds into great intrenched camps, +as revealed at Antwerp in Belgium, Fredericia in Denmark, Buda and +Comorn in Hungary, Peschiera, Mantua, Venice, Verona, and Rome in +Italy, Silistria and Sebastopol in the East, and Washington, Manassas, +and Richmond in America. + +Other nations have not been slow to follow French example. Russia +is rapidly manufacturing rifled pieces for her service; England +is providing her whole army with the Minie musket, and Austria and +Prussia are applying inventions of their own to the armament of corps +organized and trained on the principle of the French Chasseurs. + +The Duke of Wellington is said to have remarked, not long before his +death, while speaking of the English troops, that they had, indeed, +adopted the new musket, but that it would be physically difficult for +them to transform themselves into light infantry. The same observation +will undoubtedly apply to all the Continental nations excepting the +French; but in the United States, while we could muster the finest +heavy troops in the world, we have also the most abundant material for +just such light infantry as those described in the foregoing sketch. + +The Chasseurs are not merely distinguished as perfect light infantry, +but they also form excellent troops of the line. By the weight of +their fire, they are capable of producing in battles and sieges +effects unknown before their appearance on the scene, and that is the +great point, the entirely new feature about them. + +The creation of these battalions, well planned and happily executed +as it has been, remains a most important event in military history. +Consecrated by the valor and the intelligence of the officers and +soldiers of France, it has been the signal and the source of new +and rapid reforms. One of these battalions attached to each infantry +division adds fresh force to that fine classification which first +arose under the Republic, and, although somewhat perverted under the +Empire, still remains the basis of the French grand organization, +recalling, as it does, the immortal idea of the Roman Legion. + +With the aid of its example, and the emulation inspired by the success +of the Chasseurs, the splendid system of the French infantry-service +has been completed under the present Napoleon; and we now behold the +race he rules so disciplined for war, the respective qualities of the +North and the South of France, the firmness and solidity of the former +and the enthusiasm and ardor of the latter, so beautifully blended, +that we may well exclaim, "Here, indeed, is a whole nation armed! _in +pedite robur_!" + +In conclusion, the writer and compiler of this sketch would not be +venturing too far, perhaps, were he to remark that so excellent an +example can be nowhere better followed than in this country, if, as +would to-day appear a certainty, we are to turn aside from the ways of +peace to study the art of war. We have here precisely the material +for whole armies of light infantry, the most favorable conditions +for their equipment and instruction, and, owing to the nature of the +region we inhabit, its dense woodlands, its wide savannas, its broad +rivers, and its numerous ranges of rough mountains, the very land +in which the tactics and marksmanship of the Chasseurs would be most +available. + + + + +LATEST VIEWS OF MR. BIGLOW. + +PRELIMINARY NOTE. + + +[It is with feelings of the liveliest pain that we inform our readers +of the death of the Reverend Homer Wilbur, A.M., which took place +suddenly, by an apoplectic stroke, on the afternoon of Christmas day, +1862. Our venerable friend (for so we may venture to call him, though +we never enjoyed the high privilege of his personal acquaintance) +was in his eighty-fourth year, having been born June 12, 1779, at +Pigsgusset Precinct (now West Jerusha) in the then District of Maine. +Graduated with distinction at Hubville College in 1805, he pursued his +theological studies with the late Reverend Preserved Thacker, D.D., +and was called to the charge of the First Society in Jaalam in 1809, +where he remained till his death. + +"As an antiquary he has probably left no superior, if, indeed, +an equal," writes his friend and colleague, the Reverend Jeduthun +Hitchcock, to whom we are indebted for the above facts; "in proof +of which I need only allude to his 'History of Jaalam, Genealogical, +Topographical, and Ecclesiastical,' 1849, which has won him an eminent +and enduring place in our more solid and useful literature. It is only +to be regretted that his intense application to historical studies +should have so entirely withdrawn him from the pursuit of poetical +composition, for which he was endowed by Nature with a remarkable +aptitude. His well-known hymn, beginning, 'With clouds of care +encompassed round,' has been attributed in some collections to the +late President Dwight, and it is hardly presumptuous to affirm that +the simile of the rainbow in the eighth stanza would do no discredit +to that polished pen." + +We regret that we have not room at present for the whole of Mr. +Hitchcock's exceedingly valuable communication. We hope to lay more +liberal extracts from it before our readers at an early day. A summary +of its contents will give some notion of its importance and interest. +It contains: 1st, A biographical sketch of Mr. Wilbur, with notices +of his predecessors in the pastoral office, and of eminent clerical +contemporaries; 2d, An obituary of deceased, from the Punkin-Falls +"Weekly Parallel"; 3d, A list of his printed and manuscript +productions and of projected works; 4th, Personal anecdotes and +recollections, with specimens of table-talk; 5th, A tribute to his +relict, Mrs. Dorcas (Pilcox) Wilbur; 6th, A list of graduates fitted +for different colleges by Mr. Wilbur, with biographical memoranda +touching the more distinguished; 7th, Concerning learned, charitable, +and other societies, of which Mr. Wilbur was a member, and of those +with which, had his life been prolonged, he would doubtless have been +associated, with a complete catalogue of such Americans as have been +Fellows of the Royal Society; 8th, A brief summary of Mr. Wilbur's +latest conclusions concerning the Tenth Horn of the Beast in its +special application to recent events, for which the public, as Mr. +Hitchcock assures us, have been waiting with feelings of lively +anticipation; 10th, Mr. Hitchcock's own views on the same topic; and, +11th, A brief essay on the importance of local histories. It will be +apparent that the duty of preparing Mr. Wilbur's biography could not +have fallen into more sympathetic hands. + +In a private letter with which the reverend gentleman has since +favored us, he expresses the opinion that Mr. Wilbur's life was +shortened by our unhappy civil war. It disturbed his studies, +dislocated all his habitual associations and trains of thought, and +unsettled the foundations of a faith, rather the result of habit than +conviction, in the capacity of man for self-government. "Such has +been the felicity of my life," he said to Mr. Hitchcock, on the very +morning of the day he died, "that, through the divine mercy, I could +always say, _Summum nec metuo diem, nec opto_. It has been my habit, +as you know, on every recurrence of this blessed anniversary, to read +Milton's 'Hymn of the Nativity' till its sublime harmonies so dilated +my soul and quickened its spiritual sense that I seemed to hear that +other song which gave assurance to the shepherds that there was +One who would lead them also in green pastures and beside the still +waters. But to-day I have been unable to think of anything but that +mournful text, 'I came not to send peace, but a sword,' and, did it +not smack of pagan presumptuousness, could almost wish I had never +lived to see this day." + +Mr. Hitchcock also informs us that his friend "lies buried in the +Jaalam graveyard, under a large red-cedar which he specially admired. +A neat and substantial monument is to be erected over his remains, +with a Latin epitaph written by himself; for he was accustomed to say +pleasantly that there was at least one occasion in a scholar's life +when he might show the advantages of a classical training." + +The following fragment of a letter addressed to us, and apparently +intended to accompany Mr. Biglow's contribution to the present +number, was found upon his table after his decease.--EDITORS ATLANTIC +MONTHLY.] + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +Jaalam, 24th Dec'r, 1862 + +RESPECTED SIRS,--The infirm state of my bodily health would be a +sufficient apology for not taking up the pen at this time, wholesome +as I deem it for the mind to apricate in the shelter of epistolary +confidence, were it not that a considerable, I might even say a large, +number of individuals in this parish expect from their pastor some +publick expression of sentiment at this crisis. Moreover, _Qui tacitus +ardet magis uritur_. In trying times like these, the besetting sin of +undisciplined minds is to seek refuge from inexplicable realities +in the dangerous stimulant of angry partisanship or the indolent +narcotick of vague and hopeful vaticination; _fortunamque suo temperat +arbitrio_. Both by reason of my age and my natural temperament, I am +unfitted for either. Unable to penetrate the inscrutable judgments of +God, I am more than ever thankful that my life has been prolonged till +I could in some small measure comprehend His mercy. As there is no man +who does not at some time render himself amenable to the one,--_quum +vix Justus sit securus_,--so there is none that does not feel himself +in daily need of the other. + +I confess, I cannot feel, as some do, a personal consolation for the +manifest evils of this war in any remote or contingent advantages +that may spring from it. I am old and weak, I can bear little, and can +scarce hope to see better days; nor is it any adequate compensation +to know that Nature is old and strong and can bear much. Old men +philosophize over the past, but the present is only a burthen and a +weariness. The one lies before them like a placid evening landscape; +the other is full of the vexations and anxieties of housekeeping. +It may be true enough that _miscet haec illis, prohibetque Clotho +fortunam stare_, but he who said it was fain at last to call in +Atropos with her shears before her time; and I cannot help selfishly +mourning that the fortune of our Republick could not at least stand +till my days were numbered. + +Tibullus would find the origin of wars in the great exaggeration of +riches, and does not stick to say that in the days of the beechen +trencher there was peace. But averse as I am by nature from all wars, +the more as they have been especially fatal to libraries, I would have +this one go on till we are reduced to wooden platters again, rather +than surrender the principle to defend which it was undertaken. Though +I believe Slavery to have been the cause of it, by so thoroughly +demoralizing Northern politicks for its own purposes as to give +opportunity and hope to treason, yet I would not have our thought and +purpose diverted from their true object,--the maintenance of the idea +of Government. We are not merely suppressing an enormous riot, but +contending for the possibility of permanent order coexisting with +democratical fickleness; and while I would not superstitiously +venerate form to the sacrifice of substance, neither would I forget +that an adherence to precedent and prescription can alone give that +continuity and coherence under a democratical constitution which are +inherent in the person of a despotick monarch and the selfishness of +an aristocratical class. _Stet pro ratione voluntas_ is as dangerous +in a majority as in a tyrant. + +I cannot allow the present production of my young friend to go out +without a protest from me against a certain extremeness in his views, +more pardonable in the poet than the philosopher. While I agree with +him that the only cure for rebellion is suppression by force, yet I +must animadvert upon certain phrases where I seem to see a coincidence +with a popular fallacy on the subject of compromise. On the one hand +there are those who do not see that the vital principle of Government +and the seminal principle of Law cannot properly be made a subject of +compromise at all, and on the other those who are equally blind to the +truth that without a compromise of individual opinions, interests, and +even rights, no society would be possible. _In medio tutissimus_. For +my own part, I would gladly---- + + Ef I a song or two could make, + Like rockets druv by their own burnin', + All leap an' light, to leave a wake + Men's hearts an' faces skyward turnin'!-- + But, it strikes me, 't ain't jest the time + Fer stringin' words with settisfaction: + Wut's wanted now's the silent rhyme + 'Twixt upright Will an' downright Action. + + Words, ef you keep 'em, pay their keep, + But gabble's the short cut to ruin; + It's gratis, (gals half-price,) but cheap + At no rate, ef it henders doin'; + Ther' 's nothin' wuss, 'less 't is to set + A martyr-prem'um upon jawrin': + Teapots git dangerous, ef you shet + Their lids down on 'em with Fort Warren. + + 'Bout long enough it's ben discussed + Who sot the magazine afire, + An' whether, ef Bob Wickliffe bust, + 'T would scare us more or blow us higher, + D' ye s'pose the Gret Foreseer's plan + Wuz settled fer him in town-meetin'? + Or thet ther' 'd ben no Fall o' Man, + Ef Adam'd on'y bit a sweetin'? + + Oh, Jon'than, ef you want to be + A rugged chap agin an' hearty, + Go fer wutever'll hurt Jeff D., + Nut wut'll boost up ary party. + Here's hell broke loose, an' we lay flat + With half the univarse a-singein', + Till Sen'tor This an' Gov'nor Thet + Stop squabblin' fer the garding-ingin'. + + It's war we're in, not politics; + It's systems wrastlin' now, not parties; + An' victory in the eend'll fix + Where longest will an' truest heart is. + An' wut's the Guv'ment folks about? + Tryin' to hope ther' 's nothin' doin', + An' look ez though they didn't doubt + Sunthin' pertickler wuz a-brewin'. + + Ther' 's critters yit thet talk an' act + Fer wut they call Conciliation; + They'd hand a buff'lo-drove a tract + When they wuz madder than all Bashan. + Conciliate? it jest means _be kicked_, + No metter how they phrase an' tone it; + It means thet we're to set down licked, + Thet we're poor shotes an' glad to own it! + + A war on tick's ez dear'z the deuce, + But it wun't leave no lastin' traces, + Ez't would to make a sneakin' truce + Without no moral specie-basis: + Ef green-backs ain't nut jest the cheese, + I guess ther' 's evils thet's extremer,-- + Fer instance,--shinplaster idees + Like them put out by Gov'nor Seymour. + + Last year, the Nation, at a word, + When tremblin' Freedom cried to shield her, + Flamed weldin' into one keen sword + Waitin' an' longin' fer a wielder: + A splendid flash!--an' how'd the grasp + With sech a chance ez thet wuz tally? + Ther' warn't no meanin' in our clasp,-- + Half this, half thet, all shilly-shally. + + More men? More Man! It's there we fail; + Weak plans grow weaker yit by lengthenin': + Wut use in addin' to the tail, + When it's the head's in need o' strengthenin'? + We wanted one thet felt all Chief + From roots o' hair to sole o' stockin', + Square-sot with thousan'-ton belief + In him an' us, ef earth went rockin'! + + Ole Hick'ry wouldn't ha' stood see-saw + 'Bout doin' things till they wuz done with,-- + He'd smashed the tables o' the Law + In time o' need to load his gun with; + He couldn't see but jest one side,-- + Ef his, 'twuz God's, an' thet wuz plenty; + An' so his "_Forrards_!" multiplied + An army's fightin' weight by twenty. + + But this 'ere histin', creak, creak, creak, + Your cappen's heart up with a derrick, + This tryin' to coax a lightnin'-streak + Out of a half-discouraged hay-rick, + This hangin' on mont' arter mont' + Fer one sharp purpose 'mongst the twitter,-- + I tell ye, it doos kind o' stunt + The peth an' sperit of a critter. + + In six months where'll the People be, + Ef leaders look on revolution + Ez though it wuz a cup o' tea,-- + Jest social el'ments in solution? + This weighin' things doos wal enough + When war cools down, an' comes to writin'; + But while it's makin', the true stuff + Is pison-mad, pig-headed fightin'. + + Democ'acy gives every man + A right to be his own oppressor; + But a loose Gov'ment ain't the plan, + Helpless ez spilled beans on a dresser: + I tell ye one thing we might larn + From them smart critters, the Seceders,-- + Ef bein' right's the fust consarn, + The 'fore-the-fust 's cast-iron leaders. + + But 'pears to me I see some signs + Thet we're a-goin' to use our senses: + Jeff druv us into these hard lines, + An' ough' to bear his half th' expenses; + Slavery's Secession's heart an' will, + South, North, East, West, where'er you find it, + An' ef it drors into War's mill, + D' ye say them thunder-stones sha'n't grind it? + + D' ye s'pose, ef Jeff giv _him_ a lick, + Ole Hick'ry'd tried his head to sof'n + So 's 't wouldn't hurt thet ebony stick + Thet's made our side see stars so of'n? + "No!" he'd ha' thundered, "on your knees, + An' own one flag, one road to glory! + Soft-heartedness, in times like these, + Shows sof'ness in the upper story!" + + An' why should we kick up a muss + About the Pres'dunt's proclamation? + It ain't a-goin' to lib'rate us, + Ef we don't like emancipation: + The right to be a cussed fool + Is safe from all devices human, + It's common (ez a gin'l rule) + To every critter born o' woman. + + So _we_'re all right, an' I, fer one, + Don't think our cause'll lose in vally + By rammin' Scriptur' in our gun, + An' gittin' Natur' fer an ally: + Thank God, say I, fer even a plan + To lift one human bein's level, + Give one more chance to make a man, + Or, anyhow, to spile a devil! + + Not thet I'm one thet much expec' + Millennium by express to-morrer; + They _will_ miscarry,--I rec'lec' + Tu many on 'em, to my sorrer: + Men ain't made angels in a day, + No matter how you mould an' labor 'em,-- + Nor 'riginal ones, I guess, don't stay + With Abe so of'n ez with Abraham, + + The'ry thinks Fact a pooty thing, + An' wants the banns read right ensuin'; + But Fact wun't noways wear the ring + 'Thout years o' settin' up an' wooin': + But, arter all, Time's dial-plate + Marks cent'ries with the minute-finger, + An' Good can't never come tu late, + Though it doos seem to try an' linger. + + An' come wut will, I think it's grand + Abe's gut his will et last bloom-furnaced + In trial-flames till it'11 stand + The strain o' bein' in deadly earnest: + Thet's wut we want,--we want to know + The folks on our side hez the bravery + To b'lieve ez hard, come weal, come woe, + In Freedom ez Jeff doos in Slavery. + + Set the two forces foot to foot, + An' every man knows who'll be winner, + Whose faith in God hez ary root + Thet goes down deeper than his dinner: + _Then_ 'twill be felt from pole to pole, + Without no need o' proclamation, + Earth's Biggest Country's gut her soul + An' risen up Earth's Greatest Nation! + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Slavery and Secession in America, Historical and Economical; together +with a Practical Scheme of Emancipation_. By THOMAS ELLISON, F.S.S., +etc. Second Edition: Enlarged. With a Reply to the Fundamental +Arguments of Mr. James Spence, contained in his Work on the American +Union, and Remarks on the Productions of Other Writers. With Map and +Appendices. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co. + +We have too long delayed to speak of Mr. Ellison's book. More than a +year ago, before Mr. Stuart Mill or Professor Cairnes had written +in our behalf, before we had received a word of sympathy from any +representative Englishman, save Mr. John Bright, the first edition of +this work was placed before the British public. And we could not +have asked for a better informed or more judicious defender than Mr. +Ellison. "Slavery and Secession in America" is a temperate and concise +statement of the essential features of our national struggle. The +supposed interest of half a million of slaveholders in the extension +of the Southern institution is truly represented as the cause of their +guilty insurrection against the liberties of their countrymen. +Mr. Ellison does not desire immediate emancipation, and wastes no +sentiment upon the sufferings of the negro. But the economical and +social position of Slavery is given with the unanswerable emphasis of +careful figures. He traces the rise and increase of the institution +in the States, until its disgrace culminates in a bloody rebellion. +He clearly shows, that, by acknowledging the doctrine involved in +Secession, by allowing it to govern the intercourse between +nations, the morality of society would be shaken from its base. The +anti-slavery character of the strife in which we are involved is +made to appear,--slavery-diffusion being the object of the South, +slavery-restriction the aim of the North. It is shown that the +Secession ordinances utterly failed to point out a single instance +in which the rights of the Southern people were infringed upon by +the National Executive; also, that the alleged right of Secession is +neither Constitutional, nor, when backed by no tangible grievance, +can it he called revolutionary. In short, Mr. Ellison takes the only +ground which seems possible to loyalists in America: namely, that +Secession--in other words, the treason of slaveholders against the +Constitution of their country--is of necessity punishable by law; and +that good men of all nationalities should unite in the moral support +of a benignant government thus wantonly assailed. + +The "practical scheme of emancipation" promised us in the title can +hardly be said to amount to a scheme at all; but there are suggestions +worth attending to, if that delicate matter might be managed as we +would, not as we must. + +We have marked but two passages for a questioning comment. General +Taylor, by an inadvertency strange to pass to a second edition, is +represented as putting down the South-Carolina Nullifiers in 1838. +Also, Dr. Charles Mackay, the New-York Correspondent of the London +"Times," is quoted as having once borne anti-slavery testimony. This +is certainly hard. Whatever emoluments slave-masters or their allies +may hereafter have it in their power to bestow this gentleman has +fairly earned. If he ever did say anything that was disagreeable to +them, it should not be remembered against him. + +The merit of Mr. Ellison's book is neither in rhetoric, philanthropic +sentiment, nor any exalted theory of political philosophy; it is in an +unanswerable appeal to statistics, and a condensed statement of facts. +The work may be commended to all desirous of arriving at the truth. + +But no conventional phrases of a book-notice can express our +obligations to Mr. Ellison and those few of his countrymen who have +publicly rebuked the noisy bitterness of writers striving, with too +much success, to debauch the sentiment of England. Most dear to us is +an occasional lull in that storm of insolence and mendacity designed +to embarrass the Government of the United States in the august and +solemn championship of human liberty committed to its charge. And let +it be remarked that our expectations of English approval were never +Utopian. The great principle involved in the American contest was so +far above the level of the ordinary pursuits of men, that, even +among ourselves, few have been able to transfuse it into their daily +consciousness. We never looked to England for the encouragement of a +popular enthusiasm,--hardly, perhaps, for a cold acquiescence. John +Bull, we said, is proverbially a grumbler, proverbially indifferent to +all affairs but his own; he will be annoyed by tariffs, and plagued +by scarcity of cotton;--what wonder, if we are a little misunderstood? +The minor contributors to his daily press will not be able to think +long or wisely of what they write; we must be ready to pardon a +certain amount of irritation and misstatement. That such was the +feeling of intelligent Americans towards England, at the beginning of +our troubles, we have no doubt. But for the scurrility heaped upon +us by what claims to be the higher British press we were totally +unprepared,--and for this good reason, that such malignity of +criticism as is possible in America could never have suggested it. Let +us not be misunderstood. We acknowledge the "Rowdy Journal" and Mr. +Jefferson Brick. Undoubtedly, newspapers exist among us of which the +description of Mr. Dickens is no very extravagant caricature. But +their editors, if not of notoriously infamous life, are those whose +minds are unenlarged by any generous education,--men whose lack of +grammar suggests a certain palliation of their want of veracity and +good-breeding. Such journals are seldom or never seen by the +large class of cultivated American readers, and are in no sense +representative of them. The "Saturday Review" and "Blackwood's +Magazine" are said to be conducted by men of University training. +Their articles are written in clear and precise English, and often +contain vigorous thought. They publish few papers which do not give +evidence of at least tolerable scholarship in their writers. Of +kindred periodicals on this side of the ocean it may be safely said, +that the intelligence of the reader forces their criticism up to +some decent standard of honest painstaking. We may thus explain the +bewilderment which came over us at that burst of vulgar ribaldry +from the leading British press, in which the organs above named have +achieved a scandalous preeminence. Vibrating from the extreme of +shallowness to the extreme of sufficiency, scorning to be limited in +abuse by adhering to any single hypothesis, the current literature +of England has gloated over the rebellion of Slavery with the cynical +chuckles of a sour spinster. Would that language less strong could +express our meaning! President Lincoln--whatever may be judged his +deficiency in resources of statesmanship--will be embalmed by history +as one possessing many qualities peculiarly adapted to our perilous +crisis, together with an integrity of life and purpose honorably +representing the yeomanry of the Republic. This man, the ruler of a +friendly people, British journalists have proclaimed guilty of crimes +to which the records of the darkest despotisms can scarcely furnish a +parallel. The precious blood of Ellsworth was taken by the "Saturday +Review" as the text of such disgraceful banter as we trust few +bar-keepers in America would bestow upon a bully killed in a +pot-house fray. General Butler, for a verbal infelicity in an order +of imperative necessity and wholesome effect, has been befouled by +language which no careful historian would apply to Tiberius or Louis +XV. But enough of this. We should be glad to believe that these +utterers of false witness were boorish men, in dark and desperate +ignorance of the true bearing of our current affairs. We are unable so +to believe. + +It is a relief to turn to that small company of Englishmen who +have extended brother-hands to us in the day of our necessity. No +world-homage of literary admiration is worth the personal emotion with +which they are recognized in America as representatives of that +_Old_ England which has place in the affection and gratitude of every +cultivated man among us. They have done us justice, when contempt for +justice alone was popular, and a cynical skepticism seemed the only +retreat from blatant abuse. Cairnes, Mill, Ellison, and others whom we +need not name,--for the sake of such men let us still think of England +in generous temper. Their sympathies have been with us through this +terrible arbitrament of arms; they were with us in that solemn close +of the old year, when the destiny of our dumb four millions weighed +upon the night. These men have told us that the principle for which we +contend is sound and worthy: they may also tell us that we have made +occasional mistakes in reducing the principle to practice; and of this +we are painfully conscious. It is well for us to forego that reckless +bravado of unexampled prosperity once so offensive to foreign ears. +Yet the best thing we ever had to boast of has been with us in the +storm. According to the admirable observation of Niebuhr,--"Liberty +exists where public opinion can constrain Government to fulfil its +duties, and where, on the other side, in times of popular infatuation, +the Government can maintain a wise course in spite of public opinion." +This liberty has been preserved to us through all the turbulence of +war. Like some divine element, it has mingled in the convulsion of +human passion, and already prophesies the day when the service of man +to man, as of man to God, shall be rendered in perfect freedom. + + +_A Treatise on Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial_. By +CAPTAIN S.V. BENET, Ordnance Department, U.S. Army, late Assistant +Professor of Ethics, Law, etc., Military Academy, West Point. Mew +York: D. Van Nostrand. + +In these days of large armies and intense military enthusiasm, the +very title of a military book commends it, _prima facie_, to public +interest; and when it promises to elucidate and systematize the +intricate subject of military law, it has great specific importance +in the eyes of the tens of thousands of officers who are constantly +called upon to administer that law, and to whom the duties of +courts-martial are new and difficult. But, to understand still more +clearly the great value of such a work, supposing it to be well +written, we must go back in the history of military courts, and see +how little had been done to render them systematic and uniform,--what +a comparatively unoccupied field the author had to reap in,--what +needs there were to supply; and then we shall be better able to +criticize his work, and to judge of its practical value. + +For a very long period we followed, in our army, the practice of the +English courts-martial, as we adopted the English Common Law in our +civic courts. + +The military code to be applied and administered by courts-martial is +contained in the Act of Congress of the 10th of April, 1806, commonly +called "The Rules and Articles of War," and in a few other acts and +parts of acts, supplementary to these, which have been enacted from +time to time, as circumstances seemed to require. + +In the year 1839, Major-General Macomb, commander-in-chief of the +army, prepared a little treatise on "The Practice of Courts-Martial," +which, in lieu of something better, was generally used; and the modes +of proceeding and forms of orders and records there given established +uniformity in the actions and duties of such courts throughout the +army. + +Five or six years later, Captain John P. O'Brien, of the Fourth +Artillery, issued "A Treatise on American Military Law and Practice of +Courts-Martial." This work evinced a great deal of legal research, and +a thorough knowledge of the practical applications of military law; +but it is voluminous, wanting in arrangement, and, while valuable as +a storehouse from which to draw materials, not suited for ready +reference, or for the study of beginners. It is now, we believe, out +of print; and, as its accomplished author is not living, it can hardly +be adapted to the wants of the army at the present day. + +In the year 1846, Captain William C. De Hart, of the Second Artillery, +published his excellent work, entitled, "Observations on Military Law, +and the Constitution and Practice of Courts-Martial." In his Preface +he says,--"Since the legal establishment of the army and navy of +the United States, there has been no work produced, written for the +express purpose,... and intended as a guide for the administration +of military justice." And, in a note, he adds, "The small treatise on +courts-martial by the late Major-General Macomb is no exception to +the remark." He makes, if we remember rightly, no reference to Captain +O'Brien's work, which appeared but a short time before his own. + +The work of Captain De Hart, so far in advance of what had yet +appeared on this subject, written, too, by an expert, who had been +long employed under the orders of the War Department as the acting +judge-advocate of the army, (the office of judge-advocate not being +created till a later day,) was regarded as the chief authority in the +army. But it was never designed, nor can it be easily adapted, +for instruction. It is a philosophical discussion of the subject, +containing many historical citations and illustrations, which show +the reader his authorities without fortifying his positions. For a +text-book, therefore, it lacks arrangement, and is too discursive. + +Up to this time, the subject of military law was not studied at the +Military Academy; but in the year 1856, when the course of studies in +that institution was lengthened, so as to consume five years instead +of four, this branch was added to the curriculum, and has since been +retained,--its importance being made every day more manifest. Then a +treatise was wanted, which, while it could be used as authority in our +vast army, should be also suited as a text-book for the cadets, from +which they could recite in the section-room, and which should be their +_vade-mecum_ for future reference,--originally learned, and always +consulted. + +This was Captain Benet's self-appointed task, and he has performed it +admirably. He has examined all the authorities, French and English, +and his book bears the evidences of this original investigation. For +purposes of study, his system is clear, his arrangement logical, and +his divisions numerous and just. All the directions as to _trials_ are +very practically set forth, so that any sensible volunteer officer, +appointed upon a court unexpectedly, could very soon, by the aid of +these pages, make himself "master of the position." And as there is +much concurrent, and sometimes apparently conflicting, jurisdiction of +military and civic courts, this volume ought to be on every lawyer's +table as the special expounder of military law, wherever it may +approach the action of the civil code. + +Having said thus much of the general plan, scope, and merits of the +work, let us cast a brief glance at the nature of its contents. It is +called a treatise on _Military Law_. What is military law? It is that +law which governs the army, and all individuals connected with it. In +other words, it has respect to military organization and discipline. +It must not be confounded with _Martial Law_, which is the suspension +of civic law, and the substitution of military law over citizens, not +soldiers, in extraordinary circumstances. + +Military law, which cannot wait for the slow processes of civic +courts, is immediate and condign in its action, and is administered +by courts-martial, to which are confided the powers of judge and jury. +These courts examine into the cases, find verdicts, and pronounce +sentences,--all, however, subject to the revision and sanction of the +supreme authority which convened them. + +Courts--martial are divided into two classes: _General Courts_, for +the trial of officers, and of the higher grades of offences; and +_Regimental_ or _Garrison Courts_, for the consideration of less +important cases in a regiment or garrison. General courts vary in the +number of members: they must be composed of not less than _five_, and +of never more than _thirteen_. Regimental or garrison courts are +never composed of more than three members. For general courts, only, a +judge-advocate is appointed to conduct the prosecution for the United +States. + +The offences against military law are determined by the "Rules and +Articles of War," in which the principal offences are distinctly set +forth and forbidden; and, that unanticipated misconduct may not be +without cognizance and punishment, the _ninety-ninth_ article includes +all such cases under the charge of "conduct to the prejudice of good +order and military discipline," which is of universal scope. + +The punishments are also set forth in the Articles of War. Those +prescribed for officers include death,--cashiering,[A]--cashiering, +with a clause disabling the officer from ever holding any office +under the United States,--dismissal,--suspension from rank and +pay,--reprimand. For soldiers the principal punishments are +death,--confinement,--confinement on bread-and-water diet,--solitary +confinement,--forfeiture of pay and allowances,--discharges. + +[Footnote A: Cashiering implies something infamous in the British +service; and although it has been attempted to make no distinction +between cashiering and dismissing in our service, something of the +opprobrium still attaches to the former punishment.] + +The conduct of the trial, the duties of all persons concerned, +members, judge-advocate, prisoner, witnesses, counsel, etc., are +given in detail, and will be very easily learned. Forms of orders for +convening courts-martial, modes of recording the proceedings, the form +of a general order confirming or disapproving the proceedings, the +form of the judge-advocate's certificate, and the forms of charges +and specifications under different articles of war, are given in +the Appendix, and are used _verbatim_ by all judge-advocates and +recorders. There are also explanations of the duties of courts of +inquiry, and of boards for retiring disabled officers; and extracts +from the Acts of Congress bearing upon military law. The Articles of +War are also given for reference. The book is thus rendered complete +as a manual for the conduct of courts-martial, from the original order +to the execution of the sentence. + +From what has been said, it will be gathered that the work was needed, +that it admirably supplies the need, and that it may be recommended, +without qualification, as providing all the information which it +purports to provide, and which could be demanded of it, in a lucid, +systematic, and simple manner. It is an octavo volume, containing +377 pages, clearly printed in large type, and on excellent paper; +the binding is serviceable, being in strong buff leather, like other +law-books. + + +_Lectures on Moral Science_. Delivered before the Lowell Institute, +Boston. By MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 12mo. + +It is a little curious that there is not a single science in which +man is constitutionally, and therefore directly interested, to which +Emanuel Kant has not, in one way or another, written a _Prolegomena_. +Professionally he did so in the case of Metaphysic: and out of the +great original claim which he here established there emanates a +separate claim, in each particular science of the order already +indicated, to a sublime dictatorship. And chiefly is this claim valid +in Moral Philosophy; for it was his province, the first of all men, +clearly to reveal, as a scientific fact certified by demonstration, +the divine eminence of the practical above the merely speculative +powers of man,--the fulfilment of which mission justly entitled him +to all the privileges incident to the vantage-ground thus +gained,--privileges widely significant in a survey of that field where +chiefly these practical powers hold their Olympian supremacy, the +field of Moral Philosophy. + +Nothing could have afforded us a better excuse for a _resume_ of Kant, +in this connection, than the new work of Dr. Hopkins. Of the many +treatises on Moral Science with which the reading world has been +flooded and bewildered since the time of Coleridge, there is this one +alone found worthy of being ranged along-side of the works of the +old Koenigsberg seer,--the one alone which, like his, deals with +the grander features of the science. It is the best realization +objectively of Kant's subjective principles that has yet been given. +But how, the plain English reader will ask, are we to understand from +this the place which the new work takes in literature? Not readily, +indeed, unless one has already taken the trouble to examine such of +Kant's treatises as have found their way out of German into hardly +tolerable English, and has, moreover, reflected upon the importance of +the principles therein established. But, of those who will read +this notice, not one out of fifty has had even the opportunity +for examination, not one out of five thousand has really taken the +opportunity, and, of those that have, one half, at least, have done so +independently of any philosophic aim, and have therefore reflected to +very little purpose on the principles involved. Therefore, what the +reader could not or has not chosen to do for himself we will do for +him, at the same time congratulating him that there is now placed in +his hands as complete and perfect a structure outwardly, in the work +under notice, as the groundwork furnished by the old master was, in +its subjective analysis, simple and profound. + +Those who approach human nature, or the nature outside of us, with +a reverence for reality, will give precedence, after the manner of +Nature, to those powers which are predominant and determinative; and +in man these are Reason and Will. These two exist as identical in +Personality, which we may denominate as we choose, whether Rational +Will, or, as Kant does more frequently, Practical Reason. Here, in the +identity of these two powers in Personality, and still more in +their relation to each other as they are differentiated in personal +existence, does Morality originate and develop according to +principles. + +Now let it be remembered that Kant's mission was, as above indicated, +to exclude the speculative side of our nature from any direct relation +to human destiny, inasmuch as it could not answer either of the +three great questions which every man everywhere and of necessity +puts,--Whence am I? What am I? and Whither do I tend?--and therefore +stood confused in the presence of any grand reality, whether human or +divine, and to make the Practical Reason the sole and immediate link +of connection between ourselves and the realities from the presence of +which the Speculative Reason had been driven. Then will it be +clearly seen how he would answer the fundamental question of Moral +Philosophy,--Wherein does the quality of Goodness originally reside? + +The answer, from Kant's own lips, is this: "There is nothing in +the world, nor, generally speaking, even out of it, possible to be +conceived, which can without limitation be held good, but a _Good +Will_." The good is not in the end attained, not even in the volition, +but is a principle resident in the will itself. "The volition is +between its principle _a priori_, which is formal, and its spring _a +posteriori_, which is material; and since it must be determined by +something, and being deprived of every material principle, it must be +determined by the formal." + +Now, although President Hopkins considers Moral Philosophy as a +philosophy of _ends_, he evidently does not mean ends _a posteriori_ +and _material_, but ends _a priori_, using the term as the best +objective translation of _principles_. Almost as if with the conscious +design of making his work harmonize with the groundwork furnished by +Kant, he has developed a graduated series of conditions, according +to which we ascend "the great world's altar-stairs," from lower and +conditioned good up to that good which is the condition of all, itself +unlimited, namely, in the will fulfilling its original design. The +"law of limitation," according to which not only the subordinate +powers of man, but even the forces of Nature, from those concerned in +the highest animal organization down to that of gravitation, are made +to take their places in the chain of dependence which hangs from the +human will, is the most important part, scientifically, of the whole +work. It is in accordance with this law that the science of Morals +becomes a structure,--universal in its base and regularly ascending +after the order of Nature, harmonious in all its parts, and proceeding +upward within hearing of universal harmonies. Hitherto there has been +no such structure; but only tabernacles have been built, because there +was no Solomon to build a temple. + +Once having determined the connection which there is between the Will +and the principle of Good, there still remains to be determined the +place which Reason has in this connection. + +Merely to act according to some teleological or determining principle +gives man no preeminence above Nature, except in degree. That which is +peculiar to man is that he has the faculty of acting according to laws +_as represented and reflected upon in the light of thought_,--to which +reason is absolutely indispensable. Reason is therefore necessary to +choice,--to freedom. There can, therefore, no more be goodness without +reason than there can be without will. Yet there might be, as Kant +justly argues, if good were to be in any case identified with mere +happiness. "For," says he, "all the actions which man has to perform +with a view to happiness, and the whole rule of his conduct, would be +much more exactly presented to him by instinct, and that end had been +much more certainly attained than it ever can be by reason; and should +the latter also be bestowed on the favored creature, it must be of use +only in contemplating the happy predisposition lodged in instinct, +to admire this, to rejoice in it, and be grateful for it to the +beneficent Cause; in short, Nature would have prevented reason from +any practical use in subduing appetite, etc., and from excogitating +for itself a project of happiness; she would have taken upon herself +not only the choice of ends, but the means, and had with wise care +intrusted both to instinct merely." The fact, then, that reason has +been given, and has been endowed with a practical use, is sufficient +to prove that some more worthy end than felicity is designed,--namely, +a will good in itself,--rationally good,--that is, _from choice_. + +Out of the _rationality_ of will is developed its _morality_. Here, +only, is found the possibility of failure in respect of the end +constitutionally indicated,--here only the avenues of temptation, by +which alien elements come in to array the man against himself in +a terrible conflict, so sublime that it is a spectacle to heavenly +powers. It is only as this rationality is clearly developed, and is +allotted its just place in Moral Science, that the universal structure +to which we have already alluded, and which, as we saw, culminated +in the will, assumes its peculiar sublimity. For the _voluntariness_ +which is consciously realized in reason gives man the mastery over +constitutional processes, not merely to direct, but even to thwart +them; nor this merely for himself, but it is in his power, through +the nullification of his own constitution, to nullify also that of the +world, to dally with the institutions of Nature, and on the grandest +scale to play the meddler. + +Merely of itself, apart from reason, the will could only work out its +teleological type in darkness and by blind necessity; there could be +no goodness, for this involves conscious elements. But through reason, +that which of itself the will would yield as unconscious impulse +obtains _representation_, and thus becomes a recognized principle, +which in connection with the feelings involves an element of +obligation. + +Conscience, thus, instead of being a separate and independent faculty, +is, as Dr. Hopkins also places it, a function of the moral reason. +Into the courts of this reason come not only the higher indications of +will, but also the impulses of appetite, instinct, and affection,--not +moral in themselves, indeed, but yet assuming the garments of morality +as seen in this high presence. + +That which was made fundamental by Kant, in all that he has left on +the subject of Moral Philosophy, is the position that it is wholly +to be developed out of practical reason, or will as represented in +reason. The same position is fundamental in President Hopkins's work, +and it is here that its philosophic value chiefly rests. This position +is developed in plain English, with strict scientific truth, and yet +with a warm and sympathetic glow, as regards outward embodiment, +that very much heightens the elevating power of the principles +and conclusions evolved. Nor is man, because of his independent +personality, made to stand alone, but always is he seen in the +higher and All-Comprehending Presence. Ideal truth is reached without +necessitating Idealism, and harmony is attained without Pantheism. + +We have purposely confined ourselves to the most general feature of +the work, because it is this which gives it its great and distinctive +importance; yet the whole structure is as elaborately and beautifully +wrought as it is fitly grounded in the truth of Nature. + + +_The National Almanac and Annual Record for 1863_. Philadelphia: +George W. Childs. 12mo. pp. 600. + + +Volumes like this are the very staff of history. What a stride in +literature from the "Prognostications" of Nostradamus and Partridge, +and the imposture of such prophetic chap-books as the almanacs of +Moore and Poor Robin, to the bulky volumes teeming with all manner of +information, such as the "Almanach Imperial," the "New Edinburgh," or +"Thorn's Irish Almanac"! In the list of superior works ranking with +those just named is to be included the new "National Almanac." We have +here assuredly a vast improvement over anything in this way which +has heretofore been attempted among us. A more comprehensive range of +topics is presented, and such standard subjects as we should naturally +expect to find introduced are worked up with much more copiousness and +accuracy of treatment. It is evident on every page that a thoroughly +active and painstaking industry has presided over the preparation of +the volume. Statistics have not been taken at second-hand, where the +primary sources of knowledge could be rendered available. The details +of the great Departments of the Federal Government have been revised +by the Departments themselves. In like manner, the particulars +concerning the several States have in most cases been corrected by a +State officer. Thus, as respects the leading subjects in the book, we +have here not only the most accurate information before the public, +but we have it in the latest authorized or official form. Facts are +as a general rule brought down to date, instead of being six or +twelve months behind-hand, as has been the case heretofore in similar +publications, the compilers of which were content to await the tardy +printing by Congress of documents and reports. Hence the work is +pervaded by an air of freshness and vitality. It is not merely +a receptacle of outgrown facts and accomplished events, but the +companion and interpreter of the scenes and activities of the stirring +present. It strives to seize and embody the whole being and doing of +the passing time. + +It is quite impossible to exhibit in these few lines any adequate +conception of the diversity and fulness of the subjects. All the +valuable results of the last census are classified and incorporated. +Then we have the entire organization of the military, naval, and +civil service,--the tariff and tax laws conveniently arranged,--the +financial, industrial, commercial, agricultural, literary, +educational, and ecclesiastical elements of our condition,--the +legislation of the last three sessions of Congress, and full and +detailed statistics of the individual States,--to which is added a +minute sketch of the foreign Governments. Nor can we overlook the +fact, that, in the abundant matter relating to our present war, +the narrative of events, obituary notices, etc., reach back to +the commencement of the Rebellion, so as to furnish a complete and +unbroken record of the contest from its outbreak. So much for the +diversified nature of the matter; and an idea may be formed of its +aggregate bulk from the fact that it exceeds, by nearly one-third, the +size of the "American Almanac." + +The publication is, we trust, the dawning of a new era in this +department of our literature. We have done well heretofore, but we +have been behind many of the leading foreign works. There are in this +initial volume indications that the new series which it inaugurates +will be conducted with a thoroughness, enterprise, and skill which +cannot fail to supply a great want. The politician, statesman, +and scholar, the merchant, mechanic, and tradesman, every +newspaper-reader, and, in truth, every observant and thoughtful man, +of whatsoever profession or business, always wants at hand a minute +and trustworthy exhibition of the manifold elements which constitute +the changeful present as it ebbs and flows around him. Such hand-books +are indispensable for present reference, and they constitute an +invaluable storehouse for the future. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, +1863, No. LXIV., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 12785.txt or 12785.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/7/8/12785/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Leonard Johnson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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