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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16033-8.txt b/16033-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..720a87d --- /dev/null +++ b/16033-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8766 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, 1863, +No. 70, 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. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 + A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics + +Author: Various + +Release Date: June 9, 2005 [EBook #16033] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 12 *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Guido +Royackers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. XII.--AUGUST, 1863.--NO. LXX. + + * * * * * + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + + + + +AN AMERICAN IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. + + +Having in a former number of this magazine attempted to give some +account of the House of Commons, and to present some sketches of its +leading members,[1] I now design to introduce my readers to the House of +Lords. + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_ for December, 1861.] + +It is obviously unnecessary to repeat so much of the previous +description as applies to the general external and internal appearance +of the New Palace of Westminster. It only remains to speak of the hall +devoted to the sessions of the House of Lords. And certainly it is an +apartment deserving a more extended notice than our limits will allow. +As the finest specimen of Gothic civil architecture in the world, +perfect in its proportions, beautiful and appropriate in its +decorations, the frescoes perpetuating some of the most striking scenes +in English history, the stained glass windows representing the Kings and +Queens of the United Kingdom from the accession of William the Conqueror +down to the present reign, the niches filled with effigies of the Barons +who wrested Magna Charta from King John, the ceiling glowing with gold +and colors presenting different national symbols and devices in most +elaborate workmanship and admirable intricacy of design, it is +undeniably worthy of the high purpose to which it is dedicated. + +The House of Lords also contains the throne occupied by the reigning +sovereign at the opening and prorogation of Parliament. Perhaps its more +appropriate designation would be a State-Chair. In general form and +outline it is substantially similar to the chairs in which the +sovereigns of England have for centuries been accustomed to sit at their +coronations. We need hardly add that no expense has been spared to give +to the throne such intrinsic value, and to adorn it with such emblems of +national significance, as to furnish renewed evidence of England's +unwavering loyalty to the reigning house. + +In pointing out what is peculiar to the House of Lords, I am aware that +there is danger of falling into the error of stating what is already +familiar to some of my readers. And yet a traveller's narrative is not +always tiresome to the tourist who has himself visited the same +localities and witnessed the same scenes. If anxious for the "diffusion +of useful knowledge," he will cheerfully consent that the curiosity of +others, who have not shared his good fortune, should be gratified, +although it be at his expense. At the same time, he certainly has a +right to insist that the extraordinary and improbable stories told to +the too credulous _voyageur_ by some lying scoundrel of a courier or +some unprincipled _valet-de-place_ shall not be palmed upon the +unsuspecting public as genuine tales of travel and adventure. + +The House of Lords is composed of lords spiritual and lords temporal. As +this body is now constituted, the lords spiritual are two archbishops, +twenty-four bishops, and four Irish representative prelates. The lords +temporal are three peers of the blood royal, twenty dukes, nineteen +marquises, one hundred and ten earls, twenty-two viscounts, two hundred +and ten barons, sixteen Scotch representative peers, and twenty-eight +Irish representative peers. There are twenty-three Scotch peers and +eighty-five Irish peers who have no seats in Parliament. The +representative peers for Scotland are elected for every Parliament, +while the representative peers for Ireland are elected for life. As has +been already intimated, this enumeration applies only to the present +House of Lords, which comprises four hundred and fifty-eight +members,--an increase of about thirty noblemen in as many years. + +The persons selected from time to time for the honor of the peerage are +members of families already among the nobility, eminent barristers, +military and naval commanders who have distinguished themselves in the +service, and occasionally persons of controlling and acknowledged +importance in commercial life. Lord Macaulay is the first instance in +which this high compliment has been conferred for literary merit; and it +was well understood, when the great essayist and historian was ennobled, +that the exception in his favor was mainly due to the fact that he was +unmarried. With his untimely death the title became extinct. Lord +Overstone, formerly Mr. Loyd, and a prominent member of the banking firm +of Jones, Loyd, and Co. of London, elevated to the peerage in 1850, is +without heirs apparent or presumptive, and there is good reason to +believe that this circumstance had a material bearing upon his +well-deserved promotion. But these infrequent exceptions, these rare +concessions so ungraciously made, only prove the rigor of the rule. +Practically, to all but members of noble families, and men distinguished +for military, naval, or political services, or eminent lawyers or +clergymen, the House of Lords is unattainable. Brown may reach the +highest range of artistic excellence, he may achieve world-wide fame as +an architect, his canvas may glow with the marvellous coloring of Titian +or repeat the rare and delicate grace of Correggio, the triumphs of his +chisel may reflect honor upon England and his age; the inventive genius +of Jones, painfully elaborating, through long and suffering years of +obscure poverty, the crude conceptions of his boyhood, may confer +inestimable benefits upon his race; the scientific discoveries of +Robinson may add incalculable wealth to the resources of his nation: but +let them not dream of any other nobility than that conferred by Nature; +let them be content to live and die plain, untitled Brown, Jones, and +Robinson, or at best look forward only to the barren honors of +knighthood. Indeed, it is not too much to say that for plebeian merit +the only available avenues to the peerage are the Church and the Bar. + +The proportion of law lords now in the House of Lords is unusually +large,--there being, besides Lord Westbury, the present +Lord-High-Chancellor, no fewer than six Ex-Lord-Chancellors, each +enjoying the very satisfactory pension of five thousand pounds per +annum. Lord Lyndhurst still survives at the ripe age of ninety-one; and +Lord Brougham, now in his eighty-sixth year, has made good his promise +that he would outlive Lord Campbell, and spare his friends the pain of +seeing his biography added to the lives of the Lord-Chancellors to +whom, in Lord Brougham's opinion, Lord Campbell had done such inadequate +justice. + +The course of proceeding in the House of Lords differs considerably from +that pursued in the House of Commons. The Lord-High-Chancellor, seated +on the wool-sack,--a crimson cushion, innocent of any support to the +back, and by no means suggestive of comfort, or inviting deliberations +of the peers, but is never addressed by the speakers. "My lords" is the +phrase with which every peer commences his remarks. + +Another peculiarity patent to the stranger is the small number usually +present at the debates. The average attendance is less than fifty, and +often one sees only fifteen or twenty peers in their seats. Two or three +leading members of the Ministry, as many prominent members of the +opposition, a bishop or two, a score of deluded, but well-meaning +gentlemen, who obstinately adhere to the unfashionable notion, that, +where great political powers are enjoyed, there are certain serious +duties to the public closely connected therewith, a few prosy and +pompous peers who believe that their constant presence is essential to +the welfare and prosperity of the kingdom,--such, I think, is a correct +classification of the ordinary attendance of noblemen at the House of +Lords. + +This body possesses several obvious advantages over any other +deliberative assembly now existing. Not the least among these is the +fact that the oldest son of every peer is prepared by a careful course +of education for political and diplomatic life. Every peer, except some +of recent creation, has from childhood enjoyed all conceivable +facilities for acquiring a finished education. In giving direction to +his studies at school and at the university, special reference has been +had to his future Parliamentary career. Nothing that large wealth could +supply, or the most powerful family-influence could command, has been +spared to give to the future legislator every needed qualification for +the grave and responsible duties which he will one day be called to +assume. His ambition has been stimulated by the traditional achievements +of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and his pride has been awakened +and kept alive by the universal deference paid to his position as the +heir apparent or presumptive of a noble house. + +This view is so well presented in "The Caxtons," that I need offer no +apology for making an extract from that most able and discriminating +picture of English society. "The fact is, that Lord Castleton had been +taught everything that relates to property (a knowledge that embraces +very wide circumference). It had been said to him, 'You will be an +immense proprietor: knowledge is essential to your self-preservation. +You will be puzzled, ridiculed, duped every day of your life, if you do +not make yourself acquainted with all by which property is assailed or +defended, impoverished or increased. You have a stake in the country: +you must learn all the interests of Europe, nay, of the civilized world; +for these interests react on the country, and the interests of the +country are of the greatest possible consequence to the interests of the +Marquis of Castleton.' Thus, the state of the Continent, the policy of +Metternich, the condition of the Papacy, the growth of Dissent, the +proper mode of dealing with the spirit of democracy which was the +epidemic of European monarchies, the relative proportions of the +agricultural and manufacturing population, corn-laws, currency, and the +laws that regulate wages, a criticism on the leading speakers in the +House of Commons, with some discursive observations on the importance of +fattening cattle, the introduction of flax into Ireland, emigration, the +condition of the poor: these and such-like stupendous subjects for +reflection--all branching more or less intricately from the single idea +of the Castleton property--the young lord discussed and disposed of in +half a dozen prim, poised sentences, evincing, I must say in justice, no +inconsiderable information, and a mighty solemn turn of mind. The +oddity was, that the subjects so selected and treated should not come +rather from some young barrister, or mature political economist, than +from so gorgeous a lily of the field." + +But to all these preëminent advantages of early education and training +there must be added the invaluable opportunities of enlarged and +extended legislative experience in the House of Commons. If we examine +the antecedents of some of the most prominent men now in the House of +Lords, we shall discover abundant evidence of this fact. Earl Russell +was a member of the House of Commons for more than thirty years; Earl +Derby, more than twenty-five years; the Earl of Shaftesbury, for about +twenty-four years; the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the +Duke of Rutland, for about the same period. And of the present House of +Commons more than fifty members are heirs apparent or presumptive to +existing peerages. + +And then there is the further circumstance that seats in the House of +Lords are for life. Members of this body do not stand in fear of removal +by the votes of disappointed or indignant constituents. Entirely +independent of public opinion, they can defy the disapprobation of the +masses, and smile at the denunciation of the press. Undoubtedly, this +fact has a twofold bearing, and deprives the peers of that strong +incentive to active exertion and industrious legislation which the House +of Commons, looking directly to the people for support and continuance, +always possesses. Yet the advantages in point of prolonged experience +and ever increasing familiarity with the details of public business are +unquestionable. + +As a matter of course, there are many noblemen upon whom these rare +facilities of education and this admirable training for public life +would seem to have been wasted. As Americans, we must be pardoned for +expressing our belief in the venerable doctrine that there is no royal +road to learning. If a peer of the realm is determined to be a dunce, +nothing in the English Constitution prevents him from being a dunce, and +"not all the blood of all the Howards" can make him a scholar or a +statesman. If, resting securely in the conviction that a nobleman does +not need to be instructed, he will not condescend to study, and does not +avail himself of his most enviable advantages, whatever may be his +social rank, his ignorance and incapacity cannot be disguised, but will +even become more odious and culpable in the view of impartial criticism +by reason of his conspicuous position and his neglect of these very +advantages. + +But frequent as these instances are, it will not be for a moment +supposed that the whole peerage would justly fall under such censure. +Nor will it be thought surprising that the House of Lords contains a +considerable number of men of sterling ability, statesmen of broad and +comprehensive views, accustomed to deal with important questions of +public interest and national policy with calm, deliberate judgment, and +far-reaching sagacity. Hampered as they certainly are by a traditional +conservatism often as much at variance with sound political philosophy +as it is with the lessons of all history, and characterized as their +attitude towards foreign nations always has been by a singular want of +all generosity, still it must be confessed that their steady and +unwavering adherence to a line of conduct which has made England feared +and her power respected by every country in the world has a certain +element of dignity and manly self-reliance which compels our admiration. +And while they have been of late so frequently outwitted by the +flexible, if not tortuous, policy of Louis Napoleon, it yet remains to +be seen whether the firm and unyielding course of the English Ministry +will not in the end prove quite as successful as the more Machiavellian +management of the French Emperor. + +I hardly know how to describe accurately the impression made upon the +mind of an American by his first visit to the House of Lords. What +memories haunt him of the Norman Conquest and the Crusades, of Magna +Charta and the King-Maker, of noblemen who suffered with Charles I. and +supped with Charles II., and of noblemen still later whose family-pride +looked down upon the House of Hanover, and whose banded political power +and freely lavished wealth checked the brilliant career of Napoleon, and +maintained, the supremacy of England on sea and land! + +Enter, then, the House of Lords with these stirring memories, and +confess frankly to a feeling of disappointment. Here are seated a few +well-behaved gentlemen of all ages, often carelessly dressed, and almost +invariably in English morning-costume. They are sleepily discussing some +uninteresting question, and you are disposed to retire in view of the +more powerful attractions of Drury Lane or the Haymarket, or the chance +of something better worth hearing in the House of Commons. Take my +advice, and wait until the adjournment. It will not be long, and by +leaving now you may lose an important debate and the sight of some men +whose fame is bounded only by the limits of Christendom. Even now there +is a slight stir in the House. A nobleman has entered whose movements +you will do well to follow. He takes his place just at the left of the +Lord-Chancellor, but remains seated only for a moment. If you are +familiar with the pencil of Punch, you will recognize him at a glance. A +thin, wiry, yet muscular frame, a singularly marked and expressive face +and mobile features, a nose that defies description, a high cravat like +a poultice covered with a black silk bandage, clothes that seem to have +been made for a much larger man, and always a pair of old-fashioned +checked trousers,--of course, this can only be Lord Brougham. He is +eighty-five years old, and yet his physical activity would do no +injustice to a man in the prime of life. If you watch him a few moments, +you will have abundant evidence of his restless energy. While we look, +he has crossed to the opposite side of the House, and is enjoying a +hearty laugh with the Bishop of Oxford. The round, full face of +"Slippery Sam" (as he is disrespectfully called throughout England) is +beaming with appreciative delight; but before the Bishop has time to +reply, the titled humorist is on the wing again, and in an instant we +see him seated between Earl Granville and the Duke of Somerset, +conversing with all the vivacity and enthusiasm of a school-boy. In a +moment he is in motion again, and has shaken hands with half a dozen +peers. Undeterred by the supernaturally solemn countenance of the +Marquis of Normanby, he has actually addressed a joke to that dignified +fossil, and has passed on without waiting to observe its effect. A few +words with Earl Derby, a little animated talk with the Earl of +Ellenborough, and he has made the circuit of the House, everywhere +received with a welcoming smile and a kindly grasp of the hand, and +everywhere finding willing and gratified listeners. Possibly that is +pardoned to his age and eminence which would be resented as impertinence +in a younger man, but certainly he enjoys a license accorded to no one +else in this aristocratic assembly. + +The dull debate of the past hour is now concluded, the House is thin, +and there are indications of immediate adjournment. Remain a little +longer, however, and your patience may possibly be richly rewarded. +There is no order in the discussion of topics, and at any moment while +the House continues in session there may spring up a debate calling out +all the ability of the leading peers in attendance. After a short pause +the quiet is broken by an aged nobleman on the opposition benches. He +rises slowly and feebly with the assistance of a cane, but his voice is +firm and his manner is forcible. That he is a man of mark is evident +from the significant silence and the deferential attention with which +his first words are received. You ask his name, and with ill-disguised +amazement at your ignorance a gentleman by your side informs you that +the speaker is Lord Lyndhurst. + +Perhaps the life of no public man in England has so much of interest to +an American as that of this distinguished nobleman. Born in Boston while +we were still in a condition of colonial dependence, he has lived to see +his native land emerge from her state of vassalage, pass through a +long-protracted struggle for liberty with the most powerful nation on +earth, successfully maintain her right to be free and independent, +advance with giant strides in a career of unexampled prosperity, assume +an undisputed position as one of the great powers of Christendom, and +finally put forth the most gigantic efforts to crush a rebellion +compared with which the conspiracy of Catiline was but the impotent +uprising of an angry dwarf. + +Lord Lyndhurst was called to the bar of England in 1804. It was before +the splendid forensic successes of Erskine had been rewarded by a seat +on the wool-sack, or Wellington had completed his brilliant and decisive +campaign in India, or the military glory of Napoleon had culminated at +Austerlitz, or Pitt, turning sadly from the map of Europe and saying, +"Henceforth we may close that map for half a century," had gone +broken-hearted to an early grave, or Nelson had defeated the combined +navies of France and Spain at Trafalgar. Lord Byron had not yet entered +Cambridge University, Sir Walter Scott had not published his first poem, +and Canova was still in the height of his well-earned fame. It was +before the first steamboat of Robert Fulton had vexed the quiet waters +of the Hudson, or Aaron Burr had failed in his attempted treason, or +Daniel Welter had entered upon his professional career, or Thomas +Jefferson had completed his first official term as President of the +United States. + +Lord Lyndhurst's advancement to the highest honors of his profession and +to a commanding place in the councils of his adopted country was rapid +almost beyond precedent. He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1819, +Attorney-General in 1823, Master of the Rolls in 1826, and +Lord-Chancellor in 1827. He remained in this office until 1830, and +retired only to be created Lord-Chief-Baron of the Exchequer. In 1835 he +was again appointed Lord-Chancellor, and once more, for the third time, +in 1841. + +The characteristic qualities of the oratory of Lord Lyndhurst, when in +his prime, were perfect coolness and self-possession, a most pleasing +and plausible manner, singular ingenuity in dealing with a difficult +question or in weakening the effect of an argument really unanswerable, +a clear and musical voice, great ease and felicity of expression, and a +wonderful command, always discreetly used, of all the weapons of irony +and invective. He is, perhaps, the only nobleman in the House of Lords +whom Lord Brougham has ever feared to encounter. All these elements of +successful oratory Lord Lyndhurst has retained to an extraordinary +degree until within a year or two. + +I chanced to hear this remarkable man during an evening in the month of +July, 1859. The House of Lords was thinly attended. There had been a +short and uninteresting debate on "The Atlantic-Telegraph Bill," and an +early adjournment seemed certain. But at this juncture Lord Lyndhurst +rose, and, after adverting to the fact that he had previously given +notice of his design to draw their lordships' attention to the military +and naval defences of the country, proceeded to address the House upon +this question. It should be borne in mind that this was a period of +great and engrossing excitement in England, created by the supposed +danger of invasion by France. Volunteer rifle-companies were springing +up all over the kingdom, newspapers were filled with discussions +concerning the sufficiency of the national defences, and speculations on +the chances for and against such an armed invasion. There was, +meanwhile, a strong peace-party which earnestly deprecated all agitation +of the subject, maintained that the sentiments of the French Emperor and +the French nation were most friendly to England, and contended that to +incur largely increased expenses for additional war-preparations was +unnecessary, impolitic, and ruinously extravagant. At the head of this +party were Cobden and Bright. + +It was to answer these arguments, to convince England that there was a +real and positive peril, and to urge upon Her Majesty's Government the +paramount importance of preparing to meet not only a possible, but a +probable danger, that Lord Lyndhurst addressed the House of Lords. He +began by impressing upon their lordships the fact that the policy which +he advocated was not aggressive, but strictly defensive. He reviewed the +history of previous attempts to invade England. He pointed out the +significant circumstance, that these attempts had hitherto failed mainly +by reason of the casualties to which sailing-vessels were always +exposed. He pressed upon their attention the change which +steam-navigation had recently wrought in naval warfare. He quoted the +pithy remark of Lord Palmerston, that "steam had converted the Channel +into a river, and thrown a bridge across it." + +He demonstrated from recent history the facility with which France could +transport large forces by sea to distant points. Then, in tones +tremulous with emotion, he drew upon the resources of his own marvellous +memory. "I have experienced, my lords, something like a sentiment of +humiliation in going through these details. I recollect the day when +every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an English fleet. I +remember the victory of Camperdown, and that of St. Vincent, won by Sir +J. Jervis. I do not forget the great victory of the Nile, nor, last of +all, that triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost annihilated the +navies of France and Spain, I contrast the position which we occupied at +that period with that which we now hold. I recollect the expulsion of +the French from Egypt, the achievement of victory after victory in +Spain, the British army established in the South of France, and then the +great battle by which that war was terminated. I cannot glance back over +that series of events without feeling some degree of humiliation when I +am called upon to state in this House the measures which I deem it to be +necessary to take in order to provide for the safety of the country." + +Then pausing a moment and overcoming his evident emotion, he continued, +with a force of manner and dignity of bearing which no words can fitly +describe,--"But I may be asked, 'Why do you think such measures +requisite? Are we not in alliance with France? Are we not on terms of +friendship with Russia? What other power can molest us?' To these +questions, my lords, my answer shall be a short and simple one. I will +not consent to live in dependence on the friendship or forbearance of +any country. I rely solely on my own vigor, my own exertion, and my own +intelligence." It will be readily believed that cheer after cheer rang +through the House when this bold and manly announcement was made. + +Then, after alluding to the immense armament by sea and land which +France had hurled with such incredible rapidity upon the Austrian Empire +during the recent war in Italy, he concluded by saying,--"Are we to sit +supine on our own shores, and not to prepare the means necessary in case +of war to resist that power? I do not wish to say that we should do this +for any aggressive purpose. What I insist upon is, that we are bound to +make every effort necessary for our own shelter and protection. Beside +this, the question of expense and of money sinks into insignificance. It +is the price we must pay for our insurance, and it is but a moderate +price for so important an insurance. I know there are persons who will +say, 'Let us run the risk.' Be it so. But, my lords, if the calamity +should come, if the conflagration should take place, what words can +describe the extent of the calamity, or what imagination can paint the +overwhelming ruin that would fall upon us? I shall be told, perhaps, +that these are the timid counsels of old age. My lords, for myself, I +should run no risk. Personally I have nothing to fear. But to point out +possible peril and how to guard effectively against it,--that is surely +to be considered not as timidity, but as the dictate of wisdom and +prudence. I have confined myself to facts that cannot be disputed. I +think I have confined myself to inferences that no man can successfully +contravene. I hope what I have said has been in accordance with your +feelings and opinions. I shall terminate what I have to say in two +emphatic words, '_Voe victis!_'--words of solemn and most significant +import." + +So spoke the Nestor of the English nation. Has our country no lesson to +learn from the well-considered words of this aged and accomplished +statesman? Are we not paying a large insurance to secure permanent +national prosperity? And is it not a wise and profitable investment, at +any cost of blood and treasure, if it promises the supremacy of our +Constitution, the integrity of our Union, and the impartial enforcement +of our laws? + +When it is remembered that Lord Lyndhurst was at this time in his +eighty-eighth year, this speech of nearly an hour in length, giving no +evidence from first to last of physical debility or mental decay, +delivered in a firm, clear, and unfaltering voice, admirable for its +logical arrangement, most forcible and telling in its treatment of the +subject, and irresistible in its conclusions, must be considered as +hardly finding a parallel in ancient or modern times. We might almost +call it his valedictory; for his lordship's subsequent speeches have +been infrequent, and, with, we believe, a single exception, short, and +he is now rarely, if ever, seen in the House of Lords. + +I shall not dwell upon the speeches that followed this earnest and +eloquent appeal to the wisdom and patriotism of the listening peers. +They were mainly confined to grateful recognition of the service which +Lord Lyndhurst had rendered to the nation by his frank and fearless +avowal of those principles which alone could preserve the honor and +independence of England. The opposition urged the most vigorous +preparations for resisting invasion, while Her Majesty's ministers +disclaimed any intention of weakening or neglecting the national +defences. As the speeches, however exhibited little worthy of mention +beyond the presentation of these points, I have supposed that a more +general description of some of the leading members of the Upper House +would be more interesting to my readers than a detailed account of what +was said upon this particular occasion. + +I have already alluded to the personal appearance and bearing of Lord +Brougham. By reason of his great age, his long Parliamentary experience, +(he has been in the House of Commons and House of Lords for nearly fifty +years,) his habit of frequent speaking, and the commanding ability of +many of his public efforts, his name as an orator is perhaps more widely +known, and his peculiar style of declamation more correctly appreciated, +than those of any other man now living. It would therefore seem +unnecessary to give any sketch of his oratory, or of his manner in +debate. Very few educated men in this country are unfamiliar with his +eloquent defence of Queen Caroline, or his most bitter attack upon Mr. +Canning, or his brilliant argument for Mr. Williams when prosecuted by +the Durham clergy. Lord Brougham retains to this day the same fearless +contempt of all opposition, the same extravagant and often inconsistent +animosity to every phase of conservative policy, and the same fiery zeal +in advocating every measure which he has espoused, that have ever +characterized his erratic career. The witty author of "The Bachelor of +the Albany" has tersely, and not without a certain spice of truth, +described him as "a man of brilliant incapacity, vast and various +misinformation, and immense moral requirements." + +The Duke of Argyle deserves more than a passing mention. Although +comparatively a young man, he has already had a most creditable career, +and given new lustre to an old and honored name. In politics he is a +decided and consistent Liberal, and he merits the favorable +consideration of all loyal Americans from the fact that he has not +failed on every proper occasion to advocate our cause with such +arguments as show clearly that he fully understands our position and +appreciates the importance of the principles for which we are +contending. It is a curious coincidence, that his style of address bears +a close resemblance to what may be called the American manner. Rapid, +but distinct, in utterance, facile and fluent in speech, natural and +graceful in gesticulation, he might almost be transplanted to the halls +of Congress at Washington without betraying his foreign birth and +education. + +Lord Derby is undoubtedly the most skillful Parliamentary tactician and +the most accomplished speaker in the House of Lords. In 1834, (when he +was a member of the House of Commons,) Macaulay said of him, that "his +knowledge of the science of parliamentary defence resembled an +instinct." He is the acknowledged leader of the Tories or Conservatives +in England, and dictates the policy of his party with absolute +despotism. Belonging to one of the oldest peerages in the kingdom, +having already filled some of the most important offices in Her +Majesty's Government, occupying the highly honorable position of +Chancellor of the University of Oxford, (as successor of the first Duke +of Wellington,) an exact and finished scholar, enjoying an immense +income, and the proprietor of vast landed estates, he may be justly +considered one of the best types of England's aristocracy. He has that +unmistakable air of authority without the least alloy of arrogance, that +"pride in his port," which quietly asserts the dignity of long descent. +As a speaker, his manner is impressive and forcible, with a rare command +of choice language, an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of all +subjects connected with the administration of public affairs, and that +entire self-control which comes from life-long contact on terms of +equality with the best society in Europe and a thorough confidence in +his own mental resources. Lord Derby is preëminently a Parliamentary +orator, and furnishes one of the unusual instances where a reputation +for eloquence earned in the House of Commons has been fully sustained by +a successful trial in the House of Lords. + +Another debater of marked ability in this body is Dr. Samuel +Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. He is the third son of William +Wilberforce, the celebrated philanthropist, but by no means inherits the +simplicity of character and singular absence of all personal ambition +which made his father so widely beloved and respected. He is known as +the leading exponent of High-Church views, and has been heard in the +House of Lords on every question directly or indirectly affecting the +interests of the Establishment. It was long ago said of him, that, had +he been in political life, he would surely and easily have risen to the +position of Premier. He has for years been charged with a marked +proclivity to the doctrines of the Puseyites; and his adroitness in +baffling all attempted investigation into the manner in which he has +conducted the discipline of his diocese has perhaps contributed more +than any other cause to fasten upon him the significant _sobriquet_ to +which I have already alluded. + +Any sketch of the prominent members of the House of Lords would be +imperfect which should omit to give some account of Lord Westbury, the +present Lord-High-Chancellor. Having been Solicitor-General in two +successive Administrations, he was filling for the second time the +position of Attorney-General, when, upon the death of Lord Campbell, he +was raised to the wool-sack. As a Chancery practitioner he was for years +at the head of his profession, and is supposed to have received the +largest income ever enjoyed by an English barrister. During the four +years next preceding his elevation to the peerage his average annual +earnings at the bar were twenty thousand pounds. In the summer of 1860 +it was my good fortune to hear the argument of Lord Westbury (then Sir +Richard Bethell) in a case of great interest and importance, before +Vice-Chancellor Wood. The point at issue involved the construction of a +marriage-settlement between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Prince +Borghese of Rome, drawn up on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince +with Lady Talbot, second daughter of the Earl. The interpretation of the +terms of the contract was by express stipulation to be in accordance +with the Roman common law. A commission sent to Rome to ascertain the +meaning of certain provisions contained in the contract resulted in +several folio volumes, embodying "the conflicting opinions of the most +eminent Roman lawyers," supported by references to the Canonists, the +decisions of the "Sacred Rota," the great text-writers upon +jurisprudence, the Institutes and Pandects, and ascending still higher +to the laws of the Roman Republic and the Augustan era. + +The leading counsel in the kingdom were retained in the case, and +unusual public interest was enlisted. The amount at stake was twenty +thousand pounds, and it was estimated that nearly, if not quite, that +amount had already been consumed in costs. Legal proceedings are not an +inexpensive luxury anywhere; but "the fat contention and the flowing +fee" have a significance to English ears which we can hardly appreciate +in this country. + +It will be at once apparent even to the unprofessional reader that most +difficult and complicated questions were presented by this +case,--questions turning on the exact interpretation of contracts, +involving delicate verbal distinctions, and demanding a thorough +comprehension of an immense and unwieldy mass of Roman law embraced in +the dissenting _dicta_ of Roman lawyers. It required the exercise of the +very highest legal ability, trained and habituated by long and patient +discipline to grapple with great issues. + +The argument of Sir Richard Bethell abundantly demonstrated his capacity +to satisfy the demands of the occasion, and displayed most triumphantly +his perfect mastery of the whole subject. As the time drew near when he +was expected to close for the defence, barristers and students-at-law +began to flock into the small and inconveniently arranged courtroom. A +stranger and a foreigner could not but see at once that the +Attorney-General was the cynosure of all eyes. And, indeed, no one in +the room more thoroughly appreciated the fact that he was the central +and controlling attraction than Sir Richard himself. I must be pardoned +for using an English slang-phrase, but I can convey the impression which +he inevitably makes upon a spectator in no other way than by saying that +he is "a most magnificent swell." And I do this with the more confidence +as I have heard him characterized in precisely these words by members of +the English bar. Every motion, every attitude, indicates an intense +self-consciousness. The Earl of Chatham had not a greater passion for +theatrical effect, nor has a more consummate and finished actor ever +graced the stage. If the performance had been less perfect, it would +have been ludicrous in the extreme; for it did not overlook the minutest +details. He could not examine his brief, or make a suggestion to one of +his associates, or note an important point in the argument of opposing +counsel, or listen to an intimation of opinion from the Bench, without +an obvious eye to dramatic propriety. During the trial, an attorney's +clerk handed him a letter, and the air with which it was opened, read, +and answered was of itself a study. Yet it was all in the highest style +of the art. No possible fault could be found with the execution. Not a +single spectator ventured to smile. The supremacy of undoubted genius +was never more apparent, and never exacted nor received more willing +worship. Through the kindness of a friendly barrister I was introduced +to one of the juniors of the Attorney-General,--a stripling of about +fifty years of age. While we were conversing about the case, Sir Richard +turned and made some comment upon the conduct of the trial; but my +friend would no more have thought of introducing me to the leader of the +bar than he would have ventured to stop the carriage of the Queen in +Hyde Park and present me then and there to Her Majesty. + +I remember as well as if it were but yesterday how attorneys and junior +counsel listened with the utmost deference to every suggestion which he +condescended to address to them, how narrowly the law-students watched +him, as if some legal principle were to be read in his cold, hard +countenance, and, as he at last rose slowly and solemnly to make his +long-expected argument, how court, bar, and by-standers composed +themselves to hear. He spoke with great deliberation and distinctness, +with singular precision and propriety of language, without any parade of +rhetoric or attempt at eloquence. After a very short and appropriate +exordium, he proceeded directly to the merits of the case. His words +were well-weighed, and his manner was earnest and impressive. It was, in +short, the perfection of reason confidently addressed to a competent +tribunal. + +And yet his manner was by no means that of a man seeking to persuade a +superior, but rather that of one comparing opinions with an equal, if +not an inferior mind, elevated by some accident to a position of +factitious importance. One could not but feel that here was a power +behind the throne greater than the throne itself. + +It cannot be doubted that this consciousness of mental and professional +preëminence, sustained by the unanimous verdict of public opinion, has +given to Lord Westbury a defiant, if not an insolent bearing. The story +is current at the English bar, that, some years ago, when offered a seat +on the Bench, with a salary of five thousand pounds, he promptly +declined, saying, "I would rather earn ten thousand pounds a year by +talking sense than five thousand pounds a year by hearing other men talk +nonsense." Anecdotes are frequent in illustration of his supercilious +treatment of attorneys and clients while he was a barrister. And since +his elevation to the wool-sack there has been no abatement or +modification of his offensive manner. His demeanor toward counsel +appearing before him has been the subject of constant and indignant +complaint. It will be remembered by some of my readers, that, not long +since, during a session of the House of Lords, he gave the lie direct to +one of the peers,--an occurrence almost without precedent in that +decorous body. Far different from this was the tone in which Lord +Thurlow, while Lord-Chancellor, asserted his independence and vindicated +his title to respect in his memorable rebuke addressed to the Duke of +Grafton. If the testimony of English travellers in this country is to be +believed, the legislative assemblies of our own land have hitherto +enjoyed the unenviable monopoly of this species of retort. + +The House of Lords contains other peers of marked ability and protracted +Parliamentary experience, among whom are Earl Granville, the Earl of +Ellenborough, the Duke of Somerset, and the Earl of Shaftesbury; but we +cannot dwell in detail upon their individual characteristics as +speakers, or upon the share they have severally taken in the public +councils, without extending this article beyond its legitimate limits. + +As genius is not necessarily or usually transmitted from generation to +generation, while a seat in the House of Lords is an inheritable +privilege, it will be readily believed that there is a considerable +number of peers with no natural or acquired fitness for legislative +duties,--men whose dullness in debate, and whose utter incapacity to +comprehend any question of public interest or importance, cannot be +adequately described. They speak occasionally, from a certain +ill-defined sense of what may be due to their position, yet are +obviously aware that what they say is entitled to no weight, and are +greatly relieved when the unwelcome and disagreeable duty has been +discharged. They are the men who hesitate and stammer, whose hats and +canes are always in their way, and who have no very clear notions about +what should be done with their hands. A visitor who chances to spend an +evening in the House of Lords for the first and last time, while +noblemen of this stamp are quieting their tender consciences by a +statement of their views upon the subject under discussion, will be sure +to retire with a very unfavorable and wholly incorrect estimate of the +speaking talent of English peers. + +It would hardly seem necessary to devote time or space to those members +of the House of Lords who are rarely, if ever, present at the debates. +As has been already stated, the whole number of peers is about four +hundred and sixty, of whom less than twenty-five are minors, while the +average attendance is less than fifty. The right to vote by proxy is a +peculiar and exclusive privilege of the Upper House, and vicarious +voting to a great extent is common on all important issues. Macaulay, +many years ago, pronounced the House of Lords "a small and torpid +audience"; and certainly, since the expression of this opinion, there +has been no increase of average attendance. A considerable proportion of +the absentees will be found among the "fast noblemen" of the +kingdom,--the men who prostitute their exalted social position to the +basest purposes, squandering their substance and wasting their time in +degrading dissipation, the easy prey of accomplished sharpers, and a +burning disgrace to their order. Sometimes, indeed, they pause on the +brink of utter ruin, only to become in their turn apostles of iniquity, +and to lure others to a like destruction. The unblushing and successful +audacity of these titled _roués_ is beginning to attract the attention +and awaken the fears of the better part of the English people. Their +pernicious example is bearing most abundant and bitter fruit in the +depraved morals of what are called the "lower classes" of society, and +their misdeeds are repeated in less fashionable quarters, with less +brilliant surroundings. Against this swelling tide of corrupting +influence the press of England is now raising its warning voice, and the +statements which are publicly and unreservedly made, and the predictions +which are confidently given, are very far from being welcome to English +eyes or grateful to English ears. + +Another class of the House of Lords, and it is a large one, is most +happily characterized by Sydney Smith in his review of "Granby." "Lord +Chesterton we have often met with, and suffered a good deal from his +lordship: a heavy, pompous, meddling peer, occupying a great share of +the conversation, saying things in ten words which required only two, +and evidently convinced that he is making a great impression; a large +man, with a large head, and a very landed manner; knowing enough to +torment his fellow-creatures, not to instruct them; the ridicule of +young ladies, and the natural butt and target of wit. It is easy to talk +of carnivorous animals and beasts of prey; but does such a man, who lays +waste a whole civilized party of beings by prosing, reflect upon the joy +he spoils and the misery he creates in the course of his life, and that +any one who listens to him through politeness would prefer toothache or +ear-ache to his conversation? Does he consider the great uneasiness +which ensues, when the company has discovered a man to be an extremely +absurd person, at the same time that it is absolutely impossible to +convey by words or manner the most distant suspicion of the discovery?" + +Now, most unfortunately, the noble House of Chesterton is still extant, +and its numerous representatives cherish with jealous care every +inherited absurdity of the family. Their favorite field of operations is +the House of Lords, partly because the strict proprieties of the place +protect them from rude and inconvenient interruption, and partly because +they can be sure of a "fit audience found, though few,"--an audience +of equals, whom it is no condescension to address. In the House of +Commons they would be coughed down or groaned down before they had +wasted ten minutes of the public time, and that they escape as swift +suppression in the House of Lords is much more creditable to the +courtesy of that body than to its just appreciation of the shortness of +human life. There is rarely a debate of importance in the House of Lords +during which some one of the Chesterton family does not contribute his +morsel of pompous imbecility, or unfold his budget of obsolete and +exploded prejudices, or add his mite of curious misinformation. That +such painful exhibitions of callow and contracted bigotry should so +frequently be made in a body claiming for itself the finest culture and +the highest civilization in Christendom is certainly a most mortifying +circumstance, and serves to show that narrow views and unstatesmanlike +opinions are not confined to democratic deliberative assemblies, and +that the choicest advantages of education, literary and political, are +not at all inconsistent with ignorance and arrogance. + +But we will allow his lordship to tell his own story. Here is his set +speech, only slightly modified from evening to evening, as may be +demanded by the difference in the questions under debate. + +"My lords, the noble lord who has just taken his seat, although, I am +bound to say, presenting his view of the case with that candor which my +noble friend (if the noble lord will allow me to call him so) always +displays, yet, my lords, I cannot but add, omitted one important feature +of the subject. Now, my lords, I am exceedingly reluctant to take up the +time of your lordships with my views upon the subject-matter of this +debate; yet, my lords, as the noble and learned lord who spoke last but +one, as well as the noble earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government, +and the noble marquis who addressed your lordships early in the evening, +have all fallen into the same mistake, (if these noble lords will permit +me to presume that they could be mistaken,) I must beg leave to call +your lordships' attention to the significant fact, that each and all of +these noble lords have failed to point out to your lordships, that, +important and even conclusive as the arguments and statistics of their +lordships may at first sight appear, yet they have not directed your +lordships to the very suspicious circumstance that our noble ancestors +have never discovered the necessity of resorting to this singular +expedient. + +"For myself, my lords, I confess that I am filled with the most gloomy +forebodings for the future of this country, when I hear a question of +this transcendent importance gravely discussed by noble lords without +the slightest allusion to this vital consideration. I beg to ask noble +lords, Are we wiser than our forefathers? Are any avenues of information +open to us which were closed to them? Were they less patriotic, less +intelligent, less statesmanlike, than the present generation? Why, then, +I most earnestly put it to your lordships, should we disregard, or, +certainly, lose sight of their wisdom and their experience? I implore +noble lords to pause before it is too late. I solemnly call upon them to +consider that the proposed measure is, after all, only democracy under a +thin disguise. Has it never occurred to noble lords that this project +did not originate in this House? that its warmest friends and most +ardent and persevering advocates are found among those who come from the +people, and who, from the very nature of the case, are incompetent to +decide upon what will be for the, best interests of the kingdom? My +lords, I feel deeply upon this subject, and I must be pardoned for +expressing myself in strong terms. I say again, that I see here the +clearest evidence of democratic tendencies, a contempt for existing and +ancient institutions, and an alarming want of respect for time-honored +precedents, which, I am bound to say, demand our prompt and indignant +condemnation," etc., etc., etc.[2] + +[Footnote 2: If any one of my readers is inclined to suspect that I have +drawn upon my imagination for this specimen speech, I will only say, +that, if he were my bitterest enemy, I could wish him no more severe +punishment than to undergo as I have done, (_horresco referens_,) an +hour of the Marquis of Normanby, the Earl of Malmesbury, and a few other +kindred spirits. If he have no opportunity of subjecting the truth of my +statement and the accuracy of my report to this most grievous test, I +beg to assure him that I have given no fancy sketch, but that I have +heard speeches from these noblemen in precisely this tone and to exactly +this effect.] + +This is the regular speech, protracted in the same strain for perhaps +half an hour. Of the manner of the noble orator I will not venture a +description. Any attempt to convey an idea of the air of omniscience +with which these dreary platitudes are delivered would surely result in +failure. It is enough to say that the impression which the noble lord +leaves upon an unprejudiced and un-English mind is in all respects +painful. Indeed, one sees at a glance how absolutely hopeless would be +any finite effort to convince him of the absurdity of his positions or +the weakness of his understanding. There he stands, a solemn, shallow, +conceited, narrow-minded, imperturbable, impracticable, incorrigible +blockhead, on whom everything in the shape of argument is utterly +wasted, and from whom all the arrows of wit and sarcasm fall harmless to +the ground. In fact, he is perfectly proof against any intellectual +weapons forged by human skill or wielded by mortal arm, and he awaits +and receives every attack with a stolid and insulting indifference which +must be maddening to an opponent. + +I hasten to confess my entire incapacity to describe the uniform +personal bearing of a Chesterton in or out of the House of Lords. It is +strictly _sui generis_. It has neither the quiet, unassuming dignity of +the Derbys, the Shaftesburys, or the Warwicks, nor the vulgar vanity of +the untravelled Cockney. It simply defies accurate delineation. Dickens +has attempted to paint the portrait of such a character in "Bleak +House"; but Sir Leicester Dedlock, even in the hands of this great +artist, is not a success,--merely because, in the case of the Baronet, +selfishness and self-importance are only a superficial crust, while with +your true Chesterton these attributes penetrate to the core and are as +much a part of the man as any limbs or any feature of his face. A +genuine Chesterton is as unlike his stupid caricature in our own +theaters in the person of "Lord Dundreary," as the John Bull of the +French stage, leading a woman by a halter around her neck, and +exclaiming, "G---- d----! I will sell my wife at Smithfield," is unlike +the Englishman of real life. Lord Chesterton does not wear a small glass +in his right eye, nor commence every other sentence with "Aw! weally +now." He does not stare you out of countenance in a _café_, nor wonder +"what the Devil that fellaw means by his insolence." So much by way of +negative description. To appreciate him positively, one must see him and +hear him. No matter when or where you encounter him, you will find him +ever the same; and you will at last conclude that his manners are not +unnatural to a very weak man inheriting the traditions of an ancient and +titled family, and educated from childhood to believe that he belongs to +a superior order of beings. + +Of course the strong point of a Chesterton is what he calls his +"conservatism." He values everything in proportion to its antiquity, and +prefers a time-honored abuse to a modern blessing. With a former Duke of +Somerset, he would pity Adam, "because he had no ancestors." His +sympathies, so far as he has any sentiments which deserve to be +dignified by that name, are ever on the side of tyranny. He condescends +to give his valuable sanction to the liberal institutions of England, +not because they are liberal, but because they are English. Next after +the Established Church, the reigning sovereign and the royal family, his +own order and his precious self, his warmest admiration is bestowed on +some good old-fashioned, thorough-going, grinding despotism. He defends +the Emperor of Austria, and considers the King of Naples a much-abused +monarch. + +If his lordship has ever been in diplomatic life,--an event highly +probable,--he becomes the most intolerable nuisance that ever belied the +noblest sentiments of civilized society or blocked the wheels of public +debate. Flattered by the interested attention of despotic courts, his +poor weak head has been completely turned. He has seen everything _en +couleur de rose_. He assures their lordships that he has never known a +single well-authenticated case of oppression of the lower classes, while +it is within his personal knowledge that many of the best families (in +Italy, for instance) have been compelled to leave all their property +behind them, and fly for their lives before an insolent and unreasoning +mob. How he deluges the House with distorted facts and garbled +statistics! How he warns noble lords against the wiles of Mazzini, the +unscrupulous ambition of Victor Emmanuel, and the headlong haste of +Garibaldi! + +Of course, his lordship's bitterest hatred and intensest aversion are +reserved for democratic institutions. Against these he wages a constant +crusade. Armed _cap-à-pie_ in his common-sense-proof coat of mail, he +charges feebly upon them with his blunt lance, works away furiously with +his wooden sword, and then ambles off with a triumphant air very +ludicrous to behold. Democracy is the _bête noir_ of all the +Chestertons. They attack it not only because they consider it a recent +innovation, but also because it threatens the permanence of their order. +About the practical working of a republic they have no better +information than they have about the institutions of Iceland or the +politics of Patagonia. It is quite enough for them to know that the +theory of democracy is based on the equality of man, and that where +democracy prevails a privileged class is unknown. + +It is hardly necessary to add, that the present condition of the United +Stales is a perfect godsend to the whole family of Chestertons. Have +they not long predicted our disgrace and downfall? Have they not, +indeed, ever since our unjustifiable Declaration of Independence, +anticipated precisely what has happened? Have they not always and +everywhere contended that a republic had no elements of national +cohesion? In a word, have they not feared our growing power and +population as only such base and ignoble spirits can fear the sure and +steady progress of a rival nation? Unhappily, their influence in the +councils of the kingdom is by no means inconsiderable. The prestige of +an ancient family, the obsequious deference paid in England to exalted +social position, and the power of patronage, all combine to confer on +the Chestertons a commanding and controlling authority absurdly out of +proportion to their intrinsic ability. + +There has been a prevalent notion in this country that England was +slowly, but certainly, tending towards a more democratic form of +government, and a more equal and equitable distribution of power among +the different orders of society. This is very far from being the case. +It has been well said, that "it is always considered a piece of +impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a +year has any opinions at all upon important subjects." But if this +income is quadrupled, and the high honor of a seat in the House of Lords +is superadded, it is not difficult to understand that the titled +recipient of such a revenue will find that his opinions command the +greatest consideration. The organization of the present Cabinet of +England is a fresh and conclusive illustration of this principle. It is +not too much to say, that at this moment the home and foreign +administration of the government is substantially in the hands of the +House of Lords. Indeed, the aristocratic element of English society is +as powerful to-day as it has been at any time during the past century. +To fortify this statement by competent authority, we make an extract +from a leader in the London "Times," on the occasion of the elevation of +Lord John Russell to the peerage. "But however welcome to the House of +Lords may be the accession of Lord John Russell, the House of Commons, +we apprehend, will contemplate it with very little satisfaction. While +the House of Lords does but one-twentieth part of the business of the +House of Commons, it boasts a lion's share of the present +administration. Three out of our five Secretaries of State, the +Lord-Chancellor, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Lord-President of +the Council, the Postmaster-General, the Lord Privy Seal, all hold seats +in the Upper House, while the Home-Secretary, and the Secretary for +India, the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +the President of the Board of Trade, the President of the Poor-Law +Board, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Secretary for +Ireland hold seats in the House of Commons. Lord John Russell goes to +give more to that which had already too much. At the present moment, the +two ministers whose united departments distribute between twenty and +thirty millions of the national revenue sit in the House which does not +represent the people. In voting the army and navy estimates, the House +of Commons received this year from the Under-Secretaries that +information which they ought to have from the best and most authentic, +sources. To these is now added the all-important department of Foreign +Affairs; so that, if things remain as they are, the representatives of +the people must be content to feed on second-hand information.... Most +of us can remember a time when it was a favorite topic with popular +agitators to expatiate on the number of lords which a government +contained, as if every peer of Parliament wielded an influence +necessarily hostile to the liberties of the country. We look down in the +present age with contempt on such vulgar prejudices; but we seem to be +running into the contrary extreme, when we allow almost all the +important offices of our government to be monopolized by a chamber where +there is small scope for rhetorical ability, and the short sittings and +unbusiness-like habits of which make it very unsuited for the +enforcement of ministerial responsibility. The statesmen who have charge +of large departments of expenditure, like the army and navy, and of the +highest interests of the nation, ought to be in the House of Commons, is +necessarily superior to a member of the House of the House of Lords, but +it is to the House of Commons that these high functionaries are +principally accountable, and because, if they forfeit the confidence of +the House of Commons, the House of Lords can avail them but little. The +matter is of much importance and much difficulty. We can only hope that +the opportunity of redressing this manifest imperfection in the +structure of the present government will not be lost, and that the House +of Commons may recover those political privileges which it has hitherto +been its pride to enjoy." + +This distribution of power in the English Cabinet furnishes a sufficient +solution of the present attitude of the English Government towards this +country. The ruling classes of England can have no sincere sympathy with +the North, because its institutions and instincts are democratic. They +give countenance to the South, because at heart and in practice it is +essentially an aristocracy. To remove the dangerous example of a +successful and powerful republic, where every man has equal rights, +civil and religious, and where a privileged order in Church and State is +impossible, has become in the minds of England's governing classes an +imperious necessity. Compared with the importance of securing this +result, all other considerations weigh as nothing. Brothers by blood, +language, and religion, as they have been accustomed to call us while we +were united and formidable, we are now, since civil war has weakened us +and great national questions have distracted our councils, treated as +aliens, if not as enemies. On the other hand, the South, whose leaders +have ever been first to take hostile ground against England, and whose +"peculiar institution" has drawn upon us the eloquent and unsparing +denunciations of English philanthropists, is just now in high favor with +the "mother-country." Not only has the ill-disguised dislike of the +Tories ripened into open animosity, not only are we the target for the +shallow scorn of the Chestertons, (even a donkey may dare to kick a +dying lion,) but we have lost the once strongly pronounced friendship of +such ardent anti-slavery men as Lord Brougham and the Earl of +Shaftesbury. Why is this? Does not the explanation lie in a nutshell? We +were becoming too strong. We were disturbing the balance of power. We +were demonstrating too plainly the inherent activity and irresistible +energy of a purely democratic form of government. Therefore _Carthago +delenda est_. "But yet the pity of it, Iago!" Mark how a Christian +nation deals with a Christian ally. Our destruction is to be +accomplished, not by open warfare, but by the delusive and dastardly +pretence of neutrality. There is to be no diplomatic recognition of an +independent Southern Confederacy, but a formidable navy is to be +furnished to our enemies, and their armies are to be abundantly supplied +with the munitions of war. But how? By the English Government? Oh, no! +This would be in violation of solemn treaties. Earl Russell says, "We +have long maintained relations of peace and amity" with the United +States. England cannot officially recognize or aid the South without +placing herself in a hostile attitude towards this country. Yet +meanwhile English capitalists can publicly subscribe to the loan which +our enemies solicit, and from English ship-yards a fleet of iron-clad +war-vessels can be sent to lay waste our commerce and break our blockade +of Southern ports. What the end will be no one may venture to foretell; +but it needs no prophet to predict that many years will not obliterate +from the minds of the American people the present policy of the English +Cabinet, controlled as it is by the genius of English aristocracy. + + * * * * * + + + + +THEODORE WINTHROP'S WRITINGS. + + +"The first time I saw Theodore Winthrop," said one to me a few days ago, +"he came into my office with a common friend. They were talking as they +entered, and Winthrop said, 'Yes, the fellows who came over in the +Mayflower can't afford to do that!' + +"'There,' thought I to myself, 'there's another of the Mayflower men! I +wish to my soul that ship had sunk on her voyage out!' But when I came +to know him, I quickly learned that with him origin was not a matter of +vain pride, but a fact inciting him to all nobleness of thought and +life, and spurring him on to emulate the qualities of his ancestor." + +That is to say, he was not a prig, or a snob, but a gentleman. And if he +remembered that he "came over in the Mayflower," it was because he felt +that that circumstance bound him to higher enterprises, to better work, +than other men's. And he believed in his heart, as he wrote in the +opening chapter of "John Brent," that "deeds of the heroic and chivalric +times do not utterly disdain our day. There are men," he continues, "as +ready to gallop for love and strike for love now as in the age of +Amadis." Ay, and for a nobler love than the love of woman--for love of +country, and of liberty--he was ready to strike, and to die. + +Ready to do, when the time came; but also--what required a greater +soul--ready to wait in cheerful content till the fitting time should +come. Think of these volumes lying in his desk at home, and he, their +author, going about his daily tasks and pleasures, as hearty and as +unrepining as though no whisper of ambition had ever come to his +soul,--as though he had no slightest desire for the pleasant fame which +a successful book gives to a young man. Think of it, O race of +scribblers, to whom a month in the printer's hands seems a monstrous +delay, and who bore publishers with half-finished manuscripts, as +impatient hens begin, untimely, to cackle before the egg is laid. + +That a young man, not thirty-three when he died, should have written +these volumes, so full of life, so full of strange adventure, of wide +reading, telling of such large and thorough knowledge of books and men +and Nature, is a remarkable fact in itself. That he should have let the +manuscripts lie in his desk has probably surprised the world more. But, +much as he wrote, Winthrop, perhaps, always felt that his true life was +not that of the author, but of the actor. He has often told me that it +was a pleasure to write,--probably such a pleasure as it is to an old +tar to spin his yarns. His mind was active, stored with the accumulated +facts of a varied experience. How keen an observer of Nature he was, +those who have read "John Brent" or the "Canoe and Saddle" need not be +told; how appreciative an observer of every-day life, was shown in that +brilliant story which appeared in these pages some eighteen months ago, +under the title of "Love and Skates." Our American life lost by his +death one who, had he lived, would have represented it, reported it to +the world, soul and body together; for he comprehended its spirit, as +well as saw its outer husk; he was in sympathy with all its +manifestations. + +That quick, intelligent eye saw everything; that kindly, sympathetic +spirit comprehended always the soul of things; and no life, however +common, rugged, or coarse, was to him empty. If he added always +something of his own nobility of heart, if he did not pry out with +prurient eyes the meannesses of life around him, the picture he drew was +none the less true,--was, indeed, it seems to me, all the more true. +Therefore I say that his early death was a loss to American literature, +or, to speak more accurately, to that too small part of our literature +which concerns itself with American life. To him the hard-featured +Yankee had something besides hard features and ungainly manners; he saw +the better part as well as the grosser of the creature, and knew that + + "Poor lone Hannah, + Sitting by the window, binding shoes," + +had somewhat besides coarse hands and red eyes. He was not tainted with +the vicious habit of caricature, which is the excuse with which +superficial and heartless writers impose their false art upon the +public. Nor did he need that his heroes should wear kid gloves,--though +he was himself the neatest-gloved man I knew. "Armstrong of Oregon" was +a rough figure enough; but how well he knew how to bring out the kindly +traits in that rude lumberman's character! how true to Nature is that +sketch of a gentleman in homespun! And even Jake Shamberlain, the Mormon +mail-carrier, a rollicking, untidy rover, fond of whiskey, and doubtless +not too scrupulous in a "trade," has yet, in Winthrop's story, qualities +which draw us to him. + +To sit down to "John Brent" after rending one of the popular novels of +these days, by one of the class of writers who imagine photography the +noblest of arts, is like getting out of a fashionable "party" into the +crisp air of a clear, starlight, December night. And yet Winthrop was a +"society" man; one might almost say he knew that life better than the +other, the freer, the nobler, which he loved to describe, as he loved to +live it. + +A neat, active figure of a man, carefully dressed, as one who pays all +proper honor to the body in which he walks about; a gentleman, not only +in the broader and more generous sense, but also according to the +narrower, conventional meaning of the term; plainly a scholarly man, +fond of books, and knowing the best books; with that modest, diffident +air which bookish men have; with a curious shyness, indeed, as of one +who was not accustomed and did not like to come into too close contact +with the every-day world: such Theodore Winthrop appeared to me. I +recollect the surprise with which I heard--not from him--that he had +ridden across the Plains, had camped with Lieutenant Strain, had +"roughed it" in the roughest parts of our continent. But if you looked a +little closely into the face, you saw in the fine lines of the mouth the +determination of a man who can bear to carry his body into any peril or +difficulty; and in the eye--he had the eye of a born sailor, an eye +accustomed to measure the distance for a dangerous leap, quick to +comprehend all parts of a novel situation--you saw there presence of +mind, unfaltering readiness, and a spirit equal to anything the day +might bring forth. + +In the Memoir prefixed to "Cecil Dreeme" Curtis has drawn a portrait, +tender and true, of his friend and neighbor. The few words which have +written themselves here tell of him only as he appeared to one who knew +him less intimately, who saw him not often. + +I come now to speak of the writings which Winthrop left. These have the +singular merit, that they are all American. From first to last, they are +plainly the work of a man who had no need to go to Europe for characters +or scenery or plot,--who valued and understood the peculiar life and +the peculiar Nature of this continent, and, like a true artist and poet, +chose to represent that life and Nature of which he was a part. His +stories smack of the soil; his characters--especially in "John Brent," +where his own ride across the continent is dramatized--are as fresh and +as true as only a true artist could make them. Take, for instance, the +"Pike," the border-ruffian transplanted to a California "ranch,"--not a +ruffian, as he says, but a barbarian. + +"America is manufacturing several new types of men. The Pike is one of +the newest. He is a bastard pioneer. With one hand he clutches the +pioneer vices; with the other he beckons forward the vices of +civilization. It is hard to understand how a man can have so little +virtue in so long a body, unless the shakes are foes to virtue in the +soul, as they are to beauty in the face. + +"He is a terrible shock, this unlucky Pike, to the hope that the new +race on the new continent is to be a handsome race. I lose that faith, +which the people about me now have nourished, when I recall the Pike. He +is hung together, not put together. He inserts his lank fathom of a man +into a suit of molasses-colored homespun. Frowzy and husky is the hair +Nature crowns him with; frowzy and stubby the beard. He shambles in his +walk. He drawls in his talk. He drinks whiskey by the tank. His oaths +are to his words as Falstaff's sack to his bread. I have seen Maltese +beggars, Arab camel-drivers, Dominican friars, New-York aldermen, Digger +Indians; the foulest, frowziest creatures I have ever seen are +thorough-bred Pikes." + +This is not complimentary, but any one who has seen the creature knows +that it is a portrait done by a first-rate artist. + +Take, again, that other vulgarer ruffian, "Jim Robinson," "a little man, +stockish, oily, and red in the face, a jaunty fellow, too, with a +certain shabby air of coxcombry even in his travel-stained attire,"--and +how accurately does he describe the metamorphosis of this nauseous grub +into a still more disgusting butterfly! + +"I can imagine him when he arrives at St. Louis, blossomed into a purple +coat with velvet lappels, a brocaded waistcoat, diamond shirt-studs, or +a flamboyant scarf pinned with a pinchbeck dog, and red-legged, +patent-leather boots, picking his teeth on the steps of the Planters' +House." + +Or, once more, that more saintly villain, the Mormon Elder Sizzum. + +"Presently Sizzum appeared. He had taken time to tone down the pioneer +and develop the deacon in his style, and a very sleek personage he had +made of himself. He was clean shaved: clean shaving is a favorite +coxcombry of the deacon class. His long black hair, growing rank from a +muddy skin, was sleekly put behind his ears. A large white blossom of +cravat expanded under his nude, beefy chin, and he wore a black +dress-coat, creased with its recent packing. Except that his pantaloons +were thrust into boots with the maker's name (Abel Gushing, Lynn, Mass.) +stamped in gold on a scarlet morocco shield in front, he was in correct +go-to-meetin' costume,--a Chadband of the Plains." + +When you see one of these men, you will know him again. Winthrop has +sketched these rascals with a few touches, as felicitous as any of +Dickens's, and they will bear his mark forever: _T.W. fecit._ + +As for Jake Shamberlain, with his odd mixture of many religious and +irreligious dialects, what there is of him is as good as Sam Weller or +Mrs. Poyser. + +"'Hillo, Shamberlain!' hailed Brent, riding up to the train. + +"'Howdydo? Howdydo? No swap!' responded Jake, after the Indian fashion. +'Bung my eyes, ef you're not the mate of all mates I'm glad to see! Pax +vobiscrum, my filly! You look as fresh as an Aperel shad. Praisèd be the +Lord,' continued he, relapsing into Mormon slang, 'who has sent thee +again, like a brand from the burning, to fall into paths of pleasantness +with the Saints, as they wander from the Promised Land to the mean +section where the low-lived Gentiles ripen their souls for hell!'" + +Or Jake's droll commentary on the story of Old Bridger, ousted from his +fort, and robbed of his goods, by the Saints, in the name of the Prophet +Brigham. + +"'It's olluz so,' says Jake; 'Paul plants, and Apollyon gets the +increase. Not that Bridger's like Paul, any more 'n we're like Apollyon; +but we're goan to have all the cider off his apple-trees.'" + +Or, again, Jake's compliments to "Armstrong of Oregon," that galloping +Vigilant Committee of one. + +"I'll help you, if I know how, Armstrong. I ha'n't seen no two in my +life, Old Country or New Country, Saints or Gentiles, as I'd do more for +'n you and your brother. I've olluz said, ef the world was chock full of +Armstrongs, Paradise wouldn't pay, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob mout +just as well blow out their candle and go under a bushel-basket,--unless +a half-bushel would kiver 'em." + +But the true hero of the book is the horse Don Fulano. It is easy to see +that Winthrop was a first-rate horseman, from the loving manner in which +he describes and dwells on the perfections of the matchless stallion. +None but one who knew every point of a horse, none but one of the +Centaur breed, could have drawn Don Fulano,--just as none but a born +skater could have written those inimitable skating-scenes in his story +of "Love and Skates." + +"He was an American horse,--so they distinguish in California one +brought from the old States,--A SUPERB YOUNG STALLION, PERFECTLY BLACK, +WITHOUT MARK. It was magnificent to see him, as he circled about me, +fire in his eye, pride in his nostril, tail flying like a banner, power +and grace from tip to tip. No one would ever mount him, or ride him, +unless it was his royal pleasure. He was conscious of his representative +position, and showed his paces handsomely." + +This is the creature who takes the lead in that stirring and matchless +"Gallop of Three" to the Luggernel Spring, to quote from which would be +to spoil it. It must be read entire. + +In the "Canoe and Saddle" is recorded Winthrop's long ride across the +continent. Setting out in a canoe, from Port Townsend, in Vancouver's +Island, he journeyed, without company of other white men, to the Salt +Lake City and thence to "the States,"--a tedious and barbarous +experience, heightened, in this account of it, by the traveller's cheery +spirits, his ardent love of Nature, and capacity to describe the grand +natural scenery, of the effect of which upon himself he says, at the +end,-- + +"And in all that period, while I was so near to Nature, the great +lessons of the wilderness deepened into my heart day by day, the hedges +of conventionalism withered away from my horizon, and all the pedantries +of scholastic thought perished out of my mind forever." + +He bore hardships with the courage and imperturbable good-nature of a +born gentleman. It is when men are starving, when the plating of romance +is worn off by the chafe of severe and continued suffering,--it is then +that "blood tells." Winthrop had evidently that keen relish for rough +life which the gently nurtured and highly cultivated man has oftener +than his rude neighbor, partly because, in his case, contrast lends a +zest to the experience. Thus, when he camps with a gang of +"road-makers," in the farthest Western wilderness,--a part of Captain +McClellan's Pacific Railroad Expedition,--how thoroughly he enjoys the +rough hospitality and rude wit of these pioneers! + +"In such a Platonic republic as this a man found his place according to +his powers. The cooks were no base scullions; they were brethren, whom +conscious ability, sustained by universal suffrage, had endowed with the +frying-pan." + +"My hosts were a stalwart gang.... Their talk was as muscular as their +arms. When these laughed, as only men fresh and hearty and in the open +air can laugh, the world became mainly grotesque: it seemed at once a +comic thing to live,--a subject for chuckling, that we were bipeds, with +noses,--a thing to roar at, that we had all met there from the wide +world, to hobnob by a frolicsome fire with tin pots of coffee, and +partake of crisped bacon and toasted dough-boys in ridiculous abundance. +Easy laughter infected the atmosphere. Echoes ceased to be pensive, and +became jocose. A rattling humor pervaded the forest, and Green River +rippled with noise of fantastic jollity. Civilization and its +_dilettante_ diners-out sneer when Clodpole at Dives's table doubles his +soup, knifes his fish, tilts his plate into his lap, puts muscle into +the crushing of his _méringue_, and tosses off the warm beaker in his +finger-bowl. Camps by Tacoma sneer not at all, but candidly roar, at +parallel accidents. Gawky makes a cushion of his flapjack. Butterfingers +drops his red-hot rasher into his bosom, or lets slip his mug of coffee +into his boot drying at the fire,--a boot henceforth saccharine. A mule, +slipping his halter, steps forward unnoticed, puts his nose into the +circle, and brays resonant. These are the jocular boons of life, and at +these the woodsmen guffaw with lusty good-nature. Coarse and rude the +jokes may be, but not nasty, like the innuendoes of pseudo-refined +cockneys. If the woodsmen are guilty of uncleanly wit, it differs from +the uncleanly wit of cities as the mud of a road differs from the sticky +slime of slums. + +"It is a stout sensation to meet masculine, muscular men at the brave +point of a penetrating Boston hooihut,--men who are mates,--men to whom +technical culture means nought,--men to whom myself am nought, unless I +can saddle, lasso, cook, sing, and chop,--unless I am a man of nerve and +pluck, and a brother in generosity and heartiness. It is restoration to +play at cudgels of jocoseness with a circle of friendly roughs, not one +of whom ever heard the word bore,--with pioneers, who must think and +act, and wrench their living from the closed hand of Nature." + +And here is a dinner "in the open." + +"Upon the _carte du jour_ at Restaurant Sowee was written Grouse. 'How +shall we have them?' said I, cook and convive, to Loolowcan, marmiton +and convive. 'One of these cocks of the mountain shall be fried, since +gridiron is not,' responded I to myself, after meditation; 'two shall be +spitted and roasted; and, as Azrael may not want us before breakfast +to-morrow, the fourth shall go upon the _carte de déjeuner'_. + +"'O Pork! what a creature thou art!' continued I, in monologue, cutting +neat slices of that viand with my bowie-knife, and laying them +fraternally, three in a bed, in the frying-pan. 'Blessed be Moses, who +forbade thee to the Jews, whereby we, of freer dispensations, heirs of +all the ages, inherit also pigs more numerous and bacon cheaper! O Pork! +what could campaigners do without thy fatness, thy leanness, thy +saltness, thy portableness?' + +"Here Loolowcan presented me the three birds, plucked featherless as +Plato's man. The two roasters we planted carefully on spits before a +sultry spot of the fire. From a horizontal stick, supported on forked +stakes, we suspended by a twig over each roaster an automatic baster, an +inverted cone of pork, ordained to yield its spicy juices to the wooing +flame, and drip bedewing on each bosom beneath. The roasters ripened +deliberately, while keen and quick fire told upon the frier, the first +course of our feast. Meanwhile I brewed a pot of tea, blessing Confucius +for that restorative weed, as I had blessed Moses for his abstinence +from porkers. + +"Need I say that the grouse were admirable, that everything was +delicious, and the Confucian weed first chop? Even a scouse of mouldy +biscuit met the approval of Loolowcan. Feasts cooked under the greenwood +tree, and eaten by their cooks after a triumphant day of progress, are +sweeter than the conventional banquets of languid Christendom." + +"Life in the Open Air"--containing sketches of travel among the +mountains and lakes of Maine, as well as the story of "Love and Skates," +which has been spoken of, "The March of the Seventh Regiment," +"Washington as a Camp," an essay descriptive of Church's great picture, +"The Heart of the Andes," and two fragments, one of them the charming +commencement of a story which promised to be one of his best and most +enjoyable efforts in this direction--is the concluding volume of +Winthrop's collected writings. I speak of it in this place, because it +is in some part a companion-book to the volumes we have been discussing. +It is as full of buoyant life, of fresh and noble thought, of graceful +wit and humor, as those; in parts it contains the most finished of his +literary work. Few Americans who read it at the time will ever forget +that stirring description of the march of the New-York Seventh; it is a +piece of the history of our war which will live and be read as long as +Americans read their history. It moved my blood, in the reading, +tonight, as it did in those days--which seem already some centuries old, +so do events crowd the retrospect--when we were all reading it in the +pages of the "Atlantic." In the unfinished story of "Brightly's Orphan" +there is a Jew boy from Chatham Street, an original of the first water, +who, though scarce fairly introduced, will, I am sure, make a place for +himself and for his author in the memories of all who relish humor of +the best kind. + +"Cecil Dreeme" and "Edwin Brothertoft" are quite other books than these +we have spoken of. Here Winthrop tried a different vein,--two different +veins, perhaps. Both are stories of suffering and crime, stories of the +world and society. In one it is a woman, in the other a man, who is +wronged. One deals with New York city-life of the very present day; the +other is a story of the Revolutionary War, and of Tories and Patriots. +The popular verdict has declared him successful, even here. "Cecil +Dreeme" has run through no less than fifteen editions. + +In this story we are shown New York "society" as doubtless Winthrop knew +it to be. Yet the book has a curious air of the Old-World; it might be a +story of Venice, almost. It tells us of Old-World vices and crimes, and +the fittings and furnishings are of a piece. The localities, indeed, are +sketched so faithfully, that a stranger to the city, coming suddenly, in +his wanderings, upon Chrysalis College Buildings, could not fail to +recognize them at once,--as indeed happened to a country friend of mine +recently, to his great delight. But the men are Americans, bred and +formed--and for the most part spoiled--in Europe; Americans who have +gone to Paris before their time, if it be true, what a witty Bostonian +said, that good Americans go to Paris when they die. With all this, the +book has a strange charm, so that it takes possession of you in spite of +yourself. It is as though it drew away the curtain, for one slight +moment, from the mysteries which "society" decorously hides,--as though +he who drew the curtain stood beside it, pointing with solemn finger and +silent indignation to the baseness of which he gives you a glimpse. Yet +even here the good carries the day, and that in no maudlin way, but +because the true men are the better men. + +These, then, are Winthrop's writings,--the literary works of a young man +who died at thirty-two, and who had spent a goodly part of his mature +life in the saddle and the canoe, exploring his own country, and in +foreign travel. As we look at the volumes, we wonder how he found time +for so much; but when we have read, we wonder yet more at the excellence +of all he wrote. In all and through all shines his own noble spirit; and +thus these books of his, whose printed pages he never saw, will keep his +memory green amongst us; for, through them, all who read may know that +there wrote a true gentleman. + +Once he wrote,-- + + "Let me not waste in skirmishes my power, + In petty struggles. Rather in the hour + Of deadly conflict may I nobly die, + In my first battle perish gloriously." + +Even so he fell; but in these written works, as in his gallant death, he +left with us lessons which will yet win battles for the good cause of +American liberty, which he held dearest in his heart. + + * * * * * + + + + +HILARY. + + + Hilary, + Summer calls thee, o'er the sea! + Like white flowers upon the tide, + In and out the vessels glide; + But no wind on all the main + Sends thy blithe soul home again: + Every salt breeze moans for thee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Welcome Summer's step will be, + Save to those beside whose door + Doleful birds sit evermore + Singing, "Never comes he here + Who made every season's cheer!" + Dull the June that brings not thee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + What strange world has sheltered thee? + Here the soil beneath thy feet + Rang with songs, and blossomed sweet; + Blue skies ask thee yet of Earth, + Blind and dumb without thy mirth: + With thee went her heart of glee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + All things shape a sigh for thee! + O'er the waves, among the flowers, + Through the lapse of odorous hours, + Breathes a lonely, longing sound, + As of something sought, unfound: + Lorn are all things, lorn are we, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Oh, to sail in quest of thee, + To the trade-wind's steady tune, + Past the hurrying monsoon, + Into torrid seas, that lave + Dry, hot sands,--a breathless grave,-- + Sad as vain the search would be, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Chase the sorrow from the sea! + Summer-heart, bring summer near, + Warm, and fresh, and airy-clear! + --Dead thou art not: dead is pain; + Now Earth sees and sings again: + Death, to hold thee, Life must be, + Hilary! + + * * * * * + + + + +DEBBY'S DÉBUT. + + +On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll and her niece Debby Wilder +were whizzing along on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both +in the best of humors with each other and all the world beside. Aunt Pen +was concocting sundry mild romances, and laying harmless plots for the +pursuance of her favorite pastime, match-making; for she had invited her +pretty relative to join her summer jaunt, ostensibly that the girl might +see a little of fashionable life, but the good lady secretly proposed to +herself to take her to the beach and get her a rich husband, very much +as she would have proposed to take her to Broadway and get her a new +bonnet; for both articles she considered necessary, but somewhat +difficult for a poor girl to obtain. + +Debby was slowly getting her poise, after the excitement of a first +visit to New York; for ten days of bustle had introduced the young +philosopher to a new existence, and the working-day world seemed to have +vanished when she made her last pat of butter in the dairy at home. For +an hour she sat thinking over the good-fortune which had befallen her, +and the comforts of this life which she had suddenly acquired. Debby was +a true girl,--with all a girl's love of ease and pleasure; and it must +not be set down against her that she surveyed her pretty travelling-suit +with much complacency, rejoicing inwardly that she could use her hands +without exposing fractured gloves, that her bonnet was of the newest +mode, needing no veil to hide a faded ribbon or a last year's shape, +that her dress swept the ground with fashionable untidiness, and her +boots were guiltless of a patch,--that she was the possessor of a mine +of wealth in two of the eight trunks belonging to her aunt, that she was +travelling like any lady of the land with man-and maid-servant at her +command, and that she was leaving work and care behind her for a month +or two of novelty and rest. + +When these agreeable facts were fully realized, and Aunt Pen had fallen +asleep behind her veil, Debby took out a book, and indulged in her +favorite luxury, soon forgetting past, present, and future in the +inimitable history of Martin Chuzzlewit. The sun blazed, the cars +rattled, children cried, ladies nodded, gentlemen longed for the solace +of prohibited cigars, and newspapers were converted into sun-shades, +nightcaps, and fans; but Debby read on, unconscious of all about her, +even of the pair of eyes that watched her from the opposite corner of +the car. A gentleman with a frank, strong-featured face sat therein, and +amused himself by scanning with thoughtful gaze the countenances of his +fellow-travellers. Stout Aunt Pen, dignified even in her sleep, was a +"model of deportment" to the rising generation; but the student of human +nature found a more attractive subject in her companion, the girl with +an apple-blossom face and merry brown eyes, who sat smiling into her +book, never heeding that her bonnet was awry, and the wind taking +unwarrantable liberties with her ribbons and her hair. + +Innocent Debby turned her pages, unaware that her fate sat opposite in +the likeness of a serious, black-bearded gentleman, who watched the +smiles rippling from her lips to her eyes with an interest that deepened +as the minutes passed. If his paper had been full of anything but +"Bronchial Troches" and "Spalding's Prepared Glue," he would have found +more profitable employment; but it wasn't, and with the usual readiness +of idle souls he fell into evil ways, and permitted curiosity, that +feminine sin, to enter in and take possession of his manly mind. A great +desire seized him to discover what book so interested his pretty +neighbor; but a cover hid the name, and he was too distant to catch it +on the fluttering leaves. Presently a stout Emerald-Islander, with her +wardrobe oozing out of sundry paper parcels, vacated the seat behind the +two ladies; and it was soon quietly occupied by the individual for whom +Satan was finding such indecorous employment. Peeping round the little +gray bonnet, past a brown braid and a fresh cheek, the young man's eye +fell upon the words the girl was reading, and forgot to look away again. +Books were the desire of his life; but an honorable purpose and an +indomitable will kept him steady at his ledgers till he could feel that +he had earned the right to read. Like wine to many another was an open +page to him; he read a line, and, longing for more, took a hasty sip +from his neighbor's cup, forgetting that it was a stranger's also. + +Down the page went the two pairs of eyes, and the merriment from Debby's +seemed to light up the sombre ones behind her with a sudden shine that +softened the whole face and made it very winning. No wonder they +twinkled, for Elijah Pogram spoke, and "Mrs. Hominy, the mother of the +modern Gracchi, in the classical blue cap and the red cotton +pocket-handkerchief, came down the room in a procession of one." A low +laugh startled Debby, though it was smothered like the babes in the +Tower; and, turning, she beheld the trespasser scarlet with confusion, +and sobered with a tardy sense of his transgression. Debby was not a +starched young lady of the "prune and prism" school, but a frank, +free-hearted little body, quick to read the sincerity of others, and to +take looks and words at their real value. Dickens was her idol; and for +his sake she could have forgiven a greater offence than this. The +stranger's contrite countenance and respectful apology won her good-will +at once; and with a finer courtesy than any Aunt Pen would have taught, +she smilingly bowed her pardon, and, taking another book from her +basket, opened it, saying, pleasantly,-- + +"Here is the first volume, if you like it, Sir. I can recommend it as an +invaluable consolation for the discomforts of a summer day's journey, +and it is heartily at your service." + +As much surprised as gratified, the gentleman accepted the book, and +retired behind it with the sudden discovery that wrong-doing has its +compensation in the pleasurable sensation of being forgiven. Stolen +delights are well known to be specially saccharine; and much as this +pardoned sinner loved books, it seemed to him that the interest of the +story flagged, and that the enjoyment of reading was much enhanced by +the proximity of a gray bonnet and a girlish profile. But Dickens soon +proved more powerful than Debby, and she was forgotten, till, pausing to +turn a leaf, the young man met her shy glance, as she asked, with the +pleased expression of a child who has shared an apple with a playmate,-- + +"Is it good?" + +"Oh, very!"--and the man looked as honestly grateful for the book as the +boy would have done for the apple. + +Only five words in the conversation, but Aunt Pen woke, as if the +watchful spirit of propriety had roused her to pluck her charge from the +precipice on which she stood. + +"Dora, I'm astonished at you! Speaking to strangers in that free manner +is a most unladylike thing. How came you to forget what I have told you +over and over again about a proper reserve?" + +The energetic whisper reached the gentleman's ear, and he expected to be +annihilated with a look when his offence was revealed; but he was spared +that ordeal, for the young voice answered, softly,-- + +"Don't faint, Aunt Pen; I only did as I'd be done by; for I had two +books, and the poor man looked so hungry for something to read that I +couldn't resist sharing my 'goodies.' He will see that I'm a countrified +little thing in spite of my fine feathers, and won't be shocked at my +want of rigidity and frigidity; so don't look dismal, and I'll be prim +and proper all the rest of the way,--if I don't forget it." + +"I wonder who he is; may belong to some of our first families, and in +that case it might be worth while to exert ourselves, you know. Did you +learn his name, Dora?" whispered the elder lady. + +Debby shook her head, and murmured, "Hush!"--but Aunt Pen had heard of +matches being made in cars as well as in heaven; and as an experienced +general, it became her to reconnoitre, when one of the enemy approached +her camp. Slightly altering her position, she darted an +all-comprehensive glance at the invader, who seemed entirely absorbed, +for not an eyelash stirred during the scrutiny. It lasted but an +instant, yet in that instant he was weighed and found wanting; for that +experienced eye detected that his cravat was two inches wider than +fashion ordained, that his coat was not of the latest style, that his +gloves were mended, and his handkerchief neither cambric nor silk. That +was enough, and sentence was passed forthwith,--"Some respectable clerk, +good-looking, but poor, and not at all the thing for Dora"; and Aunt Pen +turned to adjust a voluminous green veil over her niece's bonnet, "To +shield it from the dust, dear," which process also shielded the face +within from the eye of man. + +A curious smile, half mirthful, half melancholy, passed over their +neighbor's lips; but his peace of mind seemed undisturbed, and he +remained buried in his book till they reached ----, at dusk. As he +returned it, he offered his services in procuring a carriage or +attending to luggage; but Mrs. Carroll, with much dignity of aspect, +informed him that her servants would attend to those matters, and, +bowing gravely, he vanished into the night. + +As they rolled away to the hotel, Debby was wild to run down to the +beach whence came the solemn music of the sea, making the twilight +beautiful. But Aunt Pen was too tired to do anything but sup in her own +apartment and go early to bed; and Debby might as soon have proposed to +walk up the Great Pyramid as to make her first appearance without that +sage matron to mount guard over her; so she resigned herself to pie and +patience, and fell asleep, wishing it were to-morrow. + +At five, A.M., a nightcapped head appeared at one of the myriad windows +of the ---- Hotel, and remained there as if fascinated by the miracle of +sunrise over the sea. Under her simplicity of character and girlish +merriment Debby possessed a devout spirit and a nature full of the real +poetry of life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood its sweetest +charm, and made her what she was. As she looked out that summer dawn +upon the royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty hopes and +longings faded out of sight, and her young face grew luminous with +thoughts too deep for words. Her day was happier for that silent hour, +her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted her like beautiful +strong angels, and left a blessing when they went. The smile of the June +sky touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger on her cheek, and +in her eye arose a light kindled by the shimmer of that broad sea of +gold; for Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave her beauty, +when she offered love. How long she leaned there Debby did not know; +steps from below roused her from her reverie, and led her back into the +world again. Smiling at herself, she stole to bed, and lay wrapped in +waking dreams as changeful as the shadows dancing on her chamber-wall. + +The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some two hours later, was the +signal to be "up and doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the +hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard her in the light of an +animated pin-cushion, as she performed the toilet-ceremonies with an +absorbed aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense of the +solemnity of the occasion. + +"Now, Mademoiselle, regard yourself, and pronounce that you are +ravishing," Victorine said at length, folding her hands with a sigh of +satisfaction, as she fell back in an attitude of serene triumph. + +Debby obeyed, and inspected herself with great interest and some +astonishment; for there was a sweeping amplitude of array about the +young lady whom she beheld in the much-befrilled gown and embroidered +skirts, which somewhat alarmed her as to the navigation of a vessel +"with such a spread of sail," while a curious sensation of being +somebody else pervaded her from the crown of her head, with its shining +coils of hair, to the soles of the French slippers, whose energies +seemed to have been devoted to the production of marvellous rosettes. + +"Yes, I look very nice, thank you; and yet I feel like a doll, helpless +and fine, and fancy I was more of a woman in my fresh gingham, with a +knot of clovers in my hair, than I am now. Aunt Pen was very kind to get +me all these pretty things; but I'm afraid my mother would look +horrified to see me in such a high state of flounce externally and so +little room to breathe internally." + +"Your mamma would not flatter me, Mademoiselle; but come now to Madame; +she is waiting to behold you, and I have yet her toilet to make"; and, +with a pitying shrug, Victorine followed Debby to her aunt's room. + +"Charming! really elegant!" cried that lady, emerging from her towel +with a rubicund visage. "Drop that braid half an inch lower, and pull +the worked end of her handkerchief out of the right-hand pocket, Vic. +There! Now, Dora, don't run about and get rumpled, but sit quietly down +and practise repose till I am ready." + +Debby obeyed, and sat mute, with the air of a child in its Sunday-best +on a week-day, pleased with the novelty, but somewhat oppressed with the +responsibility of such unaccustomed splendor, and utterly unable to +connect any ideas of repose with tight shoes and skirts in a rampant +state of starch. + + * * * * * + +"Well, you see, I bet on Lady Gay against Cockadoodle, and if you'll +believe me--Hullo! there's Mrs. Carroll, and deuse take me if she hasn't +got a girl with her! Look, Seguin!"--and Joe Leavenworth, a "man of the +world," aged twenty, paused in his account of an exciting race to make +the announcement. + +Mr. Seguin, his friend and Mentor, as much his senior in worldly +wickedness as in years, tore himself from his breakfast long enough to +survey the new-comers, and then returned to it, saying, briefly,-- + +"The old lady is worth cultivating,--gives good suppers, and thanks you +for eating them. The girl is well got up, but has no style, and blushes +like a milk-maid. Better fight shy of her, Joe." + +"Do you think so? Well, now I rather fancy that kind of thing. She's +new, you see, and I get on with that sort of girl the best, for the old +ones are so deused knowing that a fellow has no chance of a--By the Lord +Harry, she's eating bread and milk!" + +Young Leavenworth whisked his glass into his eye, and Mr. Seguin put +down his roll to behold the phenomenon. Poor Debby! her first step had +been a wrong one. + +All great minds have their weak points. Aunt Pen's was her breakfast, +and the peace of her entire day depended upon the success of that meal. +Therefore, being down rather late, the worthy lady concentrated her +energies upon the achievement of a copious repast, and, trusting to +former lessons, left Debby to her own resources for a few fatal moments. +After the flutter occasioned by being scooped into her seat by a +severe-nosed waiter, Debby had only courage enough left to refuse tea +and coffee and accept milk. That being done, she took the first familiar +viand that appeared, and congratulated herself upon being able to get +her usual breakfast. With returning composure, she looked about her and +began to enjoy the buzz of voices, the clatter of knives and forks, and +the long lines of faces all intent upon the business of the hour; but +her peace was of short duration. Pausing for a fresh relay of toast, +Aunt Pen glanced toward her niece with the comfortable conviction that +her appearance was highly creditable; and her dismay can be imagined, +when she beheld that young lady placidly devouring a great cup of +brown-bread and milk before the eyes of the assembled multitude. The +poor lady choked in her coffee, and between her gasps whispered irefully +behind her napkin,-- + +"For Heaven's sake, Dora, put away that mess! The Ellenboroughs are +directly opposite, watching everything you do. Eat that omelet, or +anything respectable, unless you want me to die of mortificátion." + +Debby dropped her spoon, and, hastily helping herself from the dish her +aunt pushed toward her, consumed the leathery compound with as much +grace as she could assume, though unable to repress a laugh at Aunt +Pen's disturbed countenance. There was a slight lull in the clatter, and +the blithe sound caused several heads to turn toward the quarter whence +it came, for it was as unexpected and pleasant a sound as a bobolink's +song in a cage of shrill-voiced canaries. + +"She's a jolly little thing and powerful pretty, so deuse take me if I +don't make up to the old lady and find out who the girl is. I've been +introduced to Mrs. Carroll at our house; but I suppose she won't +remember me till I remind her." + +The "deuse" declining to accept of his repeated offers, (probably +because there was still too much honor and honesty in the boy,) young +Leavenworth sought out Mrs. Carroll on the piazza, as she and Debby were +strolling there an hour later. + +"Joe Leavenworth, my dear, from one of our first families,--very +wealthy,--fine match,--pray, be civil,--smooth your hair, hold back your +shoulders, and put down your parasol," murmured Aunt Pen, as the +gentleman approached with as much pleasure in his countenance as it was +consistent with manly dignity to express upon meeting two of the +inferior race. + +"My niece, Miss Dora Wilder. This is her first season at the beach, and +we must endeavor to make it pleasant for her, or she will be getting +homesick and running away to mamma," said Aunt Pen, in her society-tone, +after she had returned his greeting, and perpetrated a polite fiction, +by declaring that she remembered him perfectly, for he was the image of +his father. + +Mr. Leavenworth brought the heels of his varnished boots together with a +click, and executed the latest bow imported, then stuck his glass in his +eye and stared till it fell out, (the glass, not the eye,) upon which he +fell into step with them, remarking,-- + +"I shall be most happy to show the lions: they are deused tame ones, so +you needn't be alarmed, Miss Wilder." + +Debby was good-natured enough to laugh; and, elated with that success, +he proceeded to pour forth his stores of wit and learning in true +collegian style, quite unconscious that the "jolly little thing" was +looking him through and through with the smiling eyes that were +producing such pleasurable sensations under the mosaic studs. They +strolled toward the beach, and, meeting an old acquaintance, Aunt Pen +fell behind, and beamed upon the young pair as if her prophetic eye even +at this early stage beheld them walking altarward in a proper state of +blond white vest and bridal awkwardness. + +"Can you skip a stone, Mr. Leavenworth?" asked Debby, possessed with a +mischievous desire to shock the piece of elegance at her side. + +"Eh? what's that?" he inquired, with his head on one side, like an +inquisitive robin. + +Debby repeated her question, and illustrated it by sending a stone +skimming over the water in the most scientific manner. Mr. Joe was +painfully aware that this was not at all "the thing," that his sisters +never did so, and that Seguin would laugh confoundedly, if he caught him +at it; but Debby looked so irresistibly fresh and pretty under her +rose-lined parasol that he was moved to confess that he _had_ done such +a thing, and to sacrifice his gloves by poking in the sand, that he +might indulge in a like unfashionable pastime. + +"You'll be at the hop tonight, I hope, Miss Wilder," he observed, +introducing a topic suited to a young lady's mental capacity. + +"Yes, indeed; for dancing is one of the joys of my life, next to husking +and making hay"; and Debby polked a few steps along the beach, much to +the edification of a pair of old gentlemen, serenely taking their first +"constitutional." + +"Making what?" cried Mr. Joe, polking after her. + +"Hay; ah, that is the pleasantest fun in the world,--and better +exercise, my mother says, for soul and body, than dancing till dawn in +crowded rooms, with everything in a state of unnatural excitement. If +one wants real merriment, let him go into a new-mown field, where all +the air is full of summer odors, where wild-flowers nod along the walls, +where blackbirds make finer music than any band, and sun and wind and +cheery voices do their part, while windrows rise, and great loads go +rumbling through the lanes with merry brown faces atop. Yes, much as I +like dancing, it is not to be compared with that; for in the one case we +shut out the lovely world, and in the other we become a part of it, till +by its magic labor turns to poetry, and we harvest something better than +dried buttercups and grass." + +As she spoke, Debby looked up, expecting to meet a glance of +disapproval; but something in the simple earnestness of her manner had +recalled certain boyish pleasures as innocent as they were hearty, which +now contrasted very favorably with the later pastimes in which fast +horses, and that lower class of animals, fast men, bore so large a part. +Mr. Joe thoughtfully punched five holes in the sand, and for a moment +Debby liked the expression of his face; then the old listlessness +returned, and, looking up, he said, with an air of _ennui_ that was half +sad, half ludicrous, in one so young and so generously endowed with +youth, health, and the good gifts of this life,-- + +"I used to fancy that sort of thing years ago, but I'm afraid I should +find it a little slow now, though you describe it in such an inviting +manner that I should be tempted to try it, if a hay-cock came in my way; +for, upon my life, it's deused heavy work loafing about at these +watering-places all summer. Between ourselves, there's a deal of humbug +about this kind of life, as you will find, when you've tried it as long +as I have." + +"Yes, I begin to think so already; but perhaps you can give me a few +friendly words of warning from the stores of your experience, that I may +be spared the pain of saying what so many look,--'Grandma, the world is +hollow; my doll is stuffed with sawdust; and I should like to go into a +convent, if you please.'" + +Debby's eyes were dancing with merriment; but they were demurely +downcast, and her voice was perfectly serious. + +The milk of human kindness had been slightly curdled for Mr. Joe by +sundry college-tribulations; and having been "suspended," he very +naturally vibrated between the inborn jollity of his temperament and the +bitterness occasioned by his wrongs. He had lost at billiards the night +before, had been hurried at breakfast, had mislaid his cigar-case, and +splashed his boots; consequently the darker mood prevailed that morning, +and when his counsel was asked, he gave it like one who had known the +heaviest trials of this "Piljin Projiss of a wale." + +"There's no justice in the world, no chance for us young people to enjoy +ourselves, without some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us like +these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here, where all seems free and +easy, there's no end of gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you +feel as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself, and the Devil +take the hindmost': that's the principle they go on, and you have to +keep your wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or you are done +for before you know it. I've seen a good deal of this sort of thing, and +hope you'll get on better than some do, when it's known that you are the +rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't need that fact to enhance +your charms,--upon my life, you don't." + +Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst of candor; but her +independent nature prompted her to make a fair beginning, in spite of +Aunt Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans. + +"Thank you for your warning, but I don't apprehend much annoyance of +that kind," she said, demurely. "Do you know, I think, if young ladies +were truthfully labelled when they went into society, it would be a +charming fashion, and save a world of trouble? Something in this +style:--'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune $100,000, temper +warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne, aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000, +temper slightly damaged'; 'Deborah Wilder, aged eighteen, fortune, one +pair of hands, one head, indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in +the market,) temper decided, and _no expectations_.' There, you see, +that would do away with much of the humbug you lament, and we poor +souls would know at once whether we were sought for our fortunes or +ourselves, and that would be so comfortable!" + +Mr. Leavenworth turned away, with a convicted sort of expression, as she +spoke, and, making a spyglass of his hand, seemed to be watching +something out at sea with absorbing interest. He had been guilty of a +strong desire to discover whether Debby was an heiress, but had not +expected to be so entirely satisfied on that important subject, and was +dimly conscious that a keen eye had seen his anxiety, and a quick wit +devised a means of setting it at rest forever. Somewhat disconcerted, he +suddenly changed the conversation, and, like many another distressed +creature, took to the water, saying briskly,-- + +"By-the-by, Miss Wilder, as I've engaged to do the honors, shall I have +the pleasure of bathing with you when the fun begins? As you are fond of +haymaking, I suppose you intend to pay your respects to the old +gentleman with the three-pronged pitchfork?" + +"Yes, Aunt Pen means to put me through a course of salt water, and any +instructions in the art of navigation will be gratefully received; for I +never saw the ocean before, and labor under a firm conviction, that, +once in, I never shall come out again till I am brought, like Mr. +Mantilini, a 'damp, moist, unpleasant body.'" + +As Debby spoke, Mrs. Carroll hove in sight, coming down before the wind +with all sails set, and signals of distress visible long before she +dropped anchor and came along-side. The devoted woman had been strolling +slowly for the girl's sake, though oppressed with a mournful certainty +that her most prominent feature was fast becoming a fine copper-color; +yet she had sustained herself like a Spartan matron, till it suddenly +occurred to her that her charge might be suffering a like + + "sea-change + Into something rich and strange." + +Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby met her without a +freckle, looking all the better for her walk; and though her feet were +wet with chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse for salt +water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the destruction of her raiment, nor +uttered a warning word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits, but +replied to her inquiry most graciously,-- + +"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven, and there will be just +time to get Victorine and our dresses; so run on to the house, and I +will join you as soon as I have finished what I am saying to Mrs. +Earle,"--then added, in a stage-aside, as she put a fallen lock off the +girl's forehead, "You are doing beautifully! He is evidently struck; +make yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I beg of you." + +Debby's bright face clouded over, and she walked on with so much +stateliness that her escort wondered "what the deuse the old lady had +done to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall her merry +mood, but with indifferent success. + + * * * * * + +"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this is getting back to first +principles, though I fancy I look like the little old woman who fell +asleep on the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated drapery; and +you look funnier still, Aunt Pen," said Debby, as she tied on her +pagoda-hat, and followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her +dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth surmounted by a gigantic +sun-bonnet. + +Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a blond-headed lobster in +his scarlet suit that Debby could hardly keep her countenance as they +joined the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy shore. + +For an hour each day the actors and actresses who played their different +_rôles_ at the ---- Hotel with such precision and success put off their +masks and dared to be themselves. The ocean wrought the change, for it +took old and young into its arms, and for a little while they played +like children in their mother's lap. No falsehood could withstand its +rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and powder from worn faces, +and left a fresh bloom there. No ailment could entirely resist its +vigorous cure; for every wind brought healing on its wings, endowing +many a meagre life with another year of health. No gloomy spirit could +refuse to listen to its lullaby, and the spray baptized it with the +subtile benediction of a cheerier mood. No rank held place there; for +the democratic sea toppled down the greatest statesman in the land, and +dashed over the bald pate of a millionnaire with the same white-crested +wave that stranded a poor parson on the beach and filled a fierce +reformer's mouth with brine. No fashion ruled, but that which is as old +as Eden,--the beautiful fashion of simplicity. Belles dropped their +affectations with their hoops, and ran about the shore blithe-hearted +girls again. Young men forgot their vices and their follies, and were +not ashamed of the real courage, strength, and skill they had tried to +leave behind them with their boyish plays. Old men gathered shells with +the little Cupids dancing on the sand, and were better for that innocent +companionship; and young mothers never looked so beautiful as when they +rocked their babies on the bosom of the sea. + +Debby vaguely felt this charm, and, yielding to it, splashed and sang +like any beach-bird, while Aunt Pen bobbed placidly up and down in a +retired corner, and Mr. Leavenworth swam to and fro, expressing his firm +belief in mermaids, sirens, and the rest of the aquatic sisterhood, +whose warbling no manly ear can resist. + +"Miss Wilder, you must learn to swim. I've taught quantities of young +ladies, and shall be delighted to launch the 'Dora,' if you'll accept me +as a pilot. Stop a bit; I'll get a life-preserver"; and leaving Debby to +flirt with the waves, the scarlet youth departed like a flame of fire. + +A dismal shriek interrupted his pupil's play, and looking up, she saw +her aunt beckoning wildly with one hand, while she was groping in the +water with the other. Debby ran to her, alarmed at her tragic +expression, and Mrs. Carroll, drawing the girl's face into the privacy +of her big bonnet, whispered one awful word, adding, distractedly,-- + +"Dive for them! oh, dive for them! I shall be perfectly helpless, if +they are lost!" + +"I can't dive, Aunt Pen; but there is a man, let us ask him," said +Debby, as a black head appeared to windward. + +But Mrs. Carroll's "nerves" had received a shock, and, gathering up her +dripping garments, she fled precipitately along the shore and vanished +into her dressing-room. + +Debby's keen sense of the ludicrous got the better of her respect, and +peal after peal of laughter broke from her lips, till a splash behind +her put an end to her merriment, and, turning, she found that this +friend in need was her acquaintance of the day before. The gentleman +seemed pausing for permission to approach, with much the appearance of a +sagacious Newfoundland, wistful and wet. + +"Oh, I'm very glad it's you, Sir!" was Debby's cordial greeting, as she +shook a drop off the end of her nose, and nodded, smiling. + +The new comer immediately beamed upon her like an amiable Triton, +saying, as they turned shoreward,-- + +"Our first interview opened with a laugh on my side, and our second with +one on yours. I accept the fact as a good omen. Your friend seemed in +trouble; allow me to atone for my past misdemeanors by offering my +services now. But first let me introduce myself; and as I believe in the +fitness of things, let me present you with an appropriate card"; and, +stooping, the young man wrote "Frank Evan" on the hard sand at Debby's +feet. + +The girl liked his manner, and, entering into the spirit of the thing, +swept as grand a curtsy as her limited drapery would allow, saying, +merrily,-- + +"I am Debby Wilder, or Dora, as aunt prefers to call me; and instead of +laughing, I ought to be four feet under water, looking for something we +have lost; but I can't dive, and my distress is dreadful, as you see." + +"What have you lost? I will look for it, and bring it back in spite of +the kelpies, if it is a human possibility," replied Mr. Evan, pushing +his wet locks out of his eyes, and regarding the ocean with a determined +aspect. + +Debby leaned toward him, whispering with solemn countenance,-- + +"It is a set of teeth, Sir." + +Mr. Evan was more a man of deeds than words, therefore he disappeared at +once with a mighty splash, and after repeated divings and much laughter +appeared bearing the chief ornament of Mrs. Penelope Carroll's comely +countenance. Debby looked very pretty and grateful as she returned her +thanks, and Mr. Evan was guilty of a secret wish that all the worthy +lady's features were at the bottom of the sea, that he might have the +satisfaction of restoring them to her attractive niece; but curbing this +unnatural desire, he bowed, saying, gravely,-- + +"Tell your aunt, if you please, that this little accident will remain a +dead secret, so far as I am concerned, and I am very glad to have been +of service at such a critical moment." + +Whereupon Mr. Evan marched again into the briny deep, and Debby trotted +away to her aunt, whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel and +despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled, and though she joyfully +rattled in her teeth, she said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story was +done,-- + +"Now that man will have a sort of claim on us, and we must be civil, +whoever he is. Dear! dear! I wish it had been Joe Leavenworth instead. +Evan,--I don't remember any of our first families with connections of +that name, and I dislike to be under obligations to a person of that +sort, for there's no knowing how far he may presume; so, pray, be +careful, Dora." + +"I think you are very ungrateful, Aunt Pen; and if Mr. Evan should +happen to be poor, it does not become me to turn up my nose at him, for +I'm nothing but a make-believe myself just now. I don't wish to go down +upon my knees to him, but I do intend to be as kind to him as I should +to that conceited Leavenworth boy; yes, kinder even; for poor people +value such things more, as I know very well." + +Mrs. Carroll instantly recovered her temper, changed the subject, and +privately resolved to confine her prejudices to her own bosom, as they +seemed to have an aggravating effect upon the youthful person whom she +had set her heart on disposing of to the best advantage. + +Debby took her swimming-lesson with much success, and would have +achieved her dinner with composure, if white-aproned gentlemen had not +effectually taken away her appetite by whisking bills-of-fare into her +hands, and awaiting her orders with a fatherly interest, which induced +them to congregate mysterious dishes before her, and blandly rectify +her frequent mistakes. She survived the ordeal, however, and at four +P.M. went to drive with "that Leavenworth boy" in the finest turnout +---- could produce. Aunt Pen then came off guard, and with a sigh of +satisfaction subsided into a peaceful doze, still murmuring, even in +her sleep,-- + +"Propinquity, my love, propinquity works wonders." + + * * * * * + +"Aunt Pen, are you a modest woman?" asked the young crusader against +established absurdities, as she came into the presence-chamber that +evening ready for the hop. + +"Bless the child, what does she mean?" cried Mrs. Carroll, with a start +that twitched her back-hair out of Victorine's hands. + +"Would you like to have a daughter of yours go to a party looking as I +look?" continued her niece, spreading her airy dress, and standing very +erect before her astonished relative. + +"Why, of course I should, and be proud to own such a charming +creature," regarding the slender white shape with much +approbation,--adding, with a smile, as she met the girl's eye,-- + +"Ah, I see the difficulty, now; you are disturbed because there is not a +bit of lace over these pretty shoulders of yours. Now don't be absurd, +Dora; the dress is perfectly proper, or Madame Tiphany never would have +sent it home. It is the fashion, child; and many a girl with such a +figure would go twice as _décolletée_, and think nothing of it, I assure +you." + +Debby shook her head with an energy that set the pink heather-bells +a-tremble in her hair, and her color deepened beautifully as she said, +with reproachful eyes,-- + +"Aunt Pen, I think there is a better fashion in every young girl's heart +than any Madame Tiphany can teach. I am very grateful for all you have +done for me, but I cannot go into public in such an undress as this; my +mother would never allow it, and father never forgive it. Please don't +ask me to, for indeed I cannot do it even for you." + +Debby looked so pathetic that both mistress and maid broke into a laugh +which, somewhat reassured the young lady, who allowed her determined +features to relax into a smile, as she said,-- + +"Now, Aunt Pen, you want me to look pretty and be a credit to you; but +how would you like to see my face the color of those geraniums all the +evening?" + +"Why, Dora, you are out of your mind to ask such a thing, when you know +it's the desire of my life to keep your color down and make you look +more delicate," said her aunt, alarmed at the fearful prospect of a +peony-faced _protégée_. + +"Well, I should be anything but that, if I wore this gown in its present +waistless condition; so here is a remedy which will prevent such a +calamity and ease my mind." + +As she spoke, Debby tied on her little _blonde fichu_ with a gesture +which left nothing more to be said. + +Victorine scolded, and clasped her hands; but Mrs. Carroll, fearing to +push her authority too far, made a virtue of necessity, saying, +resignedly,-- + +"Have your own way, Dora, but in return oblige me by being agreeable to +such persons as I may introduce to you; and some day, when I ask a +favor, remember how much I hope to do for you, and grant it cheerfully." + +"Indeed I will, Aunt Pen, if it is anything I can do without disobeying +mother's 'notions', as you call them. Ask me to wear an orange-colored +gown, or dance with the plainest, poorest man in the room, and I'll do +it; for there never was a kinder aunt than mine in all the world," cried +Debby, eager to atone for her seeming wilfulness, and really grateful +for her escape from what seemed to her benighted mind a very imminent +peril. + +Like a clover-blossom in a vase of camellias little Debby looked that +night among the dashing or languid women who surrounded her; for she +possessed the charm they had lost,--the freshness of her youth. Innocent +gayety sat smiling in her eyes, healthful roses bloomed upon her cheek, +and maiden modesty crowned her like a garland. She _was_ the creature +that she seemed, and, yielding to the influence of the hour, danced to +the music of her own blithe heart. Many felt the spell whose secret they +had lost the power to divine, and watched the girlish figure as if it +were a symbol of their early aspirations dawning freshly from the +dimness of their past. More than one old man thought again of some +little maid whose love made his boyish days a pleasant memory to him +now. More than one smiling fop felt the emptiness of his smooth speech, +when the truthful eyes looked up into his own; and more than one pale +woman sighed regretfully within herself, "I, too, was a happy-hearted +creature once!" + +"That Mr. Evan does not seem very anxious to claim our acquaintance, +after all, and I think better of him on that account. Has he spoken to +you tonight, Dora?" asked Mrs. Carroll, as Debby dropped down beside her +after a "splendid polka." + +"No, Ma'am, he only bowed. You see some people are not so presuming as +other people thought they were; for we are not the most attractive +beings on the planet; therefore a gentleman can be polite and then +forget us without breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Don't be +offended with him yet, for he may prove to be some great creature with a +finer pedigree than any of 'our first families.' Mr. Leavenworth, as you +know everybody, perhaps you can relieve Aunt Pen's mind, by telling her +something about the tall, brown man standing behind the lady with +salmon-colored hair." + +Mr. Joe, who was fanning the top of Debby's head with the best +intentions in life, took a survey, and answered readily,-- + +"Why, that's Frank Evan. I know him, and a deused good fellow he +is,--though he don't belong to our set, you know." + +"Indeed! pray, tell us something about him, Mr. Leavenworth. We met in +the cars, and he did us a favor or two. Who and what is the man?" asked +Mrs. Carroll, relenting at once toward a person who was favorably spoken +of by one who did belong to her "set." + +"Well, let me see," began Mr. Joe, whose narrative powers were not +great. "He is a book-keeper in my Uncle Josh Loring's importing concern, +and a powerful smart man, they say. There's some kind of clever story +about his father's leaving a load of debts, and Frank's working a deused +number of years till they were paid. Good of him, wasn't it? Then, just +as he was going to take things easier and enjoy life a bit, his mother +died, and that rather knocked him up, you see. He fell sick, and came to +grief generally, Uncle Josh said; so he was ordered off to get righted, +and here he is, looking like a tombstone. I've a regard for Frank, for +he took care of me through the smallpox a year ago, and I don't forget +things of that sort; so, if you wish to be introduced, Mrs. Carroll, +I'll trot him out with pleasure, and make a proud man of him." + +Mrs. Carroll glanced at Debby, and as that young lady was regarding Mr. +Joe with a friendly aspect, owing to the warmth of his words, she +graciously assented, and the youth departed on his errand. Mr. Evan went +through the ceremony with a calmness wonderful to behold, considering +the position of one lady and the charms of the other, and soon glided +into the conversation with the ease of a more accomplished courtier. + +"Now I must tear myself away, for I'm engaged to that stout Miss +Bandoline for this dance. She 's a friend of my sister's, and I must do +the civil, you know; powerful slow work it is, too, but I pity the poor +soul,--upon my life, I do"; and Mr. Joe assumed the air of a martyr. + +Debby looked up with a wicked smile in her eyes, as she said,-- + +"Ah, that sounds very amiable here; but in five minutes you'll be +murmuring in Miss Bandoline's ear,--'I've been pining to come to you +this half hour, but I was obliged to take out that Miss Wilder, you +see,--countrified little thing enough, but not bad-looking, and has a +rich aunt; so I've done my duty to her, but deuse take me if I can stand +it any longer.'" + +Mr. Evan joined in Debby's merriment; but Mr. Joe was so appalled at the +sudden attack that he could only stammer a remonstrance and beat a hasty +retreat, wondering how on earth she came to know that his favorite style +of making himself agreeable to one young lady was by decrying another. + +"Dora, my love, that is very rude, and 'Deuse' is not a proper +expression for a woman's lips. Pray, restrain your lively tongue, for +strangers may not understand that it is nothing but the sprightliness of +your disposition which sometimes runs away with you." + +"It was only a quotation, and I thought you would admire anything Mr. +Leavenworth said, Aunt Pen," replied Debby, demurely. + +Mrs. Carroll trod on her foot, and abruptly changed the conversation, by +saying, with an appearance of deep interest,-- + +"Mr. Evan, you are doubtless connected with the Malcoms of Georgia; for +they, I believe, are descended from the ancient Evans of Scotland. They +are a very wealthy and aristocratic family, and I remember seeing their +coat-of-arms once: three bannocks and a thistle." + +Mr. Evan had been standing before them with a composure which impressed +Mrs. Carroll with a belief in his gentle blood, for she remembered her +own fussy, plebeian husband, whose fortune had never been able to +purchase him the manners of a gentleman. Mr. Evan only grew a little +more erect, as he replied, with an untroubled mien,-- + +"I cannot claim relationship with the Malcoms of Georgia or the Evans of +Scotland, I believe, Madam. My father was a farmer, my grandfather a +blacksmith, and beyond that my ancestors may have been street-sweepers, +for anything I know; but whatever they were, I fancy they were honest +men, for that has always been our boast, though, like President +Jackson's, our coat-of-arms is nothing but 'a pair of shirt-sleeves.'" + +From Debby's eyes there shot a bright glance of admiration for the young +man who could look two comely women in the face and serenely own that he +was poor. Mrs. Carroll tried to appear at ease, and, gliding out of +personalities, expatiated on the comfort of "living in a land where fame +and fortune were attainable by all who chose to earn them," and the +contempt she felt for those "who had no sympathy with the humbler +classes, no interest in the welfare of the race," and many more moral +reflections as new and original as the Multiplication-Table or the +Westminster Catechism. To all of which Mr. Evan listened with polite +deference, though there was something in the keen intelligence of his +eye that made Debby blush for shallow Aunt Pen, and rejoice when the +good lady got out of her depth and seized upon a new subject as a +drowning mariner would a hen-coop. + +"Dora, Mr. Ellenborough is coming this way; you have danced with him but +once, and he is a very desirable partner; so, pray, accept, if he asks +you," said Mrs. Carroll, watching a far-off individual who seemed +steering his zigzag course toward them. + +"I never intend to dance with Mr. Ellenborough again, so please don't +urge me, Aunt Pen"; and Debby knit her brows with a somewhat irate +expression. + +"My love, you astonish me! He is a most agreeable and accomplished young +man,--spent three years in Paris, moves in the first circles, and is +considered an ornament to fashionable society. What _can_ be your +objection, Dora?" cried Mrs. Carroll, looking as alarmed as if her niece +had suddenly announced her belief in the Koran. + +"One of his accomplishments consists in drinking Champagne till he is +not a 'desirable partner' for any young lady with a prejudice in favor +of decency. His moving in 'circles' is just what I complain of; and if +he is an ornament, I prefer my society undecorated. Aunt Pen, I cannot +make the nice distinctions you would have me, and a sot in broadcloth is +as odious as one in rags. Forgive me, but I cannot dance with that +silver-labelled decanter again." + +Debby was a genuine little piece of womanhood; and though she tried to +speak lightly, her color deepened, as she remembered looks that had +wounded her like insults, and her indignant eyes silenced the excuses +rising to her aunt's lips. Mrs. Carroll began to rue the hour she ever +undertook the guidance of Sister Deborah's headstrong child, and for an +instant heartily wished she had left her to bloom unseen in the shadow +of the parsonage; but she concealed her annoyance, still hoping to +overcome the girl's absurd resolve, by saying, mildly,-- + +"As you please, dear; but if you refuse Mr. Ellenborough, you will be +obliged to sit through the dance, which is your favorite, you know." + +Debby's countenance fell, for she had forgotten that, and the Lancers +was to her the crowning rapture of the night. She paused a moment, and +Aunt Pen brightened; but Debby made her little sacrifice to principle +as heroically as many a greater one had been made, and, with a wistful +look down the long room, answered steadily, though her foot kept time to +the first strains as she spoke,-- + +"Then I will sit, Aunt Pen; for that is preferable to staggering about +the room with a partner who has no idea of the laws of gravitation." + +"Shall I have the honor of averting either calamity?" said Mr. Evan, +coming to the rescue with a devotion beautiful to see; for dancing was +nearly a lost art with him, and the Lancers to a novice is equal to a +second Labyrinth of Crete. + +"Oh, thank you!" cried Debby, tumbling fan, bouquet, and handkerchief +into Mrs. Carroll's lap, with a look of relief that repaid him fourfold +for the trials he was about to undergo. They went merrily away together, +leaving Aunt Pen to wish that it was according to the laws of etiquette +to rap officious gentlemen over the knuckles, when they introduce their +fingers into private pies without permission from the chief cook. How +the dance went Debby hardly knew, for the conversation fell upon books, +and in the interest of her favorite theme she found even the "grand +square" an impertinent interruption, while her own deficiencies became +almost as great as her partner's; yet, when the music ended with a +flourish, and her last curtsy was successfully achieved, she longed to +begin all over again, and secretly regretted that she was engaged four +deep. + +"How do you like our new acquaintance, Dora?" asked Aunt Pen, following +Joe Leavenworth with her eye, as the "yellow-haired laddie" whirled by +with the ponderous Miss Flora. + +"Very much; and I'm glad we met as we did, for it makes things free and +easy, and that is so agreeable in this ceremonious place," replied +Debby, looking in quite an opposite direction. + +"Well, I'm delighted to hear you say so, dear, for I was afraid you had +taken a dislike to him, and he is really a very charming young man, just +the sort of person to make a pleasant companion for a few weeks. These +little friendships are part of the summer's amusement, and do no harm; +so smile away, Dora, and enjoy yourself while you may." + +"Yes, Aunt, I certainly will, and all the more because I have found a +sensible soul to talk to. Do you know, he is very witty and well +informed, though he says he never had much time for self-cultivation? +But I think trouble makes people wise, and he seems to have had a good +deal, though he leaves it for others to tell of. I am glad you are +willing I should know him, for I shall enjoy talking about my pet heroes +with him as a relief from the silly chatter I must keep up most of the +time." + +Mrs. Carroll was a woman of one idea; and though a slightly puzzled +expression appeared in her face, she listened approvingly, and answered, +with a gracious smile,-- + +"Of course, I should not object to your knowing such a person, my love; +but I'd no idea Joe Leavenworth was a literary man, or had known much +trouble, except his father's death and his sister Clementina's +runaway-marriage with her drawing-master." + +Debby opened her brown eyes very wide, and hastily picked at the down on +her fan, but had no time to correct her aunt's mistake, for the real +subject of her commendations appeared at that moment, and Mrs. Carroll +was immediately absorbed in the consumption of a large pink ice. + + * * * * * + +"That girl is what I call a surprise-party, now," remarked Mr. Joe +confidentially to his cigar, as he pulled off his coat and stuck his +feet up in the privacy of his own apartment. "She looks as mild as +strawberries and cream till you come to the complimentary, then she +turns on a fellow with that deused satirical look of hers, and makes him +feel like a fool. I'll try the moral dodge to-morrow, and see what +effect that will have; for she is mighty taking, and I must amuse myself +somehow, you know." + +"How many years will it take to change that fresh-hearted little girl +into a fashionable belle, I wonder?" thought Frank Evan, as he climbed +the four flights that led to his "sky-parlor." + +"What a curious world this is!" mused Debby, with her nightcap in her +hand. "The right seems odd and rude, the wrong respectable and easy, and +this sort of life a merry-go-round, with no higher aim than pleasure. +Well, I have made my Declaration of Independence, and Aunt Pen must be +ready for a Revolution, if she taxes me too heavily." + +As she leaned her hot cheek on her arm, Debby's eye fell on the quaint +little cap made by the motherly hands that never were tired of working +for her. She touched it tenderly, and love's simple magic swept the +gathering shadows from her face, and left it clear again, as her +thoughts flew home like birds into the shelter of their nest. + +"Good night, mother! I'll face temptation steadily. I'll try to take +life cheerily, and do nothing that shall make your dear face a reproach, +when it looks into my own again." + +Then Debby said her prayers like any pious child, and lay down to dream +of pulling buttercups with Baby Bess, and sinking in the twilight on her +father's knee. + + * * * * * + +The history of Debby's first day might serve as a sample of most that +followed, as week after week went by with varying pleasures and +increasing interest to more than one young _débutante_. Mrs. Carroll did +her best, but Debby was too simple for a belle, too honest for a flirt, +too independent for a fine lady; she would be nothing but her sturdy +little self, open as daylight, gay as a lark, and blunt as any Puritan. +Poor Aunt Pen was in despair, till she observed that the girl often +"took" with the very peculiarities which she was lamenting; this +somewhat consoled her, and she tried to make the best of the pretty bit +of homespun which would not and could not become velvet or brocade. +Seguin, Ellenborough, & Co. looked with lordly scorn upon her, as a worm +blind to their attractions. Miss MacFlimsy and her "set" quizzed her +unmercifully behind her back, after being worsted in several passages of +arms; and more than one successful mamma condoled with Aunt Pen upon the +terribly defective education of her charge, till that stout matron could +have found it in her heart to tweak off their caps and walk on them, +like the irascible Betsey Trotwood. + +But Debby had a circle of admirers who loved her with a sincerity few +summer queens could boast; for they were real friends, won by gentle +arts, and retained by the gracious sweetness of her nature. Moon-faced +babies crowed and clapped their chubby hands when she passed by their +wicker thrones; story-loving children clustered round her knee, and +never were denied; pale invalids found wild-flowers on their pillows; +and forlorn papas forgot the state of the money-market when she sang for +them the homely airs their daughters had no time to learn. Certain plain +young ladies poured their woes into her friendly ear, and were +comforted; several smart Sophomores fell into a state of chronic +stammer, blush, and adoration, when she took a motherly interest in +their affairs; and a melancholy old Frenchman blessed her with the +enthusiasm of his nation, because she put a posy in the button-hole of +his rusty coat, and never failed to smile and bow as he passed by. Yet +Debby was no Edgeworth heroine, preternaturally prudent, wise, and +untemptable; she had a fine crop of piques, vanities, and dislikes +growing up under this new style of cultivation. She loved admiration, +enjoyed her purple and fine linen, hid new-born envy, disappointed hope, +and wounded pride behind a smiling face, and often thought with a sigh +of the humdrum duties that awaited her at home. But under the airs and +graces Aunt Pen cherished with such sedulous care, under the flounces +and furbelows Victorine daily adjusted with groans, under the polish +which she acquired with feminine ease, the girl's heart still beat +steadfast and strong, and conscience kept watch and ward that no +traitor should enter in to surprise the citadel which mother-love had +tried to garrison so well. + +In pursuance of his sage resolve, Mr. Joe tried the "moral dodge," as he +elegantly expressed it, and, failing in that, followed it up with the +tragic, religious, negligent, and devoted ditto; but acting was not his +forte, so Debby routed him in all; and at last, when he was at his wit's +end for an idea, she suggested one, and completed her victory by saying +pleasantly,-- + +"You took me behind the curtain too soon, and now the paste diamonds and +cotton-velvet don't impose upon me a bit. Just be your natural self, and +we shall get on nicely, Mr. Leavenworth." + +The novelty of the proposal struck his fancy, and after a few relapses +it was carried into effect, and thenceforth, with Debby, he became the +simple, good-humored lad Nature designed him to be, and, as a proof of +it, soon fell very sincerely in love. + +Frank Evan, seated in the parquet of society, surveyed the dress-circle +with much the same expression that Debby had seen during Aunt Pen's +oration; but he soon neglected that amusement to watch several actors in +the drama going on before his eyes, while a strong desire to perform a +part therein slowly took possession of his mind. Debby always had a look +of welcome when he came, always treated him with the kindness of a +generous woman who has had an opportunity to forgive, and always watched +the serious, solitary man with a great compassion for his loss, a +growing admiration for his upright life. More than once the beach birds +saw two figures pacing the sands at sunrise with the peace of early day +upon their faces and the light of a kindred mood shining in their eyes. +More than once the friendly ocean made a third in the pleasant +conversation, and its low undertone came and went between the mellow +bass and silvery treble of the human voices with a melody that lent +another charm to interviews which soon grew wondrous sweet to man and +maid. Aunt Pen seldom saw the twain together, seldom spoke of Evan; and +Debby held her peace, for, when she planned to make her innocent +confessions, she found that what seemed much to her was nothing to +another ear and scarcely worth the telling; so, unconscious as yet +whither the green path led, she went on her way, leading two lives, one +rich and earnest, hoarded deep within herself, the other frivolous and +gay for all the world to criticize. But those venerable spinsters, the +Fates, took the matter into their own hands, and soon got the better of +those short-sighted matrons, Mesdames Grundy and Carroll; for, long +before they knew it, Frank and Debby had begun to read together a book +greater than Dickens ever wrote, and when they had come to the fairest +part of the sweet story Adam first told Eve, they looked for the name +upon the title-page, and found that it was "Love." + +Eight weeks came and went,--eight wonderfully happy weeks to Debby and +her friend; for "propinquity" had worked more wonders than poor Mrs. +Carroll knew, as the only one she saw or guessed was the utter +captivation of Joe Leavenworth. He had become "himself" to such an +extent that a change of identity would have been a relief; for the +object of his adoration showed no signs of relenting, and he began to +fear, that, as Debby said, her heart was "not in the market." She was +always friendly, but never made those interesting betrayals of regard +which are so encouraging to youthful gentlemen "who fain would climb, +yet fear to fall." She never blushed when he pressed her hand, never +fainted or grew pale when he appeared with a smashed trotting-wagon and +a black eye, and actually slept through a serenade that would have won +any other woman's soul out of her body with its despairing quavers. +Matters were getting desperate; for horses lost their charms, "flowing +bowls" palled upon his lips, ruffled shirt-bosoms no longer delighted +him, and hops possessed no soothing power to allay the anguish of his +mind. Mr. Seguin, after unavailing ridicule and pity, took compassion +on him, and from his large experience suggested a remedy, just as he was +departing for a more congenial sphere. + +"Now don't be an idiot, Joe, but, if you want to keep your hand in and +go through a regular chapter of flirtation, just right about face, and +devote yourself to some one else. Nothing like jealousy to teach +womankind their own minds, and a touch of it will bring little Wilder +round in a jiffy. Try it, my boy, and good luck to you!"--with which +Christian advice Mr. Seguin slapped his pupil on the shoulder, and +disappeared, like a modern Mephistopheles, in a cloud of cigar-smoke. + +"I'm glad he's gone, for in my present state of mind he's not up to my +mark at all. I'll try his plan, though, and flirt with Clara West; she's +engaged, so it won't damage her affections; her lover isn't here, so it +won't disturb his; and, by Jove! I must do something, for I can't stand +this suspense." + +Debby was infinitely relieved by this new move, and infinitely amused as +she guessed the motive that prompted it but the more contented she +seemed, the more violently Mr. Joe flirted with her rival, till at last +weak-minded Miss Clara began to think her absent George the most +undesirable of lovers, and to mourn that she ever said "Yes" to a +merchant's clerk, when she might have said it to a merchant's son. Aunt +Pen watched and approved this stratagem, hoped for the best results, and +believed the day won when Debby grew pale and silent, and followed with +her eyes the young couple who were playing battledoor and shuttlecock +with each other's hearts, as if she took some interest in the game. But +Aunt Pen clashed her cymbals too soon; for Debby's trouble had a better +source than jealousy, and in the silence of the sleepless nights that +stole her bloom she was taking counsel of her own full heart, and +resolving to serve another woman as she would herself be served in a +like peril, though etiquette was outraged and the customs of polite +society turned upside down. + + * * * * * + +"Look, Aunt Pen! what lovely shells and moss I've got! Such a splendid +scramble over the rocks as I've had with Mrs. Duncan's boys! It seemed +so like home to run and sing with a troop of topsy-turvy children that +it did me good; and I wish you had all been there to see," cried Debby, +running into the drawing-room, one day, where Mrs. Carroll and a circle +of ladies sat enjoying a dish of highly flavored scandal, as they +exercised their eyesight over fancy-work. + +"My dear Dora, spare my nerves; and if you have any regard for the +proprieties of life, don't go romping in the sun with a parcel of noisy +boys. If you could see what an object you are, I think you would try to +imitate Miss Clara, who is always a model of elegant repose." + +Miss West primmed up her lips, and settled a fold in her ninth flounce, +as Mrs. Carroll spoke, while the whole group fixed their eyes with +dignified disapproval on the invader of their refined society. Debby had +come like a fresh wind into a sultry room; but no one welcomed the +healthful visitant, no one saw a pleasant picture in the bright-faced +girl with wind-tossed hair and rustic hat heaped with moss and +many-tinted shells; they only saw that her gown was wet, her gloves +forgotten, and her scarf trailing at her waist in a manner no well-bred +lady could approve. The sunshine faded out of Debby's face, and there +was a touch of bitterness in her tone, as she glanced at the circle of +fashion-plates, saying, with an earnestness which caused Miss West to +open her pale eyes to their widest extent,-- + +"Aunt Pen, don't freeze me yet,--don't take away my faith in simple +things, but let me be a child a little longer,--let me play and sing and +keep my spirit blithe among the dandelions and the robins while I can; +for trouble comes soon enough, and all my life will be the richer and +the better for a happy youth." + +Mrs. Carroll had nothing at hand to offer in reply to this appeal, and +four ladies dropped their work to stare; but Frank Evan looked in from +the piazza, saying, as he beckoned like a boy,-- + +"I'll play with you, Miss Dora; come and make sand pies upon the shore. +Please let her, Mrs. Carroll; we'll be very good, and not wet our +pinafores or feet." + +Without waiting for permission, Debby poured her treasures into the lap +of a certain lame Freddy, and went away to a kind of play she had never +known before. Quiet as a chidden child, she walked beside her companion, +who looked down at the little figure, longing to take it on his knee and +call the sunshine back again. That he dared not do; but accident, the +lover's friend, performed the work, and did him a good turn beside. The +old Frenchman was slowly approaching, when a frolicsome wind whisked off +his hat and sent it skimming along the beach. In spite of her late +lecture, away went Debby, and caught the truant chapeau just as a wave +was hurrying up to claim it. This restored her cheerfulness, and when +she returned, she was herself again. + +"A thousand thanks; but does Mademoiselle remember the forfeit I might +demand to add to the favor she has already done me?" asked the gallant +old gentleman, as Debby took the hat off her own head, and presented it +with a martial salute. + +"Ah, I had forgotten that; but you may claim it, Sir,--indeed, you may; +I only wish I could do something more to give you pleasure"; and Debby +looked up into the withered face which had grown familiar to her, with +kind eyes, full of pity and respect. + +Her manner touched the old man very much; he bent his gray head before +her, saying, gratefully,-- + +"My child, I am not good enough to salute these blooming cheeks; but I +shall pray the Virgin to reward you for the compassion you bestow on the +poor exile, and I shall keep your memory very green through all my +life." + +He kissed her hand, as if it were a queen's, and went on his way, +thinking of the little daughter whose death left him childless in a +foreign land. + +Debby softly began to sing, "Oh, come unto the yellow sands!" but +stopped in the middle of a line, to say,-- + +"Shall I tell you why I did what Aunt Pen would call a very unladylike +and improper thing, Mr. Evan?" + +"If you will be so kind"; and her companion looked delighted at the +confidence about to be reposed in him. + +"Somewhere across this great wide sea I hope I have a brother," Debby +said, with softened voice and a wistful look into the dim horizon. "Five +years ago he left us, and we have never heard from him since, except to +know that he landed safely in Australia. People tell us he is dead; but +I believe he will yet come home; and so I love to help and pity any man +who needs it, rich or poor, young or old, hoping that as I do by them +some tender-hearted woman far away will do by Brother Will." + +As Debby spoke, across Frank Evan's face there passed the look that +seldom comes but once to any young man's countenance; for suddenly the +moment dawned when love asserted its supremacy, and putting pride, +doubt, and fear underneath its feet, ruled the strong heart royally and +bent it to its will. Debby's thoughts had floated across the sea; but +they came swiftly back when her companion spoke again, steadily and +slow, but with a subtile change in tone and manner which arrested them +at once. + +"Miss Dora, if you should meet a man who had known a laborious youth, a +solitary manhood, who had no sweet domestic ties to make home beautiful +and keep his nature warm, who longed most ardently to be so blessed, and +made it the aim of his life to grow more worthy the good gift, should it +ever come,--if you should learn that you possessed the power to make +this fellow-creature's happiness, could you find it in your gentle heart +to take compassion on him for the love of 'Brother Will'?" + +Debby was silent, wondering why heart and nerves and brain were stirred +by such a sudden thrill, why she dared not look up, and why, when she +desired so much to speak, she could only answer, in a voice that sounded +strange to her own ears,-- + +"I cannot tell." + +Still, steadily and slow, with strong emotion deepening and softening +his voice, the lover at her side went on,-- + +"Will you ask yourself this question in some quiet hour? For such a man +has lived in the sunshine of your presence for eight happy weeks, and +now, when his holiday is done, he finds that the old solitude will be +more sorrowful than ever, unless he can discover whether his summer +dream will change into a beautiful reality. Miss Dora, I have very +little to offer you; a faithful heart to cherish you, a strong arm to +work for you, an honest name to give into your keeping,--these are all; +but if they have any worth in your eyes, they are most truly yours +forever." + +Debby was steadying her voice to reply, when a troop of bathers came +shouting down the bank, and she took flight into her dressing-room, +there to sit staring at the wall, till the advent of Aunt Pen forced her +to resume the business of the hour by assuming her aquatic attire and +stealing shyly down into the surf. + +Frank Evan, still pacing in the footprints they had lately made, watched +the lithe figure tripping to and fro, and, as he looked, murmured to +himself the last line of a ballad Debby sometimes sang,-- + + "Dance light! for my heart it lies under your feet, love!" + +Presently a great wave swept Debby up, and stranded her very near him, +much to her confusion and his satisfaction. Shaking the spray out of her +eyes, she was hurrying away, when Frank said,-- + +"You will trip, Miss Dora; let me tie these strings for you"; and, +suiting the action to the word, he knelt down and began to fasten the +cords of her bathing-shoe. + +Debby stood looking down at the tall head bent before her, with a +curious sense of wonder that a look from her could make a strong man +flush and pale, as he had done; and she was trying to concoct some +friendly speech, when Frank, still fumbling at the knots, said, very +earnestly and low,-- + +"Forgive me, if I am selfish in pressing for an answer; but I must go +to-morrow, and a single word will change my whole future for the better +or the worse. Won't you speak it, Dora?" + +If they had been alone, Debby would have put her arms about his neck, +and said it with all her heart; but she had a presentiment that she +should cry, if her love found vent; and here forty pairs of eyes were on +them, and salt water seemed superfluous. Besides, Debby had not breathed +the air of coquetry so long without a touch of the infection; and the +love of power, that lies dormant in the meekest woman's breast, suddenly +awoke and tempted her. + +"If you catch me before I reach that rock, perhaps I will say 'Yes,'" +was her unexpected answer; and before her lover caught her meaning, she +was floating leisurely away. + +Frank was not in bathing-costume, and Debby never dreamed that he would +take her at her word; but she did not know the man she had to deal with; +for, taking no second thought, he flung hat and coat away, and dashed +into the sea. This gave a serious aspect to Debby's foolish jest. A +feeling of dismay seized her, when she saw a resolute face dividing the +waves behind her, and thought of the rash challenge she had given; but +she had a spirit of her own, and had profited well by Mr. Joe's +instructions; so she drew a long breath, and swam as if for life, +instead of love. Evan was incumbered by his clothing, and Debby had much +the start of him; but, like a second Leander, he hoped to win his Hero, +and, lending every muscle to the work, gained rapidly upon the little +hat which was his beacon through the foam. Debby heard the deep +breathing drawing nearer and nearer, as her pursuer's strong arms cleft +the water and sent it rippling past her lips. Something like terror took +possession of her; for the strength seemed going out of her limbs, and +the rock appeared to recede before her; but the unconquerable blood of +the Pilgrims was in her veins, and "_Nil desperandum_" her motto; so, +setting her teeth, she muttered, defiantly,-- + +"I'll not be beaten, if I go to the bottom!" + +A great splashing arose, and when Evan recovered the use of his eyes, +the pagoda-hat had taken a sudden turn, and seemed making for the +farthest point of the goal. "I am sure of her now," thought Frank; and, +like a gallant sea-god, he bore down upon his prize, clutching it with a +shout of triumph. But the hat was empty, and like a mocking echo came +Debby's laugh, as she climbed, exhausted, to a cranny in the rock. + +"A very neat thing, by Jove! Deuse take me if you a'n't 'an honor to +your teacher, and a terror to the foe,' Miss Wilder," cried Mr. Joe, as +he came up from a solitary cruise and dropped anchor at her side. "Here, +bring along the hat, Evan; I'm going to crown the victor with +appropriate what-d'-ye-call-'ems," he continued, pulling a handful of +sea-weed that looked like well-boiled greens. + +Frank came up, smiling; but his lips were white, and in his eye a look +Debby could not meet; so, being full of remorse, she naturally assumed +an air of gayety, and began to sing the merriest air she knew, merely +because she longed to throw herself upon the stones and cry violently. + +"It was 'most as exciting as a regatta, and you pulled well, Evan; but +you had too much ballast aboard, and Miss Wilder ran up false colors +just in time to save her ship. What was the wager?" asked the lively +Joseph, complacently surveying his marine millinery, which would have +scandalized a fashionable mermaid. + +"Only a trifle," answered Debby, knotting up her braids with a +revengeful jerk. + +"It's taken the wind out of your sails, I fancy, Evan, for you look +immensely Byronic with the starch minus in your collar and your hair in +a poetic toss. Come, I'll try a race with you; and Miss Wilder will +dance all the evening with the winner. Bless the man, what's he doing +down there? Burying sunfish, hey?" + +Frank had been sitting below them on a narrow strip of sand, absently +piling up a little mound that bore some likeness to a grave. As his +companion spoke, he looked at it, and a sudden flush of feeling swept +across his face, as he replied,-- + +"No, only a dead hope." + +"Deuse take it, yes, a good many of that sort of craft founder in these +waters, as I know to my sorrow"; and, sighing tragically, Mr. Joe turned +to help Debby from her perch, but she had glided silently into the sea, +and was gone. + +For the next four hours the poor girl suffered the sharpest pain she had +ever known; for now she clearly saw the strait her folly had betrayed +her into. Frank Evan was a proud man, and would not ask her love again, +believing she had tacitly refused it; and how could she tell him that +she had trifled with the heart she wholly loved and longed to make her +own? She could not confide in Aunt Pen, for that worldly lady would have +no sympathy to bestow. She longed for her mother; but there was no time +to write, for Frank was going on the morrow,--might even then be gone; +and as this fear came over her, she covered up her face and wished that +she were dead. Poor Debby! her last mistake was sadder than her first, +and she was reaping a bitter harvest from her summer's sowing. She sat +and thought till her cheeks burned and her temples throbbed; but she +dared not ease her pain with tears. The gong sounded like a Judgment-Day +trump of doom, and she trembled at the idea of confronting many eyes +with such a telltale face; but she could not stay behind, for Aunt Pen +must know the cause. She tried to play her hard part well; but wherever +she looked, some fresh anxiety appeared, as if every fault and folly of +those months had blossomed suddenly within the hour. She saw Frank Evan +more sombre and more solitary than when she met him first, and cried +regretfully within herself, "How could I so forget the truth I owed +him?" She saw Clara West watching with eager eyes for the coming of +young Leavenworth, and sighed, "This is the fruit of my wicked vanity!" +She saw Aunt Pen regarding her with an anxious face, and longed to say, +"Forgive me, for I have not been sincere!" At last, as her trouble grew, +she resolved to go away and have a quiet "think,"--a remedy which had +served her in many a lesser perplexity; so, stealing out, she went to a +grove of cedars usually deserted at that hour. But in ten minutes Joe +Leavenworth appeared at the door of the summer-house, and, looking in, +said, with a well-acted start of pleasure and surprise,-- + +"Beg pardon, I thought there was no one here. My dear Miss Wilder, you +look contemplative; but I fancy it wouldn't do to ask the subject of +your meditations, would it?" + +He paused with such an evident intention of remaining that Debby +resolved to make use of the moment, and ease her conscience of one care +that burdened it; therefore she answered his question with her usual +directness,-- + +"My meditations were partly about you." + +Mr. Joe was guilty of the weakness of blushing violently and looking +immensely gratified; but his rapture was of short duration, for Debby +went on very earnestly,-- + +"I believe I am going to do what you may consider a very impertinent +thing; but I would rather be unmannerly than unjust to others or untrue +to my own sense of right. Mr. Leavenworth, if you were an older man, I +should not dare to say this to you; but I have brothers of my own, and, +remembering how many unkind things they do for want of thought, I +venture to remind you that a woman's heart is a perilous plaything, and +too tender to be used for a selfish purpose or an hour's pleasure. I +know this kind of amusement is not considered wrong; but it _is_ wrong, +and I cannot shut my eyes to the fact, or sit silent while another woman +is allowed to deceive herself and wound the heart that trusts her. Oh, +if you love your own sisters, be generous, be just, and do not destroy +that poor girl's happiness, but go away before your sport becomes a +bitter pain to her!" + +Joe Leavenworth had stood staring at Debby with a troubled countenance, +feeling as if all the misdemeanors of his life were about to be paraded +before him; but, as he listened to her plea, the womanly spirit that +prompted it appealed more loudly than her words, and in his really +generous heart he felt regret for what had never seemed a fault before. +Shallow as he was, nature was stronger than education, and he admired +and accepted what many a wiser, worldlier man would have resented with +auger or contempt. He loved Debby with all his little might; he meant to +tell her so, and graciously present his fortune and himself for her +acceptance; but now, when the moment came, the well-turned speech he had +prepared vanished from his memory, and with the better eloquence of +feeling he blundered out his passion like a very boy. + +"Miss Dora, I never meant to make trouble between Clara and her lover; +upon my soul, I didn't, and wish Seguin had not put the notion into my +head, since it has given you pain. I only tried to pique you into +showing some regret, when I neglected you; but you didn't, and then I +got desperate and didn't care what became of any one. Oh, Dora, if you +knew how much I loved you, I am sure you'd forgive it, and let me prove +my repentance by giving up everything that you dislike. I mean what I +say; upon my life I do; and I'll keep my word, if you will only let me +hope." + +If Debby had wanted a proof of her love for Frank Evan, she might have +found it in the fact that she had words enough at her command now, and +no difficulty in being sisterly pitiful toward her second suitor. + +"Please get up," she said; for Mr. Joe, feeling very humble and very +earnest, had gone down upon his knees, and sat there entirely regardless +of his personal appearance. + +He obeyed; and Debby stood looking up at him with her kindest aspect, as +she said, more tenderly than she had ever spoken to him before,-- + +"Thank you for the affection you offer me, but I cannot accept it, for I +have nothing to give you in return but the friendliest regard, the most +sincere good-will. I know you will forgive me, and do for your own sake +the good things you would have done for mine, that I may add to my +esteem a real respect for one who has been very kind to me." + +"I'll try,--indeed, I will, Miss Dora, though it will be powerful hard +without yourself for a help and a reward." + +Poor Joe choked a little, but called up an unexpected manliness, and +added, stoutly,-- + +"Don't think I shall be offended at your speaking so, or saying 'No' to +me,--not a bit; it 's all right, and I'm much obliged to you. I might +have known you couldn't care for such a fellow as I am, and don't blame +you, for nobody in the world is good enough for you. I'll go away at +once, I'll try to keep my promise, and I hope you'll be very happy all +your life." + +He shook Debby's hands heartily, and hurried down the steps, but at the +bottom paused and looked back. Debby stood upon the threshold with +sunshine dancing on her winsome face, and kind words trembling on her +lips; for the moment it seemed impossible to part, and, with an +impetuous gesture, he cried to her,-- + +"Oh, Dora, let me stay and try to win you! for everything is possible to +love, and I never knew how dear you were to me till now!" + +There were sudden tears in the young man's eyes, the flush of a genuine +emotion on his cheek, the tremor of an ardent longing in his voice, and, +for the first time, a very true affection strengthened his whole +countenance. Debby's heart was full of penitence; she had given so much +pain to more than one that she longed to atone for it,--longed to do +some very friendly thing, and soothe some trouble such as she herself +had known. She looked into the eager face uplifted to her own and +thought of Will, then stooped and touched her lover's forehead with the +lips that softly whispered, "No." + +If she had cared for him, she never would have done it; poor Joe knew +that, and murmuring an incoherent "Thank you!" he rushed away, feeling +very much as he remembered to have felt when his baby sister died and he +wept his grief away upon his mother's neck. He began his preparations +for departure at once, in a burst of virtuous energy quite refreshing to +behold, thinking within himself, as he flung his cigar-case into the +grate, kicked a billiard-ball into a corner, and suppressed his favorite +allusion to the Devil,-- + +"This is a new sort of thing to me, but I can bear it, and upon my life +I think I feel the better for it already." + +And so he did; for though he was no Augustine to turn in an hour from +worldly hopes and climb to sainthood through long years of inward +strife, yet in after-times no one knew how many false steps had been +saved, how many small sins repented of, through the power of the memory +that far away a generous woman waited to respect him, and in his secret +soul he owned that one of the best moments of his life was that in which +little Debby Wilder whispered "No," and kissed him. + +As he passed from sight, the girl leaned her head upon her hand, +thinking sorrowfully to herself,-- + +"What right had I to censure him, when my own actions are so far from +true? I have done a wicked thing, and as an honest girl I should undo +it, if I can. I have broken through the rules of a false propriety for +Clara's sake; can I not do as much for Frank's? I will. I'll find him, +if I search the house,--and tell him all, though I never dare to look +him in the face again, and Aunt Pen sends me home to-morrow." + +Full of zeal and courage, Debby caught up her hat and ran down the +steps, but, as she saw Frank Evan coming up the path, a sudden panic +fell upon her, and she could only stand mutely waiting his approach. + +It is asserted that Love is blind; and on the strength of that popular +delusion novel heroes and heroines go blundering through three volumes +of despair with the plain truth directly under their absurd noses: but +in real life this theory is not supported; for to a living man the +countenance of a loving woman is more eloquent than any language, more +trustworthy than a world of proverbs, more beautiful than the sweetest +love-lay ever sung. + +Frank looked at Debby, and "all her heart stood up in her eyes," as she +stretched her hands to him, though her lips only whispered very low,-- + +"Forgive me, and let me say the 'Yes' I should have said so long ago." + +Had she required any assurance of her lover's truth, or any reward for +her own, she would have found it in the change that dawned so swiftly in +his face, smoothing the lines upon his forehead, lighting the gloom of +his eye, stirring his firm lips with a sudden tremor, and making his +touch as soft as it was strong. For a moment both stood very still, +while Debby's tears streamed down like summer rain; then Frank drew her +into the green shadow of the grove, and its peace soothed her like a +mother's voice, till she looked up smiling with a shy delight her glance +had never known before. The slant sunbeams dropped a benediction on +their heads, the robins peeped, and the cedars whispered, but no rumor +of what further passed ever went beyond the precincts of the wood; for +such hours are sacred, and Nature guards the first blossoms of a human +love as tenderly as she nurses May-flowers underneath the leaves. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Carroll had retired to her bed with a nervous headache, leaving +Debby to the watch and ward of friendly Mrs. Earle, who performed her +office finely by letting her charge entirely alone. In her dreams Aunt +Pen was just imbibing a copious draught of Champagne at the +wedding-breakfast of her niece, "Mrs. Joseph Leavenworth," when she was +roused by the bride elect, who passed through the room with a lamp and a +shawl in her hand. + +"What time is it, and where are you going, dear?" she asked, dozily +wondering if the carriage for the wedding-tour was at the door so soon. + +"It's only nine, and I am going for a sail, Aunt Pen." + +As Debby spoke, the light flashed full into her face, and a sudden +thought into Mrs. Carroll's mind. She rose up from her pillow, looking +as stately in her nightcap as Maria Theresa is said to have done in like +unassuming head-gear. + +"Something has happened, Dora! What have you done? What have you said? I +insist upon knowing immediately," she demanded, with somewhat startling +brevity. + +"I have said 'No' to Mr. Leavenworth and 'Yes' to Mr. Evan; and I should +like to go home to-morrow, if you please," was the equally concise +reply. + +Mrs. Carroll fell flat in her bed, and lay there stiff and rigid as +Morlena Kenwigs. Debby gently drew the curtains, and stole away, leaving +Aunt Pen's wrath to effervesce before morning. + +The moon was hanging luminous and large on the horizon's edge, sending +shafts of light before her till the melancholy ocean seemed to smile, +and along that shining pathway happy Debby and her lover floated into +that new world where all things seem divine. + + * * * * * + + + + +WET-WEATHER WORK. + +BY A FARMER. + +III. + + +Will any of our artists ever give us, on canvas, a good, rattling, saucy +shower? There is room in it for a rare handling of the brush:--the +vague, indistinguishable line of hills, (as I see them to-day,)--the +wild scud of gray, with fine gray lines, slanted by the wind, and +trending eagerly downward,--the swift, petulant dash into the little +pools of the highway, making fairy bubbles that break as soon as they +form,--the land smoking with excess of moisture,--and the pelted leaves +all wincing and shining and adrip. + +I know no painter who has so well succeeded in putting a wet sky into +his pictures as Turner; and in this I judge him by the literal +_chiaroscuro_ of engraving. In proof of it, I take down from my shelf +his "Rivers of France": a book over which I have spent a great many +pleasant hours, and idle ones too,--if it be idle to travel leagues at +the turning of a page, and to see hill-sides spotty with vineyards, and +great bridges wallowing through the Loire, and to watch the fishermen of +Honfleur putting to sea. There are skies, as I said, in some of these +pictures which make a man instinctively think of his umbrella, or of his +distance from home: no actual rain-drift stretching from them, but such +unmistakable promise of a rainy afternoon, in their little parallel +wisps of dark-bottomed clouds, as would make a provident farmer order +every scythe out of the field. + +In the "Chair of Gargantua," on which my eye falls, as I turn over the +pages, an actual thunder-storm is breaking. The scene is somewhere upon +the Lower Seine. From the middle of the left of the picture the lofty +river-bank stretches far across, forming all the background;--its +extreme distance hidden by a bold thrust of the right bank, which juts +into the picture just far enough to shelter a white village, which lies +gleaming upon the edge of the water. On all the foreground lies the +river, broad as a bay. The storm is coming down the stream. Over the +left spur of the bank, and over the meeting of the banks, it broods +black as night. Through a little rift there is a glimpse of serene sky, +from which a mellow light streams down upon the edges and angles of a +few cliffs upon the farther shore. All the rest is heavily shadowed. The +edges of the coming tempest are tortuous and convulsed, and you know +that a fierce wind is driving the black billows on; yet all the water +under the lee of the shores is as tranquil as a dream; a white sail, +near to the white village, hangs slouchingly to the mast: but in the +foreground the tempest has already caught the water; a tall lugger is +scudding and careening under it as if mad; the crews of three +fishermen's boats, that toss on the vexed water, are making a confused +rush to shorten sail, and you may almost fancy that you hear their +outcries sweeping down the wind. In the middle scene, a little steamer +is floating tranquilly on water which is yet calm; and a column of smoke +piling up from its tall chimney rises for a space placidly enough, until +the wind catches and whisks it before the storm. I would wager ten to +one, upon the mere proof in the picture, that the fishermen and the +washerwomen in the foreground will be drenched within an hour. + +When I have once opened the covers of Turner,--especially upon such a +wet day as this,--it is hard for me to leave him until I have wandered +all up and down the Loire, revisited Tours and its quiet cathedral, and +Blois with its stately chateau, and Amboise with its statelier, and +coquetted again with memories of the Maid of Orléans. + +From the Upper Loire it is easy to slip into the branching valleys +which sidle away from it far down into the country of the Auvergne. +Turner does not go there, indeed; the more's the pity; but I do, since +it is the most attractive region rurally (Brittany perhaps excepted) in +all France. The valleys are green, the brooks are frequent, the rivers +are tortuous, the mountains are high, and luxuriant walnut-trees embower +the roads. It was near to Moulins, on the way hither, through the +pleasant Bourbonnois, that Tristram Shandy met with the poor, +half-crazed Maria, piping her evening service to the Virgin. + +And at that thought I must do no less than pull down my "Tristram +Shandy," (on which the dust of years has accumulated,) and read again +that tender story of the lorn maiden, with her attendant goat, and her +hair caught up in a silken fillet, and her shepherd's pipe, from which +she pours out a low, plaintive wail upon the evening air. + +It is not a little singular that a British author should have supplied +the only Arcadian resident of all this Arcadian region. The Abbé Delille +was, indeed, born hereabout, within sight of the bold Puy de Dome, and +within marketing-distance of the beautiful Clermont. But there is very +little that is Arcadian, in freshness or simplicity, in either the +"Gardens" or the other verse of Delille. + +Out of his own mouth (the little green-backed book, my boy) I will +condemn him:-- + + "Ce n'est plus cette simple et rustique déesse + Qui suit ses vieilles lois; c'est une enchanteresse + Qui, la baguette en main, par des hardis travaux + Fait naître des aspects et des trésors nouveaux, + Compose un sol plus riche et des races plus belles, + Fertilise les monts, dompte les rocs rebelles." + +The _baguette_ of Delille is no shepherd's crook; it has more the +fashion of a drumstick,--_baguette de tambour_. + +If I follow on southward to Provence, whither I am borne upon the scuds +of rain over Turner's pictures, and the pretty Bourbonnois, and the +green mountains of Auvergne, I find all the characteristic literature of +that land of olives is only of love or war: the vines, the +olive-orchards, and the yellow hill-sides pass for nothing. And if I +read an old _Sirvente_ of the Troubadours, beginning with a certain +redolence of the fields, all this yields presently to knights, and +steeds caparisoned,-- + + "Cavalliers ab cavals armatz." + +It is smooth reading, and is attributed to Bertrand de Born,[3] who +lived in the time when even the lion-hearted King Richard turned his +brawny fingers to the luting of a song. Let us listen:-- + + "The beautiful spring delights me well, + When flowers and leaves are growing; + And it pleases my heart to hear the swell + Of the birds' sweet chorus flowing + In the echoing wood; + And I love to see, all scattered around, + Pavilions and tents on the martial ground; + And my spirit finds it good + To see, on the level plains beyond, + Gay knights and steeds caparisoned." + +[Footnote 3: M. Raynouard, _Poésies de Troubadours_, II. 209.] + +But as the Troubadour nestles more warmly into the rhythm of his verse, +the birds are all forgotten, and the beautiful spring, and there is a +sturdy clang of battle, that would not discredit our own times:-- + + "I tell you that nothing my soul can cheer, + Or banqueting or reposing, + Like the onset cry of 'Charge them!' rung + From each side, as in battle closing; + Where the horses neigh, + And the call to 'aid' is echoing loud, + And there, on the earth, the lowly and proud + In the foss together lie, + And yonder is piled the mingled heap + Of the brave that scaled the trenches steep. + + "Barons! your castles in safety place, + Your cities and villages, too, + Before ye haste to the battle-scene: + And Papiol! quickly go, + And tell the lord of 'Yes and No' + That peace already too long hath been!"[4] + +[Footnote 4: I cannot forbear taking a bit of margin to print the +closing stanzas of the original, which carry the clash of sabres in +their very sound. + + "Ie us dic que tan no m' a sabor + Manjars ni beure ni dormir + Cum a quant aug cridar: A lor! + D'ambas las partz; et aug agnir + Cavals voitz per l'ombratge, + Et aug cridar: Aidatz! Aidatz! + E vei cazer per los fossatz + Paucs e grans per l'erbatge, + E vei los mortz que pels costatz + An los tronsons outre passatz. + + "Baros, metetz et gatge + Castels e vilas e ciutatz, + Enans q' usquecs no us guerreiatz. + + "Papiol, d'agradatge + Ad _Oc e No_ t' en vai viatz, + Dic li que trop estan en patz." + +It would seem that the men of that time, like men of most times, bore a +considerable contempt for people who said "Yes" one day, and "No" the +next.] + +I am on my way to Italy, (it may as well be confessed,) where I had +fully intended to open my rainy day's work; but Turner has kept me, and +then Auvergne, and then the brisk battle-song of a Troubadour. + +When I was upon the Cajano farm of Lorenzo the Magnificent, during my +last "spell of wet," it was uncourteous not to refer to the pleasant +commemorative poem of "Ambra," which Lorenzo himself wrote, and which, +whatever may be said against the conception and conduct of it, shows in +its opening stanzas that the great Medici was as appreciative of rural +images--fir-boughs with loaded snows, thick cypresses in which late +birds lurked, sharp-leaved junipers, and sturdy pines fighting the +wind--as ever he had been of antique jewels, or of the rhythm of such as +Politiano. And if I have spoken slightingly of this latter poet, it was +only in contrast with Virgil, and in view of his strained Latinity. When +he is himself, and wraps his fancies only in his own sparkling Tuscan, +we forget his classic frigidities, and his quarrels with Madonna +Clarice, and are willing to confess that no pen of his time was dipped +with such a relishing _gusto_ into the colors of the hyacinths and +trembling pansies, and into all the blandishments of a gushing and +wanton spring.[5] + + +[Footnote 5: See Wm. Parr Greswell's _Memoirs of Politiano_, with +translations.] + +But classical affectation was the fashion of that day. A certain +Bolognese noble, Berò by name, wrote ten Latin books on rural affairs: +Tiraboschi says he never saw them; neither have I. Another scholar, +Pietro da Barga, who astonished his teachers by his wonderful +proficiency at the age of twelve, and who was afterward guest of the +French ambassador in Venice, wrote a poem on rural matters, to which, +with an exaggerated classicism, he gave the Greek name of +"_Cynegeticon_"; and about the same time Giuseppe Voltolina composed +three books on kitchen-gardening. I name these writers only out of +sympathy with their topics: I would not advise the reading of them: it +would involve a long journey and scrupulous search to find them, through +I know not what out-of-the-way libraries; and if found, no essentially +new facts or theories could be counted on which are not covered by the +treatise of Crescenzi. The Pisans or Venetians may possibly have +introduced a few new plants from the East; the example of the Medici may +have suggested some improvements in the arrangement of forcing-houses, +or the outlay of villas; but in all that regarded general husbandry, +Crescenzi was still the man. + +I linger about this period, and the writers of this time, because I +snuff here and there among them the perfume of a country bouquet, which +carries the odor of the fields with it, and transports me to the +"empurpled hill-sides" of Tuscany. Shall I name Sannazaro, with his +"Arcadia"?--a dead book now,--or "Amyntas," who, before he is tall +enough to steal apples from the lowest boughs, (so sings Tasso,) plunges +head and ears in love with Sylvia, the fine daughter of Montano, who has +a store of cattle, "_richissimo d'armenti_"? + +Then there is Rucellai, who, under the pontificate of Leo X., came to +be Governor of the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and yet has left a poem of +fifteen hundred lines devoted to Bees. In his suggestions for the +allaying of a civil war among these winged people, he is quite beyond +either Virgil or Columella or Mr. Lincoln. "Pluck some leafy branch," he +says, "and with it sprinkle the contending factions with either honey or +sweet grape-juice, and you shall see them instantly forego their +strife":-- + + "The two warring bands joyful unite, + And foe embraces foe: each with its lips + Licking the others' wings, feet, arms, and breast, + Whereon the luscious mixture hath been shed, + And all inebriate with delight." + +So the Swiss,[6] he continues, when they fall out among themselves, are +appeased by some grave old gentleman, who says a few pleasant words, and +orders up a good stoop of sweet wine, in which all parties presently dip +their beards, and laugh and embrace and make peace, and so forget +outrage. It may have been the sixteenth-century way of closing a battle. + +[Footnote 6: + "Come quando nei Suizzeri si muove + Sedizione, e che si grida a l' arme; + Se qualche nom grave allor si leva in piede + E comincia a parlar con dolce lingua, + Mitiga i petti barbari e feroci; + E intanto fa portare ondanti vasi + Pieni di dolci ed odorati vini; + Ahora ognun le labbra e 'l mento immerge + Ne' le spumanti tazze," etc. +] + +Guarini, with all his affectations, has little prettinesses which charm +like the chirping of a bird;--as where he paints (in the very first +scene of the "Pastor Fido") the little sparrow flitting from fir to +beech, and from beech to myrtle, and twittering, "How I love! how I +love!" And the bird-mate ("_il suo dolce desio_") twitters in reply, +"How I love, how I love, too!" "_Ardo d' amore anch' io._" + +Messer Pietro Bembo was a different man from Guarini. I cannot imagine +him listening to the sparrows; I cannot imagine him plucking a +flower,--except he have some courtly gallantry in hand, perhaps toward +the Borgia. He was one of those pompous, stiff, scholastic prigs who +wrote by rules of syntax; and of syntax he is dead. He was clever and +learned; he wrote in Latin, Italian, Castlian: but nobody reads him; he +has only a little crypt in the "Autori Diversi." I think of him as I +think of fine women who must always rustle in brocade embossed with hard +jewels, and who never win the triumphs that belong to a charming morning +_déshabillé_ with only the added improvisation of a rose. + +In his "Asolani" Bembo gives a very full and minute description of the +gardens at Asolo, which relieved the royal retirement of Caterina, the +Queen of Cyprus. Nothing could be more admirable than the situation: +there were skirts of mountain which were covered, and are still covered, +with oaks; there were grottos in the sides of cliffs, and water so +disposed--in jets, in pools inclosed by marble, and among rocks--as to +counterfeit all the wildness of Nature; there was the same stately array +of cypresses, and of clipped hedges, which had belonged to the villas of +Pliny; temples were decorated with blazing frescoes, to which, I dare +say, Carpaccio may have lent a hand, if not that wild rake, Giorgione. +Here the pretty Queen, with eight thousand gold ducats a year, (whatever +that amount may have been,) and some seventy odd retainers, held her +court; and here Bembo, a dashing young fellow at that time of seven or +eight and twenty, became a party to those disquisitions on Love, and to +those recitations of song, part of which he has recorded in the +"Asolani." I am sorry to say, the beauty of the place, so far as regards +its artificial features, is now all gone. The hall, which may have +served as the presence-chamber of the Queen, was only a few years since +doing service as a farmer's barn; and the traces of a Diana and an +Apollo were still coloring the wall under which a few cows were +crunching their clover-hay. + +All the gardening of Italy at that period, as, indeed, at almost all +times, depended very much upon architectural accessories: colonnades and +wall-veil with frescoes make a large part of Italian gardening to this +day. The Isola Bella in the Lago Maggiore, and the Borghese Garden at +Rome, are fair types. And as I recall the sunny vistas of this last, and +the noontide loungings upon the marble seats, counting white flecks of +statues amid the green of cypresses, and watching the shadow which some +dense-topped pine flings upon a marble flight of steps or a marble +balustrade, I cannot sneer at the Italian gardening, or wish it were +other than it is. The art-life of Italy is the crowning and the +overlapping life. The Campagna seems only a bit of foreground to carry +the leaping arches of the aqueducts, and to throw the hills of Tivoli +and Albano to a purple distance. The farmers (_fattori_) who gallop +across the fields, in rough sheepskin wrappers, and upon scurvy-looking +ponies, are more picturesque than thrifty; and if I gallop in company +with one of them to his home upon the farther edge of the Campagna, +(which is an allowable wet-day fancy,) I shall find a tall stone house +smeared over roughly with plaster, and its ground-floor devoted to a +crazy cart, a pony, a brace of cows, and a few goats; a rude court is +walled in adjoining the house, where a few pigs are grunting. Ascending +an oaken stair-way within the door, I come upon the living-room of the +_fattore_; the beams overhead are begrimed with smoke, and garnished +here and there with flitches of bacon; a scant fire of fagots is +struggling into blaze upon an open hearth; and on a low table bare of +either cloth or cleanliness, there waits him his supper of _polenta_, +which is nothing more or less than our plain boiled Indian-pudding. Add +to this a red-eyed dog, that seems to be a savage representative of a +Scotch colley,--a lean, wrinkled, dark-faced woman, who is unwinding the +bandages from a squalling _Bambino_,--a mixed odor of garlic and of +goats, that is quickened with an ammoniacal pungency,--and you may form +some idea of the home of a small Roman farmer in our day. It falls away +from the standard of Cato; and so does the man. + +He takes his twenty or thirty acres, upon shares, from some wealthy +proprietor of Rome, whose estate may possibly cover a square mile or two +of territory. He sells vegetables, poultry, a little grain, a few curds, +and possibly a butt or two of sour wine. He is a type of a great many +who lived within the limits of the old Papal territory; whether he and +they have dropped their musty sheepskins and shaken off their unthrift +under the new government, I cannot say. + +Around Bologna, indeed, there was a better race of farmers: the +intervening thrift of Tuscany had always its influence. The meadows of +Terni, too, which are watered by the Velino, bear three full crops of +grass in the season; the valley of the Clitumnus is like a miniature of +the Genesee; and around Perugia the crimson-tasselled clovers, in the +season of their bloom, give to the fields the beauty of a garden. + +The old Duke of Tuscany, before he became soured by his political +mishaps, was a great patron of agricultural improvements. He had +princely farms in the neighborhood both of his capital and of Pisa. Of +the latter I cannot speak from personal observation; but the dairy-farm, +_Cascina_, near to Florence, can hardly have been much inferior to the +Cajano property of the great Lorenzo. The stables were admirably +arranged, and of permanent character; the neatness was equal to that of +the dairies of Holland. The Swiss cows, of a pretty dun-color, were kept +stalled, and luxuriously fed upon freshly cut ray-grass, clover, or +vetches, with an occasional sprinkling of meal; the calves were +invariably reared by hand; and the average _per diem_ of milk, +throughout the season, was stated at fourteen quarts; and I think +Madonna Clarice never strained more than this into the cheese-tubs of +Ambra. I trust the burghers of Florence, and the new _Gonfaloniere_, +whoever he may be, will not forget the dun cows of the Cascina, or their +baitings with the tender vetches. + +The redemption of the waste marshlands in the Val di Chiana by the +engineering skill of Fossombroni, and the consequent restoration of many +thousands of acres which seemed hopelessly lost to fertility, is a +result of which the Medici would hardly have dreamed, and which would do +credit to any age or country. + +About the better-cultivated portions of Lombardy there is an almost +regal look. The roads are straight, and of most admirable construction. +Lines of trees lift their stateliness on either side, and carry trailing +festoons of vines. On both sides streams of water are flowing in +artificial canals, interrupted here and there by cross sluices and +gates, by means of which any or all of the fields can be laid under +water at pleasure, so that old meadows return three and four cuttings of +grass in the year. There are patches of Indian-corn which are equal to +any that can be seen on the Miami; hemp and flax appear at intervals, +and upon the lower lands rice. The barns are huge in size, and are +raised from the ground upon columns of masonry. + +I have a dapper little note-book of travel, from which these facts are +mainly taken; and at the head of one of its pages I observe an old +ink-sketch of a few trees, with festoons of vines between. It is +yellowed now, and poor always; for I am but a dabbler at such things. +Yet it brings back, clearly and briskly, the broad stretch of Lombard +meadows, the smooth Macadam, the gleaming canals of water, the white +finials of Milan Cathedral shining somewhere in the distance, the +thrushes, as in the "Pastor Fido," filling all the morning air with +their sweet + + "Ardo d' amore! ardo d' amore!" + +the dewy clover-lots, looking like wavy silken plush, the green glitter +of mulberry-leaves, and the beggar in steeple-crowned hat, who says, +"_Grazia_," and "_Á rivedervi!_" as I drop him a few kreutzers, and +rattle away to the North, and out of Italy. + + * * * * * + +About the year 1570, a certain Conrad Heresbach, who was Councillor to +the Duke of Cleves, (brother to that unfortunate Anne of Cleves who was +one of the wife-victims of Henry VIII.,) wrote four Latin books on +rustic affairs, which were translated by Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire +farmer and poet, who was in his day gentleman-pensioner to Queen +Elizabeth. Our friend Barnaby introduces his translation in this +style:--"I haue thought it meet (good Reader) for thy further profit & +pleasure, to put into English these foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected +& set forth by Master Conrade Heresbatch, a great & a learned Counceller +of the Duke of Cleues: not thinking it reason, though I haue altered & +increased his worke, _with mine owne readings & obseruations_, joined +with the experience of sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in +the like case haue done) the honour & glory of his owne trauaile: +Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings or mine, should +deface, or any waves darken the good enterprise, or painfull trauailes +of such our countrymen, of England, as haue plentifully written of this +matter: but always haue, & do giue them the reuerence & honour due to so +vertuous, & well disposed Gentlemen, namely, _Master Fitz herbert_, & +_Master Tusser_: whose workes may, in my fancie, without any +presumption, compare with any, either _Varro_, _Columella_, or +_Palladius_ of _Rome_." + +The work is written in the form of a dialogue, the parties being Cono, a +country-gentleman, Metella, his wife, Rigo, a courtier, and Hermes, a +servant. The first book relates to tillage, and farm-practice in +general; the second, to orcharding, gardens, and woods; the third, to +cattle; and the fourth, to fowl, fish, and bees. He had evidently been +an attentive reader of the older authors I have discussed, and his +citations from them are abundant. He had also opportunity for every-day +observation in a region which, besides being one of the most fertile, +was probably at that time the most highly cultivated in Europe; and his +work may be regarded as the most important contribution to agricultural +literature since the days of Crescenzi. He reaffirms, indeed, many of +the old fables of the Latinists,--respects the force of proper +incantations, has abiding faith in "the moon being aloft" in time of +sowing, and insists that the medlar can be grafted on the pine, and the +cherry upon the fir. Rue, he tells us, "will prosper the better for +being stolen"; and "If you breake to powder the horne of a Ram & sowe it +watrying it well, it is thought it will come to be good Sperage" +(Asparagus). He assures us that he has grafted the pear successfully +when in full bloom; and furthermore, that he has seen apples which have +been kept sound for three years. + +Upon the last page are some rules for purchasing land, which I suspect +are to be attributed to the poet of Lincolnshire, rather than to +Heresbach. They are as good as they were then; and the poetry none the +worse:-- + + "First see that the land be clear + In title of the seller; + And that it stand in danger + Of no woman's dowrie; + See whether the tenure be bond or free, + And release of every fee of fee; + See that the seller be of age, + And that it lie not in mortgage; + Whether ataile be thereof found, + And whether it stand in statute bound; + Consider what service longeth thereto, + And what quit rent thereout must goe; + And if it become of a wedded woman, + Think thou then on covert baron; + And if thou may in any wise, + Make thy charter in warrantise, + To thee, thine heyres, assignes also; + Thus should a wise purchaser doe." + +The learned Lipsius was a contemporary of Councillor Heresbach, and +although his orthodoxy was somewhat questionable, and his Calvinism +somewhat stretchy, there can be no doubt of the honest rural love which +belongs to some of his letters, and especially to this smack of verse (I +dare not say poetry) with which he closes his _Eighth (Cent. I.)_ + + "Vitam si liceat mihi + Formare arbitriis meis: + Non fasces cupiam aut opes, + Non clarus niveis equis + Captiva agmina traxerim. + In solis habitem locis, + Hortos possideam atque agros, + Illic ad strepitus aquæ + Musarum studiis fruar. + Sic cum fata mihi ultima + Pernerit Lachesis mea; + Tranquillus moriar senex." + +And with this I will have done with a dead language; for I am come to a +period now when I can garnish my talk with the flowers of good old +English gardens. At the very thought of them, I seem to hear the royal +captive James pouring madrigals through the window of his Windsor +prison,-- + + "the hymnis consecrat + Of lovis use, now soft, now loud among, + That all the gardens and the wallis rung." + +And through the "Dreme" of Chaucer I seem to see the great plain of +Woodstock stretching away under my view, all white and green, "green +y-powdered with daisy." Upon the half-ploughed land, lying yonder veiled +so tenderly with the mist and the rain, I could take oath to the very +spot where five hundred years ago the plowman of Chaucer, all "forswat," + + "plucked up his plowe + Whan midsomer mone was comen in + And shoke off shear, and coulter off drowe, + And honged his harnis on a pinne, + And said his beasts should ete enowe + And lie in grasse up to the chin." + +But Chaucer was no farmer, or he would have known it to be bad husbandry +(even for poetry) to allow cattle steaming from the plough to lie down +in grass of that height. + + * * * * * + +Sir Anthony Fitz-herbert is the first duly accredited writer on British +husbandry. There are some few earlier ones, it is true,--a certain +"Mayster Groshede, Bysshop of Lyncoln," and a Henri Calcoensis, among +them. Indeed, Mr. Donaldson, who has compiled a bibliography of British +farm-writers, and who once threatened a poem on kindred subjects, has +the effrontery to include Lord Littleton. Now I have a respect for Lord +Littleton, and for Coke on Littleton, but it is tempered with some early +experiences in a lawyer's office, and some later experiences of the +legal profession; he may have written well upon "Tenures," but he had +not enough of tenderness even for a teasel. + +I think it worthy of remark, in view of the mixed complexion which I +have given to these wet-day studies, that the oldest printed copy of +that sweet ballad of the "Nut Browne Mayde" has come to us in a +Chronicle of 1503, which contains also a chapter upon "the crafte of +graffynge & plantynge & alterynge of fruyts." What could be happier than +the conjunction of the knight of "the grenwode tree" with a good chapter +on "graffynge"? + +Fitz-herbert's work is entitled a "Boke of Husbandrie," and counts, +among other headings of discourse, the following:-- + +"Whether is better a plough of horses or a plough of oxen." + +"To cary out dounge & mucke, & to spreade it." + +"The fyrste furryng of the falowes." + +"To make a ewe to love hir lambe." + +"To bye lean cattel." + +"A shorte information for a young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve." + +"What the wyfe oughte to dooe generally." + +(_seq._) "To kepe measure in spendynge." + +"What be God's commandments." + +By all which it may be seen that Sir Anthony took as broad a view of +husbandry as did Xenophon. + +Among other advices to the "young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve" +he counsels him to rise betime in the morning, and if "he fynde any +horses, mares, swyne, shepe, beastes in his pastures that be not his +own; or fynde a gap in his hedge, or any water standynge in his pasture +uppon his grasse, whereby he may take double herte, bothe losse of his +grasse, & rotting of his shepe, & calves; or if he fyndeth or seeth +anything that is amisse, & wold be amended, let him take out his tables +& wryte the defautes; & when he commeth home to dinner, supper, or at +nyght, then let him call his bayley, & soo shewe him the defautes. For +this," says he, "used I to doo x or xi yeres or more; & yf he cannot +wryte, lette him nycke the defautes uppon a stycke." + +Sir Anthony is gracious to the wife, but he is not tender; and it may be +encouraging to country-housewives nowadays to see what service was +expected of their mothers in the days of Henry VIII. + +"It is a wives occupacion to winow al maner of cornes, to make malte, +wash & wring, to make hey, to shere corne, & in time of neede to helpe +her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or donge carte, dryve the plough, +to lode hay corne & such other. Also to go or ride to the market to sell +butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekens, kapons, hennes, pygges, gees & al +maner of corne. And also to bye al maner of necessary thinges belonging +to a household, & to make a true rekening & accompt to her husband what +she hath receyved & what she hathe payed. And yf the husband go to +market to bye or sell as they ofte do, he then to shew his wife in lyke +maner. For if one of them should use to disceive the other, he +disceyveth himselfe, & he is not lyke to thryve, & therfore they must be +true ether to other." + + * * * * * + +I come next to Master Tusser,--poet, farmer, chorister, vagabond, +happily dead at last, and with a tomb whereon some wag wrote this:-- + + "Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive, + Thou teaching thrift, thyself could never thrive; + So, like the whetstone, many men are wont + To sharpen others when themselves are blunt." + +I cannot help considering poor Tusser's example one of warning to all +poetically inclined farmers. + +He was born at a little village in the County of Essex. Having a good +voice, he came early in life to be installed as singer at Wallingford +College; and showing here a great proficiency, he was shortly after +impressed for the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Afterward he was for +some time at Eton, where he had the ill-luck to receive some fifty-four +stripes for his shortcomings in Latin; thence he goes to Trinity +College, Cambridge, where he lives "in clover." It appears that he had +some connections at Court, through whose influence he was induced to go +up to London, where he remained some ten years,--possibly as +singer,--but finally left in great disgust at the vices of the town, and +commenced as farmer in Suffolk,-- + + "To moil and to toil + With loss and pain, to little gain, + To cram Sir Knave";-- + +from which I fancy that he had a hard landlord, and but little sturdy +resolution. Thence he goes to Ipswich, or its neighborhood, with no +better experience. Afterward we hear of him with a second wife at +Dereham Abbey; but his wife is young and sharp-tempered, and his +landlord a screw: so he does not thrive here, but goes to Norwich and +commences chorister again; but presently takes another farm in +Fairstead, Essex, where it would seem he eked out a support by +collecting tithes for the parson. But he says,-- + + "I spyed, if parson died, + (All hope in vain,) to hope for gain + I might go dance." + +Possibly he did go dance: he certainly left the tithe-business, and +after settling in one more home, from which he ran to escape the plague, +we find him returned to London, to die,--where he was buried in the +Poultry. + +There are good points in his poem, showing close observation, good +sense, and excellent judgment. His rules of farm-practice are entirely +safe and judicious, and make one wonder how the man who could give such +capital advice could make so capital a failure. In the secret lies all +the philosophy of the difference between knowledge and practice. The +instance is not without its modern support: I have the honor of +acquaintance with several gentlemen who lay down charming rules for +successful husbandry, every time they pay the country a visit; and yet +even their poultry-account is always largely against the constipated +hens. + +What is specially remarkable about Tusser is his air of entire +resignation amid all manner of vicissitudes: he does not seem to count +his hardships either wonderful or intolerable or unmerited. He tells us +of the thrashing he had at Eton, (fifty-four licks,) without greatly +impugning the head-master; and his shiftlessness in life makes us +strongly suspect that he deserved it all. + +Fuller, in his "Worthies," says Tusser "spread his bread with all sorts +of butter, yet none would stick thereon." In short, though the poet +wrote well on farm-practice, he certainly was not a good exemplar of +farm-successes. With all his excellent notions about sowing and reaping, +and rising with the lark, I should look for a little more of stirring +mettle and of dogged resolution in a man to be recommended as a tenant. +I cannot help thinking less of him as a farmer than as a kind-hearted +poet; too soft of the edge to cut very deeply into hard-pan, and too +porous and flimsy of character for any compacted resolve: yet taking +life tenderly, withal; good to those poorer than himself; making a +rattling appeal for Christmas charities; hospitable, cheerful, and +looking always to the end with an honest clearness of vision:-- + + "To death we must stoop, be we high, be we low, + But how, and how suddenly, few be that know, + What carry we, then, but a sheet to the grave, + (To cover this carcass,) of all that we have?" + + * * * * * + +I now come to Sir Hugh Platt, called by Mr. Weston, in his catalogue of +English authors, "the most ingenious husbandman of his age."[7] He is +elsewhere described as a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who had two +estates in the country, besides a garden in St. Martin's Lane. He was an +enthusiast in agricultural, as well as horticultural inquiries, +corresponding largely with leading farmers, and conducting careful +experiments within his own grounds. In speaking of that "rare and +peerless plant, the grape," he insists upon the wholesomeness of the +wines he made from his Bednall-Greene garden: "And if," he says, "any +exception shold be taken against the race and delicacie of them, I am +content to submit them to the censure of the best mouthes, that professe +any true skill in the judgment of high country wines: although for their +better credit herein, I could bring in the French Ambassador, who (now +almost two yeeres since, comming to my house of purpose to tast these +wines) gaue this sentence upon them: that he neuer drank any better new +wine in France." + +[Footnote 7: Latter part of sixteenth century; and was living, according +to Johnson, as late as 1606.] + +I must confess to more doubt of the goodness of the wine than of the +speech of the ambassador; French ambassadors are always so complaisant! + +Again he indulges us in the story of a pretty conceit whereby that +"delicate Knight," Sir Francis Carew, proposed to astonish the Queen by +a sight of a cherry-tree in full bearing, a month after the fruit had +gone by in England. "This secret he performed, by straining a Tent or +couer of canuass ouer the whole tree, and wetting the same now and then +with a scoope or horne, as the heat of the weather required: and so, by +witholding the sunne beams from reflecting upon the berries, they grew +both great, and were very long before they had gotten their perfect +cherrie-colour: and when he was assured of her Majestie's comming, he +remoued the Tent, and a few sunny daies brought them to their full +maturities." + +These notices are to be found in his "Flores Paradise." Another work, +entitled "Dyuers Soyles for manuring pasture & arable land," enumerates, +in addition to the usual odorous galaxy, such extraordinarily new +matters (in that day) as "salt, street-dirt, clay, Fullers earth, +moorish earth, fern, hair, calcination of all vegetables, malt dust, +soap-boilers ashes, and marle." But what I think particularly commends +him to notice, and makes him worthy to be enrolled among the pioneers, +is his little tract upon "The Setting of Corne."[8] + +[Footnote 8: This is not mentioned either by Felton in his _Portraits_, +etc., or by Johnson in his _History of Gardening_. Donaldson gives the +title, and the headings of the chapters.] + +In this he anticipates the system of "dibbling" grain, which, +notwithstanding, is spoken of by writers within half a century[9] as a +new thing; and which, it is needless to say, still prevails extensively +in many parts of England. If the tract alluded to be indeed the work of +Sir Hugh Platt, it antedates very many of the suggestions and +improvements which are usually accorded to Tull. The latter, indeed, +proposed the drill, and repeated tillage; but certain advantages, before +unconsidered, such as increased tillering of individual plants, economy +of seed, and facility of culture, are common to both systems. Sir Hugh, +in consecutive chapters, shows how the discovery came about; "why the +corne shootes into so many eares"; how the ground is to be dug for the +new practice; and what are the several instruments for making the holes +and covering the grain. + +[Footnote 9: See Young, _Annals of Agriculture_, Vol. III. p. 219, _et +seq._] + +I cannot take a more courteous leave of this worthy gentleman than by +giving his own _envoi_ to the most considerable of his books:--"Thus, +gentle Reader, having acquainted thee with my long, costly, and +laborious collections, not written at Adventure, or by an imaginary +conceit in a Scholler's private studie, but wrung out of the earth, by +the painfull hand of experience: and having also given thee a touch of +Nature, whom no man as yet ever durst send naked into the worlde without +her veyle: and Expecting, by thy good entertainement of these, some +encouragement for higher and deeper discoveries hereafter, I leave thee +to the God of Nature, from whom all the true light of Nature +proceedeth." + + * * * * * + +Gervase Markham must have been a roistering gallant about the time that +Sir Hugh was conducting his experiments on "Soyles"; for, in 1591, he +had the honor to be dangerously wounded in a duel which he fought in +behalf of the Countess of Shrewsbury; there are also some painful rumors +current (in old books) in regard to his habits in early life, which +weaken somewhat our trust in him as a quiet country counsellor. I +suspect, that, up to mature life, at any rate, he knew much more about +the sparring of a game-cock than the making of capons. Yet he wrote +books upon the proper care of beasts and fowls, as well as upon almost +every subject connected with husbandry. And that these were good books, +or at least in large demand, we have in evidence the memorandum of a +promise which some griping bookseller extorted from him, under date of +July, 1617:-- + +"I, Gervase Markham, of London, Gent, do promise hereafter never to +write any more book or books to be printed of the diseases or cures of +any cattle, as horse, oxe, cowe, sheepe, swine and goates, &c. In +witness whereof, I have hereunto sett my hand, the 24th day of Julie. + +"GERVIS MARKHAM." + +He seems to have been a man of some literary accomplishments, and one +who knew how to turn them to account. He translated the "Maison +Rustique" of Liebault, and had some hand in the concoction of one or two +poems which kindled the ire of the Puritan clergy. There is no doubt but +he was an adroit bookmaker; and the value of his labors, in respect to +practical husbandry, was due chiefly to his art of arranging, +compacting, and illustrating the maxims and practices already received. +His observations upon diseases of cattle and upon horsemanship were +doubtless based on experimental knowledge; for he was a rare and ardent +sportsman, and possessed all a sportsman's keenness in the detection of +infirmities. + +I suspect, moreover, that there were substantial grounds for that +acquaintance with gastronomy shown in the "Country Housewife." In this +book, after discoursing upon cookery and great feasts, he gives the +details of a "humble feast of a proportion which any good man may keep +in his family." + +"As thus:--first, a shield of brawn with mustard; secondly, a boyl'd +capon; thirdly, a boyl'd piece of beef; fourthly, a chine of beef +rosted; fifthly, a neat's tongue rosted; sixthly, a pig rosted; +seventhly chewits baked; eighthly, a goose rosted; ninthly, a swan +rosted; tenthly, a turkey rosted; eleventh, a haunch of venison rosted; +twelfth, a pasty of venison; thirteenth, a kid with a pudding in the +belly; fourteenth, an olive pye; the fifteenth, a couple of capons; the +sixteenth, a custard or dowsets." + +This is what Master Gervase calls a frugal dinner, for the entertainment +of a worthy friend; is it any wonder that he wrote about "Country +Contentments"? + + * * * * * + +My chapter is nearly full; and a burst of sunshine is flaming over all +the land under my eye; and yet I am but just entered upon the period of +English literary history which is most rich in rural illustration. The +mere backs of the books relating thereto, as my glance ranges over them, +where they stand in tidy platoon, start a delightfully confused picture +to my mind. + +I think it possible that Sir Hugh Platt may some day entertain at his +Bednall-Greene garden the worshipful Francis Bacon, who is living down +at Twickenham, and who is a thriving lawyer, and has written essays, +which Sir Hugh must know,--in which he discourses shrewdly upon gardens, +as well as many kindred matters; and through his wide correspondence, +Sir Hugh must probably have heard of certain new herbs which have been +brought home from Virginia and the Roanoke, and very possibly he is +making trial of a tobacco-plant in his garden, to be submitted some day +to his friend, the French Ambassador. + +I can fancy Gervase Markham "making a night of it" with those rollicking +bachelors, Beaumont and Fletcher, at the "Mermaid," or going with them +to the Globe Theatre to see two Warwickshire brothers, Edmund and Will +Shakspeare, who are on the boards there,--the latter taking the part of +Old Knowell, in Ben Jonson's play of "Every Man in his Humour." His +friends say that this Will has parts. + +Then there is the fiery and dashing Sir Philip Sidney, who threatened to +thrust a dagger into the heart of poor Molyneux, his father's steward, +for opening private letters (which poor Molyneux never did); and Sir +Philip knows all about poetry and the ancients; and in virtue of his +knowledges, he writes a terribly magniloquent and tedious "Arcadia," +which, when he comes to die gallantly in battle, is admired and read +everywhere: nowadays it rests mostly on the shelf. But the memory of his +generous and noble spirit is far livelier than his book. It was through +him, and his friendship, probably, that the poet Spenser was gifted by +the Queen with a fine farm of three thousand acres among the Bally-Howra +hills of Ireland. + +And it was here that Sir Walter Raleigh, that "shepherd of the sea," +visited the poet, and found him seated + + "amongst the coolly shade + Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore." + +Did the gallant privateer possibly talk with the farmer about the +introduction of that new esculent, the potato? Did they talk tobacco? +Did Colin Clout have any observations to make upon the rot in sheep, or +upon the probable "clip" of the year? + +Nothing of this; but + + "He pip'd, I sung; and when he sung, I pip'd: + By chaunge of tunes each making other merry." + +The lines would make a fair argument of the poet's bucolic life. I have +a strong faith that his farming was of the higgledy-piggledy order; I do +not believe that he could have set a plough into the sod, or have made a +good "cast" of barley. It is certain, that, when the Tyrone rebels +burned him out of Kilcolman Castle, he took no treasure with him but his +Elizabeth and the two babes; and the only treasures he left were the +ashes of the dear child whose face shone on him there for the last +time,-- + + "bright with many a curl + That clustered round her head." + +I wish I could love his "Shepherd's Calendar"; but I cannot. Abounding +art of language, exquisite fancies, delicacies innumerable there may be; +but there is no exhilarating air from the mountains, no crisp breezes, +no songs that make the welkin ring, no river that champs the bit, no +sky-piercing falcon. + +And as for the "Faëry Queene," if I must confess it, I can never read +far without a sense of suffocation from the affluence of its beauties. +It is a marvellously fair sea and broad,--with tender winds blowing over +it, and all the ripples are iris-hued; but you long for some brave blast +that shall scoop great hollows in it, and shake out the briny beads from +its lifted waters, and drive wild scuds of spray among the screaming +curlew. + +In short, I can never read far in Spenser without taking a rest--as we +farmers lean upon our spades, when the digging is in unctuous fat soil +that lifts heavily. + +And so I leave the matter,--with the "Faëry Queene" in my thought, and +leaning on my spade. + + * * * * * + + + + +CIVIC BANQUETS. + + +It has often perplexed me to imagine how an Englishman will be able to +reconcile himself to any future state of existence from which the +earthly institution of dinner shall be excluded. Even if he fail to take +his appetite along with him, (which it seems to me hardly possible to +believe, since this endowment is so essential to his composition,) the +immortal day must still admit an interim of two or three hours during +which he will be conscious of a slight distaste, at all events, if not +an absolute repugnance, to merely spiritual nutriment. The idea of +dinner has so imbedded itself among his highest and deepest +characteristics, so illuminated itself with intellect and softened +itself with the kindest emotions of his heart, so linked itself with +Church and State, and grown so majestic with long hereditary customs and +ceremonies, that, by taking it utterly away, Death, instead of putting +the final touch to his perfection, would leave him infinitely less +complete than we have already known him. He could not be roundly happy. +Paradise, among all its enjoyments, would lack one daily felicity which +his sombre little island possessed. Perhaps it is not irreverent to +conjecture that a provision may have been made, in this particular, for +the Englishman's exceptional necessities. It strikes me that Milton was +of the opinion here suggested, and may have intended to throw out a +delightful and consolatory hope for his countrymen, when he represents +the genial archangel as playing his part with such excellent appetite at +Adam's dinner-table, and confining himself to fruit and vegetables only +because, in those early days of her housekeeping, Eve had no more +acceptable viands to set before him. Milton, indeed, had a true English +taste for the pleasures of the table, though refined by the lofty and +poetic discipline to which he had subjected himself. It is delicately +implied in the refection in Paradise, and more substantially, though +still elegantly, betrayed in the sonnet proposing to "Laurence, of +virtuous father virtuous son," a series of nice little dinners in +midwinter; and it blazes fully out in that untasted banquet which, +elaborate as it was, Satan tossed up in a trice from the kitchen-ranges +of Tartarus. + +Among this people, indeed, so wise in their generation, dinner has a +kind of sanctity quite independent of the dishes that may be set upon +the table; so that, if it be only a mutton-chop, they treat it with due +reverence, and are rewarded with a degree of enjoyment which such +reckless devourers as ourselves do not often find in our richest +abundance. It is good to see how stanch they are after fifty or sixty +years of heroic eating, still relying upon their digestive powers and +indulging a vigorous appetite; whereas an American has generally lost +the one and learned to distrust the other long before reaching the +earliest decline of life; and thenceforward he makes little account of +his dinner, and dines at his peril, if at all. I know not whether my +countrymen will allow me to tell them, though I think it scarcely too +much to affirm, that, on this side of the water, people never dine. At +any rate, abundantly as Nature has provided us with most of the material +requisites, the highest possible dinner has never yet been eaten in +America. It is the consummate flower of civilization and refinement; and +our inability to produce it, or to appreciate its admirable beauty, if a +happy inspiration should bring it into bloom, marks fatally the limit of +culture which we have attained. + +It is not to be supposed, however, that the mob of cultivated Englishmen +know how to dine in this elevated sense. The unpolishable ruggedness of +the national character is still an impediment to them, even in that +particular line where they are best qualified to excel. Though often +present at good men's feasts, I remember only a single dinner, which, +while lamentably conscious that many of its higher excellences were +thrown away upon me, I yet could feel to be a perfect work of art. It +could not, without unpardonable coarseness, be styled a matter of animal +enjoyment, because out of the very perfection of that lower bliss there +had arisen a dream-like development of spiritual happiness. As in the +master-pieces of painting and poetry, there was a something intangible, +a final deliciousness that only fluttered about your comprehension, +vanishing whenever you tried to detain it, and compelling you to +recognize it by faith rather than sense. It seemed as if a diviner set +of senses were requisite, and had been partly supplied, for the special +fruition of this banquet, and that the guests around the table (only +eight in number) were becoming so educated, polished, and softened, by +the delicate influences of what they ate and drank, as to be now a +little more than mortal for the nonce. And there was that gentle, +delicious sadness, too, which we find in the very summit of our most +exquisite enjoyments, and feel it a charm beyond all the gayety through +which it keeps breathing its undertone. In the present case, it was +worth a heavier sigh, to reflect that such a festal achievement,--the +production of so much art, skill, fancy, invention, and perfect +taste,--the growth of all the ages, which appeared to have been ripening +for this hour, since man first began to eat and to moisten his food with +wine,--must lavish its happiness upon so brief a moment, when other +beautiful things can be made a joy forever. Yet a dinner like this is no +better than we can get, any day, at the rejuvenescent Cornhill +Coffee-House, unless the whole man, with soul, intellect, and stomach, +is ready to appreciate it, and unless, moreover, there is such a harmony +in all the circumstances and accompaniments, and especially such a pitch +of well-according minds, that nothing shall jar rudely against the +guest's thoroughly awakened sensibilities. The world, and especially our +part of it, being the rough, ill-assorted and tumultuous place we find +it, a beefsteak is about as good as any other dinner. + +The foregoing reminiscence, however, has drawn me aside from the main +object of my sketch, in which I purposed to give a slight idea of those +public or partially public banquets, the custom of which so thoroughly +prevails among the English people, that nothing is ever decided upon, in +matters of peace or war, until they have chewed upon it in the shape of +roast-beef, and talked it fully over in their cups. Nor are these +festivities merely occasional, but of stated recurrence in all +considerable municipalities and associated bodies. The most ancient +times appear to have been as familiar with them as the Englishmen of +to-day. In many of the old English towns, you find some stately Gothic +hall or chamber in which the Mayor and other authorities of the place +have long held their sessions; and always, in convenient contiguity, +there is a dusky kitchen, with an immense fireplace, where an ox might +lie roasting at his ease, though the less gigantic scale of modern +cookery may now have permitted the cobwebs to gather in its chimney. St. +Mary's Hall, in Coventry, is so good a specimen of an ancient +banqueting-room that perhaps I may profitably devote a page or two to +the description of it. + +In a narrow street, opposite to St. Michael's Church, one of the three +famous spires of Coventry, you behold a mediæval edifice, in the +basement of which is such a venerable and now deserted kitchen as I have +above alluded to, and, on the same level, a cellar, with low stone +pillars and intersecting arches, like the crypt of a cathedral. Passing +up a well-worn staircase, the oaken balustrade of which is as black as +ebony, you enter the fine old hall, some sixty feet in length, and broad +and lofty in proportion. It is lighted by six windows of modern stained +glass, on one side, and by the immense and magnificent arch of another +window at the farther end of the room, its rich and ancient panes +constituting a genuine historical piece, in which are represented some +of the kingly personages of old times, with their heraldic blazonries. +Notwithstanding the colored light thus thrown into the hall, and though +it was noonday when I last saw it, the panelling of black oak, and some +faded tapestry that hung round the walls, together with the cloudy vault +of the roof above, made a gloom which the richness only illuminated into +more appreciable effect. The tapestry is wrought with figures in the +dress of Henry VI.'s time, (which is the date of the hall,) and is +regarded by antiquaries as authentic evidence both for the costume of +that epoch, and, I believe, for the actual portraiture of men known in +history. They are as colorless as ghosts, however, and vanish drearily +into the old stitch-work of their substance, when you try to make them +out. Coats-of-arms were formerly emblazoned all round the hall, but have +been almost rubbed out by people hanging their overcoats against them, +or by women with dish-clouts and scrubbing-brushes, obliterating +hereditary glories in their blind hostility to dust and spiders' webs. +Full-length portraits of several English kings, Charles II. being the +earliest, hang on the walls; and on the daïs, or elevated part of the +floor, stands an antique chair of state, which more than one royal +character is traditionally said to have occupied while feasting here +with their loyal subjects of Coventry. It is roomy enough for a person +of kingly bulk, or even two such, but angular and uncomfortable, +reminding me of the oaken settles which used to be seen in old-fashioned +New-England kitchens. + +Overhead, supported by a self-sustaining power, without the aid of a +single pillar, is the original ceiling of oak, precisely similar in +shape to the roof of a barn, with all the beams and rafters plainly to +be seen. At the remote height of sixty feet, you hardly discern that +they are carved with figures of angels, and doubtless many other +devices, of which the admirable Gothic art is wasted in the duskiness +that has so long been brooding there. Over the entrance of the hall, +opposite the great arched window, the party-colored radiance of which +glimmers faintly through the interval, is a gallery for minstrels; and a +row of ancient suits of armor is suspended from its balustrade. It +impresses me, too, (for, having gone so far, I would fain leave nothing +untouched upon,) that I remember, somewhere about these venerable +precincts, a picture of the Countess Godiva on horseback, in which the +artist has been so niggardly of that illustrious lady's hair, that, if +she had no ampler garniture, there was certainly much need for the good +people of Coventry to shut their eyes. After all my pains, I fear that I +have made but a poor hand at the description, as regards a transference +of the scene from my own mind to the reader's. It gave me a most vivid +idea of antiquity that had been very little tampered with; insomuch +that, if a group of steel-clad knights had come clanking through the +door-way, and a bearded and beruffed old figure had handed in a stately +dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a long-forgotten fashion, unveiling +a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in the mouldy tomb, yet stepping +majestically to the trill of harp and viol from the minstrels' gallery, +while the rusty armor responded with a hollow ringing sound +beneath,--why, I should have felt that these shadows, once so familiar +with the spot, had a better right in St. Mary's Hall than I, a stranger +from a far country which has no Past. But the moral of the foregoing +pages is to show how tenaciously this love of pompous dinners, this +reverence for dinner as a sacred institution, has caught hold of the +English character; since, from, the earliest recognizable period, we +find them building their civic banqueting-halls as magnificently as +their palaces or cathedrals. + +I know not whether the hall just described is still used for festive +purposes, but others of similar antiquity and splendor are so. For +example, there is Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in London, a very fine old +room, adorned with admirably carved wood-work on the ceiling and walls. +It is also enriched with Holbein's master-piece, representing a grave +assemblage of barbers and surgeons, all portraits, (with such extensive +beards that methinks one-half of the company might have been profitably +occupied in trimming the other,) kneeling before King Henry VIII. Sir +Robert Peel is said to have offered a thousand pounds for the liberty of +cutting out one of the heads from this picture, he conditioning to have +a perfect fac-simile painted in. The room has many other pictures of +distinguished members of the company in long-past times, and of some of +the monarchs and statesmen of England, all darkened with age, but +darkened into such ripe magnificence as only age could bestow. It is not +my design to inflict any more specimens of ancient hall-painting on the +reader; but it may be worth while to touch upon other modes of +stateliness that still survive in these time-honored civic feasts, where +there appears to be a singular assumption of dignity and solemn pomp by +respectable citizens, who would never dream of claiming any privilege of +rank outside of their own sphere. Thus, I saw two caps of state for the +warden and junior warden of the company, caps of silver (real coronets +or crowns, indeed, for these city-grandees) wrought in open-work and +lined with crimson velvet. In a strong-closet, opening from the hall, +there was a great deal of rich plate to furnish forth the banquet-table, +comprising hundreds of forks and spoons, a vast silver punch-bowl, the +gift of some jolly king or other, and, besides a multitude of less +noticeable vessels, two Loving-Cups, very elaborately wrought in silver +gilt, one presented by Henry VIII., the other by Charles II. These cups, +including the covers and pedestals, are very large and weighty, although +the bowl-part would hardly contain more than half a pint of wine, which, +when the custom was first established, each guest was probably expected +to drink off at a draught. In passing them from hand to hand adown a +long table of compotators, there is a peculiar ceremony which I may +hereafter have occasion to describe. Meanwhile, if I might assume such a +liberty, I should be glad to invite the reader to the official +dinner-table of his Worship, the Mayor, at a large English seaport where +I spent several years. + +The Mayor's dinner-parties occur as often as once a fortnight, and, +inviting his guests by fifty or sixty at a time, his Worship probably +assembles at his board most of the eminent citizens and distinguished +personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's +incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling +among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. A +miscellaneous party of Englishmen can always find more comfortable +ground to meet upon than as many Americans, their differences of opinion +being incomparably less radical than ours, and it being the sincerest +wish of all their hearts, whether they call themselves Liberals or what +not, that nothing in this world shall ever be greatly altered from what +it has been and is. Thus there is seldom such a virulence of political +hostility that it may not be dissolved in a glass or two of wine, +without making the good liquor any more dry or bitter than accords with +English taste. + +The first dinner of this kind at which I had the honor to be present +took place during assize time, and included among the guests the judges +and the prominent members of the bar. Reaching the Town-Hall at seven +o'clock, I communicated my name to one of several splendidly dressed +footmen, and he repeated it to another on the first staircase, by whom +it was passed to a third, and thence to a fourth at the door of the +reception-room, losing all resemblance to the original sound in the +course of these transmissions; so that I had the advantage of making my +entrance in the character of a stranger, not only to the whole company, +but to myself as well. His Worship, however, kindly recognized me, and +put me on speaking-terms with two or three gentlemen, whom I found very +affable, and all the more hospitably attentive on the score of my +nationality. It is very singular how kind an Englishman will almost +invariably be to an individual American, without ever bating a jot of +his prejudice against the American character in the lump. My new +acquaintances took evident pains to put me at my ease; and, in requital +of their good-nature, I soon began to look round at the general company +in a critical spirit, making my crude observations apart, and drawing +silent inferences, of the correctness of which I should not have been +half so well satisfied a year afterwards as at that moment. + +There were two judges present, a good many lawyers, and a few officers +of the army in uniform. The other guests seemed to be principally of the +mercantile class, and among them was a ship-owner from Nova Scotia, with +whom I coalesced a little, inasmuch as we were born with the same sky +over our heads, and an unbroken continuity of soil between his abode and +mine. There was one old gentleman, whose character I never made out, +with powdered hair, clad in black breeches and silk stockings, and +wearing a rapier at his side; otherwise, with the exception of the +military uniforms, there was little or no pretence of official costume. +It being the first considerable assemblage of Englishmen that I had +seen, my honest impression about them was, that they were a heavy and +homely set of people, with a remarkable roughness of aspect and +behavior, not repulsive, but beneath which it required more familiarity +with the national character than I then possessed always to detect the +good-breeding of a gentleman. Being generally middle-aged, or still +farther advanced, they were by no means graceful in figure; for the +comeliness of the youthful Englishman rapidly diminishes with years, his +body appearing to grow longer, his legs to abbreviate themselves, and +his stomach to assume the dignified prominence which justly belongs to +that metropolis of his system. His face (what with the acridity of the +atmosphere, ale at lunch, wine at dinner, and a well-digested abundance +of succulent food) gets red and mottled, and develops at least one +additional chin, with a promise of more; so that, finally, a stranger +recognizes his animal part at the most superficial glance, but must take +time and a little pains to discover the intellectual. Comparing him with +an American, I really thought that our national paleness and lean habit +of flesh gave us greatly the advantage in an æsthetic point of view. It +seemed to me, moreover, that the English tailor had not done so much as +he might and ought for these heavy figures, but had gone on wilfully +exaggerating their uncouthness by the roominess of their garments: he +had evidently no idea of accuracy of fit, and smartness was entirely out +of his line. But, to be quite open with the reader, I afterwards learned +to think that this aforesaid tailor has a deeper art than his brethren +among ourselves, knowing how to dress his customers with such individual +propriety that they look as if they were born in their clothes, the fit +being to the character rather than the form. If you make an Englishman +smart, (unless he be a very exceptional one, of whom I have seen a few,) +you make him a monster: his best aspect is that of ponderous +respectability. + +To make an end of these first impressions, I fancied that not merely the +Suffolk bar, but the bar of any inland county in New England, might show +a set of thin-visaged, green-spectacled men, looking wretchedly worn, +sallow with the intemperate use of strong coffee, deeply wrinkled across +the forehead, and grimly furrowed about the month, with whom these +heavy-cheeked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as they must +needs be, would stand very little chance in a professional contest. How +that matter might turn out I am unqualified to decide. But I state these +results of my earliest glimpses of Englishmen, not for what they are +worth, but because I ultimately gave them up as worth little or nothing. +In course of time, I came to the conclusion that Englishmen of all ages +are a rather good-looking people, dress in admirable taste from their +own point of view, and, under a surface never silken to the touch, have +a refinement of manners too thorough and genuine to be thought of as a +separate endowment,--that is to say, if the individual himself be a man +of station, and has had gentlemen for his father and grandfather. The +sturdy Anglo-Saxon nature does not refine itself short of the third +generation. The tradesmen, too, and all other classes, have their own +proprieties. The only value of my criticisms, therefore, lay in their +exemplifying the proneness of a traveller to measure one people by the +distinctive characteristics of another,--as English writers invariably +measure us, and take upon themselves to be disgusted accordingly, +instead of trying to find out some principle of beauty with which we may +be in conformity. + +In due time we were summoned to the table, and went thither in no solemn +procession, but with a good deal of jostling, thrusting behind, and +scrambling for places when we reached our destination. The legal +gentlemen, I suspect, were responsible for this indecorous zeal, which I +never afterwards remarked in a similar party. The dining-hall was of +noble size, and, like the other rooms of the suite, was gorgeously +painted and gilded and brilliantly illuminated. There was a splendid +table-service, and a noble array of footmen, some of them in plain +clothes, and others wearing the town-livery, richly decorated with +gold-lace, and themselves excellent specimens of the blooming +young-manhood of Britain. When we were fairly seated, it was certainly +an agreeable spectacle to look up and down the long vista of earnest +faces, and behold them so resolute, so conscious that there was an +important business in hand, and so determined to be equal to the +occasion. Indeed, Englishman or not, I hardly know what can be prettier +than a snow-white table-cloth, a huge heap of flowers as a central +decoration, bright silver, rich china, crystal glasses, decanters of +Sherry at due intervals, a French roll and an artistically folded napkin +at each plate, all that airy portion of a banquet, in short, that comes +before the first mouthful, the whole illuminated by a blaze of +artificial light, without which a dinner of made-dishes looks spectral, +and the simplest viands are the best. Printed bills-of-fare were +distributed, representing an abundant feast, no part of which appeared +on the table until called for in separate plates. I have entirely +forgotten what it was, but deem it no great matter, inasmuch as there is +a pervading commonplace and identicalness in the composition of +extensive dinners, on account of the impossibility of supplying a +hundred guests with anything particularly delicate or rare. It was +suggested to me that certain juicy old gentlemen had a private +understanding what to call for, and that it would be good policy in a +stranger to follow in their footsteps through the feast. I did not care +to do so, however, because, like Sancho Panza's dip out of Camacho's +caldron, any sort of pot-luck at such a table would be sure to suit my +purpose; so I chose a dish or two on my own judgment, and, getting +through my labors betimes, had great pleasure in seeing the Englishmen +toil onward to the end. + +They drank rather copiously, too, though wisely; for I observed that +they seldom took Hock, and let the Champagne bubble slowly away out of +the goblet, solacing themselves with Sherry, but tasting it warily +before bestowing their final confidence. Their taste in wines, however, +did not seem so exquisite, and certainly was not so various, as that to +which many Americans pretend. This foppery of an intimate acquaintance +with rare vintage: does not suit a sensible Englishman, as he is very +much in earnest about his wines, and adopts one or two as his life-long +friends, seldom exchanging them for any Delilahs of a moment, and +reaping the reward of his constancy in an unimpaired stomach, and only +so much gout as he deems wholesome and desirable. Knowing well the +measure of his powers, he is not apt to fill his glass too often. +Society, indeed, would hardly tolerate habitual imprudences of that +kind, though, in my opinion, the Englishmen now upon the stage could +carry off their three bottles, at need, with as steady a gait as any of +their forefathers. It is not so very long since the three-bottle heroes +sank finally under the table. It may be (at least, I should be glad if +it were true) that there was an occult sympathy between our +temperance-reform, now somewhat in abeyance, and the almost simultaneous +disappearance of hard-drinking among the respectable classes in England. +I remember a middle-aged gentleman telling me (in illustration of the +very slight importance attached to breaches of temperance within the +memory of men not yet old) that he had seen a certain magistrate, Sir +John Linkwater, or Drinkwater,--but I think the jolly old knight could +hardly have staggered under so perverse a misnomer as this last,--while +sitting on the magisterial bench, pull out a crown-piece and hand it to +the clerk. "Mr. Clerk," said Sir John, as if it were the most +indifferent fact in the world, "I was drunk last night. There are my +five shillings." + +During the dinner, I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with the +gentlemen on either side of me. One of them, a lawyer, expatiated with +great unction on the social standing of the judges. Representing the +dignity and authority of the Crown, they take precedence, during +assize-time, of the highest military men in the kingdom, of the +Lord-Lieutenant of the county, of the Archbishops, of the royal Dukes, +and even of the Prince of Wales. For the nonce, they are the greatest +men in England. With a glow of professional complacency that amounted to +enthusiasm, my friend assured me, that, in case of a royal dinner, a +judge, if actually holding an assize, would be expected to offer his arm +and take the Queen herself to the table. Happening to be in company with +some of these elevated personages, on subsequent occasions, it appeared +to me that the judges are fully conscious of their paramount claims to +respect, and take rather more pains to impress them on their ceremonial +inferiors than men of high hereditary rank are apt to do. Bishops, if it +be not irreverent to say so, are sometimes marked by a similar +characteristic. Dignified position is so sweet to an Englishman, that he +needs to be born in it, and to feel it thoroughly incorporated with his +nature from its original germ, in order to keep him from flaunting it +obtrusively in the faces of innocent by-standers. + +My companion on the other side was a thick-set, middle-aged man, uncouth +in manners, and ugly where none were handsome, with a dark, roughly hewn +visage, that looked grim in repose, and seemed to hold within itself the +machinery of a very terrific frown. He ate with resolute appetite, and +let slip few opportunities of imbibing whatever liquids happened to be +passing by. I was meditating in what way this grisly-featured +table-fellow might most safely be accosted, when he turned to me with a +surly sort of kindness, and invited me to take a glass of wine. We then +began a conversation that abounded, on his part, with sturdy sense, and, +somehow or other, brought me closer to him than I had yet stood to an +Englishman. I should hardly have taken him to be an educated man, +certainly not a scholar of accurate training; and yet he seemed to have +all the resources of education and trained intellectual power at +command. My fresh Americanism, and watchful observation of English +characteristics, appeared either to interest or amuse him, or perhaps +both. Under the mollifying influences of abundance of meat and drink, he +grew very gracious, (not that I ought to use such a phrase to describe +his evidently genuine good-will,) and by-and-by expressed a wish for +further acquaintance, asking me to call at his rooms in London and +inquire for Sergeant Wilkins,--throwing out the name forcibly, as if he +had no occasion to be ashamed of it. I remembered Dean Swift's retort to +Sergeant Bettesworth on a similar announcement,--"Of what regiment, +pray, Sir?"--and fancied that the same question might not have been +quite amiss, if applied to the rugged individual at my side. But I heard +of him subsequently as one of the prominent men at the English bar, a +rough customer, and a terribly strong champion in criminal cases; and it +caused me more regret than might have been expected, on so slight an +acquaintanceship, when, not long afterwards, I saw his death announced +in the newspapers. Not rich in attractive qualities, he possessed, I +think, the most attractive one of all,--thorough manhood. + +After the cloth was removed, a goodly group of decanters were set before +the Mayor, who sent them forth on their outward voyage, full freighted +with Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Claret, of which excellent liquors, +methought, the latter found least acceptance among the guests. When +every man had filled his glass, his Worship stood up and proposed a +toast. It was, of course, "Our gracious Sovereign," or words to that +effect; and immediately a band of musicians, whose preliminary tootings +and thrummings I had already heard behind me, struck up "God save the +Queen," and the whole company rose with one impulse to assist in singing +that famous national anthem. It was the first time in my life that I had +ever seen a body of men, or even a single man, under the active +influence of the sentiment of Loyalty; for, though we call ourselves +loyal to our country and institutions, and prove it by our readiness to +shed blood and sacrifice life in their behalf, still the principle is as +cold and hard, in an American bosom, as the steel spring that puts in +motion a powerful machinery. In the Englishman's system, a force similar +to that of our steel spring is generated by the warm throbbings of human +hearts. He clothes our bare abstraction in flesh and blood,--at present, +in the flesh and blood of a woman,--and manages to combine love, awe, +and intellectual reverence, all in one emotion, and to embody his +mother, his wife, his children, the whole idea of kindred, in a single +person, and make her the representative of his country and its laws. We +Americans smile superior, as I did at the Mayor's table; and yet, I +fancy, we lose some very agreeable titillations of the heart in +consequence of our proud perogative of caring no more about our +President than for a man of straw, or a stuffed scarecrow straddling in +a cornfield. + +But, to say the truth, the spectacle struck me rather ludicrously, to +see this party of stout middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, in the +fulness of meat and drink, their ample and ruddy faces glistening with +wine, perspiration, and enthusiasm, rumbling out those strange old +stanzas from the very bottom of their hearts and stomachs, which two +organs, in the English interior arrangement, lie closer together than in +ours. The song seemed to me the rudest old ditty in the world; but I +could not wonder at its universal acceptance and indestructible +popularity, considering how inimitably it expresses the national faith +and feeling as regards the inevitable righteousness of England, the +Almighty's consequent respect and partiality for that redoubtable little +island, and His presumed readiness to strengthen its defence against the +contumacious wickedness and knavery of all other principalities or +republics. Tennyson himself, though evidently English to the very last +prejudice, could not write half so good a song for the purpose. Finding +that the entire dinner-table struck in, with voices of every pitch +between rolling thunder and the squeak of a cartwheel, and that the +strain was not of such delicacy as to be much hurt by the harshest of +them, I determined to lend my own assistance in swelling the triumphant +roar. It seemed but a proper courtesy to the first Lady in the land, +whose guest, in the largest sense, I might consider myself. Accordingly, +my first tuneful efforts (and probably my last, for I purpose not to +sing any more, unless it be "Hail Columbia" on the restoration of the +Union) were poured freely forth in honor of Queen Victoria. The +Sergeant smiled like the carved head of a Swiss nutcracker, and the +other gentlemen in my neighborhood, by nods and gestures, evinced grave +approbation of so suitable a tribute to English superiority; and we +finished our stave and sat down in an extremely happy frame of mind. + +Other toasts followed in honor of the great institutions and interests +of the country, and speeches in response to each were made by +individuals whom the Mayor designated or the company called for. None of +them impressed me with a very high idea of English postprandial oratory. +It is inconceivable, indeed, what ragged and shapeless utterances most +Englishmen are satisfied to give vent to, without attempting anything +like artistic shape, but clapping on a patch here and another there, and +ultimately getting out what they want to say, and generally with a +result of sufficiently good sense, but in some such disorganized mass as +if they had thrown it up rather than spoken it. It seemed to me that +this was almost as much by choice as necessity. An Englishman, ambitious +of public favor, should not be too smooth. If an orator is glib, his +countrymen distrust him. They dislike smartness. The stronger and +heavier his thoughts, the better, provided there be an element of +commonplace running through them; and any rough, yet never vulgar force +of expression, such as would knock an opponent down, if it hit him, only +it must not be too personal, is altogether to their taste; but a studied +neatness of language, or other such superficial graces, they cannot +abide. They do not often permit a man to make himself a fine orator of +malice aforethought, that is, unless he be a nobleman, (as, for example, +Lord Stanley, of the Derby family,) who, as an hereditary legislator and +necessarily a public speaker, is bound to remedy a poor natural delivery +in the best way he can. On the whole, I partly agree with them, and, if +I cared for any oratory whatever, should be as likely to applaud theirs +as our own. When an English speaker sits down, you feel that you have +been listening to a real man, and not to an actor; his sentiments have a +wholesome earth-smell in them, though, very likely, this apparent +naturalness is as much an art as what we expend in rounding a sentence +or elaborating a peroration. + +It is one good effect of this inartificial style, that nobody in England +seems to feel any shyness about shovelling the untrimmed and untrimmable +ideas out of his mind for the benefit of an audience. At least, nobody +did on the occasion now in hand, except a poor little Major of +Artillery, who responded for the Army in a thin, quavering voice, with a +terribly hesitating trickle of fragmentary ideas, and, I question not, +would rather have been bayoneted in front of his batteries than to have +said a word. Not his own mouth, but the cannon's, was this poor Major's +proper organ of utterance. + +While I was thus amiably occupied in criticizing my fellow-guests, the +Mayor had got up to propose another toast; and listening rather +inattentively to the first sentence or two, I soon became sensible of a +drift in his Worship's remarks that made me glance apprehensively +towards Sergeant Wilkins. "Yes," grumbled that gruff personage, shoving +a decanter of Port towards me, "it is your turn next"; and seeing in my +face, I suppose, the consternation of a wholly unpractised orator, he +kindly added,--"It is nothing. A mere acknowledgment will answer the +purpose. The less you say, the better they will like it." That being the +case, I suggested that perhaps they would like it best, if I said +nothing at all. But the Sergeant shook his head. Now, on first receiving +the Mayor's invitation to dinner, it had occurred to me that I might +possibly be brought into my present predicament; but I had dismissed the +idea from my mind as too disagreeable to be entertained, and, moreover, +as so alien from my disposition and character that Fate surely could not +keep such a misfortune in store for me. If nothing else prevented, an +earthquake or the crack of doom would certainly interfere before I need +rise to speak. Yet here was the Mayor getting on inexorably,--and, +indeed, I heartily wished that he might get on and on forever, and of +his wordy wanderings find no end. + +If the gentle reader, my kindest friend and closest confidant, deigns to +desire it, I can impart to him my own experience as a public speaker +quite as indifferently as if it concerned another person. Indeed, it +does concern another, or a mere spectral phenomenon, for it was not I, +in my proper and natural self, that sat there at table or subsequently +rose to speak. At the moment, then, if the choice had been offered me +whether the Mayor should let off a speech at my head or a pistol, I +should unhesitatingly have taken the latter alternative. I had really +nothing to say, not an idea in my head, nor, which was a great deal +worse, any flowing words or embroidered sentences in which to dress out +that empty Nothing, and give it a cunning aspect of intelligence, such +as might last the poor vacuity the little time it had to live. But time +pressed; the Mayor brought his remarks, affectionately eulogistic of the +United States and highly complimentary to their distinguished +representative at that table, to a close, amid a vast deal of cheering; +and the band struck up "Hail Columbia," "Old Hundred," or "God save the +Queen" over again, for anything that I should have known or cared. When +the music ceased, there was an intensely disagreeable instant, during +which I seemed to rend away and fling off the habit of a lifetime, and +rose, still void of ideas, but with preternatural composure, to make a +speech. The guests rattled on the table, and cried, "Hear!" most +vociferously, as if now, at length, in this foolish and idly garrulous +world, had come the long-expected moment when one golden word was to be +spoken; and in that imminent crisis, I caught a glimpse of a little bit +of an effusion of international sentiment, which it might, and must, and +should do to utter. + +Well; it was nothing, as the Sergeant had said. What surprised me most +was the sound of my own voice, which I had never before heard at a +declamatory pitch, and which impressed me as belonging to some other +person, who, and not myself, would be responsible for the speech: a +prodigious consolation and encouragement under the circumstances! I went +on without the slightest embarrassment, and sat down amid great +applause, wholly undeserved by anything that I had spoken, but well won +from Englishmen, methought, by the new development of pluck that alone +had enabled me to speak at all. "It was handsomely done!" quoth Sergeant +Wilkins; and I felt like a recruit who had been for the first time under +fire. + +I would gladly have ended my oratorical career then and there forever, +but was often placed in a similar or worse position, and compelled to +meet it as I best might; for this was one of the necessities of an +office which I had voluntarily taken on my shoulders, and beneath which +I might be crushed by no moral delinquency on my own part, but could not +shirk without cowardice and shame. My subsequent fortune was various. +Once, though I felt it to be a kind of imposture, I got a speech by +heart, and doubtless it might have been a very pretty one, only I forgot +every syllable at the moment of need, and had to improvise another as +well as I could. I found it a better method to prearrange a few points +in my mind, and trust to the spur of the occasion, and the kind aid of +Providence, for enabling me to bring them to bear. The presence of any +considerable proportion of personal friends generally dumbfounded me. I +would rather have talked with an enemy in the gate. Invariably, too, I +was much embarrassed by a small audience, and succeeded better with a +large one,--the sympathy of a multitude possessing a buoyant effect, +which lifts the speaker a little way out of his individuality and tosses +him towards a perhaps better range of sentiment than his private one. +Again, if I rose carelessly and confidently, with an expectation of +going through the business entirely at my ease, I often found that I +had little or nothing to say; whereas, if I came to the scratch in +perfect despair, and at a crisis when failure would have been horrible, +it once or twice happened that the frightful emergency concentrated my +poor faculties, and enabled me to give definite and vigorous expression +to sentiments which an instant before looked as vague and far-off as the +clouds in the atmosphere. On the whole, poor as my own success may have +been, I apprehend that any intelligent man with a tongue possesses the +chief requisite of oratorical power, and may develop many of the others, +if he deems it worth while to bestow a great amount of labor and pains +on an object which the most accomplished orators, I suspect, have not +found altogether satisfactory to their highest impulses. At any rate, it +must be a remarkably true man who can keep his own elevated conception +of truth when the lower feeling of a multitude is assailing his natural +sympathies, and who can speak out frankly the best that there is in him, +when by adulterating it a little, or a good deal, he knows that he may +make it ten times as acceptable to the audience. + + * * * * * + +This slight article on the civic banquets of England would be too +wretchedly imperfect, without an attempted description of a Lord-Mayor's +dinner at the Mansion-House in London. I should have preferred the +annual feast at Guildhall, but never had the good-fortune to witness it. +Once, however, I was honored with an invitation to one of the regular +dinners, and gladly accepted it,--taking the precaution, nevertheless, +though it hardly seemed necessary, to inform the City-King, through a +mutual friend, that I was no fit representative of American eloquence, +and must humbly make it a condition that I should not be expected to +open my mouth, except for the reception of his Lordship's bountiful +hospitality. The reply was gracious and acquiescent; so that I presented +myself in the great entrance-hall of the Mansion-House, at half-past six +o'clock, in a state of most enjoyable freedom from the pusillanimous +apprehensions that often tormented me at such times. The Mansion-House +was built in Queen Anne's days, in the very heart of old London, and is +a palace worthy of its inhabitant, were he really as great a man as his +traditionary state and pomp would seem to indicate. Times are changed, +however, since the days of Whittington, or even of Hogarth's Industrious +Apprentice, to whom the highest imaginable reward of life-long integrity +was a seat in the Lord-Mayor's chair. People nowadays say that the real +dignity and importance have perished out of the office, as they do, +sooner or later, out of all earthly institutions, leaving only a painted +and gilded shell like that of an Easter egg, and that it is only +second-rate and third-rate men who now condescend to be ambitious of the +Mayoralty. I felt a little grieved at this; for the original emigrants +of New England had strong sympathies with the people of London, who were +mostly Puritans in religion and Parliamentarians in politics, in the +early days of our country; so that the Lord-Mayor was a potentate of +huge dimensions in the estimation of our forefathers, and held to be +hardly second to the prime-minister of the throne. The true great men of +the city now appear to have aims beyond city-greatness, connecting +themselves with national politics, and seeking to be identified with the +aristocracy of the country. + +In the entrance-hall I was received by a body of footmen dressed in a +livery of blue and buff, in which they looked wonderfully like American +Revolutionary generals, only bedizened with far more lace and embroidery +than those simple and grand old heroes ever dreamed of wearing. There +were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should have taken to be +military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and large silver +epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord-Mayor's +household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the places +which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our names +(for I had included myself in a little group of friends) were announced; +and ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the door-way of the +first reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of a +presentation to the Lady-Mayoress. As this distinguished couple retired +into private life at the termination of their year of office, it is +inadmissible to make any remarks, critical or laudatory, on the manners +and bearing of two personages suddenly emerging from a position of +respectable mediocrity into one of preëminent dignity within their own +sphere. Such individuals almost always seem to grow nearly or quite to +the full size of their office. If it were desirable to write an essay on +the latent aptitude of ordinary people for grandeur, we have an +exemplification in our own country, and on a scale incomparably greater +than that of the Mayoralty, though invested with nothing like the +outward magnificence that gilds and embroiders the latter. If I have +been correctly informed, the Lord-Mayor's salary is exactly double that +of the President of the United States, and yet is found very inadequate +to his necessary expenditure. + +There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide +folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be +venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as +spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid +fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers +and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them +celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I +recollect none preëminently distinguished in either department. But it +is certainly a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for +example, who deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face +to face, thus to bring them together, under genial auspices, in +connection with persons of note in other lines. I know not what may be +the Lord-Mayor's mode or principle of selecting his guests, nor whether, +during his official term, he can proffer his hospitality to every man of +noticeable talent in the wide world of London, nor, in fine, whether his +Lordship's invitation is much sought for or valued; but it seemed to me +that this periodical feast is one of the many sagacious methods which +the English have contrived for keeping up a good understanding among +different sorts of people. Like most other distinctions of society, +however, I presume that the Lord-Mayor's card does not often seek out +modest merit, but comes at last when the recipient is conscious of the +bore, and doubtful about the honor. + +One very pleasant characteristic, which I never met with at any other +public or partially public dinner, was the presence of ladies. No doubt, +they were principally the wives and daughters of city-magnates; and if +we may judge from the many sly allusions in old plays and satirical +poems, the city of London has always been famous for the beauty of its +women and the reciprocal attractions between them and the men of +quality. Be that as it might, while straying hither and thither through +those crowded apartments, I saw much reason for modifying certain +heterodox opinions which I had inbibed, in my Transatlantic newness and +rawness, as regarded the delicate character and frequent occurrence of +English beauty. To state the entire truth, (being, at this period, some +years old in English life,) my taste, I fear, had long since begun to be +deteriorated by acquaintance with other models of feminine loveliness +than it was my happiness to know in America. I often found, or seemed to +find, if I may dare to confess it, in the persons of such of my dear +countrywomen as I now occasionally met, a certain meagreness, (Heaven +forbid that I should call it scrawniness!) a deficiency of physical +development, a scantiness, so to speak, in the pattern of their material +make, a paleness of complexion, a thinness of voice,--all which +characteristics, nevertheless, only made me resolve so much the more +sturdily to uphold these fair creatures as angels, because I was +sometimes driven to a half-acknowledgment, that the English ladies, +looked at from a lower point of view, were perhaps a little finer +animals than they. The advantages of the latter, if any they could +really be said to have, were all comprised in a few additional lumps of +clay on their shoulders and other parts of their figures. It would be a +pitiful bargain to give up the ethereal charm of American beauty in +exchange for half a hundred-weight of human clay! + +At a given signal we all found our way into an immense room, called the +Egyptian Hall, I know not why, except that the architecture was classic, +and as different as possible from the ponderous style of Memphis and the +Pyramids. A powerful band played inspiringly as we entered, and a +brilliant profusion of light shone down on two long tables, extending +the whole length of the hall, and a cross-table between them, occupying +nearly its entire breadth. Glass gleamed and silver glistened on an acre +or two of snowy damask, over which were set out all the accompaniments +of a stately feast. We found our places without much difficulty, and the +Lord-Mayor's chaplain implored a blessing on the food,--a ceremony which +the English never omit, at a great dinner or a small one, yet consider, +I fear, not so much a religious rite as a sort of preliminary relish +before the soup. + +The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in +accordance with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, +in spite of the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, +judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that +there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the +capacity of the soup-tureens. Not being fond of this civic dainty, I +partook of it but once, and then only in accordance with the wise maxim, +always to taste a fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish, at its indigenous +site; and the very fountain-head of turtle-soup, I suppose, is in the +Lord-Mayor's dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox customs which +people follow for half a century without knowing why, to drink a sip of +rum-punch, in a very small tumbler, after the soup. It was excellently +well-brewed, and it seemed to me almost worth while to sup the soup for +the sake of sipping the punch. The rest of the dinner was catalogued in +a bill-of-fare printed on delicate white paper within an arabesque +border of green and gold. It looked very good, not only in the English +and French names of the numerous dishes, but also in the positive +reality of the dishes themselves, which were all set on the table to be +carved and distributed by the guests. This ancient and honest method is +attended with a good deal of trouble, and a lavish effusion of gravy, +yet by no means bestowed or dispensed in vain, because you have thereby +the absolute assurance of a banquet actually before your eyes, instead +of a shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and such meagre fulfilment as +a single guest can contrive to get upon his individual plate. I wonder +that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at prize-oxen in the shape of +butcher's-meat, do not generally better estimate the æsthetic gormandism +of devouring the whole dinner with their eyesight, before proceeding to +nibble the comparatively few morsels which, after all, the most heroic +appetite and widest stomachic capacity of mere mortals can enable even +an alderman really to eat. There fell to my lot three delectable things +enough, which I take pains to remember, that the reader may not go away +wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to which I have bidden +him,--a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and part +of a ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as the grouse, but feeding +high up towards the summit of the Scotch mountains, whence it gets a +wild delicacy of flavor very superior to that of the artificially +nurtured English game-fowl. All the other dainties have vanished from my +memory as completely as those of Prospero's banquet after Ariel had +clapped his wings over it. The band played at intervals, inspiriting us +to new efforts, as did likewise the sparkling wines which the footmen +supplied from an inexhaustible cellar, and which the guests quaffed with +little apparent reference to the disagreeable fact that there comes a +to-morrow morning after every feast. As long as that shall be the case, +a prudent man can never have full enjoyment of his dinner. + +Nearly opposite to me, on the other side of the table, sat a young lady +in white, whom I am sorely tempted to describe, but dare not, because +not only the supereminence of her beauty, but its peculiar character, +would cause the sketch to be recognized, however rudely it might be +drawn. I hardly thought that there existed such a woman outside of a +picture-frame, or the covers of a romance: not that I had ever met with +her resemblance even there, but, being so distinct and singular an +apparition, she seemed likelier to find her sisterhood in poetry and +picture than in real life. Let us turn away from her, lest a touch too +apt should compel her stately and cold and soft and womanly grace to +gleam out upon my page with a strange repulsion and unattainableness in +the very spell that made her beautiful. At her side, and familiarly +attentive to her, sat a gentleman of whom I remember only a hard outline +of the nose and forehead, and such a monstrous portent of a beard that +you could discover no symptom of a mouth, except when he opened it to +speak, or to put in a morsel of food. Then, indeed, you suddenly became +aware of a cave hidden behind the impervious and darksome shrubbery. +There could be no doubt who this gentleman and lady were. Any child +would have recognized them at a glance. It was Bluebeard and a new wife +(the loveliest of the series, but with already a mysterious gloom +overshadowing her fair young brow) travelling in their honey-moon, and +dining, among other distinguished strangers, at the Lord-Mayor's table. + +After an hour or two of valiant achievement with knife and fork came the +dessert; and at the point of the festival where finger-glasses are +usually introduced, a large silver basin was carried round to the +guests, containing rose-water, into which we dipped the ends of our +napkins and were conscious of a delightful fragrance, instead of that +heavy and weary odor, the hateful ghost of a defunct dinner. This seems +to be an ancient custom of the city, not confined to the Lord-Mayor's +table, but never met with westward of Temple Bar. + +During all the feast, in accordance with another ancient custom, the +origin or purport of which I do not remember to have heard, there stood +a man in armor, with a helmet on his head, behind his Lordship's chair. +When the after-dinner wine was placed on the table, still another +official personage appeared behind the chair, and proceeded to make a +solemn and sonorous proclamation, (in which he enumerated the principal +guests, comprising three or four noblemen, several baronets, and plenty +of generals, members of Parliament, aldermen, and other names of the +illustrious, one of which sounded strangely familiar to my ears,) ending +in some such style as this: "and other gentlemen and ladies, here +present, the Lord-Mayor drinks to you all in a loving-cup,"--giving a +sort of sentimental twang to the two words,--"and sends it round among +you!" And forthwith the loving-cup--several of them, indeed, on each +side of the tables--came slowly down with all the antique ceremony. + +The fashion of it is thus. The Lord-Mayor, standing up and taking the +covered cup in both hands, presents it to the guest at his elbow, who +likewise rises, and removes the cover for his Lordship to drink, which +being successfully accomplished, the guest replaces the cover and +receives the cup into his own hands. He then presents it to his next +neighbor, that the cover may be again removed for himself to take a +draught, after which the third person goes through a similar manoeuvre +with a fourth, and he with a fifth, until the whole company find +themselves inextricably intertwisted and entangled in one complicated +chain of love. When the cup came to my hands, I examined it critically, +both inside and out, and perceived it to be an antique and richly +ornamented silver goblet, capable of holding about a quart of wine. +Considering how much trouble we all expended in getting the cup to our +lips, the guests appeared to content themselves with wonderfully +moderate potations. In truth, nearly or quite the original quart of wine +being still in the goblet, it seemed doubtful whether any of the company +had more than barely touched the silver rim before passing it to their +neighbors,--a degree of abstinence that might be accounted for by a +fastidious repugnance to so many compotators in one cup, or possibly by +a disapprobation of the liquor. Being curious to know all about these +important matters, with a view of recommending to my countrymen whatever +they might usefully adopt, I drank an honest sip from the loving-cup, +and had no occasion for another,--ascertaining it to be Claret of a poor +original quality, largely mingled with water, and spiced and sweetened. +It was good enough, however, for a merely spectral or ceremonial drink, +and could never have been intended for any better purpose. + +The toasts now began in the customary order, attended with speeches +neither more nor less witty and ingenious than the specimens of +table-eloquence which had heretofore delighted me. As preparatory to +each new display, the herald, or whatever he was, behind the chair of +state, gave awful notice that the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor was +about to propose a toast. His Lordship being happily delivered thereof, +together with some accompanying remarks, the band played an appropriate +tune, and the herald again issued proclamation to the effect that such +or such a nobleman, or gentleman, general, dignified clergyman, or what +not, was going to respond to the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor's toast; +then, if I mistake not, there was another prodigious flourish of +trumpets and twanging of stringed instruments; and finally the doomed +individual, waiting all this while to be decapitated, got up and +proceeded to make a fool of himself. A bashful young earl tried his +maiden oratory on the good citizens of London, and having evidently got +every word by heart, (even including, however he managed it, the most +seemingly casual improvisations of the moment,) he really spoke like a +book, and made incomparably the smoothest speech I ever heard in +England. + +The weight and gravity of the speakers, not only on this occasion, but +all similar ones, was what impressed me as most extraordinary, not to +say absurd. Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits +into festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into +a most enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and +old Port, and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to +speeches as heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so +refreshing? If the Champagne had thrown its sparkle over the surface of +these effusions, or if the generous Port had shone through their +substance with a ruddy glow of the old English humor, I might have seen +a reason for honest gentlemen prattling in their cups, and should +undoubtedly have been glad to be a listener. But there was no attempt +nor impulse of the kind on the part of the orators, nor apparent +expectation of such a phenomenon on that of the audience. In fact, I +imagine that the latter were best pleased when the speaker embodied his +ideas in the figurative language of arithmetic, or struck upon any hard +matter of business or statistics, as a heavy-laden bark bumps upon a +rock in mid-ocean. The sad severity, the too earnest utilitarianism, of +modern life, have wrought a radical and lamentable change, I am afraid, +in this ancient and goodly institution of civic banquets. People used to +come to them, a few hundred years ago, for the sake of being jolly; they +come now with an odd notion of pouring sober wisdom into their wine by +way of wormwood-bitters, and thus make such a mess of it that the wine +and wisdom reciprocally spoil one another. + +Possibly, the foregoing sentiments have taken a spice of acridity from a +circumstance that happened about this stage of the feast, and very much +interrupted my own further enjoyment of it. Up to this time, my +condition had been exceedingly felicitous, both on account of the +brilliancy of the scene, and because I was in close proximity with three +very pleasant English friends. One of them was a lady, whose honored +name my readers would recognize as a household word, if I dared write +it; another, a gentleman, likewise well known to them, whose fine taste, +kind heart, and genial cultivation are qualities seldom mixed in such +happy proportion as in him. The third was the man to whom I owed most in +England, the warm benignity of whose nature was never weary of doing me +good, who led me to many scenes of life, in town, camp, and country, +which I never could have found out for myself, who knew precisely the +kind of help a stranger needs, and gave it as freely as if he had not +had a thousand more important things to live for. Thus I never felt +safer or cozier at anybody's fireside, even my own, than at the +dinner-table of the Lord-Mayor. + +Out of this serene sky came a thunderbolt. His Lordship got up and +proceeded to make some very eulogistic remarks upon "the literary and +commercial"--I question whether those two adjectives were ever before +married by a copulative conjunction, and they certainly would not live +together in illicit intercourse, of their own accord--"the literary and +commercial attainments of an eminent gentleman there present," and then +went on to speak of the relations of blood and interest between Great +Britain and the aforesaid eminent gentleman's native country. Those +bonds were more intimate than had ever before existed between two great +nations, throughout all history, and his Lordship felt assured that that +whole honorable company would join him in the expression of a fervent +wish that they might be held inviolably sacred, on both sides of the +Atlantic, now and forever. Then came the same wearisome old toast, dry +and hard to chew upon as a musty sea-biscuit, which had been the text of +nearly all the oratory of my public career. The herald sonorously +announced that Mr. So-and-so would now respond to his Right Honorable +Lordship's toast and speech, the trumpets sounded the customary flourish +for the onset, there was a thunderous rumble of anticipatory applause, +and finally a deep silence sank upon the festive hall. + +All this was a horrid piece of treachery on the Lord-Mayor's part, after +beguiling me within his lines on a pledge of safe-conduct; and it seemed +very strange that he could not let an unobtrusive individual eat his +dinner in peace, drink a small sample of the Mansion-House wine, and go +away grateful at heart for the old English hospitality. If his Lordship +had sent me an infusion of ratsbane in the loving-cup, I should have +taken it much more kindly at his hands. But I suppose the secret of the +matter to have been somewhat as follows. + +All England, just then, was in one of those singular fits of panic +excitement, (not fear, though as sensitive and tremulous as that +emotion,) which, in consequence of the homogeneous character of the +people, their intense patriotism, and their dependence for their ideas +in public affairs on other sources than their own examination and +individual thought, are more sudden, pervasive, and unreasoning than any +similar mood of our own public. In truth, I have never seen the American +public in a state at all similar, and believe that we are incapable of +it. Our excitements are not impulsive, like theirs, but, right or wrong, +are moral and intellectual. For example, the grand rising of the North, +at the commencement of this war, bore the aspect of impulse and passion +only because it was so universal, and necessarily done in a moment, just +as the quiet and simultaneous getting-up of a thousand people out of +their chairs would cause a tumult that might be mistaken for a storm. We +were cool then, and have been cool ever since, and shall remain cool to +the end, which we shall take coolly, whatever it may be. There is +nothing which the English find it so difficult to understand in us as +this characteristic. They imagine us, in our collective capacity, a kind +of wild beast, whose normal condition is savage fury, and are always +looking for the moment when we shall break through the slender barriers +of international law and comity, and compel the reasonable part of the +world, with themselves at the head, to combine for the purpose of +putting us into a stronger cage. At times this apprehension becomes so +powerful, (and when one man feels it, a million do,) that it resembles +the passage of the wind over a broad field of grain, where you see the +whole crop bending and swaying beneath one impulse, and each separate +stalk tossing with the self-same disturbance as its myriad companions. +At such periods all Englishmen talk with a terrible identity of +sentiment and expression. You have the whole country in each man; and +not one of them all, if you put him strictly to the question, can give a +reasonable ground for his alarm. There are but two nations in the +world--our own country and France--that can put England into this +singular state. It is the united sensitiveness of a people extremely +well-to-do, most anxious for the preservation of the cumbrous and +moss-grown prosperity which they have been so long in consolidating, and +incompetent (owing to the national half-sightedness, and their habit of +trusting to a few leading minds for their public opinion) to judge when +that prosperity is really threatened. + +If the English were accustomed to look at the foreign side of any +international dispute, they might easily have satisfied themselves that +there was very little danger of a war at that particular crisis, from +the simple circumstance that their own Government had positively not an +inch of honest ground to stand upon, and could not fail to be aware of +the fact. Neither could they have met Parliament with any show of a +justification for incurring war. It was no such perilous juncture as +exists now, when law and right are really controverted on sustainable or +plausible grounds, and a naval commander may at any moment fire off the +first cannon of a terrible contest. If I remember it correctly, it was a +mere diplomatic squabble, which the British ministers, with the politic +generosity which they are in the habit of showing towards their official +subordinates, had tried to browbeat us for the purpose of sustaining an +ambassador in an indefensible proceeding; and the American Government +(for God had not denied us an administration of Statesmen then) had +retaliated with stanch courage and exquisite skill, putting inevitably a +cruel mortification upon their opponents, but indulging them with no +pretence whatever for active resentment. + +Now the Lord-Mayor, like any other Englishman, probably fancied that War +was on the western gale, and was glad to lay hold of even so +insignificant an American as myself, who might be made to harp on the +rusty old strings of national sympathies, identity of blood and +interest, and community of language and literature, and whisper peace +where there was no peace, in however weak an utterance. And possibly his +Lordship thought, in his wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to +be expressed by a company of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and +far-famed dinner-table, might have an appreciable influence on the grand +result. Thus, when the Lord-Mayor invited me to his feast, it was a +piece of strategy. He wanted to induce me to fling myself, like a lesser +Curtius, with a larger object of self-sacrifice, into the chasm of +discord between England and America, and, on my ignominious demur, had +resolved to shove me in with his own right-honorable hands, in the hope +of closing up the horrible pit forever. On the whole, I forgive his +Lordship. He meant well by all parties,--himself, who would share the +glory, and me, who ought to have desired nothing better than such an +heroic opportunity,--his own country, which would continue to get cotton +and breadstuffs, and mine, which would get everything that men work with +and wear. + +As soon as the Lord-Mayor began to speak, I rapped upon my mind, and it +gave forth a hollow sound, being absolutely empty of appropriate ideas. +I never thought of listening to the speech, because I knew it all +beforehand in twenty repetitions from other lips, and was aware that it +would not offer a single suggestive point. In this dilemma, I turned to +one of my three friends, a gentleman whom I knew to possess an enviable +flow of silver speech, and obtested him, by whatever he deemed holiest, +to give me at least an available thought or two to start with, and, once +afloat, I would trust to my guardian-angel for enabling me to flounder +ashore again, He advised me to begin with some remarks complimentary to +the Lord-Mayor, and expressive of the hereditary reverence in which his +office was held--at least, my friend thought that there would be no harm +in giving his Lordship this little sugar-plum, whether quite the fact or +no--was held by the descendants of the Puritan forefathers. Thence, if I +liked, getting flexible with the oil of my own eloquence, I might easily +slide off into the momentous subject of the relations between England +and America, to which his Lordship had made such weighty allusion. + +Seizing this handful of straw with a death-grip, and bidding my three +friends bury me honorably, I got upon my legs to save both countries, or +perish in the attempt. The tables roared and thundered at me, and +suddenly were silent again. But, as I have never happened to stand in a +position of greater dignity and peril, I deem it a stratagem of sage +policy here to close the sketch, leaving myself still erect in so heroic +an attitude. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE GEOLOGICAL MIDDLE AGE. + + +I shall pass lightly over the Permian and Triassic epochs, as being more +nearly related in their organic forms to the Carboniferous epoch, with +which we are already somewhat familiar, while in those next in +succession, the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs, the later conditions of +animal life begin to be already foreshadowed. But though less +significant for us in the present stage of our discussion, it must not +be supposed that the Permian and Triassic epochs were unimportant in the +physical and organic history of Europe. A glance at any geological map +of Europe will show the reader how the Belgian island stretched +gradually in a southwesterly direction during the Permian epoch, +approaching the coast of France by slowly increasing accumulations, and +thus filling the Burgundian channel; a wide border of Permian deposits +around the coal-field of Great Britain marks the increase of this region +also during the same time, and a very extensive tract of a like +character is to be seen in Russia. The latter is, however, still under +doubt and discussion among geologists, and more recent investigations +tend to show that this Russian region, supposed at first to be +exclusively Permian, is at least in part Triassic. + +With the coming in of the Triassic epoch began the great deposits of Red +Sandstone, Muschel-Kalk, and Keuper, in Central Europe. They united the +Belgian island to the region of the Vosges and the Black Forest, while +they also filled to a great extent the channel between Belgium and the +Bohemian island. Thus the land slowly gained upon the Triassic ocean, +shutting it within ever-narrowing limits, and preparing the large inland +seas so characteristic of the later Secondary times. The character of +the organic world still retained a general resemblance to that of the +Carboniferous epoch. Among Radiates, the Corals were more nearly allied +to those of the earlier ages than to those of modern times, and Crinoids +abounded still, though some of the higher Echinoderm types were already +introduced. Among Mollusks, the lower Bivalves, that is, the Brachiopods +and Bryozoa, still prevailed, while Ammonites continued to be very +numerous, differing from the earlier ones chiefly in the ever-increasing +complications of their inner partitions, which become so deeply +involuted and cut upon their margins, before the type disappears, as to +make an intricate tracery of very various patterns on the surface of +these shells. The most conspicuous type of Articulates continues as +before to be that of Crustacea; but Trilobites have finished their +career, and the Lobster-like Crustacea make their appearance for the +first time. It does not seem that the class of Insects has greatly +increased since the Carboniferous epoch; and Worms are still as +difficult to trace as ever, being chiefly known by the cases in which +they sheltered themselves. Among Vertebrates, the Fishes still resemble +those of the Carboniferous epoch, belonging principally to the +Selachians and Ganoids. They have, however, approached somewhat toward a +modern pattern, the lobes of the tail being more evenly cut, and their +general outline more like that of common fishes. The gigantic marsh +Reptiles have become far more numerous and various. They continue +through several epochs, but may be said to reach their culminating point +in the Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits. + +I cannot pass over the Triassic epoch without some allusion to the +so-called bird-tracks, so generally believed to mark the introduction of +Birds at this time. It is true that in the deposits of the Trias there +have been found many traces of footsteps, indicating a vast number of +animals which, except for these footprints, remain unknown to us. In the +sandstone of the Connecticut Valley they are found in extraordinary +numbers, as if these animals, whatever they were, had been in the habit +of frequenting that shore. They appear to have been very diversified; +for some of the tracks are very large, others quite small, while some +would seem, from the way in which the footsteps follow each other, to +have been quadrupedal, and others bipedal. We can even measure the +length of their strides, following the impressions which, from their +succession in a continuous line, mark the walk of a single animal.[10] +The fact that we find these footprints without any bones or other +remains to indicate the animals by which they were made is accounted for +by the mode of deposition of the sandstone. It is very unfavorable for +the preservation of bones; but, being composed of minute sand mixed with +mud, it affords an admirable substance for the reception of these +impressions, which have been thus cast in a mould, as it were, and +preserved through ages. These animals must have been large, when +full-grown, for we find strides measuring six feet between, evidently +belonging to the same animal. In the quadrupedal tracks, the front feet +seem to have been smaller than the hind ones. Some of the tracks show +four toes all turned forward, while in others three toes are turned +forward and one backward. It happened that the first tracks found +belonged to the latter class; and they very naturally gave rise to the +idea that these impressions were made by birds, on account of this +formation of the foot. This, however, is a mere inference; and since the +inductive method is the only true one in science, it seems to me that we +should turn to the facts we have in our possession for the explanation +of these mysterious footprints, rather than endeavor to supply by +assumption those which we have not. As there are no bones found in +connection with these tracks, the only way to arrive at their true +character, in the present state of our knowledge, is by comparing them +with bones found in other localities in the deposits of the same period +in the world's history. Now there have never been found in the Trias any +remains of Birds, while it contains innumerable bones of Reptiles; and +therefore I think that it is in the latter class that we shall +eventually find the solution of this mystery. + +[Footnote 10: For all details respecting these tracks see Hitchcock's +_Ichnology of New England_. Boston, 1858. 4to.] + +It is true that the bones of the Triassic Reptiles are scattered and +disconnected; no complete skeleton has yet been discovered, nor has any +foot been found; so that no direct comparison can be made with the +steps. It is, however, my belief, from all we know of the character of +the Animal Kingdom in those days, that these animals were reptilian, but +combined, like so many of the early types, characters of their own class +with those of higher animals yet to come. It seems to me probable, that, +in those tracks where one toe is turned backward, the impression is made +not by a toe, but by a heel, or by a long sole projecting backward; for +it is not pointed, like those of the front toes, but is blunt. It is +true that there is a division of joints in the toes, which seems in +favor of the idea that they were those of Birds; for when the three toes +are turned forward, there are two joints on the inner one, three on the +middle, and four on the outer one, as in Birds. But this feature is not +peculiar to Birds; it is found in Turtles also. The correspondence of +these footprints with each other leaves no doubt that they were all by +one kind of animal; for both the bipedal and the quadrupedal tracks have +the same character. The only quadrupedal animals now known to us which +walk on two legs are the Kangaroos. They raise themselves on their hind +legs, using the front ones to bring their food to their mouth. They leap +with the hind legs, sometimes bringing down their front feet to steady +themselves after the spring, and making use also of their tails, to +balance the body after leaping. In these tracks we find traces of a tail +between the feet. I do not bring this forward as any evidence that these +animals were allied to Kangaroos, since I believe that nothing is more +injurious in science than assumptions which do not rest on a broad basis +of facts; but I wish only to show that these tracks recall other animals +besides Birds, with which they have been universally associated. And +seeing, as we do, that so many of the early types prophesy future forms, +it seems not improbable that they may have belonged to animals which +combined with reptilian characters some birdlike features, and also some +features of the earliest and lowest group of Mammalia, the Marsupials. +To sum up my opinion respecting these footmarks, I believe that they +were made by animals of a prophetic type, belonging to the class of +Reptiles, and exhibiting many synthetic characters. + +The more closely we study past creations, the more impressive and +significant do the synthetic types, presenting features of the higher +classes under the guise of the lower ones, become. They hold the promise +of the future. As the opening overture of an opera contains all the +musical elements to be therein developed, so this living prelude of the +Creative work comprises all the organic elements to be successively +developed in the course of time. When Cuvier first saw the teeth of a +Wealden Reptile, he pronounced them to be those of a Rhinoceros, so +mammalian were they in their character. So, when Sommering first saw the +remains of a Jurassic Pterodactyl, he pronounced them to be those of a +Bird. These mistakes were not due to a superficial judgment in men who +knew Nature so well, but to this prophetic character in the early types +themselves, in which features were united never known to exist together +in our days. + + * * * * * + +The Jurassic epoch, next in succession, was a very important one in the +history of Europe. It completed the junction of several of the larger +islands, filling the channel between the central plateau of France and +the Belgian island, as well as that between the former and the island of +Bretagne, so that France was now a sort of crescent of land holding a +Jurassic sea in its centre, Bretagne and Belgium forming the two horns. +This Jurassic basin or inland sea united England and France, and it may +not be amiss to say a word here of its subsequent transformations. +During the long succession of Jurassic periods, the deposits of that +epoch, chiefly limestone and clays, with here and there a bed of sand, +were accumulated at its bottom. Upon these followed the chalk deposits +of the Cretaceous epoch, until the basin was gradually filled, and +partially, at least, turned to dry land. But at the close of the +Cretaceous epoch a fissure was formed, allowing the entrance of the sea +at the western end, so that the constant washing of the tides and storms +wore away the lower, softer deposits, leaving the overhanging chalk +cliffs unsupported. These latter, as their support were undermined, +crumbled down, thus widening the channel gradually. This process must, +of course, have gone on more rapidly at the western end, where the sea +rushed on with most force, till the channel was worn through to the +German Ocean on the other side, and the sea then began to act with like +power at both ends of the channel. This explains its form, wider at the +western end, narrower between Dover and Calais, and widening again at +the eastern extremity. This ancient basin, extending from the centre of +France into England, is rich in the remains of a number of successive +epochs. Around its margin we find the Jurassic deposits, showing that +there must have been some changes of level which raised the shores and +prevented later accumulations from covering them, while in the centre +the Jurassic deposits are concealed by those of the Cretaceous epoch +above them, these being also partially hidden under the later Tertiary +beds. Let us see, then, what this inland sea has to tell us of the +organic world in the Jurassic epoch. + +At that time the region where Lyme-Regis is now situated in modern +England was an estuary on the shore of that ancient sea. About forty +years ago a discovery of large and curious bones, belonging to some +animal unknown to the scientific world, turned the attention of +naturalists to this locality, and since then such a quantity and variety +of such remains have been found in the neighborhood as to show that the +Sharks, Whales, Porpoises, etc., of the present ocean are not more +numerous and diversified than were the inhabitants of this old bay or +inlet. Among these animals, the Ichthyosauri (Fish-Lizards) form one of +the best-known and most prominent groups. They are chiefly found in the +Lias, the lowest set of beds of the Jurassic deposits, and seem to have +come in with the close of the Triassic epoch. It is greatly to be +regretted that all that is known of the Triassic Reptiles antecedent to +the Ichthyosauri still remains in the form of original papers, and is +not yet embodied in text-books. They are quite as interesting, as +curious, and as diversified as those of the Jurassic epoch, which are, +however, much more extensively known, on account of the large +collections of these animals belonging to the British Museum. It will be +more easy to understand the structural relations of the latter, and +their true position in the Animal Kingdom, when those which preceded +them are better understood. One of the most remarkable and numerous of +these Triassic Reptiles seems to have been an animal resembling, in the +form of the head, and in the two articulating surfaces at the juncture +of the head with the backbone, the Frogs and Salamanders, though its +teeth are like those of a Crocodile. As yet nothing has been found of +these animals except the head,--neither the backbone nor the limbs; so +that little is known of their general structure. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1. An Ichthyosaurus.] + +The Ichthyosauri (Figure 1) must have been very large, seven or eight +feet being the ordinary length, while specimens measuring from twenty to +thirty feet are not uncommon. The large head is pointed, like that of +the Porpoise; the jaws contain a number of conical teeth, of reptilian +form and character; the eyeball was very large, as may be seen by the +socket, and it was supported by pieces of bone, such as we find now only +in the eyes of birds of prey and in the bony fishes. The ribs begin at +the neck and continue to the tail, and there is no distinction between +head and neck, as in most Reptiles, but a continuous outline, as in +Fishes. They had four limbs, not divided into fingers, but forming mere +paddles. Yet fingers seem to be hinted at in these paddles, though not +developed, for the bones are in parallel rows, as if to mark what might +be such a division. The back-bones are short, but very high, and the +surfaces of articulation are hollow, conical cavities, as in Fishes, +instead of ball-and-socket joints, as in Reptiles. The ribs are more +complicated than in Vertebrates generally: they consist of several +pieces, and the breast-bone is formed of a number of bones, making +together quite an intricate bony net-work. There is only one living +animal, the Crocodile, characterized by this peculiar structure of the +breast-bone. The Ichthyosaurus is, indeed, one of the most remarkable of +the synthetic types: by the shape of its head one would associate it +with the Porpoises, while by its paddles and its long tail it reminds +one of the whole group of Cetaceans to which the Porpoises belong; by +its crocodilian teeth, its ribs, and its breast-bone, it seems allied to +Reptiles; and by its uniform neck, not distinguished from the body, and +the structure of the backbone, it recalls the Fishes. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2. A Plesiosaurus.] + +Another most curious member of this group is the Plesiosaurus, odd +Saurian (Figure 2). By its disproportionately long and flexible neck, +and its small, flat head, it unquestionably foreshadows the Serpents, +while by the structure of the backbone, the limbs, and the tail, it is +closely allied with the Ichthyosaurus. Its flappers are, however, more +slender, less clumsy, and were, no doubt, adapted to more rapid motion +than the fins of the Ichthyosaurus, while its tail is shorter in +proportion to the whole length of the animal. It seems probable, from +its general structure, that the Ichthyosaurus moved like a Fish, chiefly +by the flapping of the tail, aided by the fins, while in the +Plesiosaurus the tail must have been much less efficient as a locomotive +organ, and the long, snake-like, flexible neck no doubt rendered the +whole body more agile and rapid in its movements. In comparing the two, +it may be said, that, as a whole, the Ichthyosaurus, though belonging by +its structure to the class of Reptiles, has a closer external +resemblance to the Fishes, while the Plesiosaurus is more decidedly +reptilian in character. If there exists any animal in our waters, not +yet known to naturalists, answering to the descriptions of the +"Sea-Serpent," it must be closely allied to the Plesiosaurus. The +occurrence in the fresh waters of North America of a Fish, the +Lepidosteus, which is closely allied to the fossil Fishes found with the +Plesiosaurus in the Jurassic beds, renders such a supposition probable. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3. A Pterodactylus.] + +Of all these strange old forms, so singularly uniting features of Fishes +and Reptiles, none has given rise to more discussion than the +Pterodactylus, (Figure 3,) another of the Saurian tribe, associated, +however, with Birds by some naturalists, on account of its large +wing-like appendages. From the extraordinary length of its anterior +limbs, they have generally been described as wings, and the animal is +usually represented as a flying Reptile. But if we consider its whole +structure, this does not seem probable, and I believe it to have been an +essentially aquatic animal, moving after the fashion of the Sea-Turtle. +Its so-called wings resemble in structure the front paddles of the +Sea-Turtles far more than the wings of a Bird; differing from them, +indeed, only by the extraordinary length of the inner toe, while the +outer ones are comparatively much shorter. But, notwithstanding this +difference, the hand of the Pterodactylus is constructed like that of an +aquatic swimming marine Reptile; and I believe, that, if we represent it +with its long neck stretched upon the water, its large head furnished +with powerful, well-armed jaws, ready to dive after the innumerable +smaller animals living in the same ocean, we shall have a more natural +picture of its habits than if we consider it as a flying animal, which +it is generally supposed to have been. It has not the powerful +breast-bone, with the large projecting keel along the middle line, such +as exists in all the flying animals. Its breast-bone, on the contrary, +is thin and flat, like that of the present Sea-Turtle; and if it moved +through the water by the help of its long flappers, as the Sea-Turtle +does now, it could well dispense with that powerful construction of the +breast-bone so essential to all animals which fly through the air. +Again, the powerful teeth, long and conical, placed at considerable +intervals in the jaw, constitute a feature common to all predaceous +aquatic animals, and would seem to have been utterly useless in a flying +animal at that time, since there were no aërial beings of any size to +prey upon. The Dragon-Flies found in the same deposits with the +Pterodactylus were certainly not a game requiring so powerful a battery +of attack. + +The Fishes of the Jurassic sea were exceedingly numerous, but were all +of the Ganoid and Selachian tribes. It would weary the reader, were I to +introduce here any detailed description of them, but they were as +numerous and varied as those living in our present waters. There was the +Hybodus, with the marked furrows on the spines and the strong hooks +along their margin,--the huge Chimera, with its long whip, its curved +bone over the back, and its parrot-like bill,--the Lepidotus, with its +large square scales, its large head, its numerous rows of teeth, one +within another, forming a powerful grinding apparatus,--the Microdon, +with its round, flat body, its jaw paved with small grinding teeth,--the +swift Aspidorhynchus, with its long, slender body and massive tail, +enabling it to strike the water powerfully and dart forward with great +rapidity. There were also a host of small Fishes, comparing with those +above mentioned as our Perch, Herring, Smelts, etc., compare with our +larger Fishes; but, whatever their size or form, all the Fishes of those +days had the same hard scales fitting to each other by hooks, instead of +the thin membranous scales overlapping each other at the edge, like the +common Fishes of more modern times. The smaller Fishes, no doubt, +afforded food to the larger ones, and to the aquatic Reptiles. Indeed, +in parts of the intestines of the Ichthyosauri, and in their petrified +excrements, have been found the scales and teeth of these smaller Fishes +perfectly preserved. It is amazing that we can learn so much of the +habits of life of these past creatures, and know even what was the food +of animals existing countless ages before man was created. + +There are traces of Mammalia in the Jurassic deposits, but they were of +those inferior kinds known now as Marsupials, and no complete specimens +have yet been found. + +The Articulates were largely represented in this epoch. There were +already in the vegetation a number of Gymnosperms, affording more +favorable nourishment for Insects than the forests of earlier times; and +we accordingly find that class in larger numbers than ever before, +though still meagre in comparison with its present representation. +Crustacea were numerous,--those of the Shrimp and Lobster kinds +prevailing, though in some of the Lobsters we have the first advance +towards the highest class of Crustacea in the expansion of the +transverse diameter now so characteristic of the Crabs. Among Mollusks +we have a host of gigantic Ammonites; and the naked Cephalopods, which +were in later times to become the prominent representatives of that +class, already begin to make their appearance. Among Radiates, some of +the higher kinds of Echinoderms, the Ophiurans and Echinolds, take the +place of the Crinoids, and the Acalephian Corals give way to the Astræan +and Meandrina-like types, resembling the Reef-Builders of the present +time. + + * * * * * + +I have spoken especially of the inhabitants of the Jurassic sea lying +between England and France, because it was there that were first found +the remains of some of the most remarkable and largest Jurassic animals. +But wherever these deposits have been investigated, the remains +contained in them reveal the same organic character, though, of course, +we find the land Reptiles only where there happen to have been marshes, +the aquatic Saurians wherever large estuaries or bays gave them an +opportunity of coming in near shore, so that their bones were preserved +in the accumulations of mud or clay constantly collecting in such +localities,--the Crustacea, Shells, or Sea-Urchins on the old +sea-beaches, the Corals in the neighborhood of coral reefs, and so on. +In short, the distribution of animals then as now was in accordance with +their nature and habits, and we shall seek vainly for them in the +localities where they did not belong. + +But when I say that the character of the Jurassic animals is the same, I +mean, that, wherever a Jurassic sea-shore occurs, be it in France, +Germany, England, or elsewhere throughout the world, the Shells, +Crustacea, or other animals found upon it have a special character, and +are not to be confounded by any one thoroughly acquainted with these +fossils with the Shells or Crustacea of any preceding or subsequent +time,--that, where a Jurassic marsh exists, the land Reptiles inhabiting +it are Jurassic, and neither Triassic nor Cretaceous,--that a Jurassic +coral reef is built of Corals belonging as distinctly to the Jurassic +creation as the Corals on the Florida reefs belong to the present +creation,--that, where some Jurassic bay or inlet is disclosed to us +with the Fishes anciently inhabiting it, they are as characteristic of +their time as are the Fishes of Massachusetts Bay now. + +And not only so, but, while this unity of creation prevails throughout +the entire epoch as a whole, there is the same variety of geographical +distribution, the same circumscription of faunæ within distinct +zoölogical provinces, as at the present time. The Fishes of +Massachusetts Bay are not the same as those of Chesapeake Bay, nor those +of Chesapeake Bay the same as those of Pamlico Sound, nor those of +Pamlico Sound the same as those of the Florida coast. This division of +the surface of the earth into given areas within which certain +combinations of animals and plants are confined is not peculiar to the +present creation, but has prevailed in all times, though with +ever-increasing diversity, as the surface of the earth itself assumed a +greater variety of climatic conditions. D'Orbigny and others were +mistaken in assuming that faunal differences have been introduced only +in the last geological epochs. Besides these adjoining zoölogical faunæ, +each epoch is divided, as we have seen, into a number of periods, +occupying successive levels one above another, and differing +specifically from each other in time as zoölogical provinces differ from +each other in space. In short, every epoch is to be looked upon from two +points of view: as a unit, complete in itself, having one character +throughout, and as a stage in the progressive history of the world, +forming part of an organic whole. + + * * * * * + +As the Jurassic epoch was ushered in by the upheaval of the Jura, so its +close was marked by the upheaval of that system of mountains called the +Côte d'Or. With this latter upheaval began the Cretaceous epoch, which +we will examine with special reference to its subdivision into periods, +since the periods in this epoch have been clearly distinguished, and +investigated with especial care. I have alluded in the preceding article +to the immediate contact of the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs in +Switzerland, affording peculiar facilities for the direct comparison of +their organic remains. But the Cretaceous deposits are well known, not +only in this inland sea of ancient Switzerland, but in a number of +European basins, in France, in the Pyrenees, on the Mediterranean +shores, and also in Syria, Egypt, India, and Southern Africa, as well as +on our own continent. In all these localities, the Cretaceous remains, +like those of the Jurassic epoch, have one organic character, distinct +and unique. This fact is especially significant, because the contact of +their respective deposits is in many localities so immediate and +continuous that it affords an admirable test for the development-theory. +If this is the true mode of origin of animals, those of the later +Jurassic beds must be the progenitors of those of the earlier Cretaceous +deposits. Let us see now how far this agrees with our knowledge of the +physiological laws of development. + +Take first the class of Fishes. We have seen that in the Jurassic +periods there were none of our common Fishes, none corresponding to our +Herring, Pickerel, Mackerel, and the like,--no Fishes, in short, with +thin membranous scales, but that the class was represented exclusively +by those with hard, flint-like scales. In the Cretaceous epoch, however, +we come suddenly upon a horde of Fishes corresponding to our smaller +common Fishes of the Pickerel and Herring tribes, but principally of the +kinds found now in tropical waters; there are none like our Cods, +Haddocks, etc., such as are found at present in the colder seas. The +Fishes of the Jurassic epoch corresponding to our Sharks and Skates and +Gar-Pikes still exist, but in much smaller proportion, while these more +modern kinds are very numerous. Indeed, a classification of the +Cretaceous Fishes would correspond very nearly to one founded on those +now living. Shall we, then, suppose that the large reptilian Fishes of +the Jurassic time began suddenly to lay numerous broods of these +smaller, more modern, scaly Fishes? And shall we account for the +diminution of the previous forms by supposing that in order to give a +fair chance to the new kinds they brought them forth in large numbers, +while they reproduced their own kind less abundantly? According to very +careful estimates, if we accept this view, the progeny of the Jurassic +Fishes must have borne a proportion of about ninety per cent, of +entirely new types to some ten per cent, of those resembling the +parents. One would like a fact or two on which to rest so very +extraordinary a reversal of all known physiological laws of +reproduction, but, unhappily, there is not one. + +Still more unaccountable, upon any theory of development according to +ordinary laws of reproduction, are those unique, isolated types limited +to a single epoch, or sometimes even to a single period. There are some +very remarkable instances of this in the Cretaceous deposits. To make my +statement clearer, I will say a word of the sequence of these deposits +and their division into periods. + +These Cretaceous beds were at first divided only into three sets, called +the Neocomian, or lower deposits, the Green-Sands, or middle deposits, +and the Chalk, or upper deposits. The Neocomian, the lower division, was +afterwards subdivided into three sets of beds, called the Lower, Middle, +and Upper Neocomian by some geologists, the Valengian, Neocomian, and +Urgonian by others. These three periods are not only traced in immediate +succession, one above another, in the transverse cut before described, +across the mountain of Chaumont, near Neufchatel, but they are also +traced almost on one level along the plain at the foot of the Jura. It +is evident that by some disturbance of the surface the eastern end of +the range was raised slightly, lifting the lower or Valengian deposits +out of the water, so that they remain uncovered, and the next set of +deposits, the Neocomian, is accumulated along their base, while these in +their turn are slightly raised, and the Urgonian beds are accumulated +against them a little lower down. They follow each other from east to +west in a narrower area, just as the Azoic, Silurian, and Devonian +deposits follow each other from north to south in the northern part of +the United States. The Cretaceous deposits have been intimately studied +in various localities by different geologists, and are now subdivided +into at least ten, or it may be fifteen or sixteen distinct periods, as +they stand at present. This is, however, but the beginning of the work; +and the recent investigations of the French geologist, Coquand, indicate +that several of these periods at least are susceptible of further +subdivision. I present here a table enumerating the periods of the +Cretaceous epoch best known at present, in their sequence, because I +want to show how sharply and in how arbitrary a manner, if I may so +express it, new forms are introduced. The names are simply derived from +the localities, or from some circumstances connected with the locality +where each period has been studied. + + _Table of Periods in the Cretaceous Epoch._ + + Maestrichtian } Chalk. + Senonian } + + Turonian } Chalk Marl. + Cenomanian } + + Albian } + Aptian } Green Sands. + Rhodanian } + + Urgonian } + Neocomian } Wealden. + Valengian } + +One of the most peculiar and distinct of those unique types alluded to +above is that of the Rudistes, a singular Bivalve, in which the lower +valve is very deep and conical, while the upper valve sets into to it as +into a cup. The subjoined woodcut represents such a Bivalve. These +Rudistes are found suddenly in the Urgonian deposits; there are none in +the two preceding sets of beds; they disappear in the three following +periods, and reappear again in great numbers in the Cenomanian, +Turonian, and Senonian periods, and disappear again in the succeeding +one. These can hardly be missed from any negligence or oversight in the +examination of these deposits, for they are by no means rare. They are +found always in great numbers, occupying crowded beds, like Oysters in +the present time. So numerous are they, where they occur at all, that +the deposits containing them are called by many naturalists the first, +second, third, and fourth _bank_ of Rudistes. Which of the ordinary +Bivalves, then, gave rise to this very remarkable form in the class, +allowed it to die out, and revived it again at various intervals? This +is by no means the only instance of the same kind. There are a number of +types making their appearance suddenly, lasting during one period or +during a succession of periods, and then disappearing forever, while +others, like the Rudistes, come in, vanish, and reappear at a later +time. + +[Illustration: Rudistes.] + +I am well aware that the advocates of the development-theory do not +state their views as I have here presented them. On the contrary, they +protest against any idea of sudden, violent, abrupt changes, and +maintain that by slow and imperceptible modifications during immense +periods of time these new types have been introduced without involving +any infringement of the ordinary processes of development; and they +account for the entire absence of corroborative facts in the past +history of animals by what they call the "imperfection of the geological +record." Now, while I admit that our knowledge of geology is still very +incomplete, I assert that just where the direct sequence of geological +deposits is needed for this evidence, we have it. The Jurassic beds, +without a single modern scaly Fish, are in immediate contact with the +Cretaceous beds, in which the Fishes of that kind are proportionately +almost as numerous as they are now; and between these two sets of +deposits there is not a trace of any transition or intermediate form to +unite the reptilian Fishes of the Jurassic with the common Fishes of the +Cretaceous times. Again, the Cretaceous beds in which the crowded banks +of Rudistes, so singular and unique in form, first make their +appearance, follow immediately upon those in which all the Bivalves are +of an entirely different character. In short, the deposits of this year +along any sea-coast or at the mouth of any of our rivers do not follow +more directly upon those of last year than do these successive sets of +beds of past ages follow upon each other. In making these statements, I +do not forget the immense length of the geological periods; on the +contrary, I fully accede to it, and believe that it is more likely to +have been underrated than overstated. But let it be increased a +thousand-fold, the fact remains, that these new types occur commonly at +the dividing line where one period joins the next, just on the margin of +both. + +For years I have collected daily among some of these deposits, and I +know the Sea-Urchins, Corals, Fishes, Crustacea, and Shells of those old +shores as well as I know those of Nahant Beach, and there is nothing +more striking to a naturalist than the sudden, abrupt changes of species +in passing from one to another. In the second set of Cretaceous beds, +the Neocomian, there is found a little Terebratula (a small Bivalve +Shell) in immense quantities: they may actually be collected by the +bushel. Pass to the Urgonian beds, resting directly upon the Neocomian, +and there is not one to be found, and an entirely new species comes in. +There is a peculiar Spatangus (Sea-Urchin) found throughout the whole +series of beds in which this Terebratula occurs. At the same moment that +you miss the Shell, the Sea-Urchin disappears also, and another takes +its place. Now, admitting for a moment that the later can have grown out +of the earlier forms, I maintain, that, if this be so, the change is +immediate, sudden, without any gradual transitions, and is, therefore, +wholly inconsistent with all our known physiological laws, as well as +with the transmutation-theory. + +There is a very singular group of Ammonites in the Cretaceous epoch, +which, were it not for the suddenness of its appearance, might seem +rather to favor the development-theory, from its great variety of +closely allied forms. We have traced the Chambered Shells from the +straight, simple ones of the earliest epochs up to the intricate and +closely coiled forms of the Jurassic epoch. In the so-called Portland +stone, belonging to the upper set of Jurassic beds, there is only one +type of Ammonite; but in the Cretaceous beds, immediately above it, +there set in a number of different genera and distinct species, +including the most fantastic and seemingly abnormal forms. It is as if +the close coil by which these shells had been characterized during the +Middle Age had been suddenly broken up and decomposed into an endless +variety of outlines. Some of these new types still retain the coil, but +the whorls are much less compact than before, as in the Crioceras; in +others, the direction of the coil is so changed as to make a spiral, as +in the Turrilites; or the shell starts with a coil, then proceeds in a +straight line, and changes to a curve again at the other extremity, as +in the Ancyloceras, or in the Scaphites, in which the first coil is +somewhat closer than in the Ancyloceras; or the tendency to a coil is +reduced to a single curve, so as to give the shell the outline of a +horn, as in the Toxoceras; or the coil is entirely lost, and the shell +reduced to its primitive straight form, as in the Baculites, which, +except for their undulating partitions, might be mistaken for the +Orthoceratites of the Silurian and Devonian epochs. I have presented +here but a few species of these extraordinary Cretaceous Ammonites, and, +strange to say, with this breaking-up of the type into a number of +fantastic and often contorted shapes, it disappears. It is singular that +forms so unusual and so contrary to the previous regularity of this +group should accompany its last stage of existence, and seem to shadow +forth by their strange contortions the final dissolution of their type. +When I look upon a collection of these old shells, I can never divest +myself of an impression that the contortions of a death-struggle have +been made the pattern of living types, and with that the whole group has +ended. + +[Illustration: Crioceras.] + +[Illustration: Turrilites.] + +[Illustration: Ancyloceras.] + +[Illustration: Scaphites.] + +[Illustration: Toxoceras.] + +[Illustration: Baculites.] + +Now shall we infer that the compact, closely coiled Ammonites of the +Jurassic deposits, while continuing their own kind, brought forth a +variety of other kinds, and so distributed these new organic elements as +to produce a large number of distinct genera and species? I confess that +these ideas are so contrary to all I have learned from Nature in the +course of a long life that I should be forced to renounce completely the +results of my studies in Embryology and Palæontology before I could +adopt these new views of the origin of species. And while the +distinguished originator of this theory is entitled to our highest +respect for his scientific researches, yet it should not be forgotten +that the most conclusive evidence brought forward by him and his +adherents is of a negative character, drawn from a science in which they +do not pretend to have made personal investigations, that of Geology, +while the proofs they offer us from their own departments of science, +those of Zoölogy and Botany, are derived from observations, still very +incomplete, upon domesticated animals and cultivated plants, which can +never be made a test of the origin of wild species.[11] + +[Footnote 11: The advocates of the development-theory allude to the +metamorphosis of animals and plants as supporting their view of a change +of one species into another. They compare the passage of a common leaf +into the calyx or crown-leaves in plants, or that of a larva into a +perfect insect, to the passage of one species into another. The only +objection to this argument seems to be, that, whereas Nature daily +presents us myriads of examples of the one set of phenomena, showing it +to be a norm, not a single instance of the other has ever been known to +occur either in the animal or in the vegetable kingdom.] + +In my next article I shall show the relation between the Cretaceous and +Tertiary epochs, and see whether there is any reason to believe that the +gigantic Mammalia of more modern times were derived from the Reptiles of +the Secondary age. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. + + + Hark! 't is our Northern Nightingale that sings + In far-off, leafy cloisters, dark and cool, + Flinging his flute-notes bounding from the skies! + + Thou wild musician of the mountain-streams, + Most tuneful minstrel of the forest-choirs, + Bird of all grace and harmony of soul, + Unseen, we hail thee for thy blissful voice! + + Up in yon tremulous mist where morning wakes + Illimitable shadows from their dark abodes, + Or in this woodland glade tumultuous grown + With all the murmurous language of the trees, + No blither presence fills the vocal space. + The wandering rivulets dancing through the grass, + The gambols, low or loud, of insect-life, + The cheerful call of cattle in the vales, + Sweet natural sounds of the contented hours,-- + All seem less jubilant when thy song begins. + + Deep in the shade we lie and listen long; + For human converse well may pause, and man + Learn from such notes fresh hints of praise, + That upward swelling from thy grateful tribe + Circles the hills with melodies of joy. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FLEUR-DE-LIS IN FLORIDA. + + [In the July number of this magazine is a sketch of the attempt + of the Huguenots, under the auspices of Coligny, to found a + colony at Port Royal. Two years later, an attempt was made to + establish a Protestant community on the banks of the River St. + John's, in Florida. The following paper embodies the substance + of the letters and narratives of the actors in this striking + episode of American history.] + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +On the 25th of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second time off +the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the smallest of +sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all crowded with men. +René de Laudonnière held command. He was of a noble race of Poitou, +attached to the House of Châtillon, of which Coligny was the head; +pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An engraving, +purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, leaning +against the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and plume, +slashed doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled +moustache and close-trimmed beard, wears a thoughtful and somewhat +pensive look, as if already shadowed by the destiny that awaited him. + +The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark and deadly +year for France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that +voyager returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of +bigotry and hate had found a respite. The Peace of Amboise had been +signed. The fierce monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his +sword; the assassin, his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked +their rancor under hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, +helpless amid the storm of factions which threatened their destruction, +smiled now on Condé, now on Guise,--gave ear to the Cardinal of +Lorraine, or listened in secret to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. +Coligny was again strong at Court. He used his opportunity, and +solicited with success the means of renewing his enterprise of +colonization. With pains and zeal, men were mustered for the work. In +name, at least, they were all Huguenots; yet again, as before, the +staple of the projected colony was unsound: soldiers, paid out of the +royal treasury, hired artisans and tradesmen, joined with a swarm of +volunteers from the young Huguenot noblesse, whose restless swords had +rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The foundation-stone was left +out. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, indeed, were rare among +the Huguenots; for the dull peasants who guided the plough clung with +blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous gentlemen, reckless +soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for novelty and heated with +dreams of wealth,--these were they who would build for their country and +their religion an empire beyond the sea. + +With a few officers and twelve soldiers, Laudonnière landed where Ribaut +had landed before him; and as their boat neared the shore, they saw an +Indian chief who ran to meet them, whooping and clamoring welcome from +afar. It was Satouriona, the savage potentate who ruled some thirty +villages around the lower St. John's and northward along the coast. With +him came two stalwart sons, and behind trooped a host of tribesmen +arrayed in smoke-tanned deerskins stained with wild devices in gaudy +colors. They crowded around the voyagers with beaming visages and yelps +of gratulation. The royal Satouriona could not contain the exuberance of +his joy, since in the person of the French commander he recognized the +brother of the Sun, descended from the skies to aid him against his +great rival, Outina. + +Hard by stood the column of stone, graven with the fleur-de-lis, +planted here on the former voyage. The Indians had crowned the mystic +emblem with evergreens, and placed offerings of maize on the ground +before it; for with an affectionate and reverent wonder they had ever +remembered the steel-clad strangers whom, two summers before, John +Ribaut had led to their shores. + +Five miles up the St. John's, or River of May, there stands, on the +southern bank, a hill some forty feet high, boldly thrusting itself into +the broad and lazy waters. It is now called St. John's Bluff. Thither +the Frenchmen repaired, pushed through the dense semi-tropical forest, +and climbed the steep acclivity. Thence they surveyed their Canaan. +Beneath them moved the unruffled river, gliding around the reed-grown +shores of marshy islands, the haunt of alligators, and betwixt the +bordering expanse of wide, wet meadows, studded with island-like clumps +of pine and palmetto, and bounded by the sunny verge of distant forests. +Far on their right, seen by glimpses between the shaggy cedar-boughs, +the glistening sea lay stretched along the horizon. Before, in hazy +distance, the softened green of the woodlands was veined with the mazes +of the countless interlacing streams that drain the watery region behind +St. Mary's and Fernandina. To the left, the St. John's flowed gleaming +betwixt verdant shores beyond whose portals lay the El Dorado of their +dreams. "Briefly," writes Laudonnière, "the place is so pleasant that +those which are melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour." + +A fresh surprise awaited them. The allotted span of mortal life was +quadrupled in that benign climate. Laudonnière's lieutenant, Ottigny, +ranging the neighboring forest with a party of soldiers, met a troop of +Indians who invited him to their dwellings. Mounted on the back of a +stout savage, who plunged with him through the deep marshes, and guided +him by devious pathways through the tangled thickets, he arrived at +length, and beheld a wondrous spectacle. In the lodge sat a venerable +chief, who assured him that he was the father of five successive +generations, and that he had lived two hundred and fifty years. +Opposite, sat a still more ancient veteran, the father of the first, +shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather a dead carkeis +than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age was so great +that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak one onely word +but with exceeding great paine." Despite his dismal condition, the +visitor was told that he might expect to live in the course of Nature +thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat face to face, half +hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and his credulous +soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in wonder and admiration. + +Man and Nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May as +the site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the +harvests of maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the +river opened a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores +of barbaric wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the +colonists. Yet, the better to content himself and his men, Laudonnière +weighed anchor, and sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. +Returning, confirmed in his first impression, he set forth with a party +of officers and soldiers to explore the borders of the chosen stream. +The day was hot. The sun beat fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy +doublets of the men, till at length they gained the shade of one of +those deep forests of pine where the dead and sultry air is thick with +resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen leaves, gives no +sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer leaped up on all +sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into sunlight. A broad +meadow, a running brook, a lofty wall of encircling forests. The men +called it the Vale of Laudonnière. The afternoon was spent, and the sun +was near its setting, when they reached the bank of the river. They +strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, and, stretched on that +sylvan couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and weary men. + +At daybreak they were roused by sound of trumpet. Men and officers +joined their voices in a psalm, then betook themselves to their task. +Their task was the building of a fort, and this was the chosen spot. It +was a tract of dry ground on the brink of the river, immediately above +St. John's Bluff. On the right was the bluff; on the left, a marsh; in +front, the river; behind, the forest. + +Boats came up the stream with laborers, tents, provision, cannon, and +tools. The engineers marked out the work in the form of a triangle; and, +from the noble volunteer to the meanest artisan, all lent a hand to +complete it. On the river side the defences were a palisade of timber. +On the two other sides were a ditch, and a rampart of fascines, earth, +and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in one of which was the magazine. +Within was a spacious parade, and around it various buildings for +lodging and storage. A large house with covered galleries was built on +the side towards the river for Laudonnière and his officers. In honor of +Charles IX the fort was named Fort Caroline. + +Meanwhile, Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives +style him, was seized with misgivings, learning these mighty +preparations. The work was but begun, and all was din and confusion +around the incipient fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the +neighboring height of St. John's swarming with naked warriors. The +prudent Laudonnière set his men in array, and for a season pick and +spade were dropped for arquebuse and pike. The savage potentate +descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, who saw him, drew his +likeness from memory,--a tall, athletic figure, tattooed in token of his +rank, plumed with feathers, hung with strings of beads, and girdled with +tinkling pieces of metal which hung from the belt, his only garment. He +came in regal state, a crowd of warriors around him, and, in advance, a +troop of young Indians armed with spears. Twenty musicians followed, +blowing a hideous discord through pipes of reeds. Arrived, he seated +himself on the ground "like a monkey," as Le Moyne has it in the grave +Latin of his "Brevis Narratio." A council followed, in which broken +words were aided by signs and pantomime. A treaty of alliance was made, +and Laudonnière had the folly to promise the chief that he would lend +him aid against his enemies. Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his +Indians to aid the French at their work. They obeyed with alacrity, and +in two days the buildings of the fort were all thatched after the native +fashion with leaves of the palmetto. + +A word touching these savages. In the peninsula of Florida were several +distinct Indian confederacies, with three of which the French were +brought into contact. The first was that of Satouriona. The next was the +potent confederacy of the Thimagoa, under a chief called Outina, whose +forty villages were scattered among the lakes and forests around the +upper waters of this remarkable river. The third was that of "King +Potanou," whose domain lay among the pine-barrens, cypress-swamps, and +fertile hummocks, westward and northwestward of the St. John's. The +three communities were at deadly enmity. Their social state was more +advanced than that of the wandering hunter-tribes of the North. They +were an agricultural people. Around all their villages were fields of +maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest, due chiefly to the labor of the +women, was gathered into a public granary, and on this they lived during +three-fourths of the year, dispersing in winter to hunt among the +forests. + +Their villages were clusters of huts thatched with palmetto. In the +midst was the dwelling of the chief, much larger than the rest, and +sometimes raised on an artificial mound. They were inclosed with +palisades, and, strange to say, some of them were approached by wide +avenues, artificially graded, and several hundred yards in length. +Remains of them may still be seen, as may also the mounds in which the +Floridians, like the Hurons and various other tribes, collected at +stated intervals the bones of their dead. + +The most prominent feature of their religion was sun-worship, and, like +other wild American tribes, they abounded in "medicine-men," who +combined the functions of priest, physician, and necromancer. + +Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose +office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each +village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the nation. In +the language of the French narratives, they were all kings or lords, +vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or Potanou. All these +tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to ascertain with precision +their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt that they were the +authors of the mounds and other remains at present found in various +parts of Florida. + +Their fort nearly finished, and their league made with Satouriona, the +gold-hunting Huguenots were eager to spy out the secrets of the +interior. To this end the lieutenant, Ottigny, went up the river in a +sail-boat. With him were a few soldiers and two Indians, the latter +going forth, says Laudonnière, as if bound to a wedding, keen for a +fight with the hated Thimagoa, and exulting in the havoc to be wrought +among them by the magic weapons of their white allies. They were doomed +to grievous disappointment. + +The Sieur d'Ottigny spread his sail, and calmly glided up the dark +waters of the St. John's. A scene fraught with strange interest to the +naturalist and the lover of Nature. Here, two centuries later, the +Bartrams, father and son, guided their skiff and kindled their nightly +bivouac-fire; and here, too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and +his gun. Each alike has left the record of his wanderings, fresh as the +woods and waters that inspired it. Slight, then, was the change since +Ottigny, first of white men, steered his bark along the still breast of +the virgin river. Before him, like a lake, the redundant waters spread +far and wide; and along the low shores, or jutting points, or the +waveless margin of deep and sheltered coves, towered wild, majestic +forms of vegetable beauty. Here rose the magnolia, high above +surrounding woods; but the gorgeous bloom had fallen, that a few weeks +earlier studded the verdant dome with silver. From the edge of the +bordering swamp the cypress reared its vast buttressed column and leafy +canopy. From the rugged arms of oak and pine streamed the gray drapery +of the long Spanish moss, swayed mournfully in the faintest breeze. Here +were the tropical plumage of the palm, the dark green masses of the +live-oak, the glistening verdure of wild orange-groves; and from out the +shadowy thickets hung the wreaths of the jessamine and the scarlet +trumpets of the bignonia. + +Nor less did the fruitful river teem with varied forms of animal life. +From the caverns of leafy shade came the gleam and flicker of +many-colored plumage. The cormorant, the pelican, the heron, floated on +the water, or stalked along its pebbly brink. Among the sedges, the +alligator, foul from his native mud, outstretched his hideous length, +or, sluggish and sullen, drifted past the boat, his grim head level with +the surface, and each scale, each folding of his horny hide, distinctly +visible, as, with the slow movement of distended paws, he balanced +himself in the water. When, at sunset, they drew up their boat on the +strand, and built their camp-fire under the arches of the woods, the +shores resounded with the roaring of these colossal lizards; all night +the forest rang with the whooping of the owls; and in the morning the +sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal, far and near, with the +clamor of wild turkeys. + +Among such scenes, for twenty leagues, the adventurous sail moved on. +Far to the right, beyond the silent waste of pines, lay the realm of +the mighty Potanou. The Thimagoa towns were still above them on the +river, when they saw three canoes of this people at no great distance in +front. Forthwith the two Indians in the boat were fevered with +excitement. With glittering eyes they snatched pike and sword, and +prepared for fight; but the sage Ottigny, bearing slowly down on the +strangers, gave them time to run their craft ashore and escape to the +woods. Then, landing, he approached the canoes, placed in them a few +trinkets, and withdrew to a distance. The fugitives took heart, and, +step by step, returned. An amicable intercourse was opened, with +assurances of friendship on the part of the French, a procedure viewed +by Satouriona's Indians with unspeakable disgust and ire. + +The ice thus broken, Ottigny returned to Fort Caroline; and a fortnight +later, an officer named Vasseur sailed up the river to pursue the +adventure: for the French, thinking that the nation of the Thimagoa lay +betwixt them and the gold-mines, would by no means quarrel with them, +and Laudonnière repented him already of his rash pledge to Satouriona. + +As Vasseur moved on, two Indians hailed him from the shore, inviting him +to their dwellings. He accepted their guidance, and presently saw before +him the cornfields and palisades of an Indian town. Led through the +wondering crowd to the lodge of the chief, Mollua, Vasseur and his +followers were seated in the place of honor and plentifully regaled with +fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua began his discourse. He told +them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs of the great Outina, +lord of all the Thimagoa, whose warriors wore armor of gold and silver +plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his enemy, a mighty and redoubted +prince; and of the two kings of the distant Appalachian Mountains, rich +beyond utterance in gems and gold. While thus, with earnest pantomime +and broken words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent +and eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of +these Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in war +against the two potentates of the mountains. Hereupon the sagacious +Mollua, well pleased, promised that each of Outina's vassal chiefs +should requite their French allies with a heap of gold and silver two +feet high. Thus, while Laudonnière stood pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur +made alliance with his mortal enemy. + +Returning, he was met, near the fort, by one of Satouriona's chiefs, who +questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoa. Vasseur replied, +that he had set upon and routed them with incredible slaughter. But as +the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, the +sergeant, Francis la Caille, drew his sword, and, like Falstaff before +him, re-enacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the +imaginary Thimagoa as they fled before his fury. Whereat the chief, at +length convinced, led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with +a certain savory decoction with which the Indians were wont to regale +those whom they delighted to honor. + +Elate at the promise of a French alliance, Satouriona had summoned his +vassal chiefs to war. From the St. Mary's and the Satilla and the +distant Altamaha, from every quarter of his woodland realm, they had +mustered at his call. By the margin of the St. John's, the forest was +alive with their bivouacs. Ten chiefs were here, and some five hundred +men. And now, when all was ready, Satouriona reminded Laudonnière of his +promise, and claimed its fulfilment; but the latter gave evasive answers +and a virtual refusal. Stifling his rage, the chief prepared to go +without him. + +Near the bank of the river, a fire was kindled, and two large vessels of +water placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand. His chiefs +crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his five +hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished with +feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, panthers, +bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, +distorted his features to a wild expression of rage and hate; then +muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the sun; then +besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, +turning the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he cried, +"may the blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives +extinguished!" and the concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive +yells, till the shores resounded with the wolfish din. + +The rites over, they set forth, and in a few days returned exulting with +thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. The latter were hung on a +pole before the royal lodge, and when night came, it brought with it a +pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting. + +A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonnière. Resolved, cost what +it might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it a stroke of policy +to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent a +soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a flat +refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had +shamefully broken faith with him. On this, Laudonnière, at the head of +twenty soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the +opening of the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated +himself without ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his +displeasure, he remained in silence for a half-hour. At length he spoke, +renewing his demand. For some moments Satouriona made no reply, then +coldly observed that the sight of so many armed men had frightened the +prisoners away. Laudonnière grew peremptory, when the chiefs son, +Athore, went out, and presently returned with the two Indians, whom the +French led back to Fort Caroline. + +Satouriona dissembled, professed good-will, and sent presents to the +fort; but the outrage rankled in his savage breast, and he never forgave +it. + +Captain Vasseur, with Arlac, the ensign, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, +embarked to bear the ill-gotten gift to Outina. Arrived, they were +showered with thanks by that grateful potentate, who, hastening to avail +himself of his new alliance, invited them to join in a raid against his +neighbor, Potanou. To this end, Arlac and five soldiers remained, while +Vasseur with the rest descended to Fort Caroline. + +The warriors were mustered, the dances were danced, and the songs were +sung. Then the wild cohort took up its march. The wilderness through +which they passed holds its distinctive features to this day,--the shady +desert of the pine-barrens, where many a wanderer has miserably died, +with haggard eye seeking in vain for clue or guidance in the pitiless, +inexorable monotony. Yet the waste has its oases, the "hummocks," where +the live-oaks are hung with long festoons of grape-vines,--where the air +is sweet with woodland odors, and vocal with the song of birds. Then the +deep cypress-swamp, where dark trunks rise like the columns of some vast +sepulchre. Above, the impervious canopy of leaves; beneath, a black and +root-encumbered slough. Perpetual moisture trickles down the clammy +bark, while trunk and limb, distorted with strange shapes of vegetable +disease, wear in the gloom a semblance grotesque and startling. Lifeless +forms lean propped in wild disorder against the living, and from every +rugged stem and lank limb outstretched hangs the dark drapery of the +Spanish moss. The swamp is veiled in mourning. No breath, no voice. A +deathly stillness, till the plunge of the alligator, lashing the waters +of the black lagoon, resounds with hollow echo through the tomb-like +solitude. + +Next, the broad sunlight and the wide savanna. Wading breast-deep in +grass, they view the wavy sea of verdure, with headland and cape and +far-reaching promontory, with distant coasts, hazy and dim, havens and +shadowed coves, islands of the magnolia and the palm, high, impending +shores of the mulberry and the elm, the ash, hickory, and maple. Here +the rich _gordonia_, never out of bloom, sends down its thirsty roots to +drink at the stealing brook. Here the _halesia_ hangs out its silvery +bells, the purple clusters of the _wistaria_ droop from the supporting +bough, and the coral blossoms of the _erythryna_ glow in the shade +beneath. From tufted masses of sword-like leaves shoot up the tall +spires of the _yucca_, heavy with pendent flowers, of pallid hue, like +the moon, and from the grass gleams the blue eye of the starry _ixia_. + +Through forest, swamp, savanna, the valiant Frenchmen held their way. At +first, Outina's Indians kept always in advance; but when they reached +the hostile district, the modest warriors fell to the rear, resigning +the post of honor to their French allies. + +An open country; a rude cultivation; the tall palisades of an Indian +town. Their approach was seen, and the warriors of Potanou, nowise +daunted, came swarming forth to meet them. But the sight of the bearded +strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, the fall of their +foremost chief, shot through the brain with the bullet of Arlac, filled +them with consternation, and they fled headlong within their defences. +The men of Thimagoa ran screeching in pursuit. Pell-mell, all entered +the town together. Slaughter; pillage; flame. The work was done, and the +band returned triumphant. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and +parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes +had been dashed; wild expectations had come to nought. The adventurers +had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a petty fort by a +hot and sickly river, with hard labor, ill fare, prospective famine, and +nothing to break the weary sameness but some passing canoe or floating +alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each other's wrath, and +inveighed against the commandant. + +Why are we put on half-rations, when he told us that provision should be +made for a full year? Where are the reinforcements and supplies that he +said should follow us from France? Why is he always closeted with +Ottigny, Arlac, and this and that favorite, when we, men of blood as +good as theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? And why has he sent La +Roche Ferrière to make his fortune among the Indians, while we are kept +here, digging at the works? + +Of La Roche Ferrière and his adventures, more hereafter. The young +nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own +expenses, in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in +impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony--unlike the +former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. The +adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet +there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to +complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. +The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonnière, whose greatest +errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,--fatal +defects in his position. + +The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one Roquette, +who gave out that by magic he had discovered a mine of gold and silver, +high up the river, which would give each of them a share of ten thousand +crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the king. But for +Laudonnière, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally +in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonnière's confidants, who, still +professing fast adherence to the interests of the latter, is charged by +him with plotting against his life. Many of the soldiers were in the +conspiracy. They made a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with +them to the rampart when they went to their work, at the same time +wearing their arms, and watching an opportunity to kill the commandant. +About this time, overheating himself, he fell ill, and was confined to +his quarters. On this, Genre made advances to the apothecary, urging him +to put arsenic into his medicines; but the apothecary shrugged his +shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow him up, by hiding a keg of +gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed. Hints of Genre's +machinations reaching the ears of Laudonnière, the culprit fled to the +woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with full confession, to his +commander. + +Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France,--the third, the Breton, +remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malecontents took the +opportunity to send home charges against Laudonnière of peculation, +favoritism, and tyranny. + +Early in September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private adventurer, +had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he returned, about the +tenth of November, Laudonnière persuaded him to carry home seven or +eight of the malecontent soldiers. Bourdet left some of his sailors in +their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. These pirates joined +with others whom they had won over, stole Laudonnière's two pinnaces, +and set forth on a plundering excursion to the West Indies. They took a +small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, but were soon compelled by +famine to put into Havana and surrender themselves. Here, to make their +peace with the authorities, they told all they knew of the position and +purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, and hence was forged the +thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the wretched little colony. + +On a Sunday morning, Francis de la Caille came to Laudonnière's +quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come +to the parade-ground. He complied, and, issuing forth, his inseparable +Ottigny at his side, saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and +gentlemen-volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre +countenance. La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf of +the rest, a paper which he held in his hand. It opened with +protestations of duty and obedience; next came complaints of hard work, +starvation, and broken promises, and a request that the petitioners +should be allowed to embark in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise +along the Spanish main in order to procure provision by purchase "or +otherwise." In short, the flower of the company wished to turn +buccaneers. + +Laudonnière refused, but assured them, that, so soon as the defences of +the fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for +the Appalachian gold-mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then +building on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for +provisions with the Indians. With this answer they were forced to +content themselves; but the fermentation continued, and the plot +thickened. Their spokesman, La Caille, however, seeing whither the +affair tended, broke with them, and, beside Ottigny, Vasseur, and the +brave Swiss, Arlac, was the only officer who held to his duty. + +A severe illness again seized Laudonnière and confined him to his bed. +Improving their advantage, the malecontents gained over nearly all the +best soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of +good birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up +a paper to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed +the conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le +Moyne, who had also refused to sign, received a hint from a friend that +he had better change his quarters; upon which he warned La Caille, who +escaped to the woods. It was late in the night. Fourneaux, with twenty +men armed to the teeth, knocked fiercely at the commandant's door. +Forcing an entrance, they wounded a gentleman who opposed them, and +crowded around the sick man's bed. Fourneaux, armed with steel cap and +cuirass, held his arquebuse to Laudonnière's breast, and demanded leave +to go on a cruise among the Spanish islands. The latter kept his +presence of mind, and remonstrated with some firmness; on which, with +oaths and menaces, they dragged him from his bed, put him in fetters, +carried him out to the gate of the fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed +him to the ship anchored in the river. + +Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they +disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on +pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming all +the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the +conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated +West-India cruise, which he required Laudonnière to sign. The sick +commandant, imprisoned in the ship, with one attendant, at first +refused; but, receiving a message from the mutineers, that, if he did +not comply, they would come on board and cut his throat, he at length +yielded. + +The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels +on which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight +they were ready for sea, armed and provided with the king's cannon, +munitions, and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join +the party. Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church, on +one of the Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during the +midnight mass of Christmas, whereby a triple end would be achieved: +first, a rich booty; secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, +vengeance on the arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set +sail on the eighth of December, taunting those who remained, calling +them greenhorns, and threatening condign punishment, if, on their +triumphant return, they should be refused free entrance to the fort. + +They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonnière was gladdened +in his solitude by the approach of his fast friends, Ottigny and Arlac, +who conveyed him to the fort, and reinstated him. The entire command was +reorganized and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully depleted; +but the bad blood had been drawn, and thenceforth all internal danger +was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two new vessels to +replace those of which they had been robbed, and in various intercourse +with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until the twenty-fifth of +March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that a vessel was +hovering off the coast. Laudonnière sent to reconnoitre. The stranger +lay anchored at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish brigantine, +manned by the returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and anxious to +make terms. Yet, as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, Laudonnière +sent down La Caille with thirty soldiers, concealed at the bottom of his +little vessel. Seeing only two or three on deck, the pirates allowed her +to come along-side; when, to their amazement, they were boarded and +taken before they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, woebegone, and +drunk, they were landed under a guard. Their story was soon told. +Fortune had flattered them at the outset. On the coast of Cuba, they +took a brigantine, with wine and stores. Embarking in her, they next +fell in with a caravel, which they also captured. Landing at a village +of Jamaica, they plundered and caroused for a week, and had hardly +reëmbarked when they fell in with a small vessel having on board the +governor of the island. She made desperate fight, but was taken at last, +and with her a rich booty. They thought to put the governor to ransom; +but the astute official deceived them, and, on pretence of negotiating +for the sum demanded, together with certain apes and parrots, for which +his captors had also bargained, contrived to send instructions to his +wife. Whence it happened that at daybreak three armed vessels fell upon +them, retook the prize, and captured or killed all the pirates but +twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their brigantine, fled out to +sea. Among these was the ringleader, Fourneaux, and, happily, the pilot, +Trenchant. The latter, eager to return to Fort Caroline, whence he had +been forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in bringing the vessel +to the coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and consternation of the +discomfited pirates, when they saw their dilemma; for, having no +provision, they must either starve or seek succor at the fort. They +chose the latter alternative, and bore away for the St. John's. A few +casks of Spanish wine yet remained, and nobles and soldiers, fraternized +by the common peril of a halter, joined in a last carouse. As the wine +mounted to their heads, in the mirth of drink and desperation, they +enacted their own trial. One personated the judge, another the +commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and speeches on either +side. + +"Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the +defence, "but if Laudonnière does not hang us all, I will never call him +an honest man." + +They had some hope of gaining provision from the Indians at the mouth of +the river, and then patting to sea again; but this was frustrated by La +Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort Caroline, +and all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were sentenced to +be hanged. + +"Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will +you stand by and see us butchered?" + +"These," retorted Laudonnière, "are no comrades of mutineers and +rebels." + +At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to +shooting. + +A file of men; a rattling volley; and the debt of justice was paid. The +bodies were hanged on gibbets at the river's mouth, and order reigned at +Fort Caroline. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferrière had been sent out as +an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and +restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have +reached the mysterious mountains of Appalachee. He sent to the fort +mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows +tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and +other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up the +quest, and penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who could muster +three or four thousand warriors, and who promised with the aid of a +hundred arquebusiers to conquer all the kings of the adjacent mountains, +and subject them and their gold-mines to the rule of the French. A +humbler adventurer was Peter Gamble, a robust and daring youth, who had +been brought up in the household of Coligny, and was now a soldier under +Laudonnière. The latter gave him leave to trade with the Indians, a +privilege which he used so well that he grew rich with his traffic, +became prime favorite with the chief of Edelano, married his daughter, +and, in his absence, reigned in his stead. But, as his sway verged +towards despotism, his subjects took offence, and beat out his brains +with a hatchet. + +During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral +brought to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the +southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the +Indians,--in other words, were not clothed at all,--and their uncut hair +streamed wildly down their backs. They brought strange tales of those +among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Calos, on whose +domains they had suffered wreck, a chief mighty in stature and in power. +In one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a +hogshead, filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent +reefs and keys. The monarch was a priest, too, and a magician, with +power over the elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to +hold converse in secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year +he sacrificed to his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the +sea had cast upon his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that +of the River Caloosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, +dwelling near Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of +wondrous beauty, in marriage to his great ally. But, as the bride, with +her bridesmaids, was journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen +band, they were assailed by a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an +island called Sarrope, in the midst of a great lake, who put the +warriors to flight, bore the maidens captive to their watery fastness, +espoused them all, and, as we are assured, "loved them above all +measure." + +Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged for +ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of Potanou, +again alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus +reinforced, he would conquer for them a free access to the phantom +gold-mines of Appalachec. Ottigny set forth on this fool's-errand with +thrice the force demanded. Three hundred Thimagoa and thirty Frenchmen +took up their march through the pine-barrens. Outina's conjurer was of +the number, and had well-nigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on +Ottigny's shield, that he might not touch the earth, with hideous +grimaces, howlings, and contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic +frenzy, and proclaimed to the astounded warriors that to advance farther +would be destruction. Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's +sarcasms shamed him into a show of courage. Again they moved forward, +and soon encountered Potanou with all his host. Le Moyne drew a picture +of the fight. In the foreground Ottigny is engaged in single combat with +a gigantic savage, who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly stroke at the +plumed helmet of his foe; but the latter, with target raised to guard +his head, darts under the arms of the naked Goliath, and transfixes him +with his sword. The arquebuse did its work: panic, slaughter, and a +plentiful harvest of scalps. But no persuasion could induce Outina to +follow up his victory. He went home to dance around his trophies, and +the French returned disgusted to Fort Caroline. + +And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their +folly. Conquest, gold, military occupation,--such had been their aims. +Not a rood of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores were +consumed; the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, were +hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his +tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in +their miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their +only hope. + +May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his +companions, full of delighted anticipations, had explored the flowery +borders of the St. John's. Dire was the contrast; for, within the +homesick precinct of Fort Caroline, a squalid band, dejected and worn, +dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or lay +stretched in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. Some +were digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel upon the +meadows. One collected refuse fish-bones and pounded them into meal. +Yet, giddy with weakness, their skin clinging to their bones, they +dragged themselves in turn to the top of St. John's Bluff, straining +their eyes across the sea to descry the anxiously expected sail. + +Had Coligny left them to perish? or had some new tempest of calamity, +let loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the +watchman on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection +fell upon them, a dejection that would have sunk to despair, could their +eyes have pierced the future. + +The Indians had left the neighborhood, but, from time to time, brought +in meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at +exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, +they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, +beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. +"Oftentimes," says Laudonnière, "our poor soldiers were constrained to +give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any +time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, +these villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make +so great account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: +then fell they out a laughing and mocked us with open throat." + +The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed +the colonists, the thought of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the +Breton, still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish +brigantine brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were +insufficient, and they prepared to build a new one. The energy of +reviving hope lent new life to their exhausted frames. Some gathered +pitch in the pine forests; some made charcoal; some cut and sawed the +timber. The maize began to ripen, and this brought some relief; but the +Indians, exasperated and greedy, sold it with reluctance, and murdered +two half-famished Frenchmen who gathered a handful in the fields. + +The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result +was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with an +invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, the plunder of whose +villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was accepted. Ottigny +and Vasseur set forth, but were grossly deceived, led against a +different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved. + +Pale with famine and with rage, a crowd of soldiers beset Laudonnière, +and fiercely demanded to be led against Outina to take him prisoner and +extort from his fears the supplies which could not be looked for from +his gratitude. The commandant was forced to comply. Those who could bear +the weight of their armor put it on, embarked, to the number of fifty, +in two barges, and sailed up the river under the commandant himself. +Outina's landing reached, they marched inland, entered his village, +surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized him amid the yells and +howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner to their boats. Here, +anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of corn and beans as the +price of his ransom. + +The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging +from all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and +troops of women gathered at the water's edge with moans, outcries, and +gestures of despair. Yet no ransom was offered, since, reasoning from +their own instincts, they never doubted, that, the price paid, the +captive would be put to death. + +Laudonnière waited two days, then descended the river. In a rude chamber +of Fort Caroline, pike in hand, the sentinel stood his guard, while +before him crouched the captive chief, mute, impassive, brooding on his +woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen as a hound on the scent of prey, +tried, by great offers, to bribe Laudonnière to give the prisoner into +his hands. Outina, however, was kindly treated, and assured of immediate +freedom on payment of the ransom. + +Meanwhile his captivity was entailing dire affliction on his realm; for, +despairing of his return, his subjects mustered to the election of a new +chief. Party-strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and some for +an ambitious kinsman who coveted the vacant throne. Outina chafed in his +prison, learning these dissensions, and, eager to convince his +over-hasty subjects that their king still lived, he was so profuse of +promises, that he was again embarked and carried up the river. + +At no great distance below Lake George, a small affluent of the St. +John's gave access by water to a point within eighteen miles of Outina's +principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and bearing also +the royal captive, rowed up this little stream. Indians awaited them at +the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and piteous prayers +for their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an ample supply of +corn. As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonnière yielded, +released the chief, and received in his place two hostages, who were +fast bound in the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong detachment of +arquebusiers, set forth to receive the promised supplies, for which, +from the first, full payment in merchandise had been offered. Arrived at +the village, they filed into the great central lodge, within whose dusky +precincts were gathered the magnates of the tribe. Council-chamber, +forum, banquet-hall, dancing-hall, palace, all in one, the royal +dwelling could hold half the population in its capacious confines. Here +the French made their abode. Their armor buckled, their +arquebuse-matches lighted, they stood, or sat, or reclined on the +earthen floor, with anxious eyes watching the strange, dim scene, half +lighted by the daylight that streamed down through the hole at the apex +of the roof. Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, quivers at their +backs, bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched in the +shadow beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and +malignant, sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors were +mustering fast. The village without was full of them. The French +officers grew anxious, and urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in +collecting the promised ransom. The answer boded no good, "Our women are +afraid, when they see the matches of your guns burning. Put them out, +and they will bring the corn faster." + +Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in one +of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, +complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his +captors at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that +such was the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control +them,--that the French were in danger,--and that he had seen arrows +stuck in the ground by the side of the path, in token that war was +declared. Their peril was thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to +regain the boats while there was yet time. + +On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in +order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows of +squalid huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the +interfolding extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before +them stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked +by a natural growth of trees,--one of those curious monuments of native +industry to which allusion has been already made. Here Ottigny halted +and formed his line of march. Arlac with eight matchlockmen was sent in +advance, and flanking parties thrown into the woods on either side. +Ottigny told his soldiers, that, if the Indians meant to attack them, +they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He was +right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue at +once. The war-whoop quavered through the startled air, and a tempest of +stone-headed arrows clattered against the breastplates of the French, or +tore, scorching like fire, through their unprotected limbs. They stood +firm, and sent back their shot so steadily that several of the +assailants were laid dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number, +gave way as Ottigny came up with his men. + +They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, +comparatively open; when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three +hundred savages came bounding to the assault. Their whoops were echoed +from the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, who, +leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on with a ferocity +restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic. The men +threw down their corn-bags, and took to their weapons. They blew their +matches, and, under two excellent officers, stood well to their work. +The Indians, on their part, showed a good discipline, after their +fashion, and were perfectly under the control of their chiefs. With +cries that imitated the yell of owls, the scream of cougars, and the +howl of wolves, they ran up in successive bands, let fly their arrows, +and instantly fell back, giving place to others. At the sight of the +levelled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the earth. Whenever, sword in +hand, the French charged upon them, they fled like foxes through the +woods; and whenever the march was resumed, the arrows were showering +again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring band. The soldiers coolly +picked them up and broke them as they fell. Thus, beset with swarming +savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed their march till nightfall, +fighting as they went. + +The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of +the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely +that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the +corn, two bags only had been brought off. + +Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had +killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of the +new ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the Breton +and the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the voyage; for +now, in their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a delicacy in +which the neighborhood abounded. + +On the third of August, Laudonnière, perturbed and oppressed, was +walking on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that shot a +thrill through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards +the river's mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. +He called the tidings to the fort below. Then languid forms rose and +danced for joy, and voices, shrill with weakness, joined in wild +laughter and acclamation. + +A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they +the succors so long hoped in vain? or were they Spaniards bringing steel +and fire? They were neither. The foremost was a stately ship, of seven +hundred tons, a mighty burden at that day. She was named the Jesus; and +with her were three smaller vessels, the Solomon, the Tiger, and the +Swallow. Their commander was "a right worshipful and valiant +knight,"--for so the record styles him,--a pious man and a prudent, to +judge him by the orders he gave his crew, when, ten months before, he +sailed out of Plymouth:--"Serve God daily, love one another, preserve +your victuals, beware of fire, and keepe good companie." Nor were the +crew unworthy the graces of their chief; for the devout chronicler of +the voyage ascribes their deliverance from the perils of the seas to +"the Almightie God, who never suffereth his Elect to perish." + +Who, then, were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special +Providential care? Apostles of the cross, bearing the word of peace to +benighted heathendom? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic +destined to inoculate with its black infection nations yet unborn, +parent of discord and death, with the furies in their train, filling +half a continent with the tramp of armies and the clash of fratricidal +swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, father of the English +slave-trade. + +He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped a +cargo of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of +Hispaniola, forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant +him free trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself +as became a peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary +commerce, but distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River +of May to obtain a supply. + +Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the +front rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man +borne for the honour of the English name.... Neither did the West of +England yeeld such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean +peeres, Hawkins and Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and +all England was of his thinking. A hardy seaman, a bold fighter, +overbearing towards equals, but kind, in his bluff way, to those beneath +him, rude in speech, somewhat crafty withal, and avaricious, he buffeted +his way to riches and fame, and died at last full of years and honor. As +for the abject humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the ship +Jesus, they were merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered for +the market. Queen Elizabeth had an interest in the venture, and received +her share of the sugar, pearls, ginger, and hides which the vigorous +measures of Sir John gained from his Spanish customers. + +Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, +"accompanied," says Laudonnière, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, +yet unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English there was a double +tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. Wakening +from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed him as a +deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced, when he learned their purpose +to abandon Florida; for, though, not to tempt his cupidity, they hid +from him the secret of their Appalachian gold-mine, he coveted for his +royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his head, +however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, and +offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, from +obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonnière declined, upon which +Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels. + +Hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of soldiers and artisans beset +Laudonnière's chamber, threatening loudly to desert him, and take +passage with Hawkins, unless the offer of the latter were accepted. The +commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, +whose reputed avarice nowise appears in the transaction, desired him to +set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, +with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, +a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provision for the +voyage, receiving in payment Laudonnière's note,--"for which," adds the +latter, "I am until this present indebted to him." With a friendly +leave-taking he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving +golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline. + +Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists +bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were +made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and +meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase. + +On the twenty-eighth of August, the two captains, Vasseur and Verdier, +came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild +with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death: +betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. With the following +morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with +weapons and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff +challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing +boats. Still no response. Laudonnière was almost defenceless. He had +given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two field-pieces were +left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and the word was about +to be given, when a voice from among the strangers called that they were +French, commanded by John Ribaut. + +At the eleventh hour, the long-looked-for succors were come. Ribaut had +been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly +concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, +and young nobles weary of a two-years' peace, were mustered at the port +of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing +with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony. + +No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the +new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to +blow them out of the water. Laudonnière issued from his stronghold to +welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he might. Ribaut was +present, conspicuous by his long beard, the astonishment of the Indians; +and here, too, were officers, old friends of Laudonnière. Why, then, had +they approached in the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon +explained; for they expressed to the commandant their pleasure at +finding that the charges made against him had proved false. He begged to +know more, on which Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the +returning ships had brought home letters filled with accusations of +arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a purpose of establishing an +independent command: accusations which he now saw to be unfounded, but +which had been the occasion of his unusual and startling precaution. He +gave him, too, a letter from the Admiral Coligny. In brief, but +courteous terms, it required him to resign his command, and invited his +return to France to clear his name from the imputations cast upon it. +Ribaut warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonnière declined his friendly +proposals. + +Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A +peasant-woman attended him, brought over, he says, to nurse the sick and +take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks as a +servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges +against him, most offensive to the austere Admiral. + +Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on +shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the sunny borders of +the River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes +misfortune doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at +rest!" exclaims the unhappy Laudonnière. Behind the light and cheer of +renovated hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east. + +At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, +the crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the +bar, saw a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards +them through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air +the portentous banner of Spain. + +Here opens a wilder act of this eventful drama. At another day we shall +lift the curtain on its fierce and bloody scenes. + + * * * * * + + + + +SEAWARD. + +TO ----. + + + How long it seems since that mild April night, + When, leaning from the window, you and I + Heard, clearly ringing from the shadowy bight, + The loon's unearthly cry! + + Southwest the wind blew; million little waves + Ran rippling round the point in mellow tune; + But mournful, like the voice of one who raves, + That laughter of the loon. + + We called to him, while blindly through the haze + Upclimbed the meagre moon behind us, slow, + So dim, the fleet of boats we scarce could trace, + Moored lightly, just below. + + We called, and, lo, he answered! Half in fear, + I sent the note back. Echoing rock and bay + Made melancholy music far and near; + Slowly it died away. + + That schooner, you remember? Flying ghost! + Her canvas catching every wandering beam, + Aërial, noiseless, past the glimmering coast + She glided like a dream. + + Would we were leaning from your window now, + Together calling to the eerie loon, + The fresh wind blowing care from either brow, + This sumptuous night of June! + + So many sighs load this sweet inland air, + 'T is hard to breathe, nor can we find relief; + However lightly touched, we all must share + The nobleness of grief. + + But sighs are spent before they reach your ear, + Vaguely they mingle with the water's rune; + No sadder sound salutes you than the clear, + Wild laughter of the loon. + + * * * * * + + + + +SIDE-GLANCES AT HARVARD CLASS-DAY. + + +It happened to me once to "assist" at the celebration of Class-Day at +Harvard University. Class-Day is the peculiar institution of the Senior +Class, and marks its completion of college study and release from +college rules. It is also an institution peculiar, I believe, to +Harvard, and I was somewhat curious to observe its ceremonials, besides +feeling a not entirely _unawful_ interest in being introduced for the +first time to the _arcana_ of that renowned Alma Mater. + +She has set up her Lares and Penates in a fine old grove, or a fine old +grove and green have sprouted up around her, as the case may be. At all +events, there is sufficient groundwork for any quantity of euphuism +about "classic shades," "groves of Academe," _et cetera_. Trollope had +his fling at the square brick buildings; but it was a fling that they +richly deserved, for they are in very deed as ugly as it is possible to +conceive,--angular, formal, stiff, windowy, bricky,--and the farther in +you go, the worse it grows. Why, I pray to know, as the first inquiry +suggested by Class-Day, is it necessary for boys' schools to be placed +without the pale of civilization? Do boys take so naturally to the +amenities of life that they can safely dispense with the conditions of +amenity? When I entered those brick boxes, I felt as if I were going +into a stable. Wood-work dingy, unpainted, gashed, scratched; windows +dingy and dim; walls dingy and gray and smoked; everything unhomelike, +unattractive, narrow, and rickety. Think, now, of taking a boy away from +his home, from his mother and sisters, from carpets and curtains and all +the softening influences of cultivated taste, and turning him loose with +dozens of other boys into a congeries of pens like this! Who wonders +that he comes out a boor? I felt a sinking at the heart in climbing up +those narrow, uncouth staircases. We talk about education. We boast of +having the finest system in the world. Harvard is, if not the most +distinguished, certainly among the first institutions in the country; +but, in my opinion, formed in the entry of the first Harvard house I +entered, Harvard has not begun to hit the nail on the head. Education! +Do you call it education, to put a boy into a hole, and work out of him +a certain amount of mathematics, and work into him a certain number of +languages? Is a man dressed, because one arm has a spotless wristband, +unquestionable sleeve-buttons, a handsome sleeve, and a well-fitting +glove at the end, while the man is out at the other elbow, patched on +both knees, and down at the heels? Should we consider Nature a success, +if she concerned herself only with carrying nutriment to the stomach, +and left the heart and the lungs and the liver and the nerves to shift +for themselves? Yet so do we, educating boys in these dens called +colleges. We educate the mind, the memory, the intellectual faculties; +but the manners, the courtesies, the social tastes, the greater part of +what goes to make life happy and genial, not to say good, we leave out +of view. People talk about the "awkward age" of boys,--the age in which +their hands and feet trouble them, and in which they are a social burden +to themselves and their friends. But one age need be no more awkward +than another. I have seen boys that were gentlemen from the cradle to +the grave,--almost; certainly from the time they ceased to be babies +till they passed altogether out of my sight. Let boys have the +associations, the culture, the training, and the treatment of gentlemen, +and I do not believe there will be a single moment of their lives in +which they will be clowns. + +And among the first necessities are the surroundings of a gentleman. +When a man is grown up, he can live in a sty and not be a pig; but turn +a horde of boys in, and when they come out they will root out. A man is +strong and stiff. His inward, inherent power, toughened by exposure and +fortified by knowledge, overmasters opposing circumstances. He can +neglect the prickles and assume the rose of his position. He stands +scornfully erect amid the grovelling influences that would pull him +down. It may perhaps be, also, that here and there a boy, with a strong +native predilection to refinement, shall be eclectic, and, with the +water-lily's instinct, select from coarse contiguities only that which +will nourish a delicate soul. But human nature in its infancy is usually +a very susceptible material. It grows as it is trained. It will be rude, +if it is left rude, and fine only as it is wrought finely. Educate a boy +to tumbled hair and grimy hands, and he will go tumbled and grimy to his +grave. Put a hundred boys together where they will have the +appurtenances of a clown, and I do not believe there will be ten out of +the hundred who will not become precisely to that degree clownish. I am +not battling for the luxuries of life, but I am for its decencies. I +would not turn boys into Sybarites, but neither would I let them riot +into Satyrs. The effeminacy of a false aristocracy is no nearer the +heights of true manhood than the clumsiness of the clod, but I think it +is just as near. I would have college rooms, college entrances, and all +college domains cleanly and attractive. I would, in the first place, +have every rough board planed, and painted in soft and cheerful tints. I +would have the walls pleasantly colored, or covered with delicate, or +bright, or warm-hued paper. The floor should be either tiled, or hidden +under carpets, durable, if possible, at any rate, decent. Straw or rope +matting is better than brown, yawning boards. There you have things put +upon an entirely new basis. At no immoderate expense there is a new sky, +a new earth, a new horizon. If a boy is rich and can furnish his room +handsomely, the furnishings will not shame the room and its vicinity. If +he is poor and can provide but cheaply, he will still have a comely home +provided for him by the Mater who then will be Alma to some purpose. + +Do you laugh at all this? So did Sarah laugh at the angels, but the +angels had the right of it for all that. + +I am told that it would all be useless,--that the boys would deface and +destroy, till the last state of the buildings would be worse than the +first. I do not believe one word of it. It is inferred that they would +deface, because they deface now. But what is it that they deface? +Deformity. And who blames them? You see a rough board, and, by natural +instinct, you dive into it with your jackknife. A base bare wall is a +standing invitation to energetic and unruly pencils. Give the boys a +little elegance and the tutors a little tact, and I do not believe there +would be any trouble. If I had a thousand dollars,--as I did have once, +but it is gone: shall I ever look upon its like again?--I would not be +afraid to stake the whole of it upon the good behavior of college +students,--that is, if I could have the managing of them. I would make +them "a speech," when they came back at the end of one of their long +vacations, telling them what had been done, why it had been done, and +the objections that had been urged against doing it. Then I would put +the matter entirely into their hands. I would appeal solely to their +honor. I would repose in them so much confidence that they could by no +possibility betray it. We don't trust people half enough. We hedge +ourselves about with laws and locks and deeds and bonds, and neglect the +weightier matters of inherent right and justice that lie in every bosom. + +It may be thought hardly polite to accept hospitality and then go away +and inveigh against the hospital; but my animadversions, you will do me +the justice to observe, are not aimed at my entertainers. I am marauding +for, not against them. + + * * * * * + +The Oration and Poem form the first public features of Class-Day, but, +arriving late, I could only eddy on the surge that swept around the +door. Strains of distant eloquence would occasionally float musically to +my ear; now and then a single word would steer clear of the thousands of +heads and come into my port unharmed. Frequent waves of laughter beat +and broke into the vestibule; but what is more "trying" to a frail +temper than laughter in which one cannot join? So we tarried long enough +to mark the fair faces and fine dresses, and then rambled under the old +trees till the hour for the "collation" came; and this is the second +point on which I purpose to dwell. + +Each member of the Senior Class prepares a banquet,--sometimes +separately and sometimes in clubs, at an expense varying from fifty to +five hundred dollars,--to which he invites as many friends as he +chooses, or as are available. The banquet is quite as rich, varied, and +elegant as you find at ordinary evening parties, and the occasion is a +merry and pleasant one. But it occurred to me that there may be +unpleasant things connected with this custom. In a class of +seventy-five, in a country like America, it is quite probable that a +certain proportion are ill able to meet the expense which such a custom +necessitates. Some have fought their own way through college. Some must +have been fought through by their parents. To them I should think this +elaborate and considerable outlay must be a very sensible inconvenience. +The mere expense of books and board, tuition and clothing, cannot be met +without strict economy and much parental and family sacrifice. And at +the end of it all, when every nerve has been strained, and must be +strained harder still before the man can be considered fairly on his +feet and able to run his own race in life, comes this new call for +entirely uncollegiate disbursements. Of course it is only a custom. +There is no college by-law, I suppose, which prescribes a valedictory +_symposium_. Probably it grew up gradually from small ice-cream +beginnings to its present formidable proportions; but a custom is as +rigid as a chain. I wondered whether the moral character of the young +men was generally strong enough, by the time they were in their fourth +collegiate year, to enable them to go counter to the custom, if it +involved personal sacrifice at home,--whether there was generally +sufficient courtliness, not to say Christianity, in the class, whether +there was sufficient courtesy, chivalry, high-breeding, to make the +omission of this party-giving unnoticeable or not unpleasant. I by no +means say that the inability of a portion of the students to entertain +their friends sumptuously should prevent those who are able from doing +so. As the world is, some will be rich and some will be poor. This is a +fact which they have to face the moment they go out into the world; and +the sooner they grapple with it, and find out its real bearings and +worth or worthlessness, the better. Boys are usually old enough by the +time they are graduated to understand and take philosophically such a +distinction. Nor do I admit that poor people have any right to be sore +on the subject of their poverty. The one sensitiveness which I cannot +comprehend, with which I have no sympathy, for which I have no pity, and +of which I have no tolerance, is sensitiveness about poverty. I think it +is an essentially vulgar feeling. I cannot conceive how a man who has +any exaltation of life, any real elevation of character, any +self-respect, can for a moment experience so ignoble a shame. One may be +annoyed at the inconveniences and impatient of the restraints of +poverty; but to be ashamed to be called poor or to be thought poor, to +resort to shifts, not for the sake of being comfortable or elegant, but +of seeming to be above the necessity of shifts, is an indication of an +inferior mind, whether it dwell in prince or in peasant. The man who +does it shows that he has not in his own opinion character enough to +stand alone. He must be supported by adventitious circumstances, or he +must fall. Nobody, therefore, need ever expect to receive sympathy from +me in recounting the social pangs or slights of poverty. You never can +be slighted, if you do not slight yourself. People may attempt to do +it, but their shafts have no barb. You turn it all into natural history. +It is a psychological phenomenon, a study, something to be analyzed, +classified, reasoned from, and bent to your own convenience, but not to +be taken to heart. It amuses you; it interests you; it adds to your +stock of facts; it makes life curious and valuable: but if you suffer +from it, it is because you have not basis, stamina; and probably you +deserve to be slighted. This, however, is true only when people have +become somewhat concentrated. Children know nothing of it. They live +chiefly from without, not from within. Only gradually as they approach +maturity do they cut loose from the scaffolding and depend upon their +own centre of gravity. Appearances are very strong in school. Money and +prodigality have great weight there, notwithstanding the democracy of +attainments and abilities. If I live a thousand years, I do not believe +I shall ever do a more virtuous deed than I did long ago in staying at +home for the sake of a quarter of a dollar when the rest of the school +went to see Tom Thumb, the late bewritten bridegroom. I call it +virtuous, because I had the quarter and could have gone, and could not +explain the reason why I did not go. And though a senior class in +Harvard College may reasonably be supposed to be beyond the eminent +domain of Tom Thumb and quarter-dollars, the principle is precisely the +same,--only the temptation, I suppose, is much stronger, as the stake is +larger. Have they self-poise enough to refrain from these festive +expenses without suffering mortification? Have they virtue enough to +refrain from them with the certainty of incurring such suffering? Have +they nobility and generosity and largeness of soul enough, while +abstaining themselves for conscience sake, to share in the plans and +sympathize without servility in the pleasures of their rich comrades? to +look on with friendly interest, without cynicism or concealed malice, at +the preparations in which they do not join? Or do they yield to +selfishness, and gratify their own vanity, weakness, self-indulgence, +and love of pleasure, at whatever cost to their parents? Or is there +such a state of public opinion and usage in college that this custom is +equally honored in the breach and in the observance? + + * * * * * + +When the feasting was over, the most picturesque part of the day began. +The college green put off suddenly its antique gravity, and became + + "Embrouded ... as it were a mede + Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and rede,"-- + +"floures" which to their gay hues and graceful outlines added the rare +charm of fluttering in perpetual motion. It was a kaleidoscope without +angles. To me, niched in the embrasure of an old upper window, the +scene, it seemed, might have stepped out of the Oriental splendor of +Arabian Nights. I think I may safely say I never saw so many +well-dressed people together in my life before. That seems a rather tame +fact to buttress Arabian Nights withal, but it implies much. The +distance was a little too great for one to note personal and individual +beauty; but since I have heard that Boston is famous for its ugly women, +perhaps that was an advantage, as diminishing likewise individual +ugliness. If no one was strikingly handsome, no one was strikingly +plain. And though you could not mark the delicacies of faces, you could +have the full effect of costumes,--rich, majestic, floating, gossamery, +impalpable. Everything was fresh, spotless, and in tune. It scarcely +needed music to resolve all the incessant waver and shimmer into a +dance; but the music came, and, like sand-grains under the magnet, the +beautiful atoms swept into stately shapes and tremulous measured +activity,-- + + "A fine, sweet earthquake gently moved + By the soft wind of whispering silks." + +Then it seemed like a German festival, and came back to me the +Fatherland, the lovely season of the Blossoming, the short, sweet +bliss-month among the Blumenthal Mountains. + +Nothing can be more appropriate, more harmonious, than dancing on the +green. Youth and gayety and beauty--and in summer we are all young and +gay and beautiful--mingle well with the eternal youth of blue sky and +velvet sward and the light breezes toying in the tree-tops. Youth and +Nature kiss each other in the bright, clear purity of the happy +summer-tide. Whatever objections lie against dancing elsewhere must veil +their faces there. + +Yet I must confess I wish men would not dance. It is the most unbecoming +exercise which they can adopt. In women you have the sweep and wave of +drapery, gentle undulations, summer-cloud floatings, soft, sinuous +movements, the fluency of pliant forms, the willowy bend and rebound of +lithe and lovely suppleness. It is grace generic,--the sublime, the +evanescent mysticism of motion, without use, without aim, except its own +overflowing and all-sufficing fascination. But when a man dances, it +reminds me of that amusing French book called "Le Diable Boiteux," which +has been or may be free-thinkingly translated, "The Devil on Two +Sticks." In saying this, I design to cast no slur on the moral character +of masculine dancers. It is unquestionably above reproach; but let an +angel put on the black coat and trousers which constitute the +"full-dress" of a modern gentleman, and therein antic through the +"Lancers," and he would simply be ridiculous,--which is all I allege +against Thomas, Richard, and Henry, Esq. A woman's dancing is gliding, +swaying, serpentine. A man's is jerks, hops, convulsions, and acute +angles. The woman is light, airy, indistinctly defined: airy movements +are in keeping. The man is sombre in hue, grave in tone, distinctly +outlined; and nothing is more incongruous, to my thinking, than this +dancing, well portrayed in the contraband melody of + + "Old Joe," etc. + +The feminine drapery conceals processes and gives results. The masculine +absence of drapery reveals processes and thereby destroys results. + +Once upon a time, long before the Flood, the clergyman of a +country-village, possessed with such a zeal as Paul bore record of +concerning Israel, conceived it his duty to "make a note" of sundry +young members of his flock who had met for a drive and a supper, with a +dance fringed upon the outskirts. The fame thereof being noised abroad, +a sturdy old farmer, with a good deal of shrewd sense and mother-wit in +his brains, and a fine, indirect way of hitting the nail on the head +with a side-stroke, was questioned in a neighboring village as to the +facts of the case. "Yes," he said, surlily, "the young folks had a +party, and got up a dance, and the minister was mad,--and I don't blame +him,--he thinks nobody has any business to dance, unless he knows how +better than they did!" It was a rather different _casus belli_ from that +which the worthy clergyman would have preferred before a council; but it +"meets my views" precisely as to the validity of the objections urged +against dancing. I would have women dance, because it is the most +beautiful thing in the world. I would have men dance, if it is +necessary, in order to "set off" women, and to keep themselves out of +mischief; but in point of grace, or elegance, or attractiveness, I +should beg men to hold their peace--and their pumps. + +From my window overlooking the green, I was led away into some one or +other of the several halls to see the "round dances"; and it was like +going from Paradise to Pandemonium. From the pure and healthy lawn, all +the purer for the pure and peaceful people pleasantly walking up and +down in the sunshine and shade, or grouped in the numerous windows, like +bouquets of rare tropical flowers,--from the green, rainbowed in vivid +splendor, and alive with soft, tranquil motion, fair forms, and the +flutter of beautiful and brilliant colors,--from the green, sanctified +already by the pale faces of sick and wounded and maimed soldiers who +had gone out from the shadows of those sheltering trees to draw the +sword for country, and returned white wraiths of their vigorous youth, +the sad vanguard of that great army of blessed martyrs who shall keep +forever in the mind of this generation how costly and precious a thing +is liberty, who shall lift our worldly age out of the plough of its +material prosperity into the sublimity of suffering and sacrifice,--from +suggestions and fancies and dreamy musing and "phantasms sweet," into +the hall, where, for flower-scented summer air were thick clouds of +fine, penetrating dust, and for lightly trooping fairies a jam of heated +human beings, so that you shall hardly come nigh the dancers for the +press; and when you have, with difficulty and many contortions and much +apologizing, threaded the solid mass, piercing through the forest of +fans,--what? An inclosure, but no more illusion. + +Waltzing is a profane and vicious dance. Always. When it is prosecuted +in the centre of a great crowd, in a dusty hall, on a warm midsummer +day, it is also a disgusting dance. Night is its only appropriate time. +The blinding, dazzling gas-light throws a grateful glare over the +salient points of its indecency, and blends the whole into a wild whirl +that dizzies and dazes one; but the uncompromising afternoon, pouring in +through manifold windows, tears away every illusion, and reveals the +whole coarseness and commonness and all the repulsive details of this +most alien and unmaidenly revel. The very _pose_ of the dance is +profanity. Attitudes which are the instinctive expression of intimate +emotions, glowing rosy-red in the auroral time of tenderness, and +justified in unabashed freedom only by a long and faithful habitude of +unselfish devotion, are here openly, deliberately, and carelessly +assumed by people who have but a casual and partial +society-acquaintance. This I reckon profanity. This is levity the most +culpable. This is a guilty and wanton waste of delicacy. + +That it is practised by good girls and tolerated by good mothers does +not prove that it is good. Custom blunts the edge of many perceptions. A +good thing soiled may be redeemed by good people; but waltz as many as +you may, spotless maidens, you will only smut yourselves, and not +cleanse the waltz. It is of itself unclean. + +There were, besides, peculiar _désagréments_ on this occasion. How can +people,--I could not help saying to myself,--how can people endure such +proximity in such a sweltering heat? For, as I said, there was no +illusion,--not a particle. It was no Vale of Tempe, with Nymphs and +Apollos. The boys were boys, appallingly young, full of healthful +promise, but too much in the husk for exhibition, and not entirely at +ease in their situation,--indeed, very much _not_ at ease,--unmistakably +warm, nervous, and uncomfortable. The girls were pretty enough girls, I +dare say, under ordinary circumstances,--one was really lovely, with +soft cheeks, long eyelashes, eyes deep and liquid, and Tasso's gold in +her hair, though of a bad figure, ill set off by a bad dress,--but Venus +herself could not have been seen to advantage in such evil plight as +they, panting, perspiring, ruffled, frowsy,--puff-balls revolving +through an atmosphere of dust,--a maze of steaming, reeking human +couples, inhumanly heated and simmering together with a more than +Spartan fortitude. + +It was remarkable, and at the same time amusing, to observe the +difference in the demeanor of the two sexes. The lions and the fawns +seemed to have changed hearts,--perhaps they had. It was the boys that +were nervous. The girls were unquailing. The boys were, however, heroic. +They tried bravely to hide the fox and his gnawings; but traces were +visible. They made desperate feint of being at the height of enjoyment +and unconscious of spectators; but they had much modesty, for all that. +The girls threw themselves into it _pugnis et calcibus_,--unshrinking, +indefatigable. + +There is another thing which girls and their mothers do not seem to +consider. The present mode of dress renders waltzing almost as +objectionable in a large room as the boldest feats of a French +ballet-dancer. Not to put too fine a point on it, I mean that these +girls' gyrations in the centre of their gyrating and centrifugal hoops +make a most operatic drapery-display. I saw scores and scores of public +waltzing-girls last summer, and among them all I saw but one who +understood the art, or, at any rate, who practised the art, of avoiding +an indecent exposure. In the glare and glamour of gas-light it is only +flash and clouds and indistinctness. In the broad and honest daylight, +it is not. Do I shock ears polite? I trust so. If the saying of shocking +things might prevent the doing of shocking things, I should be well +content. And is it an unpardonable sin for me to sit alone in my own +room and write about what you go into a great hall, before hundreds of +strange men and women, and do? + +I do not speak thus about waltzing because I like to say it; but ye have +compelled me. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. I +respect and revere woman, and I cannot see her destroying or debasing +the impalpable fragrance and delicacy of her nature without feeling the +shame and shudder in my own heart. Great is my boldness of speech +towards you, because great is my glorying of you. Though I speak as a +fool, yet as a fool receive me. My opinions may be rustic. They are at +least honest; and may it not be that the first fresh impressions of an +unprejudiced and uninfluenced observer are as likely to be natural and +correct views as those which are the result of many afterthoughts, long +use, and an experience of multifold fascinations, combined with the +original producing cause? My opinions may be wrong, but they will do no +harm; the penalty will rest alone on me: while, if they are right, they +may serve as a nail or two to be fastened by the masters of assemblies. + +The funny part of Class-Day comes last,--not so very funny to tell, but +amazingly funny to see,--only a wreath of bouquets fastened around the +trunk of an old tree, perhaps eight or ten feet from the ground, and +then the four classes range themselves around it in four circles with +their hands fast locked together, the Freshman Class on the outside, the +Senior Class within, grotesquely tricked out in vile old coats and +"shocking bad hats." Then the two alternate classes go one way around +the tree and the two others the opposite, pell-mell, harum-scarum, +pushing and pulling, down and up again, only keeping fast hold of hands, +singing, shouting, cheering _ad libitum_, _ad throatum_, (theirs,) _ad +earsum_, (ours,) and going all the time in that din and yell and crowd +and crash dear to the hearts of boys. At a given signal there is a +pause, and the Senior Class make sudden charge upon the bouquets, +huddling and hustling and crowding and jumping at the foot of the old +tree; bubbling up on each other's shoulders into momentary prominence +and prospect of success, and immediately disappearing ignominiously; +making frantic grasps and clutches with a hundred long arms and eager +outstretched hands, and finally succeeding, by shoulders and fists, in +bringing the wreath away piecemeal; and then they give themselves up to +mutual embraces, groans, laments, and all the enginery of pathetic +affection in the last gasping throes of separation,--to the doleful +tearing of hair and the rending of their fantastic garments. It is the +personification of legalized rowdyism; and if young men would but +confine themselves to such rowdyism as may be looked at and laughed at +by their mothers and sisters, they would find life just as amusing and a +thousand times more pure and profitable. + + * * * * * + +It occurs to me here that there is one subject on which I desire to +"give my views," though it is quite unconnected with Class-Day. But it +is probable that in the whole course of my natural life it will never +again happen to me to be writing about colleges, so I desire to say in +this paper everything I have to say on the subject. I refer to the +practice of "hazing," which is an abomination. If we should find it +among hinds, a remnant of the barbarisms of the Dark Ages, blindly +handed down by such slow-growing people as go to mill with their meal on +one side of the saddle and a stone on the other to balance, as their +fathers did, because it never occurred to their loggerheads to divide +the meal into two parcels and make it balance itself, we should not be +surprised; but hazing occurs among boys who have been accustomed to the +circulation of ideas, boys old enough and intelligent enough to +understand the difference between brutality and frolic, old enough to +know what honor and courage mean, and therefore I cannot conceive how +they should countenance a practice which entirely ignores and defies +honor, and whose brutality has not a single redeeming feature. It has +neither wisdom nor wit, no spirit, no genius, no impulsiveness, scarcely +the mirth of boyish frolic. A narrow range of stale practical jokes, +lighted up by no gleam of originality, is transmitted from year to year +with as much fidelity as the Hebrew Bible, and not half the latitude +allowed to clergymen of the English Established Church. But besides its +platitude, its one overpowering and fatal characteristic is its intense +and essential cowardice. Cowardice is its head and front and bones and +blood. One boy does not single out another boy of his own weight, and +take his chances in a fair stand-up fight. But a party of Sophomores +club together in such numbers as to render opposition useless, and +pounce upon their victim unawares, as Brooks and his minions pounced +upon Sumner, and as the Southern chivalry is given to doing. For sweet +pity's sake, let this mode of warfare be monopolized by the Southern +chivalry. + +The lame excuse is offered, that it does the Freshmen good,--takes the +conceit out of them. But if there is any class in college so divested of +conceit as to be justified in throwing stones, it is surely not the +Sophomore Class. Moreover, whatever good it may do the sufferers, it +does harm, and only harm, to the perpetrators; and neither the law nor +the gospel requires a man to improve other people's characters at the +expense of his own. Nobody can do a wrong without injuring himself; and +no young man can do a mean, cowardly wrong like this without suffering +severest injury. It is the very spirit of the slaveholder, a dastardly +and detestable, a tyrannical and cruel spirit. If young men are so +blinded by custom and habit that a meanness is not to them a meanness +because it has been practised for years, so much the worse for the young +men, and so much the worse for our country, whose sweat of blood attests +the bale and blast which this evil spirit has wrought. If uprightness, +if courage, if humanity and rectitude and the mind conscious to itself +of right, are anything more than a name. Let the young men who mean to +make time minister to life scorn and scotch and kill this debasing and +stupid practice. + +And why is not some legitimate and wholesome safety-valve provided by +authority to let off superabundant vitality, that boys may not, by the +mere occasions of their own natures, be driven into wickedness? +Class-Day is very well, but it comes only once a year, and what is +needed is an opportunity for daily ebullition, so that each night may +square its own account and forestall explosion. Why should there not be, +for instance, a military department to every college, as well as a +mathematical department? Why might not every college be a military +normal school? The exuberance and riot of animal spirits, the young, +adventurous strength and joy in being, would not only be kept from +striking out as now in illegitimate, unworthy, and hurtful directions, +but it would become the very basis and groundwork of useful purposes. +Such exercise would be so promotive of health and discipline, it would +so train and harmonize and _limber_ the physical powers, that the +superior quality of study would, I doubt not, more than atone for +whatever deficiency in quantity might result. And even suppose a little +less attention should be given to Euclid and Homer, which is of the +greater importance nowadays, an ear that can detect a false quantity in +a Greek verse, or an eye that can sight a Rebel nine hundred yards off, +and a hand that can pull a trigger and shoot him? Knowledge is power; +but knowledge must sharpen its edges and polish its points, if it would +be greatliest available in days like these. The knowledge that can plant +batteries and plan campaigns, that is fertile in expedients and wise to +baffle the foe, is just now the strongest power. Diagrams and +first-aorists are good, and they who have fed on such meat have grown +great, and done the State service in their generation; but these times +demand new measures and new men. It is conceded that we shall probably +be for many years a military nation. At least a generation of vigilance +shall be the price of our liberty. And even of peace we can have no +stronger assurance than a wise and wieldy readiness for war. Now the +education of our unwarlike days is not adequate to the emergencies of +this martial hour. We must be seasoned with something stronger than +Attic salt, or we shall be cast out and trodden under foot of men. True, +all education is worthy. Everything that exercises the mind fits it for +its work; but professional education is indispensable to professional +men. And the profession, _par excellence_, of every man of this +generation is war. Country overrides all personal considerations. +Lawyer, minister, what not, a man's first duty is the salvation of his +country. When she calls, he must go; and before she calls, let him, if +possible, prepare himself to serve her in the best manner. As things are +now, college-boys are scarcely better than cow-boys for the army. Their +costly education runs greatly to waste. It gives them no direct +advantage over the clod who stumbles against a trisyllable. So far as it +makes them better men, of course they are better soldiers; but for all +of military education which their college gives them, they are fit only +for privates, whose sole duty is to obey. They know nothing of military +drill or tactics or strategy. The State cannot afford this waste. She +cannot afford to lose the fruits of mental toil and discipline. She +needs trained mind even more than trained muscle. It is harder to find +brains than to find hands. The average mental endowment may be no higher +in college than out; but granting it to be as high, the culture which it +receives gives it immense advantage. The fruits of that culture, +readiness, resources, comprehensiveness, should all be held in the +service of the State. Military knowledge and practice should be imparted +and enforced to utilize ability, and make it the instrument, not only of +personal, but of national welfare. That education which gives men the +advantage over others in the race of life should be so directed as to +convey that advantage to country, when she stands in need. Every college +might and should be made a nursery of athletes in mind and body, +clear-eyed, stout-hearted, strong-limbed, cool-brained,--a nursery of +soldiers, quick, self-possessed, brave and cautious and wary, ready in +invention, skilful to command men and evolve from a mob an army,--a +nursery of gentlemen, reminiscent of no lawless revels, midnight orgies, +brutal outrages, launching out already attainted into an attainting +world, but with many a memory of adventure, wild, it may be, and not +over-wise, yet pure as a breeze from the hills,--banded and sworn + + "To serve as model for the mighty world, + To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, + To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, + To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, + To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, + Not only to keep down the base in man, + But teach high thought, and amiable words. + And courtliness, and the desire of fame, + And love of truth, and all that makes a man." + + * * * * * + + + + +LOVE'S CHALLENGE. + + + I picked this trifle from the floor, + Unknowing from whose tender hand + It fell,--but now would fain restore + A thing which hath my heart unmanned. + + I say unmanned, for 't is not now + A manly mood to dream of Love, + When each bold champion knits his brow, + And for War's gauntlet doffs his glove. + + But we're exempt, and have no heart + Of wreak within us for the fray; + And therefore teach our souls the art + With life and life's concerns to play. + + Yet, lady, trust me, 't is not all + In play that I proclaim intent, + When next thou lett'st thy gauntlet fall, + To take it as a challenge meant. + + REPLY. + + SIR CARPET-KNIGHT, who canst not fight, + Thy gallantries are not for me; + The man whom I with love requite + Must sing in a more martial key. + + I have two brothers on the field, + And one beneath it,--none knows where; + And I shall keep my spirit steeled + To any save a soldier's prayer. + + If thou have music in thy soul, + Yet hast no sinew for the strife, + Go teach thyself the war-drum's roll, + And woo me better with a fife! + + * * * * * + + + + +POLITICAL PROBLEMS, AND CONDITIONS OF PEACE. + + +The relations existing between the Federal Government and the several +States, and the reciprocal rights and powers of each, have never been +settled, except in part. Upon matters of taxation and commerce, and the +diversified questions that arise in times of peace, the decisions of the +Supreme Court have marked the boundary-lines of State and Federal power +with considerable clearness and precision. But all these questions are +superficial and trivial, when compared with those which are coming up +for decision out of the great struggle in which we are now engaged. The +Southern Rebellion, greater than any recorded in history since the world +began, must necessarily call for the exercise of all the powers with +which the Government is clothed. And we need not be surprised, if, in +resorting to the new measures which the great exigency of the new +condition seems to require, it shall be found, after the storm has +ceased and the clouds have rolled away, that in some things the +Government has transcended its legitimate powers, while in others it has +suffered, because fearing to use those which it really possesses. It is +dependent in many things upon the States; and yet it is supreme over +them all. There can be no Senate, as a branch either of the executive or +of the legislative department, without the action of the States; and yet +the Government emanates directly from the people. In defending itself +against an armed rebellion of nearly half the States themselves, +struggling for self-preservation, it may rightfully, as in other wars, +grasp all the means within its reach. War makes its own methods, for all +of which necessity is a sufficient plea. But when the defence shall have +been made, when the attack is repelled, and the Rebellion shall have +been fully suppressed, then will come the questions, What are the best +means of restoration? and, How shall a recurrence of the evil be +prevented? + +Though the Federal Government is one of limited powers, _the people_ +possess _all governmental powers_; and these are spoken of as powers +_delegated_ and powers _reserved_. So far as these are reserved to _the +people_, they may be exercised either through the _Federal Government_ +or the _State_. And the Federal Government, though limited in its +powers, is restricted in _the subjects upon which it can act_, rather +than in the _quantum_ of power it can exercise over those matters within +its jurisdiction. Over those interests which are committed to its care +it has all the powers incident to any other government in the +world,--powers necessary by implication to accomplish the purpose +intended. The construction of the grant in the Constitution is not to be +critical and stringent, as if the people, by its adoption, were +_selling_ power to a _stranger_,--but liberal, considering that they +were enabling _their own agents_ to achieve a noble work for them. + +We have been accustomed to extol the wisdom of our fathers, in framing +and establishing such a form of government; but our highest praises have +been too small. We have hitherto had but a partial conception of their +wisdom. We knew not the terrible test to which their work was to be +exposed. After the long discipline of the Revolutionary War, and the +experience of the weakness and impending anarchy of the Confederation, +they understood, far better than we, the dangers to which every +government is liable, from within and from without. And we are just now +beginning to see, that, in the Constitution they adopted, they not only +provided for the interests of peace, but for the dangers and emergencies +of war. Brief sentences, hardly noticed before, now throw open their +doors like a magazine of arms, ready for use in the hour of peril. And +while we shall come out of this struggle, and the political contest +that will follow it, without impairing any of the rights of the States, +the Federal Government _restored_ will stand before the world in a +majesty of strength of which we have before had no conception. + +The questions evolved by the war are already attracting public +attention. It is well that they should do so. The peace and prosperity +of the country in future years depend upon their solution. They are so +interwoven that a mistake in regard to one may involve us in other +errors. The power of the Government so to remove the cause of the +present rebellion as to prevent its recurrence, if it have any such +power, is one which it is imperatively bound to exercise,--else all the +treasure and blood expended in quelling it will be wasted. Has it any +such power? Can Slavery be exterminated? And can the Rebel States be +held as conquests, and be restored only upon condition of being forever +free? It is proposed briefly to discuss these questions. + + + +EMANCIPATION. + + +There are those who believe that the President's Proclamation will cease +to be of any force at the close of the war, and that no slaves will have +any right to their freedom by it except such as may be actually +liberated by the military authorities. + +There are others, who hold that the Proclamation has the force of +law,--that by it every slave within the designated territory has now a +legal right to his liberty,--and that, if the military power does not +secure that right to him _during the war_, he may successfully appeal to +the civil power _afterwards_. + +If the Proclamation is a law, it must be conceded, that, like all the +laws of war, it will cease to be in force when the war is closed. But +if, like a legislative act, it confers actual rights on the slaves, +whether they are able to secure them in fact or not, then those _rights_ +are not lost, though the law cease to exist. On the other hand, if it +confers no actual rights on any who are beyond its reach,--if it is +merely an _offer_ of freedom to all who can come and receive it,--then +those only who do receive it while the offer continues will have any +rights by it when it has ceased to be in force. + +The position of Mr. Adams on this subject seems to have been +misunderstood. When his remarks in Congress are carefully examined, it +will be found that he did not claim that the proclamation of a military +commander would operate, like a statute, to confer the right of freedom +upon all the slaves in an invaded country. But he asserted a general +principle of international law,--that the commander of an invading army +is not bound to recognize the municipal laws of the country,--that he +may treat all as freemen, though some are slaves. And he claimed, that, +in case of a servile war in this country, our army would have a right to +suppress the insurrection by giving freedom to the insurgents. In regard +to the effect of such a proclamation upon those not liberated by the +military power, he expressed no opinion. + +The precedents usually cited are not any more satisfactory. In Hayti, +and in the South-American republics, emancipation became an established +fact by the action of the civil power. In each case a proclamation by +the military power was the initial step; but the consummation was +attained by the fact that the same power afterwards became dominant in +civil, as well as in military affairs. + +Conceding, then, that the Proclamation is but a declaration of the +war-policy, designed and adapted to secure a still higher end,--the +preservation and perpetuity of our free institutions,--it is still +claimed that the Government has the right to pursue this policy until +Slavery is abolished, _and forever prohibited_, within all the Rebel +States. + +Though we speak of the Rebellion as an "insurrection," it has assumed +such proportions that we are in a state of actual war. Nor does it make +any difference that it is a _civil_ war. It has just been decided by +the Supreme Court of the United States, _that we have the same rights +against the people and States in rebellion_, by the law of nations, that +we should have against _alien enemies_. The property of non-combatants +is liable to confiscation, as _enemies'_ property; and it makes no +difference that some of them are _personally_ loyal. All the inhabitants +of the Rebel States have the rights of _enemies_ only. The recent cases +of the Brilliant, Hiawatha, and Amy Warwick settle this beyond all +question. There was some difference of opinion among the judges, but +only on the question whether this condition _preceded_ the Act of +Congress of July, 1861,--a majority holding that it did, commencing with +the proclamation of the blockade. So that it cannot be denied that we +may treat the Rebel States as _enemies_, and adopt all measures against +them _which any belligerents engaged in a just war may adopt_. + +And no principle of the law of nations is more universally admitted than +this,--that the party in the right, after the war is commenced, may +continue to carry it on until the enemy shall submit to such terms as +will be a sufficient indemnity for all the losses and expenses caused by +it, _and will prevent another war in the future_. And to this end he may +conquer and hold in subjection people and territory, until such terms +are submitted to. And until then, the state of war continues. The right +to impose such terms as will _secure peace in the future_ is one of the +fundamental principles of international law. + +"Of the absolute international rights of States," says Mr. Wheaton, "one +of the most essential and important, and that which lies at the +foundation of all the rest, is _the right of self-preservation_. This +right necessarily involves all other incidental rights which are +essential as means to give effect to the principal end." + +"The end of a just war," says Vattel, "is to avenge, _or prevent_, +injury." + +"If _the safety of the State_ lies at stake, our precaution and +foresight cannot be extended too far. Must we delay to arrest our ruin +until it has become inevitable?" + +"Where the end is lawful, he who has the right to pursue that end has, +of course, a right to employ all the means necessary for its +attainment." + +"When the conqueror has totally subdued a nation, he undoubtedly may, in +the first place, do himself justice respecting the object which had +given rise to the war, and indemnify himself for the expenses and +damages sustained by it; he may, according to the exigency of the case, +subject the nation to punishment by way of example; and he may, _if +prudence require it, render her incapable of doing mischief with the +same ease in future_." + +"Every nation," says Chancellor Kent, "has an undoubted right to provide +for its own safety, and to take due precaution against _distant_, as +well as impending danger." + +Our rights _as belligerents_, therefore, are ample for our security in +time to come. The Rebel States will not cease to be enemies by being +defeated and exhausted and disabled from continuing active hostilities. +They have invoked the laws of war, and they must abide the decision of +the tribunal to which they have appealed. We may hold them _as enemies_ +until they submit to such reasonable terms of peace as we may demand. +Whether we shall require any indemnity for the vast expenditures and +losses to which we have been subjected is a question of great magnitude; +but it is of little importance compared with that of guarding against a +recurrence of the Rebellion, by removing _the cause_ of it. It would be +worse than madness to restore them to all their former rights under the +government they have done their utmost to destroy, and at the same time +permit them to retain a system that would surely involve us or our +children in another struggle of the same kind. + +Slavery and freedom cannot permanently coexist under the same +government. There is an inevitable, perpetual, irrepressible conflict +between them. The present rebellion is but the culmination of this +conflict, long existing,--transferred from social and political life to +the camp and the battle-field. _In the new arena, we have all the rights +of belligerents in an international war._ Slavery has taken the sword; +let it perish by the sword. If we spare it, its wickedness will be +exceeded by our folly. As victors, the world concedes our right to +demand, for our own future peace, as the only terms of restoration, not +only the abolition of Slavery in all the Rebel States, but its +prohibition in all coming time. It cannot be, that, with the terrible +lessons of these passing years, we shall be so utterly destitute of +wisdom and prudence as to leave our children exposed to the dangers of +another rebellion, after entailing upon them the vast burdens of this, +by our national debt. + +It has been said, that, if Slavery should be abolished, the States could +afterwards reestablish it. This is claimed, on the ground that every +State may determine for itself the character of its own domestic +institutions. The right to do so has been conceded to some of the new +States. + +But it should be remembered that this right has been, to establish +Slavery _by bringing in slaves from the old States_,--not by taking +_citizens of the United States_, and reducing _them_ to slavery. If one +such citizen can be enslaved, then can any other; and the very +foundations of the Federal Government can be overturned by a State. For +a government that cannot protect _its own citizens_ from loss of +citizenship by being chattellized is no government at all. + +Citizenship is a reciprocal relation. The citizen owes allegiance; the +government owes protection. When a person is naturalized, he takes the +oath of allegiance. Does he got nothing in return? Can a State annul all +the rights which the Federal Government has conferred? Then, indeed, +would it be better for those who come to our shores to remain citizens +of the old nations; for _they_ could protect them, but _we_ cannot. +Then, to be a citizen of the United States--a privilege we had thought +greater than that of Roman citizenship when that empire was in its +glory--is a privilege which any State may annul at its pleasure! + +The power and position of a nation depend upon the number, wealth, +intelligence, and power of its citizens. And the nation, in order to +employ and develop its resources, must have free scope for the use of +its powers. No State has a right to block the path of the United States, +or in any way to "retard, impede, or burden it, in the execution of its +powers." For this reason, if a citizen is wealthy enough to lend money +to the Federal Government, a State cannot _tax his scrip_ to the amount +of one cent. But, if the doctrine contended for by some is sound, then +it may take _the citizen himself_, confiscate the whole of his property, +blot out his citizenship, and make a chattel of him, and the Federal +Government can afford him no protection! Among all the doctrines that +Slavery has originated in this country, there is none more monstrous +than this. + +But this is not a question of any practical importance at this time. +There is no danger that Slavery will ever be tolerated where it has been +once abolished. It may go into new fields; it seldom returns to those +from which it has been driven. The institutions of learning and religion +that follow in the path of freedom, if they find a congenial soil, are +not likely to be supplanted by the dark and noxious exotics of ignorance +and barbarism. + +And besides, as we have already seen, it is our right, as one of the +conditions of restoration, to provide for the _perpetual prohibition_ of +Slavery within the Rebel States. This, like the Ordinance of 1787, will +stand as an insurmountable barrier in all time to come. And the security +it will afford will be even more certain. For, while there may be a +difference of opinion in regard to the effect of a law of Congress +relating to existing Territories, there is no doubt that conditions +imposed at the time upon the admission of new States, or the restoration +of the Rebel States, will be of perpetual obligation. + + + +RIGHTS OF REBEL STATES. + + +On this subject there are two theories, each of which has advocates +among our most eminent statesmen. + +By some it is claimed that the Rebels have lost all rights as citizens +of States, and are in the condition of the inhabitants of unorganized +territories belonging to the United States,--and that, having forfeited +their rights, they can never be restored to their former position, +except by the consent of the Federal Government. This consent may be +given by admitting them as new States, or restoring them as old,--the +Government having the right in either case to annex terms and +conditions. + +There are others who contend that the Rebel States, though in rebellion, +have lost none of their rights as States,--that the moment they submit +they may choose members of Congress and Presidential electors, and +demand, and we must concede, the same position they formerly held. This +theory has been partially recognized by the present Administration, but +not to an extent that precludes the other from being adopted, if it is +right. + +If the people of the States which have seceded, as soon as they submit, +have an absolute right to resume their former position in the +Government, with their present constitutions upholding Slavery, it +certainly will be a great, if not an insurmountable, obstacle to the +adoption of those measures which may be necessary to secure our peace in +the future. That they have no such right, it is believed may be made +perfectly clear. + +If we triumph, we shall have all the rights which, by the laws of +nations, belong to conquerors in a just war. In a civil war, the rights +of conquest may not be of the same nature as in a war between different +nations; but that there are such rights in all wars has already been +stated on the highest authority. If a province, having definite +constitutional rights, revolts, and attempts to overthrow the power of +the central government, it would be a strange doctrine, to claim, that, +after being subdued, it had risked and lost nothing by the undertaking. +No authority can be found to sustain such a proposition. A rebellion +puts everything at risk. Any other doctrine would hold out encouragement +to all wicked and rebellious spirits. If they revolt, they know that +everything is staked upon the chances of success. Everything is lost by +defeat. By the laws of war, long established among the nations,--laws +which the Rebel States have themselves invoked,--if they fail, they will +have no right to be restored, except upon such terms as our Government +may prescribe. The right to make war, conferred by the Constitution, +carries with it all the rights and powers incident to a war, necessary +for its successful prosecution, and essential to prevent its recurrence. + +But without resorting to the extraordinary powers incident to a state of +war, the same conclusion, in regard to the effect of a rebellion by a +State Government, results from the relations which the States sustain to +the Federal Government. Though they cannot escape its jurisdiction, +their position, _as States_, is one which may be forfeited and lost. + +It has been objected that this doctrine is equivalent to a recognition +of the right of Secession, because it concedes the power of any one +State to withdraw from the Union. But the fallacy of this objection is +easily demonstrated. + +The Federal Government does not emanate from the States, but directly +from the people. The relation between them is that _of protection_ on +the one hand and _allegiance_ on the other. This relation cannot be +dissolved by either party, unless by voluntary or compulsory +expatriation. It subsists alike in States and Territories, not being +dependent upon any local government. The Rebels claim the right to +dissolve this relation, and to become free from and independent of the +Federal Government, though retaining the same territory as before. We +deny any such right, and hold, that, though they may forfeit their +rights _as a State_, they are still bound by, and under the jurisdiction +of, the Federal Government. This jurisdiction, though absolute in all +places, is not the same in all. + +In the District of Columbia, and in all unorganized territories, the +jurisdiction of the Federal Government is exclusive in its _extent_, as +well as in its _nature_. It must protect the inhabitants in _all_ their +rights,--for there is no other power to protect them. They owe +allegiance to it, and to no other. + +The inhabitants of the _organized_ territories, though under the general +jurisdiction of the Federal Government, are, to some extent, under the +jurisdiction of the Territorial Governments. Each is bound to protect +them in certain things; they are bound to support and obey each in +certain things. + +The people of a State are also under the absolute jurisdiction of the +Federal Government in all matters embraced in the Constitution. They owe +it unqualified allegiance and support in those things. But they are +also, in some matters, under the jurisdiction of the State Government, +and owe allegiance to that. There are many matters over which both have +jurisdiction, and in which the citizens have a right to look to each, or +both, for protection. The courts of each issue writs of _habeas corpus_, +and give the citizens their liberty, unless there is legal cause for +their custody or restraint. + +Now, if a State Government forfeits all right to the allegiance and +support of its citizens, they are not thereby absolved from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. On the contrary, the jurisdiction +of the Federal Government is thereby enlarged; for it is then the only +Government which the citizens are bound to obey. Take, for illustration, +the State of Arkansas. By seceding, the State Government forfeited all +claim to the obedience of the citizens. The inhabitants no longer owe it +any allegiance. If loyal, they will not obey it, except as compelled by +force. But they still owe allegiance to the United States Government. +And there being no other Government which they are bound to obey, they +are in the same condition as before the State was admitted into the +Union, or any Territorial Government was organized. + +The same is true of South Carolina. For, though it was an independent +State before the Constitution was adopted, its citizens voluntarily +yielded up that position, and became subject to the Federal Government, +claiming the privileges and assuming the liabilities of a higher +citizenship. And if, by reason of its rebellion, their State Government +has forfeited its claim upon them, and its right to rule over them, they +owe no allegiance to any except the Government of the United States. + +But it is argued by some, that a State, once admitted into the Union, +cannot forfeit its rights as a State under the Constitution, because it +cannot, as such, be guilty of treason; that the inhabitants may all be +traitors, and the State Government secede, and engage in a war against +the Republic, and yet retain all its rights intact. + +A State, in the meaning of public law, has been defined to be a body of +persons _united together_ in one community, for the defence of their +rights. They do not constitute a State until _organized_. If the +organization ceases to exist, they are no longer a State. If the State +organization becomes despotic, and the inhabitants overthrow it by a +revolution, it then ceases to exist. The people are remitted to their +original rights, and must organize a new State. + +A State, as such, may be guilty of treason. Crimes may be committed by +organized bodies of men. Corporations are often convicted, and punished +by fines, or by a forfeiture of all corporate rights. And though we have +no provision for putting a State on trial, it may, as a State, be +guilty. Treason is defined by the Constitution to be "levying war +against the United States." This is just what South Carolina, as a +State, is doing. Not only the people, but _the State Government_, has +revolted. The people owe it no allegiance. It is their duty, not to +support, but to _oppose_ it. The Federal Government owes it no +recognition. It has the right to destroy and exterminate it. A State +Government in rebellion has no rights under the Constitution. _It is +itself a rebellion_, and must necessarily cease to exist when the +rebellion is suppressed. + +And when the State Government which has revolted shall be conquered and +overthrown, there will then be no South Carolina in existence. If there +were loyal people enough there, bond or free, to rise up and overthrow +it, they would be no more bound to revive the old Constitution, with its +tyrannical provisions, than were our fathers to return to the British +Government. Such a revolution is inaugurated in that State, by loyal +men, to overthrow the despotic power of the State Government. If the +State Government had remained loyal, it might have called on the Federal +Government. But by seceding it has justified the Federal Government in +aiding or organizing a revolution against it, for its utter overthrow +and extinction. + +It is true, indeed, the idea prevails that there is still, somehow, a +State of South Carolina, besides that which is in rebellion. But the +State must exist _in fact_, or it has no existence. There is no such +thing as a merely theoretical State, separate and different from the +actual. The revolted States are the same States that were once loyal. +And when some loyal citizens in each of them, with the aid of the +Federal Government, have overthrown and destroyed them, the ground will +be cleared for the formation of new States, or the _reorganization_ of +the old; and they may be admitted or restored, upon such conditions as +may be deemed wise and prudent, to promote and secure the future peace +and welfare of the whole country. + +There is no evidence that loyal persons in the Rebel States claim or +desire to uphold the existence of those States, under their present +constitutions, with the system of Slavery. But if there are any such +persons, their wishes are not to override the interests of the Republic. +It is their misfortune to reside in States that have revolted; and all +their losses, pecuniary and political, are chargeable to those States, +and not to the Federal Government. If they are so blind as to suppose +that their losses will be increased by emancipation, _that_, also, will +be chargeable to the rebellion of those States. _Their_ loyalty does not +save those States from being treated as enemies; it does not prevent +_their own_ condition from being determined by that of their States. As +it is well known, a portion of their property has been confiscated by an +Act of Congress, on the ground that they are, in part, responsible for +the rebellion of those States. The theory, therefore, that such loyal +men constitute loyal States, still existing, in distinction from the +States that have rebelled, is utterly groundless. On this point we +cannot do better than quote from the opinion of the Supreme Court of the +United States in a case already referred to, sustaining the belligerent +legislation of Congress. + +"In organizing this rebellion, _they have acted as States_, claiming to +be sovereign over all persons and property within their respective +limits, and claiming the right to absolve their citizens from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. Several of these States have +combined to form a new Confederacy, claiming to be acknowledged by the +world as a sovereign State. Their right to do so is now being decided by +wager of battle. The ports and territory of each of these States are +held in hostility to the General Government. It is no loose, unorganized +insurrection, having no defined boundary or possession. It has a +boundary, marked by lines of bayonets, and which can be crossed only by +force. South of this line is enemy's territory, because it is claimed +and held in possession by an organized, hostile, and belligerent power. +All persons residing within this territory, whose property may be used +to increase the revenues of the hostile power, are in this contest +liable to be treated as enemies." + +It is not to be presumed that Congress will do anything unnecessarily to +add to the misfortunes of loyal men in the South. On the contrary, all +that is being done is more directly for their benefit than for that of +any other class of men. The vast expenditure of treasure and blood in +this war is for the purpose of protecting them first of all, and +restoring to them the blessings of a good government. And if it shall be +found practicable to indemnify them for all losses, whether by +emancipation or otherwise, no one will object. + + * * * * * + +The object of this article is to prove that the Government possesses +ample power, according to the law of nations, to suppress the Rebellion, +and secure the country against the danger of another, by Emancipation, +through the military power; that, though Emancipation is a _policy_, and +not a _law_, the war may be prosecuted until this end is accomplished, +and Slavery in future forever prohibited; that, by secession and +rebellion, the revolted States have forfeited all right to the +allegiance of their citizens, who are thereby remitted to the condition +and rights of citizens solely of the United States; and that the Federal +Government, as well _under the Constitution_ as _by right of conquest_, +may impose such terms upon the reorganization and restoration of those +States as may be necessary to secure present safety, and avert danger in +time to come. These views are presented in as brief and simple terms as +possible, with the hope that they may be adopted by the people and by +the Government. It is confidently believed, that, if the President and +Congress will act in accordance with them, their acts will be fully +sustained by the Supreme Court,--and that, the element and source of +discord being at last entirely removed from the country, a career of +peace and prosperity will then begin which shall be the admiration of +the world. + +At this time we present a humiliating spectacle to other nations: nearly +half of our national temple in ruins,--the work of blind folly and mad +ambition. The people of the North claimed no right to tear it down, or +even to repair it. But since the people of the South have risen in +rebellion, let us believe that there is now an opportunity, nay, an +imperative _necessity_, to remove from its foundations the rock of +Oppression, that was sure to crumble in the refining fires of a +Christian civilization, and establish in its place the stone of +LIBERTY,--unchanging and eternal as its Author. Let us rejoice in the +hope, already brightening into fruition, that out of these ruins our +temple shall rise again, in a fresher beauty, a firmer strength, a +brighter glory,--and above it again shall float the old flag, every star +restored, henceforth to all, of every color and every race, the flag of +the free. + + * * * * * + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + + +_Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-39._ By FRANCES +ANNE KEMBLE. New York: Harper & Brothers. + + +Those who remember the "Journal of a Residence in America," of Frances +Anne Kemble, or, as she was universally and kindly called, Fanny +Kemble,--a book long since out of print, and entirely out of the +knowledge of our younger readers,--will not cease to wonder, as they +close these thoughtful, tranquil, and tragical pages. The earlier +journal was the dashing, fragmentary diary of a brilliant girl, half +impatient of her own success in an art for which she was peculiarly +gifted, yet the details of which were sincerely repugnant to her. It +crackled and sparkled with _naïve_ arrogance. It criticized a new world +and fresh forms of civilization with the amusing petulance of a spoiled +daughter of John Bull. It was flimsy, flippant, laughable, rollicking, +vivid. It described scenes and persons, often with airy grace, often +with profound and pensive feeling. It was the slightest of diaries, +written in public for the public; but it was universally read, as its +author had been universally sought and admired in the sphere of her art; +and no one who knew anything of her truly, but knew what an incisive +eye, what a large heart, what a candid and vigorous mind, what real +humanity, generosity, and sympathy, characterized Miss Kemble. + +The dazzling phantasmagoria which life had been to the young actress was +suddenly exchanged for the most practical acquaintance with its +realities. She was married, left the stage, and as a wife and mother +resided for a winter on the plantations of her husband upon the coast of +Georgia. And now, after twenty-five years, the journal of her residence +there is published. It has been wisely kept. For never could such a book +speak with such power as at this moment. The tumult of the war will be +forgotten, as you read, in the profound and appalled attention enforced +by this remarkable revelation of the interior life of Slavery. The +spirit, the character, and the purpose of the Rebellion are here laid +bare. Its inevitability is equally apparent. The book is a permanent and +most valuable chapter in our history; for it is the first ample, lucid, +faithful, detailed account, from the actual head-quarters of a +slave-plantation in this country, of the workings of the system,--its +persistent, hopeless, helpless crushing of humanity in the slave, and +the more fearful moral and mental dry-rot it generates in the master. + +We have had plenty of literature upon the subject. First of all, in +spirit and comprehension, the masterly, careful, copious, and patient +works of Mr. Olmsted. But he, like Arthur Young in France, was only an +observer. He could be no more. "Uncle Tom," as its "Key" shows, and as +Mrs. Kemble declares, was no less a faithful than the most famous +witness against the system. But it was a novel. Then there was "American +Slavery as it is," a work of authenticated facts, issued by the American +Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and the fearful mass of testimony +incessantly published by the distinctively Abolition papers, +periodicals, books, and orators, during the last quarter of a century. +But the world was deaf. "They have made it a business. They select all +the horrors. They accumulate exceptions." Such were the objections that +limited the power of this tremendous battery. Meanwhile, also, it was +answered. Foreign tourists were taken to "model plantations." They shed +tears over the patriarchal benignity of this venerable and beautiful +provision of Divine Providence for the spiritual training of our African +fellow-creatures. The affection of "Mammy" for "Massa and Missis" was +something unknown where hired labor prevailed. Graver voices took up the +burden of the song. There was no pauperism in a slave-country. There +were no prostitutes. It had its disadvantages, certainly; but what form +of society, what system of labor has not? Besides, here it was. It was +the interest of slaveholders to be kind. And what a blessing to bring +the poor heathen from benighted Africa and pagan servitude to the +ennobling influences of Slavery, as practised among Southwestern +Christians in America, and "professors" in South Carolina and Georgia! +See the Reverend Mr. Adams and Miss Murray _passim_. This was the +answer made to the statements of the actual facts of the system, when it +was found that the question had gone before public opinion, and would be +decided upon its merits by that tribunal, all the panders, bullies, +assassins, apologists, and chaplains of Slavery to the contrary +notwithstanding. In fact, when that was once clearly perceived, the +issue was no less visible; only whether it were to be reached by war or +peace was not so plain. + +Yet in all this tremendous debate which resounds through the last thirty +years of our history, rising and swelling until every other sound was +lost in its imperious roar, one decisive voice was silent. It was +precisely that which is heard in this book. General statements, +harrowing details from those who had been slaveholders, and who had +renounced Slavery, were sometimes made public. Indeed, the most cruel +and necessary incidents, the hunting with blood-hounds, the branding, +the maiming, the roasting, the whipping of pregnant women, could not be +kept from knowledge. They blazed into print. But the public, hundreds of +miles away, while it sighed and shuddered a little, resolved that such +atrocities were exceptional. 'Twas a shocking pity, to be sure! Poor +things! Women, too! Tut, tut! + +Now, at last, we have no general statement, no single, sickening +incident, but the diary of the mistress of plantations of seven hundred +slaves, living under the most favorable circumstances, upon the islands +at the mouth of the Altamaha River, in Georgia. It is a journal, kept +from day to day, of the actual ordinary life of the plantation, where +the slaves belonged to educated, intelligent, and what are called the +most respectable people,--not persons imbruted by exile among slaves +upon solitary islands, but who had lived in large Northern cities and +the most accomplished society, subject to all the influences of the +highest civilization. It is the journal of a hearty, generous, +clear-sighted woman, who went to the plantation, loving the master, and +believing, that, though Slavery might be sad, it might also be +mitigated, and the slave might be content. It is the record of ghastly +undeceiving,--of the details of a system so wantonly, brutally, damnably +unjust, inhuman, and degrading, that it blights the country, paralyzes +civilization, and vitiates human nature itself. The brilliant girl of +the earlier journal is the sobered and solemnized matron of this. The +very magnitude of the misery that surrounds her, the traces of which +everywhere sadden her eye and wring her heart, compel her to the +simplest narration. There is no writing for effect. There is not a +single "sensational" passage. The story is monotonous; for the wrong it +describes is perpetual and unrelieved. "There is not a single natural +right," she says, after some weeks' residence, "that is not taken away +from these unfortunate people; and the worst of all is, that their +condition does not appear to me, upon further observation of it, to be +susceptible of even partial alleviation, as long as the fundamental +evil, the Slavery itself, remains." + +As the mistress of the plantation, she was brought into constant +intercourse with the slave-women; and no other account of this class is +so thorough and plainly stated. So pitiful a tale was seldom told. It +was a "model plantation"; but every day was darkened to the mistress by +the appeals of these women and her observation of their condition. The +heart of the reader sickens as hers despaired. To produce "little +niggers" for Massa and Missis was the enforced ambition of these poor +women. After the third week of confinement they were sent into the +fields to work. If they lingered or complained, they were whipped. For +beseeching the mistress to pray for some relief in their sad straits, +they were also whipped. If their tasks were unperformed, or the driver +lost his temper, they were whipped again. If they would not yield to the +embrace of the overseer, they were whipped once more. How are they +whipped? They are tied by the wrists to a beam or the branch of a tree, +their feet barely touching the ground, so that they are utterly +powerless to resist; their clothes are turned over their heads, and +their backs scarred with a leathern thong, either by the driver himself, +or by father, brother, husband, or lover, if the driver choose to order +it. What a blessing for these poor heathen that they are brought to a +Christian land! When a band of pregnant women came to their master to +implore relief from overwork, he seemed "positively degraded" to his +wife, as he stood urging them to do their allotted tasks. She began to +fear lest she should cease to respect the man she loved; "for the +details of slaveholding are so unmanly, letting alone every other +consideration, that I know not how any one with the spirit of a man can +condescend to them." The master gives a slave as a present to an +overseer whose administration of the estate was agreeable to him. The +slave is intelligent and capable, the husband of a wife and the father +of children, and they are all fondly attached to each other. He +passionately declares that he will kill himself rather than follow his +new master and leave wife and children behind. Roused by the storm of +grief, the wife opens the door of her room, and beholds her husband, +with his arms folded, advising his slave "not to make a fuss about what +there is no help for." The same master insists that there is no hardship +or injustice in whipping a woman who asks his wife to intercede for her, +but confesses that it is "disagreeable." At last he tells her that she +must no longer fatigue him with the "stuff" and "trash" which "the +niggers," who are "all d----d liars," make her believe, and +henceforward closes his ears to all complaint. + +Yet this was a model plantation, and this was probably not a hard +master, as masters go. "These are the conditions which can only be known +to one who lives among them. Flagrant acts of cruelty may be rare, but +this ineffable state of utter degradation, this really _beastly_ +existence, is the normal condition of these men and women; and of that +no one seems to take heed, nor had I ever heard it described so as to +form any adequate conception of it, till I found myself plunged into +it.... Industry, man's crown of honor elsewhere, is here his badge of +utter degradation; and so comes all by which I am here +surrounded,--pride, profligacy, idleness, cruelty, cowardice, ignorance, +squalor, dirt, and ineffable abasement." + +And yet this is the system which we have been in the habit of calling +patriarchal, because the model masters said it was so, and trade was too +prosperous to allow any difference with them! And these are the model +masters, supported in luxury by all this unpaid labor and untold woe, +these women-whippers and breeders of babies for sale, who have figured +in our talk and imaginations as "the chivalry" and "gentlemen"! These +are they to whom American society has koo-too'd, and in whose presence +it has been ill-bred and uncourteous to say that every man has rights, +that every laborer is worthy of his hire, that injustice is unjust, and +uncleanness foul. No wonder that Russell, coming to New York, and +finding the rich men and the political confederates of the conspirators +declaring that the Government of the United States could not help +itself, and that they would allow no interference with their Southern +friends, sincerely believed what he wished to, and wrote to John Bull, +whose round face was red with eager desire to hear it, that the +Revolution was virtually accomplished. No wonder that the haughty +slaveholders, smeared with sycophantic slime, at Newport, at Saratoga, +in the "polite" and "conservative" Northern circles, believed what Mr. +Hunter of Virginia told a Massachusetts delegate to the Peace +Congress,--that there would be no serious trouble, and that the +Montgomery Constitution would be readily adopted by the "conservative" +sentiment of the North. + +Mrs. Kemble's book shows what the miserable magic is that enchants these +Southern American citizens into people whose philosophy of society would +disgrace the Dark Ages, and whose social system is that of Dahomey. + +The life that she describes upon the model plantation is the necessary +life of Slavery everywhere,--injustice, ignorance, superstition, terror, +degradation, brutality; and this is the system to which a great +political party--counting upon the enervation of prosperity, the +timidity of trade, the distance of the suffering, the legal quibbles, +the moral sophisms, the hatred of ignorance, the jealousy of race, and +the possession of power--has conspired to keep the nation blind and +deaf, trusting that its mind was utterly obscured and its conscience +wholly destroyed. + +But the nation is young, and of course the effort has ended in civil +war. Slavery, industrially and politically, inevitably resists Christian +civilization. The natural progress and development of men into a +constantly higher manhood must cease, or this system, which strives to +convert men into things, must give way. Its haughty instinct knows it, +and therefore Slavery rebels. This Rebellion is simply the insurrection +of Barbarism against Civilization. It would overthrow the Government, +not for any wrong the Government has done, for that is not alleged. It +knows that the people are the Government,--that the spirit of the people +is progressive and intelligent,--and that there is no hope for permanent +and expansive injustice, so long as the people freely discuss and +decide. It would therefore establish a new Government, of which this +meanest and most beastly despotism shall be the chief corner-stone. In a +letter to C.G., in the appendix of her book, Mrs. Kemble sets this truth +in the clearest light. But whoever would comprehend the real social +scope of the Rebellion should ponder every page of the journal itself. +It will show him that Slavery and rebellion to this Government are +identical, not only in fact, but of necessity. It will teach him that +the fierce battle between Slavery and the Government, once engaged, can +end only in the destruction of one or the other. + +This is not a book which a woman like Mrs. Kemble publishes without a +solemn sense of responsibility. A sadder book the human hand never +wrote, nor one more likely to arrest the thoughts of all those in the +world who watch our war and are yet not steeled to persuasion and +conviction. An Englishwoman, she publishes it in England, which hates +us, that a testimony which will not be doubted may be useful to the +country in which she has lived so long, and with which her sweetest and +saddest memories are forever associated. It is a noble service nobly +done. The enthusiasm, the admiration, the affection, which in our day of +seemingly cloudless prosperity greeted the brilliant girl, have been +bountifully repaid by the true and timely words now spoken in our +seeming adversity by the grave and thoughtful woman. + + * * * * * + +_An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the +Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers._ Read +before the Massachusetts Historical Society, August 14, 1862. By GEORGE +LIVERMORE. Third Edition. Boston: A. Williams & Co. + + +This Historical Research is one of the most valuable works that have +been called out by the existing Rebellion. It is a thorough and candid +exposition of the opinions of the founders of the Republic on negroes as +slaves, as citizens, and as soldiers, and has done more, perhaps, than +any other single essay to form the public opinion of the present time in +respect to the position that the negro should rightfully hold in our +State and our army. It has, therefore, and will retain, a double +interest, as exhibiting and illustrating the opinions prevalent during +the two most important periods of our history. It was first printed, +several months since, for private distribution only. More than a +thousand copies were thus distributed by its public-spirited author. By +this means the attention of persons in positions of influence was more +readily secured than it could have been, had the essay been published in +the ordinary way. The manner in which the research was conducted, the +evidence afforded by every page of the author's conscientious labor, +impartial selection, and exhaustive investigation, won immediate +confidence in his statements, while his obvious candor, fairness of +judgment, and love of truth secured respect for his conclusions. The +interest excited by the work extended to a wider circle than could be +satisfied by any private issue, while its value became more and more +evident, so that, after its publication in the Proceedings of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, the permission of the author was +obtained by the New-England Loyal Publication Society to issue the work +in a form for general circulation. + +We are glad to assist, by our hearty commendation, the extension of the +influence of this essay. It forms, as now issued, a handsome pamphlet of +two hundred pages, with a full Table of Contents and a copious Index, +and is for sale at a price which brings it within the means of every one +who may wish to obtain it. It is a book which should be in the +reading-room of every Loyal League throughout the country, and of every +military hospital. Editors of the loyal press should be provided with +it, as containing an arsenal of incontrovertible arguments with which to +meet the false assertions by which the maligners of the negro race and +the supporters of Slavery too often undertake to maintain their bad +cause. + +Exhibiting, as Mr. Livermore's book does, the contrast between the +opinions of the founders of the Republic and those professed by the +would-be destroyers of the Republic, and showing, as it does, how far a +large portion even of the people of the North have fallen away from the +just and generous doctrine of the earlier time, it must lead every +thoughtful reader to a deep sense of the need of a regeneration of the +spirit of the nation, and to a confirmed conviction of the +incompatibility of Slavery with national greatness and virtue. The +Rebellion has taught us that the Republic is not safe while Slavery is +permitted to exercise any political power. It ought to teach us also, +that, as long as Slavery exists in any of the States, it will not cease +to exercise political power, and that the only means to make the nation +safe is utterly to abolish and destroy Slavery, wherever it is found +within its limits. Nor is this all; the lesson of the Rebellion is but +half learned, unless we resolve that henceforth there shall be no fatal +division between our consciences, our principles, our theories, and our +treatment of the black race, and unless we acknowledge their inalienable +right to that justice by which alone the most ancient heavens and the +most sacred institutions are fresh and strong. + +There is no better textbook for enforcing these lessons than Mr. +Livermore's Research. + + * * * * * + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +"Christopher North." A Memoir of John Wilson, late Professor of Moral +Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 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Huxley, F.R.S., +F.L.S., Professor of Natural History in the Jermyn-Street School of +Mines. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 184. $1.25. + +United States Infantry Tactics, for the Instruction, Exercise, and +Manoeuvres of the Soldier, a Company, Line of Skirmishers, and +Battalion; for the Use of the Colored Troops of the United States +Infantry. Prepared under Direction of the War Department. New York. D. +Van Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 445. $1.50. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, +1863, No. 70, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 12 *** + +***** This file should be named 16033-8.txt or 16033-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/3/16033/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Guido +Royackers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 + A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics + +Author: Various + +Release Date: June 9, 2005 [EBook #16033] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 12 *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Guido +Royackers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.</h1> + +<h2>A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.</h2> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<h3>VOL. XII.—AUGUST, 1863.—NO. LXX.</h3> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<h4>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts.</h4> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="an_american_in_the_house_of_lords" id="an_american_in_the_house_of_lords"></a>AN AMERICAN IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.</h2> + + +<p>Having in a former number of this magazine attempted to give some +account of the House of Commons, and to present some sketches of its +leading members,<a name="fnanchor_1_1" id="fnanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#footnote_1_1"><sup>1</sup></a> +I now design to introduce my readers to the House of +Lords.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_1_1" id="footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#fnanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i> for December, 1861.</p></div> + +<p>It is obviously unnecessary to repeat so much of the previous +description as applies to the general external and internal appearance +of the New Palace of Westminster. It only remains to speak of the hall +devoted to the sessions of the House of Lords. And certainly it is an +apartment deserving a more extended notice than our limits will allow. +As the finest specimen of Gothic civil architecture in the world, +perfect in its proportions, beautiful and appropriate in its +decorations, the frescoes perpetuating some of the most striking scenes +in English history, the stained glass windows representing the Kings and +Queens of the United Kingdom from the accession of William the Conqueror +down to the present reign, the niches filled with effigies of the Barons +who wrested Magna Charta from King John, the ceiling glowing with gold +and colors presenting different national symbols and devices in most +elaborate workmanship and admirable intricacy of design, it is +undeniably worthy of the high purpose to which it is dedicated.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords also contains the throne occupied by the reigning +sovereign at the opening and prorogation of Parliament. Perhaps its more +appropriate designation would be a State-Chair. In general form and +outline it is substantially similar to the chairs in which the +sovereigns of England have for centuries been accustomed to sit at their +coronations. We need hardly add that no expense has been spared to give +to the throne such intrinsic value, and to adorn it with such emblems of +national significance, as to furnish renewed evidence of England's +unwavering loyalty to the reigning house.</p> + +<p>In pointing out what is peculiar to the House of Lords, I am aware that +there is danger of falling into the error of stating what is already +familiar to some of my readers. And yet a traveller's narrative is not +always tiresome to the tourist who has himself visited the same +localities and witnessed the same scenes. If anxious for the "diffusion +of useful knowledge," he will cheerfully consent that the curiosity of +others, who have not shared his good fortune, should be gratified, +although it be at his expense. At the same time, he certainly has a +right to insist that the extraordinary and improbable stories told to +the too credulous <i>voyageur</i> by some lying scoundrel of a courier or +some unprincipled <i>valet-de-place</i> shall not be palmed upon the +unsuspecting public as genuine tales of travel and adventure.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords is composed of lords spiritual and lords temporal. As +this body is now constituted, the lords spiritual are two archbishops, +twenty-four bishops, and four Irish representative prelates. The lords +temporal are three peers of the blood royal, twenty dukes, nineteen +marquises, one hundred and ten earls, twenty-two viscounts, two hundred +and ten barons, sixteen Scotch representative peers, and twenty-eight +Irish representative peers. There are twenty-three Scotch peers and +eighty-five Irish peers who have no seats in Parliament. The +representative peers for Scotland are elected for every Parliament, +while the representative peers for Ireland are elected for life. As has +been already intimated, this enumeration applies only to the present +House of Lords, which comprises four hundred and fifty-eight +members,—an increase of about thirty noblemen in as many years.</p> + +<p>The persons selected from time to time for the honor of the peerage are +members of families already among the nobility, eminent barristers, +military and naval commanders who have distinguished themselves in the +service, and occasionally persons of controlling and acknowledged +importance in commercial life. Lord Macaulay is the first instance in +which this high compliment has been conferred for literary merit; and it +was well understood, when the great essayist and historian was ennobled, +that the exception in his favor was mainly due to the fact that he was +unmarried. With his untimely death the title became extinct. Lord +Overstone, formerly Mr. Loyd, and a prominent member of the banking firm +of Jones, Loyd, and Co. of London, elevated to the peerage in 1850, is +without heirs apparent or presumptive, and there is good reason to +believe that this circumstance had a material bearing upon his +well-deserved promotion. But these infrequent exceptions, these rare +concessions so ungraciously made, only prove the rigor of the rule. +Practically, to all but members of noble families, and men distinguished +for military, naval, or political services, or eminent lawyers or +clergymen, the House of Lords is unattainable. Brown may reach the +highest range of artistic excellence, he may achieve world-wide fame as +an architect, his canvas may glow with the marvellous coloring of Titian +or repeat the rare and delicate grace of Correggio, the triumphs of his +chisel may reflect honor upon England and his age; the inventive genius +of Jones, painfully elaborating, through long and suffering years of +obscure poverty, the crude conceptions of his boyhood, may confer +inestimable benefits upon his race; the scientific discoveries of +Robinson may add incalculable wealth to the resources of his nation: but +let them not dream of any other nobility than that conferred by Nature; +let them be content to live and die plain, untitled Brown, Jones, and +Robinson, or at best look forward only to the barren honors of +knighthood. Indeed, it is not too much to say that for plebeian merit +the only available avenues to the peerage are the Church and the Bar.</p> + +<p>The proportion of law lords now in the House of Lords is unusually +large,—there being, besides Lord Westbury, the present +Lord-High-Chancellor, no fewer than six Ex-Lord-Chancellors, each +enjoying the very satisfactory pension of five thousand pounds per +annum. Lord Lyndhurst still survives at the ripe age of ninety-one; and +Lord Brougham, now in his eighty-sixth year, has made good his promise +that he would outlive Lord Campbell, and spare his friends the pain of +seeing his biography added to the lives of the Lord-Chancellors to +whom, in Lord Brougham's opinion, Lord Campbell had done such inadequate +justice.</p> + +<p>The course of proceeding in the House of Lords differs considerably from +that pursued in the House of Commons. The Lord-High-Chancellor, seated +on the wool-sack,—a crimson cushion, innocent of any support to the +back, and by no means suggestive of comfort, or inviting deliberations +of the peers, but is never addressed by the speakers. "My lords" is the +phrase with which every peer commences his remarks.</p> + +<p>Another peculiarity patent to the stranger is the small number usually +present at the debates. The average attendance is less than fifty, and +often one sees only fifteen or twenty peers in their seats. Two or three +leading members of the Ministry, as many prominent members of the +opposition, a bishop or two, a score of deluded, but well-meaning +gentlemen, who obstinately adhere to the unfashionable notion, that, +where great political powers are enjoyed, there are certain serious +duties to the public closely connected therewith, a few prosy and +pompous peers who believe that their constant presence is essential to +the welfare and prosperity of the kingdom,—such, I think, is a correct +classification of the ordinary attendance of noblemen at the House of +Lords.</p> + +<p>This body possesses several obvious advantages over any other +deliberative assembly now existing. Not the least among these is the +fact that the oldest son of every peer is prepared by a careful course +of education for political and diplomatic life. Every peer, except some +of recent creation, has from childhood enjoyed all conceivable +facilities for acquiring a finished education. In giving direction to +his studies at school and at the university, special reference has been +had to his future Parliamentary career. Nothing that large wealth could +supply, or the most powerful family-influence could command, has been +spared to give to the future legislator every needed qualification for +the grave and responsible duties which he will one day be called to +assume. His ambition has been stimulated by the traditional achievements +of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and his pride has been awakened +and kept alive by the universal deference paid to his position as the +heir apparent or presumptive of a noble house.</p> + +<p>This view is so well presented in "The Caxtons," that I need offer no +apology for making an extract from that most able and discriminating +picture of English society. "The fact is, that Lord Castleton had been +taught everything that relates to property (a knowledge that embraces +very wide circumference). It had been said to him, 'You will be an +immense proprietor: knowledge is essential to your self-preservation. +You will be puzzled, ridiculed, duped every day of your life, if you do +not make yourself acquainted with all by which property is assailed or +defended, impoverished or increased. You have a stake in the country: +you must learn all the interests of Europe, nay, of the civilized world; +for these interests react on the country, and the interests of the +country are of the greatest possible consequence to the interests of the +Marquis of Castleton.' Thus, the state of the Continent, the policy of +Metternich, the condition of the Papacy, the growth of Dissent, the +proper mode of dealing with the spirit of democracy which was the +epidemic of European monarchies, the relative proportions of the +agricultural and manufacturing population, corn-laws, currency, and the +laws that regulate wages, a criticism on the leading speakers in the +House of Commons, with some discursive observations on the importance of +fattening cattle, the introduction of flax into Ireland, emigration, the +condition of the poor: these and such-like stupendous subjects for +reflection—all branching more or less intricately from the single idea +of the Castleton property—the young lord discussed and disposed of in +half a dozen prim, poised sentences, evincing, I must say in justice, no +inconsiderable information, and a mighty solemn turn of mind. The +oddity was, that the subjects so selected and treated should not come +rather from some young barrister, or mature political economist, than +from so gorgeous a lily of the field."</p> + +<p>But to all these preëminent advantages of early education and training +there must be added the invaluable opportunities of enlarged and +extended legislative experience in the House of Commons. If we examine +the antecedents of some of the most prominent men now in the House of +Lords, we shall discover abundant evidence of this fact. Earl Russell +was a member of the House of Commons for more than thirty years; Earl +Derby, more than twenty-five years; the Earl of Shaftesbury, for about +twenty-four years; the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the +Duke of Rutland, for about the same period. And of the present House of +Commons more than fifty members are heirs apparent or presumptive to +existing peerages.</p> + +<p>And then there is the further circumstance that seats in the House of +Lords are for life. Members of this body do not stand in fear of removal +by the votes of disappointed or indignant constituents. Entirely +independent of public opinion, they can defy the disapprobation of the +masses, and smile at the denunciation of the press. Undoubtedly, this +fact has a twofold bearing, and deprives the peers of that strong +incentive to active exertion and industrious legislation which the House +of Commons, looking directly to the people for support and continuance, +always possesses. Yet the advantages in point of prolonged experience +and ever increasing familiarity with the details of public business are +unquestionable.</p> + +<p>As a matter of course, there are many noblemen upon whom these rare +facilities of education and this admirable training for public life +would seem to have been wasted. As Americans, we must be pardoned for +expressing our belief in the venerable doctrine that there is no royal +road to learning. If a peer of the realm is determined to be a dunce, +nothing in the English Constitution prevents him from being a dunce, and +"not all the blood of all the Howards" can make him a scholar or a +statesman. If, resting securely in the conviction that a nobleman does +not need to be instructed, he will not condescend to study, and does not +avail himself of his most enviable advantages, whatever may be his +social rank, his ignorance and incapacity cannot be disguised, but will +even become more odious and culpable in the view of impartial criticism +by reason of his conspicuous position and his neglect of these very +advantages.</p> + +<p>But frequent as these instances are, it will not be for a moment +supposed that the whole peerage would justly fall under such censure. +Nor will it be thought surprising that the House of Lords contains a +considerable number of men of sterling ability, statesmen of broad and +comprehensive views, accustomed to deal with important questions of +public interest and national policy with calm, deliberate judgment, and +far-reaching sagacity. Hampered as they certainly are by a traditional +conservatism often as much at variance with sound political philosophy +as it is with the lessons of all history, and characterized as their +attitude towards foreign nations always has been by a singular want of +all generosity, still it must be confessed that their steady and +unwavering adherence to a line of conduct which has made England feared +and her power respected by every country in the world has a certain +element of dignity and manly self-reliance which compels our admiration. +And while they have been of late so frequently outwitted by the +flexible, if not tortuous, policy of Louis Napoleon, it yet remains to +be seen whether the firm and unyielding course of the English Ministry +will not in the end prove quite as successful as the more Machiavellian +management of the French Emperor.</p> + +<p>I hardly know how to describe accurately the impression made upon the +mind of an American by his first visit to the House of Lords. What +memories haunt him of the Norman Conquest and the Crusades, of Magna +Charta and the King-Maker, of noblemen who suffered with Charles I. and +supped with Charles II., and of noblemen still later whose family-pride +looked down upon the House of Hanover, and whose banded political power +and freely lavished wealth checked the brilliant career of Napoleon, and +maintained, the supremacy of England on sea and land!</p> + +<p>Enter, then, the House of Lords with these stirring memories, and +confess frankly to a feeling of disappointment. Here are seated a few +well-behaved gentlemen of all ages, often carelessly dressed, and almost +invariably in English morning-costume. They are sleepily discussing some +uninteresting question, and you are disposed to retire in view of the +more powerful attractions of Drury Lane or the Haymarket, or the chance +of something better worth hearing in the House of Commons. Take my +advice, and wait until the adjournment. It will not be long, and by +leaving now you may lose an important debate and the sight of some men +whose fame is bounded only by the limits of Christendom. Even now there +is a slight stir in the House. A nobleman has entered whose movements +you will do well to follow. He takes his place just at the left of the +Lord-Chancellor, but remains seated only for a moment. If you are +familiar with the pencil of Punch, you will recognize him at a glance. A +thin, wiry, yet muscular frame, a singularly marked and expressive face +and mobile features, a nose that defies description, a high cravat like +a poultice covered with a black silk bandage, clothes that seem to have +been made for a much larger man, and always a pair of old-fashioned +checked trousers,—of course, this can only be Lord Brougham. He is +eighty-five years old, and yet his physical activity would do no +injustice to a man in the prime of life. If you watch him a few moments, +you will have abundant evidence of his restless energy. While we look, +he has crossed to the opposite side of the House, and is enjoying a +hearty laugh with the Bishop of Oxford. The round, full face of +"Slippery Sam" (as he is disrespectfully called throughout England) is +beaming with appreciative delight; but before the Bishop has time to +reply, the titled humorist is on the wing again, and in an instant we +see him seated between Earl Granville and the Duke of Somerset, +conversing with all the vivacity and enthusiasm of a school-boy. In a +moment he is in motion again, and has shaken hands with half a dozen +peers. Undeterred by the supernaturally solemn countenance of the +Marquis of Normanby, he has actually addressed a joke to that dignified +fossil, and has passed on without waiting to observe its effect. A few +words with Earl Derby, a little animated talk with the Earl of +Ellenborough, and he has made the circuit of the House, everywhere +received with a welcoming smile and a kindly grasp of the hand, and +everywhere finding willing and gratified listeners. Possibly that is +pardoned to his age and eminence which would be resented as impertinence +in a younger man, but certainly he enjoys a license accorded to no one +else in this aristocratic assembly.</p> + +<p>The dull debate of the past hour is now concluded, the House is thin, +and there are indications of immediate adjournment. Remain a little +longer, however, and your patience may possibly be richly rewarded. +There is no order in the discussion of topics, and at any moment while +the House continues in session there may spring up a debate calling out +all the ability of the leading peers in attendance. After a short pause +the quiet is broken by an aged nobleman on the opposition benches. He +rises slowly and feebly with the assistance of a cane, but his voice is +firm and his manner is forcible. That he is a man of mark is evident +from the significant silence and the deferential attention with which +his first words are received. You ask his name, and with ill-disguised +amazement at your ignorance a gentleman by your side informs you that +the speaker is Lord Lyndhurst.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the life of no public man in England has so much of interest to +an American as that of this distinguished nobleman. Born in Boston while +we were still in a condition of colonial dependence, he has lived to see +his native land emerge from her state of vassalage, pass through a +long-protracted struggle for liberty with the most powerful nation on +earth, successfully maintain her right to be free and independent, +advance with giant strides in a career of unexampled prosperity, assume +an undisputed position as one of the great powers of Christendom, and +finally put forth the most gigantic efforts to crush a rebellion +compared with which the conspiracy of Catiline was but the impotent +uprising of an angry dwarf.</p> + +<p>Lord Lyndhurst was called to the bar of England in 1804. It was before +the splendid forensic successes of Erskine had been rewarded by a seat +on the wool-sack, or Wellington had completed his brilliant and decisive +campaign in India, or the military glory of Napoleon had culminated at +Austerlitz, or Pitt, turning sadly from the map of Europe and saying, +"Henceforth we may close that map for half a century," had gone +broken-hearted to an early grave, or Nelson had defeated the combined +navies of France and Spain at Trafalgar. Lord Byron had not yet entered +Cambridge University, Sir Walter Scott had not published his first poem, +and Canova was still in the height of his well-earned fame. It was +before the first steamboat of Robert Fulton had vexed the quiet waters +of the Hudson, or Aaron Burr had failed in his attempted treason, or +Daniel Welter had entered upon his professional career, or Thomas +Jefferson had completed his first official term as President of the +United States.</p> + +<p>Lord Lyndhurst's advancement to the highest honors of his profession and +to a commanding place in the councils of his adopted country was rapid +almost beyond precedent. He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1819, +Attorney-General in 1823, Master of the Rolls in 1826, and +Lord-Chancellor in 1827. He remained in this office until 1830, and +retired only to be created Lord-Chief-Baron of the Exchequer. In 1835 he +was again appointed Lord-Chancellor, and once more, for the third time, +in 1841.</p> + +<p>The characteristic qualities of the oratory of Lord Lyndhurst, when in +his prime, were perfect coolness and self-possession, a most pleasing +and plausible manner, singular ingenuity in dealing with a difficult +question or in weakening the effect of an argument really unanswerable, +a clear and musical voice, great ease and felicity of expression, and a +wonderful command, always discreetly used, of all the weapons of irony +and invective. He is, perhaps, the only nobleman in the House of Lords +whom Lord Brougham has ever feared to encounter. All these elements of +successful oratory Lord Lyndhurst has retained to an extraordinary +degree until within a year or two.</p> + +<p>I chanced to hear this remarkable man during an evening in the month of +July, 1859. The House of Lords was thinly attended. There had been a +short and uninteresting debate on "The Atlantic-Telegraph Bill," and an +early adjournment seemed certain. But at this juncture Lord Lyndhurst +rose, and, after adverting to the fact that he had previously given +notice of his design to draw their lordships' attention to the military +and naval defences of the country, proceeded to address the House upon +this question. It should be borne in mind that this was a period of +great and engrossing excitement in England, created by the supposed +danger of invasion by France. Volunteer rifle-companies were springing +up all over the kingdom, newspapers were filled with discussions +concerning the sufficiency of the national defences, and speculations on +the chances for and against such an armed invasion. There was, +meanwhile, a strong peace-party which earnestly deprecated all agitation +of the subject, maintained that the sentiments of the French Emperor and +the French nation were most friendly to England, and contended that to +incur largely increased expenses for additional war-preparations was +unnecessary, impolitic, and ruinously extravagant. At the head of this +party were Cobden and Bright.</p> + +<p>It was to answer these arguments, to convince England that there was a +real and positive peril, and to urge upon Her Majesty's Government the +paramount importance of preparing to meet not only a possible, but a +probable danger, that Lord Lyndhurst addressed the House of Lords. He +began by impressing upon their lordships the fact that the policy which +he advocated was not aggressive, but strictly defensive. He reviewed the +history of previous attempts to invade England. He pointed out the +significant circumstance, that these attempts had hitherto failed mainly +by reason of the casualties to which sailing-vessels were always +exposed. He pressed upon their attention the change which +steam-navigation had recently wrought in naval warfare. He quoted the +pithy remark of Lord Palmerston, that "steam had converted the Channel +into a river, and thrown a bridge across it."</p> + +<p>He demonstrated from recent history the facility with which France could +transport large forces by sea to distant points. Then, in tones +tremulous with emotion, he drew upon the resources of his own marvellous +memory. "I have experienced, my lords, something like a sentiment of +humiliation in going through these details. I recollect the day when +every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an English fleet. I +remember the victory of Camperdown, and that of St. Vincent, won by Sir +J. Jervis. I do not forget the great victory of the Nile, nor, last of +all, that triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost annihilated the +navies of France and Spain, I contrast the position which we occupied at +that period with that which we now hold. I recollect the expulsion of +the French from Egypt, the achievement of victory after victory in +Spain, the British army established in the South of France, and then the +great battle by which that war was terminated. I cannot glance back over +that series of events without feeling some degree of humiliation when I +am called upon to state in this House the measures which I deem it to be +necessary to take in order to provide for the safety of the country."</p> + +<p>Then pausing a moment and overcoming his evident emotion, he continued, +with a force of manner and dignity of bearing which no words can fitly +describe,—"But I may be asked, 'Why do you think such measures +requisite? Are we not in alliance with France? Are we not on terms of +friendship with Russia? What other power can molest us?' To these +questions, my lords, my answer shall be a short and simple one. I will +not consent to live in dependence on the friendship or forbearance of +any country. I rely solely on my own vigor, my own exertion, and my own +intelligence." It will be readily believed that cheer after cheer rang +through the House when this bold and manly announcement was made.</p> + +<p>Then, after alluding to the immense armament by sea and land which +France had hurled with such incredible rapidity upon the Austrian Empire +during the recent war in Italy, he concluded by saying,—"Are we to sit +supine on our own shores, and not to prepare the means necessary in case +of war to resist that power? I do not wish to say that we should do this +for any aggressive purpose. What I insist upon is, that we are bound to +make every effort necessary for our own shelter and protection. Beside +this, the question of expense and of money sinks into insignificance. It +is the price we must pay for our insurance, and it is but a moderate +price for so important an insurance. I know there are persons who will +say, 'Let us run the risk.' Be it so. But, my lords, if the calamity +should come, if the conflagration should take place, what words can +describe the extent of the calamity, or what imagination can paint the +overwhelming ruin that would fall upon us? I shall be told, perhaps, +that these are the timid counsels of old age. My lords, for myself, I +should run no risk. Personally I have nothing to fear. But to point out +possible peril and how to guard effectively against it,—that is surely +to be considered not as timidity, but as the dictate of wisdom and +prudence. I have confined myself to facts that cannot be disputed. I +think I have confined myself to inferences that no man can successfully +contravene. I hope what I have said has been in accordance with your +feelings and opinions. I shall terminate what I have to say in two +emphatic words, '<i>Vœ victis!</i>'—words of solemn and most significant +import."</p> + +<p>So spoke the Nestor of the English nation. Has our country no lesson to +learn from the well-considered words of this aged and accomplished +statesman? Are we not paying a large insurance to secure permanent +national prosperity? And is it not a wise and profitable investment, at +any cost of blood and treasure, if it promises the supremacy of our +Constitution, the integrity of our Union, and the impartial enforcement +of our laws?</p> + +<p>When it is remembered that Lord Lyndhurst was at this time in his +eighty-eighth year, this speech of nearly an hour in length, giving no +evidence from first to last of physical debility or mental decay, +delivered in a firm, clear, and unfaltering voice, admirable for its +logical arrangement, most forcible and telling in its treatment of the +subject, and irresistible in its conclusions, must be considered as +hardly finding a parallel in ancient or modern times. We might almost +call it his valedictory; for his lordship's subsequent speeches have +been infrequent, and, with, we believe, a single exception, short, and +he is now rarely, if ever, seen in the House of Lords.</p> + +<p>I shall not dwell upon the speeches that followed this earnest and +eloquent appeal to the wisdom and patriotism of the listening peers. +They were mainly confined to grateful recognition of the service which +Lord Lyndhurst had rendered to the nation by his frank and fearless +avowal of those principles which alone could preserve the honor and +independence of England. The opposition urged the most vigorous +preparations for resisting invasion, while Her Majesty's ministers +disclaimed any intention of weakening or neglecting the national +defences. As the speeches, however exhibited little worthy of mention +beyond the presentation of these points, I have supposed that a more +general description of some of the leading members of the Upper House +would be more interesting to my readers than a detailed account of what +was said upon this particular occasion.</p> + +<p>I have already alluded to the personal appearance and bearing of Lord +Brougham. By reason of his great age, his long Parliamentary experience, +(he has been in the House of Commons and House of Lords for nearly fifty +years,) his habit of frequent speaking, and the commanding ability of +many of his public efforts, his name as an orator is perhaps more widely +known, and his peculiar style of declamation more correctly appreciated, +than those of any other man now living. It would therefore seem +unnecessary to give any sketch of his oratory, or of his manner in +debate. Very few educated men in this country are unfamiliar with his +eloquent defence of Queen Caroline, or his most bitter attack upon Mr. +Canning, or his brilliant argument for Mr. Williams when prosecuted by +the Durham clergy. Lord Brougham retains to this day the same fearless +contempt of all opposition, the same extravagant and often inconsistent +animosity to every phase of conservative policy, and the same fiery zeal +in advocating every measure which he has espoused, that have ever +characterized his erratic career. The witty author of "The Bachelor of +the Albany" has tersely, and not without a certain spice of truth, +described him as "a man of brilliant incapacity, vast and various +misinformation, and immense moral requirements."</p> + +<p>The Duke of Argyle deserves more than a passing mention. Although +comparatively a young man, he has already had a most creditable career, +and given new lustre to an old and honored name. In politics he is a +decided and consistent Liberal, and he merits the favorable +consideration of all loyal Americans from the fact that he has not +failed on every proper occasion to advocate our cause with such +arguments as show clearly that he fully understands our position and +appreciates the importance of the principles for which we are +contending. It is a curious coincidence, that his style of address bears +a close resemblance to what may be called the American manner. Rapid, +but distinct, in utterance, facile and fluent in speech, natural and +graceful in gesticulation, he might almost be transplanted to the halls +of Congress at Washington without betraying his foreign birth and +education.</p> + +<p>Lord Derby is undoubtedly the most skillful Parliamentary tactician and +the most accomplished speaker in the House of Lords. In 1834, (when he +was a member of the House of Commons,) Macaulay said of him, that "his +knowledge of the science of parliamentary defence resembled an +instinct." He is the acknowledged leader of the Tories or Conservatives +in England, and dictates the policy of his party with absolute +despotism. Belonging to one of the oldest peerages in the kingdom, +having already filled some of the most important offices in Her +Majesty's Government, occupying the highly honorable position of +Chancellor of the University of Oxford, (as successor of the first Duke +of Wellington,) an exact and finished scholar, enjoying an immense +income, and the proprietor of vast landed estates, he may be justly +considered one of the best types of England's aristocracy. He has that +unmistakable air of authority without the least alloy of arrogance, that +"pride in his port," which quietly asserts the dignity of long descent. +As a speaker, his manner is impressive and forcible, with a rare command +of choice language, an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of all +subjects connected with the administration of public affairs, and that +entire self-control which comes from life-long contact on terms of +equality with the best society in Europe and a thorough confidence in +his own mental resources. Lord Derby is preëminently a Parliamentary +orator, and furnishes one of the unusual instances where a reputation +for eloquence earned in the House of Commons has been fully sustained by +a successful trial in the House of Lords.</p> + +<p>Another debater of marked ability in this body is Dr. Samuel +Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. He is the third son of William +Wilberforce, the celebrated philanthropist, but by no means inherits the +simplicity of character and singular absence of all personal ambition +which made his father so widely beloved and respected. He is known as +the leading exponent of High-Church views, and has been heard in the +House of Lords on every question directly or indirectly affecting the +interests of the Establishment. It was long ago said of him, that, had +he been in political life, he would surely and easily have risen to the +position of Premier. He has for years been charged with a marked +proclivity to the doctrines of the Puseyites; and his adroitness in +baffling all attempted investigation into the manner in which he has +conducted the discipline of his diocese has perhaps contributed more +than any other cause to fasten upon him the significant <i>sobriquet</i> to +which I have already alluded.</p> + +<p>Any sketch of the prominent members of the House of Lords would be +imperfect which should omit to give some account of Lord Westbury, the +present Lord-High-Chancellor. Having been Solicitor-General in two +successive Administrations, he was filling for the second time the +position of Attorney-General, when, upon the death of Lord Campbell, he +was raised to the wool-sack. As a Chancery practitioner he was for years +at the head of his profession, and is supposed to have received the +largest income ever enjoyed by an English barrister. During the four +years next preceding his elevation to the peerage his average annual +earnings at the bar were twenty thousand pounds. In the summer of 1860 +it was my good fortune to hear the argument of Lord Westbury (then Sir +Richard Bethell) in a case of great interest and importance, before +Vice-Chancellor Wood. The point at issue involved the construction of a +marriage-settlement between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Prince +Borghese of Rome, drawn up on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince +with Lady Talbot, second daughter of the Earl. The interpretation of the +terms of the contract was by express stipulation to be in accordance +with the Roman common law. A commission sent to Rome to ascertain the +meaning of certain provisions contained in the contract resulted in +several folio volumes, embodying "the conflicting opinions of the most +eminent Roman lawyers," supported by references to the Canonists, the +decisions of the "Sacred Rota," the great text-writers upon +jurisprudence, the Institutes and Pandects, and ascending still higher +to the laws of the Roman Republic and the Augustan era.</p> + +<p>The leading counsel in the kingdom were retained in the case, and +unusual public interest was enlisted. The amount at stake was twenty +thousand pounds, and it was estimated that nearly, if not quite, that +amount had already been consumed in costs. Legal proceedings are not an +inexpensive luxury anywhere; but "the fat contention and the flowing +fee" have a significance to English ears which we can hardly appreciate +in this country.</p> + +<p>It will be at once apparent even to the unprofessional reader that most +difficult and complicated questions were presented by this +case,—questions turning on the exact interpretation of contracts, +involving delicate verbal distinctions, and demanding a thorough +comprehension of an immense and unwieldy mass of Roman law embraced in +the dissenting <i>dicta</i> of Roman lawyers. It required the exercise of the +very highest legal ability, trained and habituated by long and patient +discipline to grapple with great issues.</p> + +<p>The argument of Sir Richard Bethell abundantly demonstrated his capacity +to satisfy the demands of the occasion, and displayed most triumphantly +his perfect mastery of the whole subject. As the time drew near when he +was expected to close for the defence, barristers and students-at-law +began to flock into the small and inconveniently arranged courtroom. A +stranger and a foreigner could not but see at once that the +Attorney-General was the cynosure of all eyes. And, indeed, no one in +the room more thoroughly appreciated the fact that he was the central +and controlling attraction than Sir Richard himself. I must be pardoned +for using an English slang-phrase, but I can convey the impression which +he inevitably makes upon a spectator in no other way than by saying that +he is "a most magnificent swell." And I do this with the more confidence +as I have heard him characterized in precisely these words by members of +the English bar. Every motion, every attitude, indicates an intense +self-consciousness. The Earl of Chatham had not a greater passion for +theatrical effect, nor has a more consummate and finished actor ever +graced the stage. If the performance had been less perfect, it would +have been ludicrous in the extreme; for it did not overlook the minutest +details. He could not examine his brief, or make a suggestion to one of +his associates, or note an important point in the argument of opposing +counsel, or listen to an intimation of opinion from the Bench, without +an obvious eye to dramatic propriety. During the trial, an attorney's +clerk handed him a letter, and the air with which it was opened, read, +and answered was of itself a study. Yet it was all in the highest style +of the art. No possible fault could be found with the execution. Not a +single spectator ventured to smile. The supremacy of undoubted genius +was never more apparent, and never exacted nor received more willing +worship. Through the kindness of a friendly barrister I was introduced +to one of the juniors of the Attorney-General,—a stripling of about +fifty years of age. While we were conversing about the case, Sir Richard +turned and made some comment upon the conduct of the trial; but my +friend would no more have thought of introducing me to the leader of the +bar than he would have ventured to stop the carriage of the Queen in +Hyde Park and present me then and there to Her Majesty.</p> + +<p>I remember as well as if it were but yesterday how attorneys and junior +counsel listened with the utmost deference to every suggestion which he +condescended to address to them, how narrowly the law-students watched +him, as if some legal principle were to be read in his cold, hard +countenance, and, as he at last rose slowly and solemnly to make his +long-expected argument, how court, bar, and by-standers composed +themselves to hear. He spoke with great deliberation and distinctness, +with singular precision and propriety of language, without any parade of +rhetoric or attempt at eloquence. After a very short and appropriate +exordium, he proceeded directly to the merits of the case. His words +were well-weighed, and his manner was earnest and impressive. It was, in +short, the perfection of reason confidently addressed to a competent +tribunal.</p> + +<p>And yet his manner was by no means that of a man seeking to persuade a +superior, but rather that of one comparing opinions with an equal, if +not an inferior mind, elevated by some accident to a position of +factitious importance. One could not but feel that here was a power +behind the throne greater than the throne itself.</p> + +<p>It cannot be doubted that this consciousness of mental and professional +preëminence, sustained by the unanimous verdict of public opinion, has +given to Lord Westbury a defiant, if not an insolent bearing. The story +is current at the English bar, that, some years ago, when offered a seat +on the Bench, with a salary of five thousand pounds, he promptly +declined, saying, "I would rather earn ten thousand pounds a year by +talking sense than five thousand pounds a year by hearing other men talk +nonsense." Anecdotes are frequent in illustration of his supercilious +treatment of attorneys and clients while he was a barrister. And since +his elevation to the wool-sack there has been no abatement or +modification of his offensive manner. His demeanor toward counsel +appearing before him has been the subject of constant and indignant +complaint. It will be remembered by some of my readers, that, not long +since, during a session of the House of Lords, he gave the lie direct to +one of the peers,—an occurrence almost without precedent in that +decorous body. Far different from this was the tone in which Lord +Thurlow, while Lord-Chancellor, asserted his independence and vindicated +his title to respect in his memorable rebuke addressed to the Duke of +Grafton. If the testimony of English travellers in this country is to be +believed, the legislative assemblies of our own land have hitherto +enjoyed the unenviable monopoly of this species of retort.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords contains other peers of marked ability and protracted +Parliamentary experience, among whom are Earl Granville, the Earl of +Ellenborough, the Duke of Somerset, and the Earl of Shaftesbury; but we +cannot dwell in detail upon their individual characteristics as +speakers, or upon the share they have severally taken in the public +councils, without extending this article beyond its legitimate limits.</p> + +<p>As genius is not necessarily or usually transmitted from generation to +generation, while a seat in the House of Lords is an inheritable +privilege, it will be readily believed that there is a considerable +number of peers with no natural or acquired fitness for legislative +duties,—men whose dullness in debate, and whose utter incapacity to +comprehend any question of public interest or importance, cannot be +adequately described. They speak occasionally, from a certain +ill-defined sense of what may be due to their position, yet are +obviously aware that what they say is entitled to no weight, and are +greatly relieved when the unwelcome and disagreeable duty has been +discharged. They are the men who hesitate and stammer, whose hats and +canes are always in their way, and who have no very clear notions about +what should be done with their hands. A visitor who chances to spend an +evening in the House of Lords for the first and last time, while +noblemen of this stamp are quieting their tender consciences by a +statement of their views upon the subject under discussion, will be sure +to retire with a very unfavorable and wholly incorrect estimate of the +speaking talent of English peers.</p> + +<p>It would hardly seem necessary to devote time or space to those members +of the House of Lords who are rarely, if ever, present at the debates. +As has been already stated, the whole number of peers is about four +hundred and sixty, of whom less than twenty-five are minors, while the +average attendance is less than fifty. The right to vote by proxy is a +peculiar and exclusive privilege of the Upper House, and vicarious +voting to a great extent is common on all important issues. Macaulay, +many years ago, pronounced the House of Lords "a small and torpid +audience"; and certainly, since the expression of this opinion, there +has been no increase of average attendance. A considerable proportion of +the absentees will be found among the "fast noblemen" of the +kingdom,—the men who prostitute their exalted social position to the +basest purposes, squandering their substance and wasting their time in +degrading dissipation, the easy prey of accomplished sharpers, and a +burning disgrace to their order. Sometimes, indeed, they pause on the +brink of utter ruin, only to become in their turn apostles of iniquity, +and to lure others to a like destruction. The unblushing and successful +audacity of these titled <i>roués</i> is beginning to attract the attention +and awaken the fears of the better part of the English people. Their +pernicious example is bearing most abundant and bitter fruit in the +depraved morals of what are called the "lower classes" of society, and +their misdeeds are repeated in less fashionable quarters, with less +brilliant surroundings. Against this swelling tide of corrupting +influence the press of England is now raising its warning voice, and the +statements which are publicly and unreservedly made, and the predictions +which are confidently given, are very far from being welcome to English +eyes or grateful to English ears.</p> + +<p>Another class of the House of Lords, and it is a large one, is most +happily characterized by Sydney Smith in his review of "Granby." "Lord +Chesterton we have often met with, and suffered a good deal from his +lordship: a heavy, pompous, meddling peer, occupying a great share of +the conversation, saying things in ten words which required only two, +and evidently convinced that he is making a great impression; a large +man, with a large head, and a very landed manner; knowing enough to +torment his fellow-creatures, not to instruct them; the ridicule of +young ladies, and the natural butt and target of wit. It is easy to talk +of carnivorous animals and beasts of prey; but does such a man, who lays +waste a whole civilized party of beings by prosing, reflect upon the joy +he spoils and the misery he creates in the course of his life, and that +any one who listens to him through politeness would prefer toothache or +ear-ache to his conversation? Does he consider the great uneasiness +which ensues, when the company has discovered a man to be an extremely +absurd person, at the same time that it is absolutely impossible to +convey by words or manner the most distant suspicion of the discovery?"</p> + +<p>Now, most unfortunately, the noble House of Chesterton is still extant, +and its numerous representatives cherish with jealous care every +inherited absurdity of the family. Their favorite field of operations is +the House of Lords, partly because the strict proprieties of the place +protect them from rude and inconvenient interruption, and partly because +they can be sure of a "fit audience found, though few,"—an audience +of equals, whom it is no condescension to address. In the House of +Commons they would be coughed down or groaned down before they had +wasted ten minutes of the public time, and that they escape as swift +suppression in the House of Lords is much more creditable to the +courtesy of that body than to its just appreciation of the shortness of +human life. There is rarely a debate of importance in the House of Lords +during which some one of the Chesterton family does not contribute his +morsel of pompous imbecility, or unfold his budget of obsolete and +exploded prejudices, or add his mite of curious misinformation. That +such painful exhibitions of callow and contracted bigotry should so +frequently be made in a body claiming for itself the finest culture and +the highest civilization in Christendom is certainly a most mortifying +circumstance, and serves to show that narrow views and unstatesmanlike +opinions are not confined to democratic deliberative assemblies, and +that the choicest advantages of education, literary and political, are +not at all inconsistent with ignorance and arrogance.</p> + +<p>But we will allow his lordship to tell his own story. Here is his set +speech, only slightly modified from evening to evening, as may be +demanded by the difference in the questions under debate.</p> + +<p>"My lords, the noble lord who has just taken his seat, although, I am +bound to say, presenting his view of the case with that candor which my +noble friend (if the noble lord will allow me to call him so) always +displays, yet, my lords, I cannot but add, omitted one important feature +of the subject. Now, my lords, I am exceedingly reluctant to take up the +time of your lordships with my views upon the subject-matter of this +debate; yet, my lords, as the noble and learned lord who spoke last but +one, as well as the noble earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government, +and the noble marquis who addressed your lordships early in the evening, +have all fallen into the same mistake, (if these noble lords will permit +me to presume that they could be mistaken,) I must beg leave to call +your lordships' attention to the significant fact, that each and all of +these noble lords have failed to point out to your lordships, that, +important and even conclusive as the arguments and statistics of their +lordships may at first sight appear, yet they have not directed your +lordships to the very suspicious circumstance that our noble ancestors +have never discovered the necessity of resorting to this singular +expedient.</p> + +<p>"For myself, my lords, I confess that I am filled with the most gloomy +forebodings for the future of this country, when I hear a question of +this transcendent importance gravely discussed by noble lords without +the slightest allusion to this vital consideration. I beg to ask noble +lords, Are we wiser than our forefathers? Are any avenues of information +open to us which were closed to them? Were they less patriotic, less +intelligent, less statesmanlike, than the present generation? Why, then, +I most earnestly put it to your lordships, should we disregard, or, +certainly, lose sight of their wisdom and their experience? I implore +noble lords to pause before it is too late. I solemnly call upon them to +consider that the proposed measure is, after all, only democracy under a +thin disguise. Has it never occurred to noble lords that this project +did not originate in this House? that its warmest friends and most +ardent and persevering advocates are found among those who come from the +people, and who, from the very nature of the case, are incompetent to +decide upon what will be for the, best interests of the kingdom? My +lords, I feel deeply upon this subject, and I must be pardoned for +expressing myself in strong terms. I say again, that I see here the +clearest evidence of democratic tendencies, a contempt for existing and +ancient institutions, and an alarming want of respect for time-honored +precedents, which, I am bound to say, demand our prompt and indignant +condemnation," etc., etc., etc.<a name="fnanchor_2_2" id="fnanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#footnote_2_2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_2_2" id="footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#fnanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> +If any one of my readers is inclined to suspect that I have +drawn upon my imagination for this specimen speech, I will only say, +that, if he were my bitterest enemy, I could wish him no more severe +punishment than to undergo as I have done, (<i>horresco referens</i>,) an +hour of the Marquis of Normanby, the Earl of Malmesbury, and a few other +kindred spirits. If he have no opportunity of subjecting the truth of my +statement and the accuracy of my report to this most grievous test, I +beg to assure him that I have given no fancy sketch, but that I have +heard speeches from these noblemen in precisely this tone and to exactly +this effect.</p></div> + +<p>This is the regular speech, protracted in the same strain for perhaps +half an hour. Of the manner of the noble orator I will not venture a +description. Any attempt to convey an idea of the air of omniscience +with which these dreary platitudes are delivered would surely result in +failure. It is enough to say that the impression which the noble lord +leaves upon an unprejudiced and un-English mind is in all respects +painful. Indeed, one sees at a glance how absolutely hopeless would be +any finite effort to convince him of the absurdity of his positions or +the weakness of his understanding. There he stands, a solemn, shallow, +conceited, narrow-minded, imperturbable, impracticable, incorrigible +blockhead, on whom everything in the shape of argument is utterly +wasted, and from whom all the arrows of wit and sarcasm fall harmless to +the ground. In fact, he is perfectly proof against any intellectual +weapons forged by human skill or wielded by mortal arm, and he awaits +and receives every attack with a stolid and insulting indifference which +must be maddening to an opponent.</p> + +<p>I hasten to confess my entire incapacity to describe the uniform +personal bearing of a Chesterton in or out of the House of Lords. It is +strictly <i>sui generis</i>. It has neither the quiet, unassuming dignity of +the Derbys, the Shaftesburys, or the Warwicks, nor the vulgar vanity of +the untravelled Cockney. It simply defies accurate delineation. Dickens +has attempted to paint the portrait of such a character in "Bleak +House"; but Sir Leicester Dedlock, even in the hands of this great +artist, is not a success,—merely because, in the case of the Baronet, +selfishness and self-importance are only a superficial crust, while with +your true Chesterton these attributes penetrate to the core and are as +much a part of the man as any limbs or any feature of his face. A +genuine Chesterton is as unlike his stupid caricature in our own +theaters in the person of "Lord Dundreary," as the John Bull of the +French stage, leading a woman by a halter around her neck, and +exclaiming, "G—— d——! I will sell my wife at Smithfield," is unlike +the Englishman of real life. Lord Chesterton does not wear a small glass +in his right eye, nor commence every other sentence with "Aw! weally +now." He does not stare you out of countenance in a <i>café</i>, nor wonder +"what the Devil that fellaw means by his insolence." So much by way of +negative description. To appreciate him positively, one must see him and +hear him. No matter when or where you encounter him, you will find him +ever the same; and you will at last conclude that his manners are not +unnatural to a very weak man inheriting the traditions of an ancient and +titled family, and educated from childhood to believe that he belongs to +a superior order of beings.</p> + +<p>Of course the strong point of a Chesterton is what he calls his +"conservatism." He values everything in proportion to its antiquity, and +prefers a time-honored abuse to a modern blessing. With a former Duke of +Somerset, he would pity Adam, "because he had no ancestors." His +sympathies, so far as he has any sentiments which deserve to be +dignified by that name, are ever on the side of tyranny. He condescends +to give his valuable sanction to the liberal institutions of England, +not because they are liberal, but because they are English. Next after +the Established Church, the reigning sovereign and the royal family, his +own order and his precious self, his warmest admiration is bestowed on +some good old-fashioned, thorough-going, grinding despotism. He defends +the Emperor of Austria, and considers the King of Naples a much-abused +monarch.</p> + +<p>If his lordship has ever been in diplomatic life,—an event highly +probable,—he becomes the most intolerable nuisance that ever belied the +noblest sentiments of civilized society or blocked the wheels of public +debate. Flattered by the interested attention of despotic courts, his +poor weak head has been completely turned. He has seen everything <i>en +couleur de rose</i>. He assures their lordships that he has never known a +single well-authenticated case of oppression of the lower classes, while +it is within his personal knowledge that many of the best families (in +Italy, for instance) have been compelled to leave all their property +behind them, and fly for their lives before an insolent and unreasoning +mob. How he deluges the House with distorted facts and garbled +statistics! How he warns noble lords against the wiles of Mazzini, the +unscrupulous ambition of Victor Emmanuel, and the headlong haste of +Garibaldi!</p> + +<p>Of course, his lordship's bitterest hatred and intensest aversion are +reserved for democratic institutions. Against these he wages a constant +crusade. Armed <i>cap-à-pie</i> in his common-sense-proof coat of mail, he +charges feebly upon them with his blunt lance, works away furiously with +his wooden sword, and then ambles off with a triumphant air very +ludicrous to behold. Democracy is the <i>bête noir</i> of all the +Chestertons. They attack it not only because they consider it a recent +innovation, but also because it threatens the permanence of their order. +About the practical working of a republic they have no better +information than they have about the institutions of Iceland or the +politics of Patagonia. It is quite enough for them to know that the +theory of democracy is based on the equality of man, and that where +democracy prevails a privileged class is unknown.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to add, that the present condition of the United +Stales is a perfect godsend to the whole family of Chestertons. Have +they not long predicted our disgrace and downfall? Have they not, +indeed, ever since our unjustifiable Declaration of Independence, +anticipated precisely what has happened? Have they not always and +everywhere contended that a republic had no elements of national +cohesion? In a word, have they not feared our growing power and +population as only such base and ignoble spirits can fear the sure and +steady progress of a rival nation? Unhappily, their influence in the +councils of the kingdom is by no means inconsiderable. The prestige of +an ancient family, the obsequious deference paid in England to exalted +social position, and the power of patronage, all combine to confer on +the Chestertons a commanding and controlling authority absurdly out of +proportion to their intrinsic ability.</p> + +<p>There has been a prevalent notion in this country that England was +slowly, but certainly, tending towards a more democratic form of +government, and a more equal and equitable distribution of power among +the different orders of society. This is very far from being the case. +It has been well said, that "it is always considered a piece of +impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a +year has any opinions at all upon important subjects." But if this +income is quadrupled, and the high honor of a seat in the House of Lords +is superadded, it is not difficult to understand that the titled +recipient of such a revenue will find that his opinions command the +greatest consideration. The organization of the present Cabinet of +England is a fresh and conclusive illustration of this principle. It is +not too much to say, that at this moment the home and foreign +administration of the government is substantially in the hands of the +House of Lords. Indeed, the aristocratic element of English society is +as powerful to-day as it has been at any time during the past century. +To fortify this statement by competent authority, we make an extract +from a leader in the London "Times," on the occasion of the elevation of +Lord John Russell to the peerage. "But however welcome to the House of +Lords may be the accession of Lord John Russell, the House of Commons, +we apprehend, will contemplate it with very little satisfaction. While +the House of Lords does but one-twentieth part of the business of the +House of Commons, it boasts a lion's share of the present +administration. Three out of our five Secretaries of State, the +Lord-Chancellor, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Lord-President of +the Council, the Postmaster-General, the Lord Privy Seal, all hold seats +in the Upper House, while the Home-Secretary, and the Secretary for +India, the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +the President of the Board of Trade, the President of the Poor-Law +Board, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Secretary for +Ireland hold seats in the House of Commons. Lord John Russell goes to +give more to that which had already too much. At the present moment, the +two ministers whose united departments distribute between twenty and +thirty millions of the national revenue sit in the House which does not +represent the people. In voting the army and navy estimates, the House +of Commons received this year from the Under-Secretaries that +information which they ought to have from the best and most authentic, +sources. To these is now added the all-important department of Foreign +Affairs; so that, if things remain as they are, the representatives of +the people must be content to feed on second-hand information.... Most +of us can remember a time when it was a favorite topic with popular +agitators to expatiate on the number of lords which a government +contained, as if every peer of Parliament wielded an influence +necessarily hostile to the liberties of the country. We look down in the +present age with contempt on such vulgar prejudices; but we seem to be +running into the contrary extreme, when we allow almost all the +important offices of our government to be monopolized by a chamber where +there is small scope for rhetorical ability, and the short sittings and +unbusiness-like habits of which make it very unsuited for the +enforcement of ministerial responsibility. The statesmen who have charge +of large departments of expenditure, like the army and navy, and of the +highest interests of the nation, ought to be in the House of Commons, is +necessarily superior to a member of the House of the House of Lords, but +it is to the House of Commons that these high functionaries are +principally accountable, and because, if they forfeit the confidence of +the House of Commons, the House of Lords can avail them but little. The +matter is of much importance and much difficulty. We can only hope that +the opportunity of redressing this manifest imperfection in the +structure of the present government will not be lost, and that the House +of Commons may recover those political privileges which it has hitherto +been its pride to enjoy."</p> + +<p>This distribution of power in the English Cabinet furnishes a sufficient +solution of the present attitude of the English Government towards this +country. The ruling classes of England can have no sincere sympathy with +the North, because its institutions and instincts are democratic. They +give countenance to the South, because at heart and in practice it is +essentially an aristocracy. To remove the dangerous example of a +successful and powerful republic, where every man has equal rights, +civil and religious, and where a privileged order in Church and State is +impossible, has become in the minds of England's governing classes an +imperious necessity. Compared with the importance of securing this +result, all other considerations weigh as nothing. Brothers by blood, +language, and religion, as they have been accustomed to call us while we +were united and formidable, we are now, since civil war has weakened us +and great national questions have distracted our councils, treated as +aliens, if not as enemies. On the other hand, the South, whose leaders +have ever been first to take hostile ground against England, and whose +"peculiar institution" has drawn upon us the eloquent and unsparing +denunciations of English philanthropists, is just now in high favor with +the "mother-country." Not only has the ill-disguised dislike of the +Tories ripened into open animosity, not only are we the target for the +shallow scorn of the Chestertons, (even a donkey may dare to kick a +dying lion,) but we have lost the once strongly pronounced friendship of +such ardent anti-slavery men as Lord Brougham and the Earl of +Shaftesbury. Why is this? Does not the explanation lie in a nutshell? We +were becoming too strong. We were disturbing the balance of power. We +were demonstrating too plainly the inherent activity and irresistible +energy of a purely democratic form of government. Therefore <i>Carthago +delenda est</i>. "But yet the pity of it, Iago!" Mark how a Christian +nation deals with a Christian ally. Our destruction is to be +accomplished, not by open warfare, but by the delusive and dastardly +pretence of neutrality. There is to be no diplomatic recognition of an +independent Southern Confederacy, but a formidable navy is to be +furnished to our enemies, and their armies are to be abundantly supplied +with the munitions of war. But how? By the English Government? Oh, no! +This would be in violation of solemn treaties. Earl Russell says, "We +have long maintained relations of peace and amity" with the United +States. England cannot officially recognize or aid the South without +placing herself in a hostile attitude towards this country. Yet +meanwhile English capitalists can publicly subscribe to the loan which +our enemies solicit, and from English ship-yards a fleet of iron-clad +war-vessels can be sent to lay waste our commerce and break our blockade +of Southern ports. What the end will be no one may venture to foretell; +but it needs no prophet to predict that many years will not obliterate +from the minds of the American people the present policy of the English +Cabinet, controlled as it is by the genius of English aristocracy.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="theodore_winthrops_writings" id="theodore_winthrops_writings"></a>THEODORE WINTHROP'S WRITINGS.</h2> + + +<p>"The first time I saw Theodore Winthrop," said one to me a few days ago, +"he came into my office with a common friend. They were talking as they +entered, and Winthrop said, 'Yes, the fellows who came over in the +Mayflower can't afford to do that!'</p> + +<p>"'There,' thought I to myself, 'there's another of the Mayflower men! I +wish to my soul that ship had sunk on her voyage out!' But when I came +to know him, I quickly learned that with him origin was not a matter of +vain pride, but a fact inciting him to all nobleness of thought and +life, and spurring him on to emulate the qualities of his ancestor."</p> + +<p>That is to say, he was not a prig, or a snob, but a gentleman. And if he +remembered that he "came over in the Mayflower," it was because he felt +that that circumstance bound him to higher enterprises, to better work, +than other men's. And he believed in his heart, as he wrote in the +opening chapter of "John Brent," that "deeds of the heroic and chivalric +times do not utterly disdain our day. There are men," he continues, "as +ready to gallop for love and strike for love now as in the age of +Amadis." Ay, and for a nobler love than the love of woman—for love of +country, and of liberty—he was ready to strike, and to die.</p> + +<p>Ready to do, when the time came; but also—what required a greater +soul—ready to wait in cheerful content till the fitting time should +come. Think of these volumes lying in his desk at home, and he, their +author, going about his daily tasks and pleasures, as hearty and as +unrepining as though no whisper of ambition had ever come to his +soul,—as though he had no slightest desire for the pleasant fame which +a successful book gives to a young man. Think of it, O race of +scribblers, to whom a month in the printer's hands seems a monstrous +delay, and who bore publishers with half-finished manuscripts, as +impatient hens begin, untimely, to cackle before the egg is laid.</p> + +<p>That a young man, not thirty-three when he died, should have written +these volumes, so full of life, so full of strange adventure, of wide +reading, telling of such large and thorough knowledge of books and men +and Nature, is a remarkable fact in itself. That he should have let the +manuscripts lie in his desk has probably surprised the world more. But, +much as he wrote, Winthrop, perhaps, always felt that his true life was +not that of the author, but of the actor. He has often told me that it +was a pleasure to write,—probably such a pleasure as it is to an old +tar to spin his yarns. His mind was active, stored with the accumulated +facts of a varied experience. How keen an observer of Nature he was, +those who have read "John Brent" or the "Canoe and Saddle" need not be +told; how appreciative an observer of every-day life, was shown in that +brilliant story which appeared in these pages some eighteen months ago, +under the title of "Love and Skates." Our American life lost by his +death one who, had he lived, would have represented it, reported it to +the world, soul and body together; for he comprehended its spirit, as +well as saw its outer husk; he was in sympathy with all its +manifestations.</p> + +<p>That quick, intelligent eye saw everything; that kindly, sympathetic +spirit comprehended always the soul of things; and no life, however +common, rugged, or coarse, was to him empty. If he added always +something of his own nobility of heart, if he did not pry out with +prurient eyes the meannesses of life around him, the picture he drew was +none the less true,—was, indeed, it seems to me, all the more true. +Therefore I say that his early death was a loss to American literature, +or, to speak more accurately, to that too small part of our literature +which concerns itself with American life. To him the hard-featured +Yankee had something besides hard features and ungainly manners; he saw +the better part as well as the grosser of the creature, and knew that</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Poor lone Hannah,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Sitting by the window, binding shoes,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>had somewhat besides coarse hands and red eyes. He was not tainted with +the vicious habit of caricature, which is the excuse with which +superficial and heartless writers impose their false art upon the +public. Nor did he need that his heroes should wear kid gloves,—though +he was himself the neatest-gloved man I knew. "Armstrong of Oregon" was +a rough figure enough; but how well he knew how to bring out the kindly +traits in that rude lumberman's character! how true to Nature is that +sketch of a gentleman in homespun! And even Jake Shamberlain, the Mormon +mail-carrier, a rollicking, untidy rover, fond of whiskey, and doubtless +not too scrupulous in a "trade," has yet, in Winthrop's story, qualities +which draw us to him.</p> + +<p>To sit down to "John Brent" after rending one of the popular novels of +these days, by one of the class of writers who imagine photography the +noblest of arts, is like getting out of a fashionable "party" into the +crisp air of a clear, starlight, December night. And yet Winthrop was a +"society" man; one might almost say he knew that life better than the +other, the freer, the nobler, which he loved to describe, as he loved to +live it.</p> + +<p>A neat, active figure of a man, carefully dressed, as one who pays all +proper honor to the body in which he walks about; a gentleman, not only +in the broader and more generous sense, but also according to the +narrower, conventional meaning of the term; plainly a scholarly man, +fond of books, and knowing the best books; with that modest, diffident +air which bookish men have; with a curious shyness, indeed, as of one +who was not accustomed and did not like to come into too close contact +with the every-day world: such Theodore Winthrop appeared to me. I +recollect the surprise with which I heard—not from him—that he had +ridden across the Plains, had camped with Lieutenant Strain, had +"roughed it" in the roughest parts of our continent. But if you looked a +little closely into the face, you saw in the fine lines of the mouth the +determination of a man who can bear to carry his body into any peril or +difficulty; and in the eye—he had the eye of a born sailor, an eye +accustomed to measure the distance for a dangerous leap, quick to +comprehend all parts of a novel situation—you saw there presence of +mind, unfaltering readiness, and a spirit equal to anything the day +might bring forth.</p> + +<p>In the Memoir prefixed to "Cecil Dreeme" Curtis has drawn a portrait, +tender and true, of his friend and neighbor. The few words which have +written themselves here tell of him only as he appeared to one who knew +him less intimately, who saw him not often.</p> + +<p>I come now to speak of the writings which Winthrop left. These have the +singular merit, that they are all American. From first to last, they are +plainly the work of a man who had no need to go to Europe for characters +or scenery or plot,—who valued and understood the peculiar life and +the peculiar Nature of this continent, and, like a true artist and poet, +chose to represent that life and Nature of which he was a part. His +stories smack of the soil; his characters—especially in "John Brent," +where his own ride across the continent is dramatized—are as fresh and +as true as only a true artist could make them. Take, for instance, the +"Pike," the border-ruffian transplanted to a California "ranch,"—not a +ruffian, as he says, but a barbarian.</p> + +<p>"America is manufacturing several new types of men. The Pike is one of +the newest. He is a bastard pioneer. With one hand he clutches the +pioneer vices; with the other he beckons forward the vices of +civilization. It is hard to understand how a man can have so little +virtue in so long a body, unless the shakes are foes to virtue in the +soul, as they are to beauty in the face.</p> + +<p>"He is a terrible shock, this unlucky Pike, to the hope that the new +race on the new continent is to be a handsome race. I lose that faith, +which the people about me now have nourished, when I recall the Pike. He +is hung together, not put together. He inserts his lank fathom of a man +into a suit of molasses-colored homespun. Frowzy and husky is the hair +Nature crowns him with; frowzy and stubby the beard. He shambles in his +walk. He drawls in his talk. He drinks whiskey by the tank. His oaths +are to his words as Falstaff's sack to his bread. I have seen Maltese +beggars, Arab camel-drivers, Dominican friars, New-York aldermen, Digger +Indians; the foulest, frowziest creatures I have ever seen are +thorough-bred Pikes."</p> + +<p>This is not complimentary, but any one who has seen the creature knows +that it is a portrait done by a first-rate artist.</p> + +<p>Take, again, that other vulgarer ruffian, "Jim Robinson," "a little man, +stockish, oily, and red in the face, a jaunty fellow, too, with a +certain shabby air of coxcombry even in his travel-stained attire,"—and +how accurately does he describe the metamorphosis of this nauseous grub +into a still more disgusting butterfly!</p> + +<p>"I can imagine him when he arrives at St. Louis, blossomed into a purple +coat with velvet lappels, a brocaded waistcoat, diamond shirt-studs, or +a flamboyant scarf pinned with a pinchbeck dog, and red-legged, +patent-leather boots, picking his teeth on the steps of the Planters' +House."</p> + +<p>Or, once more, that more saintly villain, the Mormon Elder Sizzum.</p> + +<p>"Presently Sizzum appeared. He had taken time to tone down the pioneer +and develop the deacon in his style, and a very sleek personage he had +made of himself. He was clean shaved: clean shaving is a favorite +coxcombry of the deacon class. His long black hair, growing rank from a +muddy skin, was sleekly put behind his ears. A large white blossom of +cravat expanded under his nude, beefy chin, and he wore a black +dress-coat, creased with its recent packing. Except that his pantaloons +were thrust into boots with the maker's name (Abel Gushing, Lynn, Mass.) +stamped in gold on a scarlet morocco shield in front, he was in correct +go-to-meetin' costume,—a Chadband of the Plains."</p> + +<p>When you see one of these men, you will know him again. Winthrop has +sketched these rascals with a few touches, as felicitous as any of +Dickens's, and they will bear his mark forever: <i>T.W. fecit.</i></p> + +<p>As for Jake Shamberlain, with his odd mixture of many religious and +irreligious dialects, what there is of him is as good as Sam Weller or +Mrs. Poyser.</p> + +<p>"'Hillo, Shamberlain!' hailed Brent, riding up to the train.</p> + +<p>"'Howdydo? Howdydo? No swap!' responded Jake, after the Indian fashion. +'Bung my eyes, ef you're not the mate of all mates I'm glad to see! Pax +vobiscrum, my filly! You look as fresh as an Aperel shad. Praisèd be the +Lord,' continued he, relapsing into Mormon slang, 'who has sent thee +again, like a brand from the burning, to fall into paths of pleasantness +with the Saints, as they wander from the Promised Land to the mean +section where the low-lived Gentiles ripen their souls for hell!'"</p> + +<p>Or Jake's droll commentary on the story of Old Bridger, ousted from his +fort, and robbed of his goods, by the Saints, in the name of the Prophet +Brigham.</p> + +<p>"'It's olluz so,' says Jake; 'Paul plants, and Apollyon gets the +increase. Not that Bridger's like Paul, any more 'n we're like Apollyon; +but we're goan to have all the cider off his apple-trees.'"</p> + +<p>Or, again, Jake's compliments to "Armstrong of Oregon," that galloping +Vigilant Committee of one.</p> + +<p>"I'll help you, if I know how, Armstrong. I ha'n't seen no two in my +life, Old Country or New Country, Saints or Gentiles, as I'd do more for +'n you and your brother. I've olluz said, ef the world was chock full of +Armstrongs, Paradise wouldn't pay, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob mout +just as well blow out their candle and go under a bushel-basket,—unless +a half-bushel would kiver 'em."</p> + +<p>But the true hero of the book is the horse Don Fulano. It is easy to see +that Winthrop was a first-rate horseman, from the loving manner in which +he describes and dwells on the perfections of the matchless stallion. +None but one who knew every point of a horse, none but one of the +Centaur breed, could have drawn Don Fulano,—just as none but a born +skater could have written those inimitable skating-scenes in his story +of "Love and Skates."</p> + +<p>"He was an American horse,—so they distinguish in California one +brought from the old States,—A SUPERB YOUNG STALLION, PERFECTLY BLACK, +WITHOUT MARK. It was magnificent to see him, as he circled about me, +fire in his eye, pride in his nostril, tail flying like a banner, power +and grace from tip to tip. No one would ever mount him, or ride him, +unless it was his royal pleasure. He was conscious of his representative +position, and showed his paces handsomely."</p> + +<p>This is the creature who takes the lead in that stirring and matchless +"Gallop of Three" to the Luggernel Spring, to quote from which would be +to spoil it. It must be read entire.</p> + +<p>In the "Canoe and Saddle" is recorded Winthrop's long ride across the +continent. Setting out in a canoe, from Port Townsend, in Vancouver's +Island, he journeyed, without company of other white men, to the Salt +Lake City and thence to "the States,"—a tedious and barbarous +experience, heightened, in this account of it, by the traveller's cheery +spirits, his ardent love of Nature, and capacity to describe the grand +natural scenery, of the effect of which upon himself he says, at the +end,—</p> + +<p>"And in all that period, while I was so near to Nature, the great +lessons of the wilderness deepened into my heart day by day, the hedges +of conventionalism withered away from my horizon, and all the pedantries +of scholastic thought perished out of my mind forever."</p> + +<p>He bore hardships with the courage and imperturbable good-nature of a +born gentleman. It is when men are starving, when the plating of romance +is worn off by the chafe of severe and continued suffering,—it is then +that "blood tells." Winthrop had evidently that keen relish for rough +life which the gently nurtured and highly cultivated man has oftener +than his rude neighbor, partly because, in his case, contrast lends a +zest to the experience. Thus, when he camps with a gang of +"road-makers," in the farthest Western wilderness,—a part of Captain +McClellan's Pacific Railroad Expedition,—how thoroughly he enjoys the +rough hospitality and rude wit of these pioneers!</p> + +<p>"In such a Platonic republic as this a man found his place according to +his powers. The cooks were no base scullions; they were brethren, whom +conscious ability, sustained by universal suffrage, had endowed with the +frying-pan."</p> + +<p>"My hosts were a stalwart gang.... Their talk was as muscular as their +arms. When these laughed, as only men fresh and hearty and in the open +air can laugh, the world became mainly grotesque: it seemed at once a +comic thing to live,—a subject for chuckling, that we were bipeds, with +noses,—a thing to roar at, that we had all met there from the wide +world, to hobnob by a frolicsome fire with tin pots of coffee, and +partake of crisped bacon and toasted dough-boys in ridiculous abundance. +Easy laughter infected the atmosphere. Echoes ceased to be pensive, and +became jocose. A rattling humor pervaded the forest, and Green River +rippled with noise of fantastic jollity. Civilization and its +<i>dilettante</i> diners-out sneer when Clodpole at Dives's table doubles his +soup, knifes his fish, tilts his plate into his lap, puts muscle into +the crushing of his <i>méringue</i>, and tosses off the warm beaker in his +finger-bowl. Camps by Tacoma sneer not at all, but candidly roar, at +parallel accidents. Gawky makes a cushion of his flapjack. Butterfingers +drops his red-hot rasher into his bosom, or lets slip his mug of coffee +into his boot drying at the fire,—a boot henceforth saccharine. A mule, +slipping his halter, steps forward unnoticed, puts his nose into the +circle, and brays resonant. These are the jocular boons of life, and at +these the woodsmen guffaw with lusty good-nature. Coarse and rude the +jokes may be, but not nasty, like the innuendoes of pseudo-refined +cockneys. If the woodsmen are guilty of uncleanly wit, it differs from +the uncleanly wit of cities as the mud of a road differs from the sticky +slime of slums.</p> + +<p>"It is a stout sensation to meet masculine, muscular men at the brave +point of a penetrating Boston hooihut,—men who are mates,—men to whom +technical culture means nought,—men to whom myself am nought, unless I +can saddle, lasso, cook, sing, and chop,—unless I am a man of nerve and +pluck, and a brother in generosity and heartiness. It is restoration to +play at cudgels of jocoseness with a circle of friendly roughs, not one +of whom ever heard the word bore,—with pioneers, who must think and +act, and wrench their living from the closed hand of Nature."</p> + +<p>And here is a dinner "in the open."</p> + +<p>"Upon the <i>carte du jour</i> at Restaurant Sowee was written Grouse. 'How +shall we have them?' said I, cook and convive, to Loolowcan, marmiton +and convive. 'One of these cocks of the mountain shall be fried, since +gridiron is not,' responded I to myself, after meditation; 'two shall be +spitted and roasted; and, as Azrael may not want us before breakfast +to-morrow, the fourth shall go upon the <i>carte de déjeuner'</i>.</p> + +<p>"'O Pork! what a creature thou art!' continued I, in monologue, cutting +neat slices of that viand with my bowie-knife, and laying them +fraternally, three in a bed, in the frying-pan. 'Blessed be Moses, who +forbade thee to the Jews, whereby we, of freer dispensations, heirs of +all the ages, inherit also pigs more numerous and bacon cheaper! O Pork! +what could campaigners do without thy fatness, thy leanness, thy +saltness, thy portableness?'</p> + +<p>"Here Loolowcan presented me the three birds, plucked featherless as +Plato's man. The two roasters we planted carefully on spits before a +sultry spot of the fire. From a horizontal stick, supported on forked +stakes, we suspended by a twig over each roaster an automatic baster, an +inverted cone of pork, ordained to yield its spicy juices to the wooing +flame, and drip bedewing on each bosom beneath. The roasters ripened +deliberately, while keen and quick fire told upon the frier, the first +course of our feast. Meanwhile I brewed a pot of tea, blessing Confucius +for that restorative weed, as I had blessed Moses for his abstinence +from porkers.</p> + +<p>"Need I say that the grouse were admirable, that everything was +delicious, and the Confucian weed first chop? Even a scouse of mouldy +biscuit met the approval of Loolowcan. Feasts cooked under the greenwood +tree, and eaten by their cooks after a triumphant day of progress, are +sweeter than the conventional banquets of languid Christendom."</p> + +<p>"Life in the Open Air"—containing sketches of travel among the +mountains and lakes of Maine, as well as the story of "Love and Skates," +which has been spoken of, "The March of the Seventh Regiment," +"Washington as a Camp," an essay descriptive of Church's great picture, +"The Heart of the Andes," and two fragments, one of them the charming +commencement of a story which promised to be one of his best and most +enjoyable efforts in this direction—is the concluding volume of +Winthrop's collected writings. I speak of it in this place, because it +is in some part a companion-book to the volumes we have been discussing. +It is as full of buoyant life, of fresh and noble thought, of graceful +wit and humor, as those; in parts it contains the most finished of his +literary work. Few Americans who read it at the time will ever forget +that stirring description of the march of the New-York Seventh; it is a +piece of the history of our war which will live and be read as long as +Americans read their history. It moved my blood, in the reading, +tonight, as it did in those days—which seem already some centuries old, +so do events crowd the retrospect—when we were all reading it in the +pages of the "Atlantic." In the unfinished story of "Brightly's Orphan" +there is a Jew boy from Chatham Street, an original of the first water, +who, though scarce fairly introduced, will, I am sure, make a place for +himself and for his author in the memories of all who relish humor of +the best kind.</p> + +<p>"Cecil Dreeme" and "Edwin Brothertoft" are quite other books than these +we have spoken of. Here Winthrop tried a different vein,—two different +veins, perhaps. Both are stories of suffering and crime, stories of the +world and society. In one it is a woman, in the other a man, who is +wronged. One deals with New York city-life of the very present day; the +other is a story of the Revolutionary War, and of Tories and Patriots. +The popular verdict has declared him successful, even here. "Cecil +Dreeme" has run through no less than fifteen editions.</p> + +<p>In this story we are shown New York "society" as doubtless Winthrop knew +it to be. Yet the book has a curious air of the Old-World; it might be a +story of Venice, almost. It tells us of Old-World vices and crimes, and +the fittings and furnishings are of a piece. The localities, indeed, are +sketched so faithfully, that a stranger to the city, coming suddenly, in +his wanderings, upon Chrysalis College Buildings, could not fail to +recognize them at once,—as indeed happened to a country friend of mine +recently, to his great delight. But the men are Americans, bred and +formed—and for the most part spoiled—in Europe; Americans who have +gone to Paris before their time, if it be true, what a witty Bostonian +said, that good Americans go to Paris when they die. With all this, the +book has a strange charm, so that it takes possession of you in spite of +yourself. It is as though it drew away the curtain, for one slight +moment, from the mysteries which "society" decorously hides,—as though +he who drew the curtain stood beside it, pointing with solemn finger and +silent indignation to the baseness of which he gives you a glimpse. Yet +even here the good carries the day, and that in no maudlin way, but +because the true men are the better men.</p> + +<p>These, then, are Winthrop's writings,—the literary works of a young man +who died at thirty-two, and who had spent a goodly part of his mature +life in the saddle and the canoe, exploring his own country, and in +foreign travel. As we look at the volumes, we wonder how he found time +for so much; but when we have read, we wonder yet more at the excellence +of all he wrote. In all and through all shines his own noble spirit; and +thus these books of his, whose printed pages he never saw, will keep his +memory green amongst us; for, through them, all who read may know that +there wrote a true gentleman.</p> + +<p>Once he wrote,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Let me not waste in skirmishes my power,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">In petty struggles. Rather in the hour</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Of deadly conflict may I nobly die,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">In my first battle perish gloriously."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Even so he fell; but in these written works, as in his gallant death, he +left with us lessons which will yet win battles for the good cause of +American liberty, which he held dearest in his heart.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="hilary" id="hilary"></a>HILARY.</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Summer calls thee, o'er the sea!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Like white flowers upon the tide,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">In and out the vessels glide;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">But no wind on all the main</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Sends thy blithe soul home again:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Every salt breeze moans for thee,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Welcome Summer's step will be,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Save to those beside whose door</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Doleful birds sit evermore</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Singing, "Never comes he here</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Who made every season's cheer!"</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Dull the June that brings not thee,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">What strange world has sheltered thee?</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Here the soil beneath thy feet</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Rang with songs, and blossomed sweet;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Blue skies ask thee yet of Earth,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Blind and dumb without thy mirth:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">With thee went her heart of glee,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">All things shape a sigh for thee!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">O'er the waves, among the flowers,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Through the lapse of odorous hours,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Breathes a lonely, longing sound,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">As of something sought, unfound:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Lorn are all things, lorn are we,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Oh, to sail in quest of thee,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">To the trade-wind's steady tune,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Past the hurrying monsoon,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Into torrid seas, that lave</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Dry, hot sands,—a breathless grave,—</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Sad as vain the search would be,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Chase the sorrow from the sea!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Summer-heart, bring summer near,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Warm, and fresh, and airy-clear!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">—Dead thou art not: dead is pain;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Now Earth sees and sings again:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Death, to hold thee, Life must be,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml7m">Hilary!</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="debbys_debut" id="debbys_debut"></a>DEBBY'S DÉBUT.</h2> + + +<p>On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll and her niece Debby Wilder +were whizzing along on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both +in the best of humors with each other and all the world beside. Aunt Pen +was concocting sundry mild romances, and laying harmless plots for the +pursuance of her favorite pastime, match-making; for she had invited her +pretty relative to join her summer jaunt, ostensibly that the girl might +see a little of fashionable life, but the good lady secretly proposed to +herself to take her to the beach and get her a rich husband, very much +as she would have proposed to take her to Broadway and get her a new +bonnet; for both articles she considered necessary, but somewhat +difficult for a poor girl to obtain.</p> + +<p>Debby was slowly getting her poise, after the excitement of a first +visit to New York; for ten days of bustle had introduced the young +philosopher to a new existence, and the working-day world seemed to have +vanished when she made her last pat of butter in the dairy at home. For +an hour she sat thinking over the good-fortune which had befallen her, +and the comforts of this life which she had suddenly acquired. Debby was +a true girl,—with all a girl's love of ease and pleasure; and it must +not be set down against her that she surveyed her pretty travelling-suit +with much complacency, rejoicing inwardly that she could use her hands +without exposing fractured gloves, that her bonnet was of the newest +mode, needing no veil to hide a faded ribbon or a last year's shape, +that her dress swept the ground with fashionable untidiness, and her +boots were guiltless of a patch,—that she was the possessor of a mine +of wealth in two of the eight trunks belonging to her aunt, that she was +travelling like any lady of the land with man-and maid-servant at her +command, and that she was leaving work and care behind her for a month +or two of novelty and rest.</p> + +<p>When these agreeable facts were fully realized, and Aunt Pen had fallen +asleep behind her veil, Debby took out a book, and indulged in her +favorite luxury, soon forgetting past, present, and future in the +inimitable history of Martin Chuzzlewit. The sun blazed, the cars +rattled, children cried, ladies nodded, gentlemen longed for the solace +of prohibited cigars, and newspapers were converted into sun-shades, +nightcaps, and fans; but Debby read on, unconscious of all about her, +even of the pair of eyes that watched her from the opposite corner of +the car. A gentleman with a frank, strong-featured face sat therein, and +amused himself by scanning with thoughtful gaze the countenances of his +fellow-travellers. Stout Aunt Pen, dignified even in her sleep, was a +"model of deportment" to the rising generation; but the student of human +nature found a more attractive subject in her companion, the girl with +an apple-blossom face and merry brown eyes, who sat smiling into her +book, never heeding that her bonnet was awry, and the wind taking +unwarrantable liberties with her ribbons and her hair.</p> + +<p>Innocent Debby turned her pages, unaware that her fate sat opposite in +the likeness of a serious, black-bearded gentleman, who watched the +smiles rippling from her lips to her eyes with an interest that deepened +as the minutes passed. If his paper had been full of anything but +"Bronchial Troches" and "Spalding's Prepared Glue," he would have found +more profitable employment; but it wasn't, and with the usual readiness +of idle souls he fell into evil ways, and permitted curiosity, that +feminine sin, to enter in and take possession of his manly mind. A great +desire seized him to discover what book so interested his pretty +neighbor; but a cover hid the name, and he was too distant to catch it +on the fluttering leaves. Presently a stout Emerald-Islander, with her +wardrobe oozing out of sundry paper parcels, vacated the seat behind the +two ladies; and it was soon quietly occupied by the individual for whom +Satan was finding such indecorous employment. Peeping round the little +gray bonnet, past a brown braid and a fresh cheek, the young man's eye +fell upon the words the girl was reading, and forgot to look away again. +Books were the desire of his life; but an honorable purpose and an +indomitable will kept him steady at his ledgers till he could feel that +he had earned the right to read. Like wine to many another was an open +page to him; he read a line, and, longing for more, took a hasty sip +from his neighbor's cup, forgetting that it was a stranger's also.</p> + +<p>Down the page went the two pairs of eyes, and the merriment from Debby's +seemed to light up the sombre ones behind her with a sudden shine that +softened the whole face and made it very winning. No wonder they +twinkled, for Elijah Pogram spoke, and "Mrs. Hominy, the mother of the +modern Gracchi, in the classical blue cap and the red cotton +pocket-handkerchief, came down the room in a procession of one." A low +laugh startled Debby, though it was smothered like the babes in the +Tower; and, turning, she beheld the trespasser scarlet with confusion, +and sobered with a tardy sense of his transgression. Debby was not a +starched young lady of the "prune and prism" school, but a frank, +free-hearted little body, quick to read the sincerity of others, and to +take looks and words at their real value. Dickens was her idol; and for +his sake she could have forgiven a greater offence than this. The +stranger's contrite countenance and respectful apology won her good-will +at once; and with a finer courtesy than any Aunt Pen would have taught, +she smilingly bowed her pardon, and, taking another book from her +basket, opened it, saying, pleasantly,—</p> + +<p>"Here is the first volume, if you like it, Sir. I can recommend it as an +invaluable consolation for the discomforts of a summer day's journey, +and it is heartily at your service."</p> + +<p>As much surprised as gratified, the gentleman accepted the book, and +retired behind it with the sudden discovery that wrong-doing has its +compensation in the pleasurable sensation of being forgiven. Stolen +delights are well known to be specially saccharine; and much as this +pardoned sinner loved books, it seemed to him that the interest of the +story flagged, and that the enjoyment of reading was much enhanced by +the proximity of a gray bonnet and a girlish profile. But Dickens soon +proved more powerful than Debby, and she was forgotten, till, pausing to +turn a leaf, the young man met her shy glance, as she asked, with the +pleased expression of a child who has shared an apple with a playmate,—</p> + +<p>"Is it good?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, very!"—and the man looked as honestly grateful for the book as the +boy would have done for the apple.</p> + +<p>Only five words in the conversation, but Aunt Pen woke, as if the +watchful spirit of propriety had roused her to pluck her charge from the +precipice on which she stood.</p> + +<p>"Dora, I'm astonished at you! Speaking to strangers in that free manner +is a most unladylike thing. How came you to forget what I have told you +over and over again about a proper reserve?"</p> + +<p>The energetic whisper reached the gentleman's ear, and he expected to be +annihilated with a look when his offence was revealed; but he was spared +that ordeal, for the young voice answered, softly,—</p> + +<p>"Don't faint, Aunt Pen; I only did as I'd be done by; for I had two +books, and the poor man looked so hungry for something to read that I +couldn't resist sharing my 'goodies.' He will see that I'm a countrified +little thing in spite of my fine feathers, and won't be shocked at my +want of rigidity and frigidity; so don't look dismal, and I'll be prim +and proper all the rest of the way,—if I don't forget it."</p> + +<p>"I wonder who he is; may belong to some of our first families, and in +that case it might be worth while to exert ourselves, you know. Did you +learn his name, Dora?" whispered the elder lady.</p> + +<p>Debby shook her head, and murmured, "Hush!"—but Aunt Pen had heard of +matches being made in cars as well as in heaven; and as an experienced +general, it became her to reconnoitre, when one of the enemy approached +her camp. Slightly altering her position, she darted an +all-comprehensive glance at the invader, who seemed entirely absorbed, +for not an eyelash stirred during the scrutiny. It lasted but an +instant, yet in that instant he was weighed and found wanting; for that +experienced eye detected that his cravat was two inches wider than +fashion ordained, that his coat was not of the latest style, that his +gloves were mended, and his handkerchief neither cambric nor silk. That +was enough, and sentence was passed forthwith,—"Some respectable clerk, +good-looking, but poor, and not at all the thing for Dora"; and Aunt Pen +turned to adjust a voluminous green veil over her niece's bonnet, "To +shield it from the dust, dear," which process also shielded the face +within from the eye of man.</p> + +<p>A curious smile, half mirthful, half melancholy, passed over their +neighbor's lips; but his peace of mind seemed undisturbed, and he +remained buried in his book till they reached ——, at dusk. As he +returned it, he offered his services in procuring a carriage or +attending to luggage; but Mrs. Carroll, with much dignity of aspect, +informed him that her servants would attend to those matters, and, +bowing gravely, he vanished into the night.</p> + +<p>As they rolled away to the hotel, Debby was wild to run down to the +beach whence came the solemn music of the sea, making the twilight +beautiful. But Aunt Pen was too tired to do anything but sup in her own +apartment and go early to bed; and Debby might as soon have proposed to +walk up the Great Pyramid as to make her first appearance without that +sage matron to mount guard over her; so she resigned herself to pie and +patience, and fell asleep, wishing it were to-morrow.</p> + +<p>At five, A.M., a nightcapped head appeared at one of the myriad windows +of the —— Hotel, and remained there as if fascinated by the miracle of +sunrise over the sea. Under her simplicity of character and girlish +merriment Debby possessed a devout spirit and a nature full of the real +poetry of life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood its sweetest +charm, and made her what she was. As she looked out that summer dawn +upon the royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty hopes and +longings faded out of sight, and her young face grew luminous with +thoughts too deep for words. Her day was happier for that silent hour, +her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted her like beautiful +strong angels, and left a blessing when they went. The smile of the June +sky touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger on her cheek, and +in her eye arose a light kindled by the shimmer of that broad sea of +gold; for Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave her beauty, +when she offered love. How long she leaned there Debby did not know; +steps from below roused her from her reverie, and led her back into the +world again. Smiling at herself, she stole to bed, and lay wrapped in +waking dreams as changeful as the shadows dancing on her chamber-wall.</p> + +<p>The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some two hours later, was the +signal to be "up and doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the +hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard her in the light of an +animated pin-cushion, as she performed the toilet-ceremonies with an +absorbed aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense of the +solemnity of the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mademoiselle, regard yourself, and pronounce that you are +ravishing," Victorine said at length, folding her hands with a sigh of +satisfaction, as she fell back in an attitude of serene triumph.</p> + +<p>Debby obeyed, and inspected herself with great interest and some +astonishment; for there was a sweeping amplitude of array about the +young lady whom she beheld in the much-befrilled gown and embroidered +skirts, which somewhat alarmed her as to the navigation of a vessel +"with such a spread of sail," while a curious sensation of being +somebody else pervaded her from the crown of her head, with its shining +coils of hair, to the soles of the French slippers, whose energies +seemed to have been devoted to the production of marvellous rosettes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I look very nice, thank you; and yet I feel like a doll, helpless +and fine, and fancy I was more of a woman in my fresh gingham, with a +knot of clovers in my hair, than I am now. Aunt Pen was very kind to get +me all these pretty things; but I'm afraid my mother would look +horrified to see me in such a high state of flounce externally and so +little room to breathe internally."</p> + +<p>"Your mamma would not flatter me, Mademoiselle; but come now to Madame; +she is waiting to behold you, and I have yet her toilet to make"; and, +with a pitying shrug, Victorine followed Debby to her aunt's room.</p> + +<p>"Charming! really elegant!" cried that lady, emerging from her towel +with a rubicund visage. "Drop that braid half an inch lower, and pull +the worked end of her handkerchief out of the right-hand pocket, Vic. +There! Now, Dora, don't run about and get rumpled, but sit quietly down +and practise repose till I am ready."</p> + +<p>Debby obeyed, and sat mute, with the air of a child in its Sunday-best +on a week-day, pleased with the novelty, but somewhat oppressed with the +responsibility of such unaccustomed splendor, and utterly unable to +connect any ideas of repose with tight shoes and skirts in a rampant +state of starch.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>"Well, you see, I bet on Lady Gay against Cockadoodle, and if you'll +believe me—Hullo! there's Mrs. Carroll, and deuse take me if she hasn't +got a girl with her! Look, Seguin!"—and Joe Leavenworth, a "man of the +world," aged twenty, paused in his account of an exciting race to make +the announcement.</p> + +<p>Mr. Seguin, his friend and Mentor, as much his senior in worldly +wickedness as in years, tore himself from his breakfast long enough to +survey the new-comers, and then returned to it, saying, briefly,—</p> + +<p>"The old lady is worth cultivating,—gives good suppers, and thanks you +for eating them. The girl is well got up, but has no style, and blushes +like a milk-maid. Better fight shy of her, Joe."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so? Well, now I rather fancy that kind of thing. She's +new, you see, and I get on with that sort of girl the best, for the old +ones are so deused knowing that a fellow has no chance of a—By the Lord +Harry, she's eating bread and milk!"</p> + +<p>Young Leavenworth whisked his glass into his eye, and Mr. Seguin put +down his roll to behold the phenomenon. Poor Debby! her first step had +been a wrong one.</p> + +<p>All great minds have their weak points. Aunt Pen's was her breakfast, +and the peace of her entire day depended upon the success of that meal. +Therefore, being down rather late, the worthy lady concentrated her +energies upon the achievement of a copious repast, and, trusting to +former lessons, left Debby to her own resources for a few fatal moments. +After the flutter occasioned by being scooped into her seat by a +severe-nosed waiter, Debby had only courage enough left to refuse tea +and coffee and accept milk. That being done, she took the first familiar +viand that appeared, and congratulated herself upon being able to get +her usual breakfast. With returning composure, she looked about her and +began to enjoy the buzz of voices, the clatter of knives and forks, and +the long lines of faces all intent upon the business of the hour; but +her peace was of short duration. Pausing for a fresh relay of toast, +Aunt Pen glanced toward her niece with the comfortable conviction that +her appearance was highly creditable; and her dismay can be imagined, +when she beheld that young lady placidly devouring a great cup of +brown-bread and milk before the eyes of the assembled multitude. The +poor lady choked in her coffee, and between her gasps whispered irefully +behind her napkin,—</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, Dora, put away that mess! The Ellenboroughs are +directly opposite, watching everything you do. Eat that omelet, or +anything respectable, unless you want me to die of mortificátion."</p> + +<p>Debby dropped her spoon, and, hastily helping herself from the dish her +aunt pushed toward her, consumed the leathery compound with as much +grace as she could assume, though unable to repress a laugh at Aunt +Pen's disturbed countenance. There was a slight lull in the clatter, and +the blithe sound caused several heads to turn toward the quarter whence +it came, for it was as unexpected and pleasant a sound as a bobolink's +song in a cage of shrill-voiced canaries.</p> + +<p>"She's a jolly little thing and powerful pretty, so deuse take me if I +don't make up to the old lady and find out who the girl is. I've been +introduced to Mrs. Carroll at our house; but I suppose she won't +remember me till I remind her."</p> + +<p>The "deuse" declining to accept of his repeated offers, (probably +because there was still too much honor and honesty in the boy,) young +Leavenworth sought out Mrs. Carroll on the piazza, as she and Debby were +strolling there an hour later.</p> + +<p>"Joe Leavenworth, my dear, from one of our first families,—very +wealthy,—fine match,—pray, be civil,—smooth your hair, hold back your +shoulders, and put down your parasol," murmured Aunt Pen, as the +gentleman approached with as much pleasure in his countenance as it was +consistent with manly dignity to express upon meeting two of the +inferior race.</p> + +<p>"My niece, Miss Dora Wilder. This is her first season at the beach, and +we must endeavor to make it pleasant for her, or she will be getting +homesick and running away to mamma," said Aunt Pen, in her society-tone, +after she had returned his greeting, and perpetrated a polite fiction, +by declaring that she remembered him perfectly, for he was the image of +his father.</p> + +<p>Mr. Leavenworth brought the heels of his varnished boots together with a +click, and executed the latest bow imported, then stuck his glass in his +eye and stared till it fell out, (the glass, not the eye,) upon which he +fell into step with them, remarking,—</p> + +<p>"I shall be most happy to show the lions: they are deused tame ones, so +you needn't be alarmed, Miss Wilder."</p> + +<p>Debby was good-natured enough to laugh; and, elated with that success, +he proceeded to pour forth his stores of wit and learning in true +collegian style, quite unconscious that the "jolly little thing" was +looking him through and through with the smiling eyes that were +producing such pleasurable sensations under the mosaic studs. They +strolled toward the beach, and, meeting an old acquaintance, Aunt Pen +fell behind, and beamed upon the young pair as if her prophetic eye even +at this early stage beheld them walking altarward in a proper state of +blond white vest and bridal awkwardness.</p> + +<p>"Can you skip a stone, Mr. Leavenworth?" asked Debby, possessed with a +mischievous desire to shock the piece of elegance at her side.</p> + +<p>"Eh? what's that?" he inquired, with his head on one side, like an +inquisitive robin.</p> + +<p>Debby repeated her question, and illustrated it by sending a stone +skimming over the water in the most scientific manner. Mr. Joe was +painfully aware that this was not at all "the thing," that his sisters +never did so, and that Seguin would laugh confoundedly, if he caught him +at it; but Debby looked so irresistibly fresh and pretty under her +rose-lined parasol that he was moved to confess that he <i>had</i> done such +a thing, and to sacrifice his gloves by poking in the sand, that he +might indulge in a like unfashionable pastime.</p> + +<p>"You'll be at the hop tonight, I hope, Miss Wilder," he observed, +introducing a topic suited to a young lady's mental capacity.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; for dancing is one of the joys of my life, next to husking +and making hay"; and Debby polked a few steps along the beach, much to +the edification of a pair of old gentlemen, serenely taking their first +"constitutional."</p> + +<p>"Making what?" cried Mr. Joe, polking after her.</p> + +<p>"Hay; ah, that is the pleasantest fun in the world,—and better +exercise, my mother says, for soul and body, than dancing till dawn in +crowded rooms, with everything in a state of unnatural excitement. If +one wants real merriment, let him go into a new-mown field, where all +the air is full of summer odors, where wild-flowers nod along the walls, +where blackbirds make finer music than any band, and sun and wind and +cheery voices do their part, while windrows rise, and great loads go +rumbling through the lanes with merry brown faces atop. Yes, much as I +like dancing, it is not to be compared with that; for in the one case we +shut out the lovely world, and in the other we become a part of it, till +by its magic labor turns to poetry, and we harvest something better than +dried buttercups and grass."</p> + +<p>As she spoke, Debby looked up, expecting to meet a glance of +disapproval; but something in the simple earnestness of her manner had +recalled certain boyish pleasures as innocent as they were hearty, which +now contrasted very favorably with the later pastimes in which fast +horses, and that lower class of animals, fast men, bore so large a part. +Mr. Joe thoughtfully punched five holes in the sand, and for a moment +Debby liked the expression of his face; then the old listlessness +returned, and, looking up, he said, with an air of <i>ennui</i> that was half +sad, half ludicrous, in one so young and so generously endowed with +youth, health, and the good gifts of this life,—</p> + +<p>"I used to fancy that sort of thing years ago, but I'm afraid I should +find it a little slow now, though you describe it in such an inviting +manner that I should be tempted to try it, if a hay-cock came in my way; +for, upon my life, it's deused heavy work loafing about at these +watering-places all summer. Between ourselves, there's a deal of humbug +about this kind of life, as you will find, when you've tried it as long +as I have."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I begin to think so already; but perhaps you can give me a few +friendly words of warning from the stores of your experience, that I may +be spared the pain of saying what so many look,—'Grandma, the world is +hollow; my doll is stuffed with sawdust; and I should like to go into a +convent, if you please.'"</p> + +<p>Debby's eyes were dancing with merriment; but they were demurely +downcast, and her voice was perfectly serious.</p> + +<p>The milk of human kindness had been slightly curdled for Mr. Joe by +sundry college-tribulations; and having been "suspended," he very +naturally vibrated between the inborn jollity of his temperament and the +bitterness occasioned by his wrongs. He had lost at billiards the night +before, had been hurried at breakfast, had mislaid his cigar-case, and +splashed his boots; consequently the darker mood prevailed that morning, +and when his counsel was asked, he gave it like one who had known the +heaviest trials of this "Piljin Projiss of a wale."</p> + +<p>"There's no justice in the world, no chance for us young people to enjoy +ourselves, without some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us like +these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here, where all seems free and +easy, there's no end of gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you +feel as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself, and the Devil +take the hindmost': that's the principle they go on, and you have to +keep your wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or you are done +for before you know it. I've seen a good deal of this sort of thing, and +hope you'll get on better than some do, when it's known that you are the +rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't need that fact to enhance +your charms,—upon my life, you don't."</p> + +<p>Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst of candor; but her +independent nature prompted her to make a fair beginning, in spite of +Aunt Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for your warning, but I don't apprehend much annoyance of +that kind," she said, demurely. "Do you know, I think, if young ladies +were truthfully labelled when they went into society, it would be a +charming fashion, and save a world of trouble? Something in this +style:—'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune $100,000, temper +warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne, aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000, +temper slightly damaged'; 'Deborah Wilder, aged eighteen, fortune, one +pair of hands, one head, indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in +the market,) temper decided, and <i>no expectations</i>.' There, you see, +that would do away with much of the humbug you lament, and we poor +souls would know at once whether we were sought for our fortunes or +ourselves, and that would be so comfortable!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Leavenworth turned away, with a convicted sort of expression, as she +spoke, and, making a spyglass of his hand, seemed to be watching +something out at sea with absorbing interest. He had been guilty of a +strong desire to discover whether Debby was an heiress, but had not +expected to be so entirely satisfied on that important subject, and was +dimly conscious that a keen eye had seen his anxiety, and a quick wit +devised a means of setting it at rest forever. Somewhat disconcerted, he +suddenly changed the conversation, and, like many another distressed +creature, took to the water, saying briskly,—</p> + +<p>"By-the-by, Miss Wilder, as I've engaged to do the honors, shall I have +the pleasure of bathing with you when the fun begins? As you are fond of +haymaking, I suppose you intend to pay your respects to the old +gentleman with the three-pronged pitchfork?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Aunt Pen means to put me through a course of salt water, and any +instructions in the art of navigation will be gratefully received; for I +never saw the ocean before, and labor under a firm conviction, that, +once in, I never shall come out again till I am brought, like Mr. +Mantilini, a 'damp, moist, unpleasant body.'"</p> + +<p>As Debby spoke, Mrs. Carroll hove in sight, coming down before the wind +with all sails set, and signals of distress visible long before she +dropped anchor and came along-side. The devoted woman had been strolling +slowly for the girl's sake, though oppressed with a mournful certainty +that her most prominent feature was fast becoming a fine copper-color; +yet she had sustained herself like a Spartan matron, till it suddenly +occurred to her that her charge might be suffering a like</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml95">"sea-change</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Into something rich and strange."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby met her without a +freckle, looking all the better for her walk; and though her feet were +wet with chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse for salt +water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the destruction of her raiment, nor +uttered a warning word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits, but +replied to her inquiry most graciously,—</p> + +<p>"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven, and there will be just +time to get Victorine and our dresses; so run on to the house, and I +will join you as soon as I have finished what I am saying to Mrs. +Earle,"—then added, in a stage-aside, as she put a fallen lock off the +girl's forehead, "You are doing beautifully! He is evidently struck; +make yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I beg of you."</p> + +<p>Debby's bright face clouded over, and she walked on with so much +stateliness that her escort wondered "what the deuse the old lady had +done to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall her merry +mood, but with indifferent success.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this is getting back to first +principles, though I fancy I look like the little old woman who fell +asleep on the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated drapery; and +you look funnier still, Aunt Pen," said Debby, as she tied on her +pagoda-hat, and followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her +dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth surmounted by a gigantic +sun-bonnet.</p> + +<p>Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a blond-headed lobster in +his scarlet suit that Debby could hardly keep her countenance as they +joined the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy shore.</p> + +<p>For an hour each day the actors and actresses who played their different +<i>rôles</i> at the —— Hotel with such precision and success put off their +masks and dared to be themselves. The ocean wrought the change, for it +took old and young into its arms, and for a little while they played +like children in their mother's lap. No falsehood could withstand its +rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and powder from worn faces, +and left a fresh bloom there. No ailment could entirely resist its +vigorous cure; for every wind brought healing on its wings, endowing +many a meagre life with another year of health. No gloomy spirit could +refuse to listen to its lullaby, and the spray baptized it with the +subtile benediction of a cheerier mood. No rank held place there; for +the democratic sea toppled down the greatest statesman in the land, and +dashed over the bald pate of a millionnaire with the same white-crested +wave that stranded a poor parson on the beach and filled a fierce +reformer's mouth with brine. No fashion ruled, but that which is as old +as Eden,—the beautiful fashion of simplicity. Belles dropped their +affectations with their hoops, and ran about the shore blithe-hearted +girls again. Young men forgot their vices and their follies, and were +not ashamed of the real courage, strength, and skill they had tried to +leave behind them with their boyish plays. Old men gathered shells with +the little Cupids dancing on the sand, and were better for that innocent +companionship; and young mothers never looked so beautiful as when they +rocked their babies on the bosom of the sea.</p> + +<p>Debby vaguely felt this charm, and, yielding to it, splashed and sang +like any beach-bird, while Aunt Pen bobbed placidly up and down in a +retired corner, and Mr. Leavenworth swam to and fro, expressing his firm +belief in mermaids, sirens, and the rest of the aquatic sisterhood, +whose warbling no manly ear can resist.</p> + +<p>"Miss Wilder, you must learn to swim. I've taught quantities of young +ladies, and shall be delighted to launch the 'Dora,' if you'll accept me +as a pilot. Stop a bit; I'll get a life-preserver"; and leaving Debby to +flirt with the waves, the scarlet youth departed like a flame of fire.</p> + +<p>A dismal shriek interrupted his pupil's play, and looking up, she saw +her aunt beckoning wildly with one hand, while she was groping in the +water with the other. Debby ran to her, alarmed at her tragic +expression, and Mrs. Carroll, drawing the girl's face into the privacy +of her big bonnet, whispered one awful word, adding, distractedly,—</p> + +<p>"Dive for them! oh, dive for them! I shall be perfectly helpless, if +they are lost!"</p> + +<p>"I can't dive, Aunt Pen; but there is a man, let us ask him," said +Debby, as a black head appeared to windward.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Carroll's "nerves" had received a shock, and, gathering up her +dripping garments, she fled precipitately along the shore and vanished +into her dressing-room.</p> + +<p>Debby's keen sense of the ludicrous got the better of her respect, and +peal after peal of laughter broke from her lips, till a splash behind +her put an end to her merriment, and, turning, she found that this +friend in need was her acquaintance of the day before. The gentleman +seemed pausing for permission to approach, with much the appearance of a +sagacious Newfoundland, wistful and wet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm very glad it's you, Sir!" was Debby's cordial greeting, as she +shook a drop off the end of her nose, and nodded, smiling.</p> + +<p>The new comer immediately beamed upon her like an amiable Triton, +saying, as they turned shoreward,—</p> + +<p>"Our first interview opened with a laugh on my side, and our second with +one on yours. I accept the fact as a good omen. Your friend seemed in +trouble; allow me to atone for my past misdemeanors by offering my +services now. But first let me introduce myself; and as I believe in the +fitness of things, let me present you with an appropriate card"; and, +stooping, the young man wrote "Frank Evan" on the hard sand at Debby's +feet.</p> + +<p>The girl liked his manner, and, entering into the spirit of the thing, +swept as grand a curtsy as her limited drapery would allow, saying, +merrily,—</p> + +<p>"I am Debby Wilder, or Dora, as aunt prefers to call me; and instead of +laughing, I ought to be four feet under water, looking for something we +have lost; but I can't dive, and my distress is dreadful, as you see."</p> + +<p>"What have you lost? I will look for it, and bring it back in spite of +the kelpies, if it is a human possibility," replied Mr. Evan, pushing +his wet locks out of his eyes, and regarding the ocean with a determined +aspect.</p> + +<p>Debby leaned toward him, whispering with solemn countenance,—</p> + +<p>"It is a set of teeth, Sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Evan was more a man of deeds than words, therefore he disappeared at +once with a mighty splash, and after repeated divings and much laughter +appeared bearing the chief ornament of Mrs. Penelope Carroll's comely +countenance. Debby looked very pretty and grateful as she returned her +thanks, and Mr. Evan was guilty of a secret wish that all the worthy +lady's features were at the bottom of the sea, that he might have the +satisfaction of restoring them to her attractive niece; but curbing this +unnatural desire, he bowed, saying, gravely,—</p> + +<p>"Tell your aunt, if you please, that this little accident will remain a +dead secret, so far as I am concerned, and I am very glad to have been +of service at such a critical moment."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Mr. Evan marched again into the briny deep, and Debby trotted +away to her aunt, whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel and +despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled, and though she joyfully +rattled in her teeth, she said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story was +done,—</p> + +<p>"Now that man will have a sort of claim on us, and we must be civil, +whoever he is. Dear! dear! I wish it had been Joe Leavenworth instead. +Evan,—I don't remember any of our first families with connections of +that name, and I dislike to be under obligations to a person of that +sort, for there's no knowing how far he may presume; so, pray, be +careful, Dora."</p> + +<p>"I think you are very ungrateful, Aunt Pen; and if Mr. Evan should +happen to be poor, it does not become me to turn up my nose at him, for +I'm nothing but a make-believe myself just now. I don't wish to go down +upon my knees to him, but I do intend to be as kind to him as I should +to that conceited Leavenworth boy; yes, kinder even; for poor people +value such things more, as I know very well."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll instantly recovered her temper, changed the subject, and +privately resolved to confine her prejudices to her own bosom, as they +seemed to have an aggravating effect upon the youthful person whom she +had set her heart on disposing of to the best advantage.</p> + +<p>Debby took her swimming-lesson with much success, and would have +achieved her dinner with composure, if white-aproned gentlemen had not +effectually taken away her appetite by whisking bills-of-fare into her +hands, and awaiting her orders with a fatherly interest, which induced +them to congregate mysterious dishes before her, and blandly rectify +her frequent mistakes. She survived the ordeal, however, and at four +P.M. went to drive with "that Leavenworth boy" in the finest turnout +—— could produce. Aunt Pen then came off guard, and with a sigh of +satisfaction subsided into a peaceful doze, still murmuring, even in +her sleep,—</p> + +<p>"Propinquity, my love, propinquity works wonders."</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>"Aunt Pen, are you a modest woman?" asked the young crusader against +established absurdities, as she came into the presence-chamber that +evening ready for the hop.</p> + +<p>"Bless the child, what does she mean?" cried Mrs. Carroll, with a start +that twitched her back-hair out of Victorine's hands.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have a daughter of yours go to a party looking as I +look?" continued her niece, spreading her airy dress, and standing very +erect before her astonished relative.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course I should, and be proud to own such a charming +creature," regarding the slender white shape with much +approbation,—adding, with a smile, as she met the girl's eye,—</p> + +<p>"Ah, I see the difficulty, now; you are disturbed because there is not a +bit of lace over these pretty shoulders of yours. Now don't be absurd, +Dora; the dress is perfectly proper, or Madame Tiphany never would have +sent it home. It is the fashion, child; and many a girl with such a +figure would go twice as <i>décolletée</i>, and think nothing of it, I assure +you."</p> + +<p>Debby shook her head with an energy that set the pink heather-bells +a-tremble in her hair, and her color deepened beautifully as she said, +with reproachful eyes,—</p> + +<p>"Aunt Pen, I think there is a better fashion in every young girl's heart +than any Madame Tiphany can teach. I am very grateful for all you have +done for me, but I cannot go into public in such an undress as this; my +mother would never allow it, and father never forgive it. Please don't +ask me to, for indeed I cannot do it even for you."</p> + +<p>Debby looked so pathetic that both mistress and maid broke into a laugh +which, somewhat reassured the young lady, who allowed her determined +features to relax into a smile, as she said,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Aunt Pen, you want me to look pretty and be a credit to you; but +how would you like to see my face the color of those geraniums all the +evening?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Dora, you are out of your mind to ask such a thing, when you know +it's the desire of my life to keep your color down and make you look +more delicate," said her aunt, alarmed at the fearful prospect of a +peony-faced <i>protégée</i>.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should be anything but that, if I wore this gown in its present +waistless condition; so here is a remedy which will prevent such a +calamity and ease my mind."</p> + +<p>As she spoke, Debby tied on her little <i>blonde fichu</i> with a gesture +which left nothing more to be said.</p> + +<p>Victorine scolded, and clasped her hands; but Mrs. Carroll, fearing to +push her authority too far, made a virtue of necessity, saying, +resignedly,—</p> + +<p>"Have your own way, Dora, but in return oblige me by being agreeable to +such persons as I may introduce to you; and some day, when I ask a +favor, remember how much I hope to do for you, and grant it cheerfully."</p> + +<p>"Indeed I will, Aunt Pen, if it is anything I can do without disobeying +mother's 'notions', as you call them. Ask me to wear an orange-colored +gown, or dance with the plainest, poorest man in the room, and I'll do +it; for there never was a kinder aunt than mine in all the world," cried +Debby, eager to atone for her seeming wilfulness, and really grateful +for her escape from what seemed to her benighted mind a very imminent +peril.</p> + +<p>Like a clover-blossom in a vase of camellias little Debby looked that +night among the dashing or languid women who surrounded her; for she +possessed the charm they had lost,—the freshness of her youth. Innocent +gayety sat smiling in her eyes, healthful roses bloomed upon her cheek, +and maiden modesty crowned her like a garland. She <i>was</i> the creature +that she seemed, and, yielding to the influence of the hour, danced to +the music of her own blithe heart. Many felt the spell whose secret they +had lost the power to divine, and watched the girlish figure as if it +were a symbol of their early aspirations dawning freshly from the +dimness of their past. More than one old man thought again of some +little maid whose love made his boyish days a pleasant memory to him +now. More than one smiling fop felt the emptiness of his smooth speech, +when the truthful eyes looked up into his own; and more than one pale +woman sighed regretfully within herself, "I, too, was a happy-hearted +creature once!"</p> + +<p>"That Mr. Evan does not seem very anxious to claim our acquaintance, +after all, and I think better of him on that account. Has he spoken to +you tonight, Dora?" asked Mrs. Carroll, as Debby dropped down beside her +after a "splendid polka."</p> + +<p>"No, Ma'am, he only bowed. You see some people are not so presuming as +other people thought they were; for we are not the most attractive +beings on the planet; therefore a gentleman can be polite and then +forget us without breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Don't be +offended with him yet, for he may prove to be some great creature with a +finer pedigree than any of 'our first families.' Mr. Leavenworth, as you +know everybody, perhaps you can relieve Aunt Pen's mind, by telling her +something about the tall, brown man standing behind the lady with +salmon-colored hair."</p> + +<p>Mr. Joe, who was fanning the top of Debby's head with the best +intentions in life, took a survey, and answered readily,—</p> + +<p>"Why, that's Frank Evan. I know him, and a deused good fellow he +is,—though he don't belong to our set, you know."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! pray, tell us something about him, Mr. Leavenworth. We met in +the cars, and he did us a favor or two. Who and what is the man?" asked +Mrs. Carroll, relenting at once toward a person who was favorably spoken +of by one who did belong to her "set."</p> + +<p>"Well, let me see," began Mr. Joe, whose narrative powers were not +great. "He is a book-keeper in my Uncle Josh Loring's importing concern, +and a powerful smart man, they say. There's some kind of clever story +about his father's leaving a load of debts, and Frank's working a deused +number of years till they were paid. Good of him, wasn't it? Then, just +as he was going to take things easier and enjoy life a bit, his mother +died, and that rather knocked him up, you see. He fell sick, and came to +grief generally, Uncle Josh said; so he was ordered off to get righted, +and here he is, looking like a tombstone. I've a regard for Frank, for +he took care of me through the smallpox a year ago, and I don't forget +things of that sort; so, if you wish to be introduced, Mrs. Carroll, +I'll trot him out with pleasure, and make a proud man of him."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll glanced at Debby, and as that young lady was regarding Mr. +Joe with a friendly aspect, owing to the warmth of his words, she +graciously assented, and the youth departed on his errand. Mr. Evan went +through the ceremony with a calmness wonderful to behold, considering +the position of one lady and the charms of the other, and soon glided +into the conversation with the ease of a more accomplished courtier.</p> + +<p>"Now I must tear myself away, for I'm engaged to that stout Miss +Bandoline for this dance. She 's a friend of my sister's, and I must do +the civil, you know; powerful slow work it is, too, but I pity the poor +soul,—upon my life, I do"; and Mr. Joe assumed the air of a martyr.</p> + +<p>Debby looked up with a wicked smile in her eyes, as she said,—</p> + +<p>"Ah, that sounds very amiable here; but in five minutes you'll be +murmuring in Miss Bandoline's ear,—'I've been pining to come to you +this half hour, but I was obliged to take out that Miss Wilder, you +see,—countrified little thing enough, but not bad-looking, and has a +rich aunt; so I've done my duty to her, but deuse take me if I can stand +it any longer.'"</p> + +<p>Mr. Evan joined in Debby's merriment; but Mr. Joe was so appalled at the +sudden attack that he could only stammer a remonstrance and beat a hasty +retreat, wondering how on earth she came to know that his favorite style +of making himself agreeable to one young lady was by decrying another.</p> + +<p>"Dora, my love, that is very rude, and 'Deuse' is not a proper +expression for a woman's lips. Pray, restrain your lively tongue, for +strangers may not understand that it is nothing but the sprightliness of +your disposition which sometimes runs away with you."</p> + +<p>"It was only a quotation, and I thought you would admire anything Mr. +Leavenworth said, Aunt Pen," replied Debby, demurely.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll trod on her foot, and abruptly changed the conversation, by +saying, with an appearance of deep interest,—</p> + +<p>"Mr. Evan, you are doubtless connected with the Malcoms of Georgia; for +they, I believe, are descended from the ancient Evans of Scotland. They +are a very wealthy and aristocratic family, and I remember seeing their +coat-of-arms once: three bannocks and a thistle."</p> + +<p>Mr. Evan had been standing before them with a composure which impressed +Mrs. Carroll with a belief in his gentle blood, for she remembered her +own fussy, plebeian husband, whose fortune had never been able to +purchase him the manners of a gentleman. Mr. Evan only grew a little +more erect, as he replied, with an untroubled mien,—</p> + +<p>"I cannot claim relationship with the Malcoms of Georgia or the Evans of +Scotland, I believe, Madam. My father was a farmer, my grandfather a +blacksmith, and beyond that my ancestors may have been street-sweepers, +for anything I know; but whatever they were, I fancy they were honest +men, for that has always been our boast, though, like President +Jackson's, our coat-of-arms is nothing but 'a pair of shirt-sleeves.'"</p> + +<p>From Debby's eyes there shot a bright glance of admiration for the young +man who could look two comely women in the face and serenely own that he +was poor. Mrs. Carroll tried to appear at ease, and, gliding out of +personalities, expatiated on the comfort of "living in a land where fame +and fortune were attainable by all who chose to earn them," and the +contempt she felt for those "who had no sympathy with the humbler +classes, no interest in the welfare of the race," and many more moral +reflections as new and original as the Multiplication-Table or the +Westminster Catechism. To all of which Mr. Evan listened with polite +deference, though there was something in the keen intelligence of his +eye that made Debby blush for shallow Aunt Pen, and rejoice when the +good lady got out of her depth and seized upon a new subject as a +drowning mariner would a hen-coop.</p> + +<p>"Dora, Mr. Ellenborough is coming this way; you have danced with him but +once, and he is a very desirable partner; so, pray, accept, if he asks +you," said Mrs. Carroll, watching a far-off individual who seemed +steering his zigzag course toward them.</p> + +<p>"I never intend to dance with Mr. Ellenborough again, so please don't +urge me, Aunt Pen"; and Debby knit her brows with a somewhat irate +expression.</p> + +<p>"My love, you astonish me! He is a most agreeable and accomplished young +man,—spent three years in Paris, moves in the first circles, and is +considered an ornament to fashionable society. What <i>can</i> be your +objection, Dora?" cried Mrs. Carroll, looking as alarmed as if her niece +had suddenly announced her belief in the Koran.</p> + +<p>"One of his accomplishments consists in drinking Champagne till he is +not a 'desirable partner' for any young lady with a prejudice in favor +of decency. His moving in 'circles' is just what I complain of; and if +he is an ornament, I prefer my society undecorated. Aunt Pen, I cannot +make the nice distinctions you would have me, and a sot in broadcloth is +as odious as one in rags. Forgive me, but I cannot dance with that +silver-labelled decanter again."</p> + +<p>Debby was a genuine little piece of womanhood; and though she tried to +speak lightly, her color deepened, as she remembered looks that had +wounded her like insults, and her indignant eyes silenced the excuses +rising to her aunt's lips. Mrs. Carroll began to rue the hour she ever +undertook the guidance of Sister Deborah's headstrong child, and for an +instant heartily wished she had left her to bloom unseen in the shadow +of the parsonage; but she concealed her annoyance, still hoping to +overcome the girl's absurd resolve, by saying, mildly,—</p> + +<p>"As you please, dear; but if you refuse Mr. Ellenborough, you will be +obliged to sit through the dance, which is your favorite, you know."</p> + +<p>Debby's countenance fell, for she had forgotten that, and the Lancers +was to her the crowning rapture of the night. She paused a moment, and +Aunt Pen brightened; but Debby made her little sacrifice to principle +as heroically as many a greater one had been made, and, with a wistful +look down the long room, answered steadily, though her foot kept time to +the first strains as she spoke,—</p> + +<p>"Then I will sit, Aunt Pen; for that is preferable to staggering about +the room with a partner who has no idea of the laws of gravitation."</p> + +<p>"Shall I have the honor of averting either calamity?" said Mr. Evan, +coming to the rescue with a devotion beautiful to see; for dancing was +nearly a lost art with him, and the Lancers to a novice is equal to a +second Labyrinth of Crete.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you!" cried Debby, tumbling fan, bouquet, and handkerchief +into Mrs. Carroll's lap, with a look of relief that repaid him fourfold +for the trials he was about to undergo. They went merrily away together, +leaving Aunt Pen to wish that it was according to the laws of etiquette +to rap officious gentlemen over the knuckles, when they introduce their +fingers into private pies without permission from the chief cook. How +the dance went Debby hardly knew, for the conversation fell upon books, +and in the interest of her favorite theme she found even the "grand +square" an impertinent interruption, while her own deficiencies became +almost as great as her partner's; yet, when the music ended with a +flourish, and her last curtsy was successfully achieved, she longed to +begin all over again, and secretly regretted that she was engaged four +deep.</p> + +<p>"How do you like our new acquaintance, Dora?" asked Aunt Pen, following +Joe Leavenworth with her eye, as the "yellow-haired laddie" whirled by +with the ponderous Miss Flora.</p> + +<p>"Very much; and I'm glad we met as we did, for it makes things free and +easy, and that is so agreeable in this ceremonious place," replied +Debby, looking in quite an opposite direction.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm delighted to hear you say so, dear, for I was afraid you had +taken a dislike to him, and he is really a very charming young man, just +the sort of person to make a pleasant companion for a few weeks. These +little friendships are part of the summer's amusement, and do no harm; +so smile away, Dora, and enjoy yourself while you may."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Aunt, I certainly will, and all the more because I have found a +sensible soul to talk to. Do you know, he is very witty and well +informed, though he says he never had much time for self-cultivation? +But I think trouble makes people wise, and he seems to have had a good +deal, though he leaves it for others to tell of. I am glad you are +willing I should know him, for I shall enjoy talking about my pet heroes +with him as a relief from the silly chatter I must keep up most of the +time."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll was a woman of one idea; and though a slightly puzzled +expression appeared in her face, she listened approvingly, and answered, +with a gracious smile,—</p> + +<p>"Of course, I should not object to your knowing such a person, my love; +but I'd no idea Joe Leavenworth was a literary man, or had known much +trouble, except his father's death and his sister Clementina's +runaway-marriage with her drawing-master."</p> + +<p>Debby opened her brown eyes very wide, and hastily picked at the down on +her fan, but had no time to correct her aunt's mistake, for the real +subject of her commendations appeared at that moment, and Mrs. Carroll +was immediately absorbed in the consumption of a large pink ice.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>"That girl is what I call a surprise-party, now," remarked Mr. Joe +confidentially to his cigar, as he pulled off his coat and stuck his +feet up in the privacy of his own apartment. "She looks as mild as +strawberries and cream till you come to the complimentary, then she +turns on a fellow with that deused satirical look of hers, and makes him +feel like a fool. I'll try the moral dodge to-morrow, and see what +effect that will have; for she is mighty taking, and I must amuse myself +somehow, you know."</p> + +<p>"How many years will it take to change that fresh-hearted little girl +into a fashionable belle, I wonder?" thought Frank Evan, as he climbed +the four flights that led to his "sky-parlor."</p> + +<p>"What a curious world this is!" mused Debby, with her nightcap in her +hand. "The right seems odd and rude, the wrong respectable and easy, and +this sort of life a merry-go-round, with no higher aim than pleasure. +Well, I have made my Declaration of Independence, and Aunt Pen must be +ready for a Revolution, if she taxes me too heavily."</p> + +<p>As she leaned her hot cheek on her arm, Debby's eye fell on the quaint +little cap made by the motherly hands that never were tired of working +for her. She touched it tenderly, and love's simple magic swept the +gathering shadows from her face, and left it clear again, as her +thoughts flew home like birds into the shelter of their nest.</p> + +<p>"Good night, mother! I'll face temptation steadily. I'll try to take +life cheerily, and do nothing that shall make your dear face a reproach, +when it looks into my own again."</p> + +<p>Then Debby said her prayers like any pious child, and lay down to dream +of pulling buttercups with Baby Bess, and sinking in the twilight on her +father's knee.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>The history of Debby's first day might serve as a sample of most that +followed, as week after week went by with varying pleasures and +increasing interest to more than one young <i>débutante</i>. Mrs. Carroll did +her best, but Debby was too simple for a belle, too honest for a flirt, +too independent for a fine lady; she would be nothing but her sturdy +little self, open as daylight, gay as a lark, and blunt as any Puritan. +Poor Aunt Pen was in despair, till she observed that the girl often +"took" with the very peculiarities which she was lamenting; this +somewhat consoled her, and she tried to make the best of the pretty bit +of homespun which would not and could not become velvet or brocade. +Seguin, Ellenborough, & Co. looked with lordly scorn upon her, as a worm +blind to their attractions. Miss MacFlimsy and her "set" quizzed her +unmercifully behind her back, after being worsted in several passages of +arms; and more than one successful mamma condoled with Aunt Pen upon the +terribly defective education of her charge, till that stout matron could +have found it in her heart to tweak off their caps and walk on them, +like the irascible Betsey Trotwood.</p> + +<p>But Debby had a circle of admirers who loved her with a sincerity few +summer queens could boast; for they were real friends, won by gentle +arts, and retained by the gracious sweetness of her nature. Moon-faced +babies crowed and clapped their chubby hands when she passed by their +wicker thrones; story-loving children clustered round her knee, and +never were denied; pale invalids found wild-flowers on their pillows; +and forlorn papas forgot the state of the money-market when she sang for +them the homely airs their daughters had no time to learn. Certain plain +young ladies poured their woes into her friendly ear, and were +comforted; several smart Sophomores fell into a state of chronic +stammer, blush, and adoration, when she took a motherly interest in +their affairs; and a melancholy old Frenchman blessed her with the +enthusiasm of his nation, because she put a posy in the button-hole of +his rusty coat, and never failed to smile and bow as he passed by. Yet +Debby was no Edgeworth heroine, preternaturally prudent, wise, and +untemptable; she had a fine crop of piques, vanities, and dislikes +growing up under this new style of cultivation. She loved admiration, +enjoyed her purple and fine linen, hid new-born envy, disappointed hope, +and wounded pride behind a smiling face, and often thought with a sigh +of the humdrum duties that awaited her at home. But under the airs and +graces Aunt Pen cherished with such sedulous care, under the flounces +and furbelows Victorine daily adjusted with groans, under the polish +which she acquired with feminine ease, the girl's heart still beat +steadfast and strong, and conscience kept watch and ward that no +traitor should enter in to surprise the citadel which mother-love had +tried to garrison so well.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of his sage resolve, Mr. Joe tried the "moral dodge," as he +elegantly expressed it, and, failing in that, followed it up with the +tragic, religious, negligent, and devoted ditto; but acting was not his +forte, so Debby routed him in all; and at last, when he was at his wit's +end for an idea, she suggested one, and completed her victory by saying +pleasantly,—</p> + +<p>"You took me behind the curtain too soon, and now the paste diamonds and +cotton-velvet don't impose upon me a bit. Just be your natural self, and +we shall get on nicely, Mr. Leavenworth."</p> + +<p>The novelty of the proposal struck his fancy, and after a few relapses +it was carried into effect, and thenceforth, with Debby, he became the +simple, good-humored lad Nature designed him to be, and, as a proof of +it, soon fell very sincerely in love.</p> + +<p>Frank Evan, seated in the parquet of society, surveyed the dress-circle +with much the same expression that Debby had seen during Aunt Pen's +oration; but he soon neglected that amusement to watch several actors in +the drama going on before his eyes, while a strong desire to perform a +part therein slowly took possession of his mind. Debby always had a look +of welcome when he came, always treated him with the kindness of a +generous woman who has had an opportunity to forgive, and always watched +the serious, solitary man with a great compassion for his loss, a +growing admiration for his upright life. More than once the beach birds +saw two figures pacing the sands at sunrise with the peace of early day +upon their faces and the light of a kindred mood shining in their eyes. +More than once the friendly ocean made a third in the pleasant +conversation, and its low undertone came and went between the mellow +bass and silvery treble of the human voices with a melody that lent +another charm to interviews which soon grew wondrous sweet to man and +maid. Aunt Pen seldom saw the twain together, seldom spoke of Evan; and +Debby held her peace, for, when she planned to make her innocent +confessions, she found that what seemed much to her was nothing to +another ear and scarcely worth the telling; so, unconscious as yet +whither the green path led, she went on her way, leading two lives, one +rich and earnest, hoarded deep within herself, the other frivolous and +gay for all the world to criticize. But those venerable spinsters, the +Fates, took the matter into their own hands, and soon got the better of +those short-sighted matrons, Mesdames Grundy and Carroll; for, long +before they knew it, Frank and Debby had begun to read together a book +greater than Dickens ever wrote, and when they had come to the fairest +part of the sweet story Adam first told Eve, they looked for the name +upon the title-page, and found that it was "Love."</p> + +<p>Eight weeks came and went,—eight wonderfully happy weeks to Debby and +her friend; for "propinquity" had worked more wonders than poor Mrs. +Carroll knew, as the only one she saw or guessed was the utter +captivation of Joe Leavenworth. He had become "himself" to such an +extent that a change of identity would have been a relief; for the +object of his adoration showed no signs of relenting, and he began to +fear, that, as Debby said, her heart was "not in the market." She was +always friendly, but never made those interesting betrayals of regard +which are so encouraging to youthful gentlemen "who fain would climb, +yet fear to fall." She never blushed when he pressed her hand, never +fainted or grew pale when he appeared with a smashed trotting-wagon and +a black eye, and actually slept through a serenade that would have won +any other woman's soul out of her body with its despairing quavers. +Matters were getting desperate; for horses lost their charms, "flowing +bowls" palled upon his lips, ruffled shirt-bosoms no longer delighted +him, and hops possessed no soothing power to allay the anguish of his +mind. Mr. Seguin, after unavailing ridicule and pity, took compassion +on him, and from his large experience suggested a remedy, just as he was +departing for a more congenial sphere.</p> + +<p>"Now don't be an idiot, Joe, but, if you want to keep your hand in and +go through a regular chapter of flirtation, just right about face, and +devote yourself to some one else. Nothing like jealousy to teach +womankind their own minds, and a touch of it will bring little Wilder +round in a jiffy. Try it, my boy, and good luck to you!"—with which +Christian advice Mr. Seguin slapped his pupil on the shoulder, and +disappeared, like a modern Mephistopheles, in a cloud of cigar-smoke.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad he's gone, for in my present state of mind he's not up to my +mark at all. I'll try his plan, though, and flirt with Clara West; she's +engaged, so it won't damage her affections; her lover isn't here, so it +won't disturb his; and, by Jove! I must do something, for I can't stand +this suspense."</p> + +<p>Debby was infinitely relieved by this new move, and infinitely amused as +she guessed the motive that prompted it but the more contented she +seemed, the more violently Mr. Joe flirted with her rival, till at last +weak-minded Miss Clara began to think her absent George the most +undesirable of lovers, and to mourn that she ever said "Yes" to a +merchant's clerk, when she might have said it to a merchant's son. Aunt +Pen watched and approved this stratagem, hoped for the best results, and +believed the day won when Debby grew pale and silent, and followed with +her eyes the young couple who were playing battledoor and shuttlecock +with each other's hearts, as if she took some interest in the game. But +Aunt Pen clashed her cymbals too soon; for Debby's trouble had a better +source than jealousy, and in the silence of the sleepless nights that +stole her bloom she was taking counsel of her own full heart, and +resolving to serve another woman as she would herself be served in a +like peril, though etiquette was outraged and the customs of polite +society turned upside down.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>"Look, Aunt Pen! what lovely shells and moss I've got! Such a splendid +scramble over the rocks as I've had with Mrs. Duncan's boys! It seemed +so like home to run and sing with a troop of topsy-turvy children that +it did me good; and I wish you had all been there to see," cried Debby, +running into the drawing-room, one day, where Mrs. Carroll and a circle +of ladies sat enjoying a dish of highly flavored scandal, as they +exercised their eyesight over fancy-work.</p> + +<p>"My dear Dora, spare my nerves; and if you have any regard for the +proprieties of life, don't go romping in the sun with a parcel of noisy +boys. If you could see what an object you are, I think you would try to +imitate Miss Clara, who is always a model of elegant repose."</p> + +<p>Miss West primmed up her lips, and settled a fold in her ninth flounce, +as Mrs. Carroll spoke, while the whole group fixed their eyes with +dignified disapproval on the invader of their refined society. Debby had +come like a fresh wind into a sultry room; but no one welcomed the +healthful visitant, no one saw a pleasant picture in the bright-faced +girl with wind-tossed hair and rustic hat heaped with moss and +many-tinted shells; they only saw that her gown was wet, her gloves +forgotten, and her scarf trailing at her waist in a manner no well-bred +lady could approve. The sunshine faded out of Debby's face, and there +was a touch of bitterness in her tone, as she glanced at the circle of +fashion-plates, saying, with an earnestness which caused Miss West to +open her pale eyes to their widest extent,—</p> + +<p>"Aunt Pen, don't freeze me yet,—don't take away my faith in simple +things, but let me be a child a little longer,—let me play and sing and +keep my spirit blithe among the dandelions and the robins while I can; +for trouble comes soon enough, and all my life will be the richer and +the better for a happy youth."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll had nothing at hand to offer in reply to this appeal, and +four ladies dropped their work to stare; but Frank Evan looked in from +the piazza, saying, as he beckoned like a boy,—</p> + +<p>"I'll play with you, Miss Dora; come and make sand pies upon the shore. +Please let her, Mrs. Carroll; we'll be very good, and not wet our +pinafores or feet."</p> + +<p>Without waiting for permission, Debby poured her treasures into the lap +of a certain lame Freddy, and went away to a kind of play she had never +known before. Quiet as a chidden child, she walked beside her companion, +who looked down at the little figure, longing to take it on his knee and +call the sunshine back again. That he dared not do; but accident, the +lover's friend, performed the work, and did him a good turn beside. The +old Frenchman was slowly approaching, when a frolicsome wind whisked off +his hat and sent it skimming along the beach. In spite of her late +lecture, away went Debby, and caught the truant chapeau just as a wave +was hurrying up to claim it. This restored her cheerfulness, and when +she returned, she was herself again.</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks; but does Mademoiselle remember the forfeit I might +demand to add to the favor she has already done me?" asked the gallant +old gentleman, as Debby took the hat off her own head, and presented it +with a martial salute.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I had forgotten that; but you may claim it, Sir,—indeed, you may; +I only wish I could do something more to give you pleasure"; and Debby +looked up into the withered face which had grown familiar to her, with +kind eyes, full of pity and respect.</p> + +<p>Her manner touched the old man very much; he bent his gray head before +her, saying, gratefully,—</p> + +<p>"My child, I am not good enough to salute these blooming cheeks; but I +shall pray the Virgin to reward you for the compassion you bestow on the +poor exile, and I shall keep your memory very green through all my +life."</p> + +<p>He kissed her hand, as if it were a queen's, and went on his way, +thinking of the little daughter whose death left him childless in a +foreign land.</p> + +<p>Debby softly began to sing, "Oh, come unto the yellow sands!" but +stopped in the middle of a line, to say,—</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you why I did what Aunt Pen would call a very unladylike +and improper thing, Mr. Evan?"</p> + +<p>"If you will be so kind"; and her companion looked delighted at the +confidence about to be reposed in him.</p> + +<p>"Somewhere across this great wide sea I hope I have a brother," Debby +said, with softened voice and a wistful look into the dim horizon. "Five +years ago he left us, and we have never heard from him since, except to +know that he landed safely in Australia. People tell us he is dead; but +I believe he will yet come home; and so I love to help and pity any man +who needs it, rich or poor, young or old, hoping that as I do by them +some tender-hearted woman far away will do by Brother Will."</p> + +<p>As Debby spoke, across Frank Evan's face there passed the look that +seldom comes but once to any young man's countenance; for suddenly the +moment dawned when love asserted its supremacy, and putting pride, +doubt, and fear underneath its feet, ruled the strong heart royally and +bent it to its will. Debby's thoughts had floated across the sea; but +they came swiftly back when her companion spoke again, steadily and +slow, but with a subtile change in tone and manner which arrested them +at once.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dora, if you should meet a man who had known a laborious youth, a +solitary manhood, who had no sweet domestic ties to make home beautiful +and keep his nature warm, who longed most ardently to be so blessed, and +made it the aim of his life to grow more worthy the good gift, should it +ever come,—if you should learn that you possessed the power to make +this fellow-creature's happiness, could you find it in your gentle heart +to take compassion on him for the love of 'Brother Will'?" </p> + +<p>Debby was silent, wondering why heart and nerves and brain were stirred +by such a sudden thrill, why she dared not look up, and why, when she +desired so much to speak, she could only answer, in a voice that sounded +strange to her own ears,—</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell."</p> + +<p>Still, steadily and slow, with strong emotion deepening and softening +his voice, the lover at her side went on,—</p> + +<p>"Will you ask yourself this question in some quiet hour? For such a man +has lived in the sunshine of your presence for eight happy weeks, and +now, when his holiday is done, he finds that the old solitude will be +more sorrowful than ever, unless he can discover whether his summer +dream will change into a beautiful reality. Miss Dora, I have very +little to offer you; a faithful heart to cherish you, a strong arm to +work for you, an honest name to give into your keeping,—these are all; +but if they have any worth in your eyes, they are most truly yours +forever."</p> + +<p>Debby was steadying her voice to reply, when a troop of bathers came +shouting down the bank, and she took flight into her dressing-room, +there to sit staring at the wall, till the advent of Aunt Pen forced her +to resume the business of the hour by assuming her aquatic attire and +stealing shyly down into the surf.</p> + +<p>Frank Evan, still pacing in the footprints they had lately made, watched +the lithe figure tripping to and fro, and, as he looked, murmured to +himself the last line of a ballad Debby sometimes sang,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Dance light! for my heart it lies under your feet, love!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Presently a great wave swept Debby up, and stranded her very near him, +much to her confusion and his satisfaction. Shaking the spray out of her +eyes, she was hurrying away, when Frank said,—</p> + +<p>"You will trip, Miss Dora; let me tie these strings for you"; and, +suiting the action to the word, he knelt down and began to fasten the +cords of her bathing-shoe.</p> + +<p>Debby stood looking down at the tall head bent before her, with a +curious sense of wonder that a look from her could make a strong man +flush and pale, as he had done; and she was trying to concoct some +friendly speech, when Frank, still fumbling at the knots, said, very +earnestly and low,—</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, if I am selfish in pressing for an answer; but I must go +to-morrow, and a single word will change my whole future for the better +or the worse. Won't you speak it, Dora?"</p> + +<p>If they had been alone, Debby would have put her arms about his neck, +and said it with all her heart; but she had a presentiment that she +should cry, if her love found vent; and here forty pairs of eyes were on +them, and salt water seemed superfluous. Besides, Debby had not breathed +the air of coquetry so long without a touch of the infection; and the +love of power, that lies dormant in the meekest woman's breast, suddenly +awoke and tempted her.</p> + +<p>"If you catch me before I reach that rock, perhaps I will say 'Yes,'" +was her unexpected answer; and before her lover caught her meaning, she +was floating leisurely away.</p> + +<p>Frank was not in bathing-costume, and Debby never dreamed that he would +take her at her word; but she did not know the man she had to deal with; +for, taking no second thought, he flung hat and coat away, and dashed +into the sea. This gave a serious aspect to Debby's foolish jest. A +feeling of dismay seized her, when she saw a resolute face dividing the +waves behind her, and thought of the rash challenge she had given; but +she had a spirit of her own, and had profited well by Mr. Joe's +instructions; so she drew a long breath, and swam as if for life, +instead of love. Evan was incumbered by his clothing, and Debby had much +the start of him; but, like a second Leander, he hoped to win his Hero, +and, lending every muscle to the work, gained rapidly upon the little +hat which was his beacon through the foam. Debby heard the deep +breathing drawing nearer and nearer, as her pursuer's strong arms cleft +the water and sent it rippling past her lips. Something like terror took +possession of her; for the strength seemed going out of her limbs, and +the rock appeared to recede before her; but the unconquerable blood of +the Pilgrims was in her veins, and "<i>Nil desperandum</i>" her motto; so, +setting her teeth, she muttered, defiantly,—</p> + +<p>"I'll not be beaten, if I go to the bottom!"</p> + +<p>A great splashing arose, and when Evan recovered the use of his eyes, +the pagoda-hat had taken a sudden turn, and seemed making for the +farthest point of the goal. "I am sure of her now," thought Frank; and, +like a gallant sea-god, he bore down upon his prize, clutching it with a +shout of triumph. But the hat was empty, and like a mocking echo came +Debby's laugh, as she climbed, exhausted, to a cranny in the rock.</p> + +<p>"A very neat thing, by Jove! Deuse take me if you a'n't 'an honor to +your teacher, and a terror to the foe,' Miss Wilder," cried Mr. Joe, as +he came up from a solitary cruise and dropped anchor at her side. "Here, +bring along the hat, Evan; I'm going to crown the victor with +appropriate what-d'-ye-call-'ems," he continued, pulling a handful of +sea-weed that looked like well-boiled greens.</p> + +<p>Frank came up, smiling; but his lips were white, and in his eye a look +Debby could not meet; so, being full of remorse, she naturally assumed +an air of gayety, and began to sing the merriest air she knew, merely +because she longed to throw herself upon the stones and cry violently.</p> + +<p>"It was 'most as exciting as a regatta, and you pulled well, Evan; but +you had too much ballast aboard, and Miss Wilder ran up false colors +just in time to save her ship. What was the wager?" asked the lively +Joseph, complacently surveying his marine millinery, which would have +scandalized a fashionable mermaid.</p> + +<p>"Only a trifle," answered Debby, knotting up her braids with a +revengeful jerk.</p> + +<p>"It's taken the wind out of your sails, I fancy, Evan, for you look +immensely Byronic with the starch minus in your collar and your hair in +a poetic toss. Come, I'll try a race with you; and Miss Wilder will +dance all the evening with the winner. Bless the man, what's he doing +down there? Burying sunfish, hey?"</p> + +<p>Frank had been sitting below them on a narrow strip of sand, absently +piling up a little mound that bore some likeness to a grave. As his +companion spoke, he looked at it, and a sudden flush of feeling swept +across his face, as he replied,—</p> + +<p>"No, only a dead hope."</p> + +<p>"Deuse take it, yes, a good many of that sort of craft founder in these +waters, as I know to my sorrow"; and, sighing tragically, Mr. Joe turned +to help Debby from her perch, but she had glided silently into the sea, +and was gone.</p> + +<p>For the next four hours the poor girl suffered the sharpest pain she had +ever known; for now she clearly saw the strait her folly had betrayed +her into. Frank Evan was a proud man, and would not ask her love again, +believing she had tacitly refused it; and how could she tell him that +she had trifled with the heart she wholly loved and longed to make her +own? She could not confide in Aunt Pen, for that worldly lady would have +no sympathy to bestow. She longed for her mother; but there was no time +to write, for Frank was going on the morrow,—might even then be gone; +and as this fear came over her, she covered up her face and wished that +she were dead. Poor Debby! her last mistake was sadder than her first, +and she was reaping a bitter harvest from her summer's sowing. She sat +and thought till her cheeks burned and her temples throbbed; but she +dared not ease her pain with tears. The gong sounded like a Judgment-Day +trump of doom, and she trembled at the idea of confronting many eyes +with such a telltale face; but she could not stay behind, for Aunt Pen +must know the cause. She tried to play her hard part well; but wherever +she looked, some fresh anxiety appeared, as if every fault and folly of +those months had blossomed suddenly within the hour. She saw Frank Evan +more sombre and more solitary than when she met him first, and cried +regretfully within herself, "How could I so forget the truth I owed +him?" She saw Clara West watching with eager eyes for the coming of +young Leavenworth, and sighed, "This is the fruit of my wicked vanity!" +She saw Aunt Pen regarding her with an anxious face, and longed to say, +"Forgive me, for I have not been sincere!" At last, as her trouble grew, +she resolved to go away and have a quiet "think,"—a remedy which had +served her in many a lesser perplexity; so, stealing out, she went to a +grove of cedars usually deserted at that hour. But in ten minutes Joe +Leavenworth appeared at the door of the summer-house, and, looking in, +said, with a well-acted start of pleasure and surprise,—</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, I thought there was no one here. My dear Miss Wilder, you +look contemplative; but I fancy it wouldn't do to ask the subject of +your meditations, would it?"</p> + +<p>He paused with such an evident intention of remaining that Debby +resolved to make use of the moment, and ease her conscience of one care +that burdened it; therefore she answered his question with her usual +directness,—</p> + +<p>"My meditations were partly about you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Joe was guilty of the weakness of blushing violently and looking +immensely gratified; but his rapture was of short duration, for Debby +went on very earnestly,—</p> + +<p>"I believe I am going to do what you may consider a very impertinent +thing; but I would rather be unmannerly than unjust to others or untrue +to my own sense of right. Mr. Leavenworth, if you were an older man, I +should not dare to say this to you; but I have brothers of my own, and, +remembering how many unkind things they do for want of thought, I +venture to remind you that a woman's heart is a perilous plaything, and +too tender to be used for a selfish purpose or an hour's pleasure. I +know this kind of amusement is not considered wrong; but it <i>is</i> wrong, +and I cannot shut my eyes to the fact, or sit silent while another woman +is allowed to deceive herself and wound the heart that trusts her. Oh, +if you love your own sisters, be generous, be just, and do not destroy +that poor girl's happiness, but go away before your sport becomes a +bitter pain to her!"</p> + +<p>Joe Leavenworth had stood staring at Debby with a troubled countenance, +feeling as if all the misdemeanors of his life were about to be paraded +before him; but, as he listened to her plea, the womanly spirit that +prompted it appealed more loudly than her words, and in his really +generous heart he felt regret for what had never seemed a fault before. +Shallow as he was, nature was stronger than education, and he admired +and accepted what many a wiser, worldlier man would have resented with +auger or contempt. He loved Debby with all his little might; he meant to +tell her so, and graciously present his fortune and himself for her +acceptance; but now, when the moment came, the well-turned speech he had +prepared vanished from his memory, and with the better eloquence of +feeling he blundered out his passion like a very boy.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dora, I never meant to make trouble between Clara and her lover; +upon my soul, I didn't, and wish Seguin had not put the notion into my +head, since it has given you pain. I only tried to pique you into +showing some regret, when I neglected you; but you didn't, and then I +got desperate and didn't care what became of any one. Oh, Dora, if you +knew how much I loved you, I am sure you'd forgive it, and let me prove +my repentance by giving up everything that you dislike. I mean what I +say; upon my life I do; and I'll keep my word, if you will only let me +hope."</p> + +<p>If Debby had wanted a proof of her love for Frank Evan, she might have +found it in the fact that she had words enough at her command now, and +no difficulty in being sisterly pitiful toward her second suitor.</p> + +<p>"Please get up," she said; for Mr. Joe, feeling very humble and very +earnest, had gone down upon his knees, and sat there entirely regardless +of his personal appearance.</p> + +<p>He obeyed; and Debby stood looking up at him with her kindest aspect, as +she said, more tenderly than she had ever spoken to him before,—</p> + +<p>"Thank you for the affection you offer me, but I cannot accept it, for I +have nothing to give you in return but the friendliest regard, the most +sincere good-will. I know you will forgive me, and do for your own sake +the good things you would have done for mine, that I may add to my +esteem a real respect for one who has been very kind to me."</p> + +<p>"I'll try,—indeed, I will, Miss Dora, though it will be powerful hard +without yourself for a help and a reward."</p> + +<p>Poor Joe choked a little, but called up an unexpected manliness, and +added, stoutly,—</p> + +<p>"Don't think I shall be offended at your speaking so, or saying 'No' to +me,—not a bit; it 's all right, and I'm much obliged to you. I might +have known you couldn't care for such a fellow as I am, and don't blame +you, for nobody in the world is good enough for you. I'll go away at +once, I'll try to keep my promise, and I hope you'll be very happy all +your life."</p> + +<p>He shook Debby's hands heartily, and hurried down the steps, but at the +bottom paused and looked back. Debby stood upon the threshold with +sunshine dancing on her winsome face, and kind words trembling on her +lips; for the moment it seemed impossible to part, and, with an +impetuous gesture, he cried to her,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dora, let me stay and try to win you! for everything is possible to +love, and I never knew how dear you were to me till now!"</p> + +<p>There were sudden tears in the young man's eyes, the flush of a genuine +emotion on his cheek, the tremor of an ardent longing in his voice, and, +for the first time, a very true affection strengthened his whole +countenance. Debby's heart was full of penitence; she had given so much +pain to more than one that she longed to atone for it,—longed to do +some very friendly thing, and soothe some trouble such as she herself +had known. She looked into the eager face uplifted to her own and +thought of Will, then stooped and touched her lover's forehead with the +lips that softly whispered, "No."</p> + +<p>If she had cared for him, she never would have done it; poor Joe knew +that, and murmuring an incoherent "Thank you!" he rushed away, feeling +very much as he remembered to have felt when his baby sister died and he +wept his grief away upon his mother's neck. He began his preparations +for departure at once, in a burst of virtuous energy quite refreshing to +behold, thinking within himself, as he flung his cigar-case into the +grate, kicked a billiard-ball into a corner, and suppressed his favorite +allusion to the Devil,—</p> + +<p>"This is a new sort of thing to me, but I can bear it, and upon my life +I think I feel the better for it already."</p> + +<p>And so he did; for though he was no Augustine to turn in an hour from +worldly hopes and climb to sainthood through long years of inward +strife, yet in after-times no one knew how many false steps had been +saved, how many small sins repented of, through the power of the memory +that far away a generous woman waited to respect him, and in his secret +soul he owned that one of the best moments of his life was that in which +little Debby Wilder whispered "No," and kissed him.</p> + +<p>As he passed from sight, the girl leaned her head upon her hand, +thinking sorrowfully to herself,—</p> + +<p>"What right had I to censure him, when my own actions are so far from +true? I have done a wicked thing, and as an honest girl I should undo +it, if I can. I have broken through the rules of a false propriety for +Clara's sake; can I not do as much for Frank's? I will. I'll find him, +if I search the house,—and tell him all, though I never dare to look +him in the face again, and Aunt Pen sends me home to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Full of zeal and courage, Debby caught up her hat and ran down the +steps, but, as she saw Frank Evan coming up the path, a sudden panic +fell upon her, and she could only stand mutely waiting his approach.</p> + +<p>It is asserted that Love is blind; and on the strength of that popular +delusion novel heroes and heroines go blundering through three volumes +of despair with the plain truth directly under their absurd noses: but +in real life this theory is not supported; for to a living man the +countenance of a loving woman is more eloquent than any language, more +trustworthy than a world of proverbs, more beautiful than the sweetest +love-lay ever sung.</p> + +<p>Frank looked at Debby, and "all her heart stood up in her eyes," as she +stretched her hands to him, though her lips only whispered very low,—</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, and let me say the 'Yes' I should have said so long ago."</p> + +<p>Had she required any assurance of her lover's truth, or any reward for +her own, she would have found it in the change that dawned so swiftly in +his face, smoothing the lines upon his forehead, lighting the gloom of +his eye, stirring his firm lips with a sudden tremor, and making his +touch as soft as it was strong. For a moment both stood very still, +while Debby's tears streamed down like summer rain; then Frank drew her +into the green shadow of the grove, and its peace soothed her like a +mother's voice, till she looked up smiling with a shy delight her glance +had never known before. The slant sunbeams dropped a benediction on +their heads, the robins peeped, and the cedars whispered, but no rumor +of what further passed ever went beyond the precincts of the wood; for +such hours are sacred, and Nature guards the first blossoms of a human +love as tenderly as she nurses May-flowers underneath the leaves.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll had retired to her bed with a nervous headache, leaving +Debby to the watch and ward of friendly Mrs. Earle, who performed her +office finely by letting her charge entirely alone. In her dreams Aunt +Pen was just imbibing a copious draught of Champagne at the +wedding-breakfast of her niece, "Mrs. Joseph Leavenworth," when she was +roused by the bride elect, who passed through the room with a lamp and a +shawl in her hand.</p> + +<p>"What time is it, and where are you going, dear?" she asked, dozily +wondering if the carriage for the wedding-tour was at the door so soon.</p> + +<p>"It's only nine, and I am going for a sail, Aunt Pen."</p> + +<p>As Debby spoke, the light flashed full into her face, and a sudden +thought into Mrs. Carroll's mind. She rose up from her pillow, looking +as stately in her nightcap as Maria Theresa is said to have done in like +unassuming head-gear.</p> + +<p>"Something has happened, Dora! What have you done? What have you said? I +insist upon knowing immediately," she demanded, with somewhat startling +brevity.</p> + +<p>"I have said 'No' to Mr. Leavenworth and 'Yes' to Mr. Evan; and I should +like to go home to-morrow, if you please," was the equally concise +reply.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll fell flat in her bed, and lay there stiff and rigid as +Morlena Kenwigs. Debby gently drew the curtains, and stole away, leaving +Aunt Pen's wrath to effervesce before morning.</p> + +<p>The moon was hanging luminous and large on the horizon's edge, sending +shafts of light before her till the melancholy ocean seemed to smile, +and along that shining pathway happy Debby and her lover floated into +that new world where all things seem divine. </p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="wet_weather_work" id="wet_weather_work"></a>WET-WEATHER WORK.</h2> + +<p>BY A FARMER.</p> + +<p>III.</p> + + +<p>Will any of our artists ever give us, on canvas, a good, rattling, saucy +shower? There is room in it for a rare handling of the brush:—the +vague, indistinguishable line of hills, (as I see them to-day,)—the +wild scud of gray, with fine gray lines, slanted by the wind, and +trending eagerly downward,—the swift, petulant dash into the little +pools of the highway, making fairy bubbles that break as soon as they +form,—the land smoking with excess of moisture,—and the pelted leaves +all wincing and shining and adrip.</p> + +<p>I know no painter who has so well succeeded in putting a wet sky into +his pictures as Turner; and in this I judge him by the literal +<i>chiaroscuro</i> of engraving. In proof of it, I take down from my shelf +his "Rivers of France": a book over which I have spent a great many +pleasant hours, and idle ones too,—if it be idle to travel leagues at +the turning of a page, and to see hill-sides spotty with vineyards, and +great bridges wallowing through the Loire, and to watch the fishermen of +Honfleur putting to sea. There are skies, as I said, in some of these +pictures which make a man instinctively think of his umbrella, or of his +distance from home: no actual rain-drift stretching from them, but such +unmistakable promise of a rainy afternoon, in their little parallel +wisps of dark-bottomed clouds, as would make a provident farmer order +every scythe out of the field.</p> + +<p>In the "Chair of Gargantua," on which my eye falls, as I turn over the +pages, an actual thunder-storm is breaking. The scene is somewhere upon +the Lower Seine. From the middle of the left of the picture the lofty +river-bank stretches far across, forming all the background;—its +extreme distance hidden by a bold thrust of the right bank, which juts +into the picture just far enough to shelter a white village, which lies +gleaming upon the edge of the water. On all the foreground lies the +river, broad as a bay. The storm is coming down the stream. Over the +left spur of the bank, and over the meeting of the banks, it broods +black as night. Through a little rift there is a glimpse of serene sky, +from which a mellow light streams down upon the edges and angles of a +few cliffs upon the farther shore. All the rest is heavily shadowed. The +edges of the coming tempest are tortuous and convulsed, and you know +that a fierce wind is driving the black billows on; yet all the water +under the lee of the shores is as tranquil as a dream; a white sail, +near to the white village, hangs slouchingly to the mast: but in the +foreground the tempest has already caught the water; a tall lugger is +scudding and careening under it as if mad; the crews of three +fishermen's boats, that toss on the vexed water, are making a confused +rush to shorten sail, and you may almost fancy that you hear their +outcries sweeping down the wind. In the middle scene, a little steamer +is floating tranquilly on water which is yet calm; and a column of smoke +piling up from its tall chimney rises for a space placidly enough, until +the wind catches and whisks it before the storm. I would wager ten to +one, upon the mere proof in the picture, that the fishermen and the +washerwomen in the foreground will be drenched within an hour.</p> + +<p>When I have once opened the covers of Turner,—especially upon such a +wet day as this,—it is hard for me to leave him until I have wandered +all up and down the Loire, revisited Tours and its quiet cathedral, and +Blois with its stately chateau, and Amboise with its statelier, and +coquetted again with memories of the Maid of Orléans.</p> + +<p>From the Upper Loire it is easy to slip into the branching valleys +which sidle away from it far down into the country of the Auvergne. +Turner does not go there, indeed; the more's the pity; but I do, since +it is the most attractive region rurally (Brittany perhaps excepted) in +all France. The valleys are green, the brooks are frequent, the rivers +are tortuous, the mountains are high, and luxuriant walnut-trees embower +the roads. It was near to Moulins, on the way hither, through the +pleasant Bourbonnois, that Tristram Shandy met with the poor, +half-crazed Maria, piping her evening service to the Virgin.</p> + +<p>And at that thought I must do no less than pull down my "Tristram +Shandy," (on which the dust of years has accumulated,) and read again +that tender story of the lorn maiden, with her attendant goat, and her +hair caught up in a silken fillet, and her shepherd's pipe, from which +she pours out a low, plaintive wail upon the evening air.</p> + +<p>It is not a little singular that a British author should have supplied +the only Arcadian resident of all this Arcadian region. The Abbé Delille +was, indeed, born hereabout, within sight of the bold Puy de Dome, and +within marketing-distance of the beautiful Clermont. But there is very +little that is Arcadian, in freshness or simplicity, in either the +"Gardens" or the other verse of Delille.</p> + +<p>Out of his own mouth (the little green-backed book, my boy) I will +condemn him:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Ce n'est plus cette simple et rustique déesse</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Qui suit ses vieilles lois; c'est une enchanteresse</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Qui, la baguette en main, par des hardis travaux</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Fait naître des aspects et des trésors nouveaux,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Compose un sol plus riche et des races plus belles,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Fertilise les monts, dompte les rocs rebelles."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The <i>baguette</i> of Delille is no shepherd's crook; it has more the +fashion of a drumstick,—<i>baguette de tambour</i>.</p> + +<p>If I follow on southward to Provence, whither I am borne upon the scuds +of rain over Turner's pictures, and the pretty Bourbonnois, and the +green mountains of Auvergne, I find all the characteristic literature of +that land of olives is only of love or war: the vines, the +olive-orchards, and the yellow hill-sides pass for nothing. And if I +read an old <i>Sirvente</i> of the Troubadours, beginning with a certain +redolence of the fields, all this yields presently to knights, and +steeds caparisoned,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Cavalliers ab cavals armatz."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It is smooth reading, and is attributed to Bertrand de Born,<a name="fnanchor_3_3" id="fnanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#footnote_3_3"><sup>3</sup></a> who +lived in the time when even the lion-hearted King Richard turned his +brawny fingers to the luting of a song. Let us listen:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"The beautiful spring delights me well,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">When flowers and leaves are growing;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And it pleases my heart to hear the swell</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Of the birds' sweet chorus flowing</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">In the echoing wood;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And I love to see, all scattered around,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Pavilions and tents on the martial ground;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">And my spirit finds it good</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To see, on the level plains beyond,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Gay knights and steeds caparisoned."</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_3_3" id="footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#fnanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> +M. Raynouard, <i>Poésies de Troubadours</i>, II. 209.</p></div> + +<p>But as the Troubadour nestles more warmly into the rhythm of his verse, +the birds are all forgotten, and the beautiful spring, and there is a +sturdy clang of battle, that would not discredit our own times:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"I tell you that nothing my soul can cheer,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Or banqueting or reposing,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Like the onset cry of 'Charge them!' rung</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">From each side, as in battle closing;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">Where the horses neigh,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And the call to 'aid' is echoing loud,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And there, on the earth, the lowly and proud</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">In the foss together lie,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And yonder is piled the mingled heap</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Of the brave that scaled the trenches steep.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Barons! your castles in safety place,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Your cities and villages, too,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Before ye haste to the battle-scene:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">And Papiol! quickly go,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And tell the lord of 'Yes and No'</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">That peace already too long hath been!"<a name="fnanchor_3_4" id="fnanchor_3_4"></a><a href="#footnote_3_4"><sup>4</sup></a></span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_3_4" id="footnote_3_4"></a><a href="#fnanchor_3_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> +I cannot forbear taking a bit of margin to print the +closing stanzas of the original, which carry the clash of sabres in +their very sound.</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Ie us dic que tan no m' a sabor</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Manjars ni beure ni dormir</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Cum a quant aug cridar: A lor!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">D'ambas las partz; et aug agnir</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">Cavals voitz per l'ombratge,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Et aug cridar: Aidatz! Aidatz!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">E vei cazer per los fossatz</span><br /> +<span class="spanml4m">Paucs e grans per l'erbatge,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">E vei los mortz que pels costatz</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">An los tronsons outre passatz.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml3m">"Baros, metetz et gatge</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Castels e vilas e ciutatz,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Enans q' usquecs no us guerreiatz.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml3m">"Papiol, d'agradatge</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Ad <i>Oc e No</i> t' en vai viatz,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Dic li que trop estan en patz."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It would seem that the men of that time, like men of most times, bore a +considerable contempt for people who said "Yes" one day, and "No" the +next.</p></div> + +<p>I am on my way to Italy, (it may as well be confessed,) where I had +fully intended to open my rainy day's work; but Turner has kept me, and +then Auvergne, and then the brisk battle-song of a Troubadour.</p> + +<p>When I was upon the Cajano farm of Lorenzo the Magnificent, during my +last "spell of wet," it was uncourteous not to refer to the pleasant +commemorative poem of "Ambra," which Lorenzo himself wrote, and which, +whatever may be said against the conception and conduct of it, shows in +its opening stanzas that the great Medici was as appreciative of rural +images—fir-boughs with loaded snows, thick cypresses in which late +birds lurked, sharp-leaved junipers, and sturdy pines fighting the +wind—as ever he had been of antique jewels, or of the rhythm of such as +Politiano. And if I have spoken slightingly of this latter poet, it was +only in contrast with Virgil, and in view of his strained Latinity. When +he is himself, and wraps his fancies only in his own sparkling Tuscan, +we forget his classic frigidities, and his quarrels with Madonna +Clarice, and are willing to confess that no pen of his time was dipped +with such a relishing <i>gusto</i> into the colors of the hyacinths and +trembling pansies, and into all the blandishments of a gushing and +wanton spring.<a name="fnanchor_4_4" id="fnanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#footnote_4_4"><sup>5</sup></a></p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_4_4" id="footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#fnanchor_4_4"><span class="label">5</span></a> +See Wm. Parr Greswell's <i>Memoirs of Politiano</i>, with +translations.</p></div> + +<p>But classical affectation was the fashion of that day. A certain +Bolognese noble, Berò by name, wrote ten Latin books on rural affairs: +Tiraboschi says he never saw them; neither have I. Another scholar, +Pietro da Barga, who astonished his teachers by his wonderful +proficiency at the age of twelve, and who was afterward guest of the +French ambassador in Venice, wrote a poem on rural matters, to which, +with an exaggerated classicism, he gave the Greek name of +"<i>Cynegeticon</i>"; and about the same time Giuseppe Voltolina composed +three books on kitchen-gardening. I name these writers only out of +sympathy with their topics: I would not advise the reading of them: it +would involve a long journey and scrupulous search to find them, through +I know not what out-of-the-way libraries; and if found, no essentially +new facts or theories could be counted on which are not covered by the +treatise of Crescenzi. The Pisans or Venetians may possibly have +introduced a few new plants from the East; the example of the Medici may +have suggested some improvements in the arrangement of forcing-houses, +or the outlay of villas; but in all that regarded general husbandry, +Crescenzi was still the man.</p> + +<p>I linger about this period, and the writers of this time, because I +snuff here and there among them the perfume of a country bouquet, which +carries the odor of the fields with it, and transports me to the +"empurpled hill-sides" of Tuscany. Shall I name Sannazaro, with his +"Arcadia"?—a dead book now,—or "Amyntas," who, before he is tall +enough to steal apples from the lowest boughs, (so sings Tasso,) plunges +head and ears in love with Sylvia, the fine daughter of Montano, who has +a store of cattle, "<i>richissimo d'armenti</i>"?</p> + +<p>Then there is Rucellai, who, under the pontificate of Leo X., came to +be Governor of the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and yet has left a poem of +fifteen hundred lines devoted to Bees. In his suggestions for the +allaying of a civil war among these winged people, he is quite beyond +either Virgil or Columella or Mr. Lincoln. "Pluck some leafy branch," he +says, "and with it sprinkle the contending factions with either honey or +sweet grape-juice, and you shall see them instantly forego their +strife":—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml6m">"The two warring bands joyful unite,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And foe embraces foe: each with its lips</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Licking the others' wings, feet, arms, and breast,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Whereon the luscious mixture hath been shed,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And all inebriate with delight."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So the Swiss,<a name="fnanchor_1_5" id="fnanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#footnote_1_5"><sup>6</sup></a> +he continues, when they fall out among themselves, are +appeased by some grave old gentleman, who says a few pleasant words, and +orders up a good stoop of sweet wine, in which all parties presently dip +their beards, and laugh and embrace and make peace, and so forget +outrage. It may have been the sixteenth-century way of closing a battle.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_1_5" id="footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#fnanchor_1_5"><span class="label">6</span></a> +<span class="spanml2m">"Come quando nei Suizzeri si muove</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Sedizione, e che si grida a l' arme;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Se qualche nom grave allor si leva in piede</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">E comincia a parlar con dolce lingua,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Mitiga i petti barbari e feroci;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">E intanto fa portare ondanti vasi</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Pieni di dolci ed odorati vini;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Ahora ognun le labbra e 'l mento immerge</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Ne' le spumanti tazze," etc.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Guarini, with all his affectations, has little prettinesses which charm +like the chirping of a bird;—as where he paints (in the very first +scene of the "Pastor Fido") the little sparrow flitting from fir to +beech, and from beech to myrtle, and twittering, "How I love! how I +love!" And the bird-mate ("<i>il suo dolce desio</i>") twitters in reply, +"How I love, how I love, too!" "<i>Ardo d' amore anch' io.</i>"</p> + +<p>Messer Pietro Bembo was a different man from Guarini. I cannot imagine +him listening to the sparrows; I cannot imagine him plucking a +flower,—except he have some courtly gallantry in hand, perhaps toward +the Borgia. He was one of those pompous, stiff, scholastic prigs who +wrote by rules of syntax; and of syntax he is dead. He was clever and +learned; he wrote in Latin, Italian, Castlian: but nobody reads him; he +has only a little crypt in the "Autori Diversi." I think of him as I +think of fine women who must always rustle in brocade embossed with hard +jewels, and who never win the triumphs that belong to a charming morning +<i>déshabillé</i> with only the added improvisation of a rose.</p> + +<p>In his "Asolani" Bembo gives a very full and minute description of the +gardens at Asolo, which relieved the royal retirement of Caterina, the +Queen of Cyprus. Nothing could be more admirable than the situation: +there were skirts of mountain which were covered, and are still covered, +with oaks; there were grottos in the sides of cliffs, and water so +disposed—in jets, in pools inclosed by marble, and among rocks—as to +counterfeit all the wildness of Nature; there was the same stately array +of cypresses, and of clipped hedges, which had belonged to the villas of +Pliny; temples were decorated with blazing frescoes, to which, I dare +say, Carpaccio may have lent a hand, if not that wild rake, Giorgione. +Here the pretty Queen, with eight thousand gold ducats a year, (whatever +that amount may have been,) and some seventy odd retainers, held her +court; and here Bembo, a dashing young fellow at that time of seven or +eight and twenty, became a party to those disquisitions on Love, and to +those recitations of song, part of which he has recorded in the +"Asolani." I am sorry to say, the beauty of the place, so far as regards +its artificial features, is now all gone. The hall, which may have +served as the presence-chamber of the Queen, was only a few years since +doing service as a farmer's barn; and the traces of a Diana and an +Apollo were still coloring the wall under which a few cows were +crunching their clover-hay.</p> + +<p>All the gardening of Italy at that period, as, indeed, at almost all +times, depended very much upon architectural accessories: colonnades and +wall-veil with frescoes make a large part of Italian gardening to this +day. The Isola Bella in the Lago Maggiore, and the Borghese Garden at +Rome, are fair types. And as I recall the sunny vistas of this last, and +the noontide loungings upon the marble seats, counting white flecks of +statues amid the green of cypresses, and watching the shadow which some +dense-topped pine flings upon a marble flight of steps or a marble +balustrade, I cannot sneer at the Italian gardening, or wish it were +other than it is. The art-life of Italy is the crowning and the +overlapping life. The Campagna seems only a bit of foreground to carry +the leaping arches of the aqueducts, and to throw the hills of Tivoli +and Albano to a purple distance. The farmers (<i>fattori</i>) who gallop +across the fields, in rough sheepskin wrappers, and upon scurvy-looking +ponies, are more picturesque than thrifty; and if I gallop in company +with one of them to his home upon the farther edge of the Campagna, +(which is an allowable wet-day fancy,) I shall find a tall stone house +smeared over roughly with plaster, and its ground-floor devoted to a +crazy cart, a pony, a brace of cows, and a few goats; a rude court is +walled in adjoining the house, where a few pigs are grunting. Ascending +an oaken stair-way within the door, I come upon the living-room of the +<i>fattore</i>; the beams overhead are begrimed with smoke, and garnished +here and there with flitches of bacon; a scant fire of fagots is +struggling into blaze upon an open hearth; and on a low table bare of +either cloth or cleanliness, there waits him his supper of <i>polenta</i>, +which is nothing more or less than our plain boiled Indian-pudding. Add +to this a red-eyed dog, that seems to be a savage representative of a +Scotch colley,—a lean, wrinkled, dark-faced woman, who is unwinding the +bandages from a squalling <i>Bambino</i>,—a mixed odor of garlic and of +goats, that is quickened with an ammoniacal pungency,—and you may form +some idea of the home of a small Roman farmer in our day. It falls away +from the standard of Cato; and so does the man.</p> + +<p>He takes his twenty or thirty acres, upon shares, from some wealthy +proprietor of Rome, whose estate may possibly cover a square mile or two +of territory. He sells vegetables, poultry, a little grain, a few curds, +and possibly a butt or two of sour wine. He is a type of a great many +who lived within the limits of the old Papal territory; whether he and +they have dropped their musty sheepskins and shaken off their unthrift +under the new government, I cannot say.</p> + +<p>Around Bologna, indeed, there was a better race of farmers: the +intervening thrift of Tuscany had always its influence. The meadows of +Terni, too, which are watered by the Velino, bear three full crops of +grass in the season; the valley of the Clitumnus is like a miniature of +the Genesee; and around Perugia the crimson-tasselled clovers, in the +season of their bloom, give to the fields the beauty of a garden.</p> + +<p>The old Duke of Tuscany, before he became soured by his political +mishaps, was a great patron of agricultural improvements. He had +princely farms in the neighborhood both of his capital and of Pisa. Of +the latter I cannot speak from personal observation; but the dairy-farm, +<i>Cascina</i>, near to Florence, can hardly have been much inferior to the +Cajano property of the great Lorenzo. The stables were admirably +arranged, and of permanent character; the neatness was equal to that of +the dairies of Holland. The Swiss cows, of a pretty dun-color, were kept +stalled, and luxuriously fed upon freshly cut ray-grass, clover, or +vetches, with an occasional sprinkling of meal; the calves were +invariably reared by hand; and the average <i>per diem</i> of milk, +throughout the season, was stated at fourteen quarts; and I think +Madonna Clarice never strained more than this into the cheese-tubs of +Ambra. I trust the burghers of Florence, and the new <i>Gonfaloniere</i>, +whoever he may be, will not forget the dun cows of the Cascina, or their +baitings with the tender vetches.</p> + +<p>The redemption of the waste marshlands in the Val di Chiana by the +engineering skill of Fossombroni, and the consequent restoration of many +thousands of acres which seemed hopelessly lost to fertility, is a +result of which the Medici would hardly have dreamed, and which would do +credit to any age or country.</p> + +<p>About the better-cultivated portions of Lombardy there is an almost +regal look. The roads are straight, and of most admirable construction. +Lines of trees lift their stateliness on either side, and carry trailing +festoons of vines. On both sides streams of water are flowing in +artificial canals, interrupted here and there by cross sluices and +gates, by means of which any or all of the fields can be laid under +water at pleasure, so that old meadows return three and four cuttings of +grass in the year. There are patches of Indian-corn which are equal to +any that can be seen on the Miami; hemp and flax appear at intervals, +and upon the lower lands rice. The barns are huge in size, and are +raised from the ground upon columns of masonry.</p> + +<p>I have a dapper little note-book of travel, from which these facts are +mainly taken; and at the head of one of its pages I observe an old +ink-sketch of a few trees, with festoons of vines between. It is +yellowed now, and poor always; for I am but a dabbler at such things. +Yet it brings back, clearly and briskly, the broad stretch of Lombard +meadows, the smooth Macadam, the gleaming canals of water, the white +finials of Milan Cathedral shining somewhere in the distance, the +thrushes, as in the "Pastor Fido," filling all the morning air with +their sweet</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Ardo d' amore! ardo d' amore!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>the dewy clover-lots, looking like wavy silken plush, the green glitter +of mulberry-leaves, and the beggar in steeple-crowned hat, who says, +"<i>Grazia</i>," and "<i>Á rivedervi!</i>" as I drop him a few kreutzers, and +rattle away to the North, and out of Italy.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>About the year 1570, a certain Conrad Heresbach, who was Councillor to +the Duke of Cleves, (brother to that unfortunate Anne of Cleves who was +one of the wife-victims of Henry VIII.,) wrote four Latin books on +rustic affairs, which were translated by Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire +farmer and poet, who was in his day gentleman-pensioner to Queen +Elizabeth. Our friend Barnaby introduces his translation in this +style:—"I haue thought it meet (good Reader) for thy further profit & +pleasure, to put into English these foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected +& set forth by Master Conrade Heresbatch, a great & a learned Counceller +of the Duke of Cleues: not thinking it reason, though I haue altered & +increased his worke, <i>with mine owne readings & obseruations</i>, joined +with the experience of sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in +the like case haue done) the honour & glory of his owne trauaile: +Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings or mine, should +deface, or any waves darken the good enterprise, or painfull trauailes +of such our countrymen, of England, as haue plentifully written of this +matter: but always haue, & do giue them the reuerence & honour due to so +vertuous, & well disposed Gentlemen, namely, <i>Master Fitz herbert</i>, & +<i>Master Tusser</i>: whose workes may, in my fancie, without any +presumption, compare with any, either <i>Varro</i>, <i>Columella</i>, or +<i>Palladius</i> of <i>Rome</i>."</p> + +<p>The work is written in the form of a dialogue, the parties being Cono, a +country-gentleman, Metella, his wife, Rigo, a courtier, and Hermes, a +servant. The first book relates to tillage, and farm-practice in +general; the second, to orcharding, gardens, and woods; the third, to +cattle; and the fourth, to fowl, fish, and bees. He had evidently been +an attentive reader of the older authors I have discussed, and his +citations from them are abundant. He had also opportunity for every-day +observation in a region which, besides being one of the most fertile, +was probably at that time the most highly cultivated in Europe; and his +work may be regarded as the most important contribution to agricultural +literature since the days of Crescenzi. He reaffirms, indeed, many of +the old fables of the Latinists,—respects the force of proper +incantations, has abiding faith in "the moon being aloft" in time of +sowing, and insists that the medlar can be grafted on the pine, and the +cherry upon the fir. Rue, he tells us, "will prosper the better for +being stolen"; and "If you breake to powder the horne of a Ram & sowe it +watrying it well, it is thought it will come to be good Sperage" +(Asparagus). He assures us that he has grafted the pear successfully +when in full bloom; and furthermore, that he has seen apples which have +been kept sound for three years.</p> + +<p>Upon the last page are some rules for purchasing land, which I suspect +are to be attributed to the poet of Lincolnshire, rather than to +Heresbach. They are as good as they were then; and the poetry none the +worse:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"First see that the land be clear</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">In title of the seller;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And that it stand in danger</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Of no woman's dowrie;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">See whether the tenure be bond or free,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And release of every fee of fee;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">See that the seller be of age,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And that it lie not in mortgage;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Whether ataile be thereof found,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And whether it stand in statute bound;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Consider what service longeth thereto,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And what quit rent thereout must goe;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And if it become of a wedded woman,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Think thou then on covert baron;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And if thou may in any wise,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Make thy charter in warrantise,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To thee, thine heyres, assignes also;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Thus should a wise purchaser doe."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The learned Lipsius was a contemporary of Councillor Heresbach, and +although his orthodoxy was somewhat questionable, and his Calvinism +somewhat stretchy, there can be no doubt of the honest rural love which +belongs to some of his letters, and especially to this smack of verse (I +dare not say poetry) with which he closes his <i>Eighth (Cent. I.)</i></p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Vitam si liceat mihi</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Formare arbitriis meis:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Non fasces cupiam aut opes,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Non clarus niveis equis</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Captiva agmina traxerim.</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">In solis habitem locis,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Hortos possideam atque agros,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Illic ad strepitus aquæ</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Musarum studiis fruar.</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Sic cum fata mihi ultima</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Pernerit Lachesis mea;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Tranquillus moriar senex."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And with this I will have done with a dead language; for I am come to a +period now when I can garnish my talk with the flowers of good old +English gardens. At the very thought of them, I seem to hear the royal +captive James pouring madrigals through the window of his Windsor +prison,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"the hymnis consecrat</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Of lovis use, now soft, now loud among,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">That all the gardens and the wallis rung."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And through the "Dreme" of Chaucer I seem to see the great plain of +Woodstock stretching away under my view, all white and green, "green +y-powdered with daisy." Upon the half-ploughed land, lying yonder veiled +so tenderly with the mist and the rain, I could take oath to the very +spot where five hundred years ago the plowman of Chaucer, all "forswat,"</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"plucked up his plowe</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Whan midsomer mone was comen in</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And shoke off shear, and coulter off drowe,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And honged his harnis on a pinne,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And said his beasts should ete enowe</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And lie in grasse up to the chin."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But Chaucer was no farmer, or he would have known it to be bad husbandry +(even for poetry) to allow cattle steaming from the plough to lie down +in grass of that height.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>Sir Anthony Fitz-herbert is the first duly accredited writer on British +husbandry. There are some few earlier ones, it is true,—a certain +"Mayster Groshede, Bysshop of Lyncoln," and a Henri Calcoensis, among +them. Indeed, Mr. Donaldson, who has compiled a bibliography of British +farm-writers, and who once threatened a poem on kindred subjects, has +the effrontery to include Lord Littleton. Now I have a respect for Lord +Littleton, and for Coke on Littleton, but it is tempered with some early +experiences in a lawyer's office, and some later experiences of the +legal profession; he may have written well upon "Tenures," but he had +not enough of tenderness even for a teasel.</p> + +<p>I think it worthy of remark, in view of the mixed complexion which I +have given to these wet-day studies, that the oldest printed copy of +that sweet ballad of the "Nut Browne Mayde" has come to us in a +Chronicle of 1503, which contains also a chapter upon "the crafte of +graffynge & plantynge & alterynge of fruyts." What could be happier than +the conjunction of the knight of "the grenwode tree" with a good chapter +on "graffynge"?</p> + +<p>Fitz-herbert's work is entitled a "Boke of Husbandrie," and counts, +among other headings of discourse, the following:—</p> + +<p>"Whether is better a plough of horses or a plough of oxen."</p> + +<p>"To cary out dounge & mucke, & to spreade it."</p> + +<p>"The fyrste furryng of the falowes."</p> + +<p>"To make a ewe to love hir lambe."</p> + +<p>"To bye lean cattel."</p> + +<p>"A shorte information for a young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve."</p> + +<p>"What the wyfe oughte to dooe generally."</p> + +<p>(<i>seq.</i>) "To kepe measure in spendynge."</p> + +<p>"What be God's commandments."</p> + +<p>By all which it may be seen that Sir Anthony took as broad a view of +husbandry as did Xenophon.</p> + +<p>Among other advices to the "young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve" +he counsels him to rise betime in the morning, and if "he fynde any +horses, mares, swyne, shepe, beastes in his pastures that be not his +own; or fynde a gap in his hedge, or any water standynge in his pasture +uppon his grasse, whereby he may take double herte, bothe losse of his +grasse, & rotting of his shepe, & calves; or if he fyndeth or seeth +anything that is amisse, & wold be amended, let him take out his tables +& wryte the defautes; & when he commeth home to dinner, supper, or at +nyght, then let him call his bayley, & soo shewe him the defautes. For +this," says he, "used I to doo x or xi yeres or more; & yf he cannot +wryte, lette him nycke the defautes uppon a stycke."</p> + +<p>Sir Anthony is gracious to the wife, but he is not tender; and it may be +encouraging to country-housewives nowadays to see what service was +expected of their mothers in the days of Henry VIII.</p> + +<p>"It is a wives occupacion to winow al maner of cornes, to make malte, +wash & wring, to make hey, to shere corne, & in time of neede to helpe +her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or donge carte, dryve the plough, +to lode hay corne & such other. Also to go or ride to the market to sell +butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekens, kapons, hennes, pygges, gees & al +maner of corne. And also to bye al maner of necessary thinges belonging +to a household, & to make a true rekening & accompt to her husband what +she hath receyved & what she hathe payed. And yf the husband go to +market to bye or sell as they ofte do, he then to shew his wife in lyke +maner. For if one of them should use to disceive the other, he +disceyveth himselfe, & he is not lyke to thryve, & therfore they must be +true ether to other."</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>I come next to Master Tusser,—poet, farmer, chorister, vagabond, +happily dead at last, and with a tomb whereon some wag wrote this:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Thou teaching thrift, thyself could never thrive;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">So, like the whetstone, many men are wont</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To sharpen others when themselves are blunt."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I cannot help considering poor Tusser's example one of warning to all +poetically inclined farmers.</p> + +<p>He was born at a little village in the County of Essex. Having a good +voice, he came early in life to be installed as singer at Wallingford +College; and showing here a great proficiency, he was shortly after +impressed for the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Afterward he was for +some time at Eton, where he had the ill-luck to receive some fifty-four +stripes for his shortcomings in Latin; thence he goes to Trinity +College, Cambridge, where he lives "in clover." It appears that he had +some connections at Court, through whose influence he was induced to go +up to London, where he remained some ten years,—possibly as +singer,—but finally left in great disgust at the vices of the town, and +commenced as farmer in Suffolk,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml55">"To moil and to toil</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">With loss and pain, to little gain,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml6m">To cram Sir Knave";—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>from which I fancy that he had a hard landlord, and but little sturdy +resolution. Thence he goes to Ipswich, or its neighborhood, with no +better experience. Afterward we hear of him with a second wife at +Dereham Abbey; but his wife is young and sharp-tempered, and his +landlord a screw: so he does not thrive here, but goes to Norwich and +commences chorister again; but presently takes another farm in +Fairstead, Essex, where it would seem he eked out a support by +collecting tithes for the parson. But he says,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml55">"I spyed, if parson died,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">(All hope in vain,) to hope for gain</span><br /> +<span class="spanml6m">I might go dance."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Possibly he did go dance: he certainly left the tithe-business, and +after settling in one more home, from which he ran to escape the plague, +we find him returned to London, to die,—where he was buried in the +Poultry.</p> + +<p>There are good points in his poem, showing close observation, good +sense, and excellent judgment. His rules of farm-practice are entirely +safe and judicious, and make one wonder how the man who could give such +capital advice could make so capital a failure. In the secret lies all +the philosophy of the difference between knowledge and practice. The +instance is not without its modern support: I have the honor of +acquaintance with several gentlemen who lay down charming rules for +successful husbandry, every time they pay the country a visit; and yet +even their poultry-account is always largely against the constipated +hens.</p> + +<p>What is specially remarkable about Tusser is his air of entire +resignation amid all manner of vicissitudes: he does not seem to count +his hardships either wonderful or intolerable or unmerited. He tells us +of the thrashing he had at Eton, (fifty-four licks,) without greatly +impugning the head-master; and his shiftlessness in life makes us +strongly suspect that he deserved it all.</p> + +<p>Fuller, in his "Worthies," says Tusser "spread his bread with all sorts +of butter, yet none would stick thereon." In short, though the poet +wrote well on farm-practice, he certainly was not a good exemplar of +farm-successes. With all his excellent notions about sowing and reaping, +and rising with the lark, I should look for a little more of stirring +mettle and of dogged resolution in a man to be recommended as a tenant. +I cannot help thinking less of him as a farmer than as a kind-hearted +poet; too soft of the edge to cut very deeply into hard-pan, and too +porous and flimsy of character for any compacted resolve: yet taking +life tenderly, withal; good to those poorer than himself; making a +rattling appeal for Christmas charities; hospitable, cheerful, and +looking always to the end with an honest clearness of vision:—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"To death we must stoop, be we high, be we low,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">But how, and how suddenly, few be that know,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">What carry we, then, but a sheet to the grave,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">(To cover this carcass,) of all that we have?"</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>I now come to Sir Hugh Platt, called by Mr. Weston, in his catalogue of +English authors, "the most ingenious husbandman of his age."<a name="fnanchor_1_6" id="fnanchor_1_6"></a><a href="#footnote_1_6"><sup>7</sup></a> He is +elsewhere described as a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who had two +estates in the country, besides a garden in St. Martin's Lane. He was an +enthusiast in agricultural, as well as horticultural inquiries, +corresponding largely with leading farmers, and conducting careful +experiments within his own grounds. In speaking of that "rare and +peerless plant, the grape," he insists upon the wholesomeness of the +wines he made from his Bednall-Greene garden: "And if," he says, "any +exception shold be taken against the race and delicacie of them, I am +content to submit them to the censure of the best mouthes, that professe +any true skill in the judgment of high country wines: although for their +better credit herein, I could bring in the French Ambassador, who (now +almost two yeeres since, comming to my house of purpose to tast these +wines) gaue this sentence upon them: that he neuer drank any better new +wine in France."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_1_6" id="footnote_1_6"></a><a href="#fnanchor_1_6"><span class="label">7</span></a> +Latter part of sixteenth century; and was living, according +to Johnson, as late as 1606.</p></div> + +<p>I must confess to more doubt of the goodness of the wine than of the +speech of the ambassador; French ambassadors are always so complaisant!</p> + +<p>Again he indulges us in the story of a pretty conceit whereby that +"delicate Knight," Sir Francis Carew, proposed to astonish the Queen by +a sight of a cherry-tree in full bearing, a month after the fruit had +gone by in England. "This secret he performed, by straining a Tent or +couer of canuass ouer the whole tree, and wetting the same now and then +with a scoope or horne, as the heat of the weather required: and so, by +witholding the sunne beams from reflecting upon the berries, they grew +both great, and were very long before they had gotten their perfect +cherrie-colour: and when he was assured of her Majestie's comming, he +remoued the Tent, and a few sunny daies brought them to their full +maturities."</p> + +<p>These notices are to be found in his "Flores Paradise." Another work, +entitled "Dyuers Soyles for manuring pasture & arable land," enumerates, +in addition to the usual odorous galaxy, such extraordinarily new +matters (in that day) as "salt, street-dirt, clay, Fullers earth, +moorish earth, fern, hair, calcination of all vegetables, malt dust, +soap-boilers ashes, and marle." But what I think particularly commends +him to notice, and makes him worthy to be enrolled among the pioneers, +is his little tract upon "The Setting of Corne."<a name="fnanchor_5_7" id="fnanchor_5_7"></a><a href="#footnote_5_7"><sup>8</sup></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_5_7" id="footnote_5_7"></a><a href="#fnanchor_5_7"><span class="label">8</span></a> +This is not mentioned either by Felton in his <i>Portraits</i>, +etc., or by Johnson in his <i>History of Gardening</i>. Donaldson gives the +title, and the headings of the chapters.</p></div> + +<p>In this he anticipates the system of "dibbling" grain, which, +notwithstanding, is spoken of by writers within half a century<a name="fnanchor_6_8" id="fnanchor_6_8"></a><a href="#footnote_6_8"><sup>9</sup></a> as a +new thing; and which, it is needless to say, still prevails extensively +in many parts of England. If the tract alluded to be indeed the work of +Sir Hugh Platt, it antedates very many of the suggestions and +improvements which are usually accorded to Tull. The latter, indeed, +proposed the drill, and repeated tillage; but certain advantages, before +unconsidered, such as increased tillering of individual plants, economy +of seed, and facility of culture, are common to both systems. Sir Hugh, +in consecutive chapters, shows how the discovery came about; "why the +corne shootes into so many eares"; how the ground is to be dug for the +new practice; and what are the several instruments for making the holes +and covering the grain.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_6_8" id="footnote_6_8"></a><a href="#fnanchor_6_8"><span class="label">9</span></a> +See Young, <i>Annals of Agriculture</i>, Vol. III. p. 219, <i>et +seq.</i></p></div> + +<p>I cannot take a more courteous leave of this worthy gentleman than by +giving his own <i>envoi</i> to the most considerable of his books:—"Thus, +gentle Reader, having acquainted thee with my long, costly, and +laborious collections, not written at Adventure, or by an imaginary +conceit in a Scholler's private studie, but wrung out of the earth, by +the painfull hand of experience: and having also given thee a touch of +Nature, whom no man as yet ever durst send naked into the worlde without +her veyle: and Expecting, by thy good entertainement of these, some +encouragement for higher and deeper discoveries hereafter, I leave thee +to the God of Nature, from whom all the true light of Nature +proceedeth."</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>Gervase Markham must have been a roistering gallant about the time that +Sir Hugh was conducting his experiments on "Soyles"; for, in 1591, he +had the honor to be dangerously wounded in a duel which he fought in +behalf of the Countess of Shrewsbury; there are also some painful rumors +current (in old books) in regard to his habits in early life, which +weaken somewhat our trust in him as a quiet country counsellor. I +suspect, that, up to mature life, at any rate, he knew much more about +the sparring of a game-cock than the making of capons. Yet he wrote +books upon the proper care of beasts and fowls, as well as upon almost +every subject connected with husbandry. And that these were good books, +or at least in large demand, we have in evidence the memorandum of a +promise which some griping bookseller extorted from him, under date of +July, 1617:—</p> + +<p>"I, Gervase Markham, of London, Gent, do promise hereafter never to +write any more book or books to be printed of the diseases or cures of +any cattle, as horse, oxe, cowe, sheepe, swine and goates, &c. In +witness whereof, I have hereunto sett my hand, the 24th day of Julie.</p> + +<p>"GERVIS MARKHAM."</p> + +<p>He seems to have been a man of some literary accomplishments, and one +who knew how to turn them to account. He translated the "Maison +Rustique" of Liebault, and had some hand in the concoction of one or two +poems which kindled the ire of the Puritan clergy. There is no doubt but +he was an adroit bookmaker; and the value of his labors, in respect to +practical husbandry, was due chiefly to his art of arranging, +compacting, and illustrating the maxims and practices already received. +His observations upon diseases of cattle and upon horsemanship were +doubtless based on experimental knowledge; for he was a rare and ardent +sportsman, and possessed all a sportsman's keenness in the detection of +infirmities.</p> + +<p>I suspect, moreover, that there were substantial grounds for that +acquaintance with gastronomy shown in the "Country Housewife." In this +book, after discoursing upon cookery and great feasts, he gives the +details of a "humble feast of a proportion which any good man may keep +in his family."</p> + +<p>"As thus:—first, a shield of brawn with mustard; secondly, a boyl'd +capon; thirdly, a boyl'd piece of beef; fourthly, a chine of beef +rosted; fifthly, a neat's tongue rosted; sixthly, a pig rosted; +seventhly chewits baked; eighthly, a goose rosted; ninthly, a swan +rosted; tenthly, a turkey rosted; eleventh, a haunch of venison rosted; +twelfth, a pasty of venison; thirteenth, a kid with a pudding in the +belly; fourteenth, an olive pye; the fifteenth, a couple of capons; the +sixteenth, a custard or dowsets."</p> + +<p>This is what Master Gervase calls a frugal dinner, for the entertainment +of a worthy friend; is it any wonder that he wrote about "Country +Contentments"?</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>My chapter is nearly full; and a burst of sunshine is flaming over all +the land under my eye; and yet I am but just entered upon the period of +English literary history which is most rich in rural illustration. The +mere backs of the books relating thereto, as my glance ranges over them, +where they stand in tidy platoon, start a delightfully confused picture +to my mind.</p> + +<p>I think it possible that Sir Hugh Platt may some day entertain at his +Bednall-Greene garden the worshipful Francis Bacon, who is living down +at Twickenham, and who is a thriving lawyer, and has written essays, +which Sir Hugh must know,—in which he discourses shrewdly upon gardens, +as well as many kindred matters; and through his wide correspondence, +Sir Hugh must probably have heard of certain new herbs which have been +brought home from Virginia and the Roanoke, and very possibly he is +making trial of a tobacco-plant in his garden, to be submitted some day +to his friend, the French Ambassador.</p> + +<p>I can fancy Gervase Markham "making a night of it" with those rollicking +bachelors, Beaumont and Fletcher, at the "Mermaid," or going with them +to the Globe Theatre to see two Warwickshire brothers, Edmund and Will +Shakspeare, who are on the boards there,—the latter taking the part of +Old Knowell, in Ben Jonson's play of "Every Man in his Humour." His +friends say that this Will has parts.</p> + +<p>Then there is the fiery and dashing Sir Philip Sidney, who threatened to +thrust a dagger into the heart of poor Molyneux, his father's steward, +for opening private letters (which poor Molyneux never did); and Sir +Philip knows all about poetry and the ancients; and in virtue of his +knowledges, he writes a terribly magniloquent and tedious "Arcadia," +which, when he comes to die gallantly in battle, is admired and read +everywhere: nowadays it rests mostly on the shelf. But the memory of his +generous and noble spirit is far livelier than his book. It was through +him, and his friendship, probably, that the poet Spenser was gifted by +the Queen with a fine farm of three thousand acres among the Bally-Howra +hills of Ireland.</p> + +<p>And it was here that Sir Walter Raleigh, that "shepherd of the sea," +visited the poet, and found him seated</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml8m">"amongst the coolly shade</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Did the gallant privateer possibly talk with the farmer about the +introduction of that new esculent, the potato? Did they talk tobacco? +Did Colin Clout have any observations to make upon the rot in sheep, or +upon the probable "clip" of the year?</p> + +<p>Nothing of this; but</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"He pip'd, I sung; and when he sung, I pip'd:</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">By chaunge of tunes each making other merry."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The lines would make a fair argument of the poet's bucolic life. I have +a strong faith that his farming was of the higgledy-piggledy order; I do +not believe that he could have set a plough into the sod, or have made a +good "cast" of barley. It is certain, that, when the Tyrone rebels +burned him out of Kilcolman Castle, he took no treasure with him but his +Elizabeth and the two babes; and the only treasures he left were the +ashes of the dear child whose face shone on him there for the last +time,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml5m">"bright with many a curl</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">That clustered round her head."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I wish I could love his "Shepherd's Calendar"; but I cannot. Abounding +art of language, exquisite fancies, delicacies innumerable there may be; +but there is no exhilarating air from the mountains, no crisp breezes, +no songs that make the welkin ring, no river that champs the bit, no +sky-piercing falcon.</p> + +<p>And as for the "Faëry Queene," if I must confess it, I can never read +far without a sense of suffocation from the affluence of its beauties. +It is a marvellously fair sea and broad,—with tender winds blowing over +it, and all the ripples are iris-hued; but you long for some brave blast +that shall scoop great hollows in it, and shake out the briny beads from +its lifted waters, and drive wild scuds of spray among the screaming +curlew.</p> + +<p>In short, I can never read far in Spenser without taking a rest—as we +farmers lean upon our spades, when the digging is in unctuous fat soil +that lifts heavily.</p> + +<p>And so I leave the matter,—with the "Faëry Queene" in my thought, and +leaning on my spade.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="civic_banquets" id="civic_banquets"></a>CIVIC BANQUETS.</h2> + + +<p>It has often perplexed me to imagine how an Englishman will be able to +reconcile himself to any future state of existence from which the +earthly institution of dinner shall be excluded. Even if he fail to take +his appetite along with him, (which it seems to me hardly possible to +believe, since this endowment is so essential to his composition,) the +immortal day must still admit an interim of two or three hours during +which he will be conscious of a slight distaste, at all events, if not +an absolute repugnance, to merely spiritual nutriment. The idea of +dinner has so imbedded itself among his highest and deepest +characteristics, so illuminated itself with intellect and softened +itself with the kindest emotions of his heart, so linked itself with +Church and State, and grown so majestic with long hereditary customs and +ceremonies, that, by taking it utterly away, Death, instead of putting +the final touch to his perfection, would leave him infinitely less +complete than we have already known him. He could not be roundly happy. +Paradise, among all its enjoyments, would lack one daily felicity which +his sombre little island possessed. Perhaps it is not irreverent to +conjecture that a provision may have been made, in this particular, for +the Englishman's exceptional necessities. It strikes me that Milton was +of the opinion here suggested, and may have intended to throw out a +delightful and consolatory hope for his countrymen, when he represents +the genial archangel as playing his part with such excellent appetite at +Adam's dinner-table, and confining himself to fruit and vegetables only +because, in those early days of her housekeeping, Eve had no more +acceptable viands to set before him. Milton, indeed, had a true English +taste for the pleasures of the table, though refined by the lofty and +poetic discipline to which he had subjected himself. It is delicately +implied in the refection in Paradise, and more substantially, though +still elegantly, betrayed in the sonnet proposing to "Laurence, of +virtuous father virtuous son," a series of nice little dinners in +midwinter; and it blazes fully out in that untasted banquet which, +elaborate as it was, Satan tossed up in a trice from the kitchen-ranges +of Tartarus.</p> + +<p>Among this people, indeed, so wise in their generation, dinner has a +kind of sanctity quite independent of the dishes that may be set upon +the table; so that, if it be only a mutton-chop, they treat it with due +reverence, and are rewarded with a degree of enjoyment which such +reckless devourers as ourselves do not often find in our richest +abundance. It is good to see how stanch they are after fifty or sixty +years of heroic eating, still relying upon their digestive powers and +indulging a vigorous appetite; whereas an American has generally lost +the one and learned to distrust the other long before reaching the +earliest decline of life; and thenceforward he makes little account of +his dinner, and dines at his peril, if at all. I know not whether my +countrymen will allow me to tell them, though I think it scarcely too +much to affirm, that, on this side of the water, people never dine. At +any rate, abundantly as Nature has provided us with most of the material +requisites, the highest possible dinner has never yet been eaten in +America. It is the consummate flower of civilization and refinement; and +our inability to produce it, or to appreciate its admirable beauty, if a +happy inspiration should bring it into bloom, marks fatally the limit of +culture which we have attained.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed, however, that the mob of cultivated Englishmen +know how to dine in this elevated sense. The unpolishable ruggedness of +the national character is still an impediment to them, even in that +particular line where they are best qualified to excel. Though often +present at good men's feasts, I remember only a single dinner, which, +while lamentably conscious that many of its higher excellences were +thrown away upon me, I yet could feel to be a perfect work of art. It +could not, without unpardonable coarseness, be styled a matter of animal +enjoyment, because out of the very perfection of that lower bliss there +had arisen a dream-like development of spiritual happiness. As in the +master-pieces of painting and poetry, there was a something intangible, +a final deliciousness that only fluttered about your comprehension, +vanishing whenever you tried to detain it, and compelling you to +recognize it by faith rather than sense. It seemed as if a diviner set +of senses were requisite, and had been partly supplied, for the special +fruition of this banquet, and that the guests around the table (only +eight in number) were becoming so educated, polished, and softened, by +the delicate influences of what they ate and drank, as to be now a +little more than mortal for the nonce. And there was that gentle, +delicious sadness, too, which we find in the very summit of our most +exquisite enjoyments, and feel it a charm beyond all the gayety through +which it keeps breathing its undertone. In the present case, it was +worth a heavier sigh, to reflect that such a festal achievement,—the +production of so much art, skill, fancy, invention, and perfect +taste,—the growth of all the ages, which appeared to have been ripening +for this hour, since man first began to eat and to moisten his food with +wine,—must lavish its happiness upon so brief a moment, when other +beautiful things can be made a joy forever. Yet a dinner like this is no +better than we can get, any day, at the rejuvenescent Cornhill +Coffee-House, unless the whole man, with soul, intellect, and stomach, +is ready to appreciate it, and unless, moreover, there is such a harmony +in all the circumstances and accompaniments, and especially such a pitch +of well-according minds, that nothing shall jar rudely against the +guest's thoroughly awakened sensibilities. The world, and especially our +part of it, being the rough, ill-assorted and tumultuous place we find +it, a beefsteak is about as good as any other dinner.</p> + +<p>The foregoing reminiscence, however, has drawn me aside from the main +object of my sketch, in which I purposed to give a slight idea of those +public or partially public banquets, the custom of which so thoroughly +prevails among the English people, that nothing is ever decided upon, in +matters of peace or war, until they have chewed upon it in the shape of +roast-beef, and talked it fully over in their cups. Nor are these +festivities merely occasional, but of stated recurrence in all +considerable municipalities and associated bodies. The most ancient +times appear to have been as familiar with them as the Englishmen of +to-day. In many of the old English towns, you find some stately Gothic +hall or chamber in which the Mayor and other authorities of the place +have long held their sessions; and always, in convenient contiguity, +there is a dusky kitchen, with an immense fireplace, where an ox might +lie roasting at his ease, though the less gigantic scale of modern +cookery may now have permitted the cobwebs to gather in its chimney. St. +Mary's Hall, in Coventry, is so good a specimen of an ancient +banqueting-room that perhaps I may profitably devote a page or two to +the description of it.</p> + +<p>In a narrow street, opposite to St. Michael's Church, one of the three +famous spires of Coventry, you behold a mediæval edifice, in the +basement of which is such a venerable and now deserted kitchen as I have +above alluded to, and, on the same level, a cellar, with low stone +pillars and intersecting arches, like the crypt of a cathedral. Passing +up a well-worn staircase, the oaken balustrade of which is as black as +ebony, you enter the fine old hall, some sixty feet in length, and broad +and lofty in proportion. It is lighted by six windows of modern stained +glass, on one side, and by the immense and magnificent arch of another +window at the farther end of the room, its rich and ancient panes +constituting a genuine historical piece, in which are represented some +of the kingly personages of old times, with their heraldic blazonries. +Notwithstanding the colored light thus thrown into the hall, and though +it was noonday when I last saw it, the panelling of black oak, and some +faded tapestry that hung round the walls, together with the cloudy vault +of the roof above, made a gloom which the richness only illuminated into +more appreciable effect. The tapestry is wrought with figures in the +dress of Henry VI.'s time, (which is the date of the hall,) and is +regarded by antiquaries as authentic evidence both for the costume of +that epoch, and, I believe, for the actual portraiture of men known in +history. They are as colorless as ghosts, however, and vanish drearily +into the old stitch-work of their substance, when you try to make them +out. Coats-of-arms were formerly emblazoned all round the hall, but have +been almost rubbed out by people hanging their overcoats against them, +or by women with dish-clouts and scrubbing-brushes, obliterating +hereditary glories in their blind hostility to dust and spiders' webs. +Full-length portraits of several English kings, Charles II. being the +earliest, hang on the walls; and on the daïs, or elevated part of the +floor, stands an antique chair of state, which more than one royal +character is traditionally said to have occupied while feasting here +with their loyal subjects of Coventry. It is roomy enough for a person +of kingly bulk, or even two such, but angular and uncomfortable, +reminding me of the oaken settles which used to be seen in old-fashioned +New-England kitchens.</p> + +<p>Overhead, supported by a self-sustaining power, without the aid of a +single pillar, is the original ceiling of oak, precisely similar in +shape to the roof of a barn, with all the beams and rafters plainly to +be seen. At the remote height of sixty feet, you hardly discern that +they are carved with figures of angels, and doubtless many other +devices, of which the admirable Gothic art is wasted in the duskiness +that has so long been brooding there. Over the entrance of the hall, +opposite the great arched window, the party-colored radiance of which +glimmers faintly through the interval, is a gallery for minstrels; and a +row of ancient suits of armor is suspended from its balustrade. It +impresses me, too, (for, having gone so far, I would fain leave nothing +untouched upon,) that I remember, somewhere about these venerable +precincts, a picture of the Countess Godiva on horseback, in which the +artist has been so niggardly of that illustrious lady's hair, that, if +she had no ampler garniture, there was certainly much need for the good +people of Coventry to shut their eyes. After all my pains, I fear that I +have made but a poor hand at the description, as regards a transference +of the scene from my own mind to the reader's. It gave me a most vivid +idea of antiquity that had been very little tampered with; insomuch +that, if a group of steel-clad knights had come clanking through the +door-way, and a bearded and beruffed old figure had handed in a stately +dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a long-forgotten fashion, unveiling +a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in the mouldy tomb, yet stepping +majestically to the trill of harp and viol from the minstrels' gallery, +while the rusty armor responded with a hollow ringing sound +beneath,—why, I should have felt that these shadows, once so familiar +with the spot, had a better right in St. Mary's Hall than I, a stranger +from a far country which has no Past. But the moral of the foregoing +pages is to show how tenaciously this love of pompous dinners, this +reverence for dinner as a sacred institution, has caught hold of the +English character; since, from, the earliest recognizable period, we +find them building their civic banqueting-halls as magnificently as +their palaces or cathedrals.</p> + +<p>I know not whether the hall just described is still used for festive +purposes, but others of similar antiquity and splendor are so. For +example, there is Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in London, a very fine old +room, adorned with admirably carved wood-work on the ceiling and walls. +It is also enriched with Holbein's master-piece, representing a grave +assemblage of barbers and surgeons, all portraits, (with such extensive +beards that methinks one-half of the company might have been profitably +occupied in trimming the other,) kneeling before King Henry VIII. Sir +Robert Peel is said to have offered a thousand pounds for the liberty of +cutting out one of the heads from this picture, he conditioning to have +a perfect fac-simile painted in. The room has many other pictures of +distinguished members of the company in long-past times, and of some of +the monarchs and statesmen of England, all darkened with age, but +darkened into such ripe magnificence as only age could bestow. It is not +my design to inflict any more specimens of ancient hall-painting on the +reader; but it may be worth while to touch upon other modes of +stateliness that still survive in these time-honored civic feasts, where +there appears to be a singular assumption of dignity and solemn pomp by +respectable citizens, who would never dream of claiming any privilege of +rank outside of their own sphere. Thus, I saw two caps of state for the +warden and junior warden of the company, caps of silver (real coronets +or crowns, indeed, for these city-grandees) wrought in open-work and +lined with crimson velvet. In a strong-closet, opening from the hall, +there was a great deal of rich plate to furnish forth the banquet-table, +comprising hundreds of forks and spoons, a vast silver punch-bowl, the +gift of some jolly king or other, and, besides a multitude of less +noticeable vessels, two Loving-Cups, very elaborately wrought in silver +gilt, one presented by Henry VIII., the other by Charles II. These cups, +including the covers and pedestals, are very large and weighty, although +the bowl-part would hardly contain more than half a pint of wine, which, +when the custom was first established, each guest was probably expected +to drink off at a draught. In passing them from hand to hand adown a +long table of compotators, there is a peculiar ceremony which I may +hereafter have occasion to describe. Meanwhile, if I might assume such a +liberty, I should be glad to invite the reader to the official +dinner-table of his Worship, the Mayor, at a large English seaport where +I spent several years.</p> + +<p>The Mayor's dinner-parties occur as often as once a fortnight, and, +inviting his guests by fifty or sixty at a time, his Worship probably +assembles at his board most of the eminent citizens and distinguished +personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's +incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling +among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. A +miscellaneous party of Englishmen can always find more comfortable +ground to meet upon than as many Americans, their differences of opinion +being incomparably less radical than ours, and it being the sincerest +wish of all their hearts, whether they call themselves Liberals or what +not, that nothing in this world shall ever be greatly altered from what +it has been and is. Thus there is seldom such a virulence of political +hostility that it may not be dissolved in a glass or two of wine, +without making the good liquor any more dry or bitter than accords with +English taste.</p> + +<p>The first dinner of this kind at which I had the honor to be present +took place during assize time, and included among the guests the judges +and the prominent members of the bar. Reaching the Town-Hall at seven +o'clock, I communicated my name to one of several splendidly dressed +footmen, and he repeated it to another on the first staircase, by whom +it was passed to a third, and thence to a fourth at the door of the +reception-room, losing all resemblance to the original sound in the +course of these transmissions; so that I had the advantage of making my +entrance in the character of a stranger, not only to the whole company, +but to myself as well. His Worship, however, kindly recognized me, and +put me on speaking-terms with two or three gentlemen, whom I found very +affable, and all the more hospitably attentive on the score of my +nationality. It is very singular how kind an Englishman will almost +invariably be to an individual American, without ever bating a jot of +his prejudice against the American character in the lump. My new +acquaintances took evident pains to put me at my ease; and, in requital +of their good-nature, I soon began to look round at the general company +in a critical spirit, making my crude observations apart, and drawing +silent inferences, of the correctness of which I should not have been +half so well satisfied a year afterwards as at that moment.</p> + +<p>There were two judges present, a good many lawyers, and a few officers +of the army in uniform. The other guests seemed to be principally of the +mercantile class, and among them was a ship-owner from Nova Scotia, with +whom I coalesced a little, inasmuch as we were born with the same sky +over our heads, and an unbroken continuity of soil between his abode and +mine. There was one old gentleman, whose character I never made out, +with powdered hair, clad in black breeches and silk stockings, and +wearing a rapier at his side; otherwise, with the exception of the +military uniforms, there was little or no pretence of official costume. +It being the first considerable assemblage of Englishmen that I had +seen, my honest impression about them was, that they were a heavy and +homely set of people, with a remarkable roughness of aspect and +behavior, not repulsive, but beneath which it required more familiarity +with the national character than I then possessed always to detect the +good-breeding of a gentleman. Being generally middle-aged, or still +farther advanced, they were by no means graceful in figure; for the +comeliness of the youthful Englishman rapidly diminishes with years, his +body appearing to grow longer, his legs to abbreviate themselves, and +his stomach to assume the dignified prominence which justly belongs to +that metropolis of his system. His face (what with the acridity of the +atmosphere, ale at lunch, wine at dinner, and a well-digested abundance +of succulent food) gets red and mottled, and develops at least one +additional chin, with a promise of more; so that, finally, a stranger +recognizes his animal part at the most superficial glance, but must take +time and a little pains to discover the intellectual. Comparing him with +an American, I really thought that our national paleness and lean habit +of flesh gave us greatly the advantage in an æsthetic point of view. It +seemed to me, moreover, that the English tailor had not done so much as +he might and ought for these heavy figures, but had gone on wilfully +exaggerating their uncouthness by the roominess of their garments: he +had evidently no idea of accuracy of fit, and smartness was entirely out +of his line. But, to be quite open with the reader, I afterwards learned +to think that this aforesaid tailor has a deeper art than his brethren +among ourselves, knowing how to dress his customers with such individual +propriety that they look as if they were born in their clothes, the fit +being to the character rather than the form. If you make an Englishman +smart, (unless he be a very exceptional one, of whom I have seen a few,) +you make him a monster: his best aspect is that of ponderous +respectability.</p> + +<p>To make an end of these first impressions, I fancied that not merely the +Suffolk bar, but the bar of any inland county in New England, might show +a set of thin-visaged, green-spectacled men, looking wretchedly worn, +sallow with the intemperate use of strong coffee, deeply wrinkled across +the forehead, and grimly furrowed about the month, with whom these +heavy-cheeked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as they must +needs be, would stand very little chance in a professional contest. How +that matter might turn out I am unqualified to decide. But I state these +results of my earliest glimpses of Englishmen, not for what they are +worth, but because I ultimately gave them up as worth little or nothing. +In course of time, I came to the conclusion that Englishmen of all ages +are a rather good-looking people, dress in admirable taste from their +own point of view, and, under a surface never silken to the touch, have +a refinement of manners too thorough and genuine to be thought of as a +separate endowment,—that is to say, if the individual himself be a man +of station, and has had gentlemen for his father and grandfather. The +sturdy Anglo-Saxon nature does not refine itself short of the third +generation. The tradesmen, too, and all other classes, have their own +proprieties. The only value of my criticisms, therefore, lay in their +exemplifying the proneness of a traveller to measure one people by the +distinctive characteristics of another,—as English writers invariably +measure us, and take upon themselves to be disgusted accordingly, +instead of trying to find out some principle of beauty with which we may +be in conformity.</p> + +<p>In due time we were summoned to the table, and went thither in no solemn +procession, but with a good deal of jostling, thrusting behind, and +scrambling for places when we reached our destination. The legal +gentlemen, I suspect, were responsible for this indecorous zeal, which I +never afterwards remarked in a similar party. The dining-hall was of +noble size, and, like the other rooms of the suite, was gorgeously +painted and gilded and brilliantly illuminated. There was a splendid +table-service, and a noble array of footmen, some of them in plain +clothes, and others wearing the town-livery, richly decorated with +gold-lace, and themselves excellent specimens of the blooming +young-manhood of Britain. When we were fairly seated, it was certainly +an agreeable spectacle to look up and down the long vista of earnest +faces, and behold them so resolute, so conscious that there was an +important business in hand, and so determined to be equal to the +occasion. Indeed, Englishman or not, I hardly know what can be prettier +than a snow-white table-cloth, a huge heap of flowers as a central +decoration, bright silver, rich china, crystal glasses, decanters of +Sherry at due intervals, a French roll and an artistically folded napkin +at each plate, all that airy portion of a banquet, in short, that comes +before the first mouthful, the whole illuminated by a blaze of +artificial light, without which a dinner of made-dishes looks spectral, +and the simplest viands are the best. Printed bills-of-fare were +distributed, representing an abundant feast, no part of which appeared +on the table until called for in separate plates. I have entirely +forgotten what it was, but deem it no great matter, inasmuch as there is +a pervading commonplace and identicalness in the composition of +extensive dinners, on account of the impossibility of supplying a +hundred guests with anything particularly delicate or rare. It was +suggested to me that certain juicy old gentlemen had a private +understanding what to call for, and that it would be good policy in a +stranger to follow in their footsteps through the feast. I did not care +to do so, however, because, like Sancho Panza's dip out of Camacho's +caldron, any sort of pot-luck at such a table would be sure to suit my +purpose; so I chose a dish or two on my own judgment, and, getting +through my labors betimes, had great pleasure in seeing the Englishmen +toil onward to the end.</p> + +<p>They drank rather copiously, too, though wisely; for I observed that +they seldom took Hock, and let the Champagne bubble slowly away out of +the goblet, solacing themselves with Sherry, but tasting it warily +before bestowing their final confidence. Their taste in wines, however, +did not seem so exquisite, and certainly was not so various, as that to +which many Americans pretend. This foppery of an intimate acquaintance +with rare vintage: does not suit a sensible Englishman, as he is very +much in earnest about his wines, and adopts one or two as his life-long +friends, seldom exchanging them for any Delilahs of a moment, and +reaping the reward of his constancy in an unimpaired stomach, and only +so much gout as he deems wholesome and desirable. Knowing well the +measure of his powers, he is not apt to fill his glass too often. +Society, indeed, would hardly tolerate habitual imprudences of that +kind, though, in my opinion, the Englishmen now upon the stage could +carry off their three bottles, at need, with as steady a gait as any of +their forefathers. It is not so very long since the three-bottle heroes +sank finally under the table. It may be (at least, I should be glad if +it were true) that there was an occult sympathy between our +temperance-reform, now somewhat in abeyance, and the almost simultaneous +disappearance of hard-drinking among the respectable classes in England. +I remember a middle-aged gentleman telling me (in illustration of the +very slight importance attached to breaches of temperance within the +memory of men not yet old) that he had seen a certain magistrate, Sir +John Linkwater, or Drinkwater,—but I think the jolly old knight could +hardly have staggered under so perverse a misnomer as this last,—while +sitting on the magisterial bench, pull out a crown-piece and hand it to +the clerk. "Mr. Clerk," said Sir John, as if it were the most +indifferent fact in the world, "I was drunk last night. There are my +five shillings."</p> + +<p>During the dinner, I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with the +gentlemen on either side of me. One of them, a lawyer, expatiated with +great unction on the social standing of the judges. Representing the +dignity and authority of the Crown, they take precedence, during +assize-time, of the highest military men in the kingdom, of the +Lord-Lieutenant of the county, of the Archbishops, of the royal Dukes, +and even of the Prince of Wales. For the nonce, they are the greatest +men in England. With a glow of professional complacency that amounted to +enthusiasm, my friend assured me, that, in case of a royal dinner, a +judge, if actually holding an assize, would be expected to offer his arm +and take the Queen herself to the table. Happening to be in company with +some of these elevated personages, on subsequent occasions, it appeared +to me that the judges are fully conscious of their paramount claims to +respect, and take rather more pains to impress them on their ceremonial +inferiors than men of high hereditary rank are apt to do. Bishops, if it +be not irreverent to say so, are sometimes marked by a similar +characteristic. Dignified position is so sweet to an Englishman, that he +needs to be born in it, and to feel it thoroughly incorporated with his +nature from its original germ, in order to keep him from flaunting it +obtrusively in the faces of innocent by-standers.</p> + +<p>My companion on the other side was a thick-set, middle-aged man, uncouth +in manners, and ugly where none were handsome, with a dark, roughly hewn +visage, that looked grim in repose, and seemed to hold within itself the +machinery of a very terrific frown. He ate with resolute appetite, and +let slip few opportunities of imbibing whatever liquids happened to be +passing by. I was meditating in what way this grisly-featured +table-fellow might most safely be accosted, when he turned to me with a +surly sort of kindness, and invited me to take a glass of wine. We then +began a conversation that abounded, on his part, with sturdy sense, and, +somehow or other, brought me closer to him than I had yet stood to an +Englishman. I should hardly have taken him to be an educated man, +certainly not a scholar of accurate training; and yet he seemed to have +all the resources of education and trained intellectual power at +command. My fresh Americanism, and watchful observation of English +characteristics, appeared either to interest or amuse him, or perhaps +both. Under the mollifying influences of abundance of meat and drink, he +grew very gracious, (not that I ought to use such a phrase to describe +his evidently genuine good-will,) and by-and-by expressed a wish for +further acquaintance, asking me to call at his rooms in London and +inquire for Sergeant Wilkins,—throwing out the name forcibly, as if he +had no occasion to be ashamed of it. I remembered Dean Swift's retort to +Sergeant Bettesworth on a similar announcement,—"Of what regiment, +pray, Sir?"—and fancied that the same question might not have been +quite amiss, if applied to the rugged individual at my side. But I heard +of him subsequently as one of the prominent men at the English bar, a +rough customer, and a terribly strong champion in criminal cases; and it +caused me more regret than might have been expected, on so slight an +acquaintanceship, when, not long afterwards, I saw his death announced +in the newspapers. Not rich in attractive qualities, he possessed, I +think, the most attractive one of all,—thorough manhood.</p> + +<p>After the cloth was removed, a goodly group of decanters were set before +the Mayor, who sent them forth on their outward voyage, full freighted +with Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Claret, of which excellent liquors, +methought, the latter found least acceptance among the guests. When +every man had filled his glass, his Worship stood up and proposed a +toast. It was, of course, "Our gracious Sovereign," or words to that +effect; and immediately a band of musicians, whose preliminary tootings +and thrummings I had already heard behind me, struck up "God save the +Queen," and the whole company rose with one impulse to assist in singing +that famous national anthem. It was the first time in my life that I had +ever seen a body of men, or even a single man, under the active +influence of the sentiment of Loyalty; for, though we call ourselves +loyal to our country and institutions, and prove it by our readiness to +shed blood and sacrifice life in their behalf, still the principle is as +cold and hard, in an American bosom, as the steel spring that puts in +motion a powerful machinery. In the Englishman's system, a force similar +to that of our steel spring is generated by the warm throbbings of human +hearts. He clothes our bare abstraction in flesh and blood,—at present, +in the flesh and blood of a woman,—and manages to combine love, awe, +and intellectual reverence, all in one emotion, and to embody his +mother, his wife, his children, the whole idea of kindred, in a single +person, and make her the representative of his country and its laws. We +Americans smile superior, as I did at the Mayor's table; and yet, I +fancy, we lose some very agreeable titillations of the heart in +consequence of our proud perogative of caring no more about our +President than for a man of straw, or a stuffed scarecrow straddling in +a cornfield.</p> + +<p>But, to say the truth, the spectacle struck me rather ludicrously, to +see this party of stout middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, in the +fulness of meat and drink, their ample and ruddy faces glistening with +wine, perspiration, and enthusiasm, rumbling out those strange old +stanzas from the very bottom of their hearts and stomachs, which two +organs, in the English interior arrangement, lie closer together than in +ours. The song seemed to me the rudest old ditty in the world; but I +could not wonder at its universal acceptance and indestructible +popularity, considering how inimitably it expresses the national faith +and feeling as regards the inevitable righteousness of England, the +Almighty's consequent respect and partiality for that redoubtable little +island, and His presumed readiness to strengthen its defence against the +contumacious wickedness and knavery of all other principalities or +republics. Tennyson himself, though evidently English to the very last +prejudice, could not write half so good a song for the purpose. Finding +that the entire dinner-table struck in, with voices of every pitch +between rolling thunder and the squeak of a cartwheel, and that the +strain was not of such delicacy as to be much hurt by the harshest of +them, I determined to lend my own assistance in swelling the triumphant +roar. It seemed but a proper courtesy to the first Lady in the land, +whose guest, in the largest sense, I might consider myself. Accordingly, +my first tuneful efforts (and probably my last, for I purpose not to +sing any more, unless it be "Hail Columbia" on the restoration of the +Union) were poured freely forth in honor of Queen Victoria. The +Sergeant smiled like the carved head of a Swiss nutcracker, and the +other gentlemen in my neighborhood, by nods and gestures, evinced grave +approbation of so suitable a tribute to English superiority; and we +finished our stave and sat down in an extremely happy frame of mind.</p> + +<p>Other toasts followed in honor of the great institutions and interests +of the country, and speeches in response to each were made by +individuals whom the Mayor designated or the company called for. None of +them impressed me with a very high idea of English postprandial oratory. +It is inconceivable, indeed, what ragged and shapeless utterances most +Englishmen are satisfied to give vent to, without attempting anything +like artistic shape, but clapping on a patch here and another there, and +ultimately getting out what they want to say, and generally with a +result of sufficiently good sense, but in some such disorganized mass as +if they had thrown it up rather than spoken it. It seemed to me that +this was almost as much by choice as necessity. An Englishman, ambitious +of public favor, should not be too smooth. If an orator is glib, his +countrymen distrust him. They dislike smartness. The stronger and +heavier his thoughts, the better, provided there be an element of +commonplace running through them; and any rough, yet never vulgar force +of expression, such as would knock an opponent down, if it hit him, only +it must not be too personal, is altogether to their taste; but a studied +neatness of language, or other such superficial graces, they cannot +abide. They do not often permit a man to make himself a fine orator of +malice aforethought, that is, unless he be a nobleman, (as, for example, +Lord Stanley, of the Derby family,) who, as an hereditary legislator and +necessarily a public speaker, is bound to remedy a poor natural delivery +in the best way he can. On the whole, I partly agree with them, and, if +I cared for any oratory whatever, should be as likely to applaud theirs +as our own. When an English speaker sits down, you feel that you have +been listening to a real man, and not to an actor; his sentiments have a +wholesome earth-smell in them, though, very likely, this apparent +naturalness is as much an art as what we expend in rounding a sentence +or elaborating a peroration.</p> + +<p>It is one good effect of this inartificial style, that nobody in England +seems to feel any shyness about shovelling the untrimmed and untrimmable +ideas out of his mind for the benefit of an audience. At least, nobody +did on the occasion now in hand, except a poor little Major of +Artillery, who responded for the Army in a thin, quavering voice, with a +terribly hesitating trickle of fragmentary ideas, and, I question not, +would rather have been bayoneted in front of his batteries than to have +said a word. Not his own mouth, but the cannon's, was this poor Major's +proper organ of utterance.</p> + +<p>While I was thus amiably occupied in criticizing my fellow-guests, the +Mayor had got up to propose another toast; and listening rather +inattentively to the first sentence or two, I soon became sensible of a +drift in his Worship's remarks that made me glance apprehensively +towards Sergeant Wilkins. "Yes," grumbled that gruff personage, shoving +a decanter of Port towards me, "it is your turn next"; and seeing in my +face, I suppose, the consternation of a wholly unpractised orator, he +kindly added,—"It is nothing. A mere acknowledgment will answer the +purpose. The less you say, the better they will like it." That being the +case, I suggested that perhaps they would like it best, if I said +nothing at all. But the Sergeant shook his head. Now, on first receiving +the Mayor's invitation to dinner, it had occurred to me that I might +possibly be brought into my present predicament; but I had dismissed the +idea from my mind as too disagreeable to be entertained, and, moreover, +as so alien from my disposition and character that Fate surely could not +keep such a misfortune in store for me. If nothing else prevented, an +earthquake or the crack of doom would certainly interfere before I need +rise to speak. Yet here was the Mayor getting on inexorably,—and, +indeed, I heartily wished that he might get on and on forever, and of +his wordy wanderings find no end.</p> + +<p>If the gentle reader, my kindest friend and closest confidant, deigns to +desire it, I can impart to him my own experience as a public speaker +quite as indifferently as if it concerned another person. Indeed, it +does concern another, or a mere spectral phenomenon, for it was not I, +in my proper and natural self, that sat there at table or subsequently +rose to speak. At the moment, then, if the choice had been offered me +whether the Mayor should let off a speech at my head or a pistol, I +should unhesitatingly have taken the latter alternative. I had really +nothing to say, not an idea in my head, nor, which was a great deal +worse, any flowing words or embroidered sentences in which to dress out +that empty Nothing, and give it a cunning aspect of intelligence, such +as might last the poor vacuity the little time it had to live. But time +pressed; the Mayor brought his remarks, affectionately eulogistic of the +United States and highly complimentary to their distinguished +representative at that table, to a close, amid a vast deal of cheering; +and the band struck up "Hail Columbia," "Old Hundred," or "God save the +Queen" over again, for anything that I should have known or cared. When +the music ceased, there was an intensely disagreeable instant, during +which I seemed to rend away and fling off the habit of a lifetime, and +rose, still void of ideas, but with preternatural composure, to make a +speech. The guests rattled on the table, and cried, "Hear!" most +vociferously, as if now, at length, in this foolish and idly garrulous +world, had come the long-expected moment when one golden word was to be +spoken; and in that imminent crisis, I caught a glimpse of a little bit +of an effusion of international sentiment, which it might, and must, and +should do to utter.</p> + +<p>Well; it was nothing, as the Sergeant had said. What surprised me most +was the sound of my own voice, which I had never before heard at a +declamatory pitch, and which impressed me as belonging to some other +person, who, and not myself, would be responsible for the speech: a +prodigious consolation and encouragement under the circumstances! I went +on without the slightest embarrassment, and sat down amid great +applause, wholly undeserved by anything that I had spoken, but well won +from Englishmen, methought, by the new development of pluck that alone +had enabled me to speak at all. "It was handsomely done!" quoth Sergeant +Wilkins; and I felt like a recruit who had been for the first time under +fire.</p> + +<p>I would gladly have ended my oratorical career then and there forever, +but was often placed in a similar or worse position, and compelled to +meet it as I best might; for this was one of the necessities of an +office which I had voluntarily taken on my shoulders, and beneath which +I might be crushed by no moral delinquency on my own part, but could not +shirk without cowardice and shame. My subsequent fortune was various. +Once, though I felt it to be a kind of imposture, I got a speech by +heart, and doubtless it might have been a very pretty one, only I forgot +every syllable at the moment of need, and had to improvise another as +well as I could. I found it a better method to prearrange a few points +in my mind, and trust to the spur of the occasion, and the kind aid of +Providence, for enabling me to bring them to bear. The presence of any +considerable proportion of personal friends generally dumbfounded me. I +would rather have talked with an enemy in the gate. Invariably, too, I +was much embarrassed by a small audience, and succeeded better with a +large one,—the sympathy of a multitude possessing a buoyant effect, +which lifts the speaker a little way out of his individuality and tosses +him towards a perhaps better range of sentiment than his private one. +Again, if I rose carelessly and confidently, with an expectation of +going through the business entirely at my ease, I often found that I +had little or nothing to say; whereas, if I came to the scratch in +perfect despair, and at a crisis when failure would have been horrible, +it once or twice happened that the frightful emergency concentrated my +poor faculties, and enabled me to give definite and vigorous expression +to sentiments which an instant before looked as vague and far-off as the +clouds in the atmosphere. On the whole, poor as my own success may have +been, I apprehend that any intelligent man with a tongue possesses the +chief requisite of oratorical power, and may develop many of the others, +if he deems it worth while to bestow a great amount of labor and pains +on an object which the most accomplished orators, I suspect, have not +found altogether satisfactory to their highest impulses. At any rate, it +must be a remarkably true man who can keep his own elevated conception +of truth when the lower feeling of a multitude is assailing his natural +sympathies, and who can speak out frankly the best that there is in him, +when by adulterating it a little, or a good deal, he knows that he may +make it ten times as acceptable to the audience.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>This slight article on the civic banquets of England would be too +wretchedly imperfect, without an attempted description of a Lord-Mayor's +dinner at the Mansion-House in London. I should have preferred the +annual feast at Guildhall, but never had the good-fortune to witness it. +Once, however, I was honored with an invitation to one of the regular +dinners, and gladly accepted it,—taking the precaution, nevertheless, +though it hardly seemed necessary, to inform the City-King, through a +mutual friend, that I was no fit representative of American eloquence, +and must humbly make it a condition that I should not be expected to +open my mouth, except for the reception of his Lordship's bountiful +hospitality. The reply was gracious and acquiescent; so that I presented +myself in the great entrance-hall of the Mansion-House, at half-past six +o'clock, in a state of most enjoyable freedom from the pusillanimous +apprehensions that often tormented me at such times. The Mansion-House +was built in Queen Anne's days, in the very heart of old London, and is +a palace worthy of its inhabitant, were he really as great a man as his +traditionary state and pomp would seem to indicate. Times are changed, +however, since the days of Whittington, or even of Hogarth's Industrious +Apprentice, to whom the highest imaginable reward of life-long integrity +was a seat in the Lord-Mayor's chair. People nowadays say that the real +dignity and importance have perished out of the office, as they do, +sooner or later, out of all earthly institutions, leaving only a painted +and gilded shell like that of an Easter egg, and that it is only +second-rate and third-rate men who now condescend to be ambitious of the +Mayoralty. I felt a little grieved at this; for the original emigrants +of New England had strong sympathies with the people of London, who were +mostly Puritans in religion and Parliamentarians in politics, in the +early days of our country; so that the Lord-Mayor was a potentate of +huge dimensions in the estimation of our forefathers, and held to be +hardly second to the prime-minister of the throne. The true great men of +the city now appear to have aims beyond city-greatness, connecting +themselves with national politics, and seeking to be identified with the +aristocracy of the country.</p> + +<p>In the entrance-hall I was received by a body of footmen dressed in a +livery of blue and buff, in which they looked wonderfully like American +Revolutionary generals, only bedizened with far more lace and embroidery +than those simple and grand old heroes ever dreamed of wearing. There +were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should have taken to be +military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and large silver +epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord-Mayor's +household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the places +which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our names +(for I had included myself in a little group of friends) were announced; +and ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the door-way of the +first reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of a +presentation to the Lady-Mayoress. As this distinguished couple retired +into private life at the termination of their year of office, it is +inadmissible to make any remarks, critical or laudatory, on the manners +and bearing of two personages suddenly emerging from a position of +respectable mediocrity into one of preëminent dignity within their own +sphere. Such individuals almost always seem to grow nearly or quite to +the full size of their office. If it were desirable to write an essay on +the latent aptitude of ordinary people for grandeur, we have an +exemplification in our own country, and on a scale incomparably greater +than that of the Mayoralty, though invested with nothing like the +outward magnificence that gilds and embroiders the latter. If I have +been correctly informed, the Lord-Mayor's salary is exactly double that +of the President of the United States, and yet is found very inadequate +to his necessary expenditure.</p> + +<p>There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide +folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be +venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as +spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid +fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers +and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them +celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I +recollect none preëminently distinguished in either department. But it +is certainly a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for +example, who deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face +to face, thus to bring them together, under genial auspices, in +connection with persons of note in other lines. I know not what may be +the Lord-Mayor's mode or principle of selecting his guests, nor whether, +during his official term, he can proffer his hospitality to every man of +noticeable talent in the wide world of London, nor, in fine, whether his +Lordship's invitation is much sought for or valued; but it seemed to me +that this periodical feast is one of the many sagacious methods which +the English have contrived for keeping up a good understanding among +different sorts of people. Like most other distinctions of society, +however, I presume that the Lord-Mayor's card does not often seek out +modest merit, but comes at last when the recipient is conscious of the +bore, and doubtful about the honor.</p> + +<p>One very pleasant characteristic, which I never met with at any other +public or partially public dinner, was the presence of ladies. No doubt, +they were principally the wives and daughters of city-magnates; and if +we may judge from the many sly allusions in old plays and satirical +poems, the city of London has always been famous for the beauty of its +women and the reciprocal attractions between them and the men of +quality. Be that as it might, while straying hither and thither through +those crowded apartments, I saw much reason for modifying certain +heterodox opinions which I had inbibed, in my Transatlantic newness and +rawness, as regarded the delicate character and frequent occurrence of +English beauty. To state the entire truth, (being, at this period, some +years old in English life,) my taste, I fear, had long since begun to be +deteriorated by acquaintance with other models of feminine loveliness +than it was my happiness to know in America. I often found, or seemed to +find, if I may dare to confess it, in the persons of such of my dear +countrywomen as I now occasionally met, a certain meagreness, (Heaven +forbid that I should call it scrawniness!) a deficiency of physical +development, a scantiness, so to speak, in the pattern of their material +make, a paleness of complexion, a thinness of voice,—all which +characteristics, nevertheless, only made me resolve so much the more +sturdily to uphold these fair creatures as angels, because I was +sometimes driven to a half-acknowledgment, that the English ladies, +looked at from a lower point of view, were perhaps a little finer +animals than they. The advantages of the latter, if any they could +really be said to have, were all comprised in a few additional lumps of +clay on their shoulders and other parts of their figures. It would be a +pitiful bargain to give up the ethereal charm of American beauty in +exchange for half a hundred-weight of human clay!</p> + +<p>At a given signal we all found our way into an immense room, called the +Egyptian Hall, I know not why, except that the architecture was classic, +and as different as possible from the ponderous style of Memphis and the +Pyramids. A powerful band played inspiringly as we entered, and a +brilliant profusion of light shone down on two long tables, extending +the whole length of the hall, and a cross-table between them, occupying +nearly its entire breadth. Glass gleamed and silver glistened on an acre +or two of snowy damask, over which were set out all the accompaniments +of a stately feast. We found our places without much difficulty, and the +Lord-Mayor's chaplain implored a blessing on the food,—a ceremony which +the English never omit, at a great dinner or a small one, yet consider, +I fear, not so much a religious rite as a sort of preliminary relish +before the soup.</p> + +<p>The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in +accordance with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, +in spite of the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, +judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that +there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the +capacity of the soup-tureens. Not being fond of this civic dainty, I +partook of it but once, and then only in accordance with the wise maxim, +always to taste a fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish, at its indigenous +site; and the very fountain-head of turtle-soup, I suppose, is in the +Lord-Mayor's dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox customs which +people follow for half a century without knowing why, to drink a sip of +rum-punch, in a very small tumbler, after the soup. It was excellently +well-brewed, and it seemed to me almost worth while to sup the soup for +the sake of sipping the punch. The rest of the dinner was catalogued in +a bill-of-fare printed on delicate white paper within an arabesque +border of green and gold. It looked very good, not only in the English +and French names of the numerous dishes, but also in the positive +reality of the dishes themselves, which were all set on the table to be +carved and distributed by the guests. This ancient and honest method is +attended with a good deal of trouble, and a lavish effusion of gravy, +yet by no means bestowed or dispensed in vain, because you have thereby +the absolute assurance of a banquet actually before your eyes, instead +of a shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and such meagre fulfilment as +a single guest can contrive to get upon his individual plate. I wonder +that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at prize-oxen in the shape of +butcher's-meat, do not generally better estimate the æsthetic gormandism +of devouring the whole dinner with their eyesight, before proceeding to +nibble the comparatively few morsels which, after all, the most heroic +appetite and widest stomachic capacity of mere mortals can enable even +an alderman really to eat. There fell to my lot three delectable things +enough, which I take pains to remember, that the reader may not go away +wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to which I have bidden +him,—a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and part +of a ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as the grouse, but feeding +high up towards the summit of the Scotch mountains, whence it gets a +wild delicacy of flavor very superior to that of the artificially +nurtured English game-fowl. All the other dainties have vanished from my +memory as completely as those of Prospero's banquet after Ariel had +clapped his wings over it. The band played at intervals, inspiriting us +to new efforts, as did likewise the sparkling wines which the footmen +supplied from an inexhaustible cellar, and which the guests quaffed with +little apparent reference to the disagreeable fact that there comes a +to-morrow morning after every feast. As long as that shall be the case, +a prudent man can never have full enjoyment of his dinner.</p> + +<p>Nearly opposite to me, on the other side of the table, sat a young lady +in white, whom I am sorely tempted to describe, but dare not, because +not only the supereminence of her beauty, but its peculiar character, +would cause the sketch to be recognized, however rudely it might be +drawn. I hardly thought that there existed such a woman outside of a +picture-frame, or the covers of a romance: not that I had ever met with +her resemblance even there, but, being so distinct and singular an +apparition, she seemed likelier to find her sisterhood in poetry and +picture than in real life. Let us turn away from her, lest a touch too +apt should compel her stately and cold and soft and womanly grace to +gleam out upon my page with a strange repulsion and unattainableness in +the very spell that made her beautiful. At her side, and familiarly +attentive to her, sat a gentleman of whom I remember only a hard outline +of the nose and forehead, and such a monstrous portent of a beard that +you could discover no symptom of a mouth, except when he opened it to +speak, or to put in a morsel of food. Then, indeed, you suddenly became +aware of a cave hidden behind the impervious and darksome shrubbery. +There could be no doubt who this gentleman and lady were. Any child +would have recognized them at a glance. It was Bluebeard and a new wife +(the loveliest of the series, but with already a mysterious gloom +overshadowing her fair young brow) travelling in their honey-moon, and +dining, among other distinguished strangers, at the Lord-Mayor's table.</p> + +<p>After an hour or two of valiant achievement with knife and fork came the +dessert; and at the point of the festival where finger-glasses are +usually introduced, a large silver basin was carried round to the +guests, containing rose-water, into which we dipped the ends of our +napkins and were conscious of a delightful fragrance, instead of that +heavy and weary odor, the hateful ghost of a defunct dinner. This seems +to be an ancient custom of the city, not confined to the Lord-Mayor's +table, but never met with westward of Temple Bar.</p> + +<p>During all the feast, in accordance with another ancient custom, the +origin or purport of which I do not remember to have heard, there stood +a man in armor, with a helmet on his head, behind his Lordship's chair. +When the after-dinner wine was placed on the table, still another +official personage appeared behind the chair, and proceeded to make a +solemn and sonorous proclamation, (in which he enumerated the principal +guests, comprising three or four noblemen, several baronets, and plenty +of generals, members of Parliament, aldermen, and other names of the +illustrious, one of which sounded strangely familiar to my ears,) ending +in some such style as this: "and other gentlemen and ladies, here +present, the Lord-Mayor drinks to you all in a loving-cup,"—giving a +sort of sentimental twang to the two words,—"and sends it round among +you!" And forthwith the loving-cup—several of them, indeed, on each +side of the tables—came slowly down with all the antique ceremony.</p> + +<p>The fashion of it is thus. The Lord-Mayor, standing up and taking the +covered cup in both hands, presents it to the guest at his elbow, who +likewise rises, and removes the cover for his Lordship to drink, which +being successfully accomplished, the guest replaces the cover and +receives the cup into his own hands. He then presents it to his next +neighbor, that the cover may be again removed for himself to take a +draught, after which the third person goes through a similar manœuvre +with a fourth, and he with a fifth, until the whole company find +themselves inextricably intertwisted and entangled in one complicated +chain of love. When the cup came to my hands, I examined it critically, +both inside and out, and perceived it to be an antique and richly +ornamented silver goblet, capable of holding about a quart of wine. +Considering how much trouble we all expended in getting the cup to our +lips, the guests appeared to content themselves with wonderfully +moderate potations. In truth, nearly or quite the original quart of wine +being still in the goblet, it seemed doubtful whether any of the company +had more than barely touched the silver rim before passing it to their +neighbors,—a degree of abstinence that might be accounted for by a +fastidious repugnance to so many compotators in one cup, or possibly by +a disapprobation of the liquor. Being curious to know all about these +important matters, with a view of recommending to my countrymen whatever +they might usefully adopt, I drank an honest sip from the loving-cup, +and had no occasion for another,—ascertaining it to be Claret of a poor +original quality, largely mingled with water, and spiced and sweetened. +It was good enough, however, for a merely spectral or ceremonial drink, +and could never have been intended for any better purpose.</p> + +<p>The toasts now began in the customary order, attended with speeches +neither more nor less witty and ingenious than the specimens of +table-eloquence which had heretofore delighted me. As preparatory to +each new display, the herald, or whatever he was, behind the chair of +state, gave awful notice that the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor was +about to propose a toast. His Lordship being happily delivered thereof, +together with some accompanying remarks, the band played an appropriate +tune, and the herald again issued proclamation to the effect that such +or such a nobleman, or gentleman, general, dignified clergyman, or what +not, was going to respond to the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor's toast; +then, if I mistake not, there was another prodigious flourish of +trumpets and twanging of stringed instruments; and finally the doomed +individual, waiting all this while to be decapitated, got up and +proceeded to make a fool of himself. A bashful young earl tried his +maiden oratory on the good citizens of London, and having evidently got +every word by heart, (even including, however he managed it, the most +seemingly casual improvisations of the moment,) he really spoke like a +book, and made incomparably the smoothest speech I ever heard in +England.</p> + +<p>The weight and gravity of the speakers, not only on this occasion, but +all similar ones, was what impressed me as most extraordinary, not to +say absurd. Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits +into festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into +a most enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and +old Port, and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to +speeches as heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so +refreshing? If the Champagne had thrown its sparkle over the surface of +these effusions, or if the generous Port had shone through their +substance with a ruddy glow of the old English humor, I might have seen +a reason for honest gentlemen prattling in their cups, and should +undoubtedly have been glad to be a listener. But there was no attempt +nor impulse of the kind on the part of the orators, nor apparent +expectation of such a phenomenon on that of the audience. In fact, I +imagine that the latter were best pleased when the speaker embodied his +ideas in the figurative language of arithmetic, or struck upon any hard +matter of business or statistics, as a heavy-laden bark bumps upon a +rock in mid-ocean. The sad severity, the too earnest utilitarianism, of +modern life, have wrought a radical and lamentable change, I am afraid, +in this ancient and goodly institution of civic banquets. People used to +come to them, a few hundred years ago, for the sake of being jolly; they +come now with an odd notion of pouring sober wisdom into their wine by +way of wormwood-bitters, and thus make such a mess of it that the wine +and wisdom reciprocally spoil one another.</p> + +<p>Possibly, the foregoing sentiments have taken a spice of acridity from a +circumstance that happened about this stage of the feast, and very much +interrupted my own further enjoyment of it. Up to this time, my +condition had been exceedingly felicitous, both on account of the +brilliancy of the scene, and because I was in close proximity with three +very pleasant English friends. One of them was a lady, whose honored +name my readers would recognize as a household word, if I dared write +it; another, a gentleman, likewise well known to them, whose fine taste, +kind heart, and genial cultivation are qualities seldom mixed in such +happy proportion as in him. The third was the man to whom I owed most in +England, the warm benignity of whose nature was never weary of doing me +good, who led me to many scenes of life, in town, camp, and country, +which I never could have found out for myself, who knew precisely the +kind of help a stranger needs, and gave it as freely as if he had not +had a thousand more important things to live for. Thus I never felt +safer or cozier at anybody's fireside, even my own, than at the +dinner-table of the Lord-Mayor.</p> + +<p>Out of this serene sky came a thunderbolt. His Lordship got up and +proceeded to make some very eulogistic remarks upon "the literary and +commercial"—I question whether those two adjectives were ever before +married by a copulative conjunction, and they certainly would not live +together in illicit intercourse, of their own accord—"the literary and +commercial attainments of an eminent gentleman there present," and then +went on to speak of the relations of blood and interest between Great +Britain and the aforesaid eminent gentleman's native country. Those +bonds were more intimate than had ever before existed between two great +nations, throughout all history, and his Lordship felt assured that that +whole honorable company would join him in the expression of a fervent +wish that they might be held inviolably sacred, on both sides of the +Atlantic, now and forever. Then came the same wearisome old toast, dry +and hard to chew upon as a musty sea-biscuit, which had been the text of +nearly all the oratory of my public career. The herald sonorously +announced that Mr. So-and-so would now respond to his Right Honorable +Lordship's toast and speech, the trumpets sounded the customary flourish +for the onset, there was a thunderous rumble of anticipatory applause, +and finally a deep silence sank upon the festive hall.</p> + +<p>All this was a horrid piece of treachery on the Lord-Mayor's part, after +beguiling me within his lines on a pledge of safe-conduct; and it seemed +very strange that he could not let an unobtrusive individual eat his +dinner in peace, drink a small sample of the Mansion-House wine, and go +away grateful at heart for the old English hospitality. If his Lordship +had sent me an infusion of ratsbane in the loving-cup, I should have +taken it much more kindly at his hands. But I suppose the secret of the +matter to have been somewhat as follows.</p> + +<p>All England, just then, was in one of those singular fits of panic +excitement, (not fear, though as sensitive and tremulous as that +emotion,) which, in consequence of the homogeneous character of the +people, their intense patriotism, and their dependence for their ideas +in public affairs on other sources than their own examination and +individual thought, are more sudden, pervasive, and unreasoning than any +similar mood of our own public. In truth, I have never seen the American +public in a state at all similar, and believe that we are incapable of +it. Our excitements are not impulsive, like theirs, but, right or wrong, +are moral and intellectual. For example, the grand rising of the North, +at the commencement of this war, bore the aspect of impulse and passion +only because it was so universal, and necessarily done in a moment, just +as the quiet and simultaneous getting-up of a thousand people out of +their chairs would cause a tumult that might be mistaken for a storm. We +were cool then, and have been cool ever since, and shall remain cool to +the end, which we shall take coolly, whatever it may be. There is +nothing which the English find it so difficult to understand in us as +this characteristic. They imagine us, in our collective capacity, a kind +of wild beast, whose normal condition is savage fury, and are always +looking for the moment when we shall break through the slender barriers +of international law and comity, and compel the reasonable part of the +world, with themselves at the head, to combine for the purpose of +putting us into a stronger cage. At times this apprehension becomes so +powerful, (and when one man feels it, a million do,) that it resembles +the passage of the wind over a broad field of grain, where you see the +whole crop bending and swaying beneath one impulse, and each separate +stalk tossing with the self-same disturbance as its myriad companions. +At such periods all Englishmen talk with a terrible identity of +sentiment and expression. You have the whole country in each man; and +not one of them all, if you put him strictly to the question, can give a +reasonable ground for his alarm. There are but two nations in the +world—our own country and France—that can put England into this +singular state. It is the united sensitiveness of a people extremely +well-to-do, most anxious for the preservation of the cumbrous and +moss-grown prosperity which they have been so long in consolidating, and +incompetent (owing to the national half-sightedness, and their habit of +trusting to a few leading minds for their public opinion) to judge when +that prosperity is really threatened.</p> + +<p>If the English were accustomed to look at the foreign side of any +international dispute, they might easily have satisfied themselves that +there was very little danger of a war at that particular crisis, from +the simple circumstance that their own Government had positively not an +inch of honest ground to stand upon, and could not fail to be aware of +the fact. Neither could they have met Parliament with any show of a +justification for incurring war. It was no such perilous juncture as +exists now, when law and right are really controverted on sustainable or +plausible grounds, and a naval commander may at any moment fire off the +first cannon of a terrible contest. If I remember it correctly, it was a +mere diplomatic squabble, which the British ministers, with the politic +generosity which they are in the habit of showing towards their official +subordinates, had tried to browbeat us for the purpose of sustaining an +ambassador in an indefensible proceeding; and the American Government +(for God had not denied us an administration of Statesmen then) had +retaliated with stanch courage and exquisite skill, putting inevitably a +cruel mortification upon their opponents, but indulging them with no +pretence whatever for active resentment.</p> + +<p>Now the Lord-Mayor, like any other Englishman, probably fancied that War +was on the western gale, and was glad to lay hold of even so +insignificant an American as myself, who might be made to harp on the +rusty old strings of national sympathies, identity of blood and +interest, and community of language and literature, and whisper peace +where there was no peace, in however weak an utterance. And possibly his +Lordship thought, in his wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to +be expressed by a company of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and +far-famed dinner-table, might have an appreciable influence on the grand +result. Thus, when the Lord-Mayor invited me to his feast, it was a +piece of strategy. He wanted to induce me to fling myself, like a lesser +Curtius, with a larger object of self-sacrifice, into the chasm of +discord between England and America, and, on my ignominious demur, had +resolved to shove me in with his own right-honorable hands, in the hope +of closing up the horrible pit forever. On the whole, I forgive his +Lordship. He meant well by all parties,—himself, who would share the +glory, and me, who ought to have desired nothing better than such an +heroic opportunity,—his own country, which would continue to get cotton +and breadstuffs, and mine, which would get everything that men work with +and wear.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Lord-Mayor began to speak, I rapped upon my mind, and it +gave forth a hollow sound, being absolutely empty of appropriate ideas. +I never thought of listening to the speech, because I knew it all +beforehand in twenty repetitions from other lips, and was aware that it +would not offer a single suggestive point. In this dilemma, I turned to +one of my three friends, a gentleman whom I knew to possess an enviable +flow of silver speech, and obtested him, by whatever he deemed holiest, +to give me at least an available thought or two to start with, and, once +afloat, I would trust to my guardian-angel for enabling me to flounder +ashore again, He advised me to begin with some remarks complimentary to +the Lord-Mayor, and expressive of the hereditary reverence in which his +office was held—at least, my friend thought that there would be no harm +in giving his Lordship this little sugar-plum, whether quite the fact or +no—was held by the descendants of the Puritan forefathers. Thence, if I +liked, getting flexible with the oil of my own eloquence, I might easily +slide off into the momentous subject of the relations between England +and America, to which his Lordship had made such weighty allusion.</p> + +<p>Seizing this handful of straw with a death-grip, and bidding my three +friends bury me honorably, I got upon my legs to save both countries, or +perish in the attempt. The tables roared and thundered at me, and +suddenly were silent again. But, as I have never happened to stand in a +position of greater dignity and peril, I deem it a stratagem of sage +policy here to close the sketch, leaving myself still erect in so heroic +an attitude.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="the_geological_middle_age" id="the_geological_middle_age"></a>THE GEOLOGICAL MIDDLE AGE.</h2> + + +<p>I shall pass lightly over the Permian and Triassic epochs, as being more +nearly related in their organic forms to the Carboniferous epoch, with +which we are already somewhat familiar, while in those next in +succession, the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs, the later conditions of +animal life begin to be already foreshadowed. But though less +significant for us in the present stage of our discussion, it must not +be supposed that the Permian and Triassic epochs were unimportant in the +physical and organic history of Europe. A glance at any geological map +of Europe will show the reader how the Belgian island stretched +gradually in a southwesterly direction during the Permian epoch, +approaching the coast of France by slowly increasing accumulations, and +thus filling the Burgundian channel; a wide border of Permian deposits +around the coal-field of Great Britain marks the increase of this region +also during the same time, and a very extensive tract of a like +character is to be seen in Russia. The latter is, however, still under +doubt and discussion among geologists, and more recent investigations +tend to show that this Russian region, supposed at first to be +exclusively Permian, is at least in part Triassic.</p> + +<p>With the coming in of the Triassic epoch began the great deposits of Red +Sandstone, Muschel-Kalk, and Keuper, in Central Europe. They united the +Belgian island to the region of the Vosges and the Black Forest, while +they also filled to a great extent the channel between Belgium and the +Bohemian island. Thus the land slowly gained upon the Triassic ocean, +shutting it within ever-narrowing limits, and preparing the large inland +seas so characteristic of the later Secondary times. The character of +the organic world still retained a general resemblance to that of the +Carboniferous epoch. Among Radiates, the Corals were more nearly allied +to those of the earlier ages than to those of modern times, and Crinoids +abounded still, though some of the higher Echinoderm types were already +introduced. Among Mollusks, the lower Bivalves, that is, the Brachiopods +and Bryozoa, still prevailed, while Ammonites continued to be very +numerous, differing from the earlier ones chiefly in the ever-increasing +complications of their inner partitions, which become so deeply +involuted and cut upon their margins, before the type disappears, as to +make an intricate tracery of very various patterns on the surface of +these shells. The most conspicuous type of Articulates continues as +before to be that of Crustacea; but Trilobites have finished their +career, and the Lobster-like Crustacea make their appearance for the +first time. It does not seem that the class of Insects has greatly +increased since the Carboniferous epoch; and Worms are still as +difficult to trace as ever, being chiefly known by the cases in which +they sheltered themselves. Among Vertebrates, the Fishes still resemble +those of the Carboniferous epoch, belonging principally to the +Selachians and Ganoids. They have, however, approached somewhat toward a +modern pattern, the lobes of the tail being more evenly cut, and their +general outline more like that of common fishes. The gigantic marsh +Reptiles have become far more numerous and various. They continue +through several epochs, but may be said to reach their culminating point +in the Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits.</p> + +<p>I cannot pass over the Triassic epoch without some allusion to the +so-called bird-tracks, so generally believed to mark the introduction of +Birds at this time. It is true that in the deposits of the Trias there +have been found many traces of footsteps, indicating a vast number of +animals which, except for these footprints, remain unknown to us. In the +sandstone of the Connecticut Valley they are found in extraordinary +numbers, as if these animals, whatever they were, had been in the habit +of frequenting that shore. They appear to have been very diversified; +for some of the tracks are very large, others quite small, while some +would seem, from the way in which the footsteps follow each other, to +have been quadrupedal, and others bipedal. We can even measure the +length of their strides, following the impressions which, from their +succession in a continuous line, mark the walk of a single animal.<a name="fnanchor_7_9" id="fnanchor_7_9"></a><a href="#footnote_7_9"><sup>10</sup></a> +The fact that we find these footprints without any bones or other +remains to indicate the animals by which they were made is accounted for +by the mode of deposition of the sandstone. It is very unfavorable for +the preservation of bones; but, being composed of minute sand mixed with +mud, it affords an admirable substance for the reception of these +impressions, which have been thus cast in a mould, as it were, and +preserved through ages. These animals must have been large, when +full-grown, for we find strides measuring six feet between, evidently +belonging to the same animal. In the quadrupedal tracks, the front feet +seem to have been smaller than the hind ones. Some of the tracks show +four toes all turned forward, while in others three toes are turned +forward and one backward. It happened that the first tracks found +belonged to the latter class; and they very naturally gave rise to the +idea that these impressions were made by birds, on account of this +formation of the foot. This, however, is a mere inference; and since the +inductive method is the only true one in science, it seems to me that we +should turn to the facts we have in our possession for the explanation +of these mysterious footprints, rather than endeavor to supply by +assumption those which we have not. As there are no bones found in +connection with these tracks, the only way to arrive at their true +character, in the present state of our knowledge, is by comparing them +with bones found in other localities in the deposits of the same period +in the world's history. Now there have never been found in the Trias any +remains of Birds, while it contains innumerable bones of Reptiles; and +therefore I think that it is in the latter class that we shall +eventually find the solution of this mystery.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_7_9" id="footnote_7_9"></a><a href="#fnanchor_7_9"><span class="label">10</span></a> +For all details respecting these tracks see Hitchcock's +<i>Ichnology of New England</i>. Boston, 1858. 4to.</p></div> + +<p>It is true that the bones of the Triassic Reptiles are scattered and +disconnected; no complete skeleton has yet been discovered, nor has any +foot been found; so that no direct comparison can be made with the +steps. It is, however, my belief, from all we know of the character of +the Animal Kingdom in those days, that these animals were reptilian, but +combined, like so many of the early types, characters of their own class +with those of higher animals yet to come. It seems to me probable, that, +in those tracks where one toe is turned backward, the impression is made +not by a toe, but by a heel, or by a long sole projecting backward; for +it is not pointed, like those of the front toes, but is blunt. It is +true that there is a division of joints in the toes, which seems in +favor of the idea that they were those of Birds; for when the three toes +are turned forward, there are two joints on the inner one, three on the +middle, and four on the outer one, as in Birds. But this feature is not +peculiar to Birds; it is found in Turtles also. The correspondence of +these footprints with each other leaves no doubt that they were all by +one kind of animal; for both the bipedal and the quadrupedal tracks have +the same character. The only quadrupedal animals now known to us which +walk on two legs are the Kangaroos. They raise themselves on their hind +legs, using the front ones to bring their food to their mouth. They leap +with the hind legs, sometimes bringing down their front feet to steady +themselves after the spring, and making use also of their tails, to +balance the body after leaping. In these tracks we find traces of a tail +between the feet. I do not bring this forward as any evidence that these +animals were allied to Kangaroos, since I believe that nothing is more +injurious in science than assumptions which do not rest on a broad basis +of facts; but I wish only to show that these tracks recall other animals +besides Birds, with which they have been universally associated. And +seeing, as we do, that so many of the early types prophesy future forms, +it seems not improbable that they may have belonged to animals which +combined with reptilian characters some birdlike features, and also some +features of the earliest and lowest group of Mammalia, the Marsupials. +To sum up my opinion respecting these footmarks, I believe that they +were made by animals of a prophetic type, belonging to the class of +Reptiles, and exhibiting many synthetic characters.</p> + +<p>The more closely we study past creations, the more impressive and +significant do the synthetic types, presenting features of the higher +classes under the guise of the lower ones, become. They hold the promise +of the future. As the opening overture of an opera contains all the +musical elements to be therein developed, so this living prelude of the +Creative work comprises all the organic elements to be successively +developed in the course of time. When Cuvier first saw the teeth of a +Wealden Reptile, he pronounced them to be those of a Rhinoceros, so +mammalian were they in their character. So, when Sommering first saw the +remains of a Jurassic Pterodactyl, he pronounced them to be those of a +Bird. These mistakes were not due to a superficial judgment in men who +knew Nature so well, but to this prophetic character in the early types +themselves, in which features were united never known to exist together +in our days.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>The Jurassic epoch, next in succession, was a very important one in the +history of Europe. It completed the junction of several of the larger +islands, filling the channel between the central plateau of France and +the Belgian island, as well as that between the former and the island of +Bretagne, so that France was now a sort of crescent of land holding a +Jurassic sea in its centre, Bretagne and Belgium forming the two horns. +This Jurassic basin or inland sea united England and France, and it may +not be amiss to say a word here of its subsequent transformations. +During the long succession of Jurassic periods, the deposits of that +epoch, chiefly limestone and clays, with here and there a bed of sand, +were accumulated at its bottom. Upon these followed the chalk deposits +of the Cretaceous epoch, until the basin was gradually filled, and +partially, at least, turned to dry land. But at the close of the +Cretaceous epoch a fissure was formed, allowing the entrance of the sea +at the western end, so that the constant washing of the tides and storms +wore away the lower, softer deposits, leaving the overhanging chalk +cliffs unsupported. These latter, as their support were undermined, +crumbled down, thus widening the channel gradually. This process must, +of course, have gone on more rapidly at the western end, where the sea +rushed on with most force, till the channel was worn through to the +German Ocean on the other side, and the sea then began to act with like +power at both ends of the channel. This explains its form, wider at the +western end, narrower between Dover and Calais, and widening again at +the eastern extremity. This ancient basin, extending from the centre of +France into England, is rich in the remains of a number of successive +epochs. Around its margin we find the Jurassic deposits, showing that +there must have been some changes of level which raised the shores and +prevented later accumulations from covering them, while in the centre +the Jurassic deposits are concealed by those of the Cretaceous epoch +above them, these being also partially hidden under the later Tertiary +beds. Let us see, then, what this inland sea has to tell us of the +organic world in the Jurassic epoch.</p> + +<p>At that time the region where Lyme-Regis is now situated in modern +England was an estuary on the shore of that ancient sea. About forty +years ago a discovery of large and curious bones, belonging to some +animal unknown to the scientific world, turned the attention of +naturalists to this locality, and since then such a quantity and variety +of such remains have been found in the neighborhood as to show that the +Sharks, Whales, Porpoises, etc., of the present ocean are not more +numerous and diversified than were the inhabitants of this old bay or +inlet. Among these animals, the Ichthyosauri (Fish-Lizards) form one of +the best-known and most prominent groups. They are chiefly found in the +Lias, the lowest set of beds of the Jurassic deposits, and seem to have +come in with the close of the Triassic epoch. It is greatly to be +regretted that all that is known of the Triassic Reptiles antecedent to +the Ichthyosauri still remains in the form of original papers, and is +not yet embodied in text-books. They are quite as interesting, as +curious, and as diversified as those of the Jurassic epoch, which are, +however, much more extensively known, on account of the large +collections of these animals belonging to the British Museum. It will be +more easy to understand the structural relations of the latter, and +their true position in the Animal Kingdom, when those which preceded +them are better understood. One of the most remarkable and numerous of +these Triassic Reptiles seems to have been an animal resembling, in the +form of the head, and in the two articulating surfaces at the juncture +of the head with the backbone, the Frogs and Salamanders, though its +teeth are like those of a Crocodile. As yet nothing has been found of +these animals except the head,—neither the backbone nor the limbs; so +that little is known of their general structure. </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/one.gif" alt="Ichthyosaurus" /> +<p class="center">Fig. 1.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Ichthyosauri (Figure 1) must have been very large, seven or eight +feet being the ordinary length, while specimens measuring from twenty to +thirty feet are not uncommon. The large head is pointed, like that of +the Porpoise; the jaws contain a number of conical teeth, of reptilian +form and character; the eyeball was very large, as may be seen by the +socket, and it was supported by pieces of bone, such as we find now only +in the eyes of birds of prey and in the bony fishes. The ribs begin at +the neck and continue to the tail, and there is no distinction between +head and neck, as in most Reptiles, but a continuous outline, as in +Fishes. They had four limbs, not divided into fingers, but forming mere +paddles. Yet fingers seem to be hinted at in these paddles, though not +developed, for the bones are in parallel rows, as if to mark what might +be such a division. The back-bones are short, but very high, and the +surfaces of articulation are hollow, conical cavities, as in Fishes, +instead of ball-and-socket joints, as in Reptiles. The ribs are more +complicated than in Vertebrates generally: they consist of several +pieces, and the breast-bone is formed of a number of bones, making +together quite an intricate bony net-work. There is only one living +animal, the Crocodile, characterized by this peculiar structure of the +breast-bone. The Ichthyosaurus is, indeed, one of the most remarkable of +the synthetic types: by the shape of its head one would associate it +with the Porpoises, while by its paddles and its long tail it reminds +one of the whole group of Cetaceans to which the Porpoises belong; by +its crocodilian teeth, its ribs, and its breast-bone, it seems allied to +Reptiles; and by its uniform neck, not distinguished from the body, and +the structure of the backbone, it recalls the Fishes.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/two.gif" alt="Plesiosaurus" /> +<p class="center">Fig. 2.</p> +</div> + +<p>Another most curious member of this group is the Plesiosaurus, odd +Saurian (Figure 2). By its disproportionately long and flexible neck, +and its small, flat head, it unquestionably foreshadows the Serpents, +while by the structure of the backbone, the limbs, and the tail, it is +closely allied with the Ichthyosaurus. Its flappers are, however, more +slender, less clumsy, and were, no doubt, adapted to more rapid motion +than the fins of the Ichthyosaurus, while its tail is shorter in +proportion to the whole length of the animal. It seems probable, from +its general structure, that the Ichthyosaurus moved like a Fish, chiefly +by the flapping of the tail, aided by the fins, while in the +Plesiosaurus the tail must have been much less efficient as a locomotive +organ, and the long, snake-like, flexible neck no doubt rendered the +whole body more agile and rapid in its movements. In comparing the two, +it may be said, that, as a whole, the Ichthyosaurus, though belonging by +its structure to the class of Reptiles, has a closer external +resemblance to the Fishes, while the Plesiosaurus is more decidedly +reptilian in character. If there exists any animal in our waters, not +yet known to naturalists, answering to the descriptions of the +"Sea-Serpent," it must be closely allied to the Plesiosaurus. The +occurrence in the fresh waters of North America of a Fish, the +Lepidosteus, which is closely allied to the fossil Fishes found with the +Plesiosaurus in the Jurassic beds, renders such a supposition probable.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/three.gif" alt="Pterodactylus" /> +<p class="center">Fig. 3.</p> +</div> + +<p>Of all these strange old forms, so singularly uniting features of Fishes +and Reptiles, none has given rise to more discussion than the +Pterodactylus, (Figure 3,) another of the Saurian tribe, associated, +however, with Birds by some naturalists, on account of its large +wing-like appendages. From the extraordinary length of its anterior +limbs, they have generally been described as wings, and the animal is +usually represented as a flying Reptile. But if we consider its whole +structure, this does not seem probable, and I believe it to have been an +essentially aquatic animal, moving after the fashion of the Sea-Turtle. +Its so-called wings resemble in structure the front paddles of the +Sea-Turtles far more than the wings of a Bird; differing from them, +indeed, only by the extraordinary length of the inner toe, while the +outer ones are comparatively much shorter. But, notwithstanding this +difference, the hand of the Pterodactylus is constructed like that of an +aquatic swimming marine Reptile; and I believe, that, if we represent it +with its long neck stretched upon the water, its large head furnished +with powerful, well-armed jaws, ready to dive after the innumerable +smaller animals living in the same ocean, we shall have a more natural +picture of its habits than if we consider it as a flying animal, which +it is generally supposed to have been. It has not the powerful +breast-bone, with the large projecting keel along the middle line, such +as exists in all the flying animals. Its breast-bone, on the contrary, +is thin and flat, like that of the present Sea-Turtle; and if it moved +through the water by the help of its long flappers, as the Sea-Turtle +does now, it could well dispense with that powerful construction of the +breast-bone so essential to all animals which fly through the air. +Again, the powerful teeth, long and conical, placed at considerable +intervals in the jaw, constitute a feature common to all predaceous +aquatic animals, and would seem to have been utterly useless in a flying +animal at that time, since there were no aërial beings of any size to +prey upon. The Dragon-Flies found in the same deposits with the +Pterodactylus were certainly not a game requiring so powerful a battery +of attack.</p> + +<p>The Fishes of the Jurassic sea were exceedingly numerous, but were all +of the Ganoid and Selachian tribes. It would weary the reader, were I to +introduce here any detailed description of them, but they were as +numerous and varied as those living in our present waters. There was the +Hybodus, with the marked furrows on the spines and the strong hooks +along their margin,—the huge Chimera, with its long whip, its curved +bone over the back, and its parrot-like bill,—the Lepidotus, with its +large square scales, its large head, its numerous rows of teeth, one +within another, forming a powerful grinding apparatus,—the Microdon, +with its round, flat body, its jaw paved with small grinding teeth,—the +swift Aspidorhynchus, with its long, slender body and massive tail, +enabling it to strike the water powerfully and dart forward with great +rapidity. There were also a host of small Fishes, comparing with those +above mentioned as our Perch, Herring, Smelts, etc., compare with our +larger Fishes; but, whatever their size or form, all the Fishes of those +days had the same hard scales fitting to each other by hooks, instead of +the thin membranous scales overlapping each other at the edge, like the +common Fishes of more modern times. The smaller Fishes, no doubt, +afforded food to the larger ones, and to the aquatic Reptiles. Indeed, +in parts of the intestines of the Ichthyosauri, and in their petrified +excrements, have been found the scales and teeth of these smaller Fishes +perfectly preserved. It is amazing that we can learn so much of the +habits of life of these past creatures, and know even what was the food +of animals existing countless ages before man was created.</p> + +<p>There are traces of Mammalia in the Jurassic deposits, but they were of +those inferior kinds known now as Marsupials, and no complete specimens +have yet been found.</p> + +<p>The Articulates were largely represented in this epoch. There were +already in the vegetation a number of Gymnosperms, affording more +favorable nourishment for Insects than the forests of earlier times; and +we accordingly find that class in larger numbers than ever before, +though still meagre in comparison with its present representation. +Crustacea were numerous,—those of the Shrimp and Lobster kinds +prevailing, though in some of the Lobsters we have the first advance +towards the highest class of Crustacea in the expansion of the +transverse diameter now so characteristic of the Crabs. Among Mollusks +we have a host of gigantic Ammonites; and the naked Cephalopods, which +were in later times to become the prominent representatives of that +class, already begin to make their appearance. Among Radiates, some of +the higher kinds of Echinoderms, the Ophiurans and Echinolds, take the +place of the Crinoids, and the Acalephian Corals give way to the Astræan +and Meandrina-like types, resembling the Reef-Builders of the present +time.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>I have spoken especially of the inhabitants of the Jurassic sea lying +between England and France, because it was there that were first found +the remains of some of the most remarkable and largest Jurassic animals. +But wherever these deposits have been investigated, the remains +contained in them reveal the same organic character, though, of course, +we find the land Reptiles only where there happen to have been marshes, +the aquatic Saurians wherever large estuaries or bays gave them an +opportunity of coming in near shore, so that their bones were preserved +in the accumulations of mud or clay constantly collecting in such +localities,—the Crustacea, Shells, or Sea-Urchins on the old +sea-beaches, the Corals in the neighborhood of coral reefs, and so on. +In short, the distribution of animals then as now was in accordance with +their nature and habits, and we shall seek vainly for them in the +localities where they did not belong.</p> + +<p>But when I say that the character of the Jurassic animals is the same, I +mean, that, wherever a Jurassic sea-shore occurs, be it in France, +Germany, England, or elsewhere throughout the world, the Shells, +Crustacea, or other animals found upon it have a special character, and +are not to be confounded by any one thoroughly acquainted with these +fossils with the Shells or Crustacea of any preceding or subsequent +time,—that, where a Jurassic marsh exists, the land Reptiles inhabiting +it are Jurassic, and neither Triassic nor Cretaceous,—that a Jurassic +coral reef is built of Corals belonging as distinctly to the Jurassic +creation as the Corals on the Florida reefs belong to the present +creation,—that, where some Jurassic bay or inlet is disclosed to us +with the Fishes anciently inhabiting it, they are as characteristic of +their time as are the Fishes of Massachusetts Bay now.</p> + +<p>And not only so, but, while this unity of creation prevails throughout +the entire epoch as a whole, there is the same variety of geographical +distribution, the same circumscription of faunæ within distinct +zoölogical provinces, as at the present time. The Fishes of +Massachusetts Bay are not the same as those of Chesapeake Bay, nor those +of Chesapeake Bay the same as those of Pamlico Sound, nor those of +Pamlico Sound the same as those of the Florida coast. This division of +the surface of the earth into given areas within which certain +combinations of animals and plants are confined is not peculiar to the +present creation, but has prevailed in all times, though with +ever-increasing diversity, as the surface of the earth itself assumed a +greater variety of climatic conditions. D'Orbigny and others were +mistaken in assuming that faunal differences have been introduced only +in the last geological epochs. Besides these adjoining zoölogical faunæ, +each epoch is divided, as we have seen, into a number of periods, +occupying successive levels one above another, and differing +specifically from each other in time as zoölogical provinces differ from +each other in space. In short, every epoch is to be looked upon from two +points of view: as a unit, complete in itself, having one character +throughout, and as a stage in the progressive history of the world, +forming part of an organic whole.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>As the Jurassic epoch was ushered in by the upheaval of the Jura, so its +close was marked by the upheaval of that system of mountains called the +Côte d'Or. With this latter upheaval began the Cretaceous epoch, which +we will examine with special reference to its subdivision into periods, +since the periods in this epoch have been clearly distinguished, and +investigated with especial care. I have alluded in the preceding article +to the immediate contact of the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs in +Switzerland, affording peculiar facilities for the direct comparison of +their organic remains. But the Cretaceous deposits are well known, not +only in this inland sea of ancient Switzerland, but in a number of +European basins, in France, in the Pyrenees, on the Mediterranean +shores, and also in Syria, Egypt, India, and Southern Africa, as well as +on our own continent. In all these localities, the Cretaceous remains, +like those of the Jurassic epoch, have one organic character, distinct +and unique. This fact is especially significant, because the contact of +their respective deposits is in many localities so immediate and +continuous that it affords an admirable test for the development-theory. +If this is the true mode of origin of animals, those of the later +Jurassic beds must be the progenitors of those of the earlier Cretaceous +deposits. Let us see now how far this agrees with our knowledge of the +physiological laws of development.</p> + +<p>Take first the class of Fishes. We have seen that in the Jurassic +periods there were none of our common Fishes, none corresponding to our +Herring, Pickerel, Mackerel, and the like,—no Fishes, in short, with +thin membranous scales, but that the class was represented exclusively +by those with hard, flint-like scales. In the Cretaceous epoch, however, +we come suddenly upon a horde of Fishes corresponding to our smaller +common Fishes of the Pickerel and Herring tribes, but principally of the +kinds found now in tropical waters; there are none like our Cods, +Haddocks, etc., such as are found at present in the colder seas. The +Fishes of the Jurassic epoch corresponding to our Sharks and Skates and +Gar-Pikes still exist, but in much smaller proportion, while these more +modern kinds are very numerous. Indeed, a classification of the +Cretaceous Fishes would correspond very nearly to one founded on those +now living. Shall we, then, suppose that the large reptilian Fishes of +the Jurassic time began suddenly to lay numerous broods of these +smaller, more modern, scaly Fishes? And shall we account for the +diminution of the previous forms by supposing that in order to give a +fair chance to the new kinds they brought them forth in large numbers, +while they reproduced their own kind less abundantly? According to very +careful estimates, if we accept this view, the progeny of the Jurassic +Fishes must have borne a proportion of about ninety per cent, of +entirely new types to some ten per cent, of those resembling the +parents. One would like a fact or two on which to rest so very +extraordinary a reversal of all known physiological laws of +reproduction, but, unhappily, there is not one.</p> + +<p>Still more unaccountable, upon any theory of development according to +ordinary laws of reproduction, are those unique, isolated types limited +to a single epoch, or sometimes even to a single period. There are some +very remarkable instances of this in the Cretaceous deposits. To make my +statement clearer, I will say a word of the sequence of these deposits +and their division into periods.</p> + +<p>These Cretaceous beds were at first divided only into three sets, called +the Neocomian, or lower deposits, the Green-Sands, or middle deposits, +and the Chalk, or upper deposits. The Neocomian, the lower division, was +afterwards subdivided into three sets of beds, called the Lower, Middle, +and Upper Neocomian by some geologists, the Valengian, Neocomian, and +Urgonian by others. These three periods are not only traced in immediate +succession, one above another, in the transverse cut before described, +across the mountain of Chaumont, near Neufchatel, but they are also +traced almost on one level along the plain at the foot of the Jura. It +is evident that by some disturbance of the surface the eastern end of +the range was raised slightly, lifting the lower or Valengian deposits +out of the water, so that they remain uncovered, and the next set of +deposits, the Neocomian, is accumulated along their base, while these in +their turn are slightly raised, and the Urgonian beds are accumulated +against them a little lower down. They follow each other from east to +west in a narrower area, just as the Azoic, Silurian, and Devonian +deposits follow each other from north to south in the northern part of +the United States. The Cretaceous deposits have been intimately studied +in various localities by different geologists, and are now subdivided +into at least ten, or it may be fifteen or sixteen distinct periods, as +they stand at present. This is, however, but the beginning of the work; +and the recent investigations of the French geologist, Coquand, indicate +that several of these periods at least are susceptible of further +subdivision. I present here a table enumerating the periods of the +Cretaceous epoch best known at present, in their sequence, because I +want to show how sharply and in how arbitrary a manner, if I may so +express it, new forms are introduced. The names are simply derived from +the localities, or from some circumstances connected with the locality +where each period has been studied.</p> + +<h4> +<i>Table of Periods in the Cretaceous Epoch.</i> +</h4> + +<div class="centered"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Periods"> +<tr> +<td>Maestrichtian</td> +<td rowspan="2" valign="middle"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" valign="middle">Chalk.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Senonian</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Turonian</td> +<td rowspan="2" valign="middle"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" valign="middle">Chalk Marl.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cenomanian</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Albian</td> +<td rowspan="3" valign="middle"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" valign="middle">Green Sands.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Aptian</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Rhodanian</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Urgonian</td> +<td rowspan="3" valign="middle"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" valign="middle">Wealden.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Neocomian</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Valengian</td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<p>One of the most peculiar and distinct of those unique types alluded to +above is that of the Rudistes, a singular Bivalve, in which the lower +valve is very deep and conical, while the upper valve sets into to it as +into a cup. The subjoined woodcut represents such a Bivalve. These +Rudistes are found suddenly in the Urgonian deposits; there are none in +the two preceding sets of beds; they disappear in the three following +periods, and reappear again in great numbers in the Cenomanian, +Turonian, and Senonian periods, and disappear again in the succeeding +one. These can hardly be missed from any negligence or oversight in the +examination of these deposits, for they are by no means rare. They are +found always in great numbers, occupying crowded beds, like Oysters in +the present time. So numerous are they, where they occur at all, that +the deposits containing them are called by many naturalists the first, +second, third, and fourth <i>bank</i> of Rudistes. Which of the ordinary +Bivalves, then, gave rise to this very remarkable form in the class, +allowed it to die out, and revived it again at various intervals? This +is by no means the only instance of the same kind. There are a number of +types making their appearance suddenly, lasting during one period or +during a succession of periods, and then disappearing forever, while +others, like the Rudistes, come in, vanish, and reappear at a later +time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/four.gif" alt="Rudistes" /> +<p class="center">Rudistes.</p> +</div> + +<p>I am well aware that the advocates of the development-theory do not +state their views as I have here presented them. On the contrary, they +protest against any idea of sudden, violent, abrupt changes, and +maintain that by slow and imperceptible modifications during immense +periods of time these new types have been introduced without involving +any infringement of the ordinary processes of development; and they +account for the entire absence of corroborative facts in the past +history of animals by what they call the "imperfection of the geological +record." Now, while I admit that our knowledge of geology is still very +incomplete, I assert that just where the direct sequence of geological +deposits is needed for this evidence, we have it. The Jurassic beds, +without a single modern scaly Fish, are in immediate contact with the +Cretaceous beds, in which the Fishes of that kind are proportionately +almost as numerous as they are now; and between these two sets of +deposits there is not a trace of any transition or intermediate form to +unite the reptilian Fishes of the Jurassic with the common Fishes of the +Cretaceous times. Again, the Cretaceous beds in which the crowded banks +of Rudistes, so singular and unique in form, first make their +appearance, follow immediately upon those in which all the Bivalves are +of an entirely different character. In short, the deposits of this year +along any sea-coast or at the mouth of any of our rivers do not follow +more directly upon those of last year than do these successive sets of +beds of past ages follow upon each other. In making these statements, I +do not forget the immense length of the geological periods; on the +contrary, I fully accede to it, and believe that it is more likely to +have been underrated than overstated. But let it be increased a +thousand-fold, the fact remains, that these new types occur commonly at +the dividing line where one period joins the next, just on the margin of +both.</p> + +<p>For years I have collected daily among some of these deposits, and I +know the Sea-Urchins, Corals, Fishes, Crustacea, and Shells of those old +shores as well as I know those of Nahant Beach, and there is nothing +more striking to a naturalist than the sudden, abrupt changes of species +in passing from one to another. In the second set of Cretaceous beds, +the Neocomian, there is found a little Terebratula (a small Bivalve +Shell) in immense quantities: they may actually be collected by the +bushel. Pass to the Urgonian beds, resting directly upon the Neocomian, +and there is not one to be found, and an entirely new species comes in. +There is a peculiar Spatangus (Sea-Urchin) found throughout the whole +series of beds in which this Terebratula occurs. At the same moment that +you miss the Shell, the Sea-Urchin disappears also, and another takes +its place. Now, admitting for a moment that the later can have grown out +of the earlier forms, I maintain, that, if this be so, the change is +immediate, sudden, without any gradual transitions, and is, therefore, +wholly inconsistent with all our known physiological laws, as well as +with the transmutation-theory.</p> + +<p>There is a very singular group of Ammonites in the Cretaceous epoch, +which, were it not for the suddenness of its appearance, might seem +rather to favor the development-theory, from its great variety of +closely allied forms. We have traced the Chambered Shells from the +straight, simple ones of the earliest epochs up to the intricate and +closely coiled forms of the Jurassic epoch. In the so-called Portland +stone, belonging to the upper set of Jurassic beds, there is only one +type of Ammonite; but in the Cretaceous beds, immediately above it, +there set in a number of different genera and distinct species, +including the most fantastic and seemingly abnormal forms. It is as if +the close coil by which these shells had been characterized during the +Middle Age had been suddenly broken up and decomposed into an endless +variety of outlines. Some of these new types still retain the coil, but +the whorls are much less compact than before, as in the Crioceras; in +others, the direction of the coil is so changed as to make a spiral, as +in the Turrilites; or the shell starts with a coil, then proceeds in a +straight line, and changes to a curve again at the other extremity, as +in the Ancyloceras, or in the Scaphites, in which the first coil is +somewhat closer than in the Ancyloceras; or the tendency to a coil is +reduced to a single curve, so as to give the shell the outline of a +horn, as in the Toxoceras; or the coil is entirely lost, and the shell +reduced to its primitive straight form, as in the Baculites, which, +except for their undulating partitions, might be mistaken for the +Orthoceratites of the Silurian and Devonian epochs. I have presented +here but a few species of these extraordinary Cretaceous Ammonites, and, +strange to say, with this breaking-up of the type into a number of +fantastic and often contorted shapes, it disappears. It is singular that +forms so unusual and so contrary to the previous regularity of this +group should accompany its last stage of existence, and seem to shadow +forth by their strange contortions the final dissolution of their type. +When I look upon a collection of these old shells, I can never divest +myself of an impression that the contortions of a death-struggle have +been made the pattern of living types, and with that the whole group has +ended.</p> + +<div class="centered"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Figures-1"> +<tr> +<td><img src="images/five.gif" alt="Crioceras" /></td> +<td><img src="images/six.gif" alt="Turrilites" /></td> +<td><img src="images/seven.gif" alt="Ancyloceras" /></td> +<td><img src="images/eight.gif" alt="Scaphites" /></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="center">Crioceras.</p></td> +<td><p class="center">Turrilites.</p></td> +<td><p class="center">Ancyloceras.</p></td> +<td><p class="center">Scaphites.</p></td> +</tr> +</table></div> +<div class="centered"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Figures-2"> +<tr> +<td><img src="images/nine.gif" alt="Toxoceras" /></td> +<td><img src="images/ten.gif" alt="Baculites" /></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="center">Toxoceras.</p></td> +<td><p class="center">Baculites.</p></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>Now shall we infer that the compact, closely coiled Ammonites of the +Jurassic deposits, while continuing their own kind, brought forth a +variety of other kinds, and so distributed these new organic elements as +to produce a large number of distinct genera and species? I confess that +these ideas are so contrary to all I have learned from Nature in the +course of a long life that I should be forced to renounce completely the +results of my studies in Embryology and Palæontology before I could +adopt these new views of the origin of species. And while the +distinguished originator of this theory is entitled to our highest +respect for his scientific researches, yet it should not be forgotten +that the most conclusive evidence brought forward by him and his +adherents is of a negative character, drawn from a science in which they +do not pretend to have made personal investigations, that of Geology, +while the proofs they offer us from their own departments of science, +those of Zoölogy and Botany, are derived from observations, still very +incomplete, upon domesticated animals and cultivated plants, which can +never be made a test of the origin of wild species.<a name="fnanchor_8_10" id="fnanchor_8_10"></a><a href="#footnote_8_10"><sup>11</sup></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="footnote_8_10" id="footnote_8_10"></a><a href="#fnanchor_8_10"><span class="label">11</span></a> +The advocates of the development-theory allude to the +metamorphosis of animals and plants as supporting their view of a change +of one species into another. They compare the passage of a common leaf +into the calyx or crown-leaves in plants, or that of a larva into a +perfect insect, to the passage of one species into another. The only +objection to this argument seems to be, that, whereas Nature daily +presents us myriads of examples of the one set of phenomena, showing it +to be a norm, not a single instance of the other has ever been known to +occur either in the animal or in the vegetable kingdom.</p></div> + +<p>In my next article I shall show the relation between the Cretaceous and +Tertiary epochs, and see whether there is any reason to believe that the +gigantic Mammalia of more modern times were derived from the Reptiles of +the Secondary age.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="the_white_throated_sparrow" id="the_white_throated_sparrow"></a>THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW.</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Hark! 't is our Northern Nightingale that sings</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">In far-off, leafy cloisters, dark and cool,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Flinging his flute-notes bounding from the skies!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Thou wild musician of the mountain-streams,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Most tuneful minstrel of the forest-choirs,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Bird of all grace and harmony of soul,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Unseen, we hail thee for thy blissful voice!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Up in yon tremulous mist where morning wakes</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Illimitable shadows from their dark abodes,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Or in this woodland glade tumultuous grown</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">With all the murmurous language of the trees,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">No blither presence fills the vocal space.</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">The wandering rivulets dancing through the grass,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">The gambols, low or loud, of insect-life,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">The cheerful call of cattle in the vales,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Sweet natural sounds of the contented hours,—</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">All seem less jubilant when thy song begins.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Deep in the shade we lie and listen long;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">For human converse well may pause, and man</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Learn from such notes fresh hints of praise,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">That upward swelling from thy grateful tribe</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Circles the hills with melodies of joy.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="the_fleur-de-lis_in_florida" id="the_fleur-de-lis_in_florida"></a>THE FLEUR-DE-LIS IN FLORIDA.</h2> + +<p class="blockquot">[In the July number of this magazine is a sketch of the attempt +of the Huguenots, under the auspices of Coligny, to found a +colony at Port Royal. Two years later, an attempt was made to +establish a Protestant community on the banks of the River St. +John's, in Florida. The following paper embodies the substance +of the letters and narratives of the actors in this striking +episode of American history.]</p> + + + +<h3><a name="chapter_i" id="chapter_i"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + + +<p>On the 25th of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second time off +the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the smallest of +sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all crowded with men. +René de Laudonnière held command. He was of a noble race of Poitou, +attached to the House of Châtillon, of which Coligny was the head; +pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An engraving, +purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, leaning +against the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and plume, +slashed doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled +moustache and close-trimmed beard, wears a thoughtful and somewhat +pensive look, as if already shadowed by the destiny that awaited him.</p> + +<p>The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark and deadly +year for France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that +voyager returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of +bigotry and hate had found a respite. The Peace of Amboise had been +signed. The fierce monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his +sword; the assassin, his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked +their rancor under hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, +helpless amid the storm of factions which threatened their destruction, +smiled now on Condé, now on Guise,—gave ear to the Cardinal of +Lorraine, or listened in secret to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. +Coligny was again strong at Court. He used his opportunity, and +solicited with success the means of renewing his enterprise of +colonization. With pains and zeal, men were mustered for the work. In +name, at least, they were all Huguenots; yet again, as before, the +staple of the projected colony was unsound: soldiers, paid out of the +royal treasury, hired artisans and tradesmen, joined with a swarm of +volunteers from the young Huguenot noblesse, whose restless swords had +rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The foundation-stone was left +out. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, indeed, were rare among +the Huguenots; for the dull peasants who guided the plough clung with +blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous gentlemen, reckless +soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for novelty and heated with +dreams of wealth,—these were they who would build for their country and +their religion an empire beyond the sea.</p> + +<p>With a few officers and twelve soldiers, Laudonnière landed where Ribaut +had landed before him; and as their boat neared the shore, they saw an +Indian chief who ran to meet them, whooping and clamoring welcome from +afar. It was Satouriona, the savage potentate who ruled some thirty +villages around the lower St. John's and northward along the coast. With +him came two stalwart sons, and behind trooped a host of tribesmen +arrayed in smoke-tanned deerskins stained with wild devices in gaudy +colors. They crowded around the voyagers with beaming visages and yelps +of gratulation. The royal Satouriona could not contain the exuberance of +his joy, since in the person of the French commander he recognized the +brother of the Sun, descended from the skies to aid him against his +great rival, Outina.</p> + +<p>Hard by stood the column of stone, graven with the fleur-de-lis, +planted here on the former voyage. The Indians had crowned the mystic +emblem with evergreens, and placed offerings of maize on the ground +before it; for with an affectionate and reverent wonder they had ever +remembered the steel-clad strangers whom, two summers before, John +Ribaut had led to their shores.</p> + +<p>Five miles up the St. John's, or River of May, there stands, on the +southern bank, a hill some forty feet high, boldly thrusting itself into +the broad and lazy waters. It is now called St. John's Bluff. Thither +the Frenchmen repaired, pushed through the dense semi-tropical forest, +and climbed the steep acclivity. Thence they surveyed their Canaan. +Beneath them moved the unruffled river, gliding around the reed-grown +shores of marshy islands, the haunt of alligators, and betwixt the +bordering expanse of wide, wet meadows, studded with island-like clumps +of pine and palmetto, and bounded by the sunny verge of distant forests. +Far on their right, seen by glimpses between the shaggy cedar-boughs, +the glistening sea lay stretched along the horizon. Before, in hazy +distance, the softened green of the woodlands was veined with the mazes +of the countless interlacing streams that drain the watery region behind +St. Mary's and Fernandina. To the left, the St. John's flowed gleaming +betwixt verdant shores beyond whose portals lay the El Dorado of their +dreams. "Briefly," writes Laudonnière, "the place is so pleasant that +those which are melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour."</p> + +<p>A fresh surprise awaited them. The allotted span of mortal life was +quadrupled in that benign climate. Laudonnière's lieutenant, Ottigny, +ranging the neighboring forest with a party of soldiers, met a troop of +Indians who invited him to their dwellings. Mounted on the back of a +stout savage, who plunged with him through the deep marshes, and guided +him by devious pathways through the tangled thickets, he arrived at +length, and beheld a wondrous spectacle. In the lodge sat a venerable +chief, who assured him that he was the father of five successive +generations, and that he had lived two hundred and fifty years. +Opposite, sat a still more ancient veteran, the father of the first, +shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather a dead carkeis +than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age was so great +that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak one onely word +but with exceeding great paine." Despite his dismal condition, the +visitor was told that he might expect to live in the course of Nature +thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat face to face, half +hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and his credulous +soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in wonder and admiration.</p> + +<p>Man and Nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May as +the site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the +harvests of maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the +river opened a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores +of barbaric wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the +colonists. Yet, the better to content himself and his men, Laudonnière +weighed anchor, and sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. +Returning, confirmed in his first impression, he set forth with a party +of officers and soldiers to explore the borders of the chosen stream. +The day was hot. The sun beat fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy +doublets of the men, till at length they gained the shade of one of +those deep forests of pine where the dead and sultry air is thick with +resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen leaves, gives no +sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer leaped up on all +sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into sunlight. A broad +meadow, a running brook, a lofty wall of encircling forests. The men +called it the Vale of Laudonnière. The afternoon was spent, and the sun +was near its setting, when they reached the bank of the river. They +strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, and, stretched on that +sylvan couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and weary men.</p> + +<p>At daybreak they were roused by sound of trumpet. Men and officers +joined their voices in a psalm, then betook themselves to their task. +Their task was the building of a fort, and this was the chosen spot. It +was a tract of dry ground on the brink of the river, immediately above +St. John's Bluff. On the right was the bluff; on the left, a marsh; in +front, the river; behind, the forest.</p> + +<p>Boats came up the stream with laborers, tents, provision, cannon, and +tools. The engineers marked out the work in the form of a triangle; and, +from the noble volunteer to the meanest artisan, all lent a hand to +complete it. On the river side the defences were a palisade of timber. +On the two other sides were a ditch, and a rampart of fascines, earth, +and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in one of which was the magazine. +Within was a spacious parade, and around it various buildings for +lodging and storage. A large house with covered galleries was built on +the side towards the river for Laudonnière and his officers. In honor of +Charles IX the fort was named Fort Caroline.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives +style him, was seized with misgivings, learning these mighty +preparations. The work was but begun, and all was din and confusion +around the incipient fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the +neighboring height of St. John's swarming with naked warriors. The +prudent Laudonnière set his men in array, and for a season pick and +spade were dropped for arquebuse and pike. The savage potentate +descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, who saw him, drew his +likeness from memory,—a tall, athletic figure, tattooed in token of his +rank, plumed with feathers, hung with strings of beads, and girdled with +tinkling pieces of metal which hung from the belt, his only garment. He +came in regal state, a crowd of warriors around him, and, in advance, a +troop of young Indians armed with spears. Twenty musicians followed, +blowing a hideous discord through pipes of reeds. Arrived, he seated +himself on the ground "like a monkey," as Le Moyne has it in the grave +Latin of his "Brevis Narratio." A council followed, in which broken +words were aided by signs and pantomime. A treaty of alliance was made, +and Laudonnière had the folly to promise the chief that he would lend +him aid against his enemies. Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his +Indians to aid the French at their work. They obeyed with alacrity, and +in two days the buildings of the fort were all thatched after the native +fashion with leaves of the palmetto.</p> + +<p>A word touching these savages. In the peninsula of Florida were several +distinct Indian confederacies, with three of which the French were +brought into contact. The first was that of Satouriona. The next was the +potent confederacy of the Thimagoa, under a chief called Outina, whose +forty villages were scattered among the lakes and forests around the +upper waters of this remarkable river. The third was that of "King +Potanou," whose domain lay among the pine-barrens, cypress-swamps, and +fertile hummocks, westward and northwestward of the St. John's. The +three communities were at deadly enmity. Their social state was more +advanced than that of the wandering hunter-tribes of the North. They +were an agricultural people. Around all their villages were fields of +maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest, due chiefly to the labor of the +women, was gathered into a public granary, and on this they lived during +three-fourths of the year, dispersing in winter to hunt among the +forests.</p> + +<p>Their villages were clusters of huts thatched with palmetto. In the +midst was the dwelling of the chief, much larger than the rest, and +sometimes raised on an artificial mound. They were inclosed with +palisades, and, strange to say, some of them were approached by wide +avenues, artificially graded, and several hundred yards in length. +Remains of them may still be seen, as may also the mounds in which the +Floridians, like the Hurons and various other tribes, collected at +stated intervals the bones of their dead.</p> + +<p>The most prominent feature of their religion was sun-worship, and, like +other wild American tribes, they abounded in "medicine-men," who +combined the functions of priest, physician, and necromancer.</p> + +<p>Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose +office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each +village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the nation. In +the language of the French narratives, they were all kings or lords, +vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or Potanou. All these +tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to ascertain with precision +their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt that they were the +authors of the mounds and other remains at present found in various +parts of Florida.</p> + +<p>Their fort nearly finished, and their league made with Satouriona, the +gold-hunting Huguenots were eager to spy out the secrets of the +interior. To this end the lieutenant, Ottigny, went up the river in a +sail-boat. With him were a few soldiers and two Indians, the latter +going forth, says Laudonnière, as if bound to a wedding, keen for a +fight with the hated Thimagoa, and exulting in the havoc to be wrought +among them by the magic weapons of their white allies. They were doomed +to grievous disappointment.</p> + +<p>The Sieur d'Ottigny spread his sail, and calmly glided up the dark +waters of the St. John's. A scene fraught with strange interest to the +naturalist and the lover of Nature. Here, two centuries later, the +Bartrams, father and son, guided their skiff and kindled their nightly +bivouac-fire; and here, too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and +his gun. Each alike has left the record of his wanderings, fresh as the +woods and waters that inspired it. Slight, then, was the change since +Ottigny, first of white men, steered his bark along the still breast of +the virgin river. Before him, like a lake, the redundant waters spread +far and wide; and along the low shores, or jutting points, or the +waveless margin of deep and sheltered coves, towered wild, majestic +forms of vegetable beauty. Here rose the magnolia, high above +surrounding woods; but the gorgeous bloom had fallen, that a few weeks +earlier studded the verdant dome with silver. From the edge of the +bordering swamp the cypress reared its vast buttressed column and leafy +canopy. From the rugged arms of oak and pine streamed the gray drapery +of the long Spanish moss, swayed mournfully in the faintest breeze. Here +were the tropical plumage of the palm, the dark green masses of the +live-oak, the glistening verdure of wild orange-groves; and from out the +shadowy thickets hung the wreaths of the jessamine and the scarlet +trumpets of the bignonia.</p> + +<p>Nor less did the fruitful river teem with varied forms of animal life. +From the caverns of leafy shade came the gleam and flicker of +many-colored plumage. The cormorant, the pelican, the heron, floated on +the water, or stalked along its pebbly brink. Among the sedges, the +alligator, foul from his native mud, outstretched his hideous length, +or, sluggish and sullen, drifted past the boat, his grim head level with +the surface, and each scale, each folding of his horny hide, distinctly +visible, as, with the slow movement of distended paws, he balanced +himself in the water. When, at sunset, they drew up their boat on the +strand, and built their camp-fire under the arches of the woods, the +shores resounded with the roaring of these colossal lizards; all night +the forest rang with the whooping of the owls; and in the morning the +sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal, far and near, with the +clamor of wild turkeys.</p> + +<p>Among such scenes, for twenty leagues, the adventurous sail moved on. +Far to the right, beyond the silent waste of pines, lay the realm of +the mighty Potanou. The Thimagoa towns were still above them on the +river, when they saw three canoes of this people at no great distance in +front. Forthwith the two Indians in the boat were fevered with +excitement. With glittering eyes they snatched pike and sword, and +prepared for fight; but the sage Ottigny, bearing slowly down on the +strangers, gave them time to run their craft ashore and escape to the +woods. Then, landing, he approached the canoes, placed in them a few +trinkets, and withdrew to a distance. The fugitives took heart, and, +step by step, returned. An amicable intercourse was opened, with +assurances of friendship on the part of the French, a procedure viewed +by Satouriona's Indians with unspeakable disgust and ire.</p> + +<p>The ice thus broken, Ottigny returned to Fort Caroline; and a fortnight +later, an officer named Vasseur sailed up the river to pursue the +adventure: for the French, thinking that the nation of the Thimagoa lay +betwixt them and the gold-mines, would by no means quarrel with them, +and Laudonnière repented him already of his rash pledge to Satouriona.</p> + +<p>As Vasseur moved on, two Indians hailed him from the shore, inviting him +to their dwellings. He accepted their guidance, and presently saw before +him the cornfields and palisades of an Indian town. Led through the +wondering crowd to the lodge of the chief, Mollua, Vasseur and his +followers were seated in the place of honor and plentifully regaled with +fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua began his discourse. He told +them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs of the great Outina, +lord of all the Thimagoa, whose warriors wore armor of gold and silver +plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his enemy, a mighty and redoubted +prince; and of the two kings of the distant Appalachian Mountains, rich +beyond utterance in gems and gold. While thus, with earnest pantomime +and broken words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent +and eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of +these Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in war +against the two potentates of the mountains. Hereupon the sagacious +Mollua, well pleased, promised that each of Outina's vassal chiefs +should requite their French allies with a heap of gold and silver two +feet high. Thus, while Laudonnière stood pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur +made alliance with his mortal enemy.</p> + +<p>Returning, he was met, near the fort, by one of Satouriona's chiefs, who +questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoa. Vasseur replied, +that he had set upon and routed them with incredible slaughter. But as +the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, the +sergeant, Francis la Caille, drew his sword, and, like Falstaff before +him, re-enacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the +imaginary Thimagoa as they fled before his fury. Whereat the chief, at +length convinced, led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with +a certain savory decoction with which the Indians were wont to regale +those whom they delighted to honor.</p> + +<p>Elate at the promise of a French alliance, Satouriona had summoned his +vassal chiefs to war. From the St. Mary's and the Satilla and the +distant Altamaha, from every quarter of his woodland realm, they had +mustered at his call. By the margin of the St. John's, the forest was +alive with their bivouacs. Ten chiefs were here, and some five hundred +men. And now, when all was ready, Satouriona reminded Laudonnière of his +promise, and claimed its fulfilment; but the latter gave evasive answers +and a virtual refusal. Stifling his rage, the chief prepared to go +without him.</p> + +<p>Near the bank of the river, a fire was kindled, and two large vessels of +water placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand. His chiefs +crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his five +hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished with +feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, panthers, +bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, +distorted his features to a wild expression of rage and hate; then +muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the sun; then +besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, +turning the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he cried, +"may the blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives +extinguished!" and the concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive +yells, till the shores resounded with the wolfish din.</p> + +<p>The rites over, they set forth, and in a few days returned exulting with +thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. The latter were hung on a +pole before the royal lodge, and when night came, it brought with it a +pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting.</p> + +<p>A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonnière. Resolved, cost what +it might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it a stroke of policy +to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent a +soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a flat +refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had +shamefully broken faith with him. On this, Laudonnière, at the head of +twenty soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the +opening of the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated +himself without ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his +displeasure, he remained in silence for a half-hour. At length he spoke, +renewing his demand. For some moments Satouriona made no reply, then +coldly observed that the sight of so many armed men had frightened the +prisoners away. Laudonnière grew peremptory, when the chiefs son, +Athore, went out, and presently returned with the two Indians, whom the +French led back to Fort Caroline.</p> + +<p>Satouriona dissembled, professed good-will, and sent presents to the +fort; but the outrage rankled in his savage breast, and he never forgave +it.</p> + +<p>Captain Vasseur, with Arlac, the ensign, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, +embarked to bear the ill-gotten gift to Outina. Arrived, they were +showered with thanks by that grateful potentate, who, hastening to avail +himself of his new alliance, invited them to join in a raid against his +neighbor, Potanou. To this end, Arlac and five soldiers remained, while +Vasseur with the rest descended to Fort Caroline.</p> + +<p>The warriors were mustered, the dances were danced, and the songs were +sung. Then the wild cohort took up its march. The wilderness through +which they passed holds its distinctive features to this day,—the shady +desert of the pine-barrens, where many a wanderer has miserably died, +with haggard eye seeking in vain for clue or guidance in the pitiless, +inexorable monotony. Yet the waste has its oases, the "hummocks," where +the live-oaks are hung with long festoons of grape-vines,—where the air +is sweet with woodland odors, and vocal with the song of birds. Then the +deep cypress-swamp, where dark trunks rise like the columns of some vast +sepulchre. Above, the impervious canopy of leaves; beneath, a black and +root-encumbered slough. Perpetual moisture trickles down the clammy +bark, while trunk and limb, distorted with strange shapes of vegetable +disease, wear in the gloom a semblance grotesque and startling. Lifeless +forms lean propped in wild disorder against the living, and from every +rugged stem and lank limb outstretched hangs the dark drapery of the +Spanish moss. The swamp is veiled in mourning. No breath, no voice. A +deathly stillness, till the plunge of the alligator, lashing the waters +of the black lagoon, resounds with hollow echo through the tomb-like +solitude.</p> + +<p>Next, the broad sunlight and the wide savanna. Wading breast-deep in +grass, they view the wavy sea of verdure, with headland and cape and +far-reaching promontory, with distant coasts, hazy and dim, havens and +shadowed coves, islands of the magnolia and the palm, high, impending +shores of the mulberry and the elm, the ash, hickory, and maple. Here +the rich <i>gordonia</i>, never out of bloom, sends down its thirsty roots to +drink at the stealing brook. Here the <i>halesia</i> hangs out its silvery +bells, the purple clusters of the <i>wistaria</i> droop from the supporting +bough, and the coral blossoms of the <i>erythryna</i> glow in the shade +beneath. From tufted masses of sword-like leaves shoot up the tall +spires of the <i>yucca</i>, heavy with pendent flowers, of pallid hue, like +the moon, and from the grass gleams the blue eye of the starry <i>ixia</i>.</p> + +<p>Through forest, swamp, savanna, the valiant Frenchmen held their way. At +first, Outina's Indians kept always in advance; but when they reached +the hostile district, the modest warriors fell to the rear, resigning +the post of honor to their French allies.</p> + +<p>An open country; a rude cultivation; the tall palisades of an Indian +town. Their approach was seen, and the warriors of Potanou, nowise +daunted, came swarming forth to meet them. But the sight of the bearded +strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, the fall of their +foremost chief, shot through the brain with the bullet of Arlac, filled +them with consternation, and they fled headlong within their defences. +The men of Thimagoa ran screeching in pursuit. Pell-mell, all entered +the town together. Slaughter; pillage; flame. The work was done, and the +band returned triumphant.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="chapter_ii" id="chapter_ii"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + + +<p>In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and +parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes +had been dashed; wild expectations had come to nought. The adventurers +had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a petty fort by a +hot and sickly river, with hard labor, ill fare, prospective famine, and +nothing to break the weary sameness but some passing canoe or floating +alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each other's wrath, and +inveighed against the commandant.</p> + +<p>Why are we put on half-rations, when he told us that provision should be +made for a full year? Where are the reinforcements and supplies that he +said should follow us from France? Why is he always closeted with +Ottigny, Arlac, and this and that favorite, when we, men of blood as +good as theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? And why has he sent La +Roche Ferrière to make his fortune among the Indians, while we are kept +here, digging at the works?</p> + +<p>Of La Roche Ferrière and his adventures, more hereafter. The young +nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own +expenses, in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in +impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony—unlike the +former Huguenot emigration to Brazil—was evidently subordinate. The +adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet +there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to +complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. +The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonnière, whose greatest +errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,—fatal +defects in his position.</p> + +<p>The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one Roquette, +who gave out that by magic he had discovered a mine of gold and silver, +high up the river, which would give each of them a share of ten thousand +crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the king. But for +Laudonnière, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally +in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonnière's confidants, who, still +professing fast adherence to the interests of the latter, is charged by +him with plotting against his life. Many of the soldiers were in the +conspiracy. They made a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with +them to the rampart when they went to their work, at the same time +wearing their arms, and watching an opportunity to kill the commandant. +About this time, overheating himself, he fell ill, and was confined to +his quarters. On this, Genre made advances to the apothecary, urging him +to put arsenic into his medicines; but the apothecary shrugged his +shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow him up, by hiding a keg of +gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed. Hints of Genre's +machinations reaching the ears of Laudonnière, the culprit fled to the +woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with full confession, to his +commander.</p> + +<p>Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France,—the third, the Breton, +remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malecontents took the +opportunity to send home charges against Laudonnière of peculation, +favoritism, and tyranny.</p> + +<p>Early in September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private adventurer, +had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he returned, about the +tenth of November, Laudonnière persuaded him to carry home seven or +eight of the malecontent soldiers. Bourdet left some of his sailors in +their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. These pirates joined +with others whom they had won over, stole Laudonnière's two pinnaces, +and set forth on a plundering excursion to the West Indies. They took a +small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, but were soon compelled by +famine to put into Havana and surrender themselves. Here, to make their +peace with the authorities, they told all they knew of the position and +purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, and hence was forged the +thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the wretched little colony.</p> + +<p>On a Sunday morning, Francis de la Caille came to Laudonnière's +quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come +to the parade-ground. He complied, and, issuing forth, his inseparable +Ottigny at his side, saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and +gentlemen-volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre +countenance. La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf of +the rest, a paper which he held in his hand. It opened with +protestations of duty and obedience; next came complaints of hard work, +starvation, and broken promises, and a request that the petitioners +should be allowed to embark in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise +along the Spanish main in order to procure provision by purchase "or +otherwise." In short, the flower of the company wished to turn +buccaneers.</p> + +<p>Laudonnière refused, but assured them, that, so soon as the defences of +the fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for +the Appalachian gold-mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then +building on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for +provisions with the Indians. With this answer they were forced to +content themselves; but the fermentation continued, and the plot +thickened. Their spokesman, La Caille, however, seeing whither the +affair tended, broke with them, and, beside Ottigny, Vasseur, and the +brave Swiss, Arlac, was the only officer who held to his duty.</p> + +<p>A severe illness again seized Laudonnière and confined him to his bed. +Improving their advantage, the malecontents gained over nearly all the +best soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of +good birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up +a paper to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed +the conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le +Moyne, who had also refused to sign, received a hint from a friend that +he had better change his quarters; upon which he warned La Caille, who +escaped to the woods. It was late in the night. Fourneaux, with twenty +men armed to the teeth, knocked fiercely at the commandant's door. +Forcing an entrance, they wounded a gentleman who opposed them, and +crowded around the sick man's bed. Fourneaux, armed with steel cap and +cuirass, held his arquebuse to Laudonnière's breast, and demanded leave +to go on a cruise among the Spanish islands. The latter kept his +presence of mind, and remonstrated with some firmness; on which, with +oaths and menaces, they dragged him from his bed, put him in fetters, +carried him out to the gate of the fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed +him to the ship anchored in the river.</p> + +<p>Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they +disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on +pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming all +the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the +conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated +West-India cruise, which he required Laudonnière to sign. The sick +commandant, imprisoned in the ship, with one attendant, at first +refused; but, receiving a message from the mutineers, that, if he did +not comply, they would come on board and cut his throat, he at length +yielded.</p> + +<p>The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels +on which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight +they were ready for sea, armed and provided with the king's cannon, +munitions, and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join +the party. Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church, on +one of the Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during the +midnight mass of Christmas, whereby a triple end would be achieved: +first, a rich booty; secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, +vengeance on the arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set +sail on the eighth of December, taunting those who remained, calling +them greenhorns, and threatening condign punishment, if, on their +triumphant return, they should be refused free entrance to the fort.</p> + +<p>They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonnière was gladdened +in his solitude by the approach of his fast friends, Ottigny and Arlac, +who conveyed him to the fort, and reinstated him. The entire command was +reorganized and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully depleted; +but the bad blood had been drawn, and thenceforth all internal danger +was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two new vessels to +replace those of which they had been robbed, and in various intercourse +with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until the twenty-fifth of +March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that a vessel was +hovering off the coast. Laudonnière sent to reconnoitre. The stranger +lay anchored at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish brigantine, +manned by the returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and anxious to +make terms. Yet, as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, Laudonnière +sent down La Caille with thirty soldiers, concealed at the bottom of his +little vessel. Seeing only two or three on deck, the pirates allowed her +to come along-side; when, to their amazement, they were boarded and +taken before they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, woebegone, and +drunk, they were landed under a guard. Their story was soon told. +Fortune had flattered them at the outset. On the coast of Cuba, they +took a brigantine, with wine and stores. Embarking in her, they next +fell in with a caravel, which they also captured. Landing at a village +of Jamaica, they plundered and caroused for a week, and had hardly +reëmbarked when they fell in with a small vessel having on board the +governor of the island. She made desperate fight, but was taken at last, +and with her a rich booty. They thought to put the governor to ransom; +but the astute official deceived them, and, on pretence of negotiating +for the sum demanded, together with certain apes and parrots, for which +his captors had also bargained, contrived to send instructions to his +wife. Whence it happened that at daybreak three armed vessels fell upon +them, retook the prize, and captured or killed all the pirates but +twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their brigantine, fled out to +sea. Among these was the ringleader, Fourneaux, and, happily, the pilot, +Trenchant. The latter, eager to return to Fort Caroline, whence he had +been forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in bringing the vessel +to the coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and consternation of the +discomfited pirates, when they saw their dilemma; for, having no +provision, they must either starve or seek succor at the fort. They +chose the latter alternative, and bore away for the St. John's. A few +casks of Spanish wine yet remained, and nobles and soldiers, fraternized +by the common peril of a halter, joined in a last carouse. As the wine +mounted to their heads, in the mirth of drink and desperation, they +enacted their own trial. One personated the judge, another the +commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and speeches on either +side.</p> + +<p>"Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the +defence, "but if Laudonnière does not hang us all, I will never call him +an honest man."</p> + +<p>They had some hope of gaining provision from the Indians at the mouth of +the river, and then patting to sea again; but this was frustrated by La +Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort Caroline, +and all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were sentenced to +be hanged.</p> + +<p>"Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will +you stand by and see us butchered?"</p> + +<p>"These," retorted Laudonnière, "are no comrades of mutineers and +rebels."</p> + +<p>At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to +shooting.</p> + +<p>A file of men; a rattling volley; and the debt of justice was paid. The +bodies were hanged on gibbets at the river's mouth, and order reigned at +Fort Caroline.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="chapter_iii" id="chapter_iii"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + + +<p>While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferrière had been sent out as +an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and +restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have +reached the mysterious mountains of Appalachee. He sent to the fort +mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows +tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and +other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up the +quest, and penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who could muster +three or four thousand warriors, and who promised with the aid of a +hundred arquebusiers to conquer all the kings of the adjacent mountains, +and subject them and their gold-mines to the rule of the French. A +humbler adventurer was Peter Gamble, a robust and daring youth, who had +been brought up in the household of Coligny, and was now a soldier under +Laudonnière. The latter gave him leave to trade with the Indians, a +privilege which he used so well that he grew rich with his traffic, +became prime favorite with the chief of Edelano, married his daughter, +and, in his absence, reigned in his stead. But, as his sway verged +towards despotism, his subjects took offence, and beat out his brains +with a hatchet.</p> + +<p>During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral +brought to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the +southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the +Indians,—in other words, were not clothed at all,—and their uncut hair +streamed wildly down their backs. They brought strange tales of those +among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Calos, on whose +domains they had suffered wreck, a chief mighty in stature and in power. +In one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a +hogshead, filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent +reefs and keys. The monarch was a priest, too, and a magician, with +power over the elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to +hold converse in secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year +he sacrificed to his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the +sea had cast upon his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that +of the River Caloosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, +dwelling near Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of +wondrous beauty, in marriage to his great ally. But, as the bride, with +her bridesmaids, was journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen +band, they were assailed by a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an +island called Sarrope, in the midst of a great lake, who put the +warriors to flight, bore the maidens captive to their watery fastness, +espoused them all, and, as we are assured, "loved them above all +measure."</p> + +<p>Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged for +ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of Potanou, +again alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus +reinforced, he would conquer for them a free access to the phantom +gold-mines of Appalachec. Ottigny set forth on this fool's-errand with +thrice the force demanded. Three hundred Thimagoa and thirty Frenchmen +took up their march through the pine-barrens. Outina's conjurer was of +the number, and had well-nigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on +Ottigny's shield, that he might not touch the earth, with hideous +grimaces, howlings, and contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic +frenzy, and proclaimed to the astounded warriors that to advance farther +would be destruction. Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's +sarcasms shamed him into a show of courage. Again they moved forward, +and soon encountered Potanou with all his host. Le Moyne drew a picture +of the fight. In the foreground Ottigny is engaged in single combat with +a gigantic savage, who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly stroke at the +plumed helmet of his foe; but the latter, with target raised to guard +his head, darts under the arms of the naked Goliath, and transfixes him +with his sword. The arquebuse did its work: panic, slaughter, and a +plentiful harvest of scalps. But no persuasion could induce Outina to +follow up his victory. He went home to dance around his trophies, and +the French returned disgusted to Fort Caroline.</p> + +<p>And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their +folly. Conquest, gold, military occupation,—such had been their aims. +Not a rood of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores were +consumed; the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, were +hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his +tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in +their miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their +only hope.</p> + +<p>May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his +companions, full of delighted anticipations, had explored the flowery +borders of the St. John's. Dire was the contrast; for, within the +homesick precinct of Fort Caroline, a squalid band, dejected and worn, +dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or lay +stretched in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. Some +were digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel upon the +meadows. One collected refuse fish-bones and pounded them into meal. +Yet, giddy with weakness, their skin clinging to their bones, they +dragged themselves in turn to the top of St. John's Bluff, straining +their eyes across the sea to descry the anxiously expected sail.</p> + +<p>Had Coligny left them to perish? or had some new tempest of calamity, +let loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the +watchman on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection +fell upon them, a dejection that would have sunk to despair, could their +eyes have pierced the future.</p> + +<p>The Indians had left the neighborhood, but, from time to time, brought +in meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at +exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, +they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, +beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. +"Oftentimes," says Laudonnière, "our poor soldiers were constrained to +give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any +time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, +these villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make +so great account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: +then fell they out a laughing and mocked us with open throat."</p> + +<p>The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed +the colonists, the thought of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the +Breton, still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish +brigantine brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were +insufficient, and they prepared to build a new one. The energy of +reviving hope lent new life to their exhausted frames. Some gathered +pitch in the pine forests; some made charcoal; some cut and sawed the +timber. The maize began to ripen, and this brought some relief; but the +Indians, exasperated and greedy, sold it with reluctance, and murdered +two half-famished Frenchmen who gathered a handful in the fields.</p> + +<p>The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result +was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with an +invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, the plunder of whose +villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was accepted. Ottigny +and Vasseur set forth, but were grossly deceived, led against a +different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved.</p> + +<p>Pale with famine and with rage, a crowd of soldiers beset Laudonnière, +and fiercely demanded to be led against Outina to take him prisoner and +extort from his fears the supplies which could not be looked for from +his gratitude. The commandant was forced to comply. Those who could bear +the weight of their armor put it on, embarked, to the number of fifty, +in two barges, and sailed up the river under the commandant himself. +Outina's landing reached, they marched inland, entered his village, +surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized him amid the yells and +howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner to their boats. Here, +anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of corn and beans as the +price of his ransom.</p> + +<p>The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging +from all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and +troops of women gathered at the water's edge with moans, outcries, and +gestures of despair. Yet no ransom was offered, since, reasoning from +their own instincts, they never doubted, that, the price paid, the +captive would be put to death.</p> + +<p>Laudonnière waited two days, then descended the river. In a rude chamber +of Fort Caroline, pike in hand, the sentinel stood his guard, while +before him crouched the captive chief, mute, impassive, brooding on his +woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen as a hound on the scent of prey, +tried, by great offers, to bribe Laudonnière to give the prisoner into +his hands. Outina, however, was kindly treated, and assured of immediate +freedom on payment of the ransom.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his captivity was entailing dire affliction on his realm; for, +despairing of his return, his subjects mustered to the election of a new +chief. Party-strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and some for +an ambitious kinsman who coveted the vacant throne. Outina chafed in his +prison, learning these dissensions, and, eager to convince his +over-hasty subjects that their king still lived, he was so profuse of +promises, that he was again embarked and carried up the river.</p> + +<p>At no great distance below Lake George, a small affluent of the St. +John's gave access by water to a point within eighteen miles of Outina's +principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and bearing also +the royal captive, rowed up this little stream. Indians awaited them at +the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and piteous prayers +for their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an ample supply of +corn. As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonnière yielded, +released the chief, and received in his place two hostages, who were +fast bound in the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong detachment of +arquebusiers, set forth to receive the promised supplies, for which, +from the first, full payment in merchandise had been offered. Arrived at +the village, they filed into the great central lodge, within whose dusky +precincts were gathered the magnates of the tribe. Council-chamber, +forum, banquet-hall, dancing-hall, palace, all in one, the royal +dwelling could hold half the population in its capacious confines. Here +the French made their abode. Their armor buckled, their +arquebuse-matches lighted, they stood, or sat, or reclined on the +earthen floor, with anxious eyes watching the strange, dim scene, half +lighted by the daylight that streamed down through the hole at the apex +of the roof. Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, quivers at their +backs, bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched in the +shadow beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and +malignant, sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors were +mustering fast. The village without was full of them. The French +officers grew anxious, and urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in +collecting the promised ransom. The answer boded no good, "Our women are +afraid, when they see the matches of your guns burning. Put them out, +and they will bring the corn faster."</p> + +<p>Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in one +of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, +complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his +captors at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that +such was the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control +them,—that the French were in danger,—and that he had seen arrows +stuck in the ground by the side of the path, in token that war was +declared. Their peril was thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to +regain the boats while there was yet time.</p> + +<p>On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in +order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows of +squalid huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the +interfolding extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before +them stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked +by a natural growth of trees,—one of those curious monuments of native +industry to which allusion has been already made. Here Ottigny halted +and formed his line of march. Arlac with eight matchlockmen was sent in +advance, and flanking parties thrown into the woods on either side. +Ottigny told his soldiers, that, if the Indians meant to attack them, +they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He was +right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue at +once. The war-whoop quavered through the startled air, and a tempest of +stone-headed arrows clattered against the breastplates of the French, or +tore, scorching like fire, through their unprotected limbs. They stood +firm, and sent back their shot so steadily that several of the +assailants were laid dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number, +gave way as Ottigny came up with his men.</p> + +<p>They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, +comparatively open; when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three +hundred savages came bounding to the assault. Their whoops were echoed +from the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, who, +leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on with a ferocity +restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic. The men +threw down their corn-bags, and took to their weapons. They blew their +matches, and, under two excellent officers, stood well to their work. +The Indians, on their part, showed a good discipline, after their +fashion, and were perfectly under the control of their chiefs. With +cries that imitated the yell of owls, the scream of cougars, and the +howl of wolves, they ran up in successive bands, let fly their arrows, +and instantly fell back, giving place to others. At the sight of the +levelled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the earth. Whenever, sword in +hand, the French charged upon them, they fled like foxes through the +woods; and whenever the march was resumed, the arrows were showering +again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring band. The soldiers coolly +picked them up and broke them as they fell. Thus, beset with swarming +savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed their march till nightfall, +fighting as they went.</p> + +<p>The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of +the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely +that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the +corn, two bags only had been brought off.</p> + +<p>Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had +killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of the +new ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the Breton +and the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the voyage; for +now, in their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a delicacy in +which the neighborhood abounded.</p> + +<p>On the third of August, Laudonnière, perturbed and oppressed, was +walking on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that shot a +thrill through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards +the river's mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. +He called the tidings to the fort below. Then languid forms rose and +danced for joy, and voices, shrill with weakness, joined in wild +laughter and acclamation.</p> + +<p>A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they +the succors so long hoped in vain? or were they Spaniards bringing steel +and fire? They were neither. The foremost was a stately ship, of seven +hundred tons, a mighty burden at that day. She was named the Jesus; and +with her were three smaller vessels, the Solomon, the Tiger, and the +Swallow. Their commander was "a right worshipful and valiant +knight,"—for so the record styles him,—a pious man and a prudent, to +judge him by the orders he gave his crew, when, ten months before, he +sailed out of Plymouth:—"Serve God daily, love one another, preserve +your victuals, beware of fire, and keepe good companie." Nor were the +crew unworthy the graces of their chief; for the devout chronicler of +the voyage ascribes their deliverance from the perils of the seas to +"the Almightie God, who never suffereth his Elect to perish."</p> + +<p>Who, then, were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special +Providential care? Apostles of the cross, bearing the word of peace to +benighted heathendom? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic +destined to inoculate with its black infection nations yet unborn, +parent of discord and death, with the furies in their train, filling +half a continent with the tramp of armies and the clash of fratricidal +swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, father of the English +slave-trade.</p> + +<p>He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped a +cargo of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of +Hispaniola, forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant +him free trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself +as became a peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary +commerce, but distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River +of May to obtain a supply.</p> + +<p>Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the +front rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man +borne for the honour of the English name.... Neither did the West of +England yeeld such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean +peeres, Hawkins and Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and +all England was of his thinking. A hardy seaman, a bold fighter, +overbearing towards equals, but kind, in his bluff way, to those beneath +him, rude in speech, somewhat crafty withal, and avaricious, he buffeted +his way to riches and fame, and died at last full of years and honor. As +for the abject humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the ship +Jesus, they were merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered for +the market. Queen Elizabeth had an interest in the venture, and received +her share of the sugar, pearls, ginger, and hides which the vigorous +measures of Sir John gained from his Spanish customers.</p> + +<p>Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, +"accompanied," says Laudonnière, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, +yet unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English there was a double +tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. Wakening +from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed him as a +deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced, when he learned their purpose +to abandon Florida; for, though, not to tempt his cupidity, they hid +from him the secret of their Appalachian gold-mine, he coveted for his +royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his head, +however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, and +offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, from +obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonnière declined, upon which +Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels.</p> + +<p>Hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of soldiers and artisans beset +Laudonnière's chamber, threatening loudly to desert him, and take +passage with Hawkins, unless the offer of the latter were accepted. The +commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, +whose reputed avarice nowise appears in the transaction, desired him to +set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, +with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, +a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provision for the +voyage, receiving in payment Laudonnière's note,—"for which," adds the +latter, "I am until this present indebted to him." With a friendly +leave-taking he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving +golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline.</p> + +<p>Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists +bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were +made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and +meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase.</p> + +<p>On the twenty-eighth of August, the two captains, Vasseur and Verdier, +came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild +with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death: +betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. With the following +morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with +weapons and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff +challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing +boats. Still no response. Laudonnière was almost defenceless. He had +given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two field-pieces were +left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and the word was about +to be given, when a voice from among the strangers called that they were +French, commanded by John Ribaut. </p> + +<p>At the eleventh hour, the long-looked-for succors were come. Ribaut had +been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly +concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, +and young nobles weary of a two-years' peace, were mustered at the port +of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing +with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony.</p> + +<p>No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the +new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to +blow them out of the water. Laudonnière issued from his stronghold to +welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he might. Ribaut was +present, conspicuous by his long beard, the astonishment of the Indians; +and here, too, were officers, old friends of Laudonnière. Why, then, had +they approached in the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon +explained; for they expressed to the commandant their pleasure at +finding that the charges made against him had proved false. He begged to +know more, on which Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the +returning ships had brought home letters filled with accusations of +arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a purpose of establishing an +independent command: accusations which he now saw to be unfounded, but +which had been the occasion of his unusual and startling precaution. He +gave him, too, a letter from the Admiral Coligny. In brief, but +courteous terms, it required him to resign his command, and invited his +return to France to clear his name from the imputations cast upon it. +Ribaut warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonnière declined his friendly +proposals.</p> + +<p>Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A +peasant-woman attended him, brought over, he says, to nurse the sick and +take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks as a +servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges +against him, most offensive to the austere Admiral.</p> + +<p>Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on +shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the sunny borders of +the River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes +misfortune doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at +rest!" exclaims the unhappy Laudonnière. Behind the light and cheer of +renovated hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east.</p> + +<p>At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, +the crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the +bar, saw a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards +them through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air +the portentous banner of Spain.</p> + +<p>Here opens a wilder act of this eventful drama. At another day we shall +lift the curtain on its fierce and bloody scenes.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="seaward" id="seaward"></a>SEAWARD.</h2> + +<p>TO ——.</p> + + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">How long it seems since that mild April night,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">When, leaning from the window, you and I</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Heard, clearly ringing from the shadowy bight,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">The loon's unearthly cry!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Southwest the wind blew; million little waves</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Ran rippling round the point in mellow tune;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">But mournful, like the voice of one who raves,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">That laughter of the loon.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">We called to him, while blindly through the haze</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Upclimbed the meagre moon behind us, slow,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">So dim, the fleet of boats we scarce could trace,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">Moored lightly, just below.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">We called, and, lo, he answered! Half in fear,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">I sent the note back. Echoing rock and bay</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Made melancholy music far and near;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">Slowly it died away.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">That schooner, you remember? Flying ghost!</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Her canvas catching every wandering beam,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Aërial, noiseless, past the glimmering coast</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">She glided like a dream.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Would we were leaning from your window now,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Together calling to the eerie loon,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">The fresh wind blowing care from either brow,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">This sumptuous night of June!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">So many sighs load this sweet inland air,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">'T is hard to breathe, nor can we find relief;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">However lightly touched, we all must share</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">The nobleness of grief.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">But sighs are spent before they reach your ear,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml3m">Vaguely they mingle with the water's rune;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">No sadder sound salutes you than the clear,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml85">Wild laughter of the loon.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="side_glances_at_harvard_class_day" id="side_glances_at_harvard_class_day"></a>SIDE-GLANCES AT HARVARD CLASS-DAY.</h2> + + +<p>It happened to me once to "assist" at the celebration of Class-Day at +Harvard University. Class-Day is the peculiar institution of the Senior +Class, and marks its completion of college study and release from +college rules. It is also an institution peculiar, I believe, to +Harvard, and I was somewhat curious to observe its ceremonials, besides +feeling a not entirely <i>unawful</i> interest in being introduced for the +first time to the <i>arcana</i> of that renowned Alma Mater.</p> + +<p>She has set up her Lares and Penates in a fine old grove, or a fine old +grove and green have sprouted up around her, as the case may be. At all +events, there is sufficient groundwork for any quantity of euphuism +about "classic shades," "groves of Academe," <i>et cetera</i>. Trollope had +his fling at the square brick buildings; but it was a fling that they +richly deserved, for they are in very deed as ugly as it is possible to +conceive,—angular, formal, stiff, windowy, bricky,—and the farther in +you go, the worse it grows. Why, I pray to know, as the first inquiry +suggested by Class-Day, is it necessary for boys' schools to be placed +without the pale of civilization? Do boys take so naturally to the +amenities of life that they can safely dispense with the conditions of +amenity? When I entered those brick boxes, I felt as if I were going +into a stable. Wood-work dingy, unpainted, gashed, scratched; windows +dingy and dim; walls dingy and gray and smoked; everything unhomelike, +unattractive, narrow, and rickety. Think, now, of taking a boy away from +his home, from his mother and sisters, from carpets and curtains and all +the softening influences of cultivated taste, and turning him loose with +dozens of other boys into a congeries of pens like this! Who wonders +that he comes out a boor? I felt a sinking at the heart in climbing up +those narrow, uncouth staircases. We talk about education. We boast of +having the finest system in the world. Harvard is, if not the most +distinguished, certainly among the first institutions in the country; +but, in my opinion, formed in the entry of the first Harvard house I +entered, Harvard has not begun to hit the nail on the head. Education! +Do you call it education, to put a boy into a hole, and work out of him +a certain amount of mathematics, and work into him a certain number of +languages? Is a man dressed, because one arm has a spotless wristband, +unquestionable sleeve-buttons, a handsome sleeve, and a well-fitting +glove at the end, while the man is out at the other elbow, patched on +both knees, and down at the heels? Should we consider Nature a success, +if she concerned herself only with carrying nutriment to the stomach, +and left the heart and the lungs and the liver and the nerves to shift +for themselves? Yet so do we, educating boys in these dens called +colleges. We educate the mind, the memory, the intellectual faculties; +but the manners, the courtesies, the social tastes, the greater part of +what goes to make life happy and genial, not to say good, we leave out +of view. People talk about the "awkward age" of boys,—the age in which +their hands and feet trouble them, and in which they are a social burden +to themselves and their friends. But one age need be no more awkward +than another. I have seen boys that were gentlemen from the cradle to +the grave,—almost; certainly from the time they ceased to be babies +till they passed altogether out of my sight. Let boys have the +associations, the culture, the training, and the treatment of gentlemen, +and I do not believe there will be a single moment of their lives in +which they will be clowns.</p> + +<p>And among the first necessities are the surroundings of a gentleman. +When a man is grown up, he can live in a sty and not be a pig; but turn +a horde of boys in, and when they come out they will root out. A man is +strong and stiff. His inward, inherent power, toughened by exposure and +fortified by knowledge, overmasters opposing circumstances. He can +neglect the prickles and assume the rose of his position. He stands +scornfully erect amid the grovelling influences that would pull him +down. It may perhaps be, also, that here and there a boy, with a strong +native predilection to refinement, shall be eclectic, and, with the +water-lily's instinct, select from coarse contiguities only that which +will nourish a delicate soul. But human nature in its infancy is usually +a very susceptible material. It grows as it is trained. It will be rude, +if it is left rude, and fine only as it is wrought finely. Educate a boy +to tumbled hair and grimy hands, and he will go tumbled and grimy to his +grave. Put a hundred boys together where they will have the +appurtenances of a clown, and I do not believe there will be ten out of +the hundred who will not become precisely to that degree clownish. I am +not battling for the luxuries of life, but I am for its decencies. I +would not turn boys into Sybarites, but neither would I let them riot +into Satyrs. The effeminacy of a false aristocracy is no nearer the +heights of true manhood than the clumsiness of the clod, but I think it +is just as near. I would have college rooms, college entrances, and all +college domains cleanly and attractive. I would, in the first place, +have every rough board planed, and painted in soft and cheerful tints. I +would have the walls pleasantly colored, or covered with delicate, or +bright, or warm-hued paper. The floor should be either tiled, or hidden +under carpets, durable, if possible, at any rate, decent. Straw or rope +matting is better than brown, yawning boards. There you have things put +upon an entirely new basis. At no immoderate expense there is a new sky, +a new earth, a new horizon. If a boy is rich and can furnish his room +handsomely, the furnishings will not shame the room and its vicinity. If +he is poor and can provide but cheaply, he will still have a comely home +provided for him by the Mater who then will be Alma to some purpose.</p> + +<p>Do you laugh at all this? So did Sarah laugh at the angels, but the +angels had the right of it for all that.</p> + +<p>I am told that it would all be useless,—that the boys would deface and +destroy, till the last state of the buildings would be worse than the +first. I do not believe one word of it. It is inferred that they would +deface, because they deface now. But what is it that they deface? +Deformity. And who blames them? You see a rough board, and, by natural +instinct, you dive into it with your jackknife. A base bare wall is a +standing invitation to energetic and unruly pencils. Give the boys a +little elegance and the tutors a little tact, and I do not believe there +would be any trouble. If I had a thousand dollars,—as I did have once, +but it is gone: shall I ever look upon its like again?—I would not be +afraid to stake the whole of it upon the good behavior of college +students,—that is, if I could have the managing of them. I would make +them "a speech," when they came back at the end of one of their long +vacations, telling them what had been done, why it had been done, and +the objections that had been urged against doing it. Then I would put +the matter entirely into their hands. I would appeal solely to their +honor. I would repose in them so much confidence that they could by no +possibility betray it. We don't trust people half enough. We hedge +ourselves about with laws and locks and deeds and bonds, and neglect the +weightier matters of inherent right and justice that lie in every bosom.</p> + +<p>It may be thought hardly polite to accept hospitality and then go away +and inveigh against the hospital; but my animadversions, you will do me +the justice to observe, are not aimed at my entertainers. I am marauding +for, not against them.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>The Oration and Poem form the first public features of Class-Day, but, +arriving late, I could only eddy on the surge that swept around the +door. Strains of distant eloquence would occasionally float musically to +my ear; now and then a single word would steer clear of the thousands of +heads and come into my port unharmed. Frequent waves of laughter beat +and broke into the vestibule; but what is more "trying" to a frail +temper than laughter in which one cannot join? So we tarried long enough +to mark the fair faces and fine dresses, and then rambled under the old +trees till the hour for the "collation" came; and this is the second +point on which I purpose to dwell.</p> + +<p>Each member of the Senior Class prepares a banquet,—sometimes +separately and sometimes in clubs, at an expense varying from fifty to +five hundred dollars,—to which he invites as many friends as he +chooses, or as are available. The banquet is quite as rich, varied, and +elegant as you find at ordinary evening parties, and the occasion is a +merry and pleasant one. But it occurred to me that there may be +unpleasant things connected with this custom. In a class of +seventy-five, in a country like America, it is quite probable that a +certain proportion are ill able to meet the expense which such a custom +necessitates. Some have fought their own way through college. Some must +have been fought through by their parents. To them I should think this +elaborate and considerable outlay must be a very sensible inconvenience. +The mere expense of books and board, tuition and clothing, cannot be met +without strict economy and much parental and family sacrifice. And at +the end of it all, when every nerve has been strained, and must be +strained harder still before the man can be considered fairly on his +feet and able to run his own race in life, comes this new call for +entirely uncollegiate disbursements. Of course it is only a custom. +There is no college by-law, I suppose, which prescribes a valedictory +<i>symposium</i>. Probably it grew up gradually from small ice-cream +beginnings to its present formidable proportions; but a custom is as +rigid as a chain. I wondered whether the moral character of the young +men was generally strong enough, by the time they were in their fourth +collegiate year, to enable them to go counter to the custom, if it +involved personal sacrifice at home,—whether there was generally +sufficient courtliness, not to say Christianity, in the class, whether +there was sufficient courtesy, chivalry, high-breeding, to make the +omission of this party-giving unnoticeable or not unpleasant. I by no +means say that the inability of a portion of the students to entertain +their friends sumptuously should prevent those who are able from doing +so. As the world is, some will be rich and some will be poor. This is a +fact which they have to face the moment they go out into the world; and +the sooner they grapple with it, and find out its real bearings and +worth or worthlessness, the better. Boys are usually old enough by the +time they are graduated to understand and take philosophically such a +distinction. Nor do I admit that poor people have any right to be sore +on the subject of their poverty. The one sensitiveness which I cannot +comprehend, with which I have no sympathy, for which I have no pity, and +of which I have no tolerance, is sensitiveness about poverty. I think it +is an essentially vulgar feeling. I cannot conceive how a man who has +any exaltation of life, any real elevation of character, any +self-respect, can for a moment experience so ignoble a shame. One may be +annoyed at the inconveniences and impatient of the restraints of +poverty; but to be ashamed to be called poor or to be thought poor, to +resort to shifts, not for the sake of being comfortable or elegant, but +of seeming to be above the necessity of shifts, is an indication of an +inferior mind, whether it dwell in prince or in peasant. The man who +does it shows that he has not in his own opinion character enough to +stand alone. He must be supported by adventitious circumstances, or he +must fall. Nobody, therefore, need ever expect to receive sympathy from +me in recounting the social pangs or slights of poverty. You never can +be slighted, if you do not slight yourself. People may attempt to do +it, but their shafts have no barb. You turn it all into natural history. +It is a psychological phenomenon, a study, something to be analyzed, +classified, reasoned from, and bent to your own convenience, but not to +be taken to heart. It amuses you; it interests you; it adds to your +stock of facts; it makes life curious and valuable: but if you suffer +from it, it is because you have not basis, stamina; and probably you +deserve to be slighted. This, however, is true only when people have +become somewhat concentrated. Children know nothing of it. They live +chiefly from without, not from within. Only gradually as they approach +maturity do they cut loose from the scaffolding and depend upon their +own centre of gravity. Appearances are very strong in school. Money and +prodigality have great weight there, notwithstanding the democracy of +attainments and abilities. If I live a thousand years, I do not believe +I shall ever do a more virtuous deed than I did long ago in staying at +home for the sake of a quarter of a dollar when the rest of the school +went to see Tom Thumb, the late bewritten bridegroom. I call it +virtuous, because I had the quarter and could have gone, and could not +explain the reason why I did not go. And though a senior class in +Harvard College may reasonably be supposed to be beyond the eminent +domain of Tom Thumb and quarter-dollars, the principle is precisely the +same,—only the temptation, I suppose, is much stronger, as the stake is +larger. Have they self-poise enough to refrain from these festive +expenses without suffering mortification? Have they virtue enough to +refrain from them with the certainty of incurring such suffering? Have +they nobility and generosity and largeness of soul enough, while +abstaining themselves for conscience sake, to share in the plans and +sympathize without servility in the pleasures of their rich comrades? to +look on with friendly interest, without cynicism or concealed malice, at +the preparations in which they do not join? Or do they yield to +selfishness, and gratify their own vanity, weakness, self-indulgence, +and love of pleasure, at whatever cost to their parents? Or is there +such a state of public opinion and usage in college that this custom is +equally honored in the breach and in the observance?</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>When the feasting was over, the most picturesque part of the day began. +The college green put off suddenly its antique gravity, and became</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Embrouded ... as it were a mede</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and rede,"—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"floures" which to their gay hues and graceful outlines added the rare +charm of fluttering in perpetual motion. It was a kaleidoscope without +angles. To me, niched in the embrasure of an old upper window, the +scene, it seemed, might have stepped out of the Oriental splendor of +Arabian Nights. I think I may safely say I never saw so many +well-dressed people together in my life before. That seems a rather tame +fact to buttress Arabian Nights withal, but it implies much. The +distance was a little too great for one to note personal and individual +beauty; but since I have heard that Boston is famous for its ugly women, +perhaps that was an advantage, as diminishing likewise individual +ugliness. If no one was strikingly handsome, no one was strikingly +plain. And though you could not mark the delicacies of faces, you could +have the full effect of costumes,—rich, majestic, floating, gossamery, +impalpable. Everything was fresh, spotless, and in tune. It scarcely +needed music to resolve all the incessant waver and shimmer into a +dance; but the music came, and, like sand-grains under the magnet, the +beautiful atoms swept into stately shapes and tremulous measured +activity,—</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"A fine, sweet earthquake gently moved</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">By the soft wind of whispering silks."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then it seemed like a German festival, and came back to me the +Fatherland, the lovely season of the Blossoming, the short, sweet +bliss-month among the Blumenthal Mountains.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more appropriate, more harmonious, than dancing on the +green. Youth and gayety and beauty—and in summer we are all young and +gay and beautiful—mingle well with the eternal youth of blue sky and +velvet sward and the light breezes toying in the tree-tops. Youth and +Nature kiss each other in the bright, clear purity of the happy +summer-tide. Whatever objections lie against dancing elsewhere must veil +their faces there.</p> + +<p>Yet I must confess I wish men would not dance. It is the most unbecoming +exercise which they can adopt. In women you have the sweep and wave of +drapery, gentle undulations, summer-cloud floatings, soft, sinuous +movements, the fluency of pliant forms, the willowy bend and rebound of +lithe and lovely suppleness. It is grace generic,—the sublime, the +evanescent mysticism of motion, without use, without aim, except its own +overflowing and all-sufficing fascination. But when a man dances, it +reminds me of that amusing French book called "Le Diable Boiteux," which +has been or may be free-thinkingly translated, "The Devil on Two +Sticks." In saying this, I design to cast no slur on the moral character +of masculine dancers. It is unquestionably above reproach; but let an +angel put on the black coat and trousers which constitute the +"full-dress" of a modern gentleman, and therein antic through the +"Lancers," and he would simply be ridiculous,—which is all I allege +against Thomas, Richard, and Henry, Esq. A woman's dancing is gliding, +swaying, serpentine. A man's is jerks, hops, convulsions, and acute +angles. The woman is light, airy, indistinctly defined: airy movements +are in keeping. The man is sombre in hue, grave in tone, distinctly +outlined; and nothing is more incongruous, to my thinking, than this +dancing, well portrayed in the contraband melody of</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"Old Joe," etc.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The feminine drapery conceals processes and gives results. The masculine +absence of drapery reveals processes and thereby destroys results.</p> + +<p>Once upon a time, long before the Flood, the clergyman of a +country-village, possessed with such a zeal as Paul bore record of +concerning Israel, conceived it his duty to "make a note" of sundry +young members of his flock who had met for a drive and a supper, with a +dance fringed upon the outskirts. The fame thereof being noised abroad, +a sturdy old farmer, with a good deal of shrewd sense and mother-wit in +his brains, and a fine, indirect way of hitting the nail on the head +with a side-stroke, was questioned in a neighboring village as to the +facts of the case. "Yes," he said, surlily, "the young folks had a +party, and got up a dance, and the minister was mad,—and I don't blame +him,—he thinks nobody has any business to dance, unless he knows how +better than they did!" It was a rather different <i>casus belli</i> from that +which the worthy clergyman would have preferred before a council; but it +"meets my views" precisely as to the validity of the objections urged +against dancing. I would have women dance, because it is the most +beautiful thing in the world. I would have men dance, if it is +necessary, in order to "set off" women, and to keep themselves out of +mischief; but in point of grace, or elegance, or attractiveness, I +should beg men to hold their peace—and their pumps.</p> + +<p>From my window overlooking the green, I was led away into some one or +other of the several halls to see the "round dances"; and it was like +going from Paradise to Pandemonium. From the pure and healthy lawn, all +the purer for the pure and peaceful people pleasantly walking up and +down in the sunshine and shade, or grouped in the numerous windows, like +bouquets of rare tropical flowers,—from the green, rainbowed in vivid +splendor, and alive with soft, tranquil motion, fair forms, and the +flutter of beautiful and brilliant colors,—from the green, sanctified +already by the pale faces of sick and wounded and maimed soldiers who +had gone out from the shadows of those sheltering trees to draw the +sword for country, and returned white wraiths of their vigorous youth, +the sad vanguard of that great army of blessed martyrs who shall keep +forever in the mind of this generation how costly and precious a thing +is liberty, who shall lift our worldly age out of the plough of its +material prosperity into the sublimity of suffering and sacrifice,—from +suggestions and fancies and dreamy musing and "phantasms sweet," into +the hall, where, for flower-scented summer air were thick clouds of +fine, penetrating dust, and for lightly trooping fairies a jam of heated +human beings, so that you shall hardly come nigh the dancers for the +press; and when you have, with difficulty and many contortions and much +apologizing, threaded the solid mass, piercing through the forest of +fans,—what? An inclosure, but no more illusion.</p> + +<p>Waltzing is a profane and vicious dance. Always. When it is prosecuted +in the centre of a great crowd, in a dusty hall, on a warm midsummer +day, it is also a disgusting dance. Night is its only appropriate time. +The blinding, dazzling gas-light throws a grateful glare over the +salient points of its indecency, and blends the whole into a wild whirl +that dizzies and dazes one; but the uncompromising afternoon, pouring in +through manifold windows, tears away every illusion, and reveals the +whole coarseness and commonness and all the repulsive details of this +most alien and unmaidenly revel. The very <i>pose</i> of the dance is +profanity. Attitudes which are the instinctive expression of intimate +emotions, glowing rosy-red in the auroral time of tenderness, and +justified in unabashed freedom only by a long and faithful habitude of +unselfish devotion, are here openly, deliberately, and carelessly +assumed by people who have but a casual and partial +society-acquaintance. This I reckon profanity. This is levity the most +culpable. This is a guilty and wanton waste of delicacy.</p> + +<p>That it is practised by good girls and tolerated by good mothers does +not prove that it is good. Custom blunts the edge of many perceptions. A +good thing soiled may be redeemed by good people; but waltz as many as +you may, spotless maidens, you will only smut yourselves, and not +cleanse the waltz. It is of itself unclean.</p> + +<p>There were, besides, peculiar <i>désagréments</i> on this occasion. How can +people,—I could not help saying to myself,—how can people endure such +proximity in such a sweltering heat? For, as I said, there was no +illusion,—not a particle. It was no Vale of Tempe, with Nymphs and +Apollos. The boys were boys, appallingly young, full of healthful +promise, but too much in the husk for exhibition, and not entirely at +ease in their situation,—indeed, very much <i>not</i> at ease,—unmistakably +warm, nervous, and uncomfortable. The girls were pretty enough girls, I +dare say, under ordinary circumstances,—one was really lovely, with +soft cheeks, long eyelashes, eyes deep and liquid, and Tasso's gold in +her hair, though of a bad figure, ill set off by a bad dress,—but Venus +herself could not have been seen to advantage in such evil plight as +they, panting, perspiring, ruffled, frowsy,—puff-balls revolving +through an atmosphere of dust,—a maze of steaming, reeking human +couples, inhumanly heated and simmering together with a more than +Spartan fortitude.</p> + +<p>It was remarkable, and at the same time amusing, to observe the +difference in the demeanor of the two sexes. The lions and the fawns +seemed to have changed hearts,—perhaps they had. It was the boys that +were nervous. The girls were unquailing. The boys were, however, heroic. +They tried bravely to hide the fox and his gnawings; but traces were +visible. They made desperate feint of being at the height of enjoyment +and unconscious of spectators; but they had much modesty, for all that. +The girls threw themselves into it <i>pugnis et calcibus</i>,—unshrinking, +indefatigable.</p> + +<p>There is another thing which girls and their mothers do not seem to +consider. The present mode of dress renders waltzing almost as +objectionable in a large room as the boldest feats of a French +ballet-dancer. Not to put too fine a point on it, I mean that these +girls' gyrations in the centre of their gyrating and centrifugal hoops +make a most operatic drapery-display. I saw scores and scores of public +waltzing-girls last summer, and among them all I saw but one who +understood the art, or, at any rate, who practised the art, of avoiding +an indecent exposure. In the glare and glamour of gas-light it is only +flash and clouds and indistinctness. In the broad and honest daylight, +it is not. Do I shock ears polite? I trust so. If the saying of shocking +things might prevent the doing of shocking things, I should be well +content. And is it an unpardonable sin for me to sit alone in my own +room and write about what you go into a great hall, before hundreds of +strange men and women, and do?</p> + +<p>I do not speak thus about waltzing because I like to say it; but ye have +compelled me. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. I +respect and revere woman, and I cannot see her destroying or debasing +the impalpable fragrance and delicacy of her nature without feeling the +shame and shudder in my own heart. Great is my boldness of speech +towards you, because great is my glorying of you. Though I speak as a +fool, yet as a fool receive me. My opinions may be rustic. They are at +least honest; and may it not be that the first fresh impressions of an +unprejudiced and uninfluenced observer are as likely to be natural and +correct views as those which are the result of many afterthoughts, long +use, and an experience of multifold fascinations, combined with the +original producing cause? My opinions may be wrong, but they will do no +harm; the penalty will rest alone on me: while, if they are right, they +may serve as a nail or two to be fastened by the masters of assemblies.</p> + +<p>The funny part of Class-Day comes last,—not so very funny to tell, but +amazingly funny to see,—only a wreath of bouquets fastened around the +trunk of an old tree, perhaps eight or ten feet from the ground, and +then the four classes range themselves around it in four circles with +their hands fast locked together, the Freshman Class on the outside, the +Senior Class within, grotesquely tricked out in vile old coats and +"shocking bad hats." Then the two alternate classes go one way around +the tree and the two others the opposite, pell-mell, harum-scarum, +pushing and pulling, down and up again, only keeping fast hold of hands, +singing, shouting, cheering <i>ad libitum</i>, <i>ad throatum</i>, (theirs,) <i>ad +earsum</i>, (ours,) and going all the time in that din and yell and crowd +and crash dear to the hearts of boys. At a given signal there is a +pause, and the Senior Class make sudden charge upon the bouquets, +huddling and hustling and crowding and jumping at the foot of the old +tree; bubbling up on each other's shoulders into momentary prominence +and prospect of success, and immediately disappearing ignominiously; +making frantic grasps and clutches with a hundred long arms and eager +outstretched hands, and finally succeeding, by shoulders and fists, in +bringing the wreath away piecemeal; and then they give themselves up to +mutual embraces, groans, laments, and all the enginery of pathetic +affection in the last gasping throes of separation,—to the doleful +tearing of hair and the rending of their fantastic garments. It is the +personification of legalized rowdyism; and if young men would but +confine themselves to such rowdyism as may be looked at and laughed at +by their mothers and sisters, they would find life just as amusing and a +thousand times more pure and profitable.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>It occurs to me here that there is one subject on which I desire to +"give my views," though it is quite unconnected with Class-Day. But it +is probable that in the whole course of my natural life it will never +again happen to me to be writing about colleges, so I desire to say in +this paper everything I have to say on the subject. I refer to the +practice of "hazing," which is an abomination. If we should find it +among hinds, a remnant of the barbarisms of the Dark Ages, blindly +handed down by such slow-growing people as go to mill with their meal on +one side of the saddle and a stone on the other to balance, as their +fathers did, because it never occurred to their loggerheads to divide +the meal into two parcels and make it balance itself, we should not be +surprised; but hazing occurs among boys who have been accustomed to the +circulation of ideas, boys old enough and intelligent enough to +understand the difference between brutality and frolic, old enough to +know what honor and courage mean, and therefore I cannot conceive how +they should countenance a practice which entirely ignores and defies +honor, and whose brutality has not a single redeeming feature. It has +neither wisdom nor wit, no spirit, no genius, no impulsiveness, scarcely +the mirth of boyish frolic. A narrow range of stale practical jokes, +lighted up by no gleam of originality, is transmitted from year to year +with as much fidelity as the Hebrew Bible, and not half the latitude +allowed to clergymen of the English Established Church. But besides its +platitude, its one overpowering and fatal characteristic is its intense +and essential cowardice. Cowardice is its head and front and bones and +blood. One boy does not single out another boy of his own weight, and +take his chances in a fair stand-up fight. But a party of Sophomores +club together in such numbers as to render opposition useless, and +pounce upon their victim unawares, as Brooks and his minions pounced +upon Sumner, and as the Southern chivalry is given to doing. For sweet +pity's sake, let this mode of warfare be monopolized by the Southern +chivalry.</p> + +<p>The lame excuse is offered, that it does the Freshmen good,—takes the +conceit out of them. But if there is any class in college so divested of +conceit as to be justified in throwing stones, it is surely not the +Sophomore Class. Moreover, whatever good it may do the sufferers, it +does harm, and only harm, to the perpetrators; and neither the law nor +the gospel requires a man to improve other people's characters at the +expense of his own. Nobody can do a wrong without injuring himself; and +no young man can do a mean, cowardly wrong like this without suffering +severest injury. It is the very spirit of the slaveholder, a dastardly +and detestable, a tyrannical and cruel spirit. If young men are so +blinded by custom and habit that a meanness is not to them a meanness +because it has been practised for years, so much the worse for the young +men, and so much the worse for our country, whose sweat of blood attests +the bale and blast which this evil spirit has wrought. If uprightness, +if courage, if humanity and rectitude and the mind conscious to itself +of right, are anything more than a name. Let the young men who mean to +make time minister to life scorn and scotch and kill this debasing and +stupid practice.</p> + +<p>And why is not some legitimate and wholesome safety-valve provided by +authority to let off superabundant vitality, that boys may not, by the +mere occasions of their own natures, be driven into wickedness? +Class-Day is very well, but it comes only once a year, and what is +needed is an opportunity for daily ebullition, so that each night may +square its own account and forestall explosion. Why should there not be, +for instance, a military department to every college, as well as a +mathematical department? Why might not every college be a military +normal school? The exuberance and riot of animal spirits, the young, +adventurous strength and joy in being, would not only be kept from +striking out as now in illegitimate, unworthy, and hurtful directions, +but it would become the very basis and groundwork of useful purposes. +Such exercise would be so promotive of health and discipline, it would +so train and harmonize and <i>limber</i> the physical powers, that the +superior quality of study would, I doubt not, more than atone for +whatever deficiency in quantity might result. And even suppose a little +less attention should be given to Euclid and Homer, which is of the +greater importance nowadays, an ear that can detect a false quantity in +a Greek verse, or an eye that can sight a Rebel nine hundred yards off, +and a hand that can pull a trigger and shoot him? Knowledge is power; +but knowledge must sharpen its edges and polish its points, if it would +be greatliest available in days like these. The knowledge that can plant +batteries and plan campaigns, that is fertile in expedients and wise to +baffle the foe, is just now the strongest power. Diagrams and +first-aorists are good, and they who have fed on such meat have grown +great, and done the State service in their generation; but these times +demand new measures and new men. It is conceded that we shall probably +be for many years a military nation. At least a generation of vigilance +shall be the price of our liberty. And even of peace we can have no +stronger assurance than a wise and wieldy readiness for war. Now the +education of our unwarlike days is not adequate to the emergencies of +this martial hour. We must be seasoned with something stronger than +Attic salt, or we shall be cast out and trodden under foot of men. True, +all education is worthy. Everything that exercises the mind fits it for +its work; but professional education is indispensable to professional +men. And the profession, <i>par excellence</i>, of every man of this +generation is war. Country overrides all personal considerations. +Lawyer, minister, what not, a man's first duty is the salvation of his +country. When she calls, he must go; and before she calls, let him, if +possible, prepare himself to serve her in the best manner. As things are +now, college-boys are scarcely better than cow-boys for the army. Their +costly education runs greatly to waste. It gives them no direct +advantage over the clod who stumbles against a trisyllable. So far as it +makes them better men, of course they are better soldiers; but for all +of military education which their college gives them, they are fit only +for privates, whose sole duty is to obey. They know nothing of military +drill or tactics or strategy. The State cannot afford this waste. She +cannot afford to lose the fruits of mental toil and discipline. She +needs trained mind even more than trained muscle. It is harder to find +brains than to find hands. The average mental endowment may be no higher +in college than out; but granting it to be as high, the culture which it +receives gives it immense advantage. The fruits of that culture, +readiness, resources, comprehensiveness, should all be held in the +service of the State. Military knowledge and practice should be imparted +and enforced to utilize ability, and make it the instrument, not only of +personal, but of national welfare. That education which gives men the +advantage over others in the race of life should be so directed as to +convey that advantage to country, when she stands in need. Every college +might and should be made a nursery of athletes in mind and body, +clear-eyed, stout-hearted, strong-limbed, cool-brained,—a nursery of +soldiers, quick, self-possessed, brave and cautious and wary, ready in +invention, skilful to command men and evolve from a mob an army,—a +nursery of gentlemen, reminiscent of no lawless revels, midnight orgies, +brutal outrages, launching out already attainted into an attainting +world, but with many a memory of adventure, wild, it may be, and not +over-wise, yet pure as a breeze from the hills,—banded and sworn</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">"To serve as model for the mighty world,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Not only to keep down the base in man,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">But teach high thought, and amiable words.</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And courtliness, and the desire of fame,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And love of truth, and all that makes a man."</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="loves_challenge" id="loves_challenge"></a>LOVE'S CHALLENGE.</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">I picked this trifle from the floor,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">Unknowing from whose tender hand</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">It fell,—but now would fain restore</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">A thing which hath my heart unmanned.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">I say unmanned, for 't is not now</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">A manly mood to dream of Love,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">When each bold champion knits his brow,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">And for War's gauntlet doffs his glove.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">But we're exempt, and have no heart</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">Of wreak within us for the fray;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And therefore teach our souls the art</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">With life and life's concerns to play.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">Yet, lady, trust me, 't is not all</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">In play that I proclaim intent,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">When next thou lett'st thy gauntlet fall,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">To take it as a challenge meant.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">REPLY.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">SIR CARPET-KNIGHT, who canst not fight,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">Thy gallantries are not for me;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">The man whom I with love requite</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">Must sing in a more martial key.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">I have two brothers on the field,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">And one beneath it,—none knows where;</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">And I shall keep my spirit steeled</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">To any save a soldier's prayer.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span class="spanml2m">If thou have music in thy soul,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">Yet hast no sinew for the strife,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml2m">Go teach thyself the war-drum's roll,</span><br /> +<span class="spanml35">And woo me better with a fife!</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="political_problems_and_conditions_of_peace" id="political_problems_and_conditions_of_peace"></a>POLITICAL PROBLEMS, AND CONDITIONS OF PEACE.</h2> + + +<p>The relations existing between the Federal Government and the several +States, and the reciprocal rights and powers of each, have never been +settled, except in part. Upon matters of taxation and commerce, and the +diversified questions that arise in times of peace, the decisions of the +Supreme Court have marked the boundary-lines of State and Federal power +with considerable clearness and precision. But all these questions are +superficial and trivial, when compared with those which are coming up +for decision out of the great struggle in which we are now engaged. The +Southern Rebellion, greater than any recorded in history since the world +began, must necessarily call for the exercise of all the powers with +which the Government is clothed. And we need not be surprised, if, in +resorting to the new measures which the great exigency of the new +condition seems to require, it shall be found, after the storm has +ceased and the clouds have rolled away, that in some things the +Government has transcended its legitimate powers, while in others it has +suffered, because fearing to use those which it really possesses. It is +dependent in many things upon the States; and yet it is supreme over +them all. There can be no Senate, as a branch either of the executive or +of the legislative department, without the action of the States; and yet +the Government emanates directly from the people. In defending itself +against an armed rebellion of nearly half the States themselves, +struggling for self-preservation, it may rightfully, as in other wars, +grasp all the means within its reach. War makes its own methods, for all +of which necessity is a sufficient plea. But when the defence shall have +been made, when the attack is repelled, and the Rebellion shall have +been fully suppressed, then will come the questions, What are the best +means of restoration? and, How shall a recurrence of the evil be +prevented?</p> + +<p>Though the Federal Government is one of limited powers, <i>the people</i> +possess <i>all governmental powers</i>; and these are spoken of as powers +<i>delegated</i> and powers <i>reserved</i>. So far as these are reserved to <i>the +people</i>, they may be exercised either through the <i>Federal Government</i> +or the <i>State</i>. And the Federal Government, though limited in its +powers, is restricted in <i>the subjects upon which it can act</i>, rather +than in the <i>quantum</i> of power it can exercise over those matters within +its jurisdiction. Over those interests which are committed to its care +it has all the powers incident to any other government in the +world,—powers necessary by implication to accomplish the purpose +intended. The construction of the grant in the Constitution is not to be +critical and stringent, as if the people, by its adoption, were +<i>selling</i> power to a <i>stranger</i>,—but liberal, considering that they +were enabling <i>their own agents</i> to achieve a noble work for them.</p> + +<p>We have been accustomed to extol the wisdom of our fathers, in framing +and establishing such a form of government; but our highest praises have +been too small. We have hitherto had but a partial conception of their +wisdom. We knew not the terrible test to which their work was to be +exposed. After the long discipline of the Revolutionary War, and the +experience of the weakness and impending anarchy of the Confederation, +they understood, far better than we, the dangers to which every +government is liable, from within and from without. And we are just now +beginning to see, that, in the Constitution they adopted, they not only +provided for the interests of peace, but for the dangers and emergencies +of war. Brief sentences, hardly noticed before, now throw open their +doors like a magazine of arms, ready for use in the hour of peril. And +while we shall come out of this struggle, and the political contest +that will follow it, without impairing any of the rights of the States, +the Federal Government <i>restored</i> will stand before the world in a +majesty of strength of which we have before had no conception.</p> + +<p>The questions evolved by the war are already attracting public +attention. It is well that they should do so. The peace and prosperity +of the country in future years depend upon their solution. They are so +interwoven that a mistake in regard to one may involve us in other +errors. The power of the Government so to remove the cause of the +present rebellion as to prevent its recurrence, if it have any such +power, is one which it is imperatively bound to exercise,—else all the +treasure and blood expended in quelling it will be wasted. Has it any +such power? Can Slavery be exterminated? And can the Rebel States be +held as conquests, and be restored only upon condition of being forever +free? It is proposed briefly to discuss these questions.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="emancipation" id="emancipation"></a>EMANCIPATION.</h3> + + +<p>There are those who believe that the President's Proclamation will cease +to be of any force at the close of the war, and that no slaves will have +any right to their freedom by it except such as may be actually +liberated by the military authorities.</p> + +<p>There are others, who hold that the Proclamation has the force of +law,—that by it every slave within the designated territory has now a +legal right to his liberty,—and that, if the military power does not +secure that right to him <i>during the war</i>, he may successfully appeal to +the civil power <i>afterwards</i>.</p> + +<p>If the Proclamation is a law, it must be conceded, that, like all the +laws of war, it will cease to be in force when the war is closed. But +if, like a legislative act, it confers actual rights on the slaves, +whether they are able to secure them in fact or not, then those <i>rights</i> +are not lost, though the law cease to exist. On the other hand, if it +confers no actual rights on any who are beyond its reach,—if it is +merely an <i>offer</i> of freedom to all who can come and receive it,—then +those only who do receive it while the offer continues will have any +rights by it when it has ceased to be in force.</p> + +<p>The position of Mr. Adams on this subject seems to have been +misunderstood. When his remarks in Congress are carefully examined, it +will be found that he did not claim that the proclamation of a military +commander would operate, like a statute, to confer the right of freedom +upon all the slaves in an invaded country. But he asserted a general +principle of international law,—that the commander of an invading army +is not bound to recognize the municipal laws of the country,—that he +may treat all as freemen, though some are slaves. And he claimed, that, +in case of a servile war in this country, our army would have a right to +suppress the insurrection by giving freedom to the insurgents. In regard +to the effect of such a proclamation upon those not liberated by the +military power, he expressed no opinion.</p> + +<p>The precedents usually cited are not any more satisfactory. In Hayti, +and in the South-American republics, emancipation became an established +fact by the action of the civil power. In each case a proclamation by +the military power was the initial step; but the consummation was +attained by the fact that the same power afterwards became dominant in +civil, as well as in military affairs.</p> + +<p>Conceding, then, that the Proclamation is but a declaration of the +war-policy, designed and adapted to secure a still higher end,—the +preservation and perpetuity of our free institutions,—it is still +claimed that the Government has the right to pursue this policy until +Slavery is abolished, <i>and forever prohibited</i>, within all the Rebel +States.</p> + +<p>Though we speak of the Rebellion as an "insurrection," it has assumed +such proportions that we are in a state of actual war. Nor does it make +any difference that it is a <i>civil</i> war. It has just been decided by +the Supreme Court of the United States, <i>that we have the same rights +against the people and States in rebellion</i>, by the law of nations, that +we should have against <i>alien enemies</i>. The property of non-combatants +is liable to confiscation, as <i>enemies'</i> property; and it makes no +difference that some of them are <i>personally</i> loyal. All the inhabitants +of the Rebel States have the rights of <i>enemies</i> only. The recent cases +of the Brilliant, Hiawatha, and Amy Warwick settle this beyond all +question. There was some difference of opinion among the judges, but +only on the question whether this condition <i>preceded</i> the Act of +Congress of July, 1861,—a majority holding that it did, commencing with +the proclamation of the blockade. So that it cannot be denied that we +may treat the Rebel States as <i>enemies</i>, and adopt all measures against +them <i>which any belligerents engaged in a just war may adopt</i>.</p> + +<p>And no principle of the law of nations is more universally admitted than +this,—that the party in the right, after the war is commenced, may +continue to carry it on until the enemy shall submit to such terms as +will be a sufficient indemnity for all the losses and expenses caused by +it, <i>and will prevent another war in the future</i>. And to this end he may +conquer and hold in subjection people and territory, until such terms +are submitted to. And until then, the state of war continues. The right +to impose such terms as will <i>secure peace in the future</i> is one of the +fundamental principles of international law.</p> + +<p>"Of the absolute international rights of States," says Mr. Wheaton, "one +of the most essential and important, and that which lies at the +foundation of all the rest, is <i>the right of self-preservation</i>. This +right necessarily involves all other incidental rights which are +essential as means to give effect to the principal end."</p> + +<p>"The end of a just war," says Vattel, "is to avenge, <i>or prevent</i>, +injury."</p> + +<p>"If <i>the safety of the State</i> lies at stake, our precaution and +foresight cannot be extended too far. Must we delay to arrest our ruin +until it has become inevitable?"</p> + +<p>"Where the end is lawful, he who has the right to pursue that end has, +of course, a right to employ all the means necessary for its +attainment."</p> + +<p>"When the conqueror has totally subdued a nation, he undoubtedly may, in +the first place, do himself justice respecting the object which had +given rise to the war, and indemnify himself for the expenses and +damages sustained by it; he may, according to the exigency of the case, +subject the nation to punishment by way of example; and he may, _if +prudence require it, render her incapable of doing mischief with the +same ease in future_."</p> + +<p>"Every nation," says Chancellor Kent, "has an undoubted right to provide +for its own safety, and to take due precaution against <i>distant</i>, as +well as impending danger."</p> + +<p>Our rights <i>as belligerents</i>, therefore, are ample for our security in +time to come. The Rebel States will not cease to be enemies by being +defeated and exhausted and disabled from continuing active hostilities. +They have invoked the laws of war, and they must abide the decision of +the tribunal to which they have appealed. We may hold them <i>as enemies</i> +until they submit to such reasonable terms of peace as we may demand. +Whether we shall require any indemnity for the vast expenditures and +losses to which we have been subjected is a question of great magnitude; +but it is of little importance compared with that of guarding against a +recurrence of the Rebellion, by removing <i>the cause</i> of it. It would be +worse than madness to restore them to all their former rights under the +government they have done their utmost to destroy, and at the same time +permit them to retain a system that would surely involve us or our +children in another struggle of the same kind.</p> + +<p>Slavery and freedom cannot permanently coexist under the same +government. There is an inevitable, perpetual, irrepressible conflict +between them. The present rebellion is but the culmination of this +conflict, long existing,—transferred from social and political life to +the camp and the battle-field. <i>In the new arena, we have all the rights +of belligerents in an international war.</i> Slavery has taken the sword; +let it perish by the sword. If we spare it, its wickedness will be +exceeded by our folly. As victors, the world concedes our right to +demand, for our own future peace, as the only terms of restoration, not +only the abolition of Slavery in all the Rebel States, but its +prohibition in all coming time. It cannot be, that, with the terrible +lessons of these passing years, we shall be so utterly destitute of +wisdom and prudence as to leave our children exposed to the dangers of +another rebellion, after entailing upon them the vast burdens of this, +by our national debt.</p> + +<p>It has been said, that, if Slavery should be abolished, the States could +afterwards reestablish it. This is claimed, on the ground that every +State may determine for itself the character of its own domestic +institutions. The right to do so has been conceded to some of the new +States.</p> + +<p>But it should be remembered that this right has been, to establish +Slavery <i>by bringing in slaves from the old States</i>,—not by taking +<i>citizens of the United States</i>, and reducing <i>them</i> to slavery. If one +such citizen can be enslaved, then can any other; and the very +foundations of the Federal Government can be overturned by a State. For +a government that cannot protect <i>its own citizens</i> from loss of +citizenship by being chattellized is no government at all.</p> + +<p>Citizenship is a reciprocal relation. The citizen owes allegiance; the +government owes protection. When a person is naturalized, he takes the +oath of allegiance. Does he got nothing in return? Can a State annul all +the rights which the Federal Government has conferred? Then, indeed, +would it be better for those who come to our shores to remain citizens +of the old nations; for <i>they</i> could protect them, but <i>we</i> cannot. +Then, to be a citizen of the United States—a privilege we had thought +greater than that of Roman citizenship when that empire was in its +glory—is a privilege which any State may annul at its pleasure!</p> + +<p>The power and position of a nation depend upon the number, wealth, +intelligence, and power of its citizens. And the nation, in order to +employ and develop its resources, must have free scope for the use of +its powers. No State has a right to block the path of the United States, +or in any way to "retard, impede, or burden it, in the execution of its +powers." For this reason, if a citizen is wealthy enough to lend money +to the Federal Government, a State cannot <i>tax his scrip</i> to the amount +of one cent. But, if the doctrine contended for by some is sound, then +it may take <i>the citizen himself</i>, confiscate the whole of his property, +blot out his citizenship, and make a chattel of him, and the Federal +Government can afford him no protection! Among all the doctrines that +Slavery has originated in this country, there is none more monstrous +than this.</p> + +<p>But this is not a question of any practical importance at this time. +There is no danger that Slavery will ever be tolerated where it has been +once abolished. It may go into new fields; it seldom returns to those +from which it has been driven. The institutions of learning and religion +that follow in the path of freedom, if they find a congenial soil, are +not likely to be supplanted by the dark and noxious exotics of ignorance +and barbarism.</p> + +<p>And besides, as we have already seen, it is our right, as one of the +conditions of restoration, to provide for the <i>perpetual prohibition</i> of +Slavery within the Rebel States. This, like the Ordinance of 1787, will +stand as an insurmountable barrier in all time to come. And the security +it will afford will be even more certain. For, while there may be a +difference of opinion in regard to the effect of a law of Congress +relating to existing Territories, there is no doubt that conditions +imposed at the time upon the admission of new States, or the restoration +of the Rebel States, will be of perpetual obligation.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="rights_of_rebel_states" id="rights_of_rebel_states"></a>RIGHTS OF REBEL STATES.</h3> + + +<p>On this subject there are two theories, each of which has advocates +among our most eminent statesmen.</p> + +<p>By some it is claimed that the Rebels have lost all rights as citizens +of States, and are in the condition of the inhabitants of unorganized +territories belonging to the United States,—and that, having forfeited +their rights, they can never be restored to their former position, +except by the consent of the Federal Government. This consent may be +given by admitting them as new States, or restoring them as old,—the +Government having the right in either case to annex terms and +conditions.</p> + +<p>There are others who contend that the Rebel States, though in rebellion, +have lost none of their rights as States,—that the moment they submit +they may choose members of Congress and Presidential electors, and +demand, and we must concede, the same position they formerly held. This +theory has been partially recognized by the present Administration, but +not to an extent that precludes the other from being adopted, if it is +right.</p> + +<p>If the people of the States which have seceded, as soon as they submit, +have an absolute right to resume their former position in the +Government, with their present constitutions upholding Slavery, it +certainly will be a great, if not an insurmountable, obstacle to the +adoption of those measures which may be necessary to secure our peace in +the future. That they have no such right, it is believed may be made +perfectly clear.</p> + +<p>If we triumph, we shall have all the rights which, by the laws of +nations, belong to conquerors in a just war. In a civil war, the rights +of conquest may not be of the same nature as in a war between different +nations; but that there are such rights in all wars has already been +stated on the highest authority. If a province, having definite +constitutional rights, revolts, and attempts to overthrow the power of +the central government, it would be a strange doctrine, to claim, that, +after being subdued, it had risked and lost nothing by the undertaking. +No authority can be found to sustain such a proposition. A rebellion +puts everything at risk. Any other doctrine would hold out encouragement +to all wicked and rebellious spirits. If they revolt, they know that +everything is staked upon the chances of success. Everything is lost by +defeat. By the laws of war, long established among the nations,—laws +which the Rebel States have themselves invoked,—if they fail, they will +have no right to be restored, except upon such terms as our Government +may prescribe. The right to make war, conferred by the Constitution, +carries with it all the rights and powers incident to a war, necessary +for its successful prosecution, and essential to prevent its recurrence.</p> + +<p>But without resorting to the extraordinary powers incident to a state of +war, the same conclusion, in regard to the effect of a rebellion by a +State Government, results from the relations which the States sustain to +the Federal Government. Though they cannot escape its jurisdiction, +their position, <i>as States</i>, is one which may be forfeited and lost.</p> + +<p>It has been objected that this doctrine is equivalent to a recognition +of the right of Secession, because it concedes the power of any one +State to withdraw from the Union. But the fallacy of this objection is +easily demonstrated.</p> + +<p>The Federal Government does not emanate from the States, but directly +from the people. The relation between them is that <i>of protection</i> on +the one hand and <i>allegiance</i> on the other. This relation cannot be +dissolved by either party, unless by voluntary or compulsory +expatriation. It subsists alike in States and Territories, not being +dependent upon any local government. The Rebels claim the right to +dissolve this relation, and to become free from and independent of the +Federal Government, though retaining the same territory as before. We +deny any such right, and hold, that, though they may forfeit their +rights <i>as a State</i>, they are still bound by, and under the jurisdiction +of, the Federal Government. This jurisdiction, though absolute in all +places, is not the same in all.</p> + +<p>In the District of Columbia, and in all unorganized territories, the +jurisdiction of the Federal Government is exclusive in its <i>extent</i>, as +well as in its <i>nature</i>. It must protect the inhabitants in <i>all</i> their +rights,—for there is no other power to protect them. They owe +allegiance to it, and to no other.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of the <i>organized</i> territories, though under the general +jurisdiction of the Federal Government, are, to some extent, under the +jurisdiction of the Territorial Governments. Each is bound to protect +them in certain things; they are bound to support and obey each in +certain things.</p> + +<p>The people of a State are also under the absolute jurisdiction of the +Federal Government in all matters embraced in the Constitution. They owe +it unqualified allegiance and support in those things. But they are +also, in some matters, under the jurisdiction of the State Government, +and owe allegiance to that. There are many matters over which both have +jurisdiction, and in which the citizens have a right to look to each, or +both, for protection. The courts of each issue writs of <i>habeas corpus</i>, +and give the citizens their liberty, unless there is legal cause for +their custody or restraint.</p> + +<p>Now, if a State Government forfeits all right to the allegiance and +support of its citizens, they are not thereby absolved from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. On the contrary, the jurisdiction +of the Federal Government is thereby enlarged; for it is then the only +Government which the citizens are bound to obey. Take, for illustration, +the State of Arkansas. By seceding, the State Government forfeited all +claim to the obedience of the citizens. The inhabitants no longer owe it +any allegiance. If loyal, they will not obey it, except as compelled by +force. But they still owe allegiance to the United States Government. +And there being no other Government which they are bound to obey, they +are in the same condition as before the State was admitted into the +Union, or any Territorial Government was organized.</p> + +<p>The same is true of South Carolina. For, though it was an independent +State before the Constitution was adopted, its citizens voluntarily +yielded up that position, and became subject to the Federal Government, +claiming the privileges and assuming the liabilities of a higher +citizenship. And if, by reason of its rebellion, their State Government +has forfeited its claim upon them, and its right to rule over them, they +owe no allegiance to any except the Government of the United States.</p> + +<p>But it is argued by some, that a State, once admitted into the Union, +cannot forfeit its rights as a State under the Constitution, because it +cannot, as such, be guilty of treason; that the inhabitants may all be +traitors, and the State Government secede, and engage in a war against +the Republic, and yet retain all its rights intact.</p> + +<p>A State, in the meaning of public law, has been defined to be a body of +persons <i>united together</i> in one community, for the defence of their +rights. They do not constitute a State until <i>organized</i>. If the +organization ceases to exist, they are no longer a State. If the State +organization becomes despotic, and the inhabitants overthrow it by a +revolution, it then ceases to exist. The people are remitted to their +original rights, and must organize a new State.</p> + +<p>A State, as such, may be guilty of treason. Crimes may be committed by +organized bodies of men. Corporations are often convicted, and punished +by fines, or by a forfeiture of all corporate rights. And though we have +no provision for putting a State on trial, it may, as a State, be +guilty. Treason is defined by the Constitution to be "levying war +against the United States." This is just what South Carolina, as a +State, is doing. Not only the people, but <i>the State Government</i>, has +revolted. The people owe it no allegiance. It is their duty, not to +support, but to <i>oppose</i> it. The Federal Government owes it no +recognition. It has the right to destroy and exterminate it. A State +Government in rebellion has no rights under the Constitution. <i>It is +itself a rebellion</i>, and must necessarily cease to exist when the +rebellion is suppressed.</p> + +<p>And when the State Government which has revolted shall be conquered and +overthrown, there will then be no South Carolina in existence. If there +were loyal people enough there, bond or free, to rise up and overthrow +it, they would be no more bound to revive the old Constitution, with its +tyrannical provisions, than were our fathers to return to the British +Government. Such a revolution is inaugurated in that State, by loyal +men, to overthrow the despotic power of the State Government. If the +State Government had remained loyal, it might have called on the Federal +Government. But by seceding it has justified the Federal Government in +aiding or organizing a revolution against it, for its utter overthrow +and extinction.</p> + +<p>It is true, indeed, the idea prevails that there is still, somehow, a +State of South Carolina, besides that which is in rebellion. But the +State must exist <i>in fact</i>, or it has no existence. There is no such +thing as a merely theoretical State, separate and different from the +actual. The revolted States are the same States that were once loyal. +And when some loyal citizens in each of them, with the aid of the +Federal Government, have overthrown and destroyed them, the ground will +be cleared for the formation of new States, or the <i>reorganization</i> of +the old; and they may be admitted or restored, upon such conditions as +may be deemed wise and prudent, to promote and secure the future peace +and welfare of the whole country.</p> + +<p>There is no evidence that loyal persons in the Rebel States claim or +desire to uphold the existence of those States, under their present +constitutions, with the system of Slavery. But if there are any such +persons, their wishes are not to override the interests of the Republic. +It is their misfortune to reside in States that have revolted; and all +their losses, pecuniary and political, are chargeable to those States, +and not to the Federal Government. If they are so blind as to suppose +that their losses will be increased by emancipation, <i>that</i>, also, will +be chargeable to the rebellion of those States. <i>Their</i> loyalty does not +save those States from being treated as enemies; it does not prevent +<i>their own</i> condition from being determined by that of their States. As +it is well known, a portion of their property has been confiscated by an +Act of Congress, on the ground that they are, in part, responsible for +the rebellion of those States. The theory, therefore, that such loyal +men constitute loyal States, still existing, in distinction from the +States that have rebelled, is utterly groundless. On this point we +cannot do better than quote from the opinion of the Supreme Court of the +United States in a case already referred to, sustaining the belligerent +legislation of Congress.</p> + +<p>"In organizing this rebellion, <i>they have acted as States</i>, claiming to +be sovereign over all persons and property within their respective +limits, and claiming the right to absolve their citizens from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. Several of these States have +combined to form a new Confederacy, claiming to be acknowledged by the +world as a sovereign State. Their right to do so is now being decided by +wager of battle. The ports and territory of each of these States are +held in hostility to the General Government. It is no loose, unorganized +insurrection, having no defined boundary or possession. It has a +boundary, marked by lines of bayonets, and which can be crossed only by +force. South of this line is enemy's territory, because it is claimed +and held in possession by an organized, hostile, and belligerent power. +All persons residing within this territory, whose property may be used +to increase the revenues of the hostile power, are in this contest +liable to be treated as enemies."</p> + +<p>It is not to be presumed that Congress will do anything unnecessarily to +add to the misfortunes of loyal men in the South. On the contrary, all +that is being done is more directly for their benefit than for that of +any other class of men. The vast expenditure of treasure and blood in +this war is for the purpose of protecting them first of all, and +restoring to them the blessings of a good government. And if it shall be +found practicable to indemnify them for all losses, whether by +emancipation or otherwise, no one will object.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p>The object of this article is to prove that the Government possesses +ample power, according to the law of nations, to suppress the Rebellion, +and secure the country against the danger of another, by Emancipation, +through the military power; that, though Emancipation is a <i>policy</i>, and +not a <i>law</i>, the war may be prosecuted until this end is accomplished, +and Slavery in future forever prohibited; that, by secession and +rebellion, the revolted States have forfeited all right to the +allegiance of their citizens, who are thereby remitted to the condition +and rights of citizens solely of the United States; and that the Federal +Government, as well <i>under the Constitution</i> as <i>by right of conquest</i>, +may impose such terms upon the reorganization and restoration of those +States as may be necessary to secure present safety, and avert danger in +time to come. These views are presented in as brief and simple terms as +possible, with the hope that they may be adopted by the people and by +the Government. It is confidently believed, that, if the President and +Congress will act in accordance with them, their acts will be fully +sustained by the Supreme Court,—and that, the element and source of +discord being at last entirely removed from the country, a career of +peace and prosperity will then begin which shall be the admiration of +the world.</p> + +<p>At this time we present a humiliating spectacle to other nations: nearly +half of our national temple in ruins,—the work of blind folly and mad +ambition. The people of the North claimed no right to tear it down, or +even to repair it. But since the people of the South have risen in +rebellion, let us believe that there is now an opportunity, nay, an +imperative <i>necessity</i>, to remove from its foundations the rock of +Oppression, that was sure to crumble in the refining fires of a +Christian civilization, and establish in its place the stone of +LIBERTY,—unchanging and eternal as its Author. Let us rejoice in the +hope, already brightening into fruition, that out of these ruins our +temple shall rise again, in a fresher beauty, a firmer strength, a +brighter glory,—and above it again shall float the old flag, every star +restored, henceforth to all, of every color and every race, the flag of +the free.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="reviews_and_literary_notices" id="reviews_and_literary_notices"></a>REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.</h2> + + + +<p><i>Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-39.</i> By FRANCES +ANNE KEMBLE. New York: Harper & Brothers.</p> + + +<p>Those who remember the "Journal of a Residence in America," of Frances +Anne Kemble, or, as she was universally and kindly called, Fanny +Kemble,—a book long since out of print, and entirely out of the +knowledge of our younger readers,—will not cease to wonder, as they +close these thoughtful, tranquil, and tragical pages. The earlier +journal was the dashing, fragmentary diary of a brilliant girl, half +impatient of her own success in an art for which she was peculiarly +gifted, yet the details of which were sincerely repugnant to her. It +crackled and sparkled with <i>naïve</i> arrogance. It criticized a new world +and fresh forms of civilization with the amusing petulance of a spoiled +daughter of John Bull. It was flimsy, flippant, laughable, rollicking, +vivid. It described scenes and persons, often with airy grace, often +with profound and pensive feeling. It was the slightest of diaries, +written in public for the public; but it was universally read, as its +author had been universally sought and admired in the sphere of her art; +and no one who knew anything of her truly, but knew what an incisive +eye, what a large heart, what a candid and vigorous mind, what real +humanity, generosity, and sympathy, characterized Miss Kemble.</p> + +<p>The dazzling phantasmagoria which life had been to the young actress was +suddenly exchanged for the most practical acquaintance with its +realities. She was married, left the stage, and as a wife and mother +resided for a winter on the plantations of her husband upon the coast of +Georgia. And now, after twenty-five years, the journal of her residence +there is published. It has been wisely kept. For never could such a book +speak with such power as at this moment. The tumult of the war will be +forgotten, as you read, in the profound and appalled attention enforced +by this remarkable revelation of the interior life of Slavery. The +spirit, the character, and the purpose of the Rebellion are here laid +bare. Its inevitability is equally apparent. The book is a permanent and +most valuable chapter in our history; for it is the first ample, lucid, +faithful, detailed account, from the actual head-quarters of a +slave-plantation in this country, of the workings of the system,—its +persistent, hopeless, helpless crushing of humanity in the slave, and +the more fearful moral and mental dry-rot it generates in the master.</p> + +<p>We have had plenty of literature upon the subject. First of all, in +spirit and comprehension, the masterly, careful, copious, and patient +works of Mr. Olmsted. But he, like Arthur Young in France, was only an +observer. He could be no more. "Uncle Tom," as its "Key" shows, and as +Mrs. Kemble declares, was no less a faithful than the most famous +witness against the system. But it was a novel. Then there was "American +Slavery as it is," a work of authenticated facts, issued by the American +Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and the fearful mass of testimony +incessantly published by the distinctively Abolition papers, +periodicals, books, and orators, during the last quarter of a century. +But the world was deaf. "They have made it a business. They select all +the horrors. They accumulate exceptions." Such were the objections that +limited the power of this tremendous battery. Meanwhile, also, it was +answered. Foreign tourists were taken to "model plantations." They shed +tears over the patriarchal benignity of this venerable and beautiful +provision of Divine Providence for the spiritual training of our African +fellow-creatures. The affection of "Mammy" for "Massa and Missis" was +something unknown where hired labor prevailed. Graver voices took up the +burden of the song. There was no pauperism in a slave-country. There +were no prostitutes. It had its disadvantages, certainly; but what form +of society, what system of labor has not? Besides, here it was. It was +the interest of slaveholders to be kind. And what a blessing to bring +the poor heathen from benighted Africa and pagan servitude to the +ennobling influences of Slavery, as practised among Southwestern +Christians in America, and "professors" in South Carolina and Georgia! +See the Reverend Mr. Adams and Miss Murray <i>passim</i>. This was the +answer made to the statements of the actual facts of the system, when it +was found that the question had gone before public opinion, and would be +decided upon its merits by that tribunal, all the panders, bullies, +assassins, apologists, and chaplains of Slavery to the contrary +notwithstanding. In fact, when that was once clearly perceived, the +issue was no less visible; only whether it were to be reached by war or +peace was not so plain.</p> + +<p>Yet in all this tremendous debate which resounds through the last thirty +years of our history, rising and swelling until every other sound was +lost in its imperious roar, one decisive voice was silent. It was +precisely that which is heard in this book. General statements, +harrowing details from those who had been slaveholders, and who had +renounced Slavery, were sometimes made public. Indeed, the most cruel +and necessary incidents, the hunting with blood-hounds, the branding, +the maiming, the roasting, the whipping of pregnant women, could not be +kept from knowledge. They blazed into print. But the public, hundreds of +miles away, while it sighed and shuddered a little, resolved that such +atrocities were exceptional. 'Twas a shocking pity, to be sure! Poor +things! Women, too! Tut, tut!</p> + +<p>Now, at last, we have no general statement, no single, sickening +incident, but the diary of the mistress of plantations of seven hundred +slaves, living under the most favorable circumstances, upon the islands +at the mouth of the Altamaha River, in Georgia. It is a journal, kept +from day to day, of the actual ordinary life of the plantation, where +the slaves belonged to educated, intelligent, and what are called the +most respectable people,—not persons imbruted by exile among slaves +upon solitary islands, but who had lived in large Northern cities and +the most accomplished society, subject to all the influences of the +highest civilization. It is the journal of a hearty, generous, +clear-sighted woman, who went to the plantation, loving the master, and +believing, that, though Slavery might be sad, it might also be +mitigated, and the slave might be content. It is the record of ghastly +undeceiving,—of the details of a system so wantonly, brutally, damnably +unjust, inhuman, and degrading, that it blights the country, paralyzes +civilization, and vitiates human nature itself. The brilliant girl of +the earlier journal is the sobered and solemnized matron of this. The +very magnitude of the misery that surrounds her, the traces of which +everywhere sadden her eye and wring her heart, compel her to the +simplest narration. There is no writing for effect. There is not a +single "sensational" passage. The story is monotonous; for the wrong it +describes is perpetual and unrelieved. "There is not a single natural +right," she says, after some weeks' residence, "that is not taken away +from these unfortunate people; and the worst of all is, that their +condition does not appear to me, upon further observation of it, to be +susceptible of even partial alleviation, as long as the fundamental +evil, the Slavery itself, remains."</p> + +<p>As the mistress of the plantation, she was brought into constant +intercourse with the slave-women; and no other account of this class is +so thorough and plainly stated. So pitiful a tale was seldom told. It +was a "model plantation"; but every day was darkened to the mistress by +the appeals of these women and her observation of their condition. The +heart of the reader sickens as hers despaired. To produce "little +niggers" for Massa and Missis was the enforced ambition of these poor +women. After the third week of confinement they were sent into the +fields to work. If they lingered or complained, they were whipped. For +beseeching the mistress to pray for some relief in their sad straits, +they were also whipped. If their tasks were unperformed, or the driver +lost his temper, they were whipped again. If they would not yield to the +embrace of the overseer, they were whipped once more. How are they +whipped? They are tied by the wrists to a beam or the branch of a tree, +their feet barely touching the ground, so that they are utterly +powerless to resist; their clothes are turned over their heads, and +their backs scarred with a leathern thong, either by the driver himself, +or by father, brother, husband, or lover, if the driver choose to order +it. What a blessing for these poor heathen that they are brought to a +Christian land! When a band of pregnant women came to their master to +implore relief from overwork, he seemed "positively degraded" to his +wife, as he stood urging them to do their allotted tasks. She began to +fear lest she should cease to respect the man she loved; "for the +details of slaveholding are so unmanly, letting alone every other +consideration, that I know not how any one with the spirit of a man can +condescend to them." The master gives a slave as a present to an +overseer whose administration of the estate was agreeable to him. The +slave is intelligent and capable, the husband of a wife and the father +of children, and they are all fondly attached to each other. He +passionately declares that he will kill himself rather than follow his +new master and leave wife and children behind. Roused by the storm of +grief, the wife opens the door of her room, and beholds her husband, +with his arms folded, advising his slave "not to make a fuss about what +there is no help for." The same master insists that there is no hardship +or injustice in whipping a woman who asks his wife to intercede for her, +but confesses that it is "disagreeable." At last he tells her that she +must no longer fatigue him with the "stuff" and "trash" which "the +niggers," who are "all d——d liars," make her believe, and +henceforward closes his ears to all complaint.</p> + +<p>Yet this was a model plantation, and this was probably not a hard +master, as masters go. "These are the conditions which can only be known +to one who lives among them. Flagrant acts of cruelty may be rare, but +this ineffable state of utter degradation, this really <i>beastly</i> +existence, is the normal condition of these men and women; and of that +no one seems to take heed, nor had I ever heard it described so as to +form any adequate conception of it, till I found myself plunged into +it.... Industry, man's crown of honor elsewhere, is here his badge of +utter degradation; and so comes all by which I am here +surrounded,—pride, profligacy, idleness, cruelty, cowardice, ignorance, +squalor, dirt, and ineffable abasement."</p> + +<p>And yet this is the system which we have been in the habit of calling +patriarchal, because the model masters said it was so, and trade was too +prosperous to allow any difference with them! And these are the model +masters, supported in luxury by all this unpaid labor and untold woe, +these women-whippers and breeders of babies for sale, who have figured +in our talk and imaginations as "the chivalry" and "gentlemen"! These +are they to whom American society has koo-too'd, and in whose presence +it has been ill-bred and uncourteous to say that every man has rights, +that every laborer is worthy of his hire, that injustice is unjust, and +uncleanness foul. No wonder that Russell, coming to New York, and +finding the rich men and the political confederates of the conspirators +declaring that the Government of the United States could not help +itself, and that they would allow no interference with their Southern +friends, sincerely believed what he wished to, and wrote to John Bull, +whose round face was red with eager desire to hear it, that the +Revolution was virtually accomplished. No wonder that the haughty +slaveholders, smeared with sycophantic slime, at Newport, at Saratoga, +in the "polite" and "conservative" Northern circles, believed what Mr. +Hunter of Virginia told a Massachusetts delegate to the Peace +Congress,—that there would be no serious trouble, and that the +Montgomery Constitution would be readily adopted by the "conservative" +sentiment of the North.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemble's book shows what the miserable magic is that enchants these +Southern American citizens into people whose philosophy of society would +disgrace the Dark Ages, and whose social system is that of Dahomey.</p> + +<p>The life that she describes upon the model plantation is the necessary +life of Slavery everywhere,—injustice, ignorance, superstition, terror, +degradation, brutality; and this is the system to which a great +political party—counting upon the enervation of prosperity, the +timidity of trade, the distance of the suffering, the legal quibbles, +the moral sophisms, the hatred of ignorance, the jealousy of race, and +the possession of power—has conspired to keep the nation blind and +deaf, trusting that its mind was utterly obscured and its conscience +wholly destroyed.</p> + +<p>But the nation is young, and of course the effort has ended in civil +war. Slavery, industrially and politically, inevitably resists Christian +civilization. The natural progress and development of men into a +constantly higher manhood must cease, or this system, which strives to +convert men into things, must give way. Its haughty instinct knows it, +and therefore Slavery rebels. This Rebellion is simply the insurrection +of Barbarism against Civilization. It would overthrow the Government, +not for any wrong the Government has done, for that is not alleged. It +knows that the people are the Government,—that the spirit of the people +is progressive and intelligent,—and that there is no hope for permanent +and expansive injustice, so long as the people freely discuss and +decide. It would therefore establish a new Government, of which this +meanest and most beastly despotism shall be the chief corner-stone. In a +letter to C.G., in the appendix of her book, Mrs. Kemble sets this truth +in the clearest light. But whoever would comprehend the real social +scope of the Rebellion should ponder every page of the journal itself. +It will show him that Slavery and rebellion to this Government are +identical, not only in fact, but of necessity. It will teach him that +the fierce battle between Slavery and the Government, once engaged, can +end only in the destruction of one or the other.</p> + +<p>This is not a book which a woman like Mrs. Kemble publishes without a +solemn sense of responsibility. A sadder book the human hand never +wrote, nor one more likely to arrest the thoughts of all those in the +world who watch our war and are yet not steeled to persuasion and +conviction. An Englishwoman, she publishes it in England, which hates +us, that a testimony which will not be doubted may be useful to the +country in which she has lived so long, and with which her sweetest and +saddest memories are forever associated. It is a noble service nobly +done. The enthusiasm, the admiration, the affection, which in our day of +seemingly cloudless prosperity greeted the brilliant girl, have been +bountifully repaid by the true and timely words now spoken in our +seeming adversity by the grave and thoughtful woman.</p> + +<hr class="hr45" /> + +<p><i>An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the +Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers.</i> Read +before the Massachusetts Historical Society, August 14, 1862. By GEORGE +LIVERMORE. Third Edition. Boston: A. Williams & Co.</p> + + +<p>This Historical Research is one of the most valuable works that have +been called out by the existing Rebellion. It is a thorough and candid +exposition of the opinions of the founders of the Republic on negroes as +slaves, as citizens, and as soldiers, and has done more, perhaps, than +any other single essay to form the public opinion of the present time in +respect to the position that the negro should rightfully hold in our +State and our army. It has, therefore, and will retain, a double +interest, as exhibiting and illustrating the opinions prevalent during +the two most important periods of our history. It was first printed, +several months since, for private distribution only. More than a +thousand copies were thus distributed by its public-spirited author. By +this means the attention of persons in positions of influence was more +readily secured than it could have been, had the essay been published in +the ordinary way. The manner in which the research was conducted, the +evidence afforded by every page of the author's conscientious labor, +impartial selection, and exhaustive investigation, won immediate +confidence in his statements, while his obvious candor, fairness of +judgment, and love of truth secured respect for his conclusions. The +interest excited by the work extended to a wider circle than could be +satisfied by any private issue, while its value became more and more +evident, so that, after its publication in the Proceedings of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, the permission of the author was +obtained by the New-England Loyal Publication Society to issue the work +in a form for general circulation.</p> + +<p>We are glad to assist, by our hearty commendation, the extension of the +influence of this essay. It forms, as now issued, a handsome pamphlet of +two hundred pages, with a full Table of Contents and a copious Index, +and is for sale at a price which brings it within the means of every one +who may wish to obtain it. It is a book which should be in the +reading-room of every Loyal League throughout the country, and of every +military hospital. Editors of the loyal press should be provided with +it, as containing an arsenal of incontrovertible arguments with which to +meet the false assertions by which the maligners of the negro race and +the supporters of Slavery too often undertake to maintain their bad +cause.</p> + +<p>Exhibiting, as Mr. Livermore's book does, the contrast between the +opinions of the founders of the Republic and those professed by the +would-be destroyers of the Republic, and showing, as it does, how far a +large portion even of the people of the North have fallen away from the +just and generous doctrine of the earlier time, it must lead every +thoughtful reader to a deep sense of the need of a regeneration of the +spirit of the nation, and to a confirmed conviction of the +incompatibility of Slavery with national greatness and virtue. The +Rebellion has taught us that the Republic is not safe while Slavery is +permitted to exercise any political power. It ought to teach us also, +that, as long as Slavery exists in any of the States, it will not cease +to exercise political power, and that the only means to make the nation +safe is utterly to abolish and destroy Slavery, wherever it is found +within its limits. Nor is this all; the lesson of the Rebellion is but +half learned, unless we resolve that henceforth there shall be no fatal +division between our consciences, our principles, our theories, and our +treatment of the black race, and unless we acknowledge their inalienable +right to that justice by which alone the most ancient heavens and the +most sacred institutions are fresh and strong.</p> + +<p>There is no better textbook for enforcing these lessons than Mr. +Livermore's Research.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="recent_american_publications" id="recent_american_publications"></a>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS</h2> + +<h3>RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.</h3> + + +<p>"Christopher North." A Memoir of John Wilson, late Professor of Moral +Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. Compiled from Family-Papers +and other Sources. By his Daughter, Mrs. Gordon. With an Introduction by +R. Shelton Mackenzie, D.C.L., Editor of the "Noctes Ambrosianæ," etc. +Complete in One Volume. New York. W.J. Widdleton. 8vo. pp. xii., 484. +$2.00.</p> + +<p>Alphabetical Army-Register; giving the Names, Date of Present and +Original Commissions, Rank, Place of Nativity, and from whence +Appointed, of all the Officers of the United States Army, as shown by +the Official Army-Register, May, 1863. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. +paper, pp. 64. 50 cts.</p> + +<p>The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., late +Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vol. VI. +Boston. Taggard & Thompson. 12mo. pp. 450. $1.50.</p> + +<p>Money. By Charles Moran. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 228. +$1.00.</p> + +<p>The Crisis. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 95. 50 cts.</p> + +<p>Chemistry. By William Thomas Brande, D.C.L., F.R.S.L. and E., of Her +Majesty's Mint, Member of the Senate of the University of London, and +Honorary Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution of Great +Britain; and Alfred Swaine Taylor, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal +College of Physicians of London, and Professor of Chemistry and Medical +Jurisprudence in Guy's Hospital. Philadelphia. Blanchard & Lea. 8vo. pp. +696. $3.50.</p> + +<p>The Life and Letters of Washington Irving. By his Nephew, Pierre M. +Irving. New York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 403. $1.50.</p> + +<p>Lectures on the Symbolic Character of the Sacred Scriptures. By Rev. +Abiel Silver, Minister of the New Jerusalem Church in New York. New +York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 286. $1.25.</p> + +<p>Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature. By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., +F.L.S., Professor of Natural History in the Jermyn-Street School of +Mines. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 184. $1.25.</p> + +<p>United States Infantry Tactics, for the Instruction, Exercise, and +Manœuvres of the Soldier, a Company, Line of Skirmishers, and +Battalion; for the Use of the Colored Troops of the United States +Infantry. Prepared under Direction of the War Department. New York. D. +Van Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 445. $1.50.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, +1863, No. 70, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 12 *** + +***** This file should be named 16033-h.htm or 16033-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/3/16033/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Guido +Royackers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 + A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics + +Author: Various + +Release Date: June 9, 2005 [EBook #16033] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 12 *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Guido +Royackers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. XII.--AUGUST, 1863.--NO. LXX. + + * * * * * + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + + + + +AN AMERICAN IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. + + +Having in a former number of this magazine attempted to give some +account of the House of Commons, and to present some sketches of its +leading members,[1] I now design to introduce my readers to the House of +Lords. + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_ for December, 1861.] + +It is obviously unnecessary to repeat so much of the previous +description as applies to the general external and internal appearance +of the New Palace of Westminster. It only remains to speak of the hall +devoted to the sessions of the House of Lords. And certainly it is an +apartment deserving a more extended notice than our limits will allow. +As the finest specimen of Gothic civil architecture in the world, +perfect in its proportions, beautiful and appropriate in its +decorations, the frescoes perpetuating some of the most striking scenes +in English history, the stained glass windows representing the Kings and +Queens of the United Kingdom from the accession of William the Conqueror +down to the present reign, the niches filled with effigies of the Barons +who wrested Magna Charta from King John, the ceiling glowing with gold +and colors presenting different national symbols and devices in most +elaborate workmanship and admirable intricacy of design, it is +undeniably worthy of the high purpose to which it is dedicated. + +The House of Lords also contains the throne occupied by the reigning +sovereign at the opening and prorogation of Parliament. Perhaps its more +appropriate designation would be a State-Chair. In general form and +outline it is substantially similar to the chairs in which the +sovereigns of England have for centuries been accustomed to sit at their +coronations. We need hardly add that no expense has been spared to give +to the throne such intrinsic value, and to adorn it with such emblems of +national significance, as to furnish renewed evidence of England's +unwavering loyalty to the reigning house. + +In pointing out what is peculiar to the House of Lords, I am aware that +there is danger of falling into the error of stating what is already +familiar to some of my readers. And yet a traveller's narrative is not +always tiresome to the tourist who has himself visited the same +localities and witnessed the same scenes. If anxious for the "diffusion +of useful knowledge," he will cheerfully consent that the curiosity of +others, who have not shared his good fortune, should be gratified, +although it be at his expense. At the same time, he certainly has a +right to insist that the extraordinary and improbable stories told to +the too credulous _voyageur_ by some lying scoundrel of a courier or +some unprincipled _valet-de-place_ shall not be palmed upon the +unsuspecting public as genuine tales of travel and adventure. + +The House of Lords is composed of lords spiritual and lords temporal. As +this body is now constituted, the lords spiritual are two archbishops, +twenty-four bishops, and four Irish representative prelates. The lords +temporal are three peers of the blood royal, twenty dukes, nineteen +marquises, one hundred and ten earls, twenty-two viscounts, two hundred +and ten barons, sixteen Scotch representative peers, and twenty-eight +Irish representative peers. There are twenty-three Scotch peers and +eighty-five Irish peers who have no seats in Parliament. The +representative peers for Scotland are elected for every Parliament, +while the representative peers for Ireland are elected for life. As has +been already intimated, this enumeration applies only to the present +House of Lords, which comprises four hundred and fifty-eight +members,--an increase of about thirty noblemen in as many years. + +The persons selected from time to time for the honor of the peerage are +members of families already among the nobility, eminent barristers, +military and naval commanders who have distinguished themselves in the +service, and occasionally persons of controlling and acknowledged +importance in commercial life. Lord Macaulay is the first instance in +which this high compliment has been conferred for literary merit; and it +was well understood, when the great essayist and historian was ennobled, +that the exception in his favor was mainly due to the fact that he was +unmarried. With his untimely death the title became extinct. Lord +Overstone, formerly Mr. Loyd, and a prominent member of the banking firm +of Jones, Loyd, and Co. of London, elevated to the peerage in 1850, is +without heirs apparent or presumptive, and there is good reason to +believe that this circumstance had a material bearing upon his +well-deserved promotion. But these infrequent exceptions, these rare +concessions so ungraciously made, only prove the rigor of the rule. +Practically, to all but members of noble families, and men distinguished +for military, naval, or political services, or eminent lawyers or +clergymen, the House of Lords is unattainable. Brown may reach the +highest range of artistic excellence, he may achieve world-wide fame as +an architect, his canvas may glow with the marvellous coloring of Titian +or repeat the rare and delicate grace of Correggio, the triumphs of his +chisel may reflect honor upon England and his age; the inventive genius +of Jones, painfully elaborating, through long and suffering years of +obscure poverty, the crude conceptions of his boyhood, may confer +inestimable benefits upon his race; the scientific discoveries of +Robinson may add incalculable wealth to the resources of his nation: but +let them not dream of any other nobility than that conferred by Nature; +let them be content to live and die plain, untitled Brown, Jones, and +Robinson, or at best look forward only to the barren honors of +knighthood. Indeed, it is not too much to say that for plebeian merit +the only available avenues to the peerage are the Church and the Bar. + +The proportion of law lords now in the House of Lords is unusually +large,--there being, besides Lord Westbury, the present +Lord-High-Chancellor, no fewer than six Ex-Lord-Chancellors, each +enjoying the very satisfactory pension of five thousand pounds per +annum. Lord Lyndhurst still survives at the ripe age of ninety-one; and +Lord Brougham, now in his eighty-sixth year, has made good his promise +that he would outlive Lord Campbell, and spare his friends the pain of +seeing his biography added to the lives of the Lord-Chancellors to +whom, in Lord Brougham's opinion, Lord Campbell had done such inadequate +justice. + +The course of proceeding in the House of Lords differs considerably from +that pursued in the House of Commons. The Lord-High-Chancellor, seated +on the wool-sack,--a crimson cushion, innocent of any support to the +back, and by no means suggestive of comfort, or inviting deliberations +of the peers, but is never addressed by the speakers. "My lords" is the +phrase with which every peer commences his remarks. + +Another peculiarity patent to the stranger is the small number usually +present at the debates. The average attendance is less than fifty, and +often one sees only fifteen or twenty peers in their seats. Two or three +leading members of the Ministry, as many prominent members of the +opposition, a bishop or two, a score of deluded, but well-meaning +gentlemen, who obstinately adhere to the unfashionable notion, that, +where great political powers are enjoyed, there are certain serious +duties to the public closely connected therewith, a few prosy and +pompous peers who believe that their constant presence is essential to +the welfare and prosperity of the kingdom,--such, I think, is a correct +classification of the ordinary attendance of noblemen at the House of +Lords. + +This body possesses several obvious advantages over any other +deliberative assembly now existing. Not the least among these is the +fact that the oldest son of every peer is prepared by a careful course +of education for political and diplomatic life. Every peer, except some +of recent creation, has from childhood enjoyed all conceivable +facilities for acquiring a finished education. In giving direction to +his studies at school and at the university, special reference has been +had to his future Parliamentary career. Nothing that large wealth could +supply, or the most powerful family-influence could command, has been +spared to give to the future legislator every needed qualification for +the grave and responsible duties which he will one day be called to +assume. His ambition has been stimulated by the traditional achievements +of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and his pride has been awakened +and kept alive by the universal deference paid to his position as the +heir apparent or presumptive of a noble house. + +This view is so well presented in "The Caxtons," that I need offer no +apology for making an extract from that most able and discriminating +picture of English society. "The fact is, that Lord Castleton had been +taught everything that relates to property (a knowledge that embraces +very wide circumference). It had been said to him, 'You will be an +immense proprietor: knowledge is essential to your self-preservation. +You will be puzzled, ridiculed, duped every day of your life, if you do +not make yourself acquainted with all by which property is assailed or +defended, impoverished or increased. You have a stake in the country: +you must learn all the interests of Europe, nay, of the civilized world; +for these interests react on the country, and the interests of the +country are of the greatest possible consequence to the interests of the +Marquis of Castleton.' Thus, the state of the Continent, the policy of +Metternich, the condition of the Papacy, the growth of Dissent, the +proper mode of dealing with the spirit of democracy which was the +epidemic of European monarchies, the relative proportions of the +agricultural and manufacturing population, corn-laws, currency, and the +laws that regulate wages, a criticism on the leading speakers in the +House of Commons, with some discursive observations on the importance of +fattening cattle, the introduction of flax into Ireland, emigration, the +condition of the poor: these and such-like stupendous subjects for +reflection--all branching more or less intricately from the single idea +of the Castleton property--the young lord discussed and disposed of in +half a dozen prim, poised sentences, evincing, I must say in justice, no +inconsiderable information, and a mighty solemn turn of mind. The +oddity was, that the subjects so selected and treated should not come +rather from some young barrister, or mature political economist, than +from so gorgeous a lily of the field." + +But to all these preeminent advantages of early education and training +there must be added the invaluable opportunities of enlarged and +extended legislative experience in the House of Commons. If we examine +the antecedents of some of the most prominent men now in the House of +Lords, we shall discover abundant evidence of this fact. Earl Russell +was a member of the House of Commons for more than thirty years; Earl +Derby, more than twenty-five years; the Earl of Shaftesbury, for about +twenty-four years; the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the +Duke of Rutland, for about the same period. And of the present House of +Commons more than fifty members are heirs apparent or presumptive to +existing peerages. + +And then there is the further circumstance that seats in the House of +Lords are for life. Members of this body do not stand in fear of removal +by the votes of disappointed or indignant constituents. Entirely +independent of public opinion, they can defy the disapprobation of the +masses, and smile at the denunciation of the press. Undoubtedly, this +fact has a twofold bearing, and deprives the peers of that strong +incentive to active exertion and industrious legislation which the House +of Commons, looking directly to the people for support and continuance, +always possesses. Yet the advantages in point of prolonged experience +and ever increasing familiarity with the details of public business are +unquestionable. + +As a matter of course, there are many noblemen upon whom these rare +facilities of education and this admirable training for public life +would seem to have been wasted. As Americans, we must be pardoned for +expressing our belief in the venerable doctrine that there is no royal +road to learning. If a peer of the realm is determined to be a dunce, +nothing in the English Constitution prevents him from being a dunce, and +"not all the blood of all the Howards" can make him a scholar or a +statesman. If, resting securely in the conviction that a nobleman does +not need to be instructed, he will not condescend to study, and does not +avail himself of his most enviable advantages, whatever may be his +social rank, his ignorance and incapacity cannot be disguised, but will +even become more odious and culpable in the view of impartial criticism +by reason of his conspicuous position and his neglect of these very +advantages. + +But frequent as these instances are, it will not be for a moment +supposed that the whole peerage would justly fall under such censure. +Nor will it be thought surprising that the House of Lords contains a +considerable number of men of sterling ability, statesmen of broad and +comprehensive views, accustomed to deal with important questions of +public interest and national policy with calm, deliberate judgment, and +far-reaching sagacity. Hampered as they certainly are by a traditional +conservatism often as much at variance with sound political philosophy +as it is with the lessons of all history, and characterized as their +attitude towards foreign nations always has been by a singular want of +all generosity, still it must be confessed that their steady and +unwavering adherence to a line of conduct which has made England feared +and her power respected by every country in the world has a certain +element of dignity and manly self-reliance which compels our admiration. +And while they have been of late so frequently outwitted by the +flexible, if not tortuous, policy of Louis Napoleon, it yet remains to +be seen whether the firm and unyielding course of the English Ministry +will not in the end prove quite as successful as the more Machiavellian +management of the French Emperor. + +I hardly know how to describe accurately the impression made upon the +mind of an American by his first visit to the House of Lords. What +memories haunt him of the Norman Conquest and the Crusades, of Magna +Charta and the King-Maker, of noblemen who suffered with Charles I. and +supped with Charles II., and of noblemen still later whose family-pride +looked down upon the House of Hanover, and whose banded political power +and freely lavished wealth checked the brilliant career of Napoleon, and +maintained, the supremacy of England on sea and land! + +Enter, then, the House of Lords with these stirring memories, and +confess frankly to a feeling of disappointment. Here are seated a few +well-behaved gentlemen of all ages, often carelessly dressed, and almost +invariably in English morning-costume. They are sleepily discussing some +uninteresting question, and you are disposed to retire in view of the +more powerful attractions of Drury Lane or the Haymarket, or the chance +of something better worth hearing in the House of Commons. Take my +advice, and wait until the adjournment. It will not be long, and by +leaving now you may lose an important debate and the sight of some men +whose fame is bounded only by the limits of Christendom. Even now there +is a slight stir in the House. A nobleman has entered whose movements +you will do well to follow. He takes his place just at the left of the +Lord-Chancellor, but remains seated only for a moment. If you are +familiar with the pencil of Punch, you will recognize him at a glance. A +thin, wiry, yet muscular frame, a singularly marked and expressive face +and mobile features, a nose that defies description, a high cravat like +a poultice covered with a black silk bandage, clothes that seem to have +been made for a much larger man, and always a pair of old-fashioned +checked trousers,--of course, this can only be Lord Brougham. He is +eighty-five years old, and yet his physical activity would do no +injustice to a man in the prime of life. If you watch him a few moments, +you will have abundant evidence of his restless energy. While we look, +he has crossed to the opposite side of the House, and is enjoying a +hearty laugh with the Bishop of Oxford. The round, full face of +"Slippery Sam" (as he is disrespectfully called throughout England) is +beaming with appreciative delight; but before the Bishop has time to +reply, the titled humorist is on the wing again, and in an instant we +see him seated between Earl Granville and the Duke of Somerset, +conversing with all the vivacity and enthusiasm of a school-boy. In a +moment he is in motion again, and has shaken hands with half a dozen +peers. Undeterred by the supernaturally solemn countenance of the +Marquis of Normanby, he has actually addressed a joke to that dignified +fossil, and has passed on without waiting to observe its effect. A few +words with Earl Derby, a little animated talk with the Earl of +Ellenborough, and he has made the circuit of the House, everywhere +received with a welcoming smile and a kindly grasp of the hand, and +everywhere finding willing and gratified listeners. Possibly that is +pardoned to his age and eminence which would be resented as impertinence +in a younger man, but certainly he enjoys a license accorded to no one +else in this aristocratic assembly. + +The dull debate of the past hour is now concluded, the House is thin, +and there are indications of immediate adjournment. Remain a little +longer, however, and your patience may possibly be richly rewarded. +There is no order in the discussion of topics, and at any moment while +the House continues in session there may spring up a debate calling out +all the ability of the leading peers in attendance. After a short pause +the quiet is broken by an aged nobleman on the opposition benches. He +rises slowly and feebly with the assistance of a cane, but his voice is +firm and his manner is forcible. That he is a man of mark is evident +from the significant silence and the deferential attention with which +his first words are received. You ask his name, and with ill-disguised +amazement at your ignorance a gentleman by your side informs you that +the speaker is Lord Lyndhurst. + +Perhaps the life of no public man in England has so much of interest to +an American as that of this distinguished nobleman. Born in Boston while +we were still in a condition of colonial dependence, he has lived to see +his native land emerge from her state of vassalage, pass through a +long-protracted struggle for liberty with the most powerful nation on +earth, successfully maintain her right to be free and independent, +advance with giant strides in a career of unexampled prosperity, assume +an undisputed position as one of the great powers of Christendom, and +finally put forth the most gigantic efforts to crush a rebellion +compared with which the conspiracy of Catiline was but the impotent +uprising of an angry dwarf. + +Lord Lyndhurst was called to the bar of England in 1804. It was before +the splendid forensic successes of Erskine had been rewarded by a seat +on the wool-sack, or Wellington had completed his brilliant and decisive +campaign in India, or the military glory of Napoleon had culminated at +Austerlitz, or Pitt, turning sadly from the map of Europe and saying, +"Henceforth we may close that map for half a century," had gone +broken-hearted to an early grave, or Nelson had defeated the combined +navies of France and Spain at Trafalgar. Lord Byron had not yet entered +Cambridge University, Sir Walter Scott had not published his first poem, +and Canova was still in the height of his well-earned fame. It was +before the first steamboat of Robert Fulton had vexed the quiet waters +of the Hudson, or Aaron Burr had failed in his attempted treason, or +Daniel Welter had entered upon his professional career, or Thomas +Jefferson had completed his first official term as President of the +United States. + +Lord Lyndhurst's advancement to the highest honors of his profession and +to a commanding place in the councils of his adopted country was rapid +almost beyond precedent. He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1819, +Attorney-General in 1823, Master of the Rolls in 1826, and +Lord-Chancellor in 1827. He remained in this office until 1830, and +retired only to be created Lord-Chief-Baron of the Exchequer. In 1835 he +was again appointed Lord-Chancellor, and once more, for the third time, +in 1841. + +The characteristic qualities of the oratory of Lord Lyndhurst, when in +his prime, were perfect coolness and self-possession, a most pleasing +and plausible manner, singular ingenuity in dealing with a difficult +question or in weakening the effect of an argument really unanswerable, +a clear and musical voice, great ease and felicity of expression, and a +wonderful command, always discreetly used, of all the weapons of irony +and invective. He is, perhaps, the only nobleman in the House of Lords +whom Lord Brougham has ever feared to encounter. All these elements of +successful oratory Lord Lyndhurst has retained to an extraordinary +degree until within a year or two. + +I chanced to hear this remarkable man during an evening in the month of +July, 1859. The House of Lords was thinly attended. There had been a +short and uninteresting debate on "The Atlantic-Telegraph Bill," and an +early adjournment seemed certain. But at this juncture Lord Lyndhurst +rose, and, after adverting to the fact that he had previously given +notice of his design to draw their lordships' attention to the military +and naval defences of the country, proceeded to address the House upon +this question. It should be borne in mind that this was a period of +great and engrossing excitement in England, created by the supposed +danger of invasion by France. Volunteer rifle-companies were springing +up all over the kingdom, newspapers were filled with discussions +concerning the sufficiency of the national defences, and speculations on +the chances for and against such an armed invasion. There was, +meanwhile, a strong peace-party which earnestly deprecated all agitation +of the subject, maintained that the sentiments of the French Emperor and +the French nation were most friendly to England, and contended that to +incur largely increased expenses for additional war-preparations was +unnecessary, impolitic, and ruinously extravagant. At the head of this +party were Cobden and Bright. + +It was to answer these arguments, to convince England that there was a +real and positive peril, and to urge upon Her Majesty's Government the +paramount importance of preparing to meet not only a possible, but a +probable danger, that Lord Lyndhurst addressed the House of Lords. He +began by impressing upon their lordships the fact that the policy which +he advocated was not aggressive, but strictly defensive. He reviewed the +history of previous attempts to invade England. He pointed out the +significant circumstance, that these attempts had hitherto failed mainly +by reason of the casualties to which sailing-vessels were always +exposed. He pressed upon their attention the change which +steam-navigation had recently wrought in naval warfare. He quoted the +pithy remark of Lord Palmerston, that "steam had converted the Channel +into a river, and thrown a bridge across it." + +He demonstrated from recent history the facility with which France could +transport large forces by sea to distant points. Then, in tones +tremulous with emotion, he drew upon the resources of his own marvellous +memory. "I have experienced, my lords, something like a sentiment of +humiliation in going through these details. I recollect the day when +every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an English fleet. I +remember the victory of Camperdown, and that of St. Vincent, won by Sir +J. Jervis. I do not forget the great victory of the Nile, nor, last of +all, that triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost annihilated the +navies of France and Spain, I contrast the position which we occupied at +that period with that which we now hold. I recollect the expulsion of +the French from Egypt, the achievement of victory after victory in +Spain, the British army established in the South of France, and then the +great battle by which that war was terminated. I cannot glance back over +that series of events without feeling some degree of humiliation when I +am called upon to state in this House the measures which I deem it to be +necessary to take in order to provide for the safety of the country." + +Then pausing a moment and overcoming his evident emotion, he continued, +with a force of manner and dignity of bearing which no words can fitly +describe,--"But I may be asked, 'Why do you think such measures +requisite? Are we not in alliance with France? Are we not on terms of +friendship with Russia? What other power can molest us?' To these +questions, my lords, my answer shall be a short and simple one. I will +not consent to live in dependence on the friendship or forbearance of +any country. I rely solely on my own vigor, my own exertion, and my own +intelligence." It will be readily believed that cheer after cheer rang +through the House when this bold and manly announcement was made. + +Then, after alluding to the immense armament by sea and land which +France had hurled with such incredible rapidity upon the Austrian Empire +during the recent war in Italy, he concluded by saying,--"Are we to sit +supine on our own shores, and not to prepare the means necessary in case +of war to resist that power? I do not wish to say that we should do this +for any aggressive purpose. What I insist upon is, that we are bound to +make every effort necessary for our own shelter and protection. Beside +this, the question of expense and of money sinks into insignificance. It +is the price we must pay for our insurance, and it is but a moderate +price for so important an insurance. I know there are persons who will +say, 'Let us run the risk.' Be it so. But, my lords, if the calamity +should come, if the conflagration should take place, what words can +describe the extent of the calamity, or what imagination can paint the +overwhelming ruin that would fall upon us? I shall be told, perhaps, +that these are the timid counsels of old age. My lords, for myself, I +should run no risk. Personally I have nothing to fear. But to point out +possible peril and how to guard effectively against it,--that is surely +to be considered not as timidity, but as the dictate of wisdom and +prudence. I have confined myself to facts that cannot be disputed. I +think I have confined myself to inferences that no man can successfully +contravene. I hope what I have said has been in accordance with your +feelings and opinions. I shall terminate what I have to say in two +emphatic words, '_Voe victis!_'--words of solemn and most significant +import." + +So spoke the Nestor of the English nation. Has our country no lesson to +learn from the well-considered words of this aged and accomplished +statesman? Are we not paying a large insurance to secure permanent +national prosperity? And is it not a wise and profitable investment, at +any cost of blood and treasure, if it promises the supremacy of our +Constitution, the integrity of our Union, and the impartial enforcement +of our laws? + +When it is remembered that Lord Lyndhurst was at this time in his +eighty-eighth year, this speech of nearly an hour in length, giving no +evidence from first to last of physical debility or mental decay, +delivered in a firm, clear, and unfaltering voice, admirable for its +logical arrangement, most forcible and telling in its treatment of the +subject, and irresistible in its conclusions, must be considered as +hardly finding a parallel in ancient or modern times. We might almost +call it his valedictory; for his lordship's subsequent speeches have +been infrequent, and, with, we believe, a single exception, short, and +he is now rarely, if ever, seen in the House of Lords. + +I shall not dwell upon the speeches that followed this earnest and +eloquent appeal to the wisdom and patriotism of the listening peers. +They were mainly confined to grateful recognition of the service which +Lord Lyndhurst had rendered to the nation by his frank and fearless +avowal of those principles which alone could preserve the honor and +independence of England. The opposition urged the most vigorous +preparations for resisting invasion, while Her Majesty's ministers +disclaimed any intention of weakening or neglecting the national +defences. As the speeches, however exhibited little worthy of mention +beyond the presentation of these points, I have supposed that a more +general description of some of the leading members of the Upper House +would be more interesting to my readers than a detailed account of what +was said upon this particular occasion. + +I have already alluded to the personal appearance and bearing of Lord +Brougham. By reason of his great age, his long Parliamentary experience, +(he has been in the House of Commons and House of Lords for nearly fifty +years,) his habit of frequent speaking, and the commanding ability of +many of his public efforts, his name as an orator is perhaps more widely +known, and his peculiar style of declamation more correctly appreciated, +than those of any other man now living. It would therefore seem +unnecessary to give any sketch of his oratory, or of his manner in +debate. Very few educated men in this country are unfamiliar with his +eloquent defence of Queen Caroline, or his most bitter attack upon Mr. +Canning, or his brilliant argument for Mr. Williams when prosecuted by +the Durham clergy. Lord Brougham retains to this day the same fearless +contempt of all opposition, the same extravagant and often inconsistent +animosity to every phase of conservative policy, and the same fiery zeal +in advocating every measure which he has espoused, that have ever +characterized his erratic career. The witty author of "The Bachelor of +the Albany" has tersely, and not without a certain spice of truth, +described him as "a man of brilliant incapacity, vast and various +misinformation, and immense moral requirements." + +The Duke of Argyle deserves more than a passing mention. Although +comparatively a young man, he has already had a most creditable career, +and given new lustre to an old and honored name. In politics he is a +decided and consistent Liberal, and he merits the favorable +consideration of all loyal Americans from the fact that he has not +failed on every proper occasion to advocate our cause with such +arguments as show clearly that he fully understands our position and +appreciates the importance of the principles for which we are +contending. It is a curious coincidence, that his style of address bears +a close resemblance to what may be called the American manner. Rapid, +but distinct, in utterance, facile and fluent in speech, natural and +graceful in gesticulation, he might almost be transplanted to the halls +of Congress at Washington without betraying his foreign birth and +education. + +Lord Derby is undoubtedly the most skillful Parliamentary tactician and +the most accomplished speaker in the House of Lords. In 1834, (when he +was a member of the House of Commons,) Macaulay said of him, that "his +knowledge of the science of parliamentary defence resembled an +instinct." He is the acknowledged leader of the Tories or Conservatives +in England, and dictates the policy of his party with absolute +despotism. Belonging to one of the oldest peerages in the kingdom, +having already filled some of the most important offices in Her +Majesty's Government, occupying the highly honorable position of +Chancellor of the University of Oxford, (as successor of the first Duke +of Wellington,) an exact and finished scholar, enjoying an immense +income, and the proprietor of vast landed estates, he may be justly +considered one of the best types of England's aristocracy. He has that +unmistakable air of authority without the least alloy of arrogance, that +"pride in his port," which quietly asserts the dignity of long descent. +As a speaker, his manner is impressive and forcible, with a rare command +of choice language, an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of all +subjects connected with the administration of public affairs, and that +entire self-control which comes from life-long contact on terms of +equality with the best society in Europe and a thorough confidence in +his own mental resources. Lord Derby is preeminently a Parliamentary +orator, and furnishes one of the unusual instances where a reputation +for eloquence earned in the House of Commons has been fully sustained by +a successful trial in the House of Lords. + +Another debater of marked ability in this body is Dr. Samuel +Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. He is the third son of William +Wilberforce, the celebrated philanthropist, but by no means inherits the +simplicity of character and singular absence of all personal ambition +which made his father so widely beloved and respected. He is known as +the leading exponent of High-Church views, and has been heard in the +House of Lords on every question directly or indirectly affecting the +interests of the Establishment. It was long ago said of him, that, had +he been in political life, he would surely and easily have risen to the +position of Premier. He has for years been charged with a marked +proclivity to the doctrines of the Puseyites; and his adroitness in +baffling all attempted investigation into the manner in which he has +conducted the discipline of his diocese has perhaps contributed more +than any other cause to fasten upon him the significant _sobriquet_ to +which I have already alluded. + +Any sketch of the prominent members of the House of Lords would be +imperfect which should omit to give some account of Lord Westbury, the +present Lord-High-Chancellor. Having been Solicitor-General in two +successive Administrations, he was filling for the second time the +position of Attorney-General, when, upon the death of Lord Campbell, he +was raised to the wool-sack. As a Chancery practitioner he was for years +at the head of his profession, and is supposed to have received the +largest income ever enjoyed by an English barrister. During the four +years next preceding his elevation to the peerage his average annual +earnings at the bar were twenty thousand pounds. In the summer of 1860 +it was my good fortune to hear the argument of Lord Westbury (then Sir +Richard Bethell) in a case of great interest and importance, before +Vice-Chancellor Wood. The point at issue involved the construction of a +marriage-settlement between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Prince +Borghese of Rome, drawn up on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince +with Lady Talbot, second daughter of the Earl. The interpretation of the +terms of the contract was by express stipulation to be in accordance +with the Roman common law. A commission sent to Rome to ascertain the +meaning of certain provisions contained in the contract resulted in +several folio volumes, embodying "the conflicting opinions of the most +eminent Roman lawyers," supported by references to the Canonists, the +decisions of the "Sacred Rota," the great text-writers upon +jurisprudence, the Institutes and Pandects, and ascending still higher +to the laws of the Roman Republic and the Augustan era. + +The leading counsel in the kingdom were retained in the case, and +unusual public interest was enlisted. The amount at stake was twenty +thousand pounds, and it was estimated that nearly, if not quite, that +amount had already been consumed in costs. Legal proceedings are not an +inexpensive luxury anywhere; but "the fat contention and the flowing +fee" have a significance to English ears which we can hardly appreciate +in this country. + +It will be at once apparent even to the unprofessional reader that most +difficult and complicated questions were presented by this +case,--questions turning on the exact interpretation of contracts, +involving delicate verbal distinctions, and demanding a thorough +comprehension of an immense and unwieldy mass of Roman law embraced in +the dissenting _dicta_ of Roman lawyers. It required the exercise of the +very highest legal ability, trained and habituated by long and patient +discipline to grapple with great issues. + +The argument of Sir Richard Bethell abundantly demonstrated his capacity +to satisfy the demands of the occasion, and displayed most triumphantly +his perfect mastery of the whole subject. As the time drew near when he +was expected to close for the defence, barristers and students-at-law +began to flock into the small and inconveniently arranged courtroom. A +stranger and a foreigner could not but see at once that the +Attorney-General was the cynosure of all eyes. And, indeed, no one in +the room more thoroughly appreciated the fact that he was the central +and controlling attraction than Sir Richard himself. I must be pardoned +for using an English slang-phrase, but I can convey the impression which +he inevitably makes upon a spectator in no other way than by saying that +he is "a most magnificent swell." And I do this with the more confidence +as I have heard him characterized in precisely these words by members of +the English bar. Every motion, every attitude, indicates an intense +self-consciousness. The Earl of Chatham had not a greater passion for +theatrical effect, nor has a more consummate and finished actor ever +graced the stage. If the performance had been less perfect, it would +have been ludicrous in the extreme; for it did not overlook the minutest +details. He could not examine his brief, or make a suggestion to one of +his associates, or note an important point in the argument of opposing +counsel, or listen to an intimation of opinion from the Bench, without +an obvious eye to dramatic propriety. During the trial, an attorney's +clerk handed him a letter, and the air with which it was opened, read, +and answered was of itself a study. Yet it was all in the highest style +of the art. No possible fault could be found with the execution. Not a +single spectator ventured to smile. The supremacy of undoubted genius +was never more apparent, and never exacted nor received more willing +worship. Through the kindness of a friendly barrister I was introduced +to one of the juniors of the Attorney-General,--a stripling of about +fifty years of age. While we were conversing about the case, Sir Richard +turned and made some comment upon the conduct of the trial; but my +friend would no more have thought of introducing me to the leader of the +bar than he would have ventured to stop the carriage of the Queen in +Hyde Park and present me then and there to Her Majesty. + +I remember as well as if it were but yesterday how attorneys and junior +counsel listened with the utmost deference to every suggestion which he +condescended to address to them, how narrowly the law-students watched +him, as if some legal principle were to be read in his cold, hard +countenance, and, as he at last rose slowly and solemnly to make his +long-expected argument, how court, bar, and by-standers composed +themselves to hear. He spoke with great deliberation and distinctness, +with singular precision and propriety of language, without any parade of +rhetoric or attempt at eloquence. After a very short and appropriate +exordium, he proceeded directly to the merits of the case. His words +were well-weighed, and his manner was earnest and impressive. It was, in +short, the perfection of reason confidently addressed to a competent +tribunal. + +And yet his manner was by no means that of a man seeking to persuade a +superior, but rather that of one comparing opinions with an equal, if +not an inferior mind, elevated by some accident to a position of +factitious importance. One could not but feel that here was a power +behind the throne greater than the throne itself. + +It cannot be doubted that this consciousness of mental and professional +preeminence, sustained by the unanimous verdict of public opinion, has +given to Lord Westbury a defiant, if not an insolent bearing. The story +is current at the English bar, that, some years ago, when offered a seat +on the Bench, with a salary of five thousand pounds, he promptly +declined, saying, "I would rather earn ten thousand pounds a year by +talking sense than five thousand pounds a year by hearing other men talk +nonsense." Anecdotes are frequent in illustration of his supercilious +treatment of attorneys and clients while he was a barrister. And since +his elevation to the wool-sack there has been no abatement or +modification of his offensive manner. His demeanor toward counsel +appearing before him has been the subject of constant and indignant +complaint. It will be remembered by some of my readers, that, not long +since, during a session of the House of Lords, he gave the lie direct to +one of the peers,--an occurrence almost without precedent in that +decorous body. Far different from this was the tone in which Lord +Thurlow, while Lord-Chancellor, asserted his independence and vindicated +his title to respect in his memorable rebuke addressed to the Duke of +Grafton. If the testimony of English travellers in this country is to be +believed, the legislative assemblies of our own land have hitherto +enjoyed the unenviable monopoly of this species of retort. + +The House of Lords contains other peers of marked ability and protracted +Parliamentary experience, among whom are Earl Granville, the Earl of +Ellenborough, the Duke of Somerset, and the Earl of Shaftesbury; but we +cannot dwell in detail upon their individual characteristics as +speakers, or upon the share they have severally taken in the public +councils, without extending this article beyond its legitimate limits. + +As genius is not necessarily or usually transmitted from generation to +generation, while a seat in the House of Lords is an inheritable +privilege, it will be readily believed that there is a considerable +number of peers with no natural or acquired fitness for legislative +duties,--men whose dullness in debate, and whose utter incapacity to +comprehend any question of public interest or importance, cannot be +adequately described. They speak occasionally, from a certain +ill-defined sense of what may be due to their position, yet are +obviously aware that what they say is entitled to no weight, and are +greatly relieved when the unwelcome and disagreeable duty has been +discharged. They are the men who hesitate and stammer, whose hats and +canes are always in their way, and who have no very clear notions about +what should be done with their hands. A visitor who chances to spend an +evening in the House of Lords for the first and last time, while +noblemen of this stamp are quieting their tender consciences by a +statement of their views upon the subject under discussion, will be sure +to retire with a very unfavorable and wholly incorrect estimate of the +speaking talent of English peers. + +It would hardly seem necessary to devote time or space to those members +of the House of Lords who are rarely, if ever, present at the debates. +As has been already stated, the whole number of peers is about four +hundred and sixty, of whom less than twenty-five are minors, while the +average attendance is less than fifty. The right to vote by proxy is a +peculiar and exclusive privilege of the Upper House, and vicarious +voting to a great extent is common on all important issues. Macaulay, +many years ago, pronounced the House of Lords "a small and torpid +audience"; and certainly, since the expression of this opinion, there +has been no increase of average attendance. A considerable proportion of +the absentees will be found among the "fast noblemen" of the +kingdom,--the men who prostitute their exalted social position to the +basest purposes, squandering their substance and wasting their time in +degrading dissipation, the easy prey of accomplished sharpers, and a +burning disgrace to their order. Sometimes, indeed, they pause on the +brink of utter ruin, only to become in their turn apostles of iniquity, +and to lure others to a like destruction. The unblushing and successful +audacity of these titled _roues_ is beginning to attract the attention +and awaken the fears of the better part of the English people. Their +pernicious example is bearing most abundant and bitter fruit in the +depraved morals of what are called the "lower classes" of society, and +their misdeeds are repeated in less fashionable quarters, with less +brilliant surroundings. Against this swelling tide of corrupting +influence the press of England is now raising its warning voice, and the +statements which are publicly and unreservedly made, and the predictions +which are confidently given, are very far from being welcome to English +eyes or grateful to English ears. + +Another class of the House of Lords, and it is a large one, is most +happily characterized by Sydney Smith in his review of "Granby." "Lord +Chesterton we have often met with, and suffered a good deal from his +lordship: a heavy, pompous, meddling peer, occupying a great share of +the conversation, saying things in ten words which required only two, +and evidently convinced that he is making a great impression; a large +man, with a large head, and a very landed manner; knowing enough to +torment his fellow-creatures, not to instruct them; the ridicule of +young ladies, and the natural butt and target of wit. It is easy to talk +of carnivorous animals and beasts of prey; but does such a man, who lays +waste a whole civilized party of beings by prosing, reflect upon the joy +he spoils and the misery he creates in the course of his life, and that +any one who listens to him through politeness would prefer toothache or +ear-ache to his conversation? Does he consider the great uneasiness +which ensues, when the company has discovered a man to be an extremely +absurd person, at the same time that it is absolutely impossible to +convey by words or manner the most distant suspicion of the discovery?" + +Now, most unfortunately, the noble House of Chesterton is still extant, +and its numerous representatives cherish with jealous care every +inherited absurdity of the family. Their favorite field of operations is +the House of Lords, partly because the strict proprieties of the place +protect them from rude and inconvenient interruption, and partly because +they can be sure of a "fit audience found, though few,"--an audience +of equals, whom it is no condescension to address. In the House of +Commons they would be coughed down or groaned down before they had +wasted ten minutes of the public time, and that they escape as swift +suppression in the House of Lords is much more creditable to the +courtesy of that body than to its just appreciation of the shortness of +human life. There is rarely a debate of importance in the House of Lords +during which some one of the Chesterton family does not contribute his +morsel of pompous imbecility, or unfold his budget of obsolete and +exploded prejudices, or add his mite of curious misinformation. That +such painful exhibitions of callow and contracted bigotry should so +frequently be made in a body claiming for itself the finest culture and +the highest civilization in Christendom is certainly a most mortifying +circumstance, and serves to show that narrow views and unstatesmanlike +opinions are not confined to democratic deliberative assemblies, and +that the choicest advantages of education, literary and political, are +not at all inconsistent with ignorance and arrogance. + +But we will allow his lordship to tell his own story. Here is his set +speech, only slightly modified from evening to evening, as may be +demanded by the difference in the questions under debate. + +"My lords, the noble lord who has just taken his seat, although, I am +bound to say, presenting his view of the case with that candor which my +noble friend (if the noble lord will allow me to call him so) always +displays, yet, my lords, I cannot but add, omitted one important feature +of the subject. Now, my lords, I am exceedingly reluctant to take up the +time of your lordships with my views upon the subject-matter of this +debate; yet, my lords, as the noble and learned lord who spoke last but +one, as well as the noble earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government, +and the noble marquis who addressed your lordships early in the evening, +have all fallen into the same mistake, (if these noble lords will permit +me to presume that they could be mistaken,) I must beg leave to call +your lordships' attention to the significant fact, that each and all of +these noble lords have failed to point out to your lordships, that, +important and even conclusive as the arguments and statistics of their +lordships may at first sight appear, yet they have not directed your +lordships to the very suspicious circumstance that our noble ancestors +have never discovered the necessity of resorting to this singular +expedient. + +"For myself, my lords, I confess that I am filled with the most gloomy +forebodings for the future of this country, when I hear a question of +this transcendent importance gravely discussed by noble lords without +the slightest allusion to this vital consideration. I beg to ask noble +lords, Are we wiser than our forefathers? Are any avenues of information +open to us which were closed to them? Were they less patriotic, less +intelligent, less statesmanlike, than the present generation? Why, then, +I most earnestly put it to your lordships, should we disregard, or, +certainly, lose sight of their wisdom and their experience? I implore +noble lords to pause before it is too late. I solemnly call upon them to +consider that the proposed measure is, after all, only democracy under a +thin disguise. Has it never occurred to noble lords that this project +did not originate in this House? that its warmest friends and most +ardent and persevering advocates are found among those who come from the +people, and who, from the very nature of the case, are incompetent to +decide upon what will be for the, best interests of the kingdom? My +lords, I feel deeply upon this subject, and I must be pardoned for +expressing myself in strong terms. I say again, that I see here the +clearest evidence of democratic tendencies, a contempt for existing and +ancient institutions, and an alarming want of respect for time-honored +precedents, which, I am bound to say, demand our prompt and indignant +condemnation," etc., etc., etc.[2] + +[Footnote 2: If any one of my readers is inclined to suspect that I have +drawn upon my imagination for this specimen speech, I will only say, +that, if he were my bitterest enemy, I could wish him no more severe +punishment than to undergo as I have done, (_horresco referens_,) an +hour of the Marquis of Normanby, the Earl of Malmesbury, and a few other +kindred spirits. If he have no opportunity of subjecting the truth of my +statement and the accuracy of my report to this most grievous test, I +beg to assure him that I have given no fancy sketch, but that I have +heard speeches from these noblemen in precisely this tone and to exactly +this effect.] + +This is the regular speech, protracted in the same strain for perhaps +half an hour. Of the manner of the noble orator I will not venture a +description. Any attempt to convey an idea of the air of omniscience +with which these dreary platitudes are delivered would surely result in +failure. It is enough to say that the impression which the noble lord +leaves upon an unprejudiced and un-English mind is in all respects +painful. Indeed, one sees at a glance how absolutely hopeless would be +any finite effort to convince him of the absurdity of his positions or +the weakness of his understanding. There he stands, a solemn, shallow, +conceited, narrow-minded, imperturbable, impracticable, incorrigible +blockhead, on whom everything in the shape of argument is utterly +wasted, and from whom all the arrows of wit and sarcasm fall harmless to +the ground. In fact, he is perfectly proof against any intellectual +weapons forged by human skill or wielded by mortal arm, and he awaits +and receives every attack with a stolid and insulting indifference which +must be maddening to an opponent. + +I hasten to confess my entire incapacity to describe the uniform +personal bearing of a Chesterton in or out of the House of Lords. It is +strictly _sui generis_. It has neither the quiet, unassuming dignity of +the Derbys, the Shaftesburys, or the Warwicks, nor the vulgar vanity of +the untravelled Cockney. It simply defies accurate delineation. Dickens +has attempted to paint the portrait of such a character in "Bleak +House"; but Sir Leicester Dedlock, even in the hands of this great +artist, is not a success,--merely because, in the case of the Baronet, +selfishness and self-importance are only a superficial crust, while with +your true Chesterton these attributes penetrate to the core and are as +much a part of the man as any limbs or any feature of his face. A +genuine Chesterton is as unlike his stupid caricature in our own +theaters in the person of "Lord Dundreary," as the John Bull of the +French stage, leading a woman by a halter around her neck, and +exclaiming, "G---- d----! I will sell my wife at Smithfield," is unlike +the Englishman of real life. Lord Chesterton does not wear a small glass +in his right eye, nor commence every other sentence with "Aw! weally +now." He does not stare you out of countenance in a _cafe_, nor wonder +"what the Devil that fellaw means by his insolence." So much by way of +negative description. To appreciate him positively, one must see him and +hear him. No matter when or where you encounter him, you will find him +ever the same; and you will at last conclude that his manners are not +unnatural to a very weak man inheriting the traditions of an ancient and +titled family, and educated from childhood to believe that he belongs to +a superior order of beings. + +Of course the strong point of a Chesterton is what he calls his +"conservatism." He values everything in proportion to its antiquity, and +prefers a time-honored abuse to a modern blessing. With a former Duke of +Somerset, he would pity Adam, "because he had no ancestors." His +sympathies, so far as he has any sentiments which deserve to be +dignified by that name, are ever on the side of tyranny. He condescends +to give his valuable sanction to the liberal institutions of England, +not because they are liberal, but because they are English. Next after +the Established Church, the reigning sovereign and the royal family, his +own order and his precious self, his warmest admiration is bestowed on +some good old-fashioned, thorough-going, grinding despotism. He defends +the Emperor of Austria, and considers the King of Naples a much-abused +monarch. + +If his lordship has ever been in diplomatic life,--an event highly +probable,--he becomes the most intolerable nuisance that ever belied the +noblest sentiments of civilized society or blocked the wheels of public +debate. Flattered by the interested attention of despotic courts, his +poor weak head has been completely turned. He has seen everything _en +couleur de rose_. He assures their lordships that he has never known a +single well-authenticated case of oppression of the lower classes, while +it is within his personal knowledge that many of the best families (in +Italy, for instance) have been compelled to leave all their property +behind them, and fly for their lives before an insolent and unreasoning +mob. How he deluges the House with distorted facts and garbled +statistics! How he warns noble lords against the wiles of Mazzini, the +unscrupulous ambition of Victor Emmanuel, and the headlong haste of +Garibaldi! + +Of course, his lordship's bitterest hatred and intensest aversion are +reserved for democratic institutions. Against these he wages a constant +crusade. Armed _cap-a-pie_ in his common-sense-proof coat of mail, he +charges feebly upon them with his blunt lance, works away furiously with +his wooden sword, and then ambles off with a triumphant air very +ludicrous to behold. Democracy is the _bete noir_ of all the +Chestertons. They attack it not only because they consider it a recent +innovation, but also because it threatens the permanence of their order. +About the practical working of a republic they have no better +information than they have about the institutions of Iceland or the +politics of Patagonia. It is quite enough for them to know that the +theory of democracy is based on the equality of man, and that where +democracy prevails a privileged class is unknown. + +It is hardly necessary to add, that the present condition of the United +Stales is a perfect godsend to the whole family of Chestertons. Have +they not long predicted our disgrace and downfall? Have they not, +indeed, ever since our unjustifiable Declaration of Independence, +anticipated precisely what has happened? Have they not always and +everywhere contended that a republic had no elements of national +cohesion? In a word, have they not feared our growing power and +population as only such base and ignoble spirits can fear the sure and +steady progress of a rival nation? Unhappily, their influence in the +councils of the kingdom is by no means inconsiderable. The prestige of +an ancient family, the obsequious deference paid in England to exalted +social position, and the power of patronage, all combine to confer on +the Chestertons a commanding and controlling authority absurdly out of +proportion to their intrinsic ability. + +There has been a prevalent notion in this country that England was +slowly, but certainly, tending towards a more democratic form of +government, and a more equal and equitable distribution of power among +the different orders of society. This is very far from being the case. +It has been well said, that "it is always considered a piece of +impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a +year has any opinions at all upon important subjects." But if this +income is quadrupled, and the high honor of a seat in the House of Lords +is superadded, it is not difficult to understand that the titled +recipient of such a revenue will find that his opinions command the +greatest consideration. The organization of the present Cabinet of +England is a fresh and conclusive illustration of this principle. It is +not too much to say, that at this moment the home and foreign +administration of the government is substantially in the hands of the +House of Lords. Indeed, the aristocratic element of English society is +as powerful to-day as it has been at any time during the past century. +To fortify this statement by competent authority, we make an extract +from a leader in the London "Times," on the occasion of the elevation of +Lord John Russell to the peerage. "But however welcome to the House of +Lords may be the accession of Lord John Russell, the House of Commons, +we apprehend, will contemplate it with very little satisfaction. While +the House of Lords does but one-twentieth part of the business of the +House of Commons, it boasts a lion's share of the present +administration. Three out of our five Secretaries of State, the +Lord-Chancellor, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Lord-President of +the Council, the Postmaster-General, the Lord Privy Seal, all hold seats +in the Upper House, while the Home-Secretary, and the Secretary for +India, the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +the President of the Board of Trade, the President of the Poor-Law +Board, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Secretary for +Ireland hold seats in the House of Commons. Lord John Russell goes to +give more to that which had already too much. At the present moment, the +two ministers whose united departments distribute between twenty and +thirty millions of the national revenue sit in the House which does not +represent the people. In voting the army and navy estimates, the House +of Commons received this year from the Under-Secretaries that +information which they ought to have from the best and most authentic, +sources. To these is now added the all-important department of Foreign +Affairs; so that, if things remain as they are, the representatives of +the people must be content to feed on second-hand information.... Most +of us can remember a time when it was a favorite topic with popular +agitators to expatiate on the number of lords which a government +contained, as if every peer of Parliament wielded an influence +necessarily hostile to the liberties of the country. We look down in the +present age with contempt on such vulgar prejudices; but we seem to be +running into the contrary extreme, when we allow almost all the +important offices of our government to be monopolized by a chamber where +there is small scope for rhetorical ability, and the short sittings and +unbusiness-like habits of which make it very unsuited for the +enforcement of ministerial responsibility. The statesmen who have charge +of large departments of expenditure, like the army and navy, and of the +highest interests of the nation, ought to be in the House of Commons, is +necessarily superior to a member of the House of the House of Lords, but +it is to the House of Commons that these high functionaries are +principally accountable, and because, if they forfeit the confidence of +the House of Commons, the House of Lords can avail them but little. The +matter is of much importance and much difficulty. We can only hope that +the opportunity of redressing this manifest imperfection in the +structure of the present government will not be lost, and that the House +of Commons may recover those political privileges which it has hitherto +been its pride to enjoy." + +This distribution of power in the English Cabinet furnishes a sufficient +solution of the present attitude of the English Government towards this +country. The ruling classes of England can have no sincere sympathy with +the North, because its institutions and instincts are democratic. They +give countenance to the South, because at heart and in practice it is +essentially an aristocracy. To remove the dangerous example of a +successful and powerful republic, where every man has equal rights, +civil and religious, and where a privileged order in Church and State is +impossible, has become in the minds of England's governing classes an +imperious necessity. Compared with the importance of securing this +result, all other considerations weigh as nothing. Brothers by blood, +language, and religion, as they have been accustomed to call us while we +were united and formidable, we are now, since civil war has weakened us +and great national questions have distracted our councils, treated as +aliens, if not as enemies. On the other hand, the South, whose leaders +have ever been first to take hostile ground against England, and whose +"peculiar institution" has drawn upon us the eloquent and unsparing +denunciations of English philanthropists, is just now in high favor with +the "mother-country." Not only has the ill-disguised dislike of the +Tories ripened into open animosity, not only are we the target for the +shallow scorn of the Chestertons, (even a donkey may dare to kick a +dying lion,) but we have lost the once strongly pronounced friendship of +such ardent anti-slavery men as Lord Brougham and the Earl of +Shaftesbury. Why is this? Does not the explanation lie in a nutshell? We +were becoming too strong. We were disturbing the balance of power. We +were demonstrating too plainly the inherent activity and irresistible +energy of a purely democratic form of government. Therefore _Carthago +delenda est_. "But yet the pity of it, Iago!" Mark how a Christian +nation deals with a Christian ally. Our destruction is to be +accomplished, not by open warfare, but by the delusive and dastardly +pretence of neutrality. There is to be no diplomatic recognition of an +independent Southern Confederacy, but a formidable navy is to be +furnished to our enemies, and their armies are to be abundantly supplied +with the munitions of war. But how? By the English Government? Oh, no! +This would be in violation of solemn treaties. Earl Russell says, "We +have long maintained relations of peace and amity" with the United +States. England cannot officially recognize or aid the South without +placing herself in a hostile attitude towards this country. Yet +meanwhile English capitalists can publicly subscribe to the loan which +our enemies solicit, and from English ship-yards a fleet of iron-clad +war-vessels can be sent to lay waste our commerce and break our blockade +of Southern ports. What the end will be no one may venture to foretell; +but it needs no prophet to predict that many years will not obliterate +from the minds of the American people the present policy of the English +Cabinet, controlled as it is by the genius of English aristocracy. + + * * * * * + + + + +THEODORE WINTHROP'S WRITINGS. + + +"The first time I saw Theodore Winthrop," said one to me a few days ago, +"he came into my office with a common friend. They were talking as they +entered, and Winthrop said, 'Yes, the fellows who came over in the +Mayflower can't afford to do that!' + +"'There,' thought I to myself, 'there's another of the Mayflower men! I +wish to my soul that ship had sunk on her voyage out!' But when I came +to know him, I quickly learned that with him origin was not a matter of +vain pride, but a fact inciting him to all nobleness of thought and +life, and spurring him on to emulate the qualities of his ancestor." + +That is to say, he was not a prig, or a snob, but a gentleman. And if he +remembered that he "came over in the Mayflower," it was because he felt +that that circumstance bound him to higher enterprises, to better work, +than other men's. And he believed in his heart, as he wrote in the +opening chapter of "John Brent," that "deeds of the heroic and chivalric +times do not utterly disdain our day. There are men," he continues, "as +ready to gallop for love and strike for love now as in the age of +Amadis." Ay, and for a nobler love than the love of woman--for love of +country, and of liberty--he was ready to strike, and to die. + +Ready to do, when the time came; but also--what required a greater +soul--ready to wait in cheerful content till the fitting time should +come. Think of these volumes lying in his desk at home, and he, their +author, going about his daily tasks and pleasures, as hearty and as +unrepining as though no whisper of ambition had ever come to his +soul,--as though he had no slightest desire for the pleasant fame which +a successful book gives to a young man. Think of it, O race of +scribblers, to whom a month in the printer's hands seems a monstrous +delay, and who bore publishers with half-finished manuscripts, as +impatient hens begin, untimely, to cackle before the egg is laid. + +That a young man, not thirty-three when he died, should have written +these volumes, so full of life, so full of strange adventure, of wide +reading, telling of such large and thorough knowledge of books and men +and Nature, is a remarkable fact in itself. That he should have let the +manuscripts lie in his desk has probably surprised the world more. But, +much as he wrote, Winthrop, perhaps, always felt that his true life was +not that of the author, but of the actor. He has often told me that it +was a pleasure to write,--probably such a pleasure as it is to an old +tar to spin his yarns. His mind was active, stored with the accumulated +facts of a varied experience. How keen an observer of Nature he was, +those who have read "John Brent" or the "Canoe and Saddle" need not be +told; how appreciative an observer of every-day life, was shown in that +brilliant story which appeared in these pages some eighteen months ago, +under the title of "Love and Skates." Our American life lost by his +death one who, had he lived, would have represented it, reported it to +the world, soul and body together; for he comprehended its spirit, as +well as saw its outer husk; he was in sympathy with all its +manifestations. + +That quick, intelligent eye saw everything; that kindly, sympathetic +spirit comprehended always the soul of things; and no life, however +common, rugged, or coarse, was to him empty. If he added always +something of his own nobility of heart, if he did not pry out with +prurient eyes the meannesses of life around him, the picture he drew was +none the less true,--was, indeed, it seems to me, all the more true. +Therefore I say that his early death was a loss to American literature, +or, to speak more accurately, to that too small part of our literature +which concerns itself with American life. To him the hard-featured +Yankee had something besides hard features and ungainly manners; he saw +the better part as well as the grosser of the creature, and knew that + + "Poor lone Hannah, + Sitting by the window, binding shoes," + +had somewhat besides coarse hands and red eyes. He was not tainted with +the vicious habit of caricature, which is the excuse with which +superficial and heartless writers impose their false art upon the +public. Nor did he need that his heroes should wear kid gloves,--though +he was himself the neatest-gloved man I knew. "Armstrong of Oregon" was +a rough figure enough; but how well he knew how to bring out the kindly +traits in that rude lumberman's character! how true to Nature is that +sketch of a gentleman in homespun! And even Jake Shamberlain, the Mormon +mail-carrier, a rollicking, untidy rover, fond of whiskey, and doubtless +not too scrupulous in a "trade," has yet, in Winthrop's story, qualities +which draw us to him. + +To sit down to "John Brent" after rending one of the popular novels of +these days, by one of the class of writers who imagine photography the +noblest of arts, is like getting out of a fashionable "party" into the +crisp air of a clear, starlight, December night. And yet Winthrop was a +"society" man; one might almost say he knew that life better than the +other, the freer, the nobler, which he loved to describe, as he loved to +live it. + +A neat, active figure of a man, carefully dressed, as one who pays all +proper honor to the body in which he walks about; a gentleman, not only +in the broader and more generous sense, but also according to the +narrower, conventional meaning of the term; plainly a scholarly man, +fond of books, and knowing the best books; with that modest, diffident +air which bookish men have; with a curious shyness, indeed, as of one +who was not accustomed and did not like to come into too close contact +with the every-day world: such Theodore Winthrop appeared to me. I +recollect the surprise with which I heard--not from him--that he had +ridden across the Plains, had camped with Lieutenant Strain, had +"roughed it" in the roughest parts of our continent. But if you looked a +little closely into the face, you saw in the fine lines of the mouth the +determination of a man who can bear to carry his body into any peril or +difficulty; and in the eye--he had the eye of a born sailor, an eye +accustomed to measure the distance for a dangerous leap, quick to +comprehend all parts of a novel situation--you saw there presence of +mind, unfaltering readiness, and a spirit equal to anything the day +might bring forth. + +In the Memoir prefixed to "Cecil Dreeme" Curtis has drawn a portrait, +tender and true, of his friend and neighbor. The few words which have +written themselves here tell of him only as he appeared to one who knew +him less intimately, who saw him not often. + +I come now to speak of the writings which Winthrop left. These have the +singular merit, that they are all American. From first to last, they are +plainly the work of a man who had no need to go to Europe for characters +or scenery or plot,--who valued and understood the peculiar life and +the peculiar Nature of this continent, and, like a true artist and poet, +chose to represent that life and Nature of which he was a part. His +stories smack of the soil; his characters--especially in "John Brent," +where his own ride across the continent is dramatized--are as fresh and +as true as only a true artist could make them. Take, for instance, the +"Pike," the border-ruffian transplanted to a California "ranch,"--not a +ruffian, as he says, but a barbarian. + +"America is manufacturing several new types of men. The Pike is one of +the newest. He is a bastard pioneer. With one hand he clutches the +pioneer vices; with the other he beckons forward the vices of +civilization. It is hard to understand how a man can have so little +virtue in so long a body, unless the shakes are foes to virtue in the +soul, as they are to beauty in the face. + +"He is a terrible shock, this unlucky Pike, to the hope that the new +race on the new continent is to be a handsome race. I lose that faith, +which the people about me now have nourished, when I recall the Pike. He +is hung together, not put together. He inserts his lank fathom of a man +into a suit of molasses-colored homespun. Frowzy and husky is the hair +Nature crowns him with; frowzy and stubby the beard. He shambles in his +walk. He drawls in his talk. He drinks whiskey by the tank. His oaths +are to his words as Falstaff's sack to his bread. I have seen Maltese +beggars, Arab camel-drivers, Dominican friars, New-York aldermen, Digger +Indians; the foulest, frowziest creatures I have ever seen are +thorough-bred Pikes." + +This is not complimentary, but any one who has seen the creature knows +that it is a portrait done by a first-rate artist. + +Take, again, that other vulgarer ruffian, "Jim Robinson," "a little man, +stockish, oily, and red in the face, a jaunty fellow, too, with a +certain shabby air of coxcombry even in his travel-stained attire,"--and +how accurately does he describe the metamorphosis of this nauseous grub +into a still more disgusting butterfly! + +"I can imagine him when he arrives at St. Louis, blossomed into a purple +coat with velvet lappels, a brocaded waistcoat, diamond shirt-studs, or +a flamboyant scarf pinned with a pinchbeck dog, and red-legged, +patent-leather boots, picking his teeth on the steps of the Planters' +House." + +Or, once more, that more saintly villain, the Mormon Elder Sizzum. + +"Presently Sizzum appeared. He had taken time to tone down the pioneer +and develop the deacon in his style, and a very sleek personage he had +made of himself. He was clean shaved: clean shaving is a favorite +coxcombry of the deacon class. His long black hair, growing rank from a +muddy skin, was sleekly put behind his ears. A large white blossom of +cravat expanded under his nude, beefy chin, and he wore a black +dress-coat, creased with its recent packing. Except that his pantaloons +were thrust into boots with the maker's name (Abel Gushing, Lynn, Mass.) +stamped in gold on a scarlet morocco shield in front, he was in correct +go-to-meetin' costume,--a Chadband of the Plains." + +When you see one of these men, you will know him again. Winthrop has +sketched these rascals with a few touches, as felicitous as any of +Dickens's, and they will bear his mark forever: _T.W. fecit._ + +As for Jake Shamberlain, with his odd mixture of many religious and +irreligious dialects, what there is of him is as good as Sam Weller or +Mrs. Poyser. + +"'Hillo, Shamberlain!' hailed Brent, riding up to the train. + +"'Howdydo? Howdydo? No swap!' responded Jake, after the Indian fashion. +'Bung my eyes, ef you're not the mate of all mates I'm glad to see! Pax +vobiscrum, my filly! You look as fresh as an Aperel shad. Praised be the +Lord,' continued he, relapsing into Mormon slang, 'who has sent thee +again, like a brand from the burning, to fall into paths of pleasantness +with the Saints, as they wander from the Promised Land to the mean +section where the low-lived Gentiles ripen their souls for hell!'" + +Or Jake's droll commentary on the story of Old Bridger, ousted from his +fort, and robbed of his goods, by the Saints, in the name of the Prophet +Brigham. + +"'It's olluz so,' says Jake; 'Paul plants, and Apollyon gets the +increase. Not that Bridger's like Paul, any more 'n we're like Apollyon; +but we're goan to have all the cider off his apple-trees.'" + +Or, again, Jake's compliments to "Armstrong of Oregon," that galloping +Vigilant Committee of one. + +"I'll help you, if I know how, Armstrong. I ha'n't seen no two in my +life, Old Country or New Country, Saints or Gentiles, as I'd do more for +'n you and your brother. I've olluz said, ef the world was chock full of +Armstrongs, Paradise wouldn't pay, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob mout +just as well blow out their candle and go under a bushel-basket,--unless +a half-bushel would kiver 'em." + +But the true hero of the book is the horse Don Fulano. It is easy to see +that Winthrop was a first-rate horseman, from the loving manner in which +he describes and dwells on the perfections of the matchless stallion. +None but one who knew every point of a horse, none but one of the +Centaur breed, could have drawn Don Fulano,--just as none but a born +skater could have written those inimitable skating-scenes in his story +of "Love and Skates." + +"He was an American horse,--so they distinguish in California one +brought from the old States,--A SUPERB YOUNG STALLION, PERFECTLY BLACK, +WITHOUT MARK. It was magnificent to see him, as he circled about me, +fire in his eye, pride in his nostril, tail flying like a banner, power +and grace from tip to tip. No one would ever mount him, or ride him, +unless it was his royal pleasure. He was conscious of his representative +position, and showed his paces handsomely." + +This is the creature who takes the lead in that stirring and matchless +"Gallop of Three" to the Luggernel Spring, to quote from which would be +to spoil it. It must be read entire. + +In the "Canoe and Saddle" is recorded Winthrop's long ride across the +continent. Setting out in a canoe, from Port Townsend, in Vancouver's +Island, he journeyed, without company of other white men, to the Salt +Lake City and thence to "the States,"--a tedious and barbarous +experience, heightened, in this account of it, by the traveller's cheery +spirits, his ardent love of Nature, and capacity to describe the grand +natural scenery, of the effect of which upon himself he says, at the +end,-- + +"And in all that period, while I was so near to Nature, the great +lessons of the wilderness deepened into my heart day by day, the hedges +of conventionalism withered away from my horizon, and all the pedantries +of scholastic thought perished out of my mind forever." + +He bore hardships with the courage and imperturbable good-nature of a +born gentleman. It is when men are starving, when the plating of romance +is worn off by the chafe of severe and continued suffering,--it is then +that "blood tells." Winthrop had evidently that keen relish for rough +life which the gently nurtured and highly cultivated man has oftener +than his rude neighbor, partly because, in his case, contrast lends a +zest to the experience. Thus, when he camps with a gang of +"road-makers," in the farthest Western wilderness,--a part of Captain +McClellan's Pacific Railroad Expedition,--how thoroughly he enjoys the +rough hospitality and rude wit of these pioneers! + +"In such a Platonic republic as this a man found his place according to +his powers. The cooks were no base scullions; they were brethren, whom +conscious ability, sustained by universal suffrage, had endowed with the +frying-pan." + +"My hosts were a stalwart gang.... Their talk was as muscular as their +arms. When these laughed, as only men fresh and hearty and in the open +air can laugh, the world became mainly grotesque: it seemed at once a +comic thing to live,--a subject for chuckling, that we were bipeds, with +noses,--a thing to roar at, that we had all met there from the wide +world, to hobnob by a frolicsome fire with tin pots of coffee, and +partake of crisped bacon and toasted dough-boys in ridiculous abundance. +Easy laughter infected the atmosphere. Echoes ceased to be pensive, and +became jocose. A rattling humor pervaded the forest, and Green River +rippled with noise of fantastic jollity. Civilization and its +_dilettante_ diners-out sneer when Clodpole at Dives's table doubles his +soup, knifes his fish, tilts his plate into his lap, puts muscle into +the crushing of his _meringue_, and tosses off the warm beaker in his +finger-bowl. Camps by Tacoma sneer not at all, but candidly roar, at +parallel accidents. Gawky makes a cushion of his flapjack. Butterfingers +drops his red-hot rasher into his bosom, or lets slip his mug of coffee +into his boot drying at the fire,--a boot henceforth saccharine. A mule, +slipping his halter, steps forward unnoticed, puts his nose into the +circle, and brays resonant. These are the jocular boons of life, and at +these the woodsmen guffaw with lusty good-nature. Coarse and rude the +jokes may be, but not nasty, like the innuendoes of pseudo-refined +cockneys. If the woodsmen are guilty of uncleanly wit, it differs from +the uncleanly wit of cities as the mud of a road differs from the sticky +slime of slums. + +"It is a stout sensation to meet masculine, muscular men at the brave +point of a penetrating Boston hooihut,--men who are mates,--men to whom +technical culture means nought,--men to whom myself am nought, unless I +can saddle, lasso, cook, sing, and chop,--unless I am a man of nerve and +pluck, and a brother in generosity and heartiness. It is restoration to +play at cudgels of jocoseness with a circle of friendly roughs, not one +of whom ever heard the word bore,--with pioneers, who must think and +act, and wrench their living from the closed hand of Nature." + +And here is a dinner "in the open." + +"Upon the _carte du jour_ at Restaurant Sowee was written Grouse. 'How +shall we have them?' said I, cook and convive, to Loolowcan, marmiton +and convive. 'One of these cocks of the mountain shall be fried, since +gridiron is not,' responded I to myself, after meditation; 'two shall be +spitted and roasted; and, as Azrael may not want us before breakfast +to-morrow, the fourth shall go upon the _carte de dejeuner'_. + +"'O Pork! what a creature thou art!' continued I, in monologue, cutting +neat slices of that viand with my bowie-knife, and laying them +fraternally, three in a bed, in the frying-pan. 'Blessed be Moses, who +forbade thee to the Jews, whereby we, of freer dispensations, heirs of +all the ages, inherit also pigs more numerous and bacon cheaper! O Pork! +what could campaigners do without thy fatness, thy leanness, thy +saltness, thy portableness?' + +"Here Loolowcan presented me the three birds, plucked featherless as +Plato's man. The two roasters we planted carefully on spits before a +sultry spot of the fire. From a horizontal stick, supported on forked +stakes, we suspended by a twig over each roaster an automatic baster, an +inverted cone of pork, ordained to yield its spicy juices to the wooing +flame, and drip bedewing on each bosom beneath. The roasters ripened +deliberately, while keen and quick fire told upon the frier, the first +course of our feast. Meanwhile I brewed a pot of tea, blessing Confucius +for that restorative weed, as I had blessed Moses for his abstinence +from porkers. + +"Need I say that the grouse were admirable, that everything was +delicious, and the Confucian weed first chop? Even a scouse of mouldy +biscuit met the approval of Loolowcan. Feasts cooked under the greenwood +tree, and eaten by their cooks after a triumphant day of progress, are +sweeter than the conventional banquets of languid Christendom." + +"Life in the Open Air"--containing sketches of travel among the +mountains and lakes of Maine, as well as the story of "Love and Skates," +which has been spoken of, "The March of the Seventh Regiment," +"Washington as a Camp," an essay descriptive of Church's great picture, +"The Heart of the Andes," and two fragments, one of them the charming +commencement of a story which promised to be one of his best and most +enjoyable efforts in this direction--is the concluding volume of +Winthrop's collected writings. I speak of it in this place, because it +is in some part a companion-book to the volumes we have been discussing. +It is as full of buoyant life, of fresh and noble thought, of graceful +wit and humor, as those; in parts it contains the most finished of his +literary work. Few Americans who read it at the time will ever forget +that stirring description of the march of the New-York Seventh; it is a +piece of the history of our war which will live and be read as long as +Americans read their history. It moved my blood, in the reading, +tonight, as it did in those days--which seem already some centuries old, +so do events crowd the retrospect--when we were all reading it in the +pages of the "Atlantic." In the unfinished story of "Brightly's Orphan" +there is a Jew boy from Chatham Street, an original of the first water, +who, though scarce fairly introduced, will, I am sure, make a place for +himself and for his author in the memories of all who relish humor of +the best kind. + +"Cecil Dreeme" and "Edwin Brothertoft" are quite other books than these +we have spoken of. Here Winthrop tried a different vein,--two different +veins, perhaps. Both are stories of suffering and crime, stories of the +world and society. In one it is a woman, in the other a man, who is +wronged. One deals with New York city-life of the very present day; the +other is a story of the Revolutionary War, and of Tories and Patriots. +The popular verdict has declared him successful, even here. "Cecil +Dreeme" has run through no less than fifteen editions. + +In this story we are shown New York "society" as doubtless Winthrop knew +it to be. Yet the book has a curious air of the Old-World; it might be a +story of Venice, almost. It tells us of Old-World vices and crimes, and +the fittings and furnishings are of a piece. The localities, indeed, are +sketched so faithfully, that a stranger to the city, coming suddenly, in +his wanderings, upon Chrysalis College Buildings, could not fail to +recognize them at once,--as indeed happened to a country friend of mine +recently, to his great delight. But the men are Americans, bred and +formed--and for the most part spoiled--in Europe; Americans who have +gone to Paris before their time, if it be true, what a witty Bostonian +said, that good Americans go to Paris when they die. With all this, the +book has a strange charm, so that it takes possession of you in spite of +yourself. It is as though it drew away the curtain, for one slight +moment, from the mysteries which "society" decorously hides,--as though +he who drew the curtain stood beside it, pointing with solemn finger and +silent indignation to the baseness of which he gives you a glimpse. Yet +even here the good carries the day, and that in no maudlin way, but +because the true men are the better men. + +These, then, are Winthrop's writings,--the literary works of a young man +who died at thirty-two, and who had spent a goodly part of his mature +life in the saddle and the canoe, exploring his own country, and in +foreign travel. As we look at the volumes, we wonder how he found time +for so much; but when we have read, we wonder yet more at the excellence +of all he wrote. In all and through all shines his own noble spirit; and +thus these books of his, whose printed pages he never saw, will keep his +memory green amongst us; for, through them, all who read may know that +there wrote a true gentleman. + +Once he wrote,-- + + "Let me not waste in skirmishes my power, + In petty struggles. Rather in the hour + Of deadly conflict may I nobly die, + In my first battle perish gloriously." + +Even so he fell; but in these written works, as in his gallant death, he +left with us lessons which will yet win battles for the good cause of +American liberty, which he held dearest in his heart. + + * * * * * + + + + +HILARY. + + + Hilary, + Summer calls thee, o'er the sea! + Like white flowers upon the tide, + In and out the vessels glide; + But no wind on all the main + Sends thy blithe soul home again: + Every salt breeze moans for thee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Welcome Summer's step will be, + Save to those beside whose door + Doleful birds sit evermore + Singing, "Never comes he here + Who made every season's cheer!" + Dull the June that brings not thee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + What strange world has sheltered thee? + Here the soil beneath thy feet + Rang with songs, and blossomed sweet; + Blue skies ask thee yet of Earth, + Blind and dumb without thy mirth: + With thee went her heart of glee, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + All things shape a sigh for thee! + O'er the waves, among the flowers, + Through the lapse of odorous hours, + Breathes a lonely, longing sound, + As of something sought, unfound: + Lorn are all things, lorn are we, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Oh, to sail in quest of thee, + To the trade-wind's steady tune, + Past the hurrying monsoon, + Into torrid seas, that lave + Dry, hot sands,--a breathless grave,-- + Sad as vain the search would be, + Hilary! + + Hilary, + Chase the sorrow from the sea! + Summer-heart, bring summer near, + Warm, and fresh, and airy-clear! + --Dead thou art not: dead is pain; + Now Earth sees and sings again: + Death, to hold thee, Life must be, + Hilary! + + * * * * * + + + + +DEBBY'S DEBUT. + + +On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll and her niece Debby Wilder +were whizzing along on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both +in the best of humors with each other and all the world beside. Aunt Pen +was concocting sundry mild romances, and laying harmless plots for the +pursuance of her favorite pastime, match-making; for she had invited her +pretty relative to join her summer jaunt, ostensibly that the girl might +see a little of fashionable life, but the good lady secretly proposed to +herself to take her to the beach and get her a rich husband, very much +as she would have proposed to take her to Broadway and get her a new +bonnet; for both articles she considered necessary, but somewhat +difficult for a poor girl to obtain. + +Debby was slowly getting her poise, after the excitement of a first +visit to New York; for ten days of bustle had introduced the young +philosopher to a new existence, and the working-day world seemed to have +vanished when she made her last pat of butter in the dairy at home. For +an hour she sat thinking over the good-fortune which had befallen her, +and the comforts of this life which she had suddenly acquired. Debby was +a true girl,--with all a girl's love of ease and pleasure; and it must +not be set down against her that she surveyed her pretty travelling-suit +with much complacency, rejoicing inwardly that she could use her hands +without exposing fractured gloves, that her bonnet was of the newest +mode, needing no veil to hide a faded ribbon or a last year's shape, +that her dress swept the ground with fashionable untidiness, and her +boots were guiltless of a patch,--that she was the possessor of a mine +of wealth in two of the eight trunks belonging to her aunt, that she was +travelling like any lady of the land with man-and maid-servant at her +command, and that she was leaving work and care behind her for a month +or two of novelty and rest. + +When these agreeable facts were fully realized, and Aunt Pen had fallen +asleep behind her veil, Debby took out a book, and indulged in her +favorite luxury, soon forgetting past, present, and future in the +inimitable history of Martin Chuzzlewit. The sun blazed, the cars +rattled, children cried, ladies nodded, gentlemen longed for the solace +of prohibited cigars, and newspapers were converted into sun-shades, +nightcaps, and fans; but Debby read on, unconscious of all about her, +even of the pair of eyes that watched her from the opposite corner of +the car. A gentleman with a frank, strong-featured face sat therein, and +amused himself by scanning with thoughtful gaze the countenances of his +fellow-travellers. Stout Aunt Pen, dignified even in her sleep, was a +"model of deportment" to the rising generation; but the student of human +nature found a more attractive subject in her companion, the girl with +an apple-blossom face and merry brown eyes, who sat smiling into her +book, never heeding that her bonnet was awry, and the wind taking +unwarrantable liberties with her ribbons and her hair. + +Innocent Debby turned her pages, unaware that her fate sat opposite in +the likeness of a serious, black-bearded gentleman, who watched the +smiles rippling from her lips to her eyes with an interest that deepened +as the minutes passed. If his paper had been full of anything but +"Bronchial Troches" and "Spalding's Prepared Glue," he would have found +more profitable employment; but it wasn't, and with the usual readiness +of idle souls he fell into evil ways, and permitted curiosity, that +feminine sin, to enter in and take possession of his manly mind. A great +desire seized him to discover what book so interested his pretty +neighbor; but a cover hid the name, and he was too distant to catch it +on the fluttering leaves. Presently a stout Emerald-Islander, with her +wardrobe oozing out of sundry paper parcels, vacated the seat behind the +two ladies; and it was soon quietly occupied by the individual for whom +Satan was finding such indecorous employment. Peeping round the little +gray bonnet, past a brown braid and a fresh cheek, the young man's eye +fell upon the words the girl was reading, and forgot to look away again. +Books were the desire of his life; but an honorable purpose and an +indomitable will kept him steady at his ledgers till he could feel that +he had earned the right to read. Like wine to many another was an open +page to him; he read a line, and, longing for more, took a hasty sip +from his neighbor's cup, forgetting that it was a stranger's also. + +Down the page went the two pairs of eyes, and the merriment from Debby's +seemed to light up the sombre ones behind her with a sudden shine that +softened the whole face and made it very winning. No wonder they +twinkled, for Elijah Pogram spoke, and "Mrs. Hominy, the mother of the +modern Gracchi, in the classical blue cap and the red cotton +pocket-handkerchief, came down the room in a procession of one." A low +laugh startled Debby, though it was smothered like the babes in the +Tower; and, turning, she beheld the trespasser scarlet with confusion, +and sobered with a tardy sense of his transgression. Debby was not a +starched young lady of the "prune and prism" school, but a frank, +free-hearted little body, quick to read the sincerity of others, and to +take looks and words at their real value. Dickens was her idol; and for +his sake she could have forgiven a greater offence than this. The +stranger's contrite countenance and respectful apology won her good-will +at once; and with a finer courtesy than any Aunt Pen would have taught, +she smilingly bowed her pardon, and, taking another book from her +basket, opened it, saying, pleasantly,-- + +"Here is the first volume, if you like it, Sir. I can recommend it as an +invaluable consolation for the discomforts of a summer day's journey, +and it is heartily at your service." + +As much surprised as gratified, the gentleman accepted the book, and +retired behind it with the sudden discovery that wrong-doing has its +compensation in the pleasurable sensation of being forgiven. Stolen +delights are well known to be specially saccharine; and much as this +pardoned sinner loved books, it seemed to him that the interest of the +story flagged, and that the enjoyment of reading was much enhanced by +the proximity of a gray bonnet and a girlish profile. But Dickens soon +proved more powerful than Debby, and she was forgotten, till, pausing to +turn a leaf, the young man met her shy glance, as she asked, with the +pleased expression of a child who has shared an apple with a playmate,-- + +"Is it good?" + +"Oh, very!"--and the man looked as honestly grateful for the book as the +boy would have done for the apple. + +Only five words in the conversation, but Aunt Pen woke, as if the +watchful spirit of propriety had roused her to pluck her charge from the +precipice on which she stood. + +"Dora, I'm astonished at you! Speaking to strangers in that free manner +is a most unladylike thing. How came you to forget what I have told you +over and over again about a proper reserve?" + +The energetic whisper reached the gentleman's ear, and he expected to be +annihilated with a look when his offence was revealed; but he was spared +that ordeal, for the young voice answered, softly,-- + +"Don't faint, Aunt Pen; I only did as I'd be done by; for I had two +books, and the poor man looked so hungry for something to read that I +couldn't resist sharing my 'goodies.' He will see that I'm a countrified +little thing in spite of my fine feathers, and won't be shocked at my +want of rigidity and frigidity; so don't look dismal, and I'll be prim +and proper all the rest of the way,--if I don't forget it." + +"I wonder who he is; may belong to some of our first families, and in +that case it might be worth while to exert ourselves, you know. Did you +learn his name, Dora?" whispered the elder lady. + +Debby shook her head, and murmured, "Hush!"--but Aunt Pen had heard of +matches being made in cars as well as in heaven; and as an experienced +general, it became her to reconnoitre, when one of the enemy approached +her camp. Slightly altering her position, she darted an +all-comprehensive glance at the invader, who seemed entirely absorbed, +for not an eyelash stirred during the scrutiny. It lasted but an +instant, yet in that instant he was weighed and found wanting; for that +experienced eye detected that his cravat was two inches wider than +fashion ordained, that his coat was not of the latest style, that his +gloves were mended, and his handkerchief neither cambric nor silk. That +was enough, and sentence was passed forthwith,--"Some respectable clerk, +good-looking, but poor, and not at all the thing for Dora"; and Aunt Pen +turned to adjust a voluminous green veil over her niece's bonnet, "To +shield it from the dust, dear," which process also shielded the face +within from the eye of man. + +A curious smile, half mirthful, half melancholy, passed over their +neighbor's lips; but his peace of mind seemed undisturbed, and he +remained buried in his book till they reached ----, at dusk. As he +returned it, he offered his services in procuring a carriage or +attending to luggage; but Mrs. Carroll, with much dignity of aspect, +informed him that her servants would attend to those matters, and, +bowing gravely, he vanished into the night. + +As they rolled away to the hotel, Debby was wild to run down to the +beach whence came the solemn music of the sea, making the twilight +beautiful. But Aunt Pen was too tired to do anything but sup in her own +apartment and go early to bed; and Debby might as soon have proposed to +walk up the Great Pyramid as to make her first appearance without that +sage matron to mount guard over her; so she resigned herself to pie and +patience, and fell asleep, wishing it were to-morrow. + +At five, A.M., a nightcapped head appeared at one of the myriad windows +of the ---- Hotel, and remained there as if fascinated by the miracle of +sunrise over the sea. Under her simplicity of character and girlish +merriment Debby possessed a devout spirit and a nature full of the real +poetry of life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood its sweetest +charm, and made her what she was. As she looked out that summer dawn +upon the royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty hopes and +longings faded out of sight, and her young face grew luminous with +thoughts too deep for words. Her day was happier for that silent hour, +her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted her like beautiful +strong angels, and left a blessing when they went. The smile of the June +sky touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger on her cheek, and +in her eye arose a light kindled by the shimmer of that broad sea of +gold; for Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave her beauty, +when she offered love. How long she leaned there Debby did not know; +steps from below roused her from her reverie, and led her back into the +world again. Smiling at herself, she stole to bed, and lay wrapped in +waking dreams as changeful as the shadows dancing on her chamber-wall. + +The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some two hours later, was the +signal to be "up and doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the +hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard her in the light of an +animated pin-cushion, as she performed the toilet-ceremonies with an +absorbed aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense of the +solemnity of the occasion. + +"Now, Mademoiselle, regard yourself, and pronounce that you are +ravishing," Victorine said at length, folding her hands with a sigh of +satisfaction, as she fell back in an attitude of serene triumph. + +Debby obeyed, and inspected herself with great interest and some +astonishment; for there was a sweeping amplitude of array about the +young lady whom she beheld in the much-befrilled gown and embroidered +skirts, which somewhat alarmed her as to the navigation of a vessel +"with such a spread of sail," while a curious sensation of being +somebody else pervaded her from the crown of her head, with its shining +coils of hair, to the soles of the French slippers, whose energies +seemed to have been devoted to the production of marvellous rosettes. + +"Yes, I look very nice, thank you; and yet I feel like a doll, helpless +and fine, and fancy I was more of a woman in my fresh gingham, with a +knot of clovers in my hair, than I am now. Aunt Pen was very kind to get +me all these pretty things; but I'm afraid my mother would look +horrified to see me in such a high state of flounce externally and so +little room to breathe internally." + +"Your mamma would not flatter me, Mademoiselle; but come now to Madame; +she is waiting to behold you, and I have yet her toilet to make"; and, +with a pitying shrug, Victorine followed Debby to her aunt's room. + +"Charming! really elegant!" cried that lady, emerging from her towel +with a rubicund visage. "Drop that braid half an inch lower, and pull +the worked end of her handkerchief out of the right-hand pocket, Vic. +There! Now, Dora, don't run about and get rumpled, but sit quietly down +and practise repose till I am ready." + +Debby obeyed, and sat mute, with the air of a child in its Sunday-best +on a week-day, pleased with the novelty, but somewhat oppressed with the +responsibility of such unaccustomed splendor, and utterly unable to +connect any ideas of repose with tight shoes and skirts in a rampant +state of starch. + + * * * * * + +"Well, you see, I bet on Lady Gay against Cockadoodle, and if you'll +believe me--Hullo! there's Mrs. Carroll, and deuse take me if she hasn't +got a girl with her! Look, Seguin!"--and Joe Leavenworth, a "man of the +world," aged twenty, paused in his account of an exciting race to make +the announcement. + +Mr. Seguin, his friend and Mentor, as much his senior in worldly +wickedness as in years, tore himself from his breakfast long enough to +survey the new-comers, and then returned to it, saying, briefly,-- + +"The old lady is worth cultivating,--gives good suppers, and thanks you +for eating them. The girl is well got up, but has no style, and blushes +like a milk-maid. Better fight shy of her, Joe." + +"Do you think so? Well, now I rather fancy that kind of thing. She's +new, you see, and I get on with that sort of girl the best, for the old +ones are so deused knowing that a fellow has no chance of a--By the Lord +Harry, she's eating bread and milk!" + +Young Leavenworth whisked his glass into his eye, and Mr. Seguin put +down his roll to behold the phenomenon. Poor Debby! her first step had +been a wrong one. + +All great minds have their weak points. Aunt Pen's was her breakfast, +and the peace of her entire day depended upon the success of that meal. +Therefore, being down rather late, the worthy lady concentrated her +energies upon the achievement of a copious repast, and, trusting to +former lessons, left Debby to her own resources for a few fatal moments. +After the flutter occasioned by being scooped into her seat by a +severe-nosed waiter, Debby had only courage enough left to refuse tea +and coffee and accept milk. That being done, she took the first familiar +viand that appeared, and congratulated herself upon being able to get +her usual breakfast. With returning composure, she looked about her and +began to enjoy the buzz of voices, the clatter of knives and forks, and +the long lines of faces all intent upon the business of the hour; but +her peace was of short duration. Pausing for a fresh relay of toast, +Aunt Pen glanced toward her niece with the comfortable conviction that +her appearance was highly creditable; and her dismay can be imagined, +when she beheld that young lady placidly devouring a great cup of +brown-bread and milk before the eyes of the assembled multitude. The +poor lady choked in her coffee, and between her gasps whispered irefully +behind her napkin,-- + +"For Heaven's sake, Dora, put away that mess! The Ellenboroughs are +directly opposite, watching everything you do. Eat that omelet, or +anything respectable, unless you want me to die of mortification." + +Debby dropped her spoon, and, hastily helping herself from the dish her +aunt pushed toward her, consumed the leathery compound with as much +grace as she could assume, though unable to repress a laugh at Aunt +Pen's disturbed countenance. There was a slight lull in the clatter, and +the blithe sound caused several heads to turn toward the quarter whence +it came, for it was as unexpected and pleasant a sound as a bobolink's +song in a cage of shrill-voiced canaries. + +"She's a jolly little thing and powerful pretty, so deuse take me if I +don't make up to the old lady and find out who the girl is. I've been +introduced to Mrs. Carroll at our house; but I suppose she won't +remember me till I remind her." + +The "deuse" declining to accept of his repeated offers, (probably +because there was still too much honor and honesty in the boy,) young +Leavenworth sought out Mrs. Carroll on the piazza, as she and Debby were +strolling there an hour later. + +"Joe Leavenworth, my dear, from one of our first families,--very +wealthy,--fine match,--pray, be civil,--smooth your hair, hold back your +shoulders, and put down your parasol," murmured Aunt Pen, as the +gentleman approached with as much pleasure in his countenance as it was +consistent with manly dignity to express upon meeting two of the +inferior race. + +"My niece, Miss Dora Wilder. This is her first season at the beach, and +we must endeavor to make it pleasant for her, or she will be getting +homesick and running away to mamma," said Aunt Pen, in her society-tone, +after she had returned his greeting, and perpetrated a polite fiction, +by declaring that she remembered him perfectly, for he was the image of +his father. + +Mr. Leavenworth brought the heels of his varnished boots together with a +click, and executed the latest bow imported, then stuck his glass in his +eye and stared till it fell out, (the glass, not the eye,) upon which he +fell into step with them, remarking,-- + +"I shall be most happy to show the lions: they are deused tame ones, so +you needn't be alarmed, Miss Wilder." + +Debby was good-natured enough to laugh; and, elated with that success, +he proceeded to pour forth his stores of wit and learning in true +collegian style, quite unconscious that the "jolly little thing" was +looking him through and through with the smiling eyes that were +producing such pleasurable sensations under the mosaic studs. They +strolled toward the beach, and, meeting an old acquaintance, Aunt Pen +fell behind, and beamed upon the young pair as if her prophetic eye even +at this early stage beheld them walking altarward in a proper state of +blond white vest and bridal awkwardness. + +"Can you skip a stone, Mr. Leavenworth?" asked Debby, possessed with a +mischievous desire to shock the piece of elegance at her side. + +"Eh? what's that?" he inquired, with his head on one side, like an +inquisitive robin. + +Debby repeated her question, and illustrated it by sending a stone +skimming over the water in the most scientific manner. Mr. Joe was +painfully aware that this was not at all "the thing," that his sisters +never did so, and that Seguin would laugh confoundedly, if he caught him +at it; but Debby looked so irresistibly fresh and pretty under her +rose-lined parasol that he was moved to confess that he _had_ done such +a thing, and to sacrifice his gloves by poking in the sand, that he +might indulge in a like unfashionable pastime. + +"You'll be at the hop tonight, I hope, Miss Wilder," he observed, +introducing a topic suited to a young lady's mental capacity. + +"Yes, indeed; for dancing is one of the joys of my life, next to husking +and making hay"; and Debby polked a few steps along the beach, much to +the edification of a pair of old gentlemen, serenely taking their first +"constitutional." + +"Making what?" cried Mr. Joe, polking after her. + +"Hay; ah, that is the pleasantest fun in the world,--and better +exercise, my mother says, for soul and body, than dancing till dawn in +crowded rooms, with everything in a state of unnatural excitement. If +one wants real merriment, let him go into a new-mown field, where all +the air is full of summer odors, where wild-flowers nod along the walls, +where blackbirds make finer music than any band, and sun and wind and +cheery voices do their part, while windrows rise, and great loads go +rumbling through the lanes with merry brown faces atop. Yes, much as I +like dancing, it is not to be compared with that; for in the one case we +shut out the lovely world, and in the other we become a part of it, till +by its magic labor turns to poetry, and we harvest something better than +dried buttercups and grass." + +As she spoke, Debby looked up, expecting to meet a glance of +disapproval; but something in the simple earnestness of her manner had +recalled certain boyish pleasures as innocent as they were hearty, which +now contrasted very favorably with the later pastimes in which fast +horses, and that lower class of animals, fast men, bore so large a part. +Mr. Joe thoughtfully punched five holes in the sand, and for a moment +Debby liked the expression of his face; then the old listlessness +returned, and, looking up, he said, with an air of _ennui_ that was half +sad, half ludicrous, in one so young and so generously endowed with +youth, health, and the good gifts of this life,-- + +"I used to fancy that sort of thing years ago, but I'm afraid I should +find it a little slow now, though you describe it in such an inviting +manner that I should be tempted to try it, if a hay-cock came in my way; +for, upon my life, it's deused heavy work loafing about at these +watering-places all summer. Between ourselves, there's a deal of humbug +about this kind of life, as you will find, when you've tried it as long +as I have." + +"Yes, I begin to think so already; but perhaps you can give me a few +friendly words of warning from the stores of your experience, that I may +be spared the pain of saying what so many look,--'Grandma, the world is +hollow; my doll is stuffed with sawdust; and I should like to go into a +convent, if you please.'" + +Debby's eyes were dancing with merriment; but they were demurely +downcast, and her voice was perfectly serious. + +The milk of human kindness had been slightly curdled for Mr. Joe by +sundry college-tribulations; and having been "suspended," he very +naturally vibrated between the inborn jollity of his temperament and the +bitterness occasioned by his wrongs. He had lost at billiards the night +before, had been hurried at breakfast, had mislaid his cigar-case, and +splashed his boots; consequently the darker mood prevailed that morning, +and when his counsel was asked, he gave it like one who had known the +heaviest trials of this "Piljin Projiss of a wale." + +"There's no justice in the world, no chance for us young people to enjoy +ourselves, without some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us like +these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here, where all seems free and +easy, there's no end of gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you +feel as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself, and the Devil +take the hindmost': that's the principle they go on, and you have to +keep your wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or you are done +for before you know it. I've seen a good deal of this sort of thing, and +hope you'll get on better than some do, when it's known that you are the +rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't need that fact to enhance +your charms,--upon my life, you don't." + +Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst of candor; but her +independent nature prompted her to make a fair beginning, in spite of +Aunt Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans. + +"Thank you for your warning, but I don't apprehend much annoyance of +that kind," she said, demurely. "Do you know, I think, if young ladies +were truthfully labelled when they went into society, it would be a +charming fashion, and save a world of trouble? Something in this +style:--'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune $100,000, temper +warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne, aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000, +temper slightly damaged'; 'Deborah Wilder, aged eighteen, fortune, one +pair of hands, one head, indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in +the market,) temper decided, and _no expectations_.' There, you see, +that would do away with much of the humbug you lament, and we poor +souls would know at once whether we were sought for our fortunes or +ourselves, and that would be so comfortable!" + +Mr. Leavenworth turned away, with a convicted sort of expression, as she +spoke, and, making a spyglass of his hand, seemed to be watching +something out at sea with absorbing interest. He had been guilty of a +strong desire to discover whether Debby was an heiress, but had not +expected to be so entirely satisfied on that important subject, and was +dimly conscious that a keen eye had seen his anxiety, and a quick wit +devised a means of setting it at rest forever. Somewhat disconcerted, he +suddenly changed the conversation, and, like many another distressed +creature, took to the water, saying briskly,-- + +"By-the-by, Miss Wilder, as I've engaged to do the honors, shall I have +the pleasure of bathing with you when the fun begins? As you are fond of +haymaking, I suppose you intend to pay your respects to the old +gentleman with the three-pronged pitchfork?" + +"Yes, Aunt Pen means to put me through a course of salt water, and any +instructions in the art of navigation will be gratefully received; for I +never saw the ocean before, and labor under a firm conviction, that, +once in, I never shall come out again till I am brought, like Mr. +Mantilini, a 'damp, moist, unpleasant body.'" + +As Debby spoke, Mrs. Carroll hove in sight, coming down before the wind +with all sails set, and signals of distress visible long before she +dropped anchor and came along-side. The devoted woman had been strolling +slowly for the girl's sake, though oppressed with a mournful certainty +that her most prominent feature was fast becoming a fine copper-color; +yet she had sustained herself like a Spartan matron, till it suddenly +occurred to her that her charge might be suffering a like + + "sea-change + Into something rich and strange." + +Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby met her without a +freckle, looking all the better for her walk; and though her feet were +wet with chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse for salt +water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the destruction of her raiment, nor +uttered a warning word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits, but +replied to her inquiry most graciously,-- + +"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven, and there will be just +time to get Victorine and our dresses; so run on to the house, and I +will join you as soon as I have finished what I am saying to Mrs. +Earle,"--then added, in a stage-aside, as she put a fallen lock off the +girl's forehead, "You are doing beautifully! He is evidently struck; +make yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I beg of you." + +Debby's bright face clouded over, and she walked on with so much +stateliness that her escort wondered "what the deuse the old lady had +done to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall her merry +mood, but with indifferent success. + + * * * * * + +"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this is getting back to first +principles, though I fancy I look like the little old woman who fell +asleep on the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated drapery; and +you look funnier still, Aunt Pen," said Debby, as she tied on her +pagoda-hat, and followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her +dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth surmounted by a gigantic +sun-bonnet. + +Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a blond-headed lobster in +his scarlet suit that Debby could hardly keep her countenance as they +joined the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy shore. + +For an hour each day the actors and actresses who played their different +_roles_ at the ---- Hotel with such precision and success put off their +masks and dared to be themselves. The ocean wrought the change, for it +took old and young into its arms, and for a little while they played +like children in their mother's lap. No falsehood could withstand its +rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and powder from worn faces, +and left a fresh bloom there. No ailment could entirely resist its +vigorous cure; for every wind brought healing on its wings, endowing +many a meagre life with another year of health. No gloomy spirit could +refuse to listen to its lullaby, and the spray baptized it with the +subtile benediction of a cheerier mood. No rank held place there; for +the democratic sea toppled down the greatest statesman in the land, and +dashed over the bald pate of a millionnaire with the same white-crested +wave that stranded a poor parson on the beach and filled a fierce +reformer's mouth with brine. No fashion ruled, but that which is as old +as Eden,--the beautiful fashion of simplicity. Belles dropped their +affectations with their hoops, and ran about the shore blithe-hearted +girls again. Young men forgot their vices and their follies, and were +not ashamed of the real courage, strength, and skill they had tried to +leave behind them with their boyish plays. Old men gathered shells with +the little Cupids dancing on the sand, and were better for that innocent +companionship; and young mothers never looked so beautiful as when they +rocked their babies on the bosom of the sea. + +Debby vaguely felt this charm, and, yielding to it, splashed and sang +like any beach-bird, while Aunt Pen bobbed placidly up and down in a +retired corner, and Mr. Leavenworth swam to and fro, expressing his firm +belief in mermaids, sirens, and the rest of the aquatic sisterhood, +whose warbling no manly ear can resist. + +"Miss Wilder, you must learn to swim. I've taught quantities of young +ladies, and shall be delighted to launch the 'Dora,' if you'll accept me +as a pilot. Stop a bit; I'll get a life-preserver"; and leaving Debby to +flirt with the waves, the scarlet youth departed like a flame of fire. + +A dismal shriek interrupted his pupil's play, and looking up, she saw +her aunt beckoning wildly with one hand, while she was groping in the +water with the other. Debby ran to her, alarmed at her tragic +expression, and Mrs. Carroll, drawing the girl's face into the privacy +of her big bonnet, whispered one awful word, adding, distractedly,-- + +"Dive for them! oh, dive for them! I shall be perfectly helpless, if +they are lost!" + +"I can't dive, Aunt Pen; but there is a man, let us ask him," said +Debby, as a black head appeared to windward. + +But Mrs. Carroll's "nerves" had received a shock, and, gathering up her +dripping garments, she fled precipitately along the shore and vanished +into her dressing-room. + +Debby's keen sense of the ludicrous got the better of her respect, and +peal after peal of laughter broke from her lips, till a splash behind +her put an end to her merriment, and, turning, she found that this +friend in need was her acquaintance of the day before. The gentleman +seemed pausing for permission to approach, with much the appearance of a +sagacious Newfoundland, wistful and wet. + +"Oh, I'm very glad it's you, Sir!" was Debby's cordial greeting, as she +shook a drop off the end of her nose, and nodded, smiling. + +The new comer immediately beamed upon her like an amiable Triton, +saying, as they turned shoreward,-- + +"Our first interview opened with a laugh on my side, and our second with +one on yours. I accept the fact as a good omen. Your friend seemed in +trouble; allow me to atone for my past misdemeanors by offering my +services now. But first let me introduce myself; and as I believe in the +fitness of things, let me present you with an appropriate card"; and, +stooping, the young man wrote "Frank Evan" on the hard sand at Debby's +feet. + +The girl liked his manner, and, entering into the spirit of the thing, +swept as grand a curtsy as her limited drapery would allow, saying, +merrily,-- + +"I am Debby Wilder, or Dora, as aunt prefers to call me; and instead of +laughing, I ought to be four feet under water, looking for something we +have lost; but I can't dive, and my distress is dreadful, as you see." + +"What have you lost? I will look for it, and bring it back in spite of +the kelpies, if it is a human possibility," replied Mr. Evan, pushing +his wet locks out of his eyes, and regarding the ocean with a determined +aspect. + +Debby leaned toward him, whispering with solemn countenance,-- + +"It is a set of teeth, Sir." + +Mr. Evan was more a man of deeds than words, therefore he disappeared at +once with a mighty splash, and after repeated divings and much laughter +appeared bearing the chief ornament of Mrs. Penelope Carroll's comely +countenance. Debby looked very pretty and grateful as she returned her +thanks, and Mr. Evan was guilty of a secret wish that all the worthy +lady's features were at the bottom of the sea, that he might have the +satisfaction of restoring them to her attractive niece; but curbing this +unnatural desire, he bowed, saying, gravely,-- + +"Tell your aunt, if you please, that this little accident will remain a +dead secret, so far as I am concerned, and I am very glad to have been +of service at such a critical moment." + +Whereupon Mr. Evan marched again into the briny deep, and Debby trotted +away to her aunt, whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel and +despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled, and though she joyfully +rattled in her teeth, she said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story was +done,-- + +"Now that man will have a sort of claim on us, and we must be civil, +whoever he is. Dear! dear! I wish it had been Joe Leavenworth instead. +Evan,--I don't remember any of our first families with connections of +that name, and I dislike to be under obligations to a person of that +sort, for there's no knowing how far he may presume; so, pray, be +careful, Dora." + +"I think you are very ungrateful, Aunt Pen; and if Mr. Evan should +happen to be poor, it does not become me to turn up my nose at him, for +I'm nothing but a make-believe myself just now. I don't wish to go down +upon my knees to him, but I do intend to be as kind to him as I should +to that conceited Leavenworth boy; yes, kinder even; for poor people +value such things more, as I know very well." + +Mrs. Carroll instantly recovered her temper, changed the subject, and +privately resolved to confine her prejudices to her own bosom, as they +seemed to have an aggravating effect upon the youthful person whom she +had set her heart on disposing of to the best advantage. + +Debby took her swimming-lesson with much success, and would have +achieved her dinner with composure, if white-aproned gentlemen had not +effectually taken away her appetite by whisking bills-of-fare into her +hands, and awaiting her orders with a fatherly interest, which induced +them to congregate mysterious dishes before her, and blandly rectify +her frequent mistakes. She survived the ordeal, however, and at four +P.M. went to drive with "that Leavenworth boy" in the finest turnout +---- could produce. Aunt Pen then came off guard, and with a sigh of +satisfaction subsided into a peaceful doze, still murmuring, even in +her sleep,-- + +"Propinquity, my love, propinquity works wonders." + + * * * * * + +"Aunt Pen, are you a modest woman?" asked the young crusader against +established absurdities, as she came into the presence-chamber that +evening ready for the hop. + +"Bless the child, what does she mean?" cried Mrs. Carroll, with a start +that twitched her back-hair out of Victorine's hands. + +"Would you like to have a daughter of yours go to a party looking as I +look?" continued her niece, spreading her airy dress, and standing very +erect before her astonished relative. + +"Why, of course I should, and be proud to own such a charming +creature," regarding the slender white shape with much +approbation,--adding, with a smile, as she met the girl's eye,-- + +"Ah, I see the difficulty, now; you are disturbed because there is not a +bit of lace over these pretty shoulders of yours. Now don't be absurd, +Dora; the dress is perfectly proper, or Madame Tiphany never would have +sent it home. It is the fashion, child; and many a girl with such a +figure would go twice as _decolletee_, and think nothing of it, I assure +you." + +Debby shook her head with an energy that set the pink heather-bells +a-tremble in her hair, and her color deepened beautifully as she said, +with reproachful eyes,-- + +"Aunt Pen, I think there is a better fashion in every young girl's heart +than any Madame Tiphany can teach. I am very grateful for all you have +done for me, but I cannot go into public in such an undress as this; my +mother would never allow it, and father never forgive it. Please don't +ask me to, for indeed I cannot do it even for you." + +Debby looked so pathetic that both mistress and maid broke into a laugh +which, somewhat reassured the young lady, who allowed her determined +features to relax into a smile, as she said,-- + +"Now, Aunt Pen, you want me to look pretty and be a credit to you; but +how would you like to see my face the color of those geraniums all the +evening?" + +"Why, Dora, you are out of your mind to ask such a thing, when you know +it's the desire of my life to keep your color down and make you look +more delicate," said her aunt, alarmed at the fearful prospect of a +peony-faced _protegee_. + +"Well, I should be anything but that, if I wore this gown in its present +waistless condition; so here is a remedy which will prevent such a +calamity and ease my mind." + +As she spoke, Debby tied on her little _blonde fichu_ with a gesture +which left nothing more to be said. + +Victorine scolded, and clasped her hands; but Mrs. Carroll, fearing to +push her authority too far, made a virtue of necessity, saying, +resignedly,-- + +"Have your own way, Dora, but in return oblige me by being agreeable to +such persons as I may introduce to you; and some day, when I ask a +favor, remember how much I hope to do for you, and grant it cheerfully." + +"Indeed I will, Aunt Pen, if it is anything I can do without disobeying +mother's 'notions', as you call them. Ask me to wear an orange-colored +gown, or dance with the plainest, poorest man in the room, and I'll do +it; for there never was a kinder aunt than mine in all the world," cried +Debby, eager to atone for her seeming wilfulness, and really grateful +for her escape from what seemed to her benighted mind a very imminent +peril. + +Like a clover-blossom in a vase of camellias little Debby looked that +night among the dashing or languid women who surrounded her; for she +possessed the charm they had lost,--the freshness of her youth. Innocent +gayety sat smiling in her eyes, healthful roses bloomed upon her cheek, +and maiden modesty crowned her like a garland. She _was_ the creature +that she seemed, and, yielding to the influence of the hour, danced to +the music of her own blithe heart. Many felt the spell whose secret they +had lost the power to divine, and watched the girlish figure as if it +were a symbol of their early aspirations dawning freshly from the +dimness of their past. More than one old man thought again of some +little maid whose love made his boyish days a pleasant memory to him +now. More than one smiling fop felt the emptiness of his smooth speech, +when the truthful eyes looked up into his own; and more than one pale +woman sighed regretfully within herself, "I, too, was a happy-hearted +creature once!" + +"That Mr. Evan does not seem very anxious to claim our acquaintance, +after all, and I think better of him on that account. Has he spoken to +you tonight, Dora?" asked Mrs. Carroll, as Debby dropped down beside her +after a "splendid polka." + +"No, Ma'am, he only bowed. You see some people are not so presuming as +other people thought they were; for we are not the most attractive +beings on the planet; therefore a gentleman can be polite and then +forget us without breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Don't be +offended with him yet, for he may prove to be some great creature with a +finer pedigree than any of 'our first families.' Mr. Leavenworth, as you +know everybody, perhaps you can relieve Aunt Pen's mind, by telling her +something about the tall, brown man standing behind the lady with +salmon-colored hair." + +Mr. Joe, who was fanning the top of Debby's head with the best +intentions in life, took a survey, and answered readily,-- + +"Why, that's Frank Evan. I know him, and a deused good fellow he +is,--though he don't belong to our set, you know." + +"Indeed! pray, tell us something about him, Mr. Leavenworth. We met in +the cars, and he did us a favor or two. Who and what is the man?" asked +Mrs. Carroll, relenting at once toward a person who was favorably spoken +of by one who did belong to her "set." + +"Well, let me see," began Mr. Joe, whose narrative powers were not +great. "He is a book-keeper in my Uncle Josh Loring's importing concern, +and a powerful smart man, they say. There's some kind of clever story +about his father's leaving a load of debts, and Frank's working a deused +number of years till they were paid. Good of him, wasn't it? Then, just +as he was going to take things easier and enjoy life a bit, his mother +died, and that rather knocked him up, you see. He fell sick, and came to +grief generally, Uncle Josh said; so he was ordered off to get righted, +and here he is, looking like a tombstone. I've a regard for Frank, for +he took care of me through the smallpox a year ago, and I don't forget +things of that sort; so, if you wish to be introduced, Mrs. Carroll, +I'll trot him out with pleasure, and make a proud man of him." + +Mrs. Carroll glanced at Debby, and as that young lady was regarding Mr. +Joe with a friendly aspect, owing to the warmth of his words, she +graciously assented, and the youth departed on his errand. Mr. Evan went +through the ceremony with a calmness wonderful to behold, considering +the position of one lady and the charms of the other, and soon glided +into the conversation with the ease of a more accomplished courtier. + +"Now I must tear myself away, for I'm engaged to that stout Miss +Bandoline for this dance. She 's a friend of my sister's, and I must do +the civil, you know; powerful slow work it is, too, but I pity the poor +soul,--upon my life, I do"; and Mr. Joe assumed the air of a martyr. + +Debby looked up with a wicked smile in her eyes, as she said,-- + +"Ah, that sounds very amiable here; but in five minutes you'll be +murmuring in Miss Bandoline's ear,--'I've been pining to come to you +this half hour, but I was obliged to take out that Miss Wilder, you +see,--countrified little thing enough, but not bad-looking, and has a +rich aunt; so I've done my duty to her, but deuse take me if I can stand +it any longer.'" + +Mr. Evan joined in Debby's merriment; but Mr. Joe was so appalled at the +sudden attack that he could only stammer a remonstrance and beat a hasty +retreat, wondering how on earth she came to know that his favorite style +of making himself agreeable to one young lady was by decrying another. + +"Dora, my love, that is very rude, and 'Deuse' is not a proper +expression for a woman's lips. Pray, restrain your lively tongue, for +strangers may not understand that it is nothing but the sprightliness of +your disposition which sometimes runs away with you." + +"It was only a quotation, and I thought you would admire anything Mr. +Leavenworth said, Aunt Pen," replied Debby, demurely. + +Mrs. Carroll trod on her foot, and abruptly changed the conversation, by +saying, with an appearance of deep interest,-- + +"Mr. Evan, you are doubtless connected with the Malcoms of Georgia; for +they, I believe, are descended from the ancient Evans of Scotland. They +are a very wealthy and aristocratic family, and I remember seeing their +coat-of-arms once: three bannocks and a thistle." + +Mr. Evan had been standing before them with a composure which impressed +Mrs. Carroll with a belief in his gentle blood, for she remembered her +own fussy, plebeian husband, whose fortune had never been able to +purchase him the manners of a gentleman. Mr. Evan only grew a little +more erect, as he replied, with an untroubled mien,-- + +"I cannot claim relationship with the Malcoms of Georgia or the Evans of +Scotland, I believe, Madam. My father was a farmer, my grandfather a +blacksmith, and beyond that my ancestors may have been street-sweepers, +for anything I know; but whatever they were, I fancy they were honest +men, for that has always been our boast, though, like President +Jackson's, our coat-of-arms is nothing but 'a pair of shirt-sleeves.'" + +From Debby's eyes there shot a bright glance of admiration for the young +man who could look two comely women in the face and serenely own that he +was poor. Mrs. Carroll tried to appear at ease, and, gliding out of +personalities, expatiated on the comfort of "living in a land where fame +and fortune were attainable by all who chose to earn them," and the +contempt she felt for those "who had no sympathy with the humbler +classes, no interest in the welfare of the race," and many more moral +reflections as new and original as the Multiplication-Table or the +Westminster Catechism. To all of which Mr. Evan listened with polite +deference, though there was something in the keen intelligence of his +eye that made Debby blush for shallow Aunt Pen, and rejoice when the +good lady got out of her depth and seized upon a new subject as a +drowning mariner would a hen-coop. + +"Dora, Mr. Ellenborough is coming this way; you have danced with him but +once, and he is a very desirable partner; so, pray, accept, if he asks +you," said Mrs. Carroll, watching a far-off individual who seemed +steering his zigzag course toward them. + +"I never intend to dance with Mr. Ellenborough again, so please don't +urge me, Aunt Pen"; and Debby knit her brows with a somewhat irate +expression. + +"My love, you astonish me! He is a most agreeable and accomplished young +man,--spent three years in Paris, moves in the first circles, and is +considered an ornament to fashionable society. What _can_ be your +objection, Dora?" cried Mrs. Carroll, looking as alarmed as if her niece +had suddenly announced her belief in the Koran. + +"One of his accomplishments consists in drinking Champagne till he is +not a 'desirable partner' for any young lady with a prejudice in favor +of decency. His moving in 'circles' is just what I complain of; and if +he is an ornament, I prefer my society undecorated. Aunt Pen, I cannot +make the nice distinctions you would have me, and a sot in broadcloth is +as odious as one in rags. Forgive me, but I cannot dance with that +silver-labelled decanter again." + +Debby was a genuine little piece of womanhood; and though she tried to +speak lightly, her color deepened, as she remembered looks that had +wounded her like insults, and her indignant eyes silenced the excuses +rising to her aunt's lips. Mrs. Carroll began to rue the hour she ever +undertook the guidance of Sister Deborah's headstrong child, and for an +instant heartily wished she had left her to bloom unseen in the shadow +of the parsonage; but she concealed her annoyance, still hoping to +overcome the girl's absurd resolve, by saying, mildly,-- + +"As you please, dear; but if you refuse Mr. Ellenborough, you will be +obliged to sit through the dance, which is your favorite, you know." + +Debby's countenance fell, for she had forgotten that, and the Lancers +was to her the crowning rapture of the night. She paused a moment, and +Aunt Pen brightened; but Debby made her little sacrifice to principle +as heroically as many a greater one had been made, and, with a wistful +look down the long room, answered steadily, though her foot kept time to +the first strains as she spoke,-- + +"Then I will sit, Aunt Pen; for that is preferable to staggering about +the room with a partner who has no idea of the laws of gravitation." + +"Shall I have the honor of averting either calamity?" said Mr. Evan, +coming to the rescue with a devotion beautiful to see; for dancing was +nearly a lost art with him, and the Lancers to a novice is equal to a +second Labyrinth of Crete. + +"Oh, thank you!" cried Debby, tumbling fan, bouquet, and handkerchief +into Mrs. Carroll's lap, with a look of relief that repaid him fourfold +for the trials he was about to undergo. They went merrily away together, +leaving Aunt Pen to wish that it was according to the laws of etiquette +to rap officious gentlemen over the knuckles, when they introduce their +fingers into private pies without permission from the chief cook. How +the dance went Debby hardly knew, for the conversation fell upon books, +and in the interest of her favorite theme she found even the "grand +square" an impertinent interruption, while her own deficiencies became +almost as great as her partner's; yet, when the music ended with a +flourish, and her last curtsy was successfully achieved, she longed to +begin all over again, and secretly regretted that she was engaged four +deep. + +"How do you like our new acquaintance, Dora?" asked Aunt Pen, following +Joe Leavenworth with her eye, as the "yellow-haired laddie" whirled by +with the ponderous Miss Flora. + +"Very much; and I'm glad we met as we did, for it makes things free and +easy, and that is so agreeable in this ceremonious place," replied +Debby, looking in quite an opposite direction. + +"Well, I'm delighted to hear you say so, dear, for I was afraid you had +taken a dislike to him, and he is really a very charming young man, just +the sort of person to make a pleasant companion for a few weeks. These +little friendships are part of the summer's amusement, and do no harm; +so smile away, Dora, and enjoy yourself while you may." + +"Yes, Aunt, I certainly will, and all the more because I have found a +sensible soul to talk to. Do you know, he is very witty and well +informed, though he says he never had much time for self-cultivation? +But I think trouble makes people wise, and he seems to have had a good +deal, though he leaves it for others to tell of. I am glad you are +willing I should know him, for I shall enjoy talking about my pet heroes +with him as a relief from the silly chatter I must keep up most of the +time." + +Mrs. Carroll was a woman of one idea; and though a slightly puzzled +expression appeared in her face, she listened approvingly, and answered, +with a gracious smile,-- + +"Of course, I should not object to your knowing such a person, my love; +but I'd no idea Joe Leavenworth was a literary man, or had known much +trouble, except his father's death and his sister Clementina's +runaway-marriage with her drawing-master." + +Debby opened her brown eyes very wide, and hastily picked at the down on +her fan, but had no time to correct her aunt's mistake, for the real +subject of her commendations appeared at that moment, and Mrs. Carroll +was immediately absorbed in the consumption of a large pink ice. + + * * * * * + +"That girl is what I call a surprise-party, now," remarked Mr. Joe +confidentially to his cigar, as he pulled off his coat and stuck his +feet up in the privacy of his own apartment. "She looks as mild as +strawberries and cream till you come to the complimentary, then she +turns on a fellow with that deused satirical look of hers, and makes him +feel like a fool. I'll try the moral dodge to-morrow, and see what +effect that will have; for she is mighty taking, and I must amuse myself +somehow, you know." + +"How many years will it take to change that fresh-hearted little girl +into a fashionable belle, I wonder?" thought Frank Evan, as he climbed +the four flights that led to his "sky-parlor." + +"What a curious world this is!" mused Debby, with her nightcap in her +hand. "The right seems odd and rude, the wrong respectable and easy, and +this sort of life a merry-go-round, with no higher aim than pleasure. +Well, I have made my Declaration of Independence, and Aunt Pen must be +ready for a Revolution, if she taxes me too heavily." + +As she leaned her hot cheek on her arm, Debby's eye fell on the quaint +little cap made by the motherly hands that never were tired of working +for her. She touched it tenderly, and love's simple magic swept the +gathering shadows from her face, and left it clear again, as her +thoughts flew home like birds into the shelter of their nest. + +"Good night, mother! I'll face temptation steadily. I'll try to take +life cheerily, and do nothing that shall make your dear face a reproach, +when it looks into my own again." + +Then Debby said her prayers like any pious child, and lay down to dream +of pulling buttercups with Baby Bess, and sinking in the twilight on her +father's knee. + + * * * * * + +The history of Debby's first day might serve as a sample of most that +followed, as week after week went by with varying pleasures and +increasing interest to more than one young _debutante_. Mrs. Carroll did +her best, but Debby was too simple for a belle, too honest for a flirt, +too independent for a fine lady; she would be nothing but her sturdy +little self, open as daylight, gay as a lark, and blunt as any Puritan. +Poor Aunt Pen was in despair, till she observed that the girl often +"took" with the very peculiarities which she was lamenting; this +somewhat consoled her, and she tried to make the best of the pretty bit +of homespun which would not and could not become velvet or brocade. +Seguin, Ellenborough, & Co. looked with lordly scorn upon her, as a worm +blind to their attractions. Miss MacFlimsy and her "set" quizzed her +unmercifully behind her back, after being worsted in several passages of +arms; and more than one successful mamma condoled with Aunt Pen upon the +terribly defective education of her charge, till that stout matron could +have found it in her heart to tweak off their caps and walk on them, +like the irascible Betsey Trotwood. + +But Debby had a circle of admirers who loved her with a sincerity few +summer queens could boast; for they were real friends, won by gentle +arts, and retained by the gracious sweetness of her nature. Moon-faced +babies crowed and clapped their chubby hands when she passed by their +wicker thrones; story-loving children clustered round her knee, and +never were denied; pale invalids found wild-flowers on their pillows; +and forlorn papas forgot the state of the money-market when she sang for +them the homely airs their daughters had no time to learn. Certain plain +young ladies poured their woes into her friendly ear, and were +comforted; several smart Sophomores fell into a state of chronic +stammer, blush, and adoration, when she took a motherly interest in +their affairs; and a melancholy old Frenchman blessed her with the +enthusiasm of his nation, because she put a posy in the button-hole of +his rusty coat, and never failed to smile and bow as he passed by. Yet +Debby was no Edgeworth heroine, preternaturally prudent, wise, and +untemptable; she had a fine crop of piques, vanities, and dislikes +growing up under this new style of cultivation. She loved admiration, +enjoyed her purple and fine linen, hid new-born envy, disappointed hope, +and wounded pride behind a smiling face, and often thought with a sigh +of the humdrum duties that awaited her at home. But under the airs and +graces Aunt Pen cherished with such sedulous care, under the flounces +and furbelows Victorine daily adjusted with groans, under the polish +which she acquired with feminine ease, the girl's heart still beat +steadfast and strong, and conscience kept watch and ward that no +traitor should enter in to surprise the citadel which mother-love had +tried to garrison so well. + +In pursuance of his sage resolve, Mr. Joe tried the "moral dodge," as he +elegantly expressed it, and, failing in that, followed it up with the +tragic, religious, negligent, and devoted ditto; but acting was not his +forte, so Debby routed him in all; and at last, when he was at his wit's +end for an idea, she suggested one, and completed her victory by saying +pleasantly,-- + +"You took me behind the curtain too soon, and now the paste diamonds and +cotton-velvet don't impose upon me a bit. Just be your natural self, and +we shall get on nicely, Mr. Leavenworth." + +The novelty of the proposal struck his fancy, and after a few relapses +it was carried into effect, and thenceforth, with Debby, he became the +simple, good-humored lad Nature designed him to be, and, as a proof of +it, soon fell very sincerely in love. + +Frank Evan, seated in the parquet of society, surveyed the dress-circle +with much the same expression that Debby had seen during Aunt Pen's +oration; but he soon neglected that amusement to watch several actors in +the drama going on before his eyes, while a strong desire to perform a +part therein slowly took possession of his mind. Debby always had a look +of welcome when he came, always treated him with the kindness of a +generous woman who has had an opportunity to forgive, and always watched +the serious, solitary man with a great compassion for his loss, a +growing admiration for his upright life. More than once the beach birds +saw two figures pacing the sands at sunrise with the peace of early day +upon their faces and the light of a kindred mood shining in their eyes. +More than once the friendly ocean made a third in the pleasant +conversation, and its low undertone came and went between the mellow +bass and silvery treble of the human voices with a melody that lent +another charm to interviews which soon grew wondrous sweet to man and +maid. Aunt Pen seldom saw the twain together, seldom spoke of Evan; and +Debby held her peace, for, when she planned to make her innocent +confessions, she found that what seemed much to her was nothing to +another ear and scarcely worth the telling; so, unconscious as yet +whither the green path led, she went on her way, leading two lives, one +rich and earnest, hoarded deep within herself, the other frivolous and +gay for all the world to criticize. But those venerable spinsters, the +Fates, took the matter into their own hands, and soon got the better of +those short-sighted matrons, Mesdames Grundy and Carroll; for, long +before they knew it, Frank and Debby had begun to read together a book +greater than Dickens ever wrote, and when they had come to the fairest +part of the sweet story Adam first told Eve, they looked for the name +upon the title-page, and found that it was "Love." + +Eight weeks came and went,--eight wonderfully happy weeks to Debby and +her friend; for "propinquity" had worked more wonders than poor Mrs. +Carroll knew, as the only one she saw or guessed was the utter +captivation of Joe Leavenworth. He had become "himself" to such an +extent that a change of identity would have been a relief; for the +object of his adoration showed no signs of relenting, and he began to +fear, that, as Debby said, her heart was "not in the market." She was +always friendly, but never made those interesting betrayals of regard +which are so encouraging to youthful gentlemen "who fain would climb, +yet fear to fall." She never blushed when he pressed her hand, never +fainted or grew pale when he appeared with a smashed trotting-wagon and +a black eye, and actually slept through a serenade that would have won +any other woman's soul out of her body with its despairing quavers. +Matters were getting desperate; for horses lost their charms, "flowing +bowls" palled upon his lips, ruffled shirt-bosoms no longer delighted +him, and hops possessed no soothing power to allay the anguish of his +mind. Mr. Seguin, after unavailing ridicule and pity, took compassion +on him, and from his large experience suggested a remedy, just as he was +departing for a more congenial sphere. + +"Now don't be an idiot, Joe, but, if you want to keep your hand in and +go through a regular chapter of flirtation, just right about face, and +devote yourself to some one else. Nothing like jealousy to teach +womankind their own minds, and a touch of it will bring little Wilder +round in a jiffy. Try it, my boy, and good luck to you!"--with which +Christian advice Mr. Seguin slapped his pupil on the shoulder, and +disappeared, like a modern Mephistopheles, in a cloud of cigar-smoke. + +"I'm glad he's gone, for in my present state of mind he's not up to my +mark at all. I'll try his plan, though, and flirt with Clara West; she's +engaged, so it won't damage her affections; her lover isn't here, so it +won't disturb his; and, by Jove! I must do something, for I can't stand +this suspense." + +Debby was infinitely relieved by this new move, and infinitely amused as +she guessed the motive that prompted it but the more contented she +seemed, the more violently Mr. Joe flirted with her rival, till at last +weak-minded Miss Clara began to think her absent George the most +undesirable of lovers, and to mourn that she ever said "Yes" to a +merchant's clerk, when she might have said it to a merchant's son. Aunt +Pen watched and approved this stratagem, hoped for the best results, and +believed the day won when Debby grew pale and silent, and followed with +her eyes the young couple who were playing battledoor and shuttlecock +with each other's hearts, as if she took some interest in the game. But +Aunt Pen clashed her cymbals too soon; for Debby's trouble had a better +source than jealousy, and in the silence of the sleepless nights that +stole her bloom she was taking counsel of her own full heart, and +resolving to serve another woman as she would herself be served in a +like peril, though etiquette was outraged and the customs of polite +society turned upside down. + + * * * * * + +"Look, Aunt Pen! what lovely shells and moss I've got! Such a splendid +scramble over the rocks as I've had with Mrs. Duncan's boys! It seemed +so like home to run and sing with a troop of topsy-turvy children that +it did me good; and I wish you had all been there to see," cried Debby, +running into the drawing-room, one day, where Mrs. Carroll and a circle +of ladies sat enjoying a dish of highly flavored scandal, as they +exercised their eyesight over fancy-work. + +"My dear Dora, spare my nerves; and if you have any regard for the +proprieties of life, don't go romping in the sun with a parcel of noisy +boys. If you could see what an object you are, I think you would try to +imitate Miss Clara, who is always a model of elegant repose." + +Miss West primmed up her lips, and settled a fold in her ninth flounce, +as Mrs. Carroll spoke, while the whole group fixed their eyes with +dignified disapproval on the invader of their refined society. Debby had +come like a fresh wind into a sultry room; but no one welcomed the +healthful visitant, no one saw a pleasant picture in the bright-faced +girl with wind-tossed hair and rustic hat heaped with moss and +many-tinted shells; they only saw that her gown was wet, her gloves +forgotten, and her scarf trailing at her waist in a manner no well-bred +lady could approve. The sunshine faded out of Debby's face, and there +was a touch of bitterness in her tone, as she glanced at the circle of +fashion-plates, saying, with an earnestness which caused Miss West to +open her pale eyes to their widest extent,-- + +"Aunt Pen, don't freeze me yet,--don't take away my faith in simple +things, but let me be a child a little longer,--let me play and sing and +keep my spirit blithe among the dandelions and the robins while I can; +for trouble comes soon enough, and all my life will be the richer and +the better for a happy youth." + +Mrs. Carroll had nothing at hand to offer in reply to this appeal, and +four ladies dropped their work to stare; but Frank Evan looked in from +the piazza, saying, as he beckoned like a boy,-- + +"I'll play with you, Miss Dora; come and make sand pies upon the shore. +Please let her, Mrs. Carroll; we'll be very good, and not wet our +pinafores or feet." + +Without waiting for permission, Debby poured her treasures into the lap +of a certain lame Freddy, and went away to a kind of play she had never +known before. Quiet as a chidden child, she walked beside her companion, +who looked down at the little figure, longing to take it on his knee and +call the sunshine back again. That he dared not do; but accident, the +lover's friend, performed the work, and did him a good turn beside. The +old Frenchman was slowly approaching, when a frolicsome wind whisked off +his hat and sent it skimming along the beach. In spite of her late +lecture, away went Debby, and caught the truant chapeau just as a wave +was hurrying up to claim it. This restored her cheerfulness, and when +she returned, she was herself again. + +"A thousand thanks; but does Mademoiselle remember the forfeit I might +demand to add to the favor she has already done me?" asked the gallant +old gentleman, as Debby took the hat off her own head, and presented it +with a martial salute. + +"Ah, I had forgotten that; but you may claim it, Sir,--indeed, you may; +I only wish I could do something more to give you pleasure"; and Debby +looked up into the withered face which had grown familiar to her, with +kind eyes, full of pity and respect. + +Her manner touched the old man very much; he bent his gray head before +her, saying, gratefully,-- + +"My child, I am not good enough to salute these blooming cheeks; but I +shall pray the Virgin to reward you for the compassion you bestow on the +poor exile, and I shall keep your memory very green through all my +life." + +He kissed her hand, as if it were a queen's, and went on his way, +thinking of the little daughter whose death left him childless in a +foreign land. + +Debby softly began to sing, "Oh, come unto the yellow sands!" but +stopped in the middle of a line, to say,-- + +"Shall I tell you why I did what Aunt Pen would call a very unladylike +and improper thing, Mr. Evan?" + +"If you will be so kind"; and her companion looked delighted at the +confidence about to be reposed in him. + +"Somewhere across this great wide sea I hope I have a brother," Debby +said, with softened voice and a wistful look into the dim horizon. "Five +years ago he left us, and we have never heard from him since, except to +know that he landed safely in Australia. People tell us he is dead; but +I believe he will yet come home; and so I love to help and pity any man +who needs it, rich or poor, young or old, hoping that as I do by them +some tender-hearted woman far away will do by Brother Will." + +As Debby spoke, across Frank Evan's face there passed the look that +seldom comes but once to any young man's countenance; for suddenly the +moment dawned when love asserted its supremacy, and putting pride, +doubt, and fear underneath its feet, ruled the strong heart royally and +bent it to its will. Debby's thoughts had floated across the sea; but +they came swiftly back when her companion spoke again, steadily and +slow, but with a subtile change in tone and manner which arrested them +at once. + +"Miss Dora, if you should meet a man who had known a laborious youth, a +solitary manhood, who had no sweet domestic ties to make home beautiful +and keep his nature warm, who longed most ardently to be so blessed, and +made it the aim of his life to grow more worthy the good gift, should it +ever come,--if you should learn that you possessed the power to make +this fellow-creature's happiness, could you find it in your gentle heart +to take compassion on him for the love of 'Brother Will'?" + +Debby was silent, wondering why heart and nerves and brain were stirred +by such a sudden thrill, why she dared not look up, and why, when she +desired so much to speak, she could only answer, in a voice that sounded +strange to her own ears,-- + +"I cannot tell." + +Still, steadily and slow, with strong emotion deepening and softening +his voice, the lover at her side went on,-- + +"Will you ask yourself this question in some quiet hour? For such a man +has lived in the sunshine of your presence for eight happy weeks, and +now, when his holiday is done, he finds that the old solitude will be +more sorrowful than ever, unless he can discover whether his summer +dream will change into a beautiful reality. Miss Dora, I have very +little to offer you; a faithful heart to cherish you, a strong arm to +work for you, an honest name to give into your keeping,--these are all; +but if they have any worth in your eyes, they are most truly yours +forever." + +Debby was steadying her voice to reply, when a troop of bathers came +shouting down the bank, and she took flight into her dressing-room, +there to sit staring at the wall, till the advent of Aunt Pen forced her +to resume the business of the hour by assuming her aquatic attire and +stealing shyly down into the surf. + +Frank Evan, still pacing in the footprints they had lately made, watched +the lithe figure tripping to and fro, and, as he looked, murmured to +himself the last line of a ballad Debby sometimes sang,-- + + "Dance light! for my heart it lies under your feet, love!" + +Presently a great wave swept Debby up, and stranded her very near him, +much to her confusion and his satisfaction. Shaking the spray out of her +eyes, she was hurrying away, when Frank said,-- + +"You will trip, Miss Dora; let me tie these strings for you"; and, +suiting the action to the word, he knelt down and began to fasten the +cords of her bathing-shoe. + +Debby stood looking down at the tall head bent before her, with a +curious sense of wonder that a look from her could make a strong man +flush and pale, as he had done; and she was trying to concoct some +friendly speech, when Frank, still fumbling at the knots, said, very +earnestly and low,-- + +"Forgive me, if I am selfish in pressing for an answer; but I must go +to-morrow, and a single word will change my whole future for the better +or the worse. Won't you speak it, Dora?" + +If they had been alone, Debby would have put her arms about his neck, +and said it with all her heart; but she had a presentiment that she +should cry, if her love found vent; and here forty pairs of eyes were on +them, and salt water seemed superfluous. Besides, Debby had not breathed +the air of coquetry so long without a touch of the infection; and the +love of power, that lies dormant in the meekest woman's breast, suddenly +awoke and tempted her. + +"If you catch me before I reach that rock, perhaps I will say 'Yes,'" +was her unexpected answer; and before her lover caught her meaning, she +was floating leisurely away. + +Frank was not in bathing-costume, and Debby never dreamed that he would +take her at her word; but she did not know the man she had to deal with; +for, taking no second thought, he flung hat and coat away, and dashed +into the sea. This gave a serious aspect to Debby's foolish jest. A +feeling of dismay seized her, when she saw a resolute face dividing the +waves behind her, and thought of the rash challenge she had given; but +she had a spirit of her own, and had profited well by Mr. Joe's +instructions; so she drew a long breath, and swam as if for life, +instead of love. Evan was incumbered by his clothing, and Debby had much +the start of him; but, like a second Leander, he hoped to win his Hero, +and, lending every muscle to the work, gained rapidly upon the little +hat which was his beacon through the foam. Debby heard the deep +breathing drawing nearer and nearer, as her pursuer's strong arms cleft +the water and sent it rippling past her lips. Something like terror took +possession of her; for the strength seemed going out of her limbs, and +the rock appeared to recede before her; but the unconquerable blood of +the Pilgrims was in her veins, and "_Nil desperandum_" her motto; so, +setting her teeth, she muttered, defiantly,-- + +"I'll not be beaten, if I go to the bottom!" + +A great splashing arose, and when Evan recovered the use of his eyes, +the pagoda-hat had taken a sudden turn, and seemed making for the +farthest point of the goal. "I am sure of her now," thought Frank; and, +like a gallant sea-god, he bore down upon his prize, clutching it with a +shout of triumph. But the hat was empty, and like a mocking echo came +Debby's laugh, as she climbed, exhausted, to a cranny in the rock. + +"A very neat thing, by Jove! Deuse take me if you a'n't 'an honor to +your teacher, and a terror to the foe,' Miss Wilder," cried Mr. Joe, as +he came up from a solitary cruise and dropped anchor at her side. "Here, +bring along the hat, Evan; I'm going to crown the victor with +appropriate what-d'-ye-call-'ems," he continued, pulling a handful of +sea-weed that looked like well-boiled greens. + +Frank came up, smiling; but his lips were white, and in his eye a look +Debby could not meet; so, being full of remorse, she naturally assumed +an air of gayety, and began to sing the merriest air she knew, merely +because she longed to throw herself upon the stones and cry violently. + +"It was 'most as exciting as a regatta, and you pulled well, Evan; but +you had too much ballast aboard, and Miss Wilder ran up false colors +just in time to save her ship. What was the wager?" asked the lively +Joseph, complacently surveying his marine millinery, which would have +scandalized a fashionable mermaid. + +"Only a trifle," answered Debby, knotting up her braids with a +revengeful jerk. + +"It's taken the wind out of your sails, I fancy, Evan, for you look +immensely Byronic with the starch minus in your collar and your hair in +a poetic toss. Come, I'll try a race with you; and Miss Wilder will +dance all the evening with the winner. Bless the man, what's he doing +down there? Burying sunfish, hey?" + +Frank had been sitting below them on a narrow strip of sand, absently +piling up a little mound that bore some likeness to a grave. As his +companion spoke, he looked at it, and a sudden flush of feeling swept +across his face, as he replied,-- + +"No, only a dead hope." + +"Deuse take it, yes, a good many of that sort of craft founder in these +waters, as I know to my sorrow"; and, sighing tragically, Mr. Joe turned +to help Debby from her perch, but she had glided silently into the sea, +and was gone. + +For the next four hours the poor girl suffered the sharpest pain she had +ever known; for now she clearly saw the strait her folly had betrayed +her into. Frank Evan was a proud man, and would not ask her love again, +believing she had tacitly refused it; and how could she tell him that +she had trifled with the heart she wholly loved and longed to make her +own? She could not confide in Aunt Pen, for that worldly lady would have +no sympathy to bestow. She longed for her mother; but there was no time +to write, for Frank was going on the morrow,--might even then be gone; +and as this fear came over her, she covered up her face and wished that +she were dead. Poor Debby! her last mistake was sadder than her first, +and she was reaping a bitter harvest from her summer's sowing. She sat +and thought till her cheeks burned and her temples throbbed; but she +dared not ease her pain with tears. The gong sounded like a Judgment-Day +trump of doom, and she trembled at the idea of confronting many eyes +with such a telltale face; but she could not stay behind, for Aunt Pen +must know the cause. She tried to play her hard part well; but wherever +she looked, some fresh anxiety appeared, as if every fault and folly of +those months had blossomed suddenly within the hour. She saw Frank Evan +more sombre and more solitary than when she met him first, and cried +regretfully within herself, "How could I so forget the truth I owed +him?" She saw Clara West watching with eager eyes for the coming of +young Leavenworth, and sighed, "This is the fruit of my wicked vanity!" +She saw Aunt Pen regarding her with an anxious face, and longed to say, +"Forgive me, for I have not been sincere!" At last, as her trouble grew, +she resolved to go away and have a quiet "think,"--a remedy which had +served her in many a lesser perplexity; so, stealing out, she went to a +grove of cedars usually deserted at that hour. But in ten minutes Joe +Leavenworth appeared at the door of the summer-house, and, looking in, +said, with a well-acted start of pleasure and surprise,-- + +"Beg pardon, I thought there was no one here. My dear Miss Wilder, you +look contemplative; but I fancy it wouldn't do to ask the subject of +your meditations, would it?" + +He paused with such an evident intention of remaining that Debby +resolved to make use of the moment, and ease her conscience of one care +that burdened it; therefore she answered his question with her usual +directness,-- + +"My meditations were partly about you." + +Mr. Joe was guilty of the weakness of blushing violently and looking +immensely gratified; but his rapture was of short duration, for Debby +went on very earnestly,-- + +"I believe I am going to do what you may consider a very impertinent +thing; but I would rather be unmannerly than unjust to others or untrue +to my own sense of right. Mr. Leavenworth, if you were an older man, I +should not dare to say this to you; but I have brothers of my own, and, +remembering how many unkind things they do for want of thought, I +venture to remind you that a woman's heart is a perilous plaything, and +too tender to be used for a selfish purpose or an hour's pleasure. I +know this kind of amusement is not considered wrong; but it _is_ wrong, +and I cannot shut my eyes to the fact, or sit silent while another woman +is allowed to deceive herself and wound the heart that trusts her. Oh, +if you love your own sisters, be generous, be just, and do not destroy +that poor girl's happiness, but go away before your sport becomes a +bitter pain to her!" + +Joe Leavenworth had stood staring at Debby with a troubled countenance, +feeling as if all the misdemeanors of his life were about to be paraded +before him; but, as he listened to her plea, the womanly spirit that +prompted it appealed more loudly than her words, and in his really +generous heart he felt regret for what had never seemed a fault before. +Shallow as he was, nature was stronger than education, and he admired +and accepted what many a wiser, worldlier man would have resented with +auger or contempt. He loved Debby with all his little might; he meant to +tell her so, and graciously present his fortune and himself for her +acceptance; but now, when the moment came, the well-turned speech he had +prepared vanished from his memory, and with the better eloquence of +feeling he blundered out his passion like a very boy. + +"Miss Dora, I never meant to make trouble between Clara and her lover; +upon my soul, I didn't, and wish Seguin had not put the notion into my +head, since it has given you pain. I only tried to pique you into +showing some regret, when I neglected you; but you didn't, and then I +got desperate and didn't care what became of any one. Oh, Dora, if you +knew how much I loved you, I am sure you'd forgive it, and let me prove +my repentance by giving up everything that you dislike. I mean what I +say; upon my life I do; and I'll keep my word, if you will only let me +hope." + +If Debby had wanted a proof of her love for Frank Evan, she might have +found it in the fact that she had words enough at her command now, and +no difficulty in being sisterly pitiful toward her second suitor. + +"Please get up," she said; for Mr. Joe, feeling very humble and very +earnest, had gone down upon his knees, and sat there entirely regardless +of his personal appearance. + +He obeyed; and Debby stood looking up at him with her kindest aspect, as +she said, more tenderly than she had ever spoken to him before,-- + +"Thank you for the affection you offer me, but I cannot accept it, for I +have nothing to give you in return but the friendliest regard, the most +sincere good-will. I know you will forgive me, and do for your own sake +the good things you would have done for mine, that I may add to my +esteem a real respect for one who has been very kind to me." + +"I'll try,--indeed, I will, Miss Dora, though it will be powerful hard +without yourself for a help and a reward." + +Poor Joe choked a little, but called up an unexpected manliness, and +added, stoutly,-- + +"Don't think I shall be offended at your speaking so, or saying 'No' to +me,--not a bit; it 's all right, and I'm much obliged to you. I might +have known you couldn't care for such a fellow as I am, and don't blame +you, for nobody in the world is good enough for you. I'll go away at +once, I'll try to keep my promise, and I hope you'll be very happy all +your life." + +He shook Debby's hands heartily, and hurried down the steps, but at the +bottom paused and looked back. Debby stood upon the threshold with +sunshine dancing on her winsome face, and kind words trembling on her +lips; for the moment it seemed impossible to part, and, with an +impetuous gesture, he cried to her,-- + +"Oh, Dora, let me stay and try to win you! for everything is possible to +love, and I never knew how dear you were to me till now!" + +There were sudden tears in the young man's eyes, the flush of a genuine +emotion on his cheek, the tremor of an ardent longing in his voice, and, +for the first time, a very true affection strengthened his whole +countenance. Debby's heart was full of penitence; she had given so much +pain to more than one that she longed to atone for it,--longed to do +some very friendly thing, and soothe some trouble such as she herself +had known. She looked into the eager face uplifted to her own and +thought of Will, then stooped and touched her lover's forehead with the +lips that softly whispered, "No." + +If she had cared for him, she never would have done it; poor Joe knew +that, and murmuring an incoherent "Thank you!" he rushed away, feeling +very much as he remembered to have felt when his baby sister died and he +wept his grief away upon his mother's neck. He began his preparations +for departure at once, in a burst of virtuous energy quite refreshing to +behold, thinking within himself, as he flung his cigar-case into the +grate, kicked a billiard-ball into a corner, and suppressed his favorite +allusion to the Devil,-- + +"This is a new sort of thing to me, but I can bear it, and upon my life +I think I feel the better for it already." + +And so he did; for though he was no Augustine to turn in an hour from +worldly hopes and climb to sainthood through long years of inward +strife, yet in after-times no one knew how many false steps had been +saved, how many small sins repented of, through the power of the memory +that far away a generous woman waited to respect him, and in his secret +soul he owned that one of the best moments of his life was that in which +little Debby Wilder whispered "No," and kissed him. + +As he passed from sight, the girl leaned her head upon her hand, +thinking sorrowfully to herself,-- + +"What right had I to censure him, when my own actions are so far from +true? I have done a wicked thing, and as an honest girl I should undo +it, if I can. I have broken through the rules of a false propriety for +Clara's sake; can I not do as much for Frank's? I will. I'll find him, +if I search the house,--and tell him all, though I never dare to look +him in the face again, and Aunt Pen sends me home to-morrow." + +Full of zeal and courage, Debby caught up her hat and ran down the +steps, but, as she saw Frank Evan coming up the path, a sudden panic +fell upon her, and she could only stand mutely waiting his approach. + +It is asserted that Love is blind; and on the strength of that popular +delusion novel heroes and heroines go blundering through three volumes +of despair with the plain truth directly under their absurd noses: but +in real life this theory is not supported; for to a living man the +countenance of a loving woman is more eloquent than any language, more +trustworthy than a world of proverbs, more beautiful than the sweetest +love-lay ever sung. + +Frank looked at Debby, and "all her heart stood up in her eyes," as she +stretched her hands to him, though her lips only whispered very low,-- + +"Forgive me, and let me say the 'Yes' I should have said so long ago." + +Had she required any assurance of her lover's truth, or any reward for +her own, she would have found it in the change that dawned so swiftly in +his face, smoothing the lines upon his forehead, lighting the gloom of +his eye, stirring his firm lips with a sudden tremor, and making his +touch as soft as it was strong. For a moment both stood very still, +while Debby's tears streamed down like summer rain; then Frank drew her +into the green shadow of the grove, and its peace soothed her like a +mother's voice, till she looked up smiling with a shy delight her glance +had never known before. The slant sunbeams dropped a benediction on +their heads, the robins peeped, and the cedars whispered, but no rumor +of what further passed ever went beyond the precincts of the wood; for +such hours are sacred, and Nature guards the first blossoms of a human +love as tenderly as she nurses May-flowers underneath the leaves. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Carroll had retired to her bed with a nervous headache, leaving +Debby to the watch and ward of friendly Mrs. Earle, who performed her +office finely by letting her charge entirely alone. In her dreams Aunt +Pen was just imbibing a copious draught of Champagne at the +wedding-breakfast of her niece, "Mrs. Joseph Leavenworth," when she was +roused by the bride elect, who passed through the room with a lamp and a +shawl in her hand. + +"What time is it, and where are you going, dear?" she asked, dozily +wondering if the carriage for the wedding-tour was at the door so soon. + +"It's only nine, and I am going for a sail, Aunt Pen." + +As Debby spoke, the light flashed full into her face, and a sudden +thought into Mrs. Carroll's mind. She rose up from her pillow, looking +as stately in her nightcap as Maria Theresa is said to have done in like +unassuming head-gear. + +"Something has happened, Dora! What have you done? What have you said? I +insist upon knowing immediately," she demanded, with somewhat startling +brevity. + +"I have said 'No' to Mr. Leavenworth and 'Yes' to Mr. Evan; and I should +like to go home to-morrow, if you please," was the equally concise +reply. + +Mrs. Carroll fell flat in her bed, and lay there stiff and rigid as +Morlena Kenwigs. Debby gently drew the curtains, and stole away, leaving +Aunt Pen's wrath to effervesce before morning. + +The moon was hanging luminous and large on the horizon's edge, sending +shafts of light before her till the melancholy ocean seemed to smile, +and along that shining pathway happy Debby and her lover floated into +that new world where all things seem divine. + + * * * * * + + + + +WET-WEATHER WORK. + +BY A FARMER. + +III. + + +Will any of our artists ever give us, on canvas, a good, rattling, saucy +shower? There is room in it for a rare handling of the brush:--the +vague, indistinguishable line of hills, (as I see them to-day,)--the +wild scud of gray, with fine gray lines, slanted by the wind, and +trending eagerly downward,--the swift, petulant dash into the little +pools of the highway, making fairy bubbles that break as soon as they +form,--the land smoking with excess of moisture,--and the pelted leaves +all wincing and shining and adrip. + +I know no painter who has so well succeeded in putting a wet sky into +his pictures as Turner; and in this I judge him by the literal +_chiaroscuro_ of engraving. In proof of it, I take down from my shelf +his "Rivers of France": a book over which I have spent a great many +pleasant hours, and idle ones too,--if it be idle to travel leagues at +the turning of a page, and to see hill-sides spotty with vineyards, and +great bridges wallowing through the Loire, and to watch the fishermen of +Honfleur putting to sea. There are skies, as I said, in some of these +pictures which make a man instinctively think of his umbrella, or of his +distance from home: no actual rain-drift stretching from them, but such +unmistakable promise of a rainy afternoon, in their little parallel +wisps of dark-bottomed clouds, as would make a provident farmer order +every scythe out of the field. + +In the "Chair of Gargantua," on which my eye falls, as I turn over the +pages, an actual thunder-storm is breaking. The scene is somewhere upon +the Lower Seine. From the middle of the left of the picture the lofty +river-bank stretches far across, forming all the background;--its +extreme distance hidden by a bold thrust of the right bank, which juts +into the picture just far enough to shelter a white village, which lies +gleaming upon the edge of the water. On all the foreground lies the +river, broad as a bay. The storm is coming down the stream. Over the +left spur of the bank, and over the meeting of the banks, it broods +black as night. Through a little rift there is a glimpse of serene sky, +from which a mellow light streams down upon the edges and angles of a +few cliffs upon the farther shore. All the rest is heavily shadowed. The +edges of the coming tempest are tortuous and convulsed, and you know +that a fierce wind is driving the black billows on; yet all the water +under the lee of the shores is as tranquil as a dream; a white sail, +near to the white village, hangs slouchingly to the mast: but in the +foreground the tempest has already caught the water; a tall lugger is +scudding and careening under it as if mad; the crews of three +fishermen's boats, that toss on the vexed water, are making a confused +rush to shorten sail, and you may almost fancy that you hear their +outcries sweeping down the wind. In the middle scene, a little steamer +is floating tranquilly on water which is yet calm; and a column of smoke +piling up from its tall chimney rises for a space placidly enough, until +the wind catches and whisks it before the storm. I would wager ten to +one, upon the mere proof in the picture, that the fishermen and the +washerwomen in the foreground will be drenched within an hour. + +When I have once opened the covers of Turner,--especially upon such a +wet day as this,--it is hard for me to leave him until I have wandered +all up and down the Loire, revisited Tours and its quiet cathedral, and +Blois with its stately chateau, and Amboise with its statelier, and +coquetted again with memories of the Maid of Orleans. + +From the Upper Loire it is easy to slip into the branching valleys +which sidle away from it far down into the country of the Auvergne. +Turner does not go there, indeed; the more's the pity; but I do, since +it is the most attractive region rurally (Brittany perhaps excepted) in +all France. The valleys are green, the brooks are frequent, the rivers +are tortuous, the mountains are high, and luxuriant walnut-trees embower +the roads. It was near to Moulins, on the way hither, through the +pleasant Bourbonnois, that Tristram Shandy met with the poor, +half-crazed Maria, piping her evening service to the Virgin. + +And at that thought I must do no less than pull down my "Tristram +Shandy," (on which the dust of years has accumulated,) and read again +that tender story of the lorn maiden, with her attendant goat, and her +hair caught up in a silken fillet, and her shepherd's pipe, from which +she pours out a low, plaintive wail upon the evening air. + +It is not a little singular that a British author should have supplied +the only Arcadian resident of all this Arcadian region. The Abbe Delille +was, indeed, born hereabout, within sight of the bold Puy de Dome, and +within marketing-distance of the beautiful Clermont. But there is very +little that is Arcadian, in freshness or simplicity, in either the +"Gardens" or the other verse of Delille. + +Out of his own mouth (the little green-backed book, my boy) I will +condemn him:-- + + "Ce n'est plus cette simple et rustique deesse + Qui suit ses vieilles lois; c'est une enchanteresse + Qui, la baguette en main, par des hardis travaux + Fait naitre des aspects et des tresors nouveaux, + Compose un sol plus riche et des races plus belles, + Fertilise les monts, dompte les rocs rebelles." + +The _baguette_ of Delille is no shepherd's crook; it has more the +fashion of a drumstick,--_baguette de tambour_. + +If I follow on southward to Provence, whither I am borne upon the scuds +of rain over Turner's pictures, and the pretty Bourbonnois, and the +green mountains of Auvergne, I find all the characteristic literature of +that land of olives is only of love or war: the vines, the +olive-orchards, and the yellow hill-sides pass for nothing. And if I +read an old _Sirvente_ of the Troubadours, beginning with a certain +redolence of the fields, all this yields presently to knights, and +steeds caparisoned,-- + + "Cavalliers ab cavals armatz." + +It is smooth reading, and is attributed to Bertrand de Born,[3] who +lived in the time when even the lion-hearted King Richard turned his +brawny fingers to the luting of a song. Let us listen:-- + + "The beautiful spring delights me well, + When flowers and leaves are growing; + And it pleases my heart to hear the swell + Of the birds' sweet chorus flowing + In the echoing wood; + And I love to see, all scattered around, + Pavilions and tents on the martial ground; + And my spirit finds it good + To see, on the level plains beyond, + Gay knights and steeds caparisoned." + +[Footnote 3: M. Raynouard, _Poesies de Troubadours_, II. 209.] + +But as the Troubadour nestles more warmly into the rhythm of his verse, +the birds are all forgotten, and the beautiful spring, and there is a +sturdy clang of battle, that would not discredit our own times:-- + + "I tell you that nothing my soul can cheer, + Or banqueting or reposing, + Like the onset cry of 'Charge them!' rung + From each side, as in battle closing; + Where the horses neigh, + And the call to 'aid' is echoing loud, + And there, on the earth, the lowly and proud + In the foss together lie, + And yonder is piled the mingled heap + Of the brave that scaled the trenches steep. + + "Barons! your castles in safety place, + Your cities and villages, too, + Before ye haste to the battle-scene: + And Papiol! quickly go, + And tell the lord of 'Yes and No' + That peace already too long hath been!"[4] + +[Footnote 4: I cannot forbear taking a bit of margin to print the +closing stanzas of the original, which carry the clash of sabres in +their very sound. + + "Ie us dic que tan no m' a sabor + Manjars ni beure ni dormir + Cum a quant aug cridar: A lor! + D'ambas las partz; et aug agnir + Cavals voitz per l'ombratge, + Et aug cridar: Aidatz! Aidatz! + E vei cazer per los fossatz + Paucs e grans per l'erbatge, + E vei los mortz que pels costatz + An los tronsons outre passatz. + + "Baros, metetz et gatge + Castels e vilas e ciutatz, + Enans q' usquecs no us guerreiatz. + + "Papiol, d'agradatge + Ad _Oc e No_ t' en vai viatz, + Dic li que trop estan en patz." + +It would seem that the men of that time, like men of most times, bore a +considerable contempt for people who said "Yes" one day, and "No" the +next.] + +I am on my way to Italy, (it may as well be confessed,) where I had +fully intended to open my rainy day's work; but Turner has kept me, and +then Auvergne, and then the brisk battle-song of a Troubadour. + +When I was upon the Cajano farm of Lorenzo the Magnificent, during my +last "spell of wet," it was uncourteous not to refer to the pleasant +commemorative poem of "Ambra," which Lorenzo himself wrote, and which, +whatever may be said against the conception and conduct of it, shows in +its opening stanzas that the great Medici was as appreciative of rural +images--fir-boughs with loaded snows, thick cypresses in which late +birds lurked, sharp-leaved junipers, and sturdy pines fighting the +wind--as ever he had been of antique jewels, or of the rhythm of such as +Politiano. And if I have spoken slightingly of this latter poet, it was +only in contrast with Virgil, and in view of his strained Latinity. When +he is himself, and wraps his fancies only in his own sparkling Tuscan, +we forget his classic frigidities, and his quarrels with Madonna +Clarice, and are willing to confess that no pen of his time was dipped +with such a relishing _gusto_ into the colors of the hyacinths and +trembling pansies, and into all the blandishments of a gushing and +wanton spring.[5] + + +[Footnote 5: See Wm. Parr Greswell's _Memoirs of Politiano_, with +translations.] + +But classical affectation was the fashion of that day. A certain +Bolognese noble, Bero by name, wrote ten Latin books on rural affairs: +Tiraboschi says he never saw them; neither have I. Another scholar, +Pietro da Barga, who astonished his teachers by his wonderful +proficiency at the age of twelve, and who was afterward guest of the +French ambassador in Venice, wrote a poem on rural matters, to which, +with an exaggerated classicism, he gave the Greek name of +"_Cynegeticon_"; and about the same time Giuseppe Voltolina composed +three books on kitchen-gardening. I name these writers only out of +sympathy with their topics: I would not advise the reading of them: it +would involve a long journey and scrupulous search to find them, through +I know not what out-of-the-way libraries; and if found, no essentially +new facts or theories could be counted on which are not covered by the +treatise of Crescenzi. The Pisans or Venetians may possibly have +introduced a few new plants from the East; the example of the Medici may +have suggested some improvements in the arrangement of forcing-houses, +or the outlay of villas; but in all that regarded general husbandry, +Crescenzi was still the man. + +I linger about this period, and the writers of this time, because I +snuff here and there among them the perfume of a country bouquet, which +carries the odor of the fields with it, and transports me to the +"empurpled hill-sides" of Tuscany. Shall I name Sannazaro, with his +"Arcadia"?--a dead book now,--or "Amyntas," who, before he is tall +enough to steal apples from the lowest boughs, (so sings Tasso,) plunges +head and ears in love with Sylvia, the fine daughter of Montano, who has +a store of cattle, "_richissimo d'armenti_"? + +Then there is Rucellai, who, under the pontificate of Leo X., came to +be Governor of the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and yet has left a poem of +fifteen hundred lines devoted to Bees. In his suggestions for the +allaying of a civil war among these winged people, he is quite beyond +either Virgil or Columella or Mr. Lincoln. "Pluck some leafy branch," he +says, "and with it sprinkle the contending factions with either honey or +sweet grape-juice, and you shall see them instantly forego their +strife":-- + + "The two warring bands joyful unite, + And foe embraces foe: each with its lips + Licking the others' wings, feet, arms, and breast, + Whereon the luscious mixture hath been shed, + And all inebriate with delight." + +So the Swiss,[6] he continues, when they fall out among themselves, are +appeased by some grave old gentleman, who says a few pleasant words, and +orders up a good stoop of sweet wine, in which all parties presently dip +their beards, and laugh and embrace and make peace, and so forget +outrage. It may have been the sixteenth-century way of closing a battle. + +[Footnote 6: + "Come quando nei Suizzeri si muove + Sedizione, e che si grida a l' arme; + Se qualche nom grave allor si leva in piede + E comincia a parlar con dolce lingua, + Mitiga i petti barbari e feroci; + E intanto fa portare ondanti vasi + Pieni di dolci ed odorati vini; + Ahora ognun le labbra e 'l mento immerge + Ne' le spumanti tazze," etc. +] + +Guarini, with all his affectations, has little prettinesses which charm +like the chirping of a bird;--as where he paints (in the very first +scene of the "Pastor Fido") the little sparrow flitting from fir to +beech, and from beech to myrtle, and twittering, "How I love! how I +love!" And the bird-mate ("_il suo dolce desio_") twitters in reply, +"How I love, how I love, too!" "_Ardo d' amore anch' io._" + +Messer Pietro Bembo was a different man from Guarini. I cannot imagine +him listening to the sparrows; I cannot imagine him plucking a +flower,--except he have some courtly gallantry in hand, perhaps toward +the Borgia. He was one of those pompous, stiff, scholastic prigs who +wrote by rules of syntax; and of syntax he is dead. He was clever and +learned; he wrote in Latin, Italian, Castlian: but nobody reads him; he +has only a little crypt in the "Autori Diversi." I think of him as I +think of fine women who must always rustle in brocade embossed with hard +jewels, and who never win the triumphs that belong to a charming morning +_deshabille_ with only the added improvisation of a rose. + +In his "Asolani" Bembo gives a very full and minute description of the +gardens at Asolo, which relieved the royal retirement of Caterina, the +Queen of Cyprus. Nothing could be more admirable than the situation: +there were skirts of mountain which were covered, and are still covered, +with oaks; there were grottos in the sides of cliffs, and water so +disposed--in jets, in pools inclosed by marble, and among rocks--as to +counterfeit all the wildness of Nature; there was the same stately array +of cypresses, and of clipped hedges, which had belonged to the villas of +Pliny; temples were decorated with blazing frescoes, to which, I dare +say, Carpaccio may have lent a hand, if not that wild rake, Giorgione. +Here the pretty Queen, with eight thousand gold ducats a year, (whatever +that amount may have been,) and some seventy odd retainers, held her +court; and here Bembo, a dashing young fellow at that time of seven or +eight and twenty, became a party to those disquisitions on Love, and to +those recitations of song, part of which he has recorded in the +"Asolani." I am sorry to say, the beauty of the place, so far as regards +its artificial features, is now all gone. The hall, which may have +served as the presence-chamber of the Queen, was only a few years since +doing service as a farmer's barn; and the traces of a Diana and an +Apollo were still coloring the wall under which a few cows were +crunching their clover-hay. + +All the gardening of Italy at that period, as, indeed, at almost all +times, depended very much upon architectural accessories: colonnades and +wall-veil with frescoes make a large part of Italian gardening to this +day. The Isola Bella in the Lago Maggiore, and the Borghese Garden at +Rome, are fair types. And as I recall the sunny vistas of this last, and +the noontide loungings upon the marble seats, counting white flecks of +statues amid the green of cypresses, and watching the shadow which some +dense-topped pine flings upon a marble flight of steps or a marble +balustrade, I cannot sneer at the Italian gardening, or wish it were +other than it is. The art-life of Italy is the crowning and the +overlapping life. The Campagna seems only a bit of foreground to carry +the leaping arches of the aqueducts, and to throw the hills of Tivoli +and Albano to a purple distance. The farmers (_fattori_) who gallop +across the fields, in rough sheepskin wrappers, and upon scurvy-looking +ponies, are more picturesque than thrifty; and if I gallop in company +with one of them to his home upon the farther edge of the Campagna, +(which is an allowable wet-day fancy,) I shall find a tall stone house +smeared over roughly with plaster, and its ground-floor devoted to a +crazy cart, a pony, a brace of cows, and a few goats; a rude court is +walled in adjoining the house, where a few pigs are grunting. Ascending +an oaken stair-way within the door, I come upon the living-room of the +_fattore_; the beams overhead are begrimed with smoke, and garnished +here and there with flitches of bacon; a scant fire of fagots is +struggling into blaze upon an open hearth; and on a low table bare of +either cloth or cleanliness, there waits him his supper of _polenta_, +which is nothing more or less than our plain boiled Indian-pudding. Add +to this a red-eyed dog, that seems to be a savage representative of a +Scotch colley,--a lean, wrinkled, dark-faced woman, who is unwinding the +bandages from a squalling _Bambino_,--a mixed odor of garlic and of +goats, that is quickened with an ammoniacal pungency,--and you may form +some idea of the home of a small Roman farmer in our day. It falls away +from the standard of Cato; and so does the man. + +He takes his twenty or thirty acres, upon shares, from some wealthy +proprietor of Rome, whose estate may possibly cover a square mile or two +of territory. He sells vegetables, poultry, a little grain, a few curds, +and possibly a butt or two of sour wine. He is a type of a great many +who lived within the limits of the old Papal territory; whether he and +they have dropped their musty sheepskins and shaken off their unthrift +under the new government, I cannot say. + +Around Bologna, indeed, there was a better race of farmers: the +intervening thrift of Tuscany had always its influence. The meadows of +Terni, too, which are watered by the Velino, bear three full crops of +grass in the season; the valley of the Clitumnus is like a miniature of +the Genesee; and around Perugia the crimson-tasselled clovers, in the +season of their bloom, give to the fields the beauty of a garden. + +The old Duke of Tuscany, before he became soured by his political +mishaps, was a great patron of agricultural improvements. He had +princely farms in the neighborhood both of his capital and of Pisa. Of +the latter I cannot speak from personal observation; but the dairy-farm, +_Cascina_, near to Florence, can hardly have been much inferior to the +Cajano property of the great Lorenzo. The stables were admirably +arranged, and of permanent character; the neatness was equal to that of +the dairies of Holland. The Swiss cows, of a pretty dun-color, were kept +stalled, and luxuriously fed upon freshly cut ray-grass, clover, or +vetches, with an occasional sprinkling of meal; the calves were +invariably reared by hand; and the average _per diem_ of milk, +throughout the season, was stated at fourteen quarts; and I think +Madonna Clarice never strained more than this into the cheese-tubs of +Ambra. I trust the burghers of Florence, and the new _Gonfaloniere_, +whoever he may be, will not forget the dun cows of the Cascina, or their +baitings with the tender vetches. + +The redemption of the waste marshlands in the Val di Chiana by the +engineering skill of Fossombroni, and the consequent restoration of many +thousands of acres which seemed hopelessly lost to fertility, is a +result of which the Medici would hardly have dreamed, and which would do +credit to any age or country. + +About the better-cultivated portions of Lombardy there is an almost +regal look. The roads are straight, and of most admirable construction. +Lines of trees lift their stateliness on either side, and carry trailing +festoons of vines. On both sides streams of water are flowing in +artificial canals, interrupted here and there by cross sluices and +gates, by means of which any or all of the fields can be laid under +water at pleasure, so that old meadows return three and four cuttings of +grass in the year. There are patches of Indian-corn which are equal to +any that can be seen on the Miami; hemp and flax appear at intervals, +and upon the lower lands rice. The barns are huge in size, and are +raised from the ground upon columns of masonry. + +I have a dapper little note-book of travel, from which these facts are +mainly taken; and at the head of one of its pages I observe an old +ink-sketch of a few trees, with festoons of vines between. It is +yellowed now, and poor always; for I am but a dabbler at such things. +Yet it brings back, clearly and briskly, the broad stretch of Lombard +meadows, the smooth Macadam, the gleaming canals of water, the white +finials of Milan Cathedral shining somewhere in the distance, the +thrushes, as in the "Pastor Fido," filling all the morning air with +their sweet + + "Ardo d' amore! ardo d' amore!" + +the dewy clover-lots, looking like wavy silken plush, the green glitter +of mulberry-leaves, and the beggar in steeple-crowned hat, who says, +"_Grazia_," and "_A rivedervi!_" as I drop him a few kreutzers, and +rattle away to the North, and out of Italy. + + * * * * * + +About the year 1570, a certain Conrad Heresbach, who was Councillor to +the Duke of Cleves, (brother to that unfortunate Anne of Cleves who was +one of the wife-victims of Henry VIII.,) wrote four Latin books on +rustic affairs, which were translated by Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire +farmer and poet, who was in his day gentleman-pensioner to Queen +Elizabeth. Our friend Barnaby introduces his translation in this +style:--"I haue thought it meet (good Reader) for thy further profit & +pleasure, to put into English these foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected +& set forth by Master Conrade Heresbatch, a great & a learned Counceller +of the Duke of Cleues: not thinking it reason, though I haue altered & +increased his worke, _with mine owne readings & obseruations_, joined +with the experience of sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in +the like case haue done) the honour & glory of his owne trauaile: +Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings or mine, should +deface, or any waves darken the good enterprise, or painfull trauailes +of such our countrymen, of England, as haue plentifully written of this +matter: but always haue, & do giue them the reuerence & honour due to so +vertuous, & well disposed Gentlemen, namely, _Master Fitz herbert_, & +_Master Tusser_: whose workes may, in my fancie, without any +presumption, compare with any, either _Varro_, _Columella_, or +_Palladius_ of _Rome_." + +The work is written in the form of a dialogue, the parties being Cono, a +country-gentleman, Metella, his wife, Rigo, a courtier, and Hermes, a +servant. The first book relates to tillage, and farm-practice in +general; the second, to orcharding, gardens, and woods; the third, to +cattle; and the fourth, to fowl, fish, and bees. He had evidently been +an attentive reader of the older authors I have discussed, and his +citations from them are abundant. He had also opportunity for every-day +observation in a region which, besides being one of the most fertile, +was probably at that time the most highly cultivated in Europe; and his +work may be regarded as the most important contribution to agricultural +literature since the days of Crescenzi. He reaffirms, indeed, many of +the old fables of the Latinists,--respects the force of proper +incantations, has abiding faith in "the moon being aloft" in time of +sowing, and insists that the medlar can be grafted on the pine, and the +cherry upon the fir. Rue, he tells us, "will prosper the better for +being stolen"; and "If you breake to powder the horne of a Ram & sowe it +watrying it well, it is thought it will come to be good Sperage" +(Asparagus). He assures us that he has grafted the pear successfully +when in full bloom; and furthermore, that he has seen apples which have +been kept sound for three years. + +Upon the last page are some rules for purchasing land, which I suspect +are to be attributed to the poet of Lincolnshire, rather than to +Heresbach. They are as good as they were then; and the poetry none the +worse:-- + + "First see that the land be clear + In title of the seller; + And that it stand in danger + Of no woman's dowrie; + See whether the tenure be bond or free, + And release of every fee of fee; + See that the seller be of age, + And that it lie not in mortgage; + Whether ataile be thereof found, + And whether it stand in statute bound; + Consider what service longeth thereto, + And what quit rent thereout must goe; + And if it become of a wedded woman, + Think thou then on covert baron; + And if thou may in any wise, + Make thy charter in warrantise, + To thee, thine heyres, assignes also; + Thus should a wise purchaser doe." + +The learned Lipsius was a contemporary of Councillor Heresbach, and +although his orthodoxy was somewhat questionable, and his Calvinism +somewhat stretchy, there can be no doubt of the honest rural love which +belongs to some of his letters, and especially to this smack of verse (I +dare not say poetry) with which he closes his _Eighth (Cent. I.)_ + + "Vitam si liceat mihi + Formare arbitriis meis: + Non fasces cupiam aut opes, + Non clarus niveis equis + Captiva agmina traxerim. + In solis habitem locis, + Hortos possideam atque agros, + Illic ad strepitus aquae + Musarum studiis fruar. + Sic cum fata mihi ultima + Pernerit Lachesis mea; + Tranquillus moriar senex." + +And with this I will have done with a dead language; for I am come to a +period now when I can garnish my talk with the flowers of good old +English gardens. At the very thought of them, I seem to hear the royal +captive James pouring madrigals through the window of his Windsor +prison,-- + + "the hymnis consecrat + Of lovis use, now soft, now loud among, + That all the gardens and the wallis rung." + +And through the "Dreme" of Chaucer I seem to see the great plain of +Woodstock stretching away under my view, all white and green, "green +y-powdered with daisy." Upon the half-ploughed land, lying yonder veiled +so tenderly with the mist and the rain, I could take oath to the very +spot where five hundred years ago the plowman of Chaucer, all "forswat," + + "plucked up his plowe + Whan midsomer mone was comen in + And shoke off shear, and coulter off drowe, + And honged his harnis on a pinne, + And said his beasts should ete enowe + And lie in grasse up to the chin." + +But Chaucer was no farmer, or he would have known it to be bad husbandry +(even for poetry) to allow cattle steaming from the plough to lie down +in grass of that height. + + * * * * * + +Sir Anthony Fitz-herbert is the first duly accredited writer on British +husbandry. There are some few earlier ones, it is true,--a certain +"Mayster Groshede, Bysshop of Lyncoln," and a Henri Calcoensis, among +them. Indeed, Mr. Donaldson, who has compiled a bibliography of British +farm-writers, and who once threatened a poem on kindred subjects, has +the effrontery to include Lord Littleton. Now I have a respect for Lord +Littleton, and for Coke on Littleton, but it is tempered with some early +experiences in a lawyer's office, and some later experiences of the +legal profession; he may have written well upon "Tenures," but he had +not enough of tenderness even for a teasel. + +I think it worthy of remark, in view of the mixed complexion which I +have given to these wet-day studies, that the oldest printed copy of +that sweet ballad of the "Nut Browne Mayde" has come to us in a +Chronicle of 1503, which contains also a chapter upon "the crafte of +graffynge & plantynge & alterynge of fruyts." What could be happier than +the conjunction of the knight of "the grenwode tree" with a good chapter +on "graffynge"? + +Fitz-herbert's work is entitled a "Boke of Husbandrie," and counts, +among other headings of discourse, the following:-- + +"Whether is better a plough of horses or a plough of oxen." + +"To cary out dounge & mucke, & to spreade it." + +"The fyrste furryng of the falowes." + +"To make a ewe to love hir lambe." + +"To bye lean cattel." + +"A shorte information for a young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve." + +"What the wyfe oughte to dooe generally." + +(_seq._) "To kepe measure in spendynge." + +"What be God's commandments." + +By all which it may be seen that Sir Anthony took as broad a view of +husbandry as did Xenophon. + +Among other advices to the "young gentyleman that entendeth to thryve" +he counsels him to rise betime in the morning, and if "he fynde any +horses, mares, swyne, shepe, beastes in his pastures that be not his +own; or fynde a gap in his hedge, or any water standynge in his pasture +uppon his grasse, whereby he may take double herte, bothe losse of his +grasse, & rotting of his shepe, & calves; or if he fyndeth or seeth +anything that is amisse, & wold be amended, let him take out his tables +& wryte the defautes; & when he commeth home to dinner, supper, or at +nyght, then let him call his bayley, & soo shewe him the defautes. For +this," says he, "used I to doo x or xi yeres or more; & yf he cannot +wryte, lette him nycke the defautes uppon a stycke." + +Sir Anthony is gracious to the wife, but he is not tender; and it may be +encouraging to country-housewives nowadays to see what service was +expected of their mothers in the days of Henry VIII. + +"It is a wives occupacion to winow al maner of cornes, to make malte, +wash & wring, to make hey, to shere corne, & in time of neede to helpe +her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or donge carte, dryve the plough, +to lode hay corne & such other. Also to go or ride to the market to sell +butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekens, kapons, hennes, pygges, gees & al +maner of corne. And also to bye al maner of necessary thinges belonging +to a household, & to make a true rekening & accompt to her husband what +she hath receyved & what she hathe payed. And yf the husband go to +market to bye or sell as they ofte do, he then to shew his wife in lyke +maner. For if one of them should use to disceive the other, he +disceyveth himselfe, & he is not lyke to thryve, & therfore they must be +true ether to other." + + * * * * * + +I come next to Master Tusser,--poet, farmer, chorister, vagabond, +happily dead at last, and with a tomb whereon some wag wrote this:-- + + "Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive, + Thou teaching thrift, thyself could never thrive; + So, like the whetstone, many men are wont + To sharpen others when themselves are blunt." + +I cannot help considering poor Tusser's example one of warning to all +poetically inclined farmers. + +He was born at a little village in the County of Essex. Having a good +voice, he came early in life to be installed as singer at Wallingford +College; and showing here a great proficiency, he was shortly after +impressed for the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Afterward he was for +some time at Eton, where he had the ill-luck to receive some fifty-four +stripes for his shortcomings in Latin; thence he goes to Trinity +College, Cambridge, where he lives "in clover." It appears that he had +some connections at Court, through whose influence he was induced to go +up to London, where he remained some ten years,--possibly as +singer,--but finally left in great disgust at the vices of the town, and +commenced as farmer in Suffolk,-- + + "To moil and to toil + With loss and pain, to little gain, + To cram Sir Knave";-- + +from which I fancy that he had a hard landlord, and but little sturdy +resolution. Thence he goes to Ipswich, or its neighborhood, with no +better experience. Afterward we hear of him with a second wife at +Dereham Abbey; but his wife is young and sharp-tempered, and his +landlord a screw: so he does not thrive here, but goes to Norwich and +commences chorister again; but presently takes another farm in +Fairstead, Essex, where it would seem he eked out a support by +collecting tithes for the parson. But he says,-- + + "I spyed, if parson died, + (All hope in vain,) to hope for gain + I might go dance." + +Possibly he did go dance: he certainly left the tithe-business, and +after settling in one more home, from which he ran to escape the plague, +we find him returned to London, to die,--where he was buried in the +Poultry. + +There are good points in his poem, showing close observation, good +sense, and excellent judgment. His rules of farm-practice are entirely +safe and judicious, and make one wonder how the man who could give such +capital advice could make so capital a failure. In the secret lies all +the philosophy of the difference between knowledge and practice. The +instance is not without its modern support: I have the honor of +acquaintance with several gentlemen who lay down charming rules for +successful husbandry, every time they pay the country a visit; and yet +even their poultry-account is always largely against the constipated +hens. + +What is specially remarkable about Tusser is his air of entire +resignation amid all manner of vicissitudes: he does not seem to count +his hardships either wonderful or intolerable or unmerited. He tells us +of the thrashing he had at Eton, (fifty-four licks,) without greatly +impugning the head-master; and his shiftlessness in life makes us +strongly suspect that he deserved it all. + +Fuller, in his "Worthies," says Tusser "spread his bread with all sorts +of butter, yet none would stick thereon." In short, though the poet +wrote well on farm-practice, he certainly was not a good exemplar of +farm-successes. With all his excellent notions about sowing and reaping, +and rising with the lark, I should look for a little more of stirring +mettle and of dogged resolution in a man to be recommended as a tenant. +I cannot help thinking less of him as a farmer than as a kind-hearted +poet; too soft of the edge to cut very deeply into hard-pan, and too +porous and flimsy of character for any compacted resolve: yet taking +life tenderly, withal; good to those poorer than himself; making a +rattling appeal for Christmas charities; hospitable, cheerful, and +looking always to the end with an honest clearness of vision:-- + + "To death we must stoop, be we high, be we low, + But how, and how suddenly, few be that know, + What carry we, then, but a sheet to the grave, + (To cover this carcass,) of all that we have?" + + * * * * * + +I now come to Sir Hugh Platt, called by Mr. Weston, in his catalogue of +English authors, "the most ingenious husbandman of his age."[7] He is +elsewhere described as a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who had two +estates in the country, besides a garden in St. Martin's Lane. He was an +enthusiast in agricultural, as well as horticultural inquiries, +corresponding largely with leading farmers, and conducting careful +experiments within his own grounds. In speaking of that "rare and +peerless plant, the grape," he insists upon the wholesomeness of the +wines he made from his Bednall-Greene garden: "And if," he says, "any +exception shold be taken against the race and delicacie of them, I am +content to submit them to the censure of the best mouthes, that professe +any true skill in the judgment of high country wines: although for their +better credit herein, I could bring in the French Ambassador, who (now +almost two yeeres since, comming to my house of purpose to tast these +wines) gaue this sentence upon them: that he neuer drank any better new +wine in France." + +[Footnote 7: Latter part of sixteenth century; and was living, according +to Johnson, as late as 1606.] + +I must confess to more doubt of the goodness of the wine than of the +speech of the ambassador; French ambassadors are always so complaisant! + +Again he indulges us in the story of a pretty conceit whereby that +"delicate Knight," Sir Francis Carew, proposed to astonish the Queen by +a sight of a cherry-tree in full bearing, a month after the fruit had +gone by in England. "This secret he performed, by straining a Tent or +couer of canuass ouer the whole tree, and wetting the same now and then +with a scoope or horne, as the heat of the weather required: and so, by +witholding the sunne beams from reflecting upon the berries, they grew +both great, and were very long before they had gotten their perfect +cherrie-colour: and when he was assured of her Majestie's comming, he +remoued the Tent, and a few sunny daies brought them to their full +maturities." + +These notices are to be found in his "Flores Paradise." Another work, +entitled "Dyuers Soyles for manuring pasture & arable land," enumerates, +in addition to the usual odorous galaxy, such extraordinarily new +matters (in that day) as "salt, street-dirt, clay, Fullers earth, +moorish earth, fern, hair, calcination of all vegetables, malt dust, +soap-boilers ashes, and marle." But what I think particularly commends +him to notice, and makes him worthy to be enrolled among the pioneers, +is his little tract upon "The Setting of Corne."[8] + +[Footnote 8: This is not mentioned either by Felton in his _Portraits_, +etc., or by Johnson in his _History of Gardening_. Donaldson gives the +title, and the headings of the chapters.] + +In this he anticipates the system of "dibbling" grain, which, +notwithstanding, is spoken of by writers within half a century[9] as a +new thing; and which, it is needless to say, still prevails extensively +in many parts of England. If the tract alluded to be indeed the work of +Sir Hugh Platt, it antedates very many of the suggestions and +improvements which are usually accorded to Tull. The latter, indeed, +proposed the drill, and repeated tillage; but certain advantages, before +unconsidered, such as increased tillering of individual plants, economy +of seed, and facility of culture, are common to both systems. Sir Hugh, +in consecutive chapters, shows how the discovery came about; "why the +corne shootes into so many eares"; how the ground is to be dug for the +new practice; and what are the several instruments for making the holes +and covering the grain. + +[Footnote 9: See Young, _Annals of Agriculture_, Vol. III. p. 219, _et +seq._] + +I cannot take a more courteous leave of this worthy gentleman than by +giving his own _envoi_ to the most considerable of his books:--"Thus, +gentle Reader, having acquainted thee with my long, costly, and +laborious collections, not written at Adventure, or by an imaginary +conceit in a Scholler's private studie, but wrung out of the earth, by +the painfull hand of experience: and having also given thee a touch of +Nature, whom no man as yet ever durst send naked into the worlde without +her veyle: and Expecting, by thy good entertainement of these, some +encouragement for higher and deeper discoveries hereafter, I leave thee +to the God of Nature, from whom all the true light of Nature +proceedeth." + + * * * * * + +Gervase Markham must have been a roistering gallant about the time that +Sir Hugh was conducting his experiments on "Soyles"; for, in 1591, he +had the honor to be dangerously wounded in a duel which he fought in +behalf of the Countess of Shrewsbury; there are also some painful rumors +current (in old books) in regard to his habits in early life, which +weaken somewhat our trust in him as a quiet country counsellor. I +suspect, that, up to mature life, at any rate, he knew much more about +the sparring of a game-cock than the making of capons. Yet he wrote +books upon the proper care of beasts and fowls, as well as upon almost +every subject connected with husbandry. And that these were good books, +or at least in large demand, we have in evidence the memorandum of a +promise which some griping bookseller extorted from him, under date of +July, 1617:-- + +"I, Gervase Markham, of London, Gent, do promise hereafter never to +write any more book or books to be printed of the diseases or cures of +any cattle, as horse, oxe, cowe, sheepe, swine and goates, &c. In +witness whereof, I have hereunto sett my hand, the 24th day of Julie. + +"GERVIS MARKHAM." + +He seems to have been a man of some literary accomplishments, and one +who knew how to turn them to account. He translated the "Maison +Rustique" of Liebault, and had some hand in the concoction of one or two +poems which kindled the ire of the Puritan clergy. There is no doubt but +he was an adroit bookmaker; and the value of his labors, in respect to +practical husbandry, was due chiefly to his art of arranging, +compacting, and illustrating the maxims and practices already received. +His observations upon diseases of cattle and upon horsemanship were +doubtless based on experimental knowledge; for he was a rare and ardent +sportsman, and possessed all a sportsman's keenness in the detection of +infirmities. + +I suspect, moreover, that there were substantial grounds for that +acquaintance with gastronomy shown in the "Country Housewife." In this +book, after discoursing upon cookery and great feasts, he gives the +details of a "humble feast of a proportion which any good man may keep +in his family." + +"As thus:--first, a shield of brawn with mustard; secondly, a boyl'd +capon; thirdly, a boyl'd piece of beef; fourthly, a chine of beef +rosted; fifthly, a neat's tongue rosted; sixthly, a pig rosted; +seventhly chewits baked; eighthly, a goose rosted; ninthly, a swan +rosted; tenthly, a turkey rosted; eleventh, a haunch of venison rosted; +twelfth, a pasty of venison; thirteenth, a kid with a pudding in the +belly; fourteenth, an olive pye; the fifteenth, a couple of capons; the +sixteenth, a custard or dowsets." + +This is what Master Gervase calls a frugal dinner, for the entertainment +of a worthy friend; is it any wonder that he wrote about "Country +Contentments"? + + * * * * * + +My chapter is nearly full; and a burst of sunshine is flaming over all +the land under my eye; and yet I am but just entered upon the period of +English literary history which is most rich in rural illustration. The +mere backs of the books relating thereto, as my glance ranges over them, +where they stand in tidy platoon, start a delightfully confused picture +to my mind. + +I think it possible that Sir Hugh Platt may some day entertain at his +Bednall-Greene garden the worshipful Francis Bacon, who is living down +at Twickenham, and who is a thriving lawyer, and has written essays, +which Sir Hugh must know,--in which he discourses shrewdly upon gardens, +as well as many kindred matters; and through his wide correspondence, +Sir Hugh must probably have heard of certain new herbs which have been +brought home from Virginia and the Roanoke, and very possibly he is +making trial of a tobacco-plant in his garden, to be submitted some day +to his friend, the French Ambassador. + +I can fancy Gervase Markham "making a night of it" with those rollicking +bachelors, Beaumont and Fletcher, at the "Mermaid," or going with them +to the Globe Theatre to see two Warwickshire brothers, Edmund and Will +Shakspeare, who are on the boards there,--the latter taking the part of +Old Knowell, in Ben Jonson's play of "Every Man in his Humour." His +friends say that this Will has parts. + +Then there is the fiery and dashing Sir Philip Sidney, who threatened to +thrust a dagger into the heart of poor Molyneux, his father's steward, +for opening private letters (which poor Molyneux never did); and Sir +Philip knows all about poetry and the ancients; and in virtue of his +knowledges, he writes a terribly magniloquent and tedious "Arcadia," +which, when he comes to die gallantly in battle, is admired and read +everywhere: nowadays it rests mostly on the shelf. But the memory of his +generous and noble spirit is far livelier than his book. It was through +him, and his friendship, probably, that the poet Spenser was gifted by +the Queen with a fine farm of three thousand acres among the Bally-Howra +hills of Ireland. + +And it was here that Sir Walter Raleigh, that "shepherd of the sea," +visited the poet, and found him seated + + "amongst the coolly shade + Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore." + +Did the gallant privateer possibly talk with the farmer about the +introduction of that new esculent, the potato? Did they talk tobacco? +Did Colin Clout have any observations to make upon the rot in sheep, or +upon the probable "clip" of the year? + +Nothing of this; but + + "He pip'd, I sung; and when he sung, I pip'd: + By chaunge of tunes each making other merry." + +The lines would make a fair argument of the poet's bucolic life. I have +a strong faith that his farming was of the higgledy-piggledy order; I do +not believe that he could have set a plough into the sod, or have made a +good "cast" of barley. It is certain, that, when the Tyrone rebels +burned him out of Kilcolman Castle, he took no treasure with him but his +Elizabeth and the two babes; and the only treasures he left were the +ashes of the dear child whose face shone on him there for the last +time,-- + + "bright with many a curl + That clustered round her head." + +I wish I could love his "Shepherd's Calendar"; but I cannot. Abounding +art of language, exquisite fancies, delicacies innumerable there may be; +but there is no exhilarating air from the mountains, no crisp breezes, +no songs that make the welkin ring, no river that champs the bit, no +sky-piercing falcon. + +And as for the "Faery Queene," if I must confess it, I can never read +far without a sense of suffocation from the affluence of its beauties. +It is a marvellously fair sea and broad,--with tender winds blowing over +it, and all the ripples are iris-hued; but you long for some brave blast +that shall scoop great hollows in it, and shake out the briny beads from +its lifted waters, and drive wild scuds of spray among the screaming +curlew. + +In short, I can never read far in Spenser without taking a rest--as we +farmers lean upon our spades, when the digging is in unctuous fat soil +that lifts heavily. + +And so I leave the matter,--with the "Faery Queene" in my thought, and +leaning on my spade. + + * * * * * + + + + +CIVIC BANQUETS. + + +It has often perplexed me to imagine how an Englishman will be able to +reconcile himself to any future state of existence from which the +earthly institution of dinner shall be excluded. Even if he fail to take +his appetite along with him, (which it seems to me hardly possible to +believe, since this endowment is so essential to his composition,) the +immortal day must still admit an interim of two or three hours during +which he will be conscious of a slight distaste, at all events, if not +an absolute repugnance, to merely spiritual nutriment. The idea of +dinner has so imbedded itself among his highest and deepest +characteristics, so illuminated itself with intellect and softened +itself with the kindest emotions of his heart, so linked itself with +Church and State, and grown so majestic with long hereditary customs and +ceremonies, that, by taking it utterly away, Death, instead of putting +the final touch to his perfection, would leave him infinitely less +complete than we have already known him. He could not be roundly happy. +Paradise, among all its enjoyments, would lack one daily felicity which +his sombre little island possessed. Perhaps it is not irreverent to +conjecture that a provision may have been made, in this particular, for +the Englishman's exceptional necessities. It strikes me that Milton was +of the opinion here suggested, and may have intended to throw out a +delightful and consolatory hope for his countrymen, when he represents +the genial archangel as playing his part with such excellent appetite at +Adam's dinner-table, and confining himself to fruit and vegetables only +because, in those early days of her housekeeping, Eve had no more +acceptable viands to set before him. Milton, indeed, had a true English +taste for the pleasures of the table, though refined by the lofty and +poetic discipline to which he had subjected himself. It is delicately +implied in the refection in Paradise, and more substantially, though +still elegantly, betrayed in the sonnet proposing to "Laurence, of +virtuous father virtuous son," a series of nice little dinners in +midwinter; and it blazes fully out in that untasted banquet which, +elaborate as it was, Satan tossed up in a trice from the kitchen-ranges +of Tartarus. + +Among this people, indeed, so wise in their generation, dinner has a +kind of sanctity quite independent of the dishes that may be set upon +the table; so that, if it be only a mutton-chop, they treat it with due +reverence, and are rewarded with a degree of enjoyment which such +reckless devourers as ourselves do not often find in our richest +abundance. It is good to see how stanch they are after fifty or sixty +years of heroic eating, still relying upon their digestive powers and +indulging a vigorous appetite; whereas an American has generally lost +the one and learned to distrust the other long before reaching the +earliest decline of life; and thenceforward he makes little account of +his dinner, and dines at his peril, if at all. I know not whether my +countrymen will allow me to tell them, though I think it scarcely too +much to affirm, that, on this side of the water, people never dine. At +any rate, abundantly as Nature has provided us with most of the material +requisites, the highest possible dinner has never yet been eaten in +America. It is the consummate flower of civilization and refinement; and +our inability to produce it, or to appreciate its admirable beauty, if a +happy inspiration should bring it into bloom, marks fatally the limit of +culture which we have attained. + +It is not to be supposed, however, that the mob of cultivated Englishmen +know how to dine in this elevated sense. The unpolishable ruggedness of +the national character is still an impediment to them, even in that +particular line where they are best qualified to excel. Though often +present at good men's feasts, I remember only a single dinner, which, +while lamentably conscious that many of its higher excellences were +thrown away upon me, I yet could feel to be a perfect work of art. It +could not, without unpardonable coarseness, be styled a matter of animal +enjoyment, because out of the very perfection of that lower bliss there +had arisen a dream-like development of spiritual happiness. As in the +master-pieces of painting and poetry, there was a something intangible, +a final deliciousness that only fluttered about your comprehension, +vanishing whenever you tried to detain it, and compelling you to +recognize it by faith rather than sense. It seemed as if a diviner set +of senses were requisite, and had been partly supplied, for the special +fruition of this banquet, and that the guests around the table (only +eight in number) were becoming so educated, polished, and softened, by +the delicate influences of what they ate and drank, as to be now a +little more than mortal for the nonce. And there was that gentle, +delicious sadness, too, which we find in the very summit of our most +exquisite enjoyments, and feel it a charm beyond all the gayety through +which it keeps breathing its undertone. In the present case, it was +worth a heavier sigh, to reflect that such a festal achievement,--the +production of so much art, skill, fancy, invention, and perfect +taste,--the growth of all the ages, which appeared to have been ripening +for this hour, since man first began to eat and to moisten his food with +wine,--must lavish its happiness upon so brief a moment, when other +beautiful things can be made a joy forever. Yet a dinner like this is no +better than we can get, any day, at the rejuvenescent Cornhill +Coffee-House, unless the whole man, with soul, intellect, and stomach, +is ready to appreciate it, and unless, moreover, there is such a harmony +in all the circumstances and accompaniments, and especially such a pitch +of well-according minds, that nothing shall jar rudely against the +guest's thoroughly awakened sensibilities. The world, and especially our +part of it, being the rough, ill-assorted and tumultuous place we find +it, a beefsteak is about as good as any other dinner. + +The foregoing reminiscence, however, has drawn me aside from the main +object of my sketch, in which I purposed to give a slight idea of those +public or partially public banquets, the custom of which so thoroughly +prevails among the English people, that nothing is ever decided upon, in +matters of peace or war, until they have chewed upon it in the shape of +roast-beef, and talked it fully over in their cups. Nor are these +festivities merely occasional, but of stated recurrence in all +considerable municipalities and associated bodies. The most ancient +times appear to have been as familiar with them as the Englishmen of +to-day. In many of the old English towns, you find some stately Gothic +hall or chamber in which the Mayor and other authorities of the place +have long held their sessions; and always, in convenient contiguity, +there is a dusky kitchen, with an immense fireplace, where an ox might +lie roasting at his ease, though the less gigantic scale of modern +cookery may now have permitted the cobwebs to gather in its chimney. St. +Mary's Hall, in Coventry, is so good a specimen of an ancient +banqueting-room that perhaps I may profitably devote a page or two to +the description of it. + +In a narrow street, opposite to St. Michael's Church, one of the three +famous spires of Coventry, you behold a mediaeval edifice, in the +basement of which is such a venerable and now deserted kitchen as I have +above alluded to, and, on the same level, a cellar, with low stone +pillars and intersecting arches, like the crypt of a cathedral. Passing +up a well-worn staircase, the oaken balustrade of which is as black as +ebony, you enter the fine old hall, some sixty feet in length, and broad +and lofty in proportion. It is lighted by six windows of modern stained +glass, on one side, and by the immense and magnificent arch of another +window at the farther end of the room, its rich and ancient panes +constituting a genuine historical piece, in which are represented some +of the kingly personages of old times, with their heraldic blazonries. +Notwithstanding the colored light thus thrown into the hall, and though +it was noonday when I last saw it, the panelling of black oak, and some +faded tapestry that hung round the walls, together with the cloudy vault +of the roof above, made a gloom which the richness only illuminated into +more appreciable effect. The tapestry is wrought with figures in the +dress of Henry VI.'s time, (which is the date of the hall,) and is +regarded by antiquaries as authentic evidence both for the costume of +that epoch, and, I believe, for the actual portraiture of men known in +history. They are as colorless as ghosts, however, and vanish drearily +into the old stitch-work of their substance, when you try to make them +out. Coats-of-arms were formerly emblazoned all round the hall, but have +been almost rubbed out by people hanging their overcoats against them, +or by women with dish-clouts and scrubbing-brushes, obliterating +hereditary glories in their blind hostility to dust and spiders' webs. +Full-length portraits of several English kings, Charles II. being the +earliest, hang on the walls; and on the dais, or elevated part of the +floor, stands an antique chair of state, which more than one royal +character is traditionally said to have occupied while feasting here +with their loyal subjects of Coventry. It is roomy enough for a person +of kingly bulk, or even two such, but angular and uncomfortable, +reminding me of the oaken settles which used to be seen in old-fashioned +New-England kitchens. + +Overhead, supported by a self-sustaining power, without the aid of a +single pillar, is the original ceiling of oak, precisely similar in +shape to the roof of a barn, with all the beams and rafters plainly to +be seen. At the remote height of sixty feet, you hardly discern that +they are carved with figures of angels, and doubtless many other +devices, of which the admirable Gothic art is wasted in the duskiness +that has so long been brooding there. Over the entrance of the hall, +opposite the great arched window, the party-colored radiance of which +glimmers faintly through the interval, is a gallery for minstrels; and a +row of ancient suits of armor is suspended from its balustrade. It +impresses me, too, (for, having gone so far, I would fain leave nothing +untouched upon,) that I remember, somewhere about these venerable +precincts, a picture of the Countess Godiva on horseback, in which the +artist has been so niggardly of that illustrious lady's hair, that, if +she had no ampler garniture, there was certainly much need for the good +people of Coventry to shut their eyes. After all my pains, I fear that I +have made but a poor hand at the description, as regards a transference +of the scene from my own mind to the reader's. It gave me a most vivid +idea of antiquity that had been very little tampered with; insomuch +that, if a group of steel-clad knights had come clanking through the +door-way, and a bearded and beruffed old figure had handed in a stately +dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a long-forgotten fashion, unveiling +a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in the mouldy tomb, yet stepping +majestically to the trill of harp and viol from the minstrels' gallery, +while the rusty armor responded with a hollow ringing sound +beneath,--why, I should have felt that these shadows, once so familiar +with the spot, had a better right in St. Mary's Hall than I, a stranger +from a far country which has no Past. But the moral of the foregoing +pages is to show how tenaciously this love of pompous dinners, this +reverence for dinner as a sacred institution, has caught hold of the +English character; since, from, the earliest recognizable period, we +find them building their civic banqueting-halls as magnificently as +their palaces or cathedrals. + +I know not whether the hall just described is still used for festive +purposes, but others of similar antiquity and splendor are so. For +example, there is Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in London, a very fine old +room, adorned with admirably carved wood-work on the ceiling and walls. +It is also enriched with Holbein's master-piece, representing a grave +assemblage of barbers and surgeons, all portraits, (with such extensive +beards that methinks one-half of the company might have been profitably +occupied in trimming the other,) kneeling before King Henry VIII. Sir +Robert Peel is said to have offered a thousand pounds for the liberty of +cutting out one of the heads from this picture, he conditioning to have +a perfect fac-simile painted in. The room has many other pictures of +distinguished members of the company in long-past times, and of some of +the monarchs and statesmen of England, all darkened with age, but +darkened into such ripe magnificence as only age could bestow. It is not +my design to inflict any more specimens of ancient hall-painting on the +reader; but it may be worth while to touch upon other modes of +stateliness that still survive in these time-honored civic feasts, where +there appears to be a singular assumption of dignity and solemn pomp by +respectable citizens, who would never dream of claiming any privilege of +rank outside of their own sphere. Thus, I saw two caps of state for the +warden and junior warden of the company, caps of silver (real coronets +or crowns, indeed, for these city-grandees) wrought in open-work and +lined with crimson velvet. In a strong-closet, opening from the hall, +there was a great deal of rich plate to furnish forth the banquet-table, +comprising hundreds of forks and spoons, a vast silver punch-bowl, the +gift of some jolly king or other, and, besides a multitude of less +noticeable vessels, two Loving-Cups, very elaborately wrought in silver +gilt, one presented by Henry VIII., the other by Charles II. These cups, +including the covers and pedestals, are very large and weighty, although +the bowl-part would hardly contain more than half a pint of wine, which, +when the custom was first established, each guest was probably expected +to drink off at a draught. In passing them from hand to hand adown a +long table of compotators, there is a peculiar ceremony which I may +hereafter have occasion to describe. Meanwhile, if I might assume such a +liberty, I should be glad to invite the reader to the official +dinner-table of his Worship, the Mayor, at a large English seaport where +I spent several years. + +The Mayor's dinner-parties occur as often as once a fortnight, and, +inviting his guests by fifty or sixty at a time, his Worship probably +assembles at his board most of the eminent citizens and distinguished +personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's +incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling +among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. A +miscellaneous party of Englishmen can always find more comfortable +ground to meet upon than as many Americans, their differences of opinion +being incomparably less radical than ours, and it being the sincerest +wish of all their hearts, whether they call themselves Liberals or what +not, that nothing in this world shall ever be greatly altered from what +it has been and is. Thus there is seldom such a virulence of political +hostility that it may not be dissolved in a glass or two of wine, +without making the good liquor any more dry or bitter than accords with +English taste. + +The first dinner of this kind at which I had the honor to be present +took place during assize time, and included among the guests the judges +and the prominent members of the bar. Reaching the Town-Hall at seven +o'clock, I communicated my name to one of several splendidly dressed +footmen, and he repeated it to another on the first staircase, by whom +it was passed to a third, and thence to a fourth at the door of the +reception-room, losing all resemblance to the original sound in the +course of these transmissions; so that I had the advantage of making my +entrance in the character of a stranger, not only to the whole company, +but to myself as well. His Worship, however, kindly recognized me, and +put me on speaking-terms with two or three gentlemen, whom I found very +affable, and all the more hospitably attentive on the score of my +nationality. It is very singular how kind an Englishman will almost +invariably be to an individual American, without ever bating a jot of +his prejudice against the American character in the lump. My new +acquaintances took evident pains to put me at my ease; and, in requital +of their good-nature, I soon began to look round at the general company +in a critical spirit, making my crude observations apart, and drawing +silent inferences, of the correctness of which I should not have been +half so well satisfied a year afterwards as at that moment. + +There were two judges present, a good many lawyers, and a few officers +of the army in uniform. The other guests seemed to be principally of the +mercantile class, and among them was a ship-owner from Nova Scotia, with +whom I coalesced a little, inasmuch as we were born with the same sky +over our heads, and an unbroken continuity of soil between his abode and +mine. There was one old gentleman, whose character I never made out, +with powdered hair, clad in black breeches and silk stockings, and +wearing a rapier at his side; otherwise, with the exception of the +military uniforms, there was little or no pretence of official costume. +It being the first considerable assemblage of Englishmen that I had +seen, my honest impression about them was, that they were a heavy and +homely set of people, with a remarkable roughness of aspect and +behavior, not repulsive, but beneath which it required more familiarity +with the national character than I then possessed always to detect the +good-breeding of a gentleman. Being generally middle-aged, or still +farther advanced, they were by no means graceful in figure; for the +comeliness of the youthful Englishman rapidly diminishes with years, his +body appearing to grow longer, his legs to abbreviate themselves, and +his stomach to assume the dignified prominence which justly belongs to +that metropolis of his system. His face (what with the acridity of the +atmosphere, ale at lunch, wine at dinner, and a well-digested abundance +of succulent food) gets red and mottled, and develops at least one +additional chin, with a promise of more; so that, finally, a stranger +recognizes his animal part at the most superficial glance, but must take +time and a little pains to discover the intellectual. Comparing him with +an American, I really thought that our national paleness and lean habit +of flesh gave us greatly the advantage in an aesthetic point of view. It +seemed to me, moreover, that the English tailor had not done so much as +he might and ought for these heavy figures, but had gone on wilfully +exaggerating their uncouthness by the roominess of their garments: he +had evidently no idea of accuracy of fit, and smartness was entirely out +of his line. But, to be quite open with the reader, I afterwards learned +to think that this aforesaid tailor has a deeper art than his brethren +among ourselves, knowing how to dress his customers with such individual +propriety that they look as if they were born in their clothes, the fit +being to the character rather than the form. If you make an Englishman +smart, (unless he be a very exceptional one, of whom I have seen a few,) +you make him a monster: his best aspect is that of ponderous +respectability. + +To make an end of these first impressions, I fancied that not merely the +Suffolk bar, but the bar of any inland county in New England, might show +a set of thin-visaged, green-spectacled men, looking wretchedly worn, +sallow with the intemperate use of strong coffee, deeply wrinkled across +the forehead, and grimly furrowed about the month, with whom these +heavy-cheeked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as they must +needs be, would stand very little chance in a professional contest. How +that matter might turn out I am unqualified to decide. But I state these +results of my earliest glimpses of Englishmen, not for what they are +worth, but because I ultimately gave them up as worth little or nothing. +In course of time, I came to the conclusion that Englishmen of all ages +are a rather good-looking people, dress in admirable taste from their +own point of view, and, under a surface never silken to the touch, have +a refinement of manners too thorough and genuine to be thought of as a +separate endowment,--that is to say, if the individual himself be a man +of station, and has had gentlemen for his father and grandfather. The +sturdy Anglo-Saxon nature does not refine itself short of the third +generation. The tradesmen, too, and all other classes, have their own +proprieties. The only value of my criticisms, therefore, lay in their +exemplifying the proneness of a traveller to measure one people by the +distinctive characteristics of another,--as English writers invariably +measure us, and take upon themselves to be disgusted accordingly, +instead of trying to find out some principle of beauty with which we may +be in conformity. + +In due time we were summoned to the table, and went thither in no solemn +procession, but with a good deal of jostling, thrusting behind, and +scrambling for places when we reached our destination. The legal +gentlemen, I suspect, were responsible for this indecorous zeal, which I +never afterwards remarked in a similar party. The dining-hall was of +noble size, and, like the other rooms of the suite, was gorgeously +painted and gilded and brilliantly illuminated. There was a splendid +table-service, and a noble array of footmen, some of them in plain +clothes, and others wearing the town-livery, richly decorated with +gold-lace, and themselves excellent specimens of the blooming +young-manhood of Britain. When we were fairly seated, it was certainly +an agreeable spectacle to look up and down the long vista of earnest +faces, and behold them so resolute, so conscious that there was an +important business in hand, and so determined to be equal to the +occasion. Indeed, Englishman or not, I hardly know what can be prettier +than a snow-white table-cloth, a huge heap of flowers as a central +decoration, bright silver, rich china, crystal glasses, decanters of +Sherry at due intervals, a French roll and an artistically folded napkin +at each plate, all that airy portion of a banquet, in short, that comes +before the first mouthful, the whole illuminated by a blaze of +artificial light, without which a dinner of made-dishes looks spectral, +and the simplest viands are the best. Printed bills-of-fare were +distributed, representing an abundant feast, no part of which appeared +on the table until called for in separate plates. I have entirely +forgotten what it was, but deem it no great matter, inasmuch as there is +a pervading commonplace and identicalness in the composition of +extensive dinners, on account of the impossibility of supplying a +hundred guests with anything particularly delicate or rare. It was +suggested to me that certain juicy old gentlemen had a private +understanding what to call for, and that it would be good policy in a +stranger to follow in their footsteps through the feast. I did not care +to do so, however, because, like Sancho Panza's dip out of Camacho's +caldron, any sort of pot-luck at such a table would be sure to suit my +purpose; so I chose a dish or two on my own judgment, and, getting +through my labors betimes, had great pleasure in seeing the Englishmen +toil onward to the end. + +They drank rather copiously, too, though wisely; for I observed that +they seldom took Hock, and let the Champagne bubble slowly away out of +the goblet, solacing themselves with Sherry, but tasting it warily +before bestowing their final confidence. Their taste in wines, however, +did not seem so exquisite, and certainly was not so various, as that to +which many Americans pretend. This foppery of an intimate acquaintance +with rare vintage: does not suit a sensible Englishman, as he is very +much in earnest about his wines, and adopts one or two as his life-long +friends, seldom exchanging them for any Delilahs of a moment, and +reaping the reward of his constancy in an unimpaired stomach, and only +so much gout as he deems wholesome and desirable. Knowing well the +measure of his powers, he is not apt to fill his glass too often. +Society, indeed, would hardly tolerate habitual imprudences of that +kind, though, in my opinion, the Englishmen now upon the stage could +carry off their three bottles, at need, with as steady a gait as any of +their forefathers. It is not so very long since the three-bottle heroes +sank finally under the table. It may be (at least, I should be glad if +it were true) that there was an occult sympathy between our +temperance-reform, now somewhat in abeyance, and the almost simultaneous +disappearance of hard-drinking among the respectable classes in England. +I remember a middle-aged gentleman telling me (in illustration of the +very slight importance attached to breaches of temperance within the +memory of men not yet old) that he had seen a certain magistrate, Sir +John Linkwater, or Drinkwater,--but I think the jolly old knight could +hardly have staggered under so perverse a misnomer as this last,--while +sitting on the magisterial bench, pull out a crown-piece and hand it to +the clerk. "Mr. Clerk," said Sir John, as if it were the most +indifferent fact in the world, "I was drunk last night. There are my +five shillings." + +During the dinner, I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with the +gentlemen on either side of me. One of them, a lawyer, expatiated with +great unction on the social standing of the judges. Representing the +dignity and authority of the Crown, they take precedence, during +assize-time, of the highest military men in the kingdom, of the +Lord-Lieutenant of the county, of the Archbishops, of the royal Dukes, +and even of the Prince of Wales. For the nonce, they are the greatest +men in England. With a glow of professional complacency that amounted to +enthusiasm, my friend assured me, that, in case of a royal dinner, a +judge, if actually holding an assize, would be expected to offer his arm +and take the Queen herself to the table. Happening to be in company with +some of these elevated personages, on subsequent occasions, it appeared +to me that the judges are fully conscious of their paramount claims to +respect, and take rather more pains to impress them on their ceremonial +inferiors than men of high hereditary rank are apt to do. Bishops, if it +be not irreverent to say so, are sometimes marked by a similar +characteristic. Dignified position is so sweet to an Englishman, that he +needs to be born in it, and to feel it thoroughly incorporated with his +nature from its original germ, in order to keep him from flaunting it +obtrusively in the faces of innocent by-standers. + +My companion on the other side was a thick-set, middle-aged man, uncouth +in manners, and ugly where none were handsome, with a dark, roughly hewn +visage, that looked grim in repose, and seemed to hold within itself the +machinery of a very terrific frown. He ate with resolute appetite, and +let slip few opportunities of imbibing whatever liquids happened to be +passing by. I was meditating in what way this grisly-featured +table-fellow might most safely be accosted, when he turned to me with a +surly sort of kindness, and invited me to take a glass of wine. We then +began a conversation that abounded, on his part, with sturdy sense, and, +somehow or other, brought me closer to him than I had yet stood to an +Englishman. I should hardly have taken him to be an educated man, +certainly not a scholar of accurate training; and yet he seemed to have +all the resources of education and trained intellectual power at +command. My fresh Americanism, and watchful observation of English +characteristics, appeared either to interest or amuse him, or perhaps +both. Under the mollifying influences of abundance of meat and drink, he +grew very gracious, (not that I ought to use such a phrase to describe +his evidently genuine good-will,) and by-and-by expressed a wish for +further acquaintance, asking me to call at his rooms in London and +inquire for Sergeant Wilkins,--throwing out the name forcibly, as if he +had no occasion to be ashamed of it. I remembered Dean Swift's retort to +Sergeant Bettesworth on a similar announcement,--"Of what regiment, +pray, Sir?"--and fancied that the same question might not have been +quite amiss, if applied to the rugged individual at my side. But I heard +of him subsequently as one of the prominent men at the English bar, a +rough customer, and a terribly strong champion in criminal cases; and it +caused me more regret than might have been expected, on so slight an +acquaintanceship, when, not long afterwards, I saw his death announced +in the newspapers. Not rich in attractive qualities, he possessed, I +think, the most attractive one of all,--thorough manhood. + +After the cloth was removed, a goodly group of decanters were set before +the Mayor, who sent them forth on their outward voyage, full freighted +with Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Claret, of which excellent liquors, +methought, the latter found least acceptance among the guests. When +every man had filled his glass, his Worship stood up and proposed a +toast. It was, of course, "Our gracious Sovereign," or words to that +effect; and immediately a band of musicians, whose preliminary tootings +and thrummings I had already heard behind me, struck up "God save the +Queen," and the whole company rose with one impulse to assist in singing +that famous national anthem. It was the first time in my life that I had +ever seen a body of men, or even a single man, under the active +influence of the sentiment of Loyalty; for, though we call ourselves +loyal to our country and institutions, and prove it by our readiness to +shed blood and sacrifice life in their behalf, still the principle is as +cold and hard, in an American bosom, as the steel spring that puts in +motion a powerful machinery. In the Englishman's system, a force similar +to that of our steel spring is generated by the warm throbbings of human +hearts. He clothes our bare abstraction in flesh and blood,--at present, +in the flesh and blood of a woman,--and manages to combine love, awe, +and intellectual reverence, all in one emotion, and to embody his +mother, his wife, his children, the whole idea of kindred, in a single +person, and make her the representative of his country and its laws. We +Americans smile superior, as I did at the Mayor's table; and yet, I +fancy, we lose some very agreeable titillations of the heart in +consequence of our proud perogative of caring no more about our +President than for a man of straw, or a stuffed scarecrow straddling in +a cornfield. + +But, to say the truth, the spectacle struck me rather ludicrously, to +see this party of stout middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, in the +fulness of meat and drink, their ample and ruddy faces glistening with +wine, perspiration, and enthusiasm, rumbling out those strange old +stanzas from the very bottom of their hearts and stomachs, which two +organs, in the English interior arrangement, lie closer together than in +ours. The song seemed to me the rudest old ditty in the world; but I +could not wonder at its universal acceptance and indestructible +popularity, considering how inimitably it expresses the national faith +and feeling as regards the inevitable righteousness of England, the +Almighty's consequent respect and partiality for that redoubtable little +island, and His presumed readiness to strengthen its defence against the +contumacious wickedness and knavery of all other principalities or +republics. Tennyson himself, though evidently English to the very last +prejudice, could not write half so good a song for the purpose. Finding +that the entire dinner-table struck in, with voices of every pitch +between rolling thunder and the squeak of a cartwheel, and that the +strain was not of such delicacy as to be much hurt by the harshest of +them, I determined to lend my own assistance in swelling the triumphant +roar. It seemed but a proper courtesy to the first Lady in the land, +whose guest, in the largest sense, I might consider myself. Accordingly, +my first tuneful efforts (and probably my last, for I purpose not to +sing any more, unless it be "Hail Columbia" on the restoration of the +Union) were poured freely forth in honor of Queen Victoria. The +Sergeant smiled like the carved head of a Swiss nutcracker, and the +other gentlemen in my neighborhood, by nods and gestures, evinced grave +approbation of so suitable a tribute to English superiority; and we +finished our stave and sat down in an extremely happy frame of mind. + +Other toasts followed in honor of the great institutions and interests +of the country, and speeches in response to each were made by +individuals whom the Mayor designated or the company called for. None of +them impressed me with a very high idea of English postprandial oratory. +It is inconceivable, indeed, what ragged and shapeless utterances most +Englishmen are satisfied to give vent to, without attempting anything +like artistic shape, but clapping on a patch here and another there, and +ultimately getting out what they want to say, and generally with a +result of sufficiently good sense, but in some such disorganized mass as +if they had thrown it up rather than spoken it. It seemed to me that +this was almost as much by choice as necessity. An Englishman, ambitious +of public favor, should not be too smooth. If an orator is glib, his +countrymen distrust him. They dislike smartness. The stronger and +heavier his thoughts, the better, provided there be an element of +commonplace running through them; and any rough, yet never vulgar force +of expression, such as would knock an opponent down, if it hit him, only +it must not be too personal, is altogether to their taste; but a studied +neatness of language, or other such superficial graces, they cannot +abide. They do not often permit a man to make himself a fine orator of +malice aforethought, that is, unless he be a nobleman, (as, for example, +Lord Stanley, of the Derby family,) who, as an hereditary legislator and +necessarily a public speaker, is bound to remedy a poor natural delivery +in the best way he can. On the whole, I partly agree with them, and, if +I cared for any oratory whatever, should be as likely to applaud theirs +as our own. When an English speaker sits down, you feel that you have +been listening to a real man, and not to an actor; his sentiments have a +wholesome earth-smell in them, though, very likely, this apparent +naturalness is as much an art as what we expend in rounding a sentence +or elaborating a peroration. + +It is one good effect of this inartificial style, that nobody in England +seems to feel any shyness about shovelling the untrimmed and untrimmable +ideas out of his mind for the benefit of an audience. At least, nobody +did on the occasion now in hand, except a poor little Major of +Artillery, who responded for the Army in a thin, quavering voice, with a +terribly hesitating trickle of fragmentary ideas, and, I question not, +would rather have been bayoneted in front of his batteries than to have +said a word. Not his own mouth, but the cannon's, was this poor Major's +proper organ of utterance. + +While I was thus amiably occupied in criticizing my fellow-guests, the +Mayor had got up to propose another toast; and listening rather +inattentively to the first sentence or two, I soon became sensible of a +drift in his Worship's remarks that made me glance apprehensively +towards Sergeant Wilkins. "Yes," grumbled that gruff personage, shoving +a decanter of Port towards me, "it is your turn next"; and seeing in my +face, I suppose, the consternation of a wholly unpractised orator, he +kindly added,--"It is nothing. A mere acknowledgment will answer the +purpose. The less you say, the better they will like it." That being the +case, I suggested that perhaps they would like it best, if I said +nothing at all. But the Sergeant shook his head. Now, on first receiving +the Mayor's invitation to dinner, it had occurred to me that I might +possibly be brought into my present predicament; but I had dismissed the +idea from my mind as too disagreeable to be entertained, and, moreover, +as so alien from my disposition and character that Fate surely could not +keep such a misfortune in store for me. If nothing else prevented, an +earthquake or the crack of doom would certainly interfere before I need +rise to speak. Yet here was the Mayor getting on inexorably,--and, +indeed, I heartily wished that he might get on and on forever, and of +his wordy wanderings find no end. + +If the gentle reader, my kindest friend and closest confidant, deigns to +desire it, I can impart to him my own experience as a public speaker +quite as indifferently as if it concerned another person. Indeed, it +does concern another, or a mere spectral phenomenon, for it was not I, +in my proper and natural self, that sat there at table or subsequently +rose to speak. At the moment, then, if the choice had been offered me +whether the Mayor should let off a speech at my head or a pistol, I +should unhesitatingly have taken the latter alternative. I had really +nothing to say, not an idea in my head, nor, which was a great deal +worse, any flowing words or embroidered sentences in which to dress out +that empty Nothing, and give it a cunning aspect of intelligence, such +as might last the poor vacuity the little time it had to live. But time +pressed; the Mayor brought his remarks, affectionately eulogistic of the +United States and highly complimentary to their distinguished +representative at that table, to a close, amid a vast deal of cheering; +and the band struck up "Hail Columbia," "Old Hundred," or "God save the +Queen" over again, for anything that I should have known or cared. When +the music ceased, there was an intensely disagreeable instant, during +which I seemed to rend away and fling off the habit of a lifetime, and +rose, still void of ideas, but with preternatural composure, to make a +speech. The guests rattled on the table, and cried, "Hear!" most +vociferously, as if now, at length, in this foolish and idly garrulous +world, had come the long-expected moment when one golden word was to be +spoken; and in that imminent crisis, I caught a glimpse of a little bit +of an effusion of international sentiment, which it might, and must, and +should do to utter. + +Well; it was nothing, as the Sergeant had said. What surprised me most +was the sound of my own voice, which I had never before heard at a +declamatory pitch, and which impressed me as belonging to some other +person, who, and not myself, would be responsible for the speech: a +prodigious consolation and encouragement under the circumstances! I went +on without the slightest embarrassment, and sat down amid great +applause, wholly undeserved by anything that I had spoken, but well won +from Englishmen, methought, by the new development of pluck that alone +had enabled me to speak at all. "It was handsomely done!" quoth Sergeant +Wilkins; and I felt like a recruit who had been for the first time under +fire. + +I would gladly have ended my oratorical career then and there forever, +but was often placed in a similar or worse position, and compelled to +meet it as I best might; for this was one of the necessities of an +office which I had voluntarily taken on my shoulders, and beneath which +I might be crushed by no moral delinquency on my own part, but could not +shirk without cowardice and shame. My subsequent fortune was various. +Once, though I felt it to be a kind of imposture, I got a speech by +heart, and doubtless it might have been a very pretty one, only I forgot +every syllable at the moment of need, and had to improvise another as +well as I could. I found it a better method to prearrange a few points +in my mind, and trust to the spur of the occasion, and the kind aid of +Providence, for enabling me to bring them to bear. The presence of any +considerable proportion of personal friends generally dumbfounded me. I +would rather have talked with an enemy in the gate. Invariably, too, I +was much embarrassed by a small audience, and succeeded better with a +large one,--the sympathy of a multitude possessing a buoyant effect, +which lifts the speaker a little way out of his individuality and tosses +him towards a perhaps better range of sentiment than his private one. +Again, if I rose carelessly and confidently, with an expectation of +going through the business entirely at my ease, I often found that I +had little or nothing to say; whereas, if I came to the scratch in +perfect despair, and at a crisis when failure would have been horrible, +it once or twice happened that the frightful emergency concentrated my +poor faculties, and enabled me to give definite and vigorous expression +to sentiments which an instant before looked as vague and far-off as the +clouds in the atmosphere. On the whole, poor as my own success may have +been, I apprehend that any intelligent man with a tongue possesses the +chief requisite of oratorical power, and may develop many of the others, +if he deems it worth while to bestow a great amount of labor and pains +on an object which the most accomplished orators, I suspect, have not +found altogether satisfactory to their highest impulses. At any rate, it +must be a remarkably true man who can keep his own elevated conception +of truth when the lower feeling of a multitude is assailing his natural +sympathies, and who can speak out frankly the best that there is in him, +when by adulterating it a little, or a good deal, he knows that he may +make it ten times as acceptable to the audience. + + * * * * * + +This slight article on the civic banquets of England would be too +wretchedly imperfect, without an attempted description of a Lord-Mayor's +dinner at the Mansion-House in London. I should have preferred the +annual feast at Guildhall, but never had the good-fortune to witness it. +Once, however, I was honored with an invitation to one of the regular +dinners, and gladly accepted it,--taking the precaution, nevertheless, +though it hardly seemed necessary, to inform the City-King, through a +mutual friend, that I was no fit representative of American eloquence, +and must humbly make it a condition that I should not be expected to +open my mouth, except for the reception of his Lordship's bountiful +hospitality. The reply was gracious and acquiescent; so that I presented +myself in the great entrance-hall of the Mansion-House, at half-past six +o'clock, in a state of most enjoyable freedom from the pusillanimous +apprehensions that often tormented me at such times. The Mansion-House +was built in Queen Anne's days, in the very heart of old London, and is +a palace worthy of its inhabitant, were he really as great a man as his +traditionary state and pomp would seem to indicate. Times are changed, +however, since the days of Whittington, or even of Hogarth's Industrious +Apprentice, to whom the highest imaginable reward of life-long integrity +was a seat in the Lord-Mayor's chair. People nowadays say that the real +dignity and importance have perished out of the office, as they do, +sooner or later, out of all earthly institutions, leaving only a painted +and gilded shell like that of an Easter egg, and that it is only +second-rate and third-rate men who now condescend to be ambitious of the +Mayoralty. I felt a little grieved at this; for the original emigrants +of New England had strong sympathies with the people of London, who were +mostly Puritans in religion and Parliamentarians in politics, in the +early days of our country; so that the Lord-Mayor was a potentate of +huge dimensions in the estimation of our forefathers, and held to be +hardly second to the prime-minister of the throne. The true great men of +the city now appear to have aims beyond city-greatness, connecting +themselves with national politics, and seeking to be identified with the +aristocracy of the country. + +In the entrance-hall I was received by a body of footmen dressed in a +livery of blue and buff, in which they looked wonderfully like American +Revolutionary generals, only bedizened with far more lace and embroidery +than those simple and grand old heroes ever dreamed of wearing. There +were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should have taken to be +military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and large silver +epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord-Mayor's +household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the places +which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our names +(for I had included myself in a little group of friends) were announced; +and ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the door-way of the +first reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of a +presentation to the Lady-Mayoress. As this distinguished couple retired +into private life at the termination of their year of office, it is +inadmissible to make any remarks, critical or laudatory, on the manners +and bearing of two personages suddenly emerging from a position of +respectable mediocrity into one of preeminent dignity within their own +sphere. Such individuals almost always seem to grow nearly or quite to +the full size of their office. If it were desirable to write an essay on +the latent aptitude of ordinary people for grandeur, we have an +exemplification in our own country, and on a scale incomparably greater +than that of the Mayoralty, though invested with nothing like the +outward magnificence that gilds and embroiders the latter. If I have +been correctly informed, the Lord-Mayor's salary is exactly double that +of the President of the United States, and yet is found very inadequate +to his necessary expenditure. + +There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide +folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be +venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as +spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid +fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers +and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them +celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I +recollect none preeminently distinguished in either department. But it +is certainly a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for +example, who deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face +to face, thus to bring them together, under genial auspices, in +connection with persons of note in other lines. I know not what may be +the Lord-Mayor's mode or principle of selecting his guests, nor whether, +during his official term, he can proffer his hospitality to every man of +noticeable talent in the wide world of London, nor, in fine, whether his +Lordship's invitation is much sought for or valued; but it seemed to me +that this periodical feast is one of the many sagacious methods which +the English have contrived for keeping up a good understanding among +different sorts of people. Like most other distinctions of society, +however, I presume that the Lord-Mayor's card does not often seek out +modest merit, but comes at last when the recipient is conscious of the +bore, and doubtful about the honor. + +One very pleasant characteristic, which I never met with at any other +public or partially public dinner, was the presence of ladies. No doubt, +they were principally the wives and daughters of city-magnates; and if +we may judge from the many sly allusions in old plays and satirical +poems, the city of London has always been famous for the beauty of its +women and the reciprocal attractions between them and the men of +quality. Be that as it might, while straying hither and thither through +those crowded apartments, I saw much reason for modifying certain +heterodox opinions which I had inbibed, in my Transatlantic newness and +rawness, as regarded the delicate character and frequent occurrence of +English beauty. To state the entire truth, (being, at this period, some +years old in English life,) my taste, I fear, had long since begun to be +deteriorated by acquaintance with other models of feminine loveliness +than it was my happiness to know in America. I often found, or seemed to +find, if I may dare to confess it, in the persons of such of my dear +countrywomen as I now occasionally met, a certain meagreness, (Heaven +forbid that I should call it scrawniness!) a deficiency of physical +development, a scantiness, so to speak, in the pattern of their material +make, a paleness of complexion, a thinness of voice,--all which +characteristics, nevertheless, only made me resolve so much the more +sturdily to uphold these fair creatures as angels, because I was +sometimes driven to a half-acknowledgment, that the English ladies, +looked at from a lower point of view, were perhaps a little finer +animals than they. The advantages of the latter, if any they could +really be said to have, were all comprised in a few additional lumps of +clay on their shoulders and other parts of their figures. It would be a +pitiful bargain to give up the ethereal charm of American beauty in +exchange for half a hundred-weight of human clay! + +At a given signal we all found our way into an immense room, called the +Egyptian Hall, I know not why, except that the architecture was classic, +and as different as possible from the ponderous style of Memphis and the +Pyramids. A powerful band played inspiringly as we entered, and a +brilliant profusion of light shone down on two long tables, extending +the whole length of the hall, and a cross-table between them, occupying +nearly its entire breadth. Glass gleamed and silver glistened on an acre +or two of snowy damask, over which were set out all the accompaniments +of a stately feast. We found our places without much difficulty, and the +Lord-Mayor's chaplain implored a blessing on the food,--a ceremony which +the English never omit, at a great dinner or a small one, yet consider, +I fear, not so much a religious rite as a sort of preliminary relish +before the soup. + +The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in +accordance with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, +in spite of the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, +judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that +there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the +capacity of the soup-tureens. Not being fond of this civic dainty, I +partook of it but once, and then only in accordance with the wise maxim, +always to taste a fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish, at its indigenous +site; and the very fountain-head of turtle-soup, I suppose, is in the +Lord-Mayor's dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox customs which +people follow for half a century without knowing why, to drink a sip of +rum-punch, in a very small tumbler, after the soup. It was excellently +well-brewed, and it seemed to me almost worth while to sup the soup for +the sake of sipping the punch. The rest of the dinner was catalogued in +a bill-of-fare printed on delicate white paper within an arabesque +border of green and gold. It looked very good, not only in the English +and French names of the numerous dishes, but also in the positive +reality of the dishes themselves, which were all set on the table to be +carved and distributed by the guests. This ancient and honest method is +attended with a good deal of trouble, and a lavish effusion of gravy, +yet by no means bestowed or dispensed in vain, because you have thereby +the absolute assurance of a banquet actually before your eyes, instead +of a shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and such meagre fulfilment as +a single guest can contrive to get upon his individual plate. I wonder +that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at prize-oxen in the shape of +butcher's-meat, do not generally better estimate the aesthetic gormandism +of devouring the whole dinner with their eyesight, before proceeding to +nibble the comparatively few morsels which, after all, the most heroic +appetite and widest stomachic capacity of mere mortals can enable even +an alderman really to eat. There fell to my lot three delectable things +enough, which I take pains to remember, that the reader may not go away +wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to which I have bidden +him,--a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and part +of a ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as the grouse, but feeding +high up towards the summit of the Scotch mountains, whence it gets a +wild delicacy of flavor very superior to that of the artificially +nurtured English game-fowl. All the other dainties have vanished from my +memory as completely as those of Prospero's banquet after Ariel had +clapped his wings over it. The band played at intervals, inspiriting us +to new efforts, as did likewise the sparkling wines which the footmen +supplied from an inexhaustible cellar, and which the guests quaffed with +little apparent reference to the disagreeable fact that there comes a +to-morrow morning after every feast. As long as that shall be the case, +a prudent man can never have full enjoyment of his dinner. + +Nearly opposite to me, on the other side of the table, sat a young lady +in white, whom I am sorely tempted to describe, but dare not, because +not only the supereminence of her beauty, but its peculiar character, +would cause the sketch to be recognized, however rudely it might be +drawn. I hardly thought that there existed such a woman outside of a +picture-frame, or the covers of a romance: not that I had ever met with +her resemblance even there, but, being so distinct and singular an +apparition, she seemed likelier to find her sisterhood in poetry and +picture than in real life. Let us turn away from her, lest a touch too +apt should compel her stately and cold and soft and womanly grace to +gleam out upon my page with a strange repulsion and unattainableness in +the very spell that made her beautiful. At her side, and familiarly +attentive to her, sat a gentleman of whom I remember only a hard outline +of the nose and forehead, and such a monstrous portent of a beard that +you could discover no symptom of a mouth, except when he opened it to +speak, or to put in a morsel of food. Then, indeed, you suddenly became +aware of a cave hidden behind the impervious and darksome shrubbery. +There could be no doubt who this gentleman and lady were. Any child +would have recognized them at a glance. It was Bluebeard and a new wife +(the loveliest of the series, but with already a mysterious gloom +overshadowing her fair young brow) travelling in their honey-moon, and +dining, among other distinguished strangers, at the Lord-Mayor's table. + +After an hour or two of valiant achievement with knife and fork came the +dessert; and at the point of the festival where finger-glasses are +usually introduced, a large silver basin was carried round to the +guests, containing rose-water, into which we dipped the ends of our +napkins and were conscious of a delightful fragrance, instead of that +heavy and weary odor, the hateful ghost of a defunct dinner. This seems +to be an ancient custom of the city, not confined to the Lord-Mayor's +table, but never met with westward of Temple Bar. + +During all the feast, in accordance with another ancient custom, the +origin or purport of which I do not remember to have heard, there stood +a man in armor, with a helmet on his head, behind his Lordship's chair. +When the after-dinner wine was placed on the table, still another +official personage appeared behind the chair, and proceeded to make a +solemn and sonorous proclamation, (in which he enumerated the principal +guests, comprising three or four noblemen, several baronets, and plenty +of generals, members of Parliament, aldermen, and other names of the +illustrious, one of which sounded strangely familiar to my ears,) ending +in some such style as this: "and other gentlemen and ladies, here +present, the Lord-Mayor drinks to you all in a loving-cup,"--giving a +sort of sentimental twang to the two words,--"and sends it round among +you!" And forthwith the loving-cup--several of them, indeed, on each +side of the tables--came slowly down with all the antique ceremony. + +The fashion of it is thus. The Lord-Mayor, standing up and taking the +covered cup in both hands, presents it to the guest at his elbow, who +likewise rises, and removes the cover for his Lordship to drink, which +being successfully accomplished, the guest replaces the cover and +receives the cup into his own hands. He then presents it to his next +neighbor, that the cover may be again removed for himself to take a +draught, after which the third person goes through a similar manoeuvre +with a fourth, and he with a fifth, until the whole company find +themselves inextricably intertwisted and entangled in one complicated +chain of love. When the cup came to my hands, I examined it critically, +both inside and out, and perceived it to be an antique and richly +ornamented silver goblet, capable of holding about a quart of wine. +Considering how much trouble we all expended in getting the cup to our +lips, the guests appeared to content themselves with wonderfully +moderate potations. In truth, nearly or quite the original quart of wine +being still in the goblet, it seemed doubtful whether any of the company +had more than barely touched the silver rim before passing it to their +neighbors,--a degree of abstinence that might be accounted for by a +fastidious repugnance to so many compotators in one cup, or possibly by +a disapprobation of the liquor. Being curious to know all about these +important matters, with a view of recommending to my countrymen whatever +they might usefully adopt, I drank an honest sip from the loving-cup, +and had no occasion for another,--ascertaining it to be Claret of a poor +original quality, largely mingled with water, and spiced and sweetened. +It was good enough, however, for a merely spectral or ceremonial drink, +and could never have been intended for any better purpose. + +The toasts now began in the customary order, attended with speeches +neither more nor less witty and ingenious than the specimens of +table-eloquence which had heretofore delighted me. As preparatory to +each new display, the herald, or whatever he was, behind the chair of +state, gave awful notice that the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor was +about to propose a toast. His Lordship being happily delivered thereof, +together with some accompanying remarks, the band played an appropriate +tune, and the herald again issued proclamation to the effect that such +or such a nobleman, or gentleman, general, dignified clergyman, or what +not, was going to respond to the Right Honorable the Lord-Mayor's toast; +then, if I mistake not, there was another prodigious flourish of +trumpets and twanging of stringed instruments; and finally the doomed +individual, waiting all this while to be decapitated, got up and +proceeded to make a fool of himself. A bashful young earl tried his +maiden oratory on the good citizens of London, and having evidently got +every word by heart, (even including, however he managed it, the most +seemingly casual improvisations of the moment,) he really spoke like a +book, and made incomparably the smoothest speech I ever heard in +England. + +The weight and gravity of the speakers, not only on this occasion, but +all similar ones, was what impressed me as most extraordinary, not to +say absurd. Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits +into festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into +a most enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and +old Port, and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to +speeches as heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so +refreshing? If the Champagne had thrown its sparkle over the surface of +these effusions, or if the generous Port had shone through their +substance with a ruddy glow of the old English humor, I might have seen +a reason for honest gentlemen prattling in their cups, and should +undoubtedly have been glad to be a listener. But there was no attempt +nor impulse of the kind on the part of the orators, nor apparent +expectation of such a phenomenon on that of the audience. In fact, I +imagine that the latter were best pleased when the speaker embodied his +ideas in the figurative language of arithmetic, or struck upon any hard +matter of business or statistics, as a heavy-laden bark bumps upon a +rock in mid-ocean. The sad severity, the too earnest utilitarianism, of +modern life, have wrought a radical and lamentable change, I am afraid, +in this ancient and goodly institution of civic banquets. People used to +come to them, a few hundred years ago, for the sake of being jolly; they +come now with an odd notion of pouring sober wisdom into their wine by +way of wormwood-bitters, and thus make such a mess of it that the wine +and wisdom reciprocally spoil one another. + +Possibly, the foregoing sentiments have taken a spice of acridity from a +circumstance that happened about this stage of the feast, and very much +interrupted my own further enjoyment of it. Up to this time, my +condition had been exceedingly felicitous, both on account of the +brilliancy of the scene, and because I was in close proximity with three +very pleasant English friends. One of them was a lady, whose honored +name my readers would recognize as a household word, if I dared write +it; another, a gentleman, likewise well known to them, whose fine taste, +kind heart, and genial cultivation are qualities seldom mixed in such +happy proportion as in him. The third was the man to whom I owed most in +England, the warm benignity of whose nature was never weary of doing me +good, who led me to many scenes of life, in town, camp, and country, +which I never could have found out for myself, who knew precisely the +kind of help a stranger needs, and gave it as freely as if he had not +had a thousand more important things to live for. Thus I never felt +safer or cozier at anybody's fireside, even my own, than at the +dinner-table of the Lord-Mayor. + +Out of this serene sky came a thunderbolt. His Lordship got up and +proceeded to make some very eulogistic remarks upon "the literary and +commercial"--I question whether those two adjectives were ever before +married by a copulative conjunction, and they certainly would not live +together in illicit intercourse, of their own accord--"the literary and +commercial attainments of an eminent gentleman there present," and then +went on to speak of the relations of blood and interest between Great +Britain and the aforesaid eminent gentleman's native country. Those +bonds were more intimate than had ever before existed between two great +nations, throughout all history, and his Lordship felt assured that that +whole honorable company would join him in the expression of a fervent +wish that they might be held inviolably sacred, on both sides of the +Atlantic, now and forever. Then came the same wearisome old toast, dry +and hard to chew upon as a musty sea-biscuit, which had been the text of +nearly all the oratory of my public career. The herald sonorously +announced that Mr. So-and-so would now respond to his Right Honorable +Lordship's toast and speech, the trumpets sounded the customary flourish +for the onset, there was a thunderous rumble of anticipatory applause, +and finally a deep silence sank upon the festive hall. + +All this was a horrid piece of treachery on the Lord-Mayor's part, after +beguiling me within his lines on a pledge of safe-conduct; and it seemed +very strange that he could not let an unobtrusive individual eat his +dinner in peace, drink a small sample of the Mansion-House wine, and go +away grateful at heart for the old English hospitality. If his Lordship +had sent me an infusion of ratsbane in the loving-cup, I should have +taken it much more kindly at his hands. But I suppose the secret of the +matter to have been somewhat as follows. + +All England, just then, was in one of those singular fits of panic +excitement, (not fear, though as sensitive and tremulous as that +emotion,) which, in consequence of the homogeneous character of the +people, their intense patriotism, and their dependence for their ideas +in public affairs on other sources than their own examination and +individual thought, are more sudden, pervasive, and unreasoning than any +similar mood of our own public. In truth, I have never seen the American +public in a state at all similar, and believe that we are incapable of +it. Our excitements are not impulsive, like theirs, but, right or wrong, +are moral and intellectual. For example, the grand rising of the North, +at the commencement of this war, bore the aspect of impulse and passion +only because it was so universal, and necessarily done in a moment, just +as the quiet and simultaneous getting-up of a thousand people out of +their chairs would cause a tumult that might be mistaken for a storm. We +were cool then, and have been cool ever since, and shall remain cool to +the end, which we shall take coolly, whatever it may be. There is +nothing which the English find it so difficult to understand in us as +this characteristic. They imagine us, in our collective capacity, a kind +of wild beast, whose normal condition is savage fury, and are always +looking for the moment when we shall break through the slender barriers +of international law and comity, and compel the reasonable part of the +world, with themselves at the head, to combine for the purpose of +putting us into a stronger cage. At times this apprehension becomes so +powerful, (and when one man feels it, a million do,) that it resembles +the passage of the wind over a broad field of grain, where you see the +whole crop bending and swaying beneath one impulse, and each separate +stalk tossing with the self-same disturbance as its myriad companions. +At such periods all Englishmen talk with a terrible identity of +sentiment and expression. You have the whole country in each man; and +not one of them all, if you put him strictly to the question, can give a +reasonable ground for his alarm. There are but two nations in the +world--our own country and France--that can put England into this +singular state. It is the united sensitiveness of a people extremely +well-to-do, most anxious for the preservation of the cumbrous and +moss-grown prosperity which they have been so long in consolidating, and +incompetent (owing to the national half-sightedness, and their habit of +trusting to a few leading minds for their public opinion) to judge when +that prosperity is really threatened. + +If the English were accustomed to look at the foreign side of any +international dispute, they might easily have satisfied themselves that +there was very little danger of a war at that particular crisis, from +the simple circumstance that their own Government had positively not an +inch of honest ground to stand upon, and could not fail to be aware of +the fact. Neither could they have met Parliament with any show of a +justification for incurring war. It was no such perilous juncture as +exists now, when law and right are really controverted on sustainable or +plausible grounds, and a naval commander may at any moment fire off the +first cannon of a terrible contest. If I remember it correctly, it was a +mere diplomatic squabble, which the British ministers, with the politic +generosity which they are in the habit of showing towards their official +subordinates, had tried to browbeat us for the purpose of sustaining an +ambassador in an indefensible proceeding; and the American Government +(for God had not denied us an administration of Statesmen then) had +retaliated with stanch courage and exquisite skill, putting inevitably a +cruel mortification upon their opponents, but indulging them with no +pretence whatever for active resentment. + +Now the Lord-Mayor, like any other Englishman, probably fancied that War +was on the western gale, and was glad to lay hold of even so +insignificant an American as myself, who might be made to harp on the +rusty old strings of national sympathies, identity of blood and +interest, and community of language and literature, and whisper peace +where there was no peace, in however weak an utterance. And possibly his +Lordship thought, in his wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to +be expressed by a company of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and +far-famed dinner-table, might have an appreciable influence on the grand +result. Thus, when the Lord-Mayor invited me to his feast, it was a +piece of strategy. He wanted to induce me to fling myself, like a lesser +Curtius, with a larger object of self-sacrifice, into the chasm of +discord between England and America, and, on my ignominious demur, had +resolved to shove me in with his own right-honorable hands, in the hope +of closing up the horrible pit forever. On the whole, I forgive his +Lordship. He meant well by all parties,--himself, who would share the +glory, and me, who ought to have desired nothing better than such an +heroic opportunity,--his own country, which would continue to get cotton +and breadstuffs, and mine, which would get everything that men work with +and wear. + +As soon as the Lord-Mayor began to speak, I rapped upon my mind, and it +gave forth a hollow sound, being absolutely empty of appropriate ideas. +I never thought of listening to the speech, because I knew it all +beforehand in twenty repetitions from other lips, and was aware that it +would not offer a single suggestive point. In this dilemma, I turned to +one of my three friends, a gentleman whom I knew to possess an enviable +flow of silver speech, and obtested him, by whatever he deemed holiest, +to give me at least an available thought or two to start with, and, once +afloat, I would trust to my guardian-angel for enabling me to flounder +ashore again, He advised me to begin with some remarks complimentary to +the Lord-Mayor, and expressive of the hereditary reverence in which his +office was held--at least, my friend thought that there would be no harm +in giving his Lordship this little sugar-plum, whether quite the fact or +no--was held by the descendants of the Puritan forefathers. Thence, if I +liked, getting flexible with the oil of my own eloquence, I might easily +slide off into the momentous subject of the relations between England +and America, to which his Lordship had made such weighty allusion. + +Seizing this handful of straw with a death-grip, and bidding my three +friends bury me honorably, I got upon my legs to save both countries, or +perish in the attempt. The tables roared and thundered at me, and +suddenly were silent again. But, as I have never happened to stand in a +position of greater dignity and peril, I deem it a stratagem of sage +policy here to close the sketch, leaving myself still erect in so heroic +an attitude. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE GEOLOGICAL MIDDLE AGE. + + +I shall pass lightly over the Permian and Triassic epochs, as being more +nearly related in their organic forms to the Carboniferous epoch, with +which we are already somewhat familiar, while in those next in +succession, the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs, the later conditions of +animal life begin to be already foreshadowed. But though less +significant for us in the present stage of our discussion, it must not +be supposed that the Permian and Triassic epochs were unimportant in the +physical and organic history of Europe. A glance at any geological map +of Europe will show the reader how the Belgian island stretched +gradually in a southwesterly direction during the Permian epoch, +approaching the coast of France by slowly increasing accumulations, and +thus filling the Burgundian channel; a wide border of Permian deposits +around the coal-field of Great Britain marks the increase of this region +also during the same time, and a very extensive tract of a like +character is to be seen in Russia. The latter is, however, still under +doubt and discussion among geologists, and more recent investigations +tend to show that this Russian region, supposed at first to be +exclusively Permian, is at least in part Triassic. + +With the coming in of the Triassic epoch began the great deposits of Red +Sandstone, Muschel-Kalk, and Keuper, in Central Europe. They united the +Belgian island to the region of the Vosges and the Black Forest, while +they also filled to a great extent the channel between Belgium and the +Bohemian island. Thus the land slowly gained upon the Triassic ocean, +shutting it within ever-narrowing limits, and preparing the large inland +seas so characteristic of the later Secondary times. The character of +the organic world still retained a general resemblance to that of the +Carboniferous epoch. Among Radiates, the Corals were more nearly allied +to those of the earlier ages than to those of modern times, and Crinoids +abounded still, though some of the higher Echinoderm types were already +introduced. Among Mollusks, the lower Bivalves, that is, the Brachiopods +and Bryozoa, still prevailed, while Ammonites continued to be very +numerous, differing from the earlier ones chiefly in the ever-increasing +complications of their inner partitions, which become so deeply +involuted and cut upon their margins, before the type disappears, as to +make an intricate tracery of very various patterns on the surface of +these shells. The most conspicuous type of Articulates continues as +before to be that of Crustacea; but Trilobites have finished their +career, and the Lobster-like Crustacea make their appearance for the +first time. It does not seem that the class of Insects has greatly +increased since the Carboniferous epoch; and Worms are still as +difficult to trace as ever, being chiefly known by the cases in which +they sheltered themselves. Among Vertebrates, the Fishes still resemble +those of the Carboniferous epoch, belonging principally to the +Selachians and Ganoids. They have, however, approached somewhat toward a +modern pattern, the lobes of the tail being more evenly cut, and their +general outline more like that of common fishes. The gigantic marsh +Reptiles have become far more numerous and various. They continue +through several epochs, but may be said to reach their culminating point +in the Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits. + +I cannot pass over the Triassic epoch without some allusion to the +so-called bird-tracks, so generally believed to mark the introduction of +Birds at this time. It is true that in the deposits of the Trias there +have been found many traces of footsteps, indicating a vast number of +animals which, except for these footprints, remain unknown to us. In the +sandstone of the Connecticut Valley they are found in extraordinary +numbers, as if these animals, whatever they were, had been in the habit +of frequenting that shore. They appear to have been very diversified; +for some of the tracks are very large, others quite small, while some +would seem, from the way in which the footsteps follow each other, to +have been quadrupedal, and others bipedal. We can even measure the +length of their strides, following the impressions which, from their +succession in a continuous line, mark the walk of a single animal.[10] +The fact that we find these footprints without any bones or other +remains to indicate the animals by which they were made is accounted for +by the mode of deposition of the sandstone. It is very unfavorable for +the preservation of bones; but, being composed of minute sand mixed with +mud, it affords an admirable substance for the reception of these +impressions, which have been thus cast in a mould, as it were, and +preserved through ages. These animals must have been large, when +full-grown, for we find strides measuring six feet between, evidently +belonging to the same animal. In the quadrupedal tracks, the front feet +seem to have been smaller than the hind ones. Some of the tracks show +four toes all turned forward, while in others three toes are turned +forward and one backward. It happened that the first tracks found +belonged to the latter class; and they very naturally gave rise to the +idea that these impressions were made by birds, on account of this +formation of the foot. This, however, is a mere inference; and since the +inductive method is the only true one in science, it seems to me that we +should turn to the facts we have in our possession for the explanation +of these mysterious footprints, rather than endeavor to supply by +assumption those which we have not. As there are no bones found in +connection with these tracks, the only way to arrive at their true +character, in the present state of our knowledge, is by comparing them +with bones found in other localities in the deposits of the same period +in the world's history. Now there have never been found in the Trias any +remains of Birds, while it contains innumerable bones of Reptiles; and +therefore I think that it is in the latter class that we shall +eventually find the solution of this mystery. + +[Footnote 10: For all details respecting these tracks see Hitchcock's +_Ichnology of New England_. Boston, 1858. 4to.] + +It is true that the bones of the Triassic Reptiles are scattered and +disconnected; no complete skeleton has yet been discovered, nor has any +foot been found; so that no direct comparison can be made with the +steps. It is, however, my belief, from all we know of the character of +the Animal Kingdom in those days, that these animals were reptilian, but +combined, like so many of the early types, characters of their own class +with those of higher animals yet to come. It seems to me probable, that, +in those tracks where one toe is turned backward, the impression is made +not by a toe, but by a heel, or by a long sole projecting backward; for +it is not pointed, like those of the front toes, but is blunt. It is +true that there is a division of joints in the toes, which seems in +favor of the idea that they were those of Birds; for when the three toes +are turned forward, there are two joints on the inner one, three on the +middle, and four on the outer one, as in Birds. But this feature is not +peculiar to Birds; it is found in Turtles also. The correspondence of +these footprints with each other leaves no doubt that they were all by +one kind of animal; for both the bipedal and the quadrupedal tracks have +the same character. The only quadrupedal animals now known to us which +walk on two legs are the Kangaroos. They raise themselves on their hind +legs, using the front ones to bring their food to their mouth. They leap +with the hind legs, sometimes bringing down their front feet to steady +themselves after the spring, and making use also of their tails, to +balance the body after leaping. In these tracks we find traces of a tail +between the feet. I do not bring this forward as any evidence that these +animals were allied to Kangaroos, since I believe that nothing is more +injurious in science than assumptions which do not rest on a broad basis +of facts; but I wish only to show that these tracks recall other animals +besides Birds, with which they have been universally associated. And +seeing, as we do, that so many of the early types prophesy future forms, +it seems not improbable that they may have belonged to animals which +combined with reptilian characters some birdlike features, and also some +features of the earliest and lowest group of Mammalia, the Marsupials. +To sum up my opinion respecting these footmarks, I believe that they +were made by animals of a prophetic type, belonging to the class of +Reptiles, and exhibiting many synthetic characters. + +The more closely we study past creations, the more impressive and +significant do the synthetic types, presenting features of the higher +classes under the guise of the lower ones, become. They hold the promise +of the future. As the opening overture of an opera contains all the +musical elements to be therein developed, so this living prelude of the +Creative work comprises all the organic elements to be successively +developed in the course of time. When Cuvier first saw the teeth of a +Wealden Reptile, he pronounced them to be those of a Rhinoceros, so +mammalian were they in their character. So, when Sommering first saw the +remains of a Jurassic Pterodactyl, he pronounced them to be those of a +Bird. These mistakes were not due to a superficial judgment in men who +knew Nature so well, but to this prophetic character in the early types +themselves, in which features were united never known to exist together +in our days. + + * * * * * + +The Jurassic epoch, next in succession, was a very important one in the +history of Europe. It completed the junction of several of the larger +islands, filling the channel between the central plateau of France and +the Belgian island, as well as that between the former and the island of +Bretagne, so that France was now a sort of crescent of land holding a +Jurassic sea in its centre, Bretagne and Belgium forming the two horns. +This Jurassic basin or inland sea united England and France, and it may +not be amiss to say a word here of its subsequent transformations. +During the long succession of Jurassic periods, the deposits of that +epoch, chiefly limestone and clays, with here and there a bed of sand, +were accumulated at its bottom. Upon these followed the chalk deposits +of the Cretaceous epoch, until the basin was gradually filled, and +partially, at least, turned to dry land. But at the close of the +Cretaceous epoch a fissure was formed, allowing the entrance of the sea +at the western end, so that the constant washing of the tides and storms +wore away the lower, softer deposits, leaving the overhanging chalk +cliffs unsupported. These latter, as their support were undermined, +crumbled down, thus widening the channel gradually. This process must, +of course, have gone on more rapidly at the western end, where the sea +rushed on with most force, till the channel was worn through to the +German Ocean on the other side, and the sea then began to act with like +power at both ends of the channel. This explains its form, wider at the +western end, narrower between Dover and Calais, and widening again at +the eastern extremity. This ancient basin, extending from the centre of +France into England, is rich in the remains of a number of successive +epochs. Around its margin we find the Jurassic deposits, showing that +there must have been some changes of level which raised the shores and +prevented later accumulations from covering them, while in the centre +the Jurassic deposits are concealed by those of the Cretaceous epoch +above them, these being also partially hidden under the later Tertiary +beds. Let us see, then, what this inland sea has to tell us of the +organic world in the Jurassic epoch. + +At that time the region where Lyme-Regis is now situated in modern +England was an estuary on the shore of that ancient sea. About forty +years ago a discovery of large and curious bones, belonging to some +animal unknown to the scientific world, turned the attention of +naturalists to this locality, and since then such a quantity and variety +of such remains have been found in the neighborhood as to show that the +Sharks, Whales, Porpoises, etc., of the present ocean are not more +numerous and diversified than were the inhabitants of this old bay or +inlet. Among these animals, the Ichthyosauri (Fish-Lizards) form one of +the best-known and most prominent groups. They are chiefly found in the +Lias, the lowest set of beds of the Jurassic deposits, and seem to have +come in with the close of the Triassic epoch. It is greatly to be +regretted that all that is known of the Triassic Reptiles antecedent to +the Ichthyosauri still remains in the form of original papers, and is +not yet embodied in text-books. They are quite as interesting, as +curious, and as diversified as those of the Jurassic epoch, which are, +however, much more extensively known, on account of the large +collections of these animals belonging to the British Museum. It will be +more easy to understand the structural relations of the latter, and +their true position in the Animal Kingdom, when those which preceded +them are better understood. One of the most remarkable and numerous of +these Triassic Reptiles seems to have been an animal resembling, in the +form of the head, and in the two articulating surfaces at the juncture +of the head with the backbone, the Frogs and Salamanders, though its +teeth are like those of a Crocodile. As yet nothing has been found of +these animals except the head,--neither the backbone nor the limbs; so +that little is known of their general structure. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1. An Ichthyosaurus.] + +The Ichthyosauri (Figure 1) must have been very large, seven or eight +feet being the ordinary length, while specimens measuring from twenty to +thirty feet are not uncommon. The large head is pointed, like that of +the Porpoise; the jaws contain a number of conical teeth, of reptilian +form and character; the eyeball was very large, as may be seen by the +socket, and it was supported by pieces of bone, such as we find now only +in the eyes of birds of prey and in the bony fishes. The ribs begin at +the neck and continue to the tail, and there is no distinction between +head and neck, as in most Reptiles, but a continuous outline, as in +Fishes. They had four limbs, not divided into fingers, but forming mere +paddles. Yet fingers seem to be hinted at in these paddles, though not +developed, for the bones are in parallel rows, as if to mark what might +be such a division. The back-bones are short, but very high, and the +surfaces of articulation are hollow, conical cavities, as in Fishes, +instead of ball-and-socket joints, as in Reptiles. The ribs are more +complicated than in Vertebrates generally: they consist of several +pieces, and the breast-bone is formed of a number of bones, making +together quite an intricate bony net-work. There is only one living +animal, the Crocodile, characterized by this peculiar structure of the +breast-bone. The Ichthyosaurus is, indeed, one of the most remarkable of +the synthetic types: by the shape of its head one would associate it +with the Porpoises, while by its paddles and its long tail it reminds +one of the whole group of Cetaceans to which the Porpoises belong; by +its crocodilian teeth, its ribs, and its breast-bone, it seems allied to +Reptiles; and by its uniform neck, not distinguished from the body, and +the structure of the backbone, it recalls the Fishes. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2. A Plesiosaurus.] + +Another most curious member of this group is the Plesiosaurus, odd +Saurian (Figure 2). By its disproportionately long and flexible neck, +and its small, flat head, it unquestionably foreshadows the Serpents, +while by the structure of the backbone, the limbs, and the tail, it is +closely allied with the Ichthyosaurus. Its flappers are, however, more +slender, less clumsy, and were, no doubt, adapted to more rapid motion +than the fins of the Ichthyosaurus, while its tail is shorter in +proportion to the whole length of the animal. It seems probable, from +its general structure, that the Ichthyosaurus moved like a Fish, chiefly +by the flapping of the tail, aided by the fins, while in the +Plesiosaurus the tail must have been much less efficient as a locomotive +organ, and the long, snake-like, flexible neck no doubt rendered the +whole body more agile and rapid in its movements. In comparing the two, +it may be said, that, as a whole, the Ichthyosaurus, though belonging by +its structure to the class of Reptiles, has a closer external +resemblance to the Fishes, while the Plesiosaurus is more decidedly +reptilian in character. If there exists any animal in our waters, not +yet known to naturalists, answering to the descriptions of the +"Sea-Serpent," it must be closely allied to the Plesiosaurus. The +occurrence in the fresh waters of North America of a Fish, the +Lepidosteus, which is closely allied to the fossil Fishes found with the +Plesiosaurus in the Jurassic beds, renders such a supposition probable. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3. A Pterodactylus.] + +Of all these strange old forms, so singularly uniting features of Fishes +and Reptiles, none has given rise to more discussion than the +Pterodactylus, (Figure 3,) another of the Saurian tribe, associated, +however, with Birds by some naturalists, on account of its large +wing-like appendages. From the extraordinary length of its anterior +limbs, they have generally been described as wings, and the animal is +usually represented as a flying Reptile. But if we consider its whole +structure, this does not seem probable, and I believe it to have been an +essentially aquatic animal, moving after the fashion of the Sea-Turtle. +Its so-called wings resemble in structure the front paddles of the +Sea-Turtles far more than the wings of a Bird; differing from them, +indeed, only by the extraordinary length of the inner toe, while the +outer ones are comparatively much shorter. But, notwithstanding this +difference, the hand of the Pterodactylus is constructed like that of an +aquatic swimming marine Reptile; and I believe, that, if we represent it +with its long neck stretched upon the water, its large head furnished +with powerful, well-armed jaws, ready to dive after the innumerable +smaller animals living in the same ocean, we shall have a more natural +picture of its habits than if we consider it as a flying animal, which +it is generally supposed to have been. It has not the powerful +breast-bone, with the large projecting keel along the middle line, such +as exists in all the flying animals. Its breast-bone, on the contrary, +is thin and flat, like that of the present Sea-Turtle; and if it moved +through the water by the help of its long flappers, as the Sea-Turtle +does now, it could well dispense with that powerful construction of the +breast-bone so essential to all animals which fly through the air. +Again, the powerful teeth, long and conical, placed at considerable +intervals in the jaw, constitute a feature common to all predaceous +aquatic animals, and would seem to have been utterly useless in a flying +animal at that time, since there were no aerial beings of any size to +prey upon. The Dragon-Flies found in the same deposits with the +Pterodactylus were certainly not a game requiring so powerful a battery +of attack. + +The Fishes of the Jurassic sea were exceedingly numerous, but were all +of the Ganoid and Selachian tribes. It would weary the reader, were I to +introduce here any detailed description of them, but they were as +numerous and varied as those living in our present waters. There was the +Hybodus, with the marked furrows on the spines and the strong hooks +along their margin,--the huge Chimera, with its long whip, its curved +bone over the back, and its parrot-like bill,--the Lepidotus, with its +large square scales, its large head, its numerous rows of teeth, one +within another, forming a powerful grinding apparatus,--the Microdon, +with its round, flat body, its jaw paved with small grinding teeth,--the +swift Aspidorhynchus, with its long, slender body and massive tail, +enabling it to strike the water powerfully and dart forward with great +rapidity. There were also a host of small Fishes, comparing with those +above mentioned as our Perch, Herring, Smelts, etc., compare with our +larger Fishes; but, whatever their size or form, all the Fishes of those +days had the same hard scales fitting to each other by hooks, instead of +the thin membranous scales overlapping each other at the edge, like the +common Fishes of more modern times. The smaller Fishes, no doubt, +afforded food to the larger ones, and to the aquatic Reptiles. Indeed, +in parts of the intestines of the Ichthyosauri, and in their petrified +excrements, have been found the scales and teeth of these smaller Fishes +perfectly preserved. It is amazing that we can learn so much of the +habits of life of these past creatures, and know even what was the food +of animals existing countless ages before man was created. + +There are traces of Mammalia in the Jurassic deposits, but they were of +those inferior kinds known now as Marsupials, and no complete specimens +have yet been found. + +The Articulates were largely represented in this epoch. There were +already in the vegetation a number of Gymnosperms, affording more +favorable nourishment for Insects than the forests of earlier times; and +we accordingly find that class in larger numbers than ever before, +though still meagre in comparison with its present representation. +Crustacea were numerous,--those of the Shrimp and Lobster kinds +prevailing, though in some of the Lobsters we have the first advance +towards the highest class of Crustacea in the expansion of the +transverse diameter now so characteristic of the Crabs. Among Mollusks +we have a host of gigantic Ammonites; and the naked Cephalopods, which +were in later times to become the prominent representatives of that +class, already begin to make their appearance. Among Radiates, some of +the higher kinds of Echinoderms, the Ophiurans and Echinolds, take the +place of the Crinoids, and the Acalephian Corals give way to the Astraean +and Meandrina-like types, resembling the Reef-Builders of the present +time. + + * * * * * + +I have spoken especially of the inhabitants of the Jurassic sea lying +between England and France, because it was there that were first found +the remains of some of the most remarkable and largest Jurassic animals. +But wherever these deposits have been investigated, the remains +contained in them reveal the same organic character, though, of course, +we find the land Reptiles only where there happen to have been marshes, +the aquatic Saurians wherever large estuaries or bays gave them an +opportunity of coming in near shore, so that their bones were preserved +in the accumulations of mud or clay constantly collecting in such +localities,--the Crustacea, Shells, or Sea-Urchins on the old +sea-beaches, the Corals in the neighborhood of coral reefs, and so on. +In short, the distribution of animals then as now was in accordance with +their nature and habits, and we shall seek vainly for them in the +localities where they did not belong. + +But when I say that the character of the Jurassic animals is the same, I +mean, that, wherever a Jurassic sea-shore occurs, be it in France, +Germany, England, or elsewhere throughout the world, the Shells, +Crustacea, or other animals found upon it have a special character, and +are not to be confounded by any one thoroughly acquainted with these +fossils with the Shells or Crustacea of any preceding or subsequent +time,--that, where a Jurassic marsh exists, the land Reptiles inhabiting +it are Jurassic, and neither Triassic nor Cretaceous,--that a Jurassic +coral reef is built of Corals belonging as distinctly to the Jurassic +creation as the Corals on the Florida reefs belong to the present +creation,--that, where some Jurassic bay or inlet is disclosed to us +with the Fishes anciently inhabiting it, they are as characteristic of +their time as are the Fishes of Massachusetts Bay now. + +And not only so, but, while this unity of creation prevails throughout +the entire epoch as a whole, there is the same variety of geographical +distribution, the same circumscription of faunae within distinct +zooelogical provinces, as at the present time. The Fishes of +Massachusetts Bay are not the same as those of Chesapeake Bay, nor those +of Chesapeake Bay the same as those of Pamlico Sound, nor those of +Pamlico Sound the same as those of the Florida coast. This division of +the surface of the earth into given areas within which certain +combinations of animals and plants are confined is not peculiar to the +present creation, but has prevailed in all times, though with +ever-increasing diversity, as the surface of the earth itself assumed a +greater variety of climatic conditions. D'Orbigny and others were +mistaken in assuming that faunal differences have been introduced only +in the last geological epochs. Besides these adjoining zooelogical faunae, +each epoch is divided, as we have seen, into a number of periods, +occupying successive levels one above another, and differing +specifically from each other in time as zooelogical provinces differ from +each other in space. In short, every epoch is to be looked upon from two +points of view: as a unit, complete in itself, having one character +throughout, and as a stage in the progressive history of the world, +forming part of an organic whole. + + * * * * * + +As the Jurassic epoch was ushered in by the upheaval of the Jura, so its +close was marked by the upheaval of that system of mountains called the +Cote d'Or. With this latter upheaval began the Cretaceous epoch, which +we will examine with special reference to its subdivision into periods, +since the periods in this epoch have been clearly distinguished, and +investigated with especial care. I have alluded in the preceding article +to the immediate contact of the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs in +Switzerland, affording peculiar facilities for the direct comparison of +their organic remains. But the Cretaceous deposits are well known, not +only in this inland sea of ancient Switzerland, but in a number of +European basins, in France, in the Pyrenees, on the Mediterranean +shores, and also in Syria, Egypt, India, and Southern Africa, as well as +on our own continent. In all these localities, the Cretaceous remains, +like those of the Jurassic epoch, have one organic character, distinct +and unique. This fact is especially significant, because the contact of +their respective deposits is in many localities so immediate and +continuous that it affords an admirable test for the development-theory. +If this is the true mode of origin of animals, those of the later +Jurassic beds must be the progenitors of those of the earlier Cretaceous +deposits. Let us see now how far this agrees with our knowledge of the +physiological laws of development. + +Take first the class of Fishes. We have seen that in the Jurassic +periods there were none of our common Fishes, none corresponding to our +Herring, Pickerel, Mackerel, and the like,--no Fishes, in short, with +thin membranous scales, but that the class was represented exclusively +by those with hard, flint-like scales. In the Cretaceous epoch, however, +we come suddenly upon a horde of Fishes corresponding to our smaller +common Fishes of the Pickerel and Herring tribes, but principally of the +kinds found now in tropical waters; there are none like our Cods, +Haddocks, etc., such as are found at present in the colder seas. The +Fishes of the Jurassic epoch corresponding to our Sharks and Skates and +Gar-Pikes still exist, but in much smaller proportion, while these more +modern kinds are very numerous. Indeed, a classification of the +Cretaceous Fishes would correspond very nearly to one founded on those +now living. Shall we, then, suppose that the large reptilian Fishes of +the Jurassic time began suddenly to lay numerous broods of these +smaller, more modern, scaly Fishes? And shall we account for the +diminution of the previous forms by supposing that in order to give a +fair chance to the new kinds they brought them forth in large numbers, +while they reproduced their own kind less abundantly? According to very +careful estimates, if we accept this view, the progeny of the Jurassic +Fishes must have borne a proportion of about ninety per cent, of +entirely new types to some ten per cent, of those resembling the +parents. One would like a fact or two on which to rest so very +extraordinary a reversal of all known physiological laws of +reproduction, but, unhappily, there is not one. + +Still more unaccountable, upon any theory of development according to +ordinary laws of reproduction, are those unique, isolated types limited +to a single epoch, or sometimes even to a single period. There are some +very remarkable instances of this in the Cretaceous deposits. To make my +statement clearer, I will say a word of the sequence of these deposits +and their division into periods. + +These Cretaceous beds were at first divided only into three sets, called +the Neocomian, or lower deposits, the Green-Sands, or middle deposits, +and the Chalk, or upper deposits. The Neocomian, the lower division, was +afterwards subdivided into three sets of beds, called the Lower, Middle, +and Upper Neocomian by some geologists, the Valengian, Neocomian, and +Urgonian by others. These three periods are not only traced in immediate +succession, one above another, in the transverse cut before described, +across the mountain of Chaumont, near Neufchatel, but they are also +traced almost on one level along the plain at the foot of the Jura. It +is evident that by some disturbance of the surface the eastern end of +the range was raised slightly, lifting the lower or Valengian deposits +out of the water, so that they remain uncovered, and the next set of +deposits, the Neocomian, is accumulated along their base, while these in +their turn are slightly raised, and the Urgonian beds are accumulated +against them a little lower down. They follow each other from east to +west in a narrower area, just as the Azoic, Silurian, and Devonian +deposits follow each other from north to south in the northern part of +the United States. The Cretaceous deposits have been intimately studied +in various localities by different geologists, and are now subdivided +into at least ten, or it may be fifteen or sixteen distinct periods, as +they stand at present. This is, however, but the beginning of the work; +and the recent investigations of the French geologist, Coquand, indicate +that several of these periods at least are susceptible of further +subdivision. I present here a table enumerating the periods of the +Cretaceous epoch best known at present, in their sequence, because I +want to show how sharply and in how arbitrary a manner, if I may so +express it, new forms are introduced. The names are simply derived from +the localities, or from some circumstances connected with the locality +where each period has been studied. + + _Table of Periods in the Cretaceous Epoch._ + + Maestrichtian } Chalk. + Senonian } + + Turonian } Chalk Marl. + Cenomanian } + + Albian } + Aptian } Green Sands. + Rhodanian } + + Urgonian } + Neocomian } Wealden. + Valengian } + +One of the most peculiar and distinct of those unique types alluded to +above is that of the Rudistes, a singular Bivalve, in which the lower +valve is very deep and conical, while the upper valve sets into to it as +into a cup. The subjoined woodcut represents such a Bivalve. These +Rudistes are found suddenly in the Urgonian deposits; there are none in +the two preceding sets of beds; they disappear in the three following +periods, and reappear again in great numbers in the Cenomanian, +Turonian, and Senonian periods, and disappear again in the succeeding +one. These can hardly be missed from any negligence or oversight in the +examination of these deposits, for they are by no means rare. They are +found always in great numbers, occupying crowded beds, like Oysters in +the present time. So numerous are they, where they occur at all, that +the deposits containing them are called by many naturalists the first, +second, third, and fourth _bank_ of Rudistes. Which of the ordinary +Bivalves, then, gave rise to this very remarkable form in the class, +allowed it to die out, and revived it again at various intervals? This +is by no means the only instance of the same kind. There are a number of +types making their appearance suddenly, lasting during one period or +during a succession of periods, and then disappearing forever, while +others, like the Rudistes, come in, vanish, and reappear at a later +time. + +[Illustration: Rudistes.] + +I am well aware that the advocates of the development-theory do not +state their views as I have here presented them. On the contrary, they +protest against any idea of sudden, violent, abrupt changes, and +maintain that by slow and imperceptible modifications during immense +periods of time these new types have been introduced without involving +any infringement of the ordinary processes of development; and they +account for the entire absence of corroborative facts in the past +history of animals by what they call the "imperfection of the geological +record." Now, while I admit that our knowledge of geology is still very +incomplete, I assert that just where the direct sequence of geological +deposits is needed for this evidence, we have it. The Jurassic beds, +without a single modern scaly Fish, are in immediate contact with the +Cretaceous beds, in which the Fishes of that kind are proportionately +almost as numerous as they are now; and between these two sets of +deposits there is not a trace of any transition or intermediate form to +unite the reptilian Fishes of the Jurassic with the common Fishes of the +Cretaceous times. Again, the Cretaceous beds in which the crowded banks +of Rudistes, so singular and unique in form, first make their +appearance, follow immediately upon those in which all the Bivalves are +of an entirely different character. In short, the deposits of this year +along any sea-coast or at the mouth of any of our rivers do not follow +more directly upon those of last year than do these successive sets of +beds of past ages follow upon each other. In making these statements, I +do not forget the immense length of the geological periods; on the +contrary, I fully accede to it, and believe that it is more likely to +have been underrated than overstated. But let it be increased a +thousand-fold, the fact remains, that these new types occur commonly at +the dividing line where one period joins the next, just on the margin of +both. + +For years I have collected daily among some of these deposits, and I +know the Sea-Urchins, Corals, Fishes, Crustacea, and Shells of those old +shores as well as I know those of Nahant Beach, and there is nothing +more striking to a naturalist than the sudden, abrupt changes of species +in passing from one to another. In the second set of Cretaceous beds, +the Neocomian, there is found a little Terebratula (a small Bivalve +Shell) in immense quantities: they may actually be collected by the +bushel. Pass to the Urgonian beds, resting directly upon the Neocomian, +and there is not one to be found, and an entirely new species comes in. +There is a peculiar Spatangus (Sea-Urchin) found throughout the whole +series of beds in which this Terebratula occurs. At the same moment that +you miss the Shell, the Sea-Urchin disappears also, and another takes +its place. Now, admitting for a moment that the later can have grown out +of the earlier forms, I maintain, that, if this be so, the change is +immediate, sudden, without any gradual transitions, and is, therefore, +wholly inconsistent with all our known physiological laws, as well as +with the transmutation-theory. + +There is a very singular group of Ammonites in the Cretaceous epoch, +which, were it not for the suddenness of its appearance, might seem +rather to favor the development-theory, from its great variety of +closely allied forms. We have traced the Chambered Shells from the +straight, simple ones of the earliest epochs up to the intricate and +closely coiled forms of the Jurassic epoch. In the so-called Portland +stone, belonging to the upper set of Jurassic beds, there is only one +type of Ammonite; but in the Cretaceous beds, immediately above it, +there set in a number of different genera and distinct species, +including the most fantastic and seemingly abnormal forms. It is as if +the close coil by which these shells had been characterized during the +Middle Age had been suddenly broken up and decomposed into an endless +variety of outlines. Some of these new types still retain the coil, but +the whorls are much less compact than before, as in the Crioceras; in +others, the direction of the coil is so changed as to make a spiral, as +in the Turrilites; or the shell starts with a coil, then proceeds in a +straight line, and changes to a curve again at the other extremity, as +in the Ancyloceras, or in the Scaphites, in which the first coil is +somewhat closer than in the Ancyloceras; or the tendency to a coil is +reduced to a single curve, so as to give the shell the outline of a +horn, as in the Toxoceras; or the coil is entirely lost, and the shell +reduced to its primitive straight form, as in the Baculites, which, +except for their undulating partitions, might be mistaken for the +Orthoceratites of the Silurian and Devonian epochs. I have presented +here but a few species of these extraordinary Cretaceous Ammonites, and, +strange to say, with this breaking-up of the type into a number of +fantastic and often contorted shapes, it disappears. It is singular that +forms so unusual and so contrary to the previous regularity of this +group should accompany its last stage of existence, and seem to shadow +forth by their strange contortions the final dissolution of their type. +When I look upon a collection of these old shells, I can never divest +myself of an impression that the contortions of a death-struggle have +been made the pattern of living types, and with that the whole group has +ended. + +[Illustration: Crioceras.] + +[Illustration: Turrilites.] + +[Illustration: Ancyloceras.] + +[Illustration: Scaphites.] + +[Illustration: Toxoceras.] + +[Illustration: Baculites.] + +Now shall we infer that the compact, closely coiled Ammonites of the +Jurassic deposits, while continuing their own kind, brought forth a +variety of other kinds, and so distributed these new organic elements as +to produce a large number of distinct genera and species? I confess that +these ideas are so contrary to all I have learned from Nature in the +course of a long life that I should be forced to renounce completely the +results of my studies in Embryology and Palaeontology before I could +adopt these new views of the origin of species. And while the +distinguished originator of this theory is entitled to our highest +respect for his scientific researches, yet it should not be forgotten +that the most conclusive evidence brought forward by him and his +adherents is of a negative character, drawn from a science in which they +do not pretend to have made personal investigations, that of Geology, +while the proofs they offer us from their own departments of science, +those of Zooelogy and Botany, are derived from observations, still very +incomplete, upon domesticated animals and cultivated plants, which can +never be made a test of the origin of wild species.[11] + +[Footnote 11: The advocates of the development-theory allude to the +metamorphosis of animals and plants as supporting their view of a change +of one species into another. They compare the passage of a common leaf +into the calyx or crown-leaves in plants, or that of a larva into a +perfect insect, to the passage of one species into another. The only +objection to this argument seems to be, that, whereas Nature daily +presents us myriads of examples of the one set of phenomena, showing it +to be a norm, not a single instance of the other has ever been known to +occur either in the animal or in the vegetable kingdom.] + +In my next article I shall show the relation between the Cretaceous and +Tertiary epochs, and see whether there is any reason to believe that the +gigantic Mammalia of more modern times were derived from the Reptiles of +the Secondary age. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. + + + Hark! 't is our Northern Nightingale that sings + In far-off, leafy cloisters, dark and cool, + Flinging his flute-notes bounding from the skies! + + Thou wild musician of the mountain-streams, + Most tuneful minstrel of the forest-choirs, + Bird of all grace and harmony of soul, + Unseen, we hail thee for thy blissful voice! + + Up in yon tremulous mist where morning wakes + Illimitable shadows from their dark abodes, + Or in this woodland glade tumultuous grown + With all the murmurous language of the trees, + No blither presence fills the vocal space. + The wandering rivulets dancing through the grass, + The gambols, low or loud, of insect-life, + The cheerful call of cattle in the vales, + Sweet natural sounds of the contented hours,-- + All seem less jubilant when thy song begins. + + Deep in the shade we lie and listen long; + For human converse well may pause, and man + Learn from such notes fresh hints of praise, + That upward swelling from thy grateful tribe + Circles the hills with melodies of joy. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FLEUR-DE-LIS IN FLORIDA. + + [In the July number of this magazine is a sketch of the attempt + of the Huguenots, under the auspices of Coligny, to found a + colony at Port Royal. Two years later, an attempt was made to + establish a Protestant community on the banks of the River St. + John's, in Florida. The following paper embodies the substance + of the letters and narratives of the actors in this striking + episode of American history.] + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +On the 25th of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second time off +the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the smallest of +sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all crowded with men. +Rene de Laudonniere held command. He was of a noble race of Poitou, +attached to the House of Chatillon, of which Coligny was the head; +pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An engraving, +purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, leaning +against the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and plume, +slashed doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled +moustache and close-trimmed beard, wears a thoughtful and somewhat +pensive look, as if already shadowed by the destiny that awaited him. + +The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark and deadly +year for France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that +voyager returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of +bigotry and hate had found a respite. The Peace of Amboise had been +signed. The fierce monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his +sword; the assassin, his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked +their rancor under hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, +helpless amid the storm of factions which threatened their destruction, +smiled now on Conde, now on Guise,--gave ear to the Cardinal of +Lorraine, or listened in secret to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. +Coligny was again strong at Court. He used his opportunity, and +solicited with success the means of renewing his enterprise of +colonization. With pains and zeal, men were mustered for the work. In +name, at least, they were all Huguenots; yet again, as before, the +staple of the projected colony was unsound: soldiers, paid out of the +royal treasury, hired artisans and tradesmen, joined with a swarm of +volunteers from the young Huguenot noblesse, whose restless swords had +rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The foundation-stone was left +out. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, indeed, were rare among +the Huguenots; for the dull peasants who guided the plough clung with +blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous gentlemen, reckless +soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for novelty and heated with +dreams of wealth,--these were they who would build for their country and +their religion an empire beyond the sea. + +With a few officers and twelve soldiers, Laudonniere landed where Ribaut +had landed before him; and as their boat neared the shore, they saw an +Indian chief who ran to meet them, whooping and clamoring welcome from +afar. It was Satouriona, the savage potentate who ruled some thirty +villages around the lower St. John's and northward along the coast. With +him came two stalwart sons, and behind trooped a host of tribesmen +arrayed in smoke-tanned deerskins stained with wild devices in gaudy +colors. They crowded around the voyagers with beaming visages and yelps +of gratulation. The royal Satouriona could not contain the exuberance of +his joy, since in the person of the French commander he recognized the +brother of the Sun, descended from the skies to aid him against his +great rival, Outina. + +Hard by stood the column of stone, graven with the fleur-de-lis, +planted here on the former voyage. The Indians had crowned the mystic +emblem with evergreens, and placed offerings of maize on the ground +before it; for with an affectionate and reverent wonder they had ever +remembered the steel-clad strangers whom, two summers before, John +Ribaut had led to their shores. + +Five miles up the St. John's, or River of May, there stands, on the +southern bank, a hill some forty feet high, boldly thrusting itself into +the broad and lazy waters. It is now called St. John's Bluff. Thither +the Frenchmen repaired, pushed through the dense semi-tropical forest, +and climbed the steep acclivity. Thence they surveyed their Canaan. +Beneath them moved the unruffled river, gliding around the reed-grown +shores of marshy islands, the haunt of alligators, and betwixt the +bordering expanse of wide, wet meadows, studded with island-like clumps +of pine and palmetto, and bounded by the sunny verge of distant forests. +Far on their right, seen by glimpses between the shaggy cedar-boughs, +the glistening sea lay stretched along the horizon. Before, in hazy +distance, the softened green of the woodlands was veined with the mazes +of the countless interlacing streams that drain the watery region behind +St. Mary's and Fernandina. To the left, the St. John's flowed gleaming +betwixt verdant shores beyond whose portals lay the El Dorado of their +dreams. "Briefly," writes Laudonniere, "the place is so pleasant that +those which are melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour." + +A fresh surprise awaited them. The allotted span of mortal life was +quadrupled in that benign climate. Laudonniere's lieutenant, Ottigny, +ranging the neighboring forest with a party of soldiers, met a troop of +Indians who invited him to their dwellings. Mounted on the back of a +stout savage, who plunged with him through the deep marshes, and guided +him by devious pathways through the tangled thickets, he arrived at +length, and beheld a wondrous spectacle. In the lodge sat a venerable +chief, who assured him that he was the father of five successive +generations, and that he had lived two hundred and fifty years. +Opposite, sat a still more ancient veteran, the father of the first, +shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather a dead carkeis +than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age was so great +that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak one onely word +but with exceeding great paine." Despite his dismal condition, the +visitor was told that he might expect to live in the course of Nature +thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat face to face, half +hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and his credulous +soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in wonder and admiration. + +Man and Nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May as +the site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the +harvests of maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the +river opened a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores +of barbaric wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the +colonists. Yet, the better to content himself and his men, Laudonniere +weighed anchor, and sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. +Returning, confirmed in his first impression, he set forth with a party +of officers and soldiers to explore the borders of the chosen stream. +The day was hot. The sun beat fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy +doublets of the men, till at length they gained the shade of one of +those deep forests of pine where the dead and sultry air is thick with +resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen leaves, gives no +sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer leaped up on all +sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into sunlight. A broad +meadow, a running brook, a lofty wall of encircling forests. The men +called it the Vale of Laudonniere. The afternoon was spent, and the sun +was near its setting, when they reached the bank of the river. They +strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, and, stretched on that +sylvan couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and weary men. + +At daybreak they were roused by sound of trumpet. Men and officers +joined their voices in a psalm, then betook themselves to their task. +Their task was the building of a fort, and this was the chosen spot. It +was a tract of dry ground on the brink of the river, immediately above +St. John's Bluff. On the right was the bluff; on the left, a marsh; in +front, the river; behind, the forest. + +Boats came up the stream with laborers, tents, provision, cannon, and +tools. The engineers marked out the work in the form of a triangle; and, +from the noble volunteer to the meanest artisan, all lent a hand to +complete it. On the river side the defences were a palisade of timber. +On the two other sides were a ditch, and a rampart of fascines, earth, +and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in one of which was the magazine. +Within was a spacious parade, and around it various buildings for +lodging and storage. A large house with covered galleries was built on +the side towards the river for Laudonniere and his officers. In honor of +Charles IX the fort was named Fort Caroline. + +Meanwhile, Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives +style him, was seized with misgivings, learning these mighty +preparations. The work was but begun, and all was din and confusion +around the incipient fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the +neighboring height of St. John's swarming with naked warriors. The +prudent Laudonniere set his men in array, and for a season pick and +spade were dropped for arquebuse and pike. The savage potentate +descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, who saw him, drew his +likeness from memory,--a tall, athletic figure, tattooed in token of his +rank, plumed with feathers, hung with strings of beads, and girdled with +tinkling pieces of metal which hung from the belt, his only garment. He +came in regal state, a crowd of warriors around him, and, in advance, a +troop of young Indians armed with spears. Twenty musicians followed, +blowing a hideous discord through pipes of reeds. Arrived, he seated +himself on the ground "like a monkey," as Le Moyne has it in the grave +Latin of his "Brevis Narratio." A council followed, in which broken +words were aided by signs and pantomime. A treaty of alliance was made, +and Laudonniere had the folly to promise the chief that he would lend +him aid against his enemies. Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his +Indians to aid the French at their work. They obeyed with alacrity, and +in two days the buildings of the fort were all thatched after the native +fashion with leaves of the palmetto. + +A word touching these savages. In the peninsula of Florida were several +distinct Indian confederacies, with three of which the French were +brought into contact. The first was that of Satouriona. The next was the +potent confederacy of the Thimagoa, under a chief called Outina, whose +forty villages were scattered among the lakes and forests around the +upper waters of this remarkable river. The third was that of "King +Potanou," whose domain lay among the pine-barrens, cypress-swamps, and +fertile hummocks, westward and northwestward of the St. John's. The +three communities were at deadly enmity. Their social state was more +advanced than that of the wandering hunter-tribes of the North. They +were an agricultural people. Around all their villages were fields of +maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest, due chiefly to the labor of the +women, was gathered into a public granary, and on this they lived during +three-fourths of the year, dispersing in winter to hunt among the +forests. + +Their villages were clusters of huts thatched with palmetto. In the +midst was the dwelling of the chief, much larger than the rest, and +sometimes raised on an artificial mound. They were inclosed with +palisades, and, strange to say, some of them were approached by wide +avenues, artificially graded, and several hundred yards in length. +Remains of them may still be seen, as may also the mounds in which the +Floridians, like the Hurons and various other tribes, collected at +stated intervals the bones of their dead. + +The most prominent feature of their religion was sun-worship, and, like +other wild American tribes, they abounded in "medicine-men," who +combined the functions of priest, physician, and necromancer. + +Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose +office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each +village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the nation. In +the language of the French narratives, they were all kings or lords, +vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or Potanou. All these +tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to ascertain with precision +their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt that they were the +authors of the mounds and other remains at present found in various +parts of Florida. + +Their fort nearly finished, and their league made with Satouriona, the +gold-hunting Huguenots were eager to spy out the secrets of the +interior. To this end the lieutenant, Ottigny, went up the river in a +sail-boat. With him were a few soldiers and two Indians, the latter +going forth, says Laudonniere, as if bound to a wedding, keen for a +fight with the hated Thimagoa, and exulting in the havoc to be wrought +among them by the magic weapons of their white allies. They were doomed +to grievous disappointment. + +The Sieur d'Ottigny spread his sail, and calmly glided up the dark +waters of the St. John's. A scene fraught with strange interest to the +naturalist and the lover of Nature. Here, two centuries later, the +Bartrams, father and son, guided their skiff and kindled their nightly +bivouac-fire; and here, too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and +his gun. Each alike has left the record of his wanderings, fresh as the +woods and waters that inspired it. Slight, then, was the change since +Ottigny, first of white men, steered his bark along the still breast of +the virgin river. Before him, like a lake, the redundant waters spread +far and wide; and along the low shores, or jutting points, or the +waveless margin of deep and sheltered coves, towered wild, majestic +forms of vegetable beauty. Here rose the magnolia, high above +surrounding woods; but the gorgeous bloom had fallen, that a few weeks +earlier studded the verdant dome with silver. From the edge of the +bordering swamp the cypress reared its vast buttressed column and leafy +canopy. From the rugged arms of oak and pine streamed the gray drapery +of the long Spanish moss, swayed mournfully in the faintest breeze. Here +were the tropical plumage of the palm, the dark green masses of the +live-oak, the glistening verdure of wild orange-groves; and from out the +shadowy thickets hung the wreaths of the jessamine and the scarlet +trumpets of the bignonia. + +Nor less did the fruitful river teem with varied forms of animal life. +From the caverns of leafy shade came the gleam and flicker of +many-colored plumage. The cormorant, the pelican, the heron, floated on +the water, or stalked along its pebbly brink. Among the sedges, the +alligator, foul from his native mud, outstretched his hideous length, +or, sluggish and sullen, drifted past the boat, his grim head level with +the surface, and each scale, each folding of his horny hide, distinctly +visible, as, with the slow movement of distended paws, he balanced +himself in the water. When, at sunset, they drew up their boat on the +strand, and built their camp-fire under the arches of the woods, the +shores resounded with the roaring of these colossal lizards; all night +the forest rang with the whooping of the owls; and in the morning the +sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal, far and near, with the +clamor of wild turkeys. + +Among such scenes, for twenty leagues, the adventurous sail moved on. +Far to the right, beyond the silent waste of pines, lay the realm of +the mighty Potanou. The Thimagoa towns were still above them on the +river, when they saw three canoes of this people at no great distance in +front. Forthwith the two Indians in the boat were fevered with +excitement. With glittering eyes they snatched pike and sword, and +prepared for fight; but the sage Ottigny, bearing slowly down on the +strangers, gave them time to run their craft ashore and escape to the +woods. Then, landing, he approached the canoes, placed in them a few +trinkets, and withdrew to a distance. The fugitives took heart, and, +step by step, returned. An amicable intercourse was opened, with +assurances of friendship on the part of the French, a procedure viewed +by Satouriona's Indians with unspeakable disgust and ire. + +The ice thus broken, Ottigny returned to Fort Caroline; and a fortnight +later, an officer named Vasseur sailed up the river to pursue the +adventure: for the French, thinking that the nation of the Thimagoa lay +betwixt them and the gold-mines, would by no means quarrel with them, +and Laudonniere repented him already of his rash pledge to Satouriona. + +As Vasseur moved on, two Indians hailed him from the shore, inviting him +to their dwellings. He accepted their guidance, and presently saw before +him the cornfields and palisades of an Indian town. Led through the +wondering crowd to the lodge of the chief, Mollua, Vasseur and his +followers were seated in the place of honor and plentifully regaled with +fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua began his discourse. He told +them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs of the great Outina, +lord of all the Thimagoa, whose warriors wore armor of gold and silver +plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his enemy, a mighty and redoubted +prince; and of the two kings of the distant Appalachian Mountains, rich +beyond utterance in gems and gold. While thus, with earnest pantomime +and broken words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent +and eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of +these Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in war +against the two potentates of the mountains. Hereupon the sagacious +Mollua, well pleased, promised that each of Outina's vassal chiefs +should requite their French allies with a heap of gold and silver two +feet high. Thus, while Laudonniere stood pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur +made alliance with his mortal enemy. + +Returning, he was met, near the fort, by one of Satouriona's chiefs, who +questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoa. Vasseur replied, +that he had set upon and routed them with incredible slaughter. But as +the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, the +sergeant, Francis la Caille, drew his sword, and, like Falstaff before +him, re-enacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the +imaginary Thimagoa as they fled before his fury. Whereat the chief, at +length convinced, led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with +a certain savory decoction with which the Indians were wont to regale +those whom they delighted to honor. + +Elate at the promise of a French alliance, Satouriona had summoned his +vassal chiefs to war. From the St. Mary's and the Satilla and the +distant Altamaha, from every quarter of his woodland realm, they had +mustered at his call. By the margin of the St. John's, the forest was +alive with their bivouacs. Ten chiefs were here, and some five hundred +men. And now, when all was ready, Satouriona reminded Laudonniere of his +promise, and claimed its fulfilment; but the latter gave evasive answers +and a virtual refusal. Stifling his rage, the chief prepared to go +without him. + +Near the bank of the river, a fire was kindled, and two large vessels of +water placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand. His chiefs +crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his five +hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished with +feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, panthers, +bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, +distorted his features to a wild expression of rage and hate; then +muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the sun; then +besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, +turning the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he cried, +"may the blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives +extinguished!" and the concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive +yells, till the shores resounded with the wolfish din. + +The rites over, they set forth, and in a few days returned exulting with +thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. The latter were hung on a +pole before the royal lodge, and when night came, it brought with it a +pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting. + +A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonniere. Resolved, cost what +it might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it a stroke of policy +to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent a +soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a flat +refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had +shamefully broken faith with him. On this, Laudonniere, at the head of +twenty soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the +opening of the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated +himself without ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his +displeasure, he remained in silence for a half-hour. At length he spoke, +renewing his demand. For some moments Satouriona made no reply, then +coldly observed that the sight of so many armed men had frightened the +prisoners away. Laudonniere grew peremptory, when the chiefs son, +Athore, went out, and presently returned with the two Indians, whom the +French led back to Fort Caroline. + +Satouriona dissembled, professed good-will, and sent presents to the +fort; but the outrage rankled in his savage breast, and he never forgave +it. + +Captain Vasseur, with Arlac, the ensign, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, +embarked to bear the ill-gotten gift to Outina. Arrived, they were +showered with thanks by that grateful potentate, who, hastening to avail +himself of his new alliance, invited them to join in a raid against his +neighbor, Potanou. To this end, Arlac and five soldiers remained, while +Vasseur with the rest descended to Fort Caroline. + +The warriors were mustered, the dances were danced, and the songs were +sung. Then the wild cohort took up its march. The wilderness through +which they passed holds its distinctive features to this day,--the shady +desert of the pine-barrens, where many a wanderer has miserably died, +with haggard eye seeking in vain for clue or guidance in the pitiless, +inexorable monotony. Yet the waste has its oases, the "hummocks," where +the live-oaks are hung with long festoons of grape-vines,--where the air +is sweet with woodland odors, and vocal with the song of birds. Then the +deep cypress-swamp, where dark trunks rise like the columns of some vast +sepulchre. Above, the impervious canopy of leaves; beneath, a black and +root-encumbered slough. Perpetual moisture trickles down the clammy +bark, while trunk and limb, distorted with strange shapes of vegetable +disease, wear in the gloom a semblance grotesque and startling. Lifeless +forms lean propped in wild disorder against the living, and from every +rugged stem and lank limb outstretched hangs the dark drapery of the +Spanish moss. The swamp is veiled in mourning. No breath, no voice. A +deathly stillness, till the plunge of the alligator, lashing the waters +of the black lagoon, resounds with hollow echo through the tomb-like +solitude. + +Next, the broad sunlight and the wide savanna. Wading breast-deep in +grass, they view the wavy sea of verdure, with headland and cape and +far-reaching promontory, with distant coasts, hazy and dim, havens and +shadowed coves, islands of the magnolia and the palm, high, impending +shores of the mulberry and the elm, the ash, hickory, and maple. Here +the rich _gordonia_, never out of bloom, sends down its thirsty roots to +drink at the stealing brook. Here the _halesia_ hangs out its silvery +bells, the purple clusters of the _wistaria_ droop from the supporting +bough, and the coral blossoms of the _erythryna_ glow in the shade +beneath. From tufted masses of sword-like leaves shoot up the tall +spires of the _yucca_, heavy with pendent flowers, of pallid hue, like +the moon, and from the grass gleams the blue eye of the starry _ixia_. + +Through forest, swamp, savanna, the valiant Frenchmen held their way. At +first, Outina's Indians kept always in advance; but when they reached +the hostile district, the modest warriors fell to the rear, resigning +the post of honor to their French allies. + +An open country; a rude cultivation; the tall palisades of an Indian +town. Their approach was seen, and the warriors of Potanou, nowise +daunted, came swarming forth to meet them. But the sight of the bearded +strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, the fall of their +foremost chief, shot through the brain with the bullet of Arlac, filled +them with consternation, and they fled headlong within their defences. +The men of Thimagoa ran screeching in pursuit. Pell-mell, all entered +the town together. Slaughter; pillage; flame. The work was done, and the +band returned triumphant. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and +parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes +had been dashed; wild expectations had come to nought. The adventurers +had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a petty fort by a +hot and sickly river, with hard labor, ill fare, prospective famine, and +nothing to break the weary sameness but some passing canoe or floating +alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each other's wrath, and +inveighed against the commandant. + +Why are we put on half-rations, when he told us that provision should be +made for a full year? Where are the reinforcements and supplies that he +said should follow us from France? Why is he always closeted with +Ottigny, Arlac, and this and that favorite, when we, men of blood as +good as theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? And why has he sent La +Roche Ferriere to make his fortune among the Indians, while we are kept +here, digging at the works? + +Of La Roche Ferriere and his adventures, more hereafter. The young +nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own +expenses, in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in +impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony--unlike the +former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. The +adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet +there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to +complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. +The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonniere, whose greatest +errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,--fatal +defects in his position. + +The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one Roquette, +who gave out that by magic he had discovered a mine of gold and silver, +high up the river, which would give each of them a share of ten thousand +crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the king. But for +Laudonniere, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally +in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonniere's confidants, who, still +professing fast adherence to the interests of the latter, is charged by +him with plotting against his life. Many of the soldiers were in the +conspiracy. They made a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with +them to the rampart when they went to their work, at the same time +wearing their arms, and watching an opportunity to kill the commandant. +About this time, overheating himself, he fell ill, and was confined to +his quarters. On this, Genre made advances to the apothecary, urging him +to put arsenic into his medicines; but the apothecary shrugged his +shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow him up, by hiding a keg of +gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed. Hints of Genre's +machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere, the culprit fled to the +woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with full confession, to his +commander. + +Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France,--the third, the Breton, +remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malecontents took the +opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, +favoritism, and tyranny. + +Early in September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private adventurer, +had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he returned, about the +tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to carry home seven or +eight of the malecontent soldiers. Bourdet left some of his sailors in +their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. These pirates joined +with others whom they had won over, stole Laudonniere's two pinnaces, +and set forth on a plundering excursion to the West Indies. They took a +small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, but were soon compelled by +famine to put into Havana and surrender themselves. Here, to make their +peace with the authorities, they told all they knew of the position and +purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, and hence was forged the +thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the wretched little colony. + +On a Sunday morning, Francis de la Caille came to Laudonniere's +quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come +to the parade-ground. He complied, and, issuing forth, his inseparable +Ottigny at his side, saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and +gentlemen-volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre +countenance. La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf of +the rest, a paper which he held in his hand. It opened with +protestations of duty and obedience; next came complaints of hard work, +starvation, and broken promises, and a request that the petitioners +should be allowed to embark in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise +along the Spanish main in order to procure provision by purchase "or +otherwise." In short, the flower of the company wished to turn +buccaneers. + +Laudonniere refused, but assured them, that, so soon as the defences of +the fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for +the Appalachian gold-mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then +building on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for +provisions with the Indians. With this answer they were forced to +content themselves; but the fermentation continued, and the plot +thickened. Their spokesman, La Caille, however, seeing whither the +affair tended, broke with them, and, beside Ottigny, Vasseur, and the +brave Swiss, Arlac, was the only officer who held to his duty. + +A severe illness again seized Laudonniere and confined him to his bed. +Improving their advantage, the malecontents gained over nearly all the +best soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of +good birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up +a paper to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed +the conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le +Moyne, who had also refused to sign, received a hint from a friend that +he had better change his quarters; upon which he warned La Caille, who +escaped to the woods. It was late in the night. Fourneaux, with twenty +men armed to the teeth, knocked fiercely at the commandant's door. +Forcing an entrance, they wounded a gentleman who opposed them, and +crowded around the sick man's bed. Fourneaux, armed with steel cap and +cuirass, held his arquebuse to Laudonniere's breast, and demanded leave +to go on a cruise among the Spanish islands. The latter kept his +presence of mind, and remonstrated with some firmness; on which, with +oaths and menaces, they dragged him from his bed, put him in fetters, +carried him out to the gate of the fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed +him to the ship anchored in the river. + +Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they +disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on +pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming all +the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the +conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated +West-India cruise, which he required Laudonniere to sign. The sick +commandant, imprisoned in the ship, with one attendant, at first +refused; but, receiving a message from the mutineers, that, if he did +not comply, they would come on board and cut his throat, he at length +yielded. + +The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels +on which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight +they were ready for sea, armed and provided with the king's cannon, +munitions, and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join +the party. Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church, on +one of the Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during the +midnight mass of Christmas, whereby a triple end would be achieved: +first, a rich booty; secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, +vengeance on the arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set +sail on the eighth of December, taunting those who remained, calling +them greenhorns, and threatening condign punishment, if, on their +triumphant return, they should be refused free entrance to the fort. + +They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonniere was gladdened +in his solitude by the approach of his fast friends, Ottigny and Arlac, +who conveyed him to the fort, and reinstated him. The entire command was +reorganized and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully depleted; +but the bad blood had been drawn, and thenceforth all internal danger +was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two new vessels to +replace those of which they had been robbed, and in various intercourse +with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until the twenty-fifth of +March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that a vessel was +hovering off the coast. Laudonniere sent to reconnoitre. The stranger +lay anchored at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish brigantine, +manned by the returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and anxious to +make terms. Yet, as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, Laudonniere +sent down La Caille with thirty soldiers, concealed at the bottom of his +little vessel. Seeing only two or three on deck, the pirates allowed her +to come along-side; when, to their amazement, they were boarded and +taken before they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, woebegone, and +drunk, they were landed under a guard. Their story was soon told. +Fortune had flattered them at the outset. On the coast of Cuba, they +took a brigantine, with wine and stores. Embarking in her, they next +fell in with a caravel, which they also captured. Landing at a village +of Jamaica, they plundered and caroused for a week, and had hardly +reembarked when they fell in with a small vessel having on board the +governor of the island. She made desperate fight, but was taken at last, +and with her a rich booty. They thought to put the governor to ransom; +but the astute official deceived them, and, on pretence of negotiating +for the sum demanded, together with certain apes and parrots, for which +his captors had also bargained, contrived to send instructions to his +wife. Whence it happened that at daybreak three armed vessels fell upon +them, retook the prize, and captured or killed all the pirates but +twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their brigantine, fled out to +sea. Among these was the ringleader, Fourneaux, and, happily, the pilot, +Trenchant. The latter, eager to return to Fort Caroline, whence he had +been forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in bringing the vessel +to the coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and consternation of the +discomfited pirates, when they saw their dilemma; for, having no +provision, they must either starve or seek succor at the fort. They +chose the latter alternative, and bore away for the St. John's. A few +casks of Spanish wine yet remained, and nobles and soldiers, fraternized +by the common peril of a halter, joined in a last carouse. As the wine +mounted to their heads, in the mirth of drink and desperation, they +enacted their own trial. One personated the judge, another the +commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and speeches on either +side. + +"Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the +defence, "but if Laudonniere does not hang us all, I will never call him +an honest man." + +They had some hope of gaining provision from the Indians at the mouth of +the river, and then patting to sea again; but this was frustrated by La +Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort Caroline, +and all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were sentenced to +be hanged. + +"Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will +you stand by and see us butchered?" + +"These," retorted Laudonniere, "are no comrades of mutineers and +rebels." + +At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to +shooting. + +A file of men; a rattling volley; and the debt of justice was paid. The +bodies were hanged on gibbets at the river's mouth, and order reigned at +Fort Caroline. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferriere had been sent out as +an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and +restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have +reached the mysterious mountains of Appalachee. He sent to the fort +mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows +tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and +other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up the +quest, and penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who could muster +three or four thousand warriors, and who promised with the aid of a +hundred arquebusiers to conquer all the kings of the adjacent mountains, +and subject them and their gold-mines to the rule of the French. A +humbler adventurer was Peter Gamble, a robust and daring youth, who had +been brought up in the household of Coligny, and was now a soldier under +Laudonniere. The latter gave him leave to trade with the Indians, a +privilege which he used so well that he grew rich with his traffic, +became prime favorite with the chief of Edelano, married his daughter, +and, in his absence, reigned in his stead. But, as his sway verged +towards despotism, his subjects took offence, and beat out his brains +with a hatchet. + +During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral +brought to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the +southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the +Indians,--in other words, were not clothed at all,--and their uncut hair +streamed wildly down their backs. They brought strange tales of those +among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Calos, on whose +domains they had suffered wreck, a chief mighty in stature and in power. +In one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a +hogshead, filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent +reefs and keys. The monarch was a priest, too, and a magician, with +power over the elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to +hold converse in secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year +he sacrificed to his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the +sea had cast upon his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that +of the River Caloosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, +dwelling near Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of +wondrous beauty, in marriage to his great ally. But, as the bride, with +her bridesmaids, was journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen +band, they were assailed by a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an +island called Sarrope, in the midst of a great lake, who put the +warriors to flight, bore the maidens captive to their watery fastness, +espoused them all, and, as we are assured, "loved them above all +measure." + +Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged for +ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of Potanou, +again alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus +reinforced, he would conquer for them a free access to the phantom +gold-mines of Appalachec. Ottigny set forth on this fool's-errand with +thrice the force demanded. Three hundred Thimagoa and thirty Frenchmen +took up their march through the pine-barrens. Outina's conjurer was of +the number, and had well-nigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on +Ottigny's shield, that he might not touch the earth, with hideous +grimaces, howlings, and contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic +frenzy, and proclaimed to the astounded warriors that to advance farther +would be destruction. Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's +sarcasms shamed him into a show of courage. Again they moved forward, +and soon encountered Potanou with all his host. Le Moyne drew a picture +of the fight. In the foreground Ottigny is engaged in single combat with +a gigantic savage, who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly stroke at the +plumed helmet of his foe; but the latter, with target raised to guard +his head, darts under the arms of the naked Goliath, and transfixes him +with his sword. The arquebuse did its work: panic, slaughter, and a +plentiful harvest of scalps. But no persuasion could induce Outina to +follow up his victory. He went home to dance around his trophies, and +the French returned disgusted to Fort Caroline. + +And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their +folly. Conquest, gold, military occupation,--such had been their aims. +Not a rood of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores were +consumed; the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, were +hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his +tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in +their miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their +only hope. + +May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his +companions, full of delighted anticipations, had explored the flowery +borders of the St. John's. Dire was the contrast; for, within the +homesick precinct of Fort Caroline, a squalid band, dejected and worn, +dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or lay +stretched in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. Some +were digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel upon the +meadows. One collected refuse fish-bones and pounded them into meal. +Yet, giddy with weakness, their skin clinging to their bones, they +dragged themselves in turn to the top of St. John's Bluff, straining +their eyes across the sea to descry the anxiously expected sail. + +Had Coligny left them to perish? or had some new tempest of calamity, +let loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the +watchman on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection +fell upon them, a dejection that would have sunk to despair, could their +eyes have pierced the future. + +The Indians had left the neighborhood, but, from time to time, brought +in meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at +exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, +they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, +beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. +"Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to +give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any +time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, +these villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make +so great account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: +then fell they out a laughing and mocked us with open throat." + +The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed +the colonists, the thought of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the +Breton, still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish +brigantine brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were +insufficient, and they prepared to build a new one. The energy of +reviving hope lent new life to their exhausted frames. Some gathered +pitch in the pine forests; some made charcoal; some cut and sawed the +timber. The maize began to ripen, and this brought some relief; but the +Indians, exasperated and greedy, sold it with reluctance, and murdered +two half-famished Frenchmen who gathered a handful in the fields. + +The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result +was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with an +invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, the plunder of whose +villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was accepted. Ottigny +and Vasseur set forth, but were grossly deceived, led against a +different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved. + +Pale with famine and with rage, a crowd of soldiers beset Laudonniere, +and fiercely demanded to be led against Outina to take him prisoner and +extort from his fears the supplies which could not be looked for from +his gratitude. The commandant was forced to comply. Those who could bear +the weight of their armor put it on, embarked, to the number of fifty, +in two barges, and sailed up the river under the commandant himself. +Outina's landing reached, they marched inland, entered his village, +surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized him amid the yells and +howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner to their boats. Here, +anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of corn and beans as the +price of his ransom. + +The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging +from all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and +troops of women gathered at the water's edge with moans, outcries, and +gestures of despair. Yet no ransom was offered, since, reasoning from +their own instincts, they never doubted, that, the price paid, the +captive would be put to death. + +Laudonniere waited two days, then descended the river. In a rude chamber +of Fort Caroline, pike in hand, the sentinel stood his guard, while +before him crouched the captive chief, mute, impassive, brooding on his +woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen as a hound on the scent of prey, +tried, by great offers, to bribe Laudonniere to give the prisoner into +his hands. Outina, however, was kindly treated, and assured of immediate +freedom on payment of the ransom. + +Meanwhile his captivity was entailing dire affliction on his realm; for, +despairing of his return, his subjects mustered to the election of a new +chief. Party-strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and some for +an ambitious kinsman who coveted the vacant throne. Outina chafed in his +prison, learning these dissensions, and, eager to convince his +over-hasty subjects that their king still lived, he was so profuse of +promises, that he was again embarked and carried up the river. + +At no great distance below Lake George, a small affluent of the St. +John's gave access by water to a point within eighteen miles of Outina's +principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and bearing also +the royal captive, rowed up this little stream. Indians awaited them at +the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and piteous prayers +for their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an ample supply of +corn. As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonniere yielded, +released the chief, and received in his place two hostages, who were +fast bound in the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong detachment of +arquebusiers, set forth to receive the promised supplies, for which, +from the first, full payment in merchandise had been offered. Arrived at +the village, they filed into the great central lodge, within whose dusky +precincts were gathered the magnates of the tribe. Council-chamber, +forum, banquet-hall, dancing-hall, palace, all in one, the royal +dwelling could hold half the population in its capacious confines. Here +the French made their abode. Their armor buckled, their +arquebuse-matches lighted, they stood, or sat, or reclined on the +earthen floor, with anxious eyes watching the strange, dim scene, half +lighted by the daylight that streamed down through the hole at the apex +of the roof. Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, quivers at their +backs, bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched in the +shadow beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and +malignant, sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors were +mustering fast. The village without was full of them. The French +officers grew anxious, and urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in +collecting the promised ransom. The answer boded no good, "Our women are +afraid, when they see the matches of your guns burning. Put them out, +and they will bring the corn faster." + +Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in one +of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, +complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his +captors at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that +such was the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control +them,--that the French were in danger,--and that he had seen arrows +stuck in the ground by the side of the path, in token that war was +declared. Their peril was thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to +regain the boats while there was yet time. + +On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in +order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows of +squalid huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the +interfolding extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before +them stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked +by a natural growth of trees,--one of those curious monuments of native +industry to which allusion has been already made. Here Ottigny halted +and formed his line of march. Arlac with eight matchlockmen was sent in +advance, and flanking parties thrown into the woods on either side. +Ottigny told his soldiers, that, if the Indians meant to attack them, +they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He was +right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue at +once. The war-whoop quavered through the startled air, and a tempest of +stone-headed arrows clattered against the breastplates of the French, or +tore, scorching like fire, through their unprotected limbs. They stood +firm, and sent back their shot so steadily that several of the +assailants were laid dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number, +gave way as Ottigny came up with his men. + +They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, +comparatively open; when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three +hundred savages came bounding to the assault. Their whoops were echoed +from the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, who, +leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on with a ferocity +restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic. The men +threw down their corn-bags, and took to their weapons. They blew their +matches, and, under two excellent officers, stood well to their work. +The Indians, on their part, showed a good discipline, after their +fashion, and were perfectly under the control of their chiefs. With +cries that imitated the yell of owls, the scream of cougars, and the +howl of wolves, they ran up in successive bands, let fly their arrows, +and instantly fell back, giving place to others. At the sight of the +levelled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the earth. Whenever, sword in +hand, the French charged upon them, they fled like foxes through the +woods; and whenever the march was resumed, the arrows were showering +again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring band. The soldiers coolly +picked them up and broke them as they fell. Thus, beset with swarming +savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed their march till nightfall, +fighting as they went. + +The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of +the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely +that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the +corn, two bags only had been brought off. + +Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had +killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of the +new ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the Breton +and the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the voyage; for +now, in their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a delicacy in +which the neighborhood abounded. + +On the third of August, Laudonniere, perturbed and oppressed, was +walking on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that shot a +thrill through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards +the river's mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. +He called the tidings to the fort below. Then languid forms rose and +danced for joy, and voices, shrill with weakness, joined in wild +laughter and acclamation. + +A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they +the succors so long hoped in vain? or were they Spaniards bringing steel +and fire? They were neither. The foremost was a stately ship, of seven +hundred tons, a mighty burden at that day. She was named the Jesus; and +with her were three smaller vessels, the Solomon, the Tiger, and the +Swallow. Their commander was "a right worshipful and valiant +knight,"--for so the record styles him,--a pious man and a prudent, to +judge him by the orders he gave his crew, when, ten months before, he +sailed out of Plymouth:--"Serve God daily, love one another, preserve +your victuals, beware of fire, and keepe good companie." Nor were the +crew unworthy the graces of their chief; for the devout chronicler of +the voyage ascribes their deliverance from the perils of the seas to +"the Almightie God, who never suffereth his Elect to perish." + +Who, then, were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special +Providential care? Apostles of the cross, bearing the word of peace to +benighted heathendom? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic +destined to inoculate with its black infection nations yet unborn, +parent of discord and death, with the furies in their train, filling +half a continent with the tramp of armies and the clash of fratricidal +swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, father of the English +slave-trade. + +He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped a +cargo of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of +Hispaniola, forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant +him free trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself +as became a peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary +commerce, but distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River +of May to obtain a supply. + +Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the +front rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man +borne for the honour of the English name.... Neither did the West of +England yeeld such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean +peeres, Hawkins and Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and +all England was of his thinking. A hardy seaman, a bold fighter, +overbearing towards equals, but kind, in his bluff way, to those beneath +him, rude in speech, somewhat crafty withal, and avaricious, he buffeted +his way to riches and fame, and died at last full of years and honor. As +for the abject humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the ship +Jesus, they were merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered for +the market. Queen Elizabeth had an interest in the venture, and received +her share of the sugar, pearls, ginger, and hides which the vigorous +measures of Sir John gained from his Spanish customers. + +Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, +"accompanied," says Laudonniere, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, +yet unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English there was a double +tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. Wakening +from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed him as a +deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced, when he learned their purpose +to abandon Florida; for, though, not to tempt his cupidity, they hid +from him the secret of their Appalachian gold-mine, he coveted for his +royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his head, +however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, and +offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, from +obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonniere declined, upon which +Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels. + +Hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of soldiers and artisans beset +Laudonniere's chamber, threatening loudly to desert him, and take +passage with Hawkins, unless the offer of the latter were accepted. The +commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, +whose reputed avarice nowise appears in the transaction, desired him to +set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, +with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, +a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provision for the +voyage, receiving in payment Laudonniere's note,--"for which," adds the +latter, "I am until this present indebted to him." With a friendly +leave-taking he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving +golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline. + +Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists +bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were +made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and +meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase. + +On the twenty-eighth of August, the two captains, Vasseur and Verdier, +came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild +with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death: +betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. With the following +morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with +weapons and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff +challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing +boats. Still no response. Laudonniere was almost defenceless. He had +given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two field-pieces were +left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and the word was about +to be given, when a voice from among the strangers called that they were +French, commanded by John Ribaut. + +At the eleventh hour, the long-looked-for succors were come. Ribaut had +been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly +concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, +and young nobles weary of a two-years' peace, were mustered at the port +of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing +with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony. + +No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the +new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to +blow them out of the water. Laudonniere issued from his stronghold to +welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he might. Ribaut was +present, conspicuous by his long beard, the astonishment of the Indians; +and here, too, were officers, old friends of Laudonniere. Why, then, had +they approached in the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon +explained; for they expressed to the commandant their pleasure at +finding that the charges made against him had proved false. He begged to +know more, on which Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the +returning ships had brought home letters filled with accusations of +arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a purpose of establishing an +independent command: accusations which he now saw to be unfounded, but +which had been the occasion of his unusual and startling precaution. He +gave him, too, a letter from the Admiral Coligny. In brief, but +courteous terms, it required him to resign his command, and invited his +return to France to clear his name from the imputations cast upon it. +Ribaut warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonniere declined his friendly +proposals. + +Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A +peasant-woman attended him, brought over, he says, to nurse the sick and +take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks as a +servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges +against him, most offensive to the austere Admiral. + +Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on +shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the sunny borders of +the River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes +misfortune doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at +rest!" exclaims the unhappy Laudonniere. Behind the light and cheer of +renovated hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east. + +At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, +the crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the +bar, saw a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards +them through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air +the portentous banner of Spain. + +Here opens a wilder act of this eventful drama. At another day we shall +lift the curtain on its fierce and bloody scenes. + + * * * * * + + + + +SEAWARD. + +TO ----. + + + How long it seems since that mild April night, + When, leaning from the window, you and I + Heard, clearly ringing from the shadowy bight, + The loon's unearthly cry! + + Southwest the wind blew; million little waves + Ran rippling round the point in mellow tune; + But mournful, like the voice of one who raves, + That laughter of the loon. + + We called to him, while blindly through the haze + Upclimbed the meagre moon behind us, slow, + So dim, the fleet of boats we scarce could trace, + Moored lightly, just below. + + We called, and, lo, he answered! Half in fear, + I sent the note back. Echoing rock and bay + Made melancholy music far and near; + Slowly it died away. + + That schooner, you remember? Flying ghost! + Her canvas catching every wandering beam, + Aerial, noiseless, past the glimmering coast + She glided like a dream. + + Would we were leaning from your window now, + Together calling to the eerie loon, + The fresh wind blowing care from either brow, + This sumptuous night of June! + + So many sighs load this sweet inland air, + 'T is hard to breathe, nor can we find relief; + However lightly touched, we all must share + The nobleness of grief. + + But sighs are spent before they reach your ear, + Vaguely they mingle with the water's rune; + No sadder sound salutes you than the clear, + Wild laughter of the loon. + + * * * * * + + + + +SIDE-GLANCES AT HARVARD CLASS-DAY. + + +It happened to me once to "assist" at the celebration of Class-Day at +Harvard University. Class-Day is the peculiar institution of the Senior +Class, and marks its completion of college study and release from +college rules. It is also an institution peculiar, I believe, to +Harvard, and I was somewhat curious to observe its ceremonials, besides +feeling a not entirely _unawful_ interest in being introduced for the +first time to the _arcana_ of that renowned Alma Mater. + +She has set up her Lares and Penates in a fine old grove, or a fine old +grove and green have sprouted up around her, as the case may be. At all +events, there is sufficient groundwork for any quantity of euphuism +about "classic shades," "groves of Academe," _et cetera_. Trollope had +his fling at the square brick buildings; but it was a fling that they +richly deserved, for they are in very deed as ugly as it is possible to +conceive,--angular, formal, stiff, windowy, bricky,--and the farther in +you go, the worse it grows. Why, I pray to know, as the first inquiry +suggested by Class-Day, is it necessary for boys' schools to be placed +without the pale of civilization? Do boys take so naturally to the +amenities of life that they can safely dispense with the conditions of +amenity? When I entered those brick boxes, I felt as if I were going +into a stable. Wood-work dingy, unpainted, gashed, scratched; windows +dingy and dim; walls dingy and gray and smoked; everything unhomelike, +unattractive, narrow, and rickety. Think, now, of taking a boy away from +his home, from his mother and sisters, from carpets and curtains and all +the softening influences of cultivated taste, and turning him loose with +dozens of other boys into a congeries of pens like this! Who wonders +that he comes out a boor? I felt a sinking at the heart in climbing up +those narrow, uncouth staircases. We talk about education. We boast of +having the finest system in the world. Harvard is, if not the most +distinguished, certainly among the first institutions in the country; +but, in my opinion, formed in the entry of the first Harvard house I +entered, Harvard has not begun to hit the nail on the head. Education! +Do you call it education, to put a boy into a hole, and work out of him +a certain amount of mathematics, and work into him a certain number of +languages? Is a man dressed, because one arm has a spotless wristband, +unquestionable sleeve-buttons, a handsome sleeve, and a well-fitting +glove at the end, while the man is out at the other elbow, patched on +both knees, and down at the heels? Should we consider Nature a success, +if she concerned herself only with carrying nutriment to the stomach, +and left the heart and the lungs and the liver and the nerves to shift +for themselves? Yet so do we, educating boys in these dens called +colleges. We educate the mind, the memory, the intellectual faculties; +but the manners, the courtesies, the social tastes, the greater part of +what goes to make life happy and genial, not to say good, we leave out +of view. People talk about the "awkward age" of boys,--the age in which +their hands and feet trouble them, and in which they are a social burden +to themselves and their friends. But one age need be no more awkward +than another. I have seen boys that were gentlemen from the cradle to +the grave,--almost; certainly from the time they ceased to be babies +till they passed altogether out of my sight. Let boys have the +associations, the culture, the training, and the treatment of gentlemen, +and I do not believe there will be a single moment of their lives in +which they will be clowns. + +And among the first necessities are the surroundings of a gentleman. +When a man is grown up, he can live in a sty and not be a pig; but turn +a horde of boys in, and when they come out they will root out. A man is +strong and stiff. His inward, inherent power, toughened by exposure and +fortified by knowledge, overmasters opposing circumstances. He can +neglect the prickles and assume the rose of his position. He stands +scornfully erect amid the grovelling influences that would pull him +down. It may perhaps be, also, that here and there a boy, with a strong +native predilection to refinement, shall be eclectic, and, with the +water-lily's instinct, select from coarse contiguities only that which +will nourish a delicate soul. But human nature in its infancy is usually +a very susceptible material. It grows as it is trained. It will be rude, +if it is left rude, and fine only as it is wrought finely. Educate a boy +to tumbled hair and grimy hands, and he will go tumbled and grimy to his +grave. Put a hundred boys together where they will have the +appurtenances of a clown, and I do not believe there will be ten out of +the hundred who will not become precisely to that degree clownish. I am +not battling for the luxuries of life, but I am for its decencies. I +would not turn boys into Sybarites, but neither would I let them riot +into Satyrs. The effeminacy of a false aristocracy is no nearer the +heights of true manhood than the clumsiness of the clod, but I think it +is just as near. I would have college rooms, college entrances, and all +college domains cleanly and attractive. I would, in the first place, +have every rough board planed, and painted in soft and cheerful tints. I +would have the walls pleasantly colored, or covered with delicate, or +bright, or warm-hued paper. The floor should be either tiled, or hidden +under carpets, durable, if possible, at any rate, decent. Straw or rope +matting is better than brown, yawning boards. There you have things put +upon an entirely new basis. At no immoderate expense there is a new sky, +a new earth, a new horizon. If a boy is rich and can furnish his room +handsomely, the furnishings will not shame the room and its vicinity. If +he is poor and can provide but cheaply, he will still have a comely home +provided for him by the Mater who then will be Alma to some purpose. + +Do you laugh at all this? So did Sarah laugh at the angels, but the +angels had the right of it for all that. + +I am told that it would all be useless,--that the boys would deface and +destroy, till the last state of the buildings would be worse than the +first. I do not believe one word of it. It is inferred that they would +deface, because they deface now. But what is it that they deface? +Deformity. And who blames them? You see a rough board, and, by natural +instinct, you dive into it with your jackknife. A base bare wall is a +standing invitation to energetic and unruly pencils. Give the boys a +little elegance and the tutors a little tact, and I do not believe there +would be any trouble. If I had a thousand dollars,--as I did have once, +but it is gone: shall I ever look upon its like again?--I would not be +afraid to stake the whole of it upon the good behavior of college +students,--that is, if I could have the managing of them. I would make +them "a speech," when they came back at the end of one of their long +vacations, telling them what had been done, why it had been done, and +the objections that had been urged against doing it. Then I would put +the matter entirely into their hands. I would appeal solely to their +honor. I would repose in them so much confidence that they could by no +possibility betray it. We don't trust people half enough. We hedge +ourselves about with laws and locks and deeds and bonds, and neglect the +weightier matters of inherent right and justice that lie in every bosom. + +It may be thought hardly polite to accept hospitality and then go away +and inveigh against the hospital; but my animadversions, you will do me +the justice to observe, are not aimed at my entertainers. I am marauding +for, not against them. + + * * * * * + +The Oration and Poem form the first public features of Class-Day, but, +arriving late, I could only eddy on the surge that swept around the +door. Strains of distant eloquence would occasionally float musically to +my ear; now and then a single word would steer clear of the thousands of +heads and come into my port unharmed. Frequent waves of laughter beat +and broke into the vestibule; but what is more "trying" to a frail +temper than laughter in which one cannot join? So we tarried long enough +to mark the fair faces and fine dresses, and then rambled under the old +trees till the hour for the "collation" came; and this is the second +point on which I purpose to dwell. + +Each member of the Senior Class prepares a banquet,--sometimes +separately and sometimes in clubs, at an expense varying from fifty to +five hundred dollars,--to which he invites as many friends as he +chooses, or as are available. The banquet is quite as rich, varied, and +elegant as you find at ordinary evening parties, and the occasion is a +merry and pleasant one. But it occurred to me that there may be +unpleasant things connected with this custom. In a class of +seventy-five, in a country like America, it is quite probable that a +certain proportion are ill able to meet the expense which such a custom +necessitates. Some have fought their own way through college. Some must +have been fought through by their parents. To them I should think this +elaborate and considerable outlay must be a very sensible inconvenience. +The mere expense of books and board, tuition and clothing, cannot be met +without strict economy and much parental and family sacrifice. And at +the end of it all, when every nerve has been strained, and must be +strained harder still before the man can be considered fairly on his +feet and able to run his own race in life, comes this new call for +entirely uncollegiate disbursements. Of course it is only a custom. +There is no college by-law, I suppose, which prescribes a valedictory +_symposium_. Probably it grew up gradually from small ice-cream +beginnings to its present formidable proportions; but a custom is as +rigid as a chain. I wondered whether the moral character of the young +men was generally strong enough, by the time they were in their fourth +collegiate year, to enable them to go counter to the custom, if it +involved personal sacrifice at home,--whether there was generally +sufficient courtliness, not to say Christianity, in the class, whether +there was sufficient courtesy, chivalry, high-breeding, to make the +omission of this party-giving unnoticeable or not unpleasant. I by no +means say that the inability of a portion of the students to entertain +their friends sumptuously should prevent those who are able from doing +so. As the world is, some will be rich and some will be poor. This is a +fact which they have to face the moment they go out into the world; and +the sooner they grapple with it, and find out its real bearings and +worth or worthlessness, the better. Boys are usually old enough by the +time they are graduated to understand and take philosophically such a +distinction. Nor do I admit that poor people have any right to be sore +on the subject of their poverty. The one sensitiveness which I cannot +comprehend, with which I have no sympathy, for which I have no pity, and +of which I have no tolerance, is sensitiveness about poverty. I think it +is an essentially vulgar feeling. I cannot conceive how a man who has +any exaltation of life, any real elevation of character, any +self-respect, can for a moment experience so ignoble a shame. One may be +annoyed at the inconveniences and impatient of the restraints of +poverty; but to be ashamed to be called poor or to be thought poor, to +resort to shifts, not for the sake of being comfortable or elegant, but +of seeming to be above the necessity of shifts, is an indication of an +inferior mind, whether it dwell in prince or in peasant. The man who +does it shows that he has not in his own opinion character enough to +stand alone. He must be supported by adventitious circumstances, or he +must fall. Nobody, therefore, need ever expect to receive sympathy from +me in recounting the social pangs or slights of poverty. You never can +be slighted, if you do not slight yourself. People may attempt to do +it, but their shafts have no barb. You turn it all into natural history. +It is a psychological phenomenon, a study, something to be analyzed, +classified, reasoned from, and bent to your own convenience, but not to +be taken to heart. It amuses you; it interests you; it adds to your +stock of facts; it makes life curious and valuable: but if you suffer +from it, it is because you have not basis, stamina; and probably you +deserve to be slighted. This, however, is true only when people have +become somewhat concentrated. Children know nothing of it. They live +chiefly from without, not from within. Only gradually as they approach +maturity do they cut loose from the scaffolding and depend upon their +own centre of gravity. Appearances are very strong in school. Money and +prodigality have great weight there, notwithstanding the democracy of +attainments and abilities. If I live a thousand years, I do not believe +I shall ever do a more virtuous deed than I did long ago in staying at +home for the sake of a quarter of a dollar when the rest of the school +went to see Tom Thumb, the late bewritten bridegroom. I call it +virtuous, because I had the quarter and could have gone, and could not +explain the reason why I did not go. And though a senior class in +Harvard College may reasonably be supposed to be beyond the eminent +domain of Tom Thumb and quarter-dollars, the principle is precisely the +same,--only the temptation, I suppose, is much stronger, as the stake is +larger. Have they self-poise enough to refrain from these festive +expenses without suffering mortification? Have they virtue enough to +refrain from them with the certainty of incurring such suffering? Have +they nobility and generosity and largeness of soul enough, while +abstaining themselves for conscience sake, to share in the plans and +sympathize without servility in the pleasures of their rich comrades? to +look on with friendly interest, without cynicism or concealed malice, at +the preparations in which they do not join? Or do they yield to +selfishness, and gratify their own vanity, weakness, self-indulgence, +and love of pleasure, at whatever cost to their parents? Or is there +such a state of public opinion and usage in college that this custom is +equally honored in the breach and in the observance? + + * * * * * + +When the feasting was over, the most picturesque part of the day began. +The college green put off suddenly its antique gravity, and became + + "Embrouded ... as it were a mede + Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and rede,"-- + +"floures" which to their gay hues and graceful outlines added the rare +charm of fluttering in perpetual motion. It was a kaleidoscope without +angles. To me, niched in the embrasure of an old upper window, the +scene, it seemed, might have stepped out of the Oriental splendor of +Arabian Nights. I think I may safely say I never saw so many +well-dressed people together in my life before. That seems a rather tame +fact to buttress Arabian Nights withal, but it implies much. The +distance was a little too great for one to note personal and individual +beauty; but since I have heard that Boston is famous for its ugly women, +perhaps that was an advantage, as diminishing likewise individual +ugliness. If no one was strikingly handsome, no one was strikingly +plain. And though you could not mark the delicacies of faces, you could +have the full effect of costumes,--rich, majestic, floating, gossamery, +impalpable. Everything was fresh, spotless, and in tune. It scarcely +needed music to resolve all the incessant waver and shimmer into a +dance; but the music came, and, like sand-grains under the magnet, the +beautiful atoms swept into stately shapes and tremulous measured +activity,-- + + "A fine, sweet earthquake gently moved + By the soft wind of whispering silks." + +Then it seemed like a German festival, and came back to me the +Fatherland, the lovely season of the Blossoming, the short, sweet +bliss-month among the Blumenthal Mountains. + +Nothing can be more appropriate, more harmonious, than dancing on the +green. Youth and gayety and beauty--and in summer we are all young and +gay and beautiful--mingle well with the eternal youth of blue sky and +velvet sward and the light breezes toying in the tree-tops. Youth and +Nature kiss each other in the bright, clear purity of the happy +summer-tide. Whatever objections lie against dancing elsewhere must veil +their faces there. + +Yet I must confess I wish men would not dance. It is the most unbecoming +exercise which they can adopt. In women you have the sweep and wave of +drapery, gentle undulations, summer-cloud floatings, soft, sinuous +movements, the fluency of pliant forms, the willowy bend and rebound of +lithe and lovely suppleness. It is grace generic,--the sublime, the +evanescent mysticism of motion, without use, without aim, except its own +overflowing and all-sufficing fascination. But when a man dances, it +reminds me of that amusing French book called "Le Diable Boiteux," which +has been or may be free-thinkingly translated, "The Devil on Two +Sticks." In saying this, I design to cast no slur on the moral character +of masculine dancers. It is unquestionably above reproach; but let an +angel put on the black coat and trousers which constitute the +"full-dress" of a modern gentleman, and therein antic through the +"Lancers," and he would simply be ridiculous,--which is all I allege +against Thomas, Richard, and Henry, Esq. A woman's dancing is gliding, +swaying, serpentine. A man's is jerks, hops, convulsions, and acute +angles. The woman is light, airy, indistinctly defined: airy movements +are in keeping. The man is sombre in hue, grave in tone, distinctly +outlined; and nothing is more incongruous, to my thinking, than this +dancing, well portrayed in the contraband melody of + + "Old Joe," etc. + +The feminine drapery conceals processes and gives results. The masculine +absence of drapery reveals processes and thereby destroys results. + +Once upon a time, long before the Flood, the clergyman of a +country-village, possessed with such a zeal as Paul bore record of +concerning Israel, conceived it his duty to "make a note" of sundry +young members of his flock who had met for a drive and a supper, with a +dance fringed upon the outskirts. The fame thereof being noised abroad, +a sturdy old farmer, with a good deal of shrewd sense and mother-wit in +his brains, and a fine, indirect way of hitting the nail on the head +with a side-stroke, was questioned in a neighboring village as to the +facts of the case. "Yes," he said, surlily, "the young folks had a +party, and got up a dance, and the minister was mad,--and I don't blame +him,--he thinks nobody has any business to dance, unless he knows how +better than they did!" It was a rather different _casus belli_ from that +which the worthy clergyman would have preferred before a council; but it +"meets my views" precisely as to the validity of the objections urged +against dancing. I would have women dance, because it is the most +beautiful thing in the world. I would have men dance, if it is +necessary, in order to "set off" women, and to keep themselves out of +mischief; but in point of grace, or elegance, or attractiveness, I +should beg men to hold their peace--and their pumps. + +From my window overlooking the green, I was led away into some one or +other of the several halls to see the "round dances"; and it was like +going from Paradise to Pandemonium. From the pure and healthy lawn, all +the purer for the pure and peaceful people pleasantly walking up and +down in the sunshine and shade, or grouped in the numerous windows, like +bouquets of rare tropical flowers,--from the green, rainbowed in vivid +splendor, and alive with soft, tranquil motion, fair forms, and the +flutter of beautiful and brilliant colors,--from the green, sanctified +already by the pale faces of sick and wounded and maimed soldiers who +had gone out from the shadows of those sheltering trees to draw the +sword for country, and returned white wraiths of their vigorous youth, +the sad vanguard of that great army of blessed martyrs who shall keep +forever in the mind of this generation how costly and precious a thing +is liberty, who shall lift our worldly age out of the plough of its +material prosperity into the sublimity of suffering and sacrifice,--from +suggestions and fancies and dreamy musing and "phantasms sweet," into +the hall, where, for flower-scented summer air were thick clouds of +fine, penetrating dust, and for lightly trooping fairies a jam of heated +human beings, so that you shall hardly come nigh the dancers for the +press; and when you have, with difficulty and many contortions and much +apologizing, threaded the solid mass, piercing through the forest of +fans,--what? An inclosure, but no more illusion. + +Waltzing is a profane and vicious dance. Always. When it is prosecuted +in the centre of a great crowd, in a dusty hall, on a warm midsummer +day, it is also a disgusting dance. Night is its only appropriate time. +The blinding, dazzling gas-light throws a grateful glare over the +salient points of its indecency, and blends the whole into a wild whirl +that dizzies and dazes one; but the uncompromising afternoon, pouring in +through manifold windows, tears away every illusion, and reveals the +whole coarseness and commonness and all the repulsive details of this +most alien and unmaidenly revel. The very _pose_ of the dance is +profanity. Attitudes which are the instinctive expression of intimate +emotions, glowing rosy-red in the auroral time of tenderness, and +justified in unabashed freedom only by a long and faithful habitude of +unselfish devotion, are here openly, deliberately, and carelessly +assumed by people who have but a casual and partial +society-acquaintance. This I reckon profanity. This is levity the most +culpable. This is a guilty and wanton waste of delicacy. + +That it is practised by good girls and tolerated by good mothers does +not prove that it is good. Custom blunts the edge of many perceptions. A +good thing soiled may be redeemed by good people; but waltz as many as +you may, spotless maidens, you will only smut yourselves, and not +cleanse the waltz. It is of itself unclean. + +There were, besides, peculiar _desagrements_ on this occasion. How can +people,--I could not help saying to myself,--how can people endure such +proximity in such a sweltering heat? For, as I said, there was no +illusion,--not a particle. It was no Vale of Tempe, with Nymphs and +Apollos. The boys were boys, appallingly young, full of healthful +promise, but too much in the husk for exhibition, and not entirely at +ease in their situation,--indeed, very much _not_ at ease,--unmistakably +warm, nervous, and uncomfortable. The girls were pretty enough girls, I +dare say, under ordinary circumstances,--one was really lovely, with +soft cheeks, long eyelashes, eyes deep and liquid, and Tasso's gold in +her hair, though of a bad figure, ill set off by a bad dress,--but Venus +herself could not have been seen to advantage in such evil plight as +they, panting, perspiring, ruffled, frowsy,--puff-balls revolving +through an atmosphere of dust,--a maze of steaming, reeking human +couples, inhumanly heated and simmering together with a more than +Spartan fortitude. + +It was remarkable, and at the same time amusing, to observe the +difference in the demeanor of the two sexes. The lions and the fawns +seemed to have changed hearts,--perhaps they had. It was the boys that +were nervous. The girls were unquailing. The boys were, however, heroic. +They tried bravely to hide the fox and his gnawings; but traces were +visible. They made desperate feint of being at the height of enjoyment +and unconscious of spectators; but they had much modesty, for all that. +The girls threw themselves into it _pugnis et calcibus_,--unshrinking, +indefatigable. + +There is another thing which girls and their mothers do not seem to +consider. The present mode of dress renders waltzing almost as +objectionable in a large room as the boldest feats of a French +ballet-dancer. Not to put too fine a point on it, I mean that these +girls' gyrations in the centre of their gyrating and centrifugal hoops +make a most operatic drapery-display. I saw scores and scores of public +waltzing-girls last summer, and among them all I saw but one who +understood the art, or, at any rate, who practised the art, of avoiding +an indecent exposure. In the glare and glamour of gas-light it is only +flash and clouds and indistinctness. In the broad and honest daylight, +it is not. Do I shock ears polite? I trust so. If the saying of shocking +things might prevent the doing of shocking things, I should be well +content. And is it an unpardonable sin for me to sit alone in my own +room and write about what you go into a great hall, before hundreds of +strange men and women, and do? + +I do not speak thus about waltzing because I like to say it; but ye have +compelled me. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. I +respect and revere woman, and I cannot see her destroying or debasing +the impalpable fragrance and delicacy of her nature without feeling the +shame and shudder in my own heart. Great is my boldness of speech +towards you, because great is my glorying of you. Though I speak as a +fool, yet as a fool receive me. My opinions may be rustic. They are at +least honest; and may it not be that the first fresh impressions of an +unprejudiced and uninfluenced observer are as likely to be natural and +correct views as those which are the result of many afterthoughts, long +use, and an experience of multifold fascinations, combined with the +original producing cause? My opinions may be wrong, but they will do no +harm; the penalty will rest alone on me: while, if they are right, they +may serve as a nail or two to be fastened by the masters of assemblies. + +The funny part of Class-Day comes last,--not so very funny to tell, but +amazingly funny to see,--only a wreath of bouquets fastened around the +trunk of an old tree, perhaps eight or ten feet from the ground, and +then the four classes range themselves around it in four circles with +their hands fast locked together, the Freshman Class on the outside, the +Senior Class within, grotesquely tricked out in vile old coats and +"shocking bad hats." Then the two alternate classes go one way around +the tree and the two others the opposite, pell-mell, harum-scarum, +pushing and pulling, down and up again, only keeping fast hold of hands, +singing, shouting, cheering _ad libitum_, _ad throatum_, (theirs,) _ad +earsum_, (ours,) and going all the time in that din and yell and crowd +and crash dear to the hearts of boys. At a given signal there is a +pause, and the Senior Class make sudden charge upon the bouquets, +huddling and hustling and crowding and jumping at the foot of the old +tree; bubbling up on each other's shoulders into momentary prominence +and prospect of success, and immediately disappearing ignominiously; +making frantic grasps and clutches with a hundred long arms and eager +outstretched hands, and finally succeeding, by shoulders and fists, in +bringing the wreath away piecemeal; and then they give themselves up to +mutual embraces, groans, laments, and all the enginery of pathetic +affection in the last gasping throes of separation,--to the doleful +tearing of hair and the rending of their fantastic garments. It is the +personification of legalized rowdyism; and if young men would but +confine themselves to such rowdyism as may be looked at and laughed at +by their mothers and sisters, they would find life just as amusing and a +thousand times more pure and profitable. + + * * * * * + +It occurs to me here that there is one subject on which I desire to +"give my views," though it is quite unconnected with Class-Day. But it +is probable that in the whole course of my natural life it will never +again happen to me to be writing about colleges, so I desire to say in +this paper everything I have to say on the subject. I refer to the +practice of "hazing," which is an abomination. If we should find it +among hinds, a remnant of the barbarisms of the Dark Ages, blindly +handed down by such slow-growing people as go to mill with their meal on +one side of the saddle and a stone on the other to balance, as their +fathers did, because it never occurred to their loggerheads to divide +the meal into two parcels and make it balance itself, we should not be +surprised; but hazing occurs among boys who have been accustomed to the +circulation of ideas, boys old enough and intelligent enough to +understand the difference between brutality and frolic, old enough to +know what honor and courage mean, and therefore I cannot conceive how +they should countenance a practice which entirely ignores and defies +honor, and whose brutality has not a single redeeming feature. It has +neither wisdom nor wit, no spirit, no genius, no impulsiveness, scarcely +the mirth of boyish frolic. A narrow range of stale practical jokes, +lighted up by no gleam of originality, is transmitted from year to year +with as much fidelity as the Hebrew Bible, and not half the latitude +allowed to clergymen of the English Established Church. But besides its +platitude, its one overpowering and fatal characteristic is its intense +and essential cowardice. Cowardice is its head and front and bones and +blood. One boy does not single out another boy of his own weight, and +take his chances in a fair stand-up fight. But a party of Sophomores +club together in such numbers as to render opposition useless, and +pounce upon their victim unawares, as Brooks and his minions pounced +upon Sumner, and as the Southern chivalry is given to doing. For sweet +pity's sake, let this mode of warfare be monopolized by the Southern +chivalry. + +The lame excuse is offered, that it does the Freshmen good,--takes the +conceit out of them. But if there is any class in college so divested of +conceit as to be justified in throwing stones, it is surely not the +Sophomore Class. Moreover, whatever good it may do the sufferers, it +does harm, and only harm, to the perpetrators; and neither the law nor +the gospel requires a man to improve other people's characters at the +expense of his own. Nobody can do a wrong without injuring himself; and +no young man can do a mean, cowardly wrong like this without suffering +severest injury. It is the very spirit of the slaveholder, a dastardly +and detestable, a tyrannical and cruel spirit. If young men are so +blinded by custom and habit that a meanness is not to them a meanness +because it has been practised for years, so much the worse for the young +men, and so much the worse for our country, whose sweat of blood attests +the bale and blast which this evil spirit has wrought. If uprightness, +if courage, if humanity and rectitude and the mind conscious to itself +of right, are anything more than a name. Let the young men who mean to +make time minister to life scorn and scotch and kill this debasing and +stupid practice. + +And why is not some legitimate and wholesome safety-valve provided by +authority to let off superabundant vitality, that boys may not, by the +mere occasions of their own natures, be driven into wickedness? +Class-Day is very well, but it comes only once a year, and what is +needed is an opportunity for daily ebullition, so that each night may +square its own account and forestall explosion. Why should there not be, +for instance, a military department to every college, as well as a +mathematical department? Why might not every college be a military +normal school? The exuberance and riot of animal spirits, the young, +adventurous strength and joy in being, would not only be kept from +striking out as now in illegitimate, unworthy, and hurtful directions, +but it would become the very basis and groundwork of useful purposes. +Such exercise would be so promotive of health and discipline, it would +so train and harmonize and _limber_ the physical powers, that the +superior quality of study would, I doubt not, more than atone for +whatever deficiency in quantity might result. And even suppose a little +less attention should be given to Euclid and Homer, which is of the +greater importance nowadays, an ear that can detect a false quantity in +a Greek verse, or an eye that can sight a Rebel nine hundred yards off, +and a hand that can pull a trigger and shoot him? Knowledge is power; +but knowledge must sharpen its edges and polish its points, if it would +be greatliest available in days like these. The knowledge that can plant +batteries and plan campaigns, that is fertile in expedients and wise to +baffle the foe, is just now the strongest power. Diagrams and +first-aorists are good, and they who have fed on such meat have grown +great, and done the State service in their generation; but these times +demand new measures and new men. It is conceded that we shall probably +be for many years a military nation. At least a generation of vigilance +shall be the price of our liberty. And even of peace we can have no +stronger assurance than a wise and wieldy readiness for war. Now the +education of our unwarlike days is not adequate to the emergencies of +this martial hour. We must be seasoned with something stronger than +Attic salt, or we shall be cast out and trodden under foot of men. True, +all education is worthy. Everything that exercises the mind fits it for +its work; but professional education is indispensable to professional +men. And the profession, _par excellence_, of every man of this +generation is war. Country overrides all personal considerations. +Lawyer, minister, what not, a man's first duty is the salvation of his +country. When she calls, he must go; and before she calls, let him, if +possible, prepare himself to serve her in the best manner. As things are +now, college-boys are scarcely better than cow-boys for the army. Their +costly education runs greatly to waste. It gives them no direct +advantage over the clod who stumbles against a trisyllable. So far as it +makes them better men, of course they are better soldiers; but for all +of military education which their college gives them, they are fit only +for privates, whose sole duty is to obey. They know nothing of military +drill or tactics or strategy. The State cannot afford this waste. She +cannot afford to lose the fruits of mental toil and discipline. She +needs trained mind even more than trained muscle. It is harder to find +brains than to find hands. The average mental endowment may be no higher +in college than out; but granting it to be as high, the culture which it +receives gives it immense advantage. The fruits of that culture, +readiness, resources, comprehensiveness, should all be held in the +service of the State. Military knowledge and practice should be imparted +and enforced to utilize ability, and make it the instrument, not only of +personal, but of national welfare. That education which gives men the +advantage over others in the race of life should be so directed as to +convey that advantage to country, when she stands in need. Every college +might and should be made a nursery of athletes in mind and body, +clear-eyed, stout-hearted, strong-limbed, cool-brained,--a nursery of +soldiers, quick, self-possessed, brave and cautious and wary, ready in +invention, skilful to command men and evolve from a mob an army,--a +nursery of gentlemen, reminiscent of no lawless revels, midnight orgies, +brutal outrages, launching out already attainted into an attainting +world, but with many a memory of adventure, wild, it may be, and not +over-wise, yet pure as a breeze from the hills,--banded and sworn + + "To serve as model for the mighty world, + To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, + To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, + To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, + To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, + Not only to keep down the base in man, + But teach high thought, and amiable words. + And courtliness, and the desire of fame, + And love of truth, and all that makes a man." + + * * * * * + + + + +LOVE'S CHALLENGE. + + + I picked this trifle from the floor, + Unknowing from whose tender hand + It fell,--but now would fain restore + A thing which hath my heart unmanned. + + I say unmanned, for 't is not now + A manly mood to dream of Love, + When each bold champion knits his brow, + And for War's gauntlet doffs his glove. + + But we're exempt, and have no heart + Of wreak within us for the fray; + And therefore teach our souls the art + With life and life's concerns to play. + + Yet, lady, trust me, 't is not all + In play that I proclaim intent, + When next thou lett'st thy gauntlet fall, + To take it as a challenge meant. + + REPLY. + + SIR CARPET-KNIGHT, who canst not fight, + Thy gallantries are not for me; + The man whom I with love requite + Must sing in a more martial key. + + I have two brothers on the field, + And one beneath it,--none knows where; + And I shall keep my spirit steeled + To any save a soldier's prayer. + + If thou have music in thy soul, + Yet hast no sinew for the strife, + Go teach thyself the war-drum's roll, + And woo me better with a fife! + + * * * * * + + + + +POLITICAL PROBLEMS, AND CONDITIONS OF PEACE. + + +The relations existing between the Federal Government and the several +States, and the reciprocal rights and powers of each, have never been +settled, except in part. Upon matters of taxation and commerce, and the +diversified questions that arise in times of peace, the decisions of the +Supreme Court have marked the boundary-lines of State and Federal power +with considerable clearness and precision. But all these questions are +superficial and trivial, when compared with those which are coming up +for decision out of the great struggle in which we are now engaged. The +Southern Rebellion, greater than any recorded in history since the world +began, must necessarily call for the exercise of all the powers with +which the Government is clothed. And we need not be surprised, if, in +resorting to the new measures which the great exigency of the new +condition seems to require, it shall be found, after the storm has +ceased and the clouds have rolled away, that in some things the +Government has transcended its legitimate powers, while in others it has +suffered, because fearing to use those which it really possesses. It is +dependent in many things upon the States; and yet it is supreme over +them all. There can be no Senate, as a branch either of the executive or +of the legislative department, without the action of the States; and yet +the Government emanates directly from the people. In defending itself +against an armed rebellion of nearly half the States themselves, +struggling for self-preservation, it may rightfully, as in other wars, +grasp all the means within its reach. War makes its own methods, for all +of which necessity is a sufficient plea. But when the defence shall have +been made, when the attack is repelled, and the Rebellion shall have +been fully suppressed, then will come the questions, What are the best +means of restoration? and, How shall a recurrence of the evil be +prevented? + +Though the Federal Government is one of limited powers, _the people_ +possess _all governmental powers_; and these are spoken of as powers +_delegated_ and powers _reserved_. So far as these are reserved to _the +people_, they may be exercised either through the _Federal Government_ +or the _State_. And the Federal Government, though limited in its +powers, is restricted in _the subjects upon which it can act_, rather +than in the _quantum_ of power it can exercise over those matters within +its jurisdiction. Over those interests which are committed to its care +it has all the powers incident to any other government in the +world,--powers necessary by implication to accomplish the purpose +intended. The construction of the grant in the Constitution is not to be +critical and stringent, as if the people, by its adoption, were +_selling_ power to a _stranger_,--but liberal, considering that they +were enabling _their own agents_ to achieve a noble work for them. + +We have been accustomed to extol the wisdom of our fathers, in framing +and establishing such a form of government; but our highest praises have +been too small. We have hitherto had but a partial conception of their +wisdom. We knew not the terrible test to which their work was to be +exposed. After the long discipline of the Revolutionary War, and the +experience of the weakness and impending anarchy of the Confederation, +they understood, far better than we, the dangers to which every +government is liable, from within and from without. And we are just now +beginning to see, that, in the Constitution they adopted, they not only +provided for the interests of peace, but for the dangers and emergencies +of war. Brief sentences, hardly noticed before, now throw open their +doors like a magazine of arms, ready for use in the hour of peril. And +while we shall come out of this struggle, and the political contest +that will follow it, without impairing any of the rights of the States, +the Federal Government _restored_ will stand before the world in a +majesty of strength of which we have before had no conception. + +The questions evolved by the war are already attracting public +attention. It is well that they should do so. The peace and prosperity +of the country in future years depend upon their solution. They are so +interwoven that a mistake in regard to one may involve us in other +errors. The power of the Government so to remove the cause of the +present rebellion as to prevent its recurrence, if it have any such +power, is one which it is imperatively bound to exercise,--else all the +treasure and blood expended in quelling it will be wasted. Has it any +such power? Can Slavery be exterminated? And can the Rebel States be +held as conquests, and be restored only upon condition of being forever +free? It is proposed briefly to discuss these questions. + + + +EMANCIPATION. + + +There are those who believe that the President's Proclamation will cease +to be of any force at the close of the war, and that no slaves will have +any right to their freedom by it except such as may be actually +liberated by the military authorities. + +There are others, who hold that the Proclamation has the force of +law,--that by it every slave within the designated territory has now a +legal right to his liberty,--and that, if the military power does not +secure that right to him _during the war_, he may successfully appeal to +the civil power _afterwards_. + +If the Proclamation is a law, it must be conceded, that, like all the +laws of war, it will cease to be in force when the war is closed. But +if, like a legislative act, it confers actual rights on the slaves, +whether they are able to secure them in fact or not, then those _rights_ +are not lost, though the law cease to exist. On the other hand, if it +confers no actual rights on any who are beyond its reach,--if it is +merely an _offer_ of freedom to all who can come and receive it,--then +those only who do receive it while the offer continues will have any +rights by it when it has ceased to be in force. + +The position of Mr. Adams on this subject seems to have been +misunderstood. When his remarks in Congress are carefully examined, it +will be found that he did not claim that the proclamation of a military +commander would operate, like a statute, to confer the right of freedom +upon all the slaves in an invaded country. But he asserted a general +principle of international law,--that the commander of an invading army +is not bound to recognize the municipal laws of the country,--that he +may treat all as freemen, though some are slaves. And he claimed, that, +in case of a servile war in this country, our army would have a right to +suppress the insurrection by giving freedom to the insurgents. In regard +to the effect of such a proclamation upon those not liberated by the +military power, he expressed no opinion. + +The precedents usually cited are not any more satisfactory. In Hayti, +and in the South-American republics, emancipation became an established +fact by the action of the civil power. In each case a proclamation by +the military power was the initial step; but the consummation was +attained by the fact that the same power afterwards became dominant in +civil, as well as in military affairs. + +Conceding, then, that the Proclamation is but a declaration of the +war-policy, designed and adapted to secure a still higher end,--the +preservation and perpetuity of our free institutions,--it is still +claimed that the Government has the right to pursue this policy until +Slavery is abolished, _and forever prohibited_, within all the Rebel +States. + +Though we speak of the Rebellion as an "insurrection," it has assumed +such proportions that we are in a state of actual war. Nor does it make +any difference that it is a _civil_ war. It has just been decided by +the Supreme Court of the United States, _that we have the same rights +against the people and States in rebellion_, by the law of nations, that +we should have against _alien enemies_. The property of non-combatants +is liable to confiscation, as _enemies'_ property; and it makes no +difference that some of them are _personally_ loyal. All the inhabitants +of the Rebel States have the rights of _enemies_ only. The recent cases +of the Brilliant, Hiawatha, and Amy Warwick settle this beyond all +question. There was some difference of opinion among the judges, but +only on the question whether this condition _preceded_ the Act of +Congress of July, 1861,--a majority holding that it did, commencing with +the proclamation of the blockade. So that it cannot be denied that we +may treat the Rebel States as _enemies_, and adopt all measures against +them _which any belligerents engaged in a just war may adopt_. + +And no principle of the law of nations is more universally admitted than +this,--that the party in the right, after the war is commenced, may +continue to carry it on until the enemy shall submit to such terms as +will be a sufficient indemnity for all the losses and expenses caused by +it, _and will prevent another war in the future_. And to this end he may +conquer and hold in subjection people and territory, until such terms +are submitted to. And until then, the state of war continues. The right +to impose such terms as will _secure peace in the future_ is one of the +fundamental principles of international law. + +"Of the absolute international rights of States," says Mr. Wheaton, "one +of the most essential and important, and that which lies at the +foundation of all the rest, is _the right of self-preservation_. This +right necessarily involves all other incidental rights which are +essential as means to give effect to the principal end." + +"The end of a just war," says Vattel, "is to avenge, _or prevent_, +injury." + +"If _the safety of the State_ lies at stake, our precaution and +foresight cannot be extended too far. Must we delay to arrest our ruin +until it has become inevitable?" + +"Where the end is lawful, he who has the right to pursue that end has, +of course, a right to employ all the means necessary for its +attainment." + +"When the conqueror has totally subdued a nation, he undoubtedly may, in +the first place, do himself justice respecting the object which had +given rise to the war, and indemnify himself for the expenses and +damages sustained by it; he may, according to the exigency of the case, +subject the nation to punishment by way of example; and he may, _if +prudence require it, render her incapable of doing mischief with the +same ease in future_." + +"Every nation," says Chancellor Kent, "has an undoubted right to provide +for its own safety, and to take due precaution against _distant_, as +well as impending danger." + +Our rights _as belligerents_, therefore, are ample for our security in +time to come. The Rebel States will not cease to be enemies by being +defeated and exhausted and disabled from continuing active hostilities. +They have invoked the laws of war, and they must abide the decision of +the tribunal to which they have appealed. We may hold them _as enemies_ +until they submit to such reasonable terms of peace as we may demand. +Whether we shall require any indemnity for the vast expenditures and +losses to which we have been subjected is a question of great magnitude; +but it is of little importance compared with that of guarding against a +recurrence of the Rebellion, by removing _the cause_ of it. It would be +worse than madness to restore them to all their former rights under the +government they have done their utmost to destroy, and at the same time +permit them to retain a system that would surely involve us or our +children in another struggle of the same kind. + +Slavery and freedom cannot permanently coexist under the same +government. There is an inevitable, perpetual, irrepressible conflict +between them. The present rebellion is but the culmination of this +conflict, long existing,--transferred from social and political life to +the camp and the battle-field. _In the new arena, we have all the rights +of belligerents in an international war._ Slavery has taken the sword; +let it perish by the sword. If we spare it, its wickedness will be +exceeded by our folly. As victors, the world concedes our right to +demand, for our own future peace, as the only terms of restoration, not +only the abolition of Slavery in all the Rebel States, but its +prohibition in all coming time. It cannot be, that, with the terrible +lessons of these passing years, we shall be so utterly destitute of +wisdom and prudence as to leave our children exposed to the dangers of +another rebellion, after entailing upon them the vast burdens of this, +by our national debt. + +It has been said, that, if Slavery should be abolished, the States could +afterwards reestablish it. This is claimed, on the ground that every +State may determine for itself the character of its own domestic +institutions. The right to do so has been conceded to some of the new +States. + +But it should be remembered that this right has been, to establish +Slavery _by bringing in slaves from the old States_,--not by taking +_citizens of the United States_, and reducing _them_ to slavery. If one +such citizen can be enslaved, then can any other; and the very +foundations of the Federal Government can be overturned by a State. For +a government that cannot protect _its own citizens_ from loss of +citizenship by being chattellized is no government at all. + +Citizenship is a reciprocal relation. The citizen owes allegiance; the +government owes protection. When a person is naturalized, he takes the +oath of allegiance. Does he got nothing in return? Can a State annul all +the rights which the Federal Government has conferred? Then, indeed, +would it be better for those who come to our shores to remain citizens +of the old nations; for _they_ could protect them, but _we_ cannot. +Then, to be a citizen of the United States--a privilege we had thought +greater than that of Roman citizenship when that empire was in its +glory--is a privilege which any State may annul at its pleasure! + +The power and position of a nation depend upon the number, wealth, +intelligence, and power of its citizens. And the nation, in order to +employ and develop its resources, must have free scope for the use of +its powers. No State has a right to block the path of the United States, +or in any way to "retard, impede, or burden it, in the execution of its +powers." For this reason, if a citizen is wealthy enough to lend money +to the Federal Government, a State cannot _tax his scrip_ to the amount +of one cent. But, if the doctrine contended for by some is sound, then +it may take _the citizen himself_, confiscate the whole of his property, +blot out his citizenship, and make a chattel of him, and the Federal +Government can afford him no protection! Among all the doctrines that +Slavery has originated in this country, there is none more monstrous +than this. + +But this is not a question of any practical importance at this time. +There is no danger that Slavery will ever be tolerated where it has been +once abolished. It may go into new fields; it seldom returns to those +from which it has been driven. The institutions of learning and religion +that follow in the path of freedom, if they find a congenial soil, are +not likely to be supplanted by the dark and noxious exotics of ignorance +and barbarism. + +And besides, as we have already seen, it is our right, as one of the +conditions of restoration, to provide for the _perpetual prohibition_ of +Slavery within the Rebel States. This, like the Ordinance of 1787, will +stand as an insurmountable barrier in all time to come. And the security +it will afford will be even more certain. For, while there may be a +difference of opinion in regard to the effect of a law of Congress +relating to existing Territories, there is no doubt that conditions +imposed at the time upon the admission of new States, or the restoration +of the Rebel States, will be of perpetual obligation. + + + +RIGHTS OF REBEL STATES. + + +On this subject there are two theories, each of which has advocates +among our most eminent statesmen. + +By some it is claimed that the Rebels have lost all rights as citizens +of States, and are in the condition of the inhabitants of unorganized +territories belonging to the United States,--and that, having forfeited +their rights, they can never be restored to their former position, +except by the consent of the Federal Government. This consent may be +given by admitting them as new States, or restoring them as old,--the +Government having the right in either case to annex terms and +conditions. + +There are others who contend that the Rebel States, though in rebellion, +have lost none of their rights as States,--that the moment they submit +they may choose members of Congress and Presidential electors, and +demand, and we must concede, the same position they formerly held. This +theory has been partially recognized by the present Administration, but +not to an extent that precludes the other from being adopted, if it is +right. + +If the people of the States which have seceded, as soon as they submit, +have an absolute right to resume their former position in the +Government, with their present constitutions upholding Slavery, it +certainly will be a great, if not an insurmountable, obstacle to the +adoption of those measures which may be necessary to secure our peace in +the future. That they have no such right, it is believed may be made +perfectly clear. + +If we triumph, we shall have all the rights which, by the laws of +nations, belong to conquerors in a just war. In a civil war, the rights +of conquest may not be of the same nature as in a war between different +nations; but that there are such rights in all wars has already been +stated on the highest authority. If a province, having definite +constitutional rights, revolts, and attempts to overthrow the power of +the central government, it would be a strange doctrine, to claim, that, +after being subdued, it had risked and lost nothing by the undertaking. +No authority can be found to sustain such a proposition. A rebellion +puts everything at risk. Any other doctrine would hold out encouragement +to all wicked and rebellious spirits. If they revolt, they know that +everything is staked upon the chances of success. Everything is lost by +defeat. By the laws of war, long established among the nations,--laws +which the Rebel States have themselves invoked,--if they fail, they will +have no right to be restored, except upon such terms as our Government +may prescribe. The right to make war, conferred by the Constitution, +carries with it all the rights and powers incident to a war, necessary +for its successful prosecution, and essential to prevent its recurrence. + +But without resorting to the extraordinary powers incident to a state of +war, the same conclusion, in regard to the effect of a rebellion by a +State Government, results from the relations which the States sustain to +the Federal Government. Though they cannot escape its jurisdiction, +their position, _as States_, is one which may be forfeited and lost. + +It has been objected that this doctrine is equivalent to a recognition +of the right of Secession, because it concedes the power of any one +State to withdraw from the Union. But the fallacy of this objection is +easily demonstrated. + +The Federal Government does not emanate from the States, but directly +from the people. The relation between them is that _of protection_ on +the one hand and _allegiance_ on the other. This relation cannot be +dissolved by either party, unless by voluntary or compulsory +expatriation. It subsists alike in States and Territories, not being +dependent upon any local government. The Rebels claim the right to +dissolve this relation, and to become free from and independent of the +Federal Government, though retaining the same territory as before. We +deny any such right, and hold, that, though they may forfeit their +rights _as a State_, they are still bound by, and under the jurisdiction +of, the Federal Government. This jurisdiction, though absolute in all +places, is not the same in all. + +In the District of Columbia, and in all unorganized territories, the +jurisdiction of the Federal Government is exclusive in its _extent_, as +well as in its _nature_. It must protect the inhabitants in _all_ their +rights,--for there is no other power to protect them. They owe +allegiance to it, and to no other. + +The inhabitants of the _organized_ territories, though under the general +jurisdiction of the Federal Government, are, to some extent, under the +jurisdiction of the Territorial Governments. Each is bound to protect +them in certain things; they are bound to support and obey each in +certain things. + +The people of a State are also under the absolute jurisdiction of the +Federal Government in all matters embraced in the Constitution. They owe +it unqualified allegiance and support in those things. But they are +also, in some matters, under the jurisdiction of the State Government, +and owe allegiance to that. There are many matters over which both have +jurisdiction, and in which the citizens have a right to look to each, or +both, for protection. The courts of each issue writs of _habeas corpus_, +and give the citizens their liberty, unless there is legal cause for +their custody or restraint. + +Now, if a State Government forfeits all right to the allegiance and +support of its citizens, they are not thereby absolved from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. On the contrary, the jurisdiction +of the Federal Government is thereby enlarged; for it is then the only +Government which the citizens are bound to obey. Take, for illustration, +the State of Arkansas. By seceding, the State Government forfeited all +claim to the obedience of the citizens. The inhabitants no longer owe it +any allegiance. If loyal, they will not obey it, except as compelled by +force. But they still owe allegiance to the United States Government. +And there being no other Government which they are bound to obey, they +are in the same condition as before the State was admitted into the +Union, or any Territorial Government was organized. + +The same is true of South Carolina. For, though it was an independent +State before the Constitution was adopted, its citizens voluntarily +yielded up that position, and became subject to the Federal Government, +claiming the privileges and assuming the liabilities of a higher +citizenship. And if, by reason of its rebellion, their State Government +has forfeited its claim upon them, and its right to rule over them, they +owe no allegiance to any except the Government of the United States. + +But it is argued by some, that a State, once admitted into the Union, +cannot forfeit its rights as a State under the Constitution, because it +cannot, as such, be guilty of treason; that the inhabitants may all be +traitors, and the State Government secede, and engage in a war against +the Republic, and yet retain all its rights intact. + +A State, in the meaning of public law, has been defined to be a body of +persons _united together_ in one community, for the defence of their +rights. They do not constitute a State until _organized_. If the +organization ceases to exist, they are no longer a State. If the State +organization becomes despotic, and the inhabitants overthrow it by a +revolution, it then ceases to exist. The people are remitted to their +original rights, and must organize a new State. + +A State, as such, may be guilty of treason. Crimes may be committed by +organized bodies of men. Corporations are often convicted, and punished +by fines, or by a forfeiture of all corporate rights. And though we have +no provision for putting a State on trial, it may, as a State, be +guilty. Treason is defined by the Constitution to be "levying war +against the United States." This is just what South Carolina, as a +State, is doing. Not only the people, but _the State Government_, has +revolted. The people owe it no allegiance. It is their duty, not to +support, but to _oppose_ it. The Federal Government owes it no +recognition. It has the right to destroy and exterminate it. A State +Government in rebellion has no rights under the Constitution. _It is +itself a rebellion_, and must necessarily cease to exist when the +rebellion is suppressed. + +And when the State Government which has revolted shall be conquered and +overthrown, there will then be no South Carolina in existence. If there +were loyal people enough there, bond or free, to rise up and overthrow +it, they would be no more bound to revive the old Constitution, with its +tyrannical provisions, than were our fathers to return to the British +Government. Such a revolution is inaugurated in that State, by loyal +men, to overthrow the despotic power of the State Government. If the +State Government had remained loyal, it might have called on the Federal +Government. But by seceding it has justified the Federal Government in +aiding or organizing a revolution against it, for its utter overthrow +and extinction. + +It is true, indeed, the idea prevails that there is still, somehow, a +State of South Carolina, besides that which is in rebellion. But the +State must exist _in fact_, or it has no existence. There is no such +thing as a merely theoretical State, separate and different from the +actual. The revolted States are the same States that were once loyal. +And when some loyal citizens in each of them, with the aid of the +Federal Government, have overthrown and destroyed them, the ground will +be cleared for the formation of new States, or the _reorganization_ of +the old; and they may be admitted or restored, upon such conditions as +may be deemed wise and prudent, to promote and secure the future peace +and welfare of the whole country. + +There is no evidence that loyal persons in the Rebel States claim or +desire to uphold the existence of those States, under their present +constitutions, with the system of Slavery. But if there are any such +persons, their wishes are not to override the interests of the Republic. +It is their misfortune to reside in States that have revolted; and all +their losses, pecuniary and political, are chargeable to those States, +and not to the Federal Government. If they are so blind as to suppose +that their losses will be increased by emancipation, _that_, also, will +be chargeable to the rebellion of those States. _Their_ loyalty does not +save those States from being treated as enemies; it does not prevent +_their own_ condition from being determined by that of their States. As +it is well known, a portion of their property has been confiscated by an +Act of Congress, on the ground that they are, in part, responsible for +the rebellion of those States. The theory, therefore, that such loyal +men constitute loyal States, still existing, in distinction from the +States that have rebelled, is utterly groundless. On this point we +cannot do better than quote from the opinion of the Supreme Court of the +United States in a case already referred to, sustaining the belligerent +legislation of Congress. + +"In organizing this rebellion, _they have acted as States_, claiming to +be sovereign over all persons and property within their respective +limits, and claiming the right to absolve their citizens from their +allegiance to the Federal Government. Several of these States have +combined to form a new Confederacy, claiming to be acknowledged by the +world as a sovereign State. Their right to do so is now being decided by +wager of battle. The ports and territory of each of these States are +held in hostility to the General Government. It is no loose, unorganized +insurrection, having no defined boundary or possession. It has a +boundary, marked by lines of bayonets, and which can be crossed only by +force. South of this line is enemy's territory, because it is claimed +and held in possession by an organized, hostile, and belligerent power. +All persons residing within this territory, whose property may be used +to increase the revenues of the hostile power, are in this contest +liable to be treated as enemies." + +It is not to be presumed that Congress will do anything unnecessarily to +add to the misfortunes of loyal men in the South. On the contrary, all +that is being done is more directly for their benefit than for that of +any other class of men. The vast expenditure of treasure and blood in +this war is for the purpose of protecting them first of all, and +restoring to them the blessings of a good government. And if it shall be +found practicable to indemnify them for all losses, whether by +emancipation or otherwise, no one will object. + + * * * * * + +The object of this article is to prove that the Government possesses +ample power, according to the law of nations, to suppress the Rebellion, +and secure the country against the danger of another, by Emancipation, +through the military power; that, though Emancipation is a _policy_, and +not a _law_, the war may be prosecuted until this end is accomplished, +and Slavery in future forever prohibited; that, by secession and +rebellion, the revolted States have forfeited all right to the +allegiance of their citizens, who are thereby remitted to the condition +and rights of citizens solely of the United States; and that the Federal +Government, as well _under the Constitution_ as _by right of conquest_, +may impose such terms upon the reorganization and restoration of those +States as may be necessary to secure present safety, and avert danger in +time to come. These views are presented in as brief and simple terms as +possible, with the hope that they may be adopted by the people and by +the Government. It is confidently believed, that, if the President and +Congress will act in accordance with them, their acts will be fully +sustained by the Supreme Court,--and that, the element and source of +discord being at last entirely removed from the country, a career of +peace and prosperity will then begin which shall be the admiration of +the world. + +At this time we present a humiliating spectacle to other nations: nearly +half of our national temple in ruins,--the work of blind folly and mad +ambition. The people of the North claimed no right to tear it down, or +even to repair it. But since the people of the South have risen in +rebellion, let us believe that there is now an opportunity, nay, an +imperative _necessity_, to remove from its foundations the rock of +Oppression, that was sure to crumble in the refining fires of a +Christian civilization, and establish in its place the stone of +LIBERTY,--unchanging and eternal as its Author. Let us rejoice in the +hope, already brightening into fruition, that out of these ruins our +temple shall rise again, in a fresher beauty, a firmer strength, a +brighter glory,--and above it again shall float the old flag, every star +restored, henceforth to all, of every color and every race, the flag of +the free. + + * * * * * + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + + +_Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-39._ By FRANCES +ANNE KEMBLE. New York: Harper & Brothers. + + +Those who remember the "Journal of a Residence in America," of Frances +Anne Kemble, or, as she was universally and kindly called, Fanny +Kemble,--a book long since out of print, and entirely out of the +knowledge of our younger readers,--will not cease to wonder, as they +close these thoughtful, tranquil, and tragical pages. The earlier +journal was the dashing, fragmentary diary of a brilliant girl, half +impatient of her own success in an art for which she was peculiarly +gifted, yet the details of which were sincerely repugnant to her. It +crackled and sparkled with _naive_ arrogance. It criticized a new world +and fresh forms of civilization with the amusing petulance of a spoiled +daughter of John Bull. It was flimsy, flippant, laughable, rollicking, +vivid. It described scenes and persons, often with airy grace, often +with profound and pensive feeling. It was the slightest of diaries, +written in public for the public; but it was universally read, as its +author had been universally sought and admired in the sphere of her art; +and no one who knew anything of her truly, but knew what an incisive +eye, what a large heart, what a candid and vigorous mind, what real +humanity, generosity, and sympathy, characterized Miss Kemble. + +The dazzling phantasmagoria which life had been to the young actress was +suddenly exchanged for the most practical acquaintance with its +realities. She was married, left the stage, and as a wife and mother +resided for a winter on the plantations of her husband upon the coast of +Georgia. And now, after twenty-five years, the journal of her residence +there is published. It has been wisely kept. For never could such a book +speak with such power as at this moment. The tumult of the war will be +forgotten, as you read, in the profound and appalled attention enforced +by this remarkable revelation of the interior life of Slavery. The +spirit, the character, and the purpose of the Rebellion are here laid +bare. Its inevitability is equally apparent. The book is a permanent and +most valuable chapter in our history; for it is the first ample, lucid, +faithful, detailed account, from the actual head-quarters of a +slave-plantation in this country, of the workings of the system,--its +persistent, hopeless, helpless crushing of humanity in the slave, and +the more fearful moral and mental dry-rot it generates in the master. + +We have had plenty of literature upon the subject. First of all, in +spirit and comprehension, the masterly, careful, copious, and patient +works of Mr. Olmsted. But he, like Arthur Young in France, was only an +observer. He could be no more. "Uncle Tom," as its "Key" shows, and as +Mrs. Kemble declares, was no less a faithful than the most famous +witness against the system. But it was a novel. Then there was "American +Slavery as it is," a work of authenticated facts, issued by the American +Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and the fearful mass of testimony +incessantly published by the distinctively Abolition papers, +periodicals, books, and orators, during the last quarter of a century. +But the world was deaf. "They have made it a business. They select all +the horrors. They accumulate exceptions." Such were the objections that +limited the power of this tremendous battery. Meanwhile, also, it was +answered. Foreign tourists were taken to "model plantations." They shed +tears over the patriarchal benignity of this venerable and beautiful +provision of Divine Providence for the spiritual training of our African +fellow-creatures. The affection of "Mammy" for "Massa and Missis" was +something unknown where hired labor prevailed. Graver voices took up the +burden of the song. There was no pauperism in a slave-country. There +were no prostitutes. It had its disadvantages, certainly; but what form +of society, what system of labor has not? Besides, here it was. It was +the interest of slaveholders to be kind. And what a blessing to bring +the poor heathen from benighted Africa and pagan servitude to the +ennobling influences of Slavery, as practised among Southwestern +Christians in America, and "professors" in South Carolina and Georgia! +See the Reverend Mr. Adams and Miss Murray _passim_. This was the +answer made to the statements of the actual facts of the system, when it +was found that the question had gone before public opinion, and would be +decided upon its merits by that tribunal, all the panders, bullies, +assassins, apologists, and chaplains of Slavery to the contrary +notwithstanding. In fact, when that was once clearly perceived, the +issue was no less visible; only whether it were to be reached by war or +peace was not so plain. + +Yet in all this tremendous debate which resounds through the last thirty +years of our history, rising and swelling until every other sound was +lost in its imperious roar, one decisive voice was silent. It was +precisely that which is heard in this book. General statements, +harrowing details from those who had been slaveholders, and who had +renounced Slavery, were sometimes made public. Indeed, the most cruel +and necessary incidents, the hunting with blood-hounds, the branding, +the maiming, the roasting, the whipping of pregnant women, could not be +kept from knowledge. They blazed into print. But the public, hundreds of +miles away, while it sighed and shuddered a little, resolved that such +atrocities were exceptional. 'Twas a shocking pity, to be sure! Poor +things! Women, too! Tut, tut! + +Now, at last, we have no general statement, no single, sickening +incident, but the diary of the mistress of plantations of seven hundred +slaves, living under the most favorable circumstances, upon the islands +at the mouth of the Altamaha River, in Georgia. It is a journal, kept +from day to day, of the actual ordinary life of the plantation, where +the slaves belonged to educated, intelligent, and what are called the +most respectable people,--not persons imbruted by exile among slaves +upon solitary islands, but who had lived in large Northern cities and +the most accomplished society, subject to all the influences of the +highest civilization. It is the journal of a hearty, generous, +clear-sighted woman, who went to the plantation, loving the master, and +believing, that, though Slavery might be sad, it might also be +mitigated, and the slave might be content. It is the record of ghastly +undeceiving,--of the details of a system so wantonly, brutally, damnably +unjust, inhuman, and degrading, that it blights the country, paralyzes +civilization, and vitiates human nature itself. The brilliant girl of +the earlier journal is the sobered and solemnized matron of this. The +very magnitude of the misery that surrounds her, the traces of which +everywhere sadden her eye and wring her heart, compel her to the +simplest narration. There is no writing for effect. There is not a +single "sensational" passage. The story is monotonous; for the wrong it +describes is perpetual and unrelieved. "There is not a single natural +right," she says, after some weeks' residence, "that is not taken away +from these unfortunate people; and the worst of all is, that their +condition does not appear to me, upon further observation of it, to be +susceptible of even partial alleviation, as long as the fundamental +evil, the Slavery itself, remains." + +As the mistress of the plantation, she was brought into constant +intercourse with the slave-women; and no other account of this class is +so thorough and plainly stated. So pitiful a tale was seldom told. It +was a "model plantation"; but every day was darkened to the mistress by +the appeals of these women and her observation of their condition. The +heart of the reader sickens as hers despaired. To produce "little +niggers" for Massa and Missis was the enforced ambition of these poor +women. After the third week of confinement they were sent into the +fields to work. If they lingered or complained, they were whipped. For +beseeching the mistress to pray for some relief in their sad straits, +they were also whipped. If their tasks were unperformed, or the driver +lost his temper, they were whipped again. If they would not yield to the +embrace of the overseer, they were whipped once more. How are they +whipped? They are tied by the wrists to a beam or the branch of a tree, +their feet barely touching the ground, so that they are utterly +powerless to resist; their clothes are turned over their heads, and +their backs scarred with a leathern thong, either by the driver himself, +or by father, brother, husband, or lover, if the driver choose to order +it. What a blessing for these poor heathen that they are brought to a +Christian land! When a band of pregnant women came to their master to +implore relief from overwork, he seemed "positively degraded" to his +wife, as he stood urging them to do their allotted tasks. She began to +fear lest she should cease to respect the man she loved; "for the +details of slaveholding are so unmanly, letting alone every other +consideration, that I know not how any one with the spirit of a man can +condescend to them." The master gives a slave as a present to an +overseer whose administration of the estate was agreeable to him. The +slave is intelligent and capable, the husband of a wife and the father +of children, and they are all fondly attached to each other. He +passionately declares that he will kill himself rather than follow his +new master and leave wife and children behind. Roused by the storm of +grief, the wife opens the door of her room, and beholds her husband, +with his arms folded, advising his slave "not to make a fuss about what +there is no help for." The same master insists that there is no hardship +or injustice in whipping a woman who asks his wife to intercede for her, +but confesses that it is "disagreeable." At last he tells her that she +must no longer fatigue him with the "stuff" and "trash" which "the +niggers," who are "all d----d liars," make her believe, and +henceforward closes his ears to all complaint. + +Yet this was a model plantation, and this was probably not a hard +master, as masters go. "These are the conditions which can only be known +to one who lives among them. Flagrant acts of cruelty may be rare, but +this ineffable state of utter degradation, this really _beastly_ +existence, is the normal condition of these men and women; and of that +no one seems to take heed, nor had I ever heard it described so as to +form any adequate conception of it, till I found myself plunged into +it.... Industry, man's crown of honor elsewhere, is here his badge of +utter degradation; and so comes all by which I am here +surrounded,--pride, profligacy, idleness, cruelty, cowardice, ignorance, +squalor, dirt, and ineffable abasement." + +And yet this is the system which we have been in the habit of calling +patriarchal, because the model masters said it was so, and trade was too +prosperous to allow any difference with them! And these are the model +masters, supported in luxury by all this unpaid labor and untold woe, +these women-whippers and breeders of babies for sale, who have figured +in our talk and imaginations as "the chivalry" and "gentlemen"! These +are they to whom American society has koo-too'd, and in whose presence +it has been ill-bred and uncourteous to say that every man has rights, +that every laborer is worthy of his hire, that injustice is unjust, and +uncleanness foul. No wonder that Russell, coming to New York, and +finding the rich men and the political confederates of the conspirators +declaring that the Government of the United States could not help +itself, and that they would allow no interference with their Southern +friends, sincerely believed what he wished to, and wrote to John Bull, +whose round face was red with eager desire to hear it, that the +Revolution was virtually accomplished. No wonder that the haughty +slaveholders, smeared with sycophantic slime, at Newport, at Saratoga, +in the "polite" and "conservative" Northern circles, believed what Mr. +Hunter of Virginia told a Massachusetts delegate to the Peace +Congress,--that there would be no serious trouble, and that the +Montgomery Constitution would be readily adopted by the "conservative" +sentiment of the North. + +Mrs. Kemble's book shows what the miserable magic is that enchants these +Southern American citizens into people whose philosophy of society would +disgrace the Dark Ages, and whose social system is that of Dahomey. + +The life that she describes upon the model plantation is the necessary +life of Slavery everywhere,--injustice, ignorance, superstition, terror, +degradation, brutality; and this is the system to which a great +political party--counting upon the enervation of prosperity, the +timidity of trade, the distance of the suffering, the legal quibbles, +the moral sophisms, the hatred of ignorance, the jealousy of race, and +the possession of power--has conspired to keep the nation blind and +deaf, trusting that its mind was utterly obscured and its conscience +wholly destroyed. + +But the nation is young, and of course the effort has ended in civil +war. Slavery, industrially and politically, inevitably resists Christian +civilization. The natural progress and development of men into a +constantly higher manhood must cease, or this system, which strives to +convert men into things, must give way. Its haughty instinct knows it, +and therefore Slavery rebels. This Rebellion is simply the insurrection +of Barbarism against Civilization. It would overthrow the Government, +not for any wrong the Government has done, for that is not alleged. It +knows that the people are the Government,--that the spirit of the people +is progressive and intelligent,--and that there is no hope for permanent +and expansive injustice, so long as the people freely discuss and +decide. It would therefore establish a new Government, of which this +meanest and most beastly despotism shall be the chief corner-stone. In a +letter to C.G., in the appendix of her book, Mrs. Kemble sets this truth +in the clearest light. But whoever would comprehend the real social +scope of the Rebellion should ponder every page of the journal itself. +It will show him that Slavery and rebellion to this Government are +identical, not only in fact, but of necessity. It will teach him that +the fierce battle between Slavery and the Government, once engaged, can +end only in the destruction of one or the other. + +This is not a book which a woman like Mrs. Kemble publishes without a +solemn sense of responsibility. A sadder book the human hand never +wrote, nor one more likely to arrest the thoughts of all those in the +world who watch our war and are yet not steeled to persuasion and +conviction. An Englishwoman, she publishes it in England, which hates +us, that a testimony which will not be doubted may be useful to the +country in which she has lived so long, and with which her sweetest and +saddest memories are forever associated. It is a noble service nobly +done. The enthusiasm, the admiration, the affection, which in our day of +seemingly cloudless prosperity greeted the brilliant girl, have been +bountifully repaid by the true and timely words now spoken in our +seeming adversity by the grave and thoughtful woman. + + * * * * * + +_An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the +Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers._ Read +before the Massachusetts Historical Society, August 14, 1862. By GEORGE +LIVERMORE. Third Edition. Boston: A. Williams & Co. + + +This Historical Research is one of the most valuable works that have +been called out by the existing Rebellion. It is a thorough and candid +exposition of the opinions of the founders of the Republic on negroes as +slaves, as citizens, and as soldiers, and has done more, perhaps, than +any other single essay to form the public opinion of the present time in +respect to the position that the negro should rightfully hold in our +State and our army. It has, therefore, and will retain, a double +interest, as exhibiting and illustrating the opinions prevalent during +the two most important periods of our history. It was first printed, +several months since, for private distribution only. More than a +thousand copies were thus distributed by its public-spirited author. By +this means the attention of persons in positions of influence was more +readily secured than it could have been, had the essay been published in +the ordinary way. The manner in which the research was conducted, the +evidence afforded by every page of the author's conscientious labor, +impartial selection, and exhaustive investigation, won immediate +confidence in his statements, while his obvious candor, fairness of +judgment, and love of truth secured respect for his conclusions. The +interest excited by the work extended to a wider circle than could be +satisfied by any private issue, while its value became more and more +evident, so that, after its publication in the Proceedings of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, the permission of the author was +obtained by the New-England Loyal Publication Society to issue the work +in a form for general circulation. + +We are glad to assist, by our hearty commendation, the extension of the +influence of this essay. It forms, as now issued, a handsome pamphlet of +two hundred pages, with a full Table of Contents and a copious Index, +and is for sale at a price which brings it within the means of every one +who may wish to obtain it. It is a book which should be in the +reading-room of every Loyal League throughout the country, and of every +military hospital. Editors of the loyal press should be provided with +it, as containing an arsenal of incontrovertible arguments with which to +meet the false assertions by which the maligners of the negro race and +the supporters of Slavery too often undertake to maintain their bad +cause. + +Exhibiting, as Mr. Livermore's book does, the contrast between the +opinions of the founders of the Republic and those professed by the +would-be destroyers of the Republic, and showing, as it does, how far a +large portion even of the people of the North have fallen away from the +just and generous doctrine of the earlier time, it must lead every +thoughtful reader to a deep sense of the need of a regeneration of the +spirit of the nation, and to a confirmed conviction of the +incompatibility of Slavery with national greatness and virtue. The +Rebellion has taught us that the Republic is not safe while Slavery is +permitted to exercise any political power. It ought to teach us also, +that, as long as Slavery exists in any of the States, it will not cease +to exercise political power, and that the only means to make the nation +safe is utterly to abolish and destroy Slavery, wherever it is found +within its limits. Nor is this all; the lesson of the Rebellion is but +half learned, unless we resolve that henceforth there shall be no fatal +division between our consciences, our principles, our theories, and our +treatment of the black race, and unless we acknowledge their inalienable +right to that justice by which alone the most ancient heavens and the +most sacred institutions are fresh and strong. + +There is no better textbook for enforcing these lessons than Mr. +Livermore's Research. + + * * * * * + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +"Christopher North." A Memoir of John Wilson, late Professor of Moral +Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 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Huxley, F.R.S., +F.L.S., Professor of Natural History in the Jermyn-Street School of +Mines. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 184. $1.25. + +United States Infantry Tactics, for the Instruction, Exercise, and +Manoeuvres of the Soldier, a Company, Line of Skirmishers, and +Battalion; for the Use of the Colored Troops of the United States +Infantry. Prepared under Direction of the War Department. New York. 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